Carrara is a full-featured 3D computer graphics application featuring figure posing and editing, as well as nature modeling, in addition to traditional modeling, animation, texturing and rendering. The software is also capable of dynamic hair and fur simulations, particle effects, soft body and

rigid body dynamics In the physical science of dynamics, rigid-body dynamics studies the movement of systems of interconnected bodies under the action of external forces. The assumption that the bodies are '' rigid'' (i.e. they do not deform under the action ...

. Carrara is now owned and developed by Daz 3D. Carrara is compatible with

Poser Poser or Posers may refer to: People *Poseur, a person who inauthentically adopts a certain subculture *Bob Poser (1910–2002), U.S. baseball player *Charles Poser (1923–2010), Belgian-American neurologist *Christian Poser (born 1986), German ...

and Daz Studio formats of 3D figures and props. It is further supported by a number of 3rd party plug-ins and add-ons. In addition to its native renderer, the program is also integrated with external 3rd party renderers LuxRender and

Octane Octane is a hydrocarbon and also an alkane with the chemical formula C8H18, and the condensed structural formula CH3(CH2)6CH3. Octane has many structural isomers that differ by the location of branching in the carbon chain. One of these isomers ...

. Carrara is considered to be comparatively easy to learn and use.

History

The history of Carrara started in 1989 when a group of individuals founded Ray Dream, Inc., with the idea of creating graphic software for the new Macintosh computers with color displays. Two years later, the first version of their new 3D graphics program, which they named Ray Dream Studio, was released. In the years that followed, Ray Dream Studio became a successful product having at one time over 200,000 users. In 1996, Ray Dream, Inc., was sold to Fractal Design Corporation (then the developer of

Corel Painter Corel Painter is a raster-based digital art application created to simulate as accurately as possible the appearance and behavior of traditional media associated with drawing, painting, and printmaking. It is intended to be used in real-time ...

and Poser). Fractal Design was in turn acquired by MetaTools (developer of Bryce and KPT) shortly thereafter. The combination of the two companies was given the new name

MetaCreations MetaCreations was a computer software company that was best known for its graphics editor, graphics applications, notably Carrara (software), Ray Dream Studio/Infini D, Corel Painter, Fractal Design Painter, Bryce (software), Bryce, and Kai's Po ...

. Around the same time, another 3D graphics program, named

Infini-D Infini-D is a discontinued 3D computer graphics program developed by Specular International. It was continued up to version 4.5 by MetaCreations when Specular merged with it. It combined with Ray Dream Studio to create Carrara Carrara ( ; ; , ...

, was acquired from

Specular International MetaCreations was a computer software company that was best known for its graphics editor, graphics applications, notably Carrara (software), Ray Dream Studio/Infini D, Corel Painter, Fractal Design Painter, Bryce (software), Bryce, and Kai's Po ...

. Now owning two 3D graphics programs, MetaCreations decided to merge Ray Dream and Infini-D into one application, giving it the new name Carrara. MetaCreations released version 1.0 of Carrara with significant bugs. They soon released a patch for the code, then afterwards stopped support of the package. For a short period, the only way Carrara users could get the patch was through other internet sites or Carrara interest groups in different places on the web. Around the year 2000, when MetaCreations was divesting itself of most of its products, it sold Carrara to a new company named Eovia, founded by former employee Antoine Clappier. Eovia developed Carrara for several versions, culminating with version 5 in 2005. That same year, Eovia shipped a new 3D modeling application,

Hexagon In geometry, a hexagon (from Greek , , meaning "six", and , , meaning "corner, angle") is a six-sided polygon. The total of the internal angles of any simple (non-self-intersecting) hexagon is 720°. Regular hexagon A regular hexagon is de ...

. Eovia made significant upgrades to Carrara, which included the Ray Dream

physics engine A physics engine is computer software that provides an approximate simulation of certain physical systems, typically classical dynamics, including rigid body dynamics (including collision detection), soft body dynamics, and fluid dynamics. I ...

, originally not licensed in the MetaCreations version of the code. Improvements included soft shadows, caustics,

global illumination Global illumination (GI), or indirect illumination, is a group of algorithms used in 3D computer graphics that are meant to add more realistic lighting Lighting or illumination is the deliberate use of light to achieve practical or aest ...

, and better atmosphere models. In 2006, Daz 3D (developers of Daz Studio and a line of articulated 3D figures) acquired Eovia along with Carrara and Hexagon. Several former MetaCreations employees moved over to Daz and continued development on Carrara. Daz 3D added posable figures, models for hair, and animation tools. Daz 3D works in an "open development" environment, releasing early and turning to its users for bug reports and feature input. In May 2010, the company released Carrara 8.0. It included the addition of the

Bullet A bullet is a kinetic projectile, a component of firearm ammunition that is shot from a gun barrel. They are made of a variety of materials, such as copper, lead, steel, polymer, rubber and even wax; and are made in various shapes and constru ...

physics engine, with which Carrara can more realistically animate scenes involving collisions of multiple bodies or particles. Daz has also added models for soft-body dynamics, for better cloth and clothing animation.

Features

Version 8.5

* Native DSON importer * Native auto-fit and improved fit-to-functionality for figures' clothing and accessories * Improved sequencer, key-framing, and animation tools * "Smart" content and CMS integration * Animation commands — "Zero", "Memorise", "Restore" (for figures, selections, and selection trees) * Improved representation of lights in viewport (spot, sun, moon, tube, and shape lights) * Shader additions (Multi-Layer Shader and Elements)

Version 8.0

* 64-bit support for macOS and Windows * Multithreading for macOS and Windows *

physics library * Improved FBX and COLLADA data exchange * Negative lights and photometrics (IES) * "God rays" and "barn door" lighting and effects * Editing of posed meshes * Puppeteer

References

*
Carrara 8 Pro Product Page

Carrara Developer Information

Carrara Add-on Products and Plug-ins

External links

Digital Carvers Guild
plug-ins and other resources for 3D software
Inagoni
Carrara 3D plug-ins

Fenrics Fox Den

PyCarrara
Python scripting plugin for Carrara
PyCloid
enhanced particle system {{Animation editors 3D graphics software Windows software macOS software