Cineversity

Hi,

I am on my first encounter with C4Dr16 to AE 2014 and I must be missing a step.

I rendered the files with the multi-pass channels and then created the .aec project file. The file is in the same folder as the images.

When I import the .aec file, I get a a composition with all of the layers and data about the render as expected, but only for frame 0000 and the type field marked “Placeholder”. In the composition window, I can only see color bars.

I am not sure what this means or what other step I should be taking. I’ve imported the images as an image sequence and, while they appear, I don’t see the multi-passes.

It seems I am missing a step that connects the images to the .aec file.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

Hi Celumbra,

What plug in version do you use (date)?

In previous version that problem could appear with “Multi-Layer Files”. It is now grayed out while aec is exported at the same time.

Would you mind to render just 10 frames and in 320x240, or even smaller, and attach this here? I will have a look into it in the morning.

I tried to recreate the problem, but I can’t. Perhaps you reload one file, and normally other disconnected (the color bars) are found as well.

All the best

Sassi

I can’t reproduce it here, and perhaps I should not go further, as we are not supposed to do technical support here.

Please contact the support http://www.maxon.net/support/support-questions.html

My best wishes.

Sassi

Hi Sassi,

Thank you for your note.

I made the new files with jpg and again with OpenExr and they worked just fine.

I was able to duplicate the problem scenario by checking the “multi-Layer file” option without checking the save project to AE option, and then returning to save the project,  so that is what I must have done in the first rendering.

Might you know of a method to convert the rendered images back to a state without the multi-layer file option? Maybe using Photoshop with an action? Or even using C4D? I am guessing that C4D will build the composition if it had the rendered layers as separate files, as they should have been without he “multi-layer file” option checked.

Thanks again.

Robert

Hi Robert,

In my R16 version the Multi-Layer File option is grayed out, if AEC is requested at the same time. Which I think is great for Ae users, not so much for NUKE users. Anyway.
Multi-Layer Files have been a problem for Ae users since the beginning. Ae has no option (even I ask since a decade for it) to read out, e.g., more than four channels if the layers have to be read out and some information written in a PSD sequence would be written exactly there, e.g., depth, alpha, etc. I have no idea what is so difficult to read their own main image format. This information would be stored in OpenEXR as normal RGBA layer, in the same way as all information.

There is even a plug in available from
http://www.fnordware.com/OpenEXR/ 
The one who wrote the option for Ae as well in the first place. I contacted him years ago to get this problem for C4D users solved, but I couldn’t push it where I wanted to have it.

You might try Photoshop-actions, but it could be more work than to render again (?). Perhaps create a File>Automate>Droplet for each pass, so you can just drag it next time.
Nuke is able to do that, just set up a node tree with write nodes, and you get all you need. The Fnord plug in might help as well.

Sorry for the problem, I hope the re-render is not too much of a pain.

All the best

Sassi

Looks like I’ll need to re-render.

I know now going forward to leave the multi-layer file option unchecked and to set the composition to save at the same time as the render, but I wonder where having the multi-layer file option is useful. Seems like it imposes additional work anywhere it would be used.

Thank you for your help. I appreciate it.

Robert

Robert,

In the moment you would see how useful this is in NUKE, you wonder how one could ever have worked in any other way.

Let me put some light on this. NUKE works with nodes, as XPresso does it. BUT: think of the multilayered file like the facet of the soda fountains, where they have a single pistol like handle on the end. One hose (so it seems) but they press a button and you get a different flavor. Similar to that works the “wire” or “connector” between nodes in NUKE, and it can contain 1023 (1024…) channels in one wire.
So, you connect that wire to a new node, and all the layers of the multi-pass are there at once. You do something with them and create a new channel/layer and feed that as well in it, without perhaps changing even the initial information, perhaps you like to change it and then feed it back into the “pipe” or” wire”.
This keeps the set up relatively clean, and if you ever have had worked with Sony’s (later Apple’s) Shake, you know what I mean by clean, Shake was not, it had 5 channels, not 1023.

If you like to re-render the complete multi-pass, but have already invested a day or two in the compositing, you just reconnect one file instead of, e.g., twenty or thirty! Think of the effort to relink all files with a new multi-pass in After Effects, which is not a nice work. Or re-use one set up for different renderings with the same treatment in the comp-app. NUKE is a few clicks and done, Ae is a mess with large set ups.

On the end you might get the same result, but studios have more interest in fast “turn-a-round” times than cheap apps, hence NUKE sells for a lot of money, Ae does not. Both are great apps and both have advantages, but you asked about the idea to have all in one file [sequence].

All the best

Sassi