Hi,

I have a M4 figure which I have been working with and getting the clothes the way I want them. However when I try duplicating the figure (Command D) nothing happens and under edit the commands are greyed out. There  is nothing in manual that I cann find that explains this. Is there a workaround for duplicating the figure.  I would like a duplicate so that I could make a variation of the original.

Thanks for your time and thoughts.

Starboardtack

Mac OS 10.9/ using Carara 8.5 Pro. I'm an old Infini D user

Near as I can tell, duplicate will only work on simple objects or groups with simple objects. Complex figures with lots of polys and interconnected bone structures won't dup.

I used the following technique to put together a story series with recurring characters. Put your M4 and all his clothing and gear in a group with an appropriate name. Then highlight the group and do a File -> Export. It will save the highlighted group only as a Carrara file that can then be imported into other Carrara scenes. You can even import the same character multiple times in the same scene - but the poly count will probably go through the roof so be careful doing this.

Netwothy,

Thanks for the advice. I'll use the group technique which you describe. I have used Infini D for many years and I am just now making the transitioin to Carrara.  Working with figures in the scene I am finding is quite a challenge. Thanks again Networthy for you help.

I have another another question but I will start a new thread so that it can be on file.

Starboardtack

Simple answer you can't duplicate figures, DAZ wont let you. There is no technical reason for it. This has been a DAZ policy since C6.

But networthy is right. Just save your scene then drag and drop it back in; you may encounter clothing refit though. Carrara will quite often fit the clothes from the new figure to the existing figure.

Grouping may help but I have found changing the character name; like M4 A, M4 B, will help prevent this and make it much easier to refit the clothes if it does happen.

Poly count issues depend on you machine. Mine is an i5 with 6 gig and could handle my swamp scene fairly well; some hesitation and lag when moving cameras. If I remember right it had 5 M4s, 4 V4s, and about 11 surface replicators; plus boats, furniture ect. It was a pretty heavy scene.

What you can do is open your first figure then add a figure swing the camera around, add a figure swing the camera around, and keep adding figures till you have lag moving the camera. Something that helps in big scenes is making everything you not need for what you are working, invisable. As in put in your fist character, pose it, set it, then unclick visability. Dong this for each figure allows you to work the scene smoothly, then you can just make them visable for the actual render.

Right now I am working on a pool party scene with several genesisi and the dream home. I've made all of the dream home excluding the pool invisable, and working one figure at a time; the others are invisable. Other wise the scene gets slow; lag, and hard to work.

Manleystanley.

Thanks for some good pointers. I was able to Group/export/import the figure without problems.  I was happy to see the modifications I made in the clothes came through ok. I am working on some scenes that involve  British Navy uniforms for Capt. Cook who discovered the Hawaiian islands in 1778.

I have two machines with a KVM switch. An old G5 that allows me to run OS 9 for my Infini D assets and a new Mac Mini with 8 gigs of ram which allows me to upgrade at last and run Carrara 8.5/Poser 2014, etc.

I have bought tutorial program from Infiinite-skills on Carrara 8.5 to bring me up to speed from Infini D.  They are good but do not cover all the fine points. I am hoping that from time to time I can turn to you guys for guidance.

Thanks again for the time spent,

Starboardtack

You might also look into Fenric's utilities. I find his pose helpers very useful for Genration 4 figures (like M4, V4,kids4, etc.)

The tree duplicator is part of this package: http://www.daz3d.com/posing-pack-3

Forgot about this one. The tree duplicator works great. I've used it several times in the past.

Thanks Antaran,

I looked up Fenric's Utilities- I am not sure if I can handle another variable right now. I am still trying to handle the basic Carrara program. The grouping seems too have solved my problem for the moment. At least I know about the "Utiliities" for future needs.

Starboardtack

Once you get rolling along you might want to check out some of sparrowhawks plugins.

http://www.sparrowhawke3d.com/Sparrowhawke3DPlugins.html

If you are just learning the program, it might be good to learn the core, but Fenric's plug-ins are great time-savers once you know what you are doing. I use his pose helpers for things like mirror poses, reset poses, reset morphs, change visibility of figure elements, etc. all the time. I do know how to do it in Carrara without them, it's just much faster to do it for figures using Fenric's utilities. So, once you get comfortable and find yourself getting annoyed at having to go an manually set visibility property* on all the 16 components of each hand, it will be time to go to Fenric for help. :)

Best of luck!

*With figures, if you want to set a sub-element of the mesh (for example, only the hand) invisible it's not enough to uncheck the "Visible" property under the name (which is there for every element of Carrara), you must also find the poser-imported property of that subgroup (sits right above morphs) and uncheck it there too. Or apply a poser pose which sets invisibility to that part, but you don't always have the right ones ready.

Just to add, Fenric's plugins (I use Shader Doctor and the Duplicate Tree most often) are very simple to use. Just find Fenric's name under the Edit menu and tick the plugin (again for the ones I use) and the job's done. Incredibly simple.

Fenric's plugins make so many tasks in Carrara so much easier.

End of commercial. :)

I also have all my characters and frequently-used-stuff saved as carrara scenes that import nicely. Saves time, etc and is really, sort of, the same as a duplicate command.

I have low res snapshots of each available set up saved in a quick-viewing file so I can flip through them like a photo album to pick and choose what I want to go into a scene.

Fenric's stuff? How did I ever use Carrara without it?!

Quote - I have low res snapshots of each available set up saved in a quick-viewing file so I can flip through them like a photo album to pick and choose what I want to go into a scene.

Never thought of that before. Thanks for the idea! :)

Ya, I have a "parts" folder too. If I have something I intend to use a lot in a scene, say a lit lamp posts. I will set one up, drag and drop it to my parts folder, then darg and drop it back to the scene as many times as needed. I mostly do this with lighting, so once I have an over head florecent light set up I can reuse it; a lot.  

And since we are pluging plugins http://www.digitalcarversguild.com/carraraplugins.php

I lost my last parts folder going from XP to W7; had several shrubs in it I made with carrara. I also lost my Betty Page dynaimc clothes with a folder full of Studio content: Optitex

Going from W7 to W8 was a lot easier, but regretful.

Oh, yeah. Digital Carver's plugins are great, too. Anything that extends Carrara's capabitlities is outstanding.

Fenric'splugins are the best time saver - for me shader doctor, tree duplicate, one that allows me to change the colour of a texture in shader tree, and the commands that let you step through your directory structure one bit at a time are just wonderful

with the tree duplicate just remember to reset your object/figure xyz centre afterwards on the duplicate as sometimes things go awry