I am very much partial to the vertex modeling over nurbs and spline because the level of the level of control you have with vertex modeling. Although time consuming, it is well worth the time and effort. Good job Serge

Here is an example of a how-to with the the right tools at your disposal, Take the tire example I mentioned above, How will you create it? Some will say, "Start with a Torus" while others may start with a cylinder with a boolean subtraction from the middle. I personally do it differently. Shroud's tire with tread (radial) 1. I decide on the circumference of my tire and make a box equal length to the circumference. 2. Then I will decide on the width creating the box with more than 32 segments. 3. Then I would go into photoshop and create a displacement map of the tread that I want or some real tread that I scanned and grayscaled from a picture. 4. I apply my displacement map and delete the redundant planes and polygons. 5. I use a boolean subtract lengh-wise the box so I can make the tire hollow for future manipulation ie a blowout! 6. I decide on pertrusion near the rim or no pertrusion at all. 7. I bend the box 360 degrees into the donut shape of the a tire 8. I weld points and merge polygons and wala! a tire with designer treads There you have it. My way in 8 steps which is just as effective as the torus and the boolean cylinder method. All of this comes from experience and knowing the tools you are working with. Good Luck Shroud

That is very true, every time you look at a piece of art, movie, or listen to music, speach read books, view landscape, ride in a car, airplane etc.... You are partaking in the vision of another person. As humans our imaginations are as boundless as our abilities. (some will disagree) Nontheless if you think you will not be able to do it, you won't but if you do like me, I KNOW I CAN DO IT, you will. Most artist here work very hard and some not-so hard to put out great stuff and on the web. There are a variety of tools used to ease the production of our visions. I personally use may use up to seven different apps to finish one scene that another person could do with a single app. All I am saying is find the tools that you are comfortable with and learn them. Don't get Carrara or Lightwave just because someone else uses it. Get it, try it on for size. Is it the right interface for you, does it meet your needs? Then ask the other questions after you decide on solutions. The question I ask myself everytime I sit down to begin work is "What do I see." Then I break it down into detail. ie: I see a car, I see tires on the car, I see threads in the tires, I see goodyear on the side of the tire. Breaking down your vision is the path to detail and that is something that I think we all agree with.

I agree with you spanfarkle. The upgrade thing is one big mess and many times a waste of money for the amount of change one is paying for, especially if the next version only fix features that were supposed to have worked in the previous version. I sitll use Photoshop 5.2 and I am still using Lightwave 5.0. I will buy Lightwave 6.0 eventually but I have no need for it at the moment. I am still using 3D Studio Max r2.5 because I have no need for r3. The point that I am trying to make is "If it aint broke, Don't try to fix it!" All of this upgraded is for the most part unneccesary when you have intimate knowledge of the tool you are currently working with and in many cases, I have found cheap tools and plugs to fix any problems or shortcuts that I may need so try not to fall victim to the version scheme of business.

I STRONGLY suggest you move on to another 3D solution because right now Carrara's future is uncertain. There are better products out there with much more support and a far less degree of frustration

WinNT has better memory management than 98, however WinNT is not nearly as user friendly than 98. Most PROs do prefer NT over 95/98 and many don't use windows at all. Like 3DSmax and Lightwave or Maya which handles threads far better than Carrara, they will use more server class OS's to expand the boundaries of thier resources to serveral computers. Also Duals are many times better than single processors depending on what APP you are running. Carrara has SHITTY threads but it does run 1/3 times faster on my dual than my single. If the program was finished upon release, I am sure it would have run faster but it's okay.

I am running wintNT and I have not had such problems with GL rendering losing colors, although I do not render much in Carrara so. My answer maybe somewhat un-educated since I don't render so much in Carrara but when I have done so, I have never had any problems such as those that you have explained. Oh and on the multiple monitor kick, I am still a single monitor type of guy so I can offer you no help there.

I do use it with Carrara but mainly I use it for 3DSmax and Lightwave. I bought Carrara because I can model much faster with it than I can with my primary solutions. It works VERY WELL with Carrara but again I am running NT40 and I have yet to see Carrara ran under Win98 although many people do run it under 98, I have never seen it personnally so I cannot comment on it. But Yes the VX1 runs very well with Carrara and very fast also. So if you Carrara is one of your motivations for purchasing the card, oh then by all means go for it. VX1 + Carrara = A very happy user!

I am running a dual pIII 500 and it works great. I have the Oxygen VX1 and I must tell you that it is an excellent card, however operating system does make a difference in performance. I use it with NT4 but I have seen it used with 98 and it seems to run well. Best of all is it is a very fast card, however it does not have the fill rate of a Geforce or Voodoo card, it does however have GREAT texturing and Polygonal correctional tracking abilities. "No missing polygons etc...." There is no doubt that it is a good investment.

Well I just got my e-mail from Metacreations web master and here it is copied and pasted "I will be honest, there is no one left @ meta to support carrara or canoma, and until (read if) Adobe takes over the products, yes the customers will be left out in the cold." That's right folks this is the real deal in support of what bigserge stated. NO SUPPORT UNTIL(IF) ADOBE TAKES OVER!

I really like you Clint. I may not know you personally but you seem like a great guy man.

I see where you are coming from, but any user whom has really dug in and worked with Carrara knows that it cannot do all of the things advertised on the package and webpage. Bad functionallity of course, is not a crime but the part of the terms of sale were made on thier website. That is what sold thier product and it cannot do all of the things that they say it can do so false advertisement in itself is a pretense for Class action. Well that is my say. Like I said. This is the last time I buy a producted of lesser that Lightwave standard and notariety.

Look, I am tired of Carrara's bugs myself, luckly, I was a lightwave and 3D studio max owner before Carrara. Like I said before and as many others can see. Carrara has Great Potential but without support, it is dead in the water. Metacreations should go to a third party to fix these problems if there are no engineers. Who knows what Adobe is going to do with it. They may not even support current end users or may go a different route all together. This is definitely the last time I purchase anything less that the elite. It is reasons like this why I pride myself on the use of Lightwave, TONS of 1st $ 3rd PARTY SUPPORT

Wow that looks great Clint,

I don't quite understand the legal argument cutcopypaste, could you elaborate on your statement please. I understand the mathematical properties of X,Y,Z but I did not know there was a patent on it.