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Puppeteer

3dwonderstuff_88fd38754e3dwonderstuff_88fd38754e Posts: 3
in Carrara Discussion

I upgraded to 8.5 mainly for puppeteer. Where is it? What tab, what view? 

Comments

  • Steve KSteve K Posts: 3,226

    This screenshot is from C8 (I have 8.5 on another machine), I think its the same for 8.5.  You do need a figure loaded (M4 here), I think.

    C8 Puppeteer Screenshot.jpg
    630 x 764 - 157K
  • 3dwonderstuff_88fd38754e3dwonderstuff_88fd38754e Posts: 3

    Thanks. My problem was I had loaded generic Genesis figure and there were not the same tabs available as with the M4.

    Carrara documentation is really awful. I appreciate folks like you willing to help.

  • 3dwonderstuff_88fd38754e3dwonderstuff_88fd38754e Posts: 3

    Although I got it going in Carrara it looks like the whole process is easier to do in DazStudio. So will everything I do in Studio export to Carrara?

    Normally I use 3dsMax. Carrara is still confusing to me.

  • evilproducerevilproducer Posts: 9,050
    Depends on what you mean by everything. ;-)
  • Steve KSteve K Posts: 3,226
    3dwonderstuff_88fd38754e said:

    Carrara documentation is really awful. I appreciate folks like you willing to help.

    Yup, it is.  Thankfully there are a number of people willing to help, not just here at DAZ (PhilW, Dartanbeck, Head Wax, and more), but also at Renderosity, Carrators, etc.  I also remember thinking Carrara was confusing, years ago when I switched from Poser, but now it seems pretty intuitive.  Just the result of long use on a near daily basis. cool

  • DUDUDUDU Posts: 1,945

    I never think of using Puppeteer but I have a question: is it possible to use it to animate various phonemes and expressions ?

  • PhilWPhilW Posts: 5,144
    DUDU said:

    I never think of using Puppeteer but I have a question: is it possible to use it to animate various phonemes and expressions ?

    Yes it is possible. The issue that I find is that it only records 2-3 keys per second and it is not enough for good tracking of your mouse movements, unless the movements are fairly gentle.  Of course that may depend on your computer spec, and reducing the screen mode while recording can help a little.

  • stringtheory9stringtheory9 Posts: 411

    I have found puppeteer very useful for plotting natural movements and timing to animate various objects. I’m a horrible keyframe animator so I cheat every chance I get, and puppeteer gives us the only real time (sort of) input into Carrara.  So we can take advantage of that.

    For example, putting your hand in the air, try mimic the flapping of something in the a gusty wind. Fairly easy to do and much more accurate than keyframing that motion (for me at least). So by dropping a helper object into your assembly room and then adding an animation group to it, you get a controller box which you can then use to go about setting up your plot points. In record mode you can mimic a natural motion and timing using the mouse. After you have detached the controller recording,  you can use a number of different modifiers to connect the moving helper object to your scene objects.  

    For example, you can use a point at modifier on a characters head to point at the helper object and produce realistic head movements. Works on eye movement too. You can use an inverse kinematics modifier to connect a hand to the helper object and throw a punch. Connecting an ERC modifier opens up a new world. You can connect the motion of the helper to the rotation axis of an object to make it flap in the wind, or connect the helper to a number of hair (wind) morphs.  Going further you can connect the helper to a shader to mimic a flickering candle. So while its not very useful for animating between various character poses, I find the possibilities are many as a tool for generating real time natural movements.

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