We all know how some of the "high end program-users" like to look down their noses at Poser, right? Claiming that all Poser figures "look the same" and that they look like plastic.

Well, I think not (of course)

Poser can do whatever YOU can do. Some people can only make Poser output uniform, plastic-y people, but that's their lack of skill, not Poser's IMO.

And to prove my point, I amused myself tonight by making this:

Oh and to make it a bit more fun, I'll give away one thing from my store here to the first person who can tell me which Poser character I used as a base for this ;o)

(Everybody except Khrys L Coz I told you...)

OK start guessing!

Don?

P4 Male

James?

Hmmm... the eyes look like Judy, so I'll make that my guess.

Captain Jack

Considering that most of your renders were done using either Mike3, Maximus Whatsisname, and Hiro, I'd say it's a parmutation of one of those three.  Seeing how you've made a Snape from both M3 and Maximus, who looks a bit like the figure above, I'd tend to rule out Hiro.  From the broad forehead, and high cheekbones, I'd say it more resembles M3 than Maximus, so I'll go with M3.
David P. Hoadley

james

I think it's V3

Apollo Max?

Jamez aka Allahn Rickmon

:b_funny:

David 3

I think it's Jessi, myself!

Alan Alda ?

LOL Mrsparky.. I was waiting for that one :o))

Any more guesses, or should I reveal that we have a winner already?

Wooooow, awesome render ! I guess that means I have to still learn a lot to make my poor Hiro less plastic-looking huh ? ;)

I'd say he's James. And please reveal is it really P6 Nekkid Dude 'cuz I'm curious.

Edit: on the other hand he may be Don... Don is ugly as hell, but I've seen some interesting uses of him. And he's still prettier than Judy. Or Jessi :P

Looks like good old Dork

OK then :)

shamanka actually guessed it at the very first go. I hope it was just luck LOL coz I really don't think this looks much like Don. But it is.

Somewhere, out there, is a version of Don with extra morphs. I can't remember the name of the site where I downloaded it, but it's so great. It REALLY boosts Don. Oh I put him thru the Face Room as well to get some of the features. And the texture is one of SPECTRE3's M2 textures, Jake.

And then of course quite a bit of photoshop, but mostly to make it black-and-white and remove some odd artifacts here and there :)

So, Shamanka. You won! Let me know which thing you'd like and I'll set up a link for you :o)

thats realy good work ernyoka1

Attached Link: You mean this .cr2 ? (Downloads -> Poser Morph Targets -> P5Don)

Congrats to Shamanka :)

Edit: link repaired ^^;

Most of what makes Poser look so artificial is in the lighting people use, followed by the texture, followed by rendering in Poser rather than something with a more advanced rendering engine. In that order of importance.

You corrected for the first two by going for black and white in the photoshop. The second one can be mosty overcome with the right settings on Poser, and again the photoshop work. A higher end app just removes the degree of postwork needed - and makes poorer lighting or poorer texturing less 'problematic' than it is in Poser (as in, good lights and good texture will get you far in Poser and in Vue or Lightwave, but poor lighting and poor texture will show up more in Poser than in Vue or Lightwave or whatever).

Morphing is of course important, but lighting is more so in my opinion. Good lighting can make even a toon render look 'photo real' - with the obvious caveat that the shape of the object will jar on the viewer. But good lighting can, in my opinion, take a 'borderline morph' of Aiko and make her seem a lot more realistic - whereas 'typical' Poser lighting will have the opposite effect, making her more plastic and cartoony.

I was gonna say the Archangel Metatron..;)

Cool character ernyoka!  I absolutely agree with everything you've said.  The versatility of Poser is amazing.  Not to sound pompous or anything, but I've always tried hard to make my characters look as un-prepackaged as possible.  The problem unfortunately is that the simplicity of Poser itself makes it hard to do so.  V3 doesn't like going out of certain bounds, so whenever I make a scene, not only do I have to be careful of the lighting I want in the scene itself, but use trickery to hide the creases and folds.

Though I do understand where some of these "snobs" come from though when they say they all look like.  For every one unique character, there's a mountain of images that look like: V3 with a few morphs in a sexy pose.  So for those with just a passing interest in seeing what Poser can do, or looking for its flaws, its easy to stereotype it.  But here on renderosity, I've seen some simply amazing images as well that truly puts Poser up there with the high end stuff.

No way, it's George W. Bush!

argh...  no offence intended to bald and balding fellow humans, but that pate is shining brightly !

There is one sure preventative for baldness - castration.
Baldness = Verility!
David P. Hoadley

doesn't help after you've started losing some of your hair....

It keeps what's left from falling out, I understand.
DPH

er....is it Don?....do i win?

Woo-hoo!  It is a really great render!  The forehead and eyes made me think of Don so that's why I guessed him.  lol 

Man, you have a lot of great products but after much looking this morning, I'd like to see if I could get the Real Corset for V3?  :D  Thanks much!  This was really cool of you to do!

Fantastic work, Ernyoka !

~ @ Vilian: EXACTELY! Thanks That is exactely the Don I used!!!

~@ Arcady: I agree a lot of the way, but not all the way though. IMO making a picture into B/W ALWAYS enhances the photoreal feel, which is why I use that approach for all my "photoreal" attempts. Some of them have gotten VERY close IMO (look in my gallery, they're all called "Photorealism [number]")
But yes the lights are crucial. I always render in Poser (with the exception of a very few pictures that Poser for some reason refuesed to render) but chhoosing the right texture is vital. On this pic I COULD have gone with a better picture, I have MEC4D's M2 textures and they're awesome, but I'v used them on a lot of my other "Photoreal" attempts so I needed to prove to myself that I could use other M3 textures as well :o)

~@ whatthe: Yes Poser is a fairly simplistic program, but it shouldn't fool people into thinking that it can only do simplistic renders. Firefly is actually a pretty sophisticated render engine once you know how to use it (and I'm personally oinly scratching the surface)
I guess some people just like to be snobs. the "My company paid zillions for Max and you can afford this Poser by yourself, ergo Poser must be crap" attitude.

And finally Shamanka... Sorry for the late reply. I have been away all day but I'll upload the corset right now and PM you the link :o))

Really looks like Alan Alda...

:b_funny:

As long as you're not claiming it looks like Alan Rickman, I'm quite in a forgiving mood ;)

How are you, ma'am? Long time no see!

MWHA :lol:

What can I zay, Sir? Drawing, drawing, drawing and drawing a lot ;)