.C4D

Introduction

C4D is the project file of Cinema 4D, Maxon’s modelling, animation and rendering program, popular for motion graphics. A project holds the object tree with its generators and deformers, tags, materials, lights, cameras, animation tracks and render settings.

The format is proprietary. Adobe After Effects can place and render C4D files through Cineware, a component built on Maxon’s own code, and Maxon provides an SDK to licensed developers. Other programs exchange scenes with Cinema 4D through FBX, Alembic or USD.

Structure

Maxon does not publish the layout of a C4D file. It is a binary file written by Cinema 4D’s own serialisation, and each major release of Cinema 4D may add to it, so a project saved by a newer version may not open fully in an older one.

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