cool. thanks a lot. i don't know how you know this stuff.

i appreciate having a starting point because poser is such a mystery to me.

i have an external app i use to control poser and killing it is fine for me, however, i thought others that don't use task manager might want to use some of the scripts

in the interim, i made a script that sits on the desktop that closes poser with a click.

sometime i click it just for fun and maybe to get even.

i really hate it when there are several texture links and poser just keeps going on and on asking me to locate them. (maybe i am a little on the impatient side.)

hi nruddock

i am not rendering all the time if that makes a difference.

i load a pz3, render, and then save the png file before continuing on..

does that make a difference? i use sleep in the cycle, too.

i have used callbacks but didn't see anything on user input.

i purchased a subscription last month after getting positive feedback here on the forum.

i purchase stuff from renderosity, daz, and cp. i am happy with the purchases i have made and the way i have been treated and will continue to do business with them.

what is different about poserworld is that it seems personal. besides the good stuff i've gotten, i really like dealing with people i know. (of course $5 a month could alternatively buy a six pack, a trip to macdonalds or a cabbage and a package of carrots.) 
 

WOW!

Teyon, thanks for your interest and thoughts.

i did in fact increase the shadow map size and even increased the ground size. i am not very experienced using poser, so i have modified everything that might possibly have an effect. that has led me to explore new things and so there has been benefits to the situation.

i have been trying to master the basic layout of poser and the 3d space and have yet to fully ring out things like lights and cameras. other than reading, i haven't even begun to consider shaders or actually creating a mesh. lighting is probably my next intense exploration. i do have one strong weapon and that is what i have learned about using python. it allows me to try more combinations and see the results more easily.

your suggestion of using 2 lights for shadows seems worth exploring. i do have 2 lights for filling in that don't render shadows. i purchased a couple of light sets but they didn't please me, so i made some modifications to the one that was closest to what i think i need.

i am making clip art to be combined outside of poser and really need only one effective lighting scheme at this point. i want all my clipart to share a consistent lighting for now. i have many single characters and props in my library and as i learn more, i can re-render everything to reflect that. my main goal right now is to enlarge the library of pz3's.

i took a peak at your bio. it is interesting as are your creations. i think that you follow your heart and that is a good thing. most people are bound to their conceived obligations and the expectations of others.

thanks for sharing your experience, raven.

i am using shadow mapped shadows. (???)

your home page says: "it's all paid for (3d software), and better than blowing it down the pub".

that gives me an idea. i am generating clip art for a kids' graphics program and they probably won't notice. maybe i should just accept it and go down to the pub instead of fretting about it.

the amiga was really awesome. i nearly bought one but i was writing software for pc's.

hi nruddock. thanks for stopping by.

there is glass in the model. i removed all the materials and i still get the same result. then i closed poser, removed the texture cache files and rebooted to insure nothing was hanging around. i still get the same thing but the truck looks pretty cool being all white with opaque windows.

the only thing that is different from my previous renders is that i changed the shadow parameter on the light that has shadow to .67. i have the same settings on a horse and it did not have the problem.

what can i try? can i minimize the effect in some way.

Eastern Dragon Poses is 4.88 at DAZ...

thanks for all the information. i think for now i am set to go. when i get my entire system together as a beta, i will be in a better position to tweak the lighting, render settings, etc.

i was looking at the "shadowcatcher" you developed. it looks like an interesting way to do things. having something that has meaning to me to dissect seems like a good starting point. the poser documentation doesn't seem too clear. i hadn't heard of it outside of poser. what is the general technology called if i want to get more information?

you were talking about methods of compositing. i gave links to collage images that are a composite of poser pngs over a jpeg background. how do they seem? i am not an artist. i have developed a number of technical routines for graphics that i use. collage uses an entirely different way that avoids much of the technical stuff. i do have the capability of doing thumbnails but i was trying to use easythumbs because it works, it's free and if i distribute the development part of my system, i don't have to deal with packaging, documentation, and answering questions. for trimming the pngs files, i am using a very efficient utility that has a command line interface. i am semi-retired and not up for developing a png routine from scratch.

i was noticing a rendering artifact in my testing. it has nothing to do with this thread but you might want to take a look anyway. you will notice that the utility i am using to crop the images is having a problem with the black background even though i set the threshold up a bit.

www.bestlogic.com/collage/pics/2008-01-31-00-15-29-PST.jpg

your help has been very valuable. i am looking forward to studying all the stuff you have shared on the forum. i also need to look at other 3d programs. i have beginner copies of vue and carrara and i have fooled around with others in the past.

the shadows are now consistent, the technology is incorporated in my rendering script and with some tweaking, i was able to render over the background and get gray in my thumbnails. the best part is that what i have seen has opened up some new possibilities.

www.bestlogic.com/collage/pics/2008-01-30-02-22-42-PST.jpg
www.bestlogic.com/collage/pics/2008-01-30-05-27-09-PST.jpg

bagginsbill: it worked!

your instructions were very clear. thank you.

i have a couple of details to work out. rendering over black puts black into the hidden channel. i have had great difficulty processing png's and most graphics programs don't do that well. i have my own graphics library but i don't know how to do png's. i found a utility that crops the images in batch mode. the only thing that works well for making thumbnails for menus is easythumbs, but it reveals the hidden channel so that the thumbnails have a black background. i was able to render over the light-gray i use and i tried white, but the shadow has a blue cast to it. i can live with the black background. it's not a show stopper.

the other thing i am working on is converting the 1000+ pz3 files i have. i pretty well have that worked out. being a lazy programmer, i always like to get the computer to do it while i sleep.

i was worried that the render time might increase. i haven't timed it but it appears that there is little or no difference.

this has been a great success and without your help, i would never have guessed what to do or even how to begin. again, thank you.

you said in the other post that "we build business rules calculations using nodes". that's something i have never heard of. my career has mostly involved business apps. it would be interesting to know more about that and what your educational background is.
 

thank you!

i appreciate that you would share what has obviously taken much time and effort to learn and i know that i am not the only one that feels that way.

i am stopped on rendering right now, so it is my first priority to understand the material you've provided and i look forward to learning something in a new area.

for me, it's nice to have something specific to work on when learning new things instead of just the overwhelming mass of information available. at least i find that to be true in programming. 

replicand: thanks for the suggestions.

i am hoping to experiment with lights. the main thing is getting an idea of what to pursue when you're new at something and you have provided some things to explore.

you said: "Pretty racy character for kids"..

during software testing, i have to explore all options for a complete evaluation.

here are some pics produced by collage that are along the line of what i think kids might do or like to see. but i didn't say that all users would be little kids. big kids are allowed too but they might have to provide their own content if they have special needs. however, it is my intention to provide only content suitable for kids or families.

www.bestlogic.com/collage/pics/2007-12-23-19-02-18-PST.jpg
www.bestlogic.com/collage/pics/2008-01-08-03-16-12-PST.jpg
www.bestlogic.com/collage/pics/2008-01-15-07-17-04-PST.jpg
www.bestlogic.com/collage/pics/2008-01-17-00-02-17-PST.jpg
www.bestlogic.com/collage/pics/2008-01-18-02-32-57-PST.jpg
www.bestlogic.com/collage/pics/2008-01-22-00-51-25-PST.jpg
www.bestlogic.com/collage/pics/2008-01-26-22-07-03-PST.jpg
www.bestlogic.com/collage/pics/collage-at-work.jpg

thanks bagginsbill, i really appreciate your help and insight.

to tell the truth, i heard the term "shadow catch" for the first time about 2 weeks ago. of the poser subjects i know of, i understand nearly nothing and i am frequently learning of new subjects about poser that i have never heard of before. what a challenge.

i have seen some of the posts you have written and they are very impressive. i intend to go through them when i get to the point that i can understand them. for the present, i am trying to get my overall project in basic working order. it involves many things of which poser is an important part.

i recently started peeking into the material room to see what was there. i have tried to get an idea about shaders and it seems vast. i didn't know the ground was in the material room and sure enough, it was set to shadow catch only. i unchecked it and my shadows are consistent. however, i no longer have transparent backgrounds but i think you said that can be dealt with.

at this point, it doesn't have to be perfect, because i can always re-render the scene library which was what i was doing to improve the shadows. i don't know how to use python to do shader stuff yet but i can always do a global change to the pz3 files if nothing else.

my major goal right now is to add more content. here are examples of what the images in the collage (online) library are like at present in terms of transparency:

www.bestlogic.com/collage/pics/actors-phoebe--phoebe-02-wait_s=1_v=n_m=0_r010.png
www.bestlogic.com/collage/pics/machines-vehicles_fullsize--36AM_s=1_v=0_m=n_r025.png

i am looking forward to hearing what is possible next with shadows.

thanks for your interest **EnglishBob

**i am not ready to make any figures. i am trying to understand the basics. i keep picking up little  bits here and there and they are starting to form some kind of a picture.

i downloaded Morph Manager and will see what i can figure out. i also thought i'd check out CR2 Editor. i've snooped around a little in cr2's and pz3's and would like to know more.

your website looks very nice, very tasteful to me. i am not a web designer but i have been on lots of web projects as a programmer. radioactive cats is very cool.