The other way is "Billboards".

Yes!  Thank you!  I can't wait to play with this this weekend!  Thank you sincerely for your help.

Thank you everyone for your help and insight.  I'll check back in eventually, but first, I need to at least attempt some of this on my own.  Thank you again for being patient with me.

Sorry for the delay in responding.  Thank you all for your responses.  It's definitely a lot to think about.

I like the idea of playing around with Andy to get a feel for how everything fits before I try to actually model a character (I downloaded the Bumblebee Transformer model.  Supposedly, it took the guy 200 hours to make that, rig it, and so on.  My hat is off to him).  If I may ask a few more questions:

1) My main animation work is 2D in Moho.  There, have have this thing called "switch layers," where one layer has several images that you can display one at a time by switching between them, such as hands in different gestures and poses.  I take it the layers management mentioned above is similar to that?  Is that stock with Poser, or is it a separate download/purchase?

2) As long as I'm bringing up Moho, I'm guessing, since video can be incorporated into the background for reference, that an audio track can also be incorporated (I do lip flaps manually, I don't like how it looks when the software "guesses" when the mouths are supposed to move)..  Is it possible to just incorporate an audio to get lip syncs and other things right, and can it export the audio to the resulting media file, or is it video only and I have to add it in in an editor later?

3). This is a big one - usage rights.  I have Poser 8 because it runs under Linux and Mac 10.6.4, and Poser 11 for the modern machines and OS's.  Am I allowed to use the stock Poser models, props, poses, animations, etc. for my animations, or are there limitations like no commercial use or private only?  Keep in mind, you are talking to a guy who will spend an entire weekend just sorting through his fonts looking for what he can and can't use legally, and I frankly don't remember what the EULA's said.  I understand the EULA's for things downloaded here on Renderosity or other sites have their own rules for what you can and can't do, I'm just wondering about the stock configuration, so if I alter one of the models and animate it, will I still be legal?

4) So, suppose I make a Little People model in Blender.  I export it as an .fbx.  I load it into Poser.  I rig it up.  Is it now possible to save and export it as an actual Poser figure (I think the file extension is .pz2 or something like that), or when I save it, it only saves it in the project I'm working on, and I would have to re-import and re-rig if I do another scene or move to another machine?

I'm still getting the hang of things.  So far, the biggest obstacles to me are the textures (I'm just starting to explore the UV mapping aspect) and the lighting.  Good gravy, the lighting is tough.  I need to learn how to properly light the set/scene, and that's not counting going into the Materials room for things like ambience and such.  I'm looking forward to having some more time to play around when Labor Day weekend comes up and I have plenty of time, so I'm going to get my head set straight before that.

Morphs are where either the shape of the head or the proportions of the UV map change, right?  Just making sure I have my terminology correct.

I was trying to think of something a bit simpler than that.  Did you ever watch RWBY when it first started?  It was animated with Poser back in those days.  And what they did for the faces was more or less create a layer on top of the face that they animated expressions with. I'm thinking the way they did it was to basically create two figures, and superimpose the second figure with the facial expressions and lip flaps over the first body model, and select "do not show" on everything for the second model except the facial features.  It's why I thought the Little People would be a good starting point - I would only need to figure out how to move two dots for eyes and lip flaps.  But that's a guess on my part, I don't know how they made the show.  Supposedly, not counting voice and mocap, the animation team consisted of only four people.  Once again, though, that was way back when.  I think they switched to Maya in Season 3 or 4 (and the models they started using didn't have that...uniqueness, I guess?...that the Poser ones had.

HartyBart posted at 10:56AM Thu, 22 October 2020 - #4401914

As for buying rigged FBX figures not made for Poser, that's a bit of a false economy. Usually they are low-poly for games engines, anyway, and also tend to expensive. You'd do better spending the time learning about how to find (a very important skill) and then adapt an existing Poser figure or robot etc to your needs, with morphs etc.

It would be useful if you could say what your end goal is here: graphic novel, game, animation, and with what types of figures and in what genre.

To be honest, I'm not sure what I'm going to do just yet. Part of the reason I'm playing around with the software and learning it is because I need to know the limitations, not just of the software, but of myself. Can I get good enough with this to make something (at the very least) decent? You can give me the materials used to create the Mona Lisa, but that doesn't mean I have the skill to do it.

At the moment, I don't really have anything that I think 3D would benefit. Any project I work on, I consider what will help me best achieve my results. And frankly, some things simply work better with 2D animation than 3D (South Park comes to mind -- when they made the first wave of video games with 3D graphics, I thought it looked horrible. The construction paper 2D look worked so much better).

Part of the problem is I'm a tinkerer -- I learn mostly through experimentation. So I approach things as, "Here's a quick exercise, how do you make this happen?" One thing I thought of as a quick test was to find models of DVa and Soldier 76 from Overwatch and use it as a short video goofing on the "You are my dad boogie woogie" meme (if you're confused, don't worry. It's an inside joke in the fandom). It seemed a perfect way to test importing models, camera movements, backgrounds, etc. without having to delve into things like walk cycles and stuff just yet.

(And this is just working with stuff that already exists. Making my own models? I wouldn't even know where to start or who I would talk to. But I'd rather wait and see if I can work with 3D before I start delving into something I might not end up doing.)

My artistic ambitions grow with my progress. So I have no doubt the day will come when I'll hit on something and 3D is the way to go. But before that point, I want to learn what I'm dealing with so, when the time comes, I can do it right. I know I need the basics first.

hborre posted at 10:54AM Thu, 22 October 2020 - #4401877

If the file does not have any texture materials associated with it then you need to apply those manually. Obj files do not have rigging. That you'll need to create.

So, once I import an OBJ, I can save it it? Do I just go under the Props button on the Content Library and hit Save?

3Dpixi posted at 1:58PM Sun, 18 October 2020 - #4401728

Not sure knowing where you got those free products from but it sounds like the product that is white in review and renders in color is a shaded item .. that means no image maps are attached .. if you want to see the color in review you can add it in the materialsroom > diffuse .. the second item you mentioned I think is model only that are mostly used to develop games .. but you can import the .obj file in Poser through the menu

I decided to try a couple of things and watch a couple of tutorials. And it appears, in this case, it is a quirk of 8 as far as coloring goes. The tutorial shows that, after you load the figure, you go to the Materials tab in the content library and select MAT * whatever you just added *, and that will color it. This was done on 11, so I know the figure works, but 8 doesn't like it for some reason. Not a problem, I'll upgrade eventually. But at least I know I can add things made for Poser and they will work...eventually. ;)

ssgbryan posted at 12:56PM Sun, 27 September 2020 - #4399376

Welcome to Poser - it is great to have you join us.

This could be you one day:

Your best bet is to build your own runtimes - I put all of mine in a folder cleverly named !! Additional Runtimes

Inside this folder, I have a separate runtime for each figure I own, as well as environmental groupings (Horror buildings, Modern Environment, Modern homes etc - see image above.

I would probably start with a main content folder, and inside that, have separate folders for what usage rights the contained assets have, and subdivide from there. I cut my teeth in the FOSS community researching licenses, so that is always my first concern when it comes to acquiring content I can use. I even go berserk with fonts, combing over ever last sentence to make sure what I can and can't get away with, and even crosssearching other font sites to make sure what I have isn't someone else repackaging something with a different license he has no right to issue. I once spent $40 on a music library for my cartoons, only to find out his "royalty free music" was actually from Incompetech and, if I used it the way his "license" was saying to, I would be in a lot of trouble (Kevin MacLeod seems like a great guy, but for me, there's no substitute for simply staying out of trouble in the first place).

BabaBozo posted at 12:48PM Sun, 27 September 2020 - #4399369

This is an issue which is best solved by the developers. Explaining all of the above to new users one by one by one by one for years is very well intentioned and generous, but also highly inefficient. And also often ineffective, as it would be easy to read this entire thread (and others like it) and still not understand how the system works....

It's great that members are willing to assist new members, and I am personally grateful for the help I've received. All I'm suggesting is that such helping is just a highly imperfect patch, and not the real solution. The real solution will arrive when a consensus arises within the Poser community that content installation confusion is an unacceptable threat to the Poser community, including all the experienced long time users.

Well, to be fair, in this instance, I don't think it's fair to pin this on Rendo. The Poser I'm using is 8, which is (I believe) a 2009 vintage. I had used Poser 6 for artist reference in drawing my comic books at the time, and there are new features in 8 that I don't recall. I would suppose that 11.3 has a lot of advancements and is a lot more intuitive than 8 simply because they've had 10 years or more to refine and improve it. Remember, the only reason I'm testing out with Poser 8 is because 1) I want to see if I have the ability to make 3D animations work and 2) it was waaaaaaaay cheaper than a current version of Poser. Making things intuitive for the end user is a laudable goal. But when you have to bargain hunt, you don't always get the best options. An imperfect patch that enables you to get things done is better than no patch at all. Not dismissing what you say, just saying I appreciate having help even with outdated software.

Nails60 posted at 12:43PM Sun, 27 September 2020 - #4399197

I would suggest the best way to organise the content in the way you want is to create new runtimes and add these to poser. Somewhere on your drive that poser can write to create a folder named whatever you want ( a descriptive name of the sort of stuff you are going to put in this runtime) and in this folder create a folder called runtime. Now in poser you add this runtime to your content by clicking on the symbol of upright books with the plus near the top right of your library window. This opens a window that allows you to navigate to the folder you have created, select this and poser will add a runtime to your library.

So, let's say that I am creating a fan animation, Star Trek Meets The Orville (I'm not doing this, and besides, I'd be surprised if there weren't already people working on something like this). So I could create a folder, say, on the desktop called STvTO. Inside this folder, I create another called "runtime" (case sensitive, I'm assuming). And into this folder I drag and drop all the asset files I get, putting each of the geometries into a "geometries" folder and so on. Or I could simply rename each asset folder as long as there is a runtime folder in the top level inside that folder and I'm willing to take the risk of things getting unweildly and confusing to handle. Am I right so far?

perpetualrevision posted at 12:36PM Sun, 27 September 2020 - #4399182

The purpose of a runtime structure is to allow all items to use the same file paths, regardless of which type of computer they're on or how the user has organized their computer. So everything from the top level Runtime folder on down to sub-folders should stay "as is" so that all file path references will continue to work. If you open a Poser library file with a text editor (I recommend BBEdit for Mac), you'll see that OBJs, image files, and other kinds of files are referenced with a file path that starts with :Runtime: That means Poser doesn't need to know the full root path of the item (like MacintoshHD:Users: etc.), just the path from Runtime on down. I hope that makes sense!

I apologize for the delay in responding, I've been a bit swamped, and this is my first day where I can catch up on messages. Also, I don't see an option to multiquote messages, so I can only respond to each individual message (I know this is a faux pax on some boards to post multiple responses instead of putting them all in one). So I will try to keep it to a minimum to avoid causing headaches.

Your explanation makes perfect sense. It's a relative filepath, not an absolute. It also explains the options for setting up the custom folder. I definitely see where this is a great idea. In other words, if I'm just playing around with a couple of models to get the hang of the interface, putting content in other folders is fine. But when it's time to get work done, stick with the actual set-up, or things will break.

That said, if I can ask -- I'm seeing models that are marked "rigged." Am I correct in assuming that this is like 2D animation in that, if something is rigged, it has a "skeleton" structure attached to it that enables control and movement, and if it isn't rigged, I will have to add the skeleton myself to make it functional? If I do have to add a skeleton, whether because the download doesn't have one or I create my own model, how difficult is it going to be to do this?

Thank you. Sorry I didn't find it on my own.