Poser

For the pejorative for a person who inauthentically adopts a certain subculture, see poseur.

Poser

Developer(s)	Smith Micro Software
Stable release	Pro 2012 / September 2011
Operating system	Mac OS X, Windows
Type	3D computer graphics
License	Proprietary
Website	Poser Homepage

Poser is a 3D CGI rendering and animation software program optimized for models that depict the human figure in three-dimensional form, mostly used to pose and animate the figures in a similar way as a mannequin. The program has gained popularity due to allowing beginners to produce basic animations and digital images, and the extensive availability of third-party digital models.

Overview

Poser is a 3D rendering software package for the posing, animating and rendering of 3D polymesh human and animal figures. Akin to a virtual photography studio, Poser allows the user to load figures, props, lighting and cameras for still and animated renderings.

Natively using a subset of the Alias object (OBJ) file format and a text-based markup for content files, Poser comes with a basic library of human, animal, robotic, and cartoon figures. The package also includes poses, hair pieces, props, textures, hand gestures and facial expressions. As Poser itself does not allow for original modeling of objects, a large community market of merchants and artists creating, selling and marketing third-party Poser content emerged, but these new models are usually crafted in Maya or 3DS Max.

Poser is available in English, Japanese, German and French for both Windows and Macintosh platforms. However, after a series of owner changes, the program has become a bit outdated and its main interface lacks many features present in the newest 3D programs. Poser can re-modelate already-existing figures, almost as if you were working with clay, which allows you to create completely new characters, but always using a previously existing one as a basis, since its modeling tools and capabilities cannot be used to create new figures from scratch. For this same reason, clothes and props can be retooled if necessary, but they must be created in a different program and then imported into Poser.

Most Poser figures can be used with DAZ Studio, which is designed to be compatible with the changing Poser file formats. Compatibility also exists with Carrara, Bryce (via DAZ Studio), Shade and Vue. Shade and Vue use PoserFusion, a file hosting system.

Features

Poser comes with a host of features, such as the inclusion of "Primitive" zygotes; spheres, cubes and other shapes at both low and high resolution. As with Poser 5.0, it is compatible with 3ds Max, LightWave and Maya, which enables Poser version 6.0 and higher to render more than simply people. As a result of its huge third-party community, many models are available, such as spaceships, aliens, weapons, scenes, buildings, and other such props.^{[citation needed]}

Usage

Poser was a popular tool for home artists creating original images featuring human figures. They used Poser for both human rendering "pin-ups" and comics. Poser has limited animation capability. However, Poser animation can be seen in industry applications, such as the animated instructions for checkout automated machines in Albertson city`s, Save-On stores and Wal-Mart, and at least one full-length Star Trek fan-film, Star Trek: Aurora.^[1] Poser characters and animations were used for early computer games from buddies game creators ("Desert Rifle" games and "Cake shop" from Qi and ELEFUN(TM) game developers).^{[citation needed]} Several Poser characters and 'several animated actions' have been used on different Discovery channel documentaries to graphically render human body working, without intrusion.^{[citation needed]} Humanoids printed in several science and technology magazines around the US is often Poser rendered and postworked models.^{[citation needed]}

Library

The Poser package comes with many already-installed features that do not have to be purchased at an online store. These are stored in the "Library." The Library includes:

• Humanoids, which contains people characters and human
• animals, marvel character BatBoy, dinosaur, bug lifes^{[citation needed]}
• wildlife surroundings, including soja^{[citation needed]}
• plenty of animations tool to work on the characters, include built-in actions for run and duck.
• Posery and countenance for almost every figure, from sleeping, picking up, fighting and fly.
• A Mien of anatomy Library, contain any expression imaginable, or close to it.
• Anatomy Hair Library, which has many types of hairstyles to assign to character.
• 'Props', which contains objects like coats, clothes, skirts, trousers, hats, make-ups, shadow, skin colouring, scenery elements, plenty of wardrobes and chairs.
• Illuminiscence props, to enlight any surrounding;
• Lights Library, contain many objects for light in scenery;
• Cameras, camera angles, and 3D vieports

Family of characters

Millennium Figures (Generation 4)	Primarily realistic human	DAZ 3D	Core Figures: Victoria 4, Michael 4, Kids 4; Morphs of Victoria 4: Aiko 4, Girl 4, She Freak 4, Stephanie 4 (Elite Body Shape), Reby Sky; Morphs of Michael 4: Hiro 4, Freak 4. These morphs are injectable. This makes it easier to make clothing usable across multiple figures. Reported intention to have been a David 4, but was left unfulfilled. The Kids 4 figure represents a pre-teen child and it has been stated that no specific teenage figure is under development, with the adult figures meant to be morphable into teens.	DAZ 3D
Millennium Figures (Generation 3)	Primarily realistic human	DAZ 3D	Victoria 3, Michael 3, Aiko 3, Hiro 3, Stephanie Petite 3, David 3, the Girl, The FREAK, She Freak 2, Millennium Kids - Young Teens (aka Luke & Laura), Millennium Kids- Preschoolers (aka Matt & Maddie), Millenium Baby 3, Troll. 'The Girl', a stylized female figure, was developed by Kim Goossens in conjunction with Daz, but is marketed as and technologically indistinguishable from the other third generation Millennium figures.	DAZ 3D
Millennium Figures (Generation 2)	Primarily realistic human	DAZ 3D	Victoria 2, Michael 2, Aiko, Stephanie, Millennium Girls, Millennium Boys, Millennium Baby. These Victoria and Michael figures keep the mesh shapes of Generation 1, but add morphs and are an unusual case of some add-on compatibility being maintained across generations.	DAZ 3D
Millennium Figures (Generation 1)	Realistic human	DAZ 3D	Victoria, Michael. Victoria 1 was originally released as 'The Millennium Woman', but common colloquial shortening to "Millie" led to DAZ 3D renaming her as Victoria.	DAZ 3D

Program history

Poser was created by artist and programmer Larry Weinberg, as a software replacement for artist's mannequins. Versions 1.0 and 2.0 were published by Fractal Design; in 1997, Fractal Design was acquired by MetaCreations, and Poser's interface was redesigned by MetaCreations' Phil Clevenger for release as Poser 3 in 1998. This interface has remained as the basis for all subsequent versions. In 1999, MetaCreations sold Poser to egi.sys AG, which established the subsidiary Curious Labs, with Larry Weinberg as CEO, to handle Poser development and publication. Curious Labs and Poser were sold to the publisher e-frontier, in 2003. On 15 November 2007, Smith Micro Software announced the purchase of Poser, Anime Studio and Manga Studio from e-frontier.^[2]

Early versions of Poser were bundled with fully clothed humanoid figures specifically designed for the then-current version of Poser. Next, add-on packages of human figures were sold by the manufacturer of Poser. Soon, third party companies began creating figures which work with Poser. As clothing became separate from the humanoid figure, collections of 3D garments were created for specific models which conform to the shape and pose of the Poser figure. 'Poses' for figures were packaged and sold by the software vendor and by third parties. 'Morphs' allowing customization of body or face shape or other features are also for sale. Different skin textures, frequently combined with settings for morph technology, are marketed to allow one base model to be customized into many different 'characters'; similar 'texture' packages allow one garment to take on many different appearances, an animal to represent different breeds of the same species, or a vehicle to show many different colour schemes.

Each major release of Poser has come with a new generation of figures for use with the tool, however separate figures rapidly became available as the content market developed. Notably Zygote (later DAZ 3D) made a Poser model of a young woman, higher-resolution than Posette, and called her "the Millennium Girl". Poser users often colloquially shortened this name to "Millie". Zygote, disliking this name, officially named her Victoria, which is often colloquially shortened to Vicky. Victoria then became the initial member of a large family of figures which has developed across four generations of technology. Following their merger with Gizmoz in late 2009, DAZ 3D released all of their poser figures (except the original Millennium Man/Millennium Woman) as free downloads.

Version	Release date	Publisher	Improvements / Notes
1.0	1995	Fractal Design	First release
2.0	1996	Fractal Design	Ability to add props Animation High resolution models[citation needed]
3.0	1998	MetaCreations developer	New user interface Facial posing and animation[citation needed] Human figures with jointed fingers.[citation needed]
4.0	1999	MetaCreations	Natural-media sketch renderer Figure sculpting via deformers Transparent mode for materials Conforming Clothes Transparency (which lead up to TransHair that increased the quality of hair sold today)
4.0.3	September 1999	Curious Labs	Markup path names made to use relative paths Currently sold as entry level Poser Artist
Pro Pack	February 2000	Curious Labs	Add on pack for Poser 4 Implementation of Python scripting, Custom figure rigging Ability to host Poser scenes in 3ds max, Lightwave 3d, and Cinema 4D. No longer available
5.0	2003	Curious Labs	FireFly Reyes/ray tracing renderer Dynamic hair and cloth Collision detection
6.0	March 2005	Curious Labs ; e-frontier	OpenGL Hardware acceleration Image-based lighting, Ambient Occlusion Cartoon outline rendering effects Inclusion of "Primitives" Zygote Props Binary Morphs (allows you to load the morphs for a characters in a separate file linked to Cr2 resulting in faster load time in Poser) Inclusion of male and female genitalia
7.0	December 2006	e-frontier	Simon and Sydney (new AdultG2 male and female figures) Wildlife including eagle and wolf Updates to Ben and Kate the Poser Child figures with new morphs, textures and rigging New motion capture data, light sets, poses, and materials Talk Designer for lip-sync animation Multiple Undo/Redo Multithreaded rendering High dynamic range imaging Brush morphing Animation Layers Universal Poses for bipedal figures, with automatic conversion of Poser 1-6 poses Streamlined access to Runtime libraries Universal Binary
Poser Pro	May 2008	Smith Micro Software	Poser Pro was released adding COLLADA support and plug in support for Cinema C4d and Maya.
Poser 8	August 4, 2009	Smith Micro Software	8 new characters New User Interface New Content Management System Cross body morph tool Global illumination Improved OpenGL performance Tone Mapping and exposure control Normal Mapping Wardrobe Wizard Performance optimisations wxPython support
Poser Pro 2010	March 10, 2010	Smith Micro Software	Enhanced User Interface 8 new human figures with advanced rigging Full set of legacy figures Over 2.5 GB included content Keyword and online content search Parameter change indicator Joint strength indicator Recent render palette StuffIt Connect image export Facebook image export Professional Art and Animation Tools Full body part morph import Auto-conform drag and drop Conform with scaling Updated PoserFusion Hosting plug-ins Dynamic cloth and strand based hair Improved OpenGL real-time scene preview Face Room WalkDesigner and TalkDesigner Dependent Parameters Tool Improved joint rigging system Cross Body Part Morph Tool Wardrobe Wizard Tool wxPython support Refined Lighting and Rendering Tools HDRI Export Gamma correction for linear rendering Normal mapping PSD layer rendering Network rendering 64 bit render engine Indirect Lighting for Global Illumination Physically correct light falloff Tone mapping and exposure

See also

• MakeHuman
• Avimator
• Renderosity
• Digital art

References

1. ^ www.auroratrek.com
2. ^ "Smith Micro Software press release". Smith Micro Software. http://www.smithmicro.com/default.tpl?group=news_full&id1=414&id2=13. 

External links

• Poser Official Site
• Poser at the Open Directory Project