[Randy Johnson]

you will have to convert it.
i just use itunes to do it.

[Randy Johnson]

There are some clouds in the content manager (shift F8).
I would take a look at those ones and see how they did it.

I did some a while back with PyroCluster…the render time was huge.

/randy

[Randy Johnson]

you should see the tutorial that adam posted a couple threads down
https://www.3danvil.com/tutorials/box_an/bax_an002.html

[Randy Johnson]

add more points using the knife tool in edge mode. Then move them into the shape you want.

Or just drop the object into a hyper nurbs and see if you like the result.

/randy

[Randy Johnson]

here is a great tutorial.
https://www.c4dportal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=940

video works the same way.

/randy

[Randy Johnson]

In save tab of the the render settings check the “Alpha Channel” box
leave straight alpha and seperate alpha UNchecked.
Disable mutli render

Render… What ever was space was empty in C4D will remain empty.
Use a PSD, Tiff, or Targa

Alpha channels work so that Black is 100% transparent and White is the opisite and the gray tones are semi transparent. So while you render you can switch the Pictures Channel to Alpha and it will show you the opacity using the the black and white thing…the colors in your scene do NOT effect the alpha channel.

[Randy Johnson]

After Effects is a compositing program with a particle generator and a 3D camera.
CInema 4D is a 3D application so the objects have 3D geometry.

Some of the partcle simulations and to a lesser extent camera movent can be similar between the two but over all they are very different programs that rarely overlap.

[Randy Johnson]

Dont forget Blender. its free too.
https://www.blender.org/
I dont like it but its worth considering.

[Randy Johnson]

haha thanks didnt realize the PLA was off by default.

/randy

[Randy Johnson]

To import the path you could use the vectorizer it is here …
Objects- Spline primitive- Vecortizer

Then in the attribute manager (bottom right of the screen) about midway down it says “texture” then “…” those three periods are the botton to browse your files.

Once you have your path you can use multiple ways of making it 3d.

easyest is the Extrude nurbs
objects- nurbs- extrude nurbs
All you have to do with it is make it the parent to your path. (drop the path in under the extruder)

Then you could try the sweep nurbs too
Object- nurbs- sweep nurbs
The sweep nurbs always uses two shapes…so you want to add another shape like a square or circle and your vector shape.
Make sure your shape is the youngest child. So you hiarchy would look like this:

SweepNurbs
-square
-vectoizer (your image)

ps. All the nurbs and splines can be found in the shortcuts menu at the top of your interface but it was easyer to explane via the named menus.

Good luck
/randy