Cerbera

Hail the mighty Vectron ! Sorry - couldn't resist :) Great stuff as always, GI V...

Thanks guys - appreciate the comments. I'll keep going on this; got the exciting roof sections to do next ! CBR

Cheers. Nope - eyeballing it all the way... CBR

Hey Cafe Thought I needed something a bit architectural in my showreel, and inspired as I have been in the past by the typical 3D sort of ultra-modern, simple houses with a pool we see all the time, I decided I wanted to do something old and complicated. And preferably a bit scary. And then I found Harlaxton Manor, Grantham, UK, set of the dodgy 2005 horror film 'The Haunting', and thought 'there's a challenge', but I did have 500 hours to throw at it. So here we are, the first 100 odd gone, during which I have modelled just the bell tower, its minarets, and its main entrance. And there's still a fair bit of detail to be adding to those. My grim reapers aren't finished, for example - still need to build them a wall of skulls for their alcoves, and add some more stoney detail goodness to the side towers. I am going for rewardingly high level of modelled detail, which will be extended to the rest of the mansion as I complete it, and its grounds. The small section done so far has given me 2495 objects, and 5 mill subdivided polys so far. Fortunately the rest of it isn't quite as detailed / elaborate, but should still make for a fairly impressive CG enterprise when it's done. Here's some screenie wires for those of you who (correctly) like that sort of thing ;) CBR

If anyone is wondering what extra buttons you get with the Pro, they are: Shift, Esc, Ctrl, Alt, Undo, Redo, Spacebar, Mode Switch (points, edges, polys), Move, Scale, Rotate, SDS on / off. It's a hell of a lot to have under one hand ! CBR

Yeah ! Lookin' good, but @SIgor's right - we need the wires for full modelling appreciation :) CBR

Good move, @Simmy ! :) I second that - I have the Space Explorer Pro, which has the advantage of 15 modifier keys as well, so you rarely need to take your hand off it to input keyboard commands. Definitely the easiest, nicest way of navigation in C4D. Makes laptop use considerably less frustrating. Can't recommend these enough - mine is still going 7 years after purchase, with no problems ! CBR

Or XParticles can also do it pretty well (and arguably better than metaballs) with its spline mesher or skinner.

Nah, you want single unconnected splines in metaballs to get that effect. So rather than use any font, which has an outline and the inside, you have to trace the middle of each letter with single splines. Then you need a metaball tag on all those individual splines, and set that to line mode. That should get you a lot closer. CBR

There's a lesson there ;)

Never used it myself, but have heard glowing reviews from people that have. CBR

Well, I can only tell you what my problems with it are. I want to own my software, not have my software owning me. I want to buy something and have it work forever, and pay for updates to it when I can afford to, and when I need to - IF the new product can justify the expense. And if it doesn't I don't see any reason at all that my old software should ever stop working on the OS for which it was intended. All the work on it has been done and paid for. An MSA seems like the fairest way of paying for the latest work. There is nothing like the security of knowing your software will still work even if the internet is down for 3 months. So like Autodesk and Adobe before them, Arnold has just ruled itself out of renderers I will consider. A great shame. CBR

Public beta hey ? Who'd have thought... Nice to see some further evidence that MAXON ARE listening. We've been asking, and this is another improvement in their communication / interaction with the userbase that is very welcome with me... CBR

If you're talking about 18.48, nothing is the answer - that's only a Ryzen hotfix update as far as I know...

Oh that's excellent - both of them, but I really like the architecture in the second one. Really lovely stuff, and awesome lighting too... CBR

As right as C4D avenger @SIgor usually is, I must disagree with him on this occasion ! :) There's no doubt that HDRI on a sky is quick and involves no effort, but I don't think that's what's going on here. For me, this looks like a typical studio setup, some well placed softboxes*, and fairly standard 3 point lighting, 1 orangey light, 1 bluer, and another white top light. The attractively soft shadows are easy to get if you light this way. You can still use an HDRI for reflections, and use proper lights, but there is no good case for GI here. CBR *Softboxes, if you don't know, are area lights, carefully positioned and aimed, made visible to reflection, and use area shadows for most realism.

EDIT: Actually, don't do it with a flip solver or proper smoke sim - I forgot it's in an enclosed sphere with nowhere to go, so will just fill the sphere in the first second, and then look like a rubbish grey blob ! :) Do it with your original plan; proper particles and curl turbulence, which you can make disappear more effectively, and control more precisely.

You don't need a tutorial for that ! ;) It's as simple as setting the noise type to curl in your turbulence modifier, and playing with the settings ! But even so, there is a tutorial in the XP video manual, predictably under 'Turbulence', but also in the XP3.5 special tutorials section. May I also suggest that while you are there, you also watch the videos on the flip solver, the XP gaseous shader, and the XP constraints, which will show you how to do proper decent smoke. CBR

Nope - that's totally the way to go. Hollow glass sphere from geometry, with a nice XP curl noise smoke sim in the center. It'll have to be quite a thin glass sphere if you want to see the smoke properly. Don't forget the sphere needs physical thickness (select all polys, extrude, caps on), or you'll be trying to move particles inside a solid ball which will work, but will look wrong. CBR

Yep, tried again, but still no joy I'm afraid ! I guess I am meant to be clicking the stars, and / or the word review next to them, or is there some glaringly obvious other way I have missed ? :) Don't worry, @C4DS I'll keep trying :)

Hey @SIgor - I tried for a while to add a Seamilar 2 review but I can't see how to. On the product page for it I can't click the little stars, or the word review there - just wondered how I get into store reviews section ? Thanks CBR

Sketch n Toon can render isoparms... Add sketch and toon from render settings, change mode to advanced and enable isoparms render. CBR

You should ask @INSYDIUM directly, but I can't possibly imagine the answer is yes. CBR

Mostly nice modelling, except for that one boole ;). You should use the Levr layer mode in combination with vertex map based noise to get your dirt in the channels... that should come up very nicely in the render. CBR

Do what the box tells you and refer to the installation instructions you got when you bought the pack. You can't just add folders wherever you like inside its structure or that will return an error. CBR