Attached Link: http://img545.imageshack.us/img545/2056/terpsichoreshadows1920x.jpg

And thank you again bagginsbill for you wonderful help.

This time it pretty much worked, most of the background shadow is gone. Only a little bit of shadows are on the background, but I can easily take care of them in Photoshop, they are very small as the pic link shows.

So, overall I finally got the effect that I wanted. Thank you guys, you are great. I really appreciate the help :) .

Attached Link: http://img15.imageshack.us/img15/6342/materialroom.jpg

I've read the tutorial that ashley9803 suggested and I am reading through the thread on AO at the moment, and I'm embarrassed to say I'm getting more confused as how to do AO in the Material Room. I've only had Poser 7 for a few months now and have only used the Material Room a few times for simple things like changing the color of textures. I know adding AO in the Material Room will probably be quite easy to do once I get it, but so far I'm having a hard time wrapping my head around it. So far the things I've tried have rendered brown vertical streaks, I guess maybe where there are supposed to be shadows. If I want a hand or a ribbon to cast a shadow on the characters body, where do I add the AO node? Do I add it to the skin, even if it's a ribbon on the clothing? And how do I get crease shadows on the clothing? Need help please, in an easy step by step example if possible. Like I said, I'm a newbie to Poser and have no previous experience in 3D art. Please help, I think my head is about to explode.

I just wanted to say thank you again, bagginsbill, for your patience and for all of the help you have given me! I really appreciated it. You are very kind for the time you have given me.

One of the problems was my render settings. I don't usually check the Cast Shadows box because the shadows  on my character are too dark for my liking. Can the shadows cast on the character be lightened?

Well I at least got the floor shadows. What next? Anymore tips or trick? Thank you for being so patient with me!

I added the one sided wall 1st and then imported the background. When I imported the background the wall became invisible even though it was still there. Should it do that? This is the 1st time using a primitive and importing a background so I don't know if that is normal or not.

For the rendered image you seemed to indicate that part of the background should be covered up, which did not happen. I'm afraid that when it comes to doing these things, I seem to have no clue as to what I should be doing. Can you help? Sorry to be such a clueless pain in the butt :blushing: .

    1. Aux Camera

I must be a total idiot :blushing: , bagginbill, but I can't seem to get the shadow catcher material to work. I know I'm probably just not doing something, very simple and logical, right. I've tried it with the ground plane, a cloth plane and an imported background and when I manage to actually get something, it's just a black area across the bottom. I've followed the steps you outlined in the other thread about creating shadows, which seem quite simple, and still no go :sad: . What could I be missing or doing wrong :unsure: ? Do I need to add a special light or something to cast the shadow? In your pictures, in the other thread showing each step to do, there is a sphere. Is that something I need to use or is it just for an example? I've only had Poser 7 for a few months so some things I still find confusing, even if they end up being very simple once I've figured it out. If you have any ideas as to what I might be doing wrong I would really appreciate your help. Thank you and I'm sorry if I'm being bothersome in any way.

bantha, thank you for the thread link. I'm reading through the whole thread to see what I can learn .

bagginsbill, thank you for being so helpful. I'm going to give your shadow catcher material a try as soon as possible. May take me a little while to figure out, I've just recently ventured into the material room and playing around with changing nodes and stuff. I still find some of it a little confusing :huh: . I'll venture back in there and see what I can do. I'll let you know how it goes, may end up having a few questions :blushing: , but I'll see what I can figure out on my own. I'll keep you updated. Thanks so much.

Thank you for the tip. I've only had Poser for a few months and have no previous experience with 3D Art. I'm a total newbie to all this and have a LOT to learn.

I am interested in your shadow catcher material, if you would not mind explaining what it is and how it works :) .

I appreciate your help! Thank you very much.

SamTherapy, I did what you said and the image above is how it rendered. It is no longer blacked out but the ears, some of the neck, and the shirt collar are still gone.

I have no idea what to do. If something did become corrupt, can it be fixed? I didn't have these problems when I used the hair before.

Thank you for all the help you are trying to give me, I appreciate it. I just wish I could figure out the problem and fix it.

 I turned shadows off for all parts of the hair and the render was still blacked out in the same spots. I believe I am using ray traced, it's the same settings I've used with my other renders with no problems.

Plutom, when I made the hair invisible, the render was fine, no blacked areas. I've used this hair before without any problems. Any ideas why this is happening?

Thank you for any help you can give me. 

I should have explained more. It is not just the neck that gets blacked out when I render my character but also the back of her hair, her ears, the collar of the shirt and a little bit of her shoulders.

One other little problem is the fringe of hair across her forehead that was not there when I was styling her hair. I guess I could take care of this in Photoshop, although I'd rather not have it in the render if possible. Again I can't figure out why it rendered that way and would like to know if anyone has any ideas or tips.

I'm going to try to attach a picture of the character before rendering and after rendering to try and show the problems visually.

These problems are driving me crazy, so any help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.