Ok all, I dont know how many people out there have given praise to the folks that create, recreate, and spend who-knows-how-long on projects of all types. I for one, applaud all of you for your hard work, efforts and ideas, and want to thank you for everything you have done for the poser (and other) communities.
I tried 'making' my first prop in poser today, and gawd what a mess lol. I didnt realize the work, time and effort involved in such a simple undertaking and I want everyone out there to know that I have a new-found respect for all of the modelers out there, clear down to the simple 'look, I made a ball stuck to a stick' people out there ;)
One final question, does anyone out there know any good grouping tutorials that a severe newb might be able to use?
So far, even the simplest creation stuff has been over my head....
My thanks goes out to everyone who maes this community what it is!!!

Dr Geep has made a tutorial regarding the Grouping Tool :o) Seach for Geep and Primer and you will find it. If you want to try making models, I suggest you go get Anim8or. It's free and (I think) easy to start with. Balls on sticks are a good point to start. A lot of people think they can start by creating a Vicki character. Personally I started with a beer can that could be crushed L In other words: Start with something easy and soon you'll be flying :o)

Definitely start with the existing Poser primitives. You'll be surprised at how many things you can make with just balls, boxes and cylinders. Concentrate especially on mastering the oddities of Parenting before you get into designing your own objects.

Attached Link: http://www.wings3d.com

I suggest Wing3D, it is free and it is the easiest modeller I know - it is that easy that even I understand how to use it. With other modellers I always hated these icons I never understood what they stand for. Wings uses words in the menues. Please follow the link to the homepage. There are also great forums - even here at renderosity is a pretty new one. Good luck - start easy! ;-) Bernie

Attached Link: http://www.renderosity.com/messages.ez?ForumID=10139&Form.ShowMessage=1146997

spyder, I don't know how far into this you want to get, but you might want to check this thread. It contains a post (#9) with a simple description I gave of the steps to create a figure from props, using poser and notepad. The person I replied to had his own props, but you can just substitue your own names for his. Or just keep it for future reference. I'd reccommend Anim8or. It's free and fairly easy to use, bearing in mind that's there's no such thing as an 'easy' 3d app. Since 3d itself can be complicated, you're never going to find any program that does it for you. But it's worth learning and you'll always get help here if you need it. A lot of people think modelling is any easy way to made some spare cash, but I seriously doubt that. It's horribly time-consuming and not that lucrative. But it IS enjoyable. I reckon the reason that most modellers started is that they wanted to give something back to the community. Kinda nice, I think. mac

i could not really grasp anim8or, but, from the beginning...i used it to make morphs. amapi 4.15, and even 5.1 fully functioning can be obtained for free...ask at the amapi forum. that is the one that clicked for me....i got the free amapi 4.15...and, basically, understood concepts that had been eluding me. i use rhino, now....but, have not made anything for sale...just fun to make for myself. mac is right about time consumption. i'm lucky in that i have rhino at work, and, at home....so, can spend a good bit of time making my little frankenpoppis...although, both of my floppy drives, at home, and at work are acting up...i need to clean them even more, i think...so the frankenpoppis have been staying at work. (except for the home ones...staying at home.) i love modelling. when i post a picture that is all basically done by me...except for vicki....i feel very proud.

Poppi, I use Anim8or for nothing but making morphs and 3d max for modelling. But, for the life of me, I could not begin to understand Amapi! I had a free version too, and eventually, I deleted it. It must be me. I was completely baffled by it. mac PS frankenpoppis. LOL.

I've tried them all. Anim8tor has very little help for begginers. Most of the tutorials are for those who know everything about it. I use it mainly to change lwo from Amapi to obj. Amapi is OK, but has a mind of it's own at times, thus Anim8tor. Wings I find the best for me. pakled - I had the same problems till I found the Hardness commands. Wings made more sense with that. Tashar 59

Amapi can do all the tricks in all the tutes available, whatever the 3D app used in a specific tute. Add Anim8or and you can get your Amapi models into Poser as OBJ. No, I'm not working for Eovia (the Amapi company), and there's plenty of great apps out there (I use TrueSpace because I'm a creature of habit). But Amapi is the only app that never needs help to do a modeling job - it never ceases to amaze me that you can get it for free! The best learning resource is free, too - this place ;o) Have fun.

have to agree with Mac and Poppi. i just model for fun. i use amapi 6 mostly because thats the one that clicked for me,i also use truespace. i dont like rhino much nor LW. im sure they,re great apps , they just dont like me much lol. have fun thats my motto, try not to pull all your hair out. stu

don't have that much left..;)Wings3d Hardness, huh? I like the idea that you can drag individual points in any direction, that's very interesting (yes, you can do it in Amapi too..;)..have to try it out. If they don't release a new version of Wings in the next 5 minutes and I have to load it all over again..;) (they once came out with 2 upgrades in 14 hours..;) Have to admit they clamp down on bugs like a duck after same..;)

Ok, I hear all about all of the different creation apps, but I hear alot about rhino and how 'easy it is to use' because you can trace objects with it? Is this true, like taking a picture of say, a gun and tracing it 2d, then tweaking this and that to make it 3d? Mostly what I'm looking to do is make weapon props and many have said rhino would work fine. I was lucky enough to find rhino and an older version of 3DS MAX at someones yard sale and picked them up for pretty cheap (Can I say that here? lol) so I am just itching to be able to do something creative... Thanks everyone

because you can trace objects with it? yup...you can trace. rhino is what i use. why, because i can basically "draw" shape i want to create (for organics, anyway)and create csec curves that pretty much follow it. but, getting rhino is a really bad move, in the mental health area. i will not completely advocate a program that is so addictive. and, the rhino forum doesn't help a bit!!! those folks are so helpful that they just enable the addiction. i downloaded wings...i like the subdivide command...however, i have not been able to make an extruded circular polygon. for me, it is hard like anim8or. pop...pop...Poppi!!!

rhino is a great program..but it costs out the wazoo..somewhere in the 4-digit range. now if you're really serious, and it's an investment, go for it. I think that you could start with the freebies just to get the concepts down, then work your way up through commercial stuff like Truespace, Maya (does Maya model?) and Lightwave, etc., on your way to Rhino..everyone's different, just take it at your own pace.

I tried the Max demo (Gmax), created some Objects, but did not like the workflow. I also tried the Rhino Demo, created some more Objects (you can save 25 times with the demo, so one can do somthing usefull with it). I liked it much more than Max. It is very intuitve to work with and there are very good tutorials aroud. I allready had almost decided to buy it. But then I downloaded Wings and got compleatly addicted. It is a completly different way to model, but at least for me, it is much faster and easier than anything I tried before. To find you way into wings, you should read up a litle bit about box modelying concepts, but then it is a breeze. Stefan