Creating Poser Figure Stencils in Bryce
Part 3 - Creating a Stencil Animation

Stencil image animations
Review of the source animation Recall that we rendered a Poser animation, in this case the "Run" pose from the walk designer. The number "30" in the upper right corner of the thumbnail means there are 30 frames to this animation....
Review of the Animation Settings ...so when we used "Make Movie", we actually created 30 frames, or 30 individual image files. That's what we'll use to make our animated stencil.
Ungroup the combined lattice To create the stencil image, we had to group two objects, one posititive and one negative. We do the same thing to make an animation, but we have to Ungroup them (with the "U" button) first.
Go to the Terrain Editor After ungrouping click the "E" button on the terrain to enter the Terrain Editor.
The Terrain Editor with the settings of our first image.

The Terrain Editor opens. It still has the values we set for the still image stencil.

To create our animation we will use the animation controls at the bottom of the window. Note the digital timer next to the "x" button in the bottom right corner. It is set for "00:00:00:00". Our original image is at that timeline position, making it the first image of our animation.
Position the timeline marker, then load the image.

There are only two steps to take to create our animation, but they must be repeated in sequence for each frame.

Step 1: Find the timeline marker (highlighted) at the bottom left corner of the screen and drag it slowly until the digital timer (highlighted) reads "00:00:00:01".

Step 2: Click the "Load" buttom (highlighted) above the first picture box and select the second image of your Poser animation. Don't change the other two boxes, and don't exit the Terrain Editor.
Third image of the animation. Repeat Steps 1 and 2 above for each frame of your animation. These next three slides show the third, fourth, and fifth frames of the animation.
Fourth image of the animation. Remember, set the timeline marker position first, then load the image. Watch the digital timer closely; you don't want to skip any frames.
Fifth image of the animation. Continue advancing and loading until you complete the last frame of your animation. Then click the checkmark button to return to the main screen.
Make sure timeline is at zero and group the objects.

Remember, we ungrouped our lattice and our 2D face to create the multiple frames. Now we must regroup them again.

Notice the same animation controls at the bottom of the main screen that were in the Terrain Editor. Move the marker all the way to the starting "00:00:00:00" position first, then group the objects with the CTRL-SHIFT-click method you used before.
Render the animation.

With the marker set at the home position and the objects grouped, render your animation with the File--Render Animation command. You can choose to render either an AVI or a MOV file.

Be patient; animations take time!
First frame of the completed animation. Here's what the finished animation looks like. I've converted it to Windows Media .WMV format for faster downloading. You'll need Windows Media to play it back.

This technique of creating stencils works with any solid or silhouetted object. Text works very well, particularly fonts with big, square letters. Good luck making your stills and animations.

For more Poser and Bryce tutorials, and to download lots of GREAT free Poser models, visit Renderosity. It's one of the best 3D sites around for both novice and professional alike.

Have fun.