Attached Link: The final image

One of the reasons I find myself using Poser more and more is that it lets me experiment with different things with minimal effort. Assembling a scene is almost like sketching a concept in pencil before committing to a painting or more permanent work. I wanted to create an image as the final step in a tutorial about creating a Corel Painter brush that can be used to quickly paint a starfield. There was no more intent than that when I started trying to put together an example image to simply show the end result of using the new brush to create a Poser background. After tossing a few ideas aside, I settled on an image of looking outside a spaceship window. I flipped through my index of Poser scifi environments and settled on a wall prop created by the AFA Prop Dept. It wasn't until I picked the main prop, for the image, that I decided to use the Millennium PreSchool girl in the image. Then I had to pick some clothes for the girl and debated the time it would take to use Tailor to convert a Victoria scifi suit for the girl and wanted to save time by using an existing outfit. A PoserWorld sweater, pants, and boots had the look of an outfit that looked as if it could be realistic for a futuristic image. After all, cowboy jeans and shirts, from the 1800s, wouldn't be out of place on a Midwestern US farm today. At that point, the image began to become more than a quick throwaway picture for a tutorial and started taking on a life of its own. There was something about using modern clothes in a future setting that helped define where the image was going. The wall section had this box on the floor and it was only natural that a kid would be climbing on top of that. Kids express themselves with their whole body, so once I had the little girl on top of the box, she had to be getting on her toes for a better look. Initially, I started with a Schlabber pose of Victoria, leaning against a door frame, that would have had both the girl's hands outstretched against the window. There was something about two hands on the window that seemed too committed to looking out. Making the view less powerful seemed to be a more interesting concept. A backdrop, of the girl being born on the ship started slipping into the drawing. Suddenly, the image became about a little girl running down the corridors of a spaceship with her balloon. I picked a balloon because it seemed like such a nice everyday kind of prop that would still capture a child's attention even a thousand years from now. The last thing I ever would have imagined would be throwing a balloon into this drawing, but putting it in helped sell where the image was going. What I've captured is the moment when the girl sees the box and jumps up on it to look out the window. I initially gave the girl a surprised "oooohhhh" look to the girl, but liked a previous test render with her default face. This isn't the first time she's looked out the window. It carries no more significance to her than a child looking outside her house today. Had I done this as a painting, I don't think it would have turned out the same way. I would have gotten locked into the final sketch and what few tweaks would go into the end painting. There are things, in a painting, that I would not have gone back to because it was too far along. Angles can be changed instantly. Lighting can be modified quickly. That's one of the things I like about Poser. I wound up starting with an idea that didn't mean much to me and ended up with a graphic that I'm glad I made. It wouldn't have been as good if I had painted it from scratch because the concept came from interacting with the program rather than as a deliberate artistic statement. Having watched children ignore their fancy extravagant Christmas presents for the box or wrapping paper they came in, I have no doubt that a child of the future will be no more impressed with their surroundings than children are today. Whatever flights of fantasy they have will be for a future yet to be--or the dragons and monsters of fairytales of a time that never was.

My visual indexes of Poser content are at http://www.sharecg.com/pf/rgagnon