Element 3D: Feature #26

June 29th, 2012

As we count down the days until the release of Element 3D on July 10th, I thought it would be fun to share some of the impressive new features that we have built into the plug-in. I know I have been cryptic about the details of the plug-in but that is because I wanted to save the big surprises for launch!

We think the 3D text extrusion system not only fun to play with but it's unlike anything you've ever used before. It's fast, and easy to use but this is just one of the many cool new features! Stay tuned for many more reasons to check out Element 3D on launch day.

There was a version of the this plug-in that we were almost ready to release last October, it was very impressive and we think it would have been one the most advanced 3D plug-in available for After Effects. Now here we are 9 months later and we hope you understand all the extra hard work!

Andrew Kramer

POSTED:

13 years ago

152 Comments

Sheldon

12 years ago

Hiya! I know this is kinda off topic however , I'd figured I'd ask.

Would you be interested in trading links or maybe guest writing a
blog post or vice-versa? My blog addresses a lot of
the same subjects as yours and I believe we could greatly
benefit from each other. If you happen to be interested feel free to send me an
email. I look forward to hearing from you! Superb blog by the way!

Jeremy Johnston

13 years ago

Element appears to be similar to Zaxerks Invigerator, except a bazillion times better! Just bought invigerator recently and wish I would have seen element first. May get it anyway. Andrew's tuts are the best out there. I appreciate the labor of love. Keep em coming no matter how long between releases. Thanks!

It'sASecret

13 years ago

The titles for "rust", "spin" and "fuse" look wicked. What font is that?

Steffen

13 years ago

Goozeman odf. font

trev

13 years ago

what font did he use

bnkpro

13 years ago

Does anyone have the name of the example font?

Ben

13 years ago

It's now July 10th...I'm not seeing Element available for sale today. Anyone else, or am I just blind?

Ben

13 years ago

My apologies..."NOTE: Products will be on sale in the middle of the day on Tuesday". Since he's on the west coast, that means T-minus about an hour and a half...

Theo K

13 years ago

Oops. "Easily Extrude and Bevel Text and Mask shapes! Wait til you see how it works!" Didn't catch that on the previous blog post. Very exciting!

Theo K

13 years ago

I'll be excited to use the text extrusion capabilities in Element. Will it be possible to extrude vector shapes?

MILTON

13 years ago

what platform support??????? sorry jajaja

MILTON

13 years ago

lo que el soporte de plataforma??????????

BINU

13 years ago

Does it supports Bump maps? BTW Three Cheers for Andrew n Video copilot.

mowmow

13 years ago

you know what you have done to me Andrew?!! you make me Aeddict !!! and i love it !!!

Shishir

13 years ago

DUDE ! AK you are the man .
the people of 3d community and the whole after effects community will be on your site on 10th !!
WE LOVE WHAT YOU DO .
ADOBE LOVES YOU .
A suggestion : please make atleast more than 10 tuts on element 3d .
is it CS4 or CS3 Compatibile ?

Isaias

13 years ago

Bom dia Andrew Kramer

Cara você é muito bom no que faz, eu procurar acompanhar seu trabalho, sempre que eu tenho oportunidade, mas só conheço algumas palavras do inglês, mas a imagem é uma língua universal, enta~fica contente de por ver seu trabalho, um abraço.

Isaias Francisco
Brasil
Osasco-SP

Drednok

13 years ago

When i first saw what people were doing in Cinema4d with 3d text my jaw dropped and wow i gotta learn how to use that. For sometime i thought it was the mainstream public benchmark tool for aspiring graphics designers in 3d text visuals. 2 months ago i finally got after effects and i stumbled upon your site, the tutorials informative entertaining and easy to follow. Today i saw your soon to be released Element 3d plugin and i instantly got a feeling of dejavu.
WOW I GOTTA LEARN HOW TO USE THAT ! as of the 10th i'll be uninstalling maxons Cinema4d

Artem

13 years ago

We don't need Cinema 4D any more. Thanx.

Weezer

13 years ago

So... is there just one feature? Called Feature #26?

Zvi

13 years ago

I am willing to ditch "After Effects" for a new software called "Andrew Effects".

Andy

13 years ago

"There was a version of the this plug-in..."

Typo!!!

Cornel

13 years ago

Will Element 3D have CUDA support? For fast rendering and stuff?

Fremox

13 years ago

Hi Andrew !!
What an awesome plugin ! It seems extremely powerful and pushes the AfterEffects possibilities to the next limit... No need to work in C4D's mograph module to create amazing 3D title sequences with native AfterEffect animations text presets, it's really a great great add-ons to AE !
And despite of the fact i has known the VC's website 3 years ago to with tons of new tutorials every weeks, i'm totally agree with what you said in your first comment.. I really know the work behind each tutorial as i teach C4D myself, and of course with the more and more professionnal quality you and your team are giving to each new product, and the family (i will become dad for the first time too in a few days.. can't wait

the whole community - which couldn't exist without you - should be way comprehensive about the frequency of posts here...
Anyway, congrats an THANKS for all your great stuff !
Plus, i have a technical question about ELEMENTS for you :
I just read a post on the GPU requirements for using correctly the new 3D raytracing engine of AfterEffect CS6 and i must say i am really disappointed as i own a MAC PRO (a great machine but way more expensive than a PC and not always for a good reason !) and the only graphic card which seems to be compatible with my Mac costs more than 1000??? (thanks to the new friendship between ADOBE and NVIDIA !)... Of course i can't buy such an expensive card just for working in the 3D render engine of AECS6, but i really love the power of several new features of it..
So here is my question : will the ELEMENTS' 3D render engine will be compatible with some of the features of AECS6 (like the new "shadow" layer for instance which can display and render shadows cast by 3D extruded layers...) or the default lights and camera of AfterEffect ?
And if yes, would your plugin require specific or minimum technical material (like the AECS6 3D engine which needs a lot of cudas on the graphic card) ?
If your plugin doesn't need a too powerfull video card, it could become a great great add-on in AECS6 for anyone who own a mac without having a NVIDIA card ! I think i could save the life of a lot of people here !

Thanks you again for all and congrats for the plugin and the new coming baby ^_^
cheers from FRANCE !

aBSy

13 years ago

I'm also thinking about why adobe did some slow n heavy 3d feature? why they don't make that like 3d element?? hehehe

Jordan

13 years ago

Andrew, Will this plug-in work on a MacBook Pro, (not the recently released version, but the one prior)????? Please let me know if the laptop work lag and not work correctly... Thanks.

Matt

13 years ago

Really lovely but the extra premade stuff you sell negates the need for creativity, alot of sugar copies to be seen. Great work on the render tough!

Luo

13 years ago

first??on behalf of my schoolmate ??very thank you！??my English very bad??in my there??people called this Chinese English??because I ues Chinesische Gramamatik ????hope you can understand this??all in all very thank you！
Hope you can see this！
future??I bound to do sth buy you produce！
translate software write this ??should very bad！

You are a good man??Good rewards will be！

Alex G H

13 years ago

I had a fit of exitement after seeing this!

bad

13 years ago

Looking GREAT!!!!!!!!!!

ivoxmoviemaker

13 years ago

wow,looks great..the missing cameo

Bob K

13 years ago

Oh .... I see this is Feature #26. Did I miss the first 25, r are you counting backward to the BIG ONE?

13 years ago

my birthday!!! july 10!!! love it!

Bob K

13 years ago

Oh WOW!!!! Thanks so much for what you have done and still do for this community of artists.

Champ

13 years ago

This is Freaking Cool!!! bt can't we integrate huge 3d objects by this.,. (eg: Helicopter cuz i wan't to make a squad of helicopter )

mktnet

13 years ago

عاش??????????ت videocopilot !
VIVE VIDEOCOPILOT ! LONG LIFE TO VIDEOCOPILOT !

OlympiaLogger

13 years ago

By "???????? videocopilot!" you PROBABLY meant "long live videocopilot" but in English it translates into "LIVED videocopilot"......PAST Tense!
I'm pretty sure you didn't mean that!!!

OlympiaLogger

13 years ago

Oops... the little editor didn't like my non ASCII characters.

You're first line with the Arabic characters, PROBABLY meant "long live videocopilot" but in English it translates into "LIVED videocopilot"......PAST Tense!
I'm pretty sure you didn't mean that!!!

mktnet

13 years ago

Sorry for my poor English ! I meant : VIVE Videocopilto !

ahmed

10 years ago

heheh you love it so much

Alan

13 years ago

Nice work.you will earn kajillions with it and then you can start your own version of Starbucks

Alan

13 years ago

Um..Why are you showing feature No.26.

light_thunder

13 years ago

It's excited plug-in althoguth I've often seen it

Constantine

13 years ago

Can Element 3D load objects with shape-baked animation? Thanks.

Craig Paup

13 years ago

Hmmm..."reason 26". Lets see the other other 25! :0)

xandercorp

13 years ago

Andrew, I have somewhat of a serious question. Will this come with tutorials, some easy stuff for 3D as well? I'm purely an AE user and I haven't much experience with 3D, does the plug-in come with a few tutorials on how do a few easy things in 3D, from start to finish?

Thank you,
Alex.

Douglas Horn

13 years ago

I love the multiple texturing. So much better than even what CS6 is offering. And you say it renders fast. That would be icing on the cake.

Shadow Dancer

13 years ago

And also, We have Camera Tracker inside the After Effects, so we're done! VFX is too easy now! Track, Add 3D objects with element, Z-Pass, Normal Maps, Color Correction, And there you have it! lol...

Alessio

13 years ago

hey this looks definitely ****ASTONISHING****
Congratulations!

Shadow Dancer

13 years ago

Its awesome you know! Becuz getting this type of results in 3D programs will take a while, but this is something else...but when Andrew?!

Jason White

13 years ago

How fast is this compared to the 3D Ray Tracing that Adobe put in CS6? My iMac is not compatible with those certain graphics cards needed to take advantage of any acceleration. Will this kick the default 3D Ray Tracer's butt?!?!

Remington

13 years ago

That looks amazing.

I can't wait for the launch!

I'll be away from my main computer but you better believe I'm still going to be a part of the server crash on the 10th

By the way, I'll be away because I'm touring a studio in Washington D.C whose offered me a full time position doing motion graphics. So thank you Andrew Kramer because you are the reason why I got started in the field and am where I'm at today. I can't thank you enough for what you've already done to get me started, and your continued support now that I will be joining the professional ranks with your awesome plugins!

Joshua

13 years ago

sincere question, what happened to optical flares for Nuke?

Josh E

13 years ago

hi this is such a cool plugin, keep it up vcp

Andrew Kramer

13 years ago

hi this is a really cool plugin

Ivan

13 years ago

Dear Andrew,
here's an idea, what do you think what would happen if you made another blog update tomorrow, with a big title Element 3d is going to be even better! So we decided to add few more great features but it will take some time, so I hope everybody will be so exctited on new reallise date 10th september 2012! Hehe or something like that, I think that would be great! And then of course you would say just kidding here's a new tutorial or something hu hu ha ha

Gustavo

13 years ago

I have only one question ???. this product is sent to Latin America or Uruguay will only be downloading online?

thewalkingneo

13 years ago

I like that words:"It`s fast"

Matt

13 years ago

Andrew and company, I was just looking at your Twitter Spoiler, and the interface for Element looks so much more user friendly(novice friendly)
than any 3d program I've used!
AWESOME, just AWESOM!

Matt

13 years ago

Sorry...spell check is broken.

Jenson

13 years ago

DAT FONT! i need it

13 years ago

wow, very exciting!!! teary eyes!

moldy

13 years ago

just in time for my daughters 4th birthday!

Joe

13 years ago

Show us MOOOOOORRRRREEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Nuno

13 years ago

Seems very promising!

What will be the minium specifications in order to run this plugin smooth?

ImanVFX

13 years ago

Is The Element 3d has a Shatter Option

Andrew Kramer

13 years ago

Not in version 1. But you will be amazed at what Element can do with a pre-fractured 3D object. You can use the free Blender program to pre-fracture OBJ files. I use Cinema 4D and 3D max too. We are also including a few useful objects that are pre-fractured to play with.

Peter

13 years ago

Can't wait for this! Holy frickin' crap, this will be awesome!!!

Btw, quick question - WIll m pc be able to run this? I'm on a laptop with an Nvidia GT 555m graphics card - I can run 3Ds Max fine with minimum to no performance drops, so I think I should be able to handle this, right?

Matthew Sabia

13 years ago

Oh my god... Can you guys make a plugin tat is NOT awesome???

Theo K.

13 years ago

The new release looks truly amazing. A real problem-solver and creative asset. I cannot wait to buy this from you.

R-CANE

13 years ago

I'm gonna lay a cushion on my desk so I don't bruise the underside of my jaw on July 10th!

Griffin

13 years ago

Hey Andrew, thanks so much for everything you do! I cant wait for Element 3D, but i just have one question. I make unprofessional movies and i am wondering: should i get the optical flares bundle, or element? I definitely would use Element's text extrusion the most, but everything looks good. do you have a preference when it comes to the amount of uses, or amount of features compared to the prices of the plugins? Thanks SO MUCH!!
O and P.S. anyone can reply if you have an opinion! thanks!

Eric

13 years ago

I was beginning to wonder if you we're just teasing us with this whole plugin. As you mentioned, I was expecting this plugin to drop many months ago. However now I am glad that you decided to wait, it seems that you have had a final product for some time now but I'm sure you kept thinking of more and more features to add in. Smart move mister Kramer, smart move (especially if you are trying to crush the competition, seeing as how you already have the best flares plugin, hey why not kick the crap outta some obj's to). This plugin looks like, from what I have seen, to be one of the best and most versatile plugins for after effects yet. This is going to be an amazing addition to my AE arsenal. This will stream-line so many effects that really could only be achieved in a 3d program. I super pumped for this plugin! I am excited to see what the future has in store, keep up the good work over there at the VC Labs.

Calla van Loggerenberg

13 years ago

Hey Andrew! I must say, your video you released a few months back has SOLD me already! But I do understand why you have decided to hold back and extend the release date... Ofcoarse Elements 3D would have been very powerful then, BUT instead you have decided to perfect your craft in your own product. Needless to say, I'm sure your plug-in will be even better than the sneak peak we had a while back

. Question though, will the new User Interface be as streamline as Optical Flares' interface? Or even more user friendly?

Greets from South Africa!!

Badhon

13 years ago

amazin, mad to no about how this text was created.....

Tater_tot

13 years ago

I can' wait!

Thanks to all of you for putting so much work into this thing!

DJIGIT

13 years ago

Thanks Andrew, cant wait to see this Element!

Jorge Rodiles

13 years ago

HOW MUCH IT GONNA COST???? $$$$???

Austin Bollinger

13 years ago

As someone who doesn't have time to learn real 3D, I absolutely can't wait!

Muhammed Usman

13 years ago

this looks great.... i should tank u Andrew coz evrifin u i kno in after effects u tot me.....
dis looks great.........

grycik

13 years ago

good price,good results ...I hope that my PC render this things

Anybody know this cool font ? .)

Qbs

13 years ago

will this work with NVIDIA GeForce GT 120 (Mac Pro 4,1)?

Richard Lee

13 years ago

I would like to ask if element 3D can be matchmoved to live footage? And does it generates dofferent render passes for color correction tweaking? Thank you!

Martin

13 years ago

what i'm wondering is, will this plug in only work for CS5 and above?

James

13 years ago

This is gonna be awesome...

Waysh

13 years ago

Holy...Andrew Kramer you're killing me with this. <3

DeviousBeats

13 years ago

How is this plugin going to handle UVs and such? Like with the text above for example, does it automatically map the objects or will it include tools like 3DS's Unwrap UVW modifier and all that good stuff?

John

13 years ago

HURRRRRRRY! I bought C4D just for this damn plug-in! I have diarrheal anticipation.

Jason

13 years ago

But.. This works with After Effects. Not C4D. I mean, the models can be C4D or OBJ.

Throb36

13 years ago

This is really nice. You've done a much better job at incorporating 3D into After Effects than Adobe has. And it doesn't require a specific video card. High-Five!

Dave

13 years ago

Sorry if this was covered somewhere already in the thread. How, or will the elements coming out of...element interact with the new raytrace renderer?

Austin Thomas

13 years ago

Man this plugin is going to be sooo useful! Thanks Andrew!

JDH

13 years ago

The Element 3D Feature that Andrew shared with us is #26. What happened to 1 - 25?

Come on Andrew you're teasing us now!

jason

13 years ago

hey this is pretty sweet! im so excited! when it comes out the whole internet is gonna be buzzing!

grim

13 years ago

Yeah, well, does it do 4D extrusion?

sunil thapa

13 years ago

i know it will be a new avatar
of after effects........

Rosa

13 years ago

I am so excited about this release. Congratulations on the team for doing such a fine job! All that hard work is plainly evident in what little we've seen already. I have no doubt this will be a run-away hit. You guys rock!!!

Crushkd

13 years ago

Okay, Andrew, a little marketing tip here: ALWAYS give prospective consumers of your product a price range within the $50 high/low margin for software. As $50 is the sweet spot to give the customer an idea of how long he would have to save for an item prior to release or have to purchase after. Hence the reason why Apple, Microsoft, and Sony (and the list goes on)factor their releases around holidays because people have saved on top of their "disposable income" (dont know what idiot made that term up)

So bottom line, Andrew...throw us a bone on what the price range is. It'll help you and us.

Thanks

Chuck Norris

13 years ago

Hi, i'm Chuck Norris and i approve this plugin.

marc

13 years ago

Andrew!! is that texture a REAL material, a bump, or a displacement map? Does it really work as fast as you shown the first time?

Griffin

13 years ago

the "spin" one looks like a real texture, but the "ice" and "fuse" look like bump maps but im probably wrong...

Daniel

13 years ago

you Had me at, your creating a new plug in

Youssif

13 years ago

Please say its Available for cs4 as well, because i don't have 64-bit to run cs5 or cs6, please

((

Tobi

13 years ago

Hi, Andrew said it's available for CS3 and above

xandercorp

13 years ago

Andrew, show us some OBJs in AE, those should look jaw dropping!

Mansooryan

13 years ago

Amazing ... I liked the Ice one

REYO

13 years ago

I thank GOD for your product success and for you and your Team Hard work .

Chris Torres

13 years ago

Adobe should pay you a big fat chunk of cash for making their product more appealing and useful.

elyas askarpoor

13 years ago

u are best VFX supervisor
u are best professor
i like u

paul

13 years ago

andrew your going to reply to this thread too

Dniel

13 years ago

Dios existe!!!!
Lo quiero ya....

Eres el mas grande, felicitaciones

Jacob Behunin

13 years ago

This is truly stunning! I love the UI, looks like a full blown 3D software package.
Awesome awesome awesome!

Jacobbehunin.com

Tarush Vig

13 years ago

Is Element 3d able to do things other than just particle systems?

Max

13 years ago

Hey Andrew it looks amazing. I was wondering will element 3D accept and react with optical flares

Zech

13 years ago

This is nice! When are your amazing presets going to be compatible for CS6?!

lakekover

13 years ago

Absolutely awesome! I can't wait! This plugin seems to have so many possibilities that its unbelievable. Absolutely just, what can I say? SOOO COOOOL!!! That sure does beat AE cs6's 3D text. The main thing is I think that Element will be very very fast! (cs6 is very very slow at rendering 3d extrusion) This is just a really nice tool for AE! July 10th, can we wait?!

Christian Micheal

13 years ago

Ok. One???.this is very impressive and I???m so looking forward to buying the plug in. Two???..I???m working on a project that will be finished tomorrow and I sh*t you not??????THAT 3D text is EXACTLY what I need to finish it off :0( lol (I???m not too good with 3D programs)
Oh well oh hum??????.heres to using the almighty plug-in in the next project.

I???m sure your hard work will pay off guys???..I own ALL of your products bar Film magic Pro and they are all truly magnificent. Maybe I???ll order that at the same time as the 3D plug in and have a full hand :0)

kamal98

13 years ago

WOW this is simply amazing this will really change how i work in 3D...cant wait..

Brandon

13 years ago

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JQCP85FngzE

Jared

13 years ago

Exactly

Isaac Myers

13 years ago

Well said

Tarush Vig

13 years ago

Can you integrate these 3d elements with camera footage?

Darren

13 years ago

This should be well worth the $9.99...........

Bocki

13 years ago

LOL? Are you crazy? I would give even 500$ xDDD

kamal98

13 years ago

hmmmm i am willing to pay a hundred $100.00 thats a fair price i think.

Tater-tot

13 years ago

What?? 100? are you joking? This thing should be 200 and that would be a very good price!

Christian Michael

13 years ago

I would rather pay $100 BUT agree with Tater-tot. My guess is it will come in around $249 give or take a few which will be a bargain at that. Although remember guys....we could be shooting ourselves in the foot by talking price BEFORE its release lol

Ahmed Akmal

13 years ago

Hey, AK kind of mentioned the price in a previous blog post, but i wont say how much

Christian Michael

13 years ago

@Christian Michael. Did someone say $249? I heard a $249...and the release price was......****Drum Roll Please***** $249! Give that man a free OBJ jelly teddy (in Pro shaders Metal_rust_03) :0)

Geoff Burns

13 years ago

Can I just say, that you're Marketing on this release has been top notch! Tons of teasers! Great job...the quality looks amazing, just like every other VC release! Congrats!

personalfx

13 years ago

This is going to revolutionize motion graphics! I will pay double if I can have it 1 day before anyone else

waldo

13 years ago

WOOW!!! This look amazing!! This plugin will be the best plugin!

zhoule

13 years ago

feature #26 mmmh, how many features does have? waiting for more informations

aBSy

13 years ago

wow,,, so how long it takes to render???

Z23 Studios

13 years ago

Video Copilot staff! I hope you know that this plug-in is going to change EVERY THING in the 3D World!!! I CAN'T WAIT~!!!

Graham

13 years ago

Andrew,

What are your expatiations???s come launch day? Are you putting your team on the map with Red Giant? Could this be the best plug-in ever created for AE? As a fan it would interesting to hear a different perspective.

Cheers

Graham

13 years ago

*expectations

Wilson

13 years ago

Set a price affordable for everyone to buy and you will not see your program being used without people have purchased.
It is better to win the amount.

Jay

13 years ago

Can't you wait until the end of September? I want to enjoy the summer before being locked into my dark studio!
for months on end 8) Just kidding.

Alldin Dauti

13 years ago

I cant believe it, this gonna be best VFX summer!

Wilson

13 years ago

What this plugin has an affordable price, so instead of people trying to crack, everyone will buy. When setting the price, think about winning the quantity.

I see many people using the optical flares without paying for it.

My suggestion would be U $ 99.00. I think everyone will want to buy your plugin and not using a pirated version.

Wilson
Studioflason.com
Brazil

Bob Orlic

13 years ago

I am counting the days! Can I pre-order this now?

listowel adewale

13 years ago

is too hard to wait but i will

hari

13 years ago

man I can wait for this.

Anderson Rohr

13 years ago

11 days remaining for the release.
So, can we wait guys? For me, every day have more than 50 hours (too slowly)

Once again, congratulations for your hard work Video Copilot!
This plugin is gonna take my works to the next level!!

Thank you!
http://youtube.com/AndersonRohr

Shawn

13 years ago

Looks great as I knew it would. I notice that in each example the letters have multiple layers. Is it possible to have just one. For example : the word ICE has a nice ice-like texture - then it becomes smooth - not would it be possible to keep the thickness the same and have the rough icy texture be seamless across the entire surface? Thanks.

Shawn

13 years ago

Oops - my droid decided to insert the word NOT - the second to last sentence should read: would it be possible to keep the thickness the same and have the rough icy texture be seamless across the entire surface?

Andrew Kramer

13 years ago

You can choose 1-5 bevel layers.

Shawn

13 years ago

Thanks for the reply!

Sanket

13 years ago

Wow....
Looks great...
Video Copilot always rocks....
Beautiful....

Arman Khan

13 years ago

I love it very much. This will be best ever birthday gift for me.

Thank you for releasing this great feature on 10th July.

AniMajik

13 years ago

If this is the 5% part, then the other 95% must be freakin' fantastic!
7/10 is in my remindner list!

Shahrokh

13 years ago

That`s great
you said 3D text is maybe 5% of the plug-in capability and it is awesome
please show us another features

Brandon Goetz

13 years ago

How does it compare to CS6 extrusion? Any faster?

Bockiej

13 years ago

Render with openGL. Faster than raytrace in AE CS6.

aBSy

13 years ago

i hate AE CS6 raytrace engine,,, Elemet is better 100 times better then AE CS6 3d text.

Thorsten Meyer

13 years ago

I need to call some of the Models I work with that we shoot some footage and combine real live footage with Elemet 3D.

Thanks!
Thorsten
http://dreamridiculous.com/

Thorsten Meyer

13 years ago

I can't wait for Element 3D to be officialy released!

Thanks!
Thorsten
http://dreamridiculous.com/

Orange

13 years ago

Impressive！！
Seemed you guys worked much on the texture?i can figure out that the textures on the front/back & bevels are different.
great job.
BTW,does that mean i could delete the CINEMA4D from my computer?aha

jack trollson

13 years ago

not that impressive i thought! (just trolling

)

Mehmet

13 years ago

No no longer!!!!!!!!

erel96

13 years ago

This was made entirely with Element 3D?!?

I find it hard to believe. But if it is, then it's TOTALLY AWESOME!!!
BTW, what font is that?

Jamiel Banda

13 years ago

Interesting, will it be casting shadows on footage in the background? Would be interesting if it did

Jay

13 years ago

It's finally HERE?!

vivek kukreti

13 years ago

great product jaldi launch karo

Mikeof7

13 years ago

My CyberPowerPC Zeus 4000 should arrive on the same day!
Talk about a perfect storm.

Daniele

13 years ago

Awesome! Congrats to all VideoCopilot staff!

Vinay

13 years ago

Come Fast 10july

We Can't wait

Mikeof7

13 years ago

OMG...Please take my $150 PayPal transaction as a retainer.

LouisCarnage

13 years ago

So excited about rendering RF sim in AE

Zack

13 years ago

Wow, this was seriously created just with Element?! It's difficult to create something as detailed as that in a 3D program! I think I might start using Element instead of 3D programs for title sequences.

What time on July 10th will it be released? I want to be at my computer hitting refresh repeatedly until the post comes up. Midnight? Is that relative to Pacific Standard Time? Are you going by cell phone time, or your own personal watch?

Farshad

13 years ago

wow
Can't wait
Very professional

Biolynk

13 years ago

Can't wait...
D-11
Looking GREAT.AMAZING

Joel

13 years ago

Looking forward to the promo video and THEN!! a tutorial and THEN!! I will probably buy this. maybe. most likely....more of a yes then a no. well see. lol jk cant wait guys.

Melle

13 years ago

Wow, you guys haven't posted anything for weeks. When it comes to releasing new products we get something every day. I miss the old videocopilot from 3 years ago. I know everything is getting way more professional, but as one of the first followers I miss what videocopilot was once all about. I understand it in some way, but I'm just comparing to what it was like before.

MARCO

13 years ago

3 YEARS AGO...PFFFFF. TRY CREATIVE COW....BEFORE VIDEOCOPILOT EVEN EXISTED. BUT VIDEOCOPILOT IS LIKE THIS IMMORTAL ENTITY THAT HAS ALWAYS LIVED AND NEVER WILL DIE. UNTIL ANDREW MAKES A DIGITAL COMET SO AMAZING AND REALISTIC THAT IT WILL ACTUALLY BLOW UP THE EARTH. AND WE WILL ALL HOP ON OUR DIRT BIKES AND HEAD TO THE HILLS LIKE IN THAT MOVIE DEEP IMPACT.

tonio

13 years ago

"way more professional" is an understatement - 3 years ago, it was mainly tutorials, and basic plugins / scripts. (which were awesome BTW) Now were getting full blown plugins which require way more work. Not to mention with each plugin, there will be a bunch of tutorials for it. By doing this, VideoCoPilot has distinguished itself from just tutorial sites like aetuts. Well played Andrew!

Jim

13 years ago

I'm with Melle on this one. I remember religiously coming to VCP and seemed like there was a new tut every week (perception, of course that isn't reality). Point was, I came here to learn, not wait three months or more for a new tut. I don't need it to have production value through the roof, just teach me something useful in a fun, easy to follow manner. I understand why AK would want to make it evolve and be better. And it has, but at a cost. Seems there's too much going on in one package: Blogs, tuts, plug ins, Forums, etc. Make life easy for yourself, pick one thing and stick to it, and make that thing the best you can make it. Coca Cola thought they needed to improve their formula- How'd that work out for 'em ?
Nothing but admiration and respect, despite my critical thoughts.

sebastian

13 years ago

did anyone ever think that maybe they have been low on tutorials lately because they have been dishing out allot more products and Andrew has had more and more work to do ever since he started the website

Andrew Kramer

13 years ago

Hey! It's true, I haven't been able to make as many tutorials over the past 2 years but I really want to be more active! They require a lot of work and I just want to show people cool new things so it's not a matter of just "throwing" one together cause it's Monday. I make them because I love to share cool tips and techniques that I've learned or that inspire me. That's why I also make occasional blog videos because I get excited about something new and we just make it!

The other thing some people may not know is that I do professional work for TV and Film as well. Just in the past year I have done several Title sequences for TV Shows like Fringe, Person of Interest and the film Super 8. I also do a Visual Effects work on these shows as well. In fact on super 8 I did over 100 VFX shots... that was crazy!! But I loved it.

In addition to that you may have seen a fun iPhone App called Action Movie FX that let's people add cool visual effects to there video like a missile exploding or car flipping. Designing visual effects was a major challenge since they have to work for everybody. We built some amazing technology that has been really fun and well received.

I also do a lot of writing. I write scripts, treatments. Short stories... It's a weird thing but I just get lost in it.

In addition over the past year we have been working on Element 3D along with several other plug-ins that we think are ground breaking and innovative. I'm passionate about pushing things to the next level. I realized that I don't like to do things half-baked... it's kind of a curse sometimes but I want things to be amazing and not just pretty good.

Plus I have my family which is kinda the best thing ever. My wife and I have 2 girls and a boy on the way (any day now!). It's fun and our oldest (4yrs) spends a lot of time drawing stuff and we have this game where I give her something to draw like a "jungle gym play set". Then she says "that's too hard" and I say, start with the slide. "OK, no problem", then make the ladder and then the monkey bars etc. She has become much less afraid of bigger things as well. I literally work the same way, when you see an amazing visual effects shot that has tons of 3D and layers, it can be overwhelming but if you break it down and do it little by little it is much more manageable. Now when I'm not with my kids, I think "it's pretty quiet, they must be getting into something!"

I think the natural place for Video Copilot as we see in the movies and motion design community is more 3D but hopefully inside of After Effects. 3D opens up a lot of new places we haven't explored (intentionally) that will soon be possible with Element and ideally bridge the world of 3D without the steep learning curve you have with traditional 3D programs. 3D has always been regarded as too complicated or out reach but with Element we're making it much more attainable.

All in all, It's a balance, and not always a perfect one. I think it's important for me to keep one foot in the professional ring so that I can continue to push my knowledge and learn new things and hopefully that will translate into tutorials, plug-in, etc.

Another idea I have been pondering is that creatively I've learned that the better you get at something the longer it takes to do it. That may not make sense at first but trust me it is! When you know better, you can't ignore mistakes, your attention to detail goes off the charts and even when you learn to do something faster you pay attention to other details and it ends up taking longer. What is going on!! I definitely could explore this idea further another time because it blows my mind!

The other thing I dare say is that if anyone feels that they are being held back on learning something because I haven't made a tutorial lately, I would say don't let that stop you! There are many great ways to get better as an artist and they don't necessarily require you to know all the shortcuts and buttons in a program. They come from experience and DIVERSITY! For examples, learning to shoot with cameras and lenses may not seem directly related to After Effects but if you become proficient with shooting it will actually make you a better compositor. You'll know how cameras are supposed to work, how light works, colors and even how the camera moves so you can recreate it more realistically.

I look for inspiration everywhere because you never know what might inspire your next project.

Chris Francis

13 years ago

Well said andrew! i hope this guys realized that its not easy to give tutorials everyday heheheh...or forgive them andrew maybe their just a kid...

Nathan

13 years ago

I agree completely with Andrew. Honestly, I'm only sixteen but would still say that I'm pretty advanced in After Effects to point where waiting on a new tutorial from Videocopilot wouldn't really make a difference. I'm so thankful for all the tutorials that Andrew has made and anyone that believes that you can only learn from watching his tutorials needs to sit down and just experiment. I started being dependent on the tutorial videos but for the past year I have developed my own methods for achieving similar effects or different workflows when attacking a VFX shot. Andrew has really opened up my ability to edit and made me so interested in After Effects. From watching the tutorials, I learned the fact that there isn't a set way to do something. Often times, I would see the sample video and guess as to how it was made, and watch the tutorial only to see that Andrew took a different approach. After Effects allows for such diversity that once you understand the program (which is what Andrew's tutorials taught me) it becomes more difficult to think of a new effect than to merely copy one you've already seen. Most of the tutorials on Videocopilot can serve as a way of learning how to tackle a portion of an entire VFX shot. I can honestly say that I've never made a person disintegrate like in the tutorial but instead it taught me simply how pre-composed layers work which was something I didn't understand at first. Also, I never had to use a lighting strike in a video but the tutorial taught me how to build an atmosphere which did come in handy for other projects I worked on. Rather than waiting on a new tutorial, I just check back now periodically while also exploring my own techniques and recently I've been learning photography which surprisingly has had a bigger impact than I expected on my videos and how I film.

Gregory Cusick

13 years ago

This product will add an extra dimension to After Effects... literally! (Ok, technically half a dimension)

The techniques in the tutorials on this site can be used in many different ways other than the examples given.
People sometimes forget that for Andrew to give this kind of training for free is a kindness and not our entitlement.

Chris Francis

13 years ago

your right gregory!

Borack Oboma

13 years ago

dude are you serious? show some flippin APPRECIATION. I cant think of hardly ANYONE who has contributed so much to the vfx community FOR FREEEE!! Andrew is frekkin hero. Over a HUNDRED TUTORIALS ALL FOR FREE, a full set of BASIC TUTORIALS FOR FREE. Tons of free preset packs, stock photos/textures and the list goes on and on. FOR FREE! And you have the nerve to complain? wow, why dont you go sign up on lynda.com or vtc and pay a nice monthly subscription fee to learn some basic crap. How humble of Andrew to even take the time and respond to your selfish ass. Wake up man!

ELjaroni

13 years ago

Space Dolphin! Andrew Kramer taught me
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rUiuUdS31gw

DevilDude63

13 years ago

I too have been coming to this site since its birth and I imagine that in those days AK was like many others that post AE tutorials - too much time, too many cool features not to share and not enough money. Unemployment\Underemployment gives people tons of time to 'play' with software to find all of the cool ways of doing things.

When you start with zero tutorials, it's easy to pump them out quickly but as you build your library it gets harder to show new things that haven't already been done. If you have watched the massive and impressive list of tutorials on here you know that it's true - how many times has Andrew referred back to previous tutorials or told us flat out 'it's basically the same as....'?

Early on all of the tutorials were completely contained within the 'walls' of AE's toolset but as time passed we started seeing tutorials that are dependant on having plugins like Particular and 3D programs. Some people complained about it but it's evolution; you too should have evolved to the point where you appreciate that Andrew is not only showing you AE but the entire pipeline involved in making great SFX shots.

Here's the rub - as Andrew built the site and developed the tutorials and started releasing 'in house products' for sale to us it got noticed. That got him jobs actually working in the industry and he might even have started making some money. Personally, I couldn't be happier for him in this regard and you should be too because a lot of people would have said 'forget the website, I've got more important things to do than create more free content for people who complain about it'. Andrew didn't do this and you should be as grateful for this as I am.

Working on SFX for production companies, developing new product for sale to (omg) make some money and creating tutorials all demand time. To help with this the VC crew has grown - it's no longer the "Sam & Andy AE Video Blog". With every employee that gets added there's more time that comes out of AK's day. I'm not saying he has to hold the hands of his employees but when it's just you doing everything you know how things are coming along. Now he has to spend time worrying if X got this done yet or if Z figured out how do that let alone worrying about Y calling in and W quitting entirely. Add to this his family that didn't exist in its current form in the beginning and you'll quickly see that Andrew is spending 37 hours a day trying to balance everything. How many 37 hour days are there in your week?

If you have learned anything from the tutorials (as opposed to step-by-step following exactly what is shown) you have received the equivelent of a community college class in AE FOR FREE!!! Better than that - you've gotten everything almost as soon as it's released by Adobe and you can't do that in a real school. Schools have to develop a curriculum and submit it then wait for it to be approved and implemented so you end up with current classes teaching old versions of software. The day AECS6 came out - maybe before - there was a tutorial here on it. And you're not learning it from a stuffy old professor that 'remembers when'; you're not sitting in a classroom with a bunch of nose-picking dweebs that can't wait to get home and play WoW or Farmville; you don't have to commute back and forth to a class you've paid $$$$ for - instead you have Andrew and his wonderful wit teaching you cutting edge stuff with every tutorial all the while keeping it somewhat 'retro-friendly' for those of us (myself included) that don't plop out the money every time ADoughMe puts out new releases or worse, the half revision level releases (5.5, 6.5, etc). NOW HOW MUCH WOULD YOU PAY?

Be glad that Andrew hasn't moved all of this stuff to YouTube or someplace else where you'd have to subscribe and actually (omg) pay for this invaluable knowledge. Expand your learning to include 3D programs or maybe compositing or maybe take some time to learn more about Photoshop - there is a ton to learn beyond AE if you truly want to work in SFX. If you did that you'd be where a lot of us are - spending time learning the other stuff to the point where the time between tutorials here seems like seconds instead of months.

And above all - Pray that Andrew isn't swallowed by a Red Giant!!!!

Niclas

13 years ago

Can I pre-purchase somehow and download at 00:01 ??

Niclas

13 years ago

TAKE MY MONEY NOW VIDEOCOPILOT

Siso

13 years ago

WOW, amazing! Im looking for it.

ArashShadeh

13 years ago

Looking GREAT! Can't wait to try it out.

TheMysteriousMrM

13 years ago

Shut up and take my money!

OlympiaLogger

13 years ago

I was all psyched about CS6, but this really is Above and Beyond.

You're in the zone where Adoughbe is drooling and licking it chops.

Remember Kramer, this WAS Mark's office:

http://bit.ly/LXFjgo

Now he has a Blog and a Non-Compete that may never go away!

Tutorials

155. Animated Polygon

Create a stylized polygon animation using time displacement

152. Sci-Fi Weapon FX

Create a variety of futuristic weapon FX

Blog Show

BLOG SHOW: Making of Payment Plan

Check out the new Blog Show featuring the most in-depth behind the scenes footage for our recent short 'Payment Plan'. This blog show includes: Original Rough-Cut with Alternate dialogue Additional VFX additions Art of Hitting Sam in the face Workflow Tips

View All Blog Shows

Plugins

Stock Footage