Attached Link: http://www.renderosity.com/messages.ez?Form.ShowMessage=1831960

Hi all,

I recently got this (C4D v6 CE) on the front of a 3D Magazine. I am wondering if anyone has used this to render Poser scenes ?

If you have, can you help out with some tips on how to do it ?

I am asking this because I have been somewhat awe-struck by some of Dash's portraits, which are rendered in Cinema 4D (no doubt, using a much more recent version).

FWIW, I can't afford to buy the latest version.

thanks,
Andrew

Message edited on: 10/26/2004 04:45

Export from poser as obj, then import to Cinema (set your import/export settings scale to 1000) now look in your material manager window and you'll see all the materials you'd see in poser but displayed as spheres, double click on one and add the texture map in the color slot...specular is the same as poser, white for shiny, black for dull...Trans maps go in the Alpha slot, do this for all the materials and your good to go...To speed things up there is a copy paste function in the pop up window....Steve

Thanks, Steve. I'll give this a go :)

....actually Steve, can you tell me what the export settings from Poser should be ? thanks, Andrew

Just leave them as default...Steve

Attached Link: http://www.amazonescity.com/download/free3dformembers/oldplug.html

You can also use the Amazones City plugin on the above link. It's the very bottom one. Ignore that it says its for version 7. You can also ignore the *.xgr file. This plugin will import your Poser scene with the materials added except for trans maps which you will have to add manually. I'm not sure if it loads bumps. Adrian

Thanks again Steve and Adrian. Steve - you refer to the copy paste function in the popup window - I couldn't find this, can you clarify ? .... it looks like it is going to be tedious to apply all of the material textures one by one, so was wondering if there was a quicker way ?

Here ya go Adrian...Steve

The plugin is the quicker way - just try it. Adrian

Steve -- Ummmm....sorry to be so persistent, but how do you use this Copy Channel / Paste Channel ?? The help PDF that came with C4D doesn't seem to discuss this at all.... Adrian -- had problems with this plugin, as per the attached. Have you had similar problems in your use ?

Have you set up your texture paths? Under Edit/General Settings (Ctrl+E). Adrian

I think to fix the plugin problem go edit, general settings, and texture paths and add your texture location there...to use the paste channel, click on the image button and choose your image, now click the little arrow to the left of the box that lists your image and copy channel, now select your next material with a single click (don't close the one thats open) and click the little arrown and paste the channel...Adrian could be right about the plugin mind i haven't tried it....Steve

I render poser figures in Cinema4DXL(still and animations) its superior to poser in every way !! :-)

My website

YouTube Channel

Wow, that is a nice render.. I've been thinking about that C4D

Hi all! As a recent Poser to C4d convert, I'll tell ya the goods. C4d renders the same render as Poser would in like 10% of the time. Plus it has area lights, point lights and soft shadows. I went from it taking a week to explore an image concept in Poser to one night in C4D. That is a workflow increase worth a lot of money. Secret, C4D6CE is free. Some got it off the cover of the mag, but you can also take a 20.00 class at eclecticacademy.com, and you get the program free there. From what I understand, it's also a commercial version. (Don't quote me on that). Now the six week class is in newbie level modeling. I went thru the class and in six weeks I can model anything I want. So, now not only is my workflow much faster, I can model the odd prop when I need it. The class doesn't take you up to characters, but it leaves you in a position to go that route if you want to. Plus, the class qualifies you for a academic version of C4D9 for 295$. Most of the modules to boot. As soon as I started C4d, I never looked back. Poser is only a plugin to me now(albiet a great one!.) Now the bonus: C4d is easy, easy to use. If you know Poser interface, you will be very happy with an "almost 0" learning curve. Don't be at all afraid to jump in. You will be very happy you did. I sure was.

I no longer render in Poser, using Cinema 4D XL v7.3 instead. I still do all my modeling and animations within Poser, but once a scene is finished, I import it into Cinema 4D using the Cinema 4D plug-in available on the Curious Lab website. This gives me much faster renders using much better lighting.

A few tips:

(1) make sure you have your initial C4D scene configured to have as many animation frames as you'll be importing.

(2) you have to reverse your trans maps. Now all my Poser characters have inverted transparency maps by default (a one-time pain to go through and invert all the relevant trans maps using Photoshop, but now that they're all done, no problems). Bump mapping seems to come over fine. Reflection setting has to be reset manually once the Poser PZ3 and materials are imported... though perhaps others know some trick of which I'm not aware.

(3) create a generic C4D template which has a good initial lighting and camera set up and plenty of frames. I have a basic setup which includes three circular arrays of dim no-shadow lights at different heights to give a global illumination effect, plus a main key light, fill light, and back light all casting soft shadows (some people who, unlike me, are actual experts recommend only letting one strong light cast shadows but I disagree, at least for my scenes). I also parent the global illumination arrays to one null object at the x,y,z origin and parent each of the strong lights to their own individual null objects also anchored at the x,y,z origin. This lets me swing the various lights around the center of the scene with ease just by rotating the null object parent. Finally, I have several pre-configured animated cameras parented to null objects. Those null objects can then easily be parented to the Poser object so I have fly cams ready to go as soon as I load the Poser file.

(4) my C4D template and all the Poser scenes in my library are set to a reference floor height. This keeps me from having to adjust the Y Tran setting of the poser animation once it's imported.

It all works great!

good luck... TGuyus

Message edited on: 10/26/2004 13:43

Attached Link: http://www.vtc.com/index.php

The Virtual Training Company has some great course. But, they're kinda slow with there releases. Right now they have a lot of stuff in production and Cinema 4D 8.5, is on their wishlist. They do however have Discreet 3DS Max 6 and Combustion online and I think they are excellent. They have Cinema 4D 6

Well, it doesn't get any more SIMPLE than just LOADING a Pz3 or PZZ file and RENDERING IT! (heh!) (Well worth the $149 upgrade to Vue 5!)

Message edited on: 10/26/2004 19:50

Also, when importing Poser .OBJ files into C4D set the wavefront import scaling to around 750 or higher. Poser produces very small objects and increasing the scaling in C4D should give you better quaility renders.

but you may have the same problem I did when importing millenium figures the eyelash and upper eyebrow mesh points appear sometimes to get welded onto the rest of the face so you also get the head texture mapped on them - ok you can not weld on export but the smoothness of the mesh takes a hit - solution I found was to copy head object then without moving the copy delete all points except eyelashes and all maps except eyelash transmap then on the original head I delete the mesh points for the original eyelashes and usually the upper eyebrows as well

Tguyus from the same link adrianjw gave download the Poser 4 Pro Pack Bug fix for C4D file to fix your transparency problems far more easily. http://www.amazonescity.com/download/free3dformembers/oldplug.html

PaulD20--

Hey thanks for the tip! I downloaded it and will try it out. Hmmm... that means I might have to change all my characters' trans maps back to "un-inverted"... but it would be worth it to avoid those hassles in the future!

TGuyus