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Fire Breathing Dragon

DRxDONDRxDON Posts: 0
edited December 1969 in Carrara Discussion

I've been playing around with the fire primitive and managed to shape and animate it into a dragon's mouth. What I'd like to know is this:
Do I have to shape and pose the fire every time I want to pose or animate the dragon? Or is there a way to attach the fire object to the dragon itself so that it becomes a part of the dragon object? I'm sorry, I couldn't find this in the online manual.

Comments

  • GarstorGarstor Posts: 1,411
    edited December 1969

    You should be able to parent the fire to your dragon's or mouth. You could animate the alpha channel of the shader to show and hide the fire appropriately.

    I'll let others take over from here...I'm not much of an animator.

  • DartanbeckDartanbeck Posts: 21,522
    edited December 1969

    Yes. Just drag the fire primitive onto the head (in the hierarchy list on the right) or the lower jaw, whichever you prefer.
    Did you see how cool the fire is? You can animate it just by setting the dial. But unlike what Gars Man said, there really isn't an alpha channel for the fire. Just tick (or un-tick) the visible box. You can also add spin and other modifiers to the fire for further changes during your animation. It's not Garstor's fault - he has his head stuck in LightWave! :ahhh: LOL
    (Gotta rib on ya, bro!)

  • GarstorGarstor Posts: 1,411
    edited December 1969

    Dartanbeck said:
    It's not Garstor's fault - he has his head stuck in LightWave! :ahhh: LOL
    (Gotta rib on ya, bro!)

    Give me a night or two to think of an appropriate retaliation! Now back to my regularly scheduled LightWave...

  • DartanbeckDartanbeck Posts: 21,522
    edited December 1969

    Garstor said:
    Dartanbeck said:
    It's not Garstor's fault - he has his head stuck in LightWave! :ahhh: LOL
    (Gotta rib on ya, bro!)

    Give me a night or two to think of an appropriate retaliation! Now back to my regularly scheduled LightWave...You know I Love ya, Gars Man!
    You and that... that... software....

    All joking aside, LightWave freaking Rocks! I think....

  • GarstorGarstor Posts: 1,411
    edited December 1969

    Dartanbeck said:
    You know I Love ya, Gars Man!
    You and that... that... software....

    All joking aside, LightWave freaking Rocks! I think....

    Bro-hugs all around!

  • GarstorGarstor Posts: 1,411
    edited December 1969

    Now DRxDON, how about showing us this dragon fire of yours? ;)

  • DartanbeckDartanbeck Posts: 21,522
    edited December 1969

    Yeah! We wanna see it!

  • DRxDONDRxDON Posts: 0
    edited December 1969

    Thanks, Dartanbeck! I knew there had to be a quick and easy way to do it in Carrara!

  • evilproducerevilproducer Posts: 9,050
    edited December 1969

    If you have a fast computer and a little time to practice, you could parent a particle emitter to the dragons's head and use a particle shader to drive the flame and smoke.

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  • DRxDONDRxDON Posts: 0
    edited December 1969

    Cool dragon, Evil! But I can't seem to get Carrara to parent any primitive to the dragon hierarchy. If I try to drag and drop,the only place Carrara will drop an object is in the Assembly Room main view, and then it puts it down dead center.

  • evilproducerevilproducer Posts: 9,050
    edited December 1969

    DRxDON said:
    Cool dragon, Evil! But I can't seem to get Carrara to parent any primitive to the dragon hierarchy. If I try to drag and drop,the only place Carrara will drop an object is in the Assembly Room main view, and then it puts it down dead center.

    If you look in the Instances tray on the right side of the screen, you should see the hierarchy for the dragon. if it is not expanded already, then click the little triangle next to the name. Now, drag a sphere or some other primitive to the head and it will load. It probably won't load in the correct spot, but if it appears below the head in the hierarchy, then it is still parented. I think what is happening is that Carrara is loading the object onto the dragon's hot point and not the bone's hot point. Just resize the object (if needed) and position it.

    As an example, I loaded a dragon, and dropped a sphere primitive onto the dragon's head bone. it loaded in the center of the dragon's bounding box. If I move the head, the sphere, even though it looks as if it is not parented to the head moves as well. I resized the sphere and moved its position to the head and moved the head and the sphere still followed. I changed nothing with the hierarchy. All I did was move and resize the sphere.

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  • DartanbeckDartanbeck Posts: 21,522
    edited December 1969

    DRxDON said:
    Cool dragon, Evil! But I can't seem to get Carrara to parent any primitive to the dragon hierarchy. If I try to drag and drop,the only place Carrara will drop an object is in the Assembly Room main view, and then it puts it down dead center.
    When we say, drag and drop, we've actually been talking about the words in the right panel. Once you get whatever you want to parent placed where you need it in the scene - like, once you have the fire in the mouth, then look in the right panel below the word: "Scene". Grab the fire, while the dragon's hierarchy is open, and drag it onto the head of the dragon.

    Well, EP might have said something else... I'll have to go back and read what he said, when I can... time is so limited today. :(

  • evilproducerevilproducer Posts: 9,050
    edited December 1969

    Dartanbeck said:
    DRxDON said:
    Cool dragon, Evil! But I can't seem to get Carrara to parent any primitive to the dragon hierarchy. If I try to drag and drop,the only place Carrara will drop an object is in the Assembly Room main view, and then it puts it down dead center.
    When we say, drag and drop, we've actually been talking about the words in the right panel. Once you get whatever you want to parent placed where you need it in the scene - like, once you have the fire in the mouth, then look in the right panel below the word: "Scene". Grab the fire, while the dragon's hierarchy is open, and drag it onto the head of the dragon.

    Well, EP might have said something else... I'll have to go back and read what he said, when I can... time is so limited today. :(
    I usually wait to shovel the snow when it is done snowing! ;-P

  • DartanbeckDartanbeck Posts: 21,522
    edited December 1969

    Oh man.... it's not just snow... the snow is now blasting all over very thick layers of highly slick ice! Ahhh... the merits of saving people's lives! :)
    I have to shovel many times before it's done - plus when it's done.

  • evilproducerevilproducer Posts: 9,050
    edited December 1969

    Dartanbeck said:
    Oh man.... it's not just snow... the snow is now blasting all over very thick layers of highly slick ice! Ahhh... the merits of saving people's lives! :)
    I have to shovel many times before it's done - plus when it's done.

    I think I need to replace my serpentine belt. It came off again today when I hit a small to moderate drift. >:(

  • GarstorGarstor Posts: 1,411
    edited December 1969

    evilproducer said:
    Dartanbeck said:
    Oh man.... it's not just snow... the snow is now blasting all over very thick layers of highly slick ice! Ahhh... the merits of saving people's lives! :)
    I have to shovel many times before it's done - plus when it's done.

    I think I need to replace my serpentine belt. It came off again today when I hit a small to moderate drift. >:(

    Oh Wisconsin! How many ways do you make our lives interesting? As opposed to Texas which just pisses thinking people off.

  • evilproducerevilproducer Posts: 9,050
    edited December 1969

    Garstor said:
    evilproducer said:
    Dartanbeck said:
    Oh man.... it's not just snow... the snow is now blasting all over very thick layers of highly slick ice! Ahhh... the merits of saving people's lives! :)
    I have to shovel many times before it's done - plus when it's done.

    I think I need to replace my serpentine belt. It came off again today when I hit a small to moderate drift. >:(

    Oh Wisconsin! How many ways do you make our lives interesting? As opposed to Texas which just pisses thinking people off.
    May I send the contents of our statehouse down to you? They think they're down there already!

  • GarstorGarstor Posts: 1,411
    edited December 1969

    evilproducer said:
    May I send the contents of our statehouse down to you? They think they're down there already!

    I'm sure Scott Walker and friends would find a lot of drinking buddies down here.

    Weird thing is, Austin is a very liberal city (for Texas) but the state keeps electing conservatives. I wonder how they feel having to be in Austin?

    Nice dragon BTW! I still want to see the OP's results too!

    I should try playing with the dragon models some time...

  • DRxDONDRxDON Posts: 0
    edited December 1969

    Thanks Guys! :-)

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