Constructing an efficient pipeline using Plasma

[peachstapler]

I've got a pipeline issue that involves discreet's Plasma and the new version of Poser 5. Now before we go hootin' and hollerin' about why I'm using Poser, I'll explain in short.

I work for a government contractor and we're approaching a project that will involve a lot of demonstration simulation to instruct our military people on how to safely perform potentially dangerous tasks. Our team realized that, from a production standpoint, Poser's extended character database would allow for us to create a variety of poses in a short amount of time (no major modeling time, no major texturing hurdles).

The deliverable product will be compiled with Flash MX 2004, so we agreed that a few Plasma licenses would be benefitial for its time-saving vector renderer. Herein lies our pipeline issues:

1) Poser 5's bone system isn't as articulate as the tools found in discreet 3D Studio Max, which I am adequetely familiar with. Is there is a comparable set of tools in Plasma available, so that if we were to export models from Poser in 3ds format to Plasma, we would be able to re-rig the characters for animation in Plasma? Anything remotely comparable to Character Studio or Biped inside the Plasma package, or will we have to re-rig with Bones (envelopes, weights, etc)? It would be nice if Plasma's bone system would allow BIP file assignment if I needed to use motion captured data.

2) Here's a simple Poser/discreet question (you can tell I haven't used Poser before, mainly because its taboo around these parts) ... Is there a way to export the Poser character model to Plasma and maintain mapping/texture coordinates? We'd like for some of our military models to be rendered in Plasma with correctly shaded attire, skin color, etc. just as they appear in the Poser viewport.

3) In retrospect, we're looking to bring our diverse library of Poser figures into Plasma, maintaining proper mapping, and hopefully re-rig for animation in Plasma. Are there flaws in the proposed pipeline, and if so, does anyone have any alternative suggestions? I appreciate any advice you can give me.

[sofa]

by pipeline, you mean workflow?

if you output your poser files to *.3ds - it should maintain your mapping and animation. however, I'm not too sure about the bones and controls that are part of poser.

but I may be a bit wrong. I haven't used poser since version 4, and I'm not too sure if they've (curious labs) have done any better file transport between the two.

But the way I see it, animate in Poser, output to Plasma, then render to Flash should be your ultimate workflow.

I hope that helps.