Missing default materials from element 3d

[Destopiia]

I'm following a YouTube tutorial on texturing 3d layers and camera movements, and i'm needing a default material that I do not have.. the material is 'illumination' however it's not showing up in my materials it just says 'folder is empty' if someone has a fix or could help, please reach out thanks! - Destopiia

[P.M.B]

You're not familiar with folder hierarchies? That materials folder contains two folders.  I wonder what's in those folders?

Also, based on your question...you might want to find a better tutorial.

[Destopiia]

Those hierarchies are plugins, not default materials

[P.M.B · Accepted solution]

OK I felt a little bad about my first post so here's my 2nd attempt.

Your "default" materials are in the folder that says Physical.  You have to click on it to see it.

The "illumination" you speak of is not a material. It's a attribute of the physical material and requires a "texture".

Yes...there is a difference between materials and textures. Textures are usually 2D "maps" applied to materials.

For example: diffuse maps, gloss maps, reflection maps, etc...  & illumination maps

Back to the quality of the tutorial you're following:  Either it's a bad tutorial that fails to "tutor" you effectively, or it's too advanced for

your level of knowledge.

Bottom line...your default materials are NOT missing.  And Illumination is a "property" of that yellow material you are using and it requires

a texture.

[Rick Gerard]

More importantly, did you follow the Element 3D installation instructions carefully? If you have any of the packs that come with it it's easy to foul up that part if the installation. Also, Element is its own environment that runs inside AE. You need to spend some serious time with the tutorials on the Video Copilot site to learn how to use it. I would be very wary warry of most of the YouTube tutorials by amateurs. Most of them don't know what they are doing and don't have good workflows.

[Destopiia]

Hello again thank you for your response. The tutorial is literally about an advanced element 3D intro tutorial and I'm following his every step, however he seems to just click on the 'materials' and up comes a bunch of materials one of them being 'illumination' once I'm up I'll be happy to attach tutorial and time. Thanks. - Destopiia

[Rick Gerard]

If you want access to a bunch of materials you have to install them somewhere. That's why I asked if you carefully followed the instructions. I have not watched the tutorial but if that part was left out of the instructions the tutorial is an example of why you need to vet your trainers.

[P.M.B]

P.S.   If you think I am wrong then provide the link to the Youtube tutorial and the time of the video where the instructor has the illumination material in their material folder.  That would make it easier for someone with experience to see what the instructor is doing.

[Lauren281]

but you see my element 3d materials one doesnt have any folders 

[Shenmue]

Dude I feel bad how you are treated here, not only were they disrespectful but they didn't even answer your question or provide value. Let alone answer and I don't know how it got labeled as correct answer. I don't know if you had this solved but you're right. When you click the material folder is auto loads the presets of PRO SHADER which is the first plug-in released by VCP for Element 3D. Unfortunately it isn't free so you have to purchase that and you will get the cool shader like illuminated and glow. Hope that helps.

[Shenmue]

Just came back to edit my post. I made one mistake. The shaders do come with Element 3D pre installed. So they are free. There arte 20 of them, Pro Shaders is extra. So you might have to reinstall Element 3D

Here is a video of the creator himself,Andrew Kramer mentioning it. Sorry about that

http://www.videocopilot.net/help/element/tutorial/basic/pro_shaders_overview/

[Meherzad5EEF]

You sir, are excellent. It is horrible to see the 'know-it-alls' rambling on and on, but I am glad there's actually people on here who educate and give answers instead of putting one down. 

Thanks for the help.

[Sheerelle5FBE]

Hey, not sure if youve found your answer yet but I had the exact same problem. What I did was move the Video Copilot folder in my aplications folder into my documents folder. If you go to Aplications,  Adobe After Effects (your version), pugins,  Video Copilot,  there should be a folder inside (Video Copilot) labbled Video Copilot. I moved this folder into my documents folder. If there is already a Video Copilot folder in you documents I would suggest replacing it with the new folder. I hope this helps for you 🙂