Hey guys! I got a pretty deep question for you. 

I have the following programs  Poser 6, Bryce 6 (with DAZ Studio), Cinema 4D with Body Paint (Just bought yesterday... No clue how to use yet!), and 3D Studio Max 6 (with Body Studio for Poser).

What I want to do is make 3D animated movies to post on my website, but Im having trouble figuring out which work-flow I should use. I know to use Poser for the intial character setup/ clothing/ posing and animation. Then I use Bryce for to build the scenes I want to use. I can import the Poser figure directly into Bryce using Daz Studio so thats not a problem. I can use 3DSM for any props or extra items I wanna build. But I`m having problems figuring out when to use Cinema 4D and Body Paint...

I want to create custom paints materials and textures for my characters so that I can use them in animation (I don`t wanna have to paint frame by frame on a 300 frame animation!) So how should I do that to where I can only paint the character once, then not have to worry about losing materials across applications when I import?

For example, If I pose and animate the character in Poser first , then I notice that Body Paint doesnt really seem to have an option for importing animated character files. So that means Id have to create character ans clothes in Poser, export as OBJ, paint in Body Paint, Re-import into Poser and re-rig/ add bones to everything again right? Than after I do that, I can animate the Body Painted character and import the animation into Daz Studio for megring with the animated Bryce Scnene and rendering? Is that how it should work or is there a better/ easier method that you guys use? I notice that when I import my Poser files into Bryce 6 via Daz studio, a lot of times my textures go out the window! So if I use Body Paint before I do the import, will I lose everything I just did?

I hope you guys understand what I`m trying to get at., Basically, I want to use Body paint to add more realistic materials and details to my characters so that I can use them in animated movies and I looking for the easiest, less painful way to do it. (^_~)

Any suggestions? Im only trying to bring these togethe in Bryce 6 because it seems to be the application that is best able to handle direct import and merging between different applications/ file types. Im I going about this the wrong way? Would 3DS nam or Cinema 4D be better for arranging all the scenes, objects, and character files for animation and rendering?

Help Please!

Thanks again for always savin my bacon!

-WF

if you import the obj files into C4D/Bodypaint you do not need to re-rig your figure in poser after exporting out of C4D/BP. but get Spanky's riptide import export plugin for obj files as C4D stock .obj import will scramble the point order and not preserve groups. Your other option is to do your scenes in Cinema 4D, you can import rigged characters directly from Poser using kuroyume0161's excellent Interposer Pro plug-in and animate directly in C4D, Cinema has much more advanced animation tools than Poser. the drawback if you want to do outdoor environments is that C4D or 3DS max are primarily modelers and not dedicated environment creators. they can both do environments but it takes more work than bryce or vue which both have a lot of tools specifically for environment creation.

Thanks WDUPRE for the insite! Its good to know I wont have to re-rig everything for sure. That was one of my biggest concerns. I will be using a lot of outdoor environements as well as space-based scenes so thats why I was looking to use Bryce. I do have Vue as well. Im thinking to follow your advice and try doing all of the animation in Cinema 4D. The downside is getting my Byce terrains and environments into Cinema... I have another question. Which export formats support animation? 3DS, Wavefront, etc... If I could export the actual animation from C4D when completed, then maybe I could import into Bryce or Vue and do the environments/ terrains there. I wonder how professionals merge their animated characters with animated environments and terrainsfor movies and games? Is it because they only use one software for everything? Hmmmm...

Thanks for the tips tho! That will definately give me some direction in this thing! B.T.W, I notice that you suggested C4D instead of Daz Studio. Why is that? Does Daz Studio have lots of drawbacks?

Thanks again!

Unfortunately there is no way of exporting complete environments from Bryce, the new top end version of Vue professional I believe can export complete scene files but dont know much about vue. as far as exporting animation from Cinema, there is no real universal format for exporting animated figures the closest is motionbuilder fbx and neither bryce nor vue can import that format currently. As far as studio is concerned, it is my primary posing program I love its tools and for still renders I reach for Studio first becouse its quick and easy to set up a scene, but it doesnt really have much in the way of advanced animation tools, Frankly I wouldn't use poser either if I wanted to do advanced animation,as even its tools are rudimentry compared to those of C4D.

C4D is my general 3D program of choice. 3DMax is good but the company refused to recognize me as a valid user as I bought an old copy on ebay. So I gave it to a fried and got C4D instead. C4D is powerful and every 3D progarm has its own way of doing thing. I downloaded DAZ Studio last week and have not yet figured out how to combine it with C4D. I also ordered Poser 5 on its $49 sale. That has not arrived yet. Check out the one C4D tutorial for doing atmospherics. It takes much more setup than Bryce or Vue but you have more control once you do. The problem with Poser, Bryce, and so on is that once you see a dozen image made with that software they all start to look too similar.  C4D, like 3DMax, LW, is a powerful general 3D program that allows you to go beyond the look of other programs. But it takes work.

Henry