Export OBJ sequence from Carrara? Export Cararra animations to DAZ Studio?

Joepingleton

This has probably been asked before, is there a way to export OBJ sequences from Carrara?

Philemo_Carrara

Yes and no, there is a plugin from Fenric. You can find it easily enough in his den, but the shop is closed. You can download the demo version, but I've found no way to buy the licence key for it.

Joepingleton

Philemo said:

Yes and no, there is a plugin from Fenric. You can find it easily enough in his den, but the shop is closed. You can download the demo version, but I've found no way to buy the licence key for it.

Thanks for the information.  Fenric's stuff is amazing, too bad the store is shut down.

Since this option is no longer available, I have another question.  I have had very good sucess exporting OBJ sequences from DAZ Studio using the "mcjGeoSender" script.  Is there a way to export Cararra animations to DAZ Studio. I ask because I use Mimic for Carrara for lip sync.

DUDU

PZ2 format to send it into Poser is better, I think.

There is a plugin from Fenric on sale on DAZ3D shop.

http://www.daz3d.com/bvh-pz2-exporter-for-carrara

Joepingleton

DUDU said:

PZ2 format to send it into Poser is better, I think.

There is a plugin from Fenric on sale on DAZ3D shop.

http://www.daz3d.com/bvh-pz2-exporter-for-carrara

Thanks DUDU,

As always, your are the man with the information :)

Fenric

You leave a message like this where I can find it, or email to "me @ my website". Please go and try it and if you really still want it I'll be happy to hook you up.

 

But... The OBJ exporter only ever sold two copies, one of which was returned. It exports ONE item at a time. If you have a clothed figure, that means you're exporting the figure and each clothing item separately. It does this because it's amazing how easy it is to end up with an OBJ file that nothing in the world can open successfully, between group name collisions, material name collisions, and simple vertex/polygon count. It also doesn't export your materials, so you're going to have to go add those back in for your destination application. It is not even remotely a "one click" solution, and I'll be honest: it's probably not what you really want. This is why I haven't even put it up here at DAZ: I do not actually intend to have it generally available, let alone for sale.

 

As a complete aside... for anyone considering accepting PayPal: they do not care what you say, if the customer complains the money is gone. A "Try before you buy! No refunds." policy is utterly irrelevant.

 

WendyLuvsCatz

huh I bought it,

well I have it and most of your other plugins fom here and on your site, must admit do not use it a lot as does not export some of the info I want. I certainly use most of your other plugins a lot though. 

Still not gotten the obj sequence importer though from DCG as until I can actually get a working fluid sim Obj series Export from Blender no real hurry.

I have yet to export one frame of one as an obj actually 

Now an Alembic importer that I would love to see and the elusive Carrara dynamic hair to obj nobody has made, even if it looks like the steel wool Poser hair exports, I use the LAMH from DAZ studio as mesh but it does not drape so relies heavily on my styling.

DUDU

Hi Fenric,

I use nearly everyday your .MDD import/export and it can only share one item at a time and no textures either but it's an incredible plugin for me.

Please, continue this job for Carrara !

Thanks a lot !

Edit: and YES, an Alembic Import/Export should be very welcome !

Joepingleton

Thanks Fenric for th information, love your plug-ins and I appreciate all you do for the Carrara community :)

It looks like I'll have to use your "BVH/PZ2 Exporter for Carrara" for my needs. I have been using the Element 3D plug in with After Effects for 3D enhanced videos and it only imports OBJ sequence or Cinema 4D files. Does the "BVH/PZ2 Exporter for Carrara" work on Genesis 1 or 2 figures?

The DAZ Studio "mcjGeoSender" [ https://sites.google.com/site/mcasualsdazscripts/mcjgeosender ] script has been working well for me, since it exports all items as an OBJ sequence and an MTL file that collects all the materials with  a "one click" solution. These files are then easily imported into the Element 3Dv2 plug in for After Effects.

 

Philemo_Carrara

Sad said:

 

Now an Alembic importer that I would love to see and the elusive Carrara dynamic hair to obj nobody has made, even if it looks like the steel wool Poser hair exports, I use the LAMH from DAZ studio as mesh but it does not drape so relies heavily on my styling.

@Sad

Actually, I wrote it, as a bonus to the VWD plugin. I'm just not happy with the results. But I think I can release the experimental version so you can see by yourself. And the reason why I'm not happy about it are linked to VWD, not a full hair export (that cannot be used in VWD). I'll look next week about preparing a release.

WendyLuvsCatz

yeah sorry not been following VWD thread after some of the strife I got into, was waiting to see how things went first, I am most certainly going to buy your no poke plugin when released though.

I was actually thinking hair can be very thick then transmapped like the anything grows hair made into mesh, been playing with that a bit too, its the draping ability I lack, one can then rig it after.

WendyLuvsCatz

Oh really crazy idea, a nif plugin

I have been going nutzoid trying to import mesh into Skyrim creation kit via nifskope or Blender, cannot even get a freaking triangulated cube in.

I cannot play for crap so trying some silly modding instead, just want to make simple models and use it to render  them with my player running over them with havoc collison, simple models are all I do anyway.

 

ironically I can get the Skyrim mesh out and extracted converted textures and render them in Carrara, rigged even!

Mythmaker

Joepingleton: Is there a way to export Cararra animations to DAZ Studio. I ask because I use Mimic for Carrara for lip sync.

 

I haven't tried Genesis 3 in Carrara Head rig anim export to BVH then import to DS route. Sounds very involved.

I've been exploring all the Mimic options for Genesis1/3 in Daz Studio (have Mimic Lite/ Live!/ Carrara Pro/ 32bit Lip Sync)

and concluded so far Lip Sync is the still the least tedious path. Some manual edit in DS will do the job. Ironic, since it's the cheapest one of them all. 

IMO Carrara has the best Mimic still in existance. Now if only Carrara could save a Genesis3 Daz Studio Pose Preset usable in DS, then I could put my Mimic for Carrara to use again. 

Dreeeeammm...

WendyLuvsCatz

Fenrics BVH exporter would do it.

I have gotten iClone facial animation into DAZ studio via BVH but you need to tick all the facial bones everytime in advanced settings.

Doing the Carrara mimic using only BVH bones will be the tricky bit and one I would not want to tackle!!! 

As Genesis 3 crashes Carrara the exported BVH bones is all you would have to work with unless you have iClone and 3Dxchange pipeline (and ironically I use 3DX5 pipeline as it is backwards compatible for iC5 as well as 6)

you would need to create NLA clips for each viseme bone movement.

without skinned mesh just moving designated bones that could be tricky

but it is theoretically possible.

Mythmaker

Sad said:

Fenrics BVH exporter would do it.

I have gotten iClone facial animation into DAZ studio via BVH but you need to tick all the facial bones everytime in advanced settings.

Doing the Carrara mimic using only BVH bones will be the tricky bit and one I would not want to tackle!!! 

As Genesis 3 crashes Carrara the exported BVH bones is all you would have to work with unless you have iClone and 3Dxchange pipeline (and ironically I use 3DX5 pipeline as it is backwards compatible for iC5 as well as 6)

you would need to create NLA clips for each viseme bone movement.

without skinned mesh just moving designated bones that could be tricky

but it is theoretically possible.

Oh dear me manual viseme clips not going there

Very theoretical indeed  LOL

and thanks for the pointers and nice to see you around too you've been a real gem to this scene

And very ironic too Genesis 3 need to round trip the solar system to be used in Carrara! Not going there too...looks like I'll settle with G3 + Lip Sync then... 

Or reconsider going back to Genesis....argh decisions decisions

 

Joepingleton

I find DAZ Studio's lip sync capabilities severely lacking.  I have had much better results with Genesis 1 & 2 with Mimic for Carrara.  I've had littlle sucess with Genesis 3 figures in Carrara other than using OBJ sequences exported from Daz Studio.  Fenric's "BVH/PZ2 Exporter for Carrara" looks like the solution, but I am unsure if it works with Genesis figures.

Does iClone support Genesis 3?  

WendyLuvsCatz

The Carrara mimic will not export on 1 & 2 as bvh is only bone movement and they use morphs and do not work as pz2 export.

3 does work in iClone but I had to manually recreate all the viseme and expression poses using the facial bones, I put a preset I made up on the Reallusion forum and so has another named Crikey.

There is no official one.

It is the FBX iClone  re-export I use in Carrara.

there really is no easy way to go between programs sadly, Mimic Pro actually is better than lipsync in DS but again not easy but possible to use with Genesis 1,2,3 but no longer in DAZ store.

Joepingleton

Thanks for the info Sad,

I didn't expect to export the lipsync as BVH, I was anticipating exporting as PZ2 like I had to do with Mimic Pro.  PZ2 worked well with Genesis 1 & 2  figures into DAZ, but I found Mimic Pro way to cumbersome (and outdated) to use and to make revisions after the export.  Mimic for Carrara is so much easier to use and the NLA clips are very easy to edit to clean up individual words.  I made a bunch of custom Viseme for other character in the old Mimic pro that I was able to transfer to Mimic for Carrara. I couldn't even load Genesis 3 in the old Mimic Pro to try the same process.  I don't own iClone so it doesn't seem like that is any easier.  

Have you had any sucess exporting PZ2 files from Genesis 1 or 2  using Fenric's plug in?

WendyLuvsCatz

no, the Genesis figures only export as bvh Fenric himself said somewhere why it could not do pz2

Joepingleton

Thanks info Sad,

I didn't see anything about PZ2 not working with Genesis in Fenric's reply.  I'll have to avoid Carrara and just use the old Mimic Pro to DAZ studio method since it works with Genesis.

WendyLuvsCatz

Not in this thread

WendyLuvsCatz

http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/28336/error-from-fenric-s-pz2-exporter-for-custom-morphs

not post I was looking for but on topic

Mythmaker

IClone path is too distant even if, as Wendy said, BVH into DS issue is fixed (I filed a ticket on another confirmed BVH bug)

Yes I agree Carrara's Mimic Pro is the best one. I have played with all Mimics now, except the Mimic Pro standalone (v3?).

But you know the under-estimated standalone Mimic is actually (very good value) Mimic LITE, which also uses CR2 and exports PZ2.

Mimic Lite is actually superior to both Lip Sync (and Mimic Live!) in functionality! It actually has ADJUSTABLE viseme clips tracks and audio tracks! Wav loading + Microphone input too! The GUI is very 2008 but who cares it works! 

Poserites with no standalone Mimic Pro, Mimic Lite is definitely an option for lipsyncing Genesis CR2 (and very likely Genesis 2 which supposedly converts well to CR2) to be used in DS.

I have used my Genesis.dmc (from good old Carrara Mimic Pro) in Mimic LITE with my Genesis CR2 with good success. Just load resulted PZ2 via Daz Library/Poser format stufff...Genesis talks!

I have also tried getting a Genesis 3 CR2 into Poser just so that I could use it with Mimic LITE, but well, no success. (total noob to Poser DSON process)

So I gave up, use Lip Sync with Genesis 3, then tweak afterwards. I prefer not having to deal with CR2 PZ2 in DS anyway.

Just in case people are looking for Genesis 3 dmc files (and Genesis 2), yes the official versions are shipped with Genesis 3 Essential pack, filed mysteriously under your library/GENERAL!