Greetings 3d heads: I see a few of you are still around.. I've been away from renderosity for a year, my life took big turns in that year. But I'm back online, and back here. It's good to see this place has been greatly improved and still kicking but.. I'm about ready to buy Carrara 3, what's the general opinion of the newest version..I'm using Carrara 2 professionally now and it's proven to be an assett over time. But I want more now. kaom

Welcome back Kaom, I remember your name. C3 is quite a big improvement over c2 ,especially in the area of modelling and rendering. The vm modeller is much improved and things generally are alot easier to do. I have been using Carrara professionally as well and for my architectural renderings it has served me well. Regards Mike Moir

Thanks, you were around here back then, I remember you.. What happened to litst as the moderator? Kixum got the job? Cool! I'm going to be using Carrara more everyday than I ever did before, I recently got my dream job, as the Assistant to Adverting/Marketing/Design for sickworld.com. And my boss was really psyched that I knew Carrara, he needed someone to do a bunch of 3D work. He had seen work done in Carrara and loved it, so needless to say, Carrara is going to pay the bills. I've used it professionally in the past, but I never dreamed I'd be getting paid everyday to use it. So, how is the stability, did they revamp it and get all those little bugs out? I'm really interested in the rendering, since 80% of what I use it for is texturing and rendering. I really like the rendering in v2. I do a lot of my modeling in Rhino, but has the modeling changed, I know it doesn't have NURBS yet, but have they drastically improved it? I've read all the stuff at eovias site, but I need to hear it from the real people out there using it. Just for the record, I have always been a devout lover of Carrara, since the day it came out, look at my old posts, I use to defend it to the death.. Should I save my money, or is it worth the money? Thanks kaom

Carrara 3 is a great upgrade all the way around. If you are using Carrara 2 and like it version three is a definite upgrade. Carrara is not the world's greatest modeler, however, dollar for dollar it may be the best renderer around. For simple modeling it is very handy too. As you already know from using version 2 the shading and texturing are world class and have only became better. Don't save your money waiting for version 4 when Carrara Studio 3 has so much to offer over version 2. You can really crank out 3d scenes very FAST especially when compared with some other 3d packages. The workflow in Carrara 3 is excellent.

Welcome back @ big congrats on the new job. Sure makes life more enjoyable when you love what you do at work. Haven't moved to V3 myself yet as I just got V2 a couple months ago to run on my new OSX machine. Hope to get the upgrade soon. Also, haven't seen a post from litst for many months, he did a nice new collection of his Shader Packs 2 & not long thereafter he trickled off this forum (at least for posting).

You've been gone longer than a year. I've been mod for 19 months. In terms of version three, I think the improvements are quantum in terms of improvements. My personal choices are the massive improvements in the soft shadows and the selectable 3D Aura options. There's tons of other stuff that I've always wanted that's in this version too that I think cranked it up a whole notch. I don't think it's quite up to the animation toolset that Lightwave has just yet but outside of that, I think you could put Carrara head to head with Lightwave and have one heck of a contest going on. Racket in the underground makes me think animation is where the Eovia group will be concentrating on soon. That's strictly a guess from me so don't quote me anywhere on that one. There are still a couple of things I really want in the code but my list is really small compared to pre version 3. Lots of other things in the code appear more stable than before (unadvertised bonuses). I wouldn't even think twice about upgrading to 3 if I were going to use Carrara for a proffessional application. Glad to have you back! -Kix

BTW, when I say I wouldn't think twice, I mean that you should just upgrade to 3 without having to worry at all. P.S., I also think the new interface is much better (just one other note I'm thinking up while I'm sitting here). There's a lot more to say but no need, just get it. -Kix

Welcome back Kaom! Glad to see you around again. I will basically say the same as everyone else here, that C3 is an awesome upgrade. The redesigned UI is great. Although I have not played with it too much, what I have seen is excellent. The fact that more people say to upgrade then not, is a testament as well. This wasn't the case with 2.0, if I recall, because of some OpenGL and other bugs. C3 is very stable. Regards, -Paul

Welcome back Kaom! Congratulations on finding your dream job. Upgrading to Carrara 3 is well worth the price and if your boss is paying for it get a few of the plugins as well. Keith

Welcome back! I've read some of your past posts, and they helped me through some earlier rough times with C1.1 I upgraded to each as I go along, and think the workflow advantages of C3 are worth the price of admission. Add in the UV mapping Editor within the vertex modeler...??? Subdivision modeling??? Non-photorealistic Rendering??? GI rendering?????? Buy it. Especially since the boss will be paying for it! ;>

Thanks guys, I mispelled the website, it's http://www.sikworld.com Yeah, I think I can talk my boss into springing for it.. I'll be getting him to download the demo and try it on monday.. It's still the best thing around for the money. The UV mapping would be nice, and the subdivision modeling would be a real nice feature.. Well if all goes well, it should be coming my way.. And if my chance he won't spring for it, I'm still gonna have to buy it.. Thanks, I just wanted to make sure, because I was extrememly disappointed when I bought Bryce 5.. It's too bad Bryce is going to be extinct..