Digital Art Zone

I am trying to figure out the best process to export a model i made in CPro 8.1
I want to export it to .obj and have all the textures preserved, so i can import it into MAX or other program that reads .obj files.

questions:

1) should i have the actual .car file with the ‘all internal’ or ‘all external’ option,  or does it not matter?

2) I am only using texture maps and bump maps, no procedural shaders at the moment, but if i did, how is the best way to get both texture maps and procedural exported?

3) I purchased the BAKER plugin, what is the best way to tie that into this work flow,  or not necessary?

4) what exactly is that .mtl file do, is it just a pointer to texture files?

basically if anyone has a working process where i can build my model with both texture maps and procedurals,
export it to an obj, and export all the textures to maps, so it can easily be packaged up and opened in another app, is what i am looking for.

thanks -

I am a bit rusty on Carrara

1: Car file and OBj have no connection with each other in this regard

2: I am fiarly sure you have a function on export to turn procedural shaders in to texture maps, plus you can set the size and format of converted maps

3: If the Baker is what I think it is then no this is not needed unless you intend to bake lighting, shadows and highlights in to the texture as in Baking the effects on.

$: MTL that is a good question one I do not know the answer too. Here is what Wiki says about MTL files http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wavefront_.obj_file about midway down the page

Why all this hassle? You said you only use maps, so you already have all the image files you need. There’s no need to piss about with trying to get them exported again from Carrara.

Collect them together in a folder, take your .obj and re-apply the maps in Max.

HI All

I agree 1000% with Ascania. and I’d also add, ..If this is a model you’ve bought, then you may already have the OBJ model   (eg: V4 / M4)


(1) the save options (internal, external, local,) are only important to saving the carrara scene
If you’re just exporting a model,. ...open the scene, select the item / ‘s, and export as ... OBJ.

Internal : Saves all models textures and settings internally in the file (BIG files)
Locally : Saves a list of all the file / folder locations of all the scene assets used, ..only models made in carrara are saved in the scene file.
Externally saves a copy of al the scene assets a folder.

(4.)  The MTL file is a list of materials or., (shading domains and their related texture maps)

for OBJ models , it’s best to have the Model, (obj) and material list (MTL) an the texture maps,.. in the same folder,

In Max you can load the Model,... (which will have all the shading domains) and apply the textures manually (from wherever you have them on your system) and save the textured model as a max scene,. you can then import or X-ref that into any other scene.

how is the best way to get both texture maps and procedural exported?

There’s an option in carrara (OBJ export options panel) to convert those to texture maps , (this will still export any texture maps used in the model.
so, you get the original texture maps, and any procedurals shaders are also converted and saved as texture maps.

Using Baker,. you can export complex texture maps as a single image, and convert procedurals to textures, but you can also export Bump and Normal maps.

Exporting as OBJ to any other program,..should be a straight forward select and export,..

Importing as OBJ into any program requires some thought by the user, since OBJ is only a model format, it doesn’t tell the importing program where to find all the textures (other than the MTL list) so, depending on the importing program, and where you have the texture maps, you’ll need to locate and load them manually,.. once that’s done,.. you can save that, with all the shaders.

Hope it helps

3DAGE - 03 October 2012 07:56 AM

Importing as OBJ into any program requires some thought by the user, since OBJ is only a model format, it doesn’t tell the importing program where to find all the textures (other than the MTL list) so, depending on the importing program, and where you have the texture maps, you’ll need to locate and load them manually,.. once that’s done,.. you can save that, with all the shaders.

Hope it helps

Although, if you have the obj, mtl and all the maps in the SAME folder, most modelers will find them and apply them.  Most programs don’t write the mtl file with path data, so it’s assumed to be ‘local’ to the materials (maps) it’s written for.

Just export the object as an obj file.  The mtl file is the data for the textures (path to where they’re located).

As far as BAKER goes. The skies the limit.  I’ve used an assortment of procedural shaders then used Anything Goos, you can use Anything Grooves as well. Finally, I used Baker.  The only issues I’ve run across were base on my errors for unfolding the UV map.  Specifically, distortions I didn’t bother fixing.