Carrara 8.5 Newbie: Gen character eyes messed up

cobusp

Hi, I finally got to the point to upgrade to 8.5

In terms of content I must say it is fantastic.

However, the Gen 2 male loads without eye textures. Eyes render black. SO I copied the "pupils" tecture to the relevant shader regions, but I cannot find one for the eye whites. So these still render black! Loading one of the eye mats still does not solve the problem.

Also, in the Content Browser, the "Add Folder" or "Add Runtime" options are greyed out. I like the new system, but is there any way to arrange files to different folders or create new folders?

Thanks for any help.
Cobus

cobusp

Also - I cannot find any morphs for eye lashes. The Male's are exceptionally long, and through unwanted shadows over eyes. I wish there were some kind of manual/readme that explains how to use the new content.

Can anyone throw some light please ?

TangoAlpha

Make sure you have "Light through Transparency" checked in the render settings (both under Ray Tracing and also under Global Illumination, if you're using it) That's the usual culprit for black eyes.

Dunno about eyelashes.

You need to select the Content tab for Add Runtime to be active.
Add folder should be active for most of the other tabs. (once you've added a folder, it'll automatically pick up any subfolders you create in Finder / Windows Explorer)
Neither is active for Smart Content, because it's driven by/at the mercy of the metadata from CMS.

3DAGE

Hi Cobusp :)

The shaders are different on Genesis and Genesis2, and those figures use DUF files,from DS.
the shader import / conversion process isn't very good, but then it wasn't great with converting poser shaders.
Basically you need to add or adjust some settings,.

Genesis 2 has an "Eye surface" domain,. and in DS that uses an alpha for transparency,.
Carrara should be using the transparency channel and the reflection, and.refraction for something like water.
the material domain structure in the shaders view is also differently laid out

That new shader can be copied to the "Tear" and "Cornea" channels. ...and your browser,. :)

Bump and specular maps can be missing entirely from the shader, so it's worth checking that all the maps are being loaded, and if not , reload them and adjust to work better in Carrara. Then save the "Global shader" to your browser.

your render settings may also need be set to allow light through transparency

Hope it helps

cobusp

Tim_A said:

Make sure you have "Light through Transparency" checked in the render settings (both under Ray Tracing and also under Global Illumination, if you're using it) That's the usual culprit for black eyes.

Dunno about eyelashes.

You need to select the Content tab for Add Runtime to be active.
Add folder should be active for most of the other tabs. (once you've added a folder, it'll automatically pick up any subfolders you create in Finder / Windows Explorer)
Neither is active for Smart Content, because it's driven by/at the mercy of the metadata from CMS.

Thanks, that info is helpful. That light through transparency setting made no difference. I guess it's just the shaders being messed up.
Doh -- only noticed now there are two content tabs.

cobusp

3DAGE said:

Hi Cobusp :)

The shaders are different on Genesis and Genesis2, and those figures use DUF files,from DS.
the shader import / conversion process isn't very good, but then it wasn't great with converting poser shaders.
Basically you need to add or adjust some settings,.

Genesis 2 has an "Eye surface" domain,. and in DS that uses an alpha for transparency,.
Carrara should be using the transparency channel and the reflection, and.refraction for something like water.
the material domain structure in the shaders view is also differently laid out

That new shader can be copied to the "Tear" and "Cornea" channels. ...and your browser,. :)

Bump and specular maps can be missing entirely from the shader, so it's worth checking that all the maps are being loaded, and if not , reload them and adjust to work better in Carrara. Then save the "Global shader" to your browser.

your render settings may also need be set to allow light through transparency

Hope it helps

Thanks - yes I noticed that some of the eye shaders are very complicated. And why should there be a separate Eye reflection shader? Nothing loaded, so now I don't know what the heck should go in there.

evilproducer

cobusp said:

3DAGE said:

Hi Cobusp :)

The shaders are different on Genesis and Genesis2, and those figures use DUF files,from DS.
the shader import / conversion process isn't very good, but then it wasn't great with converting poser shaders.
Basically you need to add or adjust some settings,.

Genesis 2 has an "Eye surface" domain,. and in DS that uses an alpha for transparency,.
Carrara should be using the transparency channel and the reflection, and.refraction for something like water.
the material domain structure in the shaders view is also differently laid out

That new shader can be copied to the "Tear" and "Cornea" channels. ...and your browser,. :)

Bump and specular maps can be missing entirely from the shader, so it's worth checking that all the maps are being loaded, and if not , reload them and adjust to work better in Carrara. Then save the "Global shader" to your browser.

your render settings may also need be set to allow light through transparency

Hope it helps

Thanks - yes I noticed that some of the eye shaders are very complicated. And why should there be a separate Eye reflection shader? Nothing loaded, so now I don't know what the heck should go in there.

Many Poser and Studio shaders use baked reflections. Personally, I can't stand them. I prefer "real" reflections. I like reflection maps where all they do is define what is supposed to reflect and the intensity of the reflection. That is not (generally) what you get with Studio or Poser style reflection maps. They are usually image maps that add a reflected image or highlight to the "reflecting" surface.

evilproducer

Oh yeah, I seem to recall a potential problem for the black eyes in Genesis figures is that when the shader is translated by Carrara, sometimes it sticks a Multiplier in one of the eye shaders. Try checking for that.

cobusp

evilproducer said:

Oh yeah, I seem to recall a potential problem for the black eyes in Genesis figures is that when the shader is translated by Carrara, sometimes it sticks a Multiplier in one of the eye shaders. Try checking for that.

Thanks a lot - I'll definitely have a look.

3DAGE

Hi :)

I noticed that some of the eye shaders are very complicated. And why should there be a separate Eye reflection shader? Nothing loaded, so now I don’t know what the heck should go in there.

the eye reflection, gives you the watery surface across the entire eye, and the reflection you would naturally see in the real world.

you could just make those shaders invisible using alpha channel, but it's better to set them up correctly, it's not too complex especially in Carrara, where you have shaders to allow real scene reflections,

The eye surface (eye reflection shader) should be transparent,. like glass, but with the refractive index of water.
the "tear" shader should be the same,. and the cornea should be transparent with a little reflection, the eye surface should reflect about 15-20% ..the cornea,.. about 5-10%

Once you strip out the DS shaders, such as the reflection maps or alpha transparency maps, then Carrara can use it's own shaders, and do a better job.

Hope it helps :)

cobusp

OK, thanks I think that helps a lot.
SO if I understand correctly - it's not like any textures are missing - I just have to mix and match a little inside the shaders?

cobusp

I loaded the Gen2 Female, and it looks like her eyes are much better. No black sclera (goodness - who decided to change the name - I was looking previous for "eye white"!).

See attached my shader tree, with the three panels open for the shaders you mentioned. All are transparent, except for the extra reflections added to the EyeReflection and Cornea shaders.

If this looks correct -- I'll copy the parameters to the Male.

3DAGE

Yes,.
In DS and poser, the shaders use an image as the reflection, rather than reflecting what's in the scene.
this gives you the ability to have many different reflection maps for the eyes, as MAT's

Sometimes the shaders from DS use DS functions which Carrara doesn't have,. so Carrara loads up what it can convert and leaves the rest, sometimes that means no Bump or Specular maps on a figure, and sometimes no reflections or transparency for the eyes,

I think It's still best practice to load a figure, check the shaders,. adjust the shaders to work better in Carrara, and then save that Global shader in the browser for future use.

If you were using Lux or octane to render, then the same principle of adjusting the shaders to work with the lighting / render engine, would apply.

If you load up any of Ringo's shaders for Carrara and have a look at the eye shaders for V4 elite or genesis, that'll give you a good example of the settings you need.

those individual eye shaders can also be saved for easy re-use since they're just transparent reflective shaders

cobusp

Thank you for the valuable input!