fantasy3d posted at 10:47PM Wed, 05 September 2018 - #4335615

dr_bernie posted at 2:06PM Sat, 01 September 2018 - #4335571

From an animation point of view, especially character animation, Carrara is so weak, and IClone is so strong, that if you use Carrara over IClone, well, sorry to tell you, but you just don't know what you are doing.

Interesting, but didn't you just decide to purchase, and start using Lightwave instead of Carrara? If you have truly started using Lightwave, why are you back here singing the virtues of iClone (and I do wonder, since a while back you indicated you were going to use Shade 3D instead of Carrara, then Lightwave ... what .... a week ago, now your promoting iClone)??

Funny that you tell anyone using Carrara for character animations that they don't know what they are doing. I would think if they are doing it successfully they would know quite well what they are doing. Maybe you could show us an animations with iClone, or Lightwave, or even Shade 3D, that you have done, so that we can better understand your real experience in this to better understand the value of your recommendations, not just that you have read it and looked at others works and think in therory it's a good idea (I've been involved in many instances where when theory makes it to reality, things just don't work as predicted).

I agree, iClone has turned into a great tool, and may be better than Carrara for the things it is designed to do, but to make a blanket statement about anyone using Carrara for character animation "you just don't know what you are doing" is, well ..... simply wrong on so many levels (not to mention a direct insult to Carrara animators).

Seriously, maybe you should focus your creative energy on learning Lightwave, or what ever your program of choice is, rather than continuing what seems to be a personal crusade to lure people away from Carrara. Here I thought you had found the perfect program for you, but maybe not?? I'm sure that if someone wants to "move on" from Carrara, they will find your posts, and ask to see how you like Lightwave (or maybe other software, but if you don't use it, they may not). They may also ask the forum for recommended alternatives, at which time your experience may be quite helpful. But, until then, maybe it would be a good idea for you to move on, and get past what seems to be a bit of a vendetta against DAZ 3D and Carrara??

Of course, I might be wrong, you may have only good intentions with your posts. If this is the case, I sincerely apologize. I this is the case, maybe if your posts seemed a little less antagonistic toward the Carrara community, then I might not mis-read your intentions? The post I quoted is a prime example, tell people they don't know what they are doing, when you don't have work you have done yourself to show as examples, is very antagonistic. If you were to show an animation you did in Carrara, and show the same animation that you did in iClone, and discuss the technical details between the two, and why you found iClone to be much better, I would consider that very valuable and thoughtful input. Input like that would create discussion, and possibly illuminate methods within Carrara that would help the workflow, as well as highlight features needed in Carrara to match those found in iClone.

Anyway, sorry for the long post, I do hope you find the software that makes you happy and productive. Obviously though, Carrara is not the software for you.

@ fantasy3d:

I would like to start my reply to you by saying: Aaaaah, at last. I repeat: Aaaaaah, at last I got someone's attention at Daz3D.

Let me explain. You signed-up in these forums 3 years ago, this is your first and only post, you have no gallery activities here or at Daz (as far as I can tell), and you appear to have carefully read all of my recent posts. The only possibility is that you are someone from Daz3D, probably someone in the upper management, most definitely someone authorized to speak for the company.

I am actually very glad that after so many years of silence about Carrara's fate, an official from Daz is here to provide some explanations.

First let me get 2 quirks out of the way, before explaining why I'm doing this.

The first quirk is that my telling that someone who chooses Carrara over IClone for character animation doesn't know what he/she is doing may be rough language, but by no means it is an insult. Re-read all my recent posts and you will see that I have been subjected to some very rough replies.

The second quirk is that I believe it is utterly unprofessional, repeat UTTERLY UNPROFESSIONAL, for Daz to stay silent about Carrara for so long, always letting its user base guessing what will happen next.

The way Daz3D has treated Carrara users, where many of them still believe there will be a Carrara 9 released very soon, is nothing short of torturing them.

As a comparison, when about 3 years ago, Autodesk decided to no longer develop or support one of their 3D apps - Softimage XSI - They made a public announcement to that effect, and that was the end of it.

Why won't Daz management make a statement about Carrara being dead and no more developed? At least that would be neat, clean, and respectful.

Having taken, hopefully, those 2 quirks out of the way, let me explain what I am doing.

About 3 years ago, I set aside a budget of $4,000.- to buy Maya. After using a demo version, I realized that Maya is not for me, so I spent my budget on Shade3D, Cheetah3D, Lightwave and IClone, Yes all four of them, including plugins and goodies. On the whole, it did actually cost me less than Maya.

I don't have the intention, nor the abilities at this time, to create artistic masterpieces with any of these 4 apps. I am only learning and, on occasions, I compare their features to Carrara's, and I sometime post my findings here, hoping that it will benefit others too.

It's like what a magazine like 'Consumer Reports' does. They take products, compare them, and publish the results.

Since my articles are always Carrara related and its itended audience is Carrara users, the most appropriate place to post them is in the Carrara forum, not in IClone or Lightwave or Shade3D forums.

To terminate this long article, l hope that you guys at Daz3D will have the courage to come-out and state publicly that Carrara is dead, and no future release of Carrara is to be expected.