ABC Export... Shader info under Coner

[p3taoctane]

I am able to import a 200 ABC file exported from Cinema 4d R14 into the Octane standalone.
My standalone preferences are set so that geom with different shaders in Cinema come in with nodes that can be assigned individual shaders.

It is accurate EXCEPT with the geoms that resides under a cloner. Even though the items underneath the cloner item have different shaders assigned to them... the standalone only sees one node for all the differently assigned geoms under the cloner.

Other geom under a simple group node are recognized as separate.

I tested the ABC file when imported into Maya to and similar result.

Does a cloner strip out the shader info on an ABC file?

Thanks

[p3taoctane]

Anyideas?
I realize there may be an answer to this in another subject... but I could not find it... so Id love a tip

Thanks

[bepeg4d]

hi peter,
have you tried to assign a polygon selection with different names to any object that been instanced?
you can also bake the grouped objects into one with all the poly selection and there is an option in the c4d alembic exporter to take care of polygon selection.
ciao beppe

[p3taoctane]

As always appreciate the response Bepe.

I am learning Cinema having been a Maya guy for as long as I can remember so my skill level on finding menu items and even navigating the way the help docs are limited. So please forgive the newbie questions man...

Do you mean assign a polygon tag of some kind to the geom that is under the cloner. (They are already poly spheres under the cloner)But when I look at object information it says these spheres under the cloner have zero polygons so I think I see what you are trying to do.
Am I right in assuming that as long as the poly spheres are under a "cloner" they lose their polygon properties and you have so tag them again? How do you tag them as a poly selection?

(Again sorry for rather vague questions ... it is like learning and speaking spanish in High School and then going to Spain and realizing you know just enough of the language to sound terrible : > ))


The bake object looks to my feeble mind to be a texture bake... the manual makes it sound like you said... but he gui interface wants to write a texture file I think

I have successfully written out an animation rendering through Cinema and Octane. So this is not a high priority...

I am just trying to learn the software a little more : >)

Thanks to you and any others for suggestions on ideas or where in the manual to study.

I have attached a screen shot of the menu items I think you are referring to.

Thanks Again


Peter

[p3taoctane]

Hey Bepe
Did soem more digging and found the set selection tag under select menu
It brought ALL the cloned objects shaders in with the ABC file. But because it is under a cloner I had hundreds of individual nodes.

Still looking for a way to JUST use the shader information in the ABC file.

Anyone else know how to do this by any chance?

Thanks

Peter

[bepeg4d]

hi peter,
have you tried the 'merge materials with the same name' option in the octane alembic preferences?
could you share a simple scene for testing?
ciao beppe

[p3taoctane]

Thanks Bepe
Yeah it seems to be something the ABC writer from Cinema controls. If I have merge generated on in my settings in ABC exporter then everything under the cloner is one shader when it hits Octane whether merge materials in the octane preferences is on or not.

If I have merge generated in the cinema settings OFF then again whether or not the octane settings say merge materials I egt thousands of nodes from the cloner

I have attached the scene to see what you get. Its probably a combination I have not tried

Thanks

Peter

SetSelectionTags_Bepe.zip

(1.04 MiB) Downloaded 146 times

[bepeg4d]

hi peter,
you need to take care of the naming of the polygon selection and to set the selection to all the polygons of a sphere.
here is the c4d scene, the c4d-alembic settings and a screenshot of the abc file inside octane:

SetSelectionTags_Bepe2.rar

(593.59 KiB) Downloaded 146 times

ciao beppe

[p3taoctane]

Ah ha... naming naming naming... comes to haunt me... the lazyest of namers

Many thanks Bepe

Appreciated the expert help

Peter

[mikelogic]

Cheers.
Mike