Can anyone advise whether Zbrush is a useful product for creating face and body morphs in Poser 4?

It's an excellent product for creating morphs for any version of Poser. Export the bodyparts from Poser as Morph Target OBJ's, load those OBJ's into ZBrush, morph them then export back out as a new OBJ for loading as a morph.

... though how you could justify buying Zbrush and not upgrading poser for to something far more recent and feature rich is beyond me.

I don't recall justifying anything. I just answered the guys question.

I didn't imply you did at all, but it seems odd that someone would use a poser application with so many missing features from 10 years ago, but then by a current stare of the art utilty to make morphs for poser content.

That said, while you can do amazing things with zbrush's defomation ability, I find a good stable modeler far better in most instances, because there are times you need to get down n dirty to the point level, which is problematic for zbrush users.

Most people I know use either a standalone modeler fo morphing, or start a morph in zbrush, and then finsh it in the modeler of their choice.

Well if he can find the Free version of Zbrush Pre- 2.0 he wouldn't have to pay anything for it.

Odds of that are about as slim as new Lost in Space episodes based off the feature film.. (snicker!)

Thank you LostinSpacemen. That's the simple and straightforward kind of answer I can use and am accustomed to on this forum.

As for Gareee's grauitous insertion, I do have Poser 5 and 6 but think they stink: ugly characters and hard to get along with -- probably a little like Gareee..

Now, now, folks, let's be nice ... life is far too short to quibble about trivia .... IMVHO.

cheers,
dr geep
;=]

P.S. re: P4, 5, and 6 ... P4 is nice ... P5 had some probs ... but after one gets used to P6 ... it rocks!
(again, IMVHO) ... ;=]

Quote - Thank you LostinSpacemen. That's the simple and straightforward kind of answer I can use and am accustomed to on this forum.

As for Gareee's grauitous insertion, I do have Poser 5 and 6 but think they stink: ugly characters and hard to get along with -- probably a little like Gareee..

Obviously you didn't read both my replies.. Zbrush is killer.. but is NOT a replacement for a modelling application in creating character morphs, and you'll either need a modeler as well, or just use a modeler instead of zbrush.

Most people find zbrush VERY difficult to learn.. the majority finally get the hang of it a year or two AFTER buying it.

As far as ugly characters the come with P5 and 6, you can buy characters for any version of poser, so you aren;t limited by the included content by ANY means.

But go ahead.. take the simple straight foreward advise, buy zbrush, and when you get the hang of it next year sometime, we'll be answering your questions again... ;)

(And for the record, LIS man and I are good freinds, poking at each other.. same with Dr Geep, some of who's tutorials will give you some morphing ability without spending a dime.)

Actually I've done all my morphs using Zbrush only. I started with Zbrush 1.3 or .5 something or other though. I've never done any morphing in other programs whatsoever. I've still got load's to learn in it though and that includes stuff like making open mouth morphs from closed mouths like with Clark 1.0.

Yep, we're friends and we both have a habit of poking the other. :tt2: For what it's worth, name calling is never appropriate.

Quote - Can anyone advise whether Zbrush is a useful product for creating face and body morphs in Poser 4?

If you;re still using Poser 4, You could also upgrade to P7, and use it's morph brushes to start with - before investing three times the amount of money into ZBrush.
At least that's what I would do.

All great info. Thanks. Sorry for the over-reaction, Gareee.

Quote - > Quote - Can anyone advise whether Zbrush is a useful product for creating face and body morphs in Poser 4?

If you;re still using Poser 4, You could also upgrade to P7, and use it's morph brushes to start with - before investing three times the amount of money into ZBrush.
At least that's what I would do.

I believe that's what Gareee was hinting at. The Poser 7 Morph Brush tool is a nice addition and can do some nice work. I have only used it  once since I have Zbrush already. For Full Body morphs it's a lot more work than Zbrush, but I doubt anyone is going to start right out making FBM's anyway. It is nice for the price plus upgrading gives you all the figures you've missed in between Poser 4 and Poser 7!

Thanks. I just find every Poser after 4 to be overly complicated, slow, and unfriendly. Fluidity has been reduced to painting-by-numbers. The characters seem to have morphed from well-proportioned and believable people to unattractive, multi-jointed dolls. It's as though the artists are gone and some Microsoft engineers have taken over. Again, though, many thanks to everybody for the time and thought.