Carrara Hair

Is it possible to export Hair from Carrara into 'obj' or 'fbx' format?

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  • 3DAGE3DAGE Posts: 3,311

    Carrara hair is a "rendering effect" based on dynamic strands,. which are based on dynamic guide hairs , 

    as there's no real mesh geometry,. it's not something which would normally be exportable,.....however,.

    Converting the hair information to a mesh ,. is possible,. but it would be a Static,. high poly mesh,. not dynamic, not simulated. which kind of defeats the purpose.

    I suppose it would be possible to export a sequence of obj's,. but huge and unworkable.

    Hope it helps :)

     

  • PhilWPhilW Posts: 5,139

    Philemo's program which bridges between Carrara and VWD (available on another site) also includes a bonus which converts Carrara hair into an OBJ, with a couple of selectable settings (at least I think that is where it came from). I used it to produce this version of my Paige Hair product, which was converted into an OBJ, loaded into DS, textured and rendered there. I think he said that it was a beta version but you can clearly get workable results from it.

  • WendyLuvsCatzWendyLuvsCatz Posts: 37,712

    well thats news to me

    not looked

  • PhilWPhilW Posts: 5,139

    Menu - Edit/Philemo (it's at the bottom of my edit menu list)

  • Samuel S.Samuel S. Posts: 308
    PhilW said:

    Philemo's program which bridges between Carrara and VWD (available on another site) also includes a bonus which converts Carrara hair into an OBJ, with a couple of selectable settings (at least I think that is where it came from). I used it to produce this version of my Paige Hair product, which was converted into an OBJ, loaded into DS, textured and rendered there. I think he said that it was a beta version but you can clearly get workable results from it.

    Awesome and Much Thanks.

  • HeadwaxHeadwax Posts: 9,921
    PhilW said:

    Menu - Edit/Philemo (it's at the bottom of my edit menu list)

    thanks PhilW

     

  • Samuel S.Samuel S. Posts: 308

    I also noticed that Digital Carvers Guild's Anything Grows  plugin can also create hair; and modified or deformed object with hair/fur then can be converted into Vertex Model. 

  • Samuel S.Samuel S. Posts: 308
    3DAGE said:

    Carrara hair is a "rendering effect" based on dynamic strands,. which are based on dynamic guide hairs , 

    as there's no real mesh geometry,. it's not something which would normally be exportable,.....however,.

    Converting the hair information to a mesh ,. is possible,. but it would be a Static,. high poly mesh,. not dynamic, not simulated. which kind of defeats the purpose.

    I suppose it would be possible to export a sequence of obj's,. but huge and unworkable.

    Hope it helps :)

     

    Thanks, I noticed same thing with some other expensive 3D packages too. I will try Phil's suggestion as well.

  • Samuel S.Samuel S. Posts: 308
    PhilW said:

    Menu - Edit/Philemo (it's at the bottom of my edit menu list)

    Do I need to have VWD software to use Philemo's plugin for exporting hair as obj?

  • Philemo_CarraraPhilemo_Carrara Posts: 1,175
    I Samuel said:
    PhilW said:

    Menu - Edit/Philemo (it's at the bottom of my edit menu list)

    Do I need to have VWD software to use Philemo's plugin for exporting hair as obj?

    No, you don't have to, but you're missing something :-)

    Mind you, it was just a bonus. No sure it's up to commercial quality.

  • Philemo_CarraraPhilemo_Carrara Posts: 1,175

    Don't buy the bridge just for that bonus if you can wait a fortnight.

    I'll move the code to the CTS project.

  • SileneUKSileneUK Posts: 1,969

    Wow... that could be useful. I am trying to find the direct link... in the CTS project. Can you PM it to me?  I have the Planar thingy already and love it! yes Silene

  • WendyLuvsCatzWendyLuvsCatz Posts: 37,712

    thank you Philemo heart

    (now goes to try it out) 

  • 3DAGE3DAGE Posts: 3,311

    Thanks, I noticed same thing with some other expensive 3D packages too

    Hair systems all use a similar method of generating hairs (at render time), and simulating hair dynamics during animations,. based on a few dynamic guides,. rather than thousands of individual strands.

    it makes a lot of sense.

    Note:  both of these "features" are lost completely by converting to a static mesh object,. ....which defeats the purpose of using dynamic hair (IMO)

    while it is possible to convert dynamic hair to a static mesh,. there are obvious disadvantages.

    It's worth noting that VWD does Cloth and Hair.

    it can take a static clothing figure,. or a static Hair figure,. and add dynamics to those.

    so,. You could make a conforming Hair "model" dynamic,. which doesn't require conversion to a strand based poly model with millions of polys.

    that would also seem to be more workable in scenes with anything more than a single figure

    Hope it helps :)

  • Philemo_CarraraPhilemo_Carrara Posts: 1,175
    SileneUK said:

    Wow... that could be useful. I am trying to find the direct link... in the CTS project. Can you PM it to me?  I have the Planar thingy already and love it! yes Silene

    Not yet there, in a fortnight at the soonest.

     

  • PhilWPhilW Posts: 5,139

    Just a few notes on this plugin - I seem to have started something here!

    - It works from the number of hairs currently displayed, so you want this to be a relatively low percentage (I've been using 2-3% displayed on some recent conversions);

    - It produces flat strips of polygons for which you can define the width, one strip for each displayed hair - so by mapping the strips with multiple hair strands, you can get back to the original density of the hair, without needing the huge amount of polys that you would need to model each individual strand;

    - It generally seems to work well, but I have had the odd occasion that the model seems to miss parts of the original hair. Also it appears that you can only run it once - if you try again, it produces an empty model, so you need to close the scene and re-open in order to produce multiple models;

    - Starting with the same hair model, you can do things such as cut the hair, lengthen it, brush it, etc. and the model that is produced from the modified hair can be used as a morph target for the original hair - this is potentially really useful as you can produce a range of style and movement morphs for a given hair model.

    A huge Thank You to Philemo for this addition - it is really useful to have and I can't thank you enough!

  • WendyLuvsCatzWendyLuvsCatz Posts: 37,712

    yes been playing with it, is truely awesome and vertically UV mapped which is always good for hair props

    interesting about the morph target info Phil, thats something Poser convered hair amd LAMH hairmesh cannot do though Zbrush hairs can.

  • 3DAGE3DAGE Posts: 3,311

    Thanks for the explanation Phil :)

    looks like i should explore this,. as it sounds more usefull than i originally thought,. .. fibermesh type hair

  • PhilWPhilW Posts: 5,139

    Screenshot of the type of mesh produced. By adjusting the number and width of the strips, you can get a mesh that will meet your needs. Each strip has the usual vertical UV mapping so it is pretty standard to texture it.

    Screenshot 2017-07-06 15.04.34.png
    1920 x 1080 - 461K
  • WendyLuvsCatzWendyLuvsCatz Posts: 37,712

    My first go in DAZ studio rendered with iray

    Carrara hair.jpg
    1920 x 1080 - 647K
  • Philemo_CarraraPhilemo_Carrara Posts: 1,175
    th3Digit said:

    My first go in DAZ studio rendered with iray

    Wendy,

    I'm always amazed how fast you go from idea to render

  • Philemo_CarraraPhilemo_Carrara Posts: 1,175
    PhilW said:

    Just a few notes on this plugin - I seem to have started something here!

    - It works from the number of hairs currently displayed, so you want this to be a relatively low percentage (I've been using 2-3% displayed on some recent conversions);

    - It produces flat strips of polygons for which you can define the width, one strip for each displayed hair - so by mapping the strips with multiple hair strands, you can get back to the original density of the hair, without needing the huge amount of polys that you would need to model each individual strand;

    - It generally seems to work well, but I have had the odd occasion that the model seems to miss parts of the original hair. Also it appears that you can only run it once - if you try again, it produces an empty model, so you need to close the scene and re-open in order to produce multiple models;

    - Starting with the same hair model, you can do things such as cut the hair, lengthen it, brush it, etc. and the model that is produced from the modified hair can be used as a morph target for the original hair - this is potentially really useful as you can produce a range of style and movement morphs for a given hair model.

    A huge Thank You to Philemo for this addition - it is really useful to have and I can't thank you enough!

    Phil,

    Thank you for noting that it can produce morphs. I didn't think about it, but it's true it opens new perspectives.

    I programmed that plugin because I wanted to animate hair in VWD (that's why it was set as a bonus for the bridge).

    But, if you can create morphs, one may actually use it to produce conformable hair, which add new content creator capabilities to Carrara.

    I'll have a look at the issues you're stating. I think the fact it can run only one is just because the original hai is hidden and thus has no renderable hair to work with. If you rename the previously generated hair and unhide the dynamic hair, it should work.

  • PhilWPhilW Posts: 5,139

    I'm just glad to have somehting that we can work with, and the issues are minor inconveniences rather than big problems - so only look into them if you really want to - it is a useful and valuable tool as it is!

  • WendyLuvsCatzWendyLuvsCatz Posts: 37,712

    Phil is  now furiously making DAZ studio versions of his hair yes

  • WendyLuvsCatzWendyLuvsCatz Posts: 37,712

    the ponytail that comes with the Carrara content in DAZ studio

    I made it 0.02 thick as wanted induvidual strands

    Carrara hair.jpg
    1920 x 1080 - 669K
  • Philemo_CarraraPhilemo_Carrara Posts: 1,175
    th3Digit said:

    the ponytail that comes with the Carrara content in DAZ studio

    I made it 0.02 thick as wanted induvidual strands

    Very nice Wendy. It would be almost perfect if the shader had an alpha map ending the strand in individual hair. There should be something like 5 individual hair in a 0.02 inches strand

     

  • SileneUKSileneUK Posts: 1,969

    Darn... will try to be patient till I can have it!  This would be great for doing my clothing so it can be permanently furred! heart Silene

  • PhilWPhilW Posts: 5,139
    th3Digit said:

    Phil is  now furiously making DAZ studio versions of his hair yes

    I wouldn't say furiously...

  • StezzaStezza Posts: 7,757

    in between overs whilst watching Root bat I bet wink

     

    2 weeks .... mmmm.. I can live with that yes

  • StezzaStezza Posts: 7,757
    SileneUK said:

    Darn... will try to be patient till I can have it!  This would be great for doing my clothing so it can be permanently furred! heart Silene

    was thinking same... but for my wombat smiley

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