Have you switched render software?

[Marc]

I am working with Carrara because i am creating some pictures with this software : "Faunesse", "Circée et les cochons" and differentes ideas with "Quadrangulator"…

I believe, in the present time, that the other softwares are not very interesting in comparison with carrara: too much expensive, too difficult and also too old and too bad design for the amateur or the independent artist...

But, I am waiting new softwares with new way of creating...

[rickei]

I doubt I'll move over to anything. I am a casual user and ONLY do still rendering's. I really have no interest in, animation. My first 3d software purchase was Ray Dream Designer(before RD studio)... I still have the box and the original installer( on 4 floppy disks)
I have purchased upgrades every 4 years or so, and now I'm up to C5. The only thing I would need is a better modeler. As far as rendering, i am perfectly happy with C5, I've got HDRI, SSS, volumetrics, and plenty of other tools for great still renders in C5. Plus 99.999% of the time I will do fairly heavy post work in Photoshop.
Ray Dream/Carrara, has gone through several owners over the years, and has been fine. If Daz brings it to a end, then shame on them. But even then I would continue to use the software, until it would not run on whatever version of OS I'm on at the time. I'm not looking for a career in 3d, so it really doesn't matter what i use.

I have one other reason for staying with C5... Mac's.
I only have Mac's, and as a matter of fact, I have NEVER owned or used a Windows PC, and I probably never will. My first computer was an apple IIc in 1984, and I now have G5 Intel Mac. I'm getting too old to start switching over to something else.

rickei

[mon_stdnt]

I'm staying with Carrara until they stop making another one. Is the only 3d program I know and like, besides Hex, which is awesome.
If they do stop making it, then I'll look another for another 3d package thats near my income range.

[marcus_civis]

I'm staying with Carrara for the moment but largely because of lack of funds. I'm planning on moving to XSI. I shall probably keep Carrara for certain projects (and until I am up to speed with XSI) but I'm keen to move to an app that has a profile at the higher end of the industry.

[Nichod]

Originally Posted by Locki

hesitating a lot : I can't make my mind between
- lightwave (an all in one studio ... but I'm a bit frightened by the future evolutions ... well ... hum ... let's rather say : lack of evolution). expensive
- C4D (the basic studio is expensive but affordable ... but everything is a module option, so if you want hair, mocca, toon rendering ... it becomes a very expensive solution)
- shade : cheap in the standard version ... but very hard to get into. I'd like to wait a bit before making my mind about it.
- Modo : this one is a very promising challenger to LW and C4D, just hoping animation will be integrated into it. I'd like to go for it but it's as expensive as LW and C4D.

The others are clearly not for me (3DS, XSI, Maya ...) because I'm just a hobbyist.
So I guess I'll still be sticked for a while to Carrara before changing

Lightwave is still an innovator in some areas and has probally the best plugin developing community in existence. (ie. PointOven, Fprime, PIM, etc) And the development is suppose to push all the way through in free point releases until 10. And they say that CA is going to be one of its big focuses. Really as far as modeling, etc goes they are pretty good. But the workflow may bother some. Lots of dialog boxes and tools tucked away in odd places.

C4D looks much more promising with R10. Including Bodypaint in the core is a GREAT deal. And the studio package now includes hair. Personally I didn't like the default workflow of the app, and the price is beyond me.

Shade was perhaps is perhaps the worst application I've demoed. Crashed the first time I tried it. When I tested the new version at least it didn't do that. Though its workflow is very different from anything out there and its hard to get into.

Modo is another one of those applications with a lot of promise. But keep in mind that its pretty buggy on a lot of systems. Just browse through the luxology product support forum to see what I mean. Plus, on many good setups it runs slow. I was planning on purchasing it rather than silo 1.4/2 and upon seriously demoing it, I found it useless at a reasonable high poly count. I don't experience this with Silo and not even with Hexagon.

I would again recommend Messiah to many. Especially if you have Hexagon, Zbrush or Silo 2. Its a character animators tool. And its perhaps the fastest displacement renderer that I've seen. Plus its fast using Monte Carlo rendering.

[Nichod]

I do recommend keeping and using Carrara. Most artists have a variety of tools to get the job done. Even if I don't like Hexagon as my general purpose modeler, if I want to create certain things, its just is the best tool for the job. And you can't beat Carrara for Matte creation.

[HowieFarkes]

I started using Infini-D (co-ancestor along with Raydream of Carrara) back at version 3.5 in 1996 when it was owned by Specular. Since then it has been owned by MetaTools, MetaCreations, then dropped in favour of Carrara v1.0 which has also now been owned by a number of different companies. At any stage I guess I could have jumped ship but for what? The software still works, is still being developed and still has a future. At this stage there are no compelling reasons to drop Carrara for something else as the cost of a) new software and b) learning new software don’t outweigh any imagined negatives of the Daz buy-out.

[moonshot]

I switched completely to XSI. I'm selling my Carrara 5 Pro and Hexagon 2, both originally purchased from eovia. Anybody interested can contact me per private message.

I'm keeping my second hexagon copy from DAZ. In case they get it fixed good, I may re-use it for displacement painting. Otherwise I'll move on to ZBrush.

[micaelito]

Hummm, for the moment, Carrara 5 , with 53,23% seems to be the solution.

Hey Nichod, as a beta tester could you tell us more about Carrara 6 ?

I you can't, we will understand and wait...

[Nate Owens]

Because of the racket I'm in (and have been for a long time - before dirt was made** ) illustrating for print.... Carrara 5 pro seems to be adequate for these projects so far.

One relatively simple feature I like about Carrara is the render preview window, it is essential for print to have exact proportions for output and this seems to be the simplest answer I have seen to this.

I have been using the program since Ray Dream was first born - always liked those wall projections and for the most part the rest of the interface too.

Now modeling... that is another story!! (don't get me started )
Hexagon is an absolutely brilliant idea in a modeller. I am totally PO-ed about where it landed. If I was as rich as Billy Gates, I'd buy the program and give it to Thomas so he could finish up the great act that team started.

Silo is coming, but they don't seem to see the forest for the trees... tools that Hexagon has that I find indispensible are the Dynamic Geometry that lets you manipulate objects after they are modeled... the lofts and sweeps and other things they gave weird names to, and line tools that actually work (lot of things that I like about Rhino are built in to Hex). As far as I can tell as great as Silo is, they have so far left out these basics. I love Silo's ability to redo geometry after displacement brush work... something I think Hex would have gotten to pretty soon if the bean-counters hadn't stepped in and messed it up. Hope they get et by them gremlin things!!

Pardon the rants... I may even feel a little better now. I might even vote... not sure I like the candidates....

(**Someday I will do a report on how dirt was made... it was a very interesting process... )

[chrisd]

Originally Posted by Nate Owens

(**Someday I will do a report on how dirt was made... it was a very interesting process... )

Hmmm, this reminds me of a joke:
What has Beethoven been doing for the last 179 years?


OK, Back on topic,

I am sticking with Carrara and adding Blender. I am optimistic that Carrara 6 will offer some great improvements, but I don't think it will add scripting capability or ability to use other renderers like Yafray, Indigo, Kerkythea etc.

[sailor-ed]

Pete Extreme

Could you comment on the feature set of Lightwave vs Carrara? I'm mainly interested in the texturing and rendering abilities.

Thanks

[markbremmer]

For me and my requirements, I guess I'd call Carrara "right-sized". It does a lot of things really well and allows me to produce for Broadcast, Web and Print. If my sights were set on Hollywood, I'd definately be damaging my brain with LW and Maya - especially if someone else was buying. I mean, plug-ins that start at $500 and go up to the thousands, plus needing to buy separate render engines...

I simply don't need some of the dedicated feature-sets and capabilities (along with the learning curve) for my projects. There is a ton of clients that don't need ILM level special effects and animation. Carrara let's me produce for the rest of the world and still have some spare time and cash left in my pocket. :D

[Piem]

I like to read this judicious thoughts .
It's true: Carrara does a good job.

[Davidoff]

It is a fact :
more you test another softwares, more you like carrara ;-)

[Pete Exxtreme]

Originally Posted by Davidoff

It is a fact :
more you test another softwares, more you like carrara ;-)

Absolutely not : Carrara does a fair job, but is not the state of the art

[tonytrout]

MMmm More I test other softwares (maya and others) more I like them. Although I miss the friendliness of Carrara some of these other softs are very much advanced on it. Main problem is the cost of them, but also very complicated to learn, however I think 80% of world is using 3ds or maya, so eventually learning them is inevitable. Maybe my reasoning is wrong but I have been terribly disappointed in whose hands Carrara has ended up in, and I wont waste another penny or my valuable time on software without a recognisable future. However obviously Carrara still quite adequetly covers the needs of a lot of people, professionals and amateurs alike, and for me also, so I wont be abandoning it just yet, but I dont think I will be upgrading for C6, but save my pennys for a mainstream product.

[kagi]

Well, I didn't really use Carrara... I started with Vue d'Esprit and Poser, and then with Hexagon.

Since a few weeks I'm seriously learning Blender Then I'm progressively leaving Vue/Poser and even Hexagon. I can work (play ) with Blender very easily and I think that now, I don't really need other softwares

I'm even progressively leaving XP for Ubuntu

[Dann-O]

This thread and the hash thread really have perked my interest in Messiah. I downloaded the demo. Seems right priced if I can come up with the money. Since I have modelers that I like and am comfortable with that is what I really need. Not a carrera user now. (did use version 1 and Ray dream and used to love Infini D back in the day)