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Comments
It's still raining in bucketloads!!
Here is the steps to get my final image ready for the big render..
The character with retextured clothing, morphed and posed holding onto his tools! :-)
The finished render using Carrara's built in renderer ;-)
Titled Appleseed with no postwork apart from my sig..
Great work Stezza - and very fast! Can I suggest some rocks or grass (or both) scattered around the ground as it looks a little bare at the moment?
That's really cool Stezza. I am really impressed.
I may be wrong Phil, but I think the background is a photo. If I am wrong, then I'm really, really impressed.
I just took another look and pulled up the full image and I agree - and there is actually more detail there than at first appears. I will go hang my head in shame... :red:
Stezza works too quickly and too well, it should have a control anti-doping for this challenge! %-P
Deceived Phil? OK, I think that means we have a winner. Great challenge, Dustrider. Thanks to Daz for continuing the challenges, and to PhilW and infinite skills for sponsorship. Can't wait to see what you come up with for the next challenge, Stezza.
Because I enjoy these so much, I plan to continue with the lighting/materials challenge anyway despite this one being won already. That candlestick I chose has turned out to be a bugger. The mesh has holes and overlaps. That is causing creasing. I wonder if it had originally been a 3ds file? Still planning on Clue-style murderer in a room with a candlestick, but I am really wishing I had picked some other old model murder weapon. Fixing this mesh is tedious.
He blames it on the rain ........ do they have caffeine or what in the rain there? :ohh:
Really impressive stuff there Stezza!
lol
Thanks for the critiques..
It took longer than it looks ... The first post by dustrider was 7.30am two days ago ( my time ) so I had all morning to think it up then all afternoon and the next day to put it together..
I calculated around ten hours work all up.
and the rain has eased up today and the sun is shining :-)
I'm sure there will be much better works to come than mine just enjoy what you do and it all becomes a little easier
have fun
looking forward to seeing the month's renders unfold
Okay I vote for Stezza :) :) no rain here !, just water falling from the sky...
wonderful explanatory lead up too. I think you need to add a wabbit in the distance to act as a triangular fulcrum to enhance to the sense of being thereidness :)
this is going to be a hard challenge - yesterday i did a great forest scene by combinging ten layer passes with a picture of my uncles breakfast cereal to add texture and then I read the directions ;)
yep.. I was thinking of a cranky Mrs Magpie or a Kiwi bird ( I can't find a kiwi bird anywhere! )
but a wascally wabbit would do :coolsmile:
here's one that would sute? http://www.sharecg.com/v/64914/browse/1/3D-and-2D-Art/ChocoLyn
I'll make sure that the contest isn't too intimidating by continuing to post my struggles with a freakin' Poser 4 content object. As I said, the mesh had weird gaps and overlaps which caused creased edging at random places. I used the vertex modeler to repair the mesh. Took forever, and it was a sunny day. ;-) I then set up shading domains for the holder, the candle, the wick, and the flame.
I have assigned placeholder materials to the shading domains. Here is the repaired candle next to the original.
Great work diomede.. that candle & holder look 100% better... and I know you did enjoy doing it ;-)
I took on board PhilW's & Headwax's comments and made a couple of additions.. thanks guys
I dearly want a kiwi but just can't find one ( in an acceptable price range )
so I settled in making a piece of kiwi fruit in the modelling room instead :ohh: ... wacky, I know!!
and then grabbed one of Noggins hares...
also showing my final render settings.
Updated render with addition of a hare & a piece of sliced kiwi fruit.. :blank:
Congratulations Stezza on winning the fastest draw in Carraraland prize. Dust Rider please take note of the new category, which I must say goes very well with your moniker (by the way, congratulations on your own win and the great start to the September contest here).
Stezza, I'm taken by your explainer screen grabs with the pirate interacting with the Carrara interface, I could stare at them like forever (I love that one where he's grabbing one of the scene lights and so many others), pretty cool with possibilities for fun tutorials or even more ambitious stuff like the Alan Becker's animator vs animation videos if you are into animation that is!
Definitely got my juices running on this one......now to make that time to put something together.......
@ Stezza - love t!
Here is what should have been my baseline in the beginning if the candle model hadn't had so many flaws, but if it did have shading domains set up.
Baseline upon which I hope to improve...
- For the candle, I have applied the "basic wax" shader that is in the "subsurface scattering" folder that comes with the Carrara browser.
- For the candle holder, I have applied the "brass" shader from the metal folder that comes with Carrara.
- For the wick, I have applied Dart's "thorn tree B" from one of his enviro packs (really enjoy the terrain packs, Dart!)
- The flame is a custom shader, but treat it as a default placeholder for the moment. I have color gradients in the color and glow channels (see attached pic), and fractal in the alpha channel.
- The only lighting is a default bulb light (scaled up slightly) with default settings arranged over the flame part of the candlestick. Ambient is set to zero.
So, for the challenge tool requirements, I have until mid-September to improve upon the materials and lighting of this. For the challenge theme, I will stick to the boardgame of Clue in some way - character in a room with a potential murder weapon.
Edit - here is a link to where I will find my theme inspiration if anyone else wants to do a Clue based approach.
http://www.squidoo.com/cluedo-clue-game-characters
Lighting test 1 - anything glows for flame, no other lights
Since Stezza is already finished, and most people will be thinking through their ideas before posting random thoughts like I do, I will post some of my lighting tests. I don't know what I am doing so here goes test #1. I have inserted a sphere to the side just as a control to make sure that lights actually work etc. I want to use anything glows to make the flame a light. For anything glows, you tell it the name of the mesh that you want to be a light. Since I only want part of the mesh to glow, I decided to create a second vertex model that would just be the flame part of the candlestick mesh. This is what I did.
- Shading domains and textures are the same as my baseline.
- To begin making a mesh for the flame only, I went into the vertex modeler for the candlestick, selected the flame by using "select by" and chose the shading domain I had created for the flame.
- Back in the assembly room, I inserted a new vertex object. I pasted the flame mesh I had copied in the previous step. In this case I had to move the new mesh back over the candlestick flame, but with planning you can do this so the new flame would apply directly over the old flame.
- I scaled the new flame up slightly so its facets were all external to the old flame(so the old flame would not block the light - but there is a control for light start distance if you want to do it that way).
- I renamed the new flame something I would remember for anything glows, "Flame for Glow"
- I inserted an anything glows into the assembly room, and increased its range.
- Under "item", I wrote "Flame for Glow" so it exactly matched the name of the new vertex flame.
- I chose object glow for the color for the anything glows light, and enabled soft shadows under the effects tab.
- I turned off the bulb light.
- Under render settings, I turned on indirect light, gamma 2.2, and made sure light through transparency was enabled.
Here is the result. The subsurface scattering is working at the top of the candle, and the color of the flame's glow is apparent in the wax of the candle. Without any ambient light, and with no background objects to reflect light, the candleholder is in complete darkness.
Anyway, just a test of one type of lighting - anything glows applied to just the flame.
Just one important alteration in the approach in test 1 above - which was a big part of why I wanted to make a separate flame object in the first place. In this test, I made the new "Flame for Glow" object invisible (unchecked visibility), then separately played with the shader that is applied to the flame shading domain on the candlestick object. My intent is to be able to apply transparencies or to use alphas to better simulate the flame that is being rendered as opposed to the light transmitted by the anything glows. That is, I can copy the color channel and glow from the candlestick flame to the new flame object used for anything glows, but adjust the transparency of the flame that appears as rendered on the candlestick without affecting the light transmitted.
Paragraph above is about technique. Attached pic is my early execution. Long way to go, but I think you should be able to see a difference in the color range and transparency of this pic's flame compared to the flame in the prior post. To my eye, the attached pic's flame looks less like a solid, but the color needs to be adjusted. I did most of the adjustment by reducing the brightness level in the fractal of the gradient in the alpha channel, but I'm open to other techniques.
Edit - fixed some typos in paragraphs above.
Also, am attaching a 2nd pic. I added a second candle stick and flame object, created a second anything glows for its flame object, and reduced the intensity of the flames. Wanted to see the rest of the candle and the candle holder. To my eye, really lose the subsurface scattering effects at the top of both candles. Also, the shadows do not appear soft, even though soft shadows is checked for both anything glows objects.
News Flash!!
In addition to the great prizes from Infinite Skills, DAZ 3D once again will be providing their very generous support to the challenge (the first post in this thread has been changed to reflect their support).
The prizes for Challenge participants from DAZ 3D will be:
1st place: $100.00 towards DAZ 3D owned item(s).
2nd place: $50.00 towards DAZ 3D owned item(s).
3rd place: $25.00 towards DAZ 3D owned item(s).
Two honorable mentions will each receive: $10.00 towards DAZ 3D owned item(s).
Thanks DAZ 3D!!!!
@ Stezza - love t!
Here is what should have been my baseline in the beginning if the candle model hadn't had so many flaws, but if it did have shading domains set up.
Baseline upon which I hope to improve...
- For the candle, I have applied the "basic wax" shader that is in the "subsurface scattering" folder that comes with the Carrara browser.
- For the candle holder, I have applied the "brass" shader from the metal folder that comes with Carrara.
- For the wick, I have applied Dart's "thorn tree B" from one of his enviro packs (really enjoy the terrain packs, Dart!)
- The flame is a custom shader, but treat it as a default placeholder for the moment. I have color gradients in the color and glow channels (see attached pic), and fractal in the alpha channel.
- The only lighting is a default bulb light (scaled up slightly) with default settings arranged over the flame part of the candlestick. Ambient is set to zero.
So, for the challenge tool requirements, I have until mid-September to improve upon the materials and lighting of this. For the challenge theme, I will stick to the boardgame of Clue in some way - character in a room with a potential murder weapon.
Edit - here is a link to where I will find my theme inspiration if anyone else wants to do a Clue based approach.
http://www.squidoo.com/cluedo-clue-game-characters
looking good :) I seem to remember that there was a tut somewhere that involved also adding some dripping wax - could be wrong, as it was the dim dark ages .... :)
hi DustRider, I've posted details here as well http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/21953/P135/#668838
if you already have then no matter , the more the merrier :)
Hi Head Wax,
Thanks for posting it!!
I'd remember when I was away from the computer, then immediately forget when at the computer.
Here is the start of my entry.
Genesis in a boat with a Monster.
First I wanted a leather look to the Eweyai skirt, so I took the Black Olive Shader and then added a texture bump map to give it a leather like look. I use the black olive shader for a lot of leather and rubber textures.
I also have the Skin Overlay Merchant Resource, so I have a custom skin shader at 4096x4096 for a lot of detail, but with my lighting thoughts it may not be that visible. I'm using Howie Farkes Stoney Creek and I'm using his lighting, but I added a distance light so I can cast leave shadows on the scene. I also added my own water plane and then raised it up high so it looks like a river, then took a muddy water shader and changed it to a more bluer look and changed the transparency so the bottom can just barely be seen.
I still have to create the monster, I have Genesis with the creature add ons, so I need to dial something in and then make a skin for it.
(image removed)
Hey kashyyyk, great monster :) one of your images is missing? says 'image removed' in red.
?
Here's something from me . Modelled the table and vase thingy, cut albert's legs off and remodelled his eye a little. Main props from AgeofArmour's Paris Studio. I put gels on the lights and mimicked reflected lights with bulbs shedding 12 percent. Didnt do the linear workflow Ga,mma 2.2 thing as it washed it out. Still left about 4 percent ambient with a warm colour. Also DOF and Caustics.
The dof caustics and gels on the lights made the biggest difference. The light gels mimick real lights better than ungelled lights (INMHO)
Albert in a vase on a table.
The image was of the face
Your link to the product is actually a link to your account page.
Oh, yeah. Fixed
Here is my monster. Used a Photoshop Tutorial on making scales http://www.photoshop-dragon.com/Tutorials/Textures/Dragon_and_Reptile_Skin_and_Scales.htm and with some tweaking got it to look good for a river monster.
Still have to work on the eyes
I've been playing around with this tutorial, with some adjustments of my own. Warning! The tutorial contains some nutity.
Link Removed
I had to figure a way to do the nipples, not that they'll be visible in the final render- It was just something I had to do dammit! Once I'm done, and if I'm happy with it, I may make the shader set available for those that want it.