Carrara 7 is out and on sale. Anyone here using Carrara? Daz is pushing it pretty hard but I cannot find anyone who actually uses it. Most of the reviews I have read so far are just standard cut and paste of the product spec sheets... which of course state that this is the best modeling package...ever

uh, really. let's have a look at it. i sometimes work with carrara 6 pro, but it's unusuable except for the displacement painting (super easy sculpting mode). i got it for a veery nice price on the last christmas sale, $190 or so if i remember correctly. but you can't really use it because the sdvertised fbx exporter sucks badly.
it seems they got a new collada exporter. i have to test it, becuase that's what i need so badly right now. the 3d painting looks super easy and has been needed for such a long time.

so, test it, and if the exporters work, think asbout a purchase only if you can stand that since DAZ bought it, no interface change has been made or any really revolutionary feature has been implemented. get it while it's on sale, it's not worth the $500 it's probably going to cost after the sale period.

Thanks Broozar,
I am not really looking for a new modeling app, but if someone said good things about Carrara and with the sale price I might be tempted. I do not have a modeling app with 3D painting. Wish I did.
It does not look like they are offering a trial version of Carrara so I cannot even try it.

there is a trial for 6.1. i guess a trial for v7 will be available later next year, but then the sale will be over.

on the other hand, if you need a cheap displacement sculpting tool and an easy 3d painter, you won't find anything in this price category (while it's on sale..).
btw, they have a 30 days refunding policy that i used myself once (with v6), and can say that refunding is hazzle-free with daz. if you are up to it, buy a pro, test it 20 to 30 days, and then give it back. or keep it if you like it.

i updated today, here's my quick review:

the 3d painting is a njice new toy, it's easy to handle and quickly understood. i like it. and it's really affordable for the price. if you are looking for a nice 3d painter and displacement painter/sculpting tool, you might like it.

collada export works perfectly for still models: textures and materials are loaded without reloading textures.



when it comes to animation, it sucks badly. this is the same model with bones (which are not exported btw).



the collada file does not have BONES, ANIMATION or SKINNING tags in it, so how is it supposed to work anyway. carrara offers you to export morphs to dae, the result is the same as above.

the fbx 6.0 exporter still crashes the autodesk converter. fbx 5 is usable though, in both binary< and text format. but 5.0 does not cover animations, too.

@Broozar: You are a Lightwave user. Right?
Why do you use Carrara instead of Modo (except the price)?

i had Carrara long before i got LW. i bought it in the 6.0 days because of the fbx exporter that turned out to be totally worthless. but i kept it because i sidegraded to LW and needed the carrara key. after i discovered the displacement painting tool in carrara, i grew to love that function and drew organic model displacement/normal maps with it. and rendering in carrara is quick to set up. in minutes, you can have a nicely lit scene and render it with GI/sky light.

modo is a mainly modelling tool. i still model most of the time in wings3d, because it allows me to create low poly models in the absolute minimum of time. i use lw for animation (i practically don't use LWModeller at all, only LWLayout). i hope that the revised 9.5.x will export the animation data correctly to collada files.

now carrara has the 3d painting tool. my update from 6 pro to 7 pro just was 104 euros due to the $ exchange rate. where do you get a 3d painting (and sculpting) tool for just 104 euros? so well, i am keeping it. only the lack of animation support in collada files bugs me. i had hoped for more.

@Broozar: Modo can read and write LWO's directly. I tried the trial to check this out. Modo can also read/write UVMaps, MorphMaps and Weightmaps (and other Vertexmaps) from/to Lightwave.
I think that the Lightwave-Modo-Combo is a real timesaver because you have a seamless workflow. A good File I/O-Support is an invaluable advantage.

I did not know that you only use Layout.
Unfortunately i dont have the money to buy Modo. So i have to wait.

@broozar you can get silo with sculpting for
$150 and blender for free, and they both have sculpting. Of course I'm not sure how many polies carrara can squeeze out because sculpting is not the same everywhere, i can get a good 8-10mil polys in zbrush and only like 300-k in blender.

blender can't do the painting. yet. and i doubt it will be as intuitive as carrara's. 3d painting is still a feature that very few apps do well, only carrara and bodypaint do their job well imo. blacksmith3d paintSuite feels awkward and is unprecise, tattoo has been canceled. the last remaining app i know that allows 3d painting is 3d coat, coat3d ort whatever they renamed it. people will probably love coat3d more, but i never got it in my brain.