Overview of PlaneSpace Assistants

There are 10 PlaneSpace tools broken into two types of tools, the Distribution Assistants and Creator Assistants. Most of the tools have a 'Lite' version, bringing the total package to 16 tools.

List of PlaneSpace Assistants.

Distribution Assistants

Distribution Assistants distribute the selected 3D layers throughout 3D space. These assistants make it very easy to place a large number of layers throughout 3D space. You define the area of the primitive -- like a cube, sphere or pyramid -- and PlaneSpace takes care of placing the layers throughout that area. With a few parameter changes, you control how the layers are distributed and how they are oriented. The layers can either be placed randomly or by following the parameter values you set up.

The six Distribution tools are: Linear Assistant, Planar Assistant, Cubic Distribution, Spheroid Distribution, Cylinder Distribution and Pyramid Distribution. Most tools have a Lite version as well.

Left to right, examples of a video wall with Planar Assistant, fan with Linear Assistant, and ring of cards with Cylinder Distribution.

Creator Assistants

Creator Assistants are designed to create the selected primitive out of the layers you select. These assistants allow you to quickly set up common shapes in After Effects’ 3D space. For example, create a video wall, cube or ring.

You set the dimensions, how the shape is going to look, and how many layers you are going to use. The assistants do the rest, calculating all the position, orientation and scaling information. A powerful aspect to the Creator Assistants is using two assistants to animate from shape to shape. Begin with one shape, set a few keyframes, then arrange the layers into a different shape. After Effects will take care of the animation between shapes.

Keep in mind that since the Creator assistants aren’t calculating the inbetween data, there’s no way to prevent the layers from intersecting or crossing over. If you need to prevent the layers from doing this, you may have to manually tweak some of the animation paths. Since After Effects is doing the animation, it’s easy to tweak the Creator animations as you would any normal animation curve.

The four Creator tools are: Matrix Creator, Box Creator, Spheroid Creator and Cylinder Creator. All Creator tools have a Lite version as well.

Left to right, examples of a ring with Spheroid Creator, cube with Box Creator, sphere with Spheroid Creator, and tunnel with Cylinder Creator.