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Carrara, Ibooks and epub books

starboardstarboard Posts: 452
in Carrara Discussion

I was wondering if any body has been using Carrara for either Ibooks or epub interactive books. I know members have been using Carrara to make covers and still illustration, but has anybody used features such as adding movie clips to the page, interactive images, or  rotating 3d models using collada (.dae). It seems that Carrara because it offers easy access to figures and terrains is better suited for this than any other 3D package.   Anyway I was just wondering if anybody has been using these interactive features in their books and how successful they have been.

Msteaka 

 

 

Comments

  • evilproducerevilproducer Posts: 9,050
    I use animations sometimes when I design DVDs and programs on DVDs. They are set files and don't really "interact." But they do look really nice.
  • TangoAlphaTangoAlpha Posts: 4,584

    I've only done cover art (which is hard enough - lot of very specific requirements above and beyond simply the author's vision). I did have a mind to do a graphic novel. That was one of the things that got me into 3D in the first place. But I'm not a fast writer, and an even slower atrist, and . . . you know, stuff happened.

    Animation is pretty much a black art as far as I'm concerned. I've picked up a few RW "things" from filmy people that I know, and lighting tricks from theatre guys etc, so one day when I have some spare time . . . (but as the mantra of self-employed people everywhere goes, "Spare time? What's that then?")

  • starboardstarboard Posts: 452

    Thanks guys for responding. I have been working a little with IBook Author and it seems that Carrara is ideally suited for use with this application. You can supply little 15 to 20 second clips every 2 or three pages...to suppliment the story - adding a whole new dimension..... I was wondering..for those things that are very hard to create in 3D you can resort to words.. and add background music to fit the text.....I was wondering if somebody had played around with it...

  • DartanbeckDartanbeck Posts: 21,332

    I'd love to hear more about your investigations into making this work. iBook is not a format I'm familiar with, and had been kicking around the idea of doing something similar using the pdf format, but haven't actually tried it. 

  • starboardstarboard Posts: 452

    Hi Dart,

    I was checking to see if there was a windows equivilant to Ibooks author..but I could not find one.  I suspect that it will not be long til there is one.  Anyway Ibooks author is free from Apple and quite easy to use...once you figure out the arcane page setup..  The movie part works quite nice.. just drag and drop onto the Ibook page then resize. I take a clip rendered out from Carrara to desktop, desktop to Ibooks.  Ibooks converts to H264... and its ready to play on the page. If you render out of Carrara in H264, Ibooks will still compress it a second time..so it is good not to use H264 export from Carrara,  I just think it opens up some interesting possibilities for using Carrara. You can beam up the finished book to Ibooks  bookstore where  you get to keep 70% of sales.  It all sounds wonderful, but I wonder how  large a market it is...and if anybody had actually done it using Carrara.

    Dart you have so much really good footage that I have seen, that I wonder if some of it cannot be turned into a story..where the footage is linked with text, interactive maps and images....I bought an Ibook on learning "Ibook Author"..It is very interesting how it works. You read along then come across a movie. You click on and it and it plays illustrating some concept.  

     

  • DondecDondec Posts: 243
    TangoAlpha said:

    ... so one day when I have some spare time . . . (but as the mantra of self-employed people everywhere goes, "Spare time? What's that then?")

    lol Tango, so true.  I'm in the NYC area and everybody I know seems to be busting 10hrs/day in Comp Sci/Internet/Accounting jobs... well, everybody except for the highly payed Wall St people... it so unfair.  :-/

       - Don

  • DartanbeckDartanbeck Posts: 21,332

    Awesome. I'd love to make things like that. You're right. A lot of my animations would work great for such things - because they're actually being made towards thirty minute episodic movies with full audio. The only things I've shown to the public so far are just test renders as I experiment with this setting and that. 

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