Carrara Challenge #4: The Twilight Zone - Work In Progress (WIP) thread

Kixum

And here's what my entry will be.

I have added grain, blur and a touch of contrast. I think this image represents the original TV show in a cool way and brings forward that Twilight Zone Zen of the show.

I added that dorky saucer at the end just to bring out the T Zone factor a little more.

I'm ok with how the grass came out for this image but there's a lot for me to learn yet.

evilproducer

It's a great job!

Spaceland

That is a nice one Kixum, I like it.

MicioDue

Yes, PNG sequence is perhaps the best way for video software that doesn't manage mov alpha channel. I've found this is the best solution in Magix Video Deluxe (aka "Movie Maker Pro" in many countries), and perhaps the same is in other software, very good for video editing but less expensive and less powerful than Adobe CS.
Another solution would be a separate movie with alpha channel only exported as grayscale, in any video format: this could be inserted as mask track in video editing and does not require to be QuickTime installed at all. I've heard this is an iClone option: does anyone know if this is possible in Carrara? There are 26 Mutli-Pass layers but I can't locate an alpha channel...

evilproducer said:

Good information. A good way to render 64 bit and still get an alpha channel is to render to an image sequence using a format that supports alphas, such as . tiff, .png, etc. The it's just a matter of Quicktime or whatever you want to use, combining them into a movie file.

MicioDue

Maybe I'll try something simple, just to join. :)
Funny that when contest theme was "Paradise lost and found" I already posted a render titled "Paradise lost" in Stonemason's contest. I've lost paradise and I missed to find it! :lol:

FractalDimensia said:

MicioDue, I hope you will join us in the next competition if you can't get one in this time!

I am also looking into Windows app options, and will report anything I learn.

FractalDimensia

MicioDue said:

Maybe I'll try something simple, just to join. :)
Funny that when contest theme was "Paradise lost and found" I already posted a render titled "Paradise lost" in Stonemason's contest. I've lost paradise and I missed to find it! :lol:

You still have about 13 days before submissions close! I extended the time of this round of competitions so they'd end around Halloween. ;-)

I hope you can get something in. The more participants, the more fun the challenge!

FractalDimensia

Kixum said:

And here's what my entry will be.

I have added grain, blur and a touch of contrast. I think this image represents the original TV show in a cool way and brings forward that Twilight Zone Zen of the show.

I added that dorky saucer at the end just to bring out the T Zone factor a little more.

I'm ok with how the grass came out for this image but there's a lot for me to learn yet.

Excellent work, Kixum! I can tell you put a lot of work into this literal interpretation of the challenge! Rod Serling would be proud. =)

FractalDimensia

Kixum said:

And here's what my entry will be.

After a better look, I have a small suggestion, Kixum.

The light behind the door is casting a shadow off the closest telephone pole that makes it seem the light is back from the door. One way to resolve this is (if you don't want to move the light closer) would be to not have the light interact with the pole, maybe even the same with the ground behind the door.

Anyway, just a thought....

Sockratease

Running out of time again, and life is not cooperating...

So here's a quick version of something that may fit for a second entry if I finish the first.

I made the world's worst 3D Model of a shovel myself for this, plus the ground with hole and the "artifact" in the vertex modeler.

Quick story to go with it:

Pausing in her excavation to ponder the significance of her find, all Victoria can think is "He must have had an enormous schwanzstucker!"

Garstor

Sockratease said:

Pausing in her excavation to ponder the significance of her find, all Victoria can think is "He must have had an enormous schwanzstucker!"

Sock, I've looked long and hard at this but I cannot find the cow! You've concealed it perfectly this time but the influence is still there... :)

Sockratease

Garstor said:

Sockratease said:

Pausing in her excavation to ponder the significance of her find, all Victoria can think is "He must have had an enormous schwanzstucker!"

Sock, I've looked long and hard at this but I cannot find the cow! You've concealed it perfectly this time but the influence is still there... :)

That's what she was digging for!

Why else do archeologists dig?

DUDU

de3an said:

DUDU_00001 said:

de3an: "Used a displacement shader for the footprints, then converted it to real geometry for further modification."...
How are you doing that ???

Select the object and export it as an .obj file, then re-import it. The displacement will become real geometry which you can then edit in the Model room.

I've tried this, without success, what are the exact parameters ?
My test was made with a simple sphere and a texture of displacement cellular...
Thanks.

de3an

DUDU_00001 said:

de3an said:

DUDU_00001 said:

de3an: "Used a displacement shader for the footprints, then converted it to real geometry for further modification."...
How are you doing that ???

Select the object and export it as an .obj file, then re-import it. The displacement will become real geometry which you can then edit in the Model room.

I've tried this, without success, what are the exact parameters ?
My test was made with a simple sphere and a texture of displacement cellular...
Thanks.

Be sure to enable "Displace in 3D View" in the shader displacement settings before you export the object as an .obj file.
All of the export settings can be left as default.
The object will re-import at a different size, but for my purposes that didn't matter.

DUDU

Dean,
Yeah, it is perfect!
I am not sure that the programmers of Carrara suspected this possibility...
Thousand thanks !

Kixum

I reworked the lighting a little bit. There are three lights in the most recent posting I have here. One is a distant light which is lighting the entire scene. There is a telephone pole behind the camera which was casting a shadow across the road. I made that pole invisible and got rid of that shadow.

I then tightened up the shadow of the spot which is shining the light through the door so that it exactly hits the door frame correctly. I have a spline object behind the door which is blocking the spotlight EXCEPT for a hole which allows light to creep through the door. This was an easy way to get the light cone to come through the crack in the door without lighting up the rest of the scene.

There is another light behind the door which is lighting up the road. In the most recent post, that was a light bulb but I changed it to be a spot emitting light in a half sphere allowed me to get a better spread of light without having to fuss with the door.

Per contest rules, I am posting my original Carrara render here before post work.

Varsel

FractalDimensia said:

A very nice, eerie scene, Varsel! I especially like the fog-like aspect of the render. If you want feedback, I was thinking that maybe some additional lighting might give it a more 3D feel? IDK, just a thought.

I seem to recall the bench from a previous work. ;-)

Thank you.

Sorry for the late respond. I've been working and off-line.

You are right about the bench. It started life in a previous episode of these challenges, bu then it was more circular.
I did some recycling and reshaping of it.
I have been thinking about putting in a park light, next to the bench.
I was also considering some kind of wildlife. A squirrel, cat or bird, but to keep with the mythical inspiration I decided to use some Genesis mini trolls.
And then I see that with additional lighting, I have some more shader work to do....

Headwax

Firstly many apologies for not being round! There are so many good wips here I am so impressed. I finally have some time this afternoon to make a render. In this I have put one of my paintings as the backdrop. It's called Nightmares - the render not the painting...

Varsel

Here goes....

But now the three looks pathetic..... :red:

The lamp is modeled in Hexagon. I just couldn't get the shapes needed in the Vertex modeler.

Did it help ?

bigh

Varsel said:

Here goes....

But now the three looks pathetic..... :red:

The lamp is modeled in Hexagon. I just couldn't get the shapes needed in the Vertex modeler.

Did it help ?

yep - good job

Varsel

So here's my final second entry.

The bushes are recycled from the garden contest.
The lamp post resembles the ones that are used in Central Park, ([or that is what Google tells me..)
I just liked the shape.

The grass are all modeled in the Vertex modeller. Using two replicators. One for the main grass, and one for the grass tuft.
Again recycling something I made before.

evilproducer

Varsel said:

So here's my final second entry.

The bushes are recycled from the garden contest.
The lamp post resembles the ones that are used in Central Park, ([or that is what Google tells me..)
I just liked the shape.

The grass are all modeled in the Vertex modeller. Using two replicators. One for the main grass, and one for the grass tuft.
Again recycling something I made before.

That lamp and the grass look really nice!

Philemo_Carrara

Hi to all,

This is where I am so far.

The ET and the werewolf still need some polishing, but the picture is almost there.
This picture is straining my laptop to its limits. render time is 5 hours, but the main issue is the memory.. Except the ghost and the werewolf, all the characters are Genesis. It uses a lot of memory and saving takes ages. With the help of some memory leaks which seems to appear on render time, I have to save and restart Carrara and it's very frustrating because I don't have that much time.

I've been googling magazine colour prints from the end fifties and i've come to the conclusion that they were having problem adjusting the saturation of the images.
I rendered a under saturated image (the second one) which was not to bad, but not exactly where I wanted to go. I decided then to go for the over saturated way and I came to something using the 'retinex' effect in Gimp with high parameters (the first image).

I still have to decide which one to use eventually :-)

FractalDimensia

Philemo said:

Hi to all,

This is where I am so far.

The ET and the werewolf still need some polishing, but the picture is almost there.
This picture is straining my laptop to its limits. render time is 5 hours, but the main issue is the memory.. Except the ghost and the werewolf, all the characters are Genesis. It uses a lot of memory and saving takes ages. With the help of some memory leaks which seems to appear on render time, I have to save and restart Carrara and it's very frustrating because I don't have that much time.

I've been googling magazine colour prints from the end fifties and i've come to the conclusion that they were having problem adjusting the saturation of the images.
I rendered a under saturated image (the second one) which was not to bad, but not exactly where I wanted to go. I decided then to go for the over saturated way and I came to something using the 'retinex' effect in Gimp with high parameters (the first image).

I still have to decide which one to use eventually :-)

Even before I read your description, I thought the first image looked very 50's. Great job! Would you say a little more what you did to create the saturation effect? Was it in Carrara or post work?

BTW, that TV brings back childhood memories. :-)

Philemo_Carrara

FractalDimensia said:

Even before I read your description, I thought the first image looked very 50's. Great job! Would you say a little more what you did to create the saturation effect? Was it in Carrara or post work?

It's post work.
I've used the retinex effect in Gimp.
These are the settings :

PhilW

If you are having difficulties rendering all the characters at once, try splitting the scene and rendering say the right hand group and the left hand group separately, and then combine in post. I used to use this technique a lot to render very complex scenes.

Philemo_Carrara

PhilW said:

If you are having difficulties rendering all the characters at once, try splitting the scene and rendering say the right hand group and the left hand group separately, and then combine in post. I used to use this technique a lot to render very complex scenes.

Thank you Phil,

I'll try that

Headwax

Philemo said:

Hi to all,

This is where I am so far.

The ET and the werewolf still need some polishing, but the picture is almost there.
This picture is straining my laptop to its limits. render time is 5 hours, but the main issue is the memory.. Except the ghost and the werewolf, all the characters are Genesis. It uses a lot of memory and saving takes ages. With the help of some memory leaks which seems to appear on render time, I have to save and restart Carrara and it's very frustrating because I don't have that much time.

I've been googling magazine colour prints from the end fifties and i've come to the conclusion that they were having problem adjusting the saturation of the images.
I rendered a under saturated image (the second one) which was not to bad, but not exactly where I wanted to go. I decided then to go for the over saturated way and I came to something using the 'retinex' effect in Gimp with high parameters (the first image).

I still have to decide which one to use eventually :-)

love the 50-60's style you have evoked :) This show used to scare the becrappers out of me when I was a kid. Phil W (?) did a good tut on masking in one of cd3e's early mags. Worth reading.

PhilW

I don't think it was me!

Headwax

PhilW said:

I don't think it was me!

oh you mean I've been nice to you all this time and it wasn't you? Hoeey !! :)

I'll check unless the bushfires get here first, bloody fires every where where I live, wind has just changed, not for the good I think...

lucky we all have flannelette shirts in oz.

edit sorry PhilW it was Tim Payne I am thinking. All good blokes look the same to me :)

Philemo_Carrara

I remember this thread. It was based on a render of a spaceport. I cannot find it in the old forum, but I think I remember the solution.
It was to create a grid in the vertex editor and hollow part of it. Place that object perpendicular to the camera, modify the shader to remove any interaction with light, unset the cast shadow for it, this kind of things. Just need to do some experiments.