I am overwhelmed, this is just wonderful!!  Thank you BB, and Oliver, too!!

I can see I will have a small issue with the clothes props (metal and jewels, but maybe that can be addressed in PS, as I can do two renders and just lift one out, and apply over the other)  ... Lots of  post work.

Vue Stand Alone is on my list .. it will be a few months before I can pick it up; (but I do watch for the sales).    I don't much understand the abilities of C4D and Soft Image, I have not looked at them deeply, but I will in August, when I can restart Lynda dot com.

Then I will have to wonder about a new video card, or a new machine.

Are there existing market boxes just for rendering? .. I mean not a whole machine,  just the processor and ram to accept and process ... so you would not have to invest in another entire computer?  I am hoping to run Raid 5 over at least 4 drives, but I don't have this kind of horse power yet.  It seems to me that there would be already configured boxes for render support? ... there are certainly enough commercial houses which would want them.

Thanks again, BB ... I will bring my priestly esoteric torch carriers over once they are saved.

After that I have to animate a fist full of Pegasus -es ... but I am not certain Poser Pro has a flight path designer (does it?) ... so I am doing the other one first.    Maybe by that time i will have Vue, and the flight path will not be an issue!

About how many frames of animation can the average PC with a good graphics card, and decent CPU + 8G ram handle? ... so I don't crash on the first run through? 

I can append stretches to each other, and build the entire thing in sections ... but I wonder how many to allow it to make (or how many to hold the program to to avoid it having apoplexy and dying with all in process).  

It is mostly dark , little in the way of background, there will be 22 moving characters and perhaps 30 animated torches ... animated water in a pool, separate flames (very few not on torches ... trick to get the torches to not all look like clones! ) and some other very small  lighting effects ( reflecting or ambient glowing gems in the prop clothes, walls and ceiling of the grotto).

I want to send you all baked goods .. but that is not wise .. we all eat too many of them anyway, and they always remind me of the doughnut (don't) commercials.