Poser rules the freebies, which makes sense since it's not a modeler or anything. But even Bryce has tons of freebies out there. Digital Carver's Guild has a few shaders, there's a few paltry items in Renderosity's Free Stuff, and Tony Lynch has a handful of wood shaders on his site. That's about all I've been able to find. Why so much Bryce stuff, especially shaders, and next to nothing for Carrara? Tutorials are hard to come by, too. Any thoughts/opinions/links/rants/raves?

rant mode on I think that if Renderosity wants to boost its free stuff section then it needs to start hosting the files. I hate to do html stuff so that means if I want to use frontpage I have to use tripod. My free space from my isp does not support frontpage. If Renderosity would let me put models up in free stuff I would have done so many many times. As of now I just dont have the resources to host files for other people. The other problem of course is money. All of my models deserve to be free, hell I wouldnt pay for them :) But if you look at the renderosity store I just think to myself, I would never pay squat for almost everything in there...BUT if you look at where the models are going it makes sense. Carrara is for people who really want to create and make things. I looked at poser and bryce...yuck...99% of whats out there is just rehashes of the same stuff. How many variations of Vicki need be made ? :) As far as I can see half the people in those communities are making 3d p0rn and the other half are selling them the objects to make it ;) To sum up: renderosity needs to foster more sharing by hosting the files...even if it would cost me a couple bucks a year for bandwith It would be worth it.

Well said Brent. I too don't want to setup a website just to host freebies. If Renderosity would host them, I have some models I would upload to the Free Stuff section.

Man, I used to have a bunch of shaders up there. However, late one night, when I should have been sleeping instead, I accidently trashed them off of the server I stored them on. I'll try to reorganize them and repost them. Mark

Brent, I know exactly what you're talking about. I believe (correct me if I'm wrong, please) that Renderosity hosts Marketplace files, though not free stuff files. Maybe a lot of people sell the stuff rather than have to set up a site to give it away? It is ironic that it's harder to offer stuff here for free than for sale. Now that I'm getting into modeling my own stuff it's something I've been thinking about a lot. However, my point is that, despite the hosting situation, we have tons of, say, Bryce materials, yet almost no Carrara shaders. Is Bryce that much more popular? Are Bryce people just more generous? Or is there some factor here I'm missing? And it's not just Renderosity. Even on other sites I just don't see much of anything for Carrara. Shaders, models, tutorials, anything. I'm sure that a lot of the Poser models we see were made on Carrara, but still...it just seems like someone would be sharing with fellow Carrara users. I will, when I get good enough that I can make something someone might actually want;) Maybe there's some really good sites I don't know about?

Hi folks, Sure, it's hell to upload something in free stuff . I wanted to do so when i had my website but couldn't simply because my web host doesn't allow file redirection :( . And after spending hours trying to find a web host that could do it, i've given up and decided that the files i want to share would stay on my website . This specific problem should be fixed soon, because the admins are working on the free stuff area to let members link to web pages instead of directly to the files . Now, i can say why Renderosity doesn't allow to store files on their servers other than store products and galleries/forum images . For the same reason my host doesn't want me to link to the files i've got on their server : the bandwidth bill ! Just imagine a thousand files of several Megs each being downloaded thousand times ... Also, how would it be possible to verify all the files to see if they're legal ? The mods and admins have enough problems with the current system . But it's true that Carrara users don't have a lot of freebies to play with . Though you can't compare Carrara with Bryce or Poser because when you make an image with those two softwares, you NEED some extra models ! They don't have the modelling tools of Carrara . The same, there's not a lot of freebies for Animation Master, Maya, Lightwave ... litst http://www.chez.com/litst

There is a fair ammount of tuts, shaders & models available in RDS format. Go to Lannies 3D Modelworld, links page for RDS sites. Several of them are broken links but most of the info is pertinant to Carrara. I agree that finding a place to host the files is problematic and that most people just make their own stuff as needed. That's the fun part, right?

Well this turned out way long so don't read it if you're not in the mood for my life story. I've even included headers for the subjects. Shader Trees: It seems to me that the previous comment about uploading a picture of your shader tree is almost as good as getting a shader. What we don't have is a specific spot for shader tree images. As for models, I can understand issues pertaining to ownership, copywrite, etc.. The integrity of Carrara/Raydream users: I also sympathize with comments concerning Carrara users being people who are interested in building a lot more stuff in a lot more enivironments than other software packages. We're sort of a small loner group out there who has gone through a pretty painful process or waiting for Carrara to be reborn out of the fire. I personally suspect that the number of Carrara users who held on by their last layer of atoms at the tip of their fingernails to be rescued by Eovia are smaller in numbers than most other softwares. I also think we're a pretty impressive group of 3D artists with a lot of talent and I think this forum has been pretty cool about getting help to people who ask for it. Concerning Free Stuff: It seems that it should be possible to sell stuff for the cost of production. I'd probably be willing to assemble a cd full of my stuff called "Kixums Kitchen Sink" and sell it for the cost of the media and shipping ($2.00?) but I would only sell 2 copies I'm sure. What would be even cooler is if somebody on the forum who might have the time assemble the "Renderosity Carrara Kitchen Sink" and sold that on the site for a song ($2.00?). While that's a huge amount of effort, it could be something cool that could be done as an annual project. It could include artwork too. If we allowed 10 Megs of stuff per person, we could get over 60 peoples worth of contributions. If other people think that would be worth it, they should speak up. Conclusion: Well that's everything. I would say that if we go on for a while, more free stuff will appear but it's going to take some time. Carrara/Raydream is a resurrected ghost and we're just trying to deal.

I got the boxed version of Carraras studio and it has veiwlet builder (linked) on the disk for creating tutorials. i played with it for about an hour and it is great! I went to the hostpage were all the veiwlets are hosteed and not ONE for Carrara. I would like to see some, espetialy modeling ones (I will make some in about 6 months when I have some talent). Shaders would be great for the novice. I Love the program and am very happy with my purchase. I have made some simple stuff and would love to post them but have had trouple with free ISPs- perhaps the solution is a Carrara website with a membership.

Great idea, Kixum ! Actually ... oh, i don't know if i can talk about it :P . I'll inform the mods team of your idea . Ppowellaa, you're absolutely right, the Viewlet builder is great ! So easy to use, and quick too . I'll try to make a tutorial with it next month, maybe a head modelling tutorial ? I think it would be kinda hard, but doable .

Hey litst, kindly do that head tutorial. I sincerely look forward to it. I'm working on several boat models which I'd gladly give away (old Chris Crafts) which I'd gladly give away when done if there was a way to do so. Best, Riv

Attached Link: http://www.thralldom.org/EDRing.html

you know everyone thinks I am kidding until they see it...this is one of about probably 20 webrings. I didnt even know such things existed except a few used to be on the featured links section of renderosity last year.

That Viewlet Builder thing looks interesting, if you have Windows. I still don't know why Eovia insists on excluding the MAC community. Seems to me that its in their best interest to find something cross-platform, especially when there is so much Free Windows 3D modeling apps out there to compete with.

Eovia isn't the editor of Viewlet Builder, Will, it's Quarbon . Eovia just distributes a re-designed version . It would be great if Quarbon would adapt Viewlet Builder to Mac .

I know Eovia didn't program it but, they did choose to work with Quarbon regardless of the limitations of the software. Quarbon says there is a MAC version "in the works". Again, its up to Eovia to put the pressure on Quarbon to just do it. I like Eovia & Carrara, it's in our collective interest that as many people support it as possible, developers included.

Attached Link: http://www.varian.net/dreamview/dreammodels/

Back to the original post, I'd like to mention a website you've probably never heard of -- my own. :) I've had a large section of Ray Dream shaders for download since nearly forever, plus I do have several models available in RDS format. I've got Carrara but haven't had any chance to play with it yet, although I understand the RDS items still work in Carrara. You're welcome to drop by and have a look around. :)

Varian, you really have some great stuff there. Really nice plants & trees, were they done in RDS? Thanks for posting the site, I do remember comming across it quite some time ago. x2000, sorry to stray off topic!

Willf, most of the trees were made in RDS; most of the plants with PlantStudio (www.kurtz-fernhout.com). I've tried out a lot of programs over the years, so there's a little bit of this and that in the other models, but most of them were from RDS. Cut my teeth in the FreeForm and Lathe modeler, and I keep going back to it as needed. :)

Thanks, Varian. You have some nice stuff there. I'm definitely heading back later when I have more time. Anyone one else have a link to share? Maybe we can put together a list of resources for newbies?

Attached Link: http://www.jabberdoggy.com

Well, you guys have got me thinking. Scary. I setup some web space for myself earlier this year (at the really boring link above), for the purpose of hosting free stuff like Cring, and tutorials. I especially wanted to work on tutorials that would encourage beginners and kids to try their hand at 3D. In fact, the only tutorials I have up there right now use Anim8or for modelling, instead of Carrara, because Anim8or is freeware. I plan to go back and add Carrara versions. Unfortunately, most of it is sitting idle right now, as good ol' Real Life has interfered with my plans. Nothing bad, just stuff keeping me busy. Anyway, maybe we could figure out a way to use my web space to host some Carrara freebies and tutorials. I'd still have some bandwidth limitations, but as it's sitting idle right now, maybe we could put it do some use. Right now it's a very plain vanilla website; I haven't done any real design or anything. It's divided up into two sections, CringWorld and 3DTutorials. Cring World was supposed to be for Cring freebies, though there's not much there yet. I do have some other critters in the works, though. 3D tutorials is set up based on type of project, with steps describing how to do things using different software. At least, that's the idea. If anyone is interested, please let me know. Maybe we can figure something out. --Terri

How do you install the Raydream shders in Carrara