I don't use P4 any more, but I still do the layers thing for some images. I dunno how BastBlack does it, but I do it by setting up the scene and then using the Hierarchy window to make certain parts invisible, rendering so that I have isolated renders of the figures, with and without hair, with and without shadows, sometimes with and without clothes, the background by itself, etc. I render and save as .tif so they've got an alpha channel, so that I can take them all into Photoshop and pull the figures and whatever out with the alpha channels and composite it all together until it suits me. This way I can control how much shadowing is applied, or use blend modes on the layers or paint out or in bits, and so on. I'm also interested in hearing how BastBlack does it, though. I'm always trying to get rid of the "Poserish" look, and any technique to do that is something I want to know about. ;-) bonni

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