A few months back we did the Great Greenscreen Roundup, where we looked at some of the popular greenscreen keying options to see which worked the best with DV and HDV footage. As we were doing this, we also started really looking at 3D programs as a way to create realistic backgrounds, not unlike those used in Sin City.
As most filmmakers find the vast array of 3D programs on the market to be a bit overwhelming, we decided to do a 3D roundup that show-cased how different programs dealt with a realistic background scene.
The base scenes were created in Cinema 4D Studio R10 by staff animator Ralph Caldwell, who also created the Maya 8.5 conversion.
We were able to convert the scenes to some of the more popular programs with the help of Okino’s extremely useful PolyTrans program, which allows you to convert between different 3D programs while retaining camera and lighting positions. For folks who want to design a 3D scene in one package and convert to other packages for rendering, or to share the workload, this is a powerful conversion package that runs $395 to $640 in
average configurations and can be purchased from Okino’s website (http://www.okino.net ). Its 3D layout is so user friendly that I would love to see Okino come out with a standalone modeling and rendering package with all the current export options currently found in PolyTrans. (The folks at Okino currently have no plans to do this, as this would decrease their ability to focus directly on translating between the newest programs.)
However, some of the less expensive 3D packages weren’t included in PolyTrans’ export features and, even for the ones that were, each conversion couldn’t actually showcase the unique features of the program to which it was being converted. (The nature of conversion is such that you find similar ground between two programs, rather than upgrading a scene from one program to take advantage of differences in another program.) In order to accomplish that sort of customized output, we would need 3D artists, who specialized in each program, to convert the scene to their preferred programs, while taking unique advantage of the power found in their individual 3D packages. We required that each person use the same textures and models for their scenes, with some leeway given for backgrounds and wall paintings.
We were able to accomplish this goal, with the help of some very creative 3D artists, who contacted us to be a part of this roundup and convert these scenes. While this first round covers six software packages, we plan to look at as many as eight more such packages in future issues. To our knowledge, this is the largest 3D roundup of this type ever attempted.
Take a look at the images listed below, as well as some comments that were culled from our use of the programs, along with the artist’s comments.
Some of the images listed below can give you an idea of the quality you can get from some of these programs.
Carrara 6 Pro
3D Artist: Mark Bremmer
MSRP: $589
Download Demo: http://www.DAZ3D.com
Pros:
Very easy to use; deep feature set with plenty of presets; rendering capabilities offer a lot of variety and excellent quality; inexpensive plug-ins; able to import a number of popular 3D formats, including Poser objects and people; large support and creative-sharing community developing content for it, including DAZ.
Cons:
Render speed at photo realistic settings is fairly slow; some issues with high resolution, texture map memory handling; exterior content-management view needs work.
Conclusion:
Carrara is stable, well-rounded, powerful and rich in features, for the price. It is a generalist 3D solution, meaning that it does many things very, very well. For folks who want to try out Carrara, but don’t want to spend $600, DAZ has its non-Pro version available for $249.
(To read Mark Bremmer’s full review on this package, just click here.)
