" I got maya but its just too hard to figure out there are so many menues and tools i dont know how to even get started with it...So im just hanging out with poser because it's alot easer to unbderstand and operate...." You spent $2000+ on software you aren't even going to use now? Or you mean you got Maya PLE? There's lots of tutorials and literature out there that can help you get started if you really wanted to. I tried Maya, and I didn't like it either, but not because it was too hard. I went with an older edition of 3dsmax instead, because I found there was MUCH more free information out there to help me learn it than there was for Maya. More forums, more tutorials, more literature, etc. The one thing that tickles me when browsing through Poser forums are that so many users of the software seem to demand MORE, yet stop short of applying themselves to learn something more difficult than pressing a few buttons, or applying a pre-made pose. It seems so many Poser users want advanced features.. things like GI (but without the wait); complex rigging (without the learning curve); immediate satisfaction (without too much effort). The irony here is that I have found Poser to be one of the most difficult and frustrating 3D applications I've ever used, and as I mentioned, I've used those evil "pro" apps too. Yes, it's convenient to have software that you don't need to rig or model your own characters, but then you have to deal with all the other stuff Poser throws at you, like it's insufferable workflow. Not to mention, for the price it costs to PURCHASE all the props and clothing you need over the years, you end up spending way more than it would have cost you to purchase a more expensive app in the first place. Some people who have used Poser for a long time probably have close to $2000 invested in their runtime items alone, and hardly use any of them very often, and continue to buy new stuff for it every month. Poser can be an easy, but very COSTLY, hobby. Whereas, someone who dropped $5000 on Maya to create models, and took 6 months to learn it, might never have to spend another dime on their hobby again, and might actually end up MAKING a lot of money with it in the end. I have to agree with Stahlratte here. If Poser gets too advanced, then it's going to lose it's base. On the other hand, users should know that if they want "high-end" results, they will need to be prepared to put in a lot of learning time, and do the homework required to master the more complex features.

You can adjust the position of the feet/hands in the graph editor I think, by playing with the keyframed curves. You'll have to know a little bit about keyframing to fix them. I have to say, it looks awefully painful the way that spear is going right through her hand like that. Might want to move it over a little so she's actually holding it.

"I've been eyeing Carrara and also Character Studio with 3dsMax as future avenues."

Just FYI, Operaguy... CharacterStudio uses falloff zones (envelopes) that are very similar to Poser's joints. The big difference is in the level of control. In CS, you can specify the degree of influence for each envelope right down to the vertex level, excluding or including individual vertices (or groups of vertices) as you see fit, in order to get the best possible bending. It also has other goodies, like "buldge" and "tendon" parameters, that make muscle deformations possible without the use of special morphs. It's a really easy and useful solution, but not quite as integrated as standard weight-mapped bone rigs. There are some pros and cons to using CharacterStudio in 3ds over standard bones, but for the most part I think it's a really good way to rig a character.

Now if Carrara 5 really can convert a Poser rig over to Carrara rig, then that's worth the price of admission right there. Depending on how good Carrara is at animating human characters.

Message edited on: 12/19/2005 11:16

Attached Link: http://www.hdri.at/en/hdri_en.htm

Thanks, UVDan, for that tut! I'm getting Bryce tonight and giving it a go.

Attached Link: Sci-Fi video with great fire/explosion effect

Just checked it out. I like the intro! The only problem I noticed right away was that when the boy walks through from the sliding doors in the beginning, he makes no shadows on the ground as he walks into the light, but then in the following shots, his shadow is there. Maybe a compositing error? Good work!

I think the weapon would have a recoil, as seen there. Normally, a laser wouldn't have concussive force, but we can imagine that military-grade "lasers" in the future are backed with some secondary propellant, so as to produce a violent blow on impact, along with the heat. Comes in handy against enemies that may have self-contained force fields, since it would provide "stopping power" if they were charging you. Remember, this is science fiction. haha

Cool! Some really good effects you have in this version. The explosion looks extremely impressive! Just one thing I noticed in this version that you might want to consider: nothing major, but in the shot where she's examining that sphere in her hand, she puts it back down to her side, and there's an abrupt forward movement of her arm at the very end of the movement that looks unnatural. It's just a small "twitch" that occurs as the scene is transitioning into the next one. Simply cutting off one or two frames from the end of that scene should correct it. Again, it's something minor in my opinion, but a critical eye will pick up on it. I think you have improved some of the weak spots in the shot where she's rubbing the back of her neck. It looks more natural now I think, and I love the shot of the ship flying away from the mushroom cloud! Keep us posted as you make progress here! This is really looking awesome! Are you working on this yourself, or do you have help?

Wait... I thought I saw it mentioned somewhere that the reason shadow maps were so slow to calculate in Poser is because the algorythm it uses for them takes into account transparent materials. Has this been changed in Firefly?

I like the music, the idea, and the morph at the end is cool. The dance itself might need some fine-tuning. BVH files are hard to edit, because of all the keyframes. If you haven't done it already, delete most of the keyframes (leaving say 1 key per every 10th frame), and then go back and edit the motion from there.

I think the 9th place image is awesome! Very unique idea, with a bit of dual irony in it's meaning i'm sure. No offense to the artists involved, but the top 3 have me scratching my head in disbelief. I don't think the very best Poser artists even participated in that contest. In my opinion, ANY contest where people are allowed to vote anonymously on the images over the internet by simply clicking a button is totally bogus. There's no way to ensure the results are realistic, or if they have in fact been manipulated unfairly (cheating). It doesn't matter to me if the images were created in Poser or not, but I have my own doubts about the results of this one.

quote: "The "big deal" is that to render skin, marble and other SSS materials correctly, you do need true SSS. And you don't need such a trained eye to spot the difference. One simply looks a lot better than the other! And if you do animation, the difference simply becomes blatant!"

Really? Well, then I guess Steven Stahlberg's technique for skin is not very good then? He never uses true SSS. He employs clever use of gradient and falloff maps to simulate the effect, and his work on skin is truly groundbreaking.

What application are you using that employs true physically accurate SSS for skin? Even MentalRay's Fastskin SSS shader isn't actually using physically accurate scattering. If you try to use the physically correct SSS shader with mentalray, it's much much slower to render.

Physical accuracy is not really as important in animation as it is in stills, because you don't have the opportunity to scrutinize it. For instance, Radiosity, which is a physically accurate lighting solution, is usually too slow to use in heavily animated scenes, which is why they employ fake tricks like bounce lights and texture baking for such things in production situations. Major studios use AO, which is not physically accurate, for production. Hollywood fakes physical accuracy all the time, and no one really notices.

Message edited on: 10/30/2005 10:29

This is lookin very good so far. That mushroom cloud is really kickass! I think the character movements are excellent personally, but some extra tweaking never hurts. Please continue!

Good motion. I agree it would be somewhat impared by the armor.