Why do I want Carrera
thistledownsname
Posts: 1,336
in The Commons
So, there's an awesome price on carrera today. Why do I want it, compared to just using DAZ?
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I don't have it but many people have told me it's a great buy if you want all the goodies it comes with. Apparently it comes with a lot of stuff that is compatable with Daz Studio. If you don't mind using G1 stuff. :)
DAZ Carrara is a full featured 3D app including modeling. DAZ Studio has no native modeling and is mostly just a staging app. On the other hand, Carrara is not as covenient for posing. Each has its advantages and there is some compatability between them. Each is another tool in your toolbox.
However, if you were advising us that you found a Carrera for a reasonable price, I'd jump on that because I hear that Porche automobiles can be quite pricey.
Otherwise you can always model a Carrera in Carrara... ;)
I like Carrara's modeling more than any other app. Now, for me, that's because the way the UI and flow is set up happens to suit me and I have long familiarity with this line of apps (I started with Ray Dream Studio back in the 90s).
So, just as a modeler? I find it pretty good.
I've also used it to create backdrops for Daz Studio images; you can do spherical projection, there's a variety of cheap clouds/atmosphere/etc stuff to extend functionality.
Lets see, as well as layout and rendering, there's vertex modelling, spline modelling, metaballs, formulas (generate ripples etc), 3D text generator, terrain generator, tree generator, volumetric clouds, atmospherics - fog and mist, built-in 'god rays', gobo/gel effects, fire primitive, ocean primitive, fibre hair generator, bullet and soft body physics engines, animation, replicators, instances with easy promotion to real objects, natively reads Poser and Studio (.duf) formats, with built-in support for Genesis and Genesis 2
Everything in my sig was built in Carrara. :)
If you are interesting in creating your own models then Carrara is a great application. I use it and I like it a lot.
It can use a lot of Poser and Daz Studio content but not Genesis 3 (so far), and no Iray. Sometimes have to adjust the textures from 3DL and Poser content but Carrara's renderer is very good. You can create objects in Carrara to use in Daz Studio and you can create complete scenes in Carrara and bring Daz Studio and Poser figures into them.
As noted above, DS is designed primarily to use premade content like what is sold here. Carrara can use most of that content as well (with the exception of Genesis 3), but is more of a general 3D software. As such, straight out of the box it can do a lot more 3D "stuff" for animation and gfx than DS can. Because it is designed as a general purpose 3D software (and was purchased by DAZ), it has a steeper learning curve than DS, and a different UI.
At the current PC+ price I think it's a steal of a deal! Of course I bought it many years and versions ago, when it was in the $500 price range (IIRC).
I find Cararra aggravating because you can't place the models in the same way as DAZ and it is truthfully unstable until you learn to avoid those unstabilities but it is good for the price and the only product that beats it is Blender but Blender doesn't come with a bevy of ready made model for it like Cararra does.
Generally though I like it a lot but wish it was more like DAZ Studio.
Hmm. I already do a lot of 3d modeling in AutoCAD. Haven't quite learned the hoops to jump through to get that into DAZ, so having something that natively links together could be useful.
I already have almost everything in the Pro Pack. If that discount was on the software itself (so, $10.49) I'd go for it, but I'm not sure I can budget $22 for the bundle with the next two months coming up.
The File management is really really godawful. It doesn't have 'recent saves' and other stuff, and trying to navigate to stuff is obnoxious.
So, there's that. I think it's worth the sale price, definitely, though.
Carrara is an all-in-one program. It is a combination of Studio/Hexagon/Bryce (+more stuff) all in one package. Has pluses and minuses. See the following thread that answers some similar questions.
http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/109316/why-should-daz-studio-user-try-carrara#latest
Daz Studio by itself is not an alternative to Carrara. That is not a criticism of Daz Studio. Studio is designed to do a limited number of functions. It does them well. It is not just that Carrara does other functions better, it is that Carrara does them at all. So, if you already model in Blender, use Howie Farkes' new plugin to turn trees into forests across surfaces, use LAMH to create dynamic hair, use Byce to create landscapes, animate in yadda, yadda, yadda, and combine all those functions with Studio, then you can talk about an alternative to Carrara.
Daz has a trial period so it might be worth experimenting with at the current price.
In my experience, Carrara has always been very stable, on some projects I've had it open literally for weeks at a time (but maybe it's because I know it well enough that I naturally don't do things that cause it to crash). I also find it very easy to work with DAZ content, for most things about the same as DS, but there are things that are a bit more difficult (but there are things that are more difficult in DS too)
Is Carrara perfect? No, but no software is. However, at the current PC+ price of $22.75, it;s pretty hard to beat. Especially sine there is no other product at that price (or free, or probably any price) with the features found in Carrara and native DAZ content support. Blender has a lot more features, and is free, but it isn't IMHO as user friendly, and doesn't have the integrated support of DAZ/Poser content.
So if I get Carrara, is there any reason to use Hexagon as well?
...Hexagon is a dedicated polygon/vertex modelling programme that is a bit more thorough and has (at least in my opinion) a very elegant uncluttered UI. It's two major drawback is stability. Depending on who you talk to and the systems it is run on, it can be somewhat unstable (eg. freezing up, crashing to the desktop) and it is only a 32 bit programme whereas Carrara Pro is 64 bit. In 32 bit an application is only allocated 2 GB of memory to work with. That can be expanded to up to 4 GB if you make the programme Large Address Aware. This fixes some of the instability. It's UV mapping tools are not the greatest so a 3rd party UV mapper is recommended.
However comparing the two, being a totally dedicated programme instead of a "jack of all trades" one, Hexagon tends to be better focused on the task of modelling and has a wide array of tools. You can also perform straight polygon or box modelling with it as well. Hexagon also has a two way bridge with Daz I have experienced crashes attempting to import .duf files created in Daz to Carrara.
I have all 4 Daz, Hexagon Bryce and Carrara. Each has their special use. For terrain generation, it's Bryce of Carrara hands down (though for generating you own I like Bryce better). The posing in Carrara is a bit different than Daz but I found it reasonably workable. For Bryce you have to pre-pose your characters before importing them. I prefer Carrara's shader building system over Daz's "spaghetti bowl" brick and node based one, but then I'm mildly dyslexic and seeing all those crisscrossing lines gets a little confusing to me (no, I'm not the person you send in to defuse the nuclear device).
You can box model in Carrara, for what it's worth.
...true as there are primitive shapes (a better variety than Daz offers) I like the ability to work directly with polygons though. A bit more involved, but easier to get the shapes I need.
Currently working on a dual line sport kite model the sail for which is built from the ground up with polygons to get the proper angles to the individual panels and cut outs for the fittings. Using simple cylinders for the framing rods. The lines wll take the most work as They will need numerous segments and a lot of rigging to react properly.
I got Carrara when it was cheap sort of and wonder why I got it, since one, I have hardly used it and two, support for it has all but vanished.. Everyone has hopped on the Daz Studio/Iray train..
You can actually model quite well in Carrara.
This picture is a Genie bottle that I created for the latest contest over at the Carrara part of this forum. It started out as a cylinder (the red one)
It has a polygon modeler (called vertex modeler) that is, not as advanced as Hexagon, but still quite capable.
I love Carrara, and picked up the 8.5 while it was on sale. Been using it since 5 Pro, and my first models were goblets from within Carrara for Poser/Studio.
I use Blender and like its interface - basically the majority of what it does, suits me.
I considered Carrara as it comes with Genesis 1 items; so if you use them, or plan to (and there are currently some uses for G1 that is tough to find in G2 or G3), then it's worth the cash. As someone said, it isn't as advanced as Hexagon - that is quite frankly: scary! And not in a good way from my POV. I very rarely use G1, there are many who do, however.
(Not aimed specifically at the OP.) However, if you want to do modelling, it's as good an app to start with as any - as long as you can use the included content. There are free alternatives to use if the content is of no use.
There are free alternatives to Studio that do more than Studio. Yet, many people like Studio because its workflow suits them better than Blender. Same with Carrara and Blender - except many people who use Studio must turn to an alternative to accomplish many tasks. Whether it is Blender or something else, you can't do it in Studio alone. I can do it all in Carrara alone. Or, I can do some things in Carrara and some things in Blender, Marvelous Designer, yadda, yadda, yadda. In Carrara, I can model, rig, texture (paint directly on the model), grow hair, pose, animate, create custom clothes, create a custom terrain, create custom plants, replicate the plants on the terrain where I want (and not where I don't want), create a custom sky, with volumetric clouds, replicated as a storm front, with god-rays streaming through, populated with custom birds, flocking, etc., etc., etc. I can do the entire scene that I have imagined in my head - just with Carrara. Can't do that with Studio. As I've said, that is not a knock on Studio. Plenty of people on the Carrara forum model in something else, or texture in something else, or render in something else, or... But they all find many, many more things in Carrara that are useful.
Why do people use Studio instead of Blender? Seriously. Blender does more things and it is free. You can't model in Studio, so if you are going to model in Blender anyway, and so must learn it, why not do everything in Blender?
OK, every Studio user has thought of the reasons that Studio is preferred even though Blender is free and it does more. Apply similar logic to Carrara.
carrara modifiers make quick work of an unflateble pineapple, with the right pineapple
I box modeled a four-armed shirt in Carrara. Granted, the mesh is a mess, but not bad considering it was my first box modeling attempt ever (and I really have to stop trying the hardest freakin thing possible when starting something new)
1 ./ Carrara has all of the vertex modeling tools you need to model any object,.
2 /. Carrara has a Spline modeler to model objects using vertex splines with bezier curves.
3. Carrara has a meta-ball modeler for creating complex organically linked elements,. these (auto merging) meta ball objects can also be animated,. EG: lava flowing
Carrara has all the tools you need to model your own items,. whether that's a background set with buildings and trees, or a fully rigged figure with morphs.
Carrara has 3D painting,. so you can paint /texture your model without leaving carrara.
Carrara also has animation options for shaders, inlcuding particle shaders, based on age, speed, size of particle etc.
Carrara has a FULL animation system,. which includes NLA (Non Linear Animation) blocks (like aniblocks) which you can create from any keyframed animation, Carrara also has a range of animation Tweeners,.and a graph editor for fine control, or multiple key editing
Carrara has a faster (and arguably better) default (photorealistic) render engine than any other Daz3D software. Carrara also has a non photo realistic (Toon) render engine.there are third party plugins available for Lux Render and OctaneRenderer.
There is also a wide range of Plugins to add even more functionality to cararra,. most are very low priced ,. and some are even free.
Modelling , morphing,. UV mapping,.displacement painting, Rigging, weightpainting . Texturing,. Animating,. Rendering.
Volumetric clouds,. Particle system, Physics system, Terrain generation, Tree and plant creation system,. replicators and surface replicators, Ocean's
if having any of these things could / would save you 11 dollars,..or,..(Teach you something you don't know) ,... then get it. and save money, while learning new skills
if you want to continue being dependent upon other people making items for you to place in a scene,. that's a free choice anyone can make.
IMHO DAZ has done such a good job of making it simple and easy to render decent 3D images using DS (load, poser, render .... next), that many people, especially newer users, don't want to invest the time and energy to learn Carrara. Over the years I have seen many new users come and go, mainly because they thought Carrara should be as simple to use as DAZ. IMHO that is a rather unrealistic expectation becuase Carrara is much more complex than DS. Also, due to the fact that it is sold by DAZ, many (most?) expect it to have a UI similar to DS, and work basically the same as DS. The main issue here is that Carrara really isn't a DAZ 3D product. Except for a few enhancements, and Genesis/Genesis 2 compatibility, Carrara is the product of Eovia, the company DAZ bought it from. So when a new user who started with DS opens Carrara, they immediately jump into a foreign environment.
For those who find the benefit(s) of Carrara compared to DS (or Poser) to meet their needs for their own 3D goals, they typically stick with Carrara and work through the learning curve (MistyMist is one of those people). Then there are those, who want a simple to use software like DS, and have no use for Carrara. I'm always amazed at the people who stop using Carrara (run away screaming) because they have to often fix the materials/shaders on DS content. For most Carrara users, this is just part of the experience, and many (most?) Carrara users prefer to set up their own materials/shaders anyway.
Also, not all DS/Poser content works in Carrara, or may have unexpected issues. When you know/realize that Carrara wasn't designed from the ground up to work with DS/Poser content, then some issues are to be expected. In fact, DAZ bought Carrara just after Poser figure integration was implemented. But even with it's issues with DS/Poser content, it is still the only general purpose 3D software that has a high level of integration with DS and Poser content (I have looked a lot for viable alternatives). If you prefer an inexpensive integrated package, then Carrara is fantastic, to get all of the feature found in Carrara in a comercial package, right now Lightwave is the cheapest at the sale price of $695 + Vue Xsteam at $1695 (for landscapes), however you will loose all of the integrated DAZ content you have with Carrara. Of course there is Blender for free which is an awesome product, but you lose DAZ content integration and the landscape tools in Carrara.
Over all if you are interested in any of the items in the list from 3dage above that DS doesn't provide, and you want to continue to leverage the value of items purchased for use in DS (except G3 - which isn't supported) the value for your dollar is phenomenal .... especially at the current PC+ sale price of $22. BUT ..... you need to understand that Carrara is not DS, you will need to spend some time and energy learning it, but the rewards just may be well worth the effort! For me, Carrara was quite easy to learn, and is quite easy to use, However, it does more than DS and is not designed as a DAZ content staging software, which means it is also a bit different and more complex to learn.
As someone who models content, having to make all your resources is extremely time consuming. Daz3D offers Daz Studio for free and sells content. This is the digital equivilent of an art store. Not every one is going to use it. Some prefer to do their own, others either lack the skill or the time to do so. So Daz3D excists to fill a void.
...why do people use Studio instead of Blender? Maybe because the UI and setup is so cumbersome in comparison requiring memorising/using hotkeys right out of the box. Maybe because to really take advantage of the it's high level of customisation, you need to know python scripting.
As to working with shaders/materials in Carrara, as I mentioned I prefer Carrara's shader editor over Daz's Shader Mixer. I find Carrara's surfacing/shader tools to be more "intuitive" (at least for myself).
...and yes, it's render engine stands up pretty well to Iray (quick test with Howie's Secret Lake).
I think if geografts and morphs copied over to Carrara more easily, I'd be a lot more inclined to use it. That and if it had active development, 64 bit, etc.
But yeah, it can do a lot of stuff. And, repeating myself, if you do ANY animation, go use Carrara. Even in the casual poking I've done, Carrara is INFINITELY more set-up to do animation than Daz Studio.
From the 'animation' side of things, I love how I can easily set up Carrara's render engine to render really freaking fast - especially compared to anything else I've tried. But I don't have a huge pair of GTX cards for Iray, so I'm not sure how quick that can be... but I can usually get within about one minute per frame for many scenes that don't require a character facial close-up, which always adds a little to the process.
I mention the one minute per frame because it helps to give a real example of the difference or similarity if you might be getting the same from DS. I never could - but I haven't given the newest DS its fair run yet.
The biggest seeler for me, that brought me to using Carrara, was the ability to model directly in it - the same studio I'm using for animating and rendering, instead of having to export to a modeler and back and so on... because I often have to tweak little things on the fly. It's not like I use the modeler to become a modeler - (though diomede above is doing a great job at that!) but just to be able to make quick mesh changes in an instant. That is amazing with Carrara!!!
If you'r a PC member and don't have all of the goodies that come with Carrara 8.5 Pro (V5 Pro Bundle, M5 Pro Bundle, etc.,) you'd be getting Carrara basically for free with that deal that's going on... so there's nothing to lose!
It's different than Daz Studio. Daz3d has done a beautiful job building Studio from the ground up. It's like a content database in its own with some really nice tools. Carrara can add to that pipeline as a modeler as well. I have a few articles around here (I'll link to some later) that show how easy it is to model for Genesis figures in Carrara, since we don't need to ever export Genesis OBJ from DS in posed positions (or ever... actually) in order to model specific needs. We can simply dial the changes directly in Carrara (exception right now being Genesis 3, whom is still not supported)
Just throw away test clips (tests of lights, textures, motions, whatever) strung together to test out Sony Vegas a few years back:
When Genesis first came into Carrara (Genesis 1 was still very new)
I babble a lot if you ever watch my quasi-tutorial babble sessions... but this one isn't too bad about using Carrara to model for Genesis 2 Male. But I do babble a bit about my Carrara setup before I ever get really into the topic... which I did for just situations like this, where you can see Carrara on screen before you have it on yours.
More fun, if you're interested:
The following two (beyond this one, which is 8 seconds) show how I made this animation
Setting up and rendering in Carrara
and I follow up in Project Dogwaffle Howler:
Are we on the right track? Want to know more?
Just ask in the Carrara Discussion Forum... we're always asking and answering in our friendly, neighborhood Carrara forum! ;)
...and you might also like to know that Carrara users also have another forum dedicated to animators and their projects within Carrara, which also includes a really nice Carrara movie theater for just kicking back to relax:
A community Project webspace for Carrara Animators!!!
My <<< Carrara Information Manual >>> got a little messed up in the transfer to the newer forum, so to make things a little easier, I've started working on
Learning Carrara and need some help?
which has links to things like
This image has been resized to fit in the page. Click to enlarge.
Carrara Cafe CARRARA 3D EXPO Magazine 3D Xtract Magazine
Amongst a LOT of other cool info and links ;)