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

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  • MarkIsSleepyMarkIsSleepy Posts: 1,496
    edited August 2016

     

    wgdjohn said:

    Plodding along. Here is the new cube design, a vertex object, and my test scene setup. I've also added modified "C" text letter. I've got the rest of letters and number "9" done but not set up yet.  1st pic is with caustics and reflections on. 2nd pic is with caustics on and reflections off. Big difference and both appeal to me. I'll likely go with the look of the 2nd pic.

     Very cool - I really like the look of the cube and if you are collecting options, I too prefer the second cube image to the first.

    wgdjohn said:

    Carrara or myself has gone nuts. The 2nd pic .car file renders anywhere from 3 to 6 times... I've checked and all objects, cameras and lights are set with animated off... same for Render room output settings "no animation" and "no multipass".

    What file format is it set to render to?  Sometimes if I accidentally add a keyframe somewhere Carrara "helpfully" switches the output format to .AVI, which will cause it to render an animation, even if I then delete the keyframe and set it to "current frame only."  You need to make sure that "Current Frame" is checked AND that it is not set to an animation file format.  You would think logically that if it said current frame you could only use still image formats, but if you set it to movie, change it to .AVI (or Carrara does this for you somehow) and then change it back to current frame, it will sometimes keep the format in .AVI even though that makes no sense.

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  • DartanbeckDartanbeck Posts: 21,103

    Yum Yum... Carrara 9 Chocolate! Mmmmm!!!

    Oh no! (or should it be... Oh Cool!!!?)

    We're using the same font!

    Well not from my previous image, but the new logo I worked up. Haven't had much time lately - Stone work, my Dad took me to the Packers Pre-season game against the Oakland Raiders... which was really cool! Talk about good people watching! We were talking about watching peeps in another thread regarding animations - expressions and, more importantly, their timing. 

    Massive events (we had an attendance of 75,000 spectators) like this are excellent for this - just be careful to not get caught staring too long at the wrong people!!! 

  • DartanbeckDartanbeck Posts: 21,103
    wgdjohn said:

    Carrara or myself has gone nuts. The 2nd pic .car file renders anywhere from 3 to 6 times... I've checked and all objects, cameras and lights are set with animated off... same for Render room output settings "no animation" and "no multipass". Even stranger is the fact that I can render with reflections on or off and get the same result. Note that I'm only using the tiled plane for testing.

    Check to see if "Motion Blur" is enabled - and how many frames it takes to complete.

  • wgdjohnwgdjohn Posts: 2,634
    edited August 2016

    MDO2010,  That is the first place I check which was set to .PNG and current frame.  Too many times have I accidentally clicked the "Storyboard" room icon and had to abort an animation of a never changing still image.

    Dartanbeck "hit the nail on the head", somewhere along the way I'd clicked the Motion Blur checkbox... probably got in a hurry and mistook it for the Caustics checkbox... Doh.

    For my reflections On/Off problem I still can't figure out what is wrong but two files saved one off and the other on. One does work properly the other does not... oh well... no need to track that down but I am curious. :)

    Post edited by wgdjohn on
  • MarkIsSleepyMarkIsSleepy Posts: 1,496
    edited August 2016

    I think this one is as done as it is going to get.  I didn't do much post-work, just a little bit of color/tone adjustment and adding a vignette.

    Changes to the scene since the last version:

    • Added primovol fog
    • Reduced the number of trees in the mid-ground and background replicators
    • Reduced the translucency on the tree leaves
    • Added more green to the MMOIR grass on the shore and increased the amount of it
    • Added additional plants and rocks from assorted HowieFarkes sets
    • Added the fallen leaves from one of HowieFarke's sets - I also had to flatten these in the vertex modeler and recolor them a little to fit the scene better
    • Added a songbird and a couple dragonflies
    • Added a spiderweb in one of the letters of Carrara (trans map on a plane)
    • Reduced the bump slightly on the water

    Most of the changes were just to separate the fore/mid/background where I thought it was a little muddy and hard to read and the rest were just adding little details. 

    carrara 9 pond final render

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  • MarkIsSleepyMarkIsSleepy Posts: 1,496

    I've been thinking about how to approach my three entries.  My first image is kind of abstract and sort of literal, just glowing spheres being replicated according to a map, spelling out the theme phrase "Carrara 9."  I still want to revisit that - I like the idea of it but am not totally happy with the implementation. My second entry (above) is still fairly literal in the interpretation of the theme. There is a little bit of symbolism with Carrra being old and worn looking and that fancy, hi-tech, new-looking 9 on the other side.  It's pretty (I hope) and shows off what Carrara can do but there isn't much going on there in terms of a story.

    Now I need to come up with something for a third image.  I think I will not make the theme phrase "Carrara 9" so much the focus but rather just part of an image that hopefully is more interesting on its own merit for the last one. Now I just need to come up with an actual idea. :)

  • wgdjohnwgdjohn Posts: 2,634
    edited August 2016

    Mark, Cool... has potential for an animation... picture a calm lake... enter the "9" and gives the pool a jolt or blast, lighting perhaps, the water has a strange glow afterwards for a short time and then Carrara starts emerging from the sunken depths and ends risen just above the water or where it is shown above.

    Everyone is doing such great work... excuse me for not commenting more on each they are all *very* good... been a bit busy with chores inside and out. All the WIPs are so good, a lot of stiff competition, hardly seems worth entering... but then I'm not "in it to win it" I enjoy making scenes and learning Carrara's features a lot more than in the past and modeling objects. That said I will have an entry if at all possible. No one should let a bit of competition get in the way... entering Carrara Challenges only makes us better, IMO.

    head wax said:

    you could hit it with 1000 percent reflection, zap up the caustics in the render room and turn off reflections - see what happens :) you get the reflected light but not the reflection

    Special thanks to "head wax" for mentioning the above... I'd been wanting to try out caustics on my WIP to see what happens. I couldn't find a way to simply add 1000 percent reflection even manually so cranked it up to 100, the highest it will go, and set the Fresnel value to 100... tried at 10 also but wanted more. I often do. :)  The fiddled with Caustics settings til I was satisfied. This tip added some very nice shading which I'd not accomplished, yet, with any of the procedural textures, Carrara's, DCG's, Veloute's or any others I had... need to experiment further with them.

    While I'm rambling I'd also like to thank everyone for helping out in my Carrara Modeling thread. Cheers folks!

    Post edited by wgdjohn on
  • MarkIsSleepyMarkIsSleepy Posts: 1,496
    edited August 2016
    wgdjohn said:

     

    head wax said:

    you could hit it with 1000 percent reflection, zap up the caustics in the render room and turn off reflections - see what happens :) you get the reflected light but not the reflection

    Special thanks to "head wax" for mentioning the above... I'd been wanting to try out caustics on my WIP to see what happens. I couldn't find a way to simply add 1000 percent reflection even manually so cranked it up to 100, the highest it will go...

    You can get %'s higher than 100 by changing the channel to the "Value (10-10000%)" option.

    1-10,000 percent option

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  • wgdjohnwgdjohn Posts: 2,634

    Mark, Thanks for the pic... I was only changing settings in Reflection overall view... numbskull that I am should have gone to Shader value... wasn't thinking. I did change it just now and it does look a bit better.

  • DartanbeckDartanbeck Posts: 21,103
    MDO2010 said:

    I think this one is as done as it is going to get.  I didn't do much post-work, just a little bit of color/tone adjustment and adding a vignette.

    Awesome!

  • DiomedeDiomede Posts: 15,021
    edited August 2016

    I was actually doing a test of a custom skin shader for G2F that I was trying to make derived from a Forbidden Whisper product. See http://www.daz3d.com/the-ultimate-merchant-resource-kit-for-genesis-2-female-s  ; Next thing you know I was doing a tribute to Gil Elvgren and had a start of another entry. 

     

    Currently, there are only two light sources.  I have one distant light and then I am also using global illumination based on a bi-gradient in the scene background.  The middle colors of the bi-gradient are the same diffuse as the "curtain" that I modeled to be the edge of the bed.  In order to mimic Elvgren's smooth transition to his background, there is no top to the mattress.  Instead, I just have a shadow catcher. I think the illusion of the mattress is working OK but the fringe of the curtain needs work.

     

    Lots of Daz store content used, such as the Edwardian Evening Suit for David 3,  http://www.daz3d.com/edwardian-evening-suit-for-david-3 ; which has been converted for use with Genesis.  Genesis has the David 5 Carrara shader by Ringo http://www.daz3d.com/carrara-skin-shaders-for-david-5      ; The hair for G2F is Diva hair   http://www.daz3d.com/diva-hair-for-genesis-2-female-s    ; The G2F is wearing an outfit from Pretty3D from another store.  The millenium dog has real fur by Livia Zita   http://www.daz3d.com/real-fur-for-the-millennium-dog  ;

    EDIT - above links giving 404 error.  Here is a second attempt to give links to products used from the Daz stoe.
    Forbidden Whisper G2F skin resource - http://www.daz3d.com/the-ultimate-merchant-resource-kit-for-genesis-2-female-s
    David 3 Edwardian Evening Suit - http://www.daz3d.com/edwardian-evening-suit-for-david-3
    RingoMonfort skin shader for David 5 - http://www.daz3d.com/carrara-skin-shaders-for-david-5
    Diva hair for G2F - http://www.daz3d.com/diva-hair-for-genesis-2-female-s
    Livia Zita real fur for millenium dog - http://www.daz3d.com/real-fur-for-the-millennium-dog

    Now back to blimps and islands.

     

    Mark, your submerged letters are fantastic.  Can't wait to see what you ome up with to be less literal.

    Wgdjon, love the cubes.

    Gibson,Johnny, I want some candy!  Nicely done.

    Stezza, you are turning out great stuff so quickly!  I am jealous.

    .

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  • wgdjohnwgdjohn Posts: 2,634
    edited August 2016

    A doll wih a doll... kewl idearrr.

    Post edited by wgdjohn on
  • wgdjohnwgdjohn Posts: 2,634

    If anyone can mess things up... that's me. The "C" cube alone looked fine to me. I've taken a turn fer the werst. Wanting to have cubes and letters as a single vertex object didn't turn out so well... 2 problems.... a) my font mod was cutting up the letters to give them a cool look which doesn't look that great with more cubes... I may go back and use solid letters instead... b) I'd not taken in the fact that by having cubes as vertex objs and letters as font or different vertex objs worked out better since I could turn shadows cast by letters off which made previous render look better, IMO.  After wasting an evening on this at least I've learned what not to do so it wasn't a total disaster.

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  • PhilWPhilW Posts: 5,139

    You guys are all doing such awesome work - I had wanted to participate in this one, but haven't had any good ideas. I got as far as replicating some leaves on a Carrara text, and then have completely stalled!

  • HeadwaxHeadwax Posts: 9,921

    @diomede that's so good that it's nsfw ! 

    @wgdjohn don't worry, the more mistakes we make the better we get !

    @PhilW just make a great render , as per your usual, then stick carrara and 9 in ;) it's a contextual thing, as soon as you put carrara in it will be beautiful 

  • DiomedeDiomede Posts: 15,021
    edited August 2016

    @PhilW - I bet your replicated leaves on text are a million times better than my replicated blimps on a terrain, Sensei. 

    @Headwax - although all my renders are safe for work, I'd still get fired if I was looking at them at work instead of...  

    @Wgdjohn -  keep experimenting.  Remember, there are almost always several ways to get similar results in Carrara.  The right way is the one you are happy with.  I bet you can get there with either font or geometry.

     

    Speaking of experimenting, here is one that failed.  I was trying to think of ways to use the shadow catcher to give an illusion of a mattress top. I lowered the geometry around the G2F and included some ridge lines (with smoothing).  Instead of a wavy shadow providing bend-depth, I think the result just looks like a mistake on the shadows for the strings.  If you look above, you can see that the original string shadows are continuous.

     

    Other fixes include adding reflection for the G2F eyes, using the 3D paint tool to make David 5's face look more like a marionette, and reducing some of the under light on the dog.  Open to other suggestions, but I think I will fix the shadow catcher and move on to other projects.

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  • PhilWPhilW Posts: 5,139

    Thanks for the faith and encouragement! I have had an idea after reading your comments, I dug up an old character I used for a story series called Death Creek (it's still on my Rendo gallery if you are interested, but it was years ago!). Added the lantern and put a strong glow material on the flame on the candle, and there is a sunset HDRI in the background.  My idea is to add a huge Carrara 9 in the background - the idea is that she is looking for the fabled Carrara 9, and can't see that it is so huge, she can't spot it! Rendered in Octane Render for Carrara, without any real adjustments, but it still looks pretty good so far I think.

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  • DiomedeDiomede Posts: 15,021

    That is a great idea and character.  

  • WendyLuvsCatzWendyLuvsCatz Posts: 37,711
    edited August 2016

    I may have stuffed up my next entry which I have not saved

    is stuck now I tried to save an image during render just blue spin and double edge flashing on Octane Render settings window no progress though card flat out

    so grabbed a snip which might have to be cropped for my entry instead if it does not finish.

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  • MistaraMistara Posts: 38,675
    edited August 2016

    beautiful summer day for rendering  picnics wink

    Post edited by Mistara on
  • DiomedeDiomede Posts: 15,021

    Those two caps on the jugs on the table are too suggestive of a woman's nipples.  How inappropriate.  wink   Kidding aside, the terrain and plants in the forground (I assume replicators?) integrate seamlessly with the background.  Is the background an HDRI?  A picture in the backdrop?  Other?  Hope you are able to salvage your lost work.

  • PhilWPhilW Posts: 5,139

    Great image, Wendy!

    This might be my final image - the text is actually huge, hundreds of feet high and around 3000 feet long! But at first the scale was not apparent, so I tried a few things to emphasise it:

    - I used the explode modifier, set to a fraction of a percent completion so it just produced some cracks and disturbance;

    - I replicated some leaves using a shader to restrict it to the lower areas of the text;

    - I changed the camera focal length to 40mm from the standard 50, this gives a slight fish eye effect that makes the scale seem larger.

    - I put the bridge with the lanterns in, hopefully looking rather dwarfed by the text!

    I added some low sunlight too just to pick out the lettering better, as it was too dark without it.

    I still think it needs something else - any suggestions?

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  • WendyLuvsCatzWendyLuvsCatz Posts: 37,711

    Yes Finks plants replicated on Days of Cider ground.

    ...... and a bit of Maple meadows grass

    the BG a 360° Carrara native render of Vale Alpina I did ages ago that took 2 days but is used a lot.

    Is Kasper morph of G2M Neivo skin, a SAV hair, minotaur pants and an exnem apple core

  • MistaraMistara Posts: 38,675

    oh, an apple.  my eyes miscued 

  • WendyLuvsCatzWendyLuvsCatz Posts: 37,711

    Lens flares?

    can postwork using Carrara, I have.

    I am hoping just my UI not updating since GPU running 100% so will finish when it hits 5K samples

    hoping .......crying

     

     

  • MarkIsSleepyMarkIsSleepy Posts: 1,496
    PhilW said:

    Great image, Wendy!

    This might be my final image - the text is actually huge, hundreds of feet high and around 3000 feet long! But at first the scale was not apparent, so I tried a few things to emphasise it:

    - I used the explode modifier, set to a fraction of a percent completion so it just produced some cracks and disturbance;

    - I replicated some leaves using a shader to restrict it to the lower areas of the text;

    - I changed the camera focal length to 40mm from the standard 50, this gives a slight fish eye effect that makes the scale seem larger.

    - I put the bridge with the lanterns in, hopefully looking rather dwarfed by the text!

    I added some low sunlight too just to pick out the lettering better, as it was too dark without it.

    I still think it needs something else - any suggestions?

    It looks like there is a bit of a sand/dirt storm on the horizon in your HDRI - maybe add a little of that at the foot of the giant letters so they mix into the background a little bit?  Volumetric fog with a little brown color to it makes a great blowing dirt effect and interacts in a really cool way with the sunlight (kind of like the way I used it here: http://www.daz3d.com/gallery/#images/54388 but on a larger scale).

    Just a comment on the DOF too: the lamps/wall behind the character seem to be blurred just as much as the letters and it makes it look like they are close the same distance away, which I think is really messing with the sense of scale.  Maybe reduce the DOF on the wall or move it closer to the character so it's obvious that it and the character are both much closer to the camera than the distant letters?  That might just be me though, so feel free to ignore this comment if you aren't seeing it. laugh

    Also - that's a neat use of the explode modifier, that's one I've never used and it never occured to me to use it for something like that. laugh

  • WendyLuvsCatzWendyLuvsCatz Posts: 37,711
    edited August 2016

    update, yay it did stop and I could save when it reached 5K

     

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  • chickenmanchickenman Posts: 1,202
    edited August 2016

    Here is something I have been working on for the last bit.

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  • PhilWPhilW Posts: 5,139

    What are those budgy things on his torso though? I don't recognise those! laugh 

  • TangoAlphaTangoAlpha Posts: 4,584
    head wax said:

     

    PhilW said:

    What are those budgy things on his torso though? I don't recognise those! laugh 

    Bread rolls. ;)

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