EXCLUSIVES

Carrara Studio 3
Words by Trey Yancy
April 2004

With an interface more intuitive than its Infini-D and Ray Dream forebears, CS3's uncluttered approach to work environments takes users through the process of creating, animating, and rendering their virtual worlds with minimum hassle. Though it cannot rival the power of such high-end counterpart applications as Maya, Lightwave, or Universe, Carrara Studio 3 packs a wallop for its price and offers a surprising assortment of sophisticated tools.

What's New

While the clean user interface closely resembles that of previous versions, a number of changes enhance this new rendition. The improved properties panel provides more information and easier access to object hierarchies. The vertex modeler now includes tools for dynamic extrusion, subdivision surface edge creasing, shading domains, a UV mapping tool, and a number of productivity enhancements. It is now possible, for example, to add bevels to spline cross sections and to create triangulation without cracking. Taking a cue from Bryce, Carrara 3 has a horticultural geek's delight: a tree modeler (sans roots) with a set of advanced parameters which can be tweaked to an insane degree (see illustration).

Another of the new features, the somewhat misnamed scene wizard, accesses presets not unlike the point-and-shoot sky and landscape generators in Bryce. Rather than automating the process, this tool opens prebuilt scenes consisting of skies, landscapes, planets, an assortment of packaging vignettes, lighting setups (with and without backdrops), furnished interiors (with a range of interior and exterior lighting), and sample logos (in a variety of materials, environments and lighting setups). The scene wizard also contains demos of various rendering effects, including both metal objects and animated water surfaces, with caustics (hot spots resulting from lens effects seen in water, glass and curved metals). There are animation demos, such as walking and bouncing objects, and a sampling of special effects as well. The wizard serves additionally as a library for user-built scenes.

Carrara 3 also improves upon rendering capabilities for highly realistic HDR lighting, raytraced soft shadows, and global illumination with better edge handling. Other rendering improvements include sky dome illumination without the need for global illumination, better antialiasing, alpha channel rendering, volumetric cone and sphere lighting, per object auras, and improved depth of field. One nice bonus is a non-photorealistic, cartoon-like 3D rendering option in a style that is just starting to gain popularity in children's programming.

More options with shaders allow for better looking gradients, curves, and fractals. Pairs of shaders may now overlay, and environment-relative shaders may now vary according to object placement. The overhauled shader library contains several hundred new presets. Taking a features poke at Maya, Carrara 3 for OS X exports objects in Shockwave3D format.

Although the built-in modeling tools in Carrara Studio 3 are fairly well-rounded, its standard modeling tools are not particularly robust. Hence, bundled with the program is version 5 (classic) of Eovia's Amapi 3D modeler. In case of the need for more advanced capabilities, such as NURBS modeling, a demo copy of Amapi 3D version 7 for OS X (along with an offer to upgrade to the standard version at a $200 discount) is also enclosed. As with previous versions, the CD includes an enormous amount of ready-built 3D models and other elements that will get new users up and running in no time.

Observations

The disc includes installers for OS X, Classic, and Windows. I was delighted to see the continued inclusion of a 628-page printed manual in addition to PDF-based help. Access to PDFs via the menu is less problematic than with version 2, but I was not able to access all of the help files via the help menu (despite a second install). I ended up dragging the help folder to the dock. In most cases the learning tools are sufficient. One notable exception is Carrara's advanced formula-based modeling tools, which require more than just a manual. If you have the necessary college-level math skills, you will love this tool.

Most but not all icons in Carrara are supported with tool tips, which means the user must sometimes reach for the quick reference card. Another lackluster detail is the need to drag-and-drop libraries associated with custom image maps. This exemplifies a recurring inconsistency in task performance via keystroke versus via dragging and dropping onto a preview. I would prefer a more uniform approach.

Carrara's working environment occupies a single screen-filling expanse that can span multiple monitors. It includes interface elements which are repositioned by dragging or command-dragging. The menu bar can be placed at the top of any available screen, but no panel (i.e. on another monitor) can be placed above the menu bar. The properties browser and sequencer panels remain unified, albeit collapsible entities, precluding the ability to individually reposition its tabbed elements.

The above handful of minor shortcomings are far overshadowed by the CS3's general ease of use, its well-designed interface, and the amount of power it provides for a reasonable price.

Conclusions

Carrara Studio is an excellent intermediate-level application that provides new users with a friendly introduction to 3D. It may not replace a high-end CAD or 3D production platform, but many corporate and multimedia situations stand to benefit from this application's capabilities. It has a clean, easily navigable interface and a powerful tool set made all the more complete by the bundled Amapi modeler.

All told, there are some 400 tweaks and improvements in version 3. Though I can't figure out where most of these tweaks are hiding, I found more than enough to recommend this package to new and current users alike. This is 3D made affordable and easy to handle, with complex features found in applications far more expensive.

Carrara Studio 3 > Pros: Capable tool set, slick interface, great for novice through intermediate users > Cons: Advanced modeling requires $299 upgrade of bundled application, expensive upgrade for Carrara Basics users. > Price: $399, Up/sidegrades range from $169 to $350 From: Eovia, www.eovia.com/home.jsp