Ghostofmackbeth wrote:"Ewww .. Numbers"

Yup, Numbers... the universal language.
When it is properly programmed, you wouldn't have to see or type them, though.

Message edited on: 03/08/2006 13:29

What would really help is a sort of unique ID tag for items, freeware or merchandise, which is maintained at some central database, similar to e.g. the ISBN number used for books. Would solve confusion on names that change over time, version and language issues, broken links, changes of property etc. Sellers/manufacturers would pay a dollar or so to register an item and get a number by which it can be referred to, linked to the address where it can be obtained. For the store holders it would be better because the name of their competitor is not mentioned on their site, and availability status of required items for add-ons can be checked easily in the central database. just my 5 penny's. When you make your fortune out of this idea remember me. B.

Whether there are tips on speeding up raytrace renders?

Check your processor load. When it is below 100%, your PC may need access the disk when rendering. You will see the light flash constantly. If that happens, buy more RAM.

Otherwise, split up your work: render the background separately and postwork it together.

Message edited on: 02/12/2006 14:56

If you want an in-depth description of how a raytracer works, and a little math can noy shy you away, check out the documentation of PovRay at www.povray.org It explains it all.

AFAIK, Poser has no elegant ways to do this. You can indeed take a secons Jessi and conform her to the first, but I found this slows down rendering dramatically since Poser has to find out for every facet which of the two geometries is visible. It may help to add a small displacement value to the 'cloth' figure. By all means clip off any limbs you do not use, or at least set them invisible. Do not rely on transparency only. Real 'layered textures' apparently are not supported by Poser.

If you want to make them yourself the face putty facilities of PhilC's Poser Tool box may be helpful. The mirror magnets and mirror morph tools make it easy to maintain symmetry.

Actually you need not merge the layers. Poser takes .psd files as graphic files, irrespective of the layers used, so that method can be non-destructive also. The Poser masked overlay method works fine also. You can use the tile texture to map a small image on a large one.

PhilC's Poser Toolbox contains gadgets to give you more one-button control over the lights to turn them all up or down, switch them on or off, etc.

Thank you. That is exactly what I need. I reckoned one could do such in Python, but it has been 10 year since I did some actual hacking myself, so I am afraid I am too far away from programming by now. I also understand Poser has no facilities to do it directly. Where can I get this Toolbox?

I just downloaded the textures. Good idea, this. I was working on something similar, but at a low pace. You saved me the fuzz.

Is there, by the way, a method to let all relevant materials refer to the right bitmaps in one go? I have been working down the Vicky's impressive list of materials and assigning them one by one, but a little script asking me which bitmap files are to be used for body, head, and transmaps would come in very handy if I make a variation on the bitmaps. It should be easy with a Python script, but I assume someone did this already.

Thank you both.

I had used that workaround before but images do not show up during posing, only during render.
In this case the background is important for the pose, so I wanted to use the background shader so I could see the background while posing.

OK, where is that start button for Photoshop?

In any case, thank you for responding,

B.

Message edited on: 11/13/2005 02:06

Check your monitor color settings for CS2.

If an undocumented feature of Poser is to allow launching of a Python script when loading an item from the library, would that not also mean it is possible launch a script with less honorable intentions, i.e that Poser is in principle susceptible to a Trojan Horse type attack with all power that Python brings? If it is, check your downloads, my dears, check your downloads. B.

For those searching: Page 372 of the Poser 6 manual and page 374 in the Poser 5 manual. B

The general name for all this suffering is 'Wealth Problem' ;) B.