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Carrara Challenge #27: “Carrara 9, Give us a Sign” WIP Thread: Voting has started.

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  • DartanbeckDartanbeck Posts: 21,533
    wgdjohn said:

    How about placing it in Building Carrara Terrains Intro?

    That disqualifies it from the challenge ;)

  • DartanbeckDartanbeck Posts: 21,533
    diomede said:

    FifthElement, I love it when people tell a story.  Excellent.

    Dart, another great landscape and fantasy setup. 

    Jay, that is not a very optimistic point of view!  But another great storytelling piece.

    Shlomi, is that a metaball?  Or is it a very smooth vertex object?  Very creative.

    Dustrider, wonderful lighting and a great job on the shadows.  Another winner - but we have too many this month!

    wgdjohn, the cubes really came together well.  Glad you stick with the idea. 

    Here is the blimp pilot and birdman in daylight. Birdman has been retextured.  Day is working much better than moonlight, but the landscape does not lead the eye well.  Will need to adjust somewhat but the clouds were done with replicators.  I thought I had set up the planes (replicator holders) to lead the eye to the island but needs more work.  Lots more to assemble, including the Carrara sign, but making steady progress on this one.

     

    Ouch! Is THAT ever Cool!!! Love all the effects going on! Something about that bird, though... just throws me off somehow(?). But he's really cool too! I can't put my finger on what it is. Love this image!

  • DiomedeDiomede Posts: 15,165
    edited September 2016

    Agree, bird looks goofie as it is.  But the bird is not just a bird, it is a BIRDMAN.  And birdmen come in flocks.  And they have opposable claws (see end of wing).  There will be more birdmen and they will be more active and will be holding more stuff.  Will still look goofie, but goofie is all I got.  wink​ 

    Post edited by Diomede on
  • PhilWPhilW Posts: 5,145

    It does look great - love the clouds too.  I think maybe the "goofiness" is the knees bending in the "wrong" direction looks unnatural, but then who are we to say how birdmen's knees work!

  • wgdjohnwgdjohn Posts: 2,634
    edited September 2016

    Diomede, Thanks for the compliment cubed. Regarding the birdman... supposed to look a bit goofy. Might I suggest that a few feathers flew off when he/she stopped so abrupty and would be floating in air where wings were? Might even render a motion blur for where the wings were to where they are.  Gotta keep Dart happy. :)  Don't let my suggestions slow you down... less that 5 days to go to Voting.  Very cool scene as is.

    Hmm... wonder how to tell the males from females for bird people... Ohhh I know the feather colors. :)

    Post edited by wgdjohn on
  • DiomedeDiomede Posts: 15,165

    Hope I didn't sound testy.  I appreciate Dart's, and Phil's and Wgdjohn's suggestions and will take them into account.  I was being silly.  Flying feathers is a great idea.  Hate to say it, but the bend of the knees was intentional (think ostrich) but now that I look at it, I must agree it is distracting.  But it may be less distracting when you see what the birdmen are carrying!  Oh, the suspense.

  • DesertDudeDesertDude Posts: 1,235
    edited September 2016

    Still toiling away. I changed the composition a lot, and many tiny alterations remain to be addressed. On the to do list: add the low rez passengers to the rollercoaster cars, add some kind of support for the currently floating tracks and add some "drool" dripping from the tongue of the green monster. I tried a quick solution today using Metaball Particles emitted from a Surface of the tongue. Two problems arose, one Particles can be fiddly, and the second one may be a weird bug...the fur wouldn't render with my particle settings. I don't know if it was the shader - I just grabbed a water shader from the pre-sets - or what. Anyway, I quickly abandoned that idea and I'll try modeling by hand with the Metaball Modeler.

    Also, my previous problem of clipping fur with an alpha channel has been temporarily solved by rendering each monster individually, which is what I should have done in the first place. Fingers crossed. Also, this WIP has no post work.

    Nervously biting nails as the deadline approaches...

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    Post edited by DesertDude on
  • wgdjohnwgdjohn Posts: 2,634

    Diomede, Didn't sound testy at all if you were reffering to you compliment which I just edited... should have been as reads now "compliment cubed"... typos... I'll always make them. :)

  • StezzaStezza Posts: 8,050

    great work going on.. love the monsters @DesertDude

    @diomede great concept... if anything with the birdman I think it is the wing pose that may be not be quite right... if his wings were posed up and back of him it may make it a better illusion of floating/flying/soaring.. I think I'm gonna vote for everyone.. hope Daz is ready yes

  • DesertDudeDesertDude Posts: 1,235

    Thanks Stezza!

     

    Stezza said:

     think I'm gonna vote for everyone.. hope Daz is ready yes

    Hope they are ready with a Carrara 9 for us all! smiley

  • DartanbeckDartanbeck Posts: 21,533
    diomede said:

    Agree, bird looks goofie as it is.  But the bird is not just a bird, it is a BIRDMAN.  And birdmen come in flocks.  And they have opposable claws (see end of wing).  There will be more birdmen and they will be more active and will be holding more stuff.  Will still look goofie, but goofie is all I got.  wink​ 

    I can't wait to see them! Yeah... I like those claws! Kinda seeing your vision here now... Rock on!

    I don't think you sounded testy at all ;)

     

    DesertDude said:

    Still toiling away. I changed the composition a lot, and many tiny alterations remain to be addressed. On the to do list: add the low rez passengers to the rollercoaster cars, add some kind of support for the currently floating tracks and add some "drool" dripping from the tongue of the green monster. I tried a quick solution today using Metaball Particles emitted from a Surface of the tongue. Two problems arose, one Particles can be fiddly, and the second one may be a weird bug...the fur wouldn't render with my particle settings. I don't know if it was the shader - I just grabbed a water shader from the pre-sets - or what. Anyway, I quickly abandoned that idea and I'll try modeling by hand with the Metaball Modeler.

    Also, my previous problem of clipping fur with an alpha channel has been temporarily solved by rendering each monster individually, which is what I should have done in the first place. Fingers crossed. Also, this WIP has no post work.

    Nervously biting nails as the deadline approaches...

    I love muppets!!! Looking great!

    Ya... deadlines. 

  • TangoAlphaTangoAlpha Posts: 4,584

    I'm only sad that I didn't get the time to expand, flesh out, broaden, augment, grow, develop, increase, embellish, unfold (Zzzzzz, who swallowed a thesaurus?) the ideas that I had, but time flies like a banana (or is it fruit flies like an arrow?), and of course "stuff" happened, as it increasingly seems to. Ah well, maybe next time, as I said last time and the time before.

    I've had an eye on this thread, been inspired and learned masses simply from reading and looking at the wips. The number of entries so far is massive, with lots more still in this thread, it's going to be really difficult to pick simply because we're not allowed to vote for all of them!

  • HeadwaxHeadwax Posts: 9,986

    DesertDude that's looking wonderous. in fact it looks like the cover of a dvd for the muppett show

    diomede  I think the bird looks fine - like it's tryoing to come to a suffen stop when confronted by the wonder that is carrara 9 :) clouds are terrific!

    Jay Versluis that has me cracking up - but also too close to the truth

    FifthElement hahahahhahaaaaaaaaaaa aggh :)

    Dartanbeck - wonderf ul terrain!

    DustRider thats so clean and crisp and proffesional - love the texture on the cubes

    wgdjohn terrific to see how you solved this problem! thanks

  • MistaraMistara Posts: 38,675

    final wippity wip for this render smiley
    neighborhood lost power last night thought my entry was toast, but i named it before hand, autosaved when it was done percolating 

     

    not much of a wip cuz i couldnt figure this out.  size of a particle over life, shows a grid with a few tools

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  • stringtheory9stringtheory9 Posts: 411
    edited September 2016

    Hooray for Labor Day giving me time to squeeze in a quick entry. I've been following this one from the start and there are so many awesome and inspiring entries!

    Title: Dreaming of 9

    The grass is from World Gardens Byodo-In. All other items were modeled.

     Wireframe and image below:

     

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  • DartanbeckDartanbeck Posts: 21,533

    Love it!!!

  • MarkIsSleepyMarkIsSleepy Posts: 1,496

    Wow! We're up to 26 entries! I think that may be a record.  I never updated my stats past the 15th Challenge, but up to that point the top two were #12 "Just Say NO to Flat 3D" and #14 "Holiday Season Challenge" each of which had 20 entries. :)

  • stringtheory9stringtheory9 Posts: 411

      

    Dartanbeck said:

    Love it!!!

    Thanks Dart! I'm trying to add to it now and everything just seems to take away. That might be a sign I should leave it as is. smiley

  • wgdjohnwgdjohn Posts: 2,634
    edited September 2016

    head wax, Thanks for summing up what what has been entered and what is still being worked on so well. I've simply not had time to comment on everything. DesertDude should have a special category... Fast and Furriest. :)

    Perhaps this Challenge will end up in a reference book for showing the very wide uses Carrara is capable of as well as the many ways it can be be used. Also other neat stuff mentioned below.

    • Use of 3D characters whether they be people or animals some of which are pre-made others are made in Carrara.
    • Use of other content/props etc. some pre-made from various sources, DAZ being one, some made in Carrara or a different 3D application like Hexagon, Blender etc.
    • The wide variety of special FX Carrara has... particle emitter, shaders, use of 2D texture maps, replicators, caustics and more.
    • Features built in to Carrara all of which are editable, Realistic Skys, Clouds, Volumetric Clouds, Terrains, Partials Emitter, Fire, Fog, 3D Modelers, Hair, 3D Paint, Text... good grief the list goes on and on and ON.
    • The many different uses of Carrara's Lights... used in various ways and with interesting effects added.
    • Use of many different Camera angles and effects added. A Camera angle can make or break a scene no matter how good the scene could be.
    • I enjoy the importance of realism, cartoon(ish) and everything in between artwork. All have their equal places. The *key* to success is variety.
    • Important also is the introduction of humor by an Artist... light and/or dark. But not all scenes absolutely need it nor is it a "must have".
    • Artwork that tells a story.
    • The role that 3rd party plug-ins play and are often used... these range from shaders to lights, to cameras and many other features of Carrara and also add features to Carrara... they are always welcome.
    • It's good to see the 3rd party renderers that are used which are available for Carrara... Octane and Luxus/LuxRender. Note that many entries do not use these which is fine also and show what Carrar can do "out of the box".
    • The many external programs used in conjunction with Carrara. While they are not always used they do add to the possibilities and often add a touch of flare.
    • Finally the very important role which PostWork has... even though I try to steer away from it... I'm rushed enough to get my entry in.
    • I've reviewed all of the current entries. I've all the current WIPs yet to be entered in the back of my tiny brain. What stands out to me the most are the varied use of Terrains, 3D Modeling, the use of 3D Content as well as many other Carrara capabilities used.. ohhh and entries/WIPs that use a wide variety of features. Too many I've yet to explore.

    Did I leave something out?, without a doubt. Could I mention more?, sure give me a week or more.

    Ohh yeah... Everyone is a winner... whether they have an entry posted or are frantically working on their WIP.  Excellent work folks!

    Post edited by wgdjohn on
  • DiomedeDiomede Posts: 15,165
    edited September 2016

    Meanwhile, because my VWD baseball uniform project will go to the music-inspired thread, Here is a toon WIP.  I had promised a toon project on the first page.  Everything made in the vertex modeler.  Blackboard and book cover were textured using Carrara's 3D paint tool.  Here is the assemble room and a toon-style test render.

     

     

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    Post edited by Diomede on
  • DiomedeDiomede Posts: 15,165

    Sringtheory, that is  great smoke effect.

  • stringtheory9stringtheory9 Posts: 411
    diomede said:

    Sringtheory, that is  great smoke effect.

    Thanks diomede!  The modeling you have been doing for this challenge is super impressive! And very cool how you’re bring VWD into it!

  • DartanbeckDartanbeck Posts: 21,533
    wgdjohn said:

    head wax, Thanks for summing up what what has been entered and what is still being worked on so well. I've simply not had time to comment on everything. DesertDude should have a special category... Fast and Furriest. :)

    Perhaps this Challenge will end up in a reference book for showing the very wide uses Carrara is capable of as well as the many ways it can be be used. Also other neat stuff mentioned below.

    ~  snip ~

    Did I leave something out?, without a doubt. Could I mention more?, sure give me a week or more.

    Ohh yeah... Everyone is a winner... whether they have an entry posted or are frantically working on their WIP.  Excellent work folks!

    wgdjohn, you frickin' Rock, man!!!

     

    diomede said:

    Meanwhile, because my VWD baseball uniform project will go to the music-inspired thread, Here is a toon WIP.  I had promised a toon project on the first page.  Everything made in the vertex modeler.  Blackboard and book cover were textured using Carrara's 3D paint tool.  Here is the assemble room and a toon-style test render.

     

     

    Well for cryin' out loud! That is really neat, diomede! Man, I love your style and talent, my friend! I don't know... why does your stuff always catch my eye and tickle (in a good way!) my heart? Just freakin' awesome!!!

  • DartanbeckDartanbeck Posts: 21,533
    edited September 2016

    Here I took my earlier desolation scene and added i13's really cool Drawbridge prop. Wow this thing takes up all the memory of my little 4GB laptop!

    The mask image included in this post can be downloaded and used if you own this product. I use it to mix my Badlands terrain shader with the shader of the actual i13 textures.

    Here's how it works:

    Black will deliver Source 1 fully. White will deliver source 2 fully. That's the way any of the shader mixers work. For further reference on that, Value of 0 = Black and Value of 100 = White.

    So we take the original shader and tweak it into a good Carrara shader, adjusting the Highlight, Shininess, etc., On this particular product, when loaded in using the DUF, the bump channel was set to 500... so I lowered that considerably as well.

    Now we go to the Top level and change it to Complex Shaders > Multi Channel Mixer

    This puts the shader we've just tweaked into Source 1 - so hit the little triangle to close that list down, so we can easily get to Source 2

    Now in my example, I just copied the entire Terrain Shader from Badlands into the top level of Source 2

    As I was saying earlier, Black reveals Source 1, right? So this means that i13's road and the rocks around the moat will show in the shader, and dB_Badlands Terrain will be cast upon the rest of the mesh, whith a subtle blend between to two as they intersect.

    I also copied the branch shader from "Deadwood" (from Woodlands) onto i13's ivy branches and tweaked out the rest of his shaders. This is a really cool set! Wow! The ground texture is a whopping 6,000 x 6,000 px image!

    EDIT: Note - Since we don't need 6k details for the shader blend example above, I quartered the sized of the mask down to a more manageable 1,500 image map ;)

     

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    Post edited by Dartanbeck on
  • DartanbeckDartanbeck Posts: 21,533

    By the way, the Multi-Channel Mixer using a value 1-100 slider is how I changed textures on Genesis in this, back when I first started playing with 8.5 beta

    0 delivers Source 1, 100 delivers Source 2, everything in between is blended accordingly ;) Great feature to have - especially for animating

  • DiomedeDiomede Posts: 15,165
    edited September 2016

    Thanks, Stringtheory and Dartanbeck.  Took a look through the entry thread.  Delighted to see so many different styles and concepts.  Special WIP shout out to Desertdude, whom I've decided I want to be when I grow up.   Fantastic use of Carrara hair, which I think should get much more attention.  Great job, everyone.  Now, back to the birdmen.  yes

    Post edited by Diomede on
  • DiomedeDiomede Posts: 15,165
    edited September 2016

    For those interested, here is a non-photorealistic renderer (NPR) image from my toon entry.  There are a lot of things that I really like about this, especially the main character and the computer keyboard.  However, it lost the blackboard pun and the book covers.  The 3 parameter settings are reduced min and max brush size, checked object clipping for each element (diffuse, highlight, etc), and  reduced randomness.

     

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    Post edited by Diomede on
  • PhilWPhilW Posts: 5,145
    edited September 2016

    Blackboard pun - I only just got it! Very subtle...

    Post edited by PhilW on
  • DiomedeDiomede Posts: 15,165

    Thanks.  I regret having submitted already.  Could have had some more fun by putting titles on the spines of the books of the bookshelf.  Next challenge.

    PhilW said:

    Blackboard pun - I only just got it! Very subtle...

     

  • FifthElementFifthElement Posts: 569

    Well, why the hell not, third entry on the way ...

    Have this old model of futuristic workstation, gonna slap some Windows 20 interface on the monitor and run Carrara 8 on it (year is about 2025 and Carrara 8 is a dinosaur by then, lol), will see what happens cheeky

     

    Cheers smiley

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