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How to Make An Animated Title Sequence in Cinema 4D and After Effects 107 Comments

Vimeo asked me to do a tutorial for their excellent Vimeo School series and I said “heck yes!” It’s all about how to make a fun animated title using Cinema 4D and After Effects. In Lesson 1, we build the logo from a vector file and prepare it for render. In part 2, we composite it in After Effects using the built in Tracking Software, lens blur and color correction. Follow along over at Vimeo School or watch it below.

Lesson 1 (Cinema 4D)

Lesson 2 (After Effects)

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107 Comments

  1. Evan

    Nice! Loving the cross application tutorials Nick. Happy holidays and thanks.

    Reply

  2. Steve From UK

    Great Nick !!!

    I’m looking forward to giving a go a few of your tutorials over the Christmas Hols..

    Is this wrong ? :)

    Reply

    • BlkNNerdy

      Me too. I often get lost during Nick’s tuts. I followed this one very easily. Loved it.

      Reply

  5. Steve From UK

    BTW

    Is ‘Nick for Vimeo School’ and the Greyscale Gorilla the same person?

    Reply

    • Ginz

      haven’t you noticed? it’s not the gorilla. he is a lot more polite…( :

      Reply

      • Steve

        Lol

        Yeah, I prefer the fast talking, high on caffeine ,talking to himself,unplanned approach, jump straight in there Nick

        This Nick must be a imposter :)

        Reply

  6. Singh

    Nick, you are simply amazing. I was looking for a good tutorial like this but couldn’t find one until now. Thank you so much!

    Reply

  8. Charles

    That’s a cool tutorial for any beginner, I know some of pros want beefier and meaty tuts but it’s the holidays and I want to take a break from all things graphic related until the new year!!

    Peace

    Reply

  9. Margherita

    Looks gorgeous! Thanks a lot for these tutorials, I found them really helpful!
    Have happy holidays and loking forward the new ones :) Meg

    Reply

  11. M

    Thanks Nick! this is a very helpful tut and can be used in a lot of effects..am thinking traffic streaks with some rotating shiny type..
    Best Regards

    Reply

  12. Marco

    Just saw you’re running OSX Lion. Any problems with plugins? Software? Is it worth updating?

    Reply

  13. CanisLatrans

    Really great tutorials!
    Nick I’ve got a quastion maybe not applicable for this tut. But im wondering if there is something similar to AE’s motion blure in C4d? which I can use for animation inside Cinema4d? I’ll be really greateful for a quick tip.
    Ps- Hope to see some tutorial with trackings 3d graphicks using more rotations footage. And plays with nulls trackings points in C4d. I allways wonder how it works.

    thanks for these tuts!

    Reply

    • Philip White

      Are you trying to emulate DOF in C4D?

      If so, C4D’s physical renderer has the ability to make use of depth of field, although it will extend the render time.

      You can get some very nice results from it though :)

      Reply

        • CollinBishop

          You can add motion blur in the render settings. It is located in the drop down with GI and AO. You will want to select subframe motion blur and say how many samples you wish to do. You need to be in the picture viewer to see the motion blur render out since it takes multiple frames into account.

          Another method is to render out a vector motion blur pass and bring it into AE and then you have the ability to control it through the ReelSmartMB plugin. But the first option will solely be in C4D.

          Reply

  14. Steve

    Nick, Awesome tutorial like always!
    Quick Tip: When rendering with Alpha enabled, it isn’t necessary to turn off the background

    Reply

    • kwaku nyantekyi

      That’s true. As long as you have the compositing tag applied with seen by camera unchecked, you’re good to go.

      Reply

  15. Andrew

    Too much DOF in the background, title text need 2 be more animated for 15 sec vid.Other then that the scene take on a railroad should make a train hit the Vimeo title and break it in pieces..

    Reply

  16. AlienArtAgency

    Hey Nick! Just a question, instead of using a FastBlur at the end for blurring a little the logo, why didn’t you use the built in motion blur in AE? Thanks a lot! Cheers

    Reply

  17. Kiloski

    this came at the perfect time nick! thanks so much, just the look i was going for. love your tutorials, keep up the great work!

    Reply

  18. El Viajero Espacial

    exactly what i was looking for thanks!!!

    Reply

  19. enriched flour

    how is this any different than the Gauntlet Series from Rendertime other than the fact that Vimeo asked you to do it?

    Reply

  20. Moyo

    Wow Nick!! have been trying to make something like this, and i could thanks for the tutorial you just made my Christmas i appreciate you and your work..happy holidays Nick hope you have a wonderful one with your family.

    Reply

  21. tr1ck

    Great tutorial as always!
    Quick tip:
    I would put the another instance of “vimeo” inside “depth map” comp with a fill effect applied in white, so if you focus in depth, the “vimeo” remains blurry/
    Keep up the good work! :)

    Reply

  22. Gokhan

    Very nice tutorial Nick,very useful my friend ;)
    your DOF effect technic is very nice but I am usually using ”Depth of Field Effect” in AE..
    ..(Effect top menu/ 3D Channel / Depth of field)
    very fast render and useful technic but firstly render settings in C4D / in the save tab;you may select format to ”RPF” and enable to ”Z Depht” in options of RPF and Render ;)
    please try this,you like it :)

    Thank you very much for great tutorial Dear Nick,
    You are always Best my friend ;)

    Reply

  26. Lucas Brooking

    Great Nick. But would love to see how to import tracking data into cinema4d for some rad 3d tracking action.

    Reply

    • CollinBishop

      The best hands down tracker I have seen is Boujou. I will warn it is #1 expensive and I only got it since I worked for the Saudi military but the thing gives excellent results. It requires you to edit the .c4d file in a text editor though. You have to set the Quaternion rotational value to “0″ instead of pi which is why it comes in backwards. The other thing you must change is the parent000002 to 1 so that you don’t import the tracking data within the camera and have the psr all out of wack. Hope this helps. I have been aware of the new camera tracker in AE but haven’t used it so I can only provide my workflow…

      best

      Reply

  27. saunter

    I don’t have a very good camera and its proving to be almost impossible to find decent free HD footage of something useful to have a go at tracking.
    Anyone got any suggestions?

    Reply

    • Touchsky

      Just still image,some matte paint,little bit of composing, work fine for me.

      Reply

  29. makosx

    Thanks for the extensive explanation on AE tracking (and for the rest of the tutorial, of course), a very interesting review.

    Reply

  30. Nikolaus

    Hi,

    thx for this tutorial. I like to know how to render out a shadow in C4D and compose it in AE. I know that i have to use channels, but don’t know how… Maybe you would like to make in future a tutorial for this. Some bouncing balls on a table or so? :)

    Merry XMas To All of You
    Nikolaus

    Reply

    • Thomas

      Nice tutorial. Like Niko I would like to know how to setup the render to have the shadows created in Cinema.

      I guess I have to use multipass, but to be honest I’m scared of multipass…

      I have found some tutorials on this topic, but all of them uses the video as a background in Cinema.

      Reply

  32. sy

    Nick, that was the nuts! My first foray into after effects. Last day at work before xmas and ive put the company logo into a moving scene. Brilliant! Now, is putting animation into the scene as easy?
    Happy Christmas to you and your good lady wife. Looking forward to some more lovely stuff in the new year!!

    Reply

    • phil

      Hey Nick! Thanks for the tutorial! it was really easy to follow you step by step! Can you do more compositing tutorials using cd4 and after effects? thanks again and enjoy the video!

      http://vimeo.com/34572645

      Reply

  36. siniz

    N for Nick!!!
    thanks a lot for the tutorials, as always so much absorb!
    cheerz, siniz.

    Reply

  37. Shawn

    Nick, your work is awesome!

    Tutorials are great… So instead of trying to make a title sequence myself, how much for you to make one for me? :-)

    Reply

  39. Byron

    Your tutorials are amazing. I have been working with cinema4d for only about a month now, but I’ve been able to learn a great deal just by following along and tinkering on my own. Keep up the good work!

    Reply

  40. andre fry

    Great tutorial Nick. Just got my Panasonic HDC-SD900 so this is perfect.
    Keep up the great work & happy holidays.

    Reply

  41. Pradeep

    LOL Nice tutorial but its too boring cause its SO detailed!!!!!
    U r explaining each step lol!!!!!!

    Reply

  43. Steven Barnes

    Hey GSG, wonderful tut! I have a quick question, something I have not been able to get around in C4D on this note, a similar animation. Say my logo is on a huge cityscape, ok. In C4D the “Background” we create for perspective causes it to vanish behind it in z space, when trying to get the perspective right for sitting it far off in the distance. Figured you might know of a work-around or fix. Thanks for your time, laters.

    Reply

  44. Oxi

    It’s a very good tutorial. I had fun doing it.
    Please see my work and give me your opinion. Thank you!

    Reply

  46. Timmey

    hey Nick, the stuff with Cinema was easy,good to handle and well explained but i don´t have AE is there a good way to make this stuff with Motion 5?
    Greetings from Germany you are awesome ;0)

    Reply

  47. ku

    Thanks Nick for the tutorial, it’s very helpful especially how you explain the reason being each move. I just had a quick question, i didn’t pick it up from the tutorial, maybe i missed it, what’s the reason why we’re attaching the tracks to the null object instead of the title itself? thanks.

    Reply

  48. Torin

    Gorilla You are the man thanks for all the tutorials. They have helped me so much!!!!

    Reply

  49. Mitch

    Hey People,
    I got a question. i followed this tutorial.
    But can i do this with this tutorial too?

    Can i let the 3d text fly in the movie? just like it comes from the right and stops in the middle?

    (sorry for bad english)

    Reply

    • lilartroom

      Emily your test was absolutely amazing. Loved it. You should have done a tutorial. How did you go about masking the guy out and what did you manage to track in this footage?

      Reply

  51. Mo Twine

    Just wanted to extend my gratitude. Discovered these tutorials a few months ago and you have really opened my eyes to a lot of great techniques and concepts.

    Reply

  52. jose

    Hi Nick can you take a look on my reel of 2011 and give your opinion please?
    I´s a one minute video and i really liked to know what you think about it.

    Thanks man.

    Demoreel 2011:
    http://vimeo.com/34864983

    Reply

  53. Phill

    Cheers Nick, My first dalliance into AE, easy enough to follow. Would love to know how to go the other way – get the motion tracking information back into Cinema, so that you could pan around a 3d object rather than just the straight on 2D look.

    Reply

  54. lilartroom

    Nice Tutorial Nick. I did my own motion tracking test using this tutorial of yours. I would like to see if you could do a more complicated motion tracking tutorial than this one. How to you go about camera matching a 3D object with your camera? I can’t find to many tutorials out like that.

    Here is the link to my camera tracking test using your tutorial:
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0kcNoz2GhtI

    Reply

  56. Sam Lara

    Hi! Great tutorial. Thanks alot. Just a quick question about the grain generated by the AO. How can I reduce that? For some reason it gives me alot of grain on my shadows. Is that normal? I increase my minimum samples but it wont seem to go away. How can I fix that?

    Thanks again,

    Sam

    Reply

  58. Aj

    Very nice! I actually used it just for what you did. the vimeo logo intro. I was looking for something to do for one and you made a tutorial. Just what I needed! Thanks man! Also introduced me into how to work tracking better!
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FNbGSayCUro

    Reply

  59. Dean G

    YO cheers for the awesome tutorial, just what i needed to learn. i am having issues with the logo rending grainy! cant figure it out . . all settings are as per the tut. any ideas?

    Cheers

    Reply

  60. Josh

    Thanks for the grand tutorial

    Here’s what I was able to make with it:
    http://vimeo.com/35478718
    I didn’t stray too far from the tutorial; it’s stylistically the same. But alas, I know nothing of Cinema 4D

    Reply

  61. John Thames

    Hi Nick!
    In Lesson 1 around 2 minutes I see some sort of dark grey area around the save as window (in which you can select recent folders etc) What is that? It looks likes a real timesaver :)

    Reply

  62. magda

    Thanx Nick !!! Great tutorial , very well explained, amazing info!!, thanx a lot to share your knoledge.
    really apreciate your exellent work!!!

    Best!

    Reply

  63. Raoni Pedro

    Hi Nick,

    First of all Im a HUGE fan of the Greyscale Gorilla and the Gorilla itself!

    Im having a trouble of avoid the influence of my sky color in my material.
    For example my sky is a beautiful blue sky and when a use the my material just turn blue too, i can change the material color to whatever color and hi always be blue… What Iam Doing Wrong?

    Sub Question Inside the first question: In Maya Xsi and Etc I can make a render selection and just move the attributes of the material, automatically the cene render itself without me having to hit the button render all the time… there is a way to do that in C4D?

    Thanks in advanced and cheers from Brazil to Gorilla Nick!

    Reply

  64. Richard Altman

    Just wondering, I first off thanks for the tutorial, is there a shadow with low opacity, I mean, a shadow really ties the whole room together, I mean, illusion.

    tiadvance

    Reply

  65. Jack Daniels

    Is it possible to work with 3d animated logo instead of still to get the same results? Thanks

    Reply

      • Jack Daniels

        Thanks for your reply! Your tutorials are very helpful for a c4d beginner like me! Greetings from Belgium

        Reply

  66. Alex

    It is horribly annoying to listen to your tutorials when you keep swallowing your saliva on and on and on…… ((((

    Reply
    • The Gorilla

      The Gorilla

      Sorry about that, Alex. I went to the doctor recently to try and clear things up. I’m sure you don’t want the details, but i’m feeling better now. Thanks for your concern.

      Reply

      • Maz

        Alex is too into your voice cause I watched the whole tuts with headphone and had no annoyance whatsoever. Very helpful tuts Nick! All the explainations was very helpful to a newbie like me.

        Reply

  67. Sir Karati

    Hi,
    I’m looking for a video to use for this tutorial (like a landscape, railroad, city… in HD) but in Vimeo or in YouTube I can’t find nothing. Can someone link me something?

    Thanks

    Reply

  68. Anna Duriez

    Hi Nick,
    This was an interesting tutorial. I tried my version with a picture as a background (I didn’t had any good video archive) and then I added some shadows moving on AE to simulate some movement.
    Here is my animated logo : https://vimeo.com/35103692
    Thanks a lot for your useful tuts ! :)

    Reply

  70. Andre

    What would be the main difference between using the Sky sampler (with the same BG material just like in these example) and shoot a panorama of the scene and use IR + QMC instead of Sky sampler ?
    Wouldn’t these work on the same way ?
    Can someone explain? Just trying to know how GI works.

    Thanks

    Reply

  71. sid

    thanks nick i watch all of your tuts and VCP tuts can you do more after effects tut plz great work i am looking forward to scrap some money to buy your products soon

    Reply

  72. Paul_S

    This is really nice tut……
    As you can see the final output is nice…..but something missing…..if camera is shacking like this….
    and the object is just front of the camera….then the output should not be like this………i am missing the Z depth part……
    plz sort it out if you know this…….
    Thank you….:)

    Reply

  75. Chiel Sinninghe

    Hi Nick,

    I’m missing ‘ski sampler’ as an option in render settings > global illumination > general > GI mode. Now what?!!! :)

    Reply

  78. Laurence

    Hey Nick great tutorial thanks very much! One question – how do I render out my logo if it’s animated? Can anyone help? thanks!

    Reply

  79. Jair Wen

    Hi Nick, Your tut is always great job.

    I wonder how to do with the case that camera is rotate in 3D and how to build that rotation to a 3D camera in AE and render 3D model from that. For example, I shoot around a place or desk, and I want that box flow on that desk and render with the same angle as my physical camera.

    Sorry for poor english.

    Reply

  80. Miguel

    Hello Nick! First of all, thanks for all those magnificent tutorials!
    I’m here wondering….and if i’ve a more dynamic scene?? Like, what we have here is basicly a still camera…and if my footage include some rotation or so??
    Thanks, Miguel.

    Reply

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Comment Rules

This is a friendly community. Please treat everyone with respect. We don't all have to agree, but we do have to be nice. Criticism is fine, but rude comments and name calling will be deleted. Use your real name and don't be spammy. Thanks for adding to the conversation.