I recently bought two figures here for various reasons when I downloaded them they didnt look like their pictures or not to my eyes anyway, then again I am a beginner and not that used to post work or lighting etc. Its made me wonder how many others have this problem, buy your figure based on the pictures and load it then you find that it really dont look how you thought. The pictures often say no post work, but they dont mention camera angles, hair, lighting. Why cant they do two mug shots like the police use, one front one side on the head camera, no hair and standard default lighting? So we can see honestly what we are buying?

Why cant they do two mug shots like the police use, one front one side on the head camera, no hair and standard default lighting? Because nobody would buy them. Almost nothing looks good in Poser's default lights, and using them (particularly with a bald model) in a promo can really kill sales. As for camera angles, well, nothing looks good with Poser's default camera settings (particularly the face camera; it gives a really icky "fish eye" distortion). Runtime DNA has a whole bunch of very good, high-quality light sets in their freebie section. Go download them, and you'll be very pleased with how easy it becomes to get good lighting. The RDNA free sets have LOADS of options, colors, etc., so it'll just be a matter of clicking and trying until you find one you like. Camera settings are pretty simple to learn. There are a few tutes on the topic around, but if you post to the Poser forum and ask folks for tips or to point you to tutorials on Camera settings, you'll probably get a lot of help. bonni

I have bought dozens of characters and they rarely look like the pro-mo pics. The merchants need to attract our attention by presenting their products in the most appealing way and I for one do not blame them. When I buy a character I don't expect to plonk it into a scene and hit the render button - there would be no point in that.
Getting the lighting right is an artform and I have to say that I enjoy every minute of working with Poser's lighting.
There are pre-made lighting sets for sale here that will make life easier for you if you lack experience.
I probably wouldn't look twice at a product that wasn't attractive and I don't consider camera angles, lighting or hair to be misleading after all it is not the merchants fault that they can light a scene and you can't. Also, if they used your idea of mug shots with standard default lighting you would miss much of the work that they had put into the product.
I suggest that you practice with the figures that you have already bought until you master lighting techniques and then you will be able to get your renders looking like the merchants.
Tony

One thing good came out of this it forced me to start using the parameter dials to create a face I liked. Which surprisingly was not hard just time consuming. However if the face I created could look fine with standard lighting and no hair why shouldnt the ones on sale? Its like the adverts you see on TV you too can have a face like this if you use our face cream but the model is 16 not 40 and most of us will never look like that. Maybe its just me but I wonder how many others bought products then thought never again because of those wonderful promo pictures. Is it simply like the TV dont care if its realistic as long as it sells? What I bought was good as in I have the eye and skin textures now, but it wasnt what I thought I was buying

This is a tricky one. I sell a variety of non-Poser models, and I always try to render for the promo shots so that the models look as good as they can (while being informative) because I think potential purchasers would want to see what is possible, quite apart from considerations of sales-appeal. Post-pro work is a no-no (and you're not supposed to do it anyway). However I sometimes include a grey, unsmoothed view to illustrate the structure of the model. Maybe Poser merchants could include a plainer, more objective render as one of the promo pics. M.

I don't agree about Poser default lights and cameras. If a model is good then renders good with the default lights and camera. Most of my promo images are done with the default lights and default camera aperture (38). I only pick a camera angle for showing the product details and sometimes adjust the light positions, only I use three directional lights.

You are sitting in the local "Whambo's" and looking over the menu you are asking yourself.." Will my steak-pie-sandwich-cup of coffee LOOK like that on the menu? Not likely. Nothing and I mean nothing really looks as good as the graphic/commercial artist placed his art work for the customers approving mind in an menu or portfolio. How many ads have you gotten in the mail on grocery-day(ours is thursday mailings)depicting Winn Dixie or Albertsons and Food lion best-of-the-best beek or pork or coke-cola, even mouth wash, fresh veggies that look like they came fresh out of the garden. the pic of a 4 course meal that certainly is not what the old lady fixed the night before. What you see is not what you get.

Just had to say it. My customers render much better iamges with my products than i put into my promo section. hmmm I think this should make me think twice before I put my promo pictures into my promo pages. lol.

" You are sitting in the local "Whambo's" and looking over the menu you are asking yourself.." Will my steak-pie-sandwich-cup of coffee LOOK like that on the menu?"

That isn't really a fair comparison though. Rendo merchants aren't generally selling to passive consumers, but to people who want to construct and render their own scenes with the content they buy. A better food-related comparison would be illustrations in cookery books; you might get some pics of the raw materials, but you always get very attractive pics of the finished product to show what can be achieved.

m ;)

I think all women should be required to wear no makeup, sloppy clothes, have unwashed hair, and not sleep much the night before a first date with a man. After all, if you stay with her, she's eventually going to look like that (because everyone does sometimes), so to fix herself up and look really nice is misleading! ;-P bonni

elizabyte= True Aussie Spirit!!!! :) G'Nite M8

I appreciate it when merchants use promo renders that employ white lights. They may not always be the most complimentary in terms of aesthetics, but they're more "honest" than multihued light sets. Elaborate postwork should be a total no-no in promo renders in my opinion. Some brightness and contrast adjustments are fair enough, but I find heavily postworked "artsy" promo renders to be suspicious and thus a turn-off. When I was a newbie I was very impressed by the globally-lit product renders that DAZ was using at the time (Michael 2 was still fairly new ... long time ago "in Poser years.") I aspired to achieve that look and was frustrated that my renders didn't have that sort of fresh, bright look until I figured out how to do it. After that, it no longer seemed like a very aesthetic option, although it was perfect in DAZ' context of making the product look good. My point is that as one improves with Poser, one builds an arsenal of techniques that pretty much make product promo renders irrelevant. I couldn't agree more with elizabyte's suggestion to check out RuntimeDNA's (Traveler's) free light sets. There are two sets of "soft white" lights there ... #2 is the better one. There are a few lighting rigs in that set that in my opinion would be ideal for promo renders. They aren't "global" enough to wash out and flatten everything, but they're bright enough to show off a product in a non-misleading light (pun intended.)

Yes, I've run into this issue a few times. But I rarely leave a character in it's default configuration anyway, so I'm not bothered much by it.

Actually, unless you use white lights you WON'T see things exactly the way they are. Colored lights will add unwanted colors to the textures in a scene, so the default light setup will NOT reflect things exactly the way they are. The textures in the promo ads will appear much darker than they really are when default lights are used.

There's another factor in this equation ... there really is no way to anticipate what users will put in their scenes, or what poses they will use on the figures. While there are many light sets that are available, you will still have to change them to light your scene properly. For example, if you change a pose or camera angle you'll also have to change the lights so that they bring out the best in your scene.

Lighting is probably the single most important thing to learn in 3D rendering. Hands down. If you learn lighting, you can also learn how to make a texture look good from ANY camera angle with ANY pose.

Message edited on: 05/18/2005 12:45

My point is that as one improves with Poser, one builds an arsenal of techniques that pretty much make product promo renders irrelevant. Exactly. Also, I do use white lights in promos. The original suggestion was that people be mandated to use the Poser default lights. You know, olive green, brassy orange, and grey? Blech! bonni

Heaven forfend. I do think that, if the merchant is using a light set that is available (free or commercially) that they should tell you what it is. I like lights. Lights make me happy.

A few of the merchants I purchase from include lights with their characters, soooooo... Me, I tend to use BVH's Pro lights when running Beta tests. White lights all the way.

I beg to differ in the respect that as for package contents versus the pretty outside cover. Lights schmights, it all comes down to experience. I AM NOT spouting off but I am saying this: Having been around 3d graphics and applications as a whole since the days of Atari and PC clones and other related machines that the produced item had its own glitz and shiny pretty"you can do this" label, in that we miss a real little statement that I see on cable.." Results may VARY from person to person" and it might be a sound rule to apply as all graphics are NOT the same nor are the implied results unless you REALLY know what and where all applies. lastly, I have come across 5-7 items and it's merchants that I just choose not to buy from them again, my choice only, if I have to complain(which I have done so in the past week to 1)maybe I should look more closely at what I am wanting, reading all the content and not just the pretty graphics and wishful thinking. After 286 plus transactions I think I know and feel comfortable with whom I am dealing with...But thats my own thinking alone.