Element 3D – NEW AE plugin from Video Copilot

[Pat Harris]

Hardly expensive.. Great price for what looks pretty useful tools. I wonder how this will compare to ray trace for things like 3d text

Pat Harris
http://www.CinematicDSLR.com

[Walter Soyka]

I am very excited to see Element released. I think Element will be one of the must-have AE plugins.

Given its huge speed advantage over AE’s native ray-tracer, and given its vastly superior shading and beveling, I think many artists will turn to Element for 3D type over the built-in AE tools unless they specifically need a ray-tracing feature like true shadows, reflections or refraction.

Element won’t do everything you can do with a real 3D app like C4D, either, but since the quality is still high, the tradeoff of flexibility for speed will be a good one for many use cases.

Walter Soyka
Principal & Designer at Keen Live
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
RenderBreak Blog – What I’m thinking when my workstation’s thinking
Creative Cow Forum Host: Live & Stage Events

[Tom Daigon]

[Walter Soyka] ”
Given its huge speed advantage over AE’s native ray-tracer, and given its vastly superior shading and beveling, I think many artists will turn to Element for 3D type over the built-in AE tools unless they specifically need a ray-tracing feature like true shadows, reflections or refraction.”

It will be interesting to see what its animation capabilities are in respect to using it for text.

Proanimator by Zaxwerks has a very innovative GUI (Pose based) that seems hard to beat for Text & logo animations.

Tom Daigon
PrP / After Effects Editor
http://www.hdshotsandcuts.com
Mac Pro 3,1
8 core
10.7.3
Nvidia Quadro 4000
24 gigs ram
Maxx Digital / Areca 8tb. raid
Kona 3

[Erik Waluska]

Yeah, when I heard about the 3D integration in CS6 I thought that’s it for Zaxwerks, game over man! But no, like you said, the capabilities, speed and ease of use still make invigorator/proanimator two of the best options for quick and easy 3D stuff. Looking forward to seeing what Element is all about though. BTW, check out the interview with Zax Dow on motionworks unplugged if you have a chance. He says they’re working on adding raytracing for the next release.

[Tom Daigon]

Yes, I did see that. I also spoke to him at NAB and on the phone a while ago. They have added fragmentation (breaking into pieces) and Ray Tracing to Proanimator. Sounds cool, but of course it will slow things down. And it still is a separate environment within the AE environment. They are keeping the older method of rendering (Phong I thing) , which looks just fine to me 😀

Tom Daigon
PrP / After Effects Editor
http://www.hdshotsandcuts.com
Mac Pro 3,1
8 core
10.7.3
Nvidia Quadro 4000
24 gigs ram
Maxx Digital / Areca 8tb. raid
Kona 3

[Erik Waluska]

OK, I’m stupid – I assumed Roland’s link was to this article from a couple of days ago and didn’t know about that new video. WOW! That’s really cool! I can’t believe how fast it is either. Can’t wait to try it out.

[Walter Soyka]

[Erik Waluska] “That’s really cool! I can’t believe how fast it is either. Can’t wait to try it out.”

That’s the thing — I think that when you need speed without compromising quality, you’ll reach for Element. You’ll trade off some flexibility compared to Zaxwerks or AE ray-tracing.

All these solutions have their place, and that’s why I make the toolbox argument over and over. Screws and nails are both fasteners, but since one or the other may be better for a specific purpose, you keep both a screwdriver and a hammer. If you can get comfortable with multiple tools that do similar things, you’ll be better prepared to deliver a broader range of work.

Walter Soyka
Principal & Designer at Keen Live
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
RenderBreak Blog – What I’m thinking when my workstation’s thinking
Creative Cow Forum Host: Live & Stage Events

[Tom Daigon]

Well just the fact that you can bring in and interact with 3D models (I think fro $250 you get Element, lots of shaders and a bunch of models) makes it invaluable as a tool. No argument there Walter. 😀

Tom Daigon
PrP / After Effects Editor
http://www.hdshotsandcuts.com
Mac Pro 3,1
8 core
10.7.3
Nvidia Quadro 4000
24 gigs ram
Maxx Digital / Areca 8tb. raid
Kona 3

[Tudor “ted” jelescu]

I use most 3d 3rd party plugins in AE and I can’t choose one over the other- Mettle has great stuff, Zaxwerks other great stuff and now Element, with pretty amazing stuff – all working on my AMD/ATI card ;D

I would recommend saving up for all of these – great new features coming on Mettle stuff and Zaxwerks.

Here’s a short test that would have taken me a couple of days to put together, but I did it in a few hours in Element – I hope the Videocopilot guys won’t be upset that I posted this before the 10th:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-m44KQ_2DS8

Tudor “Ted” Jelescu
Senior VFX Artist

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[Tom Daigon]

What you buy is probably a reflection of the kind of work you do. For me, I would get Proanimator first since text and logos are important. Then Element. I dont think I would buy Mettle.

Tom Daigon
PrP / After Effects Editor
http://www.hdshotsandcuts.com
Mac Pro 3,1
8 core
10.7.3
Nvidia Quadro 4000
24 gigs ram
Maxx Digital / Areca 8tb. raid
Kona 3