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And of course Philemo makes the bridge that makes the plugin work at all with Carrara, so even more reason to appreciate him - I know I do!
Absolutely, PhilW! It's a brilliant concept to get this to work in Carrara!
And we've waited so long for this abillity!
I'm rethinking everything with VWD in mind.
thanks for that tip, :) wonderful that it is up and running! and yes, I agree, it is a game changer
I'm in the same case with Marvelous Designer, I must isolate the character in an empty scene via the browser, import my clothe (MDD file), re-save all in the browser and drag it in my main scene. If I don't do that, the MDD file don't load in a full scene.
Is it an internal issue of Carrara, a lack of memories, I don't know...
I'm sure you know, but just in case....MDD is only required for animated clothing, if you just want the model you can happily export via OBJ from Marvelous Designer. Now that we are able to do the cloth dynamics directly in Carrara, that is what I usually do.
I downloaded the VWD demo last week for the third time and never tried it with Poser (to busy...).
Is it a demo version of the Philemo's plugin so, I could learn this program directly in Carrara ?
RE: I could learn this program directly in Carrara ?
Yes.
Actually, sort of for all three programs (Poser, Carrara, and Studio).
VWD runs along side of Poser, Studio and Carrara. Philemo's plugin exchanges the files between the programs and VWD. It is true that VWD looks like it is running inside these programs. For example, you can run Carrara and then model a simple cloth object around a figure or prop. Within Carrara, you use the file menu to initiate the plugin which provides a dialog box. This box allows you to pass objects from Carrara through the plugin to VWD, which is also running. You provide VWD with the cloth object and whatever it is supposed to collide with. VWD calculates the interactions, and it allows a lot of cool additional features, such as wind and manually tugging at corners.
Philmo's plugin then passes a copy of the draped cloth back to Carrara. It includes a morph for each frame of the animation. Best of all, in Carrara you can edit each of these morphs in the posed position using the vertex modeler in animation mode. 
. In Carrara, you can also attach the new object to the figure skeleton if you want to change the pose a little. The object already has a morph that can be edited in the new pose position. 
Because of Carrara's ability to vertex model in animation mode and in the assemble room, this program fills me with some awe. It is awesome!
The plugin also makes it much easier to use G3 clothing on G2 characters. Or, Michael 3 clothing on Michael 6. And so on. Here is a proof of concept test of using the Hinata dress designed for G3F on a G2F character.
yes, it's good how it also has that automatic no poke through effect :)
great render btw
I understand now why DAZ3D don't want to sell it!
They sell a G3F clone shape for G2F so you can convert conforming clothing from G3F for use on G2F - it works well in DS but not really in Carrara, but you can save a scene file from DS and open it in Carrara no problem (I've been converting my small collection of G3F clothes and saving as .car files for immediate use). But yes, the cloth plugin can help too and make more natural draping and fit. Great exanple Diomede!
Here is G2F wearing a G3F set that I did a couple of days ago (conforming not draped).
Another beautiful work PhilW
Here's mine. I draped a plane over the mesh I made for the Bump/normal thread (see small image), then did a depth pass on the result and used it in the landdscape generator.
Used Dart's terrain texture from one of his excellent products.
It's a massive render so feel free to click it.
Very clever and original technique!
Thanks PhilW, you can tell that I am supposed to be working on work images when I muck around :)
Attached is the original render (diffuse pass)
You too, eh?!
Ha ha, yes my agent cant sell my last kid's book but she has a graphic novel publisher interested in the work .... so I am busily adding subplots and a million more images to flesh out the story....
Don't really like graphic novels so it's an interesting exersize
Well done, Phil. Converting G3 to G2 as conforming is another good tool to have ready.
Headwax, very clever. Will keep that in mind.
thanks Diomede, it's kind of organic ;)
The end result, perhaps. But the method seems incredibly manufactured! LOL
Talk about think outside the box! Great idea, great, clever use of draping, and a really cool end result! It's fun to zoom in and browse around looking at the castles and trees ;)
Bravo, Sir!
you found the castle? I'm impressed! I left it there accidently and only found it again when I was doing the postwork.
They're great shaders in your Environ kits, thank you. That'sthe shader I used for this landscape.
http://www.daz3d.com/carrara-environkit-badlands
Cool! Thanks! I like them too. I just have to adjust the tiling to the size of the environment I'm going for.
I'm glad you like them.
Tip:
If you're ever using a product which includes some ground mesh, and you're using it with an EnvironKit (or not... I guess that doesn't matter) we can use those shaders on the ground mesh to make them all match perfectly! Again, since those mesh are often much smaller, we just need to reduce or remove the tiling ;)
thanks for the tip :)
My pleasure. Here's a visual example, where I used Mystic Tower. Sometimes we might just want to make the included ground invisible, but this is definitely not one of those times.
Sure, we could dig out our image editor and try and match hues to make things work, right? Nah... I just opened the shader for the ground, and dragged the terrain shader into the top level, which copies the whole shader replacing the original. Then I just unchecked the tiling of the texture maps - voila!
It's hard to see. Why? Because they match. Before the shader swap, the difference between the two gorund textures was very apparent!
As you can see by the shadows, I'm also in favor of using Bump instead of replicating a bunch of ground clutter for background scenery. If I was going to make this my main focal point of the shot, I'd add more ground elements like weeds, more rocks, and some grass clumps around intersections between elements. But since these scenes (for me) are meant to be used in the background of something else which is now absent, I go for this... for speed!
Phil, beautiful picture. Especially I like lighting and colour palette.
Another proof of concept test for using it to fit clothes from G3 to G2
This is a G3M clothing item draped on a G2M character with most of the default settings. Arabian prince tunic. I really like how the scarf behaved. The only adjustment I made was selecting a few vertexes at the back of the neck of the scarf and nailed them to the collision model.
Another proof of concept test. Here, I imported the obj for the Poser 4 dress and made a few adjustmens with the vertex modeler then draped on a G2F character.
Very nice! I am sure you know, but if you start with a thinner character (in order to keep any poke through to a minimum) and then morph to your final body shape, the material is able to stretch and so produce a good fit (provided you don't get too extreme - and even then....!)
Still near the beginning of the learning curve, but very excited about the possibilities.
Thanks, Phil. No, don't assume I know. I am just experimenting. I watched the VWD tutorials a while ago and need to watch again because I forget what the dials and parameters do. There is so much functionality that I am still just trying to discover. For example, here is another proof of concept test for using content made for older figures on Genesis 2 characters.
G2M character wearing a shepherd outfit for Michael 3 and sitting in a chair. In general, these sitting results are far better than using ghost bones and morphs on a conforming shepherd outfit. However, I know that the plugin is capable of a much better drape if I learn the softness, stretch, and subdivide tools better.
I invite suggestions, tips, and critiques.
For people just coming across this thread - I am not trying to post impressive renders; rather, I am experimenting and trying to learn what the various functions of the plugin do, and what kinds of models can be used. So far, I'd say I am having FANTASTIC success with cloth that I make myself in Carrara's vertex modeler (see pencil skirt above), but there is a learning curve for fitting and adapting content across figures. There is a learning curve, but even some of these very rough results are VERY encouraging.
EDIT: custom pencil skirt example is in a different thread - http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/comment/2037711/#Comment_2037711
Sometimes you will get artifacts once you have draped due to sharp angles between polys in the draped mesh - I can see some evidence of this on your seated figure within the creases and folds. This can be reduced by adding a level of smoothing, and this can be done by editing the mesh after you have draped and it still remembers all the draping morphs. You can even add thickness to the cloth without affecting the morphs!