Newbie questions 2004-01-30 - By Steve W
Back
That's good stuff, btw, don't suppose I could borrow 5 or 10 of those "ah ha"
moments from you do ya? ;)
debadger <debadger@(protected)> wrote:3DS to Vertex Model
Start a new file. File/Import the 3DS file you want and bring smoothing up
as far as you can.
In the lower toolbar, pick the object, then double click. True, you see the
No Parameters box. Now click Edit/Convert to Other Modeler and choose
Vertex Modeler. This will bring up a four window view of the 3DS object,
now converted to mesh. You will probably need to Smooth and Crease edges as
needed to clean up your model.
Some things to do, especially if you're paranoid (who me? <g>)
before doing ANYTHING further with your freshly imported and converted
object go to the main window and Duplicate the model, Hide the master (both
in the command bar at the top and the Properties bar on the right) and
rename the new copy with a different name. Double clicking on this will
prompt the question, do you want a new Master (yes, you want to do this)
Why? Because when you first start working with the vertex modeler you can
easily make mistakes or crash the program and it's annoying to lose all that
work. So, save early and often and work with a copy. When you're done of
course delete the extra copy.
If/when Carrara suddenly seems to s-l-o-w down as you work in the Vertex
Modeler immediately Save and exit the software, then restart. There is a
memory leak, and fooling a lot with the Vertex Modeler will call it forth.
If, at any time, Carrara acts up and wants to Save the file before exiting
do not let it do so - the file is always corrupted.
Take your time; when selecting vertexes to Weld, don't work faster than your
computer can comfortably grab and highlight; this too leads to crashes. If
you Undo, stop and let the computer do its thing, don't touch a button until
after the undo is complete. Undo is notorious for being unstable, but if
you do not confuse the computer by interrupting it the command will work
(but it takes a bit of time to do it)
When, after you have Creased and Smoothed as needed you go back to the main
view and the model doesn't look any different, toggle to wireframe and back
to shaded view - that should refresh the screen. If it doesn't, just exit
and restart the file.
I've fiddled a LOT with imported 3DS's and there are some tricks to it. It
will take you a bit of time to get that AH-HAH moment when the Vertex
Modeler suddenly becomes easy, and the best way to do it is just import
something and play with it.
Shaders:
Scale is found on all the complex mixers, you're right that you need to
tweak every single perameter in the shader. Sometimes you'd want a tiny
scale of a mixer for bump but a very large scale for mixing the color
subtly - Procedural shaders are the most fiddly part of Carrara, and the
most rewarding. I haven't done enough with bitmaps to help much, there I
just flail until it works. I've had a lot of fun futzing with the
procedurals, what you might want to do is build a simple object as a
stand-in, in a file all by itself. Play with a shader until you really like
it, save the shader, then go into your complex object and slap the shader on
there. You'll still need to tweak, but it's a lot easier when you have just
the one object there.
Elena
-- --Original Message-- --
From: domnei1 [mailto:domnei@(protected)]
Sent: Thursday, January 29, 2004 8:39 AM
To: Carrara@(protected)
Subject: [Carrara] Couple of extreme newb questions
Hi. I'm a serious 3D hobbyist, so I've used a bunch
of 3D programs and am thinking of switching to Carrara.
I've tried the demo for a few days. Here are my most
pressing questions:
(1) I can succesfully import a .3ds object, but when I
double click on it in Assemble (to hopefully begin editing it,
if I understand the way switching "rooms" works) I get a little
window that says "object so-and-so has no properties". Clicking
on the Model icon in the upper left doesn't do anything either.
So how does one edit an imported object?
(2) When I click on the name of an object in the scene
hierarchy in Assemble mode, to select it, it takes a full one
second before the click registers. Is this normal? Is there
a way to fix this? NB: I'm running on a fast machine, so that
isn't the problem.
(3) When a complicated shader is in use, is there a way to
change the overall scale of the shader relative to an object?
If the shader is simple (say, a single procedural 'wood') then
I see how to change just the material scale of the wood, but
I don't see how to do it if the shader is a complex combination
of elements (other than, I suppose, changing each element).
(4) Come to think of it, I don't think I've noticed a way to
fine-tune the scale of an image texture on an object. I think I
remember stumbling across away to make it tile 1, 2, 3, or some
integer number of times, but what if it needs to be 1.618033989?
Sorry for the dumb questions, but I'm leaning towards buying
Carrara so some indication of whether these are really dumb questions
(which I'm sure they are), or whether they hint at limitations of
the software, would be most appreciated.
Thanks
To unsubscribe send a message to
Carrara-unsubscribe@(protected)
Yahoo! Groups Links
To visit your group on the web, go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Carrara/
To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
Carrara-unsubscribe@(protected)
Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to:
http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
To unsubscribe send a message to
Carrara-unsubscribe@(protected)
-- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- -----
Yahoo! Groups Links
To visit your group on the web, go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Carrara/
To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
Carrara-unsubscribe@(protected)
Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of Service.
-- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- -----
Do you Yahoo!?
Yahoo! SiteBuilder - Free web site building tool. Try it!
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
To unsubscribe send a message to
Carrara-unsubscribe@(protected)
-- ---- ---- ---- ------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor -- ---- ---- ---- ---~-->
Buy Ink Cartridges or Refill Kits for your HP, Epson, Canon or Lexmark
Printer at MyInks.com. Free s/h on orders $50 or more to the US & Canada.
http://www.c1tracking.com/l.asp?cid=5511
http://us.click.yahoo.com/mOAaAA/3exGAA/qnsNAA/_iFolB/TM
-- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ------~->
Yahoo! Groups Links
To visit your group on the web, go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Carrara/
To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
Carrara-unsubscribe@(protected)
Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to:
http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
|
|
