Does anyone have any experience in using Poser-specific and Poser-generated figures, props, backgrounds, etc. in Cinema 4D v9 or v10? What steps are required for using them in Cinema, and what quirks, adaptations or problems have you encountered? I have tinkered around with v9, and v10 of Cinema (for Mac), and v10 looks like a knockout app for what I need, a sort of 3D Final Cut Pro (well, maybe more like a 3D iMovie). I will hold off buying it (it ain't cheap) until I see what Poser 7 does in terms of improved animation, interface, overall speed and rendering. My preliminary observation is that Cinema is not really a figure generator and that the array of off-the-shelf content is weaker as well (I do NOT enjoy creating my own meshes), so I would still rely heavily on Poser up to the final scene creation, production and rendering of my animations, where I believe Cinema really sparkles. Am I off base in this (admittedly off-the-cuff) thinking? Thanks! SS

It's true that C4D is an incredible renderer (provided you have all the bells and whistles of the Advanced Render module, of course), but to use it purely for that is missing the trick somewhat. If all you're looking for is another piece of software to render out your work at the end of creating it in Poser, there are other, better options.

For still images, you could do worse than Blender. By importing your Posers scenes in as obj's, and with a little tweaking on the materials (I don't know how much, to be honest - someone else help out here?), you get a lot of possibilities opened to you with their renderer. Best of all is the price: since it's open source, it's free.

For animations, you might be better off looking at something like vue or carrara. Both impot .pz3 files in their native format, so any rigging and animation of the characters also follows through. They also are much, MUCH cheaper than C4D (well, Vue infinte is more expensive than c4d asic, but that's not a fair comparison).

So those are the two options I'd look at before splashing out all your money on C4D. It's a great program (I use 9), but if you're not going to use the modeling aspect of it, then it's a bit of a waste of readies, in my opinion.

Hope this helps,

jonthecelt

I somewhat agree with jonthecelt. I've just splashed out for C4D 10, mainly because I need a stronger, faster and more stable renderer than Poser, but also because I wanted something to model in, and after using a free version 6 that came with Computer Arts ages ago, I just "clicked" with the interface in a way that I didn't with any of the other 3D apps I tried (Wings3D, Hexagon, Silo, and Carrara).  As with everything, your experience might be different.

Now, if you still want to work with C4D, and import Poser figures into it, your best bet is to get Kuroyume's InterPoser Pro, which is brilliant.  Although I believe that with C4D 10, there are still some things to iron when it comes down to animation, but he's working on it. Truth be told, you could in theory re-rig the poser figures and add weight mapping and all of the other really nice tricks to get a much better character animation in C4D, which I don't believe you can do with Vue or Carrara.   Unfortunately, iPP is not exactly cheap, which will add to your costs. And should you choose to re-rig, you'd also add quite some extra work to whatever it is that you are doing.

iPP can also import camaras and lighting, although now that I am learning it, I much, much prefer C4D's lighting to Poser's.

For an example on Poser figures imported into C4D using iPP, go to my gallery and look for The Night Mare. I haven't rendered anything else in it  -although I've been modelling a bit-. Or look up Fredy3D's gallery, who uses Poser+iPP+C4D+Photoshop. That should give you a really good idea of what can be done.

IPP  rocks.  http://www.kuroyumes-developmentzone.com/interposer_pro.html

Thanks, guys. Great insights, very on-point, but it may be helpful for me to be clearer what I'm up to: I'm a video person gone 3D. I do not use Poser for its original intent; i.e., to make static still images. I use it to create short 3+ minute movies, some with a cartoon look and some with as much realism as my Mac hardware can handle. I like Poser because it is focused on figures, and has such a enormous array of ready content that I barely have to mess with before using it. I use Poser's figures from P4, 5 and 6 and Daz's people, along and their various permutations, and modify them to the look I want, often to people I know personally. I find or buy pre-made clothing, props, backgrounds and environments, and deploy my characters in animated scenes and dialogue planned and previewed in FrameForge. Then I combine and edit it all in Final Cut Pro. When I'm working with higher realism, I have to render and export every frame in an animation one by one as a TIFF, and then drop them into Final Cut. What a pain! Poser's animation tools are barbaric and drive me nuts, its renders too slow (P7 will help me a lot). So how do I keep the figure tools and content that I love in Poser and get the animation tools and video-editor-style animation work environment I crave?

Also, here's an excerpt from a new post from the author of Star Trek Aurora (the work-in-progress animated feature posted in this forum); apparently crossing over from Poser to Cinema 4D on a Mac still has issues: "Software-wise, the workflow was a little complicated by the fact that I'm working on a Mac and rendering in Cinema 4D, and the only Poser Mac plugin for Cinema 4D* that honors IK and Point At (which I use for where the eyes are looking) is an old OS9 plugin that has never been updated, so my basic workflow for animating characters (Daz V3 and M3) was: 1. Record voice using a decent microphone (M-Audio Nova mic, Mobile Pre preamp, Apple Soundtrack); 2. Create mouth/head moves in Mimic; 3. Open Mimic file in Poser 5 (Poser 6 gave me problems with the old C4D plugin); 4. Animate character body movements/adjust head movements (head turns, blinking, etc.); 5. Boot into OS9, open Poser file into Cinema 4D environment and render it to TIFF files; 6. Go back to OSX, create .mov file from TIFFs, save; 7. Import .mov file into Final Cut Pro, edit into animation; 8. Add voice file/sound effects. Other programs used: Photoshop, Illustrator." So, the question still begs.

That being the case, I would also seriously reccomend InterPoser Pro. The last issue of 3D World (issue 85) gave the plug-in 9/10 - the only negative point they hd to say was that it didn't (yet) support IK animation. But it does bone, weight, and place all the textures in the right places for you. The review basically suggests that you could do away with Poser almost completely with this plug-in - though how accurate that is, i don't know. The versio they were reviewing costs $150, which isn't cheap - but if you're prpared to pay for C4D 10, then maybe it's only a little step further on the budget.

jonthecelt

Some points:

1. IK will be added soon. :)

2. interPoser Pro is $150.  But Greenbriars plugin suite (which doesn't have nearly as much feature support) is $375 and Reiss-Studio's BodyStudio (official static support) is $179 with no MacOS at all (and no R10 support yet).  BodyStudio is the non-free replacement for the old free Poser exchange plugins of which was discussed for Star Trek Aurora (only Poser 4 ProPack support - no Poser 5/6/7 support in those old plugins).  interPoser Pro supports Cinema 4D R8.2-R10, 64-bit and Universal Binary.

3. interPoser Pro definitely can't replace Poser completely, but it is a work in progress that will have continuous feature support added over time.

So, if you have money to purchase interPoser Pro and are on Windows and don't yet need R10 support, you might want to go with BodyStudio.  It has the best Poser support - since they have a direct contract with e-frontier.

I'm not advocating interPoser Pro and Cinema 4D either here.  Just providing info.  As noted, there are a large variety of options: Carrara, Vue, PoseRay, and others.  Also, note that if you are detemined to use Cinema 4D for rendering Poser scenes and can't afford BodyStudio or are on a Mac, interPoser Ltd works in a similar fashion for a fraction of the cost ($40).

hey Arien what do you really think of C4D, can I use it like Maya. I would like to take Poser import it into C4D but I would also like to remodel my stuff. I see that C4D r10 is cheaper than Maya.

Tell me the truth about it or you can PM me.

Quote - hey Arien what do you really think of C4D, can I use it like Maya. I would like to take Poser import it into C4D but I would also like to remodel my stuff. I see that C4D r10 is cheaper than Maya.

Tell me the truth about it or you can PM me.

I've started using it not that long ago, very infrequently during the first few months of the year because I had no time at all to devote to it, but a bit more often in these past few months. It suits my needs perfectly: I clicked with the interface, I like the material shading quality, and the lighting system makes a lot more sense to me (and has better results) than Poser. I do love the modelling tools, and with close to zero modelling experience I managed to put together a dress for Aiko (check out my gallery, under "The Summoning"). It wasn't the best piece of modelling in the world, but the fact that it was probably my fourth model EVER, and that I put it together in about four hours of trial and error, says a lot I think for the easyness of use. Renders very fast for me and is rock solid, even with big size renders that I've tried. And the hair module is very easy, and very good!

Having said that, if you come from Poser, it can be daunting. There's a LOT more you can do, but to do it you will need to relearn some things and get used to a different workflow.
The other thing to keep in mind is that if you want to use C4D for renders, you'll need to get Advance Renderer to get the most out of it. To my shame, I have to say that I do prefer Poser's nodes to the fusion "layers" in C4D shading -although I prefer C4D's results- and of course if you want for instance an effect like you'd get with face-off's shaders, you will need to spend quite some time to get it right, and possibly get a third party solution.

In this transition, kuroyume's plug-in has been invaluable, and as I get more comfortable with the program, I expect I'll start using it more, both for modelling and rendering, which is exactly why I bought it. On the other hand, some issues like exporting a model with groups or UVmapping have proved nearly impossible, probably because I haven't found much documentation and I'm still pretty much playing by ear. Then again, I haven't really tried that much either, and I've been focusing on getting to grips with the lighting, shading and rendering, as it is what will bring home the bacon quickest at the end of the day.

But again, I am probably not the better person to answer this, as I'm relatively new and still going through the honeymoon period with the software. I am certainly very happy with my purchase, but I know that with 3D programs it depends a lot on what you're thinking of using the program for, your budget, and what your subjective perception of the program itself is.

Quote - ...On the other hand, some issues like exporting a model with groups or UVmapping have proved nearly impossible, probably because I haven't found much documentation and I'm still pretty much playing by ear...

What you need is my (free) extended Wavefront .obj Import/Export plugin -Riptide.  With Riptide in place, I can create and export fully grouped, material-zoned, uv-mapped .obj files, ready for use in Poser with zero additional other steps/applications involved (unless I need to write out some texture-templates, which I usually use UVMapper for). All material-zones, groups, uvs and even UVMapper 'regions' are preserved on import as well.

I plan to do some other tutorials in the future, but if you have any questions, I'm happy to answer them in the Riptide Support Forums.

Basically, if you want to load rigged Poser characters and animations and lights and cameras and morphs and other Poser things into C4D - you'll want interPoser Pro for that.  If you're modelling new figures or clothing for use in Poser or just want to import/export .obj files, you'll want Riptide for that.

Keith

Quote - What you need is my (free) extended Wavefront .obj Import/Export plugin -Riptide.  With Riptide in place, I can create and export fully grouped, material-zoned, uv-mapped .obj files, ready for use in Poser with zero additional other steps/applications involved (unless I need to write out some texture-templates, which I usually use UVMapper for). All material-zones, groups, uvs and even UVMapper 'regions' are preserved on import as well.

That's what I've been using for the attempt to export, but there must be something wrong in what I'm doing, because after setting the selection and Riptide tags and adding the selections to the groups and exporting, the resulting OBJ doesn't have any groups saved, and when I check in the Riptide tag, the groups are gone completely and the selections are not even recognised.

I have registered in the forums, and will go bug you in a few days, but at the moment I've got an avalanche of work to juggle before my holidays (start on the 15, yay!), and I'm still waiting for a new machine where I will need to move/install everything, so I've left OBJ exporting in the back burner.

And UVMapping will be left until AFTER I can group objects. Hopefully by then Maxon will have sent the documentation DVD for 10 and I won't be that much in the dark. I've also eyeballed  your plug-in for UVmapping, but I want to have a better idea of what I'm doing both with modelling -getting there, a bit- and standard uvmapping -not a hope yet- before I add an extra layer of complexity.

Ahh... have a look at my post in this thread when you get a chance and also make sure you have the latest version of the plugin (I recently fixed a bug related to groups). If you still have problems, come bug me in the forums :).

Keith