Often when I pose figures I get the light to look perfect in the preview window but when it is rendered the light doesn't look anything like the preview, often with deep shadows and unlighted areas. It must have something to do with the camera setting or distance from light or some other thing.Any help?
Lance

Message edited on: 11/24/2005 09:13

The preview window is just that - a preview. It's never going to look exactly like your render; if it did, there'd be no point in rendering. What version of Poser are you using? Poser 6's area render is ideal for checking out small areas before committing a longer period to the full render. For all versions, final tuning will always require some actual rendering.

Which Poser version?

Sounds to me like you are having problems with shadows. I don't know about P6, but P4 & 5 don't cast shadows in preview. Here are some things you might try. You can adjust the strength of the shadow that a light will cast in that lights 'Properties', try a lower number like '0.300' for example. If an element (actor or prop) is casting shadow you don't want, you can turn off 'Casts Shadow' for that element in its properties. You can turn off shadows for the whole scene from the 'Render Options', though this is perhaps a little too drastic. You can use a fill light at low to medium intensity to cast some light into heavily shadowed areas.

The main thing to look out for is objects blocking light. I would personally ignore suggestions to turn off shadows, since this usually results in poor image quality. No offence to anyone who offered that suggestion, but look through the gallery and notice how many of the less attractive images are missing shadows. The biggest problem is that Poser doesn't have a viable global illumination solution, so you're limited to either scanline or raytracing, both of which are outdated now. The best way to get around this is to do like LesBentley suggested, and add low intensity lights to areas that are getting too dark. If you must lower the shadow opacity, I would recommend staying between '0.500' to '0.750'. Additionally, if you are using Poser 5 or 6, strategic use of the material room to add a bit of self illumination to your objects can help. Poser doesn't have everything (yet), but it usually has some way of reaching a compromise. When that compromise isn't good enough, there's Carrara :)

Actually the problem that I am having is when I pose a figure or group of figures and then I change their position by turning the main camera. I readjust the lights to illuminate the figures in the new position and it appears that they are properly lit. However when I render it shows alot of dark areas that are not lit even though it appeared to look fine in the preview. Does light in the preview only show what the light should look like if the figures were fully facing the main camera rather than in the altered position?

Can you post screenshots (one of the preview and one of the final render)?

Message edited on: 11/26/2005 09:06

Very strange. I would forward this to eF. At this point, your best bet would probably be to create a new light, and then copy/paste the parameters from the malfunctioning one.