Extruding creates the appearance of 3D depth in a flat 2D layer. This is often used to enhance titles but can be used on any layer.
3D extrusion can use the 3D lights in your scene. The material behavior of the extrusion can be adjusted in the Illumination property group. Another layer can be used as an environment map for extruded text. This is effective for creating reflective text or for inheriting some of the lighting in a background plate.
Position
Extrusion is a 2D effect, and can be positioned directly within 2D space. By selecting a 3D layer in the Transform From control, however, you can simulate the appearance of a 3D extrusion, and position the layer as if it were 3D.
- Transform From: Use this menu to select another layer on the timeline and use its position to control the extrusion’s position. When a 3D layer is selected, all three axes of the parent layer’s position are factored into positioning the extrusion.
- Position: Sets the position of the effect, if there is no layer selected above. When a Layer is selected in the Transform From property, Position reflects the offset of the extrusion from the parent layer’s location.
- Z Shift: Simulates shifting the effect away from or toward the virtual camera.
Rotation
- Rotation X: Rotates the extrusion around an axis running left to right.
- Rotation Y: Rotates the extrusion around an axis running top to bottom.
- Rotation Z: Rotates the extrusion around an axis running from front to back.
- Depth: Defines the depth of the extrusion. Higher values create a wider extruded edge on the layer.
- Quality: Set the quality used to render the extrusion.
- Normal: This option renders the fastest, at the expense of some finer detail. It is useful for keeping performance fast while setting things up
- Multisampled: This option provides a balance between normal and supersampled.
- Supersampled: This option gives the highest quality, but may take slightly longer to render. It is the best option for final rendering.
Depth of Field
- Enable: Turns on depth of field rendering, so you can control the distance from the camera at which the extrusion will be in focus
- DoF Settings: Choose what camera data will be used to calculate the depth of field.
- Active Camera: uses the active camera in your composite shot, so the depth of field applied to the extrusion matches the depth of field of all other layers in the scene. If you already have a camera on your timeline, this is often the best option to choose.
- Custom: Allows you to define the specific camera values used to render the depth of field on the extrusion effect. This option is especially useful if you don’t have a 3D camera on your timeline. Choosing custom opens the following three properties.
- Aperture: Defines the size of the virtual camera’s aperture. Higher values reduce the depth of field.
- Focus Distance: Sets the exact distance, in pixels, from the camera position to perfect focus.
- Blur: Controls the amount of blur applied to the areas outside the field of focus.
Illumination
- Type: Select the lighting option that will be used to illuminate the extrusion.
- Comp Lights: Uses all Light layers present in the composite shot timeline.
- Selected Lights: Allows you to specify which lights will illuminate the extrusion. When this option is selected, four menus will appear that allow you to select up to four specific light layers from the timeline.
Material
- Ambient: Determines how much the surface of the extrusion is illuminated by ambient lights.
- Diffuse: Determines how much the surface of the extrusion is illuminated by point, directional and spot lights.
- Specular: Adjusts the strength of specular highlights when illuminated by point, directional and spot lights. A low specular value will create a more matte surface.
- Shininess: Adjusts the size of the specular highlight. A low shininess creates a large, diffuse highlight while a high value creates a smaller, defined highlight.
Environment Map
- Layer: Choose any layer from the timeline to be used as the source of the environment map. The surface of the extrusion will be illuminated and display reflections as if it was surrounded by the selected layer.
- Pre-blur: Set the amount of blur applied to the layer before the reflections are calculated. Softening the reflections with blur tends to give more realistic results in many cases.
- Amount: Controls the overall strength of the environment map on the surface of the extrusion.
- Angle Dependency: Modifies the angle at which the environment map is reflected. Lower values use more fo the color from the environment map, while higher values tend to brighten the reflection using lighter colors.
- Texture Scale: Adjusts the size of the reflected image on the extruded surface.
- Texture Ratio: Controls the X ratio of the reflection. Values lower than 1 compress the reflected image from left to right. Values higher than 1 stretch the image from left to right.
Transform
- X Rotation: Rotates the reflected environment map image around the X axis, without affecting the rotation of the actual extrusion.
- Y Rotation: Rotates the reflected environment map image around the Y axis, without affecting the rotation of the actual extrusion.
- Z Rotation: Rotates the reflected environment map image around the Z axis, without affecting the rotation of the actual extrusion.