Cinema4D import?

[ddolezal]

Hello,


I just tried out the C4D native import. I was a little bit confused because there is no documentation available für this KS 5.1 Feature, but tried anyway.
Unfortunately, my C4D files do not import properly. Are there any steps I have to take in C4D to prepare my Model?
Do I have to convert all gemoetries to Objects first?
What about textures? In my first tries the textures, which look fine in C4D, came to KS 5.1.66 all misaligned, descaled, wrongly mirrored and/or rotated.


Thanks a lot in advance for your suggestions and your input. If example data is needed, I am happy to provide some models.


Best regards,


Dieter

[guest84672]

An example would be great. What version of C4D are you using?

Textures - not sure about that. Will need to ask development.

[guest84672]

BTW - we are also working on a plugin. Let me know if you want to give it a try (after you told me what version you are running).

[ddolezal]

Hello Thomas,


thanks for the replies.


First of all - I would like to give the plugin a try - I am currently running C4D Studio R15 and I hope that the plugin is compatible to this version.


Concerning the problems:


I will upload a Package including the textures and 2 C4D files


SQUETCH_CHEP.c4d is the original where most of the Objects are generated via Clone/Array operations.
When I import this into Keyshot, I get almost nothing except three Base objects.
See SQUETCH_CHEP-c4d.jpg & SQUETCH_CHEP-c4d_Tex.jpg how it looks like in C4D and SQUETCH_CHEP-KS5.jpg & SQUETCH_CHEP_KS5_Tex.jpeg how it looks in KS 5.1.66
What you can see is that the textures of the pouches are not rotated, scaled and mirrored properly in KS.


SQUETCH_CHEP_DD.c4d is the modified file where I already converted some parts to objects. After conversion to objects, I could import the converted objects.
But - like in the original, I still have the problem that the textures are not aligned properly to the pouches. Fixing this in KS is possible, but quite cumbersome and time consuming as you have to find "correction values" for each texture independently.
See SQUETCH_CHEP_DD-c4d.jpg and SQUETCH_CHEP_DD-KS5.jpg as reference images of what I am seeing at on my screen. SQUETCH_CHEP_DD-KS5-corr.jpg shows the corrections I had to do to align at least the texture of one pouch properly.

Here is the DL-Link for the files:
http://ftp.hirte.de:80/_74G_GvKifEiw9R Der Link verfällt am March 12.
Regards,


Dieter

[guest84672]

Thanks. Can you ping me directly at thomas@luxion.com so I can set you up with the plugin?

[Sean]

The C4D importer is based on the Melange API, so it needs all caches to be exported. The approach you take in the "_DD" model forces this for certain parts, it looks like, but the easy way is to just use the "Save for Melange" option in C4D. It's in the file menu next to "Export".

However, even using that option your comments on texture placement are quite valid. The importer just uses UV mapping, so all of your "flat" mapped textures are skewed all over the place (notice that the textures in KS look like they would if you set them to "UVW mapping" in C4D). Ideally KeyShot would have an identical mapping type and textures would just place 1:1, but mapping is kind of arbitrary and sadly C4D and KS don't agree. Switching the KeyShot texture to "Planar Z" is probably the closest KS has to the "flat" mapping type, but it's just way, way off in size and offset.

Of course, placing your textures correctly using UV mapping in C4D is a science in itself, so I can't really pretend that switching to UVW mapping is an easy solution. Until we get a proper "translation" of C4D mapping types into KS terms it's probably the best approach, thogh.

Incidentally, the plugin won't make much difference for textures. One advantage of the plugin is that the cache objects are alive in C4D when the plugin exports, so you don't need to go through "Save for Melange".