Trying Poser
I was looking online last night for programs that could simulate a wooden mannequin. I don’t have room on my desk to be placing a light source and mannequin, and I don’t have enough (or any) art training to picture it in my head. What I really wanted was a way to see how light shines on a model in certain poses, since i think my coloring skills need a lot of work.
I could only find two programs for this purpose:
- Poser: Really expensive to purchase. However, Poser 7 seems quite powerful, and some of the stuff you can create is pretty amazing.
- DAZ|Studio: DAZ|Studio and some of the figures are free. For other pre-created stuff, you have to pay. It doesn’t seem as powerful as Poser, but if I didn’t know about Poser, I’d probably be satisfied with DAZ|Studio.
Both programs seem to have fairly steep learning curves. This is not too surprising considering that most of the programs I try to use for art are not really newbie-friendly (still stuck on how to use Painter). However, I liked the controls and capabilities for Poser a lot more, so I think I’ll stick with trying to learn that one. The light controls are better, and it was easier to pose the figure exactly how I wanted it.
Poser does not run all that fast on my new computer, so I am assuming it is a bit of a resource hog. I was completely unable to figure out how to create hair, so I was stuck posing a bald model for most of the night. However, I did figure out how to work the light controls and various display modes (mostly using either textured or sketch) within a reasonable amount of time. I want to eventually figure out how to make simple hair and clothes so I can reference how folds and hair are affected by light changes, but for now the program seems to suit my purposes. I’m definitely not into creating 3D art, but I think this may help my drawings.
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Art Thoughts | Kabitzin 05/03/2007
By Ender, 05/03/2007 @ 11:48 am
Whoa, you actually bought Poser? Or are you “sampling” it?
By Kungfucius, 05/03/2007 @ 12:17 pm
They have a trial version on the website, so I’m guessing that’s what he’s using.
By Kabitzin, 05/03/2007 @ 12:54 pm
I am sampling it with the law of large numbers.