Animating Daz figures in Carrara

Reality Hack

This may sound like a silly question, but I have absolutely no knowledge of Carrara, and I did some searches, but they didn't come up with the answers I'm looking for. I basically want to know if this is a viable option for Daz figures because anything has got to be better than what they have going on now with Daz Studio.

For instance, the Pro page states support for "the Genesis and Genesis 2 3D model figures", and is bundled with Victoria 5 and Michael 5, so does that mean G3 and G8 are out? The idea that "AutoFit does not currently work on Genesis 2" doesn't bode well either. Does that mean if I import a Daz figure with clothing that the clothing will stop fitting it?

Also, what can I look to export? It mentions a few applications, but then just states, "and more." For animation, can it do Alembic or FBX? And once I have a Daz figure animated, is there any way to get it back into Daz Studio, or are you basically stuck there?

I'm also wondering if it's still being developed, or if they're basically just putting everything into Daz Studio. It's apparently selling for $18.20 right now, knocked down from $285, so that doesn't do much for the perceived value and makes it seem like it's on it's way out.

I would simply animate in 3ds Max if the 3ds Max Bridge wasn't severely broken, so any info anyone can pass along would be extremely appreciated. Sorry for all the noob questions. Thanks in advance.

WendyLuvsCatz

well it natively loads up to Genesis 2 from the browser

the autofit can be bypassed by doing it in DAZ studio and saving those clothes as new support assets figure under a new name then load that in Carrara.

geografts are a problem as break the UV 

Genesis 3&8 can be used with a preset made by Mistylara from Renderosity but there are some issues

clothes for them need to be saved as a scene subset after converting to blended weight in DAZ studio 

yeah DAZ stopped developing Carrara after they moved on from genesis 2

most Carrara users are less realistic figure dressing posing inclined and more into other things

it does a hell of a lot more in areas other than loading DAZ people than DAZ studio does but if you have MAX that's unlikely to be important 

Reality Hack

Alright. That's all I needed to know, I suppose. Thanks for your prompt response.

WendyLuvsCatz

don't get me wrong, I think Carrara rocks and I paid almost full price for it too years and years ago.

I use it to do most things and it is considerably cheaper than 3Dstudio MAX

that said from what I saw in my MAX trial you will find the vertex modeling etc very similar so probably not a bad buy if you had use for it's other tools since it loads a lot of earlier DAZ and Poser content natively.

You can also DAZcollada export a lot of earlier stuff back to studio

Fenric's BVH/pz2 exporter plugin  now free even exports BVH that works in Genesis 3 & 8 as well as earlier figures, Carrara has a robust timeline and tracking, motion paths etc like most pro software and some of that I have been able to export to studio. 

Steve K

Probably not what you're asking, but ... I've been using Gen4 figures in Carrara animations for a long time (Michael 4, Victoria 4, The Kids 4, Freak 4).  I've got a LOT of content compatible with these, and continue to find many new products at other sites, and so am pretty much committed.  I have had no luck with Daz Studio content in Carrara, and gave up long ago.  I have not tried the Genesis figures.  Here are a couple of examples using K4 and several figures derived from M4. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dxcbh71VUlg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0LZphZR5y04

Diomede

Forum regular Dartanbeck uses the Genesis 1 figures in his animation projects.  You can find more about his workflow at this link.

https://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/410436/dartanbeck-s-journey-cg-filmmaking#latest

Reality Hack

Thanks, people. I understand the need to do things cheaper than 3d Studio Max. Unfortunately, I was only looking at Carrara for animating Genesis 3 and then transposing it into 3ds Max.

And I have seen the resurgence of the Gen4 figures. It's pretty crazy just how much support they're getting, and continue to get. Sometimes makes me wish I had stuck with them all along.

That Dartanbeck video is pretty invaluable. If I only had a video like that for 3ds Max when I was starting out, it could have saved me tons of time. Getting anything Daz into 3ds Max is nothing if not a struggle to begin with. It might be a different story if I didn't absolutely need it in my workflow.

Thanks again for your responses.

Dartanbeck

I was barely into learning Max when my team member bought me Poser - which eventually led me to finding and buying Carrara, which made me feel a lot more 'at home' than Poser did. Like Max, Carrara has a good arsenal of modeling tools that I feel that I need to animate properly. Nothing seems to work (for me) perfectly out of the box the way I need it to, so I need those modeling tools to tweak it to my needs. Carrara fulfills this perfectly for me to the point that I just use Carrara for all of it now.

I use some plugins in Daz Studio to make some conversions and such, but Carrara is my Max now! :)