hi, i've done some really accurate hot point movements both visually at sick zoom levels and also mathematically by using the properties tray. basically use the fields at the bottom that tell you what the dimensions in each axis are. then divide by two to find the distance from the center to any given edge. then you know how far to position your hotpoint in either direction to put it smack dab on the edge. also, carrara doesn't display to 3rd decimals or higher, but it will respond to them. so if i enter 2.0625 it will chop off at 2.06. but it will actually place the hotpoint those extra .0025". hopefully this helps. -scott

hmmmm, thats interesting. i work on a mac and i've noticed a problem with the spherical shader as well. but in my case it just won't work period. i can't get it to work no matter what i try. as soon as i pick spherical as the method in the shader tree, the program crashes. i guess i'll have to stay away from space scenes.

it's a dark texture, but i lit the heck out of it.

thanks terri, i don't really know what i was after either. i was really trying to get it done in ten minutes, and after that passed just as quickly as possible. so i cut a lot of corners. but i agree, it really does look like a clay monster. perhaps if he had more detail in the modeling or if the texture was finer (like on the arms and head which i scaled down ... they don't look as clay-like) well whatever. thanks for the compliment though. -scott

top left: Gouraud Preview (tree firmly planted in hill)
top right: Tree takes flight when test rendered
bottom: Final render using vertexed terrain. (tree planted again)

-scott

nyar1ath0tep, i'm sorry, i forgot to thank you for the comments about my carrara work. i'm glad you liked them. thanks. -scott

this means that in photoshop, there is less scrolling on the image when zoomed in. also the image appears larger when zoomed out to see the entire thing. plus all of my tool palettes are visible. no tabbing between them.

in carrara, this means that i can display the properties window, and the sequencer at the same time and still have a big window to look at my scene. only the browser (green arrow) is tabbed down. i also rearranged my tools to better suit my work flow.

it is remarkably spoiling.

-scott

Attached Link: http://www.geocities.com/scottspringer78/info/information.html

velarde, about the G4... my girlfriend has one, but i'm reluctant to load C onto it because i might never be able to work on my 266 Mhz G3 again. actually, i'm going to use her computer when i render my animation that i'm working on. i'm hoping that it is far faster. i'll let you know. about your rendering speed... i've noticed in my work that procedural textures that get too complicated slow down my render time even more than a hi-res texture map. i tend to use procedurals mainly for things like terrain - because they don't repeat, or gnarled trees - since the procedural textures are 3-D and go through strange objects instead of stretching. you might want to play with making procedurals into t-maps by rendering them on a flat surface and using the rendering as a t-map. all suggestions of course. i hope they help. by the way, that book is really good. better to get it now before you get too involved in animating. you will probably learn tons. -scott

hi velarde,

like max suggested, running carrara with only the extensions you absolutely need is a good way to get more speed out of your computer.

my question for you is, does the slow down you speak of pertain to the rendering time, or the fluidness of the interactive render? (the Gouraud live preview)

if the slow down is in the interactive render, then my guess is that it is the number of objects (polygons) in proportion to your ram and processor speed.

however, if the slow down is in just the render, there are many things you can do.

i would recommend buying "digital lighting and rendering" by jeremy birn.

it has many tips for speeding up renderings, as well as just achieving a better image. you won't regret the buy.

-scott

any time, max.

hi Max, i run carrara on a beige G3 (266Mhz, 384MB ram) it's not blazin' fast, but it gets the job done. as far as optomizing the computer for carrara... buy as much ram as you can afford. a 256MB chip for your powerbook should only cost about $75. it's well worth it. then set virtual memory to be 1MB above the actual amount of physical ram you have. this is the spec that apple recommends, but you might want to experiment with what yields the fastest speed on your particular machine. next turn off all the fluffy graphics stuff in carrara's preferences. things like UI animtions, window shadows, show logo, desktop pattern and gradient, and dim desktop for dialog. all these things take ram, and only add eye candy to the interface. if you really want to speed things up, make a set of extensions in your "Extensions Manager" control panel that only turns on the minimum number of extensions necessary to use carrara and say, photoshop. by doing this, when you restart, you only load a portion of the system into memory, freeing up that precious physical ram for carrara. i would drop some dough for a cheap video card and a second monitor (even if it is small) for your desktop when you upgrade. it makes a big difference to put the sequencer on another monitor, freeing up enough room to see your work window and the properties window open at the same time. -scott

thank you litst and tkane18 for the explaination. by, the way litst, i stumbled onto your site a couple weeks ago. your work is very nice.

what are the physics models you speak of? (forgive me. i just began using carrara two months ago beginning with version 1.1)