Carrara Challenge #37 - Dungeons Deep
Jonstark
Posts: 2,738
Announcing Carrara Challenge #36. The main work-in-progress thread is here in the Carrara forum: https://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/216796/carrara-challenge-37-dungeons-deep-wip-thread
DAZ3D and Carrara Professional Artists sponsor a monthly art contest to:
Build community spirit
Share tips and tricks
Highlight the creative potential of Carrara 8.5 software
Carrara is a full-featured 3D software suite. It has robust tools for 3D modeling, particle effects, landscape design, hair creation, texturing, animation, high-quality rendering, and more.
But one of Carrara's most unique features, is that it easily accepts most Daz and Poser content! So, not only can you create your own content, you can also load and pose content from the world's largest 3D library.
The current theme: Dungeons Deep
Pluck up your courage, adventurer! Delve forgotten tombs, explore mysterious caverns, brave darkened haunts and abandoned cellars, plumb the icy depths of a ghost ship beneath the frigid waves, or dare to raid an abandoned starship beyond the fringe. There will be danger aplenty, but also eerie beauty and perhaps the glitter of lost treasure. Fortune favors the bold!
Unlock Carrara's potential and give us your best dungeon render. For the purposes of this theme, 'dungeon' can be any sort of dark place, whether it's caverns deep below the earth sparkling with crystalline beauty, a spacestation high above the earth with lights and screens, or a darkened closet in a young boy's bedroom at night which may or may not contain a boogeyman (or maybe those shadows are just clothes on hangers...)
Rules and prizes are posted in the offician challenge thread in the Carrara forum: https://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/216796/carrara-challenge-37-dungeons-deep-wip-thread
Sample images from that thread will be posted here as they become available.
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Comments
Thanks for posting this Jon! Looks like we are in for some dark and dank Christmas treats.
A dark Christmas does not have to be a dank Christmas.
You called?
You just gave me a great idea for a render, UB! Thanks
Stezza is lightning fast, and already has an excellent render up in the WIP thread featuring a particularly hairy cucumber:
(I believe the local legends were that the ancient people once worshipped this cucumber as a God, and with a magnificent mane of hair like that, who can blame them?)
And Diomede is equally quick, giving this terrific render in the WIP thread:
(BTW, I hear the Randolph's are looking to hire a new nanny. The pay is stellar, but they require applicants to have all their affairs in order and a legal will in place.)
Diomede displays some first experiments towards making a winding cave using the Carrara terrain modeler (more specifically, 2 terrains put together). It looks pretty good at first blush!
MDO2010 references a slightly different technique, again using the Carrara terrain modeller, but turning the terrains sideways to make some cool cavelike winding walls:
MDO2010 shows a 'first draft' of the scene he is building, with rough lighting and no textures, it's already looking pretty good imo:
Dartanbeck's style is almost ideally suited for this challenge, check out this awesome example:
Check out this cave that Dartanbeck modeled with the Carrara vertex modeler, adding some 'trees' from the Carrara plant modeller. Especially without leaves, the trees really do work very convincingly as roots. Also I really like the simplicity of the lighting, it lends emphasis to lightbeam coming down through the opening.
th3Digit figured out yet another (and imo brilliant) method of modeling a cave, this approach using the Carrara metaball modeler. This is a modeler than not many people think to use, but can do some spectacular weird stuff.
A quick screenshot from Diomede referncing TangoAlpha's superb Medieval Hall set. I agree that this set is simply ideal for a dungeon-themed scene, and I'm exciting to see what might be done with it.
th3Digit actually shows her cave made by the metaball modeler is quite extensive, putting up some fly-through videos. Yup, I'd say this is a very viable method to making a cave :) Plus that water looks terrific too:
TangoAlpha shared a wip shot of a new set he's developing, looks like another winner to me and it will be fun to see the final version hit the Daz store:
MDO2010 shared a wip, mentioning there are a few more things he wants to add, I'd say it looks pretty great already, but I'm excited to see what he's planning on adding:
Varsel shared the start of his cave, he used yet another very interesting method, staring with the Carrara terrain modeler, then taking it into the vertex modeler and applying some bend and twist deformers. It looks really pretty, imo, love the little motes of light:
Whoa, check it out, Diomede's got an action scene coming together, talk about perilous adventure! Love the rock striations but watch out for that fall, looks like a dangerous place to fight a pumpkin monster :) :
Gotta love the action set pieces, that's what makes dungeon-delving such a rush. Here's another from Diomede, showcasing another way of using the carrara terrain modeler to fashion a cave, this time using the underside of the terrain as the roof of the scene. I actually think the cave ceiling here with it's roughened rock appearance, looks really good:
Stezza's hairy cucumbers are just about the cutest dungeon scene in the history of ever.
Shlomi has found yet another terrific use for the metaball modeler: making realistic stagmite formations. I swear this looks exactly like a formation in a local cave nearby to me, although I admit it's been several years since I visited.
Diomede's intrepid adventurer Brash Lonergan is about to have a close encounter! Creepy and fun, love this one.
MDO2010 has moved into the final render with this one, adding some postwork and other details. The intrepid heroine looks determined, don't get in her way!
MDO2010 shared a wip for a different entry, seems to be coming along nicely. The concept is based of a side scrolling videogame. Reminds me of when I used to spend hours playing Prince of Persia. :)
Time for me to start joining the fun, worked a bit on a Christmas tree today as a stray remark got me thinking about how to make a dungeon scene that was Christmas themed. Not sure if I'll pull it off, but determined to give it a try. Used the Carrara plant modeler to make the tree.
great job Jon
Love the comments!
Check out Shlomi's ghost dragon. Not something you'd want to run into in a dark cave. Or even a lighted cave, come to think about it... but it sure is pretty!
Stezza's 'Ant Nest' is brilliantly creepy. Makes my skin crawl, also reminds me of 'Leiningun vs the Ants' (if you haven't read it, give it a try, it's a classic).
Headwax shares why it might not be wise to bring along a toddler on perilous adventures. :)