3drendero said:

Lordghoul said:

I was encouraged to see the development of the luxuscore plugin for Carrara and I hope that it is successful when it comes out. I have to say though that I have not had much success getting it to use my video card and so I haven't spent much time understanding the shaders for luxrender.

So who is with me to start my quixotic journey of asking DAZ to include Iray in Carrara?

I have been beta testing LuxusCore hard for the last couple of days, trying to find the problem with the NVIDIA cards.
Will be reporting more details to SphericLabs and to the LuxCore team, since the NVIDIA drivers have more problems than the AMD drivers that are fast and stable. Right now LuxusCore is failing on many nvidia cards.

As mentioned by others, the cryptic answer by DAZ is that IRAY for Carrara is not coming soon.
Also checking NVIDIA site, shows that other commercial IRAY renderers are about 500$ for Maya, C4D, Sketchup...

Thanks 3drendero for the encouraging news!
Here's my dilemma in a nutshell:

1.I Know and love Carrara. The native render can be very good once you understand how to fake reality. However, because it is CPU based it is still relatively slow. I have 16Gb RAM and a marginal quality 1280x720 render is roughly 30 min. I do comics so I need something between single still and animation quality/render times.

2.Luxcore does not (currently) take advantage of my GPU so no luck there. I converted the scene above to luxuscore lights and textures but after an hour a half of CPU rendering, still grainy.

3.Octane is pricey for a hobbyist. I tried the demo for Carrara but it kept crashing, so I gave up.

4.Blender/Cycles does use the Nvidia card but requires scenes to be exported from Carrara, imported to Blender, materials converted... sheesh. I guess I'm lazy.

5. DAZ 4.8 Iray finally renders how I would have imagined but that means I need to learn Studio and give up all of Carrara's other strengths.

I guess I should have bought an AMD card!

Lordghoul said:

I was encouraged to see the development of the luxuscore plugin for Carrara and I hope that it is successful when it comes out. I have to say though that I have not had much success getting it to use my video card and so I haven't spent much time understanding the shaders for luxrender.

So who is with me to start my quixotic journey of asking DAZ to include Iray in Carrara?

I have been beta testing LuxusCore hard for the last couple of days, trying to find the problem with the NVIDIA cards.
Will be reporting more details to SphericLabs and to the LuxCore team, since the NVIDIA drivers have more problems than the AMD drivers that are fast and stable. Right now LuxusCore is failing on many nvidia cards.

As mentioned by others, the cryptic answer by DAZ is that IRAY for Carrara is not coming soon.
Also checking NVIDIA site, shows that other commercial IRAY renderers are about 500$ for Maya, C4D, Sketchup...

I’m probably a typical DAZ-to-Carrara user. I'm a sufficient ZBrusher yet I love Genesis, not as canned doll generator but as a system. DS is simply not dynamic enough for my animation purposes. 3 months after joining Carrara I’ve “invested” in my largest bout of Daz store shopping spree since I joined this community 3 years ago. So it’s not DS but Carrara that made me stay here and spend more, important to note I think…

And I don’t see apps fighting for parental attention, just synergy. To me Carrara is one the most accessible all-in-one CG generalist tools, a final destination for “Pixar-enough” animation and rendering on a budget. Daz Studio is the actor and wardrobe department “power plugin” to Carrara, and the pretty face of Daz.

Speaking of content...

Ideally Carrara content would be different from DS, gearing towards dynamic, animation-friendly content. I started my CG journey with game engine editors, optimization often on my mind, so love to see more products aimed at quick unfussy animation renders, and plugins to speed up animation workflow.

The Genesis-TriAx system is the anchor of this mini solar system. The fact that it is actively being incorporated into Carrara is a positive sign, and a smart move too...

Carrara occupies an interesting spot not just within the Daz3D family but in the CG middleware neighborhood: solid intuitive 3D world-builder and shader system, and canned DS actor/wardrobe system.

Thus it’s easy for Carrara to be more like Daz Studio. But tougher the other way round. Even with rumored-to-come physics and particle system, even if LAMH goes dymanic, DS will not suddenly get Carrara’s NATIVE Sketchup Lt + Sculptor + Terrain + Tree generator + Instancing power + endless hidden gems overnight...

DS users have no love for Optitex, prosumer artists also learn and grow. Better that they shop around then go with Carrara and remain close to the local store...

A concept bubbling in my head is Genesis-TriAx system as a ‘Substance Designer’ kind of plugin to Modo LW Blender, even Unreal Unity Source. If that’s what’s happening Carrara will be the ideal testing ground for Genesis-TriAx plugin potential.

The superb Genesis TriAx system deserves its match in hair, wardrobe and environment too... No need to wait for DS to become animator-friendly - with some basic renovation Carrara will be the perfect “Genesis in Motion” showcase. Imagine Genesis with dynamic strand hair flying amidst swaying foliage of Eden wearing some seductive TriAx-fitted flapping fabric more interesting than Optitex’s boring animation-unfriendly hand-outs!

And Carrara the “Dynamic Genesis In Motion” showcase area needs more RESPONSIVE real-time viewport and streamlined workflow. And of course, seasoned, earnest, long attention span, high quality users....like the ones I keep bumping into here!

Sketchup8 --> Blender --> Daz Studio

Tried modeling with Sketchup and then exporting the OBJ, the conversion process makes a pigs ear of the mesh, with loads of tri-polys, overlapping faces, normals in the wrong direction and other things which makes cleaning up a pain. I've just discovered snapping in Blender, typical. It would have been handy to have discovered it sooner.
As I don't want to waste the work so far, I'll try to clean it up enough to get some renders out of it, though next time I think I'll start modelling from scratch in Blender, or import the Sketchup model and use it for reference only.
I'd like to see some Sketchup GUI options in Blender, as I like the easy open workflow that's possible in Sketchup, but not the mesh.

Anyway, back to messing about...

Glad this has come up - there is a relatively new application, Form.Z by Autodesk. http://www.formz.com/products/formzfree.html

I downloaded the free version for evaluation. It works exactly like Sketchup - imports SKP, KMZ, DWG, DXF, DAE, OBJ and STL files and the free version exports DAE, KMZ and STL.

I Tried DAE, but that doesn't work in any app I have; all I get is the camera and lights. STL works and can be converted to OBJ in Meshlab.

I tried what Mark said, to export as KMZ, change to ZIP and decompress, but 7-Zip reports an error.

Anyhow, don't think I'll continue with this - it gives the same problems as Sketchup OBJ - n-gons, non-manifold and messed up UV's. Too much effort to fix.

Greetings
I try to do all my modeling in Carrara but on occasion sketchup is easier.
I haven't converted from sketchup to carrara in years once I started modeling in Carrara.
My memory is foggy but I believe I exported an obj file from sketchup using a Ruby plug in.
But needed to do some conversion in possibly meshmaker. It worked but wasn't elegant.
Is there now a more direct method of moving from sketchup to Carrara? I am using the free version of sketchup
before google sold it.
Thanks
Brad

...the trouble with items from the Sketchup Warehouse is they usually need to be converted (using another application like Blender) to a format Daz can read properly.

Faveral sells some items here that may work for street level scenes. Also, you might try searching the Google Sketchup warehouse.

Looks exactly like Sketchup - hope it's .obj export is more useful :)

Take a look at the FREE version of Formz

Form Z now offers a free version....

http://www.formz.com/products/formzfree.html

Bonzai3D has been re-branded as Form Z Jr

And FormZ pro is the full version...

I have no experience with it but downloaded it on the weekend. It seems to be quite simple, especially if you used Sketchup...

As far as Blineder3D... I love the thought behind but it has one of the worst user interfaces I've ever encountered. Ever after it's redesign. It's not worth the headache.

How about a plug in or script that converts a DAZ character seamlessly into Vue? The main issue is the materials come into Vue with issues. The highlights are 100%, the bump is way too high, if a color is applied to a mesh it does not come through. See:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/1440111216256364/

The above link is to a Facebook site that discusses DAZ to Vue.

It could be some script like the one developed for Sketchup to Vue. That works great and I use it all the time. I would be willing to pay for a product that does the same for DAZ to Vue.

Thanks!

Mythmaker said:

evilproducer said:

otodomus said:

The other day, I was trying to UV map a model made in SketchUp, I am using both programs quite often, and I have found this combination very useful to me. The case is that when I tried to do the mapping some mess did occur, so I went to origins in vertex room trying to fix the problem with no success at all.

So I decided to model the sheet (it was a perforated sheet) in the vertex room in DAZ Carrara from zero, and I become to be addicted to this kind of modelling, in the following images you'll find the process in doing this thing.

I did some tests, first perforating the sheet, then extruding the octagons to obtain rounded caps, and the result was just the thing I was looking for.

Pretty cool. I'm glad you're enjoying Carrara! It needs the love!

Nice to see Sketchup users having fun here!

As much as I'm psychologically attached to ZBrush the sculptor (and modeler too since 4R7), I continue to marvel at Carrara's modeling and mapping capabilities. What little I have discovered in the UV unwrap area, make up for some fundamental UV features ZBrush still lacks. Very happy with that...

Sketchup is a really nice hard surface modeling tool but unless you have the pro version you will be sent through the UV hoops and madness.

Carrara's hard surface modeling/ extrusion feel very intuitive and efficient, more robust than Sketchup in some areas (even if the UI needs more love from Carrara dev) ;)

In hindsight I wish I discovered Carrara earlier so I save time learning tedious Sketchup face flipping and UV workarounds. Would have been more fun than trying to perform hard surface architecture stunts in ZBrush 4R6... Why oh why they hide Carrara from us huh huh huh lol

I have my own philosophy, and that indicates that the best 3D modelling program is such that gives you what you want to express, to me SketchUp is a rapid tool to model what I need, but Carrara is such wonderful program to make my renders. Now I am in the process to model much more things that in the past, even when I have the pro version of SketchUp this still having its limitations, the vertex room in Carrara provides a powerful tool to model every single part you can imagine.

Thanks for your words.

Otto

evilproducer said:

otodomus said:

The other day, I was trying to UV map a model made in SketchUp, I am using both programs quite often, and I have found this combination very useful to me. The case is that when I tried to do the mapping some mess did occur, so I went to origins in vertex room trying to fix the problem with no success at all.

So I decided to model the sheet (it was a perforated sheet) in the vertex room in DAZ Carrara from zero, and I become to be addicted to this kind of modelling, in the following images you'll find the process in doing this thing.

I did some tests, first perforating the sheet, then extruding the octagons to obtain rounded caps, and the result was just the thing I was looking for.

Pretty cool. I'm glad you're enjoying Carrara! It needs the love!

Thanks!

evilproducer said:

otodomus said:

The other day, I was trying to UV map a model made in SketchUp, I am using both programs quite often, and I have found this combination very useful to me. The case is that when I tried to do the mapping some mess did occur, so I went to origins in vertex room trying to fix the problem with no success at all.

So I decided to model the sheet (it was a perforated sheet) in the vertex room in DAZ Carrara from zero, and I become to be addicted to this kind of modelling, in the following images you'll find the process in doing this thing.

I did some tests, first perforating the sheet, then extruding the octagons to obtain rounded caps, and the result was just the thing I was looking for.

Pretty cool. I'm glad you're enjoying Carrara! It needs the love!

Nice to see Sketchup users having fun here!

As much as I'm psychologically attached to ZBrush the sculptor (and modeler too since 4R7), I continue to marvel at Carrara's modeling and mapping capabilities. What little I have discovered in the UV unwrap area, make up for some fundamental UV features ZBrush still lacks. Very happy with that...

Sketchup is a really nice hard surface modeling tool but unless you have the pro version you will be sent through the UV hoops and madness.

Carrara's hard surface modeling/ extrusion feel very intuitive and efficient, more robust than Sketchup in some areas (even if the UI needs more love from Carrara dev) ;)

In hindsight I wish I discovered Carrara earlier so I save time learning tedious Sketchup face flipping and UV workarounds. Would have been more fun than trying to perform hard surface architecture stunts in ZBrush 4R6... Why oh why they hide Carrara from us huh huh huh lol

Sandy-Gathering storm is very nice. I was going to ask about the clouds but Art beat me to it. Thanks for the explanation.

Art- Thanks for the comment. I like your render, the eagle is awesome.

Vivien1 – Thanks for the comment. the courtyard render is very nicely done.

Dave – cool render, I really like the lighting.

CTippetts – that’s a very nice model.

Tim- another very nice render.

Inspired by Dave’s Marshland, (post #124) I tried something similar because it looked so simple and easy to do, but actually it was not; :lol: I spent the whole weekend trying to get a nice render. It was a good exercise to get familiar with the Instancing Lab too. Everything, trees, grass, materials are from the presets except the croc that’s from Sketchup.

I experimented with lighting 1st rendered regular and it took only 5 mins. 2nd Regular Render Ibl using the sky dome only 7hrs11mins. Although the 2nd image does look better, I think the render time is a bit too much.

Thanks Dave, all your renders are so inspiring. :-)

otodomus said:

The other day, I was trying to UV map a model made in SketchUp, I am using both programs quite often, and I have found this combination very useful to me. The case is that when I tried to do the mapping some mess did occur, so I went to origins in vertex room trying to fix the problem with no success at all.

So I decided to model the sheet (it was a perforated sheet) in the vertex room in DAZ Carrara from zero, and I become to be addicted to this kind of modelling, in the following images you'll find the process in doing this thing.

I did some tests, first perforating the sheet, then extruding the octagons to obtain rounded caps, and the result was just the thing I was looking for.

Pretty cool. I'm glad you're enjoying Carrara! It needs the love!

The other day, I was trying to UV map a model made in SketchUp, I am using both programs quite often, and I have found this combination very useful to me. The case is that when I tried to do the mapping some mess did occur, so I went to origins in vertex room trying to fix the problem with no success at all.

So I decided to model the sheet (it was a perforated sheet) in the vertex room in DAZ Carrara from zero, and I become to be addicted to this kind of modelling, in the following images you'll find the process in doing this thing.

I did some tests, first perforating the sheet, then extruding the octagons to obtain rounded caps, and the result was just the thing I was looking for.

I've been working on a whole bunch of props from a couple of stories I wrote years ago, a couple of them are pretty big...
Most of my freebie models (the architectural ones) are actually way smaller than the big ones.
One is a whole small island and all the structures on it... I chose SketchUp for that, but if I were starting from scratch, I'd definitely have started with Blender first.
Blender is hard to learn, but solid and growing bigger and better all the time... SketchUp is super fast to learn, great for architecture but one has to learn to not model using N-gons from the beginning.
It also has tons of free plugins to make it versatile too.
I wish you luck with your endeavor my good dwarf.

Rashad Carter said:

Male-M3dia said:

Peter Fulford said:

Mattymanx said:

Keep in mind that is a 3rd party plugin dev doing the bryce plugin.

It isn't clear what Jules Urbach means by "3rd party". Could be DAZ approached Otoy, could be just some geezer asked if it's possible.

From 16:15
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mHKmqWwEGxQ

As I asked, any comment from the DAZ crew?

(Ignoring the question will be interpreted as a non-denial denial ;-) )

.

3rd Party just means a indie developer like all the other plugins created for other software thus far. The poser plugin wasn't made by smith micro, the DS plugin wasn't made by DAZ (nor the Carrara one), the sketchup plugin wasn't made by google, and so on. Most likely an individual approached Otoy about making a plugin for those programs, without any DAZ involvement as what happened with the DS plugin.

Almost true.

I'm doubtful it is. Think about it; why would Bryce get a different renderer than DS from DAZ? DAZ Studio is the flagship app right now. It makes absolutely no sense for DAZ to work on two rendering products with two different companies. If anything, if DAZ was working with OTOY, then everyone would have had Octane as the default renderer in DAZ Studio. Remember content for DAZ studio (with Genesis 2) is bringing in the money.. not Bryce.

Besides the way strategic partnerships works, if there was a partnership between DAZ and Otoy, don't you think there would be a DAZ representative on stage with them, not a burb on a single slide?

Peter Fulford said:

Mattymanx said:

Keep in mind that is a 3rd party plugin dev doing the bryce plugin.

It isn't clear what Jules Urbach means by "3rd party". Could be DAZ approached Otoy, could be just some geezer asked if it's possible.

From 16:15
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mHKmqWwEGxQ

As I asked, any comment from the DAZ crew?

(Ignoring the question will be interpreted as a non-denial denial ;-) )

.

3rd Party just means a indie developer like all the other plugins created for other software thus far. The poser plugin wasn't made by smith micro, the DS plugin wasn't made by DAZ (nor the Carrara one), the sketchup plugin wasn't made by google, and so on. Most likely an individual approached Otoy about making a plugin for those programs, without any DAZ involvement as what happened with the DS plugin.