Pants!

Using the Firefly Rendering system, I have rendered my image in a new window, in order to increase picture size.

2 hours later, my rendering is complete, and the new window exists with the rendered larger image, but "Export" is not selectable in the "File" menu, to save it as a jpeg. It's greyed out?

I have previously rendered using Poser 4 and increased the size and not had this problem.

The only thing I've done differently this time (besides render with Firefly) is adjust the size of the box so I could see the entire image before attempting to export it.

There's probably a really simple way to Export this, but right now, I don't know what it is. "Steep learning curve" is right!

Please help.

Chloe

Close the render window and it will prompt you to save it. Yes it requires a leap of faith, and yes a more visible menu command would have been nice.

Thank you Phil, Yes, a more visible menu command would have been very useful. Thanks for your help. Was worried two hours of rendering was down the tube, on top of the posing and morphing. Thanks again. Chloe

What would be really nice would be to be able to save the file more than once, which would require an export command instead of a bloody save on exit. (EG I recently wanted to save a render as both a .psd and as a .png. Nope, had to render it twice. Bloody ridiculous.)

" What would be really nice would be to be able to save the file more than once, which would require an export command instead of a bloody save on exit." There's a useful feature in 3dsMax (and some other apps I use) called "show last render". As the name indicates, it allows you to do exactly what you mentioned. You can save the render as a TIFF for instance, walk away, come back later and call it up again to save as another file format if need be. It tells you the rendertime of a scene so you know exactly how long a render took, helping you predict the next one should you need to make changes and re-render. This is a great example of what I've been saying all along about the "workflow" of Poser being the worst I've ever seen. I don't know how anyone can do commercial work with it and not be holding their breath the whole time. Here it is version 5, and still no multiple undo or network rendering?? Jeez! Other programs are fully matured and taking on new levels of functionality by version 5. What's Poser's excuse? hehe. ;-)

In Poser 5 as in Poser 4 when you render to another window. All you have to do is you the (Save As) command. It overrides the PZ3 save and just saves the image. It will do this as long as that window is open. No need for the leap of faith. :)

Yes, like sirkrite says. Just make the new render window active by clicking in it and then "Save as". :] Fish

Thanks to all those who chipped in. Phil had me sorted out, but now I'm sure that next time I can always highlight the render window and select "save as". Cheers, Chloe

I don't know about P5, but in P4 you just click File>Save and it saves the render, even if it's not selected. At least for me it does. I've accidentally forgotten to click the render window to make it active, and I hit Save, but it still saved the image. I didn't use Save As, just plain old Save. I don't have P5, but it would seem odd that they wouldn't keep that the same in P5 as it was in P4. Melanie

The first times I used Poser, I had the same problem: after waiting for hours to get a render, I couldn't export it... Then I looked in Poser manual and that's where I learned that when I render to a new window, the "File - Save" apply only to that new window and not to the document. If the render window is active, I can't save that as a PZZ or PZ3, only as an image format: jpg, bmp, png, tif, etc. And there are options for the quality of the image and for the transparent background or colored background. I use Poser 5. France

Hey Karen, Would it not have been easier to save it as a PSD first out of poser and then open the psd in Photoshop and save it out as a PNG instead of doing a re-render?

Yeah, it would have. That's what comes of playing with Poser for too long, your brain shuts down, LOL Well at least now I know about File>Save instead, thanks guys :)

If you've rendered to a new window, going to File > Save will save the image. If you are working in the document window, going to File > Save will save the document as a pz3 (Poser Scene file). If you render to the main window, you will have to go to File > Export Image. If you want to use the image in Photoshop, the solution is to render it as a GIF, take it over to a converter, convert it to TIFF, then convert to a PNG, then open it in Photoshop. And, yes, that is my sarcastic way of saying what people have been saying for years: If you're going to open the image in Photoshop anyway, export it as a Photoshop file!. Poser has been able to do this since Version 4 (since around 1999)- there is no reason to export it as a TIFF or PNG or JPG or BMP if you're going to immediately edit it in Photoshop. --John