Well, I have just started using Poser 4, but I have admired the art here fora long time now. I am a artist myself, and I want to adapt that to Poser. I was just curious of how many people here pose the figure themselves, or use downloaded ones. I find it very difficult to get the pose to do right without the body looking torn, or the clothes fitting properly...what should I do? Next, I don't know if its just me, but I cannot get any textures to work. Are they supposed to take effect immediately or after you render it? I am using textures I have downloaded... Lastly, I would like to know if anyone has ever done a shower scene with flowing water...and how you did it. I am also trying to find a shower backdrop complete with faucet, tub, and curtain... I know this might be a little advanced for my abilities....but I wanna try it. If anyone knows of where I can get a strapless tube like leather bra and panties to go with it let me know..I've looked everywhere...Thanks in Advance

On the texture question, the textures are applied but dithered during posing so you don't spend an hour waiting for the figure to move 1 degree... but upon rendering all the details jump out at you... Posing... what I do is try to pose them as if they had a real skeleton I.E. who do you know that can rotate their wrist without moving the forearm? Try posing the figure first then loading and comforming clothes... they do tend to rip after being conformed.. I've seen tubs showers etc... but cannot remember where.. but the link IS on the right... Kinda gives ye an excuse for some surfing ) I think most of us use a combination of downloaded poses and self made ones... depends on the need I guess... I hope this helped a bit.. Wizzard

Unless you're in "fully textured" mode, you'll only see an approximation of the texture (or no texture at all) while you're posing/moving the figure. However, when you render, the texture should be there in all of its glory. Posing, Although I've got quite a library of d/loaded poses, I tend to use my own 90% of the time. I've created a series of "base"-poses (standing, reaching, kneeling, squatting - that sort of thing) that I use to develop other poses from. Check in the Free Stuff here, I'm sure there was a shower unit posted. Do a search for shower Paul

I do most of my own posing, but I see most problems if people try to move the body itself instead of using dials. You can (depending on the speed of your machine and your ram) have the textures show immediately and if you turn on your depth-tracking the model won't show up as a box when you move it. I leave those on. LoboUK is right, once you get a library of your own to start with it gets easier, if it looks great save it! That's my motto. lol Have fun, and as bad as the manual is, there is some good info in it. Also download the Poser 3 Advanced manual, it's in .pdf but I bit the bullet and printed mine out. Marque

I try to pose them myself, but sometimes I just can't quite get the little nuances I'm looking for and if someone has odne a better job of it, I'll apply a downloaded pose. I use the dials to get minute changes. As the others pointed out, you won't see the textures until you render. I always render to a new window. Paul, maybe you would be willing to share your base poses with the rest of us. That sounds like a great idea. Melanie

I have a large collection of downloaded poses which I use as a starting point. Usually I make at least minor changes in these to get the pose just right. As for the shower, there is a glass shower stall, and also a tub, available at Renderotica.

I've been an artist all my life (I'm in my 40's) and am working on files and tut's on "natural" poses since most of the poses that come with Poser are exagerated so much. The project is a little slow and I'm getting a new machine in the next few weeks which is slowing the process even more. But please keep checking back if there are small nuances or specific poses you are looking for. The advice you have here is sound, dials are much better for posing, and the texture is applied at render ... in P3 anyway. Enjoy, there will always be something new to learn. Peaple here are pushing the envelope (to use a much overused cliche) with Poser all the time and teaching it to do new tricks. Most of all have fun. Boni

It took me a awhile to figure out how to apply textures that did not come with a particular character. In the Render Options Menu there is a Materials button. Go there and then load the texture jpg or tif. Also heed the instructions in the readme.txt if there was one w respect to color (object, reflections, etc.) There may also be bump maps and transparency files too. A major problem is the lack of a standard for download packaging. It is often extremely confusing and difficult, certainly time confusing to have to put this file here, that file there etc. This is something I would like to hold serious discussion about, some other time

Azmyth, one little tip: When you're using a texture that you downloaded, like one with a photo-realistic face, you need to set all the base colors of every body part to white. This way you'll get the true texture on your figure (or the clothing item for that matter). I've set all the body parts to plain white and resaved my figure back to the original name, so it comes up all white every time. That's a real time saver, so you won't have to do it every time you create a new character. Melanie

Psing: The better way is to put a real scanned figure in the background and use as template.