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Learning Carrara and Need some Help?

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  • wgdjohnwgdjohn Posts: 2,634

    Andy,   No I'd not turned off constraints... this is where I went wrong since the figure was placed on a pedestal. I've leaned that when objects collide and contraints is on they can't be ajusteded easily. I could have moved the entire figure up off the pedestal and then adjust it o simply turn off contraints of course.

    Great... I'll check out Faba's stuff.

    Of couse IK terminators, way cool... thanks for the tip.

  • DartanbeckDartanbeck Posts: 21,326
    edited October 2016

    You were of course correct... I'd bought Marcello's 3DPaint brushes only to discover that I also needed his shader pkg to use with it...  had to wait until later to buy the shaders, which I wanted.

    Nope. I have his "Scratches" brushes and don' yet have any of his shaders - and they work great.

    To se them we need to go into 3D Paint, in the Tool tab, click the little box with the gradient circle brush in there - the brush image. It will open up a window of brushes to use.  have all of Ringo's and Macello's. Love 'em all!

    No further purchases needed to use any of them as long as we have Carrara Pro (Pro needed for 3D Paint feature - I think)!

    Post edited by Dartanbeck on
  • DartanbeckDartanbeck Posts: 21,326

    Question/Suggestion?:   I wonder if all the folders could be removed and then add the main folder ie; Scenes, Shaders etc. could be added to each tab so that everything is only there once???   Have you tried that?  No don't rush off and try that unless you get overly ambitious... it may cause problems... better off to have the stuff listed twice. I'm only asking before I run off an try something stupid

    No!!! That would get rid of all of the stuff!!!!

    Just know that, by "Adding a Folder" to your browser doesn't make any copies of anything, so we're not getting redundant files. Prior to my using the "Tip", I used to just determine which folders 'need' to be added, and added those. After a while (by trying to collect everything I can of Carrara-specific products) I saw that it was actually easier for myself (perhaps not to others?) to just add the main category.

    Carrara uses some sort of text file to allocate what gets put in each Browser tab - and we can edit those ourselves. But if a product was to do that upon installation, it would screw up any custom work that the individual user has made.

    So when I started making Carrara products, I decided to save my customers from having to add anything by just using the already large list of categories already available. 

    Howie Farkes and others used to have some really informative pages on what we used to have, called the ArtZone. His products' installers let us to the respective ArtZone page, which had all manner of installation notes, render settings test results and so on. I learned a lot from his product notes - which we could view whether we bought the product(s) or not. I found them from his installers, but then I'd link to them to help others out. I miss those pages!

  • wgdjohnwgdjohn Posts: 2,634

    Dart,  I was mistaken - confused GKDantes with MatCreator whose Carrara Pro Master Shader Brushes requires Carrara Pro Master Shaders should have checked first.

    Last thing I want to do is get rid of all the stuff. Thanks... I was leary that might happen.

     

  • DartanbeckDartanbeck Posts: 21,326

    MatCreator Rocks!!!

  • 3DAGE3DAGE Posts: 3,311

    Constraints ,. and Collision ar different,. but on the same little toolbar.

    Collision detection can be a useful way to make sure an object is on a surface,.  (it should be switched Off, if your posing a figure) , or just about anything else, as it constantly looks for collisions.

    If collision detection is enabled,..  you can get into that situation where an object is penetrating the surface of another oject,..

    Just Push or Pull,. and it'll force it out,. then you can move it back slowly into position on the surface where it should stop.

     

    Constraints limit the figures joints,. which,. if they're disabled, can allow you to stretch the mesh by moving the bone beyond any limits.

     

  • wgdjohnwgdjohn Posts: 2,634
    edited October 2016

    3DAGE Thanks,  I had both turned on which explains my dilema.   Below is a pic to show where contraints button is.

    ConstraintsButton.png
    1522 x 833 - 238K
    Post edited by wgdjohn on
  • BorisBadenovBorisBadenov Posts: 51

    Well, I've all but given up on Cararra.

    Unless anyone has a suggestion, that is.  I have tried to work on my 1st project numerous times.  The Core + The Badlands + a couple of dragon figures + a male character + a female character.  The problem seems to be my system can't handle it. 

    Every time I try to load the project, it takes 3-4 minutes just to load!  And saving the project after making any changes at all takes an unbelievable amount of time.  I just finished trying to work on it, save what I had done.  It took 95 seconds just to save the Preview, and 17 minutes to save the scene.

    Yes, you heard that right" 17 MINUTES!! And the file is only 907 MB!!  During that time, the computer stalled (not responding) 27 times.  You know...with the spinning wheel cursor.  Each stall took between 30 sec and 2 minutes.  Plus there were a ton of shorter stalls that I didn't count.  Less than about 10 sec.

    The unresponsiveness started at 20.0% (30 sec).  Then 20.1% (another 30 sec unresponsive stall)   20.2% ( a 60 sec stall),  etc until about 30%. Each time it would start back up again, so I just decided to write everything down and wait it out.  I would get a message "Vertex Object 25%"..."50%"..."75%"...and then it would hang up.  At about 30%, it jumped to the end and saved everything.

    I know my system is a bit older and a bit slower, but Geez!.  This is ridiculous!  I have an Nvidia Graphics card, and I can run DAZ Studio, and render Iray projects no problem.  Loading and saving projects should NOT be taking this long, should it?

    If anyone has any suggestions (besides "go buy a new computer"), I'm all ears!  I'm very disappointed that I seem to have to give up on Cararra.

  • chickenmanchickenman Posts: 1,202
    edited November 2016

    To me it sounds like you are saving with compression turned on.

    Most of us turn of compression as it takse so long to save and open scenes.

    Also some people indicated an issue with it as well as saving internal.

     

    save settings.jpg
    1277 x 998 - 586K
    Post edited by chickenman on
  • DartanbeckDartanbeck Posts: 21,326

    ...and either way, figures (not sure what Male and Female they are), rigged and with clothes and hair and such can add some load/save time no matter what software you use. Think of loading a single figure into an empty scene. These dragons and people are not just empty, even though a compressed CAR file can be impressively small. I save with compression too - and just remain patient. So if a know I have to get up and go do something, I usually try to use those times to load, save, etc.,

    Carrara does have its moments where we need to just let it think for a while - otherwise use Task Manager to kill it. 

    I've noticed that my 16GB RAM eight core computer works with this stuff a LOT better (like, no comparison!) than my 4GB RAM quad core laptop. 

  • PhilWPhilW Posts: 5,144

    In addition to the wise words above, make sure that you use the Delete Unused Objects and Delete Unused Shaders options which are under the Edit Menu before saving. It is possible that you have unused assets in your scene which are saved but not used - this will sort that out.

  • DartanbeckDartanbeck Posts: 21,326
    PhilW said:

    In addition to the wise words above, make sure that you use the Delete Unused Objects and Delete Unused Shaders options which are under the Edit Menu before saving. It is possible that you have unused assets in your scene which are saved but not used - this will sort that out.

    Big Time!

    Edit > Remove Unused Master >

    use all three features - often

  • BorisBadenovBorisBadenov Posts: 51

    Sounds like there may be some hope to salvage it after all.

    I removed unused objects and shaders.

    But..I'm not seeing the "compress file" tick box. Where would that be located?

  • DartanbeckDartanbeck Posts: 21,326
    BorisBadenov said:

    But..I'm not seeing the "compress file" tick box. Where would that be located?

    File > Save As

    In the dialog that comes up, deselect Compress

    Deselecting Preview will aslo speed up the save

    Personally, I need compression and love previews... so I just wait ;)

  • DartanbeckDartanbeck Posts: 21,326

    Oh... and also making sure that "Local" is checked instead of "Internal" will also save time and file size

  • BorisBadenovBorisBadenov Posts: 51

    Thanks all!  Much better.  Saving took less than 2 min, and loading took about 3 min.

    File size is out of this world though.  Went from 909 MB compressed to 2.99 GB uncompressed.  Guess this means I need to streamline my workflow between working file and final saved version.

  • DartanbeckDartanbeck Posts: 21,326

    Here's how I like to work:

    To my Carrara Browser:

    • I save my scene empty of figures, like people and dragons and so on
    • I save my figures, like people and dragons, individually - all set up and ready to go for any scene I might imagine
    • If I ever create a special light rig or other effect for a scene, I save that individually as well

    Now, when I want to build a scene:

    • I open the main scene. If I just made a new one, I make sure to save it when I'm done before adding anything else
    • I drag in my individual figures, like people and dragons, as I need them and arrange them accordingly
    • Now I save this as a separate scene - all together - if I like it

    This is where I find saving with compression to be an immense savings for me - even though I have HUGE drives to save to. Once I get into rendering, I render to Full Frames avi files, which are huge. They remain that way until my final edit - even get progressively more of them as I run VFX onto them, saving the originals as I go - so yeah... I like compression where I can use it - on my 3d objects, not my rendered footage.

     

  • chickenmanchickenman Posts: 1,202

    Now that you have the time down you can try and see if it is the compression that was causing the issue by turning it back on just be prepared for the wait during the test if that is what was causing it.

  • BorisBadenovBorisBadenov Posts: 51
    Dartanbeck said:

    Here's how I like to work:

    To my Carrara Browser:

    • I save my scene empty of figures, like people and dragons and so on
    • I save my figures, like people and dragons, individually - all set up and ready to go for any scene I might imagine
    • If I ever create a special light rig or other effect for a scene, I save that individually as well

    Now, when I want to build a scene:

    • I open the main scene. If I just made a new one, I make sure to save it when I'm done before adding anything else
    • I drag in my individual figures, like people and dragons, as I need them and arrange them accordingly
    • Now I save this as a separate scene - all together - if I like it

    This is where I find saving with compression to be an immense savings for me - even though I have HUGE drives to save to. Once I get into rendering, I render to Full Frames avi files, which are huge. They remain that way until my final edit - even get progressively more of them as I run VFX onto them, saving the originals as I go - so yeah... I like compression where I can use it - on my 3d objects, not my rendered footage.

     

    Thanks @Dartanbeck!  Good to know.  No point in re-inventing the wheel when veterans are around to make life simpler.

    Good idea, @chickenman

    I may need to do that if I ever get a spare weekend. (Geez!  It may actually take that long!!)

  • BorisBadenovBorisBadenov Posts: 51
    edited November 2016
    Dartanbeck said:

    Here's how I like to work:

    To my Carrara Browser:

    • I save my scene empty of figures, like people and dragons and so on
    • I save my figures, like people and dragons, individually - all set up and ready to go for any scene I might imagine

    I was actually trying to do something like this when I ran into a bunch of problems.  I had my empty scene all set up...The Core in the Badlands, etc.  Then I dressed and posed the female character separately, and put her in place.  Then her dragon.  Everything went smoothly up to this point.

    I dressed the male character in that Dragonlord outfit (from your tutorial video), and posed him riding his dragon in Studio .  Then when I imported him into the Cararra scene, there was pokethrough that didn't show up in Studio.  It was at this point that everything went south.  All my characters and dragons were in the scene, and I was trying to deal with unexpected poke through.  Every adjustment and save took 10-15 minutes. So aggrevating!

    And I STILL have no idea how to fix the poke through!  Why does that happen when it was fine in Studio?

    Post edited by BorisBadenov on
  • DartanbeckDartanbeck Posts: 21,326
    BorisBadenov said:
    Dartanbeck said:

    Here's how I like to work:

    To my Carrara Browser:

    • I save my scene empty of figures, like people and dragons and so on
    • I save my figures, like people and dragons, individually - all set up and ready to go for any scene I might imagine

    I was actually trying to do something like this when I ran into a bunch of problems.  I had my empty scene all set up...The Core in the Badlands, etc.  Then I dressed and posed the female character separately, and put her in place.  Then her dragon.  Everything went smoothly up to this point.

    I dressed the male character in that Dragonlord outfit (from your tutorial video), and posed him riding his dragon in Studio .  Then when I imported him into the Cararra scene, there was pokethrough that didn't show up in Studio.  It was at this point that everything went south.  All my characters and dragons were in the scene, and I was trying to deal with unexpected poke through.  Every adjustment and save took 10-15 minutes. So aggrevating!

    And I STILL have no idea how to fix the poke through!  Why does that happen when it was fine in Studio?

    Oh... no... there's a much easier way to fix that kind of poke-through!

    This situation is the result of the conforming items losing their conformity as they enter the new environment. PITA, I know... but it happens from time to time.

    To fix it, just select each conforming item individually, and Fit To again.

    I know it shows in the Fit To button that they are already fitted. Just do it again. It can be a little time consuming, but then it's done.

  • BorisBadenovBorisBadenov Posts: 51

     

    Dartanbeck said:

    Oh... no... there's a much easier way to fix that kind of poke-through!

    This situation is the result of the conforming items losing their conformity as they enter the new environment. PITA, I know... but it happens from time to time.

    To fix it, just select each conforming item individually, and Fit To again.

    I know it shows in the Fit To button that they are already fitted. Just do it again. It can be a little time consuming, but then it's done.

    Ok..cool!  That worked great!  I managed to get the worst of the poke through eliminated.  Need to fine tune it a bit, but it's very encouraging.  Saving isn't taking the whole weekend, problems sorted out, life is good!

    Thanks for the help!

  • DartanbeckDartanbeck Posts: 21,326

    Any time! ;)

  • chickenmanchickenman Posts: 1,202

    There is also this handy item that can also work wonders but I have found that it sometimes slows things down so it is the last thing I do to all of the areas I see pokethrough on.

     

    http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/comment/1771966/#Comment_1771966

  • DartanbeckDartanbeck Posts: 21,326

    As an example, This scene is built as I describe above.

    The characters were all saved as they appear in the scene - except their positions. Poses, highlight lighting, optimized shaders - consolidated

    The scene was made and saved with all lighting and effects

    Opened the scene, drag in Dart character, bring him up front

    Drag in each of the LowRez background crewmates and position them - would pose them if needed

    Adjust highlighting light rigs

    Render

    For this one, I loaded in my Rosie Character save, and just loaded the above image (before color grading) into the backdrop feature under scene effects and adjusted the lighting accordingly - Render

    This sort of workflow also works for animations, since Carrara will let us use video in the backdrop

  • DartanbeckDartanbeck Posts: 21,326

    Rendering in layers like this can be a real time-saver and headache remover in addition to its benefits on the system resources. 

  • PhilWPhilW Posts: 5,144

    When you save a Carrara scene, all of the scene meshes, morphs etc are saved to the scene file, there is no option on this, but you can choose what happens to textures.  If you choose to "Save All Internally" then the textures are also saved to the scene file - which can make the scene file very large, but it is useful for sending the scene to someone else or making a product, as there is no ambiguity about where the textures for the scene are.  You can also "Save All Externally" which will write out the texture files as separate (but new) files.  Generally what you want to do when working on your own scenes is just to reference the texture files that were loaded in the first place, and this can be done with the "Use Local Settings" option in the save dialogue.  What this actually means is that each loaded texture also has an Internal/External choice, and if set to external (which is the default), your scene file will simply reference the texture, wherever it is on your system.  If set to Internal, it will include the texture file within the scene file.

    What I suspect has happened to your scene is that you were saving with the Internal setting, meaning that all of the textures in the scene were being saved as part of the scene file (and being compressed which also took time).  What is now happening is that you have loaded that scene and saved an uncompressed version - but the Internal settings are all still in place, which is leading to your very large scene file sizes.  Once you have saved with the Internal setting, the scene does not know where the original textures are located, and the setting on each and every texture file will be set to Internal, so even by using the "Use Local Settings" option, the local settings on each texture map will be set to Internal!

    So how do you revert to the standard situation where the existing texture files are just referenced?  One option is to reload all the texture files in your scene - you can use MAT files where available (there should be ones for your characters and clothes at least) but this will mean that any Carrara specific tweaks will need to be re-done. Or you can go through and manually reload each texture, which will be a bit of a slog but will get you there.  Or you could select the Save Externally option to write a bunch of new texture files from the ones in the scene file. Whichever way you do it - and I know that none of these are exactly ideal - make sure that you set the "Use Local Settings" option in the Save dialogue AND make sure that all texture maps used in your scene are set to External and are referencing external images.

    Sorry this is quite a long post but I hope this helps you understand what is happening.

  • UnifiedBrainUnifiedBrain Posts: 3,588

    In Carrara, is there a relatively easy way to make footsteps or tire trails in the snow?

    I have a feeling that it is not easy, but I had to ask.

  • PhilWPhilW Posts: 5,144
    edited January 2017

    You could try Sparrowhawke3D's Footprints modifier, I have not really used it in anger, it is in his"Laboratory" of half finished projects:

    http://www.sparrowhawke3d.com/Sparrowhawke3DLaboratory.html

    Worth looking around his whole site - they are all (amazingly) free!

    Post edited by PhilW on
  • DartanbeckDartanbeck Posts: 21,326

    I would try that one too. Nerd3D also has a Footsteps Tool, but is no longer at Daz3d, unfortunately :(

    We had a thread on this waaay back when. All kinds of interesting ideas came up. I couldn't find it though.

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