No one asked me - Diomede screenshots on whatever - Warning AI Discussion OK

Diomede

Enjoy Posing and Animating Your Book.

Here is a test render of turning to the first page of The Hobbit.

Diomede

Modeling in Carrara to Share - Forum Frustrations.

I did some basic modeling of props from Gilligan's island, inspired by Dave's wacky modeling thread.  He had posted the SS Minnow, and I thought the castaways could use some props.  I did quick and dirty models of the radio, a coconut cream pie, one of the coconut cups, and one of the fancy bamboo drinking glasses with the straw and umbrella. With Carrara's UVMapping and 3D Paint tools rather crude, I intended to post the Carrara props here in the forum threads, then maybe revisit the models down the road with better UVMapping and texturing tools.  Maybe post cleaned up models with PBR shaders over at ShareCG, which would also be compatible with Carrara, but also the various other rendering programs.  Argh.  The forum is bonking my uploads and I am tired of trying to post the zip files and test renders.  

Am trying to decide if it is worth uploading the Carrara models with not-so-good shaders to ShareCG and posting a link here.  Or, should I stick with my original plan and not post to ShareCG until I get around to making PBR shader versions.  

Grr.  

WendyLuvsCatz

is frustrating and random as I actually uploaded an image hours ago

and even weirder

posts on the topic disappear 

Diomede

Grrr. 

The thing is I know that most of the people who visit the Carrara forum would swap out many of the shaders anyway, but posting to ShareCG is different.  

Bunyip02

WendyLuvsCatz said:

is frustrating and random as I actually uploaded an image hours ago

and even weirder

posts on the topic disappear 

Have not been able to load an image directly for a while now, have been uploading to My Gallery and posting the link into the forums.

Diomede

Woohoo.  Was just able to upload a few files over in the Wacky modeling thread.  Don't know how long it will last, but taking advantage for now.  

Bunyip02

Diomede said:

Woohoo.  Was just able to upload a few files over in the Wacky modeling thread.  Don't know how long it will last, but taking advantage for now.  

Yay, uploaded an image as well !!!

Diomede

AI used to lip sync a 3D avatar

Diomede

getting started in midjourney

WendyLuvsCatz

I have the free opensource model D-iD and other programs like it use

it's called Thin Plate Spline but the one I have in Visions of Chaos is limited to 256x256 pixel videos 

which is like a postage stamp 

I personally prefer Reallusion Crazytalk 8 but that's a commercial product, it does however work great with DAZ/Carrara whatever renders and anything else with a face including animals

unlike D-ID

however it would be nice if someone could make a Thin Plate Spline plugin for DAZ renders!!!

or Carrara

an online version here
https://huggingface.co/spaces/AlekseyKorshuk/thin-plate-spline-motion-model

Diomede

Landscape Fun, post 1

Some ways I use an image editor and Carrara to make a landscape with a stream.  I believe there is a plugin that makes roads and streams in landscapes.  Instead, I am using a method to combine two landscape models, one with the stream and the other without it.  The one with the stream elevates all the land but the stream a few feet creating the channel for the stream.  The second landscape without the stream is the water. Optionally, a third landscape without the stream can be the bed of the stream.

This is the WIP for which these maps contributed.

Heightmaps of distant mountains.

I use an image editor to make rough heightmaps for the landscape. For generic landscapes, I don't worry if it is too exact because I am going to blur it anyway.  I also use Carrara's landscape filters to add some detail like erosion or roughness or a plateau or a small fractal generator.  For this image, I wanted a few distant mountains.  In an image editor, I started with a square tile and drew in some elevation lines for hills and mountains.  I saved both the base and the blurred version to import into Carrara's terrain modeler even though in this case I only used the blur for the distant mountains.

Here is a landscape modeler view of importing one of the blurred image maps into Carrara's landscape modeler after deleting the default mountain.  Pretty dull.

 

Diomede

Landscape Fun, Post 2

Still doodling for distant mountains.  Here is one way to add a little interest to the dull mountain in step 1.  You can stack filters and generators in the landscape modeler.  You can even import multiple heightmaps, which will do later.  The order of stacking matters for some filters.  In this example, am going to add some random surface detail with a fractal, and some erosion from rain, and show how order matters.

The fractals for Carrara's landscape generator are found in the upper left under the tab for 'Advanced generator.' 

The rain is found under the filter for erosion.  Check the box to enable.  The default erosion for rain is way too extreme for use in medium scenes.  It has strength of 25%.  Reduce the rain strength to 1% and it will look more reasonable.

.

Currently, the rain is being applied after the fractal.  There is a tab to move the filters up and down.  Higher filters are applied first.  Move the erosion/rain above the fractal to see some detail restored.

Here is the landscape back in the Assemble Room and a test render.

 

WendyLuvsCatz

Roadmaker http://www.shapemagic.com/roadmaker/

your method pretty good

Diomede

Landscape Fun, Post 3

Twisting Stream for Foreground Landscape

Here I want to have a foreground landscape with a shallow valley.  A stream will bend around a hill and come past the camera. I am going to use the ability to stack imported maps to place the stream.  I use the image editor to create multiple maps.  One is the general layout of my hill with the wrapping valley.  A second is a step map to make sure uphill/downhill is approximately where I want it.  A third is the stream (white land, black stream, so that all land except the stream is raised).  The inverse of the stream can be an opacity map to place a shader on the stream bed, or a distribution map to place rocks on the stream bed.

.

  

Diomede

Landscape Fun, Post 4

Here is an example of applying the maps in the previous posts.  Remember that multiple heightmaps and multiple filters can be stacked in the landscape modeler.  Here is the hill and wrapped stream valley imported to the landscape modeler. 

Here is applying a fractal to get some random detail. 

Here is importing the stream path.

Here is applying an erosion rain filter.  OK, so now there is a pretty clear valley through which water would flow downhill.  

Here is import the stream map a second time.  Yup, a second time.  Notice that it basically goes through where the erosion said it should.

Here I duplicate the landscape.

Here I create a new master going into the landscape modeler for the duplicate.

Here I remove / delete the most recent imported filter.  Of course, I wasted some steps because I wanted you to see the path first.  You could duplicate BEFORE bringing the stream map in the second time instead of bringing it in again then deleting.

Here I change the shader of the duplicate to blue, but in practice it would be a water shader.

Here I translate the blue duplicate in the Z axis and the stream appears in the stream bed.

 

Diomede

Landscape Fun, Post 5

So here again is my current work in progress using the maps above, although with different height settings and other details.  The landscape heightmaps in the first post of this series are the distant hills in the scene.

Some discussion ideas.

- PhilW in his tutorial videos shows how to make the stream areas more flat.  Follow his method for roads.

- I sometimes duplicate the terrain again, reduce the resolution a lot, and convert it to a vertex model.  Then it is easy to use to grow hair on for grass, or to create shader domains for surface replicators.  Just turn off visibility of this duplicate.

Diomede

WendyLuvsCatz said:

Roadmaker http://www.shapemagic.com/roadmaker/

your method pretty good

Thanks, Wendy.  Couldn't remember the name.  Excellent option.

Diomede

Opening Establishment Shot - Landscape design.

Toying with the idea of a short homage to stories in which the heirs are gathered for the reading of the will.  Eccentric rich person has died.  Am thinking of an opening establishment shot of the graveyard.  Then some closups at the burial.  Then moving the action to the spooky old house.  Doing some overkill on the graveyard.  

Here, I have used some image maps to divide up a Carrara terrain model.  No, this is not the final shader, haha.  Although the maps will be used to control shader domains and replicator distributions.  I have used my distribution maps as a layer list for the gently sloping terrain.  The chapel is on a flat area with a parking lot and a road leading up to it.  Other areas include (a) outer region for replicated trees, etc surrounding the grounds, (b) walking paths wide enough for a hearse, (c) concentrations of gravestones, and (d) patches of bushes and grasses between the paths and gravestones.  Concentrations of gravestones in purple.

I have placed the chapel and the entry gate. 

Here are the maps, see attached.

 

Diomede

And here it is with some simple shaders and some replicated trees and bushes.  No gravestones yet.

Diomede

I have a sudden urge to do a Benny Hill style end chase scene around the cemetary.

Stezza

awesome stuff that..

love your workflows and descriptions on how you do stuff 

+1 on Benny Hill chase 

Diomede

Thanks!

Here it is with some grave stones.  There are also some Lorenzo Lorez walking around a couple cars in the parking lot.  I used a heightmap on the terrain to make the wall surrounding the cemetary.

WendyLuvsCatz

I can imagine zombies playing golf on that for some reason

Diomede

Thanks.  Great idea.  I think I could convert this to a golf course!  And zombies are always welcome.

Here is a different angle fromm a little closer in.

Stezza

I see Mario zooming around

but

zombie golf 

 

Bunyip02

Diomede said:

Thanks.  Great idea.  I think I could convert this to a golf course!  And zombies are always welcome.

Here is a different angle fromm a little closer in.

Lookin good !!!

Khoe

Diomede said:

Thanks.  Great idea.  I think I could convert this to a golf course!  And zombies are always welcome.

Here is a different angle fromm a little closer in.

nice and verry interestet.:)

 

Diomede

Thank you, Khoe, Bunyip02, Stezza, and Wendy.

 

 

Diomede

Another tech update.  I am less worried about the machines becoming self aware and destroying us all than I am of people with criminal intent using the machines to aid them in their schemes.

Fraud, deception, and manipulation are getting eaiser every day.

https://twitter.com/i/status/1638796850978521093

Diomede

Diomede said:

Another tech update.  I am less worried about the machines becoming self aware and destroying us all than I am of people with criminal intent using the machines to aid them in their schemes.

Fraud, deception, and manipulation are getting eaiser every day.

https://twitter.com/i/status/1638796850978521093

Note - I am not pessimistic.  As an aid the the first draft of everything, creative people now have another powerful tool from which to use as a point of departure.  Yay!  As always, some of that creativity will be directed towards deceiving each other.  Booo, booo.