Ack hate typos .. above should read ... Does this mean you can get the bones and skin weights (Maya term for how the skin moves in relation to bones) that exist on a Poser model dumped straight into MAYA

Just looked at the 3D Exploration site and saw that for Maya and 3DSMax it supports 'Animation and Softbody skin and bones import'. Does this mean you can get the bones and skin weights (Maya term for how the skin moves in relation to bones) that exist on a Poser model dumped straight into Poser ? Or is that the other way round. From Maya into Poser? Does that make sense?

I agree with alamanos, sound makes or breaks a short in so many ways. Overall I thought it was pretty good for a first try, not that I have really done much in the animation line but thats just what I think :) The opening titles were a little dissapointing too, they lack some flash ... kaboom .. in your face style, but again thats just me.

Check out the Tailor program thats available in the Marketplace. This is the only easy way I know of doing it.

Nah, in this case I actually want the default clothing on the model so it will be OK. Got the hang of it now, this is an awesome program, just got a little conflustered at the start learning the quirks of it. Thanks again.

Thanks y'all, yep Ron, found your free tutorial and that helped me a lot, just wondered if I had mis-interpreted it as it seemed to be a long winded approach if I had several body morphs to link in.

Looking for PC solutions to this problem. The link to the www.bell-labs.com above is on the right track. Unfortunately I really want software that will not only allow me to enter text, convert to speech (wav files etc) but also tweak the resultant output into different sounding voices, at this stage primarily females.

My original problem is now fixed, I neglected to put in the transparency map with the high res textures / bump maps .. typical that I applied the trans map to everything but the eyebrows.

Thanks for the posts everybody, should help everybody get nice sexy eyebrows .. no offence to the people who love big bushy eyebrows of course ;)

Kevin, Yeah wasnt planning on a long straight 9000 sec animation, I have a big interest in DV (digital video) editing with Adobe Premiere .. the overall aim is to make some personal animated shorts, those will be broken down into many scenes just like real footage I guess.

OK that has pretty much answered my questions, thanks JKeller, Kevin and all the others that responded. Not sure which of the main modelling packages I will choose just yet but it has clarified my fears .. I am in for a steep learning curve with the humanoids and critters where the boning comes into play. All good fun I guess !

OK starting to get the message on this one, use Poser 4 to gain access to props and models then import into the modelling program (lightwave, 3dsmax, maya .. whatever) to do all of the work. One question that comes to mind, when you export the characters to the modelling application do all of the links and joins stay with the model. Or would I have to redo all of the IK stuff etc.. Just got the demo of Maya 3 from 3D World magazine today, might take a look at that but I think its between Lightwave and Maya for me (maybe not even Maya depending on how the wife takes the cost) ;)

Thanks for the reply, didnt want to spark a package debate between 3D Studio and Lightwave, more interested in how to go about the process of doing the animation. I am still a little confused on the process, by that I mean that I understand I can export my poser animations into Lightwave/3D Studio .. but .. and I think this is where I reach the catch 22 .. I dont want to do the animation in Poser, I want to do it in one of the modelling programs (lightwave or 3ds). However, at the same time I like the interface to pose and change the expressions on the faces of the poser models. Ahh .. hang on .. maybe thats the answer .. think a penny just dropped ... I take it you would have to import the props / sets into Poser with the 'actors', do the 'actor' animation. Then export that to Lightwave or 3DS then edit the animation sequence for lights, camera and any other needed effects. Or am I still missing something ?