I got Carrara yesterday (Woohoo!) and quickly clicked around and render the 3 balls in the tutorial folder. The render looked great. 1)But how does Carrara's renderer compare to 3d Max's? I haven't used 3D max much (have only seen it at my my friend's house) but I'm pretty sure 3D max's is quite a bit better (or am I wrong?). 2)Also if 3d Max's is better, how much better is it? 3)Does Carrara's renderer lacking in any features or quality? Thanks. -SanV

Oh and how is Carrara's renderer compared to Bryce 4 and Poser 4 (I'm pretty sure Poser's is the worst of the bunch?)? -SanV

Well MAX renders very very nice. I think it has very nice render quality. Others may not like it as much as I do. But, If you compare the price tag of Carrara vs MAX, you get more bang for your buck with Carrara. I think MAX is around $3000.00 us now.. ;) Poser renders well as does Bryce. They all have their own look...I think Bryce renders lanscapes and such better than the others. I usually render in Carrara because Bryces render engine is the slowest thing on the face of this earth. Its stupid slow... Poser renders really fast as does Carrara and Ray Dream Studio. Make sure to post some images when start pumping them out. :) Best regards and good luck, Clint

I too would say you shouldn't even be thinking Max vs. Carrara. Not when one costs 10 times more. I doubt Max is 10 times better than Carrara. It may be better, it may even be 2 times better, but I have my doubts on 10 times. I'm starting to use Carrara for my renders over Poser (I do not nor plan to get Bryce, I've got plans for Vue instead). In Carrara you simply have many more elements you can control. From shaders to lighting to enviromental effects and so on. I've only had Carrara a month and I've already found several effects I could not do with Poser's rendering engine. Of course it may be that I just couldn't figure out how... :) Besides, it sounds like you've already bought Carrara; so it's a bit late to be asking these questions. You're stuck with it now. :)

Yes, I've already bought Carrara (no way could I afford 3D Max!). I was just curious since the Carrara render of the 3 Balls tutorial file and the compositing tutorial's (which is amazing) render was extremely impressive. I don't have Poser or Bryce or Max (can't afford it) so I was just wondering what I was missing--and from the sound of the responses it sounds like I'm not missing much! Thanks all.

With Bryce or Vue you're missing a scenery builder. You can do that with Carrara but I hear the others make it much easier. And I've yet to see anything that can match Vue's plants. With Poser you're missing a body motion / model posing program. In any other app what poser does would be likely extremely difficult and time intensive. I don't render with Poser sure. But my work almost always seems to start there if it involves anything from the 'animal kingdom'. side of life. Pose it, then export it over to Carrara. Texture, light, and render.

Thanks Arcady. The question I have is why is Poser so expensive if it's only posing (I heard it's animation capabilities are bad)? Oh well. I guess I'll start saving for the next upgrade to Carrara :) -SanV