Cineware makes Cinema 4D part of the upcoming after effects
Maxon and Adobe are making a strong statement with the introduction of this new feature: Cineware. The name might not mean much to you yet, but I’m sure you won’t be able to live without it soon! It allows you to open, manipulate, and render .c4d files directly inside the upcoming version of After Effects!
Introducing Cineware for After Effects
This new Cineware effect lets you import a .c4d file directly into After Effects, without needing to do an intermediate render. Think of it as a more powerful version of Dynamic Link (currently used with Premiere Pro) between After Effects and Cinema 4D. Want to change a texture? Update your file in Cinema 4D, save it, and you’ll see an instant update in your After Effects composition. But the integration doesn’t stop there.
You can extract data contained in the .c4d file into After Effects with one click—retrieving cameras, lights, and layers with external compositing tags. You can also do the reverse: import a camera from After Effects into your Cinema 4D project (very handy for 3D tracking).
Finally, you’ll be able to use your multi-pass render settings to create dynamic, independent layers in After Effects—each containing the desired pass (Shadows, Reflections, Ambient Occlusion, etc.). You can even generate object buffers defined in the .c4d project.
The major advantage over the current workflow (which requires rendering each pass and importing the .aec file) is that any change made in your .c4d project will be automatically reflected: no more intermediate renders.
What artists are saying
This new workflow will bring a real time-saving advantage and make it even easier to integrate 3D animations into motion design projects. Below is a video compiling different artists’ opinions on this new integration:
Some examples
Below are several renders created using Cineware in After Effects, presented by Maxon:
Personally, I’ve been dreaming of this, and I find this integration amazing! I have only one thing to say: keep an eye on your Creative Cloud updates, because these features will be available as soon as they’re ready—before even a CS7 release. Big congratulations to the teams at Maxon and Adobe, who definitely made the right move by joining forces!
About the author
I am the Founder of Mattrunks. I work as Creative Director and Motion Designer in my studio. I also create video tutorials to share my passion of motion.