This might a case in which starting from scratch is easier than editing the preset scene that comes with Carrara.
Try inserting your text, using the directional cameras to create a bone skeleton, and attach the text to the bone mesh. The attachment step will automatically convert the text object to a vertex object.
cc08 extend bone limb to the left.JPG
1598 x 847 - 117K
cc10 select text and boes and use animation attach skeleton.JPG
I inserted the text first, just hard to see because the text is green against a blue background.
1) Inserted a text object and typed Test for Rigging Text Objects Look closely at first screenshot.
2) Changed camera to the FRONT camera, but the text was hard to see.
3) Selected the text object and then hit the zero 0 key so that the camera would zoom to the selected text object
4) Used the bone tool to create a horizontal skeleton for the text. I started in the middle and went to one side, returned to the middle and went to othr side, so "hip" bone was in center. Just preference.
5) Checked top and side cameras to make sure skeleton was inside text object. Required a lttle translation of the skeleton by selecting the first bone and using directional arrows
6) Shift-selected both the text object and the bone skeleton, then used the animation menu to "attach skeleton." - (Carrara converted the text object to a verex object)
7) Once skeleton attached to text object, with text object and bone skeleton sill selected, used the animation menu to create an animaiton group.
Text should now be rigged and capable of standard figure stuff. You could convert the text object to a vertex object yourself, before the rest, and create some morphs if desired.
I think Darts info thread in the stickies has a link to a history of Carrara. Might be able to track down some of the original Carrara / Raydream people. Curious what you they are doing now.
Creating Prop Hair for a G8M Using Philemos Converter Plugin
Suggestions welcome. This is just a concept experiment to try to find a useful workflow. My goal is to create a conforming figure or static prop mesh hair derived from Carrara's dynamic hair. Philemo's dynamic to mesh converter plugin is the primary tool, but I also use Carrara to render alpha and texture maps. For conforming figures, the mesh will go through the free plugin called Daz Studio to use the transfer utility.
Barbarian hair - because it should be easy to be messy.
1) Creating the mesh
- started wiith Misty's G8M for Carrara character.
- dragged a dynamic hair directly on mesh (in future, will use a skull cap as detailed below).
- used Carrara's dynamic hair tools to create a simple barbarian hair style. Upped the hair count but lowered the display percentage.
- used Carrara's hair texture tools to vary the hair length and add some frizz and kink.
- confirming that the display percentage in the modeler is reduced, used Philemo's hair converter plugin. Settings included reduced hair width.and 2 shading domains.
- note that Philemo's plugin creates a square vertical UVMap for each mesh strand.
- Resulting hair mesh is OK, but realized still want a base hair cap underneath the strands, especially on top.. Modeled and added a hair cap to the strand mesh.
2) Creating the texture maps
- started a new Carrara file and inserted an upside down vertex grid. Grid fills frame width but is not very deep.
- grew hair from the bottom of the grid. Adjusted camera so that hairs do not reach top or bottom. Turned off visibility of the grid.
- set hair shaders to range of black/gray/white.
- set hair shaders to add variable length, frizz, etc.
- reduced number of hairs in hair modeler
- rendered out a couple of alpha maps with different number of hairs.
- Saved alpha maps
- returned to hair shader. Experiments with shaders to get diffuse fr dark hair, brown hair, and blonde hair. Saved maps.
- UVMapped he skull cap that was added to the hair mesh model. Rendered some diffuse maps but zoomed in so fill frame. (maybe a mistake)
Some Tests with Alha and Diffuse Maps applied to Hairs.
G8M stff not conforming in Carrara even though blended weight. Not sure why.
In addition to the above hair, I put together a Conan type outft for G8M. I converted to blended weight. I started a new Carrara scene. I loaded Mistys G8M character preset. I conformed the outfit and hair. I dial spun some morphs for the G8M and the clothes autofit to the morped.figure. But when I pose the G8M figure, the fit to items do not follow. Really wierd that the clothes would morph with the figure, but not conform to new poses.
yoo know how when selecting the sunlight can see the sun disk representation, lookin for how to point a camera at that disk so i can always see it no matter where i move the camera?
how do you point a camera to where the rainbow will render?
Think I have an idea for the sun. Started new scene. Set atmosphere to realistic sky. Leave at default for moment. Inserted sunlight (should link to sun in relistic sky). Don't move or rotate sunlight for moment. Deleted default distant light. Inserted new camera and labeled "conical pointed sun." Inserted a target helper object. Parented target helper to sunlight. Translated target helper in z axis 5000 feet. Pobably should do even more. Applied point at modifier to "conical pointed sun" camera, set to point at the target helper. Now, when change realistic sky sun, the target helper moves with it, and the new camera points at the new target helper location.
EDIT: you would probably want to leave the camera that points at the sun at the 0,0,0 position.
The skirt is set to DForce. For Carrara, use VWD. I recommend "nailing" the belt loops, attach, and eyelits material zones to the mesh using the VWD tools.
Here is a screencap of the outfit in that plugin, Daz Studio.
My new freebie G3F fantasy dancer outfit in Carrara using Misty's G3F preset and onverted to blended. Lets see if I can get my G8M babrbarian and G3F fantasy lady in the same render.
The barbarian and the fantasy dancer have an axe, but they still need a skull. Here is a WIP of a skull I am working on. It is a variation on the fossil I made for a previous challenge. I want to add the bridge for the teeth and thickness for the upper skull. I also plan to add a jawbone and rig it so the mouth an open and close. If I finish it, I will post it at sharecg as a freebie. The eyes will be holes as appropriate.
Comments
i dont understand why attach skeleton isnt available.
trying something simple, like conforming my text to use the animation.
frustrating dohh
This might a case in which starting from scratch is easier than editing the preset scene that comes with Carrara.
Try inserting your text, using the directional cameras to create a bone skeleton, and attach the text to the bone mesh. The attachment step will automatically convert the text object to a vertex object.
the bones ... first? before the mexh? like disembodied bones?
so radical!
dang it hit the f12 key again, missed the bsckspace key.
I inserted the text first, just hard to see because the text is green against a blue background.
1) Inserted a text object and typed Test for Rigging Text Objects Look closely at first screenshot.
2) Changed camera to the FRONT camera, but the text was hard to see.
3) Selected the text object and then hit the zero 0 key so that the camera would zoom to the selected text object
4) Used the bone tool to create a horizontal skeleton for the text. I started in the middle and went to one side, returned to the middle and went to othr side, so "hip" bone was in center. Just preference.
5) Checked top and side cameras to make sure skeleton was inside text object. Required a lttle translation of the skeleton by selecting the first bone and using directional arrows
6) Shift-selected both the text object and the bone skeleton, then used the animation menu to "attach skeleton." - (Carrara converted the text object to a verex object)
7) Once skeleton attached to text object, with text object and bone skeleton sill selected, used the animation menu to create an animaiton group.
Text should now be rigged and capable of standard figure stuff. You could convert the text object to a vertex object yourself, before the rest, and create some morphs if desired.
Oh okay less radical lol
interested to learn how to transfer the rigging. inside carrara
in poser, it was go to setup room, load figure with the rig from library tp load rig to setup room.
dunno why i can remember poser stuff from 10 years ago, but i have trouble remembering displacement brush from last weekend.
what's harder to do is bone a letter! now that is tricky
or an evelope with a flap
Just a superquick doodle. Felt nostalgic.
so much cute for aiko 3
pokes at it poke poke poke
how does carrara know the bones belong to the text?
is kinda the opposite of seeing the bones move, but the mesh it supposedly attached to doesn't.
poke poke
there no way to send a question to the original carrara developers?
I think Darts info thread in the stickies has a link to a history of Carrara. Might be able to track down some of the original Carrara / Raydream people. Curious what you they are doing now.
Creating Prop Hair for a G8M Using Philemos Converter Plugin
Suggestions welcome. This is just a concept experiment to try to find a useful workflow. My goal is to create a conforming figure or static prop mesh hair derived from Carrara's dynamic hair. Philemo's dynamic to mesh converter plugin is the primary tool, but I also use Carrara to render alpha and texture maps. For conforming figures, the mesh will go through the free plugin called Daz Studio to use the transfer utility.
Barbarian hair - because it should be easy to be messy.
1) Creating the mesh
- started wiith Misty's G8M for Carrara character.
- dragged a dynamic hair directly on mesh (in future, will use a skull cap as detailed below).
- used Carrara's dynamic hair tools to create a simple barbarian hair style. Upped the hair count but lowered the display percentage.
- used Carrara's hair texture tools to vary the hair length and add some frizz and kink.
- confirming that the display percentage in the modeler is reduced, used Philemo's hair converter plugin. Settings included reduced hair width.and 2 shading domains.
- note that Philemo's plugin creates a square vertical UVMap for each mesh strand.
- Resulting hair mesh is OK, but realized still want a base hair cap underneath the strands, especially on top.. Modeled and added a hair cap to the strand mesh.
2) Creating the texture maps
- started a new Carrara file and inserted an upside down vertex grid. Grid fills frame width but is not very deep.
- grew hair from the bottom of the grid. Adjusted camera so that hairs do not reach top or bottom. Turned off visibility of the grid.
- set hair shaders to range of black/gray/white.
- set hair shaders to add variable length, frizz, etc.
- reduced number of hairs in hair modeler
- rendered out a couple of alpha maps with different number of hairs.
- Saved alpha maps
- returned to hair shader. Experiments with shaders to get diffuse fr dark hair, brown hair, and blonde hair. Saved maps.
- UVMapped he skull cap that was added to the hair mesh model. Rendered some diffuse maps but zoomed in so fill frame. (maybe a mistake)
Some Tests with Alha and Diffuse Maps applied to Hairs.
(some progress WIPs to follow in next posts).
Here are some of the WIP screengrabs
First, the hair and mesh
Some more WIPs
Aaargh -
G8M stff not conforming in Carrara even though blended weight. Not sure why.
In addition to the above hair, I put together a Conan type outft for G8M. I converted to blended weight. I started a new Carrara scene. I loaded Mistys G8M character preset. I conformed the outfit and hair. I dial spun some morphs for the G8M and the clothes autofit to the morped.figure. But when I pose the G8M figure, the fit to items do not follow. Really wierd that the clothes would morph with the figure, but not conform to new poses.
The unblended versions of these same items work in Daz Studio
Did you save it as a support asset figure?
just subset not enough for self rigged clothing
.
Aha! I bet that is it. I saved as scene subsets. Thanks. Will give it another go next week.
Thank you, Wendy!!!
Yay - saving as a support asset fixed it. The custom G8M blended weight clothes morph with figure and conform to poses.
Um, didn't quite turn out how I was thinking about it. Need to polish up my shader skills.
The Studio version is now avilable as a freebie. You will have to convert it to blended to use in Carrara. Untextured.
EDIT: Let me know if there is a problem. Haen't tried to share DUF files very often so may have the zip wrong.
https://sharecg.com/v/94316/gallery/21/DAZ-Studio/G8M-Barbarian-FRD01-Untextured
with greeble shader could look like a cod piece.
been on the bolo for cod pieces. with rivets. for my space pirates.
thanks.
hope my browser remembers scg password. dohh lol
lookin for how to save a go to pose in carrara on an intergalactic level, basically, just the x,y,z coordinates ?
yoo know how when selecting the sunlight can see the sun disk representation, lookin for how to point a camera at that disk so i can always see it no matter where i move the camera?
how do you point a camera to where the rainbow will render?
Not sure about the poses.
Think I have an idea for the sun. Started new scene. Set atmosphere to realistic sky. Leave at default for moment. Inserted sunlight (should link to sun in relistic sky). Don't move or rotate sunlight for moment. Deleted default distant light. Inserted new camera and labeled "conical pointed sun." Inserted a target helper object. Parented target helper to sunlight. Translated target helper in z axis 5000 feet. Pobably should do even more. Applied point at modifier to "conical pointed sun" camera, set to point at the target helper. Now, when change realistic sky sun, the target helper moves with it, and the new camera points at the new target helper location.
EDIT: you would probably want to leave the camera that points at the sun at the 0,0,0 position.
yeah that the disk thing can only see when sdunlight selected
5,000 feet straight up? okay thanks, trying it
Another Frazetta-inspired freebie. This one is for G3F. You will have to convert it to blended and use with Misty's carrara compatible character.
https://sharecg.com/v/94373/view/21/DAZ-Studio/G3F-Fantasy-DForce-Dancer-Untextured
The skirt is set to DForce. For Carrara, use VWD. I recommend "nailing" the belt loops, attach, and eyelits material zones to the mesh using the VWD tools.
Here is a screencap of the outfit in that plugin, Daz Studio.
My new freebie G3F fantasy dancer outfit in Carrara using Misty's G3F preset and onverted to blended. Lets see if I can get my G8M babrbarian and G3F fantasy lady in the same render.
The barbarian and the fantasy dancer have an axe, but they still need a skull. Here is a WIP of a skull I am working on. It is a variation on the fossil I made for a previous challenge. I want to add the bridge for the teeth and thickness for the upper skull. I also plan to add a jawbone and rig it so the mouth an open and close. If I finish it, I will post it at sharecg as a freebie. The eyes will be holes as appropriate.