Greetings.................I am new to this and was wondering if one can use photos of anything and use them as renders, or more to the point turn them into renders. I am very interested in this field and want to see what can and cant be done..........................anyone have any advice on this??

     Much thanks in advance...........................Wryter

 If your question is whether you can take a photo from this site without permission and use it in a render then the answer is no.

If your question is more theoretical and whether you can turn a photo into a render, then you need to actually take the photo of what you want to render from multiple angles and "map" the photos onto a 3d object.  You cant (without a lot of extra work and mere using the photo as a reference) take one photo and turn it into something 3d.  So yes - the technique is viable but - my question back is - why do you want to do that?

                              First off thanks for the reply, and secondly I was not assuming or suggesting that I take other pictures and use them, that on so many levels is wrong. I was in all good faith refering to my own collection of photos I  have garnered over the years, mostly of great lake s ships and using them.

                               As to why would I want to do such, well not even sure I would as was merely making a querie is all to if it could be done.

                                                             Wryter

I'm not sure what you are asking..You could use photo's a reference to create a 3D model, or perhaps use it as a background..

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             Thank you for the reply and the clarification. I have many hundreds of photos of ships, trains & old buildings taken over the years. I recently bought Poser 8 and my desire is to use some of these and create renders from then as I feel it would be a sweet medium to display and use as a base.

               Again thanks for the info, your work btw is better than excellent, its a good point to aspire to.
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I haven't used Poser in a long time, but importing an images as a background was a feature

I was once very active here at Renderosity, especially in the modeling forums.

Yes, you can use your pictures to make models which can be used in renders, video games, movies, etc...

Do you have your photos in digital format? This is nearly a prerequisite for beginning. I f you do not, you needn't go through the process at this time, simply begin with your favorite ship or whatever you pleasure is.

It will take time and money to purchase the software and learn how to use it. There is not better place on earth, in my estimation, to begin than right here at Renderosity.

Check your email for more information.

El Crypto!