Customer Reviews

Virtual Pose 3: The Ultimate Visual Reference Series for Drawing the Human Figure

5 star:		(18)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

I was hoping for a little bit more than this. I'll just sum up where I feel it is lacking:

1. No lighting variation. The lighting is the same in every pose and it's not all that neutral a choice even, it's like noon sun where a lot of the anatomy doesn't cast a shadow. I would have liked the same pose with a few differently lit versions - this would teach a LOT about the anatomy.

2. Resolution. It's the digital age and artists want material several times higher res than the public. You won't get any extra detail zooming in which is disappointing for people trying to study a subject better.

Others have complained about the censorship... I didn't notice it for awhile, but it does appear any area very near the anus or vulva visible was covered over digitally. (Penises however, are displayed without any alterations.) Maybe this was necessary to not make the product too controversial or appeal to the wrong crowd... but on the other hand when you buy reference material you expect accuracy not this sort of thing.

So I would say this is a pretty limited product overall, but you could use it as a basic pose reference for some basic poses (mostly sitting or "artistic", almost nothing that looks realistically dynamic).

Overall I would rather pay more in the future to get a much more complete, useful product.

Having bought VP2 I eagerly bought VP3 and I am not dissapointed with its crisp printing, and interesting poses.

So why give it a 4 star instead of a 5 star - well many of the pictures of women have been censored unsympathetically and frankly I really dont see why the publisher did this on selective models. Also the movies on the CD have too much compression making them much worse quality than the printed versions. The publisher should really have put them on DVD.

I'm not saying dont buy it..BUY THIS its a great reference - just let the publisher know that blurring out bits they find embarrassing is really quite inappropriate in a reference like this.. and they should grow up?

Any artist that is working apart from a private or group studio that hires models should seriously consider buying Virtual Pose 3. If you want access to models that never take breaks, never complain about long hours and are readily available 24/7, look no further. I mean where are you going to find subjects (and subjects that are proportionately pleasing to the eye, no less) to study the structure of human anatomy - in the round - at such an unbelievably low price???

If you're confused about zooming to a particular area of the body, read the instructions in the hardback book, and if that's not enough read "dramaqueen"'s review from February 20, 2005 here on Amazon. She will spell it out in detail for you. Very nicely done too, I might add.

Despite having some minor pixelation of the photos at full zoom, I can't find any fault in this resource. This whole "censorship" issue is silly in my opinion. I would rather concentrate on the form itself, instead of particular details that would be more suited to a scientific study/drawing, rather than a work of fine art.

If you're serious about studying the human form, and need a model in your traditional or digital paintbox, check out Virtual Pose 3.

EDIT: After contacting (read: ranting at) the website I received a prompt reply from the author. He addressed my disc issue (the one I've got is way buggy) and took the time to discuss the necessary evils of self-censorship with me. I was suprised and pleased to get such a thoughful and personal response. I'm still annoyed about the censorship, a real pet peeve of mine (I live in Texas; I should be over that by now), but I can accept that trade-off for a great product backed up by such good customer service.

I just purchased this product and have two issues with it (I just communicated both to the company through it's website).

The lesser issue is technical - my PC was purchased within the last six months (for around $3000 from Dell) but I have major issues opening the poses. I am forced to click through 30 or more (it varies) messageboxes telling me there isn't a disk in the drive before I can manipulate any pose anytime I open it. The pose does show up before all the boxes are done, I just can't manipulate it.

The more important issue is artistic - although male genitals and breasts are available in abundance, ALL female genitals and All anuses have been airbrushed over - even though that often means noticeably altering the figure (muscles, creases, etc.)

I am rather annoyed with this decision. I would assume that anyone purchasing this product would be comfortable with nudity.

Good resource, but the author should not "fuzz" out parts of the body, it's not just annoying, it's disturbing to break the flow of natural features. If the author chooses to "fuzz" any body part, then the pose should be removed from the pose file. (I have seen some others (not Virtual Pose) even fuzz-out the face). Although, some features are not drawn, the images are disturbing, and borders on mutilation. The models are good, some images distressfull, prefer the author exclude the pose -- rather than obscure the pose. Will return this to Amazon. Check out the Live Model Book --Highly recommended.

Great idea but poor execution. The photos are much too small to do any serious work with. The photos on disk are grainy and get even worse when you try to enlarge them.

I wouldn't take this book if they were giving it away. Seriously, it would just waste space on a bookshelf.

Why don't they show any samples from inside the book? Because if they did, you wouldn't buy it. The photos are small and the poses are awkward, scrunched up on a little platform. The pictures on disk are really disappointing- just as grainy as in the book and it forces you to use a weird animation thing.

There's only 80 pages and many of those are taken up with fluff and no photos- which isn't useful at all. Skip this one, there are much better art model books.

I just got this book yesterday. It has 70 poses; 47 for women,23 for men. Using 4 women ; they are normal to skinny in shape. Using 2 men: one old is around age 70 and one is around age 25. I'm not a great sculptor but I would give some comments from my opinion, if it might help you guys to decide about this book.

1. It's really useful and helpful refrences. I can rotate around and see all detail and form, awsome!. I can zoom in but not that much cuz somehow the image is little blur though.


2. As above, there are 4 women but pretty skinny. For me, it's good to have all kind of woman in pose especially a little muscular women then it's easy to figure out the muscle form underneath the skin. And also the male model, this book has only old and normal male images. It would be better if they put the muscular guy also for same reason.

3. Images are high resolution but the lighting in many images is not strong enough to get and understand the form.

There seems to be a lot of banter about a VERY small issue - blurring some body areas. I choose to concentrate on the whole product - great models, the amazing abillity to change poses, rotate poses. A bargain, lovely models, easy to use and draw from. When is the next version coming?

I love this third installment! The resolution is more than adquate. Some pictures are vertical, other horizontal. The vertical ones seem to be around 1000 pixels in height and will resquire resizing down of the window. The horizontal one really fill up my screen (set at 1280x960 pixels). The lighting varies between high contrast and even. I suppose, that way, both painters and sculptors are happy. Still, I think the goal here is to show the form, rather than to impose an interpretation.

All the poses are in color! And, we get 2,520 images in all... I cannot imagine anything else of such great value.

Printing is easy--right from the QT Movie Player (included on the CD. By the way, yo don't need to upgrade to QT Movie Pro, unless you want to manipulate the color and contrast of every pose on the fly.

Projecting it on the wall is FANTASTIC! Simple... Plus, easy to use.

Now, to Zoom in EXACTLY where you want... In other words, say you want to see the foot and the zoom put you on the belly button by default, just consult the book for all the Keyboard commands (rumor has is that due the HUGE size of these poses, an interface like VP2 was not practical. So, we need to use the mouse and keyboard commands (all that info is clearly laid out in the beautiflly printed hard cover book):

If you are on a Mac, to zoom, Press the SHIFT key.
To zoom out, Press the CONTROL key.
Now, pay attention to this...
To move the image (in ZOOM mode) to the particular detail you want: Press the OPTION key, and drag with the mouse/tablet.

To fit image to screen: Press the COMMAND+3 keys.


If you are on PC (which I am not...here are the instructions from the book and read me file on the CD)


To ZOOM IN (Increase Magnification: Press the SHIFT key.
To ZOOM OUT (Reduce Magnification): Press the CONTROL key.
To DRAG image (in ZOOM mode): Press the CONTROL+ALT keys, drag with the mouse/tablet.
To FIT TO SCREEN: Press the CTRL+3 keys.

Again, thank you for a great product that keeps getting better.