:)

Yeah... if I was good enough to do it!

 Wow! "Ask and thy will receive!"

This is the very thing I need. Guess if I know how to create textures I'd be a much better Poser person!

Many thanks for your kindness and generosity!

-TW

 Really, just the track. A Textured oval. I can come up with the grass and other background pieces to go with it.

 I just tried the cm2 file idea and it doesn't work. Could it be that I must reference the internal names of the objects instead of the ones I can set in the properties window?

 Fascinating idea, Les. I'll give it a try! Many thanks! I'm like TG, though... why a camera file?

 Yes, I know I could do it this way, and so far that's the easiest option I've found.

However, I'm going to be giving copies of this to a number of people, and I just wanted to make things easier for them. If no one can help, this is the route I had planned to go.

Yes, I'm using gamma correction, and render at high quality settings. I'm not expecting photographs out of draft.

"what you want is a skin shader that works with other elements.  the general problem is that most character makers spend some time getting a good skin shader, while most prop makers don't bother to use anything but a texture and maybe a bump and displacement map."

I disagree. "A good skin shader" is one that looks good under standard lighting and rendering and then goes on to look exceptional under whatever advances the maker has seen fit to incorporate. If it looks like crap when placed with other things (that all look fine together) there is a problem. At least, this is my view as the customer. 

Go ahead and push the envelope, but make sure the backward compatability is there for those of us who have neither the interest nor the technical background to make all the exotic settings. Trekkiegrrrl mentioned that she uses shaders. Fine. Her stuff looks good! She's obviously doing it right. This is what I'm talking about.

This is all a moot point now, however, as I've gotten my money back on this product, and I'm going to move on.

DR

 One last time I will try and explain.

I bought Claes for M4 (Rendo can just have a cat because I named the name). When I unpacked it, the readme gives the following:

"I suggest to not use Auto settings in the render settings, but use the Manual one. I also have screenshot pictures of the settings in the product page about the render settings i use  

 POSER 7:

• Min Shading Rate: 0.10 or 0.00 ( If you get bad eyelashes, you maybe have this option in a high value)

• Pixel Sample should be set to at least 7 (I use 10-14 in my final renders)

• Raytrace Bounces: 4 (If you use AO, minimum should be 2)

• Min displacement bounds: 0,000

• Irradiance Caching: (I always use 100%) 

• "Use Displacement maps" CHECKED, if you have hair or other stuff with displacement map's in it.

• "Cast shadows" checked, if you want shadows 

• Check "Raytracing" also.

• Max Bucket Size: 32"

Fine. I loaded the character and setup my Poser Pro that way. The renders were passable, but nothing nearly as good as the promo images. I fiddled with the lights and finally got a decent render. At least it was decent until I added props and a background. Now, to make tghe character right, the other stuff is completely over-lit and washed out.

I looked at the materials page and found the following:

Given the statements by the author of the piece, I (obviously stupidly) assumed that the problem was with the way the render engine was interpreting the shaders. I posted here to air the issue and was greeted by rounds of  "give an example."

Reasonable enough, and that would have been fine except for the fact that the last time I criticized a product here, Rendo removed my posts as being "violations." (English translation, don't hurt sales of any items here.) I was hesitant to go down that road again. At that point everyone decides I'm an idiot and here we go again.

I was humbly suggesting that people who create these objects might give some thought to the fact that their creations do not exist in a vacuum. They must either play well with other things out there or they will not be used.

Again, sorry to inconvenience you good folk. It seems that every time I try to post in this forum I get my rear jumped, so this is the last time I'll bother anyone.  I will simply continue to shell out my money for items that catch my eye and ask for refunds when items do not work. I just thought a bit of attention to compatibility would have been a better plan.

DR

 Forget it. It's obviously me being an idiot after only using poser for 5 years. Sorry for the bother. Thread ended.

 I hesitate to name a product for fear that Renderosity will step on me. (God forbit I should bad-mouth a specific product and hurt sales there-of!) The characters I'm refering to are very new and do all sorts of things on the advanced material panel like "math functions." In the readme for the characters, they plainly state that you must use a specific set of render settings entered on the manual panel. The problem is, these settings make the rest of the scene look like crap, and don't even think about putting a "regular" character in there with him!

BTW... I'm using Poser Pro 7, on a 64 bit XP platform with an AMD 6400+ and 8 gigs of ram. 

If a moderator will give me permission to name a character, I will.

You misunderstand. The render settings affect the whole scene, so when you have to set them a certain way for a single character, the rest of the scene goes to crap. I'm suggesting that the designers make the characters work without requiring exotic shader settings.

I've spent a ton on both. V4 works if you want a really young character. Everything else, V3's my girl!

Yes, Vince, you have it!

Sorry... let me try to be clearer.

You open Poser and click on, say, "Poses". What you are presented with there is a column of blue folder icons with the name printed under them. THIS is the list I want to change. I have used 3PD0 to copy one of the pz2 files in the folder out to this main list, and if I rename it to the same name as the folder, I have an icon for that folder just above it. What I was wishing for a way to do was to make the blue folder go away and be replaced by an icon of the actual product.

Let's face it... a lot of merchants are not real good about the way they label things, and a picture of the item out there on the first level listing would certainly help! :)

The Wiz

You think the Art Gallery comments are a mess... Try leaving a negative review of a product. Rendy will be down on you like a hawk after a fieldmouse. Ask me how I know. It's not about what's good or bad... it's about selling product and pumping up egos.