Okay i'm not finding where I LOAD the environment. I have the file on my pc but where do I open it? I'm looking through the user guide but so far am not seeing it....

Very non-intuitive. I read the help document and finally understood to what it meant by figure size.  To me importing the prop in original size is what you would want.  You could always rescale. I also have been using VUE and it does something similar but I always leave the scaling alone while importing and then work on the object once it makes it to the scene.

I had the % of Figure Size selected. Why wouldn't this be standard at 100%?  Not very intuitive. But deselecting does bring the object in properly....thanks Phil!!    phil

Megajax - what advantage is there in creating a new figure with this prop? Can't you just export it directly to an OBJ..? I amy be missing a step on this.  tks 

I am on Esprit 6 current build using PNGs. I see it also using uncompressed AVI.  I can correct the problem somewhat by removing all the noise bumps from the terrain. But then it doesn't look as detailed. Presently just trying to find a compromise between settings/render speed/final output. tks everyone....

I am usiing some of the existing mats like Shasta rock and desert...You should be able to recreate fairly easy.  What you get will be the "crawl" of the mat as each image tries to calculate the bump along with camera movement.....

I do appreciate everyone's help!  I've been dinking around with this and notice that I will need to be more granular on the mats I'm assiging as they all get combined on the re-import. For example I have 20 lamp lenses which I want to assign various colors. In Poser every single thing I select I can assign a separate color to the mat called "lens".  However I just now found out through trial and error (very time consuming...) that when I import everything back in I get just one instance of "lens" which means the same color will be applied across the board.  

Speaking fo boards...I'm going back to the drawing board on this and assigne each material its own name, lens1, lens2, lens3, etc.   What a freaking pain....thanks everyone!!! 

ok....If I make  a mistake how do you remove a material so that it doesn't show up in the material room as an option.

Also, does each object have its own group or can you assigne multiple objects to the same group - if so how? I keep trying to add more than one object (i.e. ctl click) but everytime I select an object it asks for a newgroup.  Tks so much.

The sun is slightly above the object and I am getting shadows on the cloud layer from the clouds and the sun. But nothing from the object. I'm not sure what is meant about turning on the receive shadows on the cloud texture as these are spectral clouds - I didn't set the texture I don't think......

On what settings should I focus on within the Atmopshere Editor that might cause long renders?

Ok. I noticed that DUH I have a sample animation from EXtras CD that shows this. But BOY does this TAKE FOREVER TO RENDER.  Is this normal for spectral atmospheres??  tks

Should you then put the cloud layer close to the ground and do you use the standard or spectral model in the atmosphere?  do you have to use MetaClouds?  tks!!

tks. If there was just a "Do not render atmosphere" check box then I would be good to go.  Seems so basic so I'm not sure why this would not be included in Esprit - except that they want you to buy infinite I suppose.....

In Esprit  6 - when I use TIFF it asks for colors, compression and bits per sample BUT NO OPTION for alpha only.  When I use TGA orPNG it asks for picture format only and quality.

In the render options I have render only selected object and this object is in its own layer all other layers are turned off - even layer 1 but the render still shows the atmosphere as the background. I can get all the lights and sun turned off but I'm still getting the background.

Is there not anyway to have layer one turned off so that a transparancy can be created?  I did the alpha channel render and composited this in VEGAS but I'm getting a little noise around the edge of the composite.  thanks for your suggestions in advance.

I am tweaking now removing the bumps for the sand terrain. I am rendering a simple plant on a sand dune at 640x480.  The sand dune is smooth except in the distance where again I get artifacting or swimming or whatever along the edges.  It's a short 3 second piece.  Also, on the shadow of the plant that is casted on the sand - it swims like crazy even though the sand is smooth with slight rolling hills, etc.  No pebbles or rocks or sharp points.  I will link some samples later. tks for your response. 
I am hoping to have others chime in on this too....

THanks! So what you're saying is find something that work when you go into the function editor and goof around with the different materials - correct?  Should I world vs object parametric -? Is this even a choice in VUE Esprit ?  haven't seen that yet in the program.

And, knowing that this is not unusual then am I wasting my time trying to figure out if PNG vs TIFF works best or 960x540 vs 1920x1080 vs 1280x720 as far as resolutions?  And one more thing does the object AA have ANYTHING to do with this or am I wasting my time tweaking all of this given the limitations you mention?  

Oh and if this is in fact a limitation in VUE and other 3D programs then why do the sample renders on the EON site and what we see in Movies looks so fantastic - no texture swimming, etc.?  Do they not use texture mapping but instead create really detailed objects?  thank you!!