For anyone that wants it this si the completed script i used for my needs. so that i could pass the look dev information changes per frame onto the rest of my team.::

import c4d
import sys
import os

# Your predefined constants and variables
doc: c4d.documents.BaseDocument  # The active document.
op: c4d.BaseObject  # The active object, can be `None`.
IGNORE_DIRECT_ACCESS_TYPES: tuple[int] = (c4d.DTYPE_BUTTON,
                                          c4d.DTYPE_CHILDREN,
                                          c4d.DTYPE_DYNAMIC,
                                          c4d.DTYPE_GROUP,
                                          c4d.DTYPE_SEPARATOR,
                                          c4d.DTYPE_STATICTEXT,
                                          c4d.DTYPE_SUBCONTAINER)

def main() -> None:
    """
    Main function to iterate over each frame and print object data.
    """
    if not op:
        raise RuntimeError("Please select an object.")

    # Get the start and end frames of the document's active timeline
    start_frame = doc.GetLoopMinTime().GetFrame(doc.GetFps())
    end_frame = doc.GetLoopMaxTime().GetFrame(doc.GetFps())

    # Iterate through each frame in the range
    for frame in range(start_frame, end_frame + 1):
        # Set the document's time to the current frame
        doc.SetTime(c4d.BaseTime(frame, doc.GetFps()))

        # Update the scene to reflect changes at the current frame
        c4d.DrawViews(c4d.DRAWFLAGS_FORCEFULLREDRAW)
        c4d.EventAdd()

        # Print frame information
        print(f"Frame: {frame}")
        
        # Iterate over the user data container
        for pid, bc in op.GetUserDataContainer():
            if pid.GetDepth() < 2 or pid[0].id != c4d.ID_USERDATA:
                raise RuntimeError("This should never happen.")

            eid: int = pid[1].id
            dtype: int = pid[1].dtype

            if dtype in IGNORE_DIRECT_ACCESS_TYPES:
                continue

            try:
                value: any = op[pid]
            except:
                print ("Stepping over type which is inaccessible in Python.")
                continue

            # Print the value for each user data parameter
            print(f"Name: {bc[c4d.DESC_NAME]}, Value: {value}")

        print("-" * 80)
    
if __name__ == '__main__':
    # Change the standard output to a file on the desktop
    desktop_path = os.path.join(os.path.expanduser('~'), 'Desktop')
    output_file_path = os.path.join(desktop_path, 'c4d_output.txt')

    with open(output_file_path, 'w') as file:
        sys.stdout = file
        main()
        sys.stdout = sys.__stdout__

you sir are my hero, with your explanation I was able to get the relevant data i needed per frame and was able to spit out a file that tracked those changes. thank you again @ferdinand

thank you so much this is super helpful, and I will for sure dig into the docs on the website further. I appreciated you taking the time to explain the logic tome it makes it much more clear.

I am trying to write a python script that dumps all the custom user data of a given object per frame in the timeline and outputs that data to text file. right now if any data is in a "Group" it refuses to work, the script cant see the custom user data. Python not being my main coding library I'm not sure what I'm missing. its not actually failing so there are no breakpoints to check from my understanding. any help would be really cool.

import c4d
from c4d import documents
import os

def fetch_user_data_recursive(obj, id_base=c4d.DescID(), frame_number=None):
    """Recursive function to fetch all types of user data from an object, including those in groups."""
    userdata_container = obj.GetUserDataContainer()
    collected_data = []

    for id, bc in userdata_container:
        # Construct the current ID based on the parent ID and the current ID
        current_id = c4d.DescID(id_base[0], id[0]) if id_base else id


    return collected_data

def main():
    # Get the active document and object
    doc = documents.GetActiveDocument()
    obj = doc.GetActiveObject()

    # Ensure that an object is selected
    if not obj:
        print("Nothing selected!")
        return

    # Get the active render data and fetch the frame range
    render_data = doc.GetActiveRenderData()
    start_frame = render_data[c4d.RDATA_FRAMEFROM].GetFrame(doc.GetFps())
    end_frame = render_data[c4d.RDATA_FRAMETO].GetFrame(doc.GetFps())

    # Prepare a list to collect the user data strings
    output_data = []

    # Iterate over every frame and fetch user data
    for frame in range(start_frame, end_frame + 1):
        doc.SetTime(c4d.BaseTime(frame, doc.GetFps()))
        doc.ExecutePasses(None, True, True, True, c4d.BUILDFLAGS_NONE)
        output_data.extend(fetch_user_data_recursive(obj, frame_number=frame))

    # Check if there's any user data collected
    if not output_data:
        print("Object has no user data.")
        return

    # Print data to the console
    for data in output_data:
        print(data)

    # Save the user data to a .txt file on the desktop
    desktop_path = os.path.expanduser("~/Desktop")
    file_path = os.path.join(desktop_path, "c4d_userdata_output.txt")

    with open(file_path, 'w') as f:
        f.write("\n".join(output_data))

    print(f"User data saved to: {file_path}")

    c4d.EventAdd()

# Execute main function
if __name__ == '__main__':
    main()