Hello,

I'm new to Poser world and wanted to get some help starting out for my first time. Currently, I own Poser 5 and am looking into what books would be good to get and sites. I have done the tuterial here and the one included on install, but they are just basic and don't cover hardley anything. Any advice there?

Here are some newbie questions, hope you don't mind -

1. What do I need to start making my own characters and how do I start. Basically, I'm looking to create a family and want realistic models for male, female and kids. Do I start with something like Victoria 3.0 and if so what else do I need for other people, model details, cloths, hair, etc. ?

2. How do I add more than one character in the scene and how do I get them together, like hold hands, walk, etc?

3. Is there a good how-to for starting out with Poser 5 or even something like DazStudio? Which content is best for starting out making your own people, etc?

4. What web sites do you recommend for help and downloads for newbies?

5. Any advice, things to avoid, etc?

Thanks for your feedback! :)

1. Poser comes with characters - a man, woman, boy, girl, and baby. Figures like Victoria 3 from DAZ are more realistic than the Poser people. A lot of people use them, so there's lots of stuff for them, free and for sale. But they take more system resources, so if you have an older computer or want to do animation, they might not be for you. Also, you cannot use them in the Face Room. That only works on the Poser 5 people.

If you buy Victoria 3, you have to get the base, the body morph pack, and the head morph pack. You will also need textures and clothes, but you don't have to buy those at DAZ. Don't buy hair at DAZ. Instead, download free hair from Japanese sites such as Koz's.

http://digitalbabes2.com/

As you can see, this will rapidly get pretty expensive if you buy more than one figure. Besides Vicky 3, there's the male character, Mike 3, two young-looking characters, Stephanie Petite and David, the young teens, Luke and Laura, the Millennium Kids (preteen and preschool boys and girls), and the Millennium baby.

If you do decide to buy the DAZ figures, sign up for their
"Platinum Club." The discounts you get for being a PC member will actually save you money if you buy more than one figure (and their morphs, textures, clothes, etc.).

1. Click the double check mark at the lower right of your screen. Do not double-click on the library thumbnail. That will replace the current figure with the new one, as I suspect you have discovered. :-)

To pose them...you can buy poses, and there are some you can download for free. There are hand pose sets that make it easier to do "holding hands" poses. But in the end, you really have to learn to pose the figures yourself. You might want to turn off inverse kinematics. Often, it's easier to use the parameter dials to move the body parts, instead of the mouse.

1. Click on the "Poser forum" banner at the top of this page. There's a FAQ there. Also, search for tutorials by Dr. Geep. There are some other good sites for beginners out there; I'm sure others will chime in on this.

2. Definitely Koz's site, as mentioned above.

What exactly are you trying to do? Do you need to make the characters look like specific people? What type of art are you hoping to do?

there is a very good tutorial on posing over at CuriousLabs. depending on what you want, you can browse the freestuff here and at runtimedna , and try the realdeals at poserpros. you can do a lot with the poser5 people so you don't have to start collecting items immediately. Just see what you lack, and when it hinders your inspiration, you can spend some money. Just never forget that the biggest market for Poser is not the application itself, but the items you buy for it. my suggestion is to start with only one figure and eventually a background behind it (like a wall). First try to get a good pose, then set a good white lighting (shadows)and next add textures and materials. Finally you can evt add colour to some of your lights to create more of an atmosphere.

Thanks everyone for the detailed response. I was wondering if anyone here with Poser 4 or 5 experience has tried DazStudio? Since I'm just starting out learning, I wondered what the difference was between them and which would be best to learn on? Does Poser 5 have that much more in it and better renders? One last item, I was wondering how I can save completly finished renders with Poser 5 in either JPG or PNG format? I'm sure it's something simple I'm overlooking since this is my first trial. randym77 - Right now I'm just testing the waters. I mainly enjoy female sci-fi type themes and wanted to try to do some real detailed female character work once I learn more. Also, I'm hoping to do some women of Star Trek type characters. Any help with add-ons there or such would be appreciated. I found a Princess Lea for Poser and it's very nice by a great artist it would seem. Thanks again!

I think the main problem with D|S is that it's still in beta. It doesn't do everything Poser does (yet). The renders are pretty good, but it's buggy. It's getting better, but when they fix things, sometimes other things get broken. I find it frustrating. On the good side, it's free.

Saving renders can be a bit quirky in Poser. The best thing to do is render to a new window. (It's an option in your render settings, and lets you make larger images than rendering to the main window.) You should then be able to save the render with File -> Save As. If that doesn't work, close the new window containing your render. You will then be prompted to save it.

With what you want to do, you will definitely want to get Victoria 3 one day. She's a higher-res mesh than the figures that come with Poser. It's easier to get a likeness with her than with older characters. And there's a ton of stuff for her out there - clothes, textures, morphs, etc. She can also wear Victoria 1 and 2 clothing, because she comes with a special "legacy" figure that fits the old clothes.

You don't have to buy figures right away, though. You can use Judy (the Poser 5 woman), or even Posette (the Poser 4 woman, who has a lot more stuff than Judy does) to start with.