Carrara 8.5 vs Carrara 8.5 pro
Havos
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Is there any difference between these packages apart from the included content? In particular is the software the same, it seems to be when looking at the descriptions of each.
Since I already have both the V5 and M5 pro packs, is there any reason for me to consider the pro version?
Standard Carrara 8.5 is $44 at the moment in fast grab, and this drops to just $26 if you buy a "Looks a lot like me" product.
I am not sure if I would ever use Carrara, I bought vue and have not even installed it. However it would increase my options at a pretty low price.
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IIRC, pro is 64-bit and the other is not.
Pro also includes primitives and tools that are not in the standard edition (don't recall the exact list off the top of my head. But the ocean primitive is definitely Pro only, and the quick fillet toolbar in the vertex editor - something I use a lot!). But it's worth getting Pro just for the 64-bittedness.
Way back when, I bought the standard 32-bit edition of Poser, and I regretted ever since. Not only do lots of scenes simply not load (you only get 3.5GB of memory for all your scene, props, actors etc) but those that do are very restricted in what you can do. Put it this way, "Out of memory" errors are a regular occurrence in 32-bit Poser. I imagine 32-bit Carrara would be similarly afflicted.
Here's a scene built and rendered in Carrara 8.5 Pro to whet your appetite. The kid is Cory 6, the sky HDRI is from Dimension Theory's Skies of Economy pack, and the ducks are by Ken Gilliland over at HiveWire3d, but everything else was made inside the app.
ok thanks a lot for the info, whatever happens I would want the 64 bit version, pretty pointless having a 32GB machine it the programs can only use 2GB. Since the pro version is actually more expensive in FU than it is normally priced (it has been $64 for a long time now), then I can wait.
Yeah, Pro is currently more expensive than it's been in a *loong* time. But one thing you can be sure of with Daz: There *will* be another sale!
Pro version is 64 bit, standard is not.
Pro version has 3d Paint functions.
Pro has the Ocean primitive.
Several of the modeling tools are pro-only.
There's more, but it's slipping my mind at the moment.
Superb render, Tim. (Tim built that scene himself in Carrara; it's not a pre-made, he was kind enough to show in the Carrara forums many of the step by steps he took to puttiing it together which has been amazing to watch as the scene - which is much larger than the bit shown in the render - has come together)
All of you have convinced me that pro is the only choice.
Would you say Carrara was a superior modeller to Hexagon? Even if I continued to use DS for scenes and renders, I could justify getting it if I was to use it for modelling.
All of you have convinced me that pro is the only choice.
Would you say Carrara was a superior modeller to Hexagon? Even if I continued to use DS for scenes and renders, I could justify getting it if I was to use it for modelling.
The Hexagon vertex modeler has more tools than Carrara's vertex modeler. If you are already familiar with Hexagon (or Blender, or...), I doubt very much that you would want to switch to Carrara's vertex modeler because Hexagon's is superior for that form of modeling and uvmapping. You can always bring the object to Carrara after modeling in whatever just like you would for Poser or Studio.
Personally, because I render in Carrara, there are several modeling functions that are more convenient for me to use in Carrara than hexagon or whatever. For example, there are some shapes that I use Carrara's formula modeler for which are easy to morph and animate in Carrara by altering the formula, but would be more difficult to morph and animate in Hexagon because the object must be transferred to another program with an appropriate morph, rather than just adjusting a single formula parameter. For most people though, using a formula wouldn't even occur to them. But it isn't just for a formula. Carrara also has modelers for splines, metaballs, terrains, plants, skies, volumetric clouds, particles, and more. It is the wide range of features that makes Carrara so great, in my opinion. It is not uncommon for people to compare Hexagon's vertex modeler to Carrara's vertex modeler while forgetting that the shape they think is so hard in Carrara might be very easy in Carrara using the spline modeler - and the splines can be animated.
Carrara has some Bryce-like functions such as terrains, plants, and realistic skies and some Hexagon-like functions such as vertex modeling and uvmapping and some Studio-like functions such as posing and rendering - and a whole lot more. But often the specialty program is better at its specialty function (Bryce's terrain editor has more precise detail for example) than Carrara is.
I am a big Carrara supporter, but I would not recommend someone get it just for the vertex modeler.
Diomede's answer is pretty spot on. I'll just add my 2 cents...
Since Hex is a vertex modeler, I sense the intent of your question is how to ask how well Carrara's vertex modeling functions stack up against Hex.
For me personally I have a history that Hex crashes like crazy for me, and I sort of gave up. However if you've got familiarity with Hex and it doesn't crash, then Carrara's vertex modeler isn't going to hold a lot of attraction (with the possible exception that in Carrara you can model in the assembly room; meaning you can model around a posed figure or figures within the scene). From what I've seen most of those who model who use both seem to prefer Hex.
However Carrara has a ton of other modelers other than the vertex modeler (even though the vertex modeler is full featured in and of itself), so in the wider aspect of 'What are Carrara's modeling capabilities, vertex and otherwise?' you'd get a very different answer from me.
I started thinking about it, and jotted a few notes, so giving the larger answer, Carrara includes:
- vertex modeler
- vertex modeling in the assembly room (can model around posed figures in the scene if needed)
- spline modeler
- meta ball modeler
- plant/tree modeler
- dynamic hair modeler
- text modeler
- cloud modeler
- fire modeler
- fog modeler
- fountain modeler
- ocean modeler
- landscape/terrain modeler
- particles modeler with multiple different particle emitter types
- realistic skies creator/modeler that also can animate cloud/sun/moon movement
- building/house modeler (I have Architools)
... and that's just what springs to mind (I'm sure I'm forgetting some).
All of this is only touching on the creation/modeling tools, which says nothing of the fact it has:
- a full suite of excellent animation tools (puppeteer, graph animation, keyframe animation, NLA/BVH use, aniblock use, etc etc),
- 2 different sets of physics engines including hardbody and softbody Bullet physics as well as dynamic hair physics simulations,
- multiple scene forces to act upon the physics sims (so you can have hair naturally flowing in the wind, for example),
- superb instancing support with both replicators and suface replicators (making it possible to create vast and varied realistic landscapes),
- rigging tools,
- texturing/shader tools (including 3Dpaint, which means you can paint textures/spec/bump/alpha/etc directly on your 3d figure/character/object directly in Carrara),
- UVmapping tools,
- weight painting tools,
- tools to add morphs,
- multipass rendering,
- advanced lighting (IES, 'barndoor' spotlighting, gels, negative lights, mesh light emitters),
- 10 render nodes so you can have your own render farm,
- caustics,
- blurred reflections,
- normal map support,
- godrays,
- full global illumination, ambient occlusion, etc etc and can easily handle very large and complex scenes that other apps would choke on. Oh and of course there is Luxus, Octane and Luxcore plugins for unbiased support.
Carrara can do so much that anyone reading even my highly-abbreviated list would surely go glassy-eyed :) However sensing the real intent of your question is simply to compare the Hex vertex modeler vs the Carrara vertex modeler, if Hex is working ok for you then Carrara's vertex modeler isn't going to add much, and in fact you will probably find it more limiting than Hex.
Hexagon and Bryce are Windows only (effectively, since the kind of Mac architecture they can run on hasn't been manufactured in over 6 years). That might not be a problem for you, but as a Mac user, it counts me out. I'm sure they are better tools at what they do, but not better enough to make me want to turn from the Dark Side ;)
Thanks again for your replies, I can see Carrara does a lot, and it would take some time to learn all of it functions. I have used Hexagon, but not a lot, as I have only done a bit of modeling. Yes it crashes a lot, but as long as you save frequently I can live with this as it reload super fast.
Since I have largely dumped Poser I like to think I have no sentimental attachment to any particular app, but I am biased towards apps that are being moved forward by the developers, and although Carrara is still getting new releases, DS seems to be moving ahead at a faster pace, particularly with the iRay inclusion. Naturally poor old Hex and Bryce seems to have vanished off the development cycle altogether.
It I ever got into video, Carrara is definitely an option I would consider, along with iClone and Unreal.
So many options and so little time to explore them all :-)
I finally got Carrara 8.5 pro today. Now that it is no longer in Fast Grab and returned to its cheaper price, that plus I used BYOFLASH coupon for 60% off, so it cost me just $26. That is the same price as the non-pro I was considering earlier, without the need to buy a 10$ item I did not want.
Not sure when I will get the chance to play with it, but for just 26 bucks I have not lost much.
Thanks again for all the help from you guys, in particular for warning me away from the non-pro version.
You will find a lot of useful information in the following thread that is stickied in the Carrara forum.
http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/15970/
And there is a very generous user named Cripeman who has a whole series of free youtube tutorials for Carrara.
http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/15970/#233895