If you are just starting out with generating 3D-images, it is easy to get overwhelmed.
There are lots and lots of 3D software that seem to do very similar things – but not quite – and it is really unclear which one is right for you.
To find the best 3D image software, you must first buy my
Shiba 3D-Software E-book!
Just Kidding!
Originally, my goal was to find something simple that I could use to quickly generate high quality 3D-images of figures and some simple backgrounds. In particular, I wanted to use these 3D-images for my online articles and blogs.
I started with Poser 7, got some great 3D-models from Daz3D and started having a lot of fun creating 3D-images. I chose Poser because I had used it briefly a few years back, and wanted to go with something I was familiar with.
Should you use Poser as well?
If I had to do it over again, at this time, I would not start with Poser. Instead, I would download a free version of Daz Studio and start generating images with that first.
Below, I will go through my experiences with Poser, Carrara, and Daz Studio, and talk about why I am currently back on Daz Studio.
Poser
One of the biggest advantages of Poser, in my opinion, is that it has been around for a long time, therefore, there is a lot of content for it. Many vendors are very familiar with Poser, and there are loads of 3D-products that are available for the platform. In addition, it has a powerful dynamic cloth system, and a great material room (i.e. shaders).
I moved away from Poser mainly because rendering time was really long. Anything more than a simple figure took a long time to render, and the direct manipulation interface (e.g. posing and navigation) slowed down significantly for me as well. It became extremely painful to create, pose, and render even fairly simple scenes. I really wanted something that would give me greater control of the object polygons, smoother interface control, as well as faster rendering.
Note though, that I haven’t used Poser in several years, therefore my Poser experiences are based on Poser 7 and 2008 computer hardware.
More recently, I decided not to move back to Poser, mainly because of the Genesis figure. One of the largest places for low cost 3D models is at Daz3D. More importantly, Daz also produces very popular human base models, such as their well known Victoria and Michael lines. Most of the outfits and accessories produced by 3D vendors support these two character lines. Earlier versions of Victoria and Michael are fully Poser compatible.
However, recently, Daz released a new generation of models based on their Genesis technology. In particular, generation 5 and above Victoria and Michael figures are now based on this new technology. While there is a format transfer solution for Poser, these figures and the clothing autofit tool that gives it a lot of flexibility, work best in Daz Studio.
Carrara
After using Poser for several months, I decided to make the switch to Carrara at the end of 2009. As I described earlier, I wanted a faster renderer and more control of my object polygons. While on sale, Carrara 7 was comparable in price to Poser, and at the time I liked it a lot better than Poser.
Why?
- Carrara was much faster than Poser.
- I liked Carrara’s posing controls more than Poser’s. Carrara runs more smoothly than Poser on my computer, which makes it significantly easier to pose figures and clothing. I had difficulty using Poser’s direct manipulation controls because of the significant time lag.
- I liked Carrara’s rendering quality a lot more than Poser’s. Rendering speed is also much faster in Carrara compared to Poser. For example, the image below is generated using Carrara 7 with post-work in Photoshop.
- Because of lag, doing more complex backgrounds in Poser is difficult and unpleasant. In contrast, Carrara is much better at handling backgrounds, as well as supports terrains and environmental effects.
- Carrara has good support for shaders (e.g., character, object, and clothing textures). In addition, there are a variety of pre-built shaders in Carrara and you can purchase more from Daz. With better textures, you can generate higher quality, and more realistic looking 3D images.
- Carrara supports a much larger range of functions compared to Poser. The biggest one for me is the ability to do vertex editing. You may think that you do not want to mess around with vertices, but it is very nice to have the ability to tweak little things such as making a shirt slightly longer or shorter, slightly changing the shape of an object, etc.
Ultimately I really wanted the ability to change the faces of my characters.
I figured that Carrara will easily grow with me as I gain more 3D experience, and want to do more with 3D art.
One of the key weaknesses of Carrara (as of Carrara 8.5) is that it does not support dynamic cloth (which is supported by Poser and Daz Studio). However, you can drape the clothing within Daz Studio and import that into Carrara.
** I am not sure how well it will work when animated within Carrara because it will no longer be dynamic.
Daz Studio
However, at the end of 2013, I decided it was time for a switch to Daz Studio. One of the key reasons for this is that Daz is no longer putting much effort into developing Carrara. It took more than a year after the release of Genesis, before it was supported in Carrara (version 8.5). In addition, the autofit tool which really gives the Genesis figures its super powers does not work well in Carrara 8.5.
In addition to all this, it seems like Daz is focusing their main software efforts on Daz Studio, which now has some great global illumination options, sub-surface scattering, scene instancing, collision detection, sub-division surfaces, and more. In addition, Daz Studio has since collected a fairly large following, and there are now a lot of vendor products available for it. This is in contrast to Carrara which has very slow updates, limited new features, and a lot fewer vendor offerings.
In addition, Daz Studio is currently free, so I decided to make the leap.
I could not be happier with that decision. In addition to the new features, tools, and greater amount of vendor content,
- I found that doing lights in Daz Studio is much easier than in Poser or Carrara. I was able to get up and running really quickly because of the awesome light primitives that come with Daz Studio 4.6 (which I got for free!).
- The Daz Studio 3Delight renderer is nice and fast. In addition, if we want to use an unbiased renderer later on, to produce more realistic looking results, there are plugins for those in Daz Studio.
- The Daz Studio interface is smooth and easy to learn. I am able to navigate my scenes well, even with more complex background scenes and elements.
Previously in Carrara, I would render each figure separately and then compose them with various backgrounds in Photoshop. However, since switching to Daz Studio, I am now rendering the entire scene together. The faster rendering speed, simple interface, and great lighting system has allowed me to start doing this fairly quickly. Rendering the entire scene is best because it allows for more interesting camera angles as well as lighting.
Here is my Daz Gallery, which contains many of the recent renders that I made using Daz Studio 4.6 Pro. In contrast, my Renderosity gallery contains my older renders that I did in Carrara. Even just from the renders included in this article, it is clear, I think, that there is a big improvement in what I can create.
If you are new to Daz Studio, I have just written a few tutorials for beginners based on my recent experiences –
- How to Create Fantasy Art in Daz Studio.
- Tips and Tricks for Daz Studio Beginners.
- How to Combine Multiple Poses in Daz Studio.
Thanks for the great post. I’m looking for a time saving pre-vis tool. I’ll give DAZ a try and see if it works for me.
Hi,
I did switched from Poser to Daz manly because Daz Studio acts very much like a general 3d software and me being Maya user can actually customize Daz Studio to very much like Maya by tweaking it’s shortcuts. Also the animate 2 tool in Dazstduio is so awesome that can let you create animations very fast and it actually helped in a project I was doing in office.
Although one thing I really don’t like (even in Carrara) is the lack of proper IK system. I mean in some situations you have to pin the arms and feets in one place while moving other body parts and DazStudio pin tools sucks at that. If Daz fix this issue and gives a proper ik fix like one in Poser than Daz will be a true bomb.
thanks for this post. useful. i’m using DAZ studio too, never used anything else
never noticed that daz has collision detection though. need to check that out 🙂
Wow. You went through many of the same things I did. Before Poser, I used to use Strata 3D, which is a nice 3D program, great renderer, but lacked the ability to handle figures like Poser. So I played with poser from version 4 on to Pro 2012. Once I got to Pro 2012 though, I found myself looking at Daz Studio much more seriously. Up to that point I had tried 1.0 in both beta and release and found it frustrating at the time, so I stuck with Poser. By the time it got to version 3, I was hearing much more about it and seeing some really nice work being done in it. When version 4 came out, I decided to give it a try again. By this time I was already trying my hand at Carrara and had both Hexagon and Bryce, but none of them had the interface that Daz Studio has. DS just seemed to simplify so many things. While I wasn’t a 3D novice, I was not an accomplished modeler or anything. I still struggle with it, but I have enough now that I can do morphs and the like in Hexagon with the bridge from DS. I also have Photoshop and regularly make my own textures.
The biggest point for moving to DS was the simplest: IT’S FRICKEN FREE!
Believe it or not, I actually bought the 4.0 Pro upgrade. Since I was a Platinum member, it wasn’t that much and I like supporting companies that put that much effort into a program. Now that’s it moved on to 4.5 and now 4.6, both completely free, it allows me to spend my 3D hobby budget on content, not programs. Before I had to spend it all on upgrades on software and try to get free models when I can. Now, I still look for bargains and I’m patient enough to wait for certain sales, but my content has exploded now that I can spend all the upgrade money on content.
Recently Poser upgraded to 10 and Pro 2014. While it had some nice features, I decided to pass this time and stuck with Daz Studio. It was the best decision for me. Having to dole out an extra $200 wasn’t in the cards. I’ll still spend it, but over the course of months, not in one whack, and on content, not a program.
I also wanted to make a note on Dynamic Cloth. I’m finding that the OptiTex version used by Daz produces better results. I even found a video on YouTube to use Dynamic Cloth on Genesis 2 figures. Obviously not every cloth will work perfectly, but it greatly expands the use of it. Plus, with AniBlocks, I’m hoping to do some animations from Daz. Something I was terrified of doing in Poser.
Thanks! This is exactly what I was looking for. I bought Poser Pro 2014 when it first came out (it was on a good sale!) and quickly became frustrated with it. I tried Daz Studio and found it to be much easier to use, even though it lacked features. What do you expect for free? I have slowly amassed things for Daz and only rarely go back to Poser for things I just can’t seem to get right in Daz. I keep considering Carrara, but couldn’t ever seem to find a good comparison to Daz to help me decide if it was worth spending the money on something I might hardly ever use, just like Poser. This really answered the questions I needed to hear. Thank you.
I downloaded Daz3d a few days ago because I wanted to play with making scenes with drow. Even tho it’s got some freebies it still feels like a rich wo/man’s toy. There doesn’t seem to be much for male elf modeling even if I paid. I can make Sims 2 male models with 75+ free – I didn’t pay a damn penny for – hair meshes. I can tint those hair meshes using free Paint.net. And I can make the life like dudes use a toilet after I’m done. I just want to make a freakn white haired dark-elf with my free Genesis 2 Male. But I have to buy this or I have to buy that; with no way of knowing for sure if it’s compatible. I am to discouraged.
I happened to stumble in on your websight when searching for stuff not related to Daz Studio. I had to laugh, when I realized it was ShibaShake stuff I was reading. 🙂
Anyway, you say that Daz Studio has collison detection. Does it? Where? I often find in renders that hair and clothing just goes through the body, and has to be adjusted manually. If Daz Studio really has collision detection I would like to know how one accesses that.
Keep up your fantastic work!
reserv888
Hey reserv! Fancy seeing you here. 😀
The collision detection I am talking about is the one accessible through the Mesh Smoothing menu. You can select a collision item, and then assign how many levels of collision refinement you want it to go through. It works on most things I have tried it on, but sometimes it may screw up certain types of clothing.
I talk more about it here.
Well an interesting article, two years ago I traveled like you through 3D software, just the other way round. I started with DAZ Studio, used Carrara and now I use most of the time Poser because of the advanced shader node-programming.
One of the biggest advantage of DAZ Studio is you can also render outside of DAZ Studio using 3Delight standalone and keep working on the scene while in the background you render.
This was exactly what I was looking for. Thank you for your insights, it helped a lot.
Cheers.
I am glad. DS is a lot of fun and I am having trouble tearing myself away from it at the moment. 😀
Thank you so much. I found the article extremely helpful. I received the added benefit of seeing some of your work, awesome.
I’ve never really been able to get the feel for Poser. I’m starting to get comfortable with Daz Studio, but still have tons to learn. I did recently buy the Pro version of Carrara, just to make sure I remain completely overwhelmed 🙂
Anyway thanks again.
Thank you very much Marc.
Yeah, I think the guys at Daz really did a great job with DS 4.6. I tried some of the earlier versions, but couldn’t get it to run properly, which was why I went with Carrara. But now that it is working so well, it is difficult to beat. There are still some bugs here and there, but overall I think it is a very good system.
What I like most about it is that I could get up and running really quickly and generate some pretty acceptable looking stuff with it, even as a noob. If I can tear myself away from it long enough, I want to write some articles on my early experiences, its cool lighting system, and perhaps some reviews of my favorite products.
Glad to meet you. I enjoyed reading your site.