Where are the wicked cool Poser video's on Youtube ?
Youtube is the best and FREE advertising & if your advertising ya app as a animation app ,
Then Seriously where are your Poser Video's ?

Blender even has short Video's on youtube
Where's Posers Sintel ?

Who wins ? The one with the best Gallery & Video's
Who Shrivels and dies ? ...

Unreal https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lY20pxEQM-A

Blender https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HomAZcKm3Jo

Poser ... w.i.p. I hope.

David, RorrKonn, well said, though to be absolutely fair I think from an animation point of view at least, the crown has to go to iClone as far as productivity goes.  There seems to be endless amounts of short and even long movies out there done in iClone.  It's proof that their animation system is productive while the others are less so.  Search *"iClone movie"*on YouTube and you're spoilt for choice, right from the early stuff to some of the more modern, more impressive looking stuff.

Only problem for me with iClone is I wish the rendering were a bit better, and the UI seems to be losing the plot and getting a bit messy lately.

Anyway, I agree it's not on topic for this thread, but I think Unreal Engine warrants it's own thread here so that we can discuss "Poser to Unreal Engine" workflows etc.  Shall I start it or is there anyone else here who's already well aquainted with working with it, and with FBX and that sort of thing, maybe start a thread with some pointers?

Didn't get a reply from Shane on the FBX thing so I tried exporting an FBX from DS instead.  I actually got Genesis to show-up in Unreal Engine on the first attempt although I couldn't pose it, but wow, the amount of options in Unreal for just importing an FBX file is crazy.

@ RorrKonn
I googled : "Youtube SMith Micro"

And this is what came up.

One of the very best and most complete youtube series for 2D and 3D.

https://www.youtube.com/user/contentparadise

Find them by app, by webinars, all are there

happy Posering all.
Tony

Vilters, I don't think RorrKonn meant tutorial videos, more like completed stuff, animated shorts and movies etc.

and that reminds me.
treat your customers well ,So you don't lose them.
you can't replace a lost customer but
customers can replace app's ,forums ,stores ,venders etc etc.
god forgives ,I don't fxrealms,iclone,cgtalk.

"Where are the wicked cool Poser video's on Youtube ?
Youtube is the best and FREE advertising & if your advertising ya app as a animation app ,
Then Seriously where are your Poser Video's ?"

.........well said, though to be absolutely fair I think from an animation point of view at least, the crown has to go to iClone as far as productivity goes.  There seems to be endless amounts of short and even long movies out there done in iClone.  It's proof that their animation system is productive while the others are less so".

Not to be a "one note Charley" here but it is very difficult to create CG animated movies in poser
because the only things that even remotely qualifies as an "update" to its character animation system, are  animated constraints and soft bodies for the "jiggley bits"

The rest of poser CA system remains firmly planted in the year 1996.

Have a look at this 3.5 minute video and you see why Iclone rules the world of affordable Character animation tools
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pijbJ7PcvrI

@ wolf359

Have you tried the Poser : Direct manipulation tool?
With IK on the arms or legs ON and OFF?

Full description is in the manuals.

The only thing Poser does not have yet is collide with an object.
(Floor, table, stairs, chair.)
Poser only has a Drop to Ground plane. Ctrl + D

does DAZ puppeteer work in Poser ?

"@ wolf359

Have you tried the Poser : Direct manipulation tool?With IK on the arms or legs ON and OFF?
Full description is in the manuals."

Yes I have used this tool and am quite familiar with it,

Understand this;
Posers IK solver ,such as it is, is still fairly usable in scenarios where you need it on for the entire animation.

the problem is when you try to later in the sequence to switch it off for motions that dont require feet/hand pinning.

then your figures limbs can go berserk ruining your entire sequence.
has this been fixed in the "game dev "version???

"does DAZ puppeteer work in Poser ?"

well you can create puppeteer or Animate+ motion in DS and export them to animated pose file's(PZ2) for poser
via the free "poser format exporter" plugin for DS

I do this all the time with my older DS 2.3
cant speak about the latest versions of DS.

I don't think we have something like Puppeteer for Poser. I would really like to have a tool like this and I think this should be possible in Python.

There is a plugin which works a lot like Power Pose though, Dizzie's Hampelmann. It's here in the free stuff.

For me, it's an invaluable help when posing.

Puppeteer used to be for Poser before it moved to DS. I recall that at some point some of the technology was incorporated into Poser.

Just a note:

Nobody has really addressed what's going on in the "Market" and the typical demographic's... time and how they consider a new purchase.

Poser is very easy to use and very good at what it does - Still Rendering. This appeals to a select group of people with some segment also desiring animation rendering capabilities, which it also does fairly well. There are even commercial users who like Poser's quick and easy animation rendering with a wide base of content, but that's probably because either "That's what they already have" or "They can't afford to hire out for more heavy-duty production capabilities."

Where do "new users" come from? Mostly, it's going to be those that saw a pic somewhere rendered in Poser that they liked. There's painfully little brick-and-mortar shelf-space out there and almost all electronic media has flown to the net.

That means a much more even playing ground with competitors competing across a very wide segment. There's lots of rendered pics out there from lots of engines. (How many potential first-purchase users interested in 3D have ever heard of the "firefly engine?" Zero. Well, maybe one or three, but that's about it.)

So, the guy that saw the pic he liked which was rendered in Poser? Well, he may have done some other image searches and has seen stuff rendered in a great many other programs. Poser doesn't have "box competition" to back it up any longer. Now, it's competing with "results", for at least one demographic. There is no limited "shelf space" on teh interwebz...

But, take a look at the typical demographic  - Mr. User." What else are they interested in? If they're interested in "animation", as well, Poser isn't going to be top of a google search on "animation programs" is it? And, if it did pop up, what are the animations going to look like when compared to other products that "do the same thing?" (Remember, they're a neophyte, they know very little about the capabilities or intellectual requirements of the programs they're drooling over.) So, Mr. Possible Poser User is bombarded with things like the Unreal Engine or Unity or even Blender and he gets to thinking...

"I like animations. I like cool pictures. I like games. I like boobs. Can I have all of these?"

The answer is, of course, "Yes, Mr. Possible Poser User, there is a Santa Claus and you can have all of these things."

Mr. User is torn. He's making a purchase decision, but he's also making a decision concerning his time. He can only spend so many hours a day using his new toy, so what is he going to choose? And, even if he choses Poser, will it satisfy his need for those things that Poser doesn't do or those things it doesn't do well. Mr. User has diverse interests, after all, and if he likes cool still pictures, he probably like moving ones, too. And, if he likes all of these computer graphic thingies, he may think he could program a game or three or model 3D figures and create something that rivals anything produced by a professional studio! (Mr. User is typically a neophyte and doesn't do much research beyond an image search.)

Now, let's add in the younger demographics. They're pretty savvy, when it comes down to graphics and 3D. (Compared to a few years ago.) Their addiciton is also heavily supported by the most popular applications out there. They can get "free" and very powerful software, like Blender (Let's not talk about its UI) or they can even log into their Steam account and grab some development tools for their favorite games. They can get something like Unreal and start mucking around with the stuff that they really love. Where's the attracttion for Poser for that segment? Where it that segment's "creative spark" generally pointed?

I don't know if Poser's user base is shrinking. However, I am certain that their target audience is shrinking. Those are two different things. Poser's target audience is budgeting its time and its attention and, right now, Poser is not very strong at commanding either of these for users who have access to other tools or even newer ones. "Why spend a bunch of time learning Poser when it will never be able to do some of the things I want to do? I can do laser blasts and boobs in Unreal! So cool... bewbs..."

(A Note: Don't think so? Count the number of vidyo gamez with bouncing bewbs... Case closed - Poser bewbz don't bounce unless you really work hard and spend a lot of time making them bounce. You want Poser boxes to fly off the electronic shelf? Add real-time in-window rendering for soft object dynamics, like bouncing boobs, for Poser 2018 or something. They wouldn't have the bandwidth to support the rush to the servers.)

In order to escape the enevitable doom of a shrinking audience, SM has to expand its product's capabilities. (Remember, that's a "shrinking audience", not a "shrinking user-base." The audience is more important, long term, since it is what limits the possible number of new users. )Right now, Poser is exactly what it say's on the non-existent box "A posing and rendering program." That is no longer enough. It will shortly be "not enough" in the next year or so, without good innovation or extreme polish. Poser has to diversify its capabilities in order to compete. And, it's worth noting that is "only to be able to compete." That does not guarrantee it a place in the market, that only expands its potential in existing markets, where it will still have to compete with other products.

Honestly, Poser will be around for awhile, yet. But, it has to adopt capabilities that other programs are already ahead of the curve on. Either that, or it must radically improve it's already targeted capabilities, like import/export functions, integration with development tools and work-flows, animation, rendering, accurate real-time rendering, content generation, increased object modeling and manipulation tools, etc... in order to rise just high enough to get noticed and to renew the current segment's interest in still-shot and pure motion animation rendering with easy content management and content expansion.

I like Poser. I enjoy Poser. But, I don't enjoy the fact that if I put my time into a game dev engine, I could have a richer experience in modeling and rendering as hobby and my ceiling for that experience isn't as limited by the program I'm currently using.

PS- By the way, how, in this day and age, can one have something called an "animation package" that doesn't do particle effects? And, why is that? Is it due to limitations or is it a cost/design consideration? Medicine can be expensive, I know. But, if I don't buy it when I need it, I might die... Poser needs accessible particle and lighting effects, pronto, quick-like, in order to "wow" audiences, old and new alike.

Of course the user base is shrinking.  After a certain age, we are all getting bit shorter due to osteoporosis or sarcopenia :)

However, for a serious answer, I just feel that less are socially active or have different social outlets, so lack of participation might be a caution but doesn't necessarily mean that users are dying out.  Anything we can do, as a collective all over the poserverse, to interact in a postive way with newcomers, will sow seeds for an active community.

My bad ,Brain glitch.
Anyways Game Pro 14 has Kinects so not even sure if rigs or puppeteer are needed anymore.

I got in to 3D cause of game graphics way back when.
I herd about Poser 3 from the TrueSpace mailing list "before forums"

2014 DAZ Poser are still cheapest / fastest way for new users to get characters.
probleam was untill Roxie,V5 they where not made to main app specs.
So DAZ Poser is adapting ,15 years late but better late then never.
but now it's alot easier to make ya own characters in 2014 then back in the day.

and since where talking about UI's.
Posers could look alot more professional.

"Today's e-mail from Poserworld said they were starting a new business (making custom 3D models), because they believe the Poser and DS user base is shrinking.

Is that true?  Why would the user base be shrinking?  Is everyone moving on to Lightwave or other high end software?"

Think you have to be very careful when comparing different tools and then conclude that poser is shrinking based on that. 

In my opinion you cant really do that, as these programs are completely different. Blender, 3ds max, maya etc are complete 3ds applications which allow the use to build everything up from ground, where poser is a tool that makes use of these things and is not meant to be a complete 3d package.

Switching from poser to one of these application is like going from word to a programming language. Where the learning curve is extremely high and with no experience in making 3d even making the most basic things are really difficult.

To put it into perspective it is probably equally difficult to modelled good looking characters as it is to make good rigs, texture them and animate them, so its a lot of work to make something in one of these applications to even reach something near what you get in poser. So looking at nice looking images made by very good artist requires a lot of experience, and my guess is that they use several different tools to reach the final result, from a 3D application to photoshop, maybe some after effect etc.

And none of these programs will give you anything that looks good with just a few clicks on some buttons. 

So my guess is that poser user base is fairly steady, might even increase slightly, but that more people might start to integrate more tools into there workflow, which is very common for anyone that does 3D i think. 

Personally i might use posers cloth room for cloth simulations and then import the result into my 3d app and finish up whatever is needed there, because its actually really good and easy to use.

But regarding the OP post, even if they are switching to custom models not really sure what it means, But I would assume that, what they might try to do, is just to reach a larger audience, since poser as well as unity3d, the different 3D apps etc. can all work with these "custom" objects anyway. So doesnt really have to aim it towards a certain application. But as i said not really sure what they mean with custom objects, they might mean something else.

They could buy C4D,zBrush,Wacom,photoshop,quixel,allegorithmic,topazlabs.
So now they have the app's to make just about any wicked cool character they want.
Even if they buy all those app's.Not so sure if they can buy 
Imagination ,Skill ,Talent & Drive to make those wicked cool characters.

There's only about 10 give or take 5 CGI Artist on the planet that can make a Vicky.

Quote:*
"The rest of poser CA system remains firmly planted in the year 1996.

Have a look at this 3.5 minute video and you see why Iclone rules the world of affordable Character animation tools
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pijbJ7PcvrI"

I agree, animation in Poser is way behind the times.  Every time a new release is announced and we get that list of new features I'm in constant disbelief.  We get new animation stuff but it never seems to be anything worthwhile or something that works in front of your eyes.  Animation needs visual feedback on the fly.

At the very least I think we need something like this in Poser, because seriously, if that Walk Designer survives 'as is' for another release then Poser is well and truly off limits for animation (for me anyway).

We at least need something like this:
Click for animation done the easy way - A Motion Modifier System

As per the title of the thread, if it turns out the Poser userbase is shrinking, sure, it might have something to do with the severe lack of modern animation features.  I love Poser, always have, but the animation side of it is an absolute joke (to put it as politely as I can).  That video shows just how much Poser is lacking in the animation department.

@ pumeco

Have you tried the Poser : Direct manipulation tool?
With IK on the arms or legs ON and OFF?

Full description is in the manuals.

The only thing Poser does not have yet is collide with an object.
(Floor, table, stairs, chair.)
Poser only has a Drop to Ground plane. Ctrl + D

The surprising thing is that so many people are giving reasons why the Poser base is shrinking and how SM had better wake up and smell the roses when the quote that started it all states that the Poser AND DS user base is shrinking.

Of course this could just be a way of a company saying we are not making the profits we used to selling the same on stuff but, if not, it suggests the market is changing.  If it is I suspect that is slightly wider than software X is doomed if it doesn't include Y and Z in the next release.

**
@Vilters**
You mean the tool for manipulating the figure in the viewport?

I've tried it and use it now and then, and yes, it's a good tool, but I'm not sure how that relates to what was being done in that video.  Did you watch the entire video because I'm totally puzzled at your comment.  You sound as if this tool has something to do with animation.  I know it's for dragging the figure around, but where does it help in animation?

I hope you're not teasing, Vilters, otherwise Roxie will be round to kick some ass!

Are there any videos on YouTube where it's used for animaton?
If Poser could already do that, I'll be a very happy man!

I agree the animation tools in poser could be stronger, but i also think a lot of people might assume that its really bad, because you can see all these fancy animations on the internet made with varies programs. 

But to be fair animation takes a very long time, especially character animation and I dont think its much off if you assume that a professional animator working with an already rigged character will spend around a week or so to make around 20 second of animation. So taking that into account to make good animations requires time even if you are a proffesional and might have a specific animation packages to work with. I think you can make nice looking animations in poser, but it requires that you really know the tools available and also know how the character you are animating behaves, based on there anatomy etc.

Animation doesn't have to be so time consuming though.  Something as simple as a walk can take hours to perfect doing it manually, but if the correct tool is there, it can be done in a few minutes, seconds even.  There's some iClone users producing animations as long as real movies because of the tools.

That's pretty impressive, and it's not far from the norm either because I often see animations in the 20-30 minute range.  iClone is by far the most productive and it's animation tools are the reason, Poser could do a lot worse than take a leaf out of iClone's animation book.  The only thing I ever seem to see from Poser is someones "Boob Jiggling" test, which is cool, but it's not a full-blown animation.

Stills are great and Poser is surely one of the top dogs at it, but for years I've been wishing Poser would catch up and make animation easy as well.  DS is a lot better than Poser in that respect, but I prefer Poser's interface.  Right now, I can imagine that if iClone had Unreal's realtime renderer, that would be totally incredible.  Even better would be Poser with iClone-style animation tools and Unreal's realtime render engine in the Poser viewport.

Bloody hell, imagine that :woot:

Anyway, take a look at this channel, the guy has an animation in there that is over 129 minutes long:
Click for examples of what high-productivity tools can give you

"Stills are great and Poser is surely one of the top dogs at it, but for years I've been wishing Poser would catch up and make animation easy as well.  DS is a lot better than Poser in that respect, but I prefer Poser's interface.  Right now, I can imagine that if iClone had Unreal's realtime renderer, that would be totally incredible.  Even better would be Poser with iClone-style animation tools and Unreal's realtime render engine in the Poser viewport."

*Yeah completely agree, and i didnt try to imply that poser is very good for making animations, just that you can do it and get decent results, if you are willing to spend the time needed to learn the tools. And as you i would also love to see some big improvements to this, since making animations is really fun. And since poser is so much aimed at being a product that makes use of finished products, being able to really work with them easily when animating would be a huge bonus.

There are a lot of people who complain about Poser and animation and how hard it is.  It really depends on what you are trying to do and how much you wish to do by hand.  Pumeco points out a video done in Iclone at 1 hour 29 minutes.  watched the first couple and there is really nothing there to make it more then average.  They took a lot of stock motions and applied them over and over.  You can do the same thing with Poser and BVH files.  My son took a Movie making class and only using Poser made 5 films during the course of the16 weeks.  A ~4.5 minute music Video a 30 - 60 - 90 second commerical and a 5 minute final project. 

www.youtube.com/watch?v=xECglepATIg&feature=youtu.be

attached is a link to the final project.  Most of the motions were from the Mellon Carinega(sp) BVH project, via trubones website.  Some of the walk cycels in the commericals were done using the built in Poser walk designer and are not bad.

It really depends on how much effort you want to invest to get results.  Please remember the attached video was made by a student take 4 different classes and not a lot of effort was made to fine tune any of it.

"@ pumeco

Have you tried the Poser : Direct manipulation tool?
With IK on the arms or legs ON and OFF?
Full description is in the manuals."

Hi, any reason you are repeating this to pumeco?
is there any new information regarding IK along with the direct manipulation tool >>FOR ANIMATION<<, that you can share with us?

I ask because a quick read of the animation section of my (admittedly ancient)poser6 manual states the following confirmation of what users like DaleB have stated is still the case with the current poserPro:

from the manual:
"You can use IK or not in your animations, however it is a global setting. If enabled, it’s on
for the duration of your animation, and vice versa. You can turn it on or off while you
work, but the final setting is what will “stick” in your final animation. Toggling IK on and off can affect your animation; it’s best to pick an option and stick with it to avoid having unexpected changes occur in your animation."-

pg163 poser reference manual

"The only thing Poser does not have yet is collide with an object.(Floor, table, stairs, chair.)
Poser only has a Drop to Ground plane. Ctrl + D"

Well what about a clamping filter to avoid the extreme spline graph overshoot?
or a nonlinear motion mixer like the one in Daz studio?or the ability to cull  the unnecessary frames from imported mocap so that it can be effectively edited.
 

No wish to hijack the thread here , but Trust us animators when we say posers animation tools are way behind other programs in the same consumer priced space.

"There are a lot of people who complain about Poser and animation and how hard it is.  It really depends on what you are trying to do and how much you wish to do by hand.  Pumeco points out a video done in Iclone at 1 hour 29 minutes.  watched the first couple and there is really nothing there to make it more then average.  They took a lot of stock motions and applied them over and over.  You can do the same thing with Poser and BVH files..........
Most of the motions were from the Mellon Carinega(sp) BVH project, via trubones website.  Some of the walk cycels in the commericals were done using the built in Poser walk designer and are not bad."

Hi understand this; AKIAK other than expensive pro pipeline solutions like
Autodesk® Motion Builder,
there are very few of the so called "high end" CG apps that can parse other sourced Mocap/BVH to their native figure rigs, with the relative ease of poser& Daz Studio.

I can personally confirm Maxon C4D and Newtek Lightwave cannot.

However Canned BVH/mocap files are only useful for your personal projects and to depend on them entirely
does NOT make you a 3D character animator, but frankly an import& playback technician with some  basic video editing skills
to put together the final clips with music etc.

They offer very little help with paid CLIENT GUIDED animation projects whereby your paying client sends you a video of a skate boarder performing a "flip kick ollie"
and wants you to have him do it 4 seconds into the animation.

if there is not canned Mocapfile  of that particular motion in your archive or at "truebones",
you have to grok it manually
it is then you will quickly run into the limitations of posers "global IK"  system.

It makes it easier to pose limbs instead of having to use the dials to do it, which makes animation easier. Poser is pretty much the only app out there that uses a dial system for posing and animating figures. Most other apps use a direct manipulator with the arrows and curves to twist pull and scale the different body parts in whatever manner necessary. 

Quote -
There's only about 10 give or take 5 CGI Artist on the planet that can make a Vicky

There is nothing special about vicky, she's not even realistically proportioned, and there are many many artists out there that can and do do far better. Just look through the zbrush galleries, or any of the other high-end cg sites outere. lol, really rorrkonn, sometimes...

@ Shane and Pumeco

Yes, that is the Direct Manipulator in action.

Select the rings to rotate, the boxes to scale, and the Center point to move the selected actor around.

This, combined with IK ON or OFF, and the Figure => AUTO BALANCE makes Posing easy.

In the above?

I had IK ON for the legs and AUTO BALANCE active.

I selected the left hand and pulled it out.
The AUTO BALANCE posed the rest of the figure to prevent it from falling over.

I selected the right hand and posed it. => This again changed the AUTO BALANCE to prevent the figure from falling.

And I twisted the head.

Have fun with the Poser tools.

Tony

From the above, pulling the right forearm out; You see the Direct Manipilator and the AUTO-Balance functions in action.

The left figure is only there for reference: That was the starting pose.

Happy Posering, Tony

** Most other apps use a direct manipulator with the arrows and curves to twist pull and scale the different body parts in whatever manner necessary."**

Well to be Fair those dials in poser( including the direct manipulation tool), were designed for well ..posing and not intended for animation as they only change parameters for that one point in the timeline you happen to be.

Poser does provide a functional ,albeit outdated ,graph editor
and key frame Dope sheet that one should be using when animating the body parts and see your feedback/results ever a range of frames( see pic).

The reality is that almost no serious character animation pipelines actually create motion by merely pulling points
on a spline graph these days.
nearly everyone uses some fashion of layered nonlinear motion mixing and recording similar to the ones you see to the Iclone website videos.

I am not some silly purists who thinks everything should be hand animated.

Maxon C4D has a nonlinear motion clip mixer just like the Daz "aniblok" system

But alas Maxon finds no apparent need for the ability to import/parse mocap directly to C4D rigs nor to auto create lipsync from  sound files in their $3600 program.

Poser biggest strength is it ability to import mocap to its NATIVE existing figures
but it forces you to work with them in a linear fashion
unlike the  aniblok/motion systems in DS or iclone

"@ Shane and Pumeco

Yes, that is the Direct Manipulator in action.

Select the rings to rotate, the boxes to scale, and the Center point to move the selected actor around.

This, combined with IK ON or OFF, and the Figure => AUTO BALANCE makes Posing easy.

In the above?

I had IK ON for the legs and AUTO BALANCE active.

I selected the left hand and pulled it out.
The AUTO BALANCE posed the rest of the figure to prevent it from falling over."

Completely unrelated to ANIMATION!!!

@ Wolf

Drop the "un" and we agree. LOL.

Did you try?
It works like a charm in an Animation.

But I agree, like everything else, it takes practice.

Quote -
nearly everyone uses some fashion of layered nonlinear motion mixing and recording similar to the ones you see to the Iclone website videos.

Poser's animation layers don't work for you? 

I've never used them so just asking. My animation experience comes from maya, cause that's what I used in school. Personally I hate animating, but will do it when forced to. Think I'd rather pull my fingernails out with pliars, so I haven't done a whole lot of it in Poser. 

(In all honesty I intend to do more of it soon, just have been too busy modeling and rigging to have any time for it).

Haven't  logged-in in quite a long time, and pleased to see some ol'timers I still recognize!

Popped by to see if there was an chatter about the news of SMSI being "delisted" from NASDAQ yesterday -- & this seemed the most appropriate thread.

Other than the press release from NASDAQ, I didn't spot any public statements from Smith Micro, so was curious if there had been any prior discussion in here of the consequences, e.g. rumors of pending sale?

I didn't hear about that, Nance...

Here's the release for those who haven't seen it.  I haven't seen or heard anything else about it, except in their Q2 report they noted that they had taken a $2.4 million restructuring charge...

Notice of Delisting or Failure to Satisfy a Continued Listing Rule or Standard

Item 3.01. Notice of Delisting or Failure to Satisfy a Continued Listing Rule or Standard; Transfer of Listing.

On August 7, 2014, Smith Micro Software, Inc. (the "Company") received a letter from the Nasdaq Stock Market LLC ("Nasdaq") which stated that, based upon the reported stockholders' equity of $9,610,000 disclosed in the Company's Form 10-Q for the period ended June 30, 2014, the Company no longer meets the requirement set forth in Nasdaq Rule 5450(b)(1)(A), which requires companies listed on the Nasdaq Global Select Market to maintain a minimum of $10,000,000 in stockholders' equity for continued listing (the "Minimum Stockholders' Equity Rule").

In accordance with Nasdaq's Rules, the Company has been provided with a period of 45 calendar days to submit a plan to regain compliance. If the Company's plan is accepted, Nasdaq can grant an extension of up to 180 calendar days from the date of the letter, or until February 3, 2015, to regain compliance with the Minimum Stockholders' Equity Rule. The Company intends to submit a plan to Nasdaq within such 45 day period and is currently considering available options to regain compliance with the Minimum Stockholders' Equity Rule as promptly as possible. The Company will also have the option to file a transfer application to list the Company's securities on the Nasdaq Capital Market

humm ... well if SM losses Poser .hope Autodesk or DAZ buys Poser.
Would be nice if a CGI Company owned the CGI app Poser.

RorrKonn's Quote
There's only about 10 give or take 5 CGI Artist on the planet that can make a Vicky

AmbientShade Quote
There is nothing special about vicky, she's not even realistically proportioned, and there are many many artists out there that can and do do far better. Just look through the zbrush galleries, or any of the other high-end cg sites outere. lol, really rorrkonn, sometimes...

All right let me exsplain my thinking .
All the app's even zBrush comes with pemade characters all ready.
Don't know if they still do but at one time AutoDesk came with Poser characters even.
So if there just modifying a premade character ,sure it looks cool.
but there not getting credit for making the character.

Now if they make a SubD mesh that looks as good as Vicky
from a cube I'll give them credit.
but there's only a very few I've seen that looks that good.
Some of those meshes at Turbo ya couldn't pay me to use them.
So I've only seen a very few girls that look as good as Vicky
that I know they modeled from a cube.

& to go a bit farther.
If ya go to all the stores even TurboSquid.
never seen another mesh like Vicky
that morphed in to all that she does ,not even for $2000.00.

"All right let me exsplain my thinking .
All the app's even zBrush comes with pemade characters all ready.
Don't know if they still do but at one time AutoDesk came with Poser characters even.
So if there just modifying a premade character ,sure it looks cool.
but there not getting credit for making the character."

Im not really sure i understand what you mean, but its very common for modellers, if not all of them to start with some sort of basic shape that are modelled from a primitive. In certain cases they might use a base shape of some kind, but the shape would simply be to not having to make such over and over again, and is a simple step of modelling a character.

Here are some example of how some start modelling those characters. Even though these are not humans they are humanoids and i doubt they would have any problems modelling humans as well if they needed. 

If you see how they start and what they end up with, they are not using a premade model.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NxRp8R62Nlc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W8QHytHds7I

Its also very common to model a very simple model in Maya or max and then import it into zbrush and start from that.

But these are probably the most common ways to start modelling characters, compared to using a high res mesh where there might be a lot of details in that you dont need. But not sure thats what you referring to?

3D-Mobster :Oh I know there's a lot of very cool monsters that rock in zBrush and
I'm a fan of them all.
but it's way more difficult to model a realistic pretty girl then it is a scupt a ugly fantasy monster.

We know what a realistic girl is suspose to look like.
A ugly fantasy monster can look like anything.

So even though there both bipeds ,a pretty girl is still way more difficult to model .
So it's not really a fare comparison.

@ To All:

Well, the Direct Manipulation example screengrabs are NOT from a Vicky..

Good night all.
Have fun using the Poser tools.

Quote - 3D-Mobster :Oh I know there's a lot of very cool monsters that rock in zBrush and
I'm a fan of them all.
but it's way more difficult to model a realistic pretty girl then it is a scupt a ugly fantasy monster.

We know what a realistic girl is suspose to look like.
A ugly fantasy monster can look like anything.

So even though there both bipeds ,a pretty girl is still way more difficult to model .
So it's not really a fare comparison.

I wouldnt personally think it makes a huge difference to these modellers. And also a pretty girl depends on the beholder i guess :D

But here is an example of someone modelling a female using a basic shape, i think she is pretty enough to compete :D

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7tAcZsMhxM0

It doesnt matter whether the figure started out as a cube or a basic human shape. The geometry has to be rebuilt once the sculpting is finalized anyway. Very few modelers still poly model a whole human from scratch. It's a huge waste of time and doesn't allow for the same level of control that sculpting and retopologizing allows.  A basic human shape can be pulled out of z-spheres in about 30 seconds and remeshed to a sculptable mesh in another 30 seconds, so why bother poly modeling by hand? You can still ride a horse and buggy to work if that's what makes you happy but it's not very productive and definitely not as fast as a car. These days poly modeling is mostly used for hard surfaces or very low poly meshes that don't have a lot of geometric detail, or for producing basic shapes quickly.  And any figure can be retopologized to suit whatever app it needs to function in. Outside of Poser and DS, most human models don't have the complex geometry that Poser models require in order to allow for all the morphing and still be animatable, but that doesn't mean any other model out there can't be made to have the same kind of topology if the person building it (or retopologizing it) understands proper topology for animation to begin with.  

Vicky is a nice figure, but she's not the best. She's just the most popular in poserdom because no one has bothered to create one for Poser that was better. There are others out there that are much more realistic, and could easily be made to work in poser with all the functionality - and then some - that all the vickys have ever had, should the artist choose to do so or allow someone else to. 

As for the talk about SM and their stock, we really don't need two threads about it. One is more than enough. Maybe SM will take the opportunity to finally wake up and realize they need to invest in a serious content department to compete with their competition. But something tells me they'll just continue ignoring that elephant in the room. 

Quote - As for the talk about SM and their stock, we really don't need two threads about it. One is more than enough. Maybe SM will take the opportunity to finally wake up and realize they need to invest in a serious content department to compete with their competition. But something tells me they'll just continue ignoring that elephant in the room. 

Actually if you look at this link, from their 2013 financials most of their eggs are in the mobile basket:

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/10-q-donaldson-co-inc-2013-03-07

They would have to really work on beefing up their mobile customers to turn a profit rather than try to triple their consumer sales to match what they are making in the mobile division.

Anyways we all ended up on diffrent pages.
So let's just light one up and break the seal. :)

My two cent, I love poser and still buying new and old content as to

what I'm in the mood for. Every time I get used to one Poser they 

bring out a new one. I don't mind buying a new Poser, but the learning

part is getting hard. Characters are getting more advanced and better

I think. I hope the folks who make all these characters keep up the

great work. Money is one thing, but love for a hobby is something else.

Yup, I like the Direct Manipulator, I use it, and I'm also a big fan of the way Auto Balance works in Poser.  The video I posted demonstrates a motion mixing system though, so I thought he'd watched it and was somehow suggesting that the Direct Manipulator could help achieve similar things.  I appreciate the explanations but it's not the same sort of thing.

That said, it was a surprise to see Vilters' low-poly figures as full frontal nudes for the first time - wasn't expecting that!  They have good bodies for low-polys but seriously, you have got to work on that smile of theirs, the face even creeps Roxie out, and believe me, that takes some doing!

Dude, I'm almost afraid to sleep!!!

Later,
Roxie - Girl With Blade

**"Yup, I like the Direct Manipulator, I use it, and I'm also a big fan of the way Auto Balance works in Poser. ** The video I posted demonstrates a motion mixing system though, so I thought he'd watched it and was somehow suggesting that the Direct Manipulator could help achieve similar things.  I appreciate the explanations but it's not the same sort of thing."

This ^^

I use the tools the applications provide for us.

Starting from the Lo Res Female Dev object file at +/- 8.000 polygon, loaded and morphed in Blender, and YES, I added some edgeloops on critical area's (8173 now), and YES they still use the original texture improved by me, and YES the uv-layout is improved over the original one, and YES they ONLY have 3 material zones (also reduced by me) and YES they only use ONE Diffuse texture making Material room work dead easy, and YES I build a Blinn&Specular and a Displacement&Bump map from this same texture in the Poser material room.

In Poser I also use the tools at hand.
Smooth Polygons enabled with a crease angle of 180° on all groups.
SubD to level 1 giving them about 36.000 polygons each.

I learn and use the tools from Blender and Poser.
None are perfect, not in Blender not in Poser, but I found a streamlined and bulletproof workflow between both apps.

The figure is a constant WIP. LOL.
Started somewhere 3-4 years ago, and each week, some vertex get moved.
Rigging is still conventional, and only both thigh are W-Mapped on the above one.

I have several versions, and some are completely W-Mapped, but this is rarely needed.

Use the tools at hand, search for solutions, work around shortcomings, but above all, streamline your workflow between Poser and the modeling app you use.

@pumeco

This is the first time you see her like this?
Man, there must be at least 100-150 posts where I used her to "demo" something;
After al, they are the Poser Dev Figures LOL.
The male version is also floating around here somewhere. LOL.

Here she is with tha angry morph. LOL, You did not like the smile did ya? LOL.
And her "volume" sister will get a bathing suit one of these days. LOL.

Oh, and the dynamic hair is styled with magnets.

(You all did know, that you can "style" dynamic hair by putting magnets on it. Yes? )

Here an older version, all using the same texture, but me playing in the Math room.

Is the Poser user base shrinking? My population is certainly NOT.
LOL
LOL.