PhilW re Carrara Realistic Seas - which is the most beautiful?

Headwax

greetings, just doing a bunch of renders for a book and she who must be obeyed  tells me I have made the ocean look like it;s polluted 

I was after opinions as to which of Phil's oceans is the most beautiful.

any walkthrough's also welcome - eg method to get there

I have Phil';s seas and skies but haven't had a chance to use them

also I need to consider render time because at least one of them may be a double spread - eg lots of pixels

 

thanks in advance  - I know beauty is in the eye of the beholder

Stezza

what about EP's ocean he did a few years ago?

have you got that? It's prety cool.. I'll see if google can find the post for it

Stezza

Forum post & download link here by EP

Headwax

thanks Stezza, that's very kind  of you both.

Evil is out hunting weasils at the moment :) so is MIA

Stezza

don't you think it's weird that evil & Donald Trump have never been seen in the same room together...

Steve K

I'm a big fan of PhilW's Realistic Seas For Carrara.  But I'm not sure I could pick a "most beautiful", generally it's just trial and error until I get the look I'm after.  Here is a render using one of the rougher seas that came out the way I was after (click on it for a larger image):

http://www.daz3d.com/gallery/#images/64658/

At first, I was a little surprised you're concerned about render time for still images.  I worry about it for animations, especially in the 48 Hour film contest, but usually not for stills.  But then I'm almost always doing 72 dpi for online view, not print.  Then I realized you must be doing some really large images at high res for print.  Let it run all night?

Headwax

@stezza, trump doesnt want to be overshone :)

@Steve K, thanks for that input! 

nice image, great gallery too

a double page spread is 6500 by 4200 pixels

the book has around 130 images - not all double page spreads though!

most I render at the size of a single page then reduce

most I have to do at least twice

I keep away from long render times by habit :) otherwise I would never finish!

it teaches me to be smart with my lighting and stuff ... like 'painting in reflections 

 

 

PhilW

It depends on the look you are after as to which is the most beautiful. Not sure about a tutorial as such, in general you should just be able to drop them in and render, but a few notes:

- I set the replicated number quite high and that can slow down the preview, so you can either reduce it while editing, or use a simpler preview type;

- if you have a low enough viewpoint, you don't need it so high even for the final render;

- the surf effect is controlled by the altitude, so raising or lowering the sea a little will increase or decrease the amount of surf.

i'd love to see any renders that you make with it!  Below is one that I just did for this thread, with the Ocean Calm set from the seas, reduce the replication to 9 in each direction (from 100) and using 04-Light from my clouds set.  I also used the Gamma correction techniques that I have promoted.

Stezza

Also, with Phil's oceans after rendering near what you want you can lift your blues in post work quite simply and quickly for that added effect. 

Headwax

PhilW said:

It depends on the look you are after as to which is the most beautiful. Not sure about a tutorial as such, in general you should just be able to drop them in and render, but a few notes:

- I set the replicated number quite high and that can slow down the preview, so you can either reduce it while editing, or use a simpler preview type;

- if you have a low enough viewpoint, you don't need it so high even for the final render;

- the surf effect is controlled by the altitude, so raising or lowering the sea a little will increase or decrease the amount of surf.

i'd love to see any renders that you make with it!  Below is one that I just did for this thread, with the Ocean Calm set from the seas, reduce the replication to 9 in each direction (from 100) and using 04-Light from my clouds set.  I also used the Gamma correction techniques that I have promoted.

thanks a lot for that advice PhilW !

Unfortunately I won't be able to show the renders for the book here (until it get's published) ...... it's still a long way off, it's a kid's book that a graphic novel publlisher has shown interest in. They haven't put up any advances though.

we need a render thread specially devoted to Carrara Pa's products I think.

I'll let you know how I go and maybe put up a render with some proxies on the ocean :)

 

Headwax

Stezza said:

Also, with Phil's oceans after rendering near what you want you can lift your blues in post work quite simply and quickly for that added effect. 

thanks Stezza :) great advice :)

Stezza

here is an example of Phil's tropical sea straight render and PSE auto correct applied

somehow my letter cue is upsetting this post... weird!

Headwax

thanks Stezza, great renders ! the second really zings - that wake looks super handy too

PhilW

The wake was soemthing that I had created for one of my own renders and kinda threw it in as a freebie!

Headwax

thanks!

DUDU

Steve K said:

I'm a big fan of PhilW's Realistic Seas For Carrara.  But I'm not sure I could pick a "most beautiful", generally it's just trial and error until I get the look I'm after.  Here is a render using one of the rougher seas that came out the way I was after (click on it for a larger image):

http://www.daz3d.com/gallery/#images/64658/

Hi Steve !

As I can see, you imported the boat from Bryce, how are you doing to convert an .obp file into .obj ?

I always lost a part of the objects when it is imported into Carrara.

Thanks.

PhilW

I've just had a play again with various presets from the seas pack and 06-Tropical Sea is probably the most picturesque (very blue sea!). If your boat/ship is larger, you may also like to try 10-Pacific Swell. You can always mix and match the shaders between different sea shapes too.

Steve K

DUDU said:

Steve K said:

I'm a big fan of PhilW's Realistic Seas For Carrara.  But I'm not sure I could pick a "most beautiful", generally it's just trial and error until I get the look I'm after.  Here is a render using one of the rougher seas that came out the way I was after (click on it for a larger image):

http://www.daz3d.com/gallery/#images/64658/

Hi Steve !

As I can see, you imported the boat from Bryce, how are you doing to convert an .obp file into .obj ?

I always lost a part of the objects when it is imported into Carrara.

Thanks.

DUDU -

Not the boat, the lighthouse:

http://www.daz3d.com/lighthouse

I don't recall the details, but I think I just exported the obj from Bryce, then re-textured with the Marlin Studios "Rustic Exterior Surfaces" textures I mentioned in the Gallery entry.  I don't recall missing any pieces of the model after the export, and I can't remember if the Bryce textures exported correctly.  Here is the Marlin product (I got it for ~$10 years ago at a house cleaning sale at a local video equipment & software shop) (note the 1/2 res free samples available):

http://www.marlinstudios.com/products/st2/st2.htm

I've got several Marlin collections, they are my standard tool for texturing (usually re-texturing in my case) a model - several sizes, bump maps included, etc.

Steve K

head wax said:

@Steve K, thanks for that input! 

nice image, great gallery too

a double page spread is 6500 by 4200 pixels

the book has around 130 images - not all double page spreads though!

most I render at the size of a single page then reduce

most I have to do at least twice

I keep away from long render times by habit :) otherwise I would never finish!

it teaches me to be smart with my lighting and stuff ... like 'painting in reflections 

Thanks, Head Wax.  I also avoid long render times by habit, mostly based on the 48 Hour Film contest.  Fast anti-aliasing, 2 pixel (unless there are wires or ropes like for ship rigging), and certainly no Global Illumination (unless its that one still "money shot").  And this is usually at 720x480 frame size (MAYBE 1280x720), which surprisingly looks OK in the theater screenings, using the contest's own projector and experienced producer.  It gets worse with Vue, which renders pretty slow - I didn't even use anti-aliasing last time, but it was an underwater animation, so I tell people its not a bug, its a feature.  But again, its been a LONG time since I did anything for print, so its always 72 dpi.

Headwax

PhilW said:

I've just had a play again with various presets from the seas pack and 06-Tropical Sea is probably the most picturesque (very blue sea!). If your boat/ship is larger, you may also like to try 10-Pacific Swell. You can always mix and match the shaders between different sea shapes too.

Thanks for that Phil, had a play today with the tropcal sea, very nice. I think it will fit the bill. And thanks for recommending reducing instance to 9 - makes a huge difference in panning round the assembly room.

I used a dna fog but it was quite patchy (my fault I think)

I tend to add atmopsheric haze   in post - more control - will post some pics when I have something excellnt :)

 

SteveK, my pleasure - always good to see excellent Carrara made images - made me laugh about the not a bug but a feature :)

 

 

Headwax

Hi PhilW

thanks for your advice 

here is a demonstration render :)

 

http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/comment/1586306/#Comment_1586306