It seems the temp files was at least partially to blame, deleting them sped up the scene maneuvering, but the figure manipulation problem remained. I've since rebuilt the scene "brick by brick" and it's a much smoother experience. I'm not sure what I did but that old file was clocking in at 217 megs whereas the rebuilt scene is topping off at 40. Thanks for the suggestions though, I had forgotten about the "remove unused..." commands, I'm sure they'll come in handy when I really start to get complex scenes going.

Hm, that technique is an interesting jumping off point (towards a Max Payne-ish look). Also try playing with the cutout filter on a duplicated layer combined with blend modes and blur effects. There are a multitude of plug-ins and Actions related to this, just plug "photoshop sketch plugin" into google and follow the crumbs.

Quote - > Quote - The major light improvement in P8 is the introduction of Global Illumination, or IDL, as a standard package.  It thoroughly replaces the need for IBL, although some individuals have managed to intergrate both IBL and IDL together with satisfactory results.  A big factor, you can use ambient glow to effectively and correctly illuminate a scene without the benefit of external lights.  Yes, you would need to invest some time relearning the new process, but it will take no time at all and well worth the effort.

I read your comment hborre and went straight to the poser manual to find out about ambient glow but the search brings up nothing. It sounds an interesting effect that I have always done post render. Could you tell us something more about it please ?
Thanks in advance

You have to fiddle with the ambient settings in the material room, there is a lighting set by Colm over at RDNA (GI Studio) that makes exclusive use of this.

Not much I can add to this that hasn't already been touched upon, but don't forget that you can also change the display style of lights (Display>Element Style) in addition to scaling them, to something like smooth shaded to make them easier to spot visually.