Poser 5 for Mac OSX

Rating:
Summary: amazing modeling program
Review: I've barely scratched the surface with Poser 5.

I've been using Poser since the first version, and each new release is more full of features than the last. The models and posing abilities of versions 1, 2 and 3 had a variety of flaws, but starting with version 4, Poser has turned into an extremely useful program for anyone who wants to do rendering with the human figure.

I gather that some people use Poser to produce final products. I can swear that some of those airline seat information cards use Poser models. I tend to use Poser the way one uses a figure reference guide, to figure out how the bodies are structured, and how perspective works with them.

Poser 5 has a nice set of human models, male and female. It also has a few animals. The latest version is so chock full of features that it is hard to figure out where to begin. Let's see. There are the new models, the split screen multi-way posing window, the face and body morphing features, a bigger than ever pose library with full body, hand, face and lip poses. These libraries can save a lot of work.

The morphing features let you start with their "standard" model and change the body type or facial features by sort of blending the base model with an exagerated model in three dimensions. The lip poses let you do lip synching movies based on phonemes.

Two new features I have started exploring include dynamic cloth and dynamic hair. Poser 5 actually solves the differential equations for draping cloth and moving hair. Apparently, you can dump in any 3D model to use as a clothing model. You "clothify" it and constrain it with respect to the body where you wish, for example, at the waist. Then you can turn on the air currents and set the figure in motion. Play back the animation, and the clothing swoops and drapes.

The hair is similar. You set up hair growth models and the hair interacts with the body, with air currents, with gravity and with itself. The model can run like a pig when you set up a complicated model with cloth and hair going every which way, but in a few minutes, you get something surprisingly similar to real world hair. No more buzz cuts; Rapunzel lives. (I haven't actually tried to model someone climbing up someone else's hair, but I wouldn't be shocked to learn it could be done).

I'm a total amateur, and just wanted Poser to move some limbs around, but I've been blown away by the package. For $170, it's a whole lot of software and models for the money.

So, why haven't I given Poser a five star rating? Well, it is rather clunky to use. It's hard to do fine adjustments without going to the awkward dial based interface. There are no constraint planes. It takes over your entire screen. You can move the various controls around, but you can't make the window smaller so you can look at a reference picture in iPhoto. Their interferes with the Dock when working with animation.

That's enough whining.

Poser 5 is a great program, and a real value for the money. I gather they can't make it more Macintosh window system friendly because PC users tend to look at only one window at a time. I'm just grateful that they've done a Macintosh port, and a good one at that.