> I think its completely the wrong approach. get a Tricaster that does a live virtual set, 

> or rent as needed. as a starting point http://www.newtek.com/vse

>

> doing this all live will be vastly simpler / faster / easier / better.... and saner !

Other than Tricaster doesnt do 3d virtual sets that his client want to use, it only does a nodal pan on a static image of a studio setup. Or at least that is the only way to do it in the Tricaster we have for small live web productions

There are other live solutions that does real 3d studios, with realtime tracking of camera, but they are all very expensive as far as i know.

...regarding the slow nonrealtime AE solution... Element3d does import .obj, but you wont get any material setup for you automatic this way, you have to reshade the whole setup. And be prepared to go back to a 3d program and fix polygons that will triangulate (!) wrong in element. I have found importing the .obj into Cinema4d Lite and saving it as an .c4d will be read more correctly in Element than a straight .obj. Well my only real use of the bundled Cinema4d yet :-)

- Robert