Auddomate Docs

Bring your work

From Cinema 4D

Send your Cinema 4D scene to the studio in one click with the free Auddomate Render plugin, or export a GLB by hand.

Send to Auddomate Render

The free Auddomate Render plugin puts a Send to Auddomate Render command in Cinema 4D. One click exports your scene, opens the studio in your browser, and your model arrives already loaded.

Download Auddomate Render for Cinema 4D · version 1.0.3 · Cinema 4D 2024 and later

Install it

  1. Unzip the download. You get a folder called Auddomate Render.
  2. Move that folder somewhere it can stay, such as your Documents.
  3. In Cinema 4D, open Preferences → Plugins, press Add Folder, and choose the folder that contains Auddomate Render.
  4. Restart Cinema 4D.

Installed an earlier version, in a folder called Auddomate? Delete that folder before adding the new one, so Cinema 4D only loads one copy.

Use it

  1. Open your scene.
  2. Choose Extensions → Send to Auddomate Render.
  3. Your browser opens the studio, and your scene arrives a moment later.

The first time, Chrome may ask whether auddomate.com may access other apps and services on this device. Allow it: that's how the studio collects the scene from Cinema 4D. Nothing leaves your computer.

Every scene you send is also saved in Documents › Auddomate Render as a GLB, so you can drop it onto the render by hand at any time.

Export a GLB by hand

Cinema 4D can export glTF and GLB directly. Here's the quickest route to a file that brings everything across:

  1. Make sure everything you want is visible in your scene, and that objects you don't want are hidden or deleted.
  2. Choose File → Export → glTF.
  3. In the export settings, choose the binary format, so you get a single .glb file with its textures inside.
  4. Turn on Cameras and Lights if your scene has them, and Animation if it moves.
  5. If your scene has a character or a rig, turn on Skinning, and turn on Morphs for pose morphs.
  6. Export, then drag the .glb file onto the render in Auddomate.

Materials

Cinema 4D's own Standard material comes across best. Its color, reflectance and roughness, and the textures in those channels, become Auddomate materials.

Third-party render engines, like Redshift, Octane or Arnold, use their own node materials, which glTF can't describe. If your scene uses them, either switch the materials to Standard before exporting, or bake their look to textures and use those.

Glowing materials become lights in Auddomate. A material set to glow lights up whatever is near it, exactly like a softbox would.

See Materials for how each kind of surface is read.

MoGraph, dynamics and simulations

Effectors, cloners, dynamics and cloth are calculated live in Cinema 4D, and glTF can only carry finished movement. Before exporting:

  1. Select the animated objects.
  2. Bake them to keyframes, using Cinema 4D's bake command for objects or for your MoGraph setup.
  3. Export with Animation turned on.

Once baked, everything comes across: positions, rotations and scale, frame by frame. See Animation for playing it back.

Units and size

Cinema 4D works in centimetres, and glTF is always in metres. The exporter handles the conversion, so your model arrives at its real size, which matters for depth of field.

If you prefer OBJ

OBJ works for still models, but it can't carry cameras, lights or animation. If you use it:

  • Export with materials, which writes an .mtl file next to your .obj.
  • Drop the .obj, the .mtl and every texture image onto the render together.
  • Auddomate reads large OBJ files from Cinema 4D as centimetres, so they come in at their real size.

Rigs with many influences

Auddomate reads up to four bone influences per point, which is the glTF standard. If your rig uses more, Cinema 4D's exporter will usually reduce them for you; if a joint looks wrong, limit the weights to four per point before exporting.