Hi, Dan; Though I havent posted on this forum before, I am a long-time 3D user and have been using Poser for a few years with the pro-pack for the last 18 months or so for LightWave interactivity (as a studio, we have 3 LW installations for the per-seat license costs and ease of use for ~fresh~ artists...). I must say that taking the proffered screenshots with a pinch of salt as anyone in the industry should [I am a developer myself so am fully aware of the value of releasing early screenshots for the sake of eliciting feedback] I look forward to the release of another stand-alone character package. Note I say character package rather than character animation or character posing... I am ASSUMING that you will encompass these areas with flair - and hope you will go several stages further than Poser has to-date... In particular: 1 - HOSTING - I feel let-down by the POSER hosting facilities with the pro-pack. In the studio, we have our band of preferred plug-ins and techniques for achieving certain effects. For-instance, try using SASQUATCH (undisputedly superior hair / fur plugin from Worley for LW) in an animation created within poser and hosted via the pro-pack... I KNOW it is actually possible; and have achieved excellent results on stills, but it is so difficult to animate guide-chains, etc. when the geometry is affected outside the applications control. IF it is intended to allow full import / export (though I would imagine IMPORTING animation from other packages which effectively are not AWARE of the inherrant structure of a character [such as LW] would render it impossible to alter) - I am sure that the community at large would like it to be as close to NATIVE as is possible; so that basically all texture extras and plug-ins can be FULLY effective... Given that this IS achievable; any settings made within the chosen package (LW, for-isntance) should be "Sticky"... That is to say that I would EXPECT studio to offer character animation faciliities which are FAR superior to any built-in to the package of choice (LW...) [why else would someone like me want to use studio?] so would EXPECT to push from studio into LW then do my stuff in that package. If (no - WHEN) we need to CHANGE / GROW that animation - I would therefore EXPECT to do it in studio. Assuming that I have applied plug-ins, etc. within LW to objects from studio, any settings I have made or changed would need to be STICKY - and not need re-applying after updating the animation... There are several ways to achieve this - obviously your guys will have more experience than any of us reading this forum - though I am sure several of us would be happy to discuss either via this forum / email / other means... F.Y.I, other plug-ins which we would need to interact correctly - only achievable by "REAL" object inclusion would be such as: IMPACT / NAPALM / SASQUATCH / MotionDesigner etc. CROWD CONTROL: LW is ace. Poser was clever. Character Studio and 3DS was better. Sorry - chaps, I love LW and Poser to bits, but for rapid development of scenes with multiple interacting characters, the combination was just a pain in the arse. If DAZ Studio could achieve easy handling of multiple characters in the same scene it would help to redress the matter. Take it up a notch and add GOOD crowd control (multi-behavioural, target seeking with imported topology / objects which can have assignable priority by behaviour class...) and perhaps LW users can REALLY have something to smile about. Better IK: I havent used it yet - but Kaydaras Media Box appears to have an excellent interface for IK node weighting; this possible in studio? Character Generation / Cycle Editing: Create your own skeleton for an importable skin with weighting control and walk cycle proposition / tweaking (beyond the cute sliders included with Poser) would by the icing on that particular cake. Perhaps a "Footprints" type control as used in CS would be handy? Would certainly help with... NLE of imported Motion tracking data: MoCap is great - when replayed over a high-quality model can be stunning: So long as it can be put INTO CONTEXT by adjusting timing on a per part basis... Layering is pretty-much ESSENTIAL. One of the biggest headaches I had learning Mimic with Poser was getting the combination / sequence of actions required to fit a Mimic animation to an established body timeline without tearing the existing animation down... Layers, with good matching controls and the ability to slide groups of parameters independent of others would be great (For-instance, I'm happy with the head performance, but need it to start after a pause - so just slide the animation layer called "Emmas Retort" along her timeline). Humanising: Auto function to control the natural unsteadiness or "Noise" in human pose... Auto blink - perhaps even twitch along with natural unsteadiness of assumed pose dependent on mass of supported limbs vs. angle being supported and musculature... Auto muscle flex (MUSTMUSTMUST be editable vis a vis the old "Meta Muscle" type technique) / expression driven parameters. There are others - I just found this forum after reading the announcement in 3DW so thought Id message in... I would say that I am your average demanding user! I want a good stand alone package which will allow me to CHANGE the application I use for my work without having to re-invest in software / training / time for character animation. Theres nowt strange as folk they say up-north in the UK - I would like to think that we can achieve the desired level of strangeness in an environment which is sustainable on all levels. Good luck with the release - I hope it does most of what we ALL want - and some of what those of us who intend to make it a part of their everyday pipeline need... Dont make me move to CS on 3DS - I wanna stay with LW (Or S/I, or Maya, or...) - I just want good character tools. - Richard Anthony

Dan, I would like to see better BVH controll with Studio. I have been trying to make some BVHs using serval programs and getting them to act right in Poser 5 is a pain, the arms don't go where they are suppose to, leg movement is jittery. I have tried serval different apporches to the porblem and see a major flaw. Charators don't move real like when posing. I would like to see real movement limits put on charactors or away to make them move life like.

Dan, I just want to see it. In my hot little hands, as soon as you get it done (but please take your time). Sigh... can I have beer with that too? (grin).

Go here for an annoucement. http://www.daz3d.com/pages/dp/development/studio-announce.html