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Well I'm curious to if I am going to pull this off......
I have a vision of a picture, but managing to materializing it out isn't always easy.
Texturing the ArchiTools models are actually very easy. They are being, as Holly so beautifully put it, “automagically” created.
But : there is a trap.
As you see in the picture. The direction you are drawing the walls matter. One has to draw them in the same direction all the time.
The two buildings are both two rooms joined together, but the bottom one is one room drawn from left to right, and the other from right to left.
The top building, both rooms are drawn from the left to right.
I believe it has to do with that all rooms have a inside and a outside, and somehow the direction one are drawing them decides wich one is what...?
And UV mapping in the window and door cutout, doesn't work to well. But that doesn't matter anyway. There is going to be something in there anyway.
I so wish I could join in but with this machine I can't do much in Carrara at all these days. Well not the stuff I like to do that is. ;)
I will say though it sounds a cool challenge Antara and I hope it is successful for eveyone's sake and Carrara's.
Well here's my WIP entry to the contest. Basically it will be a paradise LOST.
Stock object is an M3 skeleton, modified.
Obviously there are just a bunch of scribbles for placeholders as I explore what I'm going to do. This will be my first attempt at something that doesn't have a robot of some sort in it
Your fire solution is pure genius! On so many levels!
I really like the idea of creating the mesh out of a BW photo or map. I can see that being handy for a much wider range of applications. Totally brilliant idea!!! I'm not good at modelling at all, so this is just the type of solution I might find actually doable... And then you can use boolean functions to create a single symmetrical object out of the 2 halfs created from such terrains.... I'll have to try it some time... And I can use stamp-type brushes for the original terrain maps... So much potential!
And thank you so much for the bump tip. I was getting very tiny brush size and smooth looking results on my items with bump and kept thinking it's due to polygon sampling, so I kept decimating them, with little to no difference.
Also, are these images done with just diffuse layers? Have you played with good ways of combining different layers?
Modeling from images is an old favorite trick of mine. Works great with vectors and the spline modeler too.
I have quite a few - more to excavate!
And yes, just diffuse layers. Nothing fancy.
If I want to layer, I usually make two identical sized renders and mask out bits of one to make a coherent whole (like if I want a different brush style for one object, I'd layer it on top and make a totally black mask to hide the whole layer, then "paint in" my object by brushing white to reveal it with a soft edge brush so the blend is less obvious).
I forgot to answer the question about light through transparency! I usually cheat and just use the image I want where the transparency would be - like pasting the eyeball image over the transparent layers in an eye. If it's a window or other aperture, just delete the glass - nobody will ever know!
I'm running in to issues with my next entry, soft cloth really bogs this comp way down. Once again the theme is lost and found.
So far it is the M3 pirates clothes, the old P4 skeleton, and the treasure chest from DAZ. The rest will include several DAZ figures, but the island and flora will all be carrara. I'm going to try to modify all the clothes with draping. But that may be beyond this comp. I may have to do each piece of clothing individually, save out as a .obj then import refit and retexture. Fun stuff.
edit to add. Working fine now, kept getting memory allocation warnings last night. I dropped my undos from 16 to 4. I think that was the main issue for this old comp.
Hey Stan,
That's a great idea about dropping the levels of undo when running into memory issues. I had never thought about before. I will have to make a note of that so that I can try it the next time I get a memory error. Thankfully, it happens very rarely with me.
1 gig machine, happens a lot, lol. Well not since I reset the undo.
This took most of the afternoon. Needs retexturing but the draping came out nice. Does that count as moding content? :coolsmirk:
I would certainly hope it would count. You're using the bullet physics engine in Carrara to do it. ;-)
just a quickie :0
be back tomorrow and admire everyone's work
OK, I have to stop playing with NPR. This thing is freaking addictive.
But before I move on to other things, here is my best effort at it so far.
I think the best way to do it is to combine layers from NPR and the regular Photo-realistic multi-passes. Which is what I did for the combined image. (I attach the layers showing their modes, modifications and opacity (in %) to show what the final look is made of.)
I like using ornate, but light gery brushes for this because I think they give the most freedom for post. Also I found that i like brushes, which are small (compared to the white space around them within the brush square), and I used light grey to slightly darker grey for the brush tone, so that the overall layer pass would not be too bald. I like multiplying layers more than reducing opacity on them. Also when such a layer is blurred slightly and then multiplied, it creates a more painterly look.
The regular multi-pass was rendered in much smaller size, since for this type of image precision is not at all necessary, so it was nice and fast. Low anti-aliasing settings throughout. I don't see much difference there, maybe because of not using outline. I resized the photo-realistic render in post to match my NPR layers size.
I also used Photoshop watercolor filter on most photo-realistic layers. Just because it looked more fun that way :) And then I blurred them to reduce the hard edge effects.
And hopefully now I will be able to tear myself away from NPR to start thinking about my entry....
Now to other topics:
WOW!!! That's great use of dynamics! And no kidding it counts! If the shirt and pants have been dynamically draped in Carrara, then you already have 2 items towards you 3-item count.
Great job on the draping! Are you using a low-poly proxy figure for the skeleton? I thought it's be near-impossible to drape on something so small-detailed and high-poly. Also are you draping the mesh and then smoothing it for the render, or are you cloth items high-poly too? they look really smoothly draped.
I look forward to seeing where this image goes from here. So far it looks fun :).
That was an unexpected twist. :) Now it's a whole new story I want to hear...
P.S. It's a pity I cannot insert images directly into the body of the post (or is there a way to do it?) because now, all the images which are relevant to the very beginning of this extremely long posting are going to show up at the very end... :long:
Thanks for posting that Antara! Tons of good information there about using the NPR, render passes and compositing! I think pretty soon you'll be able to hold your own against Dart for post length as well! ;-)
I've added hair-as-grass to my highway. I'll have to darken the colors used in the hair shader as the colors in the grass are rather electric, to say the least.
It's the old P4 skeleton. Still works :lol:
I'm working on the beach/island made in carrara. I'm trying to make a hirez beach texture in Genetica, but hirez and one gig just wont work; the advantage is a real normal map ;-) .
Next up is to err, umm, distress the pirates essential boat. :coolgrin:
Some great goings on while I've been away from the web. Manstan, I like the use of physics. Wish I had a better handle on that.
Antara, thanks for the great NPR posts. I have a question about creating and saving custom NPR brushes (how?), but I put it in a new thread because it seems like a more general issue than just this challenge.
Is the old P4 skeleton low-poly? I don't think I've worked with it. But you are right, it works really well and looks good.
Well, add in that terrain and you'll already pass the 3-item criteria. And if you create debris using Carrara modifiers, that would also count as your modified items, even if the original object is content.
Good luck with terrains and boats! :)
Antara, thanks for the great NPR posts. I have a question about creating and saving custom NPR brushes (how?), but I put it in a new thread because it seems like a more general issue than just this challenge.
I have answered to the best of my knowledge, and since this thread is already full of NPR discussions, here is the link to your thread, so people wouldn't need to go searching: http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/27068/
Depending on what style you are going for in your final image, electric grass might be just the thing :). But seriously, consider just darkening the roots in the hair shader. Also, this way, if you have some noise in the length channel of the shader, the darker roots will show up where neighbouring grass is shorter creating more sense of grass depth and diversity. And I really love how the grass already looks at the outer sides of the road - very natural!
And I am getting more and more curious about your idea.... :)
That's a good idea about the shader. I've been experimenting with it, and have desaturated the colors and darkened them in both the root and tip channels. I'll try darkening the roots even more to see what effect that will have. I've also found lowering the highlight and shininess from the default 20% has helped as well.
boy blink and you miss stuff around here
firstly Antara - you are doing a wonderous job thank you, I'm just about to read your stuff on the NPR and take some notes :)
Varsel wrote
thanks for that discovery :)
I played with architools initially but havn't had a chance to delve into it, but I noticed I screwed up the uvees somehow and maybe that's why!
so good spotting. :)
Antara, thanks for the NPR stuff very interesting. Your layers look like mine except I never name mine :) which tells you about how confused I can get. OH and I never use the adjustment layers which is silly of me :)
ManStan, I love your concept on this one :)
And Evil, the road is looking so good . I wouldn't stand on it for fear of becoming road kill.
pnewhook: great how you are treating this in the traditonal sense of sketch then render.
Socratease : moo :) Thanks for the hints on the transparency stuff.
From the great results so far I think I am subtly persuaded to try out the NPR again.
well I;ve decided that I think by doodling. The concept of this is that the little girl is losing her childhood innocence - (not to the man) signifed by the way she is looking at the moon, and her abandoned Teddy Bear in the background. The man on the other hand is rediscovering his childhood. The dog is a blind dog that has lost it's master - who is nowhere to be found :) The whole setup is like a stage play
Yeah, I know it's s stretch.
Amongst other things...
I used PhilW's wonderful Linton Hall, from English Village. The curtains and newspaper are from Age of Armours' equally wonderous Studio Paris. Both come with a surfeit of props and I would highly recommend them . Both Figures are K4. The K4 on the right is the neanderthal morph and texture. The clothes are an m4 set I refitted .
So far I made the sign and if I go with this concept I'll make a few more things and say exactly what is what.
I include the before post work image as well.
cheerios :) thanks for looking
I agree! The road will become much busier soon!
Looking good Head Wax. I think you inadvertantly gave me an idea for a second entry if I have the time!
Well here goes. I'm trying to create the landscape.
Also made a new gate for the city. Just a bit of Asian flare to it. After all Shangri-La is supposed to be the Himalayas somewhere.
I'm not happy with the landscape. It lacks drama.
Any ideas anyone ?
Not yet a Wip, but with all those talks about NPR and the challenge theme, I would like to try (at last) something that had been nagging me for some time : Emulating engraving.
So, I'll try a tribute to Gustave Doré work :
Gustave Doré illustration of Milton's Paradise Lost
I'm starting the Proof of Concept now and will post as soon as I get something showable (if ever :-) )
It needs a Giant Cow peeking over the hilltops at the camera.
Sticking it's tongue out.
I have an idea for mine but the hardest part is the modelling.. I really suck at it, that's why I buy stuff!!
Anyways I have tried to model a few things for this one, a segway because that's what popped into my mind along with some telegraph poles, wires and a sign post..
Putting these together for a render with my thought pattern wasn't difficult, whether others will see what I do is another question lol
The Norfolk pine is a photo I took with my iPone4S and then stuck it onto a plane.. I told you I really suck at modelling lol
Here is my W I P before I post the final render which I played around with lighting and such and it will have no postwork added.
I think the issue with the landscape lacking drama is that it doesn't have the scale you need. The near and mid-level of the terrain look fine, but it's clear that the white capped mountains are coming out the same mesh. They look way to close. If there is a way to keep the foreground and mid-ground aspects, that would be good, but you need a mountain range with real scale for the background.
Here's the highway for my scene. There's going to be a visual gag with it, so I blurred the highway signs as I don't want to ruin the joke before the final image is posted.
Disclaimer: It will be more than be a chuckle type joke ( I hope) rather than a guffaw type joke. Just so I don't build too much anticipation for it, y'know. ;-)
It needs a Giant Cow peeking over the hilltops at the camera.
Sticking it's tongue out.
You probably don't want to know what we did to one of our bovines today.
A hint: His name was Whopper Jr. and he was two yrs old.
Title - Crossroads
I modelled the segway, the sign post, the telegraph poles and wire and also photographed the Norfolk Pine.
Content credits - LisaB - Indian Grass, SBRM pelican and flock formations
General process description - I used the wide angle camera, positioning and lighting processes for sunlight, GI and full raytracing for render. No postwork was used.
Interpretation - open to the viewers own imagination... but I reckon if you stay under that post to long trying to decide you will be shat upon ;-)
Nice job Stezza! I like the camera angle you chose.
You probably don't want to know what we did to one of our bovines today.
A hint: His name was Whopper Jr. and he was two yrs old.
The Millennium Cow will be Immune to that!
But Cows are meant to inspire Art, and if you consider that Art... fine.