It is possible to make things within Poser - Dr Geep has a number of tutorials on the subject - but it's going to be easier with a dedicated modelling application I think.

Thanks, everyone, for your input.

Richard, those Dr Geep tutorials look like just what I was looking for, Thanks!

  ~ Russ  

Does anybody know any quick and easy (e.g. shortcut-keys) way to toggle between the Poser rooms?

Hint for those struggling with IDL...

Use The "Render Firefly" script located under Scripts:Partners:Dimension3d:Render Firefly

In addition to your being able to set all of the stuff that is available on the Poser Advanced Render Options screen, there are a number of VERY useful controls located there not available elsewhere.

Under "Enable Indirect Light"

Intensity

This defaults to 1. If you are using Bagginsbill's Envdome (I hope you are) then this default works pretty well for outside scenes. If, however, your shadows look extremely washed out, you can fix the problem by dropping this level to around .5 and increasing your shadow casting light to about 50%. This actually "turns down" the light from the dome. It's also effective if you are using the dome and want a render in low light.

Precalculation Scale

This is the part of using IDL where you can grow old waiting. By setting this to around .5 you half the size of the pre-calc image (reducing it's area to 1/4!) and speed the process remarkably with no visual impact on the final render.

One other IDL hint:

Turn "Light Emitter" OFF (uncheck the box) in the properties screen of all transmapped hair. This will speed the process by a huge factor and, again, have minimal impact on the finished render. (I see none at all, but am told there is a difference. Trust me on this one... it's negligible at most.)

Hope the above helps.

Great information, thank you Doug.

Would you know how to make a light glow?

In Vue, if I want a light in the window to show that it is on (an evening scene for instance), I add a light, drag it into the cottage, house, building etc., fix the color, and intensity, then go on to whatever I am doing with the scene.  When I render, you can see the light coming through the window and it looks great.

In Poser, I can never get that look.  Please tell me what I am doing wrong.

Foxy...

I am by no means a lighting guru. There are a number of threads that address this. Do a search for "IDL"+"light through window" with "bagginsbill" as the poster.

As to the short answer to your question:

1. Go to the material room and set the Ambient Value to 1 or greater.

2. If you are looking through a pane of glass, make that pane 100% transparent.

Hello.

I have 2 questions:

1. What is the difference between Victoria 4.0 and Victoria 4.2?

2. Which one should I be using?

Thank you

@datastorm:

Victoria 4.2 (V4.2) is simply the current version of Victoria 4 (V4).  This is the version being provided by DAZ presently, and is the version you shoulld be using.

  ~ Russ  (AKA Ansel)

Thanks for your quick reply Ansel

Quote - Thanks for your quick reply Ansel

My pleasure.  :-)

Hi all... (waves)

This is a great thread-- I've saved answers to separate word docs for each topic, and I'll be going over them. :)

I used Poser much more several years ago; for a variety of reasons, I never ended up going very far with it, and I want to make up for it now!! So, beause there's such a range of tuts out there... would people recommend that paid series? In a lot of ways, I'd rather just have one series of tuts I'd have to pay for that I know will be useful than chase down zillions of free tuts that might or might not be any good. It's been discussed on this thread. How recent is it? The link is here:

http://www.renderosity.com/mod/bcs/poser-beginner-to-advanced/95392

I also have a lot of questions about the sad, sad state of my libraries... but that will wait until I get a chance to go over all of the lib notes from here.

I do not have that particular series set of tutorials myself yetbut owning several tutorials by one of the authors Fugazi1968I would highly recomend it. The tutorials are of high quality and easy to follow Fugazi1968 has some free sample tutorials in the video tutorial sections of Renderosity site they are a bit older but still of great resource of information.

Hope it helps

Lobo3433

Quote - Hi all... (waves)

 

This is a great thread-- I've saved answers to separate word docs for each topic, and I'll be going over them. :)

 

I used Poser much more several years ago; for a variety of reasons, I never ended up going very far with it, and I want to make up for it now!! So, beause there's such a range of tuts out there... would people recommend that paid series? In a lot of ways, I'd rather just have one series of tuts I'd have to pay for that I know will be useful than chase down zillions of free tuts that might or might not be any good. It's been discussed on this thread. How recent is it? The link is here:

http://www.renderosity.com/mod/bcs/poser-beginner-to-advanced/95392

 

I also have a lot of questions about the sad, sad state of my libraries... but that will wait until I get a chance to go over all of the lib notes from here.

I agree, I have most of Fugazi's Tuts and they are very good.

I do have the tutorial and many others by the same authors and I can highly recommend it for the very reasons you have stated.  It is for the very latest version of Poser, at least until Tuesday next week, and has a lot of information well explained.  It does not cover everything but then no tutorial ever could but it does give you a great start if you are new to, or returning to, Poser after a long break.  There are a lot of ideas that should stimulate the imagination and all of the procedures are explained in easy steps.  All of the information may well be available on the Internet but finding it and working out what is relevant for the current version of Poser would be a long job.

Even when Poser 10 and Poser 2014 hits the streets all of the information should still be relevant it just will not cover the new features.  If you are going to buy a tutorial for Poser this is the one to get. 

Hi everyone,

There is so much great information here - I manually copied and pasted it all into word then made a pdf of it to browse more leisurely as I can. As I sifted through page by page to make sure the formatting was right I was skimming over trying to see if there was a post for my question and I have to be honest if there is I am sorry that I missed it. These 9 pages equated out to 171 Word Document pages shocked look Ok so here it all is...

I do not have any type of art background other than minimal elementary school stuff; I have only been a digital artist for a couple/few years now and have mostly worked out of DAZ 3A/ DAZ 4/4.5. I do own Poser 9/PP2012 and tinkered in PP2012 just a little but when I got to where I could load in a background made by Sveva but could not get it to render out (the bottom was always chopped off!) it ticked me off and I never came back to it.

I now have upgraded to PP2014 and am ready to spread my wings, drop D|S for the moment and dedicate my time to nothing but learning Poser. But, there is this loading a background & getting it to render problem. 

1. What do I do to fix this so that the entire background will render along with the rest of my scene?

2. Will this fix work in both PP2012 AND PP2014 as I would really like to be able to know how to function in both programs.

3. Will this work on things like Fabiana's Essentials Vol. IV-Glass&Mirror & Sveva's Behind the Glass backgrounds for it, people's backdrops, etc?

I am still in the very beginning stages of learning 2D Postworking (the actual programs & tools from the ground up) so having the items above in the meantime would be a such a blessing & being so used to how I work in Studio I am more than lost at the moment - staring into the brown screen abyss that is my Poser screen - LOL.

Thank you all for reading my novel & I hope that my words came out right.  If anyone knows where a walk-through on how to get DSON, Genesis and all of your Poser CF Files & DSON compatible items working in Poser is, I would be ever grateful for the point in that direction. =D

All the best,

Bree

You need to make sure that your render's aspect ration (the proportion of wodth to height) matches the background image. If you are using File>Import>Import Background Image... Poser should offer to do that for you.

@LadyBree:

Here is a good, concise explanation of getting the DSON stuff working:

http://forum.runtimedna.com/showthread.php?78950-Dyson-Importer&highlight=DSON

Hope this helps.

  ~ Russ  

I get a pop up message when I use that method that says that my window is not the same size as my background image, would I like to have my window changed to match the background - so I say yes and my problem is still the same - I go to my render settings and try to change the resolution there and not sure if that fixes things because I cannot change that to the exact reso of the background. Here is a screen shot of what my problem looks like when I load it in following what you mentioned: File>Import>Background Image

Sorry, I cannot get my screen shot to attach. what is happening is the background loads but at what I guess would be the "horizon" line halfway through the poser screen, it cuts off the background and you cannot see anymore of it below that point. I had this problem when trying to change my background color earlier as well (wanted to make it either white or grey like I have it in D|S so that its easier for me to see some of the colors)

Quote - @LadyBree:

Here is a good, concise explanation of getting the DSON stuff working:

http://forum.runtimedna.com/showthread.php?78950-Dyson-Importer&highlight=DSON

Hope this helps.

  ~ Russ  

Russ,

Thank you sooo much for this! It is just what I was looking for and will be a tremendous help! =D Thank you again!

~ Bree ~

A background image can be placed on a flat primitive plane and scaled up to an appropriate size to fit your scene.  Placing a slight ambient value will prevent shadows from appearing on it from characters/props in the scene.  To properly retain resolution ratios, determine the size of your image, in pixels, and apply it to the x-, y- scales of the plane.  Load your image, then use the overall scaling to resize the background.  Use x-, y-, z- translations to position the background. 

Now if you are looking to interact background and foreground, for example, with shadows appearing on the image, then you need a different strategy to intergrate all the components of your scene.

hborre, thank you for explaining this. It is definitely making more sense & with the way you explained it, I think you are possibly even answering a question that i have long had in D|S (Maybe, I know both programs work quite differently).

I have never tried my hand at this primitive stuff but this is a good reason to. I just cant help myself when it comes to some of these backgrounds. 

Thank you all again for the help! =D

~ Bree ~

Given the introduction of IDL in the later Poser versions, many users are gravitating towards skydome backgrounds for rendering images and lighting.

been away from poser for a time.. Real life.. Anyways Im trying to make a reasonable lookalike of the Summer Glau terminator character from the Sarah Connor chronicles..Im using V4 with morphs + ..So far so good but how do I give her a slightly longer neck?? no scaling on her neck..I may give the face room in pp12 a go to get her nose shape right..

(looks around)

Oh, what a dumb question this is.

(furtively starts typing)

Something extremely obvious must have gone wrong here...

(Are y'all SURE you're prepared for just how dumb this question is? Okay...)

So M4 is now in the library in his very own folder. When downloading everything, I made sure the morphs were in the same folder as both the character and a dummy poser.exe file. The problem is, um, that he doesn't seem to be getting along too well with the clothes. It's either HIM or whatever item of clothing is in question. When it shows up (let's say a pair of jeans,) he mysteriously vanishes. If there's another character in the scene (let's say V4), then any attempt to move him around only moves her.

PLEASE help out with some muchly appreciated advice here...

@ prinzeugen12: V4 will not work in the Face Room.  None of DAZ's models will work either for that matter.  Only legacy and CP's G2 models, including Miki4. 

The neck scaling might be hidden dial; there are scripts for unhiding those dials.  I believe Snarly's Scenefixer script has that feature builtin.

Quote - @ prinzeugen12: V4 will not work in the Face Room.  None of DAZ's models will work either for that matter.  Only legacy and CP's G2 models, including Miki4. 

The neck scaling might be hidden dial; there are scripts for unhiding those dials.  I believe Snarly's Scenefixer script has that feature builtin.

thanks for the heads up...  

Well, I got pushed into the deep end of the pool without floaties, and I have a couple of questions. 

 This is not about using Poser, but installing Poser. My old XP machine crashed, I was using Poser 7.  Well, now I have a brand spanking new machine, and OS, Windows 7.

So I have to learn not only Windows 7, but....

 I'm also going to finally install PoserPro 2012, not even going to load Poser 7 on this new machine, or I wont move on, lol.

 So, I've read this whole thread, and I think I know what to do, but I want to double check.

First a little info..

Win7 Pro 64bit

i7cpu

8GB ram

GPU NVIDIA GeForce GTS250

All my content is on an external drive, the only thing I had in the Poser app folder was the program..duh, lol... and scripts.

So...getting to the point. 

Can I put my Poser in C:/Programs since I put my content on an external drive.

And I don't remember, do shaders also need to be in the app folder to work? Or can I put them on my external drive?

Can I just install the 64bit app? 

Do I have to install the content that comes with Poser with the program install or can I go back and do it later?

I'll also need the SR, can I download that to any folder and run it, or does it have to be in the app folder?

Sorry to be so long winded, but I wanted to make sure I put all the info you might need to answer my questions.

I'm sure I'll be back later with questions on  using PP2012, lol

Thanks in advance!

Can I put my Poser in C:/Programs since I put my content on an external drive.

Yes. I do suggest that you NOT put the included content in that directory, however.
And I don't remember, do shaders also need to be in the app folder to work? Or can I put them on my external drive?

Shaders can go anywhere. PYTHON scripts MUST be in the Poser:runtime:Python folder/
Can I just install the 64bit app? 

Yes
Do I have to install the content that comes with Poser with the program install or can I go back and do it later?

It's content. You can install it at any time. I do suggest that you go ahead and do it, because the default Poser scene includes "Andy", which is part of the content collection.
I'll also need the SR, can I download that to any folder and run it, or does it have to be in the app folder?

The SR can be anywhere on your drive. 

Thank you so much for your quick reply.  I hope to have time to install and play with my new Poser soon. 

Thanks also to all the posters in this thread for the great information and tips!

there any way to makie the face a female face in the face room or do i have to morph it?.. and what if all my poses do not load in poser 9 does that mean i do nothave them?

We need a lot more information to be able to help.

What figure are you working with?

What poses do not load? Which ones do? Please give examples.

Greetings, all! 

I am a complete n00b to Poser; I bought Poser Debut to introduce myself to things, but the learning curve has been a trifle steep.

My default 3D program is DAZ Studio, and I have a number of Poser props with associated PMD files, so of course the morphs in those files don't work with DAZ.

I've tried using the PMD Injector plug-in as a workaround, going so far as to attempt to write a PZ2 file that the injector can use, but the morphs for this prop don't inject.

I pulled the prop into Debut, where the morphs work, but I wonder if there's a way to save/export/whatever the PP2 such that the PMD file isn't required the for the morphs to work, so I can use it in DS.

Any help is greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

A quick follow-up, as I don't see a way to edit my post. After wrestling with Debut a bit more, I found a little checkbox under the Edit menu, and my problems were solved!

Huzzah! :-D

Hi - Can someone with a little more experience than me help me with an infuriating problem?

I have a prop (ok its a naughty one - V4s 'bits') they snap to the correct location when I load them, but then if I pose V4 at all, they remain where they are. I suspected a parenting issue, but haven't had any success - what am I doing wrong?

I have Poser Pro 2014 64 bit.

Thanks in advance, you helpful people!

What have you tried so far?  If it is an actual prop, parenting it should solve the problem.  On the other hand, if it is a figure, you will need to conform it to V4.  Please provide more information.

I even tried locking it. strange

I think she's looking good - it'd be a shame not to have her 'fully equipped' :)

Open your hierarchy panel and locate the prop in the tree.  Highlight it and drag it to V4's hip.  That should parent it to that region.  Try posing V4 afterwards.

I am SURE I tried that already! how come it worked after you said!? Typical!

Thank you

Just look at the emblem on my chest.

Quote - I am SURE I tried that already! how come it worked after you said!? Typical!

Hborre is plugged directly into the time-space continum. Almost always, after he says something, it tends to work... even if it didn't before. He catches me that way all the time!

:)

Well, I'm back :(  

 I tried to install Poser Pro 2012 this morning and all seemed to be going well, untill it froze my computer. I mean brought it to a dead stop, wouldn't respond to anything.

It happened during the "Installing Poser Figures" phase.  Got the green bar... nothing, didn't move on, wouldn't respond to the Control, ALt, Delete command nothing. Cancel bar was greyed out, I couldn't even get to my start menu.

I had to do a hard shut down on my computer.. which I really didn't like, but oh well.

Has anyone else had this problem and could you maybe suggest what I did wrong or could try over?

I did have the PP2012 icon on my desk top, but when I tried to use it, I got an error about how PP2012 couldn't start because of a side by side configuration or setup problem, I don't remember. I went into add/remove programs and uninstalled content and the PP2012 exe. 

I'd appreciate any help offered.

thanks

Quote - Well, I'm back :(  

 I tried to install Poser Pro 2012 this morning and all seemed to be going well, untill it froze my computer. I mean brought it to a dead stop, wouldn't respond to anything.

It happened during the "Installing Poser Figures" phase.  Got the green bar... nothing, didn't move on, wouldn't respond to the Control, ALt, Delete command nothing. Cancel bar was greyed out, I couldn't even get to my start menu.

I had to do a hard shut down on my computer.. which I really didn't like, but oh well.

Has anyone else had this problem and could you maybe suggest what I did wrong or could try over?

I did have the PP2012 icon on my desk top, but when I tried to use it, I got an error about how PP2012 couldn't start because of a side by side configuration or setup problem, I don't remember. I went into add/remove programs and uninstalled content and the PP2012 exe. 

I'd appreciate any help offered.

thanks

Contact Smith Micro. This is the sort of issue they are the most qualified to help you with.

Attention all Newbies!

Mini-tut on how to make conforming clothing look more natural posed here: 

http://www.renderosity.com/mod/forumpro/showthread.php?thread_id=2869878

Thanks  basicwiz, I just waited a little while and tried again using compact install instead of full and it worked.

Quote - Just look at the emblem on my chest.

lol

Hello,

I am newbie in Poser 2012.  Found lots of great information in this thread.  One thing I concerned the most is the organization of content.  There is a post "organization" in this thread which explain quite a bit but I still have some questions.

When I installed Poser, I specify the content to be put in a seperate directory  "D:Poser Content".

After that I installed "Victoria 4" pro bundle with the base character, basicwear and hair content, I found that contents are being put all over the place.

I can see the hair and basicwear are under the main figures tab in the library, not in the hair lib or props/clothing tab.  I can also see Places folder and shoes folder in the figure tab.

Is it supposed to be like that?  When I am installing, I use the "installer" coming with that content.

Is there any general guideline on where to put what?  As the content library grows, there is no way I will be able to find anything the way it is organization right now.

Any help is appreciated.  Thanks.

To answer your question, yes.  The reason you are seeing the content distributed as such a manner is because every item of clothing and hair appearing under figures are rigged for a particular model.  The rigging permits these items to be conformed to the body for an accurate fit.  Non-rigged items will be found in their corresponding categories, either hair or props, and these particular items are smart propped or dynamic in nature.  I believe the manual describes the difference between each type of clothing and hair.

Also, the current Poser iterations may permit you to move content around to their appropriate folders but the issue arises when you want to identify conforming from dynamic.

@hborre

Thank you for your quick response.  Now I understand.  Got couple more questions, hope you can help.

1. I put clothes on the V4 figure(I did select Victoria before selecting the clothes), it fits well when not in motion.  I setup a walk path and it walks fine.  However it walks without the clothes, the clothes are staying in the starting point.

My guess is all newbies go through this question.  I did try to look for the answer but couldn't find anywhere(yet). Any idea?

1. I find it very slow to make a moive (Animation > Make Movie).  I use all default settings and have the skeleton walk for few sec with no background(about 90 frames).  When I test the walk on screen, the figure walks fast, like real time.  However the movie took very long (like 15 min) to produce and the resolution is not good. I can see the color of the ground is like circles from the figure out.

The resulting file size is 9mb.  Is there anyway I can speed it up?

I select the default Microsoft codec, CPU spikes up to 100% but used only about 60% of memory.  I have a core 2 duo class machine, not the fastest but not the slowest either.  It is kind of unreasonable for a 3 sec movie takes this long to make.  I suspect it is something to do with the settings or video compression I used causing the problem.

Hope someone can help.  Thanks.

It sounds to me that you are not conforming the clothing to V4 once they are introduced into the scene.  There are 2 ways to conform clothing.  The classical method involves clicking on the clothing content to bring it into the scene, highlighting the clothing, then pull down the figure menu on the upper taskbar and select Conform to..., as illustrated.

The second method is suited for P9/PP2012 & P8/PP2014; select the clothing figure from your library and drag & drop it on your model.  It will automatically conform once you release the mouse button.

Now if you are using dynamic clothing, that is a different issue.

Where is the clothing content located in your library?

@hborre

Thank you.  I use the "Figure > Confirm To" selection for each clothing items and it works.  The clothes walk with the figure.  8)

The clothes are also in the Figure Tab, not under Props>Clothing.

You mentioned that you don't render animations anymore.  Just curious, what do you use poser for?  Do you export to other apps? 

All I want to do is some basic people walk around with a picture background, is there other way to export the scene instead of using the make movie option?

Sorry for being nosey.  Thanks.  Really appreciate your help!