Attached Link: Joe Zabel's 3D Comics Blog

I've started a blog that will feature tips and tricks for using Poser and Photoshop. The latest entry talks about how many figures should be in your document window at the same time. Check it out-- you might want to add this link to your favorites list... well, maybe! http://joezabel.com

Excellent. Can never have too many resources. Thank you!

Hey! Good stuff. The Poser tip about compositing is eye opening... Nice pic too.

As a fledgeling amateur Poser comicist (did I just make up a word), the blog can only do me good. May I ask a question or two? 1) Where do you get your original background pics? Do you take them youself? They're great. 2) When do you compose, and when do you just go with a full scene? In other words what is the breaking point for you in regards to deciding to complete a scene by composing rather than just dropping all the figures in and rendering in one shot? Or do you just do composing every time? Thanks, I look forward to reading more of your insights. Unzipped

for "composing" read compositing - I've got music on the brain today

I have to say your use of background photos has really got my brain going...

Attached Link: Here's the link again!

Thanks for the responses! The background pics are rarely taken from a single photograph; and they are always massaged and enhanced in Photoshop before being used in Poser. For example, the narrow hallway background in the picture illustrating the 'one figure at a time' blog entry was created by taking a picture of a hallway, copying half of it and reversing it, and then matching it up with it's opposite-- in other words, creating a hallway whose sides are mirror images. To disguise this, I covered up one of the boxes you see in the middle-ground of the hallway, so you see only a box on one side. Then I applied a 'twirl' filter to it to make it twist a little bit in a surrealistic fashion, and I worked it over with contrast and darkening to make it more atmospheric. Photoshop is quite a bag of tricks, and I'll be writing more about the stuff I do to create these backgrounds. Regarding compositing versus using muttiple figures-- Nowadays I always use compositing. I used to use multiple figures if the characters were actually touching. But I've come to realize that there are better ways of creating the effect of touching with compositing. And with V3 and M3 figures, you practically don't have a choice any more, unless you're working with massive processing capacity (I've got a Mac G4 with dual processors).

An excellent board. Worthwhile read.

I guessed as much about the hallway... Yeah I use compositing a lot for animation.