We all have a varied toolbox of programs. Poser is our main tool. What programs do you use with Poser? For me ... Photoshop for post-work and texturing,Vue 9 Complete for outside environments,(use to bring Bryce),  ... and I am learning Hexagon, Blender and DS (as a supplement to Poser). These last ones for morphing, and modeling. Next.

Render On!!!

Boni

These days, Blender for modelling and UV-Mapping almost anything, Vue 2015 Complete for outdoor scenes, Gliftex for creating seamless patterns to use on clothes, Genetica for making seamless textures and normal maps. Stitch Witch is my default program for texturing clothes and furniture, supplemented by Corel Photo-Paint.

I use Marvelous Designer very occasionally to make clothes (The upgrade was very expensive and I never really got into it).

I am learning Plant Factory to use with Vue. Still a lot to learn.

My Poser pals are Shade3D and Blender, more rarely these days, Hexagon.  I don't really do much postwork, but if the effect merits, I will use GIMP, Manga Studio, Anime Studio, FotoSketcher, and Picasa3 (yes !).  There are also many very good commercial and free utilities for Poser which I use, too numerous to mention, all good in their own way.  A few of these, just from the top of my head, are PhilC's Poser Toolbox, Dimension3D's various scripts, Netherworks' scripts, and many others. Should be available here in the Renderosity Marketplace, the Freebie section, or in discussion threads in the Forum.

My workflow - in no particular order:

Hexagon - for kitbashing, if the software was stable & supported, I would use it more - I grok the UI.  I'll be replacing it with the modeler in Zbrush, since that product is actually supported.

3DSMax - File >export for those rare .3ds models I need to get into Poser.

Daz Studio - File>export to get genesis figures out of DS and into Poser.

ZBrush - learning how to modify stuff I have - also learning the modeler in the latest version.

RSRConv - To convert all of those pesky .rsr files that still reside in some of my older files.

Texture Transformer - to convert V4 skins to other figures

Texture Converter 1 & 2 - to convert M4/V4 skins to other figures.

Wardrobe Wizard and Xdresser - For some clothing conversions (I run all of my clothing products through Wardrobe Wizard, Xdresser & the Fitting Room - I keep whichever version comes out best for what I do. I use the stand-alone version of WW because it can run in the background)

Photoshop Elements - for fixing textures for kitbashing.  And why on earth does anyone buy the full version of Photoshop?  Is CYMK & preflight that important for hobbyists?

WINE - to run a number of windows only Poser helper programs (Like Texture Converter, Xdresser and Dimension3D's scripts).

Parallels - OS virtualization software to run my copy of 3dsMax.

DittoGUI - for installing content (It's a Mac issue - thanks for nothing, Steve.)

Objaction Mover & RTEJava - to deal with encoded files

Expression Magic for P6 Jessi, Sydney, Aiko 3, V2, V3, V4, M4, Genesis 1, Genesis 2F&M - why spend money on expression products when you have these?

Tool Collection by Dimension3D - lots of simple, 1-shot tools that makes life easier.

Vue - for outdoor scenes.

Reality - It understands LuxRender better than I do.

Prepper - Converts .objs to .cr2s

Cr2 Editor - Does what it says on the tin. 

Comic Life 2 - for working up my stories.

Python Scripts for Poser - yes, these are all must have.

Scripts by Snarly-Gribbly - All of them - doesn't that make it easy? (EZ-skin 2, Scene Fixer, EZ-Metals & the infamous Snow Machine - if you need some snow.  I do from time to time.) Scripts by Netherworks - Hair Control System 2014 [You will need HCS II & a copy of Poser 7 if you want to use HCS for the SM figures - please join me in pestering him to update these for HCS 2014 - I would really like to retire Poser 7 & recover that HD space.]  Creator's ToyBox - for fixing all of your figures.  Batch Material Converter - converts material .pz2 to .mc6 and puts them in the proper location like God & Poser want materials to be.  Can also switch .mc6s back to .pz2 if you wish to deal with materials in DS, since most of their add-ons seem to live in the Poser 4 era.  MAT Writer Panel 2014 - for creating material files.  Scene Toy - Nifty tools to deal with scenes.  Power Locks - indispensable when creating or modifying poses.  Spawn 2014 - Morph and Parameter Dial creation.

Scripts by SemiDieu - Buy all of them - it will make your life easier.  Advanced Figure Randomizer (Comes with Advanced INJ Builder, which amazingly will make INJ/REM for your dial spins - you're welcome.  So stop asking for a tutorial to make an INJ/REM for you dial-spun creations.  Texture Variation - makes texture variations for figures - useful if you need more than the bog standard Caucasians that the vendors inflict on us.  Advanced Shaders - for making displacement "second skins", tatoos, and such.  Library Manager - if you don't like the standard Poser Library, feel free to move to this.

Scripts by Dimension3D - Group Morph Dials by - groups the dials on the DAZ Gen3 figures.  Render - brings all firefly render options to 1 location, easy to read.

K4 Mixer by Colorcurvature - allows you to mix child & adult figure based on the same mesh, allowing you to build teenagers.  Originally designed for K4/M4, it also works with V4/K4.  After some experimentation I discovered that it will do the same for the DAZ Gen3 figures & the DAZ Gen2 figures.

Crowd Generator by Fugazi 1968 - Python script to generate random crowds - I don't do single image renders.

TDMT by Cage - Transfers morphs between two Poser actors with incompatible vertex structures.  Use it if you dare!!!!

Shoe Converter by PhilC - the only tool available to get V4's shoes on all my other girls.

Matmatic by BB - should be part of the base Poser install. - Quit you whining and learn how to use it - your renders with thank you.

For those who may be unaware, Vue will import Poser scenes and renders Poser dynamic hair. I bought the SkinVue script to improve the rendering of skin on Poser figures in Vue. But the main reasons for using Vue are the atmospheres, landscapes and ecosystems,

Like Infinity10, I also use various scripts with Poser. PhilC's OBJ2CR2 deserves special mention, and also Clothes Designer and Shoe Designer. These give you a wonderful starting point in clothes creation. I can work without them now, but why suffer needlessly?

In no particular order...

I use Hexagon a bit, learning Blender, for mesh and texturing.

I use Carrara for outdoor scenes. It's render engine needs some love, but the program accesses both Poser runtimes and DS libraries directly, making scene creation within Carrara with full figure functionality a possibility. It also allows networking of single frames with bucket distribution. If Poser brought in instancing I'd probably drop Carrara.

Photoshop for post work.

I have Studio, only for the library for Carrara. I don't use the program itself.

Within Poser, Snarly's EZSkin and Scene Fixer get the most use. Another script I use is called 'snap to' and it is AWESOME! I do big scenes, so if my camera is 1000 units away from centre and I bring in a prop I want in a character's hand, prop loads at 0,0,0, I hit 'snap to' in my script library, click on character's hand, and 'BING!" the prop appears in the hand. Still need to fine tune position, BUT IT'S THERE!. I use it quite a bit now that I have it.

Z-Brush (for modeling, jcm's, texturing, painting, mapping).

Photoshop (for pre-work on raw texture images).

Topogun2 (for retopologizing models - but I uninstalled it by accident a few months ago and haven't actually needed it since then thanks to z-brush).

Blender (for mapping when I can't get the mapping I want out of z-brush).

Learning Unreal 4 (to do my landscapes and large scenes and will soon be porting most of my Poser content over to it).

For Poser itself I have a number of scripts from Netherworks and some of the Shaderworks add-ons.  Outside of Poser, Vue 2015 Studio for outside scenes and Poser imports, where I let Poser handle the materials.  Paint Shop Pro for post work and playing with image maps for textures. For the limited modelling I do I tend to use Silo although I have been trying to get my head around Blender, with limited success I am afraid to say.     

Scripts by Netherworks, snarlygribbly, Phil Cooke, Ockham, semideiu and D3D.  Particles3+ by snarly is a particular treasure.

BB material node tech

Silo - for modeling.  modo if I need to pseudo-Boolean something.

UVLayout to "unwrap" UV map stuff.  UVMapper Pro to clean up material zones, assign dynamic/constrained cloth groups, and UV map simple shapes.

PhotoImpact X3 for image manipulation and paint work.  PhotoZoom 6 to vector enlarge sample images for use as texture sources.  Genetica for producing asymmetrical seamless tiles and looped animated materials.

Elefont for extruding text as 3D meshes.  Ivy Generator for adding ivy to enviro models.  Baum3D for basic trees.  Vue for making 360' pano backdrops.

I have a ton of scripts in Poser, both paid and free, so I won't even go there cause I use most of them as the need arises. Texture Filter scripts are my most used. For modeling I use Heagon. Sure it's buggy, but as long as you avoid creating the dreaded ngons you shouldn't crash too often. For UV mapping, I use a combination of Hexagon and LithUnwrap, a free alternative to UVMapper cause I could never could get it to unwrap well.  Even though I do have Stitch Witch and use it to extract UV maps, I mostly use PaintShop for textures.

the D3D Morphing Clothes and CR2 editor.

a bunch of Dr.Geep tutorials. Thanks Dr.Geep!

wings99.5, uvmapperclassic

the Poser5 secrets book.

i've been practicing modeling in Carrara, not quite ready to use it instead of Wings yet. 

Photoshop7,  PSE4, Corel. 

i need to find a utility that will re-order the verts.  when i don't get a clean edge loop, i blame the vert order, whether it's true or not  lol

inspirations from dragons & hatchlings, 

These days, Poser is far from being my main app.  That place is for Wings, then UVMapper Pro, Photoshop, CR2Editor and finally Poser.  :)

Since I'm still unable to use anything above Poser 6, I concentrate on refining me modelling skills so I can (eventually) sell stuff and buy a new machine.  To all the lovely people who sent me stuff  to use in said new machine, my continued thanks.  It will be used and is at the moment, kept safely awaiting the day.

Hexagon - Object modeling

Poser - Posing characters

Vue - Creating scenes and rendering

Paint.NET - Finishing touches

Blender - modeling

Photoshop - 3D texturing (as in, open .OBJ in Photoshop and manage diffuse/specular/bump with UV overlays)

My list is rather short.

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• I use "ULEAD PhotoImpact 10" for messing with texture maps, and postwork. (Yes! Really! and V10 is from 2004, when it was still a Taiwanese company!)

• Then there's the indispensable "Poser File Editor" (V2.0) by Ralph Sesseler for working under the hood.

• "EditPadLite 7" also is used when working with files (and for writing this text).

• There are a few Python scripts which I use regularly, namely Netherworks' "PoseWriterPanel" which is the best invention since they invented sliced bread. Plus some other scripts by PhilC, Ralph Sesseler, and SnarlyGribbly (ordered alphabetically, not by polularity!).
  Most of all I use some scripts written for my own use to lock props or figures, so that my characters are immune against bad poses or expressions files.

• Last but not least, the tool without which no creator could live - "UV Mapper". The ability to easily get rid of unused "usemtl" statements in the .obj file, and the ability to combine material zones, I use more often than I actually create or edit UV maps...
  Special thanks to 3DFineries for the heads-up re. LithUnwrap, I'll look into that - for the same reason why you use it.

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I do believe that working with a few tools which I know by heart, and can use to the max, is better then messing around with dozends of them, but not really having a clue of what I'm doing (I'm a slow learner...)

I do consider to have a shot at 3D-Coat. The idea of Voxels seems interesting. Anyone here who already uses it?
Thanks

The reason why I use Poser as my main app is simply because I didn't see any other 3D program yet which is so easy to use, is so much fun to work with, and has a friendly price tag on it too.
I do render stories, i.e. a sequence of panels, and often, going from one panel to the next, it's just to change a pose, an expression, a camera angle, and then render the next panel.
If I had to export/import, render, seeing flaws, re-export/re-import, re-render for every single panel, I'd rather shoot myself in the foot :)

However, I understand that there's a difference between rendering a whole story with 100 panels vs. creating a single, perfect still image. So please don't kill me for my preference :)

-Peter-

P.S.:
forgot one program - "The KMplayer" to listen to my music when I'm working with the Morph Brush:
That, while listening to some good Chill or Trance music, is almost Zen ;)
"Ommmm..."

For modeling, I go back and forth between 3dsMax 2016 and Shade3d 15, and occasionally Wings3d, but mostly 3dsMax.

For postwork and creating textures, Paint Shop Pro X7.

For scene composition, Bryce 7 Pro and Carrara 8.5 (I haven't made up my mind which one I like better).

For UV Mapping, UV Mapper Pro (I still can't seem to get the hang of the UV Mapping features built into 3dsMax and Shade).

I have Daz Studio installed, but rarely use it. I mainly use it when I want to use the Genesis figures.

is my morph thing still of use? haven't had the time to follow the community any more :(

Hi All,

I currently am using Poser 2014 and I use alot of Photoshop with it.

I do use Vue sometimes and Bryce too. I have been using Poser since version 4 back when Curious Labs had it.

3D Coat

Vue 2015 Complete

Corel Photopaint X7

Truespace 4.3

P3dO Explorer

Morph Cloth

Poser File Organizer

XL - eXtended Library

Deep Exploration

Various plugins

 Books and Tut's.  Like:

Denise Tyler's 'Practical Poser' / 'Secrets of Poser Experts' / 'Digital Female' / N8Dreams (Web Tigress) for one of the best Tut's I've ever seen.  A WOW ! on almost every page !  It's in the archive Tutorials department here under the title 'How to create your own Beauty'.  When I was in school they didn't teach anatomy (little boys shouldn't learn about the naughty bits) but N8Dreams taught me a number of reasons why some figure poses look dead - if you don't know that females stand differently. 

is my morph thing still of use? haven't had the time to follow the community any more :(

I use PML on almost every clothing model I create.  I also have a friend who uses it as frequently.

Hmm.... Lessee.....

P Pro 2014 & 2012

Vue infinite 9 to Vue 2015

SkinVue

Iclone Pro 5.5 and 3DXchange (motion building)

Messiah (learning slowly)

Modo 601 (also learning slowly)

Realflow 2012 learning

P-boost 4

PSP 8

PSP X4

Photoshop CS2

Premiere CS4

After Effects CS4

Particle illusion 3

Encore CS4

Audition 3

Pro Tools 10

Sonic Fire Pro 5

Sonar X1

Open Office

Final Draft 8

Storyboard Artist 5

Lots of scripts.

Hey, I write and animate. That's a looooong pipeline.....

is my morph thing still of use? haven't had the time to follow the community any more :(

Yes - I can also tell you that it works with the DAZ Generation 3 figures and the Generation 2 figures.  I have a large collection of mix & match types (V3-L3, V3-SP3, SP3-L3, M3-D3, M3-L3, D3-L3, V2-Milgirl, M2-milboy, etc.)