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Now I am just going to hit the tilda key here so we can go full screen on our composition and just see that in a bit more detail and we are currently looking at the front view. So let us say if we hovered over the green arrow, we can see that shows us the Y axis just the same as if we were over here on the right hand side, because if we drag on that we are doing the same thing and moving around that central point. If we just undo that and again grab the red arrow, we are rotating on the X axis.

Now as you do that you will see that there is a blue arrow just coming into view here when it is tilted up or down that is indeed the Z axis, but when the object is head on to the camera, the Z axis is not very clear because it is pointing directing at us. Well, this is where the different 3D views in After Effects come in handy. If we come down to the bottom to this composition window, you can see we are currently looking through the active camera.

This only becomes active when we are using a 3D layer inside a composition, but if we go ahead and click on there we have a selection of other views. Now we are going to look at the others in more detail in awhile, we are just going to go straight to custom view 1 here, which will put us at an offset upper left 3D angle from our composition. Now this is not the rendering angle by the way, as soon as you add this composition to the render cue, it will go back and use the active camera or the default view. So do not think that once you have moved to the custom view 1 that is what you will see and it is going to look like from this angle.

But this does actually give us a much closer look now at the Y, the X, and the Z axes and how we can then access those to edit our layer. So we actually seen what the rotation of them, we can also do the same around the Z axis just by dragging on that, but also you can move using these, so let us just undo that and hit the V key for a second to go back to the main selection tool. And if you now grab the red arrow and drag it you will see that you are dragging simply across the X axis from the left to the right hand side of 3D space.

Now remember through the active camera, it would simply look as if we were going from the left to the right hand side of the composition but we are indeed moving in 3D space especially when we look at it through this custom view 1. Now if we just undo that, one common mistake that people make is to hold down the Shift key when dragging. You are very familiar with keeping things straight as you drag on the X and the Y, but let us try that on the Z axis for just one second.

I am going to start moving, hold down the shift key because I want to keep it straight, just move it a little way and all of a sudden it has gone off screen. Now, if you drag the other way, you get exactly the same result. Well, what is happening here is a multiplication of position values. We have used this before where if we drag on any value on the timeline and hold down the Shift key as we do it, it will increase that value by ten. Well, we are seeing the same result but live in 3D space.

So if you start to drag the Z axis and move it very gently, you will notice that the cursor can move at a slightly faster speed than the object, purely because it is moving in 3D space. Adding that shift key will then multiply that motion for you as well and this is very handy if you are doing a simple zoom. Now let us just reset that back to the center, come back down to the bottom here and look at this once again from the active camera.

If we were to grab the Z axis now in the center, we can see it and if we drag to the left it will move the object further away from the camera. You will notice that your cursor hits the edge of the screen and all of a sudden you cannot go any further. Well this is the perfect instance where the shift key comes in handy. Hold that shift key down, drag to the left and you will see you have got a much more intense zoom, likewise you can come to the right and the object will fly past the camera and out of view.

So remember that Shift key, you do not need it to keep a layer straight if you are dragging it on a simple axis. That can be done just by grabbing one of the handles, but it will multiply that movement as when you will need it and that is especially handy on the Z. Now I am just going to go undo again to put that back into its correct position, because we will come back to this composition in a short while.

Now I am just going to hit the tilda key here so we can go full screen on our composition and just see that in a bit more detail and we are currently looking at the front view. So let us say if we hovered over the green arrow, we... click to read more