You didn’t give much detail. Do you have a specific question? It sounds like you are having trouble with animation in general, so help can only be general.
Maybe some of this will help.
Regarding the focus pull, how about rendering DOF as a separate depth pass and using it as a depth matte in after effects? I’ve had challenges getting C4D’s DOF to work the way I wanted it to as well (usually its given me only a one sided focus plane that blurs one side then extends to infinity, rather than having a small DOF with both front and back blurry).
Mograph dynamics cache will allow you to precalculate the dynamics (physics), or possibly other mograph animations (I’ve only used it for physics). Probably not what you want for keyframed animation, unless you specifically are using mograph for these objects (cloner, mograph dynamics, etc).
What about basic divide and conquer troubleshooting techniques? Duplicate your file, delete non relevant pieces of the scene and test the animation. If it works, test the items you deleted. If not, keep removing pieces until you strip it down to the same level as your test that did work, or you get it working. Seek to divide in half each time (delete half, keep half) which allows you to be very efficient in your troubleshooting and time as you narrow down what object, then which setting is causing the problem.
Finally if these are keyframed animations (compass, camera) look in your timeline to see and adjust everything that is animating during the problem frames.
Cory
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Cory Petkovsek
Corporate Video
http://www.CorporateVideoSD.com