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Call me stupid, but after every duf-file I tried to open in C 8.5 gave me the useless "an error occured" or - for the sake of variation- "an io-error occured", I decided for me (!) that Carrara is a plug-in for Studio (to paraphrase - and invert - you and Stan :) )
It's a most valuable plug-in for dynamic hair, terrain and skies and oceans and plants and ++ (= everything outside a portrait studio), (shaders), (particles), render time with a lot of lights, render time, render time ... my short tests show me that Carrara 8.5 is 15% faster than 8.0 on large outdoor scenes (maybe because of the mip-mapping), which is crucial on animation.
It's not the best program for content handling compared to Studio, but it's a great plug-in for Studio and it's worth every buck (of 85) I spent on it ... ;)
...The fact one can pose and morph characters in Carrara is a huge bonus compared to other "3D environment" oriented apps.
Also, having real vertex modelling rather than just primitives is a major help when kitbashing or creating that one special prop you need which doesn't exist.
Did I miss something, or has this still not been answered?
It doesn't look like it's been answered. The extended period is not mentioned on the Carrara product page. It is only mentioned in the thread title.
Perhaps it's like the decision to extend the deal where Daz Studio Pro is Free. They've announced that a L O N G time ago - and it's still free - for a limited time :)
Genesis and Carrara can work very well together. In my opinion, to use Genesis effectively, you have to be vigilant in it's installation. You must do it right, or you get errors. The treatment that worked best for me was a mass deletion of all of my Genesis content - even uninstalled Daz Studio Pro. I ran CCleaner a few times, got my registry in order. Then I used the DIM to download and install it all!!!
Talk about clean. Genesis works beautifully now. The thing is, while Genesis was going through it's many upgrades since it was first released, there were files that were no longer of use - but they couldn't stay there either. They had to be uninstalled. People who allowed DIM or the Bitrock installer to uninstall first didn't get the errors. Everybody else... well....
Okay, this is a cool explanation:
For the new Carrara 8.5, we got these great new tools in the Animation menu that work for any figure - not just Genesis. Check it out:
► Animation > Zero
► Animation > Memorize
► Animation > Restore
I really love DAZ_jared's explanations, and greatly anticipate more of them!
Rock On Jared!!! Keep it coming!!!
Yes, but I think the above posts were asking about the extension of 50% off for previous owners of C. I can't seem to find all of the product page for Carrara so I am assuming they are updating the pages for 8.5.
I would like to see a entire change log since 8.1.12, if it exists. I did upgrade to 8.5 Pro but I haven't installed it yet, I'll do that today. I want to run some renders with some of the stock scenes and then with 8.5 to see render time differences.
The Gen additions are of little use to me as I don't use Carrara for figures. Maybe later and on some limited scale.
I still wonder if there is an upgrade path after all the sales. I had to over extend myself for this upgrade, just bad timing, but if I had not been able to make it this month what would have been the option later on.
It doesn't look like it's been answered. The extended period is not mentioned on the Carrara product page. It is only mentioned in the thread title.
Thanks Darkwynde and Murgatroyd for even noticing my question.
You would think someone from Daz would even come in and say something, but...
It doesn't look like it's been answered. The extended period is not mentioned on the Carrara product page. It is only mentioned in the thread title.
Thanks Darkwynde and Murgatroyd for even noticing my question.
You would think someone from Daz would even come in and say something, but...
Your welcome, tsarist.
You would have thought they would considering the fiasco this release has been.
Ooops, Sorry Darkwynde,
I forgot to mention: Carrara 8.5 Upgrade (Update?) was intended, from the start, to add Genesis compatibility. Then they were gonna start working on Carrara 9. We got some great fixes and functions along the way. Personally, I've found it cumbersome and different going back to 8.1 from 8.5 but aside from some tweaks, new tabs (which are very cool), and some great new things like Graph Editor enhancements and the Zeroing feature multi-enhancements I've linked to above, Carrara 8.5 is all about getting Genesis compatibility.
But even when I'm not working with Genesis - I still favor 8.5 over any other version.
Thank you. I was considering doing the same and it helps to know it worked.
Yes, the graph editor enhancements sold me. I would have got it anyway even if I don't use the gen stuff much.
I put a lot of $$$ into DCG, Inigoni and other plugins to write it at this stage. ;) I'm still learning and I do have other software for 3D. I'm happy to keep it in the toolbox.
Also,
Carrara 8.5 -First Look - I introduce the new interface by adding M5 and making a complete render - even going into Phil W's Gamma Correction - linear workflow method, just using what comes with C8.5 out of the box.
Carrara 8.5 - First Look 2 - where I continue on showing the new zeroing features, how to use NLA features to transfer one character to a newer version of Genesis, saving multi-shaders, and an introduction to modeling clothes or whatever for Genesis or any other figure right in the assembly room.
Genesis in Carrara - is something I did when I first discovered Genesis in the 8.5 beta - back in the beginning of all of this.
Just a Bit of Fun - is still my personal favorite, even though it was made from throw-away test render clips.
As if Carrara isn't kickin' on it's own... these plugin masters make it impossible to play in Carrara without hem - once we've been spoiled!
CAN NOT GET - guess what? Cart price still screwed up after all this time. $171 instead of $85.50 on Pro version upgrade. Just reporting for those who like to keep track of the agony. Sent message to sales support. Why is not the question, HOW?
Thanks Darkwynde and Murgatroyd for even noticing my question.
You would think someone from Daz would even come in and say something, but...
Your welcome, tsarist.
You would have thought they would considering the fiasco this release has been.
Someone in charge.... please tell us how long these discounts for Carrara will last!! I definitely can't buy it yet... but if the discounts last a couple of months... I think I can! Please please give us CRITICAL information for sales! HOW LONG WILL the valid 40% sale price last? How long will the 50% off for members last???
Thanks, I'll look through that in the morning. I'm interested to see how this compares to Lightwave.
I've had an older copy of Carrara Pro for some time, but never used it. I needed some humans to be honest. I've always done only outdoor scenes and been mainly interested in good animal models. I like messing around with matte work.
I'm going to do the dirty tomorrow and uninstall, Poser Pro 2014, Daz Studio, Carrara, ZBrush, Lightwave and Vue Infinite and finally get all my files and Runtimes in order. I hope :roll: Nearly ten hours already this week just deleting crap from hard drives I have no idea why I downloaded to begin with. Way too much of the free crap is in fact crap. I'll never do that again.
Thanks and I'll for sure watch your video's.
I've gone through the same - I know how you feel.
Finally I decided, luckily with my Wife's blessing (and help), to join the Platinum Club on a Yearly basis. Got it (along with Carrara and a huge pile of content) a couple of weeks after getting tax returns back - so that I knew I had a cushion for keeping up with my membership. I want to make some movies, so I needed a lot - but it had to be the good stuff - as I already know - you know what I mean! ;)
My collection is smaller now, but growing. No crap. just the good stuff. Funny. I was worried about what would consistently be placed in the PC store at $1.99. I was amazed! All of the Jack Tomalin, and now petipet with all the vehicles, modern, historical and sci fi. But then all of the others that have always contributed - and new stuff too. I just saw that Dimension Theory added his latest HDRI pack to PC Store! Bought it! PC actually pays me now. Rosie told me that anyways. She looked at what I buy over the year and puts the actual price on it. Then we are supposed to look at the free stuff that you only get free if you're PC. We never get that far! LOL
But I contacted DAZ 3D and asked them if PC pricing can occur during the same order that you buy the membership. "Yes" they said. Bam. Bought it, Carrara, a load of cool stuff. But then there's all the bonus downloads.. yikes is that fun!
But a total overhaul of software can be even more refreshing and exciting than that, too! And if you're able to get rid of loads and loads of junk along the way, you also feel the significant boost of horse power on the computer, too!! Good times! :)
Now. Since I know you're coming from a Poser Runtime background, there's a certain rule that I made for myself that I'd like you to try and stick to, if you can. It's more of a set of rules, first one is HUGE important, in my opinion:
Genesis and Genesis Support Products - Only install to one location - and either use DIM or otherwise include uninstallers with everything.
Having Genesis or its stuff installed to more than one spot can cause those dog gone errors!
Runtimes - You can still use DIM and the Poser Runtime style setup - but don't do that with Genesis stuff. Everything else - sort till your heart's content. But Genesis Library sorts itself within it's own library - so just keep Genesis stuff out of your separate runtime allocations.
Now, with that said, if you do use the DIM to install to various runtime locations, make new ones using the DIM to create them - I show this in the hour long video. It's easy and it keeps thing from getting messed up in the future. Once you've installed stuff in that way, DIM will always install updates to those products in the right spot - even though it has a method of doing otherwise, should you choose. You'll amaze at how easy and fast DIM makes all of this.
So, what do we do with all of this cool stuff that I got from other places?
Personally, I would start a new runtime or use older runtimes that still contain that stuff - as long as the older runtime doesn't have any Genesis stuff in it. Because you really don't want to break any of these rules to keep everything clean and up to date. So here's the next really important rule:
What DIM touches is DIM-Only territory! What has manual intervention should never be touched by the DIM and vice versa - period.
Mainly what I'm saying here is this. If you have a folder that you install stuff to yourself, aside from using DIM, don't use DIM on it. If you really like the name of that folder, make a new folder with "DIM" in front of the name or something. I am kind of faithful to another CG 3d artist at another site. Now that I have resorted to going "ALL DIM", I'll make a new directory, or set of directories for all of that stuff. I touch that, so I don't touch it with DIM - that simple. And it must remain like that - or stuff can get fubarred!
There always has to be an exception to everything doesn't there... what is with that?
The one exception is Carrara's Installation directory. I have to manually install DCG, Inagoni, Fenric, Sparrowhawke, BrianOrca, etc., (there's quite a few more) into my extensions folder. The nice thing about this exception is that it doesn't mess anything up. The folks making Carrara plugins are genius, and therefore, they don't make a mess of your stuff.
Do I have any more rules? Hmmmm.... (?)
Okay, I just bought some PC stuff and found out something that I didn't show on the video:
If you check "Show Details" on the Downloads tab, you can select the install location right there. Check "Install after Download", select what you want for that location and "Start Queue". Bam - Done. Kick A.... Ankle. Yeah... Kick Ankle!!!
Thanks, I'll look through that in the morning. I'm interested to see how this compares to Lightwave.
I've had an older copy of Carrara Pro for some time, but never used it. I needed some humans to be honest. I've always done only outdoor scenes and been mainly interested in good animal models. I like messing around with matte work.
I'm going to do the dirty tomorrow and uninstall, Poser Pro 2014, Daz Studio, Carrara, ZBrush, Lightwave and Vue Infinite and finally get all my files and Runtimes in order. I hope :roll: Nearly ten hours already this week just deleting crap from hard drives I have no idea why I downloaded to begin with. Way too much of the free crap is in fact crap. I'll never do that again.
Thanks and I'll for sure watch your video's.
you got full working copy of all those programs and you going to use
Carrara ?
boy send them to me .
Also,
Carrara 8.5 -First Look - I introduce the new interface by adding M5 and making a complete render - even going into Phil W's Gamma Correction - linear workflow method, just using what comes with C8.5 out of the box.
Carrara 8.5 - First Look 2 - where I continue on showing the new zeroing features, how to use NLA features to transfer one character to a newer version of Genesis, saving multi-shaders, and an introduction to modeling clothes or whatever for Genesis or any other figure right in the assembly room.
Genesis in Carrara - is something I did when I first discovered Genesis in the 8.5 beta - back in the beginning of all of this.
Just a Bit of Fun - is still my personal favorite, even though it was made from throw-away test render clips.
Thanks for posting the vid links. It's given me a jump off point to start my first dabble.
I'd far rather use Carrara than most others - not just because of the price (though that's a biggie!) but because of what it does so automatically - less dickin' around making every darned thing. Not to mention, like I always say, Daz Studio/Poser figure support.
ya sure you would .
you can get the same using the programs he posted .
and I will stop there - don't want to get this post deleted .
Possibly through a complicated workflow. My buddy has Lightwave and I was looking online for a way to do it. Nothing is easy - not like in Carrara. pFusion is one thing... I've never tried it. But Carrara makes the stuff native. I like that. 3DS was a pain that way too. That's why my search for animation software ended with Carrara. :)
You're right though... and I certainly don't want to start some sort of debate thing. I'm sure that there are those "in the savvy" on how it's done. I personally prefer using store-bought dollies and the support items made for them. Including vehicles, sets, and whatnot. Not to mention the morphs, hair, clothes, etc.,
I do realize, however, that you've been in this a lot longer than I have - as I'm still quite new. I'm just saying that Carrara is the ONLY 3d modeling - animation - rendering software I could find that does what it does.
I definitely agree with you on this.
Maybe it is just like Coke vs Pepsi.
Everyone has their favorite for a variety of reasons - why quibble? There are much better things to do!
Cool! Right, and I especially don't wish to quibble with bigh! I am a huge fan of his art!
Nothing wrong with that. And its too bad 3dsMax (or Maya, or Cinema4d or whatever) seems to be the yard stick by which a person's experience is measured.
Thanks for all the information. Very helpful.
:-) Everything has it uses. I already had a copy of an older version of Carrara and with all the free stuff, why not. Also gave me a reason to join the PC again. I would agree the PC stuff has some gems and very useful stuff mixed in.
I also use Silo, although not as much as I used to use it. I'm starting to play with Hexagon more and I'm beginning to be sold on it for hard modeling. Hexagon is actually a pretty decent modeling program. I'm surprised it is not used more.
ZBrush I bought way back at version 1 and they never ask for any money for upgrades. ZBrush is the best of the best as far as an artists tool. Just throw the clay on the table and model away.
Vue Infinite is not that bad because I'm on the maintenance program and I jumped in on the beta of The Plant Factory at a huge discount. My Lightwave is 9.6 which is new enough to have the shaders for great renders, but it's getting outdated. I never liked the UI to be honest. Modeling in Lightwave is tedious after using other modeling programs. I bought that in a bundle with Vue Infinite years ago.
Keeping up with Adobe updates is the most expensive. I finally just signed up for CC. With 3D it's a hobby, but I'm at expert level with Photoshop and working with digital photo's. I do a number of publications for my business every year so that's just part of earning a living.
Just call me a Graphics Junkie. People who Ski or play Golf spend more a year than I do on this.
What a brilliant and exciting story! How very cool!
Many of us have multitudes of tools at our disposal. How many do we actually use on a daily basis? Weekly... monthly... ever? That doesn't always change our idea of whether or not we're happy that we have it. I 'bought' Bryce 7 Pro when it was free. I've always wanted to buy it and play with it. Still never have. I just installed it and all that I have for it last night. Does that mean that I'll be jumping into it soon? Not necessarily. But it does mean that I hope to.
I have been having a lot more fun modeling in Carrara than in Hexagon - simply because I like how I can select something, anything, and rotate my view directly around it. It's a small thing, I know... but it means a lot to "me" when I'm trying to create. There is an abundance of tools inside of Carrara's modeler that I have yet to explore. Really cool ones. Just when I mentioned the idea that I missed some of the features that I had while learning 3ds max, I realized that those were plugins that the owner of the workstation bought - same with the UV Unwrapper... it, too, was a plugin. So just when I mentioned that, 3dage comes in with the idea of using magnets in Carrara to get what I was missing. I still haven't tried it. My time within Carrara is very tight. I only get tid-bits of time before I have to go back to real life issues. So I'm mostly working with content, getting my scenes ready for movie sequence filming. The atmospheric features, like the way I've set them up in Woodlands and Underwater Realms, I find to be Carrara Bliss. The ability to go in and spend more time on my subject matter, while still being able to set up and animate the surrounding scene is magic to me. bigh does beautiful work in that realm.
[ I think it's bigh... ] EDIT: It is bigh! This "Zim 6" is one small (but excellent) example of what I mean. But frequenting the forum as long as I have, the last couple years, I've seen a lot of 'this' sort of thing. I love it! :ahhh:
So with the super-powerful abilities within the texture room - building shaders has just been infinitized for me. First, just recently, I bought the Advance Pack from here at DAZ, which is a huge collection (much greater than I originally expected) of additional features and functions - many of which are shader additions. Lots of them. Being able to turn any mesh into a volumetric shader is now achievable by simply answering a few well place questions in a texture room dialog! But now, a friend just said "Thanks" to me by buying me Enhance C, Shader Ops 1 and 2 from DCG! That's totally infinity cubed!
I have been purchasing Fenric's plugins as he made them available. It was a timing thing - and all of them directly related to my animation endeavors at the time. Now I just include their functions as a natural part of my Carrara work flow. It has come to a point where I cannot imagine doing this blissful hobby/career using any other software as my main output. I do welcome adding others to the mix, and have purchased several. There they sit - except for Project Dogwaffle Pro: Howler, which is my main post-production filtering/effects engine. It's only a fraction of the price of Adobe - yet would not be a good replacement for any of that - more an enhancement. But if you use After Effects to great use, you likely wouldn't need Howler - I have no clue as I've tried AE on a trial basis and couldn't get it to do what I wanted - where Howler - along with the great video tutorial support, gave me everything I was looking for in a snap - yet with, of course, a slight learning curve.
So here I am... A happier than ever Carraraist Carraraing away in the latest and greatest Carrara ever! I'm a PC member and content nerd! I get super-excited when First Bastion make me a Dungeon Entrance, and Phil Wilkes makes me a Carrara Fantasy Village, following one of my favorites, by evilproducer: Carrara Freebie: Fantasy Village to add to my ever-growing collection of ways to make my movies more spectacular! Man, I love Carrara and my collection of cool stuff that supports it! It's so easy to put things into motion. What kinds of things? ALL kinds of things!!! ;)
Thanks Darkwynde and Murgatroyd for even noticing my question.
You would think someone from Daz would even come in and say something, but...
Your welcome, tsarist.
You would have thought they would considering the fiasco this release has been.
Someone in charge.... please tell us how long these discounts for Carrara will last!! I definitely can't buy it yet... but if the discounts last a couple of months... I think I can! Please please give us CRITICAL information for sales! HOW LONG WILL the valid 40% sale price last? How long will the 50% off for members last???
+1 I'm in the same boat. Probably no one will post an answer until DAZ opens in the morning. Of course, that's after the midnight deadline to get a discount.