Considering buying if it's not been abandoned
quantum-2653005
Posts: 51
Hi all. I've been using DS for a little while now and have been giving serious consideration to buying Carrara and Bryce. I think both have their uses and would be good tools to have.
Therein lies the problem. I have been reading numerous threads about both products, all the hype, the wishes and realities people have with these products. Some still seem to believe D3D may eventually continue working on the products while others outright call them (along with others like Hexagon) "Abandonware".
Apparently the software hasn't been updated in a very long time (I'm speaking about any of them) and in their current state they seem to have an arm's and leg's worth of bugs that have never been addressed. In the case of Carrara, some seem to swear by it (not whole-heartedly mind you, but almost) while in the other camp are people who have seemingly been trying to "fudge" functionality out of it since the bugs are so prolific. There are the dreamers that seem hell-bent on believing some "Version 9" will eventually come down the pike or at the very least some miracle will occur and D3D will resume actual development of the product. These people seem to be a minority. The vast majority of people seem more inclinded to believe it's long-past being salvaged because of OS upgrades and updates that reduce or remove it's ability to function anymore. The "Abandonware Sect" if you will.
From a very few posts by what I assume to be D3D people (they have the DAZ_ name prefix in their posts) there has been absolutely no definitive answer to the outstanding question of the future, if any, of Carrara, Bryce, Hexagon, etc. What few threads those posts exist in seem to spark hope. For some that becomes a defacto absolute answer, for others it seems to be the status-quo of every blue-moon D3D hops in just to instill false-hope.
While I can see these particular products, with their close integration to DS, being a good investment of money and time I can't help but sit on the fence and wonder if they are indeed past their prime and only exist in the library of D3D as a remnant of what was. I've read a few people have gotten Carrara in the last 6 or so months and discovered the myriad bugs that plague the software and quickly discovered that support is non-existant. Is this the actual case or a misunderstanding? Since D3D/DAZ sells the product I would hope they support the product they sell. If not, well, that's an issue that can be more costly to them than the price of the software. I didn't read anywhere on the Carrara sales page anything about "Sold as-is, no product support after purchase. No guarantee of suitability or functionality as advertised." Yes, I have seen numerous postings as well about the 30-day refund policy. I've also read they don't honor refunds on sale items. Since the product seems to be perpetually on sale with a PC+ membership this doesn't bode well. "Buyer beware!" and all that. The sales page seems to go all out in saying what it can do with no hint of what all these threads discuss. There's a huge disconnect here that I'm trying to understand and distill from all this information.
Is Carrara supported at all anymore? Does it actually function as per the sales pitch on the web page? Is it as buggy and flawed as so many threads suggest it is? Would it actually be a useful tool when working with D3D assets?
Some answers would most likely be based on conjecture and perception. "Sure, it's a great tool if you don't need 50% of what it should do, what it's sold as, but doesn't." That's not what they are marketing on their web page so it's troubling.
Does anyone have any definitive answers? Probably not the general user but actually from DAZ themselves. Has anyone recently had problems that DAZ has actually supported or does the problem ticket go to the 404, the ID-10-T basket?
A lot of the recent assets I've gotten from the DAZ store have had horrible problems and almost all the problem tickets were answered quickly, curteously and professionally. Most of the problems with the purchased assets were addressed within a week or so. I don't have time to dig through the source files and figure out HOW to fix them, I can generally locate the referenced lines in the source files and/or identify missing asset components and report that information to the tech so the problems can be addressed in the original product and not something local I had to tweak.
I have neither the time or patience to fix, what would be for me, a new piece of software. To be clear about our lexicon, "fix" and "mod" are not the same things. Adjusting panel colors or moving tabs around doesn't mean I'm "fixing" anything, that's all aesthetics. If I buy Carrara am I getting a fully useable piece of software as advertised on their store page or am I buying a long-since dead headache?
No flaming is necessary if you're a true-believer, I've read enough over the last week to merit asking these questions and I believe I've done so in a respectful way. I'm looking for an honest answer before I spend any more money on this particular hobby.
Thank you for your time,
Kozar (no, of course that's not my real name)
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Comments
I use Carrara every day.
I don't see any bugs.
The Carrara I use works wonderfully with everything I need - which is v4 k4 m4 and props that were made with poser versions.
The few props I have bought saying 'daz studio only' work - after mucking round with the textures. So be prepared to fiddle with t hose.
Chris Creek (one of the guys who started daz?) is on record as saying that daz bought Carrara to keep it out of the hands of other software companies.
Daz is also on record saying t hat Carrara is still being developed.
You have to make your own conclusions as to what that means.
The important thing is that Carrara at the moment works very well with most things.
If you want the future go with studio.
But if you want the present, go with Carrara.
Disclaimer: I have no experience with genesis products.
Maybe not "definitive" but from someone who is informed and experienced with Carrara. Let me address the bugs issue first - does it have bugs? Well yes, what complex software doesn't, but in general not enough to really stop you doing what you want to do. The biggest current drawback is that Genesis 3 figures are not (yet) supported. A few months ago there were indications that a version supporting G3 figures was in Beta, but nothing has been heard since, so who knows when it will eventually see the light of day.
That said, there is a lot that Carrara can do that either can't be done in Daz Studio, or requires extra purchased addons for each function - terrains, trees, complex and very memory efficient replication, dynamic hair, built-in modeller just to name a few. And the launch of third party plugins such as VWD for cloth and Octane Render are adding extra functionality to enhance Carrara still further and keep it feeling fresh, even with the lack of development from Daz.
With current PC pricing, Carrara is a bargain, and it will be usable "as is" for years to come. Whether it is for you, only you can decide. Just one other point - these forums offer lots of help and encouragement to new users from us "old lags", so if you do take the plunge, you will not be alone!
You make a beautiful summary of all that was known and said on this subject, but in connection with the software itself, I can see all the same that it still evolves.
It is mainly to integrate the new generations of characters (it is normal for a company of which it is the principal business) but Carrara doesn't really need a “super upgrade”, except for some functions, I think especially of the generator of particles and export in Alembic format).
There was a delay also concerning the clothing simulation but a new plugin is just appeared (VWD).
Like all the other softwares (c4d, Lw, iClone 3dsmax…) Carrara needs plugins for certain functions and it has a lot of them…
Personally, I built myself a workflow to make the bridge between Carrara and other very specialized programs, like Realflow and Marvellous Designer, but the majority of the users seem to have success with DAZ Studio (all depends on what you want to do).
I believe that DAZ3D does not give up Carrara, but they think certainly (?) that it is not profitable enough to enormously invest money in this software.
In any case, I read that Carrara works in Windows 10 and that there would be no Windows 11, there would be even one, that nothing says that Carrara would not work with it…
To summarize, Carrara has all qualities to make a good work, and for a long time !
There is a FREE 30 day (fully functional) "trial version" of Carrara available on downloads.com.
http://download.cnet.com/Carrara-8-Pro/3000-6677_4-10782148.html
This version runs as the FULL "PRO" version of Carrara for 30 days,.
Try before you buy.
Form your own opinion based on first hand experience,.
Ditto on the everyday use as my main 3D suite,.
Support and knowledge can be easily found right here with the people who use Carrara every day,. Carrara has a bunch of really helpful users,.
Support and info can also be found at Carrara Cafe.
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/7907045/Carrara_first_steps.zip
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/7907045/First_step_Physics_C8.pdf
Hope it helps
I appreciate your input and experiences. I mess around with DS as a hobby, rendering whatever strikes me and enjoy it a great deal. I have used both Poser Pro Game Edition 2014 and DS and found using DS to be a LOT more intuitive to use and the scene navigation makes better sense. Both had their learning curves but Poser's, at least to me, was almost vertical whereas the workflow in DS was more familiar since I do a lot with 3DS. It was markedly different to go from mechanical to organic and Poser was my first foray into this area. Having spent a little time using DS and buying a ridiculous amount of assets (there always seems to be *something* that I don't have, for either product) I decided to add this to my hobby line-up. I'm from the old school of technology, Z-80/8080/6502. Back then a ray-trace was generally built up as a script and called from the command line and in a few days you might have what you wanted. Ah, nastalgia.
I have tried the workflow of DS<>ZBrush and it works great. DS<>3DS (fbx/obj) seemed to have some quirks that I figured enough actual artists would have found alternatives or workarounds for. Carrara seemed to be the go-between. Not the sky-high investment required of Autodesk (which, btw, they stopped requiring your first-born as down-payment) and not a "toy". I had seen a lot of artists' work on various sites that said "Rendered in Carrara..." and it piqued my curiosity. I was surprised to find it was more than just a renderer front-end and had, as you stated, the ability to do asset creation and other tasks natively that it would cost substantially more to do so in DS because of the various plug-ins and addons. The assets I've gotten are nice, the artists that created them are to be commended. The more I play with DS the more I run across the scenerio of "I wish the terrain had *this* feature" or some other specific characteristic. Sure, I can model all day in Max but after investigating what Carrara was, I thought perhaps being more closely associated to DS, it would be a better workflow to deal with those kinds of things.
Then began the great thread reading. It's not a pleasant read overall. Carrara, more importantly DAZ, has seemed to "annoy" a lot of people with it practices. If I understood correctly there has been a major change in its management structure or its staff or the combination and policies and practices have changed. I guess Carrara development at some point was halted as the new focus became DS and all the other products involved; Carrara, Bryce, Hexagon, etc, were left in whatever condition they were. Whether or not that's all factual I don't know. This is my best understanding from the threads I've read. So when I read the Carrara store page I thought with all it claimed to do it would the best-fit answer. Bryce would allow me to create my own terrain and Carrara would allow me to do asset creation and alteration. DS and it's 3DL/IRAY along with Carrara would then give me the "sandbox". $60 or $6000 doesn't matter, I always research software. The mixed feelings people have about DAZ in general was an eye-opener as were the posts about the products I was investigating.
I don't know if people who have been doing this for a long time (DS/Poser/Carrara/Artists) just see this as another spike in an ever ongoing trend or if DAZ as a company is not worth spending money on. I'm the new guy just passing through your peripheral vision using this software as a hobby, I can only ask people who have the experience with the software and the company in general.
There's the Carrara discussions and the DS debacle about it's content delivery system and all the front-end noise. I'm just trying to get past all of that and find out what is and what is not honestly going on. Ask 10 people and get 10 vastly different answers. People who have been doing this a long time see the hobbyists come and go and know too well the flame-setters, hair-pullers and "it's the end of the world" posters. It's a neat hobby and I'm already vested in it.
If all I had read were the posts citing the multitudes of bugs Carrara has then my decision would have been simple. It's broken and I'll find an alternative. But there were some posters who say they use it every day and other than some quirks it was still a tool they relied on. When artists say they like the tool and hobbyists say it's broken, well, it's time to ask some questions.
I appreciate everyone taking the time to respond and giving their insights.
Thank you
the above have said it pretty well .
I look at it this way - for less then $100 bucks you can get Bryce and Car. 8.5
try buying any other software for less .
like was said - DS is the future .
do I use C8 and Bryce ( yes ) not like I used to )
There's justified negativity and then there's FUD that gets spread around. There tends to be a lot a lot of opinions that are based on speculation with no facts to back them up, but presented as "facts."
Then there are also those like me that would encourage you to get Carrara, because the larger customer base will maybe encourage more Carrara development. For my part, I do believe Carrara is being worked on (slowly, based on the statements by DS staff you alluded to), to add Genesis 3 support, but there are some major hurdles to work on.
Yes there are bugs, but nothing I have found to be show-stoppers. Before I lost access to a computer modern enough to use Carrara 8.5, I found it ran great. I have since had to drop back down to Carrara 7.2 Pro, and it has always been rock solid for me, except the occasional "zombie mode" bug when I get too crazy going back and forth between the Assembly room and Texture room. I didn't have that issue in C8.5. My current rig is a PPC G5, and the other computer was an Intel Core 2 Duo iMac.
I have tried to use Studio and Poser, and you can do some nice things with them, but it they are hamstrung by the need for plugins and purchased products. Then there are things they just plainly can't do. To me, that is the showstopper. As long as Carrara functions, that is what I will use, and I will look to other full featured 3D graphics software (just in case). I do use purchased content, but most of my scenes have items I create in Carrara or have things in them that can't be done in Studio. If there comes a time due to hardware and OS upgrades that Carrara no longer functions, then DAZ will lose a customer. Not out of spite, but because I refuse to be locked into that Studio mindset and ecosystem.
The Studio mindset I refer to, you mentioned above, "I need this asset or that asset and I can't find it in the store!" For complex models, such as human figures, I look at it as, why re-invent the wheel, but if I need a coffee mug or a hammer in a particular style I can make it and not rely on some hardware or kitchen set that is sold to get close enough.
I recently needed a 'toon Llama and looked at it as, why re-invent the wheel? As time for my project was limited, I went to the DAZ store, Renderosity store, etc. looking for a 'toon Llama and then a more realistic Llama when the 'toon search was a bust. The only option I had was a morph based on the Genesis horse. That wouldn't work (both for expense and because I'm using C7.2). So I looked at a couple threads here and followed some box modeling tutorials, and in a few days I had box modeled, rigged and textured, a 'toon Llama. All from within Carrara. I used the 3D paint tool to paint the Llama, Carrara's VM to model it, I used the Animation Group function to create an NLA track which allowed me to save the animations I created as NLA clips and use them in the NLA track for looping walk cycles and such. The only things you could conceivably do in Studio would be to rig the model and (only with a plugin) would be to create your own aniblocks, which are similar to the NLA clips I mentioned above.
BTW, the cell shaded look is a scene filter that comes with Carrara. I don't know if Studio has one built in or if it needs a plugin.
I second all said above adding that the render node included in the pro version works like a charm
If you catch it on a good sale, both programs can be had for very little. I haven't had a chance to really dig into them yet, but am hoping to learn them later this year. I pick up stuff occassionally for them when they hit rock bottom prices. I bought both programs (as well as Hexagon) for dirt cheap over the Christmas and New Year's sales last year (like under $10 each). The content alone that comes with these programs is worth far more.
Edit: I picked up Carrara 8.5 pro in mid December for $19 and Bryce around the same time for $4. Also got Hexagon 2.5 for $4. All during the punch sales.
Daz Studio,. was designed from the ground up to be "Easy for beginners" that was the main priority, since the business here is to "Sell products".
Bryce , Carrara and Hexagon were all created by other people and purchaaed by Daz3D as a really good set of assets to have (if all you have is a market place for selling "content")
A long time ago,. Poser was the only program to do what it did,. ,., People started creating little models for use in Poser and the "Content marketplace" was born.
Poser was suddenly sold to another company,. and shortly after that, sold again to another company,.
As Daz3D were in the business of supplying content for this program,. and it's future seemed uncertain,. It's a logical realisation that they needed another option to continue to sell content....
Daz Studio was born.
So,. the interface of Studio is modern and built to be easy for anyone, without any previous experience or knowledge.
The interface of Poser, Carrara, Hexagon, and Bryce were all originally developed when computer users were expected to wear a "lab coat",
However,. the design of the UI at that time was seen as "ground-breaking" and really cool. and it was designed to be easier to use than previous programs.
Whether you find Carrara, and Bryce intuitive or not, is a personal thing,. so download the Trial version and have a play for a couple of weeks.
Daz Studio is "Free" if you never purchase any content to use in it.,..
Carrara is very cheaply priced for what it's capable of,. It's a stand alone suite of tools, meaning that Carrara can be used to Model, texture, rig, animate, light and render.
....so,. from nothing, to final artwork.
Bryce also has no reliance on other software or premade models to make it work,. It's a landscape generator.
Hexagon is a Modelling tool. and can be used to create models which can be used in Carrara, Bryce, Daz Studio, Poser,. or any other 3D software.
If the main raison d'etre at Daz3D is to "Sell content",. then those three programs are obviously less of a development priority,. than Daz Studio.
Since they are less "fool proof" to learn and use,. it's logical that some DS users will have a negative experience with those older softwares,. Others have the polar opposite, and enjoy the learning process.
To base your decisions upon the generalised opinions of inexperienced or novice users,. isn't generally a good idea.
form your own opinion,. download and try it,. at no cost to you,. as only you can decide whether you like it or not.
Daz Studio is a "posing" tool,. where the user can load a pre-made model,. add pre-made hair, clothes,. pose the figure using a pre-made pose, or animation, light the scene with a pre-made light set,. or add pre-made Props or background sets to the scene,. and render witth simplified (easy to use) render settings.
If that's all you need,. and you're happy with that,. then Daz Studio is the program for you.
If you want to do more than that,. then you need to look at more serious software,.,. and generally that's not aimed at beginners, and doesn't have the simplified "make it so" options.
Hope that make sense
I agree on all points, and in fact could have written Head Wax's comment. Just to add a thought, I long ago switched to Carrara from Poser because it typically handles Poser content seamlessly, and with much better features for large animation scenes, with lots of lights, etc. And there is a LOT of high quality, affordable Poser content available from many websites/vendors. Not being a modeler, this is a big plus. I did try an early version of DAZ Studio, since there are a very few good models available for DS that are not available as a similar product in Poser format. I got a few stills done, but it was pretty frustrating.
Here is a recent 2 minute Carrara animation using Poser format characters and props - I would not have even tried this in Daz Studio:
If you want examples of what Carrara can do in the right hands, in addition to Steve K's wonderful example, try looking at SciFiFunk's work on YouTube. That sort of work would not be possible in DS. My own animation for a five min animated short (not publicly released yet so I can't privide a link) has been shown at more than 20 film festivals around the world, all done in Carrara.
Additionally, all my CG videos are done in Carrara. Most are proofs of concept or tests that illustrate things that can be done in Carrara.
https://www.youtube.com/user/evilproducer01/videos
Well I bought Carrara and Bryce. Installed the exes and let DIM instlall the content. Whether that was a good install path or not I'll find out as I go, but both lit up on my system and didn't crash. Carrara found my content and I was able to dbl-click a figure into the working area. Bryce, well, still have some reading to do. I'll keep digging around the threads for more information on how to use them. Carrara has some interesting behavior when I loaded a figure into one of the preload terrains, I'll have to figure this all out.
One thing that both Carrara and Bryce seem to dislike is the fact I run at UHD 3840x2160. I had read here about the font-sizing and though it does mildly increase the text size the UI overall, just like DS, is not UHD friendly. I don't know if there is an ini file or some other means to address that with both Carrara and Bryce or if the hard-coded UI must be ran at a max of FHD 1920x1080. DS sufferes this same issue. I like having the screen real-estate of UHD so maybe someone has found a work-around.
I loaded a figure and tried the render room and it was quick and looked ok. Tried the same with a preload terrain and it looked nice. I have a pretty nice workstation at home so it was good to see the renderer didn't balk on my hardware. I guess the navigation in Carrara and Bryce are so unique to themselves because they were aquired from others some time ago.
I like the "lab-coat" reference. The "I need a hammer and a llama" made me laugh. But that is kind of where I was at when I started thinking about what asset creation tool would best fit with DS. Not unlike the first client I had that asked me to 3DS a factory building from blueprints and turned me loose on 3DS for the first time. "That's a LOT of tabs!" kind of day. But like anything else, work with it a while and find a flow that fits and become intimately experienced with the tool.
So for the cost of a couple of good pizzas and a really nice Japanese bento (lunch) I picked them up, $65 & $9.98, I'm "all-in".
I'm not an artist by any means, I am a hobbyist who became enamored with playing with this stuff. I do appreciate the responses from people who use these tools to create actual art.
I may never achieve "Ferrari" quality but I can be happy with "Big-wheel" renders. (the reference to a Big-wheel may date me)
thank you all,
welcome to the dark side ... err I mean 'welcome aboard' :)
(ask questions here, you'll get answers )
Thank you all. Yes, after the purchase went through I took a shower so I wouldn't feel so "dirty" :)
Just to see what it would do I loaded up some of the default stuff and rendered it.
Day Light On.car took 12mins
HowiesSnowScene.car took 5mins 28seconds
I noticed it used fixed-sized thread buckets. Is there a way to reduce the size each thread bucket uses? During DayLightOn I noticed a single thread had been given one of the more complex areas of light/transparency and was still processing when the rest of the threads were done. I half expected it to sub-divide the area then reallocate the available cores/threads to that area, but it didn't. Perhaps with a smaller thread bucket size (1 thread operating on a smaller area) that in situations of greater complexity it might help distribute the processing better.
My home workstation specs: eVGA X99 board, I7-5960X, 32G 2800 Corsair Dominator, 2x GTX980, 16TB (4x 4TB) drive & 480GB SSD (boot)
IRAY and 3DL in DS works really well. I'm not sure if there's something I can alter for Carrara to help it with performance.
thanks again
p.s. while the Day Light On looked ok, the HowiesSnowScene looked fantastic. That mountain background is the kind of stuff I'm hoping to incorporate in with the assets I have for renders. Very nice.
RE: "I noticed it used fixed-sized thread buckets. Is there a way to reduce the size each thread bucket uses?"
In the rendering room, there are three tabs, (1) Rendering, (2) Output, and (3) Progress Statistics. Towards the bottom of the rendering tab there is a slider for "tile size." By default, I believe this is at its maximum, which is 128. You can reduce it to as low as 16.
I saw that below Manage Rendering Nodes and thought that was part of the network rendering functionality. Thanks
interesting:
Day Light Out with the loaded default tile size of 128 took 12 minutes
with tile size of 16 it took 8mins 54 secs.
Could actually see the processing tiles stack up along the lengths of the floor lamps, like tetris vertical pieces if you can visualize that. So whatever shaders/light/shadows impact that geometry was definitely the most processing intensive. Very neat.
HowiesSnowScene 128 tile size: 5mins 28secs
tile size 16: 5mins 58 secs
so there is some tradeoff somewhere
HowiesSnowScene.car took 5mins 28seconds
takes me 12 mins.
Howie's snow scene takes 19:41 on my i5 iMac, with a tile size of 16.
I am a Carrara user for a long time.
I am not in the dragon, amazons and orks business but I use it professionally for Illustration, Shopdesign, Storyboards.
There is a bunch of "better" products on the market - even for free (e.g.Blender).
So: Why do I stick to Carrara most of the time?
1. It does not kill creativity with complexity.
2. I get results fast and quite easily - as long as I stay in the given boundaries Carrara evidently has.
3. I do not long for functionality I do not need. (Well, to tell the truth: I do long for it. But most of the time I really don't need all that stuff)
4. I am lazy. (From time to time I get quite uneasy and think I should finally switch to Blender. But: I am lazy......and speaking of complexity...)
5. Carrara definitely got a kick with Octane
But let me not forget: What speaks against Carrara?
1. Daz Management/Marketing (I like being pampered - even if it is only mentally)
2. Very few kicks (see 5. above)
3. The fear of being left behind one day. Ok, Carrara will still work as it does but I have always to keep me eyes open to what is happening elsewhere. I don't want to miss the next step for lazy guys like me only because I am desperately sticking to Carrara.
4. Daz Management/Marketing
Thanks for those test figures. Good to know my system is in the ballpark.
Is it possible to create a scene using Carrara; the terrain and scene environment (sun, clouds, all that neat stuff) and export it as something DS can import to be used as an actual environment?
I'm still having problems with D3D stuff in Carrara. They come in ultra-tiny. But the environments that can be rapidly made in Carrara is phenomenal! If I can't get DS stuff to work properly in C, maybe I can export C stuff to be used in DS?
I think installing Carrara (and Bryce for that matter) using the install exe's and allowing DIM to install the content messed something up horribly. There are odd runtime entries (!_11991 Runtime, 1_2864 Runtime) as separate entries under the C Content Tab. It seems to have decided when DIM installed to generate a bunch of odd runtimes as well as creating two separate DS content install references.
e.g. I have the DS content directory on a different drive from the DS install location: e:\DAZ_Studio_Content
That is the directory DIM is pointed to for installing all downloaded assets. DS uses this location just fine (at least, it did until the implementation of that pita C:\cloud garbage). Inside Carrara, Content Tab, I have two distinct entries
DAZ_Studio_Content Runtime
DAZ_Studio_Content
So somehow it thinks I have my content split. Along with all the odd numbered entries it seems to fail to find things when I load a figure. Missing textures or a dialogue box pops up and says "Failed to load...."
Would I be better off uninstalling Carrara then manually installing the downloaded Carrara packages into a unique location that is not part of the DS content location?
thanks
p.s. that whole DS implementation of a C:\...\cloud directory structure has also caused failures to reliably find asset components in DS. Sometimes it thinks the asset is in e:\DAZ_Studio_Content, other times it thinks it's installed in the C:\...\cloud location, sometimes it thinks it's in both. This may be what's causing Carrara to become confused.
Carrara has three different preset "Scenes" Large medium small,.
Large is for really big scenes in the multiple miles range,. so if you add a human figure to that,. it's so small that it's hard to find or position the camera.
Medium is the one you should use most of the time,. it's set up for working with Human scale figures,.
Small is ideal for things like product shots or jewelery.
However,. You can add any object to any scene scale,. ...You can still add Terrains or Oceans to a small or medium scaled scene.
The simplest and easiest way would be to render a 360 degree "spherical environment".
Open up a scene,. or create something,. go to the INSERT / Spherical,. which will add a new "spherical" Camera,. adjust that camera's rotation to 90, 0, 180,. and render from that camera,. make the image size something like 2000x1000,. which will give you an image which can be added to DS as a background environment.
You can also use these in Carrara or other programs.
Bryce can also be used to create environment / background images,. and is capable of exporting 32bit HDRi ...which can light the scene as well as providing a backdrop.
The Terrains Oceans,. Plants, Volumetric clouds,. Paticle systems and the Sunlight / Moonlight system are all built into Carrara ,. and although some elements of the scene could be "exported as objects", then loaded into DS,. it's the wrong direction,. and those exported objects could be massive, depending on the mesh resolution.
Daz Studio doesn't have the features to enable it to import Carrara scenes,.
But,.. Carrara can import DS scenes,. although there are some DS "plugins" which can't be supported in carrara.
It's simpler to use Carrara to load your figures, sets, props, then add more stuff to that in Carrara, whether you model some props, or add a sky with clouds, and a terrain with plants,. then render
You can certainly export a Terrain as an object (OBJ) ,. but the "terrain shaders" in Carrara would need to be converted into a "texture map" to load into DS and the terrain would remain as a "fixed object",, not adjustable or animatable.,. Same thing with the Ocean,,. Plants could be exported but will be massive file sizes,. since instead of "replicated" branches and leaves, the entire model would be exported as a complete object.
Not really workable for making forests in DS,. It's easy to create a forest in carrara, using a surface replicator to duplicate and randomize a few trees
This is where you realise that there are more poweful options in carrara for making your own scenes.
This is due to the scene scale you're selecting ,... When you open Carrara,. go to File / New,. then choose a "Medium" scale Empty Scene. (if you're working with figures),.. you can still add Terrains, Trees etc,. The scene scaling just makes it easier to navigate and work.
Now you can add a human scale figure and it will look better,.
If you create a Small scale scene and load a figure,. it'll be gigantic,.and in a large scale scene a human is miniscule.
On installation,. I'd suggest using DIM to do the whole thing,. Applications and content
When you use DIM to install the applications,. you can specify where those are installed,. and from that point on,. DIM knows where the "content" for each application should go.
It also makes it easier to add or remove content, since you can multi-select items to install or remove.
Hope it helps
Fantastic information, thanks.
So trust DIM to install Carrara and it's various components? That's faith my friend. I still don't know why I have so many strangely named runtimes under the Content Tab. Stuff seems to be strewn all over, that's why I thought maybe a manual install of all the addons was warranted.
I let DIM do that on my workstation at home and it seems like the content is messed up. I'm going to let DIM do the whole smash on my other workstation and see what it looks like when it's done.
thank you
I really wish that DAZ would add some of the new features to Carrara that have been added to Studio like Iray and support for the latest DAZ characters. I prefer the workflow of Carrara. Carrara is a lot more like Bryce, Blender, and 3D studio in that they are 3D graphic design and rendering engines with physics and particles and ray tracing that doesn't take a day to render. The fact that poser figures work with Carrara is about the only thing comparable to Studio.
I have owned most versions of Carrara, Poser, Bryce and Vue. I have used POV-Ray since it came out and am trying to embrace DAZ Studio which in the last couple years is finally usable IMHO.
Studio is competition to Poser, not Carrara.
Here is a gallery of some of my Carrara and POV work. https://www.flickr.com/photos/ephoto/sets/72157636783484995
So, until DAZ Studio can create this type of work (without plugins) with the ease of Carrara, I beg of you DAZ to support Carrara. It's been way too long since 8.5 came out.
I've just purchased Carrara as well. Like you I also went thru the 'is it supported/abandon ware' phase. I believe its being update just at an incredibly slow pace.
What kept drawing me towards the program was the ability to make my own landscapes - that and animations created by Carrara seem more fluid to me. Plus I just happened to like the rendered look I've seen from experienced hands.
Now to learn the program - I want to create stuff too but Ill be frank - I'm a little intimidated by the countless features.
Good luck to you!
In this case in order to learn a little what you can do is to try entering the Carrara challenges. for each challenge there is a set of guidelines that are defined and then if you have any issues the experienced people will also chime in in the WIP thread and provide some advice.
See the link to the challenge threads
http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/45254/learning-tips-and-tricks-from-prior-carrara-challenge-wip-threads#latest
Best part is You can win DAZ items while your learning.
Quantum :)
All your Daz3D content,. (for Studio, or Poser) should get installed wherever you're Daz3D Library is,. (the default is //Users/Public/Public Documents/My Daz3D Library.
You can set up your own locations for your Daz3D , or Poser content, for example, another hard drive.
If you have multiple runtime folders, which you didn't create,. you need to look at how you're installing stuff,. ..this is also one of the main reasons for DIM,. it simpifies the process
Carrara's own content,. get's installed into the Carrara Program folder structure.
When you run Carrara,. It should display any Daz3D Library or Poser Runtime's in the Content tab of the browser.
It reads this from the Daz3D content database info,. the same source as DIM.
In Carrara, you can manually Add or Remove any Library or Runtime from that list by using the little tools on the far right, top corner,. of the browser (see pic)
Carrara can search for content and runtime folders but that can take quite some time, depending on your system,.
Before DIM,. the most regularly asked questions in the forums were about installation and finding pruchased content files.
each product had to be installed manually,. (multiple clicks to install each product,. and each "product" created an uninstaller.)
The install manager simplifies that process,. and allows you to Manage your content.
DIM also adds the information for each installed product to the database which Daz3D Studio and Carrara use to access content Libraries, Runtime folders,. and smart content.
Having access to your online Library of all your purchases,. lessens the need to download and install everything you've purchased. which takes a lot of useful drive space and turns it into an archive of mostly unused files.
Dim allows you to filter your available downloads and installed products in many different ways, So it's easy to search for a product, by name / date. order#, Product# etc.
You can download multiple files in one session,. (pause and resume downloads) Download what you want,. when you want,. install what you need to use most often,. and uninstall things you're not using.
You can also download, install, and manage content for different applications using DIM,... Daz3D Studio, Carrara, Bryce, Poser, Lightwave, Photoshop, Vue, Z-brush.
Hope that makes sense
Here's what mine looks like, on both of my workstations. Used DIM to install Carrara and all content, so what the directory structure looks like was DIM's doing, not mine.
attachments: daz studio content directory, carrara content tab contents.