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CARRARA CHALLENGE #63: There be Dragons..... WIP

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  • StezzaStezza Posts: 8,135
    edited July 2022

    Headwax said:

    here's a quickie from me back tomorrow to comment on the fantastamagorical work

    The Dragon Gate

     

    The Untainted Work

     

     

    The Fiddled with Work

     

     

     

    dragon bones .... eeeerie awesome

    the monk chomping at the bit to recite the dragon bones anthology from the library of the dead! yes 

    Post edited by Stezza on
  • Steve KSteve K Posts: 3,249

    Diomede said:

     

    I picked up the new Paris city center and am thinking of ways to give it a go. 

    Is that the "Paris City Center" model by Matej Vodnik?  How did you import it to Carrara?  Collada?

  • UnifiedBrainUnifiedBrain Posts: 3,588

    Diomede said:

    Yay, thank you, Daz, for continued support.

    I picked up the new Paris city center and am thinking of ways to give it a go.  Here I have a bunch of dragons being defeated by the French at night.  Replicated the falling dragon on a cylinder I put around the tower.  Inserted a starry sky in the backdrop.  Played with a background bigradient to get the yellow reflection for the tower at night.  Tried a dome of distant lights set to only light the dragons in an attempt at a rim light but I think it just made the image even more flat.  Still experimenting with this idea.

    As Stezza said, great perspective!  Textures look great as well.

  • UnifiedBrainUnifiedBrain Posts: 3,588

    Headwax said:

    here's a quickie from me back tomorrow to comment on the fantastamagorical work

    The Dragon Gate

    Not too shabby for a "quickie.: smiley  As usual, you have a whole story going.  Eerie character, lighting and shadows.

  • UnifiedBrainUnifiedBrain Posts: 3,588

    shlomi laszlo said:

    with forest primeEVIL plants

    and just the carrara stuff for the landscape

    Another intreresting perspective.  Great giants there, Shlomi.  I too am a fan of the Forest Primeval plants.

  • UnifiedBrainUnifiedBrain Posts: 3,588

    DesertDude said:

    Stezza said:

    The Herculoids 

    revamped file from one I did 2013 when Carrara was v8  wink
    changed the dragon style using 3DU dragon for dragon3 added foliage, props and added Tara ( Zandor's wife ) who wasn't in my original file.

     Ha, that's cool Stezza, nice work. I had to look that up, never heard of the show.

    +1  I had never heard of it either, but it is very interesting to look at. :)  Some wild modeling in there...

  • UnifiedBrainUnifiedBrain Posts: 3,588
    edited July 2022

    DesertDude said:

    Bunyip02 said:

    Postwork

    First of all used Topaz Adjust with the Crisp filter to bring out the details.

     

    Next used Topaz Adjust Color Blast filter to bring out the colour.

     

    Then into Filter Forge and applied the Aquarelle filter for a NPR look.

     

    Back into PSP and adjusted the Filter Forge layer to 65% transperancy so the filter look did not overpower the image.

    Final postworked image.

    The final has a nice illustrative style and colors and I like the point of view. yes

    +1  Gotta echo DesertDude again.  You put a lot of work into this Bunyip, and it shows.  Nicely done.  Thanks for all the process details!

    An interesting Challenge theme.  And also glad to hear that Daz is sponsoring once again.  yes 

    Post edited by UnifiedBrain on
  • UnifiedBrainUnifiedBrain Posts: 3,588
    edited July 2022

    "Is it just me, or did it suddenly get a LOT warmer in here?"

     

    Best not to annoy the Warrior Princess. cool

    I went old school on this one.  No need for fancy Milliennium dragons 1-3, when the original Daz Dragon is still available. yes

    And who needs genesis?  It doesn't get much better than a sweaty V3, I hope you agree.

    The outfit is a modifed version of Angeluz for V4.  The flame and smoke were Jepe billboards, which I had never used before.  Background was courtesy of MatCreator.

    No postwork, but prework on the V3 body texture in PSE.

    Is It Just Me Carrara setup.JPG
    1638 x 1012 - 271K
    Is It Just Me.png
    1900 x 1267 - 3M
    Post edited by UnifiedBrain on
  • StezzaStezza Posts: 8,135

    I just had to turn our aircon off... .and it's only 7c outside!

    awesome render @unifiedbrain .... really good wink

    just one detraction is the dragon's hands but other than that yes

  • Bunyip02Bunyip02 Posts: 8,715

    Diomede said:

    Yay, thank you, Daz, for continued support.

    I picked up the new Paris city center and am thinking of ways to give it a go.  Here I have a bunch of dragons being defeated by the French at night.  Replicated the falling dragon on a cylinder I put around the tower.  Inserted a starry sky in the backdrop.  Played with a background bigradient to get the yellow reflection for the tower at night.  Tried a dome of distant lights set to only light the dragons in an attempt at a rim light but I think it just made the image even more flat.  Still experimenting with this idea.

    Great render - love the perspective !!!

  • Bunyip02Bunyip02 Posts: 8,715
    edited July 2022

    UnifiedBrain said:

    "Is it just me, or did it suddenly get a LOT warmer in here?"

     

    Best not to annoy the Warrior Princess. cool

    I went old school on this one.  No need for fancy Milliennium dragons 1-3, when the original Daz Dragon is still available. yes

    And it doesn't get any better than a sweaty V3, I hope you agree.

    The outfit is a modifed version of Angeluz for V4.  The flame and smoke were Jepe billboards, which I had never used before.  Background was courtesy of MatCreator.

    No postwork, but prework on the V3 body texture in PSE.

    Excellent render - sweat on main character adds to the render !!!

    Post edited by Bunyip02 on
  • Bunyip02Bunyip02 Posts: 8,715
    edited July 2022

    Animation render done !!!

    Compiled animation done in Pinnacle Studio !!!

    Link to Vimeo video - https://vimeo.com/manage/videos/730568261

    It's a bit slidy in a few places but I'm starting to get the hang of this animation work !

    CC63 DragonAnim WIP Render.jpg
    2734 x 1033 - 2M
    CC63 Dragon WIP Pinnacle Studio.jpg
    1460 x 934 - 718K
    Post edited by Bunyip02 on
  • UnifiedBrainUnifiedBrain Posts: 3,588
    edited July 2022

    Syezza said:

    I just had to turn our aircon off... .and it's only 7c outside!

    awesome render @unifiedbrain .... really good wink

    just one detraction is the dragon's hands but other than that yes

    I assume that you mean the palms?

    Since the dragon looked pretty cool right out of the box, and I didn't have to change much of anything, I "willfully ignored" how odd the palms looked.  But you are right, they seemed a little weird to me as well.  The original modeler must have thought that the nose texture (which looks great) would also look fine on the palms.  Nope.

    My options to improve the situation were: 1 - Change the original texture maps, 2 - Make the mesh in the palms more dense and less "planky", and 3 - In the modeling room, create separate domains for the palms and use the Carrara shader room to create more a more pleasing look.  I picked #3, and changed it in the original post.

    Thanks for the good words.  I appreciate the constructive criticism.  Please let me know if this is more satisfying to you.

     

     

     

    Post edited by UnifiedBrain on
  • Bunyip02Bunyip02 Posts: 8,715

    UnifiedBrain said:

    Syezza said:

    I just had to turn our aircon off... .and it's only 7c outside!

    awesome render @unifiedbrain .... really good wink

    just one detraction is the dragon's hands but other than that yes

    I assume that you mean the palms?

    Since the dragon looked pretty cool right out of the box, and I didn't have to change much of anything, I "willfully ignored" how odd the palms looked.  But you are right, they seemed a little weird to me as well.  The original modeler must have thought that the nose texture (which looks great) would also look fine on the palms.  Nope.

    My options to improve the situation were: 1 - Change the original texture maps, 2 - Make the mesh in the palms more dense and less "planky", and 3 - In the modeling room, create separate domains for the palms and use the Carrara shader room to create more a more pleasing look.  I picked #3, and changed it in the original post.

    Thanks for the good words.  I appreciate the constructive criticism.  Please let me know if this is more satisfying to you.

    Huge improvement UB. When I looked at the original render I was certain that the palms of the feet were a limitation of the original model mapping. Well done for updating them !!!

  • DesertDudeDesertDude Posts: 1,238

    Syezza said:

    I made use of the dragon smiley

    Fantasy Garden Party

    Willy Gruen went to a garden party
    and much to his surprise
    there was singing crows
    and onion breath
    and lots of dragon flies

    everything except the background picture I modelled in Carrara yes

     Looks like a fantastic garden party. I'll never cease to be amazed at how adept you are at modelling - just out of pure air they appear almost instantly!
    I wonder what they are all talking about?

  • DesertDudeDesertDude Posts: 1,238

    Headwax said:

    here's a quickie from me back tomorrow to comment on the fantastamagorical work

    The Dragon Gate

     

    The Untainted Work

     

     

    The Fiddled with Work

     

     

     

     I like them both equally. smiley
    Nice foreboding sense of atmosphere. Mysterious.

  • DesertDudeDesertDude Posts: 1,238

    shlomi laszlo said:

    with forest primeEVIL plants

    and just the carrara stuff for the landscape

     Cool dino fight scene shlomi lazzlo, that little dinosaur is looking unhappy.
     

  • DesertDudeDesertDude Posts: 1,238

    Steve K said:

    Looks like a lot of good work going on here.  I'm still tied up on another project, but a loose neuron snapped back into place and said "You did something like this a while back".  And amazingly I found it, a 2006, 25 second video using some DAZ Dragon (I've lost track) and the great Veronica Year 3 outfit from Uzilite (2004).  Just for grins:

    That's an intriguing trailer Steve K, thanks for sharing!

  • DesertDudeDesertDude Posts: 1,238

    Syezza said:

    be careful where you use your yoyo!

    dragons are fascinated by them!

     Ha, another clever picture from...Syezza. laugh
    My cat looks like that from time to time...

  • DesertDudeDesertDude Posts: 1,238

    Diomede said:

    False start.

    RE: Dragon Helm of Dor Lomin.  I had started modeling something in Carrara and got this far.  But I plan to start over.  Seems like a good project to use as a tutorial for a sculpting program and painting program.  So even though I am posting this Work in Progress, and I could finish the modeling project in Carrara, I prefer to use this as a learning opportunity.  Sculpting programs can make normal maps from two versions of a mesh.  So here is a false start Carrara WIP using Carrara's vertex modeler. 

     Looking forward to seeing where this leads. I'm sure whatever approach you take it will be cool.

  • DesertDudeDesertDude Posts: 1,238

    Diomede said:

    Yay, thank you, Daz, for continued support.

    I picked up the new Paris city center and am thinking of ways to give it a go.  Here I have a bunch of dragons being defeated by the French at night.  Replicated the falling dragon on a cylinder I put around the tower.  Inserted a starry sky in the backdrop.  Played with a background bigradient to get the yellow reflection for the tower at night.  Tried a dome of distant lights set to only light the dragons in an attempt at a rim light but I think it just made the image even more flat.  Still experimenting with this idea.

    This has a good night time feel already, and I like the dynamic perspective. Keep on experimenting!

  • DesertDudeDesertDude Posts: 1,238
    I assume that you mean the palms?

    Since the dragon looked pretty cool right out of the box, and I didn't have to change much of anything, I "willfully ignored" how odd the palms looked.  But you are right, they seemed a little weird to me as well.  The original modeler must have thought that the nose texture (which looks great) would also look fine on the palms.  Nope.

    My options to improve the situation were: 1 - Change the original texture maps, 2 - Make the mesh in the palms more dense and less "planky", and 3 - In the modeling room, create separate domains for the palms and use the Carrara shader room to create more a more pleasing look.  I picked #3, and changed it in the original post.

    Thanks for the good words.  I appreciate the constructive criticism.  Please let me know if this is more satisfying to you.

     This has some great lighting - I like those glints and shines. Is the dragon breath made of particles? Fire Primitive? Looks cool.
    Nice composition as well. yes

  • DesertDudeDesertDude Posts: 1,238

    Bunyip02 said:

    Animation render done !!!

    Compiled animation done in Pinnacle Studio !!!

    Link to Vimeo video - https://vimeo.com/manage/videos/730568261

    It's a bit slidy in a few places but I'm starting to get the hang of this animation work !

    It's great to see more poeple diving right into animation. I have little to no experience animating other than simple objects, nothing as complex or organic as you have tackled. Bravo!

  • DesertDudeDesertDude Posts: 1,238
    edited July 2022

    Here is my first WIP, a dragon made of paper plates.

    I had several bad starts on how to apprach those uniquitous ridges on paper plates. My first attempts involved dispalcement mapping and it looked...awful. So I modeled them creating a high poly plate. I started with only one quarter of the plate and fussed around until I got the grooves to look passable. I then dupliacted with symmetry, welded the two halves together, then duplicated with symmetry again to finish the plate. The result is not a perfect circle. crying I'm sure there was a more sane approach, but anyways, then I created a normal map from the high poly plate and applied that to a low poly disc.

    I then used a regular Replicator and dialed in a single row along one axis, then gently tweaked the position and rotation% so they aren't perfectly aligned.

    Experimenting creating the feathers using info from this thread: https://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/493341/can-i-create-feathers-with-the-hair-tool

    He'll be much more decorated later. Right now I need to create his environment.

     

    wip_002.jpg
    1600 x 1000 - 162K
    plate_hi_poly_quarter.jpg
    780 x 751 - 87K
    plate_hi_poly.jpg
    788 x 778 - 247K
    plate_normal_web.jpg
    768 x 768 - 31K
    Post edited by DesertDude on
  • Steve KSteve K Posts: 3,249

    DesertDude said:

    Steve K said:

    Looks like a lot of good work going on here.  I'm still tied up on another project, but a loose neuron snapped back into place and said "You did something like this a while back".  And amazingly I found it, a 2006, 25 second video using some DAZ Dragon (I've lost track) and the great Veronica Year 3 outfit from Uzilite (2004).  Just for grins:

    That's an intriguing trailer Steve K, thanks for sharing!

    Thanks, another "trailer" for a video I never got around to.  Just imagine your own plot ... and then send it to me ... the story is the hardest part of the 48 Hour Film contest.  Gotta start with a random genre, plus a character (name & occupation), prop and line of dialogue ~7:30 PM Friday, then start filming/animating Saturday bright and early.  As with a lot of commercial products, the directors get the credit, but I think the writer(s) can make or break a project.  E.g. "The Princess Bride", nicely directed by Rob Reiner (who I've read begged William Goldman to do the screenplay based on his novel).  But that screenplay is " ... cheerfully transformed by [Goldman's] wicked adult imagination. It is filled with good-hearted fun, with performances by actors who seem to be smacking their lips and by a certain true innocence that survives all of Reiner's satire ... " (Roger Ebert)

    Buttercup: We'll never survive.

    Westley: Nonsense. You're only saying that because no one ever has.

  • DiomedeDiomede Posts: 15,194

    Steve K said:

    Diomede said:

     

    I picked up the new Paris city center and am thinking of ways to give it a go. 

    Is that the "Paris City Center" model by Matej Vodnik?  How did you import it to Carrara?  Collada?

    Thanks for the comments on Paris dragons, everyone.  Steve K, the Paris tower loads directly from the content folder without having to convert to another format.  Yes, the load time was very long.  Also, in trying to open the shader room, I inadvertently entered the modeling room with the model selected.  Took forever, but I was able to load the tower in the vertex modeler.  I didn't do anything there, but good to know it can be opened.

    The product is by Polish.  https://www.daz3d.com/paris-city-center

  • DiomedeDiomede Posts: 15,194
    edited July 2022

    Well, I wasn't in the mood for struggling with another program's user interface, so I put my sculpting idea on hold.  I started modeling my Carrara figures for my animation idea.  Some alliteration.

    Here is the heroine and the hero.

    Two minor workflow notes.  (1) The skirt for the heroine is parented to the figure's hip, not attached to the same skeleton.  The skirt's long front and back panels are rigged separately so I can try to animate without calculating a drape.  (2) The wreath-hat for the heroine is just some custom leaves replicated on a band.  The band has visibility turned off.

    Now I just need a dragon and a setting.

    And below are the base models and skeleton rigs that I start from.

    dragon slayer characters.jpg
    600 x 800 - 33K
    starter models.jpg
    600 x 800 - 28K
    Post edited by Diomede on
  • DiomedeDiomede Posts: 15,194

    DesertDude said:

    Here is my first WIP, a dragon made of paper plates.

    I had several bad starts on how to apprach those uniquitous ridges on paper plates. My first attempts involved dispalcement mapping and it looked...awful. So I modeled them creating a high poly plate. I started with only one quarter of the plate and fussed around until I got the grooves to look passable. I then dupliacted with symmetry, welded the two halves together, then duplicated with symmetry again to finish the plate. The result is not a perfect circle. crying I'm sure there was a more sane approach, but anyways, then I created a normal map from the high poly plate and applied that to a low poly disc.

    I then used a regular Replicator and dialed in a single row along one axis, then gently tweaked the position and rotation% so they aren't perfectly aligned.

    Experimenting creating the feathers using info from this thread: https://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/493341/can-i-create-feathers-with-the-hair-tool

    He'll be much more decorated later. Right now I need to create his environment.

    Wow, that is crazy-creative-genius.  I have some paper plates and may just assemble my own dragon.  Brilliant.

  • DiomedeDiomede Posts: 15,194

    UnifiedBrain said:

    Syezza said:

    I just had to turn our aircon off... .and it's only 7c outside!

    awesome render @unifiedbrain .... really good wink

    just one detraction is the dragon's hands but other than that yes

    I assume that you mean the palms?

    Since the dragon looked pretty cool right out of the box, and I didn't have to change much of anything, I "willfully ignored" how odd the palms looked.  But you are right, they seemed a little weird to me as well.  The original modeler must have thought that the nose texture (which looks great) would also look fine on the palms.  Nope.

    My options to improve the situation were: 1 - Change the original texture maps, 2 - Make the mesh in the palms more dense and less "planky", and 3 - In the modeling room, create separate domains for the palms and use the Carrara shader room to create more a more pleasing look.  I picked #3, and changed it in the original post.

    Thanks for the good words.  I appreciate the constructive criticism.  Please let me know if this is more satisfying to you.

     

     

    Excellent, UB.  The hands did not draw my attention until it was pointed out to me.  Now that I have seen it, great to learn about how you address such things.  Even better.

  • DiomedeDiomede Posts: 15,194

    Syezza said:

    Diomede said:

    Stezza said:

    The Herculoids 

    revamped file from one I did 2013 when Carrara was v8  wink
    changed the dragon style using 3DU dragon for dragon3 added foliage, props and added Tara ( Zandor's wife ) who wasn't in my original file.

    I loved the Herculoids growing up.  These 3D models are top notch.  

    If anyone is not familiar with the classic show, see this clip to see what a great job Syezza did.

    thanks @diomede

    I shall honour you by changing my user name during the course of the challenge wink 

    yesyeslaughlaugh - sorry about the typo blush

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