im lookin through the art gallery and i see all these AMAZING digital pix that look almost real. They are absolutely stunning. So you make great looking renders like that with d/led textures and lighting and stuff, or is it a higher quality render and good use of the poser render options. I make renders and they suck compared to those, so yeah. what the deal

1.) buy hi res textures and characters 2.) learn lighting (buy some, download some from free stuff) at rdna has many free lights, but I've gotten some really great results with just one or 2 lights sometimes. 3.) practice practice practice 4.) don't post everything you make- if it dosn't at some point in the creation process give you the "wow" factor don't post it. 5.) making good pics is the act of self honesty, be honest with what your actually seeing, not what you imagine it will be or should be. 6.) relax- none of us have gotten it right yet-lol :)

It's like the old joke:

*How do I get to Carnegie Hall?

Practice.*

If you asked 5 different artists that you admired, you'd get 5 different answers. Some people use only Poser and get stunning renders. Others import their work into Photoshop, while some import the meshes themselves into higher end programs like 3D Studio Max or Lightwave.

Trust me, if there was a simple answer, people would be selling the secret and becoming millionares.

Here's some suggestions:

• Take a picture you like and try to imitate it. Look at the composition, the lighting, and the coloring and see how close you can get to the original. You can also try to recreate a real world picture, such as a painting in the library.
• Contact the artist who made the work and ask them if they have any special techniques they used for that picture.
• Concentrate on one aspect and read everything you can on the subject. For example, pick up a book on lighting. Open up Poser, or another program, and experiment with a simple model, trying lighting from all sorts of angles. You could do the same with color, composition, etc. Once you get comfortable in one area, expand outward from there. Don't limit yourself just to digitasl art books, either.
• Take an art class. Art theory is useful in any artwork.

Hope this helps.

Start out with high res textures and play with lighting. Lighting can do wonders for a render. The rest will come with practice.

Kendra (who's still practicing) :)

I've been at Bryce for 4 years and Poser for one year. Learning the programs is part of the battle. An eye for art is crucial. Mixing them is what only a few here can do. Keep going and never give up!

Also, try playing with your camera focus. For the main camera, I use between 100 and 120mm. For the face cam I use no less than 100mm :)) Fyrene

Textures and more textures. Choose the right texture, it don't need to be hi-res, some textures are of small size and look great. With practice you will see if a texture or part of it is good or not. If you have a good shape with a good texture you can use any kind of light, even the Poser's default, and the rendering will be good.

Another good source of information is -photography- books. They deal in lighting and lighting theory, composition, camera placement, and so forth. The higher end books can deal with the kinds of make up you would need to get a certain effect, which can be applied in a paint program. CG exists orthangonally to traditional 2D media on material art, photography, and cinematography. None of those disciplines addresses the reality, but each one has handy things to steal and apply. And like they've all said. Practice. Or more accurately, Experiment. High res textures can be a good resource...but if your lighting isn't right, the render will still look like the bottom of the birdcage. That's the fun part of this whole hobby; despite naysayers and genre snobs, there -is- no 'make art' button in any of these programs. They and the resources you can buy or download are nothing but tools. What you make with them, that is true art.

I think there's a "look awesome" box in one of the render options. J/K. If you're working with Poser 5, once you get basic textures and lighting down, the next step is playing with the various material nodes, etc, to enhance realism. I now almost never make a render without using properly mapped skin nodes. Also, I almost always use ray-tracing nodes on any metal texture because it makes the reflections look so much better. One of these days I'll start playing with the atmospherics and get good fog and such, too. It's all down to practice, practice, practice.

these are great tips... thanx but what are nodes (dumb question right.) i see node all over the place in poser but im always thinkin... whats that? i have poser 5 and bryce 5 and im getting photoshop 7, and lightwave 4 or something like that. I have made one render from poser into bryce and it wasnt amazing but it looked pretty cool. it was 5 dolphins it was cool. but yeah, thanks for the tips... i d/l some stuff on here but half the time they dont work when i install them.. oh well. thanx