I am sure this is a subject that has a lot of debate with little success, but i thought i would see if any bright sparks had the answer. 

Yes i want to import Poser animations into 3D Studio Max and that is Poser 'ANIMATIONS'. I know of only two plugins up for the job, that is Bodystudio and Mesh Foot. I don't want to pay the price Bodystudio is asking and Mesh Foot had scripting issues with my version of 3D Studio Max when i was testing the demo, so that is a no go area. 

Does anyone have the solution for importing Poser animation into 3D Studio Max, whether it is a plugin, other than those stated or another method?

i would love to hear it, as this is driving me around the bend.

I'd go for Bodystudio...  I bought MAX7 years ago, then the upgrade to MAX8 and never really got serious with modelling as I intended when purchasing.  Now after a break from MAX & Poser, I'm wanting to get back into both...  BUT, Animating and such in Poser (of course) and rendering in MAX8!!!  I was totally against the entire concept of a plugin (Bodystudio) costing more than what my last upgrade price for Poser was so I always dismissed Bodystudio!!!  Pffffffftttt!!!

NOW...  totally re-thought that and I'm thinking about what in my budget can I do with out in order to get me some Poser meets Max8 thanks to Bodystudio lovin' going on!!!

Did some reading in various forums and think Bodystudio is the best way to achieve what you ( and I ) want to accomplish!!

Of course...  there's always Poser Pro Pack but I think that only works with MAX versions 3.1 to 5 or something!! 

Gerard

So there really is no other method for importing the models other than Bodystudio?

Thats what i really need the answer to at the moment, i think i already know the answer, but it would be nice to get that concrete. Just to put my mind at ease.

There is always someone lurking in the shadows that knows something most of us don't, at least i am hoping.

Yep, Bodystudio is your only option based on how you describe the problem. If your goal is to render an animated Poser scene in Max, then Bodystudio is the tool you need to use. Of course, you CAN export a Poser animation as a range of frames but this merely gives you a separate 3D model for each frame of the animation. To render these 3D "frames" as a seamless animation in Max requires substituting each successive version of the scene for each frame of the animation. I actually did this once using ElectricImage and I imagine someone has a Max script that would handle the substitutions, but clearly, this isn't what you are looking for. 

Another approach, of course, would be to export the MOTION from the Poser animation as a BVH (biovision) file and import the BVH motion into Max to drive the character. I have done this, too, but it requires having a character rigged in Max and also dealing with Max's (character studio) funky implementation of BVH files. I have found the best workflow for this approach is to use MotionBuilder and FBX files. Again, this sounds like something far from what you are interested in and I mention it just to be complete. 

Frankly, Bodystudio is the only game in town and I've been impressed with it over the past week that I've been using it. My only big gripe is that it is not compatible with 64-bit Max, which is a major disadvantage for complex scenes and big renders. However, if you are a 32-bit user I think you'll find Bodystudio is a very useful tool. 

Thanks for the input. I guess that has made up my mind now, it really is the only outlet. I was 95% sure before, because i thought someone may enlighten me, but thats not the case. I appreciate the other suggestions, but its more work out of my way. I need the most simplistic approach.

Yeah that 64 bit issue is very annoying. I guess the ideal situation would be to have two versions of Max. One 32 bit and one 64 bit, so you could import the animation file into the 32 bit save the scene and then open it in 64 bit. 

anyway i will leave this thread open just encase someone does reply with some different news, otherwise i don't need anyone else to drop a line.