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My example demos like this were all about learning and tweaking dynamic simulation, so the animations weren't finished to the point I'd normally take them - like I have been doing for this project now. To me, it's actually a lot more fun taking the time to finish the animation. Adding subtle finger movements without overdoing it, slight-to-drastic changes in expression, secondary body movements, etc., etc., a lot of which is entirely absent from these test demos:
And here's a demonstration of how I do the cloth simulations, and composite layers of renders into a video.
This is just a basic 'worflow example', so I'm not layering in nearly as much, and I didn't perfect the final output nearly as much as what really goes into an end product, because I didn't want to carry on and on. It does, however, show how easily we can dig in and make this stuff work without having to have a pair of Titan GPUs on monster workstation-class ($$$$$$) computers.
Support Article for this Video Here
I'm also very eager to eventually try out some of the newer performance capture setups.
Philemo is working on a plugin for one as we speak.
You know who you are!
One of my generous readers just gave me a nice Daz 3d Gift Card.
I've updated my PC+ Experience - Thanks Daz 3d!!! June 2021 article to reflect the purchases I've made with this wonderful gift.
These items will be going directly into my production as another way of me thanking this kind individual - Thanks Again!!!
Sneak peek at the new Dartanbeck 5 character
And a cool new page started on my site about a really cool company that sells element VFX videos for filmmakers - Action VFX
They also have some wonderful freebies to try!
If you enjoy my work and would like to help support the cause, something as simple as a Gift Card is always welcome, and a big help!
Well, looky here I hope that card is doing you some good.
Absolutely! I call it the AgitatedRiot RTX 2060, which is better than the average GTX 2060! :)
I was rendering the animation that I got that little glimpse of the Dartanbeck 5 character above from, and Octane was set to 1,000 iterations and completed 121 frames in 45 minutes! Oh Yeah!!!
I can get a lot done at that rate! :)
Thank You Thank You Thank You!!!!
So this whole journey - endeavoring to create some CG Movie Episodes - something that I'd be interested in watching, has taken me on a much longer and larger trip than I'd ever have imagined.
Probably because I come from a very small, quite protected from the rest of the world sort of village area, I never really knew a thing about making movies. I just knew I wanted to make them.
After getting well acquainted with Carrara and having some fun making my little test movie with Vegas Movie Studio I thought I was something special. So I just proceeded to work on making my Carrara skills more in tune with what I wanted to do - especially with animation, lighting and texturing.
Along comes this online education course from Norwich University of the Arts on Visual Effects. Someone urged me to take it. "What?" I though to myself, "I don't need VFX, I can do all of my effects directly in the render", I told myself and others.
Still, I signed up and took the course.
Not only did I learn a Lot about "Why I need to Learn VFX", but also a lot about filmmaking in general. Well... and I also learned a lot about actually doing VFX, even though I'm still consodering myself a totally green noob!
So when I went missing for that while, that's one of the things I did was to study VFX (when I could) and dip my toes into the software.
The class I took taught us using HitFilm Express (Express is the free version of the software) so that we were all learning on the same application, but we were also allowed to use the software of our choice if we ever felt like it. So I did a few of my homework assignments using PD Howler, which I really have a fond liking of using. Learning HitFilm was a blast, though, and so I keep that app installed and updated.
Since then I've been back with my nose to the grindstone still endeavoring to become a better 3D arist by my own guage. I never was trying to 'beat' anyone. I just want to like what I create.
Then there's the long story I wrote about earlier in this thread how I lost my Carrara computer and my ability to create. I won't dig through that again right now. But when I got back I was using a demo version of a rather bashed-together Rosie 5 test model. She didn't look that great, but I was learning a lot more about using that newer, yet still dated figure technology compared to what's available today.
You know what? I don't mind dated, especially when it's performing the way I need it to. Besides, Genesis 1 technology still blows me away with glee!!!
After nailing down a newer, better Rosie 5, I wrote some stuff, made some videos and started feeling right at home again.
The hair was still giving me a hard time. It was fast to simulate and somewhat slow to render, but the part that troubled me was when I couldn't get the simulation under control in the final render - which is the only time I could actually see the results. I kept trying to make some pretty cool hair better - and that was the problem.
I still have version of Rosie 4 that were horrible test subjects, saved in my Carrara library. I mean, I have lots and lots of backed up saves of quite a few generations of my working on my Rosie figure - a LOT!
Do you think I have a copy of the hair that I was showing off in those videos of Rosie 5 I made?
Nope.
Frustrating.
I really like what I've got going on with my new Rosie 5.2 character, who actually came after Rosie 5.5, and even after Rosie 8 and the failed Rosie 7 who never saw the light of day.
Rosie 5.2 (and 5.5 and 8) require me to work in Daz Studio for her animations and renders. So again... "Where's Dartanbeck?" "Oh, he's off learning Daz Studio"
I can tell you straight, right here and now - I really wished that I could have got all of this to work in Carrara! Yikes!!!
Now that I finally have a 'comfort zone' with animating in Daz Studio, when I jump back into Carrara I'm reminded me of why I felt like I was having all of my teeth removed when I tried animating in Daz Studio - because it really is like that in comparison! I mean... I copy a whole line of key frames and paste into a completely blank part of the timeline, and that horrible tweener blasts the figure so hard that the only respite is to crash Daz Studio and start all over again from scratch!
And don't get me started on Tweeners - because Daz Studio... the premier software that takes developmental precidence over all else... has Three Tweeners!!! Linear, TCB and Constant. Oh yaaay. That might not even be bad if we had some handles on the curves from one key to the next, but no. In fact the tweeners (unlike every single tweener in Carrara) don't come equipped with a single setting to adjust!!!! What?!!!
Oh my... I did Not come here to rant. I'm stopping that right here, right now!
So my savior came in the form of good ol' aniMate 2. What a beast of a savior.
If I had to describe aniMate to a Carrara artist who didn't know a thing about it, I'd say that it's a third-party Carrara NLA (non-linear animation) system for Daz Studio. Not a Carrara timeline sequencer by any means, but a really decent (better than decent, actually) user-friendly NLA system.
So now that I'm Back in the Saddle (Oooo.... Aerosmith tune jumps into my head... give me a second to finish this song before I continue!)
So now I've got a pretty good library of successfully animated renders of the most difficult character that I have in my movie. I even did some shots that won't be used until the second or third episode since I was nailing down how best to use Daz Studio for her - which turned out to be that she requires OctaneRender if I want to actually complete anything before I die, but Octane ahs been a fun and fast learning curve. I still have a lot to learn, but it's very user friendly so I got a lot done that meets up with what I want done.
Whew... am I finally getting to a point here?
Yep.
Okay, so now that I'm working on renders other than Rosie, I can use Daz Studio or Carrara upon command - and that's a Big first for me. I used to be completely alergic to Daz Studio!
With everything moving along, you know how it is, we have to collect and build assets for the steps that follow the current workflow. For me, this next bit is the VFX.
VFX Special Effects - Magic, Fire, rain, snow, cold breath, lightning, volumetric lighting effects, water, background movement from anything that isn't directly part of the script, etc.,
VFX Compositing - Layering all elements together to create the complete shot.
VFX Color Grading - making sure the final look and feel matches the intended mood, and maintaining continuity throughout the piece.
After that will come foley and background sounds - but that's far off right now.
While I was in VFX class a new company emerged comprised of eager, well-educated artists, filmmakers and gurus to specialize in creating VFX elements that artists can buy and use rather than having to create them.
Action VFX
Of course just like nearly anything, they had to give away some free samples in order to begin growing an audience. Well they've grown their audience alright, yet they still like to give out plenty of free samples! And it's been my experience (and I've been a member since they started) that once something starts out being Free, it stays Free!!!
Aside from Free, their prices are really quite excellent! I don't need the 4K version of anything, so I just buy the 2K versions for less - even though the full 4K elements still have quite the reasonable price tag!
But that's not why they grew. They've been succeeding like mad because of Excellence!
They film these elements using the best techniques with hired professionals surrounding every aspect of every project. Okay, I'm kind of going off on a tangent, just to say that I like to use these sorts of elements because of their ease-of-use and high quality.
In Carrara, we can actually use video sources as texture maps for almost anything that can take a texture map. It really blew my mind that we can't really do that without buying a plugin in Daz Studio. I bought the plugin but haven't sat down to learn the process yet. I don't think I need to now anyway. I can do all of that sort of thing directly in Carrara.
Remember when I was going off about Tweeners? Well Daz Studio's lack of adjustable tweeners makes camera moves a headache for me. Fine... you can do it just fine. Well I'm not going to. I'll do all of that in my Carrara, thank you very much... but that's that!
I did want to introduce you folks to some of the free Action VFX footage though. I have articles about how I use Daz 3d Content to drive and actually even write a story - even sometimes just by looking at products in the store before I actually buy them! Daz 3d and their artists are Top Freaking Notch in my book!!! Just looking at promo picture quite often help me to finesse a missing link of a story!
Same thing here - just 'seeing' the effects possibilities takes away a lot of the anxiety of trying to make an animation that requires that we do something that we're not sure how we'll pull it off.
I still use Carrara to create a good number of Visual Effects, and I also have Particle Illusion. So I'm no stranger, nor am I scared to make my own VFX. But spending a few bucks to get a really perfect clip for a certain situation is Gold to me - because time is something I don't seem to find a lot of around here!
Check these out!
The videos show off the collection, but the page has the individual clips - mouse over them to get a preview of the action of the clip
Free Spell Hits
Free Smoke Plumes
Free Dust Waves
Free Lightning
Free Portals
And there's also free textures and sound effects, overlays, etc.,
HitFilm tutorials will also sometimes offer free stock video assets as well!
I have a decent, smallish, but decent growing collection of VFX - but now I'm making and collecting more! Let me know if you find anything cool!
I bought Bryce 7.1 Pro quite a long time ago, love the manual, love what's going on in this forum, but I've been so caught up with learning more about Carrara combined with the fact that I really don't get a lot of computer time, I simply haven't given Bryce a shot yet.
I had it installed on my last computer, but not on this one... yet.
Since I've recently took the time to learn Daz Studio in order to help remove compatibility issues since Genesis 1 is the last generation Daz Figure that is fully compatible with Carrara,I thought to myself - if I can do that with Daz Studio, I really owe it to myself to also take the time to learn Bryce 7.1 Pro!
So I've started a new section on my website to help light the fire under my tush as well as to inspire me. Truth told, I also learn a lot when I write stuff because I usually do a pile of reading and other research along the way.
I'm not sure how well this will work, but while I was waiting for a render that was going to take an hour and forty-three minutes I decided to come downstairs to this lowly little craptop and see if it can run Bryce! LOL
It's not as horrible of a laptop as I make it out to be, I'm sure. But it is truly loathsome compared to my Ryzen 7, 64GB RAM, GTX 2060 machine that runs my projects in Carrara and Daz Studio, DaVinci Resolve, HitFilm, Affinity Photo, PD Howler, etc., etc,
Anyway, I only got as far as to download and install Bryce 7.1 Pro with native and Pro content and the few Bryce Add-ons I have purchased. You see, I really wasn't kidding when I said that I've always 'intended' to fire up Bryce and have a go with it. It's just that I was always preoccupied with my Carrara work - no time for much of anything else.
I started watching the first one and... oh man. With help like this, I'm pretty sure I'll be up and going fairly quickly. 3D construction (modeling), texturing and lighting are something I think I have a pretty firm grasp of, so it's mostly a matter of figuring out how Bryce wants us to operate - and these tutorials and videos appear as if they'll help me along nicely with that - especially with the resources I mentioned already in my starter section for Bryce on my website.
I have to work in the morning so I'm not going to start exploring anymore tonight, but now whenever I'm waiting for simulations or renders I can come down here and at least try to catch a feel for Bryce and learn my way around. Maybe even build something nice to show.
If it works (on this lowly machine, that is) I'll be writing of my experience on my website. If it doesn't, no harm no foul... I'll just have to proceed as originally planned and wait until my project is more complete.
Cheers
BTW, check out all the stuff they still have available for Bryce! I wish they didn't erradicate so many of the Carrara products. I mean... why?!!!
I also made a new page dedicated to Action VFX, which I think is rather fun!
This is a little Preface regarding my current direction in all of this:
The Production
Upon its release will also come tutorials and workflow demonstrations on how I am removing the barriers and constraints that come along with being tied to any one application for any part of a production, which also removes compatibility issues.
At the same time I will also attempt a rather respectible plead to Daz 3d to realize the value of the other production software under their banner - software which has the ability to put Daz 3d ever higher on the food chain within the industry, with more potential for PAs and customers, while invigorating a fan base that already exists.
Bryce and Carrara are formidable and ultimately interesting 3D Art applications that have immense potential in todays growing interest in home and studio production. In a world that, like me, realize that no one app has to complete the entire mission. That these apps Add to the interest of Daz Studio and its support products far more that deterring from them.
Nothing really competes with Bryce other than perhaps Vue, and even top of the industry software are just recently gaining abilities that Carrara has had for years. Launching upgrades to these two apps would create an imaginative stir that would impact Daz 3d for years, and I think they know that. So perhaps they're already planning it - who knows.
Either way, I intend to politely nudge Daz 3d to help themselves by helping others - and together, we can all shake this industry!!!
Wow. The trailer may start off with cartoon kids, making it look a bit like what it isn't - a Kid's Movie.
The Witcher - Nightmare of The Wolf is an excellent film done in Anime, preceding the times of Geralt of Rivia (The Witcher books, games and Netflix TV hero) on a thrill ride of adventure, intertwining good and evil into quite the epic tale indeed!
If you have Netflix, give it a watch!
Welcome back, friends!
Just easing in a little post as I continue hard at work on production of a yet untitled animated series (currently working up a teaser),
This is Dan Ritchie, developer of Project Dogwaffle, giving us a wonderful look at how Technicolor made color movies using B&W film so that we are better equipped to utilize the Cimemascopic Filter for achieving this old movie look.
I love it when Dan does these videos! Be sure to check out the pdhowler YouTube channel for more of these great videos!
I am using both Fusion, by Blackmagic Design and HitFilm, by FXHome to perform visual effects for my project, but Project Dogwaffle Pro - Howler (PD Howler) has been a driving force in my animation edits for artistic decisions and corrections from the start. In fact, it was the Project Dogwaffle team that really got me into the whole VFX process at my earliest stages, and I'm very grateful for that.
I originally used it to fix bad frames in a render, where something just didn't come out just right in a simulation, or I made a mistake with something along the way. As I learned more about what I can do in Howler, the more creative and artistic I could be when working with my animated (or still) renders.
So if you're reading this, Thank You, my wonderful Team of Wafflers and Howlers!!!
thanks Dart!
Tis my absolute Pleasure, my friend! ;)
Wow, did I blink? How did I miss 18 updates? There is so much great stuff here it is going to take me at least a week to catch it all up. Thanks for the info, congrats on getting your new character version i shape, good news on animate 2, appreciate the VFX and Hitfilm references, and of course.... ...STAY MOTIVATED! (because your motivation is contagious).
While working on my newest version of Rosie 5 - the one that will (hopefully) be able to jump back and forth between DS and Carrara, while still being the same, I realized that I don't like the new head shape. I mean, I dislike it enough that, if I couldn't fix it, I'd likely have to drop the whole idea.
She looked great to me in Textured view, but in actual (test) renders, I just didn't like it at all.
In looking back at my favorite Rosie 8 and 7 characters, Rosie 8 has the hands-down best face!
Rosie 7 is very, very close. Both 8 and 7 use Sol as a base head at 100%. Where 8 uses Lara (by Thorne) however, 7 tries to produce the stylized look of Lara using a touch of Star 2.0 and a whole pile of other morphs.
Lara is definitely key.
So I went back to my Character Convertor from Genesis 8F to Genesis 3F, read a bunch of posts... argh... no solid answers to my issue - which was that "Stylized" characters, namely those with huge eyes, do not convert over well. The eyes get all crumpled looking.
Well as it turns out, I was a real ditz in that I didn't read the instructions well enough!
RiverSoft Art explains in plain English that, to convert large-eyed, stylized characters, try using the "Legacy" conversion method, and uncheck the "Hide Eyes" option.
So I went back in and did my first conversion using the exact setting he suggests and, voila! I now have Rosie 7 that is a near-exact replica of Rosie 8!
Next I decided that I'd need a different approach for Rosie 5. Too many generation shaping morphs might just break her up too much.
So this time instead of converting a custom character, I just converted Lara to Genesis 3 Female, using those same settings. Yes!!! Success!!!
After that I used GenX2 to only add Lara's head to Genesis 1.
I went back to my Rosie 5's most recent save, and removed all but Sol from her head morph selection, then dialed up Lara as I've done with 8 and 7, and then performed the same similar changes using the rest of my incredibly large selection of morphs for Genesis 1. Whew! She's Gorgeous!!!
Unfortunately, Rosie 5 is now undergoing simulation maneuvers, so I can't really shoot a quick render of her - and I forgot to before I started animating her.
But here's the render I did of the successful conversion of Rosie 8 to Genesis 3 Female - I just had to show RiverSoft Art that I succeeded!
Rosie 5 doesn't have the freckles though. Using Reby Sky's elite textures help her to look less youthful, which is perfect - since she's Not a kid! She's not entirely human, is all!
Ooops. I did Not just say that out loud!
My attempt made in Unity.
Droid Adventure
Featuring:
Droid - https://www.daz3d.com/droid
RoboTNY - https://www.daz3d.com/robotny
Video on YouTube:
Sorry I've been MIA to social internet for so long.
Artini... that's really cool!
I'm excited to hear that Daz 3d will be putting out a new release of Hexagon!
For me, Hexagon (with it's DS bridge) really makes for a better Daz Studio experience.
Really looking forward to seeing what glee Daz Studio 5 might bring.
For Carrara, Daz Studio has an abundance of tools to add beneficial treatments to our figures that we bring in.
Greetings, Dart. Hope these recent posts are a prelude to more animations, VFX work, and other 3D stuff.
Blessings on the non-3D front.