2010

Beginners Guide to Poser 8 User Interface

A quick reference guide
Copyright 2010 PoserByDesign.com

Frederick Billups Poser By Design 6/29/2010

Contents
Introduction to Poser 8 User Interface ......................................................................................................... 3 Introduction .............................................................................................................................................. 3 The Features That Matter: ........................................................................................................................ 4 Menu Bar .................................................................................................................................................. 5 File Menu .............................................................................................................................................. 5 Edit Menu .............................................................................................................................................. 6 Figure Menu .......................................................................................................................................... 6 Display Menu ........................................................................................................................................ 7 Render Menu ........................................................................................................................................ 8 Help Menu............................................................................................................................................. 8 Room Tabs: Installing your content ......................................................................................................... 9 Library Buttons.......................................................................................................................................... 9 Light Controls .......................................................................................................................................... 10 Parameter and Property Window ........................................................................................................... 10

Introduction to Poser 8 User Interface

Introduction
This guide will help you to learn some of the common functions found in Poser 6, Poser 7, Poser 8 and Poser Pro versions. The user interface of Poser changes very slightly from version to version so many of the common features that are present in Poser 6 are also present in Poser 8. The information that is covered in this guide only serves as a Quick Start to learning how to use Poser. It was not written to be an in depth guide to Poser

The Features That Matter:

Poser has hundreds of features that affect the look of your rendered images, but we are only going to focus on the features that will allow you to render images right away. There are 6 areas that youll always use regardless of skill level and version of Poser that you have. These 6 areas are: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. Menu Bar Room Tabs Library Buttons Library Folders Light Controls Parameter Window

Many of these areas have advance features but as a beginner its better to keep things simple. The key to having fun with Poser is to keep things simple and learn different aspects of Poser based on your current skill level. Trying to learn beyond your current skill level will only frustrate you and make the learning process longer and more difficult.

Menu Bar

The Menu Bar is a familiar site to many of the software programs you currently own (Image Above). Well first start with File and work our way to the right ending with Help.

File Menu The yellow highlighted areas in the image to the left are areas that youll be using very often. Heres what they do: New: Allows you to start with a blank scene in which you can add 3D models Open: Allows you to open Poser scenes that you have already saved Save As: Allows you to save the Poser Scene that you have created. Export: Export is used for saving your rendered images as a .jpg or .png file. It is recommended that you export your image as a .png file in order to make use of a transparent background. A common process involving New, Open, Save As, and Export goes as follows:

Step 1: Click New and create a scene using the 3D models Step 2: Click Save As to save the scene that you just created. This will allow you to open the same scene later on in the future. Step 3: Render your scene (Rendering will be covered later in this guide). Step 4: Export your image as a .png file.

Edit Menu Under the edit menu there are two functions that youll use as a beginner. Undo: The undo feature allows you to undo any of the changes that you have made when working within Poser. (Note: Poser 6 has limited number of changes that can be undone, while Poser 7 and higher versions can undo an unlimited amount of changes.) The number of times that you can undo a change can be increased or decreased. General Preferences : The General Preferences is where you set up how you want Poser to look on start up and how you would like some of the features in Poser to operate. This is where youll find the general settings for Poser.

Figure Menu The Figure Menu contains functions related to the 3D figures used in your scene. Heres a quick look at the 2 features youll need to know. Conform To: Youll need to use this to attach clothing to any of the popular 3D character bases such as Aiko 3, Victoria 3, Michael 3, Aiko 4, Victoria 4, Michael 4, and Hiro 4. The way that many of the clothing, hair, shoes, and props are able to stay on these characters is to use the Conform To feature. Use Inverse Kinematics: This feature is used to help with posing the 3D models in realistic poses, but from time to time youll purchase poses that cause your character to have incorrect joint bends at the feet. If this happens then youll need to turn off the Inverse Kinematics by clicking Use Inverse Kinematics. Tip: When starting a new scene, you can delete your figure by clicking on the figure and then press the delete button on your keyboard (Also under; Figure->Delete Figure). After deleting the figure, you can set Poser to open with an empty scene by going to the General Preferences (See Edit Menu) and then select the Launched to Preferred State option.

Display Menu

The Display Menu contains 3 popular camera angles that are often used when rendering an image. Main Camera : The Main Camera is the default setting that works well for large scenes Face Camera: Use this camera for rending portrait shots of your character. It zooms in on the face of the character that is currently selected. Posing Camera: This camera helps to focus on the feel or mood of the pose. If you are having trouble with your images not capturing the mood of the pose then try using the posing camera.

Render Menu Most beginners will only need to do 3 things. Render the scene, adjust the rendering settings, and adjust the size of the rendering image. Render: This is what youll click on to create the image. Render Settings: Here youll change the render settings from Poser such as the settings for creating draft and final image renders. Render Dimensions: This determines how large or how small you want Poser to render the image.

Help Menu Poser 8 has made it a little easier to find the information that youll need when you have questions. Poser 8 has a Reference Manual and a Poser Tutorial Manual. Poser Reference Manual: is good for when you want to learn more about the functions of Poser 8 and 3D models Poser Tutorial Manual: is good for learning on how to use the features found in Poser

Room Tabs: Installing your content

As a beginner youll need to know how to install your 3D model content. This will require you to leave the Pose room, which is the default room that you see when you first open Poser (shown as the Pose tab in the image above). To install your 3D content, click on the Content tab (circled in red above). This will take you to the content room and youll see a button that says Install From ZIP Archive. Clicking on this button will then ask for the zip file that you would like to install. Much of the 3d content from Daz3d.com will run a program that will install the 3D model in the correct location, while other 3D content files will be in a .zip file.

Library Buttons
The library buttons (circle in red) are the round buttons that have various pictures that represent the type of library that they are associated with. Placing the mouse pointer over the library button image will tell you what type of 3D content can be found in it. Youll need these buttons in order to do common tasks such as adding characters, adding props, and posing figures. The active library will be shown as a highlighted library button. The content for that particular library will open below the library buttons as shown in the image to the left. Poser versions 6 and 7 have larger buttons that actually spell out what is located within that category. Character poses, character skin textures, and clothing textures are found in the Pose Library (the pose icon looks like a running man in the image to the left).

Light Controls
Posers Light Controls allow you to create lights, to delete lights, to move lights, to change light colors, and to increase and delete light intensity. The way that the lights are positioned in the light controls will play a major role in how your image will look when rendered.

Parameter and Property Window

The Parameter and Property Windows are useful not only for lighting but for adjusting character morphs, character poses, facial expressions, clothing fits, and many other things related to props, characters, and other 3D models within your scene. The images above show the Parameters for Light 3 and the Victoria4 3D model.