which version of Cinema 4D for globe map in After Effects CS5

N

Nicholas Natteau

Veteran
AE related question for anyone familiar with Cinema 4D:

AE "CC Sphere" is too limited for what I'm trying to do: wrap a world map around a globe and animate (zoom in without seeing a loss of picture quality), so I've decided to try Cinema 4D. Unfortunately, with CC SPhere I have to make my map enormous to be able to zoom in on my globe and not lose image quality.

I'm not a professional 3D artist and really don't plan on doing complex 3D work. But there are several versions of C4D.

Can I achieve the look I want with just C4D "Prime" for $749 or do I need "Broadcast" which is over $1,349.

I tried Zaxwerks and didn't get satsifactory results which is why I'm thinking of Cinema 4D.

Thanks in advance for any suggestions.
 
I do all of my 3d in Maya, so I can't be 100% certain, but I would think the Prime version would be able to do what you want. It's a very basic procedure that any 3D program can tackle.

Before you spend the money, have you tired Blender like others suggested?

Unless you plan on doing a lot of 3d work in the future, it seems like even $749 is a bit much for this effect that can be achieved through cheaper means. I still believe you should be able to do this effectively with CCsphere.
 
Hi Pete,

Thanks very much for your feedback. Yes, I can do it easily in CC SPhere but the problem is that I have to blow up my map to an enormous size in order to be able to zoom in (increase CC Sphere's radius) and not lose image quality. I then find myself waiting ages to see any change I make because of the enormity of the image. I'll try Blender then like you suggested.
 
Photoshop Cs5 Extended can create 3d objects and a sphere with a warped texture is one of the basic one, you can export to AfterEffects and use all the transformations controls.
 
Nicholas Natteau said:
Hi Pete,

Thanks very much for your feedback. Yes, I can do it easily in CC SPhere but the problem is that I have to blow up my map to an enormous size in order to be able to zoom in (increase CC Sphere's radius) and not lose image quality. I then find myself waiting ages to see any change I make because of the enormity of the image. I'll try Blender then like you suggested.
Click to expand...

You should be able to work around that by precomping things, using layers, masks, and working at a lower resolution. You could even use proxies.


Another question for you... Do you plan on having anything on your map animate? Or is the map just one still image?
 
Hi Pete,

It would really help if I could gather my layers into groups. (Coming from an Apple Motion background) I could do this easily in Motion, but haven't yet figured out how to do it in AE. My map has 86 layers. Sorry, what do you mean by proxies?

Yes, I plan on making a number of animations on my map. Because my documentary film spans the 1918 to 1945 period, I plan to show the collapse of the Russian, German, Austrian, Ottoman Empires using animated masks, the territorial expansion of Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy, and imperial Japan in the 1930s, Hitler's invasion of the West, the Balkans, and USSR, etc all using animated masks or animated track mattes.

Ideally I was hoping to use an animated rotating globe where my After Effects camera would dolly/zoom into Europe as my globe rotates from say Asia to Europe. If this proves just too complex or too time consuming then I'll settle for a 2D map and probably incline the map at 45 angle.

But yes, showing all this happening on a globe is my ultimate goal. I'm just getting started with 3D, but don't intend to use 3D for anything more than this globe animatic for the time being.

I didn't use Photoshop because I created my map as a vector image in Illustrator so that I could zoom into the map and never lose image quality.
 
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Ok, so here's another problem that you're going to encounter. Because you want your map to animate, you're going to have to create that animation first, then render it out to a file that you can use as a texture in the 3d program. But I'm unaware of a way to render out a vector animation. So you're going to lose the advantages of having a vector image. Basically, even using a 3d program like blender or cinema4d you would still need a very large image because you will be using rasterized graphics.

I still think the easiest way to do this is with ccsphere. It would be easy to show someone in person, but trying to type an explanation is difficult.
 
Hi Pete,

Thanks again. From what you just said, it looks like CC Sphere may be my best choice after all. If I can't import a vector map into a 3D app, then I may as well stick with "CC Sphere". But I need the flexibility of being able to zoom all the way in without losing any image quality. If that means I have to stay in 2D, I'll do that then and just incline the map to a 45 degree angle to simulate it. Thanks for your help.
 
Yeah, it sounds like with your current understanding of AE you might be better off just trying to fake it a little like you said. However, if you're not in a terrible rush to get this effect done, when I have some down time later in the week I could set up a sample AE project file for you, showing how you can acheive this using ccsphere and being able to zoom in without quality loss.
 
handsome pete said:
Ok, so here's another problem that you're going to encounter. Because you want your map to animate, you're going to have to create that animation first, then render it out to a file that you can use as a texture in the 3d program. But I'm unaware of a way to render out a vector animation. So you're going to lose the advantages of having a vector image. Basically, even using a 3d program like blender or cinema4d you would still need a very large image because you will be using rasterized graphics.

I still think the easiest way to do this is with ccsphere. It would be easy to show someone in person, but trying to type an explanation is difficult.
Click to expand...

You lose the vector image with CC sphere anyways since it doesn't work properly because of render order so that's a moot point.

As to the original question, Prime would be suitable for what you want. You can get away with a much smaller resolution that what you're trying in AE. Somewhere between 2K and 4K should be more than enough if you're working in 1080, less if you're working 720 or lower.
 
oneinfiniteloop said:
You lose the vector image with CC sphere anyways since it doesn't work properly because of render order so that's a moot point.

As to the original question, Prime would be suitable for what you want. You can get away with a much smaller resolution that what you're trying in AE. Somewhere between 2K and 4K should be more than enough if you're working in 1080, less if you're working 720 or lower.
Click to expand...

I realize that. My point was that with many suggesting a 3D program would be better for this task, he would still run into the same rasterization limitations that he was getting with CCSphere originally.

I set him up with a sample project file that hopefully put him on the right track.
 
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