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224 S 200 W, Suite #250
Salt Lake City, UT 84101
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She's always appearing in this house! I am one lucky fellow! :ahhh:
Edit:
Aw Man! Now she's back on the previous page! Argh!
We can fix that, though... another of the same character, different scene, different outfit, same software!
Apparently some folks are oblivious to sarcasm.... :) :) :)
I are, dat's fer shur!
Jonstark,
I wish - I wish I could get to the point where I had something to render. So far I am struggling with the program trying to get any type of descent character model that I can use in the timeline. It is amazing how many dead ends I have gone down trying to bring this about. First I had to find how to make or adapt 18th century clothing. I think I have that resolved. Next I needed the facial identities of characters such as Benjamin Franklin and James Cook...Thats what I am working on now. I have spent a week manipulating the morphs in a G2 male trying to bring the physiognomy into line with the character..There is a lot you can do with these morphs ...but still you can't or at least I can't fine tune the morphs so that it matches what a portrait artist calls "a likeness". It may not be possible..another dead end. The good side to all these tribulations is that I am learning the program in a way that will pay off in the long run. Nothing teaches better than painful failures. I am beginning to think that my problem is strategic. So I am going to ask advice on the forum as to whether my overall approach is correct. This is Dartanbeck's thread and I don't won't to hijack or divert it.
Starboardtack
You can keep using trial and error with the dial morphs. You can also create your own morphs. In Carrara, you can use the vertex modeler to edit the figure directly. In Carrara, you can also create a custom morph just for a particular body part. Along those lines, Daz studio has a bridge to Hexagon to create morphs. Some people use ZBrush.
It is easy within Carrara. Within Carrara, here is a demonstration using the Aiko figure to model directly on the model level of the figure.
http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/48708/P480/#737474
EDIT: Note - Genesis will give you a protected geometry warning in Carrara. I have been able to successfully ignore that sometimes.
Diomede64,
I have been manipulating the mesh in the G2 Male. In the vertex modeler I have change the skull slightly and a few other changes. However I have found that although Carrara saves the model when I try to start up that same file Carrara will not mount it. See the warning in the attachment. Also I was not able to make my own morphs in G2.. I like the G2 because I was able to buy and use aging morphs. However, it seems to give with one hand and takes away with the other. For this reason I have started to play around with M4. It may be more forgiving. I would like to stay within Carrara and use the M4 or G2 as I can see how I can readily use the morphs in the timeline. (really powerful - if nothing else I have learned how to handle the morphs) Here is question that may make this work. Could I paint on or add a layer to the the texture maps (facial maps) of a M4 or G2 model. If this was possible perhaps I could add that portrait likeness that is lacking.
I just started a thread on how best to approach this..Perhaps you could give me an answer there. I don't want to hijack Dartanbeck's thread.
Starboardtack
Actually, this makes for an excellent example for Dartanbeck's thread! :)
Chapter 18 in the "Learning Carrara 8.5" course set shows exactly how we can make as many photoshop style layers as we want in Carrara 8.5, a feature that I never even tried, as I didn't realize it existed until watching it here... Thank You Again, Phil Wilkes!!!
I am still early in the course, so I'm not sure how deeply he gets into modeling in Carrara in this course.
M4 is amazingly easy to edit in Carrara, and V4 is even easier. Here's a question for you first, though:
In the G2 model that gave you errors up opening it, have you gone into View and removed "Protect Topology" on G2 before editing the mesh? If not, that might very well be the reason for the error. If you like to model around on Genesis 2, I would suggest loading in Genesis 2 Male, go to View > Topology Protection, and then deselect "Protect Topology".
- Then go Edit > Remove Unused Masters > Consolidate Duplicate Shaders
- While looking through Camera 1, aim the camera so that you can see the whole figure
- In the pane on the right, select Camera 1 and then type Ctrl D (or go Edit > Duplicate), to duplicate the Camera
- Rename this new Camera to "Face"
- Drag this camera above Camera 1 in the list
- Rename Camera 1 to "Full" or "Body"
- Select the Head of Genesis 2
- In the upper left of the window, use the camera selector to chose the new "Face" camera (if it still reads Camera 1, it'll be the second one down)
- With the Head still selected, type 0 (number zero) to zoom and center the view on the Head
- Manipulate the view to be a good default for modeling on the head/face
- Go back to the camera selector in the upper left and go into the Director's Camera and save the file to your browser
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What the above will do is to give you a great default starting point for working on G2 - before it has been edited. So you have a perfect starting point for future projects. If, as time goes by, you end up buying more shapes for the figure, those new shapes won't show up on this one. So the simple process for fixing this is to open this scene, select G2 and delete it. Now load in a fresh copy of G2 from the DAZ Library, go to View > Topology Protection, and remove the check. Edit > Remove Unused Masters > Consolidate Duplicate Shaders, and save the file again.
He's what else it does:
In Carrara 8.5, when you save a scene while looking through the Director's Camera, it will open you in the Director's Camera! This was never the case before, and I love this feature. When modeling, we don't want Undo to undo out camera movements, just our modeling operations... Director's Camera movements or zooms or whatever do not undo.
So stay in the Director's Camera and use the camera selector in the upper left and: Set Position To > Face or Body or whatever other views you may have made! Bam! I do this for all of my figures and it saves literal GOBS of time!
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Further FYI:
This Section of the DAZ 3D Wiki has some fairly complete instructions regarding saving your custom shapes so that you might share or sell them to other folks as custom morphs for Genesis, which also applies to Genesis 2 Male and Female, but you can also use this just for your own personal use - using your hard work as a dial on the figure, so that it might help to get you closer to making just the right shape for another character you need - you'll begin to find this process to be enormously handy - and simple to perform the more you practice doing it.
Basically what you'll be doing is exporting Genesis or Genesis 2 M or F after you've made a custom face, as an obj file. Then you load the basic, unedited base figure (the same one you've originally opened in Carrara to make the shape) into DAZ Studio 4 or higher. It then teaches you how to use the CCTs (Content Creation Tools), in this case Morph Loader, to bring in your OBJ that you've exported, and the dialogs in DS Pro will let you add your custom shape onto the base figure as a shaping morph dial! Yeah Baby!!!
That link also includes instructions (very nice and simple to follow) on how to import custom objects like clothes or hair, spikes, bracelets, whatever, and easily turn them into true Genesis Triax conforming items that will then automatically follow any morphs that are applied to the figure! Too cool, and great stuff to learn, whether you just want to make stuff for yourself or, even better, make products that other people like me want to buy. DAZ 3D is looking for artists to publish all the time!
Before going on about this stuff too much, I just want to mention that, making conforming clothes and such for figures is really fun to do in Carrara, by using the ability to model in the Assembly Room. I just love it, and if you use SubD smoothing in Carrara on a low-poly mesh, and then bring that into DS and have it apply SubD smoothing, it comes out the same way, which is beautifully wonderful! It just makes the whole workflow really nice, since Carrara has export presets that match DAZ Studio Import presets. I use the Poser preset, but I think there's even a DAZ Studio preset as well. Just cool and fun!
Back to the original topic, I had a free one month subscription to safari online which happens to include Phil's Carrara training. I thought I could whip through the content in a month and avoid paying for it. :)
However, there was so much content and it was so good that even though I made it through in a month, I ended up buying it anyway. Great work Phil!
Dartanbeck,
I followed most of what your saying about Genesis and using cameras..I am going to print it out and go over it more carefully. It is really tough trying to get a likeness using those sliders... I have been using M4 as I can make my own morphs. This seems to be working, though the face still has the bloom of youth on it,,but its getting there. However from what you have been saying about G2 and clicking on "Protect Topology" I think I will try once more and see how that goes. Maybe I can run the M4 and the G2 in tandem and see which one progresses best.
Tell me has this forum always been this active...I spend a fair amount of time just reading the posts - its addictive. It seems like after a while you can start to see the different personalities in play.
Thanks again,
Starboardtack
Dartanbeck,
Something I have been thinking about. The hummmm in your sound recording. Are you using shielded speakers ? If not you will definitely get a 60 cycle hum. Also there is Sound Soap which is software that removes 60 cycle hum.
I use a pair of Yamaha MSP5s. which are heavily shielded. This allows them to be placed very close to the screen and other electronics.
I don't know if this helps..
Starboardtack
Oh yeah, you definitely start to get a feel for the different personalities at play, that's 100% true, and the forum members here are interesting and dynamic people (at least in my opinion). It really is a pretty great community, and it does become addictive (plus I find I'm always learning something new about Carrara at the same time). I have no great love for DAZ itself, and wish they were less strict on some of the ways they moderate the forums here, but the forum community itself is pretty great here, and extremely knowledgeable and willing to help (not to mention entertaining and sometimes very funny).
It's always a little jarring to hear someone who you only know from forum posts in a tutorial video, for example. Sometimes they sound exactly like you might have imagined, sometimes not. Dartanbeck sounds exactly like my favorite crazy uncle from Canada, for example :) I almost fell off my chair the first time I heard his voice and accent, even his vocal mannerisms were so incredibly identical to my uncle's.
Oh yeah, you definitely start to get a feel for the different personalities at play, that's 100% true, and the forum members here are interesting and dynamic people (at least in my opinion). It really is a pretty great community, and it does become addictive (plus I find I'm always learning something new about Carrara at the same time). I have no great love for DAZ itself, and wish they were less strict on some of the ways they moderate the forums here, but the forum community itself is pretty great here, and extremely knowledgeable and willing to help (not to mention entertaining and sometimes very funny).
It's always a little jarring to hear someone who you only know from forum posts in a tutorial video, for example. Sometimes they sound exactly like you might have imagined, sometimes not. Dartanbeck sounds exactly like my favorite crazy uncle from Canada, for example :) I almost fell off my chair the first time I heard his voice and accent, even his vocal mannerisms were so incredibly identical to my uncle's.
Being Canadian I resembe that remark
Jonstark,
I find myself going back into the older posts, then farther back again.. then just a bit further..finally I have to get back to do some real work. Like you say it is an entertaining way to learn - and if I might add eavesdrop. There is an odd word..What do people do hang from the eaves and listen at the windows.. Sometimes language is quite strange.
I have to get back to work..
Starboardtack
Oh yeah, you definitely start to get a feel for the different personalities at play, that's 100% true, and the forum members here are interesting and dynamic people (at least in my opinion). It really is a pretty great community, and it does become addictive (plus I find I'm always learning something new about Carrara at the same time). I have no great love for DAZ itself, and wish they were less strict on some of the ways they moderate the forums here, but the forum community itself is pretty great here, and extremely knowledgeable and willing to help (not to mention entertaining and sometimes very funny).
It's always a little jarring to hear someone who you only know from forum posts in a tutorial video, for example. Sometimes they sound exactly like you might have imagined, sometimes not. Dartanbeck sounds exactly like my favorite crazy uncle from Canada, for example :) I almost fell off my chair the first time I heard his voice and accent, even his vocal mannerisms were so incredibly identical to my uncle's.
Dart's in Algoma, which isn't that far from Green Bay, which isn't that far from the U.P. Da' Yupers are just across the lake from Canada. In fact, Isle Royale National Park, which is part of Michigan is actually closer to Canada. It's not surprising you hear an accent similar to your crazy uncle's. If you heard mine, it might also remind you of it. I do use less, dude when I speak than Dart.
;-)
I'm more centrally located than Dart, near Abbotsford.
I remember seeing the pics you guys posted last year when Evil, Dart, and Garstor all got together. That must have been a kick to meet other carrarists in person. I'm too far away to join in on something like that. However since I live in Utah, I'm right on Daz's doorstep. I've been half tempted to take a 15 minute drive and protest outside their offices with signs like 'Where's Carrara 9?!' , marching in a circle by myself :) So beware daz, you've got a crazy carrara user nearby...
Now that the title of the thread has been changed to "I Bought Infinite Skills: Learning Carrara 8.5 and here’s what I think," I want to say...
I also bought Infinite Skills: Learning Carrara 8.5, and I think it is tremendous.
Not sure I want car9, car 8.5 was such a let down, grumpy whinge complain :)
I bought PhilW tuts when they first came out I havent have achance to scratch myself (or anyone else) since I bought them so I have only seen first half hour but I learnt something in that half hour that was worth the price of admission
.
maybe I should start another thread? (just kidding Dart)
You live that close to DAZ and you have managed to restrain yourself from protesting – that is an incredible amount of self-control!
If I had known that you live that close and were tempted to protest, I would have offered to join you last month when I was in Salt Lake City.
We were in Salt Lake City to enjoy all things Christmas there and in the surrounding areas.
We thoroughly enjoyed the lights downtown as well as Heritage Park and the Hogle Zoo, along with some well decorated homes and neighborhoods. The home known as Frosty’s Winter Wonderland should not be missed.
The drive-through Holiday Lights at Thanksgiving Point were well worth the drive.
Although Spanish Fork was a bit further away and the drive on Christmas Night was during some snowfall, the Festival of Lights drive-through was worth the trip as well. The setting was particularly beautiful with fresh snowfall.
We also just loved the Ogden Christmas Village and the Willard Bay Park drive-through lights.
We found all of the people to be extremely friendly and thoroughly enjoyed all of the restaurants we tried.
Oh, back to the subject of this thread – I have also purchased PhilW’s training courses and have found them to be informative and enjoyable. I am still working my way through the various chapters, but like so many others I have found quite a few helpful approaches to a variety of tasks.
damn I would buy an old tradie van and paint where is Carrara 9 on the side and park it out front.
LOL!!!
Okay, now it's really bothering me that I have to work at a place where I cannot access the internet ad, hence, this forum! Wow... where to begin?!!!
msteaka,
Cool! I'm glad that you're having success with M4, and that you're pumped about trying my character saving method! I have a lot of advice about saving fully optimized characters after they're tweaked and ready to save a final version of... let me know! ;)
M4 vs G2 - The Topology Protection might be what's keeping the saved file from opening... possibly. It was a guess. Personally, as much as I really love the new Genesis 2 figures, I totally love working with Generation 4! V4 and M4 are so easy for me to work with and on! There are some aging morphs available for M4 too, I think. But otherwise, I'm sure that you could do some awesome aging effects using the displacement painting tools in the Carrara modeler! Just remember to work with subtlety and build from there. Often times in Carrara, a little of this and that can go a long way! Also, if you have Photoshop (I don't) or some other cool art software, like Project Dogwaffle (I do have that!) you could try using filters or brushes or both and/or some other tricks, to try and age the textures. Did you know that when you crank the bump up in Carrara, it can go all the way to 250 using the slider? That's almost always way too much for use on a character though... but still, even though the slider stops at 250 (-250 the other way) you can actually type in higher values still, up to 500! Yikes! It's amazing how much effect 500 or -500 bump can do to things!
Carrara's 3D paint is another tool to play with! I was getting really heavy into that before I lost all of my Carrara time. I love it! So I went ahead and bought the Scratches brushes fro Carrara by GKDANTAS, here at DAZ, and then all of Ringo Monfort's brushes as well. Carrara comes with some really nice brushes without buying anything. It certainly has some nice ones for painting age on the bump or displacement maps. Earlier I was talking about the displacement painting in the vertex modeler, but you can also (or instead) use 3D paint to paint displacement maps - the displacement painting facility in the modeler can also export to map, and I think that you can just leave the deformations right on the mesh, if you want, without using a map... but I cannot remember for sure.
Finally... no. I'm not using any speakers when I record those. I was using a headset. When I use that (Logitech) headset on my laptop I don't get that hummmm. I've tried really hard to filter it out, too. I will be coming up with a much better system eventually.
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Funny... yup, I've got one heck of a northern accent, but I can imitate many that are much further north! LOL
I've noticed that, while I'm video/audio recording myself as I work in Carrara, my voice gets dryer that normal. When I sing... or even just talk through a mic with my band, or any other time, that dry scratch in the back of my throat isn't there... I thought that it was just that day, when I made my first one. But the other ones turned out like that too, and I could feel it... notice it, as I recorded to a point where it almost threw me off regarding what I wanted to say! LOL
As for meeting up with evilproducer and Garstor, I still have nightmares about that weekend! It was horrible! They made me do things... like... I had to....
Darn. Imagine that. Me, at a loss for words? Get out of here! :ahhh:
Yeah, that was one awesome time! Just that short visit, and I love those two guys as if they're my brothers! Gars Man didn't get as much time as evil and I did, and even still... the time that we did have was super freaking cool! We're going to be meeting up again this year, too... and I so totally look forward to that! :)
Kakman! I was slowly typing away while you and Wendy posted, so I missed it until now. Man, I love hearing about the trips you and you totally awesome wife take!
But we cannot push on to C9 just yet! We need them to fix C8.5 first, don't we?!! Oaky, I'll shut up! :ahhh: (yeah, sure you will, Dartan!)
Drive thru lights??? What on earth are drive thru lights?? (sorry, off topic I know, but sometimes American customs baffle me...)
Slightly (ish) more on topic, PhilW sounds exactly like a chap I used to work with. I'm always amused when someone says they find an ordinary English accent exotic. All these Yankee drawls & Texan all y'alls and Canuck eh?s now *they* are exotic!
Dartanbeck,
When you do get around to recording again you might want some good sound software. I have used Audacity and it is very good and its for free. It has noise cancellation algorithms included. Easy to use..
Thanks for all the good information..I will be reading it carefully and applying. Will write more later, can't linger at present.
Starboardtack
Same here! I think we should do a little sightseeing outside of Mad-Town!
Probably a display of Holiday Light displays that one can drive through or by in their automobile.
Probably an elaborate series of decorative Christmas lights at a park or arboretum, that you can look at while driving through the park.
The Rotary Club in Marshfield, (about 30 miles from me) sets one up with something close to a million LED bulbs at the local park and Zoo. You can drive through or walk around the displays in the zoo. In this case, it is free to go through, but they do ask for donations of money or non-perishable food items for the local food pantries.
Fascinating, I've never seen anything like that here. Most town centres string up some lights, usually in or around the pedestrian precinct. They're nice enough, but not generally so impressive you'd to out of your way to see them. Same with peoples houses-a string or two around the front windows is the norm.
Before christmas there are actually TV shows that show some of these places or houses and in some cases they have upwards of 100000 lights and they start putting them up in October. They can also be set to music so they are elaborate productions.
when I as a kid (over half century mark now) the lights of Lobethal, a town in the Adelaide hills were a huge attraction at Christmas,
back then just every house in a town having coloured bulbs on their verandahs or eaves was a novelty.