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Walkthrough is currently under heavy construction, please bear with me

Buying a Workstation

Before building my current workstation, I was checking out the various options for purchasing one of the custom units from Workstation Specialists. They have a good lineup from workstations to render nodes and more.
Another option (and there are many) would be to get a rather affordable rig from Dell’s Worksation Lineup.

Personally, I enjoy picking and choosing the parts that I feel will suite my needs best, and saving a bundle of money, building my own as in the article above. However, purchasing a workstation has the added benefits of pre-loaded software, often of your choosing, and support for those times when something just goes wrong. On that note, I’ve never had any issues with the reliable service and warranties offered at Newegg.com either. But for solving compatibility issues, you have to either solve it yourself, plus I’ve found that the parts manufacturers are usually most supportive on that front.

Before making any final decisions, however, please remember to consider the tips in the quoted area of this post.

And from the Mac user’s perspective :There are deals to be had and things that you can do to a Mac as well. iMacs, Mac Minis, Macbooks,  Macbook Pros and the Mac Pro towers are all fine machines. The towers are the easiest to upgrade and will probably work best for heavy hitting 3D work. I use an Intel dual core iMac from time to time and it is very capable as well.

One of the best ways to save money is when buying or ordering your Mac. Get the Mac with the default amount of RAM and buy a good quality RAM from a 3rd party vendor as Apple charges an arm and a leg for RAM. Another area to save would be to buy your own HDs.

As of the date of this post, the base Mac Pro Tower sells for $2499.00 (US) and has One 3.2GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon processor. Upgradeable to one 3.33GHz 6-Core Intel Xeon processor.

The base Mac Pro supports up to 32GB of DDR3 ECC SDRAM memory in four slots, and comes with 6GB installed (3x2 GB).

The base Mac Pro ships with a 1TB 7200-rpm Serial ATA 3Gb/s hard drive. The Mac Pro includes four drive bays, allowing you to configure it with up to 8 terabytes of storage using 7200-rpm Serial ATA 3Gb/s drives, up to 2 terabytes of storage using high-performance solid-state drives, or any combination of each type of drive.

The base Mac Pro ships with an ATI Radeon HD 5770 1GB card. You can have two PCI express graphics cards. Other graphics card options from Apple are: Two ATI Radeon HD 5770 1GB [Add $250.00] or an ATI Radeon HD 5870 1GB [Add $200.00]

A base 12 core system starts at $3790.00 with 12GB of RAM (expandable to 64). Maybe I’ll win the lottery!

I am still working on setting up all the machines around the house for network rendering.  But you could have a nice mac for all the things you do with it and still use pc rendering machines as well.  (I think at least LOL).  I am sure my wife will ask me as she has been getting a bit more interested in exploring Carrara.

Something else is that there are sometimes runs of ‘refurbished’ (sometimes they are even new) when a model is changing or changing specs but staying the same model.  I just got an upgrade to my system that is 5 or 6 years old.  A Dell 8500 Intel Core i7 3770(3.40GHz) 8GB 2TB HDD Capacity NVIDIA GeForce GT 620 Windows 8 64-Bit.  I will swap my video card and add some more ram to the system.  It was on sale for 699 (I opted for the 2 year warrenty that made it a little more), but 50% off its list price.

That an incredible deal. I know, one of these days, I’d like to buy one of those big Power Mac bad boys, or possibly just a Mac Book…
Something fun to help me see what’s so special about those things. Trying out someone else’s just isn’t the same. For an entire OS switch, like that, a person needs time to just look around, explore, and discover its secrets. Current I’m just not rich enough for such a thing. When I can go out and buy a 64bit OS on a little netbook for $200, it makes a Mac purchase that much harder.

Genesis - Carrara 8.5beta - DIM Support Thread Links
Quick access to some of the issues users have already worked through - in case you’re looking for answers regarding installation, using, or creating with Genesis in Carrara 8.5 and/or issues around using the DIM(Daz Install Manager)
If you know of a thread that you’d like to see a link to provided here, just let me know

IMPORTANT NOTICE ABOUT INSTALL MANAGER

“Where are the Gen 5s?” Covers issues between installing using the DIM and previously through the older method, as well as finding the files for use in Carrara along with the initial issue

“M5 with SSS turns black?” A simple misunderstanding that you may run into, yourself

”Error when trying to import various content…smart content tab, error states a path not on my system..or ever was? anyone know Hudson?”

“Zip vs Installers” For those of you, trying to decide whether to save the new format over the previous executables

“Carrara scene back to DS?” Trying to open a Carrara scene in D|S?

“question” Really? What kind of a thread title is that?
Anyways, this is all about not knowing which serial number goes where

”3D Universe toon hair - how do I get it to move properly with the head?” Title says it all

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Much more work to do.
Relatively soon I’m planning to record some helpful tutorials to help to teach Carrara within these pages.
In the meantime, try checking out the tutorials links and the various articles I’ve written. I know reading long posts like that can irritate some folks, but they’ve helped many people in the past.

Daz Install Manager - Installing Custom Poser Runtimes
The Custom Poser Runtime organization method has been a very popular solution to those of use in this hobby or profession ever since Poser gave us the ability to use multiple runtime folders to help us sort and organize our ever growing collections of content. This organization must take place during installation, without the help of some sort of external assistance or immense amounts of time ensuring that all files in question get moved to the proper location. P3dO Photo & 3D Explorer by SENO Software, is one such utility. I own the professional version, but only for adding my own image into .car files, not for a runtime organizer, which is where I’m loosing out by my own ignorance. P3dO Explorer is first and foremost an incredible re-organizer, capable of keeping track of all of the little intricate files that are associated with everything that must stay together - and that is the free version!
But that’s not what I came here to talk about. I’m here to demonstrate how powerful and easy the DIM is at performing installations to custom runtime structures as well as its own, default installation directory - which is mostly useful for Daz Studio, but also anything that utilizes the D|S database, the CMS (Content Management System), like the Smart Content tab in Carrara 8.5 beta.

First of all, I’m here to tell you that you can use the DIM, itself,  to create and maintain an elaborate custom runtime structure directly within the interface. It includes the option to Add as many installation locations as you like, and then install your chosen content to any of the locations that you create within. Similarly, you may also use the DIM to add content to a runtime structure that you already have in place. The only reason I would suggest a fresh start, is so that you can have the DIM update any files as needed, as well as maintain a complete DIM content viewing experience. However, if you already use P3DO Explorer, or similar, and only want to use the DIM to add new content, you can do that too. But the DIM only recognizes what you’ve added using the DIM, so you’d have to keep track, yourself, what needs to be added and what doesn’t, because the DIM will show you everything you’ve purchased at Daz3d that the DIM has not already installed (and what was installed if you tell it to) in the available downloads section.

◄ What is a Runtime ►
A runtime folder is a directory used by Poser to organize where specific files and their associated files reside. Some folders, like Daz3d’s ReadMe’s folder, reside in the same folder as the runtime folder itself. Over the years, content providers have created their own places to put stuff within the structure, which can really make a mess of things. The basic runtime structure, itself, is very neat and organized.
Within you’ll find the following important file folders: (this is just an incomplete example, btw)
Geometry - this is where you’ll find separate folders into which the actual obj geometry files reside
Libraries - inside this folder is where you find the main, visible browser structure, like “Characters” is actually shown as “Figures” within the software, “Hands”, “Faces”, “Poses”, “Props”, etc.,
Textures - this holds more folders organizing where models can find their maps, etc.,

◄ Runtime structures - Why? ►
Back in the day, we could add as much content as we wanted to the Poser runtime structure within Poser, but it would only show the first 255 items in the list. So clever vendors, including Daz3d, began using the exclamation point as a prefix to their titles to get their items closer to the top of the list, as the Poser index shows “!” before anything else. This is why the entire Generation 3 figure and morph system is listed with those prefixes. Poser 5 gave the ability for users to add multiple runtimes. This gave us the power to actually access all of the content owned, but also had a much more useful side effect - it allowed us to create custom organizational folder structure to which our runtime folders where added. Older Daz installers required to “see” a ‘poser.exe’ file in the same folder containing a “runtime” folder to autheticate that you owned Poser. So we would create a .txt file and save the name and extension to “Poser.exe” to fool the installers! lol We don’t need to do that anymore, I don’t think. Especially not with the DIM - it is so fast at downloading and installing content, I get this bizarre feeling that magic is involved!
Anyways, everybody has their own special method for which they like their content organized. Which leads us to the much deeper philosophical question:

◄ Runtime structures - How? ►
Personally, I find it convenient to keep the structures more vague and to have less of them. Sure it makes each list longer, but it saves you from having to jump runtimes all the time. But that’s me, and I certainly have much smaller runtime collections than some - so my ideas on this may change as time goes on. I’ll show you two examples of runtime structure, and leave you to decide, for yourselves, how to build your own, custom structure from there:

The more vague method:

<Main Directory where all runtime folders reside> (often a single folder at the top level of a hard drive like, C:\ “DAZ Runtimes”)

►  Animals (where I’ll install everything that resembles a living creature along with anything associated with them, like reins and saddles, textures and poses, etc.)

►  Environs (where I’ll install all interiors, exteriors, and all props associated with them, including decor like toothpaste tubes, for example)

►  M3 (Everything that I’ve purchased for and including M3 and all textures, morphs and poses)

►  M4 (Everything that I’ve purchased for and including M4 and all textures, morphs and poses)

►  Mil 1&2 (Everything that I’ve purchased for and including all of the Millennium 1 & 2 people and all textures, morphs and poses)

►  V3 (Everything that I’ve purchased for and including V3 and all textures, morphs and poses)

►  V4 (Everything that I’ve purchased for and including V4 and all textures, morphs and poses)

►  Vehicles (Everything that I’ve purchased for and including the Vehicle models and all textures, morphs and poses)

Etc.,

The more detailed method:

<Main Directory where all runtime folders reside> (often a single folder at the top level of a hard drive like, C:\ “DAZ Runtimes”)

►  Animals (where I’ll install everything that resembles a living creature, but none of the extras associated with them, like reins and saddles, textures and poses, etc.)

►  Animal Accessories (where I’ll install all of my Animal related accessories, except poses and textures.)

►  Animal Poses (where I’ll install all of my Animal related poses)

►  Animal Textures (where I’ll install my Animal textures and perhaps morphs, otherwise I’ll likely need yet another runtime folder for those.)

►  Exterior (where I’ll install all Exterior scenes, but I might also make a separate runtime for “Buildings”?)

►  Interior (where I’ll install all Interior scenes, but I might also make a separate runtime for “Furniture” and another for “Interior Props”?)

►  M3 (Here I only install M3 and any morphs and textures, unless I decide to make those separate runtimes as well, like “M3 Morphs” and “M3 Texures”, etc.,)

►  M3 Clothing (Just M3 clothing and their textures)

►  M3 Hair (Just M3 hair styles and their textures)

►  M3 Accessories (Stuff like guns and other accessories and smart props)

►  M3 Poses (Just M3 pose collections)

Rinse and repeat for the rest of the people you’ve been collecting and a similar structure for vehicles and whatever else you may want to sort.

Etc.,

◄ Creating such a structure within the DIM ►
Inside the Daz Install Manager, there’s a small gear icon directly under the close program “X” in the upper right corner of the window. Click this to enter the configuration Settings. The “Applications” tab will show the actual program installation paths of the various Daz Studio software you have installed. These should not be changed unless they are incorrect due to installing your software to custom location. What we want is the “Installation” tab. By default, there’s one installation path, which is a new Daz Studio content location. Daz3d professionals strongly suggest, whether you keep this default location or not, do not change this to the older “My Library” location where D|S content has always been installed to previously - or you may have problems that I’m not in a position to help with. So for now, leave that alone.

What we do want to do in here resides in the lower left corner of the window, the plus “+” sign. Press that and navigate to a hard drive of your choosing and “Add New Folder”. Give this folder a name. It is where all of your actual named runtime directories, as I’ve shown in the examples, will reside.
Before hitting the “Select Folder” button, enter the folder you’ve just made, and make a new one. According to my vague example above (for sake of another example), I’ll make an “Animals” folder. Now hit “Select Folder” on the bottom right. Continue making your new runtime structure in this way. Note that you never want to select that first folder that you’ve just made as a place to install to.

Once you think your all done making your new runtime installation structure, it’s time to try it out. Go to either your “Ready to Install” tab or the “Ready to Download” tab, and look over the list for a moment. This is where I want you to compare what you have available to download and install with the structure you’ve just made. If you think you need to add a new installation location, you may either do that now, or wait until later, giving yourself time to think about it. Right now I’m debating as to whether I want my V4 hair collection to be in a separate runtime, or just install it to my vague V4 runtime as I’ve always done in the past. It does seem to clutter up my V4 runtime, so I think I’ll go ahead and do that. But I’ll just make it a Gen 4 Hair, Gen 3 Hair and Mil Hair (for the Mil 1 & 2’s)(Millennium 2 figures are basically an advancemant in technology and mesh to Millennium 1. The products made for either generally work on the other, which is why I group them together as one).

Now go through the list and select all of the products that you want installed to a single, specific runtime location that you’ve created. Since these are Poser Runtime structures, I am only selecting the Poser files. Some of them aren’t marked DS or Ps, and I’m selecting those too, because they contain files for both. If you’re still deciding on something, like me with the hair idea, skip those for now and move onto something you’re sure about. I’m going for Environs right now which, for me, even include make-up that goes on the vanity table, RX medicine prescription bottles, grass, trees, Skull Mountain, Sci Fi Complex, etc., I like it all in one convenient shopping mall of scene creation entities. But that’s just me - you do it the way you want to.

Now that I’ve selected a good pile of Environs files to install, let’s make sure to head to the “Ready to Install” tab and ensure that we’ve got the right install path defined. Oooops! We don’t! Lets go ahead and push the little arrow of the drop-down right under where it says: :Install to Where?” in the lower left. Look at that. All of the new runtime locations I’ve just created are right there! Let’s make sure that there’s a check mark in the box where it says: “Install product updates to their respective “Install to Where?” paths”. Also, if you want to clear some overhead, While in this tab, you may chose to place a check in the box for “Delete Installer Once Installed”. If not, you product installer will all be save under “DAZ 3D > Install Manager > Downloads” in your public Documents folder.

Once the proper location is selected, and you’ve got a good selection of products that you want in that, specific location selected, head to the “Ready to Download” tab and check to make sure “Install after Download” is selected at the bottom, and press the “Start Queue” button, and amaze at the speed at which this awesome little tool works! In order to conduct this article, I wanted to go through the process myself, so I went into the “Installed” tab and uninstalled the stuff that I wanted to remove from my Daz Studio installation location, and reinstall to a custom runtime directory structure.

Once something gets installed - a few seconds after starting the Queue, you will see the products in the “Installed” tab, where you will see another great feature of the DIM. We now have a page that is one, long list (none of this ‘show 10, 20 or 50 items at a time) of the products installed - no matter which location. From here, starting from left to right, we see the actual name of the product as we’d want to look for it, not the product ID. Next to each item is a selection box. Next over is a column called “Smart” which indicates whether the product is seen as Smart Content. For these runtimes if, like me, you decided only to install Poser (Ps) files, the only items that will show as Smart, are those that are not labels as such, I believe. I’m fairly certain that the metadata is only included in installers that install Daz Studio files. If you now direct Daz Studio to any of these runtimes, anything labeled as Smart in this column will work in Smart Content as well.
Next we have a circled letter i, which displays the Read Me for the product when clicked. That’s awesome! It’s in one list, without having to dig through your runtime folders - and right there is all of the Read mes. I think that’s cool. And finally we have the column that allows you to easily uninstall any of your products. If you want to perform an entire overhaul, you may check the top box above the list on the left, and uninstall everything in very short notice. It’s amazing. Above the Uninstall column is a handy sort list feature if you’d like to change the order in which your products are displayed.

Well that’s my walkthrough for designing your own runtime folder structure. I hope you’ve had fun and learned what you came to learn. If you have further questions regarding this stuff, let me know.

Until then, Happy Rendering!
Dartanbeck

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Navigating in Carrara
Now that I have the finest content manipulation software in the world, it’s far time I go in and get used to this shiny new software! In this article, I’ll give you some good tips on how to get around the work space, go to where you want to be at specific times, and how to send stuff to specific locations within your scene, so lets get started.

When you open a new, empty scene in Carrara, either through the opening dialog or the File > New method, you begin with an empty scene, a distant light an a camera. By default you are looking through that one camera, “Camera 1”. If you already understand camera movements, go ahead and skip to “Using the Directors Camera” below. Everybody else, have a look along the far left of the screen. See those tools in the bar? I want you to look at the one in the mid section of the tools, and toward the bottom of those mid tools - the one that looks like a ball or circle, with a cross of arrows going through it. Hover your mouse over it and it says “Pan (D)”, meaning that you may select that tool with the keyboard shortcut: “D”, but instead, you can use the tool as it sits in the toolbar. Click your mouse within that tool and, while holding down the mouse button, move the mouse up and down, left and right. Get a hang of how you pan around the scene. Whatever is selected in the scene is what your camera will rotate around. Currently the scene is empty so you just rotating around the center of the scene. As the scene gets more populated, this may become more difficult. I’ll show you a tip to get around that. The three tools above that one are called Track, and they move the camera according to 3d space according to the coordinates mentioned in their tool tips. As you practice working in Carrara, you’ll get really used to using these various camera tools. For now, let’s just move on to the next exercise:

Using the Directors Camera
To help to illustrate my point, I’d like you to move the camera, while still in Camera 1. Any adjustment will do. You can tell which camera you’re currently using, or select a different one by the text on the top left of the scene view. Right now it should say “Camera 1”. After moving the camera, type Ctrl Z (Cmd Z on Mac). This is the shortcut for Edit > Undo. Notice how you just performed an ‘Undo’ operation to your view? This can be handy when the work that you’re performing is strictly camera related. But if you’re working on an animation, making a lot of subtle or dramatic changes to the joints of a figure, you’ll want to keep your undo buffer free of camera movement data - so when you undo and action, or several actions, they are all about your joint rotation, not the view of your camera.

Now go to the upper left of the scene view and click on the text that says: “Camera 1” and select “Director’s Camera. Ahhhh
That view will not do! Yikes! Go to the same camera selection text, click where it now says: “Director’s Camera” and select “Set Position To” and from there, select “Camera 1”. Now we have the same view we would have through the production frame of Camera 1. More on the Production Frame later. Now that we’re looking through the Director’s camera, go ahead and move around some and then Ctrl z to undo. What was just undone is something else, entirely - not the camera movement - because the Director’s camera cannot be animated - it cannot create key frames. I work in the Director’s Camera any time I’m not working on Camera angles.

Now lets explore another key tip regarding navigation. Go to the menu list on top of the window and go “Insert > (scroll down to just three items above the very bottom) Target Helper Object”. This appears in your scene as a three dimensional X with another X perpendicular to it - well… sort of. Before I forget, select the Target Helper Object in the instances tab on the right. Now look in that same panel, but toward the top of the screen where you have a selection of tabs to choose from, and select: “Effects”. Here is where you can change the size and color of the Target Helper Object to your liking. This object can never be rendered, meaning that except for within your view of the scene, it is 100% invisible. While this thing is selected, when you rotate your current view, it will rotate around it. This applies to any object within your scene. But the big difference is, no matter how big or small you change the Target Helper Object to, it is always considered to be a single point at the center as far as your view is concerned. Hence the name: Target Helper Object.

Now, with the Target Helper Object selected, tap the zero"0” key. Whoa
Tapping zero zooms you to the selected object at the current viewing angle. Some objects are very large, so the zoom might back you very far away from your current view. Now, click your mouse into the tool just above the Pan(ball with cross arrows) tool we’ve seen in the camera movement example above (left tool bar), and ease your mouse backwards, toward you. This will zoom you back out.

Okay, let’s go over how to send one object to another:
Select (left click once into) the very top tool in the tool bar on the left. The one that looks like an arrow pointing Northwest. This is the translate tool and is used for moving objects within the three dimensional space before you. With that tool selected, practice using that same camera track tool without deselecting the translate tool. I need you to back off away from your Target Helper Object enough to move it fairly significantly, but not too far away. Got it? Did you accidentally deselect the translate tool? If not, you’ll still see the colorful arrows coming out of your Target Helper Object in the three directions. Go ahead and use the translate tool. With both it selected as a tool, and your Target Helper Object selected in the Instances panel, use the colored arrows on the object to move it somewhere away from its current position. move it several times if you wish but try to keep it within the current view, and we want to see the center of the scene where your Target Helper Object was before you moved it. Got that? Okay. Now go Insert > Target Helper Object again, which will place a new one in the center of three dimensional space within Carrara. This location is known as 0,0,0 which means 0x, 0y, and 0z, the absolute zero within 3d space. Okay, select your first Target Helper Object from the instances tray. The one you’ve moved away in the previous step. With that one selected, hold down your shift key and select the new Target Helper Object you’ve just added to the scene, then let off of the shift key. You should now have both Target Helper Objects selected. You could just drag/select in the instances tray if all you wanted to do was to select them both, but not for this example. Hold down Ctrl key and tap “k”. In the menu that pops up, you’ll see the three arrows like those that you use with the translate tool. One is darker (y), meaning that it’s selected. Select the rest of them and hit “OK”. The new Target Helper Object just jumped to the exact x,y,z, position as the first. This is a great way to get things from one location to the next. I’ve never experimented with any of the many options within that Ctrl k popup menu, but it looks powerful!

Notice that if two or more objects are selected, no mater how far away from each other they are, the camera will detect a common center, somewhere… and use that to rotate around. Sometime this can be incredibly difficult for navigation. If you ever need a view rotation aid, don’t forget your good friend, the Target Helper Object. Insert one and drag it to where you want your view to pivot, and there you go.

Well that’s basic navigation for now. I’ll be back later,
Dartanbeck  

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Carrara Plugins FAQ & Information (Currently Unfinished, Under Construction, & Being Edited Heavily -  About 59% complete)

This is a listing of makers of Carrara plugins, FAQ for certain plugins they make and some additional information to help with those plugins that isn’t found in another part of the Carrara Information Manual.  Some FAQ do contain some information that can be found in other parts of the Carrara Information Manual, this was done so that jumping around to different parts of the Carrara Information Manual could be keep at a minimum   Not all plugins have a specific FAQ or extra information given for them.

General Plugin And Related Things to Remember

1.) If you are using Windows Vista, 7, or 8.  Make sure you are logged in as an Admin and that you run Carrara as an Admin when you go to enter in your serial for the plugin.

2.) Many of the sites that have online tutorials for Carrara plugins have links in them to files that are imbedded in text. in the tutorial tat can be easily missed and may have some larger versions of images if you click on.  Not all images may be larger sized ones and you could see om the same website several tutorials with no larger image links, some that contain images with no links to larger images and other images with links to larger version, and some that have larger image links for all images.

  This is useful to remember if you want to if your going to download tutorials and want to have every thing the site it was on had.

3.) Plugins files are installed to your Extensions folder located in your Carrara program (application) folder.  Read Me files, plugin specific shaders, scenes, etc. you’ll put in the appropriate folder that similar things go into.  Shaders go in Shaders,  Scenes go in Scenes, etc.

4.) You need to put a copy of the Extensions files for a plugin in the Extensions folder in each render node program (application) folder you have in your render farm.  Some plugins have special versions of the Extensions you use for a render node, while others don’t.

Q: Does Infinite Skills Inc. products cover using any of these.

A: Yes, some are covered in those videos.

Brian Scott

Created & sells the Brianorca’s Ocean Plugin for Carrara.

For more information on this plugin go to:

Brianorca Plugin for Carrara

FAQ About The Brianorca Plugin for Carrara

Q: How do I know when the plugin is updated and get the newest version?

A: Updates are emailed out when the plugin is updated.

DAZ 3D

DAZ 3D makes several additional plugins for Carrara that you can get at the DAZ Store.

DAZ 3D has numerous YouTube videos showing of the software and models they make, plus many tutorial videos.

DAZ 3D’s YouTube videos are at:

DAZ 3D You Tube Uploads

DAZ Plugins General FAQ

Q: How do I get the latest version of one of those plugins.

A: Reset the product in you DAZ Account and re-download it.

FAQ About Carrara Importer for Adobe After Effects

Q: I can’t find the PC .exe file to install it.

A: It doesn’t have a .exe installer.  It is a manually installed.  See the Read Me in the .zip file on how to install and use it.  Do be aware that the PC .and Mac each have a separate zip with a version for them.

Q:  Do any tutorials exist on how to use it?

A: The The Carrara 5 Pro Handbook, by Mike de la Flour has a chapter written by David Bell and Lisa Yimm on using it with After Effect 6.5.

FAQ About GoZ for Carrara

Q: Z-Brush and now the plugin isn’t working.  What do I do?

A:  GoZ for Carrara can not be working for several reasons.  In most cases it isn’t working as something isn’t set up correctly or something got messed up if it was working before and isn’t now.  in cases of the later this is because Z-Brush was just updated and needs to be st up again or something was deleted during the update.

  1.)  In Z-brush do this first.
    a.) Go to Preferences
    b.) Select GoZ and make sure that for Carrara it is pointing at your Carrara program.  Manually tell Z-Brush were to go as having Z-bush automatically find where to point may result in X-Brush not pointing at it for some reason.  Even if Z-Brush is showing that it is pointing at the right place for Carrara do this as the set up can fix things even when the location is showing to be correct..

    2.) Try using GoZ while in Carrara if you can’t get it to work in Z-Brush.

    3.) Reinstall the plugin and try doing 1 & 2 again.
       
      You may have deleted one or more files or folders.  This tends to be the case if you just updated Z-Brush as it is advised by Pixologoic to delete certain folders before you run the nw full installer or patch for Z-Brush.

Q: where is the GoZ for Carrara Manual and Read Me located?

A: They are in the folder titled GoZDocs in your Carrara 8 program folder.

FAQ About Mimic Pro for Carrara

Q: Does it work with Genesis.

A: Genesis is supported in the 8.5 version of the plugin.  If you need the dmc file for Genesis you can get it from DAZ Studio 4.0 or 4.5 by going to your program (application)  folder for it and looking in DAZ 3D\DAZStudio4\plugins\dzmimic\Configuration_Files DAZ Studio 4.0 or 4.5 and making a copy of it for your Carrara Mimic Configuration Files.  (VERY IMPORTANT: Do not remove the Genesis dmc from the DAZ Studio.  Make a copy of it so Carrara will have its own one and so will DAZ Studio.:

Q: Where is the instruction manual for the plugin?

A: It can be found in the program (application) folder you installed Carrara into in the folder MimicProDocs.

Q: I have a figure that in DAZ Studio, Mimic Lite, or the stand alone version of Mimic Pro that I can   lip-synch or have talk with a recording, but it doesn’t work when I use Mimic Pro for Carrara.  What do I do need to do so it will work Mimic Pro for Carrara?

A: You most likely need to put a copy of the dmc (DAZ Mimic Configuration) file for the model into your the Configuration Files folder in the Mimic Content folder,  that can be found in the program (application) folder you installed Carrara or you have to direct Mimic to the where the file is.  It is strongly recommended that you put a copy of the dmc files for any figures you own in the Configuration Files folder that doesn’t have them.

Q: Where can I get a dmc file for a certain figure?

A: Not all figures have dmc files available for them.  For those that do you can get them from in most cases at:

    1.) The product page on the DAZ Store for the figure will have a link to download it. (Note:  If a dmc link isn’t working please contact support to have it fixed.  A few got messed up during the transition to the new store last year.

    2.) Some are included with your instillation files for a product.

    3.) Some came be gotten by going to the figure creator’s website.  3D Universe’s website, for example, has a section dedicated to Mimic files for the figures they sell at DAZ.

    4.) Additionally, some fans have created dmc files for figures that don’t have any that can be gotten on ShareCG and other sites if you do a search.

For those that don’t you can make your own using Mimic Pro.

Q: I never purchase Mimic Po, but only purchased Mimic Pro for Carrara why is the store saying I own Mimic Pro?

A: At some point DAZ decided to included Mimic Pro with the purchase Carrara plugin version. The files for it show up in your Products Library under Mimic Pro and not under Mimic Pro for Carrara.

FAQ About The Grid for Carrara

(Under construction)

FAQ About Vector Style 2 for Carrara

Q: Where is the Documentation for this plugin?

A: You can find HTML documentation files after you install the plugin in the folder VectorStyleDocs located in the Carrara program (application) folder.  The Documentation can’t be accessed via Help Menu in Carrara contrary to what the Read Me for the plugin states.

Q: Does it come with any examples files?

A: Yes, it comes with several Carrara scene files and swf (Shock Wave Flash) files of the scenes exported in that format they can be found in the Examples folder located in the VectorStyleDocs folder that you can find in the Carrara program (application) folder after you install the plugin.

Q: Do any additional tutorials and information exist on using Vector Style 2?  The Documentation is very bare bones and I head that some book had some stuff on using it.

A: The book The Carrara 5 Pro Handbook, by Mike de la Flour, dedicates an entire chapter to Vector Style 2.

Q: Are Vector Style 2 swf files and a native Flash swf file the same?

A: No, Vector Style 2 swf files are not as highly optimized and not as compact as native Flash swf files.  It is recommended to keep export of Vector Style 2 files at 12 frames per second and export options simple if you plan to work with them in Flash after export.

Digital Carver’s Guild

Digital Carver’s Guild (DCG) makes several plugins for Carrara and has Tutorials for them on the Digital Carvers Guild Website.

Digital Carvers Guild

FAQ About Digital Carvers Guild Plugins

Q: Does a Demo version exist for them?

A: You can download the plugins an try them out for free.  The run in “Trial Mode” until you enter a purchased serial key.

Q: Are plugin updates free?

A: Yes.

Q: How can I be informed of updates to the plugins, new tutorials, and new plugins?

A: You can subscribe to the mailing list Digital Carvers Guild maintains.

Q: Where is the information about getting a render node site license for use with Grid?

A: You have to contact Eric Winemiller for this if you are interested in purchasing one.  Got to the “Contact” section of the Digital Carvers Guild for information on contacting him about this.

Q: Didn’t Eric Winemiller write some Carrara Tutorials on using some of the Digital Carvers Guild Plugins that got published in a book?

A: Yes, he contributed to The Carrara 3 Pro Handbook, by Mike de la Flour and The Carrara 5 Pro Handbook, by Mike de la Flour.  The tutorials in the Carrara 5 Pro Handbook are ports of ones from the older book.

If your wondering the tutorials included in the books were:

Making a Fairy Ring with Anything Grows
Creating Old Chipped Paint and Rust with Anything Goos
Making a Robot Bug Walk with Cognito

The older Carrara 3 Pro Handbook contained 2 more that aren’t in the newer Carrara 5 Pro Handbook.  Those 2 are:

Creating Fake Fresnel With Shader Ops
Modeling A Simple Car With Project Gemini

(IMPORTANT NOTE ABOUT THE 2 BOOKS: Do be aware that if you do chose to tack down a copy of the older Carrara 3 Pro Handbook, that while you can do those 2 tutorials not in the latter version, many parts of the book that deal with other topics that require Amapi Designer 7, a program you can no longer get, and several things that the older version could do the newer can’t because of changes to Carrara which are connected to Amapi.  All the parts in Carrara 5 Pro Handbook can still be done and no parts of it require Amapi or features of Carrara that no longer exist in Carrara 8.

Frederic Rible

Fredric Rible has created 2 fee plugins for Carrara.  They are Pycarrara and PyCloid.

PyCarrara can be downloaded at:

PyCarrara

PyCloid can be downloaded at:

PyCloid

FAQ About PyCarrara

Q: Does a Carrara 8 version exist?  The PyCarrara Website indicates it is for Carrara 7.

A: PyCarrara has versions for Carrara 6, Carrara 7, and Carrara 8.  All the versions are in the latest PyCarra zip file.

Q: I installed the plugin, but it isn’t working.  What can I do to get it to work?

A: You need to install Python 2.6.6 for your computer Click on the link in the PyCarrara User Manual that downloads the installer you need.  If you go to the Python Website you could download a different version.  The plugin has in the past not worked for some people if they had a different version of Python 2.6.x installed.

Q: Can I have multiple versions of Python installed on my computer?

A: You can as long as they are not interfering with one another or overwriting each other.  It you do install multiple versions to check and see if everything is working after you install another version Python, so you know which version(s) to uninstall and not have on your computer.

Q: Does it work with Mac?

A: Only a Windows version is available.

FAQ About PyCloid

Q: Does a Mac version exist?

A: Only Windows versions are available.

Fenric

Fenric has several plugins for sale in the DAZ Store, other plugins not sold in the DAZ store for sale on his website, and a free Ivy Generator Plugin you can download from The Carrara Cafe website and ShreCG.  Fenric also has several other free items on Share CG that can be downloaded for Fenric’s Gallery

Fenic’s Daz Store is at:

Fenric’s DAZ 3D Store

Fenric’s ShareCG Gallery is at:

Fenric’s Gallery

Fenric’s Website is at:

Fenric’s Fox Den

The Ivy Generator Plugin can be downloaded at these two locations:

Carrara Cafe Download Ivy Generator for Carrara

http://www.sharecg.com/v/44242/view/10/Software-and-Tools/Ivy-Generator-For-Carrara

FAQ About Fenric’s Plugins

Q: Are Demo versions available?

A: The ones sold on Fenric’s Website can be download and the run in a “Trial Mode” until you enter a serial key.

Q: Where can I get the latest version of a plugin Fenric makes?

A: Reset the product if you bought the plugin from the DAZ Store, or re-download it from Fenric’s Website if you bought it from his site.

Q: I understand some free tutorials were done to help with using the ERC plugin, where can I find them?

A:  Fabone made several that you can get for free at ShareCG.  Fabone’s Share CG Gallery that you can got to get them is is at:

Fabone’s Gallery

Q: Is Fenric’s Ivy Generator similar to the free standalone Ivy Generator program Thomas Luft made?

A: Yes, it is based on that program and uses things from it.

Q: How do I install Ivy Generator for Carrara?  I think I know where some stuff goes, but I have no idea what Src file for my version goes or what it is.

A:  Do the following to install it.

  1.) Copy the “GenerateIvy.dat” and “GenerateIvy.mcx” and “GenerateIvy.txt” to your Carrara Extensions folder or a sub folder under the Extensions folder.

  2.) Copy the Shaders for your version of Carrara to your a location you can find them in your Sharers folder in your Presets folder.  On my computer I made a folder called Fenric’s Ivy Generator in my Shaders folder to put them in.

  The SRC folders are the source code of the program (application) and only need if you want to program or change something at the program structure.  You don’t need to install it.

GoFigure

Makes the aniMate aniBlock Importer for Carrara that is sold in the DAZ Store.

The aniMate aniBlock Importer for Carrara is included in several different bundles.  Please check carefully what each bundle has before purchasing one and comparing the price of the bundle and things in it if you already have AniBlocks. It may be cheaper to just buy the importer and AniBlocks you don’t have separately or it may not be.

GoFigure web site is at:

GoFigure

GoFigure does have a forum dedicated to its product, but you need to register and log in for it to show all the current threads.

They also have info on new products, tutorials, and FAQ about the products they make too on the site.

It is strongly recommended that you check out the AniMating in Carrara part of the Information Manual, since Dartanbeck has given an extensive information with links to tutorial videos on using it.

FAQ About aniMate aniBlock Importer for Carrara

Q: Can I import my aniBlocks I made using Animate 2 in DAZ Studio into Carrara with this?

A: Yes

Q: Does it work with Genesis?

A: Genesis is supported in the Carrara 8.5 version.

Inagoni

Inagoni makes several Carrara plugins that are sold in the DAZ Store and on Inagoni’s Website.

Inagoni’s website is at:

Inagoni

The latest version of all plugins can be downloaded from Inagoni’s Website.  The ones included with the installers from DAZ are not the latest versions.  Downloading a newer version doesn’t have any cost and no extra cost exist for plugins for newer versions of Carrara.

Additionally, Inagoni Website has several free models, shaders, and tutorials for ArchiTools for Carrarra and for the plugins that are in The Advanced Pack and sold on Inagoni’s Website.

FAQ About Inagoni Plugins

Q: The plugin is asking me the serial number every time I start Carrara (on Windows platform). What can I do to fix this?

A: This was fixed awhile back.  Download the latest version of the plugin from Inagoni’s website.  The version the installers for the Advanced Pack and ArchiTools for Carrara that you an download from DAZ don’t, as of 02-01-202013, install the latest version. Then start Carrara once by choosing to run the program Administrator and enter the serials.

Q: I purchased all the Inagoni Plugins from DAZ store and downloaded the newer version from Inagoni’s Website, but I can’t get Shapper to accept a serial number.  Why is this happening?

A: Shapper is not part of the Advanced Pack and is separate plugin sold currently only on Inagoni’s Website.  it has its’ own serial number and doesn’t use the one you got with the Advanced Pack.

Q: Are Demo versions of the plugins available?

A: Some have a Evaluation versions that can be downloaded from Inagoni’s website.  They don’t have some functionality as the full version does.

Q: When I was working with ArchiTools I left the Model Room, went to work in another room, went back into work on an ArchiTools building and now a “fog” is around the building (model).  What can i do?

A: When you left the model room you didn’t close out a model you were working on before, so now 2 or more models are open.  To fix this you can do this:

  1.) Try seeing if the fog vanishes when you start working on your building (model) in the Model Room.  This works in most cases.

  2.) Close any models you have open in the Model Room, go back to the Assembly Room, select your model you want to work on,  and go back to the Model Room. 

  Remember, closing a model in the Model Room is not the same as closing a scene in Carrara.  Your previous work done in the Model Room to models is not removed just by closing the model in the Model Room.

Mark DesMarais

Made the Shoestring Shaders that were sold in the DAZ Store and are sold on the Shoestring Graphics Website.

The Shoestring Graphics website has several tutorials and downloads links for the newest version.

The Shoestring Graphics Website is at:

ShoestringGraphics

Q:I purchased these from the DAZ store will my serial for them work with the newest version I download from the ShoeSting Graphics Website?

A:: Yes.

Q: Does a Carrarra 8 version exist for them?  The ones I purchased from the DAZ Store didn’t have a Carrara 8 version included of them.

A: Yes, an alpha version of them is out that works in Carrara 8.  The alpha Carrara 8 version can be download at no cost from the ShoeString Graphics Website.  They use the same serial key (password) as the previous versions.

Muphasa

Made free plugins for Black/White and Sand rendering with Carrara 7 & 8.

They can be download for free at the the Carrara Cafe.

Download link is at:

BlackWhite and Sand rendering plugin Download

SENO Software

Makes P3dO Photo & 3D Explorer

While P3dO Photo & 3D Exploreri s not a plugin technically, it is listed with them, since it tends to be included on listings other have made of Carrara plugins.

A freeware version P3dO Explorer can be downloaded and you can buy P3dO Explorer pro.  Only the pro version handles Carrara. files.

With the Pro version one to edit the thumbnail shown in a Carrara .car and .cb files and allows file management of them wiith the program.

SENO Software is at:

SENO Software

Marcelo Teixeira created a tutorial video showing how to create thumbnails for Carrara files with it.  The tutorial is at:

Creating thumbs for Carrara in P3DoExplorer

Sparowhawke3D

Sparowhawke3D has several free plugins for Carrara, tutorials for them.  Several alpha versions of plugins can be found in The Laboratory area of the website.

Sparowhawke3D’s Website is at:

Sparrowhawke3D

Some of the links to files on Sparowhawke3D website don’t work.  However, those files can be found by looking in the Indexesand Sub-Indexes for Downloads and Laboratory and that exist for the website.

The Indexes can be found at:

Index Downloads

Index Laboratory

FAQ About Sparohawke3D’s Plugins

Q: Do they work in Carrara 8?

A: Yes, beta versions can be downloaded that work in Carrara 8.

Q: Does a Mac version of them exist?

A: Carrara 8 currently has no Mac versions of any of the plugins.  Mac versions were made for several of the plugins for older versions of Carrara.

Q: Are they totally free?

A:  Yes, you can however thank the creator if you like by purchasing a DAZ or Renderosity gift certificate for the creator.  See the Stuff section of Sparowhawke3D’s Website for more details on doing this.

Spheric Labs

Is developing a LuxRender plugin for Carrara.  Which is in alpha testing at the moment.

More details along with download information on the that alpha can be gotten in this Carrara Cafe Forum Post:

LuxRender Discussion

Zgock

Zygock made the free plugin YAToon (Yet Another Toon Shader for Carrara).

Zygock’s site that it could be downloaded at is down, but all versions of it are mirrored at the Carrara Cafe so you can download it.

The download link is at:

Carrara Cafe YAToon Download

FAQ About YAToon

Q: What versions of Carrara was the plugin made for?

A: Versions were made for Carrara 6, 7, & 8.

Q: Is YAToon available for both Mac and Windows?

A:   Mac versions were made for Carrara 6 & 7.  Windows version were made for Carrara 6, 7, and 8

Q: Is a version really out for Carrara 8?  Several things I’ve seen indicated that the Carrara 7 version was the last version made.

A: A Carrra 8 version was released shortly after Carrara 8 was released but download links to it were given on some very old forum posts and were not on the old YAToon web page that the older versions were on.

Q:  Multiple builds exist for some versions of Carrara.  Which build do I want to install?

A: The plugin got updated a few times and some of the latest builds for different versions of Carrara are Beta YAToon,  Use the latest build for your version of Carra and see how it works, you can try an older build if you have problems with it.

Q: Doe the Carrara 8 version work with Carrrara 8.5?

A: It works with 8.5 but the creator said in an old forum post that some things didn’t look exactly right when using it with an early Carrara 8.5 Beta and that an 8.5 specific version would needed to be released at some point.

Q: When I work with it in the Texture Room the color look right compared to what I’m seeing in other pictures people did with the same settings.  What is going on?

A: The plugin has some problems with color depending on what build you use of Carrara.  The Carrara 8 version I understand has some additions to help prevent that from happening.

Q: Does Zygock have any images that still exist that can show me renders done with it and didn’t some movies exist that showed how it looked?

A:  Zygock has a gallery at Renderosity and you can find other images Zygock made if you do a web search using the terms “Zygogk” and “Carrara” or YAToon”

  DutchWorkingMan has several videos on YouTube done using different programs or combinations of them to make animated movies with DAZ & Poser figures.  One YAToon video does exist, but all the others are worth checking out too..  They can be found at:

DutchWorkinMan’s YouTube Animation

(Reserved For Plugin FAQ Part 2)

Wow Dart ... this is awesome. Great compilation of info. and great idea totally breaking it up with really nice artwork.

cripeman - 03 April 2013 05:29 AM

Wow Dart ... this is awesome. Great compilation of info. and great idea totally breaking it up with really nice artwork.

I am honored by your visit, Cripeman!
This whole process began as a means to index your most generous gift of video tutorials and eventually incorporate them into a manual, with links to the videos to get a better understanding. That part is coming. But, yeah… this place has really exploded into a wealth of Carrara goodness!

Wow, Jay… great job on the Plugins FAQ!!!
Thanks a lot for this!