Can I use Terragen in Poser?

[Knuten48]

Hi!  I just installed Terragen4 and learned how to make my first 2 terrains.  Yay!  So far, I find Terragen great.
Also, I have used Poser for many years and now have Poser Pro 2014.  I am HOPING that I'll be able to import Terragen landscapes into Poser, upon which I may then pose (and possibly animate) my Poser 3D wireframes.
Do any of you have any experience or knowledge about this?  I'd really appreciate hearing from you, and thank you kindly for your time!

[Dune]

Welcome to the forum. Terragen is great, indeed! So why not animate or pose in poser and render in Terragen? Much better landscape renderer. Importing obj's or sequences of obj's is possible.
You can export terrains (heightmaps) out of Terragen, but coloring and detailed texturing would be harder to export.

[Knuten48]

Thank you Dune!  I've just been looking at what files Poser & Terragen could import or export.  It looks like the only file types they have in common are .OBJ and .LWO.  TG also says it can import ".OBJ (and .LWO) as populations"... I don't know what that means, but I'll have to check it out.
In the past I have saved Poser Figures (.CR2) as .OBJ and then imported them into another program, but that was not satisfactory; A .CR2 Figure as an .OBJ is just a 3D wireframe with no texture, morphs or articulatable skeleton.  Nevertheless, I may try it (maybe "as a population") in Terragen.
I had hoped that a TG landscape was basically a wireframe that I could import into Poser as an .OBJ, and hopefully with its texture.  But you pointed out that would be hard (and no doubt too difficult for me).  However, there remains the possibility that I could texture the  .OBJ in Poser.  (If it's a flat-to-low-hills desert terrain, I have the textures for that, anyway).
However, Dune, it looks to me like my best bet is to create a landscape, sky & atmosphere in TG, save it as a .TIFF, and then simply use the TIFF as a background picture or on a Prop in Poser.
Thanks again.  I'll be trying out these various things.

[Knuten48]

P.S. (N.B.):  How do you save or export a Terragen landscape or heightmaps as an .OBJ?  I can not find any option for .OBJ under 'File' in TG.

[bobbystahr]

try  try searching export terrain as .obj, there are pages of posts to check out there

[N-drju]

Hello Knuten48 and welcome. I'm sure this can be done with the use of micro exporter attached to the render camera. Then you render the camera view (top down) and then you can save the rendered slice of the terrain as an .obj file.

I'm sure it's somewhere in the forums because I used this trick for matte option in DAZ studio. I just don't remember where that topic is by now. Also, capturing the terrain in this manner may not retain all subtle terrain details like tiny displacement. But it is great for some applications.

[Ariel DK]

Hi, welcome to the forums

TG also says it can import ".OBJ (and .LWO) as populations"... I don't know what that means, but I'll have to check it out.

you probably seen large forest images in terragen. that's is what "import as population" do, many info and documentation over here

However, Dune, it looks to me like my best bet is to create a landscape, sky & atmosphere in TG, save it as a .TIFF, and then simply use the TIFF as a background picture or on a Prop in Poser.

If you get Creative, you can use 6 cameras to create a box render, and if you buy Pro, use the "spherical camera" option to create high 360° panoramic renders, that allows you make animations in Poser, and also iluminate your scene.

[bigben]

..and http://planetside.co.uk/wiki/index.php?title=Render_Layers_and_Render_Elements