Carrara compared to the "big boys" (Maya, 3DS Max, etc.)

Dartanbeck

Okay, High-End is one thing - but whom really deserves all of the credit?

Yes... if it wasn't for those amazing genius folks tweaking the code, we'd all still be trying to edit strips of film, wouldn't we? And even then, without them, we'd likely have to use colored tape directly on the film itself!

What about those whom can burn both ends? 

I was just mentioning (toward the bottom of the previous page of this thread) Fusion software, and how it can help us use Carrara in a workflow similar to those used by big film studios. Well, I used different wording I'm sure. It's a new day and I have a stomach ache today, so I type differently.

Eric Westphal, as it turns out, is also a Visual Effects Supervisor for Hire, with a reference name (now get this): Douglas Trumbull!

To help learn the node-based ways of getting into Fusion, I've built my own Playlist on my YouTube channel:

Fusion Lessons by Eric Westphal at Eyeon, which this video is part of - along with many, Many other excellent tutorials that really do help. I've attempted to arrange them in a really decent order for someone (like me) whom needs to start with the basics and work forward into bigger and more technical methods

In this video he's the Senior Product Manager for Fusion by eyeon software, acquired by Blackmagic Design

He's showing us how to make a "simple" animated motion graphic! (smacks forehead)

While I can easily follow this and puppet his workflow, I doubt highly that I would ever come up with this solution on my own!

Part of the coolness about following along with instructions like this is that these sorts of methods will truly eventually seep in - and become building blocks to solving other sticky situations in the future - which is one of my favorite reasons for following his tutorials!

Just check this out - it's not very long, and Eric is most fun to hang with 

In no time, after following Eric's advice, we can be using it for all manner of things. FifthElement uses it as an image editor and does an amazing job of it! I am working in animation techniques so most of my practice has been entirely invisible to the public.

I think it would be a great move for Blackmagic Design to have Eric continue on, in their name, making more and more of these amazing instructional videos!

Oh... how does all of this relate to the thread?

Well, in my opinion, Fusion actually can be (should be?) used as part of any average Carrara user's pipeline and, in doing so, makes anything we do in Carrara easier to get up to par with anything else we find in the realms of CG. Think of it as part of the picture, if you will. I've been made to understand that there are virtually no (zero) users of 3DS Max or Maya whom are not using plugins or other tools in their pipeline.

When we see demo reels for one CG software company, I can almost bet that it's not the only software used to create the images in the reel. That might not be accurate for some reels... but almost certainly for Max and Maya.

 

magaremoto

starboard said:

Margemoto said,

"that's true but the majors are always looking for skilled guys or good softwares that help them to speed up the workflow, they will never end the search

keeping the product simple and just tell the story? mmh that sounds good for prescholar market only, from 6 onwards the path is going difficult more and more but it's my opinion "

"There is an old saying, Going fast in the wrong direction is not fast at all"  They may be speeding up their workflow...but between you and me I wish they would'nt. They may be turning out a lot of product... But my wife and I  have a very hard time finding something to see at the movies.  All that money spent, with all the assets available and what do they turn out... Duds.    Never has so much been spent to produce so little. It is a sad commentary, that movies made over fifty years ago, with what is now ancient technology, shown on the Turner Movie Channel,  are better options than most of what is offered to the public today.  In my estimation the biggest shortcoming is in those that decide what is made in the first place. There is obviously a lot of talent out there.   Again, Going fast in the wrong direction is not fast afterall." I did see,"A dogs Purpose"... great flick.. As far as I can tell a whole new perspective.

 

Another thing..have you noticed how bad the sound is today. If you watch say a 1940's movie..you can actually understand the actors.   Many of the modern films  and TV series I have seen over the past few years have terrible sound with respect to the dialogue. Despite fantastic microphones which would have beeen the envy of old hollywood,...much of the conversation is garbled mystery.  I defy anyone that does not lip read to understand what they are saying.

Starboard.

sorry for the delay, missed your post

well, I guess you are right but one word I have learnt in the field of CG industry (and I think it can be extended to movies in general) is "astonishment": stories, vfx, screenplay, music,.. everything may contribute to that target; the more the budget the more gonna be the astonishment; the majors and hollywood as well pushed towards that direction and they had been training us to need astonishment. Good story? Good actors? yes but it's not enough you must exceed the limits somehow, right or wrong it's up to the market

magaremoto

Dartanbeck said:

Okay, High-End is one thing - but whom really deserves all of the credit?

Yes... if it wasn't for those amazing genius folks tweaking the code, we'd all still be trying to edit strips of film, wouldn't we? And even then, without them, we'd likely have to use colored tape directly on the film itself!

What about those whom can burn both ends? 

I was just mentioning (toward the bottom of the previous page of this thread) Fusion software, and how it can help us use Carrara in a workflow similar to those used by big film studios. Well, I used different wording I'm sure. It's a new day and I have a stomach ache today, so I type differently.

Eric Westphal, as it turns out, is also a Visual Effects Supervisor for Hire, with a reference name (now get this): Douglas Trumbull!

To help learn the node-based ways of getting into Fusion, I've built my own Playlist on my YouTube channel:

Fusion Lessons by Eric Westphal at Eyeon, which this video is part of - along with many, Many other excellent tutorials that really do help. I've attempted to arrange them in a really decent order for someone (like me) whom needs to start with the basics and work forward into bigger and more technical methods

In this video he's the Senior Product Manager for Fusion by eyeon software, acquired by Blackmagic Design

He's showing us how to make a "simple" animated motion graphic! (smacks forehead)

While I can easily follow this and puppet his workflow, I doubt highly that I would ever come up with this solution on my own!

Part of the coolness about following along with instructions like this is that these sorts of methods will truly eventually seep in - and become building blocks to solving other sticky situations in the future - which is one of my favorite reasons for following his tutorials!

Just check this out - it's not very long, and Eric is most fun to hang with 

In no time, after following Eric's advice, we can be using it for all manner of things. FifthElement uses it as an image editor and does an amazing job of it! I am working in animation techniques so most of my practice has been entirely invisible to the public.

I think it would be a great move for Blackmagic Design to have Eric continue on, in their name, making more and more of these amazing instructional videos!

Oh... how does all of this relate to the thread?

Well, in my opinion, Fusion actually can be (should be?) used as part of any average Carrara user's pipeline and, in doing so, makes anything we do in Carrara easier to get up to par with anything else we find in the realms of CG. Think of it as part of the picture, if you will. I've been made to understand that there are virtually no (zero) users of 3DS Max or Maya whom are not using plugins or other tools in their pipeline.

When we see demo reels for one CG software company, I can almost bet that it's not the only software used to create the images in the reel. That might not be accurate for some reels... but almost certainly for Max and Maya.

 

I agree, as for Max great plugins, a robust framework and internal tools make of it a top notch software; the all-in-one suites like modo, houdini or c4d can rival only in specific areas or productions

Hey DB out of curiosity a quick clip about fusion and carrara workflow? only asking

PhilW

magaremoto said:

starboard said:

Margemoto said,

"that's true but the majors are always looking for skilled guys or good softwares that help them to speed up the workflow, they will never end the search

keeping the product simple and just tell the story? mmh that sounds good for prescholar market only, from 6 onwards the path is going difficult more and more but it's my opinion "

"There is an old saying, Going fast in the wrong direction is not fast at all"  They may be speeding up their workflow...but between you and me I wish they would'nt. They may be turning out a lot of product... But my wife and I  have a very hard time finding something to see at the movies.  All that money spent, with all the assets available and what do they turn out... Duds.    Never has so much been spent to produce so little. It is a sad commentary, that movies made over fifty years ago, with what is now ancient technology, shown on the Turner Movie Channel,  are better options than most of what is offered to the public today.  In my estimation the biggest shortcoming is in those that decide what is made in the first place. There is obviously a lot of talent out there.   Again, Going fast in the wrong direction is not fast afterall." I did see,"A dogs Purpose"... great flick.. As far as I can tell a whole new perspective.

 

Another thing..have you noticed how bad the sound is today. If you watch say a 1940's movie..you can actually understand the actors.   Many of the modern films  and TV series I have seen over the past few years have terrible sound with respect to the dialogue. Despite fantastic microphones which would have beeen the envy of old hollywood,...much of the conversation is garbled mystery.  I defy anyone that does not lip read to understand what they are saying.

Starboard.

sorry for the delay, missed your post

well, I guess you are right but one word I have learnt in the field of CG industry (and I think it can be extended to movies in general) is "astonishment": stories, vfx, screenplay, music,.. everything may contribute to that target; the more the budget the more gonna be the astonishment; the majors and hollywood as well pushed towards that direction and they had been training us to need astonishment. Good story? Good actors? yes but it's not enough you must exceed the limits somehow, right or wrong it's up to the market

I think Hollywood has had a tendency to produce films that are one spectacular set piece after another, with only tenuous links between them, while forgetting that to involve the audience, they need to understand WHY these things are happening and how they fit into the plot.  Those films where the action emerges from the motivations and actions of the characters and move the story forward tend to be better IMHO.

TangoAlpha

The last 'Avengers' movie I saw was about an hour of plot with 90 minutes of cgi demo reel tacked on (80 minutes of which was repetitive and dull). As was the one before that and the one before that.

Dartanbeck

Believe me, Hollywood doesn't really care which tools are used. To try and slip Carrara into the pipeline wouldn't be hard (theoretically - if noone knew) if it came with a crew of Carraraists whom could be prroductive enough to keep up. They'd just have to Wow the Director (first their immediate supervisor) on how well they pulled off what needs to be done. In fact, I've already been contacted by someone (confidentially) who convinced the powers that be to bring in Carrara and some Daz3d/Poser people to help with a job - and they did. But that wasn't actually Hollywood, but still a professional visual studio.

 

magaremoto said:

Dartanbeck said:

Okay, High-End is one thing - but whom really deserves all of the credit?

Yes... if it wasn't for those amazing genius folks tweaking the code, we'd all still be trying to edit strips of film, wouldn't we? And even then, without them, we'd likely have to use colored tape directly on the film itself!

What about those whom can burn both ends? 

I was just mentioning (toward the bottom of the previous page of this thread) Fusion software, and how it can help us use Carrara in a workflow similar to those used by big film studios. Well, I used different wording I'm sure. It's a new day and I have a stomach ache today, so I type differently.

Eric Westphal, as it turns out, is also a Visual Effects Supervisor for Hire, with a reference name (now get this): Douglas Trumbull!

To help learn the node-based ways of getting into Fusion, I've built my own Playlist on my YouTube channel:

Fusion Lessons by Eric Westphal at Eyeon, which this video is part of - along with many, Many other excellent tutorials that really do help. I've attempted to arrange them in a really decent order for someone (like me) whom needs to start with the basics and work forward into bigger and more technical methods

In this video he's the Senior Product Manager for Fusion by eyeon software, acquired by Blackmagic Design

He's showing us how to make a "simple" animated motion graphic! (smacks forehead)

While I can easily follow this and puppet his workflow, I doubt highly that I would ever come up with this solution on my own!

Part of the coolness about following along with instructions like this is that these sorts of methods will truly eventually seep in - and become building blocks to solving other sticky situations in the future - which is one of my favorite reasons for following his tutorials!

Just check this out - it's not very long, and Eric is most fun to hang with 

In no time, after following Eric's advice, we can be using it for all manner of things. FifthElement uses it as an image editor and does an amazing job of it! I am working in animation techniques so most of my practice has been entirely invisible to the public.

I think it would be a great move for Blackmagic Design to have Eric continue on, in their name, making more and more of these amazing instructional videos!

Oh... how does all of this relate to the thread?

Well, in my opinion, Fusion actually can be (should be?) used as part of any average Carrara user's pipeline and, in doing so, makes anything we do in Carrara easier to get up to par with anything else we find in the realms of CG. Think of it as part of the picture, if you will. I've been made to understand that there are virtually no (zero) users of 3DS Max or Maya whom are not using plugins or other tools in their pipeline.

When we see demo reels for one CG software company, I can almost bet that it's not the only software used to create the images in the reel. That might not be accurate for some reels... but almost certainly for Max and Maya.

 

I agree, as for Max great plugins, a robust framework and internal tools make of it a top notch software; the all-in-one suites like modo, houdini or c4d can rival only in specific areas or productions

Hey DB out of curiosity a quick clip about fusion and carrara workflow? only asking

Something like that might be doable some time soon... we'll see. With you and NASSOS putting out animation examples, I want to join in on the fun. I have a pile of articles I need to finish first, but then I can get one going for Fusion/Carrara. That stuff is coming. I'm still not as comfortable in Fusion as I am in HitFilm, but I'd like to get there!

Dartanbeck

This is entirely different from my ideas regarding my Carrara <> Fusion workflow, however, the lesson still goes a long way towards inspiring ideas.

Part one is Fun, but Part 2 adds enormously to the whole idea... so catch that one too!

Ladies and Gentlemen, I bring you Mr. Simon Ubsdell

Part 1

Part 2

Just to give an idea of how much power we have while using just a tiny hint of what Fusion has to offer. Now my priorities for Fusion are not in the realm of actually working with 3D objects inside of Fusion like this, but the more we learn about how fast and simple its built in 3D abilities work the more we'll begin to understand how they can be used to enhance even our 2D work within.

Okay, that might sound exhaustingly backward. But part of my plans are to create and use stock footage for use as effects to be applied to my work as visual effects, and also to create some assets to bring into Carrara in the form of animated maps to assist in the initial rendering - so basically using my Visual Effects department to create assets for my Special Effects team.

I really want to dig into using Fusion's critically acclaimed particles for that.

I also love how easily we can work in 32 float

Tracking our camera moves to apply effects, compositing renders together, compositing effects and color grading are some of my main interests in this - but as I learn the software and the tools it contains, I'm sure more and more with come to light.

Just for kicks, I may even try bringing in some fbx animations to interact with Fusion particles, and composite with an animated render as the background.

mikael-aronsson

Wick Chapter 2 (people firing guns at each other on full auto with unlimited reloads gets kinda boring after a bit)

Hmm, I hope you did not expect anything else

TangoAlpha

Not at all. But I'm happy to report I spent the time profitably and had a nice little nap.

Dartanbeck

I just found this gif from my first experiment in Fusion 7 a little while back, just to try out the tools. The actual experiment was 720p but I reduced it way down to make into a gif small enough for the forum

Bah... it looks muuch better in full size - and it plays faster. Oh well

wgdjohn

All these things... CGI, VFX etc are great!  They should however, IMO, work like a good score... they should go unoticed by the viewer.  The actual storyline, plot and acting should be the main driver of any filmwork as well as 3d animation.  When the viewer looses a sense of believability or realism all is lost no matter how good CGI, VFX etc are... just my opinion.

Dartanbeck

There is a LOT of bias toward reality. I'll not let that stop me from what I really enjoy doing. But, yeah... there is a lot of realism in the original frames of the above gif. If you've ever tried making a gif you'll know how quickly our resolution goes to crap - especially when making gifs tiny enough to work in this forum.