Carrara 9 feature request

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  • EddyMI3DEddyMI3D Posts: 365
    edited September 2013

    PhilW said:
    Speaking of small things that should be easy to implement, can we have the option to not include SSS in a render? There are check boxes for most things - reflection, refraction, even shadows - but not SSS, and it would be really useful when doing test renders to be able to temporarily turn it off as it can add to render times.

    I working with the SSS in this moment and noticed this:
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    Post edited by EddyMI3D on
  • PhilWPhilW Posts: 5,145
    edited December 1969

    Thanks for this. That would mean going into each shader and making an adjustment, and then remembering to undo all of that when it came to the final render. How much easier to have a simple check box on the render parameters for SSS! There is even space for it if you look, just waiting to the filled...

  • EddyMI3DEddyMI3D Posts: 365
    edited December 1969

    So maybe another quest for "Fenric to the rescue" ;-)

  • BrianP21361BrianP21361 Posts: 807
    edited September 2013

    EddyMI,

    Fenric already has a product that solves this issue. You can use the Multi-Shader Editor to turn off SSS. Select all the textures in the shader tab. Select Fenric's Multi-Shader Editor in the Edit Menu. Select Change SubSurface then press the SubSurface button. Change the drop down menu to None. Hit OK. It works great!

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    Post edited by BrianP21361 on
  • edited December 1969

    You know what I'd like to see them do for Carrara 9? I'd like them to fix things so that work flows naturally instead of working for hours trying to find out why something isn't working. I want to be able to highlight a series of keyframes in the sequencer and not have copy greyed out. I want to be able to highlight a series of keyframes in the sequencer, right click, and promote them to an NLA.

    If I can't figure out how to copy and paste keyframes in 30 seconds then there is something SERIOUSLY wrong with the ui. Copy and paste is one of the most intuitive things there is and after spending my 2 hours tonight trying to figure out who to copy a set of Actor Parameter change keyframes to make an NLA clip I am out of time and have to give up. 1/10th of my time to do my animation is gone with nothing to show for it and I can't keep working like this.


    Bummed in California.
    Boojum

  • MalfeasantMalfeasant Posts: 8
    edited September 2013

    • Make it so the torus and other circular spline objects don't square off when moved away from the main spline?

    • Different rendering settings for Render Room and Test Render.

    • Be able to use the render node for Test Renders and main render without having to close the document - so I can speed up renders on-the-fly by networking to other machines.

    • Use the Render Node alongside the main app to take advantage of multicore processors.

    • Flatten the interface so all the icons look like the room icons.

    • "Eye" icons next to the instance names so we can turn the visibility on and off via the palette.

    • When you've jumped into a group it would be nice to copy and paste and not have the pasted item be placed outside the group, so you have to go back to the top level to see it.

    • Ability to create non-animated scenes

    Post edited by Malfeasant on
  • DartanbeckDartanbeck Posts: 21,510
    edited December 1969

    You know what I'd like to see them do for Carrara 9? I'd like them to fix things so that work flows naturally instead of working for hours trying to find out why something isn't working. I want to be able to highlight a series of keyframes in the sequencer and not have copy greyed out. I want to be able to highlight a series of keyframes in the sequencer, right click, and promote them to an NLA.

    If I can't figure out how to copy and paste keyframes in 30 seconds then there is something SERIOUSLY wrong with the ui. Copy and paste is one of the most intuitive things there is and after spending my 2 hours tonight trying to figure out who to copy a set of Actor Parameter change keyframes to make an NLA clip I am out of time and have to give up. 1/10th of my time to do my animation is gone with nothing to show for it and I can't keep working like this.


    Bummed in California.
    Boojum

    Select keyframes. Hold down 'Alt' and drag. Holding down 'Ctrl' stretches/shrinks the distance across them.
  • DartanbeckDartanbeck Posts: 21,510
    edited December 1969

    EddyMI,

    Fenric already has a product that solves this issue. You can use the Multi-Shader Editor to turn off SSS. Select all the textures in the shader tab. Select Fenric's Multi-Shader Editor in the Edit Menu. Select Change SubSurface then press the SubSurface button. Change the drop down menu to None. Hit OK. It works great!

    Just bought this exciting piece of wonder along with his new bone hiding device :) Freaking cool stuff is that which hath been created by yon Fenric!
  • DartanbeckDartanbeck Posts: 21,510
    edited December 1969

    I would love to see something beyond what other's have done to their software. For example, being able to use a spring instead of a strand in the dynamic hair editor - so that the editable spring (representing curly hair) could retain it's shape and provide bounce - both editable. The shape to be able to be figured as very symmetric and uniform, or much less so - clumpy. straighter toward either the scalp or the end - or both. On this idea, other shaped could possibly be called for - perhaps to go beyond the idea of using it only for hair - but as an animation enhancement. I really think that, with time and practice, and a butt-load of patience, the Carrara hair can be really nicely animated. I'd love to see this grow into having much more possibilities. Otherwise, if we could have friz and wave and clump shaders not spaz out from one frame to the next during animations, that would be sweet. Like a setting for how many frames in the timeline to go before calculating the next simulation for the hair - and then select the appropriate tweener for the difference. This could really enhance the system greatly, I would think. Such a feature would be nice for soft body as well.

  • edited December 1969

    [Select keyframes. Hold down 'Alt' and drag. Holding down 'Ctrl' stretches/shrinks the distance across them.

    Yes, but that isn't what I want to be able to do. I want to be able to copy and paste the keyframes into the same timeline. I can even see the greyed out copy button greyed out when I right click on the highlighted keyframes, taunting me, flaunting that I can't just copy the parameter values in a keyframe to a point later in the timeline... making a duplicate of the original.

    Boojum the brown bunny

  • DabblingDanDabblingDan Posts: 39
    edited December 1969

    It may be just me, but I would really like a way to reset animation sequence start point to 0. For example, I have a sequence that lasts 2 minutes. I would like to be able to save the scene file and then copy it to another file. The new file's animation sequence will begin where the last left off - perhaps new camera angle or something new will be moving into the scene. I can set the beginning marker triangle where the end marker is located and then move the end marker out farther. At this point it would be nice if the beginning marker (currently on 2mm or frame 3,600) could be set to 0 and recalibrate. The effect would be the new animation sequence would begin a frame 0.

  • MasterstrokeMasterstroke Posts: 1,969
    edited December 1969

    I'd like to have full support for Poser8+ weighmapped figures. At least a baked Import including animation and clothes.

  • Ghosty12Ghosty12 Posts: 2,056
    edited December 1969

    Not sure if it has been said but maybe better integration with Daz Studio.. Though I know there is no real need for it but would be nice all the same in that rather than saving and loading a scene could go straight to Carrara like you can do with Bryce..

  • Subtropic PixelSubtropic Pixel Posts: 2,381
    edited September 2013

    I keep bumping into things and stubbing my toes. I have another UI request, along the lines of modernization and standardization.

    Specifically, dialog boxes that present a choice do not allow you to use cursor keys to select your choice. Tab key works, but I am left-handed, so left hand is on my mouse/trackball/pen, making that motion like a huge speedbump.

    For example, when you close a render that you haven't saved, you'll get a dialog has options "don't save", "save", and "Cancel". Normal Windows convention and behavior is to allow you to use the cursor arrow keys (left and right) to alternatively highlight each button, then press "enter" to accept your choice.

    Carrara 8.5 does not do this. By not supporting normal Windows conventions, Carrara forces the left-handed user to reach for the mouse and/or move his mouse pointer, which impedes workflow and ideaflow.

    Yes, that's a word, I just made it up. I give you permission to use it. :cheese:

    Post edited by Subtropic Pixel on
  • evilproducerevilproducer Posts: 9,050
    edited September 2013

    It may be just me, but I would really like a way to reset animation sequence start point to 0. For example, I have a sequence that lasts 2 minutes. I would like to be able to save the scene file and then copy it to another file. The new file's animation sequence will begin where the last left off - perhaps new camera angle or something new will be moving into the scene. I can set the beginning marker triangle where the end marker is located and then move the end marker out farther. At this point it would be nice if the beginning marker (currently on 2mm or frame 3,600) could be set to 0 and recalibrate. The effect would be the new animation sequence would begin a frame 0.

    If I'm reading this correctly, you can do it in Carrara already. Set up multiple cameras in your scene and animate them as you wish. Make a note of the time you wish to switch from camera 1 to camera 2. Do this for as many cameras and points in the timeline as you wish. Go into the Render room and select the Batch Queue tab at the bottom left side of your screen and load your scene in the Batch Queue as many time as you would like. In each instance of the scene listed, change the camera and the start time and end time, then use the Named File option under the Output tab to save each render with a different name.

    I did that with this video:
    http://youtu.be/nkWBRuJlQhA

    I also did it with some scenes in this video:
    http://youtu.be/iS-sNje4k0o

    I did this one way back when I first upgraded to C7:
    http://youtu.be/xBX28ZsaVUg

    Also, you can open an existing scene in a new scene. Create your new scene, add your stuff to it and when you want to merge your previous scene, simply go to the File--> Import. Then navigate to your previous scene. The old scene will load a s group in the new scene. The only thing that I think doesn't get imported is the scene effects such as the amospheres, background, etc.

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    Post edited by evilproducer on
  • Steve KSteve K Posts: 3,232
    edited December 1969

    Realtime said:
    ... Its been along time since I have been wowed by Carrara.
    While I have jumped on the band wagon, I think its sad that we have collectively digressed to, "I'm just happy they are still working on it."
    With Carrara's potential, it should own the market.

    I still have a huge problem paying for upgrades for Carrara ...
    On this last upgrade, I feel like we financed a lot of coding and programming time that translated into What?
    nothing more than opportunity for Daz to sell content to Carrara users. And to what end?
    ... Carrara and Carrara users deserve better. Am I the only on that feels this way?

    I'll wait to see the next evolution of Carrara. I hope 9.0 reveals that Daz focused attention directly on Carrara - I'm tired of attention to and love to Daz Studio via Carrara. It's too obvious.

    If I am to continue to finance Daz3d - I want more from my investment than what I have received.

    This point in your original post seems to be getting little attention. So ... no, you are not the only one who feels this way. I certainly do, and have made it clear in other topics, as have others. For example, a few months back, this was posted in the "Why Isn't Carrara Selling" topic: “The perception is that Daz is halfheartedly and disgustedly pushing the unappetizing, greasy, cold remains of Carrara around the plate, making it look more and more inedible with each passing nudge. Meanwhile, those people at the next table over are enjoying their Daz Studio cake.” In recent weeks, others have called the "updated documentation" both a "joke" and an "epic fail", and posted this: "I am not in the business of keeping DAZ solvent. If their business strategy (or lack thereof) is running Carrara into the ground, they should not expect me to rescue them. If DAZ needs money to further upgrade Carrara and keep it marketable against its competitors, they should ask for donations." (None of the quotes are mine, but from several other posters).

    The surprising thing to me is that many posters see nothing wrong with DAZ's actions, and in fact take strong exception to such complaints.

  • evilproducerevilproducer Posts: 9,050
    edited December 1969

    The OP opened with a criticism, which is certainly valid, but the true thrust of this thread is, I wasn't happy with the last update and this is what I want to see in the next version. Not, I want to rehash all my old gripes and turn this into yet another negative DAZ/Carrara bashing thread that could scare off new users from Carrara or this forum, thread.

    There are a couple posts in here that touch on feature requests that Carrara already does on its own, or with inexpensive plugins, which means that some (not all) of Carrara's shortcomings are users that aren't fully versed in Carrara.

    My point is, if you add a feature request asking for updated documentation, that is more constructive than beating a dead horse with a bunch of unattributed quotes from threads whose sole purpose was just to complain about DAZ or Carrara, and most likely were from individuals that had particular manly axes to grind.

  • cdordonicdordoni Posts: 583
    edited December 1969

    Realtime said:
    With Carrara's potential, it should own the market.

    I think that the Carrara market is fairly limited actually, and I would be very surprised if it is not already the best seller in its market.

    It is much better than an entry level 3d app, but is lacking some of the "Pro" features. To be fair, I don't think it was ever intended as a serious contender on the Pro market and was priced accordingly. That being said, it is a good value at its current full price, since there very few apps in its price range that offer similar capabilities (limited market).

  • TerritanTerritan Posts: 76
    edited December 1969

    Speaking of the batch renderer... you start a job in that, go back to modeling, lose track of time... say, where are you in the batch and how far is it along?

    I'd like to request a fraction and thermometer control for the control bar, which shows x/y jobs done, and progress on the current job. Something that could sit next to the clock and help you not lose track of time.

  • cdordonicdordoni Posts: 583
    edited December 1969

    There are a couple posts in here that touch on feature requests that Carrara already does on its own, or with inexpensive plugins, which means that some (not all) of Carrara's shortcomings are users that aren't fully versed in Carrara.

    My point is, if you add a feature request asking for updated documentation, that is more constructive than beating a dead horse with a bunch of unattributed quotes from threads whose sole purpose was just to complain about DAZ or Carrara, and most likely were from individuals that had particular manly axes to grind.

    Good points EP.

    The manual need to be current, and its discussion of functionality needs to match what is actually in the program. And perhaps some interface options, menu items, dialog boxes etc. need to be updated as well.

  • Steve KSteve K Posts: 3,232
    edited December 1969

    The OP opened with a criticism ...

    ... and asked if he was the only one who felt that way. I answered his question.

    My point is, if you add a feature request asking for updated documentation, that is more constructive ...

    After asking for updated documentation for a long, long time, and seeing what we got, it was not constructive. After C 8.5 came out, DAZ changed the status of the C8 documentation from "Coming Shortly!" (which it read for several years after C8 came out) to "TBD".

    ... [the complaints] most likely were from individuals that had particular manly axes to grind.

    You can find the detailed comments using the Forum "Search". They all came across as pretty knowledgeable, long term DAZ and Carrara fans to me. Like myself, who joined the Forums a decade ago, and has been using Carrara almost that long.

    "Manly axes to grind"? More like long term paying customers who feel seriously let down by DAZ.

  • mikomodamikomoda Posts: 0
    edited December 1969

    Ah ha! Silly me, I was mousing over the picture and couldn't figure out why it wasn't telling me where it was.. and I couldn't find any path widget. Thanks! *giggle* The rest of the suggestions still stand, though.
    Boojum the brown bunny

    But this only works, if the textures are saved externaly! Internal saved textures are not available this way! :((

  • mikomodamikomoda Posts: 0
    edited December 1969

    I wish there comes a time, i can say carrara has got really a pro.

    But i have no hope, because DAZ3D only supports Studio and is fixed to sell 3D Content. There is no money and no time for carrara development!

    Well, i paid ~150 bugs to upgrade from 8.1 'BETA' to 8.5 'BETA' - It seems i'm strongly stupid! %-P

  • evilproducerevilproducer Posts: 9,050
    edited December 1969

    Territan said:
    Speaking of the batch renderer... you start a job in that, go back to modeling, lose track of time... say, where are you in the batch and how far is it along?

    I'd like to request a fraction and thermometer control for the control bar, which shows x/y jobs done, and progress on the current job. Something that could sit next to the clock and help you not lose track of time.


    Personally, I'd hate to clutter the interface even more than it is. The way I keep track of the time is to look at the clock. ;-)

    All kidding aside, go back to the Render room and look at the progress bar above the Batch Render list. Also, any renders that are complete will be grayed out. You can also check the progress tab to see what the estimated time to completion is for the current render, and if you're curious about how long previous renders in the queue took, you can click on a completed render in the list and look at the Progress tab to see how long it actually did take.

  • evilproducerevilproducer Posts: 9,050
    edited December 1969

    mikomoda said:
    Ah ha! Silly me, I was mousing over the picture and couldn't figure out why it wasn't telling me where it was.. and I couldn't find any path widget. Thanks! *giggle* The rest of the suggestions still stand, though.
    Boojum the brown bunny

    But this only works, if the textures are saved externaly! Internal saved textures are not available this way! :((

    That's because the image map is embedded in the file. There is no external file that is being referenced anymore. If you wish to mouse over and see a file path, save locally or externally so that there actually is a file path.

  • DartanbeckDartanbeck Posts: 21,510
    edited September 2013

    Territan said:
    Speaking of the batch renderer... you start a job in that, go back to modeling, lose track of time... say, where are you in the batch and how far is it along?

    I'd like to request a fraction and thermometer control for the control bar, which shows x/y jobs done, and progress on the current job. Something that could sit next to the clock and help you not lose track of time.

    Actually, you can check the progress of your batch renders in the progress tab of the render room - as long as you select the current file in play.

    EDIT:
    I do this ALL the time - as it's a good way to do exactly what you speak of - except that I never work in Carrara while I'm rendering ;)
    I set my Queue to launch when I can be away from Carrara for a good long while, depending upon what's in there.

    Post edited by Dartanbeck on
  • Subtropic PixelSubtropic Pixel Posts: 2,381
    edited December 1969

    Okay, I really like the idea of a "thermometer" indicator for batch renders. I'll bet that with serious thinking, DAZ could make this happen without adding an unacceptable amount of clutter to the UI.

    And...A user manual is a must.

    More and more vendors are making them PDFs that are directly accessible from the help dropdown, complete with navigable hotlinks and so forth.

    It's better than the old Windows Help way, because PDFs can be read anywhere, on Mac, PC, my iPad, Android.

    A user manual is a must-do. Even if the only good reason one can come up with is "because it's the RIGHT thing to do."

  • JayfeatherJayfeather Posts: 70
    edited December 1969

    Good dynamic cloth simulation and 3Dconnexion device support would get me to buy Carrara 9.

    I really want a program the embraces Genesis, and supports Dynamic hair and cloth. Nobody seems to do all 3 very well but If anyone has the potential to do so its Carrara!

  • TerritanTerritan Posts: 76
    edited September 2013

    All right, a thread bump with a new feature request:

    Transfer Utility for Carrara. If we're going to have Genesis figure support in Carrara, I'd like a way in Carrara (and Carrara alone, none of this jumping to and from Studio crap) to make clothing to fit that figure. Or those figures. Whatever the correct pluralization of a mesh that contains multitudes is.

    Post edited by Territan on
  • Sam_16471Sam_16471 Posts: 57
    edited December 1969

    Dynamic clothes like poser's or Marvelousdesigner's!!!!

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