Cinema 4D/CINEWARE Integration

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‌Cinema 4D/CINEWARE Integration

After Effects contains standard built-in facilities for integrating 3D effects using MAXON's Cinema 4D (C4D) animation software: After Effects even contains an optional "free" Cinema 4D installer package.

The SynthEyes to After Effects exporter can simultaneously export a Filmbox FBX file for Cinema 4D, plus automatically include the CINEWARE effect and layer to automatically include a rendered version of the C4D scene in the AE comp. The net effect is an indirect way to get 3D rendering in After Effects, which otherwise lacks this capability.

Here's what the process looks like:

 You run the After Effects exporter, and turn on the C4D integration feature (which is OFF by default).

 The exporter produces a jsx javascript as usual, plus a Filmbox fbx for C4D. (It also creates an empty .c4d file as a temporary placeholder.)

 Optionally, SynthEyes can launch Cinema 4D (see below).

 You File/Open the .fbx file in Cinema 4D, then File/Save as a Cinema 4D

.c4d file.

 Meanwhile, After Effects has run the javascript, resulting in a CINEWARE layer that looks at the C4D file.

 Meshes now appear in your C4D comp; you can work on compositing them into the scene.

CINEWARE has many options and capabilities to aid your efforts, though it requires that you know Cinema 4D. You can access the CINEWARE help from the button on the CINEWARE effects panel in After Effects.

Tip : You should turn on “Live Link Enabled at Startup” checkbox in the After Effects section of Cinema 4D’s preferences.

WARNING : If you have textured meshes in SynthEyes that are exported to AE/C4D/Cineware, you must locate the texture file (or copy thereof) in the same folder that you are placing the C4D file in. This is due to a CINEWARE

problem. Textured meshes will appear to be missing otherwise, except in the alpha channel.

WARNING : You must be careful not to allow the SynthEyes exporter to overwrite a C4D file that you have carefully worked on!

You can use the Don't overwrite .c4d checkbox to avoid having SynthEyes overwrite the existing C4D file with an empty file, so that you can carefully re-import the modified FBX file. The drawback of using that option is that you then can't see that the C4D file hasn't been updated (it's very apparent when the file is cleared), so if you leave this option on, it is easily to accidentally use mismatching JSX and C4D files.

SynthEyes can get Cinema 4D started opening the .fbx file, which can save some time. You can specify which kind of Cinema 4D should be opened: the full Cinema 4D product or the Cinema 4D version included with After Effects.

The full Cinema 4D product version is the best, of course, if you have purchased it. It allows full operation without any extra limitations. You should select this option if you have it. The version included with After Effects can’t run the full Cinema 4D python export from SynthEyes, for example.

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