Seedpress: The manuals sizes are different because font options and bitmap packing have been altered. PDF has a multitude of options and compatibility is also a factor. The 1.3Mb fiel on the web is probably as good as it get PDF-wise. If you print the manual at A4 size page numbers will match.

Attached Link: http://www.datamike.com/susu2.htm

The manual for Susanna is available for download at www.datamike.com/susu2.htm. The manual is in Adobe PDF form and size is 1.3Mb.

Open source is a broad concept and used in many program to a varying degree. Some programs let's you see the entire code and others give user pathways to add features via DLL's etc.. Take a look at Max for example. The DLL system there lets you augment many important things in the program. You can write your own renderer for example. I believe this is a key feature for Max's success. The third party business can augment a lot in Max. Many times I've wished Bryce had some sort of documented add-on hook. A side note on a previous message (#12) about how many polys were used in "Dungeons and Dragons". I dug up the january issue of 3D World and it it says that the dragons used about 80,000 polys or less. It goes on to say that they used four months of round-the-clock render-farming for a 10-15 minutes CGI sequence. I wonder what the pixel height and width was for each picture.

I forgot to reply why there is no demo available for Susanna. I've always liked the open source concept. I personally hate it when I'm using a program and then I hit a brick wall with a program. That is why Susanna is built with an open source idea in mind. Susanna comes with a program that runs compiled scripts. The source files to the scripts are included and can be modified by the user. A compiler and an interpreter is included. This way even a new feature can be added later by the user. The user won't hit a brick wall! So now that the user gets the script source it is very difficult to implement any demo feature. It just is not feasible. I'd have to criple the program to the point of uselessnes. This "open source" idea is of course aimed at programmer types. The normal user will be happy to use the easy interface and forget the intricate details behind the scenes. But should he/she ever want to change something that option is there. Many also ask why this program costs only about $50. For those I'll be more than happy to sell the program at a higher price ;). And keep in mind this price is an introductory price just like competition's.

Attached Link: http://www.datamike.com/susu.htm

People have asked how long does it to take to make an animation with Susanna. Making an animation with Susanna is pretty straightforward: you use Poser, Susanna and Bryce. There is no need to bring in extra programs to automate something. Once you've made the Poser animation the Susanna part is very simple: you give informations what you are animating, where are the files etc.. And that's it. When Poser part is finished most of the time goes to Bryce rendering the animation. There is no need to cut time or compromise quality to make something just work. Susanna takes very little memory. I've run it on a Cyrix 486 (actually a 386) with just 4 megs of memory running Windows 3.1. If There was a Bryce version for Windows 3.1 Susanna would work on that. Take a look at the Bryce pictures at Susanna site. The scene is not cluttered allthough there are four posers acting.

Sure. You create the animation in Poser, convert it to OBJ and then Susanna brings it to Bryce. You can also combine and re-use animation. With this I mean a crowd scene can use many same animation pieces. Just like done in many silver screen movies. You could also create animations from pieces: 1) man sits at a table 2) man stands up 3) man walks away You could do it in one animation or a sequence joined together.

The update will be sent to all buyers of Susanna in a few hours. ... and there's even a cooler addition coming up! But that will take at least a week of coding & debugging.

Attached Link: http://www.datamike.com/susu.htm

85000 poly? Are you sure there are just eight tentacles? ;) I read from CG magazine that an upcoming movie "Dungeons and Dragons" the dragons have 65000 poly meshes. If you can send me the octopus and I'll make an animation of it. Anyway in my humble opinion something like polygon reduction should not be imposed on you by the software. I've made a new feature to Susanna, Poser animations to Bryce. Susanna has now the ability to create "movies within movies". Bryce can create 2d images in your scene but Susanna can turn these in to real animations. Just like in TV ads where producers have uses Adobe after effects etc.. But these created with Susanna are *in your scene* not some after effect pasted on an AVI. Checkout the new Mpeg on www.datamike.com/susu.htm

Put an omni light in the flame. Often have I tried to create explosions, lightning etc. without using light but putting a light inside what really should have a light makes it look much better ------ www.datamike.com/susu.htm

Konan: you are badly mistaken if you think Susanna needs more memory than your program! I rendered a 45 Skeleton animation with a laptop having only 96MB. Futhermore: - Poser characters do not need polygon reduction at all. Why should they? And all posers are brought in as Wavefront OBJs and you can use other formats just as well. - Materials are very easy to use and work beautifully. You can use multiple (even animated) materials on any poser, prob, or poser part (hand, shirt, whatever). Oh btw: using a material on a Poser does not take 30 seconds to a minute like in your product. Susanna applies material in less than a second. - You don't have to split animations to cater memory limits. Making a 10 minute movie takes just as much RAM as a six seconds animation. Oh, as far as bugs are concerned: no one has reported any!

It's been designed to work with Bryce 4 and OBJ files Poser creates. You can use other OBj files as well. I haven't tested it with Bryce 3d and I cannot say if it works or not. When Bryce 5 comes those who bought the Bryce 4 compatible version will get a free upgrade. Upgrades will be free for six months from purchase anyway.

I'm sorry about the delay. We are currently setting up a secure net site where you can buy Susanna ($49.95) using a credit card. Should take a few working days. We are currently working on a Susanna port to Bryce 5 which will be sent free to those who buy Susanna now. All those who buy Susanna this June will also receive a surprise bonus. I rendered today the Skeleton March with 45 skeletons (it's now on the site) and render time was just 4 hours when I left out some volume fog which added much to renderin time.

Was it Kai Krause who wrote that great "KaiGoo" program that let you easily do caricatures of people? I have two copies that came with hardware. It sure is funny. Anytime I get too tired I bring up the Mona Lisa and make so funny faces. Kids like it too. I'd like to donate one copy to a local kindergarten but I guess I'd have to donate the hardware as well.

Here are some file details and other info. I ran the skeleton march today again with 45 skeletons (the one on the site has 20 bonemen). I also added some volume fog. I'll post the mpg later. Total render time 8 hour (1Ghz 256Mb upgraded Dell computer). Bryce 4 file size 16.9 kb. Poser exported OBJ files (25) total size 35MB. 150 resulting uncompressed BMP files 33.1MB Total uncompressed size for everything included about 69 MB. Using materials does not add much a few kb here and there: same material can be used for many objects. About a MAC version. I regret to say that the s/w code is pretty much windows specific and hard to port. Next thing coming is a Bryce 5 port and perhaps a Vue port.

Change the scaling of water. Zoom down to shore and look at water from eye-level. Them scale the water to water look better. Otherwise nice pic.