How to Export Genesis Carrara walk cycles to Daz studio. May need some beta testers.

mmoirmmoir Posts: 821
edited December 1969 in Carrara Discussion

Hey Guys,

I was wondering if anyone knows if you can export a walk cycle animation created in Carrara and use it in Daz Studio.

The reason i am asking is I am working on a Product that is a bunch of Walk Cycles/Poses created in Carrara for use with Genesis Carrara figures. I just thought if I could export these walk cycles so they can be used in Daz Studio as well as Carrara that would be a good thing. I don't have Animate2 for Daz and I think I need this for this to work , is this correct.
I tried to export the animation with FBX and Daz Collada with no success . If this is possible I would be looking for a couple of people to test out the product before I release it.
Any help with this would be appreciated ,
Thanks,

Comments

  • WendyLuvsCatzWendyLuvsCatz Posts: 37,817
    edited December 1969

    have bought Fenrics BVH exporter? it skips some bones apparently that are different on genesis and only bvh not pz2 but he is working on it.

  • argus1000argus1000 Posts: 701
    edited December 1969

    mmoir said:
    Hey Guys,
    I don't have Animate2 for Daz and I think I need this for this to work , is this correct.
    I tried to export the animation with FBX and Daz Collada with no success .

    Like Wendy said, to export an animation from Carrara to Daz, you need Fenric's BVH exporter:

    http://www.daz3d.com/bvh-pz2-exporter-for-carrara

    but you don't need Animate2, which is an asset if you want to further edit your animation in Daz Studio, but is not required to import it.

  • mmoirmmoir Posts: 821
    edited December 1969

    Hey Wendy,
    I don't quite understand what you are saying. I haven't bought Fenric's BVH exporter yet. Is the BVH the one with the Genesis bones issue that Fenric is working on or is it the pz2. I guess it doesn't matter that much since Daz imports pz2 files...... I could just import the walk cycle via the pz2 file. Please forgive my ignorance regarding Daz Studio and Poser if what I am saying is totally wrong.

    have bought Fenrics BVH exporter? it skips some bones apparently that are different on genesis and only bvh not pz2 but he is working on it.
  • mmoirmmoir Posts: 821
    edited February 2014

    Hey argus,
    Thanks for the response, and I will look into Fenric's plugin . Do you think Daz studio users would be interested in a Genesis walk cycle , just trying to see if it is worth my effort to export them out of Carrara .
    Mike


    argus1000 said:
    mmoir said:
    Hey Guys,
    I don't have Animate2 for Daz and I think I need this for this to work , is this correct.
    I tried to export the animation with FBX and Daz Collada with no success .

    Like Wendy said, to export an animation from Carrara to Daz, you need Fenric's BVH exporter:

    http://www.daz3d.com/bvh-pz2-exporter-for-carrara

    but you don't need Animate2, which is an asset if you want to further edit your animation in Daz Studio, but is not required to import it.

    Post edited by mmoir on
  • WendyLuvsCatzWendyLuvsCatz Posts: 37,817
    edited February 2014

    it will not save from genesis as a pz2
    only a bvh
    get an error
    http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/34940/

    Post edited by WendyLuvsCatz on
  • mmoirmmoir Posts: 821
    edited December 1969

    Thanks for the link it looks informative .

  • argus1000argus1000 Posts: 701
    edited February 2014

    mmoir said:
    Hey argus,
    Thanks for the response, and I will look into Fenric's plugin . Do you think Daz studio users would be interested in a Genesis walk cycle , just trying to see if it is worth my effort to export them out of Carrara .
    Mike

    Unless there is a very specific use, I doubt it. Both Poser and iClone have walk designers (I vastly prefer iClone's called "motion puppet"), and you can get from them your own customized walk cycles. You can export them as BVH to Daz Studio.

    walk.jpg
    545 x 492 - 55K
    Post edited by argus1000 on
  • mmoirmmoir Posts: 821
    edited December 1969

    Hey Guys ,
    I did get Fenric's BVH exporter and I have a couple of questions.

    After importing the file on to the Genesis figure in Daz studio there are 2 issues that I see.

    1. There is no forward translation of the figure in Daz Studio. In carrara the figure walks forward but in Daz it is walking in place. I have "Translation" checked in the export dialogue box.

    2. The head or neck is bobbing around in Daz studio where in Carrara the head is steady.

    Do you guys know if these issued can be fixed ? What am I doing wrong?

    Thanks
    Mike

  • DartanbeckDartanbeck Posts: 21,224
    edited December 1969

    Exporting Genesis animations is new territory to me. Fenric mentioned that he was going to be working on 'fixing' the pz2 export for Genesis, so I was waiting on that - as I love how it works. So I'm wondering if your issues are due to the issues between the exporter and Genesis?
    It may also depend upon what you're using to push the figure forward. This is normally handled by the hip if you want it to translate.

    As for your other quest, I disagree with Argus. While there are walk cyclers out there, I think that people are interested in this stuff. I love collection walk cycles from SKAmotion, and GoFigure - and others, and then tweak them for my character's needs. I would love to grab iClone for this, but the price tag is a bit out of my reach atm. So with what I've been able to get my figures to do without, in the meantime, is making it become less and less a priority to consider.

    So, personally, I'm glad that you're doing this, and, Yes, I think that DS users as well as Carrara/DS users will be glad that they could go both ways.

  • DartanbeckDartanbeck Posts: 21,224
    edited December 1969

    Ah yes... I remember now - what I was planning to try towards this endeavor, in the meantime.
    I recall that, when I would import an M4 or V4 aniBlock onto Genesis, I could get results that I could then change to work.
    I also recall that aniMate2 has features that allow us to tweak certain joints and save anew.

    So for Genesis, I was going to use M4 or V4 in Carrara to create my animation, prehaps even try to apply the inverse to the corrections that I made to Genesis to get M4 or V4 aniBlocks to work - mainly the feet - and then use Fenric's amazing plugin to export the animation to PZ2.
    Then I was going to load the PZ2 onto Genesis in DAZ Studio (I have purchased aniMate 2 long ago) and use aniMate 2 to correct the joints in DS and save as a aniBlock. One could also try doing the same to the PZ2 on Genesis in Poser, if one had the latest that works with DSON, which I do not have.

  • FenricFenric Posts: 351
    edited December 1969

    BVH doesn't have the top-level "Body" group - it starts with the skeleton root (generally the hip)

    For Poser, I added the top-level group to the hip movement. That doesn't work with Genesis, and makes it not move at all. There are some other problems due to my code assuming that I can use the FigureActor features, which aren't there for Genesis, so it needs some fixing.

    I'm not done yet, sorry.

  • mmoirmmoir Posts: 821
    edited December 1969

    Hey Dartanbeck,

    I use the hip to move the figure forward but by the way Fenric responded it is part of the plugin's code which is causing the issue. So I will have to wait until it is fixed to add the BVH clips. I do think having the BVH files included is a good thing and if it was easily added I would have, maybe next time.

    Exporting Genesis animations is new territory to me. Fenric mentioned that he was going to be working on 'fixing' the pz2 export for Genesis, so I was waiting on that - as I love how it works. So I'm wondering if your issues are due to the issues between the exporter and Genesis?
    It may also depend upon what you're using to push the figure forward. This is normally handled by the hip if you want it to translate.

    As for your other quest, I disagree with Argus. While there are walk cyclers out there, I think that people are interested in this stuff. I love collection walk cycles from SKAmotion, and GoFigure - and others, and then tweak them for my character's needs. I would love to grab iClone for this, but the price tag is a bit out of my reach atm. So with what I've been able to get my figures to do without, in the meantime, is making it become less and less a priority to consider.

    So, personally, I'm glad that you're doing this, and, Yes, I think that DS users as well as Carrara/DS users will be glad that they could go both ways.

  • mmoirmmoir Posts: 821
    edited December 1969

    Fenric,
    That is okay, I just thought I would ask these questions in case I was doing something wrong. Do you have an idea roughly of when a fix could be out? No rush as I will release this as it is...
    Keep up the good work on these Carrara plugins.
    Mike

    Fenric said:
    BVH doesn't have the top-level "Body" group - it starts with the skeleton root (generally the hip)

    For Poser, I added the top-level group to the hip movement. That doesn't work with Genesis, and makes it not move at all. There are some other problems due to my code assuming that I can use the FigureActor features, which aren't there for Genesis, so it needs some fixing.

    I'm not done yet, sorry.

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