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"Never give up; Never surrender!"
I built and lost the scene a couple more times, and finally got through a full-sized render.
I'm mostly pretty happy with this, but there are a few things that aren't working as well as I had pictured in my mind. I felt the 'dark queen' was hard to see clearly in the first version, so I made her a drow queen instead, but she still doesn't 'pop' much. On the other hand, I am going for a similar vibe as the many Conan pulp paperbacks, and back when I was a kid the last thing I focused on on those old Conan covers was king Conan himself, pondering on his throne, but always my attention was on the 'ladies of the court' (nearly-naked slavegirls) that always surrounded him.
Anyway, I don't know what about this scene makes Carrara crash for me so much, but I know from bitter experience I cannot save it or it will crash. I can't even drag any of the figures into the objects tab; I've tried and it just makes Carrara crash too. So I have this scene up on Carrara at the moment, and I'll just ask candidly if anyone has any suggestions on improvements in any way before I lose the scene again. If not, this may be a final render.
same clothes on many duplicated genesis (maiden) or different clothes on same genesis (ogres)? did you try to export each one in .car format?
Interesting thought, I hadn't thought of trying to export in .car, will give that a try, but just not yet as I fear that may also cause a crash :) Yeah, they are all genesis figures, the slavegirls are all duplicates of one girl (using Fenric's 'tree duplicate' plugin) though the clothing was all added to the scene separately, one piece at a time, and conformed to each genesis separately (to prevent crashes when building). Same thing for the orc guards, I added one, then used tree duplicate to make a 2nd guard, but added all clothing items separately to the scene and then conformed.
same procedure for hair?
DustRider! Glad you are joining in. You are one of my fave Carrara artists.
Yes, this theme should be right up your alley.
Looks great, Jon! My only thought is that the queen should by physically bigger, more imposing. Take it or leave it.
It's crazy that you are unable to save anything.
You are a very logical person, but I still need to ask - did you save different versions as you built the scene? At some point in the version-saving, it would crash, and you would then clearly see what element was causing it.
I did, but the only thing I was able to save was the room itself (it's an older Jack Tomalin set called the Throne of the Skeleton King: https://www.daz3d.com/throne-of-the-skeleton-king). If anyone is curious it's a room with three walls (you can't tell that from the promo pics) so for lighting purposes I duplicated the set, flipped it 180 degrees and made it so it was an enclosed space. Any genesis figure I added I could not save.
In the latest set of sales I've added a lot of new plugins to Carrara that I hadn't had previously, I suspect maybe it's one of those not playing nice or something that's causing all the sudden instability. I'm probably going to uninstall and then reinstall everything at some point in the future to see if I can't find a permanent solution. It's not just crashes, I've noticed other problems. One of the biggest red flags is suddenly when I load up Genesis in Carrara it has no morphs in the parameters tab. I just saw this problem start when doing this render, and my workaround was simply to use Studio to set up the character first and then import it into Carrara. But that's a pretty drastic change in function for Carrara that let me know something has definitely gone wrong and it's not behaving how it should. I'll have to try the uninstall/reinstall route to see if that helps, but it's a big undertaking.
Third and final entry.
I used Genesis 1 for this one, mostly because I had some alien face morphs I liked for that figure. The hallways were modeled in Carrara and everything was textured in Carrara. The alien woman's hair was modeled as just one strand which I rigged and used Fenri'cs Tree Duplicate plugin to create many copies of, each of which was then manually posed around her head.
Scene setup:
Final render:
Render with postwork:
An intriguing render, MDO. Definitely a story that has me interested.
Thanks for showing the before and after postwork. I actually prefer the before, but there are plusses to both.
Great work everyone.
I am a little frustrated. Tried to update my silver bullet project as per several suggestions and some ideas of my own. The biggest thing I wanted was to give more of a Femme Fatale feel with a vintage hat with a veil and a changed outfit to match. Unfortunately, I got all this set up and then discovered that my filenames are too large for VWD, and changing them within the existing scene does not solve the problem. The dynamic hair style should look GREAT! I put a lot of effort into it to not poke through the hat. It looked great by itself in test renders. Then when I put it in the scene, the shader turned white in the scene lighting. Then when I finally messed around with excluding lights, etc., any frizz in the shader went berzerk and slowed rendering to a snail's pace. Aaargh.
I am going to walk away for a while. Feel free to offer more suggestions. The previous ones were good. I'm just having trouble executing them.
I think you made some terrific changes! But you are so right, getting it perfect is a challenge, as there are so many subtle ways to go. The old cartoon/pinup masters were geniuses at getting to the essence.
To me, with the exaggerated posture and huge gun, you've shifted away from realism, and moved a bit into caricature. So realistic stair and lamp textures, and maybe even the background shadow, are somewhat a distraction.
I continue to read "that is" very stiffly, and prefer the contraction.
Maybe too many colors for a "femme fatale?" If I do a google image search for femme fatale, 95% are dressed in a monocolor, usually black. Red would also work (as in the original image). I think a single color would also make the veil more prominent.
But I hope that you take these details with a grain of salt. The biggger elements you have created are awesome. I love the setup, pose, and where you put the caption. Of course, the idea is genius!
I prefer the before too but people are always telling me my renders are too dark and for some reason the skin color completely washed out in the render and lost it's blue color so I tried to correct both of those and ended up going a bit overboard. I haven't posted it as an entry yet, so maybe I will play around and find a good middle ground if I have some time.
Got it! Forgot to add, I liked the clever hair.
Stezza, thanks for posting to the entry thread. The one thing missing from your WIP's is a picture of your setups in Carrara. Can you add some Carrara setup shots to those WIP posts?
Thanks!
awesome work @Diomede
if you are after suggestions on your femme fatale I would change the lighting of the scene.. for me to much emphasis is on the table, lamp and phone and not enough on the femme... I would also add some jewelry to her like earings, rings and bracelets.. also I would slap on some makeup... rich red lipstick and darken the eyebrows.. for lighting would increase the ambient on the femme to light up her face and add a strong rim light to her body.. for the text I would also add a thin white outline to the letters so it stands out a bit more..
going great
Thanky you, @Stezza and @UnifiedBrain, for the helpful suggestions. I have tried to incorporarte quite a few. I am going to render the text out separately while I decide whether to underline "that" or change the saying to a campy rhyme.
I had to jump through a few hoops to get the jacket and the skirt eligible for VWD. It seems that the length of the filename when the item is saved to the browser matters more than the length of the filename when initiating VWD. Also, if the item is in a group, the filename can get lengthened by the name of the group. Still not exactly sure. In any case, got a version to work with VWD.
Current version and setup.
.
Wow, some awesone choices there Diomede. I like it much better. Only quibble is that the gun barrel might look better in front of the box lid.
You did a heckuva job modeling that 357, btw.
Thanks, UB. Your suggestions are very much appreciated, and everyone else's. Carraraists rule!
I changed the background and then used the GMIC filter for light glow. Other than adding the text, I declare this complete. Feel free to make suggestions to change the poem.
We are down to the last week, y'all.
Git Er Done!
We've come to that special time when I get the privilage of introducing our Carrara sponsor.
With all the skin this month, what can be better than a sponsor known for his amazing skin shaders?
Welcome Ringo Monfort! Yes, his shaders set the standard, but Mr. Monfort is a lot more more than just "skin deep." I'd heard a few stories. For example, Marcelo Teixeira told me that Ringo introduced him to Carrara. As I soon discovered, Mr. Monfort has been a huge influence in Carara and the Carrara community:
Meet The PA Sponsor!
Ringo Monfort has over 17 years experience in 3D Graphics, modeling, animation, rendering and video editing.
He was also heavily involved in the development of Carrara:
"In the 1990's, I was a RayDream Studio, Bryce and Poser power user, and had online connections to the MetaCreations developers of the software. At this time a new product was being developed which turned out to be Carrara. As a beta tester, I ended up recommending many of the features that Carrara has today. I soon become the #1 promoter of Carrara online and I developed deeper connections with the developers. Eovia eventually acquired Carrara, and during those early years, they sent me to different industry shows, such as Siggraph and MacWorld, to promote Carrara & Hexagon. What I loved about the Eovia Carrara developers is that they had a passion for Carrara and they added features to it that were way ahead of its time."
In a very real sense, Ringo is also the father of the Daz Carrara forum:
"Back in 1999, when MetaCreations merged RayDream Studio and Infini-D and created Carrara, I created a new Carrara users email group in Yahoo. It became the #1 information source for all things Carrara, as I invited the Carrara developers to the group and any time a new version of the software was developed, it got promoted in that group.
It grew to over 6,000 users. During those years, Carrara was owned and further developed by Eovia.
After Eovia merged into DAZ3D, Dan Farr, who was then the CEO of DAZ3D, asked me if I wanted to move the group over to the DAZ3D Forum and become the moderator. We did move it."
Ringo is a longtime Carrara PA, and famous for his incredible shaders. In fact, all Carrara users are familiar with his work, as his Digital Painters shader pack comes standard in Carrara.
Ringo currently resides in Inglewood California. In addition to his 3D interests, he works in the aerospace industry. His website is https://www.facebook.com/DigitalPainters3D
Ringo's extensive product store at Daz is here. These are renders of some of his products:
Ringo will be personally choosing two renders as winners of the PA prizes. Each of the two artists will receive a product from his store.
I want to add that Ringo is a friendly guy, and has been very gracious in helping me gather all this information.
Thank you, Ringo, for helping to sponsor this Challenge!
Great profile - and showcase - for Ringo.
I'm working on another image for a late entry with a Halloween theme, just a relatively quick one based on one of the fifties Halloween pinups which were posted earlier in the thread. Here are some WIP screen shots. It will be another Octane render.
Phil - I love it, can't wait to see the final.
Diomede - I like the revised poem, and the upper left placement. The two-tone letters are hard to read. The red by itself would probably be fine.
As for the text, hope you don't mind a final suggestion - and this one is FINAL, I promise!!!!!
"Hello" instead of "Yes." And the last two lines:
Yes, Mr. Chaney, I'll accept your invitation -
If you promise to live up to your wolfish reputation.
Just a note - there may be a question if it is OK to change a render once it is entered. I am perfectly fine with that, as I know that everyone wants to put out the best possible version. Changes are not permitted after votiing has begun, which is still a week away. So, if you have posted an entry, but have suddenly changed your mind about Vampirella's nipple placement, fix it now!
Thanks for the comments, UB. Been revisiting my other entries. I have already posted Art Frahm. Here, I've simplified my custom witch. Basic stuff. The moon is a vertex oval with a NASA moon image put in the glow channel. The broom was made by using hair set on large to make the bristles. Rendered out as photoreal. Then reloaded the image as a backdrop to try GMIC filters. Also incorporated a Filter Forge filter.
cool femme fatale
Thanks Ringo for supporting the challenge...
Pumpkin soup Phil... yummo
and diomede with witches on broomsticks...... the mother in law?
great works everyone
This is terrific Diomede, turned out very very well :)
So I lost my Dark Queen scene yet again. I got greedy and added 2 more slavegirls on the steps and re-posed the Queen so she was lounging on the throne with one leg propped up on the arm of the throne. It looked pretty good in the preview screen, but Carrara crashed when I tried to render (sigh). Ah well, I'm not rebuilding that scene again, lol, and the render I made in the previous iteration is decent enough so I'll use that as my final. I realized I hadn't posted any screenshots of the setup of the scene, so I simply put together quickly nothing but the room and the lighting setup up, which is dead simple, so I could screenshot at least that. First render shows the prop as it comes, the 2nd render I duplicated the room and flipped it 180 degrees and pulled it back so I could make the room an enclosed space so that GI would bounce light correctly, and the third of these pics I simply made nearly the whole room unchecked for 'show Object in 3d View' (a super useful feature of Carrara I don't use nearly enough) so that I could show the 2 spotlights lighting the scene. One last aside is that I had Global Illumination cranked up to 1000% for the render.
Oh and the lighting setup for the beach volleyball girls scene, need to include that too:
Thank you Jon. Sorry you had so much trouble. Under the circumstances, that was above and beyond the call.
Hope you figure out the issue!
oh oh, havnt been here for yonks what a bunch of work, here's a quickie before work, will comebcak later for a gander at the thread properly!
Edit attached scene file :)
Nice, HW! I know you get busy, so please remember to enter some of your renders.
Here are a couple from the past.
I know that Wendy can't join in this month, so since we need more hunks, here is one she did for (legendary) Challenge #27:
Wanted to see evilproducer enter something this month, but alas we'll have to settle for this from his Carrara rigged garden hose at sharecg: