I made this tutorial to show you how to prepare your renders in Cinema 4D for export into After Effects. Then, I go though the process of importing your render into After Effects using Multi Pass, compositing tags and object buffers. I also show you how to change lights and add textures in AE to finish compositing your 3D scene.
GSG Community And Feeds
Categories
- After Effects
- Chris Schmidt
- Cinema 4D
- Cinema 4D 12
- Cinema 4D 13
- City Kit
- CS Tools
- Design
- Digital Cameras
- Downloads
- Five Second Projects
- GSG Live
- HDRI Studio Pack
- Ideas
- Inspiration
- Interview
- KeyframeTV
- Light Kit Pro
- Motion Design
- My Work
- NAB Interview Series
- News
- Photography
- Podcasts
- Products
- Reel Critique
- Reviews
- Simon Holmedal
- Speaking
- Tech
- Texture Kit
- The Monkey
- Tutorials
- Video
- Visual Learning
Archives
- February 2012
- January 2012
- December 2011
- November 2011
- October 2011
- September 2011
- August 2011
- July 2011
- June 2011
- May 2011
- April 2011
- March 2011
- February 2011
- January 2011
- December 2010
- November 2010
- October 2010
- September 2010
- August 2010
- July 2010
- June 2010
- May 2010
- April 2010
- March 2010
- February 2010
- January 2010
- December 2009
- November 2009
- October 2009
- September 2009
- August 2009
- July 2009
- June 2009
- May 2009
- April 2009
- March 2009
- February 2009
- January 2009
- December 2008
- November 2008
- October 2008
- September 2008
- August 2008
- July 2008
- May 2008
- April 2008
- March 2008
- February 2008
More Projects By The Gorilla
Signup to the GSG Newsletter
Join over subscribers to the GSG Newsletter. You will get a weekly or so newsletter with links to tutorials, Five Second Projects and GSG Products. Just so you know: spam sucks, your email is never published, nor shared.
Hi NIck
What an awesome tutorial! But somehow it’s not happening with me. I am running r11.5 with AE CS3. I have done the settings part exactly as you’ve shown yet I can’t get special passes folder after importing the file into AE. Looks like object buffer isn’t coming into AE. I have installed the plugin correctly. What could be the issue?
hey Nick,
awesome tutorial! Just a quick question about the red solid layer that is imported into AE.
I noticed when I attached the tags to the cube and I scaled the cube, the red solid layer follows the move of the camera. Is there any way that I can get the red solid to scale with the cube as well?
thanx!
Dear Nick,
Thank you for your awesome tutorials, apps products etc
I do have a question on this tutorial.
I have followed your steps to import into after effects but for some reason when Im trying to open my after effects project from the folder where I told c4d to save it into it keeps giving me this message:
After effects error: Cant import file “whatever.aec” : unsupported filetype or format
what does this mean?
do I have to set something up in c4d that allows me to do this?
please help! its driving me nuts!
cheers
Mauricio
Sounds like you need to install the Cinema4D Connect plugin in your AE plugins folder. It should have come with your copy of Cinema.
Pingback: 40 Cinema 4D Tutorials for Impressive Results | Vandelay Design Blog
NIck thank you so much!
This is so helpful specially for people starting in C4D. I really like your explanations of WHY are we checking boxes and using tools.
Mauricio you can download the plug in for after effects directly from maxon website. Make sure you drop it in the rigth folder.
Pingback: Graphic Tuts | How to Export Your Scene From Cinema 4D to After Effects | GreyScaleGorilla
Hi Nick. Nice tutorial. How come the matte layer animates, despite the fact you rendered it out as a bunch of Tiffs and only dragged one in? Thanks.
Hey Nick,
Just started exploring Cinema4d and stumbled upon this tutorial again today! I’d seen it awhile ago but never found the time to get into Cinema.
Very helpful, thank you!
Hey Nick,
Attempting to make a wall of TV monitors that can be replaced. I built a monitor, put the correct tags on the screen, then duplicated several times before dropping into an array to create the finished wall.
Once in after effects however, there were no solids from the external compositing tag.
My initial thought was that I was still only using one object buffer for all the screens, and a 2nd for my lights, but I would think that I should at least still get one big red solid, if not the many separate ones I’m trying for.
Any suggestions? Has anyone else run into this problem?
Thanks!
Pingback: FCE i Cinema 4d
I really like this Tut, but I have C4D 12.0. when I went to render my file for after effects it wont render as yours does. There are some slight differences between C4D 11.5 and C4D 12.0 please help. The Solid replacement does’nt work correctly.
Hey Gorilla.
Working really fine but du you have a workaround if some glass is in front of the layer what i want to replace?
Hi Gorilla, thanks for the great tutorials. U’ve been such an inspiration since i started using C4D a month ago.Please help me out on creating such an animation on the link below.
Ronnie
http://www.cpluv.com/generic/mainitem/37053
This a very helpfull tutorial. Thanks Nick.
I`m trying to bring a stage with 3 cameras, but I don´t know why, when in AE, everything goes well for the first camera. Then, the object I bufferd gets stoped, as if not being in sync with the other cams. Does anyone knows how can I fix that?
Same problem here, 4 cam, stage, 7 object buffer, help Nick!
Truly loving these and I’ve learned a ton. Thanks for giving of your time. However… I’ve done this one at least 10 times and I’m missing something. I’m on c4d broadcast version 12. simple scene, logo sitting on a beach. on a plane. logo and plane come in fine into AE, but background item comes in black. will this method not import backgrounds? thanks again.
I am having an issue Syncing Cinema 4d camera to After Effects. It seems to drift slightly. Anyone have this issue?
Does anybody have a solution for the problems about 20 of us are having here? When we render, using the exact same settings you have, it creates the .mov, and a .aec file, which then does nothing. You can’t drop it into After effects, it just sits there. Can anyone help? Thanks.
Try to install the Cinema4D Connect plugin in your AE plugins folder
Hi Diego, this is what a lot of us have been doing. Instead, this is the problem. When you use the multi-pass tags, you then need to save a filename under “Save>Multipass” in the render settings. If you don’t do this, then nothing loads up.
is ther a way to do the same things in 3dsmax please?
when I try to open that .aec file in after effects it says that filetype extension cannot be opened then it says 0:: 1 or something like that. What is going on?
Make sure you have the Cinema 4D Connect Plugin installed in AE and that it is the latest version.
Pingback: cgiant » Blog Archive » How to Export Your Scene From Cinema 4D to After Effects
Hi i just watched the tutorial and what iff you have a solid thats bigger then what it lets you put in? the screen is 2214 by 1249 and the solid can only be made up to 1000 by 1000
Hi everyone, my first comment on gsg
First of all I love what nick does, really great tutorials.
I have a trouble which is unsolvable for me. Regarding exporting the scene 3d elements (camera, nulls, etc) to after effects. I used external tag, and everything is ok when imported to ae, except one thing. Everything is orientated wrong, -90°. I saw a lot of other people have the same problem, but didn’t see adequate solution to this. Any thoughts? Cheers from Sarajevo.
Hi. Same here.. Going insane with this axis problem.
Found this thread here: http://forums.creativecow.net/thread/2/1000353
but can’t get get it to work with those solutions neither. Any input would be greatly appreciated. The tut is top notch!
finally my friend! it was ALL ABOUT THE AXIS ORENTATION AND POSITION!
The AXIS!!!!
Sorry for my caps
Ofcourse axis in Cinema!
All about the AXIS indeed, but anybody an idea about the rule in which order to put these? In a project of mine I needed to put the orientation to +X, +Y, -Z. In this tutorial I see Nick working with +Z. I’m interested in why this is?
Hey guys how is it going?
I started using C4D three days ago and of course had the same issue. When running my queries through Mr. Googles I stumbled upon this thread, didn’t find the answer so I kept on searching… five minutes later… the answer
Behold the reason and/or the solution
Reason (rui_mac):
http://forums.cgsociety.org/archive/index.php/t-861199.html
Solution in simple words(Adam Trachtenberg):
http://forums.creativecow.net/thread/19/871756
RE: Problems importing .aec files produced in C4D r12 into AE CS4+
Anyone having this problem, install the C4D exchange plugin into:
After Effects CS4 / Plugins / Extensions
I have no idea why, on some machines the exchange plug works fine just dropping it loose into AE’s plugin folder. On others, it has to go in Extensions.
For those with the former problem, try the latter. Fixes whatever bug it is no problems, perfect import.
R
Hey Nick,
Thanks for the tutorial! Just what I am looking for, 2 years after the fact! I do have a question. I have a plane in C4D that I am slicing into 6 parts. I’m then collapsing these parts in, like an accordion, to use as a transition. Is it possible to use this technique to have a movie playing on the entire object as it deforms within after effects? Thanks man!
thanks a lot for your tutorial.
But my question is, how can use external composite on a curve object to exported to After Effect
Im having trouble generating solids in after effects from c4d. I am trying to create solids from an array of imacs I built (just the screen element); it seems as though the compositing tags only work when you put them on the entire array rather than the child element. Any Ideas? Am I approaching this the wrong way?
plz help, i cant drag pic onto screen solid like tutorial, why?
great tutorial as always, i just have some notes it might be useful for u and some thing i want ask u for;
1st i see that after u had transferred ur work to AF u remained working in none liner work flow here wht u have to do to work in liner work flow in AF after opening the project from cinema 4d
1-import the project.
2-go to file >> project setting
3-in the color settings “work space” choose SRGB IEC61966-2.1, then enable linearize work space, then ok, bam ur in a linear work flow now.
the thing i want to ask u about in C4D when i use external composting and enable the solid if the box or the plan i am taging is in a different orientation than that which work with XY plane and after rendering and export to AF i found the generated solid has different orientation than that i want is there any way to adjust the external composting so that it give me the right solid orientation that i want….
Thank you, great tutorial!!!
pleace link for downlad plugin
Followed the tutorial and it worked great, but I’m getting a white line around the object when it is composited together in After Effects. I think I saw it a little in your example too. Do you know of anyway to get rid of the white border?
PLEASE HELP…ANYONE…..ok thanks for looking. I am totally stuck on this project…what I am trying to do is mask out the blue light trail thingy when it is behind a sphere….what I have done is create the footage in C4D and imported the .mov into AE….then I created the trail in AE…but I have tried so many mask and track mask ideas…but honestly I don’t know what I am doing…so I am wondering if I need to import the cinema file as shown in this tut into AE to be able to get the trail to actually be behind the sphere/s in 3D space…Any suggestions?
take a look at the video I am talking about:
http://www.d3graphic.com/for_the_spheres/for_the_spheres.mov
Thanks a lot…I am wracking my brain over this…cheers
Jacob, First your render from c4d need to have Alpha, On render settings check the Alpha box and use (straight alpha), In After Effect you will have to place your “trail” lights behind your c4d render. or in case your environment comes from c4d do two passes one with the background/environment and the second all the other elements you want to have in front of the “trail” light. use the composite tag to separate them it make work!
Good Luck
Pingback: 3komma14 Notes » Blog Archive » Cinema 4D to After Effects
I have tried a very simple run at this with a floor and a screen. When I follow this tutorial, my “screen/billboard” is not just an object I can place video onto and see the floor and the background, etc. When I drop my movie onto the “screen/billboard” it fills up the entire editor screen. I must be missing something and can not figure out what.
C4D Version 12
After Effects CS4
Dave
Thanks alot. so helpful.
My exports/imports in r11.5 work great… Recently got r13 and all new exports from this version won’t open in AE now!
Did some research and updated my plugin to the latest version from MAXON.
http://www.maxon.net/en/downloads/updates/plugins.html
also installed it in several places and combinations like sugester here:
http://www.c4dcafe.com/ipb/topic/62931-aec-camera-data/
any other suggestions or work arounds anyone?
Im on snow leopard, Adobe CS5.
Thanks.
For anyone having issues importing- I installed the C4DExporter and Cinema4ADE plugins to:HD/library/applicationsupport/adobe/plugins/CS5/fileformats
It worked for me!
Thanks for your help!
My problem was slightly different.
Had already tried installing both files ‘Cinema4DAE.plugin’ & ‘C4DExporter.plugin’ on the two recommended locations:
‘HD/library/applicationsupport/adobe/plugins/CS5/fileformats’
‘Applications/AdobeAfterEffectsCS5/Plug-ins’
My problem would have been that the ‘C4DExporter.plugin’ was still the old version supplied for 11.5 and that’s why those files where still opening fine… When re-doing the procedures stated above, I replaced those plugin files with the new version (named exactly the same) but supplied together with C4D r13.
Its all working fine now.
Cheers.
Thanks a lot, Nick! This tutorial is very helpful and super!
No matter how many times I open the project up in afx the solid I am replacing is NEVER in the right place. I had a soild between two headphones. When I open in afx its in front and not masked correctly and not in right place. And the Luma mask does not help me.
So my object is not rotating properly and would hate to have to animate the rotating. Is this because the null light is inside an object. And the partent of the light is inside another object. The lights rotation values are at 0,0,0 but the parents are different rotations. Thanks for any feedback!
Ok so looks like you don’t need lights anymore (to have an object follow the null). Just use the compositing tag?
Pingback: VX2100 3D model | PondMedia.net
Hi gorilla
thanks a lot for your tutorial.
I need to see this tutorial but I can`t see any things!!!
can you help me . I think your old files need to upload again.