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Cumulonimbus Clouds

McGuiverMcGuiver Posts: 219
edited December 1969 in Carrara Discussion

I have tried to make cumulonimbus clouds with Carraras volumetric clouds, 4D clouds, clouds and also with Inagoni primvol, unfortunately I did not have much success.

I just found a promising solution on share cg, It is a Carrara vertex modeled cloud. With this cloud it will be possible to add morph targets & bones to change the cloud shape......I have yet to join share cg, but I would like to give this model a try.

http://www.sharecg.com/v/41244/related/5/3D-Model/Cumulonimbus-cloud


Just sharing what I found for others to try out.

Cumulonimbus.jpg
600 x 450 - 14K

Comments

  • dot_batdot_bat Posts: 373
    edited December 1969

    how do you get it to render that way?

  • evilproducerevilproducer Posts: 9,050
    edited December 1969

    I DLed this model a long time ago, and the promo images are accurate! It's a great model.

    The cloud is actually a metaball object converted to a vertex object and probably cleaned up and modified. It's really interesting to look at.

    The shader is even more interesting. The author of the model and shader uses SSS, the glow channel, displacement, etc.

    It's worth the time to register and DL in my opinion.

  • de3ande3an Posts: 915
    edited October 2013

    This cloud model no longer works properly in Carrara 8.5.
    It appears to have broken between Carrara 8.5 beta 850107 and beta 850132 (it renders properly in version 107 but fails in 132 and up.)

    When rendering you no longer see the message "Calculating subsurface scattering".

    Rendering in Carrara 7, 8.1, and up to 8.5 beta 850107 works properly and takes only about eight seconds.
    Rendering in Carrara 8.5 850132 and up does not seem to show the subsurface scattering, and takes about 6.5 minutes to render (Yes, minutes!)


    So the question is this; is Carrara subsurface scattering now broken in the release version? I haven't used subsurface scattering enough to know how to test it properly.


    My testing was done on the Mac 64 bit version.

    Post edited by de3an on
  • DartanbeckDartanbeck Posts: 21,583
    edited December 1969

    If you have the native content installed, the candle example in the SSS folder is an excellent offering to show how SSS works.

    That said (sorry for straying OT), I think that a great way to really show of sss in Carrara renders of human models, I think we can likely get amazing results by using very close lights, as in the candle example, where you need sss to be strongest, and tweeking the lights themselves to control the varying degrees of sss, the color of the penetrating light, and side-cast off the soft skin - all according to where the intense light is to come from. Even if they're just dim, I think that using special lights will be the ticket to amazing sss render.

    So I really hope it's not broken. I'll test it within the hour or so - as that's where I'm off to now. So I'll report back when I see what's going on. Oh please don't be broken!

  • DartanbeckDartanbeck Posts: 21,583
    edited December 1969

    McGuiver said:

    Just sharing what I found for others to try out.
    Insane cool!
    Gotta have this... Thanks, my friend! :)
  • JonstarkJonstark Posts: 2,738
    edited December 1969

    Something is very wrong, as I'm seeing wildly different results using this than back in the day when this was first introduced.

    De3an, SSS works fine for everything else I use it for in 8.5 (I use it for human skin settings all the time) and if anything it renders faster than it did in 8 (at least for me), but this cloud model is not behaving anything like it used to, there is definitely something going weird here.

  • DartanbeckDartanbeck Posts: 21,583
    edited December 1969

    Yeah, the candle renders sss just fine - and it did calculate for sss before the render.

    sss-candle.jpg
    470 x 650 - 51K
  • DartanbeckDartanbeck Posts: 21,583
    edited December 1969

    Straight off the download, I double-clicked the file to open it in Carrara and hit the render button. Looks like a Toon cloud in 8.5 - a very nice Toon cloud - but that's not what the author has made.

    vertex_cloud.jpg
    640 x 480 - 102K
  • RoygeeRoygee Posts: 2,247
    edited December 1969

    Thanks for sharing that link, mcGuiver :)

    I'm still on C8.1 and this renders perfectly in a couple of seconds - totally blew me away!

    Now I'll have to delve into that part of Carrara that I've just taken some quick frustrating peeps at - the metaball modeler - got to make me some more of those clouds :)

  • SpacelandSpaceland Posts: 132
    edited December 1969

    Impressive clouds.

    Will have to try.

    Thank you mcGuiver.

  • dot_batdot_bat Posts: 373
    edited December 1969

    Anybody report this render failure, i would but have no idea where the problem is, i only have the new release 8.5 and it doesnt render

  • evilproducerevilproducer Posts: 9,050
    edited December 1969

    If you turn off the SSS in the shader, does it work?

  • McGuiverMcGuiver Posts: 219
    edited December 1969

    Wow.....
    I didn't realize that I already had a sharecg account....anyway, I am using C8.1 and the cloud renders great. The mesh looks like the main part of the cloud is made from a sphere....possibly some metaballs around it.
    What is amazing is the shader and displacement....the shader makes it really nice.

    I will work on a vertex (box modeled) cloud....maybe morphs or bones....see what is possible with it. :)

  • BrianP21361BrianP21361 Posts: 808
    edited December 1969

    evilproducer,

    It does seem related to SSS. I turned off SSS and got the image below.

    no_SSS.png
    640 x 480 - 91K
  • dot_batdot_bat Posts: 373
    edited December 1969

    this is what i got without sss

    cloud.png
    640 x 480 - 90K
  • McGuiverMcGuiver Posts: 219
    edited December 1969

    This is the render I got in C8.1 straight out of the box, so 8.1 is working fine.

    Doc1.jpg
    640 x 480 - 76K
  • de3ande3an Posts: 915
    edited December 1969

    I'll quote myself from earlier in the thread:

    de3an said:
    It appears to have broken between Carrara 8.5 beta 850107 and beta 850132 (it renders properly in version 107 but fails in 132 and up.)

    Carrara 7 and 8.1 render it properly.

    Something happened to one of the 8.5 beta revisions after 850107 that causes this shader to render improperly.

    I've looked at the shader settings, but my shader skills are not very complete, and I don't see what's wrong.

  • evilproducerevilproducer Posts: 9,050
    edited December 1969

    Sounds like a bug report needs to be filed. This scene allows for redistribution, so I don't see why it can't be included with the report. I don't have C8.5, or I'd do it myself.

  • McGuiverMcGuiver Posts: 219
    edited December 1969

    Here is a screenshot of the subsurface scattering settings as they come in on C8.135.
    Just wondering if the settings come in the same on 8.5

    SSS.jpg
    640 x 480 - 42K
  • dot_batdot_bat Posts: 373
    edited December 1969

    same results even with intensity up to 7.56

    Screen_shot_2013-10-13_at_2.29_.45_AM_.png
    638 x 494 - 87K
  • nDelphinDelphi Posts: 1,862
    edited December 1969

    I just got this cloud and I see the same in 8.5 as everyone else. Was this reported as a possible bug in 8.5?

  • evilproducerevilproducer Posts: 9,050
    edited December 1969

    Hopefully it has been reported.

    It has to do with the SSS I think. Will it work for your toon needs?

  • nDelphinDelphi Posts: 1,862
    edited December 1969

    evilproducer said:
    Hopefully it has been reported.

    It has to do with the SSS I think. Will it work for your toon needs?

    It might, will only know when I apply Toon! Pro when I decided to get it. Although I think the ability to puff up is part of its unique shader?

  • evilproducerevilproducer Posts: 9,050
    edited December 1969

    nDelphi said:
    evilproducer said:
    Hopefully it has been reported.

    It has to do with the SSS I think. Will it work for your toon needs?

    It might, will only know when I apply Toon! Pro when I decided to get it. Although I think the ability to puff up is part of its unique shader?

    That's done with displacement. I think no matter the shader you use, if you leave the displacement alone it should look like the same geometry.

  • nDelphinDelphi Posts: 1,862
    edited December 1969

    evilproducer said:

    That's done with displacement. I think no matter the shader you use, if you leave the displacement alone it should look like the same geometry.

    In that case it should work. Well, looks like I have a solution for the toon clouds.

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