I wanted to create a 3d soccer field with a camera that flies by and then 3d text drops on the field. For this type of work should I use after effects with cinema 4D lite? Is there a better method to choose? Is Cinema 4D Lite enough?

A lot of this depends on how close you want to get to the field and what sort of assets you already have in place. I would recommend going through this tutorial series to get up to speed on Cinema 4D Lite.

for a machinima 3d look I would use Iclone but what are you doing with this file once its done? i.e, is it for a demo on tv, a website or something else