I'm not complaining - I'm excited to get C2 and have put my money down - but it doesn't seem that a whole lot has been "improved" over C1.1. Granted there's the new renderer (worth the money itself!) BONES!! and the great subdivision modeler. So, again, I'm not complaining. However, correct me if I'm wrong betas, but it doesn't appear that certain drawbacks of C1.1 have been addressed. Correct me if I'm wrong ... 1. No improved DofF 2. No improved motion blur 3. No improved 4 elements 4. No improved selection tools (any lasso in modeler?) 5. No Bevels I was hoping many of these things would be improved in C2 - but it appears that those things are still the same. I don't want to get over-hyped about C2 - any thoughts?

Some little corrections ... 1- same DOF 2- Same Motion blur 3- the Wind atmosphere has become the Sky atmosphere and has a new interface . Also, the terrains are now stored within the file, you can import up to 1024x1024 terrain maps and render to a 4096x4096 mesh . 4- selection has been improved . No lasso though . 5- no bevelling . Actually there's a lot of other stuff that has been improved, especially on the stability side . But you're right, overall there's still some lack of productivity in the soft :( litst

But some of this may be addressed in C2.1 or 2.5 or whatever mid-step upgrades they offer, eh? We can certainly hope, and petition them to address these issues.... That's what's so nice about working with a living program, as opposed to the orphaned RDS. (But thanks to Eovia for extending the sidegrade to C2....)

Concerning Motion Blur, i'd like to see a revival of Pseud Blur for RDS on Carrara 2 :) . I know, it's been two years i've started with this ... ;P

All right Mr. CanOfWorms. What's Pseud Blur? -Kix

Attached Link: http://member.nifty.ne.jp/escargot/eng_PblurInfo.html

Hehe, is it my new official nickname ??? ;) Pseud Blur was a great free plug-in for RDS that simulates Motion Blur quite efficiently . See the link ! litst

I always thought RD had a better DOF and soft shadows too. While I'm clearly showing ignorance, what is Phong shading? and, Has anybody heard if Eovia is going to flesh out the shader engine to include diffusivity and translucency? I've also read that other codes also provide a setting for blurring reflections. I'm guessing diffusivity would take care of blurring refractions. and litst, What was the smoky/milky thingamathing in your ice cube? Was that another 3D object you buried in there? Thanks for all the other stuff so far. It's been great to give us a heads up! -Kix

Attached Link: http://www.chez.com/litst/files/movies/icecubes.htm

Heya Kix, I don't think there was any motion blur at all built in RDS ... The only Motion blur around was the free Pseud Blur plug-in to my knowledge .And you're right, the soft shadows were better, but they were much slower too ! Phong is like Gouraud . It's the same, the only difference is that it's not the same . But it's the same ;) No comment about Fresnel reflections or transparency ... The Smoke in the icecube is a 4D Volumetric Cloud . A simple trick to simulate the inside of the ice in this case . By the way, i've uploaded an anim i've rendered lately . It shows four icecubes falling on a tiled floor, with physics and caustics . See the link ! I'll try to get all my stuff uploaded on my website today, will keep you updated when it happens . Later, litst

That ice cube animation is amazing. I feel like a little boy waiting for Christmas. I can't wait for Carrara Studio 2 to arrive. Keith

Thanks Keith :) About blurred reflections, they're quite a pain to do right now . To make this image, i've applied a noisy bump to the shader (Scale to 1 and X, Y, Z scales to 1) . I've rendered at 4000x3000 with fast AA , and then resized it down in Photoshop to 400x300 (!) . I've also applied a Smart Blur of 0.5 pixels with a tolerance of 10 . The result isn't bad, but it's not perfect :( . And the noise affected the highlight too . Later, litst

Nice Ice cubes! Have you tried applying noise in the reflection channel for blurring? Also, when you say "Smart Blur" do you mean you blurred the sphere? -Kix

Here is one that they improved on. The object Blur. Ringo

Oh yeah that's right, the blur function has been improved ! I've forgot about this one ;P Kix, the Smart Blur i was referring to is a filter in Photoshop (i use version 5) For blurring reflections, i used the Smart Pack noise by Eric, but i think it would work the same with Noise Factory or even spots . litst

Well, I assume they haven't upgraded the shader and the shader tree. Hopefully they will at at some point. I think Carraras shader system is great, however, it only needs a couple improvements to make it truly unbeatable: 1) A translucency channel 2) Anisotropic highlights 3) BRDF for blending layers with different highlight, shininess, transparency and reflection properties. 6) A gradient channel with options to blend on incidence, camera, or normal vector. and the true holy grail... 7) BSSDF for blending layers with subsurface scattering of light within layers. Just some thoughts.....

I want #6 and #7 !!! But ... What happened to #4 and #5 ???

I knew I forgot something..... 4) More fractal noise types and more shapes in the spot shader. 5) Blurred reflection,refraction and transparency In addition to everything else..... :) Actually, I have been doing a whole lot of shader and explorations in carrara recently. Some of the renders I may post in a new thread...... Furthermore, I have yet to figure out how to post to the gallery ....