I like Carrara, and I'm glad I bought it. That said, I have to ask, does anybody actually model in Carrara? I'm used to Wings for polys and Animation Master (really my favorite) for splines. I'd like to use 'the whole package' when I play around with Carrara, but the modeling just seems awful to me. Should I give it some more time to get accustomed to it, or will it always feel clunky and ill designed? I remember Animation Master spline modeling seemed awful to me at first and it took about a month before I realized, "Wow. This rocks." Thanks in advance for any insight.

I tried Wings for about 10 minutes & trashed it. I figured "what's the point?. Already have & know how to use Carrara (somewhat at least). I had been useing Ray Dream since version 3 & when Carrara came out I bought it, installed it & used if for 10 minutes & thought what's the point? I already know how to do this faster in RDS. It took a couple months for me to make the transition. I had to "stick with it" for a couple real projects to become cofortable with it & I'm glad I did. Just look through the gallery to see if anyone uses it to model.

Well, I think it's a matter of "what you're used to". I bought Cinema 4D Go and the C4D 6 LE (magazine version, Inspire 3D (Lightwave 5 light) and still prefer to use Carrara Vertex Modeller, since it's closely related to RayDream, which I started on. I admit I don't use the Spline room much, but, again that's personal choice. I'd give it more of a chance, or just use it as a renderer, your choice. mike

Hi Tunesy, i believe that i've tried almost all 3d softwares in the market. In my opinion there aren't 3d package in wich you can create with the speed of Carrara (and Amapi). I've tried Wings some days ago, but vertex modeler is too much better. If you want you can visit my gallery and take a look at the "paper render" series. There are a large number of objects and polygons, but i've modeled every complex scene in 2-3 hours. Oh, this is only an opinion, but for me Carrara is the best:P -TOXE

I do a lot (if not all) of my modeling in carrara... now I'm only a hobbist... but after you get used to it.. the "rooms" setup is very good.. the interface is a little wierd.. but I'm used to it from all the other Kia/metacreations programs (where the interface came from) so it wasn't a big deal to me. I actually find the work flow with it is faster... again.. once you get used to it. but everyone is differant... I say give it time.. play...keep the shortcut sheet handy... bet once you get it.. you'll never leave :)

I think it depends on the individual artist. Some great stuff is done in Carrara while others seem to struggle with its modeling. The fact that Amapi is encouraged (greatly) to use as a companion product with Carrara gives credence that Carrara may be lacking in its modeling abilities. As you put it, "or will it always feel clunky and ill designed?" (it kind of does for me too when it comes to modeling) Maybe Amapi is the key for you for a modeling solution? I tried Amapi Pro demo and was very impressed. I personally think all of Amapi Pro's modeling abilities should be incorporated into a Carrara application. Say Carrara Super Studio or something. (-:

heyy i like that thinking...
Carrara Super Studio... Carrara Super Studio... Carrara Super Studio... Carrara Super Studio...

come on folks .. chant with me...

Carrara Super Studio... Carrara Super Studio... Carrara Super Studio... Carrara Super Studio... Carrara Super Studio... Carrara Super Studio...

LOL.. it really is a GREAT idea... make it a upgraded carrara line.. more than crrara is now.. but less than buy the two now.... :)

Message edited on: 05/29/2004 09:18

Carrara Super Studio... Carrara Super Studio... Carrara Super Studio... Carrara Super Studio... Carrara Super Studio... Carrara Super Studio!!!

Say it again brother! LOL

Message edited on: 05/29/2004 09:33

Hehe. Yea. I love Carrara except for the modeling. As a hobbyist I can't justify the money for Amapi, though. No matter. Lotsa great modeling apps out there. Carrara is well worth it even if one isn't pleased with the modeling end of it.

Hmm. I could never get into Amapi. Probably would help if I put in the money for one of the later versions (not the free one that shipped with Carrara). Given that I already fought my way through Ray Dream I feel quite comfortable in Carrara, esp in the vastly-improved Vertex Modeller. Also, though, getting into C4d as an adjunct modeller. Very different arrangement but for some reason it "clicks" with me. I've been creating Poser stuff of late and the need to have a clean, animatable, properly grouped, and optimized mesh means I do almost everything in Vertex. I hate trying to clean up what the Spline (or outside modellers) do; mostly I've been building from scratch (inefficient as that is). I'm hoping to do some Carrara stills soon where I'm not having to export a mesh, and thus can go wild with distorts and booleans and so forth.

If you go and look at my gallery, 85% of it has been done in Carrara. I have some stuff which was done in Raydream and I now have a teensy bit of stuff which has been done in Amapi. 99% of my stuff has all been done in the spline modeler. It really works for me. From my stuff, I think you can see that rather complex models can be achieved. The thread shows there are several people who model with Carrara and I would consider them heavy hitters. -Kix

I appreciate the thoughts on the gallery, guys. Nice work, by the way. But that doesn't say anything about end user experience with the modeling compared to other apps. If I released an app today that did modeling with nothing but match sticks there would be a dozen people posting Mona Lisas they made with it next week ;) I admire your fervor, though, and for that reason alone I'll make a serious effort to master it. Carrara is one of those apps I'm really rooting for. Animation Master is still my favorite at this point, but they're pretty radically different apps. I'm gonna upgrade to the next release of Carrara, too, though. 3d animation apps are like musical instruments in a way. Which is better, a violin or a piano? I think I'll always own both and play neither of them well ;)

To those who can model in RDS/Carrara (any version), my hat is off to you. I use Amapi to model in and Carrara to render/animate in. I bought Poser thinking I needed it to have human models. But I quickly learned how to make better human models of my own from scratch using Amapi.

I use Rhino for 99.9% of my modeling.. I got it 3 years ago and have never looked back.. I wouldn't want to use anything else.. For me Carrara's modeling is weak..But that's because I'm used to CAD like precison and accuracy.. It depends on what you want to get out of it.. For some things Carraras modeling tools are fine, and then for others, Carrara can't even begin.. Amapi 5 is worth learning, hell it's free with Carrara, .. I think they give it with Carrara because they know that most people are going to want to model with better tools... Nurbs cannot be compared to what is offered in Carrara.. They are vastly superior.. It's like comparing bitmaps to vectors.. 2 different universes...But I do love Carrara for it's Scene/Texturing/Animation/Export/rendering features... I wonder if Eovia is looking into adding Nurbs modeling to Carrara in the future? It would make it a much more powerful program.. kaom

I must confess to being an Amapi and Wings head. I have not managed to upgrade to a new version of Amapi yet but I must say I do love Wings very much. Between both of them and Carrara very much is possible. The built in uvmapper makes easy work of occasionally complicated mapping tasks. For instance http://www.renderosity.com/viewed.ez?galleryid=663140&Start=1&Artist=ayodejiosokoya&ByArtist=Yes (shameless plug for my work :) When I do texture it setting up UVs would be quite quite demotivating cause it is the least fun part of the job. Also the different coloured parts of the model are shading domains that imported directly into Carrara from Wings which I find really handy. Once hotkeys are set up for each of the modelling can really fly by increasing productivity greatly. And I am loving that paper render series TOXE!It is some of my favourite work from Carrara that uses the much under utilised NPR. What can you do in the Carrra VM that is not possible in Wings?Where can I see more of your work?