I'm having a problem I hope someone can help me with...

I've been creating photoshop images, saving them as JPEGs then importing them as backgrounds for my renders. Then I set the render output to the same size as the JPEG resolution and run the render. It worked great for a while, then the background image would start to deform (x axis) in later renders. Is there a setting that I've changed inadvertantly?

Also, my scenes are crystal clear, but any background I import shows up as blurry or pixelated in the final render. I'm trying to render images at 1920x1200. 

Has anybody seen this before, and can you tell me what to do?

Thanks,
Seaview123

You need to turn off texture filtering for the background image (I'm assuming you're using P7 here).

JonTheCelt

p.s.: re-rendering a jpeg as another jpeg is gonna degrade it further. would suggest exporting background image as tiff from APS/CS3. tiff texture will occupy same amount of RAM as jpeg texture during render (4 bytes per pixel).

If youre in Poser 6 watch out for Max texture size to be set smaller then your background (in your render settings), if your background max is 1920 then you at least need to have your max texture resolution set to match, that's gotten me before.

The best way to add a background to your scene is to not use the import feature.

The best thing to do is to look at the dimensions of the background you want to use IE: 1024x768.  Then in Poser add a single side square (props/primatives) to your scene.  Then go to the material room, add an image_map node and browse to your background.  Hook that up to the 1st and 3rd nodes. Then go to the Pose room and use the X and Y scale to make the image the dimensions of the background you chose.  After that use the Z Trans and the Scale  until you get the background where you want and it fills your scene. 

The bonus of doing this is that the background will actually interact with the lighting as any prop does.  You  won't get  realistic "floor" shadows on the background though.  In order to get ground shadows on the "background" you would have to use something like Infinity Cove or Cyclorama.

What I tend to do is add my background on a square. Get everything placed as I want it. Then hide the background and render the rest using shadows, including ground shadows. Then hide all the rest and then render the background. This way the background takes on the same lighting as the rest of the scene.  Then in my graphic program I place  the scene over the background....now I have matched lighting and I have shadows :)

gad..that sounds like a winner..I'm not up on the Material room that much, but it sounds like a plan...thanks, Acadia...

Thank you all for your suggestions. I'm using Poser 6 for this and haven't seen anything on  texture filtering. I've tried 'sturkwurk's fix first 'cause it seemed the easiest. I set my max texture size higher than my screen rez, and came out with a good image. Next, I tried using a .tiff as Miss Nancy recommended, and that worked also, but since I had changed my max tex size, that may have affected it. I'm working on an image using acadia's instructions, but it seems pretty technical. I figure you need to know exactly what pic your trying to get out of your render for that, and I'm a 'compose-as-you-go' kind of guy. Would you be able to re-arrange the figures in the scene if you have a background tex-mapped to a 2D square behind it? What would happen to my backlighting?

Another question: Is there any difference in using different file types for an imported background? Will the resolution change if I use .JPEG, .TIFF, .GIF or even .PSD files?

Thanks again for your great suggestions.
Seaview123

Jpeg is a compressed format, it loses it's detail with each generation.

tiff, bmp, and psd are lossless - they are not compressed.

If you make a render, then save your master of it as a jpeg, you're already working against your goal.   I usually save out my renders as .psd's then when I post somewhere like here, I post a jpg I made from my master file.

of course in merchant products, we can't usually include tiffs and the like, they are too large.

Doug