Note - I've posted this on the DAZ forums as well.  Not sure if that violates Forum etiquette.  If so, please just skip over this.  If not - would be happy to get some help wherever i can find it.

I have several chess pieces with the same shading domains - base, foot, column, neck, and head. The shading domains have been added in different order for each piece, and this apparently messes things up when I try to use a layers list for my shader. The pieces all end up with the same collection of colors / shaders, but one might have a green base, another a green head, and a third a green column.

Is there a way to re-order the shading domains for an object?
If I simply assign the correct layer list shaders to the Bishop in the shading room, it messes up my queen. If I then go and fix the queen the same way, it jumbles things up for the bijhop again.

In the Model Room, under the Global Tab, you can add and delete Shading domains but there doesn't seem to be any way to reorder the list - I want to set up each piece in the same order and see if that fixes things.

Any help would be appreciated.

 Hi Mosk,

Since I can't see the shader tree, here is something to check. The order of the layers doesn't matter. What DOES matter is if there is one shader applied to the layer in the layer list and a different shader assigned to the domain name in the Properties Palette. The Properties Palette shader will always override the layer list. 

Mark

Hi Mark.  Thanks for the hand.

Not sure if I'm understanding you correctly, so I went ahead and posted a few screenshots online.

A couple of potential problems:

1. When I go into my layer shader, I'm no longer able to assign any given layer to a domain.  When I initially set it up, I created 7 layers - one for each shading domain of the chess pieces.  If a certain piece didn't have all 7 domains, I added one in the properties panel (though I didn't assign any vertices to that 'empty' shading domain.

2. You'll see that three of my pieces (king, bishop, and pawn I believe) ARE properly sharing the layered shader.  The Queen and Knight share some features.  The Rook stands alone.

That's it for the screenshots.

I broke it up into several posts because I wasn't sure if there were any size restrictions.

Hope this means more to you than it does to me, because I can't figure out what I'm messing up. :)

Thanks for the help!

 When opening objects created by other programs, there can be mapping issues and you've just experienced it. This is not unique to Carrara - you can have this happen in any program and is more dependent on the authoring program than Carrara. 

Based on your screenshot, the domain assignments and the layer assignments are fighting each other. There is loop with the domain shader being assigned a layer shader that is assigned to the domain.

There are three fixes: 1) create 7 new shaders and assign them in the properties palette to the appropriate domain of the objects and then delete the layers in the layer palette, or 2) Kind of the same thing but you can create a new shader, one at a time, for the layers and then drag the layer from the layer palette into the new shader tree, thus deleting it from the original layer shader and then assigning the same "look" to the new shader. This will require assigning the domains to the new shaders in the Properties Palette as well. 3) delete or set to "None" the domain shaders.

The domain shader scheme is more efficient than the layers list scheme because multiple objects can "subscribe" to identical shaders. There is a way to do this also with Layers Lists but it's more work.

Mark

Hmm . . . well, I can honestly say I wouldn't have figured that one out on my own.

If you don't mind, I'd like to tell you my goal so you can tell me the best approach.

I'm going to be making multiple sets of opposing figures for several chess boards, so I wanted to put together a simple way to reshade an entire set of figurines in one step (ideally), or in as few steps as possible.

I tried to use a reference shader first, but I'm not sure if you can use that across multiple objects.  Someone on the DAZ forums was kind enough to help, and they suggested using a layers list which seems like it would have worked but for the cross-program glitch you've identified.

What I don't really want to end up doing is applying 7 new shaders to each piece every time I want to swap in a new chess set.  When I do create a new set (of 8 pawns, 2 knights, 2 rooks and so forth), I'd like to be able to apply one (perhaps layers list) shader that gives all 16 pieces a green base, red foot, orange column and so on through all 7 shading domains.

a) Will the 'domain shader' scheme allow me to do this?
b) And is the 'domain shader' scheme the 2nd one you described?
c) When you say 'delete the layers in the layer palette' - where do I do that?  If I select a bishop from the instance tab and click on the shading tab at the top (while in the assemble room), I get a list of my 7 shading domains as well as buttons to edit, delete, or replace the shader.  If I click the bishop and go to the model room, I can change the actual list of shading domains.  If I click the bishop and go into the shading room, I can edit the actual shader though I still can't assign layers list to specific domains - drop down arrow doesn't work.

Also, I've done some more experimenting, and as best I can tell, the order of Shading Domains listed under the Shading Tab of the Properties Tab while in the Assemble room DOES seem to matter in terms of which pieces are messed up.

Still pretty lost.
Any help is much appreciated.

 The Domain Shaders function exactly like a Reference Shader. This gives you the luxury of changing a single shader and having it automatically update all objects in a scene that have used it in a domain instance.

So, if you create a material "glass" and change the color, all objects that have been told to use Glass in the Properties Palette domain area will be updated. 

So, in your case, the only need to prepare one pawn and and then duplicate it once the domains and shaders have been correctly assigned. Same for other items.

To delete a Layer List item, simply highlight it and press delete/backspace on your keyboard. 

Dealing with imported objects is throws a bunch of variables into the mix. Low res and free models have usually been prepared by less experienced 3D modelers that may not be familiar with all of the protocols for exporting "generic" formats like .obj or .3ds from their modeling packages so that they work well in other programs (this can even be true of pay-for models on occasion too). This can result in domains that don't play nice in Carrara. Sometimes, the best  way to get domains to work well is to trash the original domains and recreate them. 

**The issues you are encountering with your objects and shader domains is likely tied to bad UV coordinates when it was exported. (some programs modify UV's on export and don't let you know) There may be overlapping UVs that are effected by domain orders because the hierarchy of the domain list gives priority on a first come, first serve basis. If this is the case, there is nothing you can do but remap the UV coordinates for the object. To see if this is the case in your instance, select the object, go to the Vertex room, enter UV mode and from the Display tab in the Properties Palette, select "Show All" from the shading domain list. If you see overlapping meshes in the UV window, that is a problem that you'll have to sort out manually.

Mark

Well, I checked the UV maps for the chess pieces and there is overlapping all over the place.  You've already answered a bunch of questions, and I don' t want to take up any more of your time tonight, so is there a Carrara UV Mapping tutorial anywhere that you can point me to?

I found one on the web about half a year ago, but that was for Carrara 5 and was no longer applicable.  I also watched your C6 and C7 series on VTC.com (great tutorials; learned much of my Carrara there), but I no longer have a subscription.

So if you know of any C7 UV Map tutorials off the top of your head, that would be great.
If not, thanks so much for all the help you've already given me.

Rob (aka Mosk the Scribe)

 The easiest way will be to use the "Select by Domain Name" option while in the vertex room. Using that will neatly select those specific polygons and rescale them in the UV window until they all fit in the UV space. 

As for another tutorial, I only keep track of my own. ;-)

Sorry - empty post.  I know deleting an actal post breaks the thread on some forums, so I'll just leave this here.

Trying to get the UV maps fixed up.  Will post back after that happens.

Hey Mark.

Wanted to thank you again for your help and let you know that I finally got everything sorted out.

Not sure if this is a 'bug', but the order of the shading domains does seem to matter, even though logic would suggest that Carrara would use the names of shading domains as opposed to the order they show up.

By the way . . . any chance of you making an intermediate-advanced set of tutorials for VTC.com or Lynda.com (maybe with the release of Carrara 8)?    I think I've got many of the basics down, but I'd sure love a boost to the next level. :-)