Hi Sharon,
I can’t see what you get, nor what you expect to happen based on older renderings, so that is not a great way to solve a problem.
Can you load an old project and, compare the old render with the new ones, explore the settings to find the settings you want?
If you set the View Transform to Raw, all you get is the RAW data in your Picture Viewer; it will not change the data written to your file.
The main idea of ACES, in terms of data flow, is that the mainstream is pure ACES2065 or ACEScg (ACEScct/cc); the view transform doesn’t change the information; it translates it for the screen (viewer) while not altering the mainstream; hence the idea of Scene referred.
The Render-space settings (if Bake View Transform is off) determine the file’s data. OpenColor IO rules based on the names of the files, i.e., will tell what to do with it; Color (image) or, Data (raw). To be clear, raw is used as RGB values and as number storage here, like the distance in a depth pass. Since the value is essential, it shouldn’t be translated into color management.
ACES was developed as a pipeline tool. If you have no reason for that, why not stay in Linear Light Workflow?
ACES has a learning curve, and that time needs to be available. Learning while being in a time-limited project seems not the right place.
If you render out from Cinema 4D and that is all, then all you get from ACES is highlight roll out (Baked in View transform); there is no further step with ACES, e.g., in Ae of Fusion, NUKE, etc. I have shared that video not to push you into DaVinci, but he makes some excellent points about CG and how to roundtrip stuff without losses.
The OpenEXR format is often seen as linear only from some apps. If you have set your color-based (Image) files as output, you have either ACEScg or ACES2065 written in the file. This needs to be set up in your target application, where you work with the renderings. If set to sRGB or Rec709, that will not fly.
For any data-driven results, like depth, Alpha, Normal, or Motion Vector passes, raw is the way to go; here, the OpenColorIO rules need to be enabled. Otherwise, the data is based on a color profile.
Please note that there is one exception, which is the radiance format (.hdr). This has NO color management, and its Primaries are in CIE1931 XYZ space, while the E channel is linear/float, (ra_xyze). I avoid this anyway, but somehow this format has survived…
This needs to be set to RAW, as it contains linear light data (with an error of around 1%) looking like an image. If possible, keep it out of any serious production.
Note on the end of the ATT show, I show that with a photoshop file, how the histogram changes while the screen stays the same.
I hope that clears up a little bit.
My best wishes