(not sure how long a message can be...so here goes): I saw incredible Poser art. As an accident one day. And I fell in love, and like anyone who has ever picked up a Crayola, thinks he can do something remotely similar. Having said that...for Christmas, I got P4, V2 (light tex from DAZ), Gypsy hair (from hmann), a dragon (and outstanding tex's from...I can't remember), and a few other things. I want Michael (at a good price) but before I do that, I need to succed as SOMETHING before 1/14/02. I'm not asking for a miracle, just some basic understanding. So...basics (plz excuse...one beer too many). Just 'cause I got V2, doesn't mean I have a "character", right? I need to apply all sorts of tex's and make adjustments, and save, right? Is V2 just a "basis" for making a character? Assuming I am correct, I make a "version" of V2, with tex's, mods, etc. and save it? Then pull it back in, pose her, dress her, etc.? You see, I thought one purchased V2, and was ready to go. I guess I am wrong. Is this why people sell/purchase "characters" So-called "CR2" thingies? I appreciate any help people will give. I have seen AMAZING examples of sharing. Most recently, the time people took to help someone with "hair painting". Thanks in advance.

Practice and play with it. I have had Poser for over a year and a half and have yet to put anything in the Gallery. There are also sufficient free resources (figures, props, conforming clothes, whatever) to at least get familiar with it before throwing large amounts of cash at it. Paw through the tutorials and try to work them into your scheme, but don't try to do everything at once and don't expect to match people here overnight. (I played with the walk designer and animation for several weeks when I got this machine in Oct 2000, but nothing was worth showing off, I was just playing with it.) You don't say how long you have had Poser (and the various bits you have purchased), but the "art" is not in how many bits you have, but how you put together what you do have.

Chuck We spoke in the chat room, and you were a bit miffed at my approach to your questions. So firstly let me apologize. If you have poser 4, the manual covers things real quick. however victoria, and Mike models are advanced models that are not covered in the book. The figures have 2 textures, one for the head, and one for the body. With each model that you buy from Daz, typicaly they have no texture maps, you can buy them as well, here at renderosity, or at Daz and many other sites on the web. CR2 files are edited meshes, that people make to form characters. They can be done with magnets, or made with a 3D modeler program. Those CR2 files that you might have purchased are diffrent faces, or bodys for the figures. You gotta be a bit more clear on what you have exactly. the term Character is used where artist will alter the victoria 1 oe 2 model to look diffrently. and they will sell that CR2 file to you for that Character. Victoria 1.0 and 2.0 are full models, with full dials, to alter the figures face. If you set the dials in various combinations, you can SAVE that as a core figure with those settings and call that a figure. but if you return the dials to 0.000 then the figure will turn back into the shape of the original victoria. I hope that helps some. ~Blacksteel

Hi! As Blacksteel said, Vicky is an "advanced" character... that means she's like a fancy car that you only take to shows. For learning the basics of Poser, you might want to use "Posette." She's the one called "P4 Nude Woman" in the "People" Library right out of the box. While she isn't as "realistic" as Vicky, she's basically the "family car" who requires little maintenance and has a LOT of free stuff for you to customize her with... After you're used to Morph Targets, posing, Conforming her clothing, etc, THEN you might be able to use Vicky the way you'd like. BTW, I'm in my 3rd(?) year of using Poser 4 and STILL have yet to get vicky to look like I want her to! All in all, Poser itself ISN'T a waste, it's just that you overloaded a little on the "options packages". Keep plugging away, keep asking questions (or just "lurk" until you find where someone else already asked yours!) and HAVE FUN! Starlok...

Thanks for all reponses. First, let me clarify something for Blacksteel. I wasn't miffed earlier. My feeling at the time was a mixture of frustration, discouragement, and embarassment (being told to read the manual, the same thing I tell the people for whom I provide PC support). Add a beer (or two) too many and I get mistaken for miffed...grin. As an ignorant defense, I assumed the manual was produced before all the advances like bump maps, transparencies, mats (?), etc. came along. I had also read a review of the manual and it said it didn't supply enough detailed information, that CL covered too much with too little. So, I scoured lots of places for tutorials and printed off over 100 pages and filed them in tabs (whew!). I found a particularly good one from Arcana (sp?) about applying "thingies" to Victoria 1 (and 2). Yet, she came out looking like she had been charred in a fire! But, I'll figure it out some day...hehe. Before I close, please let me rephrase my question and see if I at least have a correct basic understanding (I think it was answered above): If I load Posette (or Victoria) and apply texture, maps, (whatever), make any dial changes I want in order to get the model to look pleasing to me (forgetting about posing, lighting, etc.), can I then save that so the next time, I could just open that file and start working (without having to apply all that stuff again)? If so, would this be what a "character" is? Thanks again for your help.

Lets forget the word "character" for a moment and call all the human forms you can use figures. When you start poser, the default window had a figure in it (the P2 man I believe). Select him and hit delete...he sucks! Open your figures library and load Posette (the P4 Nude Woman). Select her head and use the morph dials to change her face. Do the same with her body. Add clothes, textures, lights, props, etc. Now you have two choices: 1. Save the file from the main menu. This creates a pz3 scene file. This scene will include EVERYTHING you've done to the document window (lights, figures, props, etc.). When you want to work on it again, just open the scene from the menu and it will be exactly as you last left it. This is how you will work with 99% of your images--make new scenes using the items from the libraries, saving the whole things as pz3. 2. If you want to save ONLY the figure so you can use her over and over again in different scenes, select the figure with your mouse, open the figures library, and click the + button and call it "Sally". This will save Posette, naked with only the morph dial changes you've made and the textures you have applied, to the library as "Sally". In essence, you've just saved a new "character" that you've named Sally. If you have conformed clothes to her, Poser will ask you if you want to save those too ("multigroup figure" or something like that). Most of the time you will just want to save the figure nude so you can put different clothes on her each time, but there are times when you may want to keep all the clothes in place. === A "character" can be anything really. Vicky is a character, Posette is a character, the Lion is a character, etc. Many people here sell characters they have made; DAZ sells characters they have made. Sometimes they have new morphs on them (or even new geometries), but very often they are just the base figure with the base dials set a certain way and custom textures applied. For instance (and I'm not trying to plug any particular package, just using an example) search the store for "Bevy of Beauties". This package comes with several "characters" based on Vicki2, as well as a variety of textures for different skin tones, makeup, etc. When you install it, a variety of things get added to your libraries. It is different from just saving figures from your library though because you use it by loading the base Vicki2 figure, then you click on faces and poses to load the character's and textures you want to use on Vicki2 for that scene. These premade packages are very convenient because they can be used right away in your own images, and the textures can be applied to other characters based on the same figure (i.e. any texture made for Vicky will work on any character based on Vicky). I have bought several things just to get the texture to use on something else...making textures is an art all in itself! Michael and Victoria (especially the ver 2 figures) are advanced figures with better meshes and many more morph dials allowing you to create a wider variety of characters and to get more realistic looking ones. Starting out with Posette and the Dork (the P4 Nude Male) lets you get used to using Poser. Its better to practice with those and get comfortable with the program interface before moving on to Mike and Vicki. ===== The "charred" look with Vicki (or Michael) is the result of applying a .jpg file instead of a .bum file in Poser 4. Pro Pack can use .jpg's for the bumps, Poser alone can't. Vicki comes with different figure names in your library...you want to load the one that has P4 in the name. OK, I rambled on longer than I thought I would, so I hope some of that's helpful! Using Poser takes a little getting used to, but I'm sure you'll be just as addicted as the rest of us in no time!

Well, that was the most incredible, generous, understandable response of all time...hey, where are your tutorials (grin)? As to "Charred Vicky", I think you hit the nail on the head (I am nothing if not a user of cliches). One of tutorials I was following said it was being done on Pro Pack (but that it worked the same in P4) and went on to explain just what you did (about JPG/BUM), but, since I had purchased "Victoria 2", I just assumed you chose the "Victoria 2" character/figure from the DAZ library. I saw the "Victoria P4" and since I had read somewhere (I think) that "Victoria 2" could be modified to wear Posette clothing, I just thought the "Victoria P4" was just "Victoria 2" modified to be like Posette...NOT the version to use with Poser 4 (hence P4, I guess). There I go thinking again! Well, I now feel like I wasn't completely lost in an "endless render". You just took the time and explained it very well. And your paragraph on "characters" was helpful, too. Thank you very much !

Ooops...wait a minute...sorry...ack! I mean the TEXTURE MAT POSE you want to use is the one with P4 in it, not the figure. As you said, the FIGURE with P4 in it has Posette's body and Vicki's head (so you can use Posette's clothes). You do want to use the Victoria 2 figure when you want the full V2 capability and body, just be sure to apply the MAT pose with P4 in it. For example, the Mike2 textures are applied with a pose file and both M2Map1Hi P4 and M2Map1Hi are in the pose library. If you don't have pro pack, you have to use the P4 one so it doesn't load a jpg for the bump map. I didn't buy the V2 textures from DAZ, but I'm 99.99% sure the names are similar. Other than that little brain fart, I'm glad I could help :)

Just in case you didn't notice: if you used the DAZ autoinstall for Victoria 2's light texture, open the library pop-out window and look in the Pose library. You should find a sublibrary that's called something like Victoria2MATs (I renamed mine). MAT files are like magic - double-click and they apply texture(s), set transparencies, reset all the materials colors to white (necessary before applying a texture) and other useful things (assuming the textures are in the right folder). Vicky should look good and you'll be able to look at the materials box to see how things are supposed to be set up. I think Hmann's terrific hair comes with MAT poses, too. BTW, V2 comes with a Victoria 2 face morph dial (top of the stack) set to 1. You should set it to zero and then experiment with other settings. Try using multiple morphs at partial settings - 0.3 for one, 0.5 for another, and negative settings. As a MarketPlace vendor I hesitate to say this, but don't buy anything else until you're comfortable working with the great stuff you've got. For clothes, you can make note of the face morphs you like on V2, set the same ones on V2P4, then use the female clothes that come with Poser. Have fun.

To gryffnn: Well, re your first two paragraphs, I thought that might be the case, but I was hearing (reading) too many places about applying textures, MATs, etc. Specifically, I remember someone having problems with Michael looking dark and someone explained that you should "turn the model" white before applying stuff. So, I did that, applied the light mat pose and she turned white, and her fat eyebrows disappeared (and so forth). Although she looked good right after that, I keep trying to add bump maps, transparencies, etc. Talk about dumb! Thanks for the tip on the head dial. (Is this what people do to make Victoria NOT look like Victoria?) Also, thanks for taking the time to answer! One last remark: Refreshing to see a vendor offer advice though it might run contrary to potential profits. Hats off to ya.

LOL, sounds like you are trying to drink from a fire hose. Take a few things at once and don't expect to understand everything. I've been at it since Poser 1 and I'm still learning things. And check out the manual again; you will probably find some "ah-ha" bits in it, now that you've been trying lots of stuff out. By and large the vendors here are great - they try to give good value, and usually are generous with advice, product add-ons and unrelated freestuff. Almost all of us began and continue to be active members of this community, and we're customers, too - we buy each others stuff!

It just takes time. There are some good tutorials here: http://www.awakemm.com/poserarcana/ Some of them also cover the DAZ3D figures.

Yeah, Wiz, you are absolutely right about poseracana. Been there and printed out a lot of the basic/medium tutorial in the 100 pages I listed above. He has a lot of good ones, probably second-most behind Rendorosity tuts. In fact, one of his was the reason for my confusion over applying textures (and such) with Victoria 2...hehe. But that was kinda my fault.