3D Space

3D Space is the usage of 3D effects and related techniques in a video. As tennis is inherently 2D, anything in 3D immediately stands out as its own thing.

Types of 3D

Real 3D

Real 3D is the use of a 3D compositor, most commonly 3D Source Alpha in Vegas or the native one built into After Effects. Programs like Blender are also built around working in 3D space.

Fake 3D

Fake 3D (aka Pseudo-3D, 2.5D, etc.) is the illusion of 3D objects, when in reality it is just 2D transformations made to look like 3D (or more commonly, 3D translations immediately projected into 2D.) The biggest give-away is if you put two fake 3D layers next to each other. If they intersect at a point, they are real 3D. If the layer just goes directly on top of the other, it is fake 3D.

Premiere Pro notably is not compatible with 3D space, but has a fake, "Basic 3D" plugin to provide 3D transformations. Older versions of Windows Movie Maker (namely 2.6 and older) are also capable of this, however usually need custom plugins will need to be installed.

Fake Orthographic 3D with Minimax

Using the minimax effect and a bit of layering trickery, you can make a fake orthographic 3D object with its own depth!

• Create a "base composition" - any rotations or transformations you want to apply here. Then render/precomp to be used again.
• Using this prepared composition, create two copies of it; one will be the "depth" through minimax, while the other will be the "top" of the object.
• For the minimaxed layer, add the minimax effect. If working with alpha (recommended), make sure the minimax applies to the alpha layer. Set it then to vertical only, and the blend mode to "Maximum" (others work but not as well). The amount of minimax is equivalent to the desired height of the object.
• Place the second, unedited layer where the top of the minimax object ends (not the frame but the object itself). This will "cap off" and hide the weird blending, showing only the depth lines. Now you're done!

Rotating the initial composition makes the technique much more effective.

The fake 3D effect, using a still from GameBop vs. Everyone.

Usage

Building Shapes

3D shapes are a great way to add flair to your rounds. A huge variety of shapes are possible, some more complex than others.

Planes

Planes are the simplest 3D shape, and are built once you put a video frame into 3D space. Simple as that!

Cubes

Cubes are the second most simple, but still need a bit of work to build.

Tetrahedrons / Pyramids

Building a tetrahedron requires knowledge of Masking and a little bit of math. Decide if you want a square (pyramid) or triagonal (tetrahedron) shape, then mask out each face (four triangles for the tetrahedron, four triangles and a square for the pyramid) so that they all can connect together. Move and rotate everything into place, and you should be good!

Other Polyhedra

This can also be done to make octohedrons by pasting two pyramids facing away from each other.

After this point anything is possible, but good luck doing it manually. Create3DShapes is an After Effects plugin that can build shapes up to dodecahedrons, but after that you are completely on you're own!

Vortexes

Famously, vortex shapes can be built in Wax with an easy plugin.