OK, Now I'm blushing. Thanks!! I wasn't going to say anything, just thought people just might happen upon it. I'm very proud that Zygote even approched me on this one. I hope to keep improving, and posting and giving away secrets, props, textures and what I can to the community! I'm here to help as much as I can. ;-) Thanks again. James

Digital, that is not true. You CAN export objects from Bryce, other than lattices and terrains. You can NOT however export anything with boolians or Bryce primitives. You must have Bryce 4. Next, if the object has an "E" in the side bar you're in luck. The objects may also be grouped, as long as the "e" is there. Click on the "E" and the "smoothing requester comes up. Now (MAC) Command + D (PC) Control + D <--I'm not positive about the PC command--> and a save requester comes up. You can now save in a varity of formats. James James

Thanks people! I have to admit the lip morph was a bear to get right. And I lucked out somehow and didn't get the all famous nose glow ;-) jarm2, You can't really do true black and white in Poser. I guess you could do a black and white tex map and make sure all the lights are some form of grey. It was much easier to render it in color and in PhotoShop turn it into a greyscale image, touch up the hair a bit and add some graininess. James

The 38 to me looks much better here. To me 100 is much to flat. And low numbers are to distorted. I like the camera focal at 50. This works the best for me in a normal portrait. Below 35 is fine if you want to have that kind of distortion. The lower the number the closer to a wide-angle/fish-eye you get. As with higher numbers the flatter the scence becomes, things seem to be on the same plane, when you know they're not. But again different scences/renders will look better at different focal lenghts. Well my 2 cents on the camera matter ;-) James

Tribe, I got Carrara for the main reason that I could upgrade from my Infini-D for a very cheap price. I think Carrara has the potential (Maybe Adobe will improve on it) But it has one of the hardest learning curves I've seen in a 3D package so far. The other reason is I'm on a MAC, there aren't too may inexpensive 3d Modeling packages for the mac at all. :( I can't shell out thousands of dollars for a program. I'm bearly above poverty. I was luck enough to save my pennies to get my G4. (also got a good client that shelled out the bucks on a project so I could). I've noticed that several main people here really like 3DMAX and Rhino. These come up alot as what is being used for modeling. Hope this helps. James

I'll post mine as soon as I can fix the joint parameters. See the example in the "For all you Faerie lovers out there" post.These are 100% mine, and will be freely distributed. I have some medical problems, so it may not be until next weekend. James

OK, Answer time (In order of apperance): Arabinowitz: Read the Manual ;-) It's not true collision detection. i.e. you can't move something and have it bump something else. It just takes the obj and it's surrounding boundry and moves it to the next boundry it comes in contact with. This has been around since Bryce 3 (I belive) Shawn4683: I've been in Fine Arts and Commercial Art/Graphic Arts for over 25 years. I also (tho not lately) do pastel portraits. This took me only 2 days. Most of the time was spent on texure/transparency maps and the gumballs. a_super_hero: Didn't scale Victoria at all. I indeed just made things look larger. But the hair, beret shirt and vest are all standard size. Camera angle plays a big part in this also. James

She seems a bit to light skined. But we know that there are soooo many variations on color... I take that back, it's not the lightness, it's the default orange light that reaks havoc with color. Try a render with the lights variations of grey. The lips are great! James

Thanks everyone. I am very pleased with this image. Thanks for all the positive comments. picnic, to answer the questions. Yes the clothes are standard Poser 4. I rescaled and cheated them a lot. They really don't fit, but what you don't see can't hurt you ;-) A rule of thumb in my 3D stills work, "If it can't be seen and doesn't get reflected anywhere -- remove it!". ANd it the part that does show looks ok, and the part that doesn't looks bad, who's the wiser? The Hair is from Zygotes clothing pack, but I'm sure the standard pigtails would have worked too. Zygote's just has a little better front. (Beware -- the hair style doesn't come with a template, I had to make one with UVMapper) So I'm not as innovative as all that ;-) James

No real Kimono there, just a Yukata, an informal bath robe so to speak. Wish I could find a true posable Kimono. I'm still looking for a good geisha wig also. James

Better morph targets, Uv mapping (This is key -- as a good mapping and a good texture map can make or break a figure) I believe the Joint params are a bit better too (I may be wrong tho) Tho the 2 figures very close -- if not exact, just upgrading to Poser 4 was what did it for me. All the extras in Poser 4 is the important thing. I'll also stress that Mapping is Paramount! Zygote's Victoria has the absolute best mapping yet! No more blurring and smudging of the textures around curves. i.e. chin area/side. of head. Hope this helps. James

Bryce 4 only. On the MAC it's: Select the obj or group. IF you have an "E" available on the side drop bar then you can save it. Click on the "E" the familiar "smoothing" requester comes up. Now press keys "Control"+"D". This brings up a Save requester. You can save in a varity of formats. I believe it's something very similar on the PC. James

Sounds like a winner. I'm sure I can get my feble mind working to come up with a half assed idea or 2 ;-) James

Well Congrats BlondDog! I think he is a very talented artist, but I fail to see why this was posted to the "Poser" forum. I honestly have to say I did not look at every picture in the gallery. But I did not see anything remotly Poser in what I viewed. I know Renderosity is very versitile, but again I thought it was 3D oriented community? Still don't get me wrong, I really think that he is worthy of such an honor, again I think his cartoons are quite good. This is by no means a flame or bad comment. James

In UV Mapper try a cylindrical mapping. I notice that this works very well on dresses, but beware it leaves strange stray points. And takes lot's of patience. So really, I'd like to get what ever Zygote is using, I'm sure it's way too expensive. James