Hiya. I tried to figure this out a few weeks ago, but never could and eventually found routes around having to import a background picture. However, in a picture I am working on just having a black background and added the picture with something like photoshop won't work. ANYWAY, the problem is when import a picture for a background when I render it the picture for the background is blocky. Like Poser forgot to finish rendering the background or something like that. I have an example to show you. Here's a basic picture I made for this example. Made with photoshop, saved as a JPG at a Quality 10 setting, and at 500x500 and 72dpi. http://yunasguardian.netfirms.com/YG/photoshop.jpg Same exact picture imported and rendered in Poser in a new window at 500x500 72dpi. http://yunasguardian.netfirms.com/YG/poser.jpg Can someone tell me what the problem is? I've tried almost everything and the result doesn't change. Help! Thanks in advance.

Oh, and when I saved the render in Poser I saved it as a JPG at MAX (100%) quality.

If your document window is smaller than the background pic, Poser reduces the pic to match. When you render in a new window, Poser uses the reduced pic instead of the original and scales it up to match the render window size. For example, suppose I make a nice background pic at 800600. I import it into Poser and I have a window size of 600450 so the pic gets reduced to 600450. I render in a new window that's 800600. Poser takes the 600450 pic and scales it up to 800600. It looks terrible. The way around it is to make sure your document window is the same size as the final image you plan to render.

yes, what ajax said- but, (there allways is one isn't there) Poser just plane sucks at background pictures. They allways look pixilated. One thing you can do is to put it on a flat plane primative and scale it up to fit your pic. It really helps make it better, or you can use layers in your favorite paint program and add it later. I sometimes add the background pick just for referance then after its done use a layer to re-add the background just to remove the blockyness.

I use backgrounds a lot so I can build up an image a few models at a time rather than have all those models in one document. I do them with bitmaps rather than jpegs, which may be why mine come out with no pixelation. If I make a render and then load it as a background for the next render there is no loss of quality as long as I keep the doc window the same size all the way through.

Attached Link: http://www.renderosity.com/viewed.ez?galleryid=93357&Start=1&Artist=Ajax&ByArtist=Yes

The linked image was done with five layers. If you look at the couple on thrones in the background, they'd been through Poser 4's render engine five times by the time this image came out. Yet they are not one pixel different to how they were in the first render. Like I said, use bitmaps, keep the doc window at the same size as the render window.

Your 100 precent correct Ajax on all post in this thread- the only problem with that meathod is you first have to have your lighting correct which I can't do untill Im half way through the project. If the lightings off on one set of figures or props then differant on another it really shows. And I'm not that good yet to pre-plan my pics that much. hell, I never know what the finale pic will be! lol Oh, and you loose the interactive shadows that can make a big differance. As you can see Yunas, there are many different way to go about this- just relax and do what seems right for you and your pic :)

Attached Link: http://www.renderosity.com/viewed.ez?galleryid=175184&Start=13&Artist=CryptoPooka&ByArtist=Yes

This is also a composite shot -- four separate renders. There's a cheat you can use when compositing complex scenes where you want the shadows to fall correctly against other objects. One of the renders has character A in place, but naked. A shows shadows on B, B makes shadows. When you render A fully equipped, you don't even need B in the scene because you already have the working shadows. Etc. Also, don't delete a primary figure from a scene, it'll change your lighting. When you composite, make objects invisible while leaving "cast shadows" on. Even if you can't see it, the software can and treats it accordingly. If you want a background image without all the trouble of compositing, take the square, size it how you need it, and UV map it at the new size, then apply the background. You won't get much distortion that way.

Attached Link: http://www.3dcommune.com/3d/galview.mv?Poser+WsPHHOebg+1022368973

I did my first poser pic with a background from Bryce and I had to render it larger and more detailed. Had the same problem until I increased the render size.

I never import pictures into Poser, Poser is wrong and stupid downsampling and then upsampling again the picture. I use a simple square sized to fit the window (x,y) and position it far away (z translate) from the other objects. You can then use your image as texture, there's no degradation of the image in the final rendering and you can have illumination effects adjusting the lights that illuminate the background plane.

Does the same thing-- the gawd-awful pixilation Affect the Infinity Cove? Because I've yet to have anything come up clear on that. I usually texture the one sided square to get any kind of good background. Emily

Whoa. I'm s~o glad to hear it isn't moi. I'll have to try all these suggestions. Many thanks everyone!

I am an absolute newbie to Poser -- have had it for two days now -- but worked some with Hash's AM before (with great frustration -- anyone looking for a mac version cheap?) and one of the first things I tried in Poser 4 was importing a quicktime movie and a still image as a background and it worked absolutely beautiful. Having it up all the time slows down the process (I suspect it takes up a lot of memory to use a video movie as a background), but it's needed on and off to align the action. I made sure the movie was 720x480 (DV specs) and the Poser window actually jumped to the larger size when I brought it in. It rendered out perfectly (make sure your quicktime movie options are set to DV Ntsc, best quality, and all that), took one small section of the original backround (in which a car passed closely in front of the camera) and rendered it out as a "still sequence" and cut and pasted the car until it passed in front of the poser figure. Worked great. Now if I can just learn how to animate a smooth dinosaur.... question is -- can you composite Poser footage over video footage AFTER exporting it -- like with an alpha matte???

I believe you can export your movie as a series of individual frames in a format that holds an alpha channel, such as pict.