**"I simply want to make 3D animation shorts and it takes me months to get a character the way I want."

"These programs should be a learning tool not a production company."

Do you not see the paradox in what you just said in those two sentences? ;-)

You want to make animation shorts (production), but the programs you use should be for learning, not production?

I don't know why it's taking you months to get the character the way you want it, but anything worth doing is also worth the time it takes to do it.

As you pointed out, you're not a studio. So animation on a production level (yes, even a "short" is production) is going to take time for one person to do. It's a craft, and like any craft, it does take patience.**

true but neither do I have a expensive desktop system where I can have all the free gigs and expensive apps to make the tasks of animation easier. I have to save everything as an image file then render to avi. I need to make such projects. I have a little old laptop with 5gigs and no room to spare. Not griping mind you but it would be nice not to have to waste so much time conforming cloths to characters, making the props then rendering the scenes so they animate. It takes me that long cos I simply do not have enough space on my machine to save all the files I make not to just do one character but an entire scene. ;)

Message edited on: 12/28/2004 06:05

What's the hardest 3D program you guys have ever used?

If you go back a page you can see I asked almost the same question abot conforming the cloths. You have to keep morphing or adjusting the settings. Very time consuming. I spent the night morphing some of my models. ;)

Yeah, that was part of my qestion about the 'conform button' doesn't always work too well. and you read my mind about the hair lol. I'm going to redo her though, the rendering didn't comeout so hot. My little laptop only has 5gigs so I am limited what I can do on my machine. I can only use Poser4 and Bryce5 cos thats the only two I have and the only two that will install on my computer. ;)

Attached Link: My Gallery

I said it and will stick by my orginal statement. Maybe if the companies stopped switching/changing hands, then, the 3D products wouldn't suffer? They charge hundreds of dollars for their apps and, you're not gonna tell me they don't make money off their products thats bull. If there was no money in it they wouldn't make the product. If I like a product, I BUY IT, or, my friends give me their copies when they are done, either way, I still end up with the orginal package. I'd rather have the CD package than just a download. You don't get the complete package if you dl off P2P. The ones who do, are very few and far between. If you price a product out of a customers reach then they won't buy it and will find other ways to get it. We're not all Donald Trump. You remind me of the RIAA/MPAA suing all their customers.

Message edited on: 12/27/2004 06:33

Ok, I think I finally got it just right. I uploaded my first, new female model to my gallery on here. I just needed to keep morphing. I don't have photoshop, wish I did. I dont get so much big holes as sometimes little ones so I keep tweaking as much as possible. My rendering & lighting don't come out so great tho.

Message edited on: 12/27/2004 05:54

What are you using to render the image file? Are you saving your image as low res or high res? It looks low to me, hense, the zagged look. Are you rendering in Poser & Photohop or just Poser? Nothing wrong with your model, you just need to smooth out the rendering a bit more. The more you stretchout an image the more jagged it will become.

Message edited on: 12/27/2004 04:14

ok thanks. As much as I hate morphing guess I have to practice that a bit more. The 'casual female' conforms perfectly except for the other female characters. Takes longer to get the cloths just right. ;)

I try to stay away from morphs, I haven't masteredthat just yet. On the females characters, some cloths fit, some don't so I'm guess that maybe the reason. I work with Poser4 characters like Eve etc. Or, do these characters have special clothing that I need to hunt up like Vickie?

I fully agree with the orginal poster. Why is it so hard when it shouldn't be? These programs should be a learning tool not a production company. I work at home on my laptop not in a production studio. I simply want to make 3D animation shorts and it takes me months to get a character the way I want. God Bless Poser because I wouldn't be able to do it any other way. These programs are real memory hogs to top it off. I don't see it advancing all I see is our beloved software changing hands from one greedy company to the next without any new fatures being added. I've tried them all except for Maya. They are all built on the same software we've used in the past except that the companies stick their names all over the same products and call it their own and make a bundle of money while doing it. If it weren't for us geeks these companies would be broke. And if DAZ Studio takes over Poser for good them I'm out cos I would never upgrade from Poser4 to a DAZ product, yuck. I prefer animation in realtime. Personally, they need to stop adding and eating up memory. 10 percent of some of the functions they include we will never use, at least not me. Wizards would never work 3D apps. I can't see that happening because you need to work with the cameras/lighting and the angles of the scene you're trying to make. Wizards never really work right. :)

(my 2 cents worth)

Message edited on: 12/27/2004 03:38

Ok thanks am checking it out now. I am an oldschool user of Poser4 so hopefully, I can find something to go with my scene. thanks. ;)

I could never part with Poser. Dont know why Poser gets such a bad rap. It's actually used more for character modelling, props, cloths etc and thats not easy.

if you want to render skies and landascapes all day then use Bryce I prefer people in my scenes and animation films and Poser is the only program that teaches you how to make character models, props etc. never listen to the nay-sayers. I have seen some excellent Poser art on here and it's not easier to make a character. Just render? lol. No thats Bryce. Takes me hours to make acharacter just right in Poser and to conform the clothing guess the dude never used graphic programs before?

I wish it were just as simple as a render button. ;)

Message edited on: 12/18/2004 02:56

That's cool you were able to redo the image. Congrats to you it's an awesome piece of artwork. But I would have tried everything in my power to save the orginal. ;)

PS: If Poser 6 comes from DAZ it will be the buggiest program ever made. Just go test out their poorly done DAZ Studio program to see what I mean. Shudder to think about it.