Hi, Slightly OT, but I was wondering if anyone had any experiences of combining poser with Maya? I'm trying to animate, and not having much luck, and I figure that if I'm going to learn I may as well learn properly. Why Maya? Well they did Final Fantasy (and Aki :) with it, so I figure it must be worth a try... From what I understand, Maya has an underlying skeleton, if this is so, is it possible to combine a Maya skeleton an a poser mesh, (for the skin) has anyone done it? anyone got any sample images or anims I could scope? I'm not giving up on poser, (especially when the longest render I ever had was 15 mins :) I just want to see what's possible, given posers limitations with animation. Anyone got any experience with poser and any other full blooded 3D animation package they'd care to share? later jb

You must be very rich! I'd suggest you have a look at the Taschen book that's coming out, 'Digital Beauties'. There's lots of terrific stuf in it but, the best thing is the chance to compare like for like Poser output and all the other apps. Just having a 15,000 quid app won't make you use it any better although I suppose you could always employ a decent animator. I suppose what I'm saying is if you can't get the close to Final Fantasy in Poser, you certainly won't in Maya. I don't mean to be a downer, buy a Ferrari instead!

The learing curve is massive JB and be aware that when they say they used maya for a movie they probably mean they have maya but wrote a huge amount of plugins for it in house...i heard they used it in the mummy but when i checked it out it turns out it was used for the sand storm getting the biplane down and not at all for the mummy....having said that though boning a figure does seem easier in maya than other apps....best bet i reckon is pro pack and cinema 4d, easy animation combined wuith a stable plugin and great renders :o).......Steve

For Final Fantasy they said up front that a "modified" version of Maya was used... it's very possible that the only thing that was originally from the program was the interface... I don't want to bring you down either, but expect the version of Maya you buy to be as powerful or as capable as the one they used to make FF...

Hi there, I've wondered about Poser and Maya as well, cause I've seen many things done with Maya that has come out very well. Most of the movie FF was used in Maya, they made over 100 custom plugins for it, which took lot's of time and effort. Most of those plugins was for Aki's hair, the way clothing moved so well with the characters and so on. Maya isn't just used for characters though, it can do so much more. Though the learning curve is massive, it's why most people don't use it, not because of the price. Other examples of Maya is FF8, 9, and 10, Parasite Eve, even Dead or Alive 2 and 3 looks to be made in Maya. Once you've seen Maya used so many times, you can tell where it was used in games. Though I believe character animations can be much better in Maya than Poser because Maya is a much more powerful program. But anyways, seeing that isn't the info JB needs, do you have Maya at the moment? If you do, I would look at the import and export options. If you can load a poser model into Maya, I really don't see why you wouldn't be able to add the bone structure to it. It's the same with lightwave, I can take a poser character and import into lightwave and give it my own bone structure and make my own morph targets. Anyways, don't know if any of this helps, sorry if it doesn't shrugs Greeg72

I still can't see why you think Poser has limited animation capabilities. It might have rendering limitations but the animation tools are excellent.

jb - forgive me for preaching a bit, but frankly, I think you are wasting your time on Maya (for now). When you look past the interface and price tag (although Maya's price tag is hard to overlook ;-) ), all 3D programs are basically interfaces to create some 3D geometry, add surfaces and set up control points and parms as to where, when and how the geometry should move and deform. That, and the necessary code to "photograph" your surfaced, moving geometry, i.e. rendering. The difference between the apps is that some can do all of the above, and some can only do some of it. Maya is a do-it-all package, Poser is a specialized package for posing/animation, (mediocre) rendering and a bit of deformation (not real modeling). By buying stuff for Poser, you sort of "outsource" all the things it can't do to other people, or other apps if you make your own Poser stuff. The point is : what do you need Maya for? If you stick with Poser, you can concentrate on learning all the basics of posing, lighting and rendering, while "outsourcing" modeling, surfacing and setup to other people (by buying Poser stuff). Good animation, lighting and composition is not a question of software - look at the images in the galleries, some of them are right up there with FF in terms of quality, some are even better, IMHO. Rembrandt may have used scores of brushes, tons of exotic paints and wall-sized canvases, but throughout his life he kept practicing and practicing and practicing with humble pen-and-ink on humble pieces of paper.

Hi, I suppose I'm trying to run before I can walk, I know that in order to get a good render I need to understand lighting and composition, etc. But the thing I'm interested in, have always been interested in, is animation. It's purely a hobby, I doubt I'll ever show them to anyone, just as I never show most of my poser stuff to you lot. I do it for my own amusement. I'm lucky in that money isn't really an object to me, not only have I got more than enough, but I have contacts that get it for me for next to nothing. If I bought Maya, it'd be at an educational discount anyway. So, just as I don't use even half of the tools of poser, I'll probably use only 10% of something even more complicated. I'm not worried about the learning curve, I'm a UNIX admin, my whole world revolves around an OS legendary for it's unfriendliness and complexity, (it's the reason I love it so much :) I'm also possessed of a singular patience, I can simply sit infront of a computer for 48 hours straight, (no sleep and little food/drink) and never get bored. Failing that I also have people in the "business" that I can ask if ever I get stuck, less so Poser since it's not a "real world" tool, (which is why this place is so usefull) Most of my mates use lightwave, etc. but the one thing I've always heard is that Maya is the best at character animation, and since it's the animation I'm interested in I figured I'd ask a few questions. So, is it actually possible to "parent" a poser mesh onto a Maya skeleton? Right, gotta catch a bus... :) later jb