"In otherwords, you can get this level of realism, on the hair, the shadows, the skin, etc., in well under 5 minutes?"

Yes, definitely. If you look at the links in my original post, you'll see the rendertimes on the images I linked to. Those images are the original render size. I think the realism is there, and most are done in under 3 minutes. The long blonde hair was the only one that took over 3 min. Even the realistic translucency example was done in under 3 minutes, and that one is a close-up. I'm using 3-point lighting for all examples, shadows on all lights. I think the main difference, Opera, is that Max and Maya can render shadow maps much faster than Poser. In fact, in most cases, they can render even raytraced shadows in the time Poser takes to render depth shadows.

It all depends, of course, on the complexity of the scene too. I think Nemirc's Maya examples might have me beat in terms of rendertime if you consider the length of the hair he's working with, and the number of strands/follicles.

"can you post an animation? Say, 120 frames, camera about the same distance from the face as mine, at 720x480, and provide the stats? Try to emulate the realism in shadows, skin and hair on the level of mine. Hair about the same length and style. That would provide me with a reality check."

I'll see what I can whip up later today or tonight.

Message edited on: 02/07/2006 03:28

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Tools :  3dsmax 2015, Daz Studio 4.6, PoserPro 2012, Blender v2.74

System: Pentium QuadCore i7, under Win 8, GeForce GTX 780 / 2GB GPU.