The P4 Manual leaves much to be desired, and trial and error is driving me batty. Is there any such thing as an aftermarket text for Poser which: 1. In exquisite detail and using a very small spoon, details in rational sequence the how-to's and wherefor's of building and editing custom figures IN POSER 4, covering all the steps and file types involved in the process, 2. Starts from the mindlessly simple and graduates to successively greater complexity, 3. Assumes possession of and competence in NO OTHER PROGRAM (except, of course, inevitably, UVmapper), 4. Is written without any assuption that "oh, well, you smarmy inflection ALREADY know all the jargon and quick shorthand references, so I don't need to write clearly" bullpuckey, 5. And exists as a real honest-to-god BOOK in real ink on real paper??? Bookstores have lots of stuff for ACAD, Maya, Raydream, Max, etc... but I have yet to spot one for Poser. If such an animal exists, what is it, where can I find it? The survival of my remaining few hairs and neurons depends on the answer to this question.

Try the Poser tutorials here and elsewhere on the Net.

the ones I have sampled thus far fail in categories 1, 2, and 4. As well as being rather hit-or-miss in terms of quality and/or relevance. As well as not being BOOKS. They are thus mere fragments, and require either a lot of printing OR switching back and forth from window to window - which I find tedious, annoying, and distracting from the lesson plan. I am very old-fashioned, and prefer reading detailed data in hardcopy to doing so on-screen. Thanks, though. But my question stands as stated.

Attached Link: http://www.anim8or.com

'building and editing custom figures IN POSER 4' Poser is NOT a modelling program, therefore you can't build figures in it. You can mutilate, adapt or piece together figures from other ones, but the results are usually crap. Sorry to be a downer, but I think you need a modelling program. Try the link for Anim8or, a free app. (See a few posts below this for a nice posette figure built in Anim8or). Nerd 3D has figure tutorials, but they're not that easy to follow. Mainly because building figures isn't that easy. mac

PS Try http://www.posertech.com for good tutorials too. That's Brycetech's site and it's very good. mac

The only book I've seen worth the time it takes to read is the rather good "Poser 4 Pro Pack f/x & Design" by Richard Schrand (Coriolis Press) ISBN 1-58880-099-7 It.s got a lot for non-ProPack users. (There are a couple of books by Shamms Mortier, also, but they're generally held in very low esteem by people who've bought them, according to previous posts here.) I've honestly gotten a lot more from printing out Tutorials from online than from any Poser Book. (I like hard copy refs, also:-))

thanks, all. I will continue looking at tutorials, but I reiterate that what I seek is a TEXT BOOK. By the way, I do have a modelling program with which to generate the original surfaces/geometries: AutoCAD2000. I can successfully export .3ds files from acad, import them into P4, and turn them into wavefront .obj files. Generating the parts is not a problem in any way. The problems arise in the assembly, joint editing, blend zones, bend zones, and the supposedly "automatic" creation of joints between parts - which I assure you DOES NOT HAPPEN as the P4 manual so blithely assures me. It is impossible to figure out exactly what is going awry, because every time I have a specific question the bloody book assumes I have Raydream! There are far too many variables to track down by trial and error when I am flying blind. Aggravating is an understatement.

There are a couple of books by Shamms Mortier, also, but they're generally held in very low esteem by people who've bought them, according to previous posts here For good reason, I might add.

Ture, Poser 4 NOT a modeling application. You can, however, rig objects to have body parts and turn them into poseable figures for Poser 4. For a better explanation of this text-based method of figure creation, check out www.curiouslabs.com and download the POSER 3 ADVANCED TIPS & TRICKS manual. I think it does a far better job of explaining the process than the P4 manual, which admittedly does not go into too much detail. Better yet, why not get Poser 5 and use the graphical Setup room? Simply import your static object (modeled elsewhere), build a skeleton system, and you're done. If it's a simple figure, you can be done in a few minutes. And the Poser 5 Reference Manual does an excellent job of walking you through the Setup room. I know. I wrote it. :-) Anthony Hernandez Curious Labs

(darned msgscript!) if P5-derived figures/props/products can be used in earlier releases, that's dandy. If not, that'd be yet more money out of my pocket with no yield to my earlier investment. trying to make some money here.

All the Setup room does is replace the text-based creation method with a graphical one. You are doing the exact same thing and getting the exact same results, just without the hassle. So there is no reason why figures created using the Setup room can't be used in previous versions. Anthony Hernandez Curious Labs

What are you trying to do specifically? Did you make a 3Dmodel and want to convert into a poseable Poser Figure? It's not that hard. I can show you how to do that. ScottA

oh?

Interesting model. Do the colored parts have names(materials) for them as well? Did you unweld them from eachother? Or is the model still all one part? If you can get that model into .obj form as one piece and with those colored parts assigned as materials. You are ready to prep it for poserizing. ScottA

God DAMN it! This is the second time in 24 hours the damned message board script has failed to load a reply. And this one was a long one, too long to reconstruct. the high points: 1.Yes 2.No - they are all individually drawn in ACAD 3.I can get them across to poser with no difficulty 4.Not really. Go to PM if you want details - I no longer wish to bother with this buggy damned board.