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Element 3D V2.2 Help Home

What's New

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 Physical Shaders Standard Shaders Texture Channel Pop-up Environment Textures (reflection map) Reflect Mode Subsurface Scattering Wireframe 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

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

Extruding 3D Text & Mask Shapes

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

User Interface (Scene Setup)

Scene Setup Hotkeys Preferences Adjusting UI Panels

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

Physical Environment Lighting Shadows Subsurface Scattering Ambient Occlusion (SSAO) Matte Shadow Fog Motion Blur Depth of Field Glow Reflection Ray-Tracer 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? MacOS Catalina Issue

FAQ

Element V1 Updates

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

Home > Texturing & Materials > Building Materials in Element 3D

Building Materials in Element 3D

Element 3D allows you to create and adjust materials in the Scene Setup to create looks from realistic to stylized. Element has two material renderer types, the legacy Standard Shaders and the brand new Physical Shader system.

PHYSICAL SHADERS

The new Physical Shader system uses the loaded Environment Map to light the object. So as you change your environment, the shader’s lighting will change accordingly. It will use a mix of the scene lights and environment to light the object in After Effects.

STANDARD SHADERS
Standard Shaders is the legacy shader system. This uses the regular Specular and Reflection system and only uses Scene Lights to light the material.

TEXTURE SLOTS

Material slots are where you load PNG or JPEG files to give materials variation. You can use this to give your material or create more realistic reflections. You can drag texture files to the slots or click on it to bring up the T exture Slot Pop-Up .