Carrara: My opinions and findings.

zimzooma

First off let me thank everyone who contributes to this forum as it is an invaluable resource to the Carrara community.
My first 3D software was Ray Dream Studio and it sparked a life long interest in 3D. Since then I have used Lightwave, Maya, Blender, and Cinema 4D. Currently Blender is my go to software, it's amazing how far it has come in the past few years. (If you haven't tried 2.71 give it a go, Blender can complement whatever 3D software you are using.)
Last week I stumbled onto DAZ and bought Carrara Pro 8.5 after I found out that it's the descendant of Ray Dream Studio.
Right now I'm trying to figure out where Carrara can fit into my workflow and what it can do better then my other software. There are many things that it does great but it does not bring much new to the table. I like the UI, the renderer is great and I like the way that properties are easy to find and adjust. It's a little buggy but not too bad. After playing with it for a bit I found out that I was causing some of the bugs. I've had a blast playing around with the DAZ content and if I could only find ways to integrate it with my workflow I'll be elated. Right now I'm trying to figure out how to best get mocap data and camera tracking moves into Carrara. I've done quite a bit of reading on the forum and found out where the dead ends are, which has saved me plenty of time. I look forward to learning from all of you and contributing what I learn as well.
Carrara, another tool in the box.

evilproducer

zimzooma said:

Carrara, another tool in the box.

Wouldn't take much to make that sentence violate the TOS. ;-)

You're right. Carrara doesn't bring a whole lot new to the table as far as gee-whiz features. That's not why I use it though. I use it because it gets the job done in an efficient manner with a great amount of flexibility and ease of use. It has many features that, while they're not nearly as polished as the big boys, they're also included and don't have to be bought as additional features or plugins.

Speaking of plugins, if you were to hit a limit with Carrara, there's a whole slew of very reasonably priced or free plugins that do some amazing things.

Then there's the pre-made content. It's usually pretty high quality and inexpensive. I see no problem with trying to model, rig and weight my own figures, but if I need a selection of realistic human figures with multiple accessories, I see no reason to re-invent the wheel and spend potentially dozens of hours creating them. The same would go for a menagerie of creatures. Personally, most of my scenes are a hybrid of custom made stuff, and pre-made stuff. The percentage is gradually skewing towards more custom made stuff, but those are usually props, terrains, shaders, etc.

Speaking of pre-made content and going back to plugins for a moment, there is the Aniblock Importer that allows you to import Aniblocks.

Anyway, great to have you here! If you need help, or have something to share, I feel safe in saying, we're always glad to help or learn new things.

zimzooma

I've been eyeing the aniblock importer. I might pick it up today.

Glad to be here.

DUDU

For animations, these are the .pz2 that I prefer, with .bvh.
“Aniblocks”… I don't know…
For the remainder, except some improvements to be brought, Carrara is the best!

Dartanbeck

zimzooma,
Welcome to the maddening world that is Carrara! You'll love it the more you use it and get used to how things work, and which things simply need work-arounds, rather than operating like modern applications, like the stupendously powerful, awesome Blender.

Yes, the ability to use Poser/DS content is an insane boon that helps to set Carrara in a realm of it's own among 3d modeling apps. In my opinion, DAZ 3D and its published artists are an amazing support team of quality assets. I'm still a huge fan of the generation 4 figure line-up (Victoria 4, Michael 4, Aiko 4, Hiro 4, etc., etc.,) for getting into animation bliss, while the new Genesis is even more real looking! Genesis and Genesis 2 figures take a lot of patience in Carrara as their implementation is so new and a little 'rough around the edges' in many ways, but I still Love using Genesis as monsters!

Shaders are really fun in Carrara, once you get used to how the system is set up. Along with the excellent render engine, the combination of Carrara lights, shaders and render settings can give amazingly fast to super-slow ultra-real renders! When you look at a multi-shader in the Texture Room in Carrara, think of it like a Blender Nodal system, where all of the nodes are already in place and connected to the right spots, and all you have to do is select how they are applied using the drop-downs. It's freaking Cool! DCG, Inagoni, Fenric, and others have some really powerful plugins for even more shader bliss, and Ringo Monfort has some amazing shader presets, as do some others.

Carrara lights are a blast as well, since navigating and moving stuff around in Carrara is so incredibly easy. Almost like you're just reaching your hand into the scene and moving it, while just using your mouse. Totally different, with fewer modern benefits of Blender lights, they are easy to set up and fun to get working just the way you need them to.

Like I say, the more you get familiar with using Carrara, the easier and more fun it becomes. Wait until you get into the Terrain modeler, plant modeler, and other cool, easy, and fun things... making your own CG movies just becomes a big bash of fun... yeah... fun!