I am an old RayDeam/Infini-D user that has faithfully upgraded to all versions of Carrara except the last one. I am looking to upgrade to the professional version because the work that I intend to do could take advantage of the extra features that this version has. My question is, is character animation quantitatively improved in this version? Dose the network rendering feature work?, and if it dose can it be implemented through a wireless network? I read some posts back when it first came out that it had some bugs on it. I have three Macs, so if possible I like to try to setup a little render farm for my animations. Should I skip this version and just get Carrara 5? Any input would be greatly appreciated.

Cristian.

Hi Cristian, Upgrading to C4Pro has been a good thing in my studio. While I don't spend a bunch of time doing Character animation, it is much improved.(Morph targets, improved IK) The network rendering (mac here too) has literally saved me hundreds of hours in render time. The only caveat with the network rendering is with animations and various CPU speeds. For high resolution, single frame images, network rendering always saves time. However, on "simple" animations sometimes the network can spend more time coordinating data with a slow CPU than it would take to simply do the whole animation on your fastest machine. Also, if you have a special effects animation - lots of global illumination, high density meshes etc. - a slow CPU on the network will kill the animation time: the other machines will finish all the work and you're left with the one little square still rendering on the slowest machine. Network rendering works best when the machines are reasonably equal in performance. For example, connecting a dual 2.5Ghz, a dual 1Ghz and a 233Mhz is probably not a good idea. The first two are ok, but not the the third. :) Who knows when C5 will come out but I'm sure it will have some cool additions. C4Pro is great to work with, although. Mark

Thanks Mark.
I have a dual G4 1.2 GHz and a 1.5 Power Book. Although the dual processor would multithread the Power Book's CPU is slightly faster. I guess I would have to try it. My third computer would be left out of the loop since it's only a 500 MHz ibook. I just hope Eovia comes out with the special upgrade price again. Money is in short supply these days, my wife just informed me that we are about to expand our family by adding one new little member so I got to watch where the money goes more carefully then ever. Do you have a wireless network?, can it even be done through Airport Express? Thanks again for the info.

I'm aware of a couple folks running wireless. I've chosen a hardwire/ethernet solution for maximum throughput, though. That's only because I regularly work with Carrara files near 250M and need to sling them between the computers with absolute predictability. Congrats on the new addition! :D Mark

I started modeling in Ray Dream Studio years and years ago, I also have updated as often as possible. I run the PC version. I was a bit nervous about the expense of C4 Pro initially but it has given me some tools I didnt have before. All in all I think it was worth it. I havent been able to get the networking to work. My main rendering box seems unable to find the other node on my network. I even put both mach9ines in the DMZ on my network to see if that helped. I wish I could get it to work, I could the time savings.

I may be doing the upgrade sooner rather than later, but just for a couple of tiny things that would make this present project go a lot faster. To wit; the "freeze" button for SubD's, and the fact that the revised SubD's are quads -- no longer triangulated automatically. (On the downside, tho, a mesh I am working on now ended up with a couple of n-gons after subdivision). I'd love to wait for the special offer upgrade again, but the way my Eovia luck runs, they'll offer it after I've paid full price. It's a very reasonable upgrade, tho. Either that, or it's a massive leap in price for the full version. Well, after being such a bargain for all these years it makes sense they'd want to try to restage it....

If you need good character animation, you need another software, not carrara (too slow, it don't have pro features). But for the rest, also for network render, it's very good. But maybe is better to wait for Carrara5 at this point... -TOXE

Attached Link: http://www.renderosity.com/messages.ez?ForumID=12376&Form.ShowMessage=2317791

Have you looked at TrueSpace yet?

InfoCentral Looks very interesting but I don't think they offer a Mac version of their software. I exclusively use Macs, I am forced to deal with PCs at work and believe me that enough for me.

Mmmh BTW, leave Carrara for Truespace don't have sense. Both are in the same segment of market and functions. the things that you can make with Carrara are the same of Truespace and viceversa. If you want to leave Carrara/Reaydream approach it's better to switch to a more powerful app like C4D or Lightwave. -TOXE

On a side note, you can improve efficiency of a render farm when you have various CPU speeds involved by reducing the parsed out block size to the smallest possible. The default is the largest possible. If you set it to small (I think 16X16), the slow machine/s will only get hung up on small pieces and the faster machines will also have a chance to work on the hard parts of the image. Otherwise, the slow machines will get snagged on the tough parts or will be hanging on forever at the very end. If the slow machines have small pieces, it can optimize the render process. -Kix

Have to agree with you TOXE it would be a sideways move. I have never really been interested in TS since first reading the reviews which said it is an icon based interface with so many now that it gets very confusing fast. On the other hand once you know all the icons it wouldn't be a problem I guess. The thing that is very impressive about TrueSpace is that there is a great library of digital training material for it that covers just about everything. This is big plus for someone learning an application. I believe that Nicolas86 uses TS. Perhaps he can shed more light on this program.

Message edited on: 07/06/2005 11:43

Attached Link: http://www.hash.com

If you're looking for low priced software that runs on mac and has powerful character animation tools, you could look at Animation:Master. Of course, from what I understand, it runs better on PC than a mac. You may want to look in the OSX section of the Hash Forums for any issues that might affect you. And netrendering for A:M isn't free, however they will let you use the cd to run separate instances of a:m on your different computers, so as long as you don't mind each computer rendering a different section of your animation, instead of all of them working on the same section at once, then there's no problem...

Hrmmm...Does C4 still read old RDS files? Maybe I should upgrade from RDS5.5 so I can convert the GeminiXII Space ship I bought to a Poser readable format that way.

Yes, it does. :)

Attached Link: http://amfilms.hash.com/

Don't forget about A:M Films for a peek at what people are doing with Animation Master. Great product; great price!

It dose seem pretty powerful. The samples are incredible. Now, no matter how good the software, there is some serious talent behind some of those animations. I had see a couple flouting around the web before but I did not have any idea as to what software was behind them. Definitely worth a second look. The only problem is that It would mean a bit more money and a huge learning curve to switch packages. I wonder how well they play with each other. Like a said, I know Carrara fairly well and I am pretty comfortable with it, but at least version 3 seems a bit laking when it comes to character animation.

A:M is very powerful for character animation, but don't forget to read reviews of users and forums on the net. It seems that it have a lot of bugs and it's quite instable (especially on mac). Also, a terrible thing in 2005 is that hash don't have a demo version on his site. -TOXE

BTW, don't forget that when you spend much money on a software you have a professional product (almost always). Consider also the high end softwares if 3d is part of your everyday job. -TOXE

Animation:Master has a LOT to offer for character animation. Part of its strength lies in it's use of splines to build its models. That being said, it does NOT play well with others. Importing and exporting is very lacking, and most people who use it create everything inside the package. As for who uses it, the man who created its most famous piece, (Alien Song,) works for Pixar now because of the imagination of this video. He of course uses their in-house software now, but still uses A:M for his personal projects.

E-mail Hash. Tell them you have several 3D programs and list them. Tell them you would be interested in trying out their program and ask about a "competitive upgrade" price. That's what I did when Carrara 4 came out and Eovia doubled the price. I contacted Hash with the above information and got them to give me a competitive upgrade price of $199 which is exactly the academic price. Not bad and just $10 more than what Eovia was asking to upgrade from 3 to 4.

Eovia is having a storewide sale for their online store. Carrara4 upgrade is included although not listed on the promo page. You need to make the purchase then put the promo code in on the next-to-last page. Fifteen percent, but it makes a difference. Sale ends Bastille Day.

When is Bastille Day?, I don't have a French holiday calendar handy. Thanks nomuse.