Object buffer not working after After Effects upgrade.

[alcohol-efficiency]

Hi, running into an issue with C4D Object buffers and having this seen in After Effects after upgrading After Effects to 23.1.0. I opened a project that I had been working on in AE 22 that contained a C4D file where I was accessing an object buffer. Just a simple iPhone, and trying to replace the screen.. no big and it was working great. After the upgrade, the object buffer is not seeing that matted section, or the phone insert section, only the full alpha. My understanding (and the way that has been working for me) is that AE uses two C4D (cineware) layers, one is for the image, the other is for a matte (object buffer) to key into the base C4D image. For the layer in AE that is supposed to be the object buffer, it needs to output a matte of what goes inside of the phone, not the full phone.
Tried reimporting the C4D files, re-setting project, and built a new project in AE, and still I can't get the object buffer to work or show. Anyone else seen this, I'm I missing something, or did something change? The AE 23 upgrade did make changes to how it sets up alphas and mattes, so that could have caused something?
I have some files but would need to DM them.

Thxs!
Jon Lewis

[Dr. Sassi]

Hi Jon Lewis,

The easiest way to reproduce this is when I have Redshift enabled. Then the Compositing Tag is not working anymore, as it is not an RS-compatible option with Object Buffers.

Is this file working?
https://stcineversityprod02.blob.core.windows.net/$web/Cineversity_Forum_Support/2023_PROJECTS_DRS/20230307_CV4_2023_drs_23_AEcw_01.c4d.zip

All the best

[alcohol-efficiency]

Thanks so much! So I tried it with your file and I'm still having the same result with the object buffer selections between After Effects versions AE 22 and AE 23. I'm not using Redshift on these, so not sure if that matters. I did need to add the object buffer to the render settings in your file. Attached screen shots of using AE 22 (teal) and AE 23, (pink) using the same setup on both versions of AE. In the AE 22 Teal, it works great, the solid only covers the center section, where the object layer is set. In the AE 23 pink, the same object buffer covers the whole thing, like an alpha, not just the center. Something has changed between the versions.. Thanks, Jon

http://download.jledit.com/C4D_ScreensShots-03-07-23.zip

[Dr. Sassi]

Hi Jon Lewis,

Sorry for the delay; I try to reproduce the problem as usual. This included checking all three 23 versions, freshly installed. The Adobe update resulted in an 25::16 Ae bug, which was not solvable by Adobe's Support. Which also took the most time in my morning. Hence the delay in answering.
I got it working now, and I got the file working nicely.

Sorry for security reasons, I do not click on such un-known-to-me links. I think I mentioned that in the past. I just finished the lasted MAXON cyber-security training. This leaves me even more neurotic about web stuff than before Again, sorry.

Please check the file from above again (updated), and take a look if you get the same result for Object Buffers as well. See the image below.

If not, I believe tech support is the next step.
https://www.maxon.net/en/support-center

All the best

[alcohol-efficiency]

Thanks much, sorry for the hassle with AE, that happens. Took another look at it, and it's the same. I see your ObjectBuffers in After Effects in the Multipass selection of Cineware, but it has no effect on the layer its attached to in the timeline / comp. I have reached out to tech support, haven't heard back in several days. A bit of a problem as I need to deliver the file in AE23. I can always render it out as a psd seq, but there are a lot of them, and we needed the flexibility of going back and forth to C4D.
Thanks again on it, Jon Lewis

[Dr. Sassi]

Thank you, Jon Lewis,

Sorry about the delay from tech support. Not what we like to have.

I assume you are familiar with the 2023 or v23 Track Matte changes? To make sure we can exclude this.

Attached is an Ae file that needs the C4D file from above.

Cheers

All the best

[20230308_CV4_2023_drs_23_AEtm_01.aep.zip](Invalid file type. Allowed types are: .png, .jpg, .bmp, .txt, .c4d, .jpeg)

[alcohol-efficiency]

Thanks, yes AE 23 is different for mattes. not seeing your attachment, if you can resend. Also how does one send files to you to look at now? Understand the cyber issues, did my training again last week.
Thxs Jon

[alcohol-efficiency]

The attachment came through, takes awhlie. And yes thats how I set it up.
Thxs
Jon

[Dr. Sassi]

Thanks again, Jon Lewis,

[no attachments] I write the answer, save the post, and re-open it to set the attachments.

Files as ".c4d" should work fine here (small file size., so reducing to the problem or a dummy is excellent). I assume Dropbox, Google, Apple, Adobe, and Wetransfer are fine. Those have (AFAIK) file checking enabled, except for larger files, which I will not touch anyway. Sometimes people think it is OK to send one GB of files! That is not checked anymore by any company.

Yes, sad that we have to waste time based on the criminal behavior of others.

Thanks for the patience with tech support. I know others have chat options, but those are switching (more and more) to bots, which I find a slap in the face. We try to keep it personal, with the limitation of waiting time.

BTW, would you mind testing 2023.0 as well?

Yes, rendering is possible and has some pros and cons.

Cheers

[alcohol-efficiency]

Thanks, good to know. May have another question soon.
I was on AE 23.1 and the latest one 23.2.1. Super hard to change versions here. We don't even have the Adobe Cloud to manage our apps..
Thxs Jon

[Dr. Sassi]

Any time, Jon.

Any question discussed here will hopefully help many other artists.

Enjoy