Thanks, guys. These are definitely what I'm looking for. Marc

I agree with Ringo. Poser is fairly clunky compared to Carrara but be sure to get at least Digital Carver Guild's ShaderOps for much more flexibility. Marc

Pinklet, Even without a re-write, you could start up a second process, couldn't you? Eric, thanks, I'll try Patrick.

Veloute and ShaderOps all the time.
Anything grows frequently
Anything goos, just got it but looks useful.
Anything grooves, almost never (nice concept but there are often better ways to accomplish this affect)
Starbright, occasionally but wouldn't recommend it (could stand to be redone)
Shader Gel: use it occasionally but nice when you need it
ToonPro, just got but love it. (Here's something I did with ToonPro + lots of postwork).
http://www.renderosity.com/viewed.ez?galleryid=1050637&Start=1&Artist=marcq&ByArtist=Yes

ShaderPlus: I'd only get if you have a specific need for it but useful.
Seems like I'm forgetting a few but I don't use the others much.

For particles, I really like ParticleIllusion which is a 2D, post-render tool. I find it much better than the existing Carrara particle system. An enhanced particle system in Carrara would be nice but for most of what I do, PI is better and faster. But then again, I don't do animations. Most of the particle effects in my gallery are PI.

Marc

Thanks for the fabulously quick reply! Given that you had the anything grows safe mode, I knew it had to have been tested together. Figured it was something I was doing. Thanks, Marc

I think Bryce skies are still better than Carrara. However, if you get the DCG plug-ins (and whoever sells Veloute now), you can model and shade terrains better than bryce, from my experience.

I switched from Bryce to Carrara about 18 months ago. I used to use Bryce for occasional terrains and skies. Now it is just for the occasional sky.

Also, Carrara seems to be evolving much more quickly than Bryce which hasn't moved much in the last few years.

Just a few thoughts...

Marc

Can't speak to the ease of texturing Poser figures in Bryce vs Carrara. I used Bryce a lot but not for Poser. Rendering is much faster in Carrara. I don't know the technical specs for the Bryce render engine but I don't think it has many of the optimizations that the CS3 engine has for speed plus the Global Illumination render engine is very, very cool.

Bryce beats Carrara for skies and terrain modeling. With CS3 Carrara has comparable texturing for terrains and has always had better texturing for non-terrains.

For complex scenes such as Poser figure rendering, I much, much prefer Carrara's lighting, texturing and rendering.

I used Bryce for 4 years before finally tiring of its limitations. I switched to CS3 this summer and have never looked back.
One other point: since I switched this year, Eovia has put out a very powerful enhancement (CS3) whereas I hear Bryce may be end-of-life.

Marc

Hi, Ben, You probably want to post this as a new post rather than a followup to this thread; you will get more answers that way. I switched from Bryce5 to Carrara in April. Not familiar with RD5, though, so can't answer abuot RD. Carrara can be used to create objects for Bryce. But unless you do landscapes, you'll probably switch to Carrara, it is much more capable. marc

Optional stuff I hadn't decided on:
bump or geometry gouges in the table,
off scene candle flames to reflect on glass

As always, comments very much appreciated.

Marc

Thanks on the wings! They are a modified form of Thornework's universal wings available as a freebie on DAZ. I use the dragion fly texture and bump map. Thorneworks just has a pair of planes for the wing's geometry. I wanted to be able to bend them more easily so I used Amapi to make a mesh in the exact shape of the wings. (Amapi will let you put a picture in the drawing plane to trace over; LH has taht as a plugin for CS2.1, don't know if it is a CS3 feature.) It wasn't perfect, had to stretch the textures a little to fit but worked pretty well. Of course, after all that, I haven't curled the wings much but, hey, it's possibel, darn it ;) Marc PS If you want to see some ugly wings, check out the WIP link at the top. I started off with some fancier wings from DAZ (not free) but I don't care for the look in the scene...

Yeah, I was holding off on the plates for similar reasons. Just wanted to make sure the size came across immedaitely. The book of matches is an interesting idea; I'll have to give it some thought. If I can get my table to look the way I want it to (big if) then it probably won't be needed. Thanks, Marc

Good catch on the elbow! Hadn't noticed. One of my buddies things I need more size cues. I was thinking of adding a plate and fork on the left? What do you think? I'll probably wait until I see what I can manage on the table. it will have individual planks which may convey size well enough. Marc

Hi, Kix, I have noticed the floating heel problem. What soft shadows option are you talking about? I'm using the one on the light's effect's tab. What's the other one? I only see that one in the manual. I'm still using CS2.1. I have the beta but I like my plugins and haven't switched yet. I was thinking of turning off soft shadows entirely because GI seems to have already softened up the shadows (and I don't like the floating heel effect.) Marc

I'll check the glass model. I hadn't notice that probelm in other renders. It is an amapi object for the glass, not a spline object. Anyone seen this type of issue with the amapi import plugin? I understand it is somewhat buggy... DOF sounds interesting. I might experiment with that. From other's posts, it seems a bit touchy, though. Have you had good luck with it? I haven't used it yet. Marc

That's Bryce, not Bruce ;-)