Once again, very rewarding to post here at the Rendo Poser forum. Intelligent, pointed comments. Thank you everyone, and keep the opinions coming, others, if desired.

While I'm interested in cartoon look for certain projects, right now I'm trying to get a feel for how far I can get at the high end of the Poser/Vue world as a one-person filmmaker of serious stories. It's not so much the money aspect as the learning curve aspect for someone who wants total creative control as an aspiring indie filmmaker. I am not afraid of challenges; I have been on steep learning curves like Visual FoxPro (database programming) and Logic Pro (music sequencing). But for animation, at this point I have an Aki Ross taste on a Vickie 3 [time/resource] budget.

It's quite possible I will have to take the plunge into Maya and/or consider that the scope of my ambitions is beyond the capablities of one person and requires a team. But I am not by any means finished with Poser. I am going to read B L Render's book as recommended by EnglishBob and also invest a weekend in Judy/EJ to see what can be done.

I like this model developed by
digital artist Steven Stahlberg
(animations at his site here.):
Spectacular large format
jpg of this image here.

And of course there is Philippe Bouyer, here.

I also think I need a good strong reality check about expectations. Animation is not live movie-making; it is 'once-removed' and 'symbolically abstract' which means the animation suggests the action at it's keyframes, and the viewers imagination supplies the majority of reality/perception. I've got to get that message deep down. I think Polar Express is failing because the filmmakers did not respect this, while Pixar does. One of my ways of groking this is to watch Snow White, often.

::::: Opera ::::: Message edited on: 11/22/2004 11:01