Okay I've tried this many times and got frustrated, my question is thus ... when people import poser objects into bryce .. why do the trans maps not work? Lashes, hair etc.. its really beginning to annoy me because I've seen some quality work done with poser and bryce and I really want to attempt it myself. :-) Anyone give me a hint? Poser 4.03 PP and Bryce 5 (demo)

The lack of transmap support isnt the fault of Bryce OR Poser, but is simply not supported in the OBJ format. You can apply the transmaps in the material editor yourself, if this is new to you there are several good step-by-step tutorials available. A google search should find some. Also check the tutorial section here. Obviously you havent commited to Bryce yet, but there is a program called Natural Pose that automates the process. It needs plenty of memory but does the job nicely. You might also consider Vue Desprit (demo available) which does import Poser PZ3s including the transmaps. Early experiments have shown it has problems with Posers reflection maps though. A few things to look at B)

Got it .. no I havnt commited to bryce or anything except poser yet, I am looking at Lightwave but its cost is rather daunting. Thank you very much for the advise, I hope to be making poser/bryce images very soon :-)

Routledge gave good advice, if your not a bryce person. Buy Vue4 it imports pz3 in a snap. Even I can do it. :O). My problem with Vue is I don't know much eles since I've used bryce for 2yrs. So take off bryce and start learing Vue4. I'm not buying anymore Bryces untill they have it so it will take a PZ3.

I agree completely Turtle. Ive only tried the demo, but on the strength of it have got the software on order. Its the speed that sold it. A Bryce render of a nude Vicky (hooray!) with hair, 1 light, no ground and a default sky took 45 mins. In Vue it took 11 mins, but Vicky had clothes on (boo!) the same hair, with two lights - one volumetric, a water plane with reflections and soft shadows. Bryce is now consigned to a shelf.

I tried importing Poser 4 obj exports into Lightwave 7, but it hasn't worked to my satisfaction. If you buy Poser ProPack there's a Poser->LW converter that will install a plugin in LW. I downloaded the separate module converter from CL's website, but it still requires a registered ProPack previously installed so I bagged that idea. I've also tried LW's polygon smoothing plugin but I am not that satisfied. Perhaps Poser 5 or LW 7.3 will resolve this situation. I've also shelved Bryce 5 and am thinking about Vue but only have Vue 2 right now.

I've used the import utility for LW using a friends dongle (please dont take the wrong idea from THAT one) and it looked okay except for (again) lack of transparencies .. but he was in a hurry and so I didnt have time to go through the poser lightwave panel. It seems the poser users favour Vue rather then Bryce, after fixing some of the bryce issues I found it to be very nice renderer (if, as mentioned, a little slow) I am downloading Vue at the moment, but I've seen an image made in vuw here that took my breath away , so I am certainly inclined to try it.