O.k guys
Imagine if a future version of Carrara were to be upgraded to make it a true rival for Cinema 4d. Would u be willing to pay, an aditional 200.00 lets say for it ?????????? I think they should go ahead, and upgrade it to c4d level. They seem to be getting closer only in small steps, why don't they just make the "big leap", and get it over with already?
                                                                                                Marc

 What would you add to make it on par with Cinema 4d?

I used Cinema almost 6 years ago from a "trial" version, and I wasn't too impressed - but I also wasn't a great judge of it.  I didn't like the fact that it came bare-bones, no content, complicated interface - 

And why would it need to be more expensive?  If plug-ins are what you're after, they can be added without changing the base application price.

R

If it were a simple matter of making a big leap they would do so. That requires more programmers. Charles Brissart is quite amazing in my opinion, he is the lead programmer for Carrara. He has more help now than he used to, but still they dont have the number of programmers that Maxon does.

In a word-no!

it's the same problem as with poser, which in its early versions was simple enuff for
artists with no knowledge of scripts or shader trees.  now poser is the domain of
geeks IMVHO.  they can slather and drool over their overclocked 8 GB machines
with 8 cores, but when one checks their galleries here, there are often no images,
meaning artistry was replaced with technical braggadocio, and thus we all lose something
in the process.

if they make carrara less user-friendly and more complex, it'll be the same thing.
right now we can see some users getting excellent results using human figures
with plenty of affect in their renders.  I wouldn't wanna screw that up.

No I would not pay. I use to use Cinema 4D v7 and when it came time to upgrade I could not afford the new version so I bought Carrara because it was more affordable and easy to use. If you make Carrara more expensive and harder to use, then I'd have to find another 3D application that was more affordable and easier to use.

~jr

Value for money, range of capabilites (plugins) for money, ease of use etc.

Who are the end users who would get any advantages from using Cinema4D?

You raise an interesting point about about features and price.  I would add interface intuitiveness and render quality to that mix and I think you have the all the major components that determine why someone chooses the 3D platform they do.

You could almost make sense of it all except for Blender--the 3D app that does it all for free, but with a weird interface.

C4D is awesome, but I don't like their modular pricing scheme and ultimately it becomes too expensive.  I already weighed my options for price vs. features and I landed on Carrara.  I'm still getting up to speed with it but I like what I see so far.  I've used Strata 3D, Electric Image, C4D, Bryce, Wings 3D, Silo, and several others to some extent.  They all have their pros and cons, some are expensive and some are free.

In the end, you use the software that helps you make the best pictures, and the more you do that the more you'll realize it has less to do with the software and more to do with the artist.

Get modo instead.  Much faster at rendering.

 When you are talking about Applications that can cost in the thousands of dollars, you better be making your money back through work. Just like buying a MacPro $3000+ dollars. These type of purchases are made as "investments". I am sure their are serious hobbits with deep pockets that could probably afford this, but the majority of people stick with much more obtainable solutions.

Carrara is reaching the realm of semi professional, and it sure can take advantage of a big hardware purchase, but like others state, it's bread and butter is still the hobbits market. The average person that wants very good results at a reasonable price. Yet, developers have to entice people to upgrade, thats why you see it get more features. But I am with Miss Nancy on this one. Everybody is better served by keeping it as simple to use as possible.

In the end it's not the software that makes the art, its the person driving the software. Someone with talent can do very good with even old featureless software. Believe me Carrara can do very impressive art, in the right hands, and you can see some pretty crummy things done with Maya or Cinema4D. Particularly for still images. As far as animation, then technology starts to be more of an issue, but you still need to know what you are doing.

I somewhat agree with its not the software that makes the art, but a good render engine and some more streamlined features do help alot.

Here's another angle on the question: do you want Carrara to be a "true rival" because your so-called peers denigrate your choice of modeling app, and you're tired of being laughed at? Do you think that Carrara is not a serious 3D app because nobody in the "industry" uses it?

Check out Mark Bremmer's website. He's got some seriously serious work that was done for actual professional paying clients. I'd wager that not one of his clients made their decision to hire him based soley on what application he was running.

I use Carrara for my job. Sure, I'm not making the latest CGI spectacle, and I can honestly say that I'm not an uber-user. But my boss has been quite pleased with the results.