Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)Poser does one thing very well: it renders stock poses of stock characters with amazing realism. Here is the rub: the library of stock poses and stock characters is so tiny that you will quickly outgrow them. You will soon want to do more: add hair to a figure; change the color of clothing, or even add new and different clothes. But any change beyond the stock inventory will lead to innumerable headaches: a user interface designed to thwart your every effort; system crashes; poses that look unnatural; even body parts that poke through the clothing. Forget the undo: at best it will take you back one step; often you can't even undo the last action you took. Don't bother with the user manual: as others have noted, it does little more than identify the controls mysteriously placed around the user interface. Don't even bother with books such as "Secrets of Figure Creation with Poser 5" or "The Poser 5 Handbook." You may find a helpful clue in a tutorial somewhere on the web, but then again, it may not apply to the version of the program that you have.
So why does anyone bother with Poser? Under the proper circumstances, Poser can do amazing things. Unlike most 3-D software applications, Poser is designed to work with human and animal forms. Within a narrow window, it works very well. Poser has even spawned a cottage industry of people who make additional figures, clothing, and props for Poser. Without organizations like the Digital Art Zone and Renderosity, Poser would not be worth the money.
Yet even these organizations, which often provide very high quality materials for Poser, can't prevent its flaws from showing through. Digital Art Zone (DAZ) has created characters like Michael that are stunning in Poser. Clothing for normal Poser characters cannot easily be used on Michael, and vice versa. Even when Michael is "morphed" to a different form, his clothing will no longer fit. Once again you will be struggling with all those joint parameter dials, trying to get things right.
Having used versions 2, 3, 4, and 5 of Poser, it is clear that Poser 5 is the best of the lot, especially if you are working with multiple characters in a scene. Poser 5 also has the best support for hair of any version of the software. But it's still not very good. Some simple advice for anyone using Poser:
1) Create and clothe your character before attempting to pose him/her/it.
2) Plan out your animation carefully. If you make a mistake, you probably can't go back.
3) Save your work often
4) After everything else is done, then add hair. Once a realistic amount of hair has been added, even simple things like moving the camera will bring your system to its knees.
5) Plan to spend quite a bit extra on new figures and clothing. These will easily double the cost of owning Poser in no time at all.
Or, you could spend your money buying a Barbie and Ken doll, a digital camera, and a bunch of outfits. You would save time, money, and quite a few headaches this way...
Click Here to see more reviews about: Curious Labs Poser 5
Poser 5 is an ideal 3-D character design and animation tool for artists and animators. Create 3-D figures using a diverse collection of ready-to-use 3-D human and animal models. Poser's innovative interface makes figure design, posing, and animating fast and easy. Map facial photos, grow and style dynamic hair, and create dynamic cloth to add extraordinary realism to your figure.
Quickly output movies and images from your posed figures for content in Web, print, and video projects. Add life to your 3-D worlds using exported, posed figures. For those new to 3-D, digital artists, and hobbyists alike, Poser 5 is easy to learn and quickly generates fast and dynamic results.
Poser 5 delivers a stunning host of new tools including Facial Photo-mapping, Dynamic Strand-based Hair, Dynamic Cloth, new Figures, and FireFly, Poser 5's powerful new renderer. Use Morph Putty to directly manipulate facial expressions. Create realistic dynamic cloth and make it flow and drape around any object in your scene. Build powerful node-based material shaders to create any material texture you can imagine. The Poser 5 Content CD contains a host of extras, including props and textures.
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