The Underrated Technique for Efficient 3D Animations

Creating realistic 3D animations can be time-consuming, especially when working under tight deadlines. After hitting the render button, we never truly know how our computer might respond—whether it crashes or suffers a power outage, risking hours or even days of lost work. Fortunately, there’s a simple yet effective technique to avoid these mishaps, saving valuable time and effort in post-production.

In this article, I’ll guide you through a workflow that uses D5 Render, Lightroom, and After Effects to render animations efficiently.

Using Image Sequences in D5 Render

Begin by visiting D5 Render's website. Under the Assets tab, select Free 3D Asset Scene Download. These assets are free for testing and exploration. For this tutorial, we’ll be using a city scene.

After downloading the scene file, open it in D5 Render. If you encounter a warning about incompatible assets, simply select the Update All option.

To create an animation, click on the second camera icon. Set up an animation sequence by assigning two reference points. When ready, go to the Sequence tab, select PNG format, and set the output resolution to 4K. Turn off unnecessary channels and hit the render button.

The Benefits of Image Sequences

Rendering your animation as an image sequence allows you to save each frame individually. If an error occurs, you won't lose any data, safeguarding your work and saving time. Once rendering is complete, move on to post-production.

Post-Production in Lightroom

Open Lightroom and create a new album for your rendered images. Import all the files into this album. The beauty of this process is that you can edit one image and apply the same settings to the rest using batch editing. This speeds up the post-production workflow significantl

After editing, export all the images to a folder.

Assembling the Animation in After Effects

Now, let’s move to After Effects. Start a new project, and import the image sequence by selecting the first image and ensuring the PNG Sequence and Create Composition options are checked. Once imported, you can preview the animation by pressing the spacebar.

When you're satisfied, export the file by selecting Media Encoder Que under the File tab. Adjust the settings as needed and hit the green play button to complete the export.

Bonus Tip: 

If you want to take your skill to the next level, you can check out this film emulation software that I personally use — Dehancer. It’s a plugin inside video editing software such as Premiere Pro, DaVinci Resolve, and Final Cut Pro that enhances your videos to achieve that cinematic look that you see on films. Just recently, they announced their competition - Dehancer Colorist Awards 2024, which you can check out right here.

Conclusion

By using image sequences in D5 Render, batch editing in Lightroom, and assembling the animation in After Effects, you can save time and avoid potential rendering mishaps. This technique ensures that your hard work is protected and streamlines the post-production process. To have a better understanding on the entire process, you can check out the walkthrough video below:

For more tips on 3D visualizations, be sure to check out my other tutorials. If you want to try out D5 Render for yourself, you can use this link to get a discount on your annual subscription.