I didn't think I could save the poser_surface settings. I did a pretty thorough check of the manual and wasn't able to find that. Closest I came was saving materials as a group.  I suppose once I change them all it will be done, and I only have to do it once. 

Awhile back you mentioned not saving a figure "over" the same one with the same name. You didn't mention why, but no matter, I'll take that for face value and heed the warning. :-) My curious question is, does that also apply if I have a figure for example saved as "Ben7 Figure", and I just change something minor, like only the shirt node setup, can I still save over the existing one using the same name "Ben7 Figure", or should I still delete the old one first before saving the new one with the new node setup so it doesn't overwrite the old one?

Thanks hborre, I'll make note of your suggested settings. I don't know if I can accurately answer your question until I've had a chance to speak with my team leader, and he has unfortunately been unavailable the past week, but I will be in touch with him soon and get a more accurate answer for you. If possible I'd like to have him jump into the thread here to clarify the process better than I can.

That said, what I do know is that I will be animating the characters without anything else in the scene, and then I'll be forwarding those rendered images to him. To the best of my knowledge he will then edit or touch up the images if necessary, and place them in the actual scenes in Truespace 3D program.  The entire movie is going to take place indoors in a kid's room, so no outdoor scenes.  So, in a nutshell, we are basically utilizing poser mostly for creating and animating the characters, the rest will be assembled and finalized in another 3D app.

I am a bit concerned about poser not supporting alpha masking, but I don't know enough about that to determine how important that will be, and how not having it will affect the workflow.

Btw, is there a way to actually save all the Poser_Surface settings to the materials library for quick loading so I don't have to change them all manually for all the kids clothing?

Thanks, that is good advice, and looking for the basic key settings every time will at least let me know if something seems way off from the start. I've filed away all the info for reference. I should see if I can save the poser_surface settings to the library, that way I don't have to change them manually for all fifteen figures.

Hborre,  I have to do an HDRI sample animation,  rendered out to PSD images to send to my animation team leader. He’s going to insert it into his Truespace 3D program to ensure that our renders will match.

He’s suggested it should be just thirty frames in length, (which will allow us to multiply the time it takes to render in order to estimate render times for production scheduling going forward), no background needed, two animated figures in a walk cycle, 30 fps, at a resolution of 1280 x 720, using full HDRI lighting, and at a quality level that at least matches Truespace's lightworks render output. Also he mentioned to be sure to have the Alpha Mask option selected/ticked, and all the lights in my scene will need to be disabled/deleted.. 

Other than understanding how to setup the basics in the scene using these guidelines, I’m not sure what other detailed render setting, if any, I should be changing or adding/removing. Should I use the D3D, or just regular firefly engine?  Would you be able to post a screenshot to give me a starting point of how you might go about setting up this type of render?  Many thanks, any help would be appreciated.

(I'll probably use one Kids 4 figure, and one P7 Ben figure, with VSS applied.)

Thanks for the tips, I really appreciate all the help. I’m just glad everyone here was so generous with their time in assisting me to get this part sorted out. Texturing is definitely one of my weakest areas and I’m sure this has saved me a lot of headaches down the line.

I thought if I deleted the VSSProp I'd lose the settings for the skin texture. Btw, I didn't realize I had to use the synchronize button to actually run the script for VSS to make the changes, but I figured it out after reading the instructions in the readme file.

(Simple sounds good to me, lol.)   That Reflection_Lite_Multi might have been from the default settings that load with the kids 4 Skateboarder’s Tshirt. There was a “glossy” node in there that I had deleted.

I’ll check the specular color value to see if it’s zero. That setup is the one that loads when I load the P7 Ben’s Tshirt, so I don’t know what it’s plugged in there for tbh. As for the displacement image map, I’ve heard the term displacement before, if I remember correctly, I think it has to do with giving the surface more depth, but also adds to the geometry. If that’s true I guess a Tshirt can do without it. Once I delete the image map, should I set the displacement value to zero ? 

Also meant to ask you, in your screenshot of your D3D settings, a couple of the words (ie...Light, Shadows, Raytracing, etc....) that are in those boxes are not the same color as mine.  Some are red, some are green, but they don't match up exactly to yours, and I'm not sure how or if I can change them. Does the color make any difference in the setting and the render outcome?

Great to get this going in the right direction, much appreciate all the help from everyone here! :-)

(Btw, I changed the poser_surface settings for the TShirt to match the P7 Ben's Tshirt settings and it cleared up all the shininess I was getting in the render.)

I noticed after I set up the D3D settings and saved it as a preset, I had to click "Apply" before closing the window. If I don't do that it won't keep the preset loaded.

Here is the preset with your settings

After re-naming and saving the new VSS prop to the library, I noticed I can only hide the ball, because if I delete it, it deletes the shader.

Ok, will do. Many thanks hborre.

Thanks Medzinatar, that was an easy one, should have figured that one out myself!  :-)

Thanks hborre, I don't think I'd completely understand without all the screencaps, appreciate your taking the time to make and post those here.

The initials for the title of the animation are TW, so I'm going to begin by re-naming all the kids figures beginning with "TW" or "TW Fig" (ie...TW Fig-Ben, TW Fig-1, TW Fig-2, etc...) and make my VSS rule be TW Fig* or TW*...something like that.

**Question on re-naming the figures: ** To use the VSS rule, do I have to re-save them all to the library using a different name as I have been doing as a grouping (see 6th post on page 5).  In other words, I can just leave the library name for each figure the way it is now (even if it doesn’t begin with the letters TW) and just change the figure names in the properties panel so it begins with TW, correct? Or do I need to change both and re-save to the library again? (hope that question makes sense!)

I'll get testing this between tonight and tomorrow and hopefully I can get a good render with the D3D pro output settings now in place.  I'll emulate the render settings you posted earlier & I'll post the results once I've finished.

Once I manually setup those render settings I had some difficulty saving to a preset last time. I was able to name and save the preset ok, but when I tried to load it back in later the settings for that preset wouldn't load in.  Will give it another try.