New plugin : Cutouts and Blimps
I decided to release a new plugin finalized some month ago, but for which I haven't had the time to make a proper presentation. I don't have more time now, but decided to release it anyway.
It's called cutouts and blimps. You can see a small demo here:
A cutout is a plane on which an image is mapped and the transparent parts removed. Why would you say ? Just because because the renderer doesn't like transparency. So trading polygons for transparency is usually a good bargain. For instance, a tree where leaves have no transparency renders 10 times faster than a tree where leaves are a rectangle with transparency.
A blimp is an inflated cutout, similar to the "organic" operator in the vertex room. It's useful when you want to use cutouts to populate background (a common practice) and you want a better response to light. You can see the difference in this post I made in back in February.
You can also use it as a starting point for modeling from a drawing, given that UV mapping will be Box front and back. You can also use it for titling with round, cartoon like fonts.
You can download the plugin from the usual link : https://sourceforge.net/projects/carrara-time-savers/files/
For now, there only the Windows version. I'll try to compile theOSX version tomorrow.
Comments
Many thank-yous !!!!!!
.
oh WOW much easier than painfully manually tracing and organically modelling like I did my pillow puff animals!
Now I can make whole puffy pillow scenes and gingerbread cuttout people!
Must try cars and stuff too!
I wonder how my alpha brushes will look as puffies!
@th3Digit You're the one to thank. It's the dog prop you uploaded in sharecg that gave me the idea. I found the process very interesting, but tedious. Thus the plugin.
Do you see the file in Sourceforge.
When I look, I see it as "pending":
It says 8 files - but only shows 7... C&B is missing
I suppose it's waiting for virus and bloatware verification. First time it took so long. I'll keep you posted when it's finally released.
Archive is available now for download.
Thanks Philemo !
Incredible work Philemo :)
Thank you.,.. and th3Digit :)
THANK YOU
it is much better than Zbrush alpha to mesh
I am still playing but impressed
so many uses, replicator distribution maps can be made into solids etc
Wow, Philemo, I can't keep up with all of your amazing creations. Not one, but two enthusiastic thumbs up.
is awesome but can anyone export an obj?
I cannot
get an error has occured
tested can a 3ds, FBX as well as car file
Have you tried first to convert to a Vertex model object ?
Anyway I'll make some test and try to see where the problem could lie
yes
other formats work as I said just not obj
this sounds fantastic. i been lamenting transparency to render leaves.
Thanks!!!!
rather silly first go video
https://www.facebook.com/wendy5/videos/10215243683399396/
then there is this one .....
oh dear fantastico!! thanks so much !!
heres one with vwd drape rough and ready but think of the lace patterns etc etc
Well done Philemo,
Carrara stays alive thanks to people like you :-)
Maybe a Mac version one of these days?
In the meantime, we can always go to this app online:
http://www.smoothie-3d.com/site/page_index.php
Have a good day
///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
Bravo Philemo,
Carrara reste vivant grace à des gens comme toi :-)
Peut-être une version Mac un de ces jours ?
En attendant, on peut toujours se diriger vers ce soft en ligne :
http://www.smoothie-3d.com/site/page_index.php
Bonne journée
this will be a cool toy to muck around with..
thankyou
my video
and in one piece
wonderful Wendy!
Philemo, this is a terrific plugin.
What chance of it being applied to surfaces of an existing model I wonder?
I just finished a scen with about 60 people in it the other day.
Tjis wouid have come in handy!! Heres a few cutouts made with your program thanks!
@Jamy (and other mac users),
OSX version has been uploaded to https://sourceforge.net/projects/carrara-time-savers/files/
La version OSX a été remontée dans https://sourceforge.net/projects/carrara-time-savers/files/
@th3Digit
I love your video.
I couldn't reproduce .obj export crash before conversion to vertex model. But I could (only once) after conversion.
I'm afraid it will be a tough nut to crack...
Could you PM me an archive with a car file and your reference image so I can see if, using same parameters, I can reproduce the issue?
@head wax
I'm not sure tu understand your question.
I did not keep any of them sadly but obj export using save as rather than selecting the item and using export as, worked fine the latter ones I did including the ones in that video so no idea what happened before.
It was after conversion too BTW
maybe he means create mesh from a map?
I actually did that with a dress using it's opacity channel map making a single sided blimp, then moving the back half around in the vertex room to form a dress, was thinking dress patterns could be constructed into clothesthis way.
sorry Philemo - for example at the moment it works on a plane - so is there a chance it might work on eg a cylinder - and by extrapolation the mesh of eg a piece of clothing?
great idea wendy - you could use blenders sewing (?) feature to sew it together ?