Hi all. I'm new here, and have a couple questions about Poser 6. I just bought it and installed it yesterday. I'm not really new to Poser, as I've had used version 3 before, but haven't touched it in many years. I've always been interested in realism in 3D, and creating convincing human renders like the ones I've seen done in expensive software, but Poser 3 was a little impossible for that. I hope this new version will help me get there? Only problem is, I'm not sure where to begin. This is a lot different than the older version. Are there any step by step tutorials or walk throughs for getting realistic renders? Any tips or examples someone could give? Anything to get me goin in the right direction would be appreciated. Thanks! Pat

Search out face_off, maxxxmodelz, stewer, mec4d. These folks have a finger on the realism button.

Attached Link: Real skin tutorial

I am out for realistic renders. P6 will do that, although right now, waiting for the patch before I can do anything. Lighting is the key, also top notch skin textures. I will soon be making a realistic render, that you will have to look really hard to tell if it is real or not. :-)

richardson said: " Search out face_off, maxxxmodelz, stewer, mec4d." Thanks, richardson. Do you mean in the gallery or in the forum? or both? gmadone: where can I find that script, and are there instructions on how to use it? Is it a seperate program? Robo2010: do you mean a patch for the software? for Poser? You said, "waiting for the patch..", and I'm wondering what you mean by that. Look forward to seeing your renders! Thanks all. Sorry so many questions...

Their is suppose to be a Patch about to be released for P6. To see my renders (Not the best), just click on my name "Robo2010", then "Artist Page", then scroll down, until you see "gallery". Click on that, and you will see my renders. Although P6 renders, I am waiting to do.

Wow. That star trek render in your gallery is awesome. That's like the kind of realism I wish to achieve, Robo2010. Was that rendered in Poser as well? I'd love to know how that was done, if possible.

That was done in P5. I do not have P5 installed anymore, or I would be rendering. I always feel the P6 patch will be out any minute or day now, and it is not. The thing is patients, and once you have it, those types of renders will be a breeze. All I know is lighting techniques, a top quality skin texture used on the character. I use face_off, Orion1167, and Vali's characters. I sure their is others I have. One day, I will eventually make my own skin texture(s) and in P6. :-) I would enjoy to make my characters so realistic, then make videos, that people would have to look many times. That is my goal. I seen some take a render, then cut and past a real persons face onto the render (In gallery). Gosh...very noticable. Then they say.."all done in Poser". No...c'mon...that is not the way to do it. Put skill into it.

Real skin is python script, and is available in the Renderosity marketplace, (if I wanted to use that lighting technique, I would write the equations into the shader, the P node should give you a more accurate vector especially for point lights, although the equations would be large.)

justpatrick, There are a few people who've had some memory usage problems with P6. It slows their renders down tremendously. That's probably why they mention waiting for a Patch - which according to Curious Labs is due out any time now.

P6 can render some very realistic skin. The big trouble is the hair. I'm experimenting with strand-based hair, and the results are promising. A word of warning though, strand-based hair is very resource intensive, a portrait using a good skin texture plus subsurface scattering, a simple background shader, and 30,000 strands of hair almost brought my Athlon64 3500+ /4GB RAM to its knees... I hope the patch will fix some of the memory issues. A real head (not balding, like mine!) has about 100,000 hairs, so those 30,000 are getting close!

Wow. Some really useful information here. So much to take in. What is strand-based hair, exactly, svdl? I know Poser uses hair props or objects, which can look fairly realistic with the right textures. Is this the same or different from that? I haven't had much time to truly explore Poser 6 yet, so perhaps I'm missing it. Is strand-based hair like the hair I see come out of Maya and Lightwave renders? I don't have either of those, but I've seen some very very realistic hair done with them..

Attached Link: DG Hair Room

gmadone I'm trying out the Real Skin tutorial, but I can't find and of the Fresnel nodes. I'm using P5 on a Mac, is this one of the things that is different between the platforms? I'm still so new to all this, but I think I have checked all the drop downs when I click on the little plug to create a new node. Thanks for any guidence.

He changed the names of several of the nodes most of the ones he changed were math nodes or color math nodes. You may have to read close to be sure which ones. You need to edit the .mtl file or python it into the mat room if you want to change the names of the nodes.

Thanks for the quick reply. I was able to get it to work and all I can say is "Wow." I tried it on plain ol' Don and even there it made an amazing difference. Two things. In the tutorial it suggests saving the node setup as a material and you suggest editting the .mtl file. Would saving the node setup as a material generate an mtl file? If so how do I save it? (I'm guessing the mtl will be a text editable file.) If not, what is the difference and how do I do that?

The plus sign at the bottom of the material library will add the selected material to the library (create a .mtl file in the materials folder.) The .mtl file can be editted but there is not much need, unless you wish to share or sell your textures.

Message edited on: 05/24/2005 21:03

Pat, all the advice given here is very good. The main thing you are going to need lots of is patience, and the ability to take some constructive criticism along the way.

Realism in 3D, particularly when dealing with human figures, can be tedious and difficult work. Sometimes you might get discouraged, but never give up. Lighting is critical, and great material settings are a must. Face_off is the man to consult for material settings, and his skin scripts for P5 and up are really the best way to get started in the right direction.

When collecting references for your own work, try not to look too much at what others have already done in the galleries, but instead use your own eye in keen observation of the real world around you, and use what you see in life and in photos for reference material.

Good luck to you, and I look forward to seeing what you come up with along the way. :-)

Message edited on: 05/25/2005 03:45

Thank you all! Learned a lot already. Maxxxmodelz, your images is some of the best I have seen!! How long did it take you to get to that level of realism? I'm going to buy the script for skin from face off, which seems to be what everyone suggests. I can't make heads or tails frm that tutorial about how to do it yourself. It's above my ability right now. Thank you all again for the great feedback. Poser has come a long way!!!

I see my evil plan to make the tutorial as complex as possible is working. Mwahahahah. Seriously, that tutorial is reasonally advanced for someone who is new to P6. But I'm not sure there is an easier way to understand it. Realism: When you get one part of your render realistic, the other parts will give the game away. So get the lighting right, and the skin sucks. Get the skin right, and the eyes need work. Get the eyes right, and the pose is wrong. Etc etc. So there is no one technique for getting realism into your renders. It's an on-going challenge on all fronts.