hi, i would like to know if any of the following programs render better than Poser7 using Poser figures.

I have seen renders from other programs that look amazing. and would like to try it out my self but i dont know where to start.
I have Maya 8.5, Daz studio, bryce 5.5 and Cinema 4D.
I am just checking which would get the best results from that lot and also how i would go about getting the full poser scene including textures imported into each program.

I dont want to start learning how one works if another is gonna be better!

Thanks for reading, hope you can help

Forget about Bryce. With the right plugin, Cinema 4D can actually make use of your Poser Runtime and it renders really well. Maya is off the charts in the rendering department, but I've heard it's a bear to learn. Of course Daz Studio is free and relatively easy to learn and it has better lights than Poser 7 which improves the renders, in my opinion.

cool, thanks. Do you know where i could find the Cinema 4D plugin. I like the look of the test renders i did in that.

I cant get my head around the Maya Rendering, I might need to purchase some quality tutorials on that hehe. unless anybody knows of any good free ones.

Ill have a go at DAZ as well if you prefer it to Poser, ive not bothered with it to be honest

Are you a millionaire? Just curious. I think the Cinema 4D plugin is called 'Transposer.' Its creator frequents this forum, as do some of the users so I'm sure someone will be around to point you in the right direction. Failing that, do what I'd do and Google search 'Cinema 4d+Transposer.' (If only the Renderosity marketplace search worked so well...)

The only post-processing was to create the depth of field effect.

At the very least, Bryce is the only app. you listed that can make landscapes for you.

It's not Transposer (that is Carrara), it's InterPoser Pro plugin for C4D:
http://www.kuroyumes-developmentzone.com/products_interposer_pro.html

Cinema 4D is my "weapon of choice".  It does it all.
The Cinema 4D Poser importer is called interPoser (Limited and Pro).
http://www.kuroyumes-developmentzone.com/index.html

[[[ in stereo where available ]]]

It's Vue6Inf for me, the lights are far superior IMO to Poser, don't know about C4D and Maya, way out of my league price wise!!!

thanks guys! thats awesome. unfortunately interposer is a bit expensive at the moment. I just bought POser 7  :(

I was looking at getting Vue6 i agree some of the best(realistic) renders are done in Vue. But again i cant afford that yet!? Looks like im gonna have to learn Maya! Ihaha, Ive seen some good renders from that I just aint got a clue how to do it!

Note there is a freeware version of interPoser (interPoser Limited).  Don't think that getting Poser content into Maya is anything like easy, either.

Does C4D or Maya import collada files?
D|S collada exporting works pretty good with importing into Max.

Probably not as good as IPP?  but it's viable... and free... If either of those apps can import the .dae files.
At least worth a try.

oops! unless my monitor is on the fritz again, nostril glow is a feature of both vue and poser. since the OP posted this in poser forum, my vote would be for c6pro, since it will import poser runtimes, open poser cr2 files and allow posing the figures.

just curious, interposer pro is too expensive for you but you are going to buy maya? which is several thousand dollars? I know there is a free learning edition but I believe the renderer is watermarked and size limited so not really useful as a renderer, and not sure if you can import .obj format into it.

on collada files I believe the answer is yes for Maya, and I know the answer is no on C4D, I asked them at siggraph when they were going to add it, and they couldnt give me a straight answer. and yes I would say Carrara would probably the easiest choice, with quite a good renderer, particularly if you want to import fully rigged figures.

Quote - just curious, interposer pro is too expensive for you but you are going to buy maya? which is several thousand dollars? I know there is a free learning edition but I believe the renderer is watermarked and size limited so not really useful as a renderer, and not sure if you can import .obj format into it.

no, they have Maya already. (first post of the thread)

for a cost effective render method, there's the Poseray / Povray combo... Pov is still one of the best render engines I've seen.... and it's Free.

Quote - > Quote - just curious, interposer pro is too expensive for you but you are going to buy maya? which is several thousand dollars? I know there is a free learning edition but I believe the renderer is watermarked and size limited so not really useful as a renderer, and not sure if you can import .obj format into it.

no, they have Maya already. (first post of the thread)

for a cost effective render method, there's the Poseray / Povray combo... Pov is still one of the best render engines I've seen.... and it's Free.

ah ok sorry missed that. if you have C4D I would definately go with that, interposer Limited is pretty cheep at $40 though I would go for Interposer Pro personally, its worth every cent, as it imports fully rigged figures, you dont even have to use Poser, you can import directly from your runtime into C4D.

wow, you guys have been great. I have a lot of options to follow up.

Thanks for all your help!! I think i need more money haha!:)

C4D is a good all-around app, and relatively easy to use. The new Poser Pro,  slated to come out this Fall, is supposed to have plugins for CINEMA 4D, 3ds Max and Maya, and  Lightwave. I'm really looking forward to the C4D plugin--I've been struggling with the old OS9 plugin for years. InterPoser Pro is a very good plugin, but is missing a few key elements, like Point At, which is essential for good eye movement (tho if you're not animating, not a problem.)

Just looked up Interposer Pro and it says-
" Texture image files with Poser 4/ProPack-level material support."
Meaning no skin shaders?
I couldnn't live without my skin shaders (or many procedural-node textures)

Quote - Just looked up Interposer Pro and it says-
" Texture image files with Poser 4/ProPack-level material support."
Meaning no skin shaders?
I couldnn't live without my skin shaders (or many procedural-node textures)

its really impossible to convert shader systems from one program to another, they generally work completely differently. If you want to use poser shaders than stick with poser. C4D has much better shaders than poser though, it does mean a little more work but frankly the rewards will far outweigh the work.

cool, im looking forward to the new poser, do ya reckon ya can update from 7?

is there a long way to get poser figures with the textures into cinema4d without interposer? or is that the only way?

yes you can bring Poser figures right into C4D without interposer, there are a couple of free plugins that will help make it easier, Spankies Riptide is one, and there is also a plugin from a french artist specifically designed for it, though the name escapes me but she posted in the C4D forum within the past few months as I recall. but with those solutions you will have to do a little more work with materials, specifically loading transmaps into the alpha channel things like that.

Maya is no more difficult to learn than any other mid-priced / high-end app, especially if you have a good grasp on the Poser 5+ material room. It does offer far more (animation) control, modelling (yes it imports .obj, as in Wavefront from which Maya descended and Collada in version 2008). True MEL is a language bbut theoretically not much diffferent from Python if you need that level of control. Its rendering strengths are (not limited to) mental ray and its awesome SSS shader, a flexible but straight forward material construction area and its ability to mimic real world lights - and in the case of mental ray - import light profiles from light manufacturers. If you decided to go this route make sure to resize your textures down to a reasonable level, remove the 31 redundant duplicate copies of Poser-genrated materials, and consider using lighter meshes. It's not that Maya can't handle all those things, it's just that Maya has very efficient ways interpolate detail which Poser needs to have explicitly created for it.

All the links gathered in one place :biggrin:

Best solution (most expensive, but not super expensive):
Interposer Pro

Second best (for Poser items; free):
Interposer Ltd

Another Poser-specific solution (also free):
AMA Tools

Good all-around solution for importing OBJ files into Cinema 4D (also free):
Spanki's RipTide plugin

Thanks **R_Hatch.
**Very concise and just what I wanted to know.

Quote - Maya is no more difficult to learn than any other mid-priced / high-end app, especially if you have a good grasp on the Poser 5+ material room. It does offer far more (animation) control, modelling (yes it imports .obj, as in Wavefront from which Maya descended and Collada in version 2008). True MEL is a language bbut theoretically not much diffferent from Python if you need that level of control. Its rendering strengths are (not limited to) mental ray and its awesome SSS shader, a flexible but straight forward material construction area and its ability to mimic real world lights - and in the case of mental ray - import light profiles from light manufacturers. If you decided to go this route make sure to resize your textures down to a reasonable level, remove the 31 redundant duplicate copies of Poser-genrated materials, and consider using lighter meshes. It's not that Maya can't handle all those things, it's just that Maya has very efficient ways interpolate detail which Poser needs to have explicitly created for it.

Thank you that is some good advice. MAYA is definately the program i am aiming to master because of the amazing results i have seen. I heard Final fantasy advent children was created on Maya(with 3rd party plugins). But i just cant seem to find any decent tutorials.

i just downloaded interposer ltd and its cool, that should keep me happy for a little while.

Quote - oops! unless my monitor is on the fritz again, nostril glow is a feature of both vue and poser. since the OP posted this in poser forum, my vote would be for c6pro, since it will import poser runtimes, open poser cr2 files and allow posing the figures.

Nope...never had nostril glow problems myself in Vue. Certainly looks a bit bright in that area in that reneder though.
Just double checked some of my Vue renders and none show nostril glow.

As far as Poser connection with a different renderer, I would go the C4D route and then Vue...C4D's renderer is much faster than Vue's. Yes, C4D is fully capable of landscapes...even more so when connected to Vue Xstream.
Of course the best Poser connection may all change when the Pro version of Poser is released this Autumn.

"But i just cant seem to find any decent tutorials." Try the "Learning Maya 7" series, which you should be able to pick up as a bundle for cheap. It will get you up to speed quickly. If you want to master Maya, you will run into a problem. You've got this amazing Poser Runtime, but you won't realize any of Maya's benefits if you're using DAZ characters due to the density of their meshes. Ultimately if you want to master Maya, you will have to give up DAZ characters and this will be very difficult thing to do because there's so much great stuff out there. Trust me on this. Jessi, James, et al. and P4 and earlier characters perform better because they average 35,000 polys or less. You could try Body Studio or the Greenbrier plugin but eventually you will run into the same problem. A whole new world will reveal itself when you begin modelling humanoids using subdivision surfaces. All of a sudden Maya performs less like a Cessna and more like an SR71. Why? You'll have a 1000 poly character that looks as smooth as a 72,000 poly character. You'll be very excited, you'll want to tell everyone about your amazing new headspace and (no offense to the forum) noone will know what you are talking about. I'm not a zealot, just sharing my observations.

cheers, it appears yer correct. I checked the first 4 pages of the vue gallery here, and only one image has obvious nostril glow. it must be the exception that proves the rule.

Quote - "But i just cant seem to find any decent tutorials." Try the "Learning Maya 7" series, which you should be able to pick up as a bundle for cheap. It will get you up to speed quickly. If you want to master Maya, you will run into a problem. You've got this amazing Poser Runtime, but you won't realize any of Maya's benefits if you're using DAZ characters due to the density of their meshes. Ultimately if you want to master Maya, you will have to give up DAZ characters and this will be very difficult thing to do because there's so much great stuff out there. Trust me on this. Jessi, James, et al. and P4 and earlier characters perform better because they average 35,000 polys or less. You could try Body Studio or the Greenbrier plugin but eventually you will run into the same problem. A whole new world will reveal itself when you begin modelling humanoids using subdivision surfaces. All of a sudden Maya performs less like a Cessna and more like an SR71. Why? You'll have a 1000 poly character that looks as smooth as a 72,000 poly character. You'll be very excited, you'll want to tell everyone about your amazing new headspace and (no offense to the forum) noone will know what you are talking about. I'm not a zealot, just sharing my observations.

Although everything you say is true, it is quite a path to making your own quality figures in any 3D application.  You have to master skinning, rigging, morphs, IK set up, edge-loops, and a myriad other considerations.  It is indeed an achievement - but one garnered with hard work and lots of time.

The appeal of Poser figures is that one isn't required to go through that gauntlet (whether considered laziness or not) to make characters for their work.  On one hand, you have a posable figure with 3000 morphs and several stores' worth of wardrobe provided by a myriad of individuals, albeit polygon heavy and proprietary in structure, and on the other you have the frightful prospect of trying to do the same all by your lonesome.   Might I state the obvious (as humans do) and say that something like Victoria 4 is not a single person's endeavor.  Such a complex beast is the endeavor of many dozens of people.  Great if you are part of studio - sucky for one person.  Name me a single OS comparable to Windows or MacOSX written by a single individual (hint: there are absolutely ZERO).  Why?  Because it takes hundreds or thousands of people working in concert to produce something of that complexity.  You make the analogy. ;D

Have a great weekend!