Hi there,
I would usually export the image sequence from CTA and then comp the scene in AE and render from AE as my final render - one reason is that I have a plugin that does a fantastic job of motion blur and it just smooths out the motion.
For me, NOTHING beats CA4 in character animation, to be honest, I'm actually inspired by users who do the whole process in CA4.
My current pipeline is as follows:
1: Create the character in Photoshop using your psd templates as a guide for rigging.
2: Import into CA4
3: Set up the head turns in CA4 composer (love this, so simple to use)
4: Animate in CA4
5: Export as a png sequence - transparent background
6: Import in AE as a png sequence
7: Comp the scene in AE + Add motion blur before rendering
What I can see from your plugin, and what I LOVE, and I genuinely mean that, is that if you animate characters interacting you can export them at the same time as separate image sequences. before I would render the whole scene as a png sequence, but having the characters as separate sequences from the same scene means I can reposition in AE if needed, a HUGE bonus, and this alone, for me, is brilliant.
Re export times, not using the plugin, it only takes a few seconds (less than 30) to export this sequence - with the plugin it takes just under an hour - which, to be honest, is fine, however, I would have thought that as there are 2 characters, it may only take a few minutes, as, its really rendering out 2 character image sequences, so, I'm not sure why its taking so long with the plugin, its maybe a bug, or, maybe something wrong with my set-up?
However, to import the project into AE only takes a couple of seconds, which is great.
To be honest, the only real issues I've found so far, and I'm sure your tech team will be able to fix these are:
1: The sliding of the character - really weird, I'm not sure why its doing that
2: The render time - I would have thought it would only take a couple of minutes (I don't mind waiting whatever it takes to be honest, I just know some people may moan about this)
3: The project when imported into AE is a little squashed (easy to stretch out though).
I'm more than happy to share the project - the animation itself isn't great, so don't judge me on this - its only something to test the plugin out on at the moment.
I'm away from my work machine at the moment, but I will share the project in a couple of hours
In short though, the plugin does work, and thats the main thing (and why you have a beta group to iron out all the little gremlins)
Cheers,
Chris