Promotion of our work with Carrara.
DUDU
Posts: 1,945
Hello,
As almost all the members of this forum, I carry out sequences (and sometimes still images) with my preferred program: Carrara
What I would like to know, it is how one can diffuse our “works” apart from this forum.
There is a thread with the marvellous film of Phil Wilkes, there are the interesting reports relating to HeadWax..., but I would like to know the experiment of all those which present their works outside to their personal studio, in a word: which are the possibilities of diffusions?
I would like to know your personal experience on this subject (commercial, local or international exposures/competitions, still images or animations...).
Thank you !
Comments
Hello DuDu, it is something that I always do, when I present a work I always mention that it was created in Carrara, I don't know in other countries but in Mexico is less popular than our president! None knows it! But I do a brief explanation of what I know about the program and how nice is to work with, but people tends to ignore that...
I'm member of filmmaker's club in Belgium and some of them tried the 3D.
They wanted all the programs “Pros” and they didn't want to hear nothing about Carrara… they gave up all !
What I would like to know, it is which are the possible outlets others that Youtube and the forums for our achievements.
The experiment of each one interests me, no matter the field of predilection (professional use, amateurs contests , exhibitions etc…) and also the goal of everyone when (s)he produce a work.
Hi DUDU, interesting question.
The answer depends on your motivation, whether you want work, or just fame :) or want to specifically advertise Carrara.
This is my experience in getting images into the 'real' world.
Motive
I always wanted to make books. Specifically illustrated kid's books.
Illustration Friday
To get published you usually need an agent. To get an agent I needed to refine my work. I started doing something called Illustration Friday where you get a prompt and illustrate it, then post it on their site via your blog. http://illustrationfriday.com/ There is also http://mondayartday.blogspot.com.au/.
Blog
People see your work on Illustration Friday and visit your blog. They comment on your work sometimes. Gradually you build up an audience. The more people who come and look at your work, the more you must pick up your game - ie you do better work because you feel obliged. But it is a two edged sword because to be fair you 'must'' visit their blog and comment on their work :) So if 40 people are commenting on your work, then you have a big task.
Your audience for a blog will be international. I managed to get a literary agent a few years ago, so I abandonned mine in 2013, but since I stopped posting on it it has still had about 56,000 extra hits. Dont know why. My blog is http://andrewfinnie.blogspot.com.au/ if you go down the bottom you will see the hit number (>157,000)
With a blog you can break down your visitor numbers by country referring site , by date etc. So for example If I wanted, I could see how many people came from this forum to visit my blog in the next few days after seeing this post.(if any)
Facebook
The second place to show your work is Facebook. The advantage of facebook is that you can concentrate on showing your work to local people. So far that has been very successful for me in picking up 'work'. I never advertise my work and try to sell it. I just put it up there for people to see. So far, because of Facebook, I've had one big digital comission, been asked to show in 'shows' that I would never had been in, and have sold quite a few paintings as well as well as a big digital work to the Church.
All because Facebook can target people in your area. https://www.facebook.com/andrew.finnie.artist
Facebook doesnt seem to give you the stats that a blog does. (Maybe you need a specific Facebook page to do that?)
YouTube
I once made an illustration Video which is very long and boring. But if you are trying to get work as an artist it's a quick way to give a quick overview of your work. Obviously you need to take more care than I did in making it (eg I shoved a mass of images in and so it's quite repetitious) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rs8zAH6V6f4
My work has also been used in teaching at a Technical College here because they saw my work on Youtube.
I know Wendy (Fool) gets a million hits on her videos but I think they are mainly from teenage boys :) (small joke there)
Vanity Publishing
You could also make a book of your Carrara work. I have a book of my paintings which I leave around at our painting shows. It impresses people when they see your body of work. They know you are in for the long hall. http://au.blurb.com/b/2501875-andrew-finnie-newcastle-painter The quality of Blurb is okay but you need to watch the lower tonal ranges as they compress them quite badly. The book is mainly handy when you are seeing people in real lfe.
Traditional Versus Digital
Finally it's a difficult point selling yourself as a digital artist in the traditional art world. To sell yourself specifically as a Carrara artist would be just as difficult. It's better to let the art stand by itself and keep the method of how you made it a secret. (inmho) :)
Finally, so far in my endeavours to get published I have been rejectced by all the 'best NY publishers. Half of them make a point of saying that they love the stories but my illustrations look too Cg. The other half love the illustrations but find the stories a little 'unusual'.
Cant please everyone :) !
hope this is of interest
Why does Wendy keep changing her name. Last it was JaguarElla. Now it s fool. Am i the only one to find this confusing.
I'm guessing because Wendy feels she is a Fool because she spends a lot of money here and tries to do the best by Daz and as a reward is censored. As an example, her last thread (advertising the the third party cloth sim for Studio) was split into two and her part of it nuked ie erased.
My daughter has entered a few international Animation Festivals both here in Canada as well as the Melbourne in Australia, A NewZealand, a British oe as well. and in the credits she always has the film was created in Carrara and lists the DAZ Site as well.
Wendy is just confused and doesn't know who she is anymore............. :)
Yes credits are a good place to list Carrara. I don't think plastering a Made With Carrara sticker over an image makes the image any better though. (Mind you it always makes @Stezza 's work look better ;)
and the way my posts keep vanishing nobody will know who I am for much longer.........
CGTalk is the best, be that still render or animation, but be careful what you wish for, people over there will tell you exactly how it is, no BS, not for those faint of heart
I am signed up but too scared to post there, I get their newsletters
The thing about "Pros" as you like to call it, lol, I guess you are talking about proffesional software, is that they give you more artistic freedom, flexible output is very important in post production, which, sadly, it's not the case with Carrara...
It is very frustrating to grade Carrara's output, often it leads to banding due Carrara's inability to do proper dithering and output images with more depth (32 bit float), you have no idea about hoops I have to go through to just to simulate a render in Carrara which renders properly in other software, Vue for example, I have to add very fine noise which adds to processing time and does not always give you desirable effect, do not want to even talk about Carrara's render passes, depth pass comes to mind, which is often hard to use in post, again, because Carrara has no way of outputing it in 16 bit integer format or even do fine AA on it if needed
@ Head wax:
Thank you for all these details!
Is this your principal job?
If it is the case, that must be exiting but sometimes stressing to convince an editor.
@ Chickenman:
It is splendid to be able to take part in international contests , I myself was selected a few years ago at the world festival amateurs with my first animation made with Carrara, the organizer of the festival of animations in St Petersburg in Russia has then asked the film and it was 17th on approximately 80 participants, I had receipt my price in thousand pieces by the post office, but that has me encouraged to continue !
Exist there a list of the international contests somewhere ?
@ FifthElement:
I spoke well about programs "pros" but I consider personally that functions and renders of Carrara are more than excellent because my old trade of filmmaker makes me have a old-fashioned vision of the images.
I directly recognize a film carried out with 3DSMax, I hate this kind renders very cold, but it is my personnal taste …
You speak about renders in 32 bits: I compose my musics in 32bits float, that generates an excellent quality but it is lost with compression in a normal format of diffusion.
I know, it is not the same thing when one works with still images, the printers manage the files of very high quality, but in cinema, there are formats of diffusions to be respected.
Thank you for the link CGTalk, it is a site which seems interesting. You think that there are some Carrara users ?
I like a lot your Carrara reel !
Wendy, I looked at one or two animations on this site, you don't have to be scared at all, for shure !
Thanks for answers !
Pleasure Dudu! No I have a proper job three times a week ;)
Oh congrats on doing so well in the festival Dudu.
Here is a link for the Ottawa Intenational Film Festival which is less than an hour away from me.
https://www.animationfestival.ca/
and Montreal, http://www.ffm-montreal.org/en/home.html
Melbourne - http://miff.com.au/
New Zealand
http://www.nziff.co.nz/2016-autumn-events/auckland/
Just search film festival or animation festival.
This is a nice discussion. Thanks for all the interesting posts.
Even though I'm sporadic at commenting, it's a pleasure to see what others do in so many threads here.
the rendo is hosting a valentine render contest, any s/w :)
a couple of Wendy's videos inspired me to buy the content she used. Ravenskull halls, the Carriage House - was very funny.