Maxxmodelz, this is coming so out of left field for many of us. I am in shock. This is the realism I have been aspiring to without achieving. Much of what you guys are saying is zooming over my head and the Poser manual glosses over it so lightly there is nothing to be gained there.

I switched exclusively to IDL long ago, using an environment sphere and lights from several packages I purchased, but always the results have been less than. And now you're telling me my problem was I should have been turning off the lights they sold me? Wow!

I gave what is discussed here a go:

http://www.renderosity.com/mod/gallery/index.php?image_id=2338501

Probably a lot less than anyone else here is doing, but much better than anything I previously did.

Some questions:

The pic I did used the two one-sided planes as you did and I am assuming the "normals" side is the side I can see. So, just cranking up the ambient value makes it a light, huh? Wow! Anything else I need to do to those planes besides the slight coloring you mentioned?

I used a envirosphere.

Neither character came with sss so I used ezskin. I used the only the ezskin "make art" button, the highest value at the bottom of the window. Oh, and I turned up the "softness" in the skin from 2.5 to 3.5, though it may have not been enough.

Does the room you are refering too supplant the sphere?

I'm in the middle of doing another, this time with no planes, just cranking up the ambient value in the envsphere. It is in its 10th hour of render, so I overcranked something, but the results so far look good, no not as realistic as the one with your two planes.

Yes, the mud! I remember it well! I really enjoyed it. I assumed it would not work in P2012, but I'll give it a go. Thanks!

Thanks!

Monkeycloud, Hornet3d, thanks.

I own some of the "Perfect" fixes and used them, but I think by the time weight mapping came around I had already switched to Ironman13's fixes which, for reasons I can't recall, I liked better. But it's good to know I can go back to them. I've been travelling quite a bit lately and unabe to fire up Poser for a while, but if memory serves, the shoulder fixes which I relied on heavily, do not work with weight mapping, and definitely many of the buttocks fixes.

It might be an idea for theses "fixes" vendors to make fixes specifically for WM's.

Oh, and I am aware of EZSkin, though I have not yet tried it. I have seen in the galleries people squeezing out much more realism than I have accomplished, but that is almost always done over some backdrop as though it were a photo studio. Most of the pictures I do involve a lot of background and prop items, so I was hoping for a level of realism that extended beyond just skin.

baginsbill and wolf359, I was merely responding to the question, not hating anyone, not trying to ruin things for animators, just trying to participate.

I do know what weight mapping is, one of the developments I alluded to when I mentioned "considerable improvements". But some of the products available here, like shoulder fixes, thigh bend fixes and buttocks fixes, give better fixes to those particular areas than weight-mapping does but do not work with weight-mapped figures and  do not work with one another, so just participating in what seemed to me be a wish list, I was hoping for some all-encompassing fix.

 Anyway, thanks for reminding me what a tank of bile this place is.

GeneralNutt, from my experience with Pose2Lux, it is an impressive product. But, by the developer's own admission, it loses a lot in texture translation. It's a free product with the developer working on it as he has time, so this is very understandable, but should someone with more resources, like Smith-Micro, take up the product and produce something like Reality2, that would be something I'd plunk down money for. And thanks for being civil.

Personally, I think the best thing Smith-Micro has going for it right now is V4. Yes, I realize V4 is a DAZ product, but since the introduction of Genesis and its incompatabilty with Poser and the sudden realization for we Poser users that V4 was a good as it was going to get, lots of vendors and capable parties have made considerable improvements to V4. The problem is, implementing the collection of improvements is expensive and confusing, some redundant, some working at cross purposes, some incompatable with others, etc. What if rather than Smith-Micro putting resources into new figures we are probably not going to like mostly becasue of the additional expense required for clothing and the like, why not put resources into optimizing the V4 and the M4 we already own and optimizing their compatability with Poser? Most of the "technology" is already out there, they just organize, maximize and blend it, so to speak, in some sort of Poser/V4 upgrade/compatability kit.

Also, I would like an emphasis on realism in renders, maybe even an export/ compatability with Lux, like DAZ has via Reality2. I already render in IDL, but that is not real enough for what I want.

As one of the many who do not do animation, I've always wondered how much the animation capabilities I do not use have added to my cost and how much in program capabilites I am sacrificing in order to make a single program more versatile. Maybe a Poser version for still picture and a Poser version for animators, each with optimized capabilities for its particular intent. 

Lastly, as a casual user (if $2,000 plus a year is casual) I would like some sort of newsletter on trends, changes and improvements in the Poser world. Most of what I get I glean from this forum and most of what is discussed in this forum is as if you are already in the know.

Just some thoughts frim the bleachers.

Sorry, could not make it through the opening credits - I'm guessing there were closing credits as well. Why do animators devote so much of their time (and ours) on credits?

Usually, if it's an item you bought it will come with textures. What you probably have to do is import the obj, then go to the Material room and assign the materials to the object. The materials are probably in the same folder from which you imported the object, they just don't show during the import.

Okay, I thinkI have it figured out. The angle of the mirror - though right in front of the character I was trying to reflect, was wrong. Had to turn the mirror to a much less than obvious angle. At least it is working in test renders.

Eric, I'm trying Lauie's settings, so no transparency. I've got it set for 8 bounces. (?)

Thanks Laurie, I'm giving it a try now.

I'm checking my breath and sniffing my armpits.

I spent about twenty minutes trying to figure out how you watch the thing, finally gave up.

Sweet!