i have morph manager but don't know anything at all about loading the pz2 file first!? is this before the cr2? do i open them side by side? do i save both as?

ohhh, okay. yes, that's the one i want. thanks so much!

kwel, thanks manhunter.

well, for me modeling was something that took a while before it finally took hold...probably because i am a recreational user. ta-dah!  those are the drums behind lame jokes if all you wanted to do was make clothing then you could get away with using some of the above mentioned. however, i am reading your post differently and am assuming that you will want to do more so you are looking at some of the programs markschum mentioned and then you have maya, max and don't forget z-brush! yes, they all have free 30 day trials! good-luck being able to learn anything more than creating a sphere within that time frame...unless you've had previous experience with 3d modeling. the concepts aren't difficult it's just learning how to make the program do what you want it to.

as to which one? the ones i mentioned are the 3 biggies right now and i believe they all have some student discounts available...but don't quote me on that. max and maya are basically the same and you continue to hear good things about z-brush who's been around for a while now. you can't go wrong with any of them though max and maya will probably give you the most control and flexability. new version of max is due soon here i thinks.

nice hall...thanks for doing the homework!

mathman,

http://www.newtek.com/products/lightwave/tutorials/animation/3point-light/index.html

that's literally from typing 3lightsetup in google...hence my reference from my original post (google+3lightsetup=info!), my humor is very dry and hard to catch.

in my opinion nothing really is more important than your lights. even if you have a great scene, if the lighting is bad...it's a goner. and likewise i've seen some "iffy" scenes that were literally saved by good lighting. you might consider renting some old alfred hitchcock films, especially the black and whites. excellant 3 hour tutorial(s) on lighting and shadows and the drama they induce. also great use of camera angles and positions.

just keep plugging away boss, it'll come.

mathman, i think a good sense of balance is needed with any good scene. just the way things/characters are arranged on the set. if you skim through the galleries look at just the scene setup, don't get lost in what the picture is saying to you, look at it analytically...and you will quickly see if a scene seems to fit, or flow, and one that doesn't. this should become fairly straight forwad after a while.

also, know how to create a standard 3 light setup, like they use for movies or photoshoots (google+3lightsetup=info!). poser more or less creates this for you automatically. a key light, a fill light and a back light. some say to put your backlight opposite your key light, poser does that too. in my opinion lights are much more of an artistic thing than say the scene setup. you should already have a good idea of what you want ahead of time. so here is what i do and it's worked very well:

i make all colors white, i turn all lights "off", i turn light 1 "on" to say 1/3rd to 1/2 and postion it where you think you want your main source of light to be coming from, now watching your figure, and how the light is reacting/bouncing off the body, fine tune the light positioning by what shading/shadowing "looks best" or more dramatic, turn that light "off"...now same thing with light 2 which will be backing up light 1 in a support role (positioning wise) and finally our backlight, light 3. then just start bringing them "on" one at a time and doing "quickie" renders to monitor progress. be careful with the intensity levels, you don't want to wash stuff out.

anyways, sorry to babble...hope this helps

with max you need to rescale your stuff from poser. so going from poser to max you would increase it's size 100%. here is a great free tool that i use for that:

http://www.sandylodge.demon.co.uk/files/scaler3c.zip

i still have problems having max import texture files from poser so if you get that straight, clue me in, huh? obviously, when you want to import your obj back into poser, you will need to scale down your file 100% from max to poser.

it's the wrong template...not sure where i got it from. my bad. making a new map for myself now. i'll say this in my findings however...it's awfully interesting how stright lines on a map come out on a figure sometimes........

ahh found this if anyones interested...

http://bodybuildingpro.com/bodytypeinformation.html

what redhawk said...i find that works too. also, try to "not" be symetrical. maybe just put a hint of a smirk on one side of the mouth (smile,frown, whatever).

you'll get it, you're almost there.

woo hoo!

scribbles name with crayolas

hmmmm, good input all.

two sides of a coin for the sword/face issue. the rule would say don't interrupt the main focus or eye attraction...but i like messing with the rules. the trick will be to stradle the line without too much interference. originally i did notice a problem with the view for himself/sword/helmet...all seemed a little off, i'll do now what i should have done then.

excellant help all, thanks. if something of substance happens i'll repost a new pic.

i'll be honest with you all here. i posted what i posted earlier and then went and trolled the galleries and was writing some comments and i found myself writing in a critique along with my handful of encouragment. because in my mind, when i first viewed the picture that (the critique)  is what stood out to me...artistically, as i viewed the image/scene.

i don't know. it's not that i have thick skin, but i would rather you be honest with me than to think you "had to" say something in particular just to post.

i just saw this great pic in the poser fanasty gallery and was writing a comment on it about some skin highlights, as i thought they were too strong/shiny and kind of detracted (for me) from the overall scene a little...but all in all it was a great scene. and i stopped writing because i remembered this thread. so i didn't post. so is that what you want?

i really only post when it's something i like. so if a "comment" comes along with 4 bear hugs...it's all good!

how about making the pose how ever you want and then slightly rotating the sword until it reflects what you want...if you are not showing the hands then you can rotate to your hearts content!