Is Shade what I need?

[transient]

I should disagree Carrara is a waste of time - it depends on your needs.

Reading back I can see that this comment was provocative, which wasn't my intention. Maybe I should proof-read my posts a bit more in the future. Carrara didn't do much for me, but I admit that it's got a lot going for it, especially for people new to 3d (this shouldn't be underrarted imo).

The lack of support for Poser 7 is strange, especially considering Daz's content focus.

Shade did my head in when I first tried to learn it, and I have max background same as Juan, but then so does every non-maxlike 3d app. However, as Juan eloquently suggested, it's worth the effort.

It's really the advanced rendering features and it's nice output that first got me interested in Shade, but it has a lot more going for it if you want to dig deeper.

[bwtr]

The lack of Poser 7 support is NOT the fault of DAZ/Carrara. (They have been advised that the Poser7 SDK will not be made available to them!)

[Wася]

ok, folks, my story is: I graduate from an art school when I was a kid, and I seriously thought about become a designer. However, there was no much place for industrial designer in Soviet Union. But I had an experiense in CAD/CAM. Aircraft plant. Now I'm just a hobbyist , but when I made my choise, the price was not a problem. I don't know how is it in Americas and Western Europe, but in Moscow you can buy Max or Maya for $5 in every 5th kiosk. You don't ever need to go to some scary underground places for that.

My primary interest is character modeling, not solids (I had it enough 20 years ago). And the best book about character/facial modeling/animation I ever seen were for Maya. But every time I opened Max or Maya I thought "Good God, I'm too old to become familiar with all this buttons and menus". But one of my book is "Femme Digitale", and it is a collection of arcticles about Poser. That's how I heard about e-frontier first. And I bought Shade, 'cause I hoped it will be enough, hehe. Later I bought Poser. Due to DAZ I got to know about Eovia, and bought Hex, Carrara and later (thanks to Polyloop promo) - Amapi, back to eF. Long chain.

Sometimes I think it is moronic to have so many tools instead of one. When I start to think this way, I come here, and you guys, professionals, who spend a part of your life with Max et al, tell me it is not. Ok. Good to know.

So I don't mind to have one tool, all I talking about is to have better integration, so the workflow will better supported by tools themself, not by hands. And yes, Carrara competes with Shade, but I like both, and both are good for me. They just are different. I prefer to refuse Hex, for the sake of Amapi v. N.N.

Yes, Carrara looks more complex when compared whith Shade. Why I don't like it - because it is the only Eovia product without video samples . But thanks to Mark Bremmer and Jack Whitney I can handle this. (And Mark Bremmer Amapi video course is awesome).

Too many words, heh? ok, back to the subject. Black Silver asked about modeling, so my IMHO is Amapi (8?). But he also said about realism, so the second part of my answer is "Shade of course".

[juanmanuel]

So that is why the R pointing to the left... I thought something like that was probably true!
You can also get 3dmax, maya, etc here for less than a McDonalds happy meal. But if you know where, you can download the whole programs from the internet for only the cost of your internet connection. But I don't feel too good about doing that. I have come to know people that devote their lives to produce software, and I would feel like taking food out of their children's mouth obtaining software that way.
However, some software is JUST TOO EXPENSIVE. Some of us don't have NASA or Hollywood budgets. Which is why I also like e-frontier. All their products are affordable for the rest of us, and for what you spend, you get a lot.
e-frontier saved me from becoming a software pirate, and I thank the company for it.
And as to using many programs vs just one or two, well, expensive software must justify their costs proclaiming the "one ring to rule them all!" mantra (quoted from Lord of the Rings), I guess.
If only Amapi (or Shade, or both!) had more extensive polygon and uvmapping tools, I'ld probably stick to using only those two proggies. But while we must plan for the future, the bills arrive in the present. And in the present, I use those two, along with a few others, and am quite happy and confortable doing it.

As to the lack of Poser7 support for Carrara, I am not up to date with that news. Sure seems strange to me, but there is always more than meets the eye, who knows what has been happening behind closed doors? I don't think it would be an oversight or a negligence the cause of that refusal. Something serious must have happened. But we might never know. If you have Poser6 and Poser7, if you save your file under 7, and then open it and resave it under6, you might get Transposer to work. This worked in Shade until we got the Poserfusion update, so it might work in Carrara too...

[Wася]

Don't get me wrong. When I say I have Shade, Amapi, et al, I mean I have legal copies bought from e-frontier and DAZ e-stores. I just describe the real situation, no matter what they say on G8 sammits. I'm a big boy, and big boys always pay for their toys.
Max & Maya are too popular in Russia, because 90% of Russian users never pay real money for that tools. If they only would, they should think better about their real needs.

Seriously, my current toolset gives me more than enough.
If only I will become a top gun 3D hobbyist, and if I would use, say, Cinema 4D, I will buy it also... Let me think... $4000? Mmmm... No, I will never use it )))

P.S. It's better to ask Thomas why e-frontier disallow DAZ to use use Poser SDK anymore. But he will not answer, I know.))) I heard it on DAZ forum from one of DAZ team members (sorry, I forgot the nickname).

[juanmanuel]

WacR (the R pointing to the left): Just to clear the point, it never occurred to me that you'ld be using illegal copies of the software.
I agree with you, it is a sad situation that of the amount of people using pirated software. What is extremely shocking is finding pirated copies of software costing US$30, not just the ultra-expensive ones.

[Wася]

ok, we understand each other.
And not only about licensing - I thought "R points to the left" means "R(ight) points to the left", and is a kind of proverb like "upside down" , now I undestand what you meant

sorry for offtop