Here Are some other Carrara Renders I have done.
Most resent to oldest. (not sure which order they will be when posted.)
1. Crazy_V4.jpg (mainly testing the Crazy Nights clothing on a V4 morph I had made).
2. CTest08.jpg (Started a project in DS4 Pro, but could not get the Shadows right, so I re-created it from scratch in C8 pro.) still need to add the mosters they are shooting at.
3. Devcoat_Folly02.jpg (just like that environment set.)
4. Docks03.jpg (loaded up the Docks set. It was only half completed, so I filled in the other half with other set items I have, such as castle creator and midevil villiage items.)
5. Mtn_Tmpl06.jpg.. (Started as a test of the set, but then morphed into a test of lighting the swords.)
Mr. Guiney, some comments on your images in case you’re interested….
1. When everything is in focus, nothing is in focus. A few of your images have no clear focus. You don’t draw the viewers’ eyes to any one point. The lighting is very uniform, there are few (if any) shadows, and the dynamic range is very low. If you want to give your images drama (which I assume you do based on the content of guys and girls with swords and guns and stuff), then you might want to consider using dramatic lighting and shadows, as well as dramatic composition. It also looks like you have a high ambient setting in some of them, which is guaranteed to make your images look flat and uninteresting.
2. You have lots of nice textures, but I don’t “feel” the textures. By that I mean they are very flat, without much depth (ie, bump, etc.) and no highlights or ‘body’. There are many ways to give textures depth and feel if you’re interested.
3. I like the image of the blonde girl. I dunno, she’s kinda hot.
All of the images are outside scenes so the main light is the sky light in Carrara. Any ambient lighting is what ever is the default. I do have full indirect lighting turned on so light bounces off of surfaces and recasts at a reduced rate which is natural. I do not use Gamma correction though. I also hate hard shadows and almost always turn on soft shadows.
As for focus, if you notice none of the images have anything to consider foreground. which to me makes it hard to set any DoF.
As for the textures, with the exception on the lighted swords, all are the default textures that loaded with the Character or preset.
It sucks major that Carrara will not load light sets from Poser or Daz. Carrara does not even recognize the lights folders in the Poser runtime path.
As you can see from these images which were initially done in DS4, the lighting is much more dynamic, but It still seems off to me.
I am slowly moving myself away from Carrara to DS4, but there are things that Carrara can do that DS cannot. I tell you, if anyone ever makes a working Snap In for Blender that allows it to read the poser Runtimes and load the objects like Carrara and DS can, I will move completely to Blender.
All of the images are outside scenes so the main light is the sky light in Carrara. Any ambient lighting is what ever is the default. I do have full indirect lighting turned on so light bounces off of surfaces and recasts at a reduced rate which is natural. I do not use Gamma correction though. I also hate hard shadows and almost always turn on soft shadows.
As for focus, if you notice none of the images have anything to consider foreground. which to me makes it hard to set any DoF.
As for the textures, with the exception on the lighted swords, all are the default textures that loaded with the Character or preset.
It sucks major that Carrara will not load light sets from Poser or Daz. Carrara does not even recognize the lights folders in the Poser runtime path.
As you can see from these images which were initially done in DS4, the lighting is much more dynamic, but It still seems off to me.
I am slowly moving myself away from Carrara to DS4, but there are things that Carrara can do that DS cannot. I tell you, if anyone ever makes a working Snap In for Blender that allows it to read the poser Runtimes and load the objects like Carrara and DS can, I will move completely to Blender.
If you are using Indirect Light, you will want to turn ambient light off or very low. Since you are doing outdoor scenes, if you’re using a realistic sky, you have the option of having the ambient light use the sky for it’s color.
Edited to add that if you want an HDRI type light effect, you need to at the least have the Skylight enabled in your render settings. You can also have Indirect Light, but Indirect Light just calculates the reflected light. Skylight is more of an atmospheric light.
If you are using Indirect Light, you will want to turn ambient light off or very low. Since you are doing outdoor scenes, if you’re using a realistic sky, you have the option of having the ambient light use the sky for it’s color.
Edited to add that if you want an HDRI type light effect, you need to at the least have the Skylight enabled in your render settings. You can also have Indirect Light, but Indirect Light just calculates the reflected light. Skylight is more of an atmospheric light.
Hey thanks for the info on the Ambient light “Sky” setting. I did that and upped the quality to max while I was out and tweaked the green lights in the back. See if this one image is getting better? If so I will incorporate it into the others and update the original images. I don’t want to hijack this thread and turn it into a lighting WIP thread..
If you are using Indirect Light, you will want to turn ambient light off or very low. Since you are doing outdoor scenes, if you’re using a realistic sky, you have the option of having the ambient light use the sky for it’s color.
Edited to add that if you want an HDRI type light effect, you need to at the least have the Skylight enabled in your render settings. You can also have Indirect Light, but Indirect Light just calculates the reflected light. Skylight is more of an atmospheric light.
Hey thanks for the info on the Ambient light “Sky” setting. I did that and upped the quality to max while I was out and tweaked the green lights in the back. See if this one image is getting better? If so I will incorporate it into the others and update the original images. I don’t want to hijack this thread and turn it into a lighting WIP thread..
Much improved, yes. You might want to darken the edges either with light adjustments or in post to put the focus on your intrepid group of heroes. Even when you add creatures, having them come from the darkness will just make it more dramatic. As much as I hate to admit it, Joe was right. The focus (or lack of focus) can make or break your image. It all depends on what you’re going for.
I am slowly moving myself away from Carrara to DS4, but there are things that Carrara can do that DS cannot. I tell you, if anyone ever makes a working Snap In for Blender that allows it to read the poser Runtimes and load the objects like Carrara and DS can, I will move completely to Blender.
This appears to still be a work in progress, but from the comments I’ve read, it works as far as it’s been developed. There is a link to the Rendo forum thread discussing this plugin. There is some useful information there. If the developer ever completes the project, I may migrate to Blender also.
What, you mean about the blonde? I know, right? She looks kinda like she wants to wrassle or something. So can you imagine wrassling her when she’s wearing that top? I mean, wow…talk about awesome.
What, you mean about the blonde? I know, right? She looks kinda like she wants to wrassle or something. So can you imagine wrassling her when she’s wearing that top? I mean, wow…talk about awesome.
Okay, it’s about darn time I started working on improving my “creds” around here. Gotta step up my game, buckle down, and start producing some stuff that I hope you guys will find “awesome”.
Here’s my first attempt, just a quick test image of a Tomb Raider-type scene I spent a lot of time on. I’ll be glad to make a step by step tutorial if anyone’s interested, but real quickly here’s what I did:
Drag and dropped the city, and the character, the clothing, and the dragon.
And I used the Carrara fire feature for the dragon’s fire breathing fire. I cranked the ambient up a lot, then loaded an HDRI and turned on all the ambient and GI rendering options, and of course caustics to get the reflections off the windows, and turned on Realistic Sky and some other stuff. The render took a long time, probably around three days.
This appears to still be a work in progress, but from the comments I’ve read, it works as far as it’s been developed. There is a link to the Rendo forum thread discussing this plugin. There is some useful information there. If the developer ever completes the project, I may migrate to Blender also.
Yeah, he’s been working on that for quite a while. Good for him, I imagine it’s a huge task. I’d think that a bunch of content vendors and developers would be interested in maybe chipping in and/or supporting him. I expect there will be a mass exodus to Blender if that ever happens. Though it might be a very long while until it (or equivalent) are in shape for primetime.
