Digital Art Zone

Don’t Laptop fans turn off and on only when the cpu/graphics card reach certain temperatures? I think the average laptop has 3 - 4 fans (but I could be entirely wrong there (I don’t like to open them). Maybe the program isn’t entirely compatible with your rig. I’ve heard temperature programs are often unreliable unless you know that you have the right one for your board/card/cpu etc. As far a 3DS Max goes I can’t help. I’m only just learning Carrara, let alone vastly superior and more expensive programs. I’m sure there are a number of Max users here though.

HI Grimreaper

The problems you’re having in rigging your model, may be due to the way it’s modelled,.
I’d like to see a view of your “Scene Instance list” for the skeleton model which you’re trying to rig. but,.. it seems to be in several parts.

Of all the figures you could have chosen to work with,.. the skeleton of an animal is probably the hardest model to start with, and a Bad choice for a model to experiment / learn how to a a Rig to.
The skeleton is much more complex than the basic mesh (Skin) of a figure.

Have you tried learning to Rig a simple model, ( a one piece object )

How hard would it be for me a person that hasn’t used this program, to be able to use and rigg bones to my model, it is called 3ds max.

If what you want to do is rig a model, then you can do that in Carrara, Poser or DS,.
You don’t need 3D Max, and although rigging can be simpler when you start by using a max “Biped”,.. the “Physique” system is a PITA to learn and use.

Max is a massive and highly complex program with multiple menu’s and work-flows, and despite it’s great built in help system, it’s not easy, and you should still expect to be learning MAX in ten years time.

On your Laptop (overheating) issues,. I agree with Jimzombie,.. that most of these “Utilities” will show some useful information, and some completely useless information, (unless you know what you should be seeing, and you know what to look at)  and unless it’s a utility designed for your specific laptop model,. then it’s probably not worth using.

If you don’t know what settings you should be seeing, or which areas to look at, then you should consider getting someone who does know, to have a look at it.

if your laptop is consistently overheating and causing Blue-screen crashes, then this will effect the processor and it will eventually stop working.

Laptops are less practical when you’re using programs which demand high performance, lot’s of memory, and processing power.
you should consider a desktop box or tower case, since these are easier to maintain (even for the novice), easier to access and replace parts, cheaper to buy,  more powerful, and more appropriate for running high performance applications.

Hope it helps

Holy crap your alive
I’ve had my scene instances in 2 different ways the first one was where every common thing was grouped together ( The hands with the fingers etc)
The 2nd one was where everything is parented to its other limb.(Where the fingers are parented to the hands)
I have rigged 2 models.
Technically 3 but the 3rd is a copy of the first, but in a different dress.
1st rigged model (http://the—grimreaper.deviantart.com/gallery/#/d4wbue9) < The third rigged model is in this pic.
2nd rigged model (http://the—grimreaper.deviantart.com/gallery/#/d4yax9x) < I haven’t finished with him yet.
I figured I might as well tried the 3ds max because it seemed powerful in a video, and I got it free along with other autodesk software.
Good to see you still around

HI Grimreaper

Yep , I’m still alive an kickin’

I think the main cause of your rigging errors, is due to the way you’re building the Model,... (In Parts)
then assembling those in a Hierarchy (which is a form of rigging) and then adding bones to rig the models together, and adding IK on top of that,.. the likelihood of creating conflicts between how the model is structurally connected together, and how it should move is really high.

Mechanical models don’t require Bones to allow you to animate the parts. and a skeleton is little more than a mechanical model.

If your modelled parts were all part of a Single Object, then you would probably have an easier job of Rigging it correctly, and animating it.

As a test….
Try selecting all your modelled parts,. then group them, and export that as an OBJ, then Import that single OBJ and try adding a simple Bone rig to it.
 
You could also assemble all of the Parts of your model into One Object in the Vertex Modeller, by using Copy / Paste, which would be a better route to a single object model, even although it’s a bit more work than exporting / importing an OBJ

The models in the links I posted are in a million pieces.Not literally, but still they are in a lot of pieces.

One thing that’s going to make life less easy, is if you try to work with lot’s of things at the same time, while you’re trying to learn something.

Keep it simple.  ...As simple as possible, and then work through the process a few times to familiarise yourself with How it works, and with the steps you need to follow in sequence, to get it to work correctly.

Don’t start out my making a complex (human) character, with clothing, and expect it all to work first time.

Also, remember in the real world there are people who Model, while other people create textures,  while other people Animate, and other people Rig the characters.
What you’re doing is all of those jobs, they all have learning curves, and none of them are easy to do

I’d suggest starting off with a simple “single” vertex model,
Add some bones. and attach the skeleton to the model, then see how it looks / works.
If you get Carrara errors at that point, then we’d need to break it down into smaller steps, to figure out where it all goes south.

Yeah, but I did really good rigging those model’s in the pic

Yes, they look fine, but, ..it’s hard to tell from a still image.

I’ve rigged and weight mapped some things that look fine until I animate them, and then I can see issues I didn’t notice before.
the more you do it, the more comfortable you become doing it, and the easier it gets.

I plan on building me a machine in the future when I get some money saved up. I was wondering do you consider these links as a decent start for the computer. Also I’m planning on building some games, and other stuff too, so don’t count this as just a 3D graphics modeling machine.

http://www.outletpc.com/wr4768-sapphire-11196-02-40g-radeon-7950-oc-edition-.html

http://www.outletpc.com/cu5223.html

http://www.outletpc.com/kt3558-mushkin-994017-desktop-ddr3-ram.html

Is this enough power or do I need to go up.

HI

Those are all pretty nice things to have, if you can afford them, and have a need for them.

If you’re on a Budget (who isn’t) then I’d suggest you look at Motherboard / CPU / Ram (combo deals) as a starting point, and then look at Cases, power supply, Monitor etc..

There’s no electrical knowledge required to put a CPU and RAM onto a Motherboard and fit that into a case (a couple of (One way) Clips, and five or six screws.
Everything comes with “user installation guides”
but if you don’t like the idea,. then most small places will fit the components together in a case for you.
 

The graphics card you linked to has plenty of GPU processing power, and a load of Ram, which is probably great for Game-Play, but right now, if you’re using Carrara, and doing 3D modelling, it’s as much practical use as an ashtray on a motorcycle.

The CPU you linked to is probably great, and is multi-core and uses hyper-threading to create virtual cores, so it seems impressive, but there’s a Big difference in the retail price , when compared to another manufacturers processor range , there’s not much real “Bang for Buck” difference in actual performance.
but there is a BIG difference in the retail price you pay.

The Ram you buy (and CPU) depends a lot on the Motherboard you buy, and the Maximum amount of RAM the motherboard can handle.
Many Motherboards in the marketplace still only take up-to 16GB , although some new Motherboards can handle up to 64 GB (MAX)

Take your time,.. Shop around,.

I is doing research, and I found a mother board that seems to work with it, and holy friggin crap 64 gb. I actually recently made a friend who is good at putting computers together. And actually the total price for the pc in the end is a little above 2000 bucks which is cheap for a beast like that, but as I said I’m doing research.  And I’m saving some money up for it. I will eventually need it to run more then carrara I need it for coding, unity, torque, and a multitude of things plus a gaming pc so I can test my games out that I make.
If I ever do make games do you want to be a nit picker for me telling me what I should and shouldn’t do with these models etc. That also goes for my other friends.
A one man project is going to take a while.
Heck if someone would like to I might let people play the beta version of the games. The main game I’m going to work on in the future would be a remake of Legend of Zelda: oot .Most people would think that it will be boring, and that would be true for the main adventure, but I’m going to have 3 extra difficulties and a special unlockable difficulty.
Sorry about the rant you know me by now.

I can’t seem to get bryce hdri maps to work in carrara all I get is a black background, but other hdri images work. Does anyone know a way to make it work.

HI Grimreaper. 

It should be working.
It works for me.

Do you have anything that you can open the HDRI image in to check it. EG: photoshop.

Weird it saved as black, also didn’t know photoshop could open hdri.
Do you have any advice for exporting hdri maps from bryce.

I cant seem to be able to export anything pose able from daz studio 4.0 (pro).
I get a messed up mesh, and an error for the collad file.