Using DS/Poser textures in Carrara
BlumBlumShub
Posts: 1,108
Hi guys,
I'm quite new to Carrara so please don't hurt me for asking this!
I am using Carrara 8.5 Pro and have noticed that when I load an object into Carrara (in this instance it's a G2F character) the only texture maps that load into the shaders are the diffuse and transparency maps. I realise that the actual numerical values will need tweaking between the different applications, so that's not my issue.
Is there a nice easy way to get the bump and spec maps (and any others) in there too or do I have to manually hunt the maps and add them to each individual shader? There are rather a lot of shaders on G2F and this would be a pain in the bum.
Any help would be appreciated,
Barry.
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Comments
http://www.daz3d.com/ringomonfort
Yes, I've seen Ringo's page before, it doesn't really answer my question though.
Well you answered your own question
yes you need to manually add the maps mostly
sometimes saving a duf preset in DAZ or pz2 in Poser of your own, can work if set up to use the maps with the default shader but often Poser and DAZ ones proceedural to the software and do not load right in each other either.
Ringo has done the yardwork for you with SSS settings too
often his stuff is on sale, never pay full price as he relies on frequent sales it seems
Hello Barry
As a newbie to Carrara it took me a while to get the hang of the shaders bit, but I am now glad I did.
There are lots of things that can be done with the shaders, and I still have heaps to learn.
Ringo's shaders are great, he's done most of the work for us, and they also give great results.
If you are using Poser content, then the Shader Doctor by Fenric might be a worthwhile investment.
http://www.daz3d.com/shader-power-tools-for-carrara
It would be nice if there was an easy conversion system between DAZ3D, Bryce, and Carrara.
In the meantime getting use to how the shaders work will greatly help your use of Carrara, as well as open up heaps of things you can do.
The real issue is that the shading systems are different. It's not Carrara's, Studio's or Poser's faults. You'd have similar issues going from C4D to Maya or Lightwave.
Manually hunting down the maps is what you will have to do unless you invest in the Fenric plugin or Carrara shader sets.
Once you do get the shader the way you like it though, it is easy to save the whole multi-domain shader to Carrara's Shader Browser for later use. Simply drag the multi-colored ball at the top of the domain list and drop it into whatever directory you want. You will be asked to name it. To use it again, drag it from the browser and drop it on the multi-colored ball above the shading domain list. Keep in mind, the model you're applying it to needs the same UVs.
Hello Barry
As a newbie to Carrara it took me a while to get the hang of the shaders bit, but I am now glad I did.
There are lots of things that can be done with the shaders, and I still have heaps to learn.
Ringo's shaders are great, he's done most of the work for us, and they also give great results.
If you are using Poser content, then the Shader Doctor by Fenric might be a worthwhile investment.
http://www.daz3d.com/shader-power-tools-for-carrara
It would be nice if there was an easy conversion system between DAZ3D, Bryce, and Carrara.
In the meantime getting use to how the shaders work will greatly help your use of Carrara, as well as open up heaps of things you can do.
Thanks for that. The Shader Doctor does look good, though obviously rather expensive.
So far I've figured out that once I've got the maps into one shader I can drag and drop onto the others, so that does cut out a lot of the work. I've already done quite a bit with the shaders, as I'll demonstrate with a render, but I was just after a quicker way of working. I think setting up one shader and dragging to others could be just what I need.
Ringo's work does look great too, but for now I'll be playing with my own stuff. At least until Wendy's suggestion of getting Ringo's in a sale is an option ;)
This is as far as I've got so far. Added bump, some minor displacement using the bump map and SSS using just numerical values. Character is Emma and Jordi's Leilani (available here: http://www.daz3d.com/emmaandjordi/ej-leilani )
Let me know what you think so far.
One thing you can do to help with the process of adjusting or fixing the shaders is to consolidate duplicate shaders, which is what you are doing manually from your description. Carrara also has a command that can automate some of that for you. Go to Edit--> Remove Unused Masters--> Consolidate Duplicate Shaders. The other commands in there are great to purge unused objects and shaders from the scene file and save resources and to quicken Save and Open operations.
That looks very nice Barry. I'd say you're off to a good start. I would suggest turning down the scene's ambient light as it is set fairly bright by default (20%) and it can make textures look flat.
A trick I do to get figure hair or prop hair to look more like real hair is to stick a multiplier in the Translucency channel and copy and past the color image map into one slot, and then the bump map or spec map (if it has one) into the other slot. You may need to adjust the map's brightness sliders down a bit (below the image map thumbnails), if the effect is to strong. Then stick in a bright spotlight behind the figure and slightly to one side pointing at the model or camera to provide a rim light.
Great advice thanks, I'll try the translucency thing now. I haven't really done a lot with the lights so far because I wanted to get a general feel for how the shading worked, but yes I did leave the ambient light at 20%, so I'll reduce that.
That looks very good for a start, I think you'll find yourself quickly addicted to the Carrara texture room and will likely prefer to use your own custom settings.
Oh and that bundle is pretty expensive, yes, but Shader Doctor itself can be bought on Fenric's site for much much less (I'm thinking 5 bucks? but I could be remembering wrong). Just google Fenric Shader Doctor and you should be able to find his site :) It really is an invaluable tool, and his SSS settings for skin are quite good
That looks very good for a start, I think you'll find yourself quickly addicted to the Carrara texture room and will likely prefer to use your own custom settings.
Oh and that bundle is pretty expensive, yes, but Shader Doctor itself can be bought on Fenric's site for much much less (I'm thinking 5 bucks? but I could be remembering wrong). Just google Fenric Shader Doctor and you should be able to find his site :) It really is an invaluable tool, and his SSS settings for skin are quite good
Found that, thanks for the heads up. And yeah I'm enjoying playing with my own settings. It's a slow process but I'm getting there!
These should help:
CARRARA WALK THROUGH: SHADERS - In this first installment, I begin to cover the complexities of Carrara's powerful shader system. This is part 1 in a short series intended for new users of Carrara. In Part 1 I start by loading Daz3d's V4 figure and demonstrate how to perform simple shader tweaks to get her to look properly. Part 1 ends as we begin to explore how to make full use of specular and bump maps, and I've already provided a decent amount of detail to get one going on adjusting the Highlight and shader channels, with some measure …
CARRARA 8.5 – FIRST LOOK - In this video, I ramble on as I toss Genesis and M5 with some of the goodies that came with Carrara 8.5 Pro into a scene using three point lighting, straight from the browser. So everything I do in here can be done straight out of the box right along with me - if you want. I didn't rehearse anything - so I tend to get into my moments! lol But I think that some of you may find it a fun little half hour lost!
Please note that using "Materials" files from a DAZ Studio library, like those for Genesis in the DS library, do not load properly into an existing Carrara scene. I believe that they may work if you first apply them to Genesis in DS, and then save the character as a DUF, then bring it into Carrara, but I prefer to simply use the same method that I use in the first video link, above, since I have always found it to bea good idea to get into shaders in Carrara, rather than to simply use presets that were made for Poser or DS.
That being said, I should also add that the comment in Wendy's earlier post regarding Ringo's shaders, is a great way to see some very realistic, professional methods towards setting up the various channels within a Carrara shader. Okay, maybe that was too wordy! LOL What I mean is that I have found it to be beneficial to load up a set of Ringo's shaders onto a character, and look closely at all of the different shader channels for the various materials. It doesn't take long before we just start cranking out excellent results on our own.
Sorry about that... before I made that last post, my internet must have been playing games with me, as I didn't see all of the wonderful posts from others, or yourself!
Welcome to Carrara! Getting that Texture Room to become your friend will get your renders just how you want them to be! You'll see... it gets more and more fun the more you get into all of the many things you can do in this wonderful setup, that is Carrara!