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soft body animation Q

PeterHPeterH Posts: 0
edited December 1969 in Carrara Discussion

Hi all

If any of you have time to divert your attention from the somewhat chaotic 8.5 update, can you please answer a quick question about soft body animation? Once you have used it to, say, drape a table cloth, is there any way to save the distorted cloth in its new shape as a non-animated object? (Like turning it into a carving that can be used as a static object in an animation.)

The only thing I could think of trying was to change the animation to key frame or still, but as you probably know this only converts the basic movement and not the distortion of the object's geometry.

Any suggestions appreciated - thanks.

Comments

  • stu sutcliffestu sutcliffe Posts: 274
    edited December 1969

    Off the top of my head, ( not done this for a while!) select your table cloth and export it as a OBJ.You should have an option panel pop up. Select one that says export with morph target and skinning, or something like that.That should save it in its position.I used to frequently do this for my stills,the nice thing is you can run a simulation the select the nicest looking frame to use.The main problem I encounter is that it is never the right size when you re- load it.......never figured that one out!! ( but sometimes you get lucky.)

  • PeterHPeterH Posts: 0
    edited December 1969

    That's excellent Stu - exactly what I needed to know. Many thanks for your rapid and helpful response.

  • PhilWPhilW Posts: 5,145
    edited December 1969

    Stu - there are options when you import to automatically centre and scale an OBJ, if you make sure these are disabled (at least one is on by default if my memory serves correctly), then it should load exactly as it was exported.

  • stu sutcliffestu sutcliffe Posts: 274
    edited August 2013

    Thanks Phil, I will look into it. I think I have a problem because I used to send stuff to Sculptris and now 3dCoat and what ever option I would select to bring it back was never the right one! I think I did get it right once or twice so I made a note for next time.....then next time it was wrong again,so in the end I gave up and just re-size on the fly.( I think Coat OBJs seem to be 90 % ish larger than Carraras)
    I cant have a go currently as I havent got Carrara installed after a system overhaul,I was waiting to upgrade but the £££s I had in mind is not the one I was presented with this morning.Even with all the assorted discounts. Nothing I use has been updated that much .I will mull it over for the next fortnight,maybe just go back to 8.1......and see what vers 9 holds in store.

    Post edited by stu sutcliffe on
  • PhilWPhilW Posts: 5,145
    edited December 1969

    OBJ's (as I understand it) do not define an absolute unit of measure, so the scaling issue comes when you export in one scaling system - Carrara uses inches by default - and importing in another, say one that uses mm, or cm, or Poser "units" which are 8ft(!). If you know what units each uses, you can calculate the scaling factor required, and some programs offer a helpful range of options for this. But for simply saving and loading in Carrara, just make sure that the Auto-scaling is off.

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