Archive notice: This article was originally published on August 1, 2012. Links and embedded videos are preserved as part of the historical record.
The GPU-based Mir 1.0 plug-in for After Effects is intended to enable a fast real-time preview via OpenGL of the created 3D forms and the changed design. With Mir 1.0, motion graphics with soft object forms, flowing organic elements, as well as abstract landscapes and fog structures are intended to be generatable.
TRAPCODE MIR quick walkthrough from Peder Norrby on Vimeo.
The plug-in is said to require an Nvidia or AMD graphics card that supports OpenGL 2.1 and has 512 MB VRAM. Although the Mir tool is also intended to be able to work on cards with a lower number of MB, it then, however, crashes during HD compositing.
According to Red Giant, the basis of the design with Mir is simple polygon meshes that can be edited through 3D features such as Fractal Noise, Texture Mapping, and Repeating Geometry. In addition, the Mir plug-in is intended to be fully integrable into the Comp Lights and camera of After Effects, and through features such as Specularity and Ambient Occlusion, shading and reflections are intended to be easy to add.
The Mir plug-in is available individually for 99 dollars; in the complete Trapcode Suite package it costs 899 dollars. A free trial version of the Mir plug-in is also available.
Further information can be found here.
