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

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 > Surface & UV Mapping

Surface & UV Mapping

TEXTURE MAPPING
This adjusts how your texture wraps around your object. There are Box, Sphere, Plane, and per Polygon mapping options under the dropdown.

UV mapping vs. Box
For example, to the left is the difference between the default UV mapping and the Box (Preserve Aspect Ratio) option. The checkerboards are used to show the difference in which they wrap.

UV Repeat

Adjust how many times the the material will repeat. This will tile the material.

UV Offset
Shifts the position of the texture up and down, or left and right.

AUTO NORMALS
This auto-calculates the normals for shading based on a mesh’s geometry. This can be used as a solution to generate smoothing if your model was not able be exported with smoothing groups or normals. This may prove helpful in many scenarios, although it is more efficient to have the normals and smoothing fixed before importing into Element.

Edge Threshold
Adjusts the angle at which auto normals will generate a sharp edge.
UV Repeat Invert Normals
Inverts all polygon normals. For more info and uses for Auto Normals and Edge Threshold see 3D Object Troubleshooting and Exporting 3D Objects for Element 3D.

SUBDIVISION LEVEL
Subdivision Level will multiply the amount of polygons on an object, this also helps when using the deform options and you want a smoother edge. Changing the Edge Mode dropdown to Connected will connect unconnected geometry, this helps when using the deform options as well. Optimize Mesh will combine geometry into larger triangles to decrease polygon count.