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I twisted my ankle during the week so no hiking/photo trip this weekend. I managed to find time to work on my other image though.
Attached WIP images:
1. Screen shot of the journal I modeled in the vertex modeler
2. A trio of Carrara renders I converted to drawings/watercolor in Photoshop with the post-worked versions
3. My scene setup
4. Test full-size render showing where I am at right now
Still to do:
Fix the bump/color on the journal stitching - it's barely visible now.
Model a fountain pen and a magnifying glass.
Figure out my text - it's just place holders now.
Decide if I want to darken the text - the fading and color are a mask and an adjustment layer so it's easy to change
I did a spherical render of another scene and trying to follow Mark Bremmer's tutorial on turning it into a fake HDRI - that may or may not get added to the scene in place of the very dark HDRI I'm currently using
Mark
One more quick one for today; just testing out my magnifying glass and seeing how it all looks so far with higher quality render settings.
Been distracted lately, but I haven't forgotten the Wonder challenge. I haven't made much progress, but I'll share the terrain. The wonders of the Cherry Blossom festival are most glorious down by the tidal basin, which is ringed by the trees. I created a tidal basin terrain by exporting a terrain map from Carrara's terrain modeler. I loaded it in Photoshop and then created a number of maps.
- I created a black region to be the basin
- I ringed the black region with a grey region to be the sidewalk along the edge.
- I created a lighter flat region in the distance to hold the monument
- I created black/white opacity masks for the basin, the sidewalk, and the grassy terrain.
- I used the layers list shader tree to assign the shaders to the basin, sidewalk, and grass.
- Later, I will use the grassy terrain opacity mask to create a region to place replicated trees.
I put the capitol building there as a placeholder. It is the wrong building. I will replace it.
Wow Pimpy, this is looking really fantastic - I can't wait to see how it comes out.
brilliant work!
that cloud effect on the landscape is a great idea
...seeing work like this, you guys are way ahead of me.
I'd be lucky to create a bleedin' beer can.
Wow Pimpy, this is looking really fantastic - I can't wait to see how it comes out.
Thank you MDO!
I like your idea about the ancent book, Well done!
work in progress...
...seeing work like this, you guys are way ahead of me.
I'd be lucky to create a bleedin' beer can.
Some of these guys leave me in absolute awe of their modeling abilities, but these challenges are an excellent way to get a viewpoint on 'how it's done' and there's lots of tidbits to glean from the screenshots from 'behind the scenes'.
I myself kind of suck at modeling (though I'm getting better I think), but nevertheless you don't have to be any kind of master to participate, a little retexturing (which is pretty simple to do) and you can throw in an entry. C'mon Kyoto, jump in and give it a go - it's fun! :) And it doesn't hurt that there's a lot of free Stonemason products being offered as prizes (and really not too many folks working on entries so far, so the odds are pretty good at this point) :)
...seeing work like this, you guys are way ahead of me.
I'd be lucky to create a bleedin' beer can.
Your stuff is excellent, Kyoto Kid. There is a lot of time allotted for this month's challenge (more like a month and a half), and I know you'd kick butt if you decide to participate.
You don't have to model in Carrara - Roygee in particular likes Hexagon. If you'd rather model in Silo or Hexagon or whatever and uvmap externally and then bring it in to Carrara you are more than welcome to do so. Similarly, you can do the terrains in Bryce or whatever and bring them in Carrara. And you don't have to model anything at all if you don't want to. For example, you could satisfy one of the two custom Carrara elements requirement by using hair. Grow some hair on a hair cap, make the cap invisible, and stick it on any character you want. That is just an example. I think one person won a challenge primarily by focusing on lighting and shaders for glass and skin. Not suggesting that anyone do that, just pointing out that there are a lot of ways to satisfy the Carrara elements, and plenty of room to include external content and then postwork, as long as you post the Carrara render in the WIP thread before postwork.
And I'd echo Jonstark on my admiration for the modeling skills of Varsel, Roygee, etc., but no one has to model anything original to participate in the challenge (except in those months in which the coordinator specified some modeler).
I know when I hosted, I tried to give a choice. One challenge was a spline model or a volumetric cloud. The idea is to get new and veteran users alike, to try something outside their comfort zone. By doing so, the hope is to get more positive communication going between community members in a fun and educational manner.
I'm not a great modeler, and have always been more at home in the Spline modeler, but these challenges helped me to experiment and become more familiar with the Vertex modeler. I've also learned some shader tricks and been inspired by what other artists have done, which has lead to some really cool things that I have adapted or refined for my own works.
Your stuff is excellent, Kyoto Kid. There is a lot of time allotted for this month's challenge (more like a month and a half), and I know you'd kick butt if you decide to participate.
You don't have to model in Carrara - Roygee in particular likes Hexagon. If you'd rather model in Silo or Hexagon or whatever and uvmap externally and then bring it in to Carrara you are more than welcome to do so. Similarly, you can do the terrains in Bryce or whatever and bring them in Carrara. And you don't have to model anything at all if you don't want to. For example, you could satisfy one of the two custom Carrara elements requirement by using hair. Grow some hair on a hair cap, make the cap invisible, and stick it on any character you want. That is just an example. I think one person won a challenge primarily by focusing on lighting and shaders for glass and skin. Not suggesting that anyone do that, just pointing out that there are a lot of ways to satisfy the Carrara elements, and plenty of room to include external content and then postwork, as long as you post the Carrara render in the WIP thread before postwork.
And I'd echo Jonstark on my admiration for the modeling skills of Varsel, Roygee, etc., but no one has to model anything original to participate in the challenge (except in those months in which the coordinator specified some modeler).
I agree with Diomede. I also use modeling with different software.
Use Wings3D for the basics of the models (see my first post where I mentioned Wings3D to model the serpent's head) and then I refined the model using Hexagon or Carrara. All UV Map, textures and of course the renderings are entirely made with Carrara
There is a lot of time Kyoto and it is only trying that you can improve!
I had never modeled anything more complex than a ramp for a motorcycle jump render when I first entered these contests - and that ramp was lop-sided and really badly textured!
Now just a couple months later I am feeling pretty confident about making basic things in the Vertex modeler - the trick for making complex things is just to break them down into as many small simple pieces as possible. I'm amazed at how nice an object you can make just doing that and although these challenges don't require any modeling at all, I'd really encourage people to try it out. :)
And now back to my entry, already in progress...
I started working on the final element of my image. I'm going to try and make a fountain pen and while the body is going to pretty much just be a cylinder, the nib was giving me fits until it occured to me that maybe I could do it in the dreaded Spline Modeler. So here's my first real attempt at using the Spline Modeler.
I converted the nib to a vertex model so I could UV map it and painted a quick mask design in Photoshop to use as mask for a multi-channel mixer and (blurred) as a bump map. My UV map is stretched out a bit so my painted map came in a little stretched out too - I'll have to fix that but I'm happy with how it's looking so far.
Mark
pimpy - it looks like you used a planar projection when UV mapping the stairs? How do you avoid the front face of the steps being distorted when you apply your materials?
pimpy - it looks like you used a planar projection when UV mapping the stairs? How do you avoid the front face of the steps being distorted when you apply your materials?
Is not planar. I rotated the scale (Figure 1) and then I adapted the scale (fit uv map).
I am totally in awe with these WONDERful WiPs
such detail and pretty darn good to boot.
and not only that but the information and help being provided is totally EPIC!!
it just makes you want to open up Carrara and do stuff
in fact that's what I'm going to do now and model a big potato for the Commons :-)
wow.... just wow
Is not planar. I rotated the scale (Figure 1) and then I adapted the scale (fit uv map).
Thanks pimpy! My poor old eyes/brain were having trouble figuring it out. :)
Got it now.
Hi MDO,
at this time (the three-thirty in the morning) where I live, even I'm wrong!
In fact, I forgot to write in step 1 click Unfold ....
I was working on some plants to be included in the scene that I'm making for this contest when I had the idea of creating a small and simple tuturial on how to build a plant. I hope you enjoy it and that it will be useful to other members of the community. Thank you!
part. 2
Thanks for the tutorial, Pimpy. Great job. I will be combining that approach with some modeled leaves/blossoms.
I will be doing something similar. Well, at least I've been planning to. Execution has been a little slow in coming. The alpha/transparency approach is great for some scenes and I'm glad you showed how to do it. However, for some othe types of scenes in which there are a lot of replicators and lighting, the alphas can be very resource intensive. So I plan to have a transmapped/transparency cherry blossom and also a couple modeled cherry blossoms. The idea is to combine the transmapped and the modeled cherry blossoms in ways to reduce the resource burden when replicating lots of plans.
I am experimenting with the formula modeler as part of the blossoms. If I get anything that I like, I'll post some of the steps.
EDIT: I'm thinking the formula models might be less resource intensive, but that may be a misconception.
Thanks Diomede,
the one I mentioned is the simple way to achieve the texture but as you say, you can also use the texture and the alpha chnannel. But you can also add dirty map on the leaves and change the color and texture of the leaves. In Carrara texture room all is possible ...
Thanks for the clarification, Pimpy.
Here are my first steps in adapting the formula modeler to make blossoms. I started with one of the rose formulas (formulae?) from my favorite Carrara formula resource, AKA "that French site." The default formula already had one adjustable parameter (p1). I then edited the formula by introducing parameter "p2" to make the width of the "petals" adjustable, and used the parse tab to execute the formula. After some adjusting of the parameters, you can see the original formula object on the left and my WIP on the right.
Here is the original formula
a=2;b=2;c=1.5;d=2;m=4;n=8;
p=2*PI*u;
q=(7*p1+9)*PI*v/16;
r=pow(cos(m*p), n)*abs(cos(m*q))+d;
x=a*r*cos(p)*sin(q);
y=b*r*sin(p)*sin(q);
z=c*r*cos(q);
Here is my adjusted formula
a=2;b=2;c=1.5;d=2;m=4;n=8*(0.1+p2*8);
p=2*PI*u;
q=(7*p1+9)*PI*v/16;
r=pow(cos(m*p), n)*abs(cos(m*q))+d;
x=a*r*cos(p)*sin(q);
y=b*r*sin(p)*sin(q);
z=c*r*cos(q);
The change I made was to make the element "n" adjustable. The difference between the two is that in the original n is a constant (8), and in my edited version n=8*(0.1+p2*8). This still includes the original shape if p2 =0.9. That is because (0.1+0.9)=1 so I am sure that n can equal the original setting when multiplied by 1.
I still need to make some changes to the formula, but I am encouraged by this first attempt.
Here is the link to "that French formula site."
http://gianp.free.fr/carrara/indexcarrara.html
Edit: In my example, p1 = -0.44 and p2 = -0.03. Yes, both negative.
Edit 2: Included an example with modifiers
There are other possible base formulas to try. I will be experimenting. This is another one designed for flowers. I will be introducing parameters to make the shape adjustable.
Haven't tried to make the textures based on a formula yet. But that could also introduce good variation that can change with world position.
Just introduce constants where "that French site" has a ?.
Formule objet
a=5;
e=0.001;
c=?;d=?;
m=?;n=?;
p=2*PI*u;
q=0.25*((PI-2*e)*p1+3*PI-6*e)*v+e;
x=a*sin(q)*cos(p);
y=a*sin(q)*sin(p);
z=c*(cos(q)+d*log(tan(q/2))+cos(m*p+n*q));
Alert, alert! Tim, Dart - problems applying custom leaves/blossoms to Carrara plant.
Still doing basic tests. I have a prototype blossom that is made up of several formula objects grouped as a single object. However, when I try to load the grouped blossom as a leaf, Carrara's plant modeler omits the inner stems. I did a test using the same blossom object in a replicator on a cylinder with a restricted domain to mimic a branch. The blossom group works fine when replicated on a vertex cylinder, but when loaded as a leaf in the plant modeling room, some of the pieces are missing.
By the way. Don't you think the grouped formula flower looks pretty good? Now to just get it working as a custom leaf.
The plants use a replication system for the leaves, true, but it may be simplified or restricted to single objects. Groups may not work, otherwise I would be able to make fruit trees in C7. And I have tried. Tried and failed that is. ;-)
The plants use a replication system for the leaves, true, but it may be simplified or restricted to single objects. Groups may not work, otherwise I would be able to make fruit trees in C7. And I have tried. Tried and failed that is. ;-)
Oh well. I knew I'd have to model a vertex tree for the foreground anyway. A regular replicator will work there. I guess it is no big loss if the distant tree blossoms don't have the stems.