Thank you for the update, Kixum!

And thank you for bringing us a saner representation of the events than what can be gathered from the news.

Good luck with your efforts! And I hope the after shocks are quieting down.

Thank you! I'll try my best.

animajikgraphics,

Thank you! I'm imressed that it's free, too. And I will definitely check out the user groups in my area. Thank you!**
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animajikgraphics, thank you! These links are super helpful!

Do I understand correctly that the registration of the September NYC event is not open yet? Or is it done through some special registration (just for members or something like it)?

Mark: Thank you! This is very much appreciated.**
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animajikgraphics: Thank you for the advice! I am working along these lines already, and you are witnessing me start networking :) I am familiar with the 3d and graphics periodicals such as 3dWorld, 3D Artist, ImagineFX, Carrara 3D Expo and read them regularly. Did you have a more video/film production design oriented publication in mind? I would appreciate some pointers in that direction.

Sueposer: Thanks! I am looking for such opportunities.**
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Thank you so much for posting. I add my good wishes to you and Japan to all already shared here. And I totally agree with rexus -- the way you handle things is beyond impressive.

rexus, I can test for you if my setting arr different from yours and if it will help. I have WinXP 64 bit, and Carrara 8 Pro 8.1.97 at the moment. And I have a lot of unfinished scenes, which I need to go back to and improve with better lighting and other interesting elements.

About the store, there is http://poserdirect.com/ designed and created by MrSparky. I know MrSparky likes and uses Carrara, so there might be a chance that he will welcome your Carrara submissions at his store. His store is run with the idea of offering affordable solutions, so I think your idea is very much similar and there might be a good collaboration opportunity there.

Hope this helps.

rexus, you continue to impress and amaze me! :) I'd love to see the idea elaborated when you have time. Would the shape would be limited to the cube?

Very impressive indoor lighting too. Is that another planned product?

rexus, thank you! :) I very much look forward to both your product and your experiments.

Mark, there is probably a way to cheat using models (I'm thinking that metaballs could probably be useful for this) even if the cliud system can't do it.

But as rexus said, I really do believe in Carrara when it is used by capable imaginative people like rexus, yourself or DT over at DAZ, to name just a few of my favorite C-innovators.

To get back to the original post:

The scenes in the previw are amazing. Are you planning to make them into a product?

BTW, is there a way to get the really smooth-looking cumulonimbus clouds using Carrara's clouds or some plg-ins? I mean clouds like in this image, for example: http://nmazca.com/yeoju/corea_cumulonimbus.jpg

Thank you. I haven't tried this file yet, but I do appreciate all the helpful information you have posted in this Forum. I recently used your "Old Cloud as Rain" solution to create some very nice background snow with very few modifications to the settings you provided. Fast and very effective. Thank you!

Just to be absolutely fair, I've had the open-hand cursor get stuck in other apps too when videos were played (just the apps that do have the open hand cursor for scrolling and such), so I'm not entirely sure it's Carrara's issue really.

Thank you! This is very impressive.

That's not exactly what I meant, I'm sorry for the lack of clarity.

I know how to add displacement maps, but it is my understanding that in Carrara the quality of displacement depends on the fidelity of geometry.

So what I was asking was more along the lines of how many polygons did you use on that plane to get the displacement working correctly. (and whether you needed to use displacement at all for that image)

Mark, about your image: How does Carrara handle the dysplacement maps? Did you use just the normal map for your image?

(sorry to ask twice, but it seems the question got burried in the CB version discussion)