Modeling Objects in Carrara - Q&A - Come One and All

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  • Hermit CrabHermit Crab Posts: 841
    Great Model, Phil and nice completed renders. Thanks for the blueprint link, Headwax.
  • wgdjohnwgdjohn Posts: 2,634
    Mistara said:
    wgdjohn said:
    Mistara said:

    do yoo start rendering a room with a hollowed cube?

    or is it better to start 1 wall at a time?

    several false starts. >.<

    There are some good examples earlier...  de3an, TangoAlpha, 3DAGE, MDO and others have some good advice about contructing walls with planes and other methods...

    Walls or rather building constuction start on Page 1 and continue to page Page 4  and are also mentioned here and there troughout by Diomede and a few others.  There is also at least one reference, in Links on Page 1, I added to other threads.

    I've been using single planes in nearly all circumstances... especially for inner walls.

     

    thanks! it's hard to search threads with the forum search.  can't even specify carrara forum only?

    bridging is different in carrara, than wings3d.  
    making a window, i used bridge to make the window hole.
    and i would use bridge to attach the walls in an 'L'
    my brain still thinks in box modeler strategy.
    modeling like playing chess, lol, think a few steps ahead. 

    Never used wings3d... bridging is new to me... I've used it so seldom that manage to crash Carrara by not choosing the Convert button or selecting the wrong things... get it mixed up with Ruled Suface tool.

    Therefore I never use Bridge to create walls. I'm currently making a mini tut to explain one way I approach doing this.  Going to split it into 2 or more?? parts... 2nd part will hopefully show making windows, door or other openings... mentioned and preparation are in part 1.

    Mistara said:

    scaling a row of edges to fit around a curve messes the evenness of the quads.

    something like an hourglass shape, how they keep the quads fairly even?

    There are a number of ways to keep or make them even or close to even.  I've included an example of a goofy looking HourGlass... as you can see I wasn't going for precisness... didn't know what you were wanting exactly. :)   One thing I forgot to mention is that I added 1/2 in Thickness to the glass part... after the first 3 pics I also sized it down by half which is still too big as...still way too large.

    HourGlass_p1.png
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    HourGlass_p2.png
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    HourGlass_p3.png
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    HourGlass.png
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  • WendyLuvsCatzWendyLuvsCatz Posts: 38,315

    there is a convert button????

     

    blush always just clicked the transform arrow after bridging two vertex lines or loops

  • wgdjohnwgdjohn Posts: 2,634
    head wax said:
    seeing Phil's great work reminded me of this blueprint site. Sorry if it's been posted https://www.the-blueprints.com/blueprints/ great for modelling stuff

    Kewl!  Have you gotten anything from there?... It looks good... just converted euros to us dollars... the one I priced was only 50 cents... so that's not bad at all.  I'll have to check it out again to be sure there aren't any copyright or usage restrictions.

  • wgdjohnwgdjohn Posts: 2,634
    th3Digit said:

    there is a convert button????

     

    blush always just clicked the transform arrow after bridging two vertex lines or loops

    What version of Carrara are you using?  I am using 8.5.1.19

  • WendyLuvsCatzWendyLuvsCatz Posts: 38,315
    wgdjohn said:
    th3Digit said:

    there is a convert button????

     

    blush always just clicked the transform arrow after bridging two vertex lines or loops

    What version of Carrara are you using?  I am using 8.5.1.19

    several actually 

    I have a beta and an earlier version and 8.1 as well

  • Oso3DOso3D Posts: 15,022

    Is it possible to 'lock' faces so that using soft select doesn't move certain bits?

    I'm thinking primarily of modifying a face/head without touching the eyes or mouth

  • WendyLuvsCatzWendyLuvsCatz Posts: 38,315

    Is it possible to 'lock' faces so that using soft select doesn't move certain bits?

    I'm thinking primarily of modifying a face/head without touching the eyes or mouth

    hide them?

  • PhilWPhilW Posts: 5,145

    Yes, I think that hidden polys can't be edited.

  • MarkIsSleepyMarkIsSleepy Posts: 1,496

    I might be wrong and aren't at my computer to test, but I think that soft-select only affects the selected polymesh. If that's true you might be able to select the parts you don't want then cut and paste them to make them a separate piece. Of course, that will probably make it unworkable if your intent is to then take it back to DS to make a morph there. 

    Hiding them while you work is probably the best way.

  • MarkIsSleepyMarkIsSleepy Posts: 1,496
    edited July 2017
    wgdjohn said:

    DesertDude,  I have recently been messing around with another method... I started out with as you did... with an 8 point disk, flat 2d circle.  I end up with 16 vertices for the outside... note that I can later go back and delete a few of the polyline loops.  My silly process is outlined below.

    Just a thought, I haven't tried this, but what happens if you start with just a plane (four-sides, one quad) and add 2-3 levels of smoothing, then apply it, then add thickness. I think you would get a decent circle with all quads, although at 2 levels of smoothing it might not be round enough and at 3 you'd have 64 polys which is really high for a simple coin before even adding thickness.

    Post edited by MarkIsSleepy on
  • Oso3DOso3D Posts: 15,022

    Hiding them! Didn't even know I could do that, thanks. ;)

    It's funny, I keep poking at fancier modelling systems, but keep coming back to Carrara.

     

  • wgdjohnwgdjohn Posts: 2,634
    MDO2010 said:
    wgdjohn said:

    DesertDude,  I have recently been messing around with another method... I started out with as you did... with an 8 point disk, flat 2d circle.  I end up with 16 vertices for the outside... note that I can later go back and delete a few of the polyline loops.  My silly process is outlined below.

    Just a thought, I haven't tried this, but what happens if you start with just a plane (four-sides, one quad) and add 2-3 levels of smoothing, then apply it, then add thickness. I think you would get a decent circle with all quads, although at 2 levels of smoothing it might not be round enough and at 3 you'd have 64 polys which is really high for a simple coin before even adding thickness.

    I see what you mean... 2 levels is not enough. 3 levels then extruded would end up at 160 polys but does look good and is less polys than I came up with using a very large circle starting at 15 divisions/points, tesselating Mid Edge to Mid Edge, cranking up level to 2 and not converting... it was already 224 polys so didn't bother to convert... I'd resized the coin to .25 ft which is still large but looked very good.  Perhaps the answer is to have a high poly coin for close ups and a lower poly coin for more distant shots.

  • PhilWPhilW Posts: 5,145
    edited July 2017

    Don't forget that you don't need to convert so you can keep the actual model pretty low-res and light on resources, while still having the benefits of a high resolution when rendered. Use Smooth Edges and Crease Edges to control the edges. I generally use this approach these days to keep scenes as light as possible.

    Here is a model that will work as a coin when mapped for pretty much any purpose - and only 16 all-quad polys with a smoothing level of 2.

    Screenshot 2017-07-29 10.31.40.png
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    Post edited by PhilW on
  • PhilWPhilW Posts: 5,145
    edited July 2017

    I went ahead and added a slight raised rim to the coin model, UV mapped and textured it (a bit quick, could use some improvement), then used a replicator to make a 5x5x5 array of them with physics added as the animation method and then dropped them, this is a quick Octane Render of the result. Not entirely convincing as the coins seem to float slightly off the ground and each other where they should be touching, but not too bad for a quick play around.

    Coins.jpg
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    Post edited by PhilW on
  • PhilWPhilW Posts: 5,145
    edited July 2017

    This is a bit better - I re-did the simulation with smaller collision distance and edited the textures a bit for Octane.

    Coins2.jpg
    1920 x 1080 - 178K
    Post edited by PhilW on
  • MistaraMistara Posts: 38,675

    coins at the tavern for  mead and latte  smiley

  • DiomedeDiomede Posts: 15,188
    edited July 2017

    PhilW said reduce the collision distance.  Hope I remember that one.  If one coin is missing, I think a lot of people have purchased Faveral's ships lately and one might be the Black Pearl looking for the final Spanish coin!

    Post edited by Diomede on
  • MarkIsSleepyMarkIsSleepy Posts: 1,496
    edited July 2017

    Nice. I did basically the same thing for this old image https://www.daz3d.com/gallery/#images/48512

    I don't have the original Carrara file anymore (it might be on one of my old backup drives) so I don't remember how I modeled the coins exactly, but I scattered them using the same physics technique as PhilW did above. The simulation took forever on the computer I had then, but I got a new one a few months later which is much much faster and has about four times the RAM so maybe I should redo it with more coins. laugh

    Post edited by MarkIsSleepy on
  • PhilWPhilW Posts: 5,145

    Yours is much better than mine - love the sparkly diamond too!

  • Hermit CrabHermit Crab Posts: 841

    It feels a little wrong to turn up again and interrupt the conversational flow by tossing in a few more images of the vehicle you've seen before and which I never seem to get finished.

    I had a few more sessions with Hexagon on this and each time my eyeballs turn into cubes I bring it into Carrara to have a look at it in a different light.

    The images below are just some WIP results of me taking a look at it with lots of bits set to invisible and with panels removed so that I can see things fitting inside.

    The last bit to complete is a rebuild of the turret - I'm putting in the wireless boxes and other stuff and have made a big hole in the ceiling to join it with the interior.  The guns from inside are a big challenge which I won't enjoy but when those are done that will be it except tweaking of the exterior fittings.

    The images below really are just the render equivilent of doodles when I've been too tired to go on modelling.  The wheels are proxy fittings.

    The number of parts is close to 900 and Hexagon still copes when I bring them together from the different projects I've divided the vehicle into.  Apart from fewer than ten parts where I used line tools every piece began as a cube or cylinder.

    Doc8b.jpg
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    Doc9.jpg
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    Doc5.jpg
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  • Oso3DOso3D Posts: 15,022

    You know, if nothing else, if they added 'ctrl-A' selecting All in the file UI, I'd be happy.

    nnngh

     

  • Oso3DOso3D Posts: 15,022

    What's the easiest way to turn a cutout mask into a 3d shape? I don't need a complex form, just essentially a 'die cut' slug.

  • Oso3DOso3D Posts: 15,022
    edited July 2017

    NM, figured out an easy workflow:

    Import mask as terrain, convert to vertex, select and remove everything but top surface, add thickness. Easy peasy

    And even better it ends up with a UV setup exactly in line with said mask. Woopa.

     

    Post edited by Oso3D on
  • PhilWPhilW Posts: 5,145

    Anything that eases setting UVs is a plus in my book!

  • Oso3DOso3D Posts: 15,022

    Ugh.

    Is there a way to decimate part of a mesh? I have a mostly flat mesh where I want the edges to be finely detailed but would rather save on polygons in the big flatter bits. And... well.. yeah.

    I suppose I could just delete the interior and then close it, but that seems messy and then building a sensible mesh from the space is tricky.

     

  • PhilWPhilW Posts: 5,145

    Not easily in Carrara. Zbrush has some nice retopo tools that can have higher mesh density where it is required, but if you don't already have it, that is quite an investment just for that!

  • Oso3DOso3D Posts: 15,022

    Yeah, I've been considering new tools but been pleasantly surprised how much Carrara can manage.

    And hoping not to have to spend much...

    I think what I might try is selecting the edge polygons, tessellate a lot, then decimate -- the effect should be decimating the center 'more'.

  • HeadwaxHeadwax Posts: 10,013
    edited July 2017

    timmins.william ​ you can merge coplanar polys, but it would be handed if there was a merge selected polys command

     

    pleasure MarcusSeverus

    wgdjohn ​ - sorry I hadn't bought stuff there I just used it for star wars stuff in the past. this one modelled in anim8or

    I used the blueprints for the bump map...

     

    Post edited by Headwax on
  • Oso3DOso3D Posts: 15,022

    Yeah, the problem with merge coplanar is that it's a bit TOO severe; I want fewer polygons, and trying to fill a fifty sided shape back up with a reasonable mesh is tricky.

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