Wishlist for Carrara PlugIn Developers

Philemo_Carrara

Sparrowhawke3D said:

the3Digit & Bunyip02:  The Carrara SDK does not have access to the hair primitive type - not that I'm aware of or can find.  It doesn't give access to most of the primitive types only for plugins that can work in them such as the terrain filters.  With the release of Eric's source code for Anything Grows a hair convertor might be possible but I'd say a pretty big job.

Vyusur: A copy on support feature is certainly do-able.  It would have to create real instances to be done simply but could use a valid selection or all vertices or facet centres, edges to place each duplicate.  The surface replicator is random and the other replicator too ordered so I can see a need for that when laying out more orderly duplicates.

The SDK allows access to the Vertex Modeler and many of its operations and to experiment with changing and adding things but creating new tools is an unknown.  Commands can be made though and scene commands can do things with the vertex modeler and the current selection.

I've been giving some thoughts to this and the only solution I can see is to reverse engineer the way Carrara saves an hair object and to reverse the process (create an hair object and load it in Carrara). Tricky but doable depending how complex a poser hair object is (for instance is it only UV based or image based).

Sparrowhawke3D

I put together a "Duplicate On" scene command from existing bits and pieces of other plugins.  You can find it (once again) in the Laboratory section of my website with versions for Carrara 8 for Windows and Macintosh.  Test it out and give any feedback.

This allows you to take a single selected object then choose a vertex object and set which mode you want to use.  Duplicates will be placed on all vertices, middle of edges or the centre of polygons.  It can also be restricted to the current selection made in the vertex object and align the object Z axis to the surface normal.

Doing this for general triangulated facet objects will take a bit more work so I'll come back to that at some point.

 

 

cdordoni

Vyusur said:

The most needed for me is something like "copy on support" feature in Hexagon. I wonder if it's possible to extend Carrara's surface replication function for more precise results, like columns in a row. It would be great to have advanced array functions in this program.
One more useful feature, something like "quick pipes", would be the function which could place tube geometry along selected edge loops, providing the ability for quick creation of wires and/or lattices.
And of course, Carrara is lacking of "relax geometry" feature, so called "average" in some programs, wich is great when modeling organic objects.

AnythingGrow, now open source, had some functions that might do something similar  ... Tip Objects might work, making the hair strand a near zero length ... maybe? Then delete the strands if possible?

Vyusur

Sparrowhawke3D said:

I put together a "Duplicate On" scene command from existing bits and pieces of other plugins.  You can find it (once again) in the Laboratory section of my website with versions for Carrara 8 for Windows and Macintosh.  Test it out and give any feedback.

This allows you to take a single selected object then choose a vertex object and set which mode you want to use.  Duplicates will be placed on all vertices, middle of edges or the centre of polygons.  It can also be restricted to the current selection made in the vertex object and align the object Z axis to the surface normal.

Doing this for general triangulated facet objects will take a bit more work so I'll come back to that at some point.

 

I have not played with this plugin enough yet, just try a couple of things. But Wow, is just great! Thank you ever so much! I will explore it more.

 

Rashad Carter

Diomede said:

I can't help with the list of active parameters.  I am no programmer.  I would also like this function.

Yes, I can help with the morph issue, as it applies to Genesis 1,2,3,8.  You will have to open Studio and do 2 or 3 things, but the results are active in Carrara.  The morph method for V4 in PhilW's tutorials is a different matter.

- Load your genesis figure in Carrara.  (If G3 or G8, load Misty's G3 or G8 from 'rosity)

- Shape your genesis figure.  You can do dial spins of parameters.  Or, you can enter the modeling room and ignore the protected topology and use the displacement brush and magnet.

- Export your figure as an obj, making sure that you choose the obj preset for Daz Studio Morph.  Also choose to include morphs and skinning.  Can uncheck texture maps if you want.  They are not needed.

- Open Studio and load the base figure for your morph.

- Use morph loader pro to load your morph.  You can change its name and location in the herarchy if you wish.

- Use the joint editor to align the skeleton to your morph.  Especially important if change limb proportions.

- Use ERC freeze to allow use in future scenes.

- I save as a morph asset and then as a scene subset.

- Aside - you can now model clothing, etc. in Carrara to fit your custom morph, and then rig in Studio using reverse shape.  So, if your hero has a muscular sixpack torso, and you model a simple loose tshirt, then the tshirt won't have the sixpack when conformed to your figure's shape.

Will follow up with more specifics in a link to a walk-through that I have.  Need to find it.

 

EDIT: Starts here - https://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/comment/2394546/#Comment_2394546

Here is another example, although just a face so does not show important things for joints. - https://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/comment/2818296/#Comment_2818296

I'm not sure what happened to the reply I made to this post but thanks a huge ton! I will look into this as a means of getting characters moved around. Thanks so much!!!!!

Headwax

Sparrowhawke

Thanks so much for those two plugins!!

Cant wait to try them

cheers from this side of Oz :)

Sparrowhawke3D

The Duplicate On command should be useful where the existing replica distributions are too random or the wrong layout.  Use the existing Replicator for a big grid but try the Duplicate On for a spiral or more complex custom curved shapes.  It might be a quicker method to draw a line with the vertex model in scene mode and then drop the duplicates onto those vertices.

I'll look into whether this can be done inside the Vertex Modeler if I can figure out how to copy and build geometry.  Otherwise so long as the vertex model is unscaled in the scene this plugin can be used with an export-import-copy-paste to do that.

Vyusur

One more example of "Duplicate on" usage:

Headwax

terrific Veronika here's a play from me

:)

thanks Sparrowhawke!

the Zip file just rename zip to car the top nails are cleaned up in it

 

Stezza

this will have so many uses.... wheel spokes... viking helmets ( cool stuff that ) nurbs on vehicles and..... spaghetti wire hair 
very awesome -- thanks Sparrowhawke 

Sparrowhawke3D

Those are some great applications and results.  It would otherwise take some time to position a lot of pins for the brush, or the rivets on the helmet but with a quick selection the plugin can do it.  Also useful for some really wacky spaghetti optical fibres...whatever that is...(and why ?)...get creative !

Vyusur

head wax_carrara said:

terrific Veronika here's a play from me

:)

thanks Sparrowhawke!

the Zip file just rename zip to car the top nails are cleaned up in it

 

Thank you, Andrew! I also want to share my hairbrush. Attached is *car hairbrush.

Diomede

Thank you, Veronika.  Am thinking of a use for your brush with a Halloween theme.  

Vyusur

You are very wellcome, Ted!

Vyusur

https://youtu.be/B-9UOlZh7AY

I recorded a short video on hairbrush modeling with plugin UVUnWrapCommand by Sparrowhawke3D

 

 

WendyLuvsCatz

if someone can make an importer to import multiple meshes at once it would be very handy,

I use the Poser python by PhilC in Poser and then save as a scene or Poseray but an in Carrara solution would be more elegant.

Cbird

I know there are probably good reasons why these are impossible:

A more direct way to manipulate hair guides would be great.  I know we can select and pull them around, but being able to manipulate segments would be fantastic. 

An npr plugin that "tricks" Carrara into rendering through pr, so multi-thread works (I'm guessing plugin creators not being allowed far enough under the hood is the problem,  but I don't know a thing about coding)

I'm grateful to plugin creators creating things I didn't even know I needed  

rk66

Nvidias PhysX Engine goes OpenSource > https://blogs.nvidia.com/blog/2018/12/03/physx-high-fidelity-open-source/

Mistara

searching sparrowhawke's site for the uwrap plugin, not seeing it?

thanks.

Persona Non Grata

.

Mistara

Selinita said:

Try here: http://sparrowhawke3d.com/Sparrowhawke3DLaboratory.html

TY 

Mistara

i has a theory the reason geografts not working in carrara, i think the verts are supposed to weld. to make it a single mesh.

DesertDude

Cbird said:

A more direct way to manipulate hair guides would be great.  I know we can select and pull them around, but being able to manipulate segments would be fantastic. 

Hi @Cbird, I am by no means any expert using Carrara's Dynamic Hair - total novice here. After reading your request and wondering if the clever Carrara developers allowed us to do this the answer is...YES! So thank you, I just learned something new.

In the Hair Room select the Move Tool, and then select the Tool Tab. Using the Point slider, or the '-' and '+' buttons you can select a specific point on your selected hair guide(s). You can then drag those points around to your liking, toggling up and down the hair guide.

Here are some pictures  to help. I reduced it to 1 hair guide and reduced density to 50 so you can see the guide point, plus outlined in pink. Final picture is wildly manipulated points to show it can be done.

As usual apologies if this already common knowledge, I just learned this 30 minutes ago. 

Edited to add: looks like the Scale tool can be used to scale the whole guide up and down, maybe a bit more control than the Cut tool or adjusting the Length in the General Tab. Looks like another option. Rotate didn't seem to work at all.

Dartanbeck

Vyusur said:

https://youtu.be/B-9UOlZh7AY

I recorded a short video on hairbrush modeling with plugin UVUnWrapCommand by Sparrowhawke3D

Very cool demonstration! I always love watching the efficiency of your modeling too... Awesome!

Mistara

DesertDude said:

Cbird said:

A more direct way to manipulate hair guides would be great.  I know we can select and pull them around, but being able to manipulate segments would be fantastic. 

Hi @Cbird, I am by no means any expert using Carrara's Dynamic Hair - total novice here. After reading your request and wondering if the clever Carrara developers allowed us to do this the answer is...YES! So thank you, I just learned something new.

In the Hair Room select the Move Tool, and then select the Tool Tab. Using the Point slider, or the '-' and '+' buttons you can select a specific point on your selected hair guide(s). You can then drag those points around to your liking, toggling up and down the hair guide.

Here are some pictures  to help. I reduced it to 1 hair guide and reduced density to 50 so you can see the guide point, plus outlined in pink. Final picture is wildly manipulated points to show it can be done.

As usual apologies if this already common knowledge, I just learned this 30 minutes ago. 

Edited to add: looks like the Scale tool can be used to scale the whole guide up and down, maybe a bit more control than the Cut tool or adjusting the Length in the General Tab. Looks like another option. Rotate didn't seem to work at all.

thank you!

Mistara

Dartanbeck said:

Vyusur said:

https://youtu.be/B-9UOlZh7AY

I recorded a short video on hairbrush modeling with plugin UVUnWrapCommand by Sparrowhawke3D

Very cool demonstration! I always love watching the efficiency of your modeling too... Awesome!

+1

Vyusur

Dartanbeck said:

Vyusur said:

https://youtu.be/B-9UOlZh7AY

I recorded a short video on hairbrush modeling with plugin UVUnWrapCommand by Sparrowhawke3D

Very cool demonstration! I always love watching the efficiency of your modeling too... Awesome!

Thank you for your kind words!

 

Sparrowhawke3D

Is the demand still there for a scene command that can go into an object's shaders and change all of the texture maps from the default Fast Mip-Map to a different setting in 8.5 ?  I remember that being asked for in the past.  Was a texture file work-around found ?

I've only now been able to figure out how to poke around deeper into shaders so I'm working in that area.  I think I can do this for the general case and almost certainly for the specific case of content that is imported with a Multi-Channel and Multiply in the Color channel with a Texture map as Source 1.

WendyLuvsCatz

Sparrowhawke3D said:

Is the demand still there for a scene command that can go into an object's shaders and change all of the texture maps from the default Fast Mip-Map to a different setting in 8.5 ?  I remember that being asked for in the past.  Was a texture file work-around found ?

I've only now been able to figure out how to poke around deeper into shaders so I'm working in that area.  I think I can do this for the general case and almost certainly for the specific case of content that is imported with a Multi-Channel and Multiply in the Color channel with a Texture map as Source 1.

I believe Fenric made one, I never bought it as I use notepad the few times I wanted too, not got the hack handy as on iPad but it was an easy find and replace

WendyLuvsCatz

https://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/155056/notepad-hacks

this thread

Find replace Filt 3 with Filt 0 changed mipmap to sampling