Forge Technology Inc.

Baby Steps. An introduction to FreeForm's 3D displacement mapping.
By Chris Bobotis

Rather than getting into a lengthy technical write-up of 3D displacement mapping, we decided to set up this simple tutorial to introduce you to the process. Read on...

Step 1
Create a new After Effects project then create a new composition at 400 x 300 pixels.

Step 2
Create a file in Adobe Photoshop or Illustrator that looks something like this:

Call this file "steps" and save it in your choice of format (.jpeg, .pict, .tiff, .psd etc.) Rule of thumb, if you can import the format into After Effects then FreeForm can certainly use it. Now place the "steps" file into your composition.

Step 3
Create a new solid same size as your Comp (400 x 300).

Step 4
Apply FreeForm to this solid/layer. Effect >Forge>FreeForm AE.

Now add an After Effects light and a camera (the default 50mm will do).

Step 5
Select the "camera" icon in the After Effects toolbox and postion your camera so that your image looks something like this (see below).

Step 6
Click on the "eyeball" icon in the After Effects Time Layout Window. This will hide "steps" layer. We do not need to have this visible to gain access to the luminance values.

Step 7
Select the "steps" layer in the Effects Control Window > FreeForm AE > Displacement Controls > Displace Layer. Then go to Mesh Controls > Mesh Subdivison and set this to 100. Now go to Displacement Controls > Displace Height and set this to 120.

The solid 1 layer should now look some thing like the image below in your Compostion Window.

What just happenned? The lightest point in the "steps" has been displaced higher than the darkest point of the "steps" image. The darkest point remains closest to the"FreeFormed" surface. Now, try setting the Displace height to a value of -120. You should see the following in your Composition Window:

The lightest point is now below the "FreeFormed" surface. Keep in mind that the Displace Height feature is animateable via the Keyframes. Experiement with this feature as it is quite powerful and easy to set up.

This concludes our Baby Steps tutorial... have fun and let us know what you think

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