I'm working on an animation project that uses a sketch style, primarily the outline of the characters and a few defining interior lines. I have tried Poser 7's sketch render, including loads of different settings, but the results are a messy image with lines, hatches and darks in all the unwanted places. I need a simple, monochrome figure outline with limited line infill (i.e., facial features and major clothing creases). And I have WAY too many frames to do any postwork on the images (except maybe automated Photoshop editing). Is there a Poser (for Mac) technique, tutorial or plug-in that anyone can suggest? I'm also not averse to using the Z-toon technique and then applying an effect (stock or plug-in) in Final Cut Pro, but I haven't tried it yet. Any ideas? SS

post example frame so we can see what ya wanna do. if it's just a poser 7 toon render, I don't foresee any difficulties.

Sorry for the slow response, Miss Nancy (by the way, I like your seasonal avatar). Attached is an example of what I have in mind. First one to correctly guess where it's from wins a pop culture ancient history prize. SS

if it were generated by poser, it would be called a sketch preset. those aren't suitable for animations IMVHO, but YMMV. however, it's apparently not a poser render, but rather a photoshopped image. seems like a task for one's video editor. the animation experts may weigh in at this point with their usual expertise.

The image above is an onion skin charcoal sketch done by hand atop live video, frame by frame, but I'm WAY too lazy and incompetent for that. That's why, in order to achieve the same look, I was thinking of Z-tooning (flattening the 3D figures into 2D-like images using a surrogate primitive as the parent object) a Poser animation, then exporting the animation (as a series of PNGs) either to Final Cut Pro (where a video filter or two would be applied to the PNG still-image sequence) OR using Photoshop's automation feature to apply a more complex sequence of filters to each individual frame (uh, all 18,000 of them - I figure that task alone might take up to 2 days of steady computer time). So yeah, I could probably get close to where I want without actual frame-by-frame postwork in a couple of ways, but I'm hoping that someone has stumbled upon an ideal setting in the custom sketch render setup (perhaps along with some light settings, etc.) that does a good job. I could take it from there. Incidentally, the image is from a well known 80's pop music video, which in turn used a storyline from the movie Brasil. I haven't seen anything quite like it in the 20+ years hence. When you finally think of it, you'll say the name of the band. SS

I also have some Toon Actions that I bought a couple of years ago. Miss Nancy's image sample reminded me of what it can produce. I also seem to remember some sketch actions from the same maker. SS

it's worth a try, anyway. the easy part is getting some toon/sketch fx. the difficult part is rotoscoping an entire 1400-frame video into poser IMVHO. getting the right figures, the right hairstyles, clothing, props, lighting and backgrounds will be time-consuming, but rotoscoping it properly from only one camera angle will be rather challenging. that's brazil (terry gilliam)? snow created z-toon for poser 4 stills IIRC. it doesn't work in dance animations or with extreme bending IMVHO, but give it a try and let us know.

Aha, Take On me. Just thought I'd jump in :)

Yes, the image is from the music video of "Take On Me" by A-Ha. I was fascinated by that video from the first time I saw it, and it made the song unforgettable. And I spelled Brazil as Brasil out of habit (lotsa multinational 'furiners in my company). I have a feeling that I'll have to settle for second-best images, or maybe a stutter-style video (not unlike the A-Ha one) where I hand-edit each frame. I also found a Python script in Content Paradise that automatically applies Art Materials Cartoon Shaders to the chosen materials in a scene: kinda like a more precise version of the Toon Shader in Poser 7. SS

I always thought it was a very good music video.

I would have thought the Sketch Designer may have given the style you want, but I see in your first post that yoiu say it doesn't.