Thanks for the feedback, Dartanbeck.  I decided to do a few experiments with my first entry, the rehabbed head from the object browser.  All of this talk about Genesis 3 bones in the face and expressions got me thinking.  Why not try that in Carrara?  So, I added a skeleton to the converted and remapped malehd2 object from the browser.  The core is a set of bones from the base of the neck to the top of the skull but set back of the central Y axis.  I then extended new bones from the base of the head to:  chin, mouthright, mouthleft, nosebase, nosetip, cheekleft, cheekright, eyeleft, eyeright, and forehead central.  Here are some initital tests of attaching the head mesh to the facial skeleton.  I exaggerated to make the changes clear.  To make expressions, a person could now do a combination of bone movement and morphs. The hair is from the sample Carrara hairs in the browser, but less wave/kink/etc

Not sure I will use anything like this for the challenge (a single morph may be easer), but I thought it was worth reporting as an experiment.

I think there's something network topology related; I ran at 7.5 to 8 MB/second this afternoon - about 6:30 PM EST, 4:30 PM DAZ; North Central Indiana, on Google gigabit fiber wifi at my local Starbucks.

When I was going to college in the late '60s I used to fly Eastern Airlines home to Buffalo, NY through Tampa from Melbourne, Florida for $100 (round-trip) The trip home would only take 2h 30m.   I often arrived at the Melbourne airport only 20 minutes early.  We had free hot meals with real meat, a vegetable, saltines, fruit and desert, and used metal silverware.  Baggage check was free, carry on was free.  Stewardess would provide pillows, towels, blankets, free coffee & sodas if asked.  Alcoholic drinks were a dollar.  The stewardesses were young, cute and pleasant.  The seats were thick, soft, more than ample width wise and legroom wise.  We didn't have TV or movies or phones but we did have music piped through hollow tubes.  There was no security check area.  Friends & family were permited to come to the gate to see you off.  In Melbourne, the "gate" was just that, a gate in a chain link fence at the edge of the tarmac and you walked on the pavement to the stairs that had ejected from the plane itself.  In rainy weather the airport staff loaned you an umbrella.  I think it was a desirable trophy for a student from my college to have a perloined two-toned blue Eastern umbrella in their dorm room.

The planes were Eastern's Boeing 727 terribly misnamed "WhisperJet" later identified as one of the loudest and most polluting jets for their size ever manufactured.  But I thought they were beautiful.  I'm not sure but I think they were the only commercial jets to ever have three engines on the tail.  If you sat in the rearmost window seats your head was about 18 inches from the side engines, which made conversation difficult.  A couple of times we boarded or deplaned through the tail stairway that dropped down parallel to the body at the end of the tail.  I've never seen another jet with that feature either.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_727

Now days, I'd fly only if I absolutely had to and somebody else paid.  I HATE the modern airport experience. 

...actually, compared to the turbo (not fan) jet powered DC-8s, 707s, 720s and Convair 880s/990s which were still operated in the 1960s, the 727 was quieter especially when on the ground with engines running (The Convairs were the noisiest and smokiest).  Eastern coined the moniker "Whisperjet" because the engines were all behind the passenger cabin making the interior quieter than that of jets which had engines on the wings. (particularly for the poor folks in toruist who sat behind the wing).

There actually were two other aircraft with built in exit stairs under the tail, The McDonnell Douglas DC-9 (which Eastern also operated), and SUD Caravalle (which United flew).

Ahh, the days when air travel was something really special. I miss those too. Even as a teen I was fairly tall and never had legroom issues like I do now. The only fee you paid outside of liquor was if you had severely oversized/overweight baggage. Even then it was a modest amount compared to today. People argue that fares were more expensive back then, but if you were savvy you could get some decent deals. I usually flew "space available" which would knock 33% to 50% off my fare. You had to be a bit flexible but I rarely ever had to wait more than a couple extra hours as airlines didn't overbook flights like they did after deregulation.  If the only seat available was in First, I ended up in First (and received all the amenities of first class service).  The other nice feature was airfares were "standardised" and interchangeable between the major airlines, so you could be ticked on say, Northwest, but if space was available on a United or American flight, you could use your ticket on one of those airlines. It also meant connecting between different airlines was easier and cost less than it does today.

There were no penalties for cancellation or change of itinerary, all tickets were refundable, no having to purchase your ticket weeks/months in advance to get a good deal and a number of special discounts like student, military, family, and senior fares.

Stevens Point where I went to school was similar to your description of Melbourne just a small terminal building with a chain link fence that had two gates.  There were two flights a day using DC-9 jets (which looked really gigantic next to the small terminal) but the rest of the flights were turboprop  Convairs. Boarding planes in winter there could be brutal as it was often windy with temperatures frequently near or below zero (F). A few years later they built a more "modern" regional airport north of the city in Mosinee (serving the four towns of Stevens Point, Wisconsin Rapids, Wausau, and Marshfield) where North Central switched their operations to. After that, STE pretty much was relegated to a general aviation facility save for two small commuter airlines, Midstate and Air Wisconsin.

Here.s a shot of one of the more common visitors to Stevens Point Municipal the Convair 580  (sadly couldn't find pics of a DC-9 there )

...and this is the actual Ford Tri Motor that I had my first ever flight on at a later airshow appearance in Oshkosh (unfortunately that is not me in the co-pilot's seat).

Mysterio!

I guess I'm on the right track costume-wise if someone can recognize him. :)

KEWL!  Isn't he a Spidey foe?

 

Yep!  One of my favorites.  I'm not sure how central he was to the comics because I've only read the various Spiderman titles kind of erratically but he had some appearances in the 1967 animated show (which was heavily replayed when I was a kid in the 70's) that really made an impression on me. 

Just to confirm the PM, I'm in for the usual.

Let the games begin...!

Pull #1:

3683 - Dot Check
646 - Colors for Viking Male Hair
214 - A Quiet Repose
5800 - The Youth Camp - Camper's Cabin
4338 - Ibis for Victoria 3 (??)
2397 - Beach Hair
3571 - Severed Man (This could get interesting...!)
4655 - Central Park - Twilight

Now to figure out what all this crap is...!  (Victoria 3!?  Seriously!?)

TAG: obanion#01

Title: The New Scooby-Doo: Velma Gets Her Moment in the Sun

(In which we pay homage to the previous RRRR theme, 'Sequels')

<Image #1>
Used in this image:
Beach Hair
Ibis for Victoria 3
Central Park - Twilight
Dot Check

Also used:
Stephanie 3 Petite (the Ibis morph and texture worked on her; who knew!?)
Amiel Hair
4 Style Square-Toe Pumps for V3/A3/S3
Genesis 3 Female
The Mystery Solver for Genesis 3 Female
Michael 4
Hard Core for M4
Moonshines Diner
Moonshines Diner Interior (I and II)
Diner Waitress for Genesis
Tears Hair for Genesis
Millennium Dog
Step Van

With Daphne and Freddie currently honeymooning in Aruba, and with Shaggy in rehab (again! -- and before he could finish the paint job on the new, improved Mystery Machine, too), Velma did not want to go it alone; so she found some help -- from Martin and Alexis (yep, they're back)!  They met at a diner on the outskirts of the city, and after a nice lunch, they all piled into the Mystery Machine and headed down the highway.  Their destination: the infamous Camp Crystal Lake....

(To be continued)

I let it finish when I went to work (12 hours ago) and it was at about 87% at 5:30pm Central Time. The posts here aren't time-stamped, so I don't know when my last was - between 5pm and 5:05 anyway.

Yes, they are time stamped...hover your cursor over the date (under your avatar/icon in your post) and a small box will popup with the full date and time of the post....and if you click on the date, it will reload the page with that post being the final part of the URL so you can post it as a direct link to that particluar post.

Ah, thanks. 4:49pm, so yeah, close enough.

I let it finish when I went to work (12 hours ago) and it was at about 87% at 5:30pm Central Time. The posts here aren't time-stamped, so I don't know when my last was - between 5pm and 5:05 anyway.

Yes, they are time stamped...hover your cursor over the date (under your avatar/icon in your post) and a small box will popup with the full date and time of the post....and if you click on the date, it will reload the page with that post being the final part of the URL so you can post it as a direct link to that particluar post.

Thanks for the reply. I'm 8 hours into a calculation and all I've changed from the default settings is the Velocity (down to 3.0) and the Scale (down to 0.5), so it's got me curious.

8 hours?!  Wow, something is probably up.  Do you have a lot of colliders selected?  If so, any chance you are colliding with an environment?

The reason I ask; Sometimes environments will exist as single meshes/objects so that, for example, all 4 walls, ceiling, and floor are one object instead of multiple separate objects.  When that's the case, the particles always "think" they are colliding with the room, and check for collisions against the room geometry.  I've got a bit on this in the guide, but in those cases, just placing plane primitives in place of the walls/ceiling/floor can dramatically speed things up.

That may not be the case in your simulation, but worth pointing out regardless :-D.  Even on a modest PC simulating hundreds of particles for hundreds of frames, 8 hours seems too long.

I let it finish when I went to work (12 hours ago) and it was at about 87% at 5:30pm Central Time. The posts here aren't time-stamped, so I don't know when my last was - between 5pm and 5:05 anyway.

Only colliders are a G2F and a short hair, so the hair may have been the problem, since that was mentioned previously. The stream was aimed at the body, but did cascade up to and over the hair.

I'll try it again without the hair as a collider, and adjust the velocity so it doesn't go that high.

I did a test previously that did not reach the hair, with the smaller particles and such mentioned earlier, and the stream hit right about the Abdomen, and calculated a lot faster, so now I'm sure it was the hair causing the slow-down.
However, I did want to mention that the particle stream passed between the Adbomen1 and Ab2 joints, through the figure. It may have been due to the way these joints are posed (one bent back, one bent forward - preset pose).

Happy Birthday Miss Kulay !!

 

This is what I got instead of a birthday cake 

...didn't know it was your B-Day.  Happy however many trips you made around the central stellar primary.

Thank you!

This is what I got instead of a birthday cake 

...didn't know it was your B-Day.  Happy however many trips you made around the central stellar primary.

Another fun tip:

If we need anything to form an orbit, just move it away from the central location of the scene, then Insert a Target Helper Object. Now drag the object (in the instances tray) onto the newly added Target Helper Object (which "parents" the object to the Target). Now when we rotate (or otherwise change position of) the Target Helper Object, the Object will follow accordingly.

So, like the Grouping idea, this technique can be repeated for multiple effects. Just keep moving things away from center, parent to a new, centered Target Helper, then move that one away from center, parent to a new, centered Target Helper, etc.,

 

....Having said that, Carrara remains a hugely powerful 3D suite that can do most things pretty well, and the addition of things like Octane and VWD have, for me at least, extended the useful life of my favourite 3d package.  Until something comes along that offers something better, and I can't think of any that meets my needs right now, then Carrara will be central to my 3D work for years to come.

wise words, but the carrara render engine isn't so bad after all

 

...it's the Carrara render engine that still makes Carrara my favorite of all! Well... and a bunch of other things.

 

....Having said that, Carrara remains a hugely powerful 3D suite that can do most things pretty well, and the addition of things like Octane and VWD have, for me at least, extended the useful life of my favourite 3d package.  Until something comes along that offers something better, and I can't think of any that meets my needs right now, then Carrara will be central to my 3D work for years to come.

wise words, but the carrara render engine isn't so bad after all

I believe that there will be a version of Carrara which will support Genesis 3 figures.  Although it is taking an awfully long time, and Daz are missing out on lots of sales of product in the meantime.

I would not anticipate any other enhancements other than Genesis 3 support, I wish there would be but I am not hopeful, and given the current rate of development, the sun may have gone nova before anything happens.

Having said that, Carrara remains a hugely powerful 3D suite that can do most things pretty well, and the addition of things like Octane and VWD have, for me at least, extended the useful life of my favourite 3d package.  Until something comes along that offers something better, and I can't think of any that meets my needs right now, then Carrara will be central to my 3D work for years to come.

Roygee, thanks for the links to so many engine references.  Many of them are for the Ferret but are good to refer to.  There are many great references for that vehicle on the internet - maybe I'll have a go some time after this.

There are only partial views of the actual engine I need in the searches I've done but I'm also lacking in the basic knowledge of how these things were made to be able to make good use of those.  As you can see it didn't stop me trying!

That being said, any mechanics taking a look at my second attempt can have a laugh.  It is meant to look like an engine but I know as a fact that has major flaws.

I need only to make an exhust pipe, sort out the fan belt and pulleys and build a central part which joins the various prop shafts.  Then I will assemble the whole thing with a lot of scaling adjustments and go round the outside adding further handles, etc.

All that will be lacking is an interior but I'm definitely not going to bother.  At a minimum this would be a driver's seat, steering wheel and linkage to the steering rack and some dials, pedals and gear-sticks.  But none of this would ever be seen (same as the engine!)  There needs to be a driver's window-hatch on the outside.

@SF-Design - many thanks for your kind comment.

Great idea you welcome to copy any of my post from before if interesting , I will post the videos I prepare also there for easy find  

Ok folks, I created a thread over in Daz Studio Discussion to discuss & collect information about using all of Cath's amazing shaders so we will have a central place to collect all of the various tips/tricks/tutorials on any of her shader packs instead of having to search through numerous different threads.

I hope everyone will join me there so we can get everything in one place to make it easier on everyone.  http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/79236/thread-to-discuss-collect-tips-tricks-tutorials-etc-for-mec4d-s-pbs-shaders-all-volumes

Ok folks, I created a thread over in Daz Studio Discussion to discuss & collect information about using all of Cath's amazing shaders so we will have a central place to collect all of the various tips/tricks/tutorials on any of her shader packs instead of having to search through numerous different threads.

I hope everyone will join me there so we can get everything in one place to make it easier on everyone.  http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/79236/thread-to-discuss-collect-tips-tricks-tutorials-etc-for-mec4d-s-pbs-shaders-all-volumes

Great idea, and subscribed. Thanks for setting up the forum!

Ok folks, I created a thread over in Daz Studio Discussion to discuss & collect information about using all of Cath's amazing shaders so we will have a central place to collect all of the various tips/tricks/tutorials on any of her shader packs instead of having to search through numerous different threads.

I hope everyone will join me there so we can get everything in one place to make it easier on everyone.  http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/79236/thread-to-discuss-collect-tips-tricks-tutorials-etc-for-mec4d-s-pbs-shaders-all-volumes

These shaders are so amazing but it can be very time consuming to dig through numerous threads to understand how to best use them plus the countless little tips & tricks so I decided to create a central thread in what I hope is the best place to collect them.  I'll try to copy/paste what I can find from various other threads as I can.

Lets go folks and share our understandings!

Collection of related threads so far:

https://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/76602/mec4d-pbs-pure-metals-merchant-resource-commercial

http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/72523/mec4d-pbs-shaders-vol-2-released-commercial

https://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/76602/mec4d-pbs-shaders-for-iray-vol-3-merchant-resource-commercial

Just to confirm the PM, I'm in for the usual.

Let the games begin...!

Pull #1:

3683 - Dot Check
646 - Colors for Viking Male Hair
214 - A Quiet Repose
5800 - The Youth Camp - Camper's Cabin
4338 - Ibis for Victoria 3 (??)
2397 - Beach Hair
3571 - Severed Man (This could get interesting...!)
4655 - Central Park - Twilight

Now to figure out what all this crap is...!  (Victoria 3!?  Seriously!?)