In this 2 part tutorial, I'm going to show you how you can create a retro 80's style animated GIF using Cinema 4D (or Cinema 4D Lite), After Effects, and Photoshop.
We'll start by first building our scene inside of C4D and creating all our retro elements. Then, we'll light and texture our scene and keep within a retro color palette. In Part 2 of this tutorial, we'll bring our rendered animation into After Effects and apply effects to turn our crisp rendered 3D and transform it to make it look like a faded VHS tape. Finally, we'll render our animation from AE, bring it into Photoshop and I'll cover how you can turn your animation into an animated GIF.
If you have any questions, post them in the comments! Be sure to post any examples of you using this technique in your projects as well! Thanks for watching!
This was recorded live on the Twitch Live Design Stream. To get alerted for future live design casts & get sneak peeks at new tutorials before anyone else, sign up for the Eyedesyn Newsletter.
Part 1: How to Create a Retro Style Animated GIF in Cinema 4D
Part 2: How to Create a Retro Style Animated GIF in After Effects and Photoshop
You just made my brain pop! So many endless possibilities! Thank you EJ!
Glad I could help facilitate some popping! :) Looking forward to see what you come up with, Leigh!
Hi EJ, at 9:05 in your 1st video, you have extra little icons for color and # to put down in material editor.
That color code # option is so useful. Is this feature a script? I cannot find it anywhere in default C4D R16. Color picking outside C4D window is not an option, either.
Hi Kevin, this is the new Color Chooser that is in R17, so you gotta upgrade to get it!
Awesome tutorial – the post-processing in AE made a huge difference! Here’s mine, I added a little text too.
Oh no, that link didn’t work!
Hi ! First of all, thanks a lot for your tutorials !
I have a question, I use Cinema 4D Lite (using After Effects) and I don’t have some of the tools you use in the first video (Polygone Reduction, Atom Array, Cloner,…).
Is it because I use Cinema 4D Lite and not the full version of Cinema 4D ?
Correct! Cinema 4D Lite is a fairly limited version.
Weird! Maybe this will work:
Also, I adapted your tutorial to make a looping company holiday greeting, seen here: https://youtu.be/a14aB1_bi00
Thanks again, EJ
Very nice! Thanks for sharing! Happy holidays to you!
What can i do instead of using the HDR Studio rig? I don’t have that plugin
Sky object with a material with an HDRI loaded up in the luminance channel applied to it!