rendering goes wrong

Chris Fox ArtChris Fox Art Posts: 380
edited July 2013 in Carrara Discussion

i'm not sure what i am doing wrong as i think it's not really the issue of the rendering but i have make some default scenes with characters that i can add them every time on carrara 8 without making them totally new but i'm not sure but i think i am doing something wrong because the render doesnt get like i want it.

the scene is just camera and figure, no light and so as there is lightning on carrara.

The image i've added shows how i get always when i am adding a figure to the scene on carrara 8 and render it :\

carrara_8.jpg
1920 x 1080 - 678K
Post edited by Chris Fox Art on
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Comments

  • evilproducerevilproducer Posts: 9,040
    edited December 1969

    It will help to know the version of Carrara you are using, what the figure is and if it's using custom textures.

  • Chris Fox ArtChris Fox Art Posts: 380
    edited July 2013

    it's Carrara 8.5Pro, figure is V4.2 with morphs and textures i am actually not sure, i need to check but it was some high res textures that i've got from DAZ store

    --

    textures are from yasmin

    http://www.daz3d.com/fw-yasmin

    Post edited by Chris Fox Art on
  • evilproducerevilproducer Posts: 9,040
    edited December 1969

    I almost thought that the wrong image map was applied to the face, which it could still be, but I think I'm leaning towards the idea that you have the reflection turned on in the shader room for some reason. What are the Highlight and Shininess set at?


    I suppose it could also be a distorted mesh from a morph or something, but I'm 95% sure it's something to do with a shader setting.

  • Chris Fox ArtChris Fox Art Posts: 380
    edited July 2013

    turned off the reflections now but there are still some issues with the eyes, the rest seem to be fine now

    finally i might did something more wrong as i have saved the full scene on daz studio, so now i have just exported it as figure for carrara and now it also is displayed all right now, before it was mostly fully white as the texture mod didnt showed the textures right, only on rendering,

    carrara_8a.jpg
    1920 x 1080 - 785K
    Post edited by Chris Fox Art on
  • Chris Fox ArtChris Fox Art Posts: 380
    edited December 1969

    and this is now with the object, just need to find the right setting for high res picture to get much better quality for the image

    carrara_8b.jpg
    1920 x 1080 - 787K
  • evilproducerevilproducer Posts: 9,040
    edited December 1969

    Glad you were able to figure it out. Since you mentioned the render settings, let's look at those for a moment.


    The top settings are okay, though the anti-aliasing settings aren't what I would use. I would suggest using "good" with an object accuracy of .5 pixels and a shadow accuracy of 1 to 2 pixels. If it's not good enough for what you want, then go to Best. If you render larger images it may not be worth the time hit when you render it.


    The GI settings are another area where "best" isn't always best.


    For the Skylight option to have any effect you need to have a realistic sky, or any of these in the scene's background: HDRI, image map, color or color gradient. The skylight is really just a way to get an image based light (IBL) effect in your scene. If you don't have any of those, it won't have any effect.


    Indirect Light is basically reflected light. Carrara calculates how many times the light is reflected off objects in the scene. Each reflection will be slightly less intense. The amount depends on the shading characteristics. In your scene, you will get some reflected light off the model and it will illuminate whatever it hits next, but it will be minimal. The scene you have now isn't really optimized for Indirect Light. It will just increase the render times.


    IMPORTANT!!! If you use Skylight and/or Indirect Light in a scene. you will need to make sure Light Through Transparency is enabled for the general render settings AND the Global Illumination settings. So it needs to be enabled in two places. Unless there's no transparency of course.

  • 3DAGE3DAGE Posts: 3,311
    edited July 2013

    HI All :)

    It looks like there's reflection in the shaders
    Carrara 8.5 beta currently sets this wrong (in my opinion) although there is reflection used in the shaders,. the conversion of the settings into carrara doesn't work correctly, so the figure renders like a mirrored surface.

    The solution would be to edit the shader and change the reflection setting in each of the main shaders,. Limbs,. Torso,. Face etc..
    then save the shader as a carrara shader to the browser by dragging the global shader, to your My Shaders folder, in the browser.

    Changing the rendering settings will stop it rendering any reflections,. but that's the wrong answer, because you actually want reflections in the eyes.

    The V4 figure has an EyeSurface, and it has a shader,. also called "Eye_surface",.
    Daz Studio, uses an Alpha mask (Black and white, or Grey-scale image) to create the transparency,.
    but carrara can work with shader transparency, with refraction and reflection.

    You should try the Carrara High-Res shaders for V4, and M4 (which come with Carrara's content bundle)
    As an example of how the V4 shaders should be set...

    You'll also need to enable (light through transparency) in the render settings (global illumination section) to enable the light to pass through that Eye surface,. and illuminate the eye.

    you should also browse through some of the other example shaders which come with carrara, to learn how to create your own,. and experiment,. a lot..

    Post edited by 3DAGE on
  • Chris Fox ArtChris Fox Art Posts: 380
    edited December 1969

    thx! :)

    i will try that out!

    btw. what would be the best export option from DS to Carrara? I was using the .obj file as i have to option to convert it to Carrara

    https://fbcdn-sphotos-d-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash3/921506_10151776798365996_366593513_o.jpg

    https://fbcdn-sphotos-f-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/1048599_10151776798375996_1944169707_o.jpg

    https://fbcdn-sphotos-c-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/1052968_10151776798540996_1804617120_o.jpg

    but what should i activate there and what not if i just want figure with or without clothes?


    than i read something about using FBX for export and there i have the same question like .obj file

    https://fbcdn-sphotos-h-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-frc3/1064164_10151776798345996_1914952929_o.jpg

  • 3DAGE3DAGE Posts: 3,311
    edited July 2013

    The best option to get V4 into carrara is by using the browser in carrara :)

    You can load V4 from the browser, into an existing scene,... or a new scene,.. There's no need to export from DS and import into Carrara.

    When you buy V4,. it's supplied as a bunch of files,.. which make the figure,. the main "geometry" file is supplied as an OBJ model (in a T Pose) so there's no need to export as OBJ,. or anything else..

    You only need to export, ...for programs which can't open the figure natively. like 3DMax, Maya, etc,..

    Most your Daz3D, and poser content, can be loaded directly into carrara from the browser,. (just as you would do it in Daz Studio or Poser) you'll also need to adjust some shader settings, to work better in Carrara, since the default shaders will have been created for poser or Daz Studio's shader and render engine.
    The exception would be genesis ,. which will only work in the beta version of 8.5,.

    Anything before genesis, can be loaded in using the browser ,. See pic.

    Shaders can either be loaded using the browser,. or you can load the texture maps manually from your runtime folders.


    Some pages to help :)

    https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/7907045/Carrara_first_steps.zip

    v4_browser.jpg
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    Post edited by 3DAGE on
  • TheKDTheKD Posts: 2,666
    edited July 2013

    You should be able to just add your runtime and get it in directly without exporting from DS. I would put some screenshots up, but I don't have carrara installed right now. Went back to blender after messing around with carrara hair for a few days and getting crap results lol.

    *ah shoulda figured I would get beaten to the punch, and even a nice screenshot :D

    Post edited by TheKD on
  • Chris Fox ArtChris Fox Art Posts: 380
    edited July 2013

    yes but the figures i am exporting are changed, so morphed a lot and customized, so it won't appear in the browser i think and if i load the V4.2 figure i have to fully moprh and change it again, thatswhy i wanted to save a character preset that all the settings are made and i just have to place the figure into Carrara

    btw. just found out i haven't activated light through transparency as it solved the black eyes issue

    Post edited by Chris Fox Art on
  • 3DAGE3DAGE Posts: 3,311
    edited December 1969

    The problem with that, is the way that DS saves a Character preset,. ..In DS format, which is great for DS,. not so good for anything else.

    Carrara has always had issues importing or translating the DS format's ,.. that's one reason for the development of the new DSON (Duf) format.
    the drawback is that only 8.5 can open DUF format,.. not 8.1

    In DS 4 + you can save the Figure and it's current morph settings,. as a character preset,. then apply that to your figure in the carrara beta.

    but in C8,. you need to load the figure and apply the morph values,. fortunately, you can have DS and Carrara open at the same time, and flick between them to see the settings.

    hope it helps

  • Chris Fox ArtChris Fox Art Posts: 380
    edited December 1969

    when i go on DS to save character preset it always say: You have to select a TriAx weight mapped figure in the scene to save a character preset.

    So what does that mean?

  • DartanbeckDartanbeck Posts: 21,103
    edited July 2013

    It means that your selecting the wrong sort of save option - Triax is Genesis, Daz Horse 2, Genesis 2, etc,
    Instead of character preset, try Save As > Scene and save it as a DUF file. (?)

    EDIT:
    Sorry. The (?) is because I'm not sure on the info I gave you - I'm not very good with Daz Studio, yet.
    I am going to make a practice of learning a lot of it, though... eventually.

    Post edited by Dartanbeck on
  • DartanbeckDartanbeck Posts: 21,103
    edited December 1969

    3dage had a good answer... to just load V4 in straight to Carrara. I have had custom figures before I got Carrara - I just rebuilt them directly in Carrara - then save them to the Carrara Browser. I also have a short article: "Working with DAZ 3D Content" that has some (hopefully) helpful stuff to consider.

    But one way or another... we'll get you set up and running with the character you want in there... you'll see!

  • 3DAGE3DAGE Posts: 3,311
    edited December 1969

    HI chiisuchianu :)

    The problems you're having are all coming from the fact that you're starting in Daz Studio, building the character, adding DS shaders, and then exporting all of that to carrara.

    There's a simple (but harsh) way to look at this,.

    If you want to work in carrara, with V4 , ..then it's best to start in carrara with V4,.

    Load V4 into a new medium scene,. then you can browse through your runtime (pose) folders, and apply your materials (skin),. then apply the morphs you're using,. then , if you're happy with that figure,. you can drag the V4 figure from your scene (instance list), and drop it into your "My Objects" folder, in the browser,.

    Doing that, will save your V4,. with all your morph settings, and the skin textures,. then you can drag that "character" into any carrara scene.

    You can also save a figure with clothes , hair, props etc, by selecting all those items, and making that into a Group. (Edit / Group)
    then you can drag the whole group into your browser

    Daz Studio 4. has changed the scene and presets format to DSON (DUF) and Carrara 8.5 has also been built to use this new format,

    Before DS4,. the format was .dsf , and several attempts were made to allow Carrara to open DS scene files,. (some actually worked briefly) but changes in both programs, meant that it kept breaking,. so that's why the new format was developed,.
    ..so that Carrara and Daz Studio can be more compatible.

    the drawback ,. for you,. right now,. is that you've built your figures in DS, and want to transfer them to carrara,. but the easiest route is to just start again,. in carrara,. save your cast of actors to a folder which you can add to your browser "My Objects"

    the good news is that you're saved scene from Daz Studio,. can be opened in the Carrara 8.5 Beta,. which does read the DS Duf formats.

    you could save your V4 figure as a "Scene" file in DS,. then open that in Carrara 8.5,. then drag the figure into the browser,.(to save it)
    which will save it as a Carrara file,. and you can then open that in Carrara 8.

    there will be some changes you;ll need to make to the shaders,. in 8.5, before you can load it into C8.

    In Carrara 8.5,. the default image filter, is "fast mip-map" (which is a new filter type for carrara),. but in C8,. the default image filter is "sampling". and since you're importing from DS, in duf format,. the 8.5 beta, will default to importing the textures as fast mip-map,
    if you save the carrara scene, and load it into C8,. which doesn't have the Fast Mip-map filter,. then you'll get an error, or the images may not load, or reset to a colour.

    you may need to change the filter type to Sampling,. for all texture maps used in all of V4's shaders,. then save your scene,. and it'll load into C8.

    hope it helps :)

  • Chris Fox ArtChris Fox Art Posts: 380
    edited December 1969

    to build the figure again in C8 would take a bit of time when i think that there are 5 figures i have to do than :D
    I am wondering if i can still transfer the Character from Carrara 8 to 3DXChange to use them with iClone.

  • 3DAGE3DAGE Posts: 3,311
    edited December 1969

    Wendy is the resident i-clone expert,. I don't have it, but I think V4 should transfer from Carrara 8.

    As far as I recall it''s an FBX export into i-clone,. which doesn't really need to come from carrara,. DS can export FBX (with a plugin,.. I think). although I could be completely mistaken on the whole FBX export to i-clone thing.

    I'd try using the 8.5 beta, to load your morphed V4 figure,. then save that scene and open it in C8,.
    Once you've done that,. then you can apply the V4 skin shaders (from your Daz3D Runtime library),. to your morphed V4 in C8,. and they'll work much better than the DS imported shaders.

    Some things take time to do, but are worth doing because you learn something during the process,.

    Manually changing or adjusting shaders, or morphs, may seem like a real task right now,. but you'll benefit from doing that when you begin to create you own objects,. with shaders, or morphs.

    If all your figures are using V4 as a base,. then you could load V4 in C8,. adjust the morphs for your first figure,. save the figure to the browser, then go to the Animation menu,. and Zero the figure,. back to the base shape.
    then adjust the morphs for you next figure,. ..Save , Zero figure,.. Rinse and Repeat...

    :)

  • Chris Fox ArtChris Fox Art Posts: 380
    edited July 2013

    i think i will do that as it seem to be the best option right now, even if it will take a bit time it helps me to get a better understanding in using Carrara, so things will get a bit easier for me than.

    first time i was importing .obj files to iClone and i wasnt really satisfied with the image as it looked like it set the textures very low.

    than i've got the information about FBX and so i was exporting it as fbx and it worked and looked much better now but the question is if Carrara 8.5 could export as FBX format to load it in iclone.

    When will be the final C8.5 Version available?

    btw. i am using V4.2 and Genesis + i think V6Genesis2 models

    Post edited by Chris Fox Art on
  • 3DAGE3DAGE Posts: 3,311
    edited December 1969

    As far as I know,. the beta is due to be released at the end of the summer,. so,. not too long to wait.

    Carrara 8 pro, and C8.5 pro, have FBX export,. (FBX export is a "Pro Only" feature).. but,.. although Autodesk originally set out to make a "standard" file format, which could be opened in other 3D applications,. the fbx format has been updated, and changed, several times,. so, there are various flavours, and some programs are choosy about which versions they'll work with.

    Fortunately, there is a conversion utility available for free, on Autodesk,. look for FBX converter.
    it'll convert one fbx to a different version of fbx,. so whatever fbx version i-clone needs, it can be created using that, to convert whatever version of fbx you export from Carrara or DS,. to the correct version for i-clone,

    Carrara can export several different versions of fbx,. but Wendy can give you more info on using i-clone and Carrara together. since she was the first to try it.

    start a new post, an call it "Wendy help me in i-clone" ...or something like that,.
    Wendy is very helpful and friendly.

    If you're going to be working with V4 and Genesis,. then you should use the beta version of 8.5,. it's pretty stable, and it's the only Carrara version which can load and work with Genesis, ...it also reads DSON Duf format, from DS4.6, so you should have less problems with your shaders,. but because Carrara has a different shader system, and render engine,. there will be some work needed to adjust the shaders to work better in carrara.
    Normally, you're adjusting the Highlight and Shininess channels,. and those values can be copied / pasted into the other shaders on your figure.

    working in both C8 and 8.5 could cause some issues with shaders, or figures in your 8.5 scene, which wouldn't load into C8.

  • Chris Fox ArtChris Fox Art Posts: 380
    edited July 2013

    so, today i will try to make one figure complete with Carrara with the same settings like i have on DS but hopefully i get it that realistic like on DS

    this picture was made fully with DS 4.6Pro, FaceFilter 3 Pro and Photoshop CS2

    https://fbcdn-sphotos-e-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-prn2/1048133_10151778194135996_284609926_o.jpg

    to compare with original u can see here

    https://fbcdn-sphotos-c-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-frc3/1072455_10151778670270996_548144971_o.jpg

    just bad point is that the server have lowered the resolution and quality of the picture :\

    So my first renders with Carrara wasnt that realistic in my opinion as the lips for example didnt looked that realistic but i think/hope it's just a matter of the settings on Carrara 8.5

    But i think it is possible to do real photorealistic images that can be better than on DS.

    Post edited by Chris Fox Art on
  • 3DAGE3DAGE Posts: 3,311
    edited July 2013

    as a quick example,. here's an image I made in C6, a long time ago,. to test the Elite textures.

    The model is V4,. with Lana elite textures, and Posh hair.

    When you import a shader, into carrara, you'll need to make some adjustments to make it work better in carrara.
    sometimes the Bump texture map won't load,. and you'll nee dto load it manually and adjust the value.
    most of the time the main problem is the settings fr highlight and shininess,. again,. by looking at the Carrara High-Res Shaders for V4 / M4,. which come with carrara,. you'll see a good example of how the shader vales should be set,.
    but you can adjust your own settings to get the best image for your scene lighting.

    Its certainly possible to get good images from carrara, ...even without post work, :)

    the only post work in this image, was to add the tag.

    lana.jpg
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    Post edited by 3DAGE on
  • 3DAGE3DAGE Posts: 3,311
    edited December 1969

    Also,. you can add images to your post here,. just click the browse button, below the message area.

    if you want to ad more than one image,. hit the preview post button,. then browse for another image.
    The forum software will show a reduced version , but will show the full image if you click on it.

  • Chris Fox ArtChris Fox Art Posts: 380
    edited December 1969

    thank you very much! The image looks really great! :)

    So i can't wait until i'll finished my work for today to get home to try to make my figure on Carrara :)

    i've also found this site that i think can show how good that program can be

    http://carraracafe.com/carrara-showcase/

    some of the pictures there can't really decide if it's real or just made in 3d, i have purchased the tutorial from Phil Wilkes as it also helps a lot to learn how to handle Carrara :)

  • Chris Fox ArtChris Fox Art Posts: 380
    edited July 2013

    i have two questions now.

    So i have added the celestial jewelry but they doesnt fit right now.
    On Daz Studio i have a leveler where i can fit the jewelry to the figure but do i also have this on Carrara 8.5 and when yes, where is it?

    The second most important question is: can i search for the content like on Daz? So when i know what i have on each figure, which morphs, clothes, textures,... is there a way to search for them on the libary? Or do i have to look manually for all those things?


    btw. when i will load the textures of yasmin i will get the following error:

    "The current texture size limit is not appropriate to the current scene. The texture limit has been reduced."

    So am i right that it says the textures have now a lower resolution? How can i change it that the resolution will be like the original?

    Post edited by Chris Fox Art on
  • evilproducerevilproducer Posts: 9,040
    edited December 1969

    i have two questions now.

    So i have added the celestial jewelry but they doesnt fit right now.
    On Daz Studio i have a leveler where i can fit the jewelry to the figure but do i also have this on Carrara 8.5 and when yes, where is it?

    The second most important question is: can i search for the content like on Daz? So when i know what i have on each figure, which morphs, clothes, textures,... is there a way to search for them on the libary? Or do i have to look manually for all those things?


    btw. when i will load the textures of yasmin i will get the following error:

    "The current texture size limit is not appropriate to the current scene. The texture limit has been reduced."

    So am i right that it says the textures have now a lower resolution? How can i change it that the resolution will be like the original?

    That should have more to do with the Interactive Renderer. It uses the graphics card in your computer to generate textures in the Assembly Room, as well as general screen drawing. You're probably bumping up against the limits of your graphics card.The rendered textures shouldn't be effected as rendering is CPU based.


    To access the Interactive Renderer, look at the top right of your window. There is an icon with a up arrow inside a circle. Click it, and a new window opens with a bunch of different settings. You'll primarily want to lower the settings in the first section. I would also make sure the renderer is set to use OpenGL instead of Software.


    The changes you make in the Interactive renderer do not have any effect on your final render!

    Picture_4.png
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  • Chris Fox ArtChris Fox Art Posts: 380
    edited December 1969

    Well, graphics card is 2x Point of View GeForce GTX560ti Ultra Charged Edition with 2GB (SLI) so graphics cards should be more than enough to do.

    But on the training video there was an option for rendering that i can choose if i would have multi core CPU what i do with the i7 920 but there is no such option on Carrara 8.5

  • evilproducerevilproducer Posts: 9,040
    edited December 1969

    The option to enable multi-threading was in the Render Room in version 7. Not sure if it's been moved or not in version 8. Try looking way down to towards the bottom of the screen. You may have to scroll down.

    Picture_5.png
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  • Chris Fox ArtChris Fox Art Posts: 380
    edited December 1969

    isnt the tutorial from Phil Wilkes for Carrara 8? So it should appear there but it does not in the 8.5 beta, i only have Network rendering and the Log for Network Connections.

  • 3DAGE3DAGE Posts: 3,311
    edited December 1969

    Hi,.

    The option to use multiple processors, (if available),. has always been in the preferences.
    File / Preferences / General
    It should be enabled by default.
    (See pic)

    the option for render nodes, (at the bottom of the rendering panel) is for reducing the size of the area which each node (core) renders.

    As Evil Producer mentioned,. the texture reduction is for the scene display in textured mode,. the rendered image will not have reduced textures,. and will use full textures, at the highest quality, depending on your rendering settings.

    So i have added the celestial jewellery but they doesn't fit right now.
    On Daz Studio i have a leveller where i can fit the jewellery to the figure but do i also have this on Carrara 8.5 and when yes, where is it?

    The Parameters section on the right hand side,. (see pic) is where all your morph or adjustment settings are located.

    If you select a figure,. like V4,. then load an item from the browser,. Like clothing or hair,. then carrara will automatically "Fit" that item , to the selected figure,.

    if you don't have a figure selected,. and you load an item,. then you can fit that item to a figure,. by using the "Fit To" option for that item, to select the figure you want it attached to.

    The product you load in DS,. is the same product you load in Carrara,. so it'll have all the same morphs, adjustments, and controls.

    can i search for the content like on Daz?

    Carrara 8. doesn't have the same search function as DS,. it relies on the manual method of you, knowing what the item you want to load is called, and where it's located,.

    :)

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