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Also, when working with "human" scaled objects, try starting with the medium scaled scene. You can add objects scaled for large scale scenes into a medium scene and they will retain their relative size. I usually add a terrain that the characters are on or interacting with, and build my scene on that, then I'll add a large scaled terrain to flesh out the distance. If you look at Howie's Snow Scene that should have come with the Carrara Native Content, you will see that is what Howie Farkes does as well. Look for it under the scene wizards.
An added note on placing objects on terrains: The terrain editor has a preview and render resolution. When manually placing objects on the terrain, the preview and the render resolution should be the same. If you don't, when you place an object that is supposed to be on the terrain, and it looks like it is placed correctly in the Assembly Room, but when rendered is sunk in or floating above the terrain, that is the reason.
To keep feet where they are supposed to be, you can place a Target Helper Object near the foot you want locked down. You'll need a separate one for each foot. Place the Target helper so that its hot point corresponds to the foot's hot point, which is usually the ankle joint. When that is done, select the foot bone in the figure hierarchy and enable IK Tracking. Choose the target helper for that foot. When I do this, I rename the target helper to something like, R foot TH, and L foot TH.
When you get practice, you can use Target Helpers and IK tracking to help animate a figure riding a bike, or any number of other tasks.
Awesome!
Most, if not all of those Landscapes from the default scenes tab are "Large" scale.
If you've ever made a New, Empty scene, you've seen the three scales: Large, Medium and Small.
For the best experience dealing with Human-Sized models and such, use Medium.
So where does that take us?
Well, we can create a Medium Scene and drag the landscapes from the Scenes tab into that, however, we won't have the sky and atmosphere, etc., that comes along with the scene.
If we do want any of those presets for our Medium scenes for use with Daz3d content, etc., it might be a better open to instead use the Wizard, which will guide us through the process of building a new medium scene to the same specs as any of those presets, but with even more power.
Ooops... sorry ep. I actually started this response hours ago - got dragged away - came back and figured I should finish what I was typing! LOL
The option for scene size is when you first open a new scene. For renders with a human focus, start with an empty medium size scene. If you use the landscape wizard, it will create a large scene. Once in a medium scene, you can insert a terrain object rom the top menu and it will come in a reasonable scale by default.
Hi, EvilProducer. Happy Thanksgiving. Good to see you posting.
The fastest way to learn Carrara's shaders is to start applying the presets to things and then change one thing at a time and see what it does in the preview window (this doesn't always match up exactly with the final render, but it gives you a good idea). A simple sand shader is pretty easy (although if you want to you can get pretty crazy with adding complex nesting effects in most of the channels).
Recipe for a real quick sand (not quicksand!
):
The real trick is the Fracal Noise - you really need to play with the parameters there to get the effect you want for the scale of your scene.
Wow thank you everyone! Lots to practice with!
I usually like to post examples because when you are new, it can be discouraging. I feel if someone new sees that these things can actually be accomplished it will hopefully inspire them to continue, and perhaps to offer an avenue of thought they hadn't considered. The hair as grass is one thing I learned about here that was very valuable.
I don't know the end goals you have- still images, animations, etc. But one last suggestion for grass if it is to be animated, would be to use spline modeler built grass. adjusting curves in the spline modeler can be animated by altering them along the timeline. When used with multiple blades of grass, and using a noise or oscillating tweener and a surface replicator, you can get some pretty convincing waving grass.
A video example. I used three spline grass blades, each with a slightly different curve adjustment at the beginning of the animation and at the end of the animation. So two keyframes for each blade, for a total of six keyframes. I then used the oscillate tweener for each blade between the keyframes, and adjusted the timing on each tweener. I then replicated the grasses on my small terrain and rendered.
The video is on FB, but you should be able to view it without being a member or signing up.
https://www.facebook.com/100012031746048/videos/104239579987100/?l=7555863128490217219
Absolutely. So come back every once in a while and look through it some more. It's a lot to soak in.
Do you know about your "My Presets" thing in the My Documments folder?
My Documents > DAZ 3D > Carrara 8.5 > My Presets > My Objects
Anything that you save to the My Objects folder will always be the first thing you see when you switch to the Objects tab in the browser.
So I like to save a good opening, empty scene there, and that's what I always start my new scenes with. So I go to File > New and create a new. emrpty scene. Then I set the render settings to 1280 x 720 since I like using that. I also set the rendering tile size down to 16. I add those distant lights I mentioned several of my posts ago, and then save that empty folder as "1280 x 720" so I always have that blank, fresh scene to start with - already set up how I most often like it.
Okay, but now that I've mentioned My Documents > DAZ 3D > Carrara 8.5 > My Presets > My Objects
try to NOT save too large of files to that, specific folder or you'll accidentally slow you browser down on that tab, which is the top level of the Objects tab.
So for making your own cool organization system, make a folder structure inside that folder! It ROCKS!
I have and article all about that here, along with a couple others you might like
Your Carrara Browser
Making great stuff isn't as cool if you can't remember where you put it. Let's get some good habits going right from the start
Daz Install Manager - Installing Custom Poser Runtimes
Basic walkthrough of designing your own custom runtime structure
Navigating in Carrara
some good tips on how to get around the work space, go to where you want to be at specific times, and how to send stuff to specific locations within your scene
Well, at the moment I think animation is something I will have to consider much later. But, I might consider it in the future. I have a facebook account so I am going to go have a look. The tree is up and thanksgiving is cleaned up lol, so I have some time this evening to go through all the videos and helpful links posted.
Okay. I have a new medium scene. I go to the landscape tab and drag the red mesa into the scene. It shows in the right list but does not show on the assemble screne. I can't see it even though its clearly there? I can't arrange stuff on the terrain if I can't see it lol. I'm sure its something super simple. Ugh. I am going to go and watch and read some more video and walkthroughs...
Hi. I think that the issue is the difference between the top menu of the assemble room which has the tabs for "File", "Edit", "View", "Insert"... and the browser tray for "scenes"
Try
- Open a new empty medium size scene. (an assemble room so-called "batting cage" should open)
- From the top menu, choose INSERT : TERRAIN (The terrain modeling room will open. Leave everything at the default. See that the wrench icon in upper right glows a little?)
- Click on the hand in the upper right to return to the assemble room. (you should be looking down at a default terrain, probably textured a dull green)
- In the upper right, click the paintbrush icon to enter the texture room. (The shader tree for the terrain will open).
- In the shader tree box, on the right side, there is a button that says "Wizard."
- Click the wizard button. Scroll to the terrain shaders. Double click "Red Mesa."
OK, that just gets you a default terrain in a medium scene with the red mesa shader. You will want to experiment with
1) The terrain modeling room to increase the detail (settings for preview and render quality), maybe change the shape (use the filters or import a grayscale map or even use the drawing tool)
2) The shader tree, maybe change the top level to a multi-channel mixer and combine red mesa with another shader.
Here are a couple of ways that combining different scales might cause frustration
- if you start with a large scale scene and load a Daz human figure or a plant or soemthing, the scales are so far off that that it will seem like the figure or plant never loaded
- If you start with a medium size scene and load a giant landscape preset then it will seem like the andscape didn't load because its surface is hundreds of feet above your focus.
It was probably made in the large scene scale. The scene scale is all relative with the working grid, default units of measure, amount the camera moves and how "large" the avatars for cameras and lights are. If you bring in a 30,000 x 30,000 ft terrain into a medium scene, where the working grid is 30x30 ft. the terrain will still be 30,000 ft.
The terrain is there, it is just so big it is out of view. Check the instances pain on the right side of the screen. Is it listed under the Scene? If so, select it, then look at the motion tab. At the top are the X, Y, Z coordinates of the terrain. The top X,Y,Z field is the model center. The one immediately below it is the hot point. It is probably the same as the center, but if it is not, that shouldn't be an issue for this. Anyway, look at the Z field. That is the height of the terrain in 3D space. I bet it is really high up there. If you want to keep the terrain the same size, try lowering the value until the model comes down into view.
If you want to scale the terrain down, at the bottom of the Motion Tab are the scale options. If I want to resize the model uniformly and keep the proportions, then I make sure the Uniform checkbox is enabled before I enlarge or reduce the size. If you look at the X,Y,Z fields again, I bet the size is really huge. If you want to reduce the size, enter the number of feet you want the terrain to be. Or you could use the Overall field below to do it that way.
One of the things I love about Carrara is the sense of scale you can get with it. What I do is open a medium scene, stick in whatever the people or animals or vehicles- are supposed to be on, such as a terrain that I've scaled down for instance. Then, when I have the focus of the scene set up, I work on the background elements. That is where the giant terrains come into play. I insert one and use the motion menu or manipulators to move the terrain down to the desired altitude or to the front or back, left or right. Used with a realistic sky (I always disable the ground checkbox) the foreground elements and the background elements really can set a grand scale!
Okay thank you. That makes sense and I kind of thought that might be it but didn't know how to fix it. I just found your Building Carrara Terrain section and am up to section E and going to try the walk through.
If it helps, I made a free environment a few years ago. I also included a detailed manual that may help a bit. If you wish, download it, play around with it, ask questions about it. I used it to make the image with the knight and dragon above. The only thing you need to supply are the buildings. I provide links to the free ones I used. They were not mine so I couldn't include them. I placed proxy objects where I suggest the building be placed, with more space for more buildings.
https://www.sharecg.com/v/69697/view/5/3D-Model/Fantasy-Village-terrain
Here are some more helpful links. Don't get overwhelmed by all of these. Just some references.
Helpful resources
Dartanbeck has a forum thread on terrain modeling. See http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/37867/
Cripeman tutorials on terrains
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_UVBRXnHOZA and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yZ236C6vu-g
Cripeman tutorial on replicators
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TXthnav9rUc
Tutorial created by: Johannes Rosenberg (Cajomi) A master at lanscape creation (downloads as pdf)
http://www.polyloop.net/attachment.php?attachmentid=24975.
Thread on Landscapes in Carrara
http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/28368/
Thread on using Carrara terrains and replicators to create oceans
http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/28506/
Thread on replicators methods, tips, and tricks
http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/38177/
MMoir’s and Dartanbeck’s landscapes and MMoir’s grass replicator pack could be treated as mini tutorials if you take them apart and explore the settings.
See http://www.daz3d.com/mmoir and http://www.daz3d.com/dartanbeck
PhilW’s tutorial series with Infinite Skills includes sections on terrain modeling and replicators.
A lot of people demonsrated terrains (and replicators) in the following minthly challenge threads.
http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/38186/carrara-challenge-viii-the-great-race-or-don-t-fence-me-in-wip-thread-is-open/p1
http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/40072/carrara-challenge-viii-voting-thread/p1
So I did a quick run through from the Building Carrara Terrains thread. I did the terrain (this is going to be very fun once I figure out the shaders a bit more. Its fun to play with that's for sure lol) Got the sky added in and added a HDRI then dropped the alien machine in. I think I'm making a bit of progress lol
Looks good so far.
For the hdri, did you enable the Skylight in the Render Room? It is part of the GI section below the settings for the basic renderer. HDRIs won't work without it being enabled. Indirect Light does not need to be on to use an hdri, and for outdoor scenes I don't use it since the Skylight simulates atmospheric light, and IL slows everything way down. If the Skylight is not enabled the image that makes the hdri will displayed, but won't act as an Image Based Light (IBL.)
Here's the cool thing about the Skylight and the Realistic Skies. When the Skylight is enabled, it acts like an hdri, in that it generates atmospheric ambient light. You don't need both if you don't want both. The Realistic Sky is also tied to the Sunlight, so moving the sun in the Realistic Sky Editor (RSE) will change the orientation of the sun light. Conversely, directly manipulating the sunlight in the Assembly Room will change its position in the RSE.
Here's another fun thing about the Skylight. If you load an hdri in the scene's Background, and the Skylight is enabled, it will act like an IBL, which I already mentioned. However, any image, color, or color gradient placed in the scene's Background (not Backdrop) will also act like an IBL. If using images it is best to use a spherical image as it wraps around the universe. I have a couple experiments that I put up in my ShareCG account if you want to experiment.
Well, that should keep me occupied for quite some time thank you! Had no clue there was a skylight or that I needed to use it lol. Well, I am certainly learning a ton that's for sure and I really appreciate the help!
Beautiful job on the terrain itself - and a beautiful job on the shader tree as well!
Bravo!
See? Now you'll start to 'feel' it. Once we break through, it all gets easier and more powerful ;)
There's a LOT of Carrara. You've just taken a deep step into some cool stuff, and passed with flying colors!
I'm proud of you, and hope that you are of yourself.
Cool Scene!
I bought that cool model, but haven't used it yet. Looks great!
It was far too much fun pulling up mountains and valleys. Bryce has something that is almost the same, I recognized it as soon as I saw it. Which made it a bit less intimidating although I am not that far along in learning Bryce either. I am rather proud of myself lol. I think the first time I opened this up several months ago, it was just too overwhelming. Getting comfortable in studio not only helped me recognize what most of the terms were for and generally what they meant and kind of understanding that there was going to be a learning curve for this, made the second try a lot less intimidating. And of course, all you guys(gals?) have really shortened the learning curve as well. Pretty excited about the possibilities with Carrara I'm really shocked that this hasn't been developed further. Both Carrara and Bryce seem like they are an excellent tool to add to the toolbox when creating art and combine all three of them together and wow, I think eventually, you could do almost anything.
I think it's in development now - but nobody actually knows for sure... well... except for a small handful of folks, I guess.
I'd love to see Bryce get a new, modern kick. I'd even like to open it up and figure it out as it is. Looks like a real Blast!
I bought Bryce 7 Pro, just never really studied it.
Here's a thing that I just did while we were talking:
I bought this cool construction kit for Steam Punk. I won't be using it as Steam Punk, that's just what it was for. Anyways, like the Tower City I just bought from here recently, all of the parts are "Props" instead of rigged figures - meaning that I can Duplicate them (Ctrl + D) making it really fast to make extra pieces, and also that I can Copy them from one open scene and Paste them into another opened scene.
So instead of saving all of the separate pieces individually, I saved them all in a single scene, which I've made into a bit of a scene itself. This way, if I want to build a new city with these elements in it, I can eitehr start with this as a Base scene, or I can keep this scene open in the background and Copy/Paste the pieces I want into another.
I did this same thing with Tower City.
It looks dark here because it's not completed as a fully realized scene - so most of the light is coming from the pieces themselves - and I turned the environment lights down to see what's going on.
That sounds most useful especially if one is building a story that would use a scene multiple times.