Lesson 1 — Main Screen

The purpose of Lesson 1 was to become familiar with the basic controls on the Main Screen of Poser 4.0.

A sub-purpose was to become familiar with some of the many resources available to Poser 4.0 users on the Internet.

To meet the immediate needs of the assignment,

A Favorite Poser Site:

Because I have not spent a great deal of time exploring the wealth of material available, it's difficult to pick a "favorite" site. But right now, this is the site from which I've downloaded and printed the most material:

Sweet Dreams Digital Tutorials

It seems unlikely that this will remain my favorite site, because I've already downloaded the tutorials from there, but I'll probably return to check out the various webrings of which this site is a member.

Four Poser Images and Why I Like Them:

Hell/Salvation The dramatic lighting of the nude figure and the way that the spotlight illuminates the complexly coloured floor intrigued me, as did the effects of the fore- and background skeletons. I assume that the skeletons were done with Poser and that the entire scene was composed and rendered in Poser, but since I'm a rank beginner here, I can't be sure. So many of the items I have looked at have used Poser in combination with Bryce, Terragen, PaintShopPro, Photoshop, and other programs which I'm so unfamiliar with that I've forgotten their names. (Back to the picture, George!) The nude figure itself is not to my individual taste, but after working a bit with the material in Tutorial 1, I realize that I will have the power to "sculpt" such figures.

Incantation I am attracted to this because of the extreme level of detail in everything from the vest of the main character to the spines of the books in the bookcase on the wall, right down to the writing in the book the character is working with. Intriguing also are the "light-beings" floating above the character's left hand. Were these done in Poser? Will we learn how in this session, or is that Poser 401?

Lecturn What specifically attracted me to this render was the luminosity of the lectern and the variable luminosity of the item behind and above the chair on the right.

Lighting the Fireflies I was intriged by the number light sources in this picture. The lighted ball in the hand appears to bring out the details in the face and hair. The starburst in the upper left is probably a Photoshop artifact, but I like it anyway, and want to learn how to include such Photoshop tricks in my Poser work. Yeah, I know, I want to learn everything in a six-week course (which is clearly labled 101). The expression on the woman's face also drew my into the picture. Many of the Poser illustrations I have seen lack this kind of expression. On the downside, the flatness of the tree and owl indicate some more work could have been done. Also the main character's forearms seem flat, even though there is something illuminating them (it's unclear exactly what, though).

Additional Poser Information, with Links to Ranked Tutorials

Because I plan on using these pages not only to complete the lessons but also as reference documents after completion of the course, this page will probably go well beyond the requirements of assignment 1 and will most likely continue to grow. If you find that our tastes in web pages and resources coincide, feel free to bookmark this page and check it often. I do a lot of surfing.

Additionally, if I find a page which goes well beyond the Excellent ranking, I will also post a link to it on my weblog, Grendel's Cave. Feel free to visit.

The first Google search for "Poser 4" yielded 47,200 hits. Obviously, this needs to be pared down a bit. Searching for +"Poser 4" +"tutorial" got the count down to 4,620. This may be workable.

Website Commentary Usefulness Rating
Renderosity Tutorials The link goes to the first page of four which contain tutorials for Poser 4. These will likely be more useful either later in the class or after the class; in other words, a quick scan of several of these tutorials reveals that they expect you to be able to distinguish between your shoulder and your butt. That distinction is one of the skills I expect to derive from this course.
B
Mystical Modality Contains tutorials for "Creating a Complex Scene in Poser" and "Camera Focusing in Poser", as well as a number of post-processing methods using Photoshop.
B-
Dancing Badger's Tutorial Links A jumpsite with a dozen or so links to other tutorial sites. After checking a couple of the links, I hadn't made it to a tutorial, so I moved on.
C-
Book: The Poser 4 Handbook

A review of a book: The article has no value in itself, except for this wonderful quote:

Poser is a fabulous toy and tool, and the beginner will be utterly at sea without some reasoned, coherent guidance. How do you keep her foot inside the shoe? Why does his elbow look like somebody broke it off and glued it back on? Common questions for the beginner, and not hard to answer if you know what you are doing.
C-
Poser "Glass" A straightforward, well-written, amply illustrated tutorial which deals with reflectivity and lighting effects. It is unfortunate that this author doesn't produce more work. The only other one I could find is "Setting Final Render Size".
A-
The JCH Poser Page Categorized jumpsite for tutorials. This one actually looks rather promising. I looked at General Tips & Information and there found information on Changing Figure Names. Now, I'm one of those people who work better when items have meaningful names. In Photoshop, I change the layer names from Layer 1 to "Flowers", Layer 2 to "Sky" — that kind of thing. One of my early forays into Poser was defeated because I was unable to keep Figure 1 distinct from Figure 2, Figure 3, and Figure 4. This will help, although I have to go into code files to make changes.
A
Spotlight Control The Easy Way A very detailed and useful tutorial explaining uses of the various controls in lighting a model.
A
Cellshading non-character things Tutorial takes a simple model of a living room with a window and displays how to apply lighting and shadows. I suspect this will be much more useful after I have actually learned to make things like sofas, windows, etc. Nonetheless, the level of detail appears to make the tutorial worth a look at a later date.
B
Camera Focusing in Poser Another Mystic Modality piece, this is not so much a tutorial as the report of a series of experiments using variations in the settings for a camera: in this case, the face camera. The shots are clear and the camera setting is reported, making the item quite useful. There's even a link to an animated gif showing the changes in the figure as the camera setting is altered.

A
Adjusting P4 Texture Maps Applying Makeup This short tutorial is aimed at beginners and hits the target. There are no references to other, as-yet unknown features of the program, no extra items needed (except a bit-map paint program). Clear and to the point: very well done. The only warning I would have added would be to "work on a copy of the original file" — but that's probably just the Old Programmer being paranoid.

A
BodyMorph & BodyShape Poses A quick explanation of what a body morph is, with information on how to create a new BodyMorph setting, using pz2 files and a scripting language.
B+
Poser 4 Miscellaneous On this page are various Poser 4 props (hair morphs and the like) which are free for the download. In the index on the left side of the screen are more offerings. These may very well become useful when it's time to learn about props and morphs.
A-
Dr. Geep's Poser Tutorials 10 tutorials at the Basic level, 9 Advanced, 6 Magnet, 6 Posing, 15 Props, and 5 Scaling. Banking them now for possible later user. The tutorials themselves are downloadable as .zip files which open into .pdf files which are very graphic in nature.
B
Poser Downloads Mystical Modality download section. Included Gold Leaf texture for Petals Clothing; photographic textures for DAZ Cyclorama; sequined sapphire texture and transparency map for Victoria 3 Morphing Fantasy Dress; Second Skin texture for Victoria 3; curly mane for P4 Horse (shipped with Poser 4); texture maps for Adventurers Clothing; texture maps for Millenium Girls Clothing; Sunburst Texture for Victoria's Bikini Top and Bottom; and on and on. Why put these here if I don't have the products? Perhaps by examining the files, I can learn something about how textures and transparency maps are created and how they apply to the items they're "for".  
Kayak and Paddle Props Kayak and paddle (.zip format) with explicit instructions indicating where each piece in the package is to be placed. Free.  
Fantasy 3D Characters Series of downloadable (appear to be free) characters for Poser 3. Perhaps these can be used in Poser 4. We'll see.  
Fantasy 3D Objects Series of downloadable props.  
Fantasy 3D Texture, Transparency Bump and Reflection Maps Downloadable things to be used with Poser.  
Poser 4 Tutorials Set of untried tutorials for Poser 4, including General Tips and information; terms and definitions, transparency maps, texture maps, reflections, and on and on. How userful are they? We'll see. Check out the "Goodies Page" link.  
Terms and Definitions Helpful beginner information about commonly used terms in the Poser community.  
Vanishing Point Gallery, forums, free stuff, and tutorials.  
Smart Props and Victoria Poses Collection of rings, bracelets and necklaces for Victoria and Poser 4 woman; poses are for Victoria only.  
Put Your Own Face on a Poser Model The purpose of this tutorial is not to make your real face in Poser, it's only to use your face as a photorealistic texture.  
Poser Extras Site also has buildings and props for Poser; use the drop-down menu to locate and select.  
Planet 3-D Downloadable items  

 

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