It's definitely not legal to sell a modified obj of Mike. It is legal to sell just your modification to the obj of Mike. This can be done with Mover. Although I state in Mover's readme file that Mover is not for commercial use, I actually do provide permission if a) you ask nicely, and b) you are not a large corporation. However, it's still pretty difficult to achieve what you are after. The University of Glasgow has a very effective bit of harware/software for creating 3D meshes of real people, but it requires the actual person to sit in front of it, not just a few photographs. And no doubt they'd charge a few bob.

Just found my original post on the subject, way back in November 2000. What I said at the time was: A scale factor of 100 will preserve the object's scale if you have Max set to work in inches. If you're working in mm then you'll need a scale factor of 2540. If you are working in metres, fathoms, cubits, leagues, cm, furlongs or whatever, then you'll obviously need a different factor. Regards, Maz

As Jim Burton says, the most recent Habware exporter or importer (I can't remember which) screws up when using scales of anything other than 1:1 (last time I looked anyway). I have reported this to Habware, who in the past have rapidly introduced modifications when I've pointed out problems, but on this occasion the view was along the lines of, well, maybe one day we'll fix it, but don't hold your breath. Far be it from me to recommend objaction Scaler, since I wrote it, and I must point out that it only works on obj files, not 3DS. As for the scale factor, the optimum depends on whether you're using metric or imperial units in Max. I think it was me that posted on the subject a year or two ago and to be honest I can't remember what the number was. However, it's largely academic as long as you use the same factor in each direction and pick a number that works reasonably with your setup.

Hi Geep, After sending my post I decided to search for 'undocumented' in previous posts (should have done it first) and it showed this one way back in 2001, but I suspect a lot of people (like me) didn't know it anyway. There were a lot of other undocumented features listed as well, so I suggest everybody who doesn't know all the shortcuts does that search too. The most useful things I discovered were that much of this is in the on-line documentation (I assumed that the paper version would have it all but this is clearly not so) and the fact that alt-clicking on the names of the tool menus (doc style and tools) will flip them from horizontal to vertical and back again. This is something I have wanted to do for years and didn't realise it was possible all along. Now I can arrange the screen the way I really want it. Maz PS. Season's greetings to everyone.

It suddenly occurred to me what the problem was. My new installations on all three machines were straight from the disk out of the box. The earlier one was with the version 4.03 upgrade. I've just applied the upgrade to one of the problem installations and the problem has disappeared as if by magic. Why didn't I think of that in the first place? Duh! Maz

I've tried it on a third machine now, not connected to the network. This exhibits the same problem with teeth showing through the skin etc. I've also discovered that the one good installation lets me change the foreground colour in display modes 2 and 3 (outline and wireframe) whereas the three problematic installations will only let me have these modes in magenta. Could some of you guys out there try an experiment for me and see if Poser will let you change the foreground colour in outline and wireframe modes? I'd like a bit more background info before I tell Curious Labs that I think there's a problem. Thanks, Maz

Mason: No, it's definitely the same mode on both machines. The other cartoon mode doesn't have any lines at all. mateo sancarlos: Again no. You're thinking that I had clicked on the head, but that's not the case. The problem occurs everywhere on the body at the same time. Consequently the eyes and teeth show up inside the head, the ears show through the hair, the hands show up through the body and so on. It is as if the Poser rendering engine has a hidden-lines on/off switch, but as far as I know it hasn't. I'll try installing on a third machine later today to see what that does. I wonder if it's because the machines are networked and Poser just doesn't like having two instances of itself on the same network? Unlikely, because everything else about Poser seems OK, just this one annoying 'feature'.

I bet sherahbi looks better without the fur. Seriously though, Poser is good at posing naked people but it does start to struggle a bit when the figures are clothed. Maybe in a few years time when our computers are using Octium VI processors with dilithium crystal technology and bithrode demodulators, and we're running Poser 12, then clothed Poser figures will be photographically accurate. Till then I guess I'll have to stick with naked women. That's my excuse anyway. Maz

It should still be in Freestuff and it's certainly on my site. There's also now a French language version on www.rdv3d.com with the excellent translation (as far as I can tell, anyway) by A'kin. I'm only too happy if people want to put Mover (and indeed Scaler and 2 Face) on their own sites, as long as they credit me and include the readme (or lisez_moi for the French version). No need to ask permission. Maz

It doesn't have a spollchoker either. And anyway, it should be "@##&$%^&". This is the official spelling in the UK, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, South Africa and the EU official translators. The "@#&$%^&" spelling only applies in the USA and to certain tribes in Papua New Guinea. Incidentally, the EU (European Union) is planning to standardise (standardize) English spelling throughout Europe. A study by the University of Minnesota (Smith & Henkleman, 1983) identified an 83% redundancy in the written English language). These changes will be phased in over the next seven years. The first phase, in 2004, will see the elimination of double consonants which are the major contributor (38%) to English language redundancy. For example, in all official documents from March 2004 the word 'gullible' will be written 'gulible'. It is expected that this standard will be applied by the UN to all English speaking countries from 2007. That means you guys in the USA will have to spell like what we do too!!! Maz

PhoenixRising, Your second post reminds me of the guy who wrote in his CV (resume in US) that he was an expert 'poof reader'. If you're American and don't understand that, then e-mail me directly as I wouldn't want to embarrass the world at large. Maz

If it were less than 100 (UK pounds) then I'd buy it, warts and all. It was advertised on Amazon.com for $99 for a while, but then they changed it to $199. On Amazon.co.uk 1t was still about twelve million pounds. I exagerate a little bit, but the dollar-pound exchange rate for books, music and software is something that does tend to get me a bit annoyed. Maybe I'm just a mean old git, or perhaps it's time for my medication again. Maz

War has broken out in Iraq.

Gigaroc, Not sure what V_V means. No that's an understatement, I haven't a clue what it means. The overall effect is good, with no nasty Poser edge shading problems. Is it intentional that one of the openings seems to have a vertically sliding door partially open? Similarly, the two upper bits in the rear view are different. Is this intentional? The light grey shaded bit in the left hand upper bit doesn't seem to line up with the supposedly vertically sliding door. The vertical parts of the railings seem a bit too substantial (ie make them thinner) and I would expect them to be set back a couple of inches from the edge of the platform. It's not good engineering practice to have them glued to the outside face of the platform. They appear to be about 4 in width (100mm)in the x direction but of zero thickness in the z direction. This is unlikely. They are there, I assume, to stop people falling to their deaths when leaning on the railings. They therefore need to be stronger in the z direction than in the x direction. To comply with British building regulations the gaps between the vertical railings should be sufficiently close together to prevent a 150mm diameter sphere (about 6 ins) passing between them. Thanks for telling us that the grey things are gates. Unfortunately everything is a shade of grey of one sort or another! :-) It would help us to be more constructive if we knew what sort of building it was meant to be. At the very least, is it neolitiic, Roman, mediaeval, contemporary, futuristic, eastern, western or whatever? Better still, is it a prison, a castle, a brothel, a church a theatre, a cargo depot, a night club, a DIY super-store, a dog racing track, a police station, a multi screen cinema, a brewery, a pub, a school, or a Martian space station? Maz