Sorry I haven’t posted in a while. In the down time, Adobe officially released CS4. So, over the next week I’ll be posting new features in CS4 that can be of some use for creating sports graphics.

3D objects in Photoshop & AE. (Linked video may require flash video upgrade)

While 3d postcards are nothing new in AE, importing .obj (and a few other flavors) into AE is. In a round about way of importing into photoshop and then opening your psd with “live 3d layers” enabled, users are now able to use an After effects camera in conjunction with 3d models. It’s a very small step, in some what of a surprising move by Adobe.

 

I’m not sure why the After Effects team isn’t able to work with the Photoshop team to get this feature directly into AE. It seems ridiculous to me that a still photo manipulation program is the gatekeeper of 3d for After Effects. Cut the cord already, put a real 3d text tool and .obj import feature directly into AE (sorry Zaxwerks, love your plugins). But with this version, and a clear ability to import 3d into other Adobe software, leaving AE users out in the cold again is just plain insulting.

Great tutorial on using the vanishing point filter in photoshop to create 3d layers in after effects to create the subtle parallax shift. I can see this being used with the standard “cut-out player” (*cough) to make a cool slow-mo thing. The tutorial can be found here on Adobe’s site.