Which kind of plugin is Element 3D?

[JamesWhiffin555]

I was thinking it might be an artisan, but it doesn't change the default renderer. So perhaps it's just a standard effect but using openGL to create geometry?

[shachar carmi]

to the best of my knowledge it's a regular effect plug-in, outputting a 3d

render onto a layer.

[Guest · Accepted solution]

Yes, Element3D is a regular effect plugin, not an Artisan or AEGP. It gets the input layer/param data and processes it, then outputs it on the layer it was applied to. The processing stage within the plugin uses its own OpenGL rendering engine, but that is separate from After Effects. The same goes for the UI you open for editing the scene with the "EDIT" button in the AE effect parameter panel. This is basically an own, custom dialog window created using OS-dependent functions that allow manipulating the 3D scene in its own 3D renderer. The output is then flattened at the end of the processing chain back to the output layer.

[JamesWhiffin555]

Fascinating info, thanks Toby. I always thought it would be better if the user could choose how many groups to have instead of the 5 that are available, but now that I know more about plugin development I can see why it's that way.