Hello i'm a newbie to Vue 5 Esprit with mover included. It's been great. and i already made up a whole idea for a full featured film, something which i had wanted to do long time ago, but i never had the possibility. Well, but my movie requires things and i'm not sure how to do em. Plus there are not many tutorials on Vue 5. I've seen sites with Vue 4 tutorials but not Vue 5, and plus just in general i can't find Vue tutorials anywhere. Here's what i need to do, if anyone can point me somewhere or help: 1. First, how can i use my MImic made Poser animation and put it into vue. i know i can do it but then it will have no sound .. so if i can bring the video clip from Vue and the sound file i used in mimic..to Imovie(i'm on a mac) and position it to kind of match.. that seems the only thing i can think of. .but it's kind of hard, plus what if i can't position the sound accurately to match the characters mouth movements. So anyone know how to do talking poser characters( which i saved in Mimic processed Poser file)? 2. Say i'm doing a scen in Vue. say i use different poser files to have alittle part of the total action/or conversation etc. in each of those files. then sure, i import the first and render it .. fine.. but then i import the next Poser file..yet, i want to position it exactly where the first poser import was..is this possible? For example picture this: I make a character talking( that's Poser file 1) then the camera switches to a shot of the forest. Then the camera switches back to the character( that will be Poser file 2). This is where the problem is... for Poser file 2 i have to import it again, but how the heck do i position it on kind of the same place where i positioned the other file( with exact same camera shot). Note, i could do a super long Poser file containing the whole conversation or action..and so i import the poser file to Vue and then i wouldn't have to worry about the position of the Poser character through the whole scene in Vue.. gosh i'm confused.. so should i go for the super long Poser file(frames)? and forget about Making small Pieces ? 3. How do i increase the intensity of the Sun's light?? it seems it's not very bright 4. Is there anywherre in the manual book where it talks about How to make Wind in animations.. 5. I tried a small video clip with trees. And in the video the camera is zooming out and i notice alot of light flickering in the leaves of the trees. Why don't the tree leaves just stay without this pixelation flickering, and stay in one color 6. If i make a terrain, and i want to have a car rolling along the terrain, how do i make it so that it adapts to the terrain, like if the terrain is steep, the car leans...so that it corresponds to the peaks, lows, inclinations of the terrain.. 7. In Vue 5 Esprit, is there a way to have objects Break apart.. like say a Wine Bottle breaking. or a piece of wood. or a treee 8. Is there any way to set lights like in Poser.? Or can lights from poser be imported 9. I'm making a movie. and finally with Memory that i bought yesterday , now i have 3GB RAM. finally i get kind of fast renders. they are much faster than before. Specifically i think a 322 X 241 size is fast enough and i accept it.. except.. i would like to have this movie in a dvd. .and it will be played in a big tv. will it look pixelated and ugly when it's blown up to fit the tv size? can changing the Video Format help this.. like i notice i can use DVD NTSC etc, many video codecs when i render. if i switch to dvd ntsc format for this 322 X 241 will it look any good when blown up to a tv? OK GUYS, that's all.. if anyone can help it would be appreciated..

To make a movie for DVD quality you have to render frames of at least 704x576 pixels (PAL system). If it takes 10 minutes to render one frame, and you use 25 frames per second, and your movie is 90 minutes long, you are looking at a rendering time of 22 500 hours (or 937 days if you render 24 hours a day). This does not include the time you take to set up scenes and animate them.

No being in animation much, maybe I can anyway give my idea on some points? #2 : Importing keeps the same coordinates if you UNCHECK 'resize and center' imported objects in files/options #3 : duplicate (ctrl+D) the sun ! and if is too bright , give this second sun a gray color (or darker) . If you have the additional light module, you can uncheck 'cast shadows' for this second sun : this saves a lot of render time. #7: unless your object already has multiparts Vue won't be able to break it. #8: personally I find easier to handle lights with Vue than with Poser. creating similar (or better :) )lighting schemes should not be a problem. from what I know, Poser lights cannot be imported in Vue.

You might look at Carrara4 Studio Pro. It can import Poser 5 files using their Transposer plug in. It also handles sound files. I don't know about sync. yet. You also need to remember to do short scenes that can be rendered and then put together in a non-linear video editing ap. With a good video editing program you can add sound and titles and additional video files as needed. I use Sony Vegas 5 and love it. I do all of my audio work in Adobe Audition.

#2: if you have the DeepAccess module with your copy of Vue5, you just have to replace Poser1 with Poser2, in the WorlD Browser. If you don't have DeepAccess, try Polax's tip. #4: no wind possible for trees in Vue5, even with mover, you need Vue 5 Infinite to do this. #5: flickering: again, you need Infinite to get rid of it, unless you don't use GI, which is probably best for such a huge project. #6: if you have Mover5, this should happen naturally, or so it says in the manual.

Take heart Tropob, it can be done! I have made animations with fairly modest hardware and software resources. But it generally takes me several months to make a 5- to 10-minute movie (lack of talent is probably a factor in my case, ha-ha!).

Rendering maybe takes only half that time. The rest is spent developing the story (the MOST important thing, in my opinion); building 3D models; posing and keyframing the things that move, lighting the scenes, recording the voices and sound effects; and working through technical problems. A feature-length movie is a very ambitious undertaking, so I suggest starting with something a little shorter if this is a solo project.

To add to the others' responses:

#1 - You really need video editing software to be able to assemble scenes and sync audio and video. It doesn't have to be fancy. Sony Vegas is almost $500, but Apple iMovie will do the trick and it's $79 (if I recall correctly you have a Mac).

#5 - Try experimenting with different anti-aliasing settings, including turning it off, and with the flicker reduction checkbox in Vue's Advanced Animation Options dialog.

#7 - You'll need a separate modelling application if you want to break apart existing models. Effects like smashing a bottle require a modelling program with physics simulation capabilities, unless you have the patience to animate the trajectory of each individual shard of glass. I'm a PC user so I don't know what to recommend for the Mac.

#9 - Full NTSC video resolution is 720x480. On a good TV you will notice some pixelation when doubling the size of a 320x240 image. But if the story is good, nobody will mind. I have seen great stories told with animated 2D sketches. If you want lots of visual effects and full sized renders and you have deep pockets, buy a bunch of Macs and hook up a render farm. Your copy of Vue supports up to 5 rendercows. Then you can give Pixar a run for their money (not.) ;-)

"Then you can give Pixar a run for their money (not.) ;-)" Pixar's entry into the Short Animation category at the Oscars cost $4 million. The winning entry was made by an independant film company and cost $10 000. No reason why someone can't give them a run for their money.

There is also a link to a renderfarm company for Vue Pro ( don't know if they have updated to Infinite yet) at E-ON's site. It flashes up on the front page. Will cost you, but could get things sorted out faster.

There was a fellow named Tim Albee who made a 39 min. film called Goast Warror. He did it with two computers and lightwave. It took him 6 months, by him self. He did the voices the music and the animation. Its really cool and you can get it on DVD. If you are a student you can get most software at a large discount. Good luck.