I have been watching the sale promotions since I came on board with Carrara.

Carrara does a lot of extra things for what I am doing that arent' available in iclone, my tool of choice for producing video.
When I am more familiar with Carrara I could very well revert to it as my choicie for video production. I have three years of experience working with iclone...I am familiar with it and my workflow is good.
Iclone has an excellent application for converting content (3DXchange) from Daz3d content, but I'm not familiar with how well it works.
I have converted some FBX and OBJ files into iclone using the 3Dxchange on a limited basis,but the files were not from Daz3d.

How well do Daz3d application content items convert? This may be a question for someone experienced with Carrara and iclone.
There are some buildings and content items for creating scenes I am interested to use, but I'm not sure they will convert properly.
There are some very good explanations/tutors available for converting avatar/characters into iclone.
I may tackle characters in the near future. I am in need of buildings, scenes and props for current projects.

I sometimes use Sketchup models that I convert to iclone. I cannot do much with them, because iclone is not a model builder/editor.
The things you can do with it are limited in that respect. That is why my interest in Carrara and other Daz3d applications.

dakkuuan said:

I'm looking for a house that looks something like this one: http://www.daz3d.com/collective3d-modern-home-deluxe-1 . I love this house and I wish I had the dough for it, but to be honest I don't need the inside too. Just the outside. This one nearly matches the description in my book and I'm hoping the create a comic for it. Any help would be appreciated.

A few maybes for you, though the colors may not be correct, but that's not terribly difficult to change:
http://www.sharecg.com/v/68358/browse/5/3D-Model/Cottage-w-3-4-Surround-Porch-OBJ-Format
http://www.sharecg.com/v/68223/browse/5/3D-Model/House-w-Porches
http://www.sharecg.com/v/67986/browse/5/3D-Model/Cottage-w-3-4-Surround-Porch (sketchup format)
http://www.sharecg.com/v/73607/browse/5/3D-Model/Boyhood-house (3ds format)
http://www.sharecg.com/v/69592/browse/11/Poser/Two-bedroom-home
http://www.sharecg.com/v/69190/browse/11/Poser/Crown-Street-House

Jonstark said:

Philw's Infinite Skills trainings are incredibly good, and I highly recommend them.
...
I'm not that familiar with iclone, though Wendy has mentioned it a few times in the forums here. I'm a bit interested in it.
...
Can you guys shed some more light on the pros of iclone and what it does, how you fit it into your pipeline?

Some context: I'm a modeller (mainly Zbrush and Sketchup) shopping for a animation and render package. I have used Iclone 5 too and watching Iclone 6 development with interest. Recently got serious with Daz Studio again, lured back by IPR. I took the plunge with Carrara after some extensive research through C4D, Poser, Modo and back to this zone. Good to see other active Iclone Daz Carrara Poser user here like Wendy who's very inspiring...

Here's my 2 cts comparing Iclone with (what little I know about) Cararra...

Iclone has intuitive, universal, easy entry UI, accessible to non-modellers. Strongest point: FUN, PLAYFUL real-time everything - shadow, AO, animation, like working in a game editor environment. Iclone 5 isn't so hot for rendering nice stills though but all that will change soon. Iclone 6 will have even better real-time lighting and shadows, tessellation (similar to DS smooth/subD) plus the bonus of progressive rendering (physical) through natively integrated Indigo plugin. Physics and effects are intuitive, hair and cloth physics will be even better in Iclone 6 too. Iclone promoter also mentioned on Zbrush forum that Perception Neuron mocap integration is in the works.

For me personally ic6's Daz Studio style customisable UI and GUI is most exciting. Ironically Iclone 6 will look and feel more like Daz Studio than Carrara. Guess this is a plus for DS users.

All that said, Iclone is also not cheap as a toy, and for pro use requires a separate sister prog 3dxchange so expect at least 3 to 4 times Carrara's rack rate. Integration between the progs have not been the most seamless - a bit like Carrara DS issues.

Even with 3dxchange 6 (features and release date unknown), new Iclone 6 still won't have the simplest modelling tool, and their external pipeline via 3dxchange makes mesh edit/ import/ export workflow extremely cumbersome. Most Carrara users are used to having modelling tool at the finger tip, so this is probably a deterrent.

For those expecting DS level render quality, Carrara's internal render is superior to Iclone no doubt. Iclone 5 doesn't have any post-render. Indigo is a hybrid with non-node-shader hence more flexible and user-friendly, Carrara Octane speed should theoretically be above Iclone 6's Indigo basic.

Carrara has almost everything a machinima movie maker needs to make a decent non-photorealistic CGI. Modelling animation physics effects rendering, the works. Overall a technically more skilled community than Iclone, a plus (for me at least).

Carrara doesn't look sexy nor fashionable, awkward to get into, but it has depth. Whatever shortcomings Carrara has can be fixed by minor updates and giving Carrara a Daz Studio style overhaul (IPR Auxviewport, 3D mouse, custom GUI) and becoming responsive to its core users' needs. The more I know what Carrara can do the more I'm puzzled by its under-marketed, under-prioritized state. The slow update and small user base is also its greatest challenge...egg and chicken...chicken and egg...

My view in conclusion, for quality render, both are nearly on par. For beautiful characters, Daz3D wins by a long shot. For FUN workflow, fast toon or average game-realism animation, Iclone. For GTA5+ game cinematics with a lot of custom asset needs and better engine performance, Carrara. (Or...who knows, DS 5?)

For most intent and purposes in the animation movie maker middleware market segment Carrara deserves a larger user base than Iclone. But unless there are more hard evidence of significant Carrara feature upgrade and facelift, Iclone will always look more fun and chirpy to work in and kinda attractive.

My long-winded 2 cts... :)

Tearing out furr....

I've been everywhere from 3DSmax to Milkshape to Cryengine and Sketchup to Zbrush and even Iclone and Daz Studio. And I'm that type who jumps into Sketchup and make stairs and arrays with no need for manuals. Gosh can't beat Carrara in crazy camera viewport behavior!!!

And yes I know conical isometric spherical perspective orthogonal rectilinear clipping plane blah blah and I'm already past the point of the Infinite Skills tutorial on Carrara save camera positions and lights. And no this random distortion issue isn't addressed.

And no, I didn't touch the 2D stuff. Strictly Dolly and W or E. Why is this madness happening??? Why does the viewport go nuts randomly when switching camera or lights? Why does the viewport randomly distort to crazy perspective zoom ratio without touching any camera or light parameter? Why - AFTER the viewport went nuts - Zoom to Selection on SELECTED Genesis Instance won't zoom to anything except random scene space ?

Why why why? What is going on?

Tearing out furr....help....!!!

I am currently studying anatomy and figure drawing. I would like to have models in many shapes and sizes in different situations. I would also like to make some simple (low poly) models to bring into Manga Studio 5 as well as some higher poly models to bring into my other 3D programs for use. (Blender, Sketchup Pro, Thea Render, Fusion 7.5) Are there any limitations I should be aware of with DAZ Studio? How deep is the customization levels to get more realistic looking models and does DAZ play nice with other programs outside of Poser, Bryce etc.?

So far I did test some imports and exports. A shrub I made in Xfrog came in just fine as an obj and also a model made in Sketchup. I tried to export the Barefoot Dancer scene into Blender. OBJ imported into Blender fine while FBX destroyed the poor girl. DAE didn't play nice either but I'm thinking it maybe because I'm a noob at DAZ. I'm interested more in FBX and DAE because I would want to export animation info. Any tips on import/export is appreciated.

Jonstark said:

Thanks rampart1, I'm just a hobbyist, and barely ever do any animating, but I do think it would be a nifty cool timesaving trick to use Kinect to do motion capture that could be transferred easily to one of the daz figures. I have a lot of Genesis stuff, even though I prefer the V4/M4 models, so might very well pick iclone up to play with. The app itself isn't that expensive, but looks like the addons that would be needed to make it use my daz content might make it a bit more expensive. Plus I don't have a Kinect yet :)

I can see iclone does all kinds of other stuff too in regards to making animation easier, I'm envisioning I could use it to help set up the animation sequence, bring it then into carrara for final tweaking and then render, maybe using Octane plugin to get really extremely realistic quality of render that goes quickly.

FYI - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BH4coQNeloA#t=234

The number of light sources and cameras = unlimited
Light sources have been limited up to now, but that changes to unlimited in new IC6

You can do some editing of characters, which very practical.
You can import photo faces and apply them to iclone characters as well.

You can do some external modifications of objects, but you cannot make a container from a tube.
In other words, you can resize, scale but you can't really sculpt objects.

There is no landscape tool like in Carrara, but you can import Carrara terrains into iclone.
Iclone does have a height map edit tool now, which allows some excellent ability to apply textures
The Earth Sculptor is the tool used by most iclone users, but it is a hit and miss situation (IMO).
It is like Sculptris you have to mold the terrain, and some of the tools aren't very good.

You can import via IClone 3DXchange software tool fbx, obj, sketchup, and other file types.
This is an addon software (not a plugin) for iclone by Reallusion.
You can also import and do some rigging on imported characters from other software.

Animation viewing of your projects is almost instant , no waiting for renders to run the timeline.
There are huge new improvements in the timeline GUI.

For the first time we will have filtered searchable content items (content management)

You can buy pipeline version of iclone as well, which allows export to game engines.
I don't use pipeline version, because I only make videos.

Anyway, if you go to the forums for iclone 6 you can watch some recent videos about IC6 planned features.

Here is link to forum page with all the information on iclone 6. There are a number of very good videos explaining.
Look for episosodes mentioned in the thread topic.. These are among the pinned topics at the top of the page.

http://forum.reallusion.com/Forum368-1.aspx

The bonds between iclone and Daz3d software and products should grow.

Iclone content items by third party developers are significantly more expensive than Daz3d content with Platinum Plus.
Reallusion doesn't appear to pay much attention to pricing in the Content Marketplace stores.
Creating and edtiting content within Carrara is an exciting option.
Also, with the Reallusion 3DXchange software Daz3d content can be migrated to iclone. This is excellent.

All I have to do is learn Carrara well enough to do what I need.

So....I've decided to give this a shot
Here's the design I'm going to try an make in SketchUp:
http://poptart117.deviantart.com/art/ExoSuit-Sketches-498381465?ga_submit_new=10%3A1417755082&ga_type=edit&ga_changes=1&ga_recent=1

And here's the lucky lady that gets to where the thing:
http://poptart117.deviantart.com/art/SGT-Weiss-498379165

A well known island 80 years later....

Wall build in sketchup...

Using the Supersuit, I'm adding new sections in sketchup, Is there anyway to keep the original mesh or at least get my new mesh to match up perfectly (using blender) also have Hexagon? So I can design my textures for use across the original suit and my added breaks?

An example would be say adding strips on the legs of the suit or a line down the middle to allow for two tone. Pure texturing across multiple sections can be a lot of trouble. Spent hours trying to line strips up across leg and hip

Thanks again.

Stezza said:

thanks roygee, I'll check it out when the site is back up and running ;-)

from me too
I tried to get some data on Nobbys Headland to run through sketchup but it looked like a pimple at the end
and I was too lazy to model it by hand :( as I had 24 images of different locales to do

do you think there would be enough data for this
?

https://www.google.com.au/maps/place/Nobbys+Lighthouse/@-32.9184049,151.7979041,19z/data=!4m2!3m1!1s0x0000000000000000:0xe77a854006dca5ed

google nobbys headland newcastle for pics (sorry took link out cuase broke thread :)

araneldon said:

Carousels: novelty at the expense of usability.

They don't have a scrollbar, so using them involves either hovering and waiting or clicking which produces that awkward slide&jerk; and possibly accidental wrap back to beginning.

Some recent renders done in Bryce after not using Bryce for quite some time!

For the "Le Tour" render(s) I have used my first clothing set made from a resource kit by Ghastly. Got help from Patience55 on how to cut the resource kit mesh in Hexagon and help from Roygee on how to add the glasses screen part to his helmet (also Hexagon). Roygee also made a zipper for jersey (not actually noticeable on renders) and gave me a short tutorial on how to make a zipper. Ben from Daz Studio forums helped me on how to use the d-form plugin in DS 4.6 to add wind blow morphs to the jersey part. The shoes, socks and gloves, cyclist pose are from a cyclist clothing set by Wilmap available on her site. The road model is by Fictionalromance called "Dirt Road", available at ShareCG. Bicycle is freebie I got on the web. Character is G2 Male.

For the "High Society" render I have used Sketchup models, a 1905 Circa Perambulator (pram) by Hypnagogia and another vintage pram by Jacky Tessier, both prams available at ShareCG. Clothing from Roaring Twenties set by Wilmap. Characters G2 Female. I have struggled quite a bit with the lighting inside of the tea room which was quite dark.

For the "Cruising the City" render I have used a model called "Le Faubourg", again the pram by Hypnagogia, G2 Female dressed again in clothing by Wilmap.

These are actually test renders!

@user.operator: Sketchup 2014 is a program which would take less time to knock a house together, since it works only with lines, faces, and vertices. It'd be a simple matter to make the floor, raise the walls, add the second story, and put on the roof. But I want to learn how to do such things using Hexagon, and am willing to go through the tedious work.

In the image below I want to "loop cut" the red line which denotes the point where I extruded the edges of the floor to create the walls. Basically, I want to separate the walls from the floor. I know Hexagon doesn't do "loop cuts" so am wondering how it's done in Hexagon.

Blacksmith5 up does have per pixel painting. In ZB I usually adjust the topography to get desired density - but UV's can still bleed , especially two parallel surfaced (inner/outer layer). Sometimes though, resurfacing with even poly distribution or retopo can be a nightmare and one that's not worth the hassle. You may experience this in converting a architectural and vehicles into toon or lowpoly game figures. - like a detailed sketchup building converted to closed mesh poly. So I guess BS (or 3DC) for that per-pixel painting feature alone has a purpose in a ZB modeled pipeline.

Estroyer said:

I love Hexagon, but in the end I dropped it because it's not stable enough for me (also using 64-bit system).
I've had the opportunity to try these:
3DS Max: too pricy but also too crammed with stuff I will never need but still pay for. Also, high learning curve
Curvy: its interface I couldn't get used to, but it's great for organic modeling
Sculptris: nice (and free!) very intuitive, simple software, but lacks features
Blender: I like Blender a lot. Still in the process of getting to know it, but I had an immediate click with it
Sketchup: Not too hard to learn but I came across its limitation for commercial work (you can always pay for it of course, but it's $590) and I dropped it

Here is a list that might help ^^
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_3D_modeling_software

It's too bad MS bought out and quashed TrueSpace. I still have 7.6 somewhere on a DVD, may have to find and reinstall it.

I love Hexagon, but in the end I dropped it because it's not stable enough for me (also using 64-bit system).
I've had the opportunity to try these:
3DS Max: too pricy but also too crammed with stuff I will never need but still pay for. Also, high learning curve
Curvy: its interface I couldn't get used to, but it's great for organic modeling
Sculptris: nice (and free!) very intuitive, simple software, but lacks features
Blender: I like Blender a lot. Still in the process of getting to know it, but I had an immediate click with it
Sketchup: Not too hard to learn but I came across its limitation for commercial work (you can always pay for it of course, but it's $590) and I dropped it

Here is a list that might help ^^
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_3D_modeling_software

I gave the lines method of creating walls a try but found I had trouble creating the offset walls--it's a learning curve for me. I also gave the cube method a try and ran into trouble, again, creating the offset walls--another learning curve for me. Since this type of work is new to me it's going to take me a bit of time to figure out the best method to create the wall for the house I've selected. I can't use symmetry because the house isn't symmetrical, but I get it done.

BTW, if I wanted to rip off this house I would use Sketchup 2014. But because I'm trying to learn how to use Hexagon I'm willing to suffer the ills of trial and error.

TheCastellan said:

Any bowling stuff?

https://3dwarehouse.sketchup.com/model.html?id=797e5dd9c400e14417c292c8a0b633c

At Google Sketchup warehouse search for 'bowling alley' or 'bowling' and you will get lots of bowling stuff. Unfortunately the model I have used some time back by a member Cordelle, is not up there anymore since it was fully furnished but there should be others as the above link. This is for Sketchup but when exported as an .obj it works great in a program such as Bryce.

Lol you win. :)

I thought your method was going to require Sketchup from watching the first part. I had searched first, but if this was already posted elsewhere in the forums, Mods feel free to delete this post. :)

I saw some posts about using Sketchup Make (the free version) with the OBJ plugin, but since the free version of Sketchup isn't for commercial use, I found a way around it.

https://3dwarehouse.sketchup.com/index.html

Download your model from the 3dWarehouse as .KMZ
.KMZ is actually just a zipped Collada .DAE file. Change the extension of your model file to .ZIP, open it, and extract the files.
Open the .DAE in Blender
Export as .OBJ
Import .OBJ into Daz Studio
Win.

On the two I've tried it with so far, the geometry looks solid. None of the problems others have reported with exporting models out of Sketchup. The only issue has been with materials. I think it loses opacity information somewhere in the conversion, but it does preserve surfaces in Daz. To rename the surfaces once it's in Daz, just open the Tool Settings tab, select Geometry Editor from the pulldown, and double-click the surfaces in the list.

(Importing the .DAE directly into Studio didn't work for me, both tests imported empty objects.)