I apologize if this question has been asked before, but I did some searches in the forum and could not find an answer. 

My question is, how does one replicate or duplicate a poser/daz figure in Carrara 7 Pro?

Specifically I am looking to duplicate a Mike 2 figure with Valandar's Man At Arms clothing set.  I have been playing around with Faveral's new Medieval Docks figure and have gotten some very good renders out of Carrara 7 Pro of just the model.  Now I want to go back in and figures to populate the scene.  The initial figure loaded just fine and I was able to get it put into place at one of the guard stations.  Now I want to replicate the figure so that I can place it at other key points.

In reading through the documentation it seems clear that you can replicate Carrara primitive objects, and I do remember replicating the Man At Arms figure into a small army in Carrara 6 standard, but I just can't seem to figure out how to ungrey the Edit/Duplicate option.

Thank you,

rDogg

if only it was that easy. I don't t hink you can duplicate a figure. You can use the surface replicator though. Look for the replicator in the horizontal bar of icons at the top.

If I have a figure that I want to duplicate, I pose the mesh then export as an object with morphs skinning applied, then reimport it as an object and duplicate from there. You would need to save all the clothes separately though - pitb.

You can use only two good ways to duplicate:

1 - Using Replicator or Surface Replicator, this will create new instances but always in the same pose.

2 - You can create your character and drag it to the Objects tab in the Browser to use later. This way you can load it as many times you want and your memory alows. Is the best way to work.

If you are doing some illustration a trick is to render the soldiers in the background separeted and join all in Photoshop or another 2D paint peogram.

It appears that my earlier post did not actually save.  The advice on the replicator tool was right on and is definitely a way to go when I want to create a group such as a platoon or an army.  Unfortunately it was not what I was looking for.

I next tried to save a scene in Poser with 4 of the same figure, posed in the same way, and then import that scene into Carrara 7 Pro.  The 4 figures importe ok, but only with 1 set of clothes.

So I ended up importing the same figure a 2nd time and positioning the new figure where I wanted it and rendering out.  The result was very good, however a lot of time was spent setting up the scene. 

rDogg

Poser to Carrara inst a good way t work... you will always end with problems and Carrara is fa rmore easy to setup a scene them Poser.

Hi GKDantas,

I absolutely agree with you that Poser to Carrara is not a good way to work.  I disagree with you however on your statement that it is far more easy to set up a scene in Carrara.

The reason I disagree is I have been working in Poser since Poser version 1.  I did not really get serious with Poser until Poser version 3.  I have spent very little time with Carrara, so for me it is very easy to set up a scene in Poser, especially when it comes to camera placement and posing of figures.  There are a number of vastly improved lighting tools for Poser Pro 2010 that take more advantage of the Firefly render engine.  It is clear to me though that the Carrara render engine is still superior especially when it comes to lighting.

I do not doubt, that if I had spent the same amount of time with Carrara I would feel differently.  Clearly the render engine and terrain modeling and atmospheric control, and the other features I am not mentioning are fantastic.  The big issue as I see it is integrating a lot of figures into a scene.

I have looked through your gallery and am impressed at your Poser figure renders within Carrara.  They are all top notch.  I also noticed that you are typically working with only a couple of Poser figures in each render.  I am looking to create a scene where the medieval docks figure I have imported into Carrara has the vibrant life of a city with many different people walking around and interacting.  Here is where I am at the moment:

http://renderosity.com/mod/gallery/index.php?image_id=2146642

I have imported 2 guard figures.  The overall render time is not that great currently, but I find the task of importing and placing more figures to be daunting.

I am always open to ideas and help in creating a better work flow.  I also use DAZ Studio 3, so I might try composing a scene there and then importing the DAZ scene directly into Carrara.

The bottom line is that I will get better at using Carrara, but it would be great if there were an easier way to set up a scene with a lot of figures that are individually posed.

rDogg

Hi, the general idea is to use postwork, that is what they do in movies. Almost all softwares can have problems loading many instances for Vic ou Mic, because the polygon count and size of textures.

My workflow when I have problems importing a lot of figures is to divide my scene in planes:

1 - background - the most back par tof the scene, that dont receive shadows or reflections from characters, like trees, house or mountais.

2 - middle plane: where people are, in general I render the people separeted in groups and add to the scene later, or as a postwork in Photoshop or using alpha planes to fake their position in the scene (good to have ground reflections)

3 - first plane: the most important part of the scene, even with people around.

After that I can join all inside Carrara with alpha planes (as splats) and using a good camera position, or inside Photoshop or another editor. I really like to use FXHome Composit lab Pro, its a toll for video that really works with illustration too.

I really appreciate the feedback.  I had kind of figured I might have to sub divide the rendering into different sections and the composite it all together.  I had hoped there might be a way around this, but like you said it is the way things must be done.

I have started looking at Carrara Tutorials so I will continue to work on my Post Editing skills.  Do you know of a good turtorial that discusses Carrara Alpha Planes?

rDogg

Not really a tutorial, but people are talking about this in this thread:

http://carraralounge.com/index.php?topic=305.0

I agree with GK that you're much, much better off working entirely in Carrara and cutting Poser out of your workflow entirely.
I know it's awkward at first, but trust me; it won't take long before you're wondering how you ever did any other way!
Here's a few tricks for larger, more complex scenes:
Set up your figures one at a time in a separate file; once everything is posed and textured to your liking, simply save the figure to your content browser. Once you start work on your main scene, simply drag and drop the figures wherever you want 'em to go. (The replicating will still work)
One of the most common mistakes/misconceptions I see from people migrating away from Poser is the urge to put way too much stuff in a single scene all at once. You're always, always better off rendering your scene in layers. (Not to be confused with passes)
Carrara gives you all the tools to do this such as shadow catchers and premultiplied alpha options in your image format. It's really easy to break big scene into smaller pieces and composite them together in an image editor with Carrara.
You don't want to end up with a scene that takes days to render as well as running through all of your system's memory.
In the end everybody here wants to see more people using Carrara, so stick with it and don't be afraid to ask as many questions as you need to!
Good luck!
 

GK beat me to it!

Wow, thank you you jt4111 and GKDanats and headwax for all your comments.  I will definitely be putting much more effort into creating and rendering in Carrara. 

I find it humorous that I will be re-saving my Poser figures into Carrara.

I am looking forward to reading the thread that GKDantas mentioned and taking a new path.  I am also looking forward to posting more images and asking more questions.

Thank you,

rDogg

Great! You are right JT411, now its time to show your stuff... here  a link to see what Carrara can do:

http://www.digitalwebguide.com/?p=211

I saw that video yesterday; very impressive! Easily the best Carrara work I've seen yet!

That video was amazing.  But seriously I need to learn how to crawl first :-) 

My near terms goal is to create and publish a E-comic book in a fantasy setting.  I already have a story.  So I will be leaning on the Carrara community to make this happen.  I will also try to document the step by step so that others can learn from what I am doing.

WOW! I have to agree that that is an amazing piece! Thank you for sharing that GK!    

Shows that CarraraPro has all the tools to be able to work in a pro-quality live action/animation pipeline. I appreciate the information on replicating DAZ figures as well.

rDogg:

This may save you some head scratching.  If a model uses a pmd file for external morphs, I have found that the object will come into Carrara without the morphs.  If you open it in Poser and resave it (with use external morphs unchecked in poser) it will save with internal morphs.  You can then import this second instance with the internal morphs and they will work in Carrara.

I agree with the others, using Carrara from the start is preferable.  I started with poser years ago, switched to Carrara, and no longer think of setting anything up in poser.

BTW, I frequently use multiple V4 and M4 models in a scene with many objects without difficulty.  64 bit with 12 Gigs RAM helps.

Klebnor

Hi Klebnor,

Thank you very much for the tip about the PMD files.  I was wondering what had happened to the morph targets once the model was imported.  This should resolve a number a big issue related to posing.

I am confident that once I get comfortable with the Carrara interface that I may end up not using Poser again. 

One other thing that is mystifying me at the moment (until I get a chance to watch some video tutorials) is how manage and change the viewing/rendering options with multiple cameras.  I understand how to add additional cameras to the scene but I just can't figure out how to make the new camera the active viewer for the scene so that I can move it around, change the focal length and other parameters.

This is all part of the learning process.

I have Carrara 7 Pro installed on 2 systems - a 64 bit quad core with 8 GB of RAM running Windows 7 and a Macbook Pro dual core with 4 GB running OSX 11.

rDogg

Hey rDogg:

Look in the upper left of the viewspace - there is a camera selection.  Camera one is generally used to render so I set it where I want it and move around with the director camera to fine tune things.  Use the links in the upper left to switch quickly back and forth.

Cameras you add are shown in the instance on the right - highlight a camera and you have access to all its properties above (upper right panel).

If you work with lots of models and lots of textures, the more RAM the better.  The quad core with 8GB should give you a lot of freedom.  Before I got my hex core I used a quad core under 32 bit XP, and it was fine.

Klebnor

Hi Klebnor,

Wow a hex core with 12 Gig! I am so jealous.  I guess I will have to wait for an "Octo" core whenever they come out.  Thank you for the quick tip about the cameras.  I will be working with that feature tonight.

rDogg

Hey, rDogg:

A couple of other things that I wish I had known when I started using Carrara:

If you want to maneuver around a large scene using terrain generators, select Scene in the instance (lower right), then use the interface tab - there's a Scene's Magnitude selector.  If you select large, you will move around much more quickly.  Be sure to set it back to medium before rendering, or you may get some bad artifacts in the render - took me quite a while to figure that one out.

Also, if you put normal sized objects into a scene - say a boat on a sea, or a person on the shore, and you lose where something is ... rather than zoom all over looking for it, highlight the object or model you want to see in the instance on the right, and hit 0 (the number zero).  Your current camera will go right to the object.  This is also helpful when working in a complex scene and want to move around quickly to adjust various objects.

If you haven't done so yet, I highly suggest you play with the lights - they are much more advanced than poser offers.  In the general tab you can have them light, or not light, individual objects - very handy.  Also check out the effects in the effects tab.  If you find raytraced shadows are too sharp, go to effects / shadows and enable soft shadows.  Increasing the light radius makes them softer.

One more simple trick that took time to figure out.  Insert a sphere primitive into a scene.  Bring in two (or three if you want a back light) spot lights.  Arrange them at about 45 degrees off to the right and left in front of the sphere.  Go into modifiers and set each light to point at the sphere.  In the instance, drop the two lights onto the sphere.  Make the sphere invisible in the general tab on the instance.  Name it Light Sphere at the top of the instance panel on the right.  Save this and you have a light set.  To use, pull it into a scene from your browser, and move the sphere to whatever object or model you want to illuminate.  You can rotate it for different shadow effects, and if one of the lights is obstructed, you can move it and it will snap to point at the sphere.  I use this all the time for spot lighting with some 3d definition.

Klebnor

Very good tips Klebnor!

Hi Klebnor,

Thank you very, very much for the additional tips.  I had been thinking about how best to go about lighting as I knew Carrara had a lot more features and capabilities when it came to lighting the scene.  Creating the light set is huge, and you tip on the light sphere is greatly appreciated.

Losing one's place in a large scene is quite easy, so I also very much appreciate the tips on using the "zero" number to get back into position.

Now it is time to start crawling.

rDogg

rDogg - glad to help.  Come back with any questions, folks here are glad to help.

GKDantas - Thanks!  You've helped me many a time, just a little pay forward.

Klebnor