I've been trying to learn the ropes with poser and I"m doing ok but I'm tired of creating images like this one I am wanting to learn some techniques to make more realistic renders. I would like to be able to eventually create images like these: http://www.renderosity.com/mod/gallery/index.php?image_id=1544826 http://www.renderosity.com/mod/gallery/index.php?image_id=1544931 Can anyone point out some good tutorials that would teach me how to do that? I don't even know where to begin to learn to do that. When I look at the galleries here I see how so many of the renders look so lifelike and I want to achieve that and have no clue how it's done. I've searched through the tutorials here but I didn't see any that pertained to creating realistic faces and characters but maybe that's because I don't even know the correct wording for it to be able to find what I need. I sure would appreciate any direction any of you great artists can give me. thanks in advance Kelli

http://www.renderosity.com/mod/forumpro/showforum.php?forum_id=12474

Try posting your images in that forum and asking not only for general feed back, but also suggestions on what you can do along with details on how to do it.

I will say that there is really no substitute for good lighting. Check out these threads for help on that:

Olivier's Making of a pomo pic
Castle Poser Tutorials
Poser 6 IBL Ins and outs by Olivier
A little tutorial about lighting by Olivier
Tutorial: GEL MAPS by Olivier
How Light Probes are Laid Out
Advanced Image Based Lighting in Poser 6
Basic OpenGL Lighting

There are also lots of tutorials on how to post work your images, both here and at Daz in the tutorial areas.  Most images in the gallery are post worked at least some, and many have "Photshop Actions" and/or other filters applied to give a softness to them too.  So don't feel badly that you can't achieve those images strictly inside Poser.

thank you very much Acadia. I do use photoshop. usually I just pose my character in poser and do the rest in photoshop mainly because after I pose my character I get lost on how to do anything else. Even though I've been using photoshop for a long time I"ve never used it to create realistic looking images. most of what I've done has been to create cartoon style images. At least I'm familiar with photosohp I guess. lol I will get started on the tutorials you posted and I'll definitely take you up on your suggestion for asking for feedback in that other forum. thanks again for your words of wisdom. Kelli

What version of poser are you using? How realistic do you want to get? I only ask because while the images you posted are good, they are not particularly all that close to realism.
As Acadia said, good lighting is a key element.  Now back to my first question, with older versions of poser you can still achieve a fair amount of realism but how you get there is significantly different. 2nd to lighting are the textures you use.

If you have Poser 5 or above it's a good idea to get a basic understanding of the Material Room.  bagginsbill is the main man for all material related stuff, so read up on his threads here and over at RuntimeDNA.  There's a forum called The Node Cult there.

www.runtimedna.com

I have poser 4 pro pack and poser 7.  I just got poser 7 and I've only checked it out. I haven't really used it yet. I've only played around with the buttons and things so I can get a feel for the new things it has. 

the material, face, cloth and hair rooms look very intimidating.   I figured I'd try some tutorials for poser 7 since I'm not too comfortable with it.

I think what I'm going to do is start a project and go through the lighting tutorials Acadia posted, then check out bagginsbill (any relation to froto? lol)   so wish me luck.  I'll post my progress in the forum Acadia suggested and hopefully I can learn to render some nice pics like some of hte ones here. 

I love what programs like bryce and poser can do for someone like me; I'm a writer not an artist and most days I'm lucky to be able to draw stick figures.  I always wished I could paint and draw and now thanks to programs like these I can. 

OMG! You are absolutely going to love the cloth room!

A nice thing about dynamic clothing is that you can easily use clothing on various figures. Here are some tutorials on how to use dynamic clothing in the cloth room:

http://www.renderosity.com/mod/forumpro/showthread.php?thread_id=2665209

http://www.philc.net/CC_sampleVideo.htm

http://www.poserfashion.net/howvic3dress1.htm

http://drgeep.com/p5/cr/cr.htm

Here are some links to some great FREE dynamic clothing:

http://www.renderosity.com/mod/freestuff/index.php?username=mapps

http://www.renderosity.com/mod/freestuff/index.php?username=svdl

http://www.renderosity.com/mod/freestuff/index.php?username=Stegy

http://www.renderosity.com/mod/freestuff/index.php?username=carib98

http://www.renderosity.com/mod/freestuff/index.php?username=teyikung

It's also possible to make conforming clothing into dynamic clothing:

http://www.renderosity.com/mod/tutorial/index.php?tutorial_id=868

And it's possible to take a conforming outfit and work with it in the cloth room so that parts of it act dynamic.

http://www.renderosity.com/mod/forumpro/showthread.php?thread_id=2517340&page=1

Here is a good thread for you to read about composition.

http://www.renderosity.com/mod/forumpro/showthread.php?thread_id=2691662

LOL ok!  you are a wealth of information.  I'm trying to do this tutorial right now so I can get a face going that I can play with.

www.infinitee-designs.com/Portrait_Tutorial.htm

so far I've done the UVmap 3 times with no success. all I get is a blob and nothing that resembles the illustrations in the tut. lol  but I'm trying again.

I was really excited about the various rooms because I thought, "hey now I can do something really cool" but honestly they frighten me lol because I don't have the faintest clue how to use them.

As soon as I get a face going I'll show you where i"m at because after I get a face I'm going to work with those light tuts you posted.

thanks again Acadia I really appreciate your help with this stuff.  be back in a bit when I get a face...IF I get a face. lol

make that the 4th time.  this is what I get in the UVMapper program

well I finally had success with the UVMapper.  for some reason I could only get it to work with the p4 female figure.  any other figure and I"d just get a blob like the one above.  getting closer to a face...

now i"m really stuck but I probably should ask for help in a new thread in a new forum because now I need specific help with this UVmap thingy.

btw, do you think I'm going the right route?  should I be trying to figure out UVmapping before I try out those tutorials you listed?  now i"m boggled...

Yep I know what you did wrong in UVmapper-because I did it too.  Here is what happens, when you say make an .obj out of the entire figure and generate a texture map for it-you get everthing, the body with the face superimposed over it with the eyes superimosed over everything.  Here is what you do to get rid of the mess.  

You will notice that on your key board to the right of the "P" key you have your brackets (lower case) [ and ] the first one makes stuff invisible, the second one makes stuff appear again

First get your mess then
Go to the edit drop down list and select all
click [  (lower case) on your key board-everything will now be hidden.
 
[Now go back to the Edit menu again and  click on the select -by material.  

You will get a list of everything in the figure. Click on what you want and then a blank enlargement box will show.  Now  click on your keyboard ] bracket and it will appear.

Repeat for as many things you want to appear.  That is all there is to it--Plutom