Hey guys! I got a pretty deep question for you. 

I have the following programs  Poser 6, Bryce 6 (with DAZ Studio), Cinema 4D with Body Paint (Just bought yesterday... No clue how to use yet!), and 3D Studio Max 6 (with Body Studio for Poser).

What I want to do is make 3D animated movies to post on my website, but Im having trouble figuring out which work-flow I should use. I know to use Poser for the intial character setup/ clothing/ posing and animation. Then I use Bryce for to build the scenes I want to use. I can import the Poser figure directly into Bryce using Daz Studio so thats not a problem. I can use 3DSM for any props or extra items I wanna build. But I`m having problems figuring out when to use Cinema 4D and Body Paint...

I want to create custom paints materials and textures for my characters so that I can use them in animation (I don`t wanna have to paint frame by frame on a 300 frame animation!) So how should I do that to where I can only paint the character once, then not have to worry about losing materials across applications when I import?

For example, If I pose and animate the character in Poser first , then I notice that Body Paint doesnt really seem to have an option for importing animated character files. So that means Id have to create character ans clothes in Poser, export as OBJ, paint in Body Paint, Re-import into Poser and re-rig/ add bones to everything again right? Than after I do that, I can animate the Body Painted character and import the animation into Daz Studio for megring with the animated Bryce Scnene and rendering? Is that how it should work or is there a better/ easier method that you guys use? I notice that when I import my Poser files into Bryce 6 via Daz studio, a lot of times my textures go out the window! So if I use Body Paint before I do the import, will I lose everything I just did?

I hope you guys understand what I`m trying to get at., Basically, I want to use Body paint to add more realistic materials and details to my characters so that I can use them in animated movies and I looking for the easiest, less painful way to do it. (^_~)

Any suggestions? Im only trying to bring these togethe in Bryce 6 because it seems to be the application that is best able to handle direct import and merging between different applications/ file types. Im I going about this the wrong way? Would 3DS nam or Cinema 4D be better for arranging all the scenes, objects, and character files for animation and rendering?

Help Please!

Thanks again for always savin my bacon!

-WF

I've never used body paint, but from what I understand of it, it's a texture painting application, so you would use it to paint a texture on an imported obj, export the texture from body paint as a jpg file and then apply the texture to your figure in Poser or DAZ Studio (Consult the Poser/DS help doco for info on how to apply textures).  At that point you should be able to import it to Bryce without any trouble.  You can paint and apply the texture at any time, before or after you animate the figure.  You can even apply it in Bryce after you've done the import if you want.

Personally, I'd go for Vue rather than Bryce for importing and rendering Poser animations, but Bryce is certainly a lot cheaper so it depends on your budget.

If you have a few dollars to burn and you want to save yourself a heap of time and effort, you might take a look through the marketplace and see if there are any texture sets available that will meet your needs without you having to paint your own textures in body paint.  It sounds like you are just at the beginning of your Poser learning curve, so make sure anything you buy is compatible with the particular figure you want to use it on.

You are certainly taking a project with a huge amount of time, work and knowledge required.  There are a number of good books on animation and production available.  IMHO the first thing is to get a good plot.  The problem then becomes making it into a screenplay.  When that's done you'll probably need to story board the project in rather complete detail. 

C4D is an excellent modeling program to build about any kind of "set" you need.  BodyPaint will allow you to add colors and textures to your sets.  You also use C4D to model characters and animate them.  Or you can import textured poser characters into your scenes using a program like Interposer Pro. 

If your movies are 30 minutes long, at 24 fps your computer(s) would need to render about 43,000 frames.  If the animation was not too complicated and a frame took 15 minutes to render, you'd need about 10,000 + hours of rendering. Or you can build your own render farm or contact a professional render farm and compress time for a fee.

There are both C4D and animation forums here that may be some help.  Good Luck.

Frisketus

You shouldn't need to import animations into Bodypaint. You'll only be creating textures for your figures (or their clothing) and the animation of those textures should happen automatically when you import the textured figure into your animation app and animate it. In other words, if you export a figure from Poser, create an elaborate texture in Bodypaint, then go back into Poser and apply that texture to your original figure it should match up with no problem. No need to re-import and re-rig the object you used to create the texture. But you may need to tweak your textures as you animate, if you find unpleasant things happening such as distortion, stretching, or seams appearing.

The thing to keep in mind is to steer clear of the Poser material room for anything but applying your painted textures. None of the shaders, etc. available in Poser's material room will move easily to other programs.

Basically, to keep things simple - try to stick to dealing with two types of "things": mesh files in OBJ format (Wavefront Oobject) for your models, and textures in a lossless format such as PNG or BMP. These are the "lingua franca" of the 3D world and should let you move easily between different applications. You may want to get an application like UV mapper to help with the workflow, unless Bodypaint already covers all your UV mapping needs.