Customer Reviews

Carrara 1.0 Bible (With CD-ROM)

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

As someone that has been playing with Bryce for a year and wanted to venture into the new world of creating 3D objects, I bought a copy of Carrara. Unlike Bryce, you have to actually create the objects in a scene. When I tried to do this, I promptly got LOST. The Carrara manual was no help as it was incomplete and assumed that I already knew how to make 3D objects. This being all I can say is thank you Mr. Sahlin. You have written a book that assumes nothing. This book took Carrara from being a very costly program that took up space on my hard drive to something that is a joy for me to use. Every step in the book is laid out in a manner that is easy to understand and simple to do. If anyone asks, if you have Carrara this is the book for you.

This book covers all the different aspects of Carrara 1.0 and its CD-ROM is packed with the best you can find. You may find that there is too much detail in the book, but soon you will discover why this will help you to become a master of your own talent.

If you have bought Carrara and are frustrated by the awful manual and tutorial book, GET this book. This book will introduce you to all the basics of Carrara very simply and effectively. I am sure you will learn from it as I did. I learned from it how to use the spline and vertex editors (which I never used in my life before). And it is an excellent substitute for the reference help that manual should provide and does not, or at least does badly. Only two flaws: I would have liked to have a lot more useful content (e.g. shaders) in the CDROM, and the colour pictures really do not justice to what Carrara can do.

As with most Carrara users, I waited with high hopes for this book, as the original manual is virtually useless. After receiving the "Bible", I was immediately disappointed because it is written specifically for the PC version of the software. I am using the Mac version. This is not mentioned in any of the advertising literature or reviews, including here on Amazon. All the files on the CD are in PC format making them unusable for the Mac without adding "creator and type codes" to the files either with a resource editor or other conversion software. I almost returned the book, but because I am adept in both platforms' key commands and know how to add creator and type codes, I decided to give the book a chance. Because the program is virtually identical in layout and operation on both platforms, I have been able to get a lot out of the book. It is very in-depth and detailed and has provided me with tips and solutions I thought were not possible in Carrara. I recommend the book to advanced Mac users (if they're not too bent out of shape for not being included) who can deal with key command and file conversions, but cannot recommend it to inexperienced Mac users. I assume a PC user at most any level would benefit from the book. I give the book 3 stars because it has some valuable information even without the CD, but leaving out the Mac and not even including an explanation why or a warning in the advertising literature is very short-sighted. I specialize in cross-platform issues between Mac and PC and know it is not that much more difficult or expensive to create a "Hybrid" CD usable to Macs & PCs and include key equivalents in the text. There is a substantial Mac user base for this program (as evidenced in the various forums and mailing lists) and, in fact, most of the Fractal/Metatools/Metacreations core software was written for the Mac first. I do not believe this book deserves the title of "...BIBLE" because of the glaring Mac omission, but it probably belongs in the library of ANY serious Carrara user.

Carrara 1 Bible covers areas that the manual ignored or had misstated due to Carrara's shipping date. A helpful book whether or not the CD is playable.

This is a great book for PC owners with Carrara software. It is well written and easy to follow. The content is easy to use for tutorial learning as well as a topical reference.

This is definitely the book to buy. The Carrara Bible 1.0 is based on the actual shipping version of the product and includes all the changes and additions left out of the MetaC manual.

The Carrara 1.0 Bible is packed with useful information. Topics covered include lighting methods - Advanced
Shader creation and Rendering.
Carrara has a moderate learning curve. You have to follow the
examples in the book. The author stresses the importance of experimentation. If you want to become a pro at 3d this book provides
a good starting foundation. The rest is up to you.
A CD is included with some nice shaders.
Carrara 1 runs Stable in a Microsoft virtual Pc box running windows 2000.

There aren't many Carrara books around. In fact, I know of only another book (Carrara for Dummies) by the same author. This is definite better.

What is good about this book? For a start, if you are frustrated with the manual that comes with the software, this is a good replacement. It contains more accurate information and useful, easy-to-understand instructions to follow which gets the beginner to learning in no time.

But if are not a beginner and have dabbled with the software well, then this is not for you. Many concepts are common to those in the manual just that this book illustrates the concepts better with more accurate details.

Would have given five stars if there were more goodies on the CD-ROM. This is a good Carrara total beginner's book... can really learn from this book !!

The CD included has no provision for its use by the Macintosh platform. Although this is stated on the rear cover of the book, there is no indication of this fact in your on-line advertisement.