I've got one question here... What is the purpouse of poser ? It's a nice little play program, but I can't see any real purpouse for it, It's so hard to export/import models and animation, so it's not very practical. All it seems to do is nice pictures, but I can't even use that to do my pencil drawings off of. If anyone can explain the uses of this program better for me, I'd appriciate that

Poser has a wide range of uses. It's a toy for some, it's a tool for others. It's a digital maniquen, it's a character creation tool, it poses 3D characters for still images, it animates 3D characters for 3D movies, it recreates scenes for forensic scientists, it conceptualizes scenes for filmmakers in pre-production, it creates 2D web graphics and 3D web graphics, and it does much, much more.

What did you want to use it for? I didn't buy MS Word and start writing business letters just because it had a business letter template. I bought MS Word and started writing stories. Why did you buy Poser? Use it for that. It might look hard now, but so many users in this forum surprise me all the time with what they manage to do with it.

Hope this helps.

First, it is the most affordable 3D rendering program available and offers most of the features of the MUCH higher end softwares such as StudioMax and Maya with a much easier learning curve. Second, as with any art tool, one is bounded only by one's imagination and experience (practice). There is nothing humbler than a plain pencil, but I imagine you realize that continued use of it leads to greater things and abilities. Third, out of the box, Poser might appear very limited. However, if one continues to explore and think laterally, combining what Poser can do with other formats and softwares, it is extremely flexible and endlessly useful. I have been using Poser for several years now, but ony after working with P4 for awhile did I begin to see it's true potential. I have been in increasing demand lately for artwork for clubs, the symphony, the art museum promotions, etc. This usually takes the form of brochures, calendar art, but more recently Powerpoint slide presentations in which I can incorporate Power in a variety of ways. If you dont as yet own Poser yourself, certainly don't turn up your nose at it....I would really recommend starting with it and seeing if you have a talent for 3D composition and manipulation before going to the $2000+ market. If you do own Poser....PLAY with it! Poser is one of those happy things where the best education and experience comes from having fun! (And please don't tell me you're one of those people who believes that "if it's fun, it's not worthwhile") Scarab <-(having a great time....)

The purpose of Poser: Allow people with no previous experience with 3d graphics to render pictures and animations for web or personal use. For only a few hundred dollars. Want to create the next StarWars movie? Buy Maya then hire a guy to come over and write custom scripts for it and install a room full of SGI's. Shouldn't cost you more than $60,000. Wanna know the meaning of life ;-) ScottA

Hey Scarab, you forgot to mention, which it has SOME of the rendering options of higher end software, and a few of the animation abilities, it has no real material editor like most high end software does, NO modeling methods, that has to be done outside of Poser, and all changes made through characters come though morphs and props and externally made textures. Weirdowe -> Before listening to all this propaganda, take a look at somethings. One, is the version you have legal? If so, you should have the instruction manual. You can figure most of Poser's worth from there. A couple things to look at: Is it comperable to high end software? Not really. Does it have plenty of options and great community support? Definitely. Is it useful? Depends on what you want to use it for... Modeling? No, only as templates. Making kick ass pictures? Yeah, it's good at that. Turning my drawings into 3D? If you've got the skills, Poser can probably handle it. Poser has a lot of potential.. Infinite? Uhm... no, not until Curious Labs makes it fully integratible with custom made Plugins. For me, Poser was a toy, but after getting it down, and increasing my skills, it became a LOT more than that. Poser should not be a program you overlook, and you should really give it a chance, especially if you have either had no experience in 3D, or you are coming down from a higher end software (me). It's easy to overlook. Just remember, if you have a version, make sure it's the legal one, we've had a bad outcropping of warez biot-cheese around here.

Hmmmmm....I dont think I was giving propaganda, Gaer...just enthusiasm.....Yes, you put it up against Maya and the list of "it don't have's" is quite long.....it's $200 or so dollars fer Christ's sake..... But no matter how much you wanna be an Indy 500 racecar driver, I still say you should take your high-school driving course in a Chevette or Toyota, not a formula one. And a Chevette will still get you just about anywhere you wanna go. Scarab PS: And I still say it aint so much your tool as your imagination......

If, by chance, you got the free version from 3D World magazine CD, you won't have a manual to help you realize the potential of it. There is a third party book called Poser Handbook by Shamms Mortier that does lack a bit but is helpful if you don't have the manual. I've always had a great desire to create art, but somewhat lacking in the ability to do what I really wanted to do. I've been using Poser since version 2 and it has brought this to reality for me. I've used it to visualize the characters in my stories so I can describe them better, and I can vent my emotions by creating scenes with it. There are many uses for it. Just give it a try and you'll get caught up in the fun of it. Melanie

Say, isnt the manual downloadable in .pdf format someplace? Or I could be mistaken.... Scarab

You also can use Poser to learn about lighting, perspective, object placement...... Scarab

heyas; okay, so you need a man running down the street in your animation. you can: A: build a human figure from scratch, using polygons, or nurbs, or whatever. build all his clothes. apply bones or other methods of making the body parts move. create all the textures. build hair. build the street, texture the street and cityscape. hand animate the figure to run down the street, setting each keyframe. B: open poser, grab the guy, use the walk designer to make a run... build/texture/do your street/cityscape, import it into poser... put the running guy on a path through it... and yer done. well, that's over-simplified, but basically one premise of 'what poser is good for.' the other 'what poser is good for' goes like this: A: for every illustration/image you want to do with a human figure, build a new, custom figure, in the exact pose you need, from scratch every time. do all clothes, hair, textures, etc etc. and everything else. B: load a poser figure, customize it, add hair, clothing, etc. position it in the pose you need. that's done, now do everything else.

You guy's also forgot, if you can't, wont figure -it out repackage the whole thing and use it as a paperweight . I think its great that someone like me with no artistic capability's can jump right in and start rendering,and have the level of support with the help I need from the the Poser community . Where it seem's no matter how dumb the question I ask, someone alway's take's the time to try and help me out. What good is Poser? For me the people that use it are the best part!

I figured out how to use it... I do have background in 3d progs. And I can Create a man running down the street, and even two people fucking each other, but I don't see anything usefull.

I guess I could use it for interesting web graphics, and illustrations for my docs, but I usualy use a different program and frefer 2dgraphics anyway. I don't have the bought version, just that weird demo, but it does include everythingthe otherone does, except there's limited models and days. And Right now it seems that this program is just not for me, (not yet or not any more)

Thanks for the replies...

Ummm....weirdowe...youre just here to cause friction...is that right? No demo ever shows the full potential of a software...if you have any "background in 3D progs (give us a break) you know this...it is obvious that you are judging the book by less than its cover..... go away...... Scarab.......

ALCATAZ.... you were right, amazing support no matter how dumb the question is .... Anyways, I'll be deleting the program soon.... thanx a lot...

I'm sorry.....I made a snit..... Scarab

hey; well, if you dont need to make images of humans (or animals), then no, you don't need poser. nothing wrong with that.