Hi MikeJ

How's it going?  Great,  I hope.  We just got hit with a foot of snow!  Anyway,  don't take my posts as defending any app or critizing any app.  See,  unless we have a studio like ILM or Pixar that have their own CG programmers and CG programs we will never have a "end all be all app."  That being said,  we use several apps in a pipeline,  and the apps we use from Maya to Poser all have their strengths and weaknesses.  I'm sure you are well aware of this.

As for Poser,  personally,  I think the Poser Pro version should have support for Sub-D (both Subpatch and Catmull-Clark),  one point polys (BTW check out Proton's outlines video ftp://ftp.newtek.com/multimedia/movies/w3dw/ ),  and double sided polys.  This is just the tip of the iceberg.  Displacement needs to be fixed,  along with raytracing.  Not to mention an overhaul of the rigging.  I don't think they will be able to accomplish this by attaching scripts to their existing code.  Now,  given Poser as is,  I find it to be a great previz app for Lightwave.

As for Carrara,  I don't know much about it,  but I do know this,  tax return time i'm going to add it to my pipeline. The reason,  I have a lot of low poly, high res normal map models that I'd like to share with the community and I feel Carrara will be the app to do it.  Side note:  I've heard people were having problems with Poser figures eyes when they import them into Carrara.  Here's the Lightwave fix  http://www.newtek.com/lightwave/tutorials/animation/eyes/index.html  I'm sure the same principles could be applied in Carrara.

BTW I have a lot of Lightwave rigs for Poser figures,  if you want I could upload them to the freebies after I'm done with the V4 morphs.

Cheers

Pat 

Thanks for the information, patorak.
I too agree that Poser could be fine for pre-viz for LW or for any other higher-end package, or even for some lower resolution finished work. The thing in that though is making the Poser people not look like Poser people.
I already have several versions of Poser figures rigged and in LW format. I watched some Larry Schultz rigging videos and went on a rigging spree awhile back. I've seen the eye problem and the fix, too, ut it's certainly nice of you to offer. Probably other peple could get some use from your rigs.
Question though - Do you feel as many do that weight maps in rigging is a waste of time and RAM? I've done it both ways, and also with partially weighted figures. Weight maps are a little easier, but Schultz's method of little control bones is pretty cool too.
It's funny - I can take a V4 OBJ into LW and fully rig it, including weight maps for every body part, if I choose, then tweak it all, texture it and pose it in a little over an hour.
But, I can import a mesh made in LW into Poser, complete with point and polygon selection sets already assigned, and spend that same time on it in Poser's Setup Room and still not get anything that bends right. It's so far from intuitive, it's ridiculous, and it's buggy too.
Well, enjoy your snow. I wish I could. I haven't seen snow in years. It's 75 degrees here and sunny. At least it's not 85 like last week. ;)

75 and sunny!  We should be so luckyLOL!  
I like the partially weight mapped and control bones the automaton plugin provides.  As for the set up room I wish we could at least mirror the bones.  I wonder if body handles could be used for control bones in Poser?

Yeah, well it's suddenly 57, going down to 38 tonight, so they say. Might have to break out a sweater. ;)

I'd have to admit I don't know much about the finer points of rigging in Poser. For one thing, the camera views drove me to the point of not wanting to even experiment, and for another it seemed sometimes when trying to rename bones, the names wouldn't "stick". It's just a thoroughly irritating experience as far as I'm concerned.
I would like to be able to do it better, and maybe this so-called Poser Pro will make it easier, but we'll see, I suppose. I can't remember now what the features for the next version are, or if it will include a better Setup Room, but I would think it would make sense any "pro" app designed for posing and animating figures should have good rigging tools.
I'm concerned though that the only thing really "pro" about it will the ability to export a scene into C4D.
Time will tell.

Quote - I'm concerned though that the only thing really "pro" about it will the ability to export a scene into C4D.

Interposer Pro already does a pretty good job of importing Poser scenes into C4D - If I could afford C4D then I'd get it in a heartbeat

I have been working on a scene with Sydney, Miki 2 and V4, plus various other clothing figures and props.   I have XP with 2Gb memory.   I have Poser 7, Carrara 6 and Vue 6I.   Poser 7 saved and rendered the scene, then usually crashed after rendering, but not before the rendered scene was preserved.   Vue rendered the scene, but substituted flesh-tones for the clothing textures, probably something able to be fixed in the Vue material editor - annoying, all the same.  Carrara mangled the scene altogether, when I imported it whole from Poser.   When I tried to build the scene in Carrara from scratch, I was able to save the scene with V4 clothed, but not yet posed, Sydney ditto and Miki 2 in her birthday-suit.   Carrara will not, however, re-open that file on my system (Poser handled a much more detailed scene with fewer problems).

I've no idea if D/S can handle the same scene (I haven't installed D/S since 1.1.something), but I am quite sure that Carrara is not a replacement for Poser, as long as I am running this system.   If I ever get to upgrade to something more powerful, I expect to be using Vue, in preference to Carrara, as the render engine.  

Hi Morgano

What video card do you have installed on your system?

I am completely clueless, when it comes to hardware and drivers.   Does Radeon X800 Pro sound plausible?   By the way, I realised this evening that I am one (possibly two) upgrades behind on Carrara 6, so I haven't yet tried out 6.03.

Radeon x800 Pro is a great card.  Your next upgrade you may want to check out Nvidia,  too.
I highly recommend the photoshop plug ins and fx composer that comes with it.  Check it out here  http://developer.nvidia.com/object/fx_composer_home.html

I'll look into that.   Thanks.

You're welcome.  If you get the chance you may want to check this out as well,  'specially smart ibl.  www.hdrlabs.com/news/index.php

Happy Holidays

Pat

[quoteCarrara will not, however, re-open that file on my system (Poser handled a much more detailed scene with fewer problems).

I have Carrara Pro... Just got it because of the Christmas deal that they gave. With version 6.03, they fixed the Poser import. I have been able to get several poser projects into Carrara with no issues at all. The only issues I have had is with the "Constraints". Basically, something that is posed correctly in Poser winds up not being able to move to the point I expected it to. However, everything else seems to be pretty good.

Right now, I am trying to get the Light quality that I had with Vue Pro Studio to work in Carrara. I am not sure if it is possible but I think I am pretty close but Carrara does not have Volumetic Lighting model nor the Spectal atmosphere that is in Vue. However it does have sometime similar to the Ecosystems which is something that I was very happy to find!