Create3DShapes

Creates a 3D box, a 3D sphere, a 3D cylinder, a 3D pyramid, a 3D menger sponge, a 3D Platonic Solid and even 3D falling dominoes with user-defined layers.

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Create3DShapes

Version: 3.2 Sign up to be notified by email when a new version of this script is posted

Check out the newly added Create 3D Platonic Solid script: Watch demo video

This is a package of 6 7 scripts:

Create3DBox.jsx – Watch demo video
Create3DSphere.jsx – Watch demo video
Create3DCylinder.jsx – Watch demo video
Create3DPyramid.jsx – Watch demo video
Create3DMengerSponge.jsx – Watch demo video
Create3DFallingDominoes.jsx – Watch demo video
Create3DPlatonicSolid.jsx – Watch demo video

They create the 3D shape using user-defined comp layers. Assign a layer to each side, and the script will position and scale them to build the shape of given size. Note that the same layer can be used for multiple sides. An option allows to parent each side layer to a Null 3D positioned at the center of the shape.

: Create3DSphere UI

: Create3DPyramid UI

: Create3DPlatonicSolid UI

: Create3DMengerSponge UI

: Create3DFallingDominoes UI

: Create3DCylinder UI

: Create3DBox UI

Version History:

Create3DPlatonicSolid v1.0 – Initial release (Aug 2010)
Create3DBox v2.6 – Handles text justification and CS5 compatibility (Aug 2010)
Create3DCylinder v2.6 – Code cleanup and CS5 compatibility (Aug 2010)
Create3DFallingDominoes v1.6 – Code cleanup and CS5 compatibility (Aug 2010)
Create3DMengerSponge v2.6 – Code cleanup and CS5 compatibility (Aug 2010)
Create3DPyramid v2.1 – Handles text justification and CS5 compatibility (Aug 2010)
Create3DSphere v3.2 – Code cleanup and CS5 compatibility (Aug 2010)
Create3DSphere v3.1 – Resources folder is in parenthesis to speed up loading (Feb 2010)
Create3DSphere v3.0 (Feb 2010)
- Allows to distribute layers on sphere or ellipsoid (e.g. rugby ball, with controllable x,y,z-radius)
- Gain in speed using precomputed arrangements
- Can create giant sphere with up to 1000 layers, in couple of seconds
Create3DSphere v2.5 – Initial version on aescripts.com (Jun 2009)
Create3DBox v2.5 – Initial version on aescripts.com (Jun 2009)
Create3DCylinder v2.5 – Initial version on aescripts.com (Jun 2009)
Create3DFallingDominoes v1.5 – Initial version on aescripts.com (Jun 2009)
Create3DMengerSponge v2.5 – Initial version on aescripts.com (Jun 2009)
Create3DPyramid v2.0 – Initial version on aescripts.com (Jun 2009)

Last updated August 25th, 2010
20,848 views
Tags: 3D, Automatic, Box, Create, CS3, CS4, CS5, Cylinder, Dominoes, Featured, Layers, Menger Sponge, Platonic Solid, Pyramid, Sphere

Charles Bordenave

About the author

My name is Charles Bordenave and I am currently located in France. I started working with After Effects in 2005, when I was a PhD student in computer science at Montreal. My interest quickly converged to expressions and scripting. Nowadays I'm regularly hired on a freelance basis by production studios focussed on tv broadcast, cartoon animation, motion graphics or cinema. My job usually consists of developing customized automation tools for After Effects.

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34 Comments

Phil Spitler (Reply to this comment)
August 3, 2009

The demo video is for the batch processing script, not the 3d object script.
- Lloyd (Reply to this comment)
  October 28, 2009
  
  Thanks for pointing that out, link has been fixed
Dale Hayward (Reply to this comment)
November 23, 2009

the demo video doesn’t seem to work, is it just me? i’d love to see this in action, thanks!
- Lloyd Alvarez (Reply to this comment)
  November 23, 2009
  
  Pesky videos. Should be fixed now, thanks for catching it. The demo video button has all 6 demo movies edited together and I also added each individual demo next to the script name above.
Dale Hayward (Reply to this comment)
November 26, 2009

awesome, the movie with all of the together, gets glitchy in the middle, but the individual ones work great. Oh & these scripts are amazing! huge huge time saver for me, thanks a ton
Erik Waluska (Reply to this comment)
December 24, 2009

FYI – There doesn’t appear to be any audio except for music with the dominos video at the end , which is really loud. Also, the tutorial video freezes at 3 minutes and then resumes at 4 minutes.
- Dom Amatore (Reply to this comment)
  February 4, 2010
  
  Anyway to ‘squash’ the sphere into an oval shape, using the expression in the controller?
  
  I’m assuming it’s in adding a second slider and calculating the vertical radius somehow?
  
  Thanks, awesome script
  - nab (Reply to this comment)
    February 25, 2010
    
    You can create oval shape with Create3DSphere 3.1. With older versions, you can try playing with the controller’s scale (e.g. increase x or reduce y).
Pierre-Luc (Reply to this comment)
February 16, 2010

I,
Very simple and usefull!
But, do you know how to get rid of the border. They appears when you add a light to the comp.
Thank’s!!

Pierre-Luc
- nab (Reply to this comment)
  February 25, 2010
  
  Alpha Add blending mode sometimes helps to get rid of the little seam between side layers.
  - henrik (Reply to this comment)
    March 15, 2010
    
    Hi, and first of all, thanks for these very usefull scripts.
    However, I get the seams, and also when I spin a cube around it
    does look like the layers are not aligned, there is a “edge” sticking out.
    The alpha add does not fix this. Is there anything else I can do?
    - tom (Reply to this comment)
      June 11, 2010
      
      i applyed the matte choker effect (default settings) to my “cube comp” to get rid of the edges/boarders.
      
      cheers, tom.
gustavo (Reply to this comment)
February 22, 2010

I istaled de scripts in the UI folder (the folder was already there i didn`t created one) when i tryed to open the create 3d box, an empty window appeared.
what should i do?

pls help
- nab (Reply to this comment)
  February 25, 2010
  
  AE version ? Operating system ?
remy (Reply to this comment)
February 25, 2010

Hi there i love this script, But im having a few probs and any help would be much appreciated.
im trying to make a 3d city . when ever i try to parent a new 3d cube to another 3d cube the rotation/orientation values change and the layers rotate just a bit so the object is no longer symmetrical. is there some thing i missing?
- nab (Reply to this comment)
  February 25, 2010
  
  You should parent the controller of cube 2 to the controller of cube 1. Does that help ?
Eric (Reply to this comment)
February 27, 2010

Bonjour Charles, j’ai un problème avec le script Sphere: quand je demande “distribuer” un panneau s’affiche: “script error: une erreur est survenue lors de l’ouverture d’un fichier de ressource”.
Ceci que j’essaie avec un calque de texte, ou d’image (multiplié).
Les autres scripts de volume marchent, bravo!
Merci
- nab (Reply to this comment)
  February 27, 2010
  
  Eric says: “When I try to use the Create3DSphere script a message pops up saying that an error occurred when opening and reading a resource file.”
  
  Which version of AE are you using, on which platform ?
  
  Make sure you have the “(Create3DSphere_Resources)” folder in the ScriptUI Panels folder.
Hans Meiser (Reply to this comment)
February 28, 2010

Download/ZIP Archive is corrupt.
Eric (Reply to this comment)
February 28, 2010

Thanks a lot!
I missed to put the “(Create3DSphere_Resources)” folder in the ScriptUI Panels folder.
Now it works very well!
hldavenp (Reply to this comment)
March 2, 2010

I am having the same missing audio problem on the demo vids as Erik Waluska (12/24/2009) above. I’d really like to learn how to properly apply your wonderful 3D Shapes scripts.
Truly of the Yard (Reply to this comment)
March 13, 2010

Erik Waluska and hldavenp are right: the movie has no sound, shows the screen blitzing out and freezing about halfway through, then blurts loud music in the last few seconds. It scared my cat.

So I’m sure the script is great, but it’s kind of hard to tell what’s going on in the movie.
Lucid (Reply to this comment)
May 26, 2010

I like your scripts, they help. But could you upload addborder preset you are using xD i have a problem with borders xD
- tom (Reply to this comment)
  June 11, 2010
  
  use the matte choker effect!
  cheers, tom.
Leath (Reply to this comment)
June 29, 2010

Amazing. Thankyou very much for sharing this.

Stumbled across your scripts after seeing something similar used to create some very cool graphics on TV.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ps4ogvyxtOs&feature=related
Carol (Reply to this comment)
July 20, 2010

works in AE cs5?
Dustin (Reply to this comment)
August 6, 2010

Hey, any chance of a cs5 version of this coming out soon? Great script collection by the way-

Thanks!
Gabriel (Reply to this comment)
August 18, 2010

Great script. I found this while searching for one I’d see a while ago on ae enhancers. The link is dead on the post so I was searching for an alternative. The one thing for me would be getting the layer of the sphere to be symmetrical. The guy on ae enhancers talks about the math to obtain this symmetry in his post, but I’m not sure if I can apply it to your script. Is it just a matter of getting the right number of layers for the specified radius?

Here’s the ae enhancers post: http://aenhancers.com/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=160
Thanks and again great script!
Dustin (Reply to this comment)
August 29, 2010

Thanks man! Platonic Solids in a few clicks, I couldn’t be happier. Thanks for helping us animators spread some symmetrical love
henry birdseye (Reply to this comment)
August 30, 2010

Ah, if only these worked in CS5. They are wonderful, tho’.
henry birdseye (Reply to this comment)
August 30, 2010

No, wait. I’m an idiot. They work fine in CS5 when you follow the instructions and actually PUT the files in ScriptsUI. Doh!