narsil, Yes, this is a hyperthreaded processor. In the task manager it displays as two processors, both of them working at approximately the same level, roughly 50%. I was just a bit surprised at that because I've seen multi-processors run at 100% for extended periods, working to their limit to process a task. If you screw up and install Microsoft's Findfast on a server you can get to see that happen as it brings the whole system to its knees while it tries to do its automatic indexing of every last file. I haven't had a chance to try it yet, but I suspect that this bucket size may be the bottleneck that's limiting the throughput to the processor, but we'll see. Thanks also for the info about the bucket size increments, that was my next question! Gromit

Thanks very much for the information, Fish and Joe. The render I did was pretty basic, actually an old animation I had around from Poser 3, one figure with one texture. I just wanted to get an idea what this system with Poser 5 would do. As I've mentioned in some other threads, Joe, I'm working my way through your video. This is great stuff and I expect to be doing some much larger animations soon when I get on my feet with this version of Poser. I'll do some playing around with the bucket size and see what difference that makes - sounds like a good idea. A big difference from my old system? The old one is a seven-year-old Intergraph workstation, dual 200 MHz Pentium Pros and 512 Megs of RAM. As I recall, this same render took about 45 minutes on it, so yes, there is a big difference. And yes, as you said, time is money. Gromit

I'm going through "Poser 5 Demystified" right now. I will say that I started with Poser 2 way back about 1996, and I come from a 15 year CAD background and have taught others Photoshop. So I'm not a complete novice. I find this P5 Demystified video very professionally done. It really has opened my eyes to a lot of possibilities that I had not touched on before in Poser. I highly recommend it, it's well worth the money. Gromit

I'm really glad to see this question. I recently replaced my old computer with a new Micron (3.2GHz, 2Gb RAM & 300Gb HD) and upgraded to Poser 5. I've been trying to figure out the best way to set up these libraries and this is the first thing I've run across on this subject. Thanks for the info. Gromit

Win NT 4.0 SP5, plan to install Windows 2000 Professional unless I decide to get XP. About 1Gb in Poser folder.

The top image is the original washed-out photo. In the bottom image I first adjusted the color balance, then created four copies of the background layer, set their blending mode to Multiply, merged them all together and added a layer mask. Then I airbrushed the mask to add saturation to areas of her face.

Admittedly this is not a great example! The original is badly washed out and you can't enhance something that is not there.

Gromit

I use a method that is a little different and maybe not very intuitive but gives good results. In Photoshop, duplicate the layer that contains your image, placing the copy on top of the original. Set the new layer's blending mode to "Screen". Add a layer mask to this new layer, setting it to "Hide All". Use an airbrush set to about 5-10% and paint on the layer mask with white to paint in the highlights, paint with black to reduce them if you need to. If you can't get enough lightening with one screening layer, add a second or third one, then merge them together prior to masking. I do the reverse, creating a duplicate layer set to the Multiply mode, to increase saturation in a light image as needed.

Yes, I guess that will work. I thought when I conformed the breastplate, it would map itself to the figure even if there was a scale change, etc.

There is way too much twist in the thigh, and the foot would be pretty strained to get it that horizontal. Don't have time right now to work on that pose, hope this helps. Gromit

Looks interesting, I will have to try that. I always have a hard time getting the lighting right.

C'est bien, on peut comprendre facilement!

Very nice, but what is an "armor shard"?

Me too.

I got a set of rock props with textures off of either the Free Stuff or the Market here on Renderosity a few days ago. If I paid for it, it was cheap, can't remember. Gromit