Yes, several people have directed me to the aniMate development, and I've been running their demos. I salute the 3rd party company making that software; it is interesting and invovative. It is also brilliantly aimed at the vast DazPoser nation, and the could be gigantic. The program may do for "desktop" animation what, well, Daz and Poser did for 'desktop' still image render of 3D.

The solution is short for me, so far. No dynamic hair or cloth, and I believe no keyframe of morphs with graph mode/splines, etc. Not that it might not get there, someday. Believe me, I'll be watching this development.

Meanwhile, I am realizing that I can get my results -- and pretty much any results subsumed under the paths you have mentioned --  100% in PoserPro. The production of my first important short film is going very well. So, while the variety of approaches you are suggesting are thoughtful and intriguing, I've looked into them all and the are "the road not taken" so far. (I have licenses for Vue, A:M and trueSpace to show for it!) I will focus on my Poser skills and take them as far as I can, until my 'next level" pipeline is good to go

I am pursuing my 3DSMax pipeling in the background here, with promising developments having happened in the past few days. We might not having anything to show on the "V4 in Max" solution for a while, maybe not for a few weeks or until October.

Thanks for your thoughtful response.

:::::: Opera :::::