We/I did this some years ago over at 3Dcommune with carrara, it was a good time and we all got to play a little modelling something a tad different from the normal... 

Here's the Idea..  

• A bunch of us get together and decide on a subject.
• Who ever's in, takes some time and models a certain part, what ever.
• We all upload out models where everyone can take/download the parts
• Everyone arranges renders out their own version of the scene.

It's cool if we all decide on something a little unusual. Like last time we decided on modeling a victorian style bathroom.. Not something you normally think of when it comes to 3D modeling right?  :tongue1:

anyone interested? 

going to try and find the original image, think I uploaded my version after we were done .... :unsure:

found it.. I modeled the sink, someone else actually did the brackets under, another did the toliet, another did the TP and holder.. so on and so forth....

http://www.renderosity.com/mod/gallery/media/folder_65/display_640020.jpg

This sounds like fun!

Hmmmm, subject matter. Because of a recent moview release, how about Sherlock Holmes' study? It could contain all sorts of odds and ends.

ya, that sounds interesting.... was thinking something like a laundry room/closet or corner of the basement...

any other Ideas?  the father fetched the better... :)

Corner of the basement could be really fun too.

guess no one else is interested... 

Well, I am interested, but I am not much of a modeler (and that's the understatemnt of the year right here). therefore I am not sure I could contribute anything worthy.

But I think the project could be fun. And I like Mark's idea of Sherlock Holmes' study. I think it could be useful for a lot of people. I could easily put together a basement corner using models already available for free here, at DAZ, ShareCG and places like Turbosquid. It would be much harder to scape together a Sherlock Holmes' study using available free models.

And I could add another twist to it :). How about a lighting challenge using the end result? :)

Quote - Well, I am interested, but I am not much of a modeler (and that's the understatemnt of the year right here). therefore I am not sure I could contribute anything worthy.

But I think the project could be fun. And I like Mark's idea of Sherlock Holmes' study. I think it could be useful for a lot of people. I could easily put together a basement corner using models already available for free here, at DAZ, ShareCG and places like Turbosquid. It would be much harder to scape together a Sherlock Holmes' study using available free models.

And I could add another twist to it :). How about a lighting challenge using the end result? :)

well kinda the point of it is to learn to model - shade - compose..basically try something new, ask questions from the community if you need help,  bla bla bla... using pre-made stuff is cheating  ;)   

The study is great, though I think it may be a bit too many things and/or a tad busy to get a few people to model stuff easy.  but I'm not knocking anything.. if that's what you guys want to do.. let's do it.. 

What do you mean "using pre-made stuff is cheating"?

If you mean for the modeling, then I don't think it's allowed with most things out there. Most meshes come with EULA, which don't allow distribution of models derived from the original mesh.

Well, if the whole study is too much, it can start with the desk corner perhaps?

And I'm all for learning. Always :). And speaking of which: Do you know of any resource out there, which would list some basic generic DOS and DONTS for modeling? Just a brief list of rules with short descriptions of things which need to be avoided to prevent broken meshes, or ugly corners or weird planes, or stuff like that, and how to avoid it.

I can follow tutorials for modeling, but since I don't know these basics, I tend to be completely lost on my own and often end up with something weird looking or impossible to UV map (although that's another can of worms altogether).

I like the study idea.

When we are done, we could load the whole thing into the free stuff section and then do the lighting challenge.

Indeed.

Quote - Do you know of any resource out there, which would list some basic generic DOS and DONTS for modeling? Just a brief list of rules with short descriptions of things which need to be avoided to prevent broken meshes, or ugly corners or weird planes, or stuff like that, and how to avoid it.

well a good place to start is Mark's tut's linked in his footers are pretty good.. he's also got some awesome tut's on a web site.. umm errr can't remember the name. but for like $30 you get access to the site for a month.. lot of the stuff I learned was off that .. umm mark? what's the name of that site.. errrr  :unsure:

Quote - I like the study idea. When we are done, we could load the whole thing into the free stuff section and then do the lighting challenge.

that's the general idea..  plus like Anteran is saying about not being great at modeling, you try something, if you get lost you post questions, upload what you got and let others see, fix, help.. it's all about the community working together

Quote - What do you mean "using pre-made stuff is cheating"?

well the point is to learn to model your own stuff, shade it, compose and light it, not just take pre made stuff and assemble a scene.  there's no "judging" what you do or how good it is.. it's the job of everyone involved to help each other out and learn off others, share ideas..  so on and so forth.. :)

soo everyone seems to like the idea of a study.. so let's get a list of items to model for a start.. hopefully others will jump in..

• Chair(s)
• fireplace?
• shelves
• lamp(s)
• picture/picture frame
• Books
• Nick Nacks on shelves

anything else?

I think the Sherlock Holmes study is impossible without a pipe and a magnifying glass. :) So I'd add those to the list, and I might actually attempt creating them. As a starting excersise.

Other items that could be useful in this project (mostly from the nik nacks category):

• Case index file (That box with indexed cards and all sorts of papers)
• medical instruments
• tubes and all sorts of glass thingies for his chemical experiments
• the theatrical makup kit (the old fashioned kind he would have used)
• scales and weights

Also, what about walls, windows, door?

And yes, of course for this type of challenge using ready made models is cheating, but i was simply suggesting that modeling harder to find objects would be of more use to the rest of the community.

Hey ,

 I think this is a great idea and I would think the Study would be cool to try. Whatever you guys decide I will model something for this.  

Well, it seems we have at least a spark of interest so let's start ... everyone choose something they want to model..  Remember when modeling for something like this it's all about sharing so make it as simple or as detailed as you like, but make it easy to break down and/or modify so people can change-add-make it their own and fit in their scene and scale...

I think I'll start myself with a fireplace. I might even make a few diff mantles and surrounds ..?

nope, image is good.. was just thinking of finding one myself.  a few others of different studies might be cool too so we have a bit more variety and people don't get stuck on any one look.

  It is looking good.

  Here is my violin so far,I may change the backside of it. I know there is a bump or something on the back but maybe not quite like this .  Probably wont update this for 3 or 4 days. 

that looks sweet Mmoir!!

I've started on the maginifying glass today. The image is attached.

Now I have a few questions:

1. Housekeeping: Can we get a sticky thread for this? Either this one or a brand new one with a more specific title?

2. How and where do we upload the WIP files for others to look at?

3. Do I need to UV map this and how do I do this right?

Right now if I go into the UV map view, the thing looks scary. And I have no idea how to make any sense of it.

1. What about scale? Right now this thing is huge. Where do I scale (assembly room? modeling room?) it and how do I do it correctly for best usability?

2. This is a single vertex object with multiple sub-objects and shading domains. Is this the right way to do it or should I be separating all the internal objects into assembly-room objects and grouping them in the assembly room?

I am also using Carrara's smoothing. Is that a good thing to do or a bad practice? The model does look a bit different when smoothing is disabled. For example, the glass does not match the frame when smoothing is changed.

I'd like for someone here who is better experienced at modeling to take a look at the model itself and tell me what I can improve about it. Hence the question of how and where to upload it.

Happy Holidays, everyone!

I've started on the maginifying glass today. The image is attached.

Now I have a few questions:

1. Housekeeping: Can we get a sticky thread for this? Either this one or a brand new one with a more specific title?

that'll be up to the big wigs

2. How and where do we upload the WIP files for others to look at?

not sure here, I could set up an community FTP for every on my site, but evryone would need to know how to use FTP..?

3. Do I need to UV map this and how do I do this right?

Right now if I go into the UV map view, the thing looks scary. And I have no idea how to make any sense of it.

someone else will have to jump in there, I'm just as lost as you basically.. that book helps a tad but I never got into it much

4. What about scale? Right now this thing is huge. Where do I scale (assembly room? modeling room?) it and how do I do it correctly for best usability?

Scale isn't that much of an issue everyone can scale it as they need

5. This is a single vertex object with multiple sub-objects and shading domains. Is this the right way to do it or should I be separating all the internal objects into assembly-room objects and grouping them in the assembly room?

I am also using Carrara's smoothing. Is that a good thing to do or a bad practice? The model does look a bit different when smoothing is disabled. For example, the glass does not match the frame when smoothing is changed.

I like to make each part seperate as it makes for easier modifications later if you want to change things. More a personal why of going about things.

I'd like for someone here who is better experienced at modeling to take a look at the model itself and tell me what I can improve about it. Hence the question of how and where to upload it.

OK,  I set up an FTP acct over on my servers. FTP looks scarier than it really is. you will need a small FTP program (my server company recommends Filezilla or CoreFTP for windows and CyberDuck for Macs)   

once you have the program send me a PM and I'll send you location, user and Password info :biggrin: 

Attached Link: Thomllama's Carrara Community Project folder

just follow the link above this image and control or command click on the item to download it

I've uploaded my magnifying glass here:

http://ectrr.com/CCPWIP/Antara/

Please take a look at it and let me know what you think.

Since I personally prefer single objects (rather than groups) with easily selectable domains, I left it as a single object. But I am open to any improvement suggestions.

Quote - I've uploaded my magnifying glass here:

http://ectrr.com/CCPWIP/Antara/

Please take a look at it and let me know what you think.

it's awesome... for a guy who said he couldn't model that is sweet.. probably better than anything I can do  (not that I'm really any great modeller) 

Quote - Since I personally prefer single objects (rather than groups) with easily selectable domains, I left it as a single object. But I am open to any improvement suggestions.

I kinda prefer "building" the object in the Assy Room .. ad here's why... let's say i want to change one or both the bolts/nuts to say a regular 6 point nut. In your set up it's kinda difficult, where if it was a seperate part you just delete it and build a new one. Also when applying things like smoothing as you stated before sometimes things distort out and don't fit right.  If the glass was a seperate piece you can play with hte smoothing and such to your hearts content then fit them together in the Assy Room without issue ..  But that's just a preferance and it's all about what woks for you.

Small correction: I'm not a guy :). Also I've changed the folder name to Antara, which is my proper name (extra N was tacked on to make the username unique).

Thank you! But this is actually just spheres and cylinders with various parts scaled to be smaller and bigger. I have no idea how I'm going to approach the pipe yet. I have to think about that one...

I've separate the object into groupable elements. And I also discovered that doing it after a single object is created together is easier than it would have been if I had to create and assemble the object fromparts from scratch. At least for me. And it is very simple to do with selection by shading domains, so I can be doing it going forward.

I still need help with the mapping, though. So if anyone can offer suggestions, I'd greatly appreciate them.

The new file with groupable elements is uploaded to the same folder.

Umm opps...  sorry...

Antaran,

 Like your model so far. Here are my comments.

Quote - 3. Do I need to UV map this and how do I do this right?

Right now if I go into the UV map view, the thing looks scary. And I have no idea how to make any sense of it.

 You don't have to UV Map it as it looks okay now, maybe add another "Basic Layer" on top of the handle in the Texture Room with an opacity of 50% or something . Layered shaders can add depth to your textures.

  Here is a quick way to UV Map something in the VM room with multiple meshes.

1.Shift + Select one "Edge" from each of you separate polymeshes in the vm room.

2.Dynamically extrude these edges , doesn't matter how much.

3.Ctrl+shift+w  and weld all the selected points together. You should be left with a single vertex.

4.Delete this Vertex.

 What we did here is connect all of our polymeshes into 1 polymesh but they are still separate polymeshes for selection purposes.

5.Now double click the entire polymesh ,click the UV icon in the VM room and choose Operations/Box/6 sided mapping.

Your whole object should be mapped although you could scale the UV's if you want.

 

1. What about scale? Right now this thing is huge. Where do I scale (assembly room? modeling room?) it and how do I do it correctly for best usability?

 It is probably best to scale it in the Modeller but I generally scale things in the assembly room as it is quicker. If you like to have your models scale consistent with other models in the scene then use the correct scale in the modeler. 

1. This is a single vertex object with multiple sub-objects and shading domains. Is this the right way to do it or should I be separating all the internal objects into assembly-room objects and grouping them in the assembly room?

This is how I model most things in the Vertex Modeller.

I am also using Carrara's smoothing. Is that a good thing to do or a bad practice? The model does look a bit different when smoothing is disabled. For example, the glass does not match the frame when smoothing is changed.

You can smooth both the Glass and the frame which sometimes makes things fit together better.

I'd like for someone here who is better experienced at modeling to take a look at the model itself and tell me what I can improve about it. Hence the question of how and where to upload it.

Attached Link: Stamped Fire box

the model is at the link above.. (you may have to select "download" by holding the Command or control key when clicking on the link here to actually download it.

Quote - Antaran,  Like your model so far. Here are my comments.

Thank you! All your comments are extremely helpful. Most are straight forward, but the shading/UV-related stuff I still have some questions about:

Quote - You don't have to UV Map it as it looks okay now, maybe add another "Basic Layer" on top of the handle in the Texture Room with an opacity of 50% or something . Layered shaders can add depth to your textures.

Could you tell me more about the layered shaders, please? Right now I am confused. Are you talking about a multi-channel mixer shader where one of the multi-channels is replaced with a basic layer (for color?) Or am I totally misunderstanding the concept?

Quote -   Here is a quick way to UV Map something in the VM room with multiple meshes.1.Shift + Select one "Edge" from each of you separate polymeshes in the vm room.

2.Dynamically extrude these edges , doesn't matter how much.

3.Ctrl+shift+w  and weld all the selected points together. You should be left with a single vertex.

4.Delete this Vertex.

 What we did here is connect all of our polymeshes into 1 polymesh but they are still separate polymeshes for selection purposes.

5.Now double click the entire polymesh ,click the UV icon in the VM room and choose Operations/Box/6 sided mapping.

Your whole object should be mapped although you could scale the UV's if you want.

  This is a very neat method of uniting the mesh parts for UV mapping. I'll definitely adopt it. It din't work very well for this particular model though. I UV-mapped the 3 main parts which might require complex shading. (It's the UV1 version on the server)

I wouldn't be able to tell people how I did it though... I just kept messing with it until my UV shader starrted to look somewhat right. Still not perfect.

  Here is a screen shot of a Layer list shader. I started out with a Multichannel shader , then for step 1. I clicked the "+" at the bottom of the shader tree then chose Basic layer and edit this layer the way I want then change the opacity of this layer so the bottom layer shows through.  See the screencapture.  Hope this helps.

Here is the link to get the .car file.

http://www.mediafire.com/?nxlv7wsxhppua0x

Quote - Antaran,   Here is a screen shot of a Layer list shader. I started out with a Multichannel shader , then for step 1. I clicked the "+" at the bottom of the shader tree then chose Basic layer and edit this layer the way I want then change the opacity of this layer so the bottom layer shows through.  See the screencapture.  Hope this helps.

Thank you so much! I've never used this feature before and I've been missing out. It adds so many new possibilities and easy alteration options. It's one of those great things which, once you discover them, make you wonder how you've lived all this time without them.

I used to struggle with realistic looking polished wood, and turns out all I had to do was add this feature and use a glass shader at 50% opacity over any regular wood shader. Add brown color to the glass and you instantly get a realistic veneer finish. So beautifully simple. And you can swap out different wood shaders without needing to change all the relevant properties to get the necessary finish!

Seriously, I can't thank you enough for showing this to me. I think it's so far the strongest contestant for  my "Best Carrara Discovery of the Year" for 2011.

And I like your violin. There are some interesting polygons. I wonder how they came about. Also I'd be very curious to know how would something like this get full UV mapping?

Nice.. sorry I didn't see this way back.. I hope something like this pops up again.

Quote - Nice.. sorry I didn't see this way back.. I hope something like this pops up again.

Join in.  Still a LOT of stufftoo be modeled.  Just choose something and post up what ya want to do then go model it. :)

Just saw the thread and would like to jump in. Looking at the reference image I guess I'll try a clock for the mantelpiece. 

Is this thread still alive? I'm new here, mostly been on DAZ forum. I'd like to join in. Camillo

Yup. Though everyone seems busy ( including myself). But still going.  Choose an item and have some fun

Great, 

I'll make a chair and table.

Camillo

Cool I will be choosing something soon.. Life keeps rearing its ugly head

Here's My Chair and Table.  I added a book just because I could.

Spent a better part of the day.  Should be working, but well....

Where and How are we up loading, and will it be Carrara format?

Camillo

Really nice to see what's being produced here!

Quote - Really nice to see what's being produced here!

yaa.. there is.. why don't you jump in Mark  :thumbupboth:

Hey, Sir Camillo,  get my message on uploading?  I'll set you up on my server or maybe we can get Mark to set soething up here?  ;)

Yes, I need to actually do some 3D work for fun for a change - just doing it for work isn't quite the same. Let me  see what I can contribute. 

There is a way for me to put content in the 'back room' for download but there isn't an upload system to do it independently. I'd have to receive the files from you and then put them on the server here. Just let me know if you'd like that to happen. 

Can be downloaded here ---  Fireplace in Cherrywood

Mark,

I think it would be cool to setup an area of the back room but we could also just upload models to free stuff.

I thought we were talking about that earlier.

Yea, let me check that out. 'Rosity has a procedure to follow for Free stuff, so I'll see if they would mind us simply putting some things in the Back Room without going through the "proper" steps.