Hi all.. Just trying to get some basics down... Have a few questions if you wouldn't mind answering.. 1. Which type of rendering do you choose over another? 2. Whats your favorite rendering size, (pixel size) 3. How much lighting is too much? 4. I'm a default render person, how much should I really be adjusting in the settings? Thanks for your time! Jeff

1.... FF default to see how things look. FF Production for final.. 2. 800x600...but I've been rendering much larger lately...1200 +..it brings out the detail much more....and then you can downsize the image...looks crisper to me...more pixels to play with 3....lighting...too much ???? you use as many as you need to light the image as you want...it may be 50 lights...or 3 4.... I use P5 Production for rendering...and leave everything as it is set...except I turn off polygon smoothing...lots of stuff blows up when you use it...also, if you're not using something, such as displacement mapping, I turn it off as well. You check and uncheck as you need to... Try experimenting...render defasult, then turn on or off an item...render...do this for all the settings...find out what happens when you use different things.

FF draft because Production is irrelevant if you set the other options correctly. As big as possible. Definitely no smaller than 1280 x 960 and bigger than that if I can. No such thing as too much lighting but there is such a thing as too many shadows, particularly outdoor scenes. Texture Res, Pixel Samples and Shading Rate are what I generally play around with.

Poser 5: 1) Firefly mode, raytracing on, shadows on, 300dpi (or 72dpi if I know the only use for the image will be online or monitor display.) I never choose P4 render engine anymore. 2) At least 1000x1000 pixels for a square image, considerably larger (e.g. 2500x2500 and up) if for print media. This is very variable, depending upon the image's purpose. 3) Again, depends upon the image, but as a general rule, if parts of the image are noticably "washed out" or "overexposed," you're overdoing it. This is an extremely common problem in Poser renders, many artists seem not to notice that they're doing it, it's ruined many an otherwise good render. If I'm using a global lighting system, I'll often turn off shadows for a number of the lights to help speed rendering. I prefer no more than six lights for portraiture, with a maximum of two of them having shadows. 4) In most cases you won't need to worry about things like texture mapping, bucket size, and the less "obvious" settings. The worst things about the default settings are the camera focus and the default three-point lighting. 38mm cam is awful for most purposes. My default is 70 - 90mm. It's been said that a setting of 55mm roughly replicates the human eye's focus. I always delete the default lights and either start with a good set by Trav (free at RDNA) and modify it, or create my own system from scratch, usually starting with a spotlight trained on the main point of focus.

Thanks for the replies.. I will put all your info to good use! Jeff

I usually use the FireFly in draft, except when I want to do a quickie check I sometimes will use Poser 4 with everyting clicked off except Use texture maps. I have a two monitor set up in horizontal scan mode. The one on the right is 17 inch and use use that when for the menus and tools, with a 19 inch on the left with is devoted to my workspace. I have that set at 1200 x 900 and that is the size I render at. Lighting depends on the mood I am going for. Generally too much light is when everything starts looking washed out and too flat. As for settings, again depends on what look you are going for. As a mimimum I have smooth polygons checked and remove back facing polygons check. Sometimes Use testure filtering makes hair look better. I usually cast shadows when I get near the final renders. If I have reflective or refractive objects I check raytracing on. Pixel samples is usually set to 3. That covers about 90% of the renders I do.

I do my test renders while putting scenes together at 800x600. Final renders are always at double what my finished image will be, so I render at 2560x2048 at 300 d.p.i. Then postwork and finally reduce to 1280x1024 for most of my images..

"Ohhh.... I love to go a-rendering Along the 3-D track. And as I go, I love to sing With my P4 plus Pro-Pack. Tra-lah-lee, Tra-lah-lah, With my P4 -plus Pro-Pack." Sorry. Couldn't help it. Actually I've got P5, not P4+PP, but it didn't rhyme properly that way. (Long-winded, hopefully faintly amusing, bookmark) Cheers, Diolma