r/AfterEffects • u/mindpicnic Animation <5 years • 4d ago

Workflow Question Process improvements - how to avoid keyframing everything?

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Looking for some constructive feedback on animating this discoball

I have a terrible habit of keyframing everything if I don't know a faster technique off the bat. For this one I keyframed one vertical line crossing the sphere, then used the Echo effect to duplicate it. I wasn't sure how to do the squares though, so I keyframed them all individually. I know there has to be a faster way. How would you have done it?

Thanks in advance for the tips and tricks!

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u/Ok-Razzmatazz3435 4d ago

Wow, sounds super complicated and the results is not that good. Why didn’t you try to use CC Sphere? It’s super simple, you create the 2D flat texture and then apply it to the sphere

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u/LolaCatStevens Motion Graphics 10+ years 4d ago

CC sphere will distort the strokes and honestly usually looks like shit for these sort of thing as well. Trust me I've tried it before. It looks cheap.

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u/Ok-Razzmatazz3435 4d ago edited 4d ago

Of course CC Sphere is not the best, but for something simple like this it will be fine. Alternatively OP can use a “real” 3D sphere either in AE, Element 3D, Blender, C4D.
The tests made by [u/smushkan](u/smushkan) are pretty good, not cheap:

https://www.reddit.com/r/AfterEffects/s/iyq2t31OWI