Hi Archlite, I use the spline modeler for super exact control of shapes. When creating the objects above, I draw the Cross Section paths in Illustrator. I then also draw the Sweep Path. So for each 3-d shape, I import 2 Illustrator files. I can get precise mathmatical control over paths in a way that I can't with Carrara's drawing tools. If you go to the Free Stuff section and dowload the Wheel/torus file you can see that I 'freehand' drew the Rim and Tire portions of the file but the tread had to be perfect or you would notice it in the image. That was a job for Illustrator. Then I could import the path. Mark

Hi HG, In the Scene Settings, set Background to White and set Backdrop to Black. Place your lights outside the tube with their Shadows set to none to avoid 'hotspots'. Mark

Sweeeeeet!

Hi James, The problem is that Carrara, Soft Shadows and Transparency don't get along. If you disable the Soft Shadows (use Raytraced), the color of the object will color the shadow too. Here's a work-around for your situation though. It's not perfect for all circumstances but works great here: Leave your scene as it is. Change the light to Raytraced shadows. Select the ground plane and go to the Effects portion of the object tray. Enable blur and adjust to your liking. (On my system, if I adjust the blur and close the window before the tiny rendering in the blur window completly draws I crash. However, if it draws there are no problems.) Hope that this helps! Mark

Hi Nem, I try to keep everything in the spline modeler because the files are smaller. You can get things perfectly smooth in the spline modeler and it's well worth it spending time to learn how. However, if you convert to vertex, before you subdivide, try using the Smooth Polygon command first. If those results are acceptable then you don't need the subdivide command which results in a larger file. Mark

Thank you, thank you, thank you... Mark

I don't have a step-by-step type of thing with this. I've actually learned more by examining existing files, but that's me. (everybody learns like me right? :) ) I figured with the whole Carrara scene there, you can check out lighting, shaders, environmental options etc. If anybody needs a step-by-step let me know and I'll create one. My personal feeling is that you're probably better off simply selecting objects within the file and examining all of their parameters rather than relying me to actually be clear in a written tutorial ;) Mark

Fun image HG. The place that I spend a lot of time is in lighting. I'd suggest reducing the ambiant light and placing a few more spots around the scene to fill in the dark areas. The only time an image is ever done for me is when I'm out of time to work on it :) Speaking of time, my image is still only half done; Waaaaaa! It won't be timely but I'll post it when there is more in the computer than on the sketchbook. Mark

Real nice! Mark

The workaround that I've been using is created with shaders. With 'no light interactions when transparent' activated in the shader window I just time line a shader change to full transparency to make the object disappear. Just before the object disappears I create a keyframe at 0% trans and then another key frame at 100% within one frame duration on the time line. Then I duplicate the keyframes, slide them down the time line and reverse their order for the re-appearance. Not ideal but it works. Mark

Hi Chris, Sorry that it took me so long to get back to you. I'm having the same prob. I know that your original post about this indicated that you were trying to make some bricks for a well. I'd create the bricks in the spline modeler positioned in a circle already and extrude them. Hoborg, you say you can create the circle replication with no problem? Could you post a screen capture of the your settings? (Sorry, I'm one of those 'show me a picture' types) Mark

It takes more brain damage than I have to write code! :) (No offense Antoine, Eric, Brian....)

The save preview is for use with the Objects Tray; If you save the file to use a resource from the Objects Tray this feature creates a little picture of the objects in the scene the way the Shader Tray creates a little sphere of the shader. Mark

Nice improvment. Gonna play with bump maps on the concrete? :) Mark

Thanks for the comments mclarsen. Yea, they're a little too bright. It's one of the those, "Hey, I think I'll post this image before I fall face first on the keyboard from exhaustion!" images. :) Daf, Good questions: 1. Rectangular layer: Yea, I usually create parametric maps so I can control brick/pattern quality on various faces more easily. Ever had some weird/unbelivable pattern wraps to your shapes? Me too. This way I can prevent them. 2. The Brick28 TMap is for color. The Brick25highlity (the 'Y' is on there because I can't type to save my life) is a grayscale image. Why? It's applied to the Shininess and Highligt channels to give the renderer information on how much light to 'reflect' and where to reflect it. In the Highlight, pure white reflects all the light. Gray (grey if your english) 'absorbs' half the light and black absorbs all of it. In the Shininess channel pure white is more 'glossy' looking; perfect for the painted portion of the bricks. The gray is sort of reflective and the black will look completely 'flat'. In real life, the mortar would reflect more than I'm allowing it to. However, I want it to go deep into the pattern and, combined with the bump channel, look like it recedes into the object. Two indentical bump maps multiplied; why? Well, as you've already noticed, deep bumps are a little hard to acheive; even when you crank up the master bump to 250 (I forgot how far up you can go in RayDream) And besides, I don't want to crank up the master bump too far because it will overemphasize the Noise procedural that I ended up adding to the left bump map channel for that 'pebbily' look. White comes out farthest and blace goes back farthest. That's why this is a black and white image. If I used a grayscale image instead of the black and white (or color), the bump wouldn't be as deep. When you multiply two images together the renderer 'sees' that as a deeper bump and casts better shadows without mucking around with the master bump control. 3. Brick28. Hmmmm. I don't think that I changes the resolution/size on mine. Your final image should determine the resolution, though. If you're final is going to be a screen resolution only and the camera isn't real close to the surface that has the texture, then lower res. is fine. If your final output is going to be a printed piece or your render camera is close to the object with the Tmap, then it will have to be a higher resolution to avoid pixelation. Size doesn't affect tiling. If it's a good map (left and right sides, top and bottom match) then tiling is invisible (no seams) with the exception of being able to distinguish a patterns. In the image above you'll notice that the lighting masks the pattern by hiding part of the wall and drawing your attention away from the wall. Mark