Carrara Challenge 42 – PIONEERS – Dedicated to Eric Winemiller - WIP
Welcome to Pioneers challenge.
This is a Carrara Challenge to Eric Winemiller, founder and owner of Digital Carvers Guild (http://www.digitalcarversguild.com/), a true pioneer of the Carrara plugins.
In his owns words:
Winemiller E. 2004. Plug-Ins and the SDK. 3DXtract.com. 2 [may 2004]: 18-19
Many of us have worked with these plugins. Now, as anybody here knows, recently, Eric has generously released DCG plugins as open source, thus all carrarists could make use of theses fantastic tools.
You can develop the theme of the Challenge 42 as your imagination would allow!
Rules:
- You may enter up to three images. Images must be made for this challenge specifically. Votes will be on a per image basis. Each voter may vote for four images, one vote per image. An artist may only win one prize. Final images must be posted in the Entry thread to be considered. Voting is open to anyone with a DAZ 3D account.
- You must use at least one of the Digital Carves Guild plugins for Carrara, you can choose which one.
- Other plugins are allowed. If you do use a plugin, please let us know how you used it in the WIP thread.
- When the entry thread is opened, you must link to at least one of your WIPs from this (WIP) thread in your entry. The WIP should contain your scene set up, or lights, or some other major scene component.
- Renders and scene set up must be done in Carrara. The renderer could be the native one or a third part using a Carrara plugin, such as Octane or Lux, in which case a description of the process is required in one of the WIPs.
- Postwork is allowed. If postwork is used, you must post a before and after render, and a description of the postwork that was done in one of your WIPs.
- Pre-made content is allowed. Content should be listed in the entry when the time comes. Links would be great, but not required.
- An artist can only win in one place. There are four places and an honorable mention. The first place is for the image with more votes, and so on.
- The winner of the Challenge becomes the next Carrara Challenge host, and sets the rules for the next competition. But should the winner decline this honor, the 2nd place winner will then get the opportunity to step forward and fill the role.
Important dates:
- WIP thread opens - Aug 24, 2018, 7pm, Mountain Standard Time, US.
- Entry thread opens - Sep 23, 2018, Midnight, Mountain Standard Time, US.
- Entry thread closes, voting begins - Sep 30, 2018, 23:00, Mountain Standard Time, US.
- Voting thread closes - Oct 7, 2018, 23:00, Mountain Standard Time, US.
Daz is generously continuing its sponsorship of the challenges, and we have PA sponsor too.
Daz Sponsored Prizes
1st place: $75.00 towards DAZ 3D owned item(s).
2nd place: $50.00 towards DAZ 3D owned item(s).
3rd place: $40.00 towards DAZ 3D owned item(s).
4th place: $30.00 towards DAZ 3D owned item(s)
Honorable Mention: One item of the sponsor’s store: DimensionTheory
Comments
For instructions of installing and usage of the plugins, the DCG site have many information and is plenty of tutorials.
General instructions by Diomede
From Carrara Cafe : How to install a Carrara plug-in under Mac OS X
Individual links to specific plugin instructions:
ANYTHING GOOS
ANYTHING GROOVES
ANYTHING GROWS
COGNITO
DCG IMPORTER
GROUND CONTROL
NOIR
PARCHMENT
PROJECT GEMINI
SHADER GEL AND STROBE
SHADER OPS
SHADER OPS 2
SHADERS PLUS
SHOESTRING SHADERS
STARBRIGHT
TERRAIN TOOLS
TOON! PRO
WIREFRAME PRO
Tutorials at DCG:
ANYTHING GOOS:
Get started with Anything Goos for Carrara
ANYTHING GROOVES:
Anything Grooves sample shaders
Get started with Anything Grooves
Make the most of Adaptive Mesh
Smooth text lines with Anything Grooves
Stone wall
Veloute-Grooves sample shaders
ANYTHING GROWS:
Animate Anything Grows and bones
Assemble the Machine
Creeping vine
Crop circle secrets revealed!
Get started with Anything Grows
Grassy field
Helmet hair to mullets
Starscapes from Anything Grows
COGNITO:
Animate a music box
Animate an elliptical orbit
NOIR:
Constrain the Noir effect
PARCHMENT:
Go primitive with Parchment and Toon!
Mix NPR sketch with a normal render
SHADER GEL AND STROBE:
Crosshair spotlight
Flickering neon signs
Psychedelic light show
SHADER OPS:
Shader Ops sample shader
SHADER OPS 2:
Camera Mapping
Explore Light Mangler
SHADERS PLUS:
Get started with GI Shadow Catcher
STARBRIGHT:
Animate a sunset
TERRAIN TOOLS:
Get started with Terrain Tools
TOON! PRO:
Get started with Toon! Pro
Tutorials at Carrara Cafe:
10 Reasons You Need a Falloff Shader Plugin
Review - Shoestring Shaders - Desaturate Carrara 3D Expo Magazine Issue 4 p. 34
Review - Enhance C by DCG 3D Expo Magazine Issue 5 p. 52
Tutorials in 3DXtract.com ezine (they're available here: https://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/29265/3dxtract-10th-anniversary-coming-up/p1)
Shader Ops, Ground Control, Anything Grows:
Anything Grooves:
Shoestring Shaders:
The original page of Shoestring Shaders is still online: http://www.des-web.net/html/shoestring_shaders.html
Shoestring Shaders Tutorials: http://www.des-web.net/html/tutorials.html
Shoestring Shaders Fresnel in this forum https://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/276471/fresnel
Some images for inspiration:
See page for author [CC BY-SA 4.0 ], via Wikimedia Commons
By Léon Trousset (1838 - 29 December 1917) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons
Mission Santa Clara de Asis, California 1777
"Always forward, never back"
By The original uploader was Stefan Kühn at German Wikipedia. [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons
Dióscoro Puebla [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons
Library of Congress's Prints and Photographs division under the digital ID cph.3a0864
See page for author [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons
Laura Ingalls:
https://flic.kr/p/dbU55R
http://https://flic.kr/p/9niXfN
Luois Pasteur
Albert Edelfelt [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons
See page for author [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons
Robert Koch:
See page for author [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons
Koch's Collera expedition
See page for author [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons
Pioneers probes:
By NASA - National Aeronautics and Space Administration [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons
By Pioneer10-11.jpg: NASAderivative work: emijrp (Pioneer10-11.jpg) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons
By Rick Guidice [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons
By Don Davis for NASA [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons
Excellent choice. Wonderful way to pay tribute to Eric and all the amazing plugins generously made available from DCG. Looking forward to it.
For some space scenes or starry skies, check out the free DCG Plugin StarBright to make and control a 360 degree starfield
NOTE - this link is now FREE, it is not a commercial link. Thank you, Eric. http://www.digitalcarversguild.com/plugin.php?ProductId=14
For myself, will have to put my thinking cap on. There are so many great options.
Oooo man, I haven't even scratched the surface of what I can do with all my new powers. This'll be a start.
BTW and JFYI, I'm planning to change my username.
Carrara Heaven ?
sweet... great challenge topic.... I shall have to model my main piece for this one... or at least try to
Wow great choice Alberto! I see there is a fine Wright brothers Flyer over on ShareCG .....
Wonderful reference images and ideas !
Love how so many of your references are examples of colonialism :)
I'm here due this colonialism. I'm a descendant of spaniards, mexican indians, frenchs and africans... at least.
This is a great challenge, thank you. And another thank you again to Eric Winemiller for bequeathing his plugins to the Carrara community. (Maybe that's the wrong verb...)
My greatest challenge is actually finishing something...
Looks good, Alberto!
I have never used any of the DCG plugins. How exactly are they supposed to be installed into the Extensions folder (for example, copy and paste)? When Carrara is open, where are these plugins found? Are there tutorials on how to use them? If you or others here provide this information, maybe you could post it in your second post of this thread?
UB, if you go to the Digial Carvers Guild site, there is a tab near the top for all the tutorials. For each plugin, there are links to the tutorials for that plugin on that plugin's page.
Here are the tutorials grouped as tutorials. after you have browsed the available free plugins, you may prefer to find the appropriate tutorials from the respective plugin pages.
http://www.digitalcarversguild.com/tutorials.php
Get started with Terrain Tools and Grassy Field both look interesting, along with all of the others.
Thank you!
I'll refer you to the DCG site, because it's the best source of information: how to's, tutorials... very rich.
Grassy Field? What is that? I don't see it among the DCG plug-ins.
I think Bunyip speaks about this Anything Grows tutorial: http://www.digitalcarversguild.com/tutorial.php?TutorialId=9
Thanks! I thought I might have somehow missed a plug-in.
Yes some of my ancestors were dragged outhere as convicts, others left their own countries because of economic pressures ..
Because I have had some success in the Challenges, people here generally think that I know more than I actually know.
I have large gaps in knowledge.
I've looked very closely at the DCG site earlier today, before posting. The answers to my previous questions were not there.
So, if you answer my (very specific) questions with "Look at the DCG site," I am no better off than I started. :)
The plugins themselves seem great, based on art I have seen. But the support materials are not that good, at least based on my experience so far.
For Windows
Eric posted the link to the free plugins. Download from there.
unzip the zip using the software of your choice.
copy and paste the files to the extensions folder in your Carrara program file structure.
not sure how it works for Mac folks, but am confident it is similar
Return to DCG website, as linked above. Navigate to the Carrara plugins section. Each individual plugin has a page with info on installation and links to tutorials specific to that plugin.
seems like pretty good support to me, but may be in the eye of the beholder.
.
For example, for the first listed Carrara plugin, anything something or other
http://www.digitalcarversguild.com/plugin.php?ProductId=17
- webpage has info specific to Carrara and to Lightwave divided clearly
- continue scrolling down and there are sections beginning with “how do I”
- the links to tutorials often include a link to download the complete scene associated with the tutorial
For people completely unaware of their plugins, I recommend skimming the tutorial section before choosing a plugin for the challenge. Might get some ideas of practical usage before investing too much time in one particular one.
For example, for the first listed Carrara plugin, anything goos
http://www.digitalcarversguild.com/plugin.php?ProductId=17
- webpage has info specific to Carrara and to Lightwave divided clearly
- continue scrolling down and there are sections beginning with “how do I”
- the links to tutorials at top of page often include a link to download the complete scene associated with the tutorial
For people completely unaware of their plugins, I recommend skimming the tutorial section before choosing a plugin for the challenge. Might get some ideas of practical usage before investing too much time in one particular one.
Head wax jumped between my posts - should read as 3 together to point to using the DCG website
sorry Ted, I removed my post to make it legable for the explanation
here's a couple of toon pro renders with associated parameters - flyer from sharecg
for the post work I also rendered out a Wireframe pro plus used filter forge , - combined various shadow passes with the Digital Carvers' plugins
OK, the original link to the tutorials page didn't help at all. But as you mentioned, the information at the bottom on the individual plugin pages was very helpful.
Thanks!
space pioneers!
hairy alien cucumbers
That's the one. Also worthwhile checking out each of the tutorials as quite a few have a downloadable scene file with them, there are also some shaders.
Darnation, you stole one of my ideas, very nice !!!!!!
Hey Bunyip02 there's plenty of room in the sky for more wright brothers :) !!
I'm not going to do it as my entry so please go ahead !! I just wanted a quick example for toonpro so I could post some settings for people to play with
tehers's also https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montgolfier_brothers
I like mistaras ideas of hairy cucumbers
there's dead explorer's galore to explore :)
Hmmm, I will have to think up a different variation.
Nice site for aviation freaks :- http://www.ctie.monash.edu.au/hargrave/pioneers.html