Hi folks,

We've just posted an update to Anything Grows geared towards playing nicely with TransPoser, but with a few other updates as well. It includes the following new features:

1. A new Carrara 3 friendly UI for the Anything Grows modifier.

1. UV mapped strands. Use a transparency map to give the illusion that they are many more strands than there really are. See the bouncy furry thing video by clicking on the furball.
2. A way to select a static Reference Object so that Anything Grows can be used with Poser animations imported with TransPoser. Check out the new Anything Grows and TransPoser tutorial at
   http://www.digitalcarversguild.com/tutorials/agroposer/
3. A button to line up Anything Grows primitive with their base objects. No more manually copying translation and rotation.
4. The Restrict Strands to Domain lets you concentrate all the strands on a single shading domain, say for example the skullcap shading domain of the Poser 5 male or the SkinHead:0 domain of the Poser 5 female.

In a recent email I mentioned an Anything Grows/TransPoser styling kit. That is still under construction, but here's a couple of images.

You can download the update or try out Anything Grows from the following links. The update is free to existing Anything Grows or eovia Power Pack customers.

Carrara 3.0
PC
http://digitalcarversguild.com/downloads/c3/anythinggrows.zip
Mac OS9
http://digitalcarversguild.com/downloads/c3/anythinggrowsos9.sit
Mac OSX
http://digitalcarversguild.com/downloads/c3/anythinggrowsosx.sit

Carrara 2.1
PC
http://digitalcarversguild.com/downloads/c2/anythinggrows.zip
Mac OS9
http://digitalcarversguild.com/downloads/c2/anythinggrowsos9.sit
Mac OSX
http://digitalcarversguild.com/downloads/c2/anythinggrowsosx.sit

Carrara 1.1
PC
http://digitalcarversguild.com/downloads/anythinggrows.zip
Mac
http://digitalcarversguild.com/downloads/anythinggrows.sit

Regards,
Eric Winemiller
Digital Carvers Guild
3D plug-ins for Carrara
http://digitalcarversguild.com

Bonjour I just got Powerpack from Eovia when i ordered Transposer this week(hope it will come ground transportation during next week).Since this PowerPack include some of yours plugins ,like AnythingGrows,will i access to the upgrade? Thanks

Yes, it's a free update for DCG Anything Grows and eovia Power Pack customers. Just download the platform you need and use your Power Pack serial number. Regards, Eric Winemiller Digital Carvers Guild 3D plug-ins for Carrara http://digitalcarversguild.com

Thanks!I am happy with it!

Eric, This is all wonderful and very useful (the trans mapping will be great for doing feathers). Many thanks. But... I have a small problem. The latest update seems to muck up the Export function from the UVMapper. It's odd, if there is already a file named (for example) leaf.tif it will save ok but if saving as a new file I get an unknown error. Closing down C3 and deleting AGrows gets rid of the problem. I've had some odd problems with C3 recently so it may be something to do with my setup (Windows 98SE, Athlon XP 1800, 736 MB RAM) but I thought you should know... Mark

Mark, Can you send me the file and I'll take a look? Thanks, Eric Winemiller Digital Carvers Guild 3D plug-ins for Carrara http://digitalcarversguild.com

Eric, I've sent you a file but I am almost sure this problem is with my setup... Thanks, Mark

Mark,

I got your file and was able to export without a problem. I tried 128x128 and 4096x4096 BMP and TIF. Here's the steps I used in case I've missed something, Open Carrara, open sphere.car, select the vertex object, switch to modeling room, switch to UV Mapping tab, click UV editor, switch to display tab, hit export.

I can't see how Grows would have anything to do with that, but I have seen stranger things. Double check to make sure that you don't have two copies of Anything Grows in the extensions folder. I've see weird stuff happen when there are two copies of the same plug-in. Also try reseting your preferences using File|Reset Preferences. I've seen a lot of really bizarre behavior come out of a corrupt preference file, but usually only on the Mac. You also mentioned getting other IO errors and file problems, have you done a check disk lately? It's been a long time since I've used 98, but it's probably available by right clicking on your drive in explorer and selecting properties.

Regards,
Eric Winemiller
Digital Carvers Guild
3D plug-ins for Carrara
http://digitalcarversguild.com

Eric, I'm doing things just as you suggest. You are probably right that I should tidy things... and perhaps it's time I dragged my operating system into the 21st century! Thanks for your help, Mark

Ooo, and it's kind of alarming how his hair is spreading into the ears there... :)

Patrick, I did play a bit with the transparency map thing on a TransPoser import, but mostly it looked like fur not hair. I did not play long though and there is probably still much to expore. I agree, it's hard to get strands that are big enough that they don't alias terribly and small enough that they look fine. With more experiments, I hope to refine the technique and post some Poser hair styles that can be applied. Regards, Eric Winemiller Digital Carvers Guild 3D plug-ins for Carrara http://digitalcarversguild.com