Hi all,

I ran into some problems with some of the newer Carrara features, and I kind of hit the wall trying to solve them. There are many experienced Carrara artists here, so I hope that you could offer me some helpful hints.

Topic 1: Plant Editor: In C8 we have an ability to add multiple leaf meshes -- great addition. And It can work wonders too,  but: I have a "leaf" mesh which has 2 shading domains: the "stem" and the "leaf" itself. I use different shaders or I use Parametric Mapping to combine my 2 shaders into one, I save my leaf, I add it to my plant. But once I add it to my plant, the new leaf shading domain is added as a shading domain of the plant, and any shading domains of the leaf itself are completely disregarded.

Questions:

--Is there a way to have the leaf shading domains respected?

--If not, what are my alternatives?

 

Topic 2: UV Mapping: Again, I have a mesh with multiple shading domains. The mesh is already UV mapped so that the whole mesh fits on a single map. I did not UV Map it initially, but I need to change the mapping. In the UV editor all of my shading domains are shown all the time. And if parts of the mesh are connects (as per old  UV map) and I try to move wheere they are on the UV map, the connection gets dragged along. Even when I add seams or separate the parts I try to move into a new shading domain.

Questions:

--Is there a way to work on a single shading domain at a time? (For example, unfold it to a different model than the other shading domains?)

--What can I do to separate a portion of the map and move it away from the other verices on the map without dragging the connection? (preferably without breaking the mesh itself)

 

I hope I am explaining it all clearly enough. If not, I'd be happy to clarify.

Thank you all in advance.