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Considering Carrara for NPR work...

mmitchell_houstonmmitchell_houston Posts: 2,484
in Carrara Discussion

I've been very impressed by some of the work I've seen created by Carrara users in the field of NPR (thanks for sharing with us, Head Wax and others). I have purchased the product (8.5 Pro, and if needed I will invest in ToonPro plug-in, but that's a discussion for a later date) and haven't really taken it for a drive yet. Before I do, I have a few questions:

  • If I set up a scene in Daz Studio, can I easily move it over to Carrara?
    • Or is it easier to just set up everything in Carrara?
    • Do lights and cameras move over from DS to Carrara?
  • I've read that Carrara has soft body and rigid body dnamics. Does this do any sort of dynamic cloth simulations?

Thanks to any and all who take the time to help me out with these questions!

Comments

  • HeadwaxHeadwax Posts: 9,987
    edited June 2017

    Wow @mmitchell_houston that's great news a man with your talent is delving into Carrara! Welcome aboard.

    I'm not an expert on bring Daz stuff to Carrara (others like diomede and dartanbeck et 3dage  et al will have better knowledge).

    As far as I know the camers and lights won't come over.

    Figures and props should come over in the main -save the file as a duf file and Carrara will open it.

    You may need shader tweaking. Eg a lot of poser props come in with no bump and too much shine. Not sure if they come in like that from Studio.

    Many people have tried the cloth and soft body but I havent seen any wonderful results. I think the VWD plugin has set Carrara's cloth 'sim' aside for the time being.

    Keep an eye out for Fenric's plugins as they will save you lots of time.

    Ask lots of questions and you'll get lots of answers.

     

    cheers :)

     

    oh for the NPR work - In Renedr room, at first render out as many passes as you can (until you find what you like),

    don't embed them,

    chose PNG as the output (that means 'embedded' won't be ticked initially)

    and choose save as ' named file' - that way they will automatically be named and that will save you work)

    NPR work in Carrara seems to have a few solid artists who are keen on it, but there is a lot of taciturn community members. The interest is there, the NPR thread has had 7.2 k views since March 30, more than most here.

    Mind you they could be passers by with curiousity and not Carrara users ;)

     

    Post edited by Headwax on
  • 3DAGE3DAGE Posts: 3,311

    Welcome :)

    It's just as easy to set up your scene in Carrara,.

    Load your figures sets and props from the content browser,. ...same as Daz studio.

    In DS, you can save as a DUF scene file,. and open that in Carrara.

    Any animation needs to be baked to the DS timeline before you can transfer it to carrara.

    Lights and cameras from DS, or any other program will be replaced by carrara's lights cameras .

    Obviously any program specific features or plugins won't transfer,. this is the same for most programs,. EG oceans tree's or clouds won't transfer from Carrara to DS (and operate in the same way)

    Yet another reason it's better to get used to loading assets into the program you're going to be using, rather than transfering via an export/import file.

    in DS the shaders (materials) are set-up for DS and Iray render engines,.

    In Carrara,. those settings can appear shiny/glossy, because the settings from the DS shaders are translated to carrara's shaders,. most of the time, you'll want to adjust some of these shader settings to look better in carrara,. once you're happy with that,. you can save the shader to your browser, and then drag/drop onto other models in other scenes.

    Physics in carrara is different from a clothing simulator,.

    There is a Plugin called  VWD Cloth and hair,. which is a clothing dynamics simulation tool, originally designed for use with Poser,.

    Hope it helps

  • HeadwaxHeadwax Posts: 9,987

    also if you havent seen this challenge thread - there was a flurry of NPR experimentation going on here https://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/160591/carrara-challenge-32-they-only-come-out-at-night-wip-thread-meet-our-pa-sponsor-gkdantas/p1

  • mmitchell_houstonmmitchell_houston Posts: 2,484
    head wax said:

    also if you havent seen this challenge thread - there was a flurry of NPR experimentation going on here https://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/160591/carrara-challenge-32-they-only-come-out-at-night-wip-thread-meet-our-pa-sponsor-gkdantas/p1

     

    3DAGE said:

    Welcome :)

    It's just as easy to set up your scene in Carrara,.

    Load your figures sets and props from the content browser,. ...same as Daz studio. In DS, you can save as a DUF scene file,. and open that in Carrara. Any animation needs to be baked to the DS timeline before you can transfer it to carrara.  Lights and cameras from DS, or any other program will be replaced by carrara's lights cameras.

    Obviously any program specific features or plugins won't transfer,. this is the same for most programs,. EG oceans tree's or clouds won't transfer from Carrara to DS (and operate in the same way). Yet another reason it's better to get used to loading assets into the program you're going to be using, rather than transfering via an export/import file. In DS the shaders (materials) are set-up for DS and Iray render engines. In Carrara,. those settings can appear shiny/glossy, because the settings from the DS shaders are translated to carrara's shaders,. most of the time, you'll want to adjust some of these shader settings to look better in carrara,. once you're happy with that,. you can save the shader to your browser, and then drag/drop onto other models in other scenes. Physics in carrara is different from a clothing simulator. There is a Plugin called  VWD Cloth and hair, which is a clothing dynamics simulation tool, originally designed for use with Poser,.

    Hope it helps

    Thanks so much guys. As I said above, I really need to find a workflow to create about 20-40 illustrations by the end of the year, using a style that I have not yet specified (but it is b&w). It's for a roleplaying game set in the Wild West. I have a good workflow for Poser (and, if I don't work something out by the end of June, I will fall back on it). But I have a LOT of great content in Daz Studio that doesn't work in Poser, so finding another tool to access it would be a plus. Right now, I'm gearing up for some experimentation that includes working with Carrara, working with Daz output and running it through some filters like Topaz Clean/Simplify or Akvis Sketch.

    I will definitely be looking into the plug-in you guys mentioned.

  • TangoAlphaTangoAlpha Posts: 4,584

    One thing to bear in mind if importing environments from DS, is that Carrara doesn't handle instances. You'll still see them in the object hierarchy, there'll just be nothing in the scene. You can use Carrara's surface replicator to make your own instances. And there's good news: if the set is modern, and used UltraScatter for instancing, the scatter maps (assuming they are included) can be plugged directly into the replicator.

  • HeadwaxHeadwax Posts: 9,987

    Hi 

    there are those render passes promised here https://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/comment/2493676/#Comment_2493676

    and in the next post after it

    - hopefully something of interest?

    I tried to get that stark feel you have been working on.

     

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