Digital Carvers Guild is proud to announce our newest extension for Carrara, Shader Ops.

Shader Ops is a collection of shader operators for Carrara that add functionality to every existing Carrara shader. Apply shaders based on real world coordinates, put an end to the limit of 30 tiles, and adjust the brightness of any shader. These are just a few of the functions provided by Shader Ops.

Like all DCG tools, Shader Ops supports an evaluation mode so you can try before you buy. During evaluation, Shader Ops will stay locked in it's default values. You can download and try out Shader Ops for the PC here or for the Mac here.

Eric Winemiller
Digital Carvers Guild
Freeware and commercial 3D extensions
http://digitalcarversguild.com

Excellent ! :) I've never understood why there were so few operators in Carrara . Shader Ops sure fills a gap . It looks like it can help a lot to make easily editable shaders too . Thanks Eric . litst

Hey Eric, Are we ever going to see a shader which has the same kind of capability as the Terragen Shader engine? That would really be very cool! -Kix

Kix, I haven't seen Terragen's Shader engine so I can't really say. If it's similiar to Bryce's, I would argue that Carrara's is already more powerful. Carrara may be missing some of the noise functions from Bryce (easy to change), and might be a little complicated to get the result you want (not easy to change), but overall has more options. If Terragen is something completely different, then I'm just babbling and you can ignore me. Eric Winemiller Digital Carvers Guild Freeware and commercial 3D extensions http://digitalcarversguild.com

I have a question about Shader Ops . . It's going to sound kind of "smart alecky", but it's not. Here it is: Why should I buy Shadder Ops? What I mean by that, is . . what are some examples of its usefulness? How could they be used with other shader functions to improve renderings? Eric, what limitations did YOU personally see with Carrara that made you develope Shader Ops. Just so there's no confusion . . I love the Digital Carvers Guild extensions (I've got em' all, and bring on more, I say). But I've found that there isn't enough documentation that explains their possible uses. Maybe I'm just being whiney, but sometimes they can be downright befuddling. :) -Otis

Otis, You are right, I haven't put together any images or tutorials like I do with most releases. Without that it's hard to see what possible use this tools has. Unfortunately it's sort of the nature of the tool. Because Shader Ops just modifies the output of existing shaders it's hard to build a scene, point, and say "see there is a Shader Op!" It's not so obvious a tool as Anything Grooves. The limitations I saw that prompted me to build Shader Ops are these. First, I was never happy with what I could do with the built in functions and some of my own. I found myself looking at a Mixer function with Noise in it thinking "I wish this had more contrast", or " was brighter", etc. Several of the tools are designed to do that. The other biggie for me was Real UV. Last year I picked up Light Wave. It's a great tool and really shows how much more mature it is over Carrara. There is a tremendous depth of features. Of course it's nearly 10x the cost and the UI feels more grown than designed. Since I still do 99.99% of my personal stuff in Carrara, never really getting hooked on Light Wave, I thought of stuff that would make my Carrara experience easier. One of the things I found really helpful, especially in architectural stuff, is projection mapping based on world coordinates. So if you know your brick texture is 7' by 7', it can be 7' by 7' instead of a poor approximation you get by tiling it 2 x 2 on your 10' object. It really solves a lot of scale problems for that sort of thing. I hope that helps. Additionally Shader Ops is one of those sort of tools that downloading and playing in evaluation mode a little might illuminate some of the possibilities. In the meantime I will be working on getting some tutorials and images so that it's lack of obviousness can be overcome. Thanks, Eric Winemiller Digital Carvers Guild Freeware and commercial 3D extensions http://digitalcarversguild.com

Eric, Thanks for the great response. I said it before and I'll say it again, I love the DGC extensions. A big "thanks" to for opening up Carrara with your tools. Regarding Shader Ops . . I understand that it's not as flashy an extension as Anything Glows/Grooves, and its functionality not easily shown. I just wanted to get a little more info (and I got it). I know what you mean about Lightwave. I have a similar beef over 3DS MAX. I've used it, and I hate the interface. It's like creating art on a calculator. Personally, I see great possibilities in Carrara. 3DS MAX and other programs may be more powerful, but they really live and die by two things (IMHO): 1. The artist at the wheel. 2. Plug-Ins and extensions to the program. The same two points apply just as well to Carrara. I've seen some beutiful work done with C by some wonderful artists, and your extensions are a welcome addition to the paintbox. Keep up the good work. -Otis