Hey Steve,
I made a link for this article in the Carrara Info thread under Carrara and related 3d Art Tutorials. Hope you don’t mind. I really like your tutorials and after a while, all threads seem to vanish into the deeper archives of the forum - so I like to immortalize some of the favorites.
Hey Steve,
I made a link for this article in the Carrara Info thread under Carrara and related 3d Art Tutorials. Hope you don’t mind. I really like your tutorials and after a while, all threads seem to vanish into the deeper archives of the forum - so I like to immortalize some of the favorites.
Go ahead my friend. Thanks.
Any additional exposure for my tutorials more than welcome!
Steve,
Thanks man!
Hey, I found your three point light tutorial and added a link to that, too.
Just wondering if you have any more that were in the old forum that you’d like me to find. These are just far too cool to see them lost in cyberspace! Wait. I just had an idea. I’ll put you in the Carraraist Spotlight and drop a link in there to your whole YouTube channel - that will work better. As always, if you disapprove, just give me a nudge. I do realize that I get a bit excited… but… I guess that’s just who I am
My God, man! That is freaking A M A Z I N G ! ! ! Squared! No… to the umpteenth power!
I am so glad that I haven’t started shooting production frames yet (still setting up assets) because I am going to go through everything! Amazing! Thanks again Steve Sci Fi Funk - Carraraist in the Spotlight
These are all my tutorials in one place on youtube.
I do feel this particular series will help a lot of people make larger scale animations, and as ever it’s only obvious AFTER someone shows you. I had no idea fenrics plug in was so useful, and it took a few sessions of trying everything and searching before I came across a superior decimator.
I should say at this point that removing UV mapping seals you into far away shots (atm), but I’m working on a solution for closer shots. (Will be a new tutorial series).
Thanks man, I say - “stay enthusiastic!” - It’s what keeps us young.
Quite impressive. I can imagine some people thinking that this is a lot of work to go through - and it is. It is always a challenge to find ways of bringing masses of animated people into a scene. It can be done by post, by rendering different passes with x# of people in this shot, then that. and layer them in. And so fourth… there are many ways to create illusions. But consider, for a moment, what you’re left with after following this tutorial and tweaking your masses to your liking. A massive collection of 3d folks that fit your vision.
You can save people to the browser all loaded up with their NLA clip walks or ambient motions - But with Carrara, it’s better to start a “Clip Collection” specifically for these Low Res units, so that you can make anybody act how you like - and your saved people remain small in size. Next thing you know, you’re no longer dealing with that issue where all of your “seconds” are the same people from one scene to the next. You’ll be amazed at how quickly a collection of people will grow. If you end up with a few early versions that might not look as good as the new ones made as your skills advance, they are still invaluable for use in the midst of large crowds.
Further, you can add a vertex object to your scene and create a single four point polygon. Size this to be a single lane of a sidewalk size and surface replicate ‘walkers’ on the polygon. Make a few of these using different people and then using the replicator (not surface replicator) you can duplicate these directly onto the sidewalks of your scene. I do this with cars, too. It just takes simple measurements to determine the cell size (for proper placement) of the replicator. For this I often let primitives measure for me. Plop in a plane and scale it by hand to the dimensions I want. The go to the Motions Tab and you can see the x and y sizes needed to be used in the cell size of the replicator.
Then make a simple map of your scene. Where buildings and vehicle lanes are present, fill with black - leaving populated areas white (replication distribution is only read in Black (off) and White (on). Now, using another surface replicator with this map controlling distribution, plunk in crowds of ambient life people. If yo mix in some with walks, you’ll even get the odd situation where someone goes walking where they shouldn’t be - like in front of a grav bus!
I have a god collection of low res people that I made up using the Predatron3d low res people - this technique can take you places my method cannot.
Using the techniques that these tutorials provide can be further assisted with a good collection of the Predatron3d Los Res people. You may find that a few simple, low poly parented props are easier in the end. So using the tools and procedures that Steve is using here, you can simplify the overall difficulty of the process by altering the textures of the low res people, Say, the Low Res14 MU Worker and then going through and removing unnecessary overhead - you may find that figure to be sufficient without further additions, since Predatron made them so versatile.
Additionally, the Millennium People from Daz often have Lo Res counterparts - as I believe Steve has used the lo res M3 for his skeletal rig.
Very nice set of tuorials, Steve at Sci Fi Funk!
Thanks for all of this great insight!
Yes thanks Dartan for the additional info re: 4 point polygons.
I guess as always the real question is finding the best compromise. When looking at background objects, i.e. far away objects, do they need to be 3d or will 2d (plane with texture map) suffice, etc etc.
However, as I’m not much of a 2D artist I decided early on that I’d use my other skill (programming) to program my way out of trouble. This is why I’ll keep contributing my ideas via mini-series on “low poly” or “fast rendering” etc.
Next up is either shaders without textures or effective use of the carnegie mellon bvh library, which ever I get to complete first. I’ll create a separate thread for these.
