Let's assume you're a noobie and you just bought your very first version of Poser. (For argument's sake, let's say it's Poser 11 or 12.) What do you want to find inside that you feel (based on what you know now) what help you most to enjoy Poser.

I'd like a fully-composed scene with posed and clothed figure and background props and lighting, to render.  Nothing gives a noob confidence like ease of getting their very first render come out nicely.

Anything that would save me time.  Time that I have to spend mucking about fighting with poser is time that I am wasting. 

@infinity10:  Would be even cooler would be a popup that says "Hi! I see it's your first time using Poser.  Would you like a sample scene to be loaded with a brief tour?"

If I pretend I was new to it all, you know what would be helpful?  Tooltips.  Not only tooltips but tooltips that you can click an open a larger explanation or show a page number of the reference guide OR even open the guide and go right to the page.  I know, I know... SORCERY!  Regardless, some interactivity to guide the user.  Poser could position itself as your "buddy" and walk you through learning it.

Quote - @infinity10:  Would be even cooler would be a popup that says "Hi! I see it's your first time using Poser.  Would you like a sample scene to be loaded with a brief tour?"

If I pretend I was new to it all, you know what would be helpful?  Tooltips.  Not only tooltips but tooltips that you can click an open a larger explanation or show a page number of the reference guide OR even open the guide and go right to the page.  I know, I know... SORCERY!  Regardless, some interactivity to guide the user.  Poser could position itself as your "buddy" and walk you through learning it.

You want something like a Poser "Wizard"?

I don't..  but my alter-ego, which is a noob, thinks it would be cool to have some of the guesswork taken out of it.  A wizard is more like something that automates and walks you through doing something.  I'm saying something interactive that would be there if you need it and could be turned off by advanced users.

I know I might get flambasted for this but think more of... "Clippy".  Yes, I mean the animated paperclip in old Microsoft Word.  It could sit in the corner and you can get interactive help from it or it (by typing keywords) and could take some note of what you are doing and occasionally say.. "Hey, I can show you a better way to do this".  It wouldn't be "Clippy" but it could be Andy... or Woody.

I'm advocating wizards and clippies for some time now, so yes that would be helpful.

As I'm into Poser from version 1, I'm not sure about my response when a message pops up and says "hi, I see you're a first time user", but I guess I can live with it after smaching a monitor or two :-)

I would go for the interactive tour guide/help a simple tour could be helpful but as an ex trainer I have found 'doing' makes it easier to learn.  I know you can always ask questions and find scripts that make Poser a lot easier but if you have just opened Poser for the first time you don't even know enough to know what to ask or what will help.

Seeing a render run for the first time would also help as it gives you an idea of what Poser is used for and capable of.  When I started way back in Poser 5 I didn't have the first clue what I was doing for months.

Open Poser ;

From => Top Menu => Window => Quick start

A new window opens and lets you choose your lessons/demos even with a full set of video tutorials.

Poser comes with a nice set of tutorials, from basic to advanced.

But very few people know about it.

This "Quick Start" could be the "first" opening screen for a new Poser user.

Never knew the Quick Start was there, Tony... :ohmy:

Is there is full scene which a total noob to Poser can just load and render ?  If there is, it would be very encouraging for the user.  That's basically my point of view as a total noob, which I am no longer, yeah.

There are 4 included scenes in the Library, but no human figures within.

Also, I popped open the Crime Lab scene, and much of the preview is a black void, but it renders as a nice office.  I think there are too many lights in the scene for OpenGL to handle... :glare:

Needs a scene with a posed figure inside to make the noob happy. Uh, clothed of course !

Then use the clothed legacy figures.  They come with poses also.  A noob must learn to load other things into a scene; can't have everything load automatically for them.

The old Daz Studio 1 used to come with a full scene that you could easily load and render. It was some lo-rez Vikie fairy in a forest cyclorama or some such. Ack. I never rendered it. Not once. It took me 7 years after that to install DS on my machine again.

Given the wide variety of users, I'm not sure there's a single scene that could be manufactured that wouldn't completely turn off a sizable number of them. 

Just about every single newbie who posts for help in these forums, at least, wants help installing, morphing, or (sometimes even!) clothing Vickie. And obviously you can't put her in a scene.

The ones who seem happy to play with the Poser figures until they get a real hang of things don't seem to post here very much. Is it because they don't need that kind of help? Are the Poser figures that much more intuitive? They might be. They certainly install easily. :)

I agree with hborre. You don't learn anything by rendering a full and preloaded scene.

didnt daz have a pre made scene (long time since I looked at daz) ?

and I remember one proggy that insisted on giving you video lessons

maybe a voice over saying you really dont want to do that! ;-)

things I would like is BB's lightmeter built in maybe (if possible) it would turn other lights down as you turn one up ;-)

more realistic colours on the "default" lights and a decent set up of them so you have nice flat lights you'd see in a photostudio (for setting up)

think your asking the awkward (impossible is a bad answer) everyone has diferent skill levels and looking for the best answer for themselves

Poser used to come with a Tutorial manual with content to be used in it, but that went away in Poser 8 or 9...

Good point, heddheld. Good default lights would go a long way to making that first render look good.

At least the default render settings have shadows enabled these days.

That's really part of the problem: if you make the default choices really bad, it makes for bad first renders.

If the next Poser simply started with an envirosphere, a good set of lights, a folder with materials for the sphere (named appropriately, so you know what it is), and a good set of alternative lights, plus decent draft render settings, and a good skin shader on the newest models...

That's not quite a fully loaded scene. You still have to learn how to navigate the library, and how to apply materials and load figures and lights, etc.

But when you do render your first nudie, it will look awesome. 

I could certainly see how that would be helpful and motivational.

If it can't be done by SM in-house, hire someone who knows what they're doing to put together a collection of up to date shaders and .mt5 files, sensibly categorized as 'metals', 'glasses', 'liquids', 'stone' etc. Make these much easier to find than the crappy old legacy shaders. Then get an intern / child / trained monkey to go through the standard characters and props and apply those shaders where and as appropriate.

Ditch all those horrible old light sets which are completely useless now that we have IBL, IDL and GC. In fact, it's time to rationalize all the legacy stuff: either adapt it for modern versions of Poser or let it go.

I've never quite understood the burr under one's saddle that the Poser legacy content seems to represent for so many people who apparently don't use them anyway.

Quote - I've never quite understood the burr under one's saddle that the Poser legacy content seems to represent for so many people who apparently don't use them anyway.

Normally I don't care either, but in the context of making life easier for new users, a lot of the legacy stuff is counter-productive. Noobs might reasonably suppose that content bundled with the software would show Poser's capabilities to the full. Stuff created in Poser 5 or 6 can look spectacularly awful when used by the uninitiated in Poser 10.

AMEN!! 

The converse can also be true; here's Posette in her P4 Bikini and Kozaboro hair from 2005 with modern shaders and IDL...

I have to agree about the idea of "rationalizing the legacy stuff".  At the very least do something like set Posette up with subD and drop an EZSkin shader on her, for example.  I don't see where it would be terribly difficult.  Nobody's talking, I don't think, about being hardcore about it, just get some general, basic modern settings going for the old content.

It might even get some excited to know that all the old stuff has been modernized - to see that they made the candles look like wax and the cars look like they have proper paint on them (or whatever).

I certainly vote for a good set of ready to use materials, even now when I am no longer a beginner.

And drop the legacy light sets or categorise them clearly as not to be used with Gamma Correction and/or IDL.

I would like non-caucasian textures for all new figures to be included with Poser. It was a disappointment when Roxie and Rex came out with no darker skins.

Make it easy and attractive for people to learn and use the features that set Poser apart from other similar software.

I would like to see an updated library of dynamic hairstyles, sized for all the newer figures.

Also an updated library of simple dynamic clothing for each of the newer figures, with a scene already set-up to drape them. Get the new users into the cloth room and the hair room as soon as possible.

For the face room, include a royalty free library of front and side face photos correctly sized and proportioned, with even lighting, for males and females. Include a variety of racial options. Remove the restriction on distributing head textures created in the face room, for heaven's sake, if you want people to use this feature. Increase the default resolution of the faceroom head texture, so that it becomes easy for people to get good results using this feature. Consult with Tucan-Tiki!

Quote - I certainly vote for a good set of ready to use materials, even now when I am no longer a beginner.

And drop the legacy light sets or categorise them clearly as not to be used with Gamma Correction and/or IDL.

I would like non-caucasian textures for all new figures to be included with Poser. It was a disappointment when Roxie and Rex came out with no darker skins.

I agree, but just so you know, if you want I do have a dark skin for Roxie that I have made.

Hey Rod, I see Posette is looking hot as ever!
She might be low poly but she's still retro-sexy, must be the eyes and long legs, I dunno :woot: