Carrara or Blender?

Started by Upon Infinity, December 16, 2013, 02:01:16 PM

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Upon Infinity

Yes, I've heard of ZBrush.  Although I don't know if I could underestimate it.  For $800, it better do exactly what I want it to.   ;)

efflux

Don't let this page put you off. 3D Coat is excellent value. Yes, it's a bit strange but they are honest people:

http://3d-coat.com/company/our-voice/

I'm biased to Linux. That's all I use now so all these apps are Linux as well as Windows and OSX.

All round best app including value (considering it's aiming at trying to be an industry standard app) is Modo but it's still not that cheap.

3D Coat can't be beaten for sculpting purposes (considering cost) but it's actually still be best in some areas as far as I'm concerned.

Blender is a must have no brainer. You can do a whole lot with that app. There are a some deficiencies and that's why Modo is much better but Blender can do a few things that other apps can't. It's got much better with cycles rendering engine which I think gets awesomely realistic results. In fact once Blender cycles gets voumetrics it starts moving back to being decent for landscape again. Most people don't get this but some of these programs can achieve similar results to Terragen or Vue now and with less hassle and all the other extras you get with these kinds of programs. That's one reason I stopped using Terragen and didn't upgrade but that's a whole other story. I've abandonned the procedural planetary scale type idea. Blender isn't quite there for this but I expect it will be eventually with various updates needed for cycles.

One of the best basic modelers is Wings 3D but you have to spend some time working it out. Once you do it all makes sense.

I'd drop Hexagon if I were you. I have that from years back but I haven't used it for years. It had massive potential but ended up a reliability disaster.

Upon Infinity

Yeah, I caught your thread on Wings 3D from earlier in the year.  I am looking at breaking my Hexagon habit, although I've finally gotten it to a point where it only crashes as much as Terragen (which isn't that often).  Now I'm learning 3D coat, so 1 program at a time...  Sorry to hear you not needing Terragen.  Personally, I've found it (almost) perfect for creating a lot of good, generic landscapes for a project I'm working on.  It could use a little tampering here and there, but the price was right and it does for my purposes.  Blender (if I need it at all) will have to be on the backburner until the spring.

efflux

#33
Terragen is actually a very stable app in my experience. I have no complaints there. I'm not happy with Terragen's features. I spent some time trying to do Terragen type stuff in other apps so I could have complete control of everything and can make the scene however I wish. Modo is best for this. You can even do full volumetric clouds and not with mesh but the same way it's done in Terragen. I have some semi finished scenes that are like nothing anybody else has done in Modo but I'm tired of the complexity of landscapes no matter what the app. Terragen landscapes have a tendancy to all look similar and that's what I don't like. You need masses of different procedural ways to get forms. Terragen lacks this.

I highly recommend Wings 3D but I guess it does depend on what you are doing. If it's organic then obviously 3D Coat is brilliant. The point of Wings is that it's contextual. You right click to do everything and if you learn it properly you will find all sorts of processes involving key commands that flow extremely logically without a stack of UI glut. Don't be fooled by masses of fancy UI. Sometimes the best apps look simple. Mypaint is a classic of that sort. It essentially has one brush engine but a massively powerful one that can be tweaked in lots of different ways. Key commands are all well sorted. Compare to Sketchbook Pro. That looks really chic and it is quite good but I actually prefer Mypaint. The only thing I find is that going from Wings to other apps kind of throws you off a bit. The default for mouse is different for example. You can sculpt the mesh in Wings. Not high mesh density sculpting but you can tweak everything around in a really nice way. The selection process in Wings is unique and superb. I'm not a big fan of Blender's modeling but the dynamic mesh sculpting is quite good and you can add procedural modifiers to the mesh which is very cool. Most apps don't do this, including Modo. However, one reason Modo beats Blender is that Modo can handle very big scenes and that's why it works for landscapes.

jdent02

I used to use Carrara heavily for rendering and animation, but I ended up switching over to Blender because it's rendering and compositing engine was so much more versatile and powerful, and this was even before the new Cycles rendering engine was launched.  It does take time to get used to the way Blender does things (some of which don't make any sense), but in my opinion it is a much more powerful modeling, animation, simulation and rendering app than Carrara, and integrating Blender with Terragen is very easy.  And Blender is free (as in free beer).

Thelby

If you think Carrara can not produce realistic Landscapes and/or forested scenes then please have look at HowieFarkes gallery here:
http://www.renderosity.com/mod/gallery/browse.php?user_id=237321

dandelO

I think it's mainly the name 'DAZ3D' that puts people off of Carrara. It really shouldn't, though. Eovia used to be the Carrara company, and DAZ pretty much have changed nothing in terms of UI or usability, just made it more easy to integrate DAZ and Poser character and prop animation, which is only one tinx area. The general program remains true to itself. Nothing comes close to all round functionality, except the high end proffesional packages that everyone knows, at 10x the price.

dandelO

* Oh, man! That 3D Coat page is amazing, Kadri! I thought that must have been a joke to begin with! It's really not, though, eh! :D

Kadri

Quote from: dandelO on January 11, 2014, 09:22:36 AM
* Oh, man! That 3D Coat page is amazing, Kadri! I thought that must have been a joke to begin with! It's really not, though, eh! :D

:)

TheBadger

I actually respect them more for that disclaimer/personal appeal. Takes balls to put your self out there in a world filled with mockers. And risk loosing money in favor of keeping your own values.

But I would still use their soft for whatever I wanted if I bought it. Its not for them to decide whats good or bad, or right or wrong. Thats literally an artists job. or even to ignore the questions completely, which in its self is art.

Besides, what would they say to their soft being used to make literal images of chapters from the bible? Some of it would be beautiful, but some would be filled with blood and screaming!

It has been eaten.

youbache

aw yeah blender is the best !