I have a need for a semi-realistic looking caveman figure -neanderthal man - and I tried using FREAK, but it is so taxing on my machine, so I'm modeling one.  I want to be able to have several different bodies from one model - a base body that I can adjust with morphs or as vertex model.

Here is a start.  If anyone wants to help we can work together.  I'm using it in a personal book project - don't currently see it getting professionally published -but the figure would be a background character anyway. 

Just change body.txt to body.car. 
Robert

one thing i noticed when they had the c7 beta was that they wanted us to also download the latest D|S thing, which may have freebie LOD models, one of which may be o.k. for the caveman.  this one I found wouldn't smooth in carrara, e.g. the arms remained rectilinear upon subdivision.

here's one of yog sneaking around in typical caveman fashion. 4 subdiv levels (rendering).

That is soooo cool!  Did you create the rig or use an existing rig?  Did you create the sneak or load an animation and rig... so many questions - you did this quickly!  Looks great! 
I did model in C7Pro and found some strange things will doing it -
anyway - thanks for playing.

Thanks again Miss Nancy - I used a skeleton from a daz figure and attached it to the model.  I was able to animate it, but I'd love to add poses from the daz/poser models.... ; ) Now I'm trying to add my own poses through the master pose features in Carrara, and it works, but I can't seem to animate - it only renders frame one and stops.... more to learn. The sneak is so cool - were you able to load a motion file to the skeleton?  I must know!!! I'm so impressed! Thank you

I still am having trouble with adding poser animations... for now I'm working on learning the carrara features.  most humble thanks.... domo arigato

Miss Nancy:  How about a little info on how you animated yog? Inquiring minds want to know!
Excellent animation BTW.

Attached Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Jy5Z6YbtwQ

see att. lnk.  YMMV using donato's method.  e.g. it's easier to line up bvh starting with default pose at frame 0, but default pose may vary amongst bvh files.  bvh import options and control keys will also vary depending on whether Win or Mac is used. I also took some shortcuts that are inadvisable, in order to do it in under 5 minutes. the result is still a rigged object, but I would advise against trying to apply pz2 files to it.

bvh files are better than pz2/pz3 files IMVHO 'cause bvhs are usually based on mocaps,
whilst pz2/pz3 files may be pretty bad when just done in poser without any rotoscoping.

in order to do the caveman, i would advise vidgame technique, e.g. lo-res figure with
smoothing on render using hi-res displ/texmaps.  some of 'em may suggest "burning in
the normal map", but i dunno if carrara can do that.

I was thinking the same with a low-res figure - but when I get to modeling, I keep adding, and adding.  Like the feet and hands - who needs fingers ; )  I could have just put out plates for hands and used the texture to create the illusion.  

Thank you

Ok, watched the video - wow, seems easy.  Next question.  Where can I learn more about bvh files?  And where can I download a few?  Can I make my own in Poser from an animation in there and save them out to use in my Carrara figures?

Where you able to add Poser poses to an obj?  With the caveman animation - after you loaded the bvh, was it then ready to use as a posable figure?  Could you delete the animation and start adding standard poses?

Again, thank you - I've been away from the 3D for almost a year and now I feel so far behind!  Lots to learn.

robert

I jumped into Poser and created a BVH of James walking - went back into Carrara, added the BVH to the caveman - adjusted the bones a little - I can see how this can be obsessive - and gave it a render.  The arms cut through the body - I can adjust that in Poser - looking at the animation in Carrara makes my eyes bug out- can you say - keyframes ?   Anyway - this is a start - I'm ready to try poses. Miss Nancy - thanks again.

Attached Link: http://www.sharecg.com/pf/full_uploads.php?pf_user_name=mojodallas

see att. lnk. pz2 files not recommended for this obj unless it has poser JPs and groups. bvh files are hierarchies of body parts (no "body" element) and their relative joint rotations. said parts mayn't correspond to poser body part names.  I dunno a good bvh ref.

the method you suggested seems to work for loading bvh files - I tried to create another and load it into the already attached skeleton - but it crippled my caveman - maybe because I had already adjusted the skeleton and the new bvh had info on the old... I don't know. 

BVH files

My accumulated BVH files total 143MB. (468 files,23 folders it says!)

PM me with your e-mail if you want.
(No idea how many are "good")

Brian
ps What I have used work fine in Carrara

Okay - I don't know if this is helpful to others, but I've been playing around with this.

My goal:  To rig a character built in Carrara - to stay in Carrara - so I can animate and pose to my heart's content. I also want to use BVH animations to add premade movement to my figure.  Even though I've animated figures in Carrara alone, I want to take advantage of the excellent skeleton rigs from Poser figures and sometimes the animations (walk designer) available in Poser.

Method:    Build the figure in Carrara. 

Export to Poser to get the scale correct.  Compare it to an existing Poser figure so that the bones will line up - even if I need to adjust the figure (James or M3 or whatever figure I choose) so that the bone length and shape matches my Carrara figure.

Animate the adjusted Poser figure and save out a bvh file.

Import the bvh back into Carrara and it should match the Carrara figure -
Attach the skeleton and animate!

Progress:  So far I've only imported bvh and had to adjust the skeleton each time, until I adjusted my Carrara figure to match the imported bvh - but that's not my goal.  I want to have a unique shaped figure.  I want the skeleton I import to match my figure.  I think the above method will work.

I'd sure appreciate any insight.   Miss Nancy has been very helpful.

I'm still trying to add premade poses from Poser - what about a 2- frame bvh? 

Every time I try and add a bvh to an existing figure in Carrara (the caveman rigged with a previous bvh+skeleton) it just twists it up.  I have to start from scratch.  The 2-frame bvh would start at 0 position and zeroed out pose to easily mate with the Carrara figure, and the second frame would be the pose.  

I tried using poses in Carrara - but after loading 2 it wouldn't work.  Any tutorials on creating poses in Carrara? 

the quick way we useta do JPs in poser (before philc and the others wrote various utils)
was to line up and resize an obj file with the closest matching poser cr2 file (and not daz files,
as it's an EULA violation to copy their JPs) then edit the cr2 file to point to the new imported
obj file, which is something like ya did there.  but the new utils really speed it up, in case there's
a deadline involved, as having to group and name all the body parts in carrara is somewhat
tedious IMVHO.  only then will these poser pose files work well.

it's likely that, once an obj file has got a bvh skellington attached, it's gonna screw up with
another bvh file.  that's where those various bvh-fixing utils come in handy (poser again).
they gave me another fortnite to procrastinate about buying C7Pro, hence I dunno if
C7Pro can save pz2 files, but I doubt it, unless SM sold daz the SDK after all this time.

one other note: it may be a copyright violation to redistribute some of these bvh file sets.
I ain't a lawyer.

Well, I'm done for the night.  I resized a figure in Poser (native to Poser) against my Carrara figure (.obj) and was able to bring in several poses via a bvh - I just scrolled though the bvh to access the various poses - it wasn't hard.  This particular Carrara-made figure is not well suited for the poses I chose - arms and legs too thick.  I'm about ready to just do all my rigging and posing in Carrara - no more back and forth.  I just wish I had a simple way to save the poses in Carrara - I know there is a way...

For the life of me I can not understand why one would need to interchange  backwards and forwards between Poser (OR D/S) and Carrara.

Bring a Poser item into Carrara and just do it?

I would buy Quidam if I had to put up with it all.

Sour puss day!

Brian

I don't want a Poser figure - I want something I made.  I just thought Poser would be a shortcut for animating a skeleton I could then bring into Carrara to attach to my figure and be golden.

Creating a skeleton in Carrara I thought was about as easy as it gets?

Brian