What's your favourite book? What's your least favourite book? Which book have you read most recently? What books do you remember from your childhood? And what about those classics? Romeo and Juliet, The Iliad, The Lord of the Rings, 1984, Alice in Wonderland, Dune, The Hunger Games...

For the July challenge, pick a book that exists in the real world - any published book - and design a new cover for it!

I think it would be fun to include the title and author, like a real book cover. You could use a service like Canva, which can be used for free (they will try and upsell you to a paid subscription... you can ignore that, just use the free version.) However this is optional, you can also submit your render without author and title.

I can't wait to see what you bookworms come up with! 

The use of image generating AI technology (midjourney, stable diffusion, DAZ AI Studio, etc.) is not allowed. The use of items (freebies or paid) that have been created with such technology is also not allowed. We realise it's not always easy to tell; let's all use our best judgement, and you can always ask the person hosting the contest if you're not sure.

The Rules For This Months Freebie Challenge are:

1. A minimum of  (5) Freebies must be included in your image along with Links to the freebies you have used. For an item to be considered free it must be offered as a freebie for the whole month. The exception to this rule is all Daz Bi-Weekly Freebies will be allowed throughout the entire month in which they are free as well as the month following their release as a freebie (For a total of 2 months). Also, if a freebie is broken down into multiple downloads/links/parts (IE like if the freebie is broken down into 3 zips etc...)it only counts as 1 freebie, not 3.
2. There will be a Maximum of 5 purchased items.
3. Base figures (All Gen 2,3,4, and Genesis 1,2,3) as well as their general morphs packs (Morphs++ and similar) do not count as a purchased item or a freebie and may be used as needed
4.Your Rendered Picture must be a new render and postwork is allowed but you MUST include a before and after Postwork versions of your entry in the Entry Thread.
5. All DAZ 3D Programs are allowed (IE Bryce, Carrara, Daz Studio and Hexagon) plus Poser for the contest.
6. All entries are subject to the Daz3D TOS Found Here: Terms Of Service
7. You may enter a Maximum of 4 Entries per month.
8. You may edit your entry as much as you like in the main thread but once it is posted to the "Entries Thread" it may not be further modified. Also, if you edit or add things, be sure you update any links or freebie changes you make.

9. The use of image generating AI technology (midjourney, stable diffusion, etc.) is not allowed. The use of items (freebies or paid) that have been created with such technology is also not allowed. We realise it's not always easy to tell; let's all use our best judgement, and you can always ask the person hosting the contest if you're not sure.

This Freebie Challenge will end July 31th, 2025 @ 23:59 Daz time.

*Please Note: Please allow 7 days from the Announcement of the Winners to recive your prize*
If you have not recived your prize, or have any questions, please contact Hylas in a PM here on the forums 

Post your images and freebie links here for judging after verification. For the verification you can post your image and links in Main Thread.

First Place: $15 store credit from KindredArts
Second Place: $10 store credit from KindredArts
Third Place: $5 store credit from KindredArts

Any other donations for prizes will be gratefully accepted.  Please send a PM to Hylas

Bunyip02 said:

Headwax said:

WendyLuvsCatz said:

FBX should include the morphs along the timeline

thanks I'll check , carrara just crashed and i lost the scene 

What a PITA !!!

Ha ha yes, I am doing a ship of fools on my 3d printer, a cast of thousands, well about 11 , have no idea where they will all fit, but that's the fun .... I think. 

Headwax said:

WendyLuvsCatz said:

FBX should include the morphs along the timeline

thanks I'll check , carrara just crashed and i lost the scene 

What a PITA !!!

WendyLuvsCatz said:

FBX should include the morphs along the timeline

thanks I'll check , carrara just crashed and i lost the scene 

Stezza said:

lol

I won't show what is on the rear board as it will be back to 1984 

the lighting set is one of the best Carrara products I bought way back then long time ago when grass was green.... 

use them in probably 99% of my renders 

thanks, I no longer use any lights at all, my renders look better black ;)

lol

I won't show what is on the rear board as it will be back to 1984 

the lighting set is one of the best Carrara products I bought way back then long time ago when grass was green.... 

use them in probably 99% of my renders 

Headwax said:

mindsong said:

I believe I had to return my Carrara tmp dir back to its default for VWD to work as well.

Philemo, pleased to see you are well. We were worried for your well being, and happy you are fine and able to rejoin us!

cheers!

--ms

Anyone know what  returning tmp directory back to its default means? 

Bunyip02 - great spaceship. Did you model it in Carrara? The scene with the farm has yet potential for a great scene.

Past as Future - thank you, always nice to see you here..

The terrain is from Gritstone Hills with the material Bryce Pro Material Tau Variant by David Brinnen. The water is a 2D-Face with my own material. Sky, colours and ambient light by an HDRI from Hyper Textures Base. Additional light and specular by the sun.

Omega Man said:

WendyLuvsCatz said:

oh lots of things open exr but not many render exr image series into mp4 

Very interesting.  Please could I respectfully ask what a typical workflow for your projects might look like ?  Are you making indie films shot in MP4 and matching Carrara assets back into the footage as MP4 ?  I would love to know anything more about that workflow and usuage of Carrara.

while I still use Carrara a lot I probably use other software more these days 

nanely DAZ studio, Twinmotion, Unreal Engine and occasionally iClone

but I don't always render in the thing I worked in, it's complicated 

I use Ai a lot too

I do crappy Youtube videos  

2 of several channels I have

https://youtube.com/@madcatlady?si=NhBZtqiPXC7QJf7g

 https://youtube.com/@dreamingkitty?si=8M6k_X47IoOVNmU4

its just a hobby, I am not doing this seriously 

and as to your question 

ai often accidentally render in EXR using Octane render as iits the default 

and after hours just don't want to render it again 

WendyLuvsCatz said:

oh lots of things open exr but not many render exr image series into mp4 

Very interesting.  Please could I respectfully ask what a typical workflow for your projects might look like ?  Are you making indie films shot in MP4 and matching Carrara assets back into the footage as MP4 ?  I would love to know anything more about that workflow and usuage of Carrara.

NBV unticking used GPU seemed to fix the latest version. GPU gets ticked again the next time you run it I think, so keep that in mind. The other fix might have been running an old version firts, then the new one - but probably nothing to do with anything. I also deleted a whole lot of old files in one subdirectory for VWD - don't think this did anything. 

edit: and the way to save the morphed/clothed  mesh out as an obj is to go to the vertex room, select frame 1 (in this case) and then click 'save' and you can save it as a car file or an obj file etc

https://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/133641/dynamic-clothing/p6#Comment_1966681

This is Gooood thread https://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/218511/help-from-anyone-please-with-vwdcloth-experience?srsltid=AfmBOopNQdX3x_t5D889GBMWP28fIiu-LS7xaIXUF2BT2PAfZ2OuHDkm

https://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/98766/dynamic-cloth-related-carrara-plugins-best-practices-tips-and-renders

Hmm, had another play this arvo and it worked

Ran clergy cassock over m4 in poser 11, using the first VWD version (later version ov VWD did nothing I think?)

Then did the same in Carrara with original vwd on M4 as collison, clergy cassock as cloth - worked fine!

On a hunch put in two vertex spheres in carrara and used one as collision and one as cloth - worked fine.

The two speheres didnt work this morning though.

Only thing I have done differently is run it through poser first.... then fire up carrara.

still works though I have closed poser - maybe a coincidence...

.

I expect the drive to just fail one day and it's not worth replacing 

always worth replacing if it runs carrara :)

thanks for your reply, must be cold in melbourne, it's like a fridge here 

Hi Brent. I wish I was only 57. I've been messing around with 3D since the 1990's, but started using DS in 2004. I started with Cinema 4D, Poser, and Carrara Studio. Cinema 4D got too expensive, I prefered Carrara to Poser, and now use DS (and Blender) since Carrara is abandonware. 3d is indeed a fun hobby.

I seldom try to crreate anyone from RL in 3D. I prefer working in a more fantasy related world. I call my work realistic 3D, as I really enjoy making the elements look very 3D, but not so much like a photo of the real world (or photorealistic).

As a side note, if you move this thread to the Commons, you might get a lot more responses.

mindsong said:

I believe I had to return my Carrara tmp dir back to its default for VWD to work as well.

Philemo, pleased to see you are well. We were worried for your well being, and happy you are fine and able to rejoin us!

cheers!

--ms

Anyone know what  returning tmp directory back to its default means? 

WendyLuvsCatz said:

only on my Win7

actually got the extension working on my Win10 too using a separate beta version of Carrara (minimal plugins) now but VWD itself freezes mid sim and never responds again

Thank you Wendy. I have a feeling it worked once on poser then stopped after another go in the same session.  Maybe there-in doth lie a clue. I am using win 10. Perhaps python has been updated and causes the problem. 

Edut from the other place: Installed Python 2.7.11 however CarraraVWDBridge failed on input of VWD location (tried having VWD in C:VWD and ...RuntimePythonposerscriptsVWD). Installed Python 2.7.12 and it appears to have fixed that problem. Now able to save VWD location and start VWD from Carrara. (Windows10 x64)

and 

The fact that you have a suffixed object created means that the dress has been exported and reimported in Carrara. The message is from VWD. Objects have to be visible to be exported (same in Poser and Studio). After the first export, the original dress is hidden and the copy is visible. If you redo one without hidding or deleting the copy and making the original visible again, it won't work.

But all that doesn't account for the first export that should have worked. I had that kind of error when:

the export takes too long. Most of the time, this is due to the "merge vertices" option checked with a high number of vertices.

The obj file is locked. You may have to cleanup the exchange directory (there is an option in VWD Utilities menu).

Carrara crashed somewhere in the process. that hasn't happened to me for a long time.

Hope that helps

Philemo

only on my Win7

actually got the extension working on my Win10 too using a separate beta version of Carrara (minimal plugins) now but VWD itself freezes mid sim and never responds again

Hmm anyone working with this successfully ? Still works in poser, but i get errors in carrara

. Tried a few versions. If I don't get an error in carrara then nothing moves in the sim. 

Using short file names and simple meshes 

Headwax said:

Stezza and Wendy are they Batman boomerangs? . B2 funny if they were!  Amazing what a cube can do. And Carrara browser so full of goodness 

depends on the batman I guess

some wear their Depends on the silly mid on 

Stezza and Wendy are they Batman boomerangs? . B2 funny if they were!  Amazing what a cube can do. And Carrara browser so full of goodness