After Effects CS6 offers a new ray tracer and 3D capabilities. But does that mean you’ll no longer need special 3D plugins from Zaxwerks or Boris? John Dickinson talks to Zax Dow about the continued relevance of 3D Invigorator and ProAnimator.

We have chosen the prize winners at random and will be contacting them via email shortly. If you entered your contact information to win the G-Technology 4TB G-RAID drive or Michele Yamazaki’s “Plug-in to After Effects” book, keep an eye on your inbox!

Top Ten Plug-ins of 2011, in order:

Adobe After Effects Plug-ins:

• 1st: Trapcode Particular
• 2nd: Red Giant Magic Bullet Looks
• 3rd: Boris Continuum Complete
• 4th: Video Copilot Optical Flares
• 5th: GenArts Sapphire
• 6th: Red Giant Magic Bullet Colorista II
• 7th: The Foundry Keylight (Included in AE)
• 8th: Trapcode Shine
• 9th: Imagineer Systems mocha
• 10th: Noise Industries FxFactory Pro

Final Cut Pro Plug-ins:

• 1st: Red Giant Magic Bullet Looks
• 2nd: Boris Continuum Complete
• 3rd: Noise Industries FxFactory Pro
• 4th: GenArts Sapphire
• 5th: Automatic Duck Pro Import/Export FCP (Note: Now Available for Free)
• 6th: Singular Software PluralEyes
• 7th: CoreMelt Complete
• 8th: CHV Plug-ins
• 9th: SmartSound Sonicfire Pro
• 10th: Zaxwerks ProAnimator

From the Zaxwerks Blog:

This is a three part tutorial lasting 50 minutes. Joe covers the steps to creating a beautiful virtual set, lighting it, inserting the green screen talent and doing the final camera moves. Consider this an Intermediate tutorial because Joe assumes you already know how to open the plug-in and make a Photoshop file.

Topics discussed:

• Creating, positioning and mapping the floor.

• Using 3D Primitives to create columns.

• Importing simple Illustrator files to make furniture.

• Duplicating and rearranging objects.

• Creatively using bevels to make set decorations.

• Setting up lights, light trusses and flares.

• Adding the talent and camera motion.

Watch the tutorials here.

ALSO: Zax Dow reported in the Zaxwerks Blog that updates for all of their plugins will be arriving shortly. Read about it here.

— John Stanowski

3Ding your logo from an Illustrator file using ProAnimator is generally a painless process. But there are times, especially when you are not the author of the AI file, when things can get messy. Duplicate objects, clippings paths and other AI tricks can create havoc when opened in ProAnimator. In this new tutorial from the Zaxwerks Blog, Prepping Illustrator Files for 3D, you see just such a complex file getting simplified to make life easier when you move into After Effects.

- John Stanowski

I’m sure most of you are starting to feel the economic crunch, so we’ve put together a section for plug-ins that are $99 and under. These are useful plug-ins by well known plug-in developers like Red Giant, Trapcode, Digieffects, Noise Industries, Nattress and others.

Plug-ins for $99 and under

If you’d like to take the plug-in for a test drive before you buy it, most of the plug-ins are available for download on our demos/trial page: http://www.toolfarm.com/demo/demo.php

…and then buy the training. It’s great. You won’t regret it.

ProAnimator is a great plug-in for After Effects. I encourage you to Download a demo and take it for a test drive.

Check out the preset

I’ll walk you through making a T-shirt Blowing on a Clothes Line in the wind in this Toolfarm exclusive tutorial. I use three still images, 3D Flag and a camera to create this clip that looks as if it was shot over the canals of Venice. This tutorial was done with Adobe After Effects 7.0, but you could also recreate this with Apple Motion 3.

Check out the tutorial now!. A free demo of Zaxwerks 3D Flag is available if you don’t own it. It’s a great little plug-in.