You can also define a video or single image sequence as a texture. In this case, the time behavior of the film is determined by the following parameters.

Example 1: You want to play a video or single image sequence.

1. Determine the animation in the Texture field of the Material Editor.
   --Click on the preview image or the name of the movie in the texture line. Then click on the Animation tab
   --Click on Calculate.

Result: The film is played synchronized exactly once per second.

Example 2: You want to play a movie from frame 25 to frame 350 forwards and backwards exactly twice.

1. Define the film in the Texture field of the Material Editor.
   
2. Click on the preview image or the name of the movie in the Texture line. Then click on the Animation tab
   
3. Click on Calculate.
   
4. Set the mode to Ping-Pong.
   
5. Set the timing to Range.
   
6. Enter 25 at the beginning and 350 at the end.
   
7. Enter 1 in Loops. (Repeating once results in two runs.)

Result: The movie is played forwards and backwards exactly twice from frame 25 to frame 350.

Mode

Under Mode, define how the animation should be played. You can run a movie once (Single), repeatedly (Cyclic) or back and forth (Ping-Pong). With single run, the texture remains at the last frame of the animation texture; with cyclical run, it starts again from the beginning, while with ping-pong, the animation is played continuously forwards and backwards.

Timing

Range Start

Range End

Use Timing to define the playback behavior. Image-accurate means that one image of the animation texture is used per calculated animation image. This means that there are no drop frames, i.e., animation images that are inadvertently omitted. However, if Cinema 4D calculates with a frame rate other than the one set in the animation texture, the movie will be played back slower or faster. Exact Second means that one second of the animation texture (as defined under Film data) is used per calculated animation second. This means that the movie is always played at the same speed. If you set Range, Cinema 4D adjusts the movie sequence so that it is played exactly once from the beginning to the end (of the scene animation). However, this also means that the animation texture may be stretched or compressed.

Loops[0..1000]

Loops allow you to play a movie sequence n times from Range Start to Range End. A value of 1 corresponds to one repetition.

Movie Start Frame[0..999999999]

Movie End Frame[0..999999999]

Movie Frame Rate[1.00..100.00]

Use these parameters to determine which part of a "movie texture" should be used at which frame rate. You can use the Movie Start Frame and Movie End Frame fields to define when (with which screen) a movie sequence should begin and when it should end. If the same values are entered in both fields, only this frame of the film is used as the texture. You also define the playback rate using the value in the Movie Frame Rate setting.

Calculate

If you click on Calculate, Cinema 4D automatically enters the values of a movie in the fields. Yu don't have to find out in advance how long a movie lasts and what frame rate it has. For single image sequences, this is ascertained using the image with the lowest and highest frame number. The Frame Rate defined in the project settings is always used, but can be changed here at any time.

Example:

A video or a single frame sequence has 600 frames (from 0 to 599) and a frame rate of 15 fps. You can now selectively limit playback (e.g., only from screen 70 to screen 119). You can even play backwards from frame 119 to frame 70.