3D MODELS
Recently I had the opportunity to work with J.J. Abrams on the new Star Trek film to design the Main and End Titles. The project was massive! Over 30 unique credit designs with a single camera flying around space through nebula’s and galaxies. Maybe a few shattered planets too, cause they just look cool in 3D!
I’m actually working on some in depth behind the scenes video to show you some of the work and what went into the sequence. The titles were designed at IMAX resolution and rendered in stereo so everything in the the scenes had to be completely 3D! (and yes I used Element 3D. 100% rendered inside After Effects!)
They even let me go to the premiere… it was kind of insane!
It is always fun to work on challenging sequences and I couldn’t be more thankful for the chance to be part of such a cool project! To hard work and innovation!
If you are going to be around LA tomorrow, I’m doing another presentation at DMALA to talk about this and other cool projects.
Food and drinks plus the Adobe Guys are going to be there too.
http://dmala.eventbrite.com/
Here is a look at an upcoming tutorial using After Effects to create a procedural glass effect with automatic 3D displacement with built-in tools. Plus a possible look at a future Video Copilot plug-in… Win win!
Someone tweeted this cool title animation to me @videocopilot and I was really impressed by the subtle use of atmospheric effects with the Element 3D. Notice the turbulent displacement and smoke effects accompanied by some nice camera work too.
The best part is the sweet behind the scenes video!
I actually reached out to the designer and asked him why he chose to use Element 3D… Here are a few responses:
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“I used Element 3D mainly because it integrates real 3D animation in AE that it is lightning fast.”
“Setting up the camera move and animation for the gears and the tunnel scene allowed immediate, almost final results that was a major time saver.”
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Well…Get that man a Beer! (Disclaimer: no beers were used to influence the opinions at this time.)
What’s interesting is this is exactly the reason I use Element 3D for a lot of my own work.
I can focus on look development and tweak the settings in real-time as I move lights or cameras so you can see what the final result will look like as you fine-tune effects like fog and material settings. True “Compositing Speed!”
Everyone at Video Copilot is jazzed to see our tools being used by so many talented artists and we look forward to future!
In this tutorial we’ll be setting up a simple car rig inside of After Effects with Element 3D. This technique will work well for almost any 3D vehicle model.
Advanced Car-Rig: In the next tutorial we will take a look at a more advanced Rig using expressions to get more realistic results so be sure to understand this initial setup!
Note: Be sure you are running Element 3D V1.6
E3D Tip: If you hold ALT and click on the material light switch, it will solo that material. This way, you can turn off all materials except one.
Here is a sample video for a simple car rig system using Element 3D. With this system you can animate the steering and suspension with a quick setup. Then stay tuned for a more advanced rig later this month!
Btw, these shadows are not real, I just used a black solid with some feathered masking. Although here is a sneak peak at Shadows in Element 3D: V2 these are real shadows.
The next version of AE will include a Free version Cinema 4D Lite!
-Import 3D Models into Cinema 4D Lite & Render inside AE!
-Wow dude, that’s great!
Here are the specs of what is included in the lite version.
Render Cinema 4D Scenes inside of After Effects with Cineware!
-Import & Render C4D Files directly inside your composition like a footage item
-Access to Multi-Pass outputs
-Import Cameras and Lights from C4D Files or use Comp Camera
Currently the lite version doesn’t include some things like polygon modelling or physics engine, but if you already have the full version of Cinema 4D, you can still use the Cineware plug-in!
Other AWESOME new Features in After Effects Next:
-Improved Camera tracker
-Insane Roto-scoping tool!
-Better Resizing with Bicubic Resampling
-Pixel Motion Blur & more!
This is a major upgrade and we’ll let you know about pricing and release date when we find out!
“But Andrew, how does this compare with Element 3D?”
We’re excited! And this will surely keep us focused on making V2 better than ever!
Having Cinema 4D Lite available for free in the next After Effects is awesome for everyone! Plus the cineware plug-in streamlines the workflow between After Effects and Cinema 4D giving you access to raytrace reflections & shadows too! This is a tasty beverage!
And… we also think Element 3D can create some amazing stuff too, like this music video with incredible SPEED and interactivity from an affordable plug-in. We want people to think of Element 3D as a Super-Fast alternative to raytracing and use it when needed! And since every project has different requirements, we’ll do our best to demonstrate the advantages of both tools so YOU can choose the best workflow.
The possibilities are truly unlimited…
BTW: Did you know, ALL of our Model Packs and Pro Shaders already include Cinema 4D versions with textures so you can choose to work in Cinema 4D or Element 3D! Pretty clever 
Here is a really cool music video made by a talented guy named Thorsten Hary. The video features some impressive visual effects and stylized treatments done in After Effects. You can also see how much hard work was put into the video by watching the behind the scenes.
It was also fun to see that he used Element 3D for a lot of the FX too and even our Metropolitan City Pack.
And to top it off the song is pretty good too. Not too shabby!
Next week I’ll be in Las Vegas for NAB!
I’ll be cruising the floor exhibits and then stopping by the Adobe booth to do a couple of presentations on Tuesday and Wednesday and hopefully see some cool new stuff!
My schedule at the Adobe Theater:
- Tues Apr. 9, 11:30am-12:00pm
- Wed Apr. 10, 11:30am-12:00pm
If you are at the show please stop by and say hello, the good news is that I think this one will be recorded and put online at Adobe TV! I’ll try not to suck. No I won’t!!
Also Tuesday morning I’ll be at The Foundry booth to show Optical Flares for Nuke around 10am or so. Lots of fun.
See you there, or see you then!
Element 3D V1.6 is now available! Previous customers can upgrade for free by logging into download system right now.
To purchase Element 3D, please visit our Products Page Here!
View Element 3D V1.6 New Features & Video Demos!
Previous Projects with Expressions: Some Property names have changes which may cause expression links to break. However this change will help avoid expression conflicts in the future now that every parameter have unique names. If necessary all older versions of Element 3D are available in the download section if you need to revert to an older version temporarily.
Please note the updated GPU Requirements that have raised slightly after further testing.
Watch in HD on Youtube, and change quality to 720p to see the detail!
I was not expecting to make such a in-depth feature video but please check out what is possible with the new World Position Mattes and the fantastic 3D Position Utility. Complete feature list and changes will be posted soon, some features didn’t make in this video and will be posted soon!
The theme of this update is better integration with After Effects, better compositing and better control!
Element 3D V1.6 will be available as a FREE update to customers.
To purchase Element 3D please visit our products page!
Us After Effects users have been rolling in Optical Flares for years but now our powerful lens flare plug-in has been built to work directly inside of the compositing application Nuke!
The new plug-in, Optical Flares for Nuke includes many of the same great features as well as some new stuff that connects seamlessly with the node-based workflow.
Of course, getting this plug-in finished has been a massive project that has required major customization, including rebuilding the UI to work on linux and working with Nuke’s 3D space. But we extremely thankful The Foundry and those individuals and studios that helped beta test to get this tool production-ready.
In this tutorial I’ll demonstrate the basic setup of the plug-in and mostly pretend like I know what I’m doing inside of Nuke.
I think I’ll just stick to After Effects tutorials
PRICING: Optical Flares for Nuke is going to be $199.95
The Release date is planned for the end next month!
*Since this is a new product, we do not have upgrade pricing from the AE Version but all After Effects presets made with Optical Flares can be exchanged back-and-fourth between the Nuke Version.
Site Licensing: We are taking pre-orders for Site and multi-seat licenses, please email info@videocopilot.net for information!
If you are near LA tomorrow night please drop by my presentation for After Effects and whatever else is going through my mind! Last year it was great to meet so many of you and see your real faces!
We’re going to talk about some recent title work and some new features of Element 3D V1.6 that will be out soon. One new feature includes the above image for creating an elevation map. Lots of possibilities! Plus I’ll take questions and answers from the audience, always risky!!
Tickets:
Currently there are less than 90 tickets left and it usually sells out pretty fast. This month especially because they have really great prizes and food We’re even giving away several Element 3D bundles too!
DMALA: Tuesday 3-12-2013 At 6:30pm to 10PM
Get your tickets now and save a few bucks!
Just another fun day playing with Trapcode Particular! I basically linked the particle emitter to a Null Object with a wiggle expression then start playing with the turbulence and auxilary particle creation. Then I added some lens textures from Optical Flares and various images in Photoshop. Admittedly it’s been a while since I’ve jumped into Particular with spare time to play around with all the settings since Element 3D usually keeps me pretty busy these days. Fun to break away from making software and just try to be a little creative.
If you want to play around with the project and see my settings you can download below. Just beware the render times can be slow with millions of particles being emitted.
Element 3D V1.6 has some cool new features and a bunch of stability and bug fixes.
One of my favorite features has to be the world position pass which allows you to create a 3D matte for compositing other layers with Element 3D Objects. Since Element 3D and plug-ins like Particular have their own 3D space, getting them to interact can be a bit tricky. But with the World Position pass you can easily combine Particle and stock footage in a snap.
Unlike a normal Z pass the World Position Pass does not rely on camera distance so your matte will stay spatially correct. Think of it as an XYZ-Pass!
With a normal Z-depth compositing you can only place a layer in front or behind objects in front of the camera. But World Position Mattes can be rotated and moved around with ease. A short tutorial will be released to show how easy this feature works and some other new features as well!
Element 3D V1.6 is expected to be released soon as a Free update.
In our recent Explosive tutorial series, I used a paid 3D model for the tanker model that I could not share with the community… SO instead we built a BETTER high quality train that matches the actual scene from the training video that you can have for free!
There are 2 version, clean and destroyed for you pyrotechnic deviants. (Like myself!)
I wish I had this model in the first place! I would have been this excited!
PLUS… we set it up for Element 3D so people can play around with the model in After Effects! And it looks pretty darn good. The tanker has been separated pieces to use with the multi-object mode inside Element to displace the pieces around.
To install for Element 3D: Be sure to place in the My Models Folder:
Documents\VideoCopilot\Models\My_Models
Download Tanker Model — OBJ format with 3D Max file + 4K Textures!
Watch Explosive Tutorial Series
Our new massive training series is now online and it is FREE! Possibly the most advanced tutorial series we have created so you can see what it takes to work on a more in-depth shot. The first hour is compositing in After Effect then we learn to build advanced 3D assets!
Project files now online! Download Now
I just finished recording 3 hours of training for the Explosive Train sequence so while I finish editing that… check out this amazing demo from ILM on the VFX work for The Avengers. 3 Hours of recorded training is probably 1.5 hours after editing out rendering and bad jokes. Stay tuned, it’s a big series.
Here is the breakdown of my next tutorial! Should be fun… and no Element 3D
The 10 Free city After Effects templates included with our new model pack METROPOLITAN are now available on the product download page along with a tutorial for customizing them and optimizing render quality. Just log-in above to your account if you already purchased the pack!
(Sorry for the delay!)
The templates are setup in AE CS5 and will work with CS5.5 and CS6.
Tutorial for Optimizing Element 3D Renders: (Good tips for all Element 3D Users)
The year has just began and already the Element 3D update is available and our MASSIVE new 3D Buildings pack, Metropolitan!
The past several months, have been insane! A life consumed by rooftop-details like air-conditioners, heli-pads and industrial-antennas. Our team worked very hard to push the quality of the buildings to incredible heights and we are excited to finally make it available!
Visit Metropolitan product page now!
Watch Metropolitan Trailer in HD on Youtube
Element 3D:
We’ve also added some serious new features to Element 3D such as Animated OBJ Sequences, Real Time Glow with Chromatic Diffraction. Plus Custom Anchor Point Control, Draft Rendering mode and even ambient occlusion per material. Plus this update is 100% Free, past customers can log-in and download right now!
Watch the Element 3D V1.5
New Feature Video
Free Upgrade to V1.5:
Download Element 3D V1.5
