I want to be talented and I'm willing to spend whatever it takes!

I'm looking for more realism than I can get from P8 - the kind of realism I see in the galleries with Carrara. I'm also sick of MicroSmith acting like I'm the only person in the world with a (fill-in-the-blank) problem.

But the idea of learning a new program makes me want to go lie down.

I guess what I want is to be able to do all my set-up in Poser8, then import the scene into Carrara 8 and render (read - "hit the make art button").

Am I just dreaming?

Like any other program there is a required amount of learning to gain true access to the selected program. Carrara also has a learning curve attached which in my mind is not that steep. I use carrara as the main rendering and scene construction program and import poser content in a carrara scene.

The other beauty I find with carrara is that if you wish to edit the imported content then you can via carrara's modelling room and texture room and then your completed piece as a carrara object ready for use in any other scene that you create in the future. Also you can create new items for your scene in the modeling room and as a result your limits dissapear completely.

But this is just my pennies worth and others may have different thoughts.

You can do all of your set-up in Carrara if you like, since you are able to load Poser content through the runtimes.

But none of your specific Poser materials will work, and most other textures will need to be tweaked within Cararra to reduce shininess and adjust bump. Cararra handles displacement totally differently, and that would need to be added manually in most cases.

No quick "make/render art button" here.

Any python scripts you're used to using in Poser are not supported by Cararra either.

It's a good program, and has some great lighting options, plus the ability to create landscapes within the program itself. And it has a modeller. But if your just looking for a different render engine for Poser, be prepared for lots of tweaking on everything.

I switch back and forth between the two, still learning Cararra. Since I'm so used to Poser, I often just go back to it because I'm faster with it's features through long-term usage.

-- Jeff

I made the jump from Poser to Carrara about six months ago and now only use Poser to edit BVH animations and for Dynamic cloth. Once Carrara has fully dynamic cloth (which is in the works) I'll only use Poser for editing BVH files. Learning Carrara was much easier than I had anticipated. It actually is a lot more intuitive than Poser UI. Never upgraded to P8 so I can't speak to that UI. In fact the whole reason I made the switch was because of the new UI in Poser 8. I figured if I had to learn a new interface, I'd try something different and I have never regretted not upgrading to P8.

This is exactly the kind of information I was hoping for.
Next question - Carrara 8 or Carrara 8 Pro?

Depends on your needs. I'd suggest looking at the comparison between the two and make you decision that way.

http://www.daz3d.com/i/software/carrara8/comparison?_m=d

Quote - I want to be talented and I'm willing to spend whatever it takes!

You want to buy talent?

Quote - Am I just dreaming?

Yes.

But dreams sometimes come true!
:O)

drewradley, I did do a comparison, but they use a lot of nomenclature to which I am not familiar - they call stuff something other that what its called in Poser, so I'm not sure what's what. I don't do any modelling or animation, just picture rendering, but given those parameters, I don't want to be missing out just because I didn't spend enough. And I don't want to commit myself to a large er learning curve for no reason.

The two main reasons I chose Pro over non pro are 64 bit support so I can use many more figures, etc and network rendering. I can't speak as to the benefit of the modeling tools in Pro since I do all my modeling in Hex. The ocean is handy in Pro but not really all that important to me. But those are about the only features I ever use that Pro has and non-pro doesn't. If you think you don't need 64 bit support, network rendering and an ocean primitive AND you don't do any modeling, go with non-pro. Especially if you're planning on just rendering stills. Either way, Daz has one of the best return policies in Poserverse so if you don't like it, you can ask for a refund. You could also purchase the book they sell for $30 and that comes with Hex and Carrara 6 Pro. While there is no upgrade path for 6 to 8 any more, you may find that the 6 pro meets your needs. And 30 bucks is 20 bucks cheaper than $50 (which is what C8 is on sale for right now).

http://www.daz3d.com/i/shop/itemdetails/?item=9166

Carrara 8 pro is 50% off.  Don't forget the Platinum Club will take another 30% off that.

For under $200 you get great bang for the buck with  pro.

I agree with most of the other comments, but would suggest that you will probably get the hang of "correcting" poser content and shaders quickly.  The render engine is so much quicker and the lights so much better that you will likely be astounded, even if you don't use the modeling room at all.

I started with Poser 7 and Poser pro, but tried Carrara a while ago and have never gone back.  About the only reason I open Poser now is to open and re-save content if built in morphs don't work.  The re-save usually works fine in Carrara.  I assume the original had a PMD, and since I have pmd turned off in Poser the save incorporates the morphs internally in the model.  At least that's my conjecture.

Have fun!

Klebnor

I have to agree that if you have the dosh then pro is the way to go (considering the discount price at the moment), this way there will be no limits to your creative elbow.. From this you can guess that I also have pro and have been running carrara since version 6pro when it was offered as a freebie on the 3dworld mag DVD and have never looked back since.

Quote - I want to be talented and I'm willing to spend whatever it takes!

 Spend time practicing, spend time learning, spend time creating. All the money in the world will not by talent. The "make art button" is a fantasy. It has taken many, many people in the 3d world years before they achieved  the level they have reached now. It's not the programs they are just tools it is the user.

I respectfully disagree PaganArtist. All craftsmen, artists, etc NEED to have the proper tools of their trade. One could not be a very effective animator if one only had, say, Hexagon. Give the best carpenter in the world a rock and ask them to build a house. Would you want to live in that house?
Put a race car driver in the world in a Pinto and some kid who just learned to drive in a Ferrari and have them race, who do you think will win?
Granted, even with the best tools available if one doesn't have the skill to use them properly, they are likely to fail at any endeavor using them. I just don't think you can separate the two: the tools are only as good as the craftsman and the craftsman is only as good as their tools.

C6Pro is still better and faster than FFRender.  it has caustics, transparency colour, easier to use
hdri, and reasonably simple controls of what they call "GI", one part of which is indirect diffuse
illumination (IDL in poser).  also has GC in render settings.  i was griping that the free trial of
C7Pro wouldn't work in snow leopard, but then I found out it was an upgrade, not full version.
was able to run and install C6Pro in snow leopard after editing prefs file.

"Put a race car driver in the world in a Pinto and some kid who just learned to drive in a Ferrari and have them race, who do you think will win?" 

The kid in the Ferrari will crash and burn taking the first turn in Lap 1. Any NASCAR or Formula 1 rookie would cruise to victory - unless the kid rear-ended the Pinto first, in which case, they both burn.

 You can render poser stuff in vue as well and it also looks great.  the lights are easy to adjust in vue, and it's very easy to make scenery in your scene.
I would use it more but I'm looking for a toony look more than real.
You would set up your scenes in poser and then import into vue.
Love esther

I'm another that started with Poser and then tried out Carrara and found it seems to suit me better. Being able to do almost everything in one program without having to learn different interfaces and workflows is great for the lazy hobbiest like myself.

Still at an early stage of learning with it though, just wish there was a Carrara version of BB to get shader advice from! Driving myself nuts at the moment trying to work out decent shaders for eyes to get realistic reflections in the right parts of the eye.

Thanks, everyone. Good advice all-around.
Vadrus, I found a great vidoe tutorial on shading eyes in Carrara. It is by an artist here named JT411. If you go to his Renderosity home page there is a link.

Quote - Thanks, everyone. Good advice all-around.
Vadrus, I found a great vidoe tutorial on shading eyes in Carrara. It is by an artist here named JT411. If you go to his Renderosity home page there is a link.

Thanks :)

Definitely get C8 Pro! You won't find more bang for your buck anywhere else :)
Vue is a great choice too, but I'd recommend picking up Carrara first because it's more of an all-in-one workhorse.
If y'all have any Carrara questions, I'm happy to help. Just drop me a PM :)

Quote - I respectfully disagree PaganArtist. All craftsmen, artists, etc NEED to have the proper tools of their trade. One could not be a very effective animator if one only had, say, Hexagon. Give the best carpenter in the world a rock and ask them to build a house. Would you want to live in that house?
Put a race car driver in the world in a Pinto and some kid who just learned to drive in a Ferrari and have them race, who do you think will win?
Granted, even with the best tools available if one doesn't have the skill to use them properly, they are likely to fail at any endeavor using them. I just don't think you can separate the two: the tools are only as good as the craftsman and the craftsman is only as good as their tools.

Lol.. well, in a 1/4 mile sprint I'll put my 72 Pinto against any Ferrari ever made - but your overall point is well taken.,

Hello,
I use Poser as well as Carrara. Be prepared that there are not that many free materials for Carrara
as for Poser, so either do them yourself or spend a lot.

Carrara offers replicators and good plants (look at the scenes from Howie Farkes at DAZ).
Carrara is very poor when it comes to displacements - you need to subdivide the mesh a lot,
which blows up memory and increases render time.
Since we have P8 / IDL, I find the lighting comparable between Poser and Carrara.

All in all, both are very nice programs, with different strengths and weaknesses.

Best regards,
   Michael