Is Carrara dead?
DBuchter
Posts: 70
I haven't been using Carrara as much as I used to, so I don't visit the forums anymore, but, correct me if I'm wrong - has it bee 5 years since an update to Carrara?? I was part of the 8.5 Beta testing group - I can't believe it's still on 8.5!
So sad. It was such a great package.
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This is nearly a year old, but I found this thread, which confirms that there was no active development as of last April.
https://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/comment/2276236/#Comment_2276236
I can't find any other information that any work has been done or is planned.
Can anyone give an update?
Reportedly, Daz's customer service has replied to some bug reports that Daz is not currently supporting Carrara because of lack of resources, or words to that effect. I have not personally received such a response, but it has been reported in the forums several times.
On the other hand, there have been several impressive recent improvements to Carrara by independent plugin creators. These include fluids, converting dynamic hair to mesh, and dynamic cloth.
well, i think has only been 3 years since an update.
Thanks to TangoAlpha and Phil, there is the occassional new content for carrara.
lookin at d/l stats on the g8 beta, there's about 204 people still wanting to use new content in carrara.
I appreciate Daz's many contributions to Carrara over the years, but their (apparent) decision to stop upgrading it has had very little impact on me.
Carrara is alive as long as folks find it satisfying and keep using it.
It continues to be a unique product, which I feel is undervalued. Few people (if any) have mastered all aspects of it.
But many continue to try. And if forum activity is a sign of anything, Carrara is still doing very well, thank you.
Hexagon got resurrected this year, so there's hope yet for Carrara . . .
I agree, and use it on a daily basis. The big attraction is the huge ampunt of Poser content available, including many new products at, uhh, other sites. The new Carrara items from TangoAlpha here at DAZ, plus some new Poser items from David Brinnen/Forbidden Whispers and a few others, are icing on the cake. Here's a one minute Carrara animation that still gets some views at YouTube:
Carrara is still alive,. and as long as you have a system to run it on,... it's capable of great things.
Don't be sad,. It's still a great package,. and it's still working, and people are developing plugins for it.
:)
CARRARAGEDDONIT
are ya geddon it
pour some sugar on ... wait ... different def lepard song doh
just checked.... yep still alive.....
'rbtwhiz' is the one mentionning they were working on Genesis 3 support, 2 years and a half ago (https://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/comment/943839/)
He is, as I understand, one of the main developpers on Carrara.
But he is also one of the main developper on Daz Studio. I think he is Rob Whisenant, in the Help/About screen. In https://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/72967/how-to-apply-a-pose-preset he said, 2 years ago, he was working on something for Daz Studio in his own time.
I can't help fearing that if he has to work in his own time to get things done in Daz Studio, that means he doesn't have much time to work on Carrara ... if any :-( .
I hope I'm wrong. Or that he has more time now.
Through virtual machines, chances are that, technically, you'll still be able to run Carrara in several decades, so I'm afraid that doesn't mean much.
But I agree with what you said after that.
I am still using Carrara as the primary 3D app for my small Animation business. So, yeah, its still kicken
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jxkFUSZLhss
Same here, I am an indy game developer, and I continue to use Carrara for many tasks in my workflow.
Despite having other tools in my arsenal, Carrara remains my favorite generalist 3d app.
Nice promo video btw. :)
I think like Smith Micro they are losing all their key people
damn even the crappy bakery I work at is having that issue
I see Mallenlane who made the DAZ figures is gone from the DAZ store
left a bit of a toe jam did he
actually I stand corrected. apparently his store is back, last cull it was gone
Hi,
the days I do not use Carrara are very rare. This software is complete, which allows me to produce images without postwork because it must always be done in very short time.
Every morning I come to see on Daz if a new version is published, but the wait is long.
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les jours où je n'utilise pas Carrara sont très rares. Ce logiciel est complet, ce qui me permet de produire des images sans postwork car cela doit toujours être réalisé dans des délais très très courts.
Tout les matins je viens voir sur Daz si une nouvelle version est publiée, mais l'attente est longue.
I have long since resigned myself that the current version of Carrara will be the last one - miracles may yet happen (Hexagon was brought back from the dead!) but I am not hugely hopeful. But there have been plenty of developments from third parties which are helping keep Carrara alive and relevant - Octane Render, VWD, Fluidos and Mistara's work on making more recent figures compatible to name a few. While it is still usable and capable of doing such great images and animations, it will still have a life for the hundreds of current users.
we all die eventually
as long as I can continue to use Carrara in my lifetime I am content, something will come along that changes everything eventually anyway with VR and facial mocap being implimented in many softwares already, scanners and printers getting more affordable and game engines being used more and more for animation videos.
The other show Pony of this company is not immune either.
"All things must pass" - George Harrison.
"You Shall Not Pass!" - Gandalf
I agree, but I have to say I don't use the newer plugins. My goal is short animations with Gen4 DAZ figures (M4, V4 and K4), and Carrara as is meets my needs. I realize the frames may not look as spectacular as some of the renders I've seen with the newer plugins, but what I'm really after is good short stories. So I spend more time sifting through potential stories and trying to create good sets, characters, motions, etc.. Still, the point is Carrara 8.5 is fine for what most of us are doing, as is.
If it meets what you need then that is totally fine. And at least you know these other things are there should you need the functionality.
Agreed. As I've mentioned before, I participate in the 48 Hour Film contest, requiring a five minute video in two days. So I am biased in the direction of fast rendering for animations, which I think the basic Carrara 8.5 is pretty good at But for a still image render, the newer add-on features look very impressive in some images I've seen.
"Multi-Pass!" - Leeloo
To Infinity and Beyond!
https://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/240836/wip-pbr-microfacets-disney-fresnel-and-tutti-quanti#latest
I know it is an expensive option, but rendering in Octane can be very fast if you reduce the samples per pixel value to only a few. This gives a slightly noisy image, but in an animation the noise can be masked by the action and the fact that the noise will be different on each frame. Wendy uses this technique a lot I think to do long animations in a short time. Worth considering!
fat lady not singing
Mastermind 1974 - Eric & Ernie - Pass
Okay, sounds interesting, thanks for the tip. I am not familiar with Octane, but I took a quick look at their website. $580 for the Carrara version is a little steep, but I could see getting it if it really adds to short animations with little or no render time penalty. Have you seen a comparison with and without Octane and the render time for animation?