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What database thingy are using? Valentina or PostGRE thing?
Valentina or PostGRE thing? I don't know what that means.
David
Look through this thread. It may help. I don't have C8.5, and as such, I can't use Genesis, so that's my only thought. If others see this, they may be able to offer some other suggestions if I'm off the mark.
http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/48629/
Tried it again today and now suddenly everything works. Havent tried loading from the library yet. Only opening files that I had saved in Studio. Makes no sense.
Glad it is working. Sorry I couldn't be more help. f you need non-Genesis, non-DIM or CMS help, I'll be glad to do what I can!
Happy rendering!
A very common problem that people experience if they come to Carrara after being a Studio user is adapting to Carrara's skin shader system. This post is not about ideal settings, although I may link to such a post that I know of by Jonstark when I find it again and if he approves (pretty sure he will). Instead, this is just a very basic introduction to finding the location of common resources for genesis and genesis 2 skin shaders that do not load by default in Carrara, how to find and apply them, and how to save for future use.
First, you can buy Carrara-optimized shaders in the Daz store by Ringomonfort.
At some point, you are likely to want to customize your skin shaders. At the time of this post, Carrara comes with the Michael 5 character for genesis so I will be using that as an example. In my system, Michael 5 loads with the "Phillip" character applied (sort of). We'll start with that.
Basics -
- Start an empty scene in Carrara.
- Open the browser tray (bottom) and find the My Daz3D Library \ People \ Genesis \ Characters folder
- click and drag Michael 5 to the instances tray in the lower right to load the figure.
- Highlight the "actor" level
- Click the little paint brush at the top to move to the texture room - a long list of shader domains will appear for bodyparts
- Double click the "3_skinarms" domain from the list on the right to activate the "tree" for that domain on the left
- Notice that the "color" channel of the tree has a texture map but the "bump" channel does not. We will fix that.
- To load a texture map to the bump channel, we have to know where the Phillip character resources are
- In the color channel, hover your cursor over the name of the map and its location will appear. Make note.
- Now, in the bump channel, click "none" and choose texture map. Click the open folder and navigate to the location of Phillip resources
- on my system, that is Runtime\textures\DAZ\Characters\MilMan\M5\
- Bump maps are generally gray, and in this case, we want the bump map for the limbs. M5PhillipLimbs01B.jpg or some such. Load that.
- Now, the default setting for the bump channel may be too low to tell the difference (just 10%).
- Just as a test, highlight the top level of the shader tree, locate the bump setting, and raise it to something like 80% or 90%.
- Do a render of your figure to test and you will see that the shoulders are all bumpy now.
- Restore your bump level to something more reasonable
Repeat for other surface aspects and decide to consolidate shaders that use the same map, or not, as desired.
- You are likely to want to make additional changes to skin highlight, shininess, reflection, subsurface scattering, etc.
- Often , more than one shading domain uses the same map. For example, the limbs map is used by the shoulder and the forearm. In many cases you might want to use the same settings. If so, copy the shader to the other channel. In other cases, such as the face and lips, they may use the same map but you might want different bump or shininess. Then don't copy over the map.
- In the case of M5, there are different maps for the torso, the limbs, the face, the eyes, and the teeth/innermouth. So, you won't generally use 1 map to cover all of those areas if you use a texture map approach.
Save to browser for future use
- once you have all of the shading domains the way you want, click and drag the ball at the top to the shader browser and choose a memorable name. Use the comment section if it can help find the maps, etc.
These screenshots go with the above post.
This place reserved for a discussion of skin shader settings - to be created in an edit.
This is an excerpt from a old post by Jonstark. I've lost track of the actual link. I will remove it if he thinks it is out of date, or has any other objection. Until then, this is a much better discussion of settings than I could give.
And a couple of potentially interesting links
The Art of Skin Shading
by Sharon Milne
http://design.tutsplus.com/articles/the-art-of-skin-shading--vector-4812
Skin Tones Tutorial in Photoshop
by - ChiCha-Tutorials
http://www.idigitalemotion.com/tutorials/guest/skin_tone/skintone.html
This is just a quick comment on Genesis 3 female and V7. At this time, Daz does not profess to support G3F in Carrara. For stills, some folks have shown some progress in getting G3Fover to Carrara by using collada dae file format or the obj file format. Personally, when I tried collada, the mesh did not follow the bones, but I have seen other people be successful. I did get V7 over to carrara using the obj file format, but that means the result cannot be further posed without additional rigging.
If people discover work arounds or other uses, feel free to add to the thread. I am returning the V7 that I purchased. If it gets support, or if I use DS more, I will re-acquire it.
I've been trying to use Belle 6 with Carrara 8.5 Pro. The basic figure loads up fine, but when I try to change things like eye color and makeup, the result is just black. This is true even from the Smart Content section. Carrara 8.5 is supposed to support Genesis 2. What am I doing wrong?
Your not doing anything wrong.
When using the Daz Studio material presets in the Smart Content tab, its hit and miss. Clothing textures, hair colors, etc generally works but not always.
When it comes to skin, especially for the face like makeup options, yeah I get black too. Usually I have ot go into the materials room and hand-tweak the shaders. (best to goto Edit -> Consolidate -> Consolidate Shaders) so your only editing one shader per material zone (certain materials are re-used per different material zone).
Also, Ringo Monfort's store at daz here has a ton of Carrara optimized shader sets for all the main figure releases. All you need to do is drag and drop fom the Shaders tab into the global mutl-material zone (the big multi-colored sphere). Unfortunately, Ringo doesn't have a shader pack for Belle however; he does have al the essential base figures. Point being, you'll probably want to pickup some for Victoria 6 and Michael 6, and once you try those, you can study and learn how those are setup, then its just amatter of swapping out the Vic6 textures used in the Color, Highlight, Glossines, and Bump channels with those from the Belle texture set. Can be a bit tedious (i've been using Carrara since 2007, i'm used to it) , and you can also save the custom shader for the entire figure into your "My Shaders" tab for future use.
You'll find you'll want to be getting aquainted with Carrara's material room anyways. Even hair and clothing generally need or at least benefit from some Carrara shader tweaking, such as changing Highlights and reflection from Color (an abstract value system) to a Percentage value model will get you better if not optimal Carrara render engine results.
After exporting the posed figure from DAZ Studio in collada format import the collada file into Carrara 8.5
Select the bones of the figure and then either do one of two things..
1. Select the Transform tab then click on the HP->Obj button
or
2. Select a bone in the assembly room window
the figure will then pose to the bones
do this with each of the items ie.. figure.... clothing...hair ect..
you will probably need to also rotate the clothing/hair to match the figure
that's how I do it.. hope it helps :-)
@Stezza, thanks so much. I had to experiment a little because what you select in the bone structure to get the mesh to follow the bones is not always consistent from one figure to the next. Pelvis vs hip vs... for example.
The result is far from perfect but I can see that it is a start for a work around for stills. The figure can be further posed a little which I consider superior to an obj export/import.
Hi. I don't have Belle 6, and others have given you excelent information, but I just want to offer a couple of tips. Carrara's shader system does not match Studio's or Poser's exactly, although there are many consistencies. As a result, you will generally want to adjust the shaders of many skins and materials when you use them in Carrara. Here are a couple of common situations I have run into.
1 - Poser compatible color - for figures like V4, M4, etc., Carrara typically creates a mixer in the color channel of the shader tree. The mixer typically includes a texture map for the skin and the color blue. Some people just eliminate the mixer and copy the map into the color channel. I prefer to set the blue to a white so that I can use the mixer later for additional adjustments. In the meantime, the white has no effect.
2 - Daz Studio compatible bump map - for figures like genesis, genesis 2, etc., I find that some of the presets will load with nothing in the bump channel even though the Studio materials set includes a bump map. See my posts above for how to find the bump map. http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/45361/P60/#798751
3 - Daz Studio compatible reflection, SSS, etc. - for figures like genesis, genesis 2, etc., I find that Carrara's attempt to translate Studio's implementation of reflection and SSS to Carrara's yields bad results, such as what you report. Not much I can recommend other than adjusting the settings after loading. I am not someone who pursues photo realism so I can't do muh but recommend the settings that Jonstark reported above. http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/45361/P60/#798762
Recommendations?
- Ringomonfort offers some Carrara skin sets for Genesis and Genesis 2 in the Daz store. You could buy some and look at his settings.
- Apply the recommendations above, and then save global skin shaders to your Carrara shader browser for later use.
Thanks, everyone! I'll try these suggestions! I'm quite fond of Carrara for rendering outdoor scenes (particularly with animation), and wanted to bring in my Genesis 2 figures.
RE: some folks are reporting problems conforming more than 3 clothing items to Genesis 2. I have not had this problem, so I can't explain the circumstances. I encourage anyone who has this problem to provide examples here. For those reporting the problem, is it happening every time conforming more than 3 to genesis 2? Or only sometimes? Is it both G2F and G2M? All characters for G2F and G2M?
Anyway, I just threw together Aiko 6 in a hero pose and added a bunch of hair and clothing items. I have never experienced this problem, but am willing to try to recreate it if people report specific items. At the least, we might identify particular clothing items that are incompatible.
As per diomede's request in another thread, bringing not one but 2 frequent issues I have using Genesis 2 content inside Carrara. To make matters worse, these issues can sometimes work hand-in-hand...
Doesn't seem to matter which build I use either. Back before the DIM, with the downloadable installer files with build numbers I used to save those in individual folders, just incase a newer build was more problematic than thw build i was currently using. With DIM, its tougher to do since I generally select all listed updates and hit download...
Ok, first issue I sometimes have in Carrara is importing the Character I just made (morphed / clothed / posed) in Daz Studio, saved out as a scene subset. When Importing the character into a new scene, the model mesh loads as a standard static mesh, while the skeleton loads properly with the pose, and any props (gun in hand) ... Bugs me to no end since I usually have to resort to morphing, clothing and posing G2 characters in Daz Studio to begin with to bring them into Carrara without crashing.
Now, for this case, the clothing set I think was from a V4 Future Cop, I used Daz Studio's auto-fit/convert function. At first I thought this might've been the contributing factor, so I deleted the clothes of her and tried her without cloths. That failed, so I then ommited the hair (think hair is from A3 or V3), and still got the exact same result importing within Carrara - mesh solid/static in default pose, detached from the skeleton.
Only resort was to export to obj, and open one of RingoMonfort's G2 Carrara global skin shaders and manually copy/paste the shaders per material zone from the global skin shader to the obj's corresponding material zones for the g2 in obj form. Not fun...
:edit:
Will post next issue in next post...
Issue #2: Intermitently Genesis2 characters - in this case - Victoria 6, when loaded natively into the scene, the mesh is seperated from the rigging... Didn't notice this until I had to set the jacket to Conform to Victoria 6... I'm not surprised its not even conforming properly given the issue at hand...
Now, here's starting Carrara fresh, new empty scene, loaded the stock Genesis 2 Female base, no morphing yet... Here's the one of the very very few and rare occasions that:
1.) Having Genesis2 selected, dragging clothing objects will auto-conform and parent most of the time, with only a few items needing to be told to conform..
2.) More than 3 clothing items were able to be loaded onto the character without Carrara crashing at 79% Projecting Morphs phase on the 4th item
3.) Can Morph and pose the character somewhat. Carrara's morph projection and auto-conforming limitations still leave alot to be desired...
This is one of the rare times , more like 2nd or 3rd time EVER I've been able to get Genesis2 to play nice in the entire time I've played with Genesis2 natively within Carrara to have a character totally clothed (like I was used to with M4 and V4) as it should be without worry or issue. Irony here is that this time right now is just for test purposes of this thread. Never fails - when I actually want to be character creating and rendering, the whole project gets flushed down the toilet. A real killjoy when Genesis2 doesn't want to behave in Carrara, whether natively or via Daz Studio scene-subset export / Carrara Import.
For the attached images:
Hotpants_Shorts drag and dropped from browser onto Genesis2 - didn't conform automatically, had to manually select Genesis2 to conform.
PenHair was the 4th conforming item loaded in this session - carrara seemed to pause for a little bit , but didn't crash or hang. PenHair even auto-conformed
Kept on going loading more clothing, Belt2, Liquid Shades, APO_Gloves, B25SBEars, cd_headset , each item loaded and conformed automatically without issue or hiccup.
Tried manually posing the arms a bit, nothing fancy just basic joint rotations.
Began adding some body shape morphs, here we stumble into carrara's lack of collision controls exposing the skin underneath. Tried un-conforming the jacket and re-conforming it, same result. Didn't crash either surprisingly on the manual re-conform. Had to ctrl-z several times to find which morph shapes caused the poke-thru. Tried a couple test renders - yup, visible poke thru.
In task manager, I have 7 PostgrSQL (64bit) instances running, each between 1.1 - 2.6mb memory usage. For those who still show the (32 bit) edition of PostgreSQL, use the 32bit to 64bit PostgreSQL conversion in the DIM list. I've tried both the regular release and beta release of the PostgreSQL with about the same results...
If each time I played with Genesis 2 in Carrara worked out like this, I'd be a happy Carrarist user, at least for using Genesis2 and not using much outdoor foilage, or doing interior render shots. This is almost the way using Genesis2 should be for everyone, all the time (Much like V4 and M4 was - they just simply worked. Period.). And not 90% hit & miss.
Right now, Carrara's memory usage is 5,309.2mb (5.3gb) ... Doing Consolidate Shaders/remove shaders dropped memory usage by .1mb. Using stock Genesis2 skin materials. No worries, i have 64gb ddr3 system ram, dual xeons, dual 4gb AMD R9 290X's.
Kinda wierd that V4 and M4 are supposedly much higher density polycount than Genesis2, yet fully clothed and several M4 / V4's in a scene with other props I still used to do renders on a machine with 8gb system ram and not hitting 4gb mem usage in carrara. Yet Genesis2 fully decked out, 5.3gb basic and plain, no other scene props or chars...
Issue # 3
And, here is what commonly happens when I start fresh, loading G2 Male or Female natively in Carrara, and begin to load clothing - drag and drop from browser onto Genesis2 Male (not the top tier "group", the next one below)... Since each and every piece of clothing in this case loaded but wouldn't auto-conform to Genesis2, I had to begin starting at the top and go down each one by one to manually conform to G2. By the 4th item, this is what happened: Building Projection Map 97.0% -=Crashed=- "Carrara 8 has stopped working"
And this is why typically playing with Genesis2 in Carrara is such a killjoy... If its not Issue #1, #2, or #3, its generally roll a 4 sided dice for the randomness of which carrara determins what issue to crop up.
Just to quote myself from earlier back...
I didnt think Carrara 8 could handle Gensis let alone Genesis 2. I thought that was what Carrara 8.5 was for. I havent tried any of this in 8 only 8.5.
Carrara 8 and 8.5 only show up in Windows Task Manager as "Carrara 8" for 64bit , and "Carrara 8 (32 bit)" for 32bit respectively should you have Windows 64bit and only have the 32bit non pro version of Carrara. Its the same deal if you only have Windows 32 bit and obviously Carrara 32bit, it'll show up in Windows Task Manager as "Carrara 8".
As for 8 and 8.5 , the Smart Content Tab with the Daz Content Database Management, and Smart Content are only available in 8.5.
Only way Carrara 8.1 might be able to load Genesis / Genesis 2 is either via static obj, or possibly .fbx or Daz Collada. I havn't tried it (would have to install 8.1 again).
Sorry but the error message had me confused as to which version of the program you were dealing with. Forget I said anything.
Lol, no worries, and I thought you were referencing to the Windows Task Manager. We both thought one thing when it was the other entirely :P
When I use Genesis 2 in Carrara I never drag the conforming items directly onto the character - I always get screwy results, hangs and crashes when I do that. Instead I load all the items by just dragging them onto the Scene line in the instances tab so they are in the scene but not conformed or parented to anything. Once I have all my items loaded into the scene, I manually fit them to the character one by one and then select them all and group them with the character (not sure if that last step is really necessary but I like to keep my instances tab clean with related items in nice groups). Doing it this way I have never had any issues conforming any amount of items to G2F or G2M except for minor poke-through.
I regularly conform entire multi-piece outfits to characters, delete them, load new ones, conform those and so on, often through several repititions while I try to figure out what pieces I really want for the scene and doing it this way not only seems to load the pieces more quickly, the conforming usually seems to work better.
Unfortunately much the same as #3 situation - dragging into Scene tab, and had to conform each piece of clothing manually. By the 4th item, Carrara crashes at the Projecting Morphs 97% stage...
Very weird. I just tried it and managed to conform 15 different items onto the same G2F before I got tired of manually fitting the items - the scene was slowing down a little but it didn't crash.
Is this with ANY four conforming items or just a specific outfit or just certain combinations? I know there are specific items that don't work in Carrara for some reason - sorry can't think which ones off the top of my head, but I know I have some items I just had to give up using in Carrara altogether. You don't say which outfit you are using and I don't recognize it from your screenshots so I am wondering if it is just some piece in that specific set that doesn't work? I'm probably grasping at straws here, sorry if it's not helpful. :(
EDIT: Sorry - just saw that you DID say it was the V4 Futurecop outfit. I think I have that - I'll go play and see what happens.