Animating 3D characters is a fun and satisfying activity providing a certain pinnacle of achievement to the 3D artist. George Maestri is a writer and animator based in Los Angeles.As artists the power of animation is much more now in our grasp. Poser is ideal for users such as graphic designers and architects who might need to quickly create and manipulate basic kinds of 3D characters. While Poser does not have as many tools as a high-end 3D application, the program does have a lot going for it, especially its ease of use. As well, it lets you render animations and still images with 2D motion blur.
#POSER ANIMATION PRO#
Pro Pack also supports the export of 2D Flash animations and 3D Viewpoint content for the Web.
obj file from Poser, which imports into max cleanly, but without the animation data and live connection, meaning that changes made to the original file will not appear automatically. This is nice, but for those wanting to manipulate the characters within max, the Poser mesh comes in as triangles (as opposed to quads) which can make further editing difficult. I tested this capability with 3ds max, which brings in Poser scene files as a Poser object that contains all of the Poser scene data as a single max object. Poser Pro Pack will allow LightWave 6 and 3ds max users to open Poser scenes. For a more stylized look, Poser does provide a sketch-rendering system that can simulate a number of art styles, including pencil, chalk, and charcoal. These capabilities are pretty basic for 3D rendering, so users of LightWave or 3ds max would probably want to render in those packages instead. The shaders can contain bit maps for textures, as well as for bump, transparency, and reflections.
Lights are either spotlights or infinite, with adjustable color, while the shaders appear to be Phong or Blinn based. Standard photorealistic-type rendering is used for Poser characters. When the base figure moves, the clothing follows. When loaded into a scene and properly defined, the shirt will attach itself to a human figure, snapping to the similarly named body parts of that figure. For example, a shirt has a neck, chest, abdomen, and arms. Each piece is created as if it were a Poser figure. Poser comes with a sizable clothing library. Manipulating the dials varies the relative weights of the poses, allowing the face to change shape over time.
#POSER ANIMATION SERIES#
The user simply sculpts a number of facial poses and then connects the poses to a neutral head, which creates a series of dials onscreen. The morphing works in a manner similar to that of multi-target morphers found in most other 3D packages such as Alias|Wavefront's Maya, Discreet's 3ds max, and NewTek's LightWave. You can use the software's morphing feature to produce facial animation. Those using Poser's Pro Pack can also create their own skeletons for use in deforming a mesh, which allows for the import of custom models. Poser also comes with a number of preset body poses, which is a timesaving addition.
Models can be posed easily because the characters come with complete skeletons that can be manipulated using either forward or inverse kinematics. It can then be manipulated through controls that allow you to scale and move individual body parts. You select the character type from a pulldown menu, and the character shows up in the viewport. Poser 4's graphical interface will look familiar to anyone who has used other former MetaCreations products, such as Bryce.Ĭreating a character in Poser is a straightforward procedure. It's particularly troublesome when you're posing the head, where eye position is very important. This process speeds up interaction, but also forces you to guess what the final mesh will look like. A pull-out box contains models and props that you can use in your scenes.Ī minor interface problem is that while you're navigating or moving a body part, the mesh of the character disappears, leaving only the box-shaped skeleton as a reference. An animation slider appears at the bottom of the screen, and manipulation controls are along the righthand side. To the left are the aforementioned navigational controls.
In the center of the screen is the main viewport for manipulating the models. Navigational controls are identified by a set of nicely rendered pointing hands, for example. Its graphical interface is reminiscent of many of the old MetaCreations packages (such as Bryce).
#POSER ANIMATION PC#
Poser runs on both PC and Macintosh platforms. It was owned first by Fractal Design and then by MetaCreations, but has now been bought by Curious Labs, which is continuing to enhance the package. Poser was originally developed by Curious Labs CEO Larry Weinberg. Curious Labs addresses this situation with Poser, an application designed to streamline the creation and animation of 3D characters. Character creation requires a lot of talent and skill. Modeling, rigging, and posing 3D characters are not easy tasks.
0 kommentar(er)
