How do I use an image texture on a ship in Carrara?

You need to take the ship into the vertex room, highlight the model, go into UV editor... what kind of texture do you want to add? If you want a procedural texture, you'll need to use the UV editor, but if you just want to drop a texture to the entire model, or just parts, then you'll go about it a different way. You need to check out the documentation and tutorials, it is too involved to explain. Try it first, then ask questions. Good luck

Ah heck.

Okay let's try a question I MAY be able to follow the answer to.

Here's what I've got, (see pic above) now every time I try to add a sky to this - the ship disappears.  How can I get a sky in there WITH the ship?

Another question - can I add a material/shader to the library?

1. Nice ship 2. Scene settings control the sky. If you drag a sky from the library it opens a new file. Go to the scene (right hand menu) and click on scene, then add a sky from the right drop down choices. Play around with it. 3. To add a material to the library, drag it from the materials list on the right into the library under your Users area. I don't have the app with me so I'm going off a sketchy memory.

I don't know what you mean about adding your own material, I've tried dragging the nice texture I've made but it won't drag anywhere.

Oh and is that it?  just the one sky?

(I'm glad you like the ship, made it quite a long while ago, but I've never been able to figure out how to texture it properly, I've been trying for... it must be over a year now and I still don't have the first clue on how to do it, I was hoping Carrara might be different, but it seems not)

Hi Fran.  Sweet ship.  So far you're way ahead of me texturing wise.  I'm still learning wings.  Although it is really nice to know now how to add skys to my scenes without everything vanishing.  I bought the pro version of Carrara and there are a number of sky presets.  Still trying to decide if I like the bryce sky better or not.

I hope this helps you a little.

David

There are sky presents and then you can adjust the sun, clouds, color of sun, etc. Play around, hover over buttons to see info. You can lay out the UV of the ship and apply bump maps from your texture to create lines for the map. Read the pdf for how to use the UV editor. Looks better.

You have chose the "Realistic Skies" option under the "Scene" tab / Atmosphere. Thats a good choice. Now you should click on the "Light" in the "Instances" tab in the right hand tray. Above there you will see "Light   Distant". Click on the little double arrow to the right of that and from the drop down choose "Sun light". Now under the "Scene" tab, look up and see the "Atmosphere" section that says "Realistic skies". Open that section ,if it is not open, and click the "Edit" button. This will open the "Realistic Skies" dialogue control panel. Click the render button to preview your scene. You can click and drag the fuzzy white sun symbol on the blue sky sphere to move the sun around. Checking "auto refresh" will re-render the preview automatically with each scene change.  There are quite a few options here, I suggest you read the manual to find out all the details. You can add more cloud planes of different types, change the cloud planes appearance and height, etc. Set haze, fog, sun color, and lots of other parameters.

 If you select your "ship" back in the main room and then go to the "shader room" by clicking the "paintbrush" icon at the top right of the screen, you should see your shader setup. Again, lots of option here, suggest you start with the manual. Click the "hand " icon up top to return to the "main" or "assembly" room.

Now you should be beginning to understand the "room " concept of Carrara. Different rooms to set up different parts of the scene and a main "Assembly" room for putting them all together.

2 other things. When you click on the scene area in the tree to the right  and look upto the top right you may want to turn off your ground. This is an option. Basically they are telling you that from inside the vertex modeller you need to create what are called shader domains by selecting only the area you want with a specific map. A texture map for the whole thing is also an option. But the only way the program can treat things on an object seperately is by telling it what domains you want.

> Quote - //// This will open the "Realistic Skies" dialogue control panel. Click the render button to preview your scene. ///You can add more cloud planes of different types, change the cloud planes appearance and height, etc. Set haze, fog, sun color, and lots of other parameters.

Thanks for that, had a nice play in there, got this now... (see pic) > Quote - If you select your "ship" back in the main room and then go to the "shader room" by clicking the "paintbrush" icon at the top right of the screen, you should see your shader setup. Again, lots of option here, suggest you start with the manual. Click the "hand " icon up top to return to the "main" or "assembly" room.

Ah, already done all that - that's how I got the ship to look like it does - it doesn't come out of wings like that.

Quote - Now you should be beginning to understand the "room " concept of Carrara. Different rooms to set up different parts of the scene and a main "Assembly" room for putting them all together.

Yeah, thanks.  Just a few questions left, like why doesn't the volumetric cloud I chose show up at all in the render?

And how do you get the ground to look like water instead of that flat... whatever it is?  And I've already looked in the manual, it just goes on about water spouts and other weird stuff, nothing simple - help?

Also, please, please, please, how do I save textures/shaders/materials that I've jiggered with to create something I like better than the basic stuff already in the wizard?

I just can't figure out how to save it - help???

> Quote - 2 other things. When you click on the scene area in the tree to the right  and look upto the top right you may want to turn off your ground. This is an option. Basically they are telling you that from inside the vertex modeller you need to create what are called shader domains by selecting only the area you want with a specific map. A texture map for the whole thing is also an option. But the only way the program can treat things on an object seperately is by telling it what domains you want.

Yeah, I saw that in there - tried it... didn't seem to make a lot of difference frankly, I tried picking an end ground colour and a start ground colour (in the background I think? One of those tabs anyway)

• but a) I'm not sure where the start IS - close to you or the horizon? 

b) I really wanted to try water... can't find it.

c) trying the end colour and start colour I was trying to imitate flat distant sand (as the next best thing to water) but I'm not very good at it, obviously.

Oh, and this image shows what the ship looks like straight out of Wings3D - not so good eh?

Hi Fran,
Try using Wings to set up the model as much as you can first. I use the materials in Wings to determine the shading domains in Carrara. The only thing you really need to do is plan your model as much as possible - setting your Wings materials up as boxes, cylinders or flat planes to make life easier when UV mapping. And use different colours for each material - makes life much easier as well. Have you used Wings UV mapping functions before? I use UV Mapper Pro so I won't be much help with Wings or Carrara UV mapping, but it ought to be similar.

When importing into Carrara do the following:

• Import .obj options: Select Vertex Primitives and under Grouping select Create only one object (unless you want each material as a detachable object).
• Select your object and go to the Model room.
• In there you'll see the materials are marked by blue outlines and you'll be able to select them via the Selection menu Select By/Shading Domain...
• You'll need to do the UV mapping to get the textures looking right, otherwise you'll usually get odd overlapping bits on your textures if you leave them as they are.
• In the Texture room you'll find the shading domains on the right of the screen, double click each one to edit them.

Quote - Hi Fran,
Try using Wings to set up the model as much as you can first. I use the materials in Wings to determine the shading domains in Carrara. The only thing you really need to do is plan your model as much as possible - setting your Wings materials up as boxes, cylinders or flat planes to make life easier when UV mapping. And use different colours for each material - makes life much easier as well. Have you used Wings UV mapping functions before? I use UV Mapper Pro so I won't be much help with Wings or Carrara UV mapping, but it ought to be similar.

When importing into Carrara do the following:

• Import .obj options: Select Vertex Primitives and under Grouping select Create only one object (unless you want each material as a detachable object).
• Select your object and go to the Model room.
• In there you'll see the materials are marked by blue outlines and you'll be able to select them via the Selection menu Select By/Shading Domain...
• You'll need to do the UV mapping to get the textures looking right, otherwise you'll usually get odd overlapping bits on your textures if you leave them as they are.
• In the Texture room you'll find the shading domains on the right of the screen, double click each one to edit them.

Um... see image above your posting - it shows the ship straight out of Wings, the images in my messages further up in this thread show the ship as I've tried to texture it in Carrara - badly.  Ho hum.  I do wish I could understand UV Mapping, but I just can't - I've tried for over a year now and I just can't DO the darned thing!

Attached Link: http://market.renderosity.com/mod/forumpro/showthread.php?thread_id=2648310

I've posted how to save textures in Carrara in the link, have a look (its about halfway down, by me).

For UV mapping have a look here for some useful info:
http://p212.ezboard.com/fnendowingsmiraifrm27.showMessage?topicID=77.topic

Materials (Wings) are created in the Outliner window - select default, duplicate & edit it (colours), apply to selection (face selection on your model)

"Yeah, thanks.  Just a few questions left, like why doesn't the volumetric cloud I chose show up at all in the render?"

After you insert a volumetric cloud, you have to position it in the scene. If it isn't showing up then it must be below your terrain or hidden by the ground plane. Click on the modeling room icon to adjust your volumetric cloud parameters.

"And how do you get the ground to look like water instead of that flat... whatever it is?  And I've already looked in the manual, it just goes on about water spouts and other weird stuff, nothing simple - help?"

I think you said you turned off the ground in the realistic skies. If not then do that.  Insert an infinite plane into the scene and drag one of the preset water shaders onto it.

"Also, please, please, please, how do I save textures/shaders/materials that I've jiggered with to create something I like better than the basic stuff already in the wizard?

I just can't figure out how to save it - help???"

Select the object whose shader you want to save. Click on the shaders tab in the bottom right tray. Click and drag that shader from the right tray into the bottom browser tray. Make sure you have the shader tab and  whichever folder you want to save it into opened up.

Quote - I've posted how to save textures in Carrara in the link, have a look (its about halfway down, by me).

For UV mapping have a look here for some useful info:
http://p212.ezboard.com/fnendowingsmiraifrm27.showMessage?topicID=77.topic

Materials (Wings) are created in the Outliner window - select default, duplicate & edit it (colours), apply to selection (face selection on your model)

Ah, must have missed this when I posted my last yell for help.

I've finally managed to save a shader that I made myself - so thanks for that.

On UVing, I did PeterChov's barrel tut some long time ago, and it's fine for if you want to make his barrel, you can't use it to do your own barrel because for that you need to know how to create such a texture, and that's PhotoShop.  I've also seen Drac's UVing but I'll take another look at it, maybe I've become more intelligent since I last looked at it.... 

That last bit on Drac's tut, where Pauljs75 mentions being able to use both UV and procedurals on the same UV map - SOUNDS great, but I don't really follow it too well.

And the last one: PagodaProductions, no longer exists - it 404's on you.

Quote - Materials (Wings) are created in the Outliner window - select default, duplicate & edit it (colours), apply to selection (face selection on your model)

If you look at the ship I sent you, you'll see that I already put materials/colours onto the model in Wings, but I didn't use the Outliner window.  I used, right click/then I right clicked on .Material. called it something appropriate, picked a colour, and done!

All those colours appear in the Outliner window, but I didn't do anything to them there.

Fran

> Quote - "Yeah, thanks.  Just a few questions left, like why doesn't the volumetric cloud I chose show up at all in the render?" > > After you insert a volumetric cloud, you have to position it in the scene. If it isn't showing up then it must be below your terrain or hidden by the ground plane. Click on the modeling room icon to adjust your volumetric cloud parameters. > > "And how do you get the ground to look like water instead of that flat... whatever it is?  And I've already looked in the manual, it just goes on about water spouts and other weird stuff, nothing simple - help?" > > I think you said you turned off the ground in the realistic skies. If not then do that.  Insert an infinite plane into the scene and drag one of the preset water shaders onto it. > > > > "Also, please, please, please, how do I save textures/shaders/materials that I've jiggered with to create something I like better than the basic stuff already in the wizard? > > I just can't figure out how to save it - help???" > > Select the object whose shader you want to save. Click on the shaders tab in the bottom right tray. Click and drag that shader from the right tray into the bottom browser tray. Make sure you have the shader tab and  whichever folder you want to save it into opened up.

Well I'm giving up on the Volumetric cloud, I've spent way, way too long adjusting it's size and position in the assemble room, and it's just not appearing at all. 

I did however manage to get the water to show up.  See pic. 

(Plus I've saved a shader)

Fran

Volumetric clouds - what kind of rendering are you using: Skylight? Indirect Light? HDRI? Neither?
In the cloud modelling room look in the top left part of the screen. You'll see options for what kind of lighting to use, if you aren't using Skylight you might have to switch on Participate in global illumination (something like that) to get the clouds to show up.

You don't have to switch anything, those are just preview settings for the cloud room. The clouds will show up if they are not hidden from view. The only time they will not show up is if they are in the extreme distance when the atmosphere is set to 20 or 25 miles, but I doubt that is the case here. You should be able to see the bounding box of the cloud in the assemble room. Try going to 4 views to better see the actual postion in the space. Sometimes using only the director's view can be misleading.

Really?
I've found the volumetric clouds a bit tricky myself - they've shown up black in HDRI rendering the few times I've used them. They work really well with Realistic Sky and Skylight rendering for me. What am I doing wrong?
Thanks

> Quote - You don't have to switch anything, those are just preview settings for the cloud room. The clouds will show up if they are not hidden from view. The only time they will not show up is if they are in the extreme distance when the atmosphere is set to 20 or 25 miles, but I doubt that is the case here. You should be able to see the bounding box of the cloud in the assemble room.

I did have trouble seeing the cloud's bounding box at first, in fact it took a lot of effort just to get the bounding box down to where I could see it and see the scene too, at first to see the bounding box I had to have the scene almost too small to see...

Quote - Try going to 4 views to better see the actual postion in the space. Sometimes using only the director's view can be misleading.

Tried that, it didn't really help much - the cloud was just so very huge to begin with.

The pic shows the settings for the Volumetric Cloud.  I dunno if that's of any use...

I don't like these little tiny screenshots in the new forum format. Can't see anything.

Why don't you just upload your Carrara scene so we can take a look at it. I haven't heard of this problem before. By the way ,resize the cloud or move it, not the scene.

Quote - I don't like these little tiny screenshots in the new forum format. Can't see anything.

Why don't you just upload your Carrara scene so we can take a look at it. I haven't heard of this problem before. By the way ,resize the cloud or move it, not the scene.

I didn't move the scene, just the cloud.

Attached Link: StavaWater.zip

Okay, took me quite a while as R'osity won't let us upload zip files now, so I had to update my website - now you can get the scene zip file from the link above.  I did try 4 views but just got confused as it - the arrows indicating the Volumetric Clouds location - is only visible in one view so I dunno where it is...

Any help will be gratefully received...

I downloaded your scene, you had the volumetric cloud "opacity" set at 8.2 %, so it was basically invisible.  I guess you played with all the settings, because when I upped the opacity it was pretty much a grey box. Try inserting a default cloud and render it without changing the settings. Don't change the default shader. Create a new shader or use a preset.  Don't use HDRI, Realistic sky and gradient background all at once. Don't move the vertical position of the terrain up or down. You can resize it, but make the vertical position  (z-height) always half of the vertical size ( z-size value). Then put your water plane where you want it. The infinite water plane needed a bump texture, try some of the water presets. Don't turn up the global brightness much in the realistic skies, instead turn up the brightness of the sun light. The reason your cloud settings were so weird was that you made your default shader,  the water shader, then when you created the cloud it was given the default shader. I've uploaded a quick render of your scene with a few of the changes I've suggested. sorry about the plane texture, obviously I didn't have the bitmap texture you used. Only procedurals will be saved withinn the file unless you tell it do otherwise.

Patrick you did know you can just click on the picture and it shows the original, not the "thumbnail" (kinda big for that.)

Fran,
Check out www.awbenson.com for some simple carrara uv tuts.

Yeah now I know, I just thought  Rendo was trying to save hard drive space.

Quote - I downloaded your scene, you had the volumetric cloud "opacity" set at 8.2 %, so it was basically invisible.  I guess you played with all the settings, because when I upped the opacity it was pretty much a grey box. Try inserting a default cloud and render it without changing the settings. Don't change the default shader. Create a new shader or use a preset.  Don't use HDRI, Realistic sky and gradient background all at once. Don't move the vertical position of the terrain up or down. You can resize it, but make the vertical position  (z-height) always half of the vertical size ( z-size value). Then put your water plane where you want it. The infinite water plane needed a bump texture, try some of the water presets. Don't turn up the global brightness much in the realistic skies, instead turn up the brightness of the sun light. The reason your cloud settings were so weird was that you made your default shader,  the water shader, then when you created the cloud it was given the default shader. I've uploaded a quick render of your scene with a few of the changes I've suggested. sorry about the plane texture, obviously I didn't have the bitmap texture you used. Only procedurals will be saved withinn the file unless you tell it do otherwise.

Yes, I obviously pressed everything in sight in a desperate attempt to find the right button.

Yes. I see you manage a quite nice scene, cloud and all, but I have no idea from just looking at the image - exactly how you did that..

Looks like all my attempts to produce anything at all decent have failed miserably, my sky is awful, my land is terrible, my water is wimpish, and my cloud is a pain in the... yes well.

It's all very well to say "put your water plane where you want it", but I did try!  I really did. 

And I do not know how to "create a new shader" and all my problems started (the cloud ones) when I did as you suggest in the first place "Try inserting a default cloud and render it without changing the settings." I did that and it wasn't visible - gawd, I feel like I'm tearing my hair out here!! 

I really appreciate you're trying to help me but it just doesn't seem to be..... I just don't seem to - to be able to grasp it.

Depressed......   :sad:

I can now create and save a shader...

Well there you go.

Yeah.....

Now if only I could get a decent chrome and the lighting to look right... I'd be laughing.

There's just so many controls for things in here and in the demo there are so few materials - and the ones there are, seem to be a bit on the... well... crappy side.

Okay, okay, I realise that the crappiness is probably me, but when you see other people after only 1 day in this program producing stunning results... it's depressing.

BUT!  I seem to have managed a fairly nice material on the body of my model.

Only... I've forgotten how to save a material, so I can't transfer it to other parts of my model...

Oh yes I can!

Yes I can, YES I CAN!  YES I CAN!

I can do anything better than... me,
I can do anything better today! (sung to the tune)

He he he... Figured out how to save it after all.

Be patient fran,
You are only trying to improve on what you know. Everybody starts somewhere. Just because someone just got the program doesn't mean they don't have other skills working for them. Learning the texturing part is worth doing and it is an art. In fact everything in  Carrara or programs like it could be a study all by itself. Once you get things rolling it will be far less frustrating.

Thanks, when things work it's so much more enjoyable.

Now I've just got to save up.