Carrara 8.5 - Change Wireframe Bone Visibility for Genesis and more
kakman
Posts: 225
Does the wireframe bone display for all things DUF make you crazy?
It certainly does me!
Once again, Fenric has come to the rescue and he has done this in RECORD TIME.
If you want to be able to see what you are doing with Genesis and other DUF figures – get this amazing utility immediately.
I did and I am using it AND I am a very happy camper.
Comments
That is great news - trust Fenric to come up with the solution:)
Can you post a link, please?
I am never quite sure what DAZ frowns upon when it comes to posting links for products that are not theirs.
If you Google Fenric Fox Den - you should find it that way.
or you can look at this thread here in the Carrara Forum (as Fenric has posted there):
Are ALL things DUF supposed to work in C8.5 - Country Kitchen
Wow, I'm bowled over by how awesome and quick Fenric is. Can you imagine what it would be like if Daz hired him as a dev?
I ran and got this immediately (the official name of the plugin is Change Bone Visibility). Lol, I also purchased Multi Shader Editor but then discovered I must already have purchased when I went to install, as the files were already in my directory. Don't remember when I bought it, and checking I can see it was already in my Carrara, ready to go, I had just never used it before. My mind must be slipping... :)
I think you can post a link if someone asks for it?
http://fenric.com/wordpress/downloads/
if not mods please let me know and will remove it - and apologies
Yes, you had. I've sent you a PM.
It seems I can view my pm's but whenever I try to reply or send my message appears to just vanish, so I don't think I can reply via pm...
Let me know if you got my reply. In essence though I just wanted to say thank you for how quickly you responded (especially considering this was my mistake), and I would very much love to accept your offer to get the new plugin you mentioned (I've been very excited about it since you posted the teaser pic). :)
For everyone who didn't already know, Fenric is awesome!
TEST REPORT:
Okay, so I've finally found a few minutes to spend in Carrara. Knowing that I didn't have much time, I decided to install my new "Change Bone Visibility" tool by Fenric and take it for a quick test spin.
Although I didn't really care, I was really wondering if one of my most used selection methods would still work after the operation was performed, which is Right-Click > Select bone from list. I was overjoyed to see that I can - as this method is very fast for most of my pose work - This is one of my favorite things about posing and animating in Carrara. It's simple selection and movement tools. Most of the time, I simply rotate each joint by hand - including finger bones.
So the tool works as expected. Expected meaning: how I would expect to use it without reading anything - as I haven't. I just selected "Actor" and performed Edit > Fenric > Change Bone Visibility. That simple. This makes for such a perfect solution. I have to admit that the bones being white simply became a way of life for me. For posing, it didn't really bother me. But when shaping, I found myself furiously rotating around, trying to see the changes I've made. Or worse - selecting "Genesis" to hide the bones, which loses your place in the shaping list.
So having the nice, clean look - like what we have with pre-Genesis figures makes a huge difference, especially when it comes to shaping. But I'll never pose or animate without using this tool first again. At least when Triax or Carrara native rigging is used.
That concludes my test report, since there really is nothing else to report on this miraculous tool. But I have something else to report on a related matter:
Shopping at Fenric's Den
I have had troubles in the past trying to buy Fenric's plugins from the Den. It turned out being due to my thinking that I'd have to create an account prior to purchase. Well this is totally unnecessary, so don't try to log in where it asks you to. Being a user of all of Fenric's tools available at the DAZ 3D store, I already know him as a genius. So why wouldn't I think that the ordering/receiving process was anything less than genius? Got me. But it is. It's fast and simple and it's designed around allowing anyone to try before you buy - and then getting a proof of purchase file to install to your extensions folder after you buy it. Genius.
Other Fenric Tools
While I was in this, rather nice Fox's Den, I wanted to look around for a little while. I noticed a lot of nice shader possibilities and ended up picking up (how can I refuse such prices?!!!!) the Multi-Shader Editor, which lets me select any number of Multi-Shaders from the Shader tab in the Assembly room and go, yup. You've guessed it: Edit > Fenric > Multi-Shader Editor where I can now change all sorts of things to all of the selected shaders at once! How sweet! I didn't have time to test it out, but I know that when I do get my next chance to work in Carrara, I'll be able to spend my time a lot more efficiently!
I have decided to collect the entire Fenric collection, as I have from the DAZ Store. All of the ones I've picked up from DAZ have proven much more useful than I had anticipated before purchase, and I've already had high hopes. If Fenric's aim is to please the users of his goods, he surely hits a bulls-eye with me time and time again! His four products with the word "Pose" or similar in the DAZ store have truly become a part of Carrara for me. I wonder if that plays a huge deal with why I'm always so chipper about using Carrara over anything else. I'm thinking yes. Carrara is amazing as it is without any plugins. But I keep finding that these plugins help to expand Carrara in just the right ways, and Fenric's are always top-notch and amazingly useful!
Thanks Fenric!
Yes, all of Fenric’s tools are amazing (and an incredible value) and, I feel, indispensible.
It is just such a pleasure to deal with someone that is so responsive to the needs of the Carrara community.
As an example, earlier today, I was using his Shader Doctor, and there was a small problem with some of the values NOT being changed correctly. I sent him a PM, and of course he responded promptly, as he always does. Within about a half-hour ALL was fixed and once again things were bright in my Carrara world. He even posted a “sorry” on his web-site – truly amazing.
As I told Fenric, DAZ could and should learn so much from him, in so many ways.
I can hardly wait to buy his forthcoming texture filter selection tool, so I do not have to be forced to either use Fast Mip Map (which thus far I detest) or to spend hours and hours changing hundreds of textures.
So, once again, I say “Thank you Fenric - for not just what you do but HOW you do it – with great grace and generosity."
Fenric,
I'm having an issue with "Change Bone Visibility". No matter what i select the menu item is greyed out and I can't select it. I have the latest version 1.1 and I think I've installed it correctly. All you other plug ins work fine. I'm on a Mac 10.8.4 running Carrara 8.5 (the latest release) in 64 bit mode. Any suggestions.
Thanks again for such great products.
Brian, you've got selected 'Set Figure Visibility', which is apparently part of a different Fenric plugin that you may or may not have, but that is not the right control for turning the bones invisible (I made this mistake as well at first, and kept getting 'unexptected error').
There should be a different sub menu under Fenric that specifically says 'Change Bone Visibility' (for me it sits at the top of the list of opbions) and that's the one you want. However I don't see it in your screenshot which makes me think either you don't have it installed correctly with the latest version, or maybe you need to close and restart Carrara (if it is installed correctly) so that it realizes this new command is there.
I see it - it's the last item in the menu. But your scene looks awfully blank: you have to have a native DUF imported figure loaded and selected in order for it to be enabled. Try loading Genesis and picking a body part first. I'll double check on my Mac in the morning just in case 1.1 broke something.
Just tested on my development mini - 10.8.4, Carrara 8.5 64-bit, and it worked worked fine with Genesis.
Please try with just Genesis, imported directly from the library.
Jonstark,
I selected "Figure Visibility" instead of "Change Bones" in the screen shot so that you could clearly see that "Change Bones" wasn't available.
Fenric,
I was trying to use "Change Bones" on a figure that I created some time ago that had clothes and morphs on my home computer. I'm at work and installed Carrara, added just Genesis and Genesis2 starter packs, loaded fresh figures and your plugin worked properly for Genesis, Genesis Basic Male, Genesis Basic Female, and Genesis 2. Maybe there's something funny with my installation at home or some content or morphs that are making the plugin unavailable. I'll try tonight when I get home.
Thanks both of you for your help.
Fenric,
I tried the same thing at on my home computer. I created a new scene. Placed a fresh Genesis and Genesis 2 in the scene and tried Change Bones Visibility. It's still greyed out. I removed the plug in, reinstalled it and got the same results. Obviously there's something different between my two computers. My home computer has a lot of content installed and a bunch of plug ins. Do you have any idea what I should try to get it working? Do you think there's a conflict somewhere?
Thanks
Well... this is a strange one.
It is specifically the "Set Figure Visibility" command from Pose and Shading Tools 3 (duplicator.mcx), but only on the Macintosh. Carrara is treating them as a conflict, you can see if you try to set the keyboard shortcut for "Change Bone Visibility" it will affect "Set Figure Visibility" as well.
But they're not the same GUID
0x7f92cce1, 0xe6d5, 0x4728, 0x9f, 0x1a, 0x39, 0xd7, 0x8f, 0xa0, 0xaf, 0x24
and
0x9f8229ed, 0x34d3, 0x4c77, 0xad, 0xf8, 0x50, 0x18, 0xf6, 0x58, 0x43, 0x3b
not the same command id
kThirdPartiesCommandIdBase+8006
and
kThirdPartiesCommandIdBase+8007
and not the same module code
fVIS
and
Fen9
Carrara on Windows can tell them apart just fine.
Um... well, this one belongs under "Carrara bugs", but I'll see what I can do to work around it. Not going to be tonight, though, sorry.
Tonight! Take your time. I'm not in a rush. You have the best customer service I've ever seen! Thanks for your help.
Well, it looks like changing the command ID to not be adjacent will work. I'll change the default keyboard shortcut, too, so it doesn't collide with "Change Rotation Controller" (though that doesn't seem to make any difference). I'll have to get all the Mac side rebuilt, so it will be later this evening or tomorrow before I can post a fix.
Fenric, I just want to say, thank you for your timely Mac support!
This is fixed: go get version 1.2
Fenric, Big Thanks from another MAC user. I will be buying your very useful Plug-Ins very shortly.
Slightly OT, but where can I get the "Change Rotation Controller"
That is in "Posing Pack 3", here at DAZ
http://www.daz3d.com/posing-pack-3
Thanks Fenric, I'm setting up a new laptop, and I'm still installing stuff. I have that one, just didn't there yet. Thanks
I have all of those Pose Packs and the BVH/PZ2 Exporter. (Well, and ERC and others :) )
Now if I were to have to try and live without any one of them, it would take time. They have really become engrained into my workflow.
ERC I still haven't mastered - only because I haven't got to the part of my work/studies that needs it. I imagine once I launch forth and start using it, I'll be kicking myself for not experimenting with it earlier! LOL
So many of these life-saving tools.... I'll start using them after already beating myself up with work arounds doing it some other way!
Fenric, I see that you have some really cool Shader options available. I've just added a bucket-load of plugins for shaders from Inagoni and DCG... as soon as I can do so, I want to add yours next - then I'll work on completing the DCG collection. I'm sold! More Shader options means more solutions! I did already get the Multi - Multi-shader editor. What a blissful ability to have!
So... Thanks Fenric,
For making this a better world... all of them... better worlds!
Awesome Fenric. Thanks again. It works great.
I just bought the change bone utility for Carrara and it works great. Just one slight quibble. Is there any way to hide the Genesis bones but still maintain the direct selection of the bone by the mouse? Once the bones are hidden I must select the bones by right click on the figure or through the scene menu. Selecting them through a single click of the mouse no longer works.
Thanks
Win 8.1 64 bit. Carrara 64bit 8.5.1.12 beta