Hi I am a new user for Carrara Studio 4 Pro And I am working thru the 600 page manual. T was wondering if there was a quick start tut. to help first time users get a feel of something accomplished? It's great to check all the tools and rooms,etc. but it quite overwhelming at times. Any thoughts?

Some tutorials: http://www.eovia.com/resources/carrara_tutorials/carrara_tutorials.asp Familiarizing yourself with the user interface I guess, as that's all you get for free of these video tuts. http://www.eovia.com/products/carrara_addons/training_cd.asp Current issue is free, but doesn't really have any great newbie tutorials, but it's free, and let's you have a look at the Carrara and Amapi, and soon to come Hexagon, ezine: http://www.3dxtract.com/ The backroom here on renderosity has a couple of tuts, kind of old, but they still work: http://market.renderosity.com/~carrara

Thanks for your input. I have looked at some of them and find them a little lacking. I appreciate your comments.

There are also 9 tutorials in the backroom here in the forum. -Kix

Your best bet might might be the book "The Carrara Studio 3 Handbook" by Mike De La Flor

There are a few here marked "beginner": http://www.chez.com/litst/eng/tutorials.htm I personally think that sky (and simple terrains) are a good place to start because they are hard to do "wrong" and you already know how they are supposed to look: http://www.angelfire.com/de3/almighty/ I used google and came up with many tutes I hadn't seen before..., not sure what you mean by "lacking" but I'll assume you are an absolute beginner to Carrara and 3D in general and hope I don't insult your intelligence. SOME TIPS: in the ASSEMBLY ROOM (the "hand" room) go to VIEW --> Show Production Frame. This lets you know what part of the picture will be rendered by the main camera (Camera1). I always keep this turned on and in the center of my camera view window. I also use the 4-way view in the ASSEMBLY ROOM while setting things up. There are several little boxes at the top right of your 3DVIEW window that break the 3DVIEW into different isometric views (top, left, front...). Resist the urge to "fly around" using your main Camera1 while positioning objects in your scene.... Think of it as setting up a photoshoot, with Camera1 being an encredibly expensive BOLEX on a tripod.... You wouldn't arrange your backgrounds, lights, and your fashionmodel with the BOLEX strapped to your face while only looking through the zoom lens! Once the objects and lights are arranged, THEN you start place Camera1 to discover the artistic photo. GOOD LUCK!

Thanks. You people are great. Lots of good information. My background is audio production and editing and I have been just skimming the surface of 3D. I'm 67 years young and having a ball exploring all that you can do with this stuff. Thanks again.