Carrara 8.5 Questions
rfrydryckstudio
Posts: 39
I am about to make my first prop for Daz Studio, and looking for advice to make the process easier.
1- Should I model in Blender or Carrara 8.5 for Daz Studio products? What are the advantages for both (I would think Blender is the better modeler)?
2- There are lots of cheep/free Blender textures and shaders, and you can easily make your own. Is it the same for Carrara? Or do you need to buy them all.
3 - Is it easier to get props into Daz Studio from Carrara with textures than Blender?
4- Is it better to work with 4 or 3 sided pollys when making Daz items?
I am making a bow which should be fairly easy:
5a - How do I handle the bow string? Do I just make a cylinder with like 50 sections?
5b - Should I make two bows? One normal and one drawn?
5c - Do I need to make poses with the bow or do people set the pose with the two bow options?
6 - Can anyone direct me to a tutorial for getting objects with textures in into Daz Studio? Most seem out of date. I am sure it is more than a simple obj import.
Thanks for your help
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Comments
1 - Use the one you like best (Blender is more alive, Carrara is kind of dead or at least very slooooow in that area), Blender has better modeling tools I would think, Carrara on the other has has a lot of cool things hidden in there but for pure modeling and export to DS I would think Blender would be better, but they will both get the job done.
2 - Carrara has a flexible shader configuration that is easy to use, but I am sure there are more premade free stuff for Blender
3 - Don't think think there is much difference, you will have to finish it in DS either way.
4 - Subdivision cages works best with quads if possible, if it's not subdivision triangles are easier to work with (always planar)
5 - If you have a bow I think people expect to get some poses with it, a two pose bow is not of so much use, better to have a morph so you can set it any way you want, the best would be to add some bones to it I think, don't make two bows, difficult to swap between them.
1. Blender is like marmite: you either love it or hate it. Can it do the job? Yes. Can Carrara do the job? Yes. Personally I use a combination of carrara and Modo for modelling.
2. If it's for personal use, use whatever you like. If it's a commercial project, make your own, or at least check that any shader or texture you want to use is licensed for use as a merchant resource.
3. No difference.
4. Quads are much better for sub-d, I believe.
5. I'd make a set of morphs. You probably need at least a set of hand poses for holding the bow, nocking an arrow, and releasing. Make it a parented smart prop - a little more effort, but much easier to use. Same with an arrow prop.
6. Personally, I'd import it untextured, and create shaders in Studio, for Iray and/or 3Delight, as appropriate.
HI and welcome.
1./ Model in whatever program you are proficient in. there's no difference in the available vertex modelling tools or abilities.
2,/ Carrara comes bundled with hundreds of example shaders,. and it's really easy to build shaders. there are also loads of carrara shaders and scenes available online.
I don't think Blender comes with any "bundled" content (shaders objects scenes etc)
3./ It's the same process,. you export you models and textures,. then import those into Studio.
Note: if you're using Carrara,. you can load your Daz3D figures into Carrara, and work in carrara,. rather than going backwards to Studio.
You can also load your figure into carrara,. and use that to model your Bow on the figure,. like a tailors manequin.
4./ a shape with three sides is called a Triangle,. ,, one with four sides is called a Quad, ( you need quads (preferably) for Daz Studio)
5./ the modelling is up to you,. if you say it'll be easy,. that's good,. you'll need to create some nice morphs if you want it to be a stretchy (pull out) bow tie.
5 c ./ Q: do you mean poses for the figure, or poses for your prop,. or both?
6./ Q: why are you sure that it's more than just importing a model in OBJ format ?
2 - Carrara has very easy to use parameters to use in the channels that make up its shaders. I like to think of it as a node-based system with all of the nodes already connected and a GUI set up onto them, awaiting input.
The parameters we can choose actually make it so that you can build materials directly within Carrara without ever using an image editor! Then export the OBJ and convert those procedurals into texture maps for use in D|S! Sweet!
== Made in Carrara - Redered in Iray Just last night ==
== Same scene using the Ambient Occlusion Pass (Indirect Light driven shadows Only) from Carrara - again, rendered in Iray (DA Studio) ==
No application is a better modeller than any other - it depends on the skill of the artist. They all have the same basic functions; Blender has tons more automated functions than Carrara and, as in anything which has more functions, it is also more difficult to master. I personally prefer Blender, but that's just my preference.
Carrara has tons of included textures and, as is the case with Blender, there are tons more free available on the internet. You can also purchase Carrara shaders; I've not yet seen any on sale for Blender. I personally find Blender's node system more logical and versatile than Carrara's, but again, personal preference.
Depends on whether you use Blender Internal or Cycles to make textures. Using Internal, the textures are exported with the .obj, just as they are using Carrara - in both cases, you need to load them into Studio. Cycles textures are unique to Cycles and have to be baked to be able to load them in other applications. In all cases, it is preferable to make the textures in the rendering application.
Quads are always preferable, especially for organic and animatible items; they deform and smooth better. For hardbody, it doesn't really make any difference, but best stick to quads.