Trapcode Shine, 3D Stroke and Sound Keys
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3D Stroke is another very interesting plug-in. It uses paths from one or more masks to render strokes that can be manipulated in 3D space. It comes with a built-in camera for After Effects 4.1 users and can also use After Effects 5's own camera. Masks can be from After Effects itself or Adobe Illustrator paths. Because the paths are positioned in 3D space you can even fly around them with the virtual camera. Unlike flat objects used in a typical 3D animation programs, the edges of the paths do not disappear when viewed from the side.

An Adobe Illustrator logo used with 3D Stroke.
Like Shine, 3D Stroke offers a complete set of controls. In fact, this plug-in is considerably more complex than Shine because it lets you manipulate the objects and camera in all axis, in addition to the manipulation tools. It also allows you to use 16bit or 8bit color space and it supports motion blur directly.

Because of the tools available in 3D Stroke, a single path may be transformed into a complex 3D object by means of repetitions, displacements and rotations. The resulting effect reminds me a lot of those produced by old optical printers and plotted 3D animations. Several transfer modes are built into the plug-in itself, allowing you to stack the effect in the same layer. There is also a control to bend the strokes in 3D space, easily creating curved 3D shapes. Path reveals are possible by using keyframable sliders for start and end parameters. Thickness and color of the shapes, as well as feather, are also fully adjustable and keyframable.

3D Stroke can turn a simple flat logo into something much more appealing, without a lot of work. It can also be used to generate nice moving backdrops from very basic After Effects masks.
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Sound Keys gives a visual representation of an audio file.
Sound Keys is a little bit more unusual because it is basically a keyframe generator based on sound. Interestingly, it has a visually oriented interface that lets you select a range in the 32-band adjustable audio spectrum for keyframe generation. It is perfect for making complex animations driven by audio, without having to manually set hundreds of keyframes. Unlike Motion Math, Wiggler and Motion Sketch, which come with the production bundle version of After Effects, Sound Keys is applied as a regular effect and can generate keyframes that may be linked with expressions to input parameters on other layers. This allows Sound Keys, for example, to animate the intensity of light in Shine based on a song's beat. An added advantage of the filter approach is that all settings are saved with the project and may be altered at any time.

To use Sound Keys you first import a music file into After Effects and use it as a layer. Create a new solid layer and chose the Sound Keys effect. A spectrum analyzer window will appear, giving you a visual representation of the sound at any given frame so that you can set the plug-in parameters. Once you have adjusted the settings to your liking, click the Apply button and the keyframes will be automatically generated. Turn visibility off for this layer. Select the layer that you wish to affect and a parameter such as rotation, then add an expression from After Effects' Animation menu. Link the expression to the desired output channel in the Sound Keys layer and you are set. The same set of keyframes may be applied to any keyframable parameter on a layer. Therefore, even controls from other effects may be driven by Sound Keys.


Source: Digital Media Online

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