Hello, everyone! Im new here and completely new in the world of Poser. I saw some fabulous pieces of work in Renderosity and DeviantArt galleries, and I was curious about the programmes theses artists were using. So, I got Dazstudio (the free version now available) and Poser 6. The problem is I dont have a clue what to do with them! I played around with Poser 6 for a while, but Ive got a lot of questions Can someone help me, please? For instance: 1. I need skin textures for my models, right? So, I downloaded some free ones, but I dont know how to apply them in the model. Even if I chose one of those pre-made characters (those come with textures, right?), I dont see the skin What am I doing wrong? 2. Where do I put the stuff I download? I just unzip it the Poser 6 directory, or do I have to place it in specific folders? For example, every time I try to open a model named Frabrizio, the program asks me to look for the texture 3. This must sound like a really stupid question, but What exactly is render? What does it do? Im sorry to bother you with all these rookie dumb questions If anyone could give me a hand, I would appreciate it!

Welcome to a potentially bank balance eating addiction. :) The simple way to apply skin to your models is to go to the Pose library and look in there for something called a MAT pose - usually named after the character you're working with - and click on the appropriate icon. This will load the skin onto the model. Keep in mind that skin textures are not compatible across the whole range of models, so a Jessi texture will not work on Victoria 3 and a Victoria 3 skin will not work on Victoria 2. There are some models with cross compatible textures - mainly the "Unimesh" models from DAZ but that is more or less it. Oh, Judy - the P5 woman - is more or less compatible with Victoria 2, except for the eyes. Also, a lot of free characters do not include textures. Check the readme or look in the zip file itself. If you have downloaded stuff from here or most US/UK sites, the stuff you install should - note, "should" drop into the correct places, if you select "use paths" from your unzip utility. If not, Dr Geep (named geep on this forum) has a tutorial showing what goes where. A render is the finished image. After you have loaded and posed, composed and added all your scene elements, played around with the lights and so forth, hit the Render button to produce a final image. There are numerous settings in Poser 6 to change the quality, style and size of the render, all of which have some impact on the time taken to produce it. Any more questions, please ask and don't be shy. We all had to start somewhere.

Thanks for your help! I must spend more time reading and trying the tutorials available. I just find it strange that things dont show up as they do when the work is finished. For instance, I download a pack of eye colours and when I applied them to the model, the iris just showed up in a freaky transparent texture. But when I rendered it, they showed up blue! Is this normal? As for the render, I think I got it But can you render a composition several times? For instance, can you render an image again if youre not happy with the result? Or can you render a render? :) Thanks again for your patience! And youre right I dont have a clue how to work with Poser, and Im already addicted!:)

The "freaky transparent texture" depends on several things. It could be that the texture is using a "Procedure", which won't show up correctly until rendered, or it could be your display settings which are affecting the preview. You can render a scene as often as you like. You don't re-render a render, just click on the Preview tab at the top of your workspace to go back and try again. When you have an image you're happy with, go to the little black arrow at the right of the workspace and select "Export image". I recommend saving in TIF or PNG format (I prefer PNG) because they are better image quality than JPG and they also will allow you to layer your images easier if necessary.

Right Ok, thanks! I cant wait to get home and try that. And thanks for the tip about TIF and PNG. It will be useful for post work in Photoshop! Thank you so much for your help. Im sure Ill be back with tons of questions as I learn If you dont mind! :)

No problem. Most people here are helpful. :)

Attached Link: Here's the Tutorial

Wow, thanks, Ernyoka! I checked out your tutorial. Some of the stuff there I had already figured out for myself (after hours of silly models and posing, and so on :) ). But I already bookmarked it; its great for beginners like me! Thank you for your help. Most forums arent that friendly with newcomers, but youve been very nice!;)

As I said, Marta, most people here are very helpful. Ernyoka1 and Geep are particularly friendly and helpful.

Im checking out Geeps tutorials as soon as I find them! I especially liked that bit on Ernyokas tutorial about the click and double-click. That sure explains a lot! Now I just have to find the time to deal with all this new information!:) Once again, thank you so much and I hope I can create something real soon to post here!;)

I'll add you to my list of favourite artists so I can track your work. It's great fun seeing skills develop; that's why I kept all my own old stuff in my gallery. There's nothing to beat growing up in public. ;)

Oh, God, I just checked you gallery, SamTherapy! I loooove Going Nowhere Fast and "Christine At My Window"! Thats the kind of work I was talking about, the one that got me to try Poser! Well, dont book mark me just yet I wont be doing stuff with half the quality your work has in years! :D

Thank you for taking a look and the compliments. You can do that sort of stuff, no problem. Just experiment and don't be afraid to ask questions. Everyone here got to do their stuff by building on the experience of others. As the saying goes, "We're standing on the shoulders of giants".

Attached Link: My Homepage

Oh, Ernyoka, you have some beautiful items on your page! Bertha is just brilliant! I download the Five free faces for V3... It's great that it doesn't require those morph things, whatever that is! :) The only thing I know is that you have to pay for them! :D I know little about meshes and textures and all that stuff. Only what I've learned from The Sims2, which you're propably familiar with... Seems like I still have a lot to learn! :)

I'm vaguely familiar with Sims2. My kid has it and has played it some. Actually, a few of my freebies were once converted to Sims1 format (the Papasan chair and the Bamboo basket) - but unfortunately the creator dropped off the net before I managed to get a copy for myself :( Texturing for Poser has many similaritites to Sims texturing (as a recent thread in the Copyright forum shows...) - the main difference is that Poser uses a higher resolution. Larger and more detailed pictures. But the general idea of skinning is the same :) Yes, Bertha requires V3's morphpacks to work, whereas the FiveFreeFaces doesn't. I'm occasionally creating new morphs for the characters, and the ones I create nowadays will NOT requre any pre-installed (and expensive) morphpacks. You should consider the morph paks though. Yes they cost money, but they dramatically enhance what you will be able to do with V3 (and M3, if you buy his morph paks as well)

I don't know how to make skins, not even for the Sims, and I can't mesh to save my life... But from a laywoman point of view, it seems the textures in Poser really are more elaborated. I have the M3 packs Thats why I dont have V3 I just cant get them at the same time! V will have to wait. I know, theyre great, you get to tweak the noses and the ears and a lot of other features you couldnt just with the base figure. Am I getting into the Poser jargon now?:D

Yep, you're starting to make your own dial-based morphs :o) And THAT is IMO more than anything what Poser is about. I personally love creating new characters, preferable some that looks as far from the original as possible without becoming a carricature :o) If you look in my gallery, you will see that most of my latest pictures are centered around a specific person. I made him with Michael 3 as well :o)

In addition to Geep's tutorials, you might find the book "Practical Poser 6" to be helpful as well. 8-)

Quote - I dont see the skin What am I doing wrong?

It's possible that it's your "Doc Style". Look for your "Doc Style" tools and click on each one to see the difference in how your figure displays in the preview window. Pick the one that you like the best. Each has their merits and uses.

Attached Link: http://www.daz3d.com/shop.php?op=itemdetails&item=3010

When did you buy the Michael head and body morphs? If it's within the last 30 days, contact Daz and get a refund of your purchase. Then buy the combination package. It's a better value and you get head and body morphs for both V3 and M3.

Explain to them that you are new to Poser and Daz|Studio and that you weren't sure what to buy and that you didn't know about the combination package at the time. Message edited on: 04/03/2006 11:41

To be straightforward, DAZ have a great refund policy anyhow. If you don't like something, you can get a refund within 30 days. Oh, and listen to/read Acadia's stuff; she's great at finding good freebies, tutorials and advice. Nice person, too. For a "post whore", that is. ;)

giggles Yes, Acadia is indeed the Master of Links :o) Lots of places I'd never even heard of has been brought to my attention that way :o) and yes, Daz has a 30 days UNCONDITIONAL money back guarantee :o)) So that is definately worth a thought.

Wow, so many replies! Thanks Deecie, I look that up. Thanks for the tip, Acadia. Ill do that. And I will also give it a though about purchasing that pack you mentioned. And yes, SamTherapy and Ernyoka, Acadia sure seems to be a very helpful member. I looked around the forum before posting, to see if anyone had the same problems I do, and I found many of her posts with great links and resources! Thank you! I still have to find a tutorial that shows me (like I was a three-year-old) how to distribute my downloads around the Poser folders. I think many of the things I have dont show up because theyre on the wrong place :( Thank you for all your kind replies!;)

Attached Link: http://www.daz3d.com/support/faq/index.php?id=94

I've searched a lot for the tutorial at grottoazura.com that once helped me out on the "what to put where"-trouble but it seams that the site is down. But if you have a closer look at the most zipfiles containing poser-content you will see paths like runtimeposeXY-poses in it. If those paths exist in the zip you can tell WinZip to do the hard work for you by checking the "Use folder names"-option and than pointing it to your P6-installation before clicking "Extract". Voil everything fall into the right place. Now take some time to explore the runtime. You'll see a lot of different file-endings like *.fc2, *.cr2 and such plus *.png and *.rsr of the same name. *.png is the little thumbnail you see in the library, .rsr is for P4/Propack to generate thumbnails. Once you are able to remember the file-types and their runtime-sections you can drop content that doesn't come with handy paths to the right directories yourself. The important thing is: Leave textures and Geometries (.obj) where they are, otherwise poser will not find them when loading a figure, prop or texture. Most other files can be moved around in the correct runtime/libraries-folder. So you can manage your growing content by putting all clothes for M3, V3 and so on in "collection-folders" (called "V3 clothes" or such) if you like. But this may lead us too far for the moment, right?! ;o)

Ok Im sort of new to poser. I started with poser 6 and I got it back around christmas time. I already know how to place stuff in librarys and render stuff and alot of other stuff. I need to know a neat easy way for making stuff look like anime cartoons. I know that vue 5 has a python scripting for it but does poser? if not then tell me an easy effective way please.

just thought i'd chime in and welcome marta and dante. i haven't been around as long as everyone else has but i thought i'd assure you that for the four months and a half that i have been in this little household, i gained a lot of friends and gotten a lot of help from anyone i turn to. so don't worry, you're considered a family the minute you held that poser box in your hands. welcome and hope to see your work soon =) hugs, Rain

Welcome you two! Before you load too much new stuff, I would recommend digging out that manual and read about multiple runtime directories then, come here and read (ask) more. Also try a search on 'runtime organization' (for ideas ... you're sure to have questions). Now that I've said that, here's why. :-) You're going to load a lot of stuff and eventually ponder, "I wish this stuff was better organized! I can't find anything!"

PabloS is right, there's such a lot good stuff out there for free that you will collect a lot of it. I hope I don't confuse you with this tip but I keep my runtime tidy and neatly arranged with the help of a "Poser Dumy". I've created an empty Folder with a subfolder called "Runtime" elsewhere on my harddrive and unzip everything to this folder first (additional library folders will be builded while unzipping with "use folder names"). Then I move everything in the "real" poser runtime but sorting it to fit my needs and own organisation - that no one else seems to understand - so I avoid posting any recommendations ;o)

Hi folks just like to add my welcome to you both ...I hope you all have big bank balances lol. Just a hobbyist myself... "my mame is Linda and I am a poser addict" just not a very good one!!! Byeee

Thanks, everyone, for your help and kind welcome!
I played around with Poser a little bit last night, especially to try out your suggestions. I finally got to render an image! Properly, that is. It takes forever! Well, not forever, but it takes longer than I was expecting I guess Poser also teaches you to have patience! :)
I also followed your instructions on how to apply skin textures to the models. And stupid me I realised why my models of Michael dont have skin: thats because I havent got any for him! blushes I have some MAT files for Victoria, but none for my male models! I also noticed that that eye colour issue I mentioned earlier doesnt apply to Victoria. All the eye colours, lashes and makeup have the right texture on her, but not on him. Are these files specific to each character, like the skin?
Well, I better get started on organizing my folders. Thanks for the link, Acadia! Im such a donwload-aholic I havent even got started on Poser and I already have tons of stuff! And, like PabloS said, I noticed there are several Runtime folders and subfolders and so on I must learn to manage and understand all of those fast!
I have another question, if you dont mind: do things from earlier versions of Poser, or earlier versions of Michael and Vicky, work on Poser 6 and the V3/M3? Because I downloaded a shirt for one of the models and it doesnt show up
By the way, does anyone knows where I can find some nice free skin textures for Michael 3?

Message edited on: 04/04/2006 04:33

A picture to show you the file structure of a Poser Runtime can be found here: http://www.daz3d.com/support/faq/index.php?id=94 Basically, what it boils down to in a nutshell: If you are looking for a Character or a piece of clothing/shoes, in Poser you will find them in libraries/character If you are looking for hair, you will find them in either library/character/hair OR library/hair If you are looking for character texture addons, hair textures, clothing textures, you will find them in library/poses. Sometimes on the rare occasion, a merchant will package their textures so that they go into the "Camera" folder (.cm2 files). If that is the case then you can either apply them from there, or do what I do and change the file extension to .pz2 If you are looking for props, they are located in library/props. Sometimes you will find clothing and hair or shoes in library/props too, depending on whether the item is actually created and saved as a figure, or it was created and saved as a prop. Figure items are "conformed" or "parented" Props are parented. If you are just starting, it's best to get started on the right foot. DO NOT just install files into the runtime! That will only lead to frustration because you won't be able to find anything, and not all files are packaged equally and land up all over the place. Here is a link to a tutorial on using multiple runtimes. http://forum.daz3d.com/viewtopic.php?t=9060&start=0 *********************************************************** Once you get your files installed, the next thing you want to do is to start making things :) Here are some great newbie tutorials that will get you through the bare basics: http://trekkiegrrrl.dk/tut1.htm http://www.poserguide.nimprodaction.com/issues/issue2/cover.htm http://www.poserguide.nimprodaction.com/issues/issue3/cover.htm http://www.poserguide.nimprodaction.com/ http://www.canary3d.com/tutorial/3d-intro.htm http://www.ebonshire.net/tut-posb/index.php http://www.cooltuna.com/poser/poser-tutorials.html http://www.renderosity.com/tut.ez?Form.ViewPages=155&Form.sess_id=52280005&Form.sess_key=1129030101 *********************************************************** Clothing and textures are all figure/item specific, which means: Michael 3.0 needs clothing and textures made for Michael 3.0 Victoria 3.0 needs and clothing and textures made for Victoria 3.0 Victoria 2.0 needs and clothing and textures made for Victoria 2.0 Aiko needs clothing and textures made for her. Like figures, a texture made for one hair style can only be used on that hair style. Clothing is also specific when it comes to textures. A texture for a pair of pants, won't fit all pants... just the pants that it was made to fit. Same with all clothing items. Hair can be used across figure. You need to turn the Scale and XYZ Scale dials to get it to fit. If it's not for the figure it was made for, you will have to "parent" the hair to the figure. Poses can also be used across figure. If the pose is for a different figure, you will sometimes have to tweak a joint, or the fingers. So don't dispair if you only have faery poses for V3, but want to make a faery using Millennium Baby. Make sure that what you are downloading aren't just textures for clothing or hair, because unless you actually have the item the textures are meant for, you won't be able to do anything with them.

Thank you, so, so much, Acadia! I cant thank you enough for all your help. I think I will print this page and keep it by the computer! :D Im digging the Internet now for some textures and poses. I guess its a bit like in The Sims2 (I dont know if you are familiar with the game): if you dont have the mesh for the clothes/body/whatever, theres no use in having the textures

Texture wise, Michael 3 and Victoria 3 are more or less compatible. At least, the MAT poses for one will work on the other. Also, Stephanie 3 Petite, David and Aiko 3 can share textures with them. I believe the new Millennium kids can, too but I don't have those so I can't check. The old Millennium Kids share textures with Victoria 2 and Michael 1 and 2 are compatible with the original Stephanie.

The thing is, SamTheraphy, when I tried to apply a V3 texture on a M3 model, he turmed grey!O_O You don't happen to know here I can find textures for M3, do you? :D

Other than the various store character addons for M3, there really isn't many free textures/morphs out there for him. Female characters, textures, clothing etc seem to sell more so that's what the merchants tend to make.

Yep, I noticed that... Such a shame... :(

Maybe I've understood something wrong Acadia (sometimes my english is a bit rusted...). You wrote "Michael 3.0 needs clothing and textures made for Michael 3.0".

As for the clothes you are right but all Millenium figures of the third generation can wear each others textures. In other words: You can apply V3's textures to Michael3, M3's to Aiko3 (if you dare ;o) ) and so on. Aiko 3 has two extra material-zones at the leg so you may have to add the texture manually there. As far as I know especially Stephanie Petite's textures fit Michael and David very well (as far as you look for textures without MakeUp and like Michael clean shaved). Okay, the genital-textures are missing - but when you want to dress the boys that doesn't matter. There ARE in fact some areas where the texture stretches in a nasty way when using female textures on males (or on the childs) but you can get away with one texture for several figures when you use the right clothes.

But maybe I'm thinking (and doing) wrong here but if not this option is for sure a chance to save some money.

Oh oh... it takes me far too long to translate my thoughts into english. Seems SamTherarapy explained it all. Sorry for being so slow.

Ok, I think I got it. Ill try that again tonight. But it seemed that, no matter what texture I chose for M3, the man just looks like plastic. Or, whats even worse, grey plastic! I also changed my display settings, as you suggested, but it didnt help much. I must practice some more today. :D Oh, and I haven't said this yet, but I'm sorry for any possible grammar or language mistakes; English is not my first language! ;)

To avoid the plastic-look you can try adding a good bumpmap (please note that bumpmaps made for previous versions may need some adjustments - decreased strength - and they may connect to the wrong channel - they belong in "Bump"). In this context I recommend to check your preferences (edit-->general preferences)and change the Display Units (at the tab called "Interface") to inches because most tips about settings refer to inches, not centimeters or so.

Ok... God, I relly have to print this page! I'm feeling like such... a beginner! :D Thnak you! ;)

Marta, it's possible that you're not actually loading a texture onto M3. Look in the Material room and see if there is a texture map attached to the model anywhere. It could be that the MAT you're applying only changes the model colour. Also, see how the model looks after it's rendered. That can make a significant difference.

Ok, Thanks, Sam. I'll do that. It was just confusing, because I dont have to do anything else but click on the icon to apply the texture on Vicky. But it simply doesnt work on Michael... I'll try that, thanks! ;)

Marta,
It's also possible that the textures you are applying to M3 are not "visible" in his current configuration until you render, (e.g., Doc or Figure style is currently set to smooth). Try this.

Select M3.
Choose Display > Figure Style > Texture Shaded
(alternatively, press Alt+Ctrl+9)

Message edited on: 04/04/2006 09:00

Thanks, Pablo, I tried that. In fact, I tried all the options and still it didn't show... :( But I'll give it another go. Thanks ;)

Duh! I should have read the replys more thoroughly Try what Sam mentioned above and if that don't work, come back here. :-)

I will! :) I'm still at work, but I'll try that when I get home! Thanks once again! ;)