Attached Link: http://www.the-forge.ie/

Does anyone know if the poses on The Forge works with Victoria 2.0? There are some great poses there but it seems the page haven't been updated for quite some time (nov. 2000). I would love to have Vicky swing her sword, run with a sword, etc.

Hi, I'm sorry but the answer is no. I sent Chris Derochie, who created the poses an e-mail some time ago and he told me this: Unfortunately, the PoseAmation scenes on volume one were made long before Victoria and Michael existed. The guys at Daz decided to setup those characters differently than they did the Poser 4 characters so the joints are in different places and there are more of them. This throws all of the animation out of whack, I'm sorry to say. They (DAZ) have been asking me to animate some stuff for those models for a while but I haven't had the time yet. Perhaps after I finish with PoseAmation volume 2, I will be able to make some Michael and Vickie animation. BTW his poses are available at DAZ divided in small collections I think...

I just got a reply from Chris Derochie myself (very swift answer) and he told me the same. He/they will convert their existing animations into Michael and Victoria animations after they finish PoseAmation 2. Well... seems I have to wait if you don't know of any other motions I can find/buy out there? - Ste

I'm sorry, but I don't know where to find animations for the millennium figures. I usually try to create animated poses by interpolating (spell check) two or more static poses. I think that Eric Westray poses here in the store are great for this purpose.

Please excuse the interruption, but how do you get a hold of the PoseAmation CD? I tried to order it via the Forge's site but kept getting a "URL Not Found" message when trying to add it to the shopping cart. I sent a couple different emails thru their site and never got an answer. Is there another way to contact the maker? If so, could you please let me know? Thanks in advance.

Attached Link: http://www.daz3d.com/pages/broker/brokerintro.html

I think that the posamation CD files can be downloaded from DAZ store divided in collections. The previews on the DAZ product pages are the same that you can find on the Forge's site. DAZ sells his creatures too (Sea Searpent, Water Elemental...). Check this link and go to Brokered artists to find his products: http://www.daz3d.com/pages/broker/brokerintro.html

You could of course try to email Chris himself and ask. Here is his email.

Thank you both very much!

Attached Link: http://www.digitalriver.com/dr/v2/ec_MAIN.Entry17c?CID=0&PN=21&SID=22676&PID=728856&SP=10007

Paul, I have tried to return your email messages several times but for some reason, your server has my e-mail address blacklisted, so the messages are being rejected. I just received your message pointing to this thread - clever lad! I have tested the link and it seems to work fine from here. I checked the code and it is definitely pointing to the correct file, I don't know why it isn't working for you. I've attached a direct link. BTW, Credo no longer carry PoseAmation - I don't know why they still advertise it. Ste, I think that you need to refresh your browser window. Wer have updated the news section twice since November. The latest was on June 18th. We will be making another announcement very soon. :')

Hmm... strange thing about the email. That's never happened before (that I know of). Thanks for the link, I'll try it now. About Credo: I was on their site last week or the week before and it was there. Only the Mac version, though.

Chris: I went to that link but under Mode it said 'Net.' I take it that means I'd be downloading it? I'd like to purchase the CD, as I only have a 56k modem and downloading an entire CD would be time consuming and risky at best. Is it possible to buy the CD? Thanks.

When we set up the on-line shop with Digital River, we had to stop selling physical cds for legal reasons. PoseAmation is produced here in Ireland but the sales are fulfilled by Digital River in the USA. We can't ship cds from Ireland on sales made in the US without breaking a bunch of import/export laws. We could set up a physical shipment service with Digital River but it cost thousands. We may produce physical cds again but not right now, sorry.

Dang! I can't win with this, can I? How big of a download is it? What would happen if I got disconnected during the d/l? Would I be allowed to try again? Can it be downloaded in chunks? Or should I buy what Daz has available? Are they the same files? Thanks.

(I'll respond to the questions in your e-mail here as well.) The Poser version is 62 MB and the BVH version is 10 MB. no need to worry about getting disconnected, you will be able to download it again - Digital River have a good service. However, I would recommend using a download agent like Real Download (from the Real Player people) which allows you to pause a download and resume it some other day or pick up where you left off if you lose your connection. Daz have broken the contents of 2 CDs - PoseAmation volume 1 (poser version) and volume 1 BVH version - and assembled them into their own packs of files. All of the PoseAmation 1 content is there, so don't worry about missing out on stuff if you chose that route. However, it is much more expensive to buy all of their packs than it is to buy the full cd. To answer your e-mail question, the Poser version includes Poser scene files (pz3) and library files (pz2) for every scene as well as props, the HTML manual and a couple of character models that were donated for volume 1. The native poser scene files and library files include facial animation as well as the material settings and textures (if any). The scene files can also contain sound, window size, light and camera settings, background image, multiple characters, deformers and any other Poser element. BVH files only contain joint movement information so no animation of morph targets, like facial animation for example, is recorded. The other fundamental difference is in the keyframes and accuracy. A poser file contains only the number of keyframes that the animator sets, a BVH file is 100% keyframed which can get pretty heavy on your computer if it's a long scene. Having said that, I made a fundamental error when producing PoseAmation 1: I hadn't considered downloadable content at that point - we were just going to be shipping CD's, so we saved the files 100% keyframed in order to lock the animation in place, allowing users to change elements of a scene without screwing up other parts accidentally. Of course, as I mentioned, it makes the files rather large. This is another reason why the Poser version is 62MB - too many keyframes. Unzipped, PA1 is a whopping 648 MB!!! Volume 2 is different in many respects: We have kept the number of keyframes to a minimum, allowing us to fit 5 times as many scenes onto the cd. It includes a few incredible character models! You may have already seen the Scritt, Sea Serpent, Water Elemental and Dragon Rider on our site and Daz's site... but we kept the best for distribution with PA 2 only. :') Also, the quality of the animation in PA2 is much higher that PA1 simply because we've improved our abilities and become more accustomed to 3D animation. We're from a traditional background: Den was a comic artist, Fantasy Painter and designer that moved into 3D. In fact, he was one of the original TSR guys, you might have been into the Dungeons and Dragons stuff when you were younger - that was Den. David Rosler was a stop motion animator that found his way to computers somehow. I was a traditional cel animator that stumbled into Poser 4 years ago. BTW, there are detailed instruction included that explain how to install and use the files as well as the PoseAmation manual which gives some animation advice and Poser advice. Chris

BTW, Paul, Here's what I get when I try to e-mail you: This message was created automatically by mail delivery software. A message that you sent could not be delivered to all of its recipients. The following address(es) failed: phl@neont.com: SMTP error from remote mailer after MAIL FROM: SIZE=13036: host vopmail.cboss.com [199.190.100.20]: 550 5.7.1 This system is configured to reject mail from 159.134.237.20 (Host blacklisted - Found on Realtime Black List server 'orbs.dorkslayers.com')

I bought the DAZ Motions (I think that is what they are called) CD, they worked fine for Supermodel Vickie, I assume Vickie would work fine as well. They are all in BVH (?) format, so they come in rotated 90 degrees or something, but that was easy to fix.

Thanks for all the info Chris. I think I'll buy the Poser versions from the Forge site. I have GetRight and I think I know how to use it. Hopefully all will go well. About that email... that's very wierd. I've never heard of "dorkslayers.com" and have never 'blacklisted' anyone. I didn't even know I could. Mr. Burton: Are you saying the PoseAmation animations work with SMV (who is Vickie, right)? This whole thread started with that question. And I thought the answer was no. Well, I guess I'll find out soon enough. I have SMMV.

Attached Link: http://digitaldreams.bbay.com

Well, at least those work, and now that I think about it they were pre-Vicky, in fact now that I checked they were pre-Poser 4! This CD is by "The house of Moves", cost $90 incidently. I waited till DAZ ran one of those storewide sales. I wish I had more time to play with it, but I did render one out to a movie, it is at my website, per the link. Big file though, after tring every trick I know to get the size down.

Please note, PoseAmation and the Daz Motions cds are NOT the same thing. Daz have repackaged the PoseAmation 1 files as Male Motions, Female Motions and Horse Gallop packs in their on-line shop. The motion cds are totally different. Neither The Forge Studios nor I personally were involved in Daz's own cd's.

Thanks for the clarification. I looked for your movie but couldn't find it. I did find your subtle shot: "Those offended by nudity should avoid it." That's a good one! Did you write that?

Oops, I forgot to make my point... The Daz cd's may be made for Vickie but I can guarantee that the PoseAmation files do NOT work with Michael or Victoria. Chris

Thanks Chris, that's pretty clear. But one thing isn't: if the Daz motions are re-arranged PoseAmation files, how could they work with Vickie?

I think the "those offended by nudity should avoid it" came from the only Compuserve Pics forum,. but I can't remember if it was exactly that, I think I reworded it a bit ;-)

I think that you're still missuderstanding me. Let me clarify: 1) Daz produce some cd's of motions that use mostly motion capture and I believe, can be used with Victoria. 2) The Forge produced PoseAmation Volume 1 in 1998 for Poser 3, it was updated in 99 for Poser 4. None of these files will work with Michael or Victoria due to the differences in joint structure and grouping. 3) The Forge stopped selling cd's and began distributing PoseAmation as downloads only, selling it as full cd contents, as individual downloads and as small packs of related actions. 4) When Daz opened their on-line shop, they asked us if they could sell PoseAmation in their shop as well. They decided not to sell the full cd contents and rather than use the packs that we had assembled for our website sales, they decided to bundle the actions in their own way - combining scnes from both the Poser and BVH versions of PoseAmation 1. 5) In the near future, we plan to revise the animation from PoseAmation 1 and 2 for use with Michael and Victoria but it hasn't happened yet. That should clear things up a little. :') Chris

Thanks Chris. I already got some motions from The Forge and am playing with them. Will add to my collection as I learn. When will volume 2 be available, and will it be download only also? Thanks again.

We're in negotiations with someone at the moment regarding the distribution of PA2 as a properly packaged product. I'll let you know more later. Chris