There shouldn't be a doubt in anybody's mind by now that Carrara is dead. As dead as John Lennon, as dead as JFK. Never to be resuscitated.

Fortunately there are many replacements to make you not regret uninstalling Carrara. One of them is IClone by Reallision.

Carrara may be OK to quickly put-together a scene with a half-naked V4 and press the render button to get a so-so image, but to create professional Maya-like animations at a bargain price, Carrara simply doesn't cut it, and if you insist on creating animations with Carrara you must have really fallen on your head.

If you are a one-man 3D team and you wish to create believable animations without spending a fortune and finish your project in a reasonable amount of time, then IClone (and some support software) is what you need.

I have been following IClone ever since its version 2 when it was merely a cute toy to play with. But while during the years Carrara has stlaled and stalled and stalled and (well you get the idea), IClone has made steady progresses and steady progresses and steady progresses and (well you get the idean too), to the point that its latest version, which is version 7, is a near-professional 3D animation package with excellent support for DAZ/Poser contents (extra software required).

An exhaustive review of IClone would be too lengthy in one article, so I will divide it into multiple segments.

The greatest feature of IClone, as I said above, is its ability to let you finish a near-pro animation very quickly without the need of a full-blown production studio, although you might need some well endowed computer equipment.

But first things first. Here are a few interesting examples of movies made with IClone. You will notice the use of Daz/Poser contents in a few of them.

Aria Redux The Legends Of Auria The Realm 1 The Realm 2 Dance 1 Dance 2 Dance 3 Dance 4

So is there a good video of taking G3F in an outfit with some morphs, as an example, and loading her into G3F and rendering. I have iClone 5 or 6 and it was just not that easy to get Daz stuff in there...but maybe its easier now?

To import Daz/Poser contents to ICLone, go to youtube and search for any of the below:

Import Daz Characters to IClone

Import Daz Hair to IClone

Import Daz Props to IClone

Import Daz Animated Morphs to IClone

You will get an overwhelming number of tutorials that you can choose from at your ease. It will require a couple of hours of learning, but nothing overly complex.

But why are you advertising other programs here?
I thought this is a Carrara user forum, not a Carrara leaver forum...

Live Long and Prosper

EddyMI posted at 6:16PM Mon, 26 March 2018 - #4326894

But why are you advertising other programs here?
I thought this is a Carrara user forum, not a Carrara leaver forum...

Good question.

trolling

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EddyMI posted at 9:31AM Wed, 28 March 2018 - #4326894

But why are you advertising other programs here?
I thought this is a Carrara user forum, not a Carrara leaver forum...

Good question and, like every good question, it does deserve a good answer.

First-off let me assure everyone that my goal is not to advertise other 3D products in a low-traffic Carrara forum that gets less than a post a week.

As a 3D hobbyist I spend some of my hobby time comparing features of various software products, and I think a few of you would be interested in my findings.

As I mentioned in my OP above, I have been following IClone since its version 3 which was released, iirc, around 8 years ago, i.e. just about the same time as Carrara 8. IClone is now in its version 7 and has become a true near-professional animation package, boasts a PBR renderer and its upcoming point release will have support for NVidia's |Ray renderer (Yes, the same IRay renderer that's packaged with Daz Studio, although I believe for IClone it will be a paid plugin).

During the same 8 years Carrara has stalled in its version 8, and many of you still can't read between the lines that Daz has completely abandoned any Carrara developments, except minor patches that can be done by part-time summer interns.

Putting it as MILDLY as I can, I believe those of you who are still expecting a Carrara 9 to ever happen, are only NAIVE to the extreme, and those of you who use Carrara for any serious work, still or animation, are simply stalling in their artistic aspirations.

If you are doing 3D animations, especially character animations, and you don't give IClone a serious look, I would pity you, and the eventual customer who is trusting your sound judgment.

I am sorry to sound a bit rude, but I think I answered the question as clearly and as eloquently as I could.

I started my 3D experience with iClone 3 in 2009

I have iC6 but still prefer Carrara as most people who visit this Carrara forum would ☝️?

iClone is not a modeler

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@ wendyvainity:

IClone is not a modeler, but it has built-in support for Sketchup and Google 3D Warehouse. Hexagon too works very nicely with IClone, for the price of an .obj export.

IClone 3 and 4 and 5 did not have much to write home about, but Reallusion, the maker of IClone, had the smarts to position it as a pre-viz product, ie. a tool to quickly preview complex scenes and animations, before deploying heavy artillery like 3DS Max.

This approach turned Reallusion into a stable company with some strong development abilities.

IClone 6 was the first version of IClone that I consider a full-fledged 3D/animationj app in its own right, not just a front-end to 3DS Max. And now, with IClone 7, we have a mature and easy to use product compared to which Carrara is several years behind in every respect, but more on that later.

there are people who still use Truespace and even Bryce!

this is a Carrara subforum, people who still use Carrara come here sometimes, most know there is other software out there, there really is no need to keep trying to tell us it is dead, just use your software of choice and move on.

I do indeed myself use iClone and even Blender but am not spruiking them here unless it is to get something in or out of Carrara from them.

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Just to mention it, there is an "Ignore" button for individual posters ...

@ wendyvainity:

Bryce? It's interesting that you are mentioning it. I was just about to start a thread about Bryce as a possible replacement for Carrara. I will keep you all posted on that.

There are some great news coming from the IClone front. Its latest release - which is 7.2.1 - boasts better and optimized support for Daz figures, especially Genesis 8 facial expressions and material import. See this link and this link.

IClone's 2018 development roadmap is also very enticing, See this link.

IClone's optimized support for Daz figures proves that both Daz3D and IClone are very serious about working together on even tighter (possibly even native?) interoperability between Daz contents and IClone.

The 2018 development roadmap for IClone shows some very interesting features such as support for the IRay renderer - in the coming months.

For Carrara, the consequences are nothing short of disastrous. It means that Daz3D will be more and inclined to invest in the IClone pipeline, and shelf Carrara for good and forever.

Those of you who are pushing their naivete to the point of continuously asking for a Carrara 9 - as I see in Daz3D Carrara forum - please take note: Carrara is more dead than ever, because its development budget is exactly $0.00.

This is another fine example of a very movie made with IClone that I like it particularly much. See Link.

Considering that this very movie was made, as it states in the description, in 2013, it must have been made with IClone 5 (The current version of IClone is 7.2.1). At that time IClone already had solid animations abilities, a well-tuned physics engine, and a quite realistic particle system, all of them right out of the box.

Really, if you consider Carrara for any animation other than spinning cubes you must have fallen on your head.

This is another very proof of what a foolish undertaking it is to use Carrara for any animation beyond yo-yo. It's all done in IClone, all doable with a small team of 1 or 2 developers, with a lot of free models from Google 3D Warehouse. See Link.

you can also do cool stuff in DAZ studio, C4D Max Maya your point is?

this is the Carrara forum on Renderosity

i CANNOT MODEL DIDDLEY SQUAT IN ICLONE

ok maybe a few primitives tossed together and you cannot rig in it

Carrara has several modeling rooms

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I can model more than a spinning cube in Carrara what can you model in iClone?

No not buy from the content store or marketplace,

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I created a thread for you in the appropriate forum

it is rather quiet there, I guess most post at Reallusion

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Thank you Wendy!

Wendy, DUDU - Don't forget the "Ignore" button.

Over the years IClone has turned from a hobbyist gadget into a rock-solid no-holds-barred professional animation software.

What IClone offers:

1. A professional modern GUI, with adjustable UI font size.
2. A professional timeline and graph editor.
3. A professional 3D particle generator, PopcornFX, used and tested in numerous games.
4. An animation infrastructure with near-Maya like features and capabilities.
5. Two physics engine, Bullet and PhysX (if you have an NVidia graphics card).
6. A soon to be released IRay renderer that would let IClone produce photorealistic outputs.
7. A soon to be released python-based scripting system to extend IClone's already mind-numbing features.
8. And on and on. I let you do your own research.

(Some of the features above are paid plugins).

The number of movies and animations made with IClone is so large that I can't mention them all here. This is my favorite though: The Amazing Adventures of Young Tesla.

Considering that this movie was made around 5 years ago with an older version of IClone, you can imagine what the latest IClone should be capable of.

From an animation point of view, especially character animation, Carrara is so weak, and IClone is so strong, that if you use Carrara over IClone, well, sorry to tell you, but you just don't know what you are doing.

dr_bernie posted at 2:06PM Sat, 01 September 2018 - #4335571

From an animation point of view, especially character animation, Carrara is so weak, and IClone is so strong, that if you use Carrara over IClone, well, sorry to tell you, but you just don't know what you are doing.

Interesting, but didn't you just decide to purchase, and start using Lightwave instead of Carrara? If you have truly started using Lightwave, why are you back here singing the virtues of iClone (and I do wonder, since a while back you indicated you were going to use Shade 3D instead of Carrara, then Lightwave ... what .... a week ago, now your promoting iClone)??

Funny that you tell anyone using Carrara for character animations that they don't know what they are doing. I would think if they are doing it successfully they would know quite well what they are doing. Maybe you could show us an animations with iClone, or Lightwave, or even Shade 3D, that you have done, so that we can better understand your real experience in this to better understand the value of your recommendations, not just that you have read it and looked at others works and think in therory it's a good idea (I've been involved in many instances where when theory makes it to reality, things just don't work as predicted).

I agree, iClone has turned into a great tool, and may be better than Carrara for the things it is designed to do, but to make a blanket statement about anyone using Carrara for character animation "you just don't know what you are doing" is, well ..... simply wrong on so many levels (not to mention a direct insult to Carrara animators).

Seriously, maybe you should focus your creative energy on learning Lightwave, or what ever your program of choice is, rather than continuing what seems to be a personal crusade to lure people away from Carrara. Here I thought you had found the perfect program for you, but maybe not?? I'm sure that if someone wants to "move on" from Carrara, they will find your posts, and ask to see how you like Lightwave (or maybe other software, but if you don't use it, they may not). They may also ask the forum for recommended alternatives, at which time your experience may be quite helpful. But, until then, maybe it would be a good idea for you to move on, and get past what seems to be a bit of a vendetta against DAZ 3D and Carrara??

Of course, I might be wrong, you may have only good intentions with your posts. If this is the case, I sincerely apologize. I this is the case, maybe if your posts seemed a little less antagonistic toward the Carrara community, then I might not mis-read your intentions? The post I quoted is a prime example, tell people they don't know what they are doing, when you don't have work you have done yourself to show as examples, is very antagonistic. If you were to show an animation you did in Carrara, and show the same animation that you did in iClone, and discuss the technical details between the two, and why you found iClone to be much better, I would consider that very valuable and thoughtful input. Input like that would create discussion, and possibly illuminate methods within Carrara that would help the workflow, as well as highlight features needed in Carrara to match those found in iClone.

Anyway, sorry for the long post, I do hope you find the software that makes you happy and productive. Obviously though, Carrara is not the software for you.

So why do you persist in coming here and talking about other software.

fantasy3d posted at 10:47PM Wed, 05 September 2018 - #4335615

dr_bernie posted at 2:06PM Sat, 01 September 2018 - #4335571

From an animation point of view, especially character animation, Carrara is so weak, and IClone is so strong, that if you use Carrara over IClone, well, sorry to tell you, but you just don't know what you are doing.

Interesting, but didn't you just decide to purchase, and start using Lightwave instead of Carrara? If you have truly started using Lightwave, why are you back here singing the virtues of iClone (and I do wonder, since a while back you indicated you were going to use Shade 3D instead of Carrara, then Lightwave ... what .... a week ago, now your promoting iClone)??

Funny that you tell anyone using Carrara for character animations that they don't know what they are doing. I would think if they are doing it successfully they would know quite well what they are doing. Maybe you could show us an animations with iClone, or Lightwave, or even Shade 3D, that you have done, so that we can better understand your real experience in this to better understand the value of your recommendations, not just that you have read it and looked at others works and think in therory it's a good idea (I've been involved in many instances where when theory makes it to reality, things just don't work as predicted).

I agree, iClone has turned into a great tool, and may be better than Carrara for the things it is designed to do, but to make a blanket statement about anyone using Carrara for character animation "you just don't know what you are doing" is, well ..... simply wrong on so many levels (not to mention a direct insult to Carrara animators).

Seriously, maybe you should focus your creative energy on learning Lightwave, or what ever your program of choice is, rather than continuing what seems to be a personal crusade to lure people away from Carrara. Here I thought you had found the perfect program for you, but maybe not?? I'm sure that if someone wants to "move on" from Carrara, they will find your posts, and ask to see how you like Lightwave (or maybe other software, but if you don't use it, they may not). They may also ask the forum for recommended alternatives, at which time your experience may be quite helpful. But, until then, maybe it would be a good idea for you to move on, and get past what seems to be a bit of a vendetta against DAZ 3D and Carrara??

Of course, I might be wrong, you may have only good intentions with your posts. If this is the case, I sincerely apologize. I this is the case, maybe if your posts seemed a little less antagonistic toward the Carrara community, then I might not mis-read your intentions? The post I quoted is a prime example, tell people they don't know what they are doing, when you don't have work you have done yourself to show as examples, is very antagonistic. If you were to show an animation you did in Carrara, and show the same animation that you did in iClone, and discuss the technical details between the two, and why you found iClone to be much better, I would consider that very valuable and thoughtful input. Input like that would create discussion, and possibly illuminate methods within Carrara that would help the workflow, as well as highlight features needed in Carrara to match those found in iClone.

Anyway, sorry for the long post, I do hope you find the software that makes you happy and productive. Obviously though, Carrara is not the software for you.

@ fantasy3d:

I would like to start my reply to you by saying: Aaaaah, at last. I repeat: Aaaaaah, at last I got someone's attention at Daz3D.

Let me explain. You signed-up in these forums 3 years ago, this is your first and only post, you have no gallery activities here or at Daz (as far as I can tell), and you appear to have carefully read all of my recent posts. The only possibility is that you are someone from Daz3D, probably someone in the upper management, most definitely someone authorized to speak for the company.

I am actually very glad that after so many years of silence about Carrara's fate, an official from Daz is here to provide some explanations.

First let me get 2 quirks out of the way, before explaining why I'm doing this.

The first quirk is that my telling that someone who chooses Carrara over IClone for character animation doesn't know what he/she is doing may be rough language, but by no means it is an insult. Re-read all my recent posts and you will see that I have been subjected to some very rough replies.

The second quirk is that I believe it is utterly unprofessional, repeat UTTERLY UNPROFESSIONAL, for Daz to stay silent about Carrara for so long, always letting its user base guessing what will happen next.

The way Daz3D has treated Carrara users, where many of them still believe there will be a Carrara 9 released very soon, is nothing short of torturing them.

As a comparison, when about 3 years ago, Autodesk decided to no longer develop or support one of their 3D apps - Softimage XSI - They made a public announcement to that effect, and that was the end of it.

Why won't Daz management make a statement about Carrara being dead and no more developed? At least that would be neat, clean, and respectful.

Having taken, hopefully, those 2 quirks out of the way, let me explain what I am doing.

About 3 years ago, I set aside a budget of $4,000.- to buy Maya. After using a demo version, I realized that Maya is not for me, so I spent my budget on Shade3D, Cheetah3D, Lightwave and IClone, Yes all four of them, including plugins and goodies. On the whole, it did actually cost me less than Maya.

I don't have the intention, nor the abilities at this time, to create artistic masterpieces with any of these 4 apps. I am only learning and, on occasions, I compare their features to Carrara's, and I sometime post my findings here, hoping that it will benefit others too.

It's like what a magazine like 'Consumer Reports' does. They take products, compare them, and publish the results.

Since my articles are always Carrara related and its itended audience is Carrara users, the most appropriate place to post them is in the Carrara forum, not in IClone or Lightwave or Shade3D forums.

To terminate this long article, l hope that you guys at Daz3D will have the courage to come-out and state publicly that Carrara is dead, and no future release of Carrara is to be expected.

so, someone with no abilities to use any of the software is comparing the capabilities of the different softwares and making a judgement of what they can do even though the person doesn't have the ability to use any of them...

yep, sounds legit to me lol

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@ Wonga:

As I mentioned in several posts, I investigate features of different 3D apps as they relate to Carrara, and I post my findings here. There are plenty of excellent works done with IClone or Lightwave, for me to not need to make a point about their features and performances.

To do character animations there are two ways to do it:

1. The wrong way, or the Carrara way, where the animated characters look like zombies pulled clumsily by strings. There are many examples of such animations, and I will not refer you to any link. I will let you do your own research.

2. The right way, or the IClone way, where characters are professionally animated through motion capture. Animations are fluid, natural and realistic. Here is a very fine example of professional, realistic character animation through IClone motion capture. See Link.

IClone also has a particularly well-crafted physics toolbox, that uses 2 separate physics engines, Bullet and NVidia Physx, provided that you have an NVidia graphics card. The features of the IClone physics toolbox are extensive and it would take too long to describe them all here, so I let you see for yourself. See this link and this link.

Also note that IClone's physics toolbox is a paid plugin.

Here is another very interesting example of IClone physics toolbox abilities.

As you can see, you can get some very realistic simulations in a low-cost animation 3D app, to easily spice-up your movies. See Link

This example shows another extremely powerful feature of IClone, i.e. its native support for Sketchup models. You create your model in (free) Sketchup, or download one from Google's 3D Warehouse, bring it seamlessly into IClone, and voila, you're all ready to go. Now how cool is that?