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Trapcode Mir: a new plug-in for After Effects

A fractalized 3D mesh for real time experimentation

By Rich Young | August 03, 2012


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Trapcode Mir 1.0 was released this week. Mir creates 3D shapes that are built from a simple polygon mesh. Using fractal noise for distortion, texture mapping, repeating and wrapping geometry, and After Effects light integration -- all accelerated by your OpenGL hardware -- Mir generates smoothly shaded objects or flowing organic elements, bendable tubes & tunnels, nebulas, abstract landscapes, bar charts, and so forth, animated with light and depth. Shader options include Ambient Occlusion and wireframe mesh and point fills.

Here's some of what can be done in Mir, which is in some ways similar to Trapcode Form and Rowbyte Plexus:





There's a comprehensive 2-part tutorial on geometry and shading, Getting Started with Trapcode Mir, but for now here's TRAPCODE MIR quick walkthrough:




In Red Giant QuickTip #68: Seamless Tunnels in Trapcode Mir, Aharon Rabinowitz shows you how close up the mesh to create a seamless tunnel and effect depth of field. The formula for an exact 360 degree bend (so the ends just meet) is Bend = 400/Size (or Size = 400/Bend), though the Bend slider often works fine by eye.




Dino Muhic posted a tutorial, Trapcode Mir Tutorial - Depth of field:




Creator Peder Norrby has several items on Trapcode Sharelog, including MIR landscapes, which features 14 comps with procedural mountain landscapes and a separate video explanation.




Be sure to check out Harry Frank's Polygons to Text, a free preset at Red Giant People to accomplish something not so obvious. Also, Fractal Noise: fades & more and Harry's refresher on Trapcode fractal fields might be useful:




Here are some additional renders: A + B from Aharon Rabinowitz, Trapcode Mir Nebula by Jeremy Cox, Wired Text (Trapcode MIR) by Cassidy Bisher, Anemoi by Yami Creative, and the eye by sebastian pfeifer:

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