Welcome to Dartanbeck.com!
We're going to delve into an exciting adventure of filmmaking purely from CG (computer generated) elements, but maybe with a touch of stock footage shot in-camera? We'll see.
I'm sure that most of this will also be valuable toward making still images as well, but my main goal is to put it all in motion.
NOTICE
Although I haven't taken the plunge into learning Bryce yet, I've gone ahead and started a Bryce section within the Daz Zone to help me get started with this Epic Adventure!
Have a visit and let me know what you think!
A nice little article I've written, again detailing how Content has driven a story - this time filling a hole in the storyline with a nice little side quest.
It's amazing how a few really cool items on sale can inspire the imagination to add whole new plots and outcomes that before were perplexing headaches!
Another such article is "What Happened on Odysseon Station"
A new page in the Gallery > Inspirations section, Film Riot is a YouTube program brought to us by Ryan Connolly, who teaches us tips and tricks he's learned from Filmmaker School (Full Sail) as well as through his own experiments and practices.
He's even got some pretty cool short films for us to enjoy and learn from! Check it out!!!
New Technology makes for New Pages
With a new collaborative effort, Mindsong and I are beginning to delve deep into bridging gaps using software from newer generations as well as legacy. This new section within the Daz Zone will expand our journey to whole new directions, while still remaining grounded with both Carrara and Daz Studio. It should be fun to watch these sections grow!
Check out my friend, Vyusur's amazing, realistic original figures and Daz 3d supplements!
A Hero is Born!
Like I say in the video, she is no ordinary Genesis 1 figure! A lot of work went into getting her the way she is ~ and within this site is everything you need to know to build your own Super Protagonist!
Introducing Rosie 5
This is the project, whose completion gave me the material and inspiration to finally launch this site!
This is the beginning of an experiment I'm conducting for a hybrid video/written article system to help folks along in a more relaxed, interactive kind of way.
Instead of a single support article for this video, there's a whole list of them - so you can explore as much or as little as you'd like!
Character Design in Carrara 01
Now let's take a look at how I always begin my character creation process in Carrara.
This lesson isn't about picking out shapes or styles. It all begins with a Character Template scene that I use so the lighting is the same for every character or creature that I create.
I always follow these same simple steps in the beginning, and then tweak them until I've got it just right!
Simulation Test Renders
Less than a minute long, this video simply compiles a few simulation tests using Carrara 8.5 Pro's Dynamic Hair and VWD Cloth and Hair software for the clothing dynamics.
Here are some support articles:
About the video - Rosie 5 is Artemis Knight (ArtemisX and Liquid Knight), piloting her ship using Ravnheart's Marcoor Control Room, with TheAntFarm's Biobotic, frantically trying to navigate them out of this mess. Petipet's massive Dominators rain down from above to devastate and destroy Inception8's Project Xion City!
See more on my Artemis Knight page
Volumetric Lighting
Let's put together a quick foreboding environment for our character to become trapped in.
Oh, and let's give it some really cool volumetric lighting to really set that mood!!!!
If that's not enough, we'll use PD Howler to make an animated gel for the volumetric lights, so the fog changes over time!
A Quick Look at DaVinci Resolve
And finally we'll step into DaVinci Resolve and blend our animated renders along a timeline to make a movie.
In this episode I show the very basic steps I used in DaVinci Resolve and Fusion within it to create what we see and hear in "Introducing Rosie 5"
A new segment regarding lip syncing our characters:
With some audio prepared, it's time to bring speech into our character.
When I first bought Carrara Pro, I had anticipated that I'd be doing this. Character animation is the reason I bought Carrara, after all. So along with Carrara Pro, I also added Daz 3D's Mimic Pro for Carrara to my cart, along with aniMate 2 and other animation goodies.
January 20, 2021
..and Daz 3D releases a new version of their flagship 3D Articulate Human Figure - Genesis 8.1
This is exciting news! Here's what they had to say:
Explore Dartanbeck.com
Using Daz 3D content in Carrara Pro has been a passion of mine for over ten years now. My goal is to create a nicely polished movie, fully from CG (computer generated elements), and Carrara 8.5 Pro has been a dream come true for me - being that I'm endeavoring to do this all by myself.
Over the years I've asked a lot of questions, explored, experimented and just gained a lot of experience working with Carrara. Without being able to spend a lot of hours in a day working on this stuff, it became apparent that there's no way that I'd be able to model al of my 3D elements on my own - not for what I want to do.
So Daz 3D and Renderosity have become what I consider to be my Asset Development Teams. Carrara makes it easy for me to create my own models when I want to, but even more, I love that I can tweak purchased content to my needs with the use of tools very similar to what I've practiced using in 3ds Max years ago.
Have a look around and enjoy yourself. I've gathered numerous links and videos, written a bunch of articles and am working on wrapping it all up for you here at Dartanbeck.com
See the full current site map Here, or simply use the navigation menu to explore!
Wanna try the Magic? - 11/14/2020
Join me on a short journey through the basics of my current workflow for Animation, Simulation and Compositing it all together!
Using product to help drive a story, we take a look at my current collection of Odysseon Station kits by Nightshift3D.
I also briefly describe my initial setup procedure, but we'll be exploring that more in time
Carrara Info
Do it in Post
Ever want to turn your 3D creations into something tangible? Something useful or even a cool action figure for the desk?
We have a new thread in the Carrara forum all about making this happen!
We also have CREALITY, bringing 3D Printing to us at incredibly reasonable prices!
They even offer upgraded kits!
CREALITY excels at selling 3D Printers for less than $300 USD, and we're talkin' about the famous Ender 3, not the bargain basement brands that just become a big ol' household paperweight!
- Learn Carrara like Never Before!
Use the Gizmo on the left (or the following links) to filter between the following:
* Blacksmith 3D * Daz Studio * Poser * Reality * Reallusion * Sixus 1
...and Have Fun Learning New Skills and Techniques!!! :)
Daz Studio Page Quick Map
Daz Bridges - Maya, Blender, C4D, 3ds Max, Unreal and Unity
Daz Bridges How To - Steph, from Daz 3D, shows you how to use them
Within the Gallery lies an Inspiration section where we can explore all manner of ways to break our CG Artist Writer's Block!
Inspiration from Art, Games and VFX
Philip Staiger of Project Dogwaffle (makers of PD Howler) uses Power Director to create his energetic and fun tutorial and demonstration videos!
About The Software
For what I do, I find that Carrara Pro software fits my needs perfectly but I certainly don't mean that it's the only way to go. The same applies for the other software choices I've made. As this site matures I'll also make strong points about other software - not just the 3D Studio software either.
On this adventure we'll need several good pieces of software, and each category of type has a multitude of options. I've looked at quite a few, have settled on some favorites, and am still planning to try out others - and as always, we'll be keeping an eye out for new things to help us along the way.
I've met a lot of friends along this path and if there's one thing I've learned is that each of us have different needs and tastes. Where I love the GUI of one software package, my friends might not be able to handle it at all. Features that drive another to buy this or that software might have absolutely no significance to me whatsoever for what I'm intending to do. So it's all very much a personal choice - I intend to help reveal those other options as best I can, when I can.
The page isn't finished yet, for example I don't even have HitFilm listed, but the following page is a bit of a walkthrough of the software I use most often on this journey.
Currently on the docket for tutorials and demonstrations are:
Carrara 8.5 Pro - Of course!
Project Dogwaffle Pro: Howler - My favorite paint software with tools for animation
Daz Studio - I currently use this for its wonderful Content Creation Tools and more
Poser - Where all of this began for me!
Affinity Photo - My favorite kind of Photoshop
DaVinci Resolve* - along with its Edit, Fusion, Fairlight Audio and Color Grading pages
HitFilm Express - another great VFX compositor for $0.00 USD
Audacity - Open Source Audio software
MusicMaker - by Magix - A fun and simple DAW with soundpool collections and VST, etc.,
*Added tutorial videos for DaVinci Resolve
I'd also like to eventually include articles regarding other great software that I've used and feel that they're worthy apps for anyone interested in all of this: Poser, Vegas, Corel VideoStudio Pro and PaintShop Pro and others.
That Dartanbeck sure can Babble! LOL
Like I said about by older videos above - no preparation, just go in and start babbling! :)
In this older video, I attempt to demonstrate some of my favorite aspects of Carrara Pro.
I'll be updating my channel with much better material on this topic, but this one is here now, so....
Daz 3D
I get assets from a few places around the web, and discussions on that will evolve. You may have noticed that I have a strong connection to one in particular - Daz 3D.
I have been a fan of Daz 3D since shortly after I started learning all of this. They were the one who put absolute excelence into Human figures in the Poser style of content. Then came that amazing Millennium Dragon and the other animals and creatures. Right from the start they've been joined by some of the most amazing 3D content artists and even they must past a stringent array of quality assurance tests before their product makes it to the store - Excellence!
There are other Excellent vendors out there as we'll discover along the way. I have a few favorites that I'm dying to share with you.
DAZ Zone shows a bit of my fandom for the company along with some of my history with them.
Daz 3D Content is where I'll be highlighting some products that I mention in tutorials and other articles - some just because I love working with them.
Carrara 8.5 Pro Content illustrates the wealth of Daz 3D products that come Free when we buy Carrara 8.5 Pro. Like I say there, we get much more than we spend with this purchase!
Downloads currently holds the Carrara specific products that I sold at Daz 3D before I closed my store due to life issues. I'm honored to gift them to anyone whom might find joy in using them.
The future will bring articles about my use of Daz Studio as well as a lot of the content I've purchased. This is where I really thrive! I do know how to make 3D models, UV Unwrap them, Rig them(for the most part) and get them textured, etc., but what I really want to do is to build the scenes, light them, put them in motion and film(render) them. Therefore, I've always considered Daz 3D and their Premier Artists to be my personal asset creation department! :)
Daz 3D has a growing number of excellent training videos on their channel.
Daz 3D content is very nicely priced, even when not on sale - PC+ Membership cuts the cost Dramatically and also has regularly scheduled freebies.
Daz Studio Pro is Amazing and Free!!!
Carrara 8.5 Pro is, of course, my favorite reason to be on a computer - period.
Forum Discussion
A great place to get fueled up on knowledge in a place where we can ask questions and often get answers quickly is the Forums at Daz 3D
My time being limited these days, I mostly stick to the Carrara Discussion Forum, but tend to check the others as well, especially if I need to figure something out that has my mind all boggled!
Here are just a few examples of that active forum:
►►► Carrara Information Manual ◄◄◄ is a thread I created with the hopes of helping people find answers and inspiration. It endeavors to index links to many topics within the forum as well as other places on the web. It all began with my wanting to make an Index of Cripeman's Awesome Video Tutorials and then just took on a life of its own.
I did another similar thread: ► Learning CARRARA and need some help? which is another fun-filled ride of Carrara information.
The members of the Carrara forum hold monthly (approximately) challenges that are quite fun and educational alike - for most of them require a WIP (work in progress) post in order to enter, and many of those WIPs are highly educational about what we can do in Carrara.
Learning tips and tricks from prior Carrara Challenge WIP threads stores links to each of the WIP threads for these challenges simply because they're such a wealth of knowledge (and wacky fun!!!)
Post Your Renders is there for us to post our renders and discuss them. A lot of nice work in there
Free Software that Makes Life Easier is a thread dedicated to just that
So hop on in there and either lurk around for answers or inspiration, or make yourself known and join in the fun! There's almost always somebody around to answer questions. If not, using the links in the Carrara Information Manual thread above will trigger emails to anybody who was following the thread you're asking in, so you get answers even quicker that way. For example, the ► Forum Help Links index.
Questions?
I love to help others as best I can. This is a rather broad topic: CG Filmmaking, so my articles on any particular topic may not answer your specific question.
Most of the questions directed to me are regarding Carrara or How did I do this?
For these sorts of things, post your question at the Carrara Discussion Forum (or another appropriate category) at Daz 3D.com forums, and if I don't see it right away, someone else might. They are such a friendly and helpful bunch! I've learned so much from that forum over the years!
For a more immediate question directed to me, log into those forums and Send me a PM!
and support this site at the same time!!! :) Thanks!!! :)
