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

Final message from the author


First of all, thank you for taking the time to go on this journey with me. Hopefully, this book has done its job and taught you about Element 3D, the methodologies and thought processes, and its applications. As more people learn 3D and more companies (such as Video Copilot) develop 3D applications, the market evolves and grows. You have just made the community one person larger. Help! Teach others, post your new techniques and tricks on message boards, and continue this ever-evolving synergy of the 3D community.

As a parting piece of advice, I'll give you the same line my original mentor (Rick Vertolli at CSU Chico) gave me, "Don't ever create a story around an effect; create your effect for the story!". Seems obvious, but as we learn new techniques and tricks, we have to resist the urge to throw them in for no good reason on a project. If it contributes to the "big idea" of a project, go for it! If it doesn't, store it, guard it; keep it like a child until it's ready to be unleashed on the world. Else, you'll just be known as a one trick pony. Don't stop learning, and happy 3Deity-ing!