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Plexus
Version: 1.4.5 Sign up to be notified by email when a new version is posted
Plexus chomps through tens of thousands of points and lines no trouble.
-Steve Kirby
Whether I’m using plexus with masks, lights or 3d objects, I haven’t had as much enjoyment from a plugin since Trapcode Form.
-Simon Bronson
It was very easy to get started. Within a day or less I was able to discover many different techniques with the plugin, and found it very intuitive. I feel like there are more possibilities than I really know right now. Just the fact that you can integrate it extensively with 3D means there is much more to discover.-Chris Murphy
Plexus is a Next Generation 3D Particle System Plugin designed for Adobe After Effects.
- Create Stunning Generative Art with ease
- Highly Integrated into After Effects, native Camera and Light aware.
- Breakthrough Modular Workflow, that is infinitely configurable.
- Create Organic Structures using Powerful Replication Tools.
- Effectors to create Physical Simulations.
- You can import OBJ Files and OBJ Sequences into Plexus.
- Use AE Lights to shade the Plexus and Color Maps to color the particles.
- High Quality Custom Rendering Engine.
- Depth of Field
- 32 Bit Rendering
- Scaling Parameters for Effectors
- Fade Out for Spherical Field
- Individual Noise Amplitude Control for Each Light.
- Control over Rendering Order.
- Scale Plexus using the Transform Effector.
- Added more Blending Modes.
Plexus now comes with the Plexus OBJ Sequence Exporter for Cinema 4D included for free!
For usage instructions please see video tutorials below.
Created by Simon Bronson (http://www.simonbronson.com), music by Parks in the Fire-Trifonic (http://www.trifonic.com/music/)
More work created with Plexus
Created by The Mill (http://www.themill.com)
Created by Colin Rozee (colinrozee.com) 
Created by Yves Larivierre (padawan.tv)
Created by Steve Kirby (www.stevekirby.co.uk)
Tip: Click here for a tutorial on how to create the particle trail at the beginning on this piece:
Created by Steve Kirby (www.stevekirby.co.uk)
Created by Lucien Yang (https://vimeo.com/user8828972)
Created by Muhammad Naveed Khawar (http://vimeo.com/naveedkhawar)
Created by Christopher Antony Owen Harrison (http://mr-caoh.blogspot.com/)
Created by Matthew Canham (http://vimeo.com/user5134686)
Check out this interview with Creative Director Chris Murphy on how he used Plexus in the “The Art of Flight” title sequence.
More User Examples (Playlist)
Samples
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  1. Plexus Quick IntroMore Tutorials/Features
Support
You are welcome to leave a comment below but if you have a support issue we have setup forums to better handle the back and forth communication. You can access the forums here.
Version History:
- 1.4.5 – Minor Bug Fixes, UI Tweaks and CS6 Compatibility – Apr 2012
- 1.4.4 – Fixed Opacity and DoF Bug – Jan 2012
- 1.4.3 – Bug fixes and maintenance – Jan 2012
- 1.4.2 – Nov 2011
- Accurate Path Subdivision & Fixed Plexus layer offset issue.
- Plexus layers need not start at timeline zero in the composition
- 1.4.1 – Bug Fixes, Memory Leak Fixes – Nov 2011
- 1.4 – Sep 2011
- Performance improvements (Renders faster)
- UI tweaks to streamline interface
- Bug fixes
- 1.3 – Fixed text layer issue, mac installer and other minor bugs – Jun 2011
- 1.2 – May 2011
- Depth of Field
- 32 Bit Rendering
- Scaling Parameters for Effectors
- Fade Out for Spherical Field
- Individual Noise Amplitude Control for Each Light.
- Control over Rendering Order.
- Scale Plexus using the Transform Effector.
- Added more Blending Modes.
- Bug fixes
- 1.0 – Initial Release – Feb 2011
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Any work arounds you can think of?
Great plugin. One question is if anyone knows how to clip the particles at certain z depths.
This would be extremely helpful. Any ideas or scripts that could be applied?
Thanks
r.
Unfortunately, this feature is not yet available. We’re looking into implementing this in the future versions.
Hi Guys, I’m a new user and i’m starting with the plugin but when i create lights they don’t create lights between them and also the colour option isn’t there. What’s happening!
The lights don’t create connections between them*
To change the color of the points in the light object, change the color of the light in the light settings or de-select ‘Get Light from the Points’.
To see the lines, increase the maximum distance in the Plexus Renderer. Please follow the tutorial, if you are just starting out.
Yes! It was the maximum distance! Thaks a lot, I was folowing the tutorial but something was wrong. I love this plugin great job!
Hi guys,
I have a bad issue using Plexus with an Obj from C4D.
Lines are randomly disconnecting and reconnecting elsewhere…
Look at this example:
http://85.18.73.150/clientsection/e_motion/issue_plex.mov
The only parameter animated here is the Y rot…
Any suggestion on how I can avoid this?
It happens when more than a few points are equally spaced. To avoid this, try adding noise (1-2px amplitude over time). If you are still facing issues let us know.
It works! Just need to add the slight noise at the .obj in c4d, then re-import that.
Adding noise in Plexus doesn’t work.
Thanks!
http://bigheadedkitty.blogspot.com/2012/05/plexus-cool-ae-plugin-uncovered.html
Hi, I was experimenting with plexus and this is what i came up with-
do have a look:
https://vimeo.com/40921766
I can’t seem to open Plexus in AE. I don’t see Rowbyte under the Effects Menu, did I install incorrectly?
Please contact support and let us know your Operating System and AE Version and we’ll help you.
Plexus Bug:
Do you guys know that plexus crashes aftereffects after you decrease the number of Max No. of ponits to Search to 0?
i discovered that right know when i decreased it by error to zero but the count decreases so fast that that might happen often.
pls. fix that
greets lab42
This issue has been fixed a while ago. Please download the latest version and let us know if you are still facing issues.
Hi Rowbyte,
I recently bought Plexus and am a new user. But am having some glitchy things happen with obj sequences. I export the sequences from maya. When I play them in Plexus it looks like every few frames it is jumping to the wrong number in the sequence then back again causing a very unpleasant look. I tested the same sequences in Trapcode Form and could not recreate the problem, so I think the sequence is okay. Any ideas on what might be going on?
Aloha,
C
Ha. Nevermind. My apologies; I did not read the thread right below mine
Problem solved.
The frame padding on my obj sequence was no good.
Thanks
i have AE CS5 and CS5.5 installed on a Mac. I’ve installed the trial version of Plexus and it works fine on cs5 but i can’t get it work on cs5.5. I don’t even see the red cross watermark.
Thank You
Thanks for your quick reply.. that helped! number padding solved it.. needed a 4 number padding to work alphabetically. Cheers
Hello Rowbyte – I have a problem with bringing in OBJ sequences.. It gets to frame 100 and jumps to another part in the sequence, and then jumps at various points along the timeline..
The sequences are long – 1000 plus obj frames..
In trapcode form the obj sequences work plays correctly
I read your reply to a similar problem on the c4d exporter page about the less than 256 characters in the file path problem – but that’s not the case in this situation..
Appreciate any help
Cheers
Alex
May be this will help ?
http://aescripts.com/forums/discussion/61
If you are facing further issues let us know.
Hi Guys, i was wondering if there are any solutions for OBJ Sequence exporter but for 3ds Max?
Thanks and sorry for my bad english
Cheers
http://youtu.be/cuaN4PfRJKE
hello.. is it possible to alter the speed of an OBJ sequence within plexus?
hi.when im trying to install it has error: “After effects cs 3 coldnt be located”.
After effects portable.
So how can i resolve the problem?
Adobe doesn’t support portable installations for their applications, so we cannot support them. I would suggest installing After Effects in official manner and then try it.
Hi guys,
Im enjoying playing with the trial and watching the fab tutorials,would you be adding to your plugin by adding support to have an OBJ for a container? think of the possiblities this would open up
Regards
perilous7
H guys !
i just finished this experimental piece for the new year !
http://vimeo.com/36099215
ismail
Great plugin, however after using it for a week or so it now crashes my after effects cs5 upon opening it, so i cant use it any more!
Please send us a project or any crash report you are getting. Also, make sure to install the latest version of Plexus. You can email it to support
Hi,
I’m trying out the Free Trail version, but I am not able to have the lines between the white spots, as seen 9min 40 sec into the tutorial.
I am really excited to create a great an animated signature for one my client, but need to see if it will actually work as seen in this tutorial, before I will pay to have a single user license.
Hope you could let me know what’s new since this tutorial has been created.
There is nothing new since the tutorial was created. Mostly cosmetic /UI changes & bugfixes. You have to increase the Maximum Distance or Fade Out Distance to connect the lines between the points.
Thank you so much for letting me know!
I will defiinitly buy a license for Plexus, when my client approve my concept!
Thanks, I got it !
and Happy new year.
sorry, The other problems are “Plexus” <— I still lose "Color and Opacity"
And I must chose the "Override Point Color" to setting.
but I saw your tutorial didn't chose the "Override Point Color" then you still have the"Color and Opacity" .
I lose "Color" and " Opacity" in "Plexus" is same with "Plexus Lights Object"
how to solve those problem.
Is there my After Effect Problem?
Hello,
You don’t lose those features, they are just hidden to remove clutter. If you have “Get Color from Lights”, color is taken from each light’s color and the color parameter is not taken into account, hence it is hidden. If you de-select it color is taken from the color parameter and hence it is shown.
hello, I have some problem to use Plexus, when I use effect and “add Object” chose the lights
then I lose the “color” and “Opacity” to setting in “Plexus Lights Object”.
Only have “Light name …” “get color…” “get Opacity…” “Replication” and “Group”
how to show the color and Opacity in “Plexus Lights Object”?
Hi All I just release our first template using plexus, i hope you like it.
http://www.istockplus.com
ouss
Here is the link
http://www.istockplus.com/after-effects-projects-motion-templates-layout-templates/details/76/6/ae-projects/cobweb.html
Hi Guys I’ve just created these animations using Plexus.
There were used in a big conference in Paris called LeWeb.
http://vimeo.com/33415026
I hope you like it.
Merlin.
Hello Merlin,
Thanks for sharing with us. We’re actually looking for this piece ever since they posted interviews from the conference on the web. Keep up the great work.
I notice that there is an OBJ sequencer, but what if the OBJ has a baked out animation? I don’t have a test to try it out with at the moment, so if it does, I apologize. When dealing with OBJ and baked animations, it seems like a drawback when working with other applications to manually export each frame as a separate file, and somewhat useless.
Hope you don’t take offense to that, but it would seem like a huge improvement to the workflow.
Also, someone pointed out a fill feature, which I totally second.
OBJ Exporters from every program export the geometry/animation baked into it. Thats why we use OBJ Sequences. We can use other formats but they don’t universally export baked geometry/animations. Almost every 3D Program has a OBJ Sequence Exporter available through plugins, so this would be the ideal choice.
http://vimeo.com/32471881
Love it too
Project for the Council of Europe against Cyber crime
Love your Product
fantastic plugin – thank you!
I have a couple of questions:
1/ I recently purchased v1.3 – how do I upgrade to 1.4 – couldn’t see a link.
2/ Any idea how far down the road motion blur and near/far clipping are?
I recently completed a project using Plexus in 5K and 6k comps with complex objs and heavy DOF and the render times were good. Thanks again
You can download the Free Trial of 1.4 version on the site and install it. It automatically detects the license. Also, thanks for the kinds words. We would love to see any work you did with Plexus. Thank you.
This stuff is Amazing. I want to Learn all this, but the thing is I am stuck at the installing procedure(Trail Version) itself. It shows “Error! After Effects Cs5.5 could not be Located”, It would be great if you (or anyone) could help me getting along with this Software.
Thanks! (:
Obaid,
Do you have After Effects CS5.5 installed in your system? This is a plugin for Adobe After Effects. If you have further questions/issues, please contact support and we can help you.
boy this thing is buggy …
If you are facing any issues, please let us know so that we can help you resolve them.
will do.
and don’t get me wrong: it’s a great plugin, but it’s driving me craaaaaaazy right now.
the noise generator is acting weird: after some animation ’0′ amplitude no longer means ‘zero noise’, and there are random frames where noise jumps to random values.
i’ll try to isolate the issue and get back to you.
The issue you are describing is caused when the layer which Plexus is applied doesn’t begin at zero. The Plexus Layer should always begin at zero and should not be stretched/time manipulated (Like offset in the time timeline and later on stretched back to zero). If the time of the layer is different, the time offset varies and hence the random frames. Let me know if this solves the issues.
that actually worked, thank you!
so there’s no way a plexus layer can start in the middle of the timeline at all?
This is a limitation in the current version, since Plexus uses multiple effects and plugins to create a dynamic workflow. We are working to remove this limitation as soon as possible.
Also, I suggest you to contact support/post any issues in the forum since it will help other users too. Please avoid posting issues in the comments. Also, if you face any issue/abnormality please contact us immediately, since most of the time its a known issue/limitation and we already have a workaround/solution. It will save you lots of time!
is there any way to have NEGATIVE values in the Spherical field? Like in particular or Form?
Yes, it is on the roadmap.
roadmap? that meas that you will do it in the next versions?
Will it at some point be possible to import Krakatoa PRT sequences into Plexus?
Yes, we are considering the feature for future versions.
Hello
First of all. AMAZING PLUGIN, loving it.!
Im having a weird problem:
Using the OBJ secuence exporter.
Im cloning a cube along a path to recreate a similar effect of the animation made by steve Quirby. However, sometimes, when I export, Plexus is sees geometry that is not in the path yet.so it shows the whole path, before the actual animation comes in. Im scaleling the cubes to 0, and sometimes works fine, but sometimes, without any apparent reason, shows all the geometry. I wonder if you guys have an idea of how i can fix this. The mograph set up is. A cube that animates in scale from 0 to 200. inside a cloner object, and this cloner is affected by the Spline wrap. And im using step effector to make the cubes grow trhu the spline. I hope this make sense , and you guys might give me an idea how to fix the problem.
thanks
g
Can you send us the C4D Project along with the AE project files. It’s really difficult for us to understand the issue unless we see it.
…another thing would it be possible to use 3d nulls rather than lights, I’ve only just started playing and I can see having to use lights as problem with complicated projects???
Hello James,
Thanks for the feedback. We’ll consider this request for the next versions.
I’ve just downloaded the trial version and must say this is brilliant plugin and worth every penny. Considering the time in the past where i would hours linking beam effects to position expressions to get an inferior result I will definately be purchasing this!
Anyone who works prefessionally in this field will see the obvious cost saving.
On another note the trial version I download today 1.4 seems to be missing a few parameters around the Points option. No where can I set the colour and opacity setting only tick boxs for overriding these parameters. Any ideas??
I notice the difference when watching the tutorial.
Regards Jim
Hello James,
Thank you for your kind words. To change the color of the points, you have to change the color in the Plexus Object (Path Object, OBJ Object, Light Object). To override, the color from the objects, select the “Override Points Color” in the Points parameters, and you can change the color of all the points in the Plexus.
FYI: On my machine, I can get Plexus to crash AE very reliably when I use multiple OBJ objects (in different groups) and accidently drag the “Max No. of Points to Search” slider to 0. Caps lock gets me back in the file so I can put in a greater than 0 value, otherwise it crashes as soon as it loads.
Really enjoying the plugin!
P.S. “Minimum Distance” and “Minimum Fade Distance” values for lines would be an awesome addition someday! I often find myself wishing I could limit the lower end of the range so that points don’t draw lines to their immediate neighbors.
Hello Chris,
Thanks for the Bug Report, I’ll make sure to fix it in the next update. Also, yea the Minimum Distance feature has been requested many times and it will be considered for future versions.
Hi,
How is it possible to produce surface between the connected area?
Thanks
P.S: Brilliant plugin and lots of possibilities.
I have installed Plexus it worked fine before, but now in CS5 when I try to use it, it does nothing. Any help here? I’ve tried reinstalling (i’m assuming just deleting the plugins from the effects folder is uninstalling) Could you please email me back with instructions?
The plugin installs into the plugins folder. There should be two plugins in the Plexus folder. One is called Plexter64 and the otherone is called Plexus64. Just applying the plugin won’t do anything. You need to add an Object from the Plexus Toolkit. Try drawing a mask on the layer you are applying Plexus to and choose the Path object from the Plexus toolkit. You should see a result then.
Is there any way to get some sort of backface culling with imported 3d objects so points/edges facing away from the camera don’t generate plexus points/lines?
Hi, i have the Problem, that i use a Noise Deformer with Evolution, to make a really slow movement. The lines between the Points flip on/off at several times despite i use a really big fade out distance. I think it depends on the max point to search value and that the tool didnt know which points to connect. Because when i crank it up, this didnt happen. But i didnt need so much lines. Hope you uderstand it and can help
Hi,
I
I just persuaded a company I am freelancing for to purchase this for a project. Great possibilities, thank you!!
Would really like to see near/far clipping too. Trying to place someone inside a sphere/container, going to have to go Maya route, which is a shame as it will take more time.
Z clipping and Motion blur would make this product fantastic.
replicate lights would be great too!
I installed the trial version, but when I apply the plugins I get a red cross.
You have purchase the plugin to remove the Red Cross. It is a Watermark rendered for trial version. It is fully functional, but renders a watermark.
instructions to install on mac
Hey guys, LOVE the plugin, and the price is utterly reasonable for a solid production tool of this calibre. One potential future feature question: is it possible to add a feature where you have solid fills between vertices that respond to light? If you guys could solve this, it would be amazing. I’ve been waiting for something like that for years
Anyway, great work, and looking forward to your next mind blowing product!
I just bought Plexus and I absolutely love it however, every time I add plexus to an object it puts a giant red X across my composition. Everything else works fine but I can’t figure out why that red X is there or how to get rid of it. any suggestions?
amazing work by the way.
Hello,
You have to register the plugin to remove the watermark. To register, Please click the “Register” button in the Effects Control Window and enter your serial. You should receive your serial immediately after your purchase. If you can’t find it, you can retrieve the serial at http://license.aescripts.com
If you are still having issues, please contact support
Thank you.
Plexus is super cool plug-in, but a little bit slow( could you somehow make it faster?
Hello,
I am writing this comment to let you guys know that Motion-Emotion video is not created by Simon Bronson, it’s originally created by Muhammad Naveed Khawar.
http://vimeo.com/20792547‘
Kindly correct this mistake for further misunderstanding.
Thank you & Regards
Our apologies for the mixup. We have fixed the credit.
Plexus
How to apply sound effects… just TrapCode soundkey ? ( I could not find any tutorial about it )
Plexus to be put into the sound effector?
I’m sorry my English is not good
and color map on obj object, and light object.
And this will be perfect
It would be very very very great if there were a NEAR / FAR clipping, in order to separate the front and the back of an obj .
I hope !!!!
Problem Plexus install ” error! after effect cs3 couldn’t be located! “
Hello,
This happens if you have multiple versions installed/some preference files missing. Please contact support and we
This is a great plugin !!!
It makes such fun to play and explore with it.
And the parameters are huge – one can nearly realize anything out of ones mind
The only I would like see in the next version is CUDA support.
I think with my nVidia card the workflow will be much more intuitive.
So, great pluggy. Keep on the good work.
Serge
Hi,
I’ve just downloaded the trail version but I keep getting an installation fail message.
Any suggestions?
AE CS5, mac OS 10.6.7
Thanks a lot.
Please contact support and we’ll get you a version you can install.
I’m having an issue with some crosses in my actual plexus’d layer.
It was working just fine when i created something earlier today, then the cross thing happens all of a sudden.
Is this because its the trial version, and only can render 1 item before it goes haywire?
I cant quite understand what you mean by crosses. Can you post a screenshot if possible?
The trial version will render a red X over the image the same as any other After Effects plugin trial version. Once you register the plugin the red X will disappear.
Cool plugin. What would be a nice way to create a draw style without those ‘cobweb’ style lines in the corners? Just points without lines and high size looks pretty good. I guess experimenting with textured sprites?
Hello, an odd problem for our company:
We have installed Plexus 1.2: it doesn’t interpet the text correctly. Somehow when we add plexus to a text layer and add the path object, the text gets squished and deformed. We tried it on a machine with Plexus 1.0 and it works fine. Please let me know if theres anything we did wrong, or if it requires other actions.
Thanks!!
i’m having exactly the same problem!
Hello, This might be a possible bug in the 1.2 version. I will look into it soon. Meanwhile use Plexus 1.0 if you need that feature. If you dont have the older version please email support to get it. Thank you.
Hi Satya Meka,
do you have a rough estimate when the fix will be released? Have you been able to verify it during the last 2 weeks?
thanks!
Expect the update to be released by the end of this month.
Thank you for this feedback! But damn, couldn’t you post “by the end of this month” 5 days earlier?
DoF !!!!!!!!!! THANK YOU !!!!!
Thanks for the update Satya! I can’t wait to play with the additions.
Hello
I bought plexus v1 where can i get the update to v 1.2
Thank’s in advanced
1.2 version isn’t released yet and you’ll be notified once it gets released.
1.2 is released now.
Nice Plugin!
Is there gonna be an update for cs5.5 soon?
The current version works in CS5.5
are you sure about that? When I try to download installation type section none selectable. Contunie button is stiil deactive and I cant select anythiny how do you install on CS5.5?
The current version works in CS5.5, but the installer doesn’t see CS5.5 during installation. You need to manually copy the Plugin files from the CS5 Plug-Ins folder inorder to work for CS5.5. An updated installer will be released soon.
Heya!
Just downloaded a demo of this plugin and it’s awesome! Anyway just a quick question, how do you create a trail effect in Plexus ( similar to Steve Kirby project ). Am not really a 3D user so am wondering if the trail effect was made from an OBJ or just plain masking alone.
thanks alot!
Yes, the trail effect in that piece is created using OBJ sequences.
very good!
Congrats! The plug in is awesome! But I’m having problems importing OBJ files generated by Poser. They are coming very small. I had to set the OBJ X Scale to 100000% (!!!), so I could visualize the object, and still small. What I’m doing wrong? There’s any setting before export the OBJ files?
Thanks!
Hello,
The reason why you have to scale it to that extent is because the program you are exporting the OBJs from is probably exporting in really micro co-ordinates probably less than 1. Plexus OBJ Object works in the co-ordinates of After Effects and hence the problem occurs. If you prevent the scaling issue, you will have to export the OBJ sequences in higher scale. Not sure how it works in Poser, but every program has a setting to change the scale when exporting the OBJs.
When I import an object is very small. I tested with Poser models. I’m using the free trial of CS4. What am I doing wrong?
Different 3D Programs export OBJs in different scales. That’s why Plexus OBJ Object has separate scaling parameters. Increase the scale in the Plexus OBJ object if the object appears too small.
Great plugin and definitely worth the 200 bucks (as far as we get free bugfixes!). I am playing with the trial version and noticed an horizontal offset between the masks/texts and the corresponding plexus networks http://img130.imageshack.us/i/screenshot20110423at23a.png/
I’m runnin AE CS5 on macosx snowleopard.
Keep up with the good work!!
Plexus was used in this animation by Flock of Pixels for Taser:
Awesome!
Hey Satya
loving this plugin, but is there any other draw modes in the pipline?
if there was a filled/facet mode, it would rock so hard! is there any way to currently do that?
i just had some false hopes by seing the Motion/emotion example by Naveed,, just to realise that the facet bits in that clips where done in C4D
Having more drawing modes is a great idea and I am currently looking into such possibilities.
ACE! can’t wait!
so is there any know work arounds, in the meantime?
Not that I know of, since Filled modes have a lot more complexities. The only solution is to custom program something.
Great plug in OBJ replication is a must though it really makes it difficult to have to do this manually also it would be nice to put out some more in depth tutorials on obj sequences since this wasnt touched on in your tutorials and overall plexus tutorials
OBJ replication is planned in the future versions. We will certainly do more tutorials on OBJs.
Amazing plug in!!! Got mine this morning. Thanks for making this available!!
Eaton
Hi Guys
Just want to know if i understand it correctly. The Single User License comes with 2 licenses. So i can use the one at home and the other at work for instance?
How long does it take to receive the license?
Thanks
Rob
The SUL comes with a single license key which can be used on upto two machines as long as they are used by the same person. So, yes you can use the license for one machine at home and another one at work. The license is automatically emailed once you purchase it.
hi,does it also work on mac?
Yes, it does work on a Mac.
Incredible plugin, right on time, this is very in and very cool. No doubt about quality and usage … and future of this stuff. Tnx guys.
)
(Ps I must agree with the other people … it is little bit expensive for freelancers
Hi there!
Amazing product you got there!
I would like to buy it but the price is a little bit high.
Are you planning to add a student price?
If so, let me know.
Hi,
very great plugin! I hope depth of field coming soon.
Go on like this!
Harri
I downloaded the demo and am really enjoying playing with the different settings.
I can tell a massive amount of work went into this. The plugin is very well featured, and yet still has enormous headroom. I hope you continue to support this over the long run; tons of added potential to an already sweet plugin!
Things that would push me over the edge from try to buy:
1. Lets say for example you are drawing a single beam between just two lights. If the camera flies in front of one light, the line dissapears entirelly. I’m also not sure the color stays consistent to position if the line is inheriting color from the light. These limitations are the same as using a beam effect with the “toComp” expressions to make the beam fake 3D space. I was kinda hoping Plexus would be a workaround to prevent having to ever use that expression again. I’m guessing this is a limitation that can’t neccessarily be fixed.
2. Features similar to “Start” “End” and “Offset” from 3DStroke would be really nice to have. I have been wanting to draw a single stroke from one point in 3D space to another (without having the AE camera screw it up when flying around) for ages! It would also offer intriguing animation options. I imagine every line would be treated individually (which is fine and still offers fun options), but perhaps with mask objects there could be an option to only affect the source mask and replications and offset along the whole set of points?
3. Permission for a single user to install the plugin on one work machine and one home machine. (Similar to Red Giants or VideoCopilots policy) Occasionally I have to take files home from work and make changes over the weekend or stay in and avoid snow. Having to buy a seperate plugin when I can physically only use one machine at a time is a bit of a drag, especially if I don’t use the home machine often and i’m the only possible user. This single clause greatly increases the value of the plugin for us back-and-forthers without costing you any money, since people like me can shell out the fair 200 for a truly awesome plugin, but won’t neccessarily double it just for peace of mind and flexibility. I think this is the one thing holding me back from buying right now.
4. More ojects. Maybe a luminance object that would choose points based on luminance/hue/saturation/alpha and then draw lines between those? Or a particle emitter object that draws lines between particles a certain time after emission? (Sky is the limit with this one) Maybe a layer set object that draws lines between the anchor points of all 3d layers with a specified name? N-Gon and primitive object presets for those without 3D software?
5. More control over the noise. Also being able to add a luminance map to affect noise intensity similar to what you have for the color mapping would be cool.
6. Potentially more affectors like wind/gravity/magnetic/repulsion/bounce/kill fields.
7. Things already addressed, motion blur/DOF, random point and line color.
Again, awesome work. This is an awesome and unique plugin.
I must say this is a great plugin, amazing time saver, and as soon as can i will buy it.
And yes, great work must be rewarded, that is obvious.
Great plugin! I’ve already used it in a few projects. So cool with OBJ’s!
Just a thought, is there any possibility to include ‘random opacity’ and ‘random color’ controls for individual points like in Particular? Or a flicker control perhaps? Is there some technique for this maybe?
That’s an interesting idea and we’ll consider it for the future versions.
I’ve tried it, and i found it awesome ! you’ve made a great work !
Oh geez, this could get reaaaally big!
I hope someone funds you, so it can grow and get better and better.
Havin alot of fun with the Trial at the moment.
My wishes for the future:
- Being able to change the anchor point of the OBJs
- A bit more to play with in the shader effector: if you use a lot of lights the ambient mixes them all up to a desaturated color which is not very controlable.
- Depth of field would be awesome
- Feather-Option for the Container Effectors (There is not really a way to reveal an object from one side to the other as far as I know)
I’ll get more points in the future.
Thanks alot for this plug-in!
PS: I’ll trade my help with beta-versions against one free licence
(jk)
Jesus!
Pleez do not cry it is to expensive.
This is really an incredible plugin.
If you are a professional and you may have tried to code some own stuff you know the price fair. One other point: The idea itself is famous and this is also notable.
Last but not least: You will buy this plug and earn money with it. I am sure this could be a little more than the plugin cost.
Of course you can also try it by your own without this code and script your own one, or try to do it by hand. This will take more hours than your client will pay for the whole job.
Excuse me
mickna
Hi Satya.
Thank you for making this great plugin. I really like this with using glow effect.
Anyway, do you have any plan to implement 32bpc color mode?
32 bpc is on the roadmap and will be implemented in the future versions.
Your and Simon’s project files would surely help to dig into it. I just watched the tutorial and I’ll try to reach what I get. I’m quite sure I’ll buy plexus for my upcoming project.
Hi Satya,
great plugin, fun to play with. But I’m havinbg hard times with the trial and can’t really get how those animations by Steve Kirby are done. Are there any advanced sample files if I buy it?
TIA
Karotta
Although, I cannot give you Steve Kirby’s project files since I don’t have them, I can give you the project files created by me and Simon Bronson. If you wanna know the process, you can check out Steve’s Vimeo page where he posted some more details. He primarily used OBJ files for the project. Also I suggest you to follow the tutorials, if you are having trouble understanding how the plugin works. Thank you.
Would be nice to play around with your project files. I have purchased the plugin, so how would I go about getting my hands on the files?
Right now, we are planning to do a tutorial on those pieces to help users understand better. But if the tutorial didn’t happen in the next couple of weeks, I’ll put the Project Files for download.
Was just surfing around the site, and was blown away when I saw the tests you made with the plugin. So i bought it right away, and im just playing around with it now!
Btw, is it possible to export a obj sequence from C4D? or do i need to learn blender and the fluids?
Riptide Pro plugin for Cinema4D exports OBJs and OBJs Sequences from Cinema4D. I haven’t tried it personally, but a lot of people told me it works great with Plexus.
Btw Morten you can export .obj files directly from C4D via the File>Export function, works pretty well if you don’t need .obj sequences
The Riptide Pro sequences are cool, but I’ve noticed that the Y-axis is inverted when bringing them into Plexus. I’ve been just rotating them around with the Z rotation however would love to get them to come in oriented correctly without having to do that.
Two questions:
1. Is it possible to reverse the rendering order, so points are drawn on top of lines instead of the other way round?
2. Is there a more appropriate forum for asking these kinds of questions, instead of the comments thread?
p.s. Just tested exporting an OBJ from 3ds Max and importing into Plexus, and it works great!
Right now, the only way to change the render order is to have two different layers, although such an option will be included in the future updates. Forums is definitely an interesting idea, and we’ll see what we can do.
Great work on the pugin and nice animation Simon
and it works well.
I’ve been testing the trial version obj with fluid mesh just to see
Did you plan to make a tutorial on links between plexus/particular/soundkeys like the cool video Dos did?
Trak
It’s a brilliant plugin and I’m enjoying the trial so far.
I saw in the full tutorial how you import an OBJ but it’s not working for me.
After Plexus accepts, imports and shows the name of the imported OBJ file in its panel, AE gets into some sort of problem. Processor time is up at 50% with the hourglass on (in the AE window) and the only option is to shut it down.
The OBJ is a simple one I downloaded off the net (Wavefront OBJ like it shows in the tutorial).
I switched the viewport to DirectX just in case, but still the same.
Except the OBJ import all other options work great.
Are there some specific requirements on software versions, graphics card/driver etc?
Thanks.
Hello Terry,
There are some issues with OBJ import in the initial release. So we have issued a new version to fix that issue, so please re-download the installer and install the plugin again. Let me know if you are having further issues.
regards,
Satya.
Thank you much. That was quick.
OBJs work fine in the latest version.
On with the tutorials now…
Satya, really dig the plug-in and the OBJ integration. REALLy cool possibilities. A wish list item would be adding replication to the OBJ object down the road.
I am excited to see DOF and motion blur being planned too!
Awesome work.
Hello Eric, Thanks for the suggestions. The reason why I have excluded OBJ Replication is OBJ’s might already have hundreds of thousands if not millions of points in them and replicating them on a huge scale could cause serious overflow issues. I might include such a feature later, so that only OBJ’s under a certain vertex count can be be replicated.
Wonder if there’s a way to have a working representation of the OBJs in the viewport that culls X amount of verts to make the interface quicker and then at render-time use the full set of verts? Sorta like a Hypernurbs/Turbosmooth solution?
Did I really just ask you to code a Sub-D solution in AE? That’s how excited Plexus got me – great stuff and looking forward to whatever comes next.
Plexus already has a parameter called “Resolution” that decreases the number of vertices in the OBJ.
Excellent. I bet that comes in handy for OBJ sequences – AND really easy to wire together a checkbox to toggle on a working and rendering Resolution. Thanks!
Awesome sound reactive Plexus animation by Dos:
This looks amazing. Totally worth the price, and I’ll be purchasing a copy as soon as I get home from work! I think some of the other comments on here are confusing this *plugin*, written in C++, with the Javascript-based tools most commonly found on aescripts. Both can be challenging to write, but plugins add many more layers of complexity to the development process. Not to mention all the matrix math involved in coding something like this… it gives me a headache just thinking about it! Both in terms of functionality and price, Plexus is better compared to Particular and Form. Great job, and I’ll look forward to the DoF and Motion Blur update in the near future
Looks fantastic. Any thougts of having it import FBX geometry as well as OBJ? Wireframe rendering would be enough. I’m seeing a way to use this plug-in in our 3D compositing workflow in a way that’s not even possible with AE at the moment.
stop yelling about the price. this plugin is just incredibly powerful and you´re not fair guys, if you compare this masterpiece with the other (also very useful) plugins here…
i can´t wait till the dof, and motion blur and maybe some soundeffectors and fbx-import
Thanks for creating this amazing tool Satya. It’s tools like this that open up infinite new possibilities for us as designers. I am extremely excited to start diving in and exploring the depth of features in this plugin.
I don’t understand all the hate about the price – it’s insanely reasonable. Anyone should be able to make up the cost in half a day of work max.
Once again – thanks for making this gorgeous plugin.
This is awesome! So many interesting ways that this could be used. And the price is not bad at all!
made the purchase yesterday almost on the minute it was released and without a second thought !!! Plexus along with Particular are two of the most significant plugin releases ever ! Thank you so much for a streamlined solution to a design problem that would otherwise require heavy scripting in a multitude of other hosts !
awesome plugin satya, solution for many problems and brilliant technique.
willing to get it.
http://www.vimeo.com/19938234
Nav
This is fantastic – been doing this in way too complicated ways with expressions, beams, write-ons etc. for toooo long! – or even c4d solutions that quickly over-complicate. This looks great. Awesome work Satya – this rawks!
Everyone stop complaining about the price – maybe on aescripts it’s high comparable to to the cost of scripts we’re used to – but in the world of AE plugins it’s quite reasonable for all of the things it does. I imagine he set the price at what he thought it was worth.
No one is ‘forcing’ you to get it somewhere else – that’s ridiculous, not to mention that’s kind of terrible thing to say to the author. You either decide it’s a worthy tool to add to your arsenal or you decide it isn’t.
Good job on this plugin man – effectors in ae? – brilliant.
// jayse
very powerfull looking system. I watched the tutorial – shame you chose some dark colours as they were hard to see – but over all it looks great, especially the potential for .obj files and all that can be done with that. This seems to be an interesting crossover with 3D applications. It would have been nice to see a tutorial showing an animation being developed or how it has already been used.
Also good news to hear motion blur and DoF are on the way they will be needed
Thank you! Next time, I will make sure to record the tutorials with better quality.
Hello, amazing plug-in! Is anyone else unable to hear the tutorials? I have picture but no audio. Any suggestions?
Please try again, there was a problem with the first upload.
Congrats of makin’ most advanced plugin ever! (@aescripts;)
i’m testing trial version right now, but I see that depth of field is not working with your plugin and camera settings. Is it cause of trial version? or maybe you plannig add this feature later? Anyway it’s still a great plugin, but with depth of field enabled it will be even better
Oh, and motion blur for particles also? (of course I always can use CC Force Motion Blur, but it’s better to have this by default like in particular..)
Also I think that it will be better to give an option in installation program for selection where is after effects plug-in folder (not everyone had installed software in c:\
Hello Marcin,
Depth of Field and Motion Blur is on the roadmap and will be added soon as a free update to the existing users. Thank you.
v1.2 now has Depth of Field support