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►►► Carrara Information Manual ◄◄◄
► Learning CARRARA and need some help?
► CARRARA Walkthrough
I'll add it to more spots too, like the Forum Help Links, etc.,
What a great tutorial this is - I just stumbled across it and it answers so many questions I've had. I should add that I find text/pictures quite a lot easier to follow than videos when starting out to learn something.
As a mainly DS and sometimes Bryce user, I picked up Carrara quite a while ago but (apart from loading some lovely scenes by Howie and TangoAlpha) I've not had much success in building scenes for myself.
Thank you for giving me the incentive to try again!
I hope it is useful. It should at least help people find where several common functions are performed and how to integrate most purchased content.
Here is another quickie just to illustrate a few more common functions. This time I am going to use content that I have but maybe others don't. I am also going to use the spline modeler and the vertex modeler to make some custom objects, uvmap, and apply a texture to a uvmap in Photoshop.
The cat burglar of babylon.
I started a new medium sized scene.
I happen to own the Alani character and the Lotus character for genesis 2 female. I want to use the Lotus shape but skin shaders based upon Alani. No problem.
I go to People : Genesis 2 Female : Characters folder and click and drag Alani to the instances tray. (Bottom right)
The shape morphs are found by selecting the "actor" level of the figure and clicking on the parameters tab in the upper right. The morphs appear. There is a search box. I start typing in Alani and the list becomes limited. Notice that the Alani shape morphs are currently at 1. I reduce them to zero. I then type in Lotus and increase that to 1. The Genesis 2 figure now has all the uvs etc. based on Alani but the Lotus shape.
EDIT: To follow along, you can use any character and any outfit that you own. The walk-through will be creating the balcony, building, and magic carpet.
I had optimzed and saved a global skin shader for Alani when I bought the character. So now I only have to click and drag my saved skin shader from my shader browser to the multicolored globe for the actor level of the G2F shader tab.
Now the figure has Lotus's shape and Alani's skin maps.
Our cat burglar is from Babylon, so I wanted to use Slosh's As You Wish outfit. I clicked and dragged the clothing items to the supergroup level without conforming yet. After all were loaded, I used the "fit to" function and chose G2F. Carrara calculated the morphs for each item.
The Daz store has a Carrara dynamic hair product called 5 times the ladies by Naomi. I clicked and dragged that to the head level of G2F.
Our cat burglar will be burgling, and what better pose than something from Feral Fey's high drama series? I located the pose, selected the G2F level and double-clicked the pose. I chose an expression and applied in the same way. And because the pose is for high drama, I used the assembly room manipulation tools (arrows in upper left) to move the G2F higher in the scene (up the z axis).
I wanted a balcony and a cool eastern-themed doorway. There are a lot of ways to do this. I am going to demonstrate with the spline modeler. I expect most people to use vertex modelers, and we will use that later. To start using the spline modeler, go to the top menu and choose INSERT : SPLINE OBJECT. Or, you can click and drag the icon that looks like a wine glass to the instances tray in the lower right. The spline modeler will open up looking like a set of square grids.
The spline modeler works by sweeping a shape along a path. In general, you draw the shape to the front wall and its is swept along the colored lines that you see on the bottom and the right walls. So, it can be convenient to use the front camera to draw the shape. Here, we want a big rectangular wall with a doorway. This is achieved by drawing two shapes and telling Carrara to do a cut out. To achieve this, I first went to the upper left and changed the camera to front. I then clicked the pen tool and drew a four pointed rectangle, making sure to close the shape by clicking on the first point a second time..
It may be hard to see, but I then clicked the pen tool to draw a second shape on the same drawing plane. I drew 7 points for the outline of a keyhole-shaped object. Hopefully you can see that in the upper portion of the attached pic. I then used the tool that looks like a plus sign to convert the three upper points to curves. Two little handles appear to the side of the point. Drag those handles to make the lines curve sharply or more shallow. The result is that the inner lines should have a square lower portion and a round upper portion.
I then clicked the camera choice in the upper left and returned to the director's camera. The wall probably looks too thick. I clicked on the end point of the colored line on the right wall and dagged it back to narrow the wall. I clicked on the back wall to activate it. I then used select all to select both the outer square and the inner keyhole. With everything selected, I went to the top menu and chose ARRANGE : COMBINE AS COMPOUND. The result is that the keyhole shape gets cut out of the wall.
vunderbah!
I clicked on the hand to return to the Assemble room. I used the manipulation tools in the upper left of the room to move and scale the wall in proportion with the G2F figure. In the general tab, I renamed the spline object so I would know it was the wall.
For the balcony, I used a combination of primitives and vertex models. The floor of the balcony is a primitive cube. The balcony posts are vertex spheres that are edited. The crossbars are primitive cylinders. First, I inserted a primitive cube from the top menu. I scaled and translated it to the doorway making sure that it was wider than the doorway.
To make the posts, I started with a vertex sphere and then extruded the bottom and pulled the top. To insert a vertex object, go to the top menu and choose INSERT : VERTEX OBJECT or drag the crosshatched sphere from the menu to the instances tray in the lower right. The vertex modeler will open. I then used CONSTRUCT : INSERT 3D : SPHERE and then chose the z-axis and reduced its dimensions. I clicked on the hand icon to return to the assemble room and then moved the sphere to approximately where I wanted it above the balcony.
Carrara has a great feature to let you edit vertex models without leaving the assemble room. To initiate it, with the sphere selected, I clicked the wrench icon in the upper left menu (not the upper right menu wrench). I then used the selection tools from the lower left side menu to select the bottom polygons of the sphere. I then used the dynamic extrusion tool (with "link polygons" checked in the rght menu) to extend the selection downwards. In order to extrude in a straight line, hold the control key while extruding. I extended the shaft down to the balcony. I then selected the top of the sphere, checked the box for soft select (reduced its intensity), and pulled the top of the sphere upwards.
Once I had the shape of the post the way I wanted, I clicked on the upper right menu to enter uvmapping mode. In the upper right menu, under "Edit Mode" click on the far right choice. I chose to use seams, which are found under the "unfold" tab. I selected a loop around the base and clicked the plus symbol under the seams menu. The seam turns a light blue, if you can see it. Click seams to bring up the drop down menu for pins. I also created a seam where the shaft met the top. I created a seam vertically. I then clicked "unfold". The result is not all that great, but I used the selection, resize, and rotate tools in the upper left to arrange the uvmap. To constrain the proportions, hold down the shift key while scaling a selection.
I clicked the hand icon to return to the assemble room. I want a total of 5 of these posts. So I went to the top menu and chose EDIT : DUPLICATE. I moved the result along the side edge. I then selected both posts and duplicated again. I moved the two new duplicates to the other side of the balcony. I then duplicated one more post and set it at the front center of the balcony. I then selected all of the posts by holding the shift key and clicking on each and then used EDIT : GROUP to keep them together and give them a name.
For the crossbars, I used a simple primitive cylinder. From the top menu, choose INSERT : CYLINDER or click and drag the cylinder from the top menu to the instances tray in the bottom right. Just use the manipulation tools in the upper left to resize and reposition the cylinder to connect the posts. I then grouped the posts and the crossbars.
Now that the railing is in place, the pose can be adjusted slightly. I opened the Alani G2F figure in the instances tray (lower right) and expanded the hip hierarchy. I selected her left arm and used the manipulation tools in the upper left menu (primarily rotate) to have G2F grabbing the railing.
I wanted a magic carpet. So, I inserted another vertex object and entered the vertex modeling room. I chose CONSTRUCT : GRID and picked rectangular dimensions. I then used the soft select tool to give the grid a little wavy appearance. Finally, I used MODEL: "ADD THICKNESS" with a very small number. In UVMapping, I really only cared about the top and the bottom. To help, I selected the top polygons and then in the "Model" tab from the "Shading Domains" dropdown menu chose "new shading domain" and named it top. I repeated for the bottom polygons. Then in uvmapping, I selected by shading domain, used the "detach polygons" feature under the operations tab, and then used the "planar" option with z-axs and no split under the "operations" : "projection" menu. I then arranged the top and bottom in the uvmap and under "display" tab exported the map for editing.
For lighting, I decided to have sunlight outside and a spotlight inside the room pointing outwards. First, in the scene tab, I set ambient light to zero. Then I enabled the realistic sky in the scene atmosphere tab and inserted a sunlight, which I linked to global illumnation in the rendering room (see first tutorial for explanation). I also used the realistic sky editor to change the default clouds to cirrus using the first checked cloud choice in the bottom right of the sky editor.
I liked that camera angle, at least as a start, so I clicked the camera choice in the upper left of the room and chose SET POSITION TO : SAVE POSITION and entered a name (low angle). That way I could move around and return to that position. From this angle, I knew I would need a back wall for the building because you can see through the keyhole doorway. I decided to just insert cubes and resize to create walls and a ceiling for the building..
Next, I put a spotlight inside the building facing the G2F character. I used the modifier "point at" and selected the upper part of G2F as the central point at focus. I also placed Slosh's lamp that goes with the As You Wish outfit in the G2F hand.
Shaders and Textures !!!! Yes, so far I have left everything the default color. For the walls, I loaded a stone map that I got as a merchant resource. I tiled it to taste, ad then loaded the same map in the bump channel with the same tiling. I did something similar with the balcony floor but with different rock maps. The posts are a metallic shader.
For the magic carpet, recall that I had exported the uvmap from the display tab. I opened the map in Photoshop and then used a pattern that I have from a merchant resource for the top and bottom. I saved the revised texture map for the carpet. I returned to the Carrara shader room and loaded the new texture map for the carpet, with adjustments for bump etc.
And now we can do a test render, even though it is not finished. Will have to put in the last couple of pieces later in the week. Hope this has been helpful so far.
Thanks Diomede, that's a very interesting and useful tutorial.
So if I wanted a wall with several doorways, could I just duplicate the keyhole outline in the spline room, arrange the duplicates and combine the whole thing?