[Help] Daz3D to C4D Animation Export

justinhien14

There has got to be some secret nobody is telling us. How is it so unclear that Daz3D Animations cannot be export in Cinema 4D?

I suck at rigging, no clue how it works even after studying it. It just doesn't make sense to me, which is why I love Daz's aniMate features.

However, I build my settings and environments in C4D, along with the camera, but I cannot get an animation in C4D from Daz to save my life.

If you have done it, please assist me.

mikael-aronsson

You can export an animation as an FBX from DAZ and just load it into C4D (at least later version) and it will animate "ok", you do not need to do anything special.

 

prozeidon

If the fbx format does not work for you, export your animation with "Alembic Exporter for DAZ Studio" as an ABC file. This works for me. Be aware that you can not change the shape of the figure once in c4d. Not what I know of. So if you plan to make the hair in c4d you need to do a workaround, by attaching the hair to an invisible figure that follows the same movements as your ABC figure. But it can be done.

prozeidon

When ABC export, it exports animations flawlessly in my experience. It's rare that I have experienced that it did not work and did not export.

justinhien14

@prozeidon What's the workflow for getting textures on the ABC import. I'm still new, but I imagine you can use the FBX textures and just copy it? I just don't know how to do that.

prozeidon

Yes, you are right. You drag the textures from the fbx to the ABC. I dont know how to explain it better but I might be able to make some screenshots later to day.

prozeidon

I hope this helps:
 

Auroratrek

I tried Alembic Exporter in C4Dr20 and it worked great--the mesh comes in pretty much perfect as far as I could tell from my first test on a V4 character.

A few initial notes for C4D users that I found so far (and thanks to Prozeidon who pointed me in the right direction on the textures etc. on this thread):

1.  Export the alembic file with "preserve subdivision surfaces" checked. The resulting file is not really any bigger than having it off, so using the Subdivision Surface tag in C4D doesn't really have much advantage that I can see. Also, it didn't really seem to work.

2. When you open the alembic file in C4D, it continues to reference the original exported .abc file, so don't move or delete it!

3. The trick for the textures--as Pozeidon says above--is to also export an FBX of the same DAZ file and import that into C4D as well, and copy and paste the groups of textures from the FBX to the corresponding objects in the imported alembic file. (Include the textures, polygon tags, UV tag and Phong tag.) Delete the FBX file afterwards. The textures need a little massaging, of course, but they're in the right place, you'll just need to adjust specular and transparencies, etc.

4. One big upside of the fact that C4D is only referencing the original exported .abc file is that you can alter the pose or animation--or put an entirely new pose or animation--onto the original DAZ file figure and export the alembic file again with the same name, and it will update the pose/animation in your existing C4D file, even after you have added the textures and placed/resized the character in your scene. This saves you from having to reopen and retexture the character in C4D from scratch. Do not change the basic figure, however--adding different hair or adding a prop or something wrecks the "link".

Note that alembic makes for a pretty hefty file--2.3GB for a 700 frame animated clothed character--but that's a much smaller problem than it used to be with storage getting cheaper all the time. Overall, I'm really pleased with this plugin. For anyone missing the old Riptide plugin (which doesn't work in C4Dr20+) this is a great alternative. Riptide had a bit more functionality, but this exporter solidly does the basics. Well worth the money for C4Dr20+ users.

edgarmedalla1

Nothing works, no alembic, no collada , no bridge, no fbx NOTHING works for me. And when it does work with the animation, the clothes dont follow the animation, or any other bug. Im so done with this software

LazerOwl77

Hi, I updated ma daz to cinema 4d bridge, I'm using c4d r20 and now the animations don't work anymore, the animation export as a static pose. 
I was using a version of the daz to c4d bridge from last year and few days ago I updated it, I noticed some changes to the export dialog but I keep the same export settings but now when I open the animation in c4d nothing happened, the keyframes are there but the character remains static as in the first frame of the animation. The message in c4d saying "Animation or a Pose was detected, Joint Orientation has not been fixed" was displayed in the old version of the bridge, but the animation worked normally. Maybe there is something I am not setting in the export options. I add some captures of the exporting prosess. If anyone could help I would appreciate it.