Go to free stuff (link in the column on the right side of this page). Choose "Bryce" and make a search for keyword "tree". You might also want to check out the freebies at www.gardenhose.com and www.marlinstudios.com ...and if you're really into trees, you might want to consider Vue (or waiting for Bryce 5 - there are rumours of vegetations support). Have fun.

IMHO, an essential point is missed in the excellent comments above, although JKeller is damn close. The essential point of Poser is to provide for 3D animation what HTML has provided for the internet: a standard format for integrating and orchestrating content. Just as you can integrate text, sound and images with HTML for use in any browser, you can integrate 3D content from any number of 3D apps easily with Poser. All you have to do is "package" your contribution according to the Poser standard, and away you go. I know of no other packages that allow you to simply load pre-baked content from a dozen different sources and use it straight away - and I've tried out a lot of packages, and read a lot about even more of them. If I see the trend correctly, the 3D scene is fragmenting and specializing just like the rest of the IT business. Noone can be a jack-of-all trades any more, and many studios use more and more ready-made content from outside sources, such as mocap files, "clipart" models from model banks, and so on. Most, if not all, of the existing 3D apps, from Maya downwards, are not designed for this "object-oriented" approach. I think Poser has the potential to be the HTML of the 3D world. Poser is not the perfect answer, just as HTML was not - but just compare the internet before and after HTML to see the impact such an integrations feature can have. That seems to be why Curious concentrated on offering this easy integration to the big boys in PPP, instead of going for Poser 5. It may also be why Poser savvy just might be a selling point on you resume in the not too distant future. I know that almost all the animations you see in magazine articles are done with Maya and the other greats - but when looking at all of those that include figures, I can't help comparing them to the imagery seen in the forum galleries and think : where was Poser when those Maya and Max animators needed it? ;-)

Nomad - I agree with you that a 100% all-in-it-together forum would be ideal. Just never existed, and most likely never will. I've been a member for about as long as you have. I've done my bit of bickering, but the last time everyone buried the war axes, I buried mine for good. My advice would be to live and let live, and try to give credit where it's due. Don't take part in the "e-fights", just state your opinion if you have one, and leave them to fight it out. My 2 cents worth on the warez issue is that warez are a fact of life. You can build up an impressive toolbox just using the stuff given away on magazine CDs (I use my free copy of Amapi as much as my paid-for copy of TrueSpace), but some people just can't resist the challenge or temptation to get everything for nothing. Unfortunately that may drive the creators out of business, and I want to see Curious continue to develop Poser, I want to see DAZ make new models, I want to see more exciting stuff from Anton and the other greats. If that means putting up with (and if possible supporting) the occasional anti-warez campaign, I'll do it. I may have my own opinion of the way those campaigns are sometimes fought, but the essential issue is that some people (like Anton) put a lot of time and work into their stuff, and they can't pay their rent with praise, or warez ratings ;-)

Fantastic stuff, Lyrra. If you're looking for inspiration for medieval/renaissance style clothing, I can heartily recommend http://www.renaissancemagazine.com/links.html - it's a treasure trove of info, images and inspiration. And you must tell me : what do you use for UVmapping? It looks just perfect.

Max is outta the price range of mere mortals such as myself, but while searching for unwrappers I came across several tuto's on Max unwrap - try this : http://www.chuggnut.demon.co.uk/tutorials/unwrap/unwrap.html A net search for "unwrap & max & uv & map" usually turned up less than 50 hits, so that'd be worth a try, too. Hope you find the info you need.

Poser Pro Pack is an add-on package to Poser that (among other things) makes figure setup and plugging Poser into Max far easier. Have a look at www.curiouslabs.com. Tuto is on its way. Have fun!

Basic method : o Build clothes/figures mesh in your 3D app (i.e. Max) o Import into Poser (resize and fit clothes around a zeroed target figure) o Use grouping tool to "slice" into groups o If using Poser Pro Pack use setup room to create figure o If NOT using PPP save sliced mesh, copy an existing CR2 file and change the OBJ reference to point to your new mesh (but in this case you can't sell or give away the figure!) o Open OBJ in UVmapper and create tex template - save both o Open template in Paint Shop Pro and make texture o ...and try out your figure, and fine-tune, fine-tune, fine-tune.... Tutorials for all the above steps are available at the "Tutorials" link in the menu column on the right of this very page, as well as on many of the "Web Ring" links. Any problem encountered along the way can be presented to 50.000 fellow users on this forum ;-) PS : If you'll post your e-mail address, I can mail you a copy of a walkthrough tutorial that takes you through all the above steps (for non-PPP users) except tex'ing. Have fun!

I'm sure a lot of the wiz's here - and some of the amateurs, such as myself ;-) - will be glad to offer some advice. But it will be a lot easier if you could be more specific as to what tools you're going to use (for modeling, texturing/UV-ing, rendering, animation etc.).

You could always call yourself "The Artist Formerly Known As Fasttraxx" ;-)

Could you be more specific? Does it break up when it is imported? Or when you've made it a figure and start posing it? The manual strongly advises using ungrouped "all-in-one" meshes as a starting point when making figures, and even with PPP's quick-and-easy figure setup, some joint tuning is called for.

Hi, marcob - and hi, all 2 cents' worth (anyone know the origin of that phrase, BTW?) 3D skills : film, game and commercials producers often say that they prefer to hire artistic types and teach them the programming they need than vice versa. They also say that cinematic skills are more important than actual 3D app knowhow. Over time, computers tend to transfer all the "donkey work" of any activity to the machine, leaving to us the essentially human skills of figuring things out, getting ideas, and choosing between alternate possibilities. Doesn't matter if we're talking about making pictures or making programs - anything that can be automated will be automated, making the "craft skills" redundant. My advice would be to see tools as just that : tools (be it programming or 3D apps) and focus more on ideas and content. Polys and tex'es : bandwith, and the price of it, seems to follow Moore's law as closely as hardware and software does. But as long as internet surfing is harder and less interesting than watching TV, the masses will stay away. Without interesting content and an easy-to-learn, user-friendly interface, no amount of 3D flimflam will keep them on your site. If your flimflam is low-poly and small-tex it may load fast enough to keep them away from the "back" button, but if you have nothing worthwhile to offer, they'll never be back once they're gone. My advice : concentrate on content and user-friendliness. If VRML, streaming and all the rest improve those qualities, fine, if not - you're wasting your time. Copyright : anything that can be pirated will be pirated. Warez will be warez. Putting only rendered images and animations on the net keeps it impossible to capture the 3D models "behind" them. That's the only way to keep them secure (and the dedicated hacker may yet invade your machine via the net....!) My advice : if you don't want to lose it, don't use it. But if you're real good at getting and realizing new ideas, you can rest assured that whatever they steal today, you can do better tomorrow. In conclusion, I think that new technologies, no matter how fascinating, are largely irrelevant to the issue of whether or not people and communities like R'osity will survive. The "right stuff" is creativity, so my advice would be to cultivate that, and let technical savvy stay a "support function". Technology can make creativity more productive, that's all. And I'm not against technology (heck, I'm a mainframe systems programmer by trade, and I spend most of my spare time fooling around with my PC). I'm just against thinking that technology itself will make or break anything. Cheers, thip

Best wishes, Rena, and do return soon. You're one of those who personify the community spirit of giving. Take care, thip

Hi, all Great to see the last word's not said yet. Mocap: I merely said that the TEMPLATES for UV that you can get from BodyPaint are useless outside BP. As you can see in Mocap's post 12 above, the UV map is so fragmented that noone could make sense of it outside BP. Of course this is not true if the object you paint already has a nice optimized UVmap, as is the case with the official Poser figures. But try optimal-mapping a self-made object and you'll see what I mean 8-( PoserPro, you lucky devil: you're even more evil than JeffH ;-) Much as I'd love to, an amateur such as myself can't afford apps such as Deep Paint, let alone 3DS Max :-( My tools are Poser, Bryce, TrueSpace and a magazine freebie copy of Amapi (seems to be the arsenal of quite a few people on the forum). Maybe I should try selling something in the forums to earn some money for software - but to do that I need the knowhow to make decent UVs for my stuff.... ;-) Whines...I mean cheers, thip

Thanx loads for all your info, gals and guys. It seems that a lot of people other than me are fighting the good fight against unsatisfactory UV's. I gather there's basically three solutions: o Use UVmapper, a bit of ingenuity and a lot of hard work o Empty your bank account and buy BodyPaint (and accept the fact that no non-BP user can use the UV templates) o Empty your bank and buy Deep Paint + Tex weps - and you'll need some ingenuity to use the results. On balance, I think I'll go for BodyPaint. Now I'll just have to spend some time filling up my bank account before emtpying it. Thanx, all. Cheers, thip