Hi childen!!!!

Here's the lowdown...

I'm waiting on the new release of MAKEHUMAN (http://www.dedalo3d.com).
The next version of this goofy thing will make it capable of EXPORTING new figures in COLLADA format (rigging included).

Here's the question - Can you IMPORT a Collada figure - rigging and all - into either Poser 4 / pro pack OR DAZ STUDIO.

I know that both the new versions of DS and POSER have Collada EXPORTERS - but what about IMPORTING Collada files into either of these apps?

Inquiring minds wanna know...

P.S. - I love you all and I wanna lick your toe jam! LOL - LMAO!!!

I have the OLD CURIOUS LABS Poser Pro Pack - NOT efrontiers..

Forgive me if I am mistaken, but wasn't collada created about 5 years AFTER propack was cancelled?

Yer not going to find new cutting edge formats supported by software that recommends win 98 as an operating system.

And it's a bit hard to find a new import/export format in an old, unupdated piece of software.  COLLADA support is going to be NEW in the not yet released Poser 7 Pro (not even in Poser 7).

Daz|Studio has COLLADA support in its latest version - but only export, no import.

And, ewwww, to the P.S. ;)

LOL- ok guys. The new Poser 7 PRO is gonna be steep for me price wise. The old Poser Pro is sufficient to creat a poser package that works with DAZ STUDIO, but I'm gonna have to ponder it a whil;e.

If you goal is to make and sell items for poser, you are going to need at least poser 7...while you can rig a figure, the old poser pro cannot create the mat files and material groups that are expected in a commercial product today.

You could rig a figure and try to sell it as DS only, but when you consider DS users are using free software, many of then shy away from buying anything at all, and many only buy very few items.

Even if that's only 40% of the ds market, you are looseing a HUGE installed base of poser users in that case.

I wouldn't even look twice at something that didn't support poser materials with at least P5 in mind.

If you are just creating as freebies or for yourself, it's a non issue, but if you are creating for current users, the userbase for Poser pro is only like 5% of the entire market, based on polls done a few months ago.

I am quite confident that I can rig the figures (models) in Poser - and using other third party products - make suitable textures and material groups. 

As far as selling , well, I have seen things done in Poser 4 / pro pack (the old curious lab version) that is just as good and in some rare cases even better than Poser 6 stuff that I've seen.

I was planning on making free stuff - but I doubt that if were talking about some really awsome models - then if they were at an inexpensive price, I think people would like them despite the "oldness" of the poser file types.
Go to the DAZ site - DAZ sells PLENTY of stuff for DAZ STUDIO, including plug ins.
ALSO - converting an older style POSER 4 file to a "NEW" DAZ file type is not a problem. You don't always need the newest thing on the market to do some outstanding stuff. You can use the old stuff in the newer Poser versions AND DAZ STUDIO.

With the exception of a few enhancements and program features - at it's core even the new Poser is still the same, and can read the same file types it always has.
I don't see a relevant issue here...

I agree with you on the viablility of selling to the studio customer base, Dispite what Gareee says, I have never found Studio users any less willing to buy new content than Poser users but frankly marketing to only that market would be like saying you would only sell cars to one sex, why limit yourself if you don't have to. Yes the modeling and rigging is not a real issue as that hasn't changed appreciably since ProPack, but the relevant issue when you are talking about Poser 4 propack vs newer versions is Materials, and Firefly pure and simple, while firefly may not be important to you, the fact that to get the best results out of it you need current material presets and can create those only with Poser 5 and up, and to simplify Material creation you should use Poser 6 as it is the first version of Poser which actually can create a complete multi material group material preset directly in Poser, without file editing. yes if all you are interested in doing is freebies than you can skate by with propack, but understand the limitations of making that choice.

Thanks for that more in depth reply, Will... pretty much the same thing I was thinking, but didn;t really elaborate on.. too much black friday buying planning going on here.. LOL!

True...
I would LOVE to get POSER 7, but MY GOD - IT'S EXPENSIVE!
I have been investigating working with MAKEHUMAN, BLENDER, WINGS3D, and K3D as an option. The free stuff seems to be getting a lot better qaulity wise.

Just a side note mugsy your avatar is hilarious!!

Poser 7 is expensive?

Take a look at 3d studio max, lightwave, zbrush, and xsi, and then get back to me.

Poser 7 is pretty dang dirt cheap.

Yep. The upgrade from Poser 4 (or later) is $129.99.  That's about 10% or less the cost of most anything else of worth out there.  Daz|Studio is nice - but its full potential costs like $300-400 (with all of the plugins) and it has no way to save Poser files or even construct them in the software.  Poser 5 was available for free for a bit not too long ago.  Should have jumped on that.

Thanks Wolf 359 - the Avatar was a long project that took all of 28 seconds to create LOL.
Also guys - really - to someone on my budget - it IS expensive. again - I've been working with the open source / open GL stuff to, and it seems to be coming a long way.

Quote - Poser 7 is expensive?

Take a look at 3d studio max, lightwave, zbrush, and xsi, and then get back to me.

Poser 7 is pretty dang dirt cheap.

You can't model anything with Poser.  All the apps you listed have the ability to create, texture, uvmap, etc ....  Plus they all have commercial quality render engines.

I love Poser, but it's nothing more than a tool to assemble content created elsewhere, animate it and render it with an outdated render engine.