Another consideration is the maintenance costs and plug-in costs associated with the software. Out-of-the-box C6 Pro does things that, with other software, you are required to purchase separately with other software -- it’s like getting it for free with Carrara. There are some very similar plug-ins for textures for both Carrara and LightWave, with a huge difference in cost: C6P- $85, LW-$800. Many Carrara plug-ins check in at about $30. The upgrade costs for Carrara track at between $120 and $150. That’s exceptional.
It really comes down to your budget and what you need to accomplish. Carrara can’t do everything, but it’s very good for a lot of things. If you don’t need some of those super, specialized plug-ins, or 3d volumetric particle effects that are available in the more expensive solutions, then Carrara is probably a good fit.
Final Comments
If your studio is required to partner with studios that may already be running LW, C4D, Maya etc., you may need to pay-to-play and join their club. If your long term career goals are to become a pro animator for a major production house, you’d be wise to work with the current industry standards.
However, Carrara is quickly making in-roads in the pro market because it is a very strong, multi-talented, reasonably priced solution. In fact, Carrara has been used for animated segments on the History Channel, the Emmy’s, and been used to create HDTV commercials for companies like Best Buy to name a few. In fact, according to the Ron Carrelli Report (a well known 3D industry survey), Carrara is the 9th most installed 3D software. Blender is the most installed app, but what do you expect? It’s free. But so is SketchUp.
For those who are interested, here are the standings:
Now, above, if you compare Carrara’s feature sets and price point to the software higher in the list (and Flash doesn’t count), you’ll have some great information on which to base your decisions.
[Editor's Note: For folks who decide to purchase Carrara 6 Pro and want a comprehensive video training package on the software, Mark has created an excellent training system for it through VTC. If you're interested in acquiring the series, it runs $99 to buy (or you can access all of the training on the VTC site for $30 a month) and has free demo samples available for you to get a feel for what's covered at the VTC website. - JH]
