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PC+ sale here now, any must-buys for Cararra? The Wrap-up and unfinished business

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  • PhilWPhilW Posts: 5,145
    UnifiedBrain said:
    Marcus Severus said:

     

    Just yesterday, I opened Studio for the first time in a couple of weeks, and just fooling around I loaded a new item (Modern bed 1), applied new shaders to multiple surfaces, and rendered it multiple times, all in less than 2 minutes.  Easy peasy.  So, I thought, "how long would this take in Carrara?"  Surprisingly, it only took about 5 minutes, and the resulting render looked even nicer than the Studio render.  Getting there!

    Sounds like you are making good progress!

  • UnifiedBrainUnifiedBrain Posts: 3,588
    edited October 2016
    Dartanbeck said:
    UnifiedBrain said:
    BTW - I think that you left off Matcreator.

    And that reminds me, I am a fan of the Daz shader pack that comes with the genesis supersuit.  Are there any Carrara shaders on the market that are functionally equal?

    Speaking of Matcreator, he has a really cool shader pack for Carrara. I haven't picked it up yet... but I really want to! :)

    Here's the one I'm talking about: Carrara Pro Master Shaders

    Hi Dart, yeah, that is why I brought up shaders, as I was looking at his/her shader pack too.

    In browsing through shaders that come with Carrara, I see lots of useful ones.  But I don't see any armor-specific shaders (other than general metals).  Nor do I see leather, mesh, or shaders designed to emulate specific fabrics.  Do you pros here buy those shaders (and if so, any recommendations?).  Or, do you make them yourselves?

    Post edited by UnifiedBrain on
  • mindsongmindsong Posts: 1,701

    There are a few decent carrara shader sets available on sharecg.com, and there's another site/fellow that has a bunch of shaders on his/her site that I recall were pretty sophisticated, but I don't have that link handy - I recall he/she used a chess pawn as the underlying shader presentation. Anyone else remember that site/link?

    --ms

  • UnifiedBrainUnifiedBrain Posts: 3,588
    edited October 2016
    mindsong said:

    There are a few decent carrara shader sets available on sharecg.com, and there's another site/fellow that has a bunch of shaders on his/her site that I recall were pretty sophisticated, but I don't have that link handy - I recall he/she used a chess pawn as the underlying shader presentation. Anyone else remember that site/link?

    --ms

    In poking around Carraracafe, I think that you are referring to the Weebly shaders (pic attached).  They do look exactly what I need, but I have no idea where to find them.  Seem to have disappeared.

    There was another huge Carrara shader set, posted on sharecg, which seems to be gone as well.

    I wasn't originally looking for freebies, but you got me interested.  These look pretty nice:

    http://www.decarlojewelryart.com/BE/Cfreestuff/NexySCarraraShadersKnitsAngora/knitangorashaderballs4carraradonationwaredownloadscrolldown.html

    weebly shaders.jpg
    1004 x 421 - 52K
    Post edited by UnifiedBrain on
  • DartanbeckDartanbeck Posts: 21,551
    UnifiedBrain said:
    Dartanbeck said:
    UnifiedBrain said:
    BTW - I think that you left off Matcreator.

    And that reminds me, I am a fan of the Daz shader pack that comes with the genesis supersuit.  Are there any Carrara shaders on the market that are functionally equal?

    Speaking of Matcreator, he has a really cool shader pack for Carrara. I haven't picked it up yet... but I really want to! :)

    Here's the one I'm talking about: Carrara Pro Master Shaders

    Do you pros here buy those shaders (and if so, any recommendations?).  Or, do you make them yourselves?

    I used to just use my shader-tweaking techniques to use Poser Content materials and tweak them to look how I wanted them to.

    After a while, I started opening some of the presets along side of the ones I was tweaking, and combine them.

    So for Armor (as in a suit of armor), I've tried just opening the shader that controlled the look of the metal plates, and then I'd drag the "Standard Dull" metal shader preset onto its top layer. While this made those plates look like metal, I've later learned that, by using the bump and texture (color) maps - along with Spec maps if available for the Highlight channel - along with the preset shader, I could get even closer to a really nice look.

    So eventually I've learnt that I could still just use my shader-tweaking methods - which now use the reflection and shininess/highlight tecniques found in presets - so I actually use a combination.

    I've bought most (all?) of Ringo's shader collections - not the ones for individual people, by the main shaders collections. I use those for learning new techniques more than I use them 'straight-out-of-the-box'.

     

    mindsong said:

    There are a few decent carrara shader sets available on sharecg.com, and there's another site/fellow that has a bunch of shaders on his/her site that I recall were pretty sophisticated, but I don't have that link handy - I recall he/she used a chess pawn as the underlying shader presentation. Anyone else remember that site/link?

    --ms

    Thanks for reminding me!

    This might help, although the actual products list needs updating. The Free Shaders links are in there:

    ►►► Carrara Resources ◄◄◄

  • DartanbeckDartanbeck Posts: 21,551

    These in particular. I think these are the ones mindsong is thinking of:

    ► DeCarlo's BlueprintsEzine - Donation-Ware Shaders by Rebecca DeCarlo
    ____ Elven Silk shaders
    ____ Elven Stockings shaders
    ____ AcryLatex shaders
    ____ Natural Suede shaders
    ____ Buffed Leather shaders
    ____ Rough Leather shaders
    ____ Soft Leather shaders
    ____ SnakeSkin shaders
    ____ Super Shiny shaders

  • rk66rk66 Posts: 438
    edited October 2016

    Creator sharecg link:

    http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/53881/free-collection-of-328-iray-ready-daz-texture-presets-made-from-nobiax-s-freebie-textures-v0-99/p1

    You can contact him.

    Post edited by rk66 on
  • DartanbeckDartanbeck Posts: 21,551

    Thanks rk!!!

  • rk66rk66 Posts: 438

    No problem.

    I think, here the creator from the CarraraCafe link (but not sure):

    Kirk Saavedra Carrara Shaders: https://kirksaavedra.bandcamp.com/

  • UnifiedBrainUnifiedBrain Posts: 3,588
    rk66 said:

    Creator sharecg link:

    http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/53881/free-collection-of-328-iray-ready-daz-texture-presets-made-from-nobiax-s-freebie-textures-v0-99/p1

    You can contact him.

    Thanks, sent him a PM.

  • UnifiedBrainUnifiedBrain Posts: 3,588
    edited October 2016
    Dartanbeck said:

    These in particular. I think these are the ones mindsong is thinking of:

    You may be right, but I was going on the "chess pawn" description.

    Dartanbeck said:

    ► DeCarlo's BlueprintsEzine - Donation-Ware Shaders by Rebecca DeCarlo
    ____ Elven Silk shaders
    ____ Elven Stockings shaders
    ____ AcryLatex shaders
    ____ Natural Suede shaders
    ____ Buffed Leather shaders
    ____ Rough Leather shaders
    ____ Soft Leather shaders
    ____ SnakeSkin shaders
    ____ Super Shiny shaders

    I think she removed these from her download page, unfortunately.

    Post edited by UnifiedBrain on
  • rk66rk66 Posts: 438

    http://www.tonylynchdesigns.com/

    http://digitalarena.co.uk/virtual_matter/

  • UnifiedBrainUnifiedBrain Posts: 3,588
    PhilW said:

    Sounds like you are making good progress!

    Thanks Phil - just NOW downloaded your videos.  An easy purchasing decision, after looking at your first few freebies.  I AM happy with my progress so far, largely thanks to 3 very useful tutorials from Dartanbek, and one from Diomede, and input from 3DAGE and others on this great forum.

    Looking forward to continuing the journey with your able instructions!

  • 3DAGE3DAGE Posts: 3,311
    UnifiedBrain said:

    In browsing through shaders that come with Carrara, I see lots of useful ones.  But I don't see any armor-specific shaders (other than general metals).  Nor do I see leather, mesh, or shaders designed to emulate specific fabrics.  Do you pros here buy those shaders (and if so, any recommendations?).  Or, do you make them yourselves?

    if i'm making a model in carrara,. then i'm also making the shaders for that model in carrara,.usually while im working on the model, to help visualise what i'm building,.. or, i'll use a shader i've made previously and saved to the "My Shaders" folder, in the browser.

     

    In Carrara, it's very easy to create your own shaders,.

    when you consider that most shaders from imported content require some adjustment, because they were originally made for use in another program, eg: Studio/Poser

    or that the shader functions in carrara may exceed those in other applications.

    it becomes a really good idea to check the shaders settings on anything you load or import,. just to make sure all the maps that should be there, actually are.

    it's a really good idea to explore the shader system,. that's partly the reason for the incuded shaders,.. so you can open examples , see how they're constructed,. and edit those colours or settings to create your own shaders,. which you can then save back to your My Shaders folder.

    or create new shaders from scratch. save those, and reuse them.

    If there's a metal shaders example,. but it's not exactly what you want,. ...edit it to make it what you need.

     

    There are many shader packs avaliable,. some using texture maps, others using pure procedural functions.

    Get something to make your own textures,.

    Use a camera,.  If you use an image editor, such as Photoshop / Paintshop pro / Gimp etc,. ..then there are filters or effects to help you generate textures.

    http://www.alienskin.com/eyecandy/

    https://filterforge.com/

    Carrara also has a bunch of shader "plugins" to extend the core features in the shaders system.

    Digital carvers guild, and Inagoni both have some very useful and very powerful shader building tools

    http://www.digitalcarversguild.com/

    http://www.inagoni.com/

    there are also a bunch of Plugins for carrara, which extend the programs capabilities,.

    Sparrowhawke3D has a great set of free plugins for carrara,. a mixture of features and shader functions.

    www.sparrowhawke3d.com

     

    Although there are a bunch of superb shader plugins,. I think it's helpful to understand the "basics" of carrara's shader room,.before you fill up on a load of new functions.

    by combining different patterns, gradients, fractal noise, or functions, you can create a huge variety of different surfaces.

     

    I'm also just realising that you're going to need to use the surface replicators,. if you've bought the Grass and rocks .

    Simple steps.

    Insert a surface,.. something to replicate objects onto,. (a terrain would be ideal)

    insert some objects to replicate,. Tree's, grass, rocks, or any other object.

    Insert a "Surface Replicator".

    Edit the surface replicator settings.

    Choose the Surface (terrain),. then Add the objects to be replicated.

    Set the amount of objects, using the slider,. explore the other replicator settings,.  

    Go back to the assembly room.

    spot render.

    Hope it helps :)

  • WendyLuvsCatzWendyLuvsCatz Posts: 38,202

    also using the surface replicator make sure your hotpoint is at the base or for a rock midpoint maybe.

    You can move the hotpoint locking the caps key.

    (and when it comes to user interfaces that is something that drives me nuts in DAZ studio, setting hotpoints!!!!

    it has to be done with the bone editor and two twiddly tiny red and green arrows then memorise rigging and resave as support asset, Carrara like most other 3D programs it just a one click move!!!!

    I can name a fair few more D|S UI v Carrara PITA quirks but its not about program bashing just what one is used too)

  • DartanbeckDartanbeck Posts: 21,551
    edited November 2016

    Very true. I forgot to add that I've made several simple tileable texture maps for cloth, leather, fractal noise and many others, that I use for building my own shaders even for my purchased content as well - like turning a coat leather, a shirt to cloth, etc., as well as having a baked-on fractal noise for times when I need the effect baked on so it can move along with animated materials, etc.,  I also made some colored versions of most, but I'll often just color the grayscale ones in the shader.

    Once I got used to making shaders, I actually prefer building my own from the ground up.

    I still like to purchase shaders - not only to support the cause of the artist, but also to open them up and see what they've done.

    As an example, Ringo's very good skin shaders he makes for characters are very different from BTL's, examples of which (BTL) are included with Carrara for Genesis. Both of these shader artists do things differently than I do.

    You see, shaders and lights have a great deal to do with the rendered result  including the speed of that render. I have spent my years in Carrara refining my scenes, lights, and shaders to render quickly using the rather simple default settings in the render room. Yes, we'll get much more precise image quality using higher settings - and sometimes I do use higher setting when I need to in order to resolve issues common to such low quality settings. But when I can get away with those default lows... I go for it! 

    I might change that opinion and go for higher setting once I get a workstation-class machine - as discussed in jonstark's render node (solved) thread. I want one... I want one BAD!!! LOL

    Post edited by Dartanbeck on
  • mindsongmindsong Posts: 1,701

    @UnifiedBrain "In poking around Carraracafe..."

    That was it! - I'll see if I can dig my copies up and see if we can get permission to get them back out there (maybe on CararraCafe!)

    Yeah, I've had enough problems with very cool resources disappearing from the matrix, that I grab friggin' everything! I'm not sure I'll ever be able to find any of it when I need it, but ...

    --ms

  • DartanbeckDartanbeck Posts: 21,551

    There also used to be some really cool stuff in the Carrara Freebies section of the forums, here at Daz3d, before we lost the old forums. Sub7th  and many others had some really fun stuff on there! I still have my RPG dice, which are now at ShareCG.

  • UnifiedBrainUnifiedBrain Posts: 3,588
    mindsong said:

    @UnifiedBrain "In poking around Carraracafe..."

    That was it! - I'll see if I can dig my copies up and see if we can get permission to get them back out there (maybe on CararraCafe!)

    Great!  I look forward to hearing from you.

    mindsong said:

    Yeah, I've had enough problems with very cool resources disappearing from the matrix, that I grab friggin' everything!

    Me too, to some degree.  I feel compelled to download more stuff than I need, because you never know...

    mindsong said:

    I'm not sure I'll ever be able to find any of it when I need it, but ...

    Ha!  Yeah, it can sometimes take me a long time to find 3rd party installed content, especially in Carrara.  But my saving grace is that my downloads folder is super organized, and I can always trace stuff from there by looking at the runtime path.

     

  • rk66rk66 Posts: 438

    I have found the official post at Renderosity archive: "Subject: Free professional Carrara shaders website"

    Creator: res1yfb1 - https://www.renderosity.com/mod/forumpro/?thread_id=2883740


    Link CarraraCafe: http://carraracafe.com/news/new-shaders-for-carrara/#more-5223

  • wgdjohnwgdjohn Posts: 2,634

    rk66,  Thanks... I'd been wondering if a lot of this stuff went missing.

  • 3DAGE3DAGE Posts: 3,311

    HI Wendy ;)

    ironically I made this the other day in Carrara though Chohole informs us they grow everwhere but Scotland, they certainly grow in my yard in Australia, are noxious weeds.

    They do actually grow in Scotland,. there are several different varieties here, including the Scottish thistle. ...they grow all over the UK.

    you made me realise I'd never tried to make a thistle.

    not enough prickly bits, but it's a start.

     

    Thistle doo.jpg
    1280 x 720 - 165K
    thistle land.jpg
    1280 x 720 - 116K
  • UnifiedBrainUnifiedBrain Posts: 3,588
    rk66 said:

    I have found the official post at Renderosity archive: "Subject: Free professional Carrara shaders website"

    Creator: res1yfb1 - https://www.renderosity.com/mod/forumpro/?thread_id=2883740


    Link CarraraCafe: http://carraracafe.com/news/new-shaders-for-carrara/#more-5223

    I found these yesterday.  The links don't work.

    If you have found otherwise, please let me know.

     

  • UnifiedBrainUnifiedBrain Posts: 3,588

    3DAGE, OK, you hit my information sweet spot.  A very thoughtful and complete answer to my shader question, thank you very much!

    3DAGE said:
    Although there are a bunch of superb shader plugins,. I think it's helpful to understand the "basics" of carrara's shader room,.before you fill up on a load of new functions.

    Agreed - which is why I'm not asking any further questions right now.smiley  But man, those links led to some interesting stuff.smiley

  • rk66rk66 Posts: 438
    edited November 2016

    Kirk Saavedra (should be the same as in Renderosity and CarraraCafe):
    https://kirksaavedra.bandcamp.com/

     

    Nexy Saloon (aka Rebecca DeCarlo):

    http://www.decarlojewelryart.com/BE/Cfreestuff/NexySCarraraShadersAcryLs/acrylshaderballs4carraradonationwaredownloadscrolldown.html

    http://www.decarlojewelryart.com/BE/Cfreestuff/NexySCarraraShadersVelvetDeep/deepvelvetshaderballs4carraradonationwaredownloadscrolldown.html

    http://www.decarlojewelryart.com/BE/Cfreestuff/NexySCarraraShadersElvenSilk/elvensilkshaderballs4carraradonationwaredownloadscrolldown.html

    http://www.decarlojewelryart.com/BE/Cfreestuff/NexySCarraraShadersLeatherBuffed/leatherbuffedshaderballs4carraradonationwaredownloadscrolldown.html

    http://www.decarlojewelryart.com/BE/Cfreestuff/NexySCarraraShadersLeatherRough/leatherroughshaderballs4carraradonationwaredownloadscrolldown.html

    http://www.decarlojewelryart.com/BE/Cfreestuff/NexySCarraraShadersLeatherSoft/leathersoftshaderballs4carraradonationwaredownloadscrolldown.html

    http://www.decarlojewelryart.com/BE/Cfreestuff/NexySCarraraShadersRucheTyp2/ruchetyp2shaderballs4carraradonationwaredownloadscrolldown.html

    Post edited by rk66 on
  • UnifiedBrainUnifiedBrain Posts: 3,588
    edited November 2016

    Nice RK, you found Rebecca's missing shaders!  I figured that she had deleted them.  Nice work.

    Have you also found her snakeskin or stocking shaders (from the list Dart posted above)?

    rk66 said:

    Kirk Saavedra (should be the same as in Renderosity and CarraraCafe):
    https://kirksaavedra.bandcamp.com/

    To clarify for my sake, are you saying that Kirk is the creator of the Weebly shaders?  If so, I will be happy to contact him.  I've already contacted the member who posted the link to the huge sharecg shader pack.  With luck, I will have a clear answer by tomorrow.

    Post edited by UnifiedBrain on
  • rk66rk66 Posts: 438
    edited November 2016

    I have found this links only, but not the other two. Send her a mail. Look here: http://www.decarlojewelryart.com/BE/BlueprintsEzine.html

    I think yes. Look here: http://carraracafe.com/news/new-shaders-for-carrara/#more-5223

     

    Post edited by rk66 on
  • UnifiedBrainUnifiedBrain Posts: 3,588

    Got the answer today instead.smiley

    http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/52849/free-collection-of-328-carrara-shaders-made-from-nobiax-s-freebie-textures-link-fixed-i-hope#latest

    Contained in the above thread is a link to the Nobiax shaders, posted by kaz42 (who was super helpful to me, btw).  He actually posted two threads quite a while ago, one for Studio users and one for Carrara users.  This is the Carrara thread.

    The download is 1.9 gigs, but it downloaded very fast for me.

    My next question will probably be about where to load these shaders.smiley  Being a Carrara newbie gets a little bit old after a while.blush

  • kaz42kaz42 Posts: 63
    edited November 2016
    rk66 said:

    Creator sharecg link:

    http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/53881/free-collection-of-328-iray-ready-daz-texture-presets-made-from-nobiax-s-freebie-textures-v0-99/p1

    You can contact him.

    He got me in IMs... I've still been around from time to time, but mostly working with Daz/Iray lately... and doing the writing parts of my project, when I haven't been tied down with work. Work situation just changed, so I'll be around and focusing more on my art stuff now.

    The link on ShareCG for the Carrara pack is broken (you linked the Daz Iray version above) but the file is still there. The link in the Daz forums still works, and the original thread (and the link) for the pack is here:

    http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/52849/free-collection-of-328-carrara-shaders-made-from-nobiax-s-freebie-textures-link-fixed-i-hope#latest

     

    Edit: I'm not sure what happened with the ShareCG side of things, I think they removed the link either because it was Nobiax's original work (even though I had and mentioned his permissions in the description) or some users with really bad internet couldn't get it to download and reported it as broken. It IS almost 2GB due to all the image files involved, but I assure you it works. :P

    Post edited by kaz42 on
  • PhilWPhilW Posts: 5,145

    Thanks Kaz - these look very good and really useful.

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