Carrara Plugin Development

Sparrowhawke3D

I'll make a plugin to swap symmetry on the current scene selection where the names can be found to match, Left Thigh to Right Thigh for example or lShoulder to rShoulder.  So the obvious modes would be (i) swap symmetry, (ii) copy one side to the other so they mirror and match - any other operations ?

Doing it for key frames will be a little bit more difficult as that would need to search through the timeline for a matching key frame or create one where there is none so I might put out a simpler version first without key frames - it might then be required to clean up the key frames over a set period.  I've done all of these coding operations before though.

WendyLuvsCatz

Now if someone can solve the replacement of parented props with cubes I would be very grateful.

Just deleted 8 useless cubes from my last save scene and too depressed to hunt up all the items again.

Mistara

Sounds great. Left right doo da dum walking down the street 

i give up on ikay booties. Vrashed. Will do manually from now on. Hardest part is tilting hip 

Sparrowhawke3D

I've made the scene command plugin to perform the symmetrical operations on figures and uploaded it to my Laboratory.  This version was relatively simple to create so I've left out the undo and redo.  I'll try to add improvements later such as doing the key frames in the timeline.

There are some instructions in the Laboratory Notes section of my website.  Basically it looks for bones with a matching prefix such as Left or Right then reverses the angles about X.

Please test this out and report any problems and suggest other improvements which I can make in the future.

Mistara

Sparrowhawke3D said:

I've made the scene command plugin to perform the symmetrical operations on figures and uploaded it to my Laboratory.  This version was relatively simple to create so I've left out the undo and redo.  I'll try to add improvements later such as doing the key frames in the timeline.

There are some instructions in the Laboratory Notes section of my website.  Basically it looks for bones with a matching prefix such as Left or Right then reverses the angles about X.

Please test this out and report any problems and suggest other improvements which I can make in the future.

thank you

looking forward to trying it  

Bunyip02

Thanks as well !!!

Mistara

Hi Sparrowhawke,  i sent you a PM

WendyLuvsCatz

a suggestion in the Bryce forum was a randomiser for terrains etc.

I wonder how hard it would be to add a randomise option to our varoius rooms?

not just the terrain parameters but the trees, clouds etc, we have a shuffle but it needs to shuffle more stuff 

mschack

I may be wrong but I believe the editors are kinda locked in stone with no outside access.  So basically you would need to create a new editor to add the features you want.

WendyLuvsCatz

well I know Sparrowhawk did stuff with the clouds, DCG added Ground Control to the terrains, Philemo the shader room,

I dare say it's even possible to look at a saved preset and randomise that as most Carrara presets save as plain text.

I of course cannot even randomise a sentence

mschack

You can make a plugin to manipulate stuff outside the editors but not inside them.  i.e. once you create something in an editor and leave the editor, you could then have a plugin that can modify something in the assembly room.

Shaders are one of the plugin options, you can also create editors, renderers, primitives, tweeners, lights, light gels, and a myriad of other things, but you can't change the already built stuff.  Though how I'd love to lol.

Now if we had the Carrara source... mwahahahahahaaaaa

3drendero

Maybe the ERC plugin from Fenric with the turorial from Fabaone? https://carraracafe.com/fenrics-plugins-now-free/ https://sharecg.com/v/65324/gallery/5/3D-Model/ERC-Slider-controls-shader

WendyLuvsCatz

the plugin for creating 3D mesh in Carrara from Stable Diffusion data or at least text prompts should be just a few more papers down the line 

Jetbird D2

Hello, 

Oh, such a pity I found this thread only now. I may be mistaken, but did Carrara 8.5 had an actual SDK? If it was available it surely had to be put online on Carrara Cafe.  Wasn't Carrara 8.5 SDK  requested but not came to a fruition as Carrara's 8.5 version development got slow and eventually stopped? I remember there were a few beta versions and all of the sudden things stopped. 

Unfortunately I am busy with having   stuff to do trying to navigate challenges of life and am not often in these forums nor social networks, not to mention I didn't do any 3D for quite a few years, it appears I tend to miss and fail to catch important things related to Carrara, whenever I manage to check if anything new happened, forum topics like these get to be buried with other topics. I would be very grateful if someone could notify me about such nice initiatives if I didn't join the talk, so I could ask permission to collect it for  Carrara Cafe. It's main purpose is to gather and centralize as much resources as possible about and related to Carrara so   it would be easier to find things for and about Carrara software.   

Is there any further movement regarding this project? 
 

WendyLuvsCatz

USD anybody?

Dartanbeck

MarkIsSleepy said:

Just FYI - the official response from DAZ is that the only way to get the SDK is from CarraraCafe, so I guess those of us who can't create accounts there or don't want to are out of luck.

Why would anyone Not want to be a member of the Cafe?!!! The place Rocks!!! 

Have any of you read any of the Carrara 3D Expo magazines lately? I love going back and reading those. Beautiful, Beautiful e-zines!

Dartanbeck

Sparrowhawke3D said:

I've made the scene command plugin to perform the symmetrical operations on figures and uploaded it to my Laboratory.  This version was relatively simple to create so I've left out the undo and redo.  I'll try to add improvements later such as doing the key frames in the timeline.

There are some instructions in the Laboratory Notes section of my website.  Basically it looks for bones with a matching prefix such as Left or Right then reverses the angles about X.

Please test this out and report any problems and suggest other improvements which I can make in the future.

Sparrowhawke, you ROCK!!!

Dartanbeck

Sparrowhawke3D said:

would be kewl to quickly save a hand pose with a one or two click.

every bone from the hand down the heirarchy. and swap symmetry between hands.

the fencric swap leg feature doesn't seem to work on genesis.  his leg shakes a lil, like he's trying.
one guess is the separating leg twist from leg bend. is actually 2 separate bones nowadays.

I had been working on a plugin that saves poses from any selected bone down but hit a big wall when it comes to the pose controls on the Genesis figures (Arms Front-Back etc).  I couldn't figure out how to read them in and the duf files need to have these or the pose will come out wrong if pose controls were used.  The changes made to Genesis figures were not included in the SDK.  There were never any additional header information files for Carrara 8.5.   I haven't given up on it yet but I didn't want to use a possible time consuming and clumsy work around.

You can see them in : data > DAZ 3D > Genesis > Base > Morphs

The posing ones begin with "pCTRL"

Dartanbeck

Thank you I Samuel!

Dartanbeck

Sparrowhawke3D said:

Every thing you can see under the Instances list of your Scene has an I3DShTreeElement class which has the functions (or methods) such as GetFigureDataComponent().  This 'tree' is usually the starting place for getting down into the animation data, transforms, all the simple parameters and into the master object using the SDK classes.  In the case of a figure from there you can get into the Vertex Modeler itself and from there into the morph areas however the IMorphArea class only returns one name and the pose control morphs work the joints and not the actual morphs.

If you look at a figure in DAZ studio and click on the settings for any morph you'll see loads of information and at the top or the dialog the Name: and the Label:  Carrara displays the Label but doesn't give the 'internal' Name which is the one that is needed.  Click on the settings for a morph in Carrara and there is very little information, only the one name and the range settings.  I can only assume that when the figures are loaded into Carrara that information is somehow translated and effectivly hidden from the vertex modeler but controlled with the parameter sliders.  I've gone in poking around as deep as I could but haven't found a way to directly link up the Parameters with that internal name or get the internal name from the parameter.

If I had a long loaded or coded in list for all the parameters on all the figures the correct internal name could be found as the exhaustive work around.  For example taking the first pose for Genesis 2 ,which is control Arms Front-Back, in Carrara the name is "Arms Front-Back".  Look at the morph setting in DAZ Studio and the (internal) Name is "CTRLArmsFrntBck" and the Label is "Arms Front-Back".  The duf pose file needs to have "CTRLArmsFrntBck" for that pose control to work.

Yes. In Daz Studio, if we right-click the parameter (in Edit-Mode) and choose "Show in Property Hierarchy", we can see all of the actions (joint rotations, morphs, etc.,) by digging into that. 

Optionally, if all we want is the internal name, we can remain out of Edit mode and click the gear icon for the parameter (again, in DS) and click "Properties", which will give the Label and Internal name, limits, etc.,

Dartanbeck

Another clue is that, for Daz 3d Original control dials, the internal name and label are very nearly the same, except that the internal name doesn't have spaces and has an easy-to-identify prefix, like "CTRL" for controller. "pCTRL" is newer and stands for "Pose Controller". So one could guess that Hand R Fist would be pCTRLHandRFist, if Hand R Fist was the l;abel. If the label was Hand Fist R, then it would likely be pCTRLHandFistR. 

Genesis 1 must have been before that if Arms Front/Back was CTRLArmsFrontBack. Perhaps it was for Genesis 2 when the change came. Genesis 9 uses an entirely new, yet just as easy to read nomenclature.

Dartanbeck

Oh... I mentioned the above because it's common to search for internal names and such via the data folder in the Daz Content library. These prefixes and subtle clues within names make it much easier to find what you're looking for without even having an app open. 

Headwax

WendyLuvsCatz said:

USD anybody?

is that a prophylactic device?

Dartanbeck

I've never tried using American currency for that... Hmmmm....

WendyLuvsCatz

LOL Universal Scene Description

https://openusd.org/release/index.html

this page may help you understand why

https://openusd.org/release/usd_products.html

Headwax

Dartanbeck said:

I've never tried using American currency for that... Hmmmm....

 

I'd wait till it is fully devalued first - could be a while

Headwax

WendyLuvsCatz said:

LOL Universal Scene Description

https://openusd.org/release/index.html

this page may help you understand why

https://openusd.org/release/usd_products.html

 

ah my eyes have been opened , I have seen the lit.... er I mean light

rk66

Jeremy's website www.sparrowhawke3d.com is not more really online.

Bunyip02

rk66 said:

Jeremy's website www.sparrowhawke3d.com is not more really online.

From his Patreon site -

Dec 10, 2023

"I've had to downsize my website after the monthly fees suddenly doubled - couple that with the weak Aussie dollar.  I've kept the domain and email but in doing so the site got broken and I'm still waiting on some muppets to fix it."

rk66

Yes I know, but a few of the plugins not more on his site.

 

"The Sparrowhawke3D website has been downsized and is in the process of a transition.

Use the Wayback Machine to visit the website as it was."

> https://web.archive.org/web/20230825031303/http://www.sparrowhawke3d.com/