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After Effects plugin still work?

tubbesingtubbesing Posts: 44
edited December 1969 in Carrara Discussion

Does Carrara’s After Effects plugin (CarraraImporter.plugin) still work? Forum/internet searches unearth conflicting reports of the plugin’s usefulness.

The plugin’s ReadMe file links to a page showing a release date of February 2009, good with After Effects 5.5, 6.0, 6.5, or CS4.

5 years and a few versions of After Effects later, the plugin seems kaput. All .cae files are grayed out when I try to import them into an After Effects CS6 comp. Given Cinema4D’s cozy relationship with After Effects, it would behoove Daz3D to make Carrara more compatible. I know I can export a Carrara animation in a format Cinema 4D can read, but some stuff inevitably gets screwed up (textures, etc.)

Thanks,
Andy

Comments

  • Jay_NOLAJay_NOLA Posts: 1,145
    edited December 1969

    The plugin doesn't work with any newer version of After Effects. It stopped working a few versions back as you mentioned.

    DAZ has no plans to update it and it wasn't included with Carrara 8.5 because of this and because it doesn't work with newer versions. (I asked why it wasn't part of 8.5 a few months back and was told this.)

  • tubbesingtubbesing Posts: 44
    edited December 1969

    I was afraid of that. Thanks for the info.

  • 3DAGE3DAGE Posts: 3,311
    edited December 1969

    HI Andy :)

    At it's best, it allowed you to export "simple items" like planes with basic colours, and had limited abilities with camera transfer,
    not many people found it useful.

    Multi-pass rendering is much more useful.

    Render out your animations as jpg or png "Sequences" , import the sequences into AE, and Composite, add effects, colour tone etc.

    If you're using AE, you should check-out the "Element 3D" plugin from www.videocopilot.net
    there's also a bunch of additional model packages.
    The Jet Flight pack is huge, with some really nice models, sound clips, backgrounds etc

    Element 3D allows you to load a 3D Model into a layer in AE .....(but that's too simple an explanation) it does Much more than that.
    you can also use OBJ sequences (animated 3D models).
    It' works like a particle system or replicator, where one object can become hundreds of differently scaled / rotated / and animated models.
    or just a city of tower blocks, or a single aircraft,. whatever you want.

    Also, Videocopilot is the best resource for learning AE, and all the tutorial are free.

    Hope it helps :)
    Andy

  • DUDUDUDU Posts: 1,945
    edited March 2014

    3DAGE said:
    HI Andy :)

    At it's best, it allowed you to export "simple items" like planes with basic colours, and had limited abilities with camera transfer,
    not many people found it useful.

    Multi-pass rendering is much more useful.

    Render out your animations as jpg or png "Sequences" , import the sequences into AE, and Composite, add effects, colour tone etc.

    If you're using AE, you should check-out the "Element 3D" plugin from www.videocopilot.net
    there's also a bunch of additional model packages.
    The Jet Flight pack is huge, with some really nice models, sound clips, backgrounds etc

    Element 3D allows you to load a 3D Model into a layer in AE .....(but that's too simple an explanation) it does Much more than that.
    you can also use OBJ sequences (animated 3D models).
    It' works like a particle system or replicator, where one object can become hundreds of differently scaled / rotated / and animated models.
    or just a city of tower blocks, or a single aircraft,. whatever you want.

    Also, Videocopilot is the best resource for learning AE, and all the tutorial are free.

    Hope it helps :)
    Andy

    Here are several years that I work with AE and I did not know this extraordinary plugin … Thank you Andy!

    Post edited by DUDU on
  • tubbesingtubbesing Posts: 44
    edited December 1969

    Thanks, 3DAGE. I have Andrew Kramer's Action Essentials, and have looked at Element 3D, but I want more animation ability. Cinema4D/Cineware seems the way to go, due to the ease of modifying/reloading animations on the fly. I'll experiment with bringing Carrara character animations into Cinema4D, then into AE.

  • Mosk the ScribeMosk the Scribe Posts: 888

    Hey @3DAGE - are you able to export an object sequence of an animated character?  I could have sworn I did a simple test of this several months ago and that it worked perfectly. But I'm now getting errors any time I try to us Export>Object Sequence or Save As>Object Sequence when using a figure (Genesis) - and I get the error even if the figure has no clothes, hair, or animation.

    Planned to use this feature for current project (to bring into Element3D in After Effects) - so would appreciate any info/advice/workarounds you can share. Thanks.

  • 3DAGE3DAGE Posts: 3,311

    yes ,. i've done several anim exports of OBJ's (including figures) ,. the main issue is that the figures sold here,. are pretty hefty polycounts,. reduced res figures are easier to work with.

    I try not to use genesis in carrara,. it's rigging doesn't work well. which makes it more difficult to hand animate than any other figure generation.

    for walk's / runs,. kick out 30 frames,. or whatever your loop is,. as Element3D can loop that,. it can also offset the start frame for multiple figures using the same animation.

    i just tried exporting genesis as OBJ's and i'm also getting an error,. no idea why,. probably better to use a different model,. like V4,.

  • DesertDudeDesertDude Posts: 1,234

    There is also Hitfilm. Sadly, I own it and haven't even experimented with it's 3D capabilities.  blush Express version is free (free!!)

    Does new After Effects read RPF data from Carrara? It's been a long time since I tried that file format, but I think it could at least export rudimentary camera data?

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