Rating: 
Summary: In complete disgust
Review: I have agree with Ms Whitfield. While the box spec might claim to run on a 700 mHZ machine with 256 meg of RAM, (reccoomended, not minimum, mind you) DO NOT!!! even try it, unless your machine beats the above numbers 3 times over.I have a 930 mHZ machine with 512MB Ram and 5 runs so slow as to be worse than useless. Another thing they could have added for folks with arthritis is when a parameter dial is selected to get it to dial up or down on some kind of keyboard operation.
Rating: 
Summary: My review Oct 2002
Review: I was very excited about Poser 5. It has many updated features and tools. I think the new render engine quality is incredible. However, expect to pay a high price in waiting. For me, it was too slow and I couldn't do anything else nor could I work on other models while the rendering was in progress. You'll be dying for a 4GHz PC for xmas. I fooled around with the material room which is like nothing out there, so that's a big plus. I tried the hair room, but I was unable to get it to work even after several attempts. The cloth room also failed to produce any clothes so I guess I'll have to stick with my old collection for now. I wanted to try the face room but I didn't have any photo available. During the course (I was using XP pro) Poser 5 crashed several times and I lost all my good efforts... so remember to save often. At one time, XP crashed and my XP has never crashed (so far that was). As for models, there are a lot of free stuff, but I notice that most of it comes from Poser 4 and the Pro Pak - so if you have these products, your not getting much new. Also, I found it very difficult to work with more than one model (people) in the same window - as they often interfered with each other or got selected in error or got posed in the wrong way. There is no undo history as in photoshop, so if you make mistakes, don't expect you can go back and fix them. Poser 5 doesn't allow you to open more windows - so I have to work with one model at a time which is time consuming. I expected much better than this. My best option was to hide models. But not only do you have to hide the model, but also the clothes, shoes, etc which is time consuming, especially if you have more than one people in a scene.
Sometimes I try to hide one model and when I unhide it, parts of the model are missing (invisible). I unselect the Invisible Property for the model, but nothing happens. I have to start the model again from scratch. I also have tons of 3d models which I accumulated over the years, which gets to be a mess (missing, wrong textures, etc). Poser 5 did nothing to auto install these or fine tune (manage) my massive inventory. The auto install feature is only if you use their content service. I was really upset about this because I feel they falsely advertised Poser 5's ability to automatically install 3d objects. This was one of the main reason I purchased Poser 5 - so it could clean up the thousands of poser files on my hard drive. No such luck. Overall, I like Poser, but maybe not at a price ... So here are my Cons:
Poser 5 crashes at times or freezes.
Only one window is available - I found it difficult to work with more than one model per window.
Poser 5 doesn't find and install your models - you must buy models through their service.
The render system is very, very slow - No multi-tasking is available.
No network or batch rendering is available.
The hair room doesn't work
The cloth room didn't work. Here are my pros:
Render system is fantasic.
I like the material room much.
And everything works pretty much as it does with Poser 4 pro. I understand there are two updates available to fix problems associated with Poser 5 and that some files were missing, so I will check these out at a later time.
I would highly recommend Poser 5 but ONLY IF they improved it; however, we may have to wait on Poser 8.
Rating: 
Summary: Poser 5 is amazing!
Review: Poser 5 is an incredibly impressive piece of software. I'd highly recommend it. Easily a five star! Poser 5 is a full blown 3D character animation system. It includes hundreds of 3D figures that are ready to pose and animate. Poser makes this process so simple it¡¦s used by lots of university programs that teach computer animation. There¡¦s an automatic walk generator, tons of clothes libraries, lights, cameras, props, hand poses, and figures poses. Poser seems to be a two headed wonder. It has the program side, very friendly, very easy to master, very inviting to use. And it has the content side, all kinds of high resolution virtual 3D characters. It has a full family of humans, named after the family in ¡§Lost in Space¡¨- cute touch. The figures have full facial expressions, can open their mouths, they have blinking eyes and even little wrinkles when they smile or squint. The adult figures can in two varieties. Pre-clothed and nude. The nude adult figures are anatomically correct in every detail. Every detail works just as expected, and they look, well, very hot! ƒº So far in my review, this is about the same magic mix as what was in Poser¡¦s previous versions ----Note- I bought an upgrade from Poser 4 with Pro Pack and then bought a second copy for work via Amazon.com, I both teach 3D animation at night and create 3D animation and illustrations with Poser 5 for an advertising agency during the day--- But what¡¦s new in Poser 5 is nothing short of amazing. Poser 5 includes real 3D hair that flows and can even be blown around by a wind generator. I use some very expensive hair tools at the school; and Poser 5 makes growing and controlling hair simple. It also includes a full cloth engine, so I can drape tablecloths or hang curtains in 3D scene, or make my female figure¡¦s dress blow and sway as she walks. There¡¦s also a powerful face room tool that allows the base figures in Poser 5 to look like anyone. I imported two photographs of my wife and in ten minutes created a virtual character that looked just like her for a science fiction illustration project. My favorite part of Poser 5 though is the new renderer. It¡¦s the same rendering technology as was used to make Toy Story, Monsters Inc. and Final Fantasy. The quality does require more time than the box stock Poser 4 renderer, but the good folks at Curious Labs left the old ¡§P4 renderer¡¨ in Poser 5. So you can choose between decent quality, really fast, and amazing quality with a little more time. Another note- I just finished a technical 3D character animation for a client that took a few days to completely compose, layout and render in Poser 5; we billed the time to the tune of several thousand dollars for the project. That¡¦s a great return on the investment in Poser 5. And because it¡¦s Poser, even though I am an illustrator by trade, I can do full blown animation projects. Let¡¦s talk about Curious Labs support- unlocking the program took less than fifteen seconds. I unlocked it on a second machine, they DO allow that, the one serial number you buy just can¡¦t run at the same time on two machines, a simple fix, unplug the second machine from the network. Even so, I bought the second copy so I could legally run two copies of Poser 5 at the same time. I have ethics about software; don¡¦t like the bad karma of trying to scam two copies, if I need to use it twice at the same time, I¡¦ll pay for a second copy. Another issue on support, I sent an email to their service person, she a rock star! I got a reply in a few hours. Not some automated reply, but from a real person. And my upgrade order question was answered right away. A final point in the support issue. Curious Labs has released one Poser 5 patch already, and a second one is on it¡¦s way according to email I got from Curious Labs today. They are truly dedicated to Poser and seem to genuinely be in love with this product. Well, that makes two of us. I love Poser 5 as well. It¡¦s aworld changing program that lets you feel creative again. I¡¦ve seen great comic books done with Poser, illustrations in National Geographic magazine, Maxim magazine, Poser animations are on MTV, Nickelodeon, VH1, on the Oxygen TV network, they were used in the Matrix, The One, Fast and Furious and in my new favorite movie Moulin Rouge (check out the DVD behind the scenes) Poser is being used everywhere and anywhere you need a ¡§virtual actor¡¨ to create a 3D scene. My recommendation, I said it at the beginning, I¡¦ll say it again. Poser 5 is an incredibly impressive piece of software. Easily a five star! A quick edit- I am not an employee of the company that makes Poser, I've had great results so far using Poser 5 and expressed those sentiments. With the newest updaters that Curious Labs is giving away on their website they've added stability and even a new atmospheric lighting feature. I stand by my review- 5 stars for features and value.
Rating: 
Summary: Pretty good, but some room for improvement
Review: I agree with the previous reviewer's concerns about the "network police" functionality of Poser 5 -- they do spell it out in their EULA that you can install it on multiple machines, but can only run one copy at a time. A bit draconian, but they *are* enforcing the agreement we made when we bought it. Having said that, I think Poser 5 is a pretty slick tool. I hadn't used Poser 4, and so have no prior rendering engine for comparison. I can tell you that Curious Labs' online help (F1) is rather "fundamental," and really doesn't offer much more than a reasonably-intelligent person would already have figured out. Print documentation in my box was similarly sparse, making yet another case of needing to purchase a third-party book to learn about the software. [Note to software vendors: we *hate* this! Take a lesson from JASC, and give us a good, comprehensive book in the box.] Much of the interface is easily understood, but "tool tips" popups would be very helpful in the beginning. The slide-out pallettes are OK for keeping your workspace clutter-free, but if you have the ability to use dual monitors I highly recommend it. I'm finding it much more productive to keep the main work area on my main monitor screen, and move all the floating pallettes and help screen to the second monitor -- don't have to keep dragging pallettes around looking for the control or box you need. There are a lot of included stock characters and props to play with and help you get comfortable with the interface, as well as to deconstruct and see how to build your own character. A rather neat feature is the "hair room," which, as the name implies, lets you add hair to your characters. In addition, though, you can get creative and use the features to add fur to animals, grass and "weeds" to scenes, textures to fabrics (think a shaggy wool or fluffy angora), and so on. Characters are exportable to other 3D apps, such as Maya and 3D Studio Max, and supposedly characters are also importable (though I haven't tried this). Rendering speed wasn't as slow as I expected from the previous review; it's no speed demon, but I'm running a way-overbuilt system, so that may compensate for some of the rendering engine's inherent slowness. It works OK for me, whatever the case. I'd recommend Poser 5, but I'm also very new to 3D animation apps, so take that with a grain of salt.
Rating:
Summary: poser 5 very poor peformance
Review: Poser 5 comes with an activation system (like Win XP) that prevents you from using it on more than one PC. Even with this security, they REFUSE to let you run more than one instance of the product on the same PC. It still checks the network to see if you're running an illegal copy of poser 5. So much for the activation feature. The new render system is 250% slower than Poser 4 render engine. So if you want to render a movie or large file, you'll have to wait a long long time (hours or days) before you can do anything else. So if you have to render 10 pictures or movies, you have to wait until each is fully rendered slowly one by one before you go on to the next. I am simply not kidding! I have a few choice words to say but I don't think I can stoop to that level. There's no network rendering support. If you own Poser 4, Curious labs will NOT permit you to run it as a back up, so plainly in this age of mulitasking... you can FORGET IT. No cheating is allowed. You can only work on one thing at a time. So poser 5 is the most expensive and time consuming product todate: Time is Money. Buying poser 5 is like buying a slow PC and these days, nobody buys a slow pc. Poser 4 pro is as best as it can get. While poser 5 may be crisper, expect to suffer major.
P5 does offer a ton of new features/items but from the pro pak. The hair room is fantastic; if only I could get the hair to grow ~ nothing as yet.
On looks, on a scale of 1-5 (1 being best), I give it a 1.
On performance/value, on a scale of 1-5 (1 being best), I give it a 7 (yes seven). I would stick with Poser 4 pro. Poser 5 just isn't productive. If you don't believe me, ask anyone who bought it... better yet, ask Curious Labs!
Rating:
Summary: Prepare to go back to school
Review: As many people have noted you can do amazing things with Poser, however be prepared because learning to do those amazing things is an education in itself. Downloading updates to your software is very important because the finished Poser 5 product was not really finished when it went on the market. You will find yourself surfing the web to find tutorials which are available in abundance simply because the supplied manual was no where near to being satisfactory. Within the shipped software package you have the ability to change textures, add custom created hair, change or alter created clothing, and even add animation to your figures but again its not easy and requires hours of surfing the web and following tutorials that you must find yourself. A very good site to see some fine finished Poser art is www.renderosity.com I have some of my own completed art work there search for zman1 in the author section. Why you're at renderosity visit the tutorial section and check out a few of them because this is what you're going to have to learn to do what you want to do. Learning to use this software package is very much like learning AutoCAD with the right education you can create things that are actually worth something monetarily however be prepared to invest large amounts of your time before you ever get close to being there. Lastly and as before mentioned your going to either want additional clothing, characters, hair, props, etc.. you can buy some really nice ones and you can find allot of them free at places like the site listed above, you can also go one step farther and create them yourself with other expensive programs I use Zbrush however many others are out there. Environment rendering software makes a nice complement to this package such as Vue 4 or Bryce 5 (Bryce is available at www.daz3d.com now they bought all the rights and its very inexpensive compared to other packages). Good luck and I hope you have lots of time to burn because your going to need it.
Rating:
Summary: Too bad this is the only dedicated char modeling tool....
Review: First off, I do wanna say that there are things about this version that are far better, but not much. My first complaint is the interface, you would think after a while they would scrap the "Pretty" Interface for something more functional. It is cluttered and sloppy. Second, the system requirements for this are WAY off. I am running a pentium 2.4ghz machine with 1gig of memory, geforce 4 card, and 120gb hard drive, and this program crawls at best. And every now and then, my computer just can't take any more, and shuts it down. With no warning. The character modeling may be better, but it is not for beginners whatsoever. So if you are not familier with Poser or any other 3d modeling programs, you best avoid this and start out easy with something like truespace or Vue D'esprit. My advice is to anyone wanting to get thier hands on this, wait until Curious Labs decides to let people try out a demo, if I had had the chance to try a demo, I would not have paid money on this. I have been working in 3d design for years, and am a registered 3d studio max user, I have also used programs such as Maya and Softimage in different studios I have worked for. My advice to Curious labs? Release a different edition of this software, with a less graphical interface and more functionality and optimization. This program has the potential to be AMAZING, if you have the patience and have never heard the word "Deadline" in your life...
Rating:
Summary: Nice, but not worth the money.
Review: Poser 5 has real potential and from what I know is the only human render there is out there. For my project I needed human figures, and had Poser 5 had a Demo of its' abilities I would have opted to create cartoon characters. Poser 5 has too much bleed through except for standard poses that are not moved, move it and it bleeds some where. I spent a day trying to get the woman's boot to Conform to any thing, the best I got was for it to conform with the toes hanging out.
It renders good images if you can afford days to get it right by reloading the base image over and over. Don't look to the manual for help it has so many "Please see page XXX" that it is next to impossible to retain a thread of thought.
Rating:
Summary: help is out there
Review: In response to a the person from PA, and a few other similar posters, yes, the manual that came with the software is basically useless. But I would recommend that you do what I did, which is order the video "Poser 5 Demystified". Its simple tutorials take you through the hair, material, and cloth rooms and explain how to use each. What it doesn't explain is how to do keyframe animation, but if you don't understand that, face it, you're not ready for Poser anyway. Anyway, I was able to follow along and complete all the tutorials in one weekend, and even though I still don't know everything, I'm able to move between rooms and focus on making my film rather than learning the basics. It saved me countless hours of frustration.
As for the Poser software, I've found it to be quite stable. I've experienced none of the problems that others have described. Of course, I just bought it about six weeks ago. I assume that Curious Labs have worked out most of the bugs by now.
I would highly recommend Poser. If you want to do character animation on a limited budget, there really is no viable alternative. I love Animation Master, and still use it almost exclusively for creating non-organic models, but if you want to create characters in AM, you're going to have to create the entire character from scratch, plus add materials and textures, phenomes, and emotions. Working alone and doing it as a part time hobby, it will take you months of preproduction before you can even start animating your characters. In Poser, all the grunt work I just decribed is built into the software, so you can create unique charcters in hours rather than months. This alone makes Poser well worth the investment.
Rating:
Summary: Too many problems
Review: The software does not work. After many re-installations, I gave up. After launching the program, it crashes. I discovered after running scandisk, there's an array of invalid files, in the female folder. Tried to repair error and didn't work. The patch SR4 doesn't solve the problem. Wrote to customer service about the problem and no answer from them. I won't buy anything else from this company and I'll look somewhere else for a more reliable, friendly and committed company to their customers.
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