Inspiration to Create/Render

So many things can drive us to immediately drop what we're doing and run to Carrara to create a scene and render it. 

Why not share some of your recent (or not so recent) experiences or opinions?

So that's what this thread is for. What in the world did you do to those eggs this morning that drove you to render That?!!!

I was driven to start this thread as Inspiration to render an NPR but I don't really have any experience (or luck with any of my failures) with doing good NPR renders. Besides, what drove me to start this thread didn't drive me to create an NPR render, it drove me to dig out some of my old monster friends from my runtimes and get them ready to animate into my story. 

First it was Dorpodon and Xerr, then my mind started drifting off into thoughts of all of the various shapes I have to transform Genesis so that I can add V4 Creature Wings or bits from the (now defunct? why?) Creature Creation Pack and even model some of my own bips and doodads. 

It was a show from Disney + called The Mandalorian. 

The amazing cast paints a refreshing new drama series for this fantasy nut. It's so nice that someone out there wants to show an audience monsters, fantasy creatures, incredible settings with cool vessels and people of many different shapes, sizes and colors. I grew up wishing there was more of this sort of thing for motion pictures, but understanding that they just couldn't find a good dragon to hire.

So I went looking for the main theme for the show and found this nice video. You see, the end credits of every episode (chapter) is adorned with the lavish concept art which inspired that particular chapter. Well this wonderful author put some of this fine works into a slideshow while playing that ending theme. I love it!

The Mandalorian - Ludwig Göransson

Comments

  • DartanbeckDartanbeck Posts: 21,570
    edited December 2019

    I know I've been raving about the new The Witcher series on Netflix. this is different.


    I originally bought my first The Witcher games - well... to play, sure. But I'm not really a gamer. I like spending any gaming time in Carrara instead. No, I actually loved how much art and music they came with.

    Here's a slideshow of some of the concept art from their third and most popular game in the series: The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, to a cool song from the soundtrack of the second game in the series.  Enjoy

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

    wow those renders are terrific Dart - so much atmopshere and just the right amount of painterly = somemthing to aspire to as well as to inspire

  • DartanbeckDartanbeck Posts: 21,570
    Headwax said:

    wow those renders are terrific Dart - so much atmopshere and just the right amount of painterly = somemthing to aspire to as well as to inspire

    LOL!!! You do know that I was posting samples of concept art I was talking about, right? I did render the Xerr in the first post! ;)

  • DartanbeckDartanbeck Posts: 21,570

    I did take that inspiration I wrote about and put it to good use with my all new Dart 5 character!

  • Steve KSteve K Posts: 3,235

    Here's one I did, inspired by a contest theme of "Lost Toys".  It brought to mind my baseball card collection from (mumble, mumble) years ago, which AFAIK got thrown out while I was away at college.  (Did you know a Mickey Mantle rookie card can sell for $3.5 million?)  (Somebody threw out my comic book collection, also)  The card prop is included in a 3d bicycle product which also has a clothes pin for attaching it to the bike wheel brace to get that cool sound from the spokes.    

    Mantle Card.jpg
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  • DartanbeckDartanbeck Posts: 21,570

    My Mom burned all of my Famous Monsters magazines after I designed and built my own monster claw gloves and raked them across her kitchen window while she was doing dishes! Bummer!

    I loved that rag. It had cool interviews and fun features and picture galore of sexy women and cool looking monsters! I think I had most of the issues between 1973ish and 1980ish

  • Steve KSteve K Posts: 3,235
    edited December 2019

    Here is a little book I found at the Museum of Fine Art Houston (MFAH) shop while waiting for a movie to start.  Just little, simple sketches but hundreds of them, and very cool.  I will now set up the Wacom Intuos Pro Creative Pen & Touch Tablet I won years ago in a 3D contest, and which is still unopened.

    The "Look Inside" feature at Amazon seems to have most of the book ... 

    https://www.amazon.com/Random-Imaginations-Collection-Illustrated-Musings/dp/1940743435/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=random+imaginations+chau&qid=1577674117&sr=8-1

    Random Imaginations.jpg
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    Post edited by Steve K on
  • DartanbeckDartanbeck Posts: 21,570

    Very cool!

  • Steve KSteve K Posts: 3,235
    Steve K said:

    Here is a little book I found at the Museum of Fine Art Houston (MFAH) shop while waiting for a movie to start.  Just little, simple sketches but hundreds of them, and very cool.  

    The same artist has many more and more detailed drawings at Instagram:

    https://www.instagram.com/eddiechau_studio/

    Chau Drawing.jpg
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  • MistaraMistara Posts: 38,675

    XERRRheart  OMG I forgot the big guhlug.

    a render i think about every so often  but haven't done,

    do a Sir Auron from FFX.  seeing him is so nostalgic.

  • MistaraMistara Posts: 38,675

    now i'm visualizing xerr with a dinner bib  lol 

  • DartanbeckDartanbeck Posts: 21,570

    He's such a cool looking beastie. Okay, I'm inspired... another Xerr render coming up!

     

    Steve K said:
    Steve K said:

    Here is a little book I found at the Museum of Fine Art Houston (MFAH) shop while waiting for a movie to start.  Just little, simple sketches but hundreds of them, and very cool.  

    The same artist has many more and more detailed drawings at Instagram:

    https://www.instagram.com/eddiechau_studio/

    I love absorbing sketches. Those are wonderful too!

  • DartanbeckDartanbeck Posts: 21,570

    Speaking of being inspired by other people's art, an Amazing place to get inspired through the art of others is

    ArtStation is a place where professional and amatuer artists mingle and showcase their work. Studios and other artist-seekers go there to hire artists. Artists go there to learn. Artists go there to showcase and be seen. If you haven't checked it out yet, what are you waiting for?

  • DartanbeckDartanbeck Posts: 21,570

    Another Carrara artist in the Art Studio forum here has a cool thread: Welcome to Manga Cafe ☕ which has inspired me to create another version of Rosie and Dart.

    The new Rosie 5 already is a lot more Manga than I planned her to be through her head shape and larger eyes (not as large as coventional Manga, for sure) and even through the stylized body shape, but that thread inspired me to make more of a Manga Rosie.

    Before I found time to play around with the idea, I was having one of my usual browses through legacy products at the store before going to bed and ran across (once again) all manner of awesome Aiko 3 characters and other products. Aiko 4 too, but they really had some cool Manga stuff for A3. That inspired me even more.

    This one doesn't use any of the iconic legacy morphs, but rather the other way around - Keiko 6 and Aiko 6 on the Genesis 1 Base Female

    Like I say in the comments of the gallery image, she keeps reminding my of Mulberry for Aiko 3. 

  • StezzaStezza Posts: 8,063

    I get inspiration from the wackiest things... !!

    a lot from just two forums comments here and HW3d  yes

     

     

  • WendyLuvsCatzWendyLuvsCatz Posts: 38,214

    mmm that's the Rosie Doll heart

    if Dart Doll is like Ken rather than GI Joe it could be tragic

  • DartanbeckDartanbeck Posts: 21,570

    mmm that's the Rosie Doll heart

    if Dart Doll is like Ken rather than GI Joe it could be tragic

    She really is cute, eh? I don't like what I did with the hair on this one. I'm usually using a much thicker, more painterly look.

    But both Dart and Rosie have a LOT of manga in their new builds, but I've dialed it back a LOT because I thought it was just a bit too much. Dart has Cory 6 as part of his head shape to give him big, Manga-style eyes. But I dialed them waaaaay back. I might just have a go with some big-eyed versions for fun things! ;)

  • DartanbeckDartanbeck Posts: 21,570

    I get inspiration from the wackiest things... !!

    a lot from just two forums comments here and HW3d  yes

    That's actually quite obvious! yes

    I love your Wacky inspirations too!!!

  • DartanbeckDartanbeck Posts: 21,570
    edited January 2020

    He's such a cool looking beastie. Okay, I'm inspired... another Xerr render coming up!

    Done! I put it in Diomede's Side-Render Creature Feature

    Thanks, by the way. This Xerr's name is Chomp. At least that's what Rosie and I call him. The Xerr in my story are not friendly. Quite the opposite! But this one is definitely going to be part of the crew! heart

    Post edited by Dartanbeck on
  • DartanbeckDartanbeck Posts: 21,570

    mmm that's the Rosie Doll heart

    if Dart Doll is like Ken rather than GI Joe it could be tragic

    She really is cute, eh? I don't like what I did with the hair on this one. I'm usually using a much thicker, more painterly look.

    But both Dart and Rosie have a LOT of manga in their new builds, but I've dialed it back a LOT because I thought it was just a bit too much. Dart has Cory 6 as part of his head shape to give him big, Manga-style eyes. But I dialed them waaaaay back. I might just have a go with some big-eyed versions for fun things! ;)

    Here's Cory 6

  • DartanbeckDartanbeck Posts: 21,570

    ...and Jazlyn

  • DartanbeckDartanbeck Posts: 21,570
    edited January 2020

    Oh... funny thing.

    Just yesterday I was going through my V4 content to see what I have for Characters with custom INJ morphs (for use with GenX2 > Genesis 1). Yeah... Thorne made some Adorable morphs for V4, A4 and G4. Further, I have also purchased (Wow does that ever feel like Ages ago!!!) Thorne's Genesis 2 Female Head Morph Resourse Kit. The promos don't really illustrate how cute and adorable these morphs can make Genesis 2! But with GenX2 (still kicking myself for not getting that earlier! Argh!) I can mix those with... well... any other morphs I want!

    Post edited by Dartanbeck on
  • mindsongmindsong Posts: 1,701

    Hey Dart,

    As a fellow Genesis1 user, Did you get Thorne's morph sets that are available for Genesis 1? There are two head sets and an aiko5 head set, as well as two body morphs sets too (i think/recall).

    Has anyone here used these kinds of subtle slider morphs to generate a character (rather than z-brush), then export that formed figure as a obj, then re-import the obj as a new custom morph character slider (asset)?

    My thinking is that for animations, once the character is designed/settled, most of the morphs actually used are expressions and visemes, leaving the need to keep all of the zillions of character shaping morphs behind, once the character is created - good in specific project contexts, making the number of sliders smaller, the program use/saving faster, and generally 'thinning' the figure out, one it's created (e.g. Rosie/Dart).

    I assume it would then be a default figure (e.g. Genesis1) install, your figure/character slider, and any desired base visemes/expressions for that figure, and off-you-go... yes-no-maybe?

    BTW Dart, it's cool how different your new Rosie is, and still maintains her essential 'Rosie' ness - kind of like a good characture (sp?).

    cheers,

    --ms

    (dart, pls check your PM)

     

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