Carrara Challenge #27: “Carrara 9, Give us a Sign” WIP Thread: Voting has started.

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Comments

  • DartanbeckDartanbeck Posts: 21,103
    Sad said:

    TY Dart, I must use more of your terrains and actually the Carrara render was faster than the Octane one though admittedly not very high settings

    and yes Rosie is the bestest as usual heart

    PhilW said:

    Dart - that is looking amazing!

    Thanks! But Wendy, That's not Rosie... it's Ysabeau 6 (by Thorne) wearing Rosie's awesome hair!!! ;)

    Also... I really love the Carrara render engine! Especially after PhilW got me into using GC=2.2, which I was very reluctant to adopt - but time took my hand and has shown me the light! ;)

  • HeadwaxHeadwax Posts: 9,921
    edited August 2016

    well you go to sleep for 8 hours and look what happens

    really enjoying the different approaches, the underlying messages @Sad - nicely done !

    and @Dartanbeck, fantastic image, must go through your explantion with toothcomb! so long since i used partciles, must give them a try.

    @MistyMist, the usual joy in your work :)

    Here's a play with Plant generator. It's a kind of homage to "Blue Poles" by Jackson Pollack

     I pinched one of Dart's trees from his excellent packs and changed the leaves a little. From http://www.daz3d.com/carrara-environkit-woodlands

    PhilW Bench is in there as well but covered over. f rom http://www.daz3d.com/an-english-village - terrific set!

    And Dimension theory's ultra fast ecomantics fills in the background.http://www.daz3d.com/ecomantics-efficient-ecosystems

    Method: the leaves are PNGs - PNG is good because it brings in its own alphas!! So you don't have to use an extra masking texture in the alpha channel.

    Render is with Gamma set on 2 in the render room. 

     

     

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    Post edited by Headwax on
  • PhilWPhilW Posts: 5,139

    Head Wax - very original approach, but you should know by now that Carrara 9 doesn't grow on trees!

  • DartanbeckDartanbeck Posts: 21,103
    PhilW said:

    Head Wax - very original approach, but you should know by now that Carrara 9 doesn't grow on trees!

    ...perhaps he envisions it really branching out? ;)

  • DartanbeckDartanbeck Posts: 21,103

    I love the take! :)

    Plant modeler is quite the thing, eh? Get in too deep and... well... all manner of things can happen! I love all of those kits you've mentioned. The English Village is truly a work of art (and Love?). Talk about getting lost... that set is absolutely HUGE! So we can set scenes in many different parts of the village. DT's EcoSystems was a big thing for me, getting used to using actual Carrara scenes from my previous attachments to the Millennium Environment (which I liked a lot due to it's 360 degree capabilities), I made some absolutely gigantic scenes with that that left an extremely tiny footprint on my (then) under-powered laptop! I combined that with X-Frog's billboards. Woodlands? I think a user has to be somewhat grown up to use something like that... maybe some day ;)    Truly, though... I use that thing almost every time I load in Carrara in some way or form.

  • DartanbeckDartanbeck Posts: 21,103

    One thing I completely left out of my big WIP post is my use of Fenric's tools! 

    For one, I cannot even think of working with Genesis (1 or 2) or any other Triax figures without using that Change Bone Visibility plugin. So I had to perform that action on both Ysabeau 6 and the big Dragon 3.

    Also in my efforts to try various swords, one that I was looking at is actually a rigged figure instead of a prop. It was kind of clunky to try and treat it like a prop, parenting it to the hand, and using it the way it was meant to be used - by conforming it - was also a bit of a pain. I tried to use Animate > Detach Skeleton, but that was grayed out. So I performed the good ol' Edit > Fenric > Unlock Figure, then I could detach the skeleton, remove the model from the rig, delete the rig and use the model as a prop! Whew! It worked beautifully. 

    There was one situation recently where: when I performed the Unlock Figure/detach skeleton thing the model left behind was locked in place - I couldn't move it no matter what I tried with constraints, which were off to begin with.

    So if you have this issue, I've found the super-fast-and-simple trick to get it unstuck!

    Simply duplicate the stuck model, and use the duplicate (delete the original), which works as one would expect ;)

  • MistaraMistara Posts: 38,675
    MistyMist said:

    wippie wip

    Hmnpf! I missed this while I was babbling out my WIP info...

    Very cool, Misty!

     

    thanks  tee hee  modifiers lotsa fun 

  • MistaraMistara Posts: 38,675
    Sad said:

    well this is what I have for now and may be one entry, I have a few ideas I want to explore

    the terrain is as mentioned DB Badlands just the main one with a shader modified for OR4C

    The Carrara text I modeled with polylines and filled polygons triagulated and added thickness creased edges

    The Carrara 8 user is M4 skeleton in Luthbelina's pathfinder clothes which I fitted to G2M in that handy plugin Daz studio and converted to props. the canteen is Mortem Vetus Raggetty man's.

    I then fiddled with the mesh in Carrara's vertex room to make it more collapsed as on a skeleton and made some holes in it, I also dirtied it up with add operators and fractal noise which I also baked.

    Below is a Carrara engine render of the same prop in DB's original Badlands with the background terrain removed just for comparison

     

     

    thats about what it feels like in this heatwave >.< smiley

  • DartanbeckDartanbeck Posts: 21,103
    edited August 2016

    Fenric's Tools

    I am putting some of these tools to Constant use, while others I still need to explore more - as with many things in Carrara, both things that are included in Carrara Pro as well as after-market supplements. All in all, however, when I was going from laptop to desktop to my home-built workstation I ended up reinstalling Carrara a few times and, each time, if I tried messing around in Carrara before installing my Fenric tools, Carrara just didn't feel right. Fenric has certainly played a huge role in helping me to achieve my goals.

    Shader Power Tools - is a combination of many of the tools he sold via his site at prices too low to be sold here at Daz 3d. Bundling them together makes for a beautiful pile of very useful Carrara utilities! It includes the following tools previously sold in his (now closed) store: 

    • Shader Doctor
    • Skin Doctor
    • Advanced Shader Tweaker
    • Multi-Shader Editor
    • Layer Blending Shader
    • Enhanced Color Balance Shader
    • Enhanced Color Merge Shader

    I use the Advanced Shader Tweaker quite often, but really have to spend some time to get to know and use the others in this pack. They're all very helpful, useful utilities - it just takes me breaking away from old habits and looking at new/different ways of looking at shaders.

    BVH/PZ2 Exporter for Carrara - If this didn't exist, neither would my Swordworks for M4 or AnimationKit for Mil Dragon 2, since I made the animations in Carrara and used this tool to get them into PZ2 files, and then bringing those into DS to create the aniBlocks - which is a fine workflow. Very useful tool, it doesn't work for Triax rigging. But for recording any animations for any Poser-format models, this thing is incredibly powerful! 

    • Exports Static Poser format Pose File (PZ2)
    • Exports Animated Poser format Pose File (PZ2)
    • Exports Poser compatible BioVision Animation File (BVH)
    • Configurable Operation
      • Choose whether to include or exclude:
        • Overall Motion (global translation)
        • Joint Rotation
        • Morph Dial Settings
        • Joint Scaling (independent X, Y, and Z parameters)
      • Configure start and end frame range for animated poses

    Pose Helper for Carrara - Again, unfortunately this doesn't work on Genesis or other Triax figures - but I LOVE this tool! So nice to be able to swap pose directions > send left to right, right to left, along with everything else that it does. Being that I still enjoy using Generation 4 and other Poser Format figures (also works with native figures, primitives, etc.,) I find myself using this handy device quite a lot.

    •  Left / Right Pose Symmetry based on scene element names
    • Morph Zeroing
    • Pose Zeroing
    • Rotation Setting
    • Scale Zeroing
    • Scale Setting
    • General Scene Option Setting
    •  
    • Full undo/redo support
    • Works on content, native figures, and groups of primitives
    • Works across multiple figures and groups

    ​Carrara Enhanced Remote Control - Here we go! This bad boy is truly amazing! Faba (fabaone at ShareCG) has some very helpful tutorials and helper (controler) objects at ShareCG, and PhilW teaches us how to use this to let one aileron of an Biplane model control all the other ailerons and the wires that connect them! Really cool! That's in his Advanced Carrara Techniques course via Infinite Skills.

    This tool is best explained by the creator himself:

    Details

    Control a Value
    ..... With a Value
    .........From any object in your scene!

    The Enhanced Remote Control suite is a set of behavior modifiers and scene commands that work together to add much needed functionality and control to your animation workflow. It provides the basic functionality of Poser's ERC for creating joint-controlled movement within Carrara. But it also provides so much more, giving you the building blocks to rapidly create advanced, realistic animation.

    Control them all: Shaders, light values, position, rotation, morph settings - even other modifiers!

    Contains

    • Commands
      • Add ERC Modifier
      • Create ERC Chain
      • Add Pin Modifier
      • Delete Keyframes
      • Remove Duplicate Keyframes
      • Jitter Keyframes
      • Change Morph Limits
      • Property Explorer
    • Modifiers
      • Pin
      • ERC


     

    Features

    • Add ERC Modifier and Add Pin Modifier allow you to add the modifiers to the joints of imported Poser figures, which are otherwise locked out of having 3rd party modifiers added.
    • Create ERC Chain allows you to create a chain of basic ERC modifiers. The objects in the chain do not have to be children in the tree!
    • Delete Keyframes gives you the ability to do a “deep delete” of all of the current keyframes for an object. Set the scene time to the keyframe to be deleted, and select one or more objects to clear. You will be presented with a choice of “Selected Figure” (the default), where every item in each selected animation group will have the current keyframe cleared. “Selected and Children” where only the selected subtrees will be cleared, and “Selected Only”, where only the topmost selected items will be cleared.
    • Remove Duplicate Keyframes analyzes the timelines of the selected items. Any keyframe that is identical to both the preceeding and following frames will be deleted. You will be presented with a choice of “Selected Figure” (the default), where every item in each selected animation group will have the current keyframe cleared. “Selected and Children” where only the selected subtrees will be cleared, and “Selected Only”, where only the topmost selected items will be cleared.
    • Jitter Keyframes operates on the currently selected keyframes. They will be randomly moved forward or back in time within the limits specified, adding realism to your animation.
    • Change Morph Limits allows you to select a morph target and change the minimum and maximum allowed levels. Use this to stop the irritating “snap-back” behavior of morphs on imported Poser content when you attempt to enter a number that is out of range.
    • The Property Explorer is there because sometimes it can be difficult to guess what you are trying to do with the ERC modifier. The Property Explorer can help guide you by showing you a list that contains the same set of properties as are available in the ERC setup. Clicking on a property will display its current value, and you have the ability to set a new value by entering it in the “New Value” box and clicking “Update”.
    • The Pin Modifier attempts to fix the location of an item in XYZ space. It cannot override the motion of parent items, so it is a best-effort lock rather than an absolute one.
    • The Enhanced Remote Control Modifier is the main feature of the product. It allows you to drive any animateable parameter using another parameter as the controller. It is philosophically similar to the ERC facility in Poser, but it is far more powerful. The Carrara ERC modifier can accept any object in your scene as the source of the controller: other figures, lights, cameras, helpers – allowing for limitless combinations. You can even set up your own animation UI with helper objects! and Create dynamic special effects!
      In addition to the normal value operations, it also provides:
      • Late Start: you do not have to start the control at keyframe zero! Specify your starting time.
      • Cut Off: you do not have to try to work around the control for your entire scene – make it stop when you want it to!
      • Delay: Similar to late start, Delay prevents the control from happening for a given number of keyframes. Unlike late start, Delay remembers what should have happened and plays it back!This is quite simply indispensable for realistic animation of tails, ropes, and chains!
      • Decay: you can cause the control to decay over time, becoming less and less.
      • Grow: you can cause the control to be amplified over time, getting larger and larger.
      • Oscillate: you can set the amount of the control to oscillate over time
    • Absolute Mode: In absolute mode, the value of the control is used at the point in time it is needed, and the value being controlled is directly modified. The figure being controlled should start at zero pose for best results.
    • Relative Mode: In relative mode, the difference in the value of the control from the value it had when the ERC modifier first started working to the value at the current time is used, rather than the exact value. This allows you to do some manual posing of the figure being controlled
    • Name That Modifier: You can specify a title for the ERC Modifier, overriding the default of “ERC” so that you can easily keep track of which is which after you have added multiple copies of the ERC modifier to the same object.

    This is one of those that I really need to practice using more! This thing is awesome! 

    Pose and Shading Tools 2 - Again... I need to sit down and play with these. I bought this because I know that I will love using these systems, I just have to take the time to dig in and try them! 

    • Pose Transfer Command The main feature, this command will copy rotation, scaling, and transform between different characters. The copy is by joint name, so you can cross between Gen3, Gen4, Smith Micro, and even custom figures if they're named the same way. Copies morph settings between instances of the same character, too! Copies ANIMATION in both standard keyframe mode (faster) and "bake" mode which will capture Physics, ERC, motion path, and IK related movements. Additionally, it includes the ability to invert the value - great for mirroring movements. THERE IS NO UNDO!
    •  
    • Stack Tweener Ever wish you could oscillate along the bezier spline? This will let you! Stack up to six different sub-tweeners with configurable percentage weight for blending. Need more than six? Just stack in another stack!
    •  
    • Clear Timeline Command I gave you a "deep" delete with ERC, now here's its brother: Select a keyframe or tweener, and this command will clear out the entire timeline that it is sitting on. THERE IS NO UNDO!
    •  
    • TowardAway Shader Ever wanted to shade the two sides of a polygon different colors? With this simple shader, you can. White when the normal is pointing toward the camera, black when it is pointing away - this is great for simulating linings in clothing (which is nearly always one-sided).
    •  
    • Color Balance Shader Is that texture map just a tad on the green side? Colors too vibrant? Have a great prodecural stack that's just a bit too dim? This simple shader lets you adjust R, G, B, H, S, V values of the color result of a sub-shader.
    •  
    • Color Separation Shader So suppose you want just one channel out of the available color? This separation has two modes: pure, which will extract the red, green, or blue channels. And greyscale, which will give a greyscale representation of Red, Green, Blue, Alpha, Hue, Luminosity, and Saturation. Optionally adjust the brightness of the extracted layer, and even invert the value.
    •  
    • Color Merge Shader The opposite of Color Separation, this shader allows you to build a new color based on the input of four sub shaders - one for each channel (RGBA or HLSA)

    MDD File Format for Carrara - This is the one Fenric Tool that I do not (yet) own.

    Details

    Lightwave Motion Designer Data (MDD) File Format Filter for Carrara

    Bring Carrara fully into your animation work-flow!

    This plugin provides both import and export support for the Lightwave Motion Designer/Point Oven (MDD) file format. MDD is rapidly emerging as an industry standard for animation data exchange between 3D applications by pairing a standard wavefront Object (OBJ) file with a frame-based description of the animation for that object.

    This plugin opens the doors to animation by enabling Carrara to both import and export the OBJ/MDD file pairing.

    What's Included and Features

    Supported Platforms

    Carrara 7: Windows, Macintosh
    Carrara 8: Windows (32, 64), Macintosh (PPC, Intel32, Intel64)

    Features

    Export

    Any object can be exported. On export, a pair of files will be created with the same name and different file extensions: an OBJ and an MDD. It will have material definitions, but no shading, grouping, or normals. Textures are not exported.

    You may need to scale and/or rotate the resulting file in your destination application.

    Import

    Two files are required with the same name but different extensions: an OBJ and an MDD. The importer will import the OBJ, and will preserve materials but will remove any groups and normals. Textures are not imported. The MDD will be imported as a sequence of morphs, one per frame, and the importer will place keyframes to turn the morphs on and off. IMPORTANT: You need your default tweener set to "linear", or you must convert the tweeners to "linear" before using the animation. Otherwise, the animation will be badly distorted.

    You may need to scale and/or rotate the figure to match your scene.

    Also includes
    - Presets to assist with import from/export to various popular 3D package
    - Facility to save and load custom presets

          

    Posing Pack 3 - Here it is! There was a discussion going on just the other day about changing the visibility of an entire hierarchy chain being a pain in the butt! This plugin (I totally forgot about that function) has that capability and a whole lot more! I use this thing CONSTANTLY!

    This thing adds Tree Duplicate to the list of "Edit > Fenric" commands, which allows us to essentially duplicate things which cannot be duplicated! Instead of actual duplication, these Tree Duplicates are their own instances or separate figures, not the memory-saving instances we get from duplicated props and simple objects. But it makes it so we can get exact copies of - yes - Figures!!! So useful for vehicles, rigged building figures, even character figures. It basically (and quickly) pretends to add whatever is selected into the browser (without adding it to the browser) and drags it back into the scene - really fast! But wait... there's a lot more!

    This also adds the aforementioned Unlock Figure and Restore Figure! Wanna add a custom morph zone into a locked figure? Unlock it - change it - Restore it! Yup!

    We also get the Set Figure Visibility command which, as I've started this tool's description with, allows us to hide entire chains of hierarchy within a figure with a single click! I gotta tell John and Misty!!!

    It also adds Change Rotation, which is a command which will go through the whole figure and change ALL of the joint rotations from Carrara's default Quaternion to Angles! So if you've ever loaded in a figure that ends up looking like it's tied in a knot as soon as you start working with it, you now know how to fix it! :)

    Details

    The Posing Toolkit 3 gives you the power you need to get your work done, unlocking and enabling a number of critical features that allow you to tap into the awesome potential of Carrara!

    Have you ever set up the perfect background figure: clothes, hair, accessories, got everything all set and then remembered that Carrara just won't let you duplicate it? Oh, the menu option is there, teasing you - but it's disabled! The Replicator just won't cut it: you need individual poses! Enter the Tree Duplicator: duplicate anything and everything that can be selected in the scene tree!

    You've got a nifty new bit of conforming clothing, but there aren't any morph areas! Morphing a posed figure is great, but you need to be able to set the stuff up, right? The new Unlock Figure command opens up the power locked away behind those greyed out menu options. (And you can put things back to the way Carrara expects with the Restore Figure command)

    Sometimes, you've just got to hide things! But clicking the awkwardly-located "Visible" checkbox on imported content can be a chore. Just imagine hiding a hand with the fingers... oy! The new Set Figure Visibility command will do the hard work for you, activating or deactivating an entire chain of body parts with the click of a button.

    Do rotation options have your custom figures spinning around? Or are Carrara's defaults turning your people into pretzels? Carrara's default "Quarternion" controller is powerful, but also incompatible with just about everything. The Change Rotation command comes to the rescue, changing everything from a single joint to an entire skeleton to the much more compatible "Angles" controller.

    What's Included and Features

    • Five new scene commands
      • Tree Duplicator
      • Unlock Figure
      • Restore Figure
      • Change Rotation
      • Set Figure Visibility

    If you're wondering about any of these, please ask! I may know what you need to know - if not, I might be able to find out ;)

    EDIT: Hmmmm... this looks pretty useful, now that I see it. I'm going to copy this over to my Learning thread as well as the Carrara Information Manual thread ;)

    Post edited by Dartanbeck on
  • wgdjohnwgdjohn Posts: 2,634
    edited August 2016

    Here are a few ideas which I am not going to use... going in a different direction.

    • Picture a character hugging or even bowing before the "9".
    • How about a city block with a DAZ storefront and a sign in the window announcing "Carrara 9, below that, Released Today. There should be a line of folks, chars,  going around the corner.

    Kewl WIPs Folks!

    Post edited by wgdjohn on
  • StezzaStezza Posts: 7,757
    edited August 2016

    Monolith made in modelling room with a basic cube, text and booleans cool

     

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  • HeadwaxHeadwax Posts: 9,921
    PhilW said:

    Head Wax - very original approach, but you should know by now that Carrara 9 doesn't grow on trees!

    ...perhaps he envisions it really branching out? ;)

    heh, very funny you two :)

    thanks for the Fenric run down Dart!

     

    @wdgjohn, I like the second choice!

     

    @stezza, one of my favourite books! (and movies) :)

     

     

     

  • PhilWPhilW Posts: 5,139

    Thanks to Dart for the rundown on Fenric's wonderful plugins. Just one thing to add - if you really want to understand and get the best out of ERC, have a look at FabaOne's tutorials on ShareCG, they are terrific.

  • HeadwaxHeadwax Posts: 9,921
    edited August 2016

    thanks to PhilW's advice, managed to drape a vertex mexh over text mesh using VWD plugin.

    I used a glass shader on the result to give it a plastiv wrap appearence.

    Then used anything glows as the light source - applied to the text mesh.

    Different variations in the text glow channel - including Fenric's toward away shader (2nd image)

    And caustics  :)

     

     

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  • DartanbeckDartanbeck Posts: 21,103
    edited August 2016
    PhilW said:

    Thanks to Dart for the rundown on Fenric's wonderful plugins. Just one thing to add - if you really want to understand and get the best out of ERC, have a look at FabaOne's tutorials on ShareCG, they are terrific.

    LOL! I mention that in my opening (ERC) sentence, and a little later too! Guess I write too long and boring!

     

    head wax said:

    thanks to PhilW's advice, managed to drape a vertex mexh over text mesh using VWD plugin.

    I used a glass shader on the result to give it a plastiv wrap appearence.

    Then used anything glows as the light source - applied to the text mesh.

    Different variations in the text glow channel - including Fenric's toward away shader (2nd image)

    And caustics  :)

    Fantastic!

    Post edited by Dartanbeck on
  • TangoAlphaTangoAlpha Posts: 4,584
    edited August 2016

    Just playing with an idea . . . it's a sign!

    Took my existing finger sign and changed the text on the finger board and finneal. Still need to add people and "stuff"

     

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  • DartanbeckDartanbeck Posts: 21,103

    Very nice!

  • cdordonicdordoni Posts: 583
    head wax said:

    well you go to sleep for 8 hours and look what happens

    really enjoying the different approaches, the underlying messages @Sad - nicely done !

    and @Dartanbeck, fantastic image, must go through your explantion with toothcomb! so long since i used partciles, must give them a try.

    @MistyMist, the usual joy in your work :)

    Here's a play with Plant generator. It's a kind of homage to "Blue Poles" by Jackson Pollack

     I pinched one of Dart's trees from his excellent packs and changed the leaves a little. From http://www.daz3d.com/carrara-environkit-woodlands

    PhilW Bench is in there as well but covered over. f rom http://www.daz3d.com/an-english-village - terrific set!

    And Dimension theory's ultra fast ecomantics fills in the background.http://www.daz3d.com/ecomantics-efficient-ecosystems

    Method: the leaves are PNGs - PNG is good because it brings in its own alphas!! So you don't have to use an extra masking texture in the alpha channel.

    Render is with Gamma set on 2 in the render room. 

     

     

    That reminds me of a sculpture on the MIT campus

  • PhilWPhilW Posts: 5,139
    PhilW said:

    Thanks to Dart for the rundown on Fenric's wonderful plugins. Just one thing to add - if you really want to understand and get the best out of ERC, have a look at FabaOne's tutorials on ShareCG, they are terrific.

    LOL! I mention that in my opening (ERC) sentence, and a little later too! Guess I write too long and boring!

    Dart - never boring (but possibly a bit long!).

  • DartanbeckDartanbeck Posts: 21,103

    I know. And it's strange - most of those long-winded posts I make could be said in much fewer words! One day, perhaps, I'll have to learn the English language! LOL

    I cannot type either, so it takes me  f o r e v e r  to make those posts! LOL

    Faba so totally ROCKS! Doesn't she? Her Vimeo channel has had some really cool stuff using her Carrara-original figure walking up and down stairs, running....    I really need to sit down and practice my ERC. I never really had problems trying to think up how to work my animations - so the automated behavior never really took hold on me yet. But seeing what Faba has done with it really does help to show its potential, importance, and cool-factor! 

    Faba's The Frog Prince video         Little Bear video  Both done in Carrara

    Here's her ShareCG gallery, which is all about using the wonderful ERC plugin!   fabaone (must login to a Free account to download)

  • MistaraMistara Posts: 38,675
    edited August 2016

    trying to focus on one idea.  thinking something carrara cafe-ish.
    and something like Stark tower or the Daily Planet, Metropolis

    researching the idea smiley
     

     

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  • PhilWPhilW Posts: 5,139

    Dart - thanks for the Faba links, I'd not seen those before - I am now following her so I don't miss anything else!

  • MarkIsSleepyMarkIsSleepy Posts: 1,496
    edited August 2016

    Here's the start of entry #2 (I will return to entry #1 later to play some more).

    The "Carrara" and the "Nine" were both made in Carrara's Text editor.  I converted both to facets and add some boxes, cylinders and extrusions to the nine, then exported them both as OBJ.  The Carrara was imported to Blender where I used the sculpting tools to rough it up a bit. Then I took both into Subtance Painter to create textures.  Neither set of textures is working ideally in Carrara yet - getting Substance Painter output to work well in Carrara is still a trial and error process for me, with more error than I'd like. :)

    Trees are from HowieFarke's Arboreteum Vol 1, grass and stones from Mike Moir's replicator pack.  The nearby ground around the the pond is a vertex grid that I just used soft select to move around and the water is just a plane.

    Test render straight from Carrara with no post-work:

    Also attached are my scene setup and a screeshot of the nine in Substance Painter so you can see the shape and textures a little better. :)

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  • chickenmanchickenman Posts: 1,202
    edited August 2016

    toying with a concept.

     

     

    Carrara 8.5 sails off into the sunset with the arrival of Shiney new Carrara 9.

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  • HeadwaxHeadwax Posts: 9,921

    @TangoAlpha - sits very nicely, I like the subtlety :)

    @cdordoni  wow yes that looks so similar! Is that RMIT Melbourne?

    @chickenman and @MDO210 great start, and they are nearlly finished :) the concept is looking good Mark

  • HeadwaxHeadwax Posts: 9,921

    CONCEPT VOTING RULES PLEASE FEEL FREE TO COMMENT

    I was thinking maybe because we are having up to three images an entrant we could judge the winner by their scores combined. ie if their image 1 gets 24 votes, their image 2 gets 12 votes, and their image 3 gets 12 votes then they score 48.

    2nd and third and HM would be as per usual - ie based on votes for one image.

  • DiomedeDiomede Posts: 15,026

    Fine with me.

  • chickenmanchickenman Posts: 1,202

    im good with that

     

  • DartanbeckDartanbeck Posts: 21,103

    Mee too.

    Yo, Misty... wonderful thinking you've got going on!

    Mark, Wow... I love that image!

    Chickenman... Looks very inviting! It's still waaaaay too hot and humid where I live - where it's usually air conditioned outside in the summer due to our wonderful Lake Michigan. Not this year - though it's still not as hot as anywhere that surrounds us... so I should quit complaining! ;)

    cdordoni - that's a really neat sculpture! Are you in MIT? Student? Professor?

    PhilW, glad you enjoyed those! I've been a Faba fan ever since I've first joined the Carrara discussion forum. She helped me out quite a bit along with many others. She used to have videos up in her Vimeo gallery with her cool Carrara-original (but modeled in Hex) character, who looked really, really nice - like Aiko's boyfriend or brother. I still (embarrassingly) have some difficulty figuring out her wonderful tutorial graphic for ERC though. I think what it is, is that I need to actually come up with a specific goal and just start connecting it up. It's pretty straight-forward - as incredibly thorough its design is. It's truly a work of art all to itself - he's put so much into it... again, with Faba testing it and making highly educated suggestions on what all is needed. She really is genius!

  • DartanbeckDartanbeck Posts: 21,103

    Oh... and PhilW,

    I was working with your Instant City object files today - messing around with ideas for my nex run. Wow! That's one amazing kit! I've loaded and rendered the preset scenes before, but never played with the bits separately!

    I took the city blocks' base into the vertex modeler and made it thicker, so I could use various heights along with my Woodlands kit. Then I took a duplicate of that and removed the SubD and extruded the inner portion inwards, then moved that down and scaled it - to make it into street for the traffic presets! Worked perfectly! So then I parented that to the traffic preset, and I can now have streets at various elevations as well! So now I'm thinking of putting some cylinders under that whole thing, with that base being not quite as thick as it is now, to have overpasses and such. 

    Very fun, indeed!

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