aaaaah okay thanks BB finally something you posted I understand not that you dont explain it well, everything you do is way beyond my scope of things you truely are a master :)

thanks mark figured that out sort of but it saved the sword texture with it, wanted it with out a texture added so I can apply it to any texture lol not sure if that is possible though but we cant always have what we want all the time.

Still courious as to what BB mentioned about this

Quote - "
Now - a perfect mirror is invisible and boring if the world around it is empty. This is where you want to use either:

1. A Sphere_Map node connected to an image

1. My Environment Sphere with a 360 degree image in it."

is that way to fake sometthing being in the scene honestly I dont use props and scenes to much usely render my figure with an empty scene and work from there.

But as I learned if there is nothing in the scene the reflections turn white which is bad bad bad lol. So I guess what I am trying to figure out is what he mentioned takes an image of say an outdoor image and tricks poser to using that image to reflect off things.

Now to figure out how to set new material zones lol this sword wasnt the best prop to use since it had only one material for the whole sword hence the reason the handle turned shiney and that is just plan silly now it would hurt her hands if she wacked something with those swords with no padding on the handle lol.

Anyways thanks again for the help

I guess what I am going for and since I just got done watching the movie lord of the rings and the scene where they pick up the broken sword got me thinking about rendering things with that silver metal reflective look where the light hits it. Doesnt have to have the whole sword all shiney and what not cause in reality if you have a object and only part of it is in the light only that part will reflect and the other parts would be less reflective because they are in the shadows hence lower reflection.

Hey I just sounded smart there :)

yes i know my world is empty you dont have to rub it in. lol j/k But I did think of that and was about to try to add some stuff in my scene to see what happens just not sure where to load it or if I load a whole say DM prop set since I have a lot of those if that would make a diffrence.

Quote - Now - a perfect mirror is invisible and boring if the world around it is empty. This is where you want to use either:

1. A Sphere_Map node connected to an image

2. My Environment Sphere with a 360 degree image in it.

Okay thats where I get lost baggs not really those are how to set them up. But the rest of what you said made sense about having an empty world and what not

going to try it with a simpler light set up and see what happens next.

This is using basicwiz settings. I put two of the same swords in her hand the one in her left hand is the default and the right hand the one I modified the settings on.

I do see a bit of reflection now but not the end result I want, I guess I was looking for a more of a silver type reflection where as this appears to be whiting out i guess the word im looking for. again might have to do with the light set up. I am basically using a DM light set, with the front light the only light with raytrace shadows on its an directional light too.

next post will post the material settings so maybe you see something to make better.

wow lots of good advice thanks :) I will give them a try. I seen baggs post and shader stuff and tried to follow them, it very hard for me to follow cause I dont know enough about shaders he is truely a god when it comes to shadders.

But going to try some of the others that where suggested and post my results one other questions does it matter what type of lights I am using or can I use any random light set I might have ?

thanks I got it figured out so far no problems I did install with UAC on but like I said no real issues except that annoying did this program install correctly when adding my content but like I said no probs yet so lets knock on wood :)

so does that mean If I am using a program that is 64 bit install in that folder ? and brings me back to my other question and how does that effect my poser and ds if I want them to work together so to speak as far as sharing the content and keeping all my content in one location perferbally in my poser runtime folder.

Also like I mentioned I been searching around for info on this topic and seeing a lot of suggestions about installing them outside the program files folder like in the root of my c drive. And still not what to do with the files in my daz3d characters that are labeled with the ds and the powerloader should I install those where my poser runtime is with those characters or should I install them where I have my ds installed ?

I pretty sure my poser 7 wont benifit from using my 64 bit system but I think ds has a 64 bit version so does that mean if I dont install it in the 64 bit folder it wont work right?

lol this gets more confusing it was so much simplar back in the day of poser 4 pro :/

aaah have to keep that one in mind but I just realized to doing the way I figured out I can make a more jaggy edge with my selections to make it more of a rough cut, but your way would be good for a clean decapitation like from a very sharp sword :)

thanks for the info now I can do two versions :)

Okay lol found something in the documentation about the group tool has two modes poly mode and vertix mode and in the setup room your in vertex mode and pose room in poly mode so I switched to the setup room and got his head chopped off lol.

But if there are other ways to do this I like to know. Also I am going to texture M4 so it looks like his head is cut off with blood and parts hanging out lol not sure what I am doing so any suggestion about texturing this effect I am open too.

Thanks :)

Thanks nruddock that helps out a light :)

t hanks those are good tips i will have to try those. I did do it my way as well using a paint brush at 40% opacity and sampling different parts of her skin with the color picker then painting them in on a new layer then guassion blurred it and came with some good results

But going to try kepple technique that is a pretty good result you got :)