There's so many true geniuses here using Poser.

It has so many limitaions and so many incredibly brilliant folks have taken the time to think up work arounds to make Poser work better over the years. Mat poses, python scripts, shaders to fake effects, lots more.

Why don't we all just use a high end app?

What keeps you using Poser?

Money?

munnies.

infact poser is the only software I now pay for other than my OS. everything else is either from magazine cover disks, old versions I bought years ago, special offers going for free / almost free and Open Source.

I don't buy any content, I make my own....

You give us all the money to buy the high end apps and we will use them. Lol.

All the best.

LROG

Who honors those we love for the very life we live?, Who sends monsters to kill us?, and at the same time sings that we will never die., Who teaches us whats real?, and how to laugh at lies?, Who decides why we live and what we'll die to defend?, Who chains us?, and Who holds the key that can set us free... It's You!, You have all the weapons you need., Now Fight!

Most of us are doing this as a hobby.
We invest our limited hobby money and our hobby time.

I am sure the Pro's use High end (read as) high dollar apps.

But? Poser is so flexible.
Gives chalenges.
Let us try and experiment.

Want clothes?

I can think of 8 completely different ways to make clothing.
Each has his own workflow, and each has its good and bad points.

We are free.
We can buy, spin some dials and get a result.
Or?
We can make, build, our own content. => See my simple post about how to make a dynamic dress WITHOUT leaving Poser?
I never buy, but allways try to find a KISS way to get a result and build from there.

Poser is all about having FUN with our hobby.

No, it is not without its limitations and a lot of "add ons" are available.
Most tools are perhaps not the best of the best around, but they are all there, and they work.

And the learning curve is managable.
The results can be quite satisfying.

And? Hey, the support here, and open communication, also counts.

Poser 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, P8 and PPro2010, P9 and PP2012, P10 and PP2014 Game Dev
"Do not drive faster then your angel can fly"!

As a 3d beginner, the attractions of Poser for me were ease of use and the large amount of free content readily available, some of which is really excellent.

I do intend to move on to a so-called high end app (torn between Maya, Lightwave and C4D) but I still have so much to learn before the move is worthwhile, and even then I envisage Poser as being part of the workflow.

Perhaps we are forgetting the most obvious??

When all is said and done??

It is a dammed good product, managed by a company that cares for its customers.

Poser 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, P8 and PPro2010, P9 and PP2012, P10 and PP2014 Game Dev
"Do not drive faster then your angel can fly"!

Poser gives you such great renders...High end aps? Wouldnt know and at this stage of my life really don't want to learn new complicated software...

Win10  Poser 2014/Poser 11 Daz3D

Money.

Or Money and Morals.

 

 

            “So, roll me further B_t__h!”

Quote - Perhaps we are forgetting the most obvious??

Whan all is said and done??

It is a dammed good product, managed by a company that cares for its customers.

I like this one. 8-)

I'm poor as the perverbial church mouse. And what I do get, well....I like eating at least once a day :P.

Laurie

like everyone else money is the big prob, any spare cash goes on hardware lol and not to forget poser (an DS) are the only progs to do what they do ~ let you load a pre made doll an clothing etc and produce a decent render WITHOUT all the hoops you have to jump thro' on a high end app

 

ps LaurieA you seen this one http://bp.io/fugu/   is free ;-)

I do not have high end money :)

I don't have the skill set to get what's in Poser out of it, much less an app that requires me to actually build something from scratch!

Money.

Even then I'd probably still use Poser for some things because it's dead easy to get to grips with.  I still write basic music tracks on Evolution MIDI because it's really easy to use.  The band then ports 'em over to Reason.

I'd need a much bigger and faster system to use anything above P6 anyhow.  High end apps tend to be more memory and processor hungry than Poser, or so I believe, so it'd be out of the question to buy the software to run on my ancient machines.

Time is also a factor.  Since getting Hexagon, I've run it once.  Don't have time to learn anything new at the moment.  Maybe when the kids are older or I can get enough hours in the day, or we get a nanny or something.  :)   When I open Poser and Wings, I know exactly what I'm going to get.

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Even if i had the money for hi-end, and even having PP12,

i still spend most of my time in Poser7, after years of practice, I'm just most comfortable with it.  i put the product promos for all my bought content in my folders.   Going to the library is like a cupboard of my favorite things.

If i'd seen the PP12 interface without having learned in Poser 7 first, prolly would've seen a crazy lady on the news run screaming.  lol.

---

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Plus, poser can now be ported to high-end apps like Maya and C4D, for those who feel Poser doesn't provide enough of whatever they need, to be tweeked and whatever else in those aps. Poser serves as an easy starting base to quickly produce a story board, or an idea, without having to fight with the hassles of Maya.

Maya requires you to first build your stick figures, and then rig them, before setting up your storyboard. In poser, they're already there waiting.  

I'm more interested in making my own stuff nowadays but for human figure content, Poser can't really be beaten.  Any of the shortcomings of Poser's human figures are gradually being ironed out with the realistic shaders BB's produced, the new rendering techniques available and the current Weight Mapping trend.  

And as ExistentialDisorder points out, Poser stuff can be exported to other apps if necessary. 

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Time and money.

Some of the programs you describe as being "high end" require such tremendous investments of labor and cash that most users simply cannot afford to use them.

My answer to the original question is that I'm not using a high end application because I'm too busy learning one.

I've been trying to master rigging in Maya, working through a series of video tutorials on the subject. I'm typing out notes along the way because the process is so convoluted that there would be virtually no chance of remembering it exactly. If one little thing is out of place, it can screw up everything, and good luck in finding that particular needle in the haystack of the Outliner. My notes are up to 23 pages in MS Word, and I'm only halfway through.

Some hobby. This is like a second job; Not that I'm complaining. I payed good money for this second job. Still, I look forward to returning to the art some day when this journey through the tangled willderness of procedure is over. 

 

 

Download my free stuff here: http://www.renderosity.com/homepage.php?page=2&userid=323368

  money has a lot to do with it ,but money 'for me' isn't the major factor, i have invested more than i could really afford in 'high end' apps.... the draw for me is the fact that Poser has a lot of versatility and even more potential... poser is rapidly catching up with the "high end' apps... i think its only a matter of time before Poser surpasses them... the industry as a whole has forced us to look at things from 'their' perspective for many years , such as the standard rule that we have to stay low poly, ask yourself why do we have to stay low on the polygon count? i can understand it in the past when computing technology was in its infancy...but this isn't the past, most off the shelf computers from walmart can handle everything we can throw at them... surpassing even the highest end workstations of the past... i submit to you that the industry as a whole has put itself in a box, developed a mindset that is self limiting, the old masters are resisting change, preferring to stay with proven theory, daring not to step through the doorway to the future...

 i saw this same thing happening with our beloved Poser for a time, but there's been a shift more recently toward taking the next steps... someone has realized that its in the best interest of Poser to step back and let the community lead, to keep an eye on developing trends and develop tools the user needs to make their ideas reality...

 

we are the community...we are combined intelligence...we make things happen...we are the future!

and this little piggy cried we, we we all the way home....

Y'all have a great day.

Quote - ...i saw this same thing happening with our beloved Poser for a time, but there's been a shift more recently toward taking the next steps... someone has realized that its in the best interest of Poser to step back and let the community lead, to keep an eye on developing trends and develop tools the user needs to make their ideas reality...

 

we are the community...we are combined intelligence...we make things happen...we are the future!

and this little piggy cried we, we we all the way home....

 Everybody!  We are the world... we are the children...

Yeah, ok forget it.  :)

You made some good points in your post there.  Not so sure everyone will agree with having high poly stuff just because we can, though.

OTOH, the computing power on your desk may well be equivalent to the power of a Cray in the very near future, the way things are going, so who knows?  Remember when having 64k was a big deal?

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Poser is a tool that can produce professional results and even those who have access to high end programs still use it--there are professional examples everywhere--it's the graphic designer's dirty little secret.  If your tool gives you the result you want, why go out and buy a more expensive tool? 

I think the OP's point was, with all the stuff around, why bother with the compromises and workarounds we have to use with Poser?

Anyhow, there's no app yet that doesn't come with a slew of compromises and workarounds. 

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Because no high-end app can do what Poser does? I mean, if you want to spend all your time trying to model every figure you render, and have them come out looking a lot worse than any Poser figure (for most of us), then model the clothes, then model all the props, just about any program will do.

People like Poser because all the tedious stuff is pretty much done, and the user can spend his time being creative. Geez, just the thought of modeling a foot would make me give up.

Quote - the old masters are resisting change, preferring to stay with proven theory, daring not to step through the doorway to the future...

The old masters? That would be anyone over 30? ;)

---

OS: Windows 10 64-bit, Poser: 10

Quote - > Quote - the old masters are resisting change, preferring to stay with proven theory, daring not to step through the doorway to the future...

The old masters? That would be anyone over 30? ;)

  no not an age reference, im 56... referring to those who decide where the industry is going, whether to invest in new R&D or squeeze every Penney out of previous investments...

Y'all have a great day.

"Not so sure everyone will agree with having high poly stuff just because we can, though." 

Agreed.

The notion that your low end app will soon rival or surpass the high end should note that  the high end isn't standing still. I'm sure that Poser might someday be able to rival today's CG blockbusters, but Hollywood will have moved on by then. Don't expect Maya to become obsolete anytime soon. Nice pep talk though :-)

"Democracy is a pathetic belief in the collective wisdom of individual ignorance." - H. L. Mencken

Frankly I don't want to model figures--I want to use my creative time in composing a image--not all of us have that talent.  If one wants a great environment in which your Poser figures can live, you can't get better than even the cheaper Vue Complete--hell Hollywood has adopted it for realistic environments even before the price for Inifite went through the roof.  I guess my point is, all of us have different priorities and using a more expensive "advanced" software doesn't necessarily mean that someone will get superior results.  You can give 2 people a pallate and brushes and a canvas and one might create a masterpiece using the materials at hand and one may produce something horrible looking.  All these programs as Sam pointed out have their pluses and minuses.

I guess my point, work-arounds not withstanding, is that the end result is the most important thing rather than the procedure used.

Using high end for making a rendered comic? No way, Poser is great for things like that and offers a lot that the high end apps are missing...... it's called content.

I can model and I at times, fun to do. But using content is easy fast and gives great results as well.

Artwork and 3DToons items, create the perfect place for you toon and other figures!

http://www.renderosity.com/mod/bcs/index.php?vendor=23722

Due to the childish TOS changes, I'm not allowed to link to my other products outside of Rendo anymore :(

Food for thought.....
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pYZw0dfLmLk

Why am I not using high end apps?

I chose not to pirate.  If I chose, I could be using Zbrush instead of sculptris, Max or Maya instead of Silo, and always have my photoshop up to date with the latest version all for $0.  

Or I could spend several thousand dollars.  Or I could turn a blind eye to where my friend gets all his programs from and accpet the invitation to do some of my work there.

I'm using the programs that are appropriate for the work I want to do and the investment I want to make in it.  

Were I contemplating a higher end program (which I am) it would be something that I could expect to bring a return higher than the investment.  I don't do any 3d for profit, or even for anyone else, it's purely for fun. 

But, I'm considering TurboCad Pro 18, as I'm still in contact with the shop I retired from after I  retired from full time work.  I still get called on to stick my head in on some of the projects they get, and the customers are willing to pay for drawings, should they have any made.  Beyond that, hobby level, hobby cost.  I look at the higher end programs and realize they're not much different from the CAD programs in one respect, the more capability, the longer the learning curve.

D.

The "I" in Doric is Silent.

 

Well contrary to the popular Mythology We users of "high end " apps do not always have to model our figure from scratch.

For $150 USD from DOSCH I have 30 pre rigged,  native C4D rigs with IK/FK
and catmull/ clark subdivision that allow Low res meshes for posing and animation  then can be subd'ed with one click right before render time.
so we do have option for ready to use humanoids other than poser.

Cheers

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besides all legal issues, I'm happy to sell you a Poser licence for $3500 is that turnes it into a high-end app. Or $10.000 (full Houdini licence).

Poser is a dedicated tool, a Virtual Portraying Studio. Like Vue is dedicated to Virtual Landscaping. It's part of a pipeline, like ZBrush or a standalone renderer or After Effects. Poser is not used for studio work, and not used for cinematic work. So what. It has freelance (or hobbyist) artists as its target group.

But why does everyone so simply agree that it's not a high-end tool? I guess it contains more code than the space shuttle.

- - - - - 

Usually I'm wrong. But to be effective and efficient, I don't need to be correct or accurate.

visit www.aRtBeeWeb.nl (works) or Missing Manuals (tutorials & reviews) - both need an update though

"I'm happy to sell you a Poser licence for $3500 is that turnes it into a high-end app."

I think that says a lot. Within its area of focus, Poser IS the high end application, since it has a larger feature set and is more mature than DS, which is its only real competition. Donate 3K$ to charity, hack the files and replace "Smith Micro" with "Autodesk," and voila!

"Democracy is a pathetic belief in the collective wisdom of individual ignorance." - H. L. Mencken

Well, I know I'm kidding a bit. But Sketchup Pro costs $500 or so, plus $250 extra to add VRay for Sketchup. VRay for Max costs about $1300 extra.

Don't forget what PPro2012 can do, with Materials Room, Indirect lighting and Cloth Room in skilled hands. And it just took about $100 to upgrade from PPro2010.

- - - - - 

Usually I'm wrong. But to be effective and efficient, I don't need to be correct or accurate.

visit www.aRtBeeWeb.nl (works) or Missing Manuals (tutorials & reviews) - both need an update though

I agree completely.

"Democracy is a pathetic belief in the collective wisdom of individual ignorance." - H. L. Mencken

I use Poser until I get my head around that high-end app I've installed and am still learning, which is in this HUGE flux of change and is going to do so much nore and MORE with every new version.

I'm speaking, of course, of Blender.

Time is my "money".

Monterey/Mint21.x/Win10 - Blender3.x - PP11.3(cm) - Musescore3.6.2

Wir sind gewohnt, daß die Menschen verhöhnen was sie nicht verstehen
[it is clear that humans have contempt for that which they do not understand] 

Metaphor of Chooks

Sorry to bust the bubble, but Blender still isn't considered a high end application. May be one day it will be, but for for now it's still in the same range as those other apps we all love to use, like silo, bryce, poser, hexagon, carrara, groboto and so on.

Artwork and 3DToons items, create the perfect place for you toon and other figures!

http://www.renderosity.com/mod/bcs/index.php?vendor=23722

Due to the childish TOS changes, I'm not allowed to link to my other products outside of Rendo anymore :(

Food for thought.....
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pYZw0dfLmLk

Sorry to bust the bubble, but Blender still isn't considered a high end application. ........it's still in the same range as those other apps we all love to use, like silo, bryce, poser, hexagon, carrara, groboto and so on.

With this I must disagree.
"silo, bryce, poser, hexagon, carrara, groboto"
Can NOT create Professional  film VFX Such As smoke.Fire, Fluid simulation nor do they have  working in app game engine, or 3D motion tracking nor a professional level character motion retargeting system nor a built in GPU based unbiased render Engine ( Cycles)
or a professional built in node based compositor
just to name a few.

Watch this REEL
and ask yourself if those apps you named have any where near the capabilities shown

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     Wow.  I thought that Blender was simply a freebie modeler program.  (Guess I don't get out much).

Poser 12, in feet.  

OSes:  Win7Prox64, Win7Ultx64

Silo Pro 2.5.6 64bit, Vue Infinite 2014.7, Genetica 4.0 Studio, UV Mapper Pro, UV Layout Pro, PhotoImpact X3, GIF Animator 5

one thing everyone should remember..

the app does not guarantee good work. you can have the most expensive app, the one that's industry standard and got all the awards.... but if you can't use it / have no talent.. it won't do you any better than say a lump of charcoal and a stone wall.

 

the software just makes it easier to do things and to do things you can't do with ordinary materials. the rest is up to the user. and you don't need to spend thousands at times to get the results.. (would be nice tho!)

Quote - Sorry to bust the bubble, but Blender still isn't considered a high end application. May be one day it will be, but for for now it's still in the same range as those other apps we all love to use, like silo, bryce, poser, hexagon, carrara, groboto and so on.

Yeah, I need to disagree too. Show me another app that does everything Blender does for less than $1000 and I'll show you some swamp land I have for sale.

Laurie

@ Khai - Well said, mate.

@ Laurie and others - I really have to get me head around Blender one day. 

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Heh...Blender does fluid, ocean, hair, particle and smoke, and cloth simulations as well as soft and hard body dynamics. You can sculpt in Blender, retopoligize, model, rig, animate, etc, etc. It even has dynamic paint and projection painting. I don't know of any other program under a grand that will do that, much less a free program to boot ;).

edited to add: Cycles is a great render engine. It's still in its infancy but still powerful. Add that to Blenders internal renderer and you have two for the zero price of one :P.

Laurie

And as to the joints of Blender weightmapped Rigs??

just hang on until 1:48 of this Demo

for the free for download Blenrig

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IMHO Blender is just an high-end application as Linux is. It just isn't a high-paid application. Don't get fooled by so-called proffesional experts who say you have to use 3D-studio or Maya to be taken serious in the CG-world. Read "The hacker ethics and the spirit of the information age" by Pekka Himanen. and you will get entlighted. (Note: there isn't a check for politics, but I can recommend this)

Best regards,

Bopper.

-How can you improve things when you don't make mistakes?

 I have one "low end of the high end" app called Lightwave 3d.It is used as a part of the professional pipeline- even on Avatar. It's a mix of cutting edge and not so cutting edge-or so I've been told by pros that use Maya, 3DMax, etc. But it is rather full featured-and many of the functions of Maya require plug-ins that cost more than PoserPro2012

As a hobbyist I've not had time to learn all it's abilities. PoserPro2012 can export scenes-animated even- to LW for render. Up until PoserPro2012 I did all of my rendering in LW. It is still far faster if I want global illumination, Radiosity (a more advanced form of IDL). I have 9.6.1- and I think the SSS in Poser (BB versions) look better than what I muddled through with in LW using maps for dermis, subdermis, and epidermis-which looks like Daz SSS

. It appears that the current version has greatly updated the skin shaders-but I'm unemployed and should not spend the $695 USD to upgrade.

Just before I got Pro2012 I was playing around with modeling again. Here is an example of caustics- something Poser does not have.

Most of the 'high end apps' seem to have a large number of plugins avialable to extend or optimize their functionality. Extensibility is also an important feature. In film production at least,  I don't think I've read about a feature film that used stock Maya for instance - it's always customized to their way of working, and they often create new tools and techniques for each film. In addition to functionality and customization, you're also paying for speed and stability.  You can't be having your s**t crashing in the middle of a production. They also don't rely on a single application. You might have Maya, Max, Vue, RealFlow etc. all used on one production - whatever tool works best for a particular need.  That means your app has to play well with others.

Poser scores better on some of those than others. I think that for many people, it's reached a point where it meets their needs for stills and animation and they really don't need anything 'higher.'

"Democracy is a pathetic belief in the collective wisdom of individual ignorance." - H. L. Mencken

"Up until PoserPro2012 I did all of my rendering in LW. It is still far faster if I want global illumination, Radiosity (a more advanced form of IDL). I have 9.6.1"

I have a seat of  LW9.6 as well along with the External Kray render engine.
I rarely even open it these days but its still a powerful VFX& animation workhorse when you really learn is full capabilities.
I assume you seen the demo videos of Lightwave 11??
amazing!!!
but alas who can afford to keep up anymore.

Cheers

Cheers

My website

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Thanks for all the replies.

So, sounds like money is the most popular reason?

I'm spoiled by Poser's ease of use provided by 3rd party content. It's created a comfort zone for me that's hard to wanna give up.

Modo is probably not considered a "high-end app", but even it is a fair bit beyond my capability to purchase it. But it's a bit of a multi-pronged challenge... I could conceivably save up for this in a somewhat reasonable amount of time since I don't purchase content hardly at all anymore since bitten by the dynamic cloth bug: I now just make my own. So, money is only one aspect.

The more significant is this: I've invested in Poser Pro 2012. I've only started getting my head around the materials. I've yet to really explore weight-mapping (though I've been admiring the expert's work in this area).  The only area I'm really going crazy in is dynamic cloth. And Blender. And learning that. I've upgraded Vue Studio to 10... think I've done more than just load the bloody thing? How the heck can I justify a purchase of $1195 when I haven't even learned Blender 2.6+ properly yet? Nor even touched Vue? And Poser? So much still to learn there???

In the past, I bought-bought-bought technology with the idea of learning it ... ... ... ... eventually. So, I ended up with these apps to create apps ... and never created anything because I never had the time to learn Visual FoxPro 3 or Visual Studio (exit-strategy from nursing: all nurses and doctors eventually seek exit strategies). So, I'm still pulling sticky breathing tubes (called laryngeal masks) from people's mouths and spending the rest of their time in recovery explaining to my patients why I don't know what happened during their operation because I was removing sticky breathing tubes from people's mouths. Now, at the ripe old age of almost 60, I've realised that purchasing technology doesn't immediately/magically imbue you with the knowledge on how to use the thing.

Yep, took that long. Now, I'm gonna save money!!

So, what is keeping me from potentially exploring LightWave or modo or any of those mid-range apps (let-alone high-end apps)? Not just the money. You need time to learn the thing. Otherwise, why get it? Oh, yeah, if someone gave me a license  for modo I'd jump on like a deranged slinky: I'd love to play with it! And I would play with it. But the combination of having to save up $1200 just to get something to sort-of get my head around when I already have all this stuff I don't really fully understand or have gotten completely comfortable with just seems wrong.

Just me. Just sayin'...

Monterey/Mint21.x/Win10 - Blender3.x - PP11.3(cm) - Musescore3.6.2

Wir sind gewohnt, daß die Menschen verhöhnen was sie nicht verstehen
[it is clear that humans have contempt for that which they do not understand] 

Metaphor of Chooks

You don't need to-you've got CD4 to meet your needs. I got Lightwave at LW 6-when I did a sidegrade from StrataStudioPro. I waffled over going with CD4 OR LW at that time.

LW I'll upgrade at some point- not watching the video-don't want to drool over something I can't eat! :-) LW10 has some nice improvements-were I employed I'd probably eat Top Ramen for a while and upgrade now. Then I'd go back to exporting my Poser scenes to render in LW10.

Quote - "Up until PoserPro2012 I did all of my rendering in LW. It is still far faster if I want global illumination, Radiosity (a more advanced form of IDL). I have 9.6.1"

I have a seat of  LW9.6 as well along with the External Kray render engine.
I rarely even open it these days but its still a powerful VFX& animation workhorse when you really learn is full capabilities.
I assume you seen the demo videos of Lightwave 11??
amazing!!!
but alas who can afford to keep up anymore.

Cheers

Cheers

Quote - ...I'd probably eat Top Ramen for a while and upgrade now...

Ummmmmmmm...Ramen!

 Hi Robyn

It took me  long while to understand that simple purchase of a program does not grant magical understanding. I have LW- and I also learned that buying a library of books on using it-does not grant magical knowledge-you have to read and apply the knowledge. I was doing OK until I got stuck on some advanced beginner modeling-without any help-I put it aside. I started up again before Ppro2012 came out- (see the render above)-and was rendering scenes and creating LW materials (node based).

It all went on hold when Pro2012 came out-then I got involved with the WM projects- no time for LW! No time for Zbrush! No time for Vue Infinite. Add ANOTHER program? Not likely

I do have a decent understanding of LW lighting and texturing-but little on modeling-and only moderate animation skills.

PoserPro. The cloth room gives me a headache-getting dynamic cloth to drape properly is not so straightforward. I've got some ObiWan renders where the hood and body of the robe looks good-but one of the arms of the robe splits off M4's arm.

Quote - Now, at the ripe old age of almost 60, I've realised that purchasing technology doesn't immediately/magically imbue you with the knowledge on how to use the thing. Yep, took that long. Now, I'm gonna save money!!

So, what is keeping me from potentially exploring LightWave or modo or any of those mid-range apps (let-alone high-end apps)? Not just the money. You need time to learn the thing. Otherwise, why get it? Oh, yeah, if someone gave me a license  for modo I'd jump on like a deranged slinky: I'd love to play with it! And I would play with it. But the combination of having to save up $1200 just to get something to sort-of get my head around when I already have all this stuff I don't really fully understand or have gotten completely comfortable with just seems wrong.

Just me. Just sayin'...

 Wolf359

WOW. I just checked out LW 11. A HUGE step up! Saving my pennies!

Maybe somewhat along the same line, I just looked at something I've been thinking about for a while for architecture.  One being Turbo FloorPlan from Imsi, made to work with TurboCad.  But, ViaCad has a.obj export, so me little mind say why not try to import from FloorPlan into ViaCad, export and import into Poser. 

Well, you can, but I'm still working on the limitations, that being a small home exported from ViaCad gives two choices, the first is one object, the other is every face is exported separately, all sixteen thousand plus of them. 

But!  I can get it into wings once I export a .obj from Poser, still staring at it, but I think I should be able to cut it apart so the doors will move and the roof can be hidden.

The reason for going into poser is to get it centered and halfway scaled, out of ViaCad, it's huge, far too big to even begin working with it.  Haven't checked, but I'm thinking, from the way it shows up, it might be UVmapped by ViaCad.  That would be nice, not holding breath.

D.

The "I" in Doric is Silent.

 

I have to say that I don't think any program really fits the work methods I have always wished for.  I've been at this for a while, so understand that I don't want a "make art button"...  I'd like to have a "make what I am thinking button", but that is an entirely different wish (and one that I'll defend).

I started film making with kit-bashed mecha models using sets scavenged from various toys and spray-painted styrofoam packing frames with Christmas tree lights for illumination.  I always felt a different part of my creativity being used when building the models vs. animating them.  Having to fix a model mid shot would not just cause an animation glitch but would snap me out of whatever mindset I was in at the moment...  So I'd work a few nights a week cobbling some robot together or kitbashing a new weapon or armour piece.  Then on weekends I'd set things up and hopefully shoot a few seconds of mindless robot fights.

When I got into CG it was with the intent of making my own short films with my own environments and designs.  I was planning on using "human" characters, and - screw the purists - never saw the point in modeling and rigging a realistic human figure.  Initially, people were an afterthought for me.  They were there to give other things scale, or to add life to an otherwise purely mechanical image.  I liked the idea of saving a character to a library and the ease with which a number of custom characters could be created and kept at the ready...

What I like, in theory, about Poser is there should be a division between low-level tweaking, rigging, and posing/animating a figure.  People using high end tools in production tend to work on something for a short time and then they move on.  If perfect realism is the goal of a project, you need access to all aspects of your production at all times.  I don't want that.  I want a set of figures realistic enough to be re-useable characters, and if I get them looking right I never want to have to worry about them again.  I think many of us have a similar notion, that someday we will have the figures and settings and accessories of our imagination and then we will be able to start telling our stories.  I don't want to see a figure's joint parameters or weight maps any more than a film director would wish to see an actor's x-ray.

 

 

 

 

can you say...

 

a few dozen cds full of content collected over the span of a decade?

 

can you say...

 

  shopping at daz, getting new clothes for 2 bucks, the hair i want is on sale, and OH they gave me a voucher, too!

 

mmm, yeah.  okay, that's money, too.  even replacing ten years worth of freebies.  just... ow.  that would hurt.

 

it's kinda like the question: macs are so much better than pcs.  why don't you get a mac?

   because of the thousands of dollars worth of windows software i'm sorta married to.  you just can't jump ship like that.

I like Poser :) And there is so much awesome stuff done for our fave figures that I want to use that instead of modeling my own (which I wouldn't be able to anyway :D)

Quote - And as to the joints of Blender weightmapped Rigs??

just hang on until 1:48 of this Demo

Holy sh*t!! :tt1:  What's the catch? 

I tried Blender a few years back, but the interface drove me buggy...

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bagginsbill's Free Stuff... https://web.archive.org/web/20201010171535/https://sites.google.com/site/bagginsbill/Home

There was a day when I wouldn't have touched Blender with someone elses computer ;). However, since the redesign and adding in the literal plethora of free instruction associate with Blender, I'm liking it a lot. I even managed a whole tutorial and did a fluid simulation. Prior to version 2.5, I couldn't even figure out how to delete the default cube. Unfortunately, I'm not even exaggerating...lol.

Blender still has it's little idiosyncracies, but all in all it's a MUCH improved piece of software.

Laurie

Poser has enough power to get the job done and it's still simple enough to be fun to use.

If i was an industry pro with a degree in 3d modelling and the such then maybe high end apps would be the biscuit, but as a hobbyist, with no training, no desire to make a blockbuster movie, then poser ticks all the buttons for me. And i'm sure there are more than a few people with the high end apps who have never built a model and just import them or download them anyway....oh yes then there's the cost issue :)

OS: Windows7 64-bit Processor Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-2430M CPU @ 2.40GHz, 2401 Mhz, 2 Core(s), 4 Logical Processor(s)  6GB Ram
Poser: Poser Pro 2012 SR3.1 ...Poser 8.........Poser5 on a bad day........
Daz Studio Pro 4.5  64bit

Carrara beta 8.5

Modelling: Silo/Hexagon/Groboto V3
Image Editing: PSP V9/Irfanview
Movie Editing. Cyberlink power director/Windows live movie maker

"I live in an unfinished , poorly lit box, but we call it home"

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Why? Because I'm retired on a fixed income with a disabled wife. I need a little escape every now and then. Poser is somethng I mess around with not something I earn a living with. I'm a hack and don't mind admitting it. It's taken me years to get a handle an this program and even though I have time to dedicate to a new app why should I? There is always something new to learn Poser. The folks here have helped me to no end. They answer my dumb questions and point me in the direction I need with a patience that I have not seen in some of the other "high end" fourms. If you use a "high end" app you are expected to have a "high end" knowledge level. Stupid questions such as I pose to the group at large do not meet with the type of responces that I have seen returned in other fourms dedicated to "high end" CG.

Don't get me wrong here. I'm not tarring all users of "high end" apps with the same brush. There are good fourms and bad fourms. There are helpful folks and trolls everywhere but I find the Poser users to be very helpful to the newbies. Their help have turned my renders from quite crude to passibly acceptable. If my only concern was the cost of my toy I would use DAZ. I'm currently trying to get some type of handle on Blender. Again cost is a prime consideration but the community at large and their willingness to help new users was the main consideration in my attempting it.

pdg

You might encounter a bit of elitism on some of the Blender fora, but here's an excellent place to get you started, PDGardener:

http://www.cdschools.org/54223045235521/blank/browse.asp?a=383&bmdrn=2000&bcob=0&c=55205

Easy to read and fantastic for getting the head around Blender.

Monterey/Mint21.x/Win10 - Blender3.x - PP11.3(cm) - Musescore3.6.2

Wir sind gewohnt, daß die Menschen verhöhnen was sie nicht verstehen
[it is clear that humans have contempt for that which they do not understand] 

Metaphor of Chooks

Hehe, I grew up about 7 miles away from Central Dauphin High School ;)

Laurie

The things that go on in your "back yard", hey? I forget who pointed me to this, but it's really nicely written, engagingly, sort of like "Math Doesn't Suck" by Danica McKellar.

Monterey/Mint21.x/Win10 - Blender3.x - PP11.3(cm) - Musescore3.6.2

Wir sind gewohnt, daß die Menschen verhöhnen was sie nicht verstehen
[it is clear that humans have contempt for that which they do not understand] 

Metaphor of Chooks

Money, money and money. High end apps just cost too much for us amateurs. I don't think 3D will ever amount to more than a hobby for me and I just can't afford that kind of money for a hobby.

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I wonder sometimes, cost seems to be the most common reason given here.  Then I start looking at some of the other things I do and comparing costs.  I have an array of metal and woodworking equipment, machines, and I know setting up from scratch with even fairly good machines is going to cost a lot more than any given piece of software.  My woodworking machines, guessing, but I'd say somewhere around $5000 would buy probably most of what I have, the metalworking, closer to $10000.  When I bought my organ, $7260, and I know I have more than $5000 in my guitars.  Then the kicker, my eyes gone bad.  The woodworking, sharp things going very fast, and my fingers probably too close to fast moving sharp things.  Metal working requires a degree of precision, and I can't read my calipers or micrometers.  Reading even a machinists scale, no, I can't see that either.  The organ is defunct, but it's also 35 years old, probably repairable, but again, I can't see the little fine wires I'd have to work with. 

Maybe the cost is a relative thing, looking at what we put into it  against what we get out of it.  And Poser Pro 2012 suddenly doesn't look that bad in price, even at the full price.  Even there, with the discounts for Poser Pro, I paid more for a large monitor than I did for the program, so I could use the program.  Double standard seems to apply.

D.

The "I" in Doric is Silent.

 

well personally... I don't have any money, period.

I'm barely making enough right now to pay my mum and dad for the electric I'm using... the work situation is so bad here atm.

even then.. I can use opensource / cheaper applications anyway for what I want to do...

i think the question here should be: why would most of us use high end apps?  dont get me wrong i use Max and love it for some things , like modeling and simulation, but if i am doing character animation or character based imagery poser is my first choice, with premade/customisable characters and content out the wazoo and relatively simple interface....

i have seen some remarkable work done by people in high end Apps but they arent really geared toward the common folk like me, theyre geared more toward teams of highly trained  professional technicians each specialising in their own field from modeling to lighting engineers to rendering specialists often using multiple high end Apps each doing their part to make the majik happen...i commend those who take the time and have the patience and skills to study and learn these high end Apps ,but for those of us who only want to express ourselves artisticly without having to take years studying how to use these Apps and/or lacking the money to afford these Apps... poser is the logical choice IMHO

:O)

Y'all have a great day.

Quote - I wonder sometimes, cost seems to be the most common reason given here.  Then I start looking at some of the other things I do and comparing costs.  I have an array of metal and woodworking equipment, machines, and I know setting up from scratch with even fairly good machines is going to cost a lot more than any given piece of software.  My woodworking machines, guessing, but I'd say somewhere around $5000 would buy probably most of what I have, the metalworking, closer to $10000.  When I bought my organ, $7260, and I know I have more than $5000 in my guitars.  Then the kicker, my eyes gone bad.  The woodworking, sharp things going very fast, and my fingers probably too close to fast moving sharp things.  Metal working requires a degree of precision, and I can't read my calipers or micrometers.  Reading even a machinists scale, no, I can't see that either.  The organ is defunct, but it's also 35 years old, probably repairable, but again, I can't see the little fine wires I'd have to work with. 

Maybe the cost is a relative thing, looking at what we put into it  against what we get out of it.  And Poser Pro 2012 suddenly doesn't look that bad in price, even at the full price.  Even there, with the discounts for Poser Pro, I paid more for a large monitor than I did for the program, so I could use the program.  Double standard seems to apply.

D.

  i feel your pain brother, i have north of 150k in tools and specialised equipment i cant use anymore , some things like my classic/collector cars and trucks, i can still use but cant maintain and are falling into disrepair .... i try to keep them  in storage to protect my investment... software is the only thing i have left that i can use, and the least costly comparatively... getting old sux but its what we do, life is full of little trade offs...

:O)

Y'all have a great day.

Quote - ... getting old sux but its what we do, life is full of little trade offs... :O)

I dunno.  My Rock/Metal band has got back together after a 13 year layoff.  I may be an old timer now but I'm rocking my aged ass off. :) 

Coppula eam se non posit acceptera jocularum.

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way to go Sam, enjoy life to the fullest squeeze every drop of sweet nectar out of it  you can...

:O)

Y'all have a great day.

Heh, yep.  I became a daddy for the first time at age 50.  Then again at 51.

I think we'll wait a couple of years for the third, though.  :) 

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Quote - Heh, yep.  I became a daddy for the first time at age 50.  Then again at 51.

I think we'll wait a couple of years for the third, though.  :) 

DOUBLE congrats... i raised 3 kids and now have 10 grandchildren...

:O)

Y'all have a great day.

Munnies mostly, Last time I priced out 3D Smax  here it was $5000, C4D is something like $4000, Modo is near $2000, way to much to spend on a hobby. I'm disabled with severe chronic depression and arthritis, so while I have the time now, I don't have the income. Anyway, for what I do, Poser 2012 is enough. I soaked a small pile on Vue 10 Studio, so that's enough for now. By the time my bank account recovers it'll be time for upgrades.