Book Image

Lightning Fast Animation in Element 3D

By : Ty Audronis
Book Image

Lightning Fast Animation in Element 3D

By: Ty Audronis

Overview of this book

<p>Element 3D is a plugin for Adobe After Effects, used to create basic, yet stunning 3D visual effects. Some may find 3D to be tricky and downright complex. Element 3D allows actual 3D models to be created from scratch or exported to Adobe After Effects, and rendered and composited at a high level of quality and impressive speed.</p> <p>This practical guide will lift the veil of mystery around 3D animation. It will teach you everything from modeling, preparing, and exporting from various 3D programs to match-motion, texturing, and complex animations using Element 3D.</p> <p>This book is a comprehensive guide to using Element 3D and is appropriate for users of all levels. It will walk you through the basics of modeling objects for Element 3D. Then, you’ll learn how to texture, light, and animate as well as optimize your scenes for quick render times.</p> <p>You will discover some of the limits of Element 3D, and learn how to break through those barriers to create virtually any 3D scene imaginable. You will also learn how to take advantage of other 3D programs such as Maya and Blender to create content and create stunning abstract scenes in relatively no time, and how to composite 3D animation into motion-tracked live action scenes.</p> <p>By the time you complete this book, you will have all the information you need to effectively create professional 3D graphics using Element 3D.</p>
Table of Contents (18 chapters)
Lightning Fast Animation in Element 3D
Credits
About the Author
Acknowledgment
About the Reviewers
www.PacktPub.com
Preface
Index

Using the right tool for the right job


Element 3D is a great tool for basic 3D. Flying logos, basic special effects, 3D text, and object arrays—these are all great things for Element 3D. Remember, it's still in its 1.x generation. With no physics, ray tracing, fluids, and the severe limitations on object counts, you won't be making "Finding Nemo" anytime soon. Just like a carpenter wouldn't use a skill saw to screw a deck screw in, you shouldn't delude yourself into thinking that now you can make an animated feature movie with a tool for basic, quick 3D.

That said, Element 3D is a quantum leap forward in 3D for compositing software. It allows great-looking (albeit somewhat simple) animations for logos and VFX without having to send your projects to 30 different people. Advertising, television news, sporting events, and indie films/shorts are all great applications for Element 3D. However, now that you have a foundation in animation and modeling, you can make the jump to a full-fledged 3D program fairly quickly (for example, Maya and 3DSmax; remember that Blender is free).