I’m still waiting for the announcement that Blender Foundation has purchased Carrara and will release Carrender in Q1 2014!
The list wasn’t meant to be comprehensive, just an example of how affordable Carrara is compared to others. If you use content a lot (and I use it a LOT) your choices are extremely limited, really, short of getting PPro 2012 and using plugins to move things to higher-end apps like C4D and LW.
I’m still waiting for the announcement that Blender Foundation has purchased Carrara and will release Carrender in Q1 2014!
The list wasn’t meant to be comprehensive, just an example of how affordable Carrara is compared to others. If you use content a lot (and I use it a LOT) your choices are extremely limited, really, short of getting PPro 2012 and using plugins to move things to higher-end apps like C4D and LW.
Meh. anyway.
So I’m not insane? Am I not all alone in thinking that Carrara is really the best thing of its kind - because it stands alone? They call me a Cheerleader. Fine. But I find it easy to work in Carrara, Fun to work in Carrara.
I’m still waiting for the announcement that Blender Foundation has purchased Carrara and will release Carrender in Q1 2014!
The list wasn’t meant to be comprehensive, just an example of how affordable Carrara is compared to others. If you use content a lot (and I use it a LOT) your choices are extremely limited, really, short of getting PPro 2012 and using plugins to move things to higher-end apps like C4D and LW.
Meh. anyway.
So I’m not insane? Am I not all alone in thinking that Carrara is really the best thing of its kind - because it stands alone? They call me a Cheerleader. Fine. But I find it easy to work in Carrara, Fun to work in Carrara.
Carrara has problems - I can easily crash it with some particle systems stuff I’ve tried, and posing figures is annoying, and the content browser is in dire need of search and better management… BUT..
*every* package I’ve tired or bought has issues. LW has the annoying dual-mode interface, Max is a resource hog and the built-in renderer is a pain to get looking good, Maya has a massive learning curve and is expensive and can STILL crash, etc. etc. etc. - in this case there’s no such thing as a bug-free 3D application, period! Hell I crashed Houdini Apprentice a couple of times!
For me, Carrara is the biggest bang-for-buck solution. My only other option would be Vue + PPro 2012 to get the content handling AND the landscape/environment creation and that would cost 2x more than Carrara itself (easily).
Sure I have a wishlist as long as my arm for Carrara, mostly involving fluid sims/smoke simulations and other VFX goodies.. but.. for what I need, at this moment in time, it’s Good Enough(tm) and I don’t have to fork over a grand for something else. FWIW, Carrara gives me less “cringies” (that sick sinking feeling you get when you open an app you know is going to frustrate you to death) than any other 3D app I’ve owned.
Yeah, that is an option. But unless your prepared to move your work into blender you need a way to get it out. I don’t remember anything specific, but when I was looking into fluid sims last year, blenders offering didn’t look that appealing. Realflow is pricy, but is what I started looking at.
Yeah, that is an option. But unless your prepared to move your work into blender you need a way to get it out. I don’t remember anything specific, but when I was looking into fluid sims last year, blenders offering didn’t look that appealing. Realflow is pricy, but is what I started looking at.
for animation you’re probably right, but I seem to recall you could export the fluid Object from a frame and use it as a still prop in something else. I didn’t run this at high resolution as it was a test, but still, its not bad..
Carrara has problems - I can easily crash it with some particle systems stuff I’ve tried, and posing figures is annoying, and the content browser is in dire need of search and better management… BUT..
See? Everybody’s different. To me, posing figures in Carrara is true bliss. I like posing in Carrara even as much as I like animating in it. Big time. Poser and DS give me a major headache in both of those regards. And I also love the browser system over any other program out there. I catalog everything in their proper place, which works as its own search, for me, anyways.
I can absolutely see your points, though - especially with particles. I knew I was going to be rendering a lot of scenes that I have already optimized for speed and efficiency, and I still build an 8 core system with over 3GHz per core, and 16GB RAM in a very cooled case - not water cooled… but highly efficient ventilation. I built my machine around my work style while keeping Carrara’s needs in mind. If I were to have a craving for particles, however, I’d have gone for a different system. My motherboard maxes out at 32 GB RAM. 16 is more than what any of my renders ask for. My cores run wide open - but memory usually maxes between 6 and 8 GB. I bet those crash-causing particles you’ve mentioned were sucking the life out of paging as well as physical. I’m guessing, but I have a feeling that it’s RAM that feeds particles.
The manual already warns us not to go too crazy with particles or we’ll suffer consequences… But we do have particles that work decent, I think. I haven’t messed with them much but the fire/smoke system that ExtruD was building for me was gorgeous in its alpha stage - and it even emitted its own light.
Also, yeah… again, I don’t want to sit here and defend Carrara - because I can make it drop to its knees too! In my experiences I’ve been swearing at me more than at Carrara though! lol
My favorite software in the world has its issues for sure. I’m lucky enough where; what I want Carrara for, Carrara pulls off beautifully. Not without the occasional hiccup, crash, or user frustration - but I am far happier with it than I am any other emotion.
Yeah, that is an option. But unless your prepared to move your work into blender you need a way to get it out. I don’t remember anything specific, but when I was looking into fluid sims last year, blenders offering didn’t look that appealing. Realflow is pricy, but is what I started looking at.
Yeah, I agree. Compared to Carrara’s transparent globules, Blender’s fluid sim is a joke.
Hey, someone once told me about this thing called “compositing”. I wonder if you could use that to integrate an external fluid sim into a Carrara render.
Yeah, that is an option. But unless your prepared to move your work into blender you need a way to get it out. I don’t remember anything specific, but when I was looking into fluid sims last year, blenders offering didn’t look that appealing. Realflow is pricy, but is what I started looking at.
Yeah, I agree. Compared to Carrara’s transparent globules, Blender’s fluid sim is a joke.
Hey, someone once told me about this thing called “compositing”. I wonder if you could use that to integrate an external fluid sim into a Carrara render.
Naw, too much work. Never mind.
LOL!!!
It’s hard to breathe when you do that - but i love it! lol
Yeah, that is an option. But unless your prepared to move your work into blender you need a way to get it out. I don’t remember anything specific, but when I was looking into fluid sims last year, blenders offering didn’t look that appealing. Realflow is pricy, but is what I started looking at.
for animation you’re probably right, but I seem to recall you could export the fluid Object from a frame and use it as a still prop in something else. I didn’t run this at high resolution as it was a test, but still, its not bad..
Use this for importing a sequence of OBJ files.into Carrara. One of the examples showing what it can do is a blender fluid sim.
Thanks for the pointers, but as I’m not working on an animation I don’t need that. All I need is something better than I’ve managed in carrara using other methods. Currently, neither blender nor realflow like the models I’m working with which means I’ll need to create proxies. Off to do that (when I get the time, currently its lights out).
Yeah, that is an option. But unless your prepared to move your work into blender you need a way to get it out. I don’t remember anything specific, but when I was looking into fluid sims last year, blenders offering didn’t look that appealing. Realflow is pricy, but is what I started looking at.
Yeah, I agree. Compared to Carrara’s transparent globules, Blender’s fluid sim is a joke.
Hey, someone once told me about this thing called “compositing”. I wonder if you could use that to integrate an external fluid sim into a Carrara render.
Naw, too much work. Never mind.
LOL!!!
It’s hard to breathe when you do that - but i love it! lol
I see they are clearing out the bug track. I got a notice about my gripe about unsorted parameters from, get this, 16 months ago. Love the solution “works as intended”. Took them 16 months to come to this conclusion? And typical for DAZ “works as intended” means poorly.
And for those dancing a jig because they see movement in the bug tracker, please remember DAZ clears out he bug tracker periodically, doesn’t mean anything is being done with carrara.
I see they are clearing out the bug track. I got a notice about my gripe about unsorted parameters from, get this, 16 months ago. Love the solution “works as intended”. Took them 16 months to come to this conclusion? And typical for DAZ “works as intended” means poorly.
And for those dancing a jig because they see movement in the bug tracker, please remember DAZ clears out he bug tracker periodically, doesn’t mean anything is being done with carrara.
you got news then - now for the big announcement !!!!!!!!!!
coming today
