Retarget an animation in Cinema 4D

Introduction

This guide covers the complete process of exporting mocap, setting up a character rig, retargeting animation in Cinema 4D, and creating a control rig for editing.

Requirements

• Cinema 4D R23 or higher
• A rigged character (Mixamo rig recommended)
• Basic understanding of joints, skeletons, and animation in C4D

Export your Rokoko animation

• in Rokoko Studio, export your animation as an FBX file.
• Select a humanoid skeleton preset. Preferably Mixamo or Human IK.
• Ensure the exported animation uses a proper T-pose as the rest pose.

Prepare your Character Rig

• Import your character into Cinema 4D.
• If using Mixamo, export the character in a T-pose (strongly recommended).
• Place the character at the scene origin with correct scale.
• Verify that the skeleton has clean naming and hierarchy.

Add a Character Definition Tag

Cinema 4D needs to understand the structure of your character’s skeleton.

• Select the hips/root joint.
• Add a Character Definition tag.
• Use Extract Skeleton or manually assign bones if the rig is custom.
• Confirm the mapping for spine, arms, legs, and head joints.
• Set the character’s T-pose inside the tag (if prompted).

Import your Rokoko animation in Cinema 4D

• Import the mocap FBX into the same scene.
• Align the mocap skeleton scale with the character skeleton if needed.
• Add a Character Definition tag to the mocap skeleton as well.
• Verify bone mapping for the mocap skeleton.

Retarget your Rokoko animation

• Add a Retarget tag to your character.
• Set the mocap skeleton as the Source.
• Set your character skeleton as the Target.
• Review the pose alignment to ensure arms, legs, and hips match.
• Press play to preview the live retargeting.
• When satisfied, choose Bake Animation to transfer keyframes to your character.

Create a Control Rig (Recommended)

A control rig makes editing easier than modifying raw skeleton animation.

• Create a control rig compatible with the Mixamo skeleton (C4D can auto-generate one).
• Bind the character mesh to the control rig if not already skinned.
• Transfer the baked animation to the control rig controllers.
• This allows for:
  • fixing foot sliding
  • adjusting hand poses
  • correcting hip / weight shifts
  • cleaning overall motion

Edit the animation

• Use the control rig controllers to refine the animation.
• Adjust timing, fix penetrations, improve arcs, or stylize movement.
• Keyframes added on the control rig override the mocap where needed.
• Once finished, bake the final animation back into the character skeleton if you wish.