Hello Experts, A friend of mine has turned me onto Poser and I am very interested in learning how to use it. I have recently gotten Poser 5 and am reading the .pdf file, but I can help but think it is a little lacking in the here is how you actually use the program. It seems to tell me a lot of what the program can do, but not really how to use it. I am very familiar with CADD programs (AutoCAD, I-deas), so I understand 3D space, but graphic programs I have absolutely no experience using and this program looks way to cool to bypass. Can anyone out there point me in the right direction to find information on how to use the program, how to get around in it, what this & that does and how to accomplish what things I want to do, etc? Maybe the .pdf file does this, but from what I have read so far, it doesnt seem to help. I have printed the one article in the tutorials section labeled 10 Tips for Poser Beginners. Is there anything else any of you can suggest? Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you in advance, Renegade

Welcome to the Vice Renegade572, Poser is a highly addictive Application, and were glad to have you, my advice to you is to start with Poser4 or Poser propack a bit easier to use and learn then move on to Poser5, and there are a lot of tutorials posted in the Poser Tutorial Section.

P.S.: get ready to blow some major dough in the Marketplace.

The manual for Poser5 covers the basics very well. the beginning of the manual covers how poser works in 3d, menu's basics, and then moves into using props clothing etc. it even covers building a poser character. get familiar with the sections on where items go in directories, its in the manual. then go to the freestuff section and start grabing things that are in your interests and start playing. Don't worry about spending money until ya get comfortable with the basics.

Thx for the replies, however, going back to Poser4 is not an option. I could barely scrap up the dough for 5. I will continue with the .pdf file and then move on from there. However, if you should think of anything that you think might help a newbie, I'm game. Thx again, Renegade

There are a few good tutorials to go through if you click on the "Poser Forum" banner above. A lot of the sites offering free stuff and merchandise has various tutorials as well, look through the "webring top 15" further down the page. A good way is to hang around here and other Poser related sites. There are always questions coming up in this forum on how to do all kinds of things with Poser, and it will inspire you to try it yourself. Otherwise, trial and error is always a way... Poser is fun, give it a spin every now and then, and you will discover new possibilities along the way. Try to set up simple scenes using the content provided with Poser 5. Doesn't look the way you expected? Delete the awful Poser default lights, add a few spotlights and work a little with the lighting, it does wonders to any scene! Still no good? Work with the poses... Or download some freebies and add to the scene. Take a look in the material room if you can improve the material settings or add new textures on some props... Pretty soon you'll discover the amazing possibilities that this software has to offer. Have fun!

Well, there's various places you can go for tutorials. The most immediate are the tutorials here (look for the Tutorials link above). There's tuts for Poser (4), 5, and 5 SR-2. Some range from the basic (putting a figure in, adding clothes, textures, etc) the more advanced stuff (the setup room, etc.).

Also, DAZ has some tutorials on their site that might be of interest.

http://arcana.daz3d.com/

And then you can check out RuntimeDNA's tutorials (you'll need to register on the site (it's free) to access them).

http://www.runtimedna.com

And then there's PoserPros. It's essentially a big forum, and I'd suggest registering there as well (free also). Lots of good and helpful things and people to be found.

http://www.poserpros.com

There's others, of course, but these come to mind first.

Oh, and how can I forget 3dcommune? They should have some as well.

http://www.3dcommune.com

Happy posing.

You're ok starting in Poser5... Just stick with learning the basics first. I'd go with something along this order: First, learn how to load figures into the scene and pose them (hint - use the dials, do not try to drag the joints around on the screen - you'll go crazy before you learn a thing) Next, Learn how to do basic renders of the figures you pose. Don't worry about all of the settings, just take the defaults at first. Don't forget while learning the pose room (which is really the main place that we all do our work), to learn about the different buttons that you see around the screen... they control the way that your computer displays your work while you're working and can be very helpful. Next, start to learn how to add props first, then conformable clothing (figures actually) to your scene. Then I'd start making more complicated scenes, and learn about lighting and more of the render options. After you feel good about all of that you may want to branch out into more complicated issues including: the Materials room, texturing, modifying models (first with morphs in poser, later with other techinques) Wait on the hair room, the cloth room, and the setup room until you've been working with P5 for a while. You don't need them for starters, and they're somewhat complicated, but they are fun. Before I started in the hair room or the cloth room, I'd also learn a bit about making animations (just the basic stuff), because some of those concepts play in when you make the simulations in those rooms. Hope that gives you at least one suggestion as far as what to work on when.

Attached Link: http://www.lvsonline.com/index.html

LVS offers a beginning class on Poser 4. It will help you with Poser 5 as it mostly covers the basics of the pose room and how to add cloth and hair from the libraries. It will help get you up and running in six weeks. Cost is only $20 for the class. Happy rendering! Peggy

Attached Link: http://www.fallencity.net/lore/index.php

I have a bunch of tutorials on my site, including a good number of Dr. geep's tutorials (hosted by permission) and Huolong's tutorial on "I have Poser, now what?" Cheers!

When you say your friend turned you on to Poser did they turn you on to the printed manual as well? Why are you reading the pdf? Marque

Marque, becuase the manual weighs five pounds and has no searchable index? grin I prefer the PDF myself, actually. It's faster to find the part that I'm having trouble with. Renegade, Welcome to the madhouse. Poser is a very cool program, but it takes a long time to get comfortable. Chanson gave some very good advice, working your way slowly into more complicated things. And remember if you get stuck, the Poser Backroom here has a FAQ, and there are mnay begginner level tutorials around to help you out. Good Luck! Lyrra

WOW, all these posts. Thank you all for the information. I don't know where to begin. :) I am looking forward to using this and seeing what my twisted brain can come up with, well, it's not that twisted. It's good to see this much support amongst other users. As for using the pdf, it scalable, my eyes suck. I can increase the size of the text so I dont have to have my nose on the screen. Speaking of which some of the text in this program is difficult to read, but once I figure out what it does, I wont need the text. Thanks again, Renegade