cinema4d-mcp

Let an LLM drive Cinema 4D. cinema4d-mcp bridges MCP-compatible clients (Claude Desktop, Claude Code, or any other stdio-capable MCP client) to a running Cinema 4D 2026 session so the model can inspect scene hierarchy, author shots, build node materials, and rig animation through a typed, undo-safe tool layer — not arbitrary Python pasted into a Script Manager.

Good for:

• Scene audits — "List every object on the hero layer; flag any with non-uniform scale or missing Texture tags."
• Shot setup — "Create a 1920×1080 RenderData, a camera at (0, 150, -400), and a Take that uses both."
• Material work — "Build a Redshift node material with a noise texture driving roughness at 0.4 gain."
• Procedural edits — "On every Subdivision Surface in the scene, reduce editor/render levels by 1."
• Xpresso rigs — "Build a 3-gear meshing rig where the master gear's pitch radius dynamically drives the others' size and counter-rotation via an Xpresso graph."

[!CAUTION] Do not proceed unless you understand what this does. An LLM with a live connection to Cinema 4D can read your scene, write to it, and (if you opt in) execute arbitrary code on your machine. In concrete terms:

1. Your scene data leaves your machine. Object names, hierarchy paths, material/parameter values, imported file paths — whatever the LLM reads via list_entities / describe / get_container / dump_shader / get_mesh — is forwarded to your chosen LLM provider and may be logged by your MCP client. Under NDA or on unreleased IP? Confirm with your studio/legal team first that the provider's retention policy and your client's logs are acceptable.
2. The LLM gets write access. It can create, mutate, and delete objects, tags, materials, takes, render data, and layers; import / merge / open / save files; and render. Ctrl/Cmd-Z covers most edits — save_document, open_document, render, and some call_command invocations do not.
3. Arbitrary Python is off by default. exec_python runs unrestricted code with the full authority of the Cinema 4D process (file I/O, subprocess, network). Enabled only when C4D_MCP_ENABLE_EXEC_PYTHON=1 is set on both sides; turn it back off when you no longer need it. The same applies to plugin types that store Python source in their container — Python tag, Python generator, MoGraph Python effector, Python field, and the Xpresso Python operator. Creating or editing them is gated behind a separate C4D_MCP_ENABLE_PYTHON_OPS=1 opt-in, since their code parameter is RCE-equivalent to exec_python.

Before first use: back up (or commit) your scene, start on a throwaway project, and leave your MCP client's per-call approval prompts enabled. See Security before exposing the bridge beyond loopback.

Architecture

MCP client
   ↓ stdio
MCP server  (this repo, Node.js)
   ↓ TCP, JSON Lines (default 127.0.0.1:18710)
cinema4d_mcp_bridge  (Python plugin inside C4D)
   ↓
Cinema 4D

Two pieces to install: the MCP server (this npm package, runs as an MCP stdio process) and the bridge plugin (Python, lives inside Cinema 4D). C4D must be running for the bridge to respond.

Quickstart

Assuming you already have Cinema 4D 2026.0.0+ and Node.js 24+.

1. Install the bridge plugin into Cinema 4D (one-off). Download the latest cinema4d_mcp_bridge-<version>.zip from the Releases page and extract the `cinema4d_mcp_b

... View full README on GitHub