Thanks, I will check out that morph package. If that does not work, then I will go with the sculpting method.

Brushes are very powerful and quite excellent if you have a good understanding of Photoshop. The first thing I would recommend HIGHLY is you first learn Photoshop because there is much that you must know to use it properly. The better you are, the better everything will look and there are a lot of ways to do something.

I strongly recommend reading EVERY chapter in Photoshop The Missing Manual. Once you do, it will be like night and day and help a great deal.

See all my reports here and over at e-on about working with an e-on tech for all the reported bugs I found with Poser imports. Bottom line is they were all reported to Smith Micro and it is their SDK code which is the problem and Smith Micro will have to fix it. They don't know when that will be. All the issues go back to as far as Vue 7.5 and includes issues with OOM errors, resizing issues, Poser Shader Tree issues and more.

If you search this forum section you will find more details and over at e-on too on much of this. The SLOW importing is expected too. Also you should note that according to e-on, the SDK did much harm and it has messed up all Poser Pro 2010 related issues and there is no official support for any Poser Pro software at this time.

Best of luck, hope things work out for you.

If anyone has been following my detailed reports on this, I have been working with a Vue tech at e-on for some time on this issue. Here is one of the replies from the tech I was working with:

"One thing you must know about Poser imports in Vue is that it mostly depends on an SDK (Software Development Kit) provided by Smith Micro. It's a black box that allows Vue to have some functionalities of Poser. The latest one was added in Vue (build 51713) to fix the annoying "Hulk Effect" that several users reported (and complained about!). It was also supposed to bring support for Poser 2010. Instead, many users are now very upset because other bugs appeared (crashes, OOM errors, Poser features not properly functionning...). Nick"

I have found and reported at least 3 known and verified bugs with Poser imports such as anything dealing with the "Poser Shader Tree" option and "Resizing". As you can tell from the quote above, they have been made aware of the ones I have found and are not able to do anything about it at this time according to their programmers. He explained it was up to Smith Micro because they use an SDK they provide for Poser code in Vue. I asked when they think any fixes may be coming and I got a reply that said they depend upon 3rd party code and it is up to Smith Micro as to when an new version comes out and IF it fixes any of these issues.

At this time, I have seen the "Poser Shader Tree" mess up MANY things, including the skin "blotches" which they reported to Smith Micro. It works just fine in Poser, but when you try to import into Vue using the "Poser Shader Tree" it does NOT translate properly according to the tech. Other issues I found include shaders not looking right, missing, etc. Again, this comes back to the SDK by Smith Micro according to the Vue tech and he reported them.

Since I have found more than several bugs the only thing officially Vue techs said to do to avoid this is to turn OFF "Poser Shader Tree" for all imports and the "Resizing" option too. They said only to let Vue do the materials and such otherwise there will be the issues I reported until Smith Micro fixes the SDK. So basically, that's it in a nutshell. I am surprised it has taken this long for a few of those bugs to be verified and reported by the Vue tech team to Smith Micro. For now, there is no way around these issues though.

Now, more than ever, I am worried that Vue may not be able to be a program I can continue to use because Poser imports are a BIG deal to me for my work I do. When it is unknown when, or if Smith Micro or e-on can work this out it gets very complicated to deal with these issues. I also was wondering why e-on is depending on a Smith Micro SDK and not writing the code for themselves when I believe that C4D does not rely on an SDK and it works great with their "InterPoser Pro".

Hope this helps.

To all those having Poser import issues:

If you read my posts here and in their tech forums you will see a list of bugs I have found with Vue 8.4 and 8.5. I have been assigned a tech for these issues and they are working on it. From the way it sounds it won't be fixed anytime soon. I am just guessing but I would say most likely Vue 9.x before things get better.

In short:

The do not support anything below Poser 7, period. Right now only Poser 7 and Poser 8. There is no official "Poser Pro" support either for Poser Pro 7 or Poser Pro 2010. They do know about problems with Poser Pro 2010 but no word on when that will be fixed. For any Poser Pro users they said to try setting it to use "Poser 7" and that some have had success. But it is hit or miss there.

I have uncovered other bugs such as the "Poser Shader Tree" bugs and also the scale/resize bug on importing making the figures too big or too small.

There are several other things I have reported and they requested files on which I sent to the tech guys. No word back yet on when any of those bugs will be fixed, but I know it will be a while. They may even have to work with Smith Micro on some.

I can tell you first hand since I use a Mac Pro 2008 model and duel-boot my OS. If you want to take a chance, sure you can try to do it yourself and flash a card as pointed out. However, I do know you can often run into trouble and most places won't provide any sort of refund if it does not work out for you. Worse, if you really mess something up during the flash or there was something you did not know about there goes your money out the window.

Personally, we all know if buying an Apple product we are buying into a closed system design and they charge more for the same parts a PC user can get. Short answer I would suggest is to buy straight from Apple and get either the nVidia 8800GT like I have or I think the 280 model may work as well which is a little better.

I have no major crashing issues with my current setup. Yes, it is still not a good as Vue 8.x 64 bit Windows, but it does work. Once the 64 bit Cocoa version comes out, you should see some serious benefits just like the Windows 64 bit version. When that happens, you may want a current Mac Pro and get everything all at once along with Apple Care.

See my detailed notes on all the Poser issues over on the Vue offical forums. I made several findings for bugs and described them over there. Right now I am working with a tech at e-on as my reports and files have been escalated to their programmers.

It was interesting to note that a moderator replied and said that they appreciate the technical notes and details for submissions like I made but very few people actually take the time to follow all the steps that e-on asks for. He said a lot of users will say they found bugs but never make an official ticket or provide the files and other material needed. I just hope people that use Vue will do this so we can all have a better Vue program.

Quote -  sadly the  most  significant change for me is a worsening of poser import.  It's like IK is left on in the legs, and if I choose to keep poser shaders it crashes when it gets to about 65% of the rendering done.  consistently.
Love esther
ps the new lighting does look great -but the twisted leg thing spoils it.

Be sure to report this to e-on with a support ticket.

I am working with a tech and we are trying to resolve the "Poser Shader Tree" issues. If you have anything specific I will pass it along, but need full tech specs such as your Vue version, Poser version, what type of figures, how many figures, etc. They may also request your PZ3 file you are having trouble importing too. If you can PM me here and put that info and other details I will see if they can replicate it or anything they may suggest.

If you are using any Vue 8.x version and Poser, it is highly likely you will have a lot of issues if you turn on the "Poser Shader Tree" option. See my details about the issue here:

www.renderosity.com/mod/forumpro/showthread.php

You will need to also learn how to tweak the mats/shaders in Vue for best results too and there are many things to learn that can really help bring out some great results. Make sure and see "silverblades" tutorials and "geetatplay.com" tutorials.

Good luck with your renders.

I have Vue 8.5 installed and it does have a few good features added.

However, this did not solve the issue I saw importing Poser figures when "Poser Shader Tree" was turned ON. That same problem still exists and I have been told will until it is supported. They only officially support "Poser 7" and "Poser 8" at this time. There is no Poser Pro support since the code has been changed as shown by the removal of "Poser Pro" from the settings. What I know so far is they are working on Poser Pro 2010 support in a "future update", most likely Vue 9.x. Older versions of Poser are NOT supported at all.

Also, this was not a setting or lighting issue as they said some users are having success with using the "Poser 7" setting but not everyone. It seems to be an issue they may have to work with Smith Micro on as well so the shaders/mats don't get messed up when importing. For now, the only apparent solution to work around this is to make sure to turn OFF the option to import using "Poser Shader Tree".

I am currently testing Vue 8.5 Beta as not much time to play with it but will post anything else I find.

Quote - > Quote - What they said so far was it may very well be problems with importing from Poser Pro products, such as Poser Pro 7 and the new Poser Pro 2010. The reason is they removed that in their code and made some changes. As you can tell, any Poser Pro reference is gone and they are saying to use either Poser 7 or Poser 8. However, they said nothing has been done for the newer Poser Pro 2010 and also nothing about Poser Pro 7 since it was removed too. 

Mention to them that they totally broke Poser 6 import (Vue 8.4 crashes hard no matter what import settings are used).

Well, it's not just Poser 6 import as I have had trouble with Vue 8.4 crashing at random times after importing a single figure into a scene. I sent the generated bug reports into them, but so far no answer on that front either.

Their "tech support" seems to be anything but as they just give a generic answer and leave you hanging. Even when you give specifics and send them files and images to look at, they don't follow up on any replies after their basic statement. They REALLY need to get their act together because  PAID support could be grounds for legal action if you bought a service and have a contracted agreement which is not being provided for on their end.

Anyway, will let you know if anything else is known about these issues. Right now, it just seems like there are still many bugs in Vue 8.x

Quote - I tried reverting to previous version and...it ate my vue.exe file...sigh.
Not reinstalling the 8.4 build as the weird glitch that was rotating Poser import parts was a huge no no!
49020 works fine for me and will stick with it until I know the "rotation" bug is gone :/

You should report this too so they know about what you found in Vue 8.4 regarding that problem. I know from talking with others they still have some Poser importing bugs and this may be another. Also, you should send them some example pictures showing what it looked like in Vue 8.4 VS Vue 8 build 49020 which works OK.

Quote - > Quote - It has nothing to do with lighting, settings or anything like that which can be solved that easy.

Have you gone into the funtion editor and hid materials until the splotches vanished to isolate what is causing it?

No, I am working with someone now trying to figure this out. They did not say to do this and I am sure they would have if it was something they could troubleshoot that way to find an answer.

What they said so far was it may very well be problems with importing from Poser Pro products, such as Poser Pro 7 and the new Poser Pro 2010. The reason is they removed that in their code and made some changes. As you can tell, any Poser Pro reference is gone and they are saying to use either Poser 7 or Poser 8. However, they said nothing has been done for the newer Poser Pro 2010 and also nothing about Poser Pro 7 since it was removed too.

Until someone else using Poser Pro 7 or Poser Pro 2010 with Vue 8.4 AND Poser Shader Tree can post some pictures, especially of darker skin materials on a V4 model, then it is looking more like what they said it may be regarding Poser Pro importing issues.

Quote - the latest update, 51713 works fine for me.    Poser skin looks like it should (I don't use the poser shader tree though)
Have to try it on a clothed figure next

Well, that's where the problem is for me, this does NOT happen if you turn OFF the option for Poser Shader Tree. Try turning it on and see what happens, also try it with a somewhat darker skin texture too. Just a basic scene, nothing special and no additional lighting. If you can try this and post some pictures it may help narrow down the issue.

Like I said, this happens on ALL PZ3 imports if you turn ON Poser Shader Tree as an option. Also, I seem to have a scaling issue at times if the Auto Resize is checked. Usually I leave that option off though but it does seem to be an issue as well. Others have reported the same thing and there does appear to be some glitches.

Quote - > Quote - Well, I have been trying the "final" Vue 8.4 update that was released today and still have issues with Poser textures.

What kind of lighting are you using, and what kind of light source?

It has nothing to do with lighting, settings or anything like that which can be solved that easy. If it was, e-on would have said to try something like that I am sure.  After reporting it on their special support forum, they don't have an answer and most likely have to report as some kind of bugs in Vue 8/8.4.

They are still looking into it as this is something that is an issue that needs to be fixed. There are other Poser import issues too it seems with Vue 8/8.4. All I can say is registered users should report them to e-on so they know and hopefully can get a fix soon.

Also, Vue 7/7.5 did NOT have these issues as they imported and rendered just fine.