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grantM80
Known Participant
October 31, 2017
Answered

How to sync a cinema 4d and After Effects animation

  • October 31, 2017
  • 2 replies
  • 7260 views

What I want to do is create comps in ae that track the 3d motion within a c4d file. In my c4d file I am using a target camera that moves along a spline and focuses on the cd objects that I have within my scene.

I want to create animations within ae that track the camera motion within my c4d file and as such appear as though they are applied to the 3d objects. In the examples below the coloured imagery is my c4d file and the white text is a placeholder example of an ae animation.

Is the best way of doing this to import the c4d file into ae and use a comp camera or to track the c4d footage? Help with this would be much appreciated as I don' have much experience with c4d

This topic has been closed for replies.
Correct answer dj.summitt

You can export the C4D camera and bring it in to AE.
This video goes over, in more detail, how to do that.
https://www.motionscience.tv/blog/virtual-cameraExport Cinema 4D Camera to After Effects! (Cinema 4D Tutorial) - YouTube

Conversely, there is a script called Paint n Stick that you may want to look in to if you do this frequently.

2 replies

Mylenium
Mylenium
Legend
October 31, 2017

Exporting the scene via AEC or Cineware should sufficiently do the trick. Using extra plug-ins like Paint & Stick or UV Mapping/ UV Pass tricks would work as well, but they will require to render extra passes and if you only use C4D Lite some of that stuff doesn't work, anyway.

Mylenium

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grantM80Author
Known Participant
October 31, 2017

Hi Mylenium

Do these plugins work much like the 3d tracker in ae?

Mylenium
Mylenium
Legend
October 31, 2017

I did a tutorial on this UV stuff a long time ago, but Adobe totally ruined it when they reorganized their help pages, so I'm not going to link it here. It's useless without the images. You can find info on how to use UV passes and such elsewhere just as well, though.

Mylenium

dj.summitt
dj.summittCorrect answer
Inspiring
October 31, 2017

You can export the C4D camera and bring it in to AE.
This video goes over, in more detail, how to do that.
https://www.motionscience.tv/blog/virtual-cameraExport Cinema 4D Camera to After Effects! (Cinema 4D Tutorial) - YouTube

Conversely, there is a script called Paint n Stick that you may want to look in to if you do this frequently.

G
grantM80Author
Known Participant
October 31, 2017

Thanks dj

am wondering though does the process in the tutorial only work with effects such as lens flares. For example would a shape or text within after effects rotate within the c4d scene much like the lens flares do or would they stay the same regardless of the camera rotation?

dj.summitt
dj.summitt
Inspiring
October 31, 2017

It would create a 3D camera in AE that has the position/rotation data as the one in C4D. It would operate just as any AE camera and effect all 3D layers including text and shape layers.

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