yeah Detemeat..im jealouse...I just read my post above and I still can't believe that I defended intel..first time in my life I ever did that...but overheating is a valid point. This summer I am building my dream machine and its definalty going to be dual AMD machines... I love them..I do worry about the heat tho. On my 900 tb here at home I have to have the case off or it overheats...that thing has like 4 fans and its not enough :( Are you having any prob's with XP? Lots of people on yahoo groups seem to be having problems. I just bought a laptop with XP on it and I have to say that while its very pretty, its just not as stable as win2000pro....now I will have to format it :(

this may sound dumb but do you get that error when you render also? I use openGL on my computer and in the assembly room it always looks like it uses the wrong texture, but when I do a render it shows up. could be way off..but sometimes you have to eliminate the obvious :)

I use a dual p4 xeon system @ work..so here's my unprofessional thoughts. Get a dual processor system if you do tons of rendering. If you do more modeling then rendering then you would be 10,000 times happier with dual monitors over dual processors. Dual monitors would make your life sooo much easier...esp in the real of video editing. As for intel vs. amd .... amd is blistering fast. Carrara renders faster on my 900mhz tb then it does on my friends 1.4gig p4. Just make sure that the motherboard you purchase is an awesome motherboard. There are some really sucky motherboards for amd. The compatablitiy problems you may have heard about where all the motherboard manufactors problems. BUT...the p4 definatly has its place. Toms hardware just did a review of a fan failure....the p4 cuts its speed in 1/2 and then a few minutes later the motherboard shut down before the processor burnt down. The AMD athlon was so hot I think it took about 45secs for it to start smoking and burn out. I love athlons..they are rock solid, very very fast, and much much cheaper to purchase. The problem is that if you do animations like I do and you have to leave the computer on for days or weeks at a time you may want the security that comes with a intel chip. just remember that most programs do not support dual processors. My feeling is that in terms of editing I would rather edit on a p3 500mhz computer with dual 21" monitors then have 1 19" monitor and dual processors. Dual processors are great, but dual monitors (IMHO) are much more worth the money.

If you want a better modeler there are alternatives. Check out amapi or just do what I do...www.wings3d.com. It does almost everything amapi does and its nicer (IMHO). Outside of bones I really want a better way to texture my stuff. I have high hopes for Carrara now. I think the merger with amapi will allow for a lot of the amapi tech to seap into carrara making a much nicer and more stable app.

Well its nice to see that they are admitting to it now outside of the email group. Rumor has the release at a june/july time I think. The real question is how do I get in the beta?

Attached Link: http://www.wings3d.com

Well for people who are searching archives on this topic...it looks as tho adobe has no importers for even the windows version of photoshop..if you need it your sol...

Along with Bones I am hoping for support for Quads. I do a ton of my modeling in wings3d/nendo and it is so annoying to have to triangulate my meshes after working so hard to keep nice edge loops.

So what is the problem with my machine? It keeps saying that wmf is not a valid format. I think my photoshop is screwy b/c I see some other files that I thought it could open are not opening. Maybe I have to call adobe? It takes forever to register that stupid product.

That blur at the end was a ice-plug-nn for Avid Media Composer. It is call light burst....and no chip the girl @ the beginning is not cgi :) I refuse to try people until C2 shows up with some bones.

nyar1ath0tep... the codec I used is not mac friendly. Its microsofts version of mpeg4 so I would be surprised if you saw any video at all. I would make it work on mac format but I only have 6megs on my ftp so there is no room for any other version. Clint...yeah you can do what ever you want with charter. Your neighbors might hate you tho :) Just dont tell your neighbors about your website and you'll be fine. The have some really cool tech tho so they have just bumped up the bandwith in your area to handle it. I dont know much about the tech part of cable. I just edit video's...and get my free cable services :)

I dont think there is any 3d program that can totally solve your problem. The 3d is just one element. Yes carrara should be able to generate the objects with the alpha mattes that you need. In order to generate the scenes you speak of, what you need is a compositing program like aftereffects from adobe. if money is a problem then there are two cheaper versions that are free: http://www.lerstad.com/mmstudio/ http://moppi.inside.org/demopaja/ These programs are very hard to use and lack the plug-inns that adobe has but they are free and you can see if you have the skills to pull off what you need. You need to become a chromakey master before you become the 3d master if you want to see your ideals come to life...have fun :)

Keithw is right. I worked on a project that was made in cad. they wanted me to texture and spin it for a video. there CAD program cost $10k...apparantly it would not export 3d...they had all the export options like vrml, iges, .dxf etc...apparantly part of the program would munch it all to 2d. You might have to tell you client he needs a better version of the cad program hes using. Also realise that many many companies use proprietary versions of cad so they may have someone on staff who can right an exporter for you that will do 3d to .obj or something.

I have a question about installing it. I have carrara 1.0 .. is the only way to install physics to first install a c1.00 then upgrade to 1.01 then install 1.1 ? is there way to just extract the files from the cd and dump it into 1.1? I want to play with the physics but the onlyway I have heard to do it is to install c1.1 over 1.01 and right now I am just way to busy (lazy?) to reinstall everything.

I have a question about the plug-in. I would love to have it but I am afraid...I keep hearing that the plug-in is missing alot of functions of the stand-alone? Is that true? If I have the stand-alone is it a pain to use with carrara? I have heard that the plug-in doesnt allow you to creat anything..it just let you modify some already created tree's, while the stand alone lets you create new types of tree's...anythoughts on this??