I just got my copy of TransPoser and I think I am going to be very happy with it once I learn how to set up the lights and rendering options in Carrara.

If you don't know TransPoser is a plugin for Carrara 3 that lets you inport Poser pz3 file to render in Carrara.

The attached picture is a piece of a V3 model rendered in Carrara using only the defalt light and done at a setting of 300dpi. It is much faster then Poser since Carrara is multi processor aware and I am using a dual 800mhz G4 Mac.

The hair transparancy and shadows are very nice, but the lips look like fingernail enamel and the skin looks like she is made of terra cotta. Perhaps this is the new Chia-Vicky!

So far, so good. Now use GI or HDRI and see how much better it looks than anything in Poser5, which is extremely crippled in both render quality and render speed, compared to Carrara. Tweak some of those reflection/shininess channels; Poser and Carrara handle them very differently.

see the first test i did I am satisfied by the plugin

Attached Link: Carrara Render...

It does take some tweaking, but I really do like the results. And Transposer/Carrara could render and complete an animation that Poser 5 SR4 could not render to completion.

Carrara is definitely better than ProPack for rendering, but I doubt it is better than P5 with skin shaders (maybe equal, but not better). This render is straight out of P5 - the highlights are NOT painted on the texture, they are naturally created by the llighting and shader. I'd like to see anything close to this out of Carrara and I'll be sold ;-)

Hi Ron, I always wondered how you did this - when I use the skin shader (and follow tutorials on this) texture detail disappear completely, no matter what I do. What shader did you use and what light ? What I found during experimenting is that skin shaders only work with but a few lights if you fake global lighting the skin shader will wash out the texture completely. Mungo

Plug the skin shader in the alternate diffuse for a start :o) I've made some good pics with it (but typically they're on my home computer and I'm not...) - but I agree with Ronstuff, Poser 5's renderer is really GOOD! It just takes some time to learn and use properly! But so does carrara :o)

Ernyoka - when I use your shaders from your very nice and informative tutorials, I have the same problem - hdri washes them out - what light do you use for it ?

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Uh I think you're confusing me and Crescent? I have made some shaders but no tutorials. Crescent on the other hand has made both :o) I usually use Poser's default lights, but that's part lazyness, part forgetfullness L - I do turn off shadows for the 2 of the 3 lights though (at least when I remember it)

Ok, I confused it it was kieras tutorial at http://www.enmeshed.com/shadermagic/

When we talk about things like rendering realistic human skin, we have to consider that human skin looks the way it does because of several factors including transluscency, moisture content, roughness, AND the most important --- lighting and the interaction between light and the skin - just ask any fashion photographer about the importance of lighting ;-) Now, in the world of 3D meshes, and Poser in particular, we don't have "real" lights that diffuse or bounce light around the scene or "real" skin to interact with it, so we take different approaches to simulate the look of it in a final render. One approach is to concentrate exclusively on the lighting and force that to generate something close to realistic shading on the skin - that is how all the Complex Global lighting sets work. They are very unrealistic lighting models, but they yield a sense of realism in a render because they compensate for the lack of "responsiveness" in the skin material. NOTE - HDRI is a special case, and has its own merits because it is environmentally reactive, but I'm not addressing that here. A different approach is to use a custom shader (like the skin shader in P5) to make the skin "react" naturally to the lighting (rather than making the lighting react to the skin). This approach is diametrically opposed to the Global Lighting approach, and they should NOT be used together. Custom shaders (skin, velvet, clay, blinn, anisotropic etc) ALL are designed to make the material react appropriately to the lighting. They ASSUME that the lighting is conventional, and similar to lighting in the real world. Generally 3 or 4 lights in a scene are all that should be used if you plan on using this type of shader. In the skin render above I am using only 3 lights. Remember that I said there were 4 things that make skin look "real"? Well, in Poser, if we want our skin to look real, we have to address all 4 things 1) Skin texture (roughness) is controlled by bump or displacement mapping). I cannot tell you how important a good bump map is for making decent skin - it is vital. 2) Skin moisture content - mostly affects the highlights and "sheen" and is controlled in the skin shader and in the Specular Channel. Remember though, that the Specular channel is primarily designed for highlights on solid objects (not transluscent objects such as skin) and should be used with care to avoid that "oily plastic" look. 3) Transluscency - for the thin layers of the skin surface it is controlled directly in the Skin Shader (but on a larger scale for things like ears it is controlled by the transluscency channel) - now if we can just get them to make the ears a seperate material zone, I'd be happy. 4) Interaction with lighting - the most important one of all - is controlled by the Skin Shader in combination with lighting placement. I recommend using white light only while you are adjusting your shader materials, then add your lighting "tone" later. Whatever you do, get rid of those damn Poser default lights! They were created for Poser v3, and have never been updated - they are OBSOLETE and no longer enhance the product as they originally did. So if you want realistic skin in P5, you can't just plug in the Skin Node to the Alt Diffuse channel, and expect to get the best results. You must have appropriate lighting and you must make the proper adjustments to the shader parameters. In typical Curious Labs fashion the default parameters of the skin shader are NOT set to optimal values - you will have to make adjustments to get the best results.

Hi Ronstuff, how about a screen shot of your mat settings for the above pic... I've tried.. but i've come no where as close as you did in the above pic...

ronstuff, I 2nd alamanos' plea for a screen shot... (Starting from behind here, as P5 didn't want to cooperate on my system until SR4.1!) You should be able to create the effect of separate ear material zones using the Grouper tool to select all - or even just the outer parts - of the ear(s) and spawn a new material zone. Leastways it shows up in P4/PP Materials, so I'd assume it'd show up in P5's Material Room. Thanks for the thoroughness of your post.

I third.... please please please... And which texture did you use for this guy ?

I'll forth that! Please show a screen shot. Skin Shader? This is the first time I have heard that term - I'm going out on a search party to read more about this!

Normally, I would be happy to show a screenshot, but it really is a complex process that requires a lot of explaination which is not captured by the materials settings alone. I'm still continuing my research and will share it in some manner when it is ready to publish, so please be patient. In the meantime, here is a different texture which shows that my process will work with any reasonably good texture. This one is Iago by StefyZZ. The one above is Zane by Syyd Raven (RDNA). I think Syyd has surpassed SteffyZZ in realism, especialy with her new Adrian texture.

If you have ever tried to render a dark skinned figure in Poser, especially with a dark background, you will find that it is nearly impossible. With P5, however, and some good lighting and some advanced shaders, it is wonderful. By the way all of the backgrounds in these images are generated by P5 shaders. There is no postwork whatsoever on any of these images. Even my signature is a rendered object in the scene. P5 definitely rocks!

Good work on the black dude, Ron. It's called "rim lighting". You may be pleasantly surprised by how much better it will look in Carrara, if you get a chance to apply your skills there.

Attached Link: http://www.renderosity.com/gallery.ez?ByArtist=Yes&Artist=bijouchat

Carrara has one of the best renderers in the biz. And it is inexpensive. And it is reliable. P5 has a habit of always crashy crashy on big renders, and its dead slow - Carrara lets me get the stuff done quicker. Saving time is also important. And not crashing during a render is even more important. If you want to see Poser renders in Carrara - just go to my gallery. You do need to tweak the skin shaders a bit, I'm not totally pleased with how they come in with Transposer. You can change them though, like you can in Vue.

Attached Link: http://www.renderosity.com/viewed.ez?galleryid=580089&Start=1&Artist=bijouchat&ByArtist=Yes

this link has one with better shader setup and HDRI lighting, C3. Good luck getting those gems to sparkle with the caustics (which do not exist in Poser) or refraction to work properly in Poser 5. ;)