Hi there, i have played with poser a few times, but never for anything specific. I'd like to know if poser is any good for creating a 3d character who will be later blended in to act with real actors on a live set.... Any comments on how well this works and any tips on making it better or other ways/programs are more than welcome. Thanks a lot

You'd probably have to use motion capture... check Curious Labs and the bvh files.... The main reason for inserting a CGI character would be to portray something a real actor couldn't do (melt into butter, unscrew his hand and lend it to you, morph into a laurel or daphne), but if everyone is motion-captured, it ought to be easier to synchronize the movements. Carolly

I'd love to see how good Poser figures would look in something like this. Certainly you're not going to get Titanic quality and even there, they only used CG characters as background figures as far as I know. I'm guessing that getting the lighting to look right would be difficult, but I don't know. I'm also guessing that if the Poser figure didn't have to look "human" in comparison to the actors - like the liquid metal figure in Terminator it would be easier. I hope you pursue this and show us the results.

"Democracy is a pathetic belief in the collective wisdom of individual ignorance." - H. L. Mencken

If you render a Poser animation as a series of still images with a format that has an alpha channel (TIFF in my experience), you can then composite the series with footage in a video editing program - Elisa/gryffnn

Some AVI Codecs save the alpha channel also... ... as stated in an earlier thread. Those which state millions+ colours. This would save a bit of time! h:)

It's also possible just to load up your AVI file into Poser's background and animate your characters directly on top (matching lighting and timing etc). Works a treat too!...

Here I am meeting Posette and my Sis has a few Pro Pack friends around for Christmas carols. :-)

Just for fun, I know, but you could do the same with a high-quality Vicky or Mike character too!

Dave :-)

Dave, they are terrific!

Thanks gryffnn :-) I'd recommend anyone who wants to do this to go down the firewire/miniDV camcorder route - makes it SOOOOOO much easier to handle the video. Save up those pennies and go for it!! Dave :-)

Don't I know it; video is so easy with Elura and Final Cut Pro. I'll never go back to Premier on a PC!

Just got firewire on my new ATI 8500DV card and have a camcorder that uses it. What an improvement over the old all in wonder pro! Real streaming video, no more dropped frames, etc. Now to get a good video editing program. Any suggestions? I had Video Wave a while back and seem to have lost the cd's so its not on this puter. Maybe I'll get the new version that's out, its cheap enough.

Thanks a lot guys... Those composites are great and ill be sure to post mine when they are completed. (bout 6-8months away yet) The characters are aliens so wont have to have human detail, so now that you've proved it can be done, ill just have to go do it. thanks again

No prob PCM! Looking forward to seeing your composite aliens doing their thing! Sounds cool! Dave :-)