[Tudor “ted” jelescu]

You can try Matte Chocker- it takes a bit of tweaking but the results are pretty good.

Tudor “Ted” Jelescu
Senior VFX Artist

[Tudor “ted” jelescu]

You may want to check aescripts for that, but just in case you did not think about this option here it is:
Select 3d solid layer Alt click and drag over the footage or image you want to replace the 3d layer with- no need for a precomp. In case you really need a precomp, you can create a Master Precomp, the size of your 3d solid, duplicate that every time you want to replace a solid and apply the above mentioned Alt click and drag over.

Tudor “Ted” Jelescu
Senior VFX Artist

[Tudor “ted” jelescu]

It could be that Plane Space from Red Giant was used or Echospace.

https://www.redgiantsoftware.com/products/all/planespace/

https://www.redgiantsoftware.com/products/all/trapcode-echospace/

Tudor “Ted” Jelescu
Senior VFX Artist

[Tudor “ted” jelescu]

You heard the word of the wise from Dave, here’s my 2 cents:

If you want a nodal compositing/fx software go with Nuke (unless you plan to train on Flame later on… even then I would think twice).

Otherwise stick with AE – look at Adobe’s track record: not the fastest developer, but steady growth, plus you can’t beat the third party developers of plugins, scripts and custom projects. No fx software out there has that at the scale AE has it.

Tudor “Ted” Jelescu
Senior VFX Artist

[Tudor “ted” jelescu]

I would still cut some black – here’s a quick test I did:
Pass01- used Levels to bring Gamma to 0.97 and Output Black to 8.0
Pass02 – quick Magic Bullet Looks “Grand Sunset”

4028_doorpasses.jpg.zip

As far as the grass patch- if you create a patch in PSD use the track data to comp that in front of the door.

Tudor “Ted” Jelescu
Senior VFX Artist

[Tudor “ted” jelescu]

I agree with Dave- you have used the best tool for AE – I got better results only through hardware, but that was in a studio with hardware that had six zeroes behind the number the price started with…

Tudor “Ted” Jelescu
Senior VFX Artist

[Tudor “ted” jelescu]

You can lock the fx panel and look at Levels on both, but I would use the picker to sample the darkest areas and match those.

Tudor “Ted” Jelescu
Senior VFX Artist

[Tudor “ted” jelescu]

Create a grass patch (from the right it seems a good option) with very fine detail for blades of grass and com at the bottom of the door.
Use Levels or whatever you like best to bring the blacks in the door at the same levels with the rest of the image.
Change initial hue in the door to match the footage and then color grade.

Tudor “Ted” Jelescu
Senior VFX Artist

[Tudor “ted” jelescu]

I would go for AE- it seems to me that you have more options and control for glow (especially if you work in 32 bit). I would render out a pass of just the inside of the lamp from C4d though.

Tudor “Ted” Jelescu
Senior VFX Artist

[Tudor “ted” jelescu]

Use Particular to create a nice flow of particles (google tutorials on smoke or water with Particular), then set a few Lights as Emitters and animate them spiraling around the hands. Play with masks and particle opacity to create the illusion of the flow coming from within and going around the hands.

Tudor “Ted” Jelescu
Senior VFX Artist