Introduction

Element 3D is a powerful AE plugin produced by the videocopilot organization, supporting an engine for direct rendering of 3D objects in AE. This plugin adopts the OpenGL programming interface and supports direct participation of graphics cards in OpenGL operations. It is one of the few plugins in AfterEffects that supports full 3D rendering features

Software features

Element 3D is a powerful AE plugin produced by the videocopilot organization, supporting an engine for direct rendering of 3D objects in AE.

This plugin adopts the OpenGL programming interface and supports direct participation of graphics cards in OpenGL operations. It is one of the few plugins in AfterEffects that supports full 3D rendering features.

This plugin has the feature of real-time rendering, which means that the rendering results can be directly seen on the screen during the process of creating 3D effects, greatly improving the efficiency of CG operations. In addition, compared to traditional AE for various cumbersome operations in 3D animation synthesis, such as camera synchronization, light and shadow matching, Element 3D allows special effects artists to complete them directly in AE without considering the issue of camera and light and shadow migration. With the built-in Camera Tracker function of After Effects, various complex 3D post synthesis effects can be completed.

Disadvantage: Due to real-time rendering reasons, Ray Tracing is not supported and requires extensive use of environment mapping techniques to improve rendering realism. In addition, it is unable to calculate physical properties such as collisions, rigid bodies, gravity, etc., making it difficult to compare with 3D software with Dynamic capabilities such as Autodesk