9/23/2014 4:37:00 AM by
Erogenesis
(Edited: 4/4/2016 7:33:26 AM)
Views: 741
Hey guys. A whole bunch of people have approached me about Poser, how to use it, what to do where, what render settings do you use, should you be using DS or Poser, why Poser, etc etc etc... So I'll try and share with you how I do things in Poser, and the moral of the story is: KEEP IT SIMPLE! And that is basically the theme of my life right now, getting on with it, don't make it any harder than it has to be, unless it will look cooler. Comic making is all about making priorities and moving onto the next thing a.s.a.p. And even for me its still a learning process! Likewise I'm gonna blast through this very quickly because I have to get on with my comic!
Ok so in a nutshell,
- my Poser experience consists of two tabs and three windows:
- Tabs: Pose and Materials, when working in Poser I switch between these two the whole time, especially when setting up a scene.
- Windows: Hierarchy (Ctrl+E), Animation Palette (Ctrl+V) and obviously Parameters.
- I use groupings the whole time. I'll have in excess of 30 groupings in one scene.
- I use the Pose camera and the Dolly Camera a lot. In some scenes I'll have about 10 dolly cameras.
- I use the point at function a lot with lights and sometimes cameras.
- I have ONE render setting, this gets revised twice / three times a year.
- I use the symmetry tool a lot
- Sometimes use IK
- Since Poser Pro 2014 I use 'Raytrace Preview' constantly
- And also since Poser Pro 2014, I use the Morph Tool a lot!
- For scene building and prop editing I use the grouping tool a lot
- I mostly use point lights, because they resemble real lights the most.
- Stuff I use every now and then: bullet physics, fitting room, setup room, cloth room.
Ok so to explain the above:
Tabs: Pose and Materials,
Windows
Hierarchy (Ctrl+E), Animation Palette (Ctrl+V) and obviously Parameters.
Groupings
Cameras
Point At
Render Settings
Symmetry
IK
Raytrace Preview
Morph Tool
Grouping tool
Point lights
The rest: bullet physics, fitting room, setup room, cloth room.
My workflow: Simplified
Why Poser?
Well, firstly, because I'm used to it. Secondly, because it's fairly straight-forward. If I could use notepad to make renders, I'd use notepad because notepad is quite possibly the simplest program that I know. I love simple. But I cannot use it to make renders, the next best thing would be Poser IMO. What I am trying to say with that is that I really don't wanna waste any time with fancy software and I just wanna get on with it. I take the easiest package I can find and Poser is that for me.
For example, to make a comic I can use Photoshop, or Manga Studio 6. In Photoshop I need to make all the lines myself, but with a template and some simple tricks with layer effects, I managed to make it quite easy. Manga Studio does all of this for you, and has all kinds of nifty gadgets, and can store entire projects and storyboards and has a shitload of content and bubbles and graphics. But when I opened the trial for the first time I sat and stared at it for about 30 minutes, then began clicking around, tried a few things, checked a youtube tutorial on it... and immediately uninstalled it. Doing my old-fashioned Photoshop thing would be faster than learning all of that shit (and more freedom). So that gives you an idea about how I use software, and why.
So back to Poser, some people might not agree with me but I think the interface is very intuitive, built up in a similar way as 3D Studio Max and Photoshop. Every function is traceable through the simple hierarchical build-up of the interface. I keep on telling people that I never checked a manual or a tutorial on Poser (or Photoshop and Max for that matter) since 2005, except for a few times this year when I wanted to find out about the SSS nodes or PP2014 and some things about python. Good User Interface design is everything to me because it doesn't hinder innovation, or a creative rush. It lets you fall into creating stuff. For example: recently I wanted to make something with hair in 3D Max. I had never done that before but I knew there was some hair function. I opened it for the first time ever (no joke), played around with it, and within 30 minutes I had a very nice pubic hair prop going. This is because of 3D Max's logical User Interface setup and flow.
Now the big question I get a lot: is it better than DS? I cannot say for sure. I usually say, get both Poser and DS and see for yourself. The renders done in DS don't exactly look any worse or better than stuff that comes out of Poser. I presume at the end of the day if you know DS well, you can do the same as in Poser... but that's the thing, you need to learn DS. Poser is just something you start fiddling with.
From my frequent excursions into DS I can say that DS doesn't feel as intuitive as some applications can be, and I can get very judgemental over software when it comes to that. Some people seem to be ok with getting challenged and tortured, but I am not like that. For example, I've never solved a crossword puzzle in my life. Why the fuck should I? Its a waste of brain activity that I could've spent on drawing a picture (which I did! hehe). Its not because I'm stupid or lazy, I'm a BSc Geologist and did a PhD in Geoinformation technology... well no wait, geologist can definitely be stupid haha... And I admit I can also be very lazy, in a pragmatic way, if that makes any sense?
Anyway, I can literally drop software instantly because of of crap software design, regardless of that it can do. When you already have a TONNE of work to do and already spend significant portions of your time behind the computer, you don't wanna extend it even further by constantly having to listen to some nerd in a foreign country explaining what menu item to click and what checkbox to uncheck to do something in an application that is already running in front of your nose. In that time I could be watching a movie or playing Call of Duty with my girlfriend, or making the next comic.
Now the common argument is: so you're not prepared to sacrifice a few hours of your time to learn something that might make your life easier? My answer would be: it doesn't inspire confidence. If they suck at such a basic level of software design and usability, where else will their incompetence show up? Or maybe I can put it this way: if they're unable to make the learning curve of their software less steep in the beginning, then I have no guarantee that the rest of the package and future addons and changes will be any easier. I don't wanna sign up to a world of suffering, no matter how tempting the potential.
Although not as bad, DS seems to be one of a growing trend of software packages that relies heavily on tutorials for it to be useful. And ZBrush is the epitome of such software. I hit myself over the head every time I see myself investing time and money in such software, because I am encouraging it. But I have no choice, which brings me to the next question they ask: well don't you wanna develop your skillset then, are you scared to change? And my answer is: the fact that I use zBrush should show you that I do make exceptions to my principles, and I am very prepared to change, provided there's a good enough reason to. I detest zBrush, but I still use it because it is unparalleled in what it is capable of doing. Luckily there are apps that are catching up to zBrush, and are thankfully a lot more pleasant to use.
To compare, in zBrush it took me an hour to realise that I needed to go on youtube to learn how to use the spotlight polypainting function, and several times after that I needed to look back at the notes I wrote to remember the shortcuts. No sane human can possibly figure out by him/herself some of those random hop-skip and jump routines that they designed. If you can then you either have too much time on your hands, or you come from the planet Zirknorff. But in Mudbox, within five minutes of opening the trial for the first time in my life, I had painted onto a mesh and exported a texture ready for use. The only reason I haven't bought Mudbox yet is because there's some scaling issue with OBJ files.
Although the tools in DS seem very promising, I'd rather invest in software companies that think about me when they design stuff. My creative process and my stress-levels mean more to me than nifty gadgets. You might be putting yourself on the forefront of technology, but at what cost? I was once spearheading certain technological advancements in the field of Geographical and Geological Presentation systems, armed with the best programming suites money could buy, but my motivation gradually oozed out the window the more it became about being clever, and the less is was about enjoying the things you make. Needless to say I told them all to fuck off and I quit. So yeah, Poser is well on its way to catching up with DS, gadget-wise, and I'm prepared to wait for that.
But that's all about comic making and rendering, which is a daily exercise that you'd want to have run as efficiently as possible. Concerning character rigging, which I do once in a blue moon, I'm prepared to give DS the benefit of the doubt. I've heard a lot of good things concerning that so next year I'll definitely look into it and give DS a chance.
Under the Hood: Runtimes and folders
I need to say something about this because it seems that some folks out there don't get this part. Runtimes are the folder that contain all the love and joy that can be loaded into Poser. You can have one Runtime, like Poser offers you, or you can have several. You can have it installed to the Poser default location, or to a public documents folder in windows, or on a secondary drive, or on your ass... anywhere, as long as Poser knows where to find it. My runtimes are all located on a secondary drive, mainly D:/. I have about 8 Runtimes.
- D:/Poser Pro 2010 Content/Runtime
- D:/Poser Pro 2014 Content/Runtime
- D:/Erogenesis_Products/Runtime
- D:/Downloads/Runtime (located in D:/Poser Pro 2010 Content)
- D:/Downloaded shit/Runtime
- D:/DS Content/Runtime
- D:/Erogenesis 2013/Runtime
- D:/3D Freebies/Runtime
- D:/Renderotica 2013/Runtime
And January 2014 I'll make D:/Erogenesis 2014/Runtime
Since I started making comics in 2012 I began organizing my runtimes, keeping stuff that I purchased in one runtime, and my own stuff in a separate runtime. It helps keep things overseeable especially as your content grows and grows. Runtimes keep everything in one place, easy for Poser to find, and you can move the whole lot to another PC without Poser loosing track of it.
The only thing I do outside of runtimes is Textures, because I wanna maintain my own structure with textures. Like for example I dump all my V4 textures into one big V4 folder (in their respective folders obviously). I have a folder insid there called 'Erogenesis girls' and Lali has a folder inside there. In the runtimes, textures are all mixed up, ordered usually by vendor. This big Textures repository is identical across all 3 of my machines, and in the exact same location (as well as my runtimes). That way you can transfer one scene to the other PC and it will immediately work.
Under the hood: crashing
Poser has become more and more stable with every version, Poser Pro 2014 being by far the most reliable. Off course it is still an application with millions of functions going on and is bound to crash, although very rarely in the middle of a scene. I sometimes see it crash upon closing, especially after rigging or programming morphs for some reason. But if you've saved the file, its just a mere annoyance to have to open task manager and stop Poser entirely. Off course with DSON it just dies pretty much instantly with me. I had it crash once when I was using the Raytrace Preview, never happened again afterwards.
The Poser Development team does update their software quite quickly and regularly in the beginning, so keep updated as much as possible. IF you have a pirated copy, it is bound to crash more since it is usually an old version.