So, after much frustration, I have determined that Poser is not really the ideal animation tool. After purchasing Alias Motionbuilder (which I LOVE), I think I found the ideal tool for animation. My issue is, all the cool characters are for Poser and no other packages (CD4, Maya, etc). In addition, Poser appears pretty "closed", where as all the other packages have plug-ins and pipelines to connect to each other. Are Poser characters compatible with any other character modeling packages??? Any help is appreciated.

Poser is compatible with just about EVERY modeling package out there... provided they allow .obj import. There's also direct plugins from Poser to applications like 3dsmax, Maya, C4D, Vue, and Carrara. These plugins will import entire .pz3 scenes, including all materials, animation, props, etc. into the host application.

However, since you don't like animating in Poser for whatever reason, then your choice would be to rig a Poser .obj in one of these other apps (rigging knowledge required), and just animate them from there.

Or, you can use MotionBuilder or Lifeforms to build your motions by exporting a .bvh file from Poser into these apps, map out the correct joint parameters there, then animate the character and export the .bvh back out again to Poser. This way, your figure animation is actually done in MotionBuilder or LifeForms, but you're still using Poser in the end.

Lots of options actually. :-)

Message edited on: 05/26/2005 21:08

Thanks for the quick response. Up until now, I have been animating Poser characters using Motionbuilder through bvh files (export a base Poser character as bvh, import into motionbuilder, rename the body parts, animate, export as a bvh, then re-import into Poser, render in Poser). My issue with poser is that it has always appeared very "buggy". It hangs often, runs out of memory, and appears generally unstable (V5 and V6). It also doesnt leverage network rendering or hyperthreading. Where can I obtain these plugins to allow export to other modeling/rendering apps? Thanks!

Ok, well first you'll have to mention what other modeling/rendering apps you are using. There's several kinds of plugins for several different apps, ranging from "high end" to "mid range". BodyStudio by Reiss Studio is the main one for hosting PZ3 scene files in 3dsmax v5 to v7, Maya, and C4D. Vue, Carrara, and Shade all have their own plugins for this. I think Vue5i has it standard. I don't know of any available for Lightwave or XSI however.

Thats the thing. Im not using anything else at this point. Im trying to decide "who gets my money" based on the packages ability to work with Poser. Right now Im looking at Maya and C4D, I had forgotten about Carrara. All of these packages appear to support the enhanced rendering features Im looking for. Any suggestions?

Well, you can't go wrong with Maya. C4D is very good if you have the advanced rendering addon. I don't know much about Carrara (aside from when it used to be RayDream Studio), but I hear it's good also, although probably nowhere in the ballpark of Maya.

3dsmax has the most rendering options. There's at least 4 or 5 plugin renderers (high end) available for it, it ports to Renderman via the MaxMan plugin, and MentalRay comes as a standard renderer with versions 6 and up (excellent integration, no extra cost). Brazil and Vray also had their start as 3dsmax-only renderers, and are considered among the best in the industry.

Vue5i looks impressive, and has some high-end features, like full G-buffer output support, radiosity, and true HDRI and IBL.

All of these apps have network rendering, so that point is moot. It all depends on what workflow you find most comfortable. If you're just using it for rendering, then any of these would be satisfactory I'm sure.

Message edited on: 05/26/2005 21:31

Good advice. Im got pretty much every demo copy downloaded on my machine now. Maya looks good given its integration into Motiobuilder, the price tag hurts a bit though. Thanks for your help.

Good deal, man. Best of luck in deciding. Just FYI, you can also use MotionBuilder with CharacterStudio in 3dsmax, but I don't know if the integration is as tight as it is with Maya, obviously.

I'd just get Vue 5 esprit and mover 5 if you don't want/need a modeller. Or Vue 5 Infinate if you want/need more power and are willing to drop $500. I DON'T think Paying $1500 plus for an industry standard app is nessisarily a good idea unless you NEED most of the features therin, and Keep in mind the difficulty of use in a pro app is going to be higher than that of Poser, and it will take you YEARS to get a grip on most of the features. And ALL Apps have bugs which power users need to learn to work around. I have Vue 4 esprit and Mover, It's very easy to use, has an easy interface and some GREAT animation goodies (Like animated camera shake parameters.) I haven't got 5 though because I can do everything I want in Poser 5/6 including outdoor scenes (with compositing and planning ahead.) anyway Poser 5-6 are very capable (on most systems), they just take some patience, and creativity.

You can also get Carrara Pro which comes with the Transposer plug-in. It's got a decent modeler and render engine for it's price range. It's one of the easiest 3d apps to use. Interface is somewhat like Poser's. Of course, Maya is the best way to go if you can afford it. I use both Maya 6.5 (Unlmited) and Carrara 4 Pro. If you plan to go Maya, get the free trinity plug-in and import your poser figs with it. (PC only at this time tho). Also, as mentioned above, if you don't need to do much modeling. Vue is a good alternative for importing Poser figs (still with Vue' esprit and up, animated with the Mover plug-in, which comes with Pro and Infinite) I plan to add Vue 5 infinite to my "arsenal" in about a week myself.

animajikgraphics, thanks for the insight. I ended up going with Carrara Pro. Multi-threading, network rendering, poser like interface and a great render engine (plus the right price!). I picked up the transposer plug-in too. Cant wait for the Poser 6.0 version of the plug-in, I hate going back to 5 to export. Thanks again.