After it was pointed out to me that the obj file format can store curve primitives, I decided to play with Python again and write a little script that'd export Poser 5 hair as curves (which is how they are stored and rendered, and I think programs like Maya Unlimited, Shag Hair or Shave and a haircut use curves too). The script seems to work fine, I get nice obj files with lots of points and curves in it. The problem is, however: Is there any program that can import and render these files? I tried the demo of Carrara 2 as well as the demo of Cinema 4D R8 (both on OS X), but none of them would read the obj file.

Try vue d'esprit maybe. love esther

Thanks, I'll give the demo a try.

I suspect that comparatively few 3D programs will render curves (lines and curves being, basically, infinitely thin). Could you take note of the thickness settigns for the hair and export as cylinder/cone segments? (bet that'd make for some large .OBJ files!). Just a thought - love the idea of an easy-to-use renderfarm for Poser 5 files (not tha tI mention this in every response to you, oh no!).

Attached Link: P5 hair in C4DXL

This poser5 hair rendered Cinema4DXL you might try checking this guys technique(link) although he used **several!!!** third party plugins to get get p5 splines to render solid you may be able to be able to pull some useful info from it. and I also seem to remember seeing a thread where someone Got P5 hair into MAX but he may have been usine the Reiss studio plugins. Good luck

I suspect that comparatively few 3D programs will render curves (lines and curves being, basically, infinitely thin). The RenderMan 3.2 standard has a RiCurves primitive (I use that for P5 hair in my RenderMan exporter), which is designed to be used especially for hair and fur. The advantage is that you give it a curve and thickness values as input and it'll turn them into geometry only when rendering the respective pixels. Could you take note of the thickness settigns for the hair and export as cylinder/cone segments? (bet that'd make for some large .OBJ files!). Exactly. If you convert hair curves to full-blown polygon tubes, you'll end up wasting a lot of RAM and CPU, compared to the RenderMan way of rendering curves. This poser5 hair rendered Cinema4DXL you might try checking this guys technique(link) although he used several!!! third party plugins to get get p5 splines to render solid you may be able to be able to pull some useful info from it. Yes, I've seen that one. I think this link was posted here a few weeks earlier too. I can't try his method, as the link to one of the plugins doesn't work (site is down). Even if I have to write my own import plugins for C4D or Carrara, there must be an easier way than that.

Attached Link: http://www.c4d.de/

Hmmm.... C4D XL 6 has various primitives which it doesn't convert to polygons until render time... (and with the freeish version in my hands I have to say I support the idea of any addons to V6). Thse include splines that can be used to create geometry (but which I haven'y played with) and cylinders which are mathematical representations of cylinders only (until render time or conversion to polys). Maybe an import filter (along the lines of the one I use from IIRC http://www.c4d.de/ , but adding support for curves (converting to C4D primities)?

C4D XL 6 has various primitives which it doesn't convert to polygons until render time From what I know, it's converting all of them right before it starts rendering, where REYES renderers like PRMan create their micropolygons only for the current bucket (Buckets are those patches you see when FireFly is rendering. That's why a lower bucket size makes FireFly require less RAM.). cylinders which are mathematical representations of cylinders only (until render time or conversion to polys) Actually, these are never ever being converted into polygons. Mathematical primitives that can be expressed as a formula like cylinders or spheres are easier to render as perfect spheres than as polygons.

http://www.c4d.de/ BTW, this is the link that isn't working for me.

If they're never polygonised but remain parametric primitives even at rendering time, that sounds like it might make them even more suitable than I'd thought?

Isn't working for me right now either :( However the import filter I referred to is called "Morphloader" and, like the version for Cinema4D 5 before it, it avoids little issues like vertex re-arrangement that the Cinema4D built-in .OBJ filter has (causing morph explosions). I'm not sure but I THINK Maxon fixed that problem at some stage, but not sure at what version :( I suspect (hope) that www.c4d.de will come back to life at some stage, but if you want a copy of the plugin I can always e-mail it to you.

Forget about the cylinders, I just took another look at C4D. The "render perfect" checkmark is only available on spheres, but it doesn't render cylinders or cones as solids. There are a couple of programs that render quadrics without tesselating them first, but Cinema is apparently not one of them.

I can try it in 3dsmax if you send me a file (max can render splines).

I think the morphloader plugin is aviable in the free stuff section of cinema here in renderosity, don't know if the link still works. I made the tutorial a long time ago, and didn't know the link was down, sorry. Please make a plugin!! for cinema? please? it would be great!!! I'm waiting for the bodystudio version for cinema (host the hair instead of importing it would be better I think), but in the meantime it would be very useful :)

I noticed the only "3d splines" imported in cinema are those in dxf format exported by the same program, don't know the difference between the dxf of poser and the one of cinema. but maybe you could find a way of "convering" them. just an idea.

Attached Link: http://user.txcyber.com/~sgalls/

PoseRay can read line entities from OBJ files. I tried hair directly exported from Poser 5 but it only exports the guide hairs but with your script it may be able to get all the hairs. You can give it a try at http://user.txcyber.com/~sgalls/ And render the image in POV-Ray 3.5. Let me know if it works for you. FlyerX flyerx_2000@yahoo.com

The free 4.something version of Amapi doesn't import OBJ files, but when exporting the hair as line primitives, the demo of Amapi 7 will import it. Unfortunately, it doesn't render in Amapi.