Okay ... I get a great idea for a scene.  Example:
Amazon Sisters.  Two figures walking in the forest.  Hmmm ... lets add some diversity, 2 more figures, multiple ethneticity.  All good so far.  Now we need jewellery to go with costumes ... and oh, since they are Amazons they need headdresses/helmets.  Okay ... that choked Poser ... won't render now.  See what I mean?  Let's share our overloaded scene stories.  Just for fun. :)

Boni

been there, done that, every time....

That's the reason why I usually break my scenes up into smaller parts for rendering, then put them back together in Photoshop. 

Sam,
I've heard a lot of people do that ... I'm just concerned about losing shadows from one render to the next so they don't flow.  Do you have a solution for htat?
Boni

You can try rendering the scene without shadows and then rendering just the shadows, then putting the two together in PS.   That may allow you to render all the figures together.   I have to admit that I have never had much success with that technique, but some Poser users swear by it.

Quote - Sam,
I've heard a lot of people do that ... I'm just concerned about losing shadows from one render to the next so they don't flow.  Do you have a solution for htat?
Boni

It's dead easy if you use a bit of thought to how and what you remove.  

This scene, for example, rolled over and died with everything in.  I then split it into three, removing the human figure and all his armour and weapon for one render, plus some of the props.  The second render has the human figure, the third has the additional props.

http://www.renderosity.com/mod/gallery/index.php?image_id=1497637&member

I generally remove figures in their entirety, clothes, accessories and everything.  That way, you'll get continuity of shadows when you replace them.

A variant is to also render the figures without any scenery, textures or lights after everything else, so you can use the result as a mask when compositing, in order to make cutting out figures from the background much easier.  I sometimes use this technique if I have a lot of reflections in an outdoor scene.

Morgano:  I've played around with that ... and never really got it to work for me either.  But I'll still consider it. Thank you.

Sam:
I see if you are careful about where the shadows fall ... placement of objects this can work very well.  thank you for the idea!!!  :)

Boni

Well, you can easily delete and reinstate objects when shadows overlap each other, provided you put them back in the scene together.

Groovy!!! :)

My scenes sometimes contain as many as 30 human characters. Far too much for Poser to render.
So I render in Vue 6 Infinite 64 bit. I break up the scene in many smaller scens, usually one scene for the environment, then one per character, including hair, clothes (if any) and props.
I import the partial scenes into Vue, fix up the materials, and save them out as Vue objects, one by one.
Then I start a new empty Vue scene, load the environment object plus a number of key character objects, set up lighting, camera and atmosphere (loads of test renders), add the rest of the character objects, and render the final image.

Works for me, might not work for everyone.

" Amazon Sisters.  Two figures walking in the forest."
I would have just stopped there.
If I see any more "Amazon Sisters" I'm going for my blowpipe.

I always overload my scenes because I like making my own backgrounds using still images is phony to me and the lazyman's way out. ;)

And, I do animations so, I need more than one figure in a scene.

y'know...this is probably gory, but the real meaning of Amazon is 'one breast'. According to Herotodus and others, supposedly they did a mastectomy (sp?)so the flinkin' thing wouldn't get in the way of a bowstring. I'm not making this up.  But you can't do that in Poser (or I couldn't, which is no guarantee). Just once, I'd like to see a (clothed) please version of the 'accurate' version...no blowpipe needed...;)

all the methods above sound like they'd work fine...

I suspect that an application, such as Vue, that can use 64-bit addressing probably is the only fully robust answer to the question of how to add numerous figures to a 3D scene.   They do also require the hardware capable of making the most of 64-bit addressing, though, so that's not necessarily a short-term solution for most of us.  

I run Vue on a machine with the basic XP and 2Gb of memory.   Within those limits, where multiple figures are concerned, Vue is just as limited as Poser is, although there is plenty that it can do very well.  

Since I would like to make more of Vue's capabilities, I keep an eye open for a PC with the right combination of operating system and hardware and I am surprised by the number of PCs on the market which advertise a 64-bit-compatible operating system on a machine with a maximum 2Gb of memory (and no room for expansion).

*y'know...this is probably gory, but the real meaning of Amazon is 'one breast'. According to Herotodus and others, supposedly they did a mastectomy (sp?)so the flinkin' thing wouldn't get in the way of a bowstring. I'm not making this up.  But you can't do that in Poser (or I couldn't, which is no guarantee).

• Funnily enough, there is a famous scene of Amazons, from the Mausoleum of Halicarnassus, which (I think) was the home town of Herodotus.  The Amazonomachy ("Amazon battle") that ran around the structure is the most substantial surviving part, depicting Amazons and (male) Greeks chopping chunks out of each other.   The scantily clad Amazon in art goes back a long way.  

This is great guys. 
svdl:
I don't have quite as robust a machine to take that.  I do use Vue 5 Esprit, but since it does not do displacement maps (and that to me adds a valuable level of realism) I don't use it for closer images.  But I do use in in some instances.  I'm saving for 6.

ashley9803:
I can appreciate your feelings of "overload" just on the subject matter.  I have a strong feeling towards strong female heros and imagery.  It's also a way, (in this image) to redefine family and be more diverse.  I also use the term loosely to mean any strong female social structure, from the early Native Americans who for many tribes were headed by women, but used men to speak for them because the European immigrants wouldn't accept leadership from a woman.  As overused as it is, there are a lot of women out here who need the Amazon Icon to find thier own strength.  Though, again, I certainly understand your position.

Dajadues:
I feel the same way, though I don't do animations (yet) I like the organic feel of a scene being complete onto itself.  I have used photos as part of the scene periodically to test the shadow function in Poser.  I've taken the photos myself for the most part. 

Pakled:
I actually was aware of that meaning having studied historic anthropology in college.  I have considered creating a more accurate version of the true Amazon.  (though some scholars claim they are only legend and never truly existed).

Morgano:
I would love to have a system as powerful as that, and will when I actually sell some art.  And I'd love to see that scene at the Mausoleum of Haicarnassus.  Thank you so much for sharing that! 

Boni

GlowWorm, available at DAZ, as some useful tools for splitting scenes, rendering shadow passes, etc.

Mike

svdl,

sort of same here, thank GOODNESS for 64 bit, only had new PC couple of  weeks, vast improvement :)

What I've done though is optimized the figures before savign as .vobs:

1. use low res versions if possible, Mike 1 low res, vs Mike3 for distant figures if I have suitbale clothes.

2. I have made many mats to stand in for metal, cloth, leather, and got one of D. Burddick's early SSS mats which I sitll use (much thanks!) These save huge resources, see #3

3. Poser testure maps are usually ridiculously too big!!! I go into the texture folder, copy paste in a copy of all large textures. Then, I select the originals, right click and use VSO IMAGE RESIZER, shrink down to about 1000 or so (25% or 50% size)

4. Plug bump into the color, or custom made

5. Fix all the damn highlights which usually defualt to black, ugh!

6. Weld the object up if I wish. If I think I'll alter partsin Vue to vary the pose a little, I won't, I mean move the meshes, not use Poser etc again. e.g. move a hand mesh and hte like. Welding drops resource needs.

7. Delete parts that aren't seen. No need of arms under armour! However, you then cna't show the arm later if you wish to vary it...so it needs to be thought about. I often save unwelded, into my collections, and then weld in the actual scene.

Writing tutorial on this :)

Anyone mention using a transparent polygon with a texture of a figure on it. One poly and a transparency map. Place it anywhere and still get the right depth perception and shadow. You can put a whole crowd of those in scene but you would have to pre make them. I've never played with it too much but couldn't you even apply a bump map?

Quote - Anyone mention using a transparent polygon with a texture of a figure on it. One poly and a transparency map. Place it anywhere and still get the right depth perception and shadow. You can put a whole crowd of those in scene but you would have to pre make them. I've never played with it too much but couldn't you even apply a bump map?

Used that technique in 3 of my gallery pics:

http://www.renderosity.com/mod/gallery/index.php?image_id=331620&member

http://www.renderosity.com/mod/gallery/index.php?image_id=1105167&member

http://www.renderosity.com/mod/gallery/index.php?image_id=1148300&member

Looks good! Nice part is they can be moved. It would be tricky but I imagine one could even do animations by changing textexures on the poly  while moving it through frames to simulate walking people. All depends on if you wanted to stick to the no postwork thing  or not. I don't know what would take longer but  you could brag it was not post worked.

Boni, if you want to see what's left of the Mausoleum, including the Amazonomachy, head for the British Museum in London.   I don't know what Bodrum (formerly Halicarnassus) is like nowadays, but I do know that there isn't much of the Mausoleum left there (or not where poor, old Mausolus intended it to be left, anyway).

UofOstudent's girlfriend: UofOstudent, why are your characters naked?

UofOstudent: I'm, um, saving polygons.  Don't want to choke up the RAM!

I completely agree w/ you on this one..  A lot of my scene that are not pinups are pretty massive in size (height and witdh), lots of details, and lots of figures..   This one  contains  10 different figures,  about  100 tombstones,  one big ass  oak tree, many props, lots and lots of ground cover and much much more.. lol..  Now, my machine had no problem setting it all up like this but not even close to a preview render.. lol...  So what I did was lock the camera where I wanted it and set up parts of the scene as separate renders where I wanted the part to go..   Then once I got all of my parts rendered put them all together in photoshop..  I had about 10 separate renders maybe a few more..   I ended up w/ 3 separate psd files that had certain effects..  Then I merged them all together into one for the final piece..

http://www.renderosity.com/mod/gallery/index.php?image_id=1551507&member

This is a great bunch of tips guys.  I know a lot of members will benefit from this!  Thanks!!! Can't wait to try some of these out!
Boni

Attached Link: To have not

(oh and the pic itself is an illustration for a fanfic, so don't feel lost if it doesn't make much sense to you)

Wow Trekkie that's absolutely stunning. Thanks for sharing that one. (I think Snape looks like he needs a hug ^.^ )

He SO needs a hug! It's a great story, but... poor Sev...
(Totally OT of the original subject, sorry...)

Oh, wow, raven, that is great. thanks for the info.  Now, how to do this in P6.  :)  You've also got a great pose there! 

The Split Morph option has been present ever since Poser 5 btw. It has always surprised me that such a hugely useful feature has been all but unnoticed for so long by most of the Poser community.

Great idea, Raven!

Oh, My!!!  This is great!!! It will help in a LOT of my renders!  Thank you raven.

Very OT: By the way TrekkieGrrrl, I love your HP stuff and your devotion to Snape I believed he was going to be a hero from the very first book.  I could feel the "set up".  I think a lot of people relate to who he is in the books.
Boni