Hi, all --

So, I'm working on a project that's full of Poser-originated characters, moved to Carrara for assembly and render.  I've got the hang of Transposer and Native import, just fine, and even seem to be getting the hang of Poser. 

My hangup is on rendering out toon images.  The Toon renderer that comes with Carrara is nice enough (good job Eric!), but it's not as detailed as I'd like.  I just bought Toon!Pro from DCG and it looks awesome when I'm building and texturing in Carrara.  However, when I bring a model in from Poser, I can apply the Toon render but not the cel shader to the characters.  (At least not without going back through and redoing EVERY one of about a billion layers in a layer list.

I read the "To make Toon! Pro Cel work with a layers list, create a new master shader and select Toon! Pro for the top most shader. Drag the layers list to the child slot of Toon! Pro Cel, then drag Toon! Pro Cel back to the original shader." on the DCG site, but can not make this work.  I get a message from Carrara that says "You can only drop a projection-mapping shader here."

Will I be able to use the Toon! Pro shader with Poser models, or am I stuck with rebuilding every shader domain when I move the model to Carrara?

Any help will be most appreciated!

 - Dex

Sounds like you need parametric mapping. Look at the trees in Carrara to see how they are setup. I did not know that plugin worked with layers list. Hope it works with domains soon, if it doesn't. Layers list are a mess. The shaders plus helps with notes, but I really don't care for certain aspects of them. Rather have the choice. I don't use it so... Maybe Eric will stop by.

No need to think outside the box....
    Just make it invisible.

Hi.  I'm new so this might not be of any help, but here goes...

What I did when I imported poser people into Carrara, was I selected the toon pro option under render.  There should be a little arrow thing next to where it says photorealistic.  I clicked on that and selected toon pro.  Then I fiddled with the render settings, with full raytrace on, and out comes a toon render.  I don't know if that is the same as cell shaded, but I seem to get a decent render by turning off draw lines and up the pixel depth to 16 where I can.  It seems to convert the poser model textures into  toon textures.

I hope this helps, if not, sorry, I am new.

David

Thanks for the responses.  I've actually figured it out.

David, you're right, just rendering with the Toon!pro on does give a toon-like effect -- mostly the outlines -- but there is also a toon shader function that reduces the shadows on the toon character to much simpler levels.

It's done like this:  Open the shader for the Poser character in the Shader room.  When the shader is open, create a new master shader (using the pull-down menu) and set Toon Pro Cel for the top-most shader.  Then, select the layers list of the shader for the Poser figure.  Copy this.  Paste it into the shader for the new master shader, under the Toon!Pro Cel.  Then, select the top-most shader of the new Master Shader.  Copy it.  Select the Poser Figure's shader and paste the Toon!Pro Cel shader onto the Master Shader.

It sounds complicated, but once you do it once or twice, it makes sense.

 - Dex

This is tricky but it sounds like you've figured it out.

Toon pro can generate some outstanding toon results.

-Kix