Maybe there should be a new thread talking about figure theory. This one went from say hello if you used to frequent the RDNA Poser forum to its rigging system being inadequate for figure design and it continuing to support older technology somehow holding that back.

I'd be glad to engage in a figure design thread. Not only did I rig all of the new characters in RWBY 3 in Poser and touch up the old ones (all Poser designs) but I rigged RvB Mercs, RWBY Chibi and some of RWBY 4 in Maya. The concepts and method of Poser rigging directly transfer over to Maya rigging except there are extra steps in Maya, like binding a mesh to a skeleton. It is irrelevant whether or not objects are split or not (groups), where solely for selection purposes, they are important in Poser. Also rigging is vastly more involved in Maya, just the weight painting part, not to mention needing multiple layers of constructs (controls, skeleton, mesh, rigging itself) that either has to be autorigged (and heavily adjusted even if you autorig). You also better be prepared to learn scripting in maya (python and/or MEL) or you are going to struggle. It is true that Maya is capable of many different kinds of designs (spline rigging like for stretch and squash effects) but it comes at cost of being rather complicated to create.

For what Poser (and DS) have, they are pretty amazing programs. There is a lot there for under $500 retail, which many get a sidegrade price on or wait for a yearly discount. Maya costs $1400 per year to subscribe to or just under $200 monthly if you prefer. Just being able to set up simple joint "angles" in Poser is really cool. There is nothing like that in Maya. I do miss the component editor though - it is like a spreadsheet that shows point values for vertices or weights that you can adjust and it's very helpful at times (though its display is buggy).

That's another thing, though it wasn't mentioned I do see buggy talk from time to time. Yeah, Poser has its share for sure. Maya has vastly more and it is crash prone.

I can understand people being "done" with Poser or whatnot. It's completely fine to move onto other interests but its not all positives with no negatives when you move onto those bigger feature-packed suites. Again, Maya and other softwares like that are capable of quite a bit, but it comes at a larger price in more ways than one.

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