I've waited most of the year for this to go to press. Now that is seems to be available for sale on Amazon, and that Christmas has come and gone, I figure some folks in this hyahh community have given or recieved it as a gift. From the likes of folks that use poser every day, not some bookseller, I'd like your opinions as to the book's usefulness. I'm coming into this with very little to no poser experience, but a lot of preparation for the day when I can get cracking on a couple of large projects I have in mind. (Witness my huge categorized freebie directory!) Would this book be the thing to finally get me started in the right direction when it comes to getting a grip on the arcane interfaces that make up Poser?

If Denise T's book is available on Amazon, it must have happened in the last 24 hours, because it was noted yesterday on my Wish List as "Not yet released." I'm checking now, and it's still unavailable. I intend to buy it the moment it appears. My only reservation about the book is the publisher, who inflicted us for years with The Poser #.0 Handbook. But Tyler is a serious Poser user, artist, vendor, and professional writer with books on other subjects to her credit, and I will shocked rather than disappointed if the book is not an excellent beginner's resource. The other book worth having is B. L. Render's Secrets of Figure Creation. It throws you into the deep end of the pool, but doesn't just leave you there to save yourself. While not for beginners, it's not written to exclude them, like so many "expert" books. And the subject (making your own figures) may not sound like one you'll be ready for soon, but trust me, if you once you get a feel for Poser, you'll be thinking about it. Poser 6 Revealed got enough press for mediocrity that I skipped it. The reviews at Amazon, by both Poser newbies and a few experts, make it sound pretty thin. I don't need another book that tells me I can save files with the Save menu... and then walks me through the process. Another excellent but dated book is Richard Schrand's Poser 4 Pro Pack f/x and Design. Worth getting from a remainder bin. Amazon sells it new for $49 (one of the disadvantages of dealing with a store stocked by a computer), but used for $5 - $10. The best way to learn Poser, if you have a broadband connection, is to track down Dr. Geep's tutorials on this site. They are also available as downloads on some other sites. They are huge, graphic-based, and a great combination of humor and knowledge. Enjoy, M

Ugh. My mistake. A few days ago I checked amazon, and they were saying DT's book had been released. M'really hankering to get started. I've been to Geep's site. And no slight on Geep, but I really need me some pressed dead tree in my hand to flip through for this one. Geep's site only served to whet my appetite for an honest to goodness textbook.

lol Winter pressed dead tree, I love it! Grab BL Render's book well worth it. And as far as what mick just said ditto. If you downloaded it and got the pdf manual you might want to print out just what you are working on so you can write your note on it. That's what I did with the older pdf's they had out. Also hit the Daz site, they have some pretty nice tutorials as well as runtimedna. Marque

whet my appetite for an honest to goodness
textbook.
Sigh. Somebody is still making those? I know what you mean. A big selling point for me is the weight of a 3D software box. If there isn't a hefty manual in there, then I'm not interested. As we used to say about Macs back in the old DOS days (before MS became Mac Lite, even before 'Bob'), "Intuitive means 'comes with an 800 number.'" Hands-on learning is great, but without a layer of internalized knowledge, intelligently compressed into words, it's slow going.

Of course, hefty's no guarantee of useful, or even of coherent. The Poser manual is actually pretty good, I think; another reason the "Revealed" alternate manual is redundant. But I've been itching to speak up about a major product I will never use (I recently bought a competitor, and won't be looking back) because the manual was translated into some simulation of English. I worked in the translation industry for years, and we took pride in treating target languages with respect and intelligence. Shoddy translation is insulting.

Literacy is not perfect. But it's better than the alternatives.

M

Message edited on: 12/28/2005 07:39

My apologies, everyone ... during the writing of the book my mother became seriously ill and we almost lost her. That put a delay in the book schedule. It will be coming very soon, as it has gone to press. I'm not sure how long it takes to process all those dead trees though. 8-D

Wooot... I just went to Amazon and looked and my wing textures are on the cover. THANK YOU DENISE. Ordering it after the first of the month.

Oh no!! The cover image got changed at the last minute ... they selected an image by Audre, which had more generic appeal. 8-( The CD is chock full of great stuff, too ... the folks in the Poser community were very generous in helping out. There are goodies from e-Frontier, DAZ, RDNA, Sixus 1, The Forge, and a big surprise. 8-D

Indeed! Sorry to hear about your mum. M'glad to hear she's relatively okay. Thanks for letting us know what's up with your book. ^_^

I had the pleasure of intially reading some parts of this manual, and I can say, without qualm or hesitation, that it is the best of its class, and makes up for the publisher's previous errors. In spades. This book will be where I point people when they ask those common questions going forward in the forums. IT's that good. If I could, I'd sell it on the street corners.

(Blush) ... Thanks Elle, you da best! 8-)

lol nah, not me :) I didn't write it -- you did :)

I just ordered it from Amazon and they say deleivery will be between mid January and early February

Just to update everyone ... the book was released last week, so Amazon should be getting it soon.

Sweet. The deliver dates from amazon on my order read between the 23rd and the 28th. I'm watching my front porch like a hawk.

A review is now up on Amazon for the book, in case anyone is interested.

Is there a direct link to the review that you can share? I don't ever go to Amazon and don't know the navigational routes through them at all.

Attached Link: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1584504439

Thanks Deecy. Just bought mine and can't wait to get it! Oh, and I guess I have been to Amazon.com because I had an account to log into already. I just don't know when I last ordered anything from them.

Message edited on: 02/07/2006 11:30