Vectorstyle 2 for Carrara

Sonofbelmont

Hi
While browsing the store today this caught my attention (http://www.daz3d.com/shop/vectorstyle-2-for-carrara)
however it only has one product image which just shows mechanical objects that have been output using the plugin
I’d be really grateful if someone could provide a few some samples of how human characters look using it and if possible an AI file so that I can see how clean lines are when brought into illustrator.
Any help would be appreciated
Thanks

wetcircuit

People generally won't look very good with the VectorStyle exporter, in my opinion... Certainly you lose most detail and shading... But I typically do not find *any* vector drawings of people to be very attractive.

A stylized or "toon" figure might give good resullts, but it depends on what you'd find acceptable detail...

I'm attempting to export a figure in a few formats... in the meantime these images are from the Docs:

wetcircuit

You can download 2 vector exports here:
http://www.3d.wetcircuit.com/xtra/Alex.eps
http://www.3d.wetcircuit.com/xtra/Alex.svg

This was just a scene/figure I had handy. I have not changed textures or lights to try to improve the results.

Here is the EPS. I set the export background to white, but it did not take, apparently...

wetcircuit

...and the SVG

all vectors are selectable and editable in Illustrator.

wetcircuit

For comparison this is the figure rendered with Carrara.

wetcircuit

Boosted Ambient Light to 50%. Turned off shadows and highlight in the exporter, with quality setting at "Best" and fill set to "Gradients". I have transparency turned on but clearly there are issues with the eyes and lashes.

Sonofbelmont

Thanks a lot for taking the time to post all those images holly wetcircuit
It looks like it could be just what I'm after
Can anyone tell me if the plugin works in Carrara 8.5 or does it only work with Carrara 8?

Headwax

a few times a year it comes down to about 29 dollars I think

wetcircuit

Son of Belmont said:

Thanks a lot for taking the time to post all those images holly wetcircuit
It looks like it could be just what I'm after
Can anyone tell me if the plugin works in Carrara 8.5 or does it only work with Carrara 8?

When you buy it, it's called VECTORSTYLE2 FOR CARRARA6...

Then you will get a hundred versions with obtuse names like:
VECTORSYLE2 FOR CARRARA 6 for Carrara 7
VECTORSYLE2 FOR CARRARA 6 for Carrara 8 64bit

I had to dig around for the serial number, apparently the original for C6 has a different serial than for C7+

cdordoni

Hi Son of Belmont,

Although I have not worked specifically with figures and Vectorsyle, I can tell you that the complexity and polygon count of the objects can be an issue with getting a good vector file.

It works very well for simple, low poly objects although there is a documented bug with some color shifting in the output.

Another appoach is described here using Toon Pro and YA Toon, http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/9456/

To get vector work in illustrator, its possible to take the "toon" style bitmap rendering and convert them in illustrator. The "live" trace in illustrator may not produce the best results for this, but a plugin for illustrator appears to do a very good job based on word of mouth, although I have not used it myself, http://www.astutegraphics.com/products/

The live trace in illustrator is not "bad" but it can make a very large file with lots of small tracings, especially if you have it set to 256 colors. I believe the advantage of the Astutegraphics "Phantasm" plugin is that it can create vector halftone patterns. What is unclear is if it can produce a vector halftone pattern from a bitmap.

Chris

Sonofbelmont

I purchased it and have been playing with it in the 8.5 beta of Carrara
SWF files save perfectly but for some reason when I try making an EPS or SVG file it comes out coloured completely black in Illustrator despite the preview having shown otherwise.

wetcircuit

Son of Belmont said:

I purchased it and have been playing with it in the 8.5 beta of Carrara
SWF files save perfectly but for some reason when I try making an EPS or SVG file it comes out coloured completely black in Illustrator despite the preview having shown otherwise.

Check your scene for a blocking transparent object. I could not get EPS or SVG to respect transparency. Did not test the illustrator or flash formats...

3DAGE

HI all :)

I just got this too, so I'm playing catch-up to holly :) as usual....

On the AI export...

From the docs

You'll notice that when you choose AI as an export option, the Area Gradient Fill mode become unavailable. This is due to the fact that Level 3 EPS is not currently supported by VectorStyle 2

it would probably be easier to use SVG instead of AI

On transparency,
that works for me,.. as long as I set the slider in the fill options tab, and your shader has some transparency value.

One issue I do have is EPS,. ..
Xara gives me an error when I try to open or import any of the exported eps files, and that's a first for xara which normally handles anything

Flash works fine and that's probably where it'll be most used.

the first image is a flash frame, with the transparency showing on the cube.

the second is SVG with some issues on the "non transparent" sphere, but the cube and transparency seem ok

wetcircuit

For what it's worth, I accidentally discovered the EDIT menu has a VectorStyle Preview window (down nearly at the bottom of the list where the plugins show).

That should save some time, and you don't have to "save" the file from the Export menu before you see what you are doing....

3DAGE said:

HI all :)

I just got this too, so I'm playing catch-up to holly :) as usual....

lol
:P <3</p>

Headwax

out of interest toon pro does nice clean lines around objects (except eyelashes which you need to pull into the head to get rid of - or post work them out)
you can take them into inkscape as a BMP and do a path trace to vectorize them
haven't found how to save them out yet, (except as a Tiff) but it should be possible.

Roygee

Hi head wax:)

If you are saying what I think, you can save from Inkscape as eps and convert to ai using uniconverter http://sk1project.org/modules.php?name=Products&product=uniconvertor&op=download

Headwax

thanks Roy,
I seem to be getting two layers in Inkscape - the bmp one and the path traced one, but it is only saving as a TIFF (a raster ?) ?
I'll check it out again
thanks for that link !

Roygee

Fist off, I must admit I know very little about Inkscape - or vectors for that matter. Must really study it someday. So far I've only used it for tracing outlines for further processing in Hex.

This is a simple cookie-cutter I quickly whipped up from a .png render of Genesis in Carrara. Did the trace in Inkscape, separated the trace fom the original, deleted the original and saved - not exported, as eps, converted to ai using Uniconverter. Imported to Hex, cleaned up the extra lines and extruded. After more cleaning up I'll bridge to make a solid.

Headwax

Thanks Roygee,
Yes I'm interested in converting line drawings to vector to import into carrara spline modeller.
Have you done this with inscape into carrara?
from memory Carrara wouldn't read the files.
I've had success with Expression 3 - (free prog)
cheers from Oz
:)

3DAGE

Hi Head Wax :)

Have you tried Xara. ?

It has a really nice little built in Utility to convert images into vector shapes (Bitmap tracer)
nice sliders, and options to control what you end up with.

it creates the result as a "Group" of vector shapes, so you can move and scale it easily, but you can "ungroup" it if you want to edit the individual vector shapes, or delete what you don't need.

30 day trail at Xara.co.uk,.... so it's worth a play

I'm using Xara Designer Pro X here.

Sonofbelmont

Hi
I've got another question which relates to Vectorstyle 2
It looks as though like similar plugins I've seen you can control where lines show by using smoothing groups. Is there a way to change the smoothing groups on a model already in Carrara?

Headwax

3DAGE said:

Hi Head Wax :)

Have you tried Xara. ?

It has a really nice little built in Utility to convert images into vector shapes (Bitmap tracer)
nice sliders, and options to control what you end up with.

it creates the result as a "Group" of vector shapes, so you can move and scale it easily, but you can "ungroup" it if you want to edit the individual vector shapes, or delete what you don't need.

30 day trail at Xara.co.uk,.... so it's worth a play

I'm using Xara Designer Pro X here.

thanks 3DAGE :)
Ah yes, I have my eye on it thank you.
I have seen the good work you have done with it in the past and I will grab it one day .
Right now I have to keep hiding my credit card bills from my wife so "one day" may be "one day in the future"
:)
But serously, I will look at it when I get time to do some pattern modelling that I have in mind with the spline modeller.
I want to do some 3d decorative work in the future and vectors with spline seems to be the way to go

thanks again

:)

regards from oz

Roygee

Hi head wax - sorry I haven't replied earlier - haven't been able to get through for a few days. I suppose Daz does site maintenance while you guys sleep and I'm awake.

Yes, Uniconverter converts pretty much every vector format to pretty much every other one. It outputs ai5, which is perfectly compatible with Carrara.

wetcircuit

:-/ I'm not an Illustrator pro, but... isn't the goal of using vectors to have LESS detail and a simpler/cleaner image? What is the benefit of having a heavily mozaic'ed vector with hundreds of color zones? You lose any efficiency of file size, and those dense zones are not good for printing... There seem to be better ways to get that chunky polarized look, raster filters would be faster if that's the goal, I think....

I'd like to hear more about what people are actually doing with vector art, and instances where vectors are the better solution.

3DAGE

HI Holly :)

the BIG advantage in vectors over raster is that there's no pixels, just points and fills, so if you want a poster that 300ft, no problem.

the Blocky mosaic thing is just my Bad examples of how Low you can go,. and also,.. All of those shapes are editable,. so you can get down to outlines if you wanted by deleting what you don;t want and using boolean to join together shapes you do want,

Also, because you're not using pixels,. the file size goes from MB down to kb, and the physical image size is irrelevant, since it can be scaled up or down without losing anything.

have a quick look at some of these....

http://www.xara.com/uk/gallery/

wetcircuit

Son of Belmont said:

Hi
I've got another question which relates to Vectorstyle 2
It looks as though like similar plugins I've seen you can control where lines show by using smoothing groups. Is there a way to change the smoothing groups on a model already in Carrara?

VectorStyle has a parameter for edge detail that is controlled with an angles setting. The setting is universal so it works for all the export formats.

wetcircuit

3DAGE said:

HI Holly :)

the BIG advantage in vectors over raster is that there's no pixels, just points and fills, so if you want a poster that 300ft, no problem.

the Blocky mosaic thing is just my Bad examples of how Low you can go,. and also,.. All of those shapes are editable,. so you can get down to outlines if you wanted by deleting what you don;t want and using boolean to join together shapes you do want,

Also, because you're not using pixels,. the file size goes from MB down to kb, and the physical image size is irrelevant, since it can be scaled up or down without losing anything.

Yes, I understand the value of vectors.... But you quickly lose any file size advantage when you crank up the "detail" to so many zones. (Also it looks like eyecrap. LOL)

;-P

Combining zones with booleans is a good way to correct some of VectorStyle's transparency issues.

Since the op specifically said "people" and Illustrator" I am interested in seeing more examples of how PEOPLE are used in vector art (not just a push-button conversion from rastor to vector, that is probably never going to be very attractive...)

3DAGE

HI Holly :)

I'm with you on the eyecrap thing, but that's because it's converting a bitmap into vectors, the real art is in pure vectors.
conversion of bitmaps would be either a first step, ...or a last resort. :)

personally, I find overdrawing easier, especially in Xara, where you can grab an edge and pull it to fit a curve.

The vectors created in conversion usually have hard edges, and harsh colour differences, because of the way it defines the different areas, but those can be softened and refined. or deleted or replaced

vector areas can be feathered, so they blend together, or you can obviously have really sharp edges, and the fills can be multi-gradients with transparency,. so, like photoshop, you can build up complex multi layered images, with a mixture of sharp and blurry areas.

you also have instancing, which allows you to have one shape, copied multiple times and with different properties such as fill and outline, or shape adjustments,.. but it's only one shape.

:)

wetcircuit

This is all in Xara? or will Illustrator do feathered edges?

3DAGE

I'm not sure about illustrator,. haven't used it since version 5 or 6.
Xara will do all that and more,. it can work with bitmaps and has photo editing capability, plus you can use bitmaps as vector fills or transparency. and you can make vector shapes into 3D with drop shadows.
or take a series of photos and auto stitch and blend them into a panorama.

You can also use Photoshop plug-ins like Eyecandy as "live effects",. on vector shapes. so if you adjust the shape of the vector, the photoshop plugin updates to that change.

this is the same circle shape, cloned and feathered, and extruded 3D with drop shadow.

3DPixLA

Anime Studio Pro has some useful features including

1) ability to autotrace bitmap images into raster images and vectors
2) import Poser scenes to create toon style animations or images (see post)
3) output to different formats including SWF

The "toon" style Poser output from Anime Studio is on the low quality side but works okay for certain scenes.

And if you are a Mac user and want a way to convert SWF animation output from Vectorstyle2 there is another software called ElMedia Pro that will take a SWF movie, and convert it to image sequences. You can then assemble those as Quicktimes in Motion5 or Quicktime Pro 7. This works generally better than the buggy Swiffy service from Google.