Dear Friends, I am relatively new to computer graphics but am facinated by the poser images seen on Rosity. I checked out Poser and saw the relatively high price of the software. So, I ask this question: Are many of you professionals with software access? Are you simply very creative and interested artists who pay for this software and add-ons as someone else would invest, say, in woodworking equipment? I am curious. Poser is very, very tempting. God Bless. TomDart.

I was a graphics professional, but not using Poser. I'm hoping to get back to my first love (graphics) some time in the future, maybe using Poser or some other rendering tool. I have spent a frightening amount of money (several thousands) on the software and models in the relatively short space of time I've been Posering. Yup, it's an expensive hobby. But a good one, IMO.

I'm a graphic designer, and do alot of freelance work so I had to buy software like Photoshop and Illustartor, but an Ex- Girlfriend of mine gave me poser as a Christmas gift. and I've been hooked ever since.

You can currently get Poser 4 for around $99 lowest it's been in ages. Poser 5 keeps coming down in price also. As far as cost, I've spent around $4,000 in software in the last year. I do art cause I love it, sometimes I even sell something I have created. My new goal is of doing a show with printed artworks framed and what not, the costs keep getting cheaper so it's doable. I keep adding on, getting upgrades, books and learning. I guess I would say that I put myself in the really expensive hobby catagory, though I have art background and been payed to be an artist on several jobs. I'd get poser and start playin with the millions of freebies that are out there and have some fun with it, that is the ultimate goal, to have fun, I know someone told me that somewhere. If it's not for you, then it's only a small investment. Think of it this way, Poser 4 costs about as much as going to the movies 4 times and having popcorn, trust me, you'll have more fun with poser than some of the movies haha! hope you join the Poser crowd, lot of great helpful people around, and lots of fun to be had :)

I compare it to how much people spend at bars and think I got a good deal. (Hmmm ... spend a lot of money, act like an idiot and have a hangover the next morning vs. get immersed in art and have images to share with people.) I can't draw at all, but I can make decent (okay, understandable) images with Poser. I've also started getting into mesh modeling, which I find fascinating. I've learned a lot about how to see things the way artists do. I also write, so it's exciting to be able to create pictures of my characters so I can really get to know them and better describe them to others. There's a lot of freebies out there, so you can get just the program and work with that for a while. Some people have never bought anything besides the program and have gotten great results between freebies and their own work. If you did oil painting, for example, you'd be spending money on oils, canvases, etc., so spending on Poser isn't an outlandish idea. Cheers!

I have been wondering about that too... I don't really know what I want to learn but I know that I will keep on going in 3D. So what I wan't to know is.... is there any one a professional in poser or are u most graphic designers and 3D artist? And can you make a living on this?

My dog just ate my $150 set of pastels, please don't bring up the cost of traditional media ugh. btw, my dog likes burnt sienna and cadmium red the best, gotta love white puppies wanders off shaking head get poser, you'll love it :)

Yikes! I am amazed at the fast flood of posts to my original post. You see, I am a jeweler, working in precious metals, other metals, gemstones, etc. Yes, it is now a profession but started as a hobby. And I am good at it. In computer graphics, I am just learning direction but Poser has stimulated my creative side to an almost "can't resist" position. MachineClaw mentioned prices on Poser 4, not bad at all for start up. I can do that. Yikes again, likely will cost me more later, as does any hobby that becomes part of my creative outlet. I'll keep the woodworking stuff I have, now, any buyers for the lapidary stuff? No, I will keep that, too. Loved it when I did it. Now there is little room or time for it, still it is "available". This little office room with the computer is the space now. I might be in "trouble" or in for a wonderful experience learning my abilities and limitations with Poser. Your instant responses are a convincing assertion. What is inside, must come out, even if not fit at first for others it will be me at some stage of learning. I will let you know on this thread what happens with the credit card and the software. : ) God Bless. TomD'Art.

For me it's just alot of harmless fun. Many here are good enough to be paid for their work (myself excluded) but that's not what it is about for me.

I am not a pro, but would like to become one when I learn this stuff. I bought P5 for a project I am still working on - not a CGI project, a paper one that needs images that I cannot find on the 'net and would rather not pay models to do (not porn, either). The cost of the program is less than the cost for the models, camera, etc. The more I play with P5, the more I like it. It does frustrate me when it loads slowly, but I just busy myself with something else for a few minutes and then get back to work.

I can list several people in this site who use Poser professionally - not just for selling to people here, but who use it in illustration, web design, etc.

I used to do a bit of lapidary ans siversmithing when I was younger. If your into making jewlery you might consider a modeling program. Making your own models is so much more rewarding and a heck of a lot cheaper. Check out some of the free ones, buy a copy of poser4. Learn the ropes and then go for poser 5 or one of the better 3d app. I don't use poser much, more of a 3d max fan myself, But I have made some nice money just making art and you can't beat that

dang can't type, too many beers with the pizza. that should be "and silversmithing" ;o)

Ok Lon and others so gracioulsy posting, seems there is some excitement here...what is needed for the basics? If I can get Poser 5, for instance, around $200 or so, or poser 4 for a bit less, then what will I suddenly need in extras? In the graphic progs I use, there was a need for lots of plugins. Didn't really need the plugs at the time but do now, having learned a little more. So, what to expect in add-ons with Poser? I suspect that is up to me..but are there essentials? God Bless. TomD'Art.

am i a pro only to my boy's lmao but no just a good old mom i got poser a year ago and i love it don't drink so have more $$ for poser stuff lol

I use Poser 4 and am quite pleased with it. I also have Poser 5, but have never installed it because some people have problems with it and some don't. Poser 4 works properly for everyone. Poser 4 comes complete with a collection of characters and animals, and here (both free and in the marketplace) you can find all the extras you could possibly need or want. Plus, many people here know of additional websites for even more offerings.

Tom, Do a search in this forum for "Daz Studio." I think you'll find a nice surprise.

TomDart,For basics,just get Poser4 and an image editing program,like PaintShopPro or Photoshop Elements(both in the $70.00 to$80.00 range). You'll have plenty to work with to start. Have fun,SWAMP

Hi Tom.. We've had several conversations regarding PSP8, you might recall. I'm a Poser user as well. It can be quite addictive and before you know it, your spending more than you intended. Just finding freebies is time consuming. I would suggest you start with Poser 4. I have both 4 & 5 and 4 is much more user friendly. I also recently found someone who is working with it on lapidary stuff and you might find a way to combine your interests. I'm going to look for the link to post here.

After a lifetime spent using traditional media and regularly selling the results, I burned out on the business/promotion end of painting and took 5 or 6 years off to work on this lovely old house we bought a while back. Bryce fascinated me, but it was Poser4 that totally hooked me and is drawing me back into doing art professionally. It can get expensive, but I figure that once I master the printing technology, I can recoup my expenditures pretty quickly by selling prints at Science Fiction/Fantasy conventions, like I did with my canvases for so many years. I think that Poser 4 is a good investment right now...if the complexity of Poser5 comes to appeal to you after 6 months or so of work with 4, an upgrade is bound to be more reasonable that buying it outright. (Just my opinion and what I would do in a newbie's position right now.) What I would be far, far poorer for missing would be the sheer fun of being a part of this Forum and of this generous community...can't reccomend it it highly enough to anyone starting out with 3D art :)

MachineClaw, .."My dog just ate my $150 set of pastels".... art is where you find it....next time he goes to poop..put a canvas under him. SWAMP

I am going to say this in a very small voice because I'm so embarressed. I just bought a new computer to support my Poser habit. :( I'm a hobbyist with no art background, no ability in modeling, no talent at texturing, so everything I use is bought or borrowed from someone else. And yet I bought a new computer for this. It's blue. That's how dumb I am. I know it is 1 gig and has some kind of new fangled processor. And it's blue. I use Paint Shop Pro. I tried to use Wings for modeling but my results were sad. Mostly I'm a Poser addict with no hope of recouping all the money I've spent in the last year. Sigh. But my new computer is blue

Attached Link: http://www.3dlapidary.com/Graphics/Informative/R_Diamond.gif

http://www.3dlapidary.com/

Elle

A blue computer is good. So, is the visual of your words, dialyn. So, lets say I just bought Poser 5 at a good price, was it a mistake not to get 4 first? Too late now. It is done! So, how is my resistance..low when it comes to creativity spawned needs...needs, needs, (needs?). Well, what do you think? My learning curve is pretty fast for most things, slow lately since my employment is going down the pits and that stress is setting in..yikes again. : ) I do have PSP and have used it some in the few images I have posted on Rosity, both PSP7 and now 8. That I can figure out but am not to the point of finding every key for the right note without a cheatsheet...my piano plays slowly but it plays in PSP. Maybe Poser will be the same..gad, am I weak or what? These internal needs to "do this" take over and that is not beer tallking. God Bless. TomD'Art.

@ SWAMP "art is where you find it....next time he goes to poop..put a canvas under him." LOL you would make a fortune :)

Elle, thanks for the link...that is to a .gif but going up a page in Google got me there. No time to look it over tonight but will. thanks!! : ) God Bless. TomDart.

Hey Dialyn! Good for you!! :) I'm sort of in the same boat as Dialyn, TomDart. I don't have a blue computer, but I am a Poser addict and never intended to be! I'm just a hobbiest as well. No artistic training. Can't draw very well(it takes me forever by hand!). Programs like Poser compensate for that lack of skill which is why I love it! I actually started out with Bryce 4, as I have a preference for landscapes....then I got Vue d'Esprit (my favorite of all the programs) and purchased Poser 5 as a Christmas gift for myself :) It's an expensive hobby, but like Crescent said, it's better than sitting in a bar, with nothing to show for it the next day except an empty wallet and a hangover! :) Go for it.....if you are artistic at all (and apparently you are), you will be quickly hooked and probably will be very good at it! :) I look forward to your first image!

Simply put, I have been on many posting sites of various content. Rosity has convinced me this is a Good Place. The tremendous response make me feel, well, sort of warm inside. (Time to adjust the saturation and blend modes!) Transparency does not seem to be a prob since some sort of trust is established in your responses. That is so good. My reception on Photos and PSP has been just as warm but never, never have I ever posted a question with so much instant response. Apparently, that speaks for enthusiasm or something similar. Wow, I see money going out the door and into megabytes....then again, will likely be a good thing. Dogs will not eat the pastels around here. We have kitties. God Bless. TomD'Art.

PS to Crescent: A list of pros is good. Thanks for the offer. I will mail you sometime on that. God Bless. TomDart.

I'm like sandoppe and dialyn in the "artistically challenged" category. I originally got Poser 3 to create images for a MS Agent character. Still working on the character, and hooked on Poser as well.

TomDart...you're in trouble now :) Poser is one of the most addicting software programs in existence..they should do a 60 Minutes piece on it... If you want instant wallet drain, check this out www.daz.com then http://host1.bondware.com/~syydr/index.ez Those 2 will be enough to cause your eyes to glaze over... And of course there are the thousands of free and pay products here on Renderosity.... Have fun, and welcome to the Poser Annonymous Club. Oh...I'm no pro...just learning and having a blast.

machineclaw - get the canvas ready - you're too late for this year's Turner Prize, but your "masterpiece" might be nicely dried out by the time the next one rolls around. ;-)

Dave-s0 and all others, I guess I am a software junkie. I bounce around in this pc to get what I want. For instance, for simple bightness/contrast I use AdobePhotoBusiness since the sliders are quicker than the view windows in PSP. Now, I am on a new quest with Poser. Hoo boy! heer we go. God Bless. TomD'Art.

Probably the vast majority of people that use this site are using poser as a hobby and not as a professional tool. Some of us help support our habbit by selling content we make for the program or by selling our art, but I think the people who genuinely make a profit from using Poser are a very small percentage of site members here. Plug-ins aren't a big issue for Poser as yet, but a lot of us tend to spend a lot of money on additional content. Probably the first additional content you'll consider picking up are the Victoria and Michael models from www.daz3d.com. The human models that come with Poser are good, but most of us like the DAZ models better and there is a lot more support for them in terms of add-on clothing and textures etc. There's no need to rush into a decision, though. See what you can do with the basic Poser figures and free stuff for them before you decide what else you want to buy.

Attached Link: http://www.3dlapidary.com/HTML/Models.htm

rotfl oh you guys are too much. then I would have to promote my dog as the um creator of the art and I don't want to be his agent hahaha! I'd recommend a image editor also. I bought Paint Shop Pro 7 and now I've upgraded to Photoshop. but you can also find GIMP for free. lots of choices, however a image editor will help with creating or modifying textures, sizing images that you render in poser etc. good additon. bunch of free 3d modeling applications to get your feet wet if you decide to create your own 3d models. then there is 3d landscape applications like byrce or Vue4 for landscapes, teragen is free and still around also. addons for poser? haha I added on lots of expensive software to the cheap poser, and am hooked. but it all started with poser and freebies for me, and balooned from their.

you can back up to the www.3dlapidary.com of course and get materials and some tips about how to create the polygons with the right angles.

Tom, Many of the professionals who use Poser are not posting in the galleries because they may not own the rights to their images (this is the first year in the last fifteen where I have done a piece of art for myself) or because they do animations and holograms and other fun imagery which just doesn't cram well into the gallery byte limits. A couple hundred bucks for a program is dirt cheap. I spent $3000 on 3DStudio version 2 a decade ago and was exceedingly glad to dispose of it. I would have needed to spend another $5000 or so on plugins to get it to do what it should have done out of the box, IF it had worked. And that was cheap compared to what Alias was charging for the predecessor to Maya. (I was looking at $40K for hardware and software to start with and couldn't justify spending half a year's income.) I will recommend that you get enough memory (at least a half gig of RAM) to run your software, especially once you start loading down a scene with higher polycount models and large textures. Poser will throw up odd error messages if it doesn't have enough memory. That is the only additional purchase I'd recommend until you get used to the software and see what you want to do with it. Then you can buy software for modeling, texturing, landscapes and lighting and lots of figures and props... whatever you need or need to do. There are some sites with weekly free items and sites with newsletters with free items. Many of these items will enter the stores later, but many will disappear into pixel dust. I'd suggest signing up and checking out DAZ, RDNA, 3dCommune, the newsletter here, among others. You don't have to download everything you see, but you might want to have that choice when something special comes up. The only subscription I have is Traveler's Props Club and I can't recommend it highly enough for quality and variety. Other folks have joined Poserworld and PropsGuild, both with vast archives of stuff. So as to your original questions... the cost is more in time than money, especially if you are a professional and noodle it until it is right. :) Carolly

Attached Link: PoserPros

I'm not an artist I'm a poser addict :) I've had no formal art type training so this is really a hobby for me, but not the most expensive hobby I have (Warhammer is my other hobby).

It can be very expensive if you let it. I have currently spent a 5 figure sum this year up to now and it is probably going to increase. The problem I have now, is that I have all this gear but not a lot of time left to learn. I will spend some time now working in poser and photoshop. My problem as been, I buy all this great stuff. I load it on to my computer and then, guess what something new a sparkly comes out. Being a bloke naturally I have got to have it(the new sparkly thing as well) I buy it load it........ I would suggest that you spend the time with poser and in your case since you use it already psp. Learn all you can about lighting, composition, cameras and textures. Then move onwards and learn some modelling for some small items etc.. until you have progressed to creating clothing and new characters etc.. I have spent around 4 hours working just on lighting in poser. I have more time to put in to get results that I think are right. The problem is, like most newbies, I expect to just click a few buttons a voila, a beautifully rendered, well lit realistic image comes out the other end. Time is what you really need, you no have the products put some time in with them and you should get some results. There is some excellent work on this site that can give you inspiration for your own work (just don't copy the work exactly, of course). One other thing plan what you want to achieve prior to sitting behind your computer. Otherwise you will wonder off thinking to yourself, "I wonder what that does, how interesting, now let me try this......" BTW PRO can mean a lot of things, here in the UK a PRO can refer to a prostitute. I'm not a pro in that sense or I would be able to afford lots more gear ;P

Tom! You are lost! Lost I tell you..... Poser is worse than drugs. You've had it! I upgraded to P5 a couple of months ago, even though I can't really afford it. And this week I got the crossgrade to Vue 4 from Bryce5 (for about $100, incredible) although I really, REALLY can't afford it. And I cruise the Poser stores every day - Rosity, RDNA, 3DC, DAZ, etc..... My worst month I think I spent $400 on Poser stuff. Some time last year. Meeting at PA (Poserholics Anonymous) : "Hi. My name is Fish and I'm a Poserholic. I know I'm amongst friends here. But don't think you'll ever get me off this, there is NO WAY. So don't nag, I'm in here to stay." Poser becomes a way of life. It's not something you just drop and leave. Giving up Poser would be like chopping off my leg, honestly. Oh - to the original question - I'm mostly enthusiast and amateur in Poser, but have in fact sold a couple of images, used in both printed matter and cd-rom production. Which pays for some of all the stuff I buy. But really it's because I love it. :] Fish Poserholic

I just thought, poser is an addiction. Also I think I am getting just as addicted to Renderosity, reading through forums, visiting a gallery or 2 and looking through the marketplace and freestuff. So much stuff. 'you know, each time I learn new stuff. It pushes the old stuff out' Homer Simpson I think!

it is an addiction,absolutely; cruising the sites, checking out the gallerie; you'll wish there were more hours in the day when it comes to Poser time.

I have a hard time leaving for my real job in the morning....have to read the posts here, check out stuff...

I'm with FishNose :) The program is cheap, at least compared with pro 3D apps. But the thing that hooks you is the content, and the community. It's not a cheap hobby, but it is a fairly addictive one, it can take me days to catch up with the gallery stuff I've missed, browsing the stores, etc. It's almost a reasonable substitute for a real life :) later jb

I produce video and multimedia. I too consider Poser a bargain compared to the other programs I own. I haven't used Poser for a "paid" gig yet but only because I haven't had one come up that required it . With Poser I'm techniaclly a hobbyist (?) although I do animation professionally. I hope that last sentance made sense.

I'm definitely not a pro. But Poser is a great way to explore your creative side. To get start, you'll probably need: Poser 4 or 5 A base model, other than p4 female, etc ( Victoria 1, 2, or 3, Micheal 1, 2) You can find the rest (character model textures, props, and clothes) in Free Stuff section here. That's all ya pretty much need. If you don't know if you may like playing with Poser, you may want to just get Victoria 1. There's still some textures, alot actually, around here in Free Stuff. I hope this helps you. If you ever need more help, please feel free to IM me. You'll notice that the Renderosity folks around here are extremely friendly and helpful.

Welcome to the crowd, TomDart! You are a doomed dude, like the rest of us.... But it's a hell of a lot of fun. For an idea of just what Poser can do, take a gander at www.belino.net. This is Phoul's homesite, and he has been doing animated shorts using Vue d'Esprit 4, the animation add-on Mover 4, and Poser 4 (P5 doesn't import into Vue....yet). All the figures you see in his animations are Poser figures, from robots to dragons to sqids to dancers.

Dear Friends, Well, I have ordered Poser. The wife saw me walking around with the credit card, thinking should I or should I not..knowing all along I would give in to it! LOL. Past history tells me a lot of time will spent looking around for other stuff like you have mentioned. That is fun..and time consuming. Oh my! What Have I Done. I added a ram module recently and have 512megs. Will this do it ok? Still some wait time I expect with heavy memory programs. Soon it begins, this Poser thing. I might be in trouble but expect to like it. The "hobbyists" posts are encouraging. God Bless. TomDart.

512 should work fine. What OS?