Bending a PSD in after effects

[sk8_aholic]

hey all,

I am trying to create a cool looking 3d film reel with each frame on the film strip having either a video playing or the first frame of a video. Then inside after effects i would use the camera to animate a zoom in and around the film reel in 3d space to finish my animation.

so far i have created a front and back image of the reel, the roll of film itself to make it look like there's lots of film on the reel and a flat image of the film strip all in photoshop. the film strip i created is about 3 inches wide and about 30 inches long, the reel is about 10" by 10"

i've saved and imported all the files into after effects, placed them in 3d space where i would like them. I've even duplicated the front and back reel images about 4 times each and displaced them each times 1 from the first to give it some depth, i have the space between the front of the reel and the back of the reel equal to the width of the film strip i created.

Now i just need to fold that flat film strip around the reel, but i have no idea how to do that inside after effects. any help? rotation just rotates the entire thing. so i have no idea how to bend 1 side at a time so i can make it form a circle if i wanted.

thanks so much!

[guns1inger]

Don't believe you can easily do this without third party plugins. You might be able to fake it with a warp, but otherwise you probably need something like Zaxworks Invigorator. AE's 3D is fine for fly-bys of flat surfaces, but what you are doing is better done in a real 3D environment. Zaxworks isn't quite that, but it is closer than AE gets on it's own.

[sk8_aholic]

ok i'll look into zaxwerks invigorator, thanks. anyone else have any solutions?