Hi As the guy who made the QS's, I'd better chime in (if any QS buyer feels misinformed, do get in touch - my e-mail's in the ReadMe's). Making a clothing item from a QS mesh means - Getting a copy of the QS mesh into any 3D app that has at least one file format in common with Poser (Poser itself can do OBJ -> 3DS and many other formats) - Removing the parts of the mesh you don't want (i.e. no legs for a jacket) and shaping the rest to your purpose (wrinkles, buttons etc.) - Getting the modified mesh from 3D app to Poser - Cutting up the mesh with the grouping tool (naming groups standard body part names, i.e. neck, chest, collar etc.) and saving as OBJ - Copying a CR2 from an existing Poser clothing item and changing the file reference to point to your new mesh The method itself is old news - a QS simply saves you the hassle of making a base OBJ from scratch, or struggling with unwanted detail (muscles, nipples, wrinkles) on the base OBJs from the standard Poser figures. It is also copyright-free (except in unmodified form), meaning that you can legally distribute the modified mesh + info on which CR2 to copy and re-point. The tutorial walks you through a sample project including all of the above steps. You do need a 3D app, almost any 3D app (see above). You need CR2's from existing clothes items - if you have Poser, you have plenty. And you need a text editor - if you have a computer, you have one ;-) I'll get in touch with Zyg asap. Cheers, thip

Can't check the user guide, I'm only toying with the free tryout d/l. But the advice you two offered was all I needed for the soft shadows. Found'em, tried'em, cursed'em ;-) Seriously, as long as I'm working on ancient PII/233, I'd be drawing my pension before any pic with really soft shadows finished rendering. Can't stop toying with Vue, though. If Bryce becomes history, Vue will be a sweet substitute - maybe even if Bryce stays with us. Thanks for helping me out. Have fun

Hi, Marque I see you've already picked up the mesh from the store and thus supported our favorite website - thanks for your interest. As Diane says, the QuickSuit mesh can be manipulated in any 3D app that'll open OBJs. Actually, you can even use a 3D app that WON'T open OBJs - as long as it has at least one file format in common with Poser. Just open the mesh in Poser, export in the common format, and open in your 3D app. Reverse the procedure to get the modified mesh back into Poser. Exporting to other file formats may triangulate the mesh and thus make it more vertex-heavy and more of a hassle to manipulate, but it still saves you from doing everything from scratch in the first place. Have fun

Hi mila Damn, I was afraid someone would ask that question ;-) Seriously, thanks for your interest. QuickSuits for Vicki and Mike? Well, I'm waiting for Zyg to provide us with Mike's clothing pak. You see, in the QuickSuit tutorials, I recommend using existing CR2 files to set up conforming clothing (clothes are fun - CR2s are not!) As an example: when making a QS-based jacket, you copy the CR2 from the P4 sweater and point it at the new OBJ for your QS-based jacket This is OK when you are making the jacket for your own use, but not OK if you want to post/sell it (CR2s are copyrighted). But you can post/sell the QS-based jacket OBJ with a readme specifying which CR2 is needed. This way, only those who own the sweater whose CR2 is needed can use your OBJ. No problem to any happy owner of P4, as it came with a generous supply of Zyg clothing, with all the CR2's anyone would need (no problem for illegal owners either, but they broke the law by pirating Poser, not your OBJ). All this means that QS's for Vicki and Mike will only be of use to the happy owners of Vicki, Mike and their clothes paks - all of which I'd heartily recommend, being a great Zyg fan. Mike doesn't even have a pair of UNDERPANTS yet, but I could get started on a QS for Vicki. In the immortal words of Arnold : - I'll be back.

Hi, Communion Dan Wilmes' Cr2Edit has a tool meant for just such parameter copying. Have fun

Hi, Brycetech - my two cents worth for Corel: As a hopelessly addicted Bryce user, I implore Corel to respect the program - and the sales opportunities such a respect will bring. Bryce has long been a favorite not only of its die-hard fans, but also of a vast number of occasional users (both pros and amateurs) who use it to provide their pictures with that special, enigmatic something which is peculiar to Bryce, the sheer visual beauty it gives to every render (two random checks could be tgs.com Amapi gallery or almost any issue of Computer Arts magazine). Bryce has plenty of room for improvement, to be sure. Vegetation, a faster renderer, more and better import options and infinite lights, to name a few. Anyone wanting to improve the program will have access to a ready-made, detailed wish list at Renderosity.com, just to name one place to check. Moreover, Bryce has a dedicated, highly knowledgeable user community who will be more than ready to provide suggestions and beta testing, given half the chance. But please: don't rush it. Good things are worth waiting for - if they ARE good! In the meantime, Bryce can be improved with very little tampering with the core program, simply by adding more and better import filters, more and better presets and library organization (such code exists already in the user comm), and perhaps by offering a bundling deal on vegetation (and other) tex/tran maps such as those of Marlinstudios or Gardenhose (I have no commercial interest in suggesting this, they are simply the only ones I know of). Bryce's handlling of pict tex's is second to none, and this aspect of the program is both one the most potent and the most under-used parts of it. One that would also tie in perfectly with the 2D capabilities of other Corel programs, by the way! Given such short- and long-term updates, Bryce would be a must-buy for the die-hards and a very attractive extra for the occasional users. Plus which, Bryce has been the first, seductive step from traditional to digital art for many an artist - yours truly among them - so there are armies of new users waiting in the wings, if only Bryce is allowed to grow to its full potential. Cheers, Thomas aka thip

Had a similar problem once. These settings might be a good place to start - notice the scaling in the neck: Head: twist -55 Neck: twist -22 bend -44 YSCALE 88 ZSCALE 66 <<===== !!!! Collar: bend -44 Shoulder: twist +99 front/back +55 bend +88 ...and you'll need to cover the neck to hide the folds in the geometry (or postprocess it). I used a woman's turtleneck (you really only need the collar), set to scale 155 and bend -11. Getting a good camera angle helps a lot, too. And where did you get that gorgeous hair? Have fun

But, soft! what light through yonder window breaks? It is the east, and Juliet is the sun!- The rest is silence :-) thip

When "hi-jacking" CR2s, it seems to be a good idea to position the clothes obj to the figure's obj instead of the figure as loaded from the library. Briefly you: o Bring the clothes obj into Poser and group, according to the intended figure (naming the groups as in the intended CR2, and all that) o Bring the figure's OBJ (e.g. horse.obj) into Poser (all opts off, no sixing or moving!) o Size and position the clothes obj as closely as possible to the figure obj o Export the OBJ o Copy the figure's CR2, and point it at the clothes obj Good luck, thip

If your WS is short on RAM, you might try rendering the thing piecemeal, doing a mask render with each render, and compositing the thing later in Photoshop or Paint Shop Pro - it's a little extra work, but it usually does the trick. And I'd hate to miss that picture. Have fun

arabinowitz: All my (admittedly few) pics are done in Bryce. Check the tex settings on your figures when in Bryce - the diffuse setting especially. If it's less than 100, the colors will be correspondingly grayish. And the ambient and specular settings should either be set to the texture OR be carefully controlled. And by the way, IronBear - that lady could be all gray and still be welcome to guard MY temple :-) thip

Hi, Arcady You can "3D scan" any object manually in any 3D app that can do booleans, vertex manipulation and spin objects by a precise number of degrees. It's tweaking, but at least it's very easy tweaking. I use TrueSpace, but any 3D app with the above tools will do. o Open your object in orthogonal front or side view o Make a cylinder with 18 or 36 points on the circular cross-section (or any other number that will divide nicely into 360). The number of "floors" or cross-sectons of the cylinder is up to you. More floors, more precision, more work. o Line up object and cylinder so that they have the Y axis in the same position o Copy the object and hide the copy (move away, save object, whatever) o Subtract a couple of cubes from your object, leaving only the thinnest possible slice with "the broadside" facing you o Use your vertex manip tools to conform the outermost column of vertices on both sides of the cylinder with the object slice o Delete the slice and get a new copy of the object into position o Spin object and cylinder 10 degrees if your cylinder has 36 points - 20 degrees if you have 18 o Slice the object and line up the outermost vertices etc. o Continue spinning, slicing and conforming until you have conformed the cylinder to the object. Depending on your 3D app, you may only have to conform half the cylinder - just copy, mirror and join to get the other half. Have fun

Hi, Carolyn, From my experience with Amapi 3-4 and Truespace 2-4, I'd strongly recommend Truespace for organic work. Truespace v. 3 has a great renderer and offers both sculpting, NURBS, metaballs and a very strong set of vertex manipulation tools - not to mention quite a few great plugins for organic work. Amapi has a reasonable renderer and reasonably good vertex manip.s, only simulated NURBS, and no metaballs. And you won't get Amapi for $99. And no, I'm not working for Caligari :-) Have fun

Any chance of a slightly more detailed description, Mason? It sounds damn important to propsaholics like, well, yours truly :-)

Mask Render in Bryce is essentially like the silhouette style you can choose for the working window in Poser. It's very handy if for example you want to combine different renders of your main figure(s) and your background (e.g. rendered figures and photo background). It's also a good way to circumvent RAM shortage, as you can render your scene piecemeal (each piece with a mask) and composite later. To mask Render, you o Select the object(s) you want to mask render o Click the render options triangle on the lower left side of the scene window o Choose Mask Render o Render - it makes a silhouette style pic o Take the Mask Render oic into Photoshop or Paint Shop Pro and use as channel or selection Have fun