DAZ3D is once again in the throes of March Madness. I for one am very happy I am not mired in content addiction. My bank is very sore but I doubt that would stand up against the content mania I suffered last year. Every day was a new battle not to pick up something that might have some use in the vague and distant future.

The best thing I did end up purchasing last year was Carrara Pro. Unfortunately the program has been little more than a white elephant, which is strange as the program has some amazing features such as IES support, terrain, sky and vegetation generation tools, a reasonable modeller, and a fantastic render engine (which is much more powerful than the cut-down version of 3delight Studio comes with).

I think the biggest reasons I never got stuck into Carrara was that for all its instability, Hexagon was my modeller of choice and Carrara wasn’t yet Genesis friendly. If the chance to get LightWave hadn’t popped up I would probably now be a Carrarist as I was on the verge of grabbing Infinite Skills’ Carrara training packages (fantastic project based course).

Invader Zim’s Gir modelled in Hexagon – rigged and rendered in Carrara 8 pro

Carrara is a great place for the hobbyist and upstart professional to cut their teeth on a budget 3D package. With the platinum discount included the
standard version is shipping for $105, while Pro is going for $171. Of course this is still rather expensive when you consider Blender, which is going from strength to strength, but still a very complex program that only the most dedicated beginner could come to reasonable grips within a short time frame.

Check out the Carrara 8 Promo Reel.