Quote - There was once a movie called "The Damned" (1969) by Luschino Visconti, who did a midway re-enactment of the event you described. 

Pretty shocking.

There's really nothing the Nazis did that isn't shocking. The Fritz Leiber book seems to only have used the name. The book itself is much more anti-war and violence, despite the name and associations with it. In fact the scene I animated is just mentioned and not in any great detail. The narrator simply mentions that this scene happened just before the book begins. I more or less wrote the scene based on a few sentences.

If anyone is interested, the book can be downloaded free and legal from Project Gutenberg: http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/25024

Thanks! I'm glad you all have enjoyed it.

Miss Nancy, it also was used to describe a series of assassinations by Hitler and the SS. I  googled the name to make sure it hadn't already been turned into a movie or anything and that was the first thing that popped up. Makes me wonder which one Fritz Leiber was referencing.

Thanks! The lights are a light set I got over at DAZ  that fakes global illumination. Much faster than actual GI. The  blood sprays are metaball particles.

What is he doing to that brain? Talk about screwing with someones mind... :)

Quote -  I seriously want to buy me a huge american gas guzzler before they get completely banned for environmental reasons.  I just want to experience the sound of an old american V8 before I die

I had one when I wore a teenager's clothes. A 1978 Dodge Magnum with a 400 cubic inch engine and a few bells and whistles that would easily do 180 MPH if not more. The speedometer only went up to 110 but it was circular and wrapped around. I had that bad boy wrapped back around to 80 on more than one occasion. I am still amazed that I didn't die in a fiery crash! When I was going that fast, I could literally watch the gas meter drop.

Now, I drive a little Toyota. But at least it gets good mileage!

Quote -   Thanks.  I was finally able to drag the brain to the right pinky in the Hierarchy editor, now it follows the right hand.

Excellent. Just don't stick that pinky out like a proper Brit drinking tea when he goes to eat it otherwise it will move out as well. LOL

You can set up IK for it in the Hierarchy editor easily enough.  Look for "IK chains" under the alien's body parts and click on it. That should un-gray out the "Create IK chain" button. which you then click and name it Left Hand (or Right). Then you should have a new IK chain available to you. Now simply drag the parts of the arm starting with the collar (or whichever part is furthest from the hand) and drop it onto you new IK chain. Repeat until you finish with the hand. Now you should have IK available in the Figure/ Use IK menu.

Save just before you do this as sometimes this can cause unexpected results if the figure isn't properly set up and this process is not undoable.

Don't know why you can't drag in the hierarchy editor. Perhaps that's new in 7 but I don't think so. Test it out with a primitive such a ball. If it works with the ball, then there is something wrong with your brain - and I mean that in the nicest way possible :)

Open the Hierarchy editor and click on the brain and drag it to one of the hands. If that doesn't work, there is something wrong with either the alien or the brain. Is the brain a figure by chance? To get it to parent to both hands, you need to turn on IK for the other hand, delete all the key frames for all the arm parts (just that one) then set the other hand to be parented to the brain from Object/Change Parent. Then go back and delete all the key frames again. Now the brain should be a child of one of the hands and the other hand is a child of the brain. Simply move the parent hand and both the brain and the other hand should move. Alternatively you can use the brain and make both hands a child of it in the same way as making one. Then when you move the brain, both hands should follow.

Just be mindful that this method often causes joint "popping" if you move it too much.

Do you have a pic you can upload? without seeing it we'd only be guessing.

No problem.

First step is to turn off the IK on the figures (Figure/Use Inverse Kinematics - all should be unchecked). Next select the "Hip" of the first figure just by clicking on it or be selecting it from the drop down menu in the Parameter window. Next open the graph editor (Window/Graph). At this point, you should still have the hip selected. If you have anything other than the hip of the figure, go back and try again.

On the graph editor, there are two gray slider bars with little marks on either end. Click on the end mark on the bottom bar and still holding the mouse button, pull it out so it compresses the graph so you can see all the key frames. Then, still with the graph open, select the "yTran" from the parameter window simply by clicking on it. Then go back to the graph and click anywhere in it with the SHIFT key held. Then drag out to one end and release the button (but not the shift key). This will highlight the key frames in black. Then click somewhere in the highlighted frames and drag out to the other end (still holding the shift key). This should highlight all the key frames, beginning to end. If you don't have them all highlighted in black, try this step over.

Now, if everything went as planned, you should have the hip's yTran selected and all the key frames highlighted. To move the figure up and down, hold down the CONTROL key and drag the mouse up or down until you've placed it where you want.

WARNING: This is not undoable with the Undo command (control z).

Then simply repeat for the next figure.

I use Poser 7. Don't know what version you have or if there are any differences but this is pretty basic so it shouldn't have changed between versions too much. It is much simpler once you've done it a few times, I don't know how I got by without this before!

Let me know if you still have problems and I'll work up a graphic tutorial for it.

p.s. the same method could work on the BODY of a figure as well. Just do the same thing only with the body selected. But I prefer to move the hip since it is easier to store and use later.

Quote - Here's a better one but notice the face doesn't really feel like she has emotions.
Even when i apply a bought FACIAL EXPRESSIOn set, it looks like she's faking it.

Well, for one thing her hands are all f-ed up. I know that's not part of her face, but it still detracts from the overall appearance of it. It's already been mentioned but lighting is VERY important. And Ray traced shadows for sure are the only way to go. I like to keep my lighting as simple as possible actually. Often just two lights, placed in the exact same place, each set to half the total intensity I want and one with ray traced shadows and one with no shadows. Sometimes I use a glancing light. There's a pretty good tutorial for it here:
http://www.runtimedna.com/forum/showthread.php?13853-Glancing-Lights-Or-Using-Edge-Blends-on-Intensity

Also, postwork helps a lot. You can add a lot of life to a render with a little postwork.

Lastly, I like to add a little depth of field to my renders. Softens up the backgrounds a bit.

Quote - Even more trouble how do I load a poser square primitive..a google search revealed nothing..the same for the manual.  Thank you.

In the "props" folder under "primitives." There are several options: a ball, cube, torus, etc. Just pick any of them. I always use a box so I can better judge rotation and whatnot. But you can use anything you want since you'll be turning it invisible. Remember, to parent a figure to a prop is a little different than parenting a prop to, well, anything. You need to do it by the menu: Figure/Set Figure Parent. I suppose you can also parent it in the hierarchy editor as well.

Have you tried my method? I promise you it works and is pretty simple to do. Once you try it, you'll never use another method for changing elevation of your figures!

Or you could turn the IK off on both figures, open the graph editor and select the hip. Click and drag on the graph editor to select all the key frames and then hold the control button down and you can then move the hip (and the figure) up and down at will until you get them where you want them.

The reason you get invisible parts is because they are essentially one sided objects so the part you cannot see is the back side of the model. You can find some two sided capes and whatnot if you look hard enough. You can also fake it with the creative use of primitives (i.e putting a small plane or cube in the empty space.)

Can you explain any better what you're looking for? To me it seems you're looking for someone who can animate a character doing a flip which then transforms into a still photo of a person but I could be wrong.