A couple of 3D-oriented After Effects plug-ins have been previewed this week: Element 3D from Video Copilot and Shapeshifter from Mettle.
At Aetuts+, Ben Griggs shows the ShapeShifter plug-in soon to be released by Mettle.com. ShapeShifter transforms text, masks, Shapes, and imported vectors into a live 3D mesh right in AE. It appears pretty fast and, with a focus on deforms and displacement, more similar to BorisFX plug-ins than Zaxwerks Invigorator, which is bevel and material-oriented.
Features previewed in Element 3D from Video Copilot included OpenGL speed, reflections, fresnel, refraction, and material options for single .OBJ meshes (multiple mesh instances are supported). Other feature details are forthcoming.
Here’s a recent render from Shapeshifter (there’s more on Mettle on Vimeo):
