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. I also show you how to change lights and add textures in AE to finish compositing your 3D scene.
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58 Comments
Thank you thank you THANK you sir. I’ve been looking for a tutorial like this. Perfect timing too, I’ve got a project due which I’ve decided to do in 3D.
tinderbox on October 27th, 2009 said...
Same here! Have been searching all around the web but did not find anything that was as useful as this video. Thanks!
Hey there
lovely tutorial, very helpful.
We saw that the cameras were also imported into after effects, but what does that mean? How much can you play around with those? Surely you can’t move them around the 3d environment in after effects, can you? So what’s the point of importing them?
thanks again!
t
brandon thomas on October 27th, 2009 said...
You can add additional 3D layers/elements in after effects and they’ll be in the right position in 3D space relative to the scene..
Michael on November 21st, 2009 said...
Hi all
Does anybody know how to link ex. a tekst layer to the camera data imported from C4D?
) Mich.
I tried different options but my text layers is bouncing around the screen. I have done it before but I’m so tired from trying to reach a deadline, that I can’t remember… please help
And Nick, THANK YOU. you bring joy to tons of people! Your tutorials are at the same level as a certain “Dr. Cramer” (And thats high)
The reason you import them is so that everything lines up in AE. Now, you can add even more elements to the scene and everything stays in the right position because we have camera data in there.
Raivan on October 27th, 2009 said...
Nick,
You hear it all the time- BUT thank you for being so generous with your knowledge!
I have C4D version 11…not 11.5
What about the procedure & effects in this tutorial can version 11 NOT do? Thanks again!
r-
Raivan on October 27th, 2009 said...
Addendum-
I’m sorry, I wasn’t paying attention! I know next to nothing about C4D, so I please bear with me :/ Is there a work-around to the new feature you pointed out where you can modify the “external compositing” tag’s properties by creating a solid that becomes an alpha matte or luma matte in AE? Is multi-pass rendering my only option in C4D v.11?
Agustin on October 30th, 2009 said...
Hi Raivan Did you find any solution to your problem? because i am stuck with the same problem as you…Please help!
chris culp on October 30th, 2009 said...
Another method of exporting an alpha matte is to create a plane using whatever dimensions, and give it a unique object buffer with a “Cinema 4D compositing tag”.
This works in older versions too.
Thank you mister GoRilla!
for taking the time to create this.
I never could use the “export After Effects” thingy…The proyect file doesn´t open on After CS4…has anyone experienced this yet?
It is a CS3-only proyect file?
Cause if it´s like that…It really sucks…!
Great tutorial man!
Keep em coming!
greetings from Argentina!
ben.
brandon thomas on October 27th, 2009 said...
have you installed the exchange plug in? it’s included in the installation of cinema4d and alloes the .aec file to be imported into After Effects, you just have to drag the plug into AE’s plugin folder, and you should be good to go.
Seriously Nick thanks a whole bunch for this tutorial, I’ve been piecing how to do this from multiple tutorials of lower quality. This one really brings everything together.
Ian
Very well explained workflow, i think i watched it on Maxon, but maybe it was a shorter version.Thanks man.
Thanks, Nick! Spot on as usual!!
All of a sudden the Flash videos aren’t playing for me anymore. Anyone else seeing this? Not seeing it elsewhere. The only thing I can think of is that I have a QT X player open in the background but not sure why that should matter.
@brandon Thank you very much!! I´ll try just that.
Is it me or did you already post this?
The Gorilla on October 27th, 2009 said...
You may have seen a shortened version on the Maxon Website.
Ben on October 27th, 2009 said...
Ah! Thats it. I thought I was going crazy for a minute.
Thank you, I really like your cinema 4D tutorials.
Cheers
Thanks for the tips Nick !
About the ” external compositing ” I don’t see these option, and I can’t create a solid, is there only in 11.5 ?
The Gorilla on October 28th, 2009 said...
You should have an External Compositing tag in older versions, but the “Create Solid” is new to 11.5.
Brand new to the site and C4D, looking forward to learning, thanks Nick!
The Gorilla on October 28th, 2009 said...
Welcome to the site, Ray!
Cheers Nick, always wondered the best way of doing multipasses from C4D into AE – never released that’s what object buffers were for!
Cheers once again dude!
Nice !
You should post more of these compositing tuts, because imo they’re the most difficult to get right.
Thanks !!
Nice and very usefull tutorial as always.
Thank you.
WOW. That was great, thank you Nick. Does anyone know if something similar is possible in Maya? I’m sure it is, but it seems like Cinema 4D works much better with AE than Maya does. I’ve considered ditching Maya and making Cinema 4D my main 3D program. If anyone has any opinions on that to offer it would be great, because I’m having a hard time deciding if it’s worth putting the time and money into learning C4D. Thanks!
Ben on October 28th, 2009 said...
IMO maya has better tools to get separate compositing passes/render layers into a compositing software like ae. Its alot like creating different layers in photoshop, where you are able to assign varying objects,lighting conditions, textures, animations etc to individual render layers and then hit batch render rendering everything together. However im not sure that you can import the camera data from maya into different comping software. Will do some investigating and report any findings!
Ben on October 28th, 2009 said...
Hope its cool for me to post the links here (let me know if its not!)
Dated tut from creativecow.net which might help you abit – http://library.creativecow.net/articles/delafuente_rene/maya_cam_imp.php
Adobe AE-CS4 product support which is much more helpful! – http://help.adobe.com/en_US/AfterEffects/9.0/WS3878526689cb91655866c1103906c6dea-7f25a.html
Hope this helps!
The Gorilla on October 28th, 2009 said...
Thanks for the help, Ben.
Kyle on October 28th, 2009 said...
Thanks for the info Ben, I’ll have to check that out. I have successfully imported the camera data from Maya into AE simply by importing the maya project file into AE. It’s been a while though, so I may be only half right about how simple it is.
Ben on October 28th, 2009 said...
No prob guys. Am hoping to find more info on maya to AE comping… if anyone is also interested/knows anything please just let me know.
Would I be correct in thinking that all this can be achieved with C4D version 11 (or 10, in fact). Also, in your example it’s unlikely to be an issue, but if you don’t separate the faces of the cube and attach the external compositing tag to the ‘front’ face, the solid or null object in AE will actually be in the equivalent of inbetween the front and back faces. If your screen had more thickness that would cause drift…
Good tutorial! Thanks a lot for the work! Quick question: how do we export simple “nulls” from C4D into AE, if we want references for positioning AE (2.5D) elements in a scene?
chris culp on October 28th, 2009 said...
You can export the 3D data of any object by adding the “external compositing” C4D tag to it. Check “3D data” in the render settings, and hit save… that’s it!
The best part is you don’t even have to render to export all of this data out, it creates the AE file instantly.
diegoVONdiego on November 26th, 2009 said...
Wow ! That’s great ! I was sure that External compositing tag wasn’t that useless before 11.5 ! Chris you are my today god !
woaw! Nice piece Nick!
If only you we’re a Softimage user! I think I could learn a lot of things.
Anybody knows how can I do this with Softimage?
(I mean exporting camera data)
I like it….
Tried to open the .aec file (that cinema4d had exported) into After Effects CS3. But it gave an “After Effects error: Can’t import file: unsupported filetype or extension”.
Anyone else have the same problem?
The Gorilla on October 28th, 2009 said...
You have to install the C4D.plugin into your plugins folder. You should have that file in your Maxon Folder.
Fabian on October 29th, 2009 said...
Okay, thanks Nick… that was it!
Wow just what I needed/asked for! Haven’t watched it yet but it seems to be exactly what I was looking for!
Thanks alot Gorilla!
Thanks Nick- i love how you were able to explain object buffers in 15 minutes.
Thanks!! this is very helpfull!.
But i have a question…
i want to do the same but with a cube faces.
i want put video on a cube face….
how can i impot each faces of the cube for replace a diferent video on after effects .
Thanks
The Gorilla on October 28th, 2009 said...
For a cube, you can offset the solid so that it matches up to the face of the cube. You may have to do some measuring, but It should work.
lawrence on October 28th, 2009 said...
I’m not sure but could you also duplicate the cube, make the copy editable and separate the faces and give each one a compositing tag? Might give it a try later, if it works it should work with any C4D version.
vjorchid on October 30th, 2009 said...
Tanks
yo nick love the tutoial but just one problem, this external composite tag is it only for r11..
The Gorilla on October 30th, 2009 said...
Yeah, This tut was made using 11.5
Thanks a lot Nick! Thats absolutely what I needed to know!My work is going to be a lot cooler now!
finally! ive been waiting for this
Hi the tutorial is great,,,
I am new in C4d and have some question
1) why if in the render setteng if I switch the Relative to on ,,and the I save,,,then after effects seems not importing nothing,, If i Switch to on then i can import my files
2) why the red solid create in c4d in after effects appear rotated of 90 on Y?
thank M
The Gorilla on October 30th, 2009 said...
Not sure about those issues. Anyone else having problems?
Garus on October 30th, 2009 said...
I have been having this same issue for some time and have not been able to fix it in C4D. The solution is simple in Ae just rotate it 90 degrees and it is corrected. It does get a little frustrating when you have a few of them in your comp.
Will let you know if I figure it out!
Awesome tutorial Nick. You just made me wana to stop learning 3d Studio Max and start learning C4D. Can’t wait for Thursday U-Stream chat.
Dude you rock, thanks again!
Hola, agradezco este TUTORIAL, estoy comenzando en Cinema4d, y no habia podido lograr trasladar desde Cinema a After Effects, muchas gracias
saludos desde Chile
Hi Gorilla a super great site,i see how did your renders in Cinema 4D for export into After Effects can you tell me how to do it for final cut 7 and motion 3
I’ve got a small problem while trying to export project as Quick Time Movie, Cinema says that it is “Unable to write file”. Works fine with Avi Movie Uncompressed frames. I am using R11.5 on win7 x64. Maybe someone knows how to fix this?
Thank you very much, this tutorial will make a lot of lives easier. One question though,I only have C4D R10.5 , and the External compositing tags only has a Name and Layer field and nothing else, is there a way to work around this or should i just get R11? anyway, salamat from manila, philippines!
Hello! I have a simple question, i have cinema 4d version 11, and in the external compositing tag, i don´t have the option of create solid, i just exported the 3d data and the nulls objects, but my picture or footage doesn´t match exactly with the screen, please help.
zach blumstein on October 29th, 2009 said...
im having the exact same problem
whats up with that?
The Gorilla on October 30th, 2009 said...
Creating a solid is only 11.5. Nulls should work though.
Agustin on October 30th, 2009 said...
Hi there nick! about the nulls i can´t get it right, i don´t know, but somehow, my footage doesn´t match with the 3d screen i´ve made…is there anyway that you could explain us (cinema 4d version 11 owners) how can we achieve this same effect with out the create solid option on the external composite tag??? Make us happy, please help nick.
chris culp on October 30th, 2009 said...
Make sure you’re opening up the .aec compositing file from scratch, using the correct camera, and replace the 3D data null with the footage you have, so it maintains the same 3D space. Everything will align perfectly.
As far as the alpha matte, create a plane where your footage should go, then add a “cinema 4d compositing tag”. This is in addition to the “external compositing tag”. Add a unique object buffer for it, and add that object buffer to your multipass render.
This works in previous versions too, good luck!
Hello sir Nick!..that was an awesome tutorial…i have always been waiting for that tutorial!!!..keep it up…..
Hello.. you used Cinema 4d r11.5 ?
thanks
The Gorilla on October 30th, 2009 said...
Yeah, I used 11.5 but you can still do most of this with earlier versions.
Great tutorial! You forgot to mention one thing that might get people into trouble. It at least got me into trouble when I was screwing around with this same thing. That is the external compositing solid is determined upon the axis location of the object. If you end up using a cube instead of a plane, the axis will be in the middle (unless you change it). Therefor when you do a camera sweep like your example, the plane will end up being slightly off. You can have things go really whacky if your axis is on a different rotation.
Agustin on October 30th, 2009 said...
I agree! After hours and hours of trying and trying i finally solve this problem just modifing the axis, if yopu use just a plane instead of a cube, you need to pute the axis at the top left corner, because thats where AE put the nulls. Ok, good luck!
Agustin on October 30th, 2009 said...
Hi Ryan, is there any way i can contact with you? because i tought i solved the problem, but no…im haven the same problem as before, can you help me?
Ryan Ragle on October 30th, 2009 said...
I can’t really help you all that much if you’re on R11 and not R11.5. I haven’t tried to do this same type of mapping on R11 with nulls only
The Gorilla on October 31st, 2009 said...
Good tip, Ryan. Thanks for your help.
Greydog on November 2nd, 2009 said...
Ryan! Thank you! I was trying to figure out where I went wrong all weekend!
Hey! i’m Really missing out!
How come the Videos never show up whenever i visit this website.all text is visible but its blank and plain where videos are supposed to be.
I’m in China– if that will help.
The Gorilla on October 31st, 2009 said...
There were some bandwidth issues earlier. Should be ok now.
Paul on November 2nd, 2009 said...
Can’t see it still.
Please Gorilla,give me some link i could download the above tutorial.thanks
Paul on November 18th, 2009 said...
Hi The Gorilla,
I understand Vimeo has been blocked here in China along with youtube,facebook and others.that’s why i could not access your videos but somehow i managed.Thanks. u are great!
what abt a C4D tutorial on how you made the billboard?
great tutorial and some very helpful tips.
i am a max user trying to learn cinema 4d and right now i am having difficulty producing depth of field with the camera. its tricky here. can you give a short tutorial on how to achieve dof in cinema?
Hey, “The Gorilla” Can You Please Make A Tutorial On How To Make That BillBoard Please? It Would Be Awesome If You Would
The Gorilla on November 1st, 2009 said...
Sure, thats a good idea. Look for that sometime soon. Cheers
Hey thanks for the great tutorial.
But I’m still working in V11 and was wondering if you ever came up with the same problem I am having when exporting out of V11. I have followed all the steps but when I opened the AE file my nulls are working on some camera movements but when the camera moves fast some of the videos are off from the actual point its suppose to be. I also know the trick about V11 having to have the axis on the top left.
Nick Thank you very much
I think this is one of the most focused tutorials you have posted. Very direct explanation from feature to feature. I followed the entire time and picked up some tips I hadn’t know. Thank you.
Thanks,It’s cool
Hi Nick,
Thanks for your tutorials they are great.
We are using C4D 11. Have you ever encountered problems with you image buffer luma mattes being 1 pixel too large and giving you a white halo around your object in after effects?
I seem to get this problem all the time and as it’s a luma matte i cannot fix it with a choker. I fix the problem by adjusting the levels and bringing the whites down on the buffer object but wondered if there was something i’m doing wrong or a better way of going around it?
Tom
The Gorilla on November 9th, 2009 said...
Never had that problem, Tom. Sorry. Anybody else?
Yes! A lot of questions answered for me. Thanks !!
nice video. i was wondering if you can do a video on rigging in c4d? because i have this model of a guy i created but i want to move his arms and legs.
Hello Gorilla, Thankx so much for this tip. Just wondering what would be the best way to replace the screens in this graphic (the square TV kind of things) to some videos. (http://www.maxon.net/products/editions-bundles/editions/broadcast-edition/extension-kit.html) (the graphic on top)
Using the method you suggested we will have so many object buffers etc. Would that be the way we do it? Kindly comment.
Ben: Just wanted to add on your reply. Maya to AE is also simple as C4D except that the maya Lights don’t come into AE as C4D does. Also the unit/scales are so different that a small movement of position in AE amounts to a 100 pixel etc, very troubling.
In my learning experience I found Maya to Nuke using FBX formats the best way to work things out for VFX. For MGFX I think we can’t beat the C4D-AE combo. Thankx, this is just IMHO.
The Gorilla on November 9th, 2009 said...
Try adding nulls to everywhere you need a tv, then use the nulls to place the images. Then, you can just use a image buffer for all of them instead of each one separately.
Hafeez on November 9th, 2009 said...
Thank you so much Nick, I will try that out. I just watched your interview at motionworks. Truly, truly inspiring!!!!
Thank you so so much for this tutorial.
I had been struggling to do this and you really explained everything for me.
Keep up the cool tutorials they really help alot.
Great! Thx.
But will be tutorial explaining how to modeling this stuff in c4d?
Paul Edmondson on November 28th, 2009 said...
I am really struggling with this. The render set up is identical to the video. I have animated a cube moving along a spline and it comes to the camera. Then I want to add video to the front face, but when I add the tags etc and open it in A fx it is so mis aligned. I have tried the picot points in different places and still cant get it sorted.
hi can anyone tell more about render setting for rendering movie to AF ? i dont know how to work with multipass.
now all what i can get is a single pic in AF not movie…
Hey! it was the plug-in it need it to be update…:) Where did you get the billboard from–can we get it for free from you..:)?
Hi, I tried this amazing tutorial,bu after i exported to ae(cs4) my object with external comp tag was totally out of position(in ae)?Any ideas?
I’m getting everything to work but the Object buffer. I added a compositing tag to my object, enabled it, set it to 1 and within my render settings ensured that multi-pass and object buffer one were checked.
Everything opens up in AE. My cameras and all that stuff is there, but there is no separate folder named “Special Passes” like you have. What am I doing wrong?
this is beatiful, Nick! I send my rays of gratitude 2 you.