Seems to me like this the best of times to get some fun going on in our Carrara Section. A trip back to the good days of exploration and community sharing. So, I’ve decided to whip up a little contest for you guys to play with. In order to spark some interest this time around, I’ve decided to actually include a prize. Which I will now put in the center of the page in big bold letters to catch everyone’s attention…
$15 Gift CertificateÂ
My personal favorite submission to the contest will receive the $15 gift certificate. I will likely pick some honorable mentions or runner ups that get something nice as well, so don’t worry too much about thatÂ
At this point you’re probably wondering what the contest is. Well, let me explain. I’ve created this prop specifically for this contest. What the prop is, I have absolutely no clue. It’s dubious and it’s a doodad, the Dubious Doodad. Here is the doodad in question…
Your goal is to use whatever the heck this thing is in a way that I feel is thought provoking. You won’t be judged on render quality, though it certainly wouldn’t hurt. I’m looking for imagination, and the ability to turn something stupid into something amazing. If you can turn it into something practical and actually useful that’s all the better. I’ll be creating some of my own attempts and saving them until after the contest is over.
The rules are simple. Do whatever you want to or with the thing, but you can only use Carrara. Apply modifiers, rig it, shade it, change domains, stretch it, catch it on fire, add additional props or figures, replicate it, turn it to particles etc etc. Creativity shouldn’t be held back by many restrictions. There are how ever a few points that I would like to ask you to follow.
 If you’re modifying the mesh in the modeling room do not delete anything. Add to, extrude, sweep and sculpt what’s there all you want, but do not remove any of the mesh.
The Dubious Doodad must be the center of attention. Don’t tuck it somewhere in the background of an amazing image and expect to win!
It must be obvious or provable that you actually used the doodad.
I’ll be letting the contest run for two full weeks, so the deadline will be 09-17-2011. If this goes over well with the community I’ll consider making this a regular thing. Feel free to submit as many entries as you like, and most importantly HAVE FUN!!!
More information at DAZ 3D Carrara forum.
Per request by Dimension Theory, please discuss this contest in the DAZ 3D forum
Now there is a way to transfer models and textures seamlessly between ZBrush and Carrara with GoZ for Carrara. For a limited time, when you order GoZ for Carrara you will receive a coupon to save *50% Off Carrara 8, Carrara 8 Pro and all Carrara version upgrades. In addition, all Platinum Club Members will receive 10% Off their GoZ for Carrara purchase.
Here is the first image of Genesis figures in Carrara, as you can see all morphs are already there!
But wait, currently this is under alpha development, so this is a small preview of what is coming to Carrara 8.5, which is the new version that DAZ 3D is working on and that will have some more features added.
OK, now you will say: “more dolls to Carrara!?!†Yes, and with them I think we can really expect some innovations in the figure posing system (The weight-map TirAX (TM) system is closer to the Carrara weight-map system so the conversion is much more accurate than before). This new version will include the auto morph generation for clothing and you should expect things like the Meta-Data Content Management System (Smart Content) to better organize content.
DAZ 3D informed us that due to the large code work and added features in this update there will be a small upgrade fee. The complete list of new features, price and date will be announced soon.
Finally the first beta of our gallery is open to all users. The system is still under development, so you need to login using the same data from CarraraCafe site.
We are working to give a better experience to the users here.
Please dont post images that can be agressive, like sex, violence or anything that can offend other people.
So there will be some moderation here. And we will create a gallery to show the best works at Carraracafe, and they will be in the header! Maybe we can get some vouchers for the best images too later…
Frederic Rible announced the availability of a revolutionary plug-in for Carrara!
PyCloid  arrived! It is a new genesis particle system for Carrrara with easy advanced object destruction, particles driven by images and so much more!
Official description:
PyCloid is an enhanced particle system plugin for DAZ3D Cararra CGI software.
It provides advanced features :
Mesh destruction driven by a shader
Magnet effect for pulling particles toward a geometry
Align and bank function for particle orientation along motion path
Shader driven particle emission
Object tracking of a particle with lag time
Scatter effect for group of objects
Objects instantiation at particle position with per object presence factor
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