That was my take on it!! ... I was dancing the happy dance for days!~!~;-)

Then I actually sent mail to the CUBIX people ... who are very friendly (esp. to a little timer like me).

... and I have decided no matter which software (of the 4 .. probably not the one for automotive) ... I go with; ---- the CUBIX box is on my list to buy!!

...
At slightly more than a good basic PC in an electronics store .. it will give so much more (albeit specialized) bang for the buck .. that it is definintely on my wishlist of the first order. 

Mental Ray looks equally awesome .. but I did not check the price .. (my wishlist staggereth already) ...

Octane has been in beta for some time .. but maybe -- that is the buy-in tactic? ... I have not checked their after beta prices either.

Happy Days for Renderers who find this stuff ... is what I am thinking ... but I am newbie, so what do I know?

Anyone else with contacts in the industry who may have more info? ...very keen to know more about this ...

I found something I thought was very amazing, but I am not an old hand in intensive computing, so I will ask, and you can tell me what you think of it.

The first thing I found was Octane Render ... which lets you adjust in real time in the render engine.  Buy in at the Beta level and then upgrade to a liscense:

This uses CUDA technology from Nvidia ... and there is complementary hardware to go with it: ..

Namely CUBIX .. it comes with a PCI-e card which connects it to your machine and it absorbs all the CUDA rendering work of the applications which are leveraging this (i.e. Octane -- or others).

Here are the links, and I would very much like some informed opinions, if you would:

Octane  --- http://www.refractivesoftware.com/index.php  ($134 US, to begin@beta)

Cubix -- https://www.cubixgpu.com/Solutions/Accleware  --- this is the very fast one!

Other CUDA leveraging software:

http://www.mentalimages.com/products/mental-ray.html

http://www.randomcontrol.com/arion

http://www.bunkspeed.com/move/index.html --- originally for automotive sales.

Tia!

Thanks Robyns ... I did just find that in my In- box ... just a few ago!!

I hope there is another one!

It is the wonderful season of spend, spend, spend and then sales, sales and sales and please spend more if you would .... all in the good spirit of giving and making happy ... so ... 

I hope they do this again!

Have you seen Octane Render (or the other similar apps) and the CUBIX Hardware appliance ... which let you turn your home PC into a rendering dynamo?

Awesome stuff ... really awesome. 

I would like to find a thread over here on this way to render; so I could make an informed decision on what to buy ... besides the CUBIX box.  It just rocks.

I just got PP2010 ... it is open, and I am looking for Akio .. she has to be somewhere!

newbie-ness ... argh .. it will pass, it will pass, I hope it will be easy to get past!

Thanks! ;-)

How long is it good for? ... I don't get a check for a couple of weeks yet. ....

Do have my eye on some stuff, however.

TIA.

Try this out:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LyNsb_9PUFU&feature=fvsr

;-)

Bagginsbill:: I have a suggestion.

Take your considerable knowledge over to Lynda dot com, and make a tutorial set for Poser Pro 2010!!   The "only" Poser tutorial over there is Poser 7!  (First, see if they allow others to present, I don't want to send you off on a fool's errand.)   If not you can put them on CD and sell them here on Renderosity!! 

The delivery of the material (remember we may view 20+ sessions at one time) is very important, as is the material you present.  Offering things which people will want to remember  with images and content which are in themselves memorable is a big part of success. 
Over-excited presenters kinda tire me out, the solid, steady ones are better. 

(I think Painter's brushes would have eluded me forever without this learning site.  And I never would have found custom palettes, and record and play back brush stroke either!)

e- book ??? HuLu is essentially free, and then they market for you on the web! A FB friend just put up his poems for $20, and this will help defray the cost of the printing of his poems!!

3D Neo***.::.. I looked at C4D on Lynda, and while it is impressive, Shade 10 is an upgrade for me, which will allow me to go to Shade Professional with Particle Physics for a lesser cost than C4D (and I have a bit of Shade knowledge already).
Poser has it's place, really there is no other "people program" with such a wealth of content and offerings.  There is people modeling in Shade, but it's not the same as Poser.  So while Poser may not be the be all end all, I think it really fills a big chasm along with DAZ, for Game Designers and others (TV adds ... and some Movie CGI -- when they pay enough attention to detail).  And AGREED ... The Wacom is on the way ... I am psyched!!  ... Painter's Brushes can now work instead of mesmerizing me, and PS will be nicer as well.  I hope it works in Poser ... ??? ... !!!

And all you guys:: ... because this is interesting ... (I was amazed) ... I think I should share this couple links with you !!! ... Awesome Stuff in the Java Bins these days!!

jReality ... free !!! (nice!!) ... You may have to think like a foreigner ... ... ;-)
http://www3.math.tu-berlin.de/jreality/index.php?article_id=1 
jReality Gallery:
www3.math.tu-berlin.de/jreality/index.php

Lagoa Multiphysics 1.0
vimeo.com/13457383

Don't miss those other videos on the side, the smoke, fog etc is quite something, and would be good for modeling Plasma and Charged Particle Fields in space!! (Want to design Galactic Ship guidance systems?). 

I am overwhelmed, this is just wonderful!!  Thank you BB, and Oliver, too!!

I can see I will have a small issue with the clothes props (metal and jewels, but maybe that can be addressed in PS, as I can do two renders and just lift one out, and apply over the other)  ... Lots of  post work.

Vue Stand Alone is on my list .. it will be a few months before I can pick it up; (but I do watch for the sales).    I don't much understand the abilities of C4D and Soft Image, I have not looked at them deeply, but I will in August, when I can restart Lynda dot com.

Then I will have to wonder about a new video card, or a new machine.

Are there existing market boxes just for rendering? .. I mean not a whole machine,  just the processor and ram to accept and process ... so you would not have to invest in another entire computer?  I am hoping to run Raid 5 over at least 4 drives, but I don't have this kind of horse power yet.  It seems to me that there would be already configured boxes for render support? ... there are certainly enough commercial houses which would want them.

Thanks again, BB ... I will bring my priestly esoteric torch carriers over once they are saved.

After that I have to animate a fist full of Pegasus -es ... but I am not certain Poser Pro has a flight path designer (does it?) ... so I am doing the other one first.    Maybe by that time i will have Vue, and the flight path will not be an issue!

About how many frames of animation can the average PC with a good graphics card, and decent CPU + 8G ram handle? ... so I don't crash on the first run through? 

I can append stretches to each other, and build the entire thing in sections ... but I wonder how many to allow it to make (or how many to hold the program to to avoid it having apoplexy and dying with all in process).  

It is mostly dark , little in the way of background, there will be 22 moving characters and perhaps 30 animated torches ... animated water in a pool, separate flames (very few not on torches ... trick to get the torches to not all look like clones! ) and some other very small  lighting effects ( reflecting or ambient glowing gems in the prop clothes, walls and ceiling of the grotto).

I want to send you all baked goods .. but that is not wise .. we all eat too many of them anyway, and they always remind me of the doughnut (don't) commercials.

TechieGirl .. this would work great if the skeleton can be left out.

This would solve the issue, and I could start the animation right away ... so ... can the skeleton be turned transparent?  

I ask because I have not gotten Poser to do anything beside move from room to room on my other 2 machines.   .... It has been a long, long wait, for the 64 bit upgrade.

TIA  .. twice!!

But SamT, that is 6600 discrete edits!  And they cannot even be smart objects!

Perhaps I need to rig a body with a specific  material for the skin?  But that is the other big question ... 
Does Poser support Transparency in the body ... I see it does in the fabric and the X-ray view; -- so probably yes, without the skeleton?  ... I'm not knowing, too newbie ... but I am suspecting.

It may be possible.  I am hopeful.
I have only the two trips through the tutorials on Lynda dot com to think back on as I wait to get my copy.

They were inspiring, and I leaned a lot (this works "far" better for me than the PDF).

Wow ..that is some effect!!  

Thanks, guys!

X - ray shader is amazing ... but I cannot have the characters looking like Scenes from the Crypt either ... LOL  .. and they are not into scary or freaky ...  just "invisible" ... for the most part.
:unsure:

I want to make them semi-visible where they interact in the normal plane of existence ... soles of feet, hands which grasp staffs or torches, and at the moment of fire on/in the water the eyes should fade in, briefly (sans all the sockets, etc, just eyes and lids).   

The props are the costume design here: www.renderosity.com/mod/bcs/index.php
It will adeauately catch the motion through the animation (this design was actually the impetus for the animation, but we are a safe-view for everyone shop, so the bodies have to go invisible (& --don't want body-suits .. less aesthetic and way less mystical)).

So as totally amazing as the body bones view is, (and that is something!!) ... It won't work for this particular set of animations.

Putting 22 figures into PS and editing seems like a gargantuan task, esp for every frame of an extended animation ... I see where you are coming from and for a set of single images, fine, but for some 300+. frames ... or more (for the grotto) ... I don't think this is the way to go.  

I might manage a test frame to bring over this way, however. 

I should manage to get Poser Pro installed by the  23rd or the 27th depending on if you can download a copy while you wait for your snail mail copy to arrive.  Not that I mind downloaded copies .. I am just never certain if I am including bogus stuff when I burn them to CD/DVD.  

Thanks!  Have a good weekend.  ;-)

Aerosolizing liquids ...  I had this experience ... it was not painting, but treating a hedge.

The answer for me was a set of redundant filters: ... If one clogs, remove and set in the water bottle, and apply a clean one.  Worked fine until all were clogged up.  I found that freshly mixed nixed fewer replaceable filters than hours old (some bio chem going on there).

I doubt that the airbrush (I have one, but cannot use it worth peanuts) has such a nice feature, but if you are still airbrushing .. I would let the manufacturer know of the concept ... who knows how much canvas, time and angst would be saved.

Now it is a whole new ball park, I am essentially starting from scratch in Poser Pro 2010 ... Lots of stuff to learn!!

Awesome! ... However it is not quite what I was looking for, but after 8 pages (and some good input) .. I think I will post my question here and see what you guys have to add:

Mostly invisible slightly smokey edged material for poser bodies?

I have envisioned a  "priestly"  group of aesthetic folks who do things only by night in torchlight.
They are basically 'Invisible' ... at certain times in their magical work (which of course is not magic, but appears so to outsiders) their eyes become semi-visible.   (Eyes in the eye sockets, not just the globes).  I'd like them to stay aesthetic.

They are going to wear the jeweled sculpted metal, and scarves (Ros. Fantasy Cult), carry staffs, and walk about, etc; ... but all I want to show for the body is something like the cut out function in an art program, and that only slightly.  Because lighting and ray tracing will be a big part of the concept + information transfer, this is giving me some pause, I cannot just use a cut out based material, because as the camera pans from over head to below the edge of the cliff they are walking on, the lighting/shadows would change totally. 

What will show clearly are the minimal cloth scarves and jeweled metal body props, ...

So I have not seen anywhere a way to do transparency in Poser except for transparent materials (like water or glass) and since the glass people are already a copy right in print (the glass books of the dream eaters has blue glass people), these guys have to look like smoky edges or something.   Glass might work, but how would I get a smoky edge?

Any assistance appreciated!

Thanks ... much appreciated!!

OMG, I remember life before B &W TV, and the line in masking tape on the floor > you must stay behind this line if the EM box is on< .. which never happened .. .. I was only slightly father from that box than this flat screen, but the upgrade is wonderful.

I do remember old spoken programs on a big wooden box with dials ... but that was long, long ago.  It did a better job than speech software .. there must have been some reason for that.

And then I discovered making print items for the new company ... go to Kinko's and then eat beans for the next ten days!  Forget driving anywhere, buy a bus pass this month if you have to make things at Kinko's for the company ("so you want to design, eh?") ... So ... a bit later I got the hand me down PC, and a graphics program.  I believe that was the end of real life formative age, and the beginning of the IT life grasp the new stuff age; aka: Where do you find this person anymore age? (only for those sans e-mail).

The car broke, the budget broke, and the PC broke, and I went into person-hood arrest.  I would walk by the PC, and sit down, and stare ... what difficult days.  .. I got over them slowly.  But I did not forget the rush of making a beautiful image, and taking it to be seen, or discovering a new way to achieve something in the art program. .... heady days ... good days, so now ... I am back .. I hope that 3D is as rewarding as 2 D graphics were.

I think it is the heady sense of achievement one gets ... and that is a good thing, to have things you have created which you are proud of.  If you can do graphite, way cool, Me I can paint with a pan and a roller, I don't even do a good spray can application ... but give me the PC and things will begin to emerge ... and that, I believe is the draw, that I am creating, and it feels good! --- (how it looks is addressed in other places, like help areas). ... ;-)

OK, have Poser7-CH1, P7-Content Errata, Poser7-CU1, and Poser7-SR3 ... hope that fixes things up a bit.

I have a free 30 day sub on Lynda dot com, but have not used it much as PS is being cranky since the fix, and will not load.  I likely will pay for sub service there next month, so it is really good to know that Poser is also there.  Thanks

I was considering downloading the Poser 8 free trial, but they do not say if they charge your card after 30 days ... and actually, if I were to pay $250, I would rather be buying Pro 2012!! ...

Silly to have to pay another upgrade fee if I could not come up with the $250 for the 2012 purchase in 30 days, and they charged my card for P-8!! ... is that how it works? ... or not? ... there is no way to know if they would do that or not ...  so I left the shopping cart and did not download P8.

OK, off to try some more ... calmly I hope.

Thank you for the assist