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Thank you it was kind of you to share your hard work.
It's my pleasure! This community has helped me So Much over the years that it feels right to give back what I can.
This is just the beginning. I am still working very hard to bring much more to the table.
Starry Sky for Carrara and the three EnvironKits have been making it easier for me to get more accomplished with my very limited time. In the case of the EnvironKits, I have taken those and made more of my own custom setups that I save to my browser. With Carrara, it doesn't take much to tweak those kits to one's own personal taste.
For mine, I turn the Soft Shadows off on the Sun light and then go into the replicator for the Artificial Global Illumination and change the Minimum distance (right side) from 280' to 780' which lowers the number of lights from 88 to around 11 to 13 depending on the replicator's mood! LOL - and then raise the master light's brightness to accomodate their being so few.
Those changes make it render a LOT faster, but also reduce realism.
I use This Light Rig (downloads zip file) on each of my saved figures unless they're lesser actors for background use or meant as a swarm - like goblins and the like. I still use that rig on the main hero figure of each species to make them Pop.
Anyway, the light rig works well with the above changes.
That light rig download also includes the spherical map I use in the background of the Character Template scene included.
Instructions:
Face Target is a Target Helper object with a group of lights parented to it. I position the Face Target either at the tip of the nose or between the eyes of the character. Don't parent this to the character though. Instead:
Now, when the character is posed, right-click near the head and select "** Light Align xxx", then Ctrl/click the Face Target and then Ctrl + K to align the Face Target to the target parented to the head, which keeps the lights in the same orientation. This is very useful for animations.
When I need to, I look through the render camera and select the Face Target with the Rotation Tool selected and rotate the target until the red (x) arc is just to the right of the face to start with, and then tweak from there. This is just to get the Key, Fill and Rim lights at the angle I want them to be at for this particular shot.
Animations - After I'm done making the character move around in the scene the way I want it to, I right-click near the head and select the Align target, then Ctrl/select the Face Target. At frame Zero Ctrl + K to align Face Target to face. Then again at the final frame of the animation. I scrub through the animation and look for places where the character stops or changes direction and align there as well. Then I check each second, and then half second (or third, whichever) to see if I want to align, or leave the lights where they are along their path.
When I do this, I don't rotate the Face Target (or the other, for that matter) along the timeline unless what's going on in the scene dictates the change - which is almost never. Instead, use static scene lights to further change the lighting as the character moves.
When I save my interior/exterior scenes, I light them according to how I want that scene lit - so when my character goes past a Sci Fi console, for example, the bluish light from the console will cast onto the character. The light rig is mainly there to make the character Pop or Stand Out ;)
Don't worry, I'll be making a video tutorial on the above process along with an updated copy of the Character Template file.
The video will also include tricks that I use for hair and other transparency-heavy objects and other things to help this whole thing work really well for filming our actors!
Nice specs you have there (sig), Silver Dolphin!
I just built a new Carrara machine:
I have to build using the best of Yesteryear that I can afford. I couldn't even actually afford this $Grand... I had help
It's a fine Carrara machine though. Not robust enough of a GPU to help with Iray much, but it sure makes DaVinci Resolve shine! VWD also cranks right through it's simulations using it. I can't even imagine how much my stomach would tingle with those dual Titans!!!
That is great, I wish I could get new machine, definitely need to save for it. Thanks for all comments and thanks for info about DCG Toon-Pro shader... I found that there is option for toon shaders for Unity too, this is just the way I would like to do ... I am trying to get into Game Design and if I could make RPG games like Borderlands (now playing part 2) I would be very happy, beside making illustrations and animations with DS, Bryce and Carrara. I need this for Bryce too, hope to get it eventualy https://www.daz3d.com/bryce-7-1-pro-stylised-rendering
But yes it needs time to make things good, but I am very happy with progress. I will try to learn Cararra and hopefuly Unity too, learning programming could be good :)...
Anyway, lol off topic again but I was searching for Former DCC Nicole Bulcher and was worried why her instagram account was gone but it seems all is good just this Covid19 is affecting all, found FB page that is active https://prodancecheer.com/style/pdc-series-now/ Also found this https://www.fifpro.org/en/rights/united-s-matic-solidarity-with-hunger-strike , it is strange practice but happening to me too, as some rich rich Russian, bought land near mine and later devasted part of my property and after going to court he just closed his firm and transfered funds on other one thus avoiding his duties and we are still on court with all that 10+ years. Just very strange as things were so obvious.
Just one question as I remembered that I sould get this too. Are Genesis 1 or 2 characters suported https://www.daz3d.com/mimic-pro-for-carrara
Genesis 1 - Yes
Genesis 2 works but is not fully supported. One of the biggest issues that I've seen with Genesis 2 is that Auto-fit in Carrara doesn't launch the "What was this item intended for?" dialog when trying to fit Genesis 1 clothing to Genesis 2, so it just tries to fit it as if it was made for the target figure.
That was a lot of words to say that Genesis 1 clothing doesn't auto-fit to Genesis 2. But we always have ways to make it work - like fitting the clothing in Daz Studio first, saving the scene, and loading the scene into Carrara - that works for many situations.
Ok, that is just great news that made my day a lot better as I am mostly working with Genesis 1 figures (converting all stuff to it including morphs) and would much like to see my characters speak :). I have Mimic lite but have not been using that much. If I can make Cararra work and do animation good with speaking, then it might just make some good short clips that I could use for video games beside some short comiclike stories and illustrations that I can do already. Now I wish I could do comiclike and black and white movies, but first to make some standard ones. It looks just very nice and I will give it a try as soon as I can.
Some plugin developers have made their plugins free or open source. Several might help you use Carrara for animations that are comiclike and black and white. This includes several plugins by DCG (Digital Carvers Guild). Philemo has a plugin to incorporate GMIC filters in Carrara's renderer.
Info on DCG at CarraraCafe - https://carraracafe.com/dcg-plugins-going-open-source/
Info on Philemo's GMIC plugin at CarraraCafe - https://carraracafe.com/gmic-new-plugin-for-carrara-by-philemo/
Absolutely. And even the NPR engine in Carrara is capable of making some really great Toon! All of which take practice, but everything does, eh? ;)
Sure and thanks :) my hopes are lifted knowing that I can do mimic and comic like animation :) that expands possiblities now only to make it into reality. Was playing with an evil character for my arena that I am working on, here is how it is turning out, will post from desktop in another post. I just need more computers and external HDs now and to continue to work better. Btw, installing Borderlands 2 and presequel :)
Ok here it goes, I just need good looking bad character :) to fight in the arena or few of them... Here is what I have for now, not yet finished but working on it ... also my instagram just to see how I do it :), swipe to the right for video https://www.instagram.com/p/CBSDJV4JUp5/
I have a 'better' Genesis mimic DMC file I made somewhere around here - a couple, actually.
Maybe I can post them somewhere around here (freebies, etc.)
Let me know if there's interest.
--ms
Yep. There's likely interest! I'd start a fresh freebie topic though. This one no longer pertains to freebies. Might just change the title! LOL
Yes we need it, and thanks for help and all those reference links, that I need to read trough :)
Hey how do you install this exactly?
If someone can help me that would be great.
https://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/420881/installing-made-free-content-error-required-program-s-path-cannot-be-defined
Carrrara will open these from anywhere you can navigate to, but I have them set up to install directly to the Carrara Browser, if you have the Carrara 8 Native Content installed (which creates the main browser system).
On Windows, DIM downloads (default) to: Drive > Users > Public > Public Documents > DAZ 3D > install manager > Downloads
Drop the zip files that begin with "IM" directly into that Downloads folder without extracting anything. Now run DIM and use the Install tab to install the products to their default location (where you have Carrara mapped for installation in DIM settings > Applications)
Hope that helps! ;)
Just to clarify, you're certainly welcome to post them here too, if you like! ;)