I am pretty new to poser and currently have poser pro 2014.  my system is Win 7, 16MB RAM, i7 2.20 with an Nvida 640GM (Laptop).  I have been attempting to render out 600 frames of animation with very minimal movement with the figures and no movement with the main camera. I am using M4 and V4.  M4 is the "Eli" figure and V4 is Moki with the PPSSS skin.  this render is taking aprox 14hr to render the entire clip with the setting in the render engine 3rd from the last in firefly.  Is this normal??? or is there a better way to do this.  although i have SP1, my computer still crashes when i remove the check mark for taking out back facing polly so i have to leave it on. considering that that is only 20secs of animation at 30fps, 14hrs seems like a lot to me.

That's probably about right. When I do animations, I typically create three to five second clips that normally take four to five hours of rendering time. This project took three months to make:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PV3k-s_sg1Q

I don't understand what you mean by **"**with the setting in the render engine 3rd from the last ", and I don't know the size of the frames, but anyway you're referring to just over 80 seconds per frame, which is not that much for a decent Poser render anyway.

Animations, HD or DVD image quality, IDL lighting and elaborated reflections / refractions mixed together make a requirement for massive CPU power (or long render times).
Which is why I'm running a 12-thread @ 4Ghz machine, which is 270% faster compared to your 8-thread @ 2.2Ghz.

And I tend to chop my renders into portions which make it overnight. Or as a low priority queued proced in the background. And I render 'shot by shot', in separate images even. Modern fast paced animations never have shots longer that 2-4 seconds. Then I glue them together in a video tool.

Just my 2 cents.

@anupaum: nice work!!

Quote - That's probably about right. When I do animations, I typically create three to five second clips that normally take four to five hours of rendering time. This project took three months to make:

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PV3k-s_sg1Q

great render man i wish i could get that type of natural movement for my avatars not only in figure movement but in actual body fluidity such as arms and breasts.  i am still new and my figures are basically hardend shells that still intersect with each other.  i am still trying to figure out the setting for collision on separate elements as well. for example. when i have a figure hold hands and have the collission on and try to join them the fingers usually get repelled and wrap behind themselves and if i turn it off i always have them protruding through the other figures mesh, unless i spend countless hours re-aligning them.

artbee-  yeah just thought it would take less time than that.  the last time i worked with poser was poser 7 and it had huge render times as well.  i would have thought it would have taken a lot less time now at 2014.  especially when machines now days are a heck of alot faster, larger graphics cards and about 10 times more RAM.  unfortunatly my good machine is back home in the states and is a true graphics machine with the i7 980 extreame, 32 Gb ram, dual 690 hydro coppers and dual 500Gb SSD's.  however I was unable to take my rig with me down range to Afghanistan so i had to settle for my Sony laptop which is not nearly as fun.  I was hoping however that it was something I was doing wrong. 

in reference to your question about "3rd setting to the last" i should have communicated better sorry.  that is the location of the render setting line in the Automatic setting in the render window..

Quote - great render

Thank you! That was a real labor of love . . .

Quote - man i wish i could get that type of natural movement for my avatars not only in figure movement but in actual body fluidity such as arms and breasts.  i am still new and my figures are basically hardend shells that still intersect with each other.

It takes time, so be patient with yourself. I've been working with this program since Poser 3, and hopefully, that shows!

Quote -   i am still trying to figure out the setting for collision on separate elements as well. for example. when i have a figure hold hands and have the collission on and try to join them the fingers usually get repelled and wrap behind themselves and if i turn it off i always have them protruding through the other figures mesh, unless i spend countless hours re-aligning them.

You'll find work arounds for problems like that. A lot of animating involves compromise because the program IS limited in what you can and can't do. I have a piano-playing animation in another video that just doesn't LOOK right to my eyes. It's extremely difficult to show detailed and complex movement in an animation, and even more so to show muscle flex and -- until Poser 2014 -- soft body dynamics. I do all of the breast movements individually and I don't always get it right. You can see that here:

http://youtu.be/mZedNEXhTn4

Things that I wasn't able to pull off three years ago are a lot easier now. The same will be true of you if you persist. So, keep at it!

Quote - > Quote - great render

Thank you! That was a real labor of love . . .

 

Quote - man i wish i could get that type of natural movement for my avatars not only in figure movement but in actual body fluidity such as arms and breasts.  i am still new and my figures are basically hardend shells that still intersect with each other.

It takes time, so be patient with yourself. I've been working with this program since Poser 3, and hopefully, that shows!

Quote -   i am still trying to figure out the setting for collision on separate elements as well. for example. when i have a figure hold hands and have the collission on and try to join them the fingers usually get repelled and wrap behind themselves and if i turn it off i always have them protruding through the other figures mesh, unless i spend countless hours re-aligning them.

You'll find work arounds for problems like that. A lot of animating involves compromise because the program IS limited in what you can and can't do. I have a piano-playing animation in another video that just doesn't LOOK right to my eyes. It's extremely difficult to show detailed and complex movement in an animation, and even more so to show muscle flex and -- until Poser 2014 -- soft body dynamics. I do all of the breast movements individually and I don't always get it right. You can see that here:

 

http://youtu.be/mZedNEXhTn4

 

Things that I wasn't able to pull off three years ago are a lot easier now. The same will be true of you if you persist. So, keep at it!

  I appreciate the vote of confidence.  i have been dabbeling with just about every software in the book..Poser, Lightwave and Maya.. i think i just got myself a bit overwhelmed

What you imagine in your head may not be possible in the program. Knowing what you want and HOW to pull it off takes time. Keep fiddling and don't be discouraged. None of us began doing this with the same level of skill we developed over time.

i am wondering if i change my bucket size if it will cut down on rendering time...currently i have it at 20 but i will be changing it to 10 unless someone has a better setting they could suggest

really wish the manual was more specific on measuments with the various settings in poser as well.  i understand the time but i cant really corrilate the dial settings into measurements that i can understand.  this would be especially helpful with the collision settings. 

also could someone please explain in laymans turms how to work the "gravity" setting in poser.  i have looked at tutorials and still dont understand how to instill gravity to body parts of a figure so that they avatars will react is if influenced by gravity.

let alone exceptions, my advise on bucket size is: 32 for 32-bit machines, 64 for 64-bit machines. Reducing bucket size make less memory consumption and longer render times.

"this render is taking aprox 14hr to render the entire clip"

Hi welcome to the world of CG  character animation!!,
I am creating a feature length animated film rendered in an older version of Maxon
Cinema4D studio ( R11) but using all DAz /poser assets&Characters
and My average render time is about 14 hours for a 10 second shot so one must be patient
here is a 10 MINUTE PREVIEW of my film titled "Galactus Rising"

Cheers

I have anouther question...i am now pretty proficient with using the rendering engine by rendering still shots and then composing them in AE.  i have not done a bad job of it either based on on you alls comments and suggestions and i very much appreciate the help.  my question is;

i have been rendering the stills at 640x480, composing them in AE to create a 4 min clip, however. this 4 min clip is saved as a windows media file (avi) and costs 6.4 Gigs of space on my hard drive.  is there a way to get the same or better quality feature using a different format and not using as much space on the hard drive? I know there has to be some way because a standard DVD only holds about 7 Gigs and you can fit a 4hr feature on it as well as data.

i would appreciate any help. thanx

it looks like the avi is uncompressed: 640x480x3(for RGB) x 4x60x30(fps) = 6.4Gig

So just choosing a decent video codec for compression will do the job. Choosing one depends on your further publication requirements (youtube, burn on disk, ...). Your vedeo editor can do the job.

this is part of my problem i am not sure how to compress it...the videos i am creating are strickly for my viewing or my familys and i am not savvy on how the compression or codecs work.  the only reason i used avi is because i knew what that was in the listing.  it is my intent to play the vids on my plasma tv at home through my computer.  if that helps you understand the situation of the presentation.  i just would like to be able to produce a beautful cgi movie to my family with high quality resolution (about an hour) without taking up 500G of space to do it.

should not be a big deal, you must be able to pick any codec / compression method in some options / settings panel. I guess you're using Premiere, since you're composing in AE, right?

1. just experiment, some give great compression but lousy quality, others the other way around, some give good compression and good quality. Guidelines:

low quality: 4Mb/minute, okay quality 8-12Mb/min, high quality 16Mb/min for 640x480 (but do note your TV likes 768x576 or so more).

1. you don't need avi, divx and others (wmv) are fine too if available on your machine

2. if you can compress it on your machine, you can decompress / play it as well, no issues there. The issues come in when you compress it on your machine, and want to play back on another, and you use a non-standard codec which is not available on the other machine.

i actually have masters cs4 so i do have an AE as well as an encoder.  i dont think premier was a part of the package. but if i am guessing you right....

does not matter whether it is avi, divx or otherwise as long as it is the same machine that plays it back.  which it will because it will be the same laptop. and that if i want the best quality when i choose to compress it, t should be at 16mb a min or no lower than about 14 i am guessing?

just experiment, on a 1-minute piece or so. Some codecs make great results on great compression, others are lousy while hardly compressing at all. I'm not that good on video to know by heart. And there are shiploads of free video-format-converters on the net.

RealConverter (with Realplayer), Divx Converter, Windows Movie Maker, Pinnacle VideoSpin, ... all can do things for you. Plus everything in the OpenSource area.