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Had a burst of inspiration and completed the queen outfit a lot quicker than I expected. I think I'm going to go for a jungle sort of theme for the final render. I'm pretty excited about it. Once I get the characters in, Carrara is going to get a workout. Plants, atmosphere, dynamic hair and a variety of plugins are going to be used for this thing.
I just hope I can pull it all together before the deadline. :)
Anyway, here's the final modelling shots of the queen outfit. I think I went a little extrude happy on the head dress, but what the heck. :)
Spectacular work everyone!
Antara I like the anything goos rust shader. I got excited about the shader plus, but I checked and I have Shader Ops2, not quite the same. Because the glowing panel in the window doesn't get blasted out, it really gives it a nice sense of depth.
pimpy The lightening generator lab is STRIKING! The grid and angle of the camera really draws my attention.
Silene Great cover! Wooly mammoths have to be one of my favorite creatures. Is that Carrara dynamic fur?
MDO2010 Hi! Thanks for joining the challenge. The raygun is looking great! I'm trying my hand at modeling in Carrara for pretty much the first time too. I found that the dynamic extrusion leaves a weird bend if I click on a slightly different area to start the next extrusion. I'm used to Hexagon, so It's weird to me not to have the manipulator for extrusions. Am I missing something?
kashyyyk Love the horse wheels and texture! It's got a nice Trojan horse vibe.
diomede Like the layout, but I agree with kashyyyk. It does look a bit sparse. Needs some space filler.
booksbydavid Your spaceman is gorgeous! I just picked up Silo recently for almost nothing in one of those macheist bundles, but haven't had a chance to try it out. I loved Hexagon, but it's pretty much been unusable on my mac for years, so I hope Silo is an even better substitute.
The queen is incredible! Love the head dress! I was so hoping you were going to choose jungle theme. Yay!
Well, I didn't dare return to the forum without offering something.
My way underutilized tool for this challenge is the Carrara vertex modeler. I constructed a containment unit for my scene. I modeled the dome and base as a single piece, then used the regular path sweep tool to make separate containment arms. I know there must be a fancy way to do a radial replication, but I couldn't figure it out, so I manually copied and positioned each arm.
The thing that really took me a lot to get used to vs hexagon is the importance of setting up shading domains because all the parts are technically one piece. It seems that once you put something into position, without a shading domain, it would be very difficult to select and move it later. Also, I was having trouble with the dome glass not showing the glass shader all the way through. I realized that since I had added thickness to the dome, I had only set up a shading domain on the outer layer. I deleted most of the inner layer to make the liquid in the dome, so I'll need to go back and add thickness again to make it look more convincing. Shaders are very rough right now.
My scene is going to be set underwater. The poor robot fellow is trapped on the ocean floor in a damaged containment unit, leaking radioactive liquid.
Wow, awesome progress everybody! When time permits, I intend to really pull this thread apart and practice some of the techniques I've seen here.
For now, I made some incremental improvements on the spaceship. Also, a first attempt at the rust shader - I wanted something layered on top of whatever normal finish on the object (in this case the spaceship). And a start on dressing the image set - got a concept started in my head at least LOL. Not bad considering I didn't have too much time today. Next: Tweaking the existing stuff and adding the characters...
Thank you! Yes it is... I love working with C-Hair ever since PhiW's tuts. I used it for everything, hair, fur, grass... whatever! Have to start properly building the scene and creating components...time permitting! Mammoth needs re-rigging. His trunk does not move properly at the moment. I am new to rigging.
All these WIPs are so coo, I just like looking aroundl, this has to be one of the best challenges yet!
Thanks, Evil and Pimpy for your posts and suggestions.
:) Silene
Hi David, it isn't going to be an issue with me doing a jungle/forest environment for mine is it? Mine won't be a rescue type image with a hero or heroine if you have seen my WIPs. Since you're much further along with your scene I certainly have no problem with changing my environment up a bit if you think it will be too similar.
Your characters look absolutely beautiful by the way!
Ok,I think I am more or less done with the raygun. I want to keep tweaking it, but time is an issue and I still have a robot to make and rust to create.
I'm thinking of trying to use one of the terrain functions to create the rust, so there is more of it at the bottom but I've never done anything like that before. Any thoughts?
Thanks - that creasing tip seems to have done the trick.
And thank you to you and Kashyyk - the soft select did eventually work, I just had to be a bit more patient and play with the settings more.
Also - here's my robot plan (which I drew during a meeting at work). :)
Looks like everyone's hit the Warp-drive already, heaps of nice work !!!!!!!! :gulp:
My entry (very early days yet)
Main two characters are G2M and G2F morphs loaded into Carrara.
Looking at modelling the environment, maybe adding the building if it works out, and doing a spaceship model as well.
G2M is to get some Carrara hair, still thinking about something to replace the birthday suits with.
Hopefully more progress next week.
My rust shader test (procedural shader)
MD02010 Great sketch! and excellent use of meeting time ;-)
Hi David, it isn't going to be an issue with me doing a jungle/forest environment for mine is it? Mine won't be a rescue type image with a hero or heroine if you have seen my WIPs. Since you're much further along with your scene I certainly have no problem with changing my environment up a bit if you think it will be too similar.
Your characters look absolutely beautiful by the way!
Not a problem at all. Go right ahead and jungle it up. :) We're supposed to be having fun, right? Maybe we can get some good natured 'my jungle can beat up your jungle' trash talk going. :lol:
And thanks. I think I got a bit carried away, but it's in my blood now. Can't fight the feeling. heh, heh.
Thanks.
I started with Hexagon. Loved it also, but it just wasn't stable enough for me to use in any meaningful way. It could be very frustrating at times. Silo was very easy to pick up after Hexagon. It actually had an update a month or so ago, making the new version 2.3, so it's not as dead as some say. There are some very good video tutes on the Nevercenter site. They were very helpful in coming to grips with the software.
Some really good work here so far.
This might be a touch decision, when it comes to voting...
Some work and sketching on my front cover.
Thanks for the suggestions, Kashyyyk, EP, SukyL and everyone. Took a couple of steps backward but hopefully landed in a better starting place. I really like how the alien turned out in the attached test render (but not the femme fatale). I think this is a good starting point.
Per Kashyyyk, I will be planning to populate the background with some darker details, and the foreground with some brighter elements, I made some changes to my main pieces. Under the animation tab, I unattached the alien and the femme fatale from their respective skeletons and revised their clothes and shading domains, with a look toward being able to have some brighter parts. I also moved the femme fatale closer to the alien and changed the camera angle. I then created two different sets of lights. I have a colorful 3 point lighting set that points at the femme fatale and the props, and another lighting rig using the same colors but that points at the alien.
Couple steps backwards because I have removed the text, just have placeholders for the furniture, and have zero background details, but I am much happier with several elements, especially the alien. The attached is a basic toon render, but I will continue experimenting.
Thank you for the suggestions.
Edit - I have added a second wip which changes the lighting a little, then combines a 50% toon and 50% npr render. The improvement in the femme fatale is remarkable, in my opinion. it is the darker image.
Cover Text preview ....
how I made it
( a little part of the text)
open Carrara text editor and choose your font
on the bar menu select “convert to other model” (in this way you can modify and alter the mesh text)
in the browser tab choose “misc” and apply “Y Bend 45” modify using rotate and scale for a better result
apply texture from the texture editor
for a central view of the camera select or create a new camera and in the assemble room select ”motion” (I changed the rotation parameter in : X = 90,0 Y = 0,0 Z = -180,0)
In the render room select “output” choose from file format “photoshop” and select “render alpha channel
render and save the image as psd (photoshop)
import the psd image in a graphic editor (Gimp, photoshop etc.) ( I used Gimp) and change the color of the text (see image 3)
merge this image on the cover image and save it! :-)
The plot is materialising ...
Some more bits in the puzzle ....
Wow everyone, your stuff is looking great!
I think I'm in my final render mode. Doing the photorealistic toon render now, then I'll do a non photorealistic one. Using Bunyip02 idea, I was playing in photoshop, using the two renders and using the overlay layer with a low opacity, it gave my toon render a nice little brush stroke look.
Here it is with a couple test renders
I really like that overlay, Bunyip and Kashyyyk. I may revisit the mercurese falcon idea for the second entry but I just feel stuck in the mud. I am going to go in a different direction.
Alien Space Biker Dude
The backdrop is a pic from the web that I will need to replace, and I have to rework most of the textures and the engines need some flames, etc., but I like this a lot more than what I had before.
That looks good. Why don't you use Carrara to create the space scene. They include some planets and making up a texture is easy, plus lens flare adds to a nice space look.
Nothing to report as yet, but my fevered brain (I have the manflu) came up with a few ideas in the wee hours as I lay awake coughing my brains out.
Darkness -- storm -- jungle -- the pylon's down, must fix -- quicksand ...
My uncharted territories will be the plant editor and the terrain editor.
Wow! Everybody, your progress is unreal! There are so many great WIPs. As a result, the Commons thread is getting difficult to keep updated, but that's great.
One more day and I'm on vacation, then I can really get into my scene. Yay!
Hi Tim_A, so sorry to hear. I hope you feel better soon. Definitely jot down those fever dream ideas, those sound really good!
sukyL
Here is where I'm at the moment.
My rust shader is built up by two of the shaders that comes with Carrara.
I us a Multichannel Mixer, and in each of the source's I use the Wizard button, and select the ready made shader.
The for the blender I use Anything Goos from http://www.digitalcarversguild.com , to rust the edges, and add to that the Noise Factory to get some rusty stripes on the pieces.
I still have to tweak it, so it isn't repeating itself.
Managed to snatch an hour here and an hour there yesterday and got a lot done. I set material zones for everything in Silo, UV mapped in 3D Coat (which is super easy) and rigged everything in Poser. Everything is ready for Carrara, now.
I got my queen character's skin texture set. I used two different skin textures from a merchant resource I had and combined them using a multichannel mixer using DCG's Enhance:C plugin. I used Procedural Lock, one of DCG's Shaders Plus lighting models to keep the procedural shaders in place for posing. That one particular function has been very useful in my skin texture experiments. The only thing I'm not happy with is the eyes. I'll probably revisit them after I've gotten a bit more done.
I also tackled the queens' new clothes. All the shader work done in Carrara. There are a few elements I'm not particularly thrilled with, but it was late when I finished and I just couldn't focus. The black looking bands on the arms and head dress are a metal shader that should show more green. They need some environment to reflect.
I like your green skin on the model you created.... wished I'd known you were working on this when I was struggling with my character for a previous project. Oh well... will save for the future.
VARSEL... that is really cool!
:) Silene
Here's a step further.
To try and make a 3D model of the 2D background used in the comp I made in an earlier post.
http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/47148/P105
I made a terrain and shaded it with the rust shader to simulate tundra plant-life. Added some trees from Forest Elements, then put in foothills and mountains with Carrara presets morphed and re-textured. Hope to do more before Sunday when my work will come rolling in that has to be done before I go... still don't know if I will make the deadline but having fun anyways.
Have to do the fancy zapper tool next!
Oh...here's the font-work done in Illustrator as I am more comfortable with that. Hmmmm.... that gradient is a bit dull, will have to sort that.
New items I added to my scene (created in Carrara 8 pro).
New scene setup (texture and ligths) and test render ....and I'm working on the central subject of the scene....:cheese:
@ Diomede - I like it your idea!
@ booksbydavid - very cool!
The page layout.
Created a new document, with the same dimensions as the render. ( 8,5 x 11 )
Use the render in the backdrop of the scene.
This way I can position the text so if would fit in.
Creating the text with the Text Primitive.
Applying a Bend and Twist, and a Taper modifier to the text.
And now to create the rest of the text....
Later render out the text with a transparent background, and combine the text and picture in post-work.
Your little mini tut on using the text tool in Car looks just like the way extrude, bevel and warp is done in Illustrator. I will have to give this a closer look in the future as I didn't think it would be so versatile. Thanks!
:) Silene