Poser Pro Quick Start Guide

image by Paul Sutton Poser Pro Quick Start Guide 2 3 The Pose Room The Pose room is the focal point for much of your Poser activity. This is where you add figures and props to your scene and perform your desired posing/animation of figures and props. The following images identify the controls available in the Pose room. The Menu Bar The Menu Bar consists of a series of pull-down menus used for accessing Poser functionality. Some menus and/or submenus duplicate other on-screen interface elements. 2 3 Room Tabs The Room tabs allow you to switch from room to room within Poser: Pose, Material, Face, Hair, Cloth, Setup and Content. To enter a room, simply click its tab. Showing/Hiding Windows & Palettes The Window menu commands allow you to show or hide the main windows and palettes that you use in Poser. If a palette or window is hidden, use the menu command to display the desired item. Then you can dock or float palettes as needed to customize your interface. Palettes for the Material, Face, Hair, and Cloth rooms are found in the Windows > Room Tools submenus when you are in the associated room. 4 5 Docking and Floating Palettes A Palette Docking Control Square appears at the top right corner of each palette. Click this square to display a menu of commands that allow you to dock or float palettes, enable or disable palette docking, and to close the selected palette. A floating palette returns to its last docked position when you dock it. Docking and Floating by Dragging You can also dock and float palettes by dragging from their title bar area into your document window or to another monitor. To redock the floating palette, drag the palette toward the area in which you want it to dock, and release the mouse when the desired docking area is highlighted as shown in the figure. 4 5 The Library Poser’s library allows you to view and search through a single library folder, or throughout all of the library folders in your collection (including external Poser libraries). Use the Show Library menu to display one or all libraries in your collection. Library items are displayed in a hierarchical structure, in folders that you can expand or collapse. The 32-bit library runs as an embedded or external application, while the 64-bit Windows library runs in external mode only. Library Categories Library category symbols allow you to easily browse through the Figures, Poses, Faces, Hair, Hands, Props, Lights, Cameras, and Materials categories. Select the symbol for the category that you want to display, and Poser 8 displays the contents of one or all libraries in that category. The number of items or subfolders contained within a library folder appears in brackets. 6 7 Saving Items to the Library Poser makes it easy to save your customized items to the library. Simply select the item in your scene that you want to save, click the appropriate category (such as Figures, Poses, or Hair), select the folder you want to save the item to, and click the Add to Library button at the bottom of the Library palette. Searching through the Library The Search tab in the Poser Library allows you to perform searches on the content in your library. Your search can include all content categories, or specific categories such as Figures or Props (as shown in the figure). You can also use the search tab to search through and purchase items from Content Paradise. Select the categories that you want to search. Enter a keyword or keywords in the Search For field and click the Search button. 6 7 Adding Items to Favorites When you find an item in the library that you know you’ll use over and over again, you can add the selected library item to your favorites. Click to select the desired library item, and then click the Add to Favorites button at the bottom of the Library window. You will be prompted to create or select a Library folder to store the favorite item. The Favorites Tab After you add an item to Favorites, you can easily recall it by switching to the Favorites tab and expanding the folder that you stored your item or items into. You can then select the favorite item and add it to your scene like any other library item. 8 9 Adding a Figure The Figures category contains poseable figures, animals, clothing, and other articulated objects. You can delete the default character from your scene, and then add another figure such as Poser 8’s female, Alyson. Locate the desired figure and drag it into the scene or use the Apply to Scene (single check) button to replace the selected figure in your scene, or the Add to Scene (double check) button in the Library window to add clothing or additional characters into the scene. Adding Clothing Clothing appears in the Props library (where it can be conforming or dynamic), or in the Figures library (where it is conforming clothing). To auto-conform clothing, click to select the figure in your scene. Drag clothing from the Props or Figures category, and drop it on the figure. You can also attach conforming clothing to your figure with the Figure > Conform To command. 8 9 Adding Hair The Hair library stores hair props, conforming hair, and strand-based hair. Some types of hair are designed to fit specific figures, while others offer morph dials or library poses that will adjust the hair to fit many supported Poser figures. Add hair to your scene from the Hair category of your choice, either by dragging from the Library or by the Add/Apply to Scene buttons. Attaching Hair If your hair is conforming hair, it appears in the Select Figure menu at the top of the Document window. If conforming hair does not automatically conform during drag and drop (as mentioned in “Adding Clothing”), use the Figure > Conform To command to attach it to the desired character. Prop or strand-based hair appears in the Current Actor > Props menus. In this case, use the Object > Change Parent command to attach it to your desired figure. 10 11 Posing the Figure The Poses library contains many figure-specific and universal poses that you can apply to your figure. Select the human figure (not a clothing item) and then apply the pose by dragging, or by clicking the Add/Apply to Figure buttons. You can also select a specific body part (such as the right foot) and use the Parameter dials to rotate, twist, or bend the selected part; or, use the Editing tools to select and pose visually. Posing Eyes You can pose eyes in a couple of different ways. Poser 8 figures include LookUp-Down and LookSide-Side parameter dials in the Head Morphs > Eye Expressions section of the Parameters Palette to pose eyes, lids, and surrounding areas accordingly. You can also select the Right Eye or Left Eye and use the Up-Down or Side-Side dials to adjust the eye positions. 10 11 Editing Tools (Part 1) Rotate: Rotates the selected item. Twist: Twists the selected item. Translate/Pull: Moves the selected item up/down and left/right. Translate In/Out: Moves the selected item in/out. Scale: Grows or shrinks the selected item. Taper: Grows or shrinks one end of the selected item. Editing Tools (Part 2) Chain Break: Breaks chains of movement at the selected joint. Color: Allows you to choose a color for the selected item. Grouping: Opens the Grouping Tool palette. View Magnifier: Zooms into and out of your scene. Morphing Tool: Visually sculpt morph targets. Direct Manipulation: Translate, rotate, and scale an item. 12 13 Adding Facial Expressions The Faces category contains poses that apply facial expressions to your characters. These poses are usually character-specific. For example, when you want to change the expression for a Poser 8 figure, use Face poses from the Poser 8 Content > Poser 8 > Alyson or Ryan folder. Poser 8 also furnishes face expressions that are compatible with legacy figures such as Poser 7 and G2 generation figures which are also provided with Legacy content. Adding a Prop The Props library contains many scene elements other than clothing. You’ll find seats, utensils, scenery, vehicles, and many other useful items in this folder. If you add a prop that you want your character to hold, use the Object > Change Parent command to attach it to the desired hand, and position the prop as needed with the Editing tools or Parameter dials. 12 13 Changing a Single Material The Materials Library contains shader and material presets. Single materials (which change a single material region) typically use a flat preview of the material or shader. When you drag a single material to an object, a tooltip displays Apply Material to