• For Extrudalizer to function properly you must enable Javascript Expression Engine and you must Allow Scripts to Write Files and Access Network. Here’s how to enable these settings:

Basic Instructions

1. In Adobe After Effects, create a new composition and add a 2D shape layer that you want to extrude.
2. Launch the Extrudalizer script.
3. In the Main tab configure the Pre-Extrudalization options ******(first row of the Main tab), then click the Extrudalize! button.
4. Adjust the newly created Layer Controller to refine the appearance and animation of your Extrudalized shape. This includes the 3D Transform settings (extrusion depth, position, scale, rotation and more) and the Appearance settings (front, back and sides colors, gradients, wireframe mode, translucency, and more).
5. (Optional) When satisfied with the Extrudalized shape’s appearance and its animation, you can export the composition to Lottie using the Bodymovin plugin.

https://youtu.be/eh5uAqBqJxU

• Table of contents for Extrudalizer Quick Start and Walkthrough

Under the hood

When you click Extrudalize! button, many things happen in the background, so let’s go through them one by the one.

A. The structure of the selected Shape Layer is modified as follows:

1. The shape group of the 2D shape path you are Extrudalizing, is renamed as ORIGIN SHAPE and the visibility of the path is turned off.
2. The ---EXTRUDALIZER--- shape group is added. This is the container for all the paths that will comprise the Extrudalized shape. It contains a number shape groups needed for the correct functioning of the script.
   • Inner structure of the container

B. An Extrudalizer layer controller is added to the Effects group of the layer.

The layer controller has all the animatable controls needed to manipulate and set up the transformation and appearance of the Extrudalized shape. These controls are connected to the expressions used to compute the FRONT, BACK and SIDE shape paths position and appearance in virtual 3D space.

When the Extrudalized shape is manipulated via 3D transforms, the shape’s sides in the SIDES group retain their names in the order of the vertex numbers of the FRONT shape, however, their actual paths are recalculated using expression in order of their distance from the viewport and their visibility as a result of the 3D transformations. The sides that are closer to the viewport and are visible are drawn in the paths at the top of the SIDES shape group stack, while the paths that are not currently visible are at the bottom of the shape group stack.

The Transform properties for the ORIGIN SHAPE group also affect the Extrudalized shape and are taken into account when calculating the appearance of the Extrudalized shape.

C. A specific text layer is added to the composition.

To avoid needing to re-calculate all the main parameters for all the paths, and to be compatible with Lottie, the major calculations are performed in only one place - the text layer created specifically for that purpose. This text layer is named EXTRUDALIZER DATA layer_name , where layer_name is the name of the layer that you are Extrudalizing. By default, this layer is locked, shied, and placed at the bottom of the layer stack. It contains the formulas necessary to compute the 3D positions of every single vertex of every face of the Extrudalized shape.

• In case you are really interested in the type of data that is computed, here’s how the Extrudalizer works.

Important considerations/limitations

1. Removing the EXTRUDALIZER DATA Text layer will break the Extrudalized shape except you baked the layer.
2. Extrudalizer cannot work with parametric shapes. Please convert your parametric shapes to Bezier paths before Extrudalizing.
3. The computations necessary to display a large number of faces can tax your computer resources. The higher Bezier counts or number of vertices can slow the pre-rendering time and viewport performance in Adobe After Effects. Extrudalizer will suggest to turn off the Shape and Mask Path visibility if your Extrudalized shape contains more than 20 vertices. However, it is likewise important to note that while the viewport performance in Adobe After Effects may be sluggish, once the animation is exported to Lottie the browser performance will be flawless.