I'm a beginner Poser artist and I'm curious about some of the challenges and difficulties that beginner Poser artists have with learning poser.

I'm currently a beginner Poser artist even though my artwork may not reflect that. One thing that really gets me is that I cannot find any text that tells the secrets to getting realistic skin renders. This is driving me nuts.

Take a look at this thread:
http://www.renderosity.com/mod/forumpro/showthread.php?thread_id=2704900

One of many that deals with realism in Poser.

yer doing well, wolf. yer images are showing an understanding of the importance of proper lighting, scene set-up, use of shadows et al. the part about realistic skin shaders is tricky, and may be render-intensive. one of the many failures in regard to realism in poser is the absense of a GUI for GI renders (hidden feature), and the faulty application of poser directional lites.

Quote - I'm currently a beginner Poser artist even though my artwork may not reflect that. One thing that really gets me is that I cannot find any text that tells the secrets to getting realistic skin renders. This is driving me nuts.

Don't feel bad, this is driving nuts a lot of non-beginners too.
Here's another link... It's a Poser product, but a lot of people love it:  http://www.renderosity.com/mod/bcs/index.php?vendor=face_off

Also, do follow Bagginsbill's work, here and on www.runtimedna.com, under the forum called 'the node cult'. There's a lot of great work on realistic rendering, especially using procedural materials, going on in that forum.

Hope that helps a bit :)

Difficulty learning poser? Magnets. Didn't understand them until I finally read what the tutorial actually said instead of trying to use them they way I thought they worked.  A magnet works on a single object (body part) as opposed to a figure as a whole. Themagnet is assigned to the object when it is created and it is the currently selected object that gets the magnet assigned.  You cannot then transfer it to another body part or figure. There's something about the look of the magnet object that makes you feel it is a general tool that can be created one place and used in another.

Heh, Magnets... the magnet base had me puzzled for quite a while...

Wow. I haven't even touch the magnet feature yet.  I read tutorials on them but haven't used them.

As a newbie myself, my main recommendation is: this forum.  I don’t post often, but I visit just about everyday.  You’ll be amazed at how often you’ll find the exact problem or question you have addressed here on the first few pages—and often from an experienced user!

Also, understand that it’s not always you that’s the problem.  Poser has limitations.  Some are insurmountable, but often these limitations can be overcome by clever work-arounds and somewhat obscure techniques that don’t seem obvious to you.  Sometimes a simple post, link or tutorial will set you on a path that will change your whole outlook on Poser.

Accept that, to a large extent, the Poser User Manual is insufficient.  Even though it’s as thick as “War and Peace” it does not, and could not, begin to cover all the things you can do with the application.  Sometimes it’s omissions are frustrating.  Best to think of it as a massive “Getting Started” manual.

Finally, don’t be intimidated.  There’s no way you can learn it all at once.  There are people who have been using Poser for many years who are still learning new things (at least that’s my impression).  Give it time.  Approach each challenge one at a time.  Research, read, experiment (especially experiment!).  There’s an answer to everything.  It’s not always the answer you’d hoped for, but that’s life.

Just remember: every day, every month, every year, you’ll get better and better.

Well, there are those "ahh-haa!" moments.  First one was, obviously, any change made to your figure proportions need to be made to their conforming clothes.  Second one was realising that only the obj. format could get me between the programs I used without losing something.  Third was realsiing that highlight size was nearly as important as colour and strength.  Then that bump maps shouldn't just be greyscale textures, you need to think about where the bumps are. If you're adding a morph to an object, set all of the other morph valuse to zero, or they will be incuded.  IK is useful when you want it, but not when you don't.  It also tends to cause unnatural bending in figures.  Hands shouldn't twist, the forearm should twist instead.  Conversely, feet should move at the ankle, unless you're bending the knee until the calf contacts the thigh.  Then it's whatever works best.  A good default set-up is to set lights 1 and 3 to no specular, no shadow.  It'll render quicker and look far less plastic with basic materials.  The free version of UV mapper creates perfectly useful texture templates.  If you use Wings, adjust your obj. import/export properties to scale up on import, and down on export. 10.0/0.10, or it will be very hard to do anything.  If you open a zip and find a file called runtime, you can probably assume it can just be copied over your runtime, as oppsed to maually mving its contents.  The most common name for a file is probably "readme".  Lock actor is really useful, unless you turn it on by mistake.  Also, never forget that practically any object in the scene can have it's own draw style in preview.  Setting your props to outline reduces the chance that you'll have to change draw styles to see your figure.  Teeth aren't usually pure white.  Oh well, those were the ones that come to mind.

moogal, you have just made this tread extremely useful.  LOL.

Yeah, great advice moogal!  Especially the one about the hand twist.  

It also reminds you to try out your poses.  If you can´t do it then in all likelyhood neither can your character (just try twisting your hand without twisting you forearm.

In the early stages of learning it's all too easy to rely on premade content.  I believe you will gain more understanding about Poser if you at least try to make your own poses, light sets, simple props from primitives, textures and trans maps.

While you're at it, try to do things in Poser that you haven't seen done before.

If you are creating images for your own pleasure or artistic satisfaction, I heartily recommend avoiding any sort of postwork for a while.  At least until you have found out what Poser is capable of and discovering workarounds for the times when it doesn't do what you want it to.  Becoming reliant on postwork early in the game will make you lazy and always willing to fix the problem in Photoshop.  Once your skill set is sufficiently developed, there's no reason not to go crazy with postwork if that's your thing.

If you're creating images to order, however, then you should use every single tool and skill you possess to get the image your client needs.

Vestmann: Great way of putting that.  I think when I finally rig a character, I will set the unnatural bends' limits to zero and use very high limits for legal bends.  I find that I can't really use the joint limits function as some figures' limits are just too conservative.

Most of my early Poser time was spent learning how to get my old content in from other programs.  I was modeling for several years before getting Poser, and wasn't just getting started in 3D.  I'd just come to Windows from Amiga (used Caligari) and Poser was the program I was always jealous of.  

Is there a way I can edit my typos? :blink:

I also find tutorials on photography an excellent resource on camera placement on POV and even lighting.