First, thanks to those who pointed me to ISOP's site! And to those who are helping with that samurai armor! Well, this image isn't yet complete. I've still got to go into Photoshop and add some lighting effects, but for some reason I can't get the floor to render. It keeps coming out grey, but it should have a tatami texture. I've tried manually setting the texture to the tatami for ground, but every render comes out as this grey stuff. Also, I can't seem to render it into a new window. Whenever I try, no matter the window size, it comes out all white. But it renders in the document window ok. I was thinking of using this as a full screen background, but it seems I'm going to have to make the document window size as large as possible (753x753) and apply sloppy borders to have something workable. So, comments, criticism, or help welcome!

This is completely ISOP models. The samurai, kunoichi, hair (on both), lamps, and most importantly (for the help needed) the room. Anyone ever rendered the room before?

Display | Guides | Ground Plane =) That will render a floor. Dunno why it isn't on by default... Not sure about the new window problem. This is a great image, I wish you luck with it. =)

Thanks for the compliment. And the tip! It's rendering now! I was thinking that the problem may be RAM, but I've got almost 200 (196MB to be exact)...

Hmm.. that shouldn't be it. I rendered Vicki and Mike to a new window at 1000x1000 with a PII 233 and 128 MB of RAM.

Very good, I think it is really interesting. Sharen

Nice work. The samurai is coming along nicely. Only a few days to go. I wan't to make it as customizable as possible. Fpr the ground, you can press Ctrl + G to display it or hide it.

have you installed the patch from curious labs? I don't know if this will cause your window problems, but alot of problems were solved with that patch. image tip: to get sharper shadow edges, enlarge the map size in the light parameter dials. It will slow the render down but the effect is worth it for the final output.

Try rendering as an animation. It works for me. From the Animation menu, select Animation Setup. Enter the size you want your image to be, and set Frame Count to 1 since you're only doing a single image. Click OK. Then, select Make Movie from the Animation menu. Set Sequence Type to Image Files, since you don't want to generate a video. Set Resolution to Full. Set Quality to Current Render Settings. Turn on Antialiasing. Click OK. Tell Poser which image format you want (BMP, JPG, TIFF, etc.), and where you want the rendered image to be saved. Hope this helps.

Hello once again, Xurge: I'm about to break a leg from hopping around in anticipation! Hope anything I do with them is worthy of your work... Little Dragon, shadowcat, thanks for the tips! I've got a render using the "cinema" options going now. If it comes out ok, I'll redo it with the shadow options. During all this time, I've been working on the 753x753 one, and this is what I've come up with. I think it would still make a good background, perhaps with "sloppy"/ragged borders. Anyone know how to do this?

Wow! I like the flame trail from the candle. Was that done in postwork?

Some image-editing programs have tools that allow you to create fancy borders. Paint Shop Pro 7, for instance, has a Picture Frame tool in its Image menu.

Even if your software doesn't have such a feature, you might be able to use it if it supports Photoshop-compatible plugins. Look here for a good source of free filters and plugins.

Hey Little Dragon, Yep, that was post work. I guess I should have said what program I'm using. It's photoshop. For any interested in how the flame was done: I imported the original image into Photoshop and created a new layer. In the new layer I did an oval selection and filled it with a red/orange. Then I created a second oval selection and deleting it, leaving the streak outlink. Next, I used the smudge tool and went through the entire streak, creating just making it jagged and transparent. I think I also dropped the level to about 80% opacity (opaqueness?). Then I merged down/merged visible. Then I went to filter-render and lighting effects. It's really the lighting effect that gives it that flamelike look, so that may take a little playing with. Maybe I should write a tutorial...

Little Dragon, Just tried that render suggestion. This time it came out all white instead of all black. I may just need to install that patch. I think I'll redo my home machine and do it then.

Nice job. This is begging for animation.

My bet is on the patch.

Ok, I figured out the rendering problem. On the current computer, I didn't have rights to modify the program files directory. Apparently when creating a render in a separate window, Poser uses a temporary file in its own directory. With proper rights and no changes, the render comes off great. So I'm enlarging the render to create a background. Whenever it's done it will be available at http://engei.tripod.com/ somewhere. I'll have to redo the site to accomodate these little projects, but then I was planning on redoing it anyway!