I'm just getting started with Poser 5.
The manual Chapter 11 is where the hands on stuff starts.

The pages I want to comment are 66, 67, 68. To make it easy for all, I'm including the areas that gave me trouble, and caused me to appeal to this forum for help .
My annotations, are the results of the much appreciated help I received.

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19 Select the Twist Hairs tool and drag your mouse left or right. (trimmed)
JB Annotation:
When twisting hairs, select the hairs first. The Twist Hairs Tool and others are in the same window only they cant be selected until the hairs are selected.

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ADDING CLOTHING..........(Trimmed)

1 Return to the Pose room and open the Library palette. Select .....(Trimmed) then clicking the Apply Library Preset button.

JB Annotation:
The Apply Library Preset button label is in error.
The name of the button is Create New Image. It is the button with the double check marks at the bottom of the Figures Palette.

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APPLYING A SHADER
Lets try out the Material room.
1 Pose your figure with an upturned hand to hold the next item youll add to the scene.

JB Anotation:
The upturned hand has not been taught at this point. I am currently waiting for some generous soul in this forum to respond to a separate post on the subject of hand movement.

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As far as I'm concerned, this is a pretty cheezy score for just three pages in a manual. This isn't a role playing game, it is a tutorial and I certainly didn't buy Poser5 to audit and proofread it.

For this task, I've copied the pdf file into M'soft Word and am making the Annotated corrections in a blue typeface and highlighting the errors in red type. I hope my entries and my method is of some help to other beginners.

Jim.

It's very nice of you to offer that to the community, but be careful. You'll be reaching for the Valium the first time you read on page xyz, "See page xyz for more details on this feature". )

I like what you have done here. It has always seemed to me that version 2+ manuals for any complex software are virtually useless to newbies. If you didn't get in or version one or two and "grow up" with the program, trying to learn from a manual is a nightmare. Why don't you go through the whole d*mn manual and rewrite it from a necomer's perspective? I'm sure it would only take a few thousand man-hours.

Hi Jim564, re:*"I am currently waiting for some generous soul in this forum to respond to a separate post on the subject of hand movement."* Perhaps [ THIS TUTORIAL](http://www.renderosity.com/messages.ez?ForumID=12356&Form.ShowMessage=2022475) might be of some assistance. It was done for P4 but should still work ok in P5. cheers, dr geep ;=]

Well, Qualien- I didn't really expect anyone to pick up on this nasty little exercise. But, thanks for the laughs and the interest. I suppose by the time I understand it, I will have probably written enough to be complete another manual.

If nothing else, I think documenting the sticky areas, will come in handy for me as there are large chunks I will have to use the tutorial for when I decide to do something orginal.

Also, thank you dr geep for the tutorial. As soon as some of the extreme pressure leaks out of my head, your tutorial is going to be my next stop. Thank you all very much.

Jim

You're quite welcome.

Please feel free to ask questions.

Remember what Will Rogers said:

"We're all ignorant, 'cept on different subjects."

cheers,
dr geep
;=]

You're quite welcome also from Qualien. Good luck in learning all the good and bad things about Poser; I am just starting myself as I have been at it off and on for about 3 years.

You might want to download the poser 4 manual and check it out. That would at least give you some basics that they "assume" you have for version 5. Good luck, and hang in there. Marque

Oh, almost forgot...the valium is on the second shelf down, right below the pistol....lol Marque

Frankly, in my opinion, one would be better served by learning Poser, rather than trying to re-write the manual. Besides, there are a wealth of tutorials that function as a great replacement for the faulty Poser 4 & Poser 5 manuals. The manuals are good for propping up table legs maybe.

Message edited on: 01/16/2005 03:00

Yep while the manual is ok for the very basics of using poser you can't go wrong with a tutorial or 3. Especially dr geep & Ron Knights tutorials :D I wonder if we should have a little competition to see who comes up with the most interesting use for a poser manual, no prizes of course just for the giggle ;)

Ron may prop up his table with the manual... but I read it. It is how I learned the basics of the program, and how I learn the basics of any program. I also read the "readme" files and other documentation. Manuals are not classes! They are not intended to be classes!!! If you want a class, enroll in one or buy a classroom in a book, or find a series of tutorials. Expecting a manual to do what it was never intended to do and then cursing when it fails to deliver is like entering a cat in the Steeplechase and then yelling and stomping in frustration when it refuses to jump the fences. Yes, it has 4 legs and yes it can jump, but a cat is not a racehorse and a manual is not a textbook. Manuals tell you what the application or program does, not what you can do with the program. "This is the light control panel and this is what each feature does" is verrrrrrrrry different from answering "how do I light this scene so that the spotlight falls where I want it?" In order to really learn a program, you should expect to invest some time, some practice, and some money for separate course materials. As an example, with PhotoShop's manual, The PhotoShop WOW! Book, and the PhotoShop Classroom in a Book, a person has 3 different approaches to any problem... and merely needs to frame the question before reaching for the right book. Oh, none of these books will teach you how to be an artist. Carolly

I practice and use the tutorials but I also keep the manuals handy because they do help when I want to know what something is supposed to do. hauk is right, it won't teach you to be an artist, but it will help you learn the tools and learn their limits. Would be nice if they were written better, but I'm not going to rewrite them or worry about it. I will just use them for what they are and move on from there.

I never said the manual was supposed to teach anyone to be an artist. The manual should teach you how to use the program. The fact remains.

If the manual is poorly written, and contains incorrect info, it is useless. If the tutorials provide incorrect info, and refer to items that do not exist, they are useless. My manuals do not prop up the table. I do dust them off once and awhile, only to reconfirm my negative opinion. And so many others agree.

Message edited on: 01/16/2005 11:47

Message edited on: 01/16/2005 11:49

...if you lined up manuals for half a dozen 3d apps and asked people to rate the quality of them the Poser manual would probably come in dead last.

On a more practical note though, Jim, you might just want to think of the Poser manual as a 'reference manual' (I think that's what they call it anyway) and not a 'users guide'. You'd probably learn the program faster by reading as many of geeps tuts as you can and going to the the manual when all else fails. It does have some good info, but it's a lousy road map for a newcomer to Poser.

Besides, remember that Poser 6 is on the way, eventually.