So I set myself the challenge to build an animated USDZ file. If this is something you are interested in, some thoughts below.

It involved a lot of trial and error. I found the trickiest part was ensuring you followed the same workflow every time, as anything different tended to break the final outcome.

Workflow: Illustrator > SVG > Vectary > DAE > Blender > ABC > Terminal > USDZ

I built the original graphics in Illustrator, exported to SVG and then constructed everything in Vectary. This was then imported into Blender to animate. One frustrating quirk was the formats used. If I imported an Wavefront OBJ file into Blender it all worked well, except when taking the next step all animations were broken. If I used the Collada DAE format the forms were all shifted on import, but the animations worked on export (so I used DAE).

The key is building an Alembic ABC file which embeds any animations. Make sure your animations are nested in an empty node which is in the root of the file (forgetting this detail drove me crazy a few times). I found this format from Blender tended to move elements on export around until I made sure all of the origin points were the same. This article was really helpful. I didn’t have the timings messed up on my experiments, so perhaps this is a Cinema4D issue.

The next step is mapping all of the materials. I read lots of other people’s thoughts on this process, with the most helpful being this article.

Edit: the tedious mapping materials process using the Terminal was made easier with the Reality Converter app from Apple in early 2020.

One thing I have no idea about: the materials in this version seemed to work just fine. I created a different version and the materials didn’t seem to apply the roughness attribute (everything looked far too shiny). I followed the same workflow. This is a problem for another day.

One thing for sure, I will be glad if Adobe’s Project Aero makes animation easy!