Why Carrara and DAZ Studio?
EZ3DTV
Posts: 1,494
I have a few questions...
I have just become used to editing my scenes in DAZ Studio and I like how it is stable and works so well. And now I have become more aware of Carrara, considering buying it.
I have purchased a lot of Genesis 8 stuff that works well in Daz i.e. lights etc...
Will these lights also be available to use In Carrara? specifically Render Studio 2.0 Volumeric Plus?
What is the workflow? Why Carrara? Does Carrara support Iray rendering?
Why make DAZ studio and Carrara?
Do things import properly from Carrara into DAZ Studio and vise versa?
I see that Carrara sort of has Bryce built into it?
The description says it supports "Genesis" figures but does it fully support Genesis 8 is the question.
Do I make stuff in DAZ Studio then import it to Carrara for render or make it in Carrara and render it in DAZ?
Is Carrara 64bit? Does Carrara support 24+ thread rendering?
Bryce has been left to languish in obscrutity. I can no longer stand to render in it due to it not being 64 bit and supporting multiple core rendering, I think it has a limit of 4 cores...
It takes forever even for the simplist of scenes to render.
Which program will be left to languish and die a slow death? DAZ or Carrara?
Cararra seems to have more in it but then again it seems there are some things missing.
DAZ does not handle legacy clothes fitting as well.
What exactly is the work flow? DAZ to Carrara or Carrara to DAZ?
Why both?
I just bought Terradome 3 with Iray for DAZ Studio... will that work also in Carrara?
I am confused now...
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Comments
DAZ bought Carrara, Bryce and Hexagon years ago. Some work was done a few years ago to get some of the more recent characters to work a little in Carrara, but not perfect. Daz Studio is the main focus these days.
carrara is stand alone and is a full fledged modeling app unlike DS. carrara does support all figures up to the genesis 3 figures and you will have to tweak materials and shaders since it uses a different lighting solution than DS.
there are PAs that create content in carrara for use in DS
It;s not about one or the other, since both can be used for different purposes. I have both installed, but use DS much more. It's a safe bet that DS is updated more often and a priority to DAZ more than carrara
terradome 3 is made for DS, but you could export some aspects of it to load into carrara, BUT carrara has a full terrain editor and creates much better terrain than terradome 3 IMO
a lot to cover in one post so will just gloss over answer more specific stuff later
while Carrara will natively load more than Bryce it still is intrinsically different to DAZ studio much in the same way as Poser for example is.
Genesis 3 and 8 will crash it outright as is
(there are Renderosity sold workarounds)
earlier figures load from a runtime or library set up depending on which generation they are
Poser and 3Delight lights will import but are wildly inaccurate in intensity cameras need a focal length adjustment DAZ 85mm is equivalent to Carrara 50mm
iray emitters are not compatible though you may be able to use glow and anything glows on them but unless part of the geometry not the best action
Carrara does not use iray
Carrara can load DAZ scenes but not if you put genesis 3 and 8 and any clothing with rigid nodes in them
Carrara is 64bit and supports multi threading and a render node too to network more machines in a render farm
Terradome 3 is made for DAZ studio and won't natively work but we have a perfectly robust terrain editor similar to Bryce
I suggest you move this thread to the Carrara forum and then you will get more in depth answers
That was a very helpful reply Kevin. Thank you. :)
Gemesis 8 female
https://www.renderosity.com/mod/freestuff/?item_id=77504&ca
Genesis 8 male
https://www.renderosity.com/mod/freestuff/?item_id=77745
all clothing and hair to be used on them needs to be converted to blended weight under edit rigging in DAZ studio and saved as a scene subset
I do not know how to move a thread but it is okay if the DAZ moderators move this to where they deem it is fit.
Thank you for the awesome response WendyLuvsCatz!
I really like DAZ Studio A LOT! I wish it edited meshes more easily and items could be cut out of any model directly in DAZ, I also wish it had a conform tool for legacy clothing especially and full atmosphere modeling similar to Bryce built in. I really love the content filters that help you find compatable items. And the latest Genesis 8 figure is the best figure ever made in my opinion.
DAZ Studio is the closest thing to a one-stop-shop for most of my needs.
well if loading and rendering DAZ products is your aim it undisputably is the best thing for that
I am a Carrara and iClone user mostly myself and use a lot of not DAZ content as well which is something DAZ studio really sucks at using especially FBX content
(don't get me wrong I own an incredible amount of DAZ and Poser content too)
I also mostly do animations
Carrara like Bryce is good at other things not related to loading DAZ content, it really comes down to what you want to do
Carrara does not have Bryce built into it in any way. Bryce is Unique, stand Alone and has never been merged with any other program, Daz owned or not. What you are seeing is a similarity in some respects due to being owned by the same company. I have used Bryce since it first became available on the PC platform (1997) but still actually struggle with Carraras terrain editor because it is NOT the same as Bryce.
As Wendy says, Bryce and Carrara are different program, and both have more capabilities in some areas than DS.
I bought Carrara when it was still owned to Evovia. After Daz bought it, I hoped for another boost, but it seems that Daz concentrates on Daz Studio. I use Carrara now mainly for backdrops and sometimes creating HDRI. I own Bryce as well and I do the same with this application. Both are great programs for landscapes, but I wouldn't use them with characters. They cannot compete with Iray there.
I play with Carrara once in a while. You can use Otoy Octane plugin for renders and there is a luxus render as well. It is a great piece of software that is abandoned by daz. Consequently, I would not reccomend purchasing this unless it is 90% off. If it was regularly updated it would be worth full price. Bryce is in even worse shape do not purchase it is 32bit only and is also abandonware. Moderators please feel free to erase this if it gets you in trouble with owners.
Carrara is not being developed. It's like abandonware with a price tag. It is a neat program, but Daz isn't doing anything with it. The expectation, I think, is that we will use Hexagon or another modeler with DS.
DS is a nearly complete program. The beginnings of a modeler are there, but the emphasis seems to be on further worship of iray. The push to real-time pbr rendering is industry-wide. Iray is one solution, but it's hardware-proprietary and raises the hardware bar. Technology is always a treadmill.
It must be said, 3Delight is powerful and capable of far more than Daz ever showed with it. Once maps are processed, its render time is also lightning fast. I suspect, though, the day may come when there is no more 3Delight in the program.
Carrara is a fully integrated app for modeling, uvmapping, texturing, rigging, posing, morphing a figure, growing and styling strand-based hair, creating and editing a terrain (perhaps from real world DEM data), creating plants, replicating the plantsand controlling the placement of a forest, creating a realistic sky, adding clouds, lighting with global illumination, and rendering.
I started with a blank scene.
I used no presets, no Daz3D figures (genesis or otherwise), no 3rd party props, etc.
I created all the elements of the following scene. While I admit it would look better with plants made by experts, a terrain made by experts, people made by experts, stream made by experts, house made by experts, etc., I derive some personal satisfaction in knowing I did this myself. No postwork.
I know this scene is not super-awesome. I am a hobbyist and this was done for personal satisfaction. No need to flame me.
Note - I render plenty of images using content from the Daz store (and elsewhere). I am also happy that I can use so much stuff made by experts in my projects. Likewise, I am beginning to model more of my stuff in Hexagon rather than Carrara. I have started dabbling in Bryce for landscapes. I recently picked up a dedicated uvmapping program and a dedicated 3d paint program. Over time, I will be doing less and less with Carrara.
I love Carrara, but its main advantage to me is its full integration. If you are going to be using a large number of dedicated programs in your workflow anyway, and you prefer Iray for rendering, then Daz Studio makes sense as the renderer part of the workflow. But Daz Studio, by definition, cannot itself replace Carrara.
OP BTW why did you start this thread if you had already made up your mind?
a very nice feature of bryce, you can render hdr images to use in any app that supports hdr, like carrara and daz studio.
carrara is more like bryce, it has terrains wizards, realistic skies, a tree generator, ocean
it also has a powerful physics engine. animation tools make it much simpler to animate scenes
carrara doesnt natively support studio's general weightmap skinning, content needs conversion to triax or 'blended weight'.
The first post by Kevin sort of made up my mind.
I really wanted to know if DAZ was actively developing Carrara.
The wealth of info by all of you posters has really been useful! THANK YOU!
I am addicted to using the human form in my landscapes and when I try and import human figures into Bryce they turn to spaghetti,
their hair flies off into space, their eyes pop out and I find their eyelashes embedded into and object usually after a 5 hour render. :)
I have been using Bryce for well over 20 years on and off.
I love the interface in Bryce but it is falling apart and needs a lot of development.
Bryce used to be more powerful than my computers and now its render engine is far behind my Intel I9 CPU/Nvidia 1080ti graphics card.
I stil haven't made up my mind about Carrara. It is 64 bit and renders with multiple cores. It woudl be a lot of fun to play with and Diomede your scene is really nice!!! I like idea of the built in landscape generator (though not Bryce).
Really, Bryce belongs embedded within in Daz Studio... And for that matter so does Carrara.
I am sure this is something the DAZ developers are already aware of.
DAZ should make Bryce open source and some avid Bryce user with programming skills will transform a version of it into a DAZ Studio plugin.
Imagine Bryce Studio for DAZ with Iray... That would be fantastic!
I would pay 100 bucks for that...
Maybe like Poser has "rooms" face, hair etc... a Bryce room tab in Daz Studio. :)
Bryce would need to be rebuilt from the ground up. Literally. Things like cameras and primitives are already be done in DAZ.
Also a mesh editor room in DAZ where clothing, hair, animated fabrics etc can be styled... Carrara might be the framework for something like this.
Also I am looking for some sandals for my Genesis 8 male character (not flip flops). NE one know a good product with sandals? Ones that strap up the legs, several varieties maybe?
Thanks to you all for sharing the info!!
This Image was rendered in Bryce (admittedly in layers) using a 6 year old Athlon pc AMD A8-3870K APU (3.0GHz, 4 Cores), with 8gb Ram, 1GB AMD RADEON™ HD6450 graphic card, and Win 7. The village was built from Bryce primitives and alternate primitives, using boolean techniques, the human, equine and porcine figures were set up in an old version of Poser and transferred to Bryce to render in the village, as were the props.Trees obviously are the built in Bryce trees. When I say layers, what I actually did was to render it in about 6 sections and then put it together like a jigsaw. or tiling a wall. It was quicker doing it that way because Bryce does sometimes take a wee while to render large complicated scenes, and
I don't use Daz Studio. All the images in my Gallery here, and the larger, but earlier one over at the other place. I don't think I could have done this in DS at all,
https://www.daz3d.com/gallery/#images/919316
The Great Porcine Escape
Click for the larger version