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I almost forgot that if you use any of the GI render settings, such as the Skylight or full Indirect Light, you will need to enable the Light Through Transparency option in the standard render settings at the top of the tab, and the Light Through Transparency option in the GI renderer section, about halfway down. Unless you don't have any transparency or alphas- in which case you can ignore it. Most scenes do have some kind of transparency or alpha though.
Yes, and it's very useful for time when I need an urban backdrop. I have many buildings that I can duplicate around. Just a slight turn of any of them make an entirely new building look in cramped city scenes
Perhaps. I've tried running a GI render without that lower one enabled and the only light that didn't pass through transparency was the GI calculation - so I ran it without it since the scene didn't need it. But it had all kinds of transparency going on - hair, eyes, etc., that lower control just adds tranparency to the higher calculations of GI/IL
Most people notice it when the eyes look all black.
So that's why m5's eyes don't look right....
Maybe. There was an issue with one of the Genesis figures where there was some kind of multiplier thrown into one of the eye shaders. If the eyes looked right rendering with the standard renderer, but wrong when the Skylight or Indirect Light options were used, then the transparency option is probably the issue.
If the eyes look screwed up no matter what, then it is probably the shader issue. Because I am stuck on C7.2 right now, I can't test any flavor of Genesis I'm afraid.
If it is the shader issue, I would start a thread asking how to fix it if no one pops in here with a solution. Screen shots of the issue would also help narrow it down maybe.
Ya its not something I'm terribly worried about right now, maybe once I am able to work a bit better in this I will revisit and see if I can narrow it down. Right now, I couldn't answer any of the questions needed to narrow it down I'm sure. And I don't think I saved the scene either. I just happened to notice his eyes looked really black with no reflection instead of green like and white like they should
Applying Materials presets for Genesis within Carrara isn't (in my opinion) the best route. It's a lot easier and faster to use a set of shaders that's already working good, and swap out the texture maps where needed in order to change the character.
Often times there are shader issues - but almost always if a Material preset is applied directly in Carrara.
Carrara ships with a good set of shaders for Genesis to start with, but they are for Genesis 1.
Here's a way to store good starter shaders for use on ANY figure:
These individual shaders may now be dragged onto the appropriate material zones of ANY figure, then just replace the texture maps with ones made for that figure
For genesis 2 figures, there are multiple uvmap layouts. If I remember correctly, it is true that multiple figures will use the same uvmap layout, but not all use the same layout. That is why I optimize a global skin shader for each new chatacter set that I buy and save that global shader to the browser. Then if I want to use that shader set, I load that character from the browser, load my saved Carrara-optimized shader, zero the shape morph, then shape however I want.
See series of posts starting here for an example.
http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/comment/1701046/#Comment_1701046
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Right.
What we're doing in my suggestion is only using the actual Shader settings. Then we swap out texture maps that work with the appropriate UVs. It works - quick and easy.
After we drag in the appropriate shaders to the correct zones, we swap texture maps if needed, then drag that whole Multi-colored ball (Multi Shader Preset) into a special folder in the Browser and we have an optimized Character Shader setup! Bam!
FYI - I make my shaders quite a bit different than those I mention above. I used that example as a method of ease for folks whom might now want to create custom shaders.
Thanks guys. Still working on digesting everything. I did stock up on some good stuff in the sale this week for Carrara including the gen2 female shaders for the main characters which will make my life a bit easier at least until I can really figure out the shader thing. Its going to take some time to let things settle in my mind and I am probably going to have to go back and just do all the examples I can find until I really understand it. Not there yet lol.
Take your time with it. Dart can get enthusiastic, as we all do sometimes.
I love the enthusiasm! I will just digest as I go lol. I never turn down information, if I don't understand something now I will later. And I'm very grateful for the willingness to share as well.
Sonja, I highly suggest that you try out the Carrara Challenges... they have been extremely helpful to me... a great aid for learning. Carrara folks are eager to help out if you have questions or problems... and you aren't obligated to enter what you have done... I do anyway for at least 1 scene... haven't been able to do more than one but that day will come. I never enter expecting to win anything... I enter for the experience in trying new Carrara tools, FX etc. While I've had Carrara for a long time I'd never bothered to render a scene to be seen by anyone but myself, I'm too picky,... now I'm using Carrara every day, when possible, instead of only occasionally... so since I've only been rendering since early this year I consider myself "rather new to Carrara".
Like EP said... take your time.
hahaha I can totally see how that would be awkward lol.
wgdjohn I do intend to join a couple of the contests as soon as time permits. I have been doing the studio new user contests for almost a year now and they have been a true godsend on the learning front, and I had assumed that the contests here would provide the same kind of increase in the learning curve. The Bryce contests are also chock full of knowledge. I figured I better learn at least a tiny bit before venturing into the contest waters though lol. Of course, the holidays are always crazy busy but I will see what i can do. I had hoped to enter the Raining men challenge with a Carrara render but I don't know if I can get it done on time.
And winning is nice but I do them because it helps me focus on one thing thouroughly for a month and helps me stay on track. Winning is a bonus to the learning experience lol.
Don't let me rush you. :) I'm just so excited to see what you do.
No worries, you are keeping me on my toes!
Oh Cool!
I take it those shaders are from Ringo Monfort?
I have some of those as well. Ringo Rocks!!!
I think he even used to work at Eovia back when they owned Carrara, along with Philip Staiger, now of Project Dogwaffle.
I love RIngo's talent with Shaders!
ROTFLMAO!!!!
Actually, evilproducer was eaten years ago by a Tyrannosaurus Rex his wife bought him as a birthday present! ;)
He made this when he was brand new to Carrara - before I've ever heard of it... I love this!
After some practice, he moved on to more grand projects
Yeah... my little brother, evilproducer, totally rocks! Talent spews forth from him daily!
I have a very short snippet on Ringo here, but deeper into the forums from when he was releasing those various shader packs, he's shown some incredible renders made using his shaders.
I hope that his absence from this forum is only temporary.
Wow those videos are awesome! LOVE the trex lol! I did download the shaders I just haven't had a chance to look at the directions to get them into the program. I did a quick read through and it didn't look too complicated.
I was playing with the terrain editor last night after watching several of cripemans tutorials. I have to go back and watch the one again, I'm trying to figure out how to populate a mountain with trees using instances. Randomly, not on the grid cause at one point I had a hundred trees stacked on the y axis lol. Not what I was going for although it did look rather interesting.
Use the Surface Replicator
Enabling clustering helps to get that randomness, along with tweaking the parameters.
In this one, the clumps of trees closest to us are duplicated and placed individually for great control. The more distant trees are replicated onto a mountaious terrain, while the cliff terrain without any trees is a separate terrain piece.
I love using multiple pieces of terrain and placing them around to make one scene.
In fact, the clumpy terrain in the foreground is actually one smaller terrain piece which I've duplicated, scaled, and rotated all over the place to make a nice, lumpy landscape.
Where I live, the glacier came through - way back when - and busted up all manner of rock. Our bedrock is split and shoved, making cliffs and cracks and lumps. The glacier also brought in rock not otherwise native to the area - adding even more texture. As time took hold, moss, trees and other living stuff grew over the rocks - it looks a lot like this.
Oh... and when I hand-placed those duplicated trees (several different types and sizes), I group those onto one of those smaller terrain pieces, so I can duplicate that group and give it a little rotation to make it look like a whole new grove of trees.
So I've used some duplicates of groves like that to add those few clumps of trees in and around the cliff (treeless) terrain to add continuity ;)
THAT'S what I was looking for. Not instances but Surface Replicator. Thank you! lol I knew I was off somewhere cause it didn't look anything like the video.
Sound like a really cool place to live! And I will most definitely keep in mind using multiple terrains. I was very intriqued with the whole make a cave by flipping a terrain upside down thing too. Was very very interesting and I can think of hundreds of things to do with that idea
A couple more quick tips on replicating things on a terrain...
So, using the Altitude, Slope and Orientation together, I can make trees only appear withing a limited band of height, only on one side and only when the slope is in a certain range all at once! A very powerful tool worth playing around with. Lots of sample pics attached: the options in the surface replicator, what turning align to normals off and on does, examples of each of the custom terrain shaders in use by itself looks like and an example of combining them to limit trees to a fairly precise area.
Works great flipping a couple on their sides and using them as the walls of a ravine or cave too. This image: http://www.daz3d.com/gallery/#images/208071/ uses a rotated terrain for each wall and another for the ground.
Here is a thread that might help with replicators.
http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/38177/
Thanks for the clear and brilliant example MD02010, I usually painted a custom map, but this looks fun and has many possibilities.
Great explanantions and tips in that thread, thanks for the link diomede!