Digital Art Zone

Ingvar,

Comparing total feature set of Carrara and C4D is not possible or practical. But I don’t think it is too far fetch to compare similar features between the two. Multi-pass render is in both and Carrara’s is not bad. It just has bugs or a bug.(*see comment below.) The images also need some anti-aliasing and some smoothing and they would match C4D which is what I was trying to say is just a little bit of polish and Carrara would be the bomb. I would not have any reason to look for other solutions. I think Carrara is so close to what I want it to do but alas I have to wait for bugs to get fixed which could take years or not at all. For still images, I think Carrara can’t be beat in this price range but for animation it is too frustration to fight.

I don’t think we are too far off in what you or I want for Carrara, polish the feature set it already has. Make the ui better. Give a better time line or dope sheet. I personally want a content rigging script to give any poser/daz/genesis figure a GUI for faster posing. Make the features work as expected. Fix bugs in a timely manner.

But improvements to existing features and fixing problems does not pay the bills. (I think Daz has even said that) I would argue that updates if it was done on a regular basis would make a difference. Because I would trust Daz more to come out with a better product and feel more comfortable spending money with them. I think others would feel the same. I just hope things will change and that Daz will deliver a solid Carrara 8.5.

And if Daz proves me wrong I will gladly eat crow. Just add some cajun seasoning and it will taste like chicken.

Holly,

I think that is right on how Carrara is calculating the depth pass now that you have said it and from what I have seen in the renders. Maybe Carrara is forgetting or miscalculating the depth pass from 1 frame to the next. Instend of something like C4d where it is a constant calculation from the camera.

-M

Kodiak, et al

begging doesn’t work. LOL!  Laughing to keep from crying helps though.

8.5 still a beta??? LOL!  You gotta be kidding me!!

Let me lead you to the Promised Land….....Blender!  Yes!  And I have C4D with Advance Render module. Great app, no doubt, but
Maxon has changed the pricing so it’s a rich man’s app. Glad I got it before I retired and it was relatively affordable.

Blender is amazing, not that hard to learn, and verrrrry fun and satisfying.
Carrara does physics I admit, but doesn’t do fluids like Blender. 

Also, Blender has a compositor and built in…...I’m doing a tutorial about Rotoscoping that’s comparable to AE.
http://goodspiritgraphics.com/software/tutorials/blender-tutorials/blendertut1/

After the almost 2yr Reality for Carrara debaucle…...“please DAZ,  pretty please with cream & sugar on it, pleeeeeeze!!”
I gave up on seeing any significant improvements in Carrara, since DS integration, DS content, is really their focus.
It’s a business decision. I wish them well.

You owe it to yourself to at least see what all the BFD is about Blender…...and it IS a BFD!

I still love & use Carrara (and Bryce), but they will never, imho, approach Blender’s considerable toolset and physics, and render engines.
I’ve set it up for 3Delight, Octane, Yafaray in addition to Cycles.

It renders 10X faster using the NVIDIA GPU than my Phenom II 955 CPU.

My point is,  Carrara is great, but Blender is awesome, and instead of waiting, waiting, waiting for Carrara to catch up,
see what great things you can do in Blender and integrate it with Carrara or Bryce, etc

You really don’t have to get C4D or Maya to do Pixar quality modeling & animation.

Have fun.....life is too short to beg & wait. 

>>>>>Let the fun begin here…...    http://blenderportal.com/

And guess what!  Thea render is finally getting GPU rendering.
They announced it on their facebook page.  I have the blender
plugin for Thea Render.

Megacal, I’ve tried Blender.  I rather enjoy working with it.  However, it doesn’t have a set of tools (yet) to make it work easily with content.  My modelling skills are decent, but the biggest thing for me is TIME.  I have a job and a family, so I don’t have the time to model everything I’m going to use in an animation OR go through the hours it takes to get DAZ content into Blender and have it work properly.  I really wish I did, but sadly, I don’t.

If DAZ would develop a set of tools to make their content work with Blender, I’d happily pay for it.

Besides, I know crying to DAZ doesn’t work.  I haven’t been around here as long as some (about 6 years), but I’ve been here long enough to know how DAZ works.  Still, since they have their new “partnership” then maybe things can change.  Maybe.  (OK, probably not, but I can still try.)

re: Blender….

it doesn’t have a set of tools (yet) to make it work easily with content.

Kodiak,
I’m glad you tried it…....hopefully 2.5+,  as it’s so much better.
And maybe down the road you’ll have a use for it.  Seems like every time you blink there’s something new.
I know they have an army of coders working on it constantly. No way for DAZ or anyone else to compete
with that kind of upgrade cycle, especially for free.

Tyler,  thanks for the Kerkeythea heads up…....I wanted to give it a try as well.

BTW, the 10X faster renders are just for Cycles using an NVIDIA CUDA card.  Haven’t tried it with
the other GPU renderers yet. 

Lots of great improvements in the pipe for Blender & Cycles.

Megacal

I tried Blender too, but it didn’t really fit in with my needs or worklow.

Just hoping Daz takes it’s time and gets C9 right.
We REALLY don’t need more Carrara versions, we need the ones we get to work right.

Muphasa - 20 October 2012 03:50 PM

Ingvar,

Holly,

I think that is right on how Carrara is calculating the depth pass now that you have said it and from what I have seen in the renders. Maybe Carrara is forgetting or miscalculating the depth pass from 1 frame to the next. Instend of something like C4d where it is a constant calculation from the camera.

-M

I can confirm that. You would need a larger object to set the range, and then for an animation this becomes complicated. Shoestring Shaders has a function that is based on the distance from the camera, but I did not play with that much to see if it accomplish the same thing with less fuss. The 8-bit limitation really kills the usefullness of a depth map so I have not pursued this any further.

I tried Blender too, but it didn’t really fit in with my needs or worklow.

That’s cool. I know it’s not for everyone, but hope everyone at some point will give it a shot.

It was something I had to confront.

It’s “just a tool” and I’m using in a very limited way for now. Can’t imagine I’d ever try to
do terrains & skies in it.

But do plan to do some motion/camera tracking/compositing to fly a mothership over my
neighborhood.

heh Cal that will scare those racoons

  Great idea….didn’t think of that!

Hope you’re gettin’ “some” mate! 

heh, had my fourth surf since april did a face plant in the shore dump and nearly snapped my neck - haven’t been able to drive for three days :( .. wasn’t a bad reo though the white water flipped the r ail and the bottom is mostly rock so I’m lucky a face ploughed the sand bank!

Sorry to go off topic

Yes Daz, what are you doing?
You’re just losing good loyal customers by procrastinating!
We know you have a finished version of Carrara 9 hidden away till the PC club sale ends….
And we all know it’s going to be way better than Blender ...

Teasers

did a face plant in the shore dump and nearly snapped my neck

 
Long as you had a good time & can still use your mouse & graphics tablet!

Shouldn’t laugh, but that’s a funny scene! Glad you’re Ok.

...and it’s going to be way better than Blender

  In your dreams!

tsarist - 17 October 2012 01:33 PM

I want Daz to take its time.
I’m not bothered by the slow development cycle because I don’t really feel the need to update my software very often.
They just need to work out the bugs, nice and slow. Get it done and get it done right.
Then get out some documentation.

I’m still running C7Pro and until we get a final version of C8Pro, I’m sticking with C7 (and maybe will until I have to upgrade).
I’m convinced most people don’t get the full use out of Carrara.

Stan is right, we really don’t need to have Carrara to become more DS like. It is already DS like enough.

Kevin, spot on about the presets. We could use some updates there.

Daz just needs to slow down. Get more vendors making Carrara specific items. Since Daz makes most of its money on content and not software, that might be really helpful

Heard. C7Pro owns. Have never had a single problem in any regard. I have no intention of upgrading until 8Pro is ready to be replaced by Pro9. I do my Windows the same way.

BC Rice - 22 October 2012 12:08 PM

Heard. C7Pro owns. Have never had a single problem in any regard. I have no intention of upgrading until 8Pro is ready to be replaced by Pro9. I do my Windows the same way.

What leads you to believe C9 will work any better then C8? C9 will be crammed full of genesis, I’m pessimistic it will work as well as C8.

ManStan - 23 October 2012 06:50 AM

BC Rice - 22 October 2012 12:08 PM

Heard. C7Pro owns. Have never had a single problem in any regard. I have no intention of upgrading until 8Pro is ready to be replaced by Pro9. I do my Windows the same way.

What leads you to believe C9 will work any better then C8? C9 will be crammed full of genesis, I’m pessimistic it will work as well as C8.

No, no. I’m saying that I will upgrade to 8 pro when 9 pro is getting ready to be released. That’s the best way to do software upgrades for me.