Okay, maybe I'm the only person in the world so far that can't figure this out, but how the hell do you apply textures to a model? They changed it from Poser 4, and I just can't figure it out. I have perused the manual, and it's absolutely no help. Somebody please help me!

1)

Go to the Materials Room (click the Material tab at the top of the screen, or use CTRL-U like before).

2)

Select the object and a material group from the drop-down lists in the center panel, much like before.

3)

Diffuse_Color is similar to P4's Object Color. It's also one of the places you can put texture maps. Click on the little plug icon to the right of Diffuse_Color.

4)

From the pop-up menu, select New node --> 2D Textures --> image_map

5)

You'll now have an image_map node plugged into the Diffuse_Color channel. Click on that node's Image_Source attribute.

6) This opens up a new dialogue where you can either select an existing texture, or browse and load a new one.

Any questions?

What a pain.....yes, more features, more variety, and all that...but isn't there a simpler to just apply the texture map???

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Nope. :o( Jack

Okay...that's sucky enough, but please tell me that there is a way to quickly apply a single texture to ALL material zones. Otherwise, Poser 5 is going to be one large pain in the ass. I can't believe how many no-brainer things they didn't do with Poser 5. Very disappointed, here.

I was hoping it would be able to let you pick several material groups at once and apply a texture to them. I've been asking for that since poser 3. I agree, it seems it would be a very simple no-brainer.

Sigh. Okay, I found out how to apply one texture to every material group, but it's a real chore to get everything set up. For instance, if you're applying a texture to Mike or Vicky (without a MAT file), you can apply the head texture to the entire figure, but then you have to go back in and repeat the whole process above for the SkinBody, nipples, fingernails, toenails, and pubic hair. You had to do that with Poser 4, but it was much, MUCH easier to do. Really, Curious Labs, you should be ashamed of yourselves: you've made Poser 5 difficult and tedious, and the manual isn't much help. The so-called improvements from the previous version are outweighed by the inconveniences. I agree, Davo. That would have been a huge improvement. :(

Oh - it worked like that ?? - thx little dragon (oh - and I've tried only around 1 hours yesterday doing that :o( One question - does the texture show up in the pose room or do I have to render it to finally see the texture ??? (sorry, I'm at work now ... no Poser here)

Just a word of caution. Ray-traced textures tend to NOT look like their rendered versions in the document window preview. You get a FAIR idea from the drop-down image at the bottom of the root node in the materials room, though.

yes there is an extra step, but thats the price you pay for the amazing versatility of the material room, and when you learn to use this powerful new tool you won't be dissapointed, adding real reflection and depth to the eyes adding translucency to the skin, displacement maps, all sorts of effects that were impossable in P4, attaching a node to the diffuse channel doesn't seem that difficult to me. once they get used to the system many people will wonder how they did without it. and mat files still work.

IMHO I think the materials room is the best thing about P5 so far. Yes it's new, but when the light comes on you will be amazed I betcha. ;)

If I wanted to get textures applied to an object in a particular way I used to have to export from Poser, open Merlin VR, hope it didn't crash, manipulate the texture to the object, export and reimport back into Poser so this sounds like a timesaver...

I love the new material room. Gives me the ability to do stuff I never had before in Poser but do have in other apps. I dont find it difficult to use perhaps because of the other apps I own which have similar features. I can finally have my Poser people with dresses on sitting with out a problem because of the cloth room. The hair is almost exactly like you get when you buy a $400 to $500 plugin for Max or LightWave. Very easy to use and learn. Wind is neat too. It is very stable on my system. Love the reflections and there is a lot to learn. Its a challenge for me.I guess thats the way I am when I buy any new software. The biggest issue I have with it is in rendering animations. That so far has been my only bad experience. It seems to hang. This could be my ignorance in setting up the render options. For those of you who did not have the ProPack the setup room is awesome.Toon shader is real neat as is the prop collision option. There is no doubt in my mind that some people are having problems which CL needs to address. The upgrade price was worth the content you get with it even assuming you never use the program. What we need is some good tutorials to help people learn, who have never used a program with the feautures in P5. Ron

I agree that P5 is loaded with a lot of new and useful features, but it is dissappointing that what seems like such a simple task was overlooked. I think to be honest, most users of poser are not going to delve into the materials room and use it to it's full advantage, I think the majority of it's users are those that just want to make pictures "out of the box" and rely on mat pose files and prefabricated models/props. Poser 4 materials room was simple at best, P5 is definately more difficult and dare I say the word "intimidating" even for me, a long time user. I've been suggesting since poser 3 was out to be able to have the ability to simply pull down the materials list, click all the materials I wanted to manipulate at once, lock them together and apply the attributes I wanted to apply. I make figures and props that have several material names and it's bloody murder going through every single material, one at a time, to apply a texture. The apply to all doesn't always work for me because I have multiple textures per figure and I use reflection maps on several of the textures as well. I'm not a programmer, but it seems that this is not a complex request. Maybe even a "revert to poser 4 materials editor" would come in handy in a bugfix.

You can also copy and paste material settings and textures, which makes the process a little quicker. There is some tedium, but the payoff is worth it.

price to pay for bigger better things....they actually delivered on this one...many people have asked for a material room like those of other apps, that's what we got imho. I've noticed simularities to other 3d apps. At this point I'm going to start saying if you wanted easy same old same old, you prolly should have stayed with p4. Most 3d apps have a high learning curve...it takes work to learn them.

Tirjasdyn
http://michellejnorton.com

I think the problem here is that most 'Rosity members aren't used to "real" 3d apps. They're mere mortals, it's not for nothing that "real" 3d artists sneer so much at us, for taking the easy way out. I think that most users here wanted a new materials room, but they wanted it to be simplified, two clicks and on... By the looks of it, what we're getting is a "real" 3d app, with all it's attendant power and complexity, which is great, for those that understand it. But real bad news for vendors and CL, since you'll have trouble selling add-ons to people if they're having trouble using the underlying product. later jb

Real 3d apps could learn a thing or two from Poser. The boning and morphing systems they use are a nightmare to set up and use compared with Poser. And the pricing is in the hundreds not in the thousands of dollars. Poser is a terrific app and a more terrific value.

I just wanted to ditto Davo's comments. I'm sure over time that I will learn to appreciate P5's additional materials optionality and functionality, but most of the time I just want to apply existing textures in the quickest way possible, and that means Poser 4.

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As I said before Mat poses still work so if you want the simplest world possable, all you have to do is avoid textures that don't come with mat poses. I have mostly Daz and steffyz textures loaded and I have yet to load a tex map by hand for any of my figures, though I've played with the material room for other textures.

oh come on praxis, everyone has been trying to be helpful, little dragon even gave a tutorial. You sneer and say cl will suffer cause it's too hard for you to get a grasp of? A good deal of people are jumping in a learning, while people like you sit back wait for full explainations. Gods, some one name a program that actually had a manual that went through every detail and I'll show you a program for kindergartners. Even apps like word don't come with manuals that explain all its features. Hell even p4's manual left ALOT to be desired. Imnsho, cl actually delivered on some of wish lists, yes there are problems and things people don't like, very little of it major, not everyone got what they wanted. Perhaps you should actually stretch your mind a bit, learning is NEVER easy. If you don't want to learn, don't try any thing new.

Tirjasdyn
http://michellejnorton.com

Thanks to all of you who responded to my original question. I have learned what I originally asked and was even treated to a turorial. For a few years I played with MS Direct Animation making animated OE Stationery. I really enjoyed it. There are many things in the Material Lab that look familiar. I was just at a stone wall with applying the 3 types of textures. I bought Poser 5 as many did because I wanted the additional features and controls. I didn't buy it to make it any easier than P4 to use. Cheers DR

"That government is best which governs the least, because its people discipline themselves."
Thomas Jefferson

I think the CL lost sight of the key feature that made Poser 4 such a success in its target market... EASE OF USE In all the previous releases of Poser, though sometimes less then perfect, did not take a Ph.D. to figure out. I personally do not use high end 3D software because they have such a HUGE learning curve. Looks like P5 has really put itself into that high learning curve! Disappointing... I think I'll wait on the upgrade myself visualkinetics