looks like if I pre-render in AE it renders fine. Just not in Encoder.

Hello Patbick. At the time of creating the project, it was guaranteed to be rendered only from AE. Therefore, please render directly from AE. Maxon CINEMA 4D is used as a renderer. There is no information whether the support for this module is implemented in any modern version of Encoder, or whether it is implemented at all.

Thank you!