Man, I Love Carrara!!! I Love Daz3d!!!

DartanbeckDartanbeck Posts: 21,543
edited April 2013 in Carrara Discussion

I really love to see ads like this: So You Want to Do 3D Animation?
I'm rendering an animation right now. Finally. I've had my poor Carrara busier than busy can be making wonderful presets to help people get a really good start in several types of woodland style environments. After getting a huge amount of quality testing and promo shots done, It was time to pull out Predatron's MU14 Link Sci Fi environment, put some cool things in motion with my favorite Heroine walking through...

Man!!! Watching that render engine crunch through all of those frames like butter. Delightfully awesome animations at a speed that I'm so impressed with. I'm really glad that Daz3d says that kind of sweet talkin' about, what I feel is the finest 3d CGI Animation suite on this planet!

Other modeler can do this... other posers can do that... oh and look at what this enviro creator can do... Well Nothing - and I mean Nothing can do what Carrara can do. I like to use content. Sure...I am an artist. I am. Always have been. But the incredible products sold here at Daz3d are made by some of the finest CG artists in the business. Why deny myself the pleasure of putting that kind of jazz into my animations? Being able to load this content, rather than having to make it all by myself frees up enough of my time to actually dig in and have the fun with what I really want to do!

The world is going to see this... they are going to see what Carrara can achieve and our Flagship Animation suite will become recognized as some of the top dog finest production software that exists!

Not to be misunderstood... I don't want anyone thinking that I have anything bad to say about any of the other choices out there. They all have their place, and for some - there might even be a better option. If all you want to do is sculpt fine details into micro-displaced perfection, Carrara might not be your first choice. If rigging and creating special high-tech mesh enhancements is what you're after... you may find that there are other offering that specialize in what you want to achieve. If you just want to load and pose, you may think that Carrara might have too much to offer. But if you want to be able to do all of that stuff under one hood? Where else can you go?

I truly hope that Daz3d knows how special they really are to be able to offer such a unique experience to an artist in my position. Because currently in today's market there is no other software package that can do for me what Carrara can... and that's no exaggeration. When I see an add like that... I get the good feeling that Daz3d is proud. That that do know what they have here. I've heard the passion in the voices of some of the developers at Daz and some of those who work with those genius minds who actually have the capability to work on such an elaborate piece of code.

Thank you for this Daz3d. Without what you've helped my acquire and achieve over the past few years... Without Daz3d... I might not have even been doing any of this amazing stuff at all. And that would be a real shame. So... from the bottom of my heart, Thank you Daz!

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Comments

  • DartanbeckDartanbeck Posts: 21,543
    edited December 1969

    Awesome.
    I was just watching the cool movies over again that they have advertised in the above, linked promo. Intrigued by the shiny new Carrara 8.5 box cover, I clicked on it and was taken to the Carrara 8 Pro sales page. I enjoyed Dimension Theories instrumental of "Dust in the Wind" by Kansas, while watching him play with the physics engine the way he does. So cool - and yet a feature I've yet to even begin to enjoy. My journey in Carrara has been an entirely different path. Indeed they would need a lot more promotion than what they give it, in order to even begin to give justice to what is possible.

    I decided to flip through the images in the sales page. Physics - Hard Body... cool. Physics Soft Body... cool. Puppeteer... cool. Wait... okay... the plant editor. I love that thing. I've been literally tied to it lately. But this is new. This is a whole new improvement I've yet to see. Is this available in the beta? Well since you simply cannot rely on using beta to build something as robust as Environ Kit: Woodlands, I've built it entirely using the latest official software release. This is a spline curve allowing for what I believe to be the shape and growth habits of the plant. Hmnpf! I want that!

    You see... crazy thing about the plant editor that I'm going to have to show you all. This thing doesn't just make trees. You can make vines that creep horizontally. Go in and design the whole plant from the ground up... or across. I've failed an experiment using it to make a magical effect - but the experiment was not a total loss. I still think that it could be done. Likewise, I think that, with enough tweaking, patience, and a great shader... you might be able to use it to make lightning. It's a whole exploratory mission all in its own. And I can't think of anyone else who has one so nice. Not to say one doesn't exist.

    I've set my entire scene in motion to create the bonus lightning storm backdrop for Woodlands. It's really neat. I really love how Carrara has these animation settings on everything. Insert a fire primitive and it just begs you to put it in motion and experiment with all of the various ways you can change it. I was once told that the Carrara fire is no good. This was just after I ran an incredibly successful test - proving the statement entirely incorrect. As long as I've owned Carrara people have been saying how much the vertex modeler is lacking. Yet it's my favorite vertex modeler I've ever built in. I just realized today that I am constantly in the vertex modeler making something or another... and it's become so natural I don't even realize that I'm doing it, half the time. It just works. 3dage just pointed out recently some really neat features it has. He even made a really impressive rock formation bridge to demonstrate what he was talking about. And I mean that this model that he made was cool. Another fellow, whose video I linked to in the Information manual thread, points out how to use the vertex modelers built in replicator. What? Another one? It's true... and it's really neat. It also contains a whole slew of modifiers and functions that I've never really found a need to explore. But I'm going to now! My next project puts me full time within that vertex modeler - and I'm absolutely thrilled at the proposition!

    But Carrara also has a very nice Spline modeler too, and the most bizarre of things - the metaball modeler!

  • bighbigh Posts: 8,147
    edited December 1969

    When we can do this again in Carrara then you can hoot all you want -


    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Typ7eP8SsVU

  • 3dView3dView Posts: 0
    edited December 1969

    Bigh, lets just wrap Carrara around the CryEngine and call it a day. Smiles. ----But sure enough nice Cloth simulation is an item that would make everyone hoot.

    rich

  • ManStanManStan Posts: 0
    edited December 1969

    I've come to the conclusion DAZ just doesn't want us to have dynamic clothing in carrara. We had transposer, it worked great. And despite excuses, there really was no reason for DAZ to AX transposer. IT WORKED.

    Then for a breif period of time you could take dynamic clothing animations from studio to carrara and have them work great. Then DAZ broke that and is making no effort to fix it.

    The way it looks carrara will be the last CG app to get dynamic clothing, if ever. Poser has had it for years. Most other CG apps have had it for quite some time, even studio has had dynamic clothing for a while. So here we are with a supposed flagship CG app that doesn't have the capabilities that Poser has had for what 10 years?

    Yes this is a very sore subject for me.

  • 3drendero3drendero Posts: 2,024
    edited December 1969

    Maybe not perfect, but it looks like it works a little at least:
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8J330vCj1io

  • ManStanManStan Posts: 0
    edited December 1969

    3drendero said:
    Maybe not perfect, but it looks like it works a little at least:
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8J330vCj1io

    Has anyone besides Phil been able to manage that? I know I spent a week trying and gave up. In C8.5 I can drape clothes nicely, but that is it.

  • 3drendero3drendero Posts: 2,024
    edited December 1969

    Here is another way, requires Poser though.
    http://carraracafe.com/import-poser-dynamic-cloth-into-carrara/

    Poser 9 is $35 at http://www.purplus.net/poser9.html with coupon.
    Poser is $25 at www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002KMQ8WU

    Otherwise, here at Phil's goldes rules and tips:
    http://forumarchive.daz3d.com/viewtopic.php?t=164968&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0

    Here is the explanation from Daz_Spooky:
    DAZ_Spooky
    DAZ QA Team: Technical Lead
    Joined: 17 Oct 2007
    Posts: 2739

    PostPosted:Tue May 25, 2010 7:20 pm Report Post to ModeratorsReply with quoteBack to top
    There are some limits in the Bullet Engine we have run into. Bullet starts to have issues between 150k and 200k triangles. Bullet is also trying very hard to retain the shape of the object you are trying to turn into cloth.

    Now a Mil figure is around 140k triangles all by itself. Smile Then there is the simple truth that it isn't the physics that is difficult, it is the settings that are difficult.

    We are pushing past those limits, but as it was announced, when adding the engine was announced, that part of the engine may not get finished before Carrara 9. (Though we want it done before that point.)
    http://forumarchive.daz3d.com/viewtopic.php?p=2361588

    And finally here are Phil's lores proxy figures and test clothes:
    http://www.sharecg.com/v/51666/browse/5/3D-Model/Lo-Res-V4-Proxy-Figure
    http://www.sharecg.com/v/50445/browse/5/3D-Model/Carrara-Dynamic-Cloth-Dress

    Good luck!

  • ManStanManStan Posts: 0
    edited December 1969

    I have never managed to get that dynamic cloth plugin/script to work. Gave up, apparently it is too complex an operation for me to do.
    I just don't get why every time we find a simple easy way to get dynamic clothing in to carrara DAZ screws it up. Even when using their own apps to do it.

    As you can tell this is a very touchy subject for me. Seems every time I find a way to do it, and start getting good at it, DAZ screws it up.

  • evilproducerevilproducer Posts: 9,050
    edited December 1969

    ManStan said:
    I have never managed to get that dynamic cloth plugin/script to work. Gave up, apparently it is too complex an operation for me to do.
    I just don't get why every time we find a simple easy way to get dynamic clothing in to carrara DAZ screws it up. Even when using their own apps to do it.

    As you can tell this is a very touchy subject for me. Seems every time I find a way to do it, and start getting good at it, DAZ screws it up.


    Then wait to find out what the issues are before downloading a new version release and rushing to install it, also, keep the older version installers in case you need to revert a version. If you had a good work-flow for D/S 3 (or whatever it was) and Carrara 8.1, why screw with it? Want to see what all the hoopla is about? Do a separate install or back up the previous version so that you can revert if need be.


    I agree that it would be nice if everything worked as it should, and that new versions wouldn't bork features you've come to rely on. I got news: It isn't just DAZ that does this. I had a version of Final Cut Pro that was borked by Apple when they did an OS update. I read about issues people were having, did my research and waited until a patch was released. It took a few weeks, but guess what? I didn't have any of the issues that a lot of users had, and I remained productive throughout.

  • DartanbeckDartanbeck Posts: 21,543
    edited April 2013

    Oh my.
    Someone shows a clip of the results of a dedicated dynamic cloth group made for an engine that can utilize hundreds of lightning fast cores, and suddenly the most wonderful CGI animation creation software for the private user is somehow diminished in quality? Not a chance. No need to get riled or ugly about this.

    ManStan, himself has already proven the softbody dynamics of 8.5 beta to be getting really, Really close. I've seen his results. Transposer might have been the perfect solution for One thing... but it needed to go away... and it did. Who knows. It might even still work if you grab a copy of the SDK and mess around, some. So what?

    This isn't about what Carrara cannot do... I could walk all over that dynamic cloth Game engine plugin with things that Carrara can do that it simply cannot even have a dream about! lol No comparison - except for the fact that I already know that we ARE getting dynamic cloth for Carrara. It just isn't there yet. But to say that the introduction of Carrara 8 Pro did not prepare Carrara for the ability to accept further reception of more demanding features as it grows... why that would be one o' them thar, what they call an incorrect statement!

    Awesome.
    In this world, it is not the people who give up that rise above. If you really want your clothes to move, make them move. Nobody is stopping you but yourself. "But those guy's do it for you", true... perhaps. Perhaps not. Go and ask them to do it for you and be done with it then. Or you could do as Cripeman would do... find another way. That's the beauty of owning a copy of Carrara - there's always another way. I used to be pretty good at the cloth room in Poser. Done a lot of work with it. It actually isn't a bad solution if you really want to get dynamic clothing.
    My characters simply opted to wear a lot less clothing! :) And the stuff they do wear is pretty snug stuff. Motion morphs are a great way to get motion into clothing to a degree. Nothing beats a great dynamics engine when it comes to realistic draping, however. For a measly, what is it... $99 for PD Pro Howler (Professional, animation suite version of Project Dogwaffle)? Something like that. They might as well give it away... that is very inexpensive for what it can 'help' you do to your animation endeavors. You'll never really find a tool that does everything for you, short of buying the work of somebody else. Then they truly are doing it for you.Movies, games... there you go.

    PD Pro Howler now has GPU enhanced support. It's Rotoscoping tools would absolutely help you to get a true feel into your clothing, if you can't seem to get the morphs just right.

    Man, this is too bad. All while this was going on I wrote up this really cool article about making terrains in Carrara. Pointed out the cool Tectonic Evolved Series from Orestes Graphics: Vol. 1, Vol. 2, & Vol. 3, Vista in the Clouds, by 3D Celebrity, and the great stores of mmoir (Mike Moir) and Howie Farkes... and just the whole Environments Category for Carrara at Daz3d. I go to hit "Submit" and the dog gone forum broke again...

    Too hungry to write it over but I will say this. Just because you may lack the vision to achieve what you set before yourself to achieve, don't blame your tools or the people who made them for you.

    (force glow on MS_Lycan created through a special shader setup and the Aura FX feature in Carrara)

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  • DartanbeckDartanbeck Posts: 21,543
    edited December 1969

    George Lucas filmed model star ships sliding on a string, and we're actually talking about Carrara's misgivings in the Dynamics department? Sheeesh!
    What about all of the cool stuff it Does do. Why not have fun with that?
    If Carrara was advetised as this amazing Dynamic Clothing machine... yeah, I'd be bummed out that it isn't in there. But I bought Carrara for what it IS advertised to be, and I love it!

  • DartanbeckDartanbeck Posts: 21,543
    edited December 1969

    Uh..Oh... That last spell she cast drained her... I better get us outta here!

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  • tsaristtsarist Posts: 1,614
    edited December 1969

    Then wait to find out what the issues are before downloading a new version release and rushing to install it, also, keep the older version installers in case you need to revert a version. If you had a good work-flow for D/S 3 (or whatever it was) and Carrara 8.1, why screw with it? Want to see what all the hoopla is about? Do a separate install or back up the previous version so that you can revert if need be.

    Yea. This is what I do too. I'm still running Carrara 7Pro and D|S 2.3. My workflow is working right and the software is doing what it should.
    When I get a new computer, I may install my C8Pro and D|S 4Pro.

    I learned the hard way not to upgrade when I don't have to.

    Since I'm not really planning on using Genesis (for the forseeable future, at least) I'm in no great hurry for C8.5 or C9.

  • DartanbeckDartanbeck Posts: 21,543
    edited December 1969

    Absolutely!
    I don't have Carrara 5 Pro, but I do have 6, and it's an excellent program. It took me a while to make the switch from D|S 2.3 as well, since I had this fear of losing my solid connection to Hexagon the way it worked so well. I finally got talked into moving forward with D|S and the new Hex... and shortly after came the huge Daz software giveaway! I jumped at that "Buy Now! button really fast, because I wasn't sure how long it would stay like that! lol

    Now I have D|S Pro, and Bryce 7 Pro!!! Always had Hexagon... but that's a newer version now, too.

  • evilproducerevilproducer Posts: 9,050
    edited December 1969

    George Lucas filmed model star ships sliding on a string, and we're actually talking about Carrara's misgivings in the Dynamics department? Sheeesh!
    What about all of the cool stuff it Does do. Why not have fun with that?
    If Carrara was advetised as this amazing Dynamic Clothing machine... yeah, I'd be bummed out that it isn't in there. But I bought Carrara for what it IS advertised to be, and I love it!


    George Lucas most definitely did not film models sliding on a string. :lol: He and his team at ILM developed computerized motion tracking for the cameras. The cameras would move around the stationary models which were placed against a blue screen. The film was then combined with other layers of film via an optical printer. I read that one of the asteroid field shots in Empire Strikes Back required two hundred "layers" of film.


    Still, your point is still valid. What he and his crew did F/X wise in 1977, can be bested by somebody with a little skill and a moderately powered home computer.

  • DartanbeckDartanbeck Posts: 21,543
    edited April 2013

    George Lucas most definitely did not film models sliding on a string. :lol:
    Well it shows them doing it in my special features VHS that I got when he redid the first three movies. They were explaining how much technology has changed and they show them sliding a Tie Fighter model down a string and blow it up with fire crackers! lol

    Edit to add:
    And it was really cool to watch!

    Post edited by Dartanbeck on
  • CarltonMartinCarltonMartin Posts: 147
    edited December 1969

    Just because you may lack the vision to achieve what you set before yourself to achieve, don't blame your tools or the people who made them for you.

    We're just not smart enough, or imaginative enough, or innovative enough for Carrara or DAZ—I'm just not a worthy consumer. Ah.

  • DartanbeckDartanbeck Posts: 21,543
    edited December 1969

    Funny twist, but I'll bite.
    How's this for an analogy:
    I'm chiseling away on my stone. The darned thing breaks where it really shouldn't have. I look at my hand crafted, blacksmith made chisel, which I keep well honed, and say to it, "Look at what you've done... I'm taking you back and complaining that you haven't been made right!". How do you think my chisel would feel?

    Also... it's a horrible problem with my own speaking tendencies - when I say something like that, with the word "you" in it, I'm not talking about you or the other guy... I'm usually referring to myself. Truly. Ask my wife and kids. I'm really quite hard on myself. But I'm rarely ever harsh to others. The last thing in the world I would ever want to do is to belittle someone or to hurt their feelings. My son calls it my flaw, and feels that people use this weakness to walk all over me.
    Tough. I'm not changing for some crazy excuse like that! :)

    Also, I would like to admit my infancy with computers and this sort of art. I do not ever wish to come across as if I feel in any way superior. I do realize that I have no claims to that throne - nor would I care to ever. I truly admire the works of d3an, EvilProducer, Koukotsu, bigh, ManStan(even though seeing his renders is fairly rare... when he puts them up... I always come back for seconds and thirds), and others around here. I learn by seeing what they do.

    However, I don't feel that Daz3d or Carrara should be criticized at all for what they never laid claim to, either. Same with the blacksmith who made my chisels.

    Just because you may lack the vision to achieve what you set before yourself to achieve, don't blame your tools or the people who made them for you.

    We're just not smart enough, or imaginative enough, or innovative enough for Carrara or DAZ—I'm just not a worthy consumer. Ah.Are you having a difficult time doing what you wanted to do when you bought Carrara? I would be happy to help.

  • wetcircuitwetcircuit Posts: 0
    edited December 1969

    yeah, gotta agree with Dart. If dynamic cloth is a deal breaker... how did we all get here?

  • WendyLuvsCatzWendyLuvsCatz Posts: 38,200
    edited December 1969

    checking out shroud http://www.cloak-works.com/
    looks easy enough http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=RtY6i6KNCL4
    I need to go to work and my animated FBX export (from Daz studio, not Carrara adds sheepishly) is taking too long
    I have Unity too lol, not that I use it
    will post more later

  • DartanbeckDartanbeck Posts: 21,543
    edited December 1969

    Unity looked really fun, when I saw it a year or so ago. Probably even more now. I used to build areas of the Forgotten Realms within the Neverwinter Nights Aurora engine - which is so addictive and fun. Neverwinter Nights 1 with all of the expansions gave you a very large arsenal of monsters and beings... but also landscapes and props that animate as you paint then down before you in the toolkit. They made it to be very fast, so that Dungeon Masters could manipulate on the fly during online (or LAN) game sessions. No lip sync, and very low poly. But when you look at everything for a distance that makes them look about the size of a D&D miniature, the animations, FX, and surroundings look really nice. Definitely the best way to play D&D with people from afar in my opinion. I made a bit of content for the game, but helped many people with their content, getting in finished, coded and into the game. There's even "Firefly" and Star Wars roleplay versions available. You can make it anything you want, especially with the CEP (Community Expansion Pack) and d20 Modern custom content.

  • DartanbeckDartanbeck Posts: 21,543
    edited April 2013

    Carrara is far better for me.
    With Carrara, I actually do reduce the content quality for many things where I don't need it. I try to stay away from zoom in on pores, so I create 2,000 x 2,000 or even smaller maps from the 4,000+ size that I buy in. I simply add a 'LR' folder within the texture map folder so I can keep the originals - just in case I change my mind - or need them for a pore closeup.

    Everybody has their own goals. Mine is to make animations. Coming from the Poser/D|S world into Carrara was different. It was exactly as I expected at first. Then I saw what others were doing in Carrara. I was perfectly content with the Millennium Environment and it's 306 degree capabilities for the longest time. I never thought that landscapes in Carrara, made in Carrara, could render so quickly. Like Wendy, I'll often apply a spherical map to a globe for the distant background. And now, most of those are filmed within Carrara.

    The terrain editor is an amazing resource. There are a lot of presets included, but so much more is possible, and Carrara invites you to make whatever you which for your particular needs. Simply go: Insert > Terrain. Whoa... where am I? Yeah... you've been teleported into the terrain modeler! If you want to be worried about anything, just be mindful when you tell the erosion filter how much effect to apply or you may end up trying to put smoke back into your chip. A chip's smoke is configured in such a tightly compressed array, that it is rather impossible to get back in, once you've let it out. Moral? Never let the smoke out of your chip!
    Okay.. so: even thought the erosion filter can lock up you computer with calculations if you accidentally (or purposefully) go too far, it is an excellent filter for adding details to your scapes. Let me back up now.

    Within the terrain editor you will be presented with a sheet of terrain material and you can tell Carrara how large or small you want the end result to be within this space. You may also set the fidelity of the mesh for both what you see as you work, and what gets rendered, separately - which is excellent. The area on the left is really cool. This is where you will begin your journey with a Mountain generator applied. Using that, you may change around some parameters to really change that terrain a lot - into all sorts of different shapes. The Mountain generator is only one of the available generators, and there are also a nice selection of filters available as well. Mix and match or replace. The choice is yours. To apply a new element to the existing, click the "Add" button and select anything you want. You may also just go in and select something different without Adding to simply replace what's currently there. The generators are what apply the large effects like mountains, plateaus, etc., and the filters apply topical results to whatever generator you have applied, if any. I've made some pretty big lists within some terrains. Adding a plateau generator to a mountain, and then adding a terrace filter and then erode it some...
    If you don't like the way the terrain sheet has no respect to it's own borders - the way it continues on, even where it ends, you may apply the "Zero Edge" filter, and you may also change its severity of affect with the included slider. Very handy sometimes.

    So you've been playing around in your new terrain and you really like the texture of the surface that you've created, but you really were hoping that you could figure out how to get a specific (anything) feature that has been evading you. This is where we want to apply the use of a height map. Upon doing so, you will lose all of your generators and filters that you've applied - and for good reason - otherwise all of those details could conceivably get multiplied across your terrain, not only making it unrecognizable, but also putting unnecessary tax on your system. So if you really like that surface texture or anything else about your creation, it's a good idea to "Export a Map" of your current result. This is actually what I do anyways, and then I go into Dogwaffle and paint in the feature(s) that I want to add. Any image editor will do, and Carrara even has one built in, that I've not yet tried using - right within the Terrain Modeler's interface, called the Map Editor, which is a gray scale painting utility. Beyond that, I cannot say without sampling its use first.
    Height maps are simple to create, and once you apply one to a terrain, the modeler gives you several strength options to further tweak you mapping results. And then, of course, you may go back to applying generators and filters should you so choose. Height maps follow this simple rule: White means High and Black means low. Shades of gray make up all heights in between from high (brighter) of low (darker). This is where those filters you have in your image editor will really come in handy. But you should also feel free to hand paint lakes and streams, roads and paths, whatever you want. I've recently added Genetica to my collect, and am looking forward to trying it out. Still too busy for that just now. But it is a special editor that has a particular focus of creating texture maps - with the ability to make tileable images a snap. Many image editors have that, but I've been told that Genetica really excels at it. I just have Basic, but Genetica also offers Pro and Studio versions, too, and are available here, at Daz3d. Anyways, I open my exported map into Dogwaffle and paint away, leaving the surface texture that I want to keep, while adding the new features that I wanted. If I want to keep all of the textures but just need an elevation or depression, I simply make a selection and darken or lighten the selected area, rinse and repeat.

    Okay, there are full tutorials about all of this stuff... and Phil Wilkes goes into great details about all things Carrara in the Infinite Skills Lessons, which I highly recommend to anyone who wants to learn all about Carrara. Phil Wilkes R O C K S ! ! ! :)
    So I bring in the map and apply it, tweak it with some terracing and erosion, etc., get the look just right. Now it comes to the Shaders. The terrain shaders supplied in Carrara are really fun. I start in the browser and just drag and drop shaders onto my terrain until I find one that I really like. Then I go Edit > Remove Masters > Remove unused Objects, and Consolidate filters. Two separate steps there, I do them both. Then I step into the texture room with my new shader that I have applied to my terrain. This shader contains several shaders, controlled by the master shader. Very cool. This yellow looking shader must be the mustard bloom effect that I see grazing the top highlights of my green fields... I wanna keep that, 'cause I like it (just repeating a normal though process I'd be going through as I inspect the various shaders)... Ahhh. Here's that green one I want to change with this grassy, tileable texture map I've made. Replace the color gradient in the color channel with my texture map, set the amount of tile, and then add my bump map version, or sometimes I'll use this same image, in the Bump channel, and apply the same amount of tiles. Render, rinse and repeat.

    Carrara also has an Ocean primitive, Fire, fog, different types of clouds... I really like the realistic sky editor too. Did you know that, with the realistic sky you can control your lighting and time of day - including the skies color - simply by rotating the Sun light? Yeah. And if you see a little white circular outline thingy come into view while you're doing that, that ghostly image represents where the sun will actuallt be seen in your render. This only occurs when the sun light is selected. Another way is to enter the realistic sky editor and simply drag the sun around in the little sky dome. In here you set up all of your atmospheric effects, clouds haze and fog, even sun beams.

    Well... that's another tiny aspect of Carrara that I truly enjoy.
    Later gators :coolhmm:

    Dartanbeck

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  • ManStanManStan Posts: 0
    edited December 1969

    At the time I was betaing studioX and the early genesis. DAZ did updates to both Studio and carrara. Regardless of what I did once transfer from studio to carrara was borked, I never could get it back. Yes I rolled back, uninstalled, cleared out, reinstalled older versions, did this, that, and the other thing. The issue is the clothes are baking to the model in Studio, but it doesn't cross over to carrara any more. The dynamic clothing from Studio just isn't coming in to carrara baked to the figure.

    The only conclusion I can come to is since I was one of the very few doing this, DAZ was disinclined to fix it because enough people weren't doing it to worry about the few that were.

    The thing is if DAZ hadn't dropped transposer, if DAZ had continued to update it to work with the latest version of carrara, we would still have poser dynamic cloths in carrara, Even if Poser 6 was the only version it worked with. Which is better, having an old tool that works or no tool at all?

  • bighbigh Posts: 8,147
    edited December 1969

    ManStan said:
    At the time I was betaing studioX and the early genesis. DAZ did updates to both Studio and carrara. Regardless of what I did once transfer from studio to carrara was borked, I never could get it back. Yes I rolled back, uninstalled, cleared out, reinstalled older versions, did this, that, and the other thing. The issue is the clothes are baking to the model in Studio, but it doesn't cross over to carrara any more. The dynamic clothing from Studio just isn't coming in to carrara baked to the figure.

    The only conclusion I can come to is since I was one of the very few doing this, DAZ was disinclined to fix it because enough people weren't doing it to worry about the few that were.

    The thing is if DAZ hadn't dropped transposer, if DAZ had continued to update it to work with the latest version of carrara, we would still have poser dynamic cloths in carrara, Even if Poser 6 was the only version it worked with. Which is better, having an old tool that works or no tool at all?

    I agree - we are the only ones that give a ........

  • WendyLuvsCatzWendyLuvsCatz Posts: 38,200
    edited December 1969

    and yet I can get both Optitex cloth on figures from Daz studio 4.5 AND Poser Dynamic cloth sims into Carrara just fine %-P

  • DartanbeckDartanbeck Posts: 21,543
    edited December 1969

    bigh said:
    ManStan said:
    At the time I was betaing studioX and the early genesis. DAZ did updates to both Studio and carrara. Regardless of what I did once transfer from studio to carrara was borked, I never could get it back. Yes I rolled back, uninstalled, cleared out, reinstalled older versions, did this, that, and the other thing. The issue is the clothes are baking to the model in Studio, but it doesn't cross over to carrara any more. The dynamic clothing from Studio just isn't coming in to carrara baked to the figure.

    The only conclusion I can come to is since I was one of the very few doing this, DAZ was disinclined to fix it because enough people weren't doing it to worry about the few that were.

    The thing is if DAZ hadn't dropped transposer, if DAZ had continued to update it to work with the latest version of carrara, we would still have poser dynamic cloths in carrara, Even if Poser 6 was the only version it worked with. Which is better, having an old tool that works or no tool at all?

    I agree - we are the only ones that give a ........
    Not true.
    But what does that have to do with this thread anyways?
    I love seeing Both of your creations. They're awesome. I'm sorry that something got borked, which upset your working order, truthfully - I really wish that never would have happened. I also wish I didn't drop that quarter ton piece of stone on my toe - I really do.
    All of us want dynamic clothing. As far as I can tell. It just doesn't bring my entire train of thought and conversational vocabulary to an entire and utter halt to anything but. Especially since you both know that Daz devs ARE working on the problem. Well at least Manley knows. Not sure if you're up on that or what. That really does stink when you invest in the ability to do something in particular, and that suddenly disappears. I feel for you in that. Sorry for making it seem such a small issue - just because I've chosen a temporary different way to play. They are trying to fix the Bullet engine to make this all better in the long run. Maybe they could do something with transposer... I have no clue. This issue will certainly get my vote - if that means anything.
  • DartanbeckDartanbeck Posts: 21,543
    edited December 1969

    Man! I'm rendering a bunch of animations to test out my latest Carrara-made dynamic hair - which is looking freaking perfect! I wanted to check out my friend's Carrara scene file, so I fired up 8.1 Pro (while still rendering in 8.5 Pro beta) and loaded the file, played around with it for a while just surprised at how cool this file is. I've seen renders, but when you're right there inside it... his layout and technique is really awesome. I'll certainly be picking up some good habits from this. Which is how I accidentally forgot that I was still rendering in 8.5 :blank:
    I never run two instance of Carrara. It just seems like something one shouldn't do.

    Well I played with the scene and added the stuff he suggested to add, test some terrain shaders that I made, had fun posing his Carrara Cube icon model that he included, which was the most fun! (Using an accent acquired from having to watch "Shag" several times a year with my wife :) ) And while I was in the middle of now rendering that scene, which was going to take a while with a new volumetric cloud, a couple of accent distant light, which was also affecting the cloud, which was set at slow accuracy, and global illumination with ambient occlusion. So I was just typing away in an e-mail... you know me... always excited... always over-dosing on glee... I guess the feeling of True Love constantly pounding at me from my best friend in the whole world, to whom I've been married for fifteen years, soon to be sixteen, just tweaks the mind, spirit and overall attitude of a person. Nonetheless... I don't think its curable. I'm stuck in a rush of jolly feelings. Anyways... so I'm typing away.
    I just go to check the progress of the render. See how much time Carrara is guessing that I have left. Both icons were highlighted in my taskbar? Really? I check 8.5 beta and it's nearly done with it's 120 frame render - the first test shot of dynamic hair - but I wanted to test it with a background, decent shadows and such. I guess I was expecting it to take much longer. I am not used to having two instances rendering - both asking for 100% of my eight cores. Is this what that hyper-threading does? I don't know. Still kinda shocked from the experience.

    If you've ever since the Bakshi/Frazetta fantasy animated cartoon movie, "Fire & Ice", I'm sort of using inspiration from that for my current costume designs. So... what costumes, right? Anyways... I have Rosie running in fear with her new dymanic hair flowing beautifully behind her and her teensy weensy bikini and shear loin cloth, being chased by, and loosing ground to, my Genesis Orcs I've made - like twenty-seven of them! These nasty, evil gigantic and immensely creatures have a slimy, moist, amphibian-like skin texture. But it's still an amazingly tough hide. This is part of their incredible natural armor. As if they need natural armor. They are as quick as they are strong. They are certainly not portrayed the way many story tellers have over the decades. That same four second clip, now with the addition of twenty-seven orcs is now taking fifty minutes. Man! I Love Carrara! And the render is looking Great!
    Which I'd have taken a still first.

  • DartanbeckDartanbeck Posts: 21,543
    edited April 2013

    Their the same Orcs as seen in the first and third images in this thread.

    Post edited by Dartanbeck on
  • DartanbeckDartanbeck Posts: 21,543
    edited December 1969

    Oh no.... No!!! They're gonna catch... oh Man! They caught her! I can't even help, because I know nothing of it. I'm off in some castle many leagues away. Oh Man!

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