Customer Reviews

Poser 6/Shade LE: 3D Figure Design and Animation Solution

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Poser is hard. Extremely hard. The manual that comes with the software is poorly written and virtually useless. I recommend the VHS "POSER 5 Demystified", which is relevant to Poser 6 as well. This will help get you started.

But even with this, Poser, like all 3D animation programs, is going to require quite a commitment from you. Its VERY TIME CONSUMING. There's just no way around it. Even after you've figured out how to use the software (it took me 6 months of trial and error...and I'm certainly no expert), it can easily take you 8-10 hours to produce a 5 second animation.

The problem is that no one can show you "how" to make an animation with Poser. They can only show you how the various tools work (which, as I stated before, the manual fails miserably at). You're going to have to decide what you want to see on the screen, and figure out how to use the software to make that a reality. Example: there are 3 different methods you can use to animate, which give you wildly different results. While the manual tells you what these are and identifies the controls for each, it doesn't tell you which to use and under what circumstances to use them. You're going to have to figure it out on your own. I literally thought the software was broken for the 1st 6 months, because the figures kept moving in unexpected ways. Actually, the software was behaving exactly the way it was supposed to. I understand now that its an asset rather than a liability, because once you learn what you're doing, Poser can add a level of realism that is sorely lacking from a lot of other 3d animation programs.

So what do I think of Poser 6? Its amazing. Simply amazing. I would give it 5 stars, except for the crappy manual that comes with it. Curious Labs should design a manual like "The Art of Animation Master", which was brilliantly tailored for the beginner.

The downside: content. If you plan on making a contemporary film, this is not a problem. But if you plan on making any kind of period film, or a Sci-Fi or Fantasy film, be prepared to shell out at least $200.00 for extra content. You're first stop should be to DAZ. Get version 3 of both Michael and Victoria, because 99% of the clothing and morphs on Content Paradise is geared to fit these two models. You're going to find virtually no content geared towards the models that come with the Poser software (James, Jessi, Don, Judy). Its a rip-off...pure and simple...but if you want to use Poser, there's really nothing you can do about it, unless you're a talented enough modeller to design your own clothes. Before you go spending all that money though, take the time out to learn the software. See if you're willing to make the commitment or not. I would recommend a short 3-5 minute film using the content that comes with the software. Allow yourself 6 months to a year to complete it. I'm not kidding.

Lip Synching: You're also going to need "Mimic" from Daz, if you plan for your film to contain any dialogue. That's going to cost you at least another $200.00, unless you can find a free version of the software. Check out the magazine 3d world. Every month it features free software for all sorts of 3d platforms. I was lucky enough to obtain a free version of Mimic for the price of the magazine. You can probably obtain the back issue from their website.

Other than that, study the masters (Harrihausen, etc.). Computer animation is really not that different from Claymation. Its just done in a virtual environment, and you don't have to animate each and every frame. Also, its relatively simple to check your progress and to make changes, once you know what you're doing.

If you read the review section of Poser 5, many of the reviews are extremely negative. While some of the complaints are justified, in my opinion a lot of the frustration comes from the fact that the people reviewing it haven't spent a sufficient amount of time to know what they're doing. They think the software is "broken" because its not giving them the results they expect, or their computer lacks sufficient RAM and a fast enough processor to handle it. The requirements on the side of the box is the MINIMUM required to run the software. If you want it to run smoothly, I would recommend at least a gigabyte of RAM. You'll save yourself a lot of headaches.

What about Shade? Its a piece of crap (see my review). That's why their giving it away with the purchase of Poser 6.

This review refers to the PC version
Pros:
1. Great fun to work with Poser.
2. Nice renderings.
3. Neat new features including taking advantage of your graphics card.

Cons:
1. Animations take much longer than Poser 5. They take so long that you really can't consider making a film with this program unless you have a super computer.
2. New company name and attitude, Curiouslabs is longer the company that supports Poser. EFRONTIERS no longer has a phone number that you can reach them at except for sales.
3. They have refused to fix a problem with Poser 5 that prevents it from running on Windows XP with Service Pack 2.
4. They had a lag time of over a week responding to an email.
5. Poser 6 feels like it was designed by 6 different people. What I mean by that is each area of the program requires a different approach to master it.
6. Since they finally wrote back to me I'd give them 3 stars but this program won't let me.
7. Also watch out for their "Content Paradise". The site doesn't work more than it does. I was recently charged twice for an $15 item. I wrote to them over two weeks ago and still haven't heard a thing.

I see a lot of bad reviews for Poser 6 but that didn't stop me from buying it. It seems to me that everyone is hung up on the fact that it's hard to use or doesn't compare to their idolized ideals of what they were hoping for. Of course Poser is hard! You don't paint your first painting and expect it to come out like a Picasso do you? You don't buy a skateboard and expect to skate like Tony Hawk as soon as you get it home right? So why expect to be able to fully comprehend a new piecse of sophisitcated software in just a few quick clicks. No matter what you do you have to learn (and I'd like to stress the word LEARN) all the basics and then move on to the tricks of the trade. I love Poser 6 it's not that hard to use if you take some time and work through some tutorials and read some hints from the online community. I also baought the book Poser 6 Revealed: The official guide and that helped as well. I bought Poser 6 about 5 months ago and work with it maybe 2 hours a week. All in all I've put in about one full-time work week over the past 5 months and I've gotten to the point where I'm able to create some decent beginners work. I started with no knowledge of digital art at all and now have a good basic understanding. If I can do it so can you. If you want to create digital art look at the other programs of similar type, most cost well over the price you pay for poser and have their own problems and user interfaces that you will spend about as much time learning as you will with Poser.

The first part of my review is for those new to Poser, the second part is for those who have used previous versions of Poser.

For new users: I love using Poser to create characters for works of fiction and roleplaying games. You can create amazing art with Poser, but don't expect to create the sorts of images you see on display at sites like Renderosity or Daz3d with Poser right out of the box. A lot of those beautiful Poser renders require extensive "postwork" in Photoshop. Also, be warned that Poser is addictive -- you'll find yourself buying more and more models and props to use in your renders. The set that comes with Poser is enough to do basic scenes with human and animal figures, and you can find a lot of "freebies" online, enough to build up an extensive library, but I've wound up spending more money on props than I did on the software! For creating characters, Poser is an intermediate application with a lot more power than some of the cheap or free software you can find online for creating avatars, Sims people, etc. But if you want to become a professional 3D artist, you're eventually going to invest in one of the high-end packages like Maya or 3dsMax that costs thousands of dollars. Still, Poser is enormously popular and a lot of hobbyists have started a nice little home business for themselves by creating and selling their own Poser models. (This takes a lot of skill, it's not something you can pick up in a few days.)

Poser can do animations, but it's a laborious process. Short animations (appropriate for an animated GIF) are one thing, but I doubt you'd want to try to create a complicated movie running more than a minute or two using Poser.

For experienced Poser users: As a Poser 5 user, I found transitioning to Poser 6 was fairly painless. While the user interface has changed a little (particularly in the Materials room), it's not too different and most of what you did in Poser 5 will be done the same way in Poser 6. I haven't noticed a difference in rendering speed, and I've found a lot of features seem to work better (I have less difficulty with dynamic clothing or adding multiple Runtimes, for example). Overall, I like it, and think it is an improvement over Poser 5, though if you are wondering whether it's worth an upgrade, I'd have to say that Poser 6 doesn't have that many new features. (I haven't been terribly impressed with the Toon Renderer or the simplified Materials interface.) So, it's nice to get the upgrade but I wouldn't say it's a "must have."

The Shade LE add-on is interesting. I haven't played with it a lot, since I do more rendering than modeling, but if you want to dive into modeling, the software is fairly full-featured and the PDF documentation is not bad.

You will probably read 50/50 from the reviews on this software. Having used the older Poser software... One thing I am a fan of is Miki and Terai Yuki...Japanese virtual beauties and if you are a fan of Japanese styled video games and the character designs, the fact that e-frontier is now the company behind Poser 6, I'm so stoked.

Granted, the software with bundles (best to buy it bundled with other cool software), there is a free software out called Daz3D. Daz3D content creators make stuff for Daz3D and Poser and vice versa but no matter if you go with the free program or Poser 6, the result will be the same...expect to pay money for content.

I highly recommend getting the book "Pratical Poser 6" because it's very, very informative unlike the manual. Next thing...before you buy...mosey down to daz3d.com, contentparadise.com, renderosity.com and ask yourself, can you afford to buy the content. Content costs anywhere from free to over $100+.

And the good stuff costs money...maybe not a lot but it does add up. The next thing to know is that after you buy the content, due to how the hair or clothing conforms to the body (or how it's placed), they are not organized. To make matters worse is that the names that the creators have called their work are long that the window for the selections (Figure, Pose, Hair, Prop, etc.) can get cut off and so, it becomes a bit of a choir to go back and forth to certain folders.

But I got used to it and the thing is ....all developers for the content are helpful. Content Paradise is a great place to buy your content as well as from the creators websites as well.

There is a lot of trial and error and I wish there were more undos...because really, although there is an undo...you mess up...you can't just undo...you have to start over your from your save file (and hopefully you saved).

Nevertheless, the stuff I was able to create in Poser is wonderful. I will say that I have spent a lot not just on the Poser and the bundle but the content. It adds up quickly!!! So, consider the benefits for you. Although I love the characters from Daz3D and the ever popular Foxhair, I'm more a fan for Poser but still expect to be buying content from Dax3D for use of poser.

The new Poser is nice enough, with lots of installed content. The pictures generated are reasonable. After the initial eye candy is gone, the annoyances start. It's like they didn't use the software before sending it out to market. Any user who purchases enough of the excellent 3rd party content (to fill up the worlds) will soon become extremely bogged down in the endless search for required components that are scattered all over the place. The figures are in one place, the textures in another, and the poses are scattered to high heaven. The camera are a real mess. Sure, there are lots of cameras, but if you switch from one to another the camera moves! Now why would it do that? Instead of changing the rotation axis for the current view, you are now upside down or behind a wall. Choose another figure, and you get the same effect. You need a different pose? Navigate up, and it resets to the top of the menu, not where you came from. Hmmm, where is that pose... Third party content is even worse, since most developers don't even call the folders the same thing in the seven places where the content was installed. The readme files are even worse, and they can't even fix on one naming convention for the readme folder. Sure would be nice if the current selected folder for poses/figures/etc would depend on the character selected, but switching from a female to male figure leaves you in the original place. Pretty dress for Michael. I use the program, but I find myself yelling "WRONG!" more and more. A good program if you have low blood pressure and need help getting your heart to beat faster.

Don't EVEN get me started about the clothing. Do they fit if you change the body with the touted new morphs? NOPE! This program feature is really nice if you want to model a nudists' colony, but after that the morphs are USELESS!

Sigh.

Poser 6 is great.
Being a beginner it would probably take me weeks (or more) to be able to model a 3d human (and then it still would look bad). But with Poser I can just use their models and morph them with its preset dials -- or I can add my own custom made morph targets.
Plus Poser 6 can do a lot more...
It deserves five stars in my opinion.

Meanwhile Amazon did not also ship Shade LE in this "Poser-ShadeLE Bundle". However I don't believe Shade LE is worth my time to deal with, so I never followed up on the transaction. (It's probably a nice program if its cheap or free, though.)

The price was good for Poser alone, but since Amazon screwed up, I'm subtracting a star from my rating.

As has been previously pointed out, Poser 6 seems to have been designed by a committee of people..that did not much like each other.
The user interface is pretty terrible. It seriously needs revamping to a more Windows-like format.

The cration of figures yields very good results on the other hand, although additional content can run into big bucks. Be warned.

My biggest beef with Poser 6 is with applying clothing to the model. It is ludicrously hard to do. It is TEDIOUS to the point of suicidal depression. There has GOT to be a better way.
Actually... there is a better way: placing the artical of clothing in position , the "shrink-wrapping" it around the figure, using the polys of thye figure itself as a guide. I do not have the coding skills to write such a sub-routine myself, but there are plenty of people that do.

Poser 7 is supposed to be coming out this year right in time for Xmas. I REALLY hope efrontiers is not doing a rush job on getting Poser 7 out in time. That was done with Poser 5 when it was released and proved a serious botch job. Poser 6 is only a marginal improvement over it's predecessor. I am hoping 7 will be a REAL improvement.

What the program REALLY needs is a complete, top-to-bottom redesign; from scratch. What we have actually seen so far is new versions of the same old thing; a patch, on a patch, on a patch.

...buy it here and save $s!

Shipping cost from the UK added $46.95 to the price AND a Foreign Debit Card Transaction fee of $2.51 for a waste of $49.46 that could have been spent getting additional models.

Or get the download version and save even more as like someone else pointed out, the included manual is near useless and has not improved since version 4. Practical Poser 6 is still the best book to get if you are serious about doing Poser 6 development.

This program is not at all what we were lead to believe it was. We comparison shopped & tried a demo version. When that actual program came, everything we had learned on the demo was basically worthless. I agree with those who said that the manual is useless. It seems to send you from page to page without ever really giving you the information you are seeking. We also had problems getting answers from Curious Labs as we attempted to use this software.
Our teenage daughter did enjoy the process of creating her own characters, but that was the only positive experience had by anyone in this house. Overall, our attempts at using this program were frustrating & unless you have a lot of background with this type of software (or you have nothing better to do for the next several months) I wouldn't recommend it.