Hi I tested new scene with new scene prop.. this give me the optimal effect of reflections.. using background image is good for still images, also any sort of cyclorama or other will not working very well out if you are using reflections on your object.. with animations it will not working.. I made simple thing but give you the power as well.. if you like this idea I will zip the scene and upload for you.. The setting is well important here what get about the universe ( a big ball) that simulate the sky in the scene and reflect exact as in Bryce for example.. not special light inside are requested this works as all your scenes .. render quick with quality.. see self and let me know... cath P.S I am sure people do this before but I don't saw so why I post it just from my own experience..

change camera look using the orbit dials.. everything looks as needed.. now you can change the sky or make a night scene with stars and moon change the light.. I think it is cool... especially for animations.. if you need to change the shadows on the ground you need just to set down the color of the Alternate diffuse to change the look from global to studio..

now I changed the camera to top still using main camera as you see everyhting works and reflect as needed..

here close up.. the reflection are very clear and reflect the world around in nice way.. without 50 light around that slow down only the work and rendering.. the secret is more in the right diffuse and surfaces as the light self.. Global light cast not real shadows.. you can get only one shadow from a sun and not 20 or 50 that are the bad effect of using to much light.. the max light in a day light scene is 5 to max 6 not more.. from what only one of the light cast the shadow..

Looks cool..I'll be a taker :)

this show only one example of what you can do and is really simple... more as this looks like.. will preapre everything and upload to my server as well..give me a five moments

It does look great.

thanks xantor please give me moment I got just new idea wish to try out and prepare some textures for the atmosphere for you all so this will fun for sure.. :))

here small example how to change the color of the (metal ball) the reflection still are nice and sharp, you need to use dark colors for the Color Diffuse.. how lighter the colors so lighter the reflection.. the premier reflection as for example mirror is black for the diffuse color.. the Alternate diffuse and reflection node stay the same for the best sharp effect.

now you can add (fog )atmopshere to you scene.. here nothing need to be change as only check in the box of the DepthCue_on and set right the parameters.. this will works also for the light effect you don't need anymore any scuares in the backgroud because the sky (ball) will do the job of it.. just a little Poser universum..:) also the light don't need to by changes.. if you wish to get stronger effect of the sky you need to change the clouds sky color

to get the reflection of the object right you need to add volume but this will well slow down your rendering and with to much value your computer can crash or stop with rendering.. as this happend to me right now.. lol to much is not always good.. working on the new sky textures..

Wow, looks really interesting!

Thanks :)) I am working now on advanced UV's mapping for the universe( sky so you can move the camera on top on the sky as it will looks like in reality without any deform and distorts.. will upload as I am finish + other scenes as bad weather day, night, sunset etc.. + ground and one surprise.. I think the new terain tools for Poser that are right now in production by one of our member will open a new Poser world in excellent way.. together with this universe

Wow, this looks really great. I've been modeling some plants, and have decided that I like PP renders better than Vue 4, if I'm careful enough with lighting.... The best part of poser is that you take a plant that is fairly small, load up a bunch and pose them by bending stems and moving leafs around, and you have carefully articulated plants well beyond anything that Bryce or Vue can do....and they can look nice rendered as well. If they would just come out with point lighting so we can do indoor renders, everything would be great:) eric

yes Eric.. I create now also some simple ground for the panorama.. I have Vue too but is slow when rendering small animation so I got on this idea for poser to get the nice reflection and movements of the camera without to worry about that the square is to small.. now it will a real world for sure.. and open new ideas.. the light I used above is simple 5 lights.. very quick rendering and great effect.

I see that the reflection option don't reflect the atmosphere Depth_cue I mean.. it works as well but the ball reflect the sky above the atmosphere.. here is first scene.. I go to upload.. without props and figure :) only with the ball inside so you can check out the settings.

This looks fabulous, Cath!

The test with fog: you could just change the skymap to one the general colour of the fog and that would solve the reflection problem though I know it`s not a perfect solution.

yes that is good idea.. but for real fog I will use here a image shader or clouds shader for one of the light then set up the volume. attention it can crash your computer.. very slow.. the Deth_Cue render fast as well here some preview of the day light scene before I go to pack it together..

the ball unverse is new prop with relaxed UV's so your textures will looks perfect but not simple to do... but you can use also very low textures minimum 1000x1000 and scale it down too to get perfect effect with low textures, you need to create tiled textures for the ground and the sky ball.. the ground textures you see here will included too so you can see how to scale your own down to get the best effect..

Attached Link: Download Universe for Poser5

Ok here is the zip file with the first scene but that is not everything.. more nice skies textures coming tomorrow.. + some ground props..

here is also template inside the zip in bigger format..

maximum textures for the skyline is 4000x2000

the first pz3 include the scene with shader clouds node and the second one the template.. is more exact..

if you have any question please let me know

Note: if you render close up please use the Focal of main camera to max 250.. and if you render distance don't get minder that 16 mm, don't change the position of the TOP SUN spot light.. you can change any other , the front light include shadows, plug all your new tiled ground textures under the node you find in the scene.. plug in the sky textures only under Alternate Diffuse other will not working the right way and you get studio in place of outdoor effect.

please use the smooth option rendering for the ball and for the big sky ball universe.. forgot to tell you.

What an incredible look -- many thanks for taking the time to do this, Mec4D; as soon as I get a chance, I'll try it out!

Yes, thank you.

Thanks Literata! just open scene and render first to see the speed.. in some scenes you just can't without that why I did this and I hope my 9 hours of non stop work was not for nothing.. and you can use it in your work. Now when the base is done I can create the final figure of the Universe without the background etc.. this will much better.. Cath

ok here example of the same scene as you downloaded but changing the background textures and the sky-ball textures, the settings was the same. see the effect.. nice for something as auto show etc.. symulate 100 of light that really are not in the scene.. I did with black car, was great!! here also one render with refract node, as you know you don't need tranparency for your glasses using Refract node but render not much faster.

here I used this low textures for the render above

Cath, this looks so cool! So how do I change the texture on the ball? With the template you provided? And what about the ground texture? Can that be changed? If so how? Thanks for sharing this :) I have it opened right now in poser!

Sallie everything can changed just open with Poser and in the material room there you can just change the textures but not remove the nodes just replace with other.. I will start new topic right now it is hard to read :))

ah when you mean the ball that reflect the universe then there are not maps.. just reflection node nothing more, change the sky-ball textures.. not the ball from the scene.

Very cool. Thank-you.

Thanks Cath :)

Thanks :)

Attached Link: Part II check out

You are welcome :)) we switched to other topic where I uploaded right now first dynamic water test animation in the scene..looks cool check out.. Cath

Thanks Cath, this looks really interesting. On my way to check out Part II :O)