Live Direct Link: Game-Changing Feature for Cinema 4D and Unreal Engine 5 Users

[@joseluismorancastro2705]

Hi J! I was finally able to install the Cineware plugin for Unreal. I don't know if it can help but I saw that there were many doubts about the traditional installation and where Unreal was located. Well the solution is the following: It doesn't matter where Unreal is installed on drive C or D, the important thing is that you go to the plugin folder where Unreal is located and make the Marketplace folder and place the downloaded plugins there so that Cineware and whoever you want will appear immediately! Regards

[@willgiuliani8251]

Animation works now! Thanks WINBUSH!

[@JonathanWinbush]

Absolutely 🤙🏿🤙🏿

[@ali.3d]

Can't wait to try and push this one to the limit, I reckon this is a great step in the right direction for the C4D to UE5 workflow! So keen to see its development 🙌🏽

[@JonathanWinbush]

Yea I think this is a great first step to truly having the 2 platforms integrated together! 🤙🏿

[@anghot7985]

Thanks for the tutorial, it's awesome！！！！！！！！！

[@JonathanWinbush]

Glad it was helpful! 🤙🏿

[@WendelinJacoberDesign]

Thanks for the update! This is awesome! I hope stable animation and simulation export options come this year. For a while now, I have used Alembic for complex simulations. I split it up into multiple alembics for one simulation and put them all together in UE5, which works well. 😊

[@JonathanWinbush]

I think it'll be coming early 2024 as I know its the next thing they are working on supporting!

[@JonJagsNee]

It's getting better and better every month. 10/10. Thanks for keeping us up to date

[@JonathanWinbush]

My pleasure! 🤙🏿

[@OliverEnde]

great!! Thanks a lot!! You always do great videos, thanks a lot! I've learned a lot by your work!!

[@JonathanWinbush]

Glad you like them! 🤙🏿

[@GTshortStories]

I stopped using Cinema 4d a while ago. This makes me want to start using it again. Thanks for sharing the info 🤘🏾

[@JonathanWinbush]

Absolutely, when you stopped Cinema did you replace it with anything or you just using all Unreal now?

[@GTshortStories]

I was using After Effects as well and when I stopped using cinema 4d I started using UE and made the workflow with After Effects.

[@Oddernod]

Brilliant. Great to see the links between the two tightening up!

[@JonathanWinbush]

Yea this live link is what I've been expecting from them this whole time glad to see it's finally coming together

[@JaXuun]

I am happy they work on the unreal connection contiously. I have high hopes for the future

[@JonathanWinbush]

Me too I love to see the progression and that they are keeping at it! 🤙🏿

[@DannyNetwirk]

thats amazing. hopefully theres a shortcut key to save the directlink.

[@JonathanWinbush]

Oh dang that's actually a great idea I wonder if we can just set that up or make a button 🤔

[@danielbruning562]

This is awesome! Love how working with both programs is becoming more effortless!

[@JonathanWinbush]

It really is! One day it'll just be 1 to 1 I'm thinking for most of the functions

[@EnzoLuka21]

Hey, thank you very much for this. I just gave it a try with the current project I am working on for an event environment, bringing the 3D data into Unreal. It does a pretty good job, but you really need to redo the lighting, especially if you have illuminated objects. The more complex the scene is, the more missing material links you get. However, it's amazing how easy the integration between the two is. Thanks again for sharing this, and happy Christmas!

[@doc_noki]

this is sick. I just can't wait to see how far they can push this. Yeah, i'm looking at you dearest mograph

[@JonathanWinbush]

Yea once they add animation functions this will be next level for sure! 🤙🏿

[@ZJ.Design]

Holy smoke! I am so jealous using my blender now

[@JonathanWinbush]

I'm not even sure why Blender doesn't develop anything like this I mean Epic Game has invested money into the Blender foundation 🤷🏿‍♂️

[@liquaard2824]

@@JonathanWinbush true

[@pshethia01]

​@@JonathanWinbush I think they dont have developers... Maybe as EPIC is a donor and Blender is open source... Epic can also develop..

[@pfifferling6811]

THANK YOU! very clear and concise as always.

[@JonathanWinbush]

You're very welcome! 🤙🏿

[@Chris-tp4sn]

Waiting for animation implementation - but this is the first BIG step!

[@JonathanWinbush]

Same here! 🤙🏿

[@redbunnyclassic]

I'll be using when the animation is transferable. Great tutorial! and thanks for putting us on game!

[@JonathanWinbush]

Yea i've noticed Maxon likes to put stuff out as they are working on it so thats why we got this version but I know for a fact animation is coming in the next update so I agree that's when I'll be fully onboard with it but this is still beneficial if I'm just making an environment 🤙🏿

[@jamesking5439]

Can't the current frame animation in C4D be transferred to UE5?

[@JonathanWinbush]

@@jamesking5439 this doesn't support animation yet

[@scottdpeterstv]

Gamechanger! Thanks Winbush!!

[@dumpdump9898]

I can't wait to see where this goes!

[@JonathanWinbush]

😁

[@hrihori_art]

What time to learn Unreal!

[@JonathanWinbush]

Gets better and better every week! 🤙🏿

[@porterdesignandmotion]

This is pretty impressive. Curious, can you connect the Direct Link update to a hot key? I could see using a Stream Deck with a simple input to make this workflow super quick. Thanks for sharing!

[@JonathanWinbush]

Actually I'm not sure but that would be hella helpful as I have a LoupeDeck and being able to just make a button would really go a long way. I'll have to see if I can ask anyone at Maxon!

[@dding_one1389]

This is what i want mostly! Thank you for sharing.

[@JonathanWinbush]

You're so welcome! It's what I've been asking for this whole time so I'm glad to see they are pushing in that direction! 🤙🏿

[@JoshFryer]

THAT’S gangster! Can’t wait to use this!!!

[@JonathanWinbush]

💪🏿💪🏿🤙🏿🤙🏿

[@brunobordini7696]

Finally! Thank you sir Winbush!

[@JonathanWinbush]

Yea buddy I'm liking the direction they are heading with this I can't wait to see the next update! 🤙🏿

[@brunobordini7696]

@@JonathanWinbush imagine all deformers, modifiers and fields from c4d working natively in Unreal?

[@JonathanWinbush]

Absolutely that's the dream right there!

[@MetalGearMk3]

C4D getting so much love :( I wish I had a live link for Blender to UE5.

[@JonathanWinbush]

Yea this would be because Maxon has been internally developing this for Cinema. Blender devs need to take unreal for serious I'm not sure why they dont have any system setup

[@pshethia01]

You can collabrate and start with Blender team. It is open source.. Epic is also a donor..

[@wiscompton187]

That's pretty cool. Seems like they need a "Live Update" option, because going through those sub menus every time you want to sync the scene doesn't seem very "live" for a live link. Great start though!

[@JonathanWinbush]

Yeah I agree!

[@ApocalypseNouille]

You could always dock the command button somewhere in your interface, making it a one-click update process, or even set up a shortcut.

[@JosephWraith]

Awesome. thanks for the update!

[@JonathanWinbush]

No problem at all 🤙🏿

[@bigrods]

I followed exactly all the steps and it does not work... UE tells me there is no Direct Link source available. Any tip??

[@eyefisher]

They keep showing us C4D users love! Makes me proud to have stayed with it even though it's not "free".

[@JonathanWinbush]

Having money is probably why we get updates like these! Though I'm shocked Blender doesn't develop anything on their end I mean epic invested in them 2 years in a row 🤷🏾‍♂️

[@anixcool]

Oh this is like Maya to AE live link 😁 Great very useful 🤙 Hope they update it so that we don't have to go in the menu again & again 😅

[@JonathanWinbush]

Haha I know right but its a good step in the right direction I feel but yea that Maya one is dope! 🤙🏿

[@arenasvfx]

That's awesome bro.

[@NateMac000]

you said your computer showed up when connecting the direct link.... can this direct link see other computers on a local network? could someone on another computer or even a Mac be working on the scene in C4D and someone else be finalizing it on a PC workstation in Unreal?

[@JonathanWinbush]

It just came out so I haven't tested that far but thats a great experiment to run I hadn't thought of that

[@steilvorlageDE]

Great! Only works with C4D 2024??

[@JonathanWinbush]

Yup only the latest version of 2024.2

[@DuffTV2]

YES! Now UE scene data direct to AE please. Your move, Adobe.

[@JonathanWinbush]

At least let us take the camera from UE to AE I have no idea why Adobe is being so stubborn and not playing nice with Epic 🤷🏿‍♂️

[@THIS_is_BRANT]

maby there is way to make an Interface Button for the direct link sync, to make the workflow even faster

[@JonathanWinbush]

Ya was saying that earlier I wonder if there is a way to make a generic button for it

[@Perry-wy2fc]

Amazing 🤩..! Thanks Winbush ! 😅

[@JonathanWinbush]

Absolutely, thank you! 🤙🏿

[@mdproForPC]

hope they add mograph support

[@JonathanWinbush]

I feel like that'll come with the animation support update!

[@maroworks9643]

Great stuff!

[@JonathanWinbush]

Thank you 🤙🏾

[@djeisoncanuto8453]

Amazing man! Thanks for being the real Direct link for us! So, I installed the latest Cineware for unreal 5.4. Works fine in C4D and I can see in it my menu and save it. However, in Unreal engine 5.4 it does not appear in the plugins window but I see it in the explore Plugins/market Folder. I tried the same thing in 5.3 with the Cinewarefor unreal 5.3 and i had the same issue. I watched a few of your other relevant videos but nothing worked. I honestly have no idea why it would not show up. when its the folder structure. Any info would be amazing man!

[@JonathanWinbush]

Sometimes you have to manually make the marketplace folder in there if you don't see it and it should work then

[@djeisoncanuto8453]

@@JonathanWinbush Thanks, you are correct. The other issue was I installed unreal engine on my other drive and not the C drive to save space. SO, where the file was installing was in the wrong place and that folder already had the plugin>market place folder. Complete beginner mistake. Trying it again now to see it. Thanks again!

[@JonathanWinbush]

@@djeisoncanuto8453 oh right usually for my applications I always use the C drive because anytime I've used other drives issues often would happen so the safest route is to just use C if you can

[@djeisoncanuto8453]

@@JonathanWinbush Thanks. Now i can follow your other tutorial!

[@ArchigraphicA]

Great Video! The issue I keep running into is the redshift materials not coming over correctly. Is there a set of published rules on what does/doesn't transfer? thanks!

[@JonathanWinbush]

The support page usually has a pretty good breakdown of whats supported and whats not in the latest version support.maxon.net/hc/en-us/articles/4411492995730-Cineware-for-Unreal

[@MarcusRizzo]

Interesting, i've been playing with d5 render this week, their live link is real time and very consistent, and even can watch for octane render materials, hope this one follow the same path.

[@JonathanWinbush]

What is the D5 render I'm not familar with that one. It works in Cinema?

[@MarcusRizzo]

@@JonathanWinbush it's a new free realtime engine, that achieve a real good GI result, and the developers are doing a good job listening the users requests, the thing goes crazy doing architecture, but i found it really capable on other stuff. It work as a standalone software, but got the c4d link that the camera work realtime without resending it... is limited for now, but looks really promising

[@marcus_ohreallyus]

Thanks for this tutorial. Is there a way to add SSS to the imported Redshift materials? Or do you think its a better idea to start from scratch with Unreal mats?

[@JonathanWinbush]

I recently did a tutorial on redshift sss as they just added the support but as always I think you get better results working with the ue ecosystem

[@hafizmtariq]

Hi Win. Followed every step but still no cineware plugin shown either in UE5.2 or UE5.3!

[@JonathanWinbush]

Make sure its installed correctly kzbin.info/www/bejne/jGOWnYCoo6mkqposi=KafmLWR0Z5S4SxdB

[@ianalvarez9084]

Do you need to have proper UV maps for textures to come over correctly?

[@JonathanWinbush]

Yea for game engines in general that like proper UVs to be setup. I did a quick tutorial here on an easier way to set up UVs in Cinema that I use to get it done kzbin.info/www/bejne/sJDQhHmEjrmsfqMsi=bWnUVXTLpAvTWAtd

[@JocelynBordat]

Does it work with Mograph, soft & rigid body dynamics ?

[@naturesoundup]

just try it out

[@JonathanWinbush]

So as of this iteration none of the animations will come over but that'll be implemented in the next update so it'll work then 🤙🏿

[@DanTello-nx5wm]

This looks awesome. I’ve always avoided cineware and managed using FBX because once you start animating, materials or logic in UE… going back to cinema to make additions or updates blows our or breaks links to my unreal modifications. Any tips on what workflow processes you do in C4D vs UE.

[@JonathanWinbush]

Yea for me it depends on the project so if it's hella complex then I go the safe route and do FBX as you're doing but if it's simple then cineware has been fine. I usually do do my textures in Cinema I just do my layout and animations there then using native Unreal materials / lights once in UE

[@DanTello-nx5wm]

@@JonathanWinbush Makes sense. Thanks! Great to see the pipeline getting streamlined.

[@youjeongjin]

Thank you for the great video! Technological advancement is amazing! Can unreal and c4d installed on different drives work together? I want to install it on a separate ssd drive because of the large unreal capacity, wouldn't it be a problem?

[@JonathanWinbush]

I usually always install on the default C drive because I've had issue in the past where they didnt work together properply

[@HR-zg9ci]

are there any plans for blender too?

[@naturesoundup]

👍

[@JonathanWinbush]

This is developed by the Cinema 4D Devs themselves but I'm not sure why the Blender Dev team havent been working on something like this. Might have to make some noise in their forums to let them know the community wants it!

[@pshethia01]

​@@JonathanWinbushYes please...!!

[@jeongseok]

WOW!

[@JonathanWinbush]

😁🤙🏿

[@kulaginMatvei]

wow!

[@JonathanWinbush]

It's a step in the right direction for sure! 🤙🏿

[@vnsification]

I wonder how it will work for something a bit more complex than tortilla bag. That's usually where you start to see the stairs...

[@JonathanWinbush]

Yea buddy I just put these together to get the ball rolling to at least let peeps out there see how its done than ya'll can push it further 🤙🏿

[@micbab-vg2mu]

Great!!!

[@JonathanWinbush]

😁🤙🏿

[@user-fx1bx4ig4j]

Thanks for the tutorial! Will it be possible to eventually migrate the fluid simulation created in cinema4d?

[@naturesoundup]

try it out

[@JonathanWinbush]

Do you mean for the pyro fluid sims? Those might be a bit to heavy as you'd have to export those as alembics but who knows maybe they can figure it out!

[@user-fx1bx4ig4j]

@@JonathanWinbush Thank you very much for your kind solution!

[@user-fx1bx4ig4j]

@@naturesoundup I want to know so I can consider buying cinema4d, so I can't try it. Thank you for your reply.

[@JonathanWinbush]

@@user-fx1bx4ig4j absolutely and thank you 🙏🏾

[@lxtronic2]

Hi Winbush, excellent content! I would like to know If you can help me with this doubt. I have a scene in Unreal that my client wants to replicate in cinema 4D. I found that I can do that exporting the meshes and textures in .fbx but there's a lot of them. There's any other way to export the entire file to Open directly in cinema4D?

[@JonathanWinbush]

Oh dang that's tough as theres no easy way I've found to go that way. I think you'd have to export as an fbx per model. Can I ask why they would want to go to Cinema instead of finishing in Unreal?

[@effectatron]

Siiick ok that's it imma learn ue5. finally for real this time lol Great stuff man

[@JonathanWinbush]

LMAO we are here waiting for ya! 😁😁

[@pshethia01]

​@@JonathanWinbush Learning version of project avalanche and tutorials please..

[@lucianodaluz5414]

This is actually 3 years old in Modo, Blender and Maya. The great thing would be if it export all camera keyframes to cinematic...Does it?

[@JonathanWinbush]

I'm just asking did you watch the full video?

[@lucianodaluz5414]

@@JonathanWinbush I miss the part you said it doesnt :).

[@erasedmemories2457]

Cineware Plugin isn`t showing up in UE 5.3.2 ...

[@JonathanWinbush]

make sure its installed correctly kzbin.info/www/bejne/jGOWnYCoo6mkqposi=KafmLWR0Z5S4SxdB

[@SAideRsaY]

I'm using UE 5.3.2 and C4D 2024.1.0 and 2023.1.2 and installed the live link several times but without success. Strangelly the live link option isn't showing up in C4D's Extension and I was wondering if anyone could help me out on that

[@jbmocean399]

Hi Winbush, have you any links that show how to import the new c4d particles sims into UE5? Thanks in advance!

[@JonathanWinbush]

I don't I haven't had much time with the c4d particles yet

[@jbmocean399]

@@JonathanWinbush ok, no worries. Let me know if you come across anything

[@vicentecorreia4006]

With this new method, how do you export the animations?

[@JonathanWinbush]

I had mentioned a few times in the video that animation isn't supported yet that's coming in an future update 🤙🏿

[@jamesking5439]

Why does the model frame lose animation after synchronizing C4D to ue5? Please give me some guidance.

[@JonathanWinbush]

This doesn't support animation yet

[@DanielMeszarosProd]

Hey Winbush! I've been tempted to do a deep dive into Unreal recently, because C4D RS rendertimes are really killing my projects as a sole freelancer. It's awesome to see there's an ever improving link btw c4d and unreal. Is there any immediate disadvantages rendering in Unreal vs natively in Cinema? eg. are redshift setups just as fast in Unreal as its native render system? are there any material types that don't transfer over?

[@JonathanWinbush]

@DanielMeszarosProd my advice is to really learn Unreal and not think of it as a render engine. Cineware though better is not perfect so for more complicated things it's not as reliable.

[@DanielMeszarosProd]

@@JonathanWinbush thanks! great way to put it. Does your SOM course cover the more recent updates by any chance?

[@JonathanWinbush]

@@DanielMeszarosProd just the basic unreal stuff it was made I think with 5.2 so I don't go over any of the motion tools that just came out

[@thomasheckel]

Thank you W. Question what if i want do the reverse and send back to Cinema4D a different camera for example? Direct link only works in one way correct ?

[@JonathanWinbush]

Yea it only goes from C4D to UE

[@thomasheckel]

Thank you @@JonathanWinbush that's too bad i would love to bring a Meta Human in C4D

[@scottdpeterstv]

Trying this out on a scene, is it normal for live linking to take forever the first time you try it? I've tried just a model imported from the asset browser and camera like your example and when I have UE open and go to import through the datasmith live link it see's the file and I click select, but then nothing happens. Cinema 4d has been updated to the latest version as well as Redshift and I have a fresh install on UE 5.3 with Cineware for Unreal Engine 5.3 installed all like how youve shown. I never get a dialog box that opens asking if I want to import models, textures, etc.. I just get a cross hair cursor and am unable to select anything in the interface. Should I just wait it out?

[@JonathanWinbush]

Might have to contact maxon on that one I'm not sure what could be blocking it from working but mine didn't take that long just what you see in the video

[@calebspykstra2997]

Does this work with OTOY materials as well?

[@JonathanWinbush]

Unfortunetely only Redshift and Native Standard materials for now

[@dhruvakantthakur7253]

Is this works for the Animation ?

[@JonathanWinbush]

It does now yes. I have a more recent video on my channel about the update

[@BakerImageGroup]

Will it bring in baked animation? (Mograph etc.)

[@JonathanWinbush]

Gotta watch the video my friend no animations yet that's coming in future updates 🤙🏾

[@BakerImageGroup]

I did but I thought you just meant keyframe interpolation while baking might work or something. Like it could read FBX type data. My bad. @@JonathanWinbush

[@JonathanWinbush]

Yea this is only static for now until the next update when they add animation properties @@BakerImageGroup

[@philippeLebret]

Is this working the same way with octane camera ?

[@JonathanWinbush]

Octane isn't currently support when it comes to using Cinema 4D to Unreal. The only octane workflow I know of is exporting out the orbx file from octane then importing that orbx file into octane for unreal

[@philippeLebret]

@@JonathanWinbush Oh, ok, thank you.

[@firlavisualizations]

Whow 👏

[@JonathanWinbush]

Yea man good step in the right direction 🤙🏿

[@firlavisualizations]

@@JonathanWinbush where are those days when you had to manually check every single mesh in the scene so many times 😵‍💫.

[@JonathanWinbush]

@firlavisualizations it's still good to practice good scene optimization but yea I feel you it's almost to easy now 😁

[@jamskof]

Do all you people actually pay for c4d and redshift? I just wanna learn but I'm not a student, how can I do this?

[@JonathanWinbush]

yea it all comes in Maxon One. I'm not sure but they might have a trial still

[@BEST_LUL]

👍

[@JonathanWinbush]

What up Best! 🤙🏿

[@BEST_LUL]

@@JonathanWinbush

[@billy5450]

动画无法实施预览吗

[@JonathanWinbush]

Not yet thats in an update coming next year

[@demsz]

and blender :(

[@JonathanWinbush]

This is developed by the Cinema 4D Devs themselves but I'm not sure why the Blender Dev team havent been working on something like this. Might have to make some noise in their forums to let them know the community wants it!

[@captainagk]

in other words c4d = a sinking expensive ship.

[@JonathanWinbush]

How do you get that from the tutorial Im curious

[@captainagk]

@@JonathanWinbush sorry jonathan you are a rockstar. I just dont understand why c4d has done nothing to compete with blender. to get c4d with all functions I have to pay $1000 (c4d and redshift). blender + octane is free. I am not going to renew my subscription. Currently learning blender. My conclusion was based on the amount of time it takes to bring something from c4d to unreal after paying so much vs simply switching to blender.

[@JonathanWinbush]

@@captainagk nah I hope it didnt come off rude I didnt know if I said something in the tutorial that would make you of thought that so I was genuinely just checking. As for bringing stuff over I'll have more info I can share on the Unreal Motion tools next month a lot of stuff at least in the motion world can be done 100% in UE for a lot of motion graphics broadcast style stuff