Dartanbeck's Journey - CG Filmmaking
Dartanbeck
Posts: 21,569
Having worked most of my life of long hours under the heat of the sun chiseling stone and hefting them into place, my journey toward becoming a CG Filmmaker has been a long learning process - but a really fun one!
I'm most known for being a huge Carrara fan and user but I'm also really loving to use Daz Studio along with other filmmaking essentials.
Join me for a stroll along my path as I slay the dragons of defeat and overcome insurmountable obstacles!
To find a good grounding for launching my website, I decided to introduce the newest version of my Hero
Introducing Rosie 5 (click to watch)
Introducing Rosie 5 (article)
The site is brand new and has a long journey ahead of it. Even the current articles will be receiving more attention as time permits.
There's a nice little landing page for my articles, Dartanbeck Articles to give them a consolidated index since they get organized into various parts of the site - the process of CG filmmaking where they belong. This page also has some of my videos with brief descriptions for them. Pretty cool.
The Home page, Dartanbeck.com, lists some of my most used software toward the endeavor of making CG motion pictures and Finding Carrara - My Story gives a (hopefully) fun little timeline of how I got into all of this and where I'm going with it.
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Comments
Great progress. I will be watching with interest. Stay motivated!
Thanks! I shall! :)
Wow, looks great. You are lucky enough, that you have mastered Carrara program.
I have given up on it long time ago, because I cannot use comfortably Carrara's interface
and switched to Daz Studio, most of the time.
Your results shows, that if one devote enough time to master the software,
you can get out of it almost everything.
Very inspirational - keep up updating with your further results.
Congratulations on your thread .
Agreed that is why i stopped using carrara as well I am more comfortable using Studio, switching between the software was getting confusing. and with Iray & deforce and fludios I get pretty good results for the animation i make
Wow! Thank you so So much! Over the past ten years (that's when I bought Carrara) I've been slaving overtime outdoor manual labor work, so my animation is almost always put on hold until I can pull off not sleeping for a day or two! Well... then I'd have a lot more time for it in Winter - so there's that! :)
...and blending Ivy into this:
See, for me the experience has been opposite, though I've always been a big fan of Daz Studio - I'm talkin' ever since version 0.7 beta, which I still have the exe for on a storage disc somewhere here! It takes a lot of work to build something like Daz Studio from scratch, and Daz 3D did it! I'm quite sure that not enough people appreciate that.
...and then to turn around and make it Free, while still having the Best darned 3D Content pricing in the world? I mean come on!!! :)
(can you tell I Love Daz 3D?)
Okay, so here's my story. I was doing UV Mapping for a team that was making a free addon for BioWare's Neverwinter Nights game. It was adding the Spelljammer campaign setting to the game with turn-based space combat. Anyway... the fellow that asked me to join the team said that he was sending me a gift. What came in the mail? Poser 5 by Curious Labs!
I was doing the UV Mapping in 3ds Max 5 and Poser was a breath of fresh air to me! No modeling (I didn't know how to model, so he was teaching me to start with a cube - I hated it!!!). I made several adventuring group character shots with it and eventually discovered Daz 3D with their debut figure, Victoria, the Millennium Woman. What a Doll she was! All those morphs! All those texture options at Renderosity and at Daz 3D eventually! So real!
Oh... getting carried away. (image on left is V3 Rosie fighting Millennium Dragon - made in Poser 6 and Photoshop 5)
The biggest problem I had with Poser was what I loved most about it when I first got it - no modeling tools. All I wanted was to alter clothing and hair. I could grab and pull with these magnet thingies, but...
I looked at LW and, while it didn't look promising for getting Psoer figures in with their morphs and rigging, their community didn't shun me (like that of 3ds and Maya) for inquiring about the ability to use Poser figures. They actually even offered what few discoveries they've made on that front - which was at least something.
I saw someone using Carrara 5, I think it was, with Victoria 3 - he was costuming her up having a blast. As soon as I got home I found Carrara on the internet and bookmarked it - told Rosie I want it. She's my financial adviser boss.
One day I went to look at the promo pages again and they were gone! Web page not found! What?!!!
I did a search and... no way! Who ended up with it? Only my favorite 3D vendor in the world... Daz 3D!!! Awesome!
Even better, one day Rosie just calmly said to me, out of the blue: "Oh, Dartan... you can order that thing you wanted now. I've got $xxx.xx saved up for you to spend - so if there's anything else you can fit in with that..." I had no clue what she was talking about until she mentioned the amount.
V4 had been out for a while, but I was using a Daz Freebie version of V3 still, with some free clothes I got from various places around the web. I became a PC member that day and have been one ever since, except for a very short period not long ago. With that membership came a whole slew of stuff (Free) and massive discounts on everything I wanted - so I got a whole lot of stuff! Carrara 8 was in beta then and they were running a special deal: Buy Carrara 7 and get 8 for free upon release - and in the meantime, join the beta!
I called the and asked if that same deal applied to the Pro version - I needed the Pro version. I mean... animated Ocean primitive? Get out!!! Oh... yeah, so the answer was Yes. So I got Carrara 6 Pro with an upgrade to 7 Pro, which granted me Carrara 8 Pro beta, and 8 Pro when it came out. 6 and 7 came with a whole bunch of goodies, and 8 came with massive V4 and M4 bundles! I mean... Carrara by itself without the help of Daz 3D comes with a whle lot of example files. But Daz stuff is (and always has been) Top freaking Notch!
Oh... right. Where was I? Oh yeah: (Image: V4 and M4 Rosie and Dartanbeck, Genesis Orcs - Carrara 8.5 beta)
That 'whole lot of stuff' I ordered back then included the brand new aniBlock Importer for Carrara, and I also bought the full version of aniMate with a nice collection of aniBlocks to play with. Just looked too fun! Mimic Pro for Carrara... you know... a whole bunch of stuff. Howie Farkes too!
I made this after a year of trying to fight my way to my computer. I mean, back then Everybody had to have custom stone patios and walkways, and I was the only guy around to do it! It was hard getting computer time! V4 Rosie with three layers of Angelina Hair and Kunoichi Kimono and Dartan with his M4 Basic wear with a texture and transmap I painted myself.
Oh my! Had to buy the Witch House!!! Oh... right. It's a Mimic Pro test in Carrara!
Same year yielded a lot more experience, and more cool stuff from Daz 3D! Yes, aniBlocks, but a near-equal measure of good ol' hand animation. Old stuff = this!
I have to admit, I needed a LOT of help from the Carrara forum. I used to make my animations in Poser, save them as an animated PZ2, and load that into Carrara. Fenric sold a PZ2/BVH Exporter for Carrara - I bought that too, which was how my Animation Kit for Millennium Dragon 2 and Swordworks for M4 became a thing.
(recognize GoFigure's Hits and Falls anyone?) ;)
As a result of inquiring with JonnyBravo, who created the video tutorial for the aniBlock Importer for Carrara, I ended up making this with a 30 trial version of Sony Vegas Movie HD Platinum, which I bought immediately afterward. This was just a pile of test renders that hadn't been deleted yet
In the process of all of that, however, Carrara 8.5 was stirring in beta fashion!
So yeah... it took a while. But after discovering how easy it is to just change a single axis rotation across an entire animation (say, from an aniBlock, for example) right in the timeline in Carrara, I mean... I have a hard time animating in anything else now. I Love Daz Studio - I really do. But when I look at the timeline when an aniBlock is loaded, I am So freaking Lost!!! Probably because I've been getting help from the Carrara forum about Carrara-related stuff over the years, I think ;)
GoFigure makes those timeline tools for Daz Studio. One day I'll get those. It looks like they put a sort of Carrara Sequencer into Daz Studio through two combine products - KeyMate and GraphMate. I bet I'd feel at home with those installed. It's hard to go that route though after being so happy within my wonderful Carrara!!! :)
Okay, and just because Ivy mentioned Fluidos:
Sorry about that!
Okay, so aside from staying up all night uploading and getting the new Freebies section going on the site, I've also managed to get a start on a couple of topics that are going to be really cool - so I thought I'd put them up here in case any of you have any questions on the subject(s) that I can answer. Of course I'll answer you hear instead of making you wait for me to add it to the article(s), but it'll give me the notion that it's another question that needs answering - so I can add it to the article(s).
Using Genesis in Carrara is going to be a much more in-depth topic that what it might seem. It's going to go deep enough that I needed to keep the next one separate:
Hybrid aniMation which is not at all a repeat of my aniMation in Carrara topic here in the Carrara forum, in fact I link to that topic in the article so I don't have to repeat. The word aniMation cues it off that it includes aniMate 2 - and that's true. As a Carrara user, I find that aniMate 2 is key to bringing Motion Capture into Carrara, since GoFigure was nice enough to make us a plugin for aniBlock imports. So I'll be digging in as deep as I've been going - perhaps it will spur further questions, conversation or sharing of other things I haven't figured out yet. After all... I'm quite a part-timer at all of this - so I get busy and dig right in. It's highly likely that I'll miss something.
Aside from that, I worked on the new Gallery a bit - that was fun. Don't worry. I was rendering the whole time!
After I get a bit caught up in the Character Setup department, I'll be juggling between Scene topics and Postwork (VFX, Editing, Sound, Music, etc.,)
So far Character Setup has
Peace!
Updated a quite a bit on the site including:
New Home page (previous home page is now "Software" landing page)
Added Blackmagic Design's training courses for DaVinci Resolve (Edit, Fusion, Fairlight Audio, Color)
Other fixes and enhancements - cleaning up some wording, reorganizing content, etc.,
Added a new video to the series: DaVinci Resolve - A Quick Look click image to watch YouTube
Updated my Home Page to reflect the new series to come:
DaVinci Resolve - A Quick Look Click the title or the drop-down for a short summary
I've now added a nice landing page for Fusion, the high-end VFX compositing software within DaVinci Resolve
My first actual tutorial since I've started this new format. Support articles on the website will soon follow
Wow. I just realized how much I've got done in this site since it's been up. A Lot of hours spent when I should be sleeping. Here's a list of articles and such I have so far. Some of them have only been started so that I don't lose sight on what I want to do next, but then I've been filling in more blanks than I seem to recall. It's growing!
Home Page has tidbits in collapsible text - I might do away with collapsible though. Too easy to breeze right on past... but that was the point at first. That and to see what Collapsible Text is! LOL
Carrara Zone
Carrara Info (when the title is a link, it has it's own article(s))
Carrara CG Workshop (when the title is a link, it has it's own article(s))
Daz Zone (when the title is a link, it has it's own article(s))
Do It In Post
Gallery
The Software
Started a new page for the new Particle Illusion Standalone freebie by Boris FX:
https://www.dartanbeck.com/the-software/particle-illusion
Teaser Promo by Boris FX
I've also been making many corrections, clarifications, articles, etc., I hope you enjoy the site!
Added a few more features and articles:
Thanks! Due to people getting in my face about wearing a mask at work (I work with the public!), I've also updated my COVID-19 Awareness article ;)
On another note, I really hope to get even somewhat close to being this proficient with Fusion (even though he's using AE) - he works at Dream Works, so I imagine he's got a much better head start! :)
Here's one of his amazing videos he does with his kids!
LOL - my favorite is the kid doing handlebars over the alligator, and then aligator pet.
Stay motivated!
New video and article (includes free scene file): Character Design in Carrara 01
This episode walks us through my main process of designing a new character, be it a new Hero, Bad Guy, Monster....
Early on on my quest to create my own animated CG films, I've decided that I need to establish a uniform and consistent method of character development so that, when I set up the shaders, etc., everyone can be in the same scene(s) together and look the way I intended them to look without having to tweak everything.
For this I've created a handy Character Template scene file - the very file that I load every time I'm about to optimize a star for my movies. Because it works so well, I also use this to set up my more generic background characters too.
As I mention in the lesson, this template is set up for how I like to work. We are all, each very different from one another - especially in how we work with CG. Even still, working through these steps with this template scene file should inspire you to build your own 'default character-builder' scene file, all set up and ready for you to design in.
Have a look and let me know what you think:
Support Article and File Download
Cheers!
It's astonishing that you have co-workers who are not only NOT wearing masks but ridiculing people wearing them. Wow... That's absolutely disgusting. Them calling it "fake news" is beyond the pale. I would feel sorry for them for being that ignorant but in this case, their ignorance can cause even more unnecessary sickness and death. :( It's just mind-blowing stupidity.
On a different note - I just bought Carrara and I'm looking forward to reading what all you've been doing with it and learning more about the program as well as your own journey with it. :)
How exciting!!! It can take a little getting used to - especially at first. Don't get frustrated. Ask when you have a question - any question. My site has some helpful tidbits toward getting started and some freebies to help you along - like blank scenes toward certain goals, for example, and the Carrara forum here is Outstanding toward helping in both instruction as well as inspiration. Great family here!
I must say, I love Carrara! I also love to help folks with Carrara - even if it's out of my usual comfort zone, I still try to help and then I learn along the way too!
Getting started in Carrara feels somewhat familiar right away, yet its differences can make it seem difficult to get to grip with at first. Don't let that deter you!
Carrara becomes really easy to work with as soon as you get past a few new ways of doing things. I like to write about this stuff a lot and, over the years of doing so, I was always able to remember the days of my first steps into a software that quickly became my favorite reason to turn on a computer. My poor games never get played anymore!!! LOL
To help answer a lot of questiona that always crop up when someone from either Daz Studio or Poser enters Carrara, I've tried to begin with a nice n' easy set of articles with videos. The site only just launched this year, so I'm still creating a lot of material to fill it with. Also, some pages are still nothing more than a landing for the pages within, so the navigation menu along the top might still be the best path, although some of the more completed landing pages have info all their own, so it's best to click through and explore at the moment. Working on it as best I can with what little scraps of time I get! LOL
Carara Zone is a category that covers a lot of ground, and will have a lot more coming soon. Within it Carrara Info is more about specifics toward working in Carrara, including (but not limited to) Installing Carrara, making a Custom Browser and getting whatever Carrara Plugins you might want.
CG Workshop covers topics that I use along my quest to make CG movies, which could easily also pertain nicely to still imagery. Although I use Carrara and other software in this section, this stuff could also be beneficial practices in other software as well. Character and Scene setup info, Kitbashing, etc., but then I also get into things like Animation, dynamic hair, and using custom eyes and teeth on my Genesis hero! This area (CG Workshop) is really beneficial to myself, as I'm learning my way into the topics that are not yet visible on the site. The intention is for the topics to progress in technique and skill as we delve deeper and experiment more.
I was always an outdoor manual labor worker so I didn't have the opportunity (still don't) to spend days on end as I toil away in CG land. So when I first got the notion to animate 3D characters, I didn't know the first thing about making movies. That said, I'm also including tutorials, demonstrations and some links regarding the cinematic side of things as well. For example, I've included a page on Cyberlink Software because of some trial-ware they gave me a while back, and I found it to be excellent tools for someone just starting out and wants a popular, affordable and complete suite of filmmaker tools delivered in an easy-to-master UI, yet my own choice so far is DaVinci Resolve - as seen in my "A Quick Look at DaVinci Resolve" article/video, which shows my own baby-steps into the software. I have other software pages too, all in an attempt to help answer questions that I had along this journey.
DAZ Zone is where I share my undying love for Daz 3D. They have helped me through this whole experience in ways that I doubt anyone else ever could (or would) have. Current topics available are only in their fledgling state, yet help to illustrate ways to get a lot of top-notch gear for not a lot of money - along with tutorials, demos and possibilities.
My Gallery doesn't even contain a lot of image showcases yet. It's more about inspiration and information about how I got into all of this, but is also where I put my freebie downloads. Currently all four of my Daz 3D 'made-for-Carrara' products are there along with some base scene files that I demonstrate in some of my tutorials. These base scenes are something I've been using for many years now - they save me a Lot of time, not having to remember to change the render settings, add this light and delete another, etc., so I encourage folks to try them and tweak them to their preference and save them - or just use the idea of them to create your own from scratch.
Anyway, the point is: I love to help as much as I love to share my workflows and demo my progress. So if you have any questions....
In fact, if you want to dig right into using Daz 3D figures in Carrara, check out my Character Design page. Along with the video below, it'll give some great tips on getting started. It'll take much of the learning curve and inject it into your muscle memory and you can be free to branch off on the more important things that You want to do! ;)
This is how easy it is. But until we know, it can be hard - or at least a bit of a pita to figure out how to get going.
Introducing Rosie 5 takes this a bit further, but it's not an actual tutorial - just a demo. I'm currently in production on a lot more info/tutorials
...and Making Rosie 5 gives a bit more of an explanation.
I think I've mentioned before that I do manual labor outdoors, so I don't often get a lot of time for my CG work - between not being at a computer and simply being too exhausted and sore to stay awake.
Anyway, that's why cool things like this can easily slip past me without my notice. Yes, I am using DaVinci Resolve and Yes, I update it when it asks me to. Check and check. But when it came to the new Cut page, introduced in Resolve 16.0, I didn't really understand it that fully, so I've been ignoring it for the good ol' Edit page, which I still like very much.
But check this out. This is a wonderful LACPUG presentation where Mary Plummer (our Fairlight Audio instructor from my DaVinci Resolve page) introduces us to DaVinci Resolve 16. It's flabbergasting that this software is free!
Okay, so I've added this and several other cool LACPUG presentation videos regarding Resolve on my DaVinci Resolve page. Just scroll to the bottom for those. Above that you can watch/download instructional videos and their project files to really dig into DaVinci Resolve and get making movies for free!
There's a "Studio" version of Resolve that's around $300 USD, which is still very affordable - especially considering the power behind it, but I have yet to feel a need for it. The free version is absolutely amazing software for making movies!
If your aim is to make movies with your renders, I strongly suggest checking out Resolve - not just because it's free, but because it's so professional, flexible and easy to use. And when you do grab it, download those videos and project files I just mentioned. They got me editing my clips, sounds and music together, adding VFX and rendering out a final version in no time at all. I know it wouldn't have gone nearly as quickly or smoothly if I hadn't gone through those instructional tutorials first. I still visit them when I forget how to access a particular feature.
Here's the full movie (short) that they're working on in many of the tutorials - and parts are included in the project files:
Hyperlight
As I await my renders, I often go in and dabble on the website. Since it's such a vast and growing place, I often find little things that I've left out accidentally and there are always pages that are started but need continuation. So I progress some things, add updates and entirely new content as I go.
In the filmmaker endeavors I'm having a lot of fun in the time that I have - rendering animations, building scenes, and experimenting with new possibilities. I've also been writing and recording new episodes for the YouTube tutorials series. More to come, and hopefully soon!
In the meantime, here are some highlights of the site at Dartanbeck.com:
Victoria 4 - Another look at the absolute most widely supported 3D human figure - period!
DaVinci Resolve - What video editor are you using?
Fusion - VFX Compositing on the Hollywood level!
Particle Illusion is free? - Particle Illusion is Free!!!
Project Dogwaffle Howler - Digital Painting with Doggy Attitude... and Animation Creation and Editing Tools
Carrara Zone - Let's Model. Let's Animate. Let's Render!
Carrara Info - from Cripeman Tutorials to Plugins
Carrara CG Workshop - Character Setup Pages
DAZ Zone - Welcome to the Magic of Daz 3D!
Daz 3D Content Bundles
Daz Studio - Learn to become a 3D Artist!
Platinum Club + Experience
Some of My Personal Favorites is a page that will be growing as I get the time to fill it.
It's a page dedicated to some of my favorite content from Daz 3D that I use in Carrara. I thought it would be a helpful showcase of product both legacy and new and everywhere in between that is known to work in Carrara. Helps take some of the guess work out of it.
I'll also try and make notes about the author - some of these content artists have a knack for making things that just plain work - and work well!
Modeling for Genesis
This is my first tutorial specifically regarding this subject: Workflow Tutorial - Creating Conforming Clothes for all Genesis figures. I hope you enjoy it. It was my intent to be brief, yet to explore the basics of the process in their entirety. It's easy to master this part of it. After we become more practiced, we can delve further into the sweet tools and their improvements.
Wow! Thank you for all the great Carrara related links! It's very much appreciated! :D
There's quite a lot that I have to learn. Things I take for granted being able to do easily in Daz Studio (simply because I'm just so used to working in Daz Studio) I have to figure out how to get similar things accomplished in Carrara. It's definitely challenging to learn a new program. I think your links will be a big help though! Thank you, @Dartanbeck ! :)
My pleasure. This is exactly why I do it! ;)
In preparation for articles and tutorials to come, I've just established a page dedicated to learning and teaching the Content Creation Tools within Daz Studio as of version 4.0 (prior to that they were purchased as add-ons)
DAZ ZONE > Daz Studio > Content Creation Tools
I mention them a bit in the previously updated page: Modeling for Genesis, but this page is a wealth of resources to explore precise details of how-to's and things to watch out for, perhaps even avoid.
More importantly, it explores what they are, how to access them and what they do.
I've been using some of these tools since the beginning - being so jazzed about Genesis in Carrara 8.5 - then in beta. With the creation of Rosie 5 (and then Dartanbeck 5) I've had a renewed ambition to get back into tweaking everything to my liking. VWD makes this even more robust and, quite frankly... easy, and with the clones and stuff I bought from SickleYield, Dimension3D and Zev0 (and more, I'm sure) I'm inspired to take excellent content that I've purchased and shape it into something different - something unique.
Anyway, I hope you like the article and get inspired to try out some parts of these amazing gifts!
Rock On, and Keep Rendering!!!
Dartanbeck