Regards to you all... I am a newbie to the Poser world and need to know if it is possible to export a Poser Character in 3DS format (together with the bones) rather than re-build them in 3D Studio? If it is possible, would someone care to partake of their knowledge with me? Many thanks... Dr. Diagnostik

Just create your character, then go file, export .3ds....pretty simple huh...Sharen

Many thanks... I have got that far but the Bones do not export and I have to re-create them from within 3DS. This is a real pain and I need to know if the Bones themselves can be exported as well as the "Skin"? Many thanks for replying... Dr. Diagnostik

This must be for Pro Pack....I am sorry if I gave you wrong information...Maybe if you export it to Poser 4 then as a 3ds that would work...do you have Poser 4 to try...Sharen

Many thanks for taking the time to reply... your offer of help is very much appreciated. I have Poser 5. I am quite impressed with it but I dont think it is very clever from the "animation" point of view and very slow to render, hence my need to export a character to 3DS, Bones and all. Dr. Diagnostik

Does it work for exporting out in object format? Sharen

OBJ format is used within Lightwave (I think). I cannot find a way to import an OBJ file into 3DS. I think I am on a loser here and will have to stick with the hard work of adding my own bones to the model. Very long winded but worth it in the end. Please accept my thanks for your assiatance. :-)

Can you export BVH motion files, and then import them into your package. Doing this should export the bone structure. Cheers

Same answer as above. Whilst I can export as a BVH file I cannot find any way to import it into 3DS. Many thanks for your reply... your help is very much appreciated. Dr. Diagnostik

I have no answer for your question (sorry), but I have a question of my own: Why do you say that 3DS is better for "animation" than Poser? I am pretty new to Poser, but I got it mostly because I am interested in animation. Now I hear people saying 3DS Max or other programs are better for that. So I'm considering getting 3DS, but I'm trying to figure out why it's so much better for animation first, so I can justify the expense in my mind. Thanks.

Max, Lightwave and almost any other program is better for rendering simply because of the fact that the other programs have better rendering engines written into the software than does Poser. There are some programs which will allow you to bring a Poser scene into Max, Lightwave, Bryce, and Vue but for the most part you will need the ProPack which has the importers for Max and Lightwave shipped with the program. To take the bones into Max????? It may happen but I don't know about that.

Depending on what version of Max you have, there is a free import/export plugin for .obj format for versions 3 and 4. http://www.habware.at/duck3.htm for version 3 http://www.habware.at/duck4.htm fro version 4. That may help you.

There are certainly plugins available to pull a .obj format into 3DS Max. But with Poser 5, you can not export the bones, period. nope, nada, zip. Considering that the .obj format is perfectly capable of accepting bone and animation info, it is a bit disappointing that Poser does not export this information. But hey, that's that. If a Poser 5 pro pack is ever done (looks like a big if now with today's announcement from CL) it may be doable in the future. Or Poser 4 pro pack can host a Poser scene in 3ds max... but from what I understand (I don't have P4 or pro pack) it isn't really an export to Max that includes the bones from poser, it just copies the animation keyframes over for use in max, but the actual keyframe creation is done in Poser (someone feel free to correct me if I'm wrong on this). If you want to control the animation directly in 3ds max or use character studio on the figure, you will need to add the bones in Max.

I had a feeling from the beginning that it was not possible to import the bones from Poser to 3DS and you have managed to confirm this for me. Many thanks to you all for your help and advice. It is very much appreciated. I hope I can return the compliment one day. Regards to all... Dr. Diagnostik