First off, THANKS A MILLION again guys! You are trully amazing. All this info is superb.

One thing I failed to do from the beginning was to be more specific as to the kind of final product this images will be used for, what kind of audiences are expected, and more about the final file/media format. I think is time I did that.
You see, this is not for a feature film, neither a short film, nor an intro animation for a game.
These images will be only part of an educational type of software. It's like a series of exams/tests, once you reach the last 3rd part of the software you are presented with these 3d environments (indoors in most cases), and you are expected to interact with them.
So as you can see the priority here is content, rather than quality of visuals.

It is not intended to CG people audiences, nor even artists in general.
In most cases the audiences will be executive and office type of people.
This should be yet another reason why not to be too demanding with the visuals.

As for the format, it is Flash. So far we have been creating the 3d elements separately, mostly in order to make them interactive. But it also saves us time and work, eg: if there was a problem only with one element (as opossed to the whole scene) then we just fix that element.

As for rendering to image files, well, that's what we have been doing so far. Not over the reasons you kindly offered, but simply because we need the alpha channel for transparency in Flash, and Poser6 cannot render alpha chs. in movie format (only in PNGs).
The programmers say it would be more efficient (from their stand point anyway) to work with movie files instead, as they could instruct the software just to look for frame num x in the movie file, and then jump to frame num xx, and so forth.

Although I was aware of the "multipasses rendering technique" I never got around to learn it in depth (much less apply it), many things you guys mentioned I didn't know, others I only knew partially.
One thing is clear now to me: Got to render to image files and multipasses - Not for this one (unless you give me good reason to do it), but for my next visually demanding project that is. - ; )

OperaGuy - "note: in items 1-3 you speak of "Creating" figures and "creating" morphs. What does that mean to you, specifically? Obviously you know there is no modeling in Poser."
By "creating figures" in Poser I meant: Not modeling for sure, just either use the default one (James or whatever his name is), or replace it for another one. I am sorry about the confusion, clearly I didn't express myself very well.
By "creating morphs" I meant: In Max, with the Morpher modifier. Using the "morph targets" (max term) previously created in Poser, import'em as OBJ files. I admit this is just a theory so far. That's why I was asking for anyone to confirm it.

CobaltDream,
Thank you for the interesting links, they may come in handy for sure :)

Ok, I hope I didn't forget anything.

Back to you again guys : )

JDL

Message edited on: 02/26/2006 12:45

Btw... I forgot to include these links: GestureMax: http://www.digimation.com/home/?Content=ProductDetail&ProductCode=SD398 Clothing Creator: http://istore.mikrotec.com/philc/index1.html?page=catalog&trackerid=2021223212&category=a&vid=2080245373&pid=2116796703&oldvid=2143420604 BodyStudio: http://www.reiss-studio.com/trade/productview/48/3/

I am so impressed with the amazing and very elaborated responses here :) Needless to say I appreciate so much your valuable time and effort put into your replies. I do agree with pretty much everything that's been said, as it confirms much of what I had suspected. It's great to learn about other aspects I hadn't thought about too. Based on the consensus, so far, this are my workflow steps, have a look and let me know what you think: Objective: To create animated human figures (body & face) backgroundless (with their alpha channels). Final File Format: Quicktime movie. Looks/Style: Generic Semi Realistic (Poser's figures will do just fine) Rendering: Speed would be a priority here, so it seems the Default 3DSmax Scanline Renderer will do. 1. Create the figures along with their respective garments in Poser 2. If there's a simple walking cycle needed, do it in Poser too. 3. Create Face morph targets in Poser too if needed (not animated though) I hope I am not leaving anything behind so far... 4. Import the above human figure to 3DSmax, with the help of GestureMax, which imports characters and automatically rigs them for animation using standard 3ds max tools or character studio. 5. Animate the figure in 3DSmax 6. Import the previously done Morph targets for lip-sync. I suppose these morph targets could be imported as .OBJ files. (just guessing here. Can someone confirm this?) 7. Finally render in 3DSmax, because it has the fastest renderer and because Poser 6 cannot render movies with alpha channels. I know I could render PNGs w/ACs in Poser6, but then I'd have to import'em somewhere to put them together as a movie, and that is already an unnecessary additional step. I think this is it. Please feel free to add/remove/edit as you see fit on/from the above workflow list. I would like to comment too that I had been using BodyStudio (3DSmax plugin) to import figures from Poser. It does a good job at it, it can bring them along with their animation if you made any in Poser. The main limitation I have encountered so far is that you cannot individually select limbs or any part of the figure to be animated. This is why Gesture Max appeals to me so much. Well, not only because you can animate the figures in max but also because part of the process of importing is to "automatically rig and skin" the figure, which would be a big time saver (assuming it does a descent job at least). On a separate yet still related note: I have recentely started learnig Cloth creation in 3DSmax with both its tools/mods: Garment Maker & Cloth. I am seriously considering the possibility of creating my own garment patterns (eventually). I know, is like becoming a virtual tailor to a great extent. Now, I just learned about this plugin for Poser called Clothing Creator by Phil C. I know these 2 solutions don't work the same way, but if only looking at the final result, would you say that Clothing Creator would be the winner? (again, for it to be it'd have to offer shorter working times while producing the same results). Back to you... JDL

I found the way! I still had to click on the triangles on the left of each name, like Left Shoulder. If you click it open it reveals more keyframes, that ARE deletable. Same thing for the cameras. Thank you so much for your patience and information Randy :) JDL

I am totally in the Keyframes window. It was opened with the Key icon you told me. What's weird is that after reading your messages I went back and selected a keyframe and it deleted successfully. However, the next ones I tried kept poping up that window warning me that it would also delete the figure, although I was doing nothing different (that I could tell), just selecting the freakin keyframe (which would turn white as you said). I noticed when I select a camera keyframe, and hit delete, nothing hapens, I am not even asked nor warned about anything. If it would help, I could put a screenshot for you. JDL

Thank you Randy :) This really helped big time. One more question... I selected a keyframe I wanted to delete (Left Shoulder), but when I hit delete, it deleted the whole figure! :( Why is that? I know this keyframe refered to the Left Shoulder, but wasn't just a "keyframe" that I was deleting? Anyway, could you please enlighten me here? ;) JDL

Wow! I must say, I still don't like much the lack of features in this forum (as I am acostumed to CGtalk.com), but YOU PEOPLE are amazing :) Thank you so much for your very informative replies. JDL

Excellent! Just what I needed, thank you so much Richard :) JDL