Hello!

Well, I've had Carrara 2 for about 3 days now and here are my initial impressions. Bear in mind when (or if) you read this that I am cynical, hard to please, and very demanding when it comes to PC software. This comes, I think, from being a professional developer myself. It should also be mentioned that although I have always been interested in 3D graphics, it's only been 3 months or so since I started playing with Poser and now Carrara.

Carrara isn't the first application that I have used that utilizes the "room" concept. The idea is to make the application more intuitive for the novice user by eliminating clutter on the screen and logically organizing the available tools. However, this is often quite frustrating for more advanced users who are accustomed to having everything available in one central location. Now you have to click from room to room to room to find what you're looking for.

My personal preference would be to skip the "room" concept entirely. I much prefer Windows and dialog boxes, but maybe I'm just old school.

Carrara is one of the few applications that I've come across that strikes a fair balance. It does switch rooms at times that I think it shouldn't, such as when certain dialog boxes like the terrian "modeler" pop up. Overall, though, it is very well thought out and easy to navigate.

Another thing that was immediately noticeable is the "drawers" for the Browser, Properties, and Sequencer. Again, not my cup of tea - I found myself opening and closing the drawers far too often. But Carrara's designers thought of that - you can easily undock the Browser, Properties, or Sequencer drawers and make them free standing windows. It would be nice to be able to "merge" the Browser and Properties drawers into one window. There are buttons at the top of the Browser for Objects, Modifiers, Effects, Shaders, Contstraints, and Artwork. Why not another for Properties?

The user interface design and default color scheme are attractive and well designed. Everything seems to be well coordinated with tools placed exactly where you need them or would expect to find them. And the drab buttons and interface objects found in most Windows applications are gone. I find this to be a very enjoyable environment to work in.

The manual provided with Carrara 2 is clear and easy to understand even for a complete novice (at least to 3D graphics software) like myself. There are a few areas that I would like to see expanded on or additional tutorials made available. Some specific areas I would cite would be importing 3D objects (such as Wavefront OBJs) and Environmental Primitives, specifically the terrain modeler. I have to give the authors a great deal of credit, though. There are a lot of features packed into Carrara and the manual does an excellent job covering the essentials.

The only issue that I have run into is that I can't use OpenGL for rendering. Both the Software and DirectX render options seem to work without incident, but I've already had to reload Carrara because I made the mistake of selecting the OpenGL option. The stock answer I've seen given out regarding this issue is that it's user specific and you need to have the latest drivers installed. I do have the latest drivers installed and it still doesn't work. I have no plans to upgrade/replace my video card, so I guess I'll just have to do without it.

Carrara 2 gets high marks from me in usability, documentation, and especially visual appearance. I would highly recommend this to anyone who is looking to get started in the field of 3D computer generated imaging. It is a welcome addition to my computer toolbox, and one that I am already pretty impressed with.

Thanks for listening!
Brian Wheatley

Thanks for writing out your experience for us! User interfaces are one of the most frustrating components of a package to design for a wide variety of users, particularly one like C which has so MANY tools switches and options. I feel Eovia/Metacreations has struck a well planned middle balance to get the package working well and for a wide range of experienced users from beginner to advanced. You don't have to know where EVERYTHING is to get started and you can learn where all the smaller cooler things are as you go and as you learn you way into them. Glad you stopped in and hope to see more of you. -Kix

My main problem with Carrara 2 is that it doesn't seem to handle old Ray Dream files well. The application, for example, seems to hang whenever I attempt to open my 'illtown' scene. The way I see it, C2's excellent for rendering. But I'll hold onto RDS for modeling purposes. Sorry to step on everyones toes. And thanks for tip pixelicous, the app the runs little better with the stripped down extension set :)

For what it's worth, I've never been able to get Carrara to work with OpenGL using any ATI video card. It seems to work fine in either software or directx mode, though. Also I don't think this setting has anything to do with actual rendering (just preview rendering like in the Assemble room). I find that keyboard shortcuts help a bit with the room navigation problem. For instance from the Assemble room you can hit Ctrl-R to go to Render room (and render) and then Ctrl-1 to get right back to the Assemble room. Lightwave uses a tabbed approach rather than a room one but some of the same issues apply in that clicking around between the tabs all the time can get tedious. Learning keyboard shortcuts so you don't have to use the TABS much seems to be one of the keys to success in Lightwave (especially in the modeler). One thing I like about Lightwave is that you get a lot of screen real estate for your viewports. C4D is a little easier to navigate in that you don't have to tab or room around to find things. It tends to follow more normal Windows app conventions. C4D gets around the drawers problem by having pre-assigned panels for everything but then you don't get as much real estate for your viewport(s). In a way it would be nice if Carrara started in "training wheels" mode but then also had an expert mode where some of the stuff that really helps newbies but drives experts nuts could be jettisoned or modified. While on the topic of C2, it seems like the vertex modeler could stand some improvement. It's fairly user-friendly but seems to be missing a number of useful features found in other polygonal modelers. Plus both Lightwave and C4D work mostly with quads while Carrara works mostly with triangles (I guess this helps avoid non-planar polygons but a lot of modeling tutorials are written using quads so I have trouble following them in Carrara). For the price, though, you have to admit that Carrara packs quite a punch (I think you can get almost 4 seats of Carrara for each seat of Lightwave or C4D!).