A while back I bought this Character "Lily HD for Genesis 8.1 Female" by Mousso.  A beautiful character with all the right stuff.  By that I mean, fiber brows and pubes, and a texture set that supports the female anatomy.  My goal is to use this figure in Carrara using all the features that are made available,  plus a few more.

Not a problem if you use DazStudio,  but a real PITA if you want to use this character in Carrara.  As we all know Genesis 3, and 8, and 8.1 are not supported in Carrara,  at least not officially.  With the fantastic work done by  Misty,  we have useable presets for Genesis 3 M&F. Genesis 8 M&F,  and also Genesis 8.1 M&F,  available here in the free stuff area, except for Genesis 3 Janette and Jonathon,  which sadly are no longer available her in the store.

These are all the products that I will use to create the base character,  using Daz Studio 4.16 (Newest Beta), DazStudio 4.10,  and of course Carrara 8.5 also the latest beta version.

Everything listed here is contained in a single runtime or content folder, the top level being Lily HD, and everything else is under that such as the Data folder, people folder etc.  I'm sure you all know how to install content.  In Das Studio I tend to use only one content folder at a time to make sure that the content is not polluted by content from another content folder that may contain the same product or other character products which I don't want to have in my current project.  All that being said, let's build the base character......tomorrow.

Here's a sneak preview of Lily rendered in Octane for Carrara

Great stuff, thank you i have no idea on how to do any of this so watching with interest. 

Pulled an all-nighter again,  it's just about 8:00 AM in my area and I need to go to work my real job.  Anyways, I've had good success in creating Lily HD (without the HD sadly).

Here's a few screen grabs.

Lily in DS4.10.  Took a while to get there, but if she works in DS4.10 the I know she'll work well in Carrara.

Lily in Carrara with the Root selected, that's where the pose controls live,  not all of them work,  but I have a work-around for that too.

This last on is Lily with the Actor node selected

The list scrolls off the screen but they are all there and there's a lot of them.  I spun a few of them and they all seem to work.

Step by Step is in the works....tomorrow

Step 1   Prepare the content.   

This is done in DS4.16 or whatever version of Studio that allows the use of Genesis 8.1.  This is my first and only G8.1 character, so this is a learning curve for me as much as it is for anyone that chooses to attempt to use G8.1 in Carrara.

DS4.16 is what I have installed currently, so that's what I'll use.  Lily HD and all the other content related to her is installed in its own library.

I'll also be using DS4.10 for reasons I'll get into in Step 2 or 3.  

Start by Loading Gemini (Genesis 8.1 Female preset by Misty)

Before I go any further, I close Studio, without saving,  cause I want to get rid of all the Full Body Morphs. they are not needed for this figure.

I zip these files cause I don't need them, I keep the rest of the body morph pack cause the Pose Controls live here.

OK, back to Load Gemini

That's better.  You can keep them if you need them,  your choice.

Now you can Dial in the character or you can click the full character preset to get to Lily

This is the settings I use for the Character Loading Options.  Accept.

I go this route cause it applies the head shape, body shape, Lashes and Tear fitted and parented to Gemini, and Materials.  

Next, unparent the lashes and tear but keeping them fitted.  Set Resolution  Level to Base. on both. then...

Do this for both the lashes and the tear.  I rename the three items in the scene tab so I don't get confused, and I save them  one at a time as a Scene Subset, except Lily Base, I save that one as a Character preset

Do this two times selecting a different one each time

I do this for any other attachments like the Gens and pubes and Brows if those are available to you.  All get converted to Blended Weight and saved as subsets.  I'll spare you the screen shots for the remaining items.  Also keep in mind that Fiber hair converted to Blended weight will drastically add to the file size once in Carrara.  And just to keep things moderately organized I save the subsets in the same folder with Gemini.

  We're almost done with Step 1.  

Close DazStudio, without saving, cause we already saved everything.  I actually reboot the computer, cause Daz Studio has a way of hanging around at times, even though it's been closed.

Awesome ! Thanks for the blow by blow details! 

I might study this closer later too, G3&8 even with Misty's presets give me some strange behaviours in Carrara so I have been playing with Aiko3 and Michael 3 lately 😹so much easier.

less an error has occurred or nil pointer errors 😊

Thanks for the support guys, after rebooting my computer I got sidetracked, and fell asleep without finishing Step 1.  So I'll do that sometime today.  Later

I applied the No brows preset which is supplied by Mousso (handy) because I plan to use the Fiber brows on my character.  I save that one as a separate character preset with a different name of course

Now for a little housekeeping.  I close Studio.  I create a similar folder structure under Genesis 8.1 Carrara Beta. an anatomy folder and a clothing folder.  Then I drag the saved subsets into their proper folder

Open Studio.  I navigate to the anatomy folder and load ONE subset, then saving it as a Character preset overwriting the subset.

clear the Scene and repeat for all the subsets in your folder

That's the end of Step 1.  Now the moment of truth, testing all that's been done so far, In DazStudio and in Carrara.  Always an anxious moment for me.

Re-Boot the machine, Force of habit, it's what I do.

Time for testing,  and prep for step 2.

Initial tests in Carrara

Root node selected

Same as usual, No Body Pose Controls

next with Actor node selected

Just the character morphs were added to the selection.

All the Dials seem to work  the Lashes work with the eyes and the brows conform with the head morphs dials as well. So I'm happy about that.  What I'm not happy with is that all my Zev0 morph dials are missing.  I didn't bother loading the gens cause we all know what happens when loading a geograft attachment. The uv's are messed up.

to pubes conform to the figure properly. Tear I didn't bother with. 

Fiber Brows and pubes look like crap in the native renderer.  In Octane they are OK

Probably better off using textures that include eyebrows. And better lighting

Next step is in the works, and hopefully I can overcome some of the shortcomings.  Pose Controls for the body,  Morph dial for the figure and gens without messed up uv's.

But as is, I do have a poseable and animatable dialed in character. 

Step 2

Create content folder.   I use ProPose8.1

Under that create subfolder     I use Real People

Under that create subfolder     I use Genesis 8.1 Female           

Launch DS4.16 or whatever you are using, must support G8.1.  Add   ProPose8.1 content library  to your DAZ Studio Formats 

Load  Lily Base

Navigate to Genesis 8.1 Female in your ProPose8.1 and With Lily Base selected in the scene tab go to 

File---Save As---Support Asset---Figure/Prop Asset

Give a file name    I called mine "Lily Test" and click Save

This comes up

If your save options don't match what you see, make it match and Click Accept

Bunch of stuff happens, and a data folder is created with a bunch of stuff in it

clear the scene and load the saved figure 

Important step Do This  Adjust rigging to shape      accept the next popup 

then do this     Memorize Figure

then finally  save as character preset I call mine Lily Base as it's called in the scene tab

I close DazStudio4.16

I launch DS4.10, and load up Lily Base.  Play with the dials and pose controls, Lily Base should respond properly, al least she does for me.  I save another Character preset and just name her Lily.  Clear the scene and load up Lily,  re-check  the Dials and controls.  This is the Lily that I'll use going forward. 

And now I'll explain why I use DS4.10

 I tried every version of Studio from the most recent 4.16 version down to version 4.10.

DazStudio 4.10 is the only version that merges properly the anatomical elements.  this is true for all the Genesis figures G1 to G8.1 male or female.  Why is that important?  Because in Carrara, when you add the genital figure onto your character the UV's of the gens are lost making that part of the figure useless.  In daz Studio it all blends in perfectly, but not everyone wants to render or animate in Daz Studio.  Other people have come up with creative solutions to overcome this problem, and this is my kick at the can.  but even if you don't do nudes, the figure that you have right now is alot better in that you have all or most of the pose controls available depending on what you've added in morph packs.  If anyone out there has a better way, I'm all ears.  

Another thing I also create a Runtime ---Textures folder in my ProPose8.1 content Library and copy all the relevent testures 

Step 3 will be the merging of the Anatomical Elements  to Lily Base

Step 3

Launch DS4.10 and Load Lily.  She come in as Lily Base,  as the "Base" indicates to me the figure contains the minimum set of morphs that I would want in any character.  That's just my preference and not a rule.  And since I'm working with Mousso's Lily, she is Lily Base.  Also deleted the icons for the other presets so I don't get confused about which one to load.

The result is evident.  No screen shot. 

I've fitted mutiple items such as the lashes and Fiber brows following the same steps, but I'll skip that for now.

I've fitted Fiber head hair  as well with good results.  But to be honest,  the resulting file size, especially using head hair is a bit too much, even with 32Gb of ram.

Now the important part,  setting a value for all the dials in the parameters tab with Lily Base selected.  

Under the Actor node, the important parts are Full Body, Hip, Legs (in specific the ones that effect length). and the Waist.

Under the Pose controls , Hip and Leg are the ones the I set.  

The value doesn't matter, but I generally set them to 10%

Full Body Dials all set to 10%

People:  There's only 1 dial cause I'm only using 1 Character package but if yours has more then set them all to 10%

and finally under the Figure node is the Waist.  Usually I set them all to 10%.  There's a lot of them.

Now for the Pose Controls.  I skip Arms, Chest, Feet, Hands, Head, Neck and Torso. I focus on Hip and Legs.

I set all the Hip dials to 10%, and a few will pop back to zero but I don't worry about it

Legs.  these I set to 10%

That's it for the Dials

The more morph packs you have installed, the more dials you have to set.  General rule is all the FBM's get set, all dials relating to the Hip, thighs and waist are set.  Why?  Because the Gens are attached to the Hip, and if you dial in a hip morph then the connecting part will or can be effected.  Also the Length morphs to the Thighs and Shins will effect the position of the hip, up or down.  Learnt that by trial and error.  OK, now the scary part, and also some nudity which cant be helped, if I'm going to explain what's going on.  This is what you see with all the dials set.

Activate the Geometry Editor

With Lily Base selected, Right-Click in the Viewport, do this

Click Yes.

Delete Genesis 8 Female Genitalia from the scene tab.

the Gens are now part of the hip so the original is not needed

In the Geometry Editor. Under "Regions" note the count of the Hip, for  information only

Target Group--change that to Regions

-

In the Chose Group drop-down choose Hip

Expose the Surfaces and select the Genitalia.  On Lily Base the selected area turns red

Click the Plus (+) sign and the selected area turns yellow. then Click on "Assign to Target Group". Now Click the minus (-) sign

Scroll down to the Regions portion and select the hip to verify that the gens are now part of the hip.

So far so good.  Exit the Geometry Editor and return to the Universal tool

Back in the Content Tab. This is where I'm going to save my Creation.

With Lily Base selected  do this

I call mine Real Lily 

Save Options come up and I fill in the blanks.  Make sure that Product Name is unique. the Vendor (You) and the Item Name is auto-filled.  The rest I leave alone cause I'm not sure of the consequences if I change things.

Stuff happens.......and there she is

Clear the Scene and Load Real Lily, and she comes in as Lily Base.  I change the name to Real Lily in the scene tab

Now in the Parameters Tab  I ZERO the figure Then Adjust Rigging to shape, the Memorize Figure.

Save as Character Preset  I call mine Real Lily which overwrites the Real Lily that exists.

Clear the scene and load  Real Lily  Dial in Your character and spin some dials.  all of them,  just kidding.  

Also with my figure Dialed in I do this

Memorize figure again then.  Re-save the Character preset. This way when you load the figure she'll be dialed in already

And that's that.

Fire up Carrara and See

Root node with all the Pose Controls Some work some don't

Keep in mind

This is no longer a DAZ Figure , It's Your figure, but you CANNOT share it or sell it,  because it's still a DAZ figure.

Hope you get some use out of all this.

I sincerely thank Misty for creating the presets for without her we'd all be back using Genesis 2 (Not that there's anything wrong with those)

Thanks

Looks kind of daunting,  at first, but it's really pretty simple, and if you go through it a couple of times you can put together a character in about 20 minutes.  Save the character to your Carrara browser, for future use.  This method, achieves two things, it allows me to use Genesis 8.1 with all the body dials and most of the pose controls, and if you choose to use the anatomical elements, the merge process welds the two figures into one figure, overcoming the UV issue.  

Thank you for the detailed explanation.  I will have to go through it all again so it sinks in.

You're welcome!  This is my Genesis 8.1, Male or female, workflow.  This also works for all the Genesis generations but G8.1 was the most challenging.  Happy to answer any questions you might have.

So here's an unexpected twist.  I was working on yet another variation of Gemini, and I neglected to clear out one of my content folders before creating the figure, that folder or library contained the MetaMixer Toolkit.  Long story short, all those dials carried over to my Real Gemini, I also applied one of the dark skinned material presets, dialed in all the Neda dials and voila.  I'm sure they're not meant to be used that way, but what the heck,  it works for me.

A note about Fiber Hair, brows and lashes in specific.  I've mentioned that fiber hair looks like crap in the Carrara native renderer, but I'm changing my tune on that.  They ca look a bit more presentable in you change some of the render settings in the render room.  In this example I used the G8F preset (Veronica for G8F by Misty) with the Lashes and brows merged into the figure, using Colm Jacksons Lashes and Brows.  The important setting is the AntiAliasing set at its highest.  Native render compared to Octane. 

Another example.  Terriable lighting, I know

With every new update of DazStudio, I test to see how this method of mine works in the latest version.  Well, it don't.  In fact, the results are worse than in the previous versions.  I'm not going to try and explain it, because I can't.  4.10 is still the only version that works for me.

Great looking lashes.  Thanks for the tip.

There is a simpler way to get Genesis 8.1 to work in Carrara.  And by "work" I mean to get a figure,  male or female,  to load into Carrara with all the dials, Head and Body, available as you would expect.  This will not include using the Anatomical elements, rather just the Basic figure along with any of the morph and or character packages you wish to include.  My work flow is:

1.   Assemble the content you want to use, such as the base figure like Genesis 8.1 Female,  or Male.  Add all the morphs you want to include, like Head and Body morphs, etc.  Add a Character package, totally optional.  Make sure you use a clean Content Library,  just the stuff you want to use should be in your content library, just to avoid any surprises.  You'll also need Gemini and or Harper for Genesis 8.1 which I believe are still available here in the Free stuff by Misty.  Also add any hair or clothing, all of which need to be converted to Blended Weight and saved as a subset.  For whatever reason, when you first install studio, it creates a default content directory, in Users/Public/Public Documents/My DAZ 3D Library, which should be empty unless you've saved stuff in there.  But this content library will come in handy.  If you have stuff in there, zip it up and put it somewhere else if you need it.  Under "My DAZ 3D Library" folder add a sub directory "People" and under that "Genesis 8 Female.  Add "My DAZ 3D Library"  in you Daz Studio Content Tab.  That's where you'll save your Character.

2.  Fire up your latest version of DazStudio.  I used 4.20 for my tests. 

3.  Load your base, Gemini or Harper.  They come in without the Eyelashes or Tears, which is ok.

4.  With your base selected,  load the corresponding Genesis 8.1 figure, you  should get a prompt asking if you want to load a new figure or apply to the currently selected figure.  Choose to apply to the currently selected figure.  Your base should now be textured, and also have the Eyelashes and Tears fitted and parented to your base.  Make sure you base figure, Eyelashes and Tears are at base resolution, and 0 subdivision.  One at a time convert the Lashes and Tears to Blended Weight.  You can save these converted items as subsets to use again.  Scroll through the Parameters Tab to make sure that everything is there that should be there.  If you've added a Character package, the those dials should also be there under People or Full Body, Head, or all of the above.  No need to set any dials.

5.  Save your Character.  With your Base character selected, navigate to "My DAZ 3D Library/People/Genesis 8 Female". Ensure the the Genesis 8 Female folder is highlighted.  Click on File--Save As--Support Asset--Figure/Prop Assets--Give it a file name.  

That should be it.  Test in Carrara.

yes, I fear poor Misty is no longer with us 😿 

she is missed badly 💔

I share your fears 

Tragic.  Miss Misty.

ProPose001.  Thanks for this updated workflow.  Will come in handy the next time I want to use G8.1 in Carrara.

My latest WIP.  Sybelle for G8.1F by Vyusur.  Rendered in OR4C

very nice

thanks Wendy

My latest WIP

Eunji, by Mousso (again)

Default Gemini with Eunji dialed in.

Default lashes, no tear (I forgot)

Fiber Brows and Fiber peach fuzz.  I could use some recommendations on a decent light setup to show the facial hair.

I didn't dare load up the fiber pubes cause the Brows and Peach fuzz took forever to load.  All the attachments are converted to blended weight at base resolution but instead of saving them as a Subset, I saved them as Figure/Prop assets and loaded those into Carrara.  I'm happy so far.  No merging done on this figure - yet.  I find it's best not to merge fiber stuff to the main figure, cause if you apply any smoothing to the figure the smoothing also applies to the attachments.   And that would seriously impact performance.  

Saved as a Scene file (uncompressed)

that is risking truncation at that size

Didn't realize there is a file size limit.  I'll have to check and see if I can open this file.

You're right, the file won't open.  

But, why do I get such a bloated file size?

The sum of all the elements in the scene don't come anywhere near 4GB

head scratcher!

you need Alberto's morph eraser

https://carraracafe.com/new-plug-in-by-ab-genesis-morphs-eraser/

Carrara has a 4GB scene size limit after which it will not save additional data so the scene cannot open

I have that plugin by Alberto, but...I've never used it.  I find it easier to just dive into the data folder and zip up or delete the morphs I don't want to use.  When I load the Fiber brows and Peach fuzz Carrara spends an awful long time 'Projecting Morphs'.  Since the attachments are to the head, I take it that the 'Projecting Morphs' reads all the head morphs in the character file, so when I dial in an expression, Carrara knows how to adjust the shape of the attachment.  Am I correct in that assumption?  If that's the case, then that would explain the file bloat.  

you might be better off breaking the scene up into smaller parts then, to be getting 4GB on a single clothed figure you must have lots of data still embedded, I use Alberto's plugin on all the clothing too, I apply any mimic and expressions first, an NLA clip OK if you want an easy way to keep certain morphs but use different order in poses and animation later.

Taking a break from G8.1 and on to G9 

This is Lyra by Bluejaunte.  She's actually a G8F figure but I ended up using G8.1F because of the toe issue.