Subreddit about Element 3D - Video Copilot plugin for Adobe After Effects. Element 3D is a third-party plugin that 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.
It’s hard enough to find parking but why do people have to use up two spots!
Here’s another experiment using Element 3D to simulate shadows for this mid-sized helicopter. Mini-Chopper are Compact and great for traveling! Also great for shadow examples in small spaces.
Element 3D doesn’t do native shadows (yet…) but using some simple techniques I was able to cast realistic looking shadows underneath the helicopter. Sometimes a simple black solid with a mask will work and for more accurate shadows you can even use a copy of the model from a top view.
I even placed colored lights in the scene to match the environment lighting from several angles.
Element DOES have Ambient Occlusion so if you need inner-object shading, don’t forget to use the Ambient Occlusion options to add depth to your scene. See the example below:
I’ll be making some short tutorial tips for this technique and others and remember these work well in other situations besides working with Element 3D, like using particles or stock footage that need shadows to integrate with a scene better.