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!

Watch on Youtube

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.

Here is the final Video in HD

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.

Watch in HD on Vimeo!

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.

Watch in HD on Youtube!

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!

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!