Original Carrara Developers
Dondec
Posts: 243
Just curious, does anybody know what happeded to the original Carrara (or was it Amapi) developers? I keep finding neat things in Carrara, makes me think these guys were like way ahead of everybody else at the time.
So where does that put them today? Wouldn't be surprised if they're all working for AutoDesk now.
Thanks
- Don
Comments
where ever they are DAZ cannot afford them :lol:
I think Pierre Berkaloff is working for Conversagent Inc. now.
The U.S. team, many of them went to Apple. (Evoia the owners before DAZ, licensed a bunch of the core technology to Apple) Yes, the dev team had some genuine brainiacs.
Did any of them have anything to do with Cheetah 3D? I've been kind of curious about trying it.
Philip Staiger, of Project Dogwaffle, used to work on Carrara at Eovia. He's been doing some really fun and informative tutorials for PD as well as being one heck of a tester, providing incredible insights toward improving the already wonderful software. Carrara is still one of his favorite 3D apps! :)
I was looking for something like Photoshop that I could afford - as well as it being able to work with animations that I make in Carrara. Finding PD Pro: Howler has been a dream come true, but took a lot of getting used to. Thanks to Philip's Tutorials, I've been really finding amazing ways to work very smoothly back and forth between Carrara and Howler with ease and some great results. I am now very honored to be a part of their team! :)
So, who are the people behind Eovia? A small group of true 3D aficionados and, we believe, seasoned managers. All the founders are developers or heavy users of 3D software. We all share years of work on Ray Dream and Carrara. We think that our experience will ensure that we understand the needs and expectations of our customers
Antoine Clappier - Founder/President & CEO Eovia Corp
Now; Founder/President Oloneo
Charles Brissart - one of the 4 founders of Eovia. The genius behind the Carrara render engine.
Director of Software EngineeringEovia
Director of R&D DAZ Productions
Left DAZ 3D to work at Apple. Senior Software Engineer at Apple
Arnaud Berry - Co-Founder and Senior Software Architect Eovia
Senior Software Engineer at SonicMule
More to come.
Not to take anything from those Carrara pioneers, but keep in mind that the core algorithms and original designs for most of this stuff was really developed by university researchers at places like MIT, Harvard, NYIT (my alma mater), Bell Labs, and other research facilities with brilliant guys who developed this stuff from scratch.
BTW, a bit more interesting and pertinent for some of us...
Does anyone know who the EXISTING Carrara developers are ? :) :)
Geez, I just realized I didn't mention University of Utah. Much of those shading and rendering algorithms came from there..
I must be getting old.. :) :)
Depends on how far back you want to go :-) Turner Whitted figured out most of the ray tracing stuff when he was at North Carolina university, and Arthur Appel started it all back in 68 and I think he was at IBM/Watson research center then.
Hmmm, and to be honest, without Pythagoras triangle 2000 years ago maybe with would not have and graphics at all today.
Yeah, but I think in general the trend has been that the university researchers figure out the nitty-gritty algorithms, then present SIGGRAPH papers on how to do this stuff, and then the industry guys convert that to code. That's pretty much the case even today. Some exceptions of course, but you have to give a lot of credit to the university guys who try to figure out the raw mathematics for all of this stuff that everyone then uses.
If you've ever read a SIGGRAPH paper on stuff like fluids and dynamics, you get a real appreciation for the dry, painful mathematics they need to slog through and figure out so it all can work. Makes you appreciate why it takes so long to develop code for these high level features and renderers. This stuff is insanely complex.
Thanks for the info. I was curious about the dev team because for a product originally developed what was it a decade ago, it still seems to be holding its own, which is pretty remarkable. These guys must have been geniuses and ahead of their time.
There are parts of Carrara that look like different development teams too. When I see one User Interface across the board, then a slightly different one for a specific feature, that can often mean "a new hire that couldn't figure out how to work with the original author's code". :) Maybe the original author moved on by then, or maybe there was time pressure to finish on a certain date, or both.
I'm also guessing Carrara was written in "C" because of the UI... one large Window with tabbed panels. The successor C++... is Object Oriented that automatically gives you things like undockable windows and tabs, multiple viewports, customizable layouts and the like. If you're familiar with IClone 6, that to me looks like a C++ rewrite of IClone 5.5.
Anyway... I guess I was wondering if any of the original developers still had a connection with Carrara or Daz3D, as developers, consultants or whatever. Would love to hear them even talk about how they put it together... it was, and is, a pretty major thing
- Don
yes writting in C. Areas that have a different UI such as the Metaballs modeler. It was at first a plug develop by RAYFlect/Antoine Clappiers company. The plugin was later merge into RayDream Studio.
When Carrara 1.0 was developed the many of those plugins from RAYFlect were added such as the Metaballs modeler, the Camera Lense Effects, light effects such a light cones etc.In some areas the UI didn't get updated. Lots of Carrara history in my head. ;) I will some of it tomorrow.
I remember being so excited when RayDream had RAYFlect added to it. That is the tipping point that got me into CG. Seriously.
Thx Dart... I found Ringo's Release History. Looks like Carrara had a lot of features well before everybody else, confirming it led the industry for a time. Seems like there were some real 3D pioneers involved. Pretty neat times in 3D inovation and history..
Now I want a T-shirt! I'll have to think about making one somehow. Thanks again.
- Don
I had no idea that Philip was associated with Eovia and Carrara. How cool! And yes, his tutorials are just wonderful!
Pierre
Philip is a great guy. Has been a long time friend. ;)