Tricks of the Poser Trade

[Gary Childress]

After all this time I only just finally found out about the "Walk Designer" in Poser and how to use it. (Thank you again Hikaro! ) So I thought I might take this opportunity to see if there are any other tricks to Poser that I am not aware of.

If anyone has any tricks or tips which help them in their Poser unit creation I would love to hear them. If anyone has any tips for increasing productivity and quality in Poser please share. I've been banging out my brains trying to create units in Poser.

Many thanks!

 

[Stormrage]

Increasing productivity? Re-use animations

 

[Gary Childress]

Increasing productivity? Re-use animations

I'm actually doing that now. I have 1 good run animation for Mike 2 and 1 for Mike 3 which I will use with all my units. I'm basically creating animations now and then using those animations with every unit I can think of that can utilize those animations. For instance my M1 Garand pack took advantage of the same animations for Mike 2 using the M1 Garand within 6 units. However, if I switch weapons or to Mike 3, then I have to do new animations.

 

[Stormrage]

Have you tried using the Apollo Maximus figure? Its free and apparently really good..

 

[Gary Childress]

I haven't made a unit with Apollo Maximus yet, however, I do have the figure and a few props to go with it. When I get around to German Paratroopers I have an outfit for it. I also just downloaded a US paratrooper prop pack for Apollo from the same artist that did the German one. Found it on Renderosity.

 

[DJ Bonebraker]

You can save animations in your Poser library, much like standard poses (also, it would be a good idea to save single-frame poses you use a lot)...

I did this with all my settler animations, the Mage animations I used for the Cetra Archon, and all of the gun and archery animations.

In addition, such pre-saved animations can be used on DIFFERENT BASE FIGURES (especially if the figures in question have all the same-named body parts), although some MINOR tweaking may be required (still a hell of a lot faster than re-doing the whole animation).

Also, whenever possible, use plain shader textures.... I.e. no image maps. Image maps slow down your rendering time considerably. In addition, whenever possible, when something needs to be hidden, try to just hide the body part(s), rather than applying an invisible texture, since again, transparencies increase your render times.

 

[Vuldacon]

High Resolution Models Require Much longer render times. While they are better Models than the "Paper Doll" model, there is the price of time to pay if you use them.
Apollo Maximus is a Great Model but for those who are accustomed to using the Paper Doll Model, they will not like having to adjust all of the parameters required for Apollo Maximus...not a big deal but it will require much more time. The way I see it, it is worth Extra render time for better results...especially after taking a great deal of time to perfect your animations.

 

[Plotinus]

Apollo Maximus is fantastic, but I don't think there's much advantage to using him for units, because his advantages are really in the detail - and there's far less clothing available for him. The exception is humanoid units that you want to modify the appearance of dramatically, such as huge muscles and the like, because this figure is very morphable. I used him for my Monster Zombie unit, but that's the only one. Apollo Maximus is also the best model you can use for leaderheads, in my opinion. But I do think the Paperdoll is the best human figure for units, as he is easy to pose and use and looks better at Civ scale, as well as fitting in with most of the available units, not to mention the animations in the library here.

By far the best tip I can give you is to familiarise yourself with the Poser forum at Renderosity, which is also the best place to ask any specific Poser-related questions. People there are very helpful.

 

[DJ Bonebraker]

I've personally found, that for female units at least, Aiko 3 has been the best option available, especially considering price, customizability and available clothes and props.....

 

[Gary Childress]

I still prefer Poser characters to the paperdoll. Just my preference. I think some of the best units out there, Balou's Spetznaz for example, NavyDawg's units, many of Vuldacon's units as well as a few others which were made with figures other than the paperdoll are much more realistic looking and even look better than many Firaxis units. My ultimate aspiration is still to match those units in quality, however difficult it may be for me.