Attached Link: http://www.coolfun.com/illusion/

Hi Deimos, Glad you liked my website and gallery. :) I guess the look IS intentional. (I like to keep things clean and easy to navigate and wanted to give the front end a "magazine" feel). I've had some stick in other forums for "under-designing" things, but the site actually has quite a lot of Javascript in there, it's just tucked out of site invisibly. So far feedback has been 99% positive. :) Glad you agree with my views on using Poser's Ground Plane. I don't have a landscape generator program, (and my Inspire skills are a little basic), so I tend to use photos for most of my backgrounds. The BIG challenge is making the character look like it's there. (I still get a buzz when I see one dropping a shadow as it moves) Great fun! :) Illusion is a clever effects program made by Impulse. Basically it adds pre-defined effects to still images and AVI footage, much like an electronic "flip book". (The effects are 2D and use OpenGL). If you did a space anim, for example, and you needed to blow something up, you would just create an animation where at some point the model disappears, import the anim into Illusion, and at the point where the ship is destroyed, simply paste one of Illusions amazing explosions on top. It's simple and very easy to use! (I've added a link to the program above). Also, there's a mini "review" of Illusion 2 in the "Talking 3D" page on my website. I must be honest, the majority of my anims use motion capture data, (mainly 'cos it's so darn good!), but anims like the TRex stuff were made with Poser the "hands-on" way. (I love that model!) I started out with a free copy of Truespace too, it's a great program! I mainly switched over to Inspire because of it's Lightwave pedigree and the possibility of a future upgrade to the "Big L". (Unfortunately, my lottery ticket has failed to deliver, so I'm waiting for Inspire 2!) :) Mimic is a real "must have" program, it's WAY TO PAINFUL to animate speech without it. It's not 100% perfect at lip-synch, (but pretty darn close!), but for what it achieves it's a real bargain. It's a pity that there isn't a version for the Mac though. Still getting to grips with the Poser Pro Pack. The motion blur is a great addition, as are the new import/export facilities, but I'm a little disappointed with the character creation side. (Bones are easy to set up, but I still find the grouping tool very tricky to use). If anyone wants to turn any of my LWO characters into Poser dudes please feel free to do so! (Just drop me an e-mail) :) Glad to hear Deimos that your animation is proving commercially successful!! I wish that I had more time right now for animation, but studies are draining up most of my time and energy. Sorry for the HUGE post folks! Good luck to all entering the animation contest! Dave.