Hey all, I've now got a new system at home and ordered Bryce 5 last week. Next week I'll be ordering Poser 5! Can't wait. Now the question becomes... what should I be looking at to model Poser props and structures? (Hair, clothes, temples, ships, etc. etc.) I have GMax, Wings3D, Anim8or, and Cinema4D (600x400 render only). Before I spend oodles of time learning all of these, any suggestions as to which one (or a different one) to start with? I'd prefer to use something free or relatively inexpensive. Also - which app do you think I'll be doing my finished renders in? Poser? Bryce? Suggestions? Either one better? Thanks all!!! Jim

Attached Link: http://www.keindesign.de/stefan/poser/firefaq.html

Forget about gMax - it won't export nor import any file format that'd be useful for Poser. At least that's what it did last time I tried it. I heard good things about Wings3D and Anim8or but don't have any personal exerience with them. Cinema4D is IME comarably easy to learn for beginners and the mesh editing features of the CE edition you have are IMO adequate for modeling Poser props, clothing, moprhs or figures. One of my favourite mesh modeling apps is Blender, which is free, but it is not easy to learn for a beginner. About the rendering: I have never ever used Bryce, so I can't make any comment on it. It is supposed to be a decent renderer, from what I hear. When you start playing with the Poser 5 renderer, I'd recommend having the link to my FireFly FAQ nearby. You are likely to bump into a couple of questions that should be answered on my web page.

Hi jabbiati I'm presuming you're a newbie like me, with that in mind I will pass on my own personal experience for what it's worth though there are far more experienced people here than I. Firstly you'll find Poser 5 amazingly clever and downright frustrating in equal measures. Never have I come accross something with so much potential and yet so full of holes, That aside it's the only thing out there to do the job. 3d modelling! hmm. I see you've got a few freebie discs, the one that stands out there that is also one I've tried is Cinema 4d It's a fantastic modeller but has a very steep learning curve! You can certainly model Poser stuff in it but it's a bit of a sod getting Poser figures in complete. There's a plugin you can get to help that on Dave Greenbriers site wich works really efficiently but only in C4D version 8. C4D does render Poser figures to a very high level, there was a thread here a few weeks back that had some astonishing photo's showing this. I've tried as a beginer to use all sort's of 3D software at a local ad agency I sometimes do work for. everything from Mayer to 3DS Max to Lightwave but they're all way to time consuming to learn if you work for a living as well. After trying a freebie disc from Digit magazine recently I have just bought Carrara 2 I find that you can get such good result's so quickly that I have now ordered version 3. In just a week I can model simple but recognisable object's. Poser 5s Firefly render engine is very good, if a little slow! Hope these humble thought's help. Good luck! Roy UK

I'm with Stewer, if your rendering in Bryce your free Cinema will do everything you need......Steve

Thanks all... I guess your suggesting my workflow would be: Create scenery in Bryce Create structures/props in Cinema Create figures in Poser Import figs and structs into Bryce for rendering stewer - grabbed your FAQ - thanks! Roy, I've read some good stuff on Carrara. How much is it? Im always looking to have as many options as possible! :-) I'm assuming people have used Cinema to create poser clothing and hair as well? Im also assuming I could also import structures/props from Cinema into Poser for rendering...? Thanks again all! Jim

Carrara is $399, you can get the version 1.1 for free on the cover CD of this or last months issue of Digit. I got my copy from the Sep issue of the UK MacUser. I haven't tinkered much with it, but I keep hearing good things about it and it has an attractive price. You can download a demo of it at www.eovia.com. Yes, you can import geometry from Cinema in Poser and render it there. I am currently busy adding bones in Poser to a character I modeled in Cinema years aog.

Truespace 4 is $200 It maybe doesn't have every modelling feature in the world but it is easy to learn for people who don't come from other apps. It also has a healthy amount of free and cheap plugins available for it, and a decent renderer. (Hybrid radiosity/raytracing, volumetrics etc...) If ya wanted to render poser animations you would need to spring for Konan's Truepose plugin ($100) but for stills you can use the free LUUV plugin

For modeling try Wings3d, it is (at least for my taste) the best and easiest modeler I ever tried. Stefan

I agree that Wings is a very good modeler -- although it is strictly polygon based and cannot really do "holes". I think it is something you should try out and see what modeling paradigm best fits your own personal ways of thinking. There are numerous ways to create nearly identical shapes in different modelers. Wings has an interface that feels a little inaccessible the first time you use it, but once you learn just a few things, it is really quite fast. I'd say download it and try the first wineglass tutorial on the Wings site. Wings happens to appeal to my way of thinking, I guess. Outside of perhaps the CD cover version of Cinema, I think it is probably one of the best free modelers available. Here's a mushroom made in Wings -- took me about 20 minutes, I think.

Here's what the same mushroom looks like saved as an OBJ, imported into Poser 5, given some really basic P5 procedural materials, and rendered in Firefly.

I'm still looking for the perfect modeling software, but so far, I vote for Anim8or. I tried Wings3D, Z-Brush, MilkShape, and several others. Anim8or was by far the easiest, at least for me. I made my first model in one afternoon, with Anim8or. I'm curious about Cararra, though. Do they have a demo version?

"I'm assuming people have used Cinema to create poser clothing and hair as well?"....sure thing, all the clothing and scene in this image was made and rendered in Cinema.....Hair can be made too...Steve http://www.poserworld.com/steve/sstudiorender.jpg

nice pic Steve, but why does the phone cord go into the light?

Never noticed that LOL....its not meant to though just both tucked under the carpet..Steve

i just got cinema4d (old version) free from a cover magazine.. do i need specific plugin to use with poser ? i mean i only intend to import some props or simple .obj, and model my own simple things to star with (furniture, single props etc) any advice ? anim8or, i heard about it too, is it free ? (i may mistake it with another one), it seems very popular among poser comunauty

my version is complete yet limited to 640x480 resolution renders, but i intend instead to use it as a moddeller, as i am a beginner.. any advices ?