Features
| Direction | What happens |
|---|
| Cavalry → Cinema 4D | Send Selected to C4D creates Cavalry Splines, real spline objects that work directly in Extrude, Sweep, Loft and Lathe. Holes in letters stay holes, the shapes are saved with the scene, and the Scale tool resizes them like any primitive. |
| …as a group or one object | Send as: Group rebuilds your folders as Nulls, each shape its own Cavalry Spline with its position, rotation, scale and pivot. Send as: Single object merges everything into one spline. |
| …with animation | With Animation (PSR) ticked, layers and folders bring their position, rotation and scale keyframes. Eases are rebuilt as curve handles on the original keys. |
| Cinema 4D → Cavalry | Splines, 3D objects and whole folders sent from the Cavalry Bridge panel appear in Cavalry as editable shapes inside matching groups, following every change (renames, moves, hiding) live, seen through the C4D camera or in world XY. 3D objects arrive as their outline, holes included. Tick Animation to key every frame of the preview range instead, one layer per object. |
| …in 3D | Mode 3D (C4D camera) rebuilds the scene in Cavalry's 2.5D space: the C4D camera becomes a Cavalry camera (position, rotation and lens), and splines, text and planes stand as flat shapes where they are in C4D, turning in 3D. Cavalry draws the perspective, so its camera can reframe the scene. Solid objects stand as their outline facing the camera. Tick Camera animation to key the camera on every frame. |
The Cavalry window connects by itself whenever Cinema 4D is running, and only does work when something changes. Everything stays on your own computer: a state file in your temp folder, and 127.0.0.1:1234 for sending shapes to C4D.
Install
- Download
CavalryBridgeSetup-x.y.z.exe from the latest release and run it.
It finds each Cinema 4D version (R23 or newer) that has been started at least once, and Cavalry, then installs into their user folders. No admin rights are needed.
- Restart Cinema 4D.
- In Cavalry, open Window › Scripts › C4D Bridge. The first time, Cavalry asks whether to trust the script, because it makes local network calls. Choose to trust it, or it can't connect.
If Windows shows "Windows protected your PC" (the setup isn't code-signed yet), click More info › Run anyway.
| App | Installed into |
|---|
| Cinema 4D | %APPDATA%\Maxon\<version>\plugins\cavalry_bridge\ (opened from Extensions › Cavalry Bridge) |
| Cavalry | %APPDATA%\Cavalry\Scripts\C4D Bridge.js |
Use
Cavalry → Cinema 4D: select layers or groups in Cavalry, choose Send as (Group or Single object), optionally tick Animation (PSR), then click Send Selected to C4D.
Cinema 4D → Cavalry: open Extensions › Cavalry Bridge, select splines, 3D objects or folders (Nulls) and click Send Selected to Cavalry. Sending again replaces what's sent; Send with nothing selected stops. Tick Animation first to key every frame in Cavalry. The panel shows the connection, what's being sent and what Cavalry sent last; the C4D Bridge window in Cavalry connects by itself.
In 3D: in Cavalry's C4D Bridge window, set Mode to 3D (C4D camera). A C4D Camera layer appears in the C4D Bridge group and follows the C4D camera; untick Follow C4D camera to reframe it yourself (its Position Offset and Look At Offset are always yours). World scale sets Cavalry pixels per C4D unit without changing the framing. In C4D, tick Camera animation before sending to key the camera on every frame of the preview range (the Cavalry window switches to 3D by itself when those keys arrive); with Animation ticked too, the objects are keyed as well, and shapes that keep their form get transform keys only.
The project page explains every setting, how the bridge works, and how it was built.
Build from source
Requires Windows and nothing else: it uses the .NET Framework 4.x C# compiler that comes with Windows.
powershell -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File build_installer.ps1
This builds dist\CavalryBridgeSetup-<version>.exe, with every file it installs packed inside. The setup also runs from the command line with /silent, /uninstall, /log <file> and /appdata <folder>.
cavalry_bridge/ Cinema 4D plugin, one file: panel, Cavalry Spline, local server, keyframe fitting
C4D Bridge.js Cavalry script window
installer/ setup program source (C#), manifest, icon
build_installer.ps1 builds the setup .exe
docs/ project page (GitHub Pages)
Limits
- Only outlines transfer. Fills, gradients, stroke widths and effects don't, and strokes arrive as their centre line.
- 3D objects arrive as their flat silhouette, without inner edges or shading. In 3D mode a solid object is a flat card facing the C4D camera, so it looks right through that camera but stays flat when Cavalry's camera reframes.
- 3D mode needs a perspective camera. Film offset doesn't carry over (Cavalry's camera has none), and the comp should have the same aspect ratio as the C4D render; the window says so when either differs.
- Animation covers keyframed position, rotation and scale (with Send as: Group). Behaviour-driven motion (Noise, Oscillator) isn't included.
- If the two apps run at different frame rates, keyframes keep their timing in seconds, so they can land between frames.
- Windows only for now.
- Plugin IDs are registered with Maxon: 1071603 (Cavalry Spline), 1071604 (receiver) and 1072165 (panel). Scenes made with the 1.0.0 test-ID build won't load their Cavalry Splines in later versions; send the shapes again.
Licence
Copyright © 2026 Orc Design. All rights reserved. You may download Cavalry Bridge and use it for your own work, free of charge. You may not share, redistribute or modify it without written permission; link to the project page instead. See LICENSE for the full terms.
Cinema 4D is a trademark of Maxon. Cavalry is made by Scene Group / Canva. This project isn't affiliated with either.
