Carrara Challenge 41: The Super, Legendary, Epic Render Challenge!

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Comments

  • DiomedeDiomede Posts: 15,158
    edited July 2018

    I can't seem to get my moon to show in a render. it shows light reflected on fthe water. but no big, glowing, half-eaten cookie in the sky.

    Skylight is on in render settings.

    RSE, Night is checked. Sfow the moon is checked, clouds are off.

    Moon light at 5 to 20 degree angle

    Can you see the moon in your assemble room?  

    - with realistic sky enabled in the scene atmosphere, I inserted a moonlight fron the light menu

    - I checked the night box in the realistic sky editor

    - in the assembly room, I rotated the moon light icon until the moon icon appeared on the working box within my production frame.

     

     

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  • DiomedeDiomede Posts: 15,158
    edited July 2018

    - Haha - one thing abut going through the thread in order is that I see that I double posted what Stezza posted.  blush

    - Thank you for your comments on mine, everyone.  I'd reply to each, but I think I should just go clear the cobwebs out of my head and back to sleep.

    EDIT: OK, I quadruple posted what Selina, Bunyip, and Stezza posted.  blushblush Good night.

    Post edited by Diomede on
  • VyusurVyusur Posts: 2,235
    edited July 2018

    It was the first time I tried metaballs in Carrara. I can't say I liked it. The topology turns out bad. Anyway, here is the result.

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  • evilproducerevilproducer Posts: 9,050

    Sorry I haven't posted much today. Been really spotty for my internet connection due to storms (and more specifically lightning) causing connection issues.

    Bunyip, your work looks really good.

    LightofHeaven, if you use the night setting in the RSE, but the sky looks to dark, you can also add a color, color gradient, hdri,or image map to the scene's Background. It will appear behing the atmosphere, and also contribute as a light source if you enable Skylight in the render room. Don't forget to also enable Light Through Transparancy in the Global Illumination settings, as well as in the regular render settings.

  • VIArtsVIArts Posts: 1,499
    Selina said:
    Bunyip02 said:

    I don't know what Selina's settings were but [] here are mine, I do not check the Night - but decrease Global Brightness in the atmosphere to 1%.

    Default Scene looks in the North West position so I moved the moon to the NW position and adjusted from being high in the sky down towards the horizion. Adjust Aura/Phase/Tilt to suit. If you rotated your scene you may need to move the moon around the horizion until it shows up.

    Thanks Bunyip02,

    I attach my settings for all to improve upon wink


    Selina

    Finally found my moon last noght. Thanks guys.

     

    Selina, I'm not clear. Are you usng a plugin for that super glowy effect?

  • VIArtsVIArts Posts: 1,499
    edited July 2018

    Test/QIP:

     

    Added my legendary bit.

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  • Persona Non GrataPersona Non Grata Posts: 1,365
    edited March 2021

    .

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  • evilproducerevilproducer Posts: 9,050
    edited July 2018

    @LightofHeaven, did you also have a moonlight in your scene? It will illuminate like distance light, except that is linked to the RSE for both positiion and color. For instance, in your render, if you were to do as Selina did, and enable a lens flare, the origin would be the moon disk, as that is where the moon light is originating. In the RSE you can also define the moon's aura and the aura color.

    Post edited by evilproducer on
  • VIArtsVIArts Posts: 1,499

    I have a moonlight in there, yes. I'm just sort of new to this le s flareystuff. lol. i think i have presets i can look at to get an idea

  • DiomedeDiomede Posts: 15,158
    edited July 2018

    If you want more control of your moon, you can always insert a simple disc and map an image of the moon on it.  Place the image in the glow channel as well.  Then use the effects tab to get your aura.

    NASA has convenient pic or two.  https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/apollo/40th/images/apollo_image_25.html

    For one project, I also created a ring around my moon disc so I could play with the aura even more.

     

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  • evilproducerevilproducer Posts: 9,050

    Great idea Diomede!

  • StezzaStezza Posts: 8,048
    edited July 2018

    My WiP for Georgio scene..

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  • evilproducerevilproducer Posts: 9,050

    Awsone work Stezza! Nice use of hair and metaballs!

     

  • evilproducerevilproducer Posts: 9,050
    edited July 2018

    I've taken a U-turn and am working on a concept that may turn out to be a complete environment.

    A little background here. Ever since I was a little kid, I've always loved Ray Harryhausen, Land of the Lost, stories about ancient ruins and lost cities. I used to gobble up the National Geographics issues that covered archeological digs, and especially their artist conceptions of what they were like- particularly their ancient city or temple reconstructions.

    I am also probably one of the few people that actually liked the film Congo. I liked the book, and the movie, even though the movie didn't get a lot of the book right. The one thing it did get right about the book was the feel of the lost city of Zinj. The feeling of wonder, danger, and mystery were captured very well in Tim Curry's description and story about it, and then in the depiction of city when they finally arrived. My only complaint is that I wished they had spent more time there before blowing it up. The book did a good job with that too.

    Anyway, I will upload screen shots of my intitial terrain of the city and mine complex, and the base of the main temple/palace. There will be elements of a previous entry for a past render challenge, but I want to refine it and make it more sophisticated and epic in scale. For reference, here is the image I did for a past challenge.



     

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  • VIArtsVIArts Posts: 1,499

    Well...I kicked my render settings into the sky...

     

    So..;it's rendering...

  • VyusurVyusur Posts: 2,235
    edited July 2018

    I called it “Bone-Tree Planet”. I used hair on my metaball trees instead of leaves. The terrain is also metaball creation converted to vertex object with some geometry cleaning. Procedural shaders were used on both. Carrara native render.

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  • evilproducerevilproducer Posts: 9,050

    @Vyusur: Very cool! A really nice effect with that hair. I bet with the right setting a nice Spanish moss would be possible.

  • VyusurVyusur Posts: 2,235
    edited July 2018

    Thank you, EP! I kept in mind Spanish moss when doing hair on the trees, but on an alien manner.

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  • Bunyip02Bunyip02 Posts: 8,558

    @Vyusur: Very cool! A really nice effect with that hair. I bet with the right setting a nice Spanish moss would be possible.

    +1 yes

  • UnifiedBrainUnifiedBrain Posts: 3,588
    Vyusur said:

    I called it “Bone-Tree Planet”. I used hair on my metaball trees instead of leaves. The terrain is also metaball creation converted to vertex object with some geometry cleaning. Procedural shaders were used on both. Carrara native render.

    Compelling composition, nicely done!

     

  • VyusurVyusur Posts: 2,235

    UB, thank you very much!

  • VIArtsVIArts Posts: 1,499

    I let it render just this much at high settings to see how it'd look. Not satisfied.

     

    I can't find a way to get rid of that big black strip in the backgroumd. Show ground isn't checked.

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  • StezzaStezza Posts: 8,048

    In the atmosphere tab your realistic sky try a large negative number in the Horizon Altitude... it may take a few goes to get it.. just do a part test render to see the results.. put your lighting/render settings to a low value whilst testing so not to wait ages for the test render to render it.. yes

  • evilproducerevilproducer Posts: 9,050
    edited July 2018

    Your settings are very high. I don't think there will be much of a visual difference between "good" values and "best" values. Not enough to justify the additional render time at any rate.

    The Best values won't get rid of that line anyway. It is the horizon line at night, and since the ocean doesn't go to the horizon, it will remain visible. What you could do is place an ininite plane very slightly below the ocean, add a water shader to the infinite plane, and it will extend to the horizon. You may need to extend the main ocean a bit further out to hide where it ends. Other ways to hide the black strip include adding fog in the RSE and adjusting its color, intensity, altitude, etc. You could also increase the haze and haze altitude and intensity and kind of do an atmospheric forced perspective and edit the fields that say 1.00 Mi in the scene equals 1.00 Mi and change it to 1.00 Mi equals 10.00 Mi.

    I'll attach some screen shots and the water shader I made for my example. It is basically a modified version of one that came with Carrara. I applied it to both the infinite plane and the replicated ocean.

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  • UnifiedBrainUnifiedBrain Posts: 3,588

    Epic ocean/moon scene example there, EP.  Also, very helpful instructions and screenshots, thanks!

    Insane what this software can do.

  • evilproducerevilproducer Posts: 9,050

    I've been busy today, but I have managed to get a bit more done with my scene. I'm in the process of building a temple/palace. I will have to take a couple pillars and break them apart to sell the ruins aspect. I still need to work on the roof. After that, I will build some more ruins, but I may build them on little terrain islands so that I can duplicate and rotate them and place them wherever it is aesthetically pleasing, I also want to paint certain areas of the main terrain to suggest old stone pavers and such pealing out from the (eventual) jungle floor. I think I will also attempt a crumbling reflecting pool. It is ambitious, so we'll see how far I get before the challenge ends.

    Oh, I built the steps out of a gradient image map applied to a terrain with the terrace filter, height filter and erosion filter. I then modified the Tapui Terrain texture that came with Carrara to get the even more weathered look.
     

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  • VIArtsVIArts Posts: 1,499
    edited July 2018

    lol. I only set it up high for fun while i slept and to test and glimpse how it'd look, but thanks for the info on he good-best settings. i've knocked it back down. Here's my latest render.

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  • evilproducerevilproducer Posts: 9,050

    Looking good! Just a suggestion to make the kraken stand out a bit more. Add a light such as a shape light or a spot light and place it so it is next to the ship and aiming at the kraken. Set the light so that it only illuminates the kraken, and then adjust the color to match the light cast from the ship. Set a short range and a high falloff, and a lowish brightness. The light would illuminate the nearest tentacles and fade out quickly to keep the rest of the monster in shadows. I would also use soft shadows with the light to suggest a more diffuse light such as the light cast from the myriad ship lights. Again, this is only a suggestion. It is a great and imaginative scene!

  • VIArtsVIArts Posts: 1,499

    I haven't got fhse best eyesight in the world,  but i get what you mean and i'm trying. lol

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