[C5] Carrara rope

[EricD]

As promised to all the CarraraFans out there, here is a mini-tutorial on making this rope in Carrara.

[EricD]

First, I created a long tube in the Vertex modeler. There are many ways to do this. I like to create a small 1/2" cube, delete 2 opposite ends, replicate it in 1/2" increments and weld it together. Don't forget to smooth all edges.

Second, I opened the UV editor and switch the projection to cylindrical, so the UV map goes in the same direction as the rope.

[EricD]

Then I rotated the segments to shape the rope. I also flattened the 2 ends of the rope where they're squeezed into the soap.

I turned on subdivision smoothing. I kept the modeling subdivision level to 0 for faster redraws and cranked the rendering level to have enough polygons to displace.

[EricD]

Finally, I loaded the pattern I created in Photoshop. Make sure it's a repeat pattern so there are no seams. I tiled it along the length of the rope.

I adjusted the amplitude and offset until I was pleased with the preview. I enabled the subdivision (which I believe does the same thing as smoothing in the VM). The higher the number, the smoother the rope, and the longer the render time... I liked the rougher rope for this purpose.

[EricD]

The final render.

[mmoir]

Hey EricD,

Nice tute.

Mike

[zeekadork]

Very cool EricD. Thank you very much.

[are]

Thank you. your timing could not be better

[Moonglow]

Thanks EricD, and happy holidays to you.

[Nester751]

Thank you Eric!