OK, as some of you may have noticed, I have claimed at times to be a wacky robot. This started as a one-time joke on Usenet, in the dog newsgroups, but has developed into an on-line persona of a robot who owns and trains a dog (RoBoTeRrI). No excuse for it really, besides the fact that I am easily amused, and certain people who I like to entertain were entertained by the idea of me being a robot, while at the same time people who I like to irritate found my robot jokes irritating. So, now that I've gotten a bit better at using Carrara, I'm thinking it would be funny to take some pictures of me-as-robot training Harlan. In other words, staging some photos with Harlan running around or whatever, and photoshopping a robot into the pics. The character I have in mind is a three-legged sort of spider thing. I'm thinking that would be pretty easy to model and pose. Anyway, so far I figure that when it comes to texturing the robot, I should avoid reflective textures, since that will be harder to match into scenes. Does that sound right? Also, I need to figure out how to make sure the robot stays consistant looking in size. Lighting will be important too, and lighting is tricky for me anyhow. Any ideas/suggestions/whatever?

Hi Twillis, You have a pretty good imagination and you should carry through with the idea with the robot, it would be amusing. My thoughts for your texture - I would not use reflective texturing exclusively. If you used reflective, have it on the top side of the robot and a matte texture on the lower half. And as for the lighting problem, first get the photo [that you wish to edit]of your dog before deciding on the placement of the light. The shadows in the photograph will tell you where to place the light. Big Congrats on the new home. Mike

This sounds like a cool idea. I would use a texture with a big hilight and zero shininess, kind of gives it that anodized look. I'll post an example tonight. -Kix

Mike -- not sure everyone would agree I have a "good" imagination -- some might say I use it for evil an awful lot of the time. Litst, for example. I'll try and get some snap shot of my dog doing jumps or something. I'd really like to figure out a way to have him doing the heeling exercise, but that's going to take planning. Sits and downs would not be bad, though. And I think I could stage the recall, too. I should probably try and take a bunch of pics, and pick the ones with the easiest lighting scenario. Kix -- yes, please, an example would be very helpful, especially if you don't mind me stealing it. Textures are not my strong suit.

Great idea, Terri ! But Photoshop is not the way to go . Maybe you already know i can't stand Photoshop ... It's almost as evil as cheddar, and i'm not surprised you're into photoshopping too since you're one of those mean robots who want to rule and pervert our beautiful world . But i'm warning you . I won't let you destroy all the french cheeses and kill our friends the worms who live in Camemberts or Roqueforts ! No way !!! Wait, there's a voice in my head : " Litst, stay calm, don't let her know you know . Don't forget she can help you to conquer the world !" Hum, anyway ... All you need to do this is Carrara, a picture and a scanner . Look at this pic, It's a simple metallic sphere in front of a picture in the backdrop . For the reflection there's a blurred version of the same picture in the background of the scene . So you can definitely use a reflective shaders :) . I've also added a plane under the sphere for the shadow . It has "shadow catcher" enabled and it's transparent (it must not appear in the reflections of the sphere) with a very dark color in the Color channel (the color of the shadows) . So you see, no Photoshop needed ;) . If you have CS2, then go for the GI renderer for an outdoor scene, it will make your image much more realistic . That's it for my advices, good luck with this Terri, and keep us updated ! litst

Whoa. Wow. Whoo-hoo. That's looks amazing. I didn't know you could do that with Carrara. I do have C2, but have only been playing with the bones. This really suggests possibilities. Spaceships in the barn, aliens running amock in the pastures... hoo, boy, imagination overload. I'd suggest a 15 minute challenge of spaceships in my (your) backyard, except I can take part until I finish getting my computer station moved.

Excellent suggestion, Litst, but I can't stand idly by while you badmouth Photoshop! I took your image and added some Photoshop "smudge"-ing to the grass under the ball and the ball's cast shadow. Such an effect can add realism by making the 3D elements actually look like they're sitting on and interacting with the background, and it only takes a few minutes. I love Carrara, but Photoshop is an absolute necessity for a commercial artist, in my opinion! scifirex

Uh, I meant can't take part. Litst, would it be OK to share that picture with some email friends? I want to tell them I got a "gazing ball" for my garden, but maybe I should have got a smaller one. (Don't know if you have gazing balls in France; they've been popular around here for the last few years. People put these shiny metal things in their gardens. My mom has several, so this could really freak her out.)

Cross-posted that last one with scifirex. Wow, a subtle difference, but I think it adds something. It feels to me like the ball has more weight, now. I guess because now it sort of sinking into the grass? You guys are both amazing. I can see I have a lot of studying (read: stealing of techniques) to do.

Hi Scifirex, Photoshop is way too expensive ! >:O Gimp is free, and see what it does ... Also, when i try to do something in Photoshop, i always get stuck on its interface that requires to always follow an exact procedure . Don't get me wrong, i know there's power in it . But not enough for the money . Well, i'm using an old version, so maybe the software's better now, but i really doubt it . I think Photoshop only had a reason to be in its beginnings, when people from the traditionnal print industry had to get their feet wet with computers . Photoshop surely made the step more easy with it's object-oriented interface (i wasn't there at the time, so correct me if i'm wrong). Now, it's time to take the advantage of the computer and invent some 2D softwares that are more intuitive and productive ! I've seen Z-Brush and i know i'm right ;) PS : i've also seen your images, they're absolutely great ! :) litst

Another cross-post ;) If we know gazing balls in France ? Of course we do, we invented gazing balls ! Then, we've sent them to you americans because really they're too ugly . (now if someone could tell me what a gazing ball is ...) Of course you can take the pic, Terri :)

Litst, I can't comment much about the cost of Photoshop, because I work for an ad agency that buys all the software I use, nor can I comment about "Gimp" because I've never heard of it (I'll have to check it out). I currently use Photoshop 6, and the sheer range of control it gives over image manipulation is not only impressive to me, but has saved many of my assignments by allowing me to do things that would be enormously time consuming/expensive to create any other way I know of. Photoshop is a workhorse in the world of advertising, and it's an industry standard that is understood by the clients I work with. No other image manipulation program can claim that, no matter how intuitive it is to use. By the way, not all Americans own gazing balls, just as I'm sure that not all French are rifle-droppers! scifirex

I use Photoshop too, you know, because it has a lot of power that only a few other softwares have (i've heard of the Corel Suite for the Mac) . It's just that even if i know the software pretty well, i keep banging against its interface when i work with it . And concerning its near-monopoly on the market, even if i'm not a pro i can imagine that if you hear a client say "you use Corel what !?", it won't help to make the deal ;) . Reminds me of the famous "you use Carrara what !?" ;) litst

As a professional marketing artist, I too believe what Litst is saying about the Monopoly. Adobe is trying to take over the graphic market with it's products. Illustrator against CorelDraw, InDesign against QuarkXpress and PhotoShop against (Fractal)Painter 3D. Since I use most of the products above on a daily basis I know each has its strong and weak points. As for the interface. I never had a problem with PhotoShop. Maybe because I'm a "GEEK" who reads software manuals in my spare time. If you client ask you, "You have Corel what?!" show them an example of what you can do with it. This tends to shut them up real quick. P.s. Nice grazing ball

Ok, No reflections. -Kix

Here's the shader tree as promised. -Kix

A whole lot of junk went into my stab at this. The shadow catcher was textured with a piece of the original image shadow in the lower left hand corner so that the grass would fit a little better. I could have taken a better sample and reduced the brightness but this worked our sorta ok. Then I set the blur on the saucer to 3 so that it would fit with the picture. Then there were about 200 things I did to get the radiosity like it is since I'm not confy with GI yet. Hope you like it Terri and I hope it fits in the barn. -Kix

Great pic :) I'll remember your two tricks (shadows and blur) when i make my entry . litst

Here's another one just fer fun! -Kix

So, would it be OK to put these on my web page? With appropriate credits, of course. These are great!

No problem! Enjoy. -Kix

Terri, i'm planning to do something against the conspiracy that's going on in your new HQ . Just let me gather my troops and you'll see what will happen to your evil cheddar storage shed ! In the meantime, do you have some hi-res versions of the pictures ? Even if the scan's not very good, i'd like to maximize my render because who knows, it could be printed later . litst

MY CHEESE! MY BEAUTIFUL, BEAUTIFUL CHEESE! Sadly, no hi-rez, as these were all from my cheapo digital camera. My brother's camera has a higher resolution, so maybe I can get a better bunch of pictures to work with. By the way, you guys' pictures have all been a big hit with my coworkers. Also, my mom liked the "gazing ball" -- she thought she might be able to hit all the pins, bowling with that.

Twillis, if you want to maximize your resolution, use a slower shutter speed [ask your brother for details about obtaining this with his camera] and use a tripod. Your pictures will be sharper. Mike