Hi Wolf--

I'm about where I think you are:

(1) tried Shade briefly but turned away since I hate trying to learn non-intuitive programs

(2) was reasonably happily doing long animations for DVD by rendering in C4D (but I became enamored of dynamic clothing when I made the jump from P4 straight to P6... and I haven't found a good, affordable way to export P6 animations with dynamic hair and cloth to C4D)

(3) given #2, I'm still trying to find a lighting setup in P6 which looks good (i.e., reasonably realistic, like IBL with AO) and doesn't take 10 min plus per frame, but haven't had much success.

I did get hmann's lighting magic (or whatever it is called... I can't remember off the top of my head), and there are some pretty good sets in there, but none of them fit the bill for me yet though I plan to start tweaking some of them. But I like indoor scene lighting, so since you mention outdoor scenes you might like hmann's set.

Anyway, if you (or anyone?) ever find a P6 to (fill in the blank) rendering system which has reasonably realistic lighting, transfer of P6 animation with dynamic stuff, and can render at less than 3 minutes per frame, PLEASE let us all know!

Tguy