With Element 3D I can make awesome looking elements, like extruded text with beautiful textures in under five minutes. I can create titles, transitions, some motion graphics, and even a little compositing. As I’ve mentioned in many other reviews, I’m an editor who has become somewhat competent in After Effects. Let’s move on to what Element 3D can really do. In layman’s terms, it sacrifices a little bit of realistic lighting for speed, and let me tell you the speed inside of Element 3D is amazing! It relies on an OpenGL renderer instead of the traditional per-pixel raytracing that is used in 3D applications. Element 3D is not a replacement for any 3D application like Cinema 4D, Maya, Blender, etc.
But if you don’t, you need Element 3D.Įlement 3D was originally created as a particle replicator plug-in for After Effects that just so happens to have an incredibly powerful animation, compositing, and material building interface. Now don’t get me wrong, I love Cinema 4D and Cineware’s options when you have more than 30 minutes to build something. Even with Cineware, it still takes quite a bit of processing power and patience to properly light and render out a 3D title, let alone an entire scene. In addition to After Effects, I dabble in Cinema 4D from time to time and understand how difficult it is to create amazing looking titles quickly, export the multi-pass renders, import the multi-pass renders, adjust, and composite in After Effects. Check out his latest and greatest tutorial on the “Grid”. He updates his blog on regularly with mostly motion graphics related content, but sometimes some practical stuff too. He’s a little sarcastic, really fun, and always bursting with useful information for any level of After Effects user. I’m not talking about 3D text that looks like you made it with Microsoft Word presets and somehow got it into After Effects either.įor a bunch of real-world examples and tutorials with Element 3D check out you will be instantly hooked to Andrew Kramer’s tutorial style. Both of which where created by Andrew Kramer, the creator of Element 3D by the way. You can create beautiful 3D text in seconds, and have the ability to dolly and zoom around creating great depth-of-field effects - think of the opening titles from Fringe or even Star Trek: Into Darkness. All of which are amazing in their own right.Įlement 3D is one of those After Effects plug-ins that is worth way more than just the $149.95 it costs. If you have been around the After Effects community for more than a few years, you have definitely run into reviews and tutorials on the heavy hitters of the After Effects plug-in world, such as Red Giant’s Trapcode Suite, GenArts Sapphire, and maybe even Copilot’s Optical Flares. Be sure that you have a compatible system including the graphics card.
You will also need After Effects CS3 or higher, including Creative Cloud, on either Mac or Windows. There are many significant additions, such as being able to generate a 3D position null object, replace model option, and even a scene relink option. If you are a current Element 3D user and haven’t upgraded from Element 3D 1.5 or earlier yet, do it now!
New Specular Model! - The new spec model takes advantage of the new physical shader system and features a natural light falloff helps create more realistic shaders! You can even get the specular to be much smaller and sharp or large and diffused.For this review of one of most powerful plug-ins available for After Effects, I am testing Video Copilot’s Element 3D V.1.6.2, along with the Pro Shaders material library. Option to convert any image to a normal bump map. Here's a sampling: New for C4D Users: Element 3D V2 let's you import most materials and textures from C4D automatically! This new release is a massive overhaul with many big features. Try it today and let your imagination come to life. This only brushes the surface of what Video Copilot Element 3D can create. From there you can manipulate them using a unique particle array system that can distribute 3D objects into any shape!Įlement 3D also supports your UV texture coordinates so importing and rebuilding your textures is easier than ever. Element 3D allows you to import 3D objects created in Cinema 4D and OBJ into Adobe After Effects. A 3D Object Based Particle Engine for After Effects. Element 3D V2 After Effects plug-ins from is now out.Įlement 3D V2 After Effects plug-ins (CS5, CS6, CC & CC 2014) from is now out.