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ROTFL! Alright, I didn't have a Carrara Content entry so I cannot suggest the next theme. But how about "Time Flies" as an idea? ;-)
I would suggest Deep in Motion also :)
back to DB animation, I notice an interesting movement of the tongue that emphasizes facial expressions, very convincing imo
Messing around with Genesis 2 Female
RE: Carrara challenges
I started a brainstorming session in the last WIP thread. Assuming Daz is willing to continue to support the challenges, please join in if you have ideas or comments.
http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/36508/P105
I thought I would check on the level of interest for some ideas that I have. Feel free to suggest others.
a) “The Great Race” = theme, with a requirement to use the terrain modeler. Also, if a human is involved, the human must be either riding, directing, etc. something else (like a car race, or chariot race, or a pod race). But, any nonhuman racers would be OK, like the tortoise vs the hare, or the Wacky Races, if you have seen Stalag 17, you could even have rat races.
b) “Made in the Shade” = theme, with a requirement that at least one object be a simple geometric object (from any modeler) that is “made” into something by using the shader channels. For example, a cylinder could me made into a barrel, or a cube could be made into a building with open windows by using the alpha channel.
c) “Winter of our Frank-content” = theme - with a requirement that at least one piece of “content” be used (could be freebie from Daz, ShareCG, etc. or purchased) but that the content be edited either in a modeler or shaders or whatever so that it is substantially re purposed. For example, the free Daz cats could be combined with M4 to make a sphinx. A house could be turned into a houseboat.
Feel free to comment on these ideas or to suggest others.
So I guess we need to check to see if Daz is willing to continue these contests, and what the level of interest is in the community.
testing the SSS potential in C 8.5. The 2 shaders (head and ear) differ only in translucency, hard to notice in dim light
Stephanie 6 Close up of Carrara Skin Shaders.
Close up of Olympia 6 Carrara Skin Shaders.
Messing around trying to get back into the swing of things
Welcome back Maestro!
Your image and the recent Carrara contest got me thinking...I love seeing a cubic column twisted like that. It's a cool modifier.
Can we freeze that? I vaguely recall the answer is "no." ;-) I'd love to be proven wrong. Hopefully I'll have time to play with this today to find out on my own.
This is a Carrara render done by Ja Yoes. He is a member of the Carrara 3D User Group in Facebook.
He does amazing renders.
That looks really cool!
Send him on over!
Great Stuff, 3dage and Jayoes!
Wow... WinXP? I haven't seen that interface in a while now!
Hi Garstor :)
Thanks :)
yes. :)
You can "deform" the model in the Vertex modeller, to add bend and twist, but it's a one way street, (apart from undo) unlike in the assembly room, where you can adjust the bend/twist and see what you're getting,.
When you add the effect in the vertex modeller,. it's not a modifier, so that's exportable as an object.
but yes,. you should also be able to export with the deformation done in the assembly room,. it should be..
Export / OBJ / and select "Export object with morphs and skinning"
that should export the model with it's current deformations, even if the deformation is a modifier.
Andy :)
Ringo
Those are really nice.
yes. :)
You can "deform" the model in the Vertex modeller, to add bend and twist, but it's a one way street, (apart from undo) unlike in the assembly room, where you can adjust the bend/twist and see what you're getting,.
When you add the effect in the vertex modeller,. it's not a modifier, so that's exportable as an object.
but yes,. you should also be able to export with the deformation done in the assembly room,. it should be..
Export / OBJ / and select "Export object with morphs and skinning"
that should export the model with it's current deformations, even if the deformation is a modifier.
Andy :)
Ringo
Those are really nice.
Cool. I was just wondering about that the other day.
I did this one a long time ago, but I thought it was appropriate for St. Patricks Day. :)
Happy St. Patrick's Day to You as well! (Love that render!)
Hi,
I'm trying a new algorithm for building a light dome from a Jpeg background.
That's my first try worthy of showing.
the background is from Sibl archive at HDR labs.
Hope you enjoy it.
It's Puddles the Clown! ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1HtrbMy4mU4 )
Hi dart,
Actually, it's not HDRI.
The problem came of how Sibl archive are done. There is a hires background (in JPEG) and a medium and low res HDRI. Carrara doesn't allow to use both (the Hires picture for background) and HDRI for lighting.
So I decided to build a light dome of distant lights from the HDRI. That was the first step.
Afterwards, I found on Flickr the Panorama group where there are panorama (and hires ones) but no HDRI.
That's why a decided to create light dome from LDR (Low Dynamic Range) images.
For those interested, i'ts done in several steps.
First, the algo divide the image into several rectangles (one per light) of equal intensity (Median cut algorithm from Paul Deverec). In bright areas, there are a lot of small rectangles, in dark area, there are a few big rectangle. The range of the intensity is extended so that brighter area are considered brighter and dark ones darker.
Afterwards it create 1 distant light per rectangle. The colour of the light is the average colour of the rectangle mixed with white light (to limit colour bleeding). The intensity of the light is the intensity of this average colour.
A sun (another distant light) is then created from it's location on the picture
Compared to HDRI lighting, You get quite honest result with something like 256 lights.
Tweaking is easy using masterlight command. Optionally, these dome light can cast shadows (useful for scenes where there is no sun)
I'll try to post some more picture, but I'm know trying to get decent shaders for this test picture (Skin SSS, clothes, dynamic hair).
If someone is interested, I can upload on ShareCG some Carrara scene with the light dome for a background image available on the internet.
Hi dart,
Actually, it's not HDRI.
The problem came of how Sibl archive are done. There is a hires background (in JPEG) and a medium and low res HDRI. Carrara doesn't allow to use both (the Hires picture for background) and HDRI for lighting.
So I decided to build a light dome of distant lights from the HDRI. That was the first step.
Afterwards, I found on Flickr the Panorama group where there are panorama (and hires ones) but no HDRI.
That's why a decided to create light dome from LDR (Low Dynamic Range) images.
For those interested, i'ts done in several steps.
First, the algo divide the image into several rectangles (one per light) of equal intensity (Median cut algorithm from Paul Deverec). In bright areas, there are a lot of small rectangles, in dark area, there are a few big rectangle. The range of the intensity is extended so that brighter area are considered brighter and dark ones darker.
Afterwards it create 1 distant light per rectangle. The colour of the light is the average colour of the rectangle mixed with white light (to limit colour bleeding). The intensity of the light is the intensity of this average colour.
A sun (another distant light) is then created from it's location on the picture
Compared to HDRI lighting, You get quite honest result with something like 256 lights.
Tweaking is easy using masterlight command. Optionally, these dome light can cast shadows (useful for scenes where there is no sun)
I'll try to post some more picture, but I'm know trying to get decent shaders for this test picture (Skin SSS, clothes, dynamic hair).
If someone is interested, I can upload on ShareCG some Carrara scene with the light dome for a background image available on the internet.
The result looks very promising, especially the sharpness of the backdrop which cannot happen with a true hdri. If I were to make any suggestions it would be to enable shadow casting for the dome of lights as well as for the sunlight. It is my opinion that indirect light casts shadows which are important as depth indicators. If the dome is non-shadow casting the result can look similar to a uniform ambience glow which probably isn't what you were going for. In the example above one side of her face is illuminated with sunlight, the other side illuminated only with the indirect light from the dome. On the right hand side I miss the slight shading I would expect the hair to cast on her cheek even though this side of her face only receives indirect lighting. Enabling shadows for the dome will add to render time surely, but the realism potential of your rig makes me think it may be worth it. If your going to go as far as SSS for the skin then I dont see how one could skip the shading that should come from the indirect lighting.
Another aspect of hdri is the reflections. I wonder how your rig handles bright specular reflections?
Over-all, extremely well done simulation. Keep it up!!
Hi Rashad! It's been, what... forever and a day? Good to see you!
I find that spherical backgrounds cast wonderful reflections. It's a great way to get natural looking reflections on my alpha animations, as Carrara won't include the spherical background into the background of the alpha, but will calculate the resulting reflections - which is amazingly cool.
Anyways, I agree with using shadows on any form of GI replacement. I did a bit of reading from various sources pretty heavily when Woodlands was in the WIP stages and found that once you reach ambient lights numbering upwards of around 80, you no longer need to kick on the soft shadows to get pretty nice, soft shadows. With over 200 sky fills, shadows become very soft without the need to activate soft shadows, so they really should be on. And they might be. Many times we'll unlink the hair from the bulk of the shadow casting lights to remove an enormous bottleneck in render times. But then I guess we should do something to get at least some of that back.
That dome sounds really cool Philemo. I've been doing some really nice experiments using a single sunlight with the 16,000 x 8,000 spherical backgrounds from my Badlands kit, and then turning on GI without IL, and having Gamma Correction set to 2.2, and found that Carrara definitely considers the background in the GI calculations very nicely - at least to my eyes.
It's fun trying out new ways to light :)
Hi Rashad,
I'm working on that. I try to have the best shaded subject so lighting can be shown effectively. Skin shading has improved greatly and I'm working on the clothes.
Last render with sun light and shadow intensity matching those of the background.
I added SSS, maybe a bit light, but it can clearly be seen at the shadow edges in the full sized imaged.
The light dome is also casting shadows. It add a little more contrast a some (actually a lot) render time :-)
More fun trying using Bryce terrains in Carrara :)
Very Nice! Bryce sure makes a nice terrain, eh?
Incredible! Did you sculpt all the cloth?
Hi Holly,
Only sculpted the the body and arms. The "ruffs" ,sleeves and neck were softbody simple shapes ,then given a thickness after I selected a nice frame from the simulation. ( absolute nightmare this one,almost finnished my cg career!!!!)
We need you Stu! :)
Thanks for the support Dart! ( the jury is still out on this one!! )