(I posted this one on the main page - think it would be better here) Hello all - apologies if this has already been covered but I'm a "newbie" on here. I'm a filmmaker who is anxiously awaiting for his Poser software to arrive. I have the notion that I will create a short "cgi" movie using Poser and perhaps Bryce (I'll just purchase the backgrounds online) Someone tell me... am I dillusional? I'm an I.T guy (day job) and I'm pretty comfortable on the PC/Mac... I've tinkered with the Poser demo and it seems like it COULD be pretty intuative. Any insight into making movies with Poser/Bryce would be more than appreciated. Are the background sets available online good to work with? Are they 3d (where I can put a character behind a building etc.) or jsut one dimensional... so many questions! Please feel free to rattle off whatever you think is necessary information. Thanks! PS - does anyone know where I can view CGI movies made with Poser/(any other software)?? Much Appreciated!!

Are the background sets available online good to work with?

Many of them are of excellent quality, highly detailed, virtually photo-realistic. I recommend taking a good look at the promo pics and gallery renders before purchasing an item, so you can judge for yourself.

Are they 3d (where I can put a character behind a building etc.) or jsut one dimensional...

Backdrops and backgrounds (DAZ's Cyclorama, nerd's backdrop kit, etc.) are somewhat limited, though they allow you to pose your actors in front of photographic environments. Other sets are truly three-dimensional, can be viewed from almost any angle, and permit full interaction with your actors. stonemason's environments at DAZ are good examples of the latter.

PS - does anyone know where I can view CGI movies made with Poser/(any other software)??

Renderosity's Animation Outlet.

"Someone tell me... am I dillusional?" No, but you will become so addicted that you will spend most of your time stuffing your hard drive with freebies's and top notch purchase items, along with surfing the web on the constant look out for new stuff to hoard, that you will have little time to complete your project but good luck;)

Ah Stallion, well that I can deal with... I just wanted to make sure I wasn't dillusional. :o) And thanks for the information Little Dragon, those movies were what I was looking for. With some of them the models seem to blend in well with the backgrounds... interesting. One more question - why are most of them so short? Does it take a looong time to create? (Yea, I'm used to working with human actors and cameras etc. - no idea how long it'd take to make a cgi)

I'm not L_D (he's scaly and has these fang thingies...), but yeah, they do indeed take a long time, because you do have to do everything yourself -- including creating the sunlight, for example. On top of that, it's like any other software program -- you'll get results that will vary according to your own ability to use it, and the creativity with which you use them and other programs to achieve your end goal. THere's not a lot of animators active in the forums, but there are a lot of them -- most of them are just too darn busy setting it up, lol. Using poser is very much like using stop motion in film -- time taking, pain staking work, where you'll re do something just because afdter 30 hours it doesn't look right in that one little spot right there....

ttheterr,

you can download short movies I made with Poser 6 and Vue 5 Infinite (sorry not Bryce) at http://renderfred.free.fr. P6 / V5i makes a very good combination, P6 / Carrara 5 Pro too. As for using Bryce in animation, I am not too sure about that.

Many of mine are 30 seconds or lower. The longest I've ever created ran 2 minutes 41 seconds, but that was an iPod parody using Poser's preview engine and various display modes, so I was able to generate the footage fairly quickly.

Thanks for the info - Here's another question. Which background generator is the best/easiest to use? My in initial intentions were to just purchase the backgrounds - I've seen them for between $8 and about $20 but I'm not exactly sure what I'd get for that. (I've never used Bryce before but the guy who introduced me to Poser said that he "heard" Bryce was good and easy so neither one of us is sure) I will take a look at Vue 5 Infinite now - I'm just looking for something that won't force me to take a 6 week course to learn how to make a building! Thanks All!

Attached Link: http://www.urbanchillers.com/darktales/dtcellar.asp

Raven - Raven 2 is a good looking flick (didn't look at Raven yet). I have two questions for you.. 1) how long did it take you to complete it and 2) what did you use for the backgrounds (did you buy them or create them yourself> If so, using what?) Thanks!

I did one about 8 minutes long that is hosted at www.changestorm.com/Godzilla that is posted in multiple formats (Windows avi and Quicktimeand) an download speeds (Broadband and dial-up modem). Let me know what you think of it, as it was my first (and so far only) attempt.

Attached Link: http://www.daredevilfilms.net

Animations run at 15-30 frames-per-second. Render time for each frame depends on how much 3D content is in the scene (try out a still render of your scene, and multiply by the frame count). Add the set-up time for each scene/sequence, and you have a guesstimate of the time needed. Depending on the level of ambition, all one-man-made Poser movies (and animations in general) seem to inevitably take half a year to several years to complete. The shortest ones are typically less than five minutes' running time, and the longest, like "Raven"/"Raven 2" are no more than half an hour. All in all, "a-month-a-minute" (i.e., a month's work for every minute of animation) seems to be a good rule of thumb (do correct if I'm wrong, anyone?).

Attached Link: http://renderfred.free.fr

Each took me about three weeks / a month, so it's a bit faster than what you say. In the case of X-Ride 2 it even includes the time to do the making of (about 9 minutes).

Of course I used network rendering. With only one PC it would have been another story.

I stand very happily corrected ;o) I was thinking "pure-Poser", but if Vue can push things down to a-week-a-minute, Moore's Law seems to be working for animators, too. Thanks for the info.

Yeah it really is amazing how long this stuff takes. I just saw in one of the 3-D Graphics magazines where an animated scene used in a major movie I forgot which one, using state of the art software and hardware with highly trained people took 14 weeks to make one 50 second clip. 3.5 months for <1 min...

Yeah, Thip, my 8+ minute Godzilla animation took about 8 months to do. Of course that included a major computer crash 75% into completing all of the Poser renders. Fortunately I had made a DV tape copy of the edited (in Adobe Premiere) animation at that point from which I was able to add the missing parts and complete the project, or else I would have abandoned it entirely.

I guess I'm on the other end of the average--I've got about 3 1/2 minutes (of a proposed 55!) after a year's work: http://home.comcast.net/~t.vining/Scene01_high.mov (this had been in the Animation Outlet so you may have already seen it) Granted, a lot of that time was just figuring out a working method and software etc., but still, pretty painful. If I have one piece of advice, it's to render your figures against a flat picture (rather than full geometry) whenever you can--with matched lighting etc. nobody can tell the difference. Also, composite in post whenever you can, if you have the software (like Final Cut, etc.). Above all, keep in mind that It really does take a long time, so if you want to do movies, be prepared... --T