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Cheetah vs. Carrara (a discussion)
From the Carrara discussion group, FYI:
____________________
posernewb
Joined: 18 Sep 2007
Posts: 30
Posted:06 Nov 2008 09:27
Hi,
Anybody use Cheetah3D? I read some good stuff about it, but was wondering how it compares to Carrara.
Jammaroo
Joined: 16 Jun 2005
Posts: 155
Posted:06 Nov 2008 10:10
For starters it's very specifically Mac-built, right down to using Cocoa and playing extra-nice with the existing windowing system. Because it's not bolted onto an alien GUI and it doesn't have to slog commands through abstraction layers to a C++ code base, it feels peppier.
I came from the Ray Dream Studio background, so Carrara is much more familiar to me than Cheetah's modifier system. It takes some getting used to, knowing what modifies what and in which order objects and modifiers have to be nested. On the other hand, Cheetah has modifiers like that in the first place, so it's possible to do some cool stuff easily.
Regarding modeling tools, there's some give-and-take between Cheetah and Carrara. Some things are much easier in Cheetah, while some things are much harder. For example, I managed to get a quick, easy, sane unfold of a UV map for a shape I was toying with in Cheetah; I've never been able to do that in Carrara (yet). On the other hand, I can't find anything in Cheetah's tool box that does a quick fillet the way Carrara's vertex editor can.
Carrara currently has the more robust shader and materials system, with its subsurface scattering and ability to apply procedural patterning to most things. Cheetah 4.6.2 doesn't do that yet, but there's evidence that Cheetah 5 will surpass Carrara with a node-based material system.
Please note that both will do displacement mapping. They just do them ...differently. And Cheetah supports displacement painting now.
If you're experienced with Carrara, Cheetah will have a definitely lighter, possibly lightweight, feel to it. It's not terribly expensive, and the people who use it now are creating images that show that it's got potential. And Cheetah 5 is due out soon, much like Carrara 7, only if you buy Cheetah 4.6.2 now, you get the Cheetah 5 upgrade for free.
posernewb
Joined: 18 Sep 2007
Posts: 30
Posted:09 Nov 2008 11:51
Thanks for your insightful reply Territan, I think I'm going to try it out, since it's not very expensive.
chiefbobo
Joined: 31 Dec 1969
Posts: 15
Location: Raleigh, NC
Posted:10 Nov 2008 06:09
I use both programs together. My main app is Carrara just because it does so many damn things so well. Especially if I'm creating straight animations to use in video projects. But I've recently been into Unity for game design, and one thing Carrara can't do well is .FBX export. It can export meshes and maps, but not animation data, which is crucial for UNity use.
So I strated checking out Cheetah 3D because several Unity people had great success with it and Unity. My experience has been good. I built a few characters in Cheetah and then worked with passing them back and fourth between Carrara and Cheetah. (Mostly via .OBJ format) Cheetah was key to helping me "unwrap" UV mapping. Once I understood Cheetah's tools for UV mapping it actually open up the door to Carrara's tools for UV stuff. Cheetah is kind of basic in many ways, so it is a lot simpler to understand than Carrara (for some things).
Cheetah has built-in texture baking, which Carrara does not (There is the Baker plugin available for Carrara). And Cheetah's .FBX support is perfect with UNity (or any program that uses the .FBX format).
Where Cheetah falls short is in it's texturing tools and it's animation tools. Carrara has many more options and awesome plugins! I couldn't live without the VectorStyle plugin for my regular design work, which let's me get Illustrator art out of Carrara!
But I find using Carrara and Cheetah together solves all my game production needs. I model, rig and UV texture in Carrara, then switch to Cheetah for final texture baking, animating and .FBX export.
Image3D
Joined: 26 Sep 2004
Posts: 40
Posted:07 Mar 2009 08:35
What 3D format you export to Cheetah ?
chiefbobo
Joined: 31 Dec 1969
Posts: 15
Location: Raleigh, NC
Posted:07 Mar 2009 10:39
My best experience has been with .obj format. It passes smoothly between both Carrara and Cheetah.
From the Carrara discussion group, FYI:
____________________
posernewb
Joined: 18 Sep 2007
Posts: 30
Posted:06 Nov 2008 09:27
Hi,
Anybody use Cheetah3D? I read some good stuff about it, but was wondering how it compares to Carrara.
Jammaroo
Joined: 16 Jun 2005
Posts: 155
Posted:06 Nov 2008 10:10
For starters it's very specifically Mac-built, right down to using Cocoa and playing extra-nice with the existing windowing system. Because it's not bolted onto an alien GUI and it doesn't have to slog commands through abstraction layers to a C++ code base, it feels peppier.
I came from the Ray Dream Studio background, so Carrara is much more familiar to me than Cheetah's modifier system. It takes some getting used to, knowing what modifies what and in which order objects and modifiers have to be nested. On the other hand, Cheetah has modifiers like that in the first place, so it's possible to do some cool stuff easily.
Regarding modeling tools, there's some give-and-take between Cheetah and Carrara. Some things are much easier in Cheetah, while some things are much harder. For example, I managed to get a quick, easy, sane unfold of a UV map for a shape I was toying with in Cheetah; I've never been able to do that in Carrara (yet). On the other hand, I can't find anything in Cheetah's tool box that does a quick fillet the way Carrara's vertex editor can.
Carrara currently has the more robust shader and materials system, with its subsurface scattering and ability to apply procedural patterning to most things. Cheetah 4.6.2 doesn't do that yet, but there's evidence that Cheetah 5 will surpass Carrara with a node-based material system.
Please note that both will do displacement mapping. They just do them ...differently. And Cheetah supports displacement painting now.
If you're experienced with Carrara, Cheetah will have a definitely lighter, possibly lightweight, feel to it. It's not terribly expensive, and the people who use it now are creating images that show that it's got potential. And Cheetah 5 is due out soon, much like Carrara 7, only if you buy Cheetah 4.6.2 now, you get the Cheetah 5 upgrade for free.
posernewb
Joined: 18 Sep 2007
Posts: 30
Posted:09 Nov 2008 11:51
Thanks for your insightful reply Territan, I think I'm going to try it out, since it's not very expensive.
chiefbobo
Joined: 31 Dec 1969
Posts: 15
Location: Raleigh, NC
Posted:10 Nov 2008 06:09
I use both programs together. My main app is Carrara just because it does so many damn things so well. Especially if I'm creating straight animations to use in video projects. But I've recently been into Unity for game design, and one thing Carrara can't do well is .FBX export. It can export meshes and maps, but not animation data, which is crucial for UNity use.
So I strated checking out Cheetah 3D because several Unity people had great success with it and Unity. My experience has been good. I built a few characters in Cheetah and then worked with passing them back and fourth between Carrara and Cheetah. (Mostly via .OBJ format) Cheetah was key to helping me "unwrap" UV mapping. Once I understood Cheetah's tools for UV mapping it actually open up the door to Carrara's tools for UV stuff. Cheetah is kind of basic in many ways, so it is a lot simpler to understand than Carrara (for some things).
Cheetah has built-in texture baking, which Carrara does not (There is the Baker plugin available for Carrara). And Cheetah's .FBX support is perfect with UNity (or any program that uses the .FBX format).
Where Cheetah falls short is in it's texturing tools and it's animation tools. Carrara has many more options and awesome plugins! I couldn't live without the VectorStyle plugin for my regular design work, which let's me get Illustrator art out of Carrara!
But I find using Carrara and Cheetah together solves all my game production needs. I model, rig and UV texture in Carrara, then switch to Cheetah for final texture baking, animating and .FBX export.
Image3D
Joined: 26 Sep 2004
Posts: 40
Posted:07 Mar 2009 08:35
What 3D format you export to Cheetah ?
chiefbobo
Joined: 31 Dec 1969
Posts: 15
Location: Raleigh, NC
Posted:07 Mar 2009 10:39
My best experience has been with .obj format. It passes smoothly between both Carrara and Cheetah.
