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Loss, and inversion of Normal/Polygons from C4D to Element 3D
Hello there,
I have a problem with a model, that opens up fine in C4D, but when opened in AE / Element 3d, it looks broken. I have played around with the Normals settings in Element, but have had no luck.
Seeing as a picture speaks a thousand words, here’s a couple of screen grabs to explain. I hope that somebody can help me here.
Here’s the model in C4D… looks fine…
And here’s the model in Element… broken.
Many thanks in advance for any help.
Regards,
James.
Editor / After Effects
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6 Replies
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I’m on After Effects CS6, on a mac.
Cheers.
J.
Editor / After Effects
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I believe you need to turn on “display backfaces”, or similar terminology, and then try switching the normal settings. Sorry to not be more specific – I’m not on my machine with AE at the moment.
Joe Bourke
Owner/Creative Director
Bourke Media
http://www.bourkemedia.com -
James –
I just thought of another possibility, and it’s not a good one. When I first started using Element 3D, I tried downloading a number of files in C4D format. Many of them just did not work, no matter what settings I tweaked. Now I’m a 3DS Max user, so I don’t own C4D, and there was no way I could check how the files had been exported – that may have been the culprit, because I think there are certain export settings which must be followed. Just a thought…
Joe Bourke
Owner/Creative Director
Bourke Media
http://www.bourkemedia.com -
Hi Joseph,
Thank you for your replies, you set me off on the right track with your initial comment about the ‘display back faces’.
I found a function in cinema 4d called Backface Culling, which basically toggles on/off the Normals that are back-to-front, resulting in the model having holes in it, in the same way it does when imported into Element3d. Doing this in Cinema4d revealed that the original model is problematic, with many Normals being the wrong way round.
Now I just need to figure out how to select just those back facing normals and reverse them. There is the Align Normals, and Reverse Normals function in C4D, but it seems those commands effect ALL the normals, or ones you have selected in the window.
If I do all the normals, the ones that were bac-facing are now correct, but alas, all the ones that were previously correct are now back-facing. And the model is so detailed and complex (you wouldn’t think by looking at the pictures), that to zoom right in and scan the entire model, making a group selection of all my problematic Normals would just be impossible.
I’m stuck. I can see exactly what the problem is, but can’t find the way to resolve it.
Thanks again for your input, you certainly put me on the right track.
All the best,
James.
Editor / After Effects
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Hi,
I’ve found a solution for this.
Select the part of the 3D object and go to the “Mesh” menu, scroll down to normals and then invert it.
Note: all the object need to be separated from the other children -
Hey James,
did you find a solution for this problem. I have the same issue here.
Thanks!
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