Hi, everyone --

I'm wondering whether or not there's a plug-in available somewhere to export After Effects CS6's 3D camera data to Carrara.  I'd like to use AE to track a shot, export the camera data to Carrara, render an element in Carrara with alpha channel and Z buffers, then move that rendered shot into AE and do more video tweaking there.

Any hope?  Anything from Digital Carvers' Guild or anyone else?  I know there are plug-ins for importing AECS6 camera data to 3DS, Cinema 4D, Maya, etc.  I was hoping someone might have a lead on similar tech for Carrara....

Thanks!

I can't answer your question, but I am curious so I have a question for you ...

Does Carrara's 8-bit/channel export limit the type of compositing you can do?

Hi, cjd --

Yes, 8bit output is somewhat limiting, but for much of the kind of work I want to do, it's fine.  So long as I can render out a decently photo-real image, I can play with it in After Effects to match it to a background plate.  I usually render images against a solid green background in Carrara and use AE to key the image into my footage because Carrara's alpha channel is pretty weak.

 - Dex

Hi sfdex, 

Nice to see you pop in!

Nope, not like with C4D which does it natively. If I need to do camera matching for Carrara, I simply take the footage and use Sytheyes (http://www.ssontech.com) which is super fast and very accurate, to export the tracked camera data for Carrara's camera. The single-seat price point makes it competitive with 'pro' plug-ins for other software. 

Mark

Hi, Mark --

Thanks for the response.  It's what I figured.  Given the price that Daz is aiming to extract for the upgrade to 8.5 (just to get Carrara to WORK on a current OS Mac), plus the cost of Syntheyes, I might just as well jump over to C4D.  I already have a for it and its upgrade path is far less onerous than Carrara's has become.  Bummer, because, as you may recall, I really do love working with Carrara.  But it's probably time for me to jump to one of the more standard 3D packages, anyway.  

I'll miss hearing "you made that in Carrara?!?" though.

Thanks,
Dex