(Jul. 23, 2002) -- Curious Labs has announced Poser 5, an update to the company's 3D character animation tool. The new version includes a host of new features, ranging from dynamic hair and cloth to 3D motion blur and depth of field. It will be available initially for Windows, with a ac version following later this summer.

Poser 5's new dynamic hair is strand-based, whereas, in the past, it was based on simple solid geometry. It now supports growth, styling and physics controls. The new version also includes photo-based facial modeling and an all-new FireFly Renderer. Other new features include:

Rendertime smoothing of facets;
Displacement mapping;
3D motion blur;
Depth of field;
Procedural textures;
Luminosity, refraction and reflection;
Shader Tree with material nodes;
Dynamic Cloth with physics and parameter controlled cloth attributes;
FacePutty for interactive sculpting, and caricature and random head generators;
MorphPutty tool;
Collision Detection.
Poser 5 also includes new 3D human figures with fully articulated hands and feet, texture maps and facial morphs designed by RuntimeDNA. It also has a feature called Content Paradise for accessing online content resources.

Poser 5 will first ship for Windows. More details on the Mac version will be annnounced separately. Poser 5 will run $549. For more information, visit http://www.curiouslabs.com.

**CL's site isn't updated yet. I need to order it now!!!