Carrara Challenge 3: PARADISE LOST AND FOUND. Work In Progress (WIP) thread.
Antara
Posts: 444
We are going into the third round of the challenge and I would like to thank everyone who participated and showed interest in the previous ones. I hope these challenges keep getting bigger. This time around I have the honour of hosting the challenge and I'll be here to answer any questions you have about the challenge and the rules.
Challenge theme:
PARADISE LOST AND FOUND
I am leaving the interpretation wide open. It can be a subset "Paradise Lost" or "Paradise Found" or even "Paradise: Lost and Found [department]". And any other permutation you can think of. If in doubt whether your interpretation still fits the theme, please ask, but as a general rule, inventive or humorous interpretations of the theme are very welcome.
The aim is to have fun with the theme, while learning Carrara and showing off your artistic and Carrara skills.
PRIZES:
DAZ has been very generous in encouraging these Carrara Challenges and has offered to support us once a month!
DAZ is donating:
Ist Place: a $50 coupon
2nd Place will win a $30 coupon
3rd Place wins a $15 coupon
In addition the Honorable Mention will receive a $5 coupon code.
Please note that the coupons are for DAZ3D items.
Update:
I am happy to introduce our very generous PA sponsor for this month: Amazing long-time Carrara-supporting artist Age of Armour is kindly donating the following prizes:
The winners will get to choose items from Age of Armour store at DAZ
Ist Place: 3 items
2nd Place: 2 items
3rd Place: 1 item
Age of Armour products are always creative, well thought through and perfectly crafted with extreme attention to detail. And now, thanks to his kind support of our cause and challenge, we have such amazing prizes to offer!
Thank you Age of Armour!
DEADLINE: 11:59 PM UTAH Time on September 7th 2013 Please see rules for details.
RULES:
- All renders must be done in Carrara. *
- Artists can post up to 2 (two) entries.
- At least 1 (one) WIP image must be posted in this WIP thread. (Could be a pre-render screen grab of the
scene set-up.)
- Content use is allowed and welcome, but MUST be credited.
- Restriction: At least 3 (three) items in the scene must be created OR significantly modified in Carrara. **
- Postwork is allowed, but if you use postwork, the raw render(s) that went into your postworked image MUST be posted in this WIP thread.
- The final entry must be submitted with proper description into the "Challenge Entries" thread, which will be open a week before the contest closes. ***
- All entries must be submitted before 11:59 PM UTAH Time on September 7th 2013
- The voting will run from September 8th to the end of the day (Utah time) September 14th, and winners will be decided on September 15th. ****
- The images must be specially created for this challenge and previously unpublished.
* In the spirit of exploring Carrara's full potential, plug-in use IS allowed. Therefore using the LuxRenderer plug-in might result in the actual render being created by the LuxRenderer. However, in this case a WIP must be posted in the WIP thread, showing the scene set-up inside Carrara, and a description of how the LuxRendered was set up MUST be included.
** Examples of acceptable modifications for the 3 items requirement:
- Morphing a model beyond recognition or cutting parts of it and using them for something completely different.
- Covering something with fur or creating dynamic hair for it.
- Rigging and posing using that rig
- Altering or creating UV-maps. Or creating special shaders or textures.
- Using 3D-paint feature to texture the object or create shaders, shader masks, distribution maps, etc.
- Creating unique variations of things like plants, oceans, particle generators, terrains, clouds etc.
- Inventive use of replicators. (I.e. just replicating an object doesn’t count, but creating new shapes using replicated objects does, or using distribution maps or nested replicators to create environments or interesting concepts would also count.)
- and of course anything that’s modelled in Carrara automatically qualifies.
If you are not sure whether your modification qualifies, please ask in this thread.
The purpose of this "significant modification" clause is to encourage people who are new to Carrara and who heavily rely on content use to explore Carrara's other features and find new Carrara-provided ways of working with the content.
*** If you think you will be busy or might not be available to post your final entry once the final Entry thread is open, feel free to post your final image in the WIP thread, indicating that it IS your final entry and providing all the necessary information:
- Title,
- 3 original or modified items with notes on creation/modification process,
- Content credits and
- General process description
Then, when the entry thread is open, I will post your image there and give it an entry number.
**** Voting:
I am going to allow anonymous votes, but I am going to exclude my own images from being eligible to acquire anonymous votes. If we can find an objective non-participating volunteer to collect them, it would be even better.
This is a community where people have developed friendships and I think having an anonymity option might actually encourage fairness: people would be able to vote based on objective preference and not be afraid to offend their friends by voting for others.
I would also like to invite a greater general public into the voting process to show off Carrara to a greater audience. Therefore, once the voting opens, I will post in The Commons and on other forums whenever allowed.
UPDATE: The FINAL ENTRIES THREAD is finally here: http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/28208/
LINKS of INTEREST
Current Sponsor Age of Armour's store: http://www.daz3d.com/age-of-armour
Previous Sponsor DimensionTheory’s store: http://www.daz3d.com/dimensiontheory
Previous Sponsor Dartanbeck’s store: http://www.daz3d.com/catalogsearch/result/?q=dartanbeck&x=0&y=0
DAZ Time UTAH: http://www.worldtimeserver.com/current_time_in_US-UT.aspx
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Comments
I'm in! :coolsmile:
Antara,
Congratulations on a well deserved win, and thanks for leading this month's challenge. Some intriguing new rules. I like requiring a Carrara WIP if the final image has post work. I say that as a voter, not as a contestant.
One question. Are animations allowed this month? There was some discussion in the ideas thread. I don't plan to submit one this month, but animation is a feature of Carrara.
Yeah... I like how a WIP (period) is a requirement! What a cool twist!
"Top Secret" my butt! You're gonna show us beforehand or you're not qualified! ;)
Well that was fast. And a nice theme and rules set, too. Cool. Hopefully I can free myself to do a bit more with this month's challenge than last month.
My only issue with requiring a WIP is that I often work up something totally unrelated to whatever I started doing and it's all very last minute.
I suppose it could just go here as a finished render and pretend it's a wip...
As for post-work : does a simple color correction count as needing a before and after shot? I often do a little contrast enhancement in post and often forget to mention it as I kind of thought everybody did!
I only ask because I'm running out of attachment allotment space here :(
Soon I wont be able to post any attachments at all...
If it is needed, can it be low resolution tiny little example shots? I need to start conserving my bandwidth here! Or maybe allow it to be posted externally and linked to? (HEY DAZ! - We REALLY need to get the old
tag working!!) (Never hearda an Art forum where you can't post an externally hosted image!).
Apart from all that, this could be a fun challenge.
Gentlemen (and Ladies) (and Cows) (and Others) Start your (render) engines!
Well, if you want to be top secret about it, there is an easy way to do it: just post your WIP right before or even after you've submitted your final entry. There is no time limit on when you post your WIP's as long as it happens before the deadline (before the voting starts). And the idea here is that you are free to keep your ideas for the challenge secret up until you submit your entry (at which point it's no longer a secret anyway), but we share the tricks we use and the knowledge of Carrara, so posting a WIP is there to illustrate some of your work process for others to learn from. And, yes, work process secrets are very much discouraged here :).
And if you don't care about keeping your ideas secret, then posting a WIP might be a good way to get some constructive feedback before you submit your final entry.
I suppose it could just go here as a finished render and pretend it's a wip...
As for post-work : does a simple color correction count as needing a before and after shot? I often do a little contrast enhancement in post and often forget to mention it as I kind of thought everybody did!
I only ask because I'm running out of attachment allotment space here :(
Soon I wont be able to post any attachments at all...
If it is needed, can it be low resolution tiny little example shots? I need to start conserving my bandwidth here! Or maybe allow it to be posted externally and linked to? (HEY DAZ! - We REALLY need to get the old
tag working!!) (Never hearda an Art forum where you can't post an externally hosted image!).
Apart from all that, this could be a fun challenge.
Gentlemen (and Ladies) (and Cows) (and Others) Start your (render) engines!
Regarding the WIP posting: I think it's fine to post the WIP externally and just link to it. Only final entries must be attached.
By the way, I was not aware that we have an attachment quota. Where can we see it?
Regarding postwork: I think we all do some sort of basic post in color or contrast correcting, but I also think that people who are new to the software and struggle to get results similar to those of the more experienced artists, would benefit from seeing the raw render as it came out of the software itself and how it was transformed for final image, even if the transformation is small.
Therefore, the answer is: Yes, please post a completely raw render as your WIP and the color/contrast corrected one. (And posting the WIP externally should get rid of the attachment quota concerns, so I hope it will not be seen as a waste or a bother...)
Maybe he thinks it's this bit at the bottom of the Post Reply screen. To start, you have 9999KB, and when you post an image (as in the example) you're told the file size and how many KB you can still upload. The 9999KB limit is per post, and not the cumulative uploads from all your posts. In other words, each time you post, you have 9999KB at your disposal and a limit of 5 attachments. That's a bit under 2 megs allowed per attachment, which can be a pretty big picture!
Yeah, external linking fixes things just fine - but...
I could have sworn there was a "Manage Attachments" link in our Control Panels (link next to our profile links at the top of the forum home page). But it seems to be gone!
It listed all attachments you made, and the file sizes used and remaining.
Maybe others reached the limit and somebody removed it.
Or maybe I'm even less sane than even I at first suspected...
May I vote for the last option? Or do I have to wait for the entry thread? ;-P
May I vote for the last option? Or do I have to wait for the entry thread? ;-P
So that makes two votes for the second option!
Now HERE's a contest I know I can win!!
they have that manage attachments limit on the Reallusion forum for example where I need to regulary prune my image uploads.
embediing is the prefered solution there.
I would be in big trouble here!
the stupid thread alone would wipe me out in a week esp Caturday!
Trust me, Antara, I was not complaining :)
I think you've done a great job coming up with the whole of it. Both thumbs up.
Thank you! :)
But I keep waiting for Bigh to come in and chew me out... :gulp:
Hmm, reinstall and work with what I have or download another gig ???
No, the title brought a couple pictures to mind. Got most of what I need for one; need a trumpet and case. And nothing I need for the other but the island and ocean.
FANTASTIC Antara!
Sorry for shouting :)
You did a wonderful job. :) :)
You are making my poor efforts look poor indeed, :)
It should be a great challenge, in fact I am sure it will be.
:)
thanks so much for taking the helm with such a sure and steady hand!
The 3 modified or created items is stumping me---but I'm going to give it a try. Would using the replicator and particle emitter only qualify?
There's lots of ways to satisfy this. I'm guessing they don't have to be complicated things if you don't want them to be.
ManStan I am really looking forward to seeing what you come up with. You do great stuff in Carrara, you look at things in lateral ways, I'd love to see you participate, and even win. That voucher would come in handy I reckon. Now crack out that whip :)
Great theme, and clear and understandably rules.
So it's of to work and get the inspirational muse to wake up..
So I dug up an old picture from the bottom of my harddrive, and maybe this can be a base to work on.
The grass is always greener on the other side of the fence..
Hi Antara,
I love the theme you've chosen.
It's very inspiring and my main problem will be to limit myself to 1 or maybe 2 ideas.
Thank you for hosting this challenge
just something thinking out loud , adam and eve crossed my mind, if I do some more work on this I'll list the content,
the plug in I used most was Fenric's shader doctor, saves me so much time Aslan Court is the periphery, Lisa Cherry Trees, the floor is a vertex circle with a reflection shader, the snake is Daz Python, the apple is from the medieval market box of apples,
Just a WIP
“Abashed the devil stood and felt how awful goodness is and saw Virtue in her shape how lovely: and pined his loss”
― John Milton, Paradise Lost
second image is before post work
For lights.:
There are three lights over the table. One spot light with a light cone and inverted shadows gives the cone under t he table. That spot duplicated and then a light cone without inverted shadows. A third spot with a warm hue lights the apple only. A spot above the snake lights the snake only. I replicated a light bulb with fall off at four feet and low illumination on the cherry tree's leaf shader.
5 percent ambient.
The reflection shader on t he ground does the rest of the lighting work.
Start to finish from exploring failed ideas to setup: 75 mins
Render time : 16 seconds. (2000 by 960 pixels)
nice start Varsel :)
Regardless, Great images - both.
Great start! I can't wait to see what you are going to do with this theme.
And the cow should make Sockratease very happy. ;-)
But just as a clarification for others: the images must be specially created for the challenge. So while it's OK to base them on a scene you've started earlier, it's NOT OK to just submit something that has been done before this challenge.
I love the theme you've chosen.
It's very inspiring and my main problem will be to limit myself to 1 or maybe 2 ideas.
Thank you for hosting this challenge
Thank you! :) Head Wax helped, so I don't deserve all the credit.
I look forward to your WIP's and entries.
Feel free to play with ideas in this thread and just choose the best 2 for final entries. This is one of the main purposes of this WIP thread: to be the playground for thematic and technical ideas.
Hi I will entry with YAToon.
There is one question.
Reducing by rendering with the larger size means the post work?
(Because it is an effective means in Toon rendering)
YAToon Are you sure you want included in the item was modified significantly or created, in Carrara? (This is a joke, I hope you do not mind)
Yes!!! I was hoping you would! You've just made me very very happy. (There used to be a happy dance smiley. I really need it right now..)
I actually wanted to make YAToon the technical requirement for this challenge, but I thought it would be too restrictive for people who are not used to rendering in anime styles. So I gave up on that idea :long: .
But I can't wait to see your entries. :)
Size changes: If the image is the same and just the size is reduced/increased, then I would not consider it post work. A lot of size reduction is done for forum rules compliance and for web-speed purposes, so it's not really done for artistic reasons.
However, if you will be changing the size because it makes the plug-in effects look better/more effective, please mention it in your description.
Wip it. M4 and the coronet from the carrara objects folder.
I think I'd like to experiment with non-photorealistic, but also non-toon. Perhaps something along the lines of the attached image of St Michael and Lucifer. Any pointers to tutorials, etc. in addition to the following at carrara cafe?
http://carraracafe.com/non-photorealistic-rendering-npr/
edit - the image is not a WIP, it is a classic found at
http://www.eugenedelacroix.org/St-Michael-defeats-the-Devil.html
I think it's a brilliant idea. And I think Carrara's NPR is one of its least explored features, so I look forward to watching your progress with this. If you can, please share as you learn more about it.
The only non-photorealistic rendering I ever tried was toon usin YAToon and ToonPro plug-ins, thus I can't offer much help, but thank you for posting the tutorial link here, even from this basic tutorial, the NPR engine looks fascinating.
I love the NPR Engine!
Here's a couple from a hopefully longer series called "Kamen Rider Gets A New Ride" (Toldja I liked Japanese Monster stuff!)
The real goal started an effort to make NPR Fire.
I just wanted to say the theme for this contest seems really fun, a lot of potential for interpretation as to what you consider paradise to be. Also a lot of potential use for Carrara's plant features if you ask me, maybe I'm the only one that considers paradise to be full of trees and plants <_<</p>
Anyway, I'm sorry to the winners of the last round for not having prizes out yet, I was a bit confused as to whether or not I was handing them out. I've got quite a bit going on right now so please give me some time to get things uploaded and sorted (that Monterey set in particular will take some time to get up lol).