Hello. I'm completely new to Poser. I just bought it yesterday, and I'm so confused. Does anyone have any suggestions about the best way to learn how to use this program? Tutorials? Books? Thanking you in advance, novelist999

Manual. Play. Practice. Tutorials here on this board -- or a google away. There are enough elements to this program and to the process of creating 3d art that no-one is going to be able to lead you by the hand. However, once you get over that first hump; once you get an inspiration of what you'd like to try to do with the program, and have a passing familiarity with what the posing room and menu bar looks like, you can come back with specific questions -- and you will find lots of friendly people able and willing to help. And, oh.....Chapter 11 in your manual has a basic tutorial that walks you through the most important parts of the program.

You might find some ...

NEWBIE HELP HERE. <----- CLICK LINK

cheers,
dr geep
;=]

Novelist999, Any new software can be overwhelming. Poser can do lots of things, and it will take time to slowly explore them. Don't think of instantly creating a great masterpiece, or you'll get overwhelmed. Just have fun. Load up a figure. Put it in a pose you like, either by pulling the limbs with the mouse or (MUCH better) using the dials. Create a pose from scratch, or use the pre-supplied poses to find something close to what you want, then 'customise' it. Oh - nearly forgot! Put some clothes on it (if you like!). For what it's worth, I think the learning curve for Poser is still much much easier than other programs that try to do the same thing (and often don't do them half as well.) When (not 'if') you have problems, you'll find that this forum is an incredible resource, with some of the most generous and helpful people you'll find anywhere. But be patient with yourself, and have fun!! Morph

Addendum to Morphy's post... If you're going to make your own poses (immensely satisfying, by the way, and much easier than people think), go to the Figures Menu and uncheck the Inverse Kinematics options for Right Leg and Left Leg. Don't try to pose the figure by grabbing the body parts and moving them. That takes practise and patience. Use the parameter dials. Click on a body part then use the dials to move it. You get more control by clicking on the dial and tyiping in a number rather than "turning" the dial. You can save your poses to the Pose library, for use later.

I've been at it for almost 3 years and i still haven't quite got it figured out yet...

The Poser manual is useless. Playing never taught me anything. Practice is only good when you actually know what you're doing. Yes, find some good tutorials, and look at the Poser FAQ at the top of this page.

Message edited on: 02/19/2005 08:38

Just play and ask questions here as you hit roadblocks. Look at the Galleries & when you see something interesting, ask the author a specific question. Most will be delighted to explain their creative birthing process at length! Welcome to the community!

The Poser manual is essential. It is a REFERENCE manual (and many people don't understand that a reference book is something to which you refer). People like Ron who think it is something to prop up a desk are never going to learn from it. It is not a classroom-in-a-book. There is a difference of mental approach between "what does this dial do" and "how do I make this happen". For understanding the features of a program, you need a reference manual. For making things happen (dressing the figure or parenting hair or effectively spot lighting something held in the model's hand) you need a tutorial. See Dr Geep's links. When you ask for help in the forums, please don't just say "!!!!!help!!!!!" in the subject line. Be specific! "Help, my figure is stuck to the floor" or "How do I get shadows to show up on the ground?" or "Why is my background all pixellated?" are the sorts of thread titles which attract the eyes of those experts most able to give advice. It is a wonderful program. It is also a lot of fun. There are threads about being addicted, by those people who play with it and can't stop. They create a morph and then another and then... it is like popcorn. Or they discover the materials room and keep plugging things in and they are worse than a kid in a hardware store. The things they make while playing are often shared with us. I'm thinking of pokeydots and Ernyoka1 and Ajax and Ockham and Little Dragon and PhilC as among the people who have played with the program... and came rushing gleefully back with "look what I did!" This is also a serious art tool used by professionals. But it is better to learn it while you can enjoy being creative, than to have to learn it under deadline for a project. Carolly

Interestingly, this Reference manual has much inaccurate information, and also has tutorials which are not so great, which refer to items that didn't come with the program. Waterfall.jpg comes to mind. And come to think of it, I looked at the manual recently, again, and one wouldn't even know they're talking about Poser 5, since Don, Judy and family are not even used in the manual.

Novelsit999, don't try animating this weekend. It's advanced. That having been said, as an animator, I can tell you chapter 36 is very good. It simply gives you the facts about what each tool does, quite clearly and acurately. This is true about each Chapter. I echo Carolly's excellent post above....read the part of the manual that REFERS to the area you are working with at the moment. To learn "how do I make my new creature dance the Macarena..." don't look in the manual. Last piece of advice...do tutorials, carefully and slowly. ::::: Opera :::::

I'm assuming you've started with Poser 5-- that may be wrong it may be Poser Artist. If you're specific, we can help you better, the two programs are quite different in many ways. Other than that, do start with Dr Geeps beginning tutorials and then ask specific questions here-- don't be afraid of harsh answers. I'll jump on them if they do-- well, the mods will but they aren't evrywhere.:))Put your specific question in the header it helps, and always the version of Poser you are using. Don't worry, we were all there. Emily

Thanks for all of the help! You've all given me some great suggestions. I think I need to just mess around with Poser for a while and study the Reference manual. And I checked out Dr. Geeps tutorials. They look great. I'm sure they will be a great help. One thing I've found so far online, however, is that most tutorials are for someone who already has experience with Poser, and that's frustrating for a newbie. There seems to be very little out there on getting started or on creating your first Poser character. Well, back to the drawing board. So far, I've created a few horribly ugly and twisted characters. He, he. Maybe I'll be good at monster making. :-) Thanks again!

Be aware there are very many tutorials out there, and many different styles. Geep's are currently the most popular, and are certainly easy to access here in the Poser forum. Geep's style is certainly unique, and some people may find his approach overly complicated. Other choices do exist.

I used Sirocco's hair tutorial to draw the hair--I know, need a lot of improvement in this area.

That's a pretty good first image. You're off to an excellent start.

did you use the daz eagle? ::og::

OperaGuy, No, it came from outlawbydesign's site. :-)

Thanks, Martian Manhunter. I'm eager to learn. :-)

That's probably the best first render I've ever seen. Better than mine! For one thing, you got the trick of getting that medicine stick in her hand without it looking stupid. For another, she is actually looking at the fire!! So many people just get the eyes in a general position but they aren't really looking at what they are supposed to be. The hair is better than anything I've ever done. But I cheat and use EyeCandy's fur filter along with free or purchased hair. I don't know if the lights are right for the sunset behind her-- nor do I care.;)) I always fudge the lights anyway and these look warm and the right time of day-- plus you can see everything. You're doing Great! The fire is especially good, always hard, fire-- whether in PS or Poser. Emily

Thanks, Emily. That's very encouraging. I put in all of the props and the background after the render in PSP 7. I added light with Auto Fx's "Mystical Lighting" filter, which I think will be very useful for Poser scenes. The hair was hard. I'm going to look around for hair. I have EyeCandy's Fur filter, so I'll give it a try. I saw your gallery. I love your work. :-)