Hi Guys and  Girls

My name is Stefani. I am a complete, utter newbie to Poser and digital art. Poser 7 is my first Poser version. It all looks a little intimidating though I am eager to learn and start producing.

Primarily I am a writer of dark brooding fetish and bdsm stories. I thought I would try my hand at tastefully reproducing some of the scenes I have written about, and envisage in my head. I realise this is a huge undertaking but have the time, patience and definitely the inclination to learn.

I thought a good place to start.. maybe hook up here with artists who are already doing similar work, or along the lines of the work that I wish to do. People who can point me to suitable characters, props and techniques etc.

Basically i guess what i am saying is HELP... anyone!

Please forgive the copy / paste, but here is a mini essay that I compiled for new poser users. It can be an intimidating program for sure :)

Welcome to the wonderfully addictive world of Poser!

A picture to show you the file structure of a Poser Runtime can be found here:

http://www.daz3d.com/support/faq/index.php?id=94

Basically, what it boils down to in a nutshell:

If you are looking for a Character or a piece of clothing/shoes, in Poser you will find them in libraries/character

If you are looking for hair, you will find them in either library/character/hair OR library/hair

If you are looking for character texture addons, hair textures, clothing textures, you will find them in library/poses. Sometimes on the rare occasion, a merchant will package their textures so that they go into the "Camera" folder (.cm2 files). If that is the case then you can either apply them from there, or do what I do and change the file extension to .pz2

If you are looking for props, they are located in library/props

Sometimes you will find clothing and hair or shoes in library/props too, depending on whether the item is actually created and saved as a figure, or it was created and saved as a prop.

Figure items are "conformed" or "parented"

Props are parented.

If you are just starting, it's best to get started on the right foot. DO NOT just install files into the runtime! That will only lead to frustration because you won't be able to find anything, and not all files are packaged equally and land up all over the place.

Here is a link to a tutorial on using multiple runtimes.

http://forum.daz3d.com/viewtopic.php?t=9060&start=0

Another tip is to never just unzip or install anything directly to your runtime. Always unzip or install to a separate folder. Then browse through the folder to have a look at the structure of where things are going and make sure that it's in "proper runtime structure" so that when you move it to the runtime, they get into the proper folders.

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Once you get your files installed, the next thing you want to do is to start making things :)

Here are some great newbie tutorials that will get you through the bare basics. They are for Poser 5 I believe but the basics are the same in Poser 5, 6 and 7. So you should be able to use these easily enough:

http://trekkiegrrrl.dk/tut1.htm

http://www.poserguide.nimprodaction.com/issues/issue2/cover.htm

http://www.poserguide.nimprodaction.com/issues/issue3/cover.htm

http://www.poserguide.nimprodaction.com/

http://www.canary3d.com/tutorial/3d-intro.htm

http://www.ebonshire.net/tut-posb/index.php

http://www.cooltuna.com/poser/poser-tutorials.html

Dr. Geep Studios ( Basic to Advanced Tutorials. Periodically offers free classes for Poser)

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If you don't have the Daz  V3 or the V4 figure, you should pick one or both. I'd personally suggest that you go with the V3 one as it's been around for years and there is a TON of freebies around for her, as well as a TON of stuff in the various Poser stores.  It will be a couple of years before V4 catches up with clothing content and stuff  and  V3 stuff won't work on V4 because they are different figures. There are work arounds to getting clothing from a figure to fit another figure. I've included information on that further down.  which is a popular figure, you should get it. 

Victoria 3

3D Models Pack (incl V3)  Free from Daz at Download.com

Victoria 4

But if you want to change the look of her face and body, or use any of the available character addon packages, you need to buy the head and body morphs.

The V3 head and body morphs are here:

http://www.daz3d.com/shop.php?op=itemdetails&item=3008

Also, Michael 3, is available free right now too at Daz3D. Again, like Vicky, you need the head and body morphs to change the shape of his head and body. Those can be found here:

http://www.daz3d.com/shop.php?op=itemdetails&item=3009

If you have both figures, you can get both of their head and body morphs in one package, here:

http://www.daz3d.com/shop.php?op=itemdetails&item=3010

NOTE:  You can use the textures from the character addon packages without having the head/body morphs. 

If you want to change the look of the head/body and have the head/body morphs, do the following:

Install the head and body morphs. 

Locate the morphs you want to use in the "Poses" folder.

Find the set of morphs you want to inject IE:  Full Body, Full Head.... or just certain parts. 

Left  click the picture

Click the Single Checkmark at the bottom of the page.

Go to your Parameter Dials and start turning dials.  (make sure that you have the part of the body you want to adjust as the active one IE:  Morphing the ears, make sure you have the had selected.

Also, you can find many, many free morphs and textures for Vicky, and Aiko, and some even for David and Michael.  So you don't have to turn any dials if you don't want to.  Here are a couple links to get you started.

http://www.renderosity.com/mod/freestuff/index.php?user_id=55140

http://www.renderosity.com/mod/freestuff/index.php?user_id=178490

http://www.renderosity.com/mod/freestuff/index.php?user_id=105158

Using ready made character addons is pretty easy.   You need to have the figure and it's head and body morph packages installed.

Load up the figure IE: Vicky

Go to the Poses folder, and instead of looking for your morphs from the packages, look for th character you want to use.  Left click the image that has INJ, click the SINGLE checkmark at the bottom and the morphs for that character's look is injected into your figure.  No dial turning necessary.  Of course if you want to tweak the settings you can, but that's not mandatory.

Next locate the textures (if the package has some). They will be usually in the same library menu as your INJ that you used.   Left click the image for the texture and use the SINGLE checkmark to apply it.  If you don't like that texture, apply another one overtop. 

You can even use a texture from another package.  IE: Morphs from package A  and textures from package C.  Or morphs from packag A, texture from package C, eyes from package D, lips from package E.  the combinations are endless :)  If the packages have their head morphs seprate from the body ones, you can mix and match morphs too. IE: body morphs from package A with head morph from package D.  That allows for even more versatility.

There are lots of sites out there that has free V3 character addons, and some that have for Aiko, Michael and even David.

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Hair, clothing and textures are all figure/item specific, which means:

Michael 3.0 needs hair and clothing and textures made for Michael 3.0
Victoria 4.0 needs hair and clothing and textures made for Victoria 4.0
Victoria 3.0 needs hair and clothing and textures made for Victoria 3.0
Victoria 2.0 needs hair and clothing and textures made for Victoria 2.0
Aiko needs hair and clothing and textures made for her.

Like figures, a texture made for one hair style can only be used on that hair style.

Clothing is also specific when it comes to textures. A texture for a pair of pants, won't fit all pants... just the pants that it was made to fit. Same with all clothing items.

Sometimes you can manage to  clothing item to fit another figure by tweaking of dials and increasing or decreasing the scale percent, but that doesn't always work. Sometimes a clothing item for Victoria 2 will fit Victoria 3, but their joints are different so posing a figure wearing clothing not made for it specifically will be hard.

Some figures can share items more easily than others, here is a link that will help sort that out:
http://market.renderosity.com/mod/forumpro/showthread.php?message_id=2682279

There are 3 types of clothing:

Dynamic:  This is clothing that you use inside the Cloth room. It takes longer to work with and there is a bit of a learning curve, but it's not too bad, but the results are more appealing in that the clothing actually looks more natural instead of "posed and stiff".

Confroming- Non Morphing:  This is clothing that you conform to a figure. The clothing is made to fit the base figure.  If you change the shape of the figure you will also have to refit the clothing, which isn't always easy if there aren't any corresponding body morphs in the clothing.  Plus posing a character in positions where they are not nearly upright is difficult.  But many prefer this type of clothing over dynamic.

Conforming-Morphing: This is the same as conforming-non morphing, only there are morph dials that you can turn that have corresponding body morphs for easier fitting.  This is the preferred type of conforming clothing because it's easier to fit.

There are programs that can help fit clothing from one figure to another, or even from the same figure to one that has been "morphed up" using their morph packages.

The Tailor, which can be bought here:
http://www.daz3d.com/shop.php?op=itemdetails&item=677

Wardrobe Wizard (I use this one and it's great). It can be purchased from PhilC's site here:
http://www.philc.net/WardrobeWizard.htm

Clothes Converter, which can be bought here:
http://www.daz3d.com/shop.php?op=itemdetails&item=3069&cat=131

Things like hair can be used across all figures just by tweaking the scaling and trans dials and then parenting the hair to the figure.

Poses are something else that can be used across most human-like figures with just a bit of tweaking to dig out a hand, or fix a shoulder.

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These are all things I learned along the way and found to be valuable, so I try to pass them along because I know how frustrated I was when I first got Poser.  Hopefully you will find the information helpful.

"It is good to see ourselves as others see us. Try as we may, we are never
able to know ourselves fully as we are, especially the evil side of us.
This we can do only if we are not angry with our critics but will take in good
heart whatever they might have to say." - Ghandi

You forgot lots of coffee, flame retardant credit card and a wallet that never closes....oh...and a very understanding spouse! Welcome to the world of the poser addicted...lol
Marque

So far as erotica props and such, you can check the following places, unfortunately due to rules about certain content I can't post the links to the first 2 sites.  You can find them at www.google.ca though by entering the name followed by the word Poser and that should pull it up for you.

Renderotica
BBay

And BVH's site.... this one I could post a link to but I don't seem to see it in my bookmarks.  Perhaps someone else will remember it and post it here.

"It is good to see ourselves as others see us. Try as we may, we are never
able to know ourselves fully as we are, especially the evil side of us.
This we can do only if we are not angry with our critics but will take in good
heart whatever they might have to say." - Ghandi

http://www.planetvixens.com/

you mean ?

My Freebies
Buy stuff on RedBubble

Hey Hey

thank y'all so much for your responses.. i intend to follow all links and explore ALL avenues so need all the help i can get :)

Stefi xxx

Quote - http://www.planetvixens.com/

you mean ?

Yes, that's it. Thanks :)

"It is good to see ourselves as others see us. Try as we may, we are never
able to know ourselves fully as we are, especially the evil side of us.
This we can do only if we are not angry with our critics but will take in good
heart whatever they might have to say." - Ghandi

mmmmmm i like planetvixen..... but will prolly end up seeing what i can do with V4....  who knows i may get good results :)

Stefi

I found the tutorials provided with P6 (and I presume P7) also very usefull.
Their manual, on the other hand, is only usefull AFTER you know what you are doing and only need to look up  some detail like a definition of a particular parameter etc.
I also highly recomend the book "Practical Poser 7". (I bought the one for P6 'cause I only have this version, but I got the P7 book from the library and it's even better.)

Also, there is lots of free tcontent available to start learning with, delay large expenditure till you know  a bit more...

Have fun

"I paint that which comes from the imagination or from dreams, or from an unconscious drive. I photograph the things that I do not wish to paint, the things which already have an existence."
Man Ray, modernist painter
http://artpearl.redbubble.com/

Hey hey ArtPearl

I hear you hun. I'm gonna get all the practice i can get with whats in the box before I buy, although i will prolly get V4.. coz i really wanna work on her.

Also many thanks.. i just got a copy of Practical Pser 7 from Amazon.. so now.... all i need is some midnight hours :))

Thanks again
Stefi xxx

Quote - I found the tutorials provided with P6 (and I presume P7) also very usefull.
Their manual, on the other hand, is only usefull AFTER you know what you are doing and only need to look up  some detail like a definition of a particular parameter etc.
I also highly recomend the book "Practical Poser 7". (I bought the one for P6 'cause I only have this version, but I got the P7 book from the library and it's even better.)

Also, there is lots of free tcontent available to start learning with, delay large expenditure till you know  a bit more...

Have fun

Stefi,

If you are going to buy V4 you should look into joining the Platinum Club on the monthly plan.
V4 base cost about $30. For approx.  the same price you join the club, get 30% off further purchases, AND many items INCLUDING V4 base, only costs 1.99. So you basicaly get to join for free. After the first month you pay $8 a month but get $5voucher I am fairly sure you can cancel at any time, at least you could when I joined 1/2 year ago. I intended to cancel, but I found it usefull so far so I'm stil in.

By the way, I am not a DAZ sales person... just sharing my experience, and they seem to be nice to customers. (Which cant be said about E-frontier/Content paradise)

Also, did you see the thread about Apollo Maximus? he is free. Not a lot of content for him yet, but he looks good.

"I paint that which comes from the imagination or from dreams, or from an unconscious drive. I photograph the things that I do not wish to paint, the things which already have an existence."
Man Ray, modernist painter
http://artpearl.redbubble.com/

Mmmmm good advice ArtPearl, I must check out the Platinum Club. I need all the guidence I can get so thanks :)

I may well check out Appollo Maximus, although for now, i much prefer women... if you follow me :)

Thanks again
Stefi xxx

Quote - Stefi,

If you are going to buy V4 you should look into joining the Platinum Club on the monthly plan.
V4 base cost about $30. For approx.  the same price you join the club, get 30% off further purchases, AND many items INCLUDING V4 base, only costs 1.99. So you basicaly get to join for free. After the first month you pay $8 a month but get $5voucher I am fairly sure you can cancel at any time, at least you could when I joined 1/2 year ago. I intended to cancel, but I found it usefull so far so I'm stil in.

By the way, I am not a DAZ sales person... just sharing my experience, and they seem to be nice to customers. (Which cant be said about E-frontier/Content paradise)

Also, did you see the thread about Apollo Maximus? he is free. Not a lot of content for him yet, but he looks good.