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WOODWARD HEATING
Comfort Zone
woodwardheating.com
Process Breakdown: Mixing 2D & 3d Animation
Setting the Scene
When I was pitched this specific project I was asked about animating a scene where two homes would react differently to weather conditions. It was important to show facial illustrating the contrasts. Right away I knew I’d need to mix 2D and 3D to make it work. After modeling out the scene and animating the characters in 3D. I needed to find a way to animate the facial expressions and fx inside After Effects. The answer was a plugin called Pain and Stick.
The Not Too Sticky Process
Paint & Stick, when applied to specific 3D objects, creates two important multi-passes; Sticky ID pass for object identification and Stick Pass that allows After Effects to read UVW information. The setup was pretty straight forward, add the effect to a solid layer, and set the correct parameters. With that all setup up you can create a separate composition to do all your 2D character animation. The plugin allows the 2D animation to wrapped onto 3D surfaces without the need to create separate textures in 3D. The workflow allows maximum flexibility when it comes to iterations.
