Hello. This is my very first post on these forums, and as per usual I'm going to make you all very angry by asking questions to problems that you could probably render with your eyes shut. However I merely wish to state that I am an inexperienced Artist like yourselves and not some kid that wants to learn how to make pictures of his sister. I wish to express my artistic ideas because I am getting rather fed up of the beautiful and wonderful images in my head not becoming reality. I know (basically) how to use Poser, I am using Poser 5.0 at the moment, very flexible and powerful software it seems, I have read the manual and am reading Stephan Scheberg's "the art of posing" and am steadily building my object/figure library. I will be posting my first works when they are finished, although at this rate I'm not sure when that will be. However I would like to thank you for any assistance you provide in the future. Happy Posing.

Don't be so hard on yourself, everyone has to start somewhere. First, look for tutorials from Dr. Geep, they're mostly for Poser 4, but the principles are the same (and he's branching out into Poser 5). Practice, practice practice, it takes a while to get all the variables working the way you want them..I've had Poser 4 for over a year, and still can't do many basic things (like texturing, lighting, morphs..I could go on..;)
It just takes time and effort..try to find out what works for you, and go for it.
Also, there's tons of resources, both free and spendy, out there on the Web, from characters (try Mayadoll, from Studio Maya..free, and a good place to start), clothes, hair (Kozaburo), textures (Textures by Tuesday), props (too numerous to mention), poses (Schlabber..did I spell that right?..;), you name it. Stop by here frequently, ask questions (there are no dumb questions..), read other people's tips and tricks..and it will all start to come together..

Thanks, I'm glad to know that this is an actual helpful community, heh, you get used to getting flamed on game based forums hehe.

Well, flaming is frowned on, here. We try to be as helpful as possible. The search feature is a good idea before posting, to see if someone else hasn't already asked your question, but it's not nessisary. Welcome to Renderosity. :)

Again thank you, and thanks for the tip. I'm currently setting myself a target, to simply create a realistic looking figure before I start to mess with backgrounds and settings, I'm going to use Victoria 3.0 as the base for this model, and I'll post it here soon as its done so you can download the file and maybe give me some pointers.

Adam, I wouldn't suggest posting any OBJ files or anything involving morphs from Daz3d until you talk to them about it, due to possible, if unintentional, copyright violations. :)

Welcome, Adamontop! I think that you will find that people here are both friendly and helpful. Feel free to ask questions. Happy rendering, Jay

Tygers Guide to the forums. (or Tygers observations so far)

1. Newbies are not flamed for being newbies. Ask most anything you like, youll almost always get an answer. It may be a link to a thread where someone else asked the same thing (usually with a note to search the forum before asking), it may be a tutorial, it may be directions or it may be its in the manual/readme file etc..

2. Violate copyright, IP or trademark, you will be crucified.

3. Try to maintain some illusion of being on topic. Not only of a specific thread but of the particular discussion area. This is a courtesy to the other members who have a limited schedule (or attention span) and can only read so many threads in a day. The moderators sometimes move off topic threads to the OT boards or to more appropriate boards.

4. Use the Nudity and Violence tags when you show nudity or violence. Be conservative in your estimations. There are people who view from work who will not get in trouble for viewing the forums but will for viewing porn.

5. Controversial subjects breed long and fruitless threads. Enter at your own risk.

6. For better or worse, people here seem to complain more than any other place I have seen. Policy X isnt fair, product Y doesnt work as advertised, etc, etc. Dont get me wrong, some of these are legitimate complaints, but almost every one of them would be better served if they were sent to .say.somebody that could do something to correct the situation, instead of aired in a public forum.

7. Grow a thick skin before you ask for a critique of your work. Many well meaning people express themselves poorly in such situations.

8. Preview before you post. Once you post you cant edit.

9. Dont correct others spelling or grammar. Between typing errors and people for whom English is a second language, we could drive a herd of English teachers insane.

10. Moderators are only human. The downfall of having a popular message board is that your moderators can never seem to read every message. If you think there is a violation. Report it thru the appropriate channels (that is NOT by starting a new thread and complaining about how the moderators never enforce the TOS)

Welcome aboard

Tyger's right about folks not having time to read every thread - especially with uninformative headers like "Help." So put some thought into the subject line when you post a question. Far more likely that someone who has just the answer you need will spot it and reply. Include relevant info like which PC or Mac operating system you're using; Poser 4, ProPack or P5; specific Poser figure, etc. You'll find we're a much more diverse group than game forums - kids to retirees, large percentage of women, huge range of interests and, as Tyger points out, some talented folks with very limited English. My best newbie hint: the default focal length setting on the Face camera is way too low, try 100 or so to get rid of the fisheye look. Welcome aboard - Elisa/gryffnn

Welcome, Adamontop! I ditto everything that was said already.....but I did want to add, that you will find the nicest and most helpful people, Right here on this forum. I don't miss a day without coming here at least once! (:

Wow. Between the Tyger and the Gryffin you guys covered the basics of behavior in this place so well....d'ya think we can ask the regulars to step out then step back in so you can read the same spiel to them? :> Welcome, Adamontop. If you start feeling discouraged, there's plenty of people who will share THEIR early failures with you. You'll find us, on the whole, a very supportive bunch.

Welcome, Admontop. As others have said, nobody gets flamed for being a newbie or asking legitimate questions. Feel free to ask away.

When you post a new question, try to be specific in the subject line. "Help!" isn't as useful as "How do I make a MAT file?" Take a deep breath before posting. Take a deep breath before responding. ;-) We have people from all around the world with varying degrees of English proficiency. Trolls don't last very long here, but misunderstandings are common, and some people are less adept at writing and being tactful than others. Like Krys said, do not distribute .obj files, or other people's work in general, without their permission. It is rude, as well as illegal. It can also get you bounced out of here and give you a bad reputation that can follow you to other forums. Well, now that I've probably come off as a pounce-happy harpy, let me say, "Welcome!" I hope you get a lot of enjoyment with Poser and that you enjoy your time in this community (and the other Poser communities, as well.) Cheers!

"8. Preview before you post. Once you post you cant edit." In addition, if you've written up an opus for a post, make sure you do it in some sort of text editor. There's been a couple of occasions where I wrote myself up a nice post only to hit the preview button and get directed right back to the forum index due to negative forum software karma - bye bye post. If you create your post in a separate application it will still be there when the forum software hoses you, otherwise you get to compose your thoughts all over again - or do like I do, skip doing it over and thus deprive the world of my ingenious insight (that was a joke for the humour impaired).

It's a bass-ackward way of doing it but it works. Follow me, boys and girls... You post something and notice a typo. Rather than a second post to correct it, do the following: Copy the text (right click, "Copy"). Delete your original post. Paste into the reply box. Make corrections. Post again. Note this doesn't work if your post is the "thread starter".

that explains all the 'deleted' entries out there..;)..I've used this method..

Attached Link: http://digitalbabes2.com/

If you haven't collected the free hair by Hair God Kozaburo, the link is above. Possibly the single most useful set of free items. :) Welcome.

Attached Link: http://www.runtimedna.com

welcome to poserholics anonymous Adam :) Another really good place to visit is Runtime DNA, home of Syyd Raven, Traveler & quite a few more very talented & friendly people (Traveler is a wizard on the poser lighting) Lurking somewhere round here is a complete list of all Poser related sites, apologies to the creator my memory isn't very good, I've lost the file too so if someone can post a link to it I'll be grateful too ;) If you want Seam Guides for making your own textures look up the name SnowSultan (genius & modest) also he's the father of the Z-toon technique. Check out ockham & bushi they make some really amazing Python scripts. I could go on all day there's that many talented people here & did someone mention friendly?