Back when Cripeman was sold on Carrara
Diomede
Posts: 15,125
- found on the 'net from 2008, was searching for something Carrara/Cripeman related and found this instead -
DAZ 3D Boosts Performance with Carrara 7.0
News
Updated Features Enhance All-in-one 3D Solution for Realistic Figure Posing, Animation, Modeling and Rendering
Last Updated: December 19, 2008 4:45 pm GMT
(Draper, Utah--December 19, 2008) As the demand for an efficient, feature-rich and cost-effective 3D toolset expands, DAZ 3D™ responds with the release of Carrara 7.0™ , the latest version of its popular all-in-one 3D modeling, animation and rendering solution.
Carrara 7.0 boasts a broad set of new, easy-to-use features such as 3D paint, multi-pass rendering and assembly room vertex modeling for professionals, students and hobbyists within multiple industries including digital photography, illustration, creative design and videography.
"Carrara is a highly acclaimed 3D solution surrounded by a passionate user community," said Dan Farr, president and co-founder of DAZ 3D. "DAZ 3D is committed to expanding Carrara's high-quality toolset while keeping it at a price-point that is affordable to users of all levels. We believe Carrara 7.0 provides a complete, professional 3D solution that will excite the 3D industry."
Providing an impressive array of tools and resources for 3D content creation, Carrara 7.0's seamless export capabilities via COLLADA Export also allow accessibility to various applications including DAZ Studio and Photoshop®® . Carrara 7.0 additionally offers many new robust features which help to improve overall workflow and production speed, such as:
⦁ Multi-pass Rendering: Enables an artist to make changes to their renders without having to re-render the entire scene.
⦁ 3D Paint: Carrara 7.0's new 3D Paint tool enables textures to be selected, edited and painted directly onto an object. The tool also provides a variety of flexible and time-saving painting modes as well as real-time display of bump maps and specularity.
⦁ Assembly Room Vertex Modeling: Helping to improve Carrara 7's workflow, the Vertex Modeling capabilities that were previously only available in the Modeling room are now available in the Assembly room. This tool gives more power to modelers, allowing them to model in context to the other objects in their scene.
"I'm sold," said "Cripeman," a Carrara 7 user. "DAZ 3D has taken a great 3D application and turned it into the perfect showcase for 3D models. The renders are super fast and flawless. I love the direction they're going with this."
Pricing and Availability
The full version of Carrara 7.0 is available in both Macintosh and Windows formats via the DAZ 3D Website, and is regularly priced at USD $249. Carrara 7 Pro is available for USD $549.
Additional information regarding DAZ 3D's Carrara 7.0, including a complete feature list, system compatibilities and various video tutorials, can be found by visiting the Carrara 7.0 Website.
About DAZ 3D™
Founded in 2000, DAZ 3D, a privately-held company located in Draper, Utah, is a market leader in 3D software and digital content creation. The company's library of characters and accessories is renowned for its high-quality, versatile and compatible 3D content. DAZ 3D also hosts the popular Artzone.com, a social marketplace for sharing art and exchanging ideas. DAZ 3D is a division of DAZ Productions Inc. For more information, please visit www.daz3d.com
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Comments
artzone sounds vaguely familiar
Yup. DAZ actually stands for Digital Art Zone
Sucks that the Art Zone informational library is gone
I think he still likes Carrara though, since he just released this video four days ago
I like it too - a lot better than anything else I've tried.
I seen this video a couple of days ago. Very useful technique! I have not tried it yet but I'm going to do it. As I am one of his subscribers on Youtube, I often watch his videos.
Me too. I love his videos/ideas.
I also love the Plant Editor. As he points out a little, it does have its quirks - it's really easy to end up with something that doesn't show up at all if the wrong sliders are set... bug? Yeah... I think so... but I also don't complain 'cuz I don't really care. The editor is so awesome that I can easily live with it's few short-comings. Besides, as our beloved Cripeman points out, there's always a way to succeed with our dreams in Carrara!
BTW, have you seen my Cripeman's Carrara Video Tutorials Index ?
It's missing some of the latest videos, which I will fix some day.
Yeah, I told him that I was thinking of making what has become the ►►► Carrara Information Manual ◄◄◄, and asked if he would mind if I made that index. He was awesome and inviting, as always! ;)
He's been such an inspiration to me towards many of the tools I wasn't really planning on using in Carrara. But after his nudges, I just can't help but to play! LOL
So I just felt that such a wonderful collection of videos could really benefit from some form of organizational index.
Wow! Great collection of tuts! I've bookmarked your link. Thank you for sharing, Dartanbeck!
so much cool stuff out there! thanks dart for coalescing (sp?) it, and cripeman (if you stop by) for the cool videos! priceless information to the curious and trying!
--ms
I never really got into using Global Illumination until I saw his video on the topic. Like many parts of Carrara, when the forum masses shun a certain aspect, people tend to shy away from using it. When I first started using Carrara, word in here was that the vertex modeler was so lacking that it didn't pay to use it. I'm really glad to see horrific propaganda like that getting sent back to the darkness from whence it came!
Again, Cripeman was there to help quell off such attacks and disbelief!
Right away, in the first few posts of my Carrara Information Manual thread, my good friend is urging me to NOT advertise the use of Carrara's fog tool - and to favor the volumetric clouds instead. Such opinions are fine on a personal preference level, but to me shows a lack of adventure. Working with animations, I've found the fog tool to be a LOT faster than volumetric clouds, and can be set up to make really cool effects.
Turned out he was merely pointing out that the fog isn't volumetric. I never really said that it was, it just kinda sounded that way.
But we, as Carrara users, really need to try to take individual criticism of aspects of Carrara with a grain of salt. If it doesn't work for a specific project, there's a tendency to report that the tool or function isn't worthy, which can be far too vague.
I used to think that Volumetric Clouds were far too slow to render for me to use in my animations. The more I played with them, however, the more I started to realize that they're something that we might just have to give extra time considerations for - they can really add some great effects!
Anyway, it was really cool to have Cripeman making these videos. Someone might say that this is horrible, Cripeman would come back showing how awesome it is! Very cool, indeed!
Goes to show that Cripeman can still pull some neat little tricks!
Before running upon Cripeman's videos I was just playing around in Carrara. Guess one could say that I cut my teeth watching his many videos... He is good at getting one excited about the best program on the planet... and wanting to learn more. Off I ran to watch videos by Dartanbeck, DimensionT and many many others. Somewhere on my journey of re-learning the Vertex Modeler and Carrara I picked up an inexpensive but incredible modeling tutorial on DAZ by mmoir which shows how to model 3 objects and set up a scene for each in Carrara... then came a Sale at DAZ and I grabbed my first PhilW tutorial covering all of Carrara... and later all Phil's other videos, see Infinite Skills and PhilW,... all available at DAZ.
Thankful am I to Cripeman for finding my ON switch.
Agree 100% Dartanbeck. I just sort of paraphrased you in another thread - lets put to rest these zombie lies of Carrara's 'inferior' modeling capabilities!
Cheers!
Yeah, I keep shopping around, looking at other modelers, not because of something I'm missing in Carrara, but because of promotions and other folks talking.
I must say, I'm often tempted. These other modelers do have stuff that we don't.
But then I go and model something in Carrara. And now this time I (just to try it) made seems and unwrapped UVs on one of my more complex models. Then I wonder to myself why I'm even looking at other apps. The modelers in Carrara are really quite wonderful to work with.
Sure, I dedicated modeler might be better with certain things, as they really should. But that certainly doesn't mean that Carrara is lacking. Not by a long shot.
I also really like what Daz3d has done with Carrara for versions 8 and 8.5
Taking us to 64 bit was fantastic. I'm so grateful for that. But the rest of version 8's improvements and additions were great new features.
8.5 was supposed to just add Genesis compatibilty, but all of the other stuff that got added is what I like most - although I'm really glad to have DUF compatibility, especially now that so many cool vehicles and scene sets are DUF only. And Genesis is just outstanding! Make something simple that fits the basic simple shape, and using DS as a sort of a plugin tool, we can make that fit girls, kids, monsters, giants, animals... it's really cool! And that's even without buying any of the support items for Genesis. But now, since I do buy stuff for Genesis... it's really kinda cool to see how versatile any one product can be! Short order cook Troll or Gorilla or Goblin or 3 year old! Amazing!
But beyond getting Genesis support, just the menu item enhancements, new animation tools, new tray tabs, new light avatars... I like the new Carrara so much that I don't even care for going back and using the older versions anymore. I'm spoiled.
I jumped ship from Carrara to LightWave back when version 9 was fresh, mainly for particles and their hypervoxels...it took me a long time to see and comprehend they also weren't creating a true fluid dynamics kind of volumetric effect, mainly for smokey stuff. Sure, each particle is volumetric, but smashing them together is just...smashing them together (in volume mode, yeah surface works like metaballs, but anyway...)
Modeler is a great modeling tool. But I found my way back to Carrara, for many reasons. Well, I use both, but mainly Carrara now.
And yeah, I really need to upgrade to version 8.5. Just the ability to stack texture maps in layers sounds amazing.
8.5 also has a Normal Map render engine ;)
Wow... so you have LightWave. I'm so jealous. That's one of those packages that keeps drawing me in, to gaze upon its promos, peruse the wonders of the fun tools that they have for modelers and animators. It's so funny because Garstor has completely switched to LW and he sees me get all drooly over it - only to change my mind in the end as I realize that, Carrara being what it is, I'll always end up using it over anything else, so in the end I save my cash! LOL
Still. All of these pro modeling/animating/rendering tools are all fantastic in their own way - often many ways.
LightWave user group seems to feel betrayed that they're not seeing an update. Same with Carrara.
While I sympathize for folks whom might be relying upon some new tech to become available, I'm also never really in a hurry for someone to update their software because I feel compelled to purchase it to stay up with the times - at least that's how I am with my art tools.
But when I bought Carrara, I bought it because it has what I need. Daz3d not developing it regularly doesn't suddenly cause the software to lose the fact that it does what I want it to do. In fact, I still have many, many years to go before I learn all of the tools in Carrara - it's so vast. I feel the same with LW. If I buy it, it'll be because it does what I need it to do for me. Just because another software gets something will not make me get angry with LW that a new version with those new things isn't being offered.
I can understand the disappointment in lack of development and a lack of communications regarding development. Some bug fix updates would certainly be welcome, but I'm not plagued by any show-stoppers on my end.
Ooops... going off on a rant again... sorry.
Anyways, yeah. LW has some cool features, functions and tools. So does Modo and 3D Coat and Z Brush, and I also love the elegance of Silo. I look at these tools from time to time to consider them as additional modeling support. But when it comes to LW and Modo, I'm also interested in their animation workflows and other tools, so I start digging in to looking at those.
Every time I do this, I'll get some idea on how I feel that I could do something similar in Carrara, so I hop into Carrara and try it - succeeding more times that not - always convincing me that I should just stick with Carrara since I already like it so much.
The real clencher in all of this, for me, truly comes from Carrara's built-in ability to work with Poser and Daz Studio figure content - period.
Not being able to do this in anything else will always be driving me back into Carrara. So I go back to the idea of having an extra modeler on hand and then I realize that I really don't need it. I've never met a show-stopper in Carrara's modelers. Man, even UV Mapping is a pretty smooth thing in Carrara.
...and I really love the Render Engine... have I ever mentioned that? ;)
I like Carrara also but switched to LW a few years ago, my problem was the .car files and G2, it just takes to long to save/load a scene in Carrara and I know many say G2 works just fine in Carrara but that is rubbish, one day you can load a G2 figure, next day it may no longer work because you forget to do this or that or did it in the wrong order or forgot to put on the hair before any cloth..... it never ends.
Importing FBX files from DS into LW is easy and works with all figures including G3 so no big problems there, complete rig and all morphs are there, just some surface tweaking and you are done.
Can't use DS, the surface editing / surface mixer drives me crazy and big scenes a so slow to edit and I need particles and Bullet.
Still Carrara has an impressive set of features even if some of them are starting to show their age but that's ok, I have the same problem.
If someone would fix some of the worst bugs in Carrara, add a scene/object split file format (DUF would work) and just modernize it a little it would be very impressive.
LightWave in its current state has some terrible Achilles Heels, like, really terrible unless you want to invest in 3rd party plugins. Carrara rocks.
Hey,
You can still get to the artzome website using the Wayback Machine (I think this is it?)
https://web-beta.archive.org/web/*/http://artzone.daz3d.com
I have no idea how that works. I just get a calendar
So that works then? Never knew that. Exporting FBX from DS into LW
Still not a flow I'd like to work in, I think. I agree about Genesis 2 though... it's still not as good as it should be. So I still prefer Generation 4, which really is good enough for me.
What was that last thing? "Carrara rocks.
"
Yeah... I totally agree!
LW 2015 is now on sale for $695... upgrade for $395... $195 for sudent. All are "download only". What a steal.:) It is quite a good program and was used on Babylon 5 and other programs.
Carrara Rocks! ... as Dartenbeck says. And is very capable too.
It requires a whole bunch of third party plugins for volumetric, glow, lens flare effects in 3d max. Whereas in Carrara there are Carrara's own plugins. Carrara rocks!
...as well as the latest Battlestar Galactica movie, Blood & Chrome
So who is Dartenbeck? I loves his slogan though... sounds just like mine! LOL
LightWave does?
Yeah... when I see promos for other software, and I see that they're just now adding stuff that's been in Carrara as long as I've had it, it makes me smile!
And the plugins available for Carrara are wonderful additions! But it sure comes with a big bang right from the start!
You all are absolutely right... Carrara freaking R O C K S !!!
cant imagine where my carrara chops would be today without the cripeman
utubes
from motion paths to anything glows
Good call, Misty!
Kind of on that same angle,
I can't imagine where I'd be today with CGI if I never found Carrara.
Before Carrara, nothing seemed to fit. Poser was really cool. I really do like it. I also liked Daz Studio. Both were cool, but couldn't take me where I really wanted to go. Lightwave was looking cool, but then I went to their forum to see if folks were using Poser figures and such. I found some discussion on the topic, and everyone was having a hard time with it unless they were just doing stills. When I looked into 3DS Max's forum, I saw folks getting flogged just for asking such questions. Too pricey for me anyways.
Vue, Bryce, Hexagon... All wonderful - but not for what I want to do.
It's so strange to me that Carrara is so unique because it seems to me like the perfect direction to go with this sort of software.
I'm so glad to have it
Dartanbeck, your images are gorgeous!!!
Thank you! Yours are too! :)