Hello
shumphry
Posts: 0
This is my first real render with Carrara, I bought it almost a year ago, played with it a bit, got really frustrated and left it. Now I have lots of time on my hands and want to do some Sci-Fi artwork.
Today I worked out how to get two models in the scene add two lights and position them and render the scene so it looks sort of OK.
Any comments are welcome.
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off to a good start !
Thank you bigh :-)
Next thing is to work out the surfaces and why the psiMan isn't casting a shadow.
Made lots of changes and had a tinker in the Texture Room. Some things worked out and others didn't.
I still cant work out how to get shadows for the psiman without ruining the lighting I have. I also can't work out why there seems to be light in the scene when all the lights are turned off, I thought with no lights the scene would render black but there is an ambient glow and I don't know where it's coming from.
Steve
Hi Steve, great you are enjoying yourself.
In Carrara ambient lighting is set at 20 percent by default - just to annoy us.
In the instances list see where it says Scene ? (instances list is that list at middle to bottom right that shows what is in your scene, click on the word "Scene, then up the top you will see some new windos at top right , One of them will habe the ambient setting in it - drag the thingy all the way to the left.
If you cant get shaddows on your robot still, make all the lights invisable, then drop a bulb really close to the robot on the right and see what happens - If no shadows, maybe he is floating off the floor, maybe he has his shadows turned off. Maybe you have shadows turned off in the render room though the light at the back indicates this is not the case?
Nice r enders by the way.
HINt to get your light to be close to the robot, select robot, hold down shift key and select light, then use ctrl k and this will bring up the align tool
Thank you so much head wax, that has really helped me out. With the ambient gone the scene is as dark as I thought it should and I can see faint shadows from psiman on the floor now. It also gives me a lot of headroom with the lighting.
I will also try your tip for aligning objects.
Thanks again
Steve
This has been one great learning experience and I am really happy with the end result. Six or seven years ago I used to play around with DAZ 2 and Bryce and was starting to get some reasonable results. When I decided to have another try I bought Carrara because I was pretty sure that I could do most of that in the one program, but last year due to personal problems my head wasn't in the right place to learn new skills.
Some things that have really impressed me with Carrara so far (and I am sure I will find more as I learn) are the control over lighting with every light I have played with so far having fall off and the include/exclude is a real gem and the ability to save renders as photoshop files (found that out watching a youtube video).
I'll stop rambling on now.
Steve
Wait 'till you start animating! The timeline (Sequencer) is so freaking cool and easy to use!
Sometimes I'll spend a whole day just trying new shader settings on one of my characters or scenery elements - not because it really needs it - but because it's really exciting to see what all of those different shader commands do!
I'm glad that you decided to show renders through this whole thing - as this is the first time I've read this thread - and it was really fun to read through as I watched the image improve - even though you had it looking really cool from the start. Man... for starting with two models, you sure picked them right, eh? I remember when that scenery piece was a Work In Progress. I love the artists here at DAZ. So I'm addicted to buying 3d models... could be worse! lol
Thank you Dartanbeck, my goal is to do animations at sometime in the future but for now I will stick to static renders and see what other things Carrara can do.
If you ever need help taking those first steps... let me know. I love helping.
Welcome! Nice work so far!
To touch on the shadow issue a bit:
For the light, you can adjust the shadow intensity. If you've turned that down, then it can be washed out more easily. Another possibility is Raytraced Soft Shadows which are located under the light's effects tab. When enabled, the higher the light radius (think hundreds of feet) can make the shadow more diffuse and can blend it in to the environment, making it harder to see.
The first image you posted looked as if you had enabled Indirect Light. With the right lighting it can also cause your shadows to become more diffuse. Especially if there isn't a light shining directly on the model, in which case whatever shadow is created would be created with lower intensity reflected light, which would also mean the shadow could get washed out easier.
I also forgot:
You mentioned the ability to exclude and include objects to light. If you have a light only shining on the robot and excluding all other objects, that could account for not seeing a shadow from that light.
Thanks for all the tips evilproducer, I did have Indirect Light on with the lighting quality set to excellent in the first one, also the front light was set to illuminate the figure only because the spill made the background to bright. Also thanks for pointing out the effects tab, I hadn't noticed it yet, now I've got another cool feature to play with.
Steve
I have to warn you. You are starting to get addicted to Carrara. The more you use Carrara, the harder it will be to stop. It is so much fun. So if you are not very sure you want to do animation with Carrara, shut it down and never touch it again before you discover the other features. So far there is no cure for it.
That's great advice Pjotter but I am afraid you were a bit late. I've just purchased DP Carrara Master Collection Shaders and by the time I've finished having a look at them I am sure I will be a lost cause. :-)
Because you are now beyond the point of saving, some more drugs:
http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/21414/
That's really great, I have been having a hard time trying to find tutorials for new users, have already downloaded the pdf for level of complexity and will start going through it. Thank you.
There are two very important series of Carrara tutorials, but not free. These are very good.
http://www.daz3d.com/carrara-8-training-instant-digital-download
http://www.daz3d.com/advanced-carrara-techniques
These give a good foundation for Carrara.
Might have to put them on my wish list, funds are low at the moment but I am expecting a bit of extra cash at the end of the month. :-)
If you want a nice free pre-made scene to pick apart that uses a lot of specialized Carrara features and that has a nice manual with some tips and tricks, then download this scene. I created the scene as a learning exercise and as a thank you for all the help I've received from the Carrara community over the years. No account required!
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/7370483/Fantasy-terrain1.7.zip
Thank you so much for this, I have downloaded the file and have done a couple of renders to have a look at things and it is really awesome.
The help and tips everyone's given me has been so great that I really don't know what to say except WOW!
Thank you EvilP as well! It's very generous of you to give your art to help a newbie. I also have your fire download from ShareCG which really helped me with setting up a log fire... brilliant!
http://www.sharecg.com/v/38198/view/5/3D-Model/Campfire
Cheers, SileneUK
Thank you both. Glad I could help! I should look at the fire and probably update it as I've learned quite a bit since I first posted it.
Here's the link to my ShareCG account. There's stuff there of various quality. Some are proofs of concept and aren't really "finished" as they're meant to be starting points. I do have some nice large format spherical renders of the Dystopia City blocks in both day and night versions.
http://www.ShareCG.com/pf/full_uploads.php?pf_user_name=evilproducer
There's also Carrara Cafe which has lots of nice tutorials, freebies and a forum where you can upload zip files if you want to share a shader you've created or an object or something.
http://carraracafe.com/
My really nice ISP doesn't mind if I pay this months bill a week late so I was able to purchase the first training disk today. Have gone through the first two chapters and have learned lots already, especially time saving tips.
Yes, they are good and a very good starting point for Carrara. Then the YouTube videos are easier to understand. Also consider the book Carrara 1 Bible. Very old, but almost everything is still usable. There is a thread going about (this) animation books. Very cheap. Used for 2 dollar + shipping at Amazon.