Hello Friends, I just started working with Poser 5.0 as some of you know. I am trying to work off some of the examples in the book that game with the software, and I seen the section on loading backgrounds. My question is, where might I find some nice backgrounds to use in my projects? I know there are lots of them that you have to pay for, and thats fine when I get a little more advanced, but for now, I would like to maybe find so free ones to practice with. Can anyone possibly direct me to a place to obtain them and how to size them for Poser possibly? Thank you all very much. Thorrax

U can get some nice pieces at: http://www.awfulsoul.com/ and http://www.runtimedna.com/ Also check the freestuff section here in Rosity.

Hello, Thank you very much. I did grab one from the website to experiment with, but when I tried to open it in Poser, it asked to open to fit window, I said yes and then it was so big, I could not work with the character. Did I do something wrong? Or is there a way to resize it so it fits the current size of the document window as it is? Thank you all very much, and sorry for the questions. Still a newbie. Thorrax

Use the one sided square from your prop folder. You just apply your image to it as a texture and resize the square as needed. One thing you need to be on the lookout for when doing this is,your figures can cast shadows on the background. If this happens (and you don't want the shadows back there),move the square further back (z trans)and resize it. SWAMP

Applying the background to the square is best. But if you are integrating a scene, you ought to change the size of your document window. Example: you have a square document window, and your background is 900 by 12200 pixels, therefore you may wish to change the document window to something with 3X4 proportion but still small enough to work with comfortably. This allows for better composition (and you won't be missing heads or feet when you render it out). Another thing is to be aware of the focal lengths of the various cameras. Most real world camera lenses are set at 50-55 mm for normal use and 90-110 for portraits. Something in the 25mm range will yield a fisheye effect (handy for very large outdoor scenes, but still obviously distorted). If you check the face camera in Poser, it will say 25 mm focal length. Unless you really want to focus on the nose, change it to at least 75 mm and pull the camera back. If you are using a photographic background, you may need to play with the focal length of the camera to match it. Carolly

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Last year I posted a couple of decent lake shots for use as backgrounds. They were taken with a really tiny digital camera (it was free so I can't do multi-mega-pixel images), but came out ok. This thread links to Shell Lake with Mt Dana looking south and then towards Mt Conness looking north later in the day. Dizzie made a really nice soothing screen saver out of the top one, which can be downloaded at my website www.hauksdottir.com or at hers (I forget the link). With gently lapping water, it is even prettier! You might not be able to insert a dragon into the scene, but a deer or some birds or a fisherman would do nicely. Hmmm... the sea dragon is this week's freebie at DAZ, you might try for Loch Ness? ;^) There was an earlier thread with other pictures that I'll try to find. Carolly

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Wade doooooowwwwwn through this thread (we were deliberately going as off-topic as we could and having fun for a change), and about post #37 you'll find 3 more background pictures. They are small (sorry) but scenic, and you can play with them. Check freestuff, where you can find some nice-sized images of weather or castles or foreign cities and gardens, the keyword "background" ought to bring up most of them. If you want a serious exercise, you might also try using a fractal background and having it also be a reflection map for a spacecraft or astronaut or fairy wings or whatever, just to play with and learn. Carolly

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You'll find 8 1024x768 background photos in my freestuff :)

Thank you all very much! Thorrax