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Tumbleweed experiment

Retro LadRetro Lad Posts: 471
in Carrara Discussion

Last year I tried making respectable looking tumbleweeds in both Bryce and Carrara. Although I feel Bryce is a far better terrain modeler than Carrara, the plant editor in Carrara is better than the one in Bryce.

I have attached snapped pictures of some tumbleweeds I created using Carrara's many options last year, and if any of you know better ways of making realistic tumbleweeds please post your methods.

Thanks

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Comments

  • WendyLuvsCatzWendyLuvsCatz Posts: 37,812

    I reckon Philemo's hair to mesh plugin could make some tangled shrubs, one could grow hair on the converted mesh too

  • MistaraMistara Posts: 38,675

    i like your carrara colors.  looks Teal

  • StezzaStezza Posts: 7,801
    edited April 2018

    I haven't tried tumblweeeed before..

    here's what I tried

    created an organic primitive
    created a tree and modified the parameters a fair bit

    created a surface replicator for the tree onto the organic primitive and fiddle with the numbers etc..

    ended up with this as a quick demo... dunno if it looks right but can be adjusted a lot in the plant editor 

    tumbleweed.jpg
    640 x 480 - 263K
    Post edited by Stezza on
  • Persona Non GrataPersona Non Grata Posts: 1,365
    edited March 2021

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    Post edited by Persona Non Grata on
  • Retro LadRetro Lad Posts: 471

    Stezza

    Your tumbleweed gave me an inspiration for a mutating monster Tumbleweed image idea.

    An old 1960s "Outer Limits" TV episode had a couple terrorized by an alien force that took over and controlled tumbleweeds, rocks, frogs, etc. They didn't have a lot of money for the episode, and they didn't hire Byron Haskin to direct it, so there are no wild special effects of flying boulders, mutating weeds, or giant frogs. Maybe i13s Deadstone old west town invaded by "form changing" monster tumebleweeds would be fun to make.

    Selina,

    That's a very good likeness to tumbleweeds I have seen out here in Southern California. I downloaded your zip file, and the file opened up in my Carrara 8.5. Thanks!

    Where was that photo of the tumbleweed taken? Looks like either snow, or compacted salt, so maybe Death Valley, California, or Siberia, Russia.

  • HeadwaxHeadwax Posts: 9,924

    i think selina is winning here

  • Persona Non GrataPersona Non Grata Posts: 1,365
    edited March 2021

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    Post edited by Persona Non Grata on
  • HeadwaxHeadwax Posts: 9,924
    Selina said:
    FlashGarcia said:

    Selina

    Where was that photo of the tumbleweed taken - looks like either snow or compacted salt; so maybe Death Valley, California or Siberia, Russia?

    To tell you the truth FlashGarcia I have no idea. I found the image through an internet search and was inspired by the colour of the lighting and the purple tint of the shadows so used it as source material for a quick composition and experiment not only for the construction of tumbleweed but also to get colour into shadows through GI.

     

    head wax said:

    I think Selina is winning here...

     

    Hilarious!


    Selina

    nice to see a new carrara artist with such talent

     

  • Retro LadRetro Lad Posts: 471

    Here is a video post of tumbleweeds that looks like something from that Outer Limits Sci-Fi episode that I mentioned.

    Inspiration for CG animated tumbleweeds?

    Attack of the Tumbleweeds!
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2XBZ9qYDxFs

  • Persona Non GrataPersona Non Grata Posts: 1,365
    edited March 2021

    .

    Post edited by Persona Non Grata on
  • Retro LadRetro Lad Posts: 471
    edited April 2018

    Selina,

    You wrote, "I look forward to seeing your animation"  ..... it will be a long while before I get to that, but thanks for your interest anyway.

    I had to move early last year, and things are still a mess and disorganized in this new dump, and my CG computer setup is not like it was at my former residencee but instead is a cluttered, clumsy, mess. Such is the life of most non-commercial artists. "sell-out, sell out", .... "I am not a number, I am a free man", as Patrick McGoohan said in the 1960s British TV series, "The Prisoner".

    I attached my favorite "Happy Face" snap from an old Laurel and Hardy film. Makes me chuckle everytime I look at it.

     

    Pic0183.jpg
    720 x 540 - 43K
    Post edited by Retro Lad on
  • DiomedeDiomede Posts: 15,078

    Selina's is far better than mine.  I started with a plant model, reduced the trunk length and width, lengthened the branches, chose the spherical tree shape.  I then converted the plant model to a vertex model.  First, I tried to use a modifier (spherical) but that failed miserably.  Then I tried growing some hair and brushing it in a circle.  Better, but not as good as Selina's.

    tumbleweed try yuk.jpg
    640 x 480 - 49K
  • Retro LadRetro Lad Posts: 471
    edited April 2018

    I am going to have to load up my Carrara tumbleweed and see what tweaks I can do with it.

    As street language would say, "I have been fartin about with other stuff lately"  So it's time that I do some work on my Carrara tumbleweed. Meanwhile I attached some reference photos of tumbleweeds from various sources and a video.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rNVcSIZyBuE

    Salsola tragus; Russian Thistle.jpg
    1280 x 853 - 780K
    tumble weed images.jpg
    259 x 194 - 11K
    tumbleweed snowman San Diego County from three dried plants.jpg
    800 x 927 - 201K
    russian-thistle-tumbleweed_363_600x450.jpg
    600 x 450 - 135K
    Post edited by Retro Lad on
  • MarkIsSleepyMarkIsSleepy Posts: 1,496
    edited April 2018
    FlashGarcia said:

    I am going to have to load up my Carrara tumbleweed and see what tweaks I can do with it.

    As street language would say, "I have been fartin about with other stuff lately"  So it's time that I do some work on my Carrara tumbleweed. Meanwhile I attached some reference photos of tumbleweeds from various sources and a video.

    That first image (Russian Thistle) that you attached looks a lot like some plants I made with Carrara hair a while back.

    Here's the image:

    All the "plants" from the water line back to right before the trees are clumps of Carrara dynamic hair and I think the ones in the mid-ground are close to that Russian Thistle. They were just grown on a small plane that I scattered around with a couple surface replicators, but I bet growing it on a small invisible sphere would produce a pretty good facsimile. You even animate it pretty easily.

    When I get home I'll see if I can find the file and look at what settings I used; almost all of the shape was made in the hair shader using the clump, waviness and kink channels.

     

    Post edited by MarkIsSleepy on
  • JamyJamy Posts: 192

    Hey, have you seen that ?
    http://komonews.com/weather/scotts-weather-blog/california-neighborhood-buried-in-tumbleweeds-as-the-desert-winds-blow

    :-)

    Tumbleweed.jpg
    985 x 554 - 129K
  • DiomedeDiomede Posts: 15,078
    Jamy said:

    Hey, have you seen that ?
    http://komonews.com/weather/scotts-weather-blog/california-neighborhood-buried-in-tumbleweeds-as-the-desert-winds-blow

    :-)

    laugh

     

  • Retro LadRetro Lad Posts: 471

    Looks like the tumbleweeds are trying to get into the house through the second story window. A scene right out of that 1960s Outer Limits episode I mentioned, "Cry of Silence" with the menacing hordes of tumbleweeds.

    Thanks for the post, Funny.

  • Retro LadRetro Lad Posts: 471

    OLD AGE STRIKES AGAIN .....HALF-WIT ME

    My memory failed me again, and I just discovered from opening up Carrara on my desktop computer that I actually made my tumbleweed in Bryce first and then exported the Bryce 3ds model of it to Carrara. So I never did make that tumbleweed you see in my post in Carrara. I just used the modifiers on it.

    I have being using my laptop a lot recently and the cores get dangerously hot if I try to use it for modeling and rendering. I don't want a laptop burn out.

    So I am going to use the Carrara plant modeler, with my desktop computer, this time to try and ceate an in-house Carrara tumbleweed.

    The Old Gas Bag has spoken.

  • WendyLuvsCatzWendyLuvsCatz Posts: 37,812

    https://apple.news/AwacDNOAOTzKikrcCzpOTeg

  • Retro LadRetro Lad Posts: 471

    I took a chance and did some quick fiddling with Selina's "tumbleweed"  (hmm .. maybe I should re-word that)

    I used ny laptop for about 15 minutes in Cararra because the core temperatures were getting into the 130 range, and I loaded up Selina's model. The only problem seems to be those branches that stick too far out on the sides. By fiddling with many dials I was able to shrink the long branches and I ended up with a tumbleweed that is circular but looks like a bird's nest instead of a real tumbleweed.

    I am going to spend some longer time on this using my desktop computer tonight.

  • Persona Non GrataPersona Non Grata Posts: 1,365
    edited March 2021

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    Post edited by Persona Non Grata on
  • StezzaStezza Posts: 7,801

    looking great Selina...

    thanks for sharing the file yes

  • Persona Non GrataPersona Non Grata Posts: 1,365
    edited March 2021

    .

    Post edited by Persona Non Grata on
  • DiomedeDiomede Posts: 15,078

    Selina, your tumbleweeds look exceptional. Didn’t see the new file when I was posting earlier.  Now I am on my IPad away from my computer.  Commuting to do some research.  Can’t wait to get home and load it up.  Thanks for sharing.

  • Retro LadRetro Lad Posts: 471
    edited April 2018

    Selina,

    That's a big improvement now that those long braches are no longer there, and the compaction of the weed ball looks great. The next step is to make variations on the theme of the compacted tumblewed balls so they don't all look the same in a pile, or rolling about.

    I got another fatigue attack last evening, and when that happens I am like the walking dead and even listening to favorite music or watching favorite movies doesn't help much. So no rendering last evening for me. just lumbering about like Frankenstein and listeng to tapes till I passed out.

    Post edited by Retro Lad on
  • DiomedeDiomede Posts: 15,078

    Home and downloaded Selina's tumbleweed.  Ah, the custom tree shape curve filter!  I had forgotten all about that.  Well done, Selina.

    gg02 tumbleweed filter.JPG
    1247 x 971 - 156K
  • de3ande3an Posts: 915

    Oddly, Selina's TumbleWEED_Plant 2 file doesn't work properly on my machine (Mac Pro). The file seems to load, but as soon as I try to move the tumbleweed object, or move the position of the camera, the display goes crazy and nothing I do will return it to normal except closing the file and reopening it.

    after_opening.png
    1280 x 1024 - 506K
    after_moving_anything.png
    1280 x 1024 - 187K
  • DiomedeDiomede Posts: 15,078

    Hmmm.  Works on mine.  Windows 10.

  • Persona Non GrataPersona Non Grata Posts: 1,365
    edited March 2021

    .

    Post edited by Persona Non Grata on
  • DiomedeDiomede Posts: 15,078
    edited April 2018

    Here are some of the settings

    trunk

    branches

    leaves

    tree shape

    experts generation 1

    experts generation 2

    01 tumble.JPG
    1660 x 1023 - 167K
    02 branches tmble.JPG
    1415 x 1024 - 232K
    03 leaves tumble.JPG
    1192 x 729 - 70K
    04 tree shape tumble.JPG
    1404 x 1017 - 163K
    05 experts tumble gen 2.JPG
    1393 x 1028 - 257K
    06 experts gen 1.JPG
    1345 x 1014 - 252K
    Post edited by Diomede on
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