I thought it would be interesting to name off the "highend" features in Carrara that everyone finds amazing that Carrara has, being essentially a midranged priced software package? Or just the features that YOU like. For me its: -HDRI rendering -FBX import -Vector and 3D motion blur -Complex texture editor -Formula modifier, tweener, texturer, and modeler capability -Advanced IK support: I'm amazed at what the new IK will do, I was play with Maya the other day, one the advanced rigs, and thought I'd give it a go in Carrara, WOW it worked like a charm, I'll post up the file in the coming days, I want to tweak it a little -Simple but advanced Vertex modeler, I find the Vertex Modeler reminds me a lot of of a program called Spatch, not sure who remembers it, but the nice thing about the program that it had a simple interface, yet was very slick in functionality, now while the VM could use some improvements I think it has a great design and I work fairly fast in it.

Yes alot of cool stuff are in Carrara. If vertex modeling had symeterical pointers, nurb with beazer control, more tesselate types with improved duplication system, and axis control improved. It'll be with the big boys.

for me it also is Hdri,bones,ik,fk,global illumination,the texture room the awesome spline modeler,non realistic renderer,pyhsics,tree modeler,text modeler,terrain editor,modifiers,import/export of many formats,the fast preview renderer,light special effects and many more stuff i like in carrara,this makes carrara a highend tool for me.it is very easy to use and you have good results in no time.much options for the money.what i also like is that there are so many great plugins for a fair price out there. i just used spatch 2 month ago,funny.:)

I am amazed that CP4 rendering engine is very fast than C3. It is about 80 time faster on a scene with caustic!

LOL... sorry, Brian... I pictured a Pixar animated sting-ray swimming around, singing... "OOOOOOooooo, Let's name the highend features in Carraaaaaaaaaara...." FWIW... I'm really loving all of the little improvements in C4Pro over earlier versions... the manipulation controls, the new features in the texture room, etc ... as well as the high-end features which made me, finally, upgrade from C1.1 in the first place.

Physics are much better! I am exploring CP4.

The GI was amazing when it first came out. That, and trees that are basically the Tree Druid plug-in without needing C4d or similar to run it. Of course now it seems like everyone has what they claim is a GI render engine...

LOL..Tempest, I just rewatched that movie last night, funny you mentioned that.

Physics are really better in C4? Not to promote thread drift, but can you expound?

-GI -Caustics -Volumetrics -HDRI And they may not be high end, but I appreciate the Scene wizards to see how things were done, and for simple comparison renders. Carrara is great, and I have fun using and learning with it. Paul

This isn't my only favorite, but the others have already been mentioned. I love being able to morph geometry that has real-time subdivision. It saves so much time!

Yep! I agree with the wizards I'm suppose to get my box today.....HOPEFULLY and I can see what neat goodies they gave me with it.

N-gons. Lightwave users wish they had them.
Cinema 4D's newest version just got them.
One of modo's big selling points is that it uses them.
We've had them since version 3.

Message edited on: 11/09/2004 12:14

Robert what is your point?

hi Robert,lightwave has n-gons,i found a freeware plugin last sunday at spinquad.com in the forum.sorry guys for posting this.

Message edited on: 11/09/2004 15:10

I really enjoy the render engine. Very fast and powerful.

Would you mind posting a link to that plugin? I've been looking and can't find it. Thanks alot.

GWeb, working with N-gons is a high end feature, I was just pointing out how having the ability to work with them is a big selling point with programs costing much more than Carrara. Daigoro, this is good to hear, although I left the world of Lightwave about 6 months ago, I have a die-hard coworker who'd love to get this plug-in. Is it available for the Mac?

I simply can't believe NO ONE is mentioning the user-defined G-Buffer output it has. That alone is a HIGH END feature, folks. I'm not sure how extensive it's G-Buffer capabilities are, but I know of no other mid-range software that can do that. Sure, most 3D software can save files with alpha info(targa/TIFF), but that's a far cry from being able to render specific G-Buffer channel info in your render pass. THAT is power, because you have ultimate control over the render in post that way (especially for animation). I noticed everyone seems enamoured with the "eyecandy" stuff like GI and caustics, but while these are nice to have, even in high end apps that stuff is usually faked anyway (for animation at least). Even if calculating the real thing on a powerful renderfarm only costs you 30 seconds a frame (hypothetically), most pros are going to think "why render each frame in 30 seconds, when we can fake the result convincingly and get each frame cranked out in 10 or 15 seconds?" When you think of a 20-30,000 frame animation, those seconds saved rendering each frame add up! Anyway, that's my take on it from an outside point of view. ;-)

Attached Link: http://www.spinquad.com/forums/showthread.php?s=8567317d035b248931219ccc814849a7&threadid=2792

oh yes,gbuffer is great,forgot to say.i also love the interface,i hate to read when someone says carrara is kiddie software because of the interface,guys just look behind the interface(i know the interface has nothing to to with highend features but it so easy to understand and i wanted to say this).:) PS:sorry for the lightwave links.

From what I've viewed in screenshots of Carrara's interface, I don't think it is nearly as annoying as some I've seen. coughtruespacecough. ;-)

Disclaimer: No offense to truespace users, but I fail to understand how they can get any work done without being blinded by those gawdy icons. On a rather humorous note, I stumbled upon an OLD copy of Corel's Dream 3D the other day - circa 1997/98. For kicks, I loaded it on my old system, and while browsing around in there, I noticed it also had some G-Buffer render options (not much, but enough to control various things in post), which I found pretty amazing all things considered. For those who never heard of it, Dream 3D was basically a carbon copy of the old Ray Dream, issued by Corel Corporation with their Graphics Suite. After about 10 minutes of messing with it, however, I just had to uninstall it... the thing crashed every two minutes, which is something I don't remember happening to me in the RayDream app. LOL. So much for playing around with 'antiques'. ;-)

You don't? You must have had a different version of Ray Dream then the one I struggled with! :)

"You don't? You must have had a different version of Ray Dream then the one I struggled with! :)" LMAO! Well, it's been a while, maybe I blocked out the bad. ;-)

@maxxxmodelz,i know what you mean about truespace,all the tiny icons are horrible.

I bought RDS5 when it was new in '96? and it never ran stable until XP.....

LOL. Corel Dream! Ahhhh. The horror! Gotta miss the metacreation days...sigh. God Truespace, I made the mistake of buying a copy, I can't sell it, even for 80% off, no one wants it. I was going to sell it to someone for $100 but they ended up saying the cost of shipping it, just wasn't worth it. bleh!

Thanks DAIGORO.

No Problem krimpr.