Quote - After seeing the 2 videos linked here, Dead Fantasy 1 and 2...

http://montyoum.gametrailers.com/gamepad/?action=viewblog&id=173883

http://montyoum.gametrailers.com/gamepad/?action=viewblog&id=270168

After watching this, I quickly came to realize that an old project I had in the back of my mind for a long time may now actually be feasible, and started doing some research on the software. But technical info on Poser is very limited, aside from the fact that it can do realistic animations with lifelike figures.

I have attempted to contact the creator directly, but I imagine it may be a very long time before he will ever respond to my queries, if ever. My message is probably the 10000th one asking the same questions. So, I turn to those who actually own the program and have explored all of its inner-workings. With the videos linked above in mind, these are the questions I have...

1. It has been stated in the FAQ for the films that they were done in Poser, but I'm taking a wild guess, assuming that's only for the animation portion. But then, it's been a long time since I've layed my fingers on Poser (the last time being College long ago, where just about the only thing it was good for was making kinemation to export to a different 3D program), so perhaps its come a much longer way than I thought since then. Is Poser the actual "final" renderer where everything (characters, 'interactive scenery', background) was brought together before going into post-production? Or is much less of what is seen actually rendered in Poser? And by that I mean besides the obvious things, like the obvious particle effects from Particle Illusion, and whatever post-production "cutting room floor" program was used. The answer to this one may very easily answer the other questions I have, because they're based on the assumption that in the FAQ, Monty Oum literally meant he used nothing but Poser.

2. Destroyable Objects: Is Poser capable of punching holes, and breaking structures apart, as seen in the videos in numerous places? Or are the objects "already broken" just waiting to be animated to fly apart at the appropriate time?

3. In a number of situations, characters are seen moving about on one object, leaping to a different one, and then proceeding to walk on that object, all the while the objects are spinning on three axes. Other examples include characters swinging from chains, or even each other. Is this all being done in Poser or is there something much more complex at work here?

4. There are a few things that simply look like something more 3D than 'Particle Illusion', and look rather advanced for Poser, such as the tornado, the "ice fog", Ayane's purple blade which not only extends, but appears to leave a planar trail behind it when its swung (rather than a particle trail), and the time spells (the clock animation, not the characters moving fast/slow). Particularly I'm interested in the possibility of planar effects, because my project requires the appearance of a massive energy beam of sorts which turns and twists through the air, leaving a trail behind it, almost like a ribbon or a flag in the wind.

Is there anyone out there who can answer some or all of these questions?

I'm not what you consider an expert but I have used Poser as part of my workflow for about seven years now.

Can Poser do the things you're asking about?  Alone, no.  With the help of third party apps/plugins, postwork and a good post production editor?  Yes.

Blowing up objects can be done with a python scrpit.  Ockham wrote and exploder script years ago and PhilC has one on his site. 

Walking, jumping, spinning balls can be done with Posers own animation tools.  If you need to add soft body mechanics there's PoserPhysics. 

3D particles can be done using Particles by Poseworks.  It uses sprites and or 3D objects and they can be animated.  The tornadoe and ice fog effect are doable with this plugin although it takes a lot of tweaking and time.   I don't know about the planar effect but it can to 3D particle trails that are animatable.