I've been using Poser for over a year now, and I only discovered today (doh!) that you can make the model look at the camera by selecting each eye, then going to the Object menu (this is in Poser 4), selecting 'point at' and linking it to the main camera (or whichever camera you want the model to look at). Don't laugh, but this was a revelation to me, I've been trying to aim each eye individually every time I move the model until now.... might explain why there are so many Vickis staring into space in the galleries, I suppose! I'm doing a happy dance now, because it makes all the difference! Yippee! (And I bet everyone else knew this, but just weren't telling me, but I figured there had to be at least one other dummy out there, hence this post!)

Trust me, you aren't the only one who didn't know this. Thank you for posting the tip!!

Hehe, I guess I was lucky - I found a tutorial very early on which described this. But, contrary person that I am, I often don't want my models looking at the camera. :)

Hee...I only learned about it in the past couple of weeks. It can backfire on you though, as the camera may be somewhere odd to get that perfect angle, and her eyes will be rolled pract6ically backwards, lol.

Of course you can get the eyes to point at other things as well (sometimes with amusing results).

Momcat, they sometimes go cross eyed on close shots, too. :)

well you learn something new everyday, never knew that, have had poser for 3 years now....Sharen

I ususally make the eyes point at an invisible prop, like a cube, which is in turn parented to the character's head. Makes posing the eyes as simple as it gets(just move the cube) and animating a breeze... Ahhh.. I learned that trick here a couple of years back.

Gort - that's a brilliant idea! I'm so glad I posted about my 'discovery' now - thought I might look like a total prat, but it seems not, after all!

Don't feel too bad, I learned this just a coupla days ago.

Attached Link: http://www.3dmenagerie.com/

Thanks a lot. I didn't have a clue about this.

Note that "Point At" has dozens of other uses.. Pistons, for example. Questor's Terminator is a perfect example of this. Let us examine a leg with a piston: The large, outside tube of the piston has a ball and socket joint on the underside of the thigh. The inner "ramrod" has a ball and socket joint on the underside of the calf, near the knee. When setting it up, we make sure it does not "bend" either the thigh or the calf, and then turn off "bend" for these parts, and put their pivots right at the center of the ball and socket, with the terminating center at the end of the piston part. Once that is all set up, we take the outer piston and "point at" the smaller one. This points it at it's "center", the pivot point. We do the reverse with the smaller one. Now, no matter how we twist, bend, or pivot the calf, the piston remains perfectly aligned as if it was one single unit. That is, as long as the inner piston is long enough for th more extremly stretched poses, and doesn't "slip out"... but even then, it's still pointing at the housing.

Don't feel silly coz I didn't even know that till you pointed it out LOL!!

... & also handy for aiming lights & cameras.

I sometimes put a sphere just behind the camera and focus the eyes on that. As far as Point At function, whenever I use a spotlight, I always use Point At and direct the light at the figure's head (or whatever part you want the spotlight to focus on). Then, in the Auxiliary Camera, you can actually see the spotlight and move it around, but the light will always stay zeroed in on the figure's face. Melanie

Cross-eyed Vicki's (a pet peeve of mine) explained at last! LOL Seriously, the day I discovered this trick (not so long ago) ranks right up there with the day I figured out how important it is to reset the camera focus to at least 100 for natural-looking faces! If only ALL those little Poser "A-ha!'s" could be included in the FAQ.....but then this forum might drastically shrink in size ;)

Not to put too fine a point on it......LOL

Hm, I "point at" the face camera, so I can control if the character is cross-eyed and can exactly see in which direction he/she looks (and whether the eyes turn beyond their natural limits). For the render itself I use the main camera or any of the other ones. Willy