The programs I use a lot that have OpenGL are Bryce and Vue. In both FWIW, both of those programs have horrible OpenGL implementations and should not be used as examples of the performance. In fact, it's so terrible they shouldn't even be able to claim they are using OpenGL! LOL I like Bryce and Vue, so please don't think I'm bashing them. To see OpenGL really being used right you need to look at Maya, Lightwave, C4D, and programs like that. Games also use OpenGL and DirectX, but in a somewhat different way. And you don't need a real monster video card to run it, but the more powerful the card the more you will get out of the implementation.

That's it. No OPENGL either. We're not really missing much without it. >REALLY. and Interesting. You may be right that anyone doing still work wouldn't gain much from OpenGL, but the lack of it for animators makes the tool virtually useless. Seriously.

Hey, here's a wild thought. How about some animation tools worth actually using? And a reasonable character set up method that doesn't take days and countless hoops to jump through. An entirely new animation system is really needed, with a character rig that can handle the complexity of real human motion without folding limbs in half via garish creases. Then that interface should go out the window, and a binary file format established so the models are reasonably sized to work with. Then they need to optimize the code so the program runs faster and more reliably. Then add openGL support, a built in UV editor, a texture painting engine and multi-processor support. Then it should ship on time, and sell for a reasonable price, and be available on multiple platforms. But that would be a whole new program then , wouldn't it! ; )

Yeah, this is good stuff. In fact, any animation that does not utilize these principles is garishly lacking. This is foundational material for any sort of animation, 2D or 3D.

I'm sure they mean that you only need Poser 5 if you care to use the import capabillities. A software company would never tie thier product to someone elses like that. (unless they make photoshop plug ins.)

Ah! If this is true, then many of us should not update our current instals of vue?

I have a question or two about the update. First - I assume that this update will still need a Poser application installed in order to import the files? I ask because it would be really cool to be able to delete Poser 4 from my Mac, yet still have import functionality of Poser files on the ocassion I need them, via Poser 4 files created on my PC. Any such luck? Or does the update just add the functionality for installed Poser 5 versions (which I will not be using, FWIW). Second - You mention an OSX version of this updated functionality. Being as there is no Poser 5 for Mac, can the Mac version of Vue import a Poser 5 file created on a PC? Thanks.

What's Poser? LOL!!!! Ok, really. I doubt they beta tested this alleged Mac version. But for the low, low price of too much money you can become one of those special few. There is just no way in the world I would ever pay money for that product.

Ah...forbidden words. Were you refering to my comment? The oh-so-horrible "C" word? Geez.... remind me never to come to this "C word" web site again in that case. LOL!

I think the real issue here is that we have a 4 year old or so product with nothing new. Bryce 5 wasn't really that much of an upgrade from Bryce 4, and everyone who wants this software probably already has it (for the most part). So how Corel expected to generate new sales off of an old product is beyond me. Not that I am personally interested in a Bryce 6, but Corel should have released a significantly new product a long time ago if they really wanted that product to remain viable. Now there are simply too many other competitors in or near the price range. Notice how all the products that came from Metacreations have either gone stagnant or simply dissapeared? I wonder if the code was so bad/old on all of those products that a "new version" of them would actually mean a complete re-write of all the code from the ground up? That would certainly be more expensive than an upgrade and would dictate the death of many of these products. And that crappy interface doesn't help sale any either! LOL

LOL! You probably could live in Powells! It's big enough that they probably wouldn't notice you still in there when they closed up for the night. hehehehe

Hehehe.... Starship Captain's do always seem to prefer blue women.

Hey, have a great trip and welcome to the Pacific North West! Your going to love it on the left coast. ; ) I'm right up the road from you in Seattle. If you come up be sure and stop by to say hello. Oh, and check out Powells book store in Portland, it's excellent! Positive traveling energy to you.

The bouncing looks too mechanical to me. Things in real life don't bounce at mathematically exact times and heights. Maybe use the script for blocking the animation but then try varying the keyframes a bit to make it look more natural. Also, some squash and stretch on that ball would help a lot, and you could try some ease in/out with speed.

Well, my own personal experience with using Poser for storytelling through animation is this: 1 - The real value in Poser lies in it's content, not the program itself. There are all these great characters, clothing and hair models around that make setting up characters for your animations very easy. But then.... 2 - Poser as a program alone offers nothing of benefit to an owner of Lightwave, Maya, C4D or other similar software. Poser's rendering engine is less capable and far slower, the lighting is harder to work with and more limited, no particle fx, no built in modeler for creating props, landscape, etc. In the end you get a character all dressed up with no where to go, stranded in Poser. Sure, you could make props in your other 3D app and import them into Poser but the set up time required to do this is usually long and hard enough that I am better off bringing the raw Poser character into Lightwave and setting it up natively there. Add to that the extra time poser takes to render at a lower quality (and without options like cell shading, multi-processor rendering, OSX support, etc) and the whole process is simply not worth the time. 3 - The final stumbling block for me was always the animation controls. I personally find Poser very clumsy and slow to work with when animating so I simply don't use it's animation tools any more than necessary. Also, the default rigs produce ripping and creasing in the model, which is simply unacceptable. It kills me having all this great content at my fingertips yet not being able to use it for any of my animated stories. Solutions? I have only found two that work for me. The first one is to bring Poser character meshes into Lightwave or Maya and set them up with a whole new animation rig. It takes some time but will end up being a character that can be reused in a better workflow for me. The second solution I am hoping to find in DAZ Studio when it is released. If Studio is everything they claim it will be then I will have a modern, fast tool to use this great content in with a quality output and hopefully a much better level of integration with other applications. Of course, if you can live without all the characters and clothes and can model them yourself, no need at all for Poser or it's content. That being said, Poser is still capable of creating great animated stories for a user, assuming that user has some story telling skills to begin with and applies them through patience and perseverance. BTW, for what it's worth, I think a storyboard and animatic are crucial building blocks for any animated story of any length! I would wholeheartedly recommend making them. Best of luck to you!