Loading...
> >

Carrara Challenge #50 - A Special Carrara Anniversary Celebration - WIP thread

1…5681011…15

Comments

  • UnifiedBrainUnifiedBrain Posts: 3,588
    Headwax said:

    Very strange, in a good way!

  • UnifiedBrainUnifiedBrain Posts: 3,588
    Cbird said:
    I'm still wandering around in the plant room. (Is it a room?). For the distant back of my Wintry Garden I wanted a windswept white pine. I'm sort of happy with this. The best way to get the long branches leaning off to one side seems to be turning off symmetry and setting phyllotaxy angle to zero or 360. I wish we had more control over achieving asymmetry. I'd like a few much short branches on the opposite side, but as soon as I change the angle to get a few branches opposite, I can't make them significantly shorter. For the back of the scene, this is useable, but if anyone has tried this type of tree before I'd like to see what you did.

    Varley's Stormy Weather is ingrained in the Canadian psyche, I think, lol:

    https://www.gallery.ca/collection/artwork/stormy-weather-georgian-bay-0

    I like Varley's image that you are going for.  If you can convert tree branches into vertex models as Dart suggested, you could possible position a newly converted branch or two on the non-branch side of the original tree.

     

  • DartanbeckDartanbeck Posts: 21,323
    UnifiedBrain said:
    Dartanbeck said:
    UnifiedBrain said:
    Dartanbeck said:
    UnifiedBrain said:
    Dartanbeck said:
    Cbird said:

    Eventually I just got to enjoy monkeying around with the various settings - clinging to many of my favorites - like trunk width vs height, etc., and then digging into the crazy advanced settings with curves and tapers and whatnot... it gets fun!

    Speaking of trunk width vs height - is there a way to makes trunks even bigger?  I want a huge trunk.  The slider is set to 5, and that is the max.

    You might have to convert to Vertex modeler and enlarge it further. Tree size combined with trunk controls can result in incredibly large trees, however. We can also make branches smaller if need be. It would be nice if we had a few more sliders for the trunk for adding bumps and bulges. 

    Thanks for the suggestion.  I converted it to vertex, but only the trunk is converted.  However, that was all I needed.

    I agree about adding some sliders to make things more gnarly.  Do plug-in creators have access to the plant controls?

    There's an option (before converting) in the Plant modeler to use the entire mesh with leaves.

    I looked there, and ticked the boxes that looked like they would do the job.  It crashed Carrara.  Tried it again, same result. :(

    But just getting the trunk converted was all I needed anyway.

    I imagine that's an easy thing to do with such a powerful tool. We really have to be careful to not overdo it when converting - lots of leaves, high resolution details, high counts of generations, lots of details on each of those many generations, etc., can quickly starve your computer of the proper resources causing Carrara to just quit to avoid a cataclysm on your computer desk! :)

  • DartanbeckDartanbeck Posts: 21,323
    UnifiedBrain said:
    Dartanbeck said:

    Rosie 5 at 50 mph!

    I started by grouping her with the bike, and flinging them through the sky above Xion City. She flew right past the render camera, where I exposed the render to six frame motion blur. It didn't put a whole lot of blur onto her or the bike itself, but the spinning wheels turned out just right. 

    In Howler I made a wavy selection behind, and then up to her from behind, and ran some radial motion blur to create that fast motion look. Turned out kinda cool, I think. I'm excited to see what kinda stuff I'll get her into with this bike!

    This looks great!  Are you entering this?

    I don't really like how it turned out. I might try again, but no to this one.

  • UnifiedBrainUnifiedBrain Posts: 3,588
    shlomi laszlo said:

    i think those are all carrara native content objects

    with replicators

    botanical garden

    Sorry Shlomi, I missed this earlier.  If you need help in figuring out how to post images, please let me know.

    Looking good!

  • UnifiedBrainUnifiedBrain Posts: 3,588

    Good God, the forum is slow today.  Takes 20 seconds to load a page. frown

    Anyway, here we are in 2020.  New beginnings.  Hopefully, now the 50th Challenge begins in earnest. smiley

     

     

  • DartanbeckDartanbeck Posts: 21,323
    UnifiedBrain said:

    Good God, the forum is slow today.  Takes 20 seconds to load a page. frown

    Anyway, here we are in 2020.  New beginnings.  Hopefully, now the 50th Challenge begins in earnest. smiley

    All of Daz3d seem sluggish!

    Holy Crap, UB! It's Entry Thread time already?!!! Argh!

  • DartanbeckDartanbeck Posts: 21,323
    UnifiedBrain said:

    Entry thread closes/ voting begins TBA

    Voting ends TBA

    Hmmm....

  • UnifiedBrainUnifiedBrain Posts: 3,588

    As I mentioned on the entry thread, TBA likely means late January.  Lots of time, unless you procrastinate. :)

  • MistaraMistara Posts: 38,675

    agonizing over the 50 category

    is there any point to carrara deformers? 
    i mean, we can take it to the wrench room, what would a deformer be good for?

  • DiomedeDiomede Posts: 15,125
    edited January 2020

    Start of an idea for 50.

    (nearly) Naked Vicky in a Cake with Frosting

    Technique tip - using the terrain modeler for frosted cake.  Painted a series of lighter circles in image software.  Inner most circle is black.  In new Carrara scene, inserted a terrain object and reduced the dimensions to 6 or 7 feet, and increased resolution to 512 by 512.  Removed the default terrain generator.  Imported my circle map.  Set height very low (about 4 feet).  Applied an erosion filer.  Rain but reduced strength and smoothness less than 1%.  Also used wind erosion, again reducing the strength and  smoothness (2-3 percent).  Result is a layered cake with the surface looking like frosting was spread over it.  Details include hole in center and using primitive cylinder for cap.  For the terrain shader, used a multichannel mixer.  Used NATURAL : ELEVATION in the blender channel to separate the cake from the flat bottom.  Can apply an alpha to eliminate flat bottom, or use a shader to make it the ground, table, or tray.

    Just a WIP.  Not happy with several elements.  For example, I used a conforming drips product from the store for the frosting on G2F but it is too stringy for this use - especially on the face.  May revisit or make my own.

    cake 3.jpg
    475 x 464 - 14K
    002 cake terrain room.jpg
    1762 x 983 - 218K
    003 cake terrain shader elevation in blender.jpg
    868 x 397 - 44K
    001 cake test render.jpg
    1200 x 1600 - 118K
    Post edited by Diomede on
  • MistaraMistara Posts: 38,675

    Vicki with frosting cheekysmiley

  • DartanbeckDartanbeck Posts: 21,323
    Diomede said:

    Not happy with several elements.  For example, I used a conforming drips product from the store for the frosting on G2F but it is too stringy for this use - especially on the face.  May revisit or make my own.

    ...after you chick-lick off what you've already put on? wink

    Seriously though... very cool design and pulling it off in the techniques as listed... very cool Dio!!! Very Cool! Now clean that frosting off of her already!!!

  • DiomedeDiomede Posts: 15,125
    edited January 2020

    Thanks, Dart.  Tomato has a big tongue.  Better to chick-lick with.

    Another placeholder render.  I am posting this to the entry thread, but if I decide to fix stuff I'm not satisfied with (see above list), then I will swap it out.

    Cake Pinup Entry.jpg
    1200 x 1600 - 142K
    cake top scene setup.jpg
    1623 x 867 - 215K
    cake composite 01.jpg
    1333 x 1600 - 201K
    Post edited by Diomede on
  • HeadwaxHeadwax Posts: 9,964

    thanks Ub Bunyip et Ted :)

    Diomede that's one sexy cake , love the drips, I think I like vanilla bests :)

    Dartanbeck said:
    UnifiedBrain said:
    Dartanbeck said:

    Rosie 5 at 50 mph!

    I started by grouping her with the bike, and flinging them through the sky above Xion City. She flew right past the render camera, where I exposed the render to six frame motion blur. It didn't put a whole lot of blur onto her or the bike itself, but the spinning wheels turned out just right. 

    In Howler I made a wavy selection behind, and then up to her from behind, and ran some radial motion blur to create that fast motion look. Turned out kinda cool, I think. I'm excited to see what kinda stuff I'll get her into with this bike!

    This looks great!  Are you entering this?

    I don't really like how it turned out. I might try again, but no to this one.

     

    Dart there's a wonderful sense of movement with that strong diagonal , probably needs your trademark clouds !

     

  • HeadwaxHeadwax Posts: 9,964
    UnifiedBrain said:
    shlomi laszlo said:

    i think those are all carrara native content objects

    with replicators

    botanical garden

    Sorry Shlomi, I missed this earlier.  If you need help in figuring out how to post images, please let me know.

    Looking good!

    Classy Garden Shlomi !

     

  • HeadwaxHeadwax Posts: 9,964
    edited January 2020

    Here's another from me more use of Pilemenon's cutout plug in.

    I used it for the statues, the flowers and the grass.

    I added the same flowers to the two trees on the right and left - the one on the left I also added the grass ( as leaves - second layer of leaves in the plant room - which I alwayus miss)

    The ivy ferns are with fenrics ivy plugin. I didn't like how the brancjh texture looked so I selected the branch with the object pass and filled it with a new bark texture and changed the parameter to0 'overlay'

    I modelled the gate and hinges - clever  me :)

    I rendered an image of grass in another car program and tiled that and used it for the texture of the ground , I also added hair as grass on the ground. Also grass to the walls to soften the artificial stone look.

    The texture on the statues is a terrain texture - I used the texture from wiki then added a greenish verssion of that in the terrain shader as the grass layer to try and get a bit of patina - didnt work too well.

    There werent enough flowers in the grass so I used my object pass to lecet the red flowers then copy and pasted them in the foreground - see before and after image.

    I used the depth pass to add distance haze - 

    Random fcat - did you know you can model a trunk and then replicate trees on it to simulate branches ??

    The post worked image is 4000 pixels wide if you clicken it.

     

    image before post

     

    gatewip.jpg
    2000 x 1500 - 4M
    Post edited by Headwax on
  • HeadwaxHeadwax Posts: 9,964
    edited January 2020

    Here's another showing the use of Caustics - my secret weapon - catagory 3 - I used the caustics to reflect light from the water onto the trees

    In post work I changed the texture of the tree bark slightly, added more reflection in the water, used a coverage pass to add out lines to the trees,

    used the caustics pass with a screen parameter for a bit of zap - also used the reflection pass the same way

    It's another 4000 pixel image if you want to click you can see the butterflies

    pencil variation using a coverage pass and tone mapping in Affinity Photo. A little bit of other filter that escapes the name of - been a while....

     

    here's the un postworked image 

     

    and here is the caustics pass showing how caustics adds to the lighting

     

    Caustics pass

     

    reflection pass

     

    benttreegoowip.jpg
    2000 x 1500 - 3M
    benttreegood_Caustics.jpg
    2000 x 1500 - 1M
    benttreegood_Reflection.jpg
    2000 x 1500 - 2M
    Post edited by Headwax on
  • HeadwaxHeadwax Posts: 9,964
    edited January 2020

    Here's a pictire of one of the mid ground trees - with the flower and grass I made with the cutout plugin - I used the flower and grass in the leaves set 2 part of th e plant modeller - looks kind of tropical

    you ccoul use fenric's ivy as well I reckon, also use the tree render with alpha as a splat

    flower with grass

     

    whole tree

     

    detail of above

     

     

    flowerswithgrass.jpg
    2000 x 1500 - 242K
    tree-with-flowers.jpg
    2000 x 1663 - 3M
    treewithflowersclose1.jpg
    2000 x 947 - 2M
    Post edited by Headwax on
  • WendyLuvsCatzWendyLuvsCatz Posts: 38,037

    Mr Finnie, anyone tell you you are a real artist heart

  • HeadwaxHeadwax Posts: 9,964
    edited January 2020

    ha ha thanks Wendy, I've been talking myself up for years but can't find any ears :) 

    Happy Weekend to you - hope you are safe. Interesting times. My brother is at Bateman's Bay...

    here's a quickie splat test with replicator on a terrain- three different splats- used two distant lights with soft shadows as splat shadowas are weird

    good for distant hills perhaps but slow with the alpha maps

     

     

    splats.jpg
    900 x 900 - 656K
    Post edited by Headwax on
  • DartanbeckDartanbeck Posts: 21,323

    Marvelous work, HW!!!

    Love it!!!

  • MistaraMistara Posts: 38,675

    time running out?

  • DiomedeDiomede Posts: 15,125
    Dartanbeck said:

    Marvelous work, HW!!!

    Love it!!!

    +1, these are truly beautiful gardens and foliage.  Wow.  Thanks for the tips.

    Thanks for the comments on mine, Andrew.  

    Misty - in response to prior inquiries, UnifiedBrain has said the deadline is "around the end of the month."  Does not sound like soon.

  • UnifiedBrainUnifiedBrain Posts: 3,588
    Diomede said:

    Thanks, Dart.  Tomato has a big tongue.  Better to chick-lick with.

    Another placeholder render.  I am posting this to the entry thread, but if I decide to fix stuff I'm not satisfied with (see above list), then I will swap it out.

    I guess you can have your cake and lick it too. :)  Wonderful image.

    I have to admit, I like the white cake better.  The chocolate is very well done, but somehow I associate a "girl popping out of a cake" scene with a white frosted cake.

  • UnifiedBrainUnifiedBrain Posts: 3,588
    Headwax said:

    Here's another from me more use of Pilemenon's cutout plug in.

    I used it for the statues, the flowers and the grass.

    I added the same flowers to the two trees on the right and left - the one on the left I also added the grass ( as leaves - second layer of leaves in the plant room - which I alwayus miss)

    The ivy ferns are with fenrics ivy plugin. I didn't like how the brancjh texture looked so I selected the branch with the object pass and filled it with a new bark texture and changed the parameter to0 'overlay'

    I modelled the gate and hinges - clever  me :)

    I rendered an image of grass in another car program and tiled that and used it for the texture of the ground , I also added hair as grass on the ground. Also grass to the walls to soften the artificial stone look.

    The texture on the statues is a terrain texture - I used the texture from wiki then added a greenish verssion of that in the terrain shader as the grass layer to try and get a bit of patina - didnt work too well.

    There werent enough flowers in the grass so I used my object pass to lecet the red flowers then copy and pasted them in the foreground - see before and after image.

    I used the depth pass to add distance haze - 

    Random fcat - did you know you can model a trunk and then replicate trees on it to simulate branches ??

    The post worked image is 4000 pixels wide if you clicken it.

     

    image before post

     

    Beautiful image and terrific information!

    I just started experimenting with hair, and I can now see how it could be incredibly useful for texturing just about everything.

    Really liked the ivy ferns.  The ferns and grass made those walls look great.

    As always, thanks for posting before and after postwork images.

    Very fine work.

     

  • CbirdCbird Posts: 493
    edited January 2020

     

    I think I've finally completed my entry just in time to have to go back to work, lol.

    The cattails have leaves made with hair. I modelled the little brown fuzzy tops and grew hair on them.

    The red dogwoods are one of my favourite winter plants. It took me forever to get something bush-like out the of the plant room, but I'm actually happy with these.

    The staghorn sumacs are from the plant room, with a vertex top. I used Wendy's raspberry tip to replicate little spheres all over the shape. Exported as obj, then decimated the crap out of it because my aged laptop started to whine. I used fake fresnel for the fuzziness.

    These are the birches with the procedural texture I mentioned earlier.

    The Eastern Hemlock (particularly dramatically weeping ones) are my favourite conifer. Trying to get this tree is struck me that we have control of gravity on the tree and separately on the leaves. We could do much more with separate gravity control for each generation of branches. Would be very cool to play with.

    The lone White Pine I was wrestling with is back left.

    The background terrain has a replicator for the black spruce (far easier shape to work out).

    The deer is Tane for Daz horse 2 and I've used Ron's steam for his breath. The snow is also Ron's. I played with particle snow, but again the laptop whimpered.

    Please feel free to skate on the pond :)

    Wintry Garden.jpg
    1000 x 750 - 624K
    Post edited by Cbird on
  • MistaraMistara Posts: 38,675
    Cbird said:

     

    I think I've finally completed my entry just in time to have to go back to work, lol.

    The cattails have leaves made with hair. I modelled the little brown fuzzy tops and grew hair on them.

    The red dogwoods are one of my favourite winter plants. It took me forever to get something bush-like out the of the plant room, but I'm actually happy with these.

    The staghorn sumacs are from the plant room, with a vertex top. I used Wendy's raspberry tip to replicate little spheres all over the shape. Exported as obj, then decimated the crap out of it because my aged laptop started to whine. I used fake fresnel for the fuzziness.

    These are the birches with the procedural texture I mentioned earlier.

    The Eastern Hemlock (particularly dramatically weeping ones) are my favourite conifer. Trying to get this tree is struck me that we have control of gravity on the tree and separately on the leaves. We could do much more with separate gravity control for each generation of branches. Would be very cool to play with.

    The lone White Pine I was wrestling with is back left.

    The background terrain has a replicator for the black spruce (far easier shape to work out).

    The deer is Tane for Daz horse 2 and I've used Ron's steam for his breath. The snow is also Ron's. I played with particle snow, but again the laptop whimpered.

    Please feel free to skate on the pond :)

    kewl.  i luv silver birch

  • CbirdCbird Posts: 493
    edited January 2020

    Not really worthy of entry, but this is a fun accident that happened along the way.

    Zero genius involved here. I was trying out a plane with snow brushes used to create a texture in photoshop. Forgot to save without the black background, lol!

    Almost a NPR feel, I think.

    HappyAccident.jpg
    1000 x 750 - 524K
    Post edited by Cbird on
  • CbirdCbird Posts: 493

    Thank you, Mystarra blush

Sign In or Register to comment.