Loading FBX Hair in Cinema 4D

samlavi

Hi Guys,

When trying to imoprt any Daz Exported FBX containing an hair object to C4D (any hair, for any character) it freezes while loading in C4D.

When importing the same character without hair it goes fine. Tried it with several characters and it's always the same.

I'm using the latest version of both Daz and C4D and can't seem to solve this problem.

The same happens when trying to import the character using the C4D bridge.

If I export it as an OBJ, the hair imports fine, but I need the FBX animation.

I know the problem is probably on the C4D side (might be the high polygon number with hair object) but I still need to solve it somehow. Any Ideas? Thanks!

Richard Haseltine

What sort of hair is it - dForce, strand-based, plain modelled?

Gordig

Have you played around with C4D's native hair tools? With how powerful they are, it seems a little wasteful to spend too much time worrying about importing Daz hair.

prozeidon

When exporting FBX from DAZ, use Output Options: "FBX 2012 - Binary".
It should handle the export part but it is not certain that it exports the animation itself very well.
To export animation I use "Alembic Exporter for DAZ Studio" and export as ABC.

samlavi

The problem happens with both strand and dForce hair objects.

I tried the FBX 2012 - Binary (and almost all the other output options) and problem persists.

The export part always goes great, the problem starts when trying to import the file to C4D, which then freezes.

I think it's just the high poly count. Is there any way to make the file smaller before exporting?

I tried Alembic too, is there an easy way to relink the textures once in C4D?

Thank you all!

prozeidon

I do not know if it can solve the problem but this might worth a try:
https://www.daz3d.com/decimator-for-daz-studio
But I really don't know.

Yes there is an easy way to relink the textures once in C4D. I made this tutorial to another thread:

pixel8tryx

samlavi said:

The problem happens with both strand and dForce hair objects.

I tried the FBX 2012 - Binary (and almost all the other output options) and problem persists.

The export part always goes great, the problem starts when trying to import the file to C4D, which then freezes.

I think it's just the high poly count. Is there any way to make the file smaller before exporting?

I tried Alembic too, is there an easy way to relink the textures once in C4D?

Thank you all!

In my experience C4D simply does not like some DAZ hair exported via FBX.  It is not purely a poly count issue as I can import huge OBJ exports with 4 - 5 different hair setups totalling several million polys.  Sometimes FBX + hair just hangs.  I've tried to export just the figure and the hair, and it still hangs.  Though I can delete the hair and add 10 different complete outfits and any other props I might want, creating a huge file, yet this imports within a reasonable time.  Sometimes, if I have the time and can let it run, I come back several hours later to find that it imported ok.  However, some hair does import via FBX just fine.  It'll always be a slow import, so don't expect it to happen in 30 seconds.  

If I really need a troublesome hair piece, I export it via OBJ and then just parent it to the head of a model I hair-lessly FBX exported.   It'll at least follow movement and rotation which is all I really need anyway.  I didn't discover the ability to export high rez meshes via OBJ until rather recently so I'm in my big OBJ phase right now...LOL.  It's sad that we can't get those meshes with bones, even with limitiations.  The FBX bones are sometimes screwed up anyway and rarely work exactly like they do in DAZ, but I more comfortable working in C4D, where I render, and also don't want to have to import all my props into DAZ.  So I'm forever caught in the middle.

I wish I had a good tip for the @#$% textures.  I tried somebody's Alembic plugin and it didn't work for me.  At least I know now NOT to have the export collect textures into a folder.  This wastes disk space as you duplicate your textures AND, worse, you have no idea from whence they came.  It's a pain, but I just copy the path from the diffuse texture and then see if the thing has any "goodies" (bump, normal, refl maps) available and then load them by hand.  What peeves me is that every once in a while I'll get some thing... sometimes a prop... that has a bump or even normal map loaded, sometimes a reflection map and settings!  So I know it's possible.  I just do not know why it rarely happens on anything else!  

BTW I'm not yet using the C4D Bridge.  I tried it once and killed it after 20 minutes watching it export every single expression for every character and who knows what else.  I guess I'm too much of a digital pack-rat and have too bloated a DAZ runtime.  I always promise to take a day and go through at least all my people and decide which ones I really need and de-install the rest... but never get around to it.