Hiya. Quick question for everyone; I've been doing some renders lately using background pictures. I've noticed the images aren't very clear no matter what the resolution. They seem to look like they're larger than originally made. You know how images get all "blocky" and the pixels don't like right when you make them larger? That's what I mean. I was wondering if there was a way around this? I'm working on a 600x600 picture and I made a background that was that same size, but the problem like I described above happened. The posing area I use is only 400x400 because I use a 800x600 resolution. Could that be that problem? I tried to make it larger, but it wouldn't increase past 585. I'd appreciate any advice. Thanks in advance everyone! (again!)

try using the square prop for your background and put the background picture on that. You will get a much clearer image when you render.

There are two things here: the size of the image you're using for background, and the resolution (DPI). The DPI has to be the same or better than the DPI you render in. I use 72 pixels per inch for both and it works fine (that's for web images. For print you need to work in much higher res.). The size of the background image can't be less than the window you're going to render in, but it can be bigger. The other thing is always render in a new window: in the "Render Options" dialogue check the new window option, and set the dimensions to the same as, or less than your back ground image. Check the resolution as well. That lets you render images larger than your working window, too. I've found that the "blocky" background you're talking about only happens when I render in the main window instead of a new one. Of course, the other option (easier for some people) is to render on a plain black background and use photoshop or PSP to import a background image.

yeah, i would go for the saving picture in Tiff or photoshop format, and then using the alpha channel to import a background picture. especially if you are rendering at dpi's more than 72 (eg 300dpi for print) unless the background pic you want to use is exactly the same dimensions as your poser render it will always be stretched and blocky. A possible solution is using the Infinity Cove from Runtime DNA freestuff, but then again that uses photo-studio type airbrushed backgrounds. looks good though. try it.

I can't figure it out. My render (in a new window) is at 600x600. My background picture is at 600x600. Both at 72dpi. Look at this picture. The left is the image for the background as a BMP in photoshop, and the right is after I render the scene in Poser. See the difference? I can't figure out what the problem is since everything seems to be in order. Any ideas?

What format are you saving in? If you save as .jpg, check what quality you are saving. For some stupid reason, Poser defaults to maximum compression: that could be the problem. Change it to something like 90% quality and it might be okay. Alternatively, save as a .tiff or .psd file and convert it to jpeg in another program.

did you check "anti-alias"?

I save my renders at BMPs and then convert them in Photoshop. I do have anti-alias checked. This is really confusing.

One thing I just noticed in Photoshop is a bit odd. I put the rendered "blocky" picture over the original BMP and hid one layer and went back and forth hiding them. The images don't align right. That might be because of the distortion on the render, though. It makes me think about Bryce and how line by line is done several times; each time getting finer. It's like Poser skipped the last pass of the image.