Carrara Challenge #66 - Jumping Off a Browser Scene Go Splat !
Headwax
Posts: 10,013
Carrara Challenge # 66 - Jumping Off a Browser Scene Go Splat - Entry Deadline May 31st
Entry Thread here: Carrara Challenge #66 - Jumping Off a Browser Scene Go Splat - Entry Thread -Ends May 31st - Daz 3D Forums
The creators of Carrara obviously loved Carrara.
One of the legacies they left us with was a whole bunch of complimentary "scenes' in our browser (the above image is from Lava Lamp scene)
They were left there by the Carrara Gods to give is ideas how to use the program - as 'jumping off points."
Also, if you have supported Carrara artists in the past, you may find your browser SCENE SECTION full of their work also.
A superb example is DARTANBECK'S WORK - which is/are currently free for download at his site. Also see here.
My scene browser also has excellent work by TangoAlpha and PhilW - amongst others (see below image)
Your challenge is to create an image, or one page of sequential images, or an animation inspired by any scene(s) in your browser.
NOTE: ANY SCENE is illegable, including purchased scenes that are in your SCENE BROWSER.
SPLATS - AN UNLOVED PART OF CARRARA
If you manage to use a "SPLAT" in your work you get a GOLD STAR.
Minimum Requirements
--- Use Carrara's render engine or a related plugin like Octane, Lux, etc.
--- Postwork is welcome. Please post the original unpostworked render in the challenge work-in-progress (WIP) thread. Discussion encouraged.
--- WIP Thread participation. Post at least one work in progress to this thread offering some insight to your creative process. Examples include post-work or a scene setup or a discussion of a technique you used.
Prizes (if any)
--- To be announced. Intent will be to have a separate category for top stills (single image/page) and top animation, but be normal other than that.
Entries
--- Up to 6 entries per artist. An animation or a single page of sequential comic panels counts as one entry.
--- There are two categories of entries: stills and animations. A single page of sequential comic panels counts as one still.
Animations (NOT, Not, not required)
--- Animations must include credits for such as should be credited, such as music, etc
--- At least two artists must submit an animation for the animation category to be active. Otherwise, the animation counts as a still image.
--- Animations should try to be less than 3 minutes long, including credits, unless it makes sense to go longer, then do so. Or as short as you want.
Dates
TBA
THANKS TO DIOMEDE, WHOSE WORDS I HAVE LIFTED FROM THE LAST CHALLENGE
ENTRY THREAD HERE Carrara Challenge #66 - Jumping Off a Browser Scene Go Splat - Entry Thread -Ends May 31st - Daz 3D Forums
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EXAMPLES OF BROWSER SCENES
Dart's Lava Scene from one of his free sets.
Random Scenes Included in Carrara Browser
SPLATS
If you are wondering about 'splats' - basically a splat is a plane that always faces the rendering camera (they do occasionally have rendering artifacts.)
The Carrara manual suggests using them to populate forests with reduced polygon overhead.
So, with that in mind, I remdered this tree in Carrara - it's the colour channel render and comes with it's own alpha.
In a new scene, I placed a plane and a splat . INSERT>SPLAT.
I replicated the splat on the plane.
Then I dropped in the above image onto the COLOUR part of the splat texture (in the shader room).
This is the view from afar of the replicated splats.
This is the view from above (I used this as the shader for my plane)
And as an exersize, I covered M4 with splats, made him invisable, and played with the splat textures - failing at making him look like he was covered in feathers (middle section of below image)
Glad you are back! Thanks for starting us off.
I need to populate my scene tab. It is woefully small. Several great products that I have never opened.
Thanks UB, been living in a caravan 300 metres from a deserted beach, 6 weeks surf, only missed 4 days and one of them because a shark hanging around in the shallows - so went paddleboarding to keep safe .
Feel twenty years younger and lost eight kilos.
Now back in the dream world ....
Here some work with the lava lamp, the low res chaps are splats replicated - of course I could have replicated the meshes
the Earth is a separate render from The SPACE scene folder
The Lava lamp is in the special effects Folder
Post worked and No Post worked images
The stars ar from a free online starfield generator (space scape)
The light at the apex of the lava lamp has a standard lend flare added
original pre post
Working with the Cornet HDR in Global Illumination in the Scenes Browser
Pre and Post
I used the Global Illumination Pass to get rid of the unwanted band of fog, then used an obj pass to isiolate the reflectibve elements of the original PNG and bring them back - as reflection don't come out in the Global Iluminatoion pass
Great start Headwax !!!
UB - better get started with that population !!!
Like this one very much !!!
Alien Plants Scene - WIP 1
In my Misc section of my Scene Tab I have saved a number of Bryce terrains, imported into Carrara as obj's.
Aim for this entry is to use Splats to create an Alien Forest - not as good as a Howie scene but hopefully not too shaby.
Used that Carrara Plugin they have to give away for free to make the vegetation textures for the Splats.
Scene setup with Terrain
Alien Plants Scene - WIP 2
Spaceship added from Misc Scenes files - might finish off the forest next.
This should be a fun one. I am sure I have forgotten much of what I learned by exploring those old scenes. Way to start us off, Bunyip. Bryce in the scene tab. Very cool and very clever.
~ alrite then ~ if one can make the Scene _ "giggl , giggl "
A big wow. Terrific esthetics/taste in the use of noise in post.
50's pulp fans are rejoicing. :)
thanks UB et Bunyip02, always fun thinking tangentally - even if I can't spell it :)
Great start @Bunyip02 I like how you are thinking with that Plugin,
@UnifiedBrain wonderful reason for installing stuff :) Yes I too am guilty of being a serial non-installer!
@Diomede too true! yes I never really properly explored them. the already rigged character with the IK in animation section is interesting. In the olden days there used to be a French Carrara forum and a series of tuts based on the same character I think
@ed3D Greta Carbo and Madonna come to mind with that expression.
Thanks all for participating:) - sorry to have been away for so long
I'm gonna have to think about my splats for this one!
great challenge
Alien Plants Scene - Render
Moon Explorer - Inspired by the Apollo Moon Landing Scene, but with a Toon flavour.
Splat used for Plasma effect.
Scene setup
Raw Render
Postwork - Topaz Adjust - Crisp filter used to bring out details
Postwork - Topaz Adjust - Color Blast filter used to bring out colours
Postwork - Filter Forge - Chinaware painting filter used to obtain NPR effect
Final image
thanks @Stezza, yes a splat is a splat even when it isn't :)
that's superb Bunyip02 , love how they are 2d but almost poke you in the eye !
great effect and excellent choice of splat :) Thanks for he heads up on the process~!
Thanks !!!
Thanks !!!
Added Stezza's Thingee peeking out of a Moon crater.
I feel a need to ask for some clarity here.
The constraint of this Challenge is that it must include something from the Carrara Scene tab. In that tab, there are several different categories of items - skies, lights, terrains, and even Carrara objects, to name a few. However, the one thing they all have in common is that they were made for Carrara.
So my conclusion is that the "spirit of the constraint," as indicated by Headwax in the original post, is to use either native content or scenes/objects specifically made for Carrara.
If we instead can load virtually anything into the Scene tab - and that is certainly possible - then virtually anything can be used in our renders. It is just like saying "Use anything you want, but just make sure that you turn it into a Carrara file and load it into the Scene tab first."
Maybe its just me, but that is not much of a constraint. :) It is more like a bookkeeping trick.
I await further clarification.
Hello UB - there's plenty of scope to load up your Carrara browser with goodies, have been doing just that since I loaded Carrara onto my computers ( onto my second computer with Carrara now. )
It makes full use of Carrara as a render hub. If I wanted to load DAZ Studio up with scenes then I would just use DAZ Studio. Have fun and use Carrara to it's maximum !!!
Monster Cave Goblin - better run he's out hunting for meat !
Inspiration for this scene is the plants of Carrara. Used the Basic Plants & items from various scenes by Howie Farkes.
Scene setup
Raw render
Postwork
Final image
Hello UB. yes that is a good question.
Of course a challenge with no constraints is the most diificult challenge at all.
For me, I am happy to leave it to the artist's choice.
These challenges for me are about a few things.
One is encouraging people to use Carrara.
Another is learning how others use Carrara.
Another is challenging myself to become a better Carrara user artist.
In starting this challenge I saw that there were many things in my Scenes Browser that I had ignored because there were more shiny things elsewhere to be used/bought/ downloaded.
For example, in my 20 Million Gigabyte DAZ Library of aquistions I have some great mediterranean town kits. I also have cities and landscapes enire planets, solar systems, galaxies and etc...,
But when I looked in My SCene Browser I find, amongst the Native Scenes, other things automatically installed eg : mystic gorge, PhilW's Night and Day City, Hemlock Folly, etc. Hapsburg.
So I decided the challenge should be about what is in our Scene Browser.
If an artists wants to add their Gigabytian DAZ Aquisitions to the scene Browser I am happy with that . It's an artist's choice to use every tool at hand.
Or they can, metaphorically, go out into the countryside, dig up some coloured dirt siennas and ochres, mix it with their blood and oily sap from a tree and paint a masterpiece like The Lascaux Caves - if they feel that is what they need to complete their artistic expression.
So yes, in answer to your question, the constraints are set by the individual artist - and that kind of constraint is the most difficult of all !
Hello Bunyip02, some more eggscellent work (Happy Easter!) For thise one, a small critique would be to render the plants/grass from above and use that generated texture on your landcape - it would make the whole scene more organcially wholistic c so to speak :) sorry about the typos - my keyboard Surface Pro likes to insert typing where ever it likes ...
Headwax, if you want to host a Challenge without any specific external technical or motivational constraint, why not just say it. :)
Why not just say "anything goes?" Because that is what you are proposing. There is no "challenge" to putting assets in the Carrara scene tab.
I am not opposed to "anything goes," although I don't see where it is ultimately any different from making a render and posting it in the Community Art Gallery thread, or any other thread.
So yes, in answer to your question, the constraints are set by the individual artist - and that kind of constraint is the most difficult of all !
No offense, but that doesn't mean anything to me unless you define "constraint." I set my own constraints all the time. On occasion, it's kind of fun to adhere to constraints set by others. That is a big reason why I keep participating in the Challenge.
Whatever. I will participate by following your original suggestion, and base my renders on native content from the scene tab.
No offense taken.
Thank you for taking my original suggestion as your guide.
regards from Oz!
Here's splats used as rain makeres.
Made a PNG with Ron's Rain, put that on the splats and replicated them through the scene into the distance.
Howi'e's Hapsberg and a low res guy
Something went weird with Carrara and the render turned out semi transparent - didn't have any apha bits turned on in the render page - the pngs were 9000 pixels square so I think it was either a memory issue or a splat issue.
I had to join a few render passes to save the scene
???
Howi's Hapsberg was already found in the Scene Browser
original