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carrara has perfect FBX import functionality unlike DS. I have a ton of game characters I have exported from the games i play in FBX format and after changing the FBX format with Noesis they load perfectly rigged in Carrara and them I can animate or pose them for import into DS as an .OBJ.
There are lots of things I love about carrara, the lighting being one of them.
If DAZ would add the import functionality, the lighting system, the tarrain system and the modeling capabilities to DS, I would have the perfect app!
If you want to see some of what is under the hood and what is possible take a look at the Carrara challenges that have gone on.
http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/45254/learning-tips-and-tricks-from-prior-carrara-challenge-wip-threads#latest
The carrara forum has lots of good information and the knowledgable individuals incuding PA's are always willing to assist with issues.
Once I hoped I could set up my figures in DAZ Studio and have my scene nicley staged and rendered in Carrara. Oh how I loved to see my G3 characters in Carrara Howie Farkes scenes, rendered in IRAy for Carrara. So, what is the difference between DAZStudio and Carrara? Well, one is well supported, the other one is not.
DAZ are now honouring the 50% mis-offer on one of the store banners - so if there's another DO you'd like (quite a lot in flash sales at the moment) then you could get Carrara Pro for about 52 dollars plus (for example) 2.80 for a 4blueeyes/DO.
Thanks for the info.Just got a very sweet deal for $46
What? where?
OH my gosh I got Carrera and the Dog bundle for less than $46. Just...wow....
For anyone picking up Carrara, forum regular and Daz PA Dartanbeck has put together a great thread that gathers Carrara-related information. This includes links to free tutorials and a lot of other helpful resources.
See
http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/15970/carrara-information-manual/p1
Dartanbeck's thread linked above also categorizes a large number of free youtube tutorials by Cripeman. Here is a list of Cripeman tutorial topics. The list will give you an idea of some of the variety of features that Carrara has if you choose to take advantage of. See Dartanbeck above for the links.
Cripeman Tutorials Index
The Cripeman has been soaring Carrara skies for years now, and has been faithfully saving humanity through his imaginative advice on how we can get Carrara to do what we need it to do. If you're new to using Carrara, the Cripeman's tutorial collection can direct you through many aspects of the software. Personally, I enjoy each and every one and have watched most of them more than once - and I hope that the Cripeman keeps this up... forever!
It can be a little daunting trying to find what you're looking for by simply navigating YouTube. Also, I feel that his advice and pleasant teaching techniques would be the perfect addition to a Living Carrara User's Manual.
Because of this, and with his permission, I have compiled a fully linked list of all of his tutorials to date. I'll try to keep my eyes open for new ones and add them accordingly. If you notice that one is missing, or if you feel that one (or more) link should belong in a different category in the list, please let me know. But this is a rather large endeavor, so please be patient.
Enjoy :coolhmm:
Carrara Features
Thoughts on Genesis in Carrara 8.5
Preferences
Global Illumination
Glare, Blur, and 3d Aura
Backdrop and Background
The Ocean Primitive
Carrara Terrains
Volumetric Clouds
Metaballs
Tree Tour
Playing with Fire
3D Paint
Displacement Mapping
Dynamic Hair
Making a Skullcap in Poser
Guide Hair Styling
Shader Hair Styling
Razor Stubble / Hair Domains
Plant Primitive
Trees on Terrain
Tree Rustling
Making a Christmas Tree Using the Plant Modeler
Lighting and Rendering
Basic Lighting
Light Gels
Rendering with Alpha Channels
Creating Lights From Textures Using Anything Glows
Interactive Renderer
How to Make a Blueprint Style Render
3 Point Lighting
Fingers of God Effect
Neon Using Anything Glows
Generate HDR Images for Carrara
Particles and Physics
Intro to Physics in Carrara
Let it Snow
Making Your Own Particles
Particle Creation Menu
Particle Shaders
Particle Creation with Particle Shaders
Sequential Particles
Fountain Tricks
Setting up Particle Emitter for Forces
Shapes as Emitters
Writing with the Particle Emitter
Force Control
Forces Tour
Modeling a Chain (Physics Chain 1)
Physics Chain 2
Making Steam
Shaders
Natural Shaders
Making Windows Shader for a Distant Skyline
SSS vs Glow
Seeing Through Transparency
Toon Shading
How to Make a Fake Planet
Rust
Terrain Shading
Animation
Special Presentation: Eadward Muybridge - Grandfather of Animation
Creating Motion Paths
Creating a Wing Flap Animation
Intro to Bones
Bones Influence
Making a Logo Flying Around the World
Animating Wavy Text
Making a Muzzle Flash
Compositing Tips
Exporting Animated Poses from Poser to Carrara
Making and Animating Gears
Modeling
Bevels in the Spline Modeler
Soft Selection
Cool Carrara Tricks - Building Better Bricks
Cool Carrara Tricks - Building a Cityscape Pt 1
Cool Carrara Tricks - Building a Cityscape Pt 2
Cool Carrara Tricks - Modeling a Mailbox
Modeling a Barrel using the Lathe Tool
How to Make a Steam Punk Arch
How to Model a Cityscape Pt 1
How to Model a Cityscape Pt 2
How to Model a Cityscape Pt 3
How to Model a Cityscape Pt 4
How to Make a Mushroom Cloud Pt 1
How to Make a Mushroom Cloud Pt 2
Make a Display Case
Modeling a Rope
Making a Simple Flower
Making Keyboard Shortcuts for the Spline Modeler
Modeling a Human Head Part 1
Modeling a Human Head Part 2
Modeling a Human Head Part 3
Model a Figurine in 10 Minutes
Model a Facade
Modeling Pipes
Modeling Ruled Surfaces
Making Morph Targets on Your Figures
Replicator
Precision Replication
SciFi Elements
How to Make Your Own Starfield
Distributing Objects with Shaders
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More Excellent Cripeman Tutorials That have yet to be catagorized
************************************************************************
Make a Mountain of Skulls
Shows a quick example of creating a custom Terrain Shape, Using Poser to export only the Skull from a complete skeleton, Replicating the Skulls onto the custom terrain shape, and using the light brightness to Stylize the end image.
Making a 3d Object out of a 2d image
The 3DUniverse Toon Generation Figure
Make a Hologram
Textured Fire
Bryce Textures in Carrara
String Lights on a Christmas Tree
Birds in Trees
Electricity
Making Graffiti
Making a Romantic Moon
Frosted Glass
Sweat
Particle Fire
Merry Christmas
Depth of Field
Precision Alignment in Carrara
Spline Modeler Animation Trick
Volumetrics and FX
Creating a "Planet Hanging in the Sky" Effect
Bryce Terrains to Carrara Terrains
Wow thank you! That should keep me occupied for like, the next year lol. I did pick this up today and am looking forward to checking it out.
I wish there was a bridge for Studio to Carrara. I would also like to see Iray inside of Carrara (not Octain, too expensive for hobby use.) I like Carrara Pro it is 64bit, with a great interface and with a few upgrades it would be awsome. Hex Modeling ported to Carrara, and a bridge to Studio as well as Daz Iray and Car Pro would sell like hotcakes.
There is the Luxus Core render option if you want a differrent render engine, uses GPU, it is currently in beta testing and available in this forum link.
http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/50130/luxuscore-carrara#latest
That's really impressive; I've always wished the Four Arms product had more support. I bought Carrara a while back at a cheap price, but I've never bothered to really learn it. Maybe it's time.
Look up box modeling and do some searches. People have discussed how to do so.
And given how absolutely half-a*d I went about it and got good results, hey, worth trying!
It's worth remembering that you don't have to render tiny tiny tiny squares to get interesting results, because smoothing algorithms and textures can turn basic stuff into cool stuff.
Well, I managed to load a horse and a terrain and even managed to change the terrain a bit but that's as far as I got. Going to have to spend some serious time with those videos listed above when I am not so tired from working all day.
At the risk of hitting you with even more information overload, to the extent that you want to adjust the terrain for your horse,
Dartanbeck has a forum thread on Carrara terrain modeling. See http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/37867/
Also, just a quick note regading the tutorial list and modeling -
- Most people equate a modeling program with Carrara's vertex modeler. This is the closest modeler that Carrara has to Hexagon. You can insert a cube or a sphere and move the faces, lines, and vertexes around. The vertex modeler can also allow you to draw lines and create shapes from the lines (a boat hull would be a good example).
- Carrara also has a separate spline modeler in which a shape is extruded along a path or line.
- Carrara also has a metaball modeler or sometimes called blob modeling.
- In addition to these generic modelers, Carrara also has special modelers for the terrain function, custom plants, dynamic hair, math formula, realistic sky, volumetric clouds, .. Don't try to learn it all at once.
I mention the different modelers because some of the tutorials above start in the spline modeler, not the vertex modeler. Nothing particularly good or bad about that, but just want people to not be surprised if they are expecting something more like Hexagon. If you want Hex-lite, use the vertex modeler. Easiest way to get there is to go to the top menu and choose INSERT : VERTEX MODEL, or whichever modeler you want to try.
I have a short step-by-step vertex modelng tutorial for Carrara in ths thread. http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/comment/941921/#Comment_941921
It shows how to use Carrara to model an undershirt for the male content thread.
If you have questions, people in the Carrara forum try to be helpful.
Also, great job on the custom multi-limb shirt, timmins.williams.
I have a special warm fuzzy for Carrara, since I started with 3D stuff back in the 1990s with Ray Dream Studio (or designer, I forget which came first).
So I've been playing with spline and envelope modeling long before vertex/box modeling, and have always regarded vertex modeling as intimidating... but having tried it, eh. It's not much harder than just about anything else 3d related.
(Most of my difficulties haven't been vertices on their own, but stuff like 'how do I get mirroring to work' or 'oh wait, extrusions?' or 'tri or quad? Um.')
Thank you! No worries about overload its always overload when one first starts learing something. I will muddle along when I get the chance and will ask for help (frequently I am sure) when I need it. Everyone in these forums, daz users, bryce users etc have all been most helpful so I am sure the Carrara threads will be great people too. Thanks again for all the help everyone!
also if you have the budget there are always the tutorials here on DAZ for Carrara.
There is a series from Infinate Skills which is awesome and the PA PhilW is always on the Carrara forum. I rewatch them all the time as I have learned an then need refreher if I haven't used a feature for a while.
http://www.daz3d.com/infinite-skills-inc
A slightly cheaper on but just as good is MMoir's modeling tut. he is also always on the Carrara forum.
http://www.daz3d.com/carrara-modeling-tutorials
He also has a walk cycle one which I am almost done and it is really mad a difference in my walk cycles.
http://www.daz3d.com/create-a-walk-cycle-in-carrara
The Infinate Skills goes on sale and that is the time to get them if you want.
Thank you! I am a very long way away from animating anythng at this point but I will most definitely put these on my wishlist and watch for a good sale.
This is the one to start with if you can afford it or wait for a sale. As seen below from the store page it starts of with the basics and works up from there.
http://www.daz3d.com/carrara-8-5-tutorial-video-11-5-hours-long-instant-digital-download
What's Included and Features
wait for a sale for sure !
you know there will be one !!
Since there seemed to be some interest in Carrara, I thought people might be interested in its history...
The history of Carrara started in 1889 when a pioneering group of individuals founded a laboratory on a small haunted island off the coast of Norway. They worked feverishly on the idea of creating graphic software for the newly invented steam powered Autocomputronamaton (with improved card stock readout). Development stalled when it was soon found that the Autocomputronamaton was in fact just a gilded wooden box with some hyperactive gerbils inside. For decades the original software whose algorithms were carved into a crude wax disc, lay in a disheveled briefcase with two dead gerbils and half a baloney sandwich. That was until 1986 when Raymond McRaydream won the briefcase in a card game. By 1989 McRaydream finally opened the briefcase and deciphered the wax disk (known as a WD). He immediately decided to form a new company called Ray Dream Inc. and dedicated the development of his newly discovered program for use on the new Mac computers with color displays. Two years later the first version of the new 3D graphics program which they named "Ray Dream Studio" was released.
In the years that followed, Ray Dream Studio became a successful product, having at one time over 2 users (possibly as many as 200,000, but definitely at least 2). In 1996 Ray Dream Inc. was sold to Dexter Womblethorp Studios who quickly sold it to Fractal Design Corporation (developer of Painter, Poser and styrofoam shipping inserts for garden gnome statues). Fractal Design Corporation was in turn acquired by the Illuminati, who quickly sold it to MetaTools (developer of Bryce, KTP and BBQPB&J) shortly thereafter. The combination of the two companies was given the new name "Super Glitterpony Design Mega Studios" and then quickly changed to "MegaCreations", because the original name didn't fit on the standard 8"X11" business card format popular at the time. That name was misspelled as "MetaCreations" by the printing company and the new name stuck. Around the same time another 3D graphics program named "Infini-D" was acquired from Specula International (also a printing error that was later corrected to Specular International). Now owning two 3D graphics programs (and an abandoned genetic research lab), MetaCreations decided to merge Ray Dream and Infini-D into one application giving it the new name "Carrara", named after the type of marble early software was shipped in.
MetaCreations released version 1.0 of Carrara with a significant number of bugs and spiders inside the packaging to distract users from the large number of bugs the software had. They soon released a patch for the code, then afterwards stopped support of the package because most of the programmers who worked for them had died of exotic spider bites. For a short period, the only way Carrara users could get the patch was by cutting one out of old inner tubes or by sneaking into the MetaCreations research lab which was now overrun by giant mutant spiders.
Around the year 2000 when MetaCreations was divesting itself of most of its products and the genetic research lab, it sold Carrara to a new company name Eovia, founded by one of its only former employees not devoured by mutant spiders, Antoine Clappier. Eovia developed Carrara for several versions culminating with version 5 in 2005. That same year Eovia shipped a new 3D modeling application "Hexagon", which was based on their earlier unreleased product "Cube".
Eovia installed significant upgrades to Carrara which would include bringing forward the Ray Dream physics package, originally not licensed in the MetaCreations version of the code. Improvements included soft shadows, a bacon dispensing function, caustics, global illumination and better atmosphere models.
In 2006, DAZ 3D (developers of DAZ Studio, DAZ Breakfast Paste,and a obscure line of articulated 3D figures) acquired Eovia along with Carrara, Hexagon and several thousand mutant spiders which had been hiding in Eovia's warehouse in France. Several half human-half spider former employees are rumored to now work for DAZ and allegedly continue to develop a new more powerful version of Carrara in a secret lab far below Salt Lake City in Utah.
DAZ 3D has had a significant focus of adding functions for poseable figures as well as models for hair, animation tools and fully articulated advanced nipple design.
DAZ 3D works in an "Open Development" environment, releasing ridiculously early and turning to the users for design input, feature input, as well as angry complaining.
In May 2010, the company launched Carrara 8.0 to the public. It included the addition of the "Bullet Physics" package which has provided Carrara the ability to generate improved animation techniques for scenes involving collisions of multiple bodies or particles. DAZ has also added models for softbody dynamics which makes it possible for cloth and other clothing types of animations to be generated more realistically.
Currently, development of Carrara has slowed due to the half-human/half-spider programmers having cocooned themselves to the ceiling of the lab as they entered into a transmutational evolutionary cycle. In March of 2014 it was leaked to the press (who largely ignored it) that the sole non-cocooned programmer, a highly gifted Bonobo Chimp named Mr. Wumpples felt he was nearing a breakthrough and would SOON™ be releasing Carrara 9. In January of 2015 The Salt Lake Tribune announced the death of Mr. Wumpples under "mysterious circumstances". No further news has been released since then.
I managed to pick it up for the ridiculous price of $26 with a combination of sales and coupons last year, becauase I wanted to do complex scenes with terrains and volumetric clouds in the same software. I bought the basic video tutorial course, since the software was so cheap, and went through the whole course. I learned a fair bit about how to use it... but I ended up using it for basically the same things I use Daz Studio for, which is just bringing in models and doing renders. I didn't like the UI at all, and worst of all, I don't like the render engine. I like the sharper, more saturated, higher contrast 3Delight engine better than ... well anything else, including iRay. So I don't use it for much. I use Bryce way more than Carrara.
It's kind of problematic that it hasn't been updated in many years as well. I think $65 is even a little steep for something that's essentially abandonware.
One of these days, I would like to be one of those gerbils or hamsters inside McGyver's mind and take a look at what he is processing! The things he comes up with are brilliantly funny or funnily brilliant. I haven't decided which yet!
Thank you! I am a very long way away from animating anythng at this point but I will most definitely put these on my wishlist and watch
Hahaha you and me both!
Wow that's a huge amount of information. will definitely keep an eye on this to go on sale.
Ya I got it for about the $26 that you mentioned, I figured for that price, even if I don't really like it, it was worth trying. plus I had my $6 off coupon so it was less that $20 total. So if its a total fail, I haven't lost a huge amount.
I got Carrara 7 a long time ago for free with one of the CGI magazines... I'm no longer a PC member (I keep wanting to write "PC Club", but that's redundant and "P Club" just sounds very wrong), so none of those super awesome sales since ever applied to me... I used to love it when someone would post a thread "Just bought Carrara for $20 !!!" and I'd immediately go in the thread and read how happy everyone was with their new C8... Then after the twentieth post someone would finally mention "I'm glad I got the PC+ membership" or something like that... After a while I just stopped going to the store to check... I can't believe I actually checked the store for that $7 Lilith Pro bundle the other day. I miss the days when I'd check the store for ridiculous once in a lifetime sales... And the days when the CGI mags came with CDs loaded with goodies... Now they just come with 14 pounds of advertisements for software and hardware I can't afford and a handful of links to tutorial videos for that same software.
They are neither gerbils nor hamsters... They are Gehirnwichtel.... Or as near as I can translate "Brain Gnomes"... A type of primitive rodent who's native environment is alpine forests in Bavaria... I purchased a couple back '86 because they look a lot like those Russian flying hamsters (who really don't ever voluntarily fly on their own)... They keep me up at night sometimes and they are always telling me to burn stuff, but I never really feel alone... So I guess thats a bonus.
Gehirnzwergs! Ah, I stand corrected!