MarkBremmer opened this issue on Mar 15, 2015 · 60 posts
MarkBremmer posted Sun, 15 March 2015 at 3:24 PM
Dudu.car won the inaugural Glory/I didn't know Carrara could do that - challenge. Congrats.
As such, the winner has the distinct privilege of choosing the next theme which is:
OCEANS AND SEAS (sounds like a deep subject)
So, the interpretation is totally up to you, underwater, on water, overwater.
The challenge ends next Saturday, March, 21. The winner will be picked by Kix and myself and gets the GLORY of naming the next challenge.
Godspeed, may the wind be at your back.
••• WINNERS •••
0oseven has the best ocean and wins this:
Steve K. has a roiling sea and wins:
MDO2010 killed it with:
headwax makes me feel like I have to go to a confessional or an art history class:
But, the grand winner is Tim_A for generation of original content for the challenge and having fun while trying new things:
Tim_A, please post back in this thread with the subject of the next challenge!
MarkBremmer posted Mon, 16 March 2015 at 12:34 PM
I have no idea about what I'll do with this subject - oceans/sea.
Just working out a water texture on a plane primitive. The texture is nothing but cellular shaders with a little color thrown in. The environment is the Carrara's Realistic Sky doubled up with a spherical .jpg background.
Life would be so much more rewarding if I had more coffee breaks. :D
DUDU.car posted Mon, 16 March 2015 at 1:23 PM
Here a test of the plugin “Foot Print” of Sparrowhawkes.
A cylinder passing in lower part of a vertex plane and a personal texture for the sea.
Tsunami ?
MarkBremmer posted Mon, 16 March 2015 at 1:29 PM
@ DUDU.car – Ha! I'm thinking Moses when I see the current image.
DUDU.car posted Mon, 16 March 2015 at 1:33 PM
What is "Moses" ?
DUDU.car posted Mon, 16 March 2015 at 1:39 PM
OK, it's Moïse in french...
Why not ?
MarkBremmer posted Mon, 16 March 2015 at 4:57 PM
Coffee Break time.
Extending the water with the Replicator in Seamless mode. (Fractals that I used with the Cellular shaders don't show tiling)
And Changing the time of day:
Steve K. posted Mon, 16 March 2015 at 8:16 PM Online Now!
"Heading Out: Force 8"
MarkBremmer posted Mon, 16 March 2015 at 9:35 PM
@Steve K, Nice!
MarkBremmer posted Mon, 16 March 2015 at 9:57 PM
Ok, a little time to play after work - finally.
Here is the render straight from Carrara:
And, here is the render plus a little post work. While all of this can be done in Carrara, for me, it just makes more sense to leave some of the variables for post-production. (That's the business-side of my 3D head screaming, "Time is money!")
You can download the file here > "Oil Rig and Ocean" (I've substituted the models in this image with some that I can distribute - the background .jpg is also out because it ballooned the file to 197M - hey, it was 20,000x10,000px, ok?) Edit 2015-13-17: Also, I just realized that I used Digital Carver's Guild Shader Ops which has an Invert function that I used on the Cellular items in the shader. If you don't have that the sea should still look ok but it will be different.
MarkBremmer posted Tue, 17 March 2015 at 10:04 AM
Ok, first coffee break of the day. Working on a mash-up of the Carrara stock landscapes, Dream islands and Rock. I'm using the the same ocean (you can download it above) as before but am now telling a completely different narrative.
I've never used the Millennium Dragon for anything until now. Had to change the textures though – too comic-booky.
DUDU.car posted Tue, 17 March 2015 at 11:49 AM
He, nice work Steve & Mark !
The scene with the dragon seems interresting too, take more coffee, Mark !
MarkBremmer posted Tue, 17 March 2015 at 1:37 PM
Finished during my lunch break. For the surf, I used Digital Carver's Guild excellent (Shader Ops) Terrain Tools which includes a Surf and Intersect feature. You can make materials automatically conform to coastal lines and add the noise of your choice to create the variation.
I'd mentioned using the ocean I used was from the image above this one with the oil rig. (download the image and play) However, I really increased the both the transparency and absorption distance.
For this top-down shot, I used an HDRI map in the background that had a bunch of white towards the top so the water would reflect better.
DUDU.car posted Tue, 17 March 2015 at 1:55 PM
Very nice work with a lot of details and great textures !
But, poor little dragon...
Steve K. posted Tue, 17 March 2015 at 3:26 PM Online Now!
@Steve K, Nice!
Thanks, Mark. And thanks to PhilW for "Realistic Seas for Carrara", 3Djoji for the "Katherina Boat", drawbridgep for the "Lighthouse" (exported from Bryce), and Marlin Studios for "Rustic Exterior Surfaces" used to texture the lighthouse in Carrara.
MarkBremmer posted Tue, 17 March 2015 at 6:32 PM
OK, this subject has allowed me to avoid doing mundane chores at work like, working.
I've hobbled together a scene ON the water with oil rig. I've done an ABOVE the water with the dragon. Now it's time to go UNDER the water.
I took the stock Rock landscape that was in my dragon scene and submerged it. I'm using the same water texture with a replicator in Auto mode. I've reduced the 'Y' dimension of the plane primitive by half so I can create something more like sinusoidal waves - you know, up and down and up and down. Just getting this in place now. I think I'll have time to finish this up later tonight but for now, time to leave the office.
MarkBremmer posted Tue, 17 March 2015 at 9:24 PM
And, here's the final result. I had to really bump up the HDRI background to get the waves to show well. In fact I punched it further in Photoshop.
I created a download file of this scene but swapped out the assets for legal reasons. So, the render of the water looks better in my opinion in the uploaded one. (reminder that the water texture uses Digital Carver's Guild Shader Ops Invert function - if you don't have it the waves will look different but probably ok)
So, this is a scene where I use the Realistic Sky settings in a completely different way in order to get the deep water effect – that fading into the distance thing. I've got some junk floating in the water. This is done in Photoshop. However, for an animation, I'd totally do this with a particle generator.
You can get the Carrara file here: Underwater Scene
And if you want to see the stuff I do in a Photoshop file, here you go: Underwater Photoshop
MarkBremmer posted Wed, 18 March 2015 at 12:05 PM
Another little Carrara Ocean doodle...
Steve K. posted Wed, 18 March 2015 at 12:17 PM Online Now!
Mark - Looks very good, very convincing. I've always thought that animated underwater scenes could give me a leg up in the 48 Hour film contest, vs. all the other teams who are live action. They might have trouble shooting a sub underwater in the two day contest ... B-}
MarkBremmer posted Wed, 18 March 2015 at 12:28 PM
@Steve K. – that's awesome. You can always zoom into a still image and add some light variations and particles in AE too. Video/film is all about trickery I'm sure you know!
BTW, don't ask me how I know this, but Carrara has been used in a number of bumpers for the NFL Super Bowl event.
DUDU.car posted Wed, 18 March 2015 at 4:31 PM
Very original, this cube !
A more technical question: why this kind of shadow on the ground plane ?
MarkBremmer posted Wed, 18 March 2015 at 4:57 PM
The shadow is a result of the translucency and transparency of the shaders - combined with their absorption. I didn't engage caustics. The spot light has a high resolution soft shadow. Is that what you were meaning?
DUDU.car posted Wed, 18 March 2015 at 5:08 PM
May be.
I think it's a general issue in Carrara, as in this exemple, the cube seams empty and then, the shadows are very "clear" after passing trough the water.
MarkBremmer posted Wed, 18 March 2015 at 5:22 PM
I see what you mean. Yes, this is one of Carrara's quirks. There is no ability to selectively turn off shadow catching on a per-object basis. It would need to be an adjustment on the density/strength of the shadow which is controlled by the light – and that is a balancing act with the other objects in the scene.
In this case, a work-around in the composition would be warranted such as adding a sea floor (since shadow would be obscured by the absorption) or a container to hold the cube. Alternatively, a two render process could be done, hiding the boat and shark in one instance, and then combine/composite the renders in Photoshop.
There are some other 3D packages I use that let you 'tag' behaviors to individually turn them off. But, the price of those software packages is slightly higher then Carrara. ;-)
DUDU.car posted Wed, 18 March 2015 at 5:34 PM
Ah thanks, but we can live with that !
And thank you for the files with the submarine.
Tim_A posted Thu, 19 March 2015 at 9:24 AM
This is just a quick WIP from lunchtime (okay, slightly extended lunch ;)). The bottle is just a vertex cylinder, squeezed in the right places and thickness added. Inside is an ocean primitive, converted to vertex and scaled down. I used boolean operators to fit it into the bottle. The base is just a box model. There is no stopper on the bottle. I think you may see where this is going...
Only default glass/wood/water shaders at the mo.
MarkBremmer posted Thu, 19 March 2015 at 10:34 AM
Looking forward to seeing this progress!
0oseven posted Thu, 19 March 2015 at 4:18 PM
No post work - created and rendered entirely with Carrara.
I have used Brian Orca's "Ocean Plugin" but similar results would be achieved with Carrara's native Ocean.
The mesh is textured using a terraine shader.
The model is the WW1 USS Minnesota from from Chris Schell available for free [ thanks Chris] and is pretty amazing in its detail - takes 2/3 minutes to load !
I think I downloaded from Renderosity but this is his email taken from the file black_knights-templar@hotmail.com
Oh yes I have used an image for the backdrop for this but using the realistic sky can add some really nice effects.
ALL in Carrara !!!
MarkBremmer posted Thu, 19 March 2015 at 4:45 PM
Strong 0oseven. Excellent work.
BTW, did you know that you can use Realistic Skies and a background image at the same time? It's a great way to integrate both and control environmentals – perfect for softening the harsh horizon lines that photo backdrops create.
But, I think you probably knew that.
Mark
0oseven posted Thu, 19 March 2015 at 5:07 PM
No I didn't know that so look forward to trying it . Thanks for the tip
You can see how this ocean "animates " in my video posted on CarraraTor's forum. Just some experiments composited.
Kixum posted Thu, 19 March 2015 at 8:55 PM
Just thought I'd post something.
This is a project I started a long time ago but never finished.
-Kix
MarkBremmer posted Thu, 19 March 2015 at 11:12 PM
Sweet Kix. I love the water depth and the stone. But I love the Buck Roger's-ish rocket even more. :D
DUDU.car posted Fri, 20 March 2015 at 1:04 PM
Not much of time to create something new (I'm drowned in an ocean of work).
However, I getting out two images from my film in progress, to take part.
INSIDE and OUTSIDE.
MarkBremmer posted Fri, 20 March 2015 at 1:40 PM
Fun stuff. And not a life preserver in sight!
And it also proves my decision to never wear a magenta undergarment on a boat at sea.
DUDU.car posted Fri, 20 March 2015 at 1:51 PM
Some of them will reappear… on another planet !
The magenta is not made in AE but it is the color of the rising sun in the fog.
It's a sequence wich must be calibrated at the final assembly.
MarkBremmer posted Fri, 20 March 2015 at 5:12 PM
DUDU.car won the "'Tis for the GLORY #1" last week and is as proud as a politician with a multi-million dollar campaign fund.
You can be that blissful too.
Kix and I don't judge until sometime late Saturday - and maybe even Sunday because our personal lives are out of control.
But you can't win if you don't enter. Be Bold!
Just look at what DUDU won – it's on his entry, check it out:
What can you say but, "Wooooooowza!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
Mythic3D posted Fri, 20 March 2015 at 6:41 PM
Hi all!
I saw Mark's post in the Carrara forum over at DAZ3D and thought I'd swing by and take a look.
Here's a quick classic sunset image. Top image is the raw Carrara render, bottom one is the same with a little bit of post-work. I've got another one cooking but not sure if I'll get it done.
Mythic3D posted Fri, 20 March 2015 at 6:57 PM
DUDU.car - can I ask how you got that water foam effect along the front edge of the water?
0oseven has some water spraying up over the front (prow? aft? stern? these are all boat terms, right? :) ) of his ship as well. Both are very cool effects and I have had an idea for an image I've wanted to do for ages that I could use them in but I have no idea how to do them in Carrara - easy enough to add or enhance in post-work but it would be nice to know.
Thanks,
Mark (a different Mark, obviously ;))
MarkBremmer posted Fri, 20 March 2015 at 7:44 PM
Nice MDO2010. I like the contrast-y one for sure.
headwax. posted Sat, 21 March 2015 at 1:16 AM
the water in this is just 100 percent reflection with a bump map, no fancy stuff like refraction, and 100 percent opaque (from present carrara challenge) painted in the waves near the rock shoreline, looks okay on left but bit trashy on the right
Kixum posted Sat, 21 March 2015 at 2:01 AM
Ok, here's something I posted in my gallery a long time ago.
-Kix
Kixum posted Sat, 21 March 2015 at 2:02 AM
And another (from the sky planets tutorial).
-Kix
Kixum posted Sat, 21 March 2015 at 2:03 AM
And an experiment I did a long time ago to get water with depth.
-Kix
Kixum posted Sat, 21 March 2015 at 2:05 AM
And, another project I just barely started. The image on the left is a painting I saw in a restaurant and I liked it so I thought I'd try to make my own version. Again, I've just barely started this one.
-Kix
DUDU.car posted Sat, 21 March 2015 at 6:17 AM
@ Mark: I am very proud like a politician, but more honest…
Very beautiful price, thank you!
@MDO: For my 3D special effects, I use “Combustion 2008” of Autodesk, it included “Particles Illusion” and works well with Targa seq. in 32 bits.
Basic water is made with animated metaballs.
Beautiful work each one !
DUDU.car posted Sat, 21 March 2015 at 7:01 AM
Mark (a different Mark, obviously ;))
My name is Marc too...
MarkBremmer posted Sat, 21 March 2015 at 12:31 PM
Mark (a different Mark, obviously ;))
My name is Marc too...
So maybe we are all related and simply had unimaginative parents?
Tim_A posted Sat, 21 March 2015 at 2:24 PM
I'm not that happy with the water shader, and the composition still needs more work, but this is as much as I had time for.
DUDU.car posted Sat, 21 March 2015 at 2:28 PM
@ Mark B; I'm a convinced atheist, but I'm convinced that we are all of the same family: the “Carrara' ists” !
DUDU.car posted Sat, 21 March 2015 at 2:30 PM
@ Tim: push the alpha channel of the blobs at 50 % minimum !
Tim_A posted Sun, 22 March 2015 at 3:14 AM
Thanks Dudu. It's probably too late for the deadline, but I let the render run overnight anyway (it still needs more tweaking, but for two lunchtimes and an evening, I'm not too unhappy with it)
DUDU.car posted Sun, 22 March 2015 at 6:11 AM
@ Tim.
I think that it is an excellent composition and the deadline shoudn't prevent you to perfect this splendid image.
Q: why don't the blobs have same texture as water in the bottle ?
And why a so long time to render ?
In any case, your idea to use the Boolean operation to introduce the ocean into the bottle learn me something, thank you !
Tim_A posted Sun, 22 March 2015 at 9:19 AM
@ Tim.
I think that it is an excellent composition and the deadline shoudn't prevent you to perfect this splendid image.
Q: why don't the blobs have same texture as water in the bottle ?
And why a so long time to render ?
In any case, your idea to use the Boolean operation to introduce the ocean into the bottle learn me something, thank you !
They do - it's the same shader as the water inside the bottle. Only difference is the blobs are metaballs and not surrounded by glass. Why so long? Dunno - maybe it's the HDRI background. GI is turned off (I abandoned the GI render cos it was going to take 3 days!) It's the water that makes it grind to a halt.
I had another idea, which was to make the floor in the room a second ocean, but I never got to try that, & heaven only knows how long the render would have been!
MarkBremmer posted Sun, 22 March 2015 at 3:26 PM
Winner explanations are on the first post of this thread! Congratulations.
FAQ
Q: How do you determine awards and winners?
A: We make this crap up as we go along. It's kind of like 3D Calvin-ball. The ultimate goal is to have people work outside of their comfort zone and learn new things. So there.
••• Tim_A, please let me know what the next idea/how-do-you-do-that challenge subject is.
Tim_A posted Sun, 22 March 2015 at 4:00 PM
That's awesome, thank you everso :)
My choice of theme is: "What's under the bed?" Could be monsters, could be magic, could be memories of a bygone age, or a secret lair, or maybe just a load of blankets in boxes, or ... who knows?
starboardtack posted Sun, 22 March 2015 at 4:06 PM
Mark,
Some excellent water concepts. I particularly liked the cube. However, all were interesting and unique. Thanks for some great demos.
Starboardtack
Wonga posted Sun, 22 March 2015 at 7:18 PM
MarkBremmer posted Sun, 22 March 2015 at 7:56 PM
@starboardtack and @wonga, thanks for the props! Maybe you'll join us on #3?
0oseven posted Tue, 21 April 2015 at 5:22 PM
Just noticed I was awarded "Best Ocean"
Thank you for that
MarkBremmer posted Tue, 21 April 2015 at 5:32 PM
@0oseven Spend your points well my friend.