Maybe I'm making this harder on myself than I need to, but if I create an image in either Bryce or Vue that I will be using as a background in Poser what size does the background image have to be. Does it have to be the size that the image will be once it is finally rendered, geez, I'm confusing myself. In other words, if I want to create an image whose final render size is 600 x 600, is that the size that I will need to make my background that I'll be using in Poser from Bryce? I'd appreciate any help at all. Thanks

yup! You can make it any size that has the aspect ratio of your final render and poser will rescale to fit, but you might as well make it the size of your final render if you want to avoid the rescaling artifacts.

for a clearer image you may wish to scale the background picture up a bit.. i.e. for a 600X600 final image scale teh backgroung to at least 800X800.. whereas Poser will antialias the figures within it tends to miss the background picture.. priducing the infamous "jaggies" You can see for yourself if you wish... make up a couple of backgrounds in varying sizes

OK I think I've got it, so it doesn't matter what size I'm actually working with at the time that I paste the background on, but it does when I render it? Please tell me that's right. Thank you all so much for trying to help me. I really appreciate it.

the render size you shoose in Poser is the size of the render... the trick is to maintain the aspect ratio.. in your example a 600X600 can use any "square" ratio image as a background.. but an 800X600 image will leave blank areas above and below it in a square render. as for the background import.. I've found through experiance that the higher the resolution the back ground has the "cleaner" it renders. which is why I suggested a background rendered at 800X800 for the POser 600X600 render. and the fun part is.. if you paste onto back ground a finely antialiased image... it tends to pixilate with subsequent renders.. a "quirk" of the Poser rendering engine.

Is there a work around the pixilating problem, short of importing the Poser model into Bryce, I can never get that right, something always goes wrong, or can I render it in Bryce with out antialiasing it and then to Poser.

render the back ground like a finished picture... with antialiasing etc... then import that as a background into Poser. again .. preferably larger than the final Poser render will be.. an alternative would be to render Poser larger then rescale down? as you can always take away pixels.. but adding them back is rough. the smoother the background the less it'll pixelate in poser.. but it'll still get a little messed up

ok, will do thank again for your help as well as your patience.

no worrys we all started out new 8 ) if I can help I'm more than glad to.. CHeers and have fun!

Ok, my 2 cents here. One other work around ... Place a cube (standard prop) in your Poser scene. Scale it up large enough in the x and y axis so it can become a "backdrop" instead of a background. Shrink it in the z axis so it's thin like a wall. Since it is a square (Do not size it oddly otherwise your map will stretch) you can place any size (Larger the better) SQUARE image map on it. It is set up to map cubic so the map appears on all sides. (see image) Place it far behind all your figures and props so it does not recieve any shadows on it. You may have to give it it's own spotlight if it's not lit well enough. I find that this works well too and it avoids any pixelation. Hope this helps too. James The image here has the upper left: Imported 200 x 250 pixel background. If you look closely it is pixelated. The second image -Upper Right: Imported 500 x 550 pixel background. Much smoother. The third lower image: Is done with a backdrop. Image is 500 x 550 pixels and the backdrop cube was scaled up around 600% on the x & y axis and 10% on the z axis. All were rendered at 500 x 500 pixels 300 dpi in Poser. (cropped and scaled in PhotoShop)

Wow, thanks for the info as well as the example, as I walk away scratching my head just alittle bit. smile

Here let me help with that itch .... ;-) If you need more explanation, feel free to ask. James

LOL Thanks so much, I really appreciate that. You may be sorry you said it. smile