Configuration Preferences Import/Export Alembic Alembic Import Settings
Function available in CINEMA 4D Prime, Visualize, Broadcast, Studio & BodyPaint 3D
Alembic Import Settings

Alembic Import Settings

Use these settings to define which elements should be imported.

Frame Rate [1..500]

This value defines the FPS with which the Alembic animation is imported. The speed with which objects move will remain constant and the number of frames per animation time span will be modified.

Interpolation

If you have an Alembic file that was saved without intermediate frames, it would be difficult for Cinema 4D to calculate the correct motion blur. In Cinema 4D R19, this option can be enabled to create a linear interpolation between the images (as well as between existing intermediat frames). This works for PSR animations for all objects, camera settings, point positions (mesh, SDS, curves (splines or hair with constant point counts), vertex colors and vertex maps).

An option of the same name can be enabled in the Alembic object at the object level.

Start Frame [-300000..300000]

Use this setting to define the starting point at which the Alembic animation should be played in Cinema 4D. This can be useful, for example, if animations exported from other applications (that may start at frame 1 instead of frame 0 as in Cinema 4D) are not played synchronously with Cinema 4D. The higher the value, the farther the animation will be pushed back in time and vice-versa.

Original

Enable this option to import animations synchronously to those saved in the Alembic file.

Scale

This factor can be found at numerous locations throughout Cinema 4D when importing or exporting foreign formats. Therefore, don’t be surprised if the term ,export’ is used if this factor is seen in an import function (this factor is explained as a whole here).

This factor lets you scale files upon import/export, i.e., practically all relevant numerical values saved in the file or those to be saved will be multiplied by this factor and then saved - or interpreted when loaded.

The unit at the right in turn defines how upon

More information about units and scaling can be found in the Project Scale section.

Cameras

If enabled, all cameras contained in the Alembic file will be imported.

SubD

Use these options to define how Subdivision Surfaces should be imported:

Curves

Use these options to define how splines should be imported:

Points

Use these options to define how ,points’ (these can be particles or special point clouds) should be declared in the Alembic file:

Points will be imported as particle geometry (for Thinking Particles, note that the Max Particles setting in the Thinking Particles preferences might need to be increased.

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Instances

If an Alembic file contains Cinema 4D instances, you can define here how Cinema 4D should import them (see also Instances).

Visibility

The color-coded visibility for each object in the Object Manager - top dot for the Viewport, bottom dot for rendering - will be imported from the Alembic file into Cinema 4D if this option is enabled. (see also Visibility)

Normals

If enabled, vertex Normals will also be imported - as Normal tags. Otherwise normal Phong shading will be used.

UVs

Enable this option if the UV coordinates should be imported as a UVW tag.

Face Sets

Alembic supports polygon selections (which it calls FaceSets). Enabling this option will import these as Polygon Selection tags into Cinema 4D.

Color Maps

Enable this option if you want to import Vertex Maps or Vertex Colors (color maps). Vertex Maps exported by Cinema 4D will be recognized and imported as Vertex Maps.

Note that if Points is set to As Particle Geometry together with existing Vertex Colors, the respective colors will be assumed as Thinking Particles Data Channels. The names are: Vertex Color1(Vector) (color) and Vertex Color2(Real) (alpha).

Other Attributes

Alembic files can contain point-based attributes (e.g., velocity, colors, etc.) that Cinema 4D won’t necessarily be able to handle. To make use of these attributes, they will be assigned to fitting tags (e.g., vertex colors or vertex maps) if this option is enabled. This can add up to several tags per attribute (one vertex map will, for example, be created per channel). If this option is enabled, these attribues will be assumed. The tags will be named and numbered (per channel) accordingly.