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

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  • DartanbeckDartanbeck Posts: 21,532
    FifthElement said:

    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

    ROTFLMAO!!!

  • HeadwaxHeadwax Posts: 9,985
    Dartanbeck said:

    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

     

    Dartanbeck , thanks for the explications that's very kind and interesting

     

  • HeadwaxHeadwax Posts: 9,985
    diomede said:

    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.

    Diomede, parts of that look superb, I admit I didnt get the blackboard joke :)

  • HeadwaxHeadwax Posts: 9,985
    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.

     

    nice work around for the clipping problem, sometimes you can render a primitive pass for fur and that helps isolate it ??

    DesertDude said:

    Nervously biting nails as the deadline approaches...

     

  • DartanbeckDartanbeck Posts: 21,532
    head wax said:
    Dartanbeck said:

    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

     

    Dartanbeck , thanks for the explications that's very kind and interesting

     

    Well, I relly love blending all sorts of things in this way in our killer texture room. Once we have an idea of what we'd like to blend, making a simple grayscale map is fun and easy. Get it backwards? Simply swap the sources or, even quicker, invert the blend map.

    evilproducer has shown how fun it can be to paint these maps by hand using Carrara's 3D Paint feature... which really is a fun way to create maps for anything! I bought the Rons Scratches Converted brushes from GKDANTAS, as well as all of Ringo's Carrara brushes, and all of those add a lot to the fun, but even the included brushes are really wonderful to work with! 

  • FifthElementFifthElement Posts: 569

    Well, I'm whipping this one fast, lol, here is a Carrara 8 screenshot ...

    Off to render it real quick smiley

    C8ScreenShot.jpg
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  • DesertDudeDesertDude Posts: 1,235
    head wax said:

    nice work around for the clipping problem, sometimes you can render a primitive pass for fur and that helps isolate it ??

    Thanks, I had to do something like that today when new problems arose. First, the small striped monster had a rendering error, even rendered alone with an alpha channel. So I rendered the two hair parts separately, the top pink hair and his body fur, each with an alpha channel, and they rendered fine. I then combined the two, but this omitted the cast shadow from the top hair. So I also rendered the monster without an alpha channel against a blank background. Then I applied a Set Channels effect to the combined image and set the R,G and B channels to Alpha, which gave me a mask. I then used that mask to extract and isolate the image rendered against a black background.

    I had to do something similar for the purple monster, because the green monster was close enough that his arm and the ice cream cone were casting a shadow on the purple monster's  body - absent if rendered separately. So, I rendered the purple monster alone with an alpha channel, then made another image with the green monster  and purple monster, no alpha, and the green monster turned completely black. I then used the same effect, Set Channels, on the purple monster with alpha and extracted the image with the cast shadow on its own alpha. Then rendered the green monster and he fit perfectly into the "blank" space. (This stuff makes my head hurt...)

    What is weird is the purple monster renders correctly, and he has two hair objects - his body fur and eyebrows. So, still a mystery what causes the "clipping".

    stripe_error.jpg
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    masks.jpg
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    purple_example.jpg
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  • FifthElementFifthElement Posts: 569

    Here is Carrara render, in Fusion now playing with render passes ... smiley

    CarraraRender.jpg
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  • DartanbeckDartanbeck Posts: 21,532
    edited September 2016

    Bravo! :)

    Here's a little more with the one I'm not sure will go into this or not.

    i13's Drawbridge sure is a nice model. The plants look cool... I may just separate some of those from the main model to use for other things ;)

    For light linking purposes, I ended up separating the ground from the main castle (In vertex modeler, select by shading domain, copy, then add new vertex model, open that, paste - back in assemble room, resize to the proper dimensions)

    Added some more lights, adjusted others. Turned the clouds on. Oh... it shows more on my previous shot of this, but I changed the size of the sun to 500 - so what might look like a really bright aura is actually the visible sun from the sun light. It has the "Glint" lens flare effect on it, changed the colors from glint's default blue/green to orange/yellow/red

    Oh... and I tweaked the ground shaders a bit. Being as this is a DUF file (not sure if that matters) 'Hiding' mesh in the vertex modeler doesn't hide it from any other view, including the render. So when I separated the ground and removed the water, I had to give them an Invisible shader to remove them from the render.

    DesolationDrawA2.jpg
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    Post edited by Dartanbeck on
  • FifthElementFifthElement Posts: 569

    Well, damn it, screen is not readable enough in HighDef resolution render, I added "magnifier" view just for fun, lol, here is final result smiley

    I'm tired and calling it in, no more renders for this contest, haha, this is it angel

    Year2025.jpg
    1728 x 882 - 461K
  • DartanbeckDartanbeck Posts: 21,532

    It's Awesome!!!

    I'm tired too. Good night! ;)

  • HeadwaxHeadwax Posts: 9,985
    Dartanbeck said:
    head wax said:
    Dartanbeck said:

    Well, I relly love blending all sorts of things in this way in our killer texture room. Once we have an idea of what we'd like to blend, making a simple grayscale map is fun and easy. Get it backwards? Simply swap the sources or, even quicker, invert the blend map.

    evilproducer has shown how fun it can be to paint these maps by hand using Carrara's 3D Paint feature... which really is a fun way to create maps for anything! I bought the Rons Scratches Converted brushes from GKDANTAS, as well as all of Ringo's Carrara brushes, and all of those add a lot to the fun, but even the included brushes are really wonderful to work with! 

    hmm, I have never thought of using 3d paint to paint the blender channel - nice idea - I guess I am always too busy to get the render done to play with the fineries - old habits die hard - recently I have been playing with the stripe thing you can apply to bulbs - combining a lot of bulbs makes interesting effects - so much you can do in carrara

    question: in Car 8.5 can you multiply/add  lighting effects such as blinds and gradient and texture? I guess you could do it with three lights all duplicated (with their luminance reduced by 33 percent) each having one of the parameters ...

     

  • HeadwaxHeadwax Posts: 9,985
    DesertDude said:
    head wax said:

    nice work around for the clipping problem, sometimes you can render a primitive pass for fur and that helps isolate it ??

    Thanks, I had to do something like that today when new problems arose. First, the small striped monster had a rendering error, even rendered alone with an alpha channel. So I rendered the two hair parts separately, the top pink hair and his body fur, each with an alpha channel, and they rendered fine. I then combined the two, but this omitted the cast shadow from the top hair. So I also rendered the monster without an alpha channel against a blank background. Then I applied a Set Channels effect to the combined image and set the R,G and B channels to Alpha, which gave me a mask. I then used that mask to extract and isolate the image rendered against a black background.

    wow, that gave me a headcahe - sorry no answers from me _ I think hair objects are grossly underused by most people - including myself . Did you know with VWD you can convert Carrara hair to a dynamic obj ? (I think you can)

    DesertDude said:

    I had to do something similar for the purple monster, because the green monster was close enough that his arm and the ice cream cone were casting a shadow on the purple monster's  body - absent if rendered separately. So, I rendered the purple monster alone with an alpha channel, then made another image with the green monster  and purple monster, no alpha, and the green monster turned completely black. I then used the same effect, Set Channels, on the purple monster with alpha and extracted the image with the cast shadow on its own alpha. Then rendered the green monster and he fit perfectly into the "blank" space. (This stuff makes my head hurt...)

    What is weird is the purple monster renders correctly, and he has two hair objects - his body fur and eyebrows. So, still a mystery what causes the "clipping".

     

  • HeadwaxHeadwax Posts: 9,985
    head wax said:
    DesertDude said:
    head wax said:

    nice work around for the clipping problem, sometimes you can render a primitive pass for fur and that helps isolate it ??

    Thanks, I had to do something like that today when new problems arose. First, the small striped monster had a rendering error, even rendered alone with an alpha channel. So I rendered the two hair parts separately, the top pink hair and his body fur, each with an alpha channel, and they rendered fine. I then combined the two, but this omitted the cast shadow from the top hair. So I also rendered the monster without an alpha channel against a blank background. Then I applied a Set Channels effect to the combined image and set the R,G and B channels to Alpha, which gave me a mask. I then used that mask to extract and isolate the image rendered against a black background.

     

     

    wow, that gave me a headcahe - sorry no answers from me _ I think hair objects are grossly underused by most people - including myself . Did you know with VWD you can convert Carrara hair to a dynamic obj ? (I think you can)

  • HeadwaxHeadwax Posts: 9,985
    FifthElement said:

    Well, damn it, screen is not readable enough in HighDef resolution render, I added "magnifier" view just for fun, lol, here is final result smiley

    I'm tired and calling it in, no more renders for this contest, haha, this is it angel

    the magnifier view works like a charm - :) have you tried the Scene parameter Aura ? sometimes that adds a little glow as well

     

  • HeadwaxHeadwax Posts: 9,985
    Dartanbeck said:

    Bravo! :)

    Here's a little more with the one I'm not sure will go into this or not.

    i13's Drawbridge sure is a nice model. The plants look cool... I may just separate some of those from the main model to use for other things ;)

    For light linking purposes, I ended up separating the ground from the main castle (In vertex modeler, select by shading domain, copy, then add new vertex model, open that, paste - back in assemble room, resize to the proper dimensions)

    Added some more lights, adjusted others. Turned the clouds on. Oh... it shows more on my previous shot of this, but I changed the size of the sun to 500 - so what might look like a really bright aura is actually the visible sun from the sun light. It has the "Glint" lens flare effect on it, changed the colors from glint's default blue/green to orange/yellow/red

    Oh... and I tweaked the ground shaders a bit. Being as this is a DUF file (not sure if that matters) 'Hiding' mesh in the vertex modeler doesn't hide it from any other view, including the render. So when I separated the ground and removed the water, I had to give them an Invisible shader to remove them from the render.

    Great lighting effect Dart. I wondered if this quote from a tutorial I almost did yesterday would spice up the image ? 'To bring back some detail and contrast after the blurring, he applied Photoshop’s High Pass filter (Filter > Other > High Pass).' Havent tried it myself but it is on the toooooo doooooooo list ;)

     

  • wgdjohnwgdjohn Posts: 2,634
    edited September 2016
    head wax said:
    Dartanbeck said:
    head wax said:
    Dartanbeck said:

    Well, I relly love blending all sorts of things in this way in our killer texture room. Once we have an idea of what we'd like to blend, making a simple grayscale map is fun and easy. Get it backwards? Simply swap the sources or, even quicker, invert the blend map.

    evilproducer has shown how fun it can be to paint these maps by hand using Carrara's 3D Paint feature... which really is a fun way to create maps for anything! I bought the Rons Scratches Converted brushes from GKDANTAS, as well as all of Ringo's Carrara brushes, and all of those add a lot to the fun, but even the included brushes are really wonderful to work with! 

    hmm, I have never thought of using 3d paint to paint the blender channel - nice idea - I guess I am always too busy to get the render done to play with the fineries - old habits die hard - recently I have been playing with the stripe thing you can apply to bulbs - combining a lot of bulbs makes interesting effects - so much you can do in carrara

    question: in Car 8.5 can you multiply/add  lighting effects such as blinds and gradient and texture? I guess you could do it with three lights all duplicated (with their luminance reduced by 33 percent) each having one of the parameters ...

    Regarding adding lighting effects... not that I've not yet tried this *yet* for color gradients... Awhile back you had pointed out a Caustics program which produces a greyscale image which I used in Carrara Challenge # Under the Sea... got me to thinking... Why don't I just create a greyscale, mostly either black and white but blended to make blinds and other effects like lattice, spots (polka-dots) etc. Geeze... just loaded up the file and can't find what I added the Caustics texture map file to... it is used as a Gel for one of the lights I used... it's a 512x512 image set to Tile and Seamlessly at H=27 V=27. If I understand it correctly Black = transparent/normal light setting and White = multiply light intensity... so I assume that anything inbetween would create a softer blend between the two.

    [Edit - Additional] Light used was a Spot at 100% intensity.

    Post edited by wgdjohn on
  • DustRiderDustRider Posts: 2,739
    edited September 2016

    Woohoo! I actually was able to get a third entry done! It could be better (a lot better), but not too bad for limited time.

    I wanted to get an effect similar to the opening of the ark in Raider of the Lost Ark using Octane. Below is what I came up with.

    First I added the cross beams to the roof opening on the Bot Shop to generate light rays.

    Then, I decided that there wes too much light making it into the "room" so I used 3 planes to block the sunlight.

    This is the result using the Octane sun for the main light and light rays, and a low intensity HDRI for a bit more ambient (and of course a cube with a SSS fog shader for the dust/light rays). The only post work is minor adjustment to levels and adding the sig.

     

     

    Aug WIP3a.JPG
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    Aug WIP3b.JPG
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    aug Render3a.jpg
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    Post edited by DustRider on
  • DartanbeckDartanbeck Posts: 21,532
    head wax said:

     

    question: in Car 8.5 can you multiply/add  lighting effects such as blinds and gradient and texture? 

    Nope. Not in Lights. I think DCG has a plugin which allows this, though - using shaders in lights. I want that one too!!!

    I wish we could do that as well as in the Background/Backdrop areas as well. Layers would really rock, but simple Add, Multiply, Subtract and Divide would be fine as well. Would be really cool if, instead, we could just plug a shader in those!

  • DartanbeckDartanbeck Posts: 21,532

    As a matter of fact, I wish we could choose to use a shader Everywhere there is a color chip to adjust! ;)

  • DUDUDUDU Posts: 1,945
    edited September 2016

    Victoria needs also Carrara 9...

    I wanted to make a very short break  during my film in progress and I made this, only for pleasure, not to participate.
    I don't know how I will make a choice in this bunch of impressive entries !frown

    V4 et chocolat.jpg
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    Post edited by DUDU on
  • PhilWPhilW Posts: 5,145

    Dudu - I'll have some of that!

  • MarkIsSleepyMarkIsSleepy Posts: 1,496
    edited September 2016

     

    wgdjohn said:

    . If I understand it correctly Black = transparent/normal light setting and White = multiply light intensity... so I assume that anything inbetween would create a softer blend between the two.

    [Edit - Additional] Light used was a Spot at 100% intensity.

    If I understand your comment correctly (I might not :) ) then you are kind of right.  On a light gel black means "no light," grey means "50% light," and white means "100% light" where "light" means the color and intensity of the light.  If you use a color (or even a colour depending on your location) then it does multiply it.  Here's an example with a light gel I made for another scene - the gel is on a spot with the light color is set to white and the intesity is 100%.

    Here's the same light with a color light gel I made but all other settings the same.

    If you've never played around with light gels or colored light gels you should! :)

     

     

    LightGelTestScene01.jpg
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    LightGelTestScene02.jpg
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    LightGelTestRender02.jpg
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    Post edited by MarkIsSleepy on
  • DiomedeDiomede Posts: 15,165

    Thanks for the explanation, MDO2010.  Look forward to experimenting.

  • wgdjohnwgdjohn Posts: 2,634
    edited September 2016
    Dartanbeck said:
    head wax said:

     

    question: in Car 8.5 can you multiply/add  lighting effects such as blinds and gradient and texture? 

    Nope. Not in Lights. I think DCG has a plugin which allows this, though - using shaders in lights. I want that one too!!!

    I wish we could do that as well as in the Background/Backdrop areas as well. Layers would really rock, but simple Add, Multiply, Subtract and Divide would be fine as well. Would be really cool if, instead, we could just plug a shader in those!

    Dart, DCG has a number of plug-ins that you might be referring to... most likely it is Shader Gel and Stobe which gives you an extra Gel/Effects/"ShaderGel". Noir also comes to mind... let's you make dark areas darker... lite areas lighter and more... it is a Post Render plug-ing. Haven't yet played with enough of them... gotta go learn how to use some of my toys. :)

    Hah... haven't played with Light Mangler in Shader Ops 2 yet either.

    You are correct about anywhere shaders should be able to added. Another nice feature would be the ability to add more than one Gel... at least 4 or more... but I'm only thinking different Gels aw well as different light colours.

    Post edited by wgdjohn on
  • wgdjohnwgdjohn Posts: 2,634
    MDO2010 said:
    wgdjohn said:

    . If I understand it correctly Black = transparent/normal light setting and White = multiply light intensity... so I assume that anything inbetween would create a softer blend between the two.

    [Edit - Additional] Light used was a Spot at 100% intensity.

    If I understand your comment correctly (I might not :) ) then you are kind of right.  On a light gel black means "no light," grey means "50% light," and white means "100% light" where "light" means the color and intensity of the light.  If you use a color (or even a colour depending on your location) then it does multiply it.  Here's an example with a light gel I made for another scene - the gel is on a spot with the light color is set to white and the intensity is 100%.
    [cut all pics]
    Here's the same light with a color light gel I made but all other settings the same.
    [cut]
    If you've never played around with light gels or colored light gels you should! :)

    MDO, Thanks... I did misunderstand a bit... was thinking that White actually multiplied the effect and black let normal intensity through... but alas I was wrong. I had 5 lights, the default light and 4 spots.. three of the latter only affected a few object while the default light lite the scene and the other spot was for the caustics gel map. Nearly all lights are lower intensity and don't cast shadows.

    I'm wondering if the intensity goes beyond 100 wouldn't that multiply the effect of brighter/lighter like White or others with a tint of R, G, B or combinations of colors... I'm thinking it would also brighten black or any other very dark colour. Note that colour == color... while I usually type color out of habit I also type colour... anyone not knowing they are both the same can just assume I made a typo either way. :)

  • DartanbeckDartanbeck Posts: 21,532
    wgdjohn said:
    Dartanbeck said:
    head wax said:

     

    question: in Car 8.5 can you multiply/add  lighting effects such as blinds and gradient and texture? 

    Nope. Not in Lights. I think DCG has a plugin which allows this, though - using shaders in lights. I want that one too!!!

    I wish we could do that as well as in the Background/Backdrop areas as well. Layers would really rock, but simple Add, Multiply, Subtract and Divide would be fine as well. Would be really cool if, instead, we could just plug a shader in those!

    Dart, DCG has a number of plug-ins that you might be referring to... most likely it is Shader Gel and Stobe which gives you an extra Gel/Effects/"ShaderGel". Noir also comes to mind... let's you make dark areas darker... lite areas lighter and more... it is a Post Render plug-ing. Haven't yet played with enough of them... gotta go learn how to use some of my toys. :)

    Hah... haven't played with Light Mangler in Shader Ops 2 yet either.

    You are correct about anywhere shaders should be able to added. Another nice feature would be the ability to add more than one Gel... at least 4 or more... but I'm only thinking different Gels aw well as different light colours.

    That's the one! Shader Gel and Stobe

     

    PhilW said:

    Dudu - I'll have some of that!

    He's talking about the barely dressed Victoria you know... Phil doesn't do chocolate! devil

    you know I'm kidding, right?

  • DesertDudeDesertDude Posts: 1,235

    I just realized I never uploaded a screen grab of the scene in Carrara.

    carrara_scene.jpg
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  • wgdjohnwgdjohn Posts: 2,634
    Dartanbeck said:
    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!!!

    After the swollen and light head this compliment gave me I've now floated back down to Earth long enough to thank you. Thanks O Great and Powerful Spokesperson for Carrara!  "WGD is handed the award and delivers his speech" I'd also like to thank the CarrarAcademy, the developers who worked so had to bring us Carrara as well as everyone who worked so hard on this project and all the other folks who are spokespeople for Carrara... 3DAGE, diomede, chickenman, head wax, MistyMist, PhilW, cripeman, mmoir,  TangoAlpha, DuDu, DustRider, Sad, magaremoto, Stezza, MDO2010, Alberto, stringtheory9, FifthElement, DesertDude, Antara, Varsel, Jay Versluis... [music plays and WGD is lead offstage mentioning more names as he leaves]..... Fenric .... pnewhook ... ToeJam .. gibson.johnny3 . [WGD disappears off scene but we know that he is still rattling off names and will be all the way home]. "The next day WGD awakes and immediately remembers many other names he'd not mentioned"

  • DartanbeckDartanbeck Posts: 21,532

    ROTFFLMFAO!!!

    Man... great renders up there! <points up at the renders just up the page>

     

    wgdjohn said:
    Dartanbeck said:
    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!!!

    After the swollen and light head this compliment gave me I've now floated back down to Earth long enough to thank you. Thanks O Great and Powerful Spokesperson for Carrara!  "WGD is handed the award and delivers his speech" I'd also like to thank the CarrarAcademy, the developers who worked so had to bring us Carrara as well as everyone who worked so hard on this project and all the other folks who are spokespeople for Carrara... 3DAGE, diomede, chickenman, head wax, MistyMist, PhilW, cripeman, mmoir,  TangoAlpha, DuDu, DustRider, Sad, magaremoto, Stezza, MDO2010, Alberto, stringtheory9, FifthElement, DesertDude, Antara, Varsel, Jay Versluis... [music plays and WGD is lead offstage mentioning more names as he leaves]..... Fenric .... pnewhook ... ToeJam .. gibson.johnny3 . [WGD disappears off scene but we know that he is still rattling off names and will be all the way home]. "The next day WGD awakes and immediately remembers many other names he'd not mentioned"

    Well, are you feeling better now? Carrara spokesperson! LOL   Well I DO want every 3D artist in this universe to own a copy.

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