Where/How to find Genesis content in Carrara?

WsCG

Hello everyone,

Okay, so before I run out the door, I thought I'd ask... Is there a super simple "even an idiot can understand it" tutorial on how to get the Genesis models and related content working in Carrara? I've looked it up, but what I've found has been really convoluted and difficult to understand/follow, referencing "runtimes" and all this stuff I have no idea what it's talking about. I saw a couple other things saying you need to have DAZStudio installed for it to work? Why would that be?

I've installed the Genesis Starter Kit through the Install Manager, but Carrara's not seeing it, or at least I can't seem to locate it anywhere in the Browser, etc.

Anyway, if there's a simple tutorial that goes over this, step by step, and explains things without assuming I already know all the terminology, that would be awesome. Thanks!

Diomede

I am going to ignore installation issues for a second and just focus on finding Genesis.  You can find it in either of two places, the Content tab and the Smart Content tab.  Both work.  I am going to focus on the Content tab.  Start a new empty medium size scene.  At the bottom of the screen there will be a little handle.  Click and drag the handle upwards to open the browser tray.  You will see two tabs on the left of the tray, one called sequencer and one called Browser.  Click the Browser tab and you will see a row of tabs across the top of the tray.  It opens on the "Scenes" tab.  Click on the "Content" tab.  By default, you will see three subfolders.  By default, they have My Daz3D in the name.  *** My screenshots are  little different because I did a custom install and installed Studio to "Stuff for Studio" ***   By default, Genesis is in the 3rd folder.  That folder is one of the two that do NOT have the word Runtime in the title.  Click the folder to open the subfolders.  Scroll down to the "People" subfolder.  Click to open.  Scroll down to the Genesis subfolder.  Clik to open.  A blank Genesis figure is on the top level.  There are subfolders for characters and other features.  Presets for Victoria 5, Michael 5, and other characters based on the Genesis mesh can be found there.  If you just want to start with a blank Genesis, click and drag the Genesis icon from the top folder to the instances tray (box in lower right side of interface).  Genesis will load at coordinates 0,0,0.  Alternatively, you can click and drag one of the character presets from the subfolder to the instances tray.

 

Couple of notes for the future.

For this to work, Genesis must be installed properly, which will sometimes depend upon your setup so blanket statements are difficult.  However, there is a thread stickied at the top of the forum for the release of Carrara 8.5.  It has a number of issues and resolutions that came up for various people.  If genesis needs to be initialized or is not recognizing morphs that you know you have, it may be an installation issue with solutions recorded in that thread.  Also, ask in the forum. (Screenshots help people try to answer)

Some people prefer to load content from the Smart Content tab rather than the Content tab.  I encourage them to chime in.  You might prefer that as well.  For one thing, it allows finding everything by its name, which can be very useful.  However, for me, nothing good ever came from initiating the smart content database, but that may be because I have a custom installation.

The folder with RUNTIME in the title.  Yes, it is important to pay attention if loading from the Content tab.  The 1-4 generation figures are loaded from here.  This includes Michael and Victoia 1-4, but also a lot of the props and other figures developed at the same time. 

  

 

3DAGE

Genesis, and all other Daz3D products,. should be installed into your (Public documents /My Daz3D Library )

to have compatibility with older products like V4, and earlier,. that folder also contains a folder called "Runtime" 

So,. what you need to do,. is point Carrara's browser to the main MyDaz3D Library folder.

 

Creating Genesis has also added a new concept of "Smart Content" where instead of manually browsing through folders to locate Figures, clothing etc,. a Database running in the background displays content in the browser related to the item you have selected,. eg: select the figure in your scene,.and all of the items for that figure, show up in the browser.

The Postgre database should be avaliable in DIM if it's not installed,. please install it,. Carrara uses that database to display all "smart content"

Older content,. such as Victoria and Michael 1, 2, 3, 4 all use the older, manual system which was developed with Poser,. with the "Runtime" structure.

 

DIM installs your products into your "MyDaz3D Library" whether you have Daz3D Studio installed,.. or not.

Carrara doesn't need daz studio installed,. ..however,. it's free, and Daz3D's only child,. it does have some useful features,. such as converting objects modelled in carrara into conforming clothing items for genesis 2,. which can then be loaded back and used in carrara from the smart content browser.

Carrara can display all of your content,. you just need to point the Browser to your "MyDaz3D Lbrary" folder.

In Carrara's browser pane,. at the top right hand side,. there are a few little icons,. one of these allows you to "Add Runtime",. and "Add Folder" 

Pic..

 

WsCG

Hi folks.
Thanks, yet again for the help/feedback!

Well, I do have the Genesis content saved in Documents/My Daz 3D Library/People/Genesis. However, I'm not seeing anything in the content folder as diomede explained. This is what I see...

I did install it to a different location (I keep software on a drive separate from my OS), but I'd updated the Carrara install path  in DIM before I installed anything else through it. So, that shouldn't be an issue.

Just home on lunch and don't have much time to dig into it further now, but hopefully I can sort it out when I get home. Seems there's a bit of a process to getting stuff like this to work, so I'd like to get that down sooner than later.

Thanks!

WsCG

Actually I think I'm just going to start from scratch, let everything install through Install Manager, and let DAZ put stuff where it wants to by default, so I don't have to fuss with anything. Hopefully it'll "just work" if I do it that way. -fingers crossed!-

3DAGE

You should be able to install your Daz3D and Poser content to another drive,.  

In DIM, (Daz Install Manager). you can right click on any installed product,. to see the location of the installed files for that product.

By looking in DIM,. you should be able to see where your Daz3D content is being installed,. and then add that folder to the browser in Carrara.

 

Also,. make sure that the "Postgres" is installed and Running as a service,.

If it's not running , smart content won't be supplied to Carrara

WsCG

Okay, so I got the Genesis Starter content successffully installed. Now, however, I'm having trouble getting the Carrara 8.5 Native Content installed.

Edit: Nevermind. I figured it out. Couldn't find the Native Content in DIM. But, I went digging through the Options, and saw a place where you can select what products you want to list downloads for. So, I'm good. 

fixmypcmike

In DIM go to the "Ready to Download" tab and click on Download Filters, make sure both Plugins and Carrara are ticked.

WsCG

Fixmypcmike said:

In DIM go to the "Ready to Download" tab and click on Download Filters, make sure both Plugins and Carrara are ticked.

Yep! You must have been typing that right as I was typing that I found it lol. Thanks!