Hiya everyone

Is there a tutorial anywhere to learn the basics of Poser 7?  I can't get my head around it and it's frustrating me sooooo much!  All I want to do is change the gender from male to female then I'll work out everything else as I go along but I can't work out how to do it!

I've bought loads of stuff for Poser but don't know where it goes or how to use it or anything like that!  

Can someone help me out pretty please?

Thank you!

Mandy

Which figure are you trying to transform?

Update - whoops, PhilC beat me to it.

( O . O )

Oh.  Well, first up, not all male figures can transform into female without first receiving some sort of injected morph in some way.  If you have Poser, there already are male and female figures ready for your use.  Look inside the Character tab of the Poser library menu (right hand side pull-out drawer of the Poser interface).

Someone will soon come along and provide you links to tutorials - but I'll provide a hint - seek out Dr Geep's Poser tutorials.

And, when you unzip poser ZIP files, you have to retain the folder structure, else your resulting fils won't be happily found by Poser.  OR, if it's a DAZ3D EXE installation, then make sure you specify and remember where you tell it to install.  Inside of Poser, make sure you add these runtimes to the runtime library, if they are not already inside your main Poser runtime ( see Dr Geep's tutorial on using the runtime library).

Do you have the PDF instruction manuals that came with it. Poser has many areas that one has to become familiar with and like most computer graphics and 3d programs you usually don't get it just overnight. It took me months to get proficient with Poser, Photoshop and Zbrush. I still come across things all the time I don't know how to do.

Be patient, study and experiment with what you've read. Read then try, then read again. In time it will become second nature to you.

Read both your Poser reference manual and tutorial manual, they should be listed in your help menu. I know its frustrating at first but hang in there in time it will be easy.

If you are wanting to make a male figure, you should start out with one. Look in your Poser library>figures>Poser 7 etc.

If your library is not visible go to your window menu and check library it should appear at the right of your screen.

Quote - Which figure are you trying to transform?

I'm trying to get a female figure that I can play with but don't know how to change it from SimonG2 (the one that comes up when I open Poser) to a female figure and can't work out what I'm doing wrong!  :huh:

Quote - Update - whoops, PhilC beat me to it.

( O . O )

Oh.  Well, first up, not all male figures can transform into female without first receiving some sort of injected morph in some way.  If you have Poser, there already are male and female figures ready for your use.  Look inside the Character tab of the Poser library menu (right hand side pull-out drawer of the Poser interface).

Someone will soon come along and provide you links to tutorials - but I'll provide a hint - seek out Dr Geep's Poser tutorials.

And, when you unzip poser ZIP files, you have to retain the folder structure, else your resulting fils won't be happily found by Poser.  OR, if it's a DAZ3D EXE installation, then make sure you specify and remember where you tell it to install.  Inside of Poser, make sure you add these runtimes to the runtime library, if they are not already inside your main Poser runtime ( see Dr Geep's tutorial on using the runtime library).

!!!  There was me thinking it was a simple programme!  lol  What are runtime thingies?

Thank you for all your help!

Quote - Do you have the PDF instruction manuals that came with it. Poser has many areas that one has to become familiar with and like most computer graphics and 3d programs you usually don't get it just overnight. It took me months to get proficient with Poser, Photoshop and Zbrush. I still come across things all the time I don't know how to do.

Be patient, study and experiment with what you've read. Read then try, then read again. In time it will become second nature to you.

Read both your Poser reference manual and tutorial manual, they should be listed in your help menu. I know its frustrating at first but hang in there in time it will be easy.

If you are wanting to make a male figure, you should start out with one. Look in your Poser library>figures>Poser 7 etc.

If your library is not visible go to your window menu and check library it should appear at the right of your screen.

Thank you Chris!  I guess I just need to play more huh?

Exactly
Just another note, once youve loaded a figure, if you dont see your parameter dials, go to window parameter dials and check it. you will get a menu with dials for every conceiveable body part. Play with the dials and see how it affects the figure. Also in your library under pose I think you will find a bunch of ready made poses you can apply to your figure.
I know my spelling sucks
Chris

Quote - Exactly
Just another note, once youve loaded a figure, if you dont see your parameter dials, go to window parameter dials and check it. you will get a menu with dials for every conceiveable body part. Play with the dials and see how it affects the figure. Also in your library under pose I think you will find a bunch of ready made poses you can apply to your figure.
I know my spelling sucks
Chris

This is another thing that confuses me... I can't see a library thingy anywhere!  Sorry to be such a dunce!

Quote - > Quote - Which figure are you trying to transform?

 

I'm trying to get a female figure that I can play with but don't know how to change it from SimonG2 (the one that comes up when I open Poser) to a female figure and can't work out what I'm doing wrong!  :huh:

On top, go to the "figure" pul down menu and click "delete figure"
Than go to the right of your screen, select "figures" from the top of the list and brows away.

You probably find under "Poser" Sydney, just double click on her and wait untill she loads onto your screen.

In case you cant work it out and you deleted Simon from your screen, just restart the prog and he is back

"edit"
Take a look at the excelent tutorials from DrGeep here

The library might fold away. On the right hand side of the screen should be a tab in the middle. Click on it and the libray opens. On top you can select which part of the library is shown. Choose the figures.

Make sure library is checked under your window menu,if you still dont see it look to the very right of your screen (your right,left from the screens perspective) you should see a little handle click it, your library should appear

Quote - > Quote - > Quote - Which figure are you trying to transform?

 

I'm trying to get a female figure that I can play with but don't know how to change it from SimonG2 (the one that comes up when I open Poser) to a female figure and can't work out what I'm doing wrong!  :huh:

On top, go to the "figure" pul down menu and click "delete figure"
Than go to the right of your screen, select "figures" from the top of the list and brows away.

You probably find under "Poser" Sydney, just double click on her and wait untill she loads onto your screen.

In case you cant work it out and you deleted Simon from your screen, just restart the prog and he is back

"edit"
Take a look at the excelent tutorials from DrGeep here

Oh wow!  Thank you so so much!  Now that I know how to do it I'll spend hours playing around in Poser!  Thank you!

You may find that if you click the Poser menu Window > Quick Start it will help to give you an initial over view of how to use the program.

Quote - The library might fold away. On the right hand side of the screen should be a tab in the middle. Click on it and the libray opens. On top you can select which part of the library is shown. Choose the figures.

Thank you so so much!

Quote - Make sure library is checked under your window menu,if you still dont see it look to the very right of your screen (your right,left from the screens perspective) you should see a little handle click it, your library should appear

Thank you!  I can see it now!  :biggrin:

Quote - See the attached photo

Thank you so so much!  I'll have a play around now and see what I can come up with!

Have fun

Under "props" you find clothes, be shure to use the right cloth for the right figure..or they wont fit.
If the clothes are "conforming", select the clothes and go to "figures" pulldown, than click "conform to" and choose your figure.
If they are "props", go to the "object" pulldown and click on "choose parent" and select the body part they belong to.
Same go's for the hair.

If you run into more questions, dont hold back to ask them here.

After all, there are no stupid questions, only stupid answers

Edit,
I recently went throu the whole "just started" thingy myself so I am still learning to.
There might be better way's than I do things, but at least it gives you something to start playing with :laugh:

mandy2uk -

Runtimes are the the folders in which Poser content gets organised on your computer.  Poser understands those as part of its library, which you can browse using the pull-out drawer on the right-hand side of the Poser interface.
 

Quote - Have fun

Under "props" you find clothes, be shure to use the right cloth for the right figure..or they wont fit.
If the clothes are "conforming", select the clothes and go to "figures" pulldown, than click "conform to" and choose your figure.
If they are "props", go to the "object" pulldown and click on "choose parent" and select the body part they belong to.
Same go's for the hair.

If you run into more questions, dont hold back to ask them here.

After all, there are no stupid questions, only stupid answers

Edit,
I recently went throu the whole "just started" thingy myself so I am still learning to.
There might be better way's than I do things, but at least it gives you something to start playing with :laugh:

Thank you so so much!  Now that I know how to get a female up I'm going to have lots of fun!

Another daft question (make that several), coming up!

How do you get the camera away from the face and onto the whole body?
How do you grow hair?
How do you put glasses on the figure?
How do you save the figure as a .jpg or .gif?

Sorry!

Here is an essay of information that I have been compiling which is geared to the brand new user. **It has links for free characters, tips on clothing, file organization, newbie tutorials etc.
**
V3, M3  and Aiko are free.  3D Models Pack  Free from Daz at Download.com

You just need the morphs packages to change their shape. 

A picture to show you the file structure of a Poser Runtime can be found here:

http://www.daz3d.com/support/faq/index.php?id=94

Basically, what it boils down to in a nutshell:

If you are looking for a Character or a piece of clothing/shoes, in Poser you will find them in libraries/character. These files have the extension cr2 (uncompressed) and c2z (compressed)

If you are looking for hair, you will find them in either library/character/hair OR library/hair

If you are looking for character texture addons, hair textures, clothing textures, you will find them in library/poses. These files have the extension pz2 (uncompressed) and p2z (compressed). Sometimes on the rare occasion, a merchant will package their textures so that they go into the "Camera" folder (.cm2 files). If that is the case then you can either apply them from there, or do what I do and change the file extension to .pz2

If you are looking for props, they are located in library/props. These files have the extension pp2 (uncompressed) and ppz (compressed)

Sometimes you will find clothing and hair or shoes in library/props too, depending on whether the item is actually created and saved as a figure, or it was created and saved as a prop.

Figure (cr2) items like hair and clothing are "conformed". Figure items like wings are "parented"

Props are parented. Some props that are made for a specific figure will seem to go where they are supposed to and "stick" without you having to do anything. Those are called "smart props". You can use those on other figures, but you have to use the XYZ trans dials to place it where it belongs on the different figure. Then you need to parent the item to that new figure's body part.

If you are just starting, it's best to get started on the right foot. DO NOT just install files into the runtime! That will only lead to frustration because you won't be able to find anything, and not all files are packaged equally and land up all over the place.

Here is a link to a tutorial on using multiple runtimes.

http://forum.daz3d.com/viewtopic.php?t=9060&start=0

http://www.drgeep.com/p5/run/run.htm

Another tip is to never just unzip or install anything directly to your runtime. Always unzip or install to a separate folder. Then browse through the folder to have a look at the structure of where things are going and make sure that it's in "proper runtime structure" so that when you move it to the runtime, they get into the proper folders.

Once you get your files installed, the next thing you want to do is to start making things :)

Here are some great newbie tutorials that will get you through the bare basics. They are for Poser 5, but it is still the same in newer versions:

http://trekkiegrrrl.dk/tut1.htm

http://www.poserguide.nimprodaction.com/issues/issue2/cover.htm

http://www.poserguide.nimprodaction.com/issues/issue3/cover.htm

http://www.poserguide.nimprodaction.com/

http://www.canary3d.com/tutorial/3d-intro.htm

http://www.ebonshire.net/tut-posb/index.php

http://www.cooltuna.com/poser/poser-tutorials.html

Dr. Geep Studios ( Basic to Advanced Tutorials. Periodically offers free classes for Poser)

http://www.anniescorner.net/posertuts/GettingStartedinPoser5.htm

Getting Started in Poser

If you don't have the Daz  V3 or the V4 figure, you should pick one or both. I'd personally suggest that you go with the V3 one as it's been around for years and there is a TON of freebies around for her, as well as a TON of stuff in the various Poser stores.  It will be a couple of years before V4 catches up with clothing content and stuff, especially FREE stuff  and  V3 stuff won't work on V4 because they are different figures. There are work arounds to getting clothing from a figure to fit another figure. I've included information on that further down. 

Victoria 3

3D Models Pack  Free from Daz at Download.com

Victoria 4

But if you want to change the look of her face and body, or use any of the available character addon packages, you need to buy the head and body morphs.

The V3 head and body morphs are here:

http://www.daz3d.com/shop.php?op=itemdetails&item=3008

There is also "Michael 3".  He is available free at the link above at download.com.  Again, like Vicky, you need the head and body morphs to change the shape of his head and body. Those can be found here:

http://www.daz3d.com/shop.php?op=itemdetails&item=3009

If you have both figures, you can get both of their head and body morphs in one package, here:

http://www.daz3d.com/shop.php?op=itemdetails&item=3010

NOTE:  You can use the textures from the character addon packages without having the head/body morphs. 

If you want to change the look of the head/body and have the head/body morphs, do the following:

Install the head and body morphs. 

Locate the morphs you want to use in the "Poses" folder.

Find the set of morphs you want to inject IE:  Full Body, Full Head.... or just certain parts. 

Left  click the picture

Click the Single Checkmark at the bottom of the page.

Go to your Parameter Dials and start turning dials.  (make sure that you have the part of the body you want to adjust as the active one IE:  Morphing the ears, make sure you have the had selected.

Also, you can find many, many free morphs and textures for Vicky, and Aiko, and some even for David and Michael.  So you don't have to turn any dials if you don't want to.  Here are a couple links to get you started.

http://www.renderosity.com/mod/freestuff/index.php?user_id=55140

http://www.renderosity.com/mod/freestuff/index.php?user_id=178490

http://www.renderosity.com/mod/freestuff/index.php?user_id=105158

Using ready made character addons is pretty easy.   You need to have the figure and it's head and body morph packages installed.

Load up the figure IE: Vicky

Go to the Poses folder, and instead of looking for your morphs from the packages, look for th character you want to use.  Left click the image that has INJ, click the SINGLE checkmark at the bottom and the morphs for that character's look is injected into your figure.  No dial turning necessary.  Of course if you want to tweak the settings you can, but that's not mandatory.

Next locate the textures (if the package has some). They will be usually in the same library menu as your INJ that you used.   Left click the image for the texture and use the SINGLE checkmark to apply it.  If you don't like that texture, apply another one overtop. 

You can even use a texture from another package.  IE: Morphs from package A  and textures from package C.  Or morphs from packag A, texture from package C, eyes from package D, lips from package E.  the combinations are endless :)  If the packages have their head morphs seprate from the body ones, you can mix and match morphs too. IE: body morphs from package A with head morph from package D.  That allows for even more versatility.

There are lots of sites out there that has free V3 character addons, and some that have for Aiko, Michael and even David.

Hair, clothing and textures are all figure/item specific, which means:

Michael 3.0 needs hair and clothing and textures made for Michael 3.0
Victoria 4.0 needs hair and clothing and textures made for Victoria 4.0
Victoria 3.0 needs hair and clothing and textures made for Victoria 3.0
Victoria 2.0 needs hair and clothing and textures made for Victoria 2.0
Aiko needs hair and clothing and textures made for her.

Like figures, a texture made for one hair style can only be used on that hair style.

Clothing is also specific when it comes to textures. A texture for a pair of pants, won't fit all pants... just the pants that it was made to fit. Same with all clothing items.

Sometimes you can manage to  clothing item to fit another figure by tweaking of dials and increasing or decreasing the scale percent, but that doesn't always work. Sometimes a clothing item for Victoria 2 will fit Victoria 3, but their joints are different so posing a figure wearing clothing not made for it specifically will be hard.

Some figures can share items more easily than others, here is a link that will help sort that out:
http://market.renderosity.com/mod/forumpro/showthread.php?message_id=2682279

There are 3 types of clothing:

Dynamic:  This is clothing that you use inside the Cloth room. It takes longer to work with and there is a bit of a learning curve, but it's not too bad, but the results are more appealing in that the clothing actually looks more natural instead of "posed and stiff".  I have included information about this type of clothing further down.

Confroming- Non Morphing:  This is clothing that you conform to a figure. The clothing is made to fit the base figure.  If you change the shape of the figure you will also have to refit the clothing, which isn't always easy if there aren't any corresponding body morphs in the clothing.  Plus posing a character in positions where they are not nearly upright is difficult.  But many prefer this type of clothing over dynamic.

Conforming-Morphing: This is the same as conforming-non morphing, only there are morph dials that you can turn that have corresponding body morphs for easier fitting.  This is the preferred type of conforming clothing because it's easier to fit.

Using a clothing item on a figure that it is meant to be used on, after you have added morphs and adjusted the shape of the body,  can be problematic because the clothes are made for the default figure shape and not the new morphed up shape. So the clothing no longer fits and you get parts of the body showing through the clothing after you add morphs and change the shape of the body.

There are programs that can help fit clothing from one figure to another, or even from the same figure to one that has been "morphed up" using their morph packages.

The Tailor, which can be bought here:
http://www.daz3d.com/shop.php?op=itemdetails&item=677

Wardrobe Wizard (I use this one and it's great). It can be purchased from PhilC's site here:
http://www.philc.net/WardrobeWizard.htm

Clothes Converter, which can be bought here:
http://www.daz3d.com/shop.php?op=itemdetails&item=3069&cat=131

Things like hair can be used across all figures just by tweaking the scaling and trans dials and then parenting the hair to the figure.

Poses are something else that can be used across most human-like figures with just a bit of tweaking to dig out a hand, or fix a shoulder.

Dynamic Clothing (more information):

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

These are all things I learned along the way and found to be valuable, so I try to pass them along because I know how frustrated I was when I first got Poser.  Hopefully you will find the information helpful.

So far as organization goes...

You have 2 options that can help you with organizing and being able to find things:

1.  Create sub folders inside the library folders.

You can move around the files inside the library sub folders. 

Don't move, touch or rename files or folders  in the top level of the library folder that carry the name of the merchants, or the "Morph" or the !DAZ  folder because those are morphs and need to stay where they are.

Just work with the standard ones inside the Library folder such as camera, faces, hand, pose, props, hair, lighting, character. 

Leave the files inside the geometries and texture folders alone.

Right now you have a hodge podge of files for various figures in each folder plus props, poses, lights etc.

Open the character folder and create sub folders for each of your figures IE: V3, V4, M3, D3, Aiko, Apollo etc.  Do the same for each of the other library sub folders.  You can also create other folders too, such as "Poses" or "Props" or "Backgrounds" or "Hair" etc.

Then go through your files in each of the library subfolders and move them into the appropriate folder for the figure they belong.

Things like lights, and poses and hair and props are universal items really, and can be used across figure, so I like to have those separated instead of filed by "figure" because I often use V3 poses on Aiko and hair for Posette on V3 etc.

You will run into a problem for items that are for more than one figure. Like where do you file those?  For exxample an outfit that is for V3 and M3 and Aiko and SP3: where do you file them? If you put them in the V3 folder, then you forget that they can be used for M3 and Aiko and SP3 too. It was this complication that prompted me to move onto using external runtimes (described below).

I did it this way at one time and it worked well enough,well except for items that could be used on a few figures like I described above.   I decided I wanted even more organization, and I didn't like having one huge runtime because it was impossible to really burn it to a CD/DVD without having to break it into bits and pieces.  Plus it took Poser forever to load because the runtime was so big.  So I tried option 2 below.

**2. Multiple External Runtimes
**
It's important to understand that a runtime is a runtime is a runtime no matter where on your hard drive or external hard drive it sits. 

All an external runtime is, is a runtime that is not inside the Poser folder.

All "multiple external runtimes" mean is that you have more than one runtime sitting outside the Poser folder. They all have the same folder structure as the main runtime in your Poser folder.  I have 42 at last count and I  know exactly what is inside each one and I know where to look for files.

Another nice thing about external runtimes is that you can have specialty runtimes for various holidays such as Christmas or Halloween or different themes that you like to use sometimes but not everyday. The benefit of this is that the runtime is often small enough that you can burn it to a couple CD's or a DVD and save yourself some hard drive space instead of having stuff on your hard drive that you only use once or twice a year. The following is the link where I learned to create and use external runtimes. When I was trying to do it I was really confused about the concept but I eventually caught on and now I won't ever go back to using just one runtime.

http://forum.daz3d.com/viewtopic.php?t=9060&highlight=runtime

Some of the runtimes that I have are:

V3 Character addons (includes the V3 figure and her morphs)
V3 Clothing
M3 Character Addons (includes the M3 figure and his morphs)
M3 Clothing
Aiko
Christmas
Halloween
Angels and Faeries
Mermaids
Millennium Kids
Backgrounds and Environments
Props
Poses
Hair
Lighting
etc. etc. etc.

I like knowing that when I want to add some hair, that all I have to do is go to my "Hair" runtime and all of my hair files are inside. If I want a prop, then I go to the "Props" folder.

If I want to make a mermaid, I go to my "V3 Character" runtime and load V3, apply a MAT POSE and morphs. Go to "Hair" runtime and find a hair figure/prop that I want to use. Go to "Mermaids" folder and load up my mermaid tail and textures and anything else mermaid related including mermaid poses. Go to "Lights" and find a nice set of lights that fit my scene and then render. 

I know some don't like to go runtime to runtime, but I find that having so many runtimes that each one isn't gargantuan and doesn't take very long to load. And  as I said I love to know where I can find things directly without having to search through unrelated stuff. If I am looking for V3 clothing, that's all I want to see. I don't want to wade through M3 and Aiko things or Poses and Hair etc.

Setting up an external runtime is easy.

1. Create a new folder;
2. Name it whatever you like IE: V3 Character Addons;
3. Open folder;
4. Create new folder called "Runtime";
5. Right click and create a new text file. Change the name to "Poser.exe". Accept the warning that changing the file format etc.  You want to change it.
6. Create a new folder called "Readmes". Use this to place all of your readme files for easy reference.
7. Create a new folder called "Templates". If you do texturing you can place the  texture templates that come with some packages in there. Or you can just delete them if texturing is not you thing. In that case you won't need a "templates" folder.
8. Open "Runtime"
9. Create the following folders inside "Runtime"

• Geometries
• Libraries
• Reflection Maps
• Textures

That's it, your done.  Copy this structure for as many runtimes as you want to create and rename them to whatever you want your runtimes to be called.

Your runtime paths will then be something like this:

Runtime Folders V3 Clothing Runtime
Runtime Folders M3 Characters Runtime
Runtime Folders Halloween Runtime
Runtime Folders Christmas Runtime

You can place your runtimes anywhere you like. On my old computer I had them inside "My Documents" on my C Drive in a folder called "My Runtimes".

On my new computer I have them on my partitioned D Drive in a folder called "Poser Runtimes", and I back them up on my G External Drive..

You might also read my post in the following thread on how to further organize your multiple runtimes using naming continuity so that you know what belongs with what as you go from folder to folder in your library.

http://www.renderosity.com/mod/forumpro/showthread.php?thread_id=2704637&page=1#message_3024920

Now your abusing the forum. Everyone here is only too glad to help. But, as I said, if your going to use Poser with any success your going to have to read the instructions

Quote - Now your abusing the forum. Everyone here is only too glad to help. But, as I said, if your going to use Poser with any success your going to have to read the instructions

Please don't say that :( Not evenyone learns the same.  I read the manual from front to back and it didn't cover premade products like you buy or how to get them from the library on to the figure.

I spent 6 months frustrated to the point of tears until VooDoo over at Daz got me into ICQ and walked me through the process.

I don't consider myself a stupid person. I have an IQ that is considerably above average, but there are some things that I just can't get my brain to wrap around, and computer stuff and poser are some of those.

That's why I put together the essay of information to help those who have a hard time learning Poser. I don't want anyone to feel the way I felt when I first started to use poser.  It's not an easy program to learn to use. It has a very steep learning curve, especially once you try to get beyond "dress up dolly" type scenes.

Blimey!  I'm going to print this off and slowly work my way through it... thank you so so much!

Quote - Here is an essay of information that I have been compiling which is geared to the brand new user. **It has links for free characters, tips on clothing, file organization, newbie tutorials etc.
**
V3, M3  and Aiko are free.  3D Models Pack  Free from Daz at Download.com

You just need the morphs packages to change their shape. 

A picture to show you the file structure of a Poser Runtime can be found here:

http://www.daz3d.com/support/faq/index.php?id=94

Basically, what it boils down to in a nutshell:

If you are looking for a Character or a piece of clothing/shoes, in Poser you will find them in libraries/character. These files have the extension cr2 (uncompressed) and c2z (compressed)

If you are looking for hair, you will find them in either library/character/hair OR library/hair

If you are looking for character texture addons, hair textures, clothing textures, you will find them in library/poses. These files have the extension pz2 (uncompressed) and p2z (compressed). Sometimes on the rare occasion, a merchant will package their textures so that they go into the "Camera" folder (.cm2 files). If that is the case then you can either apply them from there, or do what I do and change the file extension to .pz2

If you are looking for props, they are located in library/props. These files have the extension pp2 (uncompressed) and ppz (compressed)

Sometimes you will find clothing and hair or shoes in library/props too, depending on whether the item is actually created and saved as a figure, or it was created and saved as a prop.

Figure (cr2) items like hair and clothing are "conformed". Figure items like wings are "parented"

Props are parented. Some props that are made for a specific figure will seem to go where they are supposed to and "stick" without you having to do anything. Those are called "smart props". You can use those on other figures, but you have to use the XYZ trans dials to place it where it belongs on the different figure. Then you need to parent the item to that new figure's body part.

If you are just starting, it's best to get started on the right foot. DO NOT just install files into the runtime! That will only lead to frustration because you won't be able to find anything, and not all files are packaged equally and land up all over the place.

Here is a link to a tutorial on using multiple runtimes.

http://forum.daz3d.com/viewtopic.php?t=9060&start=0

http://www.drgeep.com/p5/run/run.htm

Another tip is to never just unzip or install anything directly to your runtime. Always unzip or install to a separate folder. Then browse through the folder to have a look at the structure of where things are going and make sure that it's in "proper runtime structure" so that when you move it to the runtime, they get into the proper folders.

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Once you get your files installed, the next thing you want to do is to start making things :)

Here are some great newbie tutorials that will get you through the bare basics. They are for Poser 5, but it is still the same in newer versions:

http://trekkiegrrrl.dk/tut1.htm

http://www.poserguide.nimprodaction.com/issues/issue2/cover.htm

http://www.poserguide.nimprodaction.com/issues/issue3/cover.htm

http://www.poserguide.nimprodaction.com/

http://www.canary3d.com/tutorial/3d-intro.htm

http://www.ebonshire.net/tut-posb/index.php

http://www.cooltuna.com/poser/poser-tutorials.html

Dr. Geep Studios ( Basic to Advanced Tutorials. Periodically offers free classes for Poser)

http://www.anniescorner.net/posertuts/GettingStartedinPoser5.htm

Getting Started in Poser

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If you don't have the Daz  V3 or the V4 figure, you should pick one or both. I'd personally suggest that you go with the V3 one as it's been around for years and there is a TON of freebies around for her, as well as a TON of stuff in the various Poser stores.  It will be a couple of years before V4 catches up with clothing content and stuff, especially FREE stuff  and  V3 stuff won't work on V4 because they are different figures. There are work arounds to getting clothing from a figure to fit another figure. I've included information on that further down. 

Victoria 3

3D Models Pack  Free from Daz at Download.com

Victoria 4

But if you want to change the look of her face and body, or use any of the available character addon packages, you need to buy the head and body morphs.

The V3 head and body morphs are here:

http://www.daz3d.com/shop.php?op=itemdetails&item=3008

There is also "Michael 3".  He is available free at the link above at download.com.  Again, like Vicky, you need the head and body morphs to change the shape of his head and body. Those can be found here:

http://www.daz3d.com/shop.php?op=itemdetails&item=3009

If you have both figures, you can get both of their head and body morphs in one package, here:

http://www.daz3d.com/shop.php?op=itemdetails&item=3010

NOTE:  You can use the textures from the character addon packages without having the head/body morphs. 

If you want to change the look of the head/body and have the head/body morphs, do the following:

Install the head and body morphs. 

Locate the morphs you want to use in the "Poses" folder.

Find the set of morphs you want to inject IE:  Full Body, Full Head.... or just certain parts. 

Left  click the picture

Click the Single Checkmark at the bottom of the page.

Go to your Parameter Dials and start turning dials.  (make sure that you have the part of the body you want to adjust as the active one IE:  Morphing the ears, make sure you have the had selected.

Also, you can find many, many free morphs and textures for Vicky, and Aiko, and some even for David and Michael.  So you don't have to turn any dials if you don't want to.  Here are a couple links to get you started.

http://www.renderosity.com/mod/freestuff/index.php?user_id=55140

http://www.renderosity.com/mod/freestuff/index.php?user_id=178490

http://www.renderosity.com/mod/freestuff/index.php?user_id=105158

Using ready made character addons is pretty easy.   You need to have the figure and it's head and body morph packages installed.

Load up the figure IE: Vicky

Go to the Poses folder, and instead of looking for your morphs from the packages, look for th character you want to use.  Left click the image that has INJ, click the SINGLE checkmark at the bottom and the morphs for that character's look is injected into your figure.  No dial turning necessary.  Of course if you want to tweak the settings you can, but that's not mandatory.

Next locate the textures (if the package has some). They will be usually in the same library menu as your INJ that you used.   Left click the image for the texture and use the SINGLE checkmark to apply it.  If you don't like that texture, apply another one overtop. 

You can even use a texture from another package.  IE: Morphs from package A  and textures from package C.  Or morphs from packag A, texture from package C, eyes from package D, lips from package E.  the combinations are endless :)  If the packages have their head morphs seprate from the body ones, you can mix and match morphs too. IE: body morphs from package A with head morph from package D.  That allows for even more versatility.

There are lots of sites out there that has free V3 character addons, and some that have for Aiko, Michael and even David.

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Hair, clothing and textures are all figure/item specific, which means:

Michael 3.0 needs hair and clothing and textures made for Michael 3.0
Victoria 4.0 needs hair and clothing and textures made for Victoria 4.0
Victoria 3.0 needs hair and clothing and textures made for Victoria 3.0
Victoria 2.0 needs hair and clothing and textures made for Victoria 2.0
Aiko needs hair and clothing and textures made for her.

Like figures, a texture made for one hair style can only be used on that hair style.

Clothing is also specific when it comes to textures. A texture for a pair of pants, won't fit all pants... just the pants that it was made to fit. Same with all clothing items.

Sometimes you can manage to  clothing item to fit another figure by tweaking of dials and increasing or decreasing the scale percent, but that doesn't always work. Sometimes a clothing item for Victoria 2 will fit Victoria 3, but their joints are different so posing a figure wearing clothing not made for it specifically will be hard.

Some figures can share items more easily than others, here is a link that will help sort that out:
http://market.renderosity.com/mod/forumpro/showthread.php?message_id=2682279

There are 3 types of clothing:

Dynamic:  This is clothing that you use inside the Cloth room. It takes longer to work with and there is a bit of a learning curve, but it's not too bad, but the results are more appealing in that the clothing actually looks more natural instead of "posed and stiff".  I have included information about this type of clothing further down.

Confroming- Non Morphing:  This is clothing that you conform to a figure. The clothing is made to fit the base figure.  If you change the shape of the figure you will also have to refit the clothing, which isn't always easy if there aren't any corresponding body morphs in the clothing.  Plus posing a character in positions where they are not nearly upright is difficult.  But many prefer this type of clothing over dynamic.

Conforming-Morphing: This is the same as conforming-non morphing, only there are morph dials that you can turn that have corresponding body morphs for easier fitting.  This is the preferred type of conforming clothing because it's easier to fit.

Using a clothing item on a figure that it is meant to be used on, after you have added morphs and adjusted the shape of the body,  can be problematic because the clothes are made for the default figure shape and not the new morphed up shape. So the clothing no longer fits and you get parts of the body showing through the clothing after you add morphs and change the shape of the body.

There are programs that can help fit clothing from one figure to another, or even from the same figure to one that has been "morphed up" using their morph packages.

The Tailor, which can be bought here:
http://www.daz3d.com/shop.php?op=itemdetails&item=677

Wardrobe Wizard (I use this one and it's great). It can be purchased from PhilC's site here:
http://www.philc.net/WardrobeWizard.htm

Clothes Converter, which can be bought here:
http://www.daz3d.com/shop.php?op=itemdetails&item=3069&cat=131

Things like hair can be used across all figures just by tweaking the scaling and trans dials and then parenting the hair to the figure.

Poses are something else that can be used across most human-like figures with just a bit of tweaking to dig out a hand, or fix a shoulder.

Dynamic Clothing (more information):

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=svdlhttp://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

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These are all things I learned along the way and found to be valuable, so I try to pass them along because I know how frustrated I was when I first got Poser.  Hopefully you will find the information helpful.

So far as organization goes...

You have 2 options that can help you with organizing and being able to find things:

1.  Create sub folders inside the library folders.

You can move around the files inside the library sub folders. 

Don't move, touch or rename files or folders  in the top level of the library folder that carry the name of the merchants, or the "Morph" or the !DAZ  folder because those are morphs and need to stay where they are.

Just work with the standard ones inside the Library folder such as camera, faces, hand, pose, props, hair, lighting, character. 

Leave the files inside the geometries and texture folders alone.

Right now you have a hodge podge of files for various figures in each folder plus props, poses, lights etc.

Open the character folder and create sub folders for each of your figures IE: V3, V4, M3, D3, Aiko, Apollo etc.  Do the same for each of the other library sub folders.  You can also create other folders too, such as "Poses" or "Props" or "Backgrounds" or "Hair" etc.

Then go through your files in each of the library subfolders and move them into the appropriate folder for the figure they belong.

Things like lights, and poses and hair and props are universal items really, and can be used across figure, so I like to have those separated instead of filed by "figure" because I often use V3 poses on Aiko and hair for Posette on V3 etc.

You will run into a problem for items that are for more than one figure. Like where do you file those?  For exxample an outfit that is for V3 and M3 and Aiko and SP3: where do you file them? If you put them in the V3 folder, then you forget that they can be used for M3 and Aiko and SP3 too. It was this complication that prompted me to move onto using external runtimes (described below).

I did it this way at one time and it worked well enough,well except for items that could be used on a few figures like I described above.   I decided I wanted even more organization, and I didn't like having one huge runtime because it was impossible to really burn it to a CD/DVD without having to break it into bits and pieces.  Plus it took Poser forever to load because the runtime was so big.  So I tried option 2 below.

**2. Multiple External Runtimes
**
It's important to understand that a runtime is a runtime is a runtime no matter where on your hard drive or external hard drive it sits. 

All an external runtime is, is a runtime that is not inside the Poser folder.

All "multiple external runtimes" mean is that you have more than one runtime sitting outside the Poser folder. They all have the same folder structure as the main runtime in your Poser folder.  I have 42 at last count and I  know exactly what is inside each one and I know where to look for files.

Another nice thing about external runtimes is that you can have specialty runtimes for various holidays such as Christmas or Halloween or different themes that you like to use sometimes but not everyday. The benefit of this is that the runtime is often small enough that you can burn it to a couple CD's or a DVD and save yourself some hard drive space instead of having stuff on your hard drive that you only use once or twice a year. The following is the link where I learned to create and use external runtimes. When I was trying to do it I was really confused about the concept but I eventually caught on and now I won't ever go back to using just one runtime.

http://forum.daz3d.com/viewtopic.php?t=9060&highlight=runtime

Some of the runtimes that I have are:

V3 Character addons (includes the V3 figure and her morphs)
V3 Clothing
M3 Character Addons (includes the M3 figure and his morphs)
M3 Clothing
Aiko
Christmas
Halloween
Angels and Faeries
Mermaids
Millennium Kids
Backgrounds and Environments
Props
Poses
Hair
Lighting
etc. etc. etc.

I like knowing that when I want to add some hair, that all I have to do is go to my "Hair" runtime and all of my hair files are inside. If I want a prop, then I go to the "Props" folder.

If I want to make a mermaid, I go to my "V3 Character" runtime and load V3, apply a MAT POSE and morphs. Go to "Hair" runtime and find a hair figure/prop that I want to use. Go to "Mermaids" folder and load up my mermaid tail and textures and anything else mermaid related including mermaid poses. Go to "Lights" and find a nice set of lights that fit my scene and then render. 

I know some don't like to go runtime to runtime, but I find that having so many runtimes that each one isn't gargantuan and doesn't take very long to load. And  as I said I love to know where I can find things directly without having to search through unrelated stuff. If I am looking for V3 clothing, that's all I want to see. I don't want to wade through M3 and Aiko things or Poses and Hair etc.

Setting up an external runtime is easy.

1. Create a new folder;
2. Name it whatever you like IE: V3 Character Addons;
3. Open folder;
4. Create new folder called "Runtime";
5. Right click and create a new text file. Change the name to "Poser.exe". Accept the warning that changing the file format etc.  You want to change it.
6. Create a new folder called "Readmes". Use this to place all of your readme files for easy reference.
7. Create a new folder called "Templates". If you do texturing you can place the  texture templates that come with some packages in there. Or you can just delete them if texturing is not you thing. In that case you won't need a "templates" folder.
8. Open "Runtime"
9. Create the following folders inside "Runtime"

• Geometries
• Libraries
• Reflection Maps
• Textures

That's it, your done.  Copy this structure for as many runtimes as you want to create and rename them to whatever you want your runtimes to be called.

Your runtime paths will then be something like this:

Runtime Folders V3 Clothing Runtime
Runtime Folders M3 Characters Runtime
Runtime Folders Halloween Runtime
Runtime Folders Christmas Runtime

You can place your runtimes anywhere you like. On my old computer I had them inside "My Documents" on my C Drive in a folder called "My Runtimes".

On my new computer I have them on my partitioned D Drive in a folder called "Poser Runtimes", and I back them up on my G External Drive..

You might also read my post in the following thread on how to further organize your multiple runtimes using naming continuity so that you know what belongs with what as you go from folder to folder in your library.

http://www.renderosity.com/mod/forumpro/showthread.php?thread_id=2704637&page=1#message_3024920

Quote - Now your abusing the forum. Everyone here is only too glad to help. But, as I said, if your going to use Poser with any success your going to have to read the instructions

I've read the instructions that came in the box 3 times and I just got more and more confused and someone in an online community suggested I posted in here for advice and in 5 hours here I've learnt more than reading the instructions so thank you to everyone!!  :biggrin:

Sorry I was not trying to be rude.

Quote - Sorry I was not trying to be rude.

Thank you!  I didn't mean to sound like I was having a go at you or anything, I just didn't realise how big Poser was when I bought it and the in-box instructions just confused me even more but thanks to you and the other bods in here I can slowly learn how to use it 

Thank you, I guess I'm getting old and cranky.
Please have fun and enjoy yourself!

Quote - Thank you, I guess I'm getting old and cranky.
Please have fun and enjoy yourself!

I'm really enjoying playing with Poser now thanks to everyone in here who answered my dumbo questions!

Told you you'd get some answers here didn't I :biggrin:

Quote - I'm really enjoying playing with Poser now thanks to everyone in here who answered my dumbo questions!

As I sayd before, there are no dumb questions, only dumb answers

Good to hear you get things going, and welcome to the amazing and helpfull world of the Poserholic community  :laugh:

And to Acadia, holy marbles and a bag to hold them.
I am everytime amazed by the HUGE amount of links and info you are able to come with.
And even in such a short notice.

Hat's off   :thumbupboth:

Quote - I am everytime amazed by the HUGE amount of links and info you are able to come with.
And even in such a short notice.

Hat's off   :thumbupboth:

Copy/paste and bookmarks are a wonderful thing, hehe