Is it just me, or does Poser have a knack for presenting problems that make absolutely no snese?  After I activate "Animated" mode for several material node values, save the file, and reload, some of those node values revert to non-animated mode.  The corresponding dials remain but have no effect.  Everything works fine until I close and re-load or revert.  Does anyone have any idea what the heck's going on here?

I've noticed, that you still see the ShaderNode dial, but you do not see any changes in preview when changing the values.
However, when rendering Poser uses the new value.

You can get Poser to show changes in preview by selecting the respective material once in the Material Room.

That's with PoserPro 2010 loading a cr2 including animated materials, and saving/loading the same scene as a pz3.

Just created a scene in Poser 7, saved the file, restarted Poser, opened saved file...

All changes to animated materials are visible in OpenGL preview mode.
If I use Sreed Preview, changes won't show until I select the material in the material room. 

In my previous post, using PoserPro 2010 I did not use OpenGL preview!

So it seems to me, all dials for animated materials are working, but you won't see any changes unless you are using OpenGL preview or select the material in the Material room.

Depending on which nodes you are animating, you may not see any changes in either privew mode!

I've noticed this problem before in P7.  The 'animated' choice saves most of the time, but not always.  I usually hand-edit the CR2 to restore it.  Don't know why it fails sometimes; presumably there's a pattern but it's not worth the detective work.

The limitations of OpenGL preview aren't the problem.  The preview in the Advanced Material Room doesn't update either, even after I refresh it by selecting another zone and then coming back (a trick which works fine for other animated material parameters), and the key symbol to the left of the node input is gray rather than green.

Rebuilding my project from scratch has revealed something helpful, though (I hope).  All of the node parameter animations reload properly except for the one I'm trying to create in V4's Forearm zone.  Interestingly enough, this is also the only one whose dial name is truncated because it's apparently too long.  Rather than "3_Forearm_Math_Functions_3_1" as you would expect given the names of the corresponding dials for the other zones, the 1 at the end gets cut off, leaving you with just "3_Forearm_Math_Functions_3_"  Coincidence?  I'm inclined to think not.  The question is what to do about it.  Renaming it in an ERC editor and adjusting the internal reference accordingly doesn't help.

Looks like Poser has some kind of problem with the long name.
Knowing this, I'd try renaming the Math node to something shorter prior to setting it to animated. 

I suspect that is its internal name - renaming it won't help.

We haven't heard the use case, so maybe this suggestion is pointless, but...

I never animate node parameters. If I want something to vary, I use the frame number node and some math, or run that into other nodes and use them to generate pseudo-random sequences. For example, I have a pretty nice flame material that animates automatically.

Quote - I suspect that is its internal name - renaming it won't help.

You are right. I didn't think of that.

EITHER POSER OR MY COMPUTER IS A STUPID PEICE OF BLEEPIN' #$%@!

Now that I got that out of my system...

Quote - Looks like Poser has some kind of problem with the long name.
Knowing this, I'd try renaming the Math node to something shorter prior to setting it to animated. 

That's exactly what I've done, and while it solved the problem in the Forearm, the problem is now cropping up in the Torso, Fingernail, and EyeSocket.  It looks like this is one of those gremlins that acts like it's in one of those whack-a-critter arcade games, although it seems consistently limited to just those four zones (Forearm, EyeSocket, Torso, and Fingernail).

Looks like this is something for SmithMicro to look into. If it's really related to Poser creating non-working internal names.
This makes animatable nodes unusable.

Maybe you should try using the frame-number node as suggested by BB.

I solved it, I think.  It's a makeshift solution, but it works.  I was using the math node to send the same value to two Blender nodes.  Oddly enough, if I animate the Blending parameters directly, it works fine.  Fortunately, only three of my math nodes had this problem, so I just replaced the three original dials with six.  If the issue was more widespread, it'd be far more tedious.  The node parm dials are just intermediaries anyway.  I no sooner create them than enslave them to a master dial and hide them. 

Using the frame number would work if animation were my primary goal, but it's not.  The whole project was to rig a V4 CR2 whose eye color, skin tone, freckling, brow/pubic hair color, etc. could all be controlled by simple dials in the Parameters palette.  Results are looking promising now that I've got the parameter hierarchy working the way it's s'posed to!

Ah - that's what I built parmatic for several years ago. Dials that control multiple material zones. It's free, you know and doesn't require slaving of anything.