I've seen some pretty good renders on this site's Galleries and I was wondering what the secret is to getting a high quality render out of Poser ?

Can you give more specific qualities you seek? If I talk about realism and that's not your meaning, there can be trouble.

Preparing popcorn...

Very important are very good lights. Odd lights can damaged every fantastic scene. 

The light has to fit your scene, and POV. This is why i never use "Out of the box" lights.

I made my all individual , for each scene.

A bit of realism is what I want to achieve, but I’m not able to get much of it from Poser 7. I’ve even tried importing the scene into Vue to get the better lighting but the textures came out kind of pasty.

Wait (a week) for Poser 9 / PPro 2012!

From what I've seen at the forums over at RDNA it's a big jump forward on the realism front.

For example, the images in this thread really knocked my socks off.

Well, as others have said or will say, lighting is important. The worst mistake, however, is thinking it is all in the lights. In that case you end up creating lights to solve a problem, and they create new problems. Lights should be "motivated" by where the real lights would be in the real world, and by using the right types.

Now a large amount of light in the real world is not from light sources, but is bounced around by the objects in the world. If all you have is Poser 7, then realistically all you can use for that is an image based light, or IBL.

Also, a large amount of the seemingly wrong lighting in renders is actually due to monitor/image gamma. There are many solutions to that, from postwork, to adding extra lights (bad!), to hackery (exemplified by the Vicky 4 shader), and finally there is actually doing gamma correction, or GC. I am a fan of GC.

You have Poser 7, so the only kind of GC you can use is to build it into the shaders.

A complete set of GC shaders for humans can be found in my free VSS.

Finally, there is the fact of materials - get them wrong and everything looks wrong, no matter the lighting you use.

If you're doing a human, try my VSS shaders.

If you're doing "hard" stuff, like glass, metal, plastic, car paint, or similar shiny stuff you need a proper Fresnel reflection shader.

You also need that for water.

For things like leather, velvet, wool, and other softer things, you need other shaders.

A human-colored plastic shader looks like plastic, not a human. You have to use the right shaders to get the right reaction to light. The colors are less important, even though most vendors spend all their time on the color map.

Hell - I can do a credible human with no color map.

Like BB point out. Materials . I improve most of the Buyed stuff in the Mat room to fit the lights etc.  BB Free Matmatic is a great tool to create fantastic Shader nodes almost realistic. 

Looking at all those shaders nodes has me dazed and confused.

How in the world did you guys learn to use all this stuff?

Looks like I'll be in the "Lab" a Lonnnnng time, B4 I understand all of this stuff....

TOPcat, I've published at least 100 totally different free shaders, every one being among the best anybody has ever done in Poser. Why not just start with those.

Plus, it's actually a fun form of art, much like cooking. Given fixed and limited (but high quality) ingredients, what can you make?

Example: Given only BB's leather, glass, and water, what can I make into an interesting and realistic image?

It is a proper water shader, proper plastic, and my HDR environment sphere with a proper HDR image. It's not art, but could you make it into art with some more props and figures?

I'll try'em

But I'm not much of a cook either

LOL

@TOPcat831 The shader room in Poser is pure fun. Once you understand the basics, the rest will follow. With a lot of Ahaaa...effect ;) When i am uninspired for to make art, i used to go in the Material room and Play around with the nodes and effects. Nice way to learn and have fun.

I'll give'em a try Ladonna. Although I've never gotten beyond the 2D image Map.

Quote - I'll give'em a try Ladonna. Although I've never gotten beyond the 2D image Map.

:)  2D and 3D you can combine very good. A great 3D basic in Poser and you can make in Photoshop great results with less effort.( Correct odd shadow, lights etc..) 

Here and over RDNA in the Forums are many great people who can answer you questions or help when you stick. :)  

And don't forget to post your first results. :) I would be really happy to see your first incredible works :)

Quote - Wait (a week) for Poser 9 / PPro 2012!

From what I've seen at the forums over at RDNA it's a big jump forward on the realism front.

For example, the images in this thread really knocked my socks off.

Jaw just dropped.  It's going to take dirty poser renders to a whole new level. lol

@BB where can I find that water shader? Is it available anywhere?

Attached Link: Subject: Trying to achieve good water

Can you post links to some of the images in the gallery that you consider a "high quality render"?

Lots of people here use other programs to do their renders.  They may start in Poser and finish the scene in another program. Not everyone does that, but some do.  Also, many post work their images in a graphic program after doing their render.

There is no rule in the gallery that states you have to list all of the programs you use to create your image. You only need to pick one from the list.

Quote - I'm certainly not BB, but I hope you, and BB of couse, don't mind me linking to a thread, where he shares a few tips and tricks with us.

Yep - that is what I'm using above.

There is also this thread with some more sophisticated tricks:

Refraction node question...