Cineversity

I have some objects in C4d with a cel shader material in the luminance channel to create a cartoon effect with shadows.  In After effects everything was fine but today when I opened after effects the objects with the luminance channel are showing as black.  Any idea why?

Hi Bikhu,

Sounds like a technical problem, as I have no further data.

I assume the Cel Shader from Sketch and Toons, not the Cel-Render (?!). Replace it with a simple Color shader or a Checker-board shader, to see how it works.

The best way is to get in contact with the support:

http://www.maxon.net/support/support-questions.html

They can also clear what version you have and if S&T is supposed to work in Ae for you, e.g., Lite vs other versions.
You can check her for yourself if you like:
http://www.maxon.net/products/general-information/general-information/product-comparison.html

My best wishes

Im not sure what happened though.  Everything was working fine then suddenly After effects starting seeing the objects with luminance cel shader as alpha.  I had to start a new After effects project an it was ok after that.

Thanks for clearing that, Bikhu.

If something works and then not, restarting and creating a little test scene is certainly advised.

After Effects files normally do not get compromised, at least not for me in the past 19 years of using it.

If there is something to suggest, perhaps the hardware, e.g. the hard-disk, might have a problem. If that is just a single “bit” that isn’t working or a catalog entry/index that is corrupted, do not delete the problem file, let it sit on that problem area. Other wise, one day you might write something else on it and get the same trouble.

I assume of course that you have back ups of all drives. So, run a diagnostic of your hardware, and see if there is anything OK. Repair if needed, again, I assume you have a working backup in place.
If that problem shows up again, re-install the software.

If you can reproduce the problem with that file, send it to the support Adobe or Maxon, so it can be analyzed and help others to avoid the problem.

My tip, and it has proven to be the best practice—typically: share a scene-file, if you like that anyone really dive into the problem.

All the best