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Oooh, this might work great for creepy painting with moving eyes!
love your ideas diomede... one day I will try this boning in DS
do you also do the weight painting in DS?
if so is it easier than Carrara's weight painting?
well not in my opinion
the boning is harder too
but it does work in both DS and Carrara so there is that so I too do it now and then too
Usually, Carrara's skeleton and weightpainting is easier, which is why I do it. For Carrara, you do not have to create named polygon groups for each body part. Carrara automatically assigns the polygons to nearby bones. That is usually good.
Unfortunately, with this toon man, the head overlaps the chest. So, polygons in the head are influenced by the chest and collar bones. I've not only had to remove the influence of the chest, but I've had to add the head as an eligible bone. The weight brushes were acting funny, and at one pont deleted vertexes in the shoulder. In this case, it was easier to assign the head polygons to a named group and create the skeleton in Studio.
Default shape.
Distortion if bend neck parts of head influenced by chest
weights of head from automatic bone influence
Shoulder disappear when try to remove influence of the head on the shoulder by uing the brush.
Get an unexplained "error has occurred" message sometimes if try to use menu for individual vertex, line, polygon
But, if patient, can get decent results in Carrara (see cleaned side of head).
In order to prepare for rigging in Studio, the tedious part is assigning all the polygons to a named group. Don't have to do this if remaining in Carrara.
you don't have to in DAZ studio either
with a bone you created selected, you just use the geometry editor to select faces and fill them by weight, you can set the value, or use the weight brush
one advantage is you need not detach or reattach rigging to add or remove bones
the bit I find hardest in studio is actually creating and positioning the bones and orientation, limits etc, IK cannot be done for the lot at once, only one at a time
Interesting. I learned the named group method (similar to Poser). Didn't realize it wasn't necessary.
EDIT: One thing in Studio, if you have named groups, the "align" menu within the setup and joint editor process helps a lot wih the orientation.
When it comes to hard surfaces (buildings, machines etc), I find it much easier to rig in DS: weight painting is just one click (Fill by bone selection groups), whereas the weight painting in Carrara becomes frustratingly fiddly. Also, if you have your doors, levers etc as separate vertex objects (which you'd do anyway if you wanted to set up simple rotations insead of rigging), they'll automatically get assigned names as part of the export, so you don't have to set up name groups.
The downside is that reimporting the .duf generally leaves you with a single mesh, and that might take some effort to split up should you need to (I normally don't at that point).
Having a dry spell. Need inspiration.
lots of unfinished projects that I’m bored with.
upset that substance painter acquired by adobe. Just bought it last summer. Wouldn’t have done it had I known.
Ouch, that must feel like a betrayal. I still use my CS5 software, but once they went all rental I knew I would never be doing business with them ever again.
I understand about dry spells, but don't have much advice other than you never know when an idea will jump in your head. You already do an impressive amount of creative works and generously share your related R&D. I'm sure something will emerge soon. :)
the christmas, new year period gets me away from creating stuff and helps recharge... maybe time for a break.
I bought FlowScape yesterday $15AU .. it's categorised as a game but does 3d landscapes with props... I have found it good place to go and tinker and to get away from it all
Flowscape looks pretty cool. I should check it out.
wow that does look cool, I see it does not export mesh but assume does renders I hope maybe 360 renders?
https://bananaft.itch.io/yedomaglobula
wow a coool GPU fractal game and free
I bought Flowscape now too
Think I need to do some personal RRRR to break out of my rut.
RRRR is the random runtime render challenge. Use a randowm number generator to pick some stuff and render it.
What about a CRRRR
C = CARRARA of course
CRRRC
Carrrara random runtime render challenge
RRRRC
random runtime rut render challenge ;)
What about RRCC
random runtime Carrara challenge
?
Using DIM for general content related help.
The Daz Install Manager (DIM) has quite a few functions that can help with everyday organization. For products that are installed, you ca use it to find the stuff. This is very useful for tracking down texture fles that don't load and similar. In addition, it can be used to sort and identify content associated with speciifc programs. In the installed tab, right click on the top "product" line and a menu appears. You can seelct by tagged program, which means you can select by products tagged for Carrara. So, select by tagged carrara, then you can export tht list as a csv / txt file.
EDIT: had to correct a totally wrong staement about hiding suff.
Here is an example. I selected all installed items that are tagged for a version of carrara (there are several). I exported those selections as a csv file. I opened the file in a spreadsheet. Here are the first 50 or so products.
UVMapping a Figure 8 Race Track
I used the vertex modeler's polyline tools and the sweep function to create a figure 8.
- in vertex modeler, change camera to a direction camera and used polyline tool to draw points for a squared U. Used snap-to-grid to keep sections even. Lots of points so can make lanes later.
- changed camera to top and chose a curve tool to draw a figure 8.
- changed camera to directors camera, selected a line where the 8 crosses and moved in Y-axis direction slightly.
- selected the original U shape. Went to model menu and found the SWEEP function under the CONSTRUCT tab.
- with the original U still selected, choose SWEEP, then in the right hand properties tray choose the type of sweep you want (irregular, regular, etc), and click on curved 8 polyline path.
- note, may get a funky result where the original U is. If so, select those edges and use the rotate tool to fix.
- note, remember to delete the figure 8 polyline sweep path.
- number of options to create sense of depth for the track model. Could select the whole track, duplicate, then select the edges and use the bridge tool to connect.
- I chose to select the track and used "add thickness" under the MODEL tab. I chose a very small distance for the add thickness.
- checking the box for smoothing and I have my basic figure 8 track.
UVMapping - first create shading domains.
- first I assigned shading domains because they can help with uvmapping.
- The add thickness step results in a selection of the added polygons. I used the minus (-) key in the modeler to deselect one row and then created a shading domain for the bottom of the track.
- I then used the plus (+) key in the model select menu and "deselect by shading domain" to isolate the polygons I wanted for the outside sides of the track, and the inside sides of the track. I created shading domains for each.
- The flat track surface should be the unassigned polygons (texture 0). I selected two adjacent polygons and loop to get the lane separators in that top track surface.
- The texture 0 unasigned polygons are now the track surface (not the lane marker polygons).
- And here is a test render applying some simple shaders without trying to improve uvmapping.
UVMapping the Figure 8 - I tried Two Ways, but each started from the same seams.
Way #1 - focus on top view of the "8" but don't care that they cross, probably fine for many procedural shaders
Way #2 - want to make sure that uvmap does not have any overlaps. Especially important if painting the model or if the regions where the tracks cross need to be different.
To prepare for both, I used the seams function under the uvmapping "unfold" tab to separate the shading domains.
- I selected an edge of the side of the figure 8 at the top of the outside and hit loop. Can use the selection tool to confirm you have the edge of the shading domain.
- Click the plus (+) under the unfold tab and the selected loop turns blue. It is very easy to confuse the plus (+) under the unfold tab with the plus (+) under the selection tab so watch for that.
- Repeat for other edges that want to separate. I made it so could separate bottom, outsides, insides, and top track surface. The top track surface has two shading domains because of the lane markers.
- I selected and created perpendicular seams looping to cut the shading domains at the corners of the 8. You could do more or fewer cuts, depending on whether you plan to spend the time to straighten all of the loops. I won't be straightening all of the loops, but the for corner cuts allow me to very roughly rotate the strips so they generally are vertical.
- I then hit "unfold" and the uvmap strips or "islands" are spread across the bottom of the uvmap square and look very tiny.
Adjust UVMap Way #1 - Dont care about the 8 Cross
- If you double click on a point on any island at bottom of uvmap square it will select just that island. Very Handy!!!!
- Also you can still select by shading domains. Also very handy.
- I selected by the Outside shading domain to get all of those islands. I used the translate tool to move them all up and then scaled and moved them out of the way.
- I repeated for the inside edge islands.
- I selected the Bottom shading domain. Because I matched the seam edges to the shading domain edges, all is well.
- I left the "unfold" tab and went to the OPERATIONS tab of the uvmapping area. Under operations, I detached polygons (not sure that is necessary).
- With bottom still selected, I then applied a planar preset with the Y axis and "no split".
- The result looks like an "8" and then I scaled and moved the 8.
- Repeat for the top surface of the track, which contains two shading domains (in my case, the track surface texture 0 and lane markers). Applying planar preset yields another 8.
- These two 8s have uvs that cross. If that doesnt matter, then just scale and fit your UVs to the UVMap.
Adjust UVMap Way #2, fix so UVs for the 8 don't cross.
- This starts from the same seams and the same unfold.
- The UV islands are at the bottom of the square just like above.
- Here, I double click on each island and scale it individually.
- There are essentially two kinds of strips. Longer strips run the length of the 8 and contain the crosses.
- Shorter strips run at the top and the bottom.
- I selected each strip individually and rotated / scaled it roughly vertical on the map.
- The longer strips are roughly the same length.
- The shorter end strips are roughly the same length.
Suggestions to improve this model and improve this uvmap welcome.
I plan to use the track as part of this month's Retro challenge. Try to picture some "matchbox" or similar retro toy cars (the ones that had the needles that fit in the groove of the track) racing along the track.
And here is a simple toy car model and uvmap with enough (hopefully) mesh density for morphs to create the other cars.
.
great ideas and workflows @diomede_Carrara and @Selinita
I must have a try myself at one