I'm trying to get an idea what other folks are using.

Here's what I do:

1. Export from Poser (Rendered and Uncompressed to keep the highest quality)
2. Edit in Final Cut pro
3. Export from Final Cut Pro using the Animation compression setting.

I'm attempting to get the best looking animations possible but it never seems to work out that way. Do animators using 3DS and/or Maya just have an entirely different export/edit process all together? I ask because the CG animations made in other 3D software programs (like Maya/3DS) are just... light years away.

Take a look at the quality of this one and you'll understand what I mean? Has anyone ever seen a Poser animation that's this high quality? If so, what was the process??

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_sR4ogv3gco

Thanks!

Most people don't render to video but instead to individual frames as image files.  This has two advantages:

1. If for any reason the renderer halts (crash or what not), you can just continue from the last complete frame.  When rendering to video, you have to start over again.

2. You can use better software to create the video from these and set up the quality, codecs, and so forth there instead.

Attached Link: one of my more realistic Poser animations

Quote - Most people don't render to video but instead to individual frames as image files.  This has two advantages:

1. If for any reason the renderer halts (crash or what not), you can just continue from the last complete frame.  When rendering to video, you have to start over again.

2. You can use better software to create the video from these and set up the quality, codecs, and so forth there instead.

Hey **kuroyume0161
**
for #2, which software are you referring to? Is there a better, 3rd party software I could use to export animations from poser with? Also, for #1 - you're actually suggesting that frame by frame animation would work well in Poser? I'm basically thinking about importing 300+ frames into Final Cut Pro and editing with that... yikes!

Thanks a bunch **

**

Um, yep.  Go to any professional 3D forum and they will say: render 3D CG out to frame images, composite in:

QuickTime Pro
Final Cut
Adobe Premiere
Adobe After Effects
...

Do you think that the big studios use 10,000 machine render farms and render to a video?  No way.  Imagine if 3 months of continuous video render was halted by a power failure - yikes!  Additionally, it would not be easy to construct a linear video from a non-linear render farm.

Besides the two major advantages, you also have an untainted (raw, uncompressed, non-mpegd) means to do NLA, tweak sections, and edit the master to whatever (1080HD or 320x240 web).  This means that you can get the best results for the desired end product without betting the whole farm on the choices for a long render.

Ohhh la la.. I just tried rendering out from Poser to Still Images.. looks good.. better than my animation. I'm gonna slam my head in a car door now thank you.

Here's another question for you. I'm on the Lightwave 3d site and trying to figure something out but I'm reading alot of marketing stuff... could one use Lightwave to render out from Poser? Or is that just a nonsense question? I have research to do but didn't know if you knew that... oy!

Still images... what a concept!  ;-)

If Poser 7 Pro ever gets released, Maya, Max, and Cinema 4D will be options for rendering hosted scenes in those applications.  Carrara and Vue have Poser import as well - among other applications.  Max has GestureMax for 'native' import.  Carrara has Transposer for native import.  Cinema 4D also has several other options such as interPoser Pro(native)/Ltd (plug, plug) or CinePoser LT.  'Native' means that the Poser content is editable within the target application rather than statically hosted.

Lightwave at the moment and as far as I know doesn't have an easy way to host or import Poser scenes for render.  You'll have to Google about for that information.  There might be something over at Daz3D but uncertain.

Unfortunately LW has not been compatible with Poser for animations since Poser Pro Pak I believe alot of peeps use Carrera or Vue for Poser rendering, but im not sure if either does Poser animation renders.

Vue does Poser animation renders. Even with the Poser shader tree, although I probably would not like to use that in an animation. My experience is that it seriously slows the rendering.

Very interesting.

I plan on doing some research on my own, but from your experience... does Carrara/Vue produce "better" (clearer, sharper, vivid, more detailed) renders than Poser? I took a Poser course and the instructor mentioned absolutely nothing about any of this.

I have a version of "Shade" that came with Poser, thinking of installing that just to see what that kicks out.

Carrara definitely does better rendering. I user Carrara Basic 2 currently (2 more days before I pick up 3d world 100 w / Carrara 5). I use Vue 5 to do animations but at a distant.

Oh yeah, does 3d world 100 come out in 2 days ? I saw the thread over in 3d modeling last night and went to my local Barnes and Noble who still had about 3 copies of no 99 on the stand T.T

Just added Carrara 5 and Carrara 3d Basics 2 to my cart in Daz (they're on sale, buying both comes out to $55) - I'm hoping it's similar to Poser so there's less of a learning curve.

Debating on if I should get those two or Carrara 5 Pro for $85... hmm... I wish I would've asked this question about two months ago. I'm just finishing up an 11 minute cg flick. Some of the scenes look nice, others leave me wanting a better renderer. (Poser has this  tendency of NOT rendering, saying I need more RAM... I have 4 gigs of RAM and a dual core 3.0 proc... I sometimes have to lose the texture filtering and drop down almost to "Draft" stats before it lets me render.. very frustrating)

Does Carrara export individual frames as image files?