Hi there , Well I have been gettin' my feet wet around here & everyone has been most helpful. I have a question about Carrara...You see , I have been productive in bryce for a few years now. I went ahead & bought bryce 5.5 & a used copy of Poser 5 for Vue 5 esprit (which I got as a gift this past Christmas ). I have access to Vue 4 Pro at school. Now , my Dad knows that I am very interested in digital Art so He bought me a copy of Carrara Studio 3. Now guys & Gals , maybe its just me...mabe I'm spoiled to the ease of use of the other programs I use 'cause Carrara seams a little non-user friendly & somewhat confusing. Funny thing is , the interface looks a lot like that of Bryce! I know there is a video tutorial on the CD, but for some reason my CD-Rom drive has trouble accessing it ( but we are not gonna get into that here ). So I took the long road to ask you people who are seasoned users of Carrara this - With having all those other programs , is Carrara worth my time and effort in creating 3D art? I don't whant to hurt my Dad's fealing by not using this program but....I just don't know.... thank you , mikeywilliam

You'll need Carrara for making better models and better/faster renders than Bryce allows. The Carrara manual will tell you everything you need to know to model in it. It is very full featured and intensive at first. So go through chapters (each chapter builds on what the previous one covered) and experiment with the powerful features.

Oh, that reminds me. Do you know where a pdf manual might be hiding? There's several changes in Carrara Pro 4 and my old Carrara Studio 3 manual is not much of a help there.

I'd do a file search for *.pdf in the carrara sub-folders to find it. You need Acrobat Reader 5.0+ installed to view it.

Thanks. Never did turn it up with Find, but given your assurance it existed I was able to locate it inside the application package (where my OS coudn't, apparently, see it).

hi, You also the Carrara3 handbook that could give a hand to see how are done some projects: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1584503106/qid=1126778455/sr=8-3/ref=pd_bbs_3/102-6191662-6204950?v=glance&s=books&n=507846 A second hand one is not to expensive . I hope this help

I'll sell you my Carrara 3 handbook if you want. Let's say US$15. Click my name above this message and you can send me an instant message if you're interested.

Hi Mikey, While the interface of Carrara is similar to Bryce and Vue, Carrara can do significantly more - and that's where the more complex nature of options comes into play. Most of the complex features of Vue and Bryce are confined to the atmospheric editors. Carrara has that plus more robust modeling tools. To get the fullest out of Carrara, you actually have to spend a little time learning it instead of "just getting by" ;) And that's going to be true for any program that you can create content in like Silo, Rhino, Maya, LW etc. They simply can do more in the area of creating stuff - and that comes with a learning curve. It's worth it though! The thinking and building skills you develop open up a whole world of possibilities and do transfer to other 3D apps that you can build content in. Stick it out for a little while and come back here with questions! Mark

IMHO - Yes, Carrara Studio (CS) is worth taking the time to learn. Vue, Bryce, and Poser don't have the modeling capabilities/tools of CS. CS3 also has a great render engine. You can use CS3 to create props and clothing for Poser figures, as well as other 3D objects for use in Vue or Bryce. CS3 also has a very powerful tree generator that can be used to suplement the trees that come with Bryce and Vue.

As Mark stated, the reason CS seams a little more difficult to use is because it is a general 3D application with a whole suite of 3Dtools, which makes it more difficult to learn and use. Vue, Bryce, and Poser are designed for just landscape visualization (Vue and Bryce) and figure posing/animation (Poser), therefore have fewer 3D tools available, and as a result are easier to learn.

Another very valuable use for CS is to convert and/or modify models from other 3D formats for use in CS, Bryce ,Vue, or Poser. CS3 is a very good general 3D application, with a whole host of tools not found in any of the other products you already have. Learn to use CS, and you will have a very flexible and powerful 3D tools set.

Just as an additional note, if you are wondering how "good" CS3 is, it got a 5 star rating (the highest possible rating) from Digit Magazine. You should definitely thank you Dad for getting it for you! You now have a very comprehensive 3D tool set, and are only limited only by your creativity and imagination.

Rich

And, actually...the purpose-built engines (Bryce, Poser, Mojo-World, etc) are adding more and more functions both to their core functionality and as extra candy. Given all the (sometimes excess) bells and whistles of Poser6, for instance, the learning curve of Carrara doesn't seem so bad.

MAN , You guys are truly wonderful folks! Thank you for the good Feed-Back. I now have realized that I have been sorta' looking at this one-sided. I guess by what you say ,it is not quit fair to jude Carrara by the other apps. because they are " Dedicated ". I didn't realize that at first.I'll be at it! Thank you everybody, mikeywilliam

You definitely need something to supplement the primarily landscape tools you mentioned. You do have to spend time on any tool to really figure out what it can do. Poser also is specialized and as stated can work with it, however you really need a plugin for good support. C3 really needs landscape help so those programs should help. It contains modeling features that should fill in gaps with those programs. Since someone else bought it for you it is certainly worth your time to see what it can do.