I'm considering getting Poser 4 and the ProPack. I need lightwave 7.5 plugin and I'm still pulling out my hair with Poser 5. What does the Lightwave ProPack let you do? No hype, no company hype, what does the plugin let you do real world? Anybody using it that could give me further information would be helpful. I'm torn between getting the Poser 4/ProPack and the CR2 importer plugin that says it works with poser 5, though I'm still not happy with Poser 5 so I don't know if that is the route I want to go. Poser4/Propack $300, CR2loader and rigger $130 but still only have poser 5. it's a tough descision. Please help inform me as I'm confused (easly done). Thanks.

Attached Link: http://www.3-AXIS.com

The plugin allows you to host your Poser scene inside of LightWave. What you see is what you get really. You do sometimes need to work a little with the textures once inside LightWave but it's no biggy. Once I have my scene inside LightWave and need to make a change to something like animation of a figure I can do that in Poser, save the file, go to LightWave and update the scene and the change comes right over. It's pretty slick. Also... LightWave sees the figure as a mesh so you can modify it and the animation remains in tack. Very cool. It also works with Sub-Divided surfaces. My partner figured that one out. He is the LightWave guru. It rocks... We still use it in our 20 machine rendering farm for LightWave even though I'm now using P5. Go to the link provided and select the demo section. Watch the "Demo Reel" (it's the first one). I would say 80% to 90% of that reel was done using the Poser plugin and LightWave. The "Animated Short" (the 2nd one) was rendered completely in P5. What is this CR2 loader and rigger you are talking about? Can you give me a link? I would like to check it out. Cheers, Joe @3-AXIS

Attached Link: http://www.greenbriarstudio.com/3D/index.htm

Greenbriar Studio CR2Loader and accompaning rigger. the plugin takes a CR2 Poser file and imports the contents from poser to lightwave natively, with the accompaning rigger plugin the poser model then is native IN lightwave rigged for movement posing etc. I guess from reading all the literature that propack plugin lets you host a Poser file in Lightwave, and the CR2Loader imports and rigs poser models and lets you do what you want IN lightwave without poser. My goal is to setup scenes in lightwave for rendering, and also use lightwave to create items for poser figures eventually such as clothing etc. I'm trying to find a solution. For the clothing/item creation exporting a OBJ file from poser and importing and modeling in Lightwave seems the way to do that, no biggy. However I would like to use Skytracer, Hypervoxel water etc etc and the better renderer of Lightwave. having a $1200 application sitting there and not being able to use all the wonderful poser content is frustrating me to no end and I'm looking for a solution. Rese studios (spelling) has the BodyStudio plugins for Poser and max or maya but hasn't done the Lightwave plugin. Daz has Daz Studio and a planned Lighwave plugin but that's going to be at LEAST 6 months down the road. ugh.

Attached Link: Lightwave/Poser animation

I put the animation together in PPP. Imported it into Lightwave 7.5 and rendered it there. The CL plugin tells lightwave that the pz3 file is also a Lightwave Layout scene file. Brings in keyframes, textures, figures, props. You have to tweeking the texture setting a little bit.

but can the imported ProPack scene with the plugin be ported to modeler from layout within Lightwave? or is it pretty much just animation and scene import within layout?

yeah, here is a screenshot - sent the object over to modeler - looks like the bikini didn't go with the figure.

I guess you already have Lightwave?

I am still quite a Lightwave novice, having started 3d with Poser.

Why would you want to send the object to Modeler? morphs?

morphs or to zero the charachter for creating clothing etc. I can do the OBJ export from poser sucked into lightwave modeler but it would be nice to just save hit a button and have it in lightwave. Yes I have Lightwave 7.5 and Poser 5. I bought Poser 5 as one of the pre-purchasers and kept being told that lightwave plugins were in the works, at the time poser 4 and the propack would have cost me about $550 and I got poser 5 for $369, I thought I was getting a deal and that the plugins for lightwave n poser 5 would be a freebie, or at least come quickly and fairly cheaply. nuttin so far. I will have to look into buying poser 4 and the propack seems that will get me lightwave and poser working together. now to find them used cheap so I don't loose my shirt.

I would download the PPP plugin from CL while you can, even if you don't have PPP yet. And if they still have that movie of the guy changing the Poser animation, and then having it automatically update in LW, is very cool. Good luck on your quest!

Hmm, I disagree a little. Poser Rigs are awfull for animation into lightwave. What I do is importing the Poser meshs with CR2 loader from greenbriar, then rig it by myself or use ACS. The result is far more better than the original rig. Just my 2 cents laurent

but with CR2 loader will i not have to create CR2 files with the characters in them a file for each model I want to import, then save each model in lightwave format with lightwave rigging, just so I can pose a scene in lightwave? I am workin on a peice now that has 4 characters, a scene set peice of 6 models. how does CR2 Loader work with something like that scenerio? is seems like CR2 Loader could eat my HD alive but maybe I've missed something here. poser CR2 file, then saved lightwave riged scene/model so HD space is doubled? and how well does the CR2 Loader/rigger work with say a 4 legged beasty? horse, mil dragon etc.?

hmm, i dunno. For rigging, I used ACS4 that is wonderfull. When I need a complete scene, i do: 1) import all the charactere one by one and rig them ->can use them again. 2) create the scene under LW The best way is using 1 cr2 file per charactere. hope it help laurent,Paris

jerr3D: I'm actually the guy changing the Poser animation and updating it in LW. How funny is that? LOL... I also did the one for 3DS Max when I was working at CL. Joe

Hi Joe, no kidding? Well that's a coincidence. lol. Well that's amazing work, watching your video. I've read of people having problems using Poser with Lightwave, but I've had little trouble combining the two. Thanks for the lesson!

My pleaseure... I'm glad you found it useful.