You know, I don't get the strand based hair. I just don't think it's a good idea. In any drawing class, what's the first thing you learn about drawing hair? DON'T DRAW EVERY STRAND. It will never look natural. I think it's the same problem here. Pixar can pull it off, but who here has their equipment? ^_~ I would really love someone to make a utility to make lock-based hair. Similar concept, but instead of strands, using transmapped planes. There's a feature I would pay for.

Attached Link: http://news.com.com/2100-1001-983898.html

*Pixar can pull it off, but who here has their equipment? ^_~* You maybe? Pixar is using ordinary Intel 2.8GHz Xeon CPUs in their current Linux render farm (see the link) and judging from threads like "your computer" over in the DAZ forums, it seems not uncommon for Poser users to have CPUs in that speed range. Admittedly, Pixar has 1024 of those CPUs, but do you render 90min movies at cinema resolution?

Stew, how many hairs on your rat, if I may ask? If you're doing short hair, you don't need too many vertices. But for long hair, you get an unpleasant zig-zag look without a lot of them. Fyrespiryt, interesting idea. Maybe something like Animedoll's modular hair, only more detailed and more realistic? One thing I've done is make "locks" with dynamic hair. I grow them on primitives like small cubes or spheres, then save them in my library. Saves some styling time, anyway. You can bring them into a new scene and place them so the sphere they're growing out of doesn't show. It's easier than making a whole hairdo, and can add some individuality to widely-used styles like Koz's. Maybe someone more ambitious and skilled than I am would actually make a kit, with smart-propped or conforming locks...

It's in the range of 22,000 hairs, but would need a few more - it doesn't have hair on the legs yet. BTW, this is what 100,000 Poser hairs look like:

Wow! That looks fantastic! I can't believe that's dynamic hair. It looks like postwork! But it's also very short. I can't help wondering how it would look, not to mention render, if the fur were longer. Do a Persian Millennium Cat, and you'll have a convert. ;-)

My message got eaten... dratted computer! Persians, persians, persians! Sheesh! The epitome of what it is to be a cat is the Norwegian Forest Cat. It is the same as the cat mentioned in the sagas (remeber Thor trying and failing to lift the cat from the hearth?) because the breeders haven't messed with it. Wegies not only are elegant with foxy noses and triple-layered fur coats, but they can walk on snow without noticing it, play like kittens no matter what their age, and are sweet-tempered loving companions. Skrogg is not a show cat (you should see her kinfolk!), but she is handsome. Maya with all its plug-ins couldn't render this cat. Carolly

The epitome is the Maine Coon! They too have lovely coats and frolick in snow, and are playful regardless of age, and have been left alone by breeders. ;) Ele (think Ellie) is not a show quality kitty, but she can put on quite the show. :D

LOL oh Caly tell me she was yawning LOL looks like she's about to take someones hand off if they touch that shoe...

Thank you very much for useful information.
I should learn Dynamic hair.
Actually, Poser 5 has many nice features.
If some problems are fixed, It may be one of best cost-performance programs.

*Do a Persian Millennium Cat, and you'll have a convert. ;-)* I don't fear the rendering, but styling that hair would take a while (plus I don't have the Millenium Cat). However, here's an example of longer hair rendered properly - Poser's default draft mode is horrible for hair.

lol yes, Ele was just yawning. :) Stewer, nice, but the image looks blurry?

Pretty cats! Skrogg looks like my neighbor's Maine coon cat, only not as big-boned. That hair is nice. I think it's supposed to be blurry. The gauss filter and the depth of field adds a softness to the render. Gets rid of the wiry look, but also makes it looks a little blurry.

Here's Ele looking more herself. :)

What makes it blurry is my tendency to overuse the depth-of-field effect. Don't confuse the gauss filter in Poser with the gauss filter in Photoshop: FireFly's filter work on subpixel level and are the deluxe version of Poser 4' "Antialias" checkbox. Filtering is a necessity in every sampling process (and rendering is a sampling process) which is why you will find similar controls in almost every decent renderer.

I have been playing with the dynamic hair of Poser5.
It is very slow to load the hair from hair library.
Probably it takes about 10 minutes.
Is it normal? My computer is WindowXP with 2G speed.

10 minutes is way to long. I have a 2GHz computer too, also running XP, and loading a dynamic haircut takes maybe 4 seconds.

Only 4 seconds. Something wrong with my Poser5. It is also slow to open Poser5 even without Figure, compared to LightWave or Cinema4D which is very fast to open.

I was playing with Poser 5 Dynamic Hair. I will post some results in a new thread.