This is a little pack providing alternate icons for XFrog for Cinema 4D as well as Remotion‘s SuperTracer and SuperVoxels plug-in. The key point here was to create icons that match the visual style of the standard program icons, superseding the old icon style used by the plug-ins, and in turn achieve a more pleasurable and consistent appearance in custom toolbars and the Scene Manager. To use them, simply overwrite the icon images in the res sub-folders of the plug-ins.

XFrog & Remotion Icon Pack

Les Blocs Vert is a set of Cinema 4D files containing several models of plants. Most of them are actually from a time when I used to dabble in L-Systems with L-Parser (for DOS!), meaning they are 10 to 15 years old. Some of them look okay, some a bit strange, but I thought they might be useful, regardless. I’ve prepped them up with presets for the Element 3D plug-in from Video CoPilot, so you can use these files inside After Effects.

To use the models, unzip the files after the download and copy the Les Blocs Plants folder into your Element 3D model library. On Windows this is the Video Copilot\Models folder inside your user account’s My Documents folder.

Les Blocs Vert

Les Blocs is a set of Cinema 4D files that can be used to produce buildings based on regular tiles or bloc(k)s similar to the popular game Minecraft. To aid this process, they have been rigged with XPresso and make good use of MoGraph functionality. Since the Element 3D plug-in from Video CoPilot is able to use the files, you can use these files inside After Effects. To help you getting started even if you are not an active user of Cinema 4D I have provided a package with examples based on these templates that can be used immediately. It contains all the models illustrated in the pictures.

While only one variant is illustrated in the images, many of the models come with different material setups for night and day situations or alternate colors. In addition the initial Appetizer package is still available and contains the following models:

To use the models, unzip the files after the download and copy the Les Blocs folder into your Element 3D model library. On Windows this is the Video Copilot\Models folder inside your user account’s My Documents folder. Please refer to the included PDF file for detailed instructions.

Les Blocs Appetizer

Les Blocs Example Buildings

Les Blocs Standard Templates

Note: The above downloads only contain the basic setups and the examples as already converted polygon models. If you make a donation of 15 Euro or more to support this site and my others, you will be sent the actual parametric Cinema 4D files of the refined models. They contain additional rigging that allows you quick turnarounds to produce even more buildings.

Important Disclaimer: Everything provided here is meant as a toolset to produce your own buildings, explore techniques and have a little fun. While the quality of the examples may be okay when viewed from a distance or for your own pleasure, they may not be sufficient for professional commercial productions. In such cases you are advised to look into commercial products like the Metropolitan pack for Element 3D or model libraries and individual models you can buy from web sites.

This is an exploration of a technique to produce glittery/ sparkly effects using standard effects. The package contains all projects shown in the images and video, including the Christmas baubles that respond to camera motion by ways of expressions. You will need Element 3D and Shapeshifter to open the respective files.

Note: Refer to the included PDF file for more detailed instructions in case you need to modify the main expression for your purposes. Otherwise the structure should be self-explanatory based on the names of the items and their usage.

Glittermania

This is a series of experimental branches that mimic various pineoid species. The technique is built around exploiting some features in Plexus 2 to build hierarchical structures.

Note: Due to limitations in the plug-in itself, the parameters will not animate and even require a manual refresh while editing parameters. The easiest way to do that is to toggle visibility of the topmost layer labelled Branch back and forth.

Plexus Branches

Using the good old Card Dance effect, this pine tree is assembled from a set of tiles. As illustrated in the example picture, even without modifying the layer maps just changing the lighting and camera along with some other parameters can result in different looks. By modifying the layer maps this can be further tweaked to produce other looks.

Note: The effect uses the plug-ins internal camera to fake rotation while retaining consistent lighting. Decouple the camera by disabling the expressions if you want to use a comp camera.

Card Dance Pine Tree

This is a set of projects that produces chains of blinking lights in an assortment of shapes. This can be used in a graphical way to mimic the apeparance of a Christmas tree or other lighting such as is commonly put up around that time of year. A short overview of the possibilities can be seen in the video.

Because it is fully editable, all parameters and the appearance can be changed to your needs, so it is suitable for other festive graphics like chains of flags, strings of pearls or any shape you can think of. Some of the setups even feature some fake pseudo-dynamics so they can sway in the wind. Please refer to the included PDF for some more info.

Christmas Blinkies

Be aware that I cannot offer any form of guaranteed support if you can’t figure out things. You can ask me questions on forums or shoot me a mail, but accept that the stuff being free, you are not entitled to demand anything. Likewise, I reserve the right to withdraw, rework and modify stuff as I see fit. As they say "Availability may be subject to change.".

Note:Though some content may be listed, you will not find it for immediate download. This is due to bandwidth and file size constraints. You will also encounter situations, where only parts of the content are provided instantly or none at all. Such content can be made available and adapted to your needs, but this will need to be on a paid basis via different methods.

For updates on current events and other things around After Effects, please visit Mylenium’s Blog

One more setup exploring and exploiting Trapcode Form 2‘s rotation maps, this produces a bipolar force field similar to a magnetic field. By duplicating the sub-comps constituting the maps, more fields can be added.

Force Field

Based on some experimentation with Trapcode Form 2‘s rotation maps, this is a transition effect that mimics a zipper.

While it’s largely parametrized and rigged with expressions, you may need to animate a few things manually like the fly because there may be alignment problems due to how the maps are sampled. Substitute the images and custom particle shapes with your own graphics and videos in the respective pre-comps.

Zipper