thanks for all the information. i think for now i am set to go. when i get my entire system together as a beta, i will be in a better position to tweak the lighting, render settings, etc.

i was looking at the "shadowcatcher" you developed. it looks like an interesting way to do things. having something that has meaning to me to dissect seems like a good starting point. the poser documentation doesn't seem too clear. i hadn't heard of it outside of poser. what is the general technology called if i want to get more information?

you were talking about methods of compositing. i gave links to collage images that are a composite of poser pngs over a jpeg background. how do they seem? i am not an artist. i have developed a number of technical routines for graphics that i use. collage uses an entirely different way that avoids much of the technical stuff. i do have the capability of doing thumbnails but i was trying to use easythumbs because it works, it's free and if i distribute the development part of my system, i don't have to deal with packaging, documentation, and answering questions. for trimming the pngs files, i am using a very efficient utility that has a command line interface. i am semi-retired and not up for developing a png routine from scratch.

i was noticing a rendering artifact in my testing. it has nothing to do with this thread but you might want to take a look anyway. you will notice that the utility i am using to crop the images is having a problem with the black background even though i set the threshold up a bit.

www.bestlogic.com/collage/pics/2008-01-31-00-15-29-PST.jpg

your help has been very valuable. i am looking forward to studying all the stuff you have shared on the forum. i also need to look at other 3d programs. i have beginner copies of vue and carrara and i have fooled around with others in the past.