Poser
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Poser | |
User interface of Poser 6 |
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Developer: | e frontier |
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Latest release: | 7 / Autumn 2006 |
OS: | Mac OS X, Windows |
Use: | 3D computer graphics |
License: | Proprietary |
Website: | http://www.e-frontier.com |
Poser is a 3D rendering and animation software program optimized for models that depict the human figure in three-dimensional form.
Contents |
[edit] Overview
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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 actors, 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, and robotic and cartoon figures. Poser also includes poses, hair pieces, props, textures, hand gestures and facial expressions. As Poser 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.
Poser is available in English, Japanese, German and French for both Windows and Macintosh platforms.
The current version is 7.0. It was released on December 11, 2006 [1].
[edit] Features
Poser 6.0 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 6.0 to render more than simply people. Indeed, Poser has become almost limitless in the characters it can render. As a result of its huge 3rd Party Community, many models are available such as spaceships, aliens, weapons and other such instruments.
[edit] Community
Poser has a large and avid following at a high number of online sites, and due to the inability to perform 3D model creation inside the application, an ecostructure has grown up around the trade and sales of ready-made Poser content. As a subculture in its own right, the Poser market has spawned a number of individuals known by their works. Notable third-party high-resolution human figures created for use in Poser. Also there is now a vast catalog of various props and scenes, both historical and fantasy in nature, as well as various real-world animals, dragons, and various creatures.
[edit] Library
The Poser 7 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:
- Figures, which contains human, animal, cartoon, dinosaur, insect, wildlife, and many other figures that have a multitude of animation tools to work with.
- Poses. There are poses for almost every figure, and there are many human poses from sleeping to picking something up to fighting.
- Expressions, which contains any expression imaginable, or close to it.
- Hair, which has many types of hairstyles to place on the characters.
- Props,which contains objects like clothes and chairs.
- Lights, which contains many ways to light your scene.
- Cameras, which contains many camera angles.
[edit] 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, who established the subsidiary Curious Labs, with Larry Weinberg as CEO, to handle Poser development and publication. Curious Labs, and Poser, were sold to the current publisher, e frontier, in 2003.
Version | Release date | Publisher | Improvements / Notes |
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1.0 | 1995 | Fractal Design |
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2.0 | 1996 | Fractal Design |
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3.0 | 1998 | MetaCreations |
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4.0 | 1999 | MetaCreations |
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4.0.3 | September 1999 | Curious Labs |
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Pro Pack | February 2000 | Curious Labs |
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5.0 | 2003 | Curious Labs |
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6.0 | March 2005 | Curious Labs / e frontier |
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7.0 | December 2006 | e frontier |
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[edit] See also
[edit] References
[edit] External links
- Wikivid: Poser Free Video-Course
- e Frontier America Publisher/Developer of Poser
- Content Paradise Source of Poser Content