Hi guys, I'm a beginner to 3d, animation, as well as Poser. However, i'm planning on really immersing myself in this field as a hobby and was wondering if anyone could answer a few questions of mine?

Question 1: Here is the computer i built 3 years ago along with its specs, is this good enough for doing poser level graphics/animations/rendering? does it barely fit the requirement? or is it fine for a beginner right now, but would probably need to upgrade once i am more serious about my craft? If there's a need for upgrade... do i need to upgrade the graphic card, get more ram? or maybe a solid-state-drive hard drive? which part of 3d graphic/animation require a more high end graphic card? and what will actually lessen the time required for rendering? will a solid state help speed things up at all?

My Hardware:

Intel i7 930 @2.8 GHz 2.79 GHz

Installed Memory (RAM) 6.00 GB

64 Bit Win 7

GA-X58A-UD3R Gigabyte Motherboard with six DDR3 Memory slots (max of 24 GIG i believe)

Western Digital Caivar Black Hard Drive

MSI R5770 Hawk Radeon HD 5770 1GB 128-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card

Question 2: Poser Pro 2012 will be the software i will be learning, but i've often heard poser people talking about utilizing other high end software for rendering, postwork, etc. What are some good high end software/applications that are good for enhancing your 3d design/image/animation from poser?

I know some people use 3dstuidomax, Cinema4d, Vue for rendering, but what's the difference between the rendering from these high end software? and how does one differ from the other? Do people mainly use them just for the rendering? or do they work on the skin/texture of the character design from these software for the more realistic look?

If anyone has the time to shed some light on this subject, i would greatly appreciate it. Which application/software is best for what job? Because i've heard of so many big names being tossed around.... software such as 3dstudiomax, cinema4d, vue, zbrush, blender, bryce. I know this is probably not something i need to know right now since i'm just starting, but i've always been curious about this and would love to understand the difference uses and why some people prefer to utilize some of these appications for certain job in their Poser creations.

Question 3:

Was wondering if anyone care to share some of their favorite web links regarding Poser

1. Poser community forums (other than this one of course)

2. A list of reputable vendors' web links (other than this one)

3. Good sites containing Poser tutorials (could be anything from the most basic aspect of poser such as the user interface... to the more advance category of animation)

Question 4:

What would be the most progressive way to learn Poser? obviously learn about the interface and undertand what each of the function does... but from your personal experience, how would you advice a beginner  and the steps he/she should take in learning?  learn the user interface, play around with character models, lighting? I guess what i'm asking is what would be the most efficient top down approach in learning mastering Poser?

thanks in advance!

Help for Question 4.....PATIENCE!!! I'm still learning. The pros will advise you further.

I had one render that took 12 hrs...Others have posted longer render time. Good to have two comps...

First off your PC should have no problem with Poser 2012 fro the start, in fact I used Poser 2012 on a system with the same motherboard and processor for a couple of years, only changing quite recently.  Later on, if your scenes become more complex, you may want to expand the memory as the 64bit version will be able to take any amount of RAM you throw at it.  The graphics card is only used for previews it is the processor and amount of RAM that have impact on rendering.  I tend to work with stills so others can advise what might be required for annimation.

Your best starting point would be to read the manual and search the Internet for any tutorials there are out there.  Beware though that many are fairly long in the tooth and are for earlier versions of Poser and much has changed, particularly in Poser 9/2012.

Areas to concentrate on would I guess be Lighting and textures as there can have a major inpact on the final render.

Some of the other programs you list are to de with modelling, Poser is just that, it is a program for posing and setting up the scene.  If you want to model than you need to do it in another program.  That said it might be a good get to know Poser well first and understand what your particular needs are.  The learning curve can be high and trying to learn a number of programs at the same time can be frustrating. 

As for render engines, they can be very much a personal choice and depends on you are looking to achieve but I am sure people here will give you a number of suggestions to look at.

Question 1

What is your goal???
What is your target???

Still pictures?
Animations?
PPS? Pure Personal Satisfaction?
Content creation?

Answer 1
Poser needs 2 things :
CPU power and the max number of CPU cores you can afford
RAM, LOTS of RAM if you want to do large scenes.

First learn Poser.
Do not start to mix other renderers untill you have fully mastered the Poser renderer.
The renderer, material room & light combinations in Poser are all you will need for the first 5 years or so. And even then, other renderers can do nothing more. They do +/- the SAME, but in a different way.

Start with the build in Quick start pages . All come with videos.
SM has a ton of tutorials on their own site that will bring weeks of learning and understanding.
Youtube also has tons of Poser video's.

But? Look out. You have Poser PP2012 while lots of video's are for older Poser versions.

DO NOT BUY ANYTHING. Most of what you can buy was build for older Poser versions.

First learn Poser, then you will know what to disregard from what ever you will buy later on.

Most light sets, and most material room setups are for OLD Poser versions, and include lots of pollution that you have to  throw out when using Poser PP2012.

All you need in PP2012 is to retain the diffuse texture. Then make your own material room setup from there.

Web links; the same.
Most goes to older content that you will have to adapt to your PoserPro 2012 version.

So? First learn poser , then go on the search when you know what to disregard from the files

Best way to learn
Follow the build in Quick start video's that you can find under :
Top Menu => Window => Quick Start => Follow all those carefully
Then goto SM site and read and follow all tutorials there
Then goto Youtube and go trough the video's there.

A last remark on software.

Max & Zbrush are VERY expensive.
Ok, they are good at what they do.

But Blender is free, and does the same better, faster, and more user friendly.
Some of the best work comes out of anim8or, Wings, Hexagon.
Ps: anim8or is free and some 15 years old.

For post work?
Photoshop is good. But some free apps are better & faster.

It is not the app you are using at all.

In the end, it is what your fingertips do with them that counts.

Quote - Hi guys, I'm a beginner to 3d, animation, as well as Poser. However, i'm planning on really immersing myself in this field as a hobby and was wondering if anyone could answer a few questions of mine?

Question 1: Here is the computer i built 3 years ago along with its specs, is this good enough for doing poser level graphics/animations/rendering? does it barely fit the requirement? or is it fine for a beginner right now, but would probably need to upgrade once i am more serious about my craft? If there's a need for upgrade... do i need to upgrade the graphic card, get more ram? or maybe a solid-state-drive hard drive? which part of 3d graphic/animation require a more high end graphic card? and what will actually lessen the time required for rendering? will a solid state help speed things up at all?

My Hardware:

Intel i7 930 @2.8 GHz 2.79 GHz

Installed Memory (RAM) 6.00 GB

64 Bit Win 7

GA-X58A-UD3R Gigabyte Motherboard with six DDR3 Memory slots (max of 24 GIG i believe)

Western Digital Caivar Black Hard Drive

MSI R5770 Hawk Radeon HD 5770 1GB 128-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card

The hardware is more than enough. More memory is always good, particularly with a 64 bit build. The -only- reason to upgrade your graphic card in a Poser-centric work environment is if (a) it doesn't support OpenGL properly, or (b) if you decide to add the Octane stand alone renderer to your workflwow. Octane was coded to use the CUDA architecture that the NVIDIA graphic cards currently have, so a Radeon wouldn't function with it. Aside from a special circumstance like that, Open GL support is the most important (Poser itself doesn't use any features of a video card save Open GL, so that is that). Oh. Make =certain= that all your fans are working. CG renders of nearly any type will heat up your system like nothing short of trying to calculate the ultimate value of pi as fast as your system can go.

     SSD's a nice tech, and can increase function speed. But. Any solid state memory system has a limited lifespan. You only get so many read/write cycles before the drive starts failing. And when it fails, there is no way to recover the data on it; with a standard HHD, you can at least the option of going to a data recovery firm. Basically, the rule is never trust and SSD with perishable data. If you are compulsive about backups, and don't mind app installation, then go for it. Otherwise, I would be cautious. A lot of people tweak Windows so that an SSD they add is treated solely as the swapfile. > Quote - Question 2: Poser Pro 2012 will be the software i will be learning, but i've often heard poser people talking about utilizing other high end software for rendering, postwork, etc. What are some good high end software/applications that are good for enhancing your 3d design/image/animation from poser?

I know some people use 3dstuidomax, Cinema4d, Vue for rendering, but what's the difference between the rendering from these high end software? and how does one differ from the other? Do people mainly use them just for the rendering? or do they work on the skin/texture of the character design from these software for the more realistic look?

If anyone has the time to shed some light on this subject, i would greatly appreciate it. Which application/software is best for what job? Because i've heard of so many big names being tossed around.... software such as 3dstudiomax, cinema4d, vue, zbrush, blender, bryce. I know this is probably not something i need to know right now since i'm just starting, but i've always been curious about this and would love to understand the difference uses and why some people prefer to utilize some of these appications for certain job in their Poser creations.

     Most Poser folks use 3rd party apps for a few reasons: (1) The current implementation of the Firefly renderer is slow compared to other renderers. (2) Other apps allow for or come with network render capability, which can be neccesary for animations. (3) They simply find they get better lighting results

     I have used the Poser/Vue combination ever since Vue 4 came out (currently use Vue Infinite 11). The lights were far better to place and control than Poser's portrait-centric setup, I could get better render output (that's changing a bit with the current Poser generation), Vue above a certain level comes with a 5 rendernode package that permits you to run a small rendergarden without a lot of setup or liscencing issues, and Vue is unmatched in creating exterior environments. The Poser developers and E-on software have had a good relationship over the years, and for out of the box interconnectivity, nothing beats the Vue Poser matchup.

     Zbrush is mentioned not so much as a rendering endstage as a super morphing tool. With the P9 version of Poser, you get the GoZ plugin function that lets you export your figure into Zbrush, do your morphs there, freeze it, and reimport them into Poser, making it a -lot- easier to create custom characters that don't look familiar. And Zbrush is actually one of the cheaper solutions out there, costing what a new copy of Photoshop does ($699).

     Probably the best example of what Poser and Cinema 4D can do is Tim Vining's 'Star Trek: Aurora' movie. He animated in Poser, then used the Interposer Pro plugin to move the animations into Cinema, and rendered from there. Look it up.

     However. An excellent example of what Poser itself can do in gifted hands is in the works. Rooster Teeth, the mavens of machinama, are getting set to field and original series: RWBY (pronounced ruby). The Red and White trailers are up on Youtube, and the Black trailer premieres this weekend. Monty Oum, the director, used figures modelled in Maya, then imported and rigged, animated, and rendered in Poser Pro 2012. Check out the teasers; the animation is -all- Poser.

     Most of the other 'big name' packages are used to get the content into a faster rendering environment, or because the user can model mechanics but can't do organics to save his/her life, because they need a figure and don't have the time or budget to get one made custom for a client, or just because its there. > Quote -  Question 3:

Was wondering if anyone care to share some of their favorite web links regarding Poser

1. Poser community forums (other than this one of course)

2. A list of reputable vendors' web links (other than this one)

3. Good sites containing Poser tutorials (could be anything from the most basic aspect of poser such as the user interface... to the more advance category of animation)

     The best way to find these things is talk up those who seem to be the guru's here and at Renderotica and Runtime DNA, the three longest lasting Poser centric sites. Poser is going through something of a watershed atm. The new tech they've added has greatly increased the program's abilities, and the business decision to keep their fairly open architecture and not hang a lot of propietary code off things to enable the Genesis system DAZ created for DS4 to fully work has brought a lot of the old timers out of the woodwork. There has been an explosion of new figures in the works, many which will not function on any earlier version due to the addition of weightmapping. Animation is getting a lot of attention with RWBY (and SM and RT are in talks to have some looks behind the scenes at how they did it after the series premiere in July... :D ). There are books, but nigh onto all of them are for earlier versions; good for the old features, but not so good for the new ones.... > Quote -  

Question 4:

What would be the most progressive way to learn Poser? obviously learn about the interface and undertand what each of the function does... but from your personal experience, how would you advice a beginner  and the steps he/she should take in learning?  learn the user interface, play around with character models, lighting? I guess what i'm asking is what would be the most efficient top down approach in learning mastering Poser?

thanks in advance!

The problem is that 'learning the app' is a multi stepped process. Basic 'load-pose-render' functions are just that; basic. Poser is several apps, or a main app and a lot of plugins, rolled into one. The manual is a good start, but only a start. There are tricks and work arounds for nearly everything in Poser. A lot of the 'features' we have now are just systemic bugs that were exploited and polished until they glowed (conforming clothing being the easiet to point out. That is actually a crosstalk bug that shouldn't have happened. But back in the days of P4, a user out here found it, probably bitched about it, then said 'Wait a second. If I make a -second- mesh, say a suit, and named the bodyparts exactly the same way internally and set it to come into the app exactly over the first body, would it follow the nude mesh..? It does! We can make conforming clothing!').

     But yes, learn the basics, then stretch out and add as you get comfortable. Probably the biggest knowledge bank is here, with Rotica and RDNA close seconds (in some things, like shaders, RDNA is better organized and a lot easier to find info from).  

 PS: What Vilters said. The tool is just that; a tool. Learn about lighting (Digital Lighting and Rendering by Jeremy Birn has a -lot- of application neutral concepts and tips that are good to know. Amazon has it softbound), and since you mention animation, I'd suggest getting some info on cinema; namely camera practices and scene setups. Making your figure move is just one of the tasks; lighting it well, setting the camera to add drama or emphasis, and knowing how to edit it all together can make drek into gold or done badly turn gold into sewage.

You didn't say which version of Win7 you are using. The reason I ask is the problem I ran into.  

I have a very similar computer...6GB ram. Upgraded to 12GB shortly after I purchased it and all was better.

Just recently I decided to upgrade again to 24GB and my Win7 x64 told me that while it saw all 24GB, only 16GB of it was available. WTF?!

Come to find out I had Win7 Home Premium x64 and it restricts memory access to 16GB. I had to do a $89 upgrade to Professional before I could use all 24GB of ram and beyond. 

Physical Memory Limits: Windows 7

The following table specifies the limits on physical memory for Windows 7.

Version                                  Limit on X86        Limit on X64

Windows 7 Ultimate              4 GB                    192 GB

Windows 7 Enterprise           4 GB                    192 GB

Windows 7 Professional        4 GB                    192 GB

Windows 7 Home Premium    4 GB                    16 GB

Windows 7 Home Basic         4 GB                     8 GB

Windows 7 Starter                2 GB                     N/A

So ya know who ya talking to.
Been around CGI since 1998.
I have C4D, LW ,zBrush ,Poser ,DAZ Studio.

" Computer Generated Images " CGI App's.

Pixologic zBrush or AutoDesk Mudd are high polycount App's.
You need a Wacom Tablet and the talent to use it.

High learning curve.
High talent level.
Not anyone can use these.

For exsample.
you make a mesh a.k.a model in a high end app that's modeled ,riged.
Then you send ya mesh to zBrush ,make it wicked cool.

2D App's like adobe photoshop are used for texturing.
You need a Wacom Tablet and the talent to use it.

High learning curve.
High talent level.
Not anyone can use these.

AutoDesk Max
AutoDesk Maya
AutoDesk Softimage
Maxon C4D
Newtek Lightwave
Very High learning curve.
Anyone one can use these.

are high end App's.that pretty much do every thing.
Model,map,rig.to make the meshes a.k.a.models.
Renders ,animations.
Some are better at certain things.
some are faster ,easier.
Max has plugs that will do just about anything if you have the $$$.
A lot make games with Max.
Max is the most used App.
Be fair to say AutoDesk has the biggest peace of CGI Computer Generated Images.
Softimage ,Maya was sold to AutoDesk.
alot of syfy shows use LW.
LOTR used Maya.zBrush.

Houdini's been around for a while but never messed with it.

If it's not Max or C4D or LW.
Don't worry about it for now.

All models in Poser or DAZ Studio where made in other App's.
Poser or DAZ Studio
Low learning curve
Anyone can use

Poser or DAZ Studio are dependent on the stores.
Poser or DAZ Studio are plugs for highend App's

In the world of CGI very few can model a descent looking human.
takes time to model map texture rig a human.much less humans.
Poser or DAZ Studio humans makes it faster.
store content will save you time also

e-on Vue is a stand alone app or a plug for some App's for landscapes.

to render movies you need a render farm and a app that can use a render farm.

Quote -
A last remark on software.

Max & Zbrush are VERY expensive.
Ok, they are good at what they do.

But Blender is free, and does the same better, faster, and more user friendly.
Some of the best work comes out of anim8or, Wings, Hexagon.
Ps: anim8or is free and some 15 years old.

For post work?
Photoshop is good. But some free apps are better & faster.

It is not the app you are using at all.
n the end, it is what your fingertips do with them that counts.

Ya it's skill but the App does matter a lot.
I know blender ,gimp.

You can not compare Blender to C4D there is no comparison at all.
C4D is 1000 times faster easier better then Blender.

ya comparing a "C4D"top fuel dragster to a "Blender"4 cylinder Volkswagen.

You can not compare photoshop to gimp ether.

The App really does matter a lot.

Besides the matierial room, you have the cloth room, the hair room, Wardrobe Wizard and the Morph Brush.

There is also the set up room which gives you access to all three types of Poser rigging.

You can morph figures within Poser using the morph brush or magnets, spawn morph targets and save them.

As for favorite sites, the trick is to find sites with stamina...still around. Have seen many poser sites (found a list from someone Trekkie Grrrl named), but many are 404'd.

Daz 3d is obvious; there find some freebies (old 'secret' catalog as well, but don't have URL. Many things for V2 and up), and used to have 1 freebie a week.

Share CG another good one; has many freebies, don't have all of them, but are trying.

There are sites that specialize in models (mostly Daz figures, etc) There was once upon a time a listing on 'rosity that had hundreds of sites, but madness lies in viewing them all...;)

Hope this help

You are good to go.

Get started, see what you want to do, find where your bottlenecks are and deal with them when the time comes.

I'm about 18 months in, I want to do photorealistic animations.

I started, my scenes got big - first bottleneck: RAM. Upgraded from 4 to 12. Sorted.

As I learnt the material room, my renders got more realistic, and render time grew exponentially. So now I am exploring other render machines (see my other thread).

Dive in, get started, have fun. It's a bit like learning guitar, when you start, you don't know how good (or not so good) you might get, there's lots to learn, and the more you learn, the more other stuff you'll find that you want to learn.

Poser is a great introduction to 3D, you can do brilliant stuff with it, there are some things it excels at, and you certainly can have a lot of fun with it.

Questions? Try a search here or RDNA, otherwise just ask. Very friendly folk about.

Just don't look at any Poser galleries, here or anywhere else, they are all full of splunge! (There is some excellent work about, but, by Zarkon, you have to search for it!)

Intuos Wacom tablets or Cintiq Wacom tablets are for CGI.

Lightwave divide now there's LW & Modo.

Poser is best for some stuff
DAZ Studio is best for other stuff

Just depends on what you want as to what app your use for what project.

About all the Poser ,Studio links ya need.

Mostly DAZ Studio & V5
http://www.daz3d.com/

Mostly Poser & V4
http://www.renderosity.com/

http://www.runtimedna.com/home.php

cant post XXX links ,renderotica

For all the other App's

http://www.turbosquid.com/

i know when it comes to Poser, a lot of people buy content in order to do their work... however, i dont want to relie on buying product all the time. If I become more skilled at Poser, can i create these content myself? or are most of these Poser products/content from vendor site created with other software such as 3dstudiomax, etc ? I will be mainly focusing on figures/character 3d graphic and animation... will I be able to make my own character from scratch? or do i HAVE to purhcase one of the character pack like aiko, victoria, michael and only be able to do slight modifications to them? same thing with the body-morphs packages... or creating bodyparts myself with only poser? and perhaps clothing, hair as well

you cant model as such in poser, but can make your own characters with morphs etc, if you want to make your own models from scratch you need a modeler. Modelers vary a lot in both price and functions, some are easy to learn some arn't lol. Once you have the basic skills of modeling  they will stay with you in any modeler, try the free ones first then if you want to!! get the demos of the high end one and see if you like em, does depend on what your plans are if you are just doing it for fun or hoping to make a living, could take a while to recoup the cost of an high end app but we all chuck buckets of cash at a hobby lol

basically with Poser, I will be using pre-made models and be able to play around with the composition and only be able to make changes to these models in terms of their proportions and sizes but not the form of the body. In addition, I could purchase poser content such as hair, skin maps, body morphs, body parts, and other background content to APPLY them to my character model/scene and customize my character with these pre-made packages (and these packages are often made with outside software whether it's high end applications character models or photoshop for the skin maps) So, basically, with Poser, I will be utilizing tools (poser contents) at my disposal and my role is that of a director/producer which will allow me to create a scene by creating the composition of the model and the atmosphere around it such as camera/lighting. And that's why, most of the Poser character online mostly look the same, because everyone's using the limited choices of character models... just with different mix/matches of hair, skin maps, outfits, body morphs. However, if i want create a character model that's more unique and something that i thought up through my imagination, then I would either have to take a base Poser character and export that to a software such as zbrush/mudbox and make the model changes or details through those software by making model changes/detailed enhancements to them (is this possible?)...... or by using some of the pure high end software such as 3dstudiomax and create a model from scratch (but to do this, it requires the talent of a traditional artist as well as an understanding of the human anatomy and perhaps experience with sculting.) My goal is to basically get good at creating good 3d character images and animation (as a hobbyist) however, without being an outstanding traditional artists with a lot of experience, creating a model from scratch is probably out of the question.... but what i could do is use Poser as my primary tool, and when I want to get more advanced with the character's model instead of just using Poser's character packages and simply putting more premade content on top of my character, i will be able to export a base model from poser into zbrush/mudbox for some more advanced customization (whether it's the character's form or surface details) or create a bodypart or model by practicing sculpting with zbrush/mudbox? (by the way, what's the difference between modeling with zbrush/mudbox as opposed to 3dstudiomax and others? with zbrush/mudbox it seems a bit more natural since you're utilizing a clay and molding a character model, whereas 3dstudiomax and others, you have to create the models by playing around with polygons? So my area of focus should be: 1. Poser 2. zbrush or mudbox (for model modification and customization) 3. Photoshop (for skin maps, postwork) and if for animation: 1. start with Poser 2. then if possible, start playing with more high end software for animation for more possibilities and fluidity is this a fair assessment?

Quote - So my area of focus should be: 1. Poser 2. zbrush or mudbox (for model modification and customization) 3. Photoshop (for skin maps, postwork) and if for animation: 1. start with Poser 2. then if possible, start playing with more high end software for animation for more possibilities and fluidity is this a fair assessment?

With regards to zbrush/mudbox and photoshop I would say start with cheaper solutions first. Any model program and paint program will do (including free ones) to learn the concepts. Don't forget that all poser files are normal text files and a lot can be done in those files. To make working content a very good understanding of the poser files is required (even existing content does require some tweaks at some times to fix problems linke incorrect origins or errors in easy pose linking).

Also don't forget a whole lot of free or cheap support programs to perform UV mapping, scaling, etc. Everyone has their favourite tools (since to don't always stay available for extended time it's useless to give a list). First find what you want to do and how you want to work. Then find the tools you need and the process involved to get the result you desire. Only after all this look for the expensive tools (and test them out before buying). A lot of people have problems with the different tools since they all have a different work flow (personally I can't make any sense out of blender).

It's amazing what you can do with ani8tor, a simple paint program, a text editor and a few tools.

Syrianrue I like your enthusiasm and ambition.
CGI will test your patients and determination.
Not every one makes it in CGI.
Sincerely hope you do.
For me CGI is the Greatest ,
Every thing I have I got with CGI but I had to fight tooth and nail for it.
When I start at times I wondered if I would ever make it.
Just never give up no matter what.

one use for zBrush are vector maps.
vector maps are killer morphs n textures.some of the best in the world.

zBrush does not have rigs.zBrush has transpose.
zBrush is not for animations.
C4D is for animations.

ya not going to rig a 4 million polycount M5.
M5 polycount is around 20,000 you could rig in C4D.
then send to zbrush with GoZ.
turn M5 in to a monster with a polycount of 4 million with Vector maps.
but rig is still 20,000.ya not going to rig a 4 million polycount M5.
for animations.

Poser & DAZ Studio supports zBrush displacement maps.
displacement maps where before vector maps
displacement maps & vector maps are prety much the same thing
vector maps are better then displacement maps

CGI Universe is massive and very complicated.
It's going to take some time to grasp it all.
Don't get stuck on any one software till you know what's what.
if ya view software's what movies and games list ,see what there part was
If you view software's stills & video's gallery's ya see what they can do.
if they don't have a video gallery then people don't use that software for animations.
there all at youtube also.

time & money are always factors with CGI.
A CGI factor.
how fast you want to go ? how much money do you have ?

I could write 10,000 pages about CGI

short version

Poser for premade stuff ,render stills
real simple animations
poser pro plug for highend app's
poser chatacters a real high polycount 60,000

DAZ Studio for premade stuff ,render stills
real simple animations.
can use something like a plug for highend app's
Studios characters have geo graphting
Studios characters polycount 20,000 made for high end app's

DAZ Studio is free.
both have strong and week points.

zBrush stand alone for stills
make anything you can imagine
plug for high end app's ,animations.

if you get a high end app for animations
it's very complicated takes a lot of time
to make highend animations ya would need a renderfarm and a CGI crew.

Quote - You can not compare Blender to C4D there is no comparison at all.
C4D is 1000 times faster easier better then Blender.

Sorry, I have to chime in on this..... (No offence)

1000 times faster.... Sure it is.... Your dreaming....

Easier? not for a beginner....

Better, that's debatable

You missed a few points in the comparison between Blender and C4D.

• Blender is free, C4D is no where near free.... Unless your a student...
• More free stuff is available for Blender than C4D... Content, addons, etc.
• If you want a feature added to Blender, ask and they put it in, if it has merit.
• C4D used to be module based, they axed that and broke it up into different flavors.
• You can compile the souce of Blender for whatever op system you want to run it in.
• C4D doesn't have a Linux, Unix, ZOS, or Solaris version... That limits the maximum number of CPUs to 4, per instance.

I will stop at the last one, C4D support 4 processors max (Which requires Windows Server addition), Blender supports up to 512, per instance..... No way in hell of 4 processors can holding a candle to that many.....

Anyone that has ever seen Blender running on a Blade Server would laugh at any install of C4D.... There just, is not a comparison in speed there...

Granted not too many people have machines with more than 4 cpus in them, but some do... Used Blade Servers are out there... Sometimes you can buy a used single blade for less than the used processor(s) on it would cost you. I have done that myself to get Xeons, dirt cheap.

shvrdavid : Do you have C4D & Blender ?

Yes, I have those and more.

Quote - Yes, I have those and more.

Wish there was a faster way of moving to a new PC.
I've been at this all day.:bored:

What do you use Blender for instead of C4D ?

Quote - What do you use Blender for instead of C4D ?

Modeling, Sculpting, Uving, Grouping, etc.  The new sculpting tools are very nice, the newer modeling tools may not be as advanced as some programs, but they allow you to build stuff rather quickly once you get used to them. If you have not used Blender in a while, you should check it out and look at all the stuff they added to it.

I use Blender for doing simulations sometime as well. C4D does have better dynamic controls. And it is easier to set up attribultes in C4D than in Blender. But in the end, there using the same physics engines.

Hopefully by the time Blender hits version 3, it will have all of the same type of animation/dynamic tools as other high end software. Somewhere I read that they are in the works, but the API needs re-wriiten first to do it properly. The new api will allow tons of new things to be added as well. Not sure what version will have the new API. But that's probably posted on Blender.org somewhere.

Live physics is available now too, in real time with no cheats such as baking etc... And yes, rendered live as well on a system with enough gpu umph. (still in beta) I'm guessing that it will get even better with the new API in the pipeline...

Do you have zBrush ?
How do you think Blender stacks against zBrush ?

Well I finally got 16 GB worth of files n folders somewhat sorted and packed.
Did I say how much I bloody hate this.
Found out I don't like the way modzilla saves favs.
Hopefully buy Friday it will be done.

I'm not for or against any app.I'll use any app that will do what needs done.
Don't care about a bunny video ,liked Sintel.
Got blender 2.62 didn't have GoZ or nGons.
Didn't have zoom,scale,rotate icons.
Don't like object ,edit mode.
There's a lot that Blender can do but it can be cumbersome at times.
There's a lot Blender can't do.
companies that makes plugs for sell don't support Blender.
Not many real talented CGI Artist support Blender.
Some of the greatest assets Pro App's have are
plugs and Skilled CGI Artist.Pro studios using there app's.

If a browser is to dafted to put favs where ya can't tell what ya saved.
then why would I use that brain dead browser.

If a app don't even have zoom,scale,rotate icons.
That's reason enough a lone for me not to use that app.

Did like Blenders new UI & who could argue with the price.
I wish Blender well.hope they get there.

I dont have zbrush. I have considered getting it now that a lot of other programs can be used with it. I have seen it in use and played around with it, and it looks like a nice program. 

You need to learn a lot of the keyboard shortcuts in Blender. Once you have them down you will be zipping around scenes. You do zoom, rotate view, etc with the mouse and a shortcut key. (Which is remappable and there are two shortcut key presets in Blender. (Blender and Autodesk))

Yes, there is a lot Blender can not presently do. Thats a given since it is a free program. But at the same time it will do more than some programs costing a lot of money. 2.66 has a lot more in it than 2.62, way more...

Also keep in mind that most of Blender is turned off when you install it. There is a lot of stuff that you would want to turn on in the addons section. I guess they have a lot of it off to cut down on overhead and not scare the crap out of new users. There are a ton of unoffical plugins that drastically cut down rigging time. Rigify is now included, but disabled when you install it. (body rigging and automatic weight mapping) There are a few facial setups that will rig a characters head in a few min as well.

You should check to see if there are plugins for all of the render engines that you have as well. Blender can use tons of them. You will have to learn the Blender way of setting up the materials for each one thou. That is not too hard to figure out.

There really isnt a need for GOZ in Blender since it can do most of what Zbrush does already (in 2.66 up).. There is a unoffical plugin called GOB to do it if you wanted to thou. There are a few threads that mention that the Blender people were waiting on the GOZ SDK, no idea if they got it or not yet.

I have most of my systems backed up so I do not need to do the dreaded massive reinstalls. I use an older version of norton windoctor to track what gets added to the registry, etc, when you install a program and add that to the backups as well. That way I can copy the program folder and add the info it needs to run if a hard drive goes south on me.

My old workstation motherboard is getting old, and I am sure it wont be long before it goes south. Something is wrong with the had drive controller and it drops drives after it has been on for a while. I tried a different poser supply but that didn't help at all. It does recognize them if you pull them then put them back in for a while thou. (All the hard drives in it are hot swappable.)

Still with the hardware "insert cussing"

There's a lot of killer 3D Gallerys out there .
None better then zBrushes.
zBrush Gallery just says it all.

I started with zBrush1.55b.
Don't know if I've ever paid for a Z upgrade.
If I have it's been to long to remember.
I know all the Z upgrades have been free for a long time now.

zBrush is fast.

Attached Link: http://poser.smithmicro.com/tutorials.html

First of all start playing with poser, I seriously mean just messing around with it, for pure fun. See if you can get the hang of it.... a little or a lot and while doing so start following some tutorials, check out the link for those. Once you've got the hang of poser and know what it is all about by your own experience, plan the next step.

The problem with starting in 3D is that it can be overwhelming and if you don't focus on one step at the time, you will be drowned with the huge risk of giving up, you wouldn't be the first one to do so.

Once you know how to use poser, think of how it fits into your plans, by then your whole view of 3D may have changed. You still want to do your own modeling after that? Come back and ask again, but for now..... learn poser and poser alone! Poser has enough content included to teach you how to use poser effectively. After learning poser you may not want to make your own characters at all, then go a different route. It's all up to you, but for now..... you guessed it, stick to poser and expand slowly, if needed.

Your hardware is fine for poser, perhaps you need some more memory in time to come, but that depends on what your going to do, leave it for now. I've only got 6gb on my machine and I'm fine with it, but others do different projects and need more. You'll find out in time to come, again no need to rush out and get things you may not need at all in the end.

Have fun and good luck!

Oh.... and you need to learn to filter through the info given. We have a bad habit of running all kinds of subtopics in a forum topic, as you can see, sorry, our bad. It can get confusing at times, so learn to ignore and filter posts if needed :biggrin: We mean well, but we do get carried away.... a little too often.

syrianrue, 

I highly recommend one 3D app that hasn't been mentioned yet:   Carrara. 

It's also sold by DAZ3D, and does it all....I think it also can import Poser content (?)

I don't use Poser, but do use Carrara, Bryce, Hexagon, Blender, C4D, ZBrush and VUE. Each one does something well and usually better than the others, and all are fun to use.  

Carrara is great for animations.....very easy to use, tons of presets, including terrains & skies. 

Bryce...I started with it around '90....paid $300.....it's free now......it was THE 3D app at the time, and though it doesn't have polygon modeling,  you should see what others have done, and still do with it......some use it exclusively. [See Bryce5.com

](http://www.bryce5.com/categories.php?cat_id=15&page=2)Hexagon (free at DAZ) is a very good modeler....very underrated. 

Cinema4D IS a wonderful app....but extremely pricey now. Great for modeling,
rendering, animation. Best gui, imho. 

But I also take exception with a previous statement (as did shvrdavid),

"C4D is 1000 times faster easier better then Blender."  As much as I like using
C4D,  Blender is incredibly powerful, and very worthwhile trying out.

Blender does Pixar-quality modeling & animation........see the Sintel video
done completely in Blender (and 2yrs ago with an old version!).

I like Blender so much I created a website just to help others get 
up to speed with it with links to many tutorials and Blender websites.
www.blenderportal.com 

ZBrush! =O
~$700 to purchase, but all the upgrades are FREE, and they
bug you to upgrade.....incredible!  

It's much different interface & tools, but fantastic. 

Lately am diving into VUE11 for realistic skies & terrains......SciFi animation.
I avoided it for a long time because it runs relatively slowly, but the results
are worth it.  

Lots of great 3D apps out there to choose from.

Here's my YouTube channel if you want to see what I've done with each app. 
Nothing too complex.   

Good luck. Have fun. =)