Great job of incorporating suggestions and trying out more of your own vision. The textures are really great and the new timbers work well. There are always a million different ways to do something, and as artists, we spend a lot of time trying out those million ways. Only the artist can look at his/her work and say this is "done". Usually that means, they've learned what they want or need and are ready to move on to another project. At least that's how it works for me. Thank you for sharing this project from its rough beginnings to a very successful conclusion.

I'm not sure how you would avoid a positive comment, but point taken. You could try changing the mapping projection on the wood pillars. I, myself, would probably increase the resolution of the original shader or create a new one. You could also use some small bulb lights or such between each flame and the pillars since they appear not to throw any light on them for as close as they are.

If you're looking for clip art as in models, most of those items are on the Carrara content CD, although they are in serious need of shading and modifications. If you're looking for 2D type artwork for backdrops/backgrounds, ArtToday (arttoday.com) has tons of free gifs and jpegs, and if you become a member ($29.95 for a year) all of the art is available as higher-resolution tif and eps files.

I currently use both programs (Mac versions). Carrara has most everything that RDS 5.5 has and was indeed intended to replace RDS 5.5. There will be no further upgrades to RDS. Carrara has a completely differet interface - very similar to Poser & Bryce, if you are familiar with those programs. It is much faster than RDS in most areas particularly in on-screen rendering and in the mesh form modeler. The big advantage to me of RDS, besides the fact I've used it for years and am more familiar with it, is it is more stable (as long as the appropriate patches for your particular system have been applied) I can work in the program all day without a crash or freeze. Memory requirements are less for RDS for it to function well, but ALL 3D needs lots of memory to get the most out of it. Carrara is buggy. It seems to be on an almost individual basis as to how buggy. The Mac version seems to have more problems. I believe most of those problems are related to the program's "access memory routines", since that is when all of my freezes and crashes take place. However, by changing the way I work, I've been able to run the program in a semi-stable fashion for longer periods and get more done. Now the bad news: The future of RDS is Carrara and the future of Carrara is in limbo. There are encouraging reports that Adobe or the original engineers or both will continue to develop Carrara, but they are all playing the "Can't talk about it" game. If you want a program as a workhorse that you can crank out models and scenes in a stable environment and aren't as concerned about render speeds, having a new version come out, or the latest bells 'n whistles, then RDS is a great program (it has quite a few bells 'n whistles itself). If you can tolerate the occasional freeze or crash (you may not have any), want a really cool and easy to use interface, need a better mesh form modeler, faster rendering and a very powerful shader tree system, plus the "possibility" of an upgrade, then go with Carrara; it is RDS on steroids and has a tremendous amount of potential. Just my two cents on the subject.

I use RDS 5.5 with OS 9.04, but you do indeed need the .01 patch which is specifically for OS 9 compatibility. Did you try going to MC's ftp site? ftp://ftp.metacreations.com/pub/Applications/ If you cannot get to it still, then email me and I can see about sending it to you. I don't know how legal that is but I'm fed up with MC actions regarding these products and years of loyal customers.

You're right Spanfarkle. My apologies. The wording is slightly different and I neglected to read it more carefully. Nonetheless, I believe the comments by Antoine are good news for the future of Carrara, whether Adobe only "licenses" the technology for their own product or takes over the whole shebang; development will apparently continue. Maybe all this cloak-and-dagger secrecy and veiled possibilities is intended to gauge how much interest there really is for Carrara. I for one will continue using the program as long as it will run on my computers and produce the type of images I want to produce even if the program is abandoned. But then I still think RDS is a great program and continue to use it, so what do I know? As a matter of fact, I'll be posting my "Feed My Dreams" image this weekend created using both programs.

Yes, that's the original statement Adobe put up there, It's been there over a month, that I know of. However, here's some good news: according to the posts from Antoine Clappier and others on eGroups, Carrara will continue and very likely in its current form. According to one plug-in developer, who claims to have spoken with Adobe about it, he will be able to get the SDK for Carrara by registering for it at Adobe's site. Though Antoine (and everyone involved) is constrained by that NDA nonsense here are his recent comments (this week) about the situation. Hopefully, he won't mind my putting this info here since all of us are just as concerned with Carrara's future and have a right to be kept informed. Please pardon the long post: Dear Dreamers, First of all, thank you for the numerous emails you sent me and the messages on the list. It demonstrates that I am not working for nothing. Chad has asked whether there will be a Carrara V2 or not and if the Carrara user interface will be maintained. If I succeed to achieve what I am currently working on, I can say that Carrara V2 will be released in the future and that the user interface will be maintained and enhanced. What I was meaning by "saving Carrara" (perhaps not the best term I could have used!) is that I do not intend to simply try saving some parts of Carrara. What I want is what you want: a complete Carrara with a real future. What I want is a better stability, new features and a strong user community. I will keep you updated whether the news are good or not. Antoine Clappier Dear Dreamers, It appears that there are still false rumors about Carrara. Here is one last time the facts: 1- Carrara and Adobe: It has been publicly announced that Adobe is in process to license Carrara source code. 2- Carrara and MetaCreations / MetaStream: The board of the company has decided in December 1999 to divest the software of MetaCreations. This does not mean that the people remaining in the company have no interest in Carrara. People care about Carrara and want a future for this product. 3- Why the Carrara situation is different compared to other MC products? The answer is straightforward: the announce of the board has taken place 2 days after the shipping of Carrara. The other MetaCreations products have a long history behind them and are easier to divest. 4- Where is Carrara ? Where is the SDK ? Until an official press release is posted by MetaCreations, Carrara remains the property of MetaCreations. The SDK has never been released by MetaCreations. Selected developers has received a beta version of the SDK. I don't think that MetaCreations will grant SDK licenses before the transition is completed. 5- What I am doing in the middle of this ? Am I alone ? Carrara has an exceptional architecture, an innovative user interface, an excellent feature set: all the key factors to be a successful product. If I wasn't believing in the future of the product, I would say so and move on. I am not alone to think that. Both inside and outside MetaCreations there are people who believe in Carrara and are working on it. 6- So, does Carrara have a future ? The answer is definitely yes. 7- What you should do next ? Do some 3D ! 8- What you should NOT do ?! Try not to analyse word by word what I am writting (see Hank Blakely excellent post on the subject)! There is no subliminal message in my emails. I simply try to keep you updated on what is going on. Each time we post on this list there are 877 readers and I guess that while there are remaining silent they are getting fed up with the rumors. So, if you have a comment, question, insults, hate mails to send about this post, send it to me: antoinecl@h... Antoine Clappier It all sounds like good news to me, and especially the advice in 7 :^)

Also, in case you are interested in another place to get the update as well as several other plugins and goodies for RDS, try here: http://members.xoom.com/_XMCM/RDSO/rdso__freebies.htm

You shouldn't feel small. I know how you feel, though. I've been a graphic designer/illustrator most of my life and am constantly intimidated by the quality and vision of other artists' work until I remember that no matter how "good" a person is there is always someone better and someone worse. In other words, you are always in the middle. Besides, those terms of "worse", "good", "better", etc. are all subjective and not everyone agrees with them on any particular piece. Technical prowess comes only through practice, practice, practice - it's something anyone can learn to do. "Vision" is what usually sets apart the "great" artists - they use the same tools and yet, they somehow come up with greater looking things. Vision is unique to each person, and that is what you need to tap when creating. Your experiences which have shaped your way of looking at the world are unique to you - developing that combined with practice, practice, practice and getting comfortable with your tools will allow "your" great art to come out. Just a small rant about art which you can take with a grain of salt, but I believe we are all artists looking to express ourselves in one way or another and the key is discovering our personal vision.

I believe we need to be heard by Adobe now, before they solidify their "e-commerce" solution for Carrara. I didn't find any place to directly contact someone in the know, and they probably wouldn't reply because of their "we don't comment on unreleased software" policy, but I did go to their support section where they ask for suggestions for new features or fixes for their products. They don't list Carrara but there's a space for "Other". I don't expect a reply of any kind, but maybe if enough of us contact them in this way and point them in the direction of these forums, maybe they will make some kind of announcement to give us a clue.

You can use the "Wind" effect in Scene settings and select/adjust the scene environment to your heart's content. Not the same, I know, but more truthful to your scene. Maybe there's a way to place the maps in a reflective channel if you have no scene to reflect; Mark? KPT 5's Shapeshifter also uses environment maps, and I'm in the process of trying some those in my shaders to see what comes up. I'm also very interested in the answer to your question

I think it's looking really good. My suggestion on the lily pads would be to make them slightly thinner and drop them slightly in the water. How about a little reflected green light on the pier? Maybe an old tin can to go with the pole? Hey, I've got some worms! Excellent work, Stacey mclarsen (Chez)

Mark, without a doubt, you are the shader king. One of the most realistic brick walls I've seen this side of reality. You inspire me to dig deeper into shader territory. Just an observation - the champagne glasses look a little too bright for the light and draw my attention away from the palette.

Pretty much all of the activities you do in programs of all sorts are held in ram until you save to disk. When the Mac crashes or is shut down, it attempts to rescue the contents of ram which would be whatever you were doing before said crash or shut down. Sometimes the rescued files are usable, sometimes not. The minimum memory amount set in the memory control panel is close to the stated system requirements which is what the program needs to have all of its functions available. And you are right, ram requirements will be directly relative to the size of the file you are working with. As will the number of undos you can expect to obtain. Some programs will open with a fairly small amount of ram, yet do not run optimally without much more, such as Photoshop - it'll open with 24mb ram but it doesn't begin to hum without at least three times that much. Now I'm rambling but yes, you make perfect sense.

Just wanted to say I like the image. I get a sense of something about to happen like mugging or murder or Spawn is about to make an appearance. Is that your graffitti art? Also cool.