BVH Carnegie Mocap for Carrara tutorial

ScifiFunk will show you how to cut down the large BVH files from the Carnegie collection into fractions of their original size using BVH Hacker, and how to prep them for low poly (daz based) figures created in a seperate tutorial.

In part 1 we concentrate on reducing the BVH file size. In part 2 we tidy up the BVH file. I look at frame rates and how low a rate you can get away with (again assuming you want to have lots of animated people in your scene). I save out and show you a fantastic (unbelievable) saving in filesize.

The good news is we don’t stop there! Yes thanks to an additional saving within Carrara and the Carrara compression the final file size of the animation is completely minimal. I take you through the basic process of creating an aniblock from within DAZ, exporting it and applying it to a low poly rigged character.

In part 3 I concentrate on how to create walk loops to the length you need (not the length of the original BVH file). How to create a respectable walk loop. It’s pretty easy once you’ve practiced a bit. The technique uses DAZ to create an aniblock, and edit out the start and end so that a loopable middle is left. The technique for finding the most loopable part of the BVH import starts with finding the first frame where the actor places his left foot on the ground.

For some reason the best loops can be found with this method. Perhaps the Carnegie actor(s) were left handed or something? Anyway that foot placement is usually at the same pace as the bulk of the loop which means you’ll avoid speeding up and slowing down in the loop.

The rest of the video shows how to cut the end just right.

To see how to create such a low poly figure please see a pevious tutorial series here. Low Poly People

I hope I’ve inspired you to work with the FREE Carnegie collection!

Low Poly People

ScifiFunk discusses “kit-bashing” to transfer one figure’s rigging, to a decimated (low poly) figure that has been merged with clothing props (exported as OBJ), and prepped by stripping out details that don’t show at a distance. The final figure is far more efficient on system resources and suitable for crowd scenes, but accepts motion capture created for the original (BVH files transferred from DAZ Studio by aniBlock).

Carrara 8 Pro tutorial – filled wine bottle and scene

Quick method of modeling a partially filled wine bottle object (Part 1) and realistic scene with plaster walls and a very realistic tile floor (part 2). Demonstrates extrusion modeling and texturing techniques.

[youtube fullscreen=”yes”]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dr3ynKuPx50

[youtube fullscreen=”yes”]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5VdGA402LHw

Carrara Multi-Channel Mixer Tutorial

An introduction on Carrara Multi-channel mixer shaders.

This type of shader might look confusing at first but it is actually very easy to use and allows for some very complex effects.

I compare them to audio mixing in the tutorial but a better example would be say these 3d surface shaders are more like layers and masks in Photoshop.

This tutorial was made using Carrara 8pro but the same can be done in the Standard and in earlier versions.

Car Crash Tutorial

Tutorial showing how AgeOfArmour’s GT40 vs Ball Bearing video was made. This video is not in depth but does give an overview of each stage of the process and how to work around a few physics issues, including using discrete keyframes to control gravity, and parenting the high-poly model to proxy parts.