So I'm trying to build a scene with an Octopus in it. I've got the DAZ Octopus, which is pretty decent, except that you can't flatten the lower part of the body (where the tentacles attach) enough to have it cling to a flat rock, and the mesh looks a bit funny when you try and bend the tentacles up too much at the base. Octopi are very, very squishy, and I'm seriously thinking of trying the PP2014 soft-body capabilities to have the octopus plop properly on the rock.

I also tried the Smith Micro Octopus, and I have to say that it may very well have the weirdest rigging I've ever scene. In common with anything with tails, tentacles, or the like, there are a lot of joints, and they each have a bend, twist, and side-to-side dial. However, they don't do what you would think. You would think that bend would move the joint relative to the ventral/dorsal (top/bottom, analogous to a biped's front/back) axis, twist would twist it relative to the long axis, and side-to-side would move it parallel to the ventral/dorsal axis. No, instead bend rotates it around what would, in the zero position, be the x axis, twist rotates it around the zero-positions y axis, and side-to-side around the zero-positions z axis. So each of the eight tentacles behaves differently, and none of it makes sense.

the times that I've used the daz octopus I was pretty disappointed. It's arms just turn into spirals. Octopi are hard to make look real with a 3d mesh I would guess. Post up what you have when you start poking around with the soft-body stuff.

You might be able to get good results by posing it, then exporting the mesh, with all vertices welded, no other options, as a wavefront .obj. Then, import that object. If Poser doesn't automatically assign it the same material settings, you'll have to reassign them. Then, go into the Cloth Room and Clothify it and muck around with the simulation settings to see if you can get some slight, squishy, draping effects.

You may also be able to use this, though it's only in beta atm and I don't know what features are inhibited atm - https://www.renderosity.com/mod/forumpro/?thread_id=2891120 (You'd be able to bypass the export/weld/import step completely with this, I assume.)

not surprised most of the SM or CP characters have the same problem. a result of content creators not stringently understand and adhering to conventions for their builds. frustrating as all hell and has made me stop buying products from said places. don't need the damn headache. also the daz octopus is an oldie and back then they were not so well versed in joint smoothing or multiple bone constructs. fewer bones made it easier to build but looked like hell in the final renders and something i hated to deal with in post work.