if so, which ones are the best for Poser figures? I might invest in another program if the price is right & the figures are compatible. I know they aren't with Brcye. What's the next best thing? thanks.

They import to Vue very well. Marque

they also import into Shade very well

They go into MAX quite well with plugins (ProPack or Bodystudio or GestureMax) or with simple OBJ export. Results are quite good as MAX has an amazing renderer and many other renderers are available! (Mental Ray, Brazil, VRay, cebas FinalRender etc.)

Max is my #1 choice for Poser imports. Lightwave also has similar plugin support as MAX, Maya & Softimage XSI have import plugins as well.

Message edited on: 03/19/2005 06:12

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I import into trueSpace and Cinema 4d

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Cinema 4D with Kuroyume's plugin. No problems at all. There is also Riptide to import obj files, and it's free. Bodystudio works but is way too expensive for what it offers.

I import them into Maya for animation purposes and they work very well.

Max sounds like something that would be easy to learn and not too expensive. I'll have to check the prices though. Another question: would these programs also import the textures with the figure? I'd like to expand on my postwork lol. That's why i'm thinking of taking the plunge with another 3D app.

If you export them as .obj, they usually keep the textures right (3ds does sometimes, but sometimes it gets them wrong or loses them completely)

the lower-poly figures will export into Wings 3d, either as .3ds, or .obj. You can create morph targets (see Dr. Geep's tute), create instant 'clothing', all sorts of evil thangs..;)

Cinema4D with interPoser from Kuroyume! Works very smooth and you have access to all MAT-pose-files from within C4D.

3DS MAx v7 $3,145.50 Student lic. roughly $600.00

$3,800. cdn... $950 for cebas final render 1 too... sold a kidney... I mean robbed my rrsp's this week... I'm happy though... been using Max 3.1 for ages now and I really like max7 now!! Hey Birdie... there is a demo for max7 as well as you might the free gmax... it's mainlyfor game mods but might be interesting!

I think I've read that you can use the shareware Milkshape modeler to convert the GMax format files to obj. Milkshape doesn't handle large models apparently but it would probably work well enough for props. I'd certainly look into Shade. Since the company now owns Poser, I'd imagine that going forward it will be the modeling program that will integrate best. From the images I've seen, the renderer is awesome as well. As always when this question comes up, the best answer is get the freeware, get the demos and try them all. Each one has it's own personality and what works best for you is a highly individual decision-probably more so than for almost any type of software except maybe the choice of a programming language.

No problems importing animated scenes into Lightwave or Vue 4 Pro (awaiting the shipment of V5I). In my experience, usually requires re-setting-up the materials - a minor inconvenience. Have Shade but haven't tried it yet.

Carrara 4 Pro (or Carrara 4 with Transposer) works very well with Poser imports - and supports dynamic cloth. The new Transposer 2 has dynamic hair support. Purchasing Carrara won't break the bank either.

Using Transposer2 ,you can import poser files with textures in Carrara4

3DS MAx v7 $3,145.50 I might be able to swing that after a dozen saved paychecks lol. Message edited on: 03/19/2005 21:46

Don't forget to add in the cost of translation software if you want to anything other than import static Poser figures or bone them in Max. ProPack may have had some Max export ability but I;m not sure. Whatever you do, don't spend more than the cost of a demo CD. If you've never modeled before, you may end up deciding it's not your thing.

PP does come with s Poser plugin with MAX. Just MAX will be out of my price range for a little while longer. I tried modeling with a freebie once before.

I'm another one of the Poser to Carrara folks. I used to export as obj and set up my textures manually, but when I upgraded to Carrara 4, it came with Transposer so things got even easier. A good thing, since I could never stand to render in Poser (maybe P6 will change things though). Now I just have to find time to actually do any Poser related things. :)