What It Does
Mantra V2 by Mettle is a plugin for Adobe Premiere Pro and After Effects that covers two distinct areas: 360/VR post-production effects and AR content creation. On the VR side, it gives you a suite of distortion and geometry effects for equirectangular footage. On the AR side, V2 adds tools for importing 3D assets, modifying them, and exporting to formats like USDZ and glTF for use in Adobe Aero and Apple Reality Composer.
Key Features
Mantra ObjX. Import 3D files in Alembic, FBX, OBJ, glTF, and USDZ formats, adjust materials inside Premiere Pro or After Effects, then export in AR-ready USDZ or glTF. Useful for editors who need to drop 3D objects into AR experiences without round-tripping through a dedicated 3D app.
Mantra Spherify. Converts 360° stills or video into 3D spheres and portals for AR. Supports different images on front and back faces, full RGBA, and exports to USDZ and glTF for AR players.
Mantra Graphix. Extrudes 2D graphics, logos, and text into 3D geometry, with USDZ and glTF export support. Includes environment lighting, blending modes, and scale above 180°.
VR Effects Suite. A range of 360°-aware effects including Mobius Transform (for virtual dolly and jib moves on static footage), Wormholes, Little Planets, Turbulence, Hyperbolix, Escher Droste, Mirrors, Stretcher, and more. Effects are drag-and-drop, keyframeable, and interpolatable from 0 to 100%.
Mantra Node Panel. A built-in panel for stacking and layering Mantra effects without manual scripting. Handles the underlying scripting automatically.
Globe Preview Panel. Preview 360° mono and stereoscopic output, including HMD point-of-view, directly inside the application.
Audio Reactivity. Link VFX parameters to audio with falloff controls. Practical for 360° music videos where visual effects need to track the soundtrack.
Mettle 3DNA. A proprietary ray-tracing and volumetric rendering engine integrated into Mantra V2, enabling more advanced lighting and material work.
Format support covers Rectilinear (flat), Monoscopic, and Stereoscopic (over/under). Native Apple Silicon support was added in version 2.24, and multi-frame rendering support arrived in 2.23.2.
Who It’s For
Mantra V2 is aimed at editors and motion designers working with 360/VR footage who need more than the native Premiere Pro immersive video tools, and at creators building AR experiences who want to stay inside an Adobe workflow. It’s also used for stylized music video work where 360° footage gets heavy VFX treatment.
Pricing
Mantra V2 is a one-time purchase at $229 USD for a single-user license. A free trial download is available from the product page. Upgrade pricing may be available for existing owners when logged in. Mantra V2 is also included in the Mettle Super Suite bundle alongside Flux and FreeForm Pro.