VideoCoPilot Element 3D V2 Preview

[MauricioPC]

Looking good!

-- EDIT --

Sorry about that Hirazi.

So it's a 25 minute presentation by Andrew Kramer on the new features of Element 3D V2. Some nice realtime shaders and fast rendering for motion graphics and other projects.

[Hirazi Blue]

It might be a good idea (but this not directed specifically at you, BTW, more of a general remark) to add a little bit of text (quoted if necessary) to a post consisting of a video only, so the viewer has an idea what to expect when clicking "play".

[Draise]

Has a very.. AE interface eh?

[Paulrus]

Has a very.. AE interface eh?

Was that a joke?

Element is an After Effects plug-in. It's pretty nice for what it does. It's not a cure-all, but quite often it'll get the job done quickly - and that's all a client cares about...

-Paul

[Draise]

haha, yes it was. Yeah, pretty solid plugin. Wish it was an app in itself. ;)

[Paulrus]

It looks like it's pretty close. I just wonder how far he'll want to push it. It's a nice niche product right now. It's not trying to compete with Arnold, Vray, Redshift, etc.... but if it became a standalone, I'm sure users would immediately be asking for network rendering, an API, and so on...

-Paul

[Bullit]

3D applications culture need to learn a lot from the ease of use culture of composition/video industry.

[Hirazi Blue]

Element is an After Effects plug-in.

See, that would have been nice additional info for the OP...

[MauricioPC]

Element is an After Effects plug-in.

See, that would have been nice additional info for the OP...

Come on! I thought everybody knew what Element 3D was!

[Mathaeus]

Yeah it is After Effects plugin, able to import 3d geometry, like obj files. It's able to do some 3d animation inside AE (AE, here = After Effects, not SI Animation Editor ), has some presets for procedural animation. There is built-in Open Gl renderer, having about 10-20 percents capabilities of, for example, Maya or Maya LT Viewport 2. Environment reflections, screen space ambient occlusion, such things. It seems he added some form of ray tracing in latest version. 3d models, of course, are created with something else - also, for look like in videos, I think there are additional maps applied , not only standard diffuse or specular. No need to worry about these additional preparations, because author already offering the additional, "expert 3d" model packs especially for plugin, for good price. Plugin alone is around 150$, each pack around 99$.

Had a chance to see it in real, exact action last year, by one colleague, composting artist. Exact = action has to follow the orders of art director, not built-in animation presets. It was a pretty disastrous, even it was simple stuff. I think, because it is simple for 3d artists, but not really for others. "Simple", this is relative, isn't it. It operates with just ordinary 3d controls, but without viewport interaction (no way to rotate view port in AE). It's all riding on sliders, literally hundreds of them. At least in last year version, HDR environment has to be applied as AE layer, then later loaded in Elements as texture, somewhere deeply in Element's texture hierarchy, then applied back.. somehow.

It was a lot of hype about this plugin last year, I think, mostly because of author's 3d skills and his great examples - but, I don't believe it will go nowhere close to same level of popularity, ever again. On another side, I think Elements still provides a much more compact, easier and faster experience than AE C4d integration, and c4d rendering concepts from 90s.

All in all it's nice and affordable thing, as long it's not pushed so far.

[Hirazi Blue]

Come on! I thought everybody knew what Element 3D was!

Could indeed be, that I am the only one, who never touched After Effects once in his entire life
(and thus doesn't know about its myriad of plugins).
;)

[forton]

Same here,

Every 2 months I decide I have to learn AE for all it's plugins, then I stare at it for 5 minutes and start fusion, I guess I need some kind of nodal interface to feel creative...

[Rork]

I guess I need some kind of nodal interface to feel creative...

You mean....I guess I need some kind of nodal interface to be productive... ;-)