I hear you but I can show you a thread at the Node Cult where somebody we didn't know came in, asked some questions, showed confusion, and when I started to explain as if this person knew nothing, he complained that the postings were overly didactic, and that some of the stuff was insulting, as if I thought he was a newb.

I run into this more often than I'd like, so I tend to be sensitive to it. I err on the side of assuming you know more, because when I assume the reader knows less, quite often the reader gets pissed at me.

What would I like to see in Tutorials?

1. Material Node trees and creating real world materials, glass with ior and metal

2. Rigging characters...including EYES (this step is always missed in tutorials)

3. Rigging clothing, not just shirts, but Armor, when you dont want the piece right next to it effecting the movement

4. Animation keys and pallet. Adjusting the motion inbetween keys not to look like a rag doll

5. hmmm, still thinking!

Quote - I
I run into this more often than I'd like, so I tend to be sensitive to it. I err on the side of assuming you know more, because when I assume the reader knows less, quite often the reader gets pissed at me.

I here you loud and clear on that one as well.

A bit of a doubled edged sword here.

If I am looking for new information I take no offense to starting at the beginning. After all I am the one asking for the instructor's time and knowledge.

No matter how you do it, i for one am a great fan and much appreciative of all the teaching you offer to the Poser Community.

I am having lots of fun with your IDL Hallway concept.

Cheers
DR

This may sound very very simplistic to many seasoned Poser Users.

I see this one all over the Poser forums:

"How do I Import Figure X,Y and Z into poser 8?"
I also see "How do I import my P5,P6 & P7 into Poser 8?"

When I see the word "Import" that appears to me as needing some help.

Definetly a concise section of "Poser External Runtimes" would be helpful to new users.

After explaining that in a NewsGroup one day i heard, Ohh!, thats what that plus (+) is used for.

With Daz's method of Installers looking for the Poser.exe file, mentioninf the use of the Daz Studio Option during installation would be nice.

Also PoserPro does not have a Poser.exe file, it has a PoserPro.exe file, my guess is PoserPro2010 will also have a PoserPro.exe file. This throws Daz Installers into a tailspin because they cannot find the Poser.exe file.

I would certainly like to see more on the Poser SetUp Room
Using a pre-exiting Skelton into the new object would be helpful. Such as with Clothing.
My guess is that a Figures clothes share the same skeleton as the Figure?????

cheers
DR

 Also PoserPro does not have a Poser.exe file, it has a PoserPro.exe file, my guess is PoserPro2010 will also have a PoserPro.exe file. This throws Daz Installers into a tailspin because they cannot find the Poser.exe file. <<

The best and easiest workaround for this issue is to select the "DAZ Studio" installation option in the DAZ installers. This installs ALL files in the pack, including the Poser files, without the need to point to a Poser.exe file.

Yeah, that's why Mariner said the DAZ Studio option should be mentioned.

Or you can just make a dummy Poser.exe file.

Quote - Yeah, that's why Mariner said the DAZ Studio option should be mentioned.

Or you can just make a dummy Poser.exe file.

Many Thanks
Yes that was my point.
I cannot count the number of times I have seen this question in various forums, including the Daz Forums.

Here's one:
Why are there black lines on some of the things I render?
Try turning off smooth polygons for the object.

There are some issues I would like to see addressed as well ...

I am working on a project where I need specific looks for the clothing I am using. Some of the items that I need have been purchased from reputable vendors, others not quite as well known.

I will not say who the vendors are, and I will not say what the products are. BUT I have found the following issues in some of the products that I have purchased:

(1) UV Mapping. Some products are UV mapped VERY VERY poorly, to the point that trying to create decent new textures for the object are nearly impossible without UV mapping the object all over again.

(2) SPLIT OBJ's.  If you try to UV map the object, you discover that the raw OBJ files are split apart at the groups. Some UV mapping programs will treat the individual groups as separate objects and split them apart on the UV map when automatically unfolding them. This isn't desirable, both for UV mapping, AND for morphing the clothing or figure in a third party application. OBJ files SHOULD be welded together at the groups, it makes for better morphing and rendering in the end product.

(3) Clothing that is saved in a non-zero pose, and with Inverse Kinematics turned on. REMOVE INVERSE KINEMATICS on clothing and zero the figure.

(4)  Earlier it was said that there isn't much you can do to make a bad pose. Ah, but there is. 8-)  Be careful of body transformations, including morphs that you don't want to include, and so on and so forth.

(5)  BONE GEOMETRY ... one of the products that I purchased was probably rigged in Poser's setup room. There is hip bone geometry in one of the actual OBJ files that SHOULD NOT be in there.

If I didn't know how to correct these issues, I probably would be returning some of these products.

In short, there are a lot of things on the content creation end of things that should be revisited and documented.

• making & using dynamic hair
• grouping a mesh and bone-rigging it (to make a posable figure)
• making a morph (such as a custom face) and saving it
• UV mapping:  junctures of tree limbs to trunk, for example

o.k., I'm encouraged by scanning the msgs in this thread that the free tutorials and bill's book will be applicable to poser 8 and earlier.   I was worried from reading other IDL threads that poser 8 was already obsolete and we all need to move on to PP2010, but apparently poser 6/7/8 users aren't out in the cold yet.

Quote - Bias is actually an isomorph of Pow. (See how I like to use the shorthand possible when everybody learns all the words?)

Bias(a, b) = Pow(a, Log(b) / Log(.5))

Thank you so much. I've been using Pow to modify transparency maps for a while, and it looks like Bias will be so much easier to use.

Dunno if it's been mentioned, but I'd like to tutorials on writing (poser-specific) Python scripts.

Some more beginner to intermediate tutorials that would be useful:

• Adding props to a figure's hand that aren't smartpropped. I tend to build an image by first posing figures and then adding clothing and props. I learned the hard way that it's a lot easier to save the file I'm working on, start a new one, load the default figure, put the prop in the figure's hand, and save it as a smart prop. Then the saved file can be reopened and loading the smartprop will put it in the posed figure's hand. It otherwise takes hours to try to move a prop into a posed figure's hand because of the awkwardness of moving a 3D object in a 2D interface.

• Similarly, tutorials on adding hair to characters they weren't designed for; and parenting two hands together (such as for a sword or baseball bat).

• Importing 3ds, dxf, lightwave, and obj and dealing with import issues and gimbal lock.

Good suggestions, on the list they go!

Thanks Deecey, I'll be looking forward to these.

I'd like to see:

Beginner:

• I'm not a beginner, but I am still using Poser 6 and have gotten a lot of mileage out of it. But I know I'll be going to Poser 2010 when it's available. Maybe some type of short-n-sweet to get users up to speed that may be upgrading from such an older version?
• Content / runtime management - for example how to deal with multiple runtimes so as to optimize speed and memory management. Would be awesome if there were specifics for filmmakers. :)

Intermediate/Advanced:

• Maybe a step-by-step on how to animate hair? :)
• using videos as backgrounds (and any greenscreen tips - I made some greenscreen and bluescreen backgrounds for DVD and HD resolution if you'd like to have them)
• animated materials
• batch rendering of movies or stills
• comparison of screen colors vs. print colors vs. video colors and how to get good results across all these mediums
• And definitely second cyberscape's request on render farm & hardware info.

Thanks!

How to change the point of origin of a prop. There are far to many props that, when you rotate them around an axis actually rotate a point well outside.

How to avoid "gimbal lock". Why, if something is vertical and facing you, you can't just rorate it onto its back and then 45 degrees to the left and get what you want.

Sorry everyone,but I have have come into this thread late.I would like to see a step by step video tutorial on how to animate a human figure from A to Z with no jerky movement. I have been using Poser since version 4 and I still cannot get it right.Also a video tutorial on how to render hi end animations.Cheers

A detailed list of the python methods available in Poser as well as the poser extensions to the language with examples of how these extensions are used. Any and all variables defined within Poser as well as they relate to python.

I don't ask for much. LOL

Quote - Sorry everyone,but I have have come into this thread late.I would like to see a step by step video tutorial on how to animate a human figure from A to Z with no jerky movement. I have been using Poser since version 4 and I still cannot get it right.Also a video tutorial on how to render hi end animations.Cheers

the best way that I have seen to do animation so as not to be jerky is to do a google search for free bvh(may have some wrong letters in there I'm tired) and download them. There is a guy in Japan that is making some really good ones. some are free some are for sale. They are not poser only though. you will have to ignore some of the body parts, but it don't affect the animation at all.