i have seen some amazing details in pics from poser ever since i signed up to renderosity. the question is how is it possible for such realism?? I dont mean by poses but by textures?? for instance i want to put my face on poser..i import in photoshop and have it for 1500 pixel at 300 res and i do the same for the micheal texture map and put my face on it and i render at 3000 pixel with 300 res and it still doesnt look as sharp as other pics i have seen..how can i maximize my renders so that they do look photorealistic??

This may not be a complete answer to your question, but keep in mind that a lot of the pictures you see posted here do not come straight out of a Poser render, but have a lot of detail and touch-up added afterwards in PhotoShop or another graphics program.

Also keep in mind that no matter how big you make the picture in PhotoShop, you are constrained by that with which you originally start. For the detail to really appear, you need to initially draw it at high resolution, or scan it at high resolution from a high-resolution source. You will also need to render it at a high resolution to capture it (render in a new window, perhaps at much higher resolution than what you intend for your final product).

is 300 res too low for a render?? should i punch it out at like 1000?? and i have a digital camera...a kodak dc280 and i get some good pics out of it. maybe i should just punch out a huge pixel res combination til the computer starts shaking...SHE WONT LAST CAPTAIN SHE DUNNA HAVE DA POWA!!

ok..the texture map 1500 pixel rendered at 300 res and 2000 pixel..and this is the best i get?? should it all be higher??

i also know of the obvious probs of the lips and back and eye probs..

Lighting and camera focal length immediately come to mind. Do NOT use the Poser defaults. They are terrible! I usually set the camera focal length to 80-110. And there are a lot of good lighting tutorials and a few good presets in the free stuff.

300 res? Is that the dpi you're rendering? Higher dpi is not the answer and will have precious little effect on any image you make except to make the picture larger. In fact, anything over 72 dpi is overkill for raster images meant to be displayed on any monitor. 150 dpi is standard for print media, 300 dpi is used for expensive art books showcasing high-end colour plates. It has to do with the way in which our eyes interperate color information from different sources. Of course if your main objective is to make huge wall posters of your 3d renderings... Bump up the dimensions of the beast to 5 feet by 8 feet, but there is no need to go above 150 dpi. As for realism... Textures, lighting, and shadow maps are the most important things to consider here, I do believe. How do I make my hi-quality texture look great? Add some "bounce" lighting. Subtley coloured lights that just glance of the edges of your subject. Get rid of the Omnis and add some spotlights. Bumping up the Shadow map size from 256 to 1024 will help get rid of blocky shadows as well. Experiment and good luck!

I already posted this one earlier but this is only all Poser with absolutely no post work pic I have at the moment. 72 dpi. 4 lights. One white omni. One white spotlight. One spotlight with a hint of pink. One spotlight with a hint of blue. All set to 100% intensity. The shadow maps for each light is set to 1024 It's big because I have a big monitor :)

What hasn't been noted here so far is that the texture map you are working with needs to be as big as possible. Poser relies on a three key areas to refelect the level of realism you seek: Texture, Bump, and Lighting, in increasing order of importance. Texture and bump maps need to be large -- serious photorealistic starts at 1500 bare minimum, and 2000 and 2500 are considered the essentials. Lots of excellent tuorials on lighting out there. To create ourselves in poser, a group of us created 1500 pixeltexture maps and 2500 pixel bit maps, all at 150 dpi resolution, and got astonishing results. But, boy, did they take a lot of time to load!

sorry, that's 2500 pixel bump maps... oops...

I advise you too to check out the tutorial links here on Renderosity. There are quite a few that deal with getting the most out of Poser renders and touch-ups. I found the tutorials by Syyd on making photo-realistic pictures in Poser 4 and Photoshop to be especially helpful.

ok..i will look for more tutorials..because i wont start any of my finished pics until i can get a good render on anything!! thank you all..keep em coming!! as johnny 5 says need input! :) thanks everybody