I want to be able to "project" images (e.g. lecture notes from a data projector or OHP) onto a character/furniture/wall/screen. Is there anyway to do this without postwork? I have both Poser 4 & 5 (admittedly, I haven't got my head around 5 properly yet). I have also downloaded the trial of 3ds Max 6, but haven't installed it yet, although it looks a bit complex compared to Poser from the review I saw in a comp mag...

By the way - I have turned off all other lights in the scene for set up, hence those black bits on Vicky. You would need to fiddle with the rest of the lighting very carefully to get a good effect. Hope this helps. Let me know if you want me to post a screenshot of the material settings.

Don't know about P5 but in P4, no, not real images. Poser(4) lights will cast one bit shadows with antialaiased edges -- so its either on or off for each pixel in the shadowmap, with no grey-scale values except the feathering at the shadow edges. Objects with transparency values above 50% will not cast any shadow, those below 50% will. So, with no grey scale nor color info, Poser lights can really only project shapes or patterns, but not images. The only thing that does come to mind, (and its admittedly a stretch) would be to export your entire scene as a single mesh. Then UV map the new mesh using the rotation angle matching the projection source in your scene, and re-import the remapped mesh making it semi-transparent and re-aligning it with the original scene. You could then apply your 'projected' image as a map that would appear to properly wrap around the objects in your scene.

Yes, I should make clear, this is P5 ;-)

Karen, in P5, what happens if you had used a photo instead of B/W text as the texture map applied to the Colour node of the light in the material room? Does it work the same as a transparency map - reducing the image's luminance info to a single bit to determine transparency? Or, is the color & grey scale info from the texture map applied to the cast light?

Thank you Karen, That is precisely what I want to do. I didn't think you could do it in P4, but I have P5, just not confident in using it yet, a bit more complex than 4 (bogstd version). I was trying to do it in Postwork, but it didn't look right... I will give it a try, although your offer of the screenie would probly help me too, if you could post it, I'd be most grateful...

... and you can still do what Karen described in P4. Just place a square prop, transmapped with your pattern, in front of the light.

Cool! Thanks for the info K. Never heard that difference tween P4 & P5 mentioned before. One more reason pushing me toward eventually having to actually breakdown and get P5. And I presume that only image files can be applied to the light's node, and AVIs are out of the question. (Slide projectors, but no movie projectors -- eh?)

And of course the reverse of this, is to us a light at a wondow, like a stained glass window, to project the light shining in THROUGH the window! Or use it in a submarine, to project a refracted light onto your props and characters in a sub..

To add a little more to this. I have used a movie projected from a light and then used volumetric lighting on the same light. It shoots out volumetric rays that break up and move along with the movie. Like a movie projector in a smoke filled room. Pretty sweet, Joe

oh wow this is a sweet effect!

"I have used a movie projected from a light " So, it does work with AVIs and not just still image files?

Yes, see my screenshot above.

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