will2power posted at 3:23PM Thu, 03 March 2016 - #4258870

Well, that's just it. Iclone's cloth simulations are pretty darn good --but there are drawbacks to using Iclone and so I'm trying to wrap my head around whether or not switching to Poser is going to be worth it.

Hi there I'm a hybrid animation-focused user like yourself. Relate to your chief concerns, soft clothing, face rig animation, interactive morphing and less jumpy workflow. IClone's clicky jumpy puppet control panels I can put up with, it is the single expression track for the entire head that boggles the mind...

With my Poser noob research still clear in my head, some key issues you may wish to know... Genesis figures, as far as I know, need some hacks to work in Poser lipsync (Talk Designer). I've had success with Genesis 1 viseme hack but not jaw bone. Not sure if this new Genesis3 for Psoer's now functioning face bones will do Poser auto-lipsync too. I've since decided to not fight the system and settle for Poser native Pauline (also has face bone rig which seems to be your thing too).

For hybrid animation-focused users like us, the dynamic cloth workflow difference will be "realtime" sim vs traditional drape sim. Poser has a nice soft clothing rigging system (also more nuanced and refined fitting/ conforming process than DS). A new plugin VWD (DS/Carrara/Poser compatible) is also under way which add to more options for the soft dynamic enthusiasts.

Animating in Poser is not as spontaneous or edgy as in iClone or even DS with its still-fabulous Animate2 and efficient Puppeteer. See the Poser wish list for clues on what to expect. If you've been using iClone a long time, you'll find the lack of realtime play-record mouse action limiting. But Poser has all the basics, native multiple NLA tracks for every body parts and all the key frame tracks for every bit of the face controls.

Hope that helps...