I've been going through some video tutorials for After Effects and came across the section for 3D channel filters. I know if you render out a Carrara scene in certain formats, you can retain 3D info such as distance and 3D position. After Effects is looking for this info in RPF or RLA format which other 3D programs support. Is there a way to convert the Carrara output to a similar format (even with a 3rd party utility)? Thanks.

Attached Link: http://www.smartconverter.com/

One format that Carrara uses for this output is Photoshop .psd files using the G-buffer settings. I really don't know whether it's possible to convert from .psd to .rpf (one coverter I looked at would read but not write the formats) but you might try the software at the link. Otherwise, cross-grade to 3DSMAX? ;-)

Thanks. I already tried this program and it looks like it will read RPF and RLA info but it won't convert to that format. It's a shame Carrara doesn't support this especially in the PRO version and because they advertise Carrara as "The complete 3D solution for web, print and VIDEO." Well, not so complete for video, I guess.

When I've used Carrara to AE wanting to retain depth information, I render out to sequenced Photoshop files and use the g-buffer for the depth info in AE. Not the simplest approach, but it does work.

Anyone know of a public spec for these file formats? A quick search didn't turn up much other than a reference to the MAX sdk. . . Markd

Attached Link: http://www.creativecow.net/articles/pfeiffer_jack/concepts/index.html

Well, the MAX SDK may well be your best bet as both formats originate with Descreet, the more recent RPF building on RLA. There's some info at the link but it doesn't amount to a spec.

Thanks for the info guys.