what were yoo using before discovering Carrara?

Dartanbeck

ModernWizard said:

One of my personal goals this year was to learn how to do digital modeling, so I downloaded Wings3D and promptly ignored it. Carrara's modeling room might motivate me to actually achieve this goal, especially since I'm familiarizing myself with other aspects of the program anyway.

--MW

...especially after finding home in some of the fun modeling threads going on in here! Yeah... Carrara modeling can be incredibly fun - and we have so many tools... it's a blast to try various methods to see which we like the most!

Yeah... that's a great story!

It's great that you can currently drop back to Daz Studio while you figure out what to do in Carrara, but try to not do that too much. You'll really want to figure out the Carrara workings - which is quite different from Daz Studio - as you've seen already. You'll see. Carrara Rocks!!!

Dartanbeck

UnifiedBrain said:

I seem to be the exception here.  No background in 3D.  I started with Studio in the early 2000's - version 1.3.1 (I think).  I later got Hex and Bryce for free, in the same deal that Dart mentioned above, but both have sat on my computer, totally unused. 

I'd heard great things about Carrara for years.  Mildly interested, but not enough to spend the money, or take on a difficult learning curve.

Fast forward to a few weeks ago, when someone mentioned in the PC+ forum that Carrara was on sale for a ridiculously low price, and that the pro packs for V5 and M5 were included.  I pulled the trigger, primarily for the content.

But, inspired by the work in Carrara that many of you have posted,  I also started thinking, "how hard could this be?"  Currently finding out.

 

Like I said, I came to Carrara from Poser - but once I bought (finally!!!) Carrara, I dropped Poser except as a utility for 'fixing' Poser-to-Carrara issues and perhaps some of its other tools, like Pose saving, Walk Designer, stuff like that. But when I came to rendering, I became a complete convert right from the start - even though I was really fairly lost at first. Luckily for me, those old forums are gone. I had some really dumb questions in there! LOL

Kidding, of course!

This forum has always been a HUGE help!

I spent quite some time just reading posts, looking for answers to my own questions. I felt silly asking something simple. Finally I bit the bullet and posted my question. At least five people came into my thread giving me solutions! So I ended up getting addicted to this forum! After a year I quit using Poser altogether. Completely. I only use Carrara now.

I have in mind to use Daz Studio as a utility to using Genesis and Genesis 2 figures - if I need it.

Dartanbeck

therixx said:

I found Bryce2 on a computer magazine CD-Rom, but because my computer was too slow, I could never use it until...
A new machine arrived. I installed it again: now it was usable and I was impressed. I soon found that a free version of Bryce5.5 was available and so I gladly upgraded. Bundled with this new Bryce was Daz Studio, another pleasant surprise. But while I was using the couple Bryce/DS, I was also developing some curiosity for the other 3D graphics applications. The name "Carrara" kept going around but I wouldn't dare to spend money on it without knowing if it could be useful to me...
Enter Les Pardew's book "Figures, Characters and Avatars: The Official Guide to Using DAZ Studio..."
I do not know about the current edition, but the first one had, attached to the book, a DVD-Rom with lots of content and apps in it.
I bought it because I knew it contained Carrara 6 Pro. When I finally found the time to follow Carrara's included quick tutorial, I knew I had found my favourite :-)

Me too! I just love the workflow, the interface... everything!

Like Unified Brain mentioned earlier, I think we Carrara users understate the power of manipulation within Carrara! I love the render engine, the texture room, the modelers - oh the many modelers! :)

PhilW

There is no such thing as a dunb question - if you don't know something, it is dumb not to ask!

Dartanbeck

PhilW said:

There is no such thing as a dunb question - if you don't know something, it is dumb not to ask!

I'm sorry... what was the question? LOL

A3DLover

Dartanbeck said:

ModernWizard said:

One of my personal goals this year was to learn how to do digital modeling, so I downloaded Wings3D and promptly ignored it. Carrara's modeling room might motivate me to actually achieve this goal, especially since I'm familiarizing myself with other aspects of the program anyway.

--MW

...especially after finding home in some of the fun modeling threads going on in here! Yeah... Carrara modeling can be incredibly fun - and we have so many tools... it's a blast to try various methods to see which we like the most!

Yeah... that's a great story!

It's great that you can currently drop back to Daz Studio while you figure out what to do in Carrara, but try to not do that too much. You'll really want to figure out the Carrara workings - which is quite different from Daz Studio - as you've seen already. You'll see. Carrara Rocks!!!

Man i really dont like carraras modeling room but i think the surface fidelity of the models is better than hexagon. My main love with car, is its speed on rendering and setup. Along with alot of render to formats and image sequences. I wish the lights were editable like the particle emitters are that would be killer.

Dartanbeck

A3DLover said:

Dartanbeck said:

ModernWizard said:

One of my personal goals this year was to learn how to do digital modeling, so I downloaded Wings3D and promptly ignored it. Carrara's modeling room might motivate me to actually achieve this goal, especially since I'm familiarizing myself with other aspects of the program anyway.

--MW

...especially after finding home in some of the fun modeling threads going on in here! Yeah... Carrara modeling can be incredibly fun - and we have so many tools... it's a blast to try various methods to see which we like the most!

Yeah... that's a great story!

It's great that you can currently drop back to Daz Studio while you figure out what to do in Carrara, but try to not do that too much. You'll really want to figure out the Carrara workings - which is quite different from Daz Studio - as you've seen already. You'll see. Carrara Rocks!!!

 

Man i really dont like carraras modeling room but i think the surface fidelity of the models is better than hexagon. My main love with car, is its speed on rendering and setup. Along with alot of render to formats and image sequences. I wish the lights were editable like the particle emitters are that would be killer.

We can run lights through particle emitters if we want ;)

Man, I'm starting to understand a bit more about the power of other modelers compared to Carrara's Vertex Modeler.

Carrara's modeling tools have been just fine for my needs - I don't really model much, and usually only for my self. But looking into UV Unwrapping software, I've been stumbling onto some features of other modelers - remembering some of the features that others have been missing and so forth.

I think if I were ever to go out and buy a UV Unwrapping software, I'd likely just save a few bucks and buy Silo and get a cool modeler along with my unwrapper.

But if I really wanted to "Go Pro" with modeling, I might start with Silo to start earning so that I could save up and by Modo!

I have a bit of a discussion along with more videos and such in my UV Unwrapping Thread 

Dartanbeck

Oh... but that might be a long way off. I really do enjoy modeling in Carrara, and I've come to grips with its UV Editor as well.

While these other modelers do appear to kick Carrara's tush in many regards, I love how I can be right in the middle of anything and just quickly crank out a new mesh or edit an existing anything. Why do I always sound so hypocritical?!!! LOL

PhilW

A3DLover said:

Dartanbeck said:

ModernWizard said:

One of my personal goals this year was to learn how to do digital modeling, so I downloaded Wings3D and promptly ignored it. Carrara's modeling room might motivate me to actually achieve this goal, especially since I'm familiarizing myself with other aspects of the program anyway.

--MW

...especially after finding home in some of the fun modeling threads going on in here! Yeah... Carrara modeling can be incredibly fun - and we have so many tools... it's a blast to try various methods to see which we like the most!

Yeah... that's a great story!

It's great that you can currently drop back to Daz Studio while you figure out what to do in Carrara, but try to not do that too much. You'll really want to figure out the Carrara workings - which is quite different from Daz Studio - as you've seen already. You'll see. Carrara Rocks!!!

 

Man i really dont like carraras modeling room but i think the surface fidelity of the models is better than hexagon. My main love with car, is its speed on rendering and setup. Along with alot of render to formats and image sequences. I wish the lights were editable like the particle emitters are that would be killer.

I haven't used Hexagon that much but it always strikes me as being pretty similar to Carrara's modeller, and I never really understood why some people love Hex and hate Carrara's modeller when they seem to me to be so similar. I must be missing something.

Lights have lots of editable parameters - have a look at the panel at top right - General tab for light color, brightness, type of light, spread angle and falloff angle for Spotlights etc, and the Effects tab for stuff like Gels, Lens Flare, Light Cone and other light effects.  Is this the sort of thing you were thinking of and just missed this?

FifthElement

 

 

PhilW said:

I haven't used Hexagon that much but it always strikes me as being pretty similar to Carrara's modeller ...

You mean Amapi, right ? 

PhilW

FifthElement said:

 

 

PhilW said:

I haven't used Hexagon that much but it always strikes me as being pretty similar to Carrara's modeller ...

You mean Amapi, right ? 

Blast from the past!

evilproducer

PhilW said:

UnifiedBrain said:

PhilW said:

Earlier in this thread, I was talking about my "software journey" and that led me to looking through my own Rendo gallery (right from the beginning - I have never deleted anything) - and I decided to load up again a scene and character that I did in the early days of me using Carrara (from about 8 years ago). The character is Bruna by Syltermermaid, I don't think it is still available, but here she is in an updated form and rendered with Octane Render for Carrara with a custom hair and my own skin material formula (still using Bruna's original textures).  I hope you like it and thanks to this thread for inspiring me and sending me down memory lane. Beats rendering shiny spheres!!

Hi Phil,

It's a nice image.  However, there is a graininess to the whole render.  I assume that this was done on purpose?

Sorry, I'm just trying to learn here.

In retrospect, I think that I needed to turn down the bump maps a little!

The whole image looks like noise has been added somehow. It looks great otherwise.

evilproducer

PhilW said:

There is no such thing as a dunb question - if you don't know something, it is dumb not to ask!

Or as my old pappy used to say, "there are no stupid questions. Stupid people maybe, but not stupid questions."

evilproducer

A3DLover said:

Dartanbeck said:

ModernWizard said:

One of my personal goals this year was to learn how to do digital modeling, so I downloaded Wings3D and promptly ignored it. Carrara's modeling room might motivate me to actually achieve this goal, especially since I'm familiarizing myself with other aspects of the program anyway.

--MW

...especially after finding home in some of the fun modeling threads going on in here! Yeah... Carrara modeling can be incredibly fun - and we have so many tools... it's a blast to try various methods to see which we like the most!

Yeah... that's a great story!

It's great that you can currently drop back to Daz Studio while you figure out what to do in Carrara, but try to not do that too much. You'll really want to figure out the Carrara workings - which is quite different from Daz Studio - as you've seen already. You'll see. Carrara Rocks!!!

Man i really dont like carraras modeling room but i think the surface fidelity of the models is better than hexagon. My main love with car, is its speed on rendering and setup. Along with alot of render to formats and image sequences. I wish the lights were editable like the particle emitters are that would be killer.

Have you tried lights in the emitter yet? Very cool effects can be achieved!

Dartanbeck

evilproducer said:

PhilW said:

UnifiedBrain said:

PhilW said:

Earlier in this thread, I was talking about my "software journey" and that led me to looking through my own Rendo gallery (right from the beginning - I have never deleted anything) - and I decided to load up again a scene and character that I did in the early days of me using Carrara (from about 8 years ago). The character is Bruna by Syltermermaid, I don't think it is still available, but here she is in an updated form and rendered with Octane Render for Carrara with a custom hair and my own skin material formula (still using Bruna's original textures).  I hope you like it and thanks to this thread for inspiring me and sending me down memory lane. Beats rendering shiny spheres!!

Hi Phil,

It's a nice image.  However, there is a graininess to the whole render.  I assume that this was done on purpose?

Sorry, I'm just trying to learn here.

In retrospect, I think that I needed to turn down the bump maps a little!

 

The whole image looks like noise has been added somehow. It looks great otherwise.

Looks to me like a heavy Unsharp Mask

Dartanbeck

evilproducer said:

A3DLover said:

Dartanbeck said:

ModernWizard said:

One of my personal goals this year was to learn how to do digital modeling, so I downloaded Wings3D and promptly ignored it. Carrara's modeling room might motivate me to actually achieve this goal, especially since I'm familiarizing myself with other aspects of the program anyway.

--MW

...especially after finding home in some of the fun modeling threads going on in here! Yeah... Carrara modeling can be incredibly fun - and we have so many tools... it's a blast to try various methods to see which we like the most!

Yeah... that's a great story!

It's great that you can currently drop back to Daz Studio while you figure out what to do in Carrara, but try to not do that too much. You'll really want to figure out the Carrara workings - which is quite different from Daz Studio - as you've seen already. You'll see. Carrara Rocks!!!

 

Man i really dont like carraras modeling room but i think the surface fidelity of the models is better than hexagon. My main love with car, is its speed on rendering and setup. Along with alot of render to formats and image sequences. I wish the lights were editable like the particle emitters are that would be killer.

Have you tried lights in the emitter yet? Very cool effects can be achieved!

This is Cool, ep!

evilproducer

Thanks Dart. Sorry it's been awhile. You know why.

I started with Raydream Studio 5, and when that became broken due to Mac OS updates and hardware upgrades I was left trying demos. I dabbled in Poser and Bryce, then heard about Carrara and came on board with version 5. Skipped six because A, my internet connection was super slow and wonky, and B, it had some serious issues from what I had read. I also tried Studio and hated it. I upgraded to C7.2 Pro, and then a friend bought me C8.5 Pro, but I haven't been able to use it lately because I had to downgrade back to my old PPC, C8.5 won't run on it. Hopefully this coming year will see me be able to update my hardware.

That being said, C7.2 Pro has generally been pretty stable, and I have been able to do some cool stuff with it.

Dartanbeck

Yes! Glad to see you!

What a surprise ;)

I've often been tempted to fire up Carrara 6 Pro and check it out. The only thing I've done with it (got it, 7.2 Pro, and 8 Pro in the same order, so never used it) was to check out the cool extras that came with it - HDRI, sample tutorial thingy and such. 

It would be interesting to take that walk through history. Speaking of which, I've also been tempted to buy as many older boxed versions as I could just for the nostalgia of it - the boxes would look super-awesome on my desk!

Here's the Quick Tour that came with Carrara 6 if anyone's interested (for future reference, it's at the bottom of the Table of Index in the

►►► Carrara Information Manual ◄◄◄):

Carrara 6 Quick Tour - This file was originally provided with Carrara 6. Much of the information in it applies to Carrara 7 and 8 as well. It is about 64 MBs in size.
It's a nice little visual walkthrough of various features within Carrara. I think it's a nice little thing to try if you just bought Carrara and would like to see what it has to offer. Even though Carrara will provide much more than what any manual or tutorial could ever hope to explain! "Click Here to Download the File