Newbie Question...Installing into Carrara 8 and 8.5
Kharma
Posts: 3,214
Hi I have recently purchased some items for Carrara but have no idea where to install them to. the specific items are
1. Carrara Skies Lightdome 2
2. Carrara Skies volume1
3. Carrara Skies volume 2
4. Howie farkes World Maze
When I go to install these items it asks to pick a install location and I am not sure if that has to be inside the program or a folder in my documents etc. if someone could please tell me where to install my content I would be very grateful :)
Post edited by Kharma on
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Does the installer give you the opportunity to read the Read Me file?
I'd be interested in knowing where to install Carrara content too as I own the same products. I use DAZ and have a lot of content installed in the DAZ Runtime. Do we need a separate Runtime for Carrara? This answer might seem obvious to long time Carrara users but when you're starting out it seems difficult to find answers to these basic questions. I haven't installed any Carrara content yet because I didn't want to mess things up like I did when I first had DAZ and installed into the wrong places due to noob ignorance.
Actually the world maze does show Program files/Daz3d/Carrara8 as the install directory so I assume it had to be installed into the program directory but the lightdome ones ack u to specify a destination directory. Does all carrara content need to be installed into the carrara folder ? And would this same content be available in Carrera 8.5 or would it also have to be installed to that version?
@Kharma: I don't have the products you mentions so I can't say for sure, but if the light domes are scene files, then you'd want to locate Presets--> Scene or something like that. They would be in the Carrara Directory. Regarding installing for C8 and the C8.5 beta, you would need to install to both programs most likely.
@Superdog: Carrara can load Poser style runtimes in the Content tab of your Browser, but for Carrara's native files, it doesn't use that file structure. The Carrara native content is contained within .car files in the folders listed in the Browser.
One more thing... fasten your seat belt 'cause you're gonna have fun with all of that. Be sure to check the read me files right away, and look for an additional documentation link. I know Tim Payne's stuff will have an extra pdf file that is a must read. Everything I've ever purchased from Howie Farkes also has incredible documentation with good info that should really be read before you run the scene in Carrara.
thank you evilproducer and Dartenbeck for helping .Dartenbeck I find your enthusiasm for this program very contagious. its great to see and the way you are always helping end encouraging others is amazing :) thanks again
Actually, like poser content, you can put them where you like then add that folder to your carrara browser. I have "my presets" in the same folder as all my poser runtimes and install my carrara content to it. This way all my carrara projects can be in my presets folder, close to my poser runtimes, and easy to work in; like my poser runtimes. This also means you wouldn't have to install them twice, just point 8 and 8.5 at that folder.
I keep meaning to go in and delete the old; and I do mean old, carrara content from the old carrara my presets. Can't get rid of the folder though so I have 2 "my presets" in my carrara browser.
Hi Kharma :)
As standard,. all products built for Carrara,. should be installed into the main program folder.
that's the way they're designed to be installed.
Any Carrara products which have "Plants" like Howies scenes,. need to be installed into your main Carrara Program Folder.
the plants will have custom leaves, and those leaves need to be accessible in carrara's plant tool, so the leaves need to be in a specific location inside carrara's folder.
Installing the product into anywhere else,.. and you will not get the leaves/flowers/fruit etc,, on the plants in your scene.
Also,. for items like Painting and Displacement painting "brushes",. these need to be in carrara's Data folder, to be accessible.
Unlike Poser, or DS,. Carrara doesn't automatically scan and add new folders to the browser,. unless they're sub folders of existing folders.
So,. for some items,.. like the "lightdomes". you'll need to manually add the folder to the browser.
Hope it helps :)
thank you Manstan and 3DAGE for your input, I will put all content into the main carrara folder so I know it will work, its hard enough learning a new program without wondering where to find your stuff :))
thanks again
My pleasure! I was there once, myself... this community picked me up and got me going ;-)
I hope you enjoy your endeavors! :)
Also, if you install DP3D Paint Brushes Sampler for Carrara you need to change the name of a folder after you install it so it will work correctly.
Change the folder DP3DPaintBrushesSampler
located in your Program folder at
...\Carrara8\Data\Strokes\DP3DPaintBrushesSampler
to DP3DPaintBrushes
so the renamed folder will look location wise like this now.
...\Carrara8\Data\Strokes\DP3DPaintBrushes
You'll do the a similar fix if you install them in 8.5.
Huh!
Thanks man! I'll do that as soon as this render is done! :)
Most users I think never notice it as the same brushes are part of the DigitalPainters 3DPaint Brushes, but the full product those brushes are a sample of doesn't have that problem.
I ended up submitting a support request asking DAZ to fix the sampler installer today. Very surprised sampler installer was never updated as the old forums had it mentioned in posts from years ago. Guess no one ever let DAZ know it had a bug.
You also might want to mention that bug and in the Information manual, until DAZ gets the installer updated.
The only other installer that some times confuses people is he After Effects one since it is just a single zip intended for PC & Mac and you have to read the Read Me to know how to learn how to install it
Oh DAZ was told. And it is no surprise DAZ hasn't done the simple fix to this. DAZ is know for not fixing age old bugs and issues.
The only Howie scene I have is the snow scene and it opens fine from C:my figures, my presets. Both my carrara folders in the my documents/DAZ 3d are empty; where all these carrara files should install to. I stripped everything I might have a use for from the carrara folder in the progams/x86 folders and deleted the rest.
I am still trying delete a lot of static content that I never use. Going to take a long time, I've been building it up for years lol .
thanks for that tip, it is something I never would have figured out without being told
Another question about installing and finding content...
I installed Howies snow scene and when I load the complete image it is there but how would I be able to use the spruce trees from his scene in one of my own?
I find no reference to spruce.car or sprucewinter.car in any of the folders on my content tab in carrara altho I do find the files in my data folder in the program. How do I get icons for loading these into a random scene intomy content tab.? Or are they only to be used with the snow scene?
I know when installed the TP realistic skies there was documents stating that I had to add folders inside carrara to backgrounds and sun flares? for them to work and those folders show up at the very bottom of my content tab now.
HI Kharma :)
The tree's from Howies scenes should be accessible using the "load" button at the top of the "plant" editor. (see pic)
This will open the "preset" plants
If you get an error message which tells you the "Wizards" can't be found,. you'll need to install the "Carrara Native Content" for C8
The C8.5 Beta,. doesn't come with Carrara native content, and so it doesn't have the wizards,
In that case, you should use C8.
If an item doesn't exist as a "Preset".....
Any item in a carrara scene, can be dragged 'n' dropped from the Scene Instance list,.. into your "My Objects" section of the browser,.
then you can drag 'n' drop it from there into any other scene.
Hope it helps :)
With the snow scene open, find the spruce tree in the instances tray on the right side of the screen and drag and drop it into your browser. I placed a snow covered version and a plain version in the Basic Plants directory in the Objects browser since the directory was already there.
thank you both for the help. I have the ISkills tutorials from phil wilkes which are awesome and was going through the creating a landscape but didn't have the tree he used so tried to use Howies but couldn't find how to load it .
3DAge I have installed the Native content to Carrara 8, can it also be installed to C8.5 as I haven't been using it as there is no content.
Also I have searched the forums about setting up and installing content to C8 but not finding good documentation of installing and setting up purchased content...good that Tim Payne supplied a read me with his about adding the folders for the skies as I wouldn't have known that, even tho I am not sure why that is done.
One more thing...when I bring in a studio item it is so tiny I can't find it, so with the particular item I had to set the overall scale to I think 1000 from 100...is this normal to have to do this with Daz3D content?
Is there a Carrara beginner forum somewhere that explains all these basic things?
That probably has to with your scene size. The large scene is designed to use with landscapes, the Medium will be more at the figure level and the small would be for something small like a still life.
Try setting a new scene to medium to see how that works.
The only real practical difference is in the units of measure. Assuming you're using US measurements, the large scene's working grid area would be 3000 feet, the medium scene's working grid would be 30 feet, and the small scene's working grid would be measured in inches at 30". The units of measure and the relative size of things loaded into the scene will look different in relation to the working grid. So if you load a V4 and she's 5.75 feet into a large scene, she will still be the same size but look tiny in relation to the working grid, camera and lights. Any props that are designed for her will load in to the correct scale as well.
You can start a medium scene and load large landscapes into it and they will also remain at the correct scale in relation to the scene. So if it's five miles in a large scene, it will be five miles in a medium scene. The units of measure would change from miles to feet, but it would be the equivalent size in feet, if that makes sense.
You can change the scene magnitude on the fly, which will effect how far a camera moves when nudged. A medium scene camera moved around a five mile terrain is going to take a long time, but if switched to a large scale scene it will be quick and responsive. Conversely trying to fine tune a large scene camera' position on a 5.75' figure is an exercise in frustration. To change the scene magnitude click on Scene in the Instances tray to the right of the screen and then choose the Interface Tab. You can change the scene magnitude, units of measure, etc.
HI Kharma :)
You should be able to install the (Carrara Native Content) into the Beta of 8.5,. ..it's just not supplied with the beta program, because the main program functions can be tested without it.
It also means that you're doubling up, adding the same files to a different folder, and using more drive space,..
It may not be a problem if you have plenty of room
but,.. you shouldn't have any problems if you install the content into the beta.
For any Carrara products,. they should all be installed into you main Carrara program folder.
If you install a product,. like Tim's sky's,. where the designer has created a new folder for the product,. then you'll need to add that manually to the browser.
Carrara doesn't (Auto-Scan) your folder structure,. it has a list of available folders, which it looks into,. so, if new items are added to those existing folders , then they'll show up automatically,.. But,..
If the folders are NEW, and haven't been added to the Browser list yet,. then Carrara won't look into those folders. until you add the folder to the browser,.. which adds it to the list of Carrara folders,. and then any new stuff added to those folders will show up.
Dartanbeck has a Stickied "manual" thread here,. which may be useful.
the Carrara manual (for any version of carrara) will also give you the basics of carrara.
Here's a few doc's I made, which may also help
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/7907045/Carrara_first_steps.zip
:)
For what it's worth, I double installed all of my "Carrara" products, like mmoir, Howie Farkes, 3dage, Dimension, Philw, etc., and also made copied of my entire browser saving structure described here, from Carrara 8 in My Documents > DAZ 3D to the Carrara 8.5 folder - so that anything save from 8.5 is in it's own "safe" zone. Otherwise, I kept accidentally saving files in 8.5 that I wanted to open again in 8.1 and would have to go through every texture map and change it from " " to "Sampling"! lol
Might actually seem laughable if you've done this once or twice with files containing a few maps. But the files I did it to had a lot of them. This was no laughing matter for Dartan... He through things.... Big things! :)
Fact is, I really love 8.5 and know that it'll be fixed enough where I'll be switching over. So I'm not worried in that regard. But until that point comes, I need to keep my sensitive files separate, this was the best solution, by far for me.
I'm glad that I have a thing for buying large internal hard drives!
Ha! I finally typed faster than Andy!
for the scene I am trying to recreate from the tutorial, it starts with a large scene with a mountain and a valley, in the valley is a ruins and in the foreground is a human figure with a tiger. the ruins he put in he scaled to 300, I was surprised that the object I put in had to be scaled up so much more ( I think it was scout tower). The scale relevance will take a bit more time to comprehend, right now I am tending to go with,,,if it looks ok to me :) I will post my WIP later when I get home from work for some help
thank you
I've used 100,000' terrains in a medium scene before. I tend to like the look of large scale scenes with human sized figures and perspectives. You don't need to use large scenes when working at a human scale to get a large effect....
These images all try to give the impression of a large scale but are built using a medium scale scene.
Yeah,. but it's a Sunday... :) LOL
Kharma,. I have to say that,. personally,.. I wouldn't work that way,. (not when the main focus is on human scale figures).
Even changing the "large" Scene magnitude, and nudge amounts, to "Medium" for the camera movements,. it' still too clunky for me.
The ideal scenario would be to work in a Medium scale scene,. (simply because it's built for figure work)
You can still add in a massive terrain,. with forest's or cities, or whatever you need.
You could also render out a landscape image, (or take a real world photograph) and add it to the scene backdrop,..
You can then add your figures, standing on a plane with a "Shadow-catcher" material,. and render out the image of your figures, standing in the scene.
this approach will obviously render much faster than a scene with a real 3D Terrain plus Figures, Plants or Props, since you're really compositing the 3D figures onto the 2D backdrop plate (image), ..you're only rendering the figures, and their shadows.
I will redo with a medium scene and post after as to how it worked for me
thanks again
So this is a render of my original scene with the large terrain ..this is my very first pic in carrara and using this to learn...please tell me what you think.
the tower I had to scale to 2000 to make it close to fitting with the scene, but maybe this is wrong to do this way?
My personal inclination would be to scale down the terrain. That way at least, if you add figures then you don't need to scale everything up.
Yes, open a blank scene, set to medium then drop in a terrain. You can then just size the terrain to fit the scene.
Note: the terrain can be turned in to a vertex object so you can model in flat spots for buildings, roads, paths, rivers ect.
Also I have found that making a flat terrain then converting to vertex gives me a much better plain for working on then the plain primitive; poly count with out having to do a bunch of subdivisions.