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Here's my other potential entry. I couldn't get the hair to stop sucking up all the light I threw at it. The first is the straight render out of Carrara with no postwork except to convert it to .jpg.
The second image contains postwork similar to what I did in the barn picture. To brighten the hair, I copied the color layer of the Volume Primitive render pass, pasted it above the original to create a new layer and used the Screen blender to brighten the hair. I then copied the background layer and pasted it a couple times, turned off the visibility of all the layers except one of the copied background layers and the two color volume primitive layers. I then merged visible to give me a layer with the brightened hair.
How about you provide 2 names ?
First name to satisfy the rules of this month's challenge.
Second name to satisfy what you believe it should be titled.
Picking a first spot this month is getting a lot more difficult again !!!!!!
How would a young Mammoth look in the scene along with the big fellows ?
Very nice render !!!!!!!!
Remaking some of the elements after the great HD reload.
- Terrain is a vertex grid adjusted with soft select. Shading domains created so that trees could be replicated in the background.
- Need to adjus the grid terrain shader (currently Dartanbeck forest environ) to mix in some snowy spots
- Trees are Carrara pine, but with leaves changed and a procedural texture applied, and trunk has texture map bark applied.
- Leaf texture is mixture of green and white for mixed snow.
- Trees restricted to background shading domain.
- Bear is the Poser 8 bear, Carrara hair applied, bear texture ma applied to root and tip in hair shader.
- Bear pose is curled up toappear like going to sleep for the winter.
To do
- first, create snow and forest foreground
- second, need some rock/fallen tree combination for a shallow den
I got a little side tracked recently but I managed to get some more time in on my entry today.
I am working on the trail in the snow behind the skier. For this I created a black and white image of the trail I wanted. I then split that into two separate images. One with only the bumps and one with only the trench from the skis. I then turned each one of the images into a normal map. There are quite a few free tools that do this on a PC however not so many for the Mac. I did find a free Mac app on this page.
I split the shader into two source channel nodes and added the normal maps. The normal map with the bumps was set to a positive value and the normal map with the trench was set to a negative value. I went above and below 100% to exaggerate the level of both the bumps and the trench.
Love those mammoths, the hair looks great!
First of all, I would very sincerely like to apologize to Antara for my asinine rant about the titles. She has done an exceptional job hosting this challenge in a very stressful season, and my words were uncalled for. I hope that she can forgive me.
I would also like to apologize to those participating in this thread. I have always felt these challenges were so beneficial to this community because they provided a fun environment to learn and share ideas. I went and did the thing I wanted to always avoid in these challenges and created useless drama and probably hurt feelings. Again, I sincerely apologize to everybody.
Everybody has their personal problems, and mine are no more important than yours, except that my problems are my problems, and you all did not deserve me using a stupid excuse to vent my feelings of anger and anxiety at you all.
Again, please forgive my stupidity.
P.S. Unless Antara wishes, I will leave my other post unedited. I said what I said, and I don't wish to try and gloss over my bad behavior.
Picking a first spot this month is getting a lot more difficult again !!!!!!
How would a young Mammoth look in the scene along with the big fellows ?
Very nice render !!!!!!!!
Thanks Bunyip!
I thought about that, and even scaled one down as a test, but it just didn't look right, and I don't have a baby mammoth. I'm going to go with it being mating season and they don't have a young 'un yet. I could have them in each other's wooly embrace to suggest the season, but then I could only post it at Renderotica. ;-)
OK, I am very behind and don't know if I can catch up, but I want to answer some questions at least.
First of all, evilproducer, ideally your title should include "Winter ___ is here" or "Winter ___ is coming" or with the blanks switched to before the word winter. But this can be a general theme and you can have your own subtitle. So, I guess in your case it would be 'Along the rustic road. (Winter is here)" - just so that everyone would know what was your final interpretation of the theme and how you have chosen to fill in or exclude the blanks. That's the rationale behind me asking everyone to include the final theme phrase in the title - to show everyone what was your final interpretation of the theme which is very general in itself and can be interpreted very widely depending on how you choose to fill in your blanks.
And adding the mammoths to your other scene is such a perfect touch! I didn't know they were missing before, but now the scene looks much more complete and so wonderfully alive! I am not sure it's an entirely good or safe idea, but I want to be there watching these animals roam this beautiful landscape. Every time I'd see your latest WIPs for this scene in the last few pages of this thread, I'd think you were pretty much done with this entry, and then in the next WIP, you'd change something or add something and I'd see that it's now so much better, so then I'd think that that's the final one, and then you go and do it again... ...now I am just totally and completely awed and waiting patiently for your final version - to be surprised and amazed once again... :)
And I love your already posted entry! Especially with the soft shadows on the snow and the haze. So beautiful! I am sorry your system couldn't handle all the frost you wanted to include, but I have to say, the image looks gorgeous and complete the way it is now.
diomede64 your bear is very good looking, but in the latest WIP I cannot quite make out the pose. Great progress on restoring your resources and building your scene! I look forward to the final scene, it looks like a great idea for this challenge.
Bunyip02 Your ship keeps getting better and better. I can't wait to see all of it's elements put together. The previews we've been getting look very exciting.
OK, the rest will follow in next issue of my responses.
Looks very good. The only thing that looks off is the green look to the shadows caused by the trees. This is probably because there is translucency in the leaves. You may be able to dial it down a bit. I usually use a mixer in the translucency channel if I come across this issue. I copy and paste the color channel into one of the slots of the mixer in the translucency channel, then in the second slot I put in black or none. I use a 1-100 slider as the mixer and adjust the slider till I get the level of translucency I want.
I tried a simple slider in the translucency channel before, but if the light is right, the translucent color you get is gray which can also effect the surface color when the light shines on it from behind. I then tried darkening my color until I had the level I wanted, which worked okay, but it was easier just using a mixer which does that anyway, but I felt it was a bit more intuitive than trying to use the color wheel.
Another trick you could try if render speed is an issue and that is to use the method I describe above, but instead of the translucency channel, you put it in the glow channel. You will need a pretty low glow, and I would not use this trick if you use Indirect Light. It also won't look quite as dynamic and maybe a little flat if it is to bright.
I used the glow trick on the mammoth picture by applying it to the snowy leaf clumps on the trees.
Thank you Antara, and again, if you missed it, I want to apologize for my rant.
Added smoke to the lodge. I used volumetric fire for the two lower sections. The top one being rotated upside down so that it widens at the top. It then used a volumetric cloud for the top part that fans out.
That is brilliant use of Normal maps! Your scene has so many wonderful details and technical greatness. Seeing these fragments makes me eager to see all these elements come together in the final image.
Thank you for app link and for sharing your process in such detail, too!
Love that, too! The way you use volumetric fire is really enlightened. It makes me think that I've been ignoring it unduly all these years. And It also seems to render faster than volumetric clouds or for, at least in my tests, which makes it especially useful. Your way of using it for so many great different purposes is such an inspiration! Thank you!
Any chance we might see an entry from you, too? I know that there is very little time left and lots of interference from the holidays too, but I'd so much love to see your take on this theme... (sitting here quietly, wishing for miracles...) :) In any case, it's lovely to see you here!
Thanks for the discussion on the Normal maps and the links. They're very helpful.
What impresses the hell out of me is the very tantalizing glimpse of the lodge/resort in the test render. If the rest of your entry looks that good, and I see no reason it shouldn't, you may convince dustrider and Rashad to come back to a biased renderer and drop all the new-fangled Octane nonsense. ;-)
I have to ask. Volumetric Fire? You don't mean the Fire Primitive do you? If it is different, where is it found?
How about you participate and post your own entry instead? :) Also, my own image might need some of your expert postwork advice...
... speaking of which. Here is my third composite element, the room setup screen shot and the first version of compositing the third image with the window. I kinda like the result, and might live it at that. But I still want to use some replicated crystals on the door knob and the snow terrain on the rug (I'll render it using the partially blocked camera view and add it in later, I just need to model the crystals first, or find existing ones, whichever ends up easier.)
The initial idea was to have the frost partially seeping into the room starting at the door. I'll try compositing it that way next and see which version I like best.
(The frost room was really easy to create all I did was delete all shaders except the default one and the glow shaders I use for lighting, and then I edited the default one to look like frost - I used some texture maps from http://www.cgtextures.com/ - love that resource!. I then rendered the scene again with Indirect Lighting - like I did with the initial room setup.)
Wow. I love the frost room.
Thanks for the suggestions, everyone. I am way behind but really want to get an entry in, but the clock is ticking. I'm not sure I'm going to be able to reconstruct the foreground, the storm clouds, and the other animals in time. The soft-body attach proxy project is like the sirens drawing me irresistibly to the rocks.
Antara, The bear is curled up in a ball with one paw drawn up by its snout. But, the flat camera angle doesn't show it well. I should either change the camera angle or the pose. I had wanted to add some cubs, but we'll see. The bear should be partially enclosed under something den-like, in any case.
EvilProducer. Thank you! You are absolutely correct about the translucency of the leaves. Hopefully, I can get it corrected.
The fur on that bear looks so realistic. Very cool!
I had the same transparency issue with the trees in my scene but it went away when I started using sky lighting. I'm not sure what causes it but turning on sky light will be a quick test before you get involved in more timely tweaking.
I have to ask. Volumetric Fire? You don't mean the Fire Primitive do you? If it is different, where is it found?
Oops, I do mean Fire Primitive.
Antara, my crystals were fairly simple.
The fluffy looking ones on the ends of the grasses were a jagged shape I "drew" with the polyline tool in the VM. I filled the shape, used the link tool to connect the points and (I think) added thickness. I created an edge shading domain, just so I would have a domain to use in the replicator.
In the Assembly room, I duplicated the crystal and scaled duplicate way down. I then used the larger crystal as the surface to replicate the smaller crystal. I grouped them and then replicated the group on the grass tip. I adjusted the hit point on the group as well.
The spiky ice crystals were also pretty simple.
That room looks great!
Oops, I do mean Fire Primitive.
No problem! I didn't know if it was something added in C8.5.
The fur on that bear looks so realistic. Very cool!
I had the same transparency issue with the trees in my scene but it went away when I started using sky lighting. I'm not sure what causes it but turning on sky light will be a quick test before you get involved in more timely tweaking.
Hmmmm.... For the Skylight, did you have the GI Light Through Transparency option enabled?
It could also be the more diffuse lighting you get from the atmospheric lighting.
Love that, too! The way you use volumetric fire is really enlightened. It makes me think that I've been ignoring it unduly all these years. And It also seems to render faster than volumetric clouds or for, at least in my tests, which makes it especially useful. Your way of using it for so many great different purposes is such an inspiration! Thank you!
Thanks Antara :-)
I like sharing things I've stumbled upon. I think it's really sad when people post a video showing how they've managed to create flowing water or super convincing this or that but then keep the method to themselves like it's some kind of corporate secret. They have every right to do that but I just think that advancement of the entire community as a whole is beneficial to everyone as it reflects better on Carrara as a whole, making it more appealing to new and experienced 3D artists. And that is beneficial to all of us.
I couldn't agree with you more.
Hmmmm.... For the Skylight, did you have the GI Light Through Transparency option enabled?
It could also be the more diffuse lighting you get from the atmospheric lighting.
Neither Light Through Transparancy or Indirect Lighting are checked.
Hmmmm.... For the Skylight, did you have the GI Light Through Transparency option enabled?
It could also be the more diffuse lighting you get from the atmospheric lighting.
Neither Light Through Transparancy or Indirect Lighting are checked.
That may be why you don't see the greenish shadows from leaves with translucency when you turn on Skylight. It's not full GI, but if you use it, and have any transparencies, then Light Through Transparency needs to be turned on in the standard render options at the top of the screen and also in the GI section about mid-way down. Well, it doesn't have to be on. It depends on what is in the scene. If you don't have transparencies, then you don't need it of course.
I am getting the green translucency effect in both the global illumination (sky light) with light through transparency checked (see attached), and without sky light. I'll try some of the suggestions. I'd hate to give up the leaf effects because of the ground problems.
wips :)
got a moon
added a snow mountain
and a cloud
Hi Misty!
You're off to a good start.
One of things that Carrara has turned on by default is ambient lighting. It is a holdover from the days when computers were much slower and it is designed to mimic a kind of an atmospheric light or indirect light. The problem is that the value is set pretty high (20%) and the color is white. This creates a flat light devoid of details as it comes from everywhere at once. This is the reason the mountain looks kind of grey with few details.
My suggestion to get a better picture, would be to turn it off entirely or at the very least, turn the value down to around 10% or less and change the color chip to a light blue or blue/gray color.
Whatever you decide to do, I would add a distant light, turn it down to around 20% to start and change the color chip to a light blue or blue/gray color. Aim it downwards and slightly back towards the direction the moon is located. This will provide a bit of highlight on the mountain while allowing shadows, which ambient light washes out.
I also went into the sky editor and clicked on the color chip for the moon's aura and made it more bluish. You will want to keep it fairly dark whatever color you choose.
Another item that can help to position the sun and moon lights (which are tied to the sky editor and are aligned with the moon disk and sun disk) is that when they are selected, you can see a little wireframe representation of the disk. For the moon it looks like a half circle. Where the wireframe appears in my frame is where the moon will be in my render.