CARRARA CHALLENGE #63: There be Dragons..... WIP

Diomede

Bunyip02 said:

Will you have enough time to finish the animation, or will you do a still render of your scene ?

I will have a 4th entry.  Whether it is an animation or a page of 4 or so comic panels remains to be seen.  I have not started rendering animation sequences yet, but I am not within SteveK's 48 hour festival limit yet.  Getting very close, though!

I am currently modeling an all important quick toon cow.  Am using ruled surfaces in the vertex modeler based on a variety of dairy cows found around the web.

 

Diomede

I load a reference image in the front/back or side drawing plane in the vertex modeler 'global' tab. I trace a few overlapping basic shapes, anticipating the need to match up vertexes during modeling.  I then insert an oval perpendicular to the reference.  I duplicate the piece (eg torso) and move that to the zero location.  I duplicate the oval and arrange along the zeroed duplicate trunk.  I like to do the trunk and two leg pieces first so I can delete half and then use duplicate with symmetry instead of doing all four legs.  Then I do the head, tail, ears, etc. and attach to the trunk and legs.  This results in a low poly base that has an OK side profile but sucks from other angles.  I find it easier to then shape the animal from this base.

Still some work to do on the cow, but hopefully you can see that I was able to do it relatively quickly, although not near as fast nor as quality as Stezza.

After the cow, I have one insect to do, and one plant, then I can start animating and rendering.

See the red polyline outline around the torso of this reference cow in the vertex modeler orthagonal view?  And the duplicated ovals lined up with the points of the polyline?

Diomede

Or, I can abandon my current story idea and just render some basic movements.  Will depend on real life.  But I have enough assets now to enter a still, or even a page of comic panels.

Diomede

Missing @Sockratease about now.  Millenium Cow abunga!

Stezza

gotta luv cows 

my missus loves cows as well...

awesome modelling technique @Diomede .. just shows there's more than one way to skin a cat or model a cow 

there should be a Carrara Cow Challenge ... how cool would that be   

Stezza

UnifiedBrain said:

Part 3 - Haute Couture in Lizardland

What did you expect, alligator purses and snakeskin boots?   These are civilized lizards, not cannibals.

The character is a kitbash of V4, Dragon Folk, and a second skin product (retextured) from Rendo.  The tail ornament is a modifier applied to a Carrara primitive.

The runway bulbs are a Carrara basic object, rezoned with different shaders, and topped  with a bulb using a light sphere effect (thanks to Wendy for the suggestion).

Carrara text is such a blessing!  There is probably not a single Carrara tool that I value more.

No postwork.

kinky.... funky...

all I know is the water dragons we have love it as well! 

WendyLuvsCatz

awww cute, do you catch bugs for them?

Stezza

WendyLuvsCatz said:

awww cute, do you catch bugs for them?

was watching telly the other night when the wife said can you hear that noise?

it was a cricket creeping across the floor and chirping!... we have a menagerie of bug farms for them from roaches to rolly polly bugs and all sorts inbetween! and every now and then one escapes! in the house although they are kept outside.  

UnifiedBrain

Syezza said:

UnifiedBrain said:

Part 3 - Haute Couture in Lizardland

What did you expect, alligator purses and snakeskin boots?   These are civilized lizards, not cannibals.

The character is a kitbash of V4, Dragon Folk, and a second skin product (retextured) from Rendo.  The tail ornament is a modifier applied to a Carrara primitive.

The runway bulbs are a Carrara basic object, rezoned with different shaders, and topped  with a bulb using a light sphere effect (thanks to Wendy for the suggestion).

Carrara text is such a blessing!  There is probably not a single Carrara tool that I value more.

No postwork.

kinky.... funky...

all I know is the water dragons we have love it as well! 

Ha!  Thanks for posting.  Very cute, in a bony-ridged sort of way. :)

And thank you Stezza, HW, ed3D and Bunyip for the comments.

Khoe

now the final image and the raw rendering. some color grading and increased contrast in the final image. Retouching done only very mini. In the end it was a fight against time. 2 times my computer choked on saving the file so that I had to go back to the backup again and again and run everything I had done again. I hope you like the dragon.

Image 1 is final. Image 2 The rendering without retouching.

 

Headwax

Khoe said:

now the final image and the raw rendering. some color grading and increased contrast in the final image. Retouching done only very mini. In the end it was a fight against time. 2 times my computer choked on saving the file so that I had to go back to the backup again and again and run everything I had done again. I hope you like the dragon.

Image 1 is final. Image 2 The rendering without retouching.

 

Terrific work. Love the crab ? on the rock!

Headwax

Khoe said:

now the final image and the raw rendering. some color grading and increased contrast in the final image. Retouching done only very mini. In the end it was a fight against time. 2 times my computer choked on saving the file so that I had to go back to the backup again and again and run everything I had done again. I hope you like the dragon.

Image 1 is final. Image 2 The rendering without retouching.

 

Terrific work. Love the crab ? on the rock!

Headwax

Diomede said:

I load a reference image in the front/back or side drawing plane in the vertex modeler 'global' tab. I trace a few overlapping basic shapes, anticipating the need to match up vertexes during modeling.  I then insert an oval perpendicular to the reference.  I duplicate the piece (eg torso) and move that to the zero location.  I duplicate the oval and arrange along the zeroed duplicate trunk.  I like to do the trunk and two leg pieces first so I can delete half and then use duplicate with symmetry instead of doing all four legs.  Then I do the head, tail, ears, etc. and attach to the trunk and legs.  This results in a low poly base that has an OK side profile but sucks from other angles.  I find it easier to then shape the animal from this base.

Still some work to do on the cow, but hopefully you can see that I was able to do it relatively quickly, although not near as fast nor as quality as Stezza.

After the cow, I have one insect to do, and one plant, then I can start animating and rendering.

See the red polyline outline around the torso of this reference cow in the vertex modeler orthagonal view?  And the duplicated ovals lined up with the points of the polyline?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

really enjoy seeing how you work and model Ted, thanks for sharing!

Headwax

one last one from me 

"The Dragon and The Little Princess"

This started out as Dragon Skin rug on the floor using Philemenon's cutout plugin, not sure what happened then

 

and prepost

 

 

 

Bunyip02

Diomede said:

Bunyip02 said:

Will you have enough time to finish the animation, or will you do a still render of your scene ?

I will have a 4th entry.  Whether it is an animation or a page of 4 or so comic panels remains to be seen.  I have not started rendering animation sequences yet, but I am not within SteveK's 48 hour festival limit yet.  Getting very close, though!

I am currently modeling an all important quick toon cow.  Am using ruled surfaces in the vertex modeler based on a variety of dairy cows found around the web.

Hope you get that 4th Entry sorted !!!

Bunyip02

Diomede said:

I load a reference image in the front/back or side drawing plane in the vertex modeler 'global' tab. I trace a few overlapping basic shapes, anticipating the need to match up vertexes during modeling.  I then insert an oval perpendicular to the reference.  I duplicate the piece (eg torso) and move that to the zero location.  I duplicate the oval and arrange along the zeroed duplicate trunk.  I like to do the trunk and two leg pieces first so I can delete half and then use duplicate with symmetry instead of doing all four legs.  Then I do the head, tail, ears, etc. and attach to the trunk and legs.  This results in a low poly base that has an OK side profile but sucks from other angles.  I find it easier to then shape the animal from this base.

Still some work to do on the cow, but hopefully you can see that I was able to do it relatively quickly, although not near as fast nor as quality as Stezza.

After the cow, I have one insect to do, and one plant, then I can start animating and rendering.

See the red polyline outline around the torso of this reference cow in the vertex modeler orthagonal view?  And the duplicated ovals lined up with the points of the polyline?

Great workflow - thanks for that !!!

Bunyip02

Diomede said:

Missing @Sockratease about now.  Millenium Cow abunga!

Thought about Sockratease when I read your first cow comment !!!

Bunyip02

Syezza said:

gotta luv cows 

my missus loves cows as well...

awesome modelling technique @Diomede .. just shows there's more than one way to skin a cat or model a cow 

there should be a Carrara Cow Challenge ... how cool would that be   

Hmmm, a Bovine Challenge would be interesting !!!

Bunyip02

Syezza said:

UnifiedBrain said:

Part 3 - Haute Couture in Lizardland

What did you expect, alligator purses and snakeskin boots?   These are civilized lizards, not cannibals.

The character is a kitbash of V4, Dragon Folk, and a second skin product (retextured) from Rendo.  The tail ornament is a modifier applied to a Carrara primitive.

The runway bulbs are a Carrara basic object, rezoned with different shaders, and topped  with a bulb using a light sphere effect (thanks to Wendy for the suggestion).

Carrara text is such a blessing!  There is probably not a single Carrara tool that I value more.

No postwork.

kinky.... funky...

all I know is the water dragons we have love it as well! 

Cute critters that you have !!!

Bunyip02

Khoe said:

now the final image and the raw rendering. some color grading and increased contrast in the final image. Retouching done only very mini. In the end it was a fight against time. 2 times my computer choked on saving the file so that I had to go back to the backup again and again and run everything I had done again. I hope you like the dragon.

Image 1 is final. Image 2 The rendering without retouching.

Whoa - that's plenty of eye candy. Leads your eyes around the whole image, very nicely done !!!

Bunyip02

Headwax said:

one last one from me 

"The Dragon and The Little Princess"

This started out as Dragon Skin rug on the floor using Philemenon's cutout plugin, not sure what happened then

 

and prepost

 

 

Gorgeous image - the mind keeps thinking is she leading the dragon or is she about to become Dragon dinner !!!

Those dreaded 504/502 errors occasionally catch me out for double posts ....

Headwax

Bunyip02 said:

Headwax said:

one last one from me 

"The Dragon and The Little Princess"

This started out as Dragon Skin rug on the floor using Philemenon's cutout plugin, not sure what happened then

 

and prepost

 

 

 

Gorgeous image - the mind keeps thinking is she leading the dragon or is she about to become Dragon dinner !!!

Those dreaded 504/502 errors occasionally catch me out for double posts ....

 

I think a dinner :) Thanks for the kind comment, and thanks so much for running this challenge in such a professional and enthusiastic manner.

Bunyip02

Headwax said:

I think a dinner :) Thanks for the kind comment, and thanks so much for running this challenge in such a professional and enthusiastic manner.

Thanks !!! Been having fun & enjoying everyone's work !

Bunyip02

Bunyip02 said:

Reminder :- Entry Thread Closes/Voting Begins: Saturday,  3 September 2022 23:59:59 CST (GMT-6)

Get those entries in people !!!

Final Reminder !!!

Bunyip02

shlomi laszlo said:

with forest primeEVIL plants

and just the carrara stuff for the landscape

Shlomi get this one in ASAP !!!

Bunyip02

DesertDude said:

Okay, will extend the Challenge by another two weeks. On Saturday I'll adjust the dates shown at the start of the Challenge.

Still waiting on the early workers to show up - hope they do !!!

 Thanks Bunyip02, I have fallen way behind. I had a certain lighting mood in my mind and it's been a challenge to capture.
Meanwhile, I made a chest of drawers (still missing the drawer handles...), a lamp and started a bed. The dragon is not posed at all how I want at the moment.

Lots of fantastic looking new work, I will be back tomorrow to comment.

DesertDude please get this one in !!!

Bunyip02

Grimmvald said:

Late to the game here but I decided I could create an object to a scene I'm working on that might fit this challenge.  The whole project is a how-to learning thing.

The true test of any warrior is to single-handedly slay a dragon and construct a shield covered in the hide.   So I took the flat pattern of a Fantasy Shield, replaced the pattern of shield face with some kind of a lizard skin texture and displacement map from FilterForge  I'm not sure what kind of a dragon it was but I'm sure it was mean and gnarly.  When fashioned into a shield it is impervious to both Dragon Fire and that nasty green stuff from GoT.

Cut out the heraldic emblem from the origiinal and reapplied it to the lizard skin.  Then put the texture map on the shield along with the displacement map.  This was the first time I've used a displacement map.  The 3d version has some workmanship issues but is probably acceptable.

I'm a little skeptical of the whole knight slaying a dragon thing, but at any rate this is the shield of Agnborg the Scarred.  She can now take her rightful place with both the other members of the Order of the Dragon:  Bjarkan the One-Eyed and Erling the Leaning.

Now I'll see if I can get the other parts of the scene put together before the challenge deadline.

 

(sorry for any typos but the cat is napping in my work space and you don't poke a sleeping dragon or cat...}

Hope you can get this one in !!!

Bunyip02

Diomede said:

Bunyip02 said:

Will you have enough time to finish the animation, or will you do a still render of your scene ?

I will have a 4th entry.  Whether it is an animation or a page of 4 or so comic panels remains to be seen.  I have not started rendering animation sequences yet, but I am not within SteveK's 48 hour festival limit yet.  Getting very close, though!

I am currently modeling an all important quick toon cow.  Am using ruled surfaces in the vertex modeler based on a variety of dairy cows found around the web.

Diomede, countdown timer is clicking away !!!

Diomede

As I post this, I believe I have 16 more hours.  

Will get something in.

Diomede

My current status is that I have rendered out multiple 360 backgrounds of the area with the farming village and the castle tower from different points of view.  That includes vegetation before the dragon comes and then desolation after the dragon has been there a while.