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Herds from an expert....uh oh... :ohh:
Lots to do but I made my own terrain and cliffs, using Dart's shader he helped me with for limestone and his trees and some other vegetation.
Have to rig and texture my caribou. And yes that's a millenium sabre toothed cat.
This is really HARD work, but am enjoying learning new stuff, but not sure if getting much luck with lighting/sky :red:
%-P SileneUK
Hi Silene,
are you going for a sunset look? If so, the light you're using for the sunlight is too high, judging by the shadows. Since you're using the Realistic Sky, there's a couple things that could help with the lighting.
The first, is to either insert a sunlight or convert your current light to a sunlight. The conversion is super simple. There's a light type pull-down menu in the light's general tab. Converting the light to a sunlight will tie it to the Realistic Sky for both position and color. Don't worry, you can still adjust it either by rotating the light itself or from within the RSE (Realistic Sky Editor) and the sun's disk will follow the light and the color will also change accordingly.
If yo wish to use the scene's ambient light, you can set it to, "Sky." This will tie the ambient light to the sky color. Use it with caution. If you get it to bright it will wash out the image and make the lighting look flat.
You can also try to use the Skylight in the Render room. It is a form of GI, but not full GI. It will let the sky act like an Image Based Light (IBL), similar to an HDRI. It does take longer to calculate, but it is faster than Indirect Light. Using Skylight in conjunction with your sun light and atmosphere can really make a nice image.
My final suggestion is to use volumetric clouds instead of the cloud layer in the Realistic Sky. If you or anybody else would like a preset that looks pretty good and is relatively fast you can try this one. It's very large so as to stretch from horizon to horizon. If it's low, you can raise up the bounding box.
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/7370483/Cloudy-day-clouds.car.zip
Thanks, EP...will work on this tomorrow. Finally finished my work work for the month and have a couple of weeks till surgery day, so am going to try and make an entry, even if only a basic one. I hope other newbies will join in. It's a broad theme with lots of room...except I had to choose bleedin' herds as well. ROFL!
Cheers! xx :) SileneUK
Check out those highlights and shadows! It's working great!
Now is where we can start bringing in some other light, beyond just the unidirectional sun.
Imagine that the sky is also a light - much softer and less bright than what the direct sun provides. Much less bright.
To simulate this in a simple way on a per-scene basis, since this scene is so big, try adding a Distant light and setting it to shine down on your models from a different angle. Keep the brightness set very low, because we'll be making more of these, and give it a bit of a blue tint.
Do a test render to check the angle. If you like the angle from top to bottom, hit Crtl G to group the light. I know it's just one light, but now you can get a nice z axis rotation on it without messing with any of the other axis.
Use Ctrl D to duplicate the new group and give it a new angle on just the z axis. In other words, turn it right or left. In doing so, think about casting an even light from the sky onto what it is you need to render.
Here's the trick: Just rotate it a small amount and, while it's still selected, Ctrl D again and the rotation will repeat itself on that duplicate. Keep duplicating until you have a good range of extra sky fill. A quick and easy method to get some quick sky fill effect. So once you have enough, open each of those groups, select all of the lights, and drag them out of that group and Ctrl G them to make a single group. This makes it easier to select all of the light together and adjust their brightness and tint together - even though you may eventually want to change some of them individually.
Remember that distant lights are infinite. So if they are set too low of an angle, the terrain will block the light by creating shadow - so for the sky illumination additions, keep the angle so that it doesn't get blocked by the terrain.
It drives me (amateur astronomer) nuts that the industry refers to reflected light as "Bounce" light, because light doesn't bounce - it reflects. But the terms were pretty much carved into stone, it seems - so hopefully the cringing will abide in time.
The next lights to add are some "Bounce" lights, which are simulating the light that gets reflected from the ground and other surfaces. Since these need to point upwards, you need to exclude them from hitting the terrain or make it so that they don't cast shadows. If they don't cast shadows, you need to beware not to brighten inner surfaces too much - like the insides of mouths, etc., but for a broad scene like this, no real worries there.
So the easy and fast way is to add another distant light and angle it upwards at an angle that will help to alleviate any shadows that might seem to be too dark. Keep these reflection lights somewhat dim, as they are only adding to the scene, not becoming it. You can use the same method as above to duplicate it some more, or just make a few duplicates and hand rotate them to enhance your scene.
Global Illumination with Indirect Light does all of the above for you, except the sunlight. So you can go that route instead.
Just some extra food for thought....
Oops. I type too slowly! :ahhh:
Hi Dart, personally I tend to avoid full Indirect light for outdoor scenes because even a couple trees with leaves really cranks up the calculations. Skylight with a few strategically placed bounce ( ;-P) lights is usually much faster for me. Individual results will vary of course, and it's not wrong to use full GI, it's just my preference.
Actually my preference is to avoid GI entirely due to render times, but it does have its uses.
Me too. I tend to light everything manually - how I want the scene to look. Another of my favorite aspects of Carrara are the super easy-to-use lights :)
Including the bounce lights? I can say it 'cause Jeremy Birn does :P Bwahahahahaaaaaaaaaa!
That is a great start. I can't even get the dang replicator shader to work! Dart might be able to give you some ideas to get more variation in your antelope. You have a couple of choices. If they are poseable, you can put a couple in different poses and shaders, then save them out as obj and reimport them so they can be replicated. Even 3 or 4 can help give variety. Alternatively, you could replicate one, then convert to instances, then edit/shade several to get variety.
Actually, I have an idiotic solution to my replication distribution map woes now, but a solution nonetheless. Opening and saving my distribution maps in Paint works. I am back in the game!
The WIPs were just my attempts to learn the tools I will need to pay tribute to The Big Country. First, I needed to create a custom terrain shading zone to make the ravine more green than the overall terrain. Second, I needed to create distribution maps through the bottom of the ravine to define a shader for the stream and to replicate vegetation along the banks of the stream.
In the Big Country, one rancher tries to deny another access to a stream running through the high plains.
Still a lot of work to do on everything. Cowboys will be making a reappearance.
(and thanks to Kashyyk for a great suggestion about perspective and grass. i might apply the concept in a different way).
That is a great start. I can't even get the dang replicator shader to work! Dart might be able to give you some ideas to get more variation in your antelope. You have a couple of choices. If they are poseable, you can put a couple in different poses and shaders, then save them out as obj and reimport them so they can be replicated. Even 3 or 4 can help give variety. Alternatively, you could replicate one, then convert to instances, then edit/shade several to get variety.
Actually, I have an idiotic solution to my replication distribution map woes now, but a solution nonetheless. Opening and saving my distribution maps in Paint works. I am back in the game!
The WIPs were just my attempts to learn the tools I will need to pay tribute to The Big Country. First, I needed to create a custom terrain shading zone to make the ravine more green than the overall terrain. Second, I needed to create distribution maps through the bottom of the ravine to define a shader for the stream and to replicate vegetation along the banks of the stream.
In the Big Country, one rancher tries to deny another access to a stream running through the high plains.
Still a lot of work to do on everything. Cowboys will be making a reappearance.
(and thanks to Kashyyk for a great suggestion about perspective and grass. i might apply the concept in a different way).
Replicators can replicate rigged objects, even Poser and DAZ figures. It is the Duplicate function that Carrara can't do for rigged figures without the aid of Fenric's plugin (don't know the name).
You could load three antelopes from the browser, pose each one a little differently and then stick them in a replicator.
Replicators can replicate rigged objects, even Poser and DAZ figures. It is the Duplicate function that Carrara can't do for rigged figures without the aid of Fenric's plugin (don't know the name).
You could load three antelopes from the browser, pose each one a little differently and then stick them in a replicator.
Thanks EP, Dio and Dart,
They are caribou!!! No matter.. if I have loads of them...they travel in huge migration herds, won't rigged ones take up a lot of memory? I think I asked about duplicated vs replicated and memory once before.
After rigging....can I remove the skeleton in some way and keep them permanently posed that way? Then do my replication groups? I was going to do abou 4 or 5 different poses. Sorry if that's a stupid question. Just don't want mb file overload.
Various poses will solve what I hate-- where the terrain rolls (yes there is lots more to do there as well), I will have to jump into that particular replicated group and raise/lower/rotate the caribou that would appear to be sinking into the hilly landscape. That was why I was going to have differently posed replicated groups as suggested.
Today is lighting day...will be working on that. Much more complicated for me because I have to keep previewing it with a render shot and I had not explored lighting in detail on PhilW's tuts yet.
This is a great experience. Thanks for the ideas and all the help. I hope more new people will dive in... it's fun. I don't care about competing or winning, it's the challenge of taking on a theme that was not my own and trying to make it work. Makes me discover and learn new stuff!
xx :) SileneUK
Replicators can replicate rigged objects, even Poser and DAZ figures. It is the Duplicate function that Carrara can't do for rigged figures without the aid of Fenric's plugin (don't know the name).
You could load three antelopes from the browser, pose each one a little differently and then stick them in a replicator.
Thanks EP, Dio and Dart,
They are caribou!!! No matter.. if I have loads of them...they travel in huge migration herds, won't rigged ones take up a lot of memory? I think I asked about duplicated vs replicated and memory once before.
After rigging....can I remove the skeleton in some way and keep them permanently posed that way? Then do my replication groups? I was going to do abou 4 or 5 different poses. Sorry if that's a stupid question. Just don't want mb file overload.
Various poses will solve what I hate-- where the terrain rolls (yes there is lots more to do there as well), I will have to jump into that particular replicated group and raise/lower/rotate the caribou that would appear to be sinking into the hilly landscape. That was why I was going to have differently posed replicated groups as suggested.
Today is lighting day...will be working on that. Much more complicated for me because I have to keep previewing it with a render shot and I had not explored lighting in detail on PhilW's tuts yet.
This is a great experience. Thanks for the ideas and all the help. I hope more new people will dive in... it's fun. I don't care about competing or winning, it's the challenge of taking on a theme that was not my own and trying to make it work. Makes me discover and learn new stuff!
xx :) SileneUK
Hi Silene, if you use three caribou each posed differently, then added to a replicator, and replicated many times, it may give the illusion of more variety in your scene without a huge hit to memory, as Carrara only has to hold the geometry of those three caribou in memory. If you consolidate shaders, so they each use the same texture, then there's only one instance of the texture Carrara has to remember.
As to them sinking into the terrain, the hotpoint is what is placed on terrain, so if a caribou is sinking into the terrain, then lower the hotpoint towards the feet. The easiest way is to press Caps Lock. I prefer to use one of the side or front/back isometric views when doing that.
Here's an example I did a while ago using only two Storm Troopers in a replicator. The layout is kind of crappy. The initial reason I made it, I seem to recall was to demonstrate ways to sell DOF or different scales in a scene, or both.
Posting the non post render with the postwork render as per rules..
Oh I forget about hotpoint moving and that was in one of the earliest tutorials from PhilW's Infinite Skills... so will do that now. I didn't work on lighting, I did terrain stuff, still not done, but will fix the hotpoint and post some of the herd today as I finished the caribou/reindeer.
xx Cheers :-) SileneUK
Oh I forget about hotpoint moving and that was in one of the earliest tutorials from PhilW's Infinite Skills... so will do that now. I didn't work on lighting, I did terrain stuff, still not done, but will fix the hotpoint and post some of the herd today as I finished the caribou/reindeer.
xx Cheers :-) SileneUK
FYI: You can change the hotpoint on the main object while the others are still being replicated, and they will change according to your adjustments.
Also, if you don't wish to actually rig them, you could try changing their pose in the vertex modeler. But that can be more difficult than adding a simple rig to them.
Since you're looking for background beasts in various poses, your rig can be kept very simple, just enough bones to change the pose to what you need. For example, one copy of the model may only have bones for the back, neck and head so that you can pose the head differently - like grazing or simple head turns, etc., while another could have just a few bones in the legs.
Personally, I would just make a simple and quick rig for the head, neck, chest, ab, hip, and each leg. That way I would end up with a fully pose-able animal, giving me the ability to add more poses to the scene if I felt that they were needed. But the option remains to do something really quick and simple, if you choose.
OK here's what I did... I made and rigged three different caribou in their poses. But their limbs all went nuts when I replicated, so I posed each one, saved as obj, then resaved back as .car. Each one only came on 1mb that way even with texture. Then I can replicate or duplicate, whatever..and can move them about in a more natural way in groups or not. Will show later this evening if I can.
But I have done a complete blank on finding how to tell the plain/terrain not to let the hot point (which is down at hoof area now) drag my animal below. Been trawling through the big Carrara 7 pdf but I must not be searching for right keywords, I thought it was collision or something. Sorry to be so stupid, it's the little things that I go blank on the most! The big things just take for ever to learn.
;) SileneUK
Part of the issue could be the terrain's rendered resolution versus its preview resolution. I think by default the preview is lower than the rendered resolution. Look in the terrain modeler. If the terrain's rendered resolution is at a reasonable size, try sliding the slider for the preview size to match the rendered size. If the Assembly room bogs down or becomes laggy, try lowering the terrain and preview resolution down a bit. With my older system, I like 512 and 512 for the preview and render resolutions. If you have a better graphics card than I do, then you may be able to set it higher without lag.
That's exactly what came to my mind as I read her post.
Remember what I said earlier, too... you can move the hotpoint while the replicator is working, and the replicants will update automatically.
So first think to do is to double-click your terrain and check to see f your working view fidelity matches the render fidelity. These are sliders on the right side in the terrain editor, just under where you set the size of the terrain. Another note on this is that, even if they are the same, if it is 512 or less, the algorithm used to render the generated shape might raise the surface somewhat.
However, either way... you can make slight adjustments to the hotpoint and do a quick test render by the hooves of one of the replicated caribou and see if they're still sunk. If so, repeat the process.
On my machine, I can often handle a bit of time with all replicants being shown as the actual mesh instead of a bounding box. this is a much easier way to see what's going on. Then, when you get the hotpoint set right, you can change them back to being boxes.
To do that, select the replicator itself. Now look just above, in the properties tray. There's a drop-down box there where you can choose how the replicants look in working view: Dots, Crosses, Bounding Box, or Mesh. If I'm not mistaken, you could likely use dots or crosses in the same way. So if your machine doesn't like showng all of those mesh objects at once, try dots or crosses. This time you might not see them - so change the hotpoint until you do see them.
Hmmm... I hope I'm making at least some sense here. Bah... just bring your file over here and I'll show you what I mean ;)
I think I got brain-fuzz with the replicator/hotpoint thing. So I just replicated the old-fashioned way then jumped into the groups to adjust heights. Only tidied the ones in the front, tried to make sure the ones in the river weren't drowning and will sort the rear group when I sort the terrain on that side of the river. Will add to the herd as things move along. Being a beginner, I am trying to keep techniques simple but within the rules. I did created my own caribou's texture and used a wood texture for the antlers.
I have some foothills and mountain for the background, so it's just black for now. Then there's lighting (I like lighting individual items, too!!), sky, other critters and some people. Hope I haven't bitten off more than I can chew but will give it a go using all the good advice here.
Have to call it a night...time for meds and bed.
xx :) SileneUK
Looking absolutely marvelous! Truly!
Well done, Stezza. I especially like the parasol. Your postwork is extremely impressive.
SileneUK - When you get the results you want by duplicating, don't worry about replication. No need to fret. But if you want to review replicators and hot points, see posts 16 and 17 in this thread. http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/38177/P15
Also, sometimes the normals of the surface object will be screwy and cause the replicated objects to point down if align objects to normal is checked. Rare, but it does happen. If the surface object is one-sided, just uncheck align objects to normal.
The WIPs are coming along well. If I don't see someone get inspired by the attached images, I will be sorely disappointed. Here are the blueprints and the textures for the Mach 5.
Edit - the blueprints were too large and i got an error message loading. Found it here.
http://www.the-blueprints.com/vectordrawings/request/show/5510/speed_racer_mach_5/
Well done, Stezza. I especially like the parasol. Your postwork is extremely impressive.
SileneUK - When you get the results you want by duplicating, don't worry about replication. No need to fret. But if you want to review replicators and hot points, see posts 16 and 17 in this thread. http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/38177/P15
Also, sometimes the normals of the surface object will be screwy and cause the replicated objects to point down if align objects to normal is checked. Rare, but it does happen. If the surface object is one-sided, just uncheck align objects to normal.
The WIPs are coming along well. If I don't see someone get inspired by the attached images, I will be sorely disappointed. Here are the blueprints and the textures for the Mach 5.
Edit - the blueprints were too large and i got an error message loading. Found it here.
http://www.the-blueprints.com/vectordrawings/request/show/5510/speed_racer_mach_5/
Not to be rude, but that craptacular cartoon would be the last thing I use for inspiration. The only thing worse would be the live action movie that they made a few years ago.
Worst. Cartoon. Ever.
Not to be rude, but that craptacular cartoon would be the last thing I use for inspiration. The only thing worse would be the live action movie that they made a few years ago.
Worst. Cartoon. Ever.
Hmmm.
-Cool riff in the theme song,
-hot girlfriend with a helicopter,
-fast car with lots of gadgets,
-mysterious brother fighting international intrigue
If you can't like that, well, then you are not going to agree that it is the 25th best cartoon of all time. See
http://animatedtv.about.com/od/showsaz/tp/top50chrctrs.02.htm
I do agree with you about the movie.
I guess we'll have to agree to disagree about the cartoon. ;-)
is this the right way (wip)
It is the way of the life but if Mama Chohole sees that….! :snake:
Great concept! I'd love to see where this goes!
Chohole is staying schtum ................for now :coolgrin:
That's pretty tame. Remember, I did the Wet Dreams May Come entry in the Movie poster challenge and didn't have it pulled. ;-)
http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/33911/P120/#511059
ShareCG has Mach 5 for Poser based on the classic animated series and another one based on the live action movie version if someone is looking for one
The live action movie was one of the worst things I ever saw. I got dragged on a 3 hour road trip to see it in IMAX by my oldest best friend who is a huge Speed Racer fan and he didn't care for it.
Neither did the local film critic for one of the local TV & radio stations. The critic is a big fan and has gone in costume as Speed Racer to sci fi conventions in the past and he was telling everyone not to bother with the live action movie.
Well done, Stezza. I especially like the parasol. Your postwork is extremely impressive.
SileneUK - When you get the results you want by duplicating, don't worry about replication. No need to fret. But if you want to review replicators and hot points, see posts 16 and 17 in this thread. http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/38177/P15
Also, sometimes the normals of the surface object will be screwy and cause the replicated objects to point down if align objects to normal is checked. Rare, but it does happen. If the surface object is one-sided, just uncheck align objects to normal.
The WIPs are coming along well. If I don't see someone get inspired by the attached images, I will be sorely disappointed. Here are the blueprints and the textures for the Mach 5.
Edit - the blueprints were too large and i got an error message loading. Found it here.
http://www.the-blueprints.com/vectordrawings/request/show/5510/speed_racer_mach_5/