Winbush demonstrates the new Datasmith plugin feature that imports C4D files natively in Unreal Engine.

Things change pretty quickly in the 3D world. While some changes are helpful, some are positively groud-breaking. You know the kind that can change the way you work forever. One such development is the recent announcement that Cinema 4D is now supported natively within Unreal Engine. Holy Smokes. Epic Games introduced native support for Cinema 4D inside of the latest release of Unreal Engine, via the Datasmith plugin – a feature that is in the free Unreal Studio Beta. Certainly many think that realtime rendering is the future of creative 3D work.

Jonathan Winbush shows how that all works by showing us how to take your Cinema 4D files directly into Unreal Engine in a preview of the Datasmith plugin. “With this new level of integration, creators can natively import .c4d files directly into Unreal Engine with support for scene hierarchies, geometry, materials, lights, cameras, and baked animations. Cinema 4D’s ‘save for Cineware’ command allows users to easily bake complex procedural motion graphics directly into realtime scenes through the Unreal Engine Sequencer cinematic editor.”