Attached Link: The final image

One of the reasons I find myself using Poser more and more is that it lets me experiment with different things with minimal effort. Assembling a scene is almost like sketching a concept in pencil before committing to a painting or more permanent work. I wanted to create an image as the final step in a tutorial about creating a Corel Painter brush that can be used to quickly paint a starfield. There was no more intent than that when I started trying to put together an example image to simply show the end result of using the new brush to create a Poser background. After tossing a few ideas aside, I settled on an image of looking outside a spaceship window. I flipped through my index of Poser scifi environments and settled on a wall prop created by the AFA Prop Dept. It wasn't until I picked the main prop, for the image, that I decided to use the Millennium PreSchool girl in the image. Then I had to pick some clothes for the girl and debated the time it would take to use Tailor to convert a Victoria scifi suit for the girl and wanted to save time by using an existing outfit. A PoserWorld sweater, pants, and boots had the look of an outfit that looked as if it could be realistic for a futuristic image. After all, cowboy jeans and shirts, from the 1800s, wouldn't be out of place on a Midwestern US farm today. At that point, the image began to become more than a quick throwaway picture for a tutorial and started taking on a life of its own. There was something about using modern clothes in a future setting that helped define where the image was going. The wall section had this box on the floor and it was only natural that a kid would be climbing on top of that. Kids express themselves with their whole body, so once I had the little girl on top of the box, she had to be getting on her toes for a better look. Initially, I started with a Schlabber pose of Victoria, leaning against a door frame, that would have had both the girl's hands outstretched against the window. There was something about two hands on the window that seemed too committed to looking out. Making the view less powerful seemed to be a more interesting concept. A backdrop, of the girl being born on the ship started slipping into the drawing. Suddenly, the image became about a little girl running down the corridors of a spaceship with her balloon. I picked a balloon because it seemed like such a nice everyday kind of prop that would still capture a child's attention even a thousand years from now. The last thing I ever would have imagined would be throwing a balloon into this drawing, but putting it in helped sell where the image was going. What I've captured is the moment when the girl sees the box and jumps up on it to look out the window. I initially gave the girl a surprised "oooohhhh" look to the girl, but liked a previous test render with her default face. This isn't the first time she's looked out the window. It carries no more significance to her than a child looking outside her house today. Had I done this as a painting, I don't think it would have turned out the same way. I would have gotten locked into the final sketch and what few tweaks would go into the end painting. There are things, in a painting, that I would not have gone back to because it was too far along. Angles can be changed instantly. Lighting can be modified quickly. That's one of the things I like about Poser. I wound up starting with an idea that didn't mean much to me and ended up with a graphic that I'm glad I made. It wouldn't have been as good if I had painted it from scratch because the concept came from interacting with the program rather than as a deliberate artistic statement. Having watched children ignore their fancy extravagant Christmas presents for the box or wrapping paper they came in, I have no doubt that a child of the future will be no more impressed with their surroundings than children are today. Whatever flights of fantasy they have will be for a future yet to be--or the dragons and monsters of fairytales of a time that never was.

A beautifully told story, and a BIG idea. Poser does for art what the word-processor did for writing. When every revision meant retyping 20 pages, or wading through piles of crossed-out lines on legal pads, revisions were precious. So the initial idea became the right idea by default. Only a few writers (already well-established or rich at birth) had enough years available to explore various avenues along the way.

Attached Link: http://rendervisions.com/modules.php?name=Gallery&file=search&search_user=geoegress

gagnonrich - lol - right on Something I've noticed over the years, in conversations with really great artist type around here. Is something they all say, the best parts happen unplaned and by accident. I never know what a picture will turn out to be when I start :)

I think I agree. One of the workshops I attended this last academic year on teaching creative writing was chaired by someone with a MFA (Masters in Fine Arts, a 'terminal' degree) who is an editor and writer wannabe. He kept telling everyone that attention to detail and working out every aspect of the story/novel/screenplay had to be done before a single line could be written. I had to disagree. Most of my work that I've been paid for has started out as just an idea and grown to life as I created it...like my 6 kids. I'm the same way with Poser. I just look at the stuff I have, experiment with combinations, and somewhere, somehow, I end up with a visual story. Good work, by the way.

He kept telling everyone that attention to detail and working out every aspect of the story/novel/screenplay had to be done before a single line could be written. That's for people who have very rigid organized ways of doing things. Does anybody know a successful writer or artist like that? I've often heard writers say that their books were changed as they started writing what the characters were doing and thinking. It wasn't a planned direction for the book, but it took writing it to more fully flesh out the characters. If somebody took the time to fully write down all the details of a work before starting it, they'd probably never start it. It would seem that it's far more productive to tackle the project and get as much of it done as possible because it's often necessary to start walking down the path to see where it leads. Spending too much time preparing to walk will only delay starting. I know, when I write, that I can build the framework of what I want to say in my mind, but until I start putting words down, I tend to get stuck on refining the same things. Once the words come out on paper or the screen or whatever, my mind starts processing what should be said next. Just getting the words out starts forming new thoughts and connections that didn't exist till I got that far. I cannot imagine not doing anything till everything has been laid out in exhausting detail. That's how to build a house, not a work of art.

I am not a organized person, due to over-organization if you know what I mean? I plan and scheme and figure things out, maybe even do a couple of sketches...open Poser and start on my idea. First thing I know the program has taken over, and in the zeal of creation the finished product has nothing to do with what I started out to make. This will probably make the dedicated-proficient few grind their teeth, but it is the thing I love most about having a harddrive nearly full of Poser stuff.

I've been wondering...is there a "12 step" program for Poser addiction and 3D art? I know that, given the possibility of that illusory thing called spare time, I'll sit and stare vacantly at the screen on my lap top and just open and close the files in Poser, looking at what I have, trying different combinations to see what does and doesn't work...

Step 1: Acceptance - "My name is ______, and I am a Poser addict." Step 2: "I love Poser and 3D art, and do not wish to recover." Steps 3 through 12: See Step 2.

--"Whatever flights of fantasy they have will be for a future yet to be--or the dragons and monsters of fairytales of a time that never was. " We're already in the beginnings of that future. It's called video games. Number of hours played by average child -- astounding. More enticing than reality. More stimulating than dreaming up stuff yourself. And what happens 10 to 20 years from now, when the average person has access to immersive reality tools currently only affordable by, say, Peter Jackson making Lord Of The Rings. Hard to know whether to be excited, or alarmed... Both, I suppose ;-)