Does Carrara 8.5 Pro have these features? Need advise before buying.
teknostorm
Posts: 163
Hello,
I am making an animated video with real live footage playing on a screen in the set. I'm attaching Daz studio sample screenshots. There are more than 12 dancers and the screen plays the video of a live band.
Daz studio does not support video textures so I was wondering if I should move to Carrara for the animation and rendering. Even the camera animations would be easier in Carrara.
Here are the features I need for the music video, can you tell me if these are possible in Carrara 8.5 Pro?
1. Video mapped on the big screen that I am able to see while animating, so I can angle the cameras according to the video on the screen.
2. Import animated and clothed genesis2 models from Daz 3D (my character animation is already finished in Daz studio).
3. Multiple camera cuts - I would like to have many cameras that I cut between during animation. I know I can render several cameras separately and edit them in post-production, but I would like to see the cuts during animation.
I think these are the essentials. Any other positives that would help me if I use Carrara instead of Daz Studio? If not Carrara then would you advise any other animation software that would have these features?
Thanks,
Neole
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Oh and is there a platinum members discount for Carrara Pro 8.5, so should I get a Platinum membership first, or just buy it without Platinum membership?
I can't answer your animation question - I'm sure one of the animators will be along... but C8.5Pro is $65 with the PC discount.
Wow thats super cheap! I don't see it listed in the platinum discounts section, only the models and props. I suppose when I have a platinum club plus membership it will show up then?
It is not a PC item per se, so will not show in the PC section. It is however a DO, so eligible for the extra discount that PC members get on DOs.
Please note that the price given may depend on you updating from a previous Carrara version.
Great, I bought a Platinum Club Plus membership and then Carrara 8.5 Pro right now. Super excited and thanks a lot!
I'm going through some content, and was wondering if these are compatible with Carrara -
http://www.daz3d.com/pop-dance-hip-hop-1
http://www.daz3d.com/latin-dance-sampler-pack-for-v4-2
http://www.daz3d.com/pop-dance-girl-style-2
etc
Or should I just continue using them in Daz Studio and import animated character to Carrara.
And these as well, compatible with Carrara or only Daz Studio?
http://www.daz3d.com/lighting-2-life-light-gels-bundle
1. Video mapping is supported. For best result, use black in the color channel and the video in the glow channel. But to preview while animating, you may need the video in the color channel (I think it ignores glow, but test to be sure). In the worse case, you'll need to swap channels before rendering.
2. Can't answer as I have little experience in Studio.
3. You can move the camera instantly from one location to another using the discrete tweener. But in that case you'd be using only one camera and have to reconfigure it for each cut. Not sure how many you're planning. I would render multiple cameras and edit in post production instead.
Another note: you could also add the video to a light gel. This would simulate a projector better, projecting the image on all the objects in it's path and casting shadows on the screen. That's an artistic decision you'd have to make.
This old tutorial can help. http://docs.daz3d.com/doku.php/artzone/pub/tutorials/carrara/carrara-materials06
You're #1 and #2 are definitely yes, but I've never personally done either (so bear that in mind). Not as certain about the #3 of cutting between cameras, but do think compositing different shots is much safer than running the risk of doing all the animation in one render for a long period of time and then having a crash right at the end, rather than render each portion discretely and compositing together, which is just a better way to do it most of the time :) Not that Carrara is prone to crash often, for me it almost never does, but still...
Aniblocks can be used right in Carrara, and in fact Carrara's NLA features are much more robust anyway. You can use:
http://www.daz3d.com/animate-carrara-aniblock-importer-pro-bundle
I realize you've already done all the animation in Studio and want to import, but you may want to consider doing it in Carrara. You can add Carrara dynamic hair, which looks and behaves like real strand based hair and would greatly enhance (imo) your realism in animation since it reacts to scene forces and sways, etc (I've done a few tutorials on how easy it is to work with, it also renders faster than prop hair). Also Stringtheory has developed a workable dynamic cloth sim you may want to take advantage of for dynamic cloth too, we're still ironing out kinks, but I'm having a blast playing with it and the cloth sim is very fast.
I don't have that particular product for light gels, but should be able to add a light gel to any spotlight. DimensionTheory has several sets just for Carrara:
http://www.daz3d.com/lighting-2-life-light-gels-for-carrara
http://www.daz3d.com/neon-glow-lights-for-carrara
for example.
I would render as a frame sequence, not as a movie. That way, if you crash, you can just pick up where you left off. Carrara does not clear memory efficiently, so I recommend quitting and restarting before a long render.
For light gels, I was suggesting using the actual video footage on a light aimed at the screen. But it's true you could use anything on the other lights to enhance that disco atmosphere.
Teknostorm should do a small test file just to become familiar with the different lighting/projection options before tackling the big animation project.
Thanks for the answers, very helpful! Eric's 'Video to light gel' sounds fantastic, though I have no idea of how to do that. Will check out the tutorial.
I'll definitely be rendering to image sequence, not avi.
I wanted to cut between frames so that I can see the cuts on spot. The other way of rendering multiple camera angles and deciding cuts later would take too much time in rendering each camera. If Carrara allows immediate cuts that would work. In Daz Studio immediate cuts lead to weird behaviour with the camera flying around. I was using a 'camseq' script in Daz Studio to make camera cuts, but it was inconvenient to work.
The dynamic hair and dynamic cloths sound nice, I will be definitely trying them! Right now am just getting used to the interface. (I wonder why there's no left/right click and drag to navigate the viewport.)
I'm also having problem importing Daz3D content, getting missing files in many of the characters. Still many are working. Could not get Genesis or Genesis 2 to import though.
Neole
Those are for Daz Studio only, here are other Gels for Carrara only:
http://www.daz3d.com/gel-master-pack-for-carrara
It is a bundle of 3 packs, you can get the individual packs too.
Press and hold Alt button to navigate in the viewport.
Good starting place for manuals/tutorials:
http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/15970/
3drendero beat me to this, but if you hold the alt button, then your left and right mouse buttons will pan and rotate the scene. I never knew this for many many years, just learned it very recently from PhilW's learning Carrara tutorials, very handy indeed :)
Camera Cuts was successful - using just one camera I can cut between shots by changing the position and angle of the camera over a single frame. No weird jumping around of the camera as in Daz Studio.
Rendering seems faster than Daz Studio for 4-5 object setups. Daz Studio Open GL rendering is super fast, but didn't include shadows. The 3delight took a much longer time. I haven't played around with various settings yet.
Haven't figured out to see lighting, shadows and texture maps in the viewport yet. Daz Studio viewport showed me everything except shadows, almost realtime.
Now if I can figure out how to import the whole scene (including models, props, textures, animations) from Daz to Carrara that would set me on track right away. Is it possible, and are there any tutorials for this? I can do without the cameras and lights, and set them up in Carrara.
Thanks for the gels and 'alt' advise! I needed that desperately!
Now to figure out how to get genesis working, or imported!
Isn't there a file/object search function to search for characters etc by filename like in Daz Studio? That was very handy.
In the top right section of the assembly room, look for a circle with an arrow in the middle pointed upwards, that will pop up the interactive rendering options. Select the 'scene lights' radio button in the lighting mode field, and you should get an idea what your lighting setup will look like. For more visibility might want to try 'light map and scene lights'. Lots of options there to get a better preview and see what's going on.
Genesis works fine in Carrara, with the sole exception I've found that the geografted genitals won't texture correctly. So hardcore porn animation will be difficult with Genesis :) Genesis2 is more quirky but still works, just have to be careful in how you load things and where you load them from. Both should be in the 'my library' under the content tab down below.
I'm sorry, I really don't use Studio unless I absolutely can find no other way, so I'm not an expert on importing prebuilt scenes from Studio and using them in Carrara, but there are many who do so I know it's possible. ManleyStanley who hangs out over on the Renderosity forums I think does this (but I may be wrong), and many others do as well, hopefully someone will be able to give pointers soon (maybe should open a new topic just for this as a question so that it's clearly seen, I'm sure there are previous threads but don't know where to point you offhand).
Carrara is a very fast and very good biased renderer. Actually with the right settings, I've done Thea, Lux and Octane renders from the same viewpoint (these are all unbiased renderers) and Carrara can render almost exactly as realistically as the unbiased renderers I've tested, it actually is one of the best biased renderers around. If realistic light calculations are what you're seeking though, make sure to set the Gamma correction to 2.2 to allow it to get correct linear workflow. It's capable of truly excellent light calculations, and even if realism is not your goal, I think you'll be very happy with it in general, as it is a very fast renderer as well.
Thanks the scene lights button works perfectly, though I managed to get that from the manual as well (I've started reading that now!).
Figures out why Genesis and Genesis 2 werent loading -
The Genesis and Genesis 2 base models were installed in 'C public documents Daz Library' etc folder while Victoria 6 was installed in 'D Daz Library'. I copied all files from C Public Documents Library to D Daz Library and voila! It works now.
My project scene from Daz Studio wont load in Carrara, I think due to this reason, because Daz was reading the files from two separate folders. I think I'll manage to recreate the scene in Carrara, everything going ok.
Thanks for the lighting tips. Gamma correction 2.2, I'll remember that!
Neole
You're on fire, teknostorm, and blazing through problems and growing pains very quickly. :) I'm betting you're going to be able to make some magic with Carrara very quickly, kind of exciting to see you hitting the ground running, and I think you'll find you've just added a mega powerful app to your toolkit that's going to give you a lot of freedom to produce great stuff.
Thanks for the encouragement Jonstark! I'm on a short short deadline so I have to be fast to make it through :)
I solved my Daz studio scene not opening in Carrara by saving the Daz studio scene in the 'D Daz Library' folder. Apparently Carrara was searching for the files using relative paths, so placing it right where the files were helped it!
Next would be animation and lighting, but I'm loving Carrara already!
I was wondering if the screen with the video on it is supposed to be a video screen or a movie screen? If it is a movie screen with a projected video, then a light gel would be best. If it's a video screen, then you would want the video mapped onto the surface as a shader.
This is assuming the screen is a video screen. To get the "glow" effect from a large video screen, I would use a light called Anything Glows. Set it so that the screen is the object that glows. You could further restrict it to only emit light where there is a glow channel in the shader, but it will look sharp as if it is a projector.
You will also want to change the light method from Linear to Distance Squared (this is more "correct"). I would set the range to be fairly low, such as 20ft or so, and falloff to be fairly high- start at around 25%.
Thanks for the detailed tip! However I tried several times but setting the video screen (actually I placed a 'Plane' right in front of the screen, as I was having trouble mapping video to the screen, then mapped the video to the plane), so setting an Anything Glows to 'Plane' is not having any effect whatsoever! I put a rectangle shape light exactly in front of the plane for now, to light up the screen. Maybe I could gel it with the same video as on the screen?
Neole
Another thing is, I was having problems with the imported scene. It was all fine but there were some hitches I was facing like the newly setup lights switching off after some time in the render only (not in the viewport) then not coming back on whatever I did.
So I am creating the scene from scratch in Carrara (not having a file search option makes it tedious, as I have to search for the props in windows explorer, then note the path and open in Carrara. Drag and drop in Carrara from windows explorer opens the prop in a new project, not in the one I drop the prop into).
But so far so good. I am loving the quick beautiful renders and video mapped screen (thank heavens don't have to motion track it scene by scene now!!) and other nifty features. Thanks for the light gel bundle suggestion which I bought as well.
However the biggest problem I am facing is -
1. Genesis 2 characters most clothes don't conform. I can't find 'Fit To' as mentioned in the manual.
2. I can load hair on to Genesis 2 character but I cannot load the texture/material on the hair!
3. And the biggest problem - I can't get the characters to animate! I bought Aniblock importer, and whatever aniblocks I import behave weirdly, nothing like what they are intended as. bvh files exported from Daz or from Iclone 3dXchange don't work properly or don't make the characters move at all. I might just have to export a fully animation baked characters from Daz into Carrara, but I'm not sure how good those will work.
Trying to figure out these three! If anyone can solve these I'll be grateful!
Real quick driveby answer to #1 only, (sorry I'm pressed for time) The 'fit to' is a drop down in the general tab (top right in assembly room) of the character you select. I don't use a lot of genesis2 stuff, but I understand that if something is fitting badly it's best to fit the clothing to nothing first, then fit it back to your character this way.
Since Carrara doesn't care how many cameras you load in (and that their visibility can be turned off), I always have several cameras for each of my animations, all of different angles. Some of them stay with a specific character, others take different angles of the scene.
Then after saving the scene, I load the scene into the Batch Queue in the Render room once for each filming camera I have saved, and then set each Queue's output video to save as a file name that describes the scene, followed by the name of the camera used in that Queue.
For example: Dark_Entity_3C-FC2 translates to:
"Dark_Entity_3C" is the third animation clip needed in the Dark Entity scene, C being my third save of the Carrara scene
"-FC2" is for Film Cam 2
So when I go in to splice my various clips together for the "Ghosts from the Past" episode, I'll see a list of video clips to choose from:
Folder name: "GhostsPast"
Chars_Approach_1E-FC1 (Overall Film Cam 1)
Chars_Approach_1E-FC2 (Overall Film Cam 2)
Chars_Approach_1E-Bfc (Bill's Face Cam)
Chars_Approach_1E-Bfl (Bill's Full Body Cam)
Chars_Approach_1E-Jfc (Jessica's Face Cam)
Chars_Approach_1E-Jfl (Jessica's Full Body Cam)
...and so on for each camera used for that particular animation.
Chars_Approach_2B-FC1
Chars_Approach_2B-FC2
Chars_Approach_2B-FC3
Chars_Approach_2B-Bfc
Chars_Approach_2B-Bfl
Chars_Approach_3A-FC1
Chars_Approach_3A-FC2
Chars_Approach_3A-Jfc
Dark_Entity_1D-FC1
Dark_Entity_1D-FC2
...you get the idea
There are often many more characters. Twelve as mentioned in your first post.
Using naming conventions like this can be a very efficient way to organize video clips. Now here's the really cool bit:
Now all of the "1A" or "2G" or whatever "_", all have the exact same timing, as they are all the exact same scene, just rendered and saved using different cameras. So in the video editing software, they can be loaded into separate channels, all matching in timing. Then just drag the ends to where they need to be, add transitions, whatever you need.
My animated scenes rarely exceed three or four seconds. So that's where 1A comes from. The thing is that I simply use the last letter after the number, because it represents my final save. For example:
Dark_Entity_1A gets rendered as I sleep into eight videos - one video clip for each camera I am using. The next day (or whatever) I see that I've forgotten to make the light on the far wall flicker the way I wanted it to. I also notice something else that I want to change, but none of this matters for four out of the eight cameras. So now Dark_Entity_1B is born, but only for the cameras that would be affected by the change.
Dark_Entity_2A is the first saved scene of the next few seconds needed for the sequence of clips. Then comes 3A, then 4A and so on.
"Dark Entity", in this case, refers to the ominous dark transparent cloudy shape that is entering the scene from a picture on the wall, so it actually also refers to just one segment of the particular scene being shot. So I name things according to what they are, in relation to the scene that I'm working on, which is the name of the folder where all of my Carrara scenes are saved in my browser, as well as the name of the folder where I save my video clips to during rendering. I have learned to save the videos and Carrara scene files to completely separate places so that, while I'm going through deleting video clips that I will not be using, I'm not deleting the actual CAR file at the same time. I used to do that, and wish now that I haven't. Sometimes I need to go back to a CAR save from before the last render.
Anyways, use as many cameras as you want! Hey, if the switching views using a single camera works for you, do that... I just wanted to share my method because I find that it gives me a lot more flexibility in the final cut, and also can have the added benefit of giving me some unexpected extra footage in places where I might really need it!
For #2, I always redo all my textures in the texture room anyway, and don't import from Studio, so I may not be much help on that one, but hopefully someone else will chime in.
For #3, SciFiFunk has done a lot of tutorials on using bvh and aniblocks in Carrara, a quick youtube search by his name and carrara tutorial should turn you onto his channel, and he may be able to give an idea of the best practices in workflow for this, although other forum members will hopefully swing by and answer too.
Dartanbeck - thanks for the tips! I would have liked to render multiple cameras and edit later as well, but the time it would take me to render multiple cameras for a 4 minute video and my dead line makes it tough. I don't need 12 cameras for each character, as most characters are just 'extras', but I need to jump cut a lot as it's a music video. I will try rendering one cam and see how long it takes, once I get the animation set up. If it's feasible I could do multiple cam renders maybe.
Thank, found it!
Some of this might be due to initial "growing pains" associated with getting to know Carrara over DAZ Studio, as they are entirely different in many, many ways. You're also jumping in using Genesis 2, which is not entirely ironed out in Carrara yet, but should still give great results with patience and practice.
But, yeah... I know... it can get frustrating. Let's try and get this working.
Like Jon, I am limited on time, so I haven't seen this whole thread. Let's start with Issue #1:
Are you importing your Genesis 2 characters from a saved DUF file from DAZ Studio, and then the clothing isn't conformed?
I must admit, I do not yet work from DS into Carrara. I do everything in Carrara. Here's what I do:
Load in Genesis 2 - in this case, I've chosen Michael 6
Michael 6 becomes the main group. Next down in the list (on the right) is "Genesis 2 Male", I select that, and then dbl-click the clothing item from the browser. This loads the clothing item, and places it nicely into the existing group, instead of making a new one for that clothing item (see image). If this was Genesis 1 or any of the Generation 4 figures, the clothing would also have conformed at that step. But since Genesis 2 came out after the major DUF work was done for Carrara, it is not fully compatible yet, so we now need to perform one more step: Select the clothing item and, in the General tab, use the "Fit To" tool to conform it to Genesis 2 Male (second Image)