Lightning Fast Animation in Element 3D

Much of what he teaches in this book is linked to digital files that you are supposed tobe able to download from the main site. However, although I emailed the company twiceI was not told how to access these files. Without these files the lessons are much lesshelpful.

Not really impressed! Most of the info you can find free on Youtube tutorials

Lightning Fast Animation in Element 3D [...] is a book intended to get you up to speed with the After Effects plugin quickly while also explaining its shortcomings and some methods around them. My knowledge about Element 3D before this books was very limited. Up to that point all I had done was import a model and apply basic textures. So I had a good idea of what the plugin was but not necessarily how do all the tasks need to complete a full animation. The book does a good job of going through all these task step by step with a good number of images to reference as you follow along. It serves as a nice primer to using the plugin, as Element 3D is not so intuitive that you would want to navigate it without some sort of explanation of how it works. One area of the book I felt was a bit unnecessary was the chapter on modeling. It certainly is a necessary skill to be able to utilize the plugin to its full potential but if you don't know how to model you certainly aren't going to be purchasing Maya(as he uses in the example) just to make your own Element models. Also the modeling demo should have been done in Blender as it is the best free 3D software out there and he makes mention to it several times throughout. The other chapters about prepping models for Element were very helpful though, again, maybe a bit too Maya specific. The rest of the book is very thorough about setting up lighting, texturing, replicators and even shows a few workarounds to areas the plugin falls short. He shows this through practical application of setting up various scenes that should cover the spectrum of most Elements users including examples of Motion Graphics and VFX. Overall this book gave me a great look at what is possible and how things are done in Element 3D. If nothing else this book will tell you if this plugin is the right fit for your workflow before you go ahead and make the purchase.

I'm a video editor and motion graphics professional and when I first saw what element 3d was capable of, it captivated me and I couldn't wait to use it in my own work. I bought it, but soon realized that it wasn't quite the most user-friendly plugin. While there are some small, simple tutorials from Element 3D's creators online, I had trouble becoming proficient in it - especially due to a hectic schedule. With Element 3D, I wasn't able to do very much beyond the simple and it took time to make my work in it with complexity. I found this particular book by Ty Audronis and that gradually changed. I now feel that I am more skilled in Element 3D's use and able to better produce professional-quality works. This book not only satisfied my desire to learn about this intriguing and powerful plugin, but makes me feel like a more desirable freelance motion graphics professional.The nature of 3D/vfx work often takes it to very technical and sometimes complicated depths. The author speaks in a conversational and often humorous tone, which smoothed advancing through the increasingly complex lessons. The book evolves from the barebones basics of how to build with pre-made models to ones built yourself, to using particle replicators, working with 3D text and touching upon using 3D camera tracking to composite Element 3D objects into real footage. It doesn't show you how to blow the socks off of the motion graphics world, but helps get you comfortable with this plug-in - which is what I needed. As we all know, there is no simple button to press to instantly make our work look great. The author however keeps the subject matter easy to digest, dissecting each concept richly. I found that this let me explore the potential of Element 3D more efficiently, without getting as easily bogged down by the nuances and details within the settings and user interface.I definitely suggest this book for artists new to Element 3D and those who want to dive deeper into this plug-in's powerful features! [...]