Attached Link: Poser animations

"I would even be happy with an animation that runs smoothly. By that I mean, no sudden jumps from one pose to another, where the character's feet come off of the ground." It *is* very much a function of the animator's skill - and the time available to do it. I daresay the stuff at the link above doesn't do that. It doesn't have IBL but, as was pointed out, render time makes a big difference. If you look in the animation section of Renderosity (under the Features menu of the sidebar) you'll see a wide variety of animation. Some of it very smooth, some not, based on the animator and his or her skill at the time of posting. There's one called "Poser/Lightwave Drum Test" (http://www.renderosity.com/mod/freestuff/index.php?section_id=321&page=19) of a drummer drumming where every hit and motion is hand keyframed. The drummer is a little stiff -- not a hair-flailing wildman -- but that was intentional. If you can track down LawnDart's (formerly "LawnDartLawnDart") web site you'll see some very smooth stuff as well. And there are some good examples of Poser animation in the Animation Forum - among the older posts. Come to think of it, there are some very good examples of animation at the DAZ3D website as well. My point is not to single out anyone as an animation guru but that there *is* stuff out there between the two extremes (BVH and completely jerky/jumpy). If you put the time and effort in, you can do alot within Poser. It's certainly possible to do better than anything that's been done but it's not up to Poser, it's up to you. Poser and Daz both will have some limits compared to Max or Lightwave simply because the high end apps allow you a bit more control over boning and joints and mesh. However, for most characters and situations you can go pretty far without having to resort to spending thousands of dollars on high-end apps.

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