I'm going to use the render to track the ball in After Effects, and use that data to composite a green screen actor into the shot, making it look like a person is in the Vue scene.  Of course, the reason I need that tracker is because the 3D scene has a free camera move with some complicated movements (an imported handheld shot from Max).  I just need something that I can track the actor to.

Ah, did not know about that.  Thanks :)

Thanks!!  Hey Ghelm, long time no see!  You created the exterior of Brookhaven for me (and I believe a hallway as well)... glad to see you're still around!  I'm going to try to squeak by since I have so many random freebies and lost most of the readme files... most, if not all, are modified quite a bit, so I couldn't imagine there being much of a problem (not to mention there is no profit being made).

Thanks again for the help and comments!

Doesn't actually sound too hard... :)  I'll give it a shot tomorrow when I'm back home, and let you guys know how things went.

Thanks!

Yeah Google Earth is perfect for previz, and I could also use it as a blueprint to set up a higher detailed model.  I'm going to check out Ogle and see what I can do.  I already visited the page and it looks way beyond me (I'm not good with coding), so I'm still open to more suggestions if there are any alternatives... but for now I'll see what I can do.  Thanks for the help to everyone!

*Silent Hill was quite cool--great editing and effects, and very creepy! I'd like to know more how they went about producing it.

*Almost every day in 2005 was spent on animation and rendering...  I pretty much had my computer running 24 hours a day, and it was a one-man project.  The majority of it was created in P4, and I finally upgraded both my RAM and to P6 around the sixth and final episode.  I really don't know how I was able to do it -- especially considering I tried cranking out at least 2 shots a day (which obviously couldn't happen all the time), and this was all while attending school full-time and dealing with a part-time job.  I always consider doing another one since I've come a long way since No Escape, but right now I'm focusing on original horror work in Poser.

I'm surprised no one has ripped on my animation in the first few episodes yet :-D

Cool, glad you liked it!  I separated the SH movie into two halves -- first halve is absolutely brilliant and couldn't have been done better... second half was not.  As a whole, I'd give the movie a B-.  It was very enjoyable and, for the most part, loyal to the series; but that second half and the witch cult was just BLAH!  I really hope Christophe Gans does a sequel since he now know what works and what doesn't.

Hey, I'm also focusing on Max modeling now!  I'm in an intro modeling class currently, but I'm quickly getting the hang of things.  Right now I'm almost finished with modeling my apartment (95% kitchen due to time constraints) for my class, and I'll be posting that on the Max forums (do you hang out there at all?).  But yeah, I've got a Materials and Lighting class next quarter, followed by either animation or advanced modeling.  It's fun stuff, but very hard!

Hey look, my movie's been plugged!  What's up Ghelmer?  It's been, what, like a year since we last talked?

But yeah, my Silent Hill fanfic is definitely a full-length film (although without voices)... the animation and technique is very crude at first, but it keeps improving as you get further into the "film" (or episodes if you prefer).  I am also currently working on a horror short film created entirely in Poser, along with voice dubs, custom music, and ES mo-cap.  This should hopefully be done in a few months, in which case I will immediately work on another and open a site that hosts independent horror films and screenplays.

Yes, that's perfect!  Thank you so much!

Nerd3d.com has a tutorial on that.  I believe it uses his P4 fog prop.  Dunno if it would work in P6.

Thanks, I'll check it out.  I'm assuming you're talking about the Fog Tool Delux III which should work (don't see why it wouldn't).  I was looking at a few screenshots, and it looks like it might do the trick.  If not, it's only $12.95, and I'm sure I can find many other uses for it!

the light type you mean is called "volumetric lighting" which i don't think you can do with the p4 renderer!

Volumetric Lighting... wow, do I feel like a total moron.  I've always known that, but for some reason I had a major brain seizure and couldn't come up with a term.  Must be my 3D Modeling class...

Anyway, I know it can't be done with the P4 renderer, which is why I want to "fake" the effect -- as in using props to create fairly close results without resorting to the Firefly renderer.

If anyone else has any pointers, please let me know.

Cool I'll check that out.  I actually have one of his still effect products (Steamz or something like that) but I wasn't aware he made animated ones as well.

Thanks for the help!

Yup, that did it :-)

I never even use the Grouping Tool so I didn't realize it was as easy as that.  Thanks for the help!

I checked out your script, though I'm a little confused as to how it works.  My background video is also saved as a series of BMP images (that's how I export), so I ran your script and took the first frame of the sequence under 'Get Background'.  I then clicked 'Make Animation', though it only rendered the first frame of animation.

If I want to, say, render a 180 frame animation with 180 background images (as opposed to an AVI), how would I go about doing that?

Thanks!

Excellent ideas, thanks for all your replies and help! I downloaded the SkyDome v3 over at RDNA, and I think it just might be what I'm looking for. I will have to find a convenient way to texture it with the horizon included (background mountains, not just sky), but I'll experiment on my own. I noticed that MicroCosm has a ton of terrain stuff that I could definately utilize since my new animation project is sort of a Post-Apocalyptic adventure. I'll be sure to update you guys with screenshots after a few render tests before production begins!

Excellent, thanks guys. Still haven't found destroyed vehicles, but I suppose I could use morphs and textures on the vehicles I already got.