I've read a few messages on here that start with "I'm an idiot,.."

So it's my turn,..

I'm an idiot.  For the focus distance guide to work properly, you must have the camera set to POINT AT the object you want to apply DOF.

The DOF guide lines will then appear with the correct orientation to the object your camera is aimed at.

I suppose, you could also do this dynamically, by having the camera POINT AT a primitive sphere.  Then the DOF would be oriented wherever the sphere is placed on the subject.  Just make sure the sphere is set to raytrace invisible before rendering.

BTW, I did notice that with extreme perspective, the preview camera is way off from the render.

Thanks for all your help everyone. :)

CG

OK so I realize now that the focus distance prop is at a SET location.  So going forward, I have to align my subject/scene to the location of the Focus Distance Guide and THEN do adjustments.  Annoying but it works.

OK so I was able to see the Focus Distance Guide, but I had to zoom way out from my subject.  If I zoom in (no matter what camera I use), the focus distance guide disappears.

I never change the camera names and I've verified this is true in the current project.  I've been using the focus distance dial.  The render shows that this is having an effect, but the guide is simply not showing up.

Thanks for your input though, I do appreciate it.

I remember reading an interview with Ken Ralston (when he was with ILM) and one thing he noted was that good lighting will make even a lump of shit look good.

This typically happens if you've somehow modified the obj so that it contains more poly's than the original.  You can only move polys around, you cannot add additional poly's to an object and then use it as a morph target.

Peace,
                    CG

I've been using the sp3 rc2 as well.  Generally, it's a little bit faster.  Any issues I've ever had with poser was more with the ati graphics card drivers than anything else.

Peace,
                CG

I typically base my purchase on the intent.  As for these apps (c4d, cararra, max,...etc) I'm more interested in the quality of the renderer.

C4D's phong shader I really like.  The raytrace output is quite good too.

I purchased C4D specifically because of that as well as a few other aspects.

Depends on the "look" of the output that you are most comfortable with I suppose.

Regards,
                  CG

Quote - IPP has one flaw in that it seems to have a little trouble interpolating "smooth" spline animations from Poser to Cinema 4D--it tends to flatten the curves out an make the moves jerky--but that can be generally fixed by making sure that you have a keyframe for each frame of the animation for each part that moves before exporting the animation from Poser.

Tvining,

If you take your poser anim, export it as a BVH and then re-import it, you'll see that every element of the figure is then keyframed on every frame.  So that is a quick workaround for you (and others if this is of interest to you).

Kuro, thanks for the info on how C4D's key system differs from Poser.  I've generally liked C4D's results with keyframing.  The advantage of Poser is that the UI is more intuitive to,...well, posing.

Peace,

                   CG

tvining,

Thanks for the additional PPro info.  I didn't know interposer has an issue with bézier keys.  Have you tried the hosting plugin PPro provides for C4D?

Regards,
                     CG

I have had this problem before as well.  The "factory default" function did not resolve the issue.  I had to delete the prefs file.  Essentially resetting the size and placement of interface elements completely.

Do a search on the forum about deleting the prefs file.  That should solve your issue.

waiting for the demo before buying,....

Quote - Well the cost of Cinema4D + interPoser really puts it on a completely different table from Poser Pro .

Remember, PPRO comes with a hosting plugin for C4D.  By including this feature, the devs are stating that PPRO can be part of a pipeline.

The review nicely touches on the speed and stability of the app.

And my comment is in regards to the quality of that included C4D hosting plug vs having say, P7, interposer, and C4D (best suited for a different thread possibly).

No insult to the original reviewer intended.

Peace,
              CG

That's an interesting render.  I recently have looked into interposer as an alternative to Poser Pro.  A friend showed me C4D's render of an interposer import into C4d.  It makes poser content look really outstanding and that's without any mods to the materials after being imported.  I'd have to try Poser Pro's solution before making a final decision though.

Unfortunately, I have to BUY the app before I can tell what the quality of import is like.

**aeilkema,

Thanks for the review.  You hit on enough points to satisfy my curiosity about PPro for the moment.

-G
**