Imagine a spinning rings like the animation in this page http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gimbal_lock
If I planned to have my 2D character floating at the center and apply some crazy effects with After Effects, since that program is not a 3D program, I must render the scene as a sequence of images to further process it in After Effects.
To place something in-between I think I should have 2 set of images which is in the front and back of specified Z value. My character will be at that Z so when some part of the ring spin over it will occlude the character correctly. Is there any way to separate rendering into 2 parts like this? (Or any better way?)