Monday
Oct312011
Cinema 4D scene to Trapcode Form 2.0.2
Monday, October 31, 2011 at 7:28PM Tutorial showing how to create a scene in Cinema 4D and export an OBJ and Cinema's camera. And import all this in Adobe After Effects so the Cinema render perfectly matches Trapcode Form.
Sorry for my poor C4D skillz!
Note that you need Trapcode Form 2.0.2 to get the "Normalize" checkbox used here.
Reader Comments (25)
The Normalize/Invert Z just saved our lives. We've been working with super large car models and Cameras that are not at or pointing to world 0,0,0 - but once we checked those boxes everything lined up perfectly.
THANK YOU!!
Any explanation of why you'd do all this? What benefit is there to importing an OBJ?
The OBJ support was added to extend the Base Forms. In Form 1.0, only two Base Forms were available - Box and Sphere. In Form v2 we ship a number of Base Forms as OBJ's and also give you the ability to import your own OBJ's so you can make any type of Base Form you need. So basically, if you are happy with Box and Sphere (they do cover most cases) you don't need to worry about OBJ import, but if you need other shapes then that's what to use. The tutorial here is about the specific case when you need to match a Cinema 4D render with Trapcode Form.
Peder Norrby / Trapcode
great tut . but in action i have this problem: can't import obj file to AE , i am using MAC lion, AE cs5 and trapcode form 2. any suggestions?!
Armin, sounds like an installation issue. Contact Red Giant software.
hi...
i use Wide Field Cameras 4D to render out a 360° Projection from Cinema.
I was a little bit afraid that this plugin wouldn't work with the export of the obj sequence.
Is there a possibility to get the obj data for this ?
Cheers
mark
Mark, OBJ's do not contain camera, just a geometry. But if you follow this tutorial you'll see how to export the camera from C4D to AE. Not sure about 360 cameras..
Peder
hi there,
i am confronted with a weird problem. i have a camera flying into a football stadium and everytime i follow these instructions i get the camera movement and everything, but when i go to form and import the obj the model appears, in the right perspective but waaaaay offset and waaaaaaay to small... it would be such a hassle to correct that manually... any ideas?
david
ok, now i've tested it with a simple cube and still have the problem. it just creates offset to the left.
Did you uncheck Normalize and check Invert Z? Follow the tutorial exactly and you'll get the correct results.
Peder
Very useful!
Your tutorials are very good ! Thank you!
Hi,
unchecking Normalize aligns OBJ perfectly, but XY e Z position are set in the middle of the composition (e.g. 640,360,0 for 1280*720 comp) and not at 0,0,0. This way I can't rotate the OBJ (neither with Base Form>Rotation nor with World Transform>Rotation) on its axis but I get it orbiting around 640,360. Is it true or am I missing something?
Thank You
hey,
i just want to now how i can use lines instead of points.
When i load an obj into ae i just see dots.
Is there a possibility to use lines to make a sort of wireframe?
Hello,
the alignment works with the tutorial.
BUT:
By default the base size is set to 200 for XYZ which gives not the full mesh resolution (mesh density). When starting to crank up the base size i get my dense mesh but its offsetting the obj model. Its nearly impossible to align it again.
Is there some mathematic i can use?
Base size does not affect mesh resolution. The only thing I can think here is if the coordinates are really tiny that could lead to some kind of resolution issues. Try scaling up the scene in the 3D app before export and see if it helps.
Hey Peder,
you got me on the right track. but still does base size affect density (but its overlapping points = scaling problem)
The scaling have to be done in form:
emitter: xyz pos: have to be zero (org. comp center)
world ransform: offset x, y have to be taken from comp center (x,y numbers)
Now you can scale up base size (eg 200 = 2000, multiply by 10)
And offset in world Transform: (world scale, x-offset, y-offset: divided by 10)
cheers,
Matthias
hello every body. Can we make the same with 3dsmax ? I failed to align camera and .obj
Hi Peder, can you post your resulted *.obj and *.aep ?
I want to try re-import ae camera and mesh to 3ds max (via max2ae) and look how it view, because when i export camera from 3ds max to ae result still bad. C4D i have no unfortunaly.
thanks,
alex
Hi Alex,
Sorry I don't seem to have those files anymore (this tutorial is from 2011).
You probably want to try getting it to work without using Form first. Just get the camera to sync with the frames out of 3dsmax. I bet there are tutorials on this part to be found. When that works it should be easy to get Form to sync up.
Peder
Yes, this is exactly that i do when i need to compose something rendered out from 3ds max in AE, so i syncing the camera first that it completely match in both applications. Then i, for example, greate a flat 3D plane in 3ds max, then i render it, and then i export this plane to AE as 3D-layer, and rendered image match with AE layer perfectly! That is surprising. But simple box created in center of screen, and then i export it as .obj, and it appears in a top of screen in AE, whatever i playing with Normalize / Invert Z.
Alex
OK good, that is half the problem solved :)
I know that in Cinema I had to deselect the object to make it export in scene-coordinates. Otherwise I would export with object centered in a new coordinate system. Maybe Max has something similar in it's OBJ export? It could be a setting. The coordinate system has to be the same for the camera and the OBJ for it to line up automatically.
Normalize in Form should be off.
Peder
Ok, PARTIALLY solved.
In case of 3ds max needs:
1. Turn on Flip YZ-axis in obj-exporter.
> I had to deselect the object to make it export in scene-coordinates.
> Otherwise I would export with object centered in a new coordinate system.
Interesting idea, i check, in 3ds max does not matter is the object selected or not it is always exported relative world coords. I re-imported .obj and it stays exactly same place.
2. In AE needs to set "Center XY" to Comp's resolution (1024x576 in my case)
3. Normalize is off, Invert Z is on.
After this all ok, BUT, if we have .obj-sequence with moving objects (or with moving vertices on fixed object) Form's points jitter appears:
1024x576.gif
Interesting that the left box moving along x coordinate only, and jitter probably not seen.
Alex,
The jitter in animation may be caused by rounding errors. for example if a coordinate changes from 1.00001 to 1.00002 that could be rounded away. Inspect your obj's and sanity check the coordinates. You should be able to scale up and offset the entire scene before export if needed.
Boxes are placed near [0, 0, 0], very simple nothing unusual.
What about Center XY change, i think probably C4D and MAX2AE makes different camera offset, for example [0, 0, 0] camera position translates by MAX2AE into [comp's width / 2, comp's height / 2, 0].
Sorry Peder, just looked you are only creator of trapcode ) i tested this scene with plexus and all rendered correctly.
It seems all happens inside Form. Probably small bug maybe because small 3d-increment translates into same 2d-screen position (looks like all digits after decimal point ignored at all)
Box in center at [0,0,0] size is [30, 40, 15] (no 0.0000...)
Increment not very small - about 0.5