Carrara Monthly Challenge 29: Bad Timing, or Good Timing (Anachronistic) - WIP Thread
Diomede
Posts: 15,168
Carrara Challenge 29: Anachronistic (and hair)
It is that time again, or is it? Time is often the centerpiece of both drama and comedy. The challenge this month is to create an image that integrates the importance of time, especially circumstances in which an element seems to be part of the wrong time.
- It can be a contemporary scene in which someone arrives or departs earlier than expected (or later), creating dramatic tension or humorous relief.
- Someone dressed for a Heavy Metal or Punk Rock concert could show up at a stadium on the wrong day (indicated by posters), meeting people dressed for something very different
- It can be a holiday theme in which most of the elements seem to be part of one holiday season, but something seems part of another holiday season.
- It can be a fantasy scene in which people with cadillacs and machine guns confront dinosaurs.
- It can be a science fiction scene in which a roman legion confronts starship troopers.
- A historical figure (Marc Antony in a toga) could be addressing a modern parliament (people in modern business attire).
- A caveman could be thawed and adopted by a modern suburban family.
- Rip Van Winkle could fall asleep under a tree and wake up 100 years later.
- A Connecticut Yankee could visit King Arthur's Court.
- Feel free to interpret the theme broadly.
Basic rules will be:
1. Participants must use the Carrara hair function, although it need not be for hair. For example, it could be used for grass on a terrain or broom thistles. People with only Carrara 5 or earlier may substitute a customized terrain for the hair requirement. The hair function is the result of going to Carrara's top menu and selecting INSERT : HAIR Purchased hair is fine. Feel free to put a fur collar on that Santa Claus coat, or fur on the easter bunny, or use the hair to make tinsel, or twist some hair to create a rope.
2. Images must be new (previously unpublished).
3. Images must be primarily set up in Carrara.
4. Images must be rendered in Carrara or in an external renderer for which there is a Carrara plug-in (e.g. LuxRenderer, Octane).
5. At least one WIP (work in progress) image must be posted to the WIP thread that includes how the hair function was used in the scene
7. Screen shot of the scene in Carrara to be included in WIP - (sorry added this later).
8. Each participant may submit up to 3 images into the Challenge.
Please note, there is no requirement for the winner to host the next challenge, unless they want to.
(Here is the link to the Commons thread. Feel free to share thoughts or wips there)
(Reserved for list of sponsors)
(Reserved for list of sponsors - typically Daz sponsors prizes ranging from $100 for 1st place and lower for 2nd and 3rd until $10 for honorable mention)
EDIT: Sponsor:
We love our wonderful sponsors 
Once again Daz will generously sponsor the monthly challenge with the following prizes:
1st Place: $100.00 towards DAZ 3D owned item(s)
2nd Place: $ 50.00 towards DAZ 3D owned item(s)
3rd Place: $ 25.00 towards DAZ 3D owned item(s)
Honorable Mention (4th place): $10.00 towards DAZ 3D owned item(s) ( may be used for best new comers).
The wonderful Published Artist of Carrara dynamic hair Naomi also awards one item to each winner and HM.
** New Participant Prize - a $20 Daz gift certificate will be awarded to the best entry by a relatively new Carrara user.
We have a PA sponsor this month. First, second, third, and honorable mention each get one item from Naomi's store. Thank you Naomi.
Dates to Remember:
all dates are Daz Utah Time http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/usa/salt-lake-city
WIP Thread Opens: Thurs 3 Nov 2016
Entry Thread Opens: Saturday 3 Dec 2016
Entry Thread Closes/Voting Begins: 12.00 Midnight Saturday 10 Dec 2016
Voting Ends: Saturday 17 Dec 2016
As with the last challenge because we are having up to three images an entrant we WILL judge the winner by their scores combined. ie if their image 1 gets 24 votes, their image 2 gets 12 votes, and their image 3 gets 12 votes then they score 48.
2nd and third and HM would be as per usual - ie based on votes for one image.
EDICT AS THIS MONTH'S CARRARA CHALLENGE TYRANT
The rules for Its Raining Men challenge permit participation in another Daz contest as long as it is posted to Its Raining Men first. http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/123611/it-s-raining-men-again-competition-starts-now/p1 ; If Carrara people can comply with both, (timing could be an issue, and female figures may only be in supporting roles if appear in the image), then the render may also be submitted to this month's Carrara challenge. Go forth and interact with the larger Daz community. Good folks out there.
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Here are some more extreme examples.
Here are a few more
And here are a few links to help with the carrara hair function.
Older Tutorials
Carrara hair
wetcircuit
Cripeman
hair styling guide hairs
hair shader styling
Jonstark
more but here is a start
Here are some Daz store vendors with examples of dynamic hair.
Livia Zita - including fur for cats, dogs, and lions - http://www.daz3d.com/livia-zita
Naomi - http://www.daz3d.com/naomi
PhilW - http://www.daz3d.com/philw
Ringomonfort - http://www.daz3d.com/michael-6-sport-dynamic-hair
Note -some dynamic hair products go directly on the model. Others use a hair cap so can be used on other figures.
There are also some free Carrara dynamic hair products at sharecg.
Great ideas diomede, hopefully I'll get time to start sooner than too late fo finish... naa that would Never happen. :)
Looks like fun! I'll try to get something in
Ooh, hair, I might be tempted to take part - won't be able to do anything for a couple of weeks, but might be able to sneak something in by the end.
Nice theme!
I've used Carrara's Dynamic Hair for long wind-blown hair, short hair, beards and stubble, arm/chest/body hair, loose threads on clothes, alien plants, water-front reeds and bushes, cactus needles, fur, weepul hair, horse manes, rugs, and grass before. I'll have to come up with something new for this challenge!
I was a little stymied by the last challenge; I made one image that I didn't really like (which is why I didn't enter it) and then went completely blank, but I jotted down a bunch of possible ideas for this one at lunch today.
...it's Hair! Just grab an old test render, PhotoShop it up a bit and...
...okay don't listen to me. I'm delusional from rendering animations for the Animation Club. It's bewitching, you know! ;)
Images must be new - OK, I've done a bunch of tests that never saw the light of day, but there was probably a reason why they were not published!
I still have an old test where I've tried putting hair on a monster. I was still brand new with Carrara - and it shows immensely!
Funny I keep that file around. Whenever I go to my Monsters tab in my browser - there he is! Yikes!
One of my DP Shaders packs has some shaders for using Hair as carpeting! :)
Oooooh.... hair! Will have to get busy!
Silene
Regarding the method of choosing 1st place, the instructions invite comments. I received a PM making the following points.
A prolific artist can win by entering three mediocre images, while the artist who labored hard to perfect one superb image might lose. Additionally, the idea of submitting more than one entry into a contest isn't really rational (unless the contest is to see who can create the most images in the allotted time). If the judges are trying to select the best image, then the artist ends up competing against himself by submitting more than one entry.
This is a conversation worth having. I can see several different perspectives on the way we choose the top 3 and honorable mention.
First, on the numbers - They say songwriting teams always have a perfectionist and a polymath. The perfectionst would never finish on his/her own because there is always room for improvement. The polymath would never finish on his/her own because would move on to the next project before finishing. I don't have the answer but am willing to listen. The current rules reward multiple submissions for the top prize but not for 2nd or 3rd. That seems to try to strike some balance, but shouldn't the top prize go to the top image?
Second, on the posts - having votes posted in the thread could be a great way to get feedback. On the other hand, most of the time people provide real time feedback during the WIP stage. Currently, the votes are primarily a simple list of numbers. A secret ballot might make people more comfortable with voting.
Third, on the jury - I know that I do not have a trained eye for important attributes such as composition, etc. Would it be possible to recruit a panel, perhaps of forum mods? In practice, this might not be feasible, and participants might not get feedback on why one image was chosen over another because the jury would not necessarily participate in the WIP thread. Trade-offs.
For the present challenge, I will keep the voting rules as posted because people should know the rules during the time they work on their images. However, I will start another thread on the voting rules for the challenges. I encourage people to express their preferences and thoughts there. I am also happy to serve as an intermediary if people want to send PMs. Future challenges could experiment.
But lets not discuss that here because the discussion will get lost when this challenge ends, and I suspect that this wil be an enduring issue. A dedicated thread on the method of choosin top challenege images is here.
http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/124096/method-of-selecting-1st-3rd-and-hm-place-in-monthly-challenges
This WIP thread is officially open
@wgdjohn - better to start early, but I can't talk because I procrastinate all the time. Think of the hair room as a modeler and I think you will enjoy experimenting like with the other modelers.
@dartanbeck - hope you get time to get somehing in. Demonstrating how you get Rosie's curly hair style would be perfect, IMHO.
@PhilW - think of it as a testing ground for a new dynamic hair product. I really enjoy your Adera hair.
@MDO2010 - you have checked almost everything off your list that I can think of. Can't wait to see what innovation you come up with.
@Stezza - you was robbed! Demand a recount! Actually, the best hair-related musical I am aware of wouldn't comply with the TOS, so I won't link to it.
@SileneUK - hope you can find the time to participate in this one. I remember some great hair tips that you gave in my "best practices for genesis" thread.. Maybe you could show us some of your stone age creations either wearing a fur shawl or fending off a furry predator.
The voting rule has been edited, but not changed.
As with the last challenge because we are having up to three images an entrant we WILL judge the winner by their scores combined. ie if their image 1 gets 24 votes, their image 2 gets 12 votes, and their image 3 gets 12 votes then they score 48. 2nd and third and HM would be as per usual - ie based on votes for one image.
Just in case some folks don't know how hair works, drag the hair on to the model that you want to grow hair on. Here is the 3duniverse toon rabbit with and without some Carrara hair. I used different hair groups for the body and for the head. It took some use of the brush tool, and adjusting the hair length and thickness, and adding guide hars around the eyes to pull the hair away, and other edits.
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OK, just starting anew on an old scene first worked on almost 4 years ago to self-tutor on hair (yikes) but abandoned. Going to bring it up to date.
Created cliffs terrain and mapped with the Tapui cliff-face shader layers (no hair involved there). Left some winter brush twigs in from old scene, but will have to re-locate their source if I keep them.
Created planes with hair to simulate marsh grass, leaving gaps to allow the water shader to show through.
Sky and lights are only for my own reference at this point. When the scene fills, will choose a better lighting and background/sky.
There will be a big woolly mammoth, some hairy Neanderthal hunters wearing fur in an 'unusual' way maybe, or other furry things.
Was thinking about using fire in a way that Evil Producer posted a long time ago. Anyone seen Kev?
Enough hair?
Silene
wonderful start(s) great choice diomede
my computer with carrara dies yesterday so I might be a little tardy getting work in sorry ....
I can boot up win 7 in safe mode but that's it - and of course I didnt make a system image.........................................................
so I'll need to spend a while backing up my 2 2 terabyte drives before I do a win 7 reinstall... gah gah gah gah
i been dreaming steampunk lately
Yippie Kaeyay! What fun this will be... I've got a few off the wall ideas that will be very easy to indroduce myself to the Hair Room without getting in too deep the first time around.
Oooooh... Pasta Nite, my odd concation,.. energy to stay up.
OK... got an idea and here is the start of the WiPs
Haven't got as far as any hair yet but will get there.
Worked on making a space capsule with morphs for opening the door and hatch and extending the steps and adding text
so far so good
click for a bigga pic
Was that a hairy spaceship... what galaxy are they from? :)
mebbe hair as a helmet tassel?
kender top knot!
a high elf meeting a vulcan
@Silene - what a great idea - but feel free to scale back some of those hair projects, not because they are not wonderful, but because of the render time. At least for me, If I have too many hair elements or replicator elements then my render times shoot up. Haven't heard from EP in quite a while. Yes, wishing him the best. Your landscape scene looks amazing. Love the watery grassy marsh.
@MistyMist - a steampunk topknot would be a perfect way to combine different time elements. If you decide on a topknot, I think the video by wetcircuit in the 5th post in this thread could be helpful.
@Stezza - great concept art and modeling for the spaceship. Not that you would want to for this project, but I have been learning to rig doors in Studio and then save as duf rather than use Carrara morphs and movement constraints.
I found some time today to start on my first idea. The anachronism part of it probably isn't too clear yet, but I have some ideas for that - at this point I am just setting up the basic scene. Still need to figure out where I am going to use hair in this one too - my first idea didn't work out so I'm back to the sketchpad.
I'm calling it "A Yankee Candle in King Arthur's Court." For those who don't know, Yankee Candle is a modern chain of stores that sells... well, candles mostly.
The whole scene was modeled in Carrara so far, the textures are all done in Substance Painter except the gel on the main light which is a stock image of a stained glass window, the candle which is a subsurface material made from scratch in Carrara and the glass which is one of Carrara's included clear glass shaders. I even modeled the candle flame (its material is just a gradient in the glow channel), so it would show up in reflections.
TIP: When using items which cause long render times. For anyone who does not know already or are rather new to Carrara.
When I have items in a scene which slow down renders while only doing my quick test renders is to turn those objects or groups off.. make them invisible, tick "General/Visible". Do this only after the dynamic hair is finished. Then go work on something else in the scene.
I will go an additional step and also tick "General/View/Show Object in 3D View" so that it is also ghosted out... helps me find any invisibles quickly.
nickel thought, if two characters in scene with ponytails, standing close, will the ponytails collision detect each other? wind blowing physics