Until the other day I didn't really do anything with them except give them to some graphic groups that I'm in. However, the last couple of days I've been using some renders and have noticed that there is an ugly grey border around every single .png file I've saved.

Am I doing something wrong with the way I'm rendering them, or is this a normal phenomena when saving files without a background in poser? I've tried .tif as well, and it's the same thing.

I feel bad that I offered such ugly tubes for use and now I'm going to go through all of my earlier renders and tube them to get rid of that grey border.

Message edited on: 04/19/2005 02:35

I have never suffered that phenomenon and I always save in .PNG format. Then, I always use the Poser default nasty grey. One thought - is your Anti Aliasing up to snuff? You may get this effect if the Shading Rate is low (ie, 1.0 or more). I always use a Shading Rate of at least 0.5 and if I'm using Koz hair, 0.2.

Thanks. I haven't changed any of the default settings in my rendering window... just the window size and I checked smooth polygons and cast shadows, but I'll try your suggestion the next time I render something. But for the time being I'm going to be tubing my tubes :(. I hate when things I've done aren't "perfect" to my standard.

It's not noticable on a light background, but I noticed this grey border on my gallery image and decided to check the others I've done and discovered that.

Message edited on: 04/19/2005 03:33

You're welcome. Please let me know how it works out. I'm definitely interested in this. I just had a thought - have you tried saving in .TIF? If so, does the same thing happen? Maybe it's worth an experiment.

YSSS! That's the one! Just exactly what I'm getting looking at the image. I get it regardless of whether I export as png, bmp, tiff or whatever! But I will go look at my settings for the shading rates - and also I use a white background on Poser when I'm just making tubes, so maybe your "nasty grey" would be better! I'll come back here if I discover anything interesting! Nicky.

I still haven't figured out a solution. I still get that, and it upsets me to no end. I render and then I have to TUBE almost everything I make in Poser. I use the default colour for the pose room, grey.. and that's the gross colour that is left around my images :(

You know something Acdaia, I even wrote to Kel who does the Outlaw by Design and produces tubes at www.freepsptubes.com (well worth a visit), which come out perfectly, and she said she never has to do any postwork at all, and never has a problem with her renders - said she did exactly the same as me! So.. I am wondering what ELSE might be the problem here.. Maybe there's something we haven't got right in the basic Poser set up, or maybe it's Poser 5 as opposed to 4; maybe...... who knows? Soooooo frustrating!

Maybe ask her to send you a screenshot of her render window so you can see the settings? Or better yet, see if she will post it here so that I can see it too, and others who are having the same problem.

Message edited on: 05/20/2005 06:04

I actually don't feel I can ask her! She seemed very off-hand in her response as it was! Maybe someone else here who doesn't have the probs we're getting could whos us a screenshot though? That would be most helpful. I have been playing around with various types of renders today, but ultimately one thing made a difference, although not completely. That was in the Post filter size, I set it at 2 and the post filter type I set to guassian. It took away the jagged edge, but I still needed to get rid of a very slight grey aura that was left. I exported the image as a png, then in psp, I used the magic wand with Tolerance at 0, Feather at 3, anti-alias ticked and outside selected. This got rid of the aura. Mostly this seems to work quite well! I still think it should be possible to overcome all of this inside Poser's rendering machine though!

Do you add lighting to the scene before rendering? I do. Maybe it's a result of lighting? But I've tried rendering my tubes with just the default lights in Poser, and the images looked really awful. Does anyone have any ideas on what is causing this jaggy light coloured border and how to get rid of it?

These were rendered with a window of 800 x 800. If I increase the window size, and the size of the figure when it's rendered, the outline is EXREMELY noticable.

Am I just being too picky? Is this how Poser is supposed to be rendering, or do I have something set wrong?

ANY help is greatly appreciated, because I don't like to have to "tube" all of my renders because it's double the work, plus I would like the option of increasing my pictures too.

I hear people saying they don't have this problem... is it that they haven't noticed it or this is what they get and it's how it's supposed to be?

The top image in this thread, shows what the image looks like with 1 X Magnification.

EDIT: Ooops, I see I have "Poser 3 Render" in one image above.. that should say "Poser 4 Render".

Message edited on: 05/21/2005 23:24

Acadia, you've been doing all the render trials I've been doing, only I ALWAYS do have the anti-alias ON when using Poser 4 render, as I know this is essential. Firefly, as you say, doesn't seem to have that particular facility! I have had EXACTLY the same results as you have above, and NO, you and I both know that isn't a satisfactory finish for a tube! I did make contact with someone who said they would put a screen print of their render page up for us, but they were very busy at the time and said it might be a few days, but would do so as soon as possible. Arrrrrrrrrgh!!!! The way I select inside PSP DOES seem to be having some effect though, as mentioned in my last post above.

The only thing I haven't tried is changing the Pose window colour from grey to whatever the clothing colour my figures are wearing.

I just did a render. The figure has deep burgundy hair. At normal size in PSP, the grey border is very, very visible when placed on anything but a lighter colour background. It looks like someone traced around it with a grey crayon :( Here is a cropped section, and without magnification.

I'm going to try posting this stuff at Daz and see if anyone there has an idea. Doesn't look like anyone here has a clue because you and I are the only one's babbling in here, LOL

Message edited on: 05/22/2005 05:04

There seem to be endless combinations to use!!! Did you look at the PSP forum question there? Someone has left some images they've done in that, and said they render with anti-alias on and over black, (obviously not firefly) save as a TIFF then get rid of the background in PSP via the load alpha channel method. His renders are perfect! I've asked if he could upload a screen-shot of his render screen. Meanwhile, let's keep in touch over this and if either of us discovers the answer, we can let one another know... (I've never used the Lassoo seclect tool for this particular purpose btw. Interesting option...)

With the help of rg5a at Daz, a solution was found. Instead of having the pose window grey, in order to get rid of that nasty grey border that results from automatic antialising in Poser 5, change the pose window to black or a darker colour. There is no grey border around dark colours, and no black border around light colours (I thought they might be a reversed problem, but there isn't) So now I'm a happy camper. All I need to do is resize my images now, and not have to worry about tubing them too :)

Excellent news! Can't wait to find out how this works on my own proggies! I somehow knew there had to be an easier way than all those extra hours of tubing work inside PS or PSP! lol!

I've been doing pretty much what Sam is doing, with a bit of tweaking. Rendering in Draft with the right settings and over black, does give equivalent renders to production, and in a much faster time. I'm glad I continued to pursue a solution to this because it's made my poser life sooooo much more pleasant :)