Does MDD - plugin work in Carrara 8.5
Kari_Ahlstrom
Posts: 0
Does Fenric’s MDD plugin work with published official Carrara 8.5? I read from earlier posts that there was a major bug in 8.5 trial preventing most of Fenrics animation plugins from working which Daz promised to fix in later Carrara builds. Well, has it been fixed? I can’t find info anyware.
Reinhold Pupu
Comments
The timeline bug was fixed and it seems to be working ok, now. I have a patch to correct a normal-reversing issue that will happen for certain exports that I haven't submitted to DAZ yet, but otherwise I haven't had any reports of trouble.
Now that it is released, I fully support Carrara 8.5 and will address any issues that come up as quickly as I can.
I have Carrara 8.5 and I’ve been playing with this plugin (version 1.0.0.3) for a few days now. My goal is to find a good way to handle pre-made animations in Marvelous Designer.
I can export V42 without errors, but if I immediately reimport MDD obj-file back to Carrara the figure does not appear in its original coordinates. There is a slight movement. Checking or unchecking autoposition in the obj-import dialog does not help. Is this intended?
I have great difficulties finding the right parameters so that I could use this plugin with Marvelous Designer. With given MD export parameters (flip z and y in both obj and mdd export options) Victoria arrives into MD with her normals reversed (I guess) and the animated figure has her back towards me. Perhaps someone can suggest a correct procedure for me?
G1 and G2 figures do not work. Every time I try to export I get “an error has occurred” announcement. Nothing else in the scene, just a figure. G1 and G2 are not yet supported?
I also bought ObjectSequenceExporter-1.1. Can’t use it with G1 and G2 figures. An error has occurred! Damn!
Reinhold Pupu
MDD does not preserve location, only motion. It is basically a series of morphs, and the accompanying object exists to ensure that vertex order is between the MDD and OBJ files is correct - so that part is working as I would expect.
Marvellous Designer changed their object processing and that altered the way it calculates normals. PM me your email and I will send you a patch that fixes that problem. You will still need to adjust your camera because MD does not interpret coordinates in a way I can completely fix with my export options.
To export Genesis (either MDD or Object Sequence): Select the "Actor" line, not the top-groups. The two top-groups are causing many of my plugins trouble.
Fenric,
have you ever seen a problem with an animate2-mdd-export and a Carrara-mdd-import? I can ex- and import most of the scene (V4-figure, hair, some clothes), but trying to export/import one cloth item gives me the "an error has occured".
Funny thing is, that the cloth item is a garter belt and it even doesn't work if I use a substitute (=completely different garter belt). I have the problem again with a simple wrist watch.
I don't know if the export is broken or the import, because Carrara's default error handler isn't useful at all. But comparing the garter belt/wrist watch to things that work flawlessly maybe indicate that meshes with "holes" aren't compatible with the mdd-route. Any idea?
Well, I managed to find working settings for MDD-plugin and Marvelous Designer all by myself. I post them here since I suspect there must be at least a few among forum readers who have an equal noob status to me. Sorry if this has been worked out before somewhere else.
Using Fenrics MDD plugin when exporting a Figure and animation to Marvelous Designer.
• If you are using G1 or G2 figures read a message fron Fmnric.
• Export from Carrara 8 in mdd-format: In export dialog you can choose MD as a destination application or none as a destination application. If you choose “none” remember to swap Y and Z manually in both obj and Mdd options. In addition in both cases choose invert X in obj export options and invert X and Y in MDD export options. . No reversed normals problem any more. Not for me anyway.
• if you set Md as a destination in Carrarra export dialog then import obj to MD using autoscale (or mm). If your destination application when exporting from Carrara was “none” then choose “in” when importing obj to MD.
• From MD You can export the finished product as obj using “in” setting. I didn’t try exporting cloth animation.
• When importing obj from MD back to Carrara choose autoposition off and disable auto scaling (and set one obj unit equals one Carrara unit. )
Reinhold Pupu
Thank you very much for sharing your settings!
I don't have Marvellous Designer - never have - so I have no way to provide information like that.