Free Software that Makes Life Easier

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  • DUDUDUDU Posts: 1,945
    Philemo said:

    anyone interested? it seems they're getting serious

    http://pro.radeon.com/software/prorender/

    It seems impressive. But for now, the SDK is not available, so we'll have to wait to integrate it in Carrara.

    I can understand the logic, debunking the CUDA only available renderers.

    Is it necessary to enter the entrails of Carrara to make a plugin like that one?
    If the answer is not, then why not to contact the creators of this renderer, I am sure that they would be happy to collaborate.

  • magaremotomagaremoto Posts: 1,227

    ok, some hardware specs are needed to get prorender usable, my old geforce 640 is disappointed

    2017-03-21_152537.jpg
    1920 x 1058 - 297K
  • DUDU said:

    Is it necessary to enter the entrails of Carrara to make a plugin like that one?
    If the answer is not, then why not to contact the creators of this renderer, I am sure that they would be happy to collaborate.

    It's a 2 men job. You need to know Carrara to integrate the renderer and export everything properly. You need to know ProRenderer to know how to export. If you're alone, you have to learn the other part. That's why the Luxcore plugin is such a feat, it's well done on both side (I don't know the octane plugin, but it seems to be the same). Integrating in Carrara renderer is difficult. Translating properly the shaders is difficult. Exporting exotic renderable (dynamic hair, realistic clouds, trees...) is difficult.

    A good idea would be to create a python front for export and render in Carrara. Thanks to the blender world, most of the renderers or export standards (like alembic) have a python interface. It would allow to manage the Carrara integration part once and for all and to concentrate on the translation.

     

  • IvyIvy Posts: 7,165
    head wax said:
    Ivy said:

    Just me two cents,  if it has not been mentioned yet. I like to use the free google Nix collection of photopshop fliters , and such very helpful for post work where you need light fliters and they haveother types of tools and fliters as well.

    thanks Ivy, nice find

     

     

    Your very welcomed. I'm glad it can help you. I use those plugins alot for book cover work

  • magaremotomagaremoto Posts: 1,227

    @ philemo: follow this guy http://raytracey.blogspot.it/ (if you don't know him he worked for a while at otoy on Brigade side and many other things)

    he talks about amd renderer here

    http://raytracey.blogspot.it/search?updated-max=2016-06-09T15:13:00-07:00&max-results=20

    http://raytracey.blogspot.it/2016/11/opencl-path-tracing-tutorial-1-firing.html

    it's worth to read all his blog indeed

  • HeadwaxHeadwax Posts: 9,988

    http://www.shapemagic.com/roadmaker/

    something for making roads on a terrain

     

  • SileneUKSileneUK Posts: 1,975
    edited April 2017
    head wax said:
    Ivy said:

    Just me two cents,  if it has not been mentioned yet. I like to use the free google Nix collection of photopshop fliters , and such very helpful for post work where you need light fliters and they haveother types of tools and fliters as well.

    thanks Ivy, nice find

     

     

    Yes it is... cheers!   I know it might have been mentioned before, but I do like Sketchfab. There is a lot of drone scanned stuff which can be awkward, but also some good models.  https://sketchfab.com/   (click on the Explore tab, then Highlights, and choose Downloadable. Then by category if you want.

    yes Silene

    Post edited by SileneUK on
  • DartanbeckDartanbeck Posts: 21,574
    head wax said:

    http://www.shapemagic.com/roadmaker/

    something for making roads on a terrain

     

    Cool! Have you tried Shape Magic 2.1 or any of its other off-shoots? Looks like fun! What a Generous Sole the author is! ;) 

    Well... that can be said for all of these wonderful freeware writers! Thanks Head Wax!

  • HeadwaxHeadwax Posts: 9,988

    not yet :) yes he is very generous!

  • HeadwaxHeadwax Posts: 9,988
    edited April 2017
    SileneUK said:
    head wax said:
    Ivy said:

    Just me two cents,  if it has not been mentioned yet. I like to use the free google Nix collection of photopshop fliters , and such very helpful for post work where you need light fliters and they haveother types of tools and fliters as well.

    thanks Ivy, nice find

     

     

    Yes it is... cheers!   I know it might have been mentioned before, but I do like Sketchfab. There is a lot of drone scanned stuff which can be awkward, but also some good models.  https://sketchfab.com/   (click on the Explore tab, then Highlights, and choose Downloadable. Then by category if you want.

    yes Silene

    Hya Silene, that link looks very interesting ! So it is a place where you show off your 3d models - is that its primary use?

     

    Post edited by Headwax on
  • DUDUDUDU Posts: 1,945

    Do you know this little free 2D animations software?

    http://www.synfig.org/

  • SileneUKSileneUK Posts: 1,975
    head wax said:
    SileneUK said:
    head wax said:
    Ivy said:

    Just me two cents,  if it has not been mentioned yet. I like to use the free google Nix collection of photopshop fliters , and such very helpful for post work where you need light fliters and they haveother types of tools and fliters as well.

    thanks Ivy, nice find

     

     

    Yes it is... cheers!   I know it might have been mentioned before, but I do like Sketchfab. There is a lot of drone scanned stuff which can be awkward, but also some good models.  https://sketchfab.com/   (click on the Explore tab, then Highlights, and choose Downloadable. Then by category if you want.

    yes Silene

    Hya Silene, that link looks very interesting ! So it is a place where you show off your 3d models - is that its primary use?

     

    I don't know... I just like some of the items. But I think that it has more uploaders than downloaders... and a lot of drone scanned stuff. But compared to CG Trader--, for free I can find enough to serve my needs.  Someone even scanned some people sitting on a sofa. Didn't come out that great (they must have had to sit very still!), but fun to see the experiments!

  • DartanbeckDartanbeck Posts: 21,574

    A while back I've mentioned SharewareOnSale service, which sends fairly constant noticed for freebies that the author finds - sometimes the freebies aren't free any other way, I think.

    Anyway, I just got Filter Forge 5 for free through that service, but there are only a few hours left for that to work... just thought I'd put that out there ;)

    Wow... Filter Forge looks pretty cool, eh?

  • HeadwaxHeadwax Posts: 9,988

    thanks Dart and Thanks Silene :)

  • DartanbeckDartanbeck Posts: 21,574
    SileneUK said:
    head wax said:
    SileneUK said:
    head wax said:
    Ivy said:

    Just me two cents,  if it has not been mentioned yet. I like to use the free google Nix collection of photopshop fliters , and such very helpful for post work where you need light fliters and they haveother types of tools and fliters as well.

    thanks Ivy, nice find

     

     

    Yes it is... cheers!   I know it might have been mentioned before, but I do like Sketchfab. There is a lot of drone scanned stuff which can be awkward, but also some good models.  https://sketchfab.com/   (click on the Explore tab, then Highlights, and choose Downloadable. Then by category if you want.

    yes Silene

    Hya Silene, that link looks very interesting ! So it is a place where you show off your 3d models - is that its primary use?

     

    I don't know... I just like some of the items. But I think that it has more uploaders than downloaders... and a lot of drone scanned stuff. But compared to CG Trader--, for free I can find enough to serve my needs.  Someone even scanned some people sitting on a sofa. Didn't come out that great (they must have had to sit very still!), but fun to see the experiments!

    Yeah, I've first learned of it from folks here on the forum for sharing models. I was going to say FifthElement, but it was another who has shared with me before that who has actually introduced it to me.

    It looks like a cool way to display our own 3D creations, but it seems that many folks use it for sharing since it had 'download' features if we let it. 

  • ed3Ded3D Posts: 2,194
    edited June 2017

    _And for videos or animations _A free editor _Lightworks  14 _- Mac , Windows or Linux

    look on downloads page _ _And does run on Mac 10.8 _and Windows Vista

    https://www.lwks.com/

    _thanks_``~...

    Post edited by ed3D on
  • HeadwaxHeadwax Posts: 9,988

    Philemo's download page for his free plugins - go Philemo!

    https://sourceforge.net/projects/carrara-time-savers/

  • stringtheory9stringtheory9 Posts: 411
    edited May 2017

    I found this while looking for something to do exactly what this does. It lets you make a 360 HDRI map that is Carrara compatible from ANY Google street view!

    Step 1
    Go here and follow the instructions. You have to download the extractor and then pinpoint your desired location. PC or Mac
    https://istreetview.com/vWS8WYgD7Gw37X6-YFHJGQ

    Step 2
    Convert the 360 image to an HDR image. There are better (more accurate) apps for converting to HDR radiance maps but this is quick and easy.
    https://convertio.co/jpg-hdr/

    Step 3
    Load into Carrara 

    sample.jpg
    1381 x 1440 - 431K
    Post edited by stringtheory9 on
  • DiomedeDiomede Posts: 15,169
    edited May 2017

    That is great timing!  I usually find things after the need for them expires.

    Thanks for these links.  I can think of many uses.

    Post edited by Diomede on
  • DartanbeckDartanbeck Posts: 21,574

    I found this while looking for something to do exactly what this does. It lets you make a 360 HDRI map that is Carrara compatible from ANY Google street view!

    Step 1
    Go here and follow the instructions. You have to download the extractor and then pinpoint your desired location. PC or Mac
    https://istreetview.com/vWS8WYgD7Gw37X6-YFHJGQ

    Step 2
    Convert the 360 image to an HDR image. There are better (more accurate) apps for converting to HDR radiance maps but this is quick and easy.
    https://convertio.co/jpg-hdr/

    Step 3
    Load into Carrara 

     

    Cool! Thanks!

  • HeadwaxHeadwax Posts: 9,988

    thanks @stringtheory9  great find

  • WendyLuvsCatzWendyLuvsCatz Posts: 38,223

    I cannot find the instructions

  • WendyLuvsCatzWendyLuvsCatz Posts: 38,223
    edited May 2017

    well downloaded the program and by a rather convorted way got the location I wanted

    I had to put in my lattiude and longitude in the streetview download to get panorama ID I wanted

    just going there does not do it

     

    Post edited by WendyLuvsCatz on
  • StezzaStezza Posts: 8,066

    yep... I did... just zoomed out tthe map dragged the map to Oz zoomed back in to near me and plonked the little man in there... yes

    though the finished HDRI image on mine is not that good sad

    pretty cool though smiley

  • stringtheory9stringtheory9 Posts: 411
    Stezza said:

    yep... I did... just zoomed out tthe map dragged the map to Oz zoomed back in to near me and plonked the little man in there... yes

    though the finished HDRI image on mine is not that good sad

    pretty cool though smiley

    The online converter does leave a lot to be desired. 

    Luminance HDR is an app that allows the convertion of an image into an HDR map with a lot of custom tunning. 

  • Cris PalominoCris Palomino Posts: 11,385
    edited May 2017

    I found this while looking for something to do exactly what this does. It lets you make a 360 HDRI map that is Carrara compatible from ANY Google street view!

    Step 1
    Go here and follow the instructions. You have to download the extractor and then pinpoint your desired location. PC or Mac
    https://istreetview.com/vWS8WYgD7Gw37X6-YFHJGQ

    Step 2
    Convert the 360 image to an HDR image. There are better (more accurate) apps for converting to HDR radiance maps but this is quick and easy.
    https://convertio.co/jpg-hdr/

    Step 3
    Load into Carrara 

     

    Keep in mind that HDRI has more light information than jpgs can provide.  DimensionTheory gives a great explanation here: 

     

    Post edited by Cris Palomino on
  • ImagoImago Posts: 5,158

    I found this while looking for something to do exactly what this does. It lets you make a 360 HDRI map that is Carrara compatible from ANY Google street view!

    Step 1
    Go here and follow the instructions. You have to download the extractor and then pinpoint your desired location. PC or Mac
    https://istreetview.com/vWS8WYgD7Gw37X6-YFHJGQ

    Step 2
    Convert the 360 image to an HDR image. There are better (more accurate) apps for converting to HDR radiance maps but this is quick and easy.
    https://convertio.co/jpg-hdr/

    Step 3
    Load into Carrara 

    What about usage rights?

  • PhilWPhilW Posts: 5,145

    StringTheory - great find, I can see me using that quite a lot, I just used it to download a 360 view across the moors near where I live.

    Just a note on the conversion to HDRI.  As has been noted, it can only work with the information that it has, and therefore it cannot add the lighting information that typifies a "real" HDRI. What it actually appears to be doing is to de-gamma the image, which you can do in Photoshop using the Exposure command and setting gamma to 1/2.2 = 0.4545. The result is identical to the output from the online JPG to HDR process.  You can then resave as a jpg in order to have a smaller file size than an HDRI will use (in my test the HDR file was around 20 times the size of the JPG).

    In use, the JPG looks good in the background and it will provide a general low level of environmental lighting, but it should normally be augmented by other lights, as a minimum a single distant light to act as the sun.

  • PhilWPhilW Posts: 5,145
    Imago said:

    I found this while looking for something to do exactly what this does. It lets you make a 360 HDRI map that is Carrara compatible from ANY Google street view!

    Step 1
    Go here and follow the instructions. You have to download the extractor and then pinpoint your desired location. PC or Mac
    https://istreetview.com/vWS8WYgD7Gw37X6-YFHJGQ

    Step 2
    Convert the 360 image to an HDR image. There are better (more accurate) apps for converting to HDR radiance maps but this is quick and easy.
    https://convertio.co/jpg-hdr/

    Step 3
    Load into Carrara 

    What about usage rights?

    I can't see any issues with using them in your own renders. You would probably have issues if you for example put together a pack of backgrounds to sell.

  • SileneUKSileneUK Posts: 1,975
    edited May 2017
    PhilW said:
    Imago said:

    I found this while looking for something to do exactly what this does. It lets you make a 360 HDRI map that is Carrara compatible from ANY Google street view!

    Step 1
    Go here and follow the instructions. You have to download the extractor and then pinpoint your desired location. PC or Mac
    https://istreetview.com/vWS8WYgD7Gw37X6-YFHJGQ

    Step 2
    Convert the 360 image to an HDR image. There are better (more accurate) apps for converting to HDR radiance maps but this is quick and easy.
    https://convertio.co/jpg-hdr/

    Step 3
    Load into Carrara 

    What about usage rights?

    I can't see any issues with using them in your own renders. You would probably have issues if you for example put together a pack of backgrounds to sell.

    Wait for it... Google will spot another way to make money from us, OR... right in the middle of your HDRI scene you will suddenly see a Google billboard...  I wouldn't put it past them!

     frown Silene

    Post edited by SileneUK on
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