scottl opened this issue on Jul 16, 2008 · 11 posts
pauljs75 posted Mon, 21 July 2008 at 9:41 PM
Carrara's still a lot easier to pick up off the bat than Blender, especially coming from using Bryce previously. I find it's useful to read a forum here or there and experiment. The .pdf manual is ok, but not as in-depth as it should or could be. (Daz3D needs to find someone like Susan Kitchens and hire that person write new documentation for Carrara. Then include that as a .pdf and also have a nice quality printed version you could order.)
Like you, I agree that where Carrara falls behind all the other apps (even Bryce or Anim8or) is with dedicated online instructional/informational content. (At least when it comes to english without resorting to going through spotty automated translations.) I'm sure there's some good free tutorials out there, but more often than not you're either going to run into pay-to-view content or a couple videos that run under bug ridden (at least on PC) quicktime or similar apps. Not to diss anybody making such content (yeah there's lots of work involved, I know tut's aren't always easy because I have done some for other apps before), but I prefer a series of captioned still images that are free to view at one's own leisure. I can see where such content barriers the other apps don't have are off-putting to new Carrara users. (But if you have the gumption, you can remedy this. Sometimes the best time to make tuts are soon after you figure out something yourself. Not to mention Wikibooks and various artists forums are there if making your own tutorial site isn't quite your thing.)
As for myself, the forums (here, Daz3D's, and Polyloop) are the best places to find Carrara stuff. Probably better to ask questions than googling only to find 404'd pages or videos that blink and chop or freeze the browser. (With exception of the few Veoh or YouTube bits out there. But then good luck finding those in english.) And then you can get to more specific info that a site based tutorial might assume or not cover at all.
Too bad you gave up on the program before asking a few things. Should have spoken up about what the problem areas were before giving up. It's actually pretty decent in some areas and can do some suprising things if you figure them out.
Your friendly neighborhood Wings3D nut.
Also feel free to browse my freebies at ShareCG.
There might be something worth downloading.