Demystify the process of 3D animation with Adobe After Effects, which not only offers features for working in 3D, but also serves as a stepping-stone to more advanced 3D programs. In this session, MAX Master Colin Smith will help you dip your toes into the water of 3D animation and compositing.You’ll learn how to:• Track 3D elements with complete control over depth of field, shadows, and reflections• Extrude text and shapes into 3D using After Effects and Adobe Illustrator• Work with advanced 3D programs alongside After Effects

Birgitta Hosea, a London based digital artist and animator, will be demonstrating the powerful new Ray-traced 3D engine in After Effects. She’ll show you how vector shapes and text can quickly be extruded in 3-dimensions as well as new materials options for translucency, refraction and reflection.

Sean Kilbride from NVIDIA talks about how fast and easy it is to create the 3D extruded and ray traced Heavy Hand logo in After Effects CS6 utilizing NVIDIA GPUs.

See how you can use the new "Create Shapes from Vector Layer" command to convert your Illustrator documents to editable vectors in After Effects. See how a shape in Illustrator ends up as a Ray-traced, extruded 3D layer in After Effects.

Take an in-depth look at extruded vector layers in this continued lesson on Ray-traced 3D. Review the new properties including the extrusion parameter, the bevel settings, the material options including reflections, also explore the animate pop-up and environment maps.

Get an introduction to Ray-traced 3D, how to activate it, the 3D layers it adds, and the many options that are available in those layers. Vector layers for text and shapes have greatly expanded options in this version of AE, and most useful for non vector layers are the new "Material" options which include the ability to create after-effects-native reflections for the first time.

In this movie, learn how to extrude a type layer in real time without sacrificing the ability to edit the type. Plus, you can use convenient HUD controls to adjust such attributes as depth, angle, and bevel without switching tools.

Extrude fully ray-traced text and shapes natively and take full advantage of reflections, environment maps, and more.

In this episode of CSInsider, Rufus Deuchler, Worldwide Design Evangelist at Adobe, introduces you to how easily you can extrude text in Adobe Photoshop CS5 Extended to create fully fledged 3D objects. These 3D objects can then be rendered using Photoshop's own Raytracing engine, including cast shadows. This feature lets you add a 3D flair to your 2D images.

See how you can create 3D logos and artwork from any text layer with the Adobe Repoussé technology in Photoshop CS5 Extended. And see how to rotate, extrude, bevel, and shadow and light your text.