Daz 3D is part of 
Connect
DAZ Productions, Inc.
7533 S Center View Ct #4664
West Jordan, UT 84084
Licensing Agreement | Terms of Service | Privacy Policy | EULA
© 2024 Daz Productions Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Comments
Here's one of the latest series I've watched, that I've found to be truly inspirational:
ILM: Creating the Impossible Part 1
which then leads into the rest of them. I actually watched the one with Spanish subtitles, simply because it shows the whole thing, uninterrupted. I don't understand Spanish, so I just ignored the subtitles.
Some of the important aspects that I've taken away from these things is, and I don't want to go too far into this, because I'm writing an article for the Carrara Cafe on the subject, that all of this started with a singular vision that the author didn't want to leave in someone else' hands to tamper with. At a time when CG was almost non-existent, and creative imagination was almost frowned upon, one guy had the vision to start up a place where imagination has fewer to perhaps even no limits, CG can be born, grow, and become a staple among those whom need that to help to tell their story. George Lucas certainly deserve a lot of thanks.
To think that this all began prior to the release of the consumer home computers. They actually designed and built their own computers. That is Industrial Light and Magic (ILM), born through Star Wars - through George Lucas. And back then it was entirely different.
Still, even though ILM masters at giving intense reality within the particular budget of the client, their clients are not folks like me - an enthusiast whom wishes to make something enjoyable for whomever decides to watch. No, these 'budgets' are in the millions or billions of dollars! Okay, I'm starting to use up too much stuff from my article - well, maybe not so much... but I did want to make one point that George Lucas truly helped to pioneer a lot of the tools that we may now take for granted today.
Carrara is one of the more rare suites developed for all of this, in my opinion. There are modelers that have a lot more functionality and time-saving features. There are suites designed for everything, much like Carrara. There are all manner of render engines...
There are many purists that may try to belittle me for using figures that I picked up from DAZ 3D instead of making them myself, using scenes made by Stonemason, etc.,
That's actually why I use Carrara. It is the unique one that allows for very easy workflow of using products initially designed for use in Poser, and now for DAZ Studio. That's actually exactly what I wanted! Even some Carrara users may scoff at me for using DAZ Dollies. The fact of that matter is that I really don't care what others think about my using these excellent figures. Film makers hire actors. They don't fill those roles themselves. I have an insanely tiny, actually non-existent budget to work under. Yet I have an amazing team: DAZ 3D and their published artists, whom busily build assets for me. A measly Hundred bucks a year for my Platinum Club, and I've got resources flowing in constantly. Another few bucks here, a couple dozen there, and I get to pick and choose all manner of elements for my films - and I love what they do. They all make stuff around my needs too. I bring it in, and it works as I expect. It is then my job to bring it all to life - my way!
As a closing note, here is a sample of what I am anxiously awaiting as the grand finale of Star Wars - The Clone Wars (Lost Missions Trailer)
Star Wars now has a YouTube channel and it's being populated with all manner of goodness to watch for 'behind the scenes' footage - the stuff that I've watched on my discs. I don't think it's all there yet, but it looks like they're working on it :)
I certainly wouldn't belittle you for using the resources that are available. I'm going to be right there with you. We learn modeling along the way and become more familiar with it as we grow our skills.
Lucas challenged his minions with the reality that he needed innovation. His successes funded further innovation. He'll always be seen as a pioneer but, a lot of people much smarter than George actually put it all together. Don't get me wrong - I'm a true fan and I've even looked the other way as far as Phantom Menace is concerned.
I guess where I've been with the rendering issues is thinking the screen shots of the interior models looked like a video game. I want to avoid that. I now understand that with lighting, shaders and textures I can get good results. I have a tremendous learning curve in all of it, and I realize that too. But it isn't a daunting task for me. When you stop wanting to learn, you're dead.
The 2013 iMacs shipped with the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680MX installed. This years iMac ships with the GeForce GT 750M installed and has the GeForce GTX 780M available as an option. According to the NVIDIA wesite, all three are CUDA enabled GPUs.
https://developer.nvidia.com/cuda-gpus
It would appear that current Macs can run it.
The 2013 iMacs shipped with the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680MX installed. This years iMac ships with the GeForce GT 750M installed and has the GeForce GTX 780M available as an option. According to the NVIDIA wesite, all three are CUDA enabled GPUs.
https://developer.nvidia.com/cuda-gpus
It would appear that current Macs can run it.
I got my iMac in Sept of 2012. Probably outta luck.
I would also learn about, and practice with the Shadowcatcher (lighting models in the Texture room. Not only do they catch shadows, but they act as masks, and any 3D stuff in you scene that is behind an object with a shadow catcher won't be visible. It can be a versatile tool and effect. This shot uses grass blades I made in the spline modeler and animated, then replicated on a surface. I used the shadowcatcher as the shader, so the grass masks the dinosaurs where it is in front of them and takes on the look of the grass in the underlying live-action video plate. Saved a ton of time. Looks good in standard def, but not sure about HD. ;-)
http://youtu.be/_8puXTRXt7Y
I have the new BluRay of all Star Wars, and they fixed Yoda in the Phantom Menace. Another thing to consider, like as far as Binx is concerned, he did foresee all of this as being for kids ;)
Anyways, I wrote my words of insanity at the Cafe.
Wanna give it a test read?
Major Production - My Production
A Carrara Cafe article by enthusiast Dartanbeck
Not necessarily. Find out what card is installed in your Mac:
Click on "Apple Menu"
Click on "About this Mac"
Click on "More Info"
Then, go to that NVIDIA link I posted above and see if your card is on the list. If it is, you're not out of luck.
look at the daz3d store for the search word "gis"
and you will find some nice gothic in space things.
and you should join the platinum club.
the artist kibarreto has very nice ships.
but the interiors might not be the best for realistic lightninig.
shlomi
with the kibarreto ship vanguard you need to add tour on interior lights in carrara.
and you can get good renders, in daz studio it got some light maps or something.
but some minor texture don't match themself on some parts of the ship.
it's not a big deal unless you use some weird view points.
shlomi
You're right, the Vanguard ship will need the interior lit, but I've had good luck with it. What do you mean about the textures not matching? I haven't noticed anything, but I may not have looked in the right spot.
By the way, to get the displays to look right, I just copied and pasted the color maps for the displays to the glow channel and it works great.
now with lights
look next to V4 ass for the texture mixup.
shlomi
I see it. Thanks for pointing it out. Could it be a possible point where the different parts of the ship come together? Have checked to make sure everything is zeroed out?
Well, poop.
Just start learning and making your epic.... Remember what I said earlier about limits that you thought was just "blah blah blah"? ;-P
In a year there may be CUDA options for the new Mac Pro. In two years Octane might work on OpenCL/OpenGL. Don't wait around for it. Work on your knowledge and skills, and use the technology that's available at the time and that you can afford.Yosemite (The newest MAC OS) intentionally disables CUDA. I don't see the MAC OS enabling it too soon.
1. Before you start shooting, and struggling with learning Lighting, get Jeremy Birn's [digital] Lighting & Rendering.
2. Read it.
3. Learn the methods that create great lighting faster.
4. Find the same methods in Carrara. :) (Yes they exist.)
5. Using the Multi-pass rendering in Carrara you can use the velocity pass to eliminate frames from your animation, significantly reducing render time, and giving you a nice motion between frames, which AE or Combustion can use to interpolate the intervening frames.
Carrara is almost as fast, in general, as Lightwave, and for terrain Carrara is usually faster.
On the Lightwave Forums they have been talking about the Octane plug-in for Lightwave. For exterior shots Octane was faster, but for interior shots Lightwave is generally faster.
Octane has a major limitation: the entire scene/frame has to fit in your Video Card's RAM, and unlike other GPU renderers there is no fallback.
Hopefully Yosemite will rectify the problem Mavericks created with Carrara and render nodes. That would make things go a lot faster... and easier. If the mini is updated this fall I may be picking up two to help out at work... and with Carrara after hours! Four machines would really make things fly.