3D FLAT DESIGN ANIMATION NO AFTER EFFECTS _ TUTORIAL

Hey everyone how's it going Check this out—we now have 3D in After just like I already did our review of After Effects CC 2026 in our News in Motion live stream I'll leave the card here at the top now If you didn't know and if you did welcome anyway—now we have native 3D in After Effects In this tutorial I want to show you how to achieve an aesthetic I really love Doing 3D which is the 3D I refer to as 3D Flat is a name I personally give to the concept So what exactly is that Back in my days as a young boy when I first started in motion design many years ago behind you you can see these videos are nine years old but in reality these These videos here are 14 years old something like that—I actually uploaded this stuff to Vimeo And then I started uploading to YouTube when YouTube began to become something I was creating that 3D flat aesthetic sort of in Cinema 4D So you'll see here let me get this look at this aesthetic right here you see it He looks so flat with that solid shadow can't you see Isn't it cool how it turns out though Not always has to be Heart Shadow but the idea is kind of that 2D with a touch of but with greater depth and back then I wasn't using After Effects—I was using only Cinema 4D so I did all of this directly in Cinema 4D So this is Cinema 4D and this one is actually my first personal project it's this one ere Daft Punk I won't post it here because it's copyrighted music but if If you'd like go to my channel and check it out—there's the little tune from when it first came out This album if I'm not mistaken is this one here is my first original project and if you look closely at the aesthetic you'll notice They'll see that she's this 3D flat—very bold in color almost overwhelming and it doesn't bring that same ultra-realistic 3D render that everyone loves and more Well then this is my idea here since After awakened that sixth sense at seventh sense let's call it that for 3D I decided to have a little fun here and reaching this aesthetic so I'll teach you how to create this look as well This little animation here and I have a few variations of it—I have this variatio Right here that 3D flat with a slightly soft shadow—looks good too you see Here in these colors and styles we also have it in an ultra-flat version which I really like It's also very common to see people around sporting this aesthetic though they tend to do it straight into 3D now we can do it in After and this more stylized aesthetic here Even if we can do the same animation at the end we'll just duplicate it and create a different final composition so let's see how that works You handle the three right So for now I'll close this CSS here— we don't need all three I'll just Let me stay here in this little corner I don't think I'll bother anyone okay Here in this little corner I'll stay right here and show you something my first one That's the version I did first and after that one I animated it—I just duplicated it and changed the style right I even have here a little game I was working on where the ball turns into our little lemon isn't it not ready yet Just a little teaser here from a little joke I was playing around with—go ahead and check it out if you want Even my eyes are right here you know—I was just doing this right here in After itself just to test it okay This isn't official at all—I was just testing things but let's go ahead then Let's create a folder here—I'll make a new one and name it the microphone is Right in front of me so I always type a bit slower than usual I'll make another comp here from 1980 5 seconds and I'll call this one Thoros 1 okay Since it's our Thoros we're using this is our Thoros 1 we're going to use this one Create one right-click New Solid to create a solid here Make Compositio Size okay I'll call this BG I'll add a wire to this solid and switch to this darker shade here Here we'll right-click and even set this one as a Guide Layer We don't want this showing up in the next comp we create so let's duplicate it Here too as Guide you can be Guide for now I'll refer to this one as Grid And now let's add a grid once the grid is done remove this wire here and let's make the switch here Set the size form to slider and let's keep it around 200 for now okay And I'll keep the edge at 3 like this it'll look something like this and now we're going to do this thing here Here it will also become 3D later on and right now we're going to set up a Thoros here so let's ere on our new little 3D button we'll click hold and select the Thoros Tool And now we'll click and drag this Thoros here you can hold Shift if you'd like That's right so it becomes proportional or do it this way— actually this way makes it proportional without holding Shift right And let's call this one Thoros 1 okay This will be our first one press V on the keyboard to bring more in here keeping in mind at we need to be here at Advanced 3D it's showing up here because the interface Let me pull it a bit closer here even with the small interface you can see that After that he really struggles over there trying to show everything I have look there Camera look look how much he's crushing over there all the stuff I need to see—see what I mean Here here awful isn't it Awful—these details shouldn't be here at all Adobe might be up here somewhere if there were space but unfortunately our bar Alright check this out—our preview there it's way too big right All these buttons down here And now we'll just give it a little spin just to see how it looks improves like this She's rotating here at X just so we can see it and we'll adjust the size here Come on you know stuff like that—how do I actually get to that aesthetic I’ve already wanted Let's start by making her really flat you know I love that super flat look—basically we just need to Come here to accept lights yes accept the lights and let's type off set it to off and then Now I can simply reset any attribute I have here and assign a color whatever I want in our database you don't need touch the issuance—just the database itself So if I want that green over there the one with the code 00cd70 it’s going to look flat Yes and if you'd like to include this here as well feel free to do so although this emissio Here when he's at zero here it doesn't matter if I change colors so I'd have to go up instead a little more strength here to reinforce it so in this way you ask me well But why would I want a super flat torus since when you do that that rotation You realize he's actually 3D even though he appears flat and there are numerous very smooth animations lindas por aí esses 3D flatzão assim ultra flat ficam muito legais tá então pra start our animation here we'll go here to the Z rotation set it to 90 in the X rotation set 90 as well let's also adjust our rig radius here to 134 Here the pipe will be set to 108 so it'll end up a bit thicker If we rotate this here you'll see what I'm talking about right It's a b but fatter you see actually it's 239 here 240 over there that's fine one Just a little more and now we're going to energize what's here let's get our rotation going First and also the ring radius—let's start with the ring radius let's mark a point here I'll set a keyframe here pause for a second set another keyframe then return here and reset The ring's radius you can see it hasn't vanished because I don't want it to disappear okay Just give it a little tug over here and do this—see just this part Move it here I'll pull it back a bit roughly to 17 and 3 frames After starting here I'll set the Z rotation then move forward one second and Zeroing out that hourly rotation I'll give you an easy one here—this one's going to be the easier of the two sides a little this way a little that way just do it like this no let's go ahead and do it like this Click here I'll change this it'll be really strong because it'll work like this see That grid is showing the wrong color let me put this color here 3B 3B that tones it down a bit don't you think That color was a little too harsh before now it's perfect okay Here's what people have right here now let's animate one more rotation which is our rotation At X I'll set the keyframe here then move forward 1 2 3 4 40 1 5 6 46 frames I'll put a 270-degree rotation here and another thing is tha That rotation won't actually be zero here in Z in reality She goes down to about minus 30 minus 29 here so we get a nice slope see that's what we want For him to make that tilt and the other animation here we'll make it easy Easy no problem we'll be back here around 17 frames roughly about here And let's pull it over here check our graffiti give it a little tug just a quick tug over there yeah hit play okay went oh if you notice your bull There's a bit of fraying at the edges you know—raveling here raveling in the direction of the knit No not from the vector—just come over here to Rig Sides and set it to about 90 to smooth it out or go up to 100 here if you'd like which is the maximum we can go You can add Rig Pipes too but I think the Pipes here—let me check if they're actually needed Precisely let's set it to 100 as well—just leave it at 100 that'll look better even though it ends up being but heavier yet it becomes smoother—see if it feels too heavy for you turn on the 3D Draf This makes it even easier to work here so the 3D Draft is perfect for us to use here So this is the first rotation we'll rotate once more here as well In Z at this point on the timeline we'll advance here by skipping 10 frames Yeah it'll be 9 so we skip 10 and move 1 back mark another keyframe en move 50 frames then 1 2 3 4 5 5 right here and let's rotate this one over to Now yes 180 he's going to make this move here now we're going to resize it the pull it this way then a bit that way roughly less less 80 70 we're good ere will be this movement here which is why we're slightly overlapping the keyframes so that we never stop the movement notice how it rises then spins and goes these spins They are important occurring one on top of the other—that is a triggered action stacked on top of one another so it doesn't keep stopping and of course we'll improve the flow of it switching colors and everything else as we'll soon see okay so in this Ring Mat Radius ali more or less here 1.18 a little after what we did there we'll go Skip ahead 50 frames 3 4 5 and we're here at around 850 in size roughly like this Just resize it slightly this way slightly that way and we'll get that motion right there It spins and grows at the same time nice so how do we make it disappear then Here we'll create a new camera—Camera confirm here let's switch this out camera color I'm not using mine right now here's my LayBomb instead since mine is The stop is up ahead but I can work with this so we'll pull it this way our camera And just animate the camera's position right here nothing fancy—just set a quick keyframe ere more or less like this a little while after finishing this animation we Just take a quick dip here add a little Easy Ease there so we always have that movement constant it seems our Thoros isn't quite fitting in this scene so let's give it a ake a quick look at him here let me activate our Proportional Grid do a Fit I'm going to urn off the Draft and I'll pull it slightly to the side like Thoros here since we don' Sparked the Position—no problem adjusting it here it needs to stay nicely centered The camera can go down a bit more close it like this good let's turn it off So now to avoid having so many grids let's lock this other one here camera we no longer need it and now selecting our Thoros here in the frame 1 in 8 here more or less—let me check if it's really 1 in 8 here's our The timing's a bit off let's see here roughly around here let me just Take a look at my rotation here—it'll be this one this one oh I opened this one g 77 here 70 here will be around 88 if I'm increasing my rotation further Here to strengthen the rotation a bit more so I can make the cut at 1 em 8 here where I perform the match cut here right at 1 em 8 so we go ahead and With the Shift key held down click and drag to change color—our next Thoros is ready to go here so People come here to Base Color let's apply this CDCB00 yellow—it's a bit lemony since we've got another yellow in the lineup let's just switch it here and we'll handle it Here and now we also do the match cut here so cut again and here people can leave it blank leave everything blank here so it was 1 2 3 so essentially Our main animation is ready—this is it with the Thoros we've already made Here we double the 3 and make this turn turn and now we're going to do what Now we're going to add a sphere to the scene select our 3D tool and then selec e sphere click it twice it has a radius of 100 let's set it to about 45 here roughly and at this point here let's drop it down let's place sphere 01 here And let's change the color too if it's not a different one this pink here and this one It'll show up here more or less but we'll adjust its look first So let's increase the size here let's lighten it up and this one I want to have a Shadow I don't want it to be overly flat or super flat so what should we do We'll change the color here first—whatever color she currently has it'll become yellow And here on the transmitter we'll set an orange we'll place the transmitter here at 100% and we'll Setting our roughness to around 65 here you can see it reduces the shine You can increase or decrease the metallic then you choose the metallic here if you want to You might want a bit more strength in the Roughness you can set it to 100 here 100 on the metallic 100 no Roughness depends a lot on what you're aiming for aesthetically but it's still acceptable to keep it Light if you turn it off it becomes really flat just so we can see now let's bring it back to 45 And let's set the Radius here keyframe the Radius jump ahead 10 frames and set it to 70 Give it some ease—we'll do this: pull it over here and we'll secure the entire part right here He's going to do it this way just a little explosion let's clear everything out and now we're going to have this Here watch just darken our orange a bit a little more contrast here This other color here so it was and now we'll have another animation here and roughly around here the People set the Radius again skip 10 frames and we'll make a significant jump in size here to 160 Let's open our Graph Editor here drag this one over here and bring this entire section over as well en we'll have the same idea as before but here we'll make the change give it this cu again so we can have another one because here we'll be changing the color and it's simply more convenie Faster than cheering for color so let's grab a pink one here and we can either keep that one over there Or tweak it slightly make it more like this—feel free to pick the color you'd like as well You're pulling out Come on just a little boost—technically we already have our spheres it's easy now And now we'll just I don't know duplicate this one right here press 1 on the keyboard I'll remove everything My animation of her I'll turn her white I'll disable our light acceptance Here none of the rest matters I'll size it to about 17 and it'll fit perfectly y I'm gonna toss her up there and this little ball will bounce right here so You'll press Position right-click separate dimensions and I'll mark only in Y here—I'll skip ahead 10 frames zoom in sharply on my screen here and I'll do it like this okay Easy and I'll switch out our graphite for the VarioGraph this here zoom out and it's a bouncing ball so it's almost a bouncing ball Actually she's slowing down here and will gently touch the other one like that just a little feed to Behind and here we're pulling it higher up since it needs to be off-screen so it comes in and hits here so we can skip ahead here about 40 frames just hit and return right and we come back roughly Here like this see And here we push the squash down so do it like this—pem turned went pem hit And right there on that beat she hits we'll grab our big sphere and set a keyframe a position no need to separate dimensions here and we'll skip about 40 frames just a b Down here like this and then we go back to our Speed Graph pull it over here because it's Yeah that's right I'm gonna call this one bouncing—the top sphere—I'll change its color here so we can And with her different stance in this scene plus that bouncing effect let me adjust her position—select here and I'll make the change For our Value Graph it might have a slight overshoot here so we can lower this a bit so it does this instead See That little movement she makes there just barely but she does it—sit back and she'll go forward she really does parked there right Sounds good to me I'll toss my ruler over here hit play full blast there we go now let's create Two strokes I'll lock these in let me just adjust to remove this part I'll make this color a bit stronger Here a bit more purple too just a touch more contrast there you know Great now that we've got this It'll be done let's select here—now I think there are Shapes our Stroke Shift two clicks and it'll appear like this making it 3D No the Stroke will already be centered on screen let's call it Stroke and position it here above then parent it to our Thoros our sphere in sphere 2 here okay He's going to move down here too but right at the moment he does it'll be No bouncing here right on the bouncing we'll set our size now okay So let's jump here 56 frames and we'll Mark the frame we'll come back to it and just scale it down to roughly the size of the sphere itself okay Easy easy Let's pull here and let's pull here too—we've got this Tom right Oh let's keep this Stroke here as well with 3D ckness I'm going to tweak this animation a bit here make it linear on this side I'll open my Graph Editor and switc For the Speed Graph I'll do this—see if it smooths out a bit okay Really strong got it Now here's where we literally go Duplicate this stroke right And let's make it a bit smaller— it'll end up about the size of that little sphere up there Press P here let's lift it up and try to center it roughly around this point okay Just like this and let's also parent it to our Bouncing right And now let's adjust the size here—zoom in by pressing V on the keyboard then hit P for Positive and there it is We just adjust this area a bit move it slightly up and down—about like this that looks good—and now we'll reduce it here Pretty much we hit Alt then scale it down to about here okay And same deal right Starts together got it That stroke could have two I think right We can set it to two here so it's just a small difference So we'll have this animation And with this animation in hand we can make the variations I mentioned to you right So what should we do to get started We can duplicate it enter that copy close the old one here and then what Grab the Toro Zoom turn on our light acceptance right Our Rogness at 100 our Metal at 100 as well if you'd like or Rogness at 65 here right And Metal at a bit less here maybe around 30 And now we play with the colors here and create some wild combinations right In the Bulls look the yellow again here We'll make a call add about 65 here around 30 of Metal change the color a bit like this—see it's about the same right So it'll be a blue here and we'll change the yellow too—let's see what we can fix here Remember when we get to doing the other one later we’ve got to be careful with the colors so like for example we have this pinkish tone here then it swirls swirls We can change this white one too right It'll be our Toros 3—set it to On which will also be 65 30—and let's switch the color okay For now just leave that space blank there so we can see better—add some blue here like this and we'd end up with something like this see And of course right you can use whatever colors you want— I'm just quickly putting this together so you can grasp the logic behind it Keeping in mind you know when it's like this I like to have a contrasting color along with a softer more washed-out one right I always like different colors in this case but if you want to go with similar ones that works too right So it's up to the customer to pick whichever color they like right And over here we also have our effects rack right So what exactly is an effects rack We'll move out from in front there—I'll set this up here okay I'm just gonna call this effects toros right And here we are what are we gonna do huh Let's copy our BG our grid—I just noticed I didn't animate the grid right I'll leave it to you all to liven up the grid there okay It's really easy to do So just put up the grid—nothing more annoying than trying to animate that stupid grid Now I'm going to click on both of these right-click and go to Remove Guide Layers—now we do have our background right And what we're going to do here for example in this first step is add an adjustment layer Adjustment effects—just add some noise an HLS set it to type 5 and we already get a much cooler aesthetic nice The short text we made there we could also put it here but I think it's irrelevant at this stage So I'm focusing more on the 3D here right If you want to improve it later feel free to do so as well okay So we have something like this here—feel free to add a glow on the actual comp if you'd like Oh a little glow but then that glow will have to be super subtle—really careful with this one now But you can see it makes a noticeable difference right Especially at the beginning here—just give it a signal pull it out and leave it like that okay And here's another torus effect we can create—let's duplicate this one Bring over that one we have here right the one that already has the textures so we already have it like this see with its own effects So the third set of effects we can apply here is for example duplicating the first one which is our flat right So what do we do here in this flat We bring in the 3D torus version and add a colorama Put a little more than 102 here just a tiny bit more and then we'll do this okay We'll put this in exclusion and for beautify we'll use green—okay let's liven up our phase here okay Let's right-click on our clock enter a time expression multiplied by 100 and watch it change color there you go Whoa that's super neon right Such a cool color And you can obviously animate these things here Here's the output cycle you can adjust and tweak which affects the colors and everything else got it The grid if you really want to liven it up can just be turned into 3D and it'll already have motion got it Oh I see he made a quick move there And then you pull that from our guide layer press P for position Push it further back right so it doesn't get cropped you know so it doesn't bump into anything—just keep moving it around Ah but he just showed up there Diana and so on Since no shift here and we're increasing the size of this solid and we'll animate it right here got it So when we come to FX Toros here we’ll need to remove that other grid from the scene and just go back to the regular grid okay So that's it this is the idea right of you guys doing this 3D flat which I call because you could expand a bit more and move beyond that routine you know the ultra-realistic 3D that everyone's chasing and develop more intriguing aesthetics And I think the biggest insight I’ve had about After Effects after all these years of motion design is precisely this rying to find a more interesting aesthetic than what everyone else is doing right That's exactly why these effects are here—not just for us to use them the way everyone else does You learn how I did it here then do it your way to make your animation better got it That's it that's our tutorial for today here on Layers—hope you enjoyed it Like the video subscribe to the channel leave comments and suggestions for future tutorials and I'm out