How to make a Crystal effect for a logo with AE and or with Element 3d

[Chris Evans]

It looks to me like they created a large comp that basically had a constantly shifting diamond pattern filling it, kinda like fractal noise, but with diamond. It was likely manually created, though I don’t know how, I’d have to play around for a while to achieve something like that. It even looks like it was 3d with different layers farther back to give it some depth.

Then they used that comp as a texture or overlay on top of a colored texture to achieve what you see there. You can use a comp as a texture by setting it in the textures panel in Element 3D and then choosing that as the texture inside the Element 3D UI.

[Kevin Camp]

if you were looking to make that diamond texture in ae, you might be able to get something close using the cell pattern and cc glass effects.

• create a comp, add a new solid and add the cell pattern effect
• for starters, set the cell pattern to ‘crystals’ and animate the evolutions, you can also adjust the disperse and size properties as needed. note you can use the ‘cycle evolutions’ option in the evolution settings to create a loop, which can be handy if you want to render this out to use as a texture in element 3d.
• then drop that comp into a new comp.
• if you have footage or an image that you can use as a reflection map, add that, if not, create a new solid and add fractal noise, defaults are fine, you can make adjustments later.
• to that layer add cc glass and set the surface>bump map layer to be the cell pattern comp, decrease the softness (start around zero), increase the displacement (start around max value) and adjust the height property to get something that starts to resemble the crystal shapes in your example.
• adding the glow effect would help too
• you could also add a levels or curves effect prior to the cc glass effect to get control of the values in the texture that is reflects in the cc glass effect.

It won’t be the same as your example, but it may be close enough for you to use as a texture map in e3d.

Kevin Camp
Art Director
KCPQ, KZJO & KRCW

[Tudor “ted” jelescu]

One way to do it is to use ShapeShifter AE from Mettle. Create a displacement map for the crystal surface using Cell Pattern (with Mixed Crystals). If you need a smooth edge that is not reflective you have to use separate color channels in the displacement map for the crystal surface and the edge.
Then once you set the displacement you need a Glow and a Starglow adjustment layer on top to get all the shiny reflections. Use a Reflection map that has nice rich colors and it’s bright- that will help.

Tudor “Ted” Jelescu
Senior VFX Artist

[Anilio Sweet]

Thank you all for your help.

Does anyone knows if i can make it with element 3d ? I can extrude the logo and than i want the cristal effect on it… or should i combine al off above and than is should use that as a trackmate or a custumeshader or reflection map or somethings?

Becaus the logo needs to be 3d

I still have to try what was mentioned before but i have to do that after work, over 6 hours.

Thanks again for al the help.

[Anilio Sweet]

Thank you for your help and information.

I will try it and see what wil happen.

But another question, the goal is i want to make the logo in crystal, how do i do that?

I have the logo in element 3d extrude

[Kevin Camp] “if you were looking to make that diamond texture in ae, you might be able to get something close using the cell pattern and cc glass effects.
create a comp, add a new solid and add the cell pattern effect
for starters, set the cell pattern to ‘crystals’ and animate the evolutions, you can also adjust the disperse and size properties as needed. note you can use the ‘cycle evolutions’ option in the evolution settings to create a loop, which can be handy if you want to render this out to use as a texture in element 3d.
then drop that comp into a new comp.
if you have footage or an image that you can use as a reflection map, add that, if not, create a new solid and add fractal noise, defaults are fine, you can make adjustments later.
to that layer add cc glass and set the surface>bump map layer to be the cell pattern comp, decrease the softness (start around zero), increase the displacement (start around max value) and adjust the height property to get something that starts to resemble the crystal shapes in your example.
adding the glow effect would help too
you could also add a levels or curves effect prior to the cc glass effect to get control of the values in the texture that is reflects in the cc glass effect.

It won’t be the same as your example, but it may be close enough for you to use as a texture map in e3d.”

I did everyting you mentioned, and indeed it look someway like crystals, soo thank you for tha. But i have difficult wit getting it in element as i use it as a texture map, it stil looks grey and dark, noting crystalize and shine and see true like a normal crystal… But it helped me a lot.
I will look some deeper in element if i can see how to fix this… Thanks a lot everyone