Exporting Charater files to After Effects

There are several ways. You can export PNG sequences, but personally I do one of two things.

(1) Open up the After Effects and Character Animator side by side. Drag the scene from Character Animator and drop it into After Effects. This creates a “dynamic link”. Any updates in Character Animator will immediately be visible. (I think you can also in After Effects in the menus somewhere open up the Character Animator project file, then pick a scene from it, but I find the drag and drop easier.)

(2) Export a video from Character Animator (I use control-M on Windows) for exporting to Media Encoder. If I need transparencies in the video, go through the normal process (save it as H264), but before starting Media Encoder, change the encoder to QuickTime / GoPro CineForm RGB with Alpha. The “with alpha” means it will keep transparencies. You can then import that single movie file in After Effects.

I do the second approach for complex scenes because its faster on my little laptop. The first approach is easier if your computer is fast enough.

Note: exporting PNG images has transparencies - you just end up with directories full of files which I find more painful to manage. But it definitely works as well.