Hi Everyone,

I am trying to previz a commercial and managed to finally get Poser to allow me to do my camera animation over four female figures that are walking on four paths. But now when I output it, it seems to scramble my image and cut to different cameras, instead of just the main camera that it is on when I did my animation and played it back. And after it is done rendering it seems to have changed the playback with the now scattered properties of the render.

This whole process should have taken about a half an hour. It's really simple, but I just seem to run into bugs, or is there something that I'm doing wrong? If there is someone in the L.A. area that really knows how to use Poser for animation and knows the key frames really well, I'd be willing to pay than for their time to show me how to really get full use out of this program. It can do some really unique and useful things, but I always seem to run into what seem like bugs. But like I said. Maybe there is something that I don't know. Any input would be most appreciated. Thanks...Ian

What format are you rendering your video to, first off. I highly recommend output to image files. Then you can use an editor like http://www.virtualdub.org/ to assemble it to an avi file.

Hi Rokket,

Thanks for the reply. I am outputting to an image sequence using PNG files and then opening it up with Quicktime 7, because it still had that feature... And I'm just using the native resolution...640 I think it is...

Yeah, then I think the problem is in your animation palette, which, sadly, I know almost nothing about. I am sure someone will know how to fix it. Sorry.

No worries. Thanks for the ideas...

This is kind of the problem. It seems that most people use Poser for modeling still frames and making characters. Doesn't seem like most people use it for animation. But it would be so great to just pre viz things if it just worked better. Thanks again...

Taomation, I do a lot of animation. I just can't make out what's wrong from your description. What doll base (SydneyG2? V4.2? Roxie?) are you using? Which version of Poser are you using? (P9? Poser Pro 2014?)

If I already have the doll base(s) you are using, my suggestion would be to send me the PZ3 (scene file), and I'll look at the keyframe palette and parameter graphs.

It sounds like you have 4 different animation layers, one per walk cycle. Most likely you made camera changes on each layer and the result can be what you describe. Your best bet would be to enable each layer and delete all camera movements on that layer (keeping only the movement for the figure). Make another layer just for the camera movements. Since you posted this in the Poser 10/2014 forum I will assume you have that version. ONE very big thing NOT to do in any version below Poser 11 is to use the collapse all feature on the layers. This is broken and was fixed around SR4 or 5 of Poser 11. What happens is the values keep adding from one frame to the next, instead of just adding that frames values together.

Hi Seachnasaigh and Richard60.

Very grateful for both of your responses. Thank you.

As far as the (SydneyG2? V4.2? Roxie?). I am not sure what that is. I will try to find it. I am on Poser 10.

As to the suggestion by Richard that I may have done camera moves on each layer. I did think of that and went through all of my layers and key-frames and deleted everything and than created a new layer for my camera which solved another issue I was having where I couldn't animate my camera after frame one. So I fixed that.

I will admit that I don't know the keyframing as well as I should. And most of what I have learned is through trial and error. I've never been able to find any really good tutorials on it.

Is 11 any better in regards to keyframes and animation? Doesn't seem like its getting great reviews, but if it improves that I would be interested in upgrading.

Thanks again guys and Seachnasaigh, if you're serious about me sending it to you, that would be a great favor to me.

Thanks again...?

"As far as the (SydneyG2? V4.2? Roxie?). I am not sure what that is. I will try to find it. I am on Poser 10."

He was trying to find out which figure you have in your scene so he can help you. If you are using a figure that he doesn't have it will make things hard because he won't be able to load your scene.

Taomation; as rokket explained, I want to know what doll(s) you used.

I am currently in the process of switching internet (and telephone) service provider, and I don't have an email. I might get one working tomorrow.

You could upload the scene (PZ3) to DropBox or similar host site, and send me a Renderosity site mail with the download link, else wait until I get email re-established.

A couple of things to keep in mind about Poser Key Frames: 1) they apply from the top of the list down, and unless you change modes will be set to replace instead of add. 2) As soon as you make a change to a parameter on that layer it will be in effect until the layer ends. What this means is that if you create a layer that goes from frame 30 to 120 (out of say 200 frames) and make a change to the X translate of the camera and this is the topmost layer to have a change to the X translate (you can layers above as long as they do not effect that parameter) then when you get to frames 30 to 120 the new parameter will kick in. 3) Large changes to the position of an element from layer to layer can cause the spline curve of the movement to swing to extreme values causing the jumping effect. This is especially true if you set the layers to add mode.

The best way to learn animation is to use simple objects such as cubes and play with the various options like layers and adding and replacing.

Thanks again Seachnasaigh. I will try to upload the sequence to Drop box.

And Richard, thanks for the explanation. I believe that you are a about a layer hierarchy.

I've done some fairly complex animation with this from time to time. It's keyframing system just doesn't seem logical to me, like some other systems that I've used in music and editing programs. But mostly, I can't find a good video on it. For me that is key. I don't like learning from text. I do best watching someone do something. And like I said before, if there is someone who lives in Los Angeles and know this well, I'd pay them for a couple of hours, just so I can get more out of this thing.

Thanks again, guys...

PS The models are Jessie. Alyson, Roxie and Kate.,

So far, I see some problems with keyframes in different layers causing the camera and doll to jump around. I'll try to clean that up.

That's fantastic. Thanks Seachnasaigh. I really appreciate it....