Hey folks, I just got Poser about an hour ago, and I was wondering if anybody had any good tutorials for me to get familiarized with the interface a bit before I read the hefty manual. Thanks folks, I hope to be turning out some great stuff soon.

Drop the manual for now. Boot up and play with for awhile, then go get the manual. Then stop in for some free stuff and check out the galleries. There are some good tutorials here, too - just click 'Tutorials' on the right ---> Now, go figure. (A little Poser joke.)

Play. Ask specific questions. Play some more. Try something new. Share what you create and discover.

I agree, just get in there and play. That's what I did. I only looked in the manual for what I couldn't figure out. I've also found the manual to be somewhat user unfriendly. It sometimes overlooks or glosses over things that I wanted to know. If you come to a snag, just come on in here and ask; someone is sure to know the answer, and that's what we're all here for ~ to help each other out. Welcome to the family. Melanie

Big hint, read about the Inverse Kinemetics thingy, or else you will have problems getting the limbs to move....that one took me almost a week...got the poser dude to bend in some incredible ways though..... Just start with the program, get your updates before you start downloading or building new characters.... have fun...

(Copied from the thread in Comp/Deb called "Why I hate Poser 4") 1. Patch 2. Turn off IK for your model 3. Make your default models all white in color 4. change lights to 1024 map size and .5 or less for shadow. 5. Use the dials, not the tools 6. Install dl'ed items very carefully make sure obj's go in the right geometry folder (open cr2 in text editor if you're not sure) 7. Buy more memory and upgrade your processor 8. Save your ongoing project often, specially before rendering at all. 9. When adding a character, make sure you've got the button in the middle. 10. When deleting props, make sure it's the prop you've selected, and not your carefully posed figure. Those ten tips should make poser very user-friendly and intuitive. Too bad it's not that way by default! -Darth_Logice

And, by the way, welcome to your new home on the internet. YOu'll be here almost constantly for the next five months. If you want to be really popular and famous, go to the gallery, click sort by best ranking, and proceed to rate all pictures with a six or a seven and use ascii characters for the comment field. The ops will adore you and the members will be...um...talking about you for at least a week :) (Don't really do that, unless you want to, which is your right, and...um...have fun.) -Darth

My suggestion for the new... Figure out what you wanted to do with Poser. Make it your project. Attack it with fervor. If you become disheartened or confused, come here and let us see if we can help. Once you have done a few projects, you'll be a pro before ya know it. smile P.S. And always choke up on the handle and swing through, okay?

Try not to develop the habit of scratching your head, as you will be doing it a lot and may make bald spots.... use high quality antiperspirants and bathe often .... don't be afraid to experiment ... if you need help with a seamingly impossible task here in the forum, one sure way to get it is to make the statement that something CANT be done...someone will prove you wrong.. hehe ... a little psychology goes a long way... dont waste your money on expensive pc speakers you will never get great sound out of a PC because theres a DC offset caused by a small electrical charge in sound cards.... OH and don't stop alongside the highway to urinate ... cops don't like it... :O)

Y'all have a great day.

Thanks guys for all the tips! I've been playing with Poser a lot since I got it and in just a few more years I think I will understand what all the dials and menus do! Oh, and Darth, I've been using Renderosity for a couple of months now, and love it, that's why I came here first. I knew you folks could help!

You guys have me laughing so hard I can hardly breathe. :) Dethblud, I would start by setting all my most used characters to white and resaving them back to the original name. That way, you'll never have to do it every time you bring in a new character. It's saved me countless hours of creative time. You'll thank yourself for doing it. I have no idea why they ever put all those colors in there to begin with. If there's a P5, I hope they preset the figures to all white to begin with. Melanie