"No need to ever do better than that!" Trey Parker and Matt Stone would be proud;-)...

Way cool Bushi! Are you still going to post the code for the multi-input python script you mentioned before? We've got a little educational animation coming up, and I love to give an example to one of my programmers to create some movement sliders (it is for a basketball game, so I'd like to have them code up a series of basket ball moves).

The right hand wave bugged me too. I didn't see it so much as static, but as out of character, as it seems like it is waving a cute little 'ello' at the same it is snarling. Also,if you can raise the upper lip during the snarl, it would look a bit more 'real'. Many animals with snouts raise their upper lip in an aggressive move to clear their fangs. Otherwise, looks coo!

Attached Link: http://www.bigtimeweb.com/events/sca2.html

Hey yall, I got me DS after seeing your discussion last month, and I can't get it to export BVH at all! I've made a dance and rendered it, but the bvh export button just does nothing. System is P2 450, 128MB, Win98SE. Only things I can think of are that I have DX7 (installer says DX is installed, but of course it is trying to install DX6) and I have it installed on my F drive (no room on C). I asked Colm to send me the patch to try (TIA!), but I was wondering if you folks had any other ideas? Thanks!

Seems to me like 1,2,3, (and sort of 4)and 5 could all be handled by a stable plug-in for Strata3D. Since Strata is free, CL could save time trying to re-invent raytracing, renderosity, MIP shadows, etc. and focus on collision detection, a more usuable animation palette, cloth and hair dynamics, etc...

My biggest problem is that using it with Max seems to be very resource intensive, for instance I'm working on a ~20MB, 3 character file, and once imported into Max my system uses ~300MB of RAM! Also, it very (very!) frequently corrupts the Max file when I try and reload the .pz3. And all the transmaps have to fixed by hand. Hopefully these will all be addressed soon. And the stuff Bushi et al. is working on with python will make the purchase price cheap for animators! Furture: I'd love to see a plug-in for Cinema4D and Strata too. Cinema because it is much (much!) faster and far (way!) more stable than Max, and since it presently lacks good character tools it would be a perfect match for Poser. Strata because it has a very nice raytracer and is free.

Gack, its 95/98 by another name, still stinks of crash;-). Get one with 500+ MB RAM and Win2k, my advice. If you have to drop mhz for RAM to keep under budget, do it (FWIW, Poser+Max-which is what using the PP importer is to the system- uses ~300-400MB with moderatly (10-20MB scene files). Don't fall for the RAMBUS jive, either, stick with PC133. YMMV

"I have to set up some type of real-world control of a Poser figure. Probably not much then a single joint initially but it is doable." That would be awesome. I've looked into a few (Monkey, etc.) multi-joint DIDs, but 10-20k is just a bit much. However, I think you could sell one to many many poser users for ~1-2k.

Cool work Don! I think it may start to get more notice now with the general interest in 3D and its better (still far less than ideal) integration with hi-end applications.

Usually adding the proper PC file extension works. Of course, to do this you have to know what file types the files are in 8.3 in the first place;-).

You can use Maximum Pose to translate the obj. sequence into Max format, w/animations, textures, etc. The propack works ok, except, you need to reset all transmaps after export, and at least on my apparently underpowered system (dual 933, 256MB, win2k), it crashes alot and corrupts the Max file.

I'm afraid it will be another neato technology killed by a onerous license agreement. Why these folks like Pulse, VET, etc. don't look at, and emulate, the sucess of Flash, I have no idea. Sell the authoring environment, and release the plug-in license free. What kind of world are we coming to when an artist cannot sell their work anyway they want? What is next, licensed canvass? Licensed paint? How would we like to sign a special license every time we posted a jpeg? For me, I'm only developing in RT 3D environments that let me post my work anywhere and anyway I want (Virtools, Shout3D, ferinstance, and of course, eventually ShockWave 8.5). IMHO, all thse little 3D viewers with their complicated and expensive licenses g are going to be simply creamed when the 900 pound gorilla (finally!) gets off the pot...

Which was my point in the remainder of my statement. Where I discussed residuals. I don't think it ever hurts to remind clients that 3D animation is a difficult and expensive art.

Get the pro pack, it makes it cake...