blush Um, er, ....... I, um, don't know how to answer that one. BTW - I saved your pic in my Faves folder ... thnx 4 posting it here. It is excellent! ;=]

This is getting pretty serious

I just want to make sure that me, my cow, and my Hordes (the "d" is not silent) are invited to the bachelor party.

Um, 'scuze me Bobasaur but ...

... I hadda set the "V" flag for ya, no?

;=] I wuz gonna set the "k" flag for ya ... ... but I couldn't find it. ;=[

Message edited on: 03/08/2005 13:34

Message edited on: 03/08/2005 13:29

"How do I get shadows to render?"

How do I stop that ugly figure loading up everytime I start poser?

That's the mirror Lucifer :)

For the record, I know that Deecey is happily married. But couldn't still have a bachelor party anyway?

LOL I know you knew. I was sitting here chuckling when I saw that. LOL I'll party, what the heck? But don't bring that kid, he's evil looking!

Very cool news, Deecey. I'm sure you have our full support (anything to save us from the Sham Book, right?) Hmmm. Wouldn't it be cool to have the Full Geep on an included CD? Anyhoo... pi) "Why are spikes attacking my figure?" or "What are these little balls all over my figure and how can I make them go away?" As a merchant who builds items with body handles, I've heard that one a couple of times. The issues of texturing and UVmapping are more a problem of systemic understanding. I have fielded lots of questions here and in chat by people who think all textures must have a MAT pose to work (Aka; "I can't use my new texture! There's no MAT for it!"), or that templates have some sort of magical link to the loaded object ("I made a new template and painted on it but nothing happened!") The only way through this confusion is an understanding of just what textures and UVmaps are.

Good points, nomuse! To the list they go! Over half of the questions are in the beginners category (or at least what I would call beginners). I'd consider animation in "intermediate" level, along with anything that has to do with customizing existing figures. Advanced level is creating custom clothing and figures. And ironically, it is one of the most frequently asked beginners questions. But these questions have been helpful, very helpful! Keep your fingers crossed! 8-)

I assume you have a copy of "Advanced Figure Creation for Poser 5," right? That's definately the book for advanced figure building and rigging. There is, to my knowledge, no equivalent for animation, or for getting the most out of the render engine.

Yup, I do have "Secrets of Figure Creation ..." as well as "Poser Pro Pak FX and Design", and Shamms 4 and 5 books.

Deceey- no need to write a Poser Book, 'REALLY BAD', that one is already written.

Similiar to the where's the sword question but more general. I just installed a couple of texture sets and some props and I can't find anything. Where are they? How do I look for them. [probably more solvable for zipped installs than exe's] WHy isn't all the hair in the hair library? What's the difference between MATS and the rest of the Pose library. And where are the MATS for my stuff anyway? Can I move stuff around without getting into trouble? I moved stuff around and now I can't INJ anything. Help!! Hope these help a bit, very good wishes and prayers for your mom. We desperately need a good book that has all of this in one place-- it would be wonderful to recommend one-- and we will-- when newbies come a cryin' as we all did. Emily

Yeah, what Phily said; There already is a Really Bad Poser book...is called "The Poser Manual" A 'nother popular question is "Who's Posette & where do I get her?"

"Help, help, I can't move the feet!" "Help, help, I can't move my socks!" Um, that is, people trying to pose with IK on. (I was never a "trannie", but my sister used to play Magenta at the local movie house). And on the subject of "Who is Posette?" (or vicky, or "mille," or eve, etc. etc.) there is the occaisional question "Where can I download Poser for free?" (They used to ask us "Where can I download V3?" but then DAZ made it legally possible!)

I don't think anyone's mentioned this one yet:

"I clicked on this great [clothing item] in Poses but nothing happened! The character's still standing there with nothing on!"

I've seen this asked now and then mostly in the DAZ forums, from beginners who aren't aware yet of the difference between clothes items in the Figures library and texture MATs in the Pose library.

(It took me a while to work it out when I started using Poser...)

Yeah, that's a good one too!

SpottedKitty, I did that all the time. When I was really too experienced and should have known better. Mainly cause I couldn't find the figure. Well, you gotta push some button, right?? Emily

Yes, I think it's a good idea to list the locations of all the major figures, where to get them, and what items work with what figures (in general). If you cover Victoria, Mike, Steph, David, the Mil Teens/children, Freak, Aiko, Koshini, Judy, Don, Laroo and Anime Doll, it might make it easier for new users to become familiar with all of them. :) My best wishes to your mother too, I hope she recovers soon. Take good care. SnowS

Another idea or two that just struck me.

• hints and tips on the importance of keeping order in your runtime, especially the Pose library. (And how to set up extra runtimes in P5 (and presumably in P6))

• for P4 users, why you shouldn't have too many folders in a library, and things you can do to avoid problems.

• how to check out texture and geometry references in a .cr2 or .pz2 file so you can fix them when (not "if") they go wrong. This might be best in the "advanced info, use at your own risk" chapter...

• how to unpack a too-hastily-ZIPped freebie and how to fix the common problems (wrong paths, no paths, speling mistooks, etc.)

There's always the why doe my figure's face look dirty? Bump issues. If you are wandering into intermediate or advanced territory, I personally would love an explanation on color math functions. Somehow, all that math I took still doesn't help me understand the sine of blue. A thought for appendicies based on P5 (I haven't opened P4 for awhile)--- 1) A list of each of the texture nodes and what they do 2) A list of each of the cloth characteristics and how they affect the behavior of the cloth room 3) A list of the various properties for lights, what they mean, etc. 4) A list of the camera functions and how they affect the view 5) A list of the various rendering options and what they mean Good luck with your mother. We lost my mother-in-law last month after a long, painful battle.

Because I have to work within a set page range, I doubt I'll be covering versions before Poser 5, and even that will be a slight mention, because this is meant to be a Poser 6 book. I would think, though, that a lot of it should apply to P5 as well. I'm probably not going to get into BUM files (other than that you don't need them on your hard drive if they came with older products), or RSR files (seeing as P5 and beyond use PNG files instead). If all else fails, and I can't fit all of this in, I can always post tuts here. 8-)

**how to load and remove figures from a scene **how to parent a figure/prop or in general smart props **how to save figures conformed to each other **how to save independent props as a subset **how to change the shading on the lights **what nodes to use when hair and other items don't render well under firefly **how to use depth of field and motion blur **how to use the sketch features of poser **when to use inverse kinematics **how to use the grouping tools **quick and dirty explanation of what each poser 5 node is **how to use other everyday apps like dial cleaner, morph manager,RTE encoder, OBJaction mover, etc **what are the various file types... ie BAK files, CRZ vs CR2 **the big one - how to composite as you may not be able to render big scenes at the same time - save as TIFF and use alpha channel to remove background **figure compatibility - ie Judy can use V2 textures, Lilin2 uses V3 textures, MayaDoll remapped for V2 textures...

Oooh, ooh, ooh....I got one!!! "My (prop/ figure) is invisible & greyed out on the list tingy...how do I get it back?" (Fer the Hairear....Highera....Anarchy Editor chapter ;-)

Here's a few more: 1) Where is Vicky? I don't see her in my character library. 2) Why is my 2nd character getting the same morphs as the 1st character in my scene? 3) What is "NVITWS"? 4) Who is that shrugging grey guy in my libraries? LOL. Good luck! bB

I want to know the answer to Ockhams question! lol "A couple more, related to animation 16. Why does my figure go all pretzely after I move one limb?"

HELP! My poser5 just said "cant find prop body [Hair Room]" and then it frezes...what's up with that?

Addendum to Stout2's post... "Please locate xxxx.jpg/xxxx.obj" - Poser4 or 5 I used to get this ALL the time before I learned how Poser's file structure works. Sad to say, this tends to pop up usually with freestuff items if they are unzipped automatically. Therefore, perhaps a section explaining how to properly install items manually could be helpful. Sure, it's tedious work but, things run much smoother for me when I don't use installers or unzip directly to the runtime folder. Also, if you're planning to list Renderosity as a good source for online help (I would), then let the beginner know about the proper etiquette of listing their computer/OS/poser version specs BEFORE asking for specific help. Good luck with the book, Deecey. I wish you all the best with this and your mother. Take care :)

Thank you, everyone, for your input on this, and for the well wishes regarding my mom. I think I have more than an outline full of stuff here, so now I begin the task of arranging and weighing how much room I'll have to mention it all. LOL I'll keep you posted if it's a go! It's looking real good though. 8-)

Why are my nostrils glowing?... sorry... had to throw in one more that I didn't remember seeing here

And in line with Likos' first question: Why aren't [3rd party utilities/Python Scripts/Make Art Buttons] Mac compatible? Then there's: Why does the materials list of my figure show new clothing materials that weren't there before and don't do anything when I change them?

Obvious Poser Questions: 1: How can I change the screen colours to something I can read? 2: The Poser 4 render engine has an Anti-Alias button, which gives better-looking edges. The Firefly engine doesn't. What do I do? 3: Why can I read a .cr2 but not a .crz? 4: Can I use P4 models in P5 or P6? And is it a good idea? For me, #2 was the one which caught me out, and it's certainly not very clearly explained in the manual. I'm still not sure I know what I'm doing on that. And Best Wishes for you and your mother

This has to got be the most meanest thread I have ever read on here yet talk about smug. Reminds me why I'm afraid to ask questions about Poser. Thanks, after reading this thread, it makes me feel better. Hope your book flops if this is all it's going to contain, smartass remarks by a bunch of smug assholes. after reading this poor excuse of a thread. this is supposed to help people??? oh yeah, just wonderful. I am out.

zippy unless you're joking you're missing the point entirely, those questions are common REAL questions asked by first day poserers, it's about time we had something that answers those types of questions all in one place.

zippyozzy, You are sooooooo far out of line, you aren't even on the same racetrack. :roll eyes: Real people ask these questions. We see them repeatedly. Some people don't ask, but give up in silent despair. If Deecey can cover the questions and their answers in such a way that people of various levels and backgrounds can get over the learning hurdles and actually enjoy making art with this program, she'll have done her job well indeed. But she needs the questions so that she know what the territory before her looks like. I have 15 years experience with computer graphics and a vast array of programs, but there are questions I wouldn't know to ask in parts of the program that I don't use, balanced by areas that I know too well and would never think to querstion. A general reference has to reach out to everybody possible, whether their background is animating games, drawing cartoons, rendering perfect pinups, or quick greeting cards... and whether their intent is simply to have fun after a hard day of work or to make a gallery-quality piece. In fact, the only mean comment I'm seeing in this thread... is yours. Carolly

Deecey, A few more questions/areas to be covered: Document Window size/Rendering size not having same aspect ratio ("why are my figure's feet cut off when I render?") Keyboard shortcuts "why do they sometimes not work?" How to use IK... and get rid of it. :grrrr: (not just the feet stuck to floor, but the poses going all wanky, and the hair turning 90 degrees and flying into the south forty and the shoes going into the crotch when you add a .3ds file to the scene.) "Why doesn't my rendering look like the promo images?" (fisheye lens, shadowmap size, black ambient = dead skin, plastic highlight... yes that promo was rendered without postwork, but by someone who knew to change the focal length!) "Why doesn't my rendering look like the gallery images?" Postwork: painted hair, glowing filters, etc. are used to enhance a good render. Even if it is in the Poser Gallery, it might be rendered in another program and postworked. "How do I get a backdrop in my scene?"... maybe mention the difference between applying one to a square, rendering over an imported image, using a prop such as the cove, microcosm, cyclorama, and using a terrain mesh. "How do I get my shadows to fall on the backdrop image... without climbing the wall?" (IIRC, Little Dragon did a mini-tut on perspective shadows) "Why are my shadows solid black?" (if they can't change the color, they should still be able to soften them) ...and if you could possibly encourage users to match the visible light sources (sun, moon, candles, flashlight) and the apparent lighting (where the shadows are falling from), it would raise the quality of the art in the galleries by 150%. Just mentioning it might get them to think about the physical relationship of light and shadow. And best wishes to your mother... that many hospital visits is worrisome. {hug} Carolly

Deecey; Consider arranging the material in such a way that you have -more- than one books worth. Publishers =like= the idea of having to buy Book 1 for book 2 to make any sense, etc... If you had that planned out as a second approach, then you -might- just interest them in you doing it...

That sure is a lot of poop. You would think that NaySayGuy had been in here ........ somewhere. ;=]

zippyozzy ... I assure you, my intentions for asking and gathering these questions is not to be mean. The Poser community has been needing a good beginner's to intermediate level book for a VERY long time, and I hope that these questions will be answered in that book. These are VERY real questions that people ask. Typically, because new users aren't familiar with the terminology used in Poser, they ask questions in simple terms ... "What is that shrugging guy in my library?" "How come there are dots all around the head when I put hair on?" "How come the legs get all pretzely when I move my character?" It was not my intention to belittle anyone ... my intention is to HELP this community by trying to put a book together that addresses the things they need to learn most. I'm sorry that you think this thread was insulting. I assure you that I, along with the majority of the people who answered here, are trying to help.

oops..sorry about the multiple entries...i now see what i did wrong. I shouldve just made one big POOP.

Contrary to popular belief, book authors do not make a lot of money.

Out of the price you pay for a book, less than 5% of it goes to the person who actually wrote it. Some of it goes to the publisher. Some of it goes to marketing costs. Some of it goes to the distributors. Some of it goes to the book stores that sell it. And a LOT of it goes to printing costs.

Don't assume that any author makes a ton of money by writing a book. FOr the hours put in to it (16 hours a day to meet the schedules) I will be making less than what I made when employed full time.

Message edited on: 03/09/2005 10:08

But seriously, I appreciate as much as anyone else the need for a good help book. But, people dont have a million "most commonly asked questions". They have one. THEIR question. And they dont want to buy a book to get the answer. They want the answer NOW. We need an online customer service consortium of poser artists who want to contribute their knowledge to other artists out of the kindness of their heart. Okay, maybe a perk from Curious Labs or Renderosity might boost that a bit. Books, are great and I wish you success but everyone has books. And, if it's not on my shelf already, I may not be inclined to buy it. The internet (and I don't capitalize that word anymore) was meant to make our lives REALTIME. We've all lost sight of that. Many people have advertised to me (including Amazon) but somehow I always find the answer out on the internet. We need all of the internet info in one place. Thanks (is it steamy in here?)

probably the person who actually sits down and =writes= the book. You know, the old 'He who actually does a job kinda deserves to get paid for it' meme that's been floating around for quite a few decades now.

oh, and I wrote a book once. I hope you're not planning on eating on that income.

The water started bubbling at post 87. The steam came in at post 92. All other posts gave positive input. I would love to put up a tutorial site where people could go to get their answers in a split second. But you know what? I have a mortgage and bills to pay, too. I don't have the time, nor can I afford to devote every waking moment to maintaining the type of training web site I've envisioned for a long time. stout2, you are more than welcome to start one. I'll even contribute some tutorials for you. 8-)

actually, i was considering it. Would you like to make a joint venture out of it? You could sell your books, whatever from there too.

I would be interested in hearing your ideas, but I can't promise that I can help on a large scale with my current workload, or with current personal situations (mom in hospital). IM me, and let's talk about it. Perhaps I can contribute content.

See? I'm not unreasonable. 8-)

Message edited on: 03/09/2005 10:43