I have been using Poser for a month now and I love it but I do have some questions: Why is Vicky 2 better that Posette? What about Dacorts Dina figure. Vicky is all over the place - is it worth the money? What makes it the figure to have? How do you add or apply morph targets? I download a few for heads and things but just dont know or I am not doing something right (I know read the manual) Are there any sites for tutorials on post rendering 'artwork' or 'fixing'? Example - post rendering fixing of ugly seams or tutorials on SKIN!!. I did a browse on this site of the most commented Poser images. The pic that came up were awesome, the artist on this site really insprire me. I really noticed how nice and natural some of the figures skin look. Almost all of the images indicated post work, I want to know if there are any tried and true tips, tricks, filters .... The little I have done involves blurring some areas to remove artifacts. Any help or suggestions would be great!!!!!

Attached Link: http://www.renderosity.com/tutlink.ez?tutorialid=391

Picky has made an excellent post work tutorial. (see attached link) You can click the Tutorial link, - then Photoshop, - and do a search for Post That will give you several. As for Adding new figures to the collection, - I dunno. I'm as new as you are, - and prolly more stubborn. *grin* Because I'm determined to make do with the ones that came with Poser. I have downloaded Traveler's Eve4 (which you can find on his site), and like her a lot. As for adding Morph targets. *laughing* I'm working on conforming cloths. I'll study that part of the Poser manual next. :) Good luck, Britt

Attached Link: http://eirian.net

No one's going to laugh - we were all newbies once. Why is Vicki better than Posette? The short answer is Vicky or Vicky2 is a much more versatile figure. Vicky takes two texture maps (head and body) which means the textures can be higher resolution, for better realism. She's much more posable than the standard P4 woman: more individual body parts, and lots more morphs available in the CR2. Vicky 2 has many more morphs than Vicky1. Plus the obvious advantage that more people develop for Vicky, so there are loads of products out there for her. The main disadvantage of Vicky is she's expensive: the model doesn't come with textures included, or hair or clothing. You have to be prepared to spend more than just the price of Vicky2, but IMO it's worth the investment. Same for Michael vs the P4 man. I can't comment on Dina, as I don't have her. Morph targets - read the manual :-) If it's a head morph, either double click on the head or select the head and go to object -> properties. You'll see an option saying "load morph target". Click on that, browse to whereever you've kept the morphs, and apply. Job done. Remember you can only use morphs specifically developed for a figure (ie Vicky morphs won't work on Posette, and vice versa). Take a look through the tutorials section here: you'll find some really helpful ones. I have a postwork tutorial on my site (see the link), but it's about post-effects, not fixing blemishes. Hmm. Maybe I should write one.

If Dina is anything like Natalia I would recommend her....Natalia doesn't have alot of stuff YET. But, the things that are out there now are good quality and less expensive.

another disadvantage about Vicky (I love her, by the way) is that she is kind of "heavy" for low memory computers as I have. you probably won't be able to pose 2 Vickies on one scene. I am still a newbie (5 months) and Vicky makes my work look a little bit more profesional than Posette.

However, if you are a tightwad, bottom-feeder, such as myself, there is a TON of freestuff available for the P4 figures, more so than for Vicky. I have both, and definetely glad I got Vicky, but actually tend to use Posette more often just because I've accumulated more textures, morphs & clothing for that figure than I have for Vicky. On the other hand, Vicky tends to look better than Posette when in the buff.

Attached Link: http://ourworld.cs.com/posershadowcat/site/index.htm

My personal advice to the beginner on what items to purchase Vicky 1 for $20 then getting "Polly" (free to owners of vicky) so they can use the P4 clothes, search through free stuff for textures before buying. Or if they wish (and can afford it) Vicky 2 for $60 Mike and then get "Bobby" (same as polly) Or wait a little longer and get Mike 2 which should be coming out soon and will probably be discounted a first. Vicky 2 has many more morphs than 1, and comes with a P4 version. Skip the clothing for Vic & Mike, stick with the free P4 stuff at first. Also get a subscription to Poserworld ($50 for a year) they have a whole lot of clothing items and props for the P4's and even a few things for Vicky & Mike. This is probably the best value in all of poserdom. Poserworld also has free stuff Hot spots to visit http://www.poserfashion.net/ free Clothing http://site.yahoo.com/happyworldland free Textures http://digitalbabes2.com/ free Hair http://www.morphworld30.com/index.html free Morphs http://poserworld.com/fwfree.asp Mentioned above To sum up Vicky 1 Mike 1 Poserworld Get the free stuff

I am a relative new 3Der but have a significant discretionary income. So I have lots of these figures and lots of free stuff. I concur with shadowcat completely and I have done all of these and more. Go to digital babes for some of the best hair available free... and hair is one of the hardest items to look real. I have so many textures and characters based on Vicky and P4 and all the variants. I find V1 or 2 and Mike if you strive for photorealism. To get secondary characters for scenes/animation, the P4 figures are usable. Remember the more realistic the more memory and processor size/speed. I am robust in the PC format so I enjoy using figures like Dina, but find that when you get into these higher resolution characters the after market items are still needed and much less of the free items are available. So if cost and machine speed are an issue you need to stick more the less elaborate figures. Poserworld is a great deal and the items are excellent quality. Good Luck

V2 is worth the price! The facial morphs are much better - especially the ethnic ones, than V1. I can't wait for Michael2 to come out because the ethnic morphs are weak. Go to Digital Babe - Kozaburo's site, for the best hair around, and it's free! You may have to tweak some of it a bit for Vicki, X, Y, and Z scaling (and a bit of X, Y, and Z positioning), but it's easy to do. Some hair styles can be used with Michael without looking too odd, but you'll have to tweak settings as well. Making morphs can either be done in Poser with the magnet tool (some people love it, I hate it) or with an external program like Rhino, ZBrush, Amorphium, etc. You'll need to do a search on the tutorials to find instructions on how to do this. Traveler's Morphworld 3.0 is the best starting point for this. Dina is more GRC's figure than Dacort's though he is creating a lot of items for it. I personally don't like it, but some people love it. I think Dalinese has some good photoshop tips - she is a superb artist. Look around in the Photoshop forum. You may want to check out the websites of some of the posters there. I'd also suggest looking up some of the vendors to see if they have sites with tutorials. To get rid of creases, I use the smudge tool. It works quite well. I have a donated file on my site which will help with makeup for Vicki textures. http://www.fallencity.net/treasures Hope this helps.

Shadowcat, it's most unlike me to miss something both free and useful :-) I eventually tracked Polly down to 3Dposer.com, but the site is down at the moment. I'll try again later, but if this down-ness is permanent, is there anywhere else I can get her?

yes, and it is currently being upgraded to accept vicky maps 100% http://poser.3dgladiators.com/basic.htm