Carrara Challenge #4: The Twilight Zone - Work In Progress (WIP) thread
FractalDimensia
Posts: 0
Just a few short months ago, our intrepid Carrarans HeadWax and Antara started us on an incredible journey - a journey into a wondrous landscape whose boundaries are that of imagination. Beyond that is another dimension: a dimension of sound, a dimension of sight, a dimension of mind. You're moving into a land of both shadow and substance, of things and ideas. It is the middle ground between light and shadow, between science and superstition, and it lies between the pit of man's fears and the summit of his knowledge.
You’ve just crossed over into …
The Twilight Zone (Challenge Theme #4)
Whether literal, fictional, fanciful, emotional, irrational, or figurative, I leave the interpretation of the theme up to you.
However, if you are in doubt whether your interpretation fits the theme, please IM me. But, as a general rule, creativity, artistic style, and humorous interpretations are always welcomed!
Dates to Remember:
• Submissions Open: Midnight MT October 19, 2013
• Submissions Close: Midnight MT October 26, 2013
• Voting Starts: Midnight MT October 26, 2013
• Voting Ends: Midnight MT November 2, 2013
Note: If you are unsure of Mountain Time, go to this link to get the current MT date/time: http://www.worldtimeserver.com/current_time_in_US-UT.aspx
Audacious Donations:
Once again, DAZ has graciously made a very generous credit donation to the top three places of the Carrara Challenge!
But wait! If that is not enough incentive nor DAZ-zle you with de-light, then I have just the thing for you!
(Drum roll…)
I am happy to announce our very own incredibly talented PhilW has offered to sponsor the challenge this month! And if that doesn’t excite the heck out of you, then you obviously don’t know about Phil’s amazing Carrara packages and other products! His Carrara Cloud Domes, Bright Eyes for Carrara, Fantasy Village, realistic seas, hair styles, and his English Village are enough to make any Carraran (noob or expert) salivate! Don’t believe me? Then take a moment to pop on over to his DAZ store (http://www.daz3d.com/philw) and have a look! You don’t want to leave your Assemble Room without these gems!
Note: Please be sure to thank PhilW (with words or purchases) for his generous donation!
Amazing Prizes:
• Ist Place: 3 items from PhilW’s DAZ store AND a $50 coupon for DAZ3D items.
• 2nd Place: 2 items from PhilW’s DAZ store AND a $30 coupon for DAZ3D items.
• 3rd Place: 1 item from PhilW’s DAZ store AND a $15 coupon for DAZ3D items.
• Honorable Mention (selected by PhilW himself!): 1 item from PhilW’s DAZ store AND a $5 coupon for DAZ3D items.
Entry Rules:
1) All renders must be specially created for this challenge and previously unpublished.
2) All entries must be submitted into the “Challenge Entries” thread before Midnight Mountain Time (MT) on October 26, 2013. Artists must provide (as a minimum) a title, a general description of the work (e.g., how it was done), a list of all created or significantly enhanced objects, and a content credit list. Note: If you are going to be unavailable to post your final entry (for any reason) between October 20th-26th, post your final render in the WIP thread, indicating that it IS your final entry and provide all the necessary information. I will transfer the image to the entries thread after it opens.
3) All renders must be done in Carrara. In the spirit of exploring Carrara’s full potential, plug-ins are allowed. For example, the LuxRenderer plug-in can be used. However, in this case, a WIP must be posted in the WIP thread, showing the scene set-up inside Carrara, and a description of how the LuxRendered was set up MUST be included.
4) Postwork is allowed. But, if you use postwork, the raw render(s) going into your postworked image MUST be posted in this WIP thread, along with a brief description of what kind of postwork you did.
5) At least 2 (TWO) WIPs must be posted in this (WIP) thread before your final render is uploaded to the contest thread. These images can be pre-render screenshots of the scene set-up, low quality samples, early drafts, and hand-drawn sketches with thoughts and ideas you are playing around with. Also, when you post your WIPs, please share what you are planning, problems you are working through, and breakthroughs you have discovered.
6) A minimum of 3 (THREE) objects in the scene must be created or significantly enhanced in Carrara. See the section below for examples of what constitutes “significantly enhanced.”
7) Content use is allowed and welcome, but MUST be fully credited in the contest thread when your entry is posted.
8) Each artist can post up to 2 (TWO) entries.
Voting and Scoring Rules:
1) Anyone with a DAZ account can vote for up to three different entries. Each entry selected by the voter gets one vote (point).
2) Voting can begin immediately after the submission close date/time.
3) You will have 7 full days to make your voting selections. You can change your selection at any time up until the final close date/time for voting.
4) Anonymous votes will be accepted with just cause. Send me (FD) an IM with the entries you are voting for, along with an explanation, and I will add an “anonymous” post to the contest thread. In these cases, I exclude my own entries from being eligible for anonymous votes.
5) In the case two of the top three entries receive the same vote, a tie-breaker will be determined by a two-day runoff voting period (November 2nd-3rd).
6) A contestant can place only once. If two entries by the same contestant are in the top 3, the lower of the two is removed and the remaining entries in the list move up.
What are “significantly enhanced” objects:
The purpose of the “significantly enhanced” clause is to encourage artists who are new to Carrara and who heavily rely on content to explore Carrara’s other features and find other ways of working with content in Carrara. At the same time, we want to encourage new users to submit their work.
1) Morphing an object beyond recognition or cutting parts from it, and using it for something completely different.
2) Covering an object with fur or creating dynamic hair for it.
3) Rigging and using that rig to pose an object.
4) Altering or creating UV-maps, or creating special shaders or textures.
5) Using the 3D-paint feature to texture the object or create shaders, shader masks, distribution maps, etc.
6) Creating unique variations of things like plants, oceans, particle generators, terrains, clouds, etc.
7) Inventive use of replicators. Just replicating an object doesn’t count as significantly enhanced, but creating new shapes using replicated objects does, or using distribution maps or nested replicators to create environments or interesting concepts would also count.
If you are not sure whether your enhancements qualify, please ask in this thread.
Summary/Final Words:
Remember, the aim is to have fun, learn and share a little about Carrara with others, show off Carrara’s versatility and strengths, and show off your personal artistic and Carrara talents!
So let the rendering begin!
Links of Interest:
Current Sponsor’s Store:
• PhilW’s store: http://www.daz3d.com/philw
Previous Sponsors’ Stores:
• Age of Armour‘s store: http://www.daz3d.com/age-of-armour
• DimensionTheory’s store: http://www.daz3d.com/dimensiontheory
• Dartanbeck’s store: http://www.daz3d.com/catalogsearch/result/?q=dartanbeck&x=0&y=0
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Comments
This is my attempt to even the playing field some by selecting a topic that is as much (or more!) about the artistic aspects as about technical proficiency.
Good luck to everyone!! :)
FD
! 1 TZ
Sorry for the quick side-shot, but this render by bigh just really makes me feel obnoxious toward showing you all what an artistically-minded master we're dealing with here. No, bigh, I'm not sorry for not asking your permission - I just can't take it any longer!
Ladies and Gentlemen, I present to you: This be some of my stuff by bigh
Peruse through and amaze. There are some really cool things in there and, as you can see, a solid fan base (including myself) as well!
It was when I got to features in the series including Bad Boy and all of those killer cartoony dino-like buddies - and the incredible scenery really captures me.
We all knew that Peanut Guy can Dance, but The RazzMaDaz Guy blows him away, I think... but then along comes This Gal, who really grabs the ol' attention thingy. Victoria 6 can rock up the dance floor too.
Aside from his works of fascination in the animation thread, he occassionally hits us with stuff like the ever-so-cool Zim 6 (some cool characters to go with the story a few posts down) and the cool freaking bird above!
I know there's more Zim stuff... now to find it!
Anyways,
great work as always professor bigh!
ha ha Dart, yes Bigh does some truly amazing work! Some of it beautiful, some of just plain in your face :) with a wicked sense of humour to match.
FD!!
Well you didn;'t spend much time resting on your well earned Laurels.
Superb topic, brilliantly laid out thank you.
Looking forward to what people come up with - should be scintillating bone chilling images I think :)
Hmm now let's go and explore the dark side :)
Agreed, Head Wax. I truly look forward to play with this. Oh please, life... let me play this month... please!
EDIT:
Thank you for participating such great generosity both PhilW and DAZ 3D!!!
Okay... official details aside... I better start working on some renders :-/
well done you got me laughing out loud - to :coolsmile:
Twilight : the time when monsters and trolls are coming out from their hidings, or have to hide again before the sun hits them and turns them to stone.
Don't know where this is going to take me.... but will have a go.
This is just a quick study.
One possible Genesis shaped monster....
Don't know where it's going either, but I like where you're thinking! :)
FD
This is a great theme for a challenge!
Makes me want to push the envelope of the rules and submit an animated gif - I can get much trippier with animations!
EDIT - That preview is playing funny here. Try clicking it if you want to see my Mandelbulb obj file undergoing Carrara's Sphere Morph.
Sock, I was actually thinking of opening the door for animations, but wasn't sure how that would fly with everyone. So let's just throw it on the table and see if someone sticks a fork in it!
Does anyone have a preference as to whether or not artists can submit animations as entries into this contest? I would say this might be GIFs, but also YouTube postings as well. I know Wendy originally had her entry as an animation, and had to "cut" a frame to enter into the competition.
So what do people think??? Another option is to run animations as a separate competition. Personally, I think animations are a strength of Carrara and needs to be showcased in SOME fashion.
And I agree, animations give another "dimension" to the art.
BTW, Sock, that GIF wasn't rendered in Carrara was it?
FD
Good question!
I think one of the failings of the forum is it's lack of ability to embed a video. So that might cause a slight hiccup having to go to another site to view the vids.
For me embedded gif's drive me a little cwazy and to see a whole page of them on a thread would probably incite me to have a grande mal :) Socratease' Gif excepted of course :)
I think to do an animation itself competition the rules would need to specify ... eg max duration, max length of titles etc
If it were an animation competition by itself it would also preclude a few people who might not have the time to put into making an animation
Also the use of other software needs to be considered: as from my little experience I can see that eg compositing software is very important when bashing together the final product.
Also to compare a render and an animation as far as a challenge goes would be reasonably difficult as far as voting goes.
that said, as you mentioned Carrara's strengths lie not only in rendering stills but in making animation ......
here's a wip from me, previous character I have worked with so I may need to change him a little
Sock, I was actually thinking of opening the door for animations, but wasn't sure how that would fly with everyone. So let's just throw it on the table and see if someone sticks a fork in it!
Does anyone have a preference as to whether or not artists can submit animations as entries into this contest? I would say this might be GIFs, but also YouTube postings as well. I know Wendy originally had her entry as an animation, and had to "cut" a frame to enter into the competition.
So what do people think??? Another option is to run animations as a separate competition. Personally, I think animations are a strength of Carrara and needs to be showcased in SOME fashion.
And I agree, animations give another "dimension" to the art.
BTW, Sock, that GIF wasn't rendered in Carrara was it?
FD
Yes and no...
The Mandelbulb was made using a handful of other programs (Mandelbulb 3D for the Voxel Stack, Fiji to make the obj from the stack, and Meshlab to reduce the absurdly high poly count).
The animation was rendered in Carrara though - that's where the sphere morph came from!
Only one shader domain too - used heavy caustics and a metal shader to get the two-tone look.
I like animations a lot - but they do push the rules a bit (They aren't forbidden, but not specifically allowed either) (I am the one who got a few other contests to specify jpg for the format as a way to stop me without making "Negative" rules like "No Animated gif files") (probably because if they included png as an option, I'd find one of those programs that do animated png files!).
If allowed, we can just buy some extra Head Wax for those whose heads may explode upon seeing so much on a single page...
hehe, did I say explode? I meant "implode" that way there is less mess on the carpet :)
I agree - no gif .
or animation - need to stay with the rules posted .
Huh?
Clearly you did not read the rules!
They do not state no animation!
Well, they don't YET. :) That is why I asked in the first place.
If someone thinks animations SHOULD be included, then post your reasoning. However, I will make a final decision on this by Saturday.
FD
Maybe in the future and animation contest would be a good idea, but it would need a longer deadline. Maybe a quarterly animation contest instead of a monthly contest.
I don't normally do animations, so it's just a theoretic question for me.
But it could be fun one day. If given enough time.
In the meantime, I'm exploring some more ideas and concepts ;-P
All good points, EP, for why not to have it. Seems the answer is already leaning a certain direction.
While leaving animation as an "option" would be good for a few, I do think it would be a struggle to decide between a render and an animation.
Varsel, very nice! Like where that is going. I suppose the creature is standing under a "troll bridge"? ;)
So...
We will be allowed to submit animated gifs?
Cool.
Personally, I think that animations and stills need to be separate. It would be hard for me to judge an animation against a still. They are too different.
However, we do have several animators that use Carrara and maybe an animation contest should be considered. But, software and many other criteria would need to be spelled out in advance.
Say Varsel, if you want lights for your city, I can post the shader tree I used to do this. It's a trick I learned from Holly. Unfortunately, the tutorial is buried somewhere in the old forums.
So...
We will be allowed to submit animated gifs?
Cool.
No, Sock. Not yet.
sorry, mistaken post
varsel, great exploring :) grasps the concept by the heart!
Thanks guys...
Well its ment to be a earth cellar and not a bridge.
Scandinavians would know them. They are almost everywhere. These days in decay and no longer in use, but before the invention of the refrigerator this is where they used to store food. A hole in the ground, with walls and roof of stone, covered with earth and grass.
evilproducer : it would be nice if you would post that shader tree.
I remember that tutorial as well. It would help to bring some more colour in to the picture.
One problem that I am well aware of is that in the twilight, every thing looks kinda grey-ish.
So to get the picture to be interesting, (and get at least one vote) I will need some contrasts.
But now its of to work. Won't be able to work on this until monday......
Really nice theme FractalDimensia, and already some really nice WIPs going on here. :)