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Congatz! Cheers!
Wow!
Sorry for the very late drum roll. I had back-to-back drumming events combined with full-day busy duties keeping me from even touching a computer until now.
I cannot believe I placed in the winner's circle against the competition. Thank you to all and a special thank you for the kind and inspirational comments noted with the votes. When I read those as they came, I was deeply moved and appreciating. Again... thank you all!
thank you @Diomede. :) that's very kind
Jon, the PM's are set up to link to the email address that you have on file with Daz. Which is good, because I normally only check for PM's if I get an email note. You can also read the PM's directly from your email.
It is likely that 1) Either you don't ever use the email which Daz has on file, or 2) The PM's go into your spam folder.
I was super happy that you entered, Dart! The more pros who enter, the better. It ups the game for everyone. Congratulations on a great render, well-deserved.
Well, you did get to use G'MIC, so it wasn't totally without requirements.
And you used it rather well. To satisfy my own sense of fairness, I chose to spread my votes to different artists, but your space babe was definitely in my top 5.
However, your point is well taken. The question is,do we want to go back to the days when the Challenges were averaging about 10 entries (and sometimes only 6 or 7)? While stiff requirements might be good for helping to develop individual skills, I can't help but think that encouraging more participation is probably better for Carrara in the long run. Plus, IMO, the overall quality is still on par with past Challenges.
I tried to keep the rules pretty basic, but I think what I liked was to give a choice of Carrara functions to use in a challenge. For instance, the fire primitive or some kind of deformer. Something that was available in the standard and pro version to keep the playing field level. The great thing about Carrara is (despite its age), is how feature rich it is, and how unique, cool, and powereful some of those little used features are.
You may not have entered, but you were remembered!
https://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/comment/3006131/#Comment_3006131
Agreed. The folks who put this thing (Carrara) together really put a LOT into it, and linked it all up with cool animation-frindly sliders and inputs, etc., - heck, even allowing sequenced animated images as texture maps? That's cool stuff!
As a test, I made an animated map of rainfall and added it to the highlights and bump channels of several parts of Rosie in this experiment. I still haven't made a proper animated dripping texture for her, but it has been on my mind lately. Hello, Howler? ;)
Been mulling over possible themes for the next challenge, and I've got a few ideas, but I don't know if any of them are any good. I'll float a few ideas and you guys let me know what you think.
First, I was thinking of a 'Speed setup' challenge where the only rule is that from the moment we load up Carrara to the moment we press the render button, we only get 30 minutes. (Of course this would be on the honor system). It doesn't matter how long the rendering itself takesm the idea is to explore how quickly we can setup an interesting scene in Carrara. Also anyone can submit as many entries as they like. I don't know if it's just me, but a lot of times on these challenges I tend to waay overthink it, constantly going back, changing, restructuring, etc to the point where there have been challenges where I never even submitted the entry I was working on. Other times I would get so weighted down by the thought of how much work it would be that I never started at all. I thought maybe a speed challenge would take the 'overthinking' aspect out and make it a fun, freeform quick creative challenge, that anyone could participate in stress free. Also if I'm thinking 'I'm going to put together 6 hours tonight to work on the perfect render' I just might not have the time, but practically everyone can probably scratch together a quick 30 min session to see what they can throw together speedily. My thought was that this might lead to more people participating, even more entries, etc.
Second, I admit I'm a scifi/fantasy geek from way back, and I was in the mood for a challenge with the simple theme of some sort of 'dungeon' scene. I've always loved that kind of stuff since I was a teen playing D&D, but I'm also aware that many Carrarists are far more grown up than I and so was thinking the main drawback is that it might alienate some participants who prefer more modern and less geeky subjects.
Third, I'm really excited about Alberto's work with the fluid sim plugin, so it's got me in a water-y frame of mind. I was thinking of maybe a challenge where the theme was that some form of water be included in the render somehwhere, whether it's simply sweat droplets on Vicky's skin while, a ship sailing the ocean, a tiny stream coming down the moutain, a rainy day, or a tidal wave about to crash down on a defenseless city. Seemed like this might be more standard fare, but on the other hand it might be better to do something like this whenever Alberto finishes up his plugin and releases it, which is probably several months into the future from now.
Fourth, well... we've already had a Christmas themed challenge not that long ago, but it is Christmas season again, so that might be one way to go too.
Fifth, I was also thinking of a landscape challenge, sort of a 'build-your-own nature landscape scene', which is something I've always wanted to learn more on how to do, but the drawback might be that creating the next Howie/TangoAlpha/Mmoir scene from scratch might be awfully labor and time intensive, and scare off a bunch of people.
What do you guys think? Way off base or does anything sound interesting? Also if anyone has any other ideas please let me know. I'm hoping to come up with a good theme that lots of Carrarists will enjoy and want to participate in :)
Jon, no matter what theme you pick, someone is not gonna like it.
No matter what constraint you pick, someone is not gonna like it.
Pick something close to your heart, because you will be the main person who gets to look at the renders every day. That's why I picked pinups.
I'm OK with any of your suggestions. However, the 30 min one is daunting, as I am as slow as molasses, while someone like Stezza will do a masterpiece in less time than that. But it would still be fun, especially if you say "no photoshop."
@Jonstark - those all sound like awesome ideas to me, but I think the 30-minute one might be a bit intimidating for those less familiar with Carrara's capabilities. It does sound like a lot of fun though; maybe we could start a totally separate thread for that some time - no prizes, just for fun.
@Jonstark, Any of those ideas would be fine with me. I think UB said it best. Pick something you won't mind looking at because you can't please everyone.
@MDO2010, good idea to have an occasional just-for-fun thread.
I think it wouldnt scare people off. It might get people to re/visit the replicator and or the plant room and or the terrain room . And I'm certain old users would post how to's in their WIP so it's a good way of demonstrating some of Carrara's less obvious features.
Plus they are all superior to Studio's out of the box features :) (INMHO)
Not so keen on the speed thing - that might scare some new people off
Man, I absolutely love all of your ideas. I cannot even pick a favorite among them.
Like, say you did the landscape one. I'd (me) start off by introducing some simple WIPS that could get people started with the terrain modeler and the terrain texture presets to get them off on an easy start, which they could take further on their own from other suggestuions and ideas, etc., I'd even be very happy to type something up gor you to present in your introductory posts if you'd like me to.
The 30 minute challenge also sounds fun! Impossible to judge as to whether or not it actually took 30 seconds to create, but fun nonetheless!
I am also a huge SciFi Fantasy nut... but I guess you likely know that already! ;)
Yeah... folllow your heart and do what you feel you'd love to host!
Don't forget that Howie/MMoir/TA sets are designed to work with lots of cameras pointing in every direction over a large area. When working for a challenge, you absolutely don't need to worry about anything that might be outside your camera frame, so what you see is all you need to make (WYSIAYNTM - a catchy acronym if ever I saw one!). But it's also a lot less work!
Requiring one of the new plugins would exclude Mac people from entering.
Another suggestion is to go to the top of the forum and look at all the previous Challenges. That may tigger something. You may want to repeat a theme, or it may inspire a variation, or even something altogether different.
One note - dungeon scenes are not geeky. They are cool.
BTW - I sent you a PM.
@Jonstark - remember, you have the power!
My comment on the 30 minute challenge is not to do it in thirty minutes, and the reason being is that means you are more than likely using premade content and that can sometimes take l-o-o-o-n-n-g time to load, especially if you have an older system like I used to have. If you want a timed challenge I would allow at least an hour. That's just my own opinion.
I do like the idea of a landscape challenge, especially since you've said that is an area you wanted to try. Learning how to set up something like a landscape lets you explore and use many of Carrara's great and least understood features. And remember, not all landscape scenes need to be the size of a small continient. You can get some pretty intimate scenes using some of those features.
As examples (click on attachment thumbnails for full sized versions):
I really love your standing rock creation, ep!
This is a render of mine from evilproducer's Fantasy Village product available from his ShareCG gallery
The Mac Carrara C cube (seen in the stacked stone wall) comes included in the pack! ;)
I always loved what you did with that picture, Dart! What a great way to use it.
thx! :)
Here's a link to my Fantasy Village scene that Dart mentioned: https://www.sharecg.com/v/69697/gallery/5/3D-Model/Fantasy-Village-terrain
Just a note, you will need to supply your own buildings. I have included information about the free buildings I used and where to get them. They are still available.
Here's one of my favorite renders using that scene. I like it because it shows how you can get close to a subject on your terrain, and at the same time use Carrara's atmospheres, clouds, lighting, etc. to sell the larger scale of your world.
what about something like, use only carrara procedural shaders on everything?
Congrats to all the winners!!! All very well deserved!
This was a great challenge with a huge bunch of outstanding renders. Thanks UB for the great challenge, it's always fun when I can actually get an idea for an entry, and have the time to enter as well.
@Jonstark - All of your ideas sound good. For the speed challenge maybe allowing more time would work better, say an hour for general setup like EP suggested, then maybe 30 min. to an hour for shader/render setup??? (I can easily spend and our or more just deciding on outfit, and character, and another hour on the pose, another on scene/environment, and who knows how long on shaders ..... yes, I obviously have a serious problem. The D&D idea sounds fun, never played, but I'm sure I cold put something together. A Christmas theme could also be fun, haven't done one in a long time. I'm sure what ever you come up with will be great.
PS: Sorry for the belated response/congratulations, I've been way "out of pocket", and looks like it will last a few more days.
Thanks DustRider. And thanks for the kind comments in the vote.
Thank you DustRider. I've long admired your POV and render style.
+1 on that!
Very inspirational images, EP an Dart.
Add me to the list of admirers of Dustrider. Always exceptional.
Misty has an intriguing idea about shaders. Maybe the procedural idea, or something similar. At one point, I was considering a theme of "made in the shade" in which one prominent object in the scene would have to be some relatively simple shape (like the shapes of the primitives even if it is a vertex obect), but made to look spectacular with just the shaders. For example, a cylinder can be made to look like a barrel. Another example, for those who have seen PhilW's tutorials, is making a rectangular box look like a building at night. A lot more can be done with a shader and the terrain modeler.
Jonstark did some amazing things with hair and with softbody physics. Could return to those ideas.
Some of the old themes took famous sayings or quotes from classic literature. "Paradise Lost" and that sort of thing. Could take a quote from MacBeth or Crime and Punishment or any other source and let people take it where they want to.
Another type of theme focused on types of public art. For example, we have had to make movie posters and we have had to make ads for NY City Subways (including the official dimensions). Could pick another type of public art, such as frescos or post cards.
But my most important advice, Jonstark, is to pick something that you find interesting.