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224 S 200 W, Suite #250
Salt Lake City, UT 84101
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DAZ Productions, Inc.
224 S 200 W, Suite #250
Salt Lake City, UT 84101
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© 2024 Daz Productions Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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Okay, hold on...
With Evil's new photo there's more gossip...
I count about 80 cars in the parking lot. Divided by 4 floors that's 20 people per floor. Hmm....
So if there are, say, 20 suites per floor, that means DAZ is now comprised of only ONE person in the whole company.
Okay, this isn't looking good.
Now, on the other hand, maybe they've leased the whole building and are using 224 as the mailing address, and all 80 are DAZ employees.
Nah, I doubt it. I think they've leased the whole floor and they have 20 people working there. Maybe less. Maybe more like 10 people.
I suspect it's all just fluff. DAZ doesn't actually have an office there, they just have their mail delivered there to throw off frustrated Carrara users. Their REAL compound is an old missile silo out in the desert. I saw it on Doomsday Preppers.
AAAAAGH!! The sound of reason is deafening me! :)
It's not uncommon to have different company locations for different divisions, or even different aspects of their business. Perhaps Draper is where the code jockeys work and Salt Lake is sales/marketing. Might also be their phone banks or just corporate offices. They did have that big merger a couple years ago. I was never sure who bought who though...
Bravo sir! You have taken it to a whole new level.
Oh oh! Brinkmanship at play. The ball (nuclear device?) is in Joe's court now.
Ducking under my desk in 3...2...1...
Okay, more info coming in....
It's a renovated candy factory. Seriously.
I'm thinking Willie Wonka and Oompa Loompa ??
And the suite is #250, not #224. Which means there could be 50 offices on the floor. Which means DAZ has one employee in a 3ft. x 3ft. office.
More to come....
Oh, and there are other people leasing offices on that floor, so it's not just DAZ.
So...now we know DAZ's REAL plan. They're going to revolutionize the candy industry with 3D virtual candy! Think of the money you could make selling a virtual candy app.
I think it has become very clear...
DAZ Corporation is actually run, and staffed, by a 3foot tall Oompa Loompa, who operates out of a tiny, 3ft by 3ft office in a candy factory in Salt Lake City, Utah.
And the echoes of "oompa loompa, loompa dee dee..." echo throughout the building as he does his work. And all the other people working in the building stop by for free candy during their coffee break.
Here it is. Street view and overhead:
In the second image, note the name of the company associated with the building. A quick Google search gives you Tomax Corporation "a boutique, retail solutions development company headquartered in Salt Lake City, Utah. Our solution, Retail.net, is the leading cloud-based retail solutions suite available to retailers in North America. Tomax services the needs of retailers representing over 25,000 stores and has enjoyed over 20 years of success and growth." (http://www.retail.net/).
Hmmmm...............
Yeah, actually the name on the front of the building is a bank, which I presume is on most of the first floor. There's a bunch of other tenants in the building, and if you google the address you'll see a bunch. I'm guessing Tomax is just another tenant, and I think they're listed with an address on a different floor from the Oompa Loompas.
There's what looks like a fairly large landscape architect firm also on the first floor....
Hey, I found a pdf from a real estate agent listing their building, which is called the "Sweet Candy Building" and it has photos and layout diagrams. And it shows Suite 250, which takes up most of the half of the second floor. So there's room for a whole bunch of Oompa Loompas, as well as Willie Wonka himself.
http://www.comre.com/flyers/ABeddard/Old Flyers/224_S_200_W-Ste_215.pdf
I feel better now....
And it looks like they're paying something like $4,000 a month in lease ($16 per square foot per year, and I'm guessing 3,000 square feet). Wow, not bad for office space in a big city.
These were my sediments back in the days of Blender 2.49, I never could understand how DAZ expected customers to spend $500+ dollars on Carrara that can't even come close to Blender that's given away for free. Who would really be that stupid?
As for Apple, let's face it - people only use Apple's to be "seen" using an Apple. These Apple fans are constantly badmouthing PC's and Windows yet everytime I'm in a forum about a particular piece of software the only people really complaining they can't get the software to work properly are the Apple users. I have yet to ever have ANY problems with my trusty PC.
Carrara, in my opinion needs a complete makeover from top to bottom. Ditch the whole "separate room" thing, and integrate everything into a single work area for starters.
If C doesn't start catching up with software like Blender, it's days are definitely numbered. And it should probably be put down like a sick animal if it can no longer remain at least somewhat viable.
And don't give me the nonsense that C would cost even more if they added a bunch of new feature because Blender does it on a regular basis and is still FREE.
I also don't want to hear the ridiculous arguments that Blender can do that because of it's software is constantly maintained and updated by willing 3rd party programmers - well then maybe DAZ should make the C SDK less convoluted and a downright pain in the arse to use with it's almost completely useless manuals that really haven't been updated since C2 AFAIK. Where's the plugin "wizard" that never came to fruition that's STILL mentioned in the SDK manual?
Carrara would probably have all kinds of new features if the SDK wasn't so offputting.
I just know that, if Carrara "dies", because Daz prefers pampering their economical more attractive DazStudio-Baby (which is understandable) - I will rather stick to the old Carrara 8 Pro and go on with Blender or ZBrush to help myself with things Carrara can't do or can't do comfortably.
But I hope that Carrara won't die and that Daz at least would rather sell Carrara to someone else who will keep working on it.
After all, Daz still earns good money on Carrara Content as well.
Plus. Carrara is a real Jack of all Trades. It can do a lot great things you simply can't do with Poser or DazStudio at all or at least not as comfortable. (imho as content user and wannabe-modeller)
Mouse Navigation, Mesh Manipulation, Object/Prop Editing, Shading, Posing usw... it's far more comfortable to do in Carrara.
And honestly, I can't remember that it is even possible to directly manipulate the mesh in Poser or DazStudio. You can't even really create something from scratch in there or make something new out of something old...
The whole Menu/GUI of Carrara doesn't cover half of your workspace, like in DazStudio, Poser and even Bryce. You have a lot room to see your whole scene and you can navigate your camera through it without getting cramps in your hand... and you can pose your figures or manipulate things directly with your mouse, without using annoying wheel-/slide bars.
But that's just my 2 Cents as a content user who came into the 3D world with Poser and ended up with Carrara ^^
Well, no matter what we hope for, once 8.5 comes out next year, it'll probably be a very long time until we find out what's next in store for Carrara. Maybe 2014 until the next version with any substantial changes/improvements comes out? So if you're anything like me, and not real thrilled with what 8.5 delivers (for me, it's pretty much a non-event), then it's gonna be quite a while before you'll have any chance to be thrilled again.
Unless someone thinks that the Ninjas have secretly been working on an awesome C9.0 that's right around the corner....
Otherwise, I think it's gonna be just a bunch of real hardcore fans who stick around. We'll see.....
Yeah, exactly why I like the Carrara interface so much. I really think it's a brilliant design. Very simple, lots of viewing space, and using simple navigation buttons to get around. And you can sit in a recliner with your laptop and a mouse on the table beside you without having to sit up and start doing keyboard shortcuts.
Now you can replicate a little of that in Blender, like make translate/rotate/scale manipulators on your objects, but the whole "keyboard shortcut to do anything" concept in Blender drives me nuts. Yeah, for the super power users it's important to have, but for most people it's just annoying. Geez, someone please just make a plugin with camera navigation buttons and object translate/rotate/scale buttons. When you have to memorize three-fingered shortcuts while you stand on one leg and bark like a dog just to move a camera around, something is definitely wrong.
But unfortunately I don't think "interface design" and "ease of use" will sell many copies of Carrara.
I just hope that giving away DAZ Studio, with its convoluted and confusing interface (IMO, at least), didn't cause a lot of potential customers to just shake their heads and give up. I used it for quite a while, and I still get confused when I open it up.
Of course you don't want to hear that. It is the CORE critique of your flawed comparison. Tossing that aside lets you blow holes in Carrara with impunity.
I don't know anything about the SDK. But documentation is most certainly an Achilles heel for DAZ. This is a much more supportable criticism than the commercial/open source tack.
I don't know anything about the SDK. But documentation is most certainly an Achilles heel for DAZ. This is a much more supportable criticism than the commercial/open source tack.
That reminds me of the question that's in my head for a while now.
Why not allowing Carrara to become Open Source like Blender. Since Daz, apparently, doesn't see any real financial gain in this software anymore, they could as well hand it over to the community.
There is still the possibility to make money with content, after all.
Blender is nice and has many nice features. But it is still not as comfortable to use as Carrara, plus it can't really work with Poser or Daz Content.
And don't forget that many people, me inlcuded, have accumulated tons of content over the years... and just throwing it away in order to move over to Camp Blender... I don't know.
Nope. I very much prefer Carrara and its whole interface, shader system and and and :D
That is like LightWave too. I grant you that it is very cumbersome for a new user to comprehend. Once the learning curve has been climbed, it does grant a huge amount of rapid work and editing power though.
Those items alone...no, they won't help. But combined with usability and some degree of editing power, they go a long way.
Excellent question! It has often been stated here that DAZ makes no money on Carrara sales and that their future plans are only to sell more content. If that is true, then why not spin off Carrara?
Whether it goes to a company that keeps it commercial but actually plans to make money on it or if it goes open source...as long as it gets some love and attention. Then the market can decide if it lives or dies as a product.
I have used all three apps off and on for awhile I have also used the high end apps all clunky in their own way. Qne that has not been mentioned here is Animation Master a real all in one 3d app imho. Carrara seems to be a jack of all trades master of ? my expierance is too many things just don't work import export toy or tool ? DS is far more innovative mimic live great concept. Carrara open source maybe the answer, I agree totally DAZ seems geared toward selling content not of much interest for content creation.
Sorry, I often work from note pad.
"there’s a difference between a debate, and an argument".3dage
And I'll argue that that is debatable ;)
"Ditch the whole “separate room” thing, and integrate everything into a single work area for starters." Titanic401
No. One of the things I love about carrara is everything isn't in one room. I like being able to change rooms when I change jobs and having the tools for that specific job right there. One of the things I hated about Maya was all the tools for every job was right there all the time so my actual work space was quite small, the rest of the screen taken up by stacks of tool bars.
"everytime I’m in a forum about a particular piece of software the only people really complaining they can’t get the software to work properly are the Apple users" Titanic401
Agree. What I read in most forums has convinced me to never go apple.
"And don’t give me the nonsense that C would cost even more if they added a bunch of new feature because Blender does it on a regular basis and is still FREE." Titanic401
There is a difference between a volunteer; Blender devs, and an employee; DAZ devs.
"The whole Menu/GUI of Carrara doesn’t cover half of your workspace, like in DazStudio, Poser and even Bryce." Rhiana
Agree, but you could have went on with that list by adding nonDAZ apps. ;)
I am easily confused so I don't want extraneous tools in my work space. I also don't want tool/options I use all the time buried in a subfolder. This is one of those things I point out when saying carrara is being changed to be too much like studio.
This is sort of my poster child of "unnecessary, illogical changes to carrara" the 0 pose 0 figure used to be buttons on the character's general settings. Right there , easy to click. Now they are in a sub menu of animation. Why other then to make the carrara interface more studio like?
Or how about on going requests for something that seems simple enough to do, like be able to set font size on the UI?
Carrara isn't dead but a bit of simple plastic surgery to remove some warts would make it easier to look at ;)
One big thing that would actual help out the situation even more then a new feature, would be some real communication, like keeping the user base, fans, DAZ customers, informed.
JUST SELL US THE DAMN 8.5 SERIAL NUMBER SO WE CAN GET ON WITH OUR LIVES!!!!! :ahhh:
Do you need a webcam and microphone for the application to take "Stand on one leg" and "bark like a dog" inputs?
AMEN
and stop flogging
Oh Rhiana (and Garstor - just noticed you posted something similar), nobody knows that for a fact in this forum. They are still charging for Carrara in the store and according to Jay in an earlier post in this thread, they do have plans for it. They had plans for 9 right away after 8.5 until Genesis came along and then we all jumped up and said we wanted bugs squashed for 8.5 along with Genesis. I'd say it's taking longest because of Genesis and all the changes at DAZ with the website, the store and now we learned they moved, too. In addition, we know bugs are hard to fix - so lots of time involved for a really overworked DAZ staff.
What is more accurate to say is that DAZ does not make a lot of money off software, they make it off content. It is also very accurate to say that implementing lots of new spiffy features is not cheap. If DAZ didn't see any financial gain in Carrara, it would be free, too, like Studio and Bryce. When that happens to Carrara, then you will know that they consider no real gain with it. But in the meantime, we already have been told that 8.5 will be a paid upgrade and they are still charging for Carrara... the list price is high, but with sales and coupons, etc., not many ever pay full price.
I, too, find Carrara's interface easier to use and there are fewer steps to get things done compared to other programs, so there is ease of use. That was a selling point years ago. I wish Sub 7th was still around this forum as his fruit bowl tute really showed how quick and easy some things are in Carrara compared to other programs, even more than PhilW or Mark Bremmer, and they are really good in their tutes.
I find that I defend DAZ more often than not. That is waning these days though.
Carrara is still something I'll use a lot, no matter what happens with it. I just bought LightWave earlier today and expect it to become my tool of choice though.
As previously stated, it would please me to no end for a DAZ developer to drop into these forums -- even once a month -- with a short update on the progress of C8.5. Many companies are becoming more and more open and transparent (i.e. Channel 9 at Microsoft) -- but DAZ prefers to keep us in the dark and allowing us to concoct fanciful tales about what might be going on... That's sad.
I'm sorry, when did Apple come into this? I have had numerous flavors of Macs throughout the years and all have been able to run Carrara just fine. In fact, I run a mixed network with a PPC G4(32 bit) running OS X 10.5.x, a PPC G5 (64 bit and host machine) running OS X 10.4.xx and an Intel iMac running OS 10 10.6.x Snow Leopard. The only issue I've had, is a problem with certain procedural shaders that use random functions not working correctly. Avoidable, but annoying. I've also read complaints about this from Windows users. I do use Carrara Pro 7.2 so you'd think Snow Leopard wouldn't even be able to launch my version, but it does.
If you guys want to piss and moan about Carrara being dead all day, that's fine. If you want to hate on a computer platform that you have little to no knowledge of, go right ahead, but to those that have been here awhile (ManStan- Ahem!) I would point out that in Carrara 6 and the first iteration of Carrara 7, anybody that had a Windows 32 bit system had to get a script to be Large Address Aware (or something like it.) Oh yes, let's not forget all the threads started by people who can't figure out why they have to keep entering their serial numbers! My point is, for every flaw in Apple's hardware and OS, I can point to an equal number of Windows and Intel screw ups.
One other thing I should also point out, is that DAZ is equally at fault for some of the OS X issues by not programming correctly and getting rid of legacy code. As much as I hate to say it, My main rig is obsolete. PPC is a dead architecture, and Cocoa and the code that allowed for Universal Apps is discontinued. Apple made no secret of killing the code- Especially Cocoa. There's no reason DAZ should still include it in it's software. I suspect getting rid of it would help stabilize their software.
Titanic401, if you want to act like a troll and try to start a platform war, with little to no relevance to the discussion at hand, then be my guest. Act like the very Apple users you claim permeate other forums. Judging by your post, I'm afraid I'm going to also have to assume that you're a potential Blender troll as well as a Windows troll. But hey, I've been wrong before and actions speak louder than words. I'm hoping you prove me wrong.
I was just trying to say something nice for a change.... :)
My point was that the design concept is very simple and easy to use. One hand on the mouse, no need to memorize keyboard shortcuts, nice view of the scene, easy navigation, and I love the whole "manipulator" design. Compared to other apps it's, IMO, a whole lot nicer to use.
Yeah, you're absolutely right, there are specifics I hadn't thought of that could be done much better (hell, the entire vertex modeller is a disaster, IMO...just compare it to the Hex implementation, or any other decent modeller out there).
And for those who are jumping on Titanic, I think he was just kidding with that post.
Heck, the moment he said "he's never had a problem with his PC" I knew he was secretly "LMAO"ing while he typed.
As far as open sourcing Carrara, my only question is this: Why?
If it was your company, and you owned the software, why would you give it away? They already gave away all their other software, except for the code, and from the sounds of it there's really not a decent SDK available for Carrara. So what are you gaining as a company? Why give away the code?
Yeah, it might be a good thing for users, after a bunch of years, if enough people get interested, and figure out the code without a decent SDK, and start developing. But in the Open Source world of CG apps, Blender is already out there for those who want to donate time to working on a CG app. And what does DAZ gain? They lose total control of it, and it no longer can serve as a vehicle for their content because users choose what gets implemented.
And that was one good point that Andy made (at least that I could make sense of), that it's in DAZ's best interest to maintain control over the software so they can ensure there is software out there that works well with their content.
And Garstor, you just bought Lightwave? Wow. I'd be interested to hear how that goes. I've got an old version sitting gathering dust on my DVD shelf. I vowed "never again" after they went thru that ridiculous "CORE" fiasco. And they couldn't manage a decent cloth or dynamics sim. And there was no decent hair sim in sight after S&H bailed from LW. And everyone was bailing from the company. I hope things have turned around with LW 11.