I'd say depends on how detailed and closeup you need it. There is definitely a way to do this procedurally, but if you need a very good realistic closeups you might want to mix a procedural tree with better sculpted branches grouped together. For the procedural part: You can add fruit as leaves variations or use a replicator on one of the branch levels as the shader-driven replication.

Is the goal to avoid using post?

Then I would probably recommend adding dynamic hair - starting from scratch or modifying existing styles either sold or the ones which come packaged with Carrara itself. I am not sold on the way trans-mappped hair looks in extreme closeups. Some styles (e.g. this one: https://www.renderosity.com/mod/bcs/lua-updo/98898/ ) can serve as base and good background/shaping prop for adding dynamic hairs to the hair model object. This way you can get away with adding very few dynamic hairs and being able to significantly up the segment count and rendering options without killing your resources.

But in most cases I'd just fix things in post...

Thank you!

It's not my main function at work. We just needed some custom parts for special equipment and since I knew 3D modelling already it was easy for me to provide those skills. Which was how I ended up working on this project. In my field many ready-made parts are both very expensive and not customizable enough. So 3D printing is a natural solution. A lot of it is still prohibitively expensive for most everyday applications.

Even with the expensive modern equipment we've got at work, getting it to actually work properly is not an easy task. the engineers I work with have many issues with those printers and there are many times when the printers are out of order and have to be serviced by outside specialists (which, again, is very expensive - and these are high end machines which are not cheap to begin with).

But if eventually those issues will become less common and the printers themselves more common, then your idea might become viable. In my field we need to work with very high-fidelity and extremely high-durability materials, so that also impacts the price a lot (both due to the price of the material and the price of the machinery capable of working with those materials). For simple trinkets that would be less of an issue, but then the value of the end product would also be diminished by the quality of the materials.

I host mine at ShareCG, but when I need something I look at both places (there and here at Renderosity).

I create 3D models for 3D printing at work, but not in Carrara, unfortunately.

Thank you so much for the your videos and tips! So amazingly useful!

See, I am greedy, I like that I have all of them in one program! I like the multi-pass layering (it simplifies postwork so much!) The only thing I am missing is the ability to use IRAY (or comparable renderer with it), but that's only because I haven't yet bought Octane, I guess. There are some features that could benefit from improvement, but I like most of the ones already there a lot!

Thank you! That really helped me finally get an idea of what it would take to make the figures work in Carrara!

MistyLaraPrincess posted at 12:07AM Sat, 25 March 2017 - #4300336

we should start a list of fails and successes in clothes and hair ...

Please do! That's a brilliant idea. Having that list (and also tips and tricks for conversion, as I suspect some items are easier to use than others) would really help with buying choices! And congratulations on the product going live!

oh! This is wonderful news! I can't wait! Do the clothes work on the figures too, or does each item need a separate conversion?

I am glad for you and sad for us. You have supported this community in more ways than you know. In my personal case, most definitely. Best of luck with whatever you do, and I do very much hope to keep seeing your posts here, even if you don't keep moderating.

I was under the impression that you do not need to use planes, you should be able to replicate items directly on the terrain. If that does not work, you could convert the terrain to a vertex model once you are happy with it and repicate your grass onto that.

I usually use several modelled grass objects inside a single surface replicator - that creates realistic diversity. I have also used modifiers on those objects (like punching or bending modifiers) to create wind effects. (if you do not randomize the orientation of your replicated objects, or randomize it very slightly without radical rotations, they will all bend in the same direction - like realistically windswept grass). If you want to take a look at my gallery, I have used this method in "You've Got Mail", "Personal Space", "It ain't easy being green." and "Odin of OZ" images.

Yes, very good Carrara work!