I was one of the beta testers for Mimic 2. It is sooooo faaarrrr advanced from Mimic 1, you won't even recognize it as the same program. Of the two progs, I would definitely get Pro - you won't believe the feature set! -scara

I am at a loss for words. I can't ever thank you enough for all that you and your team have done for my school's fledgling computer graphics and animation program. Without Poser to bring a child's imagination to life - well, if you ever doubted, all you have to do is replay the student project CD. I'll have a new one this coming June for you. Please send me your new mailing address after the dust clears. You will always be remembered for your support and generosity. Best wishes to you, Karen and all of your team. -scara

Hi, obsessed! Go to the LightWave forum for my short tutorial response to your post.

Currently I am working on lesson plans for public school instructors to teach Poser to students in the middle school grades (grades 6-8). When I am finished, kupa has stated that he will make the files available on the CL web site. Perhaps a "student-only" chat room might be a good idea at CL, if kupa goes along with it. I know that my students would love to share their ideas and techniques with other like-minded students. - scara

I find long diatribes like this utterly fascinating, and normally do not get involved in some of the more lengthy ones. However, I would like to point out that the good folks at DAZ (with whom I have no affiliation - except that they have consumed much of my plastic in the past)use LIGHTWAVE - not only for rendering, but also for animations. I have personally successfully used Poser 4 characters with and without animation in LW 7.5 on both PC and Mac and have written tutorials on how to do it. Get a copy of LW 5, 6, 6.5, 7, or 7.5 - the Poser->LW plug-in works fine with all of those versions. You don't import Poser figures saved as .obj, .dxf, .txt or whatever alphabet soup into LW - you open the .pz3 files, just like within Poser. LW, with the aid of the CL plug-in, translates the figures into native .lwo objects and .lws scenes. If you don't like the herky-jerky walk (which may smooth out in LW), design your own in LW and then animate. Ok, back to my hole under Middle Earth now... -scara

I'll go out on a limb (better be a real stout one!) and venture a guess that kupa's gonna release it on September 17th - which is a Tuesday in my book! September 10th would fall before the 15th quite naturally, too. -scara

My students beta'd the Mac product, and it works fine in OS 9, 9.1, 9.2, 9.2.2, 10.1, and 10.1.2. Make sure that you do not exceed the 64-character path limit. The best way to install MacMimic is to put it on the highest directory level - not the Desktop, but in the main Macintosh HD folder, e.g., Macintosh HD:Mimic It is also best to do the same thing with your Poser install. And I think you already know that you have to keep the CD in at all times. No, it does not work with either Virtual PC v3 or v4. One last item - make sure you are using the latest CarbonLib extension. -scara

If they do, then Tuesday is any day of the week... PS - just wondering when I'll hear about my kids working on the Mac beta?! The new school year is just about ready to start...

I just bought the product, thinking it would work with the standard Poser 4 characters. However, the ReadMe (available only after installation) states : "Morphos will work with the following: Victoria 1 and 2, Michael 1 and 2, Stephanie, Preteen Vicki, Preschool Vicki, Preteen Boy, Preschool Boy, and the Millenium Baby." So, since I only have Stephanie on my home PC, and do not have the wherewithal to purchase other figures in quantity from DAZ to outfit my students' computers, I guess I'll have to pass on this one. It works ok with my home PC, but that's as far as it can go. I can't kick at the price, but a little more info up-front on what figures it will/won't work with would be nice. -scara

Dan: I echo VirtualSite's comment about the Mac availability - my students beta'd the product on our iMacs, so we know it exists as a gold product. BTW - from your site today: "This product is currently not avaailable in Macintosh Format" I think you ought to have your web guys use the spell check. -scara

Well, CL could distribute the manual within an exe loader that searches your hard drive for a legit copy of P4 or PPP and then ask for your registered serial number to unlock it. Or, since all of us have registered copies, just send the manual if we respond in an email with our serial number in the subject line. There are a lot of vendors out there who will send you to a protected, password-locked site to download the product you purchased. I just purchased IFW2 textures for Mac LW7.5 from Richard Jennings and that's what happened. Another instance was when I beta-tested Ozone 2 for e-on software for LightWave. I was given a secure site to download the product, but I had to give them my hardware lock to obtain a serial number to install and use the plug-in. Just my $.02US - now back to my hole under Middle Earth for a while...

Be forewarned that the preferred way of "Blender"ing is to use a three-button mouse. You would be well advised to pick up the official Blender 2 User Guide - you can get it at Barnes and Noble or Borders Booksellers online. There is, indeed, a steep learning curve - think of Lightwave with all the toolbars located on the bottom of the default quad view. -scara

I'm rather partial to LightWave, but that's only because I have the academic versions for both platforms. I've played with Vue v2 (but haven't upgraded to v4), and have beta-tested Ozone (e-on software's atmospheric plugin for LW). Vue is FAR easier to learn than LightWave, but LW is FAR more powerful. It all depends on what YOU want to accomplish, NOT what is in vogue or what others think is best. -scara

Just lurking in the background and watching everything everyone has had to say... The California Dreaming thread is now up to 245 replies - that's gotta be some record here. Man, there are some things I'd love to say, like the planned LE (limited edition)version...but I can't...just yet...

I haven't read anything to this effect yet but here's just my $.02US for the Mac beta testers out there: When we were beta testing LipSinc's Mimic for Macintosh, they informed us that you could not exceed a 64 character path name for either their Mimic or Curious Labs' Poser products. As soon as I moved the Mimic folder to either the Desktop or to a higher level on the hard drive, all file access problems by Mimic and/or Poser disappeared.