Carrera black eye - It must be me - It can't be designed this way.

Dartanbeck

PhilW said:

Thanks guys for the kind words about my tutorials - just to let you know that they are now 70% off in the Daz Store (under the Infinite Skills label) so now is probably the best time to get any that you are missing! I can only imagine how awesome Dartanbeck will be when he learns some of the basics! (only joking of course!).Well... after looking at the contents of what it includes... I really do need and want that Basics one! Hey, we all have to start somewhere!

I am currently working on a commercial animation project which will probably take me another couple of months to complete (a lot of work goes into an animation of less than 5 mins!). I am planning to use the experience to build into a future "Animation for Carrara" tutorial set at some stage, but don't expect anything before the summer at the earliest.

Yaaaay!!! :ahhh:

starboard

Jonstark,
Referring to your "Alien artifact of unknown capabilities", I can't help thinking of when I first started going through PhilW's tutorials. I was doing ok and I was thinking with some confidence that I can handle this..I was more or less making a scouting tour. just getting an overview of what I was going to have to learn. Then I got into the advanced lessons , and again I was doing ok , I could see that with some hard work I could handle it. Then I got into the advance shaders..lesson 501,502,503, Suddenly I had walked out of a door into the dark and my feet were paddling air. Our gentleman of the dark arts was making a whole new 3d program using the various parts of this mystifying shader panel with its lists of spheres and their endless pull down menus. The words "Oh No" kept coming, and coming and coming. Since then I have worked my way through most of the lessons and I can understand what Phil was doing - sort of, but still, I have - can I say the word FEAR.. for all those myriad of options that lead to other options and possibly others, that compound and interact into a numbing incomprehension, Who thinks this stuff up ? I suppose eventually I will get familiar if not comfortable with the shader tree...but it won't be easy with the IQ I have been dealt.
Starboardtack

evilproducer

The thing about the shaders is that they can be as simple or complex as you like.

My suggestion is to open some of the shaders that came with Carrara's native content. Find the ones you like, and see how they were made. Then adjust and experiment with them.

I can't link to the tutorial, as it may offend prudes, but there is a tutorial on making a procedural skin shader. By that I mean it doesn't use image maps to generate bumps, color, veins, birthmarks or freckles.