I see now how poser 5 will have the face room, and it allows people to use facial photos and import them into your character and use it as the face. This is a very powerful tool. Since a face can make or break a scene, importing a face will not only add an INCREDIBLE amount of variety to the pictures we see, but also the details will be fantastic.I see this as the one feature that will change how Poser is recognized in the industry.

On the flip side, I see some major problem. First off we will see non stop celeb pictures. This will stem from using a real photo from a magazine. Which brings up copyright issues. When people use a celeb face, or some person off the nets face, is there going to be legal problems down the line? Comercially speaking, will somebody be able to pick apart a scene and see it is their photo being used? Can somebody complain when their face is put on a cyber body doing even if it is just personal usage?

Also on non known celeb sides of things, will people start to feel the pressure of having to use real faces from the net to compete with others who do? Many might feel their work will seem inadequate compared to others who do use real faces. "Look how fake my face looks compared to others"

There is going to be a lot of interesting question is usage. So I am just curious. How do you all feel about these issues with using other peoples faces? This issues have been around in the past, but will new problems arise now that they are thrust into the 3d world? :)

Gee, d'ya think? Hmmmm... I see it a bit differently. First off, from what I can see of the screenshots, the photos from which the heads are made need to be pretty specific. As someone who used to make custom heads for The Sims using photos, getting that kind of direct shot in a magazine or headshot is quite difficult. Straight on and dead profile are fairly unflattering, uninteresting and undesirable shots (unless you're a police officer who works the mugshot camera). As for the pressure to use real faces vs. morphed Vicki/Mike/Steph faces... I don't see that happening much either. There are already some of us who intentionally build human imperfection into our faces to make them more real. The way I see it, it will give DAZ a bit of a run for its money, trying to come up with new Millenium figures upgrades that can compete with P5 figures (now, there's a switch!). I think just having Sydd's textures for the P5 figures, before you even go into the Face Room, is going to bring the new figures way into competition with those who use morphs and magnets on the DAZ figures. That's how I see it, anyway.... Of course, I do expect an occasional Britney or Brad Pitt to pop up. Some folks just cain't hep themselves....

lol...i am really interested in this face room...to me...that is the best part of the new poser. but, look in the gallery, for pete's sake....so many don't even bother to straighten out vicki's crossed eyes. i doubt we will see too many celebs.

Trust me, someone probably already has the perfect Angelina Jolie pics ready and waiting to enter the face room...some type of copyright controversy WILL eventually pop up...It's inevitable. AgentSmith

If anyone has copyright over their face, news photographers might as well pack up their businesses now.

Phantast comments.... "If anyone has copyright over their face, news photographers might as well pack up their businesses now." Having worked in and around newspapers and heard sessions with their attorneys for about 14 years, the issue (as I understand it) is that if it is "news" and published as such that the publication is protected by first ammendment rights. Also if it is "parody" (as in "Mad" magazine type stuff) it is also protected by the first. Where the problem arises is when you use a person's likeness (such as a celebrity) to promote or sell a product or a cause, then the use of their likeness is protected (as the use of yours would be). So... if you plan to do Jolie's face and sell it in the on-line store (or any other way), better get your attorney paid up. If he's worth his salt, he will tell you to forget it.

I think the face room is going to save texturemakers a lot of work aligning the face parts to the UV map, but that's it. For making realistic hi-res faces, you're still going to need a multi-megapixel camera and the same kinds of headshots you need now. When I do a face texture, I shoot the person dead-on, 45 degrees and profile. All with a 200mm lens from over a meter away. Then, I bring these originals into a panoramic photo stitcher (Quicktime VR's). The end result looks similar to what the face room generates. The difference is that I have to manually line up the facial features with the UV texture template, a step that the face room appears to do much easier (by placing morph keypoints and automating the process). Sure, some folks will make celebrities, but they're not likely to be good quality textures because where can you fine 3000x3000 headshots of celebrities' faces and profiles? Nowhere, unless you hire them for a shoot...$$$ Good luck profiting on that deal ;-) -Adam

All you have to do is go to any comic book convention. (or similar) A handful of vendors are always there selling 8x10 pics of any celebrity you want, and these are usually pics you don't see in magazines. (i.e. some are at 0, 45, and 90 degree angles) I scan any of those as high as I want. But yes, they won't be as good resolution-wise as any of us with a camera and a subject under ideal lighting, etc. The REAL problem will be when some nutcase does an outstanding job modeling Jolie (or similar) from her head pics and then does sex pics with his new mesh... All it takes is someone motivated enough. `Course you don't need the new Face Room to do that, it will just help make it closer to more easily happening. AgentSmith