Shader Creating & Settings for Carrara - Q&A - Come One, Come All

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  • TangoAlphaTangoAlpha Posts: 4,584

    Taking a bit of a left turn here. I've been playing with Substance Painter. It really excels in DS, and particularly with Iray, but I've also been trying to get the maps usable in Carrara. For non-metals and painted/rusty metals it works quite well, but I haven't found the sweet spot yet for metals (Painter puts everything on the texture sheet, it doesn't really separate out materials). I can get better results by making separate shaders for each material and tweaking, but right now I'm just using a single shader and trying to get acceptable results with the maps generated or edited in PS (for example roughness inverted gives shininess), really to see if it's possible.

    The nuts & bolts and bare metal bits don't really work right now (I could make a separate metal shader, but where's the fun in that?). If anyone else is playing with Substance, be interested to hear your findings . . .

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  • How I understand the matter, roughness is really totaly unrelated to shineness, it is related to blurred reflections, so I'm not sure that that approach would be useful, I mean, you can play with it and see what happens, but, IMO, I do not think you can establish straight forward universal system which would translate PBR shading into whatever Carrara has ...

    Carrara's blurred reflection is pretty useless at this point, it is very, very slow and cannot be driven by texture, what we really need is a PBR shading model, current one is so 90's, lol laugh

    Good luck smiley

     

  • TangoAlpha, did you try this Substance shader: https://share.allegorithmic.com/libraries/84  ? smiley

  • TangoAlphaTangoAlpha Posts: 4,584

    I'll have a play with that, thanks.

  • wgdjohnwgdjohn Posts: 2,634

    Added another link today. - Animators Club for Carrara thread . Lets create a simple animation every week. - by mmoir - I've listed this since I ran into a problem and mmoir helped me out in adding a texture map to an object I created... the instructions can be found HERE.

  • MistaraMistara Posts: 38,675

    why they put reflection on skin shaders?  doesn't seem logical.

  • fixmypcmikefixmypcmike Posts: 19,565
    MistyMist said:

    why they put reflection on skin shaders?  doesn't seem logical.

    Beats me

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  • MistyMist said:

    why they put reflection on skin shaders?  doesn't seem logical.

    Because it's not cheeky

  • MistaraMistara Posts: 38,675
    edited September 2016

    blinn or phong?  

    smiley

     

    ??

    says oily layer, epidermis, and dermis

    textitus swimming in my eyes  owww >.<
    http://graphics.ucsd.edu/papers/egsr2006skin/egsr2006skin.pdf

     

    A Layered, Heterogeneous Reflectance Model for Acquiring and Rendering Human Skin
    http://www.cs.columbia.edu/cg/pdfs/150_donner08hskin.pdf

     

    dunno, think there some overthinking?

     

    Post edited by Mistara on
  • MistaraMistara Posts: 38,675

    there's a set of Carrara 6 skin shaders in da store.

  • PhilWPhilW Posts: 5,139

    Skin definitely has a "shine" - as is clear from the bald head image above! It is farly diffuse, and I seem to recall that total reflected light is around 6% of the light which hits the surface, with the rest being scattered and absorbed within the skin.

  • MistyMist said:

    blinn or phong?  

    They render pretty much the same ...

    MistyMist said:

    dunno, think there some overthinking?

    Yep smiley

  • wgdjohnwgdjohn Posts: 2,634
    edited October 2016

    [Edit]  All seems to back to normal now or very close to it.  Ignore my rambling below.  If you still experience/find any problems report to Site down and malfunctioning or open a request for the problem so it/they get fixed. Disregard my Alet to All. [end Edit]

    Alert to All:  Seems that the the DAZ3D site inculding the Forums are experiency problems. See Missing renders in gallery which kinda explains why many images do not appear.. including nearly all but the latest ones of mine and many others.  Some images are shown while others are not. Note if you see the tiny version for an image  you will most likely get a 404 image/page not found error.

    I've made Help/Support aware that I'm not impressed by this since it's still going on.

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

    Updated the links page today... Added  First Steps - Setting up a sample scene in Carrara with plant, terrain, sky and hair  by diomede - Setting up a scene in Carrara as well as making objects, using Shaders and 3DPaint.

  • wgdjohnwgdjohn Posts: 2,634
    MistyMist said:

    why they put reflection on skin shaders?  doesn't seem logical.

    Reflection is a must for any skin for a realistic look. If going for a Toon shader I don't think it would be required.

    • If it is wet, oily or or dry. Each would have a different reflection value.
    • To even give either skin with or without make-up a bit of shine or glint.
  • wgdjohnwgdjohn Posts: 2,634
    edited December 2016

    Where Have I Gone Wrong? I'm trying to put a Wood Shader Preset onto a cylinder... I'd also like to use it or one similar to get realistic Wood settings for flat objects like a table top and others. Notes: I changed Multi Channel to Flat Mapping and also copy/pasted all Lumber Yard setting to each place they appear... I also created seperate Shader Domains for the round length of the cylinder as well as the ends... the top end has a simple red shader which I've not tackled yet. Below is what I've come up with so far.

    Something like this lathed wood is what I'm looking for. Even a tree stripped of bark has variation to it.

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    BadWoodSettings.png
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    Post edited by wgdjohn on
  • evilproducerevilproducer Posts: 9,040
    edited December 2016

    And lest anyone forget, almost everything in Carrara can be animated.

    Here's a thread from quite a while ago where I reintroduced the concept of using a snow terrain function and elevation settings to create automatic white caps on the ocean primitive. It was not my idea, someone else came up with it a few forum software upgrades ago, and the original thread discussing the method was lost.

    Note that the drop box link has expired, but I think it is on Carrara Cafe. Find the link further down in the discussion.

    http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/55137/the-ocean-and-easily-animated-foam/p1

    Post edited by evilproducer on
  • Here is the link to the file at Carrara Cafe:
    http://carraracafe.com/downloads/?did=42

     

  • wgdjohnwgdjohn Posts: 2,634

    Thanks EP... Merry Christmas to me. :

    Happy Holidays to All and wishes for a prosperous New Year!

  • wgdjohnwgdjohn Posts: 2,634
    edited January 2017

    Shader Play:  DCG Enhance C - Organic2

    Below is first a background that I added to a plane for a render.  Then I went on to modify it further.  It uses DCG's Enhance C - Organic2 - Cellular at 4 as a shader for the Color Gradient I set up, see settings.  First pic has Carrara's Turbulence on it... I couldn't resist changing some of Organic2's default settings. I later changed Turbulence to Carrara's Cellular and messed with settings in it then copied it to the Bump channel. Then I got carried away and messed with the gradient adding more colors which compliment each other.  Digital Carver's Guild shaders and tools are very cool.

    Also check out Holyforest shader presets at DAZ which are great and most use Carrars's procedural shaders... very nice as examples or to use as is. But you know I just caan't leave anything as is... that would take all the fun out it. :)

    Note that Holyforest has one that uses DCG's Anything Goos... Corroded City.

    DCG_EnhanceC_Organic2_CelluarAt4.png
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    DCG_Enh C_Org2_Cell4._onSteroids2.png
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    EnhanceC Organic2_02.png
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    Post edited by wgdjohn on
  • wgdjohnwgdjohn Posts: 2,634

    TIP:  Are you having a simple scene... perhaps with only a few objects which loads extremely slow... I did and found out why. I'd loaded a DAZ figure/charater before and had deleted it... turned out that I hadn't removed all the unused Shaders for it.  To remove them go to Edit and choose Remove Unused Masters/Remove Unused Shaders. I saved the scene again and sure nuf'... loaded like a flash.

  • PhilWPhilW Posts: 5,139

    It is easy to forget to do this (Remove the unused objects and shaders), but it is important to keep your scenes tidy. Particularly if you hve been trying a number of different things to see what fits, like different clothing for a figure. If you don't clear them out, all the clothes you have tried and their associated shaders and maps will still be present in the scene.

  • wgdjohnwgdjohn Posts: 2,634
    edited January 2017

    My Problem:  I'm wanting to use a Procedural shader to add some texture to the Horns and Claws to give them a sorta antler effect.

    I've tried pattern functions such as lines and other patterns with no luck as well as a few others. I steer away from wood... need to learn how to project it on a surface which is not round.

    The Critter is to be replicated so I stuck to Carrara shaders and not wandered off into DCG or other shaders.

    Included is a zip of the entire scene with the Critter in it.  Note that the walls are just for design renders so I'm not looking at a black or solid color for background.

    Critter_HornsClaws_asis.png
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    zip
    zip
    Critter_SceneShaders.zip
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    Post edited by wgdjohn on
  • HeadwaxHeadwax Posts: 9,922

    can you use an elongated

     cellular pattern in the blender with different beige colours as source one and two ?

  • wgdjohnwgdjohn Posts: 2,634

    Thanks Head Wax I'll give that a go.  What a goof I am... never used transform/scale before.  Horns and Claws each have their own shader domains but set to same shader.  Just tried it... re-adjucted shader positions and later a few other things. Finally got horns to where they at least look better. Will have to copy setting over to claws shader and take out some settings I'd changed to get horns where they are acceptable.

    Shader setting are below with render.  At this close up I see a few areas that I need to work on... that won't happen as I'll be rendering further away.

    Critter_51.png
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    CritterShaders.png
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  • PhilWPhilW Posts: 5,139

    Some functions are 2D and some are 3D.  2D functions produce a pattern (eg. the Caution or Checkers functions) which is 2 dimensional which then needs to be projected onto the surface in the same way that a texture map is projected, and for those, the object needs UV mapping to determine how the 2D texture is mapped onto the 3D shape.  Other functions are 3D and these do not require any UV mapping. Sometimes it can be difficult to mentally picture a 3D texture, but think about a tree trunk, which consists of concentric cylinders of lighter and darker wood.  The pattern that you get on the surface of an object will depend on where it is "cut" from the wood. If you cut across the tree trunk, you will get concentric circles, while if you cut along the length of the trunk, you will get a more linear pattern.  If you have an awkward shape which is difficult to UV map, it is worth checking which textures are 3D as these will give patterns irrespective of any mapping.

  • wgdjohnwgdjohn Posts: 2,634

    Great analogy using a tree trunk it's very easy to understand a 3D function.  You dont' happen to know where there is a list of which functions are 2D and which are 3d?  I was hopeing to find each listed in the Carrara 7 manual... but had no luck.  I'd like to add the list to this thread as quick reference for everyone.

  • PhilWPhilW Posts: 5,139

    I think the Carrara 7 Manual does note against each one if it is a 2D or 3D effect (most of the time anyway)

    2D Effects - Bricks, Caution, Checkers, Gradient, Julia, Mandelbrot, Scanlines, Squares, Tile, Wires, Cellular, Fire, Ripples, Waves

    3D Effects - Planks, Pschedelic, Spherical Gradient, Lumber Yard, Marble, Spots, Wood, Fractal Noise, Noise, Noise Factory, Turbulance

    I think "Formula" can be either depending on if you define things in terms of x,y,z (3D) or in terms of U,V (2D). And Snow is a surface effect, similar to the Terrain and Environmental functions.

    If it helps, "Pattern" functions tend to be 2D and "Natural" functions tend to be 3D, although as you can see above there are exceptions in both categories.

     

  • DiomedeDiomede Posts: 15,073

    Makes sense now that you have provided examples.  Thanks.

    PhilW said:

    I think the Carrara 7 Manual does note against each one if it is a 2D or 3D effect (most of the time anyway)

    2D Effects - Bricks, Caution, Checkers, Gradient, Julia, Mandelbrot, Scanlines, Squares, Tile, Wires, Cellular, Fire, Ripples, Waves

    3D Effects - Planks, Pschedelic, Spherical Gradient, Lumber Yard, Marble, Spots, Wood, Fractal Noise, Noise, Noise Factory, Turbulance

    I think "Formula" can be either depending on if you define things in terms of x,y,z (3D) or in terms of U,V (2D). And Snow is a surface effect, similar to the Terrain and Environmental functions.

    If it helps, "Pattern" functions tend to be 2D and "Natural" functions tend to be 3D, although as you can see above there are exceptions in both categories.

     

     

  • wgdjohnwgdjohn Posts: 2,634

    Many thanks Phil,   Apparently I'd not searched the manual well enough.  While most are obvious some are not.  I'll be adding these to the 2nd post on page 1 where I'll also list DCG effects also... when I find a few spare moments in time. :)

    Pic below... a combination of DCG and Carrara effects.

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