Carrara Cafe and C3DE E-zine
For any newcomers to the Carrara discussion forum, I'd like to mention that Carrara enthusiasts have some really cool supplemental information, hangouts, learning material - all around support via Carrara Cafe (a special webspace sponsored by our very own, generous, wonderful Daz3D) and its resulting, super-awesome e-zine, Carrara 3D Expo (C3DE)
Carrara Cafe has some wonderful articles, tutorials, freebies, forum, gallery, etc., to help inspire, teach, and just provide yet another great way to get further immersed into this amazingly unique 3D software, capable of doing so much more than any other application. There truly is nothing quite like Carrara!
C3DE is a beautiful magazine for Carrara enthusiasts by Carrara enthusiasts. Cover to cover fun and inspiration from some very capable artists - interviews, special tips and tricks, tutorials complete with working files, galery pages... the Carrara 3D Expo currently has ten fantastic issues available to read and/or download via Carrara Cafe!
Comments
I almost forgot to mention that it was the thread regarding the older Carrara publication, 3DXTRACT, which caused me to realize that there hasn't been much buzz around here lately regarding Carrara Cafe and/or the incredible C3DE!
In the above linked thread we may download the entire 18 issue collection of 3DXTRACT along with support files and indexing - over 400MB of Carrara goodness! Though the series ran between late 2003 through 2005, the material contained within is still very relevant today, with our latest Carrara as well as having some most nostalgic ads and topic to boot!
Well, in the reinvigoration of that thread recently (as of the time of this writing), I decided to read through a full issue for some fun Carrara entertainment, which made me realize that, although I've downloaded the collection a while back, I still haven't got round to reading any of them! Yikes!
In the index pdf, I saw a mention of "ILM". Being a huge Star Wars/ILM fan, I opened that issue (Novenmber 2004) and gave it a read. I was very pleased and impressed with the entire issue. Tutorials from our very own Carl Desmond, Brian Hinton, Mike Moir, Mark Bremmer, Harvey White, and Eric Winemiller from Digital Carvers Guild (DCG - a Plugin vendor for Carrara and LightWave) teaches us how to do some extraordinary techniques with his Ground Control plugin for Carrara, while also providing hints for Inagoni's Veloute Shader plugin.
I consider myself to be very much a Carrara enthusiast. In fact, Carrara is the primary reason for me to ever turn on a computer in the first place. Without it, I might not even be able to justify owning one. So I enjoy catching any sort of Carrara enjoyment I can.
C3DE is gorgeous and has some interviews and articles with and from some remarkable Carraraists along with highly inspiring images. Carrara Cafe is like the living, growing city of Carrara Community discussion, news, art and much more. It's so cool to bump elbows with all of these incredible 3D artists!
syncing audio sounds interesting to read!!
...and that was before we had Mimic pro for Carrara ;)
EDIT: BTW, it IS an interesting read! ;)
Lets not forget Carrarators for Animators. http://bond3d.wix.com/carrarators
Absolutely!
Carrarators is a separate webspace and forum created by a Carrara animator for Carrara animators! It has a really nice Carrara films theatre among the many cool features of the site, and the forums are always hopping with some sort of project!
thanks for that Dart
Thank YOU! There's some wonderful art of yours in the C3DE!!! Bravo!!!
Re CarrarTors - thanks for the heads up Dart !
Unlike the Cafe we are not supported by Daz so its purely a Carrara Enthusiast Effort and I'm amazed to realise it began three years ago. We know Dartanbeck would like to participate more but we recognise he is busy doing a fantastic job of promoting Carrara in this and the Cafe forums. For those who have not heard of our CarrarTors group before here is a page from the web which explains what we are about and how it differs from the other Carrara forums.
In particular,there is facility to start a 'collaboration' to create an animation which can be a great way to get some inspiration and knowledge so if you have an interest in animation we hope you will VISIT soon and PARTICIPATE .
...which is Absolutely Awesome!
0oseven is the creator of CarraraTors and has done a fine job of stitching it all together, taking suggestions and wishes of his members into account... I remember what a huge undertaking it was to get it all up and working smoothly. Working forums into the mix can be a tedious, headachy prospect! ;)
You make me blush !!
But I would like to add "CarrarTors" was mainly started because at the time there was nothing catering specifically for Carrara [Anima]Tors.Ha ! It was before the Cafe upgraded its forum.
Had I known about that upgrade I might not have embarked on my crazy journey - well I didn't know how much work and time would be involved - Indeed, after the Cafe upgrade it was suggested the two be merged somehow. In the end both have links to each other. The point to rememember is we aren't in competition but rather provide different service to users . I think of The Cafe as the "Carrara World's News and info forum" with a bias to "still image creation & rendering" wheras CarraraTors is about "making animations and movies with Carrara" . Both being huge subjects that kinda filters things out a bit.