Carrara 1.0

by Metacreations

Product Details

• Shipping Weight: 3.4 pounds
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S. and to APO/FPO addresses. For APO/FPO shipments, please check with the manufacturer regarding warranty and support issues.
• ASIN: B00002S71V
• Item model number: CAR-W10-DE-R
• Date first available at Amazon.com: May 10, 2002
• Average Customer Review: 2.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #39,958 in Software (See Top 100 in Software)
• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes

Product Description

Amazon.com Review

As a general rule, we let the 1.0 release of just about anything slip by and instead wait for the 1.1 version; we'd rather let someone else find the bugs. However, Carrara 1.0 from MetaCreations--although certainly not bug-free--is from a fairly reputable software house; is built on the knowledge of two popular 3-D applications, Infini-D and Ray Dream; and its maturity is evident.

Carrara is a powerful, robust, and easy 3-D modeling and animation application. Creating objects and scenes is relatively simple, as is adding lights and controlling cameras. If you've ever used Ray Dream Designer, you'll feel at home in Carrara's boxed universe.

But Carrara also offers features like procedural shaders, particles, an amazing array of light effects, and depth of field blur, to name a few. Interestingly, this first version doesn't seem to have motion blur (for objects that are moving in the scene) nor does it support field rendering (for output to video).

Still, it is an extremely handy tool. The quality of the Ray Tracer and Hybrid Ray Tracer render engines is very good, and the mode of working through a "storyboard" panel is unique and promising.

Carrara is an excellent package for many beginning to intermediate 3-D users. Its interface and documentation make it easy for beginners to move up the learning curve, while the feature set is rich enough for more advanced users who need to create complex 3-D graphics and animation. --Mike Caputo

Amazon.com Product Description

MetaCreations Carrara synthesizes Ray Dream Studio and Infini-D. Carrara is a complete 3-D solution for modeling, shading, scene building, animation, rendering, and special effects. Built for the creative professional who is advancing into the world of 3-D, Carrara's open architecture allows you to customize the application with additional plug-ins for additional creative effects or functionality.

Carrara is optimized for maximum performance with high-speed rendering and support for OpenGL. It creates high-quality 3-D output for the Web, multimedia, and print. It features a flexible workflow, storyboarding, and full export of MetaStream (an open file format for streaming 3-D over the Internet).

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Great ... but buggy., March 2, 2000

By 

Marco Maroni - See all my reviews

This review is from: Carrara 1.0 (CD-ROM)

The idea behind this application is fantastic - mix Bryce with 3D Studio Max or any other high-end 3D app.

Unfortunately, although it kind of works the way it should, being a v.1.0 product, it suffers from being very buggy. It crashes a lot - and I mean, a lot! When twisting or turning an object, it will usually start to chug slowly and then freeze and/or crash.

I am currently waiting for Metacreations to post a few patches on their site to make this the product it was supposed to be. But in spite of these problems, it is great fun to use, and the interface is brilliantly designed and easy to use. If you're used to other Metacreations products, then you will be able to create nice pics in a few mins with objects you have created in the past.

12 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Could Be a Legend if It did everything advertised, May 30, 2000

By 

Jonathan West (Guam) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Carrara 1.0 (CD-ROM)

I bought Carrara after using the likes of Lightwave 5 and 3D studio max r2.5. Carrara is a very good program but extremely buggy. Don't expect too much from its IK system as it cannot be used on a solid mesh nor does it support an object skeleton of any kind, the photoshop plugins don't work even though the package states that it does. The Z axis is mapped to the Y Axis which is extremely strange. There are no plugins to support other metacreations major titles ie: Poser and Bryce. Hopefully these setbacks will be fixed later. Adobe has purchased Carrara from Metacreations so I expect to see good things come out of it, however the manual, like most metacreations product manuals, leave much to be desired. This is a good product, but buggy and sometimes, down-right strange! If you want to be a professional and have the money, I would look elsewhere to Lightwave, Truespace, 3D studio max or Maya. Those are proven and powerful programs and support industry standards.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Don't throw your money away, November 7, 2000

By 

Angel M. Urena "xamian" (New York, NY USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Carrara 1.0 (CD-ROM)

I purchased Carrara on the premise that it would expand on the capabilities of Infini-D. Many of the advertised features just do not work. I've downloaded patches from metacreations web site and the program still does not work. There are more bugs in this program than a New York City apartment. Metacreations should be ashamed of themselves. How dare you put this piece of garbage on the market. Somebody call the police, I was robbed.