Hi.
I was wondering if it is possible to save a character in a pose as an obj file, 
so that it can be re-imported for further work to be carried out.
And possibly import several to save on memory usage.
I was working on a scene with multipule characters posed separately, and then imported into the scene.
Problem was, it was taking 5-10mins to save and load, as well as being very slow when running, and crashing at the drop of a hat (normally when saving)
Any ideas?

Should not be a problem I would think. But why not experiment anyway? (If in doubt--try it out!)

Thanks bwtr, 
Your right, being lazy. Have tried in doudt. obj will not hold pose, just reverts the figure back to the start pose.
DXF, was close, held the pose but lost all domains, textures and mapping. Did have a nice white colour finish though.
3DS, Yes, this worked a treat, saved the pose, domains and mapping. Have to rebuild the shader tree. small price to pay.
Thanks again.

Surprised at that. Will experiment myself if I get a moment.  Did you save as .car for reimporting (small file siz also)

Hi, It was already a .car file as it was one of my own skinned models.
Not sure on the size though. Might be a saved as Local settings?
Another problem now.
Saving as 3DS. is O'kay, Some of the vertices aren't attached to where they should be though, Re-importing the 3ds I tried to untraingle and save as an obj.
Not good, everything went a bit screwy.
Had another look at the 3ds file in Amapi and it's going to take a bit more remodelling than I hope'd to get it back to looking like an obj.
Still going to keep plugging away on this as I now have a purpose for this posed file.
Any suggestions?
Thanks again
Mike

AAAAAHHHH!!!!!!
This is realy bugging me, have been trying for about 3 hours now.
3DS, is not good at all on fine detailed models. obj style 7000 poly models turn to 14000.
Which is going to be depressingly boring and time consuming to fix and then get back to work on it.
The untriangulate does not go the way I want it to.
And All the other export options triangulate.
I've also tried saveing as an obj. from the modelling room, while in animation mode. 
Still reverts back to start position.
Any ideas?

Mike

(If we are on the same wavelength)

In Poser ( gave James a fighting pose). Saved as pz3.

Brought into Carrara via Transposer(No link,animation or lighting)

In Carrara, saved the James shader into the browser.

Saved the file as .obj

Import the .obj into Carrara. Apply shader from browser.

The posed James .obj looks fine to me?

Ah, No.
No poser involvement.
This is a character that I've modelled in Amapi D7, exported as an obj. 
Then loaded into Carrara, rigged, skinned, domains and  mapped.
Then after posing want to save as an obj with the pose holding.
I do find it odd that the 3ds and dxf exports seems to do this, but not the obj?
Any other idea's why this is not working?
Thanks again,
Mike.

I got similar results to you in a quck test. That obj failure is very strange. As you say, the 3ds ok. You tried fbx etc I gather?

As a follow up. Saving the original .car file is very small--smaller than the 3ds!

Is there really anything seriously wrong in exporting as a .car. (Think, for what you want, that better to Export save than Save As. Check out anyway.)

Thanks bwtr
At least I know I'm not going Ga-ga.
Will have a go at the export as .car when I get home after work this afternoon.
and see if its what I'm after.
Thanks again
Mike

Hi,  Back at home now. Right, I've tried the export as .car, results below Some error message, after grouping, the whole figure returns bones un all. The Idea behind saving as an obj is so that I can add strain to the figure muscles. I.E. when lifting a weight ETC. There is another idea too, After modelling your classic "T" style pose, rigging, skinning, domains, Uv mapped. Then posed and export to say Hex2 or Zbrush for displacement detailing. There is other things I need this for too. Any more ideas? Thanks  Mike

Starting to get beyond my real capabilities. But, for what it's worth, you should always maybe have an unboned copy of your model. This is the one you use in Hexagon and zBrush?

Your worked on copy of the copy! you bring in and drag a copy of the bone rigging into it?

Is this logical?

You know you can save your Bone Rigs into the Browser as an Object.

Okay, I do have some experience with this. You may want to have one character -bones - everything perfect in a default pose. From this model you save it - put it away, make a copy. With the copy, pose and save all the other copies you want and save as .car files - no lights, no extras at all. Then in your final scene you can import the .car files of each posed figures - no problem. I've done it with great results. The boned figures will need to be renamed but they come in grouped and your can move them around - already posed the way you left them - and you can change the scale without messing with the bones. Open the group to adjust the poses.

Sorry - forgot to add - very nice robot! The extra bones to move the chest look like a great idea. Do you have any animations you could post?

Hi, guys
Thanks for the info, not realy what I'm getting at though.
Yes displacement in say "T" position would be right but again not what I'm after.
The thing is saving as obj after posing would then give the opertunaty to play with the mesh and add a solid base as well as make the figure water tight.
This would then be ready for proto-typing of the rapid veriaty. (3D printing)

Ominousplay-
Thanks for the interest in Pineapples, he's an ABC robot from the 2000AD comic.
The bones in the chest are there to help the skinning and also if required means that by changing the sive slightly up and down gives the effect of breathing.
There is a short 4 second animation that I've done (link below) 
I had to use a different rig though, Mocap data was used, and depending on which data you use depends on the rig you need to install (at least thats how seems)
Thanks agin for the help.
Mike
http://www.box.net/public/r5tdmcm2ot

What is 3D printing? What are you going to do with them? I saw an extension some time ago - free - took a morph and saved as an obj. in Carrara - but I don't know if it would do the same for a boned figure. Oh, your printing physical objects - from those new printers... that carve or print in plastic? Any links?

Um, interesting.
Yeah, I've always felt a bit cheated when it comes to physical models of figures, poses are crap and you can never get the figure you want.
Now that this printing is available I thought "lets look into It"
I found this company. which looks quite promising.

http://www.inition.co.uk/inition/services_3d_printing.htm

But I want to get a good figure done before approaching them.
The file needs to be saved in an stl format, which I think, I found a converter for obj to stl.
(on me laptop somewhere)
It's my best mate's 40th Birthday in 6months, and he enjoys flight sims and physical modelling.
So I'm half way through modelling him a half and half fighter aircraft, that I was going to get printed (in a kinda kit form, with several parts) along with a figure for myself.
There isn't a problem with the aircraft as there are no moving parts, no bones.
But the figures are proveing to be more of a problem.
I may end up doing it the long way and saving as 3DS and then removeing the triagulations manually.
Thanks for the input ,
and any more idea's are welcome.
Mike

I think you said you had Hexagon. If version 2 you should should be able to select and fix your problemtriangulations and you can Export as STL in Hexagon.

At the botom of the Hex selection tab are a variety of different face types which can be selected for modification.

Oh,
I have hex2, but I haven't realy had a play with it properly yet.
I have a tendancy to stick to things I know more about (Amapi)
Just  had a quick look at the export options on Amapi, it does stl too.
Now I now this, it does bring me a bit closer to wanting the project to work.

Thanks again guys
If you have any more idea's let me know.

Mike

Going back to the original question, have you tried 'Convert Deformed Object to Mesh' towards the bottom of the Edit menu. That works for me on a boned Carrara model (I've not got Poser installed). Make sure that the Vertex object (rather than the group) is selected. You can export directly as an OBJ or convert to a Vertex model for editing in the Carrara VM.

HTH

Hi, I have just tried it.  From the modelling room, I don't seem to get 'convert deformed object to mesh' in the edit menu, only 'convert to other modeller' Tried convert and then saving, but still the same problem. Character returns to the original start position. Object is already in the Vertex modeller. Character object started as an Amapi model saved as an obj, and then imported into Carrara.

Thanks Dude,

Mike

Maybe try Convert to Mesh from: http://www.associatedfx.com/ I need more time to investigate it. I hope you get it working, maybe you can post a photo of the finished model. I'd love to see some of my characters in real 3D.

> Quote - From the modelling room, I don't seem to get 'convert deformed object to mesh' in the edit menu, only 'convert to other modeller'

It's not in the Modelling Room, it's in the Assembly Room, towards the bottom of the Edit menu. You may need to click the blue arrow to show the later items.

It worked for me. It will duplicate the vertex object - with the bones attached and bent - the only thing is when it copies the model, it comes out black - but you can apply the shader from the other vertex model. I admit, I did try and export it as an obj. but I'm pretty sure it will work since the new model does not contain a bone structure and it is stuck in the "pose" I put it in with bones. Convert to Mesh by associatedfx.com Good luck

Okay, I'm having issues with exporting the .obj file. It worked for a while but wouldn't bring the texture back in, then it just stopped working and froze on export. Maybe you can figure it out. It works great if you wanted to convert a boned, posed mesh and make copies of it for populating a scene with posed, non-boned duplicates, then reposition the "master" model, and copy the pose - I can see it working for that application, but so I haven't been able to export a textured copy and bring it back in. Sorry.

Okay, I finally got it to work. I needed to assogm UV's in Carrara to the base model that was boned - use a texture map, then I exported the model as a OBJ model, brought it back in and added the bones, posed it, used the convert-to-mesh, then had to change mesh to vertex, create new shader domains because the convert-to-mesh does not keep the uv or shader domains, and then apply the texture map...it was a lot of work! Maybe there is an easier way - after the texture map is added, then I exported the new vertex object (uv mapped with texture) and brought it back in a obj and it is the one in front. I now have the "posed" obj to import when or wherever I wish - hours later - ugh! The hard part was having to assign the entire material again to the vertex object - but it can be done.

WHEW!

Another pdf of a thread to add to the problem solving folder.

Thanks for sharing your efforts.

Please excuse all the spelling errors, typing too fast.

Had not noticed!

Some of the stuff on threads is so utterly bad that I must becoming immune.

Our State eduation authorities are now teaching --TEACHING!---the shorthand language of text messages  as used in cell phones!

Think of it!----children can not read the great novels--OR technical text--because it uses unlearned REAL words!

I can't believe it. I thought the US was the only country trying to dumb down the population. Sometimes feel like this current administration would like to see the citizens have just enough education to work, buy, and vote - thinking... that might wake this country up from its coma.

Hi, Guys Sorry.  I still have a problem. My edit list is different, Does not have a blue arrow. I am running Carrara 5PRO. What is wrong with me? why cant I find the arrow? Above, a picture of how mine compairs to yours. (HO, HO) Thanks yet again Mike

My apologies. I'm afraid it's an option that comes with the AnythingGrooves plugin from www.digitalcarversguild.com/.

I've had the plugin so long that I'd forgotten that that particular option was one of its features.

O'kay, 
Thanks.
I have a plugin, But not that one.
Looks like it's that route then.
Hopefully this will be the end of this now.
Thanks again guys and good luck with your lattest projects.

Not to push my method, but lookig back it wasn't that hard to do. Your shading zones are not difficult. Try not changing the base model to .obj first - I think you can skip that step. Go straight from the pose, using Convert to Mesh (AssociatedFX) free extension, then bring the new "mesh" into vertex room, then add your new shader zones, then out as OBJ in Carrara - then back and do any other shader adjustments... not too difficult.