Modeling Objects in Carrara - Q&A - Come One and All
Welcome Folks to learning how to model which tools and menu items to use. Also get answers to any questions you have. If you are a new Carrara user or a very knowledgeable modeler or a PA no problem all are welcome here. Note that what I consider an object can be anything from a simple cube, a plant, a tool, boats/planes/cars, a rock or rock formation, a figure where it be a human/animal or robot, a sack of flower or a container. I'll stop myself... I'm getting carried away.
Modeling is easy right? Of course it is!
"Below are a few questions/answers I made up, in my tiny mind, that anyone might have first."
q: Can I post problems, questions and renders here?
a: Of course! That is the main reason for this tread.
q: Should I use the Spline modeler or the Vertex modeler?
a: That's up to you. I've used both. I prefer the Vertex modeler since I have many more tools at hand to work with. I have an idea for something which I plan to create using the Spline modeler 1st then change it into a Vertex model for further editing. Both the Spline and Vertex modeler have different tools.
q: Will you be answering my questions?
a: This depends on the question. I'll admit that I don't have answers to everything. At this time I seem to have more questions than answers. Presently many others are very helpful with their tips, suggestions and time saving tricks. Expect me to chime in as I may have an idea or even know, imagine that, about yours myself.
q: Say I'm new to all this. How do I get started?
a: One way is to just start messing around to see what the various tools and menu items do automatically. If you run into one that seems to have no effect just note it down for later. Another is to read the manual of course... but I only do that when I'm stumped or want to learn what this or that tool/menu item does. Yet another is to watch a video either on YouTube or from DAZ by PhilW, Infinite Skills, or anyone else whose tutorials are available from the store. Finally just ask in one of the Carrara discussion or create your own question. Note that it is easy to start off in the Assembly Room just get familiar with how Carrara works and then move to the Vertex and/or Spline editors.... where you have more and powerful tools to work with.
q: What is the best way to learn from a video?
a: Gosh... how do I know. :) Seriously here is my method... first I watch the video then bookmark it even when it covers something that I'm not looking for at the moment. Next I'll crank up Carrara and go back to that video then watch it and pause it... go to Carrara and repeat what was done then continue on with with the video until I want to pause it once again. I've done a lot of starting, pausing and going back and repeating at different points.
q: I use Blender can I post here.
a: Durn tooten! Anyone into modeling is welcome here. That includes Hexagon, Blender, Silo and any other 3D modeling software. If you are asking a question about anything other than Carrara then you should have better luck in their specific discussion forums.
What on Earth am I thinking starting this... well to be honest I've run into a problem which I will post here later. Oops... seems I had more than one. Lucky for me I've had some great help on each.
Why not go model something now? Anything actually... Your mind is the limit.
Comments
Below are a few links to other Forum Discussions, YouTube Videos, DAZ Pay Tutorials and perhaps other sources for learning to model.
Forum Discussions: Some are specific while others are for everthing Carrara related. Note that you can find links to other threads and videos.
Bits and Pieces: More modeling discussions in the Forums
Modeling in other programs Links to Threads: Note that I'm adding specific threads for modeling tips and WIPs. All modeling programs have similarities and some are very like Carrara.
YourTube Videos: These will lead you to Carrara related videos. I found these very helpful but there are very useful ones by many others as well as by the folks mentioned also.
DAZ Pay Tutorials: I consider all to be Must Haves. Note that the ones by PhilW are expesive but worth it... or you can wait until they go on sale.
Note the next ones by PhilW are currently not available for sale as DAZ any longer. If you have already purchased any Infinite Skills videos they should be available from Safari using the link info from DAZ to Infinte Skills. Note I've not yet tested this to be certain yet. Check the Changes to Infinite Skills Carrara Training thread to learn more and get other ways to obtain them.
Carrara 8.5 Tutorial Video- by PhilW - Covers all aspects of CarraraAdvanced Carrara Techniques- by PhilW - Takes you a few steps further than the one aboveCarrara - Realism Rendering Training Videoby PhilW - Very good for realism and modeling also.Animation Tutorials, DAZ Pay:
Are you feeling left off my list of links? No problem either post a comment or send me a PM.
Onto my problem.
I've modeled solid walls but thought that I would create one from a path with a doorway incorporated. 1st pic, Model Room, shows what happened when I used Dynamic Extrusion and also Ruled Surface to do the extrude. 2nd pic, Model Room, shows the path extruded in wireframe which looks fine. 3rd pic is from the Assemble Room which actually shows in wireframe the points that seem to have strayed. How and why this happened I'm at a loss. Note that it renders just how it looks in pic 1. Below is my process.
Turned "snap to grid" on and drew the outer wall starting from the lowest point of the left door frame then moving clockwise did the outer wall and inner door until I got to the curve shape for the top of the door, turned snap to grid off for the curve, being done with the curve I switched "snap to grid" back on and finished at the start point. I also used "crease edges" for each, front and rear, parts of the door and also the four corner edges but not the lower ones of the door opening. Was the error created by myself, Carrara or just a fluke? I suspect that it was from switching "snap to grid" on and off since the points that were excluded are the last with it on and the first with it off, see pic 2. I first discovered this in the Assemble Room... thinking I could fix this promptly when back to the Model Room and found nothing apparent to correct. Even stranger to me is why is the problem, see pic 1, a mirror of image of the opposite wall side???
I'm wondering now if I would have been better off to create a solid wall first and then a second poly mesh for the door opening and the same for windows then use Boolean to subtract the door/window opening(s).
I can't explain it exactly, because I can't duplicate your example. But I have seen this type of behavior before, usually after smoothing is applied to an n-gon (a polygon with more than four vertexes).
Your walls are huge n-gons, which is probably the root of the problem. Try linking the points of the arch to the points of the outer edge of the wall, and remove extraneous vertexes and edges until you are left with only quad polygons. (see screen shot)
de3n is right, it's the ngon. You need to join the points on the arch to the top of the wall at least. (you can probably delete the points along the sides if the walls are straight & flat; they only add polys where none are needed. If you want windows, leave enough to make a suitable sized grid that you can knock out). While Carrara does support ngons, they can often leave odd artifacts and ripples that will be visible in the final render.
My normal way of making an arched doorway (funny how many arches there are in the world!) is to start with a cylinder of the appropriate size, stretch and flatten the bottom. Duplicate (one copy will be the door) then add thickness. A bit of shaping on the edges and it's done. Shrink the door part slightly so there's a small gap, bevel the edges and that's done. If you want to make a door frame, edging stones etc., select the inside face of the arch, duplicate, add thickness and stretch to taste.
Here's a quick sequence for making a door & window. The door again is an ngon, so you'll want to link vertices (I do it after bevelling the edges - seems to give a cleaner bevel). I used Extract Around to get the outline of the window. Knocked out the poly front and back, and Bridge to join the sides. (BTW, to flatten the bottom of a cylinder, just select the bottom half then scale Z to 0)
One thing I forgot to mention: Add Thickness never seems to manage to be quite symmetrical, so you'll need to spend a little time aligning the front and back vertices.
This is just my workflow. As always there are many ways to do things in Carrara, and one way isn't necessarily better than another.
Once again i'm too late to the party,. ..
The problem is that when you switch tools,. carrara doesn't automatically connect the vertices, you need to select and weld those ends
Once you've drawn the lines,. and curves,. you should use the rect/select to select the connecting points for the arch start and door upright end,. then use MODEL/ Weld.
then do the same for the arch end and the other door upright.
the "connected" test,. is to double click on the outline,. If it all selects in red,. it's all welded,. all one connected outline,. which can be filled,. but ... as already mentioned,.. you'll need to connect vertices using the Link tool,. to create edges,.
Ideally models should be divided into four sided polygons,. Quads,.
by linking some of the vertices around the door, to the edges and top of the wall,. you'll create more quads, which will give you a smoother result, and fix those edges.
Notes:
Rather than creating a frame with lot's of vertices ,. start with something simpler. like a cube with a definition of 2 or 3 ,. then scale that to what you need,. then you can select and simply delete a couple of polygons to create a doorway,. and fill the inner gap using the link tool.
,. plan out where you absolutely "need" to have edges. to make your base model as simple as possible,.
once you have a basic shape,. you can select / loop and extract edges wherever you need them to create more geometry.
It's easy to add new geometry,. to make it more detailed.
Thanks for the example. What it boils down to is that I took shortcuts by not doing the proper work in the Model Room. I may know why you can't duplicate it... I forgot to mention that I extruded it 3 times and then deleteted the entire starting points.
You seem to have confused me... a cylinder is already flat on the bottom unless you rotate it 90 degres in Y or X depending on where your wall faces.
Oh gosh... I've never used bevelling, add thickness or even subtract around before and can hardly wait. When add the arched wiindow/doorway do you use boolean or add them manually?
Everyone should stick with the workflow that works for them.
BTW: Nice set of examples.
No problem you're always welcome here... grab a few beers or some wine and 2 glasses from the fridge... I need a break from cleaning up. :)
Figured it was when I switched tools since it occured when I did that. I was wondering if it migh be a weld problem... but then I didn't do enough work and skipped connecting points, can't even say that it's ok for my first arched doorway attempt since it turned out to be a disaster.
Note that as is without drawing the lines etc. if I double click on any side *only* that side is selected. If I try the same for any polyline for the arched part only 1 will be selected at a time. Selecting a polyline then choosing Loop has no effect.
I did get carried away with adding points to the template... a fault I'm trying to get clear of. The more simple is best.
Thanks for the example.... wow now I have three to help me out.
Look at it as part of the learning curve,. rather than a disaster :)
I try never to use Boolean operations on geometry,. ..although it can be an extremely powerful tool,. it can often causes issues when auto linking edges,.. it works best when the geometry of both objects matches exactly.
Boolean is great for creating complex 2D line shapes which can then be used to create your 3D geometry.
Also,. as Tango Alpha pointed out above,. it can be easier to work on a single sided shape,. then add thickness,. or extrude.
quite often,. the walls in your scene will only be visible from one side. so,.. making both sides isn't always neccesary ,. and it's simpler to model one side rather than a solid cube
Arches can also be made using Bend and twist modifier,. which alows you to limit the effect,.
Here's another way to create arches and columns ...
Starting with a Grid in the Vertex modeller,. select some poly's and extrude In and up to create a base and column,. then extude the top out gradually like a cone,. once you've got that arched shape,. you can connect the top edges to form a roof. ... pic
I've got some fluted columns in my current WIP. I started (predictably) with an upright cylinder. It needs to have 3 x the number of flutings for sides (so if you want 12 flutings around the column, you need a 36 sided cylinder). Then select every third side and scale it in a bit. Some judicious smoothing and creasing, and Bob's your uncle! (BTW, only taper in the top after you've done the fluting, otherwise it doesn't scale properly. Ask me how I found that out! ;) )
And the undercroft in MH&G has fairly simple columns with a vaulted ceiling (groin vault, if you want to be technical). That did use booleans!
3DAGE, Ok a learning curve then. :)
I've found Boolean to work best in the Assembly room on basic spheres and cylinders. I'd never thought of using it on 2D geometry which makes sense.
TangoAlpha's method of single sided first makes things a lot easier/faster for myself to create.
Single side walls are fine... what I'm wanting to design are interior, exterior walls, floor and ceiling for a room/building that I can have different texture zones for each. I'm now thinking that I should start with a simple square/rectangle for one wall then take each side and extrude it to form the other walls, floor and ceiling... the opposing wall would be a bit different but similar... might have to put my welder's mask on. :)
Are speaking of Bend and twist modifier's in the Assembly room... I can't seem to find either in the Vertex room.
Very good example on how to create arches/columns/floor/roof as one object. I've a few columns, still WIPs, as separate objs so they can either be used or not.
Very nice looking indeed. I'm still at the "trying to get Bob to be my Uncle" stage. :) I did figure out the 3x factor... for creasing it looks like all I need to do is to select the outer edges to give the inner one curve(s) to the outer. Looks as if you used a 5x or 7x to create the nice fluted effect under the top. The top itself looks like a different Polymesh?
I'm guessing that in MH&G the ribs were added using Boolean Add to the sections and through the other ribs.
The bend and twist modifiers are under the Deform menu in the Vertex modeler. But they don't work quite the same. While in the Assemble Room The modifiers give you real time screen updates. In the Vertex Modeler you have to click OK before you will see the result. And in the Assemble Room the modifiers will bend simple shapes, while in the Vertex Modeler you need to add more geometry to get a good (or any) bend.
Thanks for pointing me to deform. Of course it was right under my nose. :) Just tried a rough one and it worked, of course, but didn't look as nice as your example... I was in a hurry and didn't create enough polys for a smoother one. I suspect that it could even be used at 360 degrees using a circle to form a Torus. Enough geometry and you could even use Bend to create a gear.
Yes, the capital is a flattened sphere with a cube on top. The extra detail on the fluting was simply one level of smoothing, converted back to mesh. I cut a very tiny channel (extract around then scale), just a millimetre or two thick, on some of the segment edges. It parely notices on the model, but in a render it gives the impression that the column is made from several blocks of stone.
The ribs in MH&G... after welding the parts together from the initial booleans, it was basically bevel and extrude.
You know, I've never used those! That's going to be something new to play with . . .
Thanks for explaning where to find the "deform" De3an :)
I forgot to add the pic
In the VM,. if you use the bend to create a 180 (half circle),. then you can duplicate with symmetry and connect both to form a circular thing,. but,.. it's probably easier to create a couple of line shapes, and use the "Path sweep" tool, to create an tubular or doughnut shape from a couple of circles
Also, just a side note (becuase Carrara doesn't always make it obvious...) you can bend beyond 180 by entering a value numerically. Here I created a segmented box, removed the faces from both ends, ran the Bend deformer in the VM and set to 360 degrees. Then ran the Weld command, smoothed the edges and voila! Don't know if that constitues more "clicks", just mainly wanted to mention sometimes you can enter values higher than a slider "says" you can....sometimes.
Love the various deforms. I made a bunch of "sculptures" a while back by just using modifiers in the assembly room on some simple shapes I made in the vertex modeler. I later re-made these entirely in the Vertex modeler with a bit of trial and error:
Carrara has a bunch of useful tools that are kind of hidden in the Vertex modeler. My favorite that I always forget is in there is Replicate (on the Edit menu). It takes some fiddling about and lots of undoing to get the result you are going for but it can be a seriously powerful tool. I made all the objects in the below image by creating just a single hexagon and using Replicate on it (I did use some other modifiers in the assembly room on the sort of flowery/windmill looking piece, but the rest were just replicate). There are no tricks with textures here - those are all 100% geometry (which is a waste and slows my viewport to a crawl, but it was still fun to make):
3DAGE, I took yet a different approach... Lathe... please excuse the details, I'm only hoping that anyone else who stumbles upon this may benefit from them.
1st pic: In left view I dropped in the flat circle to one side of the screen, highlighted at top left, then cranked it down quite a bit to form a very rough looking circle. I decreased grid size and and turned on snap to grid. Before moving the original point I Added a point to each each side as shown. I then simply moved the Added points to the starting place where the original point was which made the made the lines between them and the starting point look flat of course. Next I selected the entire poly and then the Lathe icon and then the line to lathe around... the line to choose is the line below the 2 points added, at lower "Add" shown, and away it went.
2nd pic: I should have included a top view pic of the result before cleanup but forgot to grab it... darn. The result was very rough and rotated as shown. I then rotated it back to 0 by choosing the Rotate icon at left side of screen and entering a few different values before finding the correct Angle. Note top view would have shown it filled at the center as I expected. In top view I deleted the each center point. I couldn't understand why there were at least 3 center points but now realize these where for each point. I should have only deleted probably the top and bottom ones... It may have been best one center point and unfilled the polys instead of deleting the center point right away... got in a hurry and didn't. Also viewing it as wireframe would have helped.
3rd pic: After my quick cleanup job and adding smoothing at it's default of 1 doesn't look too bad even in the Assembly room. To finish it properly would be to select the inner points 2 at a time and link them. It actually looks like a fat tire as is or could be scaled in Z only for anything circular wanted.
I know that by creasing the correct lines I could end up with an object that was only circular at the outside while the top and bottom or even only one was flat.
Yes, exactly... Always push boundaries where a value can be manually added. For large values I like to find the limit and then start stepping in increments, -25 -50, until I can start increasing again. For sliders it would help if there was a little checkbox to turn off it's limits.
that's terrific work, thanks for sharing
I'm lost again. :( Where might Bevel be hiding... come out.. come out wherever your are. I'm looking in VM. The Carrara 7 manual says to choose "Arrange > Bevel"... I can't even find Arrange. What I did to experiment is to add a box with 3 segments and took the inner segments, one at a time, and dragged them towards the corners. I selected a few various ways of selecting only all segments and even just one segment. Seems I have yet another setback.
MDO2010, Excellent work on both the sculptures and replicating the hexagon.
I think the "Arrange>Bevel" you are seeing is used in the Spline Modeler. I think the equivalent to "Bevel" in the VM is Dynamic Extrusion?
MDO2010, those are really awesome looking sculptures! Beautiful!
Ahh... the spline modeler. That explains it... only used it a few times.
Bevelling is a process, sometimes called chamfering, or simply "knocking the corners off". The simplest tool for adding a bevel in the vertex modeller is "Fillet", which lets you define the size and smoothness of the bevel. "Quick Fillet can also be used, although control is less precise.
Here are a few free youtube tutorials. Both sets make a wine bottle that has some liquid inside. Helpful to see two people do the same thing.
First, Docdubbleu
vertex modeling a wine bottle part 1 (bottle and wine)
https://youtu.be/dr3ynKuPx50
vertex modeling a wine bottle part 2 (walls, lighting, rendering)
https://youtu.be/5VdGA402LHw
Second, Marcelo Taixeira
wine botle part 1
https://youtu.be/uRmAwCXk5UU
wine bottle part 2 (includes adding a label)
https://youtu.be/GdDOmpON8TI