Modeling Objects in Carrara - Q&A - Come One and All

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  • wgdjohnwgdjohn Posts: 2,634

    Crazy John:  Is lost in the woods of the VM room trying to model a primitive looking woodsy figure.

    I only started on this last night, see pic.  What I'm wanting is a cone shaped figure so started with a Cone...  this will have toon legs and arms. This is where I stopped last night... I think I've an idea as to adding legs... so started thinking about arms which is where I got lost without trying.

    Skip to waking up today and still thinking about the arms...  I now question whether a cone should have been used at all at the start and may begin again with a simple cube with 4-6 polys, maybe 8, per side... then forming the shape I want...  then perhaps setting smoothing up to 1 and Converting to get more geometry easily.  Hmm...  now I'm thinking of building from scratch starting with a row of 3 polys or more and bending those then extruding off their sides to form a goofy looking shape.  Might even pitch those ideas and just model the legs/arms as separate polymeshes and just pose them where I want and adjust as needed since there will be more of these and I don't have time to add bones.

    My tiny brain is suffering from lockup on this... perhaps I'm in too much of a hurry because I need it for the current Carrara Challenge #34 "Sing to Me, Muse".  Too bad I can't model as fast as one of Vyusur's speed modeling videos. frown

    Hope someone might have a suggestion or tell me which direction to take. :)

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  • VyusurVyusur Posts: 2,235
    DUDU said:
    wgdjohn said:

    I watched this kewl video again the other night... I'd been thinking that I could not do arched ceilings in Carrara but this Blender Artist has given me hope... might have to learn Hexagon for some of it or see what I might be able to come up with instead in Carrara's VM.  Enjoy... .. .

     

    Vyusur, you are a crazy good modeler!

    Thanks for sharing, john!

    Thank you, DUDU! John, thank you for sharing!

  • wgdjohnwgdjohn Posts: 2,634

    Yer Welcome...  It is I should be thanking you for taking the time to make those videos... I hope that others enjoy watching you work your modeling magic as much as I.

  • VyusurVyusur Posts: 2,235

    Thinking I have to experiment with simple vault ceiling modeling in carrara.

  • wgdjohnwgdjohn Posts: 2,634

    Crazy John:  Finding a way through the woods.

    At the moment I've decided to start with a cube... shape the cone looking figure with scaling, dynamic extrusion a little pull at the top.  For the Arms, Legs, Eyeballs and perhaps a silly nose  I'm planning on having those as separate polymeshes.  Might tug on a few polys to see what I can do for a nose first.

    For shaders I'm thinking that the body will be red... arms/legs a yellow shade.  Oh gosh...  good thing I listed them... I'd forgotten the mouth.  I hadn't planned on ears but they are a possibility.   Hmmm... more tugging on polys for those.

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  • PhilWPhilW Posts: 5,139
    wgdjohn said:

    Too bad I can't model as fast as one of Vyusur's speed modeling videos. frown

    I don't think she can either - they are speeded up!

  • wgdjohnwgdjohn Posts: 2,634

    I know but one can dream. wink

  • wgdjohnwgdjohn Posts: 2,634
    edited August 2017

    Broken Symmetry:  - One way I kept from breaking symmetry.  As you likely know... with symmetry ON that Extract Around, Extract Along or Move along will NOT work.

    I ran into a situation where they were needed.  Here is what I did in order to add some polyline loops...

    • First thing was to turn OFF Symmetry.
    • Select a polyline loop on each side that would normally be selected by symmetry.
    • I then used Extract Around to create 4 new polyline loops.
    • In line mode I selected only only 1 polyline and turned symmetry back ON.  Hey!!!... whaddya know it worked... the other side got selected... experimenting further loop selecting one side also works...Kewl Eh.
    • Just tested to see if Dissolve would retain symmetry... don't bother trying to remove the extra 2 polyline loops, I only wanted one on for each side.  Didn't matter if I had symmetry On or OFF when dissolving the polyline loops not needed... so I'm stuck with them.  Oh well what's a little extra geometry gonna hurt...  guess I'm stuck with it... at least until I no longer need symmetry working. cool

    Note:  I expect that only Extract Around will work since it adds equal geometry to each side.  Extract Along and Move along don't... but have fun trying. :)

    Post edited by wgdjohn on
  • wgdjohnwgdjohn Posts: 2,634
    edited August 2017

    Broken Symmetry II:  If you are careful or perhaps just durn lucky Extract Along can also work in some situations.  It's a bit tricky... either that or perhaps I was nearly dozing off... nawww I was awake, I think.  I can't detail how to do it but I believe that I'd selected 2 polyline loops then used Extract Along... I was expecting them to both move in the same direction... instead they went in different directions thus keeping Symmetry.  Now all I need to do is figure out how I accomplished that.  Could be that I'd confused it with Move Along.  Gonna have to try it again.

    Hey...  I did it again... key was in selecting the correct polylines.  Just tried with a cube and selecting 2 opposing polylines... those on each side of the cube worked.  As I predicted... selecting those next to one another only moved in the same direction and symmetry was broken for some but not all polygons.  It is a bit touchy... and will appear to select one polygon on one side but only one polyline on the polygon it normally would have chosen.  At least I know what will and what won't work.

    Modeling is funnnn!  - even when it's unpredictable. :)

    Post edited by wgdjohn on
  • wgdjohnwgdjohn Posts: 2,634
    edited August 2017

    My mistake... Ohhh... the horror. :)  For what I was modeling I needed Link Polygons on and forgot to check it's box.  The result shown for the 4th cube looks kinda cool... too bad I didn't save it... now I'll want to keep it in mind for the future.

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    Post edited by wgdjohn on
  • PhilWPhilW Posts: 5,139
    edited August 2017

    Extruding without having Link Polys checked can be a great way to quickly add some spurious detail onto an otherwise fairly plain object! I used that on the engine pods on this ship to add what looks like extra equipment (in the brownish colour)..

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    Post edited by PhilW on
  • TangoAlphaTangoAlpha Posts: 4,584

    Sometimes that's actually what we want. Making egg crates for example (extrude then scale) . . . And as Phil mentioned, it's quick 'n' easy greebles. smiley

  • wgdjohnwgdjohn Posts: 2,634
    PhilW said:

    Extruding without having Link Polys checked can be a great way to quickly add some spurious detail onto an otherwise fairly plain object! I used that on the engine pods on this ship to add what looks like extra equipment (in the brownish colour)..

    Thanks for the pic of your very good looking ship Phil,  I needed those Polys Linked for what I was wanting in the end.  I just corrected the description and updated the pic's text. I looked at my result again and it wouldn't be bad if I'd had been headed in that direction...  took a wrong turn. :)

    Sometimes that's actually what we want. Making egg crates for example (extrude then scale) . . . And as Phil mentioned, it's quick 'n' easy greebles. smiley

    Thanks Tim,  I wondered why you said "extrude then scale"... then it dawned on me... perhaps I've seen the light. :)

  • TangoAlphaTangoAlpha Posts: 4,584

    smiley

  • wgdjohnwgdjohn Posts: 2,634

    In process of how to correctly model a 5 pointed star with quads... well the way I figured it out.  Have all screen grabs but need some sleep before adding the explainations to them.

  • DiomedeDiomede Posts: 15,083
    edited August 2017

    There is almost always more than one way to do something in Carara.  Here is one way to make a 5 pointed star.  It is an adaptation of the following video, which can lead to more modeling vids by decaf2010.

     

    Start with a vertex object and insert an oval with the number of points you want, in this case 5.

    A pentagon results.

    Use the tesselate to connect vertexes to center.

    Select the outer edges, but not the center.  Subdivide will place a new point at the midpoint of each outer edge.

    Select just those outer midpoints, not any outer points connected to the center.  Use scale to create the star.  The quads are diamonds. To get a different number of points for the star, just start with a different number of points on the oval.

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    dd04 model select outer edges and subdivide gets mid line points.JPG
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    dd06 scale the midpoints out makes diamonds.JPG
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    Post edited by Diomede on
  • wgdjohnwgdjohn Posts: 2,634
    edited August 2017

    Diomede,  Had I taken that approach back in September, HERE... I would'nt have needed to correct my errors.  Thanks for the example... you're way is quicker than mine was then.

    Post edited by wgdjohn on
  • DiomedeDiomede Posts: 15,083

    Can't take credit for this method.  It is just a Carrara adaptation of decaf2010.  If you look on youtube, there are a number of generic modeling videos by decaf2010.  Even though they are designed for another program, it is usually easy to adapt to Carrara.  Great to have this thread to share a Carrara version in.

  • wgdjohnwgdjohn Posts: 2,634
    edited August 2017

    Great... that makes me feel better.  Guess I can take most credit for mine... sat down and thought about how to create a star in Carrara... of course a lot of credit does go to everyone here, other threads, YouTube... and my own experimenting in the VM room.  Thanks for the compliment on this thread.

    Couldn't find anything Carrara related by decaf2010 on YouTube, ShareCG or here... please point me. :)

    Years ago, around 17-, I had written a program to design a 2d star for my paint program on the Amiga.  Not having enough math+ learning/understanding I drove myself crazy until I finally bought CRC Standard Mathematical Tables and Formulae, 30th Edition which a friend told me was like a programmer's, she is/was one, bible.

    Post edited by wgdjohn on
  • wgdjohnwgdjohn Posts: 2,634
    edited August 2017

    Crazy John's New Star:

    The only difference is that it is now modeled in quads. Oh... I created a few different shaders for this one. Finally finished adding text to each screen grab, from Aug 20, tonight.  The stars in the final render might look a bit blurry... got carried away and added that effect... blur amount is set at 8...  so don't go reaching for your glasses folks.

    As always feel free to point out any spelling, grammer or anthing that is just plain wrong and I'll fix it/them. :)

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

    Woops!!  Woke up this morning and realized that I'd forgotten to upload ANY pics. They are now there... whew.

  • KatLadyKatLady Posts: 38

    I'm trying to do a  project that requires repeatedly extruding an edge. It starts as a strip of polygons which are multiplied width-wise by the extrusions and then rotated and moved into place.   Even when choosing "edge extrude" I keep getting a double layer of polygons of varying lengths from each extrusion. The result resembles the illustration of 'straight extrusion' in the Spline Modeling section,  All I want is a single row, but the manual only talks about volumes and polygons.  The instructor did the original in Hexagon, but I have been trying to do the same thing in Carrara. .  What am I doing wrong?

  • KatLadyKatLady Posts: 38

    I tried to attach a picture.  Here we go again.  Hair base made of extruded strips of polygons.

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  • PhilWPhilW Posts: 5,139

    Hi KatLady - I may have misunderstood what you are doing, but in a test just now, I started with a simple square poly, selected just the one edge and used the extrude tool just with default settings and got a good extrusion to create a second poly linked to the first, and then just repeat to make a strip.  If you use the Shift key while extruding, the new edge will be square to the edge you started with, creating regular rectangles/squares. If you want it to curve, you may need to alternate extruding and then moving the new line into position. Does this help?

  • 3DAGE3DAGE Posts: 3,311

    you should select the edge of a strip of polygons,. (turn off edge extrusion) and use dynamic extrude

    Edge extrusion,. will create a double side of polygons from an edge. ,...probably not what you want here.

    also,. check the "Normal" direction for those polys.(see pic)  if they're extruding in different directions, that may point to the surface normals being different.

    you could also create a poly-line,. with a few points,. then use extrude on that line to pull out a row of connected polygons.

    Hope it helps :)

     

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  • wgdjohnwgdjohn Posts: 2,634
    edited August 2017

    Hello KatLady,

    I'm thinkig that the hair base is coloured brown... correct?   ... cranking Carrara up now to try

    Tell me where was the strip of poly located?  I would start on the top  and work my way down using Dynamic Extrusion tool, the pipe looking icon in tool bar... under the menu word Construct,...  then I would switch to Move to create the angle.

    Note that the extrusion tool will stay active until you select Move.  Also If working with more than one poly at a time it's important to check the box in right panel that says Link Polygons.  Below is a screen grab showing a very simple example with brief explaination.

    Ohh... your "double layer of polygons"... I've had this happen also but it's been my error.   When extruding edges be sure to be in Line "Selection Mode", in right panel near top.

    Note that holding down Alt or Shift while extruding will constrain the direction... try it you'll like it. :) 

    Might I ask what this is for...  are you wanting to create a Hair Cap to grow Dynamic Hair on? cool

    Here is a video on head modeling by Vyusur.  Even though it is done in Blender the same can be achieved in Carrara'a Vertex room.  Note that you might want to skip through a few parts to the head... I can't resist watching it all though.  It also appears earlier in the thread but I was in a hurry so didn't take the time to find out where... sorry bout that folks.

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  • MarkIsSleepyMarkIsSleepy Posts: 1,496
    wgdjohn said:

     

    Might I ask what this is for...  are you wanting to create a Hair Cap to grow Dynamic Hair on? cool

    @wgdjohn - KatLady is following a technique from the Digital Art Live webinar on modeling polygon based hair like the kind mostly sold in the store here. The technique is a bit hard to describe quickly but basically at this step she is trying to model the basic shape of the hairstyle itself, not the hair cap. Once this step is done it's used as a basis for constructing all the individual strips of polygon hair.

    We know it can be done in Hexagon (that's where the technique was demonstrated in the webinar) and I've done it in Blender, now KatLady is trying to work out the technique in Carrara.

    @KatLady - I think 3DAGE's response might be the answer. His note about starting with a polyline is even precisely how Arki did it in the webinar in Hexagon.

    3DAGE said:

    you should select the edge of a strip of polygons,. (turn off edge extrusion) and use dynamic extrude

    Edge extrusion,. will create a double side of polygons from an edge. ,...probably not what you want here.

    also,. check the "Normal" direction for those polys.(see pic)  if they're extruding in different directions, that may point to the surface normals being different.

    you could also create a poly-line,. with a few points,. then use extrude on that line to pull out a row of connected polygons.

    Hope it helps :)

     

     

  • KatLadyKatLady Posts: 38

    Thanks guys, for your prompt responses.  The problem is caused by not clicking on the edge selector before extruding.  My initial extrusion has always been from a polyline and works well with the default selector.  The subsequent ones are wrong unless that edge selector is activated.  Yes, the brown object is a hair cap.  Thanks for reminding me about the normals if I flip or slide out the extra rows.  Haven't done much object modeling, but I want to learn.  Phil and the rest of you, your examples and video lessons are a big help.heart

  • wgdjohnwgdjohn Posts: 2,634

    MDO,  thanks for setting me straight.  I've bookmarked Digital Art Live webinars.

    KatLady,  Sorry bout that.blush  Hopefully I mentioned something that will help in other circumstances.  If you are wanting to learn modeling... this is the place where I have learned in Carrara's Vertex modeling room as well as questions, answers, examples and tips by others.  Feel free to post your progress and final result... looking forward to seeing more.

    Lady Littlefox used to have a pay tutorial for creating hair at RuntimeDNA... looks like it didn't make the trip to DAZ.  Hopefully it found a new home somewhere... I was wanting to buy it.

  • wgdjohnwgdjohn Posts: 2,634

    Crazy John's Simple Picture Frame:  I've been meaning to model a picture frame... keep forgetting... so here it is.

    This was so easy I didn't take any screen grabs and directions... they are outlined below.

    • First I turned grid on and used the default drawing tool to create and outline... which I then used Fill Polygon.
    • Now for some Dynamic Extrusion to create the inner part of the frame.
    • Of course the inner polygon was still there so selected it only and copied then it and used Empty Polygon...  giving me a template for the frame itself. and choose only the inside poly
    • For some reason the top and bottom looked thinner than the sides so I scaled them a wee bit wider.  Might be because I had turned Snap to Grid on and not turned it off.
    • Now... used Add Thickness and Bang!... instant frame.
    • Ohh... but that's not all... I then pasted back in the polygon that was copied to use to put a picture on later... after which I gave it a slight inset with the Move tool.  Note that it is only a 2D poly to mount that picture on.
    • Onto creating 2 Shader Domains... one for the frame and another for that poly to have the picture on.  I named those frame and backing.
    • Back in the Assemble room I added 2 new shaders... for the frame and backing of course. :)
    • In the Shader room I switched to Projection Mapping/Flat Mapping and used the default, facing, for the picture... for color I choose Texture Map and loaded my picture.

    Onward I plod... want some picture frames of different shapes and some fancier picture frames next and perhaps then some frames for mirrors.

    My wall looks a bit bare with just one frame... oh... I know how about a knick knack shelf... maybe even some bookshelves too.

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