lmckenzie wrote

"I do love the speed of Carraras renders BUT I think the quality is lacking."

"That's always been my impression as well, but I think a lot of it is down to learning the lighting etc. Dustrider has some very nice Carrara renders."

I just had to respond to say Thanks lmckenzie *(picture me standing in the corner and blushing), and IMVHO, you are spot on about it all coming down to lighting (and mats/shaders).  I'd say my renders are good  for the most part (not great), but there are several other Carrara users who have some fantastic work (see links below).

I also feel compelled respond to jjrolands dissing of Carrara, so now it's flame time! (Not really, I don't want this to degenerate into a my app is better than yours war .... cause I think they are all pretty freekin awsome).  

First I need to put in a bit of a disclaimer before I continue any further - I've been dabbling with 3D for many years, I started with Poser 3, C4D 6, and Carrara 2. But, real life typically gets in the way, and I often go 6-12 months without even starting any 3D software. So, I'm in my own personal version of Ground Hog Day, where I'm constantly relearning what I already learned, because if I don't use it, I do lose it. Therefore, even though I've dabbled for years, I consider myself to be pretty much a newb compared to those who use the software consistantly, say 3-5 times a week, 10-12 months a year. With that in mind, I'll proceed.

 jjroland wrote

"Someone suggested Carrara as an alternative.  IMO that route isn't a great solution either.  I do love the speed of Carraras renders BUT I think the quality is lacking.  I see far more depth and realism in Poser renders and I don't know if that is due to lighting abilities or render quality.  I just know that's what I see.  Now I have the old express version of Carrara but I couldn't bring myself to spend any real money on Daz software when they are so notorious for not supporting their software and massive delays to bug fixes."

I think jjroland's impression of Carrara demonstrates a very valid point, something that anyone who is thinking of moving to a different software to render Poser content should consider. When it comes to 3D software, an application that one person can pick up and quickly/easily understand and get good results from, the next person may find completely un-usable, or not worth the effort.

I sit on the other side of the fence here, I really like Carrara. But....I first started using Carrara 2/3 to render exports from Poser 3/4. When I started with Carrara, I found lighting much more intuitive in Carrara than Poser, Obj import was better in Carrara than C4D (version 6) and I was also looking for an all round 3D application with a great render engine. It came down to a choice between Carrara and C4D - I chose Carrara because the upgrades were much more affordable, and the renderer in C3, though not as good as C4D 7, was simply amazing for the price.

Carrara still renders faster than Poser, has caustics, and can use almost all Poser content (there is even a script from Sparrowhawk to import Poser 9/2012 weight mapped figures). But ..... and this is a big but .... Poser shaders often don't translate well, and complex shader only materials (i.e. no texture map) typically don't translate well at all. So, in complex scenes, everything you gain in render speed may be lost in time spent fixing the shaders. I would guess that with C4D/Interposer and Vue, you will also have some work to do on the materials/shaders as well, but they may do a better job of translation.

Thanks to BB and SG, it's pretty hard to beat the ease of setup for top quality SSS for human figures in Poser. I've seen some great SSS work in Carrara, but there is nothing that can compare to Poser for ease of setup/use of SSS in Carrara at this time. 

Carrara is still my application of choice for rendering Poser content, mainly because it just feels "comfortable". I know what to expect (most of the time), and I'm a self admitted test renderaholic, so the render speed is a plus. You often see complaints in the forums over at DAZ regarding the bugs and stability of Carrara. I've rarely experienced any problems with Carrara on Windows PC's. I have a laptop that did have quite a few crashes until I was able to upgrade the drivers, and change a setting in the drivers (for power conservation) that was causing Carrara, and other applications, to randomly crash. It does seem though that on Mac's Carrara does has quite a few issues. If your not on a Mac, and looking for an companion product or alternative to rendering in Poser, I'd say it's definitely worth a serious look (but I am biased).

@moriador

Being a test renderaholic myself, I understand where you are coming from :)

IMVHO, you should really look at what you want to achieve compared to what Poser has to offer and the cost (in both learning curve/time and money) of moving to another application. Keep in mind that you will have to learn a new lighting system, and new materials/shaders system as well as simply using the new software. Another option if you simply want to speed up your renders might be to invest in a faster computer rather than more software.

The up coming Reality for Poser was mentioned earlier as a possible alternative. For faster renders, I would have to say it probably won't help (the term Glacial Speed comes to mind). For better (as in easier to setup for great lighting and materials), more realistic lighting and render quality, it definitely would be an option. As a user of Reality for DS, I can say if the Poser version is anything like the DS version, material/shader transfer will be very very good. Paolo (the creator) seems to have a genuine desire to create top notch products, and I will no doubt purchase it when it becomes available for Poser. With a high end multicore computer, a top end graphics card, and proper materials and lighting setup, Lux can produce very good results fairly quickly. I've seen some beautiful renders that were done in under 2 hours, but on my system 8-12 hours is the minimum (the lone Lux render in my gallery took 38 hours on a Core2 Duo laptop). One advantage for the test renderaholic is that you get pretty good feedback on lighting and materials before the render is done, in about 5-30 min.

I'm sure there will also be the option of using SLG (SimpleLuxGPU) with the Poser/Reality/Lux combination, just as there is with DS. With a high end graphics card with a lot of graphics RAM, SLG is VERY fast (similar to Octane Render in speed). The only drawback is that your sceen needs to be able to fit into the memory on your graphics card, and a few of the more memory intensive features of the full version of Lux aren't supported. But if you typically do fairly simple scenes, Reality/SLG could be a very usable option to improve render speeds from Poser.

Well, I'll finish up this overly long post with some links to a few Carrara renders which hopefully show that Carrara is capable of renders with great depth, detail, and quality in the proper hands.

Warning - Some links contain nudity!

Mark Bremmer (a Carrara Grand Master)

 The Keeper

restif

Sunrise over the Sunken City, Legs 2

Akulla

Portrait of a Lady

moviehawke1

Eleonora and the Temple of Blood!

elianeck

Twins,  Just

KoldFusion

Adept Lulu a la Ritratto

If you've made it this far, and are still interested, below are a few of my favotites from my galley (of a whole 37 images). (Note: The Plan only took about 4 hours, with caustics and blured reflections enabled)

The Plan,  The Captive Version 2,  The Scorceress,  Testing the Water

 

edited to check the nudity tag ... opps!!

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