Almost back
Dartanbeck
Posts: 21,326
I've been busting my tush to get my stonework projects to a "Done for the Year" stage so I can get back to my Carrara office full time again.
My first part-time day back (today), I started by opening Carrara and looking over some incomplete projects. Fun stuff - feels like it's been a l o n g time!
Knowing this day would come, I've been spending an hour or so on certain nights getting back into animating some of the scenes I need for my film. Again... fun stuff! When I think of animating, I always think of it as quick and easy - I love it so much. But in reality, it really is quite time-consuming, even the simplest little scenes. There's Quick-and-Simple animation that we might do to see that/if we can do it, and there's 'Okay, this is going to be in the Film' animation, which needs to go through many phases before it's considered 'Done'. I'm doing the latter.
So for this type of animation, I'm now finding that all of that time I've spent recently (still spending) on learning the craft of Filmmaking is incredibly beneficial to the whole process. Blocking out a scene, Lighting it, etc., is vital - and it also must be consistent. Luckily, I'e envisioned the need for this consistency right from the start of my adventure, so I'm used to that part.
Once I have my camera angles and lighting set, I set about animating the character(s) - and this is the multi-layered process I was talking about above. There are the main motions of the body. I often begin using MoCap data because I enjoy the ease of realistic motion and timing that it affords, but then I need to go through it and decide where and how to cut out or otherwise alter the keyframes to fit my goal. That would be my next layer in the process.
That part is incredibly fun and exciting, as is the next part, though it can become a bit more tedious: animating the hands. I might sometimes use Hand Pose files to help get close to what I want, but more often than not, I prefer to simply pose each joint of each finger (and thumb) as well as the overall hand (wrist) itself. Again, simple to do when testing to see that we can do it, but getting it just right can be a bit more of a challenge. Wait... it's actually the exact same thing, only spending more time to get things just right.
Tweeners are great. Bezier curves are good for an automated smoothing of major pose changes over time, but when we need to be precise, it's best (I find) to get down and dirty and just do the thing manually.
Okay, now I'm babbling! LOL
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great, can't wait
DB, did you already watch these 2 clips? maybe they can be inspirational
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=1&v=R8NeB10INDo ; by impressive guys
So today, being my first real part-time day in my office, I decided to take a deep breathe and ease into things to help get my mind wrapped around things in an organized manner.
The first thing I did was to open up 3dXtract magazine issue #1: November 2003 to find that the beautifully rendered cover image is a contest winner by our very own Mike Moir. The short article on it is a very good read! Congrats again, Mike! I also found out through that article that Mike and I are the same age! Go Figure!
Wonderful articles galore in these mags!
The next issue (#2: December 2003)'s first article, "EOVIA: Behind the Scenes and Under the Hood", is a really nice article on EOVIA's acquiring Carrara from MetaCreations and bringing the then-thought-to-be-dead software back to life over three years of dedicated work. Sure would be cool if Daz3d would hire Antoine and his team to further their dreams on this amazing soft!
The now aged Carrara 8.5 Pro is still a formidable piece of soft! I love it!
Thanks to all involved in putting it all together!
If you haven't got 3dXtract magazine collection, you really don't know what you're missing, if you're a Carrara enthusiast. Yes, it's from late 2003 to late 2005, but it's all still very relavent. Here's a link to the thread where we are invited to download the entire collection along with all of the wonderful support files:
3DXTRACT E-Zine thread, here in the forums (with link to download the complete collection)
Includes tutorials, tips, articles from some of Carrara's Greats!!!
I also enjoyed coffee and breakfast early this morning over Mike Moir's wonderful Carrara Modeling Tutorials ;)
So much Carrara goodness. I came to this software just before the release of Carrara 8.0 Pro while it was in beta phase. I bought 6 Pro with an upgrade to 7 Pro, which (at that time) came with an upgrade to 8 Pro for free upon release, as well as access to the beta version.
Well, it was a blast seeing the development going on during that beta phase. I liked Carrara 8 Pro beta a lot more than Carrara 7.2 Pro, largely due to the move to 64 bit.
But if the 64 bit thing wasn't an issue for me would I be satisfied with 6 or 7 Pro? Yeah. I know I would. This does NOT mean that I'm not entirely grateful for the upgrades. It simply means that, to me, Carrara is so well laid out that I prefer using it - and so I do.
Carrara 8.5 beta cycle came public and I was amazed even more! Going back to 8 from 8.5 would be tough for me - I've gotten so used to the improvements and new features. If 8 or 8.5 never happened, would I still be using Carrara? Probably.
I say this because Carrara truly is a special piece of software. There truly is nothing else like it - and this couldn't become more obvious than when we start trying to bend to other's wills and trying another software.
I also say this because during Carrara's development cycle, Carrara still remains. This might sound funny, but when I start reading older articles, like from 3dXtract (above) or C3DE (below), even when they're talking about much older versions of Carrara, the main info... the GUI... is still mostly relevant. So try not to avoid tutorials or guides from previous versions. The active community from back in Carrara's heights of development had some really remarkable techniques to share which can do us all a lot of good. But furthermore, it helps to illustrate how wonderful Carrara has been for such an incredibly long time.
It can be easy to look at Pro sites of CG goodness on the web and wish that we had those same tools to work with. Well... we actually do have a lot of them. There have been some major breakthroughs that might not be inherent in Carrara today, but the main tools we need to do truly amazing CG mastery are here, right at our fingertips!
If we watch some of the VFX breakdown videos on YouTube, we need to try and understand that A - usually not just one person doing all of that work B - all that work is usually not all done in the 3d render software, at least not all at the same time C - those are often the result of teams of folks who do this stuff for a living, often having gone to extremely expensive schools prior
It's amazing how much I've learned about Carrara itself by studying stuff that is taught by folks whom may have never even heard of Carrara. But when we see things being done in the VFX world or the Filmmaking world, a fairly experienced Carrara user, like myself, cannot help but see and understand ways that these new skills can be used directly in Carrara - making me wish I'd have known this stuff from the start!
But we can never really know it all before we begin, can we? As Ed Catmull said: "It's all part of the process of earning the way in"
So I still find it incredibly refreshing to now go back and read articles from 3dXtract and C3DE over again, with my new eyes - eyes I've been developing by learning new skills.
Carrara 3D Expo Magazine
brought to you by Carrara Cafe
welcome home! you've been sorely missed, but your trusty and talented compadres have kept things around here in pretty good order!
I would love to have seen what you would have come up with for Cripeman's tribute - take a look at the brilliance that *did* come out of it. Just magic.
beers,
--ms
I see that! Wow! Lots of cool catching up to do! Time... where the heck did I put that?!!! ;) Working away on it though!
Yeah... bummer. I will certainly be putting together a memorial of him in my own way. It just wasn't possible to get anything done in time for that one - but the images made are truly inspiring! Amazing renders going on all around here!
I think a big piece of the equation is how much everyone that *uses* Carrara, really *likes* using Carrara, especially with the 'fenric-isms' (philmo-isms, etc.) that have been added to smooth out the few quirks (e.g. hiding bones, etc.), let alone stretch this tool to places we'll probably never even realize, no matter how many 'bits' or or processors they throw at it...
If you have to 'play God' in 3D-land (building your world and characters before you can play in it), it's a pretty good place to be able to do it.
I'll finish with the cudos and props that go to the incredibly clever and generous folks that trade tricks and tips, making the process of 'skinning the Carrara cat' such a clever and creative adventure.
cheers to all,
--ms
These three renders were a direct result of watching Cripeman's Frazetta dedication
I entirely missed this post as I was typing the one that follows it. Cool stuff - especially the sequel to Adam! Haven't seen that one yet... Thanks!
If you've missed the first episode of Adam:
First time I've seen that. Looks awesome . . . except for the swaying grass. That still looks like a metronome mechanically going tick-tock-tick-tock.
Completely agreed! The most unnatural thing is grass which is sliding on the ground. Anyways, it's very inspiring!
Yeah... that's what they get for using a game engine instead of Carrara! ;)
Oh, I am SO looking forward to Monday!
...and Christmas!
...and still haven't seen Valerian. Never saw it hit the theaters so now I'll have to wait for the BluRay
Oh... and November too!
I thought Wonder Woman was a great flick
welcome almost back - blade runner rips too
looking forward to seeing some NPR work from you too
Have you seen it? I want to see that!
yes last night - seven out of ten
very difficult to match the first one.
what was lacking was the poetry of the first one, especially in the endgame
I never realised how poetic the first one was - mind you I have the quote https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tears_in_rain_monologue
on my surf board
'All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain.'
Nothing's ever going to match that scene.
The other downer was the fact that they have turned Cinema's here into fast food shops. You can get pizza and garlic bread (wrapped in 500decibel aluminium foil) delivered to your seat mid movie. I noticed that the fatter a cinema goer was, the least regard for the amount of noise they were making while the rest of us tried to suspend our disbelief (in the movie).
I once asking the woman next to me that 'if she had to eat, would she mind eating with her mouth shut?' - she was eating some kind of crunch thing that is advertised as making a small explosion in your mouth with each bite. I would have quite happily fed her a small nuclear bomb to shut her up
Wow. That's just wrong!
yep, they are struggling to get people into Cinema's I think. I expected the place to be jam packed - only had about 30 people.
The film had too much female nudity (unnecessary to the storyline but it added an ambience that suggests 2049's social mores) and plenty of violence (probably necessary) so got an R rating - which cut out families I guess
I have seen very few sequels that met (or perhaps exceeded) the level of the first. The best example IMHO is The Empire Strikes Back.
Yep Star Wars was good :) Until they invemted ChewyWockies or whatever they were called
BR2049 (that's Blade Runner, not Battle Royale, although that one might be interesting too...) got a 9 in my book. Best sequel since Empire Strikes Back and one of the rare few that lives up to, and even "gets" the original. Can't praise it highly enough.
"Have you ever seen a miricle?"
As regards fast food, in this country there is a thing known as the Church of Wittertainment* (Hello to Jason Isaacs), and there is a code of conduct, which really should be adopted universally:
* in reality, the Kermode & Mayo film review show (& podcast), every Friday.
Mark Kermode reviews Blade Runner 2049 (no spoilers):
Ozzy Man reviews The Last Jedi trailer (nsfw)
I'm lucky in that, when I go to see a movie, I'm there to relax and have a good time - not to judge. Same goes for art galleries. I keep an open mind that there's a lot more people out there than me - so I try to simply absorb what's being shown without a checklist or critique glasses.
I still haven't played the game: The Witcher 3, or its sequels but actually bought it for the art books and (most of all) for the music.
GOG.com has a habit of selling DRM-free games for really cheap along with loads of goodies.
Browsing around one day, I found that they had a full concert of the music of The Witcher 3 and both sequels. I had to buy it! Cool, it gives users several (5, I think) quality sizes to choose from after buying it - and they remain in your acount. So we can download a smaller file size for our phones, for example, and the larger HD versions for watching on big-screen TV, etc.,
Music can truly make a movie
Here's a quick sample of the concert from the composer, Marcin Przybyłowicz's channel, which also provides a link to the full concert in the credits.
Welcome back, Dart! Looking forward to seeing more of your animations come to life.
Thanks!
It's still Almost back... but that even feels so much better than completely absent! ;)
Had some fun the other night messing with animation. I do totally love working in Carrara for that!