After working with Smith Micro on this it was just decided that it was a bug that had to be fixed. Now they were to fix it in SR1 but apparently it didn't take. They are looking in to it but so far it seems that this bug is still around. The artifacts show up as unrenderd squares that pop up randomly, if anyone remembers this from Poser 5 & 7, it was a glitch that seemed to superimpose the geometry behind the camera onto the rendered image within the camera's view.

The tech at Smith Micro seems to think that this particular bug is a surface rendering problem and is confident that it can be repaired in the future. I must say that this is not a glitch that really impedes progress because it is so simple to fix. It is very hard to see the difference when a single frame is missing. I simply just delete the aberrant frame and all is well. I surely cannot see any difference save there are no glitched frames :)

Poser 7 rendered a single frame of this animation within 3:40 give or take a couple seconds. Poser 8 rendered this same image within 2:20 again, give or take a couple seconds. When you're animating a 300+ frame animation, these times make all the difference. So, you could use Poser 7 to do it and it will look great. however, the guy using Poser 8 will have already finished and be working on the next sequence. For me, I need to get my work done so speed is very important. Poser 8's only problem is that sometimes the finished animation can have artifacts. Simple to fix but even then, I am still ahead of the time Poser 7 would have left me at.

Lastly, If you're not animating for a living then don't worry about it.

I think the point about scene length is being missed here. I too use long, protracted shots but only when the scene requires it. Here is an example. Right now, I am animating a combat sequence where a sniper is firing upon many soldiers from a great distance away. The scenes are of the sniper as well as following the teams on the battlefield. There are only two protracted scenes, each lasting between 15 and 20 seconds. those being the scenes where the sniper adjusts, takes aim and fires (21 second, dramatic scene with muffled ambient sound, heart beating sound  and slow breathing) and the second being a mobilization towards the snipers position (15 second action with running and "Private Ryan" jittering camera). The "Fire and Impact" scenes would not be very intense if they were also long and drawn out. These scenes are very short as well as being visually intense.

The point I am trying to make is that you're not one of the MTV crowd if your using the appropriate length for your scene. Most scenes do not require 15 to 20 seconds to get the point across to the audience. BTW, I'm 44, I hate MTV and I have been making independent film for eighteen years now. Currently, I am attempting to acquire the rights to produce "Syndicate Wars" from EA Games. They have been sitting on that property for a decade now so it shouldn't be too difficult since they seem to have ZERO plans for it. Wish me luck.

My Poser 8 stopped crashing when I disabled my System Manager. System Mechanic searches for bad registry references and clutter on my computer. I deactivated it's auto-scan feature and the crashing problem went away... YAY. I have read here on R'osity that screen saver and hibernation functions can result in crashes, which is kind of obvious, but there can be little programs that probably interrupt Poser 8 and cause it to crash. I have never had a problem with System Mechanic until now. Does anyone here have Norton 360 installed on their system? That program, for me at least, was so protective of my computer it wouldn't even let me access files :D jk

I would think that Norton 360 would cause Poser 8 to cough up a lung before allowing it to render anything. Thoughts?

Actually, he's having a problem and trying to get an answer so your humor was poorly timed and unnecessary, not helpful in the least.

To the OP, check to see if your camera is slaved to a componant within the scene. It probably is not but you never know. Such a thing can cause camera weirdness.

Your problem, if it is memory related , can be fixed by rendering in a separate process. This usually resolve memory leakage since FFRender, while rendering separate from Poser, will open and close as necessary, thus Poser's memory usage remains steady. Though, FFRender can sometimes remain open and begin eating your memory if there are too many items in your scene that have a texture greater than 3000 x 3000. I don't know why and neither did E-frontier.

I stopped rendering out to individual Tiffs a long time ago simply because I hardly ever had issues with the finished product of the animation engine. Animating to Tiffs took more time due to the assembly process. I have found that if your scene is properly setup and when all is ready to be animated, simply setting every frame for every component in the scene as a key frame solves a lot of unexpected problems. I won first place for my 45 minute sci fi presentation, beating out others using high end programs. Their features were much shorter in length because of all the procedures that went into creating their projects. I can create so much more because I don't fiddle with what I have found to be unnecessary; Thus 45.2 minutes of footage as compared to 20 minutes. Of course, I was made fun of for using Poser 7, the runner ups saying things like "why would they give credit to a button pusher" and "you shouldn't win if you don't have to work at it". You get the idea. I guess they weren't paying any attention to the story, another thing I had more time to work on instead of model construction and frame by frame micro-assembly.

I had seen recently , a person here claiming that if you use the render engine of Poser to make your movie then you're "doom from the start". That simply is not true. Rendering to Tiffs is fine if you have the time for assembly and it appears that your project is personal and not professional... so you do have the time. Try it both ways and see what is best for you. As for the pre-editing advise, that is the most important thing you can ever do. My features include some long, panoramic shots lasting about 20 seconds (600 frames). I ONLY do this for the 'Awe' value or for when the scene must capture the audience. Otherwise, the shots are much shorter in length. It might seem like there would be no substance to a short shot but I can tell you from experience, a slew of long, protracted scenes will put you audience to sleep.

I think that Disney is really the Umbrella Corporation. If you don't believe me then just look at the audiences of their movies... Zombies, right? there you have it :)

Report it to Smith Micro, even if it seems silly. If it is silly then you will get a solution faster. If it's a bug then it's one more report for the service release team.

Quote - > Quote - I think that a persons Reponses say a lot about them and I like you because you cared enough to care what I thought. try finding that at the Xbox forums. So, no problems here :)

LOL. I'll keep in mind not to visit the Xbox forums. :biggrin:

It's scary sometimes what those people say to each other there.

no, no, no! it's "if 89% of people fall in the forrest 69% of the time, 72% can be heard saying "damn it" at least some of the time" :)

With one exception. Our argument is different than that of the Nay Sayers or the fan boys in that we are willing to confront based on our experiences. That other guy is correct. there are a lot of Poser haters out there and the App does get trashed a lot by people who don't understand how to use it. My point was that a crap shoot shouldn't be worth $130 and he should just wait. Can you imagine what Poser 8 can do once this program is cleaned up? It will fly. We both like this thing I just have to wait as where you don't. I think that a persons Reponses say a lot about them and I like you because you cared enough to care what I thought. try finding that at the Xbox forums. So, no problems here :)

Thus it's pointless to say "buy it" or "don't buy it."

Good enough for me but some are still trying to discuss something in a civil tone and I am feeling that this is going on too long. We are in agreement with the above statement. lets just leave it at that.

Never gave any numbers, did I? When did I do that?
 

Nobody here has any real experience with this program. It's only been out for a couple of weeks. You are no different then the nay Sayers concerning this fact. Why is it so bad to give advice that says there are problems so why not wait a bit? Wait for a service release. He has just as much of a chance of running in to the same problem as I did when I bought it. It's not crap to warn him. Now you tell me if he won't get this particular bug when He buys Poser 8? If you can do that then my entire rant is invalid. If you can't give me an absolute answer then my experience is just as valid as yours and not an act of pretending. He has every right to know All information he can obtain.

With this statement, I am through arguing the obvious.