Hi.  I have finally decided to try creating some poser content.  I am talking figure files for new clothing, not just new textures.  I have a couple of questions that I hope someone can answer.

1  Will it be possible to use Carrara to create the models for poser?

2.  If so, what do I need to export them as?

3.  Are there any tutorials on this subject?

When answering, please keep in mind that I need to work with software I currently have, and I don't have the budget to go buy add ons or new modeling software. 

Any help appreciated.  Thanks

Sparrownightmare

1. Yes
2. Export as .obj
3. Loads of tutorials are on the net - but there is a lot involved besides just modeling the object. The book Practical Poser 7 is a good read, otherwise you'll have to search for tutorials on each step of the process.

Ok... I prefer Hexagon to model first...
So I decided the same thing and some very good resources:

1 - PhillC tutorial, he use 3DS for the tutorial or something like that, but it covers very well all process, from modeling, grouping and exporting to Poser, including basic riging it. Very simple but very helpfull... and isnt free.

http://istore.mikrotec.com/philc/index1.html?page=catalog&category=a&vid=668437709&pid=842974680&oldvid=2143420604

2 - I use another tool that you can buy here at Renderosity (just 10 bucks): Quickconform from MarkDC that will help a lot to transfer boes from the original figure to your cloth:

http://www.renderosity.com/mod/bcs/index.php?ViewProduct=56097&

This will help a lot and are not so expensive anyway. After that there are a lot of free tutorials here that can help you after you are knowing the basics about creating and converting to Poser.

PS. if you do a good job you can selll very well here too!

Thanks GK.  I can't sell anything other than the three items I have online here now unfortunately but I will look into those tools since I have a small amount from a few sales built up in my account here.  Maybe they will remove those file restricions so I can send up some of my other models.  If not, I will probably have to og to 3Dcommune or maybe TurboSquid.

Been making Poser content in Carrara for years.  My other tools are Poser (to tweak the rigging and textures), an old version of PhotoShop, the free UV Mapper (because Carrara's UV tool is not efficient for some tasks), and a text editor...the latter used way too often, doing things like deleting extra groups and assigning correct material groups on .obj files, rebuilding the files paths that Poser truncates when saving, removing extra channels and textures, and so forth.

One of the things I really like about Carrara is that it is sometimes possible to begin a clothing model as a simple vertex shape, UV map it nicely while there are not too many vertices to have to pull around by hand, and then apply subdivision and edge tools to build up detail.  It's like a hyper version of Box Modeling.  Plus, of course, when you've only got a primitive cylinder it is easy to rough in the fit of a dress or a shoe.  And as you tesselate, you do finer and finer adjustments to the shape and flow.

The way I've been doing this of late is to bring in a Poser figure, then start a seperate vertex (or spline) model.  In the model room, I open up the preview window as big as it will get (I can make it about a third of the screen width if I work at it).  Then adjust the model in the main window, while viewing the fit to the Poser figure in the preview window.  Actually works better than you'd think.

Another trick I've been liking is to create certain shapes as "raw cloth," export them to Poser, do a fabric run to drape them there, then bring that mesh back into Carrara to clean it up and integrate it and, again, add details.

There are a few pecadillos Carrara will throw at you during these processes.  I have hopes, now that the bug reporting system is in motion again, that some of the more outstanding ones will be cleaned up by the next whole-number version.  Be warned, for instance, that editing a UV map can lead to an application crash, that deletions on a vertex object will remove vertex groups (like Poser body parts), and that triangulate n-gon and a few other modeling room commands revert the UV map as well as deleting vertex groups.

That said. 6.2.1 is running smoothly enough that I am finally back to modeling properly with it.

Looks like you gave me a reason to finally get around to learning how to use the vertex from better.  Usually i just make items with splines and then convert them to the vertex modeler if I have to do any weird things to them. :)  I also have no idea how to do rigging for poser.  This is my first attempt so please forgive any idiotic questions I may ask. :)

Spline does some things nicely.  One of the things I like is that the shapes it creates are inherently mapped (usually decently, too).  You can often export a spline object directly to Poser (just export from Carrara in .obj format).  Given that you can also do groupings and material zones in UV Mapper or in Poser, there is no real need to go into the Vertex Room.

No need but two.  For one, sometimes the spline models are a little messy.  They might have breaks or kinks in them.  I find it easier to clean that up in the Vertex Modeler.  Plus sometimes a model will be more complex, or there are things you just can't do in the Spline Modeler.  It's also easier to assign groups for body parts and materials zones in the VM.  But, really, the main reason I open everything there is for comfort.

By the by, there are ways to deal with the scale issues between Carrara and Poser.  I don't usually bother, myself.  I model at a comfortable scale.  I export.  I go into Poser, load up a zeroed figure, import and drag and re-scale my new mesh to make sure it fits correctly.  Then I export that from Poser, labeling the file "_fit" or "_posed" so I remember.  Then when comes time to rig, I import THAT file instead of the original one.

If you look at some of my renders, you will see that I have gotten very good with the spline modeler.  I just find it easier to think of skeletons which are easily modified than using the vertex tools which tend to confuse me. :)  I always divide complex items into comfortable to use groups based on what I feel the natural geometries would be.  If you look at my entry for the Halloween contest here, you will see what I mean.  That entire image is modeled with the spline modeler and is over 2000 parts.  Except for the poser figures that is.

I figure that one of the easiest ways to do a clothing item for poser would be to use a poser base figure for a modeling dummy and design the item to fit it perfectly.  Then do whatever other processes you need to do to complete it.

Definitely for the latter.  Actually, a long time ago I zeroed a few common figures and exported just the parts (like a torso, or a foot) I meant to model around.  Makes the Carrara workspace less cluttered.

Organic models -- which include clothing -- have a certain need for contiguous meshes (and preferably a good mesh flow as well).  That's why I use the vertex modeler so much; to get control of the mesh down at the vertex level.  That said, I'm more and more automating more of the process, to where I'm spending as little time as possible tweaking individual vertices.