Follow this animation tutorial as we take a step-by-step look at how to create a cool, fake 3D eye in Adobe After Effects.
Concerns such as: “I don’t know Cinema 4D,” “3D is hard,” and “Yeah, Blender is free, but I don’t know 3D,” shouldn’t prevent you from pursuing an animation idea.
I’ll admit, 3D modeling is on a whole different level compared to After Effects. To a certain extent, you have to use programs like Cinema 4D or Blender. But there are also times when you might be able to fake 3D — also known as 2.5D — which is exactly what I accomplished with this animation.
There were plenty of irritating moments while working on this project, so I’ll break down each section of the animation and save you the time and frustration of figuring it out on your own. The challenge is worth the payoff!
The Background
I didn’t mention it in the video, but the background was one of the last parts of the project I worked on. Originally, I was just going to leave it empty to lure all the attention toward the rotating eye. Once I closed in on finishing the build, I realized that the whole thing felt empty — and honestly, boring.
I was looking through different effects and came across one called Radio Waves. With default settings, this effect creates pulsing circles that move outward from a designated starting point. I messed around with it and ended up getting the psychedelic pattern you see above. It was a little too perfect that I found this effect, especially since I was looking for such a specific pattern. Once I threw on a gradient ramp and applied color to it, the animation came together nicely.
The Eye’s Rotation
This was the most difficult portion of the build. I had zero guidance and it felt like I was trying to navigate with my eyes shut. Ultimately, I used shading to give the circle some rounded depth. I also paired it with a path animation of the actual eye opening up.
Let’s first break down how I used shading. I key framed gradient points so the majority of the eye at the beginning of the animation would be dark pink/red. As time would go on, the darker color would move out of the circle and the majority of the brighter color would fill it in. But, this only solved half my problem. Now I had to animate the eye so that it looked like it’s rotating towards the camera.
The key to making this look good is animating the top part of the eyelid opening first. Then, bring the bottom one in, after it has “rotated” far enough, so that the camera can see it. Once you get the shading movement and eye animation down, you’ll get a really cool, fake 3D rotation.
The Inner Eye
You need four circles to create the eye. Create a circle and throw on a gradient, pick your two colors, and boom, step one is done. Create the next circle, but make sure it’s a little smaller than the first. Then add a four-color gradient. You can even use the same gradient from step one, but just swap the colors. When you choose the colors for the four-color gradient, make sure they compliment the two colors you picked for the first circle.
Next, go ahead and make a smaller black circle for the pupil. All you have to do is make sure it’s proportional to the first two circles you made.
Let’s make a glare. Create a small, white circle, position it on the upper right edge of the pupil, and throw on the effect called Fast Box Blur. There you go, you’re now a master at creating eyes.
The Eye Movement
When animating eyes, ninety-nine percent of the time you’ll use hold key frames. For an explanation on hold key frames, please refer to the retro explainer I made in the video above. It’s cute and I’m really proud of it.
The eye opening and closing is just simple path animation. I made a key frame at the time the eye was open and another one where it was closed. From there, I would repeat the pattern of it opening and closing every five frames or so until it was time for the eye to rotate again and fly off screen.
The Grain Shading
To keep the amount of layers down to a minimum, I used the layer style called Bevel and Emboss. I changed the blending modes from normal to dissolve, which gave me the rough look I was going for.
Sadly, if you’re a fan of the blending mode dancing dissolve, you can’t get the same look using Bevel and Emboss. You’ll have to go with a more traditional mode by using masks. Doing it that way will require you to have more layers and to parent those to the base circle. But, if that’s the look you want, it’ll work just fine.
The Haze Overlay
This is a super quick method to add “haze” over an object. To be honest, I found this out completely by accident. All I did was create a path following the shape of the eye, but instead of adding a fill, I created a stroke with a width of about twenty. From there, I drew a mask that was smaller than the entire eye shape, checked the inverted box, and feathered it. At this point, the effect looks really flat and boring, but once you add a glow effect to the entire eye, the whole thing comes together.
I had a lot of fun making this project and hope you guys liked the final render. As motion designers, it’s really important to give ourselves challenges to help us learn in ways we never really expected. Hopefully you learned a couple new techniques to incorporate into your future projects. Remember: Keep creating and looking to new places for inspiration.
Interested in the tracks we used to make this video?
- “Absolutely” by Soulish
- “That Great Feeling” by Soulish
- “Pixel Squirrel” by Espresso Music
- “Colourize” by Harrison Amer
- “Rooftops in LA” by Harrison Amer
- “Sunlight Station” by Denis
- “Modern Fashion Days” by Make Music
- “Flight Club” by Jordan Childs
Looking for more ways to up your video editing game? Check these out.
- Creating an Entire Solar System in Adobe After Effects
- Things to Consider Before Building a Video Editing Computer
- loopOut Expressions Explained: A Journey in After Effects
- How to Color Grade and Export Your iPhone Footage
- Filmmaking Roundup: The Best Free Video Editing Programs
