What an incredible look -- many thanks for taking the time to do this, Mec4D; as soon as I get a chance, I'll try it out!

Any chance you could show the node setups on the materials in the scene? When you mention that the car has a reflection map, and a ray trace reflection, I'm not certain where to put those nodes (does that make any sense?) Thanks

Very nice tutorial -- many thanks! And a question: In the "Bright Eyes, Glossy Lips" section, to which part of the eye do we apply the anistropic specular nodes?

Hi again -- Would you mind listing the settings (ball texture, ground texture, light probe used, &c) on that final image in your tutorial? I'm able to follow the tutorial fine, but just can't make the jump to that last image! Thanks

Doh -- the node parameter takes THREE values... Sorry about that :)

I've got one question: In the output from the 'probelight' program, it lists three values for each Lxx parameter; which one do we set the corresponding node value to? For example, when I go to set the L00 parameter in my node, I look at the output from probelight (using the kitchen probe): L_[0,0] 6.407946 6.751895 7.296709 I'm not sure which number I need to use, or if I should be doing some kind of summing, &c. Thanks!

You da man :-) Thanks very much!

There's something I use, called "Beyond Compare" (available at http://www.scootersoftware.com). The way I do it is, I copy the runtime folder over to my D: drive, and use Beyond Compare to bring stuff in to the main runtime folder on C: (There's a 'synchronize folder' option that does this automatically, and which can be configured to only bring over missing files.)

Ockham...you are da Man! Many thanks!

I didn't know that about animations (or are you j/k? :-) I'm still sold on the idea of a "Drinking Water" parameter dial that I could range through from initial to final pose. The idea's kinda cool...but I doubt that it's possible -- it sounds like one of those things, if it were possible, we'd be seeing it already. Thanks!

No, you got the gist of it. :-) What's really driving this question is this: I've got V3 in a sitting position, and a series of poses which take her through the action of drinking from a wineglass. I've saved off the series of poses as .pz2 files, but they're all having her sitting (of course). What I'd like to do is have that 'drinking' series available to me, should I decide to have her doing it in a standing position. Now, the other alternative would be to create a series of partial-body poses, just on the body parts involved in the drinking action. (In fact, that's probably how I'll wind up doing it in the end.) But wouldn't be neat to have a parameter dial that -- when set to 0 -- puts her at the beginning of the drinking action, and when set to 1 puts her at the end of it? (More properly, is that possible?) Does that make sense? Thanks!

I remember the brouhaha from the "Pink Pony" episode. And I know, if only subjectively, that between the Pieta and one of the Pink Pony series which one I'd choose as being artistic. But... Virtually every definition of art revolves around the idea of 'skillful creation of asethetic objects,' and they all seem to allow for works we'd agree on as Art (the Pieta, Beethoven's Fifth, &c.) and those we'd as likely disagree on (the "Vicki in the Temple" genre, for example). My answer to the question "But is it art?" would be...yes; by any definition of art, the skillful creation of a Bryce or Poser scene (even using pre-existing objects, even if the user didn't alter a single mesh) would seem to qualify. If I were to render the default figure in Poser 5, using the default lights, would it be considered art? Probably not. But once I start adding customizations into the mix, the artistic level would rise. By that line of reasoning, there's no doubt that BigT is an artist.

And I'm working on my version of the script right now!!

I'm not sure that what you're describing is a 'logical-vs-illogical' thing, so much as your own preferences (e.g., it's not strictly illogical for a woman in the water to choose to wear a wetsuit). What you could do is to emulate those rule-based engines that were popular a few years ago. The idea is to give the appearance of randomness through a sufficiently large set of alternate options. Try this approach: First, build multiple lists of selections appropriate to each location. For example one set of selections for the 'water' location might be: Bikini Sunglasses Another set could be: Swimsuit Bathing cap And yet another: Wetsuit Fins Scuba mask Build enough lists to give a as much a feel for 'controlled randomness' as you want to achieve. Let's say you're able to come up with 10 such lists for each location. Second, Consider your locations as offsets: Starship Bridge: 0 At the beach: 10 In Midieval Combat: 20 As a Vestal Virgin: 30 and so on. Now, select your location (either randomly or by menu or whatever), and the sub-index of the appropriate selection (0 to 9). That number, ranging from 0 to 39 in this example, points you to a set of selection items. With enough lists (and enough variation, like 'red bikini' or 'blue swimsuit') you can easily create the appearance of randomness without winding up with such things as 'wetsuit and sunglasses.' Anyway, good luck -- it sounds like a pretty cool undertaking!

I don't know where you got your plugins at, but this site has a set for R4: http://www.habware.at/duck4.htm