Okay, then, how do I enter? Hurry up and start the contest! Seriously, though, when will the contest start? (When will it be announced?) What will the prizes be? How soon will you be taking entrants? Can we enter more than one image? This is what happens when you pre-announce a contest, without giving out the details! :) --John

I've said this before, but it's worth repeating: "Four-year-olds are cute, but not when it's your software." If I'm not mistaken, I believe that Windows 98 was orignally supposed to be a big "patch" for Windows 95. ME was the big "upgrade" on the 9x side and Win 2000 was the much waited-for "Windows NT 5". And, XP is the first "home edition" to be based on NT. Yes, some companies may put out "upgrades" just to get more money out of people, but in this case, the benefits of XP (or 2000) should outweigh the cost. --John

Attached Link: http://www.renderosity.com/viewed.ez?galleryid=179991&Start=1&Artist=JHoagland&ByArtist=Yes

Will this be open to previously-made art or do the entries have to be brand-new? Here's my entry- Star Wars: Episode II- Attack of the Clones movie poster (originally posted a while ago). --John

Here are some more undocumented features in Poser that you can play with: If you alt-click on the name of the tools, it switches the direction from horizontal to vertical. Alt-click to switch back. If you alt-click on the color "dots" (to change the foreground, background, shadow, or ground colors), you get the familiar "color dialog box", instead of the "choose a color from the gradients" floating box. If you alt-click on "Rotation Trackball" when using the Main Camera, the xOrbit and yOrbit dials are set to 0 degrees. If you alt-click on the "Roll" dot (up and to the right of the "Rotation Trackball) when using the Main Camera, the zOrbit dial is set to 0 degrees. --John

Attached Link: http://www.renderosity.com/gallery.ez?ByArtist=Y&Artist=JHoagland

Of course, images with a "violent content" warning also seem to get a lot of views- maybe because people want to see something that they're being warned not to? Just an off-topic observation: there is a "nudity" flag that you can set when uploading images (so viewers won't be offended by the thumbnail or full-size nude image) but there is no "violence" flag. They're "forced" to see the thumbnail. Hmm... Anyway, in my own gallery, the picture with the "violence" warning has more than one and half times more views than the next most-viewed image. And, on the other end, my "Far Side" cartoons (which *I* think are funny!) have received only a few hundred views. So, you can either: 1) Make a thumbnail with a naked lady, which should really be a photo-realistic Vicky in a fantasy setting. Keep in mind that the thumbnail is just to get the viewer's attention- the full-sized image can be whatever you want. Remember, you're going for sheer number of views and you shouldn't worry about image quality or the "ethics" of having your thumbnail image not match the full-size image (the bait & switch approach). -OR- 2) We (as a community of artists) should not care how many views our images receive. Ask yourself: are you making the image because you enjoy making it or are you making it to please the masses? If you're making an image because you enjoy the process, then don't worry about how many views you get. If you're making it for the masses, then a nude woman (preferably a pre-made character) in a pre-made pose, standing in front of blank/ white background will probably be fine. Throw in a fantasy setting or the latest "item of the week" (you know- the new item that suddenly appears on in every other picture) and you've got yourself a winner! (Okay, maybe not a "winner", but definitely a most-viewed!) --John

There should be a way to tell your e-mail client not to download any attachments above a certain size (say 15k). This will force all attachments to stay on the server until you specificially download them. If you recognize the attachment (a picture from a friend), then click the "retrieve attachment" button. But if the attachment is a ".scr" (or other unknown file), then you delete the e-mail without even downloading the attachment. I use Eudora as my e-mail client and it is very easy to do this, but I'm not sure how you would do it with Outlook. And, of course, Eudora is practically immune to any .vbs "virus-files" that are spread by Outlook and Outlook Express. --John

Getting off the topic of defragging the hard drive... L Ron Hubbard was a big sci-fi writer in the early 1950's and wrote tons of short stories and novels (including Battlefield Earth). Along the way, he came up with own "self-help" book- Dianetics. He then decided that he could "make more money in religion", so he founded Scientology- the "religion" based on the "theories" found in Dianetics. And, yes, John Travolta (and his wife, Kelly Preston) are big Scientology followers (they both starred in Battlefield Earth). Other big-name Scientologists include Anne Archer and Tom Cruise. Ron Howard is an actor who got his big start playing the character Opie in "The Andy Griffith" show. He got his second big hit playing the character Ritchie Cunningham on "Happy Days". He is now more famous as a director: Apollo 13 (with Tom Hanks), Splash (also with Tom Hanks; mermaid theme), Willow (produced by George Lucas; a fantasy theme); and The Grinch (with Jim Carrey). --John

And, in the book, "The Art of Star Wars: Episode II- Attack of the Clones" (by Mark Cotta Vaz), there are a number of pre-visualization scenes that include Poser people! If you know what the people look like, it's very easy to spot. My scanner's doing funny things right now and I can't scan it in, but there are a number of Poser-people sightings! The guys are wearing the distinctive Poser hairstyles! Page 196: "blue guy" in background Page 187: "animatic" for the "interior cargo ship to Naboo" scene- guy walking around and guys sitting Of course, the question is: why shouldn't they use Poser? Sure, they have access to high-high end animation and rendering software, but if you need a quick animatic/ storyboard scene with people, just load up Poser, load in people, and you're done! --John

To quote spinner, "Who'da thunk it?" I agree with Ron, also. But, this topic has actually been brought up in both the Merchants forum (and possibly) here: The idea is that someone (usually unknown to the community) comes in and "generously" offers to package your Marketplace item into a self-extracting exe/zip file, for your customers' "convenience". In exchange for his "hard work", you agree to give him a copy of your for-sale items. And, although he doesn't state this, he puts your items up on peer-to-peer networks, sharing FTP sites, etc. Some questions to ask: Who is this guy? What are his motives? Why does he just show up, out of nowhere, and offer his services? Why is he asking for YOUR Marketplace items as "payment", especially if he, himself, says that he "sucks" at using Poser? It seems a little odd that: 1) someone can afford a $395.00 "installer" program but they can't afford the $220 (or less) Poser CD! 2) he is "considering" the Macintosh market- unless he has a "hybrid" installer package, it's not going to work. After all, self-extracting "exe" files don't work on a Mac! --John

Not only is it supposed to be a "romance" movie, but people (and critics) are calling it "boring"! You know there's something seriously wrong, when a Star Wars movie is called "boring". --John

I don't know if this question has been addressed but: If we assume that this book is for real (and that it really covers Poser5), then why are we, the LARGEST Poser community, only hearing about it now? Why haven't we heard ANY kind of release date (actual or projected) for Poser 5? Why do we have to find out like this- by finding a pre-release offer of a book, rather than an official announcement from Curious Labs? Then again, maybe the publishers added a "5" to the title of the book so buyers wouldn't think it was obsolete IF Poser 5 came out before the book was printed. Or maybe the publishers want a longer shelf-life before they have to reprint it to cover the new features in Poser 5. It may be worthwhile for someone to pick up the book and actually see if it covers any of the features of Poser 5 (such as the ones listed by Steve Cooper, in other posts). If the book DOES cover these new features, then we'll get a good taste of what's to come. If the book DOESN'T include the new features, then it's false advertising! --John

Attached Link: http://www.3dcc.com/DL_pages/PR05.html

Yep, those are the items! And, yes, that's where I originally found them. Thanks for jogging my memory- for anyone who wants the re-mapped P4 Bikini for Vicky, click on the above link. (They are located on the 3D-CC site, "Props" page 5.) (I'll check with Gerry to see if these items can be made available in the Free Stuff section here.) --John

Attached Link: http://www.renderosity.com/viewed.ez?galleryid=179991&Start=1&Artist=JHoagland&ByArtist=Yes

For the Star Wars poster that I created, I used light sabers that I found in the Free Stuff at 3-D Commune- there is a package of "Luke's" and "Ben's" (blue and green version) and an item of Darth Maul's red, double-bladed version. These props are very easy to use and, using Photoshop, you can re-colorize the blade to get Mace Windu's purple blade! (However, I was not able to find the artist's name in the readme file.) --John

Actually, what you are referring to are bootleg copies that have been released on the Internet without the approval or permission of LucasFilm or 20th Century Fox. Yes, the person who did it will become famous (if he is found)... due to fact that he will be arrested and charged with numerous copyright violations. Then, again, downloading a copy of Star Wars: Episode II is just like downloading MP3's, so what's the big deal, right? And if you really must have a copy of it (or don't want to see it on the big screen), then it should be very easy to find via any of the peer-to-peer networks. Just be sure you don't download a virus or a trojan or spyware or something else! --John

Sorry for taking so long to respond to Ron's message. But- what problems is your "good friend" having under XP? I developed it (at home) on XP Pro and I have not had any reports of it not working on that OS. In fact, I don't even know what "problems" PBoost has with XP, so I can't even begin to speculate on whether my program has those same "problems". Yes, I did receive some e-mails from people who were having problems with my program. For almost all of them, it was a simple matter of registering some files or a newer version of other files. I'm not sure what I need to "spell out" "up front"- during the time it has been for sale, only a few people have reported "issues" (out of all the buyers and all the testers). And, if it's not "good enough to offer a refund after the trouble has been experienced", then what do you suggest I do? I am more than happy to work with people to get the program to work, but sometimes the customer prefers a refund instead of trying to get it to work. And, not to change the subject, Ron, but how are you "frustrated" by my Poser Object Organizer Program? Don't take this the wrong way, but I don't see your name on my customer list. Have you actually tried my program? If you're basing your opinion on what you've heard from other people, then at least give me a chance to answer those issues, before you make comments about the program. --John