I've been working in Poser 4 w/ Pro Pac and a program called Carrara now for about three years. Think I have a pretty good grasp of hos it all works... Just started learning MAYA about 6 months ago. The nice thing is that the principles of 3D animation are pretty much universal. What you learn in Carrara (low end 'Maya' type program) transfers over to MAYA. True, you need to learn the interfaces of the various programs, but it's definately not starting from scratch. I'd recommend dedicating your time to one of the higher end programs if you're sure you want to master 3D animation. Poser and Carrara are both good programs (Bryce as well), but if you really want to have full access I'd go for MAYA or 3D Studio Max or Cinema 4D. Unfortunately I don't have time to explain all the details... And I haven't worked in enough different progams to make good comparisons, so...

Very detailed comparison there, ttops.

Who are you?

The Cinepak CODEC can work pretty nicely. I put the Key Frames up to around 100 which ends up creating a pretty nice 'smooth' appearance to all the frames in between... Can't use that CODEC for much else, but if you want to have a large image, it'll probaly work.

Disney will be cutting their traditional animation crew from roughly 100 to 10 after their next animated feature is completed. The basic word here in L.A. is that traditional animation (cel aniamtion) is pretty much dead for now... Of course, that's only in L.A. T.V. will probably still have a good amount of programs... But! Most of those programs are from Japan or animated in Hong Kong... And with whatever shows are left here in L.A., I think it'd be safe to assume that the positions will be filled pretty quickly with the out-of-work animators from around the town. Don't know about Dreamworks, but I'm guessing their favor is going to be for computer animation in the future (though Katzenberg may try to keep cel animation alive). Not writing this to destroy hopes, but to be honest about the Hollywood angle. I just started school and that was the word from two of my teachers who work at Disney. I doubt traditional animation will ever go away, but I don't think finding work in that market will be as easy as it has been over the past 10 years. All of this, again, coming from L.A. Not the world. Peace!

If you're rendering animations, you'll get Alpha Channels depending on the CODEC you use. Some have it, some don't. You can tell which ones do by seeing if there's an option for "millions +" colors. The "+" stands for Alpha Channel.

Shift key to select other vertices elsewhere in the model and the option key to deselect. I'd recommend naming all the vertices as you go along... Name them either as Polygons or Edges or Vertices or a combination of them all. It speeds things up all around. All that naming and selecting stuff is done up in the Selection menu. Hide Selection is another handy tool... Can't remember what the name of the menu it's under... The one just to the left of Selection.

Well... It's not exactly hilarious, but the animation is very good. Why are they miniaturized?

Try this site out: http://schools.awn.com/ They have a list of over 400 schools around the world that teach computer animation. I've mentioned to renderosity to have a main listing for eductaion on their main page, but they don't seem to think that people are interested in getting real educations with animation, so... Think they have an area under 'Directory' that might list education. Good luck!

ricosek, What is your experience with video/filmmaking, animation, screnwriting, etc.? Wondering, because I know that coordinating such a project is a massive endeavour.

Very nice!

Doozy, I watched your clip before I went away for holidays. Just wanted to mention that I enjoyed the holiday spirit.

I'd have to recommend Final Cut Pro. Really good program (after you recover from the price). As was hinted to above, if you want to learn the animation thing, it's goind to take a bit more time than you may suspect. Compositing can get pretty elaborate... It is a blast, though. Curious why your blue-screening didn't work in Poser. I've had quite a bit of luck with it. Maybe I could help. Of course, there's also Alpha-Channels... Let me know! Bets of luck.

It's been a while since I've worked in Poser 4 alone. Afraid this post isn't really an answer. The only thing wanted to mention is that if you're gonna be making alot of models I would highly, highly recommend getting the Pro Pack. It speeds up and simplifies the character making process hundreds of times over. Best of Luck!

Maybe check the 'Max.' and 'Min.' settings for the shadow map. I say this because I've noticed that when I save a scene that has spot lights in it and then re-open it, alot of the 'Min.' and 'Max.' settings reset themselves to 1.00... This, of course, ruins all the work I've done, but...