well tonight playing once more with a few of the toys I have gotten lately and just realized that somewhere there should be a list. you know, a list you can hand a newbie or even just another poser artist that gives a few things that are just"must haves" So while playing with my new toys and tweeking out a face texture I decided to start a thread so that others can add to this list as well and people can get an idea of some things that just make poser art easier..more fun...and the money you spend on them goes farther. :) one thing that I think is just...amazing. makes hair painting fun, easy and gives great results.. are the hair brushes from Ravnheart and ToxicAngel. these should just be a mandatory thing that every new artist gets!! they are worth every single penny.{pssssssst also look at their wing brushes!} the V3 Makeup Brushes from Wenke{just got these recently too}these are another thing that just really makes puting finishing touches on your textures a brease! versatil is an understatement. I use them not only on v3 but v2. the combinations for makeup effects are ENDLESS! subtle...dramatic...fantasy..you name it you can get it with these brushes. also ...for the beginer and heck every poser artist..as we know hair is addictive in poser...they are like chips you cant stop at one..and befor you know it you have libraries full of "hair"and a large credit card statement BUT...hands down great hair ....KOZ hair!!and it is FREE!! that is right! I think a library of Koz hair is a must have. easy to use...great looking...wonderful hair! AND IT LOOKS SO SHINY AND HEALTHY! and my personal thing I think is a must have Cin Leandahsidhe{ I think I mangled the name} versatile? ohh yes. she comes with the tat texture the non tat red eyes makeup texture and with a "natural"one..plus three skin tones. now she is great to tweek out toss some eye liner on the natural texture...her features are just so pretty. she goes from vamp to fea to just plain pretty woman with no effort. {can you tell what my favorite toy is lately LOL} Ok....now what is YOUR ideal poser accesory? what is the Item you would tell any poser artist is just a "must have"? do you have your favorite clothing item that is perfectly versatile? the perfect texture that gives the bang for the buck? your favorite brushes? tutorial?lets here it :)

If your version of poser supports Python, then I highly recommend any of ockhams' scripts, but in particular the LightPanel. I only grabbed it a couple of weeks ago and really wish I had acquired it sooner. Ditto on any of Kozaburo's hair.

I have alot of must haves.. but my favourites are For V2: Roxanne2 - The absolutely most versitile character I have ever seen. (maybe not for "realistic" renders though) And for V3/V2: Vicky Vouge by Wyrmmaster - Magnet package. I don't use V3 without it. And ofcourse any or all of samildanachs textures.

Dr Geep's lighting tutorials for Poser - fantastic help!!

Anything by Traveler, SnowSultan & Schlabber are must haves. Oh mustn't forget Ernyoka1 & her trash items :)

CorrectReference. It's a major lifesaver. Unzip to a temp folder, run CR and then move it all to your Runtime. No more "I can't find that texture where the heck did you put it" messages from Poser. PBooost. I can't live without it. For those who don't have Poser 5 this is a godsend. I can finally find what I'm looking for with a minimum of fuss and never have to worry about an overfull library. Yay! Any MAT pose creation program. Big time saver for those who use MAT poses.

Photoshop 7 and Zbrush. Or something similar.

Any Dark Whisper hair and free Koz/Maya hair, any Sharkey/Phil C/Traveler free stuff. but especially Trav's light sets, utility poses and skin tones. Oh and SteffyStax03 so V2,V3 AND Stephanie can all be dream pin-up girls -I finally understand how magnets work because of this package !
And then some clothes- very personal taste area of course but Billy T and Digital Intoxication stuff works so beautifully that they are a very encouraging area to start as many clothes are so fiddly to get looking right. ( Could be I'm just short on patience ; )

That free 'delete all lights' python script.

Traveler and Dr Geep tutorials.

A Japanese translator so you can figure out the wonderful Japanese sites by more than trial and error.

Your own bank account ( so NO ONE knows exactly how much the new hobby is costing ) and plastic with loads of credit on it and a family with much, much patience.

I think my advice for newbies would be to put away their credit cards at first. Play with all the wonderful free stuff first, before you buy anything. There are some free things, like Koz's hair, that are better than many corresponding sale items. And there's really no way to know about it until you've been around awhile. Also, you may be better off saving your money for a really good item, rather than paying for lots of little items that aren't as good. For example, rather than buying backgrounds, backdrop sets, and all those various outdoor sets (fake mountains, trees, etc.), I think the average Poser user would be better off buying Vue d'Esprit. It's Poser-compatible, it's extremely easy to use, and it generally produces better results than any backdrop set. If you must spend money - I vote for DAZ's Platinum Club as the most indispensable item for a newbie. If you're going to buy stuff for Poser, you're probably going to be buying DAZ's figures, clothing, etc., and that means the Platinum Club will be a great bargain for you. It's less of a bargain for someone who's been around awhile and already has all the stuff they want to buy, but for a newbie who doesn't have anything yet, the PC is a no-brainer.

I really love As Shanim's clothes ! They conform lovely, are easy to texture and the mesh is really detailed. Love also Kozaburo's and Quarker's hair.

Dark Whisper's Universal Texture Convertor and the plugin's for whichever models they have are definately a must have when it comes to converting textures between models. Membership at Poser World. So much at such a reasonable price. Most importantly of all, check out all the free stuff offered by Sam3d, RDNA, Specs2, Ziggy, Kozaburo, Ernyoka1, PhilC, among many others. There is some really high quality free stuff out there. (P.S. Don't forget to thank them for offering the free items. If they know folks appreciate and use what they offer, it will make them want to offer even more.)

The absolutely best accessory as well as necessity is 'Time' put into practising and learning Poser. Every day, don't walk away from it. If you do that, eventually, you'll be doing everything. Keep in mind there are tons of tutorials and how-to's and galleries to surf to. Find some tutorials and try to do at least one a day. Then, after following the tutorial, apply it to something of your own. Subscriptions are valuable, too, not only for the 'stuff' but for the supportive communities, tutorials, how to's.

I like the Microscosm series from RDNA..it allows terrain directly in Poser without having to buy Vue or Bryce, or another higher end software. A bonus, it can be used in other programs to expand those as well :) Also their naturals, grasses, trees, etc...great stuff

ojhhhhh last night I had forgotten about travelers light sets and that "used every single time I open poser"python script"delet all lights" ohh Good GOOD ones! Gini...~chuckles~ yes a new bankaccount so you do not have to explain the high cost of poser hobby lol{psst but if you use it for "work" it IS a tax write off} I agree with the Koz/maya/PhilC{his leia is just amazing just amazing and it was FREE}Snowsultans tuts...deffinatly a must read for anyone that gets poser I think they should include those with each purchase of the program/same with schlabber poses and posing tuts... ohh great GREAT things. ohh and yes about the japaness sites..they do have some amazing thing! this is GREAT...see if we can keep a list of things like this pop it over to a newbie imagine how "user friendly"poser would be!!! now there is an idea...... hmmmmm~wonders off to open her psp ~

DarkElegance... hmmm, you're right ! Me and my accountant need a little chat I think .... I always forget about things like that. Actually for the first 6 months I started using Poser I bought nothing extra other than V2, M2 and a few textures for each. That really was enough to be getting on with. The lovely days of a simple uncluttered Runtime. Anything missing was added in postwork, I didn't know about freebies or R'osity even. And as barb says lots and lots of TIME input until it starts to make sense

...two or three good meshes...really nice hair...several great textures..a small amount of basic clothes... and Photoshop,Painter,and ZBrush to make them all mine... SWAMP

;) Gotta get those tax right offs! lol.

Attached Link: http://market.renderosity.com/softgood.ez?ViewSoftgood=23586

yup those are the brushes I was talking about! they are amazingly great just ....really no joke a must have for anyone that either wishes to start hair painting or is already a pro at it!!

One problem with brushes is they require Photoshop .... now if they could be used in Painter or Corel's PhotoPaint ....

hmmm I know they have them for psp as well...hmmmm perhaps talk to them and they could make something similar?

Perhaps :)

Thank you very much for including my items in this list, I appreciate it. My free things are geared a little more towards those who like customizing or doing things their own way in Poser, but I'm glad to hear that they're still useful. ;) I'll agree that Kozaburo and Maya's hair models are must-haves, along with Schlabber's poses, Traveler's lights, and Victoria 3. I don't want to leave out Maveris and specs2 though; they both make and give away great clothing and poseable props that are certainly Marketplace-quality. I hope all the Japanese artists who share their works with us know that we really enjoy them and appreciate their generosity too. :) For Marketplace items, I like cheap stuff so I'll have to recommend BAT Lab and Baron_Vlad_Harkonnen's clothing. I also like how most of their items are quite original and different from the usual styles of clothing that go up for sale. Anyway, thanks again for the comments. :D Take care. SnowS

SnowSultan, For the last couple of days I have been making a seam guide for Natalia... and REALLY appreciating yours! They are tedious to compile and test, but so very necessary if you want to make a decent texture. Since Natalia3 has all those feet variants (webs, claws, and such) I figured that I'd better determine where the parts lined up before going in with the paintbrush and gluegun. Right now it isn't complete, because it is just for my own use. Would there be any interest in this from others, though? Carolly

Hm, is Natalia by dcort? I couldn't find her for sale here but there are textures and characters for her though. If you have any trouble with making the guides, let me know and I'll try to help if I can. :) SnowS

Thank you. :) Yes, she is. I realized that I should make a guide when I got the top of her head put on backwards. (please don't laugh!) I like the wrap around mapping with the seam on the back of the head, but the separate top bit could have gone either way... and being dyslexic I guessed wrong. (sigh) Normally it would be covered by hair, but aliens don't always have hair... and dacort has some wonderful alien morphs with head nobbies and ridges and such. Carolly