Rendering C4D for After Effects
by Chris Walter
on
Dec 4, 2008 at 9:31:42 pm
Okay, newbie on the forums. I'm in high school, and i'm getting used to the Cinema 4D + After Effects workflow. I'm working on a project right now, and as an intro video i made a 20 second (about 650 frames) video in C4D. It has materials (including materials with video in them), reflections, illumination, lights, etc. I just need a little help with rendering, i have no idea what multi-pass rendering is and how to optimize it for After Effects. Any help is greatly appreciated!
Re: Rendering C4D for After Effects by Adam Trachtenberg on Dec 5, 2008 at 1:09:43 am
Multipass rendering is just a way to break up your image into separate components, such as lights, shadows, reflection, materials, etc. You can also render out masks for individual objects (object buffers). Generally they are used to make adjustments in post that would otherwise require rerendering.
So, what passes you need depends entirely on what you want to do in post. Want to add depth of field or 3D fog? Render a depth pass. Want to adjust light color? Render a pass for your light or lights. Want to apply effects to separate objects? Render object buffers. Etc.
Re: Rendering C4D for After Effects by John Stanowski on Dec 5, 2008 at 5:03:27 am
This question has no short answer so I'd like to point out this 4-part tutorial over at Cineversity. http://www.cineversity.com/tutorials/lesson.asp?tid=1183 . This takes you through the whole process. There are 3 other parts so use the breadcrumb links at the top of the page to get to the other three.
Re: Rendering C4D for After Effects by Chris Walter on Dec 5, 2008 at 9:11:27 pm
okay thanks guys. I managed to churn out a 12 hour (!!!) render overnight, because i'm just on a little macbook, waiting to build a custom computer and eventually buy a mac pro. Anyway, after 12 hours, i ended up with TONS of different rendered items that i put into after effects and basically had no idea what i was doing. What do i do in after effects once it's done with all the passes etc.? Thanks again for the responses, and i'll make sure to check out the tutorial at Cineversity.
Re: Rendering C4D for After Effects by John Stanowski on Dec 5, 2008 at 10:00:18 pm
The Cineversity tutorials takes you through the entire process, including what you can do with the separate passes in After Effects. Do you even need multi-pass? You only need this is if you plan to composite footage 'inside' an element of your C4D animation, or if you want precise control over things like shadows, speculars, etc. You should watch the tuts.
Re: Rendering C4D for After Effects by Chris Walter on Dec 6, 2008 at 5:51:12 pm
okay guys, new problem. After Effects won't handle ANYTHING on this computer. before now, i could do almost anything in after effects and it could handle it. When i open it now, anything i do makes it slow down and just quit, and the same thing happens in Premiere Pro. Also, in the tutorial, they move the comp into the timeline and tons of elements are there; when i move the comp into the timeline, nothing shows up - no cameras, no 3D objects, nothing. just the composition. of course, even if i solved that issue, i wouldn't be able to do anything because after effects keeps crashing. has anyone ever had these issues or knows how to solve them?
Re: Rendering C4D for After Effects by John Stanowski on Dec 6, 2008 at 6:57:47 pm
No idea what's going on there. That sucks. Only similarity I ever encountered was after starting to use C4D a lot, AE suddenly needed 5 minutes to load and got a little slower once loaded. Makes me think there's something in the system causing it. Maybe you should try reinstalling AE and PPro and see if they're okay after that. Also check to make sure you have the right C4D import plugin.
