Samuel S. said:

Samuel S. said:

WendyLuvsCatz said:

well I do believe there are indie versions if you are considering Autodesk stuff and earn less than 100K per Annum

for me 460AUD a year, I have actually pondered it but not bitten the bullett yet

Thank you. I noticed that similar to Carrara, Blender, and Lightwave 3D's origins, it came into being around the late 1980s. I also tried Maya but it was a memory and resource hog for me.

Max also seems very similar to Carrara. It lets you export content to Carrara using the Carrara Preset. Additionally, the X, Y, and Z axis directions are similar to Carrara's.

With DAZ Bridge for Max and Max's support for Carrara; it seems a good fit. I will create some videos in future.

I will be happy to support Max developers who are really keeping it cutting edge.

I just found the following on the Autodesk Max Indie version.

Get Access to Autodesk 3ds Max Indie Software with Affordable Prices

Are you eligible?

• Your annual gross revenue from creative work must be less than $100,000 USD.
• You may not use the license on any project valued over $100,000 USD.
• Only one license subscription can be used per user or organization. 
• Offer is available in these countries.

Note: This offer is subject to certain restrictions.

I'm tired of all subscriptions regardless from who and for what (thanks a bunch, Adobe)

I don't see in Max Indie anything that would make Carrara less interesting than Max

in fact, I think Carrara has more to offer than Max Indie unless you go full blown Max version maybe

Carrara is pay once own for ever

Max is pay for ever never own it

besides, how often did Autodesk kill a Program and left the users behind

Softimage

Stingray

123D

etc.

3ds max is a dead man walking

Carrara has only one Problem, it is in fact not a real DAZ product, it is eovia and it has been Carrara ever since with only minor updates. 64 bit was a must

the interface should get an overhaul soon and as a free update

the very core of Carrara is user friendlyness functionality and features

not sure if you get all that in Max Indie version, could be only marketing Autodesk is better than this or than that to rescue a sinking ship that has already water up to the bridge

Samuel S. said:

WendyLuvsCatz said:

well I do believe there are indie versions if you are considering Autodesk stuff and earn less than 100K per Annum

for me 460AUD a year, I have actually pondered it but not bitten the bullett yet

Thank you. I noticed that similar to Carrara, Blender, and Lightwave 3D's origins, it came into being around the late 1980s. I also tried Maya but it was a memory and resource hog for me.

Max also seems very similar to Carrara. It lets you export content to Carrara using the Carrara Preset. Additionally, the X, Y, and Z axis directions are similar to Carrara's.

With DAZ Bridge for Max and Max's support for Carrara; it seems a good fit. I will create some videos in future.

I just found the following on the Autodesk Max Indie version.

Get Access to Autodesk 3ds Max Indie Software with Affordable Prices

Are you eligible?

• Your annual gross revenue from creative work must be less than $100,000 USD.
• You may not use the license on any project valued over $100,000 USD.
• Only one license subscription can be used per user or organization. 
• Offer is available in these countries.

Note: This offer is subject to certain restrictions.

(Guess I was more behind than I thought on listing these LOL) They are usable for March & April freebie contest.

My take: Nothing interests me except - more dinos! On the fence about the G2F poses. I have the RSSY converters to use with G3 & G8, but most are photoshoot and "cheesecake" type poses, which I have little use for.

G9: dForce Angie Cuffed Jeans; Kin hair/character/poses

G1: Recess outfit,  Bow Dress & Boots textures, Anime Dress

G2: i13 Captivating (G2F/V6 poses)

Gen 4: Raysee Doll(Aiko4 character)***, Sisters of the Asylum (V4 face & clothing textures)

Gen. 3: AVR (Aiko3 headgear)***

Prehistoric Animals: ElasmotheriumDR***, Gallimimus***

Other: A Bright Loft Lights*, Shaders Revisited - Metallic Jewelry Shaders for DS**, Carrara Surface & Skin Shaders

*Product says compatible with DS4.22 but I'm not sure how well it will work in Iray, since it's old; requires A Bright Loft environment

**Not Iray. 3DLight?

***should work in DS as well as Poser

Richard Haseltine said:

WendyLuvsCatz said:

meh 

keep losing all my custom actions under scripts

renders slow to a halt after 30 frames

after 2 hours

I don't know if it's D|S or my PC

Carrara runs well though so .....

 

update same scene 26 minutes in using 4.11 I am past 30 frames already

it's a good thing I can use Genesis 9 in Carrara  I will be using 4.22 to save stuff for that

never used the heat plugin but I may try removing that

or just disable it - having it installed and enabled seems to be enough, regardless of whether or not it is used.

I will say 4.11 is lightning speed for iray even compared to 4.21 or 22 pre heat and my GPU is staying below 50C  

am not using G9 or strandbased hair so perfectly fine

BTW even Filament ground to a halt in 4.22 (iray in 4.11 is faster)

WendyLuvsCatz said:

meh 

keep losing all my custom actions under scripts

renders slow to a halt after 30 frames

after 2 hours

I don't know if it's D|S or my PC

Carrara runs well though so .....

 

update same scene 26 minutes in using 4.11 I am past 30 frames already

it's a good thing I can use Genesis 9 in Carrara  I will be using 4.22 to save stuff for that

never used the heat plugin but I may try removing that

or just disable it - having it installed and enabled seems to be enough, regardless of whether or not it is used.

I may have solved this

VWD creates an "exchange" text file in the same folder you save your scene, for it's settings etc

because I was saving my scenes on a USB drive that I was transfering stuff from over my WiFi all the time to my Win10

(100's of gigabytes of stuff for 2 days at a time!)

I think the bus speed or something was affected and Carrara wasn't seeing the drive

meh 

keep losing all my custom actions under scripts

renders slow to a halt after 30 frames

after 2 hours

I don't know if it's D|S or my PC

Carrara runs well though so .....

update same scene 26 minutes in using 4.11 I am past 30 frames already

it's a good thing I can use Genesis 9 in Carrara  I will be using 4.22 to save stuff for that

never used the heat plugin but I may try removing that

Vicky 4 Lovy Hair

Was doing another render setup with G2F, when Carrara crashed, no warnings no nothing just Carrara disappeared off my screen .....

WendyLuvsCatz said:

well I do believe there are indie versions if you are considering Autodesk stuff and earn less than 100K per Annum

for me 460AUD a year, I have actually pondered it but not bitten the bullett yet

Thank you. I noticed that similar to Carrara, Blender, and Lightwave 3D's origins, it came into being around the late 1980s. I also tried Maya but it was a memory and resource hog for me.

As a hobbyist, I learned a lot from DAZ's free and paid products, but the time has come to add the latest 3D authoring product besides Carrara. I will continue to use Carrara and other DAZ products. Hopefully, developers can pick or re-write Carrara to match the latest in the industry as I found it to be the best and easy to learn 3D authoring tool. 

I am thinking of 3Ds Max (I am currently trying out the Trial), and I also noticed that DAZ's Bridge for Max is available.

Here is another Carrara to Stable Diffusion example.  This time going for a vintage pulp cover.  Final image on left.  Used Carrara's native filter Toon III Pro to make detect the outlines easier, and used the depth multipass.  In this case, did not use the main render (beauty pass) for anything.  

Moved to Carrara Discussion, which I would assume was the goal rather than Daz Studio Discussion.

Genesis 2 is back with Carrara Pro 8.5

Here are the elements to the workflow described above.

Carrara scene setup.

Stable Diffusion main area and written text prompts.

Controlnet Canny Settings

Controlnet Depth settings.  Recall that I inverted the depth pass, and loaded my own mask, and notice that the processor is set to 'none.'

Ravenhart Divinity Oracle Building - 3 things.

1) Dart is doing a webinar through Digital Art Live on content sold through the Daz3D store, and he has chosen Ravenhart as an example.  Ravenhart made the SciFi spaceship set series Marcoor.  

2) Ravenhart also made the classic Dividnity Oracle textures back in the day, which I have.  

3) I am going to use Ravenhart's Divinity Oracle tower for a walk through of Carrara Toon and Multipasses to Stable Diffusion workflow.

A) Simple block out in Carrara.  I inserted a couple Carrara terrains.  For the foreground terrain, I applied a plateau filter so I could put the Divinity Oracle near the top.  I staggered the other two terrains twoard the background.

B) Create a tree replicator holder.  I duplicated the foreground terrain, created a new master, and converted it to a vertex model.  In the vertex modeler, I created a new shading domain for tree placement.  I inserted a surface replicator, chose the duplicate vertex terrain as the holder, and limited the replicated objects to the new shading domain just created.  I chose the tree as the object to be replicated.

C) I arranged the scene and chose a camera angle.

D) In the scene tab, I enabled the filter for Toon III Pro.

E)  In the render tab, I added a depth pass.  (I also added a background pass and a diffuse pass, but did not use them in this example).

C) After rendering, I used an image editor to invert the depth pass.

D) Now armed with the toon render and the inverted depth pass, I started Stable Diffusion and chose a model comfortable with non-photorealistic projects.  I used a very simple positive prompt.  "high quality, landscape illustration, A tower on top of a hill with trees on side, background mountains moonlight behind the tower, mood is eerie, in the style of pulp cover art."  Negative prompt merely used "low quality."

E) I enabled 2 Controlnet processors.  First, I enabled 'canny.'  I loaded the Toon render and lowered the Control Weight.  I clicked the orange icon to run the canny processor and it generated an outline image from the toon render I loaded.  It is possible to edit the result, or to upload your own mask, but I left the canny alone in this case.

F) The second Controlnet process was Depth.  My inverted Depth image is the one I want.  So, I enabled the second controlnet channel, chose depth, and uploaded my inverted image.  However, I did not click the orange processor icon.  Instead, I enabled upload own mask and chose my inverted map again.  I set the processing model to 'none.'  I lowered the control weight.

g) I set the height and width of the Stable Diffusion area to match my renders.  (768 wide by 512 high).  increased the batch to 4 and the sampling steps to 35.

h) I clicked generate.  Kapow - some images appear.

Here are examples of two results.  Recall that my prompts include an illustrated look of a pulp book cover with an eerie mood.

3D Blockout and Artificial Inteligence Processing

Here is the final image.  I used Carrara to generate a depth pass and a toon filtered render.  I used those two elements in Controlnet Depth and Canny respectively.

Here was the toon render.

Here is the depth pass.

useful plugin for physically accurate lighting

https://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/182366/distance-squared-fall-off-lightx-free-plugin/p1

lighting challange thread

https://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/465146/carrara-challenge-56-let-there-be-light/p1

Bunyip02 said:

Fettbemme said:

Steve K said:

Just to mention it, there are a couple of dozen examples of lighting in the Carrara browser, under "Scenes/Lighting Scenes"

that's right

thanks

Also examples of Indoor lighting in "Indoor" in the scene files

Don't know if it's coincidence or not, but my Preferences file became corrupt on my Laptop install after opening the Indoor scene.

Had to delete the Preferences.txt file and redo my Preferences the next time I opened Carrara. Scene when opened came up as all black.

Will make a Backup copy in case of it happening again.

Location of the Preferences.txt file on my Graphics computer

What is the power source of a city? Is the power plant supplying it with electricity, or is the blood and sweat and dreams of its inhabitants? What is your personal power source? Is it coffee, or friendship, or cupcakes? The sun is the primary power source for all of earth, and applause is the sole power source of the fairy Tinker Bell. Adrenaline and caffeine, nuclear fusion and windmills... the theme of March is Power Source!

New rule: 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.

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 March 31st, 2024 @ 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 Linwelly, Saphirewild, or 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 Saphirewild

What is the power source of a city? Is the power plant supplying it with electricity, or is the blood and sweat and dreams of its inhabitants? What is your personal power source? Is it coffee, or friendship, or cupcakes? The sun is the primary power source for all of earth, and applause is the sole power source of the fairy Tinker Bell. Adrenaline and caffeine, nuclear fusion and windmills... the theme of March is Power Source!

New rule: 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.

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 1,2,3,8 and 9) 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 March 31st, 2024 @ 23:59 Daz time.

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

Post your images and freebie links here for link verification. Once the links are verified, you can post your image and links in Entries Thread for judging.

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

Past Freebie Contests (the links to previous years can still be found in last years challenges):

January 2022 - Around and around and around...

February 2022 - Mysteries of the heart

March 2022- Luck Of The Draw

April 2022 - New Beginnings

May 2022 - Cozy Corner

June/July 2022 - The Secret Life Of...

August 2022- Sniff, sniff... what's that smell?

September 2022-Cars Cars and More Cars

October 2022 - Horror Movies

November 2022 - Thieves, Robbers, and Fraudsters all around!

December 2022 - The Night is Darkest...

January 2023 Speed Demons and Slowpokes

February 2023- I See Red

March / April 2023 Magical

May 2023 - Sweet Music

June/July 2023  Holes, Gaps, Caves, Tunnels

August 2023 Fabulous Pink

September 2023 Gardening

October 2023 Hallowed Night

November 2023 Wobble, jiggle, sway, and shake

December 2023 / January 2024 Driving Home For...

February 2024 The Glow Up