VIDEO COPILOT | After Effects Tutorials, Plug-ins and Stock Footage for Post Production Professionals

Element 3D v1.6 Help Home

What's New

Getting Started

Updates

Element 3D v1.6 Element 3D v1.5

Installation and Compatibility

Installing Element 3D Specifications & Requirements Installing VCP model packs Updating Element from a previous version

Importing 3D Objects into Element

Importing 3D Objects Supported 3D Formats Exporting 3D Objects for Element 3D Exporting 3D Objects from C4D Object Transform and Anchor Point Settings Importing Pre-Fractured Geometry 3D Object Troubleshooting Baked Animation Sequences Exporting Animated 3D Sequences

Texturing & Materials

Building Materials in Element 3D Material Texture Slots Environment Textures (reflection map) Texture Channel Pop-up Material Presets Supported Image Formats Surface & UV Mapping Animated Video Textures Normal Bump Map Creation Minimizing Texture Artifacts Pro Shaders Advanced Material Options Opacity Maps Auto Map Size Limit

Animating 3D Objects

3D Object Groups Particle Replicator Particle Look Baked Animation Options Multi-Object Mode Adjusting the Anchor Point Group Utilities & Null Objects World Transform Animation Engine

Extruding 3D Text & Mask Shapes

Extruding Text Tessellation Options Bevel Options Use Layer as UV Bevel Presets

User Interface (Scene Setup)

Panel Descriptions, Preview, Browser, etc. Adjusting UI Panels Saving Presets Preferences Hotkeys Selecting Atom particle vs Replicator Array Changing the Environment map

Compositing Element 3D

Using Depth Compositing World Position Matte Using a Mask with an Element Layer Custom Layer Maps Using Matte Shadow plane Element 3D with 3D Camera Trackers Element 3D & Lens Flare Obscuration Custom Environment maps

Camera & Lighting

Camera Setup Lighting Controls

Render Settings

Environment Lighting Ambient Occlusion (SSAO) Fog Motion Blur Depth of Field Glow Camera Cutoff Tips for Large Resolution Comps Render Order & Opacity Maps Optimizing Render Settings & Performance

Sharing & Transferring Projects

Transferring Element 3D Projects and Assets Relinking missing files

Troubleshooting

Licensing Problems Model Browser Empty Plug-In Not Opening Render Problems Installer Errors Unable To Find Solution?

FAQ

Home > Camera & Lighting > Lighting Controls

Lighting Controls

You can use After Effect’s built in Lights to Light your scene. There are 4 different lights to choose from, as they all can affect your scene differently. Go to Layer/New/Light to create a new light, and from the pop-up then you can choose what kind of light to use. Element can use up to 8 lights in a scene. There are also built in Element lighting presets to very quickly light a scene, see Render Settings/Lighting.

Light Types
Point
General light with a spherical falloff

Parallel
Light is infinite in a single direction

Spotlight
Cone shaped light that focuses on radial area

Ambient
Lights evenly infinitely. Normally good to use as a fill light at a low level.

Mixing Lights
Mixing all kinds of lights at different intensities help to create more organic and fully lit scenes.