v3.2.x Rowbyte Plexus for Adobe After Effects
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Create engaging motion graphics with this 2D/3D generative art plug-in for After Effects.
Plexus is a next-gen particle engine for After Effects that lets you create, manipulate, and visualize data in a procedural manner. It is designed to bring generative art closer to a non-linear program like After Effects. Not only you can render the particles, but you can also create all sorts of interesting relationships between them based on various parameters using lines and triangles.
The workflow for Plexus is very modular allowing you to create a truly infinite set of configurations and parameters.
Now with Multi-Frame Rendering (MFR) Support!
What’s new in Plexus 3?
Object-based UI
Plexus 3 comes with a tree-based Object Panel, that helps you organize multiple Plexus objects within the layer. It improves workflow dramatically and the panel itself is dockable anywhere within After Effects. It helps you keep track of your Geometry Objects, Effector Objects, Render Objects, and Groups by allowing you to select only what you need so no more scrolling through a long Effects Control Window.
Motion Blur
Finally. Now along with Depth of Field, you can add Motion Blur to create cinematic animations. You can use either comp settings or custom camera shutter values.
Sound Effector
A new Sound Effector Object lets you sample a waveform from a sound layer in AE and apply it to vertex position or scale or color. You can also Echo the sampled waveform so that the sound is sampled over time.
Slicer Object
The Slicer Object lets you ‘slice’ through a mesh and create interesting visualizations. It works best with OBJ meshes and can be used very well along with the instance object.
Seamless Beams
Render sweeping volumetric beams with seamless rendering. Beams no longer show any ‘overlapping joints’. Not only it improves rendering performance, but also renders much more accurate colors.
Designed for AE’s New Architecture
Plexus 3 was designed from the ground up to take advantage of AE’s new multi-threaded architecture introduced in 13.5. That means better support for Persistent Caching, better performance, and the best part, automagically refresh Instances. You can have many nested instances and all the changes are automatically detected. Also, just in case you need to refresh cache, a new button that lets you do that with a single click without affecting caches of other layers.
Depth Map Culling
You can use a Depth Map exported by a 3D program or Buena Depth Cue to occlude pixels directly. It helps composite Plexus in 3D scenes with ease.
Improved OBJ Import
You can now import OBJ files and file sequences using AE’s default file importer, which helps you organize footage better and collect project files. OBJ Object now also imports normals and texture coordinates along with vertex positions and facets.
Null Object Performance
Null Objects have similar performance to point lights if you’re running the latest version of After Effects. No need to convert Nulls exported from 3D applications to point lights anymore.
Path Object Improvements
Path Object is improved with scaling controls for replication and tessellation for closed paths. Now there is yet another way to create 3D text in After Effects, but make it a little more interesting.
Custom Visibility Settings
You can gradually fade or vanish points, lines or polys when they get close to the camera or far away from the camera. You can also custom hide polygons that face towards or away from the camera.
Unified Rendering
Unified rendering allows all objects to have a common 3D space. It allows points, lines & polys created by multiple objects to intersect with one another in z-space.
Loop Noise
You can seamlessly loop noise values for animations. You can cycle through noise evolution and it works for position, scale & color values.
Description
Main Features:
These are some of the main features of Plexus. For a more detailed overview of all the features, make sure to check out the Tutorials section and also the Documentation.
Lines
Create Lines and Other interactions and control their properties based on the position and distance between the particles.
Facets & Facet Effectors
Generate Facets between the particles and control their properties using Facet Effectors.
Triangulation
Triangulate and create new surfaces on the fly with in-built triangulation modes. You can also control the triangulation by various parameters like the distance between the particles etc.,
OBJ Sequences
Import vertices and facets from OBJ files and OBJ file sequences created in your favorite 3D modeling application. Plexus ships with an OBJ Sequence Exporter for Cinema4D at no cost.
Modular Workflow
Plexus has a modular workflow which consists of various objects. You can have an infinite number of objects and different combinations which provides you complete control and flexibility.
Graph UI Parameters
Graph-based parameters let you control various properties like color, opacity, and thickness based on user-drawn graphs. You can also choose preset graph flows if necessary.
Text Layer Integration
Plexus integrates seamlessly with the text layers in After Effects. It automatically creates particles based on the outlines of the text layers and you can create various text-based transitions with ease.
Containers
You can contain all the particles in a container which can be either spherical, cubical or a custom OBJ object. Containers help restrict the movement of the particles.
Sprites
Render custom sprites based on the particle data and also randomize them. You can also render multiple custom sprites per particle which is very helpful for Infographics.
Instances
Create multiple instances and also nest those instances into another instance object and create multiple instances of that object. Crazy right? It’s recursion for the crazy minded.
Sound Effector
Sample a waveform from a sound layer in AE and apply it to vertex position or scale or color. You can also Echo the sampled waveform so that the sound is sampled over time.
Slicer Object
The Slicer Object lets you ‘slice’ through a mesh and creates interesting visualizations. It works best with OBJ meshes and can be used very well along with the instance object.
Noise/Field Effectors
Use Lights to create and control various force fields using Noise and Spherical Effectors. You can seamlessly loop noise values for animations. You can cycle through noise evolution and it works for position, scale & color values
3D Seamless Beams
Beamlines from particles of one object to another or in between various particles of the same object. You can control various properties of the beams using graph-based parameters.
3D Splines
Finally! Now you can create 3D Splines and stroke them with ease natively within After Effects. Not only that, you can replicate them in 3D space.
Camera/Depth of Field
Plexus interacts natively with AE’s Camera and produces HQ OpenGL accelerated Depth of Field effects.
SVG Sequence Export
Export entire Composition or the current Work area to an SVG Sequence. You can choose the right frame to print later or use them all in sequence to play an animated sequence.
Motion Blur
Create cinematic animations using Motion Blur. You can choose to use AE’s comp settings or manually override shutter values to create really dramatic motion blur.
Unified Rendering
Unified rendering allows all objects to have a common 3D space. It allows points, lines & polys created by multiple objects to intersect with one another in z-space.
Visibility Settings
You can gradually fade or vanish points, lines or polys when they get close to the camera or far away from the camera. You can also custom hide polygons that face towards or away from the camera.
Color Maps
Use Color Maps to affect the position, color or scale of points.
Depth Map Culling
You can use a Depth Map exported by a 3D program or Buena Depth Cue to occlude pixels directly. It helps composite Plexus in 3D scenes with ease.
System Requirements
- After Effects 2024, 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020, CC 2019, CC 2018, CC 2017, CC 2015.3, CC 2015, CC 2014, CC, CS6
- Windows and Macintosh
Change Log
3.2.6 – Jun 8, 2022
– Minor bugfixes.
3.2.5 – May 3, 2022
– Resolved MFR render issues on Nvidia GPUs.
– Minor bugfixes.
3.2.4 – Dec 23, 2021
– Minor bugfixes.
3.2.3 – Dec 2, 2021
3.2.2 – Nov 24, 2021
– Floating License Compatibility Update
3.2.1 – Nov 3, 2021
3.2.0 – Oct 26, 2021
– Updated Installers.
3.1.14b – Mar 15, 2021
3.1.14 – Aug 31, 2020
- Fixed minor subdivision issue in Paths Object.
3.1.13- Jun 2, 2020
- Floating License Compatibility
3.1.12 – May 13, 2020
- Fixed OBJ file sequence index issues for some OBJ file sequences.
3.1.11d – Jan 22, 2020
- Minor Installer Changes.
3.1.11c – Nov 6, 2019
- Installers for 2020
3.1.11 – Sep 10, 2019
3.1.10 – Jun 21, 2019
- Fixed Floating License Server Compatibility
3.1.9 – Jan 7, 2019
- Fixed an issue with Instance Object creating more instances than set.
3.1.8 – Dec 3, 2018
- Floating License Support
- Minor sprite rendering fixes for macOS.
Plexus v3.1.7 – Oct 22, 2018
- CC 2019 Support
- Fixed an issue with vertex scale not set properly in some groups.
- Minor rendering enhancements.
Plexus v3.1.6 Release Date: Sep 13, 2018
- Fixed nested comp rendering issues.
Plexus v3.1.5 Release Date: Jul 03, 2018
- Improved Headless Rendering Support.
- Fixed minor panel issues.
Plexus v3.1.4 Release Date: May 22, 2018
- Unified Rendering performance enhancements.
Plexus v3.1.3 Release Date: Jan 08, 2018
- Fixed Object Panel not opening sometimes in CC 2018 issue.
Plexus v3.1.2b Release Date: Oct 20, 2017
- Installer support for Adobe CC 2018.
Plexus v3.1.2 Release Date: Jul 10, 2017
- Fixed container issues on some OBJs.
- Improved Plexus 2 project upgrades.
Plexus v3.1.1 Release Date: Jun 07, 2017
- Fixed ‘internal verification error’ in some comps.
- Minor cosmetic bugs
Plexus v3.1.0 Release Date: Apr 17, 2017
- OBJ compatibility issues.
Plexus v3.0.15 Release Date: Apr 4, 2017
- Support for unicode file paths.
- Support for headless rendering for render farms
Plexus v3.1.4 Release May 22, 2018
- Unified Rendering performance enhancements.
New in v3.1.3 – Jan 8, 2018
- Fixed Object Panel not opening sometimes in CC 2018 issue.
New in v3.1.2b – Oct 18, 2017
- Installer support for CC 2018.
New in v3.1.2 – Jul 10, 2017
- Fixed container issues on some OBJs.
- Improved Plexus 2 project upgrades.
New in v3.1.1 – Jun 7, 2017
- Fixed ‘internal verification error’ in some comps.
New in v3.1.0 – Apr 17, 2017
- Fixes OBJ compatibility issues in CC 2017.
Tutorials

In Depth: Particle Plugins for After Effects within your Budget
Learn about creating particles in After Effects with plugins including Particle Illusion, Trapcode Particular, Rowbyte Plexus, and more!
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Plexus and Cinema4D Integration
This tutorial will show you how to use a 3D model and output it from Cinema 4D to After Effects, using the Plexus OBJ Sequence Exporter.
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Deep Dive into Plexus 3 - Advanced Workflow
In this tutorial MoGraph designer YaYa Gadon breaks down how he created one of the shots he created for a promo video, exclusively in Plexus.
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How To Create A Cinematic Plexus Effect In After Effects
ArthurGFX shows you how to create a line/point cinematic effect using Plexus, which just happens to be on sale this week. Sale details are below the video.
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Cinema 4D: Plexus Particle Trail Animation Tutorial
Dennis Wei shows you how to make a very cool particle trail using Plexus, C4D, After Effects and a few other things, like Trapcode Particular and Optical Flares.
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Creating Abstract Animated Shapes With Plexus in After Effects
Learn how to create the popular plexus look in After Effects using Plexus v2 & Cinema 4D; Create 3D objects and bring them into Plexus using the OBJ format.
More...Create a Mask Morph with Rowbyte Plexus
Gardner Raymond shows how to do a Mask Morph between different mask shapes and making it look cool with Plexus, inspired by a video by Yen Hung Lin (Jeff).
More...The Art of Flight Plexus Matte Tutorials
Gardner Raymond explains how to create a cool magnified effect and the titles from the film The Art of Flight, using Rowbyte Plexus in After Effects.
More...Guitar Strings with Rowbyte Plexus
Gardner Raymond of Consequence Video Designs has a new After Effects tutorial, in which he creates animated guitar strings using Rowbyte Plexus with the help of Trapcode Sound Keys.
More...Mocha 3D Solver, Plexus, and AE Scripts
Learn how to use mocha and After Effects to track graphics and effects. 3D Camera solve and object tracking which can then be exported to After Effects to drive the Plexus particle plug-in. Clip courtesy Artbeats.com
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