Simulate parenting, (or un-parent) in after effects

Question

I have a flat layer in AE that is parented to another flat object in 3D space (both are .ai files).

The trouble is when I export to Cinema 4D Lite, the motion of the parented object is not the same as it is in AE.

I expect this has something to do with translating the keyframes on export, so I'm wondering if there's a way in AE to un-parent an object, and add keyframes to retain its motion as if it were still parented.

EDIT: On further research, I've found the Bake Parented Transform script. Is there no built in way to do this?

Answer 1

The only solution to do this without an extra script/plugin is to use expressions and then convert the expression to keyframes via Animation->Keyframe Assistent->Convert Expression to keyframes.

The big downside is that you have to "build" the parenting yourself, if you parent the position of one layer to another it will result in an expression like: thisComp.layer("Black Solid 2").transform.position. You then have to manage your relative position manually by changing the anchor point which is tedious, then you have to basically parent each transform property manually if you want rotation, scale and opacity as well.

So unless you can't spend the 15$ or can't use plugins for any reason I would always go for the script solution.