-Scott

I then create a selection in Photoshop based on that alpha, and copy and paste. This leaves me with the hightlight on a separate layer. Then I futz with the levels, blending mode, and outer glow layer effects untill I'm satisfied.

I'd like to know what other people's methods are for capturing this effect. -- Especially for animations.

Thanks,
Scott

With RAM starved machines running OS9, you can reclaim much of what the system takes by keeping a lean system folder. It takes a little practice, but you can eliminate much of the stuff that Apple gives you.

For example, my OS 9 was taking about 50 megs. After carefull optimization I got it down to 27 megs. This is minor if you have plenty of RAM, but if you only have 128, it can make a big difference. -pix

Be careful saving files after getting "unknown error has occurred" I usually "save as" if i get the option, just to make sure the error doesn't get written into my file. I'd rather lose the last hour, than all week.

save as frequently, as carrara tends to still do strange things from time to time. at the end of a project, i usually have 15 or so copies of the file. you can never be too safe.

-pix

P.S.

I'll bet that the square artifacts are the exact same size as the render blocks that parade accross the image (you see them when using SMP).

If you only have one proc, then it's the same size, but no colored block.

-pix

YES!!!!!!!
i've never complained about this happening before, but I'm so glad to see someone post it.

i've had this happen (when not using terrains) in the hyb-ray when rendering large images in the background.

basically, i hit render and then switched apps using apple-tab, did some work for a while, popped back into C to check the progress, and it looked like there were giant areas of jpg compression.

granted this was before the 2.1 patch, and I haven't tried replicating it. I just render finals at night now, and sleep while the computer works.

-pix

to learn carrara well, simply read the manual. it is by far the easiest read i've ever experienced. just be obsessive compulsive about it for a month and a half and you'll be an expert in no time.

I think that for a small company making 3D software at the $400 price range, Eovia has done well with Carrara. Version 2 is night and day better than 1, and I have to say that the interface (unstandard, though it is) is fantastic.

Sure it would be nice to have one program that had all the powerful features of amapi and carrara, but then you're talking about something that has a $700 - $900 price range. At that point, you might consider looking at LightWave, which has way more features (but is really hard to learn.)

I think one of Carrara's stregnths is that it sells at the right price. It is a great program to enter 3D with. And don't forget as far as sales of multiple products goes, that Eovia bundles older versions of Amapi with Carrara. So you think I'm gonna shell out the money for the newest version? Never.

Making seamless textures maps is purely a technical thing. Making good shaders by combining different images and procedural settings requires an artistic eye.

Technical: Just make sure that the T-Maps you use are large enough for your final output size. Do some tests.

Artistic: Don't make the shader from a single texture. Make a different image for the dirt splatters and put that in the highlight channel. Make a map for the reflections. You know what I mean? Real surfaces are made up of many substances, each having different optical properties. Shaders look best when data is different in all the channels so as to simulate the different amounts of highlight, bump, reflection and so on. Study surfaces in the real world. Try to figure out what the properties are that make one surface look different from another.

If you want a decent reference, check out this book: Digital Texturing & Painting.

It's pretty decent, particularly if you're new to making 3D shaders.

If you need more specific info, shoot me an e-mail, I'd be happy to gab your ear off about this sort of stuff. -pix

i don't have any experience with tunnel fly-through's, but the fact that the un-rendered area is perfectly vertical. not even slightly diagonal looks unlike geometry to me. if you render out an image sequence of this, find a bogus frame, then go back to your sequencer in carrara, set the time to frames, you should be able to get to the exact frame that you're looking for. then try to test render just that frame to see what happens, and or look for objects in the way. might also be usefull to figure out where in the tunnel this occurs and render the animation from a camera outside the tunnel to see if anything comes flying through the tunnel wall. good luck.

you might want to try more troubleshooting on your own. for instance, try rendering the tutorial with a subset of the features and effects. if it works, add more and see if it crashes. if it doesn't work, simplify more and see what happens. through trial and error, you should be able to find out if the problem is your configuration of the scene. also, try taking your scene to a friend's machine to see if the problem is your box. as far as carrara 2 goes, it seems to be much more stable than 1. there were some great useability enhancements in the realm of selecting, moving and rotating objects that make the software far more enjoyable. i found carrara 1 to be barely tolerable, 2 is much nicer.

hmmmm. now i have no clue what you're trying to do. at first it sounded like you were trying to get your background to reflect elements in your 3D scene. Now it sounds like you are preparing an animated background for compositing. at anyrate, you're right that these things take lots of time. Rendering multiple times for different passes is normal procedure. Just remember that you can optomize the rendering process by turning off channels that you don't need. Rendering out an alpha channel of a reflective object should take only a fraction of the time it takes to actually ray trace the scene. In fact, you don't even have to have reflections on in the renderer to do it. Make the reflective object whitw with 100% glow, and all other objects black with no glow. Make sure there are no other shader values. Then turn off or kill all your light sources. Ambient too. You should be able to render this in the Z-buffer mode - just make sure you have use actual lighting checked in the options. - and you'll get a white mask of your reflective object on the black background. And it will render just about at real time. It's worth a try. -pix

Let me get this straight first... Video file used as T-map on object. Area of video that you want to be reflective. Reflection should be of objects in the scene. If this is the case, than I would try to make an alpha channel of the reflective surface in the movie file. (You know black and white and shades of gray, Black=On, White=Off -- Or otherway around) Anyway, save this as a movie file. Use it in the reflectiveness map in the appropriate setting in the texture panel. You may have to fade in the reflection map and then fade it out so that it relfects only at the desired time. Now, making the alpha can be tricky, especially if your clip is long. If you are have after effects, I'd use that. But you could probably accomplish it in flash if you wanted. Or frame by frame in photoshop. ; ) At anyrate, that's how I would attempt solving the problem. Good luck. -pix

I know I sound a little harsh, but hear me out. Lumierre (sp?) in Beauty and the Beast worked well because he had a more dynamic structure than your candle.

Your guy is basically a straight candle with really skinny straight arms.

Lumierre was a candle stuck into a candlestick holder. So there was visually more mass at his base, and his lower lip was created by the lip of the opening the candle (his head) was jammed into.

Then there was differing thickness on the candlestick holder. This all makes for a more dynamic character.

You have some good movement in the "body" when he does his chopping motion, but just the overall shape of him seems like a stick figure. I kind of wish he was more exciting looking. I know you don't want to copy Lumierre's design, and I'm not sure how to improve your character without doing so. I think that after Beauty and the Beast, anthropomorphic candles may be type cast.

I really hate to say this at the end of my rambling critique, but I would just find a different object to use. One that was a more dynamic looking character. I'm sorry for such dismal suggestions.

-pix

Well, I'm not sure I understand exactly what the "texture correction" entails, but I've done a few GI renders and haven't had any problems. Sometimes textures or lighting setups need to be tweaked here and there, but nothing has been noticably wrong.

Also, unless this is part of an animation, or there are other elements / lighting effects that you intend to show in your image, you really don't need to be using GI. I don't see anything in your image that couldn't be achieved by putting a spot beneath the scene set to not cast shadows, a couple spots outside the scene also w/ shadows off, and then adding a few bulb lights as needed around the space.

In fact, the underside of the microscope where the lenses protrude from is so dark, that it almost looks as if you're not using GI at all. So why take the hit in render time if you're not going to reap the benefits visually?

Just a thought. I don't mean to bust on you choice of execution or anything. There may be an element I'm not aware of that led you to this decision. OK, stepping off soap box now. : )

I still love the detail on the lenses.

-pix