Post Your Carrara Renders!

Joined: 24 Aug 2004 Posts: 2199 Location: Scotland

Resca's image series reminded me of something I did a while ago.

Delicate environment.

Joined: 13 Jan 2005 Posts: 1127 Location: BRISTOL, UK

Very cool, so uhm.... how did you do that?

Joined: 24 Aug 2004 Posts: 2199 Location: Scotland

Thanks El Thommo.

The first one is V4 with a long hair, I think Sapphire fox or Radiant jaguar.. anyway,
add an explode modifier to both, but break the hair into smaller bits.
break V4 into small bit's too, but the modifier uses the mesh size strangely, it's more of a cubic effect.

The second one is using Ron's broken glass brushes to create a skin for V4.
and some coloured light.

plus a bit of photoshop Very Happy

Glad you like Very Happy

Joined: 13 Jan 2005 Posts: 1127 Location: BRISTOL, UK

Here is one from me -

Pit of Tartarus

My environment and the Daz Wyvern

Joined: 24 Aug 2004 Posts: 2199 Location: Scotland

I feel dizzy,

it's up, side no its the wrong, no,.. its.. back to..

I feel dizzy,

I love all that escher stuff but it's going nowhere.

Rolling Eyes

Joined: 01 Apr 2005 Posts: 225 Location: Cedar Hills, UT

Brian (and everybody)

I'm not thin-skinned and I appreciate the critique. I feel a little sheepish posting any of my stuff here because I'm keenly aware I'm nowhere near the level of most of the other resident artists Embarassed

Man, just look at the renders that 3dage and ElThommo posted after me... wow, just freakin' awesome. Smile

So I'm timid about my stuff because I'm a total amateur but I want to contribute and in the process hopefully learn more. In truth, I halfway agree with the critique that the pic is too dark (I wasn't sure how to get the effect of the 'blacklights' which are common in every strip club I've worked at and which allow things to be dimly visible in the non-stage-lit areas; eventually I went with a good number of dim purple bulb lights spaced around the room at ceiling level, but each time I hiked up the light level to anything beyond 'very dim' it looked completely wrong and washed out (the clubs I worked out were all very dark places (heck every bar I worked out was dimly lit) so I went with the lower light levels. I don't have photoshop, I have Gimp but I'm not very good with it and don't know much about how to apply postwork yet (still learning what Carrara can do on its own). So I just wanted to say I appreciate any critique from any of you guys at any time because I'd like to improve and I'm keenly aware of the fact I'm still very much an amateur Smile

At the same time I reserve the right to disagree, because I do like the darker image better, but then again some of that may be down to the fact that I'm viewing how the pic looks on my monitor and maybe I need to use gamma correction first (that is the tool that is supposed to even things out so that everybody sees the same thing, right?)

3dage, thanks for pointing out the problems of the bottle sizes, I knew there was something bothering me in that part of the picture. Due to the overhead bar lights it's one of the brighter parts of a dark picture and the problems with the bottles really can't be hidden. I was just throwing together a quickie scene to play with the money props and started putting more and more people into the shot (probably too many actually) so I didn't concentrate much on the bar area but you're right it looks weird. I just used the prop that came with the set, but it seems to be sized wrong and the 'glass' of the bottles looks weird too (I think there is a shelf there that they are sitting on, but as its the same color as the wall it makes them look like they are levitating). Gonna get rid of the prop and try it again putting in real bottles instead and making sure they are not super-sized and floating Smile

ElThommo, I can't get over how cool that pic is. Reminds me of the scene from Labyrinth at the end with all the stone steps to nowhere going in all directions. Did it take you a long time to build that?

Joined: 28 Jan 2006 Posts: 3113 Location: KNS

@ jonstark

Please contribute, I my self learnt a lot when I began to show my stupid stuff and acquired a lot of information, people here is a real treasure of knowledge that is kindly shared here, by showing your art and process what you learned leads to growing up in a professional way. Wink

By the way, people, only one month left to submit your artwork to C3DE Issue 03, don't miss your chance to be noticed by many people, who knows, maybe you will be the lucky one to win $25 cash

Joined: 24 Aug 2004 Posts: 2199 Location: Scotland

Thank you Jonstark Very Happy

If the bottle are a prop then it's easy to adjust, if you wanted to re-render later.

Post work isn't really tricky once you grasp the main concepts, but there are some real experts here, who will explain better than I can.

However, as a quick example, take any image into gimp, or any other layered image editor. Duplicate it so you have two layers of the same image.

Now change the blending mode of the TOP layer to Overlay.

you can vary the strength of the effect by adjusting the transparency for that layer.

Make a new "empty" layer, grab the paintbrush tool, and select White.

now paint over an object in your scene, don't worry about going over the edges of things. .. So,.. now you have a big white splodge.
Change the layer's blending mode to overlay, the object should show through and be brighter.

Grab the eraser tool and set the strength of it to 50%, then go over the edges to soften the effect, you can also adjust the transparency for this layer .

Since you don't mind...

I've taken the liberty of using your image, as an example.

I've "painted" over some of the figures in the foreground, and the girl on the right to bring them out

I've also done this with the main central dancer on a different layer

I also added a white to transparent gradient to add some smokiness.

The first image is just duplicating the image a couple of times and playing with blending modes.

:)

Joined: 13 Jan 2005 Posts: 1127 Location: BRISTOL, UK

JonStark,
I love that club scene – its cool and atmospheric. I like the original one being more realistic and having some neon black light glow highlights would be awesome.

About my image, the main scene – I chipped away at it for around 3 weeks, a bit at a time so its hard to be sure how it would add up. I did that a little while ago but recently picked it up again to clean it up.
Th original was a mix of splines, vertex models, primitives and booleans – the were many separate pieces and it was a bit of a mess. Once I had cleaned it up into an optimised single L shaped block I duplicated it to make a 360 environment, this left a couple of holes in the bottom which became deep pits.

Glad you like it. I may well develop it further.

Joined: 29 Nov 2003 Posts: 2915 Location: South Australia

johnstark
With any image, and always before posting, it should be everyones habit to check out Levels adjustments--at least.

A very simple thing in any 2D imaging app like Gimp.

And don't accept the principle that the image is "as it really is".

The job of an artist or photographer is to create an image that is visually stimulating whilst, in that case, still implying the essence of the mood of the situation.

For years I had negatives and slides that I could not print adequatley in the darkroom--especially the colour stuff because of the colour printing papers limitations.

I have many many folders now of works from that old stuff thanks to the magnificent potentails created by the likes of Photoshop.

Brian (Not a good spelling day!)

Joined: 14 Nov 2003 Posts: 190

3dage wrote:

...you need a decent image, to get a better one.
Very Happy

I totally agree! Wink

Besides, when you enter in a strip club:

First: You're drunk, and doesn't matter if you see the girls faces or not! I'm allways checking the body (I'm brazilian, sorry! Embarassed

) ;

Second: Some women doesn't like to show her faces either! Because, some are too old, others are too ugly, or - the worst case scenario: they are both!!! And don't forget the clients! Some of them (ok, of "us"...) doesn't want to be seen also!!! Rolling Eyes

Third: If all the strippers had the body and face like Victoria 4... Jesus! I'll turn on all the spotlights in the house!!! Laughing

But seriously, johnstark (very nice image, I love it!): Night Clubs are dark enviroments, some kind of atmosphere we call here in Brazil "media luz". You have smoke from cigarettes, spotlights (various colors), and a lot of thing to check before render it. Or, like Brian says:

"...don't accept the principle that the image is "as it really is".

The job of an artist or photographer is to create an image that is visually stimulating whilst, in that case, still implying the essence of the mood of the situation."

Follow the voice of the experience. Cheers! Wink

Joined: 31 Dec 1969 Posts: 8005 Location: NYC

It took only 27 seconds to render this one. I know it's all relative, but that's pretty fast for me.

Joined: 29 Nov 2003 Posts: 2915 Location: South Australia

Noviski

For several years I was the nominated Govt. photographer who, for a full week, night and day, had to follow a Wine Festival.

Visiting all the wineries, tastings, night time extravaganzas, parades etc.

In the days before self focusing cameras!

Amazing how many images were usable!

Brian

Joined: 29 Nov 2003 Posts: 2915 Location: South Australia

I hope of interest.

I REALLY am not into movies/animations.
However, friends have suggested that there is some odd/wierd stuff in my attempts that may inspire ideas for others.

If so, I would be so very pleased.

http://cid-ba41079cd9142857.skydrive.live.com/self.aspx/.Public/Roundtuit-n-Music.mov

Have you guessed that I have FUN!. This 3D stuff really is of no huge importance to real life!

Brian

Joined: 13 Jan 2005 Posts: 1127 Location: BRISTOL, UK

holly wetcircuit wrote:

It took only 27 seconds to render this one. I know it's all relative, but that's pretty fast for me.

I love this, its so direct and expressive and it just goes to show that you do not need long render times to come up with a great render.

Joined: 07 Aug 2007 Posts: 260 Location: Virginia, USA

holly wetcircuit wrote:

It took only 27 seconds to render this one. I know it's all relative, but that's pretty fast for me.

<image>

Very nice render! Smile

I really like how you set up the lighting for those metallic highlights. They look as good as blurry reflections (but rendered in only 27 seconds Crying or Very sad

).

Joined: 31 Dec 1969 Posts: 8005 Location: NYC

Tim Payne wrote:

holly wetcircuit wrote:

It took only 27 seconds to render this one. I know it's all relative, but that's pretty fast for me.

<image>

Very nice render! Smile

I really like how you set up the lighting for those metallic highlights. They look as good as blurry reflections (but rendered in only 27 seconds Crying or Very sad

).

Maybe I should share my shader secrets? I don't even think I have reflections turned on.... Smile

Hmm. Re-opening the scene I see the shader is really nothing, just a blown out highlight over a dark grey color.... (Highlight = very high, Shininess = very low). Refections turned off.

Looks like the real secret is in the color(s) of the lights which makes it look kinda more futuristic and metal-ly. Confused

Lighting is everything.

Joined: 07 Aug 2007 Posts: 260 Location: Virginia, USA

I figured that's how the shader was set up. You're absolutely right - the positions and colors of the lighting are everything. Just out of curiosity, how many lights are in the scene? It looks like one green, two blue, and possibly two white.

Those are the best completely fake blurry "reflections" that I've seen. Cool

The only thing that gave it away was the render time.

I wish Carrara had "highlight only" lights. With them, this technique could be taken a lot further.

Joined: 02 Jan 2008 Posts: 2239 Location: M.I.A.

Playing with refractive materials again. lolwut.

"The burning passion of the flame dragon, and the icy hatred of the frost dragon, their duality as creatures of nature, symbolizing dynamic unity even in chaos..."

And they look cool too! Very Happy

Render time: 3 hours 27 minutes
Lights: 47 lights; HDRI
Objects: 14
Postwork Time: 30 minutes

Joined: 07 Aug 2007 Posts: 260 Location: Virginia, USA

Last week I replaced my old P4 with a new quad-core for Carrara work. Smile

To test it out I rendered this scene that I've been working on for a while. It's fast. Very Happy

Click for full size:

I used Blender to model the landing pads and the two spaceships on the left (everything else is premade content). The shaders on the landing pad and the kid's shirts are procedural. Shoestring Shaders Fresnel was used to make the clothing look more realistic. The clouds are Carrara volumetrics. The scene was a fun study in outdoor lighting and global illumination.

A tip for anyone entering the DAZ galleries: I don't think DAZ is involved in selecting the images any more. The chance of placing seems to be determined entirely by the number of votes received, so be sure to enter early enough to get some votes. Submitting an image at the last minute no longer works. Embarassed