Save a Face Pose/Morph in Carrara

3dOutlaw

I've got a v4 face that I want to save out, to reuse. It's made with some morphs and some dial spinning.

I know how to do this with PFE in DS and with morph targets in Poser...but I am not finding it here in Carrara. Of course, I made all the adjustments in Carrara ;-)

Can someone point me in the right direction? I saw something about morph targets in the model room part of the doco, but for me the model room is like a very dark closet with monsters, so I want to make sure that is it, before I travel into it.

wetcircuit

There is a simple way to do it but it involves spending money on one of Fenric's plugins to gain PZ2 export:
http://www.daz3d.com/bvh-pz2-exporter-for-carrara

~ OR ~

You can try to to save an NLA pose with the morph info inside.... I have not tried it, but it seems like it would be easy.

Save the NLA pose (don't bother with drilling down, just save it). Drag the saved pose from your CLIPS TAB into the Browser. Now you should be able to load this pose onto the figure in another scene. Convert the NLA to keyframes. That should be all there is to it.

NLA is very finicky about any extra body parts or props being inside the Animation Group (the hierarchy that contains the model and the bones, generally it is what we consider the "figure", ie: the folder called V4 in the Instances Tab

3dOutlaw

I attempted the model room. Selected the head, exported morph target OBJ, opened up new V4, imported morph target obj, found it under the parameters tab....but it did nothing :(

I'll try the NLA...but can you just do the head part, or does it have to be the whole figure?

wetcircuit

3doutlaw said:

I attempted the model room. Selected the head, exported morph target OBJ, opened up new V4, imported morph target obj, found it under the parameters tab....but it did nothing :(

I'll try the NLA...but can you just do the head part, or does it have to be the whole figure?

When you save the NLA pose, select only the head, drill down to the parameters list if you want to be very specific about which morphs get saved, but it shouldn't be necessary since you are only looking to apply the pose and then convert to keyframes.... Keyframes will be overwritten, so it's the sort of thing you'll need to do before you start really using the figure....

Again, you will need to try it to be sure... I have not used this method, as I simply save the whole figure to the browser, clothes and all....

Dartanbeck

3doutlaw said:

I attempted the model room. Selected the head, exported morph target OBJ, opened up new V4, imported morph target obj, found it under the parameters tab....but it did nothing :(

That's not how that works, exactly.
If you go into the model room before adjusting any sliders and edit the mesh in the model room, using the tools in there, you may then export as a morph, which will then become a slider for you.
Hope that helps to clarify.

Fenrics tools add a lot of character and pose and tweener functionality to Carrara - and I like them so much that I've made it a mission to collect them all. The ERC is the most difficult to wrap my head around, but I have that too. The rest of them are as easy as anything to use.

3dOutlaw

Yea, I put Fenrics utility on my wishlist for now.

OK, so I figured out the NLA thing: created the master pose for the head, dragged it from clips to my clips, dropped it onto the NLA track in my other scene, and it worked! :)

Reference data: http://forumarchive.daz3d.com/viewtopic.php?t=178807

Sooo...does carrying around that NLA in that Track do anything else, or is it just a full pose applied to the figure for all time, sequences, etc...unless I remove it?

wetcircuit

3doutlaw said:

Yea, I put Fenrics utility on my wishlist for now.

OK, so I figured out the NLA thing: created the master pose for the head, dragged it from clips to my clips, dropped it onto the NLA track in my other scene, and it worked! :)

Reference data: http://forumarchive.daz3d.com/viewtopic.php?t=178807

Sooo...does carrying around that NLA in that Track do anything else, or is it just a full pose applied to the figure for all time, sequences, etc...unless I remove it?

Simplest is convert the NLA pose back to keyframes.

Otherwise you will need to be doing some elaborate work with the NLA pose and your timeline, and also setting what that particular track or pose adjusts (drilling down in the parameters list) so you can continue to morph and pose (say expressions or Mimic clips).... IMO it is possible, but I don't see any advantage to keeping it as an NLA just to keep the character morphs....

3dOutlaw

Would that be the "convert to Editable Clip" button?

(on a side note: if I conform a piece of clothing, how can i then say rotate the hips, thighs, etc? I think I used to know how to do this... :( )

wetcircuit

Yeah, something like that.... I'm not sure the exact command. You might need to "Make Editable" and then convert to keyframes....

3doutlaw said:

(on a side note: if I conform a piece of clothing, how can i then say rotate the hips, thighs, etc? I think I used to know how to do this... :( )

Once clothing is conformed you can't pose it anymore. The morphs that match the figure will also be locked to the figure's (that may be a cr2 option), but any fit morphs or movement morphs will still work.

You need to pose the figure the clothing is conformed to.

3dOutlaw

I can't figure out how to convert an NLA to a keyframe. I've looked in the docs, the old forums and just poked around. :(

That's aggravating about the conforming clothing...I can get something to fit a character using the transforms, but then i would like it to follow the character (like conformed), but conforming resets all the transforms. I can do this in Poser and DS...I gotta believe there is some way to unlock those transforms?

evilproducer

Is the face you made in Carrara to be used exclusively in Carrara? If so, you can save your figure to the Objects browser, by selecting the figure's name in the instances list and dragging and dropping on whatever directory you want in the Objects Browser. A dialogue will appear asking you to name it. By default, the name in the instances list is filled in. So if V4 is loaded it will be named V4 unless you choose to rename it.

When you wish tom use this figure, just navigate to the directory in the Objects Browser where you saved the figure, and drag and drop the figure's icon into the instances list.

3dOutlaw

Yea, but that saves the whole figure...I am just trying to save a Face Morph, so I can apply it to other figures. At this point I am just going to write down all the values of all the dials and redo it in DS or Poser, and save it as a PZ2. It's one of those things you take for granted until you don't have it. Sort of like the conformed clothes transforms thing.

Thanks for the help though!

Dartanbeck

3doutlaw said:

Yea, but that saves the whole figure...I am just trying to save a Face Morph, so I can apply it to other figures. At this point I am just going to write down all the values of all the dials and redo it in DS or Poser, and save it as a PZ2. It's one of those things you take for granted until you don't have it. Sort of like the conformed clothes transforms thing.

Thanks for the help though!

Sorry for the late reply...
When you create the NLA clip, just use NLA Pose. And when creating the clip, make sure you deselect everything in the NLA pop-up except for "Body Morphs" which I think is down towards the bottom of the list.

Now, for converting to keyframes, load the clip (pose) into your "Clips" tab, but don't add it to a track. Now select your character and go to the NLA tab and select "Load data from Clip"

Mistara

oh, not while it's on the track.  ok