Well, if there's enough reason maybe you can host the object/templates/textures as well - as additional items for those who don't have or can't download the larger Daz archives - and maybe the update archive for the Daz files? :) Yeah, yeah, I know I'm beating up on the 3-DArena server again, but... It's what I do. :)

Thanks LSM, but the belts you have need the archives at DAZ, reason being that so many people had already downloaded the props from Daz that it seemed silly making them download the obj and texture/template parts again. If people want though (especially the dialup users) I can change things around a tad so that the objects are included with the cr2 conformers or make them available seperately. I can't make these changes available at Daz though, it was their decision to pack them into three large archives. Same with the update file for the modern/scifi guns, they weren't interested in it for some reason. So people who download the archives from them get a couple faulty items. I have no idea why they didn't want the update.

Scott, it's not just watching people put their foot in their mouth. There is a growing number of posts (especially in Poser Forum) where someone has asked a question relevant to the software, got one answer and deleted their post, leaving others (newbie and veteran alike) to try and second guess what the heck was said. This isn't particularly helpful if you're looking for information on a particular subject, especially if the answer is "I dunno, maybe someone else does" or similar. Yes foot in mouth has some reasoning, for instance the habit of certain members to delete everything they say in threads in an effort to "look innocent", I can name four who do that as a matter of course following a discussion that hasn't gone their way. Mostly though it's just annoying to have threads completely disrupted by this. There are more than a few conversations that make absolutely no sense at all because of deletions.

I agree with Cyberstretch and Fyrespirit. It's becoming irritating in Poser forum to see a request for help, one reply that doesn't always appear to answer the title of the post and the original deleted. It's common across phpbb systems that a post cannot be deleted once it has been answered and this works fine in most circumstances. The logic being. Think before you post. Dialyn. As you are a co-ordinator on this website it is impossible to "assume" that you are just "blithering on" unless you state such. Anything else you say must be taken as being from an official context. Same as any moderator, co-ordinator or admin on this site. If the members are now to assume that staff are just "blithering" imagine the chaos. Smitthms recently dropped threats into one thread (although I wasn't aware co-ordinators could hand out warnings) if people think that staff are blithering he would have been completely ignored and things may have gotten worse. Something for you to consider in the future perhaps.

ROFLMAO....

hobbyist snicker I agree with you Anton, though I think mostly it's because for a lot of people this is just a hobby. A way of passing a few hours after work or just mucking about. So, in order to discern the difference between someone who takes this seriously and someone who just mucks about with it the term hobbyist took off. I don't see it as condescending really but it does get a tad annoying when it's used for every excuse under the sun, or as an accusation. I do however disagree with the "obsession", it's not. No, stop looking at me like that, it isn't. It's a virus. @:)

I don't disagree with Maclean as such, I just don't see why it should be "expected" for Studio to duplicate Poser. I'd be quite happy (if it ever works well) to never see another poser file for the rest of my 3D existence. If it imports the things and needs a few tweaks I can live with that. If a newbie can't, well, isn't that what the last 8 or so years of forums and mailing lists addressed? Helping newbies? Or did I blink and miss something. Yes there is a good chance that Daz will make things more compatible but I don't see it as a need that they should have to do it just to please people with a different software package. That'd be like expecting vue to support Bryce files just because they're both "landscaping" packages. Importing 3ds files into Poser does not offer the functionality of 3ds files, obviously CL haven't seen a problem with that, they went for the much larger obj files but Poser "imports" them. Apples and Pears I suppose. shrug and I really am going back to lurk this time. :)

Why did e-frontier they buy it then If you read their press releases and the comments from Katherine at CL you'll know. They bought Poser because it was going cheap and they needed a US company with distribution routes into the US and European markets for their non-Japanese conversion of Shade. That in a nutshell is why they bought Poser, and that's not made up, it's from the horses mouth (so to speak) Whatever else e-Frontier do with the legacy left by CL's mistakes and whether they bother to fix poser is entirely up to them. There will be a SR4 for Poser 5 and CL claim they're working on Poser 6, which according to the CEO of CL will be "a stable and fixed Poser 5". Make your own conclusions from that.

I probably should keep my nose out as I don't have Studio yet... But Studio isn't based around Poser figures Mac, it's based around "Daz" figures which just happen to work in Poser(or have a poser version). Poser is a program, not a group of or company of models/figures. So they're technically not "poser" figures as such. Whether Daz go the extra mile is up to them. So long as Studio works with the target figures - Vickie, Mike, Steph etc then surely that is what it's supposed to do? It's DAZ|Studio. Not Poser partworks replacement issue Mk. 4.56 That the program doesn't reference internal geometry isn't such a big deal. There are plenty of tutorials to show how to reference external geometry and it's not like it's a big chore to do so. While I might know what I'm doing I was able to convert just over 65 objects this evening (while watching Firefly) to use external rather than internal geometry (props). It's not like it's a big mystery, impossibly hard or anything. The seams issues may well be as MallenLane suggests, something that's not active yet. I wouldn't know, but I fail to see how this is a failing that Studio isn't "Poser XXX" it was never supposed to be, why should it do everything in the Poser way when it's not, not meant to be and has no intention of ever being - Poser? Daz stated many times that Studio is "not" a Poser replacement, but an alternative application designed to offer an alternative and for them to showcase their products. It seems perfectly reasonable to me that Studio will do a whole bunch of things differently to Poser, and some things not at all. ok, back to where I belong. Lurking. :)

While on the subject of eyes it's also worth remembering that the eyes do have morphs for the pupils. This again is where "people watching" plays a part, getting used to how the eyes react to certain lights and situations. A wide pupil is considered more attractive and shows desire - according to "them who know" - but is somewhat unsuitable in bright light. The pupil expands and contracts with a great deal of variation and can make a considerable difference to close portrait shots along with where the eye is pointing. It becomes a negligible point for anything beyond head and shoulder portraits but is worth thinking about if you're going for those close in "mood" renders. On that note, don't ever forget the expression dials, these can make a world of difference to a portrait, even just using the dials in small increments can turn a plastic manikin into a better render. No face is completely expressionless - unless you're Charles Bronson. Eyes looking directly at the camera work better for portraits as they help to draw the viewers eyes into the image, but with a pin-point pupil you can actually make a viewer feel uncomfortable. They're cold, angry, staring... and few people will look directly at the eyes, whereas a wide pupil has almost the opposite effect. For dreamy, thoughtful or distant expressions the eyes should not look at the camera. Then the viewer becomes interested in the ambient mood of the image. What's the model looking at, what's she thinking about? Then there's focus. Nance's trick with cylinders can work very well if you're trying to align the eyes with a particular object/item and helps to focus the model eyes on that item. It might not matter to the viewer but it can make a small difference to the render. In this respect it's also worth concentrating on the pupils because they will contract and/or expand depending on the subject, the focus of the subject and the lighting. It's also worth noting at this point that the default setting for the millenium figure eyes (and this appears to be all of them) is bossed. They're about 6 points shy of true on the figures when they're loaded so it's worth checking and straightening them up first before parenting or pointing at another item. In the end it comes down to the long term Poser users most socially obvious trait. Watching people closely and trying to relate how that real life action could be poserised. If Poser had a better lighting system, it would be possible to get better effects with the eyes as you could use the lights to fake some of the more common real life things that eyes do. That's one of the more limiting aspects of Poser that takes some hard work to get round. Also consider the texture map you're using. Has it got annoying false highlights added to the texture and does that highlight match your lighting? If not, change it to something that does match. Ultimately it's care in construction and compilation. Don't reject something because it's too fiddly or too boring. The face dials are important with portrait renders and refining a pose is vital. There is a weight to humans that is very rarely reflected in Poser renders where it seems that limbs and other things are often "floating". If it takes two hours to make a hand appear to be resting on a piece of clothing, then it's two hours well spent. If it takes a day to tweak a facial expression, it's a day well spent. The end result will be subtly far superior to similar images. This tweaking and thought in construction might not get more comments in the gallery or more "wow, cool" comments, but they are personally much more satisfying. Remember, most people will look through the galleries just to look, they're not actually concentrating on the images they see. It's a few seconds glance, scan over, move on. A very few people actually LOOK. Those are the ones you'll catch. Those who are looking at the image to be impressed, not just to "see it". In the end though it's personal satisfaction. You "know" what you did for that render, it's your enjoyment in the knowledge that you did what you could and didn't just load, pose, click render.

Interesting article Cheryl, hopefully some people will read it.

1. To catch up on what's happening, being the largest forum news tends to hit here first. 2) To see what nice cool discovery has been made... erc, jcm and other things were aired here pretty much first, and some cool utilities have been aired here first. 3) To smirk and snicker and snarf at some of the things going on here 4) To see what's interesting people, keep an eye on who's doing what to whom and whether anyone's been stupid enough to try to sell anything of mine yet 5) To see what other people are making 6) To see if anyone is fielding questions to/for me rather than using email and to help one or two people when I can. 7) To pick fights with the admin 8) Because I like train wrecks 9) To see what store file/vendor has ignored copyright restrictions next 10) Because where else can you get all of the above in one place, and so quickly? As for childish, I try to never act my age. My shoe size is a far better guideline for behaviour.

Ooooh lookee there's that big word again. Whiners. Gosh, I'm so in awe of people who use that arbitrarily against everything and anything. So, intelligent, so, creative, so utterly illfitting in this discussion. So... completely bloody stupid. No one is whining here Igohigh, so how's about you give your fingers a break and your butt a chance?

That all depends on whether it's a dead chicken or not? CL are good at voodoo programming. Are Daz? smirk "The denunciation of the young is a necessary part of the hygeine of older people and greatly assists the circulation of their blood." - Logan Pearsall Smith

Fair enough Kuroyume. I appreciate that writing the routine would be relatively simple for Poser compressed files as it's using a common routine to do the compression. I just don't see it as such an issue that Studio doesn't support it. That's obviously coloured by own thoughts on the matter and that no files I've ever downloaded or purchased have been pz compressed so it's not like it's commonly used for much of anything. It's perhaps something to mention to Daz, all they need to do is incorporate a zip routine into the software as that will uncompress the PP/P5 files that are packed. Thing being here is, how long will that even be important? I'm sorry, not knocking what you say but I just don't see it as particularly important. As regards proprietary formats, that's not what I meant. I was more inclined to find a program like Studio, C4D etc that opened "zip" files so you could access the content live inside the app. After all, the pz format used by Poser is just a "zip". It can be opened by winrar, winace, winzip, etc etc. I don't personally own anything that can open a zip file, import the item into the workspace and let me work on it. It's necessary to unzip the stuff first, then load it to the workspace.