PRESS RELEASE #50 FOR IMMMEDIATE RELEASE Eovia Announces Carrara 5 Extreme makeover of popular 3D software augments already impressive animation, modeling and rendering capabilities Mountain View, California, USA October 25, 2005 Eovia Corporation, developer and publisher of leading 3D software tools, today introduced Carrara 5, the powerful, approachable, complete 3D solution. Carrara 5 delivers a robust suite of modeling, animation and rendering tools in a freshly updated user interface. The highly-affordable Carrara 5 will enable users to create more freely and deliver high-caliber results under even the tightest deadlines. The significant enhancements to Carrara 5 truly drive home our mission to provide professional 3D software solutions at a price that fits into most budgets, said Eovia CEO Philippe Richard. Carrara 5 will stimulate professional users toward greater creativity and help them to stay competitive, while those who are just beginning to venture into 3D will realize incredible ease-of-use and unbelievable results. New features in Carrara 5 and Carrara 5 Pro include: a dramatically updated interface; a new graph editor that provides direct access to the motions curves of objects as well as parameters of animations; enhancements to the vertex modeler based upon Eovias wildly-popular Hexagon software; improvements to the already impressive rendering component including subsurface scattering, displacement mapping and ambient occlusion; addition of volumetric clouds that realistically scatter the light of the atmosphere; significant updates to the particle engine; extensive expansion of import/export format support to include After Effects and RPF export, match moving support for Syntheyes and MatchMover, and much more. For a more complete list of new features and enhancements in Carrara 5 and Carrara 5 Pro, please visit the Eovia website at www.eovia.com/products/carrara5. Eovia expects to ship the new release in December. Carrara 5 software will be priced competitively at US$249, with the advanced Carrara 5 Pro available for US$549. Upgrade pricing will start at US$99 for Carrara 5 and US$169 for Carrara 5 Pro. Customers who purchase the full version of Carrara 4 beginning October 25 will be eligible for a no-charge upgrade to Carrara 5 as soon as it is available. Eovia is also accepting pre-orders of the electronic version (ESD) of the Carrara 5 upgrades through the Eovia e-store. Those who pre-order this ESD upgrade will be able to immediately download the Beta version of the software. Complete details are available on the Eovia website. # # # About Eovia Corporation Eovia Corporation is dedicated to providing unique solutions for creative professionals as well as those just starting their journey into 3D. The companys award-winning 3D modeling, animation, and rendering tools offer superior versatility, affordability and unmatched ease-of-use. Eovias Amapi, Carrara and Hexagon software families deliver improved productivity to design and manufacturing environments by providing exceptional interchange with industry-leading applications. Founded in November 2000, Eovia has offices in both the US and Europe. Eovia Media Contacts Worldwide (except Europe)Karen Smythkaren@eovia.com+1 (650) 938-0515 x101 EuropeStefan Blombergpress_europe@eovia.fr +33 (0) 5 56 13 71 53

Sounds good, Cant wait to see what they did with the particle system, soft body dynamics would have been cool but maybe that will come as a plugin. Just went to check out the site but its not up yet :(

Well the new particle system is awsome. You can even use objects in particle.

The site is alive now.

If I had a dollar for every time I said "WOW!" while reading the new feature list, I would already have enough money to upgrade right now.....and I'm only halfway through the feature list. This is exciting!

Nice.

Just checked out the page lots of awesome stuff. I bought my upgrade to Carrara 4 pro on sept 26 does anyone know if this is close enough to be eligable to recieve the upgrade to Carrara 5 pro?

Yeah! Graph editing!!! Yeah! Hexagon features in vertex room!! Yeah! BETTER PARTICLES!!!! Yeah! After effects file import/exporting!!!!! (Easier compositing here I come!) Yeah! Bevels in the vertex room!! Yeah!! Ambient occlusion, Subsurface scattering, Microdisplacement, Volumetric clouds, Anisotropic lighting, Fresnel effect, and more! Beta copy, here I come!! :D

Wow, this is a much better looking upgrade than Carrara 4 was. C5 has so many things I've wished for... it just looks awesome. And the separation of Pro vs. Standard is more reasonable this time, I think. The Pro features are pretty Pro in nature. Last time you had to get the Pro version to get something pretty universally useful like blurry reflections. Very psyched.

Sweet! The development team has definitely been doing their homework. This is exactly the sort of upgrade I've been waiting for. This is going to be some real fun to work with.

wOw!! I did not see any information on symmeterical, it is really important for modeling tasks.

I told you it was going to be WOW and just the Eovia guys in the chatroom are talking ALL ABOUT C5. :-)

I was wondering when they'd announce this; I read about it three days ago in Digit magazine. :) This looks like a great upgrade (rather better than C4, IMHO). The SSS should please a few people.

Any info on whether it works better with Poser 6?

nemesis10, In the chat, Arnaud mentioned there was no change in the Poser 6 situation. Regards, Eric Winemiller Digital Carvers Guild Plug-ins for Carrara http://digitalcarversguild.com

Eric- How soon until you get a SDK to update your plugins?

Downloaded C5 beta for Mac with pre-order. It seems promising but it is def beta. Much crashing, new vertex modeler yields no results for gordon, coons etc, objects as particle, does not work yet, freznel water shader applied crashes. Overall, it's kinda useless at this point and so far I would say the improvements in the vertex room are nice (when they work) but they are no replacement of Hexagon. This is just my first impression though. It appears that at this point After Effects export is only supported on Windows.

If you are an early adopter (I only know about mac) from my experiences I would consider this a sneak peak. It's def cool to see what it will be when it's done, but it is almost too buggy to actually use. I think it will be a really great upgrade when it's final.

If you are looking for high-end particles, more in-depth realistic soft and hard body dynamics and physics, really versatile modeling, fully animated shockwave exports, broadcast/pro implementation of all the great things you get at a bargain price with C5, you still won't be there yet -- keep looking at C4D, Maya, etc. If you want a fantastic all-in-one, affordable 3D ap that is incredibly robust for mid range work with features that encroach on the domain of aps that cost 4 or 5 times as much, C5 is king. Personally, I think the interface is beautiful. C5 actually does a few things better than the big boys. For what it costs, Maya certainly is an ugly beast to look at compared to the C5 interface for one.

From what I can tell at first look, I think most will be very pleased with this upgrade when the final version of C5 ships.

I'm on the Windows side of town and it works better in windows. Object as particles are no problem. Ringo

Half the fun of a beta is finding what needs fixing! Objects with particles are working for me on Mac. I do have an issue where the coons and gordon objects are created but don't alway appear in the assembly room but render correctly. Play with it and have some fun!

Well in for a penny in for a pound. I just bought Hexagon to get the tools that they incorperated to Carrara 5 and still haven't learned it, but I've been with Carrara since C1 so they'll get my money in the next day or 2! Hope it's easier to learn. mike

Beta-Testers, is there symmetery in modeling room.

Wow. Looks like Eovia have done a great job!

Gweb, at this point no. Only Hexagon 1.2 has a true symmetrical modeler.

would the gemini plugin possibly help w/ that? bummer. What about spline modeling..I am interested in ai support?

FYI, the C5 website mentions Edge tools and "Advanced surface tools" are NEW in C5 Std and C5 Pro. In the chat, Charles said, "the surface and edge tools are only in the Pro version". So you might want to hold off ordering an upgrade till Eovia gets the site all worked out as to what is and isn't included in the two versions. - Jasen.

I know pulling the camera out or scaling up the object is a work around for this but both of those create other problems if you're trying to model for Poser.

My question is, is this still the situation in C5. I see it advertises better OpenGL, so I wonder f this problem has been corrected as well? edited for typos.

mike

Message edited on: 10/25/2005 17:07

Ren_mem, Gemini can help. The Spline modeler in C4 And C5 supports .ai import - the Vertex modeler does not. Hexagon does. That said, there is still a month of beta and development continuing. You never know what might be included over the next few weeks. Mark

Hi Mike, I just checked. That same issue is still present. I know Eovia is aware of it. Hexagon works well for that though. We all want a single software package to do it all, don't we! ;)

Thanks Mark! It won't stop me from buying the upgrade, but I really wish they'd fix it. I can't believe it's that big an issue. mike

Hi, Mike. Now that you mention it, we will forward the info to the eovia team.

Pre-ordering the Pro version now. Does it ship with a printed manual?

Don't know about that Shonner...

Attached Link: http://www.eovia.com/support/bug_report.asp

I'm curious what features (if any) were removed from Carrara Pro 4? Are all the modifiers still there for example?

bluetone,

I've been told there will be a fresh SDK for the beta build soon. Many have already been converted so as soon as a new build of the SDK is available I should be able to post about half of them. The rest will follow a few days after that.

Regards,
Eric Winemiller
Digital Carvers Guild
Plug-ins for Carrara
http://digitalcarversguild.com

Thanks for the reminder Brian. Shonner, I don't know that anything has been removed yet - or will be. Do you mean shape modifiers or are we using the same word to describe something different? Honestly, the feature list for C5 was growing so quickly and was so rich, I've had a hard time keeping up and testing everything. I'll hunt around for specific items if you'd like. :)

Shonner, I was told no printed manual, but you can buy it. I like the poser import w/ no poser runtime for daz characters. Matching those maps up is a royal pain.

Ren_mem, What's also great about the native Poser import is that a posed figure comes in with bones that you can adjust. :)

Eric- Thanx! I always know I can count on you for quick turnaround! :D Shonner- According to Bob during the chat, the pre-order, since it's a download, does not normally include the printed manual. I lost track (bcause I was SUPPOSED to be working at the time ;) but I think he said the printed manual was going to be made available for sale, if wanted. But I thought he also said something about a form to fill out, so I really think they haven't made up their mind yet. I doubt it will be automatically sent though, either way. Hope this helps. Ringo (or anyone else for that matter)- Are you going to make the chat available for everyone to download? Thanx in advance!

I'm glad my question brought forth some interest! I wasn't sure if theis was a bug carried into C5 or not. I made several notifications to Eovia when C4 came out ans was told that it was being looked into but it was never resolved, that's why I was curious about C5. I'll probably buy it later tonight or tomorrow. mike

I meant shape modifiers, Mark. And what about all those nifty light/lens flare effects? Are they still available. I need to install the Beta to get my fix.

Oh yeah. They're still all there! Use them in good health.

Hi, Shonner. Everything is there, the "C" guys just love to add new stuff. I'm very please with this release. Ringo

Yeah, trav that looks buggy to me. How about physics?...any changes? Any nice joint presets geared toward humans?(glad for the improvements there) How about more procedural options? Also, the sales pitch says "fantastic landscaper", but I am not seeing any tree/plant improvements or options so am I missing something?(not trying to be derisive)I do see more presets, textures, and apparently "new" volumetric clouds. Trying to wait a bit, since I just got vue, but will be hard.

The plant modeler hasn't changed. But being able to add thousands of trees and shrubs to landscapes without creating a monster file is. I've found controlling them is very similar if not easier than Vue5 Infinite. Landscapes can now tile. Carrara doesn't ship with as many "sophisticated" plants as Vue. However, you can actually create them and control them to a level equal or better in Carrara - if you're willing to learn the plant editor that is. Physics is unchanged at this point. There are new joint/ik capabilities making it easier to finesse posing.

Physics is unchanged at this point. Untrue. Physics have been sped up substantially. At least from my perspective. They also seem more accurate. Plus the fact that particles are using the physic system now and have full collision detection with scene objects. There are so many enhancements and new features its become a joy to use Carrara now. I can check quite a few wants/needs off the list.

Well, I spent some time in there understanding what things are what. Still seemed limited to trees and bushes...that looked better, but needed help and very slow to render. The replicator is definite woohoo. What about translucence...not a biggy.

Message edited on: 10/25/2005 23:20

Message edited on: 10/25/2005 23:22

Well, I spent some time in there understanding what things are what. Still seemed limited to trees and bushes...that looked better, but needed help and very slow to render. The replicator is definite woohoo. What about translucence...not a biggy. Limited? Isn't it a Plant modeler? Or are you more refering to flowers etc? This can be accomplished by some tweaking. Just change the leaf shape. The reason the render time is so slow is because of the high poly count of the plants. Ways of speeding this up is to lower the generation count, the leaf count and the smooth level. If you replace the leaves with your own leaf model watch the poly count. The the replicator is wonderful:) Translucence? You can somewhat simulate this with subsurface scattering. In the chat event Charles talked about perhaps a fast translucence being added for the final release but thats not guaranteed.

I knew there was a way to fake translucence so wasn't really worried...no biggy. I was referring to different leafs and flowers in c4. Didn't feel like there was as much variety. Has this improved in c5. Believe me any, info on improving the plant designing is welcome. I went by playing and the manual. Didn't see that much info on plant modeling in c4 and I just wasn't seeing believable plants from c4 work. Now the picture on eovia's site next to the blurb on the c5 landscape looked good. The replicator will make a huge diff tho. I knew high poly, but vue is not so slow at this.

"My question is, is this still the situation in C5. I see it advertises better OpenGL, so I wonder if this problem has been corrected as well?" OpenGL is a lot faster on my system in Carrara Pro 5 Beta than Carrara Pro 4 was. The floating points are still a problem for imported hyper-smoothed objects.

The key to good realistic plants in C is varied textures, don't just place a flat shade on the leaves or on the trunk. I believe there was a thread somewhere on renderosity showing the texturing of a leaf model and the resulting render (which came out very nice).