Just wanted to know  which is the best program outside of Poser,to create poser ready figures.

Maya, 3DSMax, Lightwave, in fact any prog that has actual modelling capabilities and can export in OBJ format.

FYI, DAZ use Lightwave to make their models.  Some of their content providers use MAX.

I've even seen Wings 3d and Anim8tor used for that. Blender, metasequoia, you name it...;)

One advantage of LW is that it supports all the part groups and material groups that Poser uses. Maya does not. On the other hand, Maya has a more complete toolset....

This is a good candidate for inclusion into updated FAQ's :)

Actually DAZ uses Modo primarily now. I have to put in my vote for CINEMA 4D since it hasn't been mentioned yet though. ;)

Ok might as well add my 2 bits worth - I personally prefer modeling in Lightwave. Though I do tend to prefer Maya's cloth solver when creating some clothing items. I still end up grouping them and such in LW. But for the straight modeling process,(organic modeling in particular)  I find Lightwave gives me a smoother and quicker workflow. (Granted this may be partially due to the fact that I've been using LW longer) but I can do most things in one step in LW that it takes two or three steps to do in Maya. 

My main example would be when it comes to dragging points individually. In Maya it's select move tool, click to select point(s), release mouse button, click again to move point, click another point, release mouse, click again to move, etc. With LW no need to select anything, just hit the drag tool and start dragging points at will.  At least in Maya 7 vs. LW 8x. Unless something has changed in latest version of Maya..

Certainly not knocking Maya for it's other superior functions though. Just talking strictly figure modeling here. On the + side for Maya though, I do like its overall handling of SubD's a bit better. And does have some good tools for fine detailing.

All this aside though, any good modeling app will do the trick, the main thing is get to know how your chosen software works and learn some basic modeling do's and dont's, like the importance of edge loops, poly flow etc, so the model will rig, bend, morph and animate properly when its time to put it to use.

correct me if i am wrong......modo is good for modeling but you cant make anything that moves or has morphs..correct? so you woyuld have to do that in another application. i am also interested in perchacing a modeling program but i am confused about what one is good for poser/dazstudio content.. like clothes for example. i can model clothes in modo but they wont move unless i have a differant application to bring them to. so i guess a better question would be is to ask is there a program that lets you model and morph things in the same application.

You can model whole pieces and tweak them to create morphs in any modelling application that was mentioned in this thread (modo included).
Rigging (adding bones so the body parts bend) you'll have to do in Poser.
I use hexagon for modelling pieces and making morphs, and it works quite well.

there is currently no software on the market that I have heard of that you can model and rig in for poser/studio, all modeling is done in other modelers as conniekat said and brought into poser for rigging. btw, just in case you missed it, Modo 103 just went on sale at DAZ for an amazing price, this is an earlier version of Modo but it includes full upgrade rights to upgrade to the upcoming 301 version for a very low upgrade price.

Most, if not all, 3d programs do more or less the same thing. People get comfortable with what they know best. My work flow is as follows:
3ds Max-
low to high poly creating, figures, clothes, props, etc.
ZBrush-
detailing of all created objects from Max, wrinkles, scars, morphs, engravings, etc.
Poser-
boning and joint parameters, cr2's
UV Mapper Pro-
texture maps and groupings
Photoshop-
textures and post op work from renders

(next part said with heavy sarcasm)
That's all there is to it really.

Quote - correct me if i am wrong......modo is good for modeling but you cant make anything that moves or has morphs..correct?

All morphs really are, are seperate models based on the original unmorphed one.To create a morph (of a face for example) use the same head object you start with, move points to make the face smile, or open the mouth, whatever, and save each rearranged geometry as a new obj file. 
You then load these into poser as morph targets. The "making it move" part is all done in poser itself.

Quote - Actually DAZ uses Modo primarily now. I have to put in my vote for CINEMA 4D since it hasn't been mentioned yet though. ;)

+1

With my (free) Riptide and my inexpensive Undertow plugins, Cinema 4D (free demo download at link) makes an excellent Poser/D|S content creation app.  Very low learning curve (relative to some of the other apps mentioned), yet very powerful and flexable modeller.

Using Riptide, It imports .obj files with all grouping and material selections intact and even supports UV-mapper 'Regions' (though I do most uv-mapping directly in BodyPaint these days... with the help of Undertow).  I basically model, set up material zones, do all grouping and uv-mapping all inside C4D and then export to .obj, ready for rigging in Poser - no other apps needed.  Riptide also does not re-order vertices, so you can use it to import/create/export Poser morphs.

Additionally, Kuroume has the excellent interPoser plugin(s) available to import most Poser content, including rigging and morphs for setting up animations and renders in C4D.

great bows to Spanki, riptide really changed the ballance with a single blow. and of course you and Kuroume have created other tools that made things so much easier between Poser and C4D. C4D was always my choice of modelers due simply to its amazingly easy workflow and integration with Bodypaint, but import and export were a real struggle before Riptide came along.

Quote - great bows to Spanki, riptide really changed the ballance with a single blow. and of course you and Kuroume have created other tools that made things so much easier between Poser and C4D. C4D was always my choice of modelers due simply to its amazingly easy workflow and integration with Bodypaint, but import and export were a real struggle before Riptide came along.

You're welcome - thanks for the comments. :)

well first you need a modeling program of which theres are dozens ranging from free (wings3d) to resaonable (hex, carrara, c4d) to bloody expensive (maya).

then the the model needs mapping .. either in your modeling program or with another lik Uvmapper or uvlayout

then grouping .. either in uvmapper or AutoGroupEditor

Then theres the rigging .. generally inside poser but not always.

thats the super simple overview .. t'aint as easy as it sounds. Poser is particular about its models.

I suggest you find a copy of 'poser5 figure secrets' by BL render. it covers modeling for poser and rigging issues. I keep mine by my desk to look up weird issues when a leg falls off a model and so forth :)

Lyrra

An interesting addition to this thread would be if people could attach/point out examples of figures created for Poser, and which apps were used to make them.

Quote - An interesting addition to this thread would be if people could attach/point out examples of figures created for Poser, and which apps were used to make them.

Here's a few (SOME NUDITY IN THE FOLLOWING LINKS)...

3DC Alexa figure - modelled in (? I didn't do the modelling), Grouped in C4D, UV-mapped in BodyPaint, rigged in Poser.  Lingerie modelled, grouped, uv-mapped in C4D/BP3, rigged in Poser.

Original figure (un-named as of yet) - modelled, grouped, uv-mapped in C4D/BP3, rigged in Poser.  Here are a few other images of that same figure...

"Working Girl" | "Fem Project" | "Body Shot" | "Another 20-something" | "A Pin-Up"

...along with a few other cheesy renders in my gallery :).

Sp3 Lingerie - (as well as the shoes) modelled, grouped, uv-mapped in C4D/BP3, rigged in Poser.  The jewelry was actually modelled in Wings3D, a few years ago.

Actually, pretty much everything in my store is modelled, grouped and uv-mapped in Cinema 4D / BodyPaint 3D and then rigged in Poser (with various edits in TextPad and some other Poser-specific tools every now and then).