Dialyn--you said something magic--research has always been a love of yours. Thinking from the business end of writing, I'd say you have a money-maker. There are lots of writers out there who hate to do research. Or they get bogged down in the research and never get the book or article written. In the writing field, it pays to know a qualified researcher. Denny

Thanks, Dialyn! I'm glad I have more time to participate here now. Looking forward to it. Denny

Hello!

Good one! Thanks, Dialyn! Denny

I have noticed a considerable speed up in my render time. What used to take about three hours takes me about half the time now. I really like the features, especially the variable light feature. Denny

Thanks, Debbie and Agiel--Yes, Debbie, please remove my link from the webring. I'm going to resubmit my new one. 'preciate it, Denny

Great environment! I would call it: Water Redemption Plant Denny

Are you loading the ldr tile image in the environment mapping, just as you would an HDR picture? How do I get to LDR Image based Lighting to set it in Vue 5? I'm not sure where the editing menu is or if it's a different one than the HDR environment mapping editor. Thanks, Denny

I think you have very good composition. I especially like the placement of the rocks on the right side. Tradivoro is correct about the use of lights. Even though the light is coming from behind the figures, you need to light them from the front side, so they can be seen. Of course, that's not realistic, but has to be done for the 'eye' of the viewer. My suggestion is to delete the lens flares. Personally, I don't use them, because they suggest that the picture is taken with a camera, since flares are reflections. Plus for me, they just make the final picture too busy. Hope that helps some. Good job with your image! Denny

I used Final setting. Come to think of it, I rendered another picture at Superior and didn't see any of these ragged edges. Does quality boost on the shadows help? Thanks, Denny

I'm a bit confused about the HDRI probe lights. I'm awaiting my new copy of Vue 5, so hopefully, these will make more sense when I get it. Are these light probes anything like half-dome HDRI set-ups in Bryce? I use a grouping of lights to create radiosity and soft shadows in my images. Also, I'm on a Mac. Will the .hdr files work for me? I'm downloading the St. Peter's HDRI as we speak. Thanks, Denny

I wouldn't change a thing. And I'm telling you this from experience. I've published 13 novels with NYC publishers and Hollywood optioned five of those books. I've taught creative writing for 30 years. (This is not a brag. I just want you to understand that I do know what I'm talking about.) This is the wonderful thing about fiction--our characters can be racist, can be misogenistic, can be downright disgusting. In fact, the more darkness you give them, the better. See, as a fiction writer, you want to emphasize the 'bad' because it makes the 'good' so much more potent. When you, as the writer, start to worry about what you have written, then you are focusing more on the audience than the message. Focusing on the audience dilutes your impact and you definitely do not want to do that. Pick any great character out there and you'll find a voice who speaks directly about society--from Captain Ahab to Lestat, the Vampire. Your characters are driven by the situation, so if you want to make a 'point of light,' then don't restrict them or your reader. Happy writing! Denny

Thanks, nruddock. I have to admit, all this is way beyond me. I hope DAZ can get me an easy fix. This is the first time I've tried a Python script, so I know zero about the process. Denny

Hi nruddock--I found a dz_mm.pyc under the rsc directory for Poser 5 (Runtime/Python/DAZ/MATManager/rsc/p5) Hope this provides some clues. Thanks! Denny

Thanks for the comeback. Unfortuantely, the Universal texture converter is for Windows only and I'm on a Mac. If I could figure out which file to import uvs from, I might be able to get Mike 2 stuff to work on a remapped Mike 3. But I'm stuck. Denny