Spin objects in 3D space using Flash and After Effects
If there is a Holy Grail in Flash® animation it is the ability to “spin” objects in a 3D space. There are any number of methods, ranging from the simple to the complex. Most of them involve “faking” rotation by distorting the objects. Other solutions range from simply handling the animation in a third-party application such as Electric Rain’s Swift 3D, to creating the animation in a 3D rendering application. If you have Adobe® After Effects® 7, you already have a set of 3D tools at your disposal, and you can create some rather interesting motion graphics effects using the features that ship with the application.
There is a small problem with this approach. You can’t apply the effect, create the SWF, and have it spin in a movie clip. The object will import into Flash as nothing more than a series of key frames with no movement. This means the animation needs to be exported out of After Effects as an FLV and added to the Stage using either a video object or the FLV Playback component. Knowing this, it is critical that the dimensions of the comp in After Effects match the area in the Flash movie where the animation will appear.
In this exercise we start by showing you how to use Flash to rotate an object around the vertical axis, and then we will dig into After Effects and create a rotation using the horizontal axis. There will be a bit of a twist to this: as the words spin, they change.
Requirements
To complete this article, you will need the following software and files:
Flash
After Effects
Sample files:
3dinflash_files.zip (ZIP, 398K)
Prerequisite knowledge:
General knowledge of Flash and After Effects
About the authors
Tom Green is a professor of interactive multimedia at the Humber Institute of Technology and Advanced Learning in Toronto, Ontario. He is the author of several best-selling books in the area of Flash and Flash technologies. His latest book is Foundation Flash CS4 for Designers, coauthored with David Stiller, and he updated Foundation Flash CS3 Video with Adam Thomas. Tom has completed DVD videos for Lynda.com and Adobe Systems, and is a partner at Community MX and a regular contributor to Digital-Web.com and Layersmagazine.com. He is also an active member of the Adobe Community Experts Group, speaking at conferences and seminars around the world and contributing regularly to the Adobe Developer Connection in the areas of Flash authoring and video technologies.
Born and raised in Toronto and now a resident of Guelph, Ontario, Jordan L. Chilcott graduated from Radio College of Canada's Electronic Engineering Technology program in 1983, only to discover that he had a passion for computer programming. Spending his days working as a service technician, Jordan invested many sleepless nights teaching himself Assembly Language. He published his first program in 1985 and started learning higher-level languages such as C and C++.
Jordan co-founded The Computer Software Specialists, now known as Interactivity Unlimited, and eventually left the computer hardware industry to focus on his passion for programming. Today, Jordan has written various web and kiosk applications for various industries including the automotive and airline industry, and programs in various languages, including ActionScript, ColdFusion, Java/J2EE, and C/C++/Objective C.
Excerpted from “Foundation Flash 8 Video” by Tom Green and Jordan Chilcott. © 2006. Used with the permission of friends of ED, a division of Apress. To purchase this book, please visit http://friendsofed.com.
