►►► Carrara Information Manual ◄◄◄

Jay_NOLA

Thanks Dartanbeck for the kind words. I got just about all the corrections done, redid and added stuff to some stuff I had posted before. All the creators of plugins for C8 that you can still get are now listed. I made that a priority over the FAQ sections. The DAA 3D plugin entry is going to get a good bit of work done to in the next few days. till need to finish up with some of the FAQs and do a final check for typos after that.

3drendero

Not sure if it already has been posted here, but Jay_NOLA mentioned that the Quick Tour for Carrara 6 videos are worth viewing, even for Carrara 8 since it covers the basics. Can be found at the bottom of: http://docs.daz3d.com/doku.php/artzone/pub/software/carrara/start

It should be in the Carrara 8 Introduction I guess...

Dartanbeck

On it! Thanks for this link. I have this from my copy of Carrara 6 Pro... I think it's really cool!
I'll post a link to that page around here, but also a direct download link to the files.
Thanks for the heads up!

Dartanbeck

Quick Links Menu
Just a little tool I've decided to add to help navigate this, and other threads

► Carrara Walkthrough Main Index

 

► Forum Help Links

► Useful Links

► Tutorials Index

 

► Back to Table of Contents

Walkthrough is currently under heavy construction, please bear with me

3dcal

Hi Dartanbeck,

are you creating a webpage for your Quick Links Menu?
If not, I hope you will rather than just keeping the info in
the thread.

There are so many links it would be good to put them all in one page.

Here's a page I did for Blender
using CSS3 Menu (free version).

BTW, www. carraraportal.com is available.

;-)

Dartanbeck

megacal said:

Hi Dartanbeck,

are you creating a webpage for your Quick Links Menu?
If not, I hope you will rather than just keeping the info in
the thread.

There are so many links it would be good to put them all in one page.

Here's a page I did for Blender
using CSS3 Menu (free version).

BTW, www. carraraportal.com is available.

;-)

Cool. Thanks for the ideas.
Yeah... you did a great job on that.

Also... I just added the first in a new series of video walkthroughs for Carrara:
A Basic Shader Walkthrough Part1
Not sure if anyone is interested in seeing more of this sort of thing...?

3dcal

I just added the first in a new series of video walkthroughs for Carrara:
A Basic Shader Walkthrough Part1
Not sure if anyone is interested in seeing more of this sort of thing…?

I would! :)

And bet many others would also.

Roygee

Nice tut, Dart - I like your laid-back and informative style and would like to see more:).

The title is misleading, though. I was expecting a walkthrough of the shader room, explaining the many options and possibly making a shader, but it is specific to fixing the V4 textures, rather than a general walkthrough.

Still, keep it up, your'e doing great!

Dartanbeck

megacal said:

I would! :)

And bet many others would also.
Nice tut, Dart - I like your laid-back and informative style and would like to see more:).

The title is misleading, though. I was expecting a walkthrough of the shader room, explaining the many options and possibly making a shader, but it is specific to fixing the V4 textures, rather than a general walkthrough.

Still, keep it up, your'e doing great!

Yeah... I should fix the title and apply an explanation - the reason I began this way is due to questions from new users. Sorry about that. Later (in part 2 or 3) I finally get away from V4 and into the rest - but only on a basic level.

Thank you both. I was very sick when I edited this one. Feeling a little better today - hope this continues. The videos I recorded for the Environ Kits: Woodlands are actually much smoother - vocal-wise.

FractalDimensia

Dartanbeck said:

Something else in Daz Studio that are not compatible are materials.
Since these things are not compatible, please make sure that you don't buy products of this nature with the intentions of using them in Carrara, unless they come with a package that contains the stuff that you do want that is compatible.

Okay, DB, I've been putting off digging into this topic for some time now, and I've hit a major roadblock that I need removed. Maybe you can help, or at least point me in the direction of how to work through these issues. If no materials exist to answer these questions, maybe you will consider expanding your manual content to cover these?

I haven't seen a lot of material out there yet on how Carrara 8.5 is suposed to work with Poser/Daz content, but I'm encountering some difficulties. Maybe I'm the only one who is experiencing this. And if so, I'm a bigger noob than I thought!

So here are some Carrara questions I need to find answers to. Anything you can offer on this topic would help.

On "Daz Installer Manager"
1. Are there products that should NOT be installed using this app but should instead be installed manually? If some should be installed manually, how do you know which ones?

On "Smart Content" tab, under "Products"
1. What does "smart" mean? Is there a relationship between products that are checkmarked "Smart" in the Daz Installer Manager and those that appear in "Smart Content"?
2. Some products I have downloaded show up twice - one with a "Ds" (DazStudio) at the end and other "Ps" (Poser). In some cases, like for buildings, nothing shows up in the ones marked "Ds" but do for "Ps." Why is this? If this is the way it is supposed to be, why have "Ds" products appear at all?
3. I have a number of products that just don't appear at all. From the product descriptions, they are not cameras, lights, or materials (though materials might be included in the package). Why would this be? A good example are a number of "Lisa's Botanical" products I purchased. The products appear in the list under "L," but they appear as blank when I select them.
4. Why would some product contents show up elsewhere (icons appear), such as under the "Content" tab, but not show up under the same product name in this area (no icons)? Is this a sign there was an installation error?

Others:
1. Some products must be mapped onto other products (like clothing on a character). Some of these products only work with certain generations of characters (V4/M4, Genesis, V5/M5, etc). Is there an easy way to know this, or is this learned just through experience?
2. How should products like hair and clothing be added? Sometimes they don't seem to "attach" themselves to the character.
3. If I drag a product to the Instances tab or to the display window and nothing happens, Carrara provides no feedback as to why. How do I find out the reason?

Thanks for your work on the manual!
FD

Dartanbeck

FractalDimensia said:

Dartanbeck said:

Something else in Daz Studio that are not compatible are materials.
Since these things are not compatible, please make sure that you don't buy products of this nature with the intentions of using them in Carrara, unless they come with a package that contains the stuff that you do want that is compatible.

Okay, DB, I've been putting off digging into this topic for some time now, and I've hit a major roadblock that I need removed. Maybe you can help, or at least point me in the direction of how to work through these issues. If no materials exist to answer these questions, maybe you will consider expanding your manual content to cover these?

I haven't seen a lot of material out there yet on how Carrara 8.5 is suposed to work with Poser/Daz content, but I'm encountering some difficulties. Maybe I'm the only one who is experiencing this. And if so, I'm a bigger noob than I thought!

So here are some Carrara questions I need to find answers to. Anything you can offer on this topic would help.

On "Daz Installer Manager"
1. Are there products that should NOT be installed using this app but should instead be installed manually? If some should be installed manually, how do you know which ones?

On "Smart Content" tab, under "Products"
1. What does "smart" mean? Is there a relationship between products that are checkmarked "Smart" in the Daz Installer Manager and those that appear in "Smart Content"?
2. Some products I have downloaded show up twice - one with a "Ds" (DazStudio) at the end and other "Ps" (Poser). In some cases, like for buildings, nothing shows up in the ones marked "Ds" but do for "Ps." Why is this? If this is the way it is supposed to be, why have "Ds" products appear at all?
3. I have a number of products that just don't appear at all. From the product descriptions, they are not cameras, lights, or materials (though materials might be included in the package). Why would this be? A good example are a number of "Lisa's Botanical" products I purchased. The products appear in the list under "L," but they appear as blank when I select them.
4. Why would some product contents show up elsewhere (icons appear), such as under the "Content" tab, but not show up under the same product name in this area (no icons)? Is this a sign there was an installation error?

Others:
1. Some products must be mapped onto other products (like clothing on a character). Some of these products only work with certain generations of characters (V4/M4, Genesis, V5/M5, etc). Is there an easy way to know this, or is this learned just through experience?
2. How should products like hair and clothing be added? Sometimes they don't seem to "attach" themselves to the character.
3. If I drag a product to the Instances tab or to the display window and nothing happens, Carrara provides no feedback as to why. How do I find out the reason?

Thanks for your work on the manual!
FD

WendyLuvsCatz

nm

Dartanbeck

I don't know what nm means, but... what the heck happened to my above reply to FD? I answered many of those questions, but now... argh... I'll get that fixed. Sorry about that!

WendyLuvsCatz

same thing as me I think
I quoted him and added some answers and lost it all
too lazy to think about it again so put NM for nevermind!
I figured you would answer better anyway

Dartanbeck

Figured it out as I sat on the can just after asking! lol

evilproducer

Dartanbeck said:

Figured it out as I sat on the can just after asking! lol

Maybe the next Carrara manual should be modeled after a bathroom reader! :lol: I get some of my best ideas while taking a load off my mind- So to speak! ;-)

Dartanbeck

evilproducer said:

Dartanbeck said:

Figured it out as I sat on the can just after asking! lol

Maybe the next Carrara manual should be modeled after a bathroom reader! :lol: I get some of my best ideas while taking a load off my mind- So to speak! ;-)LOFL!!I had to quote that one before you edit it, or something!
Quick Links Menu
Just a little tool I decided to add to help navigate this, and other threads

► Carrara Walkthrough Main Index

► Forum Help Links

► Useful Links

► Tutorials Index

► Back to Table of Contents

Walkthrough is currently under heavy construction, please bear with me

Headwax

evilproducer said:

Dartanbeck said:

Figured it out as I sat on the can just after asking! lol

Maybe the next Carrara manual should be modeled after a bathroom reader! :lol: I get some of my best ideas while taking a load off my mind- So to speak! ;-)

ha ha, that stinks... :)

Dartanbeck

Sorry about this, FD. I answered these before - but something strange happened - and my post didn't turn out as I had typed it. We'll try again.

FractalDimensia said:

So here are some Carrara questions I need to find answers to. Anything you can offer on this topic would help.

On "Daz Installer Manager"
1. Are there products that should NOT be installed using this app but should instead be installed manually? If some should be installed manually, how do you know which ones?Not really. DIM should be able to install everything in your Product Library in your DAZ 3D Store Account. If it isn't working on some, individual product, DAZ should be made aware of that fact - and then you can simply install manually.
EDIT:
Now that DAZ is doing away with the installers in favor of .zip and/or DIM, I am really pleased with how this is working out. I truly enjoy manual install from zip - as I can then just open the zip again to see what went where - and what it's called within the software. Love it!

FractalDimensia said:

On "Smart Content" tab, under "Products"
1. What does "smart" mean? Is there a relationship between products that are checkmarked "Smart" in the Daz Installer Manager and those that appear in "Smart Content"?A check under "Smart" means that it contains the metadata needed for Smart Content to work (in DS and Carrara)

FractalDimensia said:

2. Some products I have downloaded show up twice - one with a "Ds" (DazStudio) at the end and other "Ps" (Poser). In some cases, like for buildings, nothing shows up in the ones marked "Ds" but do for "Ps." Why is this? If this is the way it is supposed to be, why have "Ds" products appear at all?There are at least a couple reasons. First being how the materials are handled. In the past there was no separation, as everything was mad to work with Poser. Times have changed. For my own needs, I have been using the Poser installs for everything except for Genesis items. DAZ Studio can easily open Poser products of this type - but if I were to want to use DS as my render option, I'd install the DS versions too.

I am currently sticking with my "Runtime" system for everything except Genesis - which I'm using Daz Studio method for - since Genesis works that way - Genesis is a Daz Studio asset. SO if it's not Genesis related, I set up DIM to install it to my appropriate Runtime folder.
3. I have a number of products that just don't appear at all. From the product descriptions, they are not cameras, lights, or materials (though materials might be included in the package). Why would this be? A good example are a number of "Lisa's Botanical" products I purchased. The products appear in the list under "L," but they appear as blank when I select them.
4. Why would some product contents show up elsewhere (icons appear), such as under the "Content" tab, but not show up under the same product name in this area (no icons)? Is this a sign there was an installation error?

Okay, this is why I have kept my DAZ Studio library free from all except Genesis related items. Other products have used different structures over the years - where DAZ has specific folders where Genesis creators put their stuff. Anyways, these folders are actually not where you need to look. The reason that they are empty is because they contain nothing of use to Carrara. You have to find the actual content folders. Probably under the My Daz3d Library Runtime folder. It really gets messed up if you just let the installers add all products to the default library like that. I wish it wasn't so. The ReadMe's file for the product in question should give the clues needed to find out where the product got installed.

Others:
1. Some products must be mapped onto other products (like clothing on a character). Some of these products only work with certain generations of characters (V4/M4, Genesis, V5/M5, etc). Is there an easy way to know this, or is this learned just through experience?

This is where a good Runtime structure has helped me out through the years. As you buy and install products, they go to a place that is organized by me - according to how I expect to find and use it. The names will likely be of no useful benefit in that regard - most of the time. M5, V5, G5... these are all Genesis people. Those I would install as DAZ Studio content into the library used for that. DIM defauts to "My Daz3d Library", while the older installers used "My Library" within "My Documents > DAZ 3D > Studio".
2. How should products like hair and clothing be added? Sometimes they don't seem to "attach" themselves to the character.
3. If I drag a product to the Instances tab or to the display window and nothing happens, Carrara provides no feedback as to why. How do I find out the reason? Thanks for your work on the manual!
FDWhen you have the appropriate figure selected in Carrara and then double click the hair or clothing, it will auto conform. Otherwise it won't - but will just add it to the scene. For Genesis, I believe you select Genesis, not the first in the hierarchy, but the second - just above "Actor". Alternate method: Drag the item directly to that line: Genesis, in the above example. Otherwise, with the new hair or outfit selected, you can use "Fit To" in the general tab. I had much more detailed explanations before - which really bums me out that they're missing. That was quite some time ago. Please let me know if you need further explanations to any of this. Really sorry, FD.

Dartanbeck

FractalDimensia said:

2. How should products like hair and clothing be added? Sometimes they don't seem to "attach" themselves to the character.
3. If I drag a product to the Instances tab or to the display window and nothing happens, Carrara provides no feedback as to why. How do I find out the reason?

Thanks for your work on the manual!
FDOkay FD, More on this as I was playing around today with Genesis and Genesis 2 Female, V6:
The appropriate selection for when you want to apply anything to the Genesis figure from the library, is the figures name, the next line above the word: "Actor". This new build, 204, is really cool. If you have that line selected, even if it's in a nested group, which is closed at the moment, and you drag the clothing or hair, etc., into the scene, Carrara asks you if you wish to apply it to the selected character. What's really neat about that is that, if it's been a while, and you don't recall which to select... select one of them and drag a Genesis compatible product into the scene tab. If it asks... you've selected the right one.If it doesn't... it will automatically select the new item once it's loaded - just press "Fit To" and select your choice.
3. I have a number of products that just don't appear at all. From the product descriptions, they are not cameras, lights, or materials (though materials might be included in the package). Why would this be? A good example are a number of "Lisa's Botanical" products I purchased. The products appear in the list under "L," but they appear as blank when I select them.
4. Why would some product contents show up elsewhere (icons appear), such as under the "Content" tab, but not show up under the same product name in this area (no icons)? Is this a sign there was an installation error?

Okay... not such a big deal as I thought at first - although I'm still uncertain as to where to look for things that are not Genesis related - but this clue should at least lead you in a direction towards figuring out the library.
Let's say you've used the DIM to install your goods, and you kept the default installation location. The only other option, means that you likely already know where to look.
So in the above example, we are in Carrara's Browser looking at the Content tab. Inside of "My DAZ 3D Library", scroll down to "People".
Now select Genesis or Genesis 2.
Inside those headings is where you'll find everything that you have that can be applied to Genesis and/or Genesis 2.
If you have the new DAZ Horse 2, it's the same thing, except you'll select "Animals" instead of "People".

I really like this method.

I have more to explain to answer more of those questions... but I'm out of time. I'll catch you later!
Have a good one, FD! Great job on all of your cool renders and the ideas that get you there!

Max Turlad

Hi all,
so I'm almost ready to buy Carrara. I've read this thread...I'm still bit confused. Let me explain:

my computer have a SSD for the SO and applications. To "save" the life of the SSD the USERS folder and TMP, TEMP,n TEMPORARY INTERNET FILES folders are located in a second HD. Then:

1) SSD for SO (W7 64 bit) and Application (Vegas for video editing, ParticleIllusion for some fx, etc. etc.);

2) HD for SYSTEM TMP FOLDERS AND USERS.

Now can I follow this configuration installing Carrara?

Need I to install DIM and Daz Studio also?

Whoops!!! Sorry for my english, Max.

Garstor

sbilf said:

Hi all, so I'm almost ready to buy Carrara. I've read this thread...I'm still bit confused. Let me explain:

my computer have a SSD for the SO and applications. To "save" the life of the SSD the USERS folder and TMP, TEMP,n TEMPORARY INTERNET FILES folders are located in a second HD. Then:

1) SSD for SO (W7 64 bit) and Application (Vegas for video editing, ParticleIllusion for some fx, etc. etc.);

2) HD for SYSTEM TMP FOLDERS AND USERS.

Now can I follow this configuration installing Carrara? Need I to install DIM and Daz Studio also?

Absolutely! In fact; you just described my secondary machine setup for Carrara.

You do not need DIM or Daz Studio unless you actually want to use them. If you plan on buying Daz content for the store (and that is Daz's raison d'etre) then I would recommend installing DIM. D|S you can install according to your tastes/needs.

Max Turlad

Garstor said:

Absolutely! In fact; you just described my secondary machine setup for Carrara.

You do not need DIM or Daz Studio unless you actually want to use them. If you plan on buying Daz content for the store (and that is Daz's raison d'etre) then I would recommend installing DIM. D|S you can install according to your tastes/needs.

Thank you so much, Garstor. this helps me a lot. Definitely something I'll buy DAZ (of course everything compatible with Carrara).

Ciao, Max.

Dartanbeck

Yes Garstor, Thank you!
Heavy into stonework lately. Get it? Heavy into... alright... t'was bad, was it not? lol
Just finished one of them. Hopefully I can get in some much needed Carrara time!

Ya know... I've just purchased all of those wonderful Inagoni plugins and haven't even had an opportunity to play with them yet. Same with that cool new lorez horse! And then there's Phil, coming up with that Gamma 2.2 stuff...
Exciting days!

Max,
The Gars Man is right - I hope you have gotten started okay. I can hardly wait for the day when I can run SSD!!!
Soon, actually. They have been on the market long enough now where the pricing is beginning to come within my reach.

You are really going to love Carrara!

Max Turlad

Thank you "Dad"

I already love Carrara !!!! I look forward to playing with the full version.

Ciao, Max.

Dartanbeck

LOL!!!
I look forward to seeing what you'd do with it! ;)
Ciao!

Dartanbeck

 

Sci Fi Funk is a Talented Carrara Animator who endeavors in Very Large Scenes and often shares valuable insights toward his techniques.

Floater Bot Deluxe (using Fenrics plugins). 
How to upgrade your free floater bot from Stonemason. The tutorial shows how to make the camera lens zoomable and set up a mouth piece. 
How to light up windows (with total control over your scene). 
The technique I’m showing here is to isolate the windows you wish to be on by cutting them out (and the immediate surroundings if you want that), and shining a bulb light onto the cut out (and only the cut out). 
Wrecked Cars Tutorial. Applying Rust Shaders to Awkward Models (4 Part Series) 
How to make rusty wrecked cars Tutorial. Using cheap models how to amend shading domains and apply rust shaders to your 3d models. 
3D Models. Low Poly Houses. Demo Reel. 
These are 3D models that look good from medium to long range distances with such low memory usage that you can literally fit thousands of them into a single scene.
The models range from just 20k each up to 90k each. The largest and most complex looking are only 48k each.
These 3D Models were made in Carrara. I built them up from components such as Windows and Doors. The houses themselves are empty inside and the vast majority of the detail is reserved for the front of the house.
This is to save on space which is paramount if you are trying to re-create the East End of London as I have in this animation

 

 

Beginners 3D modelling. Easy 3D Coins. 3D Modelling Tutorial. How to make 3D coins. A beginners tutorial and a gentle introduction to 3D modelling. Encourage yourself as a 3D modeller with this easy tutorial.

 

Stonemason’s “Urban Future 4” as you’ve never seen it before A semi-walkthrough of this mass walk loop project featuring 132 animated low poly 3D People, rendered to the background of a cut down “Urban Future 4” by Stonemason. In addition I added a few “flying car” props and a Dirigible completed with animated texture.

 

Low Poly People. Full Tutorial in 4 parts illustrates how he saves resources while animating multitudes of Cyberpunks!

 

BVH Carnegie Mocap for DAZ Carrara Tutorial Full Tutorial in 2 parts How to effectively use the BVH mocap data from the Carnegie collection, with Poser Figures (DAZ, Carrara).
Low Poly People Mass Walk Loops Tutorial Full Tutorial in 2 parts How to create walk loops for lots of low poly people, with separate walk loops so that they DON’T look like an army of robots.
Walking up stairs from a BVH or Mocap walk loop Tutorial Full Tutorial in 2 parts Walking up stairs from a BVH or Mocap walk loop Tutorial

 

How to Build a Big Set for 3d Animation in Carrara Tutorial is from the Old Daz Forums, so takes a while to load, but is a great series of saving resources while building gigantic scenes in Carrara. *** See below for Direct Access to videos instead of going through the Old Forums - which can be very slow to access
Three Point Lighting Tutorial is from the Old Daz Forums, so takes a while to load, but is a great tutorial on a subject many people ask about *** See below for Direct Access to videos instead of going through the Old Forums - which can be very slow to access
DIRECT ACCESS TO SCI FI FUNK @ YouTube.com:
* Access all of Steve's 3d Video Tutorials by following this link
* Access Steve's 3d Movie Episodes by following this link

Dartanbeck

Steve's list is growing beyond to scope of that single post, so we're giving him his own spot, linked to from the original. Keep 'em coming, Steve!

Dartanbeck

Update to Carraraists in the Spotlight:
- Corrected the links and information in Steve's headline to reflect the above new Sci Fi Funk space
- Added "evilproducer" as a Carraraist in the Spotlight
- Added "GK Dantas" as a Carraraist in the Spotlight

There are truly an enormous amount of incredibly worthy Carraraists within and without our active community. Please know that I'm not 'choosing favorites' when I put someone into this special, commemorative place. I have many more names I wish to add. I've even been holding back on putting ep in there, since he and I are known buddies, and I don't want this to seem like a biased attempt to make buddies! lol

The biggest reason that this list isn't a LOT larger, is due to my lack of time to work on this thread over three quarters of the year - which I'm trying to change, with great effort. Not only do I wish to grow this list, but also to do some much needed formatting, switching things around and, most importantly, adding a bunch of learning material and updating the links sections to helpful threads throughout the forum.

Thanks for bearing with me in this enormous endeavor. And, as always - if you have any requests, suggestions and/or complaints within reason, please let me know. JAY_NOLA asked me a while back if he could make that wonderful "Plugins FAQ" that he made. I think he did a bang-up job and I still refer to it constantly for links and information as I'm beginning to add a lot of functionality to my copy of Carrara via plugins thanks, mostly, to Jay and his creation of this great resource. I am always keen on accepting additional works. But just by starting your own thread about anything of common (or even not so common) interest will likely end up being cataloged and linked within this thread.

One last thing for now, If I end up putting something of yours in here that you would prefer omitted, please just let me know.

Sci Fi Funk

That's a wonderful presentation of my tutorial list!

Thanks a lot man.

The biggest baddest one is yet to come. I hope you'll make it the no.1 tutorial in the list. Imho I hope to make it THE Carrara reference for large scenes. First up finish episode 8 so people can see what is possible.

Thanks again for raising the profile of my work.