Prolific plugin creator Fenric has released another helpful Carrara addon called MOVE TO CAMERA, and that is exactly what it does: selected items in the Assembly Room hierarchy are moved directly in front of the current rendering camera.
This release raises the total number of plugins offered on Fenric’s web store to eleven, several are free.
In my tests the base of the objects were moved more or less to sit directly in view of the render camera. Interestingly, the objects did not appear to be positioned in relation to their hotpoint, and some items were moved near to, but not directly in front of the camera. Clearly the purpose of the plugin is to make finding and repositioning objects in your scene easier, and should be helpful to anyone who creates large scenes with many objects.
A trial version of MOVE TO CAMERA is available on Fenric’s Downloads page and will work for about 10 minutes before timing out. The plugin license can be purchased for $5 http://fenric.com/wordpress/downloads/
Interesting news to every German Carrara user out there.
Carrara 8/8.5 is now translated to German language as well as documentation is also being translated with many portions of the manual translated already and available for download.
— Updated —
German Language Pack:
– German Language Pack for Carrara 8.1.1.12
– German Language Pack for Carrara 8.5.1.19.
The packages included:
– translation from Carrara itself
– german and english Shortcut PDF
– translation from the CADStyle Docu
– translation from the native content (Shader, Scenes, Objects, Atmospheres …)
German Shortcut Reference:
The Keyboard Shortcut Reference updated to version 8.5.0.243 (official release).
German Carrara Manual:
The Carrara 8 / 8.5 manual has currently around 500 pages.
These chapters are available as finished material:
– Welcome to Carrara (Einleitung)
– Carrara Overview (Überblick allgemein)
– Setting up Carrara (Einrichtung)
– Assemble Room Overview (Überblick über den Montageraum)
– Using Content Files (Content)
– Using Environmental Primitives (Environment-Primitive)
– Import/Export (Import / Export)
– Using Primitive Tools (Primitiv-Tools)
– Vertex Modeling Overview (Überblick über die Vertex-Modellierung)
– Spline Modeling Overview (Überblick über die Spline-Modellierung)
– Metaball Modeling (Metaball-Modellierung)
– Arranging Objects (Objekte arrangieren)
– Working with Objects (Mit Objekten arbeiten)
– Modifiers (Modifikatoren)
– Using Formulas in Carrara (Formeln)
– Using Scene Effects (Szeneeffekte)
– Setting Cameras (Kameras)
– Glossary (Glossar)
It includes also informations over the new features in Carrara 8.5.
Learning Carrara 8.5
Video Training Tutorials By Phil Wilkes
Expert author Phil Wilkes introduces you to the updated version of this well respected 3D modeling software package from Daz3D. This training course is designed for the complete beginner, meaning no prior Carrara experience is needed. Learning Carrara 8.5 is Wilkes’ forth and longest video training package at 11.5 hours. Previous videos include training for Carrara 7 and 8, and advanced techniques for creating objects within Carrara also available at Infinite Skills.
You will start by touring the user interface, and then move into learning to work with objects and Poser/Daz content. Phil teaches you about working with cameras, creating lighting effects, rendering, primitives, shaders, and hair. He shows you how to animate, replicate, and use Puppeteer. You will learn about bullet physics, creating and editing a particle system, and various types of modeling. Once you have learned how to use the tools within Carrara, Phil will show you how to put it all together to create amazing images. This training course will teach you about the new features in this latest version, including new light icons, using the genesis character presets, and improvements made to the sequencer, keyframing, and animation tools.
Working files are included, allowing you to follow along with the author throughout the lessons.
We all love the convenience of Poser content in Carrara but tweaking every shader is a tedious task, especially when it is the same settings over and over: reduce the shiny highlights, remove the extraneous color multiply… . Shader tricks that control settings in Poser often have no equivalent in Carrara, leaving a trail of “junk DNA” in the shader tree. Meanwhile, common settings like the bump and shininess values for a figure’s “skin” are scattered across multiple shaders…. We’ve come to accept that the benefits of content outweigh the inconvenience of manually translating each of Poser’s shaders by hand, one by one.
But no more! Fenric has released his ADVANCED SHADER TWEAKER plugin which adjusts many multi-shader values all at once!
remove color multiply
remove extraneous alpha operations
Highlight value
Shininess value
Copy texture to bump
Bump amplitude value
Texture Filtering: Sampling, Gaussian, Fast MipMap
Enable Blurry Reflections
Reflection strength
Reflection bounce depth
Reflection fresnel
Transparency depth
Index of Refraction
SSS Translucence
SSS Reflection
SSS Fresnel
SSS Refraction
SSS Intensity
Translucency Value
The usual suspects are addressed directly in the Assembly Room so you can tackle the most common problems immediately as you load items into your scene.
It works by selecting the model (or models) to have the shaders adjusted for, and select the “Advanced Shader Tweaker” option from the “Fenric” menu, located under the main “Edit” menu. All the model’s shaders are adjusted at once.
If you hold down the “shift” key while choosing the menu option, then the tweaker will start in “texture filter” mode, where only the texture filtering options will be displayed. Finally, a fix to Carrara 8.5’s insistence on changing every texture shader to Fast Mip Map!
The plug in is available now and costs only $10. A free trial version is available to download, and will operate for 10 minutes before automatically being disabled. http://fenric.com/wordpress/downloads/
In order to enable full functionality, a license key must be purchased at Fenric’s store. http://www.fenric.com
Carrara nature artist Howie Farkes has a new product in the DAZ 3D store. Noble Pines is a wondrously serene place – a pond high in the foothills of the great mountain range. Treat your characters to a beautiful and relaxing getaway at the Noble Pines.
What’s Included & Features
Noble Pines: (.CAR)
1 Carrara scene file
2 Carrara leaf objects:
Spruce needles
Birch leaf
Textures: (.JPG, .TIF and .PNG)
1 Image Map (4096 x 4096)
1 Image Map (2048 x 2048)
6 Image Maps (1024 x 1024)
4 Image Maps (512 x 512)
1 Image Map (256 x 256)
PySwarm for Carrara is a Python script by fractaldimensia specifically designed and written to use with DAZ 3D Carrara’s plug-in PyCarrara to manipulate and render realistic swarming object and other similar forms of group behavior in Carrara.
Historically, anyone who wanted to create an animation sequence that simulated flocking, herding, schooling, swarming, or other group behaviors had two options.
1) Create flight paths for each individual in the group. This can be very time consuming and prone to difficulties if you want to change any of the paths.
2) Use a replicator to create groups of animals. This can lead to animations that are not realistic enough because replicators require animals move in unison.
PySwarm offers a third and more flexible choice. Realistic swarming animation can be achieved by loading the PySwarm script into a text editor, selecting the behaviors you wish to simulate, tweaking a few parameters, importing the script into your scene, and rendering the resulting keyframe-based simulation.
An essential feature of PySwarm is that users of the script do NOT have to know how to program in Python to use it. The PySwarm script was engineered in a way that anyone who has Python and the PyCarrara plug-in installed on their computer can, with minimal effort, render complex-looking animation sequences.
Here are just a few examples of the kinds of animation sequences the PySwarm script is being designed to support.
Bees swarming around a beehive
Butterflies flying in an open field
A herd of horses running through a valley
An army of soldiers marching, but not in precise formation
Mechanical spiders swarming a futuristic fort
Predators moving through a large flock of prey (wolves and sheep, barracudas and fish, “bad guy”
moving through a crowd of people)
Two groups of fighter aircraft in close “fur ball” combat
download the latest PySwarm script (V.0.3.1) along with a Users Guide and two .CAR starter files to use with the script here:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B8V9-txK8F4Mb0JBZ0tQVndmRkU/edit?usp=sharing
The PyCarrara plugin can be downloaded here:
http://pycarrara.sourceforge.net
