3DNeo opened this issue on Jun 06, 2008 ยท 557 posts
svdl posted Sat, 07 June 2008 at 9:56 AM
As for technology, Poser and D|S are more or less "end of life" applications. Polygonal is fine for hobbyists, but as has been noted several times before, high end professional apps use Sub-D.
By the way, the Shrek example could use some elaboration. "Shrek" was not a single multipurpose figure, like the Poser figures are, "Shrek" consists of multiple figures, each with a specific purpose in mind. One figure for closeup partial or full body shots, rigged and detailed, possibly with strand based hair and dynamic cloth. One figure for mid to long range animated shots, Sub-D based with a low poly control cage. One figure for head shots, highly detailed, loaded with morphs for expressions and phonemes. Possibly separate figures for separate camera angles.
In the high end CG industry, there's no "one size fits all" solution.
What does this mean Poser-wise? Simply this: Poser is NOT a high end application. It is NOT targeted at the high end CG industry. And frankly, there's no room for it either.
Poser's strength (and that of D|S) is the enormous amount of cheap content. The high end CG industry doesn't use prebuilt characters, for each production a new set of unique characters is developed. So the Poser content is of little value in the high end industry.
Animation? MotionBuilder and similar apps beats the crap out of Poser when it comes to animation. And why try for an animation suite as complete as MotionBuilder? Not that many market opportunities there, it's pretty well filled.
So, as far as I can see, there simply is no room for Poser in the high end market. That also means that creating a high end Poser would be a waste of time and money.
Poser and D|S (and the upcoming FAST project) are aimed at the hobbyist and low budget market. It doesn't benefit from the latest and greatest tech, but it would benefit from ease of use, decent capabilities, and integration with midrange products like Carrara and Vue.
The pen is mightier than the sword. But if you literally want to have some impact, use a typewriter