Following on from the session I decided to develop my piece of work by making the 'London Eye' object within my video clip rotate. To do this I reopened my original Illustrator artwork file and added another layer. I then copied the 'stand' of the wheel and pasted it on to the new layer, deleting the original stand on the other layer. Now with the wheel and wheel stand on separate layers, I would be able to rotate the wheel itself in After Effects.
At first I thought about how I would get the new Illustrator artwork in to After Effects and was unsure about how to do this. At first I tried to just replace the footage with the new Illustrator file but that did not work, and after a few attempts I did it by keeping everything the same but just importing the new Illustrator file with the wheel layers separated in to the comp as well, - retaining the layers- then dragging the wheel stand layer in to the timeline. I then pre-composed the layer so it had the same texture fill as the wheel layer. I also made the layer so it could be manipulated in 3D space like the other layers by selecting the cube icon.
To rotate I went in to the transform drop down and selected the rotate in Z axis, and added a key frame at the moment the wheel came in to focus, then moved the playback head to the end and added one there too. At first I changed the end rotation value to 360 degrees, but as the wheel was turning too fast (I wanted it to be slower as it is the London Eye) I adjusted the value until it was at a speed I thought worked best.
Here is the outcome of my developed work:
3D work in After Effects rotating wheel from Libby Howker on Vimeo.
One thing I am pleased with is how I managed to work with After Effects on my own and figure things out without instruction as I feel not very skilled in using After Effects, and I am also pleased with how the rotation works in the first moments you see the wheel, but then I feel because of the carriages attached to the wheel spokes, the rotation movement looks a bit odd and the angle doesn't really look right. Also at one point the wheel stand looks as though it is not connected to the wheel when the camera is pulling back which is something that would need to be fixed if I revisit this.
