Welcome To My Garden: Carrara Monthly Contest WINNERS ANNOUNCED!
Headwax
Posts: 10,004
Well, it's been a great month for our first ever Carrara Challenge "WELCOME TO MY GARDEN".
An enormous thanks to everyone who entered, or participated in this WIP thread.
An an equally enormous thanks to our kind and generous sponsors DAZ and DARTENBACK.
And now it's time for voting! Please feel free to vote in this thread for whom who you think rendered the best image in Carrara.
Just a recap of the challenge criteria and prizes to help you in your choice:
AIM: to produce a great Still Render of a garden made of plants either modelled in Carrara (mesh room, metaball room, spline room, hair room ), or produced in Carrara’s plant room.
RULES: - plants and rendering must be made in Carrara. If you use any premade objects etc for the non plant based parts of the scene please say what they were.“WINNER:” : as judged by open voting there will be First, Second and Third Place. An Honourable Mention will be chosen by Dartanbeck - one of our sponsors.
PRIZES: As well as a $50 coupon (good on DAZ3D items only) the overall winner will win the Carrara EnviroKit - Woodlands kindly donated by Dartanbeck! Thank you so much !2nd Place will win a $30 coupon (good on DAZ3D items only )
3rd Place wins a $15 coupon (good on DAZ3D items only)
In addition the Honorable Mention will receive a $5 coupon code (good on DAZ3D items only)
As far as voting:
1) Open voting - anyone can vote.
2) Voting lasts for 7 days - this gives everyone a chance to vote.
3) You can vote for up to two IMAGES. Each vote is one point.
4) Please specify the artist,image title (if available) and/or Number.
5) Feel free to vote for a honourable mention (that will help Dart choose the honourable mention)
6) You can vote for the same artist twice.
7) Voting will be fluid so you can change your vote at any time up until closure .
8) If an artist wins two prizes the lesser of the two prizes will go on to the next most popular image - and so on.
VOTING CLOSES 24TH JUNE, 12 MIDNIGHT, DAZ UTAH TIME
I'll try and update the votes on a regular basis.
And don't forget, the winner gets to host the next monthly challenge :)
Links: DARTENBACK'S Carrara EnviroKit - Woodlands thread here: http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/16465/
DAZ TIME: http://www.worldtimeserver.com/current_time_in_US-UT.aspx
Original WIP thread : http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/22245/
Winners Announced: http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/23635/P60/
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Comments
Entry no. 01
Wow, I'm the first.
Quite simple picture.
The roots for this tree was made as I described in the wip tread, but then I converted it into a vertex model.
I could then adjust it and remodel it so it would fit on the rock.
I then converted the tree into a vertex model, and joined the root and tree into one model, and did some reshaping of the trunk and root.
Entry No. 2
Title: Ripe for the Picking
Description. Everything was modeled in Carrara. The foreground Tree is a vertex model, duplicated, with the second version rotated on the Z axis. I used a surface replicator to attach branches to the tree, and other surface replicators to attach the leaves and the fruit. The leaves are vertex models with a stem. The leaf, bark, and fruit textures are gradients. The grass and dandelions are vertex models. The grass and yellow dandelions are textured with color gradients. The dandelion seeds are spheres with spots applied to the alpha channel. The background trees are from the Carrara plant applied to a terrain with the surface replicator. The trees on the far mountain on the upper right were made by duplicating a mountain terrain, applying a noise filter, and coloring the spiky duplicate green. The harvester is an original figure modeled, rigged, and textured in Carrara.
Entry n° 3 (although I'm quite certain I won't have the time for the second one) :-)
Title: Breakfast time
Everything modelled, shaded and rendered in Carrara.
The only non original feature is the lighting taken from Tim Payne's Carrara skies lightdomes R21 rig (no GI).
The only postwork is motion blur on the bee wings (as it's not a plant, I suppose it's OK) and resizing. I can post the original image if needed.
I'm aware I'm on the verge of the contest subject. I reckon that a scenery was more expected, something like a miniature of Howie Farkes products. But that's just the problem. I don't think my work can compare with those products, so I decided to take another way :-).
I've had a lot of pleasure preparing this still. As I usually render in Octane, I've spent a long time being re-acquitted with Carrara shaders. I surprised myself with the result and I might reconsider the systematic use of Octane. Render time were also a surprise (5 minutes for a 800x600 render on my -2 years old, not powerfull- laptop), which was fortunate considering the learning curve for shading.
All in all, I enjoyed the experience and I'm looking forward the next challenge.
edited to change the entry number :-)
2nd edit: several friends of mine agreed to say that the image would benefit to a change to a 4/3 ratio and a little zooming. Although I usually listen to my friends, I don't know if I'm allowed to change the submission once done and I therefore left the first one. So, while judging, please consider the image you want as they are basically the same :-)
Entry Number 4
Title: Corn Field
Modeled corn stalk and ears of corn in the vertex modeler and textured with gradients. I used hair to model the strands that come off the top of an ear of corn. I used groups of sphere primitives to assemble the tassels at the top of the corn stalks. The grass is also grouped and replicated vertex models. This is my second entry.
Thanks to Head Wax for being the energy behind this contest. I definitely learned a lot about using plants in Carrara, and quite a few other possibilities.
Entry No. 5
This image is called 'Koi's Pond'.
It was created in Carrara using the vertex modeler, the plant modeler, dynamic hair and various shaders. All the flowers, lily pads, grass and tree roots were created using Carrara's vertex modeler. The bushes surrounding the pond and the tree in the background were created in with the plant modeler. The shaders for all the flowers were created using Inagoni's Veloute. The fairy figure is V4 and various morphs using a skin texture created by Arki included in a bundle called OrchidFaes sold at RDNA. The pond set is also from RDNA and is called Mystic Ruins (I think). The hair for the fairy was created using Carrara's dynamic hair. The ripples in the water are obj. models created by Spacebones.
This image has been postworked using Paintshop Pro X4, NIK filters and Ron's Water Wings.
Here's my entry
Credits - My Scene utilises part of Evil Producers terrific "Fantasy Terraine" which he generously made available for free. The textured terraine, waterfall and river are his The Bridge is from the Ponte Magliore scene set.
Everything else made by me in Carrara 8.5 204 and no post work.
Plants and trees made with the "Tree editor" . Waterlilies rocks and rushes made in the model room. Most textures are standard Carrara shaders except leaves on trees are mine. All lighting also by me being a mixture of distant, spot and bulb lights. Sky is a photo backdrop ( taken from my garden)
Creating this has been very rewarding for me as i experimented with things never tried before so i've learnt from it. Mainly it takes a hell of a long time !!! Good luck to evrybody with their entries.
Entry #7: "Zen Garden"
Details
My attempt at creating a serene, balanced, and aesthetically natural landscape, blending a variety of colorful plants to capture the essential components of a Zen garden.
Plants created:
• Ground cover (left side), bonsai tree, cherry blossom trees, weeping willows, background trees (4 types), and various flowering bushes were created using the plant modeler.
• Edge grass, water grass, cattails, tall water grass, lily pads and lily flowers, and ivy (on bridge) were created using the vertex modeler.
• Foreground and background grass textures were created using terrain shaders.
Objects created:
• Landscape is a combination of 4 terrains (left, right, background, and island) using the terrain modeler and terrain shader. There are no grass objects replicated on the terrains.
• Pagoda (with Zen bell), both bridges, Japanese lantern, koi, rock garden, gravel road, stepping stones, deck (on right) were created using the vertex modeler.
Objects imported:
• Buddha statue in background - downloaded from a free 3D model website and modified.
• "Moon Gate" - by Jack Tomalin, from Daz3D Product website.
• Rocks along the edge of the water were downloaded from a free 3D model website.
Entry number 8
Mossy Pool.
I used the Burr Oak preset as the base for my Weeping Willow. I used Carrara's Willow tree shader for the leaves, but the branches and trunk are my concoction using a combination of image maps and procedural functions.
The rushes and cattails were built in the Spline Modeler. The cattails were converted to vertex models so that I could have more control over the shading domains. The velvet on the seed pods of the cattails is Carrara's hair. The leaf shaders are 100% procedural.
The moss clumps are metaballs with Carrara hair. I used spline objects for the reproductiove bits and they are distributed with a surface replicator.
The stones are metaball objects with procedural shaders.
(Insert shameless plug): All the items I used in this render excluding the terrain, but including the light rig can be found in my free Fantasy Village Terrain. Hopefully that won't disqualify my entry.
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/7370483/Fantasy-terrain1.7.zip
I've haven't had much time recently to do anything for these threads, so my apologies for that.
Here's something I worked on over the last few days.
The leaves, flowers, Sticks and stones, and a simple flower, were modelled in the Vertex modeller.
everything else is a Plant,. and Surface Replicators.
The ground is a vertex "grid", shaped using the magnet tool in the VM. and shading domains for the path, sides, and land.
The Surface replicators use those shading domains for distribution rather than a map.
Oops! Wrong thread. Deleted.
Entry no. 10
Here's my second entry. After all I started to make, as we were supposed to do, a garden. My initial plan was to create something a confused client would demand from a despairing garden architect.
A mix between something from a British and French regal garden, with a touch of Japanese Zen, the beauty of the wilderness, and most important, much prettier than those ghastly Larrson's down the road....
But I ran out of time.
Everything is created in Carrara.
Assembled and rendered in a hurry, while I was supposed to be in bed.
entry 11 not what I intended
(my file save corrupted so doing high quality stills from the animation, I started just for fun before there were prizes I will upload later not possible in a hurry)
but just so I have something
Hedge Maze plant made in Carrara
Entry 12 hope not too late
2 Genesis and House added, everything else Carrara
You should be good. DAZ time would be Mountain time for the timezone if I they're in the area of Utah I think they are.
ENTRY 13
Another late entry -- I made dozens of images that I thought not good enough - but what the heck here's my second entry I'll call "Autumn"
No postwork, all Carrara plant editor and terraine my textures.,
Entry Number 14
A Magic Forest.
Welcome to my garden.
I always liked how plants look with a glass shader. In case you missed it hiding behind the tree, I used The Daz Cow to make the render an obvious contender for Best Render In The Universe, Ever!
The odd double branches were made by a simple copy, paste, and offest - I liked the effect. Throw in a few more, and the technique could be quite abstract.
Since we're allowed two entries...
Entry Number 15
Heart Of The Magic Forest
Just 1 Carrara plant. Not even any leaves.
Oh yeah - and a replicator too.
I wanted to put The Cow in there, but she was hiding in the other render. I couldn't find her...
ENTRY Number 16: "My Grandfather's Elephant Topiary"]
or
"One False Move and the Rabbit Gets It"
Everything in this is made in Carrara except the fence -which is content.
The two outside trees are made in Carrara plant modeller.
The elephant and rabbit were simple mesh objects that had a surface replicator to apply the leaves.
The "stalks" in the topiary were Carrara plant modeller.
The rock on the left is made with the Organic command in the mesh room - thanks to 3dage for the mini tut.
The grass and flowers are mesh objects replicated.]
The ground is textured with a texture I made from rendering a pic of the grass vertex meshes replicated on a plane. The bump map is a Normal Map made at the same time.
The original germ for this work comes from the childrens book Grandfather Green by Lane Smith
Thanks to everyone who has made this challenge a success :) Wonderful to see such good entries and that people have enjoyed exploring Carrara :)
Entry17
Here is my entry.
Moongate object and Vic4 with some misty terrain in backround.
Adjusted the contrast in twisted brush.
Entry 18: "The Garden of Face Trees"
Firstly thanks to Varsel and Dart and Books by David for the roots ideas.
And 3dage again for the mini tut on the Organic function in the mesh room - that's what made the boulder.
The idea of this image was to make one of those scary faces in trees like in babes in toyland etc.
I am influenced by the Illustrator Arthur Rackham (1867 -1939).
So I started off with a Carrara Tree plant, then turned it into a vertex object.
As you know, turning a Carrara plant into a vertex object just leaves you with the trunk and some stubby thick ended branches
Never mind,... so I modelled my face in the trunk anyway.
Then I duplicated this and shrank it down.
After adding some leaves to this duplicate I had a small branch back again.
I replicated this new branch in the branch material of my Carrara Vertex plant.
But that still left me with stubby thick ends of the branches left after turning the Carrara Plant into a vertex object - which looked crappy.
So I took my Carrara tree into the model room and made a new material on the polys at the stubby branch endings.
I replicated more copies of my small branch and leaves and used this new material to select where they should go, That fixed the problem.
Some of the trees have a wave modifier to get that twisted look.
The boulders have a distribution map painted on them to guide where the 'ivy leaves are".
The other thing I learnt was to render out a shadow layer and blur that a little in post - and that gives you soft shadows without the render time hit.
Everything made in Carrara.
Good luck to everyone once more :)
PS thanks for changing your number ggsev!
Well, it's been a great month for our first ever Carrara Challenge "WELCOME TO MY GARDEN".
An enormous thanks to everyone who entered, or participated in this WIP thread.
An an equally enormous thanks to our kind and generous sponsors DAZ and DARTANBECK.
And now it's time for voting! Please feel free to vote in this thrad on who you think rendered the best image in Carrara.
Just a recap of the challenge criteria and prizes to help you in your choice:
As far as voting:
1) Open voting - anyone can vote.
2) Voting lasts for 7 days - this gives everyone a chance to vote.
3) You can vote for up to two IMAGES. Each vote is one point.
4) Please specify the artist,image title (if available) and/or Number.
5) Feel free to vote for a honourable mention (that will help Dart choose the honourable mention)
6) You can vote for the same artist twice.
7) Voting will be fluid so you can change your vote at any time up until closure .
8) If an artist wins two prizes the lesser of the two prizes will go on to the next most popular image - and so on.
VOTING CLOSES 24TH JUNE, 12 MIDNIGHT, DAZ UTAH TIME
I'll try and update the votes on a regular basis.
And don't forget, the winner gets to host the next monthly challenge :)
Links: DARTENBACK'S Carrara EnviroKit - Woodlands thread here: http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/16465/
DAZ TIME: http://www.worldtimeserver.com/current_time_in_US-UT.aspx
"VOTING CLOSES 24TH JULY, 12 MIDNIGHT, DAZ UTAH TIME"
I think you mean 24th June
Yes, thank you. :) I had a hard day yesterday.....
How does one cast said vote? By posting a reply with said info into it?
People can also suggest who they think should have the Honourable Mention - to help you in your task :) (smiley)
Also it would be great if people said why they are voting for a particular image and mentioned what other images came close .
Alternatively people can pm me a vote if they would like to stay anon.
I already have one person voting by PM - I haven't had a chance to reply, ....
be back soon :)
Well what a hard job, ....
After looking at all the images I am two minds or maybe three on who to vote for,
The most intriguing image is Socrates' "Heart of The Magic Forest",
I love Varsel's roots in the first image he posted, and the very precise garden in his second image.
Philemo's work with the Irises was as beautiful as Evil's hairy moss - what a great use for metaballs, who would have thought? I think Evil was the only person to use metaballs as vegetation?
I liked how Diomede64 used the vertex modeller and surface replicator to make a tree that I thought could have only come fvrom the plant modeller!
Both of 0osevens' entries portrayed a wonderful sense of serenity. And of course Wendy's idiosyncharitc sense of humour showed through in her Wips as much as her finished product - the Monsteria she donated is a gem. And thank you to gssev for their last minute entry,
So I was umming and ahhing about 3dage's excellent forest scene, Books by David's Koi’s Pond’ with the scary fairy, and the Zen Garden by Fractal Dimension.
In the end I decided to vote for Fd's scene because it achieved his/her aims by :" at creating a serene, balanced, and aesthetically natural landscape, blending a variety of colorful plants to capture the essential components of a Zen garden".
I also decided to vote for BooksbyDavid's entry because for me it came close to capturing the feel of real plants in a real corner of a real garden. I also liked the dynamic assymetry of the image and how evereything is so carefully placed to give a sense of accidental randomness :)
so my votes are to
Entry No. 5: ‘Koi’s Pond’. Artist: Booksby David
and
Entry #7: “Zen Garden” Artist FractalDimensia
my suggestion for Honourable Mention is Philemo Entry n° 3 Title: Breakfast time
Good luck everyone, it's been a lot of fun!
Here are my votes, I liked all the entries.
vote 1 = Entry 5, kois pond by booksbydavid.
vote 2 = Entry Number 16: “My Grandfather’s Elephant Topiary” by
head wax
honourable mention for Entry 3: Breakfast time by Philemo.
Great comp, look forward to next one, I'll not leave it to the last day!
Cheers
Gssev
Here are my votes
1 - entry #7, Zen Garden by FractalDimension
2 - entry #14, A Magic Forest by Sockratease
Honorable mention - entry #16, My Grandfather's Elephant Topiary by Head Wax
It was tough to make the picks because all of the entries were so creative. I would never have thought of so many of the techniques used. In the end, I picked one that I thought really captured the potential color and vibrancy of a garden, and one that really challenged my concept of a garden. And then, in part as a rejection of my own notion of vibrant color as essential to a garden, I thought the topiary deserved honorable mention.
Edited to get it down to two votes.
When participating in art contests I'm a stickler for following rules. Especially when it comes to the theme.
The theme of this contest was to "produce a great render of a garden".
Using the preferred definition of "garden" from a variety of sources, I eliminated the entries that I felt did not depict an actual garden. (No matter how excellent they were.)
In my opinion the two top entries were (in no particular order):
Entry #5 - Koi’s Pond - booksbydavid
Entry #16 - My Grandfather’s Elephant Topiary - head wax