Why have you opted for Carrara?

[medeamajic]

I have read that some people have used Lightwave, True Space and C4D but have opted to use Carrara 5 Pro. I was wondering what features you like better in Carrara VS the competition and how you were introduced to Carrara? I have seen competition from XSI and True Space and they both seem very good for the price as is Carrara. I have to admit I do think Carrara 5 is very good offering Landscaping, modeling and figure animation all in one. I admit the competition is starting to offer all of the above.


For myself money was the main reason I opted for Carrara over Maya or 3DS Max. I was offered the upgrade from MetaCreations's Ray Dream Studio. I was recomended RDS from some one at Alias WaveFront when calling about Power Animator back in 1996. The person from Alias mentioned RDS had some great features like IK and good shading and would work great on Windows. He sounded like he knew what he was talking about so I bought RDS 4. I used Bryce, RDS, and Poser. Carrara made Bryce obsolete and Carrara 6 might make Poser obsolete. I like the fact that Carrara can do great landscape and the camera controls make fly throughs and orbital pans very easy.

I would like to hear from you folks.

[isdnmodem]

I was a user of InfiniD and Logomotion, Carrara was an easier choice for me since the version 1.

[juanjgon]

From Lightwave, a lot of things: Instance rendering, network rendering management, window render preview, a lot faster GI, stable GI in animations, non photorealist rendering, incredible open SDK, presets manager, faster area lights, a developer team who listen users and solve bugs, the surface replicator, micropolygon displace, more import formats .... list could be long ...

I am switching my lightwave workflow to modo/carrara ... now i continue working with LW this last months beacuse a have some huge projects that i cant pass to carrara, and i must migrate all my models and surfaces libraries to Carrara, but in next months i am for sure replace LW for Carrara in scene management, shading and rendering ...

Juan J. Gonzalez

[isdnmodem]

juan, what is modo?

[Joppe]

I was a user of InfiniD, Carrara was an easier choice for me since the version 1.

[bwtr]

isdnmodem. Do a search for "Modo" on the web, it's a fairly costly 3D programme. It's been interesting over the years to see users of dearer "name" programmes turning to Carrara.

[isdnmodem]

thansk, wow that programm (modo) looks amazing. $$$ though.

[AlainK]

My turn. First it's about the price. For that price you can have the most complete 3d package in comparison to the other packages out there with the same price range. It's got a modeler, a renderer, animation, terrain generator, and more. BTW, I was attracted primarily with the Carrara+Hexagon bundle. My decision was also based in anticipation for the next versions of the both apps. I could have waited. But I figured, not only will I have the opportunity to get used to the workflow of both apps, but also becoming an Eovia app owner making it even easier in the pocket for the upgrades.

Hexagon is my main modeler and reserve Carrara for rendering purposes. Also, Carrara is rich with presets and affordable plugin shaders. I'm a lazy person, so I rely mainly on ready-to-use shaders. Plus, I've been impressed with Hexagon 1 even before it got released. It's majic especially it's line tools, snapping options, workflow and all. I'm very upbeat waiting for the next version. I'm sure it's got even more power that kick ass.

[medeamajic]

juanjgon,

I agree about the 25 node network rendering. I would like to see a 50 node version of the Grid. The toon style and sketch pad rendering is a big plus. I find my self rendering in toon style mode at 10 FPS second. It takes me to long to render realistic images.



AlainK,

I also have Hexagon. It is a great modeling program. I am looking forward to Carrara 6 and Hexagon 2.0. I think within 3 years Carrara might pull ahead of 3DS MAx and Maya for features..

[tonytrout]

I like Carrara and I have not used the others like 3ds, maya, etc. It has many features for the price. It does not have soft body dynamics or hair (C6?) I have feeling that the big name applications have better developed functionality of their existing features than similar Carrara features, a huge user base and huge range of plugins that means you have opportunity to realise your dream when you have run against wall in Carrara. However Carrara working very hard with their customers, and growing like me. Great combination with Hexagon. Carrara got me into 3d because it was only affordable solution.

[Grendel]

I have used 3dsMax and Cinema 4d, and of those two C4D I feel is much better. I started 3d with a free version of Realsoft3D out of a magazine and then went to C4D. That is a great program that does'nt really have week area's(maybe landscape) but the results I get from Carrara in rendering were quicker and had to tweek less to get the results I wanted. The modeling aspect of Carrara has a Looong way to go before being good, even after C5 improvements. I don't use the spline modeller or meta-ball modeler at all, the storyboard room could just be done away with(does anyone use it?). I use Hexagon for all my modelling so it is not a big deal to me but when sold as a single 3D solution it's modelling is weak I think. I have not used XSI but have heard good things about their modelling and they have mental-ray.

The material/shading system is top notch and the rendering is as well and that is pretty much what I use Carrara for as well as animation. Their character animation is weak when you compare it to MOCCA for C4D as well so once they improve it will be possible to generate some good animation. I don't really do landscape work but if I need to I know Carrara can produce what I need quick. Their customer support/user group support is top notch though and that always helps when you need someone to tell you that there is "No such thing as Monsters" and help you through a problem.

[TheRetiredSailor]

I don't post here very often but medeamajic and I both visit some of the same forums so I wanted to reply.

My move into Carrara came from a desire to find more serious capability in lighting than what was available in Poser and DAZ|Studio. I am sold on Carrara because of the helpful community out here on the web, the ability to import and use Poser content and the advanced lighting options. Hexagon is maturing nicely as a modeling program and makes a good companion to Carrara.

There are many software packages out there that are serious and professional level but frankly Carrara and Hexagon does what I need to do at a price that I can easily afford.

[danilo.massa]

A little intro to my answer...
I am not a graphic nor a designer but I work inside software industry from more than 20 years, 3D computer graphic was something that I have admired, envied, dreamed from many years too. So about two years ago I have decided to reserve some of my little spare time to learn 3D and try to realize something (just for hobby).

In order to made may choice I have executed a software selection following the industrial methods that I use when my Customers needs to select a software solution.

I have take about a year in order to test the following software:
3D Studio Max 7
Vue d'Esprit 5
Bryce 5
Cinema 4D 9
Softimage XSI 4
Maya 6
Shade 7
Blender 2
Modo 102
Silo 1.3
Carrara Pro 4
Truespace 6
(yeah 1 software per month).

At the end of the tests I have selected:
1 - Silo for modelling, basically for the price (now substituted with Hexagon)
2 - Carrara 4 for the scene rendering, basically for:
- the price
- the ease of use
- the existence of this forum (and above all the presence of Thomas)
More in deep some pros (from my point of view ... one year ago) of the software:
- the nice material editor
- the intuitive timeline (sequencer) for the animations
- the possibility to create plants, bones and skeletons, skies (with clouds, sun and moon)
- the HDRI support
- the ergonomic standard interface (GUI) with some personalization features
- the easy to read manual
and many other small considerations.
Obviuosly there was also some cons on Carrara 4:
- the awful modellers (for this reason I have bough Silo)
- the not so easy realistic scene rendering (light+materials+effects and so on ... for this reason I have bought some 3D books...)
- the not so fast rendering time (partially solved with some render nodes)
- the lack of the displacement material feature (solved with the upgrade to the version 5)

These was my considerations when I have bought Carrara 4 and today I am still happy to have made this choice.

Regards

[Senyac]

Hi Well I started with Hash inc Animation Master in 1999 and I still have it updated every year except this year ,I found AM really good but a bit buggy and lacks some modelling tools but the biggest problem was because its Hash Patch (splines) based it doesnt work well with Polygon based programs
I got Poser In 2000 and wanted a program to use with it so I got Truespace 5.2 when it was on sale and upgraded to 6.6 and now have V7 ,
TS has some nice modelling tools but its animation tools suck and its renderer is so slow ,TS7 isnt much better IMO just eye candy
I got a cheap upgrade of C4D from a 3d world issue but didnt like the UI and its modelling methods much , So I got Carrara 3 (now V5) and fell in love with its render and animation tools and its boning system is so much better that TS . But it lacked some modelling tools and so I got ZBrush but found its UI and learning curve hard , so I got Amapi Pro 7 but found it a bit unstable ,so next was Silo 1 (now1.4) I fell in love with Silo until Hexagon came out and now its the one for modelling I also have Vue5 I which is a good program but unstable for me
You can see i have spent a bit of money trying to find the programs that suit me and I have settle for :
Poser6
Hexagon for modelling
Zbrush for Morphs and detailing models
Carrara5 pro for rendering and animation
and maybe Silo again when Silo 2 is released
I dont have a life and so All my time is spent modelling/animating
and spending money doing so
Cheers Senyac

[woodboat]

I ordered C5Pro after trying out the demo for a short time. When sub-poly displacement came to C5, I was convinced to give it a serious try. I was interested in the entire package except for animation – especially rendering and landscapes – to use in part of my architectural viz tasks. I also wanted a less expensive way to upgrade than the Cinema 4D which I've used since 2001. Plugins are great and I expect to see mor come along as others find their way to using and writing plugs for Carrara with this and future upgrades. I still need something for the accuracy and intuitive snapping options so I will have to continue to use Cinema or possibly MODO or even SILO to model with. I am a disappointed that Carrara does not yet have a few essential scene/model building options for basic architectural visualization – such as snaps and intuitive rotation/axis relationships in the workrooms. These are the few essential missing functions for me that put me off. Yet the balance is very good and so I'm giving it a go for the use I can get out of it.

[Aunty Betty]

I realise that some of my best work was done on the simplest 3d software such as Bryce and after getting to grips with Lightwave( which is fantastic but deep) decided to make my life simple again to produce work faster and have less pain in the head.

Carrara 5 answered at last all the reasons why I had previously avoided it.

[WillBellJr]

Well I'm similar to a lot of you - my passion has always been writing games so I've thrown away piles of money on 3d wares; I met someone who introduced me to trueSpace (v1) - it was there where I cut my teeth learning 3d modeling and animation concepts - stuck with tS up till version 4.

In between I also had Animation Master (started at v5 and stayed up to v2001).

Being thirsty mostly for Lightwave (and not having $1500 at the time) I bought into Inspire 3d; their "LE" version; I just wanted so bad the system that was used for Star Trek and Babylon 5 etc...

I stuck with that until I finally bought a LW5 license off ebay and upgraded it to v6.5.

Inbetween those apps, I've had my share of Bryces, Vues and Posers - I remember waiting so anxiously for Bryce 3 - the features had it sounding like it was going to be a godsend! The render times brought it back down to earth from it's god-like state however...

It's only recently that I've gone 3D app crazy - starting with ZBrush2 - I mean anyone looking at the ZBrush site wants that app - its certainly a monster maker's dream app for sure! (I hope I live long enough to get to play with ZBrush 2.5 however! )

In the lull during the Newtek defections (Luxology startup) I started playing with XSI and of course the power for the price was hard to resist - the lack of hair in the base packages is still a killer for me (I'm not doing a fan films for Star Trek - The Motion Picture so I can't get away with bald headed female models! I need HAIR!)

I bought Vue 4 back in 2000 or 2001 - I've been looking for a decent environment simulator for my animations since Bryce; Vue4 was okay but slow and buggy and totally unfriendly to my Lightwave models!

I upgraded my Lightwave package and got Vue Infinite with the deal but I still feel the same way about Vue - it's nice but not ready for serious work with imported models (well my imported LW models anyway, though I'm sure they've made it lovely for working with Max and Maya )

I purchased Hexagon after hearing about it and I decided to try the Carrara 5 Pro demo after seeing others mentioning it.

Not being familiar with the Carrara line at all, I was pleasantly surprised at the built in terrain and world environment simulations!

The fact that it had modeling plus environments was a major kicker for me - "This is what Vue SHOULD HAVE BEEN" was what I was thinking the whole time I was playing with the demo!
I actually love the Spline modeler - it's a hoot to use for pumping out various modeling odds and ends!

I dropped in a LW model I had, and a Poser model and I was sold!

All those other packages are powerful indeed but they all lack environment simulation that I've been looking for now for a long time C5P had that and more; the >full< Poser support was icing on the cake!

C5P also just chimes with me better than those other apps; I'm just an aspiring games developer / hobbyist and it's great to have a few of the big boi tois but I'm not on a production schedule or cranking out serious animations on a weekly basis (well not yet - I'd love to though since I do video editing and DVD production on the side.)

So Lightwave and Carrara fits my needs and skill set better than all the others have for now.

I'm hoping everything I have will fit together as I do more customer work and my skills solidify with all the different tools I have...

If Eovia would just add wind dynamics to their plant system I don't see how anyone would choose Vue over Carrara Pro! Carrara is that good IMO!

-Will

[Couerl]

Hmm, interesting thread and it's always nice to hear what people have to say about Carrara and how it stacks up against other programs. I saw Carrara basics (v1 when Carrara2 was out) and got that for 50 bucks. I wanted to make a mascot for my little company and a logo because at that time all we had was a little .gif clipart thing and all I had was psp7 and that was the extent of my art history or training. I joined carrara yahoo forum about 3 years ago and saw the IOW (Image of the week) website some of you may remember and was astounded with what people were doing in Carrara 2. I had zero art, modeling, rendering, animating knowledge and only carrara basics to use and didn't really get very far with it. When C3 came out boasting more modeling power I snapped it up and dug into the VM thinking it was all the spline modelers fault and that the VM was really the heavy lifter. I soon got another sad awakening though and sat at my computer with my shoulders slumped. hehe
I was about as adept in the VM as I was in the spline modeler and became frustrated again, but I didn't give up. I got C4 and kept at it albeit slowly and when Hexagon came out my dreams were realized and I could finally model stuff.
I stuck with Eovia because I believed in them and saw they had a great team of developers and was amazed at the upgrades/bang for the buck and I knew they were hungry and aggressive in development and I was right. Two of the most interesting things I read above and want to comment on were Grendel saying: "I never use the spline modeler", why not? It actually does some things that Hexagon is no good at like fake booleans with ai. imports using combined compounds on various geometries. And, Medeamajic: "Carrara 6 might make poser obsolete". Now wouldn't that be something? Indeed it seems like Eovia spent a lot of time in C5 making poser and daz compatible tools and it would be no surprise to me if they just blew both their doors off completely. It's always been my dream to tell stories and illustrate or animate charecters in those stories and I'm getting a lot closer to being able to do that with the level of quality I want.
Steven

[medeamajic]

Courel,

I like how Poser lets me drop figure to the floor. I can animate the whole figure if I grab the body in Poser or I can just grab the hip to make use of IK. Carrara 6 should give us better figure animation support.



Carrara can do landscapes great and I think the camera controls are a little better than Bryce. Like most of you I wanted an all in one solution. I did not want to have to use Lightwave for figure animation and Vue for landscapes and enviorments.

[LoneGunman]

I have yet to see good Poser animation (no such thing, what makes any good character animation and stills are face expressions, 90% of Poser renders look like dead people to me IMHO). Bryce 5 is the same, animation sux and is killer to render...

I believe that animation tools in Carrara5 are good mix of ease of use and control depth.

Carrara 5 is over all very nice app, needs some more tunning, better riging solution (story board room needs to be replaced with rigging one) and cloth simulation and fur would make it biggest competitor to ALL other apps out here.

Why Carrara 5 ?

1. Biggest bang for a buck.
2. STABILITY (never chrashed on me in a month) !
3. Did not read the manual yet (easy to use and everything is logical and easy to figure out).

That all said: MONEY WELL SPENT !!!