Another thing to keep in mind is how Poser interpolates frames. For instance, say you have an animation with keyframes set at frames 0, 10, 20, and 30. When you preview the animation, you decide you want to move frames 5 - 15 to another point in the animation. As soon as you cut them out, Poser will now interpolate (tween) directly from 0 to 20, so the actions will be different than when it had the keyed frame 10 information. The way to work with that, in this example, would be to set keyframes for all elements (and usually for all figures) at frames 4 and 16 before you cut out frames 5 - 15. That will preserve the original progression in that portion of the animation. Likewise, you'll want to set the keyframes for all elements at frames 5 and 15 before you cut and paste them somewhere else, or Poser won't know how to preserve what they look like when you paste them back in. Clear as mud? - Jim

Just to expand on that a bit, after deleting the arm frames, click the little triangle next to the name of the figure on the animation palette (at the top of all the other elements of the figure), and you'll see it works like a directory, now showing only the figure name. Click on the keyframe for the first frame for the figure, and set the keyframe for all elements. Now click on the Break Spline option. Then do the same for the last key frame of the animation. That'll set the keyframe and break the spline for all elements of the figure.

That IS a good tip, thanks Lobo! A minor addition to it that most folks have probably already thought of is to parent the box to the head so the eyes don't automatically shift when the head turns. - Jim

Also, when you're in the animation palette, you can click on the little triangle next to the arm (or any other part) and select the specific action you want to change (xtrans, y rotate, bend, side-to-side, etc.) and just delete (or change) that motion. That way you can preserve other motions of the arm (or other part) that you want to keep. The animation palette is really quite a powerful, flexible, and easy to use tool.

This is probably a dumb reply, because I'm fairly new to Poser, but won't Poser, itself, import a .3DS object and export it as an .obj?

Thanks, Jeff -- I'll do that.

I think it's a combination of a hideously expensive modelling program (I'm sure others know which one it is) with a very high-resolution model and a kick-a$$ renderer. And, of course, a very talented artist!

There are texture templates on the CD you can use with any paint program to make your own textures. Or you can download them from various sources. Modeling your own figures is possible with 3d modeling programs (Ray Dream Studio, TrueSpace, etc.), but pretty complicated. Once modeled, you need to import them, assign hierarchies for all the parts, establish joint parameters, etc.

I meant actually changing the texture. TrueSpace, for instance, will allow you to keyframe changes in the texture material, and I was wondering if there's a way to do that with Poser. TrueSpace also allows the use of .AVIs as textures, but that's a little different than my original question.

Actually I've never tried this, but how about simply making them invisible? Seems like that would be a lot easier... - Jim

Another thing you can do is if you're using an article of clothing that completely covers a body part, make the body part invisible.

Diane, I used UVMapper for the first time a few days ago. It's very well-designed and easy to use, partly because of the fine tutorials Steve Cox has prepared. If you haven't already found them, they're at http://home.pb.net/~stevecox/ - Jim

Thanks for the confirmation and, yeah, that's what I've been doing. I think I'll submit this to the Poser wishlist. Being able to apply animated textures, too, would be nice. - Jim

Doh! (hand slaps forehead). I got so used to going up the slider to the Cinepak codec, I never thought to check down it for an uncompressed .avi option. Thanks! (the other reason I sometimes render to individual pix is that I have not yet discovered a way to change textures during an animation. Probably a slider bar I haven't looked at!!!) - Jim

Bongo, just to clarify, yes, using a transparency map in P4, you can make just part of the skin invisible. - Jim