One of the charges I was given when they promoted me here at Rendo was to make the forum a more welcoming and useful place for the new Poser users. So much of the forum content is very technical, and geared to a few advanced users and the (sometimes) escoteric things they are doing. There's nothing wrong with this. This is the place to have those discussions.

With this thread, I wanted to open a dialogue between the new Poser users and those who, rather than create content, create renders. I would hope that we might let some of the more capable render artists help the new commers in getting their first successful renders off the ground.

Anyone with advice for the newbies?

Making Your System Easier (PP2012 - Should also work in P9)

Fed up of Andy the Robot appearing and having to delete him all the time?

Load up Poser.

Delete Andy out of the scene, by selecting his body and then pressing the Delete key and then OK.

Now.......

Select the Edit menu at the top of the screen.

Select the General Preferences option.

Select the Render Tab.

Change the amount of Max cached render to 1. You don't need all those cached renders.

Now back to the Document Tab.

Change the button to Launched to prefered state.

Use the Set preferted button.

Once you have finished, press the OK button to get rid of the General Preferences screen.

Exit out of Poser and reload it.

No more Andy and you can start with a nice clean screen.

All the best.

LROG

Two scripts you can't do without if your're running Poser 9/Poser Pro 2012 or later:

EZSkin - makes setting up SSS and Gamma control a snap.

SceneFixer - takes care of all the pesky settings in a scene to make it render rihgt using gamma control.

Both are free at: http://www.snarlygribbly.org/3d/forum/

Want To Load Up Characters With Morphs Already loaded?

This example is for V4.

Fed up loading V4 and then adding the morphs etc.

Load V4 into your scene in Poser.

Inject the ++Morphs.

Now just save your figure back to the folder with a different name.

So.......

Find the folder you want to save your figure back to (DAZ People).

Select the + sign at the bottom right of the screen.

Call it V4++Morphs

Once saved, remove the current V4 from your screen.

Load in your new V4++Morphs.

Thats it. Now when you load up this version, you will have the ++Morphs already injected.

You can use the above with various characters and have muultiple injecttions installed.

The main thing is to follow this routine.

Load your basic character FIRST..

Inject the morph packages you need.

Save the new figure with a DIFFERENT name.

So, you could have a M4 with ++Morphs and Ethnic morphs injected and saved etc.

All the best.

LROG

My Feet Wont Lift Off The Ground??????

Ok, we have all done this one and it's easier than you think.

You try to bend your characters shin and....... the foot will NOT leave the floor!!!!

Easy to solve.

Just select the Figure Menu at the top of the screen.

Select the Use Inverse Kinematics option.

Is there a tick at the side of the Left or Right leg options? If so........

Select the Left Leg option. The Tick will be removed.

Repeat the above for the Right leg. Again the Tick will be removed.

Now you can bend those shins and the feet will lift off the floor.

All the best.

LROG

The biggest and best thing I can give as advice is...

NEVER be afraid to ask a question.

Why struggle for hours, just ask, I still do and I'm always grateful for a solutions.

All the best.

LROG

Do Your Renders Look Dark?

This one only applies to PP2010 and 2012.

When rendering , deselect the Gamma Correction option. By this I mean take the tick off the front of it.

Select the Render menu at the top of the screen.

Select the Render settings option.

Look at the very bottom of the Options (on the right of the screen) and you will see Gamma Correction.

Take off the tick and then render again.

This is a personal preference, use gamma or not, it''s YOUR choice.

All the best.

LROG

Why Don't My Renders Look As Good As Others?

Most beginners just hit the Render button without relaising that they will only get a Draft render when completed.

To get a better version.

Select the Render menu at the top of the screen.

Select the Render settings option.

Now if you are in Auto Setting mode, you will see that there is a line with a triangle at the top of it.

Move your cursor into that triangle, hold down your left mouse button.

Move your line to the right to where it says Final.

Let go of your mouse.

Now make sure that the Use displacement maps is set on (it has a tick a tthe beginning), take off Gamma Correction (no tick at the beginning).

Select the Save Preset button.

Call it:-

Mine Final

Select the OK button.

By doing this, you can load this setting back in by using the Load Preset button and then selecting the Mine Final option.

Now just select he Render button and your render will now be of a higher standard.

PLEASE NOTE:-

The Fianl setting WILL take longer to render, especially on certain high end hair sets, so just give it a time to do it's work.

All the best.

LROG

Saving A Render.

OK, you have done all the work and now you want to save your work to show others!!!!

Do the render.

Select the FIle menu at the top of the screen.

Select the Export option.

Select the Image option.

Give your render a name.

Tell the system where to save your render

Now I would change the Save Type to Jpeg.

To do this, notice that little downwards pointing triangle at the end of the Save as type line

Click youe left mouse button on it and you will see the other format settings.

Select the JPG File option.

Select the Save button.

Now change the Quality from 75 to 100.

Select the OK button.

Your render will now save.

All the best.

LROG

Saving A Render Of A Figure With A Transparant Background

This is an easy way of getting a render of a figure out with no floor and no background.

First of all switch off the Ground (Hold down your Ctrl key and then press your G key).

Now go to the Display menu at the top of hte screen.

Select the Ground Shadows option to switch it off. There should now be NO tick at the side of it.

Do the render.

Export the render.

This time save it as a PNG file.

When it is saved, it will have atransparant background and you can use it in a graphics program to put on a background by using a new layer in it.

All the best.

LROG

Always Backup Your Work

Before you start, create a folder for your saved files. I will call mine PoserScenes.

Let’s say you are working on a scene. When you start, you load Victoria 4 and put a conforming dress on her. Before you go any farther, save the file.

File: Save as: Your folder path here: Name your file so you will be able to find it. I will name mine V4Dress1.pz3

Now, pose your figure and start to work on the scene. When you are happy, save it again. This time name it something else. I will call this one V4Dress2.pz3.

Do this in stages as you work and you will never have to go back and start from the beginning. Every time you make a change you are happy with, save it. Then, if you do something you do NOT like, you can back up one step and try again. When you are finished with the scene,  go back and delete the earlier versions to save space.

Help!!!!! I Have A Texture That Has Gone Wrong And Does Not Work Right!!!!!

OH I have had this before and it can lead to hair loss. LOL.

Just go to the Edit menu at the top of the screen.

Select the General Preferences option.

On the Document Tab, look under the UndoRedo section.

There is a button that says:-

Clear cache now.

Hit that button.

You will be asked if you are sure.

Hit the OK button.

Select the OK button to get rid of the General Preference screen.

Now relead your texture and it should work.

Sometimes Poser has what I have a big technical name of a "Dafty" and when it does, it can not only mess up a texture in memory, but it also remembers it!!! Lol.

Using the above should solve the problem and you can now stick your hair back on!!! LOL.

All the best.

LROG

Something for those answering questions.

Try to make your replies in non jargon language. Not everyone is an expert and knows this or that jargon.

Explain in a way that you would have liked someone to have explained to your when you first started.

All the best.

LROG

For those new to Poser, the bits you like rom this thread, copy and paste them into a document to save for later.

All the best.

LROG

I am going to interject on the render setting window.  Paganeagle has excellently described the quick way to improve your renders by using the slider method.  However, this is not exactly where you want to be; these are automatic settings which have no control over the individual features for final tweaking.  You should switch to Manual settings.  There are more flexible controls which can lower your render time without sacrificing quality; in some cases, they may eliminate unwanted artifacts. 

This window is the preferred state that most experienced users would like to see when helping new Poser Users.

Render menu at the top of the screen.

Render settings.

Change from Auto to Manual.

Put in the settings and save as as previously shown as:-

Mine Final Manual

Click pic for larger version.

All the best.

LROG

"Change the amount of Max cached render to 1. You don't need all those cached renders."

Great thread and good advice however the above might be a personal choice.  I like the saved renders so that I can see the difference any changes I may have done to the scene are reflected in the renders.

For newcomers you can do this in the renders screen, use the arrows in the bottom left corner the first to select a saved render from the list when you click on the arrow. Use the second arrow to select a different render.  Now by using the slider you can do a wipe from one to another.  This can be very useful to see changes in shadows and other details.

I can't save a prop as a Smart Prop???

You only get the option to save as a smart prop if you don't use the 'Select Subset' option.

I've Loaded a OBJ or a Prop And Cannot Change It's Material.

To do this, you need to have a figure in the scene.

Just load in V4 and then you will be able to change the material.

If you need to render the item, you can always make your character invisible by:-

Select V4's body.

Select the Properties tab.

Visible will have a tick at the front of it.

Untick it and your V4 will now be invisible.

All the best.

LROG

Quote - Do Your Renders Look Dark?

This one only applies to PP2010 and 2012.

When rendering , deselect the Gamma Correction option. By this I mean take the tick off the front of it.

 

Select the Render menu at the top of the screen.

Select the Render settings option.

Look at the very bottom of the Options (on the right of the screen) and you will see Gamma Correction.

Take off the tick and then render again.

This is a personal preference, use gamma or not, it''s YOUR choice.

All the best.

LROG

You forgot to mention: "Promise yourself that you're going to learn about Poser lighting in order to make use of gamma-correction"... After all, you've invested in PP2010 / PP2012 for a reason... why disable features you paid extra for?

Some information to help you along :)

http://www.renderosity.com/mod/tutorial/index.php?tutorial_id=155&page=1

I apologize for any broken links in the following

The following is a great deal of information to process, but it's only meant as a guide and not to be memorized.  I have it broken up into sections. My advice is to read it through once, print it out and keep the print out next to your computer for reference as needed.

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

Video Tutorials

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

ORGANIZATION

Never install anything directly to your runtime. Always unzip / install to a folder on your desk top so you can see what is in side and what the folder structure is.

Organization in Poser is very important.  Libraries grow quickly and it soon gets to a point where you can't find anything.

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.

This is the preferred method for many. It uses one single runtime with lots and lots of sub folders within the main library folders, in order to organize the content.  The learning curve is minimal. If you can right click and create a new folder and drag and drop, you can do this.  The learning curve is knowing what folders you can move files around in and what folders not to touch.

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
**

This is my choice for organizing my installed content.  I did the first method first and it worked for awhile, but as my content grew, it became cumbersome, so I switched to multiple external runtimes, which works out great.

 
It's really pretty easy.  The problem is that most people over think it.  

Just remember that an external runtime is exactly the same as the runtime in your Poser folder, only it's just sitting in a different location.  

It functions exactly the same way. 

And files are installed / added to them in exactly the same way. 

And they have the same folders in them as the main runtime does. Well almost the same folders.  Scripts for example have to be installed into the main Poser runtime and won't work from an external runtime.

Here is a sample of an external runtime.  Simply download it and unzip it. You will have a folder called "Runtime_Sample"

www.divshare.com/download/8531562-1f6

Find a place on your hard drive that you want to have your external runtimes living. For me it's on my partitioned drive D.

Make a folder called "Poser Runtimes"

s263.photobucket.com/albums/ii124/Acadia_ca/

Then simply copy that sample runtime you unzipped into that "Poser Runtimes" folder and make as many copies of it as you want to.  Change "Runtime_Sample" to whatever name you want.  Here is what I named some of mine:

s263.photobucket.com/albums/ii124/Acadia_ca/

Then all you do is simply install your content into whichever runtime you feel it fits best into.

Once you have finished installing your content look in the Runtimes where you have Daz characters such as V3 or V4 etc.  Go into the Library folder and look for the !DAZ folder.  Make a COPY of that folder and place the COPY in exactly the same place in the main Poser Runtime. 

Poser looks there first so by placing a copy of them in there, you are helping Poser out.  Don't delete the !DAZ folder from your other runtimes though. That defeats the purpose of having external runtimes, which is not only to allow Poser to work faster, organize your content better, but also to not lose your installed runtime content in the even of a crash because hopefully you have also saved your external runtimes to a couple other places for easy access in case of the need to reinstall.

Hope that helps.  If you have more questions, just ask.

Oh yeah, never install anything directly to your runtime. Always unzip / install to a folder on your desk top so you can see what is in side and what the folder structure is.

So far as organization inside the runtimes, continuity of naming goes a long long way.

Let's say for example that LaurieA gave me a beautiful clothing package for V4.  The package consisted of the following:

Dress
Shoes
Purse
Hair
Poses

When I get that file I will unzip it into a folder on my desk top in order to see what is inside.  Here is what I find

Dress inside a folder in the character folder aptly named "superstar dress"

Shoes inside a folder named "LaurieA" inside is another  folder named "V4" inside is another  folder named "props" inside are 2 more folders: 1  called "V4 Flats" and finally inside that folder are the shoe files, the other called "V4 Purse" with the purse file inside.

I find the hair  in the hair library, deep inside several folders as I did the props

And finally the poses for the figure are found in a folder in the Pose Library called "Gotta Have Fun" and another folder that simply said "dress textures"

Now if I were to install all of that into my runtime I wouldn't have a clue later on when I went to look for stuff to use from that one package, of what went with what!

Which is why it's important to open things onto your desktop and look through it and rename some of the folders that the vendor created.

The example of above is a very real nightmare that for some reason many vendors seem to do.  Another nightmare is using there real names as names for the folders instead of their vendor name.  That only adds to the confusion.

Here is how I would sort out the mess above while it was still on my desktop.

LaurieA - Superstar Dress
LaurieA - Superstar Dress
LaurieA - Superstar Dress
LaurieA - Superstar Dress
LaurieA - Superstar Dress

Yes, each folder in each libary is now called the same thing.  BUT I now have no doubt that when I do to use the superstar dress, that I will know what I'm looking at when I open up each library.

You can get even more organized.

For example under Poses, if you have found 5 new textures for that dress by 5 different artists, you can keep them all in one place. For example:

Artist 1 - (superstar dress) - sequins
Artist 2 - (superstar dress)  - dragon textures
Artist 3 - (superstar dress) - metalics
etc. etc. etc.

Just plunk those extra textures you found, as named above, inside the LaurieA - Superstar Dress  folder in the Pose Library.  Now when you want to use the superstar dress you have all of the textures at hand in one place.

Q: How can I save a pose that applies to only some parts of a figure?

A: Click the "+" in the pose palette as you would to save a normal pose. In the 'New Set" box that pops up, click the 'Select Subset" button. In the 'Select Objects' click on 'UNIVERSE', this will clear all items from the pose. Now click in the body parts and/or parented props that you want to include in the pose. Click OK, give your pose a name, and proceed as when saving a normal pose.

Q: How do I save a pose for a prop?

A: as above but only include the prop. Note that such a pose can only be applied to the prop whilst it is parented to some figure.

Q: Can I apply a pose to a prop when it is not parented to a figure, and when there is no figure in the scene?

A: Not normally.[For advanced users] However you can do it if you are willing to get your hands dirty in a text editor, and hack the pose file. First make sure 'Use file compression' and 'Use external binary morph targets' are turned off in your General Preferences. Parent the prop to any part of a figure. Save a pose for the prop as explained above. Open the resulting pz2 file in a plain text editor (eg EditPad Lite, or NotePad++). Use the editor's Search & Replace function (called "Find & Replace" in some editors). Set the Search string to "prop " (include a blank space after the word), and set the Replace string to be "actor "  (include a blank space after the word). Execute a case sensitive  Search & Replace. Save the file to a Camera folder with a '.cm2' file extension. The point of saving as a cm2 is that a pz2 pose can only be applied if there is a figure in the scene, but a cm2 can always be applied. The above works for any type of pose.

[the tips in this post work for any Poser version form at least P4 up]

Q: Can I apply a pose to only some parts of the figure?

A: Yes, but it can be a rather tedious process. If an actor is locked (Object menu > Lock Actor), applying a pose won't affect that actor, even when the actor is subsequently unlocked, it will not have been affected by the pose. Obviously if you only want to apply the leg part of a pose, locking all the other actors of the figure is a lot of work. Too much work to contemplate in most cases.

There are utility poses for some figures that will lock/unlock predefined sets of actors. This can make the technique feasible. You can find such "Body Lock" poses for V4 and V3 in my Free Stuff here at Rosity. There are a set of Body Locks for the Antonia Polygon figure in the Poses section of the Antonia's Free Stuff site, they are included in the "APUtilityPoses1_2_0" package. Other authors may have published similar sets for other figures.

** Useful Free Tools. 
**

EditPad Lite. A good quality text editor with multi line Search & Repalce.

CR2Builder. A Poser file editor.

PZ3editor Lite. A Poser file editor.

CR2 Editor. A Poser file editor.

Morph Manager 4. Transfer morphs between mesh compatable figures.

Pozers Little Helper. Make Delta Injection Poses (INJ/REM).

Advanced Shaders. A tool for making and applying material shaders. In particular to create partial materials and also second skins.

SceneFixer. A py script that does a lot of usefull things.

D3D. This site has some good free py scripts (mixed in with commercial stuff).

Code Keeper. Useful gor saving snippets of Poser or py script.

Q: When I Rotate the Body actor of my figure, the figure orbits some point in the scene, instead of spinning round the central axis of the figure. Why?

A: The figure's sub-root actor (usually the hip in most figures) is parented to the Body actor. The Body has its own center of rotation (its "origin"). When you load the original figure in its default pose, the origin of the sub-root (hip) will be at, or near, the origin of the Body. If you translate the sub-root, you are moving it away from the origin of the Body actor. Think of the Body as an invisible prop to which the sub-root (hip) is parented.

I have no issue with hints for the earlier versions being posted, although I think most of what is here is useful across the different versions.

If there is something you want to know about an earlier version, feel free to ask it!

The Most Important Tip of All!!!

"Try it and see what happens!"

Q: Try what?

A: Anything!

We all get stuck at times, and need someone with more experience to explain to us how to do things, or help us solve a problem. But where did that expert knowledge come from in the first place? About 5% of it came from the Poser manual, the other 95% came from people trying things out to see what would happen. The person with an inquisitive mind, who asks "I wonder what will happen if I do X", and actually takes that next step and does X, to see what the result will be, will learn a lot more that someone who just reads tutorials.

I'm not saying there is anything wrong with reading tutorials, or asking for advice. You should do those things, but you should also just try things. For example, some people have complained about many of the tips being geared towards P9 or PP2012. Well perhaps it seems that way because the person who wrote the tip is using PP2012, and perhaps that person does not know if his tip works in other versions. Have you tried applying the tips in your version of Poser? Or are you just assuming they don't work in your version? Over 90 percent of what has been written in this thread so far applies to P6, and a high percentage even applies to P4.

Take the second post in this thread as an example. It starts off, quote: "Making Your System Easier (PP2012 - Should also work in P9)". It goes on, quote: "Fed up of Andy the Robot appearing and having to delete him all the time?"

If you replace the words "Andy the Robot" with the words "James Casual", the tip applies equally well to P6. If you ignore the three lines that relate to "Max cached renders" the tip applies equally well to P4. Same goes for the majority of the stuff in this thread, there may be some details that don't work in some poser versions, but most of the stuff will work in many previous versions. But if you don't try, you will never know.

Agree with trying things, and.........

Don't be afraid to make mistakes and experiment!!!!!

You make a mistake and you learn from it.

Experiment and you learn from it.

Either way, you learn!!!!!

The main thing is HAVE A  GO!!!!!!!

All the best.

LROG

Hi For newbies who are interested in poser character animation targted for new users

Some  Downloadable video tutorials

HERE

Cheers

Q: How can I parent an infinite light to a prop or figure?

A: An infinite light can't be parented whilst it is an infinite light, but in its Properties you can change it into a spotlight, parent it, than once parented, change it back into an infinite light.

Q: I can't get the hang of using Poser magnets. How do they work?

A: PhilC has an excellent "Magnets Video"  tutorial (there is also a text version). I highly recommend that you take a look.

Whatever yr problem may be, try the Chat Room. There's usually at least a coupla fellow Poser abusers (as well as other progs) in there who can help ya with whatever is buggin' ya, & on purdy much every version. Ya can even show yer renders or screenshots if ya care to & get instant feedback & "real time" tutelage instead of checkin' the Forum to see if anyone has answered yer question yet.

Be forewarned, though; tings can get a lil'...umm...insane in there. Some 'o' them ppls be CRAZY!!!

Q: I am trying to Install a DAZ product, but I get an error message saying "Error reading INI... dzInstall.ini.". How can I fix this?

A: Use a text editor to create a blank file named "dzInstall.ini", and save it in the location where the installer is looking for the file. When saving the file make sure that the 'Save as Type' is set to be 'All Files', otherwise the editor might add a '.txt' extension to the end of the file name. See this link for more information.

The same solution applies when a DAZ installer reports that it can't find 'Poser.exe'. This might be because your Poser installation uses a file named 'PoserPro.exe'. Just create a blank file named 'Poser.exe' in the same folder as the 'PoserPro.exe', or in any folder that you want to use as the root for the installation.

"Load your basic character FIRST..Inject the morph packages you need.  Save the new figure with a DIFFERENT name."

That doesn't work for me.  The saved character often, but not always, loses all the injected morphs.

Let me guess... you have "Use external binary morph targets" checked.

Oh I agree I love poser 7! I have 5 & 6, and now PP2010/PP2012, of course 7 too, and it was the one that made me really love poser! I also agree that often asking questions results in 50 "looks" and no responses. So I too appreciate the thread here. You can't know everything, (*unless you are Bagginsbill! LOL!) but everytime I learn something new my renders improve.

I also collect render settings, from vendors I admire, to ones that are posted in forums. I would love to see some addition SS's of render settings using the back end Preview settings. Does the Deoth Bias and AO actually effect the render, or just the preview? If it effects the render, could someone share their setting via SS's??? And any other settings they have sucess with? I look for crisp imagery, and good shadows.

Speak of shadows, on the shadow blur radius in the parameters section, how do you get soft edge fall off & hard edge fall off? So some SS's of those settings would be wonderful too! hborre? You still watching this? You always have the very best ideas and suggestions! I would be very grateful to anyone who helps with these questions.

Ariana

The real problem, as I see it, trying to support older version of Poser in this thread is the extreme changes in technology that have occurred, especially between 7 and 8 and between 8 and 9.

Lighting especially is problematical. If you ask how to do lighting in Poser 7, you get discussions of IBL and AO, both of which are totally obsoltete (and as a mat6ter of fact can cause probelms) as we begin to move toward IDL.

I'm not saying don't ask, but I AM saying that we need to be careful in answering those questions that we address the Poser version that the answer is pointed toward.

If you are a newbie and you just bought Poser 7 to get into the hobby on the cheap, then I am afraid you are about to learn a WHOLE BUNCH of things that you will then have to unlearn when you move up to a more modern version of Poser. I know not everyone agrees with this, but I can't think of an arguement that refutes the logic.

At this point, anyone not running Poser 8 or later is flatly running old technology and to get newbie answers on that old technology is going to be increasingly diffucult as the more knowlegable users "move on."

The net result of my ramblings? If you ask a question, post the version of Poser you are using. If you post a hint, specify the version of Poser it works for. If you are a newbie be VERY careful that you don''t read advice on the wrong version.

Q: Can I keep the illumination the same relative to a camera? I have the lights set up the way I want from the front, but when I move the camera to look at my figure from the back, everything is in shadow.

A: Yes, you can do this for a single camera. Parent all the lights to a Poser square primitive. You can't parent infinite lights, so if any of the lights are infinite, you will need to convert them to spotlights (from their Properties), then convert them back to infinite after parenting. Parent the square primitive to the camera you are using. The lights will now move with the camera, and the illumination will always look the same relative to the camera. Because all the lights are parented to one primitive, if you want to change the parent to be a different camera, or a figure, or back to the UNIVERSE (UNIVERSE = unparented), you only need to change the parent of one primitive, instead of needing to do it for every light. Having them parented to one primitive also means that you can translate or rotate them as a group.

After unparenting, or changing the parent of the primitive, you may need to use Restore > Element (Ctrl+E) on it, to revert it to its initial state.

Of course, instead of parenting the lights to a primitive first, you could just parent them directly to a camera, but that is a less flexible technique.

Interesting about the lights! I had posted that I was curious about lights elsewhere before I found this thread. Thank you.

Ariana

Quote - The real problem, as I see it, trying to support older version of Poser in this thread is the extreme changes in technology that have occurred, especially between 7 and 8 and between 8 and 9.

Lighting especially is problematical. If you ask how to do lighting in Poser 7, you get discussions of IBL and AO, both of which are totally obsoltete (and as a mat6ter of fact can cause probelms) as we begin to move toward IDL.

I'm not saying don't ask, but I AM saying that we need to be careful in answering those questions that we address the Poser version that the answer is pointed toward.

If you are a newbie and you just bought Poser 7 to get into the hobby on the cheap, then I am afraid you are about to learn a WHOLE BUNCH of things that you will then have to unlearn when you move up to a more modern version of Poser. I know not everyone agrees with this, but I can't think of an arguement that refutes the logic.

At this point, anyone not running Poser 8 or later is flatly running old technology and to get newbie answers on that old technology is going to be increasingly diffucult as the more knowlegable users "move on."

The net result of my ramblings? If you ask a question, post the version of Poser you are using. If you post a hint, specify the version of Poser it works for. If you are a newbie be VERY careful that you don''t read advice on the wrong version.

then make it simple. 1 thread for P7/Pro, one for P8+.

problem solved. just point ppl to the thread they need.

Asking for help.

We all need to ask for help and advice sometimes. There are right and wrong ways to ask for help. I don't mean in terms of social etiquette, I mean in terms of getting a solution to your problem, getting it quickly, getting it in a form that you can understand, and getting it in such a way that the people who tried to help you will not run away screaming the next time you ask for help.

Lot's of people here in the forums are only too happy to try to help, but you need to help them to help you. First rule, try to provide as much detail as you can.

You are sitting in front of your monitor. Even though you may not have a clue what is causing your problem, you can see there is a problem, you can see exactly how the problem manifests. You know whether you are on a PC or a Mac, and you know what operating  system you are using. You know which item you are having a problem with, and whether it is a figure or a prop. You know whether it is something that you bought, or got for free, or made yourself. Consider that the person reading your post knows none of this, unless you have provided those details in your post. The person trying to help is probably not a psychic, he or she, can't see what you are seeing, so you have to paint a picture in words, or provide screenshots of the problem, and/or your setup. There is probably someone, somewhere, who could solve your problem in 5 or 10 minutes if they were sitting in front of your computer. Your job is to make them feel like they are sitting in front of your computer, by providing all the relevant information you can!

The person trying to help you probably does not know your level of experience, whether you only got Poser yesterday, or whether you have been using it for ten years. So it helps if you can give some indication. It's no use someone giving you a concise technical answer if you are not going to be able to understand it, but equally, it is no use someone spending hours walking you through baby steps if you are way past that stage. Saying what things, if anything, you have tried yourself, in your efforts to solve the problem, also helps people understand your level of experience, and prevents wasting time with suggesting things that you have already tried.

Don't jump to conclusions about the cause of your problem. State as clearly and as precisely as you can, what you are trying to achieve, what you did to try to achieve it, what result you expected, and what result you got.

Don't waffle on about irrelevant stuff (like me ), be clear and concise.

If someone asks a question, answer it as soon as you can. Don't think it's irrelevant and ignore it. Don't assume that what you want to say is more important. Answer the question first!

Here is a check list you can go through when requesting help. It is by no means exhaustive, add as much detail as you can. On the other hand not every point may be relevant to every situation, use your common sense.

PC or Mac?

Operating System?

Poser version, including any service release?

Name and description of item that you are having trouble with?

Commercial, freebie, or self made?

Is the end result meant for personal use, or distribution?

What are you trying to achieve?

What did you do to try to achieve it?

What did you expect to happen?

What actually happened?

Can you provide a relevant screen shot, error message, or code snippet?

Any other information that might be relevant?

How would you describe your level of experience with Poser?

Spending a few extra minutes forming your question well, can save many days in receiving the correct answer. I have see it take 10 days to solve a problem that could have been solved in 10 seconds, if only the original post had contained all the relevant information. Don't make the people trying to help you feel like they are pulling teeth when trying to get the relevant information from you, or they may not be so willing to help next time. If your problem gets solved, post a message saying it has been solved, don't leave people hanging, that's just common courtesy.

Quote - My Feet Wont Lift Off The Ground??????

Ok, we have all done this one and it's easier than you think.

You try to bend your characters shin and....... the foot will NOT leave the floor!!!!

Easy to solve.

Just select the Figure Menu at the top of the screen.

Select the Use Inverse Kinematics option.

Is there a tick at the side of the Left or Right leg options? If so........

Select the Left Leg option. The Tick will be removed.

Repeat the above for the Right leg. Again the Tick will be removed.

Now you can bend those shins and the feet will lift off the floor.

All the best.

LROG

Handy IK Trick for Poser

Works on P7 (and I assume onwards); if anyone can confirm if it works on older versions, please do.

I do this with any Characters I find myself using frequently. 

1. Load your character figure ("person") of choice into an empty scene and apply any morphs/ texures you desire.

2. Turn off IK on the legs.

3. Load a second figure into your scene, and conform or parent it to your character. It doesn't matter what you choose (clothes, hair, accessory, chainsaw, whatever).

4. Make sure your character is selected, then save him/ her back into the Figures Library under a new name.

Here's the "Trick"...

1. When you save, Poser will ask you if you want to save the Whole Group or Individual Figure. Choose Whole Group.

Now every time you load your newly saved favorite character, it will appear with the second figure attached and the IK will be off by default.

*Note that this ONLY works if you add a second figure, not a parented Prop or Hair object from the Hair Library

More Handy Free Utilities

FreeCommander; (PC only) Alternative to the standard windows file manager. Dual Pane feature lets you view/ compare/ manage 2 "Folder Trees" (like having 2 Windows Explorer windows open), or view one tree and preview text or image files in the second pane.

P3dO Explorer; (PC only) Poser library manager with many Poser helpers. Definately a Must Have

I am using Poser 8 (Standard not Pro) on a Mac OS X 

I am familiar with, but not an expert at, Daz 3D and am trying to learn Poser. I am currently wading thru POSER 8 REVEALED the Official Guide by Kelly Murdock.

Question: Does anyone actually use the Face Room and Hair Room for creating Faces and Hair? Would I be better of at this stage to ignore these rooms and concentrate on learning other aspects of Poser such as say the Cloth and Material rooms? 

This site is a great idea. I have read all previous posts and have already learned a lot from it.  

The face room is only useful on the SM figures. If you are not using those figures, forget about it. If you are, then push on through.

The hair room has never been useful to me for growing HAIR because it produces a result that is too coarse for my liking, but I've made a lot of grass with it!  (You can grow hair on ANYTHING.)

Quote - The face room is only useful on the SM figures. If you are not using those figures, forget about it. If you are, then push on through.

The hair room has never been useful to me for growing HAIR because it produces a result that is too coarse for my liking, but I've made a lot of grass with it!  (You can grow hair on ANYTHING.)

Thanks. What are SM figures? 

Also, I am having a problem in the Cloth Room. The tutorial says I should be able to convert clothing into dynamic clothing by [1] exporting the article of clothing (a shirt) as a Wavefront OBJ file, check **single frame in the Export Box, select only the shirt from the **Object Dialog Box, and enable only the Weld Body Part Seams option, then save it. [2]Then delete the shirt and replace it with the new **shirtprop **OBJ file, enabling Make Polygons Normal. Then [3] go thru the basic Clothify procedures: new sim with default settings, clothify (with shirtprop selected), set parent to **chest, **click Collide Against and choose the character (Ryan) in the Hierarchy Selection dialog box. [4] Finally click the Calculate Simulation button which I do. **The Calculate Simulation box appears but no calculations take place!? **What am I missing? Sorry for such a lengthy question.

xf, SM figures are the ones that are included in SM poser versions, e.g. some of those listed above.

Quote - Also, I am having a problem in the Cloth Room. The tutorial says I should be able to convert clothing into dynamic clothing by [1] exporting the article of clothing (a shirt) as a Wavefront OBJ file, check **single frame in the Export Box, select only the shirt from the **Object Dialog Box, and enable only the Weld Body Part Seams option, then save it. [2]Then delete the shirt and replace it with the new **shirtprop **OBJ file, enabling Make Polygons Normal. Then [3] go thru the basic Clothify procedures: new sim with default settings, clothify (with shirtprop selected), set parent to **chest, **click Collide Against and choose the character (Ryan) in the Hierarchy Selection dialog box. [4] Finally click the Calculate Simulation button which I do. **The Calculate Simulation box appears but no calculations take place!? **What am I missing? Sorry for such a lengthy question.

This trick may or may not work depending on the structure of the conforming item. Rather than clutter up this thread with the discussion, please ask this again in a separate thread where some of the gurus can give you a more complete answer.

How I normally do a Conforming to Dynamic:-

Make sure item is loaded in Poser in default load in position (T pose).

File menuExportWavfront OBJ.

Single FrameOK button.

Switch off everything except the item you want to export.

Ok button.

Weld body part seams onInclude body part names in polygon groups on.

Select OK button.

Browse to where you want to save your OBJ.

Give file a name and save.

To bring back in:-

Have character in scene ready.

File menuImportWavefront OBJ.

Browse to where you saved your OBJ to.

Load in.

Make sure you have Animation bar on screen, if not:-

Window menuAnimation Controls

Click in the 0001 Frame section and change this to 20.

Change your figures pose to something else.

Now change the Frame back to 0001. Character will be back into T pose.

Cloth Room

Create New Simulation.

Set Self Collision on.

I make the Drape frames to 10, but that's just me!!

OK button.

Clothify buttonObject to clothify (the item you loaded, you can find it in the Prop option).

Select the Clothify button.

Colide Against:-

Select V4, now if the item is long and reaches the floor, then also add teh Floor.

Make sure Start from Zero poistion is on.

Use the Ignore options if required.

Select the OK button.

Select the Calculate Simulation button.

The simulation will now start.

Wait untilk teh simulation stops, back to Pose room and render.

All the best.

LROG

@paganeagle2001 - I have this procedure down pat, and know enough about the process to set constrained groups if needed. However, when I run a lot of simulations, I often get odd results. For example, I was working on a dynamic skirt for V4 and when I run the simulation, her arm was inside the skirt, even though I did not set the ignore constraint for hands for this sim. I also have a lot of problems with cloth bunching up in areas where the pose bends the figure. I'm running PP2010. Any suggestions? Below is an image of just one of the problems I run into.

C~