Hi

I haven't been using Poser 8 for long.

Today I was trying to export an image that was a Poser character standing in front of a imported background picture.

I render the image and then use Export /Image.

The problem is that when I view the image, I can see the character but not the background.  It's just my character standing in front of a white background.

I never ran into this in Poser 6, what am I doing wrong.

Mike

Did you change the file format to .jpg instead of .png?

.png format has a transparent background, meaning that there is no background and when opened in photo-viewing programs the background appears white...

As icandy265 said, png files lose the background image. You've also got the option to Edit/Copy Picture from Poser and then Edit/Paste into your graphics app. Should also work with images larger than the window.

IMO, if you're rendering against a background image, you may as well not bother anyhow.  Render the character, export as png then comp with the background in Photoshop.

We have to explain this about 100 times a year. Why is it that Poser assumes you want to lose your background, just because you export in PNG, a useful lossless format? There should be an option when exporting PNG - transparent or opaque background. Similar to how when you export as JPG, you are asked "what quality?"

If enough people ask for this, it will happen. If I ask for it alone, it won't.

There is a way to show the background in psp. Go to file/preferences/file format preferences click on the png tab and choose load and save save transparencey to/ from alpha channel. I don't have photoshop so I don't know if you can do something similar there, but I would imagine you can do something similar.

Hi

Thanks for the information.

I was exporting in PNG format so that's probably the problem.

I'll try it when I'm done here.

There is a specific reason that I'm adding the background in Poser.

I'm positioning the character and then placing a left and right image that's going to be processed into a stereo image combining the poser image with the left and right images.

I'm using the parameter dials to keep track of just how far I'm moving the Poser character left or right to see how much it needs to be offset to look like its part of the background image when converted to an Anaglyph.

It's also useful to know that exporting a .png will get rid of the background completely.

I stopped in the middle of this and gave it a try.

I found that the same thing happens in .tiff format.

It worked fine as a .bmp file.

Here's my first attempt at using left right image in the backgroud behind a Poser figure... I moved Andy 3" to the left when I switched from the left to the right image.

Thanks for the help.

Mike

it may also export the background in jpg, tiff and psd, assuming one has APS or CSxE; the latter can create these stereographic imgs from obj files.  there may still be diffs in how png/tiff file alpha is handled, cross-platform.  it's unlikely SM will be able to do much about this IMVHO.

Hi

For what it's worth..

I received information from a photographer that said that you shouldn't save Anaglyphs in .jpg format because of the way that it handles reds during compression.

I did some test and the info appears to be right.

Once in Anaglyph form the files saved as .tif file looked better to me, then the same file saved as a .jpg.

Mike

Info below...

The quality of the anaglyphs produced is very dependent on the lens and filter used, but even more so on the JPEG compression process if you use red/cyan and JPEG encode. JPEGs are NOT recording Red/Green/Blue, but use lossy YUV encoding. Suffice it to say that the Red channel is not kept very separate -- you get a lot of print thru; between channels.

The other thing I noticed it that as one might expect the anaglyph looks best using the glasses that it was created with.

I have a number of different sets and my clip-ons (which I was using when I created it) definitely show the above image better then the others.

Map the background pic onto the one sided square (suitably scaled for your pic) and you'll get the ability to save in lossless format without losing your image.

Or...

Is there any reason you can't do the repositioning of the background in Photoshop anyhow? 

Quote - I'm positioning the character and then placing a left and right image that's going to be processed into a stereo image combining the poser image with the left and right images.

I'm using the parameter dials to keep track of just how far I'm moving the Poser character left or right to see how much it needs to be offset to look like its part of the background image when converted to an Anaglyph.

It might not make a huge difference but shouldn't you move the camera (using Point At .. ) to simulate the viewers Left/Right eyes?

Another thought (!), have you tried parenting another camera to the Main Camera and set the Focal, rotation, position etc to match? You can easily swap cameras to check the view from each

Hi

That's pretty much what I'm doing.

What I have to start with is a matched pair of left right images made outside of Poser.

I open a character in Poser.

I import the left image as a background.

I don't want to apply the image to a surface, because as a background it doesn't move relative to the camera when I move the camera to make the right image.  It retains the spacing of the original images.  And it doesn't have to be re-rendered.

I render and export it as the left eye image.

Next I import the right image as a background.

I move the Poser camera 3" to the left using the paramater dials.

This has no effect on how it views the imported background image, but adds the stereo spacing to the Poser figure.

Then I render and export this image as the right eye image.

Then these two images are used to create the Anaglyph.

I think that you are right and this could be done in Photoshop as well.  

I would have to export the poser figure as an image with no background and place it on a layer over the two layers with the background images on them.

Then I would just have to save it with first one and then the other background to make the two images, moving the Poser figure to the left a little to create the right eye image.

My only concern is that if I do that the Poser figure will be a flat surface when it's seen in Photoshop, not as a 3D object so it may not seem to have any depth in the figure itself.

I'm going to try that next.

Mike

photoshop (cs3E and later) can import poser figure, view/render/manipulate it as 3d obj., et al.  it can generate 2 or more styles of stereo imgs, e.g. anaglyph and interlaced, from the obj.  using parallax and other controls.  however, is somewhat slower renderer than poser on some machines.  possibly the slowest known 3d rendering software other than maxwell.

Unfortunately Photoshop is the oldest of all my Adobe software, I have Indesign CS4 and Illustrator CS3 and Premiere Elements 9 but only Photoshop CS2.