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Carrara Challenge #62 "Clowns and Other Circus Stuff" -

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  • Bunyip02Bunyip02 Posts: 8,585

    Philemo_Carrara said:

    I've decided to enter this challenge.

    Whenever I do, I always try something new and take the opportunity to learn something.

    This time, as there is a possibility to submit an animation, my take was to try to build a workflow to import animations from Mixamo. My first tests were disappointing as FBX importer/exporter in Carrara are really out of date. Therefore, I had to use a third party software. It happens I have a nice plugin for Carrara called Daz Studio.

    It works up to Genesis 2. G7 and G8 have double articulations for thigh and shoulder and Mixamo has trouble with that.

    So, this is how it goes.

    • From the latest version of studio, export your base figure (in my case Genesis) as FBX using the latest version of the exporter.
    • In Mixamo, upload a new character using this export.
    • Apply the animation you want. Tune it the way you want. In Genesis, you can fiddle with the Arm space slider.
    • Export it still using the latest version of FBX.
    • Back in studio, import the resulting FBX and save it as a scene subset.
    • Now, in Carrara, create a new scene and add the scene subset from your content.
    • select the figure
    • In the NLA tab of this figure, click on "create master clip"
    • Drag the resulting clip in the clip tab of the browser
    • You're done with this scene, you may close it.
    • in your project, drag this saved clip to the clip tab of the project
    • drag it from there to the NLA line of your figure in the time line. It's done.

    Carrara expects translation to be on the model or on the hip. Mixamo export translation on the figure. So, if you're looping an animation, you have to use the override master clip option. The offset from previous clip part doesn't work.

     

    Philemo, how's this one tracking ?

  • HeadwaxHeadwax Posts: 9,987

    ah yes, looking forward to more brilliant work :)

  • DiomedeDiomede Posts: 15,165

    Headwax - thanks for the comments.  I appreciate the encouragement.  

  • ed3Ded3D Posts: 2,180

    Headwax said:

    Now does anyone need more time? I'm happy to extend it past the 15th of course.

    ~  and     "when  Is the actually End Time of the 15th ?  _  suppose could Scoot In "  Thanx

  • DiomedeDiomede Posts: 15,165
    edited June 2022

    Boohoo.  "An error has occurred."  Carrara does not like me rendering an animation with one of the GMIC filters applied.  I've tried it sequenced png and I've tried it to avi.  Errors for both.  No error when rendering to the standard photoreal without a post render filter.

    Simple scene.  Single figure with NLA clip for movement.  Solid color as backdrop.  Only mildly complicated scene element is some Carrara dynamic hair.

    For the moment, I will abandon the idea of rendering to GMIC filters unless I hear from people.  But if anyone has had success rendering animations with a post-render-filter such as Toon! PartIII or GMIC or YAToon, I'd appreciate any tips or suggestions.

     

    booo booo an error has occurred at 94 percent sequenced png.jpg
    1851 x 687 - 164K
    Post edited by Diomede on
  • WendyLuvsCatzWendyLuvsCatz Posts: 38,200

    you can render the image series in the backdrop using GIMIC and very low settings except pixel size

    I do it all the time

  • DiomedeDiomede Posts: 15,165

    Hmmm.  I wonder what the problem is.

     

  • WendyLuvsCatzWendyLuvsCatz Posts: 38,200

    ah misread thought you were rendering the scene

    some filters give me issues particularly the ones using a brush 

    maybe it's the particular filter

  • DiomedeDiomede Posts: 15,165

    Now that I think about it, my prior attempts at animations generally did not have humans.  I did a car race, balls rolling down ramps, and crystal balls.  When Mike Moir was doing the animaiton group, I always just modeled elements and let others handle the posing and rendering.  All sorts of inconveniences.  surprise

  • HeadwaxHeadwax Posts: 9,987

    ed3D said:

    Headwax said:

    Now does anyone need more time? I'm happy to extend it past the 15th of course.

    ~  and     "when  Is the actually End Time of the 15th ?  _  suppose could Scoot In "  Thanx

    Hya be good if you could, the time of end is nominal, usually we do Daz Utah time - so by the end of the 15th Daz Utah time. But life is short and I am flexable ;)

  • HeadwaxHeadwax Posts: 9,987

    Diomede said:

    Boohoo.  "An error has occurred."  Carrara does not like me rendering an animation with one of the GMIC filters applied.  I've tried it sequenced png and I've tried it to avi.  Errors for both.  No error when rendering to the standard photoreal without a post render filter.

    Simple scene.  Single figure with NLA clip for movement.  Solid color as backdrop.  Only mildly complicated scene element is some Carrara dynamic hair.

    For the moment, I will abandon the idea of rendering to GMIC filters unless I hear from people.  But if anyone has had success rendering animations with a post-render-filter such as Toon! PartIII or GMIC or YAToon, I'd appreciate any tips or suggestions.

     

    hmm sorry you have problems,

    I have rendered the commercial toon just as lines (can't recally what the commercial name is) with a an alpha channel and then superimposed them in post over an avi I made from a sequence of images 

    that I'd fed into Carrara and used as a changing texture - gah could have explained that better

     

    If you want Gmic maybe you could render out a seequnce of non Gmic images and then batch file postwork them in GIMP - assuming you can do that with Gimp.

     

     

  • StezzaStezza Posts: 8,050
    edited June 2022

    Save the Clown angel

    Clown in egg timer.png
    800 x 600 - 932K
    Post edited by Stezza on
  • DiomedeDiomede Posts: 15,165

    Stezza said:

    Save the Clown angel

    I'll get you, my pretty, and your little dog too!  Great one, Stezza.

  • DiomedeDiomede Posts: 15,165

    Headwax said:

    Diomede said:

    Boohoo.  "An error has occurred."  Carrara does not like me rendering an animation with one of the GMIC filters applied.  I've tried it sequenced png and I've tried it to avi.  Errors for both.  No error when rendering to the standard photoreal without a post render filter.

    Simple scene.  Single figure with NLA clip for movement.  Solid color as backdrop.  Only mildly complicated scene element is some Carrara dynamic hair.

    For the moment, I will abandon the idea of rendering to GMIC filters unless I hear from people.  But if anyone has had success rendering animations with a post-render-filter such as Toon! PartIII or GMIC or YAToon, I'd appreciate any tips or suggestions.

     

    hmm sorry you have problems,

    I have rendered the commercial toon just as lines (can't recally what the commercial name is) with a an alpha channel and then superimposed them in post over an avi I made from a sequence of images 

    that I'd fed into Carrara and used as a changing texture - gah could have explained that better

     

    If you want Gmic maybe you could render out a seequnce of non Gmic images and then batch file postwork them in GIMP - assuming you can do that with Gimp.

     

    Too many 'I have never...' for now, but I will file that suggestion away.  Thanks. I'm sure it will come in handy.

  • DiomedeDiomede Posts: 15,165
    edited June 2022

    Next problem.  I am trying to create and save some NLA clips for my custom figures.  They have inverse IK chains for the legs and feet.  For some strange reason, I am getting a wierd constraint-type-effect on a hand.  It happened in my fat clown and now it is happening on the female clown.  The first pic has my default load for this figure.  The second pic is after I selected the hip and moved it slightly in the Y axis direction.  Only the hip.  See how the left hand snaps to a strange pose?  Experimenting with turning off and on constraints, etc., something in the hand is caught up in the feet IKs, I think - but I am not sure.

    cc01b strange constraints.jpg
    1464 x 921 - 181K
    cc02b strange constraints affect wrist even though only selected and moved the hip.jpg
    1535 x 947 - 194K
    Post edited by Diomede on
  • HeadwaxHeadwax Posts: 9,987
    edited June 2022

    hmm you don't have a target helper somewhere Diomede ?

     

    here's that animation I made with sequenced png's on top of each other https://www.facebook.com/andrew.finnie.artist/videos/10214052512896567

     

    PS great character this girl is :)

    Post edited by Headwax on
  • HeadwaxHeadwax Posts: 9,987

    Stezza said:

    Save the Clown angel

    Wonderful Stezza, I had to look twice then laughed then thought 'what if I am the clown?" !@! :)

  • HeadwaxHeadwax Posts: 9,987

    calling @Philemo_Carrara 

  • DiomedeDiomede Posts: 15,165

    Well, Cecil B DeMille need not worry about my foray into film making yet.  Yet.  laugh

    Here is my attempt at having two of my silly clown figures dance to circus clown music.  Music is called Circus Clown Music from Archive dot org and is freely available.  Had lots of unanticipated problems, but I should have anticipated that.  But if I had anticipated that, then the problems would not have been unanticipated.  wink

    For your enjoyment.  (Wendy - this animation exprience has reinforced just how truly awesome you are!)

     

  • WendyLuvsCatzWendyLuvsCatz Posts: 38,200

    Diomede said:

    Well, Cecil B DeMille need not worry about my foray into film making yet.  Yet.  laugh

    Here is my attempt at having two of my silly clown figures dance to circus clown music.  Music is called Circus Clown Music from Archive dot org and is freely available.  Had lots of unanticipated problems, but I should have anticipated that.  But if I had anticipated that, then the problems would not have been unanticipated.  wink

    For your enjoyment.  (Wendy - this animation exprience has reinforced just how truly awesome you are!)

     

    no you are awesome Ted heart

    I just use DAZ dollies and canned motions, you create your own dolls yes 

  • DiomedeDiomede Posts: 15,165

    Thanks, Wendy.  For some reason I sometimes feel the need to reinvent the wheel, even if my wheel is not as functional.

    I should have said that I arranged the Carrara video output and the Archives.org music file in Lightbox, free trial version.

  • UnifiedBrainUnifiedBrain Posts: 3,588

    Diomede said:

    For the moment, I will abandon the idea of rendering to GMIC filters unless I hear from people.  But if anyone has had success rendering animations with a post-render-filter such as Toon! PartIII or GMIC or YAToon, I'd appreciate any tips or suggestions.

    Kind of disturbing to hear this.  I am not yet to the point where I can test it.  My vision of art is currently tied to GMIC, and if post-render effects will not animate, animation is out for me.

    That said, it seems illogical for them to not render.

  • DiomedeDiomede Posts: 15,165
    edited June 2022

    UnifiedBrain said:

    Diomede said:

    For the moment, I will abandon the idea of rendering to GMIC filters unless I hear from people.  But if anyone has had success rendering animations with a post-render-filter such as Toon! PartIII or GMIC or YAToon, I'd appreciate any tips or suggestions.

    Kind of disturbing to hear this.  I am not yet to the point where I can test it.  My vision of art is currently tied to GMIC, and if post-render effects will not animate, animation is out for me.

    That said, it seems illogical for them to not render.

    I got partial renders.  I don't remeber which was which, but I believe 80-something percent of one output rendered before I got the error and 90-something percent of the other.  Wendy reports success with post render filters.  It must be something about either my files, my computer, or something specific in my scene.  But whatever it was, you can see the unhelpful error code 'an error has occurred' with no helpful information.  In some ways it was even more painful to get the error after 90%.

    Anyway, I recommend doing a quck test of about 5-10 frames with the filter combination you are planning before rendering the whole animation.

    Post edited by Diomede on
  • UnifiedBrainUnifiedBrain Posts: 3,588

    That sounds reasonable.

    This is kind of embarrasing to ask, but what are the best render settings for an animation?  I have only replicated 6 or 7 of Phil's videos so far, but I have closely examined the titles of the rest of the videos.  None of the video titles actually say anything about rendering!  He must slip it in there somewhere, but I can't find it.

    Are you outputting PNG?  JPG?  How do these individual images magically turn into a video?  If for example, you have two seconds of animation, what is actually outputted, what does the output file look like, and how is it edited?

  • DiomedeDiomede Posts: 15,165

    Not sure I have much advice to offer, but for what it is worth...   The duo dancing clowns that are my final were rendered as an avi file.  I knew we the deadline was approaching and that I had little time to edit individual frames.  I set my render settings at low quality for several reasons.  First, Lightbox limits the quality of its exported finished video so no reason to have better quality in than out.  Second, increasing video quality increases time.  Third, I'm not going for realism.  Note that some of my early WIPs in Carrara were rendered as sequenced PNG because I heard that way is more stable and ease of editing individual frames.  But I gave the avi a chance at the end and it worked.  I am the blind leading the blind on most of your questions.

  • UnifiedBrainUnifiedBrain Posts: 3,588

    OK,thanks.  Hopefully Wendy and others can chip in.

    Where the hell is Dart when you need him? smiley

  • DiomedeDiomede Posts: 15,165

    CORRECTION

    Everywhere I said 'Lightbox' please insert Lightworks

    Lightworks

    https://lwks.com/

  • DiomedeDiomede Posts: 15,165
    edited June 2022

    Substitution

    I am substituting this improved (hopefully) version for my attempt above.  I rearranged my NLA dancing clips and click-dragged to compress them, thus speeding up the clowns' movements.  I also substituted a different rendition of 'Entry of the Gladiators' from the same Archives.org for the music.  

    Post edited by Diomede on
  • DiomedeDiomede Posts: 15,165
    edited June 2022

    @UnifiedBrain, I don't know about the software you will be using, but Lightworks has a menu option to detect image sequences.  So if you render to sequenced images, you should be able to load them.  Whichever software you choose will have something similar.  I am using the free trial stripped down version of Lightworks.

    detect image sequence.jpg
    1331 x 757 - 131K
    Post edited by Diomede on
  • WendyLuvsCatzWendyLuvsCatz Posts: 38,200

    I use image series

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