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Nice work evil, but I scrolled to the end and got poked in the eye, gee that's not nudity! That's three dee, gah now I am off to the eye doctor to get my corneas reinserted.
PS thanks for the tut
I wish it was my work. I found that link in the old forums and bookmarked it for later use and promptly forgot about it. The requirements fot this challenge brought it to mind again. I'm just glad that it wasn't a dead link.
I'm working on a render with shaders based on the tutorial and I'll post that in a bit.
well, thanks for the link, I will send my opthalmology bill directly to daz then :)
I was thinking there may have been a virtual air conditioner chilling the virtual studio, judging by the high beams. Talk about your your light cones! ;-)
Yes Carrara's light cones are severely under-rated! In fact you dont see a lot of the fancy light thingys used that much in renders _ I prefer to do all mine in post I guess. Here's a vid I made a long time ago showing off carrara's lighting effects http://vimeo.com/1570719
I forgot there were so many !
Wlle, I wnet and had a look at he lknis and got slppaed in the fcae in a ncie srot of way but suireffng now
sorry about your doze :)
To get back on track, here's a render of the procedural skin shader. The eye shaders are from Indigone's Endless Eyes set with a couple little modifications. The eyelashes use a V4 eyelash alpha map, but that's it. I did the color for the lashes myself.
To get back off track, I did post a version with bare chested nudity to Dropbox to show what I did to add coloration to the nipples and to blend them into the rest of the skin. I used 3D paint to generate a distribution map, and then set up the nipple shader as a terrain shader with the base "terrain" the normal skin shader and a new "terrain" layer with the nipple distribution map as in the distribution slot and a more reddish version of the skin shader for the nipple.
Why the nipples? Easy, it was more pleasant than the anus. :ahhh:
I may use the same procedure that I used for the nipples, to soften the edges of the lips so that they're not so defined.
Here's a version with the alpha map for the eyelashes removed.
I hid the eyelashes in the vertex modeler and then added Carrara's hair with an empty grow region to the V4 model. In the hair room I defined the grow region by selecting a thin strip of polys along the top and bottom of the eye. I had symmetry enabled to help with the other eye. I then carefully placed my hair guides and brushed them and cut them. I then set the hair to Short Hair/Fur and reduced the number of hairs from the default 5000 to double the number of hair guides. I didn't feel it was dense enough, so I added some more to equal 175 hairs.
I then played around with a couple things in the hair shader, such as the length shader and the color. I ended up going back to the defaults as they looked better, with the exception of the length shader. I added a 7% or 8% length variation.
I'm rendering a test on the mouth now. I think I'm going to need to work on those a bit more....
Okay, I think this is coming along really well. I see that I need to add a bit to the eyelashes towards the inner eyes and darken the tips of the hair a bit, but I think overall they're pretty good.
I also see that in some shaded areas I may need to tone down the veins a bit.
The mouth is the weak area. No matter what I do for the teeth, they just look like chiklets. If I use more color variation and noise, then they look like redneck teeth. I also need to tone down the color of the tongue some more, as well as try some different bump options.
Still, all that considered, I think it holds up at a large size and with a close camera.
Edited to add that I really like the transition between the lips and the rest of the face.
Now I know how Stezza felt when the WIPs were opened. Hello-o-o-o? Anybody here? ;-P
So rather than type a bunch of stuff here, I did it in a photoshop document. I didn't add the cool graphics that Stezza did (those were awesome BTW), but I hope they get across a little of what I did for the lips.
My goal is to get a cool picture in the challenge, but ultimately, it's to learn something and if possible, help others as well. When all is said and done, as soon as all the elements in the skin texture I've been working on are completely original, I will make it available for whoever wants it.
The guys that came up with the initial tutorial are geniuses, so I must give credit to them. They didn't explain everything though, so there's quite a bit of me muddling through and trying ideas as well.
Here's the link to the tutorial I used. I did not write it. If you want to see how I arrived at the base skin color, this is it.
Warning! Tutorial contains nudity! http://www.shonner.com/drafts/procedural_skin_texture.htm
EP, the procedural skins looks great, I went and made a texture map skin using that resource kit.,
Now usually I add water drips and splashes using something like Ron's water, but since no post work, I'm going to try to create water drips off my monster using a vertex plane as a cape, then I created an orb for the water droplets, then using a surface replicator to attach the water drops to the cape and a gradient texture on my shader for placement. I still have to run a test render to adjust the amount of the drops I will need.
Okay maybe I'll join just for a quick WIP to inspire someone.
This is:
Aiko 6. http://www.daz3d.com/aiko-6
using this one.
Leris Outfit for Genesis 2 Female(s). http://www.daz3d.com/leris-outfit-for-genesis-2-female-s
Plus the Carrara skin shaders.
I am using just a HDRI to start the lighting process wth this render settings in Global Illumination.
Sky Light Intensity set to 100% with Light Through transparency.
Light Quality set to GOOD with 2 pixels Accuracy.
Photon count using default of 5000 and Photon Map Accuracy 2 pixels.
So far I like how it is coming out. This gives me a good start and after this I can start adding some other lights to improve the image. I hope :)
We all start with trial and error. ;)
Great work everyone. Kashyyyk, cloak looks good. You might want to vary the distance of the replicated water droplets from the cloak to simulate some bounce. Ignore me if you already have a plan.
OK, now having watched more of PhilW's latest tutorial, I have better ideas for my candle flame. I will try not to give his secrets away and just describe the basics. His tutorial series has so much more.
This is similar to the previous WIPs, except instead of using an "anything glows" insert, I simply increased the value in the object glow channel to 2500% and used indirect lighting within a temp interior made from a vertex box.
- inserted the candle object, and a separate vertex object that I just a duplicate of the flame
- deleted all other lights and set ambient to zero, gamma to 2.2
- set a glow and transparency of the flame of the original candle object to be visible
- for the duplicate flame, increased scale to 103%, set alpha to black, and set glow to 2500%
- made sure indirect light was checked in the render room, and put candle inside a box.
- put some other objects in to test the light
- test render, repeat for other levels of glow to find one you like
= post 2 wips to forum
Now I have a basic plan for the light from the candle flame. Duplicate just the flame vertexes of the candlestick model, increase its glow value but set alpha to black, use indirect light inside an interior set of walls.
Now for the materials and the shaders.
Hi my name is Suky. I've been mostly a lurker here for years (Carrara user since version 5), except for the last couple when I took a complete break from 3D to pursue other creative outlets. I came back to 3D and DAZ recently and upgraded to Carrara 8.5. I really like being able to work with Genesis and Genesis 2 figures now. I vowed I would try to be more involved in the community, so here I am. I think the last contest I entered was the Carrara dynamic hair one a few years ago.
Wow! Everyone is so far along. Stezza's submission and WIPs are awesome especially the adding a rabbit one. Everyone else human skins, monster skins, candles, and mouse supper cool too.
I'm really behind. I opened the file I was working on and got a "not my type" error. Is there any way to recover from that? Will it be followed by a "we can still be friends" error or something? If not, I hadn't gotten too far just setting up my light rig, so no huge loss.
For my entry, I'm going to make Genesis in a 19th Century photo studio with a _______ (to be determined). I'm purposely going for the look of someone in a photo studio lit by natural light and posed in front of a fake backdrop. I really want to be able to simulate a 19th Century photo studio in Carrara, so I can render images that look as much like antique cabinet cards as possible. I want to ultimately print them with an historic photo technique.
I've attached a painting of what one of these studios looked like. My plan is to use mesh lights to simulate the large side window, ceiling window, and fill light. I'm going to use the glow channel in the shader as the light source, following PhilW's new Infinite Skills Carrara Realism training instructions. I did some test renders before my file got corrupted. I am absolutely floored by how well the glow light and gamma correction combo works. I had always set up either traditional spots or used HDRs. PhilW's light setup behaves so much like real studio lighting. I'll post my WIP after I've reconstructed the setup.
Nice job diomede! Remember the low-res irradiance map trick that I mentioned in the Post Your Renders thread.
For anyone that isn't familiar with this, it works like this:
Set up your scene and lights. Once everything is the way you want, and you don't anticipate changing the lights or moving objects around, go to the render room and set your render resolution lower than you want the final image to be. Carrara's default is 640X480. That's a good starting point. I've discovered that the aspect of the image doesn't matter. You can go from wide angle to portrait and this will still work.
Set you Anti-Alias settings low.
In the GI section, keep the default photon count and photon map quality. Set the lighting quality to fast and the Accuracy to 2 pixels.
Under Irradiance Map, set it to One For All Frames, and select the Save Irradiance Map option. Click the button and you will be asked to name the map and set a location to save it to.
Render the image. Let it render completely so that the map is saved. From my observations, Carrara doesn;t save the irradiance map until the render is complete.
Now, deselect the Save Irradiance Map option, and instead, select the Use Saved Map. Click the button and navigate to your saved map.
Now increase the render settings and resolution to your desired levels. For instance, you could increase the Lighting Quality to excellent and the increase the number of photons and increase the photon map accuracy.
The irradiance map is scene encompassing, so you can change the aspect ratio of your render, you can render from different camera angles, and you could even animate a camera flying through your scene and it will stay accurate.
There are some caveats. You can't render your initial low resolution image at to low of a setting or you'll get artifacts. I've had good luck with the default resolution. You can't change the position of your lights or move objects around the scene without screwing up the GI lights and shadows, as Carrara "bakes" that information into the irradiance map. If you change your lights or move objects around, you'll need to do to save a new map. You can animate a scene fly through or other camera movement, but again, the GI light and shadow data is baked into a static map, so you can't really animate movement. Check out this video I made demonstrating this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cLHnOrEyz3Y
@SukyL, Welcome to the challenge! Our general aim is to have fun, share tips, and learn a little bit. That studio pic looks like terrific inspiration. Can't wait to see what you do with it.
I'm also glad to read that you like to use Genesis and Genesis 2 in Carrara. I have only recently tried to use them, and that has only been in response to what I consider the exaggerated claim that they don't work in Carrara. I for one would appreciate any tips that you might have in integrating the newer figures in Carrara.
Glad to see you made it here and decided to enter Suky - Welcome back! I can't offer much help on your error. I just got a "End of File Encountered" error on my project that I'd put a lot of work into. Oh well- I guess practice makes perfect (I did have an incremental save file that opened, so at least I'm not back to the complete begining).
Several people here work REALLY fast. They make me feel like I'm in sloooow motion (probably because I am). You have a fantastic idea, can't wait to see what you come up with!
This is shaping up to be a fantastic challenge! I love the open-ended theme, DustRider! Gives me all sorts of freedom to subject you all to more of my stylistic tests :) (insert evil laughter here...) I apologize in advance... :red:
Stezza, I absolutely love your WIPs! Your presentation of your work in progress is always so much fun, that I look forward to it as much as to your final entries, but I think this time you went way above and beyond your usual extraterrestrial level of excellence! If you put them together it's already a comic strip in it's own right, and I just want to print them out and bind them into a book to use for lifting my spirits and getting me out of creative blocks. Brilliant! I am waiting for the next instalments with bated breath. (I am dead serious.)
There are some intriguing WIPs already all over this thread. I'm looking forward to the final images that these WIP's develop into.
Hopefully, I can find some time this weekend to start on my own entry.
Best of luck, everyone!
Geeeeezee, I go missing for a couple of days only to come back and see all this great stuff posted. Once again, everyone is well on the path to amaze and impress everyone with their wealth of knowledge and skills.
OK, I'm off to at least get my first WIP prepared.
Thanks for joining us Suky. :)
Maybe someone else can help with a suggestion to recover your file. When you save your Carrara files, what options do you use? Generally, most people suggest to disable the Compress file option as this is a major cause of corruption. Secondly, try saving Locally as if you save internally the file size can quickly bloat. When you save locally, the scene has pointers to the locations of any image maps, movies or image sequences that you've added to the scene. The catch is that if you move them, Carrara will ask you to find them.
As to the stuff about the lighting, please refer to the post I made just below yours. It's a great way to speed up a GI render by making the lighting calculations super fast!
This tip from Fenric may help to avoid that error in the future. He suggests that you save the scene, then go to Edit-->Quit. Do not click quit and then save when Carrara asks if you want to save your document. If you forget, choose Cancel and then save and quit.
Thanks for the tip EP!
Well here is my first pathetic excuse for a WIP :roll:
I'll be using ......... (insert drum roll) ......... the Octane Render plugin for my project (like you didn't see that coming). The conversion of Carrara materials to Octane Render materials is quite good, but content designed for DS or Poser often needs a bit of help. Keep in mind that DS and Poser mats/shaders have to be converted to be used in Carrara, and sometimes (often?) those conversions aren't perfect, so those imperfections can become quite obvious in Carrara.
To edit Octane materials in Carrara, you first need to tell Carrara to set the Octane materials in the shader tree (see last image below). After setting the Octane materials, you will have the mats/shaders for Carrara's internal renderer available as well as Octane mates/shaders (see image 2)
The first image in this post shows the results of editing some of the Octane materials. The axe on the bottom right has the unaltered shaders, the axe on the upper left has the editied Octane shaders. I increased the specularity on the "silver" metal parts, and increased specularity and roughness on the handle, shaft, and black accents.
Other changes on this image include:
The Gate/Bars: very slight increase in both specularity and roughness (about a +0.05 increase for both) and increased the bump value by 0.1
The Columns: increased bump by .2, increased specularity by 0.1
The Ground: put the bump map into the displacement channel
(I bet you can't figure out where I'm headed with this one %-P )
EDIT: I forgot to add that I also set all texture maps to "Sampling" instead of "Fast Mip Map". IMHO, usually the render quality with "Sampling" is much better. You can easily see the difference if you click on the axes image to see it at full resolution. The design details on the axe blades are a bit more blurry using the default shaders as compared to the Octane materials where the texture maps were changed to "Sampling".
Looks good so far.
Can you use Carrara Procedural functions in Octane or are you limited to simple materials, mixers and image maps?
No, you can't use Carrara procedurals (unless Sighman did some magic I missed), but Octane has it's own set of procedurals that is pretty powerful (though I think in general Carrara's are more comprehensive).
Thanks for that info. Dustrider!
Here's another iteration. I refined the lips a bit more, and you can see the nice soft transition between the edge of the lips and the rest of the face. I also darkened the tips of the eyelashes and lengthened them slightly. Next on the agenda is eyebrows and finger nails. The finger nails may be polished so I don't have to worry about how to get a cuticle. I could do it with the 3D paint tool, so I may experiment with that a bit as well.
Really interesting WIP's EP!!
Here is round 2
For materials/shaders the changes here are pretty close to the last post, except I set the roughness at 0.3 for the wooden parts, which helps give it more of a sheen than a shine.
The other important not here - This lance is a perfect compliment to the axe, but it was way too short. No problem with Carrara, just take the lance into the model room, select the polys at the base of the shaft and the metal end cap, now "pull" them down to the desired length. Instant long lance!!!
Edit: I forgot to add to note how important proper shaders are to make an object look 3D - the lance on the left looks very flat. By simply editing the specular and roughness (very similar to highlight and shininess in Carrara) the object looks much better.