Ask not what Carrara can do for you... but what You can do in Carrara!
Dartanbeck
Posts: 21,210
In the entire realm of CGI, we often need to use what we have inside of us to help achieve what we're looking to accomplish. As much as we'd all like to see automatic "Push Button" features, especially in a piece of software that already makes most things a real synch to do, when some specific need arises, sometimes we need to do like what Cripeman would do and think about the 537,892,423,621 features that Carrara already has, and find a way to create the effect. CGI experts have been living in that world as their regular duties. That's actually how these simulation effects and plugins get invented and applied to cutting edge software. It wasn't that long ago, when we would have had to find ways to trick the viewer by setting up an elaborate plan in front of a camera. "Hey, I could model this with clay, and we could get Roger to paint it. He makes stuff look really real with his painting techniques", "No Bill, we don't have the time or the budget for that sort of effect. Now put on that suit an get to your place on set!"
Cripeman knows the interface of Carrara. That's what we need to meet our goal. He'll see how people want to be able to do this, but Carrara doesn't have that feature. So he thinks to himself; yeah... Carrara can do that! and he makes a video tutorial about how to getting really good results. But his tutorials go much further than a simple, do this, then this, and KaPow!!! Alright, sometimes it's that simple. But what I've seen more of, is where he explains what he's doing, some of the thing you really shouldn't do because this will happen, but you could experiment a bit with these things to get different results... "isn't that cool?" Funny how ever single time he asks that, I'm in total agree-ance - because it is cool!
The whole world of CGI is an illusion - that's what it is - even if you have physics calculations burn holes through your motherboard to get a Push Button solution - it's still sending an image before the eyes of the viewer to cause a reaction. That's it.
In another thread, tsarist, Ascania, and holly wetcircuit help Mystic Wolf get to where he wanted to go. And we see this sort of thing all the time. With the power of just a handful of people who are willing and able to answer the question: "How do I...?" it becomes very hard to find something you need to present that cannot be done in Carrara - at least as far as 3d authoring and effects goes. Believe me when I say that the big production houses have to deal with this every day - even though they might have the best of the best of everything which, of course, is debatable. More expensive, more right-click features, blah blah... doesn't necessarily mean that it's better. It does often mean that the company producing the software has more mouths to feed. Mouths who can research new ways to make the lives of others easier by adding a new feature. Don't get me wrong, here. We need these people. There are many, still, who do this out of their own enjoyment rather than as a means to keep their families safe and warm, with full tummies. There's the whole Blender community and a million others who write good code for people without asking a cent. All of this genius activity is done so to our favor. It's a side effect of progress.
It's really refreshing when perusing the forums and you find someone who, like me, just loves Carrara and just lets personal abilities and knowledge of how to use Carrara define the end result. Such is the case with Carrara UFO Tribute Animation, by ZIKEO. Very cool animation! And Argus1000's Animated Horror Short: R A C H E L ! (She really dead?) is quite the trip!
Browsing through some of these really early posts that were made back when the new forum was just going up is a real treat. I missed a lot of it due to being completely overloaded with hours at work. A fellow Carraraist was one of them. Shortly before the end of the old forums, he and I went head-to-head about how up-to-snuff Carrara is, in comparison to other, more expensive apps. Well I started with 3DS Max, and had a short introduction to Maya by a friend who was, at the time, the lead 3d artist for the first Prince of Persia (amongst many other titles), as Sony PS3 was nearing release. Not to be taken wrongly, here, but I really like them both. They are truly the big-boy 3d modeling apps. But it really isn't my fault that I truly enjoy using Carrara over either of those. He thought I was making it all up. No way!
When the new forum started up, there he was. Someone was saying that Modo was so much better than Carrara because of the under-development of Carrara. My buddy jumped in, much to my surprise: Sure, Modo is great. But can you easily load, conform, and animate by simply buying content off the shelf? Not like you can in Carrara, if at all. Plus Carrara simply has more features and a friendlier interface, etc., and I almost fell off my chair. Total 180 in the short time - but he had to buy Modo first, before he would come to this conclusion. Too bad. He really loved that software before he bought it too. Now it's collecting dust!
Please understand that I'm not saying anything about Modo. It was a story of a man who was eager to leave Carrara in favor for 'More Professional Tools' and found that Carrara truly is a big contender in the industry. I've seen Modo in action and it truly makes my jaw drop. Beautiful interface and toolset. Amazing modeler. Which brings me to my next issue:
Modeling in Carrara has always been tormented with people ranting about how much it is lacking in development. It makes me wonder if any of these comments come from people who truly know better, and/or have actually given the thing half a chance. I've modeled in 3ds and Maya and never really felt a lacking in Carrara's modeler. Maybe that's why I end up using it all the time! Because it maybe isn't lacking? Be careful not to take heed to sayings of "Nay". Very careful. My buddy spent about $1200 on a new modeler that he decided was simply a bad choice and will eat the loss. I see people in these forums daydreaming about the day that they buy 3ds or Maya. And if you've gone to or will be going to one of those $100,000+ (on the low side) college programs to learn 3d gaming or some such professional endeavor, one of those two is really where you should gear your wishes. Because those are what you'll be learning to use.
But if, like the majority of people who frequent these forums (not all - I know!), you enjoy buying the beautiful content available through this store, you're in for a much worse ride than what you're expecting. Because those circles don't do that. They're working. They're given a duty. They're not allowed to purchase content to achieve their end - but their trained professionals - as are the artists who make the products we buy. So there are fantastic possibilities for using all of the stuff together. But that's expensive. Outside of Carrara, Poser and Daz Studio, I can't yet report on Bryce's abilities in this department yet, but soon, getting this content into software is not what you might think. Those software offering truly are under developed for this sort of thing - simply because there's no demand. They spent $10,000 to make stuff - not buy it. Whereas I don't want to make it, I want to buy nearly everything in, and just occassionaly make a model of my own - even though I'm using the modeler all the time - but that's usually just adding more personal value to the content I've purchased by adding a few morphs here, sliding that thing over there - that sort of thing - and I certainly don't need (or want) a $6,000+ application for that!
"But what about rendering?"
Someone is feeding you the wrong information if you want to leave Carrara so that you can go render somewhere else. If this is the case, have a good look through some tutorials regarding the Texture (Shader) Room and how to adjust the shader settings, as well as some good tips on setting up lights and shadows. Every render you see of mine on these forums is rendered at, what Carrara considers to be, very low render settings. True. Most, with very few exceptions until I just watched Cripeman's tutorial on Global Illumination, which really opened my eyes, use no Global Illumination, no indirect lighting, and one level above the lowest quality settings you can set. (Object accuracy = 2, shadows = 4, Fast AntiAliasing, filters at 75%) but I leave the default, get this, 8 pass ray tracing! That's default! That's the magic of Carrara, I think. I've never tried turning it off. But Carrara renders incredibly fast while ray tracing the heck out of your scene! Learning how to get good shader quality is so easy in Carrara - because they use real layman terms in describing what's going on. Seriously. Instead of a Specularity Channel, they call it "Highlights". Doesn't get any easier than that. But it does take practice to figure out how all of the channels and features that can be used within those channels work together against your lights to create a render. That's why lights are every bit as important, and where many of my images are lacking. My friend, Jay Nola, is compiling a list of resources that we can use to find proper education is these departments. I have figured out how many of Carrara's light work, how to set them up for decent results, and I've messed around with many of their really neat effects. But I could really use a good lesson manual on using them to more dramatic effect.
The whole thing here is this:
Ask not what you can't do in Carrara - Explore what you Can!
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Comments
I love this post. It's long and there's a lot to digest.
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One thing that would amaze people is how similar working in Carrara or Daz is to working in a big studio environment. There are a good many differences, but there are similarities.
In a large production house the work is divided up. So a concept artist comes up with the concept. Then someone models it. Then someone rigs it. Another person textures it. By the time it gets to the animator, it is a complete character. Just like we get with Vicky. So much for the argument that we're all just playing with "dolls." Most of you end up doing more work than the pros you keep feeling inferior to.
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Valid point. Taking the analogy further, both techniques send different messages to others that may be observing...
Agreed. But I must say that I am just as happy with LightWave as I am with Carrara. Both have their quirks and taking getting used to. But extra $$$ does sometimes go far -- there are things in the LightWave modeler that would be difficult/time-consuming/impossible to do in Carrara.
Usually the cheerleaders versus the naysayers threads come down exactly one choice over another with no flexibility.
Interesting, can Lightwave work with Daz content just as easily? Or if not, is that
not one of your major needs?
I'd have to say "No" to that. Nothing touches D|S or Carrara for using the Daz content. You can certainly export / import between LW and Carrara. That's what I'm practicing getting better at.
I'm not a Carrara shader whizz like some here -- but I do find the Shader Room a bit easier to understand than LightWave's equivalent (but I do sense a huge volcano of untapped power here that I just don't understand yet...).
One thing I love about Carrara is the viewport navigation with the QWED keys. It's fast and quite intuitive for me.
Well i don't know how you actually find time to write all this stuff but very glad that you do. It demonstrates your belief in and passion for Carrara.
Personally I'm just a hobbyist of 4/5 years learning about 3d with a particular interest in animation, exploring many of the avenues you mention above - dabbling in just about every software I've come across in that time - always thinking there was an easier way - and yet I always came back to Carrara. For for the past few months have really concentrated on learning it. Sure it's got weaknesses and needs tweeking and some new features which are slow coming BUT what we have now is pretty awesome.
I began to take a different view of the software as I learnt more about it.
It is a toolbox !
Now Rodin, the famed sculptor, probably only had a toolbox of hammers and chisels when he created his masterpieces "the thinker" or "the kiss'
It's how he used his tools together with his creative talent that produced the result and I think that sits well with your question.
"Ask not what Carrara can do for you... but what You can do in Carrara!
I would add to that " What can you do for the community ?"
Realising how simple it is to save things in Carrara i have thought for a while " wouldnt it be great if there was a centralised sharing location
many companies support their users with a means to share creations though I cant imagine Daz doing that.
I'm not thinking "content" as such, though not excluded, but things specific to Carrara such as - did somebody make some smoke or bubbles,special light effects, explosions,water etc that may have taken several hours/days/weeks for them to figure out etc
How wonderful if they would upload and share their work or "experimental ideas'. Many such files are quite small.
Ok I know about ShareCG as it already has some Carrara available there and that may be the place to host. Even better perhaps Carrara cafe.
I would really like to know what others think of persuing the idea - a centralised Carrara sharing.
To me that would be a very valuable resource and certainly more than enough to keep me happy whilst waiting for Daz to develop more "push buttons"
image is a light rig Im playing with
We had a Carrara Freebies section in the old forums. Lot's of good stuff in there. Nowadays a lot of that has migrated to ShareCG. Sub7th sent a lot of cool Carrara models into my downloads folder from there. Indigone's awesome V4 Skin Shader Kit and Lights and Endless Eye Kit for V4 were there too. I'm really relieved that they're not lost in a web server somewhere! I think DimensionTheory used to give away shaders and presets and experiments and such too. I can't remember... must be getting old?
Hmmmm
Nope, that's not it! :smirk:
Agreed. But I must say that I am just as happy with LightWave as I am with Carrara. Both have their quirks and taking getting used to. But extra $$$ does sometimes go far -- there are things in the LightWave modeler that would be difficult/time-consuming/impossible to do in Carrara.
Usually the cheerleaders versus the naysayers threads come down exactly one choice over another with no flexibility.Absolutely the point I tried making clear in the original post.
There's 0% wrong with adding software (or whatever you find useful) to your work flow. But I've been seeing that many people were looking towards Lightwave, 3DS, Maya, Zbrush, Modo, Silo, etc., as sort of replacements for Carrara - or worse, to use as 'Render-Agents' for Carrara.
A lot of this, I believe, comes from when you toss something into the interface and hit the render button, it looks plastic.
Garstor is really becoming quite proficient with his shaders - he doesn't give himself enough credit there. And now he owns Lightwave. From there, if he finds that he would rather use Lightwave than Carrara for any part - or all parts of his work flow, that's awesome sauce and he should do it without giving it another thought. But many folks out there think that Lightwave, 3DS, Maya, Zbrush, Modo, Silo, etc., are going to recognize their content.
My friend from Sony, who taught me some stuff on his incredible Alienware Portable Workstation nutzoid monster thingy of a laptop? Not a laptop, but it looked similar, gave me an evil stare when I mentioned Poser content. And, according to him, you never want to even mention that stuff in the circles of 3DS, and Maya. "They'll assault you bad!" he says! lol
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The entire world of filmmaking in general is an illusion.
Yeah,
you and I really seem to be on the same page about a whole lot of stuff, don't we.
I like my Carrara illusions. And I found a playmate for Carrara. Rosie's gonna buy PD Pro 8 as soon as our tax returns are deposited in a few days. It's like the developers all have tea with each other, I think. Although I could easily use that for oil painting on my computer, which I'm sure I'll do a lot of, it's far deeper of a tool than that. Watching some of those tutorials have shown me that you can save your animations in a paint brush! But I think that between D|S, Hex, Bryce, Carrara, and Dogwaffle Pro, along with my Video Authoring Suite, I'll have my complete workflow.
Before actually finding out what Dogwaffle does (I've always wondered - as I'd see it in the Daz store) I really thought that I was going to shoot my movies entirely in Carrara, which is true, and that all of the final video editing would be done in Vegas. That's where I was incorrect!
Evil Producer is a real pro (I think, anyways) at preforming post work magic. I simply didn't want to go through all of that for all of my clips. Perhaps it's just that I am fairly lost in Photoshop or any other software of its kind. I'm actually going to be using Art Weaver for my Photoshop - so I can leave Jimmy (my nephew, next door) alone. I know I won't be using that much, though, as I'll be performing probably all post in Dogwaffle. This crazy new 3d designer stuff, as well as a bazillion other animation tools they have in there is even going to allow my dynamic hair to work without jitters - in a nice, friendly interface. Philip Staigerman, one of the developers, is totally into Carrara with his eight-core computer, too. We have a lot in common!
Whoa, 3D Designer is not the tool I meant in the above thread. I haven't even seen this before! Wow!
The rather hypocritical thing about that common view is that folks don't seem to mind when it's a phone, car, or gadget purchased from someplace like Turbosquid. Agencies quite often use purchased content in their digital signage, web and application work for end client. Funny how the perception changes for so many when the words "Poser" or "Daz" are used. Sad, but true.
Dartanbeck, thank you for being the energetic and positive Carrara ambassador you are.
If Daz isn't employing you as a Carrara Evangelist they should.
Thank you for the kind words
Absolutely! On both points!
I think that this is where DAZ has really fumbled the ball. V4/V5/Genesis deserves its place in just about any 3D artist's toolbox. Yet this perception exists and is not being combated by DAZ. Witness the discussion about renderers in the "Still waiting" thread (fortunately, that hasn't devolved into the usual playground sandbox name-calling...yet...).
DAZ really does need to get the word out to "real" (air-quotes emphasized for good reason) 3D artists.