PhilW's Carrara TV - Best News I've Heard All Day!!!
Dartanbeck
Posts: 21,328
Wow! I just got home from work and watched the new video I published last night and, what was in the suggestion box?
Carrara Realism Rendering promo from O'Reilly Video Training. So I went to their site to check it out.
Sure enough! All of his Infinite Skills video courses for Carrara are available!!!
Just do a search for Phil Wilkes at O'Reilly, and there's the entire collection!
Of course, I already own them, but I'm ecstatic that these are still available for folks who might not have them!
I have the Learning Carrara 8.5 course, not 7 or 8. But if I remember correctly, Learning Carrara 8.5 is the same course as Learning Carrara 8, but has added Carrara 8.5 material. I could be wrong.
My version of Learning Carrara 8.5 also came complete with the Carrara 8.5 New Features additions. I believe that this was offered for those whom already owned Learning Carrara 8, and wanted to get the added materials. Again, I may be mistaken.
When I bought my first one, I felt advanced enough to just begin with Advanced Carrara Techniques - and I was advanced enough to understand where he was going throughout this amazing course. There's so much to absorb that I have to take it for what I'm looking to learn. He covers a Lot of material in these.
Advanced Carrara Techniques is the one that explores modeling in depth, along with many other advanced techniques. We build a Sopwith Camel (biplane) and learn to use Fenric's Enhanced Remote Control plugin to control the ailerons! Building this model is an excellent journey! He gets into details on creating and using templates in the model room to follow for the various views to assist in getting the model accurate.
He covers UV Mapping too. In addition, all of these lessons come with working files, so we can use his templates, textures... even the finished models!!!
He also covers dynamic hair on V4 using a conforming proxy, which he provides as well, along with the example hair that he uses in the lesson. Great stuff!
We model and build a cool outdoors scene complete with field grass, stream/river, driveway and the cottage itself.
...and a Lot more.
I had so much fun with it, I decided to get Learning Carrara 8.5 (8.5 was just released at that time - as was the course), knowing that I'd enjoy it even if I was 'so advanced that I didn't need the basics'! LOL
Oh, I learned that I was being far too impressed with myself back then! Funny thing is, I look back at those days and, sure... I did some pretty cool stuff, but I was nowhere near "Good"! At least not good enough to go thinking I wouldn't get a wealth of additional knowledge from this course!
Learning Carrara 8.5 is another Huge source of Carrara education, jam-packed with lessons on all manner of topics and techniques - along with excellent working files!
I still watch this course. Like I said earlier with the Advanced course, there's So Much to absorb that there's an immense amount of replayability to these videos - and they're packed with hours of efficient instruction.
Not only that, but Phil makes it fun. It's a highly entertaining collection.
Before Realism Rendering was released, PhilW started a thread entitled: "Make Your Most Realistic Renders – Ever!", which is all about his discoveries about adopting the Linear Workflow that professional studios around the world are using, along with most, if not all PBR modern render engines using Gamma Correction of 2.2
I tried it, dropped it. Forgot about it. Came back to it... it was no doubt a more pleasing rendering solution. But I wasn't used to it. I guess I thought that I actually liked the stark contrast that's so easy to achieve otherwise.
Well then I got (Jay Nola was suggesting this to me for quite some time prior) the book Digital Lighting and Rendering, by Jeremy Birn (do a search for it and buy it!) - who knows his stuff about cinematography and digital cinematography and visual effect compositing, etc., and he, too emphasizes the importance of adopting the Linear Workflow for realistic rendering.
Carrara - Realism Rendering is the result of Phil Wilkes conducting a massive amount of research and study on the linear workflow information along with the teachings of Jeremy Birn's invaluable book. He explores many concepts and techniques regarding lighting, render settings, shaders... he's very PhilW throughout! Again, hours of highly entertaining and brain-feeding education! I'm in the process of watching this one over again right now.
With Infinite Skills being acquired by O'Reilly, we kinda lost the availability of PhilW's incredible courses other than occasionally through sources like Amazon.
With that being the case, PhilW's latest course, Animation in Carrara Video Tutorials, is the first one he produced on his own without Infinite Skills. Like his previous courses, Animation in Carrara is the product of immense research, study and practical experience. It's an incredible blend of theory with Carrara techniques, tool use, tweeners, render suggestions... it's a total animation course for Carrara users!
I've been in this for animation from the start, and I started learning new tricks right from the start! Something about that Phil Wilkes... he's just an amazing instructor!
A great example of his style is this, his promo video for the course:
The climax of the course has us build a factory robot and set it up for animation, then create a story, storyboards, animate and complete the production.
This is his result from that final lesson. Keep in mind that, as with all of his other courses, this one comes with all of the working files from every wonderful chapter, including his completed robot. Check out the final homework as completed by our instructor:
So what are you waiting for?!!! :)
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Comments
New page on my website
Phil Wilkes Carrara Courses
- Learn Carrara like Never Before!
Dart, do you know how it works with O'reily? I see that it is $50 a month. I wonder how much access that grants, and how much I get to keep using when offline.
Phil's 8.5 Basic tutorial was a godsend. By the time I realized that I wanted a couple more, it was too late.
I don't know. I'm just glad that the courses are accessible. From the glance I had, it seemed to me that, while one is a member, they have unlimited access. If I didn't have the collection, I'd certainly look into it. But then again, I love the courses already, so it's easy for me to say that. Before I knew what they were about, I admit that I was a bit shy as well. They weren't cheap.
After seeing just a couple chapters, however, I felt relieved that it was money very well spent.
That said, some of them may still be available from time to time on Amazon or E-Bay or some such(?)
I have an O'reilly account that my work pays for due to all the good technical documentation and videos.
I have looked at Phil's video's there and you only have access while connected as they stream them to you. As soon as you log out you lose connectivity to them.
As far as I am aware there is no way to download them.
Thanks chickenman. That's what I figured.
I sure am glad that I bought them. At least there's still an option available to learn from this masterful series of courses!
I'm Glad I bought them as well, Just nice to know I have the option of watching ghem this way as well.
Absolutely!
Bring on the tutts. i have the one with the factory arm. was a real eye opener in carrara capabilities.
theres lotsa really kewl reasons not to abandon carrara.
was just thinking about a syllabus of training to get up to speed with the plugsins. putting the 'x' in carrara X
i never properly learned how to use the Fenric plug ins
i dont know how to use the erc freeze or the shader tools.
would like to make some pose controls.
figured out the sixus krampus wont load in carra cuz of the finger ercs. needs carrara version.
The Carrara training offered in Phil's courses, to me, has been invaluable.
Although the method to see them today via the above links may not be incredibly cheap, they never really were.
It took me a while to buy the first one because of the cost. But after watching through the many, many lessons - following along, absorbing what I could at the time and just enjoying the parts that I wasn't working with at the time, it made buying the rest of them a Much Easier decision - whatever the cost.
I started with the Advanced Carrara Training, because I felt fairly advanced at the time.
Seeing how differently PhilW and I work, and how much his teachings are such a complete, clear and welcome addition to what I already knew, I decided that his Basic Training would be a great place to go next. That course covered topics that I haven't explored yet in Carrara, and I was also eager to discover how he demonstrates the topics that I already felt comfortable in.
Getting the Basic Training course, I found that I was right. Even the topics that I felt I already knew well, he was teaching me much deeper and completely different ways to really dig into Carrara.
I am no stranger to the manual, though it's been a while. But Phil's courses cover so much that they truly are something that I still revisit when I'm delving into charters unknown within Carrara.
Like I said, I enjoy watching the protions that I might not be particularly eager to delve into - in my own practice, just to see and hear what he has to say about it. This had a great impact of both reinforcing that I have information to come back to when I'm ready, as well as to inspire me to stop procrastinating and hop into these aspects that I never knew I'd want or need.
He gives a really nice demonstration of using the ERC plugin by Fenric in the Advanced course. We can either build the plane model first, or skip the modeling and just watch how he uses one of the ailerons (flap on the wing) to control the others. It's a biplane, so there are four ailerons in total. Just grab the one and move it, and the rest do what they should do in that situation - one follows this one, the others go the opposite way.
While the ERC plugin goes much deeper than that, his lessons take so many of the questions and hesitations away from using this remarkable set of tools.
There's a lot more. The ERC lesson is just a smidgeon of excellence - and on it's own is a great wealth of information.
Like his Realism Rendering and Animating courses, each set sold must have taken him a Lot of time to create because he really does his research to give us what we need to know in a True, precise and efficient manner - and he's a very soothing teacher.
Those are just some of the reasons I'm always freely advertising his courses - and always thanking him for their excellence. I have come to call them "Carrara TV". And in my world Carrara TV never gets old! I'm very glad that I own the whole set.
another all tine favorite
AgeOfArmour's shader tutt, invludes the moldy door
I love his stuff. I love AoA! He's an amazing, helpful and very friendly guy, and an amazing artist with a vast mind!
When I first started with Carrara, he was a regular Carrara user and frequent Carrara forum contributor - along with Sub7th, 3dage, Tim Payne, Dimension Theory, 3DLust and many more. Carrara 7 was hopping and the new 64 bit Carrara 8 was in beta. After trying the beta, I never really went back to 7. The same with 8.5 beta for me.
I own 6, 7, 8 and 8.5, but never even installed 6. I will one day. I want to build a WinXP Pro machine to keep in my office with Carrara 6 on it - and any earlier versions I might find along the way. Then a Windows 7 machine with Carrara 7 and 8 on them. Then keep my workstation rockin' Carrara 8.5+!!!
Could not agree more! I hope when Covid goes and I can get up to meet the Yorkshire Palaeo group who have been so helpful to me and are near his area, that I can meet Phil as well. Like the guidebooks say 'Worth A Journey' !!
Oh, can I come too? All that can't be that far from Wisconsin, is it?