A GPU accelerated 3D object and particle renderer that lives inside the compositing timeline, putting real geometry, materials, and reflections into a shot without a round trip through a separate 3D package.
Overview
Element 3D solved a problem that motion designers had lived with for years. Putting real three dimensional objects into a composite meant modelling somewhere else, rendering out passes, importing them, and starting again from the beginning every time a client asked for a small change. This plugin renders the geometry inside the composition, on the graphics card, at a speed that makes the change and see it loop practical again.
Model import handles the common exchange formats with their materials and texture assignments intact, so an object built in a modelling package arrives ready to light rather than as untextured geometry. Once it is in, it responds to the composition cameras and lights directly, which means it sits in the same space as everything else in the shot instead of being composited on top of it.
The particle replicator is what most people actually use it for. Take any object and scatter thousands of instances across a shape, a surface, or a custom map, then animate the whole array with the built in animation engine. Flying logos, shattering titles, swarms of geometry, and the entire vocabulary of broadcast graphics fall out of this system in minutes.
Materials are physically based with reflections, refraction, and image based lighting from environment maps, so objects pick up the colour of the scene around them and read as though they belong there. Ambient occlusion, motion blur, and depth of field are all rendered by the plugin rather than faked afterwards.
This build includes the plugin with the full bundled model and material library, licensed so the render watermark never appears. It installs into the compositing application you already have and is available as an effect on any layer.
Feature set
Geometry rendered on the graphics card inside the timeline, so revisions do not require a round trip to a 3D package.
Common exchange formats arrive with materials and texture assignments intact and ready to light.
Scatter thousands of instances of any object across shapes, surfaces, or custom maps and animate the whole array at once.
Reflections, refraction, and image based lighting from environment maps so objects sit in the scene properly.
Objects react to the composition cameras and lights directly rather than being composited on top.
The full model and material library included, with no render watermark.
Changes in this build
Installation
Hardware
| Processor | 64-bit, 2 GHz or faster |
|---|---|
| Memory | 8 GB minimum, 16 GB recommended |
| Graphics | GPU with 2 GB VRAM minimum, 8 GB for large scenes, OpenGL 3.3 required |
| Storage | 6 GB including the bundled libraries |
| Display | 1920 x 1080 or higher |
| System | Windows 10 version 21H2 or Windows 11 |
Package
| Title | Video Copilot Element 3D |
|---|---|
| Version | 2.2.3.2192 |
| Developer | Video Copilot |
| Category | Video Editing |
| Platform | Windows 10 / 11 (64-bit) |
| Package size | 1.12 GB |
| Interface languages | English |
| Release identifier | BS-22321921 |
| Listed | 4 years ago |
| Last rebuilt | 1 week ago |
| Total downloads | 174,576 |
Questions
Yes. It is a plugin and does nothing on its own, so install the host application first.
Yes, the full bundled library ships with the package. Extra packs sold separately are not part of it.
The draft preview quality is lower on purpose. Raise the render setting before judging reflections and occlusion.
Two gigabytes is a working minimum. Heavy replicator scenes with large textures want eight or more.
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