If we animate...and Poser's/Da z studio's preview mode is good enough to illustrate our drawings.. why do we even need full quality render with shadows?

i dont see the point. Many of you do it but do you really need that high quality if you already got what's most important: Characters, and animation

In Daz you can make Open gl movies fast. if you want shadows, you can do what i do, put a flat semi transparent flat sphere in the ground  and have it folow your character.

Also you can do the same for selected objects you want to have cast shadows.
Sure it's not like full render realism. But in the end, we amateurs, do we really need to have high quality production if we just want to do a hobby? i certainly dont.

That fake sphere shadow is a cool idea, thanks for sharing it! I will use preview mode to render animations if I just want to see how well everything is flowing and to check to make sure the sound is synced up properly, but for my final animation, I like seeing the real rendered shadows. If I were trying to render a full on complete novel length story, I might take short cuts, but for the most part I don't do whole movies.

It's a matter of choice; you don't need every tool in the toolbox to fix something. Better to have a feature and not need it...;)

it's necessary to render the movie IMVHO, unless nobody ever sees it.
a poser preview movie may be good enuff for animatics, but don't put it in yer portfolio when
looking for a job.

I play with animations. I dont normally render them because it takes so long. I just do the make movie with current display settings.  Its really all I need to see that the animation is doing what I want.  

So to answer your question :)   do whatever meets your needs.

I used to teach guitar on the side and this reminds of the time this little 7-year-old said: "I can play Mary had a Little Lamb on one string-why do I need to learn the other 5?"
Sure Poser isn't practical for rendering animations; but a little effort never hurt anybody :)

its really going to depend on what shader information you want, if you want transmapped hair to look decent for example you need to use the software renderer because OGL for transmaps sucks. and things like bump, displacement reflections accurate specularity need the software renderer to even be visible. So I don't think its just the shadows that are an issue.

I will revise my comment. If you are doing stuff in Poser , for your own entertainment, or perhaps as a presentation aid then do whatever meets your needs. I have had wireframe anims in my portfolio , because they were showing animation skills , not texturing.

If you were assembling a demo reel then I would certainly yake my best sample animation and render it out , and include other smooth shaded or wireframe examples.

josterD, can you show example?

I'd like to see too.  I'm interested in seeing what kind of work you do.  I personally render all my work so the idea of someone not needing to render seems strange but intriguing.

the shadow in the bottom of the car is a flat black square with opacity set to lower than 100%. And this scene is Preview mode Open GL

As other have stated it depends on the final usage of the animation
I did THIS ANIMATION with all open GL rendersfrom DS with alpha channels and faked the cast shadows in After Effects CS3.

Cheers

That was great wolf, glad to see a fellow DAZ studio user.

I wonder how people who love to do all full rendered animations do anything.

Alittle 30 frame clip would take hours. So when would you even get anything done in a month?

you'd have to leave the computer on all day and night to render.

Aside from people who work in some animation studios and have render farms, I dont see why anyone by himself, would do fully rendered full quality animations. 

1 picture renders, fine. But animation? I would never do that. THe only time i render full is to  make BACKGROUND PICTURES to my Preview mode character animation. And the way i render those pics takes about 13 seconds and is fine for me.

Quote - I wonder how people who love to do all full rendered animations do anything.

Alittle 30 frame clip would take hours. So when would you even get anything done in a month?

you'd have to leave the computer on all day and night to render.

Aside from people who work in some animation studios and have render farms, I dont see why anyone by himself, would do fully rendered full quality animations. 

The Answer is simple.. DONT  USE POSER for rendering your final animations  if you can afford another program
I render "Full Quality" Animation All the time with Cinem4D or Modo
there are ways to optimize poser scenes or render in layers but
the fact of the matter is Single artist with no access to render farms
create full quality animation renders all the time in more expensive program
that have engines FAR superior to poser Daz studio but of course cost $$MUCH $$more

Cheers

josterD, if you are just doing it for fun, which is what it seems to me you're saying, do what you like. Whatever works. Your enjoyment is your end result.

Other folks here are trying to push the software, do demo reels or do what they want to do. More power to them. But everything is fine and there's room for many viewpoints when you are doing something just for fun.

Just because someone only plays basketball in  their backyard, it doesn't mean they don't want to learn to actually make shots. I think the same principle applies here. Just because many of us do it for a hobby, it doesn't mean that we don't want to learn to do it well, or produce the best results possible.

BDDesign.. well that didn't make sense. They can make shots in their backyard too.

Made perfect sense. You said you didn't understand why people would want to do full renders on animations if they were doing it solo. His analogy was apt for solo basketball players in back yards still wanting to do good shots and solo animators still want to create good animations.

Quote - . His analogy was apt for solo basketball players in back yards still wanting to do good shots and solo animators still want to create good animations.

Agreed !!!
And of course there are us Solo/freelance CG artists whom's Paying clients
would NEVER accept openGL Screen renders as Finals.

Cheers

Well you could always use one of those previz tools or RT renderers like Octane or Arion to do fast and high quality stuff. However none of these are cheap or super easy to use with poser. Like the old CG saying goes, speed, quality or low price, pick two.

I pick speed, low price.

Also people who like to render fully, must be healthy.

Cause we all know our lives can end anytime.  Why not do as much as you can even if it's low quailty

Quote - I

Cause we all know our lives can end anytime.  Why not do as much as you can even if it's low quailty

Yes very true
but that does not mean I am Going to  invite my friends over for a barbecue and hand them a cold pack of Raw kosher beef franks and expect them to eat them because I did not have the patience to cook them .
even though ,technically, Raw kosher Beef franks,properly refrigerated, are  fit for human Consumption as is .

I dont understand what you are trying to argue here.
If you  do not need high quality renders Dont do them.

Why worry if others decide to use the render features for which they paid their hard earned money.

Cheers 

Attached Link: Digital Painting from Poser Renders

I have to agree with Wolf at this point. Everyone has already said, if you don't like it don't do it. Why continue to beat on the poor dead horse unless you're just here to stir up a fight? We get it! You don't like to render! We also get it that you don't understand why anyone else would! It's obvious to me at this point that no amount of explaining is going to make you understand something you refuse to see the point of.

Quote - . Why continue to beat on the poor dead horse unless you're just here to stir up a fight?

**
COUGH COUGH AHEM!!**

Quote - > Quote - . Why continue to beat on the poor dead horse unless you're just here to stir up a fight?

**
COUGH COUGH AHEM!!**

Ahhhh.. I see... Monkey shaking the tree to see what kinda fruit will fall out.

I thought the shadow prop idea was interesting though.

Quote - I thought the shadow prop idea was interesting though.

Yeah that was a cool tip and I plan to use it someday just for shits and giggles.

I wanted to mention that, if wolf were referring to "hebrew national" hot dogs,  they are better
than regular hot dogs IMVHO.  I was concerned that they were produced by the guy who got
jailed and fined $27 millions but apparently that was some other company.  but maybe hotdogs
are like poser movies - everybody likes them but some folks don't like to see how they're rendered.

Watch the sodium nitrites!! But, Miss Nancy, I agree, "Hebrew National" dogs are tasty!! Nobody should watch most food be "rendered,"  though... you'll never eat again. :)

One of the the advantages of my being Muslim
when we  cant Find A Halal meat store wean Always buy Jewish Kosher meat.
confident it ill be Pork free as well.

Cheers

Kosher or Halah meals are usually better than the standard meal on trains and planes I have found.

So Kosher meat is now the new "Kitties" thread killer?!? :tt2: