I'm confused
jedslather
Posts: 0
Hi everyone,
I'm confused, I was using Bryce a long long time ago and it was really a great software to generate amasing sceneries.
Now my question (and start of my confusion) is what software should I chose if I want to have it all in one package?
Carrara 8.5 pro can as I understand it only do the animation \ creation regarding models?
If I want a complet setup what should I go for? (not a money issue).
best regards,
Jed.
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You can still use Bryce, the current version is 7.1 and is in the store.
Carrara 8.5 Pro does much more than that, and is a complete package in every way. It can do animation and creation of content, yes, but is also can build and render scenes, with an extremely good renderer, create shaders, has particle physics and many other things.
In my opinion, it will do most things that Bryce can do, and a lot more besides. If you look at the Product Page for Carrara, it should give you a better idea of what it does : http://www.daz3d.com/carrara-software/carrara-8-5-pro
Wow thanks I wasn't aware of that, so this clears my doubts. I can use Carrara 8.5 pro to make scenarios, animations, import 3D models into the scene etc.
Many thanks,
Jed
Right. And if you're in it for the landscapes, Carrara has an amazing terrain generation system and even a really cool plant editor.
JimmyC nails it on the head... Carrara really does it all, make models, auto-generate terrains, realistic atmosphere and skies, you can load and animate DAZ 3D/Poser-style figures, make your own models, all the things you want to do in such a system.
Also, I really like the flexibility that we have with our render output. I've never really used another software that allows me to make rendered animations as quickly as Carrara can. You can, of course, set it up to do very slow, high quality renders too. But you can actually even get decent animations or renders done using faster setting in Carrara too.
A little about the Terrain editor:
First of all, Carrara comes with an abundance of preset terrains you can load.
But it's really fun and easy to make your own - even though you can put as much effort into it as you like.
When you load in a blank terrain primitive, you're taken to the terrain editor, where you set the size that you need. It starts you off with a default mountain generator just so that you have something to see. Remove that and you get a flat plane. You may add any number of generators which shape the terrain in their own specific ways, with various parameters that you can change to alter how they form. Then there are also filters that you can add to further enhance the shape and appearance.
But that's not all. You can import height maps, or even make your own in the terrain editors own paint shop, where you use paint brush settings to paint a gray scale height map. Many users just make their own in Photoshop or Dogwaffle, etc., but the paint shop works nicely too.
Then there are the shaders. Carrara's sample terrain shaders are really nice. I've found that, even if they don't give the appearance that you want, it's how they're set up that makes them magically easy to work with. You get a shader list, each individual part textures a specific portion of the terrain. So if you don't like the color of the grass, you can find the grass layer and change it - even put in a texture map and tile it. It's all very fun and very powerful. ;)
This shot was made entirely using Carrara's terrain, plants and ocean.
Oh... I forgot to mention clouds. The rising mist is a single, volumetric cloud.
That is a beautiful image Dartanbeck!
I have been looking at some of your tuts too just got Carrara 8.5 Pro, and so I am a recent convert. It makes my hobby even more enjoyable.
As the others said above!
Carrara is great for animations and still artwork. Whatever you want.
Dart mentioned terrains, and environments. It has tools to help with the creation of those environments, such as the surface replicator, which can be used to place trees on a terrain. But the really cool part is the versatility of the tools. You can place trees on a surface, but the surface can be any model, not just a terrain. And you can stick any model in a replicator to be replicated on a surface, not just trees, but any geometry, and they can even be animated to an extent.
I do get a bit enthusiastic towards Carrara, but it really does make our lives better, doesn't it? :)
Thanks all, and thank you so much @Dartanbeck for your very detailed explanation.
I know now that I just need to buy this software, because of the promotion and all :)
I learned that luxrender also can be used, so that is really great.
Mostly I will be doing animations, and I can't wait do start.
in 2007 I did a small animation scene with bryce 3D, and that took me 2 weeks to render LOL, I hope things is a bit faster these days.
cheers,
Jed.
I love using Carrara to animate.
In Carrara, you can opt for super high quality renders that take more than a day per frame, or less detailed settings for a lot of speed, and anywhere in between. And, like you mention with Luxus, even settings not so in between! LOL
We're also getting Octane for Carrara sometime in the future as well.
I still haven't fired up Bryce, intent to learn how to use it. Last year or so, DAZ 3D was giving away the latest build. Now it's still incredibly cheap. It's a different way of doing thing - to be sure. I like the idea of it. I even like the interface. But I'm so into using Carrara, that I keep opting to just stay in here!
Two weeks for an animation will be short if you use Luxrender. Unless they have added GPU rendering that is. ;-)
I second Dartanbeck's statement. I don't create models, but for handling Poser format content (characters, props, scenes, mocap) Carrara is great. Way better than Poser, IMHO.