Valandar: Thank you. Never dawned on me to look for an import function :( I'll have to work on the root modeling. Sharen: Thank you :) Towal

wow ok well maybe I don't want a comprehensive list LOL. It's taken me 2 days just to go through the marketplace and free stuff here and an RDNA. I already have more stuff than any sane person would ever need I'm sure...that of course is not going to stop me from getting more. I am really glad that I went ahead and got Pboost early on.

Thank you again for all the help. I feel like I'm starting to at least have a somewhat of a clue now.

Towal

This is great. I particularly love your fence. Towal

Carolly

Thank you so much for the encouragement :) I have all of Dr. Geep's tutorials bookmarked and am going to start working through those now that I'm organized and Pboost has stopped being fussy.

I was also wondering if there is a comprehensive list somewhere of the sites that offer quality items free or pay is fine.

Bryce has metaballs as well so I'm semi familiar with the concept at least. I have not ever used them yet though.

I'm trying to get better about asking before so frustrated that the computer is in danger of being hammered into oblivion :)

Ernyoka1: Thank you for the link and example. I don't have P4 (no pro pack) so I can't try it, but it looks like metaballs will be fun to play with!

Towal

Well I'm not sure :) I can tell you that I'm really new to poser and had NO idea how else to troubleshoot it. I looked at the deep file editor and that was too confusing for me to figure out (plus I was already pretty frustrated).

I suspect that the key is running each folder seperately and then running it on the runtime folder repeatedly till it catches everything. I noticed that on my first run it ran upwards of 15k files. I suppose it's possible that there is some kind of limit on the number it can fix or something. I suspect whatever the problem is it's a windows problem and not a poser/pboost problem.

After I made my post above I did a few more practice renders. I have my stuff really split up in each catagory so even to change clothes on a figure I have to change banks 3 or 4 times. I had zero problems with it locking. Total I probably changed banks 80-100 times tonight.

Towal

I got Pboost yesterday (using xp pro here as well). I happily spent all day (literally) organizing everything. I have really only been using Poser for like 10 days and still found stuff I had no clue I had. I don't know how people that have been doing this for years keep track of everything.

I then ran Correctreference and discovered a billion jpgs that needed to be converted to bums (since I have P4 not PP). Spent a ton of time loading those one at a time (if there is an easier way to do this I'd appreciate the suggestion).

Opened Poser and started working on a project. Merrily switching banks with no problem. After about 3 or 4 switches I got the file lock thing. Closer Poser, reopened it. Still locked. Rebooted. Opened it. Still locked. Ran Correctreference and it found a bunch of stuff and corrected it. Rebooted, Opended poser. Still locked. Contemplated throwing the computer out the window and went to bed.

Got up this morning thinking maybe it was user error since I was really tired last night. Opended poser. Still locked.

I then ran correct reference again and it found yet more stuff and changed it (mind you I had done NOTHING on the computer since the last time I ran it). Rebooted. Still locked. Ran Correctreference and this time it found a few more jpgs that needed to be changed to bums. Did that. Ran it again. Rebooted. Opened Poser. Still locked.

Finally I started running CorrectReference on folders individually. Once I had run all the folders I went back to the main runtime folder and ran that. It ran clean the first time. Immediately when it finished I ran it again and this time it found more files to correct. I ran it again and it was clean. Ran it again immediately and more files. Finally I just kept repeating this process until I got 2 clean runs in a row. Rebooted, opended poser and it's been find since then. I've switched banks probably 40 times tonight with absolutely no problems.

Not sure if any of this will help you, but I understand your frustration at getting the file locks :(

Towal

Thank you for the suggestions about camera angles. This is my first 3d program so I am not used to being able to see things from all angles yet and forget that you can do more than look at just the front angle.

I also didn't know that about holding down shift. That will be handy, thank you.

I will look for some fishies textures and such. I am still semi avoiding other places with stuff to buy (or even for free) because I'm already out of control :) I did get pboost yesterday so I can start being organized from the beginning and already found stuff I forgot I had gotten!

One of my friends said I needed to find a clown fish and make it look like he was eating Nemo :) Another one said I need to animate his middle finger. I need no enemies with these folks grin

I'm still working on learning about lighting. I have some tutorials bookmarked to do.

I have never been what I would really consider artistic and if anyone had told me even a year ago that I would be trying something like this I would have laughed. I started out with Photoimpact. I also have Bryce and Lightwave sitting on my computer, but I can only learn one thing at a time or my brain will explode. I will go to Bryce after I get the hang of Poser a bit more so I can do my own scenes a bit better and then tackle lightwave (I'm hoping the learning curve on lightwave is somewhat smaller after getting more familiar with 3d type stuff).

I really appreciate all the feedback here it's made the learning curve go much smoother already :)

Towal

Thank you all for the words of encouragement and the help :)

I appreciate an honest critique and do not mind nitpicking at all. I would prefer people nitpick than tell me something looks good when it does not. If I don't want an honest opinion I don't ask :)

The clam looked checkered because I had TWO clams on top of each other. This led me to the discovery that renaming your figures is quite helpful!

In this one I have removed the offending second clam, dropped the clam to the floor (duh) and I think I got the tail out of the shell on this one. My eyesight is not what it used to be and perspective stuff is hard for me sometimes so if it's still embedded let me know and I'll futz with it some more.

I didn't have any other fish so made a trip to DAZ and got some fish...and an eel and turtle and manta ray sigh This is an evil addiction I can see already :)

I am not sure I like the bubbles in this one. I used a different set with the variation in size, but am thinking the first pattern was better so should use it and manually vary the size of some bubbles. Opinions on that are welcome!

edit Actually looking at it again in previewing this post maybe the bubbles aren't that bad this way. Opinions still welcome though :)

Towal

Thank you as well, EnglishBob :) I bookmarked both of those. I can see this is going to be a bit of a learning curve to get things installed correctly doing it manually. I have read about a program called Pboost and am wondering if that is something I should get? It said you can consolidate the menus some which would be a HUGE help for me. I have to be really careful to make sure I'm hitting V3 items and not M3. I'd be nice to put all Mike's stuff in a seperate folder until I'm ready to work with him. Towal

Thanks very much, Catlin. I have bookmarked this and will tackle it when I get up. Towal

I just don't like being a pest. I normally try to find the answers on my own and only post when I'm ready to throw the computer out the window ;)

I was fairly frustrated by the mermaid and horse so saved them for another day. I did want to make sure I actually got the hang of adding more than one figure so I tried this:

(critiques are welcome. I have thick skin ;) Still so new to this that I'm sure I'm doing tons of things wrong yet)

I think this is everything:
SS hatchling sea dragon
an SS MAT and pose
Clam and mat also came with the dragon
angel fish that came with P4
background is heart of the ocean from DAZ

I also did one with some postwork using Photoimpact 8

Thank you again to everyone that has offered help. I really appreciate it!

Towal

Hi Cres and Carolly,

I should have explained a bit better. I can understand your confusion on my screen set up now that I looked at the screenshot closer. Normally I do have everything visable. I just made the canvas that large so I could clearly illustrate what my problem is.

Thank you both for the explinations. I think I have it figured out now thanks to your suggestions :) I think I was just not moving each figure far enough out of the 0,0,0 area to get them seperated properly initially.

The problem with using trial and error is the high volume of error :)

I appreciate you folks putting up with my stupid questions. Hopefully I will get the hang of this and not be such a pest.

Towal

Karen thank you for the hints on the camera. I can tell it's going to take some playing with. I'm not sure whether to thank you or curse you for sending me to RDNA. I just returned from there with a ton of new stuff. Now I have to figure out how to install it since I have only gotten stuff from DAZ before and those have auto installers. There are so many places you can get stuff I could spend an eternity shopping and not get anything else done ;) I also downloaded the Geep Tutorials I found the links to doing a search here so that will keep me busy for a while from the looks of it. Towal

Catlin: I spent about a month putting stuff in my wishlist at DAZ off and on while I tried to decide if I was really going to use the program enough to warrant the kind of money it would cost to keep me happy. When they had the special a few days ago where you got an extra percent off if you joined that was the nudge I needed LOL. I got most of the stuff off my original wish list and then realized I had missed something so went back and browsed some more and found a bunch of stuff I want that I missed the first time or maybe it's new stuff. I have not even checked the marketplace here, runtimedna or poser pros yet because I know I will find a ton more things I need :) Karen: thank you for the suggestions and the link. I have been avoiding looking at other places because I will want to buy more, but now that someone suggested it I have to go look ;) I will look for the tutorials as well. I have played with focal length a touch, but will work with it more. Do you have to change it on each camera angle or only the main one you are using? Towal

Thank you for the suggestions. I will get the global lighting packs today. I'm still so new to this it's hard to know what to buy. I can see I will need to win the lottery to support this new habit :) Towal