Free Alternitive to Poser

And a gazzillion times easier to use. This is a beta 3D program meant to replace Poser in case the company went belly up (which it almost did after the release of Poser 5 and the horrible problems they ran into after initial release) and to allow folks to use their products without having to buy Poser. The company is called DAZ and they make a lot of really great 3D products and broker items made by others.

You can find the program called DAZ Studio at http://www.daz3d.com/studio/ You will need to register but it is free. Support these folks if you can, they make and sell good stuff.
I just tested it out with the SL avatars and it works very well and its interface is easy to navagate and intuitive for the most part. Image maps are called surfaces, BTW.

A little advice, if you have Poser 4, don't buy Poser 5 unless you need the extra doodads like growing hair etc. Poser 5 is just Poser 4 with plugins and you don't need them just for SL viewing.

LINDENS!! You would be wise to talk to DAZ about aquiring their viewer to provide to your customers and creating a content partnership... marrage made in heaven I would think.

If you like this viewer a lot, be sure to let the Lindens know.

Yes it's tellware lol.

Thanks so much for posting this, Kat. I was unaware DAZ had stand alone software now. I had been considering using their Mimic program for facial animation for an upcoming 3D animated film (& hopefully a series) that I'm working on. My only hesitation in trying it out was that it appeared to only work with Poser, and I really, really, really hate Poser. The little demo film for DAZ Studio looked impressive. I will definitely be giving it a try.

If you look you will see they have Mimic for Lightwave, I believe. Check and see.

Looks cool, but I can't find a way to export an animation in the right format. Is this simply to view animations? Poser allows you to create them and export them for SL. That's what i would like to do.

D'oh! I just shelled out the $109 for Poser 4 a few hours before I saw this. But I already hate it, so I might try that one anyway.

Just an FYI, I have been using Poser4 and 5 for a few years and once you get used to the controls I think it is much easier and more stable than Daz Studio. It is nice that Studio is free though (free is always better), but it is a bit buggy in these early stages. At least that is what I found. It's all a matter of user preference. I just found Poser to be more user friendly.

Poser has to be learned and the learning curve can be steep. The results can be stunning though so it has its benefits. If you just want to line up seems on a shirt Poser can be a nightmare for a newbie or even someone like me who has been using it off and on for years. Daz Studio is perfect for a viewer and the price is right. It isn't really a replacement for Poser since it can't do nearly as much as Poser can but that also makes it simpler.

Is there someone that would be willing to work with me via chat to learn some basics about poser? I would absolutly love to make some animations and simple poses. So far I can't even make a leg or arm move in poser without it spinning around 20 times and looking all kinds of screwed up. If someone would be kind enough just to work with me on the very basics I'd be able to learn from there.

Sure, just show me your receipt. I haven't heard of the store you said you bought it from.

Corey,

In response to the insulting email you sent me, I was making light of the fact that you illegally pirated the program and admitted as much in your post.

The answers to questions 1 & 2 are:

The people at Curious Labs (the makers of the program you stole) spent a lot of time and effort creating the program and I find it disgusting that you would not only steal their work but then ask for other people to help you with it.

EDIT:
The thread title is "Free Alternitive to Poser." That should not include "downloading Poser for free."

They certainly didn't spend enough time on the interface... blood shoots out of my eyes every time I even look at Poser.

Heh.. actually the current owners of Poser didn't really create it. They bought it from Metacreations and created Curious Labs. Curious Labs took Poser 4 and made a bunch of doodads for it that they farmed out to various programing houses all over the world, in some cases they didn't speak a word of English. The result was this conglomeration of what amounted to plug ins into Poser 4. When Poser 5 was released it was declared one of the worst 3D programs ever released to the public. It was a disaster for the company and it almost ran the company into the ground. I don't know about now but a couple of years ago you could buy Poser 5 for significantly less than Poser 4 and resellers were discounting them to bargan basket prices in some cases (Poser 5 for $25) They did release patches that fixed a lot of problems and now Poser 5 is at least usable. Not that makes it alright to DL it mind you, just an interesting bit of trivia.

Interesting history. A lot of software these days goes through weird things after being acquired.

We use a bug tracker at my office that is several versions old and the company that makes it has been bought twice. When we went to buy the upgrade, we found out that the original programmers non-compete had expired and they had made a much improved version that the new company also bought.

The daz link you put up looks pretty interesting, thank you.

I am using Poser Artist and can manage to make SL poses from the stock poses. As a first step, I would I would recommend trying to do that before venturing off into making dances and other animations.

Is this program for view purposes only? Is there a way to get our poses/animations out of here and use in SL?

I have been asked the question about poses/animations in DAZ Studio and I can't tell ya. I have never tried making poses or animations for SL in any format. Give it some time for folks to play with it and hopefully can tell you.

Also Poser Artist is Poser 4 so it should work just fine.

oooh, can I get a copy of that animation?

Mine won't run

It wouldnt run for me with SL running at the same time.

fen-

DAZstudio seems to be no use for exporting anything. You can use it preview - but you cannot create anything apart from pretty pictures

Definately lacking an "export to .bvh" function.

Which is a pity, because it is farily easy to use...in about 30 minutes, I was able to produce an at least halfway passable pose with the SL avitar model, and I've never used Poser or any similar program.

Same here. I was thrilled when I found out how easy it was to whip up a pose. But my thrill was decapicted when there was no way to export it into a SL usable file

Along these same lines.... does anyone know where to get templates for use with SL and/or DAZ? I noticed that I can't manipulate the SL template (wire mesh) parts themselves in DAZ... for instance, I'd like an avatar head that has no eyes, nose, or mouth, but I can't affect the mesh.

Any help is appreciated! Thx!

DAZ Studio is still VERY much in beta phase.. those of us who have been using since the first few weeks have really noticed an imrpovement.. however, you MUST have a good graphics card with openGL enabled...

The support is pretty good and the people at DAZ are very friendly...

I also learned that Poser 6 is in the works, and already releasing sneak peaks... This version is due out in spring 2005

from a release to 3dCommune..

"Secret # 1 - Shadow Catcher
With the new Shadow Catcher you can render shadows independent of background surfaces for easy image composition. Illustrate virtually any media with 3D figures and shadows from Poser 6. And the Shadow Catcher works with new lighting features in Poser 6…

Poser 6 will be revealed in Spring 2005. To be first to receive exclusive peeks sign up for the Curious News."


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Alysa