Extrudalizer

Extrudalizer: A little depth. A lot of possibility.

What it is

A commercial After Effects tool that extrudes flat 2D shape layers into faux-3D depth while keeping them vector. I came up with the idea and built the proof of concept; renderTom (Tomas Sinkunas) was the first development partner (Sept to Oct 2022) and Michael Levin co-developed the shipped product.

What it does

Select shape layers, extrude them in Z space, and the result renders as 3D-looking type and shapes. Because it stays shape-based, it exports through Bodymovin as Lottie without baking.

Features

• Extrusion of shape layers in Z space with an in-panel controller (3D transform, appearance, presets)
• 100 percent Lottie-compatible export (Bodymovin 5.12+) with raster assets for art mapping
• Documentation, tutorial videos and a Discord community at launch

Capabilities

Depth for logos, icons, UI illustrations and type, including motion that has to ship as Lottie on the web or in apps.

Compatibility

• Adobe After Effects
• Output compatible with Bodymovin/Lottie 5.12 and later

Availability

Commercial on aescripts.com; v1.0.0 launched 2023-05-31, final v1 release 1.2.1 on 2023-10-31. Extrudalizer 2.0 Mk II, a CEP extension, is in development. Source is private.

Under the hood

ExtendScript tool (jsxbin-compiled for distribution) with a CEP front-end in the 2.0 line.