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ZBrush and Carrara 5 PRO

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#1

After the first update of Hexagon 2 I went and got Carrara 5 as well… Way below the original 600$. First it’s on sale and second the Platinum thingy from the Hexagon deal subtracts another whopper…
Download install, no problem. Loading my models… no problem… Problem? yes, not enough time! 8-).

The two attached renders are done within the first half an hour. With all the presets it’s a very easy system. I’d say a joint of Poser 6 and VUE5 and Hexagon2. Can’t say much but it obviously works. Didn’t die on me yet either. Another surpriding deal from DAZ. Here are the pics… no postprocess and I honestly am not really in control of the program… Oh, and yes, the models from ZB loaded without a hitch, textures and everything showed up on the push of a button.
[carraratest2.jpg]carraratest3.jpg
Cheers
Lemo

#2

Lemo you have just been on fire lately.

#3

Due to a major misunderstanding receive Carrara Pro 5 as a gift
sometime ago.
The misunderstanding was that I had mentioned to my better half
how much I liked the work of Marcel and that he used the Carrara program
for his renders. Had made a point of showing his work which you can find
on the Eovia site.
Have Maya ( mental ray) but my renders there still fall short of what
the program is capable of doing. My “significant other” misunderstood and
thought that Carrara’s engine was “better” than Maya’s. ( Perhaps
it is, one day when I learn more I can elaborate with a sense of authority)
In any case I received Carrara as a present.
Would like to make some observations based on limited knowledge.
First and foremost is the cost vs what you receive.
Questions have been asked in this forum on what program(s) include
all the bells and whistles needed for any kind of serious work.
Do not see Carrara mentioned which seems wrong.
Second and this is not mentioned in a casual way the Carrar Pro 5 works
hand in hand with Poser Models and scenes ( that right I said Poser, sue me)
Third, the renders are great for any type scenes. Again the Carrara Pro 5 makes great use of Global Illumination and HDRI lighiting.
Only problem I have had with the zbrush program has been my inability to
use displacement maps to any advantage. But again, that is due to my
inexperience ( took me three marathon day to accomplish this in Maya, and I was only successful due to Scott Spencer)
Fourth, if the works of Marcel are unknown to the reader of this thread, you have only to go to the main forum and look at the works of boozy floozie who
is currently submitting works of exceptional quality.
All in all Carrra looks to be a great program for any purpose.
I would add a minus that as a modelling program per se, it does lack certain
things that would have made it an outstanding program, But that is solved
in using it in conjunction with Hexagon, Silo or the like.
With the current pricing situation it is a program well worth considering.

#4

Well, if you don’t want it. Just send it my way. :wink:

Don’t be too hard on yourself here. It seems to me that there are a lot of others who need help using them as well. So it’s not just you.

#5

BR:

Very very lucky for me, my generous benefactor does not totally
know about the misunderstanding. ( she has little or no interest in this
type of thing, other than listening to me shouting when a render
or something else turns out well)
So for political reasons must keep it.
I try to do some things in the program ( Poser and renders especially)
What I have been doing is basically lying about what program
produced what.
Since I now have a lot of them this is not entirely a lie, I even forget.
Vue and Poser are the easiest to remember:D

According to my count at the present Lemonnado is in the same
boat.:+1:

Regarding displacements, it took so long ( weeks) to get any kind of results
in Maya. I now do at least one render a week in Maya with displacements so
I won’t forget how ( seriously).

Message to Scott Spencer: if you buy Carrara, let me know:D

#6

sword.jpg

ZBrush displacements in Carrara 5 are easy.

Import model as a vertex object. In the Vertex Modeler select the whole object, click the ‘Model’ tab in the ‘Properties’ on the right and click the ‘Smooth’ radio button. Set Rendering subdivision level to a reasonably high value. This render used a setting of 6.
Switch to the Shader Room and click the Displacement tab in the object’s shader. Select ‘Texture Map’ and choose your ZBrush disp. map; flipping it will probably be necessary. Amplitude setting here was 18 but 12 is generally sufficient. If you use the Disp. Exporter then you can adjust there. For ZBrush disp maps make sure you don’t enable subdivision in the shader.
Render and you’re done.

Any problems, let me know. :slight_smile:

#7

Mr. Civis, will try as soon as possible.

As I mentioned in another thread, there are a few
members here whom if I tried to pay back, I would
never succeed. You are truly in that group.
My gratitude.

#8

…for this ZB sword rendered in Carrara 5?
And for Lemo’s image?

#9

My Images took less than 2-3 minutes each. On a more moderate PC I’d expect less than 10 minutes each. With a good understanding of ZB and the terms, it’s easy to control… I’m having a blast…
Lemo

PS:Yes Bicc39, we are in the same boat 8-). But I think I lead with 1 Modo hahaha.

#10

The ZB sword only took a minute or so, on a pretty low-spec machine.

#11

Mr Civis,questions if you would.

When the displacement map is created for Maya. it is exported
in a tiff format, opened in photoshop and converted to an rgb
format. Note is made of the alpha gain, the image is flipped.

When exporting the map for use in Carrara what procedures, if any.
should be done.

Am exporting and working with a head that is basically 5000 poly.
During experiments with using the map keep hitting memory allocation error.
My machine has 1gb ram and this message is unusual.
To double check the settings with you.

  1. Smooth 2. Rendering subdivision level ( you specifiy 6)
  2. Amplitude about 12 4. do not enable subdivision in shader.
    Cannot pinpoint the cause of the memory errror, If numbers are lowered. error message disappears, render shows no displacement.
    Many thanks your help and your time.

Apologies to Lemonnado for using his thread for this, it does
have a slight relationship.

#12

I think this is a good thread regarding anything in that direction. The inofficial ZB-Carrara 5 thread 8-). I discovered that there is a Vector render module… Needless to say that I had to get it. I was looking at the equivalent as stand alone product from another manufacturer and can happily say that it was a good decision not to procure that. The .SWF output is phenomenal. I made a website last night with some cool 3d speheres rolling around in the header and it took about 10 minutes to make. Only a few KB size as .swf… Alone for that the C5 procurement was justifyable.

I also made a quick and dirty test which ended up better than expectedd.
Poser James generated walk path and walk cycle. All default. Saved as .pz3. Imported into a demo interior scene in C5 and hit the render button… Rsult was surprisingly good but verry ‘grizzzzzly’. I stoped the renderer to recalc the lighting every frame and the grizzly’s went away. There were still a few weird artifacts (shadow fragments left on the floor which looked funny as James would have dirty feet) but I rendered everything in lowest quality. Render time about 5 minutes for 160 frames in 320x2something. GI! but map only calculated on frame one.

If interested I post it on my website so you can look at the results and the differences. I’ll try and make a ZB monster walk through that interior haha.
Lemo

#13

…there surely somebody take you the answer :wink:
Everybodys knows Zb & Carrara& other !
A very cool forum the best place for Carrara Hexagon… :+1:

#14

bicc39,
It may be that C5 is choking on the level 6 smoothing - that’s equivalent to over 20 million polys for a 5000 poly mesh - (although that wouldn’t explain why you get nothing when you lower the figure). You should only need a figure that is comparable to the number of levels you had in ZBrush. The slider is effectively multiplying by four each time. (I could use 6 for the sword because it is only 340 polys.)

Carrara 5 can cope with 16 bit grayscale tifs straight out of ZBrush. You can flip them inside Carrara (see my pic).

Here are my settings for Pix’s displacement head test in this thread which you might try to get things working.

HTH,

Attachments

C5disp.jpg

#15

Many thanks, will try, to be honest I had forgotten about
this thread, saw a lot of it during the Maya period.

note to lemonnado,didn’t know if you know this, update for
Carrara pro 5 available on the Daz site.

#16

Mr.Civis:small_orange_diamond:+1:
Had to lower the Rendering level to 4 error message at 5.
Amplitude 12.
Once again, at the risk of boring anyone who reads this, my
thanks. Maybe I could just send one big thank you each month, instead
of every other day.
Again apologies to Lemonnado.
Doc4.jpg

#17

Looks good! :slight_smile: I only used setting 4 myself for the rendering subdivision - it’s a higher low poly model than the sword - something over 3000 polys.

Glad I could help!

#18

Carrara ZBrush Pipeline tutorial…

http://www.eovia3d.net/showthread.php?t=5626
[disptesthead.jpg]
Lemo

#19

I could not pass up the deal on C5 pro…going to install today.

#20

Wow, actually the first (at least for me) place that REALLY helped. One Question left for the C5 Pros. The Vertex Modeler shows the Model as is (all Quads), while in the 3D View, the Display is different, tesselated somehow. Can i avoid this. I want my clean Quads back …