PoserAddicts II

Hi, I have just retired and now wish to sit at my computer and learn Poser. I have both, Poser 5 and Poser 6.

What is the best course to follow from here. I wish to eventually create content and props.

I would also like to know if a Poser face could be morph'd to resemble a photograph of a person.

Charlie

Wow, thats a big order.

The best thing to do first, is to go to either amazon.com or your local bookstore and to get a copy of "Practical Poser 6" or "Practical Poser 7" by Denise Tyler. This is a step by step goldmine of information for a Poser beginner.

My suggestion however, go to the front page of PoserAddicts' store, there is a special link there to Smith-Micro offering a full version of Poser 7 for only $39.95, that is a steal, and you can upgrade it to Poser 8 and/or Poser Pro 2010 pretty inexpensively later on.

Buying a Poser 6 book isn't a good thing unless you have money to burn. Poser 7 is currently the last "active" version in use, and many are now using Poser 8 and Poser Pro 2010, but you don't need to get them to be current and to learn.

You can make photo type faces using Poser's built in face-room, and with "magnets" which are a part of Poser's standard features, which allow you to push and pull polygons on the figure to make them look different but using magnets is tricky, so many people would rather use other programs like Hexagon (Daz3D) or ZBrush (Pixelogic) to manipulate their characters' faces. This is called "Morphing" or making "Morph Targets" in Poser.

One of the things I do together with a few others here at PoserAddicts is make film-star and famous people look-alikes.

You should be a member at Daz3D already, they have all their main figure bases for FREE on there, and you should get them, and simply load them up and play with them first, to get a feeling for what you can do in Poser.

Poser is for some, intuitive, for others not so. The competitive product, which is free at Daz3D is called Daz Studio, and has a different interface, and could be more intuitive for one person and not for another, it's a matter of preferences.

To get your start, maybe consider if you wish to get the inexpensive version of Poser 7 listed on the PoserAddicts Store Page, (at the top in the text areas), or if you wish to stay with Poser 6 for now, then getting one of the books I mentioned via Amazon or your local bookstore.

Maybe some others here could add their information to this thread to assist?

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Greetz,
Antonio
PoserAddicts LLC

Being a Daz Studio native and having no aptitude for Poser, I can't be too helpful with the Poser learning curve because while the programs share a great deal of compatibility, they also have some very different features and capabilities. Both programs are well loved by their users though and produce beautiful and satisfying results.

As you already have Poser, I'd say give that a go first. There are a number of outstanding books and tutorials available for Poser (this is one of those areas where Poser really outmatches Daz Studio -- there is much less available in terms of learning material for DS >.< ) to get you started.

Also, while you're getting your feet wet, I'd advise taking advantage of some of the free content available before making too deep a monetary investment. We have some very nice free stuff here, there is a lot of very good free stuff over at Renderosity and of course, Daz gives away their base human figures and a lot of other really nice stuff on their site. There are other good, reputable freebie sites around as well that you'll find as you make your way around the poser/daz community sites.

Once you get a taste of the programs and the community, you'll find it can be a bit habit forming (after the overwhelming wears off). Should you find yourself enjoying this new hobby and community, you'll know better what it is you want and we'll be better able to help you find it (and more than happy to help you go through your monthly content budget LOL!!!).

If you aren't already, get signed up for the PA2, Daz and Renderosity newsletters. You never know what kind of deals you'll be missing if you don't (and the deals are usually pretty sweet -- including nice limited time freebies in some cases).

Anyway, welcome to your new addiction and to the poserverse.

*hugs*

Wayii

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“A dreamer is one who can only find his way by moonlight, and his punishment is that he sees the dawn before the rest of the world.”

You took the words right out of my mouth, because this is DEFINITELY an addiction.

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It's what you learn after you know it all that counts ~ John Wooden

OK . . . Where's my chocolate?