Here is a chance for everyone to share what they've learned in Poser.  Shortcuts, node tricks, workflows ... how to balance bump and displacement.  There is a nice selection.  What have you learned?

Boni

My favorite tip is here: http://renderosity.com/mod/forumpro/?thread_id=2881391

pressing "2" in poser will always make the whole body active not just a body part.

Any friendly red button labeled Make Art either 1) does nothing, 2) cannot tell the difference between "Art," whatever that is, and "not art," or 3) thinks your art isn't, really.

I started with P5 and clicked on most of the drop down menu items just to see what they did.  Lessons:  Not all people or animals have genital options, Drop to Floor does not guarantee the camera used will zero itself in relation to the universe, and Collisions On + Conform To can get wonky.

What I really learned is just how much patience I have to make what I want in Poser v how much money I can justify spending to buy whatever I quit trying to make.  Not just items, but image results as well:  Light sets, pose sets, visual effects, etc.  Doing it myself is more fun than buying something else and trying to tweak it to be what I wanted in the first place, even if it takes me a while to get it right on my own.  I guess that is the most important thing I have learned:  Poser is fun if you want to use it or it is a chore if you have to use it.

Here's a Material tutorial (click for Tutorial) for the Aiko 3 fans using the Aiko 3 Sailor Suit.  This is what it looks like out of the box with no adjustments made to the materials. The tutorial shows how to take the shine and plastic look out with simple material changes and bagginsbill's enviro dome.

Wow,good start here Let's keep this going. I will look for more on Monday.

Control+D Drops to the floor whatever object you select.

Matmatic:  While I was using Matmatic, I couldn't figure out why I couldn't generate any shader files.  Then I figured out that I have to put the Matmatic scripts in a folder in the Materials library directory rather than the Pose library directory.

The Cr2Editor comes in very handy when you want to turn a single material file into a material collection file so that you can apply the same shader to the material zones on an object all at once rather than one by one.

Pose2Lux:  It took me some time to figure out how to render really good outdoor Poser scenes using Poser2Lux and LuxRender .  I wrote everything down so I don't forget how to do it again.  I made it into a tutorial here.  I also have a couple of tutorials on dynamic clothing.

When using a video as an animated texture, make sure that the frame rate of the video is a whole number.  No decimals.

Some of the most important things I've learned about Poser....

When you're posing, if you end up with twisted and mangled spaghetti people, use the pose dials on the parameter tab rather than dragging limbs in the preview window.  Before I figured this out, I gave up on Poser for weeks. :)

When using the morph brush, adjust the settings for each surface. The density of polys greatly affects how the brush will work. Start with very low settings and adjust upwards if necessary.

The grouping tool is awesome and will make a bunch of content ten times as useful. You can make doors that open and close. Separate big props into smaller parts. Convert figure parts into props. Remove parts you don't like. Cut props into pieces so you can easily move them around or make them invisible. Take pieces from one prop and use them on another. Create new material zones.

When selecting polys in the grouping tool, use the wireframe view mode (third icon from the top/left, I think) to select all polys (even unseen ones) within an area defined by the marquee tool. Use other view modes to select only visible polys.

When using dynamic clothing, once a simulation is done, select the clothing item, and click object/spawn morph target. This will make a morph out of the simulation that will still exist even if you delete, corrupt, or lose the simulation files. When dialed to 1, it will match the pose in the sim. It also means that your scene file will load at the correct frame, rather than always loading at frame 1.

pressing "2" in poser will always make the whole body active not just a body part.

And pressing "1" (after pressing 2) will go back to the previously selected body part.

Here are 2 Tips since the first one is so short.

Tip #1: Organize the user interface based on your current needs. At a minimum for those who only render, you can get away with just the Light Controls, Library, and Parameter windows being set up either all on the left or right side.  Having windows that you don't need will either just get in your way or if you are a beginner, confuse you.

Tip #2: Stop rendering with the main camera unless you influentially want your scenes to look flat.

Tips on using cameras inside of cars, building rooms, and other tight spaces.  Now you can turn your hallways into long and dark hallways.
Click Here:  How to use Poser cameras to render inside scenes

SPELL CHECK TYPO

Tip #2: Stop rendering with the main camera unless you intentionally want your scenes to look flat.

Just a tip that comes in handy:

Using Primitives as Parent Targets:
When constructing a complex scene with many props and figures, use primitives as parent targets for groups of objects and figures you may need to move or rotate as one. This is especially handy if you really like the lighting you've got set up, but want to render the scene from different views - Keep the camera where it is and just rotate the primitive and you're done.

Load the primitive, label it as something memorable (I use "Target"),put it at -1 y axis (Optional - just so it's below the ground plane), uncheck everything except for "visible", parent groups of objects to it as needed, move the primitive when you wish to move/rotate these objects. Individual parented objects can be rescaled or moved as needed. You can also just scale the parent "Target" object to scale everything at once and move the parent target wherever or however you wish to move the entire scene or groups of objects.

(Note: This can be done with lights, as well, though a couple of changes may be needed in preview rendering options in order to make the light projectors render there properly, so they can be seen and won't interfere with rendering, since they'll likely take on some rendering attributes of the primitive. May depend on version, though - I haven't used that trick in recent versions of Poser, though there are some lighting products here that use that trick or similar ones.)

I'm not an expert, and may be doing this incorrectly, but here goes.  

I use poser for animation.

One thing I learned is animate in small pieces...or you will want to kill yourself.

But how do you make sure each small piece lines up with the last one?

What I do, (may be a better way) is FIRST, MAKE A COPY TO WORK ON, then copy all the last frames in the key frame editor, to the first frame. You can usually do it as a block so it's not too hard.

Then, using the frame indicator, set the end frame to 1. You'll get a warning about losing frames, but that's okay that's what you want.

If all went well, you should see your last frame scene/pose/action, in frame 1 of 1 frames.

Now you can add all the frames you want, and you will start off where you ended for sure.

Hope it helps someone.

Crtl + shift + B  Brings your library tab

Crtl + shift + N  Brings out the dials tab

Just a tip that comes in handy:

Using Primitives as Parent Targets:
When constructing a complex scene with many props and figures, use primitives as parent targets for groups of objects and figures you may need to move or rotate as one. This is especially handy if you really like the lighting you've got set up, but want to render the scene from different views - Keep the camera where it is and just rotate the primitive and you're done.

Load the primitive, label it as something memorable (I use "Target"),put it at -1 y axis (Optional - just so it's below the ground plane), uncheck everything except for "visible", parent groups of objects to it as needed, move the primitive when you wish to move/rotate these objects. Individual parented objects can be rescaled or moved as needed. You can also just scale the parent "Target" object to scale everything at once and move the parent target wherever or however you wish to move the entire scene or groups of objects.

(Note: This can be done with lights, as well, though a couple of changes may be needed in preview rendering options in order to make the light projectors render there properly, so they can be seen and won't interfere with rendering, since they'll likely take on some rendering attributes of the primitive. May depend on version, though - I haven't used that trick in recent versions of Poser, though there are some lighting products here that use that trick or similar ones.)

These are great tips. I sometimes make huge scenes with thousands of individual props. I'd never be able to do anything if I didn't use the primitive and parenting method. Another thing, if you're making a huge scene, and things are moving round so S L O W L Y, change the sensitivity on the x,y,z translation dials to something like 10. They'll move much more smoothly across the view screen, and you don't have to type coordinates in all the time. If you combine this with the method above, you can quickly move large numbers of items across the screen very smoothly.

Conversely, if something is moving way too fast, lower the sensitivity. This is also useful if your cameras are rotating wildly.