Poser 6 Revealed: The Official Guide [Paperback]

Kelly L. Murdock (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 1592005233 | ISBN-13: 978-1592005239 | Publication Date: April 12, 2005 | Edition: 1

Get ready to explore all that Poser has to offer! Giving you a firm foundation, "Poser 6 Revealed: The Official Guide" allows you to master concepts on both a technical and artistic level. Begin by examining the concept behind each task-the goal and the necessary features that are involved. Then go in-depth with the objective of your task as you study examples and learn the steps necessary to complete it. Working your way through comprehensive, step-by-step lessons, you'll develop the confidence you need to create amazing graphics using Poser.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Kelly has more than 15 years experience in the computer graphics arena, especially in the area of 3D graphics. Included in the experience is a variety of tasks from high-end CAD product design and architectural pre-visualization to virtual reality and games. Kelly is best known for his international best-selling books on graphics including the 3ds max Bible, Illustrator Bible and Naked Maya. He also is the author of Poser 6 and 7 Revealed as well as Edgeloop Character Modeling for 3D Professionals. Kelly currently works as a freelance designer for Logical Paradox Design, a company that he founded with his brother.

Product Details

• Paperback: 440 pages
• Publisher: Course Technology PTR; 1 edition (April 12, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1592005233
• ISBN-13: 978-1592005239
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 7.7 x 1.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 2.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,488,631 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

34 of 35 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars How can anyone find this book useful?, October 21, 2005

By 

A Reader (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Poser 6 Revealed: The Official Guide (Paperback)

If you know how pull-down menus, tabs, and buttons work, and you can figure out all on your own that clicking on the tabs marked "Face", "Hair", "Material", etc. will lead you to the places where you can edit the character's face, hair, and materials/textures, you are far smarter that the person this author had in mind when he wrote this book.

Maybe I can explain best using an example. For each "room" - hair, face, material - he uses a similar structure. In the Material Room chapter, he spends pages 122 to 126 describing what you see when you open the Materials room interface. This is one of MANY lessons on "using the interface", which takes up all of chapter one (45 pages on how the interface works) but is ALSO repeated throughout the book.

In this case, what you see - what he will describe - is the Shader window, which has some pretty obvious stuff: a help button, two pull-down menus labelled Object and Material, and two tabs labelled Simple and Advanced. Then there's some less obvious stuff: a texture map, a variety of controls with names like "diffuse color", "ambient", "reflection" across the top and "add subsurface scattering", "set ambient occlusion", "IBL", etc. down one side.

The author completely ignores all that stuff about ambient occlusion and diffuse color. He spends page after page explaining what the "object list" (a pull-down by which you can select which object is being edited), "material list", etc., and how the "simple" tab and the "advanced" tab offer the user a selection between simplified controls vs. more advanced ones.

Then, when you do finally graduate to a real tutorial, it turns out to be pretty simple stuff. Lesson Two in my above example (the materials room chapter) is how to load and save textures. There are two sidebars on pages 129-130 that summarize the entire process of loading (p. 129) and saving (130). Really they aren't all that advanced: loading involves opening a library and double-clicking, while saving involves pressing the save button. However, he still has to spend an entire lesson on this, because he's got to talk about all the things you'll find along the way - for instance, he mentions in the text (but not the sidebar) that when you press the Save To Library button, you'll get a dialog box allowing you to name your new texture. (Because we all know how overwhelming it is to be confronted with a box demanding that you name something.)

In this - and all - lessons, it's at a VERY basic level.

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I liked it..., November 27, 2005

By 

S. Grasse "In my opinion" (San Antonio, Tx United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Poser 6 Revealed: The Official Guide (Paperback)

Got Poser 6 for a birthday gift and I ordered this book. Sorry to go against all the 1 star customers who were expecting an "Answer all my questions now" book. I think the book is great, it steps you through all the basic moves and shows you how to do things the manuel doesn't. I recommend the book to all who haven't a clue about Poser, but, for those who have worked with it, there is nothing new for you to learn from this book.

23 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Good for First Time Users Only, April 21, 2005

By 

hasbeen - See all my reviews

This review is from: Poser 6 Revealed: The Official Guide (Paperback)

This is essentially the manual that should have shipped with Poser 6.

The Referance Manual was included with the software should have been included as a .pdf on the install disc. The Referance Manual is classic technical writing: "turning the perameter dial changes the perameter value". This book is also basic technical writing but in a "natural language" form. Very helpfull for the user who trying Poser for the very first time since it is fluid and lucid, but of no particular use to some one who has used Poser 5 or probably any previous version of Poser. Features are listed in an organized manner but there is no depth... no discussion of how to use nodes for instance, simply a listing of the various nodes and a nominal listing of thier variable, no attempt to help one understand how to use them effectivly. I should have paid more attention to the fact that the author is very experienced as a popular technical writer and waited for a book from a long-time Poser community member who actualy knows how to get the most from the software.

This is basically a "look, this is you application interface and features..." text. The illustrations are more or less fine but confuse by showing features and variations not germane to the features being illustrated.

I am disapointed I spent my money on it. I was mislead by "master concepts on both a technical and artistic level" since that should read "Be INTRODUCED to program FEATURES" as I failed to find any refernce to either technical or artist aspects of the software. Moreover, "Then go in-depth with the objective of your task as you study examples..." uses the term "in-depth" most liberaly. This book gives an introduction to a feature and then text less than what I have written here as a "lesson".

I would have been better served if this book had been properly labled "For the Novice User".

Perhaps the fault was mine in not understanding the effusive nature of copy writing. Sorry to be the barer of bad news.