question about formats to save to from cararra

Ok, I totally reworked a car prop, which started with crappy tex's/shaders and I reworked it to have really nice shaders and such. Problem is, I am currently saving it as a carrarra file and not anything else, which takes up a lot of space. So here is my question

If an object has moveable parts (Such as wheels, doors, windows, whatnot) will all that carry over if you save it to .obj format, or will it 'freeze' into whatever position you save it as? If it does freeze, what format would you reccomend saving as to maintain the moving parts?

(Note to Fretslayer, this is not the prop I asked you about earlier lol, this is a different one )

It occured to me I could test this myself (Duh lol) and I did. Saving as an obj file removes all moving parts and makes one solid object. However, I figured out how to save it as I needed it, and all is well

[gmd3d]

We are here to help

ha ha

The OJB conversion turning the car into one solid object or leaving it with multiple parts depends on how you export the object. It can be done either way.

If you still need help, give me a shout and I'll walk you through it.
Because you know... I'm totally not helpful. Not at all. LOL!!!!

Hey guys

Other than Poser crashing when I tried to make a flyaround movie of the car prop (Grrrrrr) it's working awesome. As for being able to save it as an obj and keep the moving parts, hey, I'm all ears

What I did was go to Poser, and re-tex the thing, then export as a new figure. Worked, but it's wierd. Poser renders the car better than Carrarra, which is the first time I have seen Poser render anything better than Cararra. But yeah, if I could figure a way to keep my 'original' save file of the altered car, that would be awesome. Carrara is easier for me to do better texturing in anyways

[gmd3d]

Fretslayer please step forward !! this is your area ..

I'm on it.
I just have to wait for a render to finish before I do a tut on exporting the OBJ with it's parts intact and not as one solid object. It's simple really - It's (if I remember correctly) just a matter of making sure there is a check in the correct box.

Are you asking how to export via Carrara or Poser?
I need to know which app I'm supposed to me kicking in the shins

I need to know how to export from Cararra please

Ok, I just need a spot more time and I'll have some screen shots for ya.

Ok, friends here are a couple of screen shots.
Image 1 is how I did the export and Image 2 is the import.

The most important thing is the IMPORT settings.
If you are importing an object that doesn't require morph targets then you'll want to use these settings.

Since we're going to crawl before we sprint, this is your best approach.

Make sure you have the following set like the image:
(During EXPORT, take notice of how everything is highlighted in the 'instance' window)

*during IMPORT*
'Create Carrara Object As' - Vertex Primitives: Create a Polymesh per Material

'Grouping' - Create One Object Per Group

If you use these settings I expect that they'll work for you.
If you run into a wall and it does't work let me know and I'll come up with a workaround.

Heyas. Fretslayer, tried your tutorial, and it's good news/bad news.

Good news is, everything esported separately so it could still move and whatnot, plus when I resized the car, it stayed in scale instead of warping. So giant leap forward

Bad news is, all the pivot points were lost, so when I try to open a door, the door spins like a top instead of opening


Also, wierd wierd thing. Power renders this car better than carrarra. First time I have ever seen Poser render anything better than Carrarra.

Good news bad news.
Good news I can tell you how to fix the pivot points.
Bad news is I'm not gonna.

-LOL!

Ok- really though. LOL - It's this simple.
ready?
When you want to move a pivot point, just hit the CapsLock key and then when you grab the arrow thingy, it won't move the mesh but it will move the pivot point. Once you have it where you want it, hit the CapsLock again and ta-da.

Now once you master that my young padawan, I will tell you how to do the movement constraints so that they door opens in only one direction and only X* like a real door would.

So, line up all of the pivot points and then let me know when you're done. I have my IM'r open so you can contact me there. But... I'm currently AFK entertaining some good people (and some rotten bastards too!) but I'll check in throughout the evening. :thumbup:

On a side note - would anybody want me to take some screen shots of the process we're talking about and make a tutorial? If there is a need or want for it then I'll throw in the effort, otherwise...eh, why bother? LOL!

As for the poser render thing - there are a lot of factors such as lighting, resolution, and 'stuff' that you have to keep in mind as to the difference in quality when it comes to rendering in engine A or engine B. I happen to think that the render engine 3DLight (I think it's called) that ships with D|S does nicer images than Carrara does at times. Oh and camera settings are a big, big deal too. You might want to have a look at them and compare the settings from Poser to Carrara and see if you can find anything there that might improve the render.

After talking with Fretslayer in IM last night for a while, problem is fixed As usual, I blame him for the fact I now have an idea what I'm supposed to be doing, and it's all his fault.

Yah, That guy is a real jerk!

At least that what I read over at the Daz forums!:laugh: