...or completely new characters. Never forget that part. Yeah, you can get something new from something old but the ultimate freedom (and pleasure!) is in bringing something created from scratch into Poser and watching it do the dance of joy!

I'll upgrade to Bryce 5. Sure, why not? THe renders from Bryce never dissapoint even if they are a bit slow. Also, the Tree genrator is a nice addition (but where's the GRASS!?! I need GRASS!) and the fact that there are metaballs included in B5 is just an added bonus. You can create your own alien type lifeforms or plantlife with those. Perhaps it's not the "Be all and End all" but it's still a fine program. Now if they could just include support for Poser files directly (anims and all).

Yup, that's the saem backdrop. I decided against the Decayed skeletons and went with these guys instead. I'll have to try the ambient/diffuse thing. Thanks tons Wadus.

Thanks Dave. I thought the lighting was a little much on the Abunai themselves. I do want it to be a high contrast scene though, so I'm not sure how to go about softening the light on just the beasts without affecting the rest of the scene. Any ideas? So I CAN use an image map as a bump channel, that's great. I read somewhere that you couldn't but if an old pro like yourself says it's so, then it's so! Thanks.

Thanks. Now, besides missing teeth (they have teeth now btw), is there anything noticably wrong with the image? I'm glad you think they turned out well though.

Can you export as OBJ? That's Poser's preferred format of choice. Also, if you assign the objects different colors/materials in Amapi, you can select them by color in UVMapper and seperate them (this won't affect the OBJ) that way you can color them and control where the color goes without worry. I hope this helps.

Well, you could always claim the gold is reflecting the blue gems...heh. Seriously, are you just looking for a gold color? Because you could just assign the crown the colors you want in Poser if that's the case. Just make sure all 4 parts are seperate object groups....this part is harder to make clear to someone just starting out. Okay, go to the Character Creators Forum, at the top of the page there's a link to ClintH's tut on making characters for Poser. The process is almost the same for props (easier because you don't have to worry about hirearchy). He explains using UVmapper if you really want to use that. If not, just give the parts color as you would in Bryce. What prog did you make that in anyway?

Hee's a model of a dinosaur like creature. THe parts were seperated in UV Mapper for texturing. It's a Planar map as you'll note. Hope this helps you visualize what we mean

THe MAP yes the MESH no.

First thing you should do is select all and then hit the / key on your keypad a few times. After this, select all and scale it out so it resembles what you know the shape should be. However, you should take what PhilC said to heart. Open the file in whatever program you made the crown in and assign each part a material or give each part a seperate name. Then in UVmapper select by group and move the part you want to have a seerate color. Lastly, check out the link that Blackhearted provided to get more ideas on what to do. This should get you started.

Haven't tried the 3D Toolkit, sorry. It's also my sad duty to inform you that Rhino is not available for the Mac nor are there plans to make it so. However, I think there are programs that let you run Windows on the MAC and that may be a way to get around this.

Thanks, you all have been really great to me and I hope the models will live up to everyone's expectations. Thanks for all the suggestions and ideas. I may try my hand at a few non-organic items first...scary, I know...but when these guys are released, I'll do my best to make you feel like you got your money's worth.

Thanks. I'm gonna definitely release the Bat and the rest of the Exclamation-X crew. There's lot's of silly characters like this that I think people will find multitudes of uses for. Just to name a few: Exclamation X The Target Master Ki Ted E. Bear The Really Big Hippo You Pig The Bat Those Blasted Aliens Rocky The Rhino Buddy and Quacked THere's more but those will be the first bunch that will hit the shelves when I get P4. There's a small chance that two of them may be released before that, with the help of some folks but I'm gonna concentrate on the beasties first and their accessories.

Thanks, I'll check Daz out and the prices here at the store before making a final decision. I hope that they'll be fully posable with a bunch of useful abilities but we'll have to see how it goes. One thing I've learned is that if your design is flawed, that fact will become clear as soon as you try to animate it. I'll do my best to make sure that there isn't any need for revisions on these guys. Alos, I do plan on releasing a series of cartoon characters once I get P4 that are just screaming to be a children's animated cartoon. One character (a superhero) in particular has gotten a lot of requests...the BAT. I know, I know, I said I wouldn't post images but you deserve the right to know that monsters aren't all I'm cooking up. That's it until I post a beta testing thingie...that's how it's done right?

That's awfully kind of you, Neurocyber, and I'm sure they're hungry :>. $10 sounds pretty fair for single creatures. It would also allow you to decide what to get and what (shudder) not to get. Something tells me, oh fearless leader, that you'll find a few on your HD sooner than you think. Thanks everyone and drop by the Lightwave Free Stuff to grab your own copy of the "Rock Hopper". No textures I'm afraid, as I learned how to create those after I posted him. I don't want to flood the forum wiht a bunhch of pics, so check the Works In Progress gallery and the Rhino gallery for more toons, beasites, and characters that may pop up this year. Thanks again, I really appreciate the warm replies.