REV October 22, 2013

ii PoserPro 2014
Reference Manual

Credits Poser Content:

Biohazard boundless Danie & Marforno (DM
Poser Pro 2014 Development Team includes: Productions)
Dark Edge Design Dead_Reckoning DevilDogStudios (Brent
Larry Weinberg Jack Walther Stefan Werner
Bowers, Christopher
Walter Hunt Jianhua Shen Erik Martin Haigood, Wayne Martell,
Vik Sorensangbam)
Brian Romero Colin Gerbode Steve Rathmann
Dimension3D Don Albert Esha
James Feathers Darrell Glidden Teyon Alexander
evg3dren HDR VFX llc Jay Koelzer Illustration
Phil Cooke Ted “Bagginsbill” Jason Cozy
Czotter Jennifer Kamilche Karanta
Greenlees
Denise Tyler Uli Klumpp Steve Cooper
Kozaburo Lady Littlefox Meshbox
Support by: Takahashi
Matt Ko John Czaky Gerard Espinoza Nerd3D Letterworks Art MaxStudios.de
Studios
Diego Nargoli Tori Porter Logan Roberts
MindVision-GDS Olivier Vinet PhilC
Michi Catanese Dave Cunningham Eric Eastman
Pixelwarrior Rhiannon royloo
Maria Garcia Martin Spierings Mike Nichols
Runtime DNA Shaderworks (Basil Sixus1media
FortyThree PR Jim Conti Bob Virgil
(Colm Jackson, Gass)
Andrew Chen Chris Szeles Eric Long Eric VanDycke,
Steve Yatson Syyd Raven)
VanishingPoint Zygote
Special thanks to Wim van de Bospoort, Charles Taylor, (John Hoagland,
Brian Haberlin, Erwin Coumans, Monty Oum, and Shane Barry Gibson, Ed
Wright, Gunpoint
Newville 3D, Helgard
de Barros, Al
Reed, Panos
Coliopoulos

“Agent Provocateur” by Team RDNA | www.runtimedna.

com
 Poser Pro 2014 iii
Reference Manual

Technology or content provided in part by SFMT http://www.math.sci.hiroshima-u.ac.jp/~m-mat/MT/SFMT

XMLRPC++ http://xmlrpcpp.sourceforge.net
Singular Inversions, Inc.
XMP http://www.adobe.com/products/xmp
Portions of the FireFly renderer and associated shading technologies
©2002 by Pixels Digital, Inc.
Cloth Simulation by Size8 Software, Inc. Trademark & Copyright Notice
Lip Sync Technology provided by Automatic Sync Technologies (www.
automaticsync.com). Poser, Poser Pro, the Poser logo, and the Smith Micro Logo
Wardrobe Wizard from Phil Cooke/Cindy Carney. are trademarks and or registered trademarks of Smith
Open source components include: Micro Software, Inc. Poser copyright © 1991-2013 All Rights
Reserved. COLLADA is a trademark of Sony Computer
Boost C++ http://www.boost.org
Entertainment, Inc. Used by permission by Khronos.
Bullet Physics http://bulletphysics.org
All other product names are trademarks or registered
Embree http://embree.github.com
trademarks of their respective holders.
FreeImage http://freeimage.sourceforge.net
FreeType http://freetype.sourceforge.net Before using this software or reading this
Geometric Tools http://www.geometrictools.com document, make sure you have read,
k-d tree point cloud: Henrik Wann Jensen understood, and agreed to the license contained in
libCurl http://curl.haxx.se/libcurl/ “Poser End User License Agreement (EULA)” on
libjpeg http://www.ijg.org page 12. Licensed product.
libtiff http://www.libtiff.org
numpy http://numpy.scipy.org
OpenEXR http://www.openexr.com
OpenSSL http://www.openssl.org
OpenSubdiv http://graphics.pixar.com/opensubdiv
pcre http://www.pcre.org
PIL http://www.pythonware.com/products/pil
pthreads http://sourceware.org/pthreads-win32
Python http://www.python.org
iv PoserPro 2014
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A Message from Larry Weinberg but the response was overwhelming and the art it helped
create was mind blowing.
In the 1980’s, my secret ambition was to become an
Throughout the subsequent version releases, Poser’s
illustrator, to draw like the great old masters. But something
community kept growing and diversifying, with people
was lacking in my brain that kept me from being able
to visualize my characters’ complex poses. I knew what
architectural, CAD, theatrical, and dance-based projects
I wanted to draw, and I knew what was great when I
and presentations. Ideas kept pouring in as more and
saw it, but starting from a blank page just never worked.
more people joined the Poser community. Poser also
I dropped into my local art supply shop and bought one
evolved to include a new friendlier interface, more
of those little wooden mannequins that I thought would
rendering powers, new content, and many new features.
be my friend. He wasn’t very nice to me and never did
what I asked of him. I quickly became determined to The following that Poser attracted continues to amaze us
put him out of a job and thus set out to build the world a all, as does the community’s ongoing diversity, creativity,
better mannequin. At the time, I was programming and talent, and passion. The Poser artists and modelers of
animating in Hollywood, mostly for Rhythm and Hues the world have pushed far beyond anything I thought
Studios. I had built up a wealth of 3D math and computer possible. Poser has been used in award winning character
graphics knowledge. Why not make a digital mannequin? animations, as design for huge sculptures, for comic
books, for medical illustration and instruction, for legal
Peanut, and billowing sheets of fabric softener during my reconstruction, and for unleashing the kind of astounding
day job, I began creating Poser at night. images that, well, move us all.

All I wanted was a simple visualization tool, one that would In 2000 Curious Labs took Poser’s reigns. Our team began
be easy to pose with and quick to use for any artist. I looking at where Poser and human simulation could
wasn’t yet thinking about high quality rendering, shadows, (and should) continue growing. We knew we needed to
animation, textures, or anything else. But Poser, like old remain committed to making products that would be easy
John Henry, had a mind of its own. Poser 1 was released in enough for every artist to use. We also knew we needed
1995, and grew quickly. I knew Poser could be a useful tool to integrate our capabilities with the world of professional
3D graphics productions and with the new emerging Web-
 Poser Pro 2014 v
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deployable technologies. Poser 4 Pro Pack was born of supported our efforts with enthusiasm, forum inundations,
these needs, allowing Poser scenes and characters to be email blasts, contributions to the product, and a stream of
hosted inside high end professional packages such as 3D unbelievable images.
Studio MAX, Lightwave, and Cinema 4D. We also added
Thanks to everyone who has touched or been touched by
Flash and Viewpoint Experience Technology capabilities
Poser.
for real time display via the Web.
Larry Weinberg
Today, Poser has obtained huge levels of growth through
Original Poser Creator
the courageous efforts by many extremely talented and
motivated professionals. Believe me, Poser is no longer
written by me coding alone into the night. It’s a powerful
graphics product that is the culmination of the work of a
very talented group that spans the globe.
While streamlining our interface, we’ve integrated a large
database of scanned human heads into a phenomenal
face-designing environment. We added realistic rendering
capabilities far beyond where we started, with the ability
to create networks of complex shading nodes for unlimited
textures and materials. We also added physical simulation
of cloth and hair. By combining these new powers with a
new suite of human models and poses, and a new portal

should, well, change the world–again.

Each of us at Smith Micro Software sees what we do
as a labor of love. Poser could never have gotten this
far without each and every one of our dedicated staff.
And, Poser could certainly never have evolved this far
without the involvement of the Poser community, who has
vi PoserPro 2014
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 Poser Pro 2014 vii
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Contents Chapter 3: Setting Up the Poser Workspace

Setting Application Preferences
35
35
Setting Up Your Workspace 45
Part 1: Poser Introduction 1 Using the Log Window 49

Chapter 1: Welcome to Poser! 2 Part 2: Building Scenes 51

What’s New in Poser 4
Chapter 4: The Pose Room 52
Included Documentation 6
Menu Bar 53
System Requirements 7
Light Controls 53
When You Have Questions 9
Camera Controls 54
About Your Reference Manual 11
Room Tabs 55
Chapter 2: Installing Poser 12
Editing Tools 55
Poser End User License Agreement (EULA) 12
Document Window 56
CONTACTING CUSTOMER SERVICE AND TECHNICAL
Display Controls 57
SUPPORT 20
Parameters/Properties Palette 57
Using the Smith Micro Download Manager 21
Parameters Palette 58
Installing Poser 26
Properties Palette 58
Installing Queue Manager 30
Library Palette 59
Upgrading From an Earlier Version of Poser 31
Memory Dots 60
Registering Poser 32
Animation Controls 62
Updating Poser 32
Showing and Hiding Windows and Palettes 62
Project Selection 33
Keyboard Shortcuts 66
Project Guide 33
Other Basic Operations 71
Contents
viii PoserPro 2014
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Chapter 5: The Document Window 77 Downloading and Installing Content 184

Preview Tab 77 Chapter 9: Posing Figures 186

Title 78 General Posing Principles 186
Options Menu 78 Selecting Body Parts 191
Document Window Size 81 The Editing Tools 194
Preview Tab Context Menus 85 The Parameters/Properties Palette 204
Render Tab 103 Properties 204
Render Comparison 107 Parameters Palette 209
Displaying Recent Renders 108 Posing Faces 217
Uploading to Facebook 109 Posing Animals 223
Chapter 6: The Display Controls and Menu 112 Pose Dots 224

The Display Menu Commands 117 Saving Poses in the Library 224
Other Posing and Figure Aids 224
Chapter 7: The Poser Library 130
Chapter 10: Working with Props 232
Displaying the Library Palette 133
Accessing Different Content Libraries 139 About Props 232

About Library Palette Categories 147 Hair 233

Maintaining Your Library Palette 171 Strand-Based Hair 233

Dragging and Dropping Library Content 177 Prop-based Hair 233

Searching the Library 177 Clothing 234

Searching for New Content 179 Adding & Importing Props 236

Favorites Tab 181 Moving, Resizing, and Deforming Props 237

Deleting Props 237
Chapter 8: The Content Room 183

Contents
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Creating New Props 237 Select Camera Control 261

Creating Prop Parameters 238 Flyaround View 262
The Prop Origin 238 Positioning Cameras 262
Prop Properties 238 Creating Cameras 265
Prop Parameters 241 Camera Properties & Parameters 266
Replacing a Body Part with a Prop 242 Pointing & Locking Cameras 274
Set Figure Parent 244 Camera Dots 275
Changing a Parent 245 Saving Camera Sets 275
Grouping Objects 246 Chapter 12: Lighting 276
Using Constraint Channels 251
Light Types 277
Creating Simulation Proxies 254
Selecting Lights 278
Deleting Objects 255
Creating Lights 278
Chapter 11: Cameras 256 Adjusting Light Intensity 280
Camera View 256 Light Color 280
Show Camera Names 256 Delete Light 281
The Camera Controls 256 Aiming Lights 281
The Main, Auxiliary, and Posing Cameras 257 Using Light Indicators 283
The Face Camera 258 Light Properties 285
Left and Right Hand Cameras 259 Light Parameters 292
The Dolly Camera 259 Saving & Loading Light Sets 295
Orthographic Cameras 260 Memorizing and Restoring Lights 295
Shadow Light Cameras 260 Animating Lights 295
Changing Cameras 261

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Part 3: Materials 296 The Material Room Options Menu 335

Material Room Node Connections 337
Chapter 13: The Basics of Materials 297 Chapter 16: Material Room Nodes 345
Why Multi/Sub-object Materials? 298
Root Nodes 345
Color 299
Math Nodes 353
About Maps & Templates 299
3D Texture Nodes 386
Texture Map 300
2D Texture Nodes 396
Bump Maps 301
Compound Nodes 405
Transparency Maps 302
Part 4: Rendering 415
Displacement Map 303 Chapter 17: The Render Menu 416
Procedural Shaders 304
Render 416
Creating Character Textures 304
Area Render 416
Render in Background 416
Transparency Maps 310
Render in Queue 417
Putting It All Together 311
Sketch Style Render 417
Chapter 14: The Material Room 314
Antialias Document 418
Navigating the Shader Window 316 Motion Blur Document 418
Simple Shader View 316 Render Settings 419
Shaders 328 Render Dimensions 419
Wacros 328 Materials 419
Chapter 15: Working with Nodes 334 Reload Textures 419
About Nodes 334 Reuse Shadow Maps 420
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Clear Shadow Maps 420 Smoothing Geometry 467

Reuse Shadow Maps 420 Network Render Queue 471
Clear Shadow Maps 420 64-Bit Render Engine 476

Chapter 18: The Render Settings Dialog 421 Gamma Correction and Linear Rendering 477
Gamma Correction Per Texture 478
Render Engines 421
Rendering Layered PSD Files 479
Sketch Tab 422
Preview Tab 422 Chapter 20: The Sketch Designer 486
Real-time Raytrace Preview 426 Sketch Elements 486
Tips & Tricks 427 Presets 487

Chapter 19: Using The FireFly Render Engine 428 Checkboxes 487
Brushes 487
Sketch Parameters 488
Manual Settings 433
Rendering Sketches 489
Indirect Light 438
Exporting Painter Scripts 489
FireFly Options Settings 442
Saving and Loading Presets 448 Part 5: Animating 490
Smoothing Geometry 448
Chapter 21: The Animation Menu 491
Network Render Queue 453
64-Bit Render Engine 458 Make Movie 491

Gamma Correction and Linear Rendering 459 Recalculate Dynamics 491

Gamma Correction Per Texture 460 Retime Animation 491

Rendering Layered PSD Files 460 Resample Key Frames 491

Saving and Loading Presets 466 Loop Interpolation 491

Quaternion Interpolation 491
Contents
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Skip Frames 492 Object Types 542

Mute Sound 492 Setting Object Properties 546
Clear Sound 492 Simulation Settings 549
Play Movie File 492 Object Constraints 550

Chapter 22: Animating with Poser 493 Deleting a Simulation 558

Saving Objects with Bullet Physics 558
Animation Overview 493
Using the Animation Controls 496 Chapter 24: Rendering Animations 559
Using the Animation Palette 500 QuickTime Options 562
Animation Palette Options Menu 503 Flash Options 564
Keyframes View 504
Part 6: Customizing Content 567
Layers Tab 516
Animation Sets Tab 520 Chapter 25: The Face Room 568
Using the Walk Designer 522 Using Images to Create Heads 570
Sound 529 Creating Custom Textures 576
Using the Talk Designer 530 The Face Shaping Tool 577
Importing BVH Motion Capture Files 535 Loading/Saving/Previewing Textures 582
Advanced Animation Techniques 535 Applying Custom Heads/Textures 582
Saving Animations to the Library 540 Chapter 26: The Hair Room 584
Chapter 23: Using Bullet Physics 541
Creating a Simulation 541 Step Two: Growing Hair 586
Using Live Simulation 541 Step Three: Styling Hair 588
Calculating Simulations 542 Step Four: Setting Hair Dynamics 593

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Hair Properties & Parameters 597 Converting Clothing 646

Hair Colors and Materials 599 Finding Your Converted Clothing 652
Adding Strand-Based Hair to the Library Palette 601 Analyzing Full Body Morphs 652

Chapter 27: The Cloth Room 603 Common Questions (and Answers) 668

Using the Cloth Room 603 Part 7: Content Creation Tools 670
Conforming vs. Dynamic Cloth 604
Chapter 30: Modifying Figures & Props 671
Adding Dynamic Clothing 604
Using Dynamic Clothing without a Figure 605 Using Deformers 672

Using Dynamic Clothing with Morphs 605 Creating Magnet Deformers 673

Cloth Parameters & Properties 620 Using Magnets with Weight Maps 679

Creating Props and Morph Targets 620 Using Deformers with Grouped Objects 699

Adding Dynamic Cloth to the Library Palette 621 Creating Morphs with the Morphing Tool 700
The Combine Tab 701
Chapter 28: The Fitting Room 623
The Create Tab. 705
Problems and Solutions 623
Copying Morphs Between Figures 716
Preparing Your Scene 624
Using the Fitting Tools 718
Adjust Scale, Position, and Rotation 625
Creating Morphs in Other Applications 719
Creating a Fitting Simulation 627
Combining Morphs in Poser 721
Fitting Simulation Methods 629
Loading Full Body Morphs 723
Painting Vertex Weights 638
Deleting Full and Partial Body Morphs 725
Completing the Fitting Simulation 641
Using Dependent Parameters 726
Chapter 29: Wardrobe Wizard 645 Managing Morphed Figures 740
Using the Wardrobe Wizard 645
Chapter 31: Figure and Prop Editors 742
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xiv PoserPro 2014
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The Group Editor 742 Transferring Zones and Weight Maps to Clothing 829
About Groups 751 Skinning Methods 833
The Hierarchy Editor 756 Working with Subdivision Surfaces 835

Chapter 32: The Setup Room 765 Modeling Considerations 841

Creating Figures for Poser 766 Chapter 34: Using Poser with Other Applications 844
About the Setup Room 766 Importing Files 844
The Setup Room Interface 767 Exporting Files 850
Setting Up an Original Figure 768 Using Poser with ZBrush and GoZ 857
Troubleshooting 780 Importing/Exporting a GoZ File 871

Chapter 33: Working with Joints, Weights, and PoserFusion Hosting Plug-ins 871
Skinning 781
Part 8: PoserPython 907
What are Joints? 781
Using the Joint Editor 782 Chapter 35: About PoserPython 908
Copying Joints from Another Figure 788 Why Python? 909
Joint Attribute Types 788 A Word of Warning 909
Creating and Using Falloff Zones 795 PoserPython Types & Methods Listing 909
Setting Joint Angles 804 Chapter 36: Basic PoserPython Concepts 911
Editing Bulge Settings 805 Basic Python Structure 912
Setting Joint Orders 806 Sample Python Script 912
Adding Affected Actors 808 Writing Python Scripts 913
Copying and Saving Joint Settings 811 Folder Syntax 913
Weight Maps 811 Running Your Script 913
Fixing Mismatched Scales 827
Contents
 Poser Pro 2014 xv
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For Further Information 913 Polygons 939

Chapter 37: Running PoserPython Scripts 914 The Poser Workspace 939
Normals 940
The Scripts Menu 914
Camera 940
The Python Scripts Palette 914
Lights 940
Running Python Scripts Directly 915
Hierarchy 940
Appendices 916 Appendix D: Creating and Converting Hierarchy
Appendix A: Technical Support 917 Files 943
Hierarchy File Explained 944
Appendix B: Poser File Structure 919
Converting Hierarchy Files 947
About Poser Files 919
Verifying Hierarchy Files 948
A Word of Warning 919
Appendix E: Media Support 949
Editing Files 920
Writing Your Own Presets 949
Poser File Types 920
File Hierarchy 921
Commonly Used Poser Objects 924
Basic File Syntax 924
Poser & OBJ Files 925
Dependent Parameters 926

Appendix C: 3D Basics 929

About 3D Space 929
Vertices 938
Splines 938

Contents
 Poser Pro 2014 1
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Part 1: Poser
Introduction
2 PoserPro 2014
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Chapter 1: Welcome interchange between game engines and other 2D and 3D

to Poser! tools such as Photoshop, Softimage and SketchUp.

Poser Pro is optimized for 32/64 Bit and multi-core systems,
better utilizing system memory and multiple threads to
Thank you for purchasing Poser®. If you’ve never used improve overall performance and reduce rendering times,
Poser before, welcome! Are you upgrading from an earlier with background rendering so you can continue working
version of Poser? Welcome back! on other projects. Poser Pro’s OpenGL Support takes
Poser Pro is the fastest way for professional artists and advantage of graphics card hardware to provide realistic
production teams to add pre-rigged and fully textured 3D lighting, shadows and color. Poser Pro’s Queue Manager
characters to their projects. With 5GB of included content lets you distribute and manage renderings across a
libraries and richly varied third party Poser content, Poser Network Render Queue of cross platform systems
Pro is the perfect link between professional production In Poser Pro 2014, we’ve included a host of exciting and
tools and ready to use 3D character assets, saving powerful new features. Subdivision Surfaces via the use of
development time and resources.
Poser Pro includes intuitive posing, animation, and rigging surface polygonal smoothing in the business. With Bullet
tools all designed to make working with 3D character Physics we net Soft Body Dynamics, Rigid Body Dynamics
content as easy as possible. Poser Pro provides a node- and Hair physics with Live Simulation. A new Comic Book
based material system, dynamic hair, dynamic cloth, preview node with Threshold control provides both color
morph creation brushes and facial photo matching tools and black & white cartoon images and animations.
Automatic tools lipsync phonemes with imported sound Weight Maps on Magnets provides more precise control
over Poser’s powerful deformers. Simplify complicated
Pro renders video or still images in photo-real or sketch materials and shaders with our new Compound Material
styles. Included are an updated set of PoserFusion hosting Node. Our new Interactive Raytrace Preview provides you
plugins to integrate posed or animated Poser characters a raytraced thumbnail of your scene, updating with every
and scenes into 3ds Max, Maya, and Cinema 4D and change of the character, camera or lights. To repurpose

Chapter 1: Welcome to Poser!

 Poser Pro 2014 3
Reference Manual

bulges, to generate better performing 3D characters

that can be more easily posed with natural joints across
included 7 new cartoon characters, and 2 new humans, the body. Hybrid Rigging supports both traditional Poser
Sphere and Capsule zones to be used in combination.
clothing, with Tighten, Loosen and Sag methods. And now Poser Pro also supports both traditional grouped body

are improvements in Raytrace rendering performance,

OpenGL performance, the Grouping Tool, Symmetry,
Mirroring, and even Cut and Paste operations. documented format that has been at the heart of the
creative Poser community for nearly 20 years.
Poser Pro supports HDRI output to produce images with full
range of shadow, color, contrast and highlight intensities. Poser Pro is designed with Poser Character Creators in
With Gamma Correction, specify gamma values for mind and includes a suite of vertex Weight Map Creation
textures and exported images for linear rendering with tools including Vertex Weight Auto-transfer to permit the
increased luminance accuracy. Poser Pro’s improved
rig, generation of new Weight Maps from existing Poser
Irradiance Caching for Global Illumination effects and
now even supports rendering with Ambient Occlusion at Maps and interactive color display of affected vertices.
the same time. New shader nodes enable Subsurface Another advance in Poser is the ability to set-up both
Scattering for luminescent skin tones and Custom Scatter traditional zones and weight maps to affect body parts
for bioluminescent effects. Poser’s physically correct beyond the parent or child of the selected actor, enabling

Normal Mapping adds the appearance of complexity interact with multiple body parts simultaneously. Once
and surface detail to 3D objects without increasing
geometry resolution. Render out PSD layers for improved they can be fully integrated into Poser 9 or 10, or any of the
third party host apps supported by PoserFusion.
Poser Pro includes advanced Weight Map Rig support Other basic features include Multi-Select Drag and Drop
from and within Poser’s Content Library, Expanded Context
Chapter 1: Welcome to Poser!
4 PoserPro 2014
Reference Manual

amount of subdivision in the Properties palette. See

on your selected area, pressure sensitive tablet support in “Working with Subdivision Surfaces” on page 835.
the Morph Brush and Weight Map Painting tools. Improved
Content Management system with drag and drop, auto • Group Editor Enhancements: Select polygons by
conforming, search, metadata support, zone strength painting, or by rectangular selection. Add or remove
polygons by group or material, and mirror them on
the Recent Render palette. positive or negative X, Y, or Z axes. See “The Group
Editor” on page 742.
Whether used a standalone character animation system,
or as a critical tool in your existing production pipeline, • New Morph Painting Tools: See “Using the Fitting Tools”
on page 718.
3D artists, professional illustrators, animators and graphics
production teams to add 3D character animation content • Weight Maps for Magnets: See “Using Magnets with
to any project. Weight Maps” on page 679.

What’s New in Poser Animation

Poser includes the following new features: • Bullet Physics Simulations: Choose Window > Bullet
Physics Controls to open the Physics Simulation
Palette. You can assign each object in your scene to
Figure Design one of three types of objects: Choreographed, Rigid
Dynamic, or Soft Dynamic. See “Chapter 23: Using
• Fitting Room: See “Chapter 28: The Fitting Room” on Bullet Physics” on page 541
page 623

• Subdivision Surfaces: Choose Figure > Skinning

Method > Poser Unimesh

Chapter 1: Welcome to Poser!

 Poser Pro 2014 5
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Dynamic Hair Preview Rendering

• Hair Room Improvements: Now offers the choice • Raytrace Preview: See “Real-time Raytrace Preview”
between traditional Poser and enhanced Bullet Physics on page 426.
solvers. See “Chapter 26: The Hair Room” on page
584. • Improved bounding box calculation performance.

• Creating and Importing Hair in GoZ: Allows you to • Comic Book Preview Mode: Use Poser’s exciting new
import ZBrush FiberMesh as hair objects. See “Importing Color and B&W Comic Book Preview for static or
Hair from GoZ” on page 867. animated toon imagery. This feature will enable you
to create comic art with fantastic line control and
color, or clean black and white outlines with persistent
Materials shading even when rotating or animating your point
of view. See “Comic Book Preview Mode” on page
• Compound Material Nodes: The new Compound node 128.
allows you to combine any Poser node type as an
external input or output, providing a way to reduce
clutter in the Advanced Material Room. Compound
Final Rendering
nodes allow you to add external inputs and outputs
within a separate Material Room window. After you • Performance improvements for all raytraced effects.

to the main window in the Advanced material room rendering of scenes that are raytrace-heavy.
editor. See “Compound Nodes” on page 405.
•
• User-assignable names for Material Nodes: Double-
• Sketch outlines now connect across body parts.
click a node name to assign a new name to a
material node. See “Renaming Nodes” on page 339.

Chapter 1: Welcome to Poser!

6 PoserPro 2014
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Usability Import/Export

• Log Window: Displays an ongoing log of commands • Enabled export options for morph weights and sparse
used in Poser. The log window can be docked or array KHR extensions in COLLADA.

• Support for modern media formats such as MP3, H.264/

based on criteria such as timestamp, category, MP4 via Media Foundation (Windows 7 and 8 only).
application commands, group selection, warnings, or
debug information. See “Using the Log Window” on
page 49.
Included Documentation
Poser includes the following documentation:
• The ability to spawn props for use as simulation proxies
in physics, hair, or cloth simulations. See “Creating
• Poser Reference Manual: This Reference Manual has
Simulation Proxies” on page 254.
been rewritten and Poser features added. It is included
in electronic PDF format on your Poser DVD. Selecting
• Various performance improvements for bending, real-
Help > Poser Reference Manual from within Poser will
time shader updates, and animation playback.
also launch this manual.
•
The version of the manual accessible from
morph data integrity.
the help menu is optimized for screen
• Parameters Palette: Added an option to display viewing. If you wish to print it out, your Poser DVD
parameter channels in calculation order, allowing contains a version that is optimized for print in the
you to correct the initial order of physics simulation documentation folder.
parameters. See “Parameters Palette Options Menu”
on page 211.
• Quick Reference Card (QRC): The QRC is a fold-out

Chapter 1: Welcome to Poser!

 Poser Pro 2014 7
Reference Manual

and includes a comprehensive list of Poser keyboard • OpenGL enabled graphics card or chipset
shortcuts. recommended (recent NVIDIA GeForce and ATI
Radeon required for advanced real-time preview
• PoserPython Methods Manual: This manual contains features)
an organized listing of each PoserPython method
available in Poser. It is included in PDF format on your • 24-bit color display, 1440 x 900 minimum resolution
Poser DVD and is also accessible from within Poser by
selecting Help > PoserPython Manual. • 3 GB free hard disk space (6 GB recommended)

• Quick Start Guide: This Quick Start guide is an on- • DVD-ROM drive (Physical product only)
screen step-by-step interactive guide that takes users
• Internet connection required for Content Paradise
through the necessary steps to quickly create scenes
within Poser. • Windows® Internet Explorer® 7 or newer

• Adobe® Flash® Player 11 or newer

System Requirements
• Adobe® AIR® (external library)
System requirements for Poser installation are as follows:
• Hosting plug-ins require a valid English language
installation of their respective host application:
Windows
Maxon CINEMA 4D R10-14 (64 & 32-bit)
• Windows XP, Vista, 7, or 8 (64-bit OS required for 64-bit Autodesk 3ds Max 2010 - 2014 (64 & 32-bit)
installation)
Autodesk Maya 2010 - 2014 (64 & 32-bit)
• 1.3 GHz Pentium 4 or newer, Athlon 64 or newer (1.65
Newtek LightWave 3D 9 - 11 (64 & 32-bit)
GHz or faster recommended)
• ZBrush 4 or later required for GoZ interoperability.
• 1 GB system RAM (4 GB or more recommended)
Chapter 1: Welcome to Poser!
8 PoserPro 2014
Reference Manual

Mac Autodesk Maya 2010 - 2014 (64 & 32-bit)

Newtek Light Wave 3D 9 - 11 (64 & 32-bit)

• Mac OS X 10.6, 10.7, or 10.8
• ZBrush 4 or later required for GoZ interoperability.
• 1.5 GHz Intel Core processor (Core 2 Duo or faster
recommended, 64-bit CPU required for 64-bit support)
Poser Content Online
• 1 GB system RAM (4 GB or more recommended)
Poser’s Content room includes a direct link to the online
• OpenGL enabled graphics card or chipset Content Paradise (http://www.contentparadise.com),
recommended (recent NVIDIA GeForce and ATI
Radeon required for advanced real-time preview other content available for use within Poser. Also, Poser’s
features) Download Manager makes the process of downloading
content and installing it to the appropriate Library
• 24-bit color display, 1440 x 900 minimum resolution categories fully automatic, so accessing high quality
content has never been simpler! See “Chapter 8: The
• 3 GB free hard disk space (6 GB recommended)
Content Room” on page 183 for more information about
the Content room, and Content Paradise.
• DVD-ROM drive (Physical product only)

• Internet connection required for Content Paradise

Other Smith Micro Software Products
• Adobe® Flash® Player 11 or newer
Check out these products from Smith Micro Software:
• Adobe® AIR® (external library)
• Manga Studio: Manga Studio, the leading manga and
• Hosting plug-ins require a valid English language comic art software, provides all the essential tools you
installation of their respective host application: need to create professional, ready-to-publish pages

Maxon CINEMA 4D R10-14 (64 & 32-bit) interface, and delivers the best suite of ready-to-
Chapter 1: Welcome to Poser!
 Poser Pro 2014 9
Reference Manual

use screen tones, content and special manga and • Poser Help: Selecting Help > Poser Reference Manual
comic effects for hobbyists, experienced artists and opens the Poser Reference Manual in PDF format.
professionals.
• PoserPython Help: Selecting Help > PoserPython
• Anime Studio: Anime Studio is your complete Manual opens the PoserPython Methods Manual in PDF
animation program for creating 2D movies, format.
cartoons, anime and cut out animations. Create
your own desktop animated shorts in the style of • About: Windows users can select Help > About
SouthParkStudios.com and JibJab.com, or use Anime Poser to display the Poser version and copyright
information. Macintosh users should look in the Poser
or streaming over the web. Anime Studio allows digital Application menu, and select About Poser, to see this
enthusiasts at home and professionals in the studio to information. This option will be useful if you need to
bring their imagination to life! obtain technical support, since the Technical Support
representative will need to know this information.

When You Have Questions • The Help > Content Paradise submenu contains links to
information on content from Content Paradise.
As you begin using Poser for your 3D projects, you’ll
undoubtedly have questions or want to network with other
Poser artists. You’re not alone! There are many resources
Smith Micro Software Resources
available for Poser artists. Here are just a few:
• Online Support: For technical support, customer
service, downloads, and to visit the Smith Micro
Need Help? Poser community and gallery, visit us at http://
my.smithmicro.com/support.
Poser includes the Help menu, which serves to answer most
of your questions while using the application: • Using Poser: For updates, tutorials, and Poser user
stories, visit http://poser.smithmicro.com/index.html.

Chapter 1: Welcome to Poser!

10 PoserPro 2014
Reference Manual

• To Learn More: If you’d like to learn more about Smith Smith Micro Software does not regulate
Micro Software, visit us at http://my.smithmicro.com. content on third-party forums and their listing
and order of appearance in this manual is not an
• Contacting Technical Support: If our Web Knowledge endorsement.
Base does not resolve your situation, please contact us
through http://support.smithmicro.com. Please refer
to “Appendix A: Technical Support” on page 916 to
view our technical support policy.
Other Important Resources
Visit the following sites to learn about some of the
• Sales: You may reach our sales department via e-mail
applications and technology supported by Poser:
at: sales@smithmicro.com.
• Python resources: The following is a small sample
• Other Links: Selecting Help > Smith Micro Web Links or
of the ever-growing body of online and hardcopy
Help > Other Web Links within Poser lists other valuable
information concerning the Python scripting language:
online resources.
The basic Python interpreter (which allows you
to write your own Python scripts for any desired
Third-Party Forums purpose) as well as many in-depth documents
You may also visit online Poser forums such as: and links to other online resources is available for
free download at http://www.python.org.
• Animotions: http://www.animotions.com
wxPython at http://www.wxpython.org.
• Renderosity: http://www.renderosity.com
Learning Python, 3rd Edition by Mark Lutz; O’Reilly
• RuntimeDNA: http://www.runtimedna.com & Associates; ISBN # 0-596-51398-4

wxPython in Action by Noel Rappin and Robin

Dunn; Manning Publications; ISBN # 1-932-39462-1

Chapter 1: Welcome to Poser!

 Poser Pro 2014 11
Reference Manual

About Your Reference Manual and are capitalized. For example: [ESC]. If more than
Smith Micro Software strives to provide documentation one key should be pressed simultaneously, the notation
that is complete, accurate, informative, and friendly. appears as [KEY1]+[KEY2], for example [ALT]+[F4].
Your feedback is always welcome. Please e-mail your
comments to: techsupport@smithmicro.com.
The Poser Reference Manual is for both Macintosh and
example, [COMMAND]/[CTRL]+[I] is equivalent to the
Windows. By convention, Macintosh commands precede
Macintosh [COMMAND]+[I] and the Windows [CTRL]+[I].
Windows commands in the text. The Poser interface for
Macintosh and Windows platforms is identical, unless
boxes, etc. appear in bold type. Where you need to
access a palette, command, or submenu, the syntax is
For clarity, this manual uses several notational conventions
Menu > Submenu. For example File > Save As means you
to present information of special importance. Lists of items,
should open the File pull-down menu and then select Save
points to consider, or procedures that do not need to be
As to open the Save As dialog box.
Program and script code appears in standard Courier font,
• Item 1 for example:

• Item 2 cd\letters\business\legal [ENTER]

Notes detail tips, tricks, and other important

appear in numbered steps: information.

1.
Warnings alert you to potentially harmful
2. Perform this step second
consequences such as data loss.

Chapter 1: Welcome to Poser!

12 PoserPro 2014
Reference Manual

Chapter 2: Installing Poser End User License

Agreement (EULA)
Poser This End User License Agreement (“EULA”) is between you
(both the individual installing the Program and any single
Before opening your DVD holder, please take a moment
legal entity on behalf of which such individual is acting)
to read, understand, and agree to the Poser End User
(“you” or “your”) and Smith Micro Software, Inc., and/or its
License Agreement (EULA). If you do not agree with the
subsidiaries (“Company”).
terms of the EULA, please return your entire Poser package
including the unopened DVD holder to Smith Micro PLEASE READ THIS EULA CAREFULLY BEFORE USING THE
Software or your place of purchase. Once you have read SOFTWARE. BY CLICKING THE “I ACCEPT” BUTTON WHEN
and accepted the EULA, you may proceed with installing INSTALLING THE PROGRAM, YOU ARE AGREEING TO BE
Poser on your system. BOUND BY THE TERMS OF THIS EULA. IF YOU DO NOT AGREE
TO THE TERMS OF THIS EULA, CLICK ON THE “I DO NOT
The Smith Micro online store will accept the ACCEPT” BUTTON. IF YOU DO NOT ACCEPT THIS EULA,
return of either physical or electronically YOU MAY NOT USE OR ACCESS THE SOFTWARE. USING OR
downloaded products purchased directly from ACCESSING ANY PART OF THE SOFTWARE INDICATES THAT
Smith Micro within 30 days of the date of purchase. YOU ACCEPT THESE TERMS.
Products purchased in retail stores must be returned

return policy terms. Smith Micro reserves the right to DEFINITIONS

change this policy at any time.
• “Content” means animations, characters, clothing,
faces, hair, geometries, images, materials, meshes,

and data created with the intent of being used within

the Program and/or third party applications.
Chapter 2: Installing Poser
 Poser Pro 2014 13
Reference Manual

• “Documentation” means any written material in any characters or props; or (g) creating PoserPython
form for installation and use of the Program provided scripts.
by authorized agents or representatives of the
Company. • “Other Content” means Content that is not Restricted
Content or Unrestricted Content. Other Content may
• “Legitimate Uses” means (a) creating morph targets be subject to license terms imposed by the Other
based on the Restricted Content, provided that any Content’s original creator.
distribution of the morph targets will not include the
original mesh connectivity information (for example, • “Program” means the Company computer software
distribution in the form of data utilized with morph
delivered via the accompanying physical media or
original geometry, but no inclusion of the complete electronic media.
mesh); (b) creating texture templates derived from
• “Proprietary File Formats” means any of Company’s
the Restricted Content to create new maps for either
proprietary compressed and uncompressed formats
Restricted Content or Other Content; (c) creating
tutorials, books, or other educational materials using
with the following extensions: CM2, CR2, FC2, HD2,
images of the Program interface or Content for sale,
HR2, LT2, MC6, MT5, PP2, PZ2, PZ3.
distribution, public display, or public performance,
provided such materials are intended to educate • “Restricted Content” means all Content included with
users as to use of the Program; (d) creating original or part of the Program that is not Unrestricted Content,
Content for sale, distribution, public display, or public including without limitation mesh objects (geometry)
performance; (e) creating materials (e.g., shader
trees) for use with either Restricted Content or Other images, materials, texture, transparency maps,
Content; (f) creating characters or props based on Documentation, and Company’s proprietary data.
Restricted Content in Proprietary File Formats, where
• “Unrestricted Content” means Content included with

the Documentation or listed in this EULA as Unrestricted

Chapter 2: Installing Poser
14 PoserPro 2014
Reference Manual

http://www.python.org, pthreads http://sourceware.org/

associated textures are Unrestricted Content: low res pthreads-win32, SFMT http://www.math.sci.hiroshima-u.
male, low res female, medium res male, medium res ac.jp/~m-mat/MT/SFMT, XMLRPC++ http://xmlrpcpp.
female. sourceforge.net, XMP http://www.adobe.com/products/
xmp Other Content that is subject to third-party rights
included with Program and Documentation is copyrighted
THIRD-PARTY TECHNOLOGY AND and owned by the original Content creators.
CONTENT
Portions of the Program and Other Content contain GENERAL
technology and/or other components licensed by the
Company from the following third parties: Pixels Digital, You agree to use the Program, Documentation and
Inc., Singular Inversions, Inc., Size8 Software, Inc., and Content only for lawful purposes. Any use of the Program,
Automatic Sync Technologies LLC, each of whom retain Documentation or Content other than as granted in this
the ownership, copyrights, trademarks, and patents to EULA must be approved by the Company’s prior written
their respective contributions to the Program. Open source consent. The Company maintains an ongoing EULA
components include: Open source components include: enforcement program. Violation of any provision in this
Boost C++ http://www.boost.org, Bullet Physics http:// EULA automatically terminates this EULA. The Company
bulletphysics.org, Embree http://embree.github.com, reserves all other rights that it may have for violation of this
FreeImage http://freeimage.sourceforge.net, FreeType EULA.
http://freetype.sourceforge.net, Geometric Tools http://
www.geometrictools.com, k-d tree point cloud: Henrik PROGRAM LICENSE
Wann Jensen, libCurl http://curl.haxx.se/libcurl/, libjpeg
http://www.ijg.org, libtiff http://www.libtiff.org, numpy Subject to the terms and conditions of this EULA and your
http://www.numpy.org, OpenEXR http://www.openexr. payment of the license fee, the Company grants you
com, OpenSSL http://www.openssl.org, pcre http://www. a limited, personal, nontransferable and nonexclusive
pcre.org, PIL http://www.pythonware.com/products/pil, license (without the right to sublicense): (i) to use a single
pthreads http://sourceware.org/pthreads-win32, Python copy of the Program (except as expressly permitted in
Chapter 2: Installing Poser
 Poser Pro 2014 15
Reference Manual

the Documentation) solely for your own internal business or interfere with the normal functionality and operation
operations on a single computer as set forth in Section K of the Program for any reason whatsoever without the
below for production operation or, on a temporary basis, express prior written consent of the Company or except
on a backup system if such equipment is inoperative, to the extent expressly permitted by applicable law. If
the Program is an upgrade to a previous version of the
in this EULA and the Documentation; (ii) to use the Program, you must possess and maintain a valid license to
Documentation provided with the Program in support of such previous version in order to use the upgrade.
your authorized use of the Program; and (iii) to copy the
You expressly acknowledge that the Company has a
Program to make one (1) archival copy of the Program for
valuable proprietary interest in both the Program and the
your personal archival or backup purposes, and to make
Documentation. All title, ownership, interest and rights in
and to the patent, copyright, trademark, trade secret and
intended use described in the Documentation, provided
any other intellectual property rights in the Program (and
that all titles and trademark, copyright and restricted rights
any derivative works thereof) and the Documentation
notices are reproduced on all such copies. Any other uses
(and any derivative works thereof), not expressly granted
of the Program, including without limitation the Program
to you by this EULA remain with the Company. You do
interface, other than those granted in this EULA must be
not acquire any other rights, express or implied, in the
approved by the Company’s prior written consent.
Program (and any derivative works thereof) and the
You will not use, copy, modify, derive, or transfer the Documentation (and any derivative works thereof) other
than those rights expressly granted under this EULA. Without
derivation, or merged portion thereof, in whole or in part limiting the generality of the foregoing, the Company
via any means or for any purpose whatsoever except as retains all title, ownership, interest and rights in and to the
expressly permitted in this EULA or the Documentation. patent, copyright, trademark, trade secret and any other
You will not relicense, sublicense, rent, lease, or lend intellectual property rights in the copy of the Program
the Program for third-party training, commercial time- contained on your archival media, and all of the terms
sharing or service bureau use. You will not, and will not of this EULA apply to such archival copy as if it were the
permit any third party to, reverse engineer, decompile, original Company-produced copy of the Program that
debug, disassemble, circumvent the security features of, was furnished to you when you paid the licensing fee.

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16 PoserPro 2014
Reference Manual

Except as otherwise expressly permitted in the CONTENT LICENSE

Documentation, you will only use the Program on a single
computer, meaning that you must treat the Program “like Subject to the terms and conditions of this EULA and
a book.” “Like a book” means that the Program may be your payment of the license fee, Company grants you a
used by any number of people and may be freely moved limited, personal, nontransferable and nonexclusive license
from one computer to another so long as no possibility (without the right to sublicense):
exists of the Program being used at more than one
computer simultaneously. More than one person at a time • a. To reproduce, prepare derivative works based
cannot read the same copy of a book, and this restriction upon, distribute, publicly display, and publicly perform
applies to the Program. The Company is pleased to offer the Unrestricted Content for any lawful purpose
site licenses for multiple simultaneous users. Please contact other than to create a product which is intended to
the Company at the address below for details. compete with the Program or to create new content
which is intended to compete with the Restricted
You, your employees, and/or authorized agents must
Content.

your obligations under this EULA. You cannot distribute or • b. To prepare derivative works based upon the
otherwise make the Program or Documentation available Restricted Content solely for Legitimate Uses and
to any third party via any means whatsoever, public lawful uses.
or private, for any purpose, commercial or not, unless
explicitly allowed by this EULA. • c. To reproduce, prepare derivative works based
upon, distribute, publicly display, and publicly perform
You assume full responsibility for your selection of the
content you create using Restricted Content, provided
Program to achieve your intended results and for
that such use of Restricted Content shall be solely
the installation, use, and results you obtain from the
Legitimate Uses and lawful uses.
Program. Company has no obligation to provide support,
Notwithstanding the foregoing, nothing shall limit the
under this EULA Company’s right to independently create, develop, own,
market, distribute, license, sublicense, import, export, sell,

Chapter 2: Installing Poser

 Poser Pro 2014 17
Reference Manual

or otherwise exploit any content or materials similar to any The Company is pleased to offer site licenses for multiple
derivative works based upon the Content. simultaneous users. Please contact the Company at the
address below for details.
You will use the Other Content in accordance with all
applicable license terms imposed by the content’s original
creator. TERM
You will not use, copy, modify, derive, distribute, transfer
This EULA remains in full force and effect until terminated.
or sublicense the Restricted Content, the Unrestricted
You may terminate it at any time by returning or destroying
both the Program and the Documentation, together
derivation, or portion thereof, in whole or in part via any
means or for any purpose whatsoever except as expressly
the Product and the Documentation in any form. The
permitted in this EULA or the Documentation.
Company is in no way obliged to issue refunds. Company
You expressly acknowledge that the Company has a may terminate this EULA at any time upon your breach of
valuable proprietary interest in the Restricted Content any of the provisions hereof.
and the Unrestricted Content. All title, ownership, interest
Upon termination, you will immediately cease all use of
and rights in and to the patent, copyright, trademark,
the Program, return or destroy both the Program and the
trade secret and any other intellectual property rights
Documentation to the Company, together with all copies,
in the Restricted Content and the Unrestricted Content
not expressly granted to you by this EULA remain with the
the Documentation in any form, and so certify to vendor.
Company. You do not acquire any other rights, express
Termination of this EULA for any reason in no way limits the
or implied, in the Company-created Restricted Content
Company’s right to continue enforcing all rights provided
(and any derivative works thereof) other than those rights
by law and does not entitle you to a refund of your license
expressly granted under this EULA.
fee except as provided herein. All provisions of this EULA
Except as otherwise expressly permitted in the that protect the Company’s proprietary rights continue in
Documentation or unless otherwise provided for herein, full force and effect after termination.
you will only use the Content on a single computer,
meaning that you must treat the Content “like a book.”
Chapter 2: Installing Poser
18 PoserPro 2014
Reference Manual

LIMITED WARRANTY
out of your use or inability to use the Program and the
The Company provides the Program and the Documentation, even if the Company has been advised
Documentation AS IS with no warranty. The Company of the possibility of such damages or for any claim by any
makes no representations or warranties, either express or other party. Some states and countries do not allow the
implied, of any kind with respect to the Program and the limitation or exclusion of liability for certain damages, so
Documentation. To the fullest extent permissible under the above limitation or exclusion may not apply to you. In
applicable law, Company expressly disclaims all warranties no event will the Company’s liability to you or any other
of any kind, either express or implied, with respect to the person for damages hereunder exceed the amount of the
Program or the Documentation, including warranties license fee paid by you to use the Program regardless of
the form of the claim. The parties acknowledge that this
satisfactory quality, and non-infringement. The Company limitation of liability are an essential element of the bargain
does not warrant that the Program’s functionality will between the parties, without which Company would not
meet your requirements or that the Program operation
will be uninterrupted or error-free. No distributor, dealer,
or any other entity or person is authorized to expand or herein.
alter either this warranty or this EULA, and the Company
will not be bound by any such representation in any
way. You assume the entire risk of the Program’s and the
INDEMNIFICATION
Documentation’s quality and performance. Should the You will indemnify and hold harmless, and at Company’s
Program prove defective, you assume the entire cost of all
necessary servicing repair or correction. and assigns from and against any and all claims, losses,
liabilities, damages, settlements, expenses and costs
LIMITATION OF LIABILITY (including, without limitation, attorneys’ fees and court
costs) which arise out of or relate to any third party
In no event will the Company be liable to you for any claim or threat thereof that your use of the Program,
indirect, incidental, consequential, special, or punitive Documentation or Content is unlawful or not otherwise

Chapter 2: Installing Poser

 Poser Pro 2014 19
Reference Manual

permitted by this EULA. Company reserves the right, at respectively, pursuant to DFAR Section 227.7202 and FAR
its own expense, to assume the exclusive defense and 12.212(b), as applicable. Any technical data provided
that is not covered by the above provisions is deemed to
hereunder. be “technical data-commercial items” pursuant to DFAR

release, performance, display or disclosure of such

EXPORT LAW ASSURANCES technical data shall be governed by the terms of DFAR
Section 227.7015(b).
Export of this Program and Documentation is governed
by the laws and regulations of the United States and
import laws and regulations of certain other countries. MISCELLANEOUS
You will comply with all such laws and regulations. Export
of this Program and Documentation to any entity on the This EULA shall be governed by the laws of the State of
Denied Parties List and other lists promulgated by various California, without giving effect to any choice of law
agencies of the United States Federal Government is rules. This EULA will not be governed by the United Nations
strictly prohibited. Convention on Contracts for the International Sales of
Goods, the application of which is expressly excluded.
Exclusive jurisdiction over and venue of any suit arising out
U.S. GOVERNMENT RESTRICTED RIGHTS of or relating to this EULA will be in the state and federal
courts of Orange County, California. If for any reason
The Program and Documentation is provided with

portion thereof, to be unenforceable, the remainder of this

release, performance, display or disclosure by the U.S.
License shall continue in full force and effect. The waiver
Government or any of its agencies shall be governed
by either party of any default or breach of this EULA will
solely by the terms of this EULA and shall be prohibited
not constitute a waiver of any other or subsequent default
except to the extent expressly permitted by the terms
or breach. You may not assign, sell, transfer, delegate or
of this EULA. The Software and Documentation are
otherwise dispose of, whether voluntarily or involuntarily,
deemed to be “commercial computer software” and
by operation of law or otherwise, this EULA or any rights
“commercial computer software documentation”,
Chapter 2: Installing Poser
20 PoserPro 2014
Reference Manual

or obligations under this EULA without the prior written This EULA does not grant you the right to use, and you
consent of the Company. Any purported assignment, shall not use, the copyrighted materials or trademarks
transfer or delegation by you will be null and void. This
EULA constitutes the entire agreement between the parties or promotion, or to express or imply any endorsement of
and supersedes all prior or contemporaneous agreements such party. Without limiting the generality of the foregoing,
or representations, written or oral, concerning the subject you may not express or imply any endorsement by the

amended except in a writing signed by a duly authorized educational materials you create using images of the
representative of each party. Program interface or Content.
BY CLICKING ON THE “I ACCEPT” BUTTON WHEN INSTALLING
CONTACT INFORMATION THE PROGRAM, YOU ACKNOWLEDGE THAT (1) YOU HAVE
READ AND REVIEWED THIS AGREEMENT IN ITS ENTIRETY, (2)
If you have questions concerning this EULA or need to YOU AGREE TO BE BOUND BY THIS AGREEMENT, (3) THE
contact Customer Service, please contact Company at INDIVIDUAL SO CLICKING HAS THE POWER, AUTHORITY
this address: AND LEGAL RIGHT TO ENTER INTO THIS AGREEMENT ON
BEHALF OF YOU AND, (4) BY SO CLICKING, THIS AGREEMENT
Smith Micro Software, Inc., 51 Columbia, Aliso Viejo, CA
CONSTITUTES BINDING AND ENFORCEABLE OBLIGATIONS
92656.
OF YOU.

TRADEMARK AND COPYRIGHT NOTICE

CONTACTING CUSTOMER SERVICE AND
Poser, Poser Pro, the Poser logo, and the Smith Micro Logo TECHNICAL SUPPORT
are trademarks and or registered trademarks of Smith
Micro Software, Inc. Poser copyright © 1991-2013 All Rights For Customer Service questions or problems (returns,
Reserved. All other product names are trademarks or warranty), please visit http://my.smithmicro.com/support.
registered trademarks of their respective holders. Licensed
product.

Chapter 2: Installing Poser

 Poser Pro 2014 21
Reference Manual

For technical support, please refer to “Appendix A:

Technical Support” on page 916 of your Poser Reference
Using the Smith Micro Download
Manual. Manager

Installing the Download Manager

(Windows)

Smith Micro Download Manager Setup Wizard

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22 PoserPro 2014
Reference Manual

1. Locate the Install Smith Micro Download Manager.exe 8.

option to launch the Download Manager right away.
you saved the installer to when you downloaded it. Check the option to launch, or uncheck the option to

2. Then click Finish to complete installation.

3. The Welcome screen appears. Click Next to continue.

4. In the Select Destination Location screen, you can

Installing the Download Manager (Mac)
accept the default installation folder (C:\Program
1. Locate the Install Smith Micro Download Manager.pkg
Files (x86)\Smith Micro\Download Manager),
or click Browse to choose another location on your
you saved the installer to when you downloaded it.
hard disk. After choosing an installation location, click
Next to continue. 2.

5. In the Select Start Menu Folder screen, accept the 3. In the Introduction screen, click Continue.
default folder of Smith Micro\Download Manager, or
click Browse to choose another folder on your hard 4. The Installation Type screen appears. Click to accept
disk. Click Next to continue. the default installation location, or click the Change
Install Location button to specify a custom installation
6. In the Select Additional Tasks screen, check the option location.
to create a desktop icon if desired. Click Next to
continue. 5. Click Install to continue installation. You may be
prompted to enter your system password to complete
7. The Ready to Install installation. Enter your password and click Install
location and start menu folder paths. Verify that the Software.
information is correct, and click Install.
6. After installation is complete, click Close. If you have
installed the Download Manager to the default
Chapter 2: Installing Poser
 Poser Pro 2014 23
Reference Manual

1.
Download Manager in your Applications folder. asked to enter a valid Poser serial number.
Double-click the link to start the Download Manager
application.

Using the Download Manager

The Smith Micro Download Manager allows you to
selectively download and install the Poser application and
content installers, as well as updates when they become
available. Once the downloads start, you can pause and
resume the download as needed.

Poser Pro owners will need to enter the serial

number for Queue Manager separately to
download and install the Queue Manager. This
allows you to install the Queue Manager on every
machine that you want to use as a network node.
Enter your Poser serial number to use the Download Manager.

2. Check the Installer versions to keep checkbox if you

If you are using Poser 10 or Poser Pro 2014 on want to retain a copy of the installers on your hard
both Mac and Windows platforms, you will need to drive after installation is complete. Then increase or
have both platform versions of the download decrease the number of installers that you want to
manager to obtain the necessary Queue Manager keep on your system. The number of installers defaults
installers. to 1, which means that the previous installers that

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24 PoserPro 2014
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you downloaded will be overwritten with the newly will display the progress for each installer that you
downloaded version. choose to download. Choose installers to download
as follows::
If you do not have Keep Installers checked, it

stick to the installers you have already downloaded.

The Download Manager checks the status of this
option and acts appropriately on each startup.

3. Click OK to proceed to the next screen.

4. The Installer Download Location

path into which your downloads will be saved. You
can accept the default location, or specify a custom
location by clicking the [...] button to select another
folder on your system.

the Download Manager and then change

the Data Location, the Download Manager will

the new folder that you specify. If the location is on

a different volume, it can take a while to copy the
You can selectively download one or more installers, or
download all of them.

5. The download manager displays a list of available

installers and their version numbers. A progress bar

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 Poser Pro 2014 25
Reference Manual

To add all of the installers to the download queue, detected, you will be prompted to uninstall it before
click the Download All button that appears at the setup completes (recommended).
bottom of the Download Manager.

To pause all of the downloads, click the Pause All

button.

Download button that appears to the right of the

installer name, for each installer that you want to
download.

click the Pause button.

To resume a paused download, click the Resume

button.

To cancel all downloads, close the Download

Manager window.

The Support Files installer must be installed to

included with Poser.

6. After all downloads are complete, click Install to

installers will be enabled to run.
run the Poser application installer. Content installers
will display a Waiting ... status until after the Poser
application is installed. If a previous installation is

Chapter 2: Installing Poser

26 PoserPro 2014
Reference Manual

Installing Poser proceed with the installation.

Next to

Installing Poser is a straightforward process. Before inserting

5. The Select Destination Location screen appears. Use
your DVD, be sure to save any work in progress and close
this screen to select the installation path for the Poser
all running applications, including virus-checking utilities
executable. Select the destination location where
and other “background” software. Having this “clean”
you want to install Poser Pro. You can use the default
environment will help the installation process proceed
location or click the Browse button to specify another
smoothly and will prevent any loss of data in the highly
location, click Next to continue.
unlikely event of a problem. To install Poser, complete the
following steps:
6. If you have a 64-bit computer and 64-bit Windows
operating system, Setup will install the 64-bit version of
Poser Installation (Windows) Poser Pro by default. You can check the Install 32 bit
option to optionally and additionally install the 32-
1. Click on the Poser installer to start the Installer. bit version of Poser Pro in its own installation folder.

2. The Welcome screen will appear, click Next to

continue.

3. The “Poser End User License Agreement (EULA)” on

page 12 appears. Select I accept the agreement and
click Next.

4. The Information screen appears. Review the Readme

to be included in this manual. Please take a moment

affect how you install and/or use Poser. When you

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If you are using the 64-bit version of Poser Pro,

you can also choose to install the 32-bit
version of Poser Pro for improved backward
compatibility with add-on scripts and plug-ins that
are not 64-bit capable. In addition, the 32-bit version
of Poser Pro allows you the option of either docking
the library or running it in a separate window,
whereas the 64-bit version runs the library in a
separate window only.

7. The Select Components screen appears. Choose the

desired installation options from the drop-down menu:

Full Installation: Most users choose the Full

Installation option. This option performs the
complete installation of Poser Pro including all
content and the Queue Manager.
Choosing an installation location. Compact Installation: This option installs Poser Pro,
the Network Queue Manager, Application Support
Files, and Core Content Files. Additional content is
installed if the applicable options are selected. This
option is useful if hard drive space is limited.

Basic Content (Clothed Figures, Props, Scenery):

references (skeletons and muscles), Props, and

Scenery.

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Custom Installation: Allows you to choose the screen to choose the installation folder for your Poser
items that you want to install. content. By default, Window 7 users install the content
folder beneath the Users > Public > Documents folder
Queue Manager Only: Installs the Poser Queue
on their C: drive; however, you can browser to or enter
Manager. Use this option for installing additional
the folder or hard drive of your choice. Click Next after
network rendering nodes.
you make your choice.
8. Click Next to continue to the Select Content Location
screen. Select the location for the Poser Pro content 10. The Select Start Menu Folder screen will appear. You
Runtime directory. Based on the descriptions below, can use the default location or click the Browse
select the location that works best for you and click button to specify another location. When you are
Next. Next.

Shared Documents Directory: This is the default 11. Select Additional Tasks screen will appear. Options
installation option. Files can be shared—useful in here allow you to remove, backup or reuse existing
multi-user environment or when UAC is enabled on
Windows Vista or later. runtimes, interface layouts, and other preferences. You
can also enable the check boxes to create desktop
My Documents Directory: icons for Poser and the Queue Manager (Poser Pro
accessible to the user who installed them. only). Click Next after you make your choices
Poser Directory: The content library resides next to
12. Review your choices in the Ready to Install screen.
the Poser Pro
Finally, click Install to install the Poser Pro and Queue
Other Location: Specify the directory of your Manager applications
choice. This option is desirable if you want to install installing, click Finished.
your content on a different hard drive or folder
name. Portions of Poser require that Flash Player is
9. If you selected Other Location in step 8, the Select installed on your system. Verify that Flash
Custom Content Location screen appears. Use this Player is present before using Poser Pro.

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Poser’s Content Library utilizes Microsoft Poser Installation (Mac)

Internet Explorer technology. To ensure the
optimal experience and compatibility for the
It is recommended that you install Poser on a
Content Library, the installer will disable “Local
hard drive that is formatted with HFS+
Machine Lockdown” for the Poser application. This
Journaled formatting. Extended Journaled
will not affect other applications outside of Poser.
formatting can be used as long as you do not make
Details about “Local Machine Lockdown” can be
it case-sensitive.
found at http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/
ms537641(VS.85).aspx.
1. Double-click on the Install icon.

The installer grants Poser components in 2. The Introduction screen appears. Click Continue.
<AppLocation > \Runtime\ui\Flex\ a Flash
3.
sandbox setting of ‘localTrusted’.
that was too recent to be included in this manual.

Some features of Poser, such as the Library outlined therein may affect how you install and/or use
and rendering in a separate process, require
that you allow local network communication to Continue to proceed with the installation.
operate. The features will not work if a personal
4. The “Poser End User License Agreement (EULA)” on
page 12 appears. Click Continue. Click Agree to
continue the installation.

5. The Installation Type screen appears. Check or

uncheck the content types you want to install (Default
Content, Clothed and Reference Figures, Clothing, Hair,
Nude Figures, Props and Scenery, Cartoon and Fantasy
Figures, and Animals:
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6. Click Continue after you choose the content you want Installing Queue Manager on a Remote
to install.
System (Windows)
7. Setup informs you how much space will be used by the
1. Click on the Poser Pro installer to start the installation.
installation, including the content you selected. Click
the Change Install Location button to choose another 2. The Welcome screen will appear, click Next to
installation location, if desired and click Continue to continue.
return to the previous screen.
3. The “Poser End User License Agreement (EULA)” on
8. Once you have made your selection, click the Install page 12 will appear. Accept the agreement and
button. The Authentication window appears, and you click Next.
will be asked to enter your user account password, or
an account name and password with Administrator 4. Review the Readme text and click Next.
privileges, in order to proceed with the installation.
After entering the information, click OK to continue. 5. Select the destination location where you want to
install the Queue Manager. You can use the default
9. location or click the Browse button to specify another
click Quit. location. Click Next to continue.

6. Using the pull-down menu select Queue Manager and

Installing Queue Manager click Next.

7. Select Additional Tasks screen will appear. Enable the

The Queue Manager can be installed as part of your initial
check boxes to create desktop icons for both Poser
Poser Pro installation using the Full Installation (Windows)
Pro and the Queue Manager, click Next.
or Easy Install option (Mac). You can install just the Queue
Manager on remote systems by following the instructions
8. Click Install to install the Queue Manager. When the
below:
installation is done, click Finished.

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Installing Queue Manager on a Remote serial number in the Queue Manager Personalize screen.
It is important to know that you can install the Queue
System (Mac) Manager on as many systems as you wish. However, the
1. Click on the Poser Pro installer to start the installation. number of systems you can use simultaneously will be
limited to the number of Queue Manager nodes that are
2. The Welcome screen will appear, click Continue. included with your Poser Pro purchase. You can determine
how many nodes are available to you by looking at your
3. The “Poser End User License Agreement (EULA)” on Queue Manager serial number. The second set of numbers
page 12 will appear. Accept the agreement and between dashes indicates how many systems (including
click Continue. the one on which Poser Pro is installed) can operate the
Queue Manager simultaneously.
4. Review the Readme text and click Continue.

5. Select the destination location where you want to

install the Queue Manager. You can use the default
Upgrading From an Earlier Version
location or click the Browse button to specify another of Poser
location. Click Continue.
When upgrading from an earlier Poser version, be sure
6. Using the pull-down menu select Queue Manager and to install Poser in a separate, empty folder, so as not to
click Continue. interfere with existing Poser installations. Additionally, if
you have large amounts of content from your previous
7. Click Install to install the Queue Manager. When the versions of Poser, the ideal way to add this content to your
installation is done, click Quit. Poser installation is with the Add Runtime feature. (See
“Accessing Different Content Libraries” on page 139 for
more information about the Add Runtime feature.) We do
Licensing not recommend attempting to copy over or reinstall your
content in other ways, as we cannot guarantee that the
content will be properly transferred to Poser.
prompted to type in your name and your Queue Manager
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Registering Poser 4. Enter your user information in the form that appears in
your browser. Fields marked in red are required for you
After installation, you can choose to register your copy to register your copy of Poser. Enter your information,
of Poser via the Web. Registering Poser with Smith Micro then click Register to complete your registration.
Software is required in order to receive technical support,
5.

1. If you wish to register your copy of Poser, simply check You will be asked to add the necessary information
the box on the authentication window that appears and resubmit your user information. Once your
upon your initial launch of Poser, and Poser will registration is successful, a summary screen will appear.
automatically register your product for you with Smith Thank you for using Poser by Smith Micro Software!
Micro Software. If you use this method, this is the only
action necessary on your part; the rest will be taken
care of automatically.
Updating Poser
2. Alternately, you can open your browser and navigate
Smith Micro Software is committed to supporting all of our
to http://www.smithmicro.com/support/product-
products by releasing Service Releases and other updaters
registration.aspx. In the unlikely event you receive
that address issues present in earlier versions and/or
an error, please wait a while then try again. If you
enhance the product’s usability or functionality. Poser will
get repeated errors or if you do not have an Internet
automatically check for product updates upon launching,
connection (or prefer to register via email), you may
and will notify you when an update is available. Please visit
call or email Smith Micro Software to complete your
http://poser.smithmicro.com/updates.html to download
registration.
the latest updates.
3. Select the version of Poser that you wish to register
from the drop-down list, and click the Next button to you may do so by clearing the Check for Updates on
continue. Launch checkbox in the General Preferences dialog.

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please visit http://poser.smithmicro.com/updates.html

regularly to check for product updates.
Alternately, you can click the Check Now button in the
General Preferences dialog to execute an immediate
update check. (See “Setting Application Preferences”
on page 35 for more information about the General
Preferences dialog.)

Project Selection
Quick Start window.
Upon launching Poser, you may want to choose Window
> Quick Start to view the Quick Start dialog. This dialog
Should you choose to load a different Project once Poser
allows you to select a Project to load into the Project Guide
has launched, simply select Window > Quick Start to open
palette within Poser. A Project is an interactive guided
the Quick Start dialog and change the current Project in
the Project Guide palette.

the Project you wish to select, or choose a Project from the

pop-up menu for more options. Once you have selected
Project Guide
a Project, click OK to close the dialog and complete your
launch of Poser. Use the arrows at the top of the Project Guide palette to
navigate through a Project. Click on the right arrow to step
forward through the pages of the Project, or on the left
arrow to step backwards through the pages. The current
page number and title will be displayed in the center
between the navigation arrows. The page content, as well

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as any associated actions by the Poser application, will be open and accessible. You may choose to interact with the
Project Guide at your own pace, either stepping through
a given Project methodically or returning to the Project

such, the Project Guide

a variety of work styles and needs. Should you decide to
close the Project Guide palette, simply click on the close
icon in the upper right corner of the palette. You can then
reopen the palette at any time by selecting Window >
Project Guide from the Poser menu bar.

Project Guide.

The projects in the Project Guide are

that you, the user, perform the tasks described

within them. However, some steps may include
actions automatically undertaken by Poser to assist
you in following the processes described.

The Project Guide palette functions in the same manner

as all palettes within Poser; once enabled, it will remain
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Chapter 3: Setting Up Document Preferences

the Poser Workspace The Document Preferences

the Document window. The Document Preference options
are as follows:
This chapter discusses the ways in which you can
customize Poser to suit your individual needs. Your
preference settings will be stored on your system in the
home directory for your user name. This allows different
users on the same system to set up their own individual

“Poser Default File Locations” on page 921.

Setting Application Preferences

Poser’s General Preferences dialog allows you to control
certain global Poser settings. Open this dialog by selecting
Edit > General Preferences. The General Preferences dialog
appears.
Document Preferences.
Click the OK
preferences and close the dialog. The following topics
describe the available preferences. • Launch Behavior: The Launch Behavior options allow
you to specify whether the Document window will
open using your customized preferred settings, or the
default factory settings, whenever you launch Poser.

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If you customize the Document window by resizing refer to “Smoothing Geometry” on page 448 for
and/or moving it, or by changing the character that more information on the Crease Angle setting.
loads when you start Poser, selecting the Launch to
preferred state radio button after you have adjusted • Optimizations: The Multithreaded Bending setting is off
the Document window will save these changes by default. When enabled the feature will attempt to
when you exit and re-launch Poser. If you want your parallelize the computations across multiple threads
Document window to revert to its default (as installed) during bending, this will produce faster bending by
location and size whenever you launch Poser, select better utilizing multi-threads and multi-core CPUs.
the Launch to factory state button. Please refer to
“Chapter 5: The Document Window” on page 77
Interface Preferences
for more information about the Document window.
The Interface Preferences tab contains application-level
• Set Preferred State: Click this button after you arrange
settings for Poser’s general user interface. The Interface
your document window the way you like. This will save
Preference options are as follows:
it as the preferred startup state

• Undo/Redo: The Undo/Redo options allow you to

specify the maximum number of levels for the Undo/
Redo cache. By default the cache size is set to 100
levels of Undo. You can leave this setting at 100 if you
have available system resources, or you can reduce
the level to conserve memory. Clicking the Clear cache
now... button will clear the Undo/Redo cache.

• Smoothing Preferences: The Default Crease Angle

setting allows you to specify the default Crease Angle
to be used in polygon smoothing calculations. Please

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to revert to its default (as installed) location and size

whenever you launch Poser, select the Launch to
factory state button.

• Mouse Input: The Tablet Mode option decreases the

sampling rate for greater accuracy when using a
graphics tablet as the input device. If your button
has a scroll wheel, you can check the Scroll to Zoom
option to zoom in and out of your scene. Uncheck the
option to disable this feature.

If you wish to operate Poser with a graphic

tablet, please make sure to activate Tablet
Mode in Edit -> General Preferences -> Interface ->
Mouse Input.

Interface Preferences.
• Object Popup Menu: When you use the Object Popup
menu to select an actor in your scene, the menu
arranges them in a series of submenus. The value
entered in the Hierarchical Threshold
• Launch Behavior: If you customize the Poser interface the maximum number of actors that are allowed
by adding, removing, rotating, resizing, and/or hiding to appear in a menu item before they appear in a
different elements, or by creating your own palette branch beneath the previous level. Lower values
arrangements in any of the Poser rooms, selecting the increase the number of submenus. If you want all items
Launch to previous state radio button after making to appear in a single level in the hierarchy, enter a
your changes will save the changes when you exit higher value such as 200.
and re-launch Poser. If you want your Poser interface

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• Display Units: Poser allows you to work with real-

world units, enhancing your ability to make accurate
recreations. Use the Display units pull-down menu to
make your selection. The available choices are:

Poser native units

Inches

Feet

Millimeters

Centimeters

Meters

One Poser native unit is the equivalent of 8.6

feet, or 262.128 centimeters.

• 3D Mouse: The 3D Mouse options control the

behavior of a 3D input device such as 3Dconnexion’s
SpaceNavigator. Checking the Reverse Cameras box
changes the direction the main and auxiliary cameras
Object Popup menu hierarchy. rotate when using a 3D mouse. Checking the Reverse
Dolly Cameras box reverses the direction the dolly
• Display, Color Blind Accessible: Check this option to cameras rotate when using a 3D mouse. Checking the
use an interface that is designed for those who are Reverse Actors box reverses the direction actors move
color-blind. when controlled with a 3D mouse.

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When using a 3D Mouse (such as

SpaceNavigator or similar), by default all
rotation axes and translations will be transmitted.

and holding down the CTRL key (Windows) or CMD

Library Preferences
The Library Preferences tab contains setting that are
Poser Library. The Library Preference
options are as follows:

Library Preferences (Poser Pro).

• Double-click Behavior: The Double-click Behavior

Library preset. Select the appropriate radio button to

choose between adding the new preset to the scene,
or replacing the selected preset in the scene. Note
Library preset,
a dialog will come up allowing you to specify this
setting. Your selected option will then be applied to all

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subsequent double-click instances, unless you change

the setting in the Library Preferences tab. found. This option looks in all runtimes for the item,

• File Search: When an object is loaded from the Runtime/geometries/

Library FolderA/ObjectA.obj
included with that object. The File Search options external runtime folder named C:/MySpecialFolder/
Runtime/geometries/FolderA/ObjectA.obj, then the
options are:

None: Selecting None ObjectA.obj in any directories that are

option is useful for content developers in testing already known by Poser.
the accuracy of newly developed content, as it Deep: This is the default File Search setting. We
recommend that you select Deep
as this option initiates the most extensive searches
next to a scene document when search policy is
set to None.
be found. This performs a thorough search in all
It is recommended that content developers
Runtime folders.
set the File Search to None when testing the
packaging of content that is intended for If your Runtime folders are extremely large,
distribution. Doing so will help determine if geometry resulting in Deep search results that take too

Shallow search.

their expected locations.

• Pose Sets: By checking the Apply Universal Poses box,
poses saved to the library will be automatically written
Shallow: Selecting Shallow will reduce the amount
of time spent searching for missing or mislabeled

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by double-clicking will always be applied as universal

poses.

• Launch Behavior: Controls how the library launches.

Embedded: By default, the library is embedded

and works internally with Poser Pro. You can dock

palettes in the interface.

External: Check this option if you want to run the

library as an external application. You will not be
able to dock and undock the library palette, but
will be able to position it on a second monitor if
desired.

Foreground Poser on item load: Check this option

to bring Poser to the foreground after a library
Render Preferences.
item is loaded. With the option unchecked, focus
remains in the library until you manually switch to
the Poser application to continue with your scene. • Number of Threads: If you have a multi-processor
and/or multi-core hardware system, you can take
advantage of multi-threaded rendering by setting the
Render Preferences Number of Threads slider to a value greater than one.

The Render Preferences tab contains settings that

Preference options are as follows:

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We recommend rendering your scene with • Cache: The Max Cached Renders setting allows you to
as many threads as your system possesses
CPU cores. The default value for hyper-threaded for access via the Render Compare feature in the
CPUs is twice the number of cores that you have Document window’s Render tab, or the number of
(because the OS sees twice as many virtual cores as thumbnails that are displayed in the Recent Renders
there are physical cores). On CPUs that are not palette. Please see “Render Comparison” on page
hyper-threaded, the OS sees only the physical 107 for more information about the Render Compare
feature, and “Displaying Recent Renders” on page
performance, or if the render fails to complete, then 108 for more information about the Recent Renders
reduce the number of threads and/or maximum palette.
bucket size. However, if you have a single-processor
and single-core system, we recommend that you • Texture Caching: Cached textures are kept in the
set the number of threads to one, as the increased
memory demand of running parallel threads may between sessions.

• Persistent size (MB): The maximum amount of memory

allocated to cached textures, in between sessions.
For more information on multi-threaded When you re-launch Poser, textures from the previous
rendering, see “Chapter 19: Using The FireFly session are still cached on disk (unless you set the
Render Engine” on page 428. size to zero). If you re-open the scene you worked on
previously (or one of the recent scenes, if the cache
is large enough) the texture cache will be prepared
• Separate Process: Checking the Separate Process box
already, allowing for a faster render start.
enables running FireFly renders in a separate process
on the CPU, and vice versa. This feature is disabled Run in Background Thread: Loads textures into
by default. For more information on Rendering in a the cache while Poser is running, in preparation
Separate Process, see “Chapter 19: Using The FireFly
Render Engine” on page 428. cache, or not yet up to date in the cache, needs

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to be processed. If Run in Background Thread is up your preferences, the render cache will be moved into
enabled, this processing happens in a separate its backup location along with all preferences.
thread in the background (on multi-core CPUs
only). Chances are that by the time you are done
preparing the scene for rendering, all your textures
Miscellaneous Preferences
are in the cache already, and rendering will start
immediately.
The render cache for keeping rendered images and
displaying them on the Render tab of the Document
window and in the Recent Renders Palette uses the
following locations to store image data:
Windows:
%AppData%\Poser Pro\10\RenderCache\

Windows XP example:
C:\Documents and Settings\<PoserUser>\Application Data\
Poser Pro\10\RenderCache\

Windows Vista & 7 example:

C:\Users\<PoserUser>\AppData\Roaming\Poser Pro\10\
RenderCache\

Mac OS X:
~/Library/Application Support/Poser Pro/10/RenderCache/ Miscellaneous Preferences.
Mac OS X example:
/Users/<PoserUser>/Library/Application Support/Poser
Pro/10/RenderCache/ • Save Files
saving:

cache. Please note that your cached renders will be lost Use File Compression: Poser includes the ability
after doing so. If you reinstall Poser Pro and choose to back

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For more information on zlib, please refer to

http://www.info-zip.org/pub/infozip/zlib/. To
directory and save valuable hard drive space.
you wish to access to .gz, then run your
Pro. decompression utility. Alternatively, you can use the
included PoserPython decompression script by
Compressed Files” option. Poser will open both launching Poser and opening the Python Scripts
window.

Poser versions running Poser 4 Pro Pack or hair, hand, prop, light, camera, material) can
later. Zlib compression is similar to gzip and zip
compression methods, and can typically be extension *.**Z (*.PZZ, *.CRZ, *.FCZ, etc.). Poser prop
uncompressed by any utility (such as WinZip) that
handles either of these formats.

Please note that all content included

withPoser Pro is compressed. with Poser 4 and earlier, please be sure to
save them uncompressed. To do so, uncheck the
Use File Compression option in the Misc Preferences
tab.

Poser uses standard Z-lib compression,

allowing you to use any Z-lib compatible
compression/decompression application to

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Some advanced artists use a text editing 32 for more information about this feature). Clearing

Clicking the Check Now button will execute an

immediate update check.

• Temp Files
created by Poser. Click the Change button to choose
a folder on your system, or click Reset to change back
to the default path that was initially set during your
Poser installation.
Use External Binary Morph Targets: Checking this
box will enable the use of External Binary Morph
Targets (EBMTs) when saving new content, or
Setting Up Your Workspace
The Poser workspace consists of the entire Poser screen,
to the Poser Library with this option enabled will including controls, the Document window, and other

thus allowing you to take advantage of morph of these elements to suit the way you work and store your
preferences for later use.

• Set Python Editor: Clicking the Set Python Editor Docking and Floating Palettes
button opens a standard Browse dialog, allowing
you to select the application you wish to use to edit Poser’s sleek interface is geared toward streamlining
PoserPython scripts (such as Notepad for Windows).
palettes in each of Poser’s different rooms, to set up a
• Software Updates: Checking the Check for Updates workspace layout that meets your needs.
on Launch box enables the Automatic Update
“Updating Poser” on page
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The Window menu contains commands that show or hide Moving, Repositioning, and Resizing Palettes
Poser’s many palettes. If a palette is hidden, simply select
the desired palette from the Window pull-down menu to
display it. palettes, or reposition them as necessary. For example:

The options in the Window > Room Tools

submenus are enabled only when the
respective room is active. For example, the
commands in the Window > Room Tools > Face
submenu will only be enabled when you are in the
Face Room.

The upper-right corner of each palette contains a Palette

Docking Control square. Click the square to open the
palette docking menu, which contains commands that
work as described below.

Palette Docking menu options.

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• To resize a docked palette, position the cursor over the

resize handle and drag in either direction indicated by
the double-arrow resize cursor.

•
side or corner, where it turns into a double-arrow resize
cursor. Then drag to the desired size.

• To reposition a palette, position the cursor in the

Title area of the palette, where it turns into a hand.
Reposition the palette to another area on your
screen. If the area that you drag to is highlighted in
blue, the palette will dock into the highlighted area
of your workspace. If the area that you drag to is not

you release the mouse button.

• Some palettes display scroll bars when they contain

more information than can be displayed in the
allotted space.

• Some palettes (such as the Editing Tools or Display

Styles palettes) display options that wrap based on the
width of the palette.

• Some palettes cannot be reduced beyond the

Resizing handles for palettes. minimum size required to display all of the palette
options and controls. For examples, see the Camera
Controls or Light Controls palettes.
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Enabling or Disabling Docking •

palette, and choose Docked from the menu. The
To enable or disable palette docking: palette will dock into the position where it was last
docked.
• Click the Palette Docking Control square at the
top-right corner of the palette. Check or uncheck Floating Palettes
Drag-Docking Enabled as appropriate. This selection is
checked when docking is enabled, and not checked
when disabled.
• Drag the palette out of the docked location, and
When Drag-Docking is disabled, you can toward the document window. Release the mouse
move the palette anywhere on the screen when there is no highlighted dock location for the
over the main workspace or to an additional palette.

enable drag-docking again. • Click the control at the top-right corner of a docked
palette, and choose Floating from the menu. The

Docking Palettes
Closing Palettes
To dock a palette, use one of the following methods:
To close an open palette, use one of the following
• Drag the palette toward the area in which you want methods:
to place it. When the area becomes highlighted,
release the mouse. If you drag the palette into an area • Click the Close icon in the upper-right corner.
that is already populated by one or more palettes, the
active docking area will split horizontally or vertically to • Click the control at the top-right corner of the palette
provide a location for the additional palette. and choose Close from the menu that appears.

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• Choose an open palette from the Window pull-down

menu to close it. Palettes that are currently open are
Using the Log Window
indicated by a check mark. The Log window enables you to view a list of ongoing

comments on various criteria (timestamp, category,

UI Memory Dots
application commands, group selections, warnings, and
debug information). This information can be useful when
using the Memory dots (described in “Memory Dots” you are trying to troubleshoot a problem with Technical
on page 60). Each Memory dot retains a separate Support.
instance of your selected interface settings. This feature To display the Log window, choose Window > Log.
is globally applicable, meaning that UI dots can be
The window can be docked or undocked to
alternative method for saving UI settings for accessibility in the workspace by using the palette context
any Poser scene is to modify Poser’s general preferences menu. Click the square in the upper-right corner of
as described in “Setting Application Preferences” on the palette to display the docking options.
page 35. However, while preferences set in this manner
are saved separately for each screen resolution, you can
If a crash occurs and you can’t get to the
log window, you can copy the recent history
general preferences.
from Users\<user>\AppData\Local\Temp\Poser
Pro\10\Poser.log
Setting Up the Document Window
Please refer to “Chapter 5: The Document Window”
on page 77 for more information on customizing the
Document window and using the controls found there.

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Log Window.

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Part 2: Building
Scenes

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Chapter 4: The Pose

Room
The Pose room is the focal point for much of your Poser

scene and perform your desired posing and animation

(you’ll use the Hair, Cloth, Material, and Face rooms to set
up and animate these items and can access the Library
palette from any room). This chapter introduces you to the
basic Poser interface. The following chapters will describe
these interface elements in greater detail, and then will
move on to discussing the other rooms in Poser. The Pose Room.

The Pose room appears as follows at 1920 x 1200 resolution.

In addition to rooms, much of Poser’s functionality is
The number of palettes and options that you
see in each room depends upon your screen the rooms themselves. Most Poser rooms (including the
resolution. At higher resolutions, the default work Pose room) allow you to customize your Poser workspace
spaces display more palettes, while at lower by hiding/displaying and relocating controls anywhere
resolutions you see fewer palettes. you like. You can even save up to nine different screen

The numbers on the image above identify the controls

available in the Pose room:

• Menu bar (1)

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• Light controls (2)

Menu Bar
• Camera controls (3)
The Menu Bar consists of a series of pull-down menus used
for accessing Poser functionality. Some menus and/or
• Room tabs (4)
submenus duplicate other on-screen interface elements.
• Editing tools (5) The Menu Bar appears as follows and is available from
every Poser room.
• Document window (6)

• Display controls (7)

Poser’s Menu Bar.
• Properties & Parameters palettes (8)

• UI dots (9)

• Animation controls (10)

Light Controls
The Light controls allow you to adjust lighting properties.
• Library palette (11)
Use it for such purposes as adding and removing lights,
Please refer to “Setting Up Your Workspace” on page and specifying light colors and other light properties. The
45 for more information about creating and saving Light controls appear as follows.
custom workspace layouts. The following sections provide
a brief description of the labeled interface elements and
references to more detailed information.

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The Light Controls.

Please refer to “Chapter 12: Lighting” on page 276 for

more information about the Light controls.

Camera Controls The Camera Controls.

The Camera controls allow you to select and move one

The topmost controls are the View controls. Clicking one
or more Poser cameras. There are two types of camera
of these controls activates the Face, Left Hand, or Right
controls: View and Position.
Hand camera, as appropriate. You can also scroll through
the list of available cameras. The controls beneath the
hand controls are used to turn camera animation on or
off, or to use the Flyaround camera. The Position controls
appear below these controls and are used to move or
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rotate the currently selected camera. The Camera Plane

position controls move the camera along the X, Y, and/
Room Tabs
or Z axis, while the Trackball rotates the currently selected The Room tabs allow you to switch from room to room
camera without changing its location in 3D space. To use within Poser. enter a room, simply click its tab.
the Camera controls, simply click and drag your desired
control. Moving a camera does not change the locations

scene. Room Tabs.

The Frame Selected button changes the camera view to

or actor, and then click the Frame Selected control to

Editing Tools
The Orbit Selected button rotates the camera around the The Editing Tools display contains the tools you use most
currently selected actor. This control is a toggle. When
toggled on, the camera will be centered on the selected By selecting a body part or prop followed by the desired
object or body part and you can rotate the camera so Editing tool, you can pose objects in various ways such
that it is always in the center. as translating (moving side to side or back and forth),
rotating, twisting, etc. You can also perform other functions
The Orbit Selected mode does not work with
such as editing Inverse Kinematic (IK) chains and working
cameras that are already set to orbit a
with element/material groups. Each Editing tool is a little
different, but their basic usage is as follows:
and Right Hand cameras).

A subset of these Camera controls appears in the upper-

right corner of the Document window. Please refer to
“Chapter 11: Cameras” on page 256 for complete
information about the Camera controls.
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Document Window
The Document window is your viewport into the Poser

interact directly with your scene. Each view of the

Document window is displayed through a virtual camera,
which means you can view each scene from multiple
The Editing Tools.
camera angles, either one at a time or from up to four
angles at once.

1. Select your desired body part or prop (referred to as You can position cameras to view your scene from any
an element or actor) in your scene by clicking that angle or distance and can resize the Document window
actor. to suit your needs. In addition, the Document window
has numerous controls around its edges that you use to
2. Select the desired Editing tool. You can only have one change the appearance of scene elements. You can also
Editing tool selected at a time. The currently selected select objects within your scene by clicking them directly
Editing tool appears yellow within the Poser interface. within the Document window or by using the menus on the
bottom of the window. Please refer to “Chapter 5: The
3. Click and drag to perform the selected tool’s function. Document Window” on page 77 for more information
about the Document window.
You can use the Editing tools in any combination to

Please refer to “The Editing Tools” on page 194 for more

information on the Editing tools. In addition, each tool is
discussed in depth where appropriate in this manual.

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Display Controls
The Display controls allow you to select your desired

The Display Controls.

Please refer to “Chapter 6: The Display Controls and

Menu” on page 112 for more information about the
Display controls.

Parameters/Properties Palette
Poser offers an easy-to-use Parameters and Properties
palette that allows you to access any scene object’s
The Document Window. properties and parameters in one convenient location.

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Although both properties and parameters

appear in the same palette, we will treat
them as separate entities throughout this manual for
clarity.

Parameters Palette
The Parameters palette contains all of an object’s
parameters transformation settings, (as described in
“Parameters Palette” on page 209) and morph targets.
Each object type has specialized parameters, which
are described where appropriate in this manual. Further,
individual objects can have parameters unique to that

targets available.

Properties Palette
The Properties palette contains all of an object’s
properties. In addition to certain universal properties
(which are described in “Properties” on page 204,
Parameters Palette. each object type has specialized properties, which are
described where appropriate in this manual.
To switch between the Properties and Parameters
palettes, simply click the desired tab at the top of the
palette.
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Library Palette Library makes it easy to add existing and new content

The Library palette consists of three tabs. scene. Please refer to “Chapter 7: The Poser Library” on
page 130 for more information about the Library palette
The Library tab contains all of the various categories of
and to “Changing the Library Appearance” on page
content from which you can choose.
135 for information on how to show and hide the various
elements in the Library tab.
• The Search tab allows you to perform keyword
searches through one or all of your runtimes.
Poser ships with a wide array of content that
you can use to create thousands of unique
• The Favorites tab gives you quick access to your
still and animated scenes. You can also use the
favorite content.
Content room to locate and obtain even more free
and for-sale content from leading 3D marketplaces!
Library Tab Please refer to “Chapter 8: The Content Room” on
page 183 for more information about the Content
The Library tab contain Poser’s Library content categories. room.
The Categories icons allow you to access and search
through all of the content available to your installation
of Poser, including content included with Poser and any
additional content you may have obtained. The Library
tab contains categories (Figures, Props, etc.) and
subcategories (Animals, New Figures, etc.) for organizing
your Poser content: You can also organize your favorite
content in the Favorites tab for even quicker access.
Use the Library tab to add or remove elements from your
Poser scenes. The vast collection of content included
with Poser allows you start building scenes right away. The

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Favorites Tab
The Favorites tab on the Library palette provides quick
access to your favorite Poser content. For more information
about adding favorites, see “Favorites Tab” on page 181

Memory Dots
Being able to customize your workspace wouldn’t be
useful if you had no way of saving your preferences.
Poser includes Memory dots that allow you to save poses,
camera locations, and user interface (UI) preferences and
to switch between saved items with a single mouse click.

Library tab.

Search Tab
Memory Dots.
Use the Search tab to perform keyword searches on one
or all of your Runtime libraries. This powerful new features Clicking the arrow to the left of the description allows you
to choose between the Poses, Camera, and UI memory
dots that you have saved.
“Searching the Library” on page 177.

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2. Use the pull-down menu to select the dot type, as

described above.

3. Click an empty memory dot. This dot will appear full, as

shown below.

Memory Dots options.

Please refer to the following for more information on each

type of Memory dot.

• Pose Dots: Pose dots are described in further detail in

“Pose Dots” on page 224.

• Camera Dots: Camera dots are described in further

detail in “Camera Dots” on page 275

• UI Dots: UI dots are described in further detail in Filled, empty, and selected Memory Dots.
“Setting Up Your Workspace” on page 45.
To use a dot, simply click it. The stored settings are
applied to your scene. To clear a memory dot (delete its
Using Memory Dots information and make it appear empty again), press and
hold [OPT]/[ALT] while clicking the memory dot you wish
To use Memory dots:
to erase.
1. Set up your pose, cameras, and/or interface (UI) the
way you want them.

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Animation Controls The palette options that are displayed in

each room vary, depending on your screen
The Animation controls allow you to preview animations resolution or upon which room you have displayed.

moving to a new frame, and changing the pose. Clicking

the Play button plays an animation using the keyframes.
The Animation controls appear as follows:

Animation Controls.

Please refer to “Using the Animation Controls” on page

496 to learn more about the Animation controls, and
to “Chapter 22: Animating with Poser” on page 493
for more information about creating and rendering
animations using Poser.
The Window menu shows and hides windows and palettes.

Showing and Hiding Windows

and Palettes • Animation Palette: Selecting Window > Animation
Palette opens the Animation palette. Please refer
The Window menu allows you to enable and disable to “Using the Animation Palette” on page 500 for
(show and hide) various Poser windows and palettes. The information about the Animation palette and creating
upper portion of the Window menu contains the following Poser animations.
commands:
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• Graph: Selecting Window > Graph opens the Graph “Using the Walk Designer” on page 522 for more
palette for the selected element in your scene. Please information about the Walk Designer window.
refer to “About the Graph Palette” on page 506 for
information about using the Graph when making Poser • Talk Designer: Choose Window > Talk Designer to
animations. open the Talk Designer window, described in “Using
the Talk Designer” on page 530.
• Libraries: Selecting Window > Libraries opens the
Library palette. Please refer to “Chapter 7: The Poser • Python Scripts: Selecting Window > Python Scripts
Library” on page 130 for more information about the opens the Python Scripts palette. Please refer to
Library palette. “The Python Scripts Palette” on page 913 for more
information about the Python Scripts palette.
• Hierarchy Editor: Selecting Window > Hierarchy Editor
opens the Hierarchy Editor palette. Please refer • Room Help: Selecting Window > Room Help opens an
to “The Hierarchy Editor” on page 756 for more HTML window with information to assist you in using the
information about the Hierarchy Editor palette. Poser rooms.

• Joint Editor: Selecting Window > Joint Editor opens • Quick Start Guide: Choose Window > Quick Start Guide
the Joint Editor palette. Please refer to “Chapter 33: to open the Quick Start Guide, described in “Project
Working with Joints, Weights, and Skinning” on page Guide” on page 33.
781 for more information about the Joint Editor
• Project Guide: Choose Window > Project Guide to
palette.
open the Project Guide, described in “Project Guide”
• Sketch Designer: Selecting Window > Sketch Designer on page 33.
opens the Sketch Designer window. Please refer to
• Recent Renders: Choose Window > Recent Renders
“Chapter 20: The Sketch Designer” on page 486for
to display a palette that contains thumbnails of the
more information about the Sketch Designer renderer.
images that you most recently rendered. For more
• Walk Designer: Selecting Window > Walk Designer information, see “Displaying Recent Renders” on
opens the Walk Designer window. Please refer to page 108.
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• Physics Palette: Choose Window > Bullet Physics • Camera Controls: Selecting Window > Camera Controls
Controls to create physics simulations using Bullet toggles the Camera controls display on and off. A
Physics. See “Chapter 23: Using Bullet Physics” on check mark next to this option indicates that the
page 541 for more information. controls are currently displayed, and vice versa. Please
refer to “The Camera Controls” on page 256 for
The lower portion of the Window menu contains
more information about the Camera controls.
commands that toggle frequently-used palettes on and
off.
• Preview Styles: Selecting Window > Preview Styles
toggles the Display controls display on and off. A
check mark next to this option indicates that the
controls are currently displayed, and vice versa. Please
refer to “Chapter 6: The Display Controls and Menu”
on page 112 for more information about the Display
controls.

• Editing Tools: Selecting Window > Editing Tools toggles

the Editing tools display on and off. A check mark next
to this option indicates that the controls are currently
displayed, and vice versa. Please refer to “The Editing
Tools” on page 194 for more information about the
Editing tools.

• Light Controls: Selecting Window > Light Controls

toggles the Light controls display on and off. A check
mark next to this option indicates that the controls
are currently displayed, and vice versa. Please refer
Window menu commands show and hide windows and to “Chapter 12: Lighting” on page 276 for more
palettes. information about the Light controls.

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• Memory Dots: Selecting Window > Memory Dots • Raytrace Preview: Choose Window > Raytrace Preview
toggles the Memory dots display on and off. A check to open the real-time Raytrace Preview window,
mark next to this option indicates that the controls are discussed in “Real-time Raytrace Preview” on page
currently displayed, and vice versa. Please refer to 426
“Memory Dots” on page 60 for more information
about the Memory dots. • Room Tools: The Room Tools submenus display options
that are enabled when you are using the Material,
• Parameters/Properties: Selecting Window > Parameters/ Face, Hair, or Cloth room. The options for each room
Properties shows or hides the Parameters/Properties are disabled until you enter the room to which they
palette, which contains tabs for the Parameters apply.
palette and Properties Palette. A check mark next to
Material: When you are in the Material room,
this option indicates that the Parameters/Properties
a menu option allows you to show or hide the
palette is currently displayed, and vice versa. Please
Material Palette. See “Chapter 14: The Material
refer to “Parameters Palette” on page 209 for more
Room” on page 314 for further information about
information about the Parameters palette, and to
the Material Room.
“Properties” on page 204 for more information about
the Properties palette. Face: When you are in the Face Room, menu
options allow you to show or hide the Face
• Animation Controls: Selecting Window > Animation Preview, Photo Lineup, Texture Preview, Face
Controls toggles the Animation controls display on and Texture Tool, or Face Shaping Tool. These
off. A check mark next to this option indicates that the palettes are discussed in “Chapter 24: Rendering
controls are currently displayed, and vice versa. Please Animations” on page 559.
refer to “Using the Animation Controls” on page 496
for more information about the Animation controls. Hair: When you are in the Hair Room, menu
options allow you to show or hide the Hair Growth
• Log: Choose Window > Log to open the Log Window. Groups, Growth Controls, Styling Controls, and
See “Using the Log Window” on page 49 for further Dynamics Controls palettes. These palettes are
information.

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discussed in “Chapter 26: The Hair Room” on

page 584.
Keyboard Shortcuts
Cloth: When you are in the Cloth Room, menu Keyboard shortcuts are available for many menu
options allow you to show or hide the Cloth commands found in Poser. The following tables summarize
Simulation, Cloth, Cloth Groups, and Dynamics the available keyboard shortcuts for each menu.
Controls palettes. These palettes are discussed in
“Chapter 27: The Cloth Room” on page 603. File Menu
• Document Window Size: Selecting Window > Document
Window Size opens the Preview Dimensions dialog
allowing you to resize your Document window when it Command Windows Mac
“Chapter 5: The Document File > New CTRL+N CMD+N
Window” on page 77 for information about resizing File > Open CTRL+O CMD+O
your Document window. File > Close CTRL+W CMD+W

File > Save CTRL+S CMD+S

The Document Window is only resizeable
File > Save As CTRL+Shift+S CMD+Shift+S

File > Print CTRL+P CMD+P

that is not used by docked palettes. File > Exit CTRL+Q

• Addons: Displays help and addon applications for and

by third party PoserPython developers. Edit Menu

Command Windows Mac

Edit > Undo CTRL+Z CMD+Z

Edit > Redo CTRL+Shift+Z CMD+Shift+Z

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Edit > Cut CTRL+X CMD+X Figure Menu

Edit > Copy CTRL+C CMD+C

Edit > Paste CTRL+V CMD+V Command Windows Mac

Edit > Restore > CTRL+E CMD+E Figure > Drop to Floor CTRL+D CMD+D
Element Figure > Hide Figure CTRL+H CMD+H
Edit > Restore > CTRL+Shift+F CMD+Shift+F
Figure

Edit > Restore > CTRL+Shift+L CMD+Shift+L Object Menu

Lights

Edit > Restore > CTRL+Shift+H CMD+Shift+H Command Windows Mac

Camera
Object > Properties CTRL+I CMD+I
Edit > Restore > All CTRL+A CMD+A

Edit > Memorize > CTRL+ALT+E CMD+ALT+E

Object Display Menu
Edit > Memorize > CTRL+ALT+F CMD+ALT+F
Figure Command Windows Mac
Edit > Memorize > CTRL+ALT+L CMD+ALT+L Display > Camera CTRL+M CMD+M
Lights View > Main Camera
Edit > Memorize > CTRL+ALT+H CMD+ALT+H Display > Camera CTRL+; (semicolon) CMD+; (semicolon)
Camera View > From Left
Edit > Memorize > All CTRL+ALT+A CMD+ALT+A Display > Camera CTRL+’ (apostrophe) CMD+’ (apostrophe)
Edit > Special CMD+ALT+T View > From Right
Characters Display > Camera CTRL+T CMD+T
Edit > Preferences* CTRL+N CMD+K View > From Top

Display > Camera CTRL+F CMD+F

* Preferences command is found in the application menu View > From Front
in Mac systems

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Display > Camera CTRL+= (equal) CMD+= (equal) Display > Document CTRL+5 CMD+5
View > Face Style > Lit Wireframe
Camera
Display > Document CTRL+6 CMD+6
Display > Camera CTRL+, (comma) CMD+, (comma) Style > Flat Shaded
View > Posing
Display > Document CTRL+7 CMD+7
Camera
Style > Cartoon w/
Display > Camera CTRL+[ (left bracket) CMD+[ (left bracket) Lines
View > Right Hand
Display > Document CTRL+8 CMD+8
Camera
Style > Smooth
Display > Camera CTRL+] (right CMD+] (right Shaded
View > Left Hand bracket) bracket)
Display > Document CTRL+9 CMD+9
Camera
Style > Texture
Display > Camera CTRL+/ (forward CMD+/ (forward Shaded
View > Dolly Camera slash) slash)
Display > Figure Style CTRL+ALT+0 (zero) CMD+ALT+0 (zero)
Display > Fly Around CTRL+L CMD+L > Use Document
Style
Display > Frame CTRL+Shift+= (equal) CMD+Shift+= (equal)
Selected Display > Figure Style CTRL+ALT+1 CMD+ALT+1
> Silhouette
Display > Orbit CTRL+0 (zero) CMD+0 (zero)
Selected Mode Display > Figure Style CTRL+ALT+2 CMD+ALT+2
> Outline
Display > Document CTRL+1 CMD+1
Style > Silhouette Display > Figure Style CTRL+ALT+3 CMD+ALT+3
> Wireframe
Display > Document CTRL+2 CMD+2
Style > Outline Display > Figure Style CTRL+ALT+4 CMD+ALT+4
> Hidden Line
Display > Document CTRL+3 CMD+3
Style > Wireframe Display > Figure Style CTRL+ALT+5 CMD+ALT+5
> Lit Wireframe
Display > Document CTRL+4 CMD+4
Style > Hidden Line Display > Figure Style CTRL+ALT+6 CMD+ALT+6
> Flat Shaded

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Display > Figure Style CTRL+ALT+7 CMD+ALT+7 Display > Element CTRL+Shift+9 CMD+Shift+9
> Cartoon w/Lines Style > Texture
Shaded
Display > Figure Style CTRL+ALT+8 CMD+ALT+8
> Smooth Shaded Display > Depth CTRL+Shift+D CMD+Shift+D
Cued
Display > Figure Style CTRL+ALT+9 CMD+ALT+9
> Texture Shaded Display > Tracking > CTRL+Shift+A CMD+Shift+A
Bounding Boxes Only
Display > Element CTRL+Shift+0 (zero) CMD+Shift+0 (zero)
Style > Use Figure Display > Tracking > CTRL+Shift+X CMD+Shift+X
Style Fast Tracking

Display > Element CTRL+Shift+1 CMD+Shift+1 Display > Tracking > CTRL+Shift+C CMD+Shift+C
Style > Silhouette Full Tracking

Display > Element CTRL+Shift+2 CMD+Shift+2 Display > Show CTRL+B CMD+B
Style > Outline Background Picture

Display > Element CTRL+Shift+3 CMD+Shift+3 Display > Guides > CTRL+G CMD+G
Style > Wireframe Ground Plane

Display > Element CTRL+Shift+4 CMD+Shift+4 Display > Preview CTRL+ALT+O CMD+ALT+O
Style > Hidden Line Drawing > OpenGL
Hardware
Display > Element CTRL+Shift+5 CMD+Shift+5
Style > Lit Wireframe Display > Preview CTRL+ALT+S CMD+ALT+S
Drawing > SreeD
Display > Element CTRL+Shift+6 CMD+Shift+6
Software
Style > Flat Shaded

Display > Element CTRL+Shift+7 CMD+Shift+7

Style > Cartoon w/
Lines
Render Menu
Display > Element CTRL+Shift+8 CMD+Shift+8
Style > Smooth Command Windows Mac
Shaded Render > Render CTRL+R CMD+R

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Render > Area CTRL+ALT+N CMD+ALT+N Window > Hierarchy CTRL+Shift+E CMD+Shift+E
Render Editor

Render > Antialias CTRL+ALT+R CMD+ALT+R Window > Joint CTRL+Shift+J CMD+Shift+J
Document Editor

Render > Render CTRL+Y CMD+Y Window > Walk CTRL+Shift+W CMD+Shift+W
Settings Designer

Render > Render CTRL+Shift+Y CMD+Shift+Y Window > Talk CTRL+Shift+K CMD+Shift+K
Dimensions Designer

Render > Materials CTRL+U CMD+U Window > Python CTRL+Shift+O CMD+Shift+O
Scripts

Window > Camera CTRL+Shift+R CMD+Shift+R

Animation Menu Controls

Window > Preview CTRL+Shift+U CMD+Shift+U

Command Windows Mac Styles

Animation > Make CTRL+J CMD+J Window > Editing CTRL+Shift+T CMD+Shift+T
Movie Tools

Window > Light CTRL+Shift+I CMD+Shift+I

Controls
Window Menu Window > Memory CTRL+Shift+M CMD+Shift+M
Dots

Window > Parameter CTRL+Shift+N CMD+Shift+N

Command Windows Mac Dials

Window > Animation CTRL+Shift+V CMD+Shift+V

Palette

Window > Graph CTRL+Shift+G CMD+Shift+G

Window > Libraries CTRL+Shift+B CMD+Shift+B

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Window > Animation CTRL+Shift+P CMD+Shift+P Opening a Scene

Controls
Selecting File > Open opens a standard Open dialog box,
allowing you to access and work on a previously saved
Other Basic Operations
changes in your current scene, if any (see above).

Creating a New Scene Opening a Recent File

Selecting File > New creates a new Poser scene. A dialog Selecting File > Recent Files opens a pop-up list that
will appear if you have any unsaved changes in your
previous scene. If this dialog appears: .PZZ formats) that you opened in Poser.

• Selecting Yes opens a Save Poser Scene dialog box,

allowing you to save your current Poser scene. After Closing Your Scene
saving your current scene, the new scene will be
created. Selecting File > Close closes your current Poser scene while
leaving the Poser application running. You are prompted
• Selecting No creates a new Poser scene without to save any unsaved changes in your current scene.
saving your unsaved changes. All unsaved changes
will be lost, so use this option carefully!
Saving a Scene
• Selecting Cancel closes the dialog and cancels the
new scene creation, leaving your current Poser scene Selecting File > Save saves your current Poser scene using
open.
have not previously saved your scene, Poser will open the
standard Save As dialog box, allowing you to name and
save your current Poser scene (see below).

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Selecting File > Save As saves your current Poser scene Cancel returns you to Poser, and clicking Revert proceeds
to load the last saved version of your current scene.
location. This feature is useful for creating different versions
of work, which allows you to return to any previous stage
if you decide you don’t like your progress beyond a given
Run Python Script
save point. For example, you could save myscene_1.PZ3,
Selecting File > Run Python Script opens a standard
then save new versions as myscene_2.PZ3, myscene_3.PZ3,
Open dialog, allowing you to browse for your desired
and so forth.
PoserPython script. Once you locate your script, select it
and click OK to execute it.
Compressed File Support

Page Setup
to save hard drive room. To enable compression support,
select Edit > General Preferences, select the Library tab, Selecting File > Page Setup opens a standard Print Setup
and check the Use File Compression box as described in dialog box allowing you to set up your printers. Please refer
“Miscellaneous Preferences” on page 43. to your operating system and/or printer documentation for
information on setting your print preferences.
Reverting Changes
Print
Selecting File > Revert allows you to undo your changes
Selecting File > Print sends your current scene to your
This is a great way to do your recent changes over, selected printer. A standard Print dialog box opens
however you will lose everything you’ve done since the allowing you to select your desired printer and general
last time you saved your scene. This is why we recommend printing properties. Poser documents always print using
that you save your scene often and, if you think you may the full page size. Please refer to your operating system
want to return to an earlier version, to save progressive documentation for information on selecting print options.
versions of your work using the Save As command. Clicking

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Exit You can specify the maximum size of the Undo stack.
Please see “Setting Application Preferences” on page
Selecting File > Exit closes Poser. You are prompted 35 for more information.
to save any unsaved changes. You can also type
[COMMAND]/[CTRL]+[Q] to exit Poser. You can specify whether or not the Undo
feature will apply to camera changes. Open
This menu option is available for Windows only. For the Properties palette for the currently selected
Macintosh, the Quit command appears on the Poser camera, and check the “Remember changes for
Application menu. undo” checkbox in order to apply Undo to camera
changes. Alternately, if you do not wish camera
Undo changes to be included in the Undo feature, make
sure to uncheck this checkbox for each camera.
Selecting Edit > Undo reverses your most recent change This checkbox is active by default.
to the actual scene. You can also press [COMMAND]/
[CTRL]+[Z]. Undo applies only to alterations made within
the actual scene; it is not applicable to changes made to Redo
application settings, Library content, etc.
Poser supports multiple levels of Undo. Selecting Edit > Selecting Edit > Redo reiterates the most recently undone
Undo repeatedly allows you to step backwards through action, thus reverting the scene to its previous state. You
your most recent document changes, reversing each can also press [COMMAND]/[CTRL]+Shift+[Z]. To reverse a
change individually and reverting the scene to its previous Redo action, simply select Edit > Undo again.
state. Some operations within Poser will purge the Undo/
Redo cache; a warning dialog will appear asking you to Cut
will purge the Undo/Redo cache. Selecting Edit > Cut removes the selected element(s) and
places them in the system Clipboard for later pasting. You

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can also press [COMMAND]/[CTRL]+[X]. You can do this for To copy and paste a shaped body part:
poses and other functions.
1. Manipulate the body part using any tool you desire.

2. Select the body part (source), then select Edit > Copy
Copy
or press [COMMAND]/[CTRL]+[C].
Selecting Edit > Copy copies selected elements to the
3. Click to select the body part you wish to copy
Clipboard. You can use this command to copy the
to (target) and select Edit > Paste (see following
position of one prop to another. You can also copy
subsection). This copies all settings from the source to
transformation and rotation channel information from the
the target, including deformers.
selected item and paste that information into another

Paste
Selecting Edit > Paste, or pressing [COMMAND]/[CTRL]+[V],
places the item stored in the Clipboard into your current
scene. If you are pasting a pose, select the element to
apply the copied pose to, then make your selection.

Copying and pasting poses from one side to

the other does not mirror the poses. The same
pose is applied. To mirror poses, use the Symmetry
function.

Before and after abdomen pose settings are copied to a

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Copy Picture to restore scene elements, which are completely restored

to their Poser default states, including but not limited to
Selecting Edit > Copy Picture takes a snapshot of your position, scale, morphs, parameters, materials, parent/
scene, which you can then paste into a graphics child relationships, etc.
application such as Adobe Photoshop. Your scene is
copied exactly as displayed in the Document window. The Restore function is literally for cases when
you wish to go back and start all over again.
Copying and pasting images in this manner is Use it with care!
not the same as rendering. Please refer to
part 9 for information on rendering Poser scenes. The Restore submenu appears as follows:

• Element: Selecting Edit > Restore > Element restores

the current element to its default state. An element
Duplicate
could be a body part, prop, single camera, or single
The Duplicate [ObjectName] option creates an exact light.

• Figure: Selecting Edit > Restore > Figure restores the

duplicate object is placed within the Document window, in
the same position as the original. The duplicate object will
appear in either the Select Figure or Current Actor menu, • Lights: Selecting Edit > Restore > Lights restores all
lights in your scene to their Poser default state.
resized and repositioned independently from the original
object. • Camera: Selecting Edit > Restore > Camera restores the
current camera to its default state.

Restore • All: Selecting Edit > Restore > All restores all scene
elements to their default states. Use this option with
Need to restore a scene element to its default state?
care!
Selecting Edit > Restore opens a submenu allowing you

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Memorize
While working, you might arrive at a convenient stopping
point. You know you like what you have so far and do not
want to revert all the way back to the Poser default state
should you need to restore one or more scene elements
(or even the entire scene) at a later time. No problem.
Select Edit > Memorize and the element(s) you wish to
memorize (the list is the same as for the Restore submenu,
above). Doing this essentially changes the default for your
selected item(s), which can be undesirable in some cases.
Redoing this operation saves the new default overwriting
the old. If you later select Edit > Restore, your element(s)
will be restored to the last memorized settings.

It is very important when setting up new

Edit > Memorize > Figure
command to preserve default poses so that Inverse
Kinematics works properly.

Library entries.

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Chapter 5: The
Document Window
The Document window is your portal to the Poser
workspace where you view and can directly manipulate
your scene and the elements within it. The Document
window consists of two tabs: the Preview tab, which is
where you do the work to set up your Poser scene; and the
Render tab, which is where you can view the results of your
renders. The following topics discuss the Document window
controls and how to use them.

Preview Tab
Clicking on the Preview tab at the top left of the Document
window brings up the scene preview window, where you

scene. Refer to “Preview Tab” on page 422 for detailed

display window. The Preview tab contains the following Components of the Document Window.
controls:

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Title
The Title appears along the top of the Document window,
and displays the current Poser scene (such as My Scene.
PZ3).

Options Menu
Clicking on the arrow at the right side of the Title bar
opens the Document window’s Options menu. This menu
contains the following settings and shortcuts:

Document Window Options menu.

Render
Selecting Render from the Context menu renders your

in the Render Settings dialog, and the render engine

Render Engine Selection menu on the
Render tab. For more information on Poser’s render
settings, see “Part 4: Rendering” on page 415. The render
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results will appear in the Render tab of the Document Export Image
window.
Selecting Export Image opens a standard Save As dialog
that will allow you to save the scene as it appears in your
Render in Background
Choose the Render in Background command from the accomplished by selecting File > Export > Image..
Options menu to render your image or animation in the
background. This option allows you to continue working Upload Main Render To
while your project renders.
Choose Upload Main Render To > Facebook to upload the
Background renders are only available for currently selected render to your Facebook account. For
single frames (images). The Background further information on how to perform the upload, see
Render option will not be available for movies. We “Uploading to Facebook” on page 109.
recommend using the Render Queue (see “Network
Render Queue” on page 453) when rendering
movies. Reload Textures
Clicking on Reload Textures will reload into memory all
textures for the current scene preview display. This allows
Render in Queue you to easily update any changes you may have made in
other applications to the currently loaded textures.
Choose the Render in Queue command to send the
selected render process to the Queue Manager. Further
information on the Queue Manager can be found in Reload Textures
“Installing Queue Manager” on page 30 and “Render
in Queue” on page 417. Clicking on Reload Textures will reload into memory all
textures for the current scene preview display. This allows

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you to easily update any changes you may have made in page 421 for more information on the Render Settings
other applications to the currently loaded textures. dialog options.

Reuse Shadow Maps Render Dimensions

If you do not make changes to lights or object positions Selecting Render Dimensions brings up the Render
between renders, there is no need to recalculate the Dimensions dialog, which contains settings that allow you
shadow maps for your scene, as they will not have to specify the dimensions of your render tab. See “Render
changed. The Reuse Shadow Maps option allows you to Dimensions” on page 80 for more information on the
save the shadow map computations from your previous Render Dimensions dialog settings.
render and reuse them, thereby saving time with each
subsequent render.
Preview Dimensions
Clear Shadow Maps Selecting Preview Dimensions brings up the Preview
Dimensions dialog. Here you can specify your desired
Clicking on Clear Shadow Maps will cause Poser to height and width (in pixels) of the scene preview
recalculate the shadow maps for your scene during the window. Clicking the Match Background button forces
next render. Use this option if you have made changes to the Document window to match the dimensions of an
lights or object positions, as such changes will affect the imported background image or movie. Clicking the Match
shadows in your scene. Production Aspect button sets the scene preview window
size to the currently selected Production Frame aspect. This
button is only active when the Production Frame feature
Render Settings is enabled (see “Production Frame” on page 118).
Selecting Render Settings will open the Render Settings
dialog. See “Chapter 18: The Render Settings Dialog” on

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Collisions object enabled and one disabled, collision detection will

not work.
A collision occurs when two objects in your scene partially
or completely occupy the same 3D space. Selecting the Objects lose their collision detection settings
Collisions menu item opens a pop-up menu that allows when hidden.
you to set the following collision options for your current
Poser scene:

• Collisions On: Checking the Collisions on option

Document Window Size
prevents objects in your scene from colliding with/ The Document
penetrating each other. the Document
ways that you can resize it:
• Collisions Off: Checking the Collisions off option
allows objects in your scene to collide with/penetrate • Clicking and dragging the bottom right corner of the
each other. Document window to your desired size.

• Show Intersections: Checking the Show intersections • Choose Window > Document Window Size, which
option displays colliding polygons in red when objects opens the Preview Dimensions dialog. Enter your
in your scene collide with/penetrate each other but desired scene preview window height and width (in
does not prevent the collision. OK to resize
Once you have set collision preferences for your scene, the Document window.
you must then enable collision detection for each of
the objects for which you want to use this feature. Do • Click the Match Background button to match the
this by selecting your desired objects one at a time and Document window to the dimensions of an imported
checking the Collision Detection checkbox in that object’s background image or movie.
Properties palette. This feature only works between objects
• Click the Match Production Aspect button to set the
that have collision detection enabled. If you have one
scene preview window size to the currently selected

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Production Frame aspect. This button is only active The Document window size is saved in the same manner as
when the Production Frame feature is enabled (see described in “Single/Multiple-View Panes” on page 98.
“Production Frame” on page 118).

Note that the above two options are OpenGL Hardware Acceleration
disabled (as shown below) when the
Poser offers OpenGL hardware accelerated rendering
Document window is docked. To undock the
as well as SreeD software rendering options for the scene
document window, click the Float Palette button in
preview display. Simply right-click (Windows) or Apple key-
the Preview Dimensions dialog.
click (Mac) within the preview window to select hardware
or software rendering for processing the scene previews.
In most cases, hardware rendered previews will be faster
than software rendered previews. Additionally, hardware
accelerated performance is independent of the preview
window size, whereas software rendering will yield a lower
frame rate with larger preview window sizes.
Recent and more powerful graphics cards with OpenGL
support will provide better results with the display of your
Poser scene, with better texture previews and faster
interaction and updating of the scene. Unfortunately,
due to the vast variety of graphics hardware available,
hardware acceleration may not be supported on every
system. In that case please use the SreeD software
rendering option. Poser should automatically detect
whether or not OpenGL hardware rendering is supported
Setting Document Window size. for your system, and if not, should default to SreeD
software rendering.

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those item’s properties and parameter dials are accessible

in the Parameters & Properties palette. Double-clicking
anywhere in the scene preview area will open the
Parameters & Properties palette in the position and state
in which it was last used, with the settings for the currently

by clicking on them directly in the scene preview area.

Choosing your Preview Rendering option.

Select Figure/Current Actor Menus

The top left of the Preview tab contains the Select Figure
(left) and Current Actor (right) pull-down menus. The

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(particularly if you are using conforming clothing, each

• Current Actor Menu: The Current Actor pull-down menu

allows you to select scene items as follows:

Body: Selecting Current Actor > Body selects the

entire body and all body parts of the currently

Body Parts: Selecting Current Actor > Body Parts

body parts. By using this option, you will select only

Props: Selecting Current Actor > Props opens the

list of all props in your scene (including hair and
cloth objects), allowing you to select your desired
prop.

Cameras: Selecting Current Actor > Cameras

opens the list of the cameras in your scene. You
may select any camera from this list. Please refer
Select Figure (left) and Current Actor (right) menus.
to “Chapter 11: Cameras” on page 256 for
information about Poser cameras.

Lights: Selecting Current Actor > Lights opens the

• Select Figure Menu: Use the Select Figure pull-down
list of lights in your scene. You may select any light

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from this list. Please refer to “Chapter 12: Lighting”

on page 276 for information about Poser lights.

Preview Tab Context Menus

Right-clicking (Windows) or Apple key-clicking (Mac)
within a scene preview tab will open up the Context
pop-up menu. The options that appear in this menu vary,
depending on the type of item that you right-click over.

Actors Context Menu

the context menu appears as shown below.

Actor Context Menu.

The Actor context menu provides the following

commands:

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• The top line in the context menu displays the name of • Object Style: Equivalent to using the Display > Object
the selected item. Style command for the selected object. Choose the
desired display style from the submenu. See “Chapter
• Select: Expand the Select menu to select the part 6: The Display Controls and Menu” on page 112 for
that you right-click. A check mark appears beside the more information about the display styles available in
name of the body part when it is set as the current Poser.
selection.
• Duplicate Figure: Equivalent to using the Edit >
• Memorize and Restore: Equivalent to using the Edit > Duplicate command. See “Duplicate” on page 75.
Memorize and Edit > Restore commands as they apply
• : Equivalent to
“Memorize” on page 76 and “Restore” on page using the Figure > Set Figure Parent command. Allows
75.
parent. Choose Universe
• Lock: Equivalent to using the Figure > Lock Figure or See “Set Figure Parent” on page 244.
Object > Lock Object commands. Allows you to lock
or unlock the transformations of the selected actor or • : Equivalent to using the
Figure > Conform To command. Allows you to conform
beside the item. See “Lock Figure” on page 228 and
“Lock Object” on page 224. None “Adding
Conforming Clothing: Manual Conforming” on page
• Hide: Hides the actor that is right-clicked. 153.

• Show All: Equivalent to using the Figure > Show All • Use Inverse Kinematics: Equivalent to using the
Figure > Use Inverse Kinematics command. A check
mark appears beside the leg or hand when inverse
• Frame Object: Equivalent to using the Frame Selected
kinematics is on. See “Inverse Kinematics (IK)” on
camera control or the View > Frame Selected
page 187.
command. See “Frame Selected” on page 118.
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• Symmetry: Equivalent to using the Figure > Symmetry Full Figures Context Menu
command. Expand the menu and choose the desired
symmetry. See “Symmetry” on page 229.

• Figure Style: Equivalent to using the Display > Figure The options in the context menu are similar to those in the
Style command. Allows you to choose the display style Actor context menu described in the previous section.
“Chapter 6: The Display Controls
and Menu” on page 112 for more information about
the display styles available in Poser.

• Camera View: Equivalent to using the Display > Camera

View command. Select the desired camera view from
the context menu.

• OpenGL: Equivalent to using the Display > Preview

Drawing > OpenGL Hardware command. See
“OpenGL Hardware Acceleration” on page 82.

• SreeD: Equivalent to using the Display > Preview

Drawing > SreeD Software command. See “OpenGL
Hardware Acceleration” on page 82.

• Toon Tones: Equivalent to using the Display > Cartoon

Tones command. Select the desired cartoon display
mode from the context menu. See “Cartoon Tones”
on page 127.

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• Select: Expand the Select menu to select the part

that you right-click. A check mark appears beside the
name of the body part when it is set as the current
selection.

• Memorize and Restore: Equivalent to using the Edit >

Memorize and Edit > Restore commands as they apply

“Memorize” on page 76 and “Restore” on page

75.

• Lock: Equivalent to using the Figure > Lock Figure or

Object > Lock Object commands. Allows you to lock
or unlock the transformations of the selected actor or

beside the item. See “Lock Figure” on page 228 and

“Lock Object” on page 224.

• Hide: Hides the actor that is right-clicked.

• Show All Figures: Equivalent to using the Figure >

Show All
Full Figure Context Menu. actors.

• Frame Object: Equivalent to using the Frame Selected

• The top line in the context menu displays the name of camera control or the View > Frame Selected
the selected item. command. See “Frame Selected” on page 118.

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• Object Style: Equivalent to using the Display > Element • Symmetry: Equivalent to using the Figure > Symmetry
Style command for the selected element. Choose the command. Expand the menu and choose the desired
desired display style from the submenu. See “Chapter symmetry. See “Symmetry” on page 229.
6: The Display Controls and Menu” on page 112 for
more information about the display styles available in • Figure Style: Equivalent to using the Display > Figure
Poser. Style command. Allows you to choose the display style
“Chapter 6: The Display Controls
• Duplicate Figure: Equivalent to using the Edit > and Menu” on page 112 for more information about
Duplicate command. See “Duplicate” on page 75. the display styles available in Poser.

• : Equivalent to • Camera View: Equivalent to using the Display > Camera

using the Figure > Set Figure Parent command. Allows View command. Select the desired camera view from
the context menu.
parent. Choose Universe
See “Set Figure Parent” on page 244. • OpenGL: Equivalent to using the Display > Preview
Drawing > OpenGL Hardware command. See
• : Equivalent to using the “OpenGL Hardware Acceleration” on page 82.
Figure > Conform To command. Allows you to conform
• SreeD: Equivalent to using the Display > Preview
None “Adding Drawing > SreeD Software command. See “OpenGL
Conforming Clothing: Manual Conforming” on page Hardware Acceleration” on page 82.
153.
• Toon Tones: Equivalent to using the Display > Cartoon
• Use Inverse Kinematics: Equivalent to using the Tones command. Select the desired cartoon display
Figure > Use Inverse Kinematics command. A check mode from the context menu. See “Cartoon Tones”
mark appears beside the leg or hand when inverse on page 127.
kinematics is on. See “Inverse Kinematics (IK)” on
page 187.

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Props Context Menu • Select: Expand the Select menu to select the prop
that you right-click. A check mark appears beside
the name of the prop when it is set as the current
selection.

• Memorize Prop and Restore Prop: Equivalent to using

the Edit > Memorize and Edit > Restore commands as
they apply to the prop. See “Memorize” on page 76
and “Restore” on page 75.

• Lock Object: Equivalent to using the Object > Lock

Object command. Allows you to lock or unlock the
transformations of the selected prop. The item is
locked when a check mark appears beside the item.
See “Lock Object” on page 224.

• Hide: Hides the actor that is right-clicked.

• Show All Figures: Equivalent to using the Figure >

Show All
actors.

Props Context Menu. • Frame Object: Equivalent to using the Frame Selected
camera control or the View > Frame Selected
command. See “Frame Selected” on page 118.
• The top line in the context menu displays the name of
the selected item. • Object Style: Equivalent to using the Display > Element
Style command for the selected element. Choose the
desired display style from the submenu. See “Chapter
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6: The Display Controls and Menu” on page 112 for Lights Context Menu
more information about the display styles available in
Poser.
lights, see “Chapter 12: Lighting” on page 276.
• Duplicate: Equivalent to using the Edit > Duplicate
command. See “Duplicate” on page 75.

• Change (propname) Parent to: Equivalent to using

the Object > Change Parent command. Allows you

Choose Universe
“Changing a Parent” on page 245.

• Camera View: Equivalent to using the Display > Camera

View command. Select the desired camera view from
the context menu.

• OpenGL: Equivalent to using the Display > Preview

Drawing > OpenGL Hardware command. See
“OpenGL Hardware Acceleration” on page 82.

• SreeD: Equivalent to using the Display > Preview

Drawing > SreeD Software command. See “OpenGL
Hardware Acceleration” on page 82.

• Toon Tones: Equivalent to using the Display > Cartoon

Tones command. Select the desired cartoon display
mode from the context menu. See “Cartoon Tones”
Lights Context Menu.
on page 127.
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• The top line in the context menu displays the name of • Light Type: Allows you to choose the type of light. A
the selected light. check mark appears beside the currently selected
light type.
• Select: Expand the Select menu to select the light
that you right-click. A check mark appears beside the • Include in OpenGL Preview: Allows the effects of the
name of the light when it is set as the current selection. current light to display in the preview render in the
document window. A check mark appears beside the
• Memorize Lights and Restore Lights: Equivalent light if it is included.
to using the Edit > Memorize and Edit > Restore
commands as they apply to the lights. See “Memorize” • Point At: Equivalent to using the Object > Point At
on page 76 and “Restore” on page 75. command. See “Point At” on page 225.

• Duplicate: Equivalent to using the Edit > Duplicate • Change (lightname) Parent to: Equivalent to using
command. See “Duplicate” on page 75. the Object > Change Parent command. Allows

• Lock Light: Equivalent to using the Object > Lock parent. Choose Universe to remove the parent. See
Object command. Allows you to lock or unlock the “Changing a Parent” on page 245.
transformations of the selected light. The item is locked
when a check mark appears beside the item. See • Camera View: Equivalent to using the Display > Camera
“Lock Object” on page 224. View command. Select the desired camera view from
the context menu.
• Light On: Turns the light on or off. A check mark
appears beside the command when the light is on. • OpenGL: Equivalent to using the Display > Preview
Drawing > OpenGL Hardware command. See
• Casts Shadows: Turns shadows on or off for the “OpenGL Hardware Acceleration” on page 82.
selected light. Shadows are on when the option is
checked. • SreeD: Equivalent to using the Display > Preview
Drawing > SreeD Software command. See “OpenGL
Hardware Acceleration” on page 82.
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• Toon Tones: Equivalent to using the Display > Cartoon

Tones command. Select the desired cartoon display
mode from the context menu. See “Cartoon Tones”
on page 127.

Cameras Context Menu

cameras, see “Chapter 11: Cameras” on page 256.

You will need to make the camera visible in

the Properties panel before you right-click to
display the camera context menu.

Cameras Context Menu.

• The top line in the context menu displays the name of

the selected camera.

• Select: Expand the Select menu to select the light

that you right-click. A check mark appears beside the
name of the light when it is set as the current selection.

• Memorize Cameras and Restore Cameras: Equivalent

to using the Edit > Memorize and Edit > Restore
commands as they apply to the selected camera. See

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“Memorize” on page 76 and “Restore” on page • Toon Tones: Equivalent to using the Display > Cartoon
75. Tones command. Select the desired cartoon display
mode from the context menu. See “Cartoon Tones”
• Lock Camera: Equivalent to using the Object > Lock on page 127.
Object command. Allows you to lock or unlock the
transformations of the selected camera. The item is
locked when a check mark appears beside the item. Background Context Menu
See “Lock Object” on page 224.

• Point At: Equivalent to using the Object > Point At

command. See “Point At” on page 225.

• Change (lightname) Parent to: Equivalent to using

the Object > Change Parent command. Allows

parent. Choose Universe to remove the parent. See

“Changing a Parent” on page 245.

• Camera View: Equivalent to using the Display > Camera

View command. Select the desired camera view from
the context menu.

• OpenGL: Equivalent to using the Display > Preview

Drawing > OpenGL Hardware command. See
“OpenGL Hardware Acceleration” on page 82.

• SreeD: Equivalent to using the Display > Preview

Drawing > SreeD Software command. See “OpenGL Background Context Menu.
Hardware Acceleration” on page 82.
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• Memorize and Restore: Equivalent to using the Edit • Bend Body Parts: Equivalent to using the Display >
> Memorize and Edit > Restore commands. See Bend Body Parts command. Toggles bending on and
“Memorize” on page 76 and “Restore” on page “Bend Body Parts” on page 122.
75.
• Antialias Document: Equivalent to using the Render >
• Production Frame: Equivalent to using the Display > Antialias Document command. Smooths rough edges
Production Frame command. See “Production Frame” in the rendered image. See “Antialias Document” on
on page 118. page 418.

• Document Style: Equivalent to using the Display > • Motion Blur Document: Equivalent to using the Render
Document Style command. Allows you to choose the > Motion Blur Document command. Adds a motion
display style for the entire document. See “Chapter blur effect to the render. See “Motion Blur Document”
6: The Display Controls and Menu” on page 112 for on page 418.
more information about the display styles available in
Poser. • Camera View: Equivalent to using the Display > Camera
View command. Select the desired camera view from
• Deformers: Equivalent to using the Display > Deformers the context menu.
command. Allows you to show and hide the deformers
in the scene. See “Deformers” on page 120. • OpenGL: Equivalent to using the Display > Preview
Drawing > OpenGL Hardware command. See
• Ground Shadows: Equivalent to using the Display > “OpenGL Hardware Acceleration” on page 82.
Shadows command. Turns the ground shadow on and
off. See “Ground Shadows” on page 121. • SreeD: Equivalent to using the Display > Preview
Drawing > SreeD Software command. See “OpenGL
• Figure Circle: Equivalent to using the Display > Figure Hardware Acceleration” on page 82.
Circle
“Figure Circle” on page • Toon Tones: Equivalent to using the Display > Cartoon
122. Tones command. Select the desired cartoon display

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mode from the context menu. See “Cartoon Tones” enabled. Then click and drag within the scene preview
on page 127. area to select the portion of the scene you wish to render.
The results will appear in the Render tab of the Document
Render
Area Render Settings
Render Engine Selection menu on the Render tab. Poser
will save the most recently rendered image in the Render
region of your scene to render, thereby allowing you to
tab, allowing you to toggle back and forth between the
more quickly view the results of changes to one part of
Preview and Render tabs, without losing your rendered
your scene, without having to re-render the entire scene
image.
each time. Area Renders appear in the Render tab
overlaid on the window’s existing image at the time the
Area Render was taken, so you can view the rendered Render
area in the context of your entire scene.
The Render icon at the top of the Preview or Render tab is
a shortcut to the Render command. Clicking this symbol
will render your entire Poser scene, using the render settings
Render Settings dialog, and the render
Render Engine Selection menu on
the Render tab. For more information on Poser’s render
settings, see “Part 4: Rendering” on page 415. The render
results will appear in the Render tab of the Document
window.
Area Render icon.

To use the Area Render feature, simply click on the Area

Render icon at the top of the Preview or Render tab. The
symbol will turn red, indicating that Area Render has been
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The Orbit Selected mode does not work with

cameras that are already set to orbit a

and Right Hand cameras).

• Camera Rotation: The Camera Rotation trackball tilts

and spins the currently selected camera about all
three axes.

• Move XZ: Clicking and dragging the Move XZ control

Render icon.
moves the currently selected camera along the X
and/or Z axes.

Mini Camera Controls • Move XY: Clicking and dragging the Move XY control
moves the currently selected camera along the X
The Mini Camera Controls located at the top right of the and/or Y axes.
Preview tab contain a subset of the total available Camera
Please refer to “Chapter 11: Cameras” on page 256 for
controls. From left to right, these are:
detailed information about the Camera controls.
• Frame Selected Object: Allows you to pick a body part
and then frame that body part in the camera view. To
frame another object, select another body part and
click the icon again.

• Orbit Selected Mode: Toggles the Orbit Selected Mini Camera Controls.
feature on and off. When on, the camera will be
centered on the selected body part while rotating. The
arrow turns blue when Orbit Selected mode is active.
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Changing Cameras within a Pane Single/Multiple-View Panes

The camera label in the upper left corner of the scene By default, the Preview tab consists of one pane, meaning
preview tab displays the currently selected camera for that you can view your scene using one camera at a time.
that pane. You can change the selected camera in each You can, however, add up to four simultaneous viewing
pane of the Preview tab. To do this, click on the Current panes (cameras) to your Document window using eight
Actor pop-up menu, or right-click anywhere within the customizable layouts, which helps you visualize your scene
desired pane to open the context menu, and click on the in all dimensions.
Camera View option.
To select a layout, click the Document window Layout
menu button in the lower left corner of the Preview tab,
and select your desired layout from the pop-up menu.

• To toggle between single pane and the most recently

selected multiple-pane layout, press [D].

• Press [F] to cycle through all of the available multiple-

pane layouts.

Choosing a camera view from the menu commands.

To change the camera, click your desired option. The view

in the selected pane will switch to your newly selected
camera.

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given scene, and these selections are also saved

when you save your Poser scene.

• To use the same layout every time you launch

Poser, select the Previous State option from the
General Preferences dialog as described in “Setting
Application Preferences” on page 35. You can also
save up to nine pane/camera layouts using the UI
Memory dots (see “Memory Dots” on page 60).

• Clicking anywhere in a pane makes that pane active.

A red border appears around the active pane.

Tracking Mode
Tracking mode determines the type of preview Poser uses
to display an object when you reposition either that object
or a camera. The Tracking Mode pop-up menu in the lower
left corner of the Preview tab offers three tracking mode
options. From top to bottom, these are:

Multiple view panes. • Box

bounding boxes all the time, whether still or moving.
This is the fastest way to preview scenes and is useful
• You can resize panes by clicking and dragging their
for rough blocking work.
borders. Poser remembers pane sizes and camera
selections if you switch layouts while working on a
• Fast
selected display style while they or the camera are still
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and as bounding boxes when in motion. This combines Depth Cueing

an accurate scene view so you can see before
and after images without waiting for each frame to The Depth Cueing button appears to the right of the
fully render. Fast tracking can help save time while Tracking Mode menu along the bottom left of the Preview
blocking out scenes and creating animations. tab.

• Full: Displays scene elements in the currently selected Depth Cueing adds dimension to scene elements visible
Document window display style at all times, whether in the Document window. When Depth Cueing is enabled,
still or animated. This mode is suitable for users with elements farther away from the camera fade into the
distance. This provides a quick visual indication of the
tuning on previously blocked-out scenes. depth of your scene, which can be helpful if you are
viewing it using a single pane. To toggle depth cueing
on and off, click the Depth Cueing button. Depth Cueing
depends on the total depth of your scene. For example,

Adding another element (such as a prop) farther from

wish to control the amount of depth cueing in your scene.

Box and Full tracking modes.

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Shadows
Items in your scene can cast shadows on the ground
plane, which can help you orient them in 3D space.
Disabling shadows can help speed up scene redraw time.
The Shadows button appears in the lower left corner of the
Document window. Clicking the Shadows button allows
you to choose which shadows will be displayed in the
preview window as you build your scene:

Depth cueing fades objects that are farther away in the

distance. Shadow display options.

Depth cueing and shadows do not affect • No Shadows: Turns shadow display off. This can help
your rendered output. improve performance on systems that have limited
hardware resources.

• Ground Shadows: Displays shadows on the ground

• Hardware Shadows: Displays more realistic shadows in

relation to the lights in your scene.
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The Enable Hardware Shading option in the appearing within the Document window’s Preview tab.
Preview tab of the Render Settings dialog The four dots located along the lower-right corner of the
must be enabled for hardware shadows to display. Preview tab allow you to control the following colors,
respectively:

• Ground and Hardware Shadows: Displays both ground

and hardware shadows (if enabled).

Interface options for foreground, background, shadow, and

ground colors.

• Foreground: Clicking the Foreground button opens

Displaying ground and hardware shadows. the Poser Color Picker and displays an eyedropper
icon. Pressing [OPT]/[ALT] while clicking this button
opens your operating system’s standard Color Picker.
Position this dropper over the color you wish to select
Colors and click it. If you use the operating system’s standard
Color Picker, you can alter the color using numeric
You can improve your view of your scene by altering the
values. The Foreground color affects the color of the
foreground, background, shadow, and ground colors
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Silhouette, Outline, Wireframe, and Hidden Line display • Shadow: Change the Shadow color as described
modes (see “Chapter 6: The Display Controls and above. This color affects the preview shadow
Menu” on page 112). displayed in the Preview tab (if enabled).

• Ground: Change this color as described above.

This color affects the ground plane displayed in the
Preview tab (if enabled).

Render Tab
Clicking on the Render tab at the top left of the Document
The color picker. window displays the main render window, where you can
see the rendered results of your Poser scene. The Render
• Background: Change the Background color as tab contains the following controls:
described above. This color affects the Poser
workspace background.

is attached to the Color channel of the Root

Background node. However, if you wish the same
image to appear in the preview render, you must
also attach it to the BG Picture or BG Movie node.
For more information about nodes, please refer to
“Chapter 16: Material Room Nodes” on page 345.

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Render Dimensions dialog, which contains the following

settings:

Render Dimensions options.

Render Window controls.

• Match Preview Window: Clicking the Match Preview
Window radio button sets the resulting render to match
the existing render preview window size.
Render Dimensions
• Fit in Preview Window: Alternately, clicking the Fit in
The main render window size is displayed in the upper left
Preview Window
corner of the Render tab. Clicking this display brings up the
within the render preview window, while maintaining

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• Render to Exact Resolution: Clicking the Render to • Match Document Window: Clicking the Match
Exact Resolution radio button will generate the render Document Window button sets the Document window’s
current size in the Width and Height
The production frame is determined by the aspect ratio
resulting from the output width and height. You can set the
• Width: Enter the width in pixels for the render window
production frame to be visible in the Document window’s
in the Width
scene preview area, by selecting Display > Production
render and require more disk space.
Frame from the menu bar.
• Height: Enter the height in pixels for the render window
in the Height
Quick-Scale
render and require more disk space.
The Quick-Scale pop-up menu is along the top left of the
• Resolution: Enter the resolution in dot pixels per inch
Render tab. It offers quick access to three different render
(DPI) in the Resolution
scale options: Full Size, Half Size, and Quarter Size. Note
resolution images and is suitable for images you intend
that this feature is not intended to replace the Render
to distribute online. 300DPI is appropriate for most
Dimensions menu, but rather is a tool for facilitating quick
print functions, and 1200DPI is used when you need
render previews, as the smaller scale render sizes require
extreme detail. Higher resolution images require more
less time to calculate.
disk space and take longer to render.

• Constrain Aspect Ratio: Checking the Constrain

Aspect Ratio checkbox preserves the render window’s
aspect ratio (width divided by height). For example, if
you begin with 640x480 and change the 640 to 1280,
the height will automatically change to 960. Clearing
this checkbox disables this option.

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Quick Scaling options. Selecting a render engine.

Render Engine Selection Area Render

Click on the name of the currently selected render engine, Clicking the Area Render icon along the top right of the
along the top of the Render tab, to display the Render Render tab enables the Area Render feature, which allows
Engine popup menu. This menu allows you to easily switch
between the various renderers included with Poser. To render, thereby saving processing time. Area Render uses
modify the render settings for each render engine, open Render Settings dialog,
the Render Settings dialog by clicking on Render > Render Render Engine
Settings... in the menu bar (see “Chapter 18: The Render Selection menu (as described above). Area Render is
Settings Dialog” on page 421 for a description of this available for the FireFly renderer only. Please see “Area
window). Render” on page 96 for a complete description of this
feature’s functionality.

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Render Pan
To render the current image, click the Render icon along If the image you have rendered is larger than the render
the top of the Render tab. The results will display in the window size, you can pan the image by clicking and
main render window area, using the render settings dragging in the main render window. The Pan symbol
Render Settings dialog, and the render at the top right of the Render tab activates this feature.
Render Engine Selection menu (as Panning is useful as it allows you to shrink the Document
described above). window as needed, such as when entering the Material
room, and still have access to your entire rendered image.

New Render Window (Tear Off)

Clicking the Tear Off arrow symbol next to the Render icon
Render Comparison
sends the current Main render image to a new window. Poser offers convenient render comparison features,
You can then select a previously rendered image, or allowing you to contrast two different rendered images
generate a new one, in the main render window and within the main render window. Clicking either of the two
compare the two images side by side. squares in the lower left corner of the Render tab brings
up a pop-up menu listing the most recent renders by date
and time. By default, the most recent render is set as the
Main render, and is checked in the list under the black
square. The second most recent render is the default
Compare render, and is checked in the list under the white
square. You can, however, select any render from the
list as your Main and Compare renders. To compare the
Main and Compare renders, use the Render Wipe slider
at the bottom of the main render window. Moving the
New Render Window icon. slider to the right displays the Main render, while moving
it to the left displays the Compare render. The default
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this number in the General Preferences dialog. (See

Displaying Recent Renders
“Setting Application Preferences” on page 35 for more You can use the Recent Renders palette to display
information about the General Preferences dialog.) thumbnails of your most recent rendered images. This

other palettes in your workspace.

To show or hide the Recent Renders palette, choose
Window > Recent Renders. A check mark appears beside
the command when the palette is visible.
From the Recent Renders palette, you can perform the
following functions:

• Click a thumbnail in the Recent Renders palette to

display the selected render in the Render window.
Partially and fully completed renders appear in this
palette

The number of thumbnails that appear in the

palette are determined by the Max Cached
Renders setting in the Render tab of the General
Preferences dialog. For more information on this
setting see “Render Preferences” on page 41.
Render Comparison controls.

Right-click a thumbnail to display a context menu with the

following commands.

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Export Image: Opens the Export As dialog, which

allows you to save the render in one of the
supported image formats.

Upload To: Allows you to upload the selected

render to Facebook, as described later in this
chapter.

Set Compare Image: Designates the selected

image as the image to compare with another
thumbnail for use with the Render Wipe slider.

Delete: Deletes the selected render from the

render cache, and removes the thumbnail from
the Recent Renders palette.

Recent Renders options.

Uploading to Facebook
If you have a Facebook account, you can upload your
renders to your account directly from within Poser. The
steps are as follows:
1. After you complete your render, do one of the
following:
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Click the arrow at the upper-right corner of the

Document window to display the Options menu.
Then choose Upload Main Render To > Facebook.

Uploading to Facebook from the Recent Renders Palette.

2. In the dialog that appears, you are asked to enter

a name for the Facebook album that you want to
upload to, and to add a description of the image.
After you enter the information, click OK to launch
Facebook.

Uploading to Facebook from the Document Window options 3. A browser window opens and you are asked to log in
menu. to your Facebook account.

4. If you have not yet set up the Smith Micro Video

You can also choose Window > Recent Renders
Uploader, you are directed to a page where you
to display the Recent Renders palette. Then right-
check an option to allow Smith Micro Software Video
click on the thumbnail of the image that you want
Uploader to publish content. Click Allow Publishing
to upload, and choose Upload to > Facebook from
to save the authorization permissions. You will be
the context menu.
prompted to close the browser window to return to the
Smith Micro Software Video Uploader.
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Uploader.

5. Your Facebook account opens, where you should see

the image posted on your wall.

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Chapter 6: The Display Clicking the arrow to the left of the title opens a pull-down
menu with the following options:

Controls and Menu

Poser allows you to select 12 display styles. Selecting a
different display style can help you better visualize your
scene and/or add additional artistic interest to your
rendered output. You can select display styles on the

Display styles can be set for the entire document, for a single

By default, the display style that you select will be applied

to the entire document (Document Display Style). You can

the selected element.

Document Display Style controls. • To change the display style for the entire document,
choose Display > Document Style > (display option),
or choose Document Style from the Display controls
The Display Controls palette has adjustable
palette and click the display style icon you want to
width and height, and the controls auto-

needed to display all the controls, a scrollbar

or actor is overridden as described below.
appears on the right side of the palette.

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• Figure Style, or Element Style display control palette, there

choose Display > Figure Style > (display option), or are twelve different display styles from which to choose.
choose Figure Style and click the desired display They are as follows:
type from the Display controls palette shown above.
Selecting the Figure Style option accesses the Figure • Silhouette
Display controls, which causes only the selected cutout, as shown to the right.

affecting the other scene elements. To revert the

selected actor back to the document style, choose
Display > Figure Style > Use Document Style, or click
the Use Document Style option in the Figure Style
display options palette.

• To change the display style for the selected element

(such as a prop or selected body part actor on a
Display > Element Style > (display
Silhouette Display Style.
option), or choose Element Style and click the desired
display type from the Display controls palette shown
• Outline
the selected style without affecting the other scene
elements. If the selected element is a body part on a displayed in this mode, outlines appear around each
actor (body part), as shown to the right.
Display > Element Style
> Use Figure Style, or by clicking the Use Figure Style
option in the Element Style display options palette.
Whether you use the Display > Document Style, Figure
Style, or Element Style menu, or the Document Style,

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Outline Display Style. Wireframe Display Style.

• Wireframe • Hidden Line

mesh. This mode displays the actual polygons polygons that would normally be visible from the
current camera. For example, if you are viewing a
that would normally be hidden from view (such as a
would not be visible, as shown to the right.
to the right.

Hidden Line Display Style.

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• Lit Wireframe: displays much the same as the

Wireframe display style, except that the polygons’
colors correspond to the color of the surface material,
as shown to the right.

Flat Shaded Display Style.

• Flat Lined: same as the Flat Shaded display style,

Lit Wireframe Display Style. except that black mesh lines clearly denote polygon
edges, as shown to the right.

• Flat Shaded
surface material colors while displaying the mesh
facets, as shown to the right.

Flat Lined Display Style.

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• Cartoon
hand-drawn style, as shown to the right. See “Cartoon
Tones” on page 127 for more information about this
shading style. Poser offers improved Cartoon display
effects in conjunction with the OpenGL hardware
acceleration option (see “OpenGL Hardware
Acceleration” on page 82).

Cartoon with Line Display Style.

• Smooth Shaded
continuous surfaces with the material colors, as shown
to the right.

Cartoon Display Style.

• Cartoon With Line: same as the Cartoon display style,

lines, as shown to the right. See “Cartoon Tones” on

page 127 for more information.

Smooth Shaded Display Style.

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• Smooth Lined: combines the Flat Lined and Smooth You can also change display styles by selecting Display
Shaded by displaying the polygons as a black mesh > Document Style, Display > Figure Style, and Display >
over a smooth surface, as shown to the right. Element Style.
By default, Poser renders using the Texture Shaded mode.
While rendering high-resolution output using the currently
selected display styles and/or depth cueing, etc. is not
directly supported, you can achieve excellent results using
the rendering tips discussed in “Tips & Tricks” on page
427.

The Display Menu Commands

Smooth Lined Display Style.
As the name implies, the Display menu controls how items

• Texture Shaded Document window.

maps, as shown to the right.

Camera View
Choose Display > Camera View to select one of the
cameras available in your scene. See “Chapter 11:
Cameras” on page 256 for more information about the
various camera views.

Texture Shaded Display Style.

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Camera Layout selected object or body part and you can rotate the
camera so that it is always in the center.
Choose Display > Camera Layout to select the number of
different views that you want to display in the document The Orbit Selected mode does not work with
window. See “Single/Multiple-View Panes” on page 98 cameras that are already set to orbit a
for more information about multiple views.
and Right Hand cameras).

Fly Around
This command puts the current camera in Flyaround Show Camera Names
mode. For more information, see “Flyaround View” on
This command shows or hides the display of camera
page 262.
names in the document window.

Frame Selected Production Frame

The Frame Selected
Selecting Display > Production Frame allows you to specify
around the currently selected actor. For example, you can
whether you wish the production frame to be visible in
pick a body part, and then choose the Frame Selected
the Document window’s scene preview. The size of the
command to frame the camera view around that body
production frame is determined by the aspect ratio
part.
resulting from the output width and height. See “Render
Dimensions” on page 80 and “Chapter 24: Rendering
Orbit Selected Mode Animations” on page 559 for more information about

The Orbit Selected command rotates the camera around respectively.

the currently selected actor. This command is a toggle.
When toggled on, the camera will be centered on the

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Document Style If your currently selected element (body part,

prop, hair, and so on) does not use the same
Selecting Display > Document Style allows you to select a
display style for your entire Poser scene. This is the same as choose Display > Element Style > Use Figure Style
using the Display controls discussed earlier. to change to change it to the same display mode

Figure Style
Selecting Display > Figure Style allows you to select a Depth Cued
the same as using the Display controls discussed earlier. Selecting Display > Depth Cued toggles depth cueing on
and off. Depth cueing makes objects fade as they get
further from the camera. A check mark appears when this
the same display style as the document, feature is active and vice versa. Please refer to “Depth
choose Display > Figure Style > Use Document Style Cueing” on page 100 for more information about depth
to change to change it to the same display mode cueing.
that is selected for Document Display Style.

Element Style
Selecting Display > Element Style allows you to select a
display style for your currently selected scene element (for
example, a body part or a prop). This is the same as using
the Display controls.

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Deformers
As the name implies, deformers (morph targets,

deformers to improve bending and joint

performance.

Each deformer type is discussed in its own section later in

this manual. Selecting Display > Deformers allows you to:

•
in your scene (Display > Deformers > Show All).

Depth Cueing fades objects over distance. • Hide all deformers in your scene (Display > Deformers
> Hide All).

• Only show the currently selected deformer. (Display >

Tracking Deformers > Show current selection only).

Selecting Display > Tracking allows you to set your desired A check mark appears next to the currently selected
tracking mode. Please refer to “Tracking Mode” on page deformer display mode. You can select hidden deformers
99 for more information about tracking modes. using the Current Actor pull-down menu. Hiding some or
all deformers can reduce clutter, particularly in complex
scenes.

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Please refer to “Shadows” on page 101 for more

information about ground shadows.

Deformers hidden (top) and visible (bottom).

Ground shadows (top); Hardware shadows (middle); Both

(bottom).
Ground Shadows
Selecting Display > Ground Shadows displays or hides

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Figure Circle
Selecting Display > Figure Circle toggles displaying a white

which turns red depending on cursor location, allowing

“Selecting
Body Parts” on page 191 for more information about the
Figure Circle.

Bend Body Parts

Selecting Display > Bend Body Parts toggles bending on
and off. All body parts are separate elements (actors). As
you change their positions, Poser attempts to maintain
continuity over the entire body. The arm should connect
smoothly to the shoulder, etc. Poser achieves these
smooth transitions by bending body parts where they group seams.
join. However, the bends that work well for a body part

props (such as replacing a hand with a hook for a pirate

Foreground/Background Color
character). Rendering images with bending disabled can
Selecting Display > Foreground Color or Display >
Background Color allows you to specify the Document
window’s foreground and background colors, respectively.
You can also do this using the Color controls located next
to the Document window. Please refer to “Colors” on page

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102 for an explanation of foreground and background

colors.

Show Background Picture

If you have a background image in your scene that was
placed there using either the File menu (see “Importing
Background Pictures” on page 845) or by pasting the

then selecting Display > Show Background Picture toggles

displaying this image on and off. Please refer to “Importing
Movies” on page 844 for more information on adding a
background animation to your Poser scene.

Clear Background Picture

Selecting Display > Clear Background Picture deletes the
currently displayed background image (if any). You can paste a “snapshot” of your scene onto the
background and make changes.

Paste Onto Background

background, then Select Display > Paste onto Background.
prop into your scene background: This is especially helpful If you do this more than once, each succeeding image
for planning animation. supersedes the previous one. This is also true if you import a
separate background image/movie.

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Show Background Footage shader as described in “FireFly Options Settings” on

page 442. Please refer to “Root Background Node”
Selecting Display > Show Background Footage displays on page 349 for information about using background
imported animation footage in the workspace shaders.
background.

Guides
Clear Background Footage
Poser provides several guides to assist you when posing
Selecting Display > Clear Background Footage removes
imported animation footage from your scene. achieve a particular perspective more easily. To display
a guide, select Display > Guides and select the guide
you wish to display. A check mark appears next to visible
Use Background Shader Node guides. To hide a guide, select Display > Guides and select
the guide you wish to hide. Hidden guides have no check
There are two ways of specifying the background of a
marks next to them. The available guides are described in
scene – by loading an image in the BG Picture node, or by
the following sections.
attaching a shader tree to the Background root node:
If you want to use the BG Picture node as the background Ground Plane
of your rendered image, choose Render over >
Background picture in the Render Settings dialog, as The ground plane provides a basic reference of the
described in “FireFly Options Settings” on page 442. camera’s position relative to the Poser workspace. It also
Please refer to “Importing Background Pictures” on page helps show scene elements’ vertical positions relative to
845 for information on importing background pictures. one another. You can display the ground plane using the
same display style as the rest of your scene or you can give
• If you want to use the shader attached to the it its own display styles.
Background root node as the background of your
rendered image, choose Render over > Current BG

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The ground plane represents the “zero” point of the scene’s

height.

Head lengths are represented by several parallel planes.

Head Lengths

Hip-Shoulder Relationship
roughly seven “heads” tall, meaning that the average
head is 1/7th the height of a person. This guide can be
helpful when you are performing body shaping operations upper and lower body. It helps you see the side-to-side,
such as using morph targets. bend, and twist in the hip, abdomen, and chest. This is

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and checking its position relative to the horizon line.

different cameras. The horizon line is also useful when creating perspective

have their feet on the ground.

Hip and shoulder relationship guides.

Displaying the horizon line.

Horizon Line

This guide references the Poser workspace’s horizon line.

You can check camera orientation by selecting a camera

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Vanishing Lines Focus Distance Guide

Vanishing lines are an artistic technique for achieving The focus distance is the distance at which objects appear
realistic perspective. You can see this is real life by standing
at the corner of a long building and sighting along a each camera. The Focus Distance Guide shows you where
wall. You will see that the roof and the ground appear to the focus distance for the selected camera falls within
converge the farther away you look until they eventually the scene, to help you visualize the position of various
meet. This phenomenon is one of the things that give scene elements in relationship to the focal plane. For more
objects the appearance of depth in both real and virtual information on the focal plane and focus distance, see
life. “Camera Parameters” on page 267.

Preview Drawing
Selecting Preview Drawing allows you to specify whether
you wish to use OpenGL hardware rendering, or SreeD
software rendering, for your scene preview display. Please
see “OpenGL Hardware Acceleration” on page 82
for more information about hardware versus software
rendering.

Cartoon Tones
Selecting Cartoon Tones allows you to choose between
Displaying vanishing lines. the following options for your scene preview display: One,
Two, or Three cartoon shading tones, Three Tones Plus
Highlights, and Smooth Toned. These shading styles affect

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when Cartoon is selected as the Document Style, Figure

Style, or Element Style from the Display menu. Note that
these styles are for the scene preview only, and are not to

Comic Book Preview Mode

Comic book preview mode displays the items in your
preview window with a look that is similar to comic book
illustration, without the need to assign materials that have
Toon IDs. The previews include persistent shadowing and
improved outlining. Comic Book styles not only work in
Texture Shaded mode, but they also work with any other
display style (Wireframe, Flat shaded, Cartoon, and so on).
The Cartoon Tones command, mentioned previously,
Comic Book (left) and Comic Book (Color) (right).
includes two Comic Book mode toggles: Comic Book is
used for black and white preview, and Comic Book (Color)
There are two ways to enable one of the Comic Book
for color previews:
styles:

• Choose Display> Cartoon Tones > Comic Book or

Display > Cartoon Tones > Comic Book (Color).

• Right-click in the viewport, and choose Toon Tones >

Comic Book, or Toon Tones > Comic Book (Color).

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You can use the Render > Antialias Document

open the Render Settings dialog to render an image

using your current Preview settings.

You can use the Comic Book Threshold slider, located

below the lower-left corner of the document window. To
adjust the light/dark contrast of the comic book preview,
simply click the Comic Book Threshold icon to display the
slider.

Comic Book Threshold slider

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Chapter 7: The Poser • Use the Up and Down arrow keys to move higher or
lower in your content tree.

Library • Use the Right and Left arrow keys to open and close
folders.
Poser’s hierarchical Library palette provides access to
• Click or select an item in the list to expand the display
and view a larger preview of the content item.
props, lights, cameras, etc. It has three tabs: the Library
tab that provides access to the Poser content categories,
the Search tab which allows you to search your content
Favorites tab where you
can gain easy access to your frequently used or favorite
content items. The Library tab contains ten categories,
discussed below. Each category is further divided into
subcategories. You can create and remove categories
and subcategories, and can add and remove content,
including your existing content libraries, to/from the Library
palette. See “Maintaining Your Library Palette” on page
171 for information on maintaining your Library palette.
Poser can also automatically install content purchased or
obtained using the Content room as described in “Chapter
8: The Content Room” on page 183.

that are contained in the library palette. The boxed area in

Figure 1 shows the Library list. Navigate through the Library
list as follows:

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1. Library Tabs: Allows you to switch between three views

in the Library Palette: Library, Search, and Favorites.

2. Category Icons: Allows you to select one of the ten

library categories. From left to right, they are Figures,
Poses, Faces, Hair, Hands, Props, Lights, Cameras,
Materials and Scenes.

3. Library Selection: Click the Show Library selector to

display all runtime folders, or to display the contents of
a single selected runtime folder in the library contents
window.

4. Expanded folder: Click the down arrow to collapse

the contents of the folder. The number that appears
in brackets at the beginning of the folder name
designates the number of items that are contained
within that folder.

5. Collapsed folder: Click the right arrow to expand

the contents of the folder. The number that appears
in brackets at the beginning of the folder name
designates the number of items that are contained
within that folder.

The Library Window. 6. Category Selection: Allows you to select a library

category (listed above in Category Icons) by name.

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7. Remove Library: A Remove Library (-) icon appears 11. Single check mark: Click the single check mark icon
to the right of the Add Library icon when you use the to replace the item that is currently selected in your
Show Library menu to select a Library that you added scene with the item that is highlighted in the library.
yourself through the Add Library command. See Functions of the single check mark button vary,
“Removing Libraries” on page 143 for details. depending on the Library category that is currently
selected. See “Loading and Managing Items using
8. Add Library: Click the Add Library (+) icon to open the the Library Icons” on page 144.
Browse for Folder dialog, which allows you to select
additional Library folders that you have stored on your 12. Double Check mark: Click the double-check mark icon
computer. to add the currently selected item to your scene. The
double check mark does not appear for every Library
Content that is created for Poser is typically category and the purpose varies depending on the
arranged in a folder named Runtime, with selected category. See “Loading and Managing
subfolders beneath that for geometry, textures, and Items using the Library Icons” on page 144.
library items. For more information about creating,
13. Add a Folder (+}: Click this button to create a new
installing and accessing additional library folders,
folder or subfolder beneath the currently selected
see “Accessing Different Content Libraries” on
library folder.
page 139

14. Save to Library (+): Click this button to add the item
9. Item List Panel: The currently selected item is that is currently selected in your scene into the library.
highlighted in blue. If the Item List Panel is not
displayed, the currently selected item displays as a 15. Delete from Library (-): Click this button to delete the
larger icon in the Tree view. library content item that is currently selected. Note
that this button completely removes the library item
10. Extended Details Panel from the Library, not from your scene.

item that is selected in the library. 16. Add to Favorites: Adds the item that is currently
highlighted in the library to the library’s Favorites tab.
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17. Display Options Widget: Click the Display Options • Additional library preferences appear in the Library
widget to expand or collapse the display options in the tab of the General Preferences dialog. See “Library
bottom of the library palette. Preferences” on page 39 for a discussion of the

18. Display Options: Use the Display, Tree, List, and

General
displayed in the Library palette. the docking options menu, accessible by clicking
the Docking Control square in the upper-rght
19. Breadcrumb Trail: Displays the library path to the corner of the Library window.
currently selected folder or item. Use the Up arrow at
In Poser Pro, the docking options menu is not
the left of the breadcrumb trail to navigate up to the
available in the upper-right corner of the Library
previous folder level.
window when using the Library in external mode.
20. Library Menu (not shown): Appears in the 32-bit Library However, you will notice a library popup widget
only. Click the Docking Control icon (the small square) in the upper-right corner of the Poser interface
in the upper-right corner to select commands that that allows you to bring the library window to the
dock, undock, close, or enable/disable dragging. foreground when it falls behind other windows or is
Refer to “Docking and Floating Palettes” on page minimized.
45 for further information.

Displaying the Library Palette

If the Library Palette is not open, select Window > Libraries.
The library consists of several different sections that can be
shown or hidden. For further information, see “Displaying
the Library Palette” on page 133. The Library Popup widget.

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When you use the Poser Library as an

external application (Poser Pro only), you will
see two icons in the system tray. The icon with the

appears behind other windows. Similarly, the icon

with the scrolled document brings the external
library application to the foreground.

Poser and Poser Library icons.

position and resize it however you like. Drag either

side of the Library palette across your screen
to the desired width. You can also move the
Library palette to a second monitor if desired. For
further instructions on arranging palettes, refer to
“Docking and Floating Palettes” on page 45.
The Library Palette allows you to display your content in
a variety of ways. You can display your content in a Tree Viewing library items in Tree view.
view, which displays all of the content in your libraries in a
hierarchical list. The tree view appears as shown below if Alternatively, you can undock the Library palette and
the Item List display is turned off display content thumbnails in multiple rows and columns,

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which allows a better view of all of the content in a Changing the Library Appearance
selected folder. When Item List is open, a hierarchical tree
appears in the left side of the library. When you select A widget appears at the bottom of the Library palette, just
a folder in the tree, the folders and content within the
selected folder appear in a multi-column display that Click this widget to expand the Library palette to view the
display options described in the sections that follow:
below.

The Library Display Options widget.

Displaying thumbnails in multiple rows and columns.

The following section describes how you can customize

the appearance of the Library palette to suit your needs.

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General Options • Tool Tip Delay (ms): Drag the slider left or right to adjust
the amount of time between hovering over a library
name and displaying its path tool tip. Time delay is
adjustable from 100 to 1000 ms.

• Show Folder Counts: Check or uncheck this option to

show or hide the number that represents the number
of items in a folder. When checked, the number
of items contained in the folder appears within
General library options.
parentheses.

• Always On Top: Check this option to keep the Library Display Options
window on top of all other open windows on the
screen. When unchecked, the Library window will be
allowed to move behind other windows when they
have focus.

• Reopen Folders: When checked, preserves the state of

current open folders when you close and then reopen
the library. If you toggle it off, the library reverts to a
Display library options.
completely clean state when relaunched, with all
folders closed.
Check or uncheck the options listed below, to show or
• Show Path Tool Tip: Enable or disable the tool tip that hide the various areas in the Library Palette as desired.
displays the path to a library folder when you hover
your mouse over a folder name in the library.

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• Item List Panel: Displays the folders and content

thumbnails for the folder that is selected in the tree.
The thumbnail display appears in multiple rows and
columns that adjust to the width and height of the
Library palette. Check or uncheck this option to show
or hide the item list panel.

• Extended Details Panel: Displays information about the

selected item. Check or uncheck this option to show
or hide the extended details.

The Extended Details panel will display basic

information such as the product name, size,

metadata can also appear about a library item if it

has been added by the author of the content.
Breadcrumbs, Tree, Item List, and Extended Details in the Extended details can include additional information
Library palette. such as author name, copyright information, usage

that ends with an XMP extension. For more

• Tree: Displays a hierarchical view of the contents of information, see the article at http://blog.
your library. Check or uncheck this option to show or smithmicro.com/2010/07/12/poser-3d/metadata-
hide the hierarchical tree in the Library Palette. If the makes-life-in-poser-easier/.
Item List Panel is turned off, thumbnails appear in the
tree.

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• Breadcrumbs: Displays the runtime folder path to the

selected library folder. Check or uncheck this option to
show or hide the breadcrumbs.

• Ticker: Displays up to the minute news about Poser

and related content.

When breadcrumbs are displayed, you can Tree library options.

use the Up arrow icon (at the right of the
Breadcrumb trail) to navigate to the next highest
• Thumbnail Size: Drag the slider left or right to decrease
folder level in the path. You can also click any folder
or increase the size of the preview thumbnails.
in the breadcrumb trail to move up to the selected
level. • Selected Thumbnail Size: Drag the slider left or right
to decrease or increase the size of the thumbnail for
Tree Options selected library items.

Thumbnails and additional product details appear in the • Show Item Details: Shows or hides the File Name, Size,
Tree if you have selected to disable the Item List Panel.
The options in the Tree Options section control the size of currently selected library item.
preview and selected item thumbnails, details, and other
• Tree Indentation: Drag the slider left or right to
items in the Tree.
decrease or increase the amount of indentation for
items and folders that appear within and beneath
library folders.

• Show Folder Thumbnails: Check or uncheck this

option to show or hide Folder icons in the library. When
unchecked, only the name of a folder will appear

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in the library. When checked, a small Folder icon Details Options

appears beside the folder name.

List Options

When the Item List is enabled, thumbnails appear

panel. Settings in the List Options section control size of Details library options.
the thumbnail and the placement of text around the
thumbnail. • Show Image: Check this option to display an image of
the selected library item in the Extended Details panel.
Uncheck the option to remove the image display.

• Max Image Size: If you have images displayed in the

Extended Details panel, drag the slider toward the left
to reduce the size of the image, or toward the right to
List library options. increase the size.

• Thumbnail Size: Drag the slider left or right to decrease

or increase the size of the content thumbnails.
Accessing Different Content
Libraries
• Label Height: Adjusts the amount of vertical space
between the thumbnail rows to allow for labels that Poser contains two Libraries: Runtime (contains the content
have multiple lines. that shipped with your copy of Poser) and Downloads (a
default folder for added third-party content).
• Horizontal Gap: Adjusts the amount of horizontal space
between the thumbnails

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Poser content libraries are arranged in

Runtime folders, which contain many
different types of components that are used in

hair, and poses, Runtime folders can also contain

application-critical data. The collection of different

types of elements in a Runtime folder is known as a
Library.

You may add as many Libraries as you wish. This feature

allows you to store Poser content in different folders and/
or different drives, making content management more
powerful than ever. Also, should you need to reinstall
Poser for any reason, you can do so without affecting your
custom Libraries. You can access each of your Libraries
using the Library palette.
You can add and access external libraries from the Library
palette.
Switching Libraries

the Show Library menu, which is located along the top of

Adding Libraries
the Library tab of the Library palette. Doing so will open
As mentioned earlier, Poser creates Runtime and
the Available Libraries pop-up menu, from which you can
Download libraries during installation, dependent upon
display the contents of any single Library, or of all your
which content you elect to install during installation. There
runtime libraries.
is also a great deal of third-party content available for

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Poser, and if you have acquired a large collection you Props

(vendor or product folder)

library folders. Then you can use the following process to Scene
(vendor or product folder)
make your additional folders appear in the Library palette.
Textures
Runtime folders have a structure similar to the following. (vendor or product folder)
Folders and content shown in italics are unique to the
content and are named by the creator of the content. Poser products do not always contain all of the above-
Runtime mentioned folders beneath the Runtime folder. For
Geometries
(vendor or product folder) example, if you are installing a piece of clothing, it might
Geometries, Props, and Textures folders but
Libraries
Camera not in the others.
(vendor or product folder)
As an example of creating a new Library on your hard
Character drive, assume the following:
(vendor or product folder)

Face • You have collected dozens or hundreds of items that

(vendor or product folder)

Hair them into different libraries that make the content

(vendor or product folder)

Hand
(vendor or product folder) • You have an external hard drive D: that has lots of
room to store content. You decide you want to install
Light
(vendor or product folder) all of your content there.

Materials • You create a Content folder to store all this content.

(vendor or product folder)
Beneath that Content folder, you create other
Pose subfolders to store each of the content types you want
(vendor or product folder)

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• To add this example Miki 4 Library to Poser, you would

(Monsters, Animals, etc), or even a theme (Anime, proceed as follows:
Horror, Sci Fi, etc). Arrange them in any way you like.
1. Open the Library palette if it is not open.

2. Click the Add Library button (+) to open a standard

Browse for Folder dialog box.

The Add Library icon.

3.
want to add (for our example, you would choose D:)
Adding a Library folder.
4. Navigate to the folder that stores the Runtime folder
and its subfolders (for our example, you would choose
• Now you want to install all of the content that relates Content, then Miki 4).

extract/install all of your Miki 4 clothing, hair, and other 5. Click OK to add the new Library
related content into the D:\Content\Miki 4 folder. The
D:\Content\Miki 4\
Runtime.

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When adding existing Poser libraries to your If you want to remove the Library from your
Poser Library palette, you must preserve your hard drive completely, you will need to do
Runtime folder name and structure (<drive > this manually by deleting the folder and contents
:\<folder > \<subfolder > \Runtime\<folders >. from your hard drive. Exercise extreme caution
Navigate the Browse dialog to your desired Runtime when deleting library folders from your hard drive, as
folder. The added Library will appear using the they will be irretrievably lost.
name of the folder containing the Runtime folder.
To remove a library:
Poser allows you to create your own folders 1. Use the Show Library list to select a Library that you
to store your own poses, material settings previously added using the steps outlined in “Adding
and other creations, or so that you can organize Libraries” on page 140
library items to your liking. See “Creating Subfolders”
on page 171. Note that you will be unable to delete
libraries that were installed during the Poser
installation You can only remove libraries that you
Removing Libraries added yourself.

The Remove Library button appears when a library 2. Click the Remove Library button (minus sign) to
other than the Poser default libraries is selected. You remove the selected Library from the Library palette.
cannot delete the default Poser library. Deleting libraries The name of the library is removed from the Show
only severs the link between the Library folders and the Library list, and its contents no longer appear in the
Library palette. It does not remove any of the folders or Library.
content from your hard drive. This protects your data from
accidental deletion and allows you to reuse Libraries at
need (such as from removable drives).

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The Remove Library icon.

Loading and Managing Items using the

Library Icons
Several icons add content to the scene and to the Library.
The Library
Certain Library
• Single check mark: Clicking the single check button
categories. These icons appear at the bottom of the
serves different functions as listed below:
palette.
Figures Category
From left to right, these icons are:
Poses Category
which it was originally designed.

Faces: Applies the selected face expression to the

Hair: Adds selected hair to the scene.

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Hands: Applies a hand pose to the currently Lights: Adds the lights in the library to those
already present in the scene.
hand or left hand.
Scene: Keeps the content that is currently in your
Props: Adds the currently selected prop to the scene, and adds the additional content from the
scene. selected library item.

Lights: Replaces the existing lights in the scene Add a Folder: Click the Add a Folder (+) button to
with the currently selected light set. create a folder beneath the currently selected
Library folder.
Cameras: Applies the camera settings to the
camera. • Add to Library: Clicking the Add to Library (+) button
Materials: Applies the single material to the adds the selected item to the Library palette.
currently selected single material in an object; or,
• Delete from Library: Clicking the Delete from Library
applies a Material Collection to all materials in the
(-) button removes the selected item from the Library
current object.
palette.
Scenes: Closes the current scene and replaces it
with the scene you are adding from the library. • Add to Favorites: Click to add the currently highlighted
library item to your Favorites list.
• Double check mark: The double check mark button
appears for the following categories and serves the
purposes listed below: Placing/Adding Items to the Poser
Workspace
Figures Category
scene. Typically used to add additional human In addition to using the library icons as discussed in the
previous section, you can also drag an item from the
Poses Category: Applies the currently selected library and drop it into your scene. As you drag an item
pose as a universal pose.

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from the library to the scene, a tooltip displays the action

that you are performing.
You can also select multiple items into the library and add
them to your scene at the same time. Click to select the

to select a contiguous range of thumbnails between the

CMD-click
(Mac) or CTRL-click (Windows) to add additional items to
the selection. Then drag or drop the additional items into
your scene.

Removing an Item From the Poser

Workspace

the item to remove by either selecting it in the Document

window or using the Current Actor pull-down menu (see

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“Select Figure/Current Actor Menus” on page 83), then

press [DEL].

About Library Palette Categories

Poser’s new library allows you to quickly select categories
and the items contained within them.

If you are seeking more information related

to installed third party Poser content, please
look in the “ReadMe” Folder located in the Poser
Pro installed “runtime” folder. This folder is in the
content location that you selected when
installingPoser Pro. There are not ReadMe’s for every Category icons help you choose a Library category.

may help get you more familiar with how pieces of • You can also drill down through the Category menu to
content were designed to be used together, special select an item. First, click the Category icon to select
features of a piece of content or in depth details on the main category for your content. Then click the
how to use it. The P.I.C.K Content for example has a
ReadMe/CP Partners/MindVision-GDS
folder which has in depth details on how to use it to
its fullest potential from Hair > Poser Content > People > Alyson to list all of
the available hair objects in that folder.
• Click a Category icon to select a Content category.
Then drill down in the hierarchical list in the Library list to
select the item you want to add to your scene.

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types and how they relate to using Poser. When you switch
between categories, the Library remembers which item

You can navigate through the Content pane as follows:

• When you reach a content folder that contains items,

you can navigate through the contents in the folder
using your arrow keys. Click to activate a selection
in the Content pane, then use the Left and Right
arrow keys to collapse or expand folders, and the Up
and Down arrow keys to navigate through the folder
contents.

• Press the Refresh button to refresh the contents. This is

useful after you install content while Poser is running.

Category menus allow you to select a category folder. • The Library popup menu displays nested menus, but
you can also click on a folder or category to switch to
The Library palette categories are described in further it, and then highlight an item to load it.
detail below in “About Library Palette Categories” on
page 147. Please refer to “Loading and Managing Items
using the Library Icons” on page 144 for information on The Figures Category
working with Library palette content.
Figures are poseable content items that use an extension
of CR2 or CRZ. The Figures category houses your poseable
Figures, Poses, Faces, Hair, Hand poses, Props, Lights,
Cameras, Materials and Scene. Please refer to “Poser File work with, including various types of males and females,
Types” on page 919

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Poser includes two versions of both M/F

human skeletons. These skeletons are found
feature fully articulated hands and feet with movable in the Additional Figures/Skeletons content folder.
The human skeletons named Ryan and Alyson are
designed to conform inside the Ryan or Alyson
There are two main types of clothing used in
Poser: conforming clothing (discussed here), conforming skeletons will follow the conformed
and dynamic clothing, which are treated as and
version of each character’s texture is found in the
information about dynamic clothing in “Chapter 27: Materials in the Library, so setting up a skeleton
The Cloth Room” on page 603.

M/F skeletons are accurate versions of the human

skeleton with each bone poseable. These are not

instead work best on their own.

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low-resolution models (these have very low polygon

counts) when performance matters. For example, using

distance of a large scene can conserve on your computer

resources.

Replacing Figures

one from the Library palette:

1.
Change Figure (single check mark) button.

2. Change Figure dialog

appears with the following options:

: Check this option if you

groups changed or added and normals reversed,

and animals.
Keep attached props: Check this option if you have
Some models are available in high- and low- resolution
versions. Use high-resolution models for realism, and

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Keep attached deformers: Check this option if

you want the new object to use any deformers
(magnets or wave deformers) that you have
added to the object that is being replaced.

in the scene and will be attached to the new

conforming clothing, and then you replace Alyson

with Alisha, then Alisha will wear the same clothing.
When this option is not checked, the clothing worn

Change Figure options.

Keep current proportions:

3. After you make your selections, click OK to add the

Keep current proportions checkbox. Leaving this

own proportions.
Adding Conforming Clothing: Automatic
Conforming

clothing. Conforming clothing is poseable, just like a

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• When found in the Figures library (as is typical for older

poses along with the character that wears the clothing. clothing, or conforming clothing created by third-party
content creators), conforming clothing will use a CR2
Options in the Properties dialog allow you to or CRZ extension.
choose whether or not you want to include
morphs and/or scaling when conforming your • When found in the Props library (as is common for
Poser 7 and later, and G2 Figure clothing prepared by
“Figure Properties” on page 205. Smith Micro), conforming clothing will use a PP2 or PPZ
extension.

Due to fundamental changes to Alyson 2 You can drag and drop conforming clothing onto a

not automatically conform. For best results, clothing

originally created for Alyson and Ryan can be
converted using Wardrobe Wizard (included with

“Chapter 29: Wardrobe

Wizard” on page 645 for detailed information
about using the Wardrobe Wizard.

same joint parameters. Some conforming clothing includes

or the Props library.

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Pants).

3. Drag the clothing from the library and drop it onto

posed, you should see the clothing conform to the

Adding Conforming Clothing: Manual

Conforming

You can use the Figure > Conform To command to

process is as follows:
1.

2. Select a conforming clothing item from the desired

Figures or Props category. Clothing is often named for

it is designed for. Pants).

3. If your clothing is in the Figures category, click the

1.
Create New Figure button at the bottom of the Library
palette. If the item is in the Props category, click the
2. Locate a conforming clothing item in the desired Apply Library Preset button. The clothing appears to
Figures or Props category. Clothing is often named for the scene in its default position and pose. Alternatively,
you can drag and drop from the Library to the
Document window.
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4. When added to the scene, conforming clothing

appears in the Select Figure menu pull-down menu
(described in “Select Figure/Current Actor Menus”
on page 83) . Verify that the clothing item that you
want to conform is currently selected. conforming clothing. There are two ways to correct

5. Choose Figure > Conform To. The Conform To dialog

the body part as invisible (see “Body Part Actor
Properties” on page 206). The second method of
correction is to use the Morph Brush to raise the
clothing over the hole, or lower the body part
underneath the clothing (see “Creating Morphs
with the Morphing Tool” on page 700).

6.
The Conform To dialog allows you to select the character that
the dialog that appears. Click OK
will wear the clothing.

7.
clothing should automatically snap to the new
position.

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If the clothing item that you added does not

appear in the Select Figure menu, check degrees).
inside the Current Actor > Props menu, because you
may have added a dynamic clothing item instead.
For further information on using Dynamic clothing, expressions are not applied, even if they are
see “Chapter 27: The Cloth Room” on page 603.
have done to your face prior to applying the pose.
To apply facial expressions, choose items from the
You can also use conforming clothing Face category in your library. If the pose contains
morph settings they will override the values on the

added to the Poser workspace and posed/

The Poses Category

The Poses Library palette category houses poses (*.PZ2),

Figure Poses

(standing, sitting, working, and so on) that you could apply

below for more information). They contain joint positions

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2. Open the Poses category and highlight the pose that

3. Choose one of the following options:

Click the Apply Original Pose (single check mark)

Click the Apply Universal Pose (double check

mark) button to apply the pose to the selected

Drag and drop the pose from the Library to the

as your mouse hovers over it. Release the mouse

when the tooltip displays the correct character
name.

Use presets in the Pose category to pose your characters.

1.
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rigging may not apply correctly when uses

Poses that were created in Poser 6 or earlier

designed, and then save it to the Library, which will

convert the pose to a Universal Pose for use with

After posing, the clothing also poses with the character.

Material (or MAT) Poses
Some of the Poses included in the Library are
Material collections, discussed in “The Materials Category”
Universal Poses, meaning they will be
on page 167, are the preferred method for saving

check the Apply Universal Poses option in the

library. Third-party content creators sometimes use Material
General Preferences dialog > Library tab, you can
save any pose to your library as a Universal pose.

the Poses library and are not created or tested by Smith

Content room, for example) or to one

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of the many online resources, some of which are listed in

“Third-Party Forums” on page 10.

Other Pose Types

Pose Room. Like MAT poses, these are generally created

include:

• Many Smith Micro characters (including Ryan and

deformers, turn IK off of the legs and arms, and lock or

unlock the toes. Third-party content may or may not
include similar poses.

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• MOR poses, which apply character morphs and

• INJ and REM poses, which inject or remove injected

When you are not certain what a pose type is used for,

third-party product), or contact the individual that created

the product.

Adding Poses with Animation Layers

If you are adding a Pose set containing Animation Layers

to your scene, a dialog will appear asking whether or not
you wish to Add new layers to your scene, or Merge all
the layers in the Pose set into a single layer, which you
can select from a pop-up menu. The dialog also provides Additional options for poses that have animation layers.
you with options for how to handle duplication of layer
names when adding new layers to the scene. For more
information on Animation Layers, see “Layers Tab” on The Faces Category
page 516.
The Face Library palette category houses facial expression

morph targets (see “Chapter 30: Modifying Figures &

Props” on page 671 for information about morph targets)

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Ryan and Alyson’s Face directories contain

manually adjusted each of the face dials available for full facial expressions. You can also dial the
expressions manually in the Morphs section of the
the Library, except that they apply preset values at once, Parameters palette when you select Ryan or Alyson.
saving time. To dial these individually, by facial region such as

Poser Face directories contain full facial expressions

full set of morphs. You can save any combination of
(Angry, Disgust, Fear, and so on). You can also dial these
these head/face morph targets when you save a
individually, by facial region (eyes, lips, cheeks, and so
new face to the Library’s Face category.

morphs. Any combination of these head/face morph

targets will be stored in the Face category when you add To add a facial expression:
a new entry. 1.
Facial expressions are often designed for a particular
2. Locate the desired facial expression in the Face library.

3. Double-click the selected facial expression, or click

the Apply Library Preset button, or drag the selected
on Ryan, because Ryan has far more available facial expression from the library to the character. The facial
parameters.

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The Hair Category

The Hair Library

There are three different types of hair used in Poser:

• Conforming hair, which is commonly found in the

Figures library (usually when created by third-party
vendors) or in the Hair library (usually when created by
Smith Micro). This type of hair is added and conformed
“Adding Conforming
Clothing: Manual Conforming” on page 153.

•
found in the Hair category, using an HR2 extension.

• Strand-based (or dynamic) hair, which is created in

the Hair room and typically found in the Hair category,
using an HR2 extension.

Strand-based hair created in the Hair room

cannot be saved to the Library palette
Expressions for your characters are found in the Face
unless it is saved with underlying geometry such as a
category.

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Adding Hair to a Figure

method as conforming clothing, discussed in “Adding

Conforming Clothing: Manual Conforming” on page
153.

1.

2. Select your desired hair using the Library palette.

3. Click the Apply Library Preset icon or drag the hair

from the library to your scene. The hair is added to the

adding new hair replaces the old. You can

either add or replace selected conforming hair,
depending on whether you choose the single
check mark or double check mark (which adds

The Hair library stores many different types of hair for your
characters.

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While prop-based hair usually orients itself to the angle and The Hands Category
rotation of the head, you may need to reposition the hair
This Library

use the Current Actor pull-down menu to select the hair,

then use the hair’s Trans parameter dials as necessary in positioning information for the hand and its children
the Parameters palette. To translate conforming hair, you
usually use the Translate dials in the Head actor of the wrist positions.
head.

same number of joints. Ryan and Alyson

contain an additional joint at the knuckle and older
hand poses may not work correctly on their hands.
Additionally, Hand poses saved using Ryan or Alyson
may not apply to older content correctly.

only the hand positions will change. If, however, you

You can use the YTrans parameter dial to adjust the height of
the hair.

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1.
pose.

2. Select the Hands category in the Poser Library, and

select the hand pose that you want to apply.

3. Click the Apply Library Preset button at the bottom

of the Library palette, or drag the hand pose from the
library to the character to which you want to apply
the pose. A dialog asks if you want to apply the pose

button to apply the pose.

The Props Category

This Library palette category houses props (*.PP2), which

walls, some types of clothing (such as dynamic) and other

non-conforming items fall into this category. You will also

For more information about Dynamic

The Hands category stores poses that affect the hands and Clothing, see “Chapter 27: The Cloth Room”
on page 603.

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For more information about Dynamic Adding Props

Clothing, see “Chapter 27: The Cloth Room”
on page 603. To add a prop to your scene:
1. Open the scene to which you want to add the prop.

2. If you want to replace a prop that is already in your

scene with another prop from the library, select the
prop in your scene that you want to replace.

3. Choose the Props category from the Library palette.

4. From the Library palette, select the prop you want to

add to the scene.

5. Click the Apply Library Preset (single check mark)

button.

6. By default the prop appears in the center of the scene

in its default position. You can use the Translate dials
in the Parameters palette to reposition the prop to the
correct spot in your workspace.

The Props library includes many elements for scene building.

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The Light Category

This Library palette category houses lights (*.LT2), which
includes the number, color, position, and other lighting
attributes. Please refer to “Chapter 12: Lighting” on page
276 for a description of Poser lights.

A prop added to a scene.

If you wish to have the prop move with

another scene item (such as a tennis racket

to specify a parent for the racket. Please refer to

“Changing a Parent” on page 245 for directions
on setting a parent for an object.

Several lighting presets can be found in the Lights category.

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The Camera Category The Materials Category

This Library palette category houses cameras (*.CM2), Poser’s Material library provides an easy way to apply
which includes all Poser cameras, their positions, and other preset materials to the items in your scene. You can
attributes. Please refer to “Chapter 11: Cameras” on page navigate through the items in your library, and then drag
256 for information about Poser cameras. and drop compatible materials from the Library to the
objects in your scene. As you drag your material into the
scene, a tooltip displays the name of the actor in your
scene. Release the mouse when the tooltip displays the
correct actor name.
When saving materials to the library, Poser offers two

considerable time, since they can apply colors and maps

Library
palette instead of having to add them one by one.
This Library palette category houses materials (*.MT5),
which include all Poser materials and any associated
shader trees created or loaded into the Material room.
Materials and material collections can be dragged from
the Library and dropped onto an object in your scene.

designed as a fully integrated replacement for MAT pose

feature, which enables you to simply change the extension

The Camera category stores different settings to position
cameras in your scene.
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them as Material Collections. However, Smith Micro Adding Materials to the Library Palette

installation. Poser offers the option of saving either single materials, or

Library palette.
To save single material to the Library palette:
1. Open the Material Room.

2. In the Library palette, select the desired Category/

Subcategory that will store the new material.

3. Move the mouse into the Preview window, where it

turns into an Eyedropper tool. Use the eyedropper
to “pick up” the material that you want to save. The
material settings appear in the Simple or Advanced
view in the Material room.

4. Click the Save to Library icon (+) at the bottom of the

Library palette.

5. In the New Material Set dialog, select the Single

Material radio button.

6. Enter a name for the Material and click OK. A square

showing the single material appears in the currently
selected Material library category/subcategory.
Use the Materials category to apply different textures and
materials to the items in your scene.
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Adding Material Collections to the Library Palette 4. In the New Material Set dialog, select the Material
Collection radio button, and click the Select Materials
Poser also allows you to save some or all of the materials button to open the Select Materials dialog.

addition to saving single materials individually. Simply 5. Choose which materials you would like to include in
select the Material Collection option in the Add to Library your collection from the list presented in the Select
dialog, as described below, and choose which materials Materials dialog, and click OK. Select All and Select
None buttons are also provided to add or clear all
Material Collections provide the convenience of grouping materials in the selection set.

6. Enter a name for the Material Collection and click

refer to “Chapter 14: The Material Room” on page 314 OK. A small thumbnail of the object with your material
for information about the Material room. settings appears in the currently selected Material
library category/subcategory.
To save Material Collection to the Library palette:
1. Open the Material Room and select your desired
category/subcategory. The Scene Category
2. Move the mouse into the Preview window, where it The Scene category allows you to load or save complete
turns into an Eyedropper tool. Use the eyedropper to scenes. This is especially useful when you want to work
“pick up” one of the materials in the object that uses with objects that are inter-related to each other, or which
the material collection that you want to save. The use dependent parameters to interact with each other.
single material that you clicked appears in Simple or It also allows you to load complex scenes or a complete
Advanced view in the Material room. set design -- including lights, cameras, and props in the
background -- with a single click.
3. Click the Add to Library icon (+) at the bottom of the
Library palette.

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Adding Scenes from the Library imported scene, it will be replaced with the light
from the imported scene.
You can use the Scene category in the library to open a
scene, or to merge content from an existing scene into Saving Scenes to the Library
your current project. Follow these steps:
1. Open the Library and select the Scene category. and reuse projects that you have previously created, and
also makes it easier to share complete project settings with
2. Create or navigate to the folder that stores the scene
others.
you want to use.
To save a scene to the library, proceed as follows:
3. Choose one of the following:
1. Open the Library and select the Scene category.
Click the Load New Scene (single check mark)
2. Create or navigate to the folder that will store the new
button to replace the contents of the current
scene.
scene with the scene contents in the library. This is
the same as using the File > Open command. You 3. Click the Add to Library icon (+) at the bottom of the
will be prompted to save any unsaved changes Library palette.
in the existing project before its contents are
replaced. 4. In the New Set dialog, enter a name for the new
scene.
Click the Import Scene (double check mark)
button to add the contents of the scene in the 5. Click OK. A small thumbnail of the scene appears
Library to your current scene. This is the same as in the currently selected Scene library category/
choosing the File > Import > Poser Document/ subcategory.
Prop command. Everything from the imported
scene will be added; however if a light in the
existing scene is named the same as a light in the

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Maintaining Your Library Palette

You can maintain your Library palette by adding and
removing items to and from the Library palette, as
described below.

Creating Subfolders
You can create new subfolders in the library to store your
content. Follow these steps:
1. Use the Show Library menu to select <All > libraries, or
the library to which you want to add the folder.

2. Click the category icon that applies to the subfolder

you want to create. For example, if you are using the
new folder to store a Prop, select the Prop category.

3. Highlight the folder beneath which you want the new

folder to appear.
The Scene category allows you to use or save complete
scenes into the Library. 4. Click the Create New Folder icon located at the
bottom of the Library palette. You are prompted to
enter a name for the new folder.

5. Enter a new folder name and choose OK. The folder

appears in the Library palette.

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Adding Items to the Library

The following section provides some notes on saving
content in general.
Saving an item to the Library palette adds the appropriate
item to the currently selected category/subfolder. The

the bottom of the Library palette when you select the item
by clicking on its preview image once it has been added
to the Library. In addition, when you save content to the
Library, a basic set of metadata is saved along with the
object. This metadata appears in the Library’s Extended
Details panel when it is displayed. For more information
about the Extended Details panel and metadata, see
“Display Options” on page 136.
To add an item to the Library palette:
1. Select your desired category/subcategory.

2. Click the Save to Library icon (+) at the bottom of the

Library palette.

Creating a new Library subfolder.

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morph channels (such as facial expressions, muscle

bulges, etc.). Saving morph channels will preserve
all adjustments you might have made to any morph
target parameters. You may also be asked whether
you wish to save Body transformations; this option

“Body” actor.

Library buttons help you maintain and use your library.

3. Complete the dialog that follows (see following

When saving content, you may be prompted for additional

4. Enter a name for the new Library palette item and information to be saved.
click OK. You may be prompted to select a subset of
actors for inclusion in the saved item, depending on
the item type being saved (poses, expressions, props,
lights, cameras or material collections). Please refer
to the following sub-topic for information on selecting
actors.

5. Depending on the Library palette category being

saved to, you may be asked if you wish to save
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This option appears when saving poses, but

you need to take care when saving morph
channels and body transformations with poses that
you will distribute to others. If your pose is designed

example, from standing to sitting), in most cases you

do not want to include body transformations or

is in another user’s scene. On the other hand, if your

pose is meant to set morph targets for a custom

pose set. Poses can be saved as still poses (a single frame), or as

animated poses (multiple frames).
6. Poses and Faces can save animated data (such as an
animated pose like swinging a golf club). To select only Your new item will be added to the Library palette and
the current frame, select Single Frame. To save more will be accessible whenever Poser is running. Poser also
than one frame of animation, select Multiple Frames automatically generates an editable .PNG format preview
and enter your desired starting and ending frame image based on Camera position. You can make a better
numbers. If you are adding an animated pose that preview image by positioning the camera to focus on the
includes animation layers, the Select Layers button item you’re saving.
will be enabled. Clicking this button opens the Select
Layers dialog, which allows you to specify which To add dynamic cloth to the Library palette,
layer(s) you wish to save with the pose. Click OK when add it as you would any other prop. For
strand-based hair objects, you must either save a

grow hair on a prop and save that prop to the

Library palette.

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Adding Actors to a Library Palette Entry

When you save Poses and Faces to the library, a Select

Subset button appears in the New Set dialog, allowing

allows you to create poses that affect only a part of the

If you opt to select a subset of actors within your scene

for saving to the Library palette, the Hierarchy Selection
dialog appears, allowing you to specify the actors you
wish to include in your new Library palette entry.

poses.

The list of actors appears hierarchically, just as it does in

the Hierarchy Editor window (see “The Hierarchy Editor”
on page 756). You can expand collapsed hierarchies by
clicking the + sign next to a collapsed branch, and can

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collapse expanded branches by clicking the - sign next to This is an advanced feature that should only
an expanded branch. be undertaken by advanced Poser users
who are familiar with creating custom content.
To include an actor in your new Library palette entry,
Manually adding Library items could result in
check the box to the left of your desired actor. Clearing
an actor’s checkbox excludes it from the Library palette
items to be invisible and/or unusable. Smith Micro
entry. Excluding an actor that is a parent of one or more
Software cannot provide technical support for
actors excludes the children actors as well.
people who manually create content folders. If you
purchased content and are unable to get it to
Adding Items to the Library Palette appear in the Library or if it has other errors, please
(Manual Method) contact the content creator.

You can also add items to the Library palette by creating

folders and subfolders in the Poser hierarchy and adding Adding Items to the Library Palette
your items directly to those folders. Please refer to
“Appendix B: Poser File Structure” on page 918 for more
(Poser Download Manager)
Poser’s Download Manager can detect and install Poser
content downloaded using the Content room. Please refer
to “Chapter 8: The Content Room” on page 183 for
more information about the Content room.

Deleting Items from the Library Palette

To delete an item from the Library palette, select it by
clicking its preview image, then click the Delete from
Library icon (-) at the bottom of the palette (see below for
an image of the Library icons).
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Dragging and Dropping Library

Content
You can use drag and drop to add or work with library
content, with the same functionality that is found in your
standard operating system drag and drop. For example,
when using the external (AIR) library, you can drag and

the library and drop it into an opened text editor to make

The Library icons.

Searching the Library
The new Search tab in the library allows you to perform
Deletions are permanent! Be sure you really
a keyword search in your local content libraries. You can
want to delete the selected item. If you have
perform the search in all or selected categories.
not saved your content elsewhere (such as

be permanently lost. You cannot undo content

deletions.

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2. Enter a keyword (such as Ryan) or a series of keywords

(such as Ryan pants) in the Search For

3. From the Look In section, click the Local Library radio

button.

4. Check or uncheck options as follows:

To perform a search throughout all Library

categories, check the All Categories option.

your Library, uncheck the All Categories option

and then check or uncheck Figures, Pose, Face,
Hair, Hands, Props, Light, Camera, or Materials as

To perform a Library search, follow these steps:

1. Switch to the Search tab in the Library.
categories.

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5. Click the Search button. Poser performs a search for

SearchState.xml
appear in the Content pane. Poser installation folder. Windows Vista users can
Users \ (username) \ AppData \
6. To scroll forward or backward to view previous or later Roaming \ Poser \ 9.0 directory. These search terms
searches, you can use the arrow keys to the right and are used in conjunction with the Prev Search and
left of the Search button. Next Search

from the search results.

Searching for New Content

The Search tab in the library also allows you to perform
a keyword search in Content Paradise, Renderosity, and
You can navigate forward and backward through search RuntimeDNA for new content to add to your libraries. You
results. can perform the search in all or selected categories.

A working Internet connection is required for

the Content Paradise search and preview
features to function correctly.

To perform a search on Content Paradise, Renderosity, or

Runtime DNA, follow these steps:
1. Switch to the Search tab in the Library.

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2. Enter a keyword (such as pants) or a series of keywords

(such as Alyson pants) in the Search For

3. From the Look In section, click the radio button beside

the name of the content provider site that you want
to search (Content Paradise, Renderosity, or Runtime
DNA).

4. Use the Category, Seller, Software, or Show Me buttons

to narrow your search to selected categories, if

to the content provider site that you choose to search.

Paradise.

5. Click the Search button. Poser performs a search for

Results from your Content Paradise, Renderosity, or Runtime
appear in the Content pane. DNA search are displayed in the Search pane.

6. Perform either of the following steps on a search result:

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Single-click a thumbnail in the results. Details for Cart button to add the item to your shopping cart.
the selected item appear in the Extended Details Fore more information about the Content tab, see
area. If you want to purchase the item, you can “Chapter 8: The Content Room” on page 183.
click the Add to Cart link in the Extended Details
area to add the item to the shopping cart on the 8. You can perform additional content searches or add
selected site. other search results into your cart. After your shopping
session is complete you can proceed to checkout to
purchase your selections.

Favorites Tab
The Favorites tab allows you to quickly add your favorite
content to library folders that you create yourself.
To add an item to the Favorites tab:
1. Highlight the library item that you want to add to
favorites.

2. Click the Add to Favorites button at the bottom of the

Library palette. An Add to Favorites menu appears
above the selected item.

You can add a selected search result to your shopping cart. 3. From the menu, select an existing Favorites category,
or choose <<New Folder > > to create a new Favorites
7. Double-click a thumbnail in the results. The product folder. When the New Library Name dialog appears,
page opens in the Content tab within Poser Pro. If you enter a name for your new folder and click OK. The
want to purchase the item, you can click the Add to

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new folder appears in the Favorites tab and your item

appears within it.

Add selected search results to your Favorites library folder.

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Chapter 8: The
Content Room
Welcome to Content Paradise! Poser’s Content room
accesses Content Paradise, which is your gateway to
leading marketplaces that provide both free and for-

or something else? Content Paradise has you covered.

And, Poser’s Download Manager can auto-install most
downloaded content and add it to the Library palette. No

Clicking the Content room tab at the top of the Poser

workspace opens the Content room.

The Content Room.

Aside from the Download Manager, the Content room

accesses the online Content Paradise Web server. Poser
for Windows seamlessly displays Web pages in the Poser
workspace. Poser for Macintosh automatically opens a
new browser window connected to Content Paradise.
Content Paradise features and interface are subject to
change. Because of this, the discussion in this reference
manual is limited to discussing the Download Manager.

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Content Paradise includes comprehensive online help, To change the folder to which content is installed,
which is accessible from anywhere in the interface by enter your desired path in the Install Path
clicking the Help links. Please be sure to read all of the the folder icon to browse to your desired location.
applicable Terms of Service, including the Privacy Policy. Please see “Chapter 7: The Poser Library” on page
Smith Micro Software reserves the right to alter these 130 for information about Libraries and the Library
policies at any time without prior notice. palette.

• Install: Clicking the Install button installs the

Downloading and Installing
Content Install Path

• Cancel: Clicking the Cancel button cancels the

After you purchase your content and check out of the
installation process. Downloaded content will remain
marketplace(s), you will be able to download it to your
uninstalled in the location to which it was originally
computer. A progress meter keeps you informed of your
downloaded.
download’s status. Follow the onscreen instructions to
begin the download. Once the data transfer is complete,
you can begin the installation process. Macintosh users No to
abort, or Yes
according to your needs. Windows users can use the auto-
install option, as described below. complete. Click OK to acknowledge successful installation
The Install Options dialog appears for each downloaded of your downloaded content.
If Poser cannot recognize the content or cannot install
options: Copy to Folder
dialog appears, with the following options:
• Install Path: When you click Install, the content will
Install Path • Copy Path: When you click Copy, the downloaded
default, the Poser Downloads

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Copy Path
is copied, enter your desired path in the Copy Path

location.

• Copy: Clicking the Copy button copies downloaded

Copy Path
You will then need to manually install the content
yourself.

• Cancel: Clicking the Cancel button cancels the copy

process. Downloaded content will remain uninstalled
in the location to which it was originally downloaded.
In addition to the Content Paradise website, the Content
room also contains two buttons:

• The Reset Content Paradise button returns you to the

Content Paradise home page.

• The Install From Zip Archive button opens the Install

Options dialog, which is described above.

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Chapter 9: Posing backward or the head from twisting 360 degrees.

Figures any position you can imagine.

Posing and Camera Views

you’ll use while doing so. Posing is the process of bending,
pose faces and hands (expressions, gestures, etc.). Poser
positions. You can even create movies by changing poses includes Face and Hand Cameras (see “Chapter 11:
over time. Cameras” on page 256) that zoom into these areas for
close-up work.

General Posing Principles While posing, you can switch cameras to view your work
from many different angles and can even select up to four
A pose has two aspects: how the body parts move relative simultaneous camera views in the Document window (see
to the rest of the body (such as raising or lowering an arm, “Chapter 5: The Document Window” on page 77). It is
recommended that you select the Posing camera while
working, thus saving the Main and Auxiliary cameras for
position relative to the Poser workspace (such as walking
around a room). Poser’s Editing tools (“The Editing Tools”
on page 194
props by simply clicking and dragging. It doesn’t get any
The Pose Library
easier!
You can add poses you create to the Pose Library, as
When posing in Poser, you’re working in all three described in “Maintaining Your Library Palette” on page
171, or you can apply still or animated poses from the
placed on joints to keep poses realistic. Enabling limits “The
Poses Category” on page 155.

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Translation Inverse Kinematics (IK)

Translation moves multiple body parts by pulling them in a Poser’s Inverse Kinematics (IK) features help you achieve
chain. To visualize this, imagine a person lying down with realistic poses and add natural-looking motion to your
their arms out to their sides. If you were to take hold of the animations. IK effects are most apparent when using the
Editing tools.
Keep moving higher, you’d lift the shoulders, chest, hips,
To demonstrate how IK works, try this:
and eventually the whole person off the ground. Poser’s
Editing tools work this way. Drag any part and connected • Create a scene and load the default character (in this
parts follow. Parts move, bend, and twist as you would
expect them to.
• Use the Figure > Inverse Kinematics command to
make sure that IK is on (it is on by default).

• Use the Translate tool or the YTran parameter dial to

translate the hip upward on the Y Axis so that the feet

• Then move one of the feet to the side with the

Translate tool. You’ll see an outline appear of where
the foot once was. That is the IK goal. The foot will
move into that position wherever possible.

When you pull one body part, connected parts follow.

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Enabling IK on a pose created with IK

disabled may alter your pose.

Enabling/Disabling IK

Inverse Kinematics can add realism to your scenes. You

can toggle Inverse kinematics (IK) on and off for the
following limbs:

• Left Leg

• Right Leg

• Left Arm

• Right Arm
With IK enabled, the feet move to the position of their IK goals To toggle IK on or off for a limb, select Figure > Use Inverse
whenever possible. Kinematics > limb, where limb is one of the four limbs. A
checkbox next to a limb indicates that IK is active for that
The purpose of IK is to make it easier to pose or animate limb, and vice versa.

is on, you can translate the hip, and the legs bend to
accommodate the new hip position without changing
the positions of the feet. Arms behave similarly: Place a

in position. For more information on IK, see “Understanding

IK” on page 189.
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It follows that Inverse Kinematics studies the same

problem from the other end: The extremity moves, and
IK determines how the objects joined to it must respond
in order to support the new placement. If you raise your
hand straight out to the side, your hand, arm, and shoulder
must move to accommodate your hand’s new position.
Or if someone was to grab your hand and push, your arm
would bend while your body remains still.
Poser supports IK for the arms and legs. With IK enabled,
you can translate the hands and feet and achieve
appropriate arm and leg positions automatically. IK
creates targets to indicate the end of the chain. When the
You can enable or disable IK for the legs and hands. hands or feet move, the target is set to its new position.
Moving any other body part keeps the target in its original
position relative to the rest of the body. Once the target is
Understanding IK
must bend to accommodate the hand or foot position. For
Kinematics is the study of motion velocity, rotation, and example, a foot reaches its target and the knee bends.
position. In terms of structures such as arms and legs,
To work effectively with IK, you need to keep the following
kinematics is used to calculate how actions taken at a
things in mind:
structure’s root determine the position and rotation of the
other end. For example, hold your arm straight and rotate
• Enable (turn on) IK when you are working with the
your shoulder joint. Kinematics calculates the change
Editing tools.

the angle by which you rotated your shoulder, you can • The Rotate, Translate, and Twist tools may not
calculate your arm’s new position. behave as you might expect for some body parts.
For example, you cannot easily rotate or translate a

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thigh or shin when IK is enabled for that leg because

the foot’s position takes precedence. This behavior
corresponds to real life: When you stand, your feet
and legs support your body, meaning that you cannot
arbitrarily move or rotate them. This consideration
applies to both the Editing tools and the parameter
dials.

• You cannot use IK and the Chain Break tool (see

“Chain Break” on page 200) on the same limb.

Limiting Motion The Use Limits option keeps body parts within preset range
limits.
Selecting Figure > Use Limits toggles parameter limits on
and off. Please refer to “Editing Parameter Dials” on page The Use Limits option keeps body parts from moving
214 for information about setting limits for parameter
with Poser have realistic limits that were set when the
realistic limits applied to them, meaning that you can’t,
for example, bend a knee backward. Limits are disabled have realistic joint limits. If you have questions about a
when this option is toggled off. particular piece of content, please contact the content’s
creator or the marketplace where you purchased the

not look right to you. You can customize maximum and

minimum limits using the methods described in “Editing
Parameter Dials” on page 214.

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Select Figure > Use Limits to toggle limits on and off. A or not IK is enabled. You can also use the parameter
check mark next to this option indicates that limits are dials on the Parameters palette to precisely move parts.
being enforced, and vice versa. Most poses are created using the Editing tools to get the

adjustments.
Posing Body Parts

Selecting Body Parts

simple as moving body parts to create a new position or
pose. Body parts are independent, and each considered to select the body part Actor(s) you wish to move in order
an actor in its own right. This concept holds true no matter to create your still or animated pose. You can select body
parts using the Editing tools, the Current Actor pull-down
There are some special posing cases: menu, or by clicking the desired part in the Document

• Hands (see “Posing Hands” on page 221)

element.
• Faces (see “Posing Faces” on page 217)

• Eyes (see “Posing Eyes” on page 220)

• Animals (see “Posing Animals” on page 223)

Posing a Figure
Editing tools
as described in “The Editing Tools” on page 194. The
part will move based on the part selected, your currently
selected Editing tool, your camera angle, and whether
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Using the Editing Tools

To select a body part using the Editing tools, click your
desired tool then click the body part you wish to pose.
The currently selected body part is highlighted in the
Document window and labeled in the Select Figure and
Current Actor menus in the top left corner of the Document
window.

The selected body part is outlined when selected.

If you right-click (Windows) or Apple key-click

(Mac) within the Document window, a pop-
up context menu brings up a menu listing all the
body parts positioned under your mouse cursor. You
can select your desired body part directly from this

change your camera view. This process also makes Click a body part with an editing tool to select it.

many objects overlap.

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Using the Parameters/Properties Palette

You can also select body parts using the selection menu
that appears at the top left corner of the Parameters/
Properties palette. Click the arrow at the top-left corner of
the palette to display the menu. Here you can select any
of the following:

•
(such as hair, jewelry, articles that are parented to it,
and so on).

• Any of the cameras in the scene.

A selection menu appears at the top of the Parameters/
• Any of the lights in the scene. Properties palette.

Using the Current Actor Pull-down Menu

To select a body part Actor using the pull-down menus:

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1. Select Figure pull-

down menu.

2. Select your desired body part using the Current Actor

Item pull-down menu.

This method can be preferable if your scene has several

If there are too many actors or scene

Select Figure and Current Actor menus. elements displayed in the Current Actor pull-
down menu, you can increase the Hierarchical
Threshold value in the Interface tab of the
Preferences dialog. See “Interface Preferences” on
page 36.

The Editing Tools

The Editing tools appear as follows on your Poser
workspace:

Drill through submenus to select your item.

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The Editing tools let you move body parts in many different
ways. A tool’s effect can vary depending on whether
or not Inverse Kinematics (IK) is enabled. Please refer to
“Inverse Kinematics (IK)” on page 187 for information
about IK. Editing tools can pose an individual body part or

The Color, Grouping,

Morphing, and Direct Manipulation tools serve
other purposes than posing and are discussed later
The Editing tools. in this chapter.

The tools presented in the above image are

available within the Pose Room. The
availability of individual Editing tools will vary in
different Poser rooms. Additional Editing tools
• To pose a body part, select it and drag.
available in different rooms will be discussed in the
•
relevant chapters of this manual.
methods:

As described in “Setting Up Your Workspace” on page Click and drag on the desired Editing tool and the
45, you can locate the Editing tools wherever you like
on your Poser screen and can display or hide the title. The has been selected.

Select your desired Editing tool, then select

palette. Tool tips are displayed at the top of the palette the Figure Ring
that reveal the name of the tool when you hover your and drag. The Figure Ring is highlighted when
mouse over it. selected, indicating that you are working on the

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• From left to right, the Editing tools are:

Click and drag an Editing tool.

Select and drag the Figure Ring.

Rotate
Select Body using the Select Actor pull-down The Rotate tool bends a body part at its joint. Rotation
menu. works in three dimensions, allowing you to make a lot of
progress very quickly. To rotate a body part, select the
body part you wish to rotate and drag perpendicular
disabled).
to the part to cause the rotation to rotate up and down
When using an Editing tool in the Document window, your (relative to your point of view). Dragging parallel to the
cursor changes to a visual representation of the selected part rotates it in and out, again relative to your point of
tool. This helps you keep track of how you’re moving the view.

When using an Editing up/down and left/right functions as a trackball and rotates
need to click and drag with the cursor positioned over the
affected item; you can click and drag anywhere in the You can also adjust an item’s rotation using the parameter
Document window. Also, be aware that your camera view dials, as discussed in “Parameters Palette” on page 209.

on the pose you are creating, you may want to switch to

a different camera. For example, if you are moving an

so on. You can change Camera views as described in

“Select Figure/Current Actor Menus” on page 83, and
can even view your Poser scene from multiple cameras at
once, as described in “Changing Cameras within a Pane”
on page 98.
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Rotate tool. Twist tool.

Twist Translate/Pull
The Twist The Translate/Pull
prop along the camera’s view (vertically... X and Y axes)
and dragging. Most of the body’s joints don’t allow much depending how you drag. The translation may occur on
twisting. For example, your forearm can twist almost 180
degrees while your wrist can hardly twist at all. The twist
axis of the head, neck, and torso is along the spine. For
the forearm, the axis lies along the arm’s length. Twisting translation using the parameter dials, as discussed in
“Parameters Palette” on page 209.
standing, it spins around. If lying down, it rolls over. You can
also adjust an item’s twist using the parameter dials, as
discussed in “Parameters Palette” on page 209.

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Translate/Pull tool. Translate In/Out tool.

Translate In/Out Scale

The Translate In/Out The Scale
prop along the Camera’s Z axis (in and out). This translation part/prop along the camera’s X and Y axes. The item’s
affected axes will vary depending on the camera’s
Dragging down pulls the item towards you, and vice versa. position relative to that item. Dragging in towards
Moving an item towards you makes that items seem larger, the element reduces the scale, and dragging away
and vice versa. You can also adjust an item’s translation from the element increases the scale. To scale in two
using the parameter dials, as discussed in “Parameters dimensions, drag laterally. Dragging vertically scales in
Palette” on page 209. the third dimension. The axes affected depend on your
currently selected camera position. You can also press
and hold Shift while using this tool to scale evenly in all
three dimensions. Make a mistake? No problem. Select
Edit > Undo, or press [COMMAND]/[CTRL]+[Z]. You can

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animate scale using the parameter dials as described in Taper

“Parameters Palette” on page 209.
The Taper
part/prop along the Camera’s X and Y axes. The item’s
affected axes will vary depending on the Camera’s
position relative to that item. This only affects the end of
the selected actor that is most distant from the center
of the body. Dragging to the right increases the amount
of taper, and dragging to the left decreases the taper,

item’s taper using the parameter dials, as discussed in

“Parameters Palette” on page 209.
Scale tool.

Select Figure pull-down menu in the Document window

or by clicking its Figure Ring

simply zoom the camera. If you are working with two or

being in the distance, it’s best to simply move the selected

Translate tool (see Taper tool.
above). You can also adjust an item’s scale using the
parameter dials, as discussed in “Parameters Palette” on
page 209.

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Chain Break as many breaks in your scene as needed. To remove a

chain break, click the desired icon.
The Chain Break tool ends the chain of parts affected by
the Translate tools.

Chain Break tool.

Using chain breaks on different body parts can create

interesting effects. For example, to prevent the chest from
moving, apply a chain break to it. You can then translate
the hand freely without moving the chest: only the hand,
forearm, upper arm, and shoulder will move. You must
have IK disabled on the desired limb(s) in order for this to
work. Please refer to “Inverse Kinematics (IK)” on page
187 for information about Inverse Kinematics.
Using the Chain Break tool.
To add a chain break, select the Chain Break tool and
click where you want the chain broken. A Chain Break
icon appears wherever you insert a break. You can insert
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cannot remove these breaks.

The tool allows you to zoom in and out to
and from your desired areas of the Document window
Color without altering the position of your currently selected
camera. This can be of great help when working with
The Color tool allows you to change a material group’s scenes.
surface (diffuse) color. Please refer to “Root Nodes” on
page 345 for information about setting colors and other
material values.

To use the tool, select it:

Color tool.
• Click anywhere in the Document window or current
view pane to zoom in on the selected area. Repeated
clicking will continue zooming in one step per click.
Grouping
• Document
The Grouping tool opens the Group Editor palette, which is
window, click and drag a rectangle around the area
discussed in “The Group Editor” on page 742.

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you wish to magnify. Your view will zoom in on the

closest point that encompasses your selected region.

• To zoom out, press [COMMAND]/[CTRL] while clicking

in the Document window.

Morphing Tool
The Morphing Tool opens the Morph Editor palette. The
Morphing Tool has two operational modes: Combine
and Create, which are accessed and controlled via the Morphing tool.
Morph Editor. The Combine mode allows you to sculpt any

mode allows you to manipulate the vertices on your

model’s mesh to create new morph targets. See “Chapter
Direct Manipulation
30: Modifying Figures & Props” on page 671 for more The Direct Manipulation tool allows you to directly adjust an
information about morph targets and the Morph Editor element’s Translate, Scale, and Rotation parameters: You
palette. can also use this tool to adjust falloff zones when setting up

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Direct Manipulation tool.

Direct Manipulation
tool, then select your desired element:
Clicking and dragging one of the shaded boxes above
the selected element increase or decreases the element’s The Universal Manipulator tool makes posing easier.
X, Y, or Z scale. This is the same as adjusting the xScale,
yScale, and zScale parameters, respectively. You can also click and drag the colored circles to rotate
the selected element along its axes. Poser calculates the
rotation by using object coordinates for optimum control.
Dragging the red circle rotates about the element’s X
axis. The green circle rotates about the element’s Y axis,
and the blue circle rotates about the element’s Z axis. The
cursor changes to indicate which transformation will occur.
For example, move the cursor over the circles, the cursor
changes to a rotation icon, and so forth. Elements rotate
about their origins.
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Clicking near the selected element’s origin translates the

element as if you were using the Translate tool. Clicking and body parts.
away from the origin and axes/circles allows you to rotate
the element as if you were using the Rotate tool.

The Parameters/Properties Palette

Poser offers a combined Properties/Parameters palette
that lets you quickly switch between a selected element’s
properties and parameter dials.
For clarity, each tab on this combined palette is referred
to as a separate palette, either the Properties palette or
the Parameters palette, as appropriate. To switch between
the two, click your desired tab. You can also access an
object’s Properties palette by double-clicking the desired
object. Once you do this, clicking the Parameters tab
opens the same object’s Parameters palette. You can also
access both palettes by selecting Window > Parameter
Dials.

Properties
The Properties palette contains the properties available for
The Properties palette allows you to set options for a selected
the currently selected scene element. Properties for lights,
item.
cameras, props, etc. are listed in their respective sections.

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Figure Properties will bounce off the object. When unchecked, indirect
lighting calculations are skipped for the object.
Figures have the following properties:
• Visible in Camera: When checked, the object is visible
• Name: The Name in the camera and render. When unchecked, the
object does not render. Used in conjunction with Light
Emitter, described previously, to create light-casting
• Visible: Checking the Visible checkbox makes the objects.

not included in any render calculations, and do not • Displacement Bounds: The Displacement Bounds
appear in the rendered scene.
boundary. Please refer to “Chapter 19: Using The
You can animate visibility by clicking the FireFly Render Engine” on page 428 for more
Animation Toggle (key icon) next to the information about displacement bounds.
Visible checkbox. When animation is enabled, the
icon appears green. When disabled, it appears • When conforming: These options allow you to choose
clear. which properties will automatically apply to clothing

• Visible in Raytracing: Checking the Visible in Include Morphs: When this option is checked, the
Raytracing
morphs that are set in the character to which it is
conformed. Note, however, that the applicable
morphs must be included in the conforming article
raytracing. in order for this to occur. In other words, if the
character has a “Big Belly” morph that is set, the
• Light Emitter: When checked, allows the object to be conforming clothing must also have a “Big Belly”
included in indirect lighting calculations so that light morph in order for automatic morph conforming
to work properly.
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Include scales: When this option is checked, the check this option to have the conforming item
follow the animated origins. When enabled, Poser
any scaling changes that are set in the character will compute the deltas of the current origin to
to which it is conformed. In other words, if you
have scaled the thighs and shins of your character
to 90%, the thighs and shins of the conforming • Compute magnets in world space: Using World Space
is better for applying magnets across the seam of a
joint. Content created for Poser 10/Pro 2014 and later
The accuracy of auto-scaling when
conforming is dependent upon proper (which use local space calculation) will have this
option off to maintain backward compatibility.
appear to be working properly for third party-
content, check the documentation furnished with • Subdivision Levels: Allows you to subdivide the
the content, or contact the content developer. “Working with Subdivision
Surfaces” on page 835 for more information.

Match end points: In legacy content, endpoints

might not match between conforming clothing Body Part Actor Properties
For example, factors such as incorrect joint Body part Actors have the following properties:
origin settings or extremely tight parameter limits
can cause clothing to behave unexpectedly.
When this option is checked, you can force the

an as-needed basis.

Follow origins: If you are conforming a piece of

clothing to a character that has animated origins
(discussed in “Animatable Origins” on page 536)
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• Visible: Checking the Visible checkbox makes the

body part visible and vice versa. Invisible objects are
not included in any render calculations, and do not
appear in the rendered scene. See “Figure Properties”
on page 205 for information on animating the Visible
property.

• Visible in Raytracing: Checking the Visible in

Raytracing checkbox makes the body part visible in

raytracing.

• Bend: Checking the Bend checkbox enables bending

for the selected body part and vice versa. Bends
are discussed in “Bend Body Parts” on page 122.
Remember that selecting Display > Bend Body Parts
bends all body parts and this property only affects the
Body actor properties.
currently selected body part.

• Visible in Camera: When checked, the object is visible

• Internal Name: The Internal Name
in the camera and render. When unchecked, the
body part’s internal (hidden) name, which Poser uses
object does not render. Used in conjunction with Light
to track that part. You cannot edit a body part’s
Emitter, described previously, to create light-casting
internal name within Poser.
objects.
• Name: The Name

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• Light Emitter: When checked, allows the object to be 671 for more information about loading morph
included in indirect lighting calculations so that light targets.
will bounce off the object. When unchecked, indirect
lighting calculations are skipped for the object. • Set Parent: Click the Set Parent button to assign a
parent to the currently selected prop. In the case of
• Casts Shadows: Checking the Casts Shadows
checkbox forces the selected body part to cast a point actor of an IK chain. If the chain is turned on,
shadow, which will be visible in your scene. Clearing it allows you to set a parent for that endpoint actor
this box means the selected body part casts no (such as a foot), to a moving object, or to another
shadow. prop or constraint.

• Collision Detection: Checking the Collision Detection • Displacement Bounds: The Displacement Bounds
checkbox enables collision detection for the currently property determines the body part’s displacement
selected body part. boundary. Please refer to “Chapter 19: Using The
FireFly Render Engine” on page 428 for more
• Apply Collision Setting to Children: Clicking the information about displacement bounds.
Apply Collision Setting to Children button applies
the currently selected body part’s collision detection • Shading Rate: The Shading Rate allows you to specify
setting to that part’s children parts (if any). the desired shading rate for the currently selected
body part. Please refer to “Chapter 19: Using The
• Load Morph Target: Clicking the Load Morph Target FireFly Render Engine” on page 428 for more
button displays the Load Morph Target dialog, information about shading rates.
allowing you to load a custom morph target for the
selected body part (which is then editable using the • Smooth Polygons: Checking the Smooth Polygons
Morphing Tool as described in “Creating Morphs with checkbox causes Poser to smooth the body part’s
the Morphing Tool” on page 700). Please refer to polygons at render time to eliminate or reduce a
“Chapter 30: Modifying Figures & Props” on page
option can cause sharp corners to appear round.

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If the affected body part has sharp edges that you • Subdivision Levels: Allows you to subdivide the
wish to preserve while applying polygon smoothing selected actor. See “Working with Subdivision
to other angles, you should specify those sharp edges Surfaces” on page 835 for more information.
using smoothing groups or the crease angle threshold,
as polygon smoothing will not override these settings.
See “Smoothing Geometry” on page 448 for more Parameters Palette
information on specifying hard versus smooth edges.
The Parameters palette contains all of the parameters for
• Crease Angle: The Crease Angle setting establishes the currently selected scene element:
a threshold up to which creases between adjoining
polygons will be smoothed. Polygons with crease
angles over this threshold will not be smoothed, and
will be rendered as hard edges. See “Smoothing
Geometry” on page 448 for more information
about using the Crease Angle setting to apply smooth
shading.

• Display Origin: Checking the Display Origin checkbox

displays the prop’s origin. Please refer to “The Prop
Origin” on page 238 for more information about prop
origins

• Animatable Origin: When checked, allows you to

animate the actor’s origin as the actor is translated,
rotated, or scaled. This allows you to optimally position
the joint origin if the shape of the actor changes
drastically by scaling or morphing.

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• (2) Parameters Palette Options Menu

• (3) Parameter Dial Groups

• (4) Parameter Dials

• (5) Parameter Dial Menu

• (6) Master Parameter Indicator

• (7) Dependent Parameter, showing Natural and Driven

parameter values

• (8) If a dot appears to the left of a parameter dial

name, it means that the dial is set to something other
than its default value.

Current Actor Menu

The Parameters palette’s Current Actor pull-down menu
(1) functions the same as the Current Actor pull-down at
the bottom left of the Document window. Please refer to
The Parameters Palette. “Select Figure/Current Actor Menus” on page 83 for
more information about the Current Actor menu.
The following topics discuss the Parameters palette in
detail:

• (1) Current Actor Menu

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Parameters Palette Options Menu

a mistake when creating the group), double-clicking
The Parameters palette options menu (2) contains the the group name in the Parameters palette opens a
following options:

• Delete Selected Groups: Selecting Delete Selected

Group deletes the currently selected group. Parameter
dials in deleted groups are moved to the next highest
group or subgroup, as appropriate.

• Display in Calculation Order: Reorders parameter

channels. Allows you to correct the initial order
of physics simulation parameters in order to
accommodate existing and new morphs.

If morphs are added after, they will double

Parameters Palette Options menu. after simulation. You will need to reorder the
channels to address this issue.

• Create New Master Parameter: Creates a new

parameter dial that can be set up to drive one • Memorize: Selecting Memorize memorizes the current
or more dependent parameter dials. For further parameter dial settings as default. Please refer to
information on dependent parameters, see “Using “Memorize” on page 76 for more information on
Dependent Parameters” on page 726. memorizing parameter dials.

• Create New Group: Selecting Create New Group • Restore: Selecting Restore restores the most recently
creates a new subgroup under the currently selected memorized defaults. Please refer to “Restore” on
group. The Create New Group dialog appears page 75 for more information about restoring saved
prompting you for a name. Enter your desired name in defaults.
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• Delete Object: Selecting Delete Object deletes the • Double-clicking a group name allows you to rename
current object. that group.

• Show Hidden Parameters: Displays parameters that are • You can drag and drop groups to change their
normally hidden from view, allowing you to view and hierarchical relationship to each other. For example,
edit their parameters and properties. a group could become a subgroup under another
group, and vice versa.
Making changes to channels that are
normally hidden is recommended for • You can drag and drop parameter dials to different
advanced users only, as improper changes can locations within the same group or across groups and

Parameter dial groups and subgroups are

Parameter Dial Groups

Poser offers parameter dial grouping (3), which organizes
parameters into easy to navigate categories. Parameter Dials
The parameter dials (4) in the Parameters palette let you
parameter dial groups.
lights, camera, etc. using precise numerical increments.
Parameter dial groups have the following functionality: Each body part and most other elements in the scene
have their own set of parameter dials. When an entire
• Clicking the + sign next to a collapsed group/subgroup
expands that group/subgroup.
and drag it to the right to increase the selected value
• Clicking the – sign next to an expanded group/ or left to decrease it. You can also click the displayed
subgroup collapses that group/subgroup.

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numeric value and manually enter your desired value • Recalculate Dynamics: If you have a dynamic
using the text box that appears. object selected (strand-based hair or dynamic
cloth), selecting the Recalculate Dynamics option
To restore a parameter dial’s default (or last memorized)
recalculates the dynamics for that object. Please refer
setting, press and hold [OPT]/[ALT] while clicking the
to “Step Four: Setting Hair Dynamics” on page 593
desired parameter dial. To change a parameter dial’s
and to “Step 4: Cloth Dynamics Controls” on page
default value, set the dial to your desired value and
616 for information about strand-based hair and cloth
either select Edit > Memorize > element, as described in
dynamics, respectively.
“Memorize” on page 76, or use the Parameter Palette
menu as described in “Parameters Palette Options Menu”
• Split Morph: When enabled, selecting Split Morph
on page 211.
splits the currently selected morph into left and right
Each parameter dial has its own Parameter Dial menu (5), sides, allowing you to apply the selected morph target
which is accessible by clicking the arrow to the right of asymmetrically. You can use this, for example, to
your desired parameter dial. The Parameter Dial menu has
the following options: realism because no person’s head is perfectly
symmetrical.
• Reset: Selecting Reset resets the parameter dial to its
default or last-memorized value.
Master Parameter Indicator
• Settings: Selecting Settings opens the Edit Parameter
Dial dialog, described in the following topic. The Master Parameter indicator appears when the
designated parameter dial is used to drive settings of other
• Graph: Selecting Graph opens the Graph palette for parameter dials. Click the Parameter Dial menu arrow to
the selected element. Please refer to “Using Graphs” open the Dependent Parameter editing tool and the list of
on page 505 for more information about the Graph parameters controlled by that dial. For more information
palette. about master parameters, see “Using Dependent
Parameters” on page 726.

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Dependent Parameter Dials

parameter, two values will be displayed to the right of the

parameter dial. These dials are referred to as the natural
and driven parameters, and are explained in detail in
“Using Dependent Parameters” on page 726.

Editing Parameter Dials

You can edit parameter dials by double-clicking your
selected parameter dial to open an Edit Parameter Dial
dialog, which allows you to set the following limits:

Each parameter dial has options that you can edit.

• Value: The Value number sets the current parameter

dial value.

• Min/Max Limit: The Min Limit and Max Limit values

parameter, respectively. The numbers can stand for

different types of values depending on the parameter
you are editing. If it is a joint parameter, the value will
be expressed in degrees above or below 0 (neutral). If

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you are adjusting a scale parameter, the number will Scale Parameters
be a percentage with 100 being normal size.
Scale parameters are found in the Transform group of the
• Name: You can rename the parameter by entering a Parameters palette. Their functions are as follows:
new name in the Name

• Sensitivity: The Sensitivity

parameter dial’s sensitivity to clicking and dragging. A
lower number decreases the sensitivity and vice versa.

• Graph: Clicking the Graph button opens the Graph

palette for the selected element. Please refer to “Using
Graphs” on page 505 for more information about the
Graph palette.
Scale Parameters.
• Force Limits: Check this option to keep the selected
dial within the minimum and maximum limit settings. • Taper: The Taper parameter dial tapers the selected
Click OK body part/prop. This function is the same as using the
Taper tool, described in “Taper” on page 199.

Universal/Figure Parameters • Scale: The Scale parameter dial enlarges or shrinks

the selected body part/prop in all three axes equally.
This topic discusses both universal parameter dials and This is the same as using the Scale tool, described in
“Scale” on page 198. Normal scale is 100%.
other elements are discussed in their respective sections.
• XYZScale: The xScale, yScale, and zScale parameter
dials enlarge or shrink the selected body part/prop
along the selected axis only. This allows you to squeeze

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or stretch items. This is the same as using the Scale tool. • Bend: The Bend parameter dial rotates a body part
Normal scale is 100%. on its major axis. Most body parts bend forward and
back, except for the shoulder and hands, which bend
up and down.
Posing Parameters
• Side-to-Side: The Side-to-Side parameter dial rotates a
Posing parameters appear in the Transform group of
body part perpendicular to its major axis. The thigh has
the Parameters palette, and appear in yellow text. The
lots of side-to-side motion, while the knee has very little.
following parameters are available for posing: Note that
the options you see for each joint vary, depending on • Turn: The Turn parameter dial only appears for the feet
the rotation order of the joint: Each joint will have three in some characters, instead of the Twist parameter.
options, one each for X, Y, and Z rotation. This parameter turns the feet inward or outward.

• Front-Back: The Front-Back parameter dial is used with

shoulders and collars to rotate them forward or back,
perpendicular to their major axis.

Body Parameter Dials

Posing Parameters. The following parameter dials are available for entire

• Twist: The Twist parameter dial rotates a body part

along its own axis. For example, using twist on the
head and neck turns the head. This is the same as
using the Twist tool, described in “Twist” on page 197.

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the currently selected unit of measure, which

is available in the General Preferences dialog. For
example, if a dial is set to 12 inches and you change
units to feet, the dial will now read 1 foot.

Posing Faces

fully articulated faces, meaning you can position facial

muscles such as mouth, eyebrows, cheeks, and eyes to
create different facial expressions using the Parameter dials
and/or the Morphing Tool (described in “Creating Morphs
with the Morphing Tool” on page 700).

Facial expressions work for Alyson and Ryan

and their lo-res versions, even though the
warning dialog will appear when applying face
Body Parameters.

• XYZRotate: The xRotate, yRotate, and zRotate

axis as appropriate.

• XYZTran: the xTran, yTran, and zTran parameter dials

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have different body morphs. Smith Micro

Software cannot provide support for third-party

obtained your third-party content for technical

support.

poseable faces.

parameter dials appears in the Parameters palette, each

dial controlling a different aspect of the face. When using
face parameter dials, think of it as manipulating facial

The Face
center of rotation, allowing you to preview your face poses
up close.

Face Parameters
Face parameters normally operate in the range of 0 to 1,
with 0 being fully off and 1 being fully on. Negative values
Faces can be enhanced with Expression morphs.
(<0) produce inverted poses, and poses greater than
+/- 1 give exaggerated poses. For example, a negative
Frown parameter setting produces a slight smile. Face

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parameters are morph targets that can be used in concert Faces & Phonemes
to create expressions.
A phoneme is a linguistic term for the positions of the
Please refer to “Chapter 30: Modifying tongue, lips, and teeth as they make sounds. Producing
Figures & Props” on page 671 for certain sounds requires the mouth and tongue to be in
information on morph targets and how they work certain positions. Stringing phonemes together is what
inside Poser. produces speech.
Poser allows you to create the appearance of phonemes
(called visemes when observed) to accurately simulate
parameters that allow you to create an endless variety of
speech, a useful feature when adding sound to your
faces and expressions. The list of face parameters varies by
scenes (such as a speech). You simulate speech by using

mouth movements to an imported sound (see “Sound”

head and open the Parameters palette.
on page 529). Poser’s Talk Designer can automatically
In addition to posing faces, you can also modify facial generate a lipsync animation for you based upon settings
structure as well as Ethnicity, Age and Gender parameters Talk Designer palette. For more
via the Face Shaping tool in the Face room. See “The Face information about the Talk Designer, see “Using the Talk
Shaping Tool” on page 577 for more information on the Designer” on page 530.
Face Shaping tool.

shaping morphs in the Parameters palette, and

Ethnicity, Age and Gender controls in the Face
room

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Posing Eyes
To pose eyes, select them using either the Editing tools
or the Current Actor pop-up menu and position them by
clicking and dragging, or by using the parameter dials.
Alyson and Ryan also have additional morph dials for the
eyes, which can vary the shape of the iris and pupil, or
which move the eyes up, down, right, or left.

Phoneme morphs work with the Talk Designer.

Eye morphs size or position the Eyeball, Iris, Cornea, and Pupil.

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Posing Hands • Thumb: The Thumb parameter dial moves the thumb.
Higher values move the thumb in towards the hand,
and vice versa.

• Spread: The Spread parameter dial controls the

without articulated hand joints by applying hand poses amount of hand spread. Higher values spread the
from the Library palette. hand out, and vice versa.

The Left Hand and Right Hand cameras use the hand as
their centers of rotation, making it easier to create precise
hand poses. control over hand poses. These additional options,

Use the Editing tools to pose hands as you would any other enough control to pose your hands holding chopsticks or
body part. Please refer to “The Editing Tools” on page other eating utensils: These additional dials are found in
194 for information on using the Editing tools. You can the Hand Controls section in the Parameters palette when
you choose the hand actor for the Alyson, Ryan, Rex, and
Hands category in the Library palette, just as you would Roxie:
any other pose.
When you select the main portion of a hand (labeled Left • ThumbBend: Bends all sections of the thumb at the
Hand and Right Hand in the Item Select menu) on some same time.

• IndexBend
parameter dials in the Parameters palette. These dials are
same time.
as follows:
• MiddleBend
• Grasp: The Grasp parameter dial controls how tightly
the same time.

• RingBend
same time.

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• PinkyBend: Bends all sections of the pinky at the same

time.

Alyson, Ryan, Rex, and Roxie also include

advanced controls in the feet, that bend the
toes in a more realistic manner. Select the Right Toe
or Left Toe actor, and expand the Toe Controls
section in the Parameters Palette
BigToeCurl, BigToeSpread, ToesCurl, and
ToesSpread.

Using the Hand Model

The Hands library folder includes various
The Figures > Poser Content > Additional Figures subfolder subcategories. When selecting preset hand
includes disembodied hands that use the new joints
found Alyson and Ryan. These hands include extra joints subcategory from which you choose them, as You
that allow you to create hand poses that bend in a more
realistic manner. Use the Left Hand or Right Hand in this
subfolder to create hand poses that are compatible with
Alyson and Ryan. Then save the poses to the Hand library
for future use.
To use a preset hand pose:
1.
Using Preset Hands
2. Open the Library palette, then open the Hands
When you’re done posing a hand, you can save it to the category and your desired subcategory.
Hands category in the Library. Hand poses are a subset of

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3. Double-click the pose you want to use. A dialog

appears asking if you wish to apply the preset to the
left or right hand. Make your selection and click OK.

Posing Animals
You can pose animals using the same techniques
used to pose humans. Animals have their own set of IK
settings, bend zones, and limits. On the Horse model, for
example, moving the hip down toward the ground does
Editing
tools, parameter dials, menus, etc. all work the same with
animals as they do with humans. Technically speaking,

no distinction between them.

Animals do not work with the Walk Designer, Walk Designer.

which is primarily designed for two-legged

the Talk Designer if the animal includes morphs that

use the same limb names as humans, that is,
support it.
front legs and paws are labeled Shoulder, Arm,

work in the Walk Designer, which was created for

walking or running, you need to keyframe its strides

manually.

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Posing Animal Heads Saving Poses in the Library

Several animal models have fully articulated heads. For All parameters are saved along with body part positions
example, you can pose the dog’s mouth and ears. Use the when you save a pose to the Library palette. To save a
pose to the Library palette:
available parameter dials for a given animal’s head will
1. Open the Library palette.
vary depending on the animal.
2. Select the Pose category and your desired

Pose Dots subcategory.

3. Follow the directions in “Adding Items to the Library”

on page 172.
Memory dots (described in “Memory Dots” on page 60).
Each Memory

Pose dots cannot be transferred to different scenes. To Other Posing and Figure Aids
save pose settings and have them accessible in any Poser
The Object menu allows you to manipulate objects within
scene, you need to add pose sets to the Library palette.
your scene.

Lock Object
Selecting Object > Lock Object locks the currently selected
element (body part, prop, etc.). To lock your desired actor,
select it, then select Object > Lock Object. The currently
selected actor will be locked, meaning that it will not
move relative to its parent. For example, if the elbow is
Pose Dots. bent 45 degrees relative to the upper arm, it will hold that
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position. Locking actors is a great way to protect your work

To unlock a locked actor, select it and Object > Lock

Object. A checkbox appears next to this menu item when
the selected actor is locked, and reselecting this option
clears the checkbox and unlocks the actor.

Point At
You can aim body parts, cameras, props, lights, etc. at
other scene elements using the Point At command. This

eyes track a moving object, keeping a camera focused

on the action, etc. This is different than parenting in that
no hierarchical relationship is created. One object simply
points at another. By contrast, parented objects retain
their exact position and orientation relative to their parent
actors.
To point an actor at another actor:
Choosing an object to point toward.
1. Select the element you want to aim using the Select
Item pop-up menu. Select the object to aim at and click OK. The selected
element points at the object and a Point At parameter
2. Select Object > Point At to open a dialog box listing the
dial appears in that element’s Parameters palette.
actors in the scene.
Selecting 1 points the element directly at its selected
target, and 0 points the element away from the target.

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When selecting only a single item from the • Baby: 4 heads (each head is approximately 6 inches
Object Parent hierarchy window, you can tall)
simply double-click on that item to make your
selection and close the window. • Toddler: 5 heads (each head is approximately 6.5
inches tall)
To disable pointing for an element:
• Child: 6 heads (each head is approximately 7 inches
1. Select the element. tall)

2. Select Object > Point At. • Juvenile: 7 heads (each head is approximately 7.5
inches tall)
3. Select None in the dialog that appears and click OK.
• Adolescent: 7.5 heads (each head is approximately 9
inches tall)
Figure Height
• Ideal Adult: 8 heads (each head is approximately 9
inches tall)
by selecting Figure > Figure Height and selecting one of
the eight heights available. • Fashion Model: 8.5 heads (each head is approximately
9 inches tall)

will get the best results when using these options with • Heroic Model: 9 heads (each head is approximately 9
inches tall)
You can create interesting effects by applying different
very basic construction.
Figure heights are measured in “heads”, meaning the ratio
of the head height to the overall body height:

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Genitalia
Some male and female nude models are anatomically affected by the Figure > Genitalia menu option.
correct. Selecting Figure > Genitalia toggles displaying
genitals on or off. and Ryan, contain genitalia that is set up as a

The Figures library includes a Poser Content > People >

Ryan > Genitals subfolder that contains props for all four
Diego, Marcus, Ryan, and Tomo). There are
Auto Balance

scene, and then choose Figure > Conform To conform The Auto Balance feature is a valuable tool for helping
Basic, Advanced, Shiny, and Ultimate create realistic poses. When enabled, Poser calculates
Materials >

subfolders.
Auto Balance adjusts body parts to maintain the original
weight distribution, resulting in more natural-looking poses
genitalia, relying instead on texture/bump/ without having to use several position adjustments. To
transparency maps to create the appearance of further affect the weight distribution and compensation
calculations, you can reposition the Center of Mass Control
modeled genitalia that is set up to take advantage Object
of this feature. To remove genitals on a female control object is adjustable along the X and Z axes in the
character that does not have modeled genitalia, ground plane. Moving the Center of Mass Control Object
you will need to modify the texture map. The Judy also adjusts the Center of Mass Indicator, which appears as
and Jessi models contain modeled genitalia, which
are controllable via this function. This Indicator shows the position above which the current

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center of mass is located, as calculated from the body “Restore” on page 75. You may also want to select
part weights and the position of the Control Object. Figure > Use Limits while working with the Auto Balance
feature, to help maintain realistic body positioning.
Selecting Figure > Auto Balance toggles Auto Balance on

mark appears next to this option in the menu when it’s

enabled. Reselecting this option clears the check mark

Lock Figure
Selecting Figure > Lock Figure

a great way of protecting your work in complex scenes

it to move accidentally. A check mark appears next to

Reselecting this option removes the check mark and

Using Auto Balancing. Lock Hand Parts

When using Auto Balance, use small subtle motions to Selecting Figure > Lock Hand Parts locks the selected
achieve the best results. Large motions may create drastic hand in position, protecting it against accidental position

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room. Pose an arm and/or leg, and use this command to

option: instantly apply the same position to the other side. You can
also swap entire poses from side to side and straighten the
1. Select the hand to lock.

2. Select Figure > Lock Hand Parts. The hand is now

locked. This command is not available for all Poser

Please refer to “Posing Hands” on page 221 for

information on posing hands.

Drop to Floor
Start pose (left); Right to Left (center); Swap Right and Left
(right).
air, or you can lower it to the ground depending on your
needs. Selecting Figure > Drop to Floor brings the lowest Selecting Figure > Symmetry opens the Symmetry menu,
which contains the following options for your currently
“Ground
Plane” on page 124.
• Left to Right: Selecting Left to Right applies the

Symmetry the right side.

The Symmetry command allows you to copy pose
• Right to Left: Selecting Right to Left applies the
characteristics from one side of the body to another,
which can save you time when creating scenes in the
the left side.
Pose Setup
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• Swap Right and Left: Selecting Swap Right and Left • Straighten Torso: Selecting Straighten Torso straightens
swaps the positions of the bones on the right and left the torso area (Hip, Abdomen, Chest).
When you select a Symmetry function, a dialog box
appears asking if you wish to copy the joint zone setup
• Left Arm to Right Arm: Selecting Left Arm to Right Arm
as well. Click Yes to apply the symmetry to the bone
positions the right arm bones in the same position as
structure, or No to avoid copying the joint setup.
the left arm.
Symmetry also copies element settings
• Right Arm to Left Arm: Selecting Right Arm to Left Arm
(morph targets, deformers, parameters, etc.)
positions the left arm bones in the same position as the
from one side to the other. For example, if you scale
right arm.
the Left Hand to 200% and apply Left to Right
• Swap Right and Left Arms: Selecting Swap Right and symmetry, the other hand will scale as well. Do not
Left Arms swaps the positions of the bones on the right use this command if you want to use asymmetrical
settings.

• Left Leg to Right Leg: Selecting Left Leg to Right Leg

positions the right leg bones in the same position as the
Delete Figure
left leg.
Selecting Figure > Delete Figure deletes the currently
• Right Leg to Left Leg: Selecting Right Leg to Left Leg
OK
positions the left leg bones in the same position as the
to proceed with the deletion or Cancel to abort. Windows
right leg.

• Swap Right and Left Legs: Selecting Swap Right and [DEL].
Left Legs swaps the positions of the bones on the right
Delete attached

you are deleting.

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Hide Figure
Selecting Figure > Hide Figure hides the currently selected

is helpful when you work with complex scenes, especially

Body
using the Select Element pull-down menu and clearing the
Visible checkbox in the Properties palette as described in
“Properties” on page 204.

Collision detection settings do not apply to

hidden objects.

Show All Figures

Selecting Figure > Show All Figures makes all hidden

Visible
checkbox in the Properties palette. If one or more body
parts are set to invisible, these will remain invisible when the

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Chapter 10: Working Poser’s replaceable geometry feature (see “Replacing

a Body Part with a Prop” on page 242) lets you replace

with Props body parts with props, making the prop actually part of

another prop or scene element, such as a briefcase in a

Poser lets you add props to your scene. Props are three- hand. Please refer to “Poser Figures Hierarchy” on page
757 for information about hierarchies in general, and to
or that simply add interest to your scene. Props can be “The Hierarchy Editor” on page 756 for information on
creating hierarchies within Poser. Props also add general
a wig, a moustache, a pair of sunglasses, a cigar, or a interest and meaning to your scenes, such as a mushroom
for a frog to perch on.
such as leaning on a cane, climbing a ladder, or tossing

categories. Poser treats conforming clothing items like

in this chapter for the sake of discussion.

About Props
You can manipulate props just as you would any other
element, which is why you see the term body part/prop
used throughout this manual. You can change a prop’s
color, shape, deformation, material, and maps (if it has
Props add interest to your scene.
UV coordinates – refer to “About Maps & Templates” on
page 299). Props can even cast shadows.

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You can select props from the Props category in the Hair Room” on page 584 for more information about
Library palette, the Content room, or import props in a strand-based hair and the Hair room.
variety of popular 3D formats. You can also create your
own props in your favorite 3D modeling application By default, strand-based hair requires
(provided that application exports to one or more formats
supported by Poser’s Import function). should be careful not to overload your system.
Please see the detailed information about the Hair
Props function like other scene elements, meaning you
room for more information.
can use the Editing tools and parameter dials and can
specify properties in the Properties palette. You can also
create groups using the Group Editor palette (see “The
Group Editor” on page 742). Prop-based Hair
Prop-based hair is a special kind of prop that automatically
Hair
a number of styles in the Library palette (see “The Hair
Poser’s Hair room (see “Chapter 26: The Hair Room” on Category” on page 161). Once assigned, hair moves
page 584) allows you to create real strand-based hair, or
with Poser are morphable, as are many third-party hair
discuss both forms of hair in this section. props. It is common to use Transparency Maps to improve
the look of prop-based hair.

Strand-Based Hair
Poser’s Hair room adds dynamic strand-based hair to your
scene elements for ultimate realism. You can create as
much or as little hair anywhere you like on any object in
your scene and can even use it to add fur, lichens, grass,
and many other effects. Please refer to “Chapter 26: The
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To use the conforming hair model:

1. Add the James Figures > Poser Content
> People > James category of the Library palette.

2. Select and add the Messy Hair model from the Hair >
Poser Content > People > James Hair category in the
Library palette.

3. Set the head as the parent for the hair as described in

“Changing a Parent” on page 245.

Clothing
and is geometry-based. Poser’s Cloth room (see “Chapter 27: The Cloth Room”
on page 603) adds a whole new dimension to adding

Library palette, please

scenes. You can even add realistic motion to clothes that
refer to “Adding Hair to a Figure” on page 162. Hair
will react as the character moves (such as a skirt on a
includes parameter dials in the Parameters palette (see
walking woman) and can be windblown using wind force
“Prop Parameters” on page 241), allowing you to specify
“Wind Force Fields” on page 690). Of
its scale and position. Some hair also includes morph target
course, Poser supports prop-based clothing and ships with
parameter dials that allow you to, for example, swing a
ponytail as a character walks. The Library palette also
contains a pose-able hair model, which contains elements

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Dynamic Clothing
Please refer to “Adding Dynamic Clothing” on page 604

scene.

Conforming Clothing
In addition to cloth objects, Poser includes libraries of

which are located in the Figures category of the Library

palette and includes shirts, pants, shoes, dresses, skirts,

“Adding
Conforming Clothing: Automatic Conforming” on
page 151 and “Adding Conforming Clothing: Manual Clothing before conforming.
Conforming” on page 153 for more information on using
automatic and manual conforming methods to attach

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The Props Library

You can add props from the Library palette’s Props
category as described in “Adding Props” on page 165.

Using 3D Objects as Props

You can import 3D objects created in other 3D
applications to use as props. Poser’s Import functionality is
described in “Importing Files” on page 844.

origin point. If you do not specify an origin point, the prop

will appear in the center of the workspace. If you import
a prop and can’t see it, the prop may be too large and/
or your currently selected camera may be zoomed in too
Clothing after conforming. close to see it. Try zooming out and/or switching cameras.
You will probably have to scale and translate props to get
them where you want them in your scene, using either the
Adding & Importing Props Editing tools or the prop’s Parameter dials.

There are several ways to bring props into Poser. Props can
be added to the document window from the Props library,
or you can also import props from other 3D applications.

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Moving, Resizing, and Deforming

Props
You can move, resize, and deform props using the Editing
tools, the Properties palette, and/or the Parameters
palette.

Deleting Props
To delete a prop, select the prop you wish to delete and
either select Object > Delete Object or press [DEL].

Creating New Props

You can use the Grouping The Group Editor can be helpful in creating a prop (such as a
“The Group Editor” on
page 742. This feature allows you to create new props.
For example, this graphic shows an example of a face To create a prop:
1. Select the prop or body part you want to base the
prop on.

2. Select the Grouping tool to open the Group Editor

palette.

3. Select polygons for a new group and create and

name the prop.
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4. The new prop is now listed in the Current Actor pull- parameters, remember that you are making these
down menu and can be moved, shaped, and edited adjustments based on the prop’s original origin location,
like any other prop. not its current position.

You can save your new prop to the Library palette as

described in “Adding Items to the Library” on page 172. Prop Properties
Props have the following properties:
Creating Prop Parameters
You can use morph targets to create new parameters for
your props. Please refer to “Chapter 30: Modifying Figures
& Props” on page 671 for more information about morph
targets.

The Prop Origin

A prop’s origin appears in the Document window as 3D
crosshairs. This is the center of that prop’s rotation and
scale. When you rotate a prop, it rotates about its origin. It
grows or shrinks from the origin point when scaled. You can
display a prop’s origin by selecting the desired prop and
checking the Display Origin checkbox in the Properties
palette.
You can move a prop’s origin using the originXYZ
parameter dials. Moving the origin alters the prop’s
rotation and scale points. When adjusting the origin

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track that part. You cannot edit a prop’s internal

name within Poser.

• Name: The Name

• Visible: Checking the Visible checkbox makes the

prop visible and vice versa. Invisible props are not
included in any render calculations, and do not
appear in the rendered scene. See “Figure Properties”
on page 205 for information on animating the Visible
property.

• Visible in Raytracing: Checking the Visible in

Raytracing checkbox makes the prop visible in

• Casts Shadows: Checking the Casts Shadows

checkbox forces the selected prop to cast a shadow,
which will be visible in your scene. Clearing this box
means the selected body part casts no shadow.

Prop properties. • Visible in Camera: When checked, the object is visible

in the camera and render. When unchecked, the
object does not render. Used in conjunction with Light
• Internal Name: The Internal Name
Emitter, described next, to create light-casting objects.
prop’s internal (hidden) name, which Poser uses to
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• Light Emitter: When checked, allows the object to be • Displacement Bounds: The Displacement Bounds
included in indirect lighting calculations so that light property determines the prop’s displacement
will bounce off the object. When unchecked, indirect boundary. Please refer to “Chapter 19: Using The
lighting calculations are skipped for the object. FireFly Render Engine” on page 428 for more
information about displacement bounds.
• Collision detection: Checking the Collision Detection
checkbox enables collision detection for the currently • Shading Rate: The Shading Rate allows you to specify
selected prop. Please refer to “Collisions” on page the desired shading rate for the currently selected
81 for more information about collision detection. prop. Lowering the shading rate improves your render
quality but consumes computer resources. Please refer
• Apply Collision Setting to Children: Clicking the to “Chapter 19: Using The FireFly Render Engine” on
Apply Collision Setting to Children button applies the page 428 for more information about shading rates.
currently selected prop’s collision detection setting to
that part’s children parts (if any). • Smooth Polygons: Checking the Smooth Polygons
checkbox causes Poser to smooth the prop’s polygons
• Load Morph Target: Clicking the Load Morph Target at render time to eliminate or reduce a “faceted”
button displays the Load Morph Target dialog, allowing
you to load a custom morph target for the selected cause sharp corners to appear round. If the affected
prop (which is then editable using the Morphing prop has sharp angles, you should experiment with
Tool). Please refer to “Chapter 30: Modifying Figures disabling this option for optimum results.
& Props” on page 671 for more information about
loading morph targets. • Crease Angle: The Crease Angle setting establishes
a threshold up to which creases between adjoining
• Set Parent: Clicking the Set Parent button allows you polygons will be smoothed. Polygons with crease
to make the prop a child of another element in your angles over this threshold will not be smoothed, and
scene. Please refer to “Changing a Parent” on page will be rendered as hard edges. See “Smoothing
245 for information on setting prop parents. Geometry” on page 448 for more information

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about using the Crease Angle setting to apply smooth • Scale: The Scale parameter dial increases or decreases
shading. the size of the prop in all axes.

• Display Origin: Checking the Display Origin checkbox • XYZScale: The xScale, yScale, and zScale parameter
displays the prop’s origin. Please refer to “The Prop dials increase or decrease the size of the prop in the
Origin” on page 238 for more information about prop selected axis.
origins.
• XYZRotate: The xRotate, yRotate, and zRotate
• Animatable Origin: When checked, allows you to parameter dials rotate the prop around the selected
animate the prop origin as its actor is translated, axis.
rotated, or scaled. This allows you to optimally position
the prop origin if its shape changes drastically by • XYZTran: The xTran, yTran, and zTran parameter dials
scaling or morphing. move the prop along the selected axis.

You can animate the prop origin. When used

in combination with dependent parameters,
this can result in more realistic joint bends. See
“Animatable Origins” on page 536.

• Subdivision Levels: Allows you to subdivide the

selected prop. See “Working with Subdivision
Surfaces” on page 835 for more information.

Prop Parameters
Props have the following parameters:

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Replacing a Body Part with a

Prop
Poser lets you replace a body part with a prop, such as a
hook on a pirate’s hand or a mask for a man’s head. This
example was created by importing a model of a mask,

You should replace body parts with props

and aligning easier.

Prop parameters.

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meets the prop. You might also want to make the

body part being replaced invisible using the Properties
palette as described in “Properties” on page 204.

3. Select Object > Replace Body Part with Prop to open

the Replace Part dialog.

4. Choose the prop to swap using the Prop pull-down

menu and click OK. The prop assumes the name of
the body part being replaced.

If the replaced body part doesn’t look right, try disabling

bending by selecting the replaced body part and clearing
the Bend checkbox in the Properties palette. You can also
use the Joint Editor palette to make adjustments. This is an
advanced feature and should be used with care. Please
refer to “Chapter 33: Working with Joints, Weights, and
Skinning” on page 781 for information on using the Joint
Editor palette. The prop retains its material groups (see
the “Chapter 13: The Basics of Materials” on page 297),
meaning you can apply shaders to it as you can with any
To replace a body part with a prop: other material groups in your scene.

1. Add or import the desired prop. Props turned into body parts retain their

2. Position and deform the prop as desired using the they had prior to being converted. Be sure to place
Editing tools, deformers, and/or parameter dials. Be props in their desired locations before turning them
sure that the prop’s position overlaps the body a little into body parts.
(in most cases) to avoid a “break” where the body
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Changing Figures with Replaced 1.

another object).
Geometry
2. Select Figure > Set Figure Parent to open the Object
Parent dialog.
part using the Change function in the Library palette,
a warning will appear asking if you want to keep the 3. Select the desired parent object and click OK. To
parent props, camera, etc., select Object > Change
Parent as described in “Changing a Parent” on page
• To keep the props that have replaced body parts,
245.
check the button. To keep

check the checkbox.

Click OK when ready.

the Library palette.

Set Figure Parent

You can attach props to body parts, body parts to each

parts- the list goes on and on. Setting a parent creates

a hierarchical relationship, as described in “Establishing
Hierarchal Relationships” on page 761. You can parent
Choosing a parent for an object.

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Changing a Parent
You can attach props to body parts, body parts to each
When selecting only a single item from the
Object Parent hierarchy window, you can
body parts, etc. Setting a parent creates a hierarchical
simply double-click on that item to make your
relationship, as described in “Poser Figures Hierarchy”
selection and close the window.
on page 757. You can even control whether parented
props bend along with their parent body part. Some items
like sunglasses, etc. should not bend. However, other
items such as elbow pads on a roller blader should bend the Change Parent command on a body
with the parent. You should change parent props before part actor to parent it to something else (such as

sword in a warrior’s hand). Your parenting choices are virtually unlimited. For example,

hand. could create some interesting effects.

To set a parent for an element:
1. Select the object you wish to parent (make the child
of another object).

2. If necessary, use the Editing tools, deformers, and/

or parameter dials to position and shape the object.
Ensure the correct positioning using either a detailed
preview style (such as Lit Wireframe), zooming in
close, or a test render. You can also enable Collision
Detection to prevent the selected object from

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penetrating its parent object, or vice versa. Please 5. If you want the prop to bend like its parent, check the
refer to “Collisions” on page 81 for more information Inherit bends of parent checkbox.
about the Collision Detection feature.
6. Click OK.
3. Select Object > Change Parent (or click the Set Parent
button in the Properties palette) to open the Object When selecting only a single item from the
Parent dialog. Object Parent hierarchy window, you can
simply double-click on that item to make your
selection and close the window.

In the preceding examples, we parented the ball to the

Figure > Set Figure

Parent as described in “Set Figure Parent” on page 244.

Grouping Objects
A grouping object is a container that can act as a parent
to two or more objects. A grouping object allows you to
perform the same action to more than one object at a
time. For example, when several objects are assigned to
the same grouping object as a parent, you will be able
You choose the parent object in the Object Parent dialog. to move or rotate the grouping object to do the same to
all of its children; or you could turn off visibility for all of the
4. Select the desired parent object (the object to which children of the grouping object.
the currently selected object will be attached).
To demonstrate how grouping works:

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1. Create a new project.

2. Add a few primitives (a box, a ball, and a bowl are

shown here).

3. Also add a Square Groundplane HR from the Props >

Primitives category.

4. With the Square Groundplane selected go into the

Material Room and click the . The

5. Change the colors of the props to add more variety to

the scene.

Four primitive objects in a scene.

Now, you can create the grouping. Choose Object >

Create Grouping. A container named Grouping n (where
n represents a numerical value automatically assigned
by Poser) appears in the scene. It will appear at the zero

scene). It appears as a cube in wireframe display mode,

and will not be rendered in your scene.

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the menu and select Groupings > Grouping n (with

n being the number of the grouping you want to
attach).

• Open the Hierarchy Editor, and select the item you

want to attach to the grouping object. Drag and drop
it on the grouping object so that it becomes its child.
Use any of the above methods to attach the box and the
ball. Leave the bowl and ground plane as they are (do not
assign the Grouping object to them as the parent). Notice
now, that when you move the grouping around, the box
and ball will move, but the bowl and ground plane stay
put.

A grouping object at the origin point of the scene.

There are several ways that you can attach children to the
Grouping object:

• Select an object in your scene that you want to attach

to the Grouping object. Choose Object > Change
Parent, and use the Change Parent dialog to select the
Grouping Object in the hierarchy.

• Right-click in the Document window on the object

you want to attach. A context menu appears, and
included is a Change Parent to command. Expand
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The Box and Ball move with the Grouping object. The bowl
and ground (not attached) stay put.

A Grouping object allows you to do more than translate or

rotate objects together.
For example, you can toggle the Visibility of a grouping
object to show or hide all of its children at once.
Parent with the Object > Change Parent command (top) or
with the Document window context menu (bottom).

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When a Grouping object is invisible, the

Hierarchy Window will display the visibility
icon slightly differently for its children. A blue outline
will appear around the visibility icons for children of
a grouping object, indicating that they have
inherited the Invisible setting from the grouping
object.

You can also toggle the Visible in Raytracing property of

a Grouping object. Let’s say that you have several objects
Visible in Raytracing is turned

and rendered for the child object. If Visible in Raytracing is

This can help speed up rendering, but there may also be

times when you intentionally want some objects to be

Grouping object Visibility off (top); Visible in Raytracing off

(bottom).

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Using Grouping Objects with Figures football player, and then he catches it and runs with it.
If you create this type of scene in Poser, you can use a
When you create a grouping that includes a body part on
hand can be a target for the football. You animate the
pass of the football, and when the football gets close to
the catcher you can set the value of the Constraint object
•
Andy, or Alyson or Ryan), and then use the Object >
Create Grouping command, the grouping object will You can delete the Constraint channel and
appear in the scene. Next, you select one of the body the Constraint object will still appear in the
parts on the character (such as the right forearm) scene and act as a grouping object, as described
and right-click to choose in “Grouping Objects” on page 246.
parent to from the context menu that appears. The
grouping object becomes a parent of the entire Here is a simple example to illustrate how this works. Create
, and not just the selected body part. a simple scene that has three primitive props, such as a
box, a bowl, and a ball (or similar).
•
a grouping object as a parent to a table, chair, and With one of the props selected (the box in this example),
choose Object > Add Constraint. The Add Constraint dialog
hand as a parent to the grouping object, you can still appears and prompts you to select a constraint target.
have some freedom over the hand. You can then select the ball as the target.

Using Constraint Channels

Constraint channels allow you to animate one object
based on the position of another object. To explain,
visualize a scene where a football is being tossed to a

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The box moves to the same space as the ball when the
Constraint dial is set to 1.
Choose a Constraint target from the Add Constraint dialog.
A wireframe box appears at the origin of the ball (the
After you click OK, you will see that the box moves to the target), but may be hidden within the target object. This
same position held by the ball, so that they are now in the wireframe box is a container that will not render in your
same space. A Constraint dial appears in the Parameters scene, but it assists in animation. The Hierarchy Editor
Palette, and is set to 1. When you move this dial back will show this box as Constraint Grouping n (where n is a
toward the 0 value, you will see the box move back numerical value automatically assigned in Poser) and it will
toward its original position. appear as a child to the ball.
Now, to see how a constraint channel works, move the
Constraint parameter dial back toward 1, so that the
box moves closer to the ball. Then move the ball (not the
Constraint object) with the editing tools. You will notice
that the box follows the ball. The amount of movement
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between the two objects is determined by the value set by You can add more than one constraint object. For
the Constraint parameter dial.. example, you can select the box and assign the bowl
as a second constrain target. An additional Constraint
dial appears in the Parameters window (and also in the
Hierarchy window). When an object has two Constraint
targets, it works as follows:

• If both Constraint 1 and Constraint 2 for the box are set

to 1, the box will be positioned according to Constraint
2.

• If Constraint 1 is set to 0, and Constraint 2 is set to 1, the

box will be positioned according to Constraint 2.

• If Constraint 1 is set to 1, and Constraint 2 is set to 0, the

box will be positioned according to Constraint 1.

• If both Constraint 1 and Constraint 2 are set to values

other than 0 or 1, the box will be positioned in relation
to both.

When an object has two constraint targets, set each to a

value between 0 and 1 for both to have effect.

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you can use as a simulation proxy. They can be used for

anything, such as physics, hair, or cloth simulations. They
help reduce resources when you are trying to calculate
simulations and collisions against high resolution geometry.
Simulation proxies are also useful when you are trying to
visualize where collisions against an object will occur, and

To create a simulation proxy, follow these steps:

1. Click the object in your scene for which you want
to create a low-resolution proxy. This can be a prop
in your scene, or an actor on a poseable character
(such as a character’s head).

2. Choose Object > Spawn Prop from Convex Hull. A

prop, named hull, appears in your scene.

be named hull. The second, and subsequent

When an object has two constraint targets, set each to a proxies will be named hull n, where n is a sequential
value between 0 and 1 for both to have effect. number (such as 1, 2, and so on).

3. Switch to the Properties Palette, if desired, to assign a

Creating Simulation Proxies
The Object > Spawn Prop from Convex Hull command
allows you to quickly create lower-resolution objects that

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Examples of hull proxy objects.

Deleting Objects
Selecting Object > Delete Object deletes the currently
OK to
delete the prop, Cancel to abort.

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Chapter 11: Cameras Document window layouts, they allow you to quickly

animated output. Remember that every view you see

This section describes how Poser’s cameras work. As of your scene inside the Document window is done using
indicated previously, cameras aim at the Poser workspace one or more cameras. You can move cameras in any
from different vantage points. Switching cameras allows direction, however positioning them can be a time-
you to view your scene from up to four of these vantage consuming process. Having multiple cameras allows you
points at once. to use preset camera positions to quickly navigate your
scene, while the ability to position cameras allows you
to create custom still or moving shots for use either while
Camera View working on your scene or during rendering.
The Camera controls appear as follows in the Poser
Selecting Display > Camera View allows you to select one
workspace.
of the cameras available in your scene.

Show Camera Names

Selecting Display > Show Camera Names displays the
name of the currently selected camera in the top left
corner of the Document window’s scene preview area.
Clicking this option again disables this feature.

The Camera Controls

The Camera controls allow you to quickly select and
position cameras. Used in conjunction with the available

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The Animation On/Off control allows you to enable or

disable automatic keyframe generation when you move
or change rotation of a camera. The Flyaround camera
view provides an animated view of your scene as a
camera rotates around it while pointed at the center
origin.
The Mini Camera controls consist of (from left to right)
the Frame Selected and Orbit Selected buttons, and the
Trackball, Move XY, and Move XZ controls. These function
identically to their counterparts in the main Camera
controls and are therefore detailed in this chapter.
The available 3D cameras are: Main, Auxiliary, Posing,
Face, Left Hand, Right Hand, and Dolly. The available
orthographic (2D) cameras are: Left, Right, Top, Bottom,
Front, and Back. When you render stills or animations,
Camera Controls. the rendering takes place using the currently selected
camera. Please refer to “Part 4: Rendering” on page
415 for more information on rendering. Each camera is
In addition, the Mini Camera controls appear on the top
discussed above.
of the Document window, allowing you to navigate your
scene without having to have the full Camera controls
visible (such as when you are using the Material room).
The Main, Auxiliary, and Posing
Cameras
The Main, Auxiliary, and Posing cameras are revolving
cameras, which means they rotate about the center of
Mini Camera Controls.
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The Face Camera

props does not alter these camera’s positions. The The Face camera provides a close-up of the currently
Auxiliary camera provides a secondary camera for your
use, such as when you are deciding which shot to render facial expressions and see your results in detail. This camera
and want to explore possibilities without affecting your
previous camera positioning/animation work
The Posing camera is similar to the Main and Auxiliary Face camera, select
Cameras except that it rotates about the currently Face Camera control.

Posing

Main, Auxiliary, and Posing cameras as displayed in the The Face camera displayed in the Camera Controls.
Camera Controls.

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For the Face camera to work properly, be

included with Poser but could be an issue for third-

yourself.

Left and Right Hand Cameras

Like the Face camera, you can zoom in on the left or right Left and Right Hand cameras as shown in the Camera
Controls.
and other hand positions. Hand cameras also focus on
For the hand cameras to work properly, be
the Hand cameras will focus on the feet/paws/claws as
appropriate. To switch to a hand camera, click the Left
Hand” and “Right Hand”. This is not an issue for
hand or Right Hand icon as appropriate.

you create yourself.

The Dolly Camera

The Dolly camera rotates about its own center
independently of scene contents, meaning it can move
around and between elements in the scene. If you want

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to emulate a motion picture camera, the Dolly camera is

your best choice.

Orthographic Cameras
The Left, Right, Top, Bottom, Front, and Back cameras
are orthographic cameras, meaning that they product
orthographic projections. Orthographic projections makes

views. Orthographic cameras cannot be rotated, since

they are permanently aligned to the X, Y, and Z axes in
the Poser workspace. Because of this, they make excellent Orthographic cameras as shown in the Camera controls.
references for viewing your scene. Please refer to “About
3D Space” on page 928 for a general discussion about
3D views.
Shadow Light Cameras
Shadow light cameras are very useful for aiming lights
and creating their shadows. Each light in your scene has
one Shadow Light camera. Each shadow camera shares
both XYZ location and aim direction with its assigned
light. Poser uses these cameras to calculate shadows
cast by the objects in each light’s path. Positioning these
cameras and/or adjusting their parameters/properties
can affect how shadows appear in your rendered scenes.
You can select these cameras using the Select Actor
pull-down menu. Shadow cameras have a reduced set

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of properties/parameters (see “Camera Properties &

Parameters” on page 266 for more information).
Changing Cameras
To change a camera, use any of the following methods:
If you see poor depth map shadows in a
portrait shot, or if you see warping or • Right-click the camera label in any Document window
pane and choose one of the options in the Camera
View submenu.
of the scene that really matter.
• Click the Face, Left Hand, or Right Hand icon in the
Camera controls (see “The Camera Controls” on page
256).

• Click the Select Camera control in the Camera controls

(see “Select Camera Control” on page 261).

• Select Display > Camera View using the Menu Bar, then
selecting your desired camera in the Cameras pull-
down menu.

Select Camera Control

Clicking and dragging the cursor over the Select Camera
control cycles through the available camera views and
changes the Document window or currently active view
pane to the newly selected camera.
Shadow Light cameras displayed in the Select Actor drop
down menu.

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the Poser workspace and orbits around your scene,

displaying all elements within view. This is an excellent way
to quickly see how your scene looks in 3D space. Once
activated, this view remains active until toggled off. To
toggle Flyaround on and off, click the control or make the
selection using the Cameras pull-down menu.

The Select Camera control.

Just above the main Select Camera control are three

an existing camera shortcut with your currently selected

camera by pressing [OPT]/[ALT] while clicking one of
The Flyaround Camera control.
the Select Camera shortcut buttons. A shortcut for your
currently selected camera will replace the previously
existing camera shortcut.
Positioning Cameras
Flyaround View In addition to selecting cameras, the Camera controls
allow you to position your currently selected camera using
The Flyaround view places the currently selected camera one or more of the following controls. If you have more
on a virtual track above and away from the center of
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than one camera active (multiple Document window

view panes), these controls will only affect the currently
selected camera.

Camera Plane Controls

The Camera Plane controls constrain camera motion to

with precision:

• Move YZ: The Move YZ control constrains camera

motions to the up/down (Y) and front/back (Z) axes.

• Move XY: The Move XY control constrains camera

motions to the side/side (X) and up/down (Y) axes.
Camera Plane controls.
• Move XZ: The Move XZ control constrains camera
motions to the side/side (X) and front/back (Z) axes.
Rotation Trackball
The Rotation trackball tilts and spins the currently selected
camera about all three axes. The Main, Auxiliary, Posing,
and Dolly cameras rotate about the center of the Poser
workspace. The Posing camera rotates around the
Face and Hand cameras
rotate about the respective actors (body parts) of the
Rotation trackball by

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pressing [OPT]/[ALT] and dragging the cursor around the Focal Length Control
workspace using the Document window.
The Focal Length control increases or decreases the
selected camera’s focal length. Clicking the control and
dragging right increases the focal length, while clicking
and dragging to the left reduces the focal length. You can
also adjust the camera’s Focal Length parameter in the
Parameters palette.

Roll Control
The Roll Camera control banks the camera to the left or
right, tilting your view of the Poser workspace. Click the
control and drag left or right to tilt the camera in the
The Rotation Trackball.
indicated direction.

Scale Control
The Scale Camera control works like a zoom lens. Click
the control and drag right to zoom towards the camera’s

camera). Clicking and dragging left zooms out, and vice

versa.

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Scale, Roll, and Focal Length camera controls.

Frame Selected and Orbit Selected camera controls.

Frame and Orbit Selected Control

Use the Frame Selected Creating Cameras
around the selected actor. When the Orbit Selected
button is enabled, the camera will orbit around the You can create new revolving or dolly cameras using the
selected object. When the Orbit Selected button is Object > Create Camera menu option.
disabled, the camera will orbit normally.
You can specify the type of camera you wish to create by
selecting either Revolving or Dolly from the Create Camera
sub-menu. A revolving camera rotates about the center of
the Poser workspace, regardless of the position of objects

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within the scene. A dolly camera rotates about its own

center, and can move around and between elements in
the scene.

Camera Properties & Parameters

When you select a camera, its properties and parameters
will appear in the Properties and Parameters palettes,
respectively. To access a camera’s properties and
parameters in the appropriate palette when you do not
currently have a camera selected, you can:
Camera Properties.
• Click your desired camera object if it is visible in the
Document window.
• Name: The Name
• Use the Current Actor pull-down menu.

• Visible: Checking the Visible checkbox makes the

Camera Properties camera visible in the Document window, and vice
versa. Invisible objects are not included in any render
Cameras have the following properties, available in the
calculations, and do not appear in the rendered
Properties palette.
scene. See “Figure Properties” on page 205 or
information on animating the Visible property. When
cameras are visible, you can right-click to display a
context menu as described in “Cameras Context
Menu” on page 93.

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• Animating: Check the Animating box to have the • Remember changes for Undo: Checking the Remember
selected camera’s movements recorded as keyframes changes for Undo
in your animation, or clear it to disable this feature. changes will be included in the Undo/Redo cache.
With this feature disabled, you can still move the Unchecking this checkbox means that the Undo
camera but its movements will not be recorded as feature will not apply to camera changes.
keyframes in your animation. Camera animation
allows camera movements to appear as part of
rendered movies, allowing for such techniques as
Camera Parameters
Like all parameter dials, clicking and dragging a dial to
“Chapter 22: Animating with Poser” on page 493 for
the right increases its value, and clicking and dragging to
more information on creating animations. To enable/
the left decreases its value. You can also click your desired
disable camera animation, open the Properties
palette.
you to directly type your desired value.
When a camera is animated, your view of your scene
changes over time, which can add realism and interest to
your animation. Watch a movie and notice how often the
camera moves. You can animate Poser cameras just like
any other 3D object using keyframes and tween frames.
Different cameras will animate differently, since they have
differing centers of motion.

You can only use one camera per animation;

you cannot switch cameras in mid
animation. To do this, create separate clips then
edit them together using video editing software.

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Other Parameters
The Other Parameters section contains a variety of
parameters to control the behavior of the selected
camera. These parameters are as follows:

• Focal: The Focal parameter dial sets the camera’s

focal length. Smaller numbers give wider angles
and will add more stretching and distortion as they
decrease. Larger numbers give results like telephoto

• Perspective: The Perspective parameter shifts the

current camera’s perspective without changing
the camera’s location. This can give the illusion that
the camera is farther or nearer to objects in your
scene. The Perspective setting is hidden, because it is
interconnected with the Focal setting. If you adjust the
Perspective dial, you will see a change in the Focal
setting.

• Depth of Field: Widening the lens aperture of the

camera allows you to achieve a Depth of Field effect.
The farther away items are from the focal plane, the
more blurred they will appear. Depth of Field can be
Camera Parameters.
Focus Distance: The focus distance dial controls
the cross hair so that you can position the focus.
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Place the cross hair at the distance at which

objects appear most in focus. In Poser, focal
distance for each camera is determined by a
control object located within the scene. You can

in Poser, by using keyframes to specify its change

in position; Poser will interpolate the movement
between keyframes for you. (For more information
about animating using keyframes, please refer
to “Chapter 22: Animating with Poser” on page
493.) Enter your desired value in the camera’s
Focus Distance

The Focus Distance control, with Alyson as the point of focus,

and its render.

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values of 1.0, 1.4, 2, 2.8, 4, 5.6, 8, 11, 16, 22, 32, etc.
Each change either doubles or halves the amount of

f-stop is calculated from the focal length of the

camera lens divided by the diameter of the bundle
of light rays entering the lens and passing through the
aperture in the iris diaphragm. On a physical camera,
this represents the lens focal length (see next bullet)
divided by the f-stop value to determine the actual
aperture size. The F-Stop setting affects the depth of

point of focus. Focus on the subject, and then enter

the desired value in the F-Stop
The following images illustrate the Depth of Field effect.

The Focus Distance control, with the car as the point of focus,
and its render.

• F-Stop: The F-Stop number represents a lens aperture

size. The larger the number, the smaller the aperture
opening. Each number is multiplied by a factor of
approximately 1.4 as the scale rises, giving standard
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Poser allows you to enable or disable Depth camera shutters, while extremely fast, require a small
of Field for individual renders. In order for time interval to travel between the closed and open
Depth positions. For example, setting a beginning time of 0.0
of Field option in the Render Settings dialog. Please and an ending time of 0.5 means the shutter would be
refer to “Chapter 19: Using The FireFly Render
Engine” on page 428 for details on how to do this
using the FireFly Renderer. The Shutter Open and Shutter Close settings
only result in a visible effect when 3D Motion
Blur is activated in the Render Settings dialog. As
If the results of your Depth of Field settings are the amount of time between Shutter Open and
too grainy in the blurred areas, try raising the Shutter Close increases, the motion blur effect
number of Pixel Samples. Doing so will result in a increases.
smoother effect, but increased render times.

• Hither: The Hither parameter controls the distance of

• Shutter Open: The Shutter Open value represents the the clipping plane. Objects (or portions thereof) closer
shutter opening time in fractions of a frame, where 0.0 to the camera than the hither distance will not appear
is the beginning of the frame and 1.0 is the end of the in your view pane.
frame. Unlike a real camera shutter, this one opens
and closes instantly with zero elapsed time. Regular • Yon: The Yon parameter sets the farther range of the
camera shutters, while extremely fast, require a small clipping plane. Objects (or portions thereof) farther
time interval to travel between the closed and open from the camera than the yon distance will not
positions. appear in your view plane. The Yon parameter is only
applicable with OpenGL hardware rendering.
• Shutter Close: The Shutter Close value represents the
shutter closing time in fractions of a frame, where 0.0
is the beginning of the frame and 1.0 is the end of the
frame. Unlike a real camera shutter, this one opens
and closes instantly with zero elapsed time. Regular
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Transform Parameters XYZ Scale

When a camera is selected, you can use the parameter As mentioned above, camera scale functions like a zoom
dials on the Parameters palette to precisely adjust that lens. The Scale control zooms the camera equally in all
camera’s position. The Dolly, Posing, Face, and Hand three axes. Using the parameter dials, however, you can
cameras have the standard 3D Pitch, Yaw, and Roll scale in any amount using any combination of axes to
parameters, while the Main and Auxiliary cameras have create distorted effects. While this might give the same
xOrbit, yOrbit, and zOrbit parameters. These parameters
are measured in degrees. scaling cameras only affects the selected camera; items
in your scene are not affected. Decreasing scale values
XYZ Dolly zooms in along the selected axis, and vice versa.

The Dolly parameter dials move the selected camera • xScale: The xScale parameter changes the camera’s
along the desired axis without altering its orientation, just horizontal scale.
like a movie camera on a dolly cart, as shown below.
• yScale: The yScale parameter changes the camera’s
• DollyX: The DollyX parameter moves the camera vertical scale.
laterally. Increasing this value moves the camera to
the right. • zScale: The zScale parameter changes the camera’s
depth scale.
• DollyY: The DollyY parameter moves the camera
vertically. Increasing this value moves the camera up. • Scale: The Scale parameter dial changes the selected
camera’s scale equally along all three axes and
• DollyZ: the DollyZ parameter moves the camera in functions in the same manner as the Scale camera
and out. Increasing this value moves the camera in control. If you have already selected unequal scales
and out. using the individual axis controls, the Scale dial/control
preserves your previously selected ratios.

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XYZ Orbit use the example of a small plane with its X, Y, and Z axes
labeled.
The Orbit parameters orbit the selected camera around
the indicated Poser workspace axis. It helps to think of the
selected axis as the center of a wheel with the camera
being at the edge. The camera maintains its distance from
the axis and remains pointing in the same direction relative
to its starting point. Setting positive degrees of rotation in
the Orbit parameter dials orbits the selected camera in a
counterclockwise direction around the selected axis, and
vice versa.

• xOrbit: The xOrbit parameter orbits the selected

camera using the Poser workspace’s X axis as the
center of rotation.

• yOrbit: The yOrbit parameter orbits the selected

Pitch (Up or Down); Roll (Tilt); Yaw (Turn).
camera using the Poser workspace’s Y axis as the
center of rotation.
• Pitch: The Pitch parameter rotates the selected
• zOrbit: The zOrbit parameter orbits the selected camera about its own X axis (up/down). A positive
camera using the Poser workspace’s Z axis as the number pitches the camera up (the scene appears to
center of rotation. pitch down), and vice versa.

Pitch, Roll, Yaw • Roll: the Roll parameter rotates the selected camera
about its own Z axis (tip left/tip right). A positive
These parameters rotate the Dolly, Posing, Face, and number rolls the camera to the left (the scene appears
Hand cameras about their own axes. To illustrate this, let’s to rotate to the right), and vice versa.

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• Yaw: The Yaw parameter rotates the selected camera Intermediate values cause the camera to lag behind the
about its own Y axis (rotate left/rotate right). A positive object it’s pointing at. This parameter allows you to create
number yaws the camera to the left (scene appears interesting effects when creating animations.
to yaw to the right), and vice versa.

Disabling Camera Pointing

Pointing & Locking Cameras To disable camera pointing:
As with any other object in your scene, you can use the 1. Select your desired camera using the Current Actor
Hierarchy Editor (see “The Hierarchy Editor” on page pop-up.
756) to keep cameras pointed at certain other objects.
2. Select Object > Point At to open the Choose Actor
dialog.
Pointing Cameras at Scene Objects
3. Choose None in the list of actors (the camera can
To point your camera at another scene object: point at anything) and click OK.
1. Select your desired camera using the Current Actor
pop-up.
Locking Cameras
2. Select Object > Point At to open the Choose Actor
dialog. Once you have positioned a camera to your liking, you
can lock it to prevent it from being moved. To lock a
3. Choose your desired scene object in the list of actors camera, select it as described above, then select Object >
(the camera can point at anything) and click OK. Lock Object. Selecting this option again toggles locking off.

The camera will point at the selected object and a Point

At parameter dial will appear in the Parameters palette
for that camera. Setting this parameter to 1 locks the
camera on target, and 0 completely disables pointing.
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Memorizing and Restoring Cameras camera sets saves all cameras; you cannot save one
camera. As with any other Library palette category, you
You can use the Edit > Memorize > Camera command to can add subcategories to the Cameras categories. Please
memorize the settings of the current camera. If you later refer to “Chapter 7: The Poser Library” on page 130 for
want to return to that camera, choose the Edit > Restore a description of the Library palette, and to “Maintaining
> Camera command to restore the settings back to the Your Library Palette” on page 171 for information on
camera that you memorized. adding items to it.

Camera Dots

the Memory dots (described in “Memory Dots” on

page 60). Each Memory dot retains the settings for all
cameras in your scene. All Memory dots are saved with the

accessible in any Poser document loaded. You can also

save camera settings to the Library palette as described
below, which would allow you to use your Memory dots for
other settings.

Saving Camera Sets

The Cameras category in the Library palette allows you
to save camera positions and access them using a few
mouse clicks. Camera positions are saved relative to the

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Chapter 12: Lighting

Lights add color to your scene, reveal cues in forms,
enhance muscle contours, set moods, cast shadows, etc.
Good lighting is a key element of getting your scene to
look right when you render it. Lights work in renderings
and in the Lit Wireframe and Flat Shaded preview modes
(refer to “Chapter 6: The Display Controls and Menu” on
page 112 for information about display styles). You can
use as many lights as you need in your scene, with the only
limitation being your system’s resources. Poser improves the
OpenGL preview of lights in your scenes. It automatically
selects the eight brightest lights to display in the real-time
OpenGL preview. You can also manually select which
eight lights to preview in the Light Properties palette (see
“Light Properties” on page 285). Light Controls.

Lights can also help you create effects. For example, you
Each light has customizable characteristics, such as
causing it to direct light back at the source. Please refer to rotation and revolution positions, color, and intensity
“Using the Group Editor” on page 743 or an explanation (brightness). You can turn lights on or off, adjust how the
of material groups and to “Part 3: Materials” on page 296 brightness diminishes as you reach the edge of a light’s
for information on creating material shaders for your scene range (the falloff), and specify whether or not a light casts
elements. a shadow. You can also animate lights to create effects

The Light controls appear as follows. Poser object, you can parent lights to scene elements

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to have the light move as the source element moves. By

item equally. You cannot place any scene element
When you add, remove, move, or adjust lights, the
be lit differently than another.
Document window, Light controls, and the selected light’s
parameter dials automatically adjust to show the light’s
new position/properties, allowing you to preview your
changes in real time.

When you right-click on one of the lights in

your scene, a context menu provides several
different commands that allow you to perform
several different functions. The commands shown in
the light context menu are described in “Lights
Context Menu” on page 91.

Light Types scene.

spot and image based. Point Lights

Point lights are similar to a light bulb, in that they emit
light from a single source point outward in 360 degrees.
These lights are ideal for times when you want an
omnidirectional light source that can interact with objects

For performance reasons depth mapped shadows are

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not supported for point lights; point light shadows must be palette (see “Light Properties” on page 285). Once
calculated using raytracing. in the Material room, you have the option of attaching
simply a light probe image map, or a shader tree of any
complexity, to the color channel of your Diffuse IBL.
Spotlights
Poser has the ability to apply the full
functionality of its procedural shading system
along a cone-shaped path to create a classic stage
to an image map used as an image based light.
See “Part 3: Materials” on page 296 for more
objects or for creating lighting effects. Spotlights can
information about the image node manipulations
increase rendering times.
available using the shading system in the Material
room.
Diffuse Image Based Lights (IBL)
Diffuse Image Based Lighting (Diffuse IBL) takes a light
probe, which is ideally a 360 degree light distribution map
Selecting Lights
captured in a single map, and illuminates the scene using
You can select lights as follows:
that map. In Poser, only the diffuse component of the light
• Clicking one of the Lights in the Light Position
on complete light data for a given space, the lighting indicator.
results are very realistic. In order to get realistic shadows
when using an image based light, we recommend using • Using the Current Actor pop-up menu.
Ambient Occlusion (see “Light Properties” on page 285).
You must activate raytracing in the Render Settings dialog
in order to render Ambient Occlusion effects. Creating Lights
To attach a light probe to the image based light, press To create a light, click the Create Light icon in the Light
the Advanced Material Properties button on the Properties controls, or click on Create Light in the Light Options pop-

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up menu. Your new light will appear in the Light Position

indicator.

Creating a light with the Object menu commands.

The Create Light icon.
If you select the Diffuse IBL light type on the Properties tab,
By default, Poser creates spotlights. To create a different you will then need to go to the Material room, select that
type of light, select Object > Create Light, and select the light as the current actor, and apply an image map to use
type of light you wish to create from the pop-up menu that as the light probe. In the Simple tab, you can simply select
appears. an image map via the Texture Manager. In the Advanced
tab, you would attach an image node or a complete
To change a light to another light type, select the new shader tree to the color channel.
light and click the Light Properties icon (see below for
information about light properties). You can also right-click
the Create Light icon (in the box above) to access the light
type menu.

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Adjusting Light Intensity approximate the realism of the lighting conditions in the
image map you have selected.
You can set a light’s intensity using the Brightness control
You can set a light’s intensity to a negative
like a dimmer switch. Click and drag the brightness
value, thereby creating a “non-light” that will
indicator to the left to dim the selected light, or to the right
actually darken the affected area(s) of your scene.
to brighten it.
You can use this feature to create interesting
You can also set the light’s intensity using the parameter effects.
dials in the Parameters palette.

Light Color
Light colors contribute to your scene’s overall appearance
and mood. Unlike paints, light colors multiply instead of
mixing and adding to one another. For example, a red

you don’t want a light to affect the color of items in your

scene, set that light’s color to white or gray. Because of
this relationship between scene items and lights, you might
want to set your scene items’ colors before setting lighting
colors. Note that with image based lighting, you should
generally use a white color, so as not to interfere with the
Slide the Light Intensity slider to adjust the brightness of a light. light colors already contained within the image map.
To change a light’s color, click the Color icon in the Light
For image based lighting, you must adjust the light intensity controls to open a standard Color Picker dialog. Make
in the Advanced tab of the Material room. Take care your selection, and your selected light will change to its
when making these adjustments, so that your results will new color.
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Two icons appear in the upper-right corner of the Light

Delete Light
you can add advanced material properties to the light. Select the light you wish to delete and click the Delete
The other icon opens your standard system color picker. Light icon in the Light controls, or click on Delete Light in
You can also set a light’s color using the parameter dials in the Light Options pop-up menu.
the Parameters palette. For image based lighting, you can
use the Advanced tab of the Material room to plug any
image node into the color channel of that light. Doing so
Aiming Lights
will allow you to see the effects of the image based light
on any surface in the Material room, which will give you
and therefore can be aimed with relation to your scene.
an exact idea of how those surfaces will be shaded in the
props before aiming your lights. Doing this in reverse will
cause your scene elements’ appearances to change

degrees causes illumination falling on its front to fall on

its back. You may need to re-aim your lights to continue
working. Some traditional artists place a bright light above

lets you see shading on distant and oblique surfaces,

contributing to the scene’s depth and curvature. You may
want to read books on lighting, including using lights in
photographic studios, to give you ideas on using lights to
Changing the color of a light. enhance your Poser scenes.
If you import a background image or movie, you should
set your lights to mimic the lighting in the background.
For example, if your background image shows a strong

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• Using the Object > Point At (“Point At” on page 225)

from the left. This will help preserve consistency between or Object > Set Parent (“Changing a Parent” on page
your scene and the background and help integrate 245) menus.
both elements together. Ideally, when working with
backgrounds, you should have the background look like • Using the desired light’s Shadow camera, as described
part of your scene. If your scene is a room using an image in “Shadow Light Cameras” on page 260.
of a brightly lit background visible through the windows,
you should have most of your lighting streaming in through
the windows to blend the room and its contents with the the light shines (such as setting the sun’s position in the sky).
outside world and lend realism to your scene. When aiming spotlights, you’re setting both the angle at
You can aim lights using any of the following methods: which the light shines and the light’s position in 3D space.

• Using the Light Position control (see below).

Using the Light Position Control
• Moving a light’s indicator in the Document window
The globe in the center of the Light Position indicator
(see below).
represents your Poser scene in 3D space, and the light dots
• Using the Editing tools (Rotate and Twist represent the positions of each of the lights within your
lights, and Rotate, Twist, Translate/Pull and Translate scene. These dots can be moved in two ways with respect
In/Out for spotlights. Please refer to “The Editing Tools” to the globe: Rotation and Revolution. Rotation keeps the
on page 194 for information on using the Editing light in the same physical position relative to the scene, but
tools). adjusts its direction around its own local axis. Revolution
moves the light around the globe to a new position
• Using the selected light’s parameter dials in the relative to the scene, while keeping the light pointed at
Parameters palette.
which positioning method you wish to use by clicking either
Rotate or Revolve in the Light Options pop-up menu. The
check mark indicates which option is currently selected.
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Then click and drag your selected light dot(s) to change different angle can help you visualize your light’s position.
their position and/or direction. Revolving these dots to You can switch Camera views and/or zoom to view light
different positions around the globe adjusts the lighting indicators from different angles. Additionally, you can
angle, as shown below. adjust a light’s position by clicking and dragging the light
indicator in the actual scene. The Light
any changes you make to the light indicator’s position.
Note that image based lights have no light indicators, as
they surround your entire scene.

equatorial line of an invisible globe with the light shining

down on your scene from the point on the equator
Adjusting light positions. indicated by the arrows, as shown here.

Clicking anywhere in the Light Position

control selects the nearest light.

Using Light Indicators

When you select a light, Poser displays a light indicator
describing your selected light’s position in the Document
window. In some cases, viewing the indicator from a

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Then viewed from oblique angles, the circle appears as Spotlight Indicators
an ellipse, helping show if the light is in front of or behind
A spotlight’s indicator appears as the outline of a spotlight
indicator. The indicator simply represents a larger globe in your Poser workspace depicting both the light’s position
encompassing the entire Poser workspace. You can click in 3D space and the direction the light is pointing, as
and drag a light indicator to reposition the selected light. shown in this image.

Point Light Indicators

A point light’s indicator appears as a small outlined circle,
depicting the light’s position in 3D space (remember, you

lights), as shown here.

Spotlight Indicators.

Clicking and dragging a spotlight’s indicator moves the

light around the scene.

Point Light Indicators.

As point lights emit light equally in all directions, there is no

direction indicator as with a spotlight.
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You may want to use orthographic views

(Left, Right, Top, Bottom, Front, or Back) to
move Spotlight indicators, since doing so constrains
the spotlight’s motion to two dimensions (YZ if using
the Left or Right views, XZ if using the Top or Bottom
views, and XY if using the Front or Back views). Using
perspective views can move your spotlight in
oblique directions, causing unexpected lighting
effects.

Light Properties

access a light’s properties, select the light and either click

the Light Properties icon in the Light controls or select
Object > Properties. You can also access light properties in
the Properties palette.

Light Properties.

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of eight user-selectable lights, posing and lighting

is faster and yields better results. Use this option to
select each light you want to illuminate the scene
preview. Mip Map support has been enabled for
enhanced performance when previewing large
textures. Together, these real-time preview engine
enhancements let the user view larger textures and
offer more complete scene previewing when setting
up lights If your scene has more than eight lights,
you can check or uncheck this option to include or
exclude the current light from the preview display.

• Visible: Checking the Visible checkbox makes the

light visible in the Document window, and vice versa.
Invisible objects are not included in any render
calculations, and do not appear in the rendered
scene. See “Figure Properties” on page 205 for
information on animating the Visible property.

• Animating: Checking the Animating checkbox allows

Light Properties. you to animate the light just as you would any other
Poser object. Animated lights can also have different
Depending on the light type that you select, you can settings in various keyframes. For example, you could
control some or all of the following light properties:
orbits overhead and turns blue. When you rendered
• Include in OpenGL Preview: By default, Poser displays
the eight brightest lights. Users can optionally choose changing and shadows moving with the light. You
which eight to display. By providing real time previews cannot animate lights that are turned off (see above).
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• On/Off: Checking the On box turns the light on, just Shadow Blur Radius: All shadows have a blurry
region around their edges. The Shadow Blur
light off. As a shortcut, you can also press OPT/ALT Radius
while clicking a light in the Light controls to toggle the region. By default, this dial is set to a low value.
selected light on or off. Raising the blur radius increases the soft shadow
edge effect.
• : Check the
appropriate radio button ( or Shadow Samples: The Shadow Samples parameter
Diffuse Image (IBL)) to make your selection. Spot, controls the smoothness of shadows. The default
value is equivalent to earlier Poser versions that
above.
render faster but may produce grainier shadows
• Shadows: Checking the Shadows checkbox enables with a random dither. Higher shadow samples
you to choose one of the following two options: reduce the graininess that can sometimes be seen
in soft raytraced shadows. As a general rule, the
Raytrace Shadows: Selecting Raytrace Shadows
larger your Shadow Blur Radius setting is, the more
enables raytracing of shadows. Traditionally,
you will need to increase the Shadow Samples to
raytracing results in clear, hard-edged shadows.
get a smooth result.
However, Poser offers a method for softening the
shadow edges, thus adding more realism to your Shadow Min Bias: The Shadow Min Bias parameter
raytraced shadows. You can control this effect
using the Shadow Blur Radius dial (see below). source to prevent self-shadowing of objects.

Depth Map Shadows: Selecting Depth Map • Preview Shadow Map Size: Sets the amount of detail in
Shadows enables depth-based shadow the shadows that are displayed by the preview render.
mapping. If you are using displacement maps, Default is 512. Higher values will make the shadow
we recommend you select this option rather than preview more detailed and accurate but will increase
raytracing, for greater accuracy. Enabling this usage of system resources.
option activates both the following dials:
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• Ambient Occlusion: Checking the Ambient Occlusion

checkbox enables Ambient Occlusion for the selected
light. Ambient occlusion adds realism to your scene by
approximating the way light and shadows act in real
life. It helps bring out details in creases and corners.
This option provides the advantage of calculating
Ambient Occlusion effects on all surfaces within
the scene, without having to attach an Ambient
Occlusion node to every material. Enabling this option
activates the following controls:

Strength: The Ambient Occlusion Strength dial Scene Ambient Occlusion options.

effects will darken the occluded surfaces within • Atmosphere Strength: The Atmosphere Strength
the scene.

Scene AO Options: The Scene Ambient Occlusion atmospheric (volumetric) effects. This attribute is used
Options button provides access to the global in conjunction with the Root Atmosphere node, which
set of Ambient Occlusion parameters. These is described in “Root Atmosphere Node” on page
parameters are described in the Ambient 351.
Occlusion node section under “Raytrace Nodes”
on page 379.

Atmosphere Strength control.

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• Set Parent: Clicking the Set Parent button allows you

to make the light a child of another element in your
scene.

• Color: Clicking the Color button opens the Poser Color

Picker, allowing you to set the light’s color.

• Advanced Material Properties: Clicking the Advanced

Material Properties button will automatically take you
to the Material room, with the current light active in
the Shader window’s Advanced tab. Please refer to
“Advanced Shader View” on page 326 for more
information about the Advanced tab of the Shader
window, and to “Root Light Node” on page 350 for Constant Attenuation.
more information about the root Light node attributes.

• Attenuation: (Enabled for Spot lights or Point lights

only): This setting controls how bright or dark a spot
light or point light gets based on the distance away
from the light source. Options for spot and point lights
are:

Constant: Behaves the same as Poser 7 and earlier

lights. This setting is predictable and controllable.
The Start Distance and End Distance parameters
are very useful for setting how close or far the light
reaches.

Constant Attenuation with Tone Mapping.

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Inverse Linear: Use this option for lights that are

more physically correct. Objects that are close

exponentially, but linearly). In other words, of

Object B is twice the distance from the light as
Object A, then Object B receives half as much
light as Object A. This option allows some artistic
freedom without being as touchy as Inverse
Square (described next).

Inverse Linear Attenuation with Tone Mapping.

Inverse Linear Attenuation.

Inverse Linear Attenuation with Tone Mapping, Adjusted.

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Inverse Square: This option provides physically

correct lighting that is more dramatic, and
harsher than Inverse Linear. The light brightens
exponentially as you get closer to the light source.
If Object B is twice the distance from the light as
Object A, it receives 1/4 the amount of light.

Inverse Square Attenuation with Tone Mapping.

Inverse Square Attenuation.

Inverse Linear Attenuation with Tone Mapping, Adjusted.

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• Evaluate in Light: When checked, includes Ambient

Occlusion in render calculations relating to light and
shadows.

Light Parameters
Be sure to select the light you wish to work with before
using the parameter dials to avoid accidentally changing
settings for the wrong light. Once you’ve adjusted a
light the way you want it, you can use the Lock Object
command (see “Lock Object” on page 224) to prevent
accidental changes. Lights have the following parameters,
available in the Parameters palette:

Light Parameters.

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Angle Start/End (Spotlight Only) depth, realism, and dramatic effects to your still or
animated scenes. To change the cast of a light’s shadow,
The Angle Start and Angle End values allow you to specify move the light.
how a spotlight’s light “falls off” as you approach the
Spotlights cast shadows based on the spotlight’s angular
edge of the cone of light projected by the spotlight. The
range, meaning that tighter spotlights produce cleaner
Angle Start
which the light will be at full intensity, and the Angle End
screen with all objects that cast shadows. Because of this,

be at zero intensity. For example, when the Angle Start is

or props (especially widely spaced items), the shadow
set at 30, and the Angle End is set at 100, the light will be
map will not contain much information.
constant from 0-30 degrees, will gradually fall off between
30-100 degrees, and will be off above 100 degrees. Each light has a shadow camera, available
using the Current Actor pull-down menu.
Advanced users can aim these cameras as desired.
Distance Start/End (Spotlight Only)
Each light’s shadow map contains shadow
As you know, light fades with distance from its source. information for the scene as viewed through that
The Distance Start and Distance End parameters specify light’s shadow camera.
the distance from the light source (in grid units) where
the spotlight’s intensity begins to drop (fall off), and the The shadow-related parameter dials are:
distance in grid units when the spotlight is no longer
casting light, respectively. • Shadow: Use the Shadow parameter dial to specify the
selected light’s shadow strength. A setting of 0 disables
cast shadows for the selected light, while a setting of
Shadow 100% casts a dark shadow. You can animate shadow
strength over time.
Poser lights can cast shadows, if you enable this option
using the selected light’s Cast Shadow property in the
Properties palette as described above. Shadows add
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• Map Size: The Map Size parameter dial sets the size • zRotate: The zRotate parameter rotates the selected
of the selected light’s shadow map in pixels (shadow light about the Z axis.
maps are square). Poser uses image maps to apply
shadows to objects in the scene, and applies these
shadows during rendering. Larger map sizes increase
Scale
the accuracy and detail of shadow maps, but at a
The Scale parameter dial allows you to scale a light’s
cost in memory and render time. For example, each
indicator. This does not affect the light itself.
1024x1024 map requires about 4MB of space, while a
2048x2048 map requires 16MB. You cannot animate
the shadow map’s size. Red, Green, Blue
The Red, Green, and Blue dials specify the amount of each
XYZ Rotation
A value of 1 means that the selected color is fully added,
Adjusting these dials adjusts the direction in which the light
and 0 means that color is not included at all. Using these
is pointing. For example, think of the sun’s path across the
sky throughout the day and how it appears farther north
lighting (Red, Green, Blue). Each of the three colors can
or south with the changing of seasons. When the xRotate
have 256 values ranging from 0 to 255. This gives us 256
and yRotate dials are set to 0 degrees, the light aims at the
red, 256 green, and 256 blue shades to work with, or 256^3
Poser workspace from the front. ZRotate
(16,777,216) total possible colors. Parameter dial values
when the xRotate and yRotate settings are not 0,0 or 180,
correspond to RGB values as follows:

• Parameter dial 0 = RGB color value 0 for the selected

• xRotate: The xRotate parameter rotates the selected
color.
light about the X axis.
• Parameter dial 1 = RGB color value 255 for the
• yRotate: The yRotate parameter rotates the selected
selected color.
light about the Y axis.

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Intensity Memorizing and Restoring Lights

You can control your light’s intensity using the Brightness You can use the Edit > Memorize > Lights command to
control or the Intensity parameter dial. A setting of 0% memorize the settings of the lights in your scene. If you
means the light is fully off, and a setting of 100% means the later want to return to those light settings, choose the Edit
light is completely on (at full brightness/intensity). > Restore > Lights command to restore the settings back
to those that you memorized. If you delete lights after
you memorize light settings, the deleted light(s) will not be
XYZ Translation (Spotlight Only)
restored.
The Translation dials allow you to specify a spotlight’s
precise location in 3D space by specifying grid
coordinates. As previously described, spotlights emit light
Animating Lights
from their location in 3D space, meaning that objects
Lights can be animated like other Poser objects using
“behind” the light are not illuminated.
keyframes and tween frames. Please see “Chapter 22:
Animating with Poser” on page 493 for information about

Saving & Loading Light Sets animating within Poser.

You can save light sets to the Library, allowing you to reuse

*.LT2 and are saved to the Lights Library. Please refer

to “Maintaining Your Library Palette” on page 171 for
information about adding items to the Library palette.

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Part 3: Materials

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Chapter 13: The Basics

of Materials
individual materials within that list. You can see this for
yourself by creating a Poser scene with two or more
Material room.

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Casual). The Material room therefore displays the following different materials lists. Each object in a Poser scene has
selections: its own list of materials, which is different for each object.
These lists of materials behave like a multi/sub-object
material list/table.

Why Multi/Sub-object Materials?

(multi/sub-object materials) is to provide each polygon

with a different or shared material property with other
polygons. This gives you control over material properties
down to the polygon level.

organizes your materials and prevents possible confusion.

Library palette, its
materials will be saved as well, thereby preserving your
work.

Materials found in Alyson and Ryan Casual.

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Color polygon count (number of polygons) would quickly

Color is easy. By applying a color to an object or material

group, you are essentially dumping a bucket full of paint polygon counts and make extensive use of mapping.
on that object or group. Color goes a long way toward As you know, most maps are two-dimensional
representations of 3D surfaces. Each point on the Earth’s
tell the whole story. For example, painting an apple red surface that lies within the map’s area of coverage
is obvious, but the simple red color does not contain the corresponds to a point on the map. Depending on the
other colors and shades, nor does it portray the apple’s area being mapped and the mapping method used,
small imperfections and other features. Thus, a material the map may or may not resemble the actual surfaces
that simply uses color ends up looking plastic. it represents. This effect is called distortion and is most
easily seen on world maps created using the Mercator
projection. We could spend a lot of time on this, but the
About Maps & Templates important things to remember are that:
Look at your own skin. Notice the differing colors, hairs,
• Maps are 2D representations of 3D surfaces.
veins, moles, and other features. Look at any object. Is it
smooth or rough? Opaque or transparent? If transparent, • Each coordinate (location) on the 3D surface
does it have the same transparency all over or in portions? corresponds to a location on the map.

pattern does it have? Now look at the objects around you. • The map may or may not resemble the 3D surface.
They all have different material properties. How can you
capture these properties in your 3D objects? One answer
is mapping. Each object in your Poser scene can have its
own maps, which are used for specifying various attributes.

to your objects. For example, if you had to model every

wrinkle, mole, eyelash, hair, or other feature, your object’s
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only color falling within the lines actually appears on the

system where the upper left corner corresponds to 0,0 and

the bottom right corner to 1,1. Thus, the exact center of
the map would be at 0.5,0.5. For any given object, you
start with the blank template shown above and modify it
depending on the type of map you are creating.

Alyson 2 and Ryan 2 use the same templates

and texture maps as Alyson and Ryan.

Texture Map
All map types (bump, transparency, etc.) are 2D
representations of 3D objects, and texture maps are no
exception. Texture maps are the primary way of making
3D objects look real. Texture maps make skin on your

A texture template. following example shows a texture map for one of the

The grid-like lines on the map correspond to the polygons

you can “color outside the lines” without ill effect, since

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Bump Maps
A bump map is used to simulate roughness on a surface.
Bump maps are grayscale images where dark gray/black

signify higher areas. They work by shifting the object’s

a bump map allows you to simulate wrinkles and other

imperfections/textures.

A texture map.

You can use shader elements such as color to get an

effect without using texture maps, but you won’t be able
to precisely place features where you want them (such as

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Transparency Maps
A transparency map is like a bump map in that it is a
grayscale image. Transparency maps regulate the
amount of opacity in a given location. The darker the
color is, the greater the transparency, and vice versa.
Here’s a sample transparency map for eyelashes.

A bump map.

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chapter)
transparency map above allows only those portions of the
texture map corresponding to the lighter areas to show
through. The combined effect is eyelashes that stick out
from the eyes. Where there are no eyelashes, you can
see the skin beneath them. This is a great example of how
combining maps can create very realistic effects.

create a patterned mirror where the patterns have a

Displacement Map
Displacement maps are very similar to bump maps but
with a key difference: Instead of simply shifting normals,
A transparency map.
displacement maps actually move (displace) an object’s
geometry. Thus, displacements provide more “real” depth
Look at the bump map, above. The lighter colored areas than bump maps. Displacement occurs at render time,
around the eyelashes indicate that they should have meaning that objects will look smooth until rendered.

itself. The texture map (see “Texture Map” later in this

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Procedural Shaders enough information to understand the basics and begin

creating your own maps.
Poser’s FireFly rendering engine supports the use of
This section covers creating maps. Please
procedural shaders (or shaders for short). Shaders consist
refer to “Part 3: Materials” on page 296 for
of a root node
information about applying maps to shaders.
nodes that modify one or more of the root node’s values.
A node’s output can modify one or more nodes, and you

can include all of the maps we’ve discussed above when Creating Texture Templates
building shaders. You can also create realistic materials
that don’t require any maps at all, or you can have other
nodes modifying any maps you decide to use. Thus,
shaders are a second method of creating materials that probably come with one or more ready-made texture
may or may not integrate maps. Please refer to “Chapter maps and one or more blank templates. If you need to
14: The Material Room” on page 314 for information create a new texture template, you’ll need to follow a
about Poser’s Material room. process that is roughly similar to the following:
1. Create your mesh object in your preferred 3D
modeling application.
Creating Character Textures
2. Export the mesh in a format supported by Poser (see
“Exporting 3D Objects” on page 851 for a list of
requires a solid grasp of the concepts explained in supported formats).
“Appendix C: 3D Basics” on page 928 and knowledge of
one or more 2D graphics tools such as Adobe Photoshop. 3. If your 3D modeling application supports exporting
The process of creating textures is very similar if not your mesh object with UV mapping data, be sure to
identical for many 3D applications. While it’s impossible to do this, as this will probably create your template for
cover the entire process in this manual, we can give you you. Please refer to your 3D modeling application
documentation for information.
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4. If your exported object does not have UV information, primary topic for this tutorial is texture maps, however the
you’ll need to use an application such as UV Mapper same principles apply to all types of image maps. Please
(http://www.uvmapper.com) to create the UV refer to “About Maps & Templates” on page 299 for
information and a blank template that can be used information about the various types of image maps.
for any sort of map (texture, bump, transparency,
Poser supports texture resolutions up to 8192 x
application to create texture templates, please refer 8192 pixels. For optimum performance in 3D
to that application’s documentation for information software and gaming engines, try to create your
on using that application. Also, should you require texture maps at standard resolutions that are a
technical support, please contact the application’s power of 2. Standard sizes are 512, 1024, 2048, 4096,
creator or vendor. Smith Micro cannot provide support and 8192.
for third-party applications.
Poser’s Material room can create complete
materials without needing any image maps.
Creating and Using Texture Maps To obtain precise results, however (such as a tattoo

This subsection contains a brief tutorial on creating texture

image maps in your shaders for texture, bump,
maps.
transparency, etc. Image maps are added to
If you’ve seen some computer-animated movies lately, nodes using the Material room. Also, the Face room
you were probably astounded by the realism of the can create custom head textures for the Poser
characters; this high level of believability was achieved
using high-quality 3D models and image maps. The fact is,
image maps can make or break a model’s believability. A texture map looks like a skinned 3D model spread out
What may surprise you is that Poser can generate equally
realistic results for you. We are going to give you some
pointers on how you can do this yourself using Poser and When creating a texture, remember that it will ultimately
a 2D graphics application such as Adobe Photoshop. The be wrapped around your object and that you’ll need to

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pay special attention to the edges, which will be seams coloring book approach to making textures, and only
when the texture is rendered. requires a good graphics editing software package
such as Adobe Photoshop. Like a coloring book, items
not placed properly within the grid lines render askew,
and anything bleeding over the edge of the grid does
not appear at all when rendered. This is one time where

Poser are located on the content CD. Because realistic

human textures are the hardest to achieve, we decided to
describe creating one for this section. The same principles
apply to any texture you are creating, be it a brick wall,

to use texture mapping.

The brief explanation that follows is courtesy of Ms. Syyd
Raven, who created the textures used by several default

preserve each step of your work.

Maps of 1500-3000 pixels provide an ideal realism/

performance balance. Some third-party textures
A texture map is painted over a template.
can be 4000 pixels or more, however these can
slow Poser down because they require additional
Texture makers use a UV map (template) to place the computing resources.”
texture’s major pieces. A UV map provides grid-like lines
that correspond to the object’s geometry, provides a
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• With your image editor running, launch Poser and

one for his head, and one for his body. Different Poser

highlights to black in the material editor.

only use one map. Render the model with white lighting, no shadow,
and antialiasing enabled to test texture alignment.
As discussed above, creating maps is an
advanced process that can require one or Test various morph targets on the face to verify
more third-party tools. Smith Micro cannot provide that the texture remains in alignment.
support or additional information on creating
texture maps beyond the technical aspects that
directly involve Poser. The material presented in this
section is for informational purposes only.

The Head Map

• Photos used for the basis of your texture should roughly

• Work on one side at a time.

• Set the photograph’s opacity to approximately 50% so

you can use the underlying template to align it; scale,
rotate, and clone individual facial features to perfectly

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• Make changes in your image editing software and test

render in Poser as many times as you need.

•
completed side by copying and pasting into a new

• After mirroring the texture, you may notice a line down

the center. Remove this line by cloning an area with
a matching color, cutting and pasting small photo
pieces from the original source image, using the blend
tool, or any combination of these methods.

• Change and add various details (lines, moles, etc.). No

face is perfectly symmetrical!

• Continue expanding the skin to a bit beyond the

template edge.

• While testing, rotate the head to see the ear and side
of the neck; you will need to pay close attention to
these areas to ensure that there are no seams.

• Cut out and place individual teeth, giving the front

six (top) and eight (bottom) the most detail. Realistic
teeth are somewhat gray/yellow, not white.
If the texture does not align properly on the
template, it will also not align properly on the
• Photograph a tongue and apply it directly to the map.
model.
Pay attention to the deep grooved center line; this

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adds credibility to the texture when the model’s mouth

is open.

• The inner mouth looks reminiscent of a rib cage

surrounding lungs.

• Lachrymal glands (tear ducts) have wetness and

roundness.

• Take close-up photos of eyes.

• Have the model hold their eyes wide open to show the
whites and roundness of the iris.

• Make the veins thin and not overly red to avoid

bloodshot-looking eyes.

• The Body Map

maps to avoid blurring and pixilation. Many third-party

body maps are double the size of the corresponding head
map.
A body texture map.

•
they will not align correctly. Size and rotate working
images or photos using separate layers.

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• • Make sure you test all your work-in-progress in Poser.

matching edges to get major portions in place, then
• When the body is complete, correct the head and
body color to make them the same shade/hue.
• Male maps require more detail than females because Writing down your color values can be a big help.
of body hair.

• Photograph small areas, treating arms as 4-sided Creating and Using Bump,
objects; concentrate on elbow creases.

• Male necks can include beards or stubble, which can Maps

be problematic due to different resolutions between
the head and body textures. To be fully realistic, many textures also need transparency
and bump maps. For example, the eyelash area
• Nipples can be tricky due to low resolution and may template needs to be white where you want the object
or eyelash visible. Consequently, you will start with a black
breast morphs. background and draw in white where you want the
eyelashes to appear when rendered. A graphics tablet
• Hands are also important; get close-ups of both sides.
works well for this, since eyelashes require a natural curved
• line that tapers to a point, which can be hard to achieve
well as creases that match the model’s geometry. with a mouse. If you don’t own a graphics tablet, you can
begin with a very large map and reduce it to the proper
• Use the same map for the left and right hand, then size later. The larger map will make it easier to draw the
add asymmetrical features. Repeat this for the feet. lines with accuracy.
Bump maps add further realism to skin pores, scars, or
•
moles. For photorealistic skin, it’s imperative to deal with
major landmarks (moles, birthmarks, etc.) using a bump
map. The quickest way to create bump maps is to copy
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Once you’ve adjusted the contrast and desaturated your

color leaving only the black and white components), and texture, you can start modifying it to suit your particular
needs. Go ahead, give it a shot: You might be pleasantly
size and memory requirements. surprised with your results!
Poser allows you to adjust the bump maps’ height, so it’s a
good idea to design them with very high contrast (or the
most bump). Most graphics packages have automatic
Putting It All Together
contrast controls; this is a great way to quickly get the The following image demonstrates the results you can
widest range of bump for your maps. If needed, you can achieve by combining the various types of maps.
decrease the bump height within Poser before render
time.
White areas of the bump map are high, and black areas
are low. In order for your texture to make a plausible map,
you will have to invert it before you can use it. If you forget

test renders look a bit odd. A good example of this would

be whiskers pushing in instead of outward.

Bump maps simply disturb an object’s

normals. If you apply a bump map to a
sphere, the surface will seem rough while the edges
remain smooth. Poser’s Material room contains a
displacement channel, allowing you to use bump
maps to actually alter the geometry. For example,
applying a displacement map to a sphere would
make the edges appear rough.

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Chapter 14: The

Material Room
Poser’s Material room is a very powerful tool for creating
and editing procedural shaders for the content in your
scene. The Material room is designed from the ground

of use by artists and animators. You don’t need to be a

programmer! The Material room gives you ultimate control
over the appearance of your Poser scenes.
The Material room allows you to describe the material
properties of your objects’ surfaces by giving you full
control over every aspect of shading a surface, from the
surface color to complex lighting interactions.
In this chapter we will explore the Material room’s basic The Material Room.
building blocks. For a more detailed look at working with
shaders and nodes in the Material room, please refer to The number of palettes and options that you
“Chapter 15: Working with Nodes” on page 334 and see in each room depends upon your screen
“Chapter 16: Material Room Nodes” on page 345. resolution. At higher resolutions, the default work
Access the Material room by clicking the Material room spaces display more palettes, while at lower
tab at the top of the Poser workspace. The Material room resolutions you see fewer palettes:
appears as follows.
The Material room offers two options for working with
surface materials: the Simple and Advanced view tabs. By

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default, the Simple view of the Material Room is displayed Props (includes strand-based hair and dynamic cloth),
Lights, Figures, and Background.
get familiar with editing Materials before diving into the
Advanced settings of the Material Room. The Simple tab • Current Material List (5): The Current Materials list
is actually a less complex front-end for the Advanced tab, displays all of the material groups in the currently
and allows users to apply and modify materials by means
of a few basic controls. For more advanced users, the
Advanced assigning materials and allowing you to, for example,
properties using shaders and nodes.
method of handling materials is referred to as multi/
Poser’s Material room contains the following items at 1280
sub-object materials and is discussed in more detail in
x 960 resolution. Less items will appear at lower resolutions,
“Chapter 13: The Basics of Materials” on page 297.
and more options will appear at higher resolutions.
• Material Room Help (6): The (?) icon at the top right
• Eyedropper Tool (1): The Eyedropper tool appears with
of the Shader window opens the Material room Help
the Editing tools. Enabling it and clicking an object in
document. This HTML document contains information
your scene opens that object’s shader tree for editing
in the Shader window.
material attributes.
• Document Window (2): Please refer to “Chapter 5: The
• Options pop-up menu (7): The Options pop-up menu
Document Window” on page 77 for information
is available from the Advanced tab of the Shader
about the Document window.
window, allows you to add, cut, copy, paste, select,
and deselect nodes. For convenience, this can be also
• Light Controls (3): Please refer to “Chapter 12:
accessed by right-clicking within the Advanced tab.
Lighting” on page 276 for information about the
Light controls.
• Shader Window (8): The Shader window contains
• Object List (4): The Object List functions similarly to the
techniques. The Simple tab allows you to easily modify
Current Actor menu and has the following options:
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various attributes of your selected material, including Menu” on page 112 for more information about the
various display styles.
Transparency. The Advanced tab is where you build
shaders, which consist of a root node and as many • Pose, UI and Camera Dots (13): Allows you to store
connected nodes as you want. Nodes can modify
other nodes or the root node. Please refer to “Chapter settings for retrieval at any time until you close your
15: Working with Nodes” on page 334 and “Chapter Poser document. See “Memory Dots” on page 60.
16: Material Room Nodes” on page 345 for more
information about working with shaders and nodes.
Navigating the Shader Window
• Wacro Drawer (9): The Wacro Drawer allows you to
The question mark at the top right corner of the Shader
material setup tasks. For more information about the
This document provides information on creating and
Wacro Drawer, please refer to the description of the
connecting shader nodes, frequently used nodes, and
Advanced Shader View later in this chapter.
advanced material attributes.
• Parameters/Properties Palette (10): Please refer to “The
Parameters/Properties Palette” on page 204 for
information about the Parameters/Properties palette. Simple Shader View
• Animation Controls (11): Please refer to “Using the The Simple tab of the Shader window provides you
Animation Controls” on page 496 for information with easy to use controls for adjusting various material
about the Animation controls. attributes. Each of these attributes, and how they can be

• Document Display Styles (12): Allows you to select one

of several different display styles for the elements in
your scene. See “Chapter 6: The Display Controls and

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The Texture Manager.

Note that when accessing the Texture Manager from the

Simple tab, you have the ability to select both images and
movies. In the Advanced tab, the image and movie nodes
are separate, so the Texture Manager enables you to select
one or the other depending on which node you are using.
Click the OK button to load the image map. A preview
of your selected map should appear in the appropriate
Elements of the Simple material view. texture preview slot of the Simple tab.
When you select an image from the Texture Manager, you
For all attributes in the Simple tab, clicking in the Texture can also select one of two options for Gamma correction:
Preview Slot will bring up the Texture Manager dialog. Here
you can preview and select a previously used image map • Use Gamma value from Render Settings: This is the
from the pop-up list, or browse for a new map. default option. By default, the texture map will use the

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Caution
Render Settings dialog. symbol to switch to the Advanced tab.

• Custom Gamma Value: Choose this option if you want

to override the global gamma correction settings for
this texture. Then enter the gamma correction setting

The Map Strength dial adjusts the degree to which that

image map affects the surface material. Note that the
Map Strength dial directly controls the texture strength
parameter on the image map nodes, which can be seen
on the Advanced tab. For more information about using
Caution symbols appear when advanced settings are
and creating various types of image maps, please refer to
applied.
“About Maps & Templates” on page 299.
The image map pop-up list in the Texture Manager
provides a historical list of path names for previously used
Diffuse Color
image maps and movies. This list facilitates quick image
The Diffuse color is the primary surface color of the current
loaded into memory.
A Caution symbol (exclamation point in a triangle) will
appear at any point when the surface attributes you are considering the effect of any colored lights). In a high
working with are too complex to be edited in the Simple quality rendering, when a texture map is loaded the
tab. For example, this would be the case if a procedural Diffuse color tints the texture map. If you don’t want the
shader node were attached to the diffuse color input. texture map to be affected by the Diffuse color, leave the
Whenever the Caution symbol appears, it is an indication Diffuse color set to white (the default color).
that you need to use the Advanced tab for full access to

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The color picker.

If you choose to have highlights on a textured surface,

you might want to consider using the same map for
Highlights as for Diffuse. When you have a texture map
applied to the Diffuse component, pressing the Apply
texture to highlight button will also apply the same texture
A diffuse color map applied to a material.
map to the Highlight component. If you have a different
texture map already loaded for the Highlight component,
checking this box will override it and apply the texture
To change the Diffuse color, click on the Color Slot at the
map from the Diffuse component.
top of the Diffuse component area. This will bring up the
Poser Color Picker, where you can select your desired
color. If you wish to access the system Color Picker, simply Highlights
click on the RGB bar at the top right corner of the Poser
Color Picker. The Highlight component corresponds to the Specular
root nodes on the Advanced tab, and controls the object’s
highlight. Highlights are bright areas appearing where

select a highlight color, apply a texture map, and adjust

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the texture map strength, as described above. In daylight matte effect, and lower values result in smaller, sharper
and under most room lights, highlights are white. To highlights for a shiny, more polished effect.
complement the lighting environment you’ve set, select a
color similar to your main light.
Ambient

object individually. An object’s Ambient color is the color

it emits equally in all directions. It simulates an ambient
(overall room) lighting contribution. Unlike the other color
properties, it acts without taking into account any light
positions or colors. In other words, even if all other lights are
turned off, the material will continue to emit the Ambient
color. Thus, using an Ambient color on a surface can
reduce the effect of shadows on that surface.

Highlight settings.

The Highlight Size dial allows you to determine the size

and intensity of your material’s specular highlights. Smooth
surfaces have sharper specular highlights, whereas rougher
materials should have softer highlights. On the dial, higher
values result in larger, softer highlights for a duller, more

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Ambient color selection, texture map selection, and Map

Strength control all function as described above.

a virtual sphere that surrounds your Poser workspace. The

your object. This method is best for scenes requiring subtle

Ambient settings. calculated using the raytracing rendering technique. This

method is ideal for scenes containing objects with highly
The Ambient color mixes with the other lighting properties.

method will increase your render times.

because it looks the same regardless of how the surface
interacts with lights in the scene. If you want to turn
ambient light down or off, set the Ambient color to gray
or black. If you want more intense ambient light, set the
Ambient color to white or a bright color. Loading an image
map into the Ambient component will cause that image
to function in the same way as an Ambient color. The

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map node on the Advanced tab, and determines to what

The Multiply with Lights / Object color checkboxes directly

control the and
checkboxes on the Advanced tab. For more information
about these options, see “Root Material (PoserSurface)
Node” on page 345.

Bump
A Bump map is a special image, wrapped around the
object, that works with the scene lighting to give the
appearance of 3D texture on an otherwise smooth object.
Bump maps can be used on individual objects or parts of

and pores in skin, to raised patterns in clothing or props, to

cracks and bumps in stone.

option
to create dramatic effects in your renderings. To make a

of the object’s color. If the object’s color is particularly

bright, you may want to use a darker tint of the same
color. For an unusual tint, use a color that is distinctly
different from the object’s color. The Map Strength dial
adjusts the Texture Strength

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Note that Bump maps simply disturb an object’s normals.

Thus, if you apply a Bump map to a sphere, the surface
will seem rough while the edges remain smooth. Poser’s
Material room contains a Displacement channel,
which allows you to use Bump maps to actually alter
the geometry of the surface. For example, applying a
Displacement map to a sphere would make the edges
appear rough, as well as the surface. The Displacement
checkbox in the Bump attribute enables the Displacement
attribute on the Advanced tab, replacing the Bump effect
with actual Displacement. With Displacement enabled,
the Amount
rather than the amount of Bump.

The strength of bump and displacement

maps is expressed in real world units
Bump settings. (whichever unit is set under Edit >General
Preferences). Please note that with the default unit
You can load Bump maps using the texture preview slot of Feet very small values already yield a strong
and the Texture Manager, and adjust the Bump map bump or displacement effect.
strength with the Map Strength dial, as described above.
The Amount
For more advanced users, adding a Normal
General Preferences dialog. Higher values
Map can add yet more realistic surface
yield more Bump effect, or rougher surfaces, while lower
details.
values yield less Bump and smoother surfaces. The Amount
dial corresponds directly to the Bump attribute on the
Advanced tab.

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Transparency example, a checkerboard map results in an object that is

alternately transparent and solid. You can thus use textures
as Transparency maps.
or object, so you can see through it. The higher a
The Transparency, Edge, and Falloff dials work together to
transparency value, the more of the surrounding
determine how an object’s transparency behaves.
environment is visible through the object’s surface. If no
The Transparency dial affects the transparency of the part
Edge settings make it invisible. of the object facing the camera, particularly toward the
center of the object. Higher Transparency values yield
greater transparency.
The Edge dial affects the transparency of the object’s

very transparent on its edges. For most renderings, you’ll

want to use a Transparency value that is higher than the
Edge value.
The Falloff dial determines the rate at which the
transparency becomes more opaque as you approach
the edges of an object. For a real world example, look
at a transparent object such as a drinking glass. The
edges of the glass are less transparent than the rest of the
surface. This is where the transparency of the glass “falls
off”. In Poser, you can vary this falloff behavior. A smaller
value renders a sharper edge appearance, while a larger
Transparency settings. value renders a more gradual falloff. If the Transparency
and Edge values are the same, there is no falloff in the
When a Transparency map is applied to an object, its rendering.
texture interferes with the transparency of the object. For
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Normal and Gradient Bump Maps You can use Gamma Correction to adjust

A normal map is an image, wrapped around the object texture. For more information about assigning
that works with the scene lighting to give the appearance gamma correction to an image source, see
of 3D texture on an otherwise smooth object. Normal maps “Gamma Correction Per Texture” on page 460.

emulate any manner of textures, from wrinkles and pores Next, select the type of normal map from the Gradient_
in skin, to raised patterns in clothing or props, to cracks and Mode pull-down menu according to how the normal map
bumps in stone. was exported from the application it was created in.
Note that normal maps simply replace an object’s Select from the following options.
normals. Thus, if you apply a normal map to a sphere, the
• Normal Map (Tangent space): Tangent space normal
surface will seem rough while the edges remain smooth.
maps have a mostly blue appearance. The normals
Poser’s Material room contains a Displacement channel,
in a tangent space map are always considered “up”
which allows you to use displacement maps to actually
even if it is not true in world space.
alter the geometry of the surface. For example, applying
a displacement map to a sphere would make the edges • Normal Map (Object space): Object space normal
appear rough, as well as the surface. maps are rainbow-colored in appearance. The
To load a Normal Map, from the Material Room > normals are pointing in their actual directions.
Material Palette, Advanced tab, connect the Image Node
• Gradient Bump—Legacy option for Poser gradient
containing a normal map to the Gradient Bump channel
bump maps.
on the Poser Surface Node. The channel value controls

Higher values yield more effect, or rougher surfaces, while

lower values yield less effect and smoother surfaces.

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Poser 4 and previous versions used our

mapping bumps. Poser Pro

usage as follows: First, in the Material room, create

that node. Then, connect the image map node

attribute.

An object without, and with, a normal map applied.

Advanced Shader View

The Advanced tab of the Shader window is where you build
shaders by working with nodes. Please refer to “Chapter
15: Working with Nodes” on page 334 and “Chapter 16:
Material Room Nodes” on page 345 for more information
about shader nodes and how they function within Poser.
Gradient bump maps.

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• Object menu (1): The Object menu functions similarly to

the Current Actor menu and has the following options:
Props (includes strand-based hair and dynamic cloth),
Lights, Figures, and Background.

• Material menu (2): The Material pull-down menu lists all

of the materials available for the currently selected
actor. Poser uses Multi/Sub-object materials, which
means you will only see the materials assigned to the

to “Chapter 13: The Basics of Materials” on page 297

for information about Multi/Sub-object materials.

• Options Menu (3): Clicking the arrow on the right side

of the Shader menu opens the Options menu for the
Material room. You can also open this menu by right-
clicking in any blank area within the Shader window or
by clicking any node input (see “Chapter 15: Working
with Nodes” on page 334 and “Chapter 16: Material
Room Nodes” on page 345).

• Title Bar (4): You can reposition the Shader window

using its title bar.
The Advanced shader view.
• Wacro Drawer (5): The Wacro Drawer allows you to

The Shader window’s Advanced tab contains the following material setup tasks. See the “Wacros” section below
elements:

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• Root Node (6): The root node for the currently selected
object or material group appears on the left side of
the Shader window.

• Nodes (7): Additional nodes also appear in the Shader

window.

Shaders
A shader is a combination of nodes working together to

short, the look for your 3D objects. Every shader consists

of a root node with a different number of attributes
depending on the type of root node (Background,
Material/Hair, Light or Atmosphere) being used. Each of
these attributes can have one or more linked nodes that
dynamically controls that attribute’s value or color. You Using nodes to build a shader.
can either create materials from scratch or load a pre-
made material. Saving a material saves that materials’
shader tree, and loading a material also loads its shader
tree. Also, if you load a pre-made material, you can Wacros
modify it at will to create a whole new look. Please refer to
Wacros are easy-to-use scripts designed to complete
“Root Nodes” on page 345 for a detailed description of
Wacro Drawer
the root nodes.
accomplishes a basic material setup task or process--
often with the click of a single button. You can save time
by using Wacros for some of the more common tasks you
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might wish to undertake in the Material room. Wacros all

act upon the root node for the selected object or material.
For more information on the various attributes on the root
nodes, please see “Root Nodes” on page 345.

can write using Python scripting, and then place in the

within your Poser installation folder. Your Wacros will then

appear in the pop-up menu. Please see “Part
8: PoserPython” on page 906 for more information about
writing Python scripts for Poser.

can write using Python scripting, and then place in the

within your Poser installation folder. Your Wacros will then Material Wacros.
appear in the pop-up menu. Please see “Part
8: PoserPython” on page 906 for more information about The following Wacros are included with your Poser
writing Python scripts for Poser. installation:

• : Before clicking the

Wacro button, make sure you have selected

attributes. When you click the button,

Poser will attach the following nodes:

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A BG Color node will be attached to the input of

“Raytrace the Background attribute on the Refract node.
Nodes” on page 379 for more information on the
Set the Refraction_Value attribute on the root
Material node to between zero and one, in order
A BG Color node will be attached to the input of to see the refraction effect in your rendered
image.

• Add Refraction: Before clicking the Add Refraction Refraction requires raytracing, so be sure to
Wacro button, select a material to which you want have raytracing selected when you render in
to add refraction. Refraction causes light to bend as order to see the refraction effect. We also
it passes from one transparent medium (material) to recommend setting the number of raytrace
another; the degree to which this occurs depends on bounces to at least two (or higher if you have
the material’s refractive index. Note that refraction
only affects transparent materials, so the material materials).
you select must be made transparent for refraction
to be visible. Click the Add Refraction button. If you
• Add Skin Subsurface Scattering: Clicking the Add
have selected a material that is opaque, a dialog will
Skin Subsurface Scattering Wacro button will apply
appear asking whether you wish to make the material
a Subsurface Skin node to the selected material. The
transparent and add refraction. Click Yes on this
node will be attached to the Alternate Diffuse input of
dialog to proceed. Poser will then add the following
the root material node, and the Alternate Diffuse color
nodes:
will be set to white.
A Refract raytrace node will be attached to the
input of the Refraction_Color attribute on the root • Set Up Shadow Catcher: Clicking the Set Up Shadow
Catcher button will enable the ShadowCatchOnly
refraction color when raytracing. See “Raytrace option on the Poser Surface node of the selected
Nodes” on page 379 for more information on the material. This Wacro will turn the selected material
Refract node’s attributes. into a shadow catcher, which means that it will
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become transparent except for areas that are If you clicked Yes on the initial dialog, a Glossy
shaded by another object, which will show only the specular node will be attached to the input on the
shadow. One example of how you might use this Alternate_Specular attribute of the root Material
node. See “Glossy” on page 362 for more
the stairs prop, and you wanted to hide the stairs in information on the Glossy node’s attributes.

of actual stairs. For more information about the • Create Atmosphere: In order to view the effects of
ShadowCatchOnly attribute, and shadow catchers, the Create Atmosphere Wacro, you need to have
see “Root Material (PoserSurface) Node” on page something in the background of your scene, such as a
345.
select Atmosphere from the Object menu at the top of
• Set Up Toon Render: The Set Up Toon Render Wacro the Shader window. Clicking the Create Atmosphere
button opens the Choose an Atmosphere dialog.
when rendered. Clicking the button opens a dialog Select the type of atmosphere you wish to create,
asking whether you want to have specular highlights from the following options: Fog, Smoke, SmokeyRoom,
on your toon surfaces. Click either No or Yes on this Depth_Cue. Then click OK. Poser will add the
dialog to proceed. Poser will then attach the following appropriate nodes to create the atmosphere you
nodes: have selected. If you wish to know more about any of
“Chapter 16: Material
A Toon diffuse node will be attached to the input
Room Nodes” on page 345. Render your scene to
on the Alternate_Diffuse attribute of the root
view the atmosphere effects.
Material node. See “Toon” on page 366 for more
information about the Toon node’s attributes. • Set Up Light Style: The Set Up Light Style Wacro
Two additional links will be created from the allows you to specify the style of light you wish to
output on the material’s Image_Map node, to the apply to a particular light. First, select the light you
inputs on the LightColor and DarkColor attributes
on the Toon node. the Shader window. Then click the Set Up Light Style
button. The Select a light style dialog will appear,
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asking you to select a light style from the following • IBL (Image Based Lighting): The IBL Wacro can only
options: diffuse only, specular only, white only. When act upon lights, so make sure you have selected a
you have made your selection, click OK. You will light from the Object menu at the top of the Shader
window, before using this Wacro. Clicking the IBL
button will open the Texture Manager, which asks you
Depending on the light style you selected, you will see to select a texture for the Image_Map node.
the following effects:
• Poser allows you to connect shader trees of any level
If you selected diffuse only, the Diffuse attribute of complexity to your Image Based Light; the IBL
on the root Light node will be set to white, and the Wacro, however, is set up to use a single light probe
Specular attribute will be set to black. image as an image map. Light probes are panoramic
If you selected specular only, the Specular images that can record light levels from a 360 degree
attribute on the root Light node will be set to white, perspective, and are typically created by taking a
and the Diffuse attribute will be set to black. high-dynamic range image of a mirrored sphere.
Once you have selected your light probe image in
If you selected white only, the Color, Diffuse and the Texture Manager, click OK. Poser will attach an
Specular attributes on the root Light node will all Image_Map node using your light probe to the input
be set to white. of the Color attribute on the root Light node. For more
information on the Image_Map node’s attributes, see
• Set Up Ambient Occlusion: Clicking the Set Up Ambient
“Image Map” on page 396. For information about
Occlusion button will create an Ambient_Occlusion
Image Based Lighting and light probes, see “Diffuse
raytrace node, the output of which is attached to
Image Based Lights (IBL)” on page 278.
the inputs of the Diffuse_Value and Specular_Value
attributes on the root Material node. See “Ambient To maximize your Image Based Lighting
Occlusion” on page 381 for more information on the effects, we recommend using Ambient
Ambient_Occlusion node’s attributes. Occlusion. See “Light Properties” on page 285 for
information on activating Ambient Occlusion for the
selected light.

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• Remove Detached Nodes: Clicking the Remove

Detached Nodes button will clear away any nodes on
the currently selected material group whose outputs
are not attached to at least one other node. This
Wacro is particularly useful for cleaning up complex
shader trees, where the sheer number of nodes

detached nodes present in the Shader window.

If you press the Shift key while choosing

Remove Detached Nodes, detached nodes

with a single click.

Even if one or more nodes are attached to

inputs on a given node, if that node’s output
is not attached to another node, it will be removed
by the Remove Detached Nodes Wacro.

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Chapter 15: Working

with Nodes
This chapter describes how to perform various operations
with nodes in the Shader window of the Material room.
For a description of the Material room itself, please refer to
“Chapter 14: The Material Room” on page 314.

About Nodes
A node is the basic building block used to construct simple
or complex procedural shaders (also called shaders). All
nodes have the following elements except where noted:

Elements of a node.

• Output (1): After accepting and processing any inputs

plus its own values, the end result is passed to the
output for connection to another node’s input. Root
nodes do not have this function.

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• Node Name (2): This is the name of the node. By • Preview (8): This displays a preview of the node’s
default, a number will appear when you have two or output.
more of the same node in your shader, for example
Clouds_2, Clouds_3, and so forth. You can double- If you are running OpenGL hardware
click the name of the node to enter a new name if acceleration, you may be able to view the
desired. results of your procedural shaders in the Document
window’s Preview tab, to give you a better sense of
• Show/Hide Values Button (3): Clicking the Values how your rendered scene will appear. For more
button toggles displaying the node values (6) on and information previewing procedural shaders, please
off. see “Preview Tab” on page 422.

• Show/Hide Preview Button (4): Clicking the Preview

button toggles displaying the node preview (9) on
and off. Enabling previews gives you a great idea of The Material Room Options Menu
how each step in your shader tree is contributing to
You can access the Options menu in one of four ways:
the overall look, however this can increase required
computing resources.
• Clicking the Options menu arrow at the top right
corner of the Shader window.
• Node Values (5): This area shows the values that you
can specify for the particular node.
• Clicking either mouse button on a node’s input. In this
case, the Options menu will only have the New node
• Value Input (6): You can either input values directly in
option available and may (depending on the input)
a node or connect one or more nodes to an input to
have quick access options for appropriate nodes to
modify the selected value.
connect to the selected input.
• Animation Toggle (7): Clicking the Animation control
• Clicking either mouse button on a node’s output.
toggles animation on and off for the selected value.
• Right-clicking any blank area in the Shader window.

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The Options menu, which varies depending on how it was between the cut nodes and others. This preserves any
accessed, has the following options: links that exist between the copied nodes.

• Copy: Use the Shift key to select multiple nodes and/or

the full rote node to copy into the clipboard. Selecting
Copy places a copy of the selected node(s) into the
Clipboard without removing the originals from the
Shader window without altering their relationships with
other nodes. This preserves any links that exist between
the copied nodes but does not copy links between
the copied nodes and other nodes. In conjunction
with the Paste command (see below), this is a great
way to propagate your shader trees (or any portions
you like) from shader to shader, thereby allowing you
to save time by leveraging previous work.

• Paste: Selecting Paste places a copy of the node(s)

stored in the Clipboard into the Shader window.
Node options.

• Delete: Selecting Delete selected nodes deletes all

• New node: Selecting New node creates a new selected node(s). Any links to or from deleted nodes
node. Please refer to the following section for more are also lost, meaning you will need to reestablish
information about creating nodes. broken connections. Please refer to “Linking Nodes”
on page 340 for information on linking/de-linking
• Cut: Selecting Cut places a copy of the selected nodes.
node(s) into the Clipboard and deletes the originals
from the Shader window along with any existing links • Apply to all: Selecting Apply to all... applies all selected
nodes to all materials groups in the current object. This

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overrides existing connections in affected material node output typically appears in the upper-left corner of
groups but does not delete any nodes. the node palette.

• Collapse to compound node: Combines the selected

nodes into a compound node. For more information
see “Collapsing Existing Nodes into a Compound
Node” on page 410.

• Expand compound node: Expands the selected

compound node back into its individual node
components. For more information, see “Expanding
Compound Nodes” on page 412.

• Select All: Selecting Select All selects all nodes in your

shader, including the root node.

• Invert Selection: Selecting Invert Selection selects all

unselected nodes and deselects all selected nodes. In
essence, this function reverses your selection.

Node inputs and outputs.

Material Room Node
Connections You can link nodes to other nodes, thereby controlling one
node’s input with another node’s output. This interaction
The Advanced view of the Material room uses a plug between nodes is at the heart of the Material room’s
system to connect nodes together. Node inputs typically
appear on the right side of a node’s palette, and the interaction works by plugging values or colors from one
node into another. Although only one node’s output can

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be connected to another node’s input at the same time, Creating Nodes

there is no theoretical limit to how deep these interactions
can go. Available memory and CPU speed will play a role
in setting practical limits. own shader tree (remember that all shaders have at least
a root node).
To create a node, use one of the following methods:

• To create a new node anywhere in the advanced

Material view, right click in the material view and
choose New Node > Category > Subcategory > Node.
Then connect the new node to the locations you
desire.

Several nodes can be chained together to create realistic

materials.

Selecting Nodes
To select a node, simply click any blank area within the
desired node. To select multiple nodes, press and hold
Shift while making your selections. Creating a new material node.

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• To create an instance of the node that is currently the view will pop up the new node menu. Your new
selected in the Shader window, open the Options node will appear with its output already linked to your
menu in the upper right corner of the material room current node’s input. If you access the Options menu
and select New Node > Category > Subcategory > in any other manner (see above), the new node will
Node. Connect the new node as desired. not be linked.

Renaming Nodes
After you create a new node, you can double-click the

more descriptive. Press Enter/Return to apply the new

name.

Node options menu.

• To create a new node that is automatically

connected to a node input, click the desired node
input to display the Options menu. Alternatively, you
can drag from a node’s input to an open area in
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input you wish to link to. Release the mouse button to

complete the link.

Double-click a node name to rename it (top); After renaming Attaching a new node to the root node.
(bottom).

• Moving Existing Links: To move a link from one node

to another, click the input you want to unlink and drag
Linking Nodes the cursor off the node. Place the cursor over the input
node you wish to link and release the mouse button.
After creating a node, you may need to link it to an input
on another node. This is accomplished in one of three
ways:

• Direct Link: Click the output of the node you wish

to link and drag the cursor over the node or shader

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Adding a new node to a root node input.

You can link a node to as many other nodes as you wish

and each node input can be linked to as many input
nodes as you wish.
Relinking nodes.

De-Linking Nodes
• Clicking and dragging: Click the input you wish to
connect a new node to and drag. A node connection To break the link between two nodes, click the input you
will appear. When you release the mouse button, the want to unlink and select Disconnect in the Options menu.
Options menu will appear, allowing you to create a
new node whose output is pre-connected to your
selected input. Expanding/Collapsing Nodes
You can expand and collapse a node’s values and/or
preview separately, as described in the previous section.

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Moving Nodes
You can move and arrange nodes to suit your particular
work style. A node’s position has no effect on the shader’s
function or appearance. To move a node or nodes:
1. Select the node(s) you want to move as described
above.

2. Hold the mouse button down and drag the node(s)

Manually entering node values.
to the desired position. Release the mouse button to
complete the move.
Some node values are pull-down menus. Use these as you
would any other pull-down menu.
Entering Node Values
To enter a value for a node, click the desired value to

or move the parameter dial using the mouse. You can also
link one or more nodes to the desired value (see below),
which will make the appropriate adjustments.

Node options can be displayed in a pull-down menu.

Also, clicking a color within a node opens a standard Color

Picker, which you can use to quickly select your desired
color.

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Colors are selected through the Color Picker.

Deleting Nodes
To delete a node, select the node you wish to delete and
either press [DEL] or select Node > Delete.

Turn the Animation Toggle on (green) to animate a material.

Animating Nodes
You can animate node attributes by clicking the • Animated: Selecting the Animation option toggles
Animation Toggle (key icon) for the attribute you wish to animation for the current attribute on or off. A check
animate. When animation is enabled, the icon appears mark appears next to this menu item when animation
green. When disabled, it appears clear. Clicking the is enabled, and vice-versa.
Animation Toggle opens a pull-down menu with the
following options: • Info: Each animated attribute has one or more Info
options depending on the attribute. For example,
a numerical node will have one Info option for its
numeric value, while a color node will have three Info

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options (one each for red, green, and blue). Selecting

one of these options allows you to set the current
value, maximum and minimum limits, name, and
sensitivity. This dialog is exactly the same as the Edit
Parameter Dial dialog, which is discussed in “Editing
Parameter Dials” on page 214.

• Graph: For each Info option that appears above,

you will see a Graph option. Selecting a Graph option
opens the Graph palette for the selected channel.
Please refer to “Using Graphs” on page 505 for more
information about the Graph palette.
Once animation is enabled, you can animate the
attribute’s value using any combination of the following
methods:

• Keyframes: Move to a frame and set a value, then

move to a different frame and set a new value.

• Graph Palette: Use the Graph palette to animate the

node.

• Other nodes: Connect other nodes to control how the

attribute changes over time.
Please refer to “Chapter 22: Animating with Poser” on
page 493 for more information about animating within
Poser.

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Chapter 16: Material top right of the Shader window, or by selecting Window >
Room Help if the help pages are not already displayed in

Room Nodes the Material room).

Root Material (PoserSurface) Node

Poser includes the following nodes, which, combined and
linked to root nodes, can create virtually any shader you The root Material node and root Hair nodes contain all of
can imagine. Nodes are divided into several groups: Math, the attributes required to create a complete shader for
Lighting, Variables, 3D Textures, and 2D Textures. Each
group and its shaders is discussed in the following sections: hair). They both have the following attributes:

Root Nodes
As previously mentioned, all shaders include a root node,

the root node. Thus, the root node is itself a complete

shader. The Material room has four root nodes: Material,
Background, Light, and Atmosphere. Let’s examine these
nodes further.

Root Node Help

Some node attributes have a question mark (?) icon next
to them. Clicking this icon opens help for that channel.
This help is also available by navigating the Material room
help window (available by clicking on the (?) icon at the

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• Diffuse Color: The Diffuse_Color attribute is the surface

color that is multiplied through any light striking the
object.

• Diffuse Value: The Diffuse_Value

strength of the diffuse color, where 1=100%.

• Specular Color: The Specular_Color

the color of the object’s highlight.

• Specular Value: The Specular_Value

the strength of the specular color, where 1=100%.

• Highlight Size: The Highlight_Size

the quantity of micro-facets on the object surface.
Micro-facets are tiny imperfections that are invisible

off the surface. Very smooth surfaces (such as glass)

have very few imperfections and produce a very
sharp specular highlight. Surfaces such as paper
have extremely high numbers of imperfections in their
surface and thus produce subtler specular highlights.

• Ambient Color: The Ambient_Color

the color that a surface has when it receives no light.
This can be used to simulate overall ambient light or to
create self-illuminating surfaces. Note that the ambient
Poser Surface Node.
color of a surface will also bounce off other surfaces
when rendering with indirect light enabled.
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• Ambient Value: The Ambient_Value • Refraction Color: The Refraction_Color

strength of the ambient color, where 1=100%. the color of light refracted by the current object.

• Transparency: The Transparency • Refraction Value: The Refraction_Value

object’s opacity, where 1=fully transparent. the strength of the refraction color, where 1=100%.

• Transparency Edge: The Transparency_Edge attribute • Bump: The Bump

bump in the material. See “Bump Maps” on page
example, a glass appears opaque at its edges. 301 for information about bump.

• Transparency Falloff: The Transparency_Falloff • Displacement: The Displacement

the amount of displacement in the material. See
moves towards the object edge. Smaller values create “Displacement Map” on page 303 for information
a sharper edge and vice versa. about displacement.

• Translucence Color: The Translucence_Color attribute • Alternate Diffuse: The AlternateDiffuse attribute
is the color of light passing through the object. provides an alternate input for diffuse lighting. Use this
channel for strand-based hair and anytime you wish to
• Translucence Value: The Translucence_Value attribute use custom diffuse lighting.

1=100%. • Alternate Specular: The AlternateSpecular attribute

provides an alternate input for specular lighting. Use
• : The attribute allows this channel for strand-based hair and anytime you
wish to use custom specular lighting.

• : Checking the
• : The checkbox multiplies the total color through the
amount of diffuse lighting hitting each point on the

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Normal Map (Object space): Object space normal

not seen by lights. On by default. maps are rainbow-colored in appearance. The
normals are pointing in their actual directions.
• : Checking the
For more information about normal maps,
the surface’s diffuse color value. Off by default. see “Normal and Gradient Bump Maps” on
page 325.
• Gradient Bump: Previous versions of Poser used a

• ShadowCatchOnly: Checking the ShadowCatchOnly

an image map node to the Gradient_Bump attribute checkbox allows transparent surfaces to catch
shadows, as opposed to letting the shadows appear
“Image Map” on page 396 for information on on the opaque surface behind them. In other words,
this option will treat transparent surfaces as opaque,
FireFly renderer. The Gradient Mode option also allows only in terms of their interaction with shadows. A
you to select one of two types of normal maps. prime use of this feature would be if you wish to

• Gradient Mode:
ShadowCatchOnly
Gradient Bump: Choose this option to use with a
grayscale bump map image.

Normal Map (Tangent space): Tangent space for the shadow laying on it, so the only things in your
normal maps have a mostly blue appearance.
The normals in a tangent space map are always
considered “up” even if it is not true in world • ToonID: By default, selecting the Toon Outline option
space. causes an outline to appear around each separate

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In such a case, you can adjust the Toon ID assignment Root Background Node
on the root node of the material, to reduce the
number of outlines drawn. Assigning the same ID to The root Background node contains all of the attributes
multiple materials means that the render engine will required to create a complete shader for your scene’s
not draw separating outlines between those materials. background and has the following attributes:

• Normals_Forward: Checking the Normals_Forward

the camera (or towards the ray in case of raytracing).

Light for indirect lighting (IDL) is also cast in the
direction of the normals. Use this option to avoid
shading artifacts on double-sided polygons.

• Custom Outputs: Use the Custom_Output_1, Custom_

Output_2 and Custom_Output_3 connectors to Root Background Node.

Photoshop layers. If there is no connection to these

• Color: The Color attribute allows you to choose the
inputs in the Poser Surface node, the output to a
background’s base color.

Shadow only, respectively for Custom Output 1, 2, and • Diffuse Color: The Diffuse_Color attribute is the surface
3. For more information, see “Rendering Layered PSD color that is multiplied through any light striking the
Files” on page 460. object.

You must have a hair object selected in • Specular Color: The Specular_Color
order to see its root node. the color of the object’s highlight.

• Highlight Size: The Highlight_Size

size of the highlight.

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• Bump: The Bump

bump in the material.

is attached to the Color channel of the Root

Background node. However, if you wish the same
image or color to appear in the preview render, you
must also attach it to the BG Picture or BG Movie
node.

Root Light Node

Root Light Node.
A root Light node appears whenever you have a light
selected. Each light in your scene has its own root Light
node, which has the following attributes: • Color: The Color attribute allows you to choose the
light’s base color.

• Intensity: The Intensity

brightness.

• Angle Start: The AngleStart

the light cone (in degrees) for spotlights.

• Angle End: The AngleEnd

the light cone (in degrees) for spotlights.

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• Angle Expo: The AngleExpo attribute controls how the probe image. The default value of 3 for this attribute
light fades towards the edge of the light cone (falloff). is intended for use with Low Dynamic Range (LDR)
images. For High Dynamic Range (HDR) images, the
• Diffuse: The Diffuse attribute allows you to create lights best IBL Contrast setting would be 1.
that use only a diffuse component to light the scene.
You must have a light selected in order to
• Specular: The Specular attribute allows you to create see its root node.
lights that use only a specular component to light the
scene. You can create specular only lights by setting
the color in the specular channel to black. You can
also create a negative light source (a light source that
Root Atmosphere Node
darkens or negates certain colors in the areas of the The Root Atmosphere node contains all of the attributes
scene lit by this light) by setting the Specular value to required to create realistic atmospheric effects such as
zero (i.e., black) and setting the light’s Intensity to -1. fog, haze, etc. in your scenes.
Then the Color and Diffuse channels can be adjusted
to reduce certain aspects of light.

• Image Resolution: The Image Resolution attribute

sampled. You can attach a light probe of any size,

and then adjust the resolution to suit your needs. Note
that higher resolutions require more processing time,
whereas with extremely low resolutions you will lose
image quality. 256 is a reasonable default resolution
for most light probe images.

• IBL Contrast: The IBL Contrast attribute allows you

to modify the level of contrast in the incoming light Root Atmosphere Node.

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• DepthCue_On: Checking the DepthCue_On checkbox with the color of the lights in your scene. To use the
enables depth cueing, which varies all surface lights’ colors for the volume, set this color to white.
material colors from their original lit colors to the
• Volume_Density: The Volume_Density attribute controls
effect similar to enabling the Depth Cueing option the strength of the volumetric effect. This effect
in the Document window as described in “Depth is multiplied by each light’s Atmosphere Strength
Cueing” on page 100. attribute. If this attribute is set to 1.0, the selected light
will cast atmospheric effects equal to this attribute and
• Volume_On: Checking the Volume_On checkbox so forth. Please refer to “Light Properties” on page
enables volumetric effects. You can enable depth 285.
cueing and/or volumetric effects individually.
• Volume_StepSize: The Volume_StepSize attribute
• DepthCue_Color: The DepthCue_Color attribute
taken through the volume. Lowering this value
cueing. increases the quality and requires increased render
time.
• DepthCue_StartDist: The DepthCue_StartDist attribute
• Volume_Noise: The Volume_Noise attribute adds
which the depth cueing effect begins. This distance is a random factor added to the sample that can
not necessarily displayed in Poser distance units. help balance out the effect of larger step sizes (see
previous attribute).
• DepthCue_EndDist: The DepthCue_EndDist attribute
You can connect nodes to the color and density attributes
for more complex effects.
which the depth cueing effect ends. This distance is
not necessarily displayed in Poser distance units.

• Volume_Color: The Volume_Color

color of the volumetric effect. This color is multiplied

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Math Nodes

them in the New Node > Math

otherwise, the list of attributes for each node is listed from
top to bottom.

Blender
The Blender node blends two colors using a value attribute
Without volumetric rendering (no fog) on left; With volumetric as an alpha mask. It has the following attributes:
rendering (with fog) on right.

effects unless you use a very low density.

Volumetric effects are most successfully used with
both spotlights and carefully controlled density
numbers. Also, Volumetric lighting effects only
appear over a rendered object. They do not
appear over an empty background, even when a
background shader is in place. You need at least
one object in on screen in order for volumetric
lighting effects to be visible.

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• Blending: The Blending attribute is used to determine

the amount of blending. Valid values are from 0 (Input
1 color only) to 1 (Input 2 color only).

Fresnel Blend
The Fresnel Blend node has the following attributes:

Fresnel Blend Node.

Blender Node. • Outer Color: The Outer Color

of surfaces facing away from the camera. Clicking it
opens the standard Color Picker.
• Input 1: The Input_1
color. Clicking this attribute opens the standard Color • Inner Color: The Inner Color
Picker. of surfaces facing towards the camera. Clicking it
opens the standard Color Picker.
• Input 2: The Input_2
color. Clicking this attribute opens the standard Color • Index of Refraction: The index of refraction of the
Picker.
transmitted dependent on the incident angle based
on the index of refraction.
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Edge Blend Component

The Edge Blend node blends color nodes based on The Component node is useful for extracting the red,
surface and camera angles. It has the following attributes: green, or blue components from an input color. It has the
following attributes:

Edge Blend Node.

Component Node.

• Inner Color: The Inner Color

of surfaces facing towards the camera. Clicking it • Component: The Component
opens the standard Color Picker. color to extract. 0=red, 1=green, and 2=blue.

• Outer Color: The Outer Color • Color: The Color attribute provides an input for another
of surfaces facing away from the camera. Clicking it node, whose output will be processed according to
opens the standard Color Picker. the Component attribute setting.

• Attenuation: The Attenuation • Point: The Point attribute provides an input for a point
power curve used for transitioning between the inner node whose output will be processed according to
and outer colors. the Component attribute setting.

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Math Functions Cosine: Selecting Cos returns the cosine of Value 1.

Value 2 is ignored.
The Math Functions node is useful for mathematically
Tangent: Selecting Tan returns the tangent of Value
merging values, nodes, and other parameters and can be
1. Value 2 is ignored.
used to create patterns. It has the following attributes:
Square Root: Selecting Sqrt returns the square root
of Value 1. Value 2 is ignored.

Power: Selecting Pow returns the Value 1 to the

Value 2 power (such as 33).

Exponential: Selecting Exp returns e to the

exponent Value 1, Value 2 is ignored (such as eV1).
Math Functions Node.
Logarithm: Selecting Log returns the natural log of
Value 1, Value 2 is ignored.
• Math Argument
function to be used. Your options are: Modulus: Selecting Mod returns the modulus
(remainder) of Value 1 divided by Value 2.
Add: Selecting Add returns Value 1 plus Value 2.
Absolute: Selecting Abs returns the absolute value
Subtract: Selecting Subtract returns Value 1 minus of Value 1. Value 2 is ignored.
Value 2.
Sign: Selecting Sign returns –1 if Value 1 is less than
Multiply: Selecting Multiply returns Value 1 times zero, and 1 if Value 1 is greater than or equal to
Value 2. zero. Value 2 is ignored.
Divide: Selecting Divide returns Value 1 divided by Minimum: Selecting Min returns Value 1 if Value 1 is
Value 2. less than Value 2, otherwise Value 2 is returned.
Sine: Selecting Sin returns the sine of Value 1. Value
2 is ignored.
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Maximum: Selecting Max returns Value 1 if Value 1 is • Value 2: The Value_2

greater than Value 2, otherwise Value 2 is returned. the math equation.

Clamp: Selecting Clamp returns Value 1 unless Value

1 is less than 0 or greater than 1. If Value 1<0, 0 Color Math
is returned. If Value 1 > 1, 1 is returned. Value 2 is
ignored. The Color Math node performs the selected mathematical
operation with two colors. It has the following attributes:
Ceiling: Selecting Ceil returns Value 1 rounded up
to the next whole number. Value 2 is ignored.

Floor: Selecting Floor returns Value 1 rounded

down to the last whole number. Value 2 is ignored.

Round: Selecting Round returns Value 1 rounded to

the nearest whole number. Value 2 is ignored.
Color Math node.
Step: Selecting Step returns 1 if Value 1 is less than
Value 2, and 0 if Value 1 is greater than or equal to
Value 2. • Math Argument: Please refer to the previous node
explanation, above, for a list of math arguments
Smooth Step: Selecting Smoothstep returns Value 1
available in this pull-down menu.
bicubically smoothed. Value 2 is ignored.

Bias: Selecting Bias adjusts the bias of Value 1 by • Value 1: The Value_1
Value 2. value in the math equation.

Gain: Selecting Gain adjusts the gain of Value 1 by • Value 2: The Value_2
Value 2. value in the math equation.

• Value 1: The Value_1

math equation.
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setting. Choices are RGB (Red, Green, Blue), HSV

(Hue, Saturation, Value) or HSL (Hue, Saturation,
The Lightness.
color. The Color Mode (bottom) attribute is a pull-down
menu allowing you to specify your desired color model.
You can choose RGB, HSV, or HSL modes and enter the
Simple Color
The Simple Color node allows you to access a color picker
to select a color. Clicking the color (Color attribute) opens
the Poser Color Picker. To use your operating system’s
Color Picker, press [OPT]/[ALT] while clicking the color or
click the red-green-blue button in the top right of the Poser
Color Picker.

• Red Simple Color node.

Red (RGB) or Hue (HSV or HSL).

• Green: This attribute allows you to specify the second

value: Green (RGB) or Saturation (HSV or HSL). Color Ramp

• Blue: This attribute allows you to specify the third value: The Color Ramp node takes four colors and creates a
Blue (RGB) or Value (HSV) or Lightness (HSL). spline color map (gradient) with them. You can feed
grayscale output from other nodes (turbulence, wood,
• Color Mode: This attribute allows you to specify the etc.) into this node to create interesting still or animated
color mode that applies to the Red, Green, and Blue effects using the grayscale values as lookups into the

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color spline, providing a colorized version of the original

grayscale image. It has the following attributes:

HSV Node.

Color Ramp node. • Color: Allows you to specify the color source that you
want to adjust.

• Color 1 through Color 4: The Color_1 through Color_4 • Hue: This attribute allows you to adjust the Hue of the
attributes allow you to input colors for the color spline. Color input. A setting of 1 represents no adjustment.
Clicking them opens the standard Color Picker. Increase or decrease the setting to offset the original
hue.
• Input: The Input attribute is the grayscale value to
lookup into the color spline. This is where you should • Saturation: This attribute allows you to adjust the
plug in your grayscale images. Saturation of the Color input. A setting of 1 represents
no adjustment. Increase or decrease the setting to
offset the original saturation.
HSV
• Value: This attribute allows you to adjust the Value
The HSV node allows you to adjust the Hue, Saturation,
of the Color input. A setting of 1 represents no
and/or Value of the Color input.
adjustment. Increase or decrease the setting to offset
the original value.

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Gamma Lighting Nodes

The Gamma node allows you to incorporate Gamma These are the light nodes included with the Material room.
settings into the currently selected material. The Gamma
node provides the following settings: node is listed from top to bottom. The Light menu item has
several sub-menus, each containing one or more nodes.

Specular Nodes
Specular nodes provide different models for calculating
highlights on objects.

Gamma Node. Anisotropic

The Anisotropic node allows you to create irregularly

• Color: Allows you to specify a solid color, or to input shaped highlights. It has the following attributes:
other nodes as a source of color.

• Inverse
gamma value in reverse. For example, if Gamma
value is set to 2.2, checking the Inverse option will result
in a Gamma setting of 1/2.2 (or .4545).

• Use Custom Gamma: Check this option to pass the

custom gamma settings to the node that is connected
to the output.

• Gamma: Sets the desired gamma value.

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• U Highlight Size: The U_Highlight_Size attribute is the

highlight’s size in the U direction.

• V Highlight Size: The V_Highlight_Size attribute is the

highlight’s size in the V direction.

• Xdir_X: The Xdir_X attribute controls the size of the

• Xdir Y: The Xdir_Y attribute controls the size of the

• Xdir_Z: The Xdir_Z attribute controls the size of the

Anisotropic node.

• Specular Color: The Specular_Color is the color of any • Normals_Forward: Checking the Normals_Forward
highlight that appears on the object surface. Highlights
lend the illusion of shininess. For example, a piece of the camera (or towards the ray in case of raytracing).
wood displays no highlight, while a piece of polished Use this option to avoid shading artifacts on double-
metal has one or more distinct highlights. This color is sided polygons.
generally the same as that of the direct lighting falling
Phong
on the affected surface but does not have to be.
The Phong
• Specular Value: The Specular_Value is the amount
It has the following attributes:

higher value will create larger, more distinct highlights

and vice versa.

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the camera (or towards the ray in case of raytracing).

Use this option to avoid shading artifacts on double-
sided polygons.

Glossy

The Glossy
highlights. It has the following attributes:
Phong node.

• Specular Color: The Specular_Color is the color of any

highlight that appears on the object surface. Highlights
lend the illusion of shininess. For example, a piece of
wood displays no highlight, while a piece of polished
metal has one or more distinct highlights. This color is
generally the same as that of the direct lighting falling
on the affected surface but does not have to be. Glossy node.

• Specular Value: The Specular_Value is the amount

• Specular Color: The Specular_Color is the color of any
highlight that appears on the object surface. Highlights
higher value will create larger, more distinct highlights
lend the illusion of shininess. For example, a piece of
and vice versa.
wood displays no highlight, while a piece of polished
• Size: The Size metal has one or more distinct highlights. This color is
highlight. generally the same as that of the direct lighting falling
on the affected surface but does not have to be.
• Normals_Forward: Checking the Normals_Forward

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• Ks: The Ks • Specular Color: The Specular_Color is the color of any

specular color, where 1=100%. highlight that appears on the object surface. Highlights
lend the illusion of shininess. For example, a piece of
• Roughness: The Roughness wood displays no highlight, while a piece of polished
of highlights. metal has one or more distinct highlights. This color is
generally the same as that of the direct lighting falling
• Sharpness: The Sharpness
on the affected surface but does not have to be.
sharpness of the highlight’s edge.
• Eccentricity: The Blinn formula models the microfacets
• Normals_Forward: Checking the Normals_Forward
(microscopic imperfections) of the surface as ellipsoids
of revolution. The Eccentricity attribute controls the size
the camera (or towards the ray in case of raytracing).
and variation of the imperfections. Use 0 for very shiny
Use this option to avoid shading artifacts on double-
surfaces and 1 for very diffuse surfaces.
sided polygons.
• Specular Roll Off: The SpecularRollOff attribute controls
Blinn
the highlight’s sharpness.
The Blinn
• : The attribute controls the
It has the following attributes:

• Normals_Forward: Checking the Normals_Forward

the camera (or towards the ray in case of raytracing).

Use this option to avoid shading artifacts on double-
sided polygons.

Blinn node.

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Specular • Roughness: The Roughness

of highlights.
The Specular
highlights. It has the same attributes as the Phong node, • Normals_Forward: Checking the Normals_Forward
which is discussed below.
the camera (or towards the ray in case of raytracing).
Use this option to avoid shading artifacts on double-
sided polygons.

ks Microfacet

The KS-Microfacet node is a node that is a physically-

based specular node that uses specularity calculations
Specular node. similar to those used in the Subsurface Skin and Scatter
nodes.

• Specular Color:: The Specular_Color is the color of any The settings are as follows:
highlight that appears on the object surface. Highlights
lend the illusion of shininess. For example, a piece of
wood displays no highlight, while a piece of polished
metal has one or more distinct highlights. This color is
generally the same as that of the direct lighting falling
on the affected surface but does not have to be.
ks-Microfacet node.
• Specular Value: The Specular_Value is the amount
• Roughness: The Roughness
higher value will create larger, more distinct highlights of highlights. Lower values create smaller, sharper
and vice versa. highlights. Higher values create larger, more diffused
highlights.
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• Ks: The Ks attribute controls the specular light strength, Diffuse

where 1=100%.
The Diffuse node allows you to use the standard diffuse
lighting model. It has the following attributes:
Diffuse Nodes

Clay

The Clay node applies a clay-like lighting model to the

selected material. It has the following attributes:

Diffuse node.

• Diffuse_Color: The Diffuse_Color

diffuse color.

Clay node. • Diffuse_Value: The Diffuse_Value

strength of the diffuse color, where 1=100%.

• Color: The Color • Normals_Forward: Checking the Normals_Forward

Clicking the color opens a Color Picker.
the camera (or towards the ray in case of raytracing).
• Kd: The Kd Use this option to avoid shading artifacts on double-
where 1=100%. sided polygons.

• Roughness: The Roughness

of highlights.

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ProbeLight • Saturation: The Saturation

degree of color saturation within the irradiance map.
The ProbeLight node takes an irradiance environment
map, which is a 360 degree light distribution contained • SurfaceColor: The SurfaceColor attribute allows you to
within a single image map, and applies it to your material. select a color tint by which the irradiance map will be
multiplied. For more realistic results, you should multiply
with white.

If your intention is to create an image based

light, you can do so by simply adding a
diffuse image Based light to your scene in the
lighting controls. See “Chapter 12: Lighting” on
page 276 for more information about adding and

Toon

The Toon node gives your material a cartoon-like look. It

has the following attributes:

Probe Light node.

• Exposure: The Exposure

brightness, or exposure level, of the irradiance map.

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the camera (or towards the ray in case of raytracing).

Use this option to avoid shading artifacts on double-
sided polygons.

Special Nodes

Skin

The Skin node allows you to create realistic skin. It has the
Toon node. following attributes:

• Light Color: The LightColor

color.

• Dark Color: The DarkColor

color.

• Ink Color: The InkColor

• Spread: The Spread

softness of edges between colors. Skin node.

• Line Width: the LineWidth

of the ink color. • Skin Color: The SkinColor attribute selects the skin’s
base color. Clicking this attribute opens a standard
• Normals_Forward: Checking the Normals_Forward Color Picker.

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• Sheen Color: The SheenColor attribute is the color that give the skin more luminescence and sheen. This node
of any highlight that appears on the object surface. has the following settings:
Highlights lend the illusion of shininess. For example, a
piece of wood displays no highlight, while a piece of
polished metal has one or more distinct highlights. This
color is generally the same as that of the direct lighting
falling on the affected surface but does not have to
be.

• Ka: The Ka attribute controls the ambient light strength,

where 1=100%.
Subsurface Skin node.
• Kd: The Kd attribute controls the diffuse light strength,
where 1=100%.
• Color: Determines the base color for the material. The
Subsurface Skin effect is added to this color. By default
• Ks: The Ks attribute controls the specular light strength,
it is set to white. You can choose another color, or
where 1=100%.
attach an image map or another node to the input.
• Thickness: The Thickness attribute controls the
• Texture Detail: Represents the ratio of the use of the
thickness of the top, translucent skin layer.
texture for post-scatter versus pre-scatter. The range
• ETA: The ETA attribute controls the density of the top, is from 0-1.0. A value of 1 will apply 100% of texture at
translucent skin layer. post-scatter, yielding more texture details. A value 0
uses none of texture at post-scatter, applying all of
Subsurface Skin that texture for pre-scatter calculations, and yields very
low texture detail. A value of .5 is a reasonable point to
The Subsurface Skin node offers more realistic skin effects start experimenting.
than the Skin node. It adds subsurface scattering effects

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• Specularity: When set to 1, this setting approximates

the physical specular behavior of human skin. Increase
or decrease the setting for your desired effect.

• Highlight Size: Determines the size of the highlight,

similar to the way that Highlight Size works in the Root
node.

• MaxError: This setting is a quality-speed trade-off.

When set to a low value, you will get higher precision
in the subsurface scattering, but rendering will be more
slow. When set to a higher value, you will get better
rendering speeds, but less precision in the subsurface
scattering.
To demonstrate the Subsurface Skin node we start with

raytraced shadows. The head texture is very simple, just

an image map plugged into the diffuse color and the
specular color. Diffuse color is set to white, and specular
color is set to black with a value of zero.
Render settings dialog with Subsurface Scattering turned on.
Render settings for the scene are also standard. However,
in order to use the Subsurface Skin node, the Subsurface Go to the Material room and select the Head material.
Scattering option must be turned on in the Render Settings Right-click in an empty area in the Advanced material
dialog. view and choose New Node > Lighting > Special >
Subsurface Skin.

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Plug the output of the image map into the Color input of the back side). During the second pass, it calculates the
the new node. Then, plug the output of the new node into scattering.
the Alternate Diffuse input of the PoserSurface root node.
Finally, set the Diffuse Value setting in the root node to 0, so
subsurface scattering is added on a character.
that Poser only uses the ALT Diffuse setting.
Subsurface scattering only works on objects
that are in direct view of the camera.

with proper Subsurface Scattering.

Material Settings for the Subsurface Skin node.

(right).
pre-pass to calculate light all over the surface (including

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Velvet falling on the affected surface but does not have to

be.
The Velvet node allows you to create the appearance of
realistic velvety fabric. It has the following attributes: • Ka: The Ka attribute controls the ambient light strength,
where 1=100%.

• Kd: The Kd attribute controls the diffuse light strength,

where 1=100%.

• Ks: The Ks attribute controls the specular light strength,

where 1=100%.

• Roughness: The Roughness attribute controls the

thickness of the velvet.

• Edginess: This attribute controls the horizon scatter of

Velvet node. the velvet.

• Normals_Forward: Checking the Normals_Forward

• Velvet Color: The Velvet_Color attribute selects the
color. Clicking this attribute opens a standard Color the camera (or towards the ray in case of raytracing).
Picker. Use this option to avoid shading artifacts on double-
sided polygons.
• Velvet Sheen: The Velvet_Sheen attribute is the color
of any highlight that appears on the object surface. Hair
Highlights lend the illusion of shininess. For example, a
piece of wood displays no highlight, while a piece of The Hair node allows you to color your characters’ or
polished metal has one or more distinct highlights. This props’ hair. It has the following attributes:
color is generally the same as that of the direct lighting
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• Root Softness: The Root_Softness attribute controls

the root’s transparency, which helps hair blend into
the scalp.

To create realistic hair shaders, connect this

node to the root node’s Alternate Diffuse
attribute.

• Opaque in Shadow: Check this option to create

Hair node. solid shadows beneath hair strands. This allows you
to create hair that looks more full without having to
increase the number of hairs on the head (thereby
• Root Color: The Root_Color attribute selects the color requiring less computer resources).
for the root of the hair. Clicking this attribute opens a
standard Color Picker. Scatter

• Tip Color: The Tip_Color attribute selects the color The Scatter node offers another way to render scattering
for the tip of the hair. Clicking this attribute opens a effects in various objects, including skin. A number of
standard Color Picker. presets that use real-world material properties are included
in this node.
• Specular Color:: The Specular_Color attribute selects
The Scatter node offers the following settings:
the hair’s highlight color. Clicking this attribute opens a
standard Color Picker.

• Highlight Size: Allows you to determine the size and

intensity of the highlights in the hair.

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Scatter node.

• Material: The Material selector includes several

presets that emulate the scatter effects of real-world Material options.
materials.
• Use Material Color: Check this option if you want to use
color from the Material property.

• Texture Detail: Represents the ratio of the use of the

texture for post-scatter versus pre-scatter. The range
is from 0-1.0. A value of 1 will apply 100% of texture at
post-scatter, yielding more texture details. A value 0
uses none of texture at post-scatter, applying all of
that texture for pre-scatter calculations, and yields very
low texture detail. A value of .5 is a reasonable point to
start experimenting.

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• Scale: Each of the Scatter materials are based on input of the PoserSurface node. Set the Diffuse Value in the
physical measurements. The Scale setting decreases
or increases the physical scale to adjust appropriately
You will notice when you render the Scatter node that the
for your geometry in the event that it is smaller or larger
object takes on the color of the selected material. The
than it would be in real life.
color of the real-world materials is built in to the preset. In
other words, if you choose the Apple material there will be
• MaxError: This setting is a quality-speed trade-off.
a green tone to the Scatter effect. If you choose Skin1 or
When set to a low value, you will get higher precision
Skin2, the object will have natural skin tones, and so on.
in the subsurface scattering, but rendering will be more
Examples of Apple and Skin 1 are shown in the following
slow. When set to a higher value, you will get better
rendering speeds, but less precision in the subsurface
scattering.

• Color: Determines the base color for the material. The

Scatter effect is added to this color. By default it is set
to white. You can choose another color or add an
image map or other node to the input.
Use the same scene that you started with in “Subsurface
Skin” on page 368. If you completed that exercise,
disconnect the Subsurface Skin node from the Alternate
Diffuse input of the PoserSurface node, and then right-
click the Subsurface Skin node and choose Delete Node.
Next, right-click in an empty area in the Advanced
Material view. Choose New Node > Lighting > Special >
Scatter. A new scatter node is added to the Advanced Apple preset (left); Skin 1 preset (right).
material view. Plug the output into the Alternate Diffuse

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Because colors are built into the Scatter presets, you will
need to take that into account when you use skin textures
that have built-in color (as most do.) There is a way that
you can work around this.

• First, right-click in an empty area of the Advanced

Material view and add a Color Math node (New Node
> Math > Color_Math).

• Click the Value 2 color chip in the Color Math node,

and then use the eyedropper to select the base skin
color from the Image Map texture preview. This is the
color that will be removed after passing through the
Color Math node.

Select the base color for Value 2 from the image texture map.

• Set the Math Argument of the Color Math node to

Divide.

• Connect the output from the Image Map node into the
Value1 connector of the Color Math node. You can
display the texture preview in the Color Math node to

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view the result. You should see a preview with the base

brows, eye makeup, and shadows to pass through to

the Scatter node.

• Connect the output of the Color Math node into the

Color input of the Scatter node.

• Connect the output of the Scatter node into the

Alternate Diffuse input of the PoserSurface node.
When completed, it should look like the following

Final Color Math connections.

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Now when you render your head, you will see the
scattering effects and skin tone from the Scatter node
combined with the additional detail that was in the texture
you used.

Skin 1 Preset with added color from the Image Map and Color
Math nodes.

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Custom Scatter a more translucent effect. Note that regardless of the

settings in the preferences, this parameter’s units are
This node exposes subsurface scattering with the raw always in millimeters, due to the small size of typical
parameters available to the user, as opposed to the values.
measured presets in the plain Scatter node.
• IOR (Index of Refraction): The index of refraction of the

transmitted dependent on the incident angle based

on the index of refraction. Range is 0.0001 – 3.4.

• Pre-Scatter Texture: The incoming light on the surface

will be modulated by this color before it scatters in the
material.

• Pre-Scatter Ambient: The amount of self-illumination of

the material. This is being applied before scattering,
Custom Scatter node. so the illumination generated here will be scattered
around in the material.
The Custom Scatter node has the following attributes:
• Max Error: Same parameter as in the other two
• Surface Color: The overall color of the surface. Applied subsurface scattering nodes, this one is a speed vs.
post-scattering, so textures applied to this input will quality trade-off parameter. Lower values equal a
remain sharp. more precise calculation at the expense of render
time, higher values render faster but may show
• Scatter Color: The color of the light that gets scattered artifacts. Range is 0.0 – 1.0.
in the material.

• Mean Free Path: The mean distance that light travels

in the surface before it scatters. Larger values result in
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FastScatter Raytrace Nodes

The FastScatter node offers an easy application of To use the raytracing nodes, you must have raytracing
subsurface scattering (SSS) effects. The results of the enabled in the Render Settings dialog, as described in
FastScatter calculation approximate true Subsurface “Chapter 18: The Render Settings Dialog” on page 421.
Scattering.

The
raytracing. It has the following attributes:

Fast Scatter node.

Subsurface scattering simulates the

interaction of light with translucent materials,
whereby the light interacts to some degree with the
material below the surface level. The FastScatter
node is a legacy node that was introduced prior to • Background: The Background attribute selects the
the implementation of true Subsurface Scattering. background color to be used for raytracing. Clicking
This node should be phased out by content this attribute opens a standard Color Picker.
developers and replaced with one of the true
Subsurface Scattering nodes: “Subsurface Skin” on
• Quality: The Quality attribute controls how many rays
page 368 or “Scatter” on page 372.
are spawned by hitting a surface. Increasing this value

computing resources.

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• Softness: The Softness attribute controls the • Background: The Background attribute selects the
background color to be used for raytracing. Clicking
this attribute opens a standard Color Picker.
• RayBias: The RayBias attribute helps to prevent false
shadows and other artifacts that may occur as a result • Index of Refraction: The Index of Refraction attribute
of using raytracing techniques in conjunction with controls how much light bends when passing through
displacement maps. RayBias offsets the starting point the object.
of the rays above the geometry of the surface, so as
to avoid the displacement geometry in the raytracing • Quality: The Quality attribute controls how many rays
calculation. Be aware that if your RayBias setting is too are spawned by hitting a surface. Increasing this value
high, your shadows will migrate in the scene.
computing resources.
Refract
• Softness: The Softness attribute controls how sharp or
The Refract smooth refracted light appears after passing through
raytracing. It has the following attributes: an object.

• RayBias: The RayBias attribute helps to prevent false

shadows and other artifacts that may occur as a result
of using raytracing techniques in conjunction with
displacement maps. RayBias offsets the starting point
of the rays above the geometry of the surface, so as
to avoid the displacement geometry in the raytracing
calculation. Be aware that if your RayBias setting is too
high, your shadows will migrate in the scene.
Refract node.

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Ambient Occlusion • RayBias: The RayBias attribute helps to prevent false

shadows and other artifacts that may occur as a result
The Ambient Occlusion node uses raytracing to calculate of using raytracing techniques in conjunction with
the degree to which other objects within a scene mask (or displacement maps. RayBias offsets the starting point
occlude) the ambient light of a surface at a given point. of the rays above the geometry of the surface, so as
Surfaces with greater occlusion ratios will be rendered as to avoid the displacement geometry in the raytracing
darker than surfaces with little or no occlusion. This node calculation. Be aware that if your RayBias setting is too
has the following attributes: high, your shadows will migrate in the scene.

• Strength: The Strength attribute controls the degree

to which the Ambient Occlusion node will darken the
occluded surfaces within the scene.

• Evaluate in IDL: Check this option if you want Poser to

consider ambient occlusion settings during an indirect
lighting pass.

Ambient Occlusion node.

• Samples: The Samples attribute determines the

number of rays projected. Too few samples will result in
a grainy appearance in the darker areas of the scene.
Higher sample rates yield higher quality darkened
areas, but take longer to render.

• MaxDist: The MaxDist attribute allows you to control

the maximum distance that the rays will travel through • Without Ambient Occlusion (left); With Ambient
the scene, thus limiting the amount of data collected. Occlusion/depth mapped shadows (right).
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Gather • RayBias: The RayBias attribute helps to prevent false

shadows and other artifacts that may occur as a
The Gather node uses raytracing to collect color and light result of using raytracing techniques in conjunction
with displacement maps. RayBias offsets the starting
point of the Gather rays above the geometry of the
“outdoor” lighting effect. This effect also adds some color surface, so as to avoid the displacement geometry
bleeding to the rendered scene. The Gather sampling in the raytracing calculation. Be aware that if your
RayBias setting is too high, your shadows will migrate
in the scene.

• Angle: The Angle attribute sets the angle of the cone

in which the Gather rays will be projected. A wider
angle will result in a greater area and hence more
data. More data will give you more realistic results, but
longer render times.

Gather node.

• Samples: The Samples attribute determines the

number of Gather rays projected. Higher sample rates
yield more realistic results, but take longer to render.

• MaxDist: The MaxDist attribute allows you to control

the maximum distance that the Gather rays will travel
through the scene, thus limiting the amount of data
collected. Without Gather/no color bleeding (left); With Gather/color
bleeding (right).

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Fresnel • Index of Refraction: The Index of Refraction attribute

controls how much light bends when passing through
The Fresnel node is used for surfaces that are both the object.

• Quality: The Quality attribute controls how many rays

angle is high, and refract more when the observer to are spawned by hitting a surface. Increasing this value
surface angle is low. Most surfaces that are transparent
computing resources.

• Softness: The Softness attribute controls how sharp or

smooth refracted light appears after passing through
an object.

Environment Map Nodes

Fresnel node. Sphere Map

The Sphere Map node is a lighting node for performing

To use the Fresnel node with a surface node, plug it into
the surface node’s refraction_color channel. Set the
Diffuse values low, and Transparency to 0. The Fresnel
node has the following attributes:
following attributes:
• Background: The Background attribute selects the
background color to be used for raytracing. Clicking
this attribute opens a standard Color Picker.

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Sphere map node.

N Node.

• Color: The Color

Clicking the color opens a Color Picker. • X: The X attribute is the normal vector’s X component.

• Rotation: The Rotation • Y: The Y attribute is the normal vector’s Y component.

rotation along the X, Y, and Z values.
• Z: The Z attribute is the normal vector’s Z component.

Variable Nodes
These are the value nodes included with Poser. Unless

listed from top to bottom.

N
The N
the following attributes:
Visualizes direction of surface normal.

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P U Texture Coordinate
The P The U node returns the S coordinate in texture space of
attributes:
attributes.

V Texture Coordinate
The V node returns the T coordinate in texture space of

P Node. attributes.

• X: The X attribute is the point’s X location. Du

• Y: The Y attribute is the point’s Y location. The dU
parameters as pertains to the current pixel’s location in S
• Z: The Z attribute is the point’s Z location. space. The ‘d’ indicates a derivative of the ‘U’ parameter.

Frame Number Dv
The Frame Number node returns the current frame number. The dV
parameters as pertains to the current pixel’s location in T
space. The ‘d’ indicates a derivative of the ‘V’ parameter.

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dPdv dNdu
The dPdv node represents a varying point surface shader The dNdu node represents the derivative of the surface
variable. It is a vector perpendicular to the surface normal
rate of change of the surface normal along ‘U’.

attributes.
3D Texture Nodes
dPdu These are the color nodes included with the Material room.

The dPdu node represents a varying point surface shader node is listed from top to bottom.
variable. It is a vector perpendicular to the surface normal

Fractal Sum
attributes.
The Fractal Sum node is a fractal function that returns
values between –1 and 1. It has the following attributes:
dNdv
The dNdv node represents the derivative of the surface

rate of change of the surface normal along ‘V’.

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• Bottom: The Bottom attribute controls the bottom color

• Bias: The Bias

samples towards the light source to prevent self-
shadowing of objects.

• Gain: The Gain attribute controls the balance between

light and dark colors.

Fractal Sum node.

fBm
The fBm node is a multi-fractal function. It has the following
• X Scale: The scale of the property along the X attributes:
(horizontal) axis

• Y Scale: The scale of the property along the Y (vertical)

axis.

• Z Scale: The scale of the property along the Z (depth)

axis.

• Octaves: The Octaves

of iterations for the fractal function. Higher values
produce more detailed fractals but may increase
render time.

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• Octaves: The Octaves

of iterations for the fractal function. Higher values
produce more detailed fractals but may increase
render time.

• X Scale: The scale of the property along the X

(horizontal) axis

• Y Scale: The scale of the property along the Y (vertical)

axis.

• Z Scale: The scale of the property along the Z (depth)

axis.

• Bottom: The Bottom attribute controls the bottom color

fBm node.

• Bias: The Bias

• Signed: Checking the Signed checkbox returns values samples towards the light source to prevent self-
in the range –1 to 1. If unchecked, values less than 0 shadowing of objects.
will be returned unsigned, e.g. –25 will be returned as
25. • Gain: The Gain attribute controls the balance between
light and dark colors.
• Fractal Increment: The Fractal_Increment attribute
controls noise. Lower values result in a smoother noise • Noise_Type: The Noise_Type attribute allows you
gradient. to select between the Original Perlin type and the
Improved
• Frequency Gap: The Frequency_Gap attribute controls
fractal size. Higher values product larger fractals.

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Turbulence • Octaves: The Octaves

of iterations for the fractal function. Higher values
The Turbulence node is an unsigned fractal function. It has produce more detailed fractals but may increase
the following attributes: render time.

• Bottom: The Bottom attribute controls the bottom color

• Bias: The Bias

samples towards the light source to prevent self-
shadowing of objects.

• Gain: The Gain attribute controls the balance between

light and dark colors.

• Noise_Type: The Noise_Type attribute allows you

Turbulence node. to select between the Original Perlin type and the
Improved

• X Scale: The scale of the property along the X

(horizontal) axis Noise
• Y Scale: The scale of the property along the Y (vertical) The Noise node adds random “static” or “snow” effects. It
axis. has the following attributes:

• Z Scale: The scale of the property along the Z (depth)

axis.

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Cellular
The Cellular node is used to create mosaic or cubic tiles. It
has the following attributes:

Noise node.

• X Index: The x_index

the X axis from which to draw a noise sample.

• Y Index: The y_index

the Y axis from which to draw a noise sample.

• Z Index: The z_index

the Z axis from which to draw a noise sample.

• Min: The Min attribute controls the minimum amount

Cellular node.
of noise.

• Max: The Max attribute controls the maximum amount • Color1: The Color1
of noise.
• Intensity1: The Intensity1 attribute determines the
degree of dominance between the cells and the
cusps.

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• Color2: The Color2 Mode 3: This option creates a spider-web effect.

borders between the cells. The Color1
strands. Set the Intensity1 value relatively high to
• Intensity2: The Intensity2 attribute determines the maximize this effect.
degree of dominance between the cells and the
cusps. Mode 4: This option is similar to that of Mode 3, but
it includes an additional dimension.
• ScaleX: The ScaleX attribute controls the size of the tiles
Mode 5: This option creates a quilt-style cell pattern
along the x axis.
when the RandomColor attribute is enabled.
• ScaleY: The ScaleY attribute controls the size of the tiles
• Jitter: The Jitter attribute controls the irregularity of the
along the y axis.
cell sizes.
• ScaleZ: The ScaleZ attribute controls the size of the tiles
• Turbulence: The Turbulence attribute controls the
along the z axis.
irregularity of the cell boundaries.
• RandomColor: Enabling the RandomColor attribute
• GlobalCoordinates: When the GlobalCoordinates
attribute is enabled, the object will use the global
determined.
coordinates.
• CellMode: The CellMode attribute determines the type
• Noise_Type: The Noise_Type attribute allows you
and shape of the cells. It has the following options:
to select between the Original Perlin type and the
Mode 1: This option creates 3D tiles. You can Improved
increase the Intensity1 value to make the tiles
more prominent.
Clouds
Mode 2: This option emphasizes the cracks
between the cells. Set the Intensity1 value The Clouds node simulates cloud patterns. It has the
relatively high to maximize this effect. following attributes:
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• Bottom: The Bottom attribute controls the bottom color

• Bias: The Bias

samples towards the light source to prevent self-
shadowing of objects.

• Gain: The Gain attribute controls the balance between

light and dark colors.

• Global Coordinates: Use the Global_Coordinates pull-

down menu to select ON or OFF. When on, the texture
is computes using world space instead of object
Clouds node. space and vice versa. If this option is on while the
object is moving in any way, the texture will appear to
“slide” through the object when rendered.
• Sky Color: The Sky_Color
behind the clouds. Clicking it opens the standard • Noise_Type: The Noise_Type attribute allows you
Color Picker. to select between the Original Perlin type and the
Improved
• Cloud Color: The Cloud_Color
clouds. Clicking it opens the standard Color Picker.
Spots
• Scale: The Scale
The Spots node consists of a 3D texture composed of
• Complexity: The Complexity random spots. It has the following attributes:
complexity of the cloud patterns.

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the base color while values closer to 1 favor the spot

color.

• Global Coordinates: Use the Global_Coordinates pull-

down menu to select ON or OFF. When on, the texture
is computes using world space instead of object
space and vice versa. If this option is on while the
object is moving in any way, the texture will appear to
“slide” through the object when rendered.

• Noise_Type: The Noise_Type attribute allows you

Spots node. to select between the Original Perlin type and the
Improved

• Base Color: The Base_Color

color. Clicking it opens the standard Color Picker. Marble
• Spot Color: The Spot_Color The Marble node is a 3D simulation of marble or other stone
color. Clicking it opens the standard Color Picker. patterns. It has the following attributes:

• Spot Size: The Spot_Size

the spots.

• Softness: The Softness attribute determines the

transition from the spot to the base color.

• Threshold: The Threshold

towards the base or spot color. Values close to 0 favor

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object is moving in any way, the texture will appear to

“slide” through the object when rendered.

• Noise_Type: The Noise_Type attribute allows you

to select between the Original Perlin type and the
Improved

Granite
The Granite node is a 3D simulation of speckled granite
Marble node.
textures. It has the following attributes:

• Base Color: The Base_Color

color. Clicking it opens the standard Color Picker.

• Veins: The Veins

Clicking it opens the standard Color Picker.

• Scale: The Scale

• Turbulence: The Turbulence

frequency randomness of the brick pattern.
Granite node.
• Global Coordinates: Use the Global_Coordinates pull-
down menu to select ON or OFF. When on, the texture
• Base Color: The Base_Color
is computes using world space instead of object
color. Clicking it opens the standard Color Picker.
space and vice versa. If this option is on while the

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• Spot Color: The Spot_Color Wood

color. Clicking it opens the standard Color Picker.
The Wood node provides a 3D texture that simulates wood
• Scale: The Scale patterns. It has the following attributes:
speckles (spots).

• Shades: The Shades

shades used for the texture between and including the
base and spot colors.

• Balance: The Balance

towards the base or spot color. Values close to 0 favor
the spot color while values closer to 1 favor the base
color.
Wood node.
• Global Coordinates: Use the Global_Coordinates pull-
down menu to select ON or OFF. When on, the texture
is computes using world space instead of object • Light Wood: The Light_Wood
space and vice versa. If this option is on while the base wood color. Clicking it opens the standard Color
object is moving in any way, the texture will appear to Picker.
“slide” through the object when rendered.
• Dark Wood: The Dark_Wood
• Noise_Type: The Noise_Type attribute allows you grain color. Clicking it opens the standard Color Picker.
to select between the Original Perlin type and the
• Scale: The Scale attribute determines the size of the
Improved
wood grain.

• Turbulence: The Turbulence attribute determines the

amount of randomness of the wood grain.

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• Global Coordinates: Use the Global_Coordinates pull-

down menu to select ON or OFF. When on, the texture
2D Texture Nodes
is computes using world space instead of object These are the color nodes included with the Material room.
space and vice versa. If this option is on while the
object is moving in any way, the texture will appear to node is listed from top to bottom.
“slide” through the object when rendered.

• Noise_Type: The Noise_Type attribute allows you Wave2D

to select between the Original Perlin type and the
Improved The Wave2D node implements a two-dimensional sin / cos
trigonometric function, resulting in a two-dimensional wave
effect.
Wave3D
The Wave3D node implements a three-dimensional sin /
cos trigonometric function, resulting in a three-dimensional
wave effect.

Wave 2D node.

Image Map
Wave 3D node. The Image Map node allows you to specify an image to

displacement, etc.). You can use any image as a map.

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However, if you want to use a map designed for the

been set up to work that way. Please refer to “About Maps

& Templates” on page 299 for a general discussion about
maps, and to “Creating Character Textures” on page
304 for a brief description on creating maps. This node
has the following attributes:

Poser supports texture resolutions up to 8192 x

8192 pixels. Note, however, that high
resolution textures consume a greater amount of
system resources.

Image map node.

• Image Source: Displays the currently loaded image.

Clicking the Image Source attribute opens the Texture
Manager dialog. To load an image map, either select
the path from the drop-down list or click the Browse
button to open a standard Open dialog and select the
image you wish to load. A preview of your selected
image should appear in the preview window. You can
also select to use a global gamma value as set in the

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value that is unique to the selected texture. Click OK • V Scale: The V_Scale attribute sets the V scale factor
to implement your changes or Cancel to abort. to apply to the texture map when using UV or VU
mapping. When using a projection map method (see

world space size of the texture map being projected

onto the surface.

• U Offset: The U_Offset

projection map method (see below), this is one of two

corner of the projection “screen” in grid units.

• V Offset: The V_Offset

Choosing a texture map.

projection map method (see below), this is one of two

• Auto_Fit:
texture map to the currently selected material without corner of the projection “screen” in grid units.
tiling.
• Texture Coordinates: The Texture_Coordinates pull-
• U Scale: The U_Scale attribute sets the U scale factor down menu offers the following choices:
to apply to the texture map when using UV or VU
UV: The UV option behaves like rubber wallpaper
mapping. When using a projection map method (see
that can stretch over the object surface; the
world space size of the texture map being projected
on the object’s surface, making any distortion
onto the surface.
caused by the stretching seem more natural. This is
the most versatile mapping method.

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VU: The VU option is identical to UV mapping, Tile: The texture map will be tiled to ensure total
except that the image map is rotated 90 degrees. coverage. Tiling is controlled using the Mirror U
and Mirror V attributes, below.
XY: The XY option works like a slide projector in
that the “screen” being projected onto is the XY • Background: The Background
plane whose size and position are determined background color. Clicking this attribute opens a
using the U_Scale, V_Scale, U_Offset, and V_Offset standard Color Picker. Global_Coordinates button
parameters. Any surface not oriented with the forces projected maps to use global instead of local
selected viewing plane will distort the texture at coordinates.
render time.
• Mirror U: Enabling the Mirror_U option can help hide
XZ: Same as above but uses the XZ plane.
the seams between texture cells when tiling textures.
ZY: Same as above but uses the ZY plane.
• Mirror V: Enabling the Mirror_V option can help hide
• Image Mapped: The Image_Mapped pull-down menu the seams between texture cells when tiling textures.
offers the following choices:
• Texture Strength: The Texture_Strength attribute
None: The background color will be used for all
areas of the object not covered by the texture
map. • Filtering: The Filtering attribute allows you to select
Alpha: The background color will be used for all
areas of the object not covered by the texture image map. These options are: None--no texture
map. The background color will also be blended Fast Quality--high-
with the texture map based on the alpha channel Crisp--provides more aliasing
of the texture map. for increased crispness.

Clamped: The edge pixels of the texture map are

repeated to cover any area of the object that the
texture map does not cover.
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Brick • Brick Width: The Brick_Width attribute determines the

horizontal scale of the bricks.
The Brick node simulates brick or stone wall patterns. It has
the following attributes: • Brick Height: The Brick_Height attribute determines the
vertical scale of the bricks.

• Mortar Width: The Mortar_Width attribute determines

the spacing between bricks.

• Turbulence: The Turbulence

frequency randomness of the brick pattern.

• Softness: The Softness

brick blends into the mortar.

• Noise: The Noise

randomness of the brick pattern.

• U Offset: The U_Offset

Brick node.
projection map method (see below), this is one of two

• Brick Color: The Brick_Color corner of the projection “screen” in grid units.
color. Clicking it opens the standard Color Picker.
• V Offset: The V_Offset
• Mortar Color: The Mortar_Color
mortar color. Clicking it opens the standard Color projection map method (see below), this is one of two
Picker.
corner of the projection “screen” in grid units.

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• Noise_Type: The Noise_Type attribute allows you • Tile 1: The Tile_1

to select between the Original Perlin type and the Clicking it opens the standard Color Picker.
Improved
• Tile Shape 1: The Tile_Shape_1

Tile
Rectangle: Selecting Rectangular will make the tiles
The Tile node is a 2D texture that simulates tile patterns. It rectangular.
has the following attributes:
Ellipsoid: Selecting Ellipsoid will make the tiles
elliptical.

• Tile 2
Clicking it opens the standard Color Picker.

• Tile Shape 2: The Tile_Shape_2

the shape of the second tile. This menu has the same
options as the Tile 1 Shape menu, described above.

• Mortar Color: The Mortar_Color

mortar color. Clicking it opens the standard Color
Picker.

• Tile Width: The Tile_Width

width.

• Tile Height: The Tile_Height

height in.
Tile node.

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• Mortar Thickness: The Mortar_Thickness attribute Weave

determines the spacing between bricks.
The Weave node creates woven textile effects. It has the
• Turbulence following attributes:
the brick pattern.

• Softness: The Softness

brick blends into the mortar.

• Noise: The Noise

randomness of the brick pattern.

• U Offset: The U_Offset

projection map method (see below), this is one of two

corner of the projection “screen” in grid units. Weave node.

• V Offset: The V_Offset

• Color 1: The Color_1
projection map method (see below), this is one of two color. Clicking this attribute opens the standard Color
Picker.
corner of the projection “screen” in grid units.
• Color 2: The Color_2
• Noise_Type: The Noise_Type attribute allows you woven color. Clicking this attribute opens the standard
to select between the Original Perlin type and the Color Picker.
Improved

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• Base Color: The Base_Color

underlying color behind the woven pattern. Clicking
this attribute opens the standard Color Picker.

• U Scale: The U_Scale

weave in the U direction.

• V Scale: The V_Scale

weave in the V direction.

• Height: The Height

woven pattern.

• Bias: The Bias attribute adjusts the weave’s bias.

• Gain: The Gain attribute adjusts the weave’s gain.

Movie
The Movie node allows you to add animations to materials. Movie node.
Supported formats are AVI, MPG, and WMV. This node has
the following attributes: • Video Source: The Video_Source
path containing the selected animation.

• U_Scale: The U_Scale

animation in the U direction.

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• V_Scale: The V_Scale plane whose size and position are determined
animation in the V direction. using the U_Scale, V_Scale, U_Offset, and V_Offset
parameters. Any surface not oriented with the
• U Offset: The U_Offset selected viewing plane will distort the texture at
render time.
projection map method (see below), this is one of two
XZ: Same as above but uses the XZ plane.
corner of the projection “screen” in grid units. ZY: Same as above but uses the ZY plane.

• V Offset: The V_Offset • Image Mapped: The Image_Mapped pull-down menu

offers the following choices:
projection map method (see below), this is one of two
None: The background color will be used for all
corner of the projection “screen” in grid units. areas of the object not covered by the texture
map.
• Texture Coordinates: The Texture_Coordinates pull-
Alpha: The background color will be used for all
down menu offers the following choices:
areas of the object not covered by the texture
UV: The UV option behaves like rubber wallpaper map. The background color will also be blended
that can stretch over the object surface; the PICT with the texture map based on the alpha channel
of the texture map.
object’s surface, making any distortion caused by
Clamped: The edge pixels of the texture map are
the stretching seem more natural. This is the most
repeated to cover any area of the object not
versatile mapping method.
which the texture map does not cover.
VU: The VU option is identical to UV mapping,
Tile: The texture map will be tiled to ensure total
except that the image map is rotated 90 degrees.
coverage. Tiling is controlled using the Mirror U
XY: The XY option works like a slide projector in and Mirror V attributes, below.
that the “screen” being projected onto is the XY
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• Background: The Background

background color.
Compound Nodes
The Compound Node allows you to combine any Poser
• Global Coordinates: Checking the Global_Coordinates
node type as an external input or output, providing a way
button forces projected maps to use global instead of
to reduce clutter in the Advanced Material Room. You
local coordinates.
can create modular blocks that expose essential settings
to the user in the main material room. If the user wants to
• Mirror U: Enabling the Mirror_U option can help hide
expose the other settings for editing, they can open up the
the seams between texture cells when tiling textures.
compound node in a separate window.
• Mirror V: Enabling the Mirror_V option can help hide
the seams between texture cells when tiling textures.
Creating a Compound Node
• Texture Strength: The Texture_Strength attribute
A Compound Node is created using the same methods
as discussed in “Creating Nodes” on page 338. You will
where 1=100%.
notice a new node type called Compound in the New
• Frame Number: The Frame Number attribute functions Node menu. Initially, the new compound node will appear
primarily as an input for other nodes (such as math
and variable nodes), and allows you to retime the
animation controlled by this node. output connections exposed. In order to add them, you
will need to follow the steps that are outlined in “Editing
• Loop Movie: Checking the Loop Movie checkbox loops Compound Nodes” on page 406.
the animation.

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Creating a new Compound node.

You can also select two or more nodes in the

main Material Room window and collapse
them into a compound node. See “Collapsing
Existing Nodes into a Compound Node” on page
410.

Start with a new compound node.

that has no material settings. Then we create a new
Compound node in the main material room window. You’ll
learn how to edit the compound node in the section that Editing Compound Nodes
follows.
After you create a new compound node (or collapse
existing nodes into a compound node as described in the

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• External Outputs: The nodes that you connect here

node in a separate editing window in the Material Room. will be exposed on the compound node as output
plugs that you can connect to other nodes in the main
window.

• External Inputs: The nodes that you connect here will

be exposed on the compound as inputs plugs and
settings that you can connect to other nodes in the
main window.

Click the Compound node icon to edit the compound node

in a separate window.

When you enter the Compound Node editor, you’ll see

the following features:

• Return to Main Window: To return to the main window

in the Advanced Material Room, click the icon that
appears at the upper left corner of the Compound
Node editor.

• Breadcrumb trail: Compound nodes can be nested

(in other words, you can have compound nodes
within compound nodes). If you are editing a
nested compound node, you’ll be able to follow a
breadcrumb trail to move forward and backward in Compound node editor.
the hierarchy.

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When creating connections to the external inputs and Next, we’ll connect one input each from the Turbulence
outputs, you’ll use the same steps as you would in the main and Noise nodes into the External Input connector in the
compound node. What you have now is a very basic
a Turbulence node has been attached to the External compound node that has two eternal outputs, and two
Outputs, and a second external output (Noise) is in the external inputs.
process of being added.

Connecting external inputs.

Click the Eye icon in the upper right corner of the External
Outputs node to expand the preview. When you highlight
the name of one of the external outputs, the preview will
update to display the results that will be output through the
compound node.

Adding external outputs.

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The compound node in the main window.

You can then connect your compound node into other

nodes in the main material room, just as you do with any
other node.

Previewing external outputs.

left corner of the Compound Node view (at the left of the
breadcrumb trail) to return to the main Advanced Material
Room view. Your compound node will now display the
external inputs and outputs that you created in the
Compound Node editor window.

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clutter in the main window, and allows you to later go

back and work on one aspect of your texture at a time in
a separate window.
To collapse two or more nodes into a compound node,
follow these steps:
1. Select two or more nodes in the Advanced Material
View. You can select nodes by shift-clicking them, or
by drawing a rectangular selection around them as

Connecting the compound node to other material nodes.

Collapsing Existing Nodes into a

Compound Node
You can select several nodes that already appear in the
Advanced Material Room window, and then collapse
them into a single compound node. This helps reduce

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Selecting nodes. Collapsing a Compound node.

2. Right-click over one of the selected nodes and choose

Collapse to Compound Node. Renaming Nodes and Connections
When you return to the main window in the Advanced
Material room, the compound node is initially assigned a
name of compound, followed by a numerical value. You
can double-click the name to enter a name that is more

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The connections in the compound node can

also be rearranged by dragging the external
input and output names up or down and arrange
them in a logical manner . For example, you can
place them in order from top to bottom to match
up with the connections that you make to the
PoserSurface node, so that the connections do not
cross over each other.

Renaming a Compound node.

Expanding Compound Nodes
When you are editing nodes in Compound Node view, You can use the Expand Compound Nodes command in
you can also rename the external inputs and outputs that the node menu to “uncollapse” the compound nodes into
you connect to the compound node, so that the user has their individual components. This will place the individual
a better understanding of how that input or output will nodes back into the main editor in the Advanced Material
affect the material. Room so that they are accessible on an individual basis.
To expand a compound node, right-click on the node you
want to expand, and choose Expand Compound Nodes
from the context menu.

Renaming an external output.

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3. Navigate to or create the folder that you want to save

the node into.

4. Click the Add to Library button in the Library window.

The New Material Set dialog appears.

5.

6. Check the Single Material option, and make sure that

the Selected Nodes Only option is checked.

7. Click OK to save the compound node to the library.

A compound node fragment only saves the

connections between the nodes that you
Expanding a Compound node.
selected when you saved the compound node
fragment. If you later add that fragment to another
material, you will need to connect the inputs or
Saving Compound Node Fragments to outputs from the compound node fragments to the
the Library appropriate nodes in your current material.

To save a compound node to the library, follow these

steps:
1. Click to select the compound node that you want to
save.

2. Switch to the Materials category in the library that you

want to save the selected node into.

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Saving a compound node.

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Part 4: Rendering

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Chapter 17: The Render in Background

Render Menu Render and work at the same time! Using Poser Pro’s
background rendering capabilities you have the ability to
render large, complex still frame scenes while you work.
The Render pull-down menu (in the top Poser menu bar) With the FireFly render engine you can continue to work
is where you render still images of your scene and access on your current scene while sending another project to
Poser’s render settings. render.
To Render in the background, from the Main Menu select
Render Render > Render in Background.
Alternatively from the Render Settings dialog, and from
Selecting Render > Render renders your current scene the FireFly Tab, you can also click on the Send Render To
using the currently selected renderer and that renderer’s button and chose Background on the menu, to render
current settings. Please refer to “Chapter 19: Using The a single image of the current state of the scene in the
FireFly Render Engine” on page 428 for more information background.
about the FireFly render engine and adjusting render
settings.

Area Render
Selecting Render > Area Render enables the Area Render
Rendering in a background process.

current image to render, thereby saving processing time.

Please see “Area Render” on page 96 for a complete
description of this feature’s functionality.

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Background renders are only available for

single frames (images). The Background
Render option will not be available for movies. We
recommend using the Render Queue (see “Sending
Jobs to the Queue Manager” on page 453) when
rendering movies.

After the Background Rendering has initialized, the

Progress Bar on the Document Window will show your Cancel Render button.
Background Rendering progress as you continue to work.

Render in Queue
This command sends rendering jobs to the Queue
Manager. For more information, see “Sending Jobs to the
Queue Manager” on page 453 for further information.

Poser Pro’s Background Rendering capabilities allow graphic

Sketch Style Render
artists to render and work at the same time.
Selecting Render > Sketch Style Render renders your
scene using the current Sketch Designer settings. Please
Clicking on the Preview Tab will allow you to continue to see “Chapter 20: The Sketch Designer” on page 486 for
modify your current project while it’s rendering. information on working with the Sketch Designer. Once
you’ve set your options, you can use this menu command
in progress, just click on the Cancel button in the upper for rendering at any time while working in your scene.
right corner of the document window.

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Antialias Document You can specify whether or not to apply antialiasing during
renders when specifying render settings. Please refer to
Selecting Render > Antialias Document smooths rough “Chapter 18: The Render Settings Dialog” on page 421
edges in your Document window view for preview for more information about specifying render settings.
purposes. Antialiasing is a process of oversampling image
data to smooth object edges and avoid a jagged
appearance along them. The following images show a Motion Blur Document
test render both without (left) and with (right) antialiasing
As you probably know, fast-moving objects appear
enabled.
blurry. The blur is caused by the fact that our eyes cannot
“refresh” quickly enough to see that the object is no longer
in its previous location. The 2D Motion Blur feature lets you
give your animations the illusion of motion, adding a whole
new dynamic and level of realism to your renderings.
Please see “Chapter 19: Using The FireFly Render Engine”
on page 428 for information about using the 3D Motion
Blur feature. You can also blur a single frame for test
purposes by selecting Render > MotionBlur Document.

Normal preview (left); Anti-aliased (right).

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Render Dimensions
Selecting Render > Render Dimensions brings up the
Render Dimensions dialog, which contains settings that
allow you to specify the dimensions of your render tab. See
“Render Dimensions” on page 80 for more information
on the Render Dimensions dialog settings.

Materials
Selecting Render > Materials opens the Material room.
Please refer to “Chapter 14: The Material Room” on page
314 for information about the Material room.

Using motion blur. Reload Textures

Selecting Render > Reload Textures will reload into
memory all textures for the current scene preview display.
Render Settings This allows you to easily update any changes you may
have made in other applications to the currently loaded
Selecting Render > Render Settings opens the Render
textures.
Settings dialog. Please refer to “Chapter 18: The Render
Settings Dialog” on page 421 for information about the
Render Settings dialog.

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Reuse Shadow Maps previous render and reuse them, thereby saving time with
each subsequent render.
If you do not make changes to lights or object positions
between renders, there is no need to recalculate the
shadow maps for your scene, as they will not have Clear Shadow Maps
changed. Selecting Render > Reuse Shadow Maps allows
Selecting Render > Clear Shadow Maps will cause Poser to
you to save the shadow map computations from your
recalculate the shadow maps for your scene during the
previous render and reuse them, thereby saving time with
next render. Use this option if you have made changes to
each subsequent render.
lights or object positions, as such changes will affect the
shadows in your scene.
Clear Shadow Maps
Selecting Render > Clear Shadow Maps will cause Poser to
recalculate the shadow maps for your scene during the
next render. Use this option if you have made changes to
lights or object positions, as such changes will affect the
shadows in your scene.

Reuse Shadow Maps

If you do not make changes to lights or object positions
between renders, there is no need to recalculate the
shadow maps for your scene, as they will not have
changed. Selecting Render > Reuse Shadow Maps allows
you to save the shadow map computations from your

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Chapter 18: The Note that the Render Settings and Movie Settings dialogs
appear as tabs within a single dialog, thereby making it

Render Settings Dialog easy for you to toggle between them.

To open the Render Settings dialog, select Render > Render Engines
Render Settings. This window appears as follows.
Poser allows you to render still and animated scenes using
three separate render engines. You can select which
tool you wish to use by clicking on the relevant tab in the
Render Settings dialog. The available Poser renderers are:

• FireFly rendering engine: This rendering engine

supports the use of procedural shaders, contains many
controls that let you control exactly how you want
your rendered images/movies to appear, and has
the capability of generating truly breathtaking results.
Please refer to “Chapter 19: Using The FireFly Render
Engine” on page 428 for information on using the
FireFly renderer.

• Sketch Renderer: The Sketch Renderer simulates a

a drawing or painting. This tab also provides access

to the Sketch Designer, discussed in “Chapter 20: The
Sketch Designer” on page 486.
The Render Settings dialog.

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• Preview: If you want to render quality high-resolution

wireframe or silhouette (or any other display style)
views of your scene, please choose the Preview
rendering engine.
You can also select the Preview
scene preview window options.

Sketch Tab
The Sketch Tab provides thumbnail previews of ten
standard Sketch preset styles. Simply click on the
appropriate thumbnail to select the desired preset,
and then click the Render Now button to render your
image using those preset values. Alternately, you can
use the Sketch Preset pop-up menu to select from a list
of standard presets and any custom presets you may
have saved using the Sketch Designer. To easily access
The Sketch Renderer.
the Sketch Designer
creating new presets, simply click on the Sketch Designer
button. Please see “Chapter 20: The Sketch Designer”
on page 486 more information about using the Sketch Preview Tab
Designer render engine, please see .
This tab allows you to customize the Scene Preview display
in the Document window, using the following settings: The
settings in this tab apply to the document preview, and
the use of Preview for actual output.

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The settings are discussed in the following sections. Display Engine Settings
Select the appropriate radio button to use Poser’s built-in
SreeD software rendering, or OpenGL hardware rendering,
for image previews. These settings apply to the document
preview, and the use of Preview for actual output. Please
refer to “OpenGL Hardware Acceleration” on page
82 for more information about the OpenGL hardware
rendering option for Poser.

When using OpenGL for rendering, there are

two additional options for offscreen handling.
The default is Scene Window
output with the Preview renderer, if you encounter
blank areas where other windows were overlapping
the scene window, you should switch to PBuffer.

All options on the Render Settings Preview

The Preview Render tab. tab except for Offscreen Handling are stored
in the document. Please set a Preferred Scene on
General Preferences Document tab if you want
All options on the Render Settings Preview
your settings to persist between sessions.
tab except for Offscreen Handling are now
stored in the document. Please set a Preferred
Scene on General Preferences Document tab if you
want your settings to persist between sessions.

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Procedural Shader Preview Optimize Simple Materials: Enable shader

optimization by checking the checkbox. When
When using OpenGL hardware rendering, you can choose shader optimization is enabled, shaders will not
to see the effects of the procedural shaders you are using be generated for simple materials. Optimization is
in your actual Scene Preview display, provided your system enabled by default.
will support it.
Enable Hardware Shadows: Uncheck this option
Once you select OpenGL, Poser will automatically check to disable enhanced real-time shadows when
whether or not your system will support the calculation of using hardware shading. The Depth Bias setting
real-time procedural shader effects. Poser will then provide is dependent on the scene, the light placement,
a message within the Preview tab, stating whether or not and the camera hither and yon settings. You want
your system will support this feature. If you are not using
OpenGL, Poser will provide a message that the status of scene and hardware. An offset of 4 is generally a
good starting point for NVidia cards, and an offset
of 1 is a good starting point for ATI cards.

Procedural shader preview is available for The crisper your shadows are (that is, the
scenes using up to eight light sources. larger your shadow map sizes are), and the
more your light shines on a surface, the lower your
hardware shadow Depth Bias setting should be.
• Enable Hardware Shading: You can enable procedural
shader previews by clicking the checkbox. This feature
is enabled (checked) by default. The performance of the procedural shader preview
feature will be dependent upon your system’s hardware.
When Hardware Shading is enabled, the Complex scenes with a large number of shaders may
slow preview performance; if you are working with a large
due to complexities of depth map shadows, AO, number of shaders, you may wish to disable this feature.
and normal mapping. When Hardware Shading is
turned off, you can preview up to eight lights.

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The procedural shader preview feature does • Toon Edge Line Width: The Toon Edge Line Width
not support bump or displacement maps. option allows you to specify the width of the Toon
Additionally, certain nodes are not supported, such Outline display option, as enabled via the FireFly
as some raytracing effects, and some of the render settings.
Variable nodes.
• Remove Backfacing Polys: Polygons facing away from
the camera will not be rendered when this option is
• Enable Hardware AO: When checked, Ambient checked.
Occlusion is displayed according to the capabilities in
the graphics hardware. • Check the Antialias rendered image option to smooth
out rough “stairstep” edges that might appear in
• AO Strength: Controls the extent at which the space diagonal or curved-shaped areas of high contrast.
ambient occlusion effect is applied.
Click the OK button to apply your settings.

Scene Style Options

Transparency Display
You can also specify various Style Options for your scene
preview display, by entering your desired values in the You can set the Transparency Display to the actual

appropriate radio button.

• Silhouette Outline Width: The Silhouette Outline Width Selecting the Actual button will make any fully transparent
option allows you to specify the width of the lines used surfaces invisible in your scene preview.
in the Outline display style.
• If you wish to have some indication of where those
• Wireframe Line Edge: The Wireframe Line Edge option items are in your scene preview, you can specify a limit
allows you to specify the width of the lines used in the to the transparency by selecting the Limit to button,
Wireframe display style. and entering a maximum transparency percentage

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rendered using the actual transparency settings.

Real-time Raytrace Preview
Choose Window > Raytrace Preview to enable the real-
• Objects with multi-layered transparency, such as hair,
time raytraced viewport, which provides a more accurate
can sometimes appear to have inverted polygons in
preview render without having to render your scene.
areas where the layers overlap. Check the Enhance
multi-layer transparency option to improve the display If the Auto Refresh option is enabled, the Raytrace Preview
of multi-layered transparent objects. The preview window will update automatically as you make changes in
display runs slower when this option is enabled. your scene, reducing the need for preview renders as you
make changes. To update the window manually, uncheck
the Auto Refresh option and click the Refresh button to
Texture Display Resolution update the preview.

Adjust the Preview Texture Resolution slider to your liking.

Lower settings provide less detail in your scene preview,
but save on system resources. Higher settings provide
more realism, but may result in slower performance while
building your scene in preview mode.

Movie Settings
You can access the Movie Settings window by toggling
the Movie Settings tab next to the Render Settings tab.
Please refer to “Chapter 24: Rendering Animations” on
page 559 for more information on movie settings.

The Raytrace Preview.

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The Raytrace Preview window functions just like any will render your scene using the optimal balance
between quality and speed. Small Web animations
appears only in the room in which you initially opened it. might need lower quality rendering while a piece of
For example, if you turn the Raytrace Preview window on
in the Pose Room, but then switch to the Material Room,
you will not see the Raytrace Preview window unless you • Still and animated renders use the currently selected
choose the Window > Raytrace Preview command in the camera. Be sure to select the proper camera before
Material Room. When you return back to the Pose Room, rendering, particularly if camera motion is part of your
animation.

The Raytrace Preview rendering levels are in • By default, Poser renders using the Texture Shaded
the Render Settings “Progressive Mode”, a display style.
truncated set of parameters that you can use to
• Use the draft and production rendering options to
speed up rendering by reducing the number of rays
save time while working and produce highly realistic
or use of displacement maps. Several manual
results.
settings will be disabled when using progressive
mode. Uncheck this option if you need more
of strand-based hair and dynamic cloth where you do
not need dynamic effects. This will conserve computing
resources.

Tips & Tricks

This section contains a few tips and tricks for improving still
and animated renders:

• Experiment with low render settings and gradually

increase them until you get the results you want. This

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Chapter 19: Using The There are a number of different ways to

create HDR images. Several tutorials appear

FireFly Render Engine on the Internet for using Photoshop CS2 or later to
create HDRI images. Some of them appear at
http://www.photoshopgurus.com or http://www.
This chapter describes the FireFly technology features and photoshopcafe.com, for example.
render settings:
You can use LDR images with Image Based
The FireFly renderer includes a wealth of powerful features,
Lighting (IBL). LDR light probes are relatively easy
all of which help to create beautiful, realistic renders in little
to create, using a mirrored ball to capture the
light information in a given environment. However,
described in the following section. The following features
the amount of information captured is much less
enhance FireFly’s performance and results:
than with an HDR image, and therefore the quality
• High Dynamic Range (HDR) Image Support for IBL: of the light probe is lower. For more information
Poser supports both High Dynamic Range (HDR) and about Image Based Lighting and light probes, see
Low Dynamic Range “Diffuse Image Based Lights (IBL)” on page 278.

• • Occlusion Culling: FireFly ignores invisible scene

with regards to the amount of information stored elements while rendering, in order to improve render
performance. Occlusion culling determines which
higher amount of information, but are much harder to scene elements have visible impacts on the scene,
produce. and which may be culled (ignored). FireFly runs
occlusion culling calculations for both the object and
shadow render passes, to determine whether each
scene element (a) is visible within the scene, and (b)
casts any visible shadows. Occlusion culling cannot

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be used in conjunction with raytracing, as raytracing

calculations include all scene elements, visible or not.

A scene element’s visibility or invisibility with

regards to occlusion culling is not the same as
the Visibility setting the Properties palette for that
element. When unchecked, the Visibility property
setting actually hides an object within the scene,
so that the object is not included in any render
calculations regardless of its placement within
the scene. Occlusion culling calculations apply to
items that are set to be visible within the scene, but
are obscured from the camera’s perspective by
other scene elements.

• Texture Filtering
appearance of surfaces rendered using 2D image Without Texture Filtering (top); With Texture Filtering (bottom).
maps, giving you better quality images, and avoiding
aliasing and other artifacts. Tiled texture loading
• Tiled Texture Loading

individual textures on the Image Map node in the the textures within the scene, and then selectively
Material room (see “Image Map” on page 396 for accesses them during render time. Poser also creates
more information). a cache in memory that contains the most recently
used texture tiles. Tiled texture loading makes use

processing time. Depending upon your system’s

resources, you may wish to increase the memory

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cache size to offset the amount of disk access within a single process on the CPU. This means that
required for tiled texture loading, as this feature may both the application and the render engine share
use a lot of hard disk space (potentially more than the maximum memory allotment given to a single
1 GB). For information about increasing the memory process. Rendering in a separate process means
cache size, see “Render Preferences” on page 41. that the render engine alone has access to that
same maximum memory allotment, which can
• Multi-threaded Rendering: The Multi-threaded
Rendering feature takes advantage of the increased complex scenes, depending upon the memory
processing power of the multi-processor or multi-core
computer systems that are now available. Using rendering in a separate process provides greater
stability due to the compartmentalization of tasks, as
number of separate threads simultaneously, which well as allowing your system to manage memory more
results in reduced render times for most renders. The
General does require more resource overhead for setting up
Preferences dialog (see “Render Preferences” on the render. Therefore, if you are running primarily area
page 41 for more information). renders or simple small renders, we recommend that
you do not use this feature as the setup overhead will
We recommend rendering your scene with
as many threads (CPU cores) as your system
complex renders, rendering in a separate process will
possesses. This is the default preference after

disable this feature in the General Preferences dialog

resulting performance, or if the render fails to
(see “Render Preferences” on page 41 for more
complete, then reduce the number of threads and/
information).
or maximum bucket size.

• Rendering in a Separate Process: By default, Poser

runs the application and the FireFly render engine

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The FireFly tab offers you a choice between specifying

your render settings automatically or manually. Check the
Auto Settings or Manual Settings radio button to display
the appropriate render setting controls. Note that the Auto
and Manual settings are stored independently, so making
changes to one will not affect the state of the other. The

FireFly render settings, because they allow you to quickly

setup and render your scenes.

Auto Settings.

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values of the render settings (Min shading rate, Pixel

samples, Raytrace bounces, and Irradiance caching)
are depicted using a gradual shaded bar, with lighter
color representing smaller values and darker representing
larger values. Render settings such as Cast Shadows
and Raytracing are either enabled for the render or not,
so those settings are depicted using a solid color bar
indicating the point at which they become enabled.
At the Draft Render Quality, the rendering settings will
provide faster renders at lower quality. Use this option
while creating your scene to get an idea what it will look
like once it’s completed. At the Final Render Quality,
the render settings yield high-quality renders, but with

There are also options below, above, and between Draft

and Final quality which will increase or decrease rendering
time depending on your selection.
Manual Settings. For a description of the settings that are found in the Auto
Settings view, refer to “Manual Settings” on page 433.

Auto Settings: Draft vs. Final Quality

The Auto Settings option contains a Render Quality slider,
that ranges from Draft Quality (faster render times) to
Final Quality (slower render times). Moving this slider will

settings, as shown on the graphs below the slider. The

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Manual Settings

Increase or decrease render quality with the Render Quality

slider.
Manual settings.

• Acquire From Auto: Clicking the Acquire From Auto

button applies the current Automatic Quality Settings
to the individual Manual Quality Settings parameters.

• Cast Shadows: This option is set automatically in Auto

Settings. Checking the Cast Shadows checkbox
causes the rendering engine to calculate shadows
when rendering. Individual settings will override this
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the background color. To determine whether the

is set to not cast shadows, then it will cast no shadows point of intersection is in shadow, a secondary ray is
even if Cast Shadows is turned on for all other objects projected from the intersection point towards each
in the scene. However, if the Cast Shadows checkbox light source. If the shadow rays intersect an object,
is not enabled, no shadows will be rendered regardless the original intersection point lies in the shadow of
of individual object settings. Enabling this option adds
realism to your renders but can affect render time.
the point of intersection and the color returned by
• Subsurface Scattering: Enables subsurface scattering that ray is incorporated into the color of the original
in the render engine. Materials that use subsurface intersection. This process is called recursive raytracing
scattering will not render properly if this option is
disabled. For more information on some materials that
use subsurface scattering properties, see “Subsurface The images below show an example of raytracing. You
Skin” on page 368, “Scatter” on page 372, and “ks
Microfacet” on page 364. Raytrace bounces option (see below).

• Raytracing: This option is set automatically in Auto • Raytrace Bounces: This option is set automatically
Settings. Checking the Raytracing box enables in Auto Settings. When raytracing is enabled, the
raytracing, and vice versa. Enabling raytracing greatly Raytrace bounces
enhances renderings, especially for curved surfaces, “bounces” or recursions the renderer will use when
raytracing. You should select the number of raytrace
greatly increases rendering times. Raytracing projects
rays from the camera through every pixel visible in refractive surfaces that will interact in your scene.
the render window, also called the View pane. Each Higher numbers can add realism if the scene requires
pixel is then set to the color value returned by the complex raytracing calculations. However, as higher
ray projected through it, based on the ray’s point numbers require longer render times, in a simple
of intersection with an object in the scene. If the ray scenario increasing the number of raytrace bounces
fails to intersect any objects, the pixel will be set to will just waste computation time.
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When using Indirect Lighting with transparent processing times but less accuracy. A higher setting
surfaces, set the Raytrace Bounces setting to equals higher quality: FireFly will run more new
at least 2 for proper IDL calculations. calculations, resulting in longer processing times but
increased accuracy (see “Indirect Light” on page
438).

If the quality of your render is unsatisfactory

with irradiance caching on, you can disable
it to calculate indirect lighting with a “brute force”
method. To disable, uncheck the box that appears
to the left of the Irradiance Caching slider.

• Indirect Light: Only enabled when Raytracing is

enabled. See “Indirect Light” on page 438.
One raytrace bounce (left); three raytrace bounces (right).
When using Indirect Lighting with transparent
surfaces, set the Raytrace Bounces setting to
• Irradiance Caching: This option is set automatically at least 2 for proper IDL calculations.
in Auto Settings. Irradiance Caching is used to
accelerate Ambient Occlusion, Gather and Indirect
• Indirect Light Quality: See “Indirect Light” on page
Light effects. This is done by reusing and interpolating
438.
values instead of expensively calculating them
separately for every shading point. This process speeds • Pixel Samples: This option is set automatically in Auto
up calculations by tracing less rays. The irradiance Settings. Select the XY pixel sample rate by moving
caching quality can be adjusted using the Irradiance the Pixel Samples slider. Alternatively, you can click
caching slider. A lower setting means lower quality: the dots at either side of the slider to increment (right)
FireFly will use more estimations, resulting in shorter or decrement (left) the sample size. Pixel sampling

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rates determine how many pixels are sampled when your renders but increases render time. You can set this
calculating antialiasing for a single pixel. For example, value on a per-object basis using the desired object’s
a setting of 3 creates a 3-pixel by 3-pixel grid with the Properties palette. Setting this value in the Render
pixel being sampled in the center. At render time, Settings dialog applies it to the entire scene, and
the renderer would examine the 3x3 area when overrides all per-object settings that are lower than this
determining the color and other values to assign to the global value. If an object has a higher shading rate,
pixel currently being rendered. Expanding this number Poser will use the object’s shading rate when rendering
that object.
times. 3x3 is considered a good default.

• Minimum Shading Rate: This option is set automatically

in Auto Settings. The Minimum Shading Rate value
determines the level to which object polygons will
be subdivided (or diced) into micro-polygons. For
example, a shading rate of 1 means that polygons
will be divided into micro-polygons that each occupy
approximately one pixel of the rendered image, and
a value of 4 means that each micro-polygon will cover
approximately 4 pixels of the rendered image. Values
less than one (such as 0.2) cause each micro-polygon High minimum shading rate (left), loss of detail; Low minimum
to be less than a pixel in size. Micro-polygons within a shading rate (right), full detail visible.
given polygon are as identical in size, shape, and area
as possible. At render time, the renderer will subdivide
each polygon, sample each micro-polygon, and • Maximum Bucket Size: The bucket is the area being
assign the micro-polygons’ average color to the pixel rendered at any one time. Enter your desired value in
being rendered. Enter your desired sampling rate in the Maximum Bucket Size
a value of 10 creates a rendering bucket that is no
greater than 10-pixels by 10-pixels in size. At render

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time, the renderer will render one such bucket area is possible for displacement deformations to exceed
at once. Increasing the bucket size increases the area the render bucket boundaries. In other words, even
being rendered at once but requires greater system though the actual geometry of a given object may be
resources. Use caution when enlarging the bucket entirely contained within the current render bucket,
beyond its default size, and monitor your system the object still may cross into adjacent buckets
resources. Note that Poser will automatically detect through the displacement of its surface. If a particular
displacement exceeds the boundaries of the currently
rendered bucket at any point, you will see a hole
bucket size and subdivide the buckets into smaller or patch crack at the affected location. To avoid
sizes. Smaller sized buckets require less RAM, but will this problem, the render engine takes into account
take longer to render. a volume exceeding the actual geometry when
determining whether or not an object is contained
• Minimum Displacement Bounds: This feature is enabled
only when Use Displacement Maps is checked the displacement bounds. Smaller bounds result in
in the Rendering Options window. The Minimum fewer objects within the current bucket and therefore
Displacement Bounds value is measured in Poser units faster rendering, but increase the risk of geometry
General Preferences dialog), and cracks along the bucket boundaries. Larger bounds
determines the amount of displacement the render will prevent cracks but will increase render time. The
engine anticipates. Displacement mapping is a above diagram illustrates this concept. In this case,
rendering technique that adds realistic bumps and the top of the pyramid exceeds the bucket bounds
indentations to surfaces. This is normally preferable to and will therefore be cut off, leaving a patch crack.
modeling deformations directly, since you can alter Poser will automatically determine the displacement
the displacement map (template used for calculating
displacement) rather than editing the object. the materials. If the shader tree is particularly complex,
Further, adding such detail directly to an object Poser might not be able to compute an appropriate
could exponentially increase its polygon count and value. In such a case, you should specify a higher
therefore greatly affect render time. When setting the value in the Minimum Displacement Bounds
Minimum Displacement Bounds, keep in mind that it
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will become the minimum value Poser is allowed to use

for the displacement bounds when rendering.

• Progressive Mode: Check this option to get a very

fast raytraced render. Several manual settings will be
disabled when using progressive mode. Uncheck this

settings.

The Interactive Preview Window and

progressive mode render without any
caching for AO or IDL. Quality can be improved by Displacement bounds limit the amount of displacement used
using a higher number of pixel samples, which in a render.
comes with proportionally higher render times. For
more information on The Raytrace Preview window,
see “Real-time Raytrace Preview” on page 426. Indirect Light
Poser’s indirect light feature provides increased realism
by adding light that naturally bounces off of objects to
illuminate other surrounding objects. To use indirect light,
create a scene that contains objects from which light will

one or more primitive cubes to use as walls behind or near

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Due to the number of interpolations and locations previously calculated and the distance to other
calculations required for this feature, the nearby objects.
practical use of indirect light in animation will be
dependent on the number of elements in your
scene and the quality settings set in your renderer.

Bounced light from IDL creates more realistic renders.

Related Settings in the Render Settings dialog include:

Indirect lighting bounces light from surrounding objects.
• Indirect light: Check this option to add indirect light for
Irradiance caching is used to calculate rays for locations more realistic lighting
where they can easily be determined. In-between
locations are interpolated. The render engine determines • Irradiance Caching: Determines the ratio of shading
whether to calculate or interpolate the rays based on points where indirect light will be calculated by
the distance and direction of the current location to the raytracing vs. those that will be interpolated.

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• Low values result in shorter render times, with more • Watch the Pre-pass: During the IDL pre-pass, you’ll see
interpolation. red dots appear in the areas where indirect light is
calculated. The Irradiance Caching setting controls
High values achieve more precise results at the
how sparse or dense the calculations are. If the dots
expense of increased render times.
are too sparse, set the Irradiance Caching slightly
Indirect Light Quality: Indirect Light Quality higher and render again. Conversely, if the dots are
determines the number of rays used to calculate too dense you can reduce the Irradiance Cache
the indirect light. Higher values mean higher setting.
quality at the expense of longer render times.
• Smearing: If you see smearing in your scene, it
The renderer will perform one pass as it samples the light
probably means there is not enough detail being
rays. The pre-pass displays red dots in the places where
picked up in the indirect light. Increase the irradiance
indirect light is calculated explicitly. Following the pre-
cache setting to reduce the smearing.

calculated in the pre-pass. • Splotchiness: Splotchiness occurs when there are

are too dense during the IDL pre-pass, it may result

IDL Tips and Tricks
in splotchiness. Turn down the Irradiance Caching
setting, and increase the IDL Quality setting.
• Scene Considerations: Indirect Light is designed to
simulate real-world lighting where light bounces from • Watch the number of lights: You won’t need as many
one object to another in your scene. It works best lights in your scene when using IDL. Start with one or
when the main objects in your scene are surrounded
by some type of environment such as a box, an and a second light at about 15% intensity to offset
environment sphere, or a room built with the PICK shadows if they are too dark. Also position your lights
appropriately as they relate to the source of the light
props and materials that simulate a real-world scene
when you build a scene that uses IDL.

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light in night scenes, or light through windows or from for objectionable ambient glow, keep IDL enabled
lamps in interior scenes). but turn all lights off. Then render your scene. If you see
light being cast from undesired places, you’ll need to
• Shadows: For more realistic shadows, use Ray Traced adjust the ambience of the offending materials in the
shadows. For your main light, start with a Blur Radius of
around 10, Shadow Samples of around 40, and falloff materials, turn your lights back on and re-render.
set to constant. Also use a Shadow Min Bias setting
that is appropriate for your display units setting. For • Animation Considerations: When rendering out an
example, if your display units are in inches (as set in the animation while using IDL, make sure that multi-
Interface tab of the General Preferences dialog), set threaded rendering is not being used (set Number
the Shadow Min Bias to .1 inch. Adjust these settings as of Threads to 1 in the Render tab of the General
appropriate for your scene Preferences dialog). If you leave the setting at 2
or higher, your renders will come out jittery, as the
• Normals: Indirect light is always calculated in the shadows and lighting will not line up from frame to
direction of the normals. You will want to check the frame.
Normals Forward option (usually checked by default)
in the Poser Surface root material node. This option is To create a transparent object with an
discussed in “Root Material (PoserSurface) Node” on interesting glow, change the Transparency,
page 345. Transparency Edge, and Transparency Falloff
settings to .8 and mix with higher Ambient values
• Watch for Ambient glow: There are times when you and IDL features.
desire ambient glow from materials that are designed
to be self-illuminating (LED’s, computer screens, candle
light, an illuminated ceiling, and so on). There may be
other times when content uses colors or values in the
Ambient channel that cast undesirable light when IDL
is enabled. This is particularly noticeable in skin textures

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FireFly Options Settings Background Color: Selecting Background Color

renders the image/movie over the Document
window’s background color. Please refer to
“Colors” on page 102 for information about
changing Document window colors.

Black: Selecting Black renders the image/movie

over a plain black background.

Background Picture: Selecting Background Picture

renders the image/movie over the background
image in your scene. Please refer to “Importing
Background Pictures” on page 845 for
information on importing background pictures.

Current Background Shader: Selecting Current

BG Shader renders the image/movie over the

“Root Background Node” on page 349 for

information about using background shaders.

• Shadow Only: Checking the Shadow Only checkbox

will cause only the shadows from your scene to
be rendered; everything else in the scene will be
completely white. This feature is most useful for
• Render Over: These options specify the background production rendering, as it allows you to render
to be used when rendering images or movies. Check just the shadows, thereby allowing you to edit
the appropriate radio button for the option you wish them independently from the rest of the scene.
to select. You can then take the shadow only render into an

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image editing program, and composite it with the

unshadowed scene. This setting overrides all other
render settings.

• Smooth Polygons: Checking the Smooth Polygons

checkbox enables polygon smoothing, and vice
versa. When enabled, the FireFly rendering engine
uses polygon subdivision to smooth hard corners on
objects. If your scene contains hard edges that you

hard edges either by specifying smoothing groups

or by setting a crease angle threshold to determine Without Polygon Smoothing (left); With Polygon Smoothing
which polygons are affected. Please see “Smoothing (right).
Geometry” on page 448 for more information about
smoothing groups and setting the crease angle • Remove Backfacing Polys: Check the Remove
Backfacing Polys option to turn off rendering of all
objects as needed, in the object’s Properties palette. polygons that do not face the camera. This option
saves rendering time, but can effect realism when
using raytracing. The polygons that are rendered
depend upon the angle and position of the camera
and objects in your scene.

• Use Displacement Maps: Checking the Use

Displacement Maps checkbox enables (checked)
or disables (cleared) using displacement maps in
your rendered output. Please see “About Maps &
Templates” on page 299 for a description of maps in
general, the “Displacement Map” on page 303 for
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a description of displacement maps, and “Chapter blurry. The amount of blur is directly related to the
14: The Material Room” on page 314 for information length of time that the camera’s shutter remains open
about the Material room (maps are added to nodes while taking the shot. In a similar manner, Poser’s
that are part of shaders). Motion Blur feature lets you give your animations
the illusion of motion, adding a whole new dynamic
and level of realism to your renderings. Checking the
3D motion blur checkbox enables motion blurring
for your scene when rendering. When this option
is enabled, adjusting the shutter open and close
times affects the amount of blurring. Please refer
to “Camera Parameters” on page 267 for more
information about the Shutter Open and Shutter Close
parameters.

• Toon Outline: The Toon Outline option uses post-

Without Displacement (left); With Displacement (right).
processing during the rendering process to draw an
outline around the edges of cartoon images. You can
• Depth of Field: Widening the lens aperture of the select from nine outline brush styles. We recommend
camera allows you to achieve a Depth of Field effect. applying a Toon shader node to your images, and
The farther away items are from the focal plane, the then complementing that shading with the Toon
more blurred they will appear. The Depth of Field Outline option. Check the Toon Outline checkbox to
checkbox allows you to enable or disable this effect enable this feature.
when rendering your scene. Please refer to “Camera
Parameters” on page 267 for information on

• 3D Motion Blur: As you probably know, when you

shoot a photo of a fast moving object, it appears
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Post Filter Size slider or by clicking the dots on either

slide of the slider to increment (right) or decrement
(left) the value.

• Post Filter Type

weighting algorithm to the supersamples taken for

select using the pull-down menu. Your

options are as follows:

Box: A Box
within a sampling region with a diameter equal to

Toon Outline.

• Post Filter Size supersamples pixels, that

is, samples the colors at various points inside a pixel

reduce or eliminate various forms of aliasing (jagged

edges) that can occur under different circumstances.

supersample. Increasing this value increases the area

used for supersampling, but affects rendering time and
resources. You can adjust this value by moving the

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Sinc: A Sinc
calculation to assign weight to samples within
Gaussian: A Gaussian
decreasing amount of weight to all samples within
wave effect is similar to ripples radiating from the
center point, where samples will be given weight
maximum reduction in weight occurring farthest
according to their relative positions with regards to
from the center of the sampling region.
the “crests” and “troughs” of the ripples.

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HSV (Hue, Saturation, Value) exponential: Treats

V exponentially, none on H, S. Brightness doesn’t
desaturate or overbrighten color. It not physically
accurate, but may be easier to control in scenes
where you want to get brights into a normal range
without going to white. .

• Exposure: Editable when either Exponential or

HSV Tone Mapping are selected. This setting is the
• Tone Mapping: This feature is useful for scenes with exponent used in Exponential calculations.
a high dynamic range. Tone Mapping provides
• HDRI optimized output: Check this option to generate
more control for brightness, saturation, and post-
an image that is HDRI compatible. For further
render processing to produce better images. It helps
information, see “High Dynamic Range Image (HDRI)
control overly bright areas in an image to produce
Export” on page 852.
contrast, helping to bring the brightest areas back
• Gamma Correction: See “Gamma Correction and
into a reproducible range. It helps preserve as much
Linear Rendering” on page 459 for more information.
information from a high dynamic range source as
possible in an LDR image or display. Two modes of • Auxiliary Render Data: Allows you to choose properties
tone mapping are available. for output to individual PSD layers. For further
Exponential information, see “Rendering Layered PSD Files” on
page 460.

approach white. The brighter it gets, the less click OK to store them. Render settings are saved when
sensitive gets. you save your scene. Clicking Cancel closes the Render
Settings dialog without storing your changes.

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To render your scene as a still image, select Render >

Render or click the Render Now button in the Render
Smoothing Geometry
Settings dialog. Poser provides some additional features that make
To render animations, please refer to “Chapter 24: geometry look smoother during render time, without
Rendering Animations” on page 559 for more having to add additional geometry. The smooth shading
information. feature affects an object’s shading without changing the
geometry of its edges. Smooth shading will render creased
edges between polygons as rounded, continuous surfaces
Saving and Loading Presets rather than as hard edges. In this way, smooth shading
allows you to achieve a consistently smooth shading
Although FireFly settings are not saved with your Poser effect, without having to alter the geometry by subdividing
scene, you can save and load FireFly Presets (including polygons to minimize the creases.
both Auto and Manual Quality settings, as well as FireFly
Options settings). Simply click on the appropriate Preset
button along the bottom of the FireFly tab for the function
objects within a scene, according to the Crease Angle
you wish to perform. The Load Preset and Delete Preset
Properties palette for each given
buttons will display pop-up menus listing the presets that
current actor. Additionally, you can customize smooth
shipped with your copy of Poser, as well as any additional
shading in one of two ways, as described in the following
presets you may have saved. Note that if you make
sections.
changes to a loaded preset, your changes will not be
saved unless you use the Save Preset button to record Geometry smoothing is affected by the following settings,
them. The Save Preset button will allow you to save the as described in the sections that follow:
current FireFly render settings with a name of your own
choosing. The Restore Defaults button will restore all FireFly • Crease angles, as set in an actor’s Properties palette
render settings to their default locations. or globally in the Document tab of the General
Preferences dialog.

• Smoothing groups
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• The Smooth Polygons

Settings dialog.

Crease Angle
Crease angle represents the angle between the normals
of adjoining polygons. The Crease Angle property
establishes a threshold up to which smooth shading will
be applied. In other words, if the crease angle threshold
is set to 70, smooth shading will be applied to all polygon
creases with angles smaller than 70 degrees. Polygon
creases with angles greater than 70 degrees will not be
smoothed.
You can specify the Crease Angle threshold in the
Properties
or object. By default, Crease Angle is set to 80 degrees for
all actors.
You can set crease angles for an element in the Properties
dialog.

To change the crease angle globally, select Edit > General

Preferences, and click on the Document tab.

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Different crease angle settings: 10 degrees (left) and 80

degrees (right).

Smoothing Groups
Global scene crease angles can be set in the General
Preferences dialog. You can use the Group Editor palette to establish

The following images provide examples of a sphere which smooth shading should be applied. This approach is
with crease angles set at 10 degrees and 80 degrees, useful in that it allows you to customize smooth shading at
respectively. the polygon level, and gives you the ability to have hard
edges intermixed with smooth creases. Smoothing group
settings will override the crease angle setting for those

Select the Grouping tool from the Editing Tools palette,

which will bring up the Group Editor palette. You can

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Once you have your groups established, simply click on

existing object groups to smoothing groups, or you can the Assign Smoothing ID button to designate the currently
selected group as a smoothing group. At render time,
you to customize smooth shading at the polygon level. polygon creases between all adjoining polygons within the
Please refer to “The Group Editor” on page 742 for more same smoothing group will be smoothed. Polygon creases
information about creating new groups. between adjoining polygons in different smoothing groups
will not be smoothed, and will therefore be rendered
as hard edges. Thus you should take care as to which

Different polygon groups can be assigned

the same Smoothing ID, which will ensure
smooth shading across the geometric breaks
between groups. To do this, simply create a
smoothing ID for the initial group, and then select
that same ID from the pop-up list when assigning
Smoothing ID’s to the other groups.

Poser will recognize and support existing smoothing groups

from another 3D application, Poser will apply smooth

shading according to the imported smoothing group

had been assigned within Poser.

Assign Smoothing IDs in the Group Editor.

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Smooth Polygons Note that the render time polygon smoothing will not

In the render settings, smooth polygons activates polygon or smoothing groups. Thus, you can specify hard edges
subdivision to smooth hard edges at render time. If your
image contains visible rough edges because your polygon render time polygon smoothing to all other edges.
mesh is sparse, then the render time polygon smoothing
can render those edges smooth. See “FireFly Options
smoothing effect. On the left is a sphere with a crease
Settings” on page 442 for more information about
angle set to 80 degrees, with no polygon smoothing.
applying this option.
On the right is the same sphere with polygon smoothing
enabled.

Spheres shown without (left) and with (right) polygon

smoothing.

Enable or disable Smooth Polygons settings in the Render

Settings dialog.

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Network Render Queue Using the Render Queue for a Single-Frame job

Rendering large and complex scenes (jobs) can take To send a single-frame job to the Render Queue, from the
a long time to process and monopolize your computer Main Menu, select Render > Render In Queue. The current
system. The Queue Manager distributes jobs between one frame with the current FireFly Render Engine settings will
or several nodes in a Network Render Queue. When you
use the Queue Manager for remote tasks, the Network format from the pull-down menu, and specify the output
Render Queue will distribute jobs based on the systems location. Click Save. This will submit the job to the Queue
that are available. You can send single-frame or multiple- Manager and add the job to the job list. Sending a job
frame jobs to the Queue Manager. to the Queue launches the Queue Manager if it is not
already running.

Sending Jobs to the Queue Manager When you send a single frame render to the

Once the Queue Manager is running on your system and/ appended by the frame number that you are
or on another network node, you can send jobs to render rendering. For example, if your project is on frame 30
in the Queue. Poser Pro will launch the Queue Manager if when you render a still image, the image that is
it is not already running on your system. However, in order rendered in the Queue will be named
process a job in the Network Render Queue, the Queue
Manager must be running on the remote system(s). will be overwritten.

will be prompted to locate the Poser Pro application using

the standard File Chooser. Navigate to where the Poser
Pro application is installed, select Poser Pro and click OK.

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The Render in Queue command creates a render job.

Using the Render Queue for a Multi-Frame Job

To send a multi-frame job to the render queue, from

the Main Menu, select Animation > Make Movie. In the
The Movie Settings tab in the Render dialog.
Movie Settings dialog select Image Files from the Format
pull-down menu. The Movie Settings will become the job
properties, including: Options, Resolution, Time Span and
Increment. (For more information on Movie Settings refer to they cannot be changed, and the job will
“Movie Settings” on page 426). retain those properties when sent to the Render
Queue.

Next, switch to the Render Settings tab. Click on Send

Render To and select Queue
format from the pull-down menu, and specify the output
location. Click Save. This will submit the job to the Queue
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Manager and add the job to the job list. Sending a job Using the Queue Manager
to the Queue launches the Queue Manager if it is not
already running. The Queue Manager has three sections: The Queue Menu,
the Job List and the Selected Job Panel.

Queue Menu

distributed for processing.

The Render Queue menu.

Rendering to the Render Queue.

• Suspended: Selecting Queue > Suspended, suspends

Once you have submitted a job to the Queue, you can
the operation of all jobs.
begin editing, start another project in Poser Pro, or start
working in another application. • Process Jobs Locally: Enabling or disabling Queue
> Process Jobs Locally,
Queue Manager will use your local system to render
your jobs.

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• Send Jobs to Network: Enabling or disabling Queue

> Send Jobs to Network,
Queue Manager will distribute jobs to other systems.

• Accept Jobs from Network: Enabling or disabling

Queue > Accept Jobs from Network,
or not the Queue Manager will process tasks from
other systems. Local jobs will always have priority.
The Render Queue Job List.
• Show Log Panel: Enabling Show Log Panel lets you see
a detailed log of the jobs being processed. The Log
• Document: The name of the document in Poser Pro.
can be useful for troubleshooting and tracking how
other machines are being utilized. • Output File: The job name when submitted to the
Queue.
Job List
• Start Time: The time the job was received by the
The Job List shows a job’s properties including Document,
Queue Manager.
Output File, Start Time, Completed Time, Status, Frame,
Start, End, Increment, Host and Order. On the Selected • Completed Time: The time the job was completed.
Job Panel sort the jobs by clicking on any of the property
headers. This will not change the job order. • Status:

Running: The job is currently being processed.

Waiting: The job is waiting to be processed.

Suspended: The job is on hold.

Done: The job is processed and is shown on the job

list for reference.

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• Frame: Indicates the frame that is currently being • Go To Folder: Find the output location of your job
rendered. anytime by highlighting the job and clicking on the Go
To Folder. This will bring you to the output location.
• Start: Derived from the movie settings dialog (see
“Movie Settings” on page 426). • Order: Once a job is sent to the Queue Manager the
job will appear on the job list. You can change the
• End: Derived from the movie settings dialog (see order of the jobs by selecting <<Lower or Raise > > .
“Movie Settings” on page 426)
• Actions: Select a job from the Job List to change its
• Increment: Derived from the movie settings dialog (see status using the following actions:
“Movie Settings” on page 426).)
Cancel: Click Cancel to abort a job (Running,
• Host: Indicates the node this job came from. Waiting or Suspended).

Selected Job Panel Delete: Click Delete to remove a completed job

from the Job List (Done).
Select a job to access the following options.
Suspend: Click Suspend to put a running or
waiting job on hold.

Resume: Click Resume to continue processing a

suspended job.

Queue, verify the following:

The Selected Job panel. • All network cables are plugged in and the network is
functioning properly.
• Output Path: Displays the output location of a selected
job.

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• Remote systems in the Network Render Queue are up Hardware Requirements for 64-bit
and the Queue Manager application is installed and
running.
Render Engine

• • Intel Core 2 Duo CPU or better

between Poser Pro and the Queue Manager, locally
and remotely. • AMD Athlon 64 CPU or better
Poser Pro supports the following 64-bit operating systems:
• If you are unable to resolve a network communication
issue, contact your Network Administrator. • Mac OS X 10.6

• Mac OS X 10.7
64-Bit Render Engine
• Mac OS X 10.8
Poser Pro ships with 2 versions of its FireFly render engine: A
32-bit and a 64-bit version. Traditionally computers utilize • Windows XP x64
a 32-bit Operating System, which can only address a
• Windows Vista 64
limited amount of memory. However, there is an increasing
amount of computers that are equipped with a 64-bit • Windows 7 64
Operating System. If your computer has a 64-bit Operating
System, Poser Pro will use its 64-bit FireFly Render Engine to • Windows 8 64
access as much memory as possible.
Poser Pro will automatically select the appropriate Render
To utilize the 64-bit FireFly Render Engine, you must select Engine for your system. If you are using a 32-bit system and
Render in Background (Mac OSX, Windows) or launch the
64-bit version of Poser Pro (Windows only). If you are using a 64-bit system and render in FireFly, it will
use the 64-bit Render Engine. This allows the Render Engine
to access more memory thereby better utilizing available
memory.
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Gamma Correction and Linear To enable Gamma Correction, choose Render > Render
Settings, select the FireFly Tab and then check the
Rendering Gamma Correction Box from the Options Panel. The
default gamma value is 2.2 for most image formats. You
have the option to specify a custom gamma value in the
the gamma that has been applied to textures, and the
gamma that will be applied to exported images. This Gamma Correction Box is enabled.
allows you to perform linear rendering for improved
luminance accuracy.
When you create a new scene, the default setting for
Linear Rendering is 2.2. You must use the FireFly Render
Engine to set the gamma value. When you are opening a
document from a previous version of Poser, you will need
to enable the gamma correction if you want to perform
linear rendering.

Gamma settings are propagated to the

Preview Renderer when hardware shading is

option for the Preview renderer; instead, they are

Manager, and gamma nodes in the Advanced

Material Room.

a Gamma value of 1.0, ignoring whatever gamma value Set the Gamma Correction value in the Render Options
window.

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Gamma Correction Per Texture Most all applications read and write
displacement maps linearly, even if the
Poser Pro’s Gamma correction on the Texture Manager format used might specify a different gamma value.
allows you to specify gamma values per texture, giving When you display a displacement map, it might
you the ability to exclude certain textures from scene-wide look slightly different from the effect it will end up
having on the geometry, therefore we recommend
with displacement or normal maps. that you adjust the Gamma Value to 1.0 for
Displacement Mapping, as well as for Normal Maps.
Also use 1.0 for Transparency, or whenever a
grayscale map is used to drive an effect.

For information on how to access the Texture

Manager please refer to “Chapter 17: The
Render Menu” on page 416.

Once you are in the Texture Manager you can specify a

Gamma correction for individual textures can be set in the

texture.
Texture Manager.

Rendering Layered PSD Files

Local gamma correction is important if you know that
not all your incoming data has the same gamma value Poser features additional options in the Render Settings
applied and you know you need to adjust the value dialog that allow you to specify additional information that
for certain textures. Gamma correction on the Texture
Manager allows correction per texture. in Photoshop. After you create your scene in Poser, you
open the Render Settings dialog and check or uncheck

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the auxiliary render data options that you want to include

image in Photoshop you will see the full render as the

Background layer. Each additional data option that you
checked will appear on its own individual Photoshop layer.
The Render Options section of the Render Settings window
includes an Auxiliary Render Data drop down menu that
allows you to select from the following options:

Render Options window.

When you open your PSD in Photoshop, the complete

rendered image appears in a layer named Background.

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Depending on the other options that you check in the

Auxiliary Render Data drop-down, you may see additional
layers as described below.

Normal layer in Photoshop.

Background layer in Photoshop. • Toon ID: The toon ID of the frontmost surface, where
each ID gets its own RGB color. Toon ID layers are

• Normal: The world space normal of the frontmost

surface, encoded as RGB values with x=red, y=green,

Photoshop.

Toon ID layer in Photoshop.

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• ZDepth: The distance of the frontmost surface from the

camera, encoded as grayscale. ZDepth layers are

Position layer in Photoshop.

ZDepth layer in Photoshop. • Texture Coordinates: The UV coordinates of the

frontmost surface, with u = red and v = green. Texture

• Position: The world space position of the frontmost Photoshop.

surface, encoded as RGB values with x=red, y=green,

Photoshop.

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Texture Coordinates layer in Photoshop.

The remaining three options correspond to three inputs on

the bottom of the Poser Surface Node as shown below.

Custom Output connectors on the Poser Surface Node.

The render will export the nodes that are plugged into
these inputs on the Poser Surface Node. If nothing is

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attached to the Poser surface node on these inputs, the there are no materials with connections to Custom_
output to PSD is as follows: output_2, checking this option will create a layer that
contains Specular only.
• Custom1: If your scene contains any materials that
have connections to the Custom_output_1 connector
on the PoserSurface Node, they can be rendered
to a Photoshop layer when you check this option. If
there are no materials with connections to Custom_
output_1, checking this option will create a layer that
contains Diffuse only.

Custom 2 layer in Photoshop showing custom adjustments to

the two characters in the scene.

• Custom3: If your scene contains any materials that

have connections to the Custom_output_3 connector
on the PoserSurface Node, they can be rendered
Custom 1 layer in Photoshop with grainy grayscale effect for to a Photoshop layer when you check this option. If
custom input. there are no materials with connections to Custom_
output_3, checking this option will create a layer that
contains Shadow only as shown below.
• Custom2: If your scene contains any materials that
have connections to the Custom_output_2 connector
on the PoserSurface Node, they can be rendered
to a Photoshop layer when you check this option. If
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Custom 3 layer in Photoshop. Various layers combined in Photoshop.

After rendering the desired layers, you can bring the saved
Saving and Loading Presets
blend styles in the Layers palette to composite the layers
together to create interesting effects. Although FireFly settings are not saved with your Poser
scene, you can save and load FireFly Presets (including
both Auto and Manual Quality settings, as well as FireFly
Options settings). Simply click on the appropriate Preset
button along the bottom of the FireFly tab for the function
you wish to perform. The Load Preset and Delete Preset
buttons will display pop-up menus listing the presets that
shipped with your copy of Poser, as well as any additional
presets you may have saved. Note that if you make
changes to a loaded preset, your changes will not be
saved unless you use the Save Preset button to record

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them. The Save Preset button will allow you to save the • Crease angles, as set in an actor’s Properties palette
current FireFly render settings with a name of your own or globally in the Document tab of the General
choosing. The Restore Defaults button will restore all FireFly Preferences dialog.
render settings to their default locations.
• Smoothing groups

Smoothing Geometry • The Smooth Polygons

Settings dialog.
Poser provides some additional features that make
geometry look smoother during render time, without
having to add additional geometry. The smooth shading
Crease Angle
feature affects an object’s shading without changing the Crease angle represents the angle between the normals
geometry of its edges. Smooth shading will render creased of adjoining polygons. The Crease Angle property
edges between polygons as rounded, continuous surfaces establishes a threshold up to which smooth shading will
rather than as hard edges. In this way, smooth shading be applied. In other words, if the crease angle threshold
allows you to achieve a consistently smooth shading is set to 70, smooth shading will be applied to all polygon
effect, without having to alter the geometry by subdividing creases with angles smaller than 70 degrees. Polygon
polygons to minimize the creases. creases with angles greater than 70 degrees will not be
smoothed.
You can specify the Crease Angle threshold in the
objects within a scene, according to the Crease Angle Properties
Properties palette for each given or object. By default, Crease Angle is set to 80 degrees for
current actor. Additionally, you can customize smooth all actors.
shading in one of two ways, as described in the following
sections.
Geometry smoothing is affected by the following settings,
as described in the sections that follow:

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Global scene crease angles can be set in the General

Preferences dialog.
You can set crease angles for an element in the Properties
dialog.
The following images provide examples of a sphere
with crease angles set at 10 degrees and 80 degrees,
To change the crease angle globally, select Edit > General
respectively.
Preferences, and click on the Document tab.

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existing object groups to smoothing groups, or you can

you to customize smooth shading at the polygon level.

Please refer to “The Group Editor” on page 742 for more
information about creating new groups.

Different crease angle settings: 10 degrees (left) and 80

degrees (right).

Smoothing Groups
You can use the Group Editor palette to establish

which smooth shading should be applied. This approach is

useful in that it allows you to customize smooth shading at
the polygon level, and gives you the ability to have hard
edges intermixed with smooth creases. Smoothing group
settings will override the crease angle setting for those

Select the Grouping tool from the Editing Tools palette, Assign Smoothing IDs in the Group Editor.
which will bring up the Group Editor palette. You can

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Once you have your groups established, simply click on Smooth Polygons
the Assign Smoothing ID button to designate the currently
selected group as a smoothing group. At render time, In the render settings, smooth polygons activates polygon
polygon creases between all adjoining polygons within the subdivision to smooth hard edges at render time. If your
same smoothing group will be smoothed. Polygon creases image contains visible rough edges because your polygon
between adjoining polygons in different smoothing groups mesh is sparse, then the render time polygon smoothing
will not be smoothed, and will therefore be rendered can render those edges smooth. See “FireFly Options
as hard edges. Thus you should take care as to which Settings” on page 442 for more information about
applying this option.

Different polygon groups can be assigned

the same Smoothing ID, which will ensure
smooth shading across the geometric breaks
between groups. To do this, simply create a
smoothing ID for the initial group, and then select
that same ID from the pop-up list when assigning
Smoothing ID’s to the other groups.

Poser will recognize and support existing smoothing groups

from another 3D application, Poser will apply smooth

shading according to the imported smoothing group

had been assigned within Poser.

Enable or disable Smooth Polygons settings in the Render
Settings dialog.

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Note that the render time polygon smoothing will not

Network Render Queue
or smoothing groups. Thus, you can specify hard edges Rendering large and complex scenes (jobs) can take
a long time to process and monopolize your computer
render time polygon smoothing to all other edges. system. The Queue Manager distributes jobs between one
or several nodes in a Network Render Queue. When you
smoothing effect. On the left is a sphere with a crease use the Queue Manager for remote tasks, the Network
angle set to 80 degrees, with no polygon smoothing. Render Queue will distribute jobs based on the systems
On the right is the same sphere with polygon smoothing that are available. You can send single-frame or multiple-
enabled. frame jobs to the Queue Manager.

Sending Jobs to the Queue Manager

Once the Queue Manager is running on your system and/
or on another network node, you can send jobs to render
in the Queue. Poser Pro will launch the Queue Manager if
it is not already running on your system. However, in order
process a job in the Network Render Queue, the Queue
Manager must be running on the remote system(s).

Spheres shown without (left) and with (right) polygon will be prompted to locate the Poser Pro application using
smoothing. the standard File Chooser. Navigate to where the Poser
Pro application is installed, select Poser Pro and click OK.

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Using the Render Queue for a Single-Frame job

To send a single-frame job to the Render Queue, from the

Main Menu, select Render > Render In Queue. The current
frame with the current FireFly Render Engine settings will

format from the pull-down menu, and specify the output

location. Click Save. This will submit the job to the Queue
Manager and add the job to the job list. Sending a job
to the Queue launches the Queue Manager if it is not
already running. The Render in Queue command creates a render job.

When you send a single frame render to the

Using the Render Queue for a Multi-Frame Job
appended by the frame number that you are
rendering. For example, if your project is on frame 30 To send a multi-frame job to the render queue, from
when you render a still image, the image that is the Main Menu, select Animation > Make Movie. In the
rendered in the Queue will be named Movie Settings dialog select Image Files from the Format
pull-down menu. The Movie Settings will become the job
will be overwritten. properties, including: Options, Resolution, Time Span and
Increment. (For more information on Movie Settings refer to
“Movie Settings” on page 426).

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Manager and add the job to the job list. Sending a job
to the Queue launches the Queue Manager if it is not
already running.

The Movie Settings tab in the Render dialog.

Rendering to the Render Queue.

they cannot be changed, and the job will

Once you have submitted a job to the Queue, you can
retain those properties when sent to the Render
begin editing, start another project in Poser Pro, or start
Queue.
working in another application.

Next, switch to the Render Settings tab. Click on Send

Render To and select Queue
format from the pull-down menu, and specify the output
location. Click Save. This will submit the job to the Queue
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Using the Queue Manager • Send Jobs to Network: Enabling or disabling Queue
> Send Jobs to Network,
The Queue Manager has three sections: The Queue Menu, Queue Manager will distribute jobs to other systems.
the Job List and the Selected Job Panel.
• Accept Jobs from Network: Enabling or disabling
Queue Menu Queue > Accept Jobs from Network,
or not the Queue Manager will process tasks from
other systems. Local jobs will always have priority.
distributed for processing.
• Show Log Panel: Enabling Show Log Panel lets you see
a detailed log of the jobs being processed. The Log
can be useful for troubleshooting and tracking how
other machines are being utilized.

Job List

The Job List shows a job’s properties including Document,

Output File, Start Time, Completed Time, Status, Frame,
The Render Queue menu. Start, End, Increment, Host and Order. On the Selected
Job Panel sort the jobs by clicking on any of the property
• Suspended: Selecting Queue > Suspended, suspends headers. This will not change the job order.
the operation of all jobs.

• Process Jobs Locally: Enabling or disabling Queue

> Process Jobs Locally,
Queue Manager will use your local system to render
your jobs.

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• Frame: Indicates the frame that is currently being

rendered.

• Start: Derived from the movie settings dialog (see

“Movie Settings” on page 426).

• End: Derived from the movie settings dialog (see

“Movie Settings” on page 426)
The Render Queue Job List.
• Increment: Derived from the movie settings dialog (see
“Movie Settings” on page 426).)
• Document: The name of the document in Poser Pro.
• Host: Indicates the node this job came from.
• Output File: The job name when submitted to the
Queue. Selected Job Panel
• Start Time: The time the job was received by the Select a job to access the following options.
Queue Manager.

• Completed Time: The time the job was completed.

• Status:

Running: The job is currently being processed.

Waiting: The job is waiting to be processed.

The Selected Job panel.
Suspended: The job is on hold.

Done: The job is processed and is shown on the job • Output Path: Displays the output location of a selected
list for reference. job.

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• Go To Folder: Find the output location of your job • Remote systems in the Network Render Queue are up
anytime by highlighting the job and clicking on the Go and the Queue Manager application is installed and
To Folder. This will bring you to the output location. running.

• Order: Once a job is sent to the Queue Manager the •

job will appear on the job list. You can change the between Poser Pro and the Queue Manager, locally
order of the jobs by selecting <<Lower or Raise > > . and remotely.

• Actions: Select a job from the Job List to change its • If you are unable to resolve a network communication
status using the following actions: issue, contact your Network Administrator.

Cancel: Click Cancel to abort a job (Running,

Waiting or Suspended). 64-Bit Render Engine
Delete: Click Delete to remove a completed job
Poser Pro ships with 2 versions of its FireFly render engine: A
from the Job List (Done).
32-bit and a 64-bit version. Traditionally computers utilize
Suspend: Click Suspend to put a running or a 32-bit Operating System, which can only address a
waiting job on hold. limited amount of memory. However, there is an increasing
Resume: Click Resume to continue processing a amount of computers that are equipped with a 64-bit
suspended job. Operating System. If your computer has a 64-bit Operating
System, Poser Pro will use its 64-bit FireFly Render Engine to
access as much memory as possible.
Queue, verify the following:
To utilize the 64-bit FireFly Render Engine, you must select
• All network cables are plugged in and the network is Render in Background (Mac OSX, Windows) or launch the
functioning properly. 64-bit version of Poser Pro (Windows only).

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Hardware Requirements for 64-bit Gamma Correction and Linear

Render Engine Rendering
• Intel Core 2 Duo CPU or better
the gamma that has been applied to textures, and the
• AMD Athlon 64 CPU or better gamma that will be applied to exported images. This
Poser Pro supports the following 64-bit operating systems: allows you to perform linear rendering for improved
luminance accuracy.
• Mac OS X 10.6
When you create a new scene, the default setting for
• Mac OS X 10.7 Linear Rendering is 2.2. You must use the FireFly Render
Engine to set the gamma value. When you are opening a
• Mac OS X 10.8 document from a previous version of Poser, you will need
to enable the gamma correction if you want to perform
• Windows XP x64 linear rendering.

• Windows Vista 64 Gamma settings are propagated to the

Preview Renderer when hardware shading is
• Windows 7 64
option for the Preview renderer; instead, they are
• Windows 8 64
Poser Pro will automatically select the appropriate Render Manager, and gamma nodes in the Advanced
Engine for your system. If you are using a 32-bit system and Material Room.

If you are using a 64-bit system and render in FireFly, it will

use the 64-bit Render Engine. This allows the Render Engine a Gamma value of 1.0, ignoring whatever gamma value
to access more memory thereby better utilizing available
memory.
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To enable Gamma Correction, choose Render > Render

Settings, select the FireFly Tab and then check the
Gamma Correction Per Texture
Gamma Correction Box from the Options Panel. The Poser Pro’s Gamma correction on the Texture Manager
default gamma value is 2.2 for most image formats. You allows you to specify gamma values per texture, giving
have the option to specify a custom gamma value in the you the ability to exclude certain textures from scene-wide

Gamma Correction Box is enabled. with displacement or normal maps.

Gamma correction for individual textures can be set in the

Texture Manager.

Local gamma correction is important if you know that

not all your incoming data has the same gamma value
applied and you know you need to adjust the value
for certain textures. Gamma correction on the Texture
Set the Gamma Correction value in the Render Options Manager allows correction per texture.
window.

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Most all applications read and write the auxiliary render data options that you want to include
displacement maps linearly, even if the
format used might specify a different gamma value.
When you display a displacement map, it might image in Photoshop you will see the full render as the
look slightly different from the effect it will end up Background layer. Each additional data option that you
having on the geometry, therefore we recommend checked will appear on its own individual Photoshop layer.
that you adjust the Gamma Value to 1.0 for
The Render Options section of the Render Settings window
Displacement Mapping, as well as for Normal Maps.
includes an Auxiliary Render Data drop down menu that
Also use 1.0 for Transparency, or whenever a
allows you to select from the following options:
grayscale map is used to drive an effect.

For information on how to access the Texture

Manager please refer to “Chapter 17: The
Render Menu” on page 416.

Once you are in the Texture Manager you can specify a

texture.

Rendering Layered PSD Files

Poser features additional options in the Render Settings
dialog that allow you to specify additional information that

in Photoshop. After you create your scene in Poser, you

open the Render Settings dialog and check or uncheck

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Depending on the other options that you check in the

Auxiliary Render Data drop-down, you may see additional
layers as described below.

Background layer in Photoshop.

• Normal: The world space normal of the frontmost

surface, encoded as RGB values with x=red, y=green,

Photoshop.

Render Options window.

When you open your PSD in Photoshop, the complete

rendered image appears in a layer named Background.

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• ZDepth: The distance of the frontmost surface from the

camera, encoded as grayscale. ZDepth layers are

Normal layer in Photoshop.

• Toon ID: The toon ID of the frontmost surface, where ZDepth layer in Photoshop.
each ID gets its own RGB color. Toon ID layers are

• Position: The world space position of the frontmost

surface, encoded as RGB values with x=red, y=green,

Photoshop.

Toon ID layer in Photoshop.

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Position layer in Photoshop. Texture Coordinates layer in Photoshop.

The remaining three options correspond to three inputs on

• Texture Coordinates: The UV coordinates of the
the bottom of the Poser Surface Node as shown below.
frontmost surface, with u = red and v = green. Texture

Photoshop.

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attached to the Poser surface node on these inputs, the

output to PSD is as follows:

• Custom1: If your scene contains any materials that

have connections to the Custom_output_1 connector
on the PoserSurface Node, they can be rendered
to a Photoshop layer when you check this option. If
there are no materials with connections to Custom_
output_1, checking this option will create a layer that
contains Diffuse only.

Custom 1 layer in Photoshop with grainy grayscale effect for

custom input.

Custom Output connectors on the Poser Surface Node.

• Custom2: If your scene contains any materials that
have connections to the Custom_output_2 connector
The render will export the nodes that are plugged into
on the PoserSurface Node, they can be rendered
these inputs on the Poser Surface Node. If nothing is
to a Photoshop layer when you check this option. If
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there are no materials with connections to Custom_

output_2, checking this option will create a layer that
contains Specular only.

Custom 3 layer in Photoshop.

After rendering the desired layers, you can bring the saved
Custom 2 layer in Photoshop showing custom adjustments to
the two characters in the scene.
blend styles in the Layers palette to composite the layers
together to create interesting effects.
• Custom3: If your scene contains any materials that
have connections to the Custom_output_3 connector
on the PoserSurface Node, they can be rendered
to a Photoshop layer when you check this option. If
there are no materials with connections to Custom_
output_3, checking this option will create a layer that
contains Shadow only as shown below.

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Various layers combined in Photoshop.

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Chapter 20: The Sketch You can save Sketch Designer renders and reload them
later for further work. The Sketch Designer also lets you

Designer create amazing animations that look like hand-drawn

movies. For best results, try rendering scenes using plenty of
detail (hair, clothing, etc.) and dramatic lighting.
Poser’s Sketch Designer renders scenes as sketch-like To access the Sketch Designer, select Window > Sketch
drawings using black-and-white or colored brush strokes Designer. Alternately, you can access the Sketch Designer
that you can tailor to your liking. Simulate pen, pencil, via the Sketch tab in the Render Settings dialog, which
pastel, charcoal, and even watercolors and paintings also contains other render and movie settings.
without ever having to pick up a pencil or brush!

Sketch Elements
The Sketch Designer recognizes three distinct divisions
within your scene:

• Objects: Checking the Objects radio button allows you

your scene.

• Background: Checking the Background radio button

allows you to determine the sketch style for your
scene’s background.

• Edges: Checking the Edges radio button allows you

to determine the sketch style for the edges of objects
The Sketch Designer.

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Presets Checkboxes
You can use the Presets pop-up window above the The Sketch Designer has three checkboxes:
preview tab to select one of the available preset sketch
styles. You can also use the sliders and other options to • Over Black: Checking the Over Black checkbox
renders your scene over a black background with
white strokes. When disabled, the background is white
The Presets pop-up also allows you to create and remove
with black strokes.
sketch presets. To create a preset, adjust the sketch style
to your desired settings, then select Presets > Create • Auto Density: Checking the Auto Density checkbox
Preset. Enter a name for your preset and click OK. Your causes stroke density to reach an automatic density
new preset will appear in the Presets menu. based on the current scene, ignoring the Density slider
The Presets pop-up also allows you to create and remove setting (see below). When disabled, the density is
sketch presets. To create a preset, adjust the sketch style calculated based on the Density slider setting.
to your desired settings, then select Presets > Create
• Colored Strokes: Checking the Colored Strokes
Preset. Enter a name for your preset and click OK. Your
checkbox causes sketches to be rendered in color.
new preset will appear in the Presets menu.
When disabled, sketches are rendered in black and
To delete a preset, select the preset you wish to delete white.
using the Presets menu, then select Presets > Delete
Preset.
Brushes
The Delete Preset option allows you to
remove the sketch presets included with The Sketch Designer
Poser. Once deleted, you must reinstall Poser to available using the Brushes pull-down menu. For
restore your factory default sketch presets. maximum effect, try using these brushes with both the Min
Width and Max Width sliders set to higher values.

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• Line Length: The Line Length

of strokes.

• Min Width: The Min Width

edge of each stroke, which affects the brightness of
the original image.

• Max Width: The Max Width

the center of each stroke, which affects the brightness
of the original image.

• Lo Brightness: The Lo Brightness slider determines

the band of tone. A low setting only draws lines in the
darkest parts of your scene. If the Over Black option
Brush Presets.
is disabled, setting this control to 0 produces the best
results.

Sketch Parameters • Hi Brightness: The Hi Brightness slider determines the

band of tone. A lower setting only draws lines in the
The Sketch Designer includes the following parameters, darkest parts of your scene. If the Over Black option
controllable using sliders. Moving a slider to the right is enabled, setting this control to 1 produces the best
increases the selected value, and vice versa. These results.
parameters customize many characteristics of the
sketched lines. Your sketch redraws each time you adjust a • Stroke Head: The Stroke Head slider determines the
value, allowing you to see the results of your changes. amount of taper at the stroke’s head.

• Density: The Density slider controls the density of lines • Stroke Tail: The Stroke Tail slider determines the
in the sketch. amount of taper at the stroke’s tail.

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• Line Random: The Line Random slider controls line • BG Direction: The BG Direction
randomizations. Higher settings result in more randomly direction of the background strokes.
shaped lines.
• Auto Spacing: The Auto Spacing slider controls the
• Color Random: The Color Random slider controls color amount of space between strokes if the Auto Density
randomizations. Higher settings result in more random option is enabled.
colorization.
• Color Blend: The Color Blend slider determines how
• Opacity: The Opacity slider determines the clarity of much color in the Document window will be blended
lines. Lower values create more transparent strokes. into the sketch.

• Cross Hatch: The Cross Hatch slider controls the

frequency of cross-hatching in the strokes. Rendering Sketches
• Total Angle: The Total Angle slider determines the total After setting up your sketch, you can render it to the
amount of angle change that a stroke can have Document window. This is useful if you want to export a
before it stops drawing. Higher values darken the movie rendered using the Sketch Designer renderer. To
image. Lower this value when you have lower Density render to the Document window, select Render > Sketch
settings. Style Render.

• Color Cutoff: The Color Cutoff slider determines the

threshold of color changes allowed for a stroke. Use Exporting Painter Scripts
this slider in conjunction with Total Angle.
Clicking the Export Painter Script button in the lower left
• Light 1, 2, and 3: The Light 1, Light 2, and Light 3 sliders corner of the Sketch Designer exports the current Sketch
Designer settings to Corel Painter. This has been tested
in your scene contribute to the direction of strokes. to work with Painter 6 and previous versions, and is not
Higher values make the strokes go in the direction of supported for later versions though it may work with them.
the selected light(s).
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Part 5: Animating

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Chapter 21: The Retime Animation

Animation Menu Selecting Animation > Retime Animation allows you to
adjust the timing of your animations. Please refer to
“Retiming Keyframes” on page 514 for more information.
The Animation pull-down menu lets you control various
aspects of your Poser animations.
Resample Key Frames
Make Movie Selecting Animation > Resample Key Frames opens the
Resample Keys window, which allows you to increase or
Setting Animation > Make Movie opens the Make movie decrease the number of keyframes in your animation:
window. Please refer to “Chapter 24: Rendering Please refer to “Resampling Key Frames” on page 515.
Animations” on page 559 for more information on
rendering animations in Poser.
Loop Interpolation
Recalculate Dynamics If your animation contains looping cycles (such as a walk)
that do not match evenly (causing jerky motions between
Choose one of the options in the Animation > Recalculate the end of one loop and the start of the next), toggling
submenu to recalculate all cloth dynamics, all hair Animation > Loop Interpolation on can smooth out your
dynamics, all physics dynamics, or all dynamics. For more animation.
information about dynamics, see “Chapter 26: The Hair
Room” on page 584, “Chapter 27: The Cloth Room” on
page 603, and “Chapter 23: Using Bullet Physics” on Quaternion Interpolation
page 541.
Quaternion interpolation is a mathematical formula
that can smooth rough animations. If your animation

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remains jerky after editing keyframes and all other efforts dialog appears, allowing you to browse to your desired
at smoothing it out, selecting Animation > Quaternion
Interpolation can possibly help. This option should be
toggled on as a last resort.

Skip Frames
Selecting Animation > Skip Frames toggles skipping frames
on and off. This option can help speed playback.

Mute Sound
Selecting Animation > Mute Sound toggles sound muting
during animation playback. A check mark appears when
muting is enabled, and vice versa.

Clear Sound
Selecting Animation > Clear Sound deletes the sound
previously imported into your Poser scene.

Play Movie File

Selecting Animation > Play Movie File allows you to open
Open

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Chapter 22: Animating but hard to master. Start with short simple movies and work
up as your skills improve. The results may surprise you!

with Poser
Animation Overview
At its simplest, the animation process is as follows:
your scenes. You can use your work in multimedia projects,
on the Web, and in videos by exporting rendered results to 1. Decide how many frames you want in your animation.
Windows AVI, Macintosh QuickTime, or Flash movie format. One way to do this is to decide how long your
AVI movies are rendered in 32-bit color, which by default animation will be in seconds, then multiply that by
includes an alpha channel (mask) for each frame. This the your desired number of frames per second (frame
can aid in compositing the animation with other movie rate).
footage. QuickTime movies can also contain an Alpha
2. Create a starting pose.
channel if set to render at millions of colors.
Once rendered, exported animations can be opened and 3. Select your next keyframe.
edited in post-production tools such as Adobe Premiere
and Adobe After Effects, where you can edit sequences 4. Create a new pose.
and add special effects. While you can create long
5. Repeat Steps 3 and 4 until your animation is complete.
animations, we recommend creating a series of shorter
animations and piecing your scenes together using an Poser uses a technique called keyframe animation to
editing application. Real movies follow this guideline as simulate motion based on a series of still poses. You set up
well: Each time a camera angle changes, you’re seeing a a series of poses at different points in time. These are the
new take of a scene or a different scene altogether. This
includes cases such as conversations, where the camera is keyframes to create the illusion of motion. This keeps you
switching back and forth between the participants. Poser
includes many powerful tools designed to help you create create a motion, such as is done in stop-frame animation,
stunningly realistic animations. Animation is easy to learn
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where each frame is individually positioned (many etc. Please refer to “About Props” on page 232 for
“Claymation” movies use stop-frame animation). more information about props.

• Lights and Cameras: Change color and position of

What You Can Animate lights and zoom, pan, or bank cameras over time.

What can you animate using Poser? Just about everything! • Deformers: You can animate magnets, waves, morph
Here are some examples: targets, and parameters. Please refer to “Using
Deformers” on page 672 for more information about
• Figures (humans, animals, clothing, etc.): If you can
deformers.
imagine a motion, you can create it using Poser!
Please refer to “Chapter 9: Posing Figures” on page • Force Fields: You can animate Force Fields to create
186 realistic wind effects for strand-based hair and
and to “Posing Animals” on page 223 for some dynamic cloth. Please refer to “Wind Force Fields” on
information about posing animals. page 690

• Hands: Gestures and small motions add incredible • Materials: You can animate material shaders as
realism to videos. Many amateur animators ignore described in “Part 3: Materials” on page 296.
hands when animating, which subtly detracts from
your scene’s realism. Please refer to “Posing Hands” on • Walk Paths
page 221 for information about posing hands. walk along, as described in “Creating a Walk Path” on
page 526.
• Faces: Animating faces can add emotion and power
to your scene and can also mimic speech. Please refer • Background: You can animate the background using
to “Posing Faces” on page 217 for more information the Material room. Please refer to “Part 3: Materials”
about posing faces. on page 296 for more information about the Material
room.
• Props: You can animate props by moving them about
the Poser workspace, parenting them to other actors,
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• Movie nodes: You can play movies on any object using • Animation controls: The simple, single channel
movie nodes in the Material room. Animation controls allow you to create quick click-
and-drag animations as well as preview your work.
By default, your animation moves over the Document
Access the Animation controls by clicking the handle
window’s background. You can have still or animated
at the bottom of your Poser workspace. See “Using
backgrounds in your scenes. Please refer to “Importing
the Animation Controls” on page 496 for more
Background Pictures” on page 845 and to “Importing
information.
Movies” on page 844 for more information about
backgrounds in Poser scenes.
If not displayed, choose Window > Animation
Controls to show the Animation Controls.
Inverse Kinematics
used them.
You can use IK or not in your animations, however it is a

• Animation Palette: The Animation palette contains

the duration of your animation, and vice versa. You can
the advanced editing features, with which you can
create more complex animations. Among other
things, you can edit keyframes, animation layers
can affect your animation; it’s best to pick an option
and individual actors, and create Animation Sets.
before starting to animate and stay with it to avoid having
Access the Animation palette by selecting Window >
unexpected changes occur in your animation. Please
Animation Palette. Please refer to “Using the Animation
refer to “Inverse Kinematics (IK)” on page 187 for more
Palette” on page 500 for more information about the
information about Inverse Kinematics.
Animation palette.

Animation Tools • Graph: Each actor in your scene has a Graph for each
of its possible motions, allowing you to exercise minute
control over your animations. Access the Graph for any
parameter by using the desired parameter dial’s menu

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as described in “Parameters Palette” on page 209.

Please refer to “Using Graphs” on page 505 for more
Using the Animation Controls
information about the Graph. The Animation controls
palette contains the tools most commonly used when
• Walk Designer: Creating realistic walking movements
creating animations. They allow you to add and edit
is a very time consuming animation task to get right.
keyframes and preview your animation. If the Animation
Poser’s Walk Designer takes the effort out of this
controls do not appear on your screen, choose Window
process and lets you quickly create realistic walks
> Animation Controls
Walk Designer
it most convenient (generally the top or bottom of
by selecting Window > Walk Designer. Please refer to
your document window is the common location). The
“Using the Walk Designer” on page 522 for more
Animation controls appear as follows, and consists of the
information about the Walk Designer.
controls described in the following sections:
• Talk Designer: Speech is one of the most important
aspects of many animations; due to the complexity
of the human face, it is also one of the most
challenging things to animate realistically. Poser’s Talk
Designer animates facial expressions, eye and head
movements to create realistic lip sync animations

Access the Talk Designer by selecting Window > Talk

Designer. Please refer to “Using the Talk Designer” Animation Controls.
on page 530 for more information about the Talk
Designer.
Timeline/Frame Indicator
The center portion of the Animation controls displays the
Timeline, which represents the total time of your animation

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in Poser. This timeline contains a pointer (Scrubber) Recording Keyframes

representing the location of the current frame relative
to the entire animation, which is visible in the Document
window. The Scrubber is very commonly used to quickly etc. as keyframes. Create keyframes by moving the
scrubber to a new point on the timeline and making your
Scrubber to quickly navigate your animation. desired change(s) to your scene. Recorded keyframes
store new body part positions, new prop positions, material
Just above the Scrubber is the Frame Indicator, which
indicates both the total number of frames in your
You can only record one set of position parameter settings
animation and your current position within that timeline,
for any given keyframe. For example, if you select a frame
indicating animation length. For example, if the two
move the arm down again, the downward position is what
numbers read 60 and 120, that means that you are
will be “remembered” and what will affect your animation.
viewing the 60th frame of an animation that is 120 frames
long.
1. Select a starting pose.

2. Move the scrubber to the point in time/frame number

jump to. You can also add or remove frames by clicking
you wish to edit.

you wish in your animation. Entering a larger number 3. Raise the arm using the Editing tools.
lengthens your animation and vice versa. Shortening
animations will cut the excess frames from the end. For 4. Move the scrubber to a later point in time/frame
example, if you reduce an animation from 120 to 90 number.

5. Lower the arm, again using the Editing tools.

6. Continue creating keyframes until the motion

sequence is complete.

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Camera animation must be enabled for the • First Frame: Clicking the First Frame button moves to
currently selected camera In order to
automatically record keyframes. If animation is
disabled, you can add keyframes manually (see • End Frame: Clicking the End Frame button moves to
following subsection). the last frame in your animation.

• Stop: Clicking the Stop button stops animation

playback at the current frame.
Play Controls
• Play/Pause: Clicking the Play button plays your
The Play controls appear on the left side of the Animation animation at normal speed, including background
controls and allow you to preview your animation using movies and sounds (if any). While your animation
VCR-like controls. From left to right, the Play controls are as is playing, this button becomes the Pause button.
follows: Clicking it freezes the animation at the current frame.

• Step Backward: Clicking the Step Backward button

moves back to the previous frame (i.e., the frame
before the current one).

• Step Forward: Clicking the Step Forward button moves

forward one frame (i.e., the frame after the current
one).

• Loop: Checking the Loop radio button causes your

animation to repeat itself continuously when playing
The Play Controls. until you click the Stop button.

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• Animation previews run in the Document window. Be

sure to select the appropriate tracking mode (see
“Tracking Mode” on page 99).

Keyframe Controls
In most cases, Poser’s automatic animation engine records
keyframes as you create animations. Sometimes, however,
you’ll want to manually add keyframes, such as when
camera animation is disabled. It is important for you to
track the status of camera animation, as you could create The Keyframe Controls.
a series of keyframes without realizing that the animation is
off. As mentioned above, if camera animation is disabled,
you must manually add keyframes in order to record them. • Previous Keyframe: The Previous Keyframe button
returns to the previous keyframe.
necessitate recording additional keyframes. For example,
• Next Keyframe: The Next Keyframe button advances to
the next keyframe.
20, with Poser calculating its position for the tween frames.
• Edit Keyframes: Clicking the Edit Keyframes button
Frame 15.
opens the Animation Palette, discussed next.
The Keyframe controls allow you to quickly and easily add,
preview, and remove keyframes within your animation. • Add Key Frames: Clicking the Add Key Frames button
From left to right, the Keyframe controls are: adds a keyframe at the current frame number. For
example, if you have existing keyframes at Frames
15 and 30, you could drag the Scrubber to Frame 22
and insert a keyframe by clicking the Add Key Frames
button. You can also insert a keyframe by moving to
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any frame in your animation and making a change described above. To close the palette, either select
in your scene. This change will automatically be Window > Animation Palette again, or click the small box in
recorded as a new keyframe. the upper left corner.
The upper section of the Animation palette contains
• Remove Key Frames: Clicking the Remove Key Frames
several controls that appear on all three tabs. These are as
button removes the currently selected keyframe. For
follows:
example, if your character’s arm is over his head in
Frame 1, down at Frame 15 and out to the side in
Frame 30 and you remove the keyframe in Frame Common Controls
Several controls and options are common to all of the
side. To delete a keyframe, use the Next Keyframe tabs in the Animation Palette. These options are discussed
or Previous Keyframe buttons to locate your desired below.
keyframe, then click the Remove Keyframe button.

• Skip Frames: Check this radio button to skip frames

during playback. This helps conserve system resources
while previewing your animation before you render it.

Using the Animation Palette

The Animation palette contains three tabs: the Keyframes
tab, the Layers tab, and the Animation Sets tab. Each
of these tabs will be described in detail in the following
sections. To display the Animation palette, you can either
select Window > Animation Palette, or click the Display
Animation Palette button in the Animation controls as

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Resizing the grid.

Current Layer

The Current Layer pop-up menu appears at the very top

of the Animation palette. This menu allows you to select

The Animation Palette.

Please refer to “Layers Tab” on page 516 for more
information about animation layers.
You can resize the grid in the Animation Palette, making
the keyframes wider or narrower, by clicking and dragging Frame Rate
the resize button (below the text that reads Play Range as

narrower, or toward the right to make the grid wider. second. To change the scene frame rate, you can either
click the current frame rate and enter your desired number
in the text box that appears or click the arrow to the left of

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the current frame rate and make your selection from the You can also set the output frame rate using
Frame Rate pull-down menu. Choices are 12, 15, 18, 24, 25, the Movie Settings window ( “Chapter 24:
30, 50, and 60 frames per second. Some common frame Rendering Animations” on page 559). This setting is
rate settings are: independent from your scene frame rate, as
Animation palette (see above).
• NTSC: 30 Additionally, you can generate a quick preview
render by specifying the Every N-th Frame setting in
• PAL: 25
the Movie Settings window. Again, this setting is for
output purposes only, and is independent of your
• Film: 24
scene frame rate.
• Flash: 12 (recommended) or 15

For Poser integration into other apps, the user

Time
will need to determine the frame rate to
The Time control displays the amount of time in your
match that of the hosting software. The default
frame rate in Poser is 30 fps, but other applications
selected frame. Time is displayed in SMTPE format
(Hours:Minutes:Seconds:Frame). You can jump to a
the same frame rate. This needs to be handled
specially for each app.

animation using 24 frames per second, you’ll arrive at

Frame 1440 (24 frames/sec times 60 seconds).

Frame

The Frame Indicator is identical to its counterpart in the

Animation
and add or remove frames from your animation as
described in “Timeline/Frame Indicator” on page 496.
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Play Controls

The Play controls are identical to their counterparts in the

Animation controls. See “Play Controls” on page 498 for
more information.

Play Range

By default, the entire animation plays when previewing

animations using the Play controls. You can, however, opt Animation Palette options menu.
to view only a portion of your animation during preview.
This feature is useful if you have a long animation and only • Display Frames: Selecting the Display Frames
want to focus on small portions at a time. The Play Range option toggles the Timeline columns to display using
indicator appears at the bottom of all three tabs on the animation frames.
Animation palette. To adjust the play range, drag the
beginning and/or end point to your desired starting and • Display Time Code: Selecting the Display Time Code
ending frames, respectively. option toggles the Timeline columns to display,
representing your animation’s running time.

Animation Palette Options Menu • Loop Interpolation: Selecting the Loop Interpolation
option toggles loop interpolation on and off. Please
Clicking the Options arrow at the top right of the refer to “Loop Interpolation” on page 491 for more
Animation Palette opens the Animation palette Options information.
menu, which contains the following options:
• Quaternion Interpolation: Selecting the Quaternion
Interpolation option toggles quaternion interpolation
on and off. Please refer to “Quaternion Interpolation”
on page 491 for more information.

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Keyframes View previously created using the Animation controls, for the
The Keyframes view is where you edit the keyframes in your currently selected animation layer. Please refer to “Layers
animation. It shows the layout of the keyframes and allows Tab” on page 516 for more information about animation
you to set and move between them. You can also play layers. If you wish to see the keyframes contained within a
animations directly from this palette. The Keyframes tab different animation layer, select the name of the new layer
appears as follows: from the Current Layer pop-up menu. In addition to the
controls described above, the Keyframes tab contains the
following elements:

Keyframe Controls
The Keyframe controls are almost identical to their
counterparts in the Animation controls. The main
difference is that the keyframe controls in the Keyframes
palette feature a button that allows you to open the
Graph palette.

The Keyframes view of the Animation Palette.

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button. You can also insert a keyframe by moving to

any frame in your animation and making a change
in your scene. This change will automatically be
recorded as a new keyframe.

• Remove Key Frames: Clicking the Remove Key Frames

button removes the currently selected keyframe. For
example, if your character’s arm is over his head in
Frame 1, down at Frame 15 and out to the side in
Frame 30 and you remove the keyframe in Frame

Keyframe Controls.
side. To delete a keyframe, use the Next Keyframe
or Previous Keyframe buttons to locate your desired
• Previous Keyframe: The Previous Keyframe button
keyframe, then click the Remove Keyframe button.
returns to the previous keyframe.
• Skip Frames: Check this radio button to skip frames
• Next Keyframe: The Next Keyframe button advances to
during playback. This helps conserve system resources
the next keyframe.
while previewing your animation before you render it.
• Show Graph Display: Clicking the Show Graph Display
button opens the Graph, discussed in “Using Graphs”
Using Graphs
on page 505.
When you double-click a keyframe, the Graph palette for
• Add Key Frames: Clicking the Add Key Frames button
that keyframe appears. An element’s Graph palette allows
adds a keyframe at the current frame number. For
you to perform precise edits on keyframes and modify the
example, if you have existing keyframes at Frames
interpolation methods used in your animation. The Graph
15 and 30, you could drag the Scrubber to Frame 22
palette contains the following functions:
and insert a keyframe by clicking the Add Key Frames
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• Work Area: See below.

The following subsections describe the Graph’s
functionality in further detail.

About the Graph Palette

The Graph Work Area consists of two axes and a graph.

The horizontal axis represents time in frame numbers. The
vertical axis’ values change depending on the selected
attribute. If you choose a position attribute such as xTrans,
the values represent positions in 3D space (Cartesian
coordinates). If you select an editing property such as
Bend, the axis represents degrees. A morph parameter’s
values are measured in percentages.
The Graph itself shows the actual change in the attribute
over the course of your animation. Its shape indicates
The Graph Palette. the type of interpolation being used. You can also use
the Graph palette for synchronizing sound to motion, as
described in “Syncing Sound & Motion” on page 530.
• Animatable Properties: The Animation Properties pull-
down menu allows you to select all of the animatable Selecting Interpolation Types
properties for the currently selected element.
The Graph contains controls allowing you to specify
• Interpolation Methods: See “Selecting Interpolation
Types” on page 506. the element and frame range levels. The Interpolation
controls appear as follows:
• Keyframe Controls: See “Keyframe Controls” on page
504.
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Editing the Graph

You can edit the graph to achieve varying degrees of

interpolation. For example, to decrease the amount of
Spline interpolation, straighten the curve. You can set the
Interpolation Controls.
curve’s shape using preset interpolation methods or by
dragging the curve’s points to obtain your desired shape.
To choose an interpolation method, select the elements You can also apply different interpolation methods to
and frame range to modify, then click your desired different parts of the graph using the Break Spline function.
Interpolation button. The Animation palette uses color
codes to depict varying interpolation methods. Be aware that changing the graph’s shape affects the
selected element’s motion. To edit the graph, use the
• Spline: Green Animation Properties pull-down menu or select Graph
from the Parameters palette (see “Using Graphs” on page
Splines can sometimes go beyond and 505) to select the attribute to be edited. Next, drag any
exceed the maximum keyframed values point on the graph in the direction you want to move the
depending on the slope created by tightly-spaced curve. The curve will reshape itself based on your chosen
keyframes. Adding additional keyframes can interpolation method(s). Use the scrollbar to view parts of
constrain the slope into more pleasing levels. the graph that are not currently being displayed.
To change the type of interpolation applied to a portion
• Linear: Red of the graph, click and drag to select the frames you wish
to change. Your selected area will become highlighted.
• Constant: Grayed out Next, click one of the Interpolation buttons at the bottom
of the palette. This can add keyframes to your animation.
• Break Spline: A hash mark appears where Break Spline
has been applied. Vertical lines on the graph denote keyframes. You can
move these points to change when keyframes occur, and

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can also add keyframes by clicking the point on the line • To move keyframes, select the keyframe(s) you want
where you want to insert the keyframe. to move, and drag forward or backward in the
timeline to a new location.
The Current Frame indicator is a visual reminder of the
frame you’re currently working on. To select a keyframe,
• To add a keyframe, drag the Current Frame indicator
click the Next Keyframe or Previous Keyframe button,
to your desired location and click the Add Key Frames
as appropriate, click a keyframe indicator, or drag the
button.
Current Frame indicator to the frame you wish to edit. Click
and drag a rectangle to select a range of frames. • To delete a keyframe, move the Current Frame
indicator to the desired keyframe and click the Delete
Key Frames button.

• To cut, copy, and paste, use the editing hotkeys

([COMMAND]/[CTRL]+[X], [COMMAND]/[CTRL]+[C],
and [COMMAND]/[CTRL]+[V], respectively) or choose
the appropriate command from the Edit menu.

• To close the Graph palette, click the small box in the

upper left corner.

Using the Graph With the Animation Palette

Keyframes displayed in the Graph. If you open the Animation palette, you can access the
Graph palette for the currently selected scene element by
You can also perform the following functions using the clicking the Display Graph Palette button, or by double-
Graph: clicking a keyframe in the Animation palette. With both
palettes open, you have the following options:

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• Double-clicking any element in the Animation palette’s Interpolation Controls

Element list switches the current Graph palette to the
selected element.
(the area known as tween frames) is called interpolation,
• Pressing Opt/ALT while double-clicking any element and the frames between keyframes are called tweens.
in the Animation palette’s Element list opens a new Interpolation determines how intermediate poses are
Graph palette for the selected element while not created.
affecting any other open Graph palettes. You can
use this function to open as many Graph palettes as Poser supports four types of interpolation, which allows you
you like at one time, which can greatly speed up your to make subtle changes to your animations. Interpolation
animation work. You can even open more than one settings apply to a range of frames, meaning that you can
Graph palette for each element, allowing you to (for use different interpolation methods at different intervals
example) adjust the Right Forearm’s Twist and Bend at in your animation. The Interpolation controls allow you to
once to achieve smooth realistic movement. specify the interpolation method.

When you have more than one Graph

palette open at once, changing elements
by double-clicking them will only change the most
recently opened Graph palette. All other Graph
palettes will retain their current settings. If you need
to change more than one graph palette, close out Interpolation Controls.
all unneeded palettes, then re-open them by
selecting your currently needed elements.
From left to right, the buttons are:

• Spline: Places tween poses and settings on a curve.

Motion begins at one keyframe, accelerates to full
velocity, and gradually slows down as it approaches

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keyframe with the arm back down, the change

it raised, the arm will begin moving slowly, accelerate direction at the second keyframe would be abrupt.
to a constant velocity, and slow as it reaches the
second keyframe. This is not to say that the movement
will be fast; actual speed of motion depends on the
amount of change between keyframes and the
number of tween frames. In our above example,

would make a very rapid motion, while having 100

frames would make a very slow motion. The key thing Linear Interpolation.
to remember is that this type of animation resembles a
smooth curve and is normally the most realistic. • Constant: This has no intermediate poses. If you set a

will be maintained until the second keyframe, at which

point it will instantly change to the second pose, which
will be maintained until the third keyframe, and so on.

Spline Interpolation.

• Linear: Takes the two keyframes and divides the

motion between them equally with no acceleration
Constant Interpolation.
or deceleration of the moving items. In the above
example, the arm would move at a constant velocity
from keyframe to keyframe. If you created a third • Break Spline: Stops interpolation at the selected point
so you can begin a new interpolation style. This is useful

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for blending different interpolation styles. For example, the Stop button. Click the button again to toggle its
a bouncing ball moves in a smooth arc until it hits the functionality off.

in direction and speed. This is one scenario where

changing interpolation styles can aid your animating
This Element/All Elements
work.
This option selects whether changes made using the
Keyframes tab (interpolation type, keyframe changes,
etc.) apply to the entire scene or just to the selected
element. Click the This Element or All Elements radio
button, as appropriate, to make your selection.

Breaking interpolation.
Selecting elements to change.

Skip Frames
Elements List/Timeline
Clicking the Skip Frames radio button enabling this
option drops frames when previewing your animation, The Elements List displays a list of all elements in your
speeding up playback. Click the button again to toggle its scene. The Timeline Area displays your animation frames
functionality off. and all of the keyframes stored for each body part/
prop/material/etc. Keyframes appear in red, with tween
(interpolated) frames appearing in different colors
Loop according to their interpolation type (see “Selecting
Interpolation Types” on page 506). You can expand
Clicking the Loop radio button causes your animation
and collapse element listings by clicking the triangles
to repeat itself continuously when playing until you click
next to elements in the list. Each element can be further
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expanded to display its properties and parameters

that can be animated. For example, you can view the Elements List, the keyframes displayed will
Scale and Transition
following image displays a portion of the Elements List for the Poser workspace. You’ll need to expand the
a scene. Elements List to show posing/parameter changes.

Double-clicking an element in the list, or selecting an

element and clicking the Show Graph button, opens the
Graph for the selected item. Please see “Using Graphs” on
page 505.

The Element List.

Editing Keyframes on the Timeline
To select an element, click it in the Element List. This selects You can use the Timeline to select, add, edit, or delete
the desired element in the same manner as clicking it keyframes. The Timeline appears as a grid that displays
in the Document window, using the Current Actor menu keyframes for each element in your scene. Columns
or selecting it using any of the other available selection indicate time, with each column corresponding to a
methods. Poser highlights the currently selected element single animation frame or point in time (See “Elements List/
in the Elements List as well as that element’s row in the Timeline” on page 511). The Ruler at the top of this area
Timeline. Use the vertical scroll bar on the right of the indicates whether the columns indicate frames or points in
Elements List and expand and collapse branches to view time. Each row corresponds to an element in your scene.
all of the elements in your scene. Collapsing branches As described above, the Timeline presents information
saves space in the display. using color codes. Use the horizontal and/or vertical
scrollbars to navigate the Timeline if necessary.

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Selecting Keyframes button as described in “This Element/All Elements” on

page 511. When This Element is selected, keyframes are
only recorded for your currently selected element. When
(Frame 1) when you open the Animation palette. You can All Elements is selected, keyframes are recorded for every
select any frame by clicking in or above its column. You element in your scene. To add a keyframe:
can also enter a number in the Frame
1. Select This Element or All Elements, as appropriate.
select a keyframe, Poser displays the current element’s row
and time column, creating an intersection. 2. Select the frame or point in time where you wish to
Selecting a different keyframe moves the intersection to add the keyframe.
the newly selected point. To select a keyframe, click any
3. Click the Add Keyframes button.
one of the light green squares on the Timeline grid.

Removing Individual Keyframes

Removing keyframes can modify how your animation

or your entire scene by selecting This Element or All

Elements, as appropriate. Removing a keyframe does not
delete the frame, but removes the saved information. To
Selecting Keyframes. remove a keyframe:
1. Select This Element or All Elements, as appropriate.

Adding & Removing Keyframes 2. Select the frame or point in time where you wish to
remove the keyframe.

Poser-created interpolation (tween) frame. You can add 3. Click the Delete Keyframes button.
keyframes for the entire scene or the selected element
by checking either the This Element or All Elements radio
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Removing Multiple Keyframes (such as copying Scale parameter settings to a Rotation

parameter). You can also obtain unexpected results by
To remove an entire range of keyframes, click and drag copying movements from one side of a body to another. If
over the keyframes you wish to delete in the Timeline and you do copy parameters from side to side, you will need to
make the affected parameters negative on the side you
and hold Shift while selecting individual keyframes, then copied to.
press [DEL].
Choose Edit > Copy or press [COMMAND]/[CTRL]+[C] to
copy frames to your clipboard. When you reach your
Moving Keyframes destination, select Edit > Paste or press [COMMAND]/
[CTRL]+[V].
While creating animations, you may decide to have
Alternatively, you can click the desired keyframe then
one or more keyframes occur earlier or later than your
press and hold Opt/ALT while dragging the keyframe to
present settings. You may also want to apply the settings
its new location. You can move multiple keyframes by
in some keyframes to others. Poser allows you to move
selecting them and Opt/ALT+dragging your selection to its
both individual and multiple keyframes. To do this, click
new location.
the keyframe you wish to move and drag the colored
cell horizontally to its new location. To move multiple
keyframes, select them and drag your selection to its new Retiming Keyframes
location on the timeline.
Selecting Animation > Retime Animation opens the Retime
Keys dialog, which allows you to adjust keyframe timing in
Copying Keyframes your animation.

appearing in the Element List. By doing this, you can

perfect step. Although Poser does not limit how you copy
and paste keyframes, you should avoid mixing data
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3. Enter the range of frames to retime the animation

to in the Destination Frames
range is longer than the source range, the animation is
expanded or slows down, and vice versa.

4. Click OK

When using this command, all existing

keyframes in the Destination Range are
deleted.
The Retime Animation dialog.

By specifying source and destination frame ranges, you

can change the amount of time a motion or motions take
Resampling Key Frames
to occur. This command does not destroy any keyframes,
Selecting Animation > Resample Key Frames opens the
meaning that you can use it to repeat motions by copying
Resample Keys window, which allows you to increase or
them from one time to another. Selecting a motion in one
decrease the number of keyframes in your animation.
area and selecting a non-overlapping destination re-maps
the motion to another time without deleting the original This window has the following options:
motion.
To retime keyframes:
1. Open the Retime Keys dialog box.

2. Enter the start and end frames for the section of

animation you want to retime in the Source Frames

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your animation and automatically assign new

keyframes.

Make key frame every X frames: Check this radio

button and enter a value in the Frames
create a keyframe every X frames, where X is the

• Frame Range: If you want to resample key frames in

Layers Tab
Animation layers, also known as non-linear animation,
provide you with the ability to separate different parts of
The Resample Keys dialog. an animation into independent pieces, which can be
individually edited, moved, or even hidden, with respect to
• Modify: Check the appropriate radio button to sample the entire animation. At render time, the various layers are
keyframes for the Current Element (prop, body part, composited together into a single animation, according
etc.), Current Figure Everything Layers tab on the Animation
(entire scene). palette contains the controls that allow you to create,

• Resample Method: You have two options for

resampling keyframes:

Analyze Curvature: Causes Poser to examine

the amount of curvature (change over time) in

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Base Layer

layer will exist; this is known as the Base layer. The Base
layer is always present, and if you wish, you can create
your entire animation just in this single layer. The frame
count of the Base layer is equivalent to the length of the
entire animation. The Start frame of the Base layer is always
Frame 1, and the End frame is the last frame in the entire
animation. Thus, changing the End frame of the Base layer
changes the length of your animation, which will affect
any other layers whose End frames coincide with the End
frame of the Base layer.

You cannot change any properties of a Base

Layer other than the End frame.
Layers tab in the Animation Palette.

If you switch from the Layers tab to the

Creating, Deleting & Previewing
Keyframes tab, you will see any keyframes Animation Layers
that exist in the currently selected animation layer. If
In addition to the shared controls common to all three
you wish to see keyframes from another layer, use
tabs on the Animation palette (see “Using the Animation
the Current Layer pop-up menu at the top of the
Palette” on page 500 for a description of these controls),
Animation palette to select any existing layers,
the upper section of the Layers tab also contains three
without having to return to the Layers tab.
buttons:

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• New: Click the New button to create a new animation of the layers as well as where each layer is placed in the
layer. timeline of the entire animation. The Layer controls are as
follows:
• Delete: Click the Delete button to delete the currently
selected animation layer. This feature is disabled when
the Base layer is selected.

• Current Layer Only: Click the Current Layer Only radio

button to temporarily exclude all other animation
layers from the playback. Doing so allows you to

current layer, which can be helpful in scenes with

multiple layers.

Current Layer Only option.

Layer Controls.

• Layer Name: Once you have created a new layer, you

Animation Layer Controls
can change its default name to anything you want.
The lower portion of the Layers tab contains additional Simply select the layer in the Timeline display, and type

and the Timeline Area, which displays the various layers

in editable segments, allowing you to see the hierarchy

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• Include in Playback: Check or uncheck this option to Blend out frames settings allow to you specify over
include or exclude the selected clip when you preview how many frames the linear blend will occur. The
your animation. Blend In/Out frame count is indicated on the layer
segment display as an additional shaded segment
• Start/End Frame: The Start frame and End frame attached to either the beginning or end of the layer
controls allow you to specify the Start and End frames segment.
for the selected layer. While the Base layer always
equals the length of the entire animation, other layers
can be of any length up to the entire animation layer is a gradual movement, then the Blend
length, and can start and end at any point within the feature may not be effective, particularly if the
duration of the animation. You can change the Start Blend In/Out frame counts are set too low.
and End frames by clicking on the frame number

• Composite Method: While compositing the full

can click on the layer segment in the Timeline Area
animation, Poser begins with the Base layer, and works
and drag it to a new position; the segment length
upwards through the layer hierarchy incorporating
will remain constant, but the Start and End frames
each layer one by one. The Composite method
will change. Clicking and dragging on either the
setting allows you to specify the manner in which the
beginning or the end of the layer segment will change
individual layers will be composited. The two options
the Start or End frame respectively, without moving
for compositing animation layers are Replace and Add.
the position of the segment within the animation
timeline. The length of the layer segment will adjust to Replace: This is the default composite method for
accommodate the new Start or End frame number. animation layers. Selecting Replace means that

• Blend In/Out Frames: The Blend In/Out feature allows actor will replace any actions on the same
you to gradually blend an animation layer into, or parameter, on all layers below the selected layer.
out of, the full animation. This feature could be used, For example, let’s suppose that Layer1 is below
for example, to create the effect of wind gradually Layer2 in the animation layer hierarchy. Let’s also
picking up or fading away. The Blend in frames and suppose that in Layer1 James’ chest is twisted
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twenty degrees to the left, but in Layer2 his chest

is twisted only ten degrees to the left. With the
Animation Sets Tab
Replace option, the Layer2 setting will replace the Animation sets allow you to store a series of animation clips
setting from Layer1. that are frequently used in combination. For example, you
Add: Selecting Add means that the values for all
rotation and translation parameters will be added save the limb’s movements to a named animation set.
to one another as Poser composites each layer
into the animation. Using the above example, Creating & Editing Animation Sets
the twenty degrees of Twist from Layer1 would be
added to the ten degrees from Layer2, resulting in To work with animation sets, open the Animation palette
a greater effect of thirty degrees of Twist. However, by selecting Window > Animation Palette. Click the
if Layer1 had included a twist of negative twenty Animation Sets tab to open the Animation Sets palette, as
degrees, while Layer2 had included a twist of shown.
positive ten degrees, then the Add option would
The Frame Rate, Time control, Frame Indicator, Play
controls, and Skip Frames button all function as described
• Move Up/Down: If you select the Replace composite in previous sections of this chapter.

hierarchy will be very important, as parameter settings

in higher layers replace those in lower layers (see
above for additional explanation). You can change
the order of layers within the hierarchy by clicking the
Move up or Move down button to move the selected
layer either up or down one level. Clicking the button
a second time will repeat the action.

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• To add selected items and/or frames to your

animation set, click and drag to make your
selection and click the + button. You can select any
combination of items/frames. The start and end frames
will be made identical for all items in the animation set.

• To remove selected item(s) and/or frame(s), make

your selection and click the – button.

Several buttons allow you to add, remove, and set attributes

for your animation set items and frames.

• To save an animation set, you will need to save the

open the Pose library. Click the Save to Library button

Creating an Animation Set.
at the bottom of the Library palette to display the
New Set dialog. Next, click the Select Subset button at
• To create a new animation set, click the New button the bottom of the dialog to open the Select Objects
and name your new set. Doing so will populate the dialog. Click the Select from Animation Set button to
Animation Sets tab with additional editing controls. display a list of the available animation sets. Choose
one of the sets, and click OK to save the animation
• To delete an animation set, select the set from the set to the library. Repeat for additional sets you want
pop-up menu to the right of the Attributes button, and to save.
click the Delete button.

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Setting Animation Set Attributes other. In reality, however, it is an incredibly complex motion
involving a variety of muscles in the legs, torso, arms–
The Attributes button is for use with Python scripts. You can practically the entire body. Thus, creating an accurate
add any arbitrarily named attribute with an associated walk simulation entails a great deal of precision posing.
value. Using Python scripts, you can use these attributes Poser’s Walk Designer allows you to bypass most of this and
any way you wish. For example, you could create a create a realistic walk using just a few simple steps.

repeatedly. For more information on using Python scripts

with Poser, please refer to “Part 8: PoserPython” on
page 906, or to the PoserPython Methods Manual that
accompanied your Poser installation.

Applying Animation Sets to Figures

if you create an animation set of an arm being raised,

feature can help you save time by allowing you to reuse

complex animations over and over.
The Walk Designer.

Using the Walk Designer

Of the wide range of human motions, walking is among
the hardest to simulate with any degree of accuracy.
Walking looks simple: just place one foot in front of the

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Creating the Walk • (default)

on an angle.
To open the Walk Designer
animate in the Poser scene, then choose the Window > • Side: Checking the Side radio button looks at the
Walk Designer menu command.

• Front: Checking the Front radio button looks at the

walk path), create a walk as follows:
1.
• Top: Checking the Top radio button looks down from
when walking)
the top.
2. Create a walk using the Walk Designer.

The Walk Designer has two sections. The upper set of workspace’s foreground, background, and
controls creates the walk’s larger motions, while the shadow colors, as well as tracking mode.
lower set lets you set up the walk’s secondary motions. To
preview a walk, click the Walk button at any time while
using the Walk Designer Figure Types
and the button will change to Stop.
This step is optional, however it can address potential
issues such as irregular or jerky motions in generated walks.
Views Load button in the Walk
Designer and use the standard Open dialog to locate your
As you can see in the previous graphic, the Walk Designer
“Appendix B:
includes a real-time preview of the walk being created. As
Poser File Structure” on page 918 for more information

your updates. You can specify the angle from which to

preview your walk by checking the appropriate radio
button underneath the Preview tab:
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Loading & Saving Walks

on. For example, if creating a walk for the
Walk Designer.
results. This is not the same as saving animated poses to the
Library palette. To save a walk, create it, then click the
Save button to open a standard dialog box allowing you
Blend & Tweak Styles to specify the name and location for the saved walk.
Select your desired path, enter a name for the saved walk,
and click OK.
designing your walk. By default, the sliders are all in To load a walk, click the Load button to open a standard
the middle of their ranges. This combination applies Open
a workable default walk. Dragging a slide to the right
increases its value and effect, and vice versa. To create a
walk: For greatest realism, load walks created using
1. Drag the Blend sliders to create the large motions. Use
the preview to view all of the available settings. Try
using combinations of several settings, and remember
that small changes can produce dramatic results. Applying Walks
2. Adjust the Tweak Once you’ve created your walk, you need to apply it to
“Creating a Walk Path” on
3. When your walk looks the way you want it to, click page 526 for instructions on creating walk paths). The
the Done button to open the Apply Walk dialog (see Walk Apply dialog allows you to specify various options for
below).
to walk in place, you can use this dialog without having a
Clicking the Defaults button restores all sliders walk path.
to their default positions.
You have the following options when applying walks:
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• Walk in Place/Follow Path: Clicking the Walk in Place

in place without going anywhere. You can use

this option to create a walk without a walk path.

path, click the Follow Path radio button.

• Path: If your scene has more than one walk path, you
can use the Path pull-down menu to specify the walk
path to use.

• Align Head to: Checking the Align Head to box lets

along the walk path. One Step Ahead keeps the head
aligned with the body and produces the most head
movements. End of Path
looking at the end of the walk path no matter where
it leads. Next Sharp Turn aligns the head to the turns in
the walk path, the head only moving when the path
curves.

• Always Complete Last Step: Checking the Always

The Apply Walk dialog.
complete last step box forces the walk animation to
complete within the allotted time. This is useful if the
• Figure walk ends in mid-stride at the end.
Figure
to apply the walk to. • Transition From/To Pose at Start/End Frames: The
Transition from pose at start and Transition from pose

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at end layer for your walk keyframes. Animation layers allow

into and out of the walk at the beginning and end you to organize your animations, save and reuse
of the walk cycle, respectively. When enabled, Poser

Walk We recommend that you create the keyframes

Designer, and vice versa at the end of the cycle. For in a new animation layer; click the “New
example, you can use this feature to quickly set up a animation layer” radio button to select this
option. Alternately, you can choose to use an
position, designing a run, and specifying a realistic existing animation layer by clicking the “Layer”
transition time. When you play your animation, the radio button, and selecting the name of the
runner will come off the starting blocks and begin the layer from the pop-up menu. If you do not wish
to use animation layers, you can simply write all
option(s). Once enabled, enter the number of frames keyframes to the Base Layer. For more information
to be used for the transition. Longer time periods (more about animation layers, please see “Layers Tab”
frames) allow more realistic movements and vice on page 516.
versa.

• Start Frame: Enter the frame in your animation where

Creating a Walk Path
the walk will begin in the Start Frame

• End Frame: Enter the frame in your animation where

the walk will end in the End Frame
walk in place or along a path.
a value that is expected to yield a natural walk speed.
Walk paths are designed to work with the Walk Designer
(see “Using the Walk Designer” on page 522). While
the Walk Designer
• Create Keyframes in: The Create Keyframes in setting
allows you to select either a new or existing animation Document
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about the Poser workspace. Create the path, design the Shaping Curves
end, stopping at the end.
and drag control points to shape your path any way you
To create a walk path, Select Figure > Create Walk Path.
like.
A default path appears in the Poser workspace. We
recommend shifting to the Top camera and zooming out
to get the best view of your scene and walk path, but you
can work using any camera you like. The following image
shows a default walk path.

Drag a control point to reshape the curve.

You can position the beginning and end of the walk

path by dragging the end control points. You can also
Default walk path. reposition the entire walk path by selecting the ring that
appears when your cursor is near the walk path, which
functions like the Figure Ring discussed in “Selecting Body
Walk paths must be created on the ground Parts” on page 191.
plane.

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Adding and Removing Control Points

To add control points, simply click anywhere along the line.
Your new control points appear. Adding control points can
add detail and/or lengthen your walk path.

A reshaped walk path.

Because of the nature of the spline used for

walk paths, it is impossible to create a hard
You can add or remove points on the walk path. right-angle turn. These and other abrupt direction
changes can result in unnatural-looking walks.

To delete control points, press and hold Opt/ALT while

clicking the point you wish to remove. Once you have created a walk using the
Once you have completed your walk path, use the Walk Walk Designer, you can delete the walk
Designer
to “Using the Walk Designer” on page 522 for more path was present.
information about the Walk Designer.

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Sound If you selected the LipSync Audio option, the Talk Designer

Poser allows you to import sounds, which play when refer to “Syncing Sound & Motion” on page 530 for
your animation plays. This is a great way for you to add information on working with imported sounds.
soundtracks, speech, etc. to your animations. To import
a sound clip, select File > Import > Sound and use the
based on the current frame rate selected.
standard Open dialog that appears to locate your desired

expand the default animation to 60 frames if a

use with the Talk Designer, select File > Import > Lip Sync
frame rate of 30 frames per second has been
Audio (see below for information on the Talk Designer).
selected for the animation.

frame and play whenever the animation is played. Also,

calls for more than one sound, edit your desired sounds Editing Sound
together in an audio editing application and create a
Sound duration appears in the Sound Range bar at the
bottom of the Animation Palette. You can clip imported
sounds by shortening the sound bar. However, if sound
Importing Sound playback begins at any frame other than 1, the beginning
of the sound will be clipped.
Selecting either File > Import > LipSync Audio or File >
Import > Sound allows you to import WAV, MP3, and other
audio format sound clips that you can use as a soundtrack
for your animation. Imported speech or sounds are added
to the beginning of your animation and play every time
you play your animation. Upon selecting this option, a
standard Open dialog appears, allowing you to select the

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The sound range is displayed at the bottom of the Animation A sound appears as a waveform in the Graph palette.
Palette.

To specify start and end frames for the sound, drag arrows
on either side of the sound bar.
Using the Talk Designer
Poser’s Talk Designer automates the task of animating
Syncing Sound & Motion facial features for speech. The Talk Designer synchronizes
morph targets, Emotional Tweak controls, and powerful
The Graph palette displays a graphic representation of the eye and head motion modelling algorithms with your

changes in sound occur. You can use this information to expressions for speech.
position keyframes in your animation. Simulate speech by
The Talk Designer Talk Designer
matching peaks in the waveform with changes in mouth
palette. Choose Window > Talk Designer to open the
position, as shown above. To display waveforms in the
palette.
Graph palette, open it as described in “Using Graphs” on
page 505 and click the Toggle Sound Display button to Select File > Import > Lip Sync Audio
toggle waveform display on and off. as described above. At the end of the import process, the

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Talk Designer palette will automatically open with your

The Talk Designer.

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Select Window > Talk Designer to open the Talk Designer • Language: If you add supplemental text, use the
palette at any time. Language pull-down menu to specify the language
used. In order to select another option from the
Language menu, you must have text entered in the
Supplemental Text
will have the option to select English, French, German,
The Talk Designer palette settings are described in the
or Japanese.
Talk
Designer to your satisfaction, click the Apply button at the
•
bottom of the palette to generate a lipsync animation
information about which phonemes (speech sounds)

Input Files

• : Clicking the “...” button next to the Sound

with Poser, you can simply use the default viseme
setting allows you to browse to the location of the

a previous version of Poser, please make sure that

a viseme map is provided in the associated pop-up
Macintosh.

• Supplemental text: For better accuracy, we that was created with a different morph target setup,
recommend that you include the text of the spoken
words in the Supplemental text

alternative language. You can click the “...” button to folder that accompanies your Poser installation. Doing
browse to a text document, or click on the “+” button Talk
to open a text box and enter the text directly. Designer palette. Alternately, you can click the “...”
button to browse to the location of the viseme map

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If you are unsure whether or not your custom Talk

Designer is greater than the End Frame for

Base Layer), then additional frames will be

appended to the scene to accommodate the
difference.
contact the content creator.

• Create Keyframes in: The Create Keyframes in setting

allows you to select either a new or existing animation
layer for your lipsync animation keyframes. Animation
• Figure layers allow you to organize your animations, save and
use for the lipsync animation, by selecting the name of

We recommend that you create the keyframes in

• Start frame: Specify the Start Frame number for the a new animation layer; click the “New animation
actual lipsync animation. By default, the Start Frame layer” radio button to select this option. You will
setting is set to the Start Frame of the entire scene be asked to name the new layer. Alternately, you
animation (frame 1). can choose to use an existing animation layer by
clicking the “Layer” radio button, and selecting
• End frame: Specify the End Frame number for the the name of the layer from the pop-up menu. If
actual lipsync animation. By default, the End Frame you do not wish to use animation layers, you can
setting is set to the End Frame of the entire scene simply write all keyframes to the Base Layer. For
animation (generally frame 30, unless you have more information about animation layers, please
see “Layers Tab” on page 516.
End Frame setting will default to
• Enunciation: The Enunciation slider allows you to
Talk Designer will

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movements can result in a more realistic animation.

Check the Create eye motion checkbox to have Poser
Poser automatically adjusts visemes to correlate to add eye movements to your lipsync animation.

can use the Enunciation slider to raise or lower the • Create head motion: People naturally move their
degree of reaction, to counteract or supplement heads during speech, which means that adding head
the automatic viseme adjustment. Move the slider motion to your animation can yield more realistic
to the right to increase enunciation, or to the left to results. Check the Create head motion checkbox
decrease. to have Poser add head motion to your lipsync
animation for you.
Head Motions
Emotional Tweaks
• Eye Blink Rate: The Talk Designer can add intermittent
The Talk Designer includes six Emotional Tweaks, which
eye blinks that have been modeled on studies of
are morph targets that can be used in conjunction with
actual human blink rates, in order to animate blinks
speech. These morph targets are based upon facial
realistically in relation to the animation of speech. The
expressions associated with the following emotions:
Eye Blink Rate slider allows you to specify an average
blink rate, measured in blinks per minute (BPM). To • Anger
change the average blink rate, simply click and drag
the slider, or click on the numerical value in the text • Disgust
box and enter a number directly. The default value
is 12.5 BPM. A setting of zero (0 BPM) disables the • Fear
automatic blink feature, which means that with this
• Joy
setting you must animate all eye blinks manually.
• Sadness
• Create eye motion: When people speak, their eyes
generally look in different directions with relation to • Surprise
their subject matter and surroundings. Adding eye
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Each of these Emotional Tweaks is adjusted by a slider,

which ranges between -100% and 100%. The values within still load. If you make a mistake, return to Frame 1 and
this range represent the degree to which each particular

during the lipsync animation. Feel free to mix and match other keyframe (see “Editing Keyframes on the Timeline”
the Emotional Tweaks on page 512).
needs. To adjust the values, you can either move the
sliders to the right or left, or you can click on the numerical
value to the right of the slider and enter a number directly.
data. Choose the Scripts > Utility >
dropFigToFloorAllFrames command for a useful
Importing BVH Motion Capture
Files all keyframes.

Selecting File > Import > BVH Motion allows you to import
Advanced Animation Techniques
Import dialog appears, allowing you to select your desired
This section is where we stop talking about technical
details for a moment and focus on a few artistic
considerations. Editing animations is pretty easy work in
consult the developer’s readme or documentation.
and of itself. Getting your animation to look just the way
Developers such as Biovision or House of Moves will provide
you want it and adding realism are the hard parts. A jerky
arms are aligned in the X or Z axis during import. The align
motion can become realistic if you keep a few simple
axis is determined at the time of recording. Choose the
techniques in mind.

Z-Axis arm alignment and Scale Automatically options.

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Keyframes and Timing Now that the major motions are roughed in, let’s add
some detail. For example, add the hip swings, shoulder
How should you space keyframes? Begin by considering tilts, etc. The subtle details may not be overly noticeable,
time and frame rate. Space keyframes so that the motion but your viewers will pick up their presence or absence
looks natural at the selected frame rate. For example, if though they may not be able to tell you what’s wrong
you have a motion that requires 4/5 of a second, you’ll with your animation if these elements are not present.
need 24 frames at 30fps, 20 frames at 24fps, 9 frames at Poser’s Animation palette and graph (described in the
12fps, etc. The basic formula is frame rate (in frames per
second) times motion duration in seconds = number of transitions don’t occur in all movements. For example,
frames required. when a bat strikes a fast-moving baseball, there is an
immediate change in direction. This is an animation where
linear interpolation might be better suited. You can adjust
Creating Realistic Motion splines in the Graph palette, or change interpolation
types to create motions. You can adjust splines or change
Now that you’ve gotten the number of frames required for
interpolation types in the Graph palette.
a motion down, what’s next? Break down the motion into
component parts. For example, look at a baseball player By working this way, you can create any kind of action
and can make that animation look as realistic as possible.
moving. Upon closer inspection, however, you see that the
entire body is in motion. Some movements, like the arms
and legs, are more pronounced that others. So, begin with
Animatable Origins
The Animatable Origin option appears in the Properties
adjustments. Using our baseball player example, you could
palette when a prop is selected, or when a body part on a
start with two keyframes: One at the beginning of the
swing, the other at the end.
Previewing this animation with only two keyframes would
probably give you a pretty good result, however the
details are where your animations will shine.
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was prepared by Nerd3D. In this example, the default

The Animatable Origin option.

A drastically morphed character.

When checked, the Animatable Origin option allows you

Because the width and shape of the shoulders has
to animate the actor’s origin as the actor is translated,
rotated, or scaled. This allows you to optimally position the
no longer rotates with proper respect to the new shape
joint origin if the shape of the actor changes drastically by
and size of the shoulder. When the “Alien Andy” morph is
scaling or morphing.

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dialed in and the arm is raised up, the arm rotates through When using animatable origins, you will get
the shoulder.

as outlined in “Adding a Weight Map” on page

812. At a minimum, convert the body parts where
the mesh is most affected by the morph (the
shoulders, forearms, head and neck in the case of
this alien morph). Affected actors will also allow you
to create joints that bend more naturally in respect
to the joints around them.

After you convert your body parts into weight maps, use
the Properties palette to set the Animatable Origin option
on for each origin you need to change. You’ll also want
to make sure that the Display Origin option is checked so
that you can see and position the origin. When viewed
in Outline display mode, you can easily see which origin
points need to be adjusted when the morph is dialed in.
When the upper arm on the morphed character is rotated,
its joint .center is no longer appropriate for the morphed body
shape.

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Original joint centers as they appear in relation to the The Dependent Parameters editor will track positions of the
morph. Origin X, Y, and Z dials after “Start Teaching” is pressed.
The Dependency Editor, discussed in “Using Dependent
Parameters” on page 726, allows you to link the morph After you adjust the X, Y, and Z origin of the current joint,
with the new positions of the joint centers. For example, click Stop Teaching. Select the next joint you want to edit,
after the “Alien Andy” morph is dialed in, you would and Start Teaching again.
open the Dependent Parameters editor and click Start
Teaching to record the new positions of the joint centers DO NOT use Figure > Symmetry to copy the
that you want to change. Any changes you make to the new joint positions to the other side of the
joint positions are changed in the Dependent Parameters body. Doing so will copy the positions of all joints
into the Dependent Parameters editor.

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Continue as such until all of your joints are adjusted. They Long/Complex Animations
will all be recorded in the Dependent Parameters editor.
After you have them all set up, click Stop Teaching again. If you are trying to make a long movie or one that
After all of your joints are positioned you will see the incorporates changing cameras, you should create small
morphed character pose much more naturally, and the clips and edit them together in a video editing application
way it is supposed to. such as Adobe Premiere.

Saving Animations to the Library

You can save animations to the Library palette as still
(single-frame) or animated (multiple frame) poses for use
“Adding Items to the Library”
on page 172 for more information on saving still or
animated poses to the Library.

The new positions of the joints.

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Chapter 23: Using To create a new simulation, follow these steps:

1. From the Physics Simulation palette, click the New
Bullet Physics button to create a new simulation.

2. The Simulation Name dialog will prompt you to enter

The Physics Simulation palette allows you to incorporate a name for the simulation. After you enter the name,
Bullet physics into your Poser animations. To open the click OK to create the simulation.
palette, choose Window > Bullet Physics Controls.
3. To limit your simulation to certain frames in your
After you create a simulation, the objects in your simulation
project, enter the starting and ending frames of the
can be assigned one of three object types, which are
desired frame range in the Start Frame and End Frame
detailed further in the sections that follow:

Creating a Simulation
The Physics Simulation palette allows you to create one
or more physics simulations in your Poser project. Each

• The objects that will be included in that physics

simulation.
Setting up a new simulation.
• The frames in your animation project in which the

objects Using Live Simulation

• Settings that will be applied to all of the objects
included in that simulation. apply to the physics objects in your scene, you can view
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the effects of those settings in real time. Check the Live Keyframes that are added to the Animation
Simulation option to preview how your simulation settings Palette after calculating a simulation will be
and weight painting affect the physics objects in your removed when you click the Clear Simulation
scene. The live previews are especially helpful while button.
you paint constraint maps that control how the objects
respond to gravity, motion, and collision with other objects.
Use the Animation > Recalculate Dynamics >
Live simulations do not add keyframes to the All Physics menu command to calculate all
Animation Palette. of the physics simulations in your current project.

The Live Simulation button will be disabled

until after you set up the simulation objects in Object Types
your scene.
After you create a new simulation, you need to set up the
simulation objects in your scene. Click the Objects button
Pressing the Clear Simulation button will to open the Select Objects dialog.
return the objects to their default state. You
will need to uncheck the Live Simulation option
before clearing the simulation.

Calculating Simulations
Click the Calculate Simulation button to calculate your
simulation frame by frame for the currently selected
simulation. Keyframes will be added to the Animation
palette for each object in the current simulation.

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The Select Objects dialog displays three tabs:

Choreographed, Rigid Dynamic, and Soft Dynamic. As
you switch from one tab to the next, you place a check
beside each of the objects in your scene that you want to
designate as that object type.

• Choreographed
animated objects in your scene that the dynamic
objects will collide with. See “Physics Object Types.”
on page 544.
The Select Objects dialog allows you to assign the objects in
• Rigid Dynamic is used for hard-bodied objects that your scene to one of three types of objects.
will have physics applied to them. These objects will
maintain their shape when they interact with other When you assign physics objects in your scene, keep in
objects in the scene. See “Rigid Dynamic Objects” on mind that you don’t have to assign every object in your
page 545. scene as a physics object. For example, if your scene is
composed of many walls and furnishings inside a room, the
• Soft Dynamic is used for soft-bodied objects that will only objects that you need to assign to the current physics
have physics applied to them. The shape of these simulation are those that will directly come into contact
objects are affected by collision with other objects in
the scene. See “Soft Dynamic Objects” on page 545.

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Choreographed Objects
Choreographed objects are those which either remain
stationary or are animated manually with keyframes. When
assigning choreographed objects, you only need to assign
the objects that you expect the other physics objects to
collide with.

balls, and a cloth plane. Only two objects in the scene are
assigned as choreographed objects: the ground, and the
large box in the center. These two items will not move, and
the other objects in the scene will collide against them.

Physics Object Types.

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Choreographed objects are those that other physics objects

collide against. Rigid dynamic objects maintain their shape when they collide
against other objects.

Rigid Dynamic Objects

Soft Dynamic Objects
Rigid dynamic objects are those which will interact with
other objects, but which will maintain their shape when A soft dynamic object will change its shape or
appearance when other objects collide against it. One
shown below shows two balls that are selected as rigid obvious example is a cloth plane, as shown in the following
body objects. They will maintain their shape when they
collide against the other objects in the scene. rubber ball that squashes and stretches in response to its
collision with the ground; or jiggle that you can add to a

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scene.

Soft dynamic objects change shape when they collide

against other objects.

Setting Object Properties.

Setting Object Properties

The Properties tab in the Physics palette allows you to Object menu, and then click the Properties tab to display
assign properties to each of the physics objects in your the following options:
scene. The properties that are available depend on the If your scene includes several objects that need to share
the same physics properties (for example, ten bowling

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object from the calculations without affecting the

Then use the Edit > Duplicate Object command to other settings that are applied to it.

duplicated object will automatically be added to the • Apply Velocity from First Frame: If an object is
animated up to the starting frame of a physics
object to the Library with its physics properties, and then simulation, check this option to set the initial velocity of
add it from the Library to the current simulation. the object to be the same when the simulation starts.
For example, if you want a bowling ball to move at a
certain speed and direction, move the frame before
you want the physics to take over. Advance to the

and direction that you want the ball to move. This will
set the base velocity which will be taken into account
when the simulation is calculated.

• Use Animated Mesh: When this option is checked, a

new collision geometry will be created at every frame
for the selected choreographed object, to support
morphs, bending, magnets, etc. It generates a convex
hull for each frame from the bent parts.

If you want the physics to take over at a

You can duplicate objects to add a new object with the same
frame other than 1, make sure that you set
physics settings.
the appropriate start frame in the Physics Palette, as
described in “Creating a Simulation” on page 541.
• Active: Check this option to apply the physics
simulation calculations to the currently selected
• Collision Margin
object. You can uncheck the option to remove the
will be allowed between physics objects and the
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objects they collide with. Penetration can occur if the • Rotational Damping: (Hard Body objects only). Similar
margin is set too low. to linear damping, except that this setting controls
the amount of energy that is lost during each iteration
The Collision Margin setting is related to your when an object is rotating or spinning.
preferred units. which are set in the Interface
tab of the General Preferences dialog, described in • Mass: (Hard and Soft Body objects only). A relative
“Interface Preferences” on page 36. For measurement that affects how objects of a higher
example, if you have your preferred units set to mass interact with objects of a lower mass. Items with
Millimeters, the value 5.0000 will represent 5 a lower mass setting will accelerate more after a
millimeters. collision than items of a larger mass. Stronger forces will
be needed to move objects that have a higher mass.
When objects with a higher mass interact with objects
• Friction: Lower friction amounts cause objects to move
of a lower mass, the objects of lower mass will move
more easily over other objects. A value of 1 will make
more easily. Using the example of a bowling ball and
the object very sticky, and a value of 0 will make the
pins, the mass of the bowling ball (example: 16 units)
object more slippery.
should be set higher than that of the pins (example: 2
• Bounce: Low values make the object less bouncy; units) in order for the pins to react appropriately when
higher values make the object more bouncy. When the ball strikes them.
bounce is set to 0, the object will not bounce. A value
• Internal Pressure
the internal pressure of the object. Objects that have a
• Linear Damping: (Hard and Soft Body objects only). greater internal pressure will collapse upon themselves
The amount of energy that is lost during each iteration less than objects that have a smaller amount of
when an object moves linearly (such as from side to internal pressure.
side). Without damping, the object will appear to
• Linear Stiffness: (Soft Body objects only). Lower the
vibrate in the scene. A value of 1 will absorb shock. A
linear stiffness to make the object more stretchy;
value of zero will remove damping from the object.
increase the value to make it more stiff.

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Choose Edit > Memorize > All after all of the

objects in your scene are set up. This allows
you to go return to the original placement of your
objects after you experiment with settings during live
simulation.

Simulation Settings
Click the Settings button in the upper section of the

simulation.

Simulation Settings dialog.

• Gravity: Controls the strength of the gravity in the

scene. Values below zero pull objects downward,
while values above zero act like “anti-gravity” and
make objects rise.
simulation.
• Damping: Controls the amount of resistance that your
The Simulation Settings dialog opens, and you can objects have to gravity. Lower values make the object
less resistant, and higher values make the object more
resistant.

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• Default Soft Collision Margin: Controls the distance

that soft body objects have to be before collisions are
Object Constraints
recognized. The Default Soft Collision margin is the The Constraints tab in the Physics palette allows you to
default value assigned to soft-bodied objects when
you add them to a simulation. your physics objects. It also features painting tools that
allow you to paint vertex maps that determine how the
• Default Rigid Collision Margin: Controls the distance
object responds to physics.
that hard body objects have to be before collisions
are detected. The Default Rigid Collision Margin is the To add a constraint to the currently selected physics
default value assigned to rigid-bodied objects when object, click the New button in the Constraints tab. You’ll
you add them to a simulation. see a menu that allows you to choose one of several
constraint types. These are:
• Steps Per Second
that the simulation will take per second. Increasing the
Steps per Second setting will give more stable results
and better penetration persistence in your simulations.
Calculations will take longer with higher steps per
second.

• Better Soft Collisions with Clusters (Slower): Improves

simulation of soft bodied objects when collisions take
place, and can help prevent objects from penetrating
through soft-bodied objects. Using clusters on detailed
objects can slow calculations considerably.

Creating a new constraint

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• Self Constraint
to physics calculations. Each object can have only
one self-constraint. After you add a self-constraint, all
vertices are initially set to fully dynamic. Use the vertex
painting tools to constrain the vertices that you paint.

Self Constraint with painted vertices on a cloth plane.

• Animated Constraint: Allows you to use a handle to

animate an object. The handle can be assigned as a

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child of any other object in your scene, or animated in

any way you choose. The handle serves as a transform
that you can move things around with. The handle

animated constraint:

Position the animated handle where you want

it to appear. Generally, the handle should be
positioned near the object that you are adding
the animated constraint to.

Press the Set Handle Position button.

Use the painting tools to constrain selected

vertices to the animated handle.

Animated Constraint handle with constrained vertices.

• Object Constraint: Constrains one object to another so

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the point at which the two objects are supposed to

connect to each other, and tries to keep both objects
connected at that point. For example, if you have two
rigid boxes, named Box 1 and Box 2, that you want to
connect together at a certain point:

Select Box 2, and click the New button in the

Constraint tab to create an Object Constraint for
this object.

For the Constrain To object, select Box 1.

Position the handle at the point where you want to

connect the two objects.

Setup for an Object Constraint.

You can chain multiple items together in this

manner. For example, you can add another
Setup for an Object Constraint. object (such as a third box), and then create
another Object Constraint that links Box 3 to Box 2.
Click the Set Handle Position button after you
position the handle.

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Soft bodied objects may drift away from the • Limited Object Constraint: Constrains one rigid object
handle during simulation. Adding a second to another so that they move together, and also allows
Object Constraint between the same two objects you to limit rotation or translation in the X, Y, and/or Z
may improve performance. direction. The Limited Object Constraint can only be
applied to a Rigid Body object. Again, you have two
When you click the Live Simulation or Calculate rigid boxes, named Box 1, and Box 2. You want them
Simulation button you should see your objects to connect together at a certain point, but you want
moving together. For example, you can drag Box to limit the rotation of Box 2 to the Z axis:
1 around, and Box 2 will automatically follow it. Select Box 2, and click the New button in the
Constraint tab to create a Limited Object
Constraint for this object.

For the Constrain To object, select Box 1.

Position the handle at the point where you want

to connect the two objects. (The result should look
similar to the setup shown previously for the Object
Constraint.)

Click the Set Handle Position button after you

position the handle.

The lower section allows you to set the limits for the
X, Y, or Z translations and rotations. In this example,
we want to allow rotation only on the Z axis. The
X and Y axis rotations are set to 0 minimum and
Move Box 1 and Box 2 will follow it. maximum.

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Limiting rotations to the Z axis only.

When you click the Live Simulation or Calculate

Simulation button you should see your objects Move Box 1 and Box 2 will follow it with limited rotations.
moving together, with the translations or rotations

Constraint. In our example, you can drag Box 1

Painting Constraints
around, and Box 2 will automatically follow it but
the rotation will be limited to the Z axis. After you set up one of the constraint types mentioned
in the previous section, you can use the paintbrush tool

respond to that constraint type.

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Paintbrush tool.

After clicking the Paintbrush icon, the Dynamics Weights

palette opens. This palette allows you to paint the vertices
on the object to control how they will be affected by the
physics engine. As you paint, the vertices are coded with
various colors.

• Where no color appears, the object will be 100% Cloth plane with self constrained vertices fully (left) and
affected by the dynamics in the physics calculations. partially (right) across the top.

•
The Dynamics Weights palette contains the following
will be affected by dynamics the most; brighter colors
sections and settings:

• Painting Modes section: Choose one of the following

•
painting modes for your dynamic weights paintbrush:
the physics calculations.
More dynamic: Select this painting mode when
you want to make the object more responsive to

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physics calculations. Vertices will appear with no

color when they are fully dynamic.

Initially, all vertices of an object are set to fully

dynamic unless you check the Invert Colors
option mentioned below.

More constrained: Select this painting mode when

you want to paint areas on an object to reduce
the amount of response to physics calculations. Dynamics Weights Palette.
Vertices will appear as bright green when vertices
are fully constrained, and the object will retain its
base shape in those areas. Deleting Constraints
Smooth: Choose this painting mode when you To delete a constraint, follow these steps:
want to smooth or blend transitions between areas
that are more dynamic and areas that are more 1. From the Object menu in the Physics Simulation
constrained. palette, select the object that contains the constraint
you want to delete.
Weight: Choose this painting mode when you
2. Switch to the Constraints tab, if necessary.

appears beneath the option. 3. Select the constraint that you want to delete from the
list of available constraints (which appears just above
the paintbrush).

4. Press Delete to delete the selected constraint.

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Deleting a Simulation

the simulation that you want to delete from the list in the
Simulation Palette. Then click the Delete button in the
upper section of the Physics Simulation palette.

Saving Objects with Bullet Physics

After you create objects that have Bullet Physics applied,
you can save them to the Library with their settings intact.
This allows you to save items that bounce, or jiggle, or use

After a Bullet Physics object is saved to the Library, you will

need to resimulate the object(s) when you load them into
your scene. If an object is shared between two or more
simulations, it will only save the current simulation that was
selected when you saved the object to the Library.

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Chapter 24: Rendering To use the Movie Settings window:

1. Select your desired movie format using the Format pull-
Animations down menu. Your available options are:

Image Files (Mac and Windows): This option

Your can access the Movie Settings window by selecting creates an Image Sequence, which is a series of
Animation > Make Movie. This window can also be still images, one for each frame in your animation.
accessed via the Render Settings dialog. The Movie For maximum value results and optimal quality, we
Settings window appears as follows. recommend using the Image Files option to render

tool for editing and post-production work.

Flash (Mac and Windows): Adobe Flash is a

popular format for animations posted on Web
sites. If you have selected Flash format, click the
Options
The Flash movie options will be discussed in detail
later in this chapter. See “Flash Options” on page
564 for more information.

Quicktime (Mac Only): Default Macintosh movie

format. We recommend that you use this format
only for preview purposes while still working on
your animation, as it provides the fastest possible
access to rendered results. See “QuickTime
Options” on page 562 for more information.
The Movie Settings dialog. AVI (Windows Only): Three options are available
in Windows for AVI format. Choose AVI (MJPEG)
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WMV/ASF options use Windows Media Audio

higher amount of compression (for streaming); 10 and Windows Media Video 9.
choose AVI (DV) to produce a 720x480 pixel DV-
AVI (Uncompressed) to
WMV output presets are also available in
Windows Vista, and Poser will write out valid
not be compressed.

AVI DV format will produce a 720 x 480 pixel Media Player for Windows Vista does not support

your project render settings are not set to the same party media player that runs under Windows Vista
and has WMV support.

2. Select which renderer you wish to use for your

animation using the Renderer pull-down menu. Your
iPad Videos (Windows Only): Two options appear
options are the FireFly, Sketch or Preview render
engines. See “Chapter 19: Using The FireFly Render
Engine” on page 428 for more information about
that has a higher amount of compression. Choose
the FireFly renderer, and “Chapter 20: The Sketch
Designer” on page 486 for more information about
less compression and higher quality.
the Sketch Designer renderer. The Preview renderer
iPad Small and Large options may not be provides a quick draft-quality render of your movie.
available on earlier versions of Windows.
3. Under the Options section, check the appropriate
checkboxes when available:
WMV/ASF (Windows Only): Three options appear
for WMV/ASF format, for varying compression Antialias: Antialiasing is available with the Preview
options: Medium Quality, High Quality, and render engine, to improve the quality of images in
Uncompressed. draft preview renders.

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2D Motion Blur: This option provides realistic 2D 5. Specify your desired export Resolution Scale. The
motion blurring effects to images and animations Quick-Scale pop-up menu offers quick access to four
rendered with the FireFly or Preview render different render scale options: Full Size, Half Size,
engines. Use the Blur Amount value to customize Quarter Size, and Preview Size.
the results of this effect.
4. Click the button in the lower left corner of the Movie Note that the Resolution Scale feature is not
Settings tab to open the Render Dimensions dialog. intended to replace the Frame Size value,
Enter the desired dimensions for your movie. but rather is a tool for facilitating quick render
previews, as the smaller scale render sizes require
less time to calculate.

The production frame is determined by the

aspect ratio resulting from the output width
and height. You can set the production frame to be
visible in the Document window’s scene preview
area, by selecting Display > Production Frame from
the menu bar.

6. Specify your Time Span settings:

Range: Enter the start and end frame numbers

for the portion of your animation that you
wish to render in the Start and End boxes. This
feature is useful if you wish to save a subset of
Setting Render Dimensions.
the total animation. For example, if you create
a 60-frame animation, you could opt to save a

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15-frame movie beginning 35 frames into the total takes half the time as rendering every frame, and
animation. so on. Specify your desired “N” value in the box.

Increment: Click the appropriate Increment radio 7. Click the Make Movie button to open the Save Movie
button to specify how many frames to render in dialog box, which allows you to browse for your
your movie output. Your choices are as follows: desired folder, then click the Save button to save
your new animation to the selected folder. Animation
All Frames: Clicking the All Frames button will renders can take some time depending on your
scene, animation settings, and computer, so please
by the movie’s frame rate. be patient.

Frame Rate: Click the Frame Rate (number of

frames per second) radio button to use the
movie’s current output frame rate (as opposed QuickTime Options
to the actual frame rate of the Poser keyframe
When you choose Quicktime format and click the Options
data) or specify your own. Enter the desired frame
button, the Compression Settings dialog opens. This dialog
rate in the box, if you wish to specify a frame rate
includes the following settings for 32-bit Macintosh systems:

(for example, lower frame rates are generally

recommended for Flash output). Higher numbers image aspect ratio in order to function
give smoother animations but require longer properly.
rendering times and take up more room on your
hard drive. Please refer to “Frame Rate” on page
501 for a listing of common frame rates.

Every Nth Frame: Clicking this radio button allows

you to render fewer frames, for fast preview
purposes. For example, rendering every 2nd frame

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DVCPRO50-PAL, H.264, MPEG-4 Video and Photo-

JPEG.

image aspect ratio in order to function

properly. Depending on the codec you select, the
selections will vary.

For information on Motion, Encoding Mode,

and Compression settings, refer to QuickTime
documentation at http://images.apple.com/
.

When running Poser on a 64-bit Mac, the choice set for

Quicktime movies is a more contemporary selection set
than previous versions of Quicktime.

The Compression Settings dialog (32-bit Macintosh systems).

• Compression Type: Select which Codec you wish to

use from the Compression Type pop-up menu. Note

settings, as mentioned below. Available choices are

Animation, Apple Intermediate Codec, DV-PAL, DV/
DVCPPRO-NTSC, DVCPRO-PAL, DVCPRO50-NTSC,

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• Quality: Choose the level of quality that you desire.

Choices are Maximum, High, Normal, Low, and
Minimum.

Flash Options
Clicking the Flash Options button opens the Flash Settings
dialog. You have the following options when exporting
Adobe Flash movies:

The Save dialog (64-bit Macintosh systems).

• Format: Select which Codec you wish to use from the

Compression Type pop-up menu. Note that certain

mentioned below. Available choices are H.264 (saves

as .MP4), Apple Pixlet (saves as .MOV), MPEG-4 (saves
as .MP4), and DVC Pal, or DVC NTSC (which save as
.DV).

image aspect ratio in order to function

properly. Depending on the codec you select, the
selections will vary.
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is used the most and create a silhouette of the entire

of color containing the layers above it. Selecting

blocks of different colors to appear next to each other

with no overlapping, which could cause the animated
object to appear broken or discontinuous.

• Draw Outer Lines: Checking the Draw Outer Lines

checkbox draws a border around the entire silhouette.

• Draw Inner Lines: Checking the Draw Inner Lines

checkbox draws lines around each color layer.

• Line Width: Enter the desired line width (in pixels) in the
Line Width box.

• Number of colors: Enter the desired number of colors

in the Number of colors box. Note that adding colors

most situations, though the maximum possible is 253.

The Flash Export dialog.
• Color Quantization: Quantization is the process of

• Overlap Colors: Checking the Overlap Colors

Auto
checkbox causes Adobe Flash to take the color that

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or Custom quantization of colors. In either case, your For optimal results when exporting to Flash
format, use the scene preview Cartoon
display style when preparing your scene.
• Auto Quantization: Check the appropriate radio
button to select if you want the quantization to occur
across All Frames or at a .

All Frames: This option can be useful in situations

when you want color quantization to be applied
to each frame; for example, if you are animating
materials.

: If you selected ,
enter the frame number where the quantization
should occur in the

Custom Quantization: You can select custom

colors by clicking within the color preview windows
to bring up the Poser Color Picker. The number of
custom color preview windows will be determined
by the Number of Colors setting (see above).
Mousing over any of the preview windows will
display the RGB color values for that color at the
top right of the Custom Color display window.
Click on the AutoGenerate Colors button to restore
the default custom color values.

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Part 6:
Customizing
Content

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Chapter 25: The Face • Poser 7 Figures: SimonG2 and Sydney G2

Room
• Other G2 Figures: JamesG2, Jessi G2, Kelvin G2, Koji G2

• Apollo Maximus

Adding realistic custom faces and creating a personalized • Miki, Miki 2, Miki 3, and Miki 4
head can be an extremely complex undertaking, but
Poser’s powerful Face • Poser 6 Figures: James and Jessi

one of your friends, or anyone! With a few steps, you can • Poser 5 Figures: Don and Judy
The Face Room is shown below, with all palettes and
sculpting morphs, or import facial photographs to match options docked. If you need to show the Face Room
the face in the images. windows, choose Window > Room Tools > Face, and select
Face Preview, Photo Lineup, Texture Preview, Face Texture
By default, an HTML Help window opens
Tool, Face Shaping Tool as desired. These windows are
when you enter the face room. This window
described in the sections that follow.
contains additional tips and tricks for obtaining
optimal results. If you do not see this window, please
select Window > Room Help.

The Face room creates heads for use with the following

• Ryan, Alyson, and their ethnic variations, including lo

res versions

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• Photo Lineup (1): The Photo Lineup area is where you

load images and align them using a variety of tools.
Activating the Apply Shape checkbox generates
geometry matching your photos. The texture map and
the geometry based on the photos gets generated on

• Face Texture Tool (2): The Face Texture Tool area lets
you apply a multitude of ethnic and other settings to
modify the current head texture map.

• Face Preview window (3): The Face Preview window

displays a preview of your 3D head with textures. This
window features Mini Camera controls in its upper right
corner. You can also use the Face Shaping Tool (see
“The Face Shaping Tool” on page 577) to sculpt the
The Face Room.

• Random Face button (4): Clicking the Random Face

The number of palettes and options that you button creates a completely random face. This will
see in each room depends upon your screen erase any prior work you’ve done in the Face room
resolution. At higher resolutions, the default work and should be used with care. The Random Face
spaces display more palettes, while at lower feature is a great way to create realistic-looking
resolutions you see fewer palettes. characters by clicking a single button. Click it as many
times as you like until you get the look you want!
The Face room contains the following interface elements in
• Reset Face Room button (5): Clicking the Reset Face
addition to some of the standard elements.
room button restores the default head shape and

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texture. This will erase all of your prior Face room work. • Using the Texture Variation area to create custom
Use this option with care. texture maps quickly and easily.

• Texture Preview window (6): The Texture Preview • Using the Random Face feature.
window lets you see your head texture map as you
The Face room allows you to do any or all of these things
edit it and also allows you to load and save textures for
when creating heads. We’ll discuss the other functionality
further work.
in the subsequent sections. For now, let’s walk through
using images to create a custom head.
• Action buttons (7): The Action buttons are where you
If you want to reset the Face room to its
spawn morph targets, or import head texture maps.
default state, click the Reset Face room
button. This erases all loaded images, deletes
• Face Shaping Tool palette (8): The Face Shaping Tool
geometry changes, and loses any texture
window is where you control the Face Shaping tool,
which is the equivalent of the Morphing Tool (see
with care!
“Creating Morphs with the Morphing Tool” on page
700) for the Face room. You can modify heads by
using the parameter dials and/or the tool in this room.
Each of these areas is discussed below in this chapter. Using Images to Create Heads
As mentioned above, there are several methods for Creating custom 3D heads from existing images/
creating custom heads. photographs (digital or scanned) requires the following
steps:
• Using two images to shape the geometry and create
a texture map. 1. Load the images.

• Using the Face Shaping tool to sculpt the head as you 2. Align the images (if needed).
desire.
3. Align the geometry to the images.

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4.

Apply the images you used to create the head as a

texture map, then apply the geometry shape and texture
to the head.
Once you’ve completed these steps, you can proceed
to use the Face Shaping tool and/or the Texture Variation
functionality. If you do not want to use your own images,
feel free to skip ahead and explore the other head
creation/customization methods.

Step 1: Images
Creating a personalized head that matches a real person • Front image: The front image should be a straight-on
involves using two pictures to create a texture map. Let’s front view with the subject directly facing the camera
load some images and build a personalized head! and with the camera level with the subject’s face. The
picture should be close enough to capture plenty of
Please follow these simple guidelines for optimum results: detail. Lighting should also be adjusted to capture the
most detail. Overly bright lighting will give the image a
washed-out appearance, while overly dark lighting will
not show off enough detail. The person’s mouth should
be closed and the overall facial expression should be
neutral for best results.

• Side image: The side image should be a direct side

view with the subject facing 90 degrees from the
camera and with the camera level with the subject’s

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face. The remaining guidelines for the front image your own photo, click its location as shown in the example
apply to the side image as well. Ideally, the front and face.
side views should be taken from the same distance.
For the front image, you’ll be asked to locate the outside
The above images are great examples of ideal images.
You can use less than ideal or even mismatched images, shown below.
however you may get some unpredictable results. Each
image has its own alignment tools that can help position
it optimally (see next step). Of course, you can always
experiment and have fun if you want to!
The Face room supports most common image formats.

You must import existing images. Poser does

not have the functionality to create images.
Images can be photographs, line drawings,
paintings, etc. The Face room accepts most
common image formats. Textures generated from
these images are sized at 512x512 pixels by default.

Step 2: The LineUp

The Photo Lineup area.
Begin by clicking the Load icon (see below) for the front
or side image in the Photo Lineup area and locate the For the side image, you’ll need to locate the top of the
image you want to use. For each image, Poser will ask you right earlobe and the front of the chin in the same manner
to locate several points on the face. This will help it align as you did for the front image.
and match the default 3D head to the images, which you

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The side image uses the subject’s right side. If adjustments of the geometry’s location relative to the
your side image is of the subject’s left side, image.
you can click the Flip icon to reverse the image.
To do this, each of the two images in the Photo Lineup
area has the following tools:
Once loaded, the images appear in the workspace and
the 3D head and texture map appear. • Load: Clicking the Load icon opens a standard OS
dialog allowing you to browse for and select your
desired front image. Once you load an image, you’ll
be prompted to locate various facial features. This

described above.

• Delete: Clicking the Delete icon deletes the currently

loaded image.

• Zoom: Clicking and dragging the Zoom icon allows

you to zoom in or out of the current image, allowing
you to more precisely position and shape the head
geometry. Clicking the Zoom icon and dragging to the
right or up zooms in, while dragging to the left or down
zooms out. This tool simply shifts your point of view;
it does not affect the images or the geometry. You
Tools in the Photo Lineup area. cannot zoom out beyond your image’s original size.

Loading the images and locating the requested areas • Pan: Clicking and dragging the Pan tool moves
allows Poser to do a good job of approximating the the image in the same direction as your mouse
location and shape of the head geometry. You may, movement. This is particularly useful if you need to
however, wish to go in and perform some manual zoom in to a particular area. You can individually pan
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the front and side images up, down, left, or right. The To rotate about the X axis (side view), click and
front image will pan in the X and Y axes (side-side and drag the mouse horizontally without pressing any
up-down) and the side image will pan in the Y and Z keys.
axes (up-down and front-back). This tool simply shifts
your point of view; it does not affect the images or the • Scale Geometry: Clicking and dragging the Scale
geometry. Geometry tool scales the geometry to align it to the
image. This feature is useful if your loaded image(s) are
• Rotate Geometry: Improper rotation may cause larger or smaller than the geometry outline. You can
unsatisfactory photo lineup results. Ideally, the pan up, down, left, and/or right. This tool scales the
head should not be rotated relative to the camera. geometry without altering the image or your point of
However, many photos show the head slightly rotated view.
about the X axis (up and down), the Y axis (looking left
to right), or the Z axis (tilting left to right). The Face room • Pan Geometry: Clicking and dragging the Pan
automatically detects and compensates for some Geometry tool and dragging the mouse pans the
rotation (about the Z axis in the front view and about geometry. This feature is useful if your loaded image(s)
the X axis in the side view), but you may still need to are not perfectly aligned with the geometry. The front
perform additional manual adjustments for best results. image will pan in the X and Y axes (side-side and up-
down) and the side image will pan in the Y and Z axes
To rotate about the X axis (front view), click and (up-down and front-back). This tool pans the geometry
drag the mouse horizontally while pressing Shift. without altering the image or your point of view.
To rotate about the Y axis (front view), click and Poser does a good job at calculating how to shape the
drag the mouse horizontally while pressing Opt/ head based on the images, however you’ll probably need
ALT.

To rotate about the Z axis (front view), click and superimposed on the images with red lines showing the
drag the mouse horizontally without pressing any facial features and green control points. In this case,
keys. the head is a bit off-center as can be seen by both the

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image without altering the head geometry, use the Pan

Easy: Perform a little virtual surgery. Image tool, also described above. This will cause the image
to slide over the geometry.

Step 3: Cyber Face Lifts If you make a mistake while moving the control points, you
can press [COMMAND]/[CTRL]+[Z] or select Edit > Undo to
Looking at your loaded images, you will see the red undo your most recent change.
outlines of a head superimposed on the images. Each
major facial feature (eyes, nose, mouth, chin, etc.) has Please refer to the Face room HTML Help
one or more control points, which appear as green dots. window for additional tips & tricks. By default,
All you need to do is move the control points until they this window appears when you enter the face
match the underlying image. Do this by placing the mouse room. If it does not appear, select Window > Room
pointer over the control point you wish to move. The cursor Help to open the window.
will change, at which point you can drag the selected
control point up, down, left, or right. For example, you’d Here’s an example after adjustments.
move the middle nose point until it’s just under the bridge
of the nose and the two side points until they’re at the
corners of the nostrils, and so on. As you move the control
points, you’ll see the head beginning to conform more

how each control point has moved from its original

position. If you wish to undo a control point move, simply
use the [COMMAND]/[CTRL]+[Z] command to return the
control point to its previous position.
You can also move the entire head using the Rotate
Geometry, Scale Geometry, and Pan Geometry tools, which
are described above. These tools move the head outline
and alter the head geometry to match. To move your
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a custom head, which will appear in the Face Sculpting

window. The head geometry is dynamically updated as
long as Apply Shape is active.

Enabling the Apply Shape checkbox will

erase any work you may have done with the
Face Shaping tool. If you want to use a combination
of images and shaping, be sure to work with the
images before using the Face Shaping tool. This also
occurs with textures; loading images will undo any
work you have done in the Texture Variation area
(see below).

Creating Custom Textures

Results after adjusting the photo lineup points.
The Face room includes the Texture Variation area, which
allows you to create custom head textures from scratch or
You can use the Zoom tool to move in closer modify existing textures. The Face Room generates a new
to your images for even more precise control texture and blends between the imported texture and the
over the results.

It also allows the user to select the imported Face Room

photo resolutions for the new texture. .
Step 4: Applying the Geometry/Texture
To access the Texture Variation area, click the Texture
The texture map is created in real time as you work. Enable Variation tab in area 2 of the Face room. This area allows
the Apply Shape checkbox to apply your images to create you to:
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• Create new textures from scratch by modifying the less/more African, less/more European, less/more
default texture. Southeast Asian, less/more East Indian, Younger/Older,
and Male/Female.
• Modify textures created by loading images as
discussed above. • To modify your texture or the default texture, simply
adjust the dials. Your work will appear in real time in
• Edit loaded texture maps (see below). both the Face Sculpting and Texture Preview windows.

Be sure to load/create your texture before Textures created in the Face room are scaled
using the Texture Variation area, as doing so to 512x512 pixels. If you used higher resolution
afterward will lose your changes. for photo matching and want to keep the higher
resolution, choose Yes in the dialog that appears
The Texture Variation area uses parameter dials that after pressing Apply to Figure. To use larger texture
function similarly to the dials in the Parameters palette, maps, you can also import a custom texture, then
whose functionality is described in “Parameters Palette” modify it.
on page 209. You can use the Parameter Dial menu to
access dial settings, reset a dial, or open the selected
dial’s Graph (discussed in “Using Graphs” on page 505).
You cannot, however, memorize Texture Variation dials. The Face Shaping Tool
The available Texture Variation dials are:
The Face Shaping Tool allows you to visually sculpt your
• Facial Color: The Facial Color dials modify the color custom head by selecting and moving vertices. The Face
of several facial regions and include Beard dark/light, room contains a wide array of custom vertex editing
Eye sockets light/dark, Eyebrows lower light/dark, and parameters for the Poser head that allow you to create
Eyebrows upper light/dark. virtually any face imaginable. By default, the Face Shaping
Tool is active whenever your cursor is within the Face
• Ethnicity/Age & Gender: The Ethnicity/Age/Gender dials Sculpting window. Just as with the Morphing tool (see
generate ethnic, age, and gender traits and include “Creating Morphs with the Morphing Tool” on page 700),

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you can use any combination of clicking and dragging 1. Click the portion of the face you wish to adjust and
morph targets and/or adjusting Face Shaping parameter drag the mouse. This selects the vertex nearest the
dials in the Face Shaping Tool palette. spot where you clicked and moves it in the direction
you drag the mouse. You can use the Mini Camera
controls in the upper right corner of the Face Sculpting
window to position the head exactly where you
want it at any time before, during, or after sculpting.
Vertices are moved relative to your viewing angle.
For example, if you are looking at the face head-on,
clicking and dragging will move the morph up, down,
left, and right. If you are looking at the top of the
head, dragging will move vertices left, right, forward,
and backward.

2. The Face Shaping Tool can manipulate all selected

parameters in the Face Shaping Tool palette.
Checking the checkbox next to a parameter dial

the tool, and clearing it means the tool will not affect

is enabled, it may or may not be affected by your

use of the tool. For example, selecting a vertex in the
forehead may affect the eyebrows but may not affect
the mouth. Select your desired parameter(s), then click
The Face Shaping Tool.
and drag any vertex on the head.

To use the Face Shaping Tool: 3. Once you have a portion of the head the way you
want it, you can click the Pin button to freeze the
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selected vertex from further manipulation. Pinned This is different than creating facial
vertices may move as you keep adjusting other expressions since you are actually modifying
portions of the body part, however they will retain their head geometry instead of simply applying morphs
current settings. to create a facial expression.

You can use the [COMMAND]/[CTRL]+[Z] command to When sculpting a head, you can use the Face Shaping
Face Tool, the dials in the Face Shaping Tool palette, or any
Shaping Tool. Or, if you want to reset all morph targets to combination you wish. The available Face Shaping Tool
their default values (0), you can click the Clear Morphs parameter dials are:
button. Also, if you want to clear all pins, simply click the
Clear Pin Points button. Both buttons are located in the • Facial Morphs: The Facial Morphs dial groups includes
Face Shaping Tool palette along with other functionality the following sub-groups and dials.
(see below).
Brow Ridge: The Brow Ridge dials are High/Low,
Inner Up/Down, Outer Up/Down, and Forward Axis
The Face Shaping Tool Palette Twist.

The Face Shaping Tool adjusts the parameters available Cheekbones: The Cheekbones dials are High/Low,
in the Face Shaping Tool palette, which uses parameter Shallow/Pronounced, Thin/Wide, and Protrusion
dials that function similarly to the dials in the Parameters Asymmetry.
palette. You can use the Parameter Dial menu to access Cheeks: The Cheeks dials are Concave/Convex,
dial settings, reset a dial, or open the selected dial’s Graph and Round/Gaunt.
(discussed in “Using Graphs” on page 505) You cannot,
however, memorize Face Shaping Tool dials. Chin: The Chin dials are Forward/Back,
Pronounced/Recessed, Retracted/Jutting, Shallow/
Deep, Small/Large, Short/Tall, Thin/Wide, Chin Axis
Twist, Forward Axis Shift, and Transverse Shift.

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Eyes: The Eyes dials are Up/Down, Small/Large, Tilt Nose Bridge: The Nose Bridge dials are Shallow/
Inward/Outward, Together/Apart, Height Disparity, Deep, Short/Long, and Transverse Shift.
and Transverse Shift.
Nose Sellion: The Nose Sellion dials are Up/Down,
Face: The Face dials are: Brow/Nose/Chin Ratio, Shallow/Deep, Thin/Wide, and Transverse Shift.
Forehead/Sellion/Nose Ratio, Light/Heavy, Round/
Nose Region: The Nose Region dials are Concave/
Gaunt, Thin/Wide, Coronal Bend, Coronal Shear,
Convex and Frontal Axes Twist.
and Vertical Axis Twist.
Temples: The Temples dial is Thin/Wide.
Forehead: The Forehead dials are: Small/Large,
Short/Tall, Tilt Forward/Back, and Forward Axis Ears: The Ears dials are Up/Down, Back/Front,
Twist. Short/Long, Thin/Wide, Vertical Shear, and Forward
Axis Shear.
Jaw: The Jaw dials are Retracted/Jutting:, Wide/
Thin, Jaw-Neck Slope High/Low, and Concave/ • Ethnicity, Age, and Gender: The Ethnicity/Age/Gender
Convex. dials generate ethnic, age, and gender traits and
Mouth: The Mouth dials are Drawn/Pursed, Happy/ include less/more African, less/more European, less/
Sad, High/Low, Protruding/Retracted, Tilt Up/Down, more Southeast Asian, less/more East Indian, Younger/
Underbite/Overbite, Mouth-Chin Distance Short/ Older, and Male/Female.
Long, Corners Transverse Shift, and Twist and
• Standard Figures > Poser 5: The Standard Figures >
Shift.
Poser 5 dials generate the appearance of one or
Lips: The Lips dials are , Large/ Don,
Small, and Puckered/Retracted. Judy, Will, and Penny.

Nose: The Nose dials are Coronal Shear, Transverse To create/modify your head, simply adjust the dials or use
Shift, Up/Down, Flat/Pointed, Short/Long, Tilt Up/ the tool directly on the head. Your work will appear in real
Down, Tip Transverse Shift, Transverse Shift, and time in the Face Shaping Tool window.
Vertical Axis Twist.

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Caricatures Use Morphs

The Caricature dial allows you to exaggerate or de- The Face rooms’s morph database contains both
exaggerate the head and facial features. It has a meta symmetric and asymmetric targets. The Use Morphs radio
effect, meaning it impacts the results of the other sculpting buttons allow you to select between the following options:
tools. Increasing the value increases the exaggeration,
and vice versa, as follows: • Both: This option makes all morph targets in the
database available for interactive face sculpting.
• The default value is 0. When you click on a point on the face, Poser will
select morphs from either the symmetric or asymmetric
• Values > 0 apply exaggeration to the head, and morph target sets, depending on what morphs are
values<0 but greater than –1 apply de-exaggeration. available at that location and what will yield the best
results.
• A value of –1 corresponds to the default head. For
example, if you created a long nose with the other • Symmetry: This option makes only the symmetric
tools, a value of 1 creates a very long nose, –1 is the morph target set available.
default nose, and –3 creates a very short nose.
• Asymmetry: This option makes only the asymmetric
Caricature values near –1 will work for overall morph target set available. Adding slight asymmetry to
de-exaggeration, however other tools (Face the face can often improve the realism of a computer
Shaping, Random Face, etc.) will have little effect generated face, as no human face is perfectly
due to the Caricature dial’s meta effect. symmetric.

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Loading/Saving/Previewing • Apply to Figure: Clicking the Apply to Figure button

applies the head and texture that you created in
Textures the Face

The Face room loads a default Face Room texture beginning of this chapter.

you will see in the Texture Preview window. The Texture • Apply Shape Only: Clicking the Apply Shape Only
Preview window shows real-time previews of your head’s dial applies the head shape to the currently selected
texture beginning with the default and through any
changes you make by loading images and/or customizing
textures. You can also load and save textures to your hard • Apply Texture Only: Clicking the Apply Texture Only
drive for later use. To load a texture, click the Load Texture dial applies the head texture to the currently selected
icon on the left side of the Texture Preview window, which
opens a Load Head Texture window that allows you to
• Spawn Morph Target: Clicking the Spawn Morph Target
loaded textures. button allows you to save the head as a morph target.
Please refer to “Spawning Morph Targets” on page
To save the texture being displayed in the Texture Preview 721 for more information about spawning morph
window, click the Save Texture icon on the right side of targets.
the Texture Preview window, which opens a standard
Save As dialog (see “Saving a Scene” on page 71 for • Import Figure Head Texture: Clicking the Import Figure
information about the Save As dialog). Head Texture button imports the currently selected

by creating textures as described above. Imported

Applying Custom Heads/Textures textures retain their original sizes. For example, if you
import a 1000x1000 texture, all changes you make to
it in the Face room will retain the imported size. This is a
texture, you may perform the following actions:

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great way to create textures that are larger than the

Face room’s default 512x512 size.

If you apply one or more heads to a scene

the head will be applied to the currently selected

To remove a custom texture after applying it

select the faceroomskin material. You can then

replace the applied texture map with one of your
own, remove the image map, etc. as desired.

Saving Faces
To save faces from the Face
containing the applied head. You can also spawn morph
targets.

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Chapter 26: The Hair

Room
Poser’s Hair room allows you to create dynamic strand-

wherever you like on any object in your scene and can

add shaders in the Material room (see “Chapter 14: The
Material Room” on page 314) to give your hair almost
any appearance from bleach blond to moss, lichens,
grass, etc. (a shader tree is created for each hair group
and is accessible in the Material room). You can even
apply Force Fields (see “Wind Force Fields” on page 690)
to create realistic wind effects for your animations!

Hair contains many polygons that require The Hair Room.

hefty computing resources.
In addition to some standard tools, the Hair room has the
The Hair room appears as follows at 1280 x 960 resolution. following interface elements:

The number of palettes and options that you • Hair Growth Groups Controls (1): The Hair Growth
see in each room depends upon your screen Groups controls allow you to create, edit, and delete
resolution. At higher resolutions, the default work hair growth groups.
spaces display more palettes, while at lower
resolutions you see fewer palettes: • Growth Controls (2): The Growth Controls allow you to
specify how hair grows on growth groups.

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• Styling Controls (3): As the name implies, the Styling

Controls allow you to control the appearance of hair. hair
group. A hair group is a cluster of polygons that has
• Dynamics Controls (4): The Dynamics Controls
allow you to control how your hair behaves during A prop or skullcap can contain more than one
animations. hair group. For example, you can create multiple
The following subsections will walk you through creating growth groups on a skull cap or hair prop to create
strand-based hair. a part in the hair; or small sections of a conforming
hair prop, or a smart hair prop can be detailed with
Hair > wisps of hair.
Poser Content > People > Alyson > Hair Props
and Hair > Poser Content > People > Ryan > Hair
Please refer to the “Using the Group Editor”
Props categories within the Library palette.
on page 743 for a general discussion about
groups.

hair props pre-created. You can use the grouping tool to

spawn props for this purpose too.

If you want to be able to use the hair you are

“Adding Strand-Based Hair to the Library Palette”

on page 601 for more information before
proceeding. Hair Growth Group settings.

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To do this:
1. Select the object you wish to grow hair on.

2. Click the New Growth Group button in Area 1 of

the Hair room to create a new group called Hair_1
by default. Subsequent hair groups are numbered
sequentially (Hair_2, etc.). You can rename groups by
entering a new name in the New Growth Group Name
box that appears. Click OK to proceed or Cancel to
abort.

3. Click the Edit Growth Group button to enable the

Grouping tool and open the Group Editor palette. Be
Assigning polygons to a hair group.
sure that you have the correct hair group selected
before selecting polygons for the group. Please refer
to “The Group Editor” on page 742 for information Be sure that you have the correct hair group
about using the grouping tools. selected in the Group Editor palette before
selecting polygons for the group!
4. Select the polygons you wish to include in the hair
group you are creating.

You can create as many growth groups as you like, such Step Two: Growing Hair
as head hair, moustaches, beards, chest, back, etc.
Once you’ve created a hair growth group, the next step is
to grow the guide hairs.

hairs will grow. To do this, click the Grow Guide Hairs

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button. The currently selected hair group will sprout guide

hairs.

Hair Growth Controls.

Growing hair on a Hair Group.

• Hair Length: The Hair Length parameter determines
the overall length of the guide hairs and subsequent
Guide hairs both shape the hair group and increase
populated hairs. Increasing this parameter lengthens
performance by allowing you to toggle displaying the fully
the hair and vice versa.
populated hair group on and off (see below). Either before
or after growing the guide hairs, you can apply some • Length Variance: Real hair tends to vary somewhat
general parameters to determine the overall hair shape. in length. The Length Variance parameter allows you
These are: to control how much the hair length will vary in the
currently selected hair group. A value of 0 means that

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all guide hairs are exactly the same length while a

value of 1 adds a great deal of variation.
Step Three: Styling Hair
Now that you’ve grown the guide hairs and set some
• Pull Back: Most hair on peoples’ heads tends to be
basic parameters for how the hair will look, your next step
combed or pulled back along the scalp. The Pull Back
is to style the hair the way you want it. You can do this by
parameter controls the extent to which guide hairs
setting the included styling parameters and/or by using the
are pulled pack. Increasing this value pulls the guide
Hair Edit tool.

Negative values push the hair forward and away from You can use the Hair Edit tool at any time after growing
the scalp. hair, although we recommend that you complete the
previous step. Please see the following subsection for
• Pull Down: Just as most hair is pulled back, it can hang information on using the Hair Edit tool.
down thanks to styling, gravity, or both factors. The Pull
Down parameter determines the extent to which this You can toggle the Show Populated function
occurs. Increasing this value pulls the hair down and on and off while you work to check your
results as you go.
values create anti-gravity hair.
The hair styling parameters are as follows:
• Once you’ve completed this step, your hair will be in
place and will have its rough shape.

Don’t confuse the Pull Back and Pull Down

parameters as replacing gravity or other
dynamics that you can set after styling the hair.
These parameters merely set the hair’s starting
positions.

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• Show Populated: Checking the Show Populated

checkbox displays both the guide hairs and the
population hairs. This will show you exactly how the hair
will look, but does increase display refresh time. The
status of this box will not affect population of hair in

FireFly render.

• Hair Density: The Hair Density parameter controls

the total number of hairs in the group. The number of
hairs are displayed next to the dial’s label. Increasing
this number makes the hair fuller and more lush.
The ability to Control the total number of hairs is a
powerful feature since it allows you to create custom
effects, however the total number of hairs can impact
rendering and redraw times. Experiment with this
number to get optimum coverage without adding too
many hairs.

As a matter of trivia, there are roughly 100-

150 hairs in eyelashes per lid, roughly 500-
1,000 hairs on each brow, and roughly 100,000 to
150,000 hairs on the head..

• Tip Width: The Tip Width parameter controls the

hairs’ widths (diameters) at their tips. Hair usually
Styling Controls.
thins somewhat as it progresses from root to tip, so

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this number will typically be less than the Root Width hair but increases the system resources needed to
parameter, below. render/redraw your scene.

• Root Width: The Root Width parameter controls the • Style Hairs: Clicking the Style Hairs button selects the
hairs’ widths (diameters) at their roots. Hair usually Hair Select tool and opens the Hair Style Tool palette
thins somewhat as it progresses from root to tip, so (see below).
this number will typically be larger than the Tip Width
parameter, above.
Using the Hair Edit Tool/Palette
• Clumpiness: The Clumpiness parameter determines
The Hair Select tool is only available in the Hair room. It
the hairs’ tendency to form dreadlock-like bunches.
allows you to directly edit guide hairs and create a nearly
• Kink Strength: The Kink Strength parameter is the
measure of how wavy/curly hair is. Increasing this access it by either selecting it in the Editing tools or by
value increase the hairs’ waviness, and vice versa. clicking the Hair Select button as described above. The
Hair Style Tool palette appears as follows:
• Kink Scale: The Kink Scale parameter determines the
size of hair waves/curls. Increasing this value increase
the hairs’ waviness, and vice versa.

• Kink Delay: The Kink Delay

distance from the root at which the hair begins to curl/
wave. Increasing this value increase the distance from
the root, and vice versa.

• Verts Per Hair: The Verts per hair parameter controls

how many vertex points are in each strand of hair.

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guide hairs can be faster, however you can select as

few as one hair for precise control over the style.

Hair Styling tools.

You can style selected hairs in the hair group.

You have the following controls available for directly
manipulating guide hairs:

• Add Hairs to Selection (1): Select the Select Hairs tool, selected, try switching cameras or using the
then click and drag a rectangle around the guide
hairs you wish to select for further styling. Unselected
guide hairs are not affected by the Hair Edit tools.
Selected hairs are all affected equally. Selecting more

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Hair growth is based on the parent object’s The hair’s affected axes will vary depending on the
polygon count. If you wish to add detailed camera’s position relative to that item. Dragging in
hair groups to a low-poly prop or to a portion of a towards the root reduces the scale, and dragging
away from the root increases the scale. Dragging
of the area you wish to grow hair on, subdivide that laterally scales hair in two dimensions, and dragging
prop in your favorite 3d modeling application, then vertically scales hair in the third dimension. The axes
re-import the prop and apply it where needed. This affected depend on your currently selected camera
is the same idea as skullcaps except that you are position. You can also press and hold Shift while using
not limited to heads. this tool to scale the selected hair(s) evenly in all three
dimensions.

• Translate Hairs (2): The Translate Hairs tool moves the • Remove Hairs from Selection (5): Select the Deselect
selected hair vertically around or laterally around the Hairs tool, or simply hold down the [CTRL] key, then
camera’s X and Y axes depending how you drag. The click and drag a rectangle around the guide hairs you
translation may occur on the hair’s X, Y, and or Z-axes wish to deselect from further styling. The Hair Edit tools
depending on the position of the camera relative to do not affect unselected guide hairs.
the hair.
• Translate In/Out (6): The Translate Hairs In-Out tool
• Curl Hairs (3): The Curl Hairs tool bends a guide hair. moves the selected hair(s) along the Camera’s Z axis
Hair rotation works in three dimensions, allowing you (in and out). This translation may take place along the
to make a lot of progress very quickly. Dragging hair’s X, Y, and/or Z axes. Dragging down pulls the hair
perpendicular to the hair rotates it up and down towards you, and vice versa.
(relative to your point of view). Dragging parallel to the
hair rotates it in and out, again relative to your point • Twist (7): The Twist Hairs tool rotates selected hair(s)
of view. along their own axis.

• Scale Hairs (4): The Scale Hairs tool allows you to scale In addition to the editing tools, the palette has the
the selected hair along the camera’s X and Y axes. following controls:

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• Constrain Length: Checking the Constrain Length

checkbox forces all selected guide hairs to retain
Step Four: Setting Hair Dynamics
their current lengths no matter how you use the hair You’ve got your hair grown and styled. Now let’s add
editing tools. Clearing this box allows the length to some dynamics to control how the hair will behave during
vary depending on how you use the hair editing tools animations.
(for example, you could use the Hair Translate tool to
lengthen some guide hairs to create a ponytail.

• Falloff: The Falloff slider controls the portion of the hair

affected by the styling. Moving the slider to the left
causes the tools to only act near the tip of the hair.
Moving the slider to the right causes the styling tools to
affect more of the hair’s length. With the slider all the
way to the right, the entire hair is affected from root
to tip.

• Lengthen: Moving the Lengthen dial to the right

lengthens the selected guide hairs and vice versa.

• Clear Selection: Clicking the Clear Selection button

deselects all selected guide hairs.
To exit this tool, either click the Close box on the palette’s
upper right-hand corner or select another Editing tool.

props in your scene, and the Document

Editing tools do not affect hair.

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Poser Legacy • Do Collisions: Checking the Do Collisions box enables

collision detection for the current hair group, which
will prevent hairs from penetrating other objects in
the scene (for example, long hair will not penetrate

detection, make sure that all body parts with which

you want the hair to collide have the Collision
Detection checkbox set on the Properties palette.

• Gravity: The Gravity parameter controls the strength of

gravitational force acting on the hair.

• Spring Strength: The Spring Strength parameter

determines the hair’s springiness. Increasing this
value increases the springiness. A rubber band is a
good example of an object with a high amount of
springiness.

• Air Damping: The Air Damping

the hair’s air resistance that occurs whenever the
hair is moving through the air. Short hair has a lower
resistance than long hair. Set this parameter with care
as excessive values could cause the hair to behave
unpredictably.

• Spring Damping: The Spring Damping parameter

Dynamics Controls. controls the hair’s elasticity.

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• Bend Resistance: The Bend Resistance parameter outlined in the previous sections in this chapter. Then you
controls the hair’s resistance to bending or folding choose the Bullet Physics solver from the Dynamics Controls
upon itself. section in the Hair Room.

• Position Force: The Position Force parameter is

a force that pulls the hair vertices towards their
choreographed position. Increasing this value
decreases hair dynamics, and vice versa.

• Root Stiffness: The Root Stiffness parameter

determines how stiff the hair is at its root.

• Root Stiffness Falloff: The Root Stiffness Falloff

parameter controls how quickly the hair’s root stiffness
decreases from root to tip.

• Calculate Dynamics: Clicking the Calculate Dynamics

button applies the current dynamic settings to the
selected hair group. The number of frames in the
keyframed animation determines the calculation
length. Populated hairs do not display during
calculation.

Bullet Physics Solver

The Bullet Physics solver offers improved performance and
appearance for dynamic hair. When using Bullet Physics
for hair, you create growth groups, grow, and style hair as
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• Do Collisions: Checking the Do Collisions box enables

collision detection for the current hair group, which
will prevent hairs from penetrating other objects in
the scene (for example, long hair will not penetrate

detection, make sure that all body parts with which

you want the hair to collide have the Collision
Detection checkbox set on the Properties palette.

• Gravity: Controls the strength of gravitational force

acting on the hair. Decrease the setting to reduce the
amount of gravitational force, or increase the setting
to add more gravitational force.

• Stretch Resistance: Determines the stretchiness of

the hair as it is pulled by gravity. Increase the setting
to make the hair less stretchy (more resistant to
stretching).

• Bend Resistance: The Bend Resistance parameter

controls the hair’s resistance to bending or folding
upon itself.

• Root Stiffness: The Root Stiffness parameter

determines how stiff the hair is at its root (the end that
comes from the head).

Dynamics Controls.
• Tip Stiffness: The Tip Stiffness parameter determines
how stiff the hair is at its tip (the end of the strand).
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• Stiffness Falloff: The Root Stiffness Falloff parameter the Current Actor menu under the Props category. Strand-
controls how quickly the hair’s root stiffness decreases based hair has the following properties and parameters:
from root to tip.

• Damping: The Damping

air resistance that occurs whenever the hair is moving
through the air. Short hair has a lower resistance than
long hair. Set this parameter with care as excessive
values could cause the hair to behave unpredictably.

• Collision Margin: Controls the amount of space that

exists between the hair and the objects that it collides
against, before a collision is detected. If the collision
margin is set too low, hair can “disappear” inside the
objects it collides against.

• Friction: Controls the amount of friction from the hair to

the choreographed objects in the scene set to collide
against. No hair self collision using Bullet.
Hair Group Properties.
• Mass: Mass will not have an effect using the Bullet
Physics for hair.

Hair Properties
Hair Properties & Parameters
• Name: The Name
To access a hair object’s parameters and properties, you

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• Visible: Checking the Visible checkbox makes the FireFly Render Engine” on page 428 for more
hair object visible and vice versa. Invisible objects are information about displacement bounds.
not included in any render calculations, and do not
appear in the rendered scene. See “Figure Properties” • Recalculate Dynamics: The Recalculate Dynamics
on page 205 for information on animating the Visible option recalculates the dynamics for the current hair
property. object.

• Visible in Raytracing: Checking the Visible in • Shading Rate: The Shading Rate allows you to specify
Raytracing checkbox makes the hair object visible in the desired shading rate for the currently selected hair
object. Please refer to “Chapter 19: Using The FireFly
Render Engine” on page 428 for more information
about shading rates.

• Bend: Checking the Bend checkbox enables bending

for the selected hair object and vice versa. Bends
Hair Parameters
are discussed in “Bend Body Parts” on page 122.
Strand-based hair has the following parameters:
Remember that selecting Display > Bend Body Parts
bends all scene objects and this property only affects
the currently selected body part.

• Casts Shadows: Checking the Casts Shadows

checkbox forces the selected prop to cast a shadow,
which will be visible in your scene. Clearing this box
means the selected hair object casts no shadow.

• Displacement Bounds: The Displacement Bounds

property determines the hair object’s displacement
boundary. Please refer to “Chapter 19: Using The

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• Dynamics: The Dynamics parameter sets the amount

played during animations. A setting of 1 means the

means the dynamics will behave as though all values

were set to 200% of their current settings, and so
forth. Numbers below 1 reduce the amount by which
dynamics are applied, and negative numbers apply
the dynamics in reverse.

• XYZRotate: The xRotate, yRotate, and zRotate

parameter dials rotate the hair object around the
selected axis.

• Scale: Increases or decreases the size of the hair

object in all axes.

• XYZScale: The xScale, yScale, and zScale parameter

dials increase or decrease the size of the hair object in
the selected axis.

• XYZTran: The xTran, yTran, and zTran parameter dials

move the hair object along the selected axis.

Hair Group Parameters. Hair Colors and Materials

Each strand-based hair object in your scene has its own
shader tree, which is accessible in the Material room,
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allowing you to color your hair and add interesting effects.

Please refer to “Chapter 14: The Material Room” on page
314 for more information about the Material room. As with
any other object, you can select strand-based hair by
clicking it in the Document window, using the Current Actor
menu, etc.

Hair Shader.

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Adding Strand-Based Hair to the skullcaps are available in the Hair category under their

Library Palette scene, create and style hair, then save the skullcap
with your new hair style back to the Library palette for
Strand-based prop hair differs from geometry-based prop
hair because it needs underlying geometry in order to would prop-based hair. This is the preferred method for
“grow.” Strand-based hair grows in strands, much like real saving strand-based hair.
hair, rather than being made from textured polygons like
geometry-based hair. You can’t add strand-based hair to Skullcaps are also useful because they have
a higher polygon count than the underlying
a result, you can’t save strand-based hair to the Library head, giving you more detailed control over hair
palette unless it is growing from underlying geometry.
There are three ways to save strand-based hair for later prop, subdivide them in your favorite 3D modeling
use: application, then apply them anywhere you like to
obtain more detailed results.
•
merge function later, as explained in “Importing Poser To save strand-based hair to the Library palette:
Documents or Props” on page 846).
1. Open the Hair category in the Library palette. Locate
• Saving a prop/body part with a hair object on it. In or create a folder in which to save your new hair.
this case, simply add the prop with the hair to your
2. Click to select the hair that you want to save.
scene. For example, you could use the Group Editor
to select polygons on a character’s head and create 3. Click the Add to Library button. A message informs you
a skullcap prop, grow hair on that prop, and save the that you will need to save the hair group along with its
hair and prop to the Library palette. parent prop. Click OK to continue.

• The Library palette includes skullcaps designed to 4. Click Select Subset in the Set Name dialog. When
you select your hair groups, make sure that you also
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choose the prop that the hair groups are attached to.
For example, if you grew the hair groups directly on

Head in the props that you select.!

Strand-based hair is created on a per-object

basis for each scene.

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Chapter 27: The Cloth

Room
Poser’s Cloth room allows you to create realistic cloth that
behaves like real fabric. Want to add custom clothing to a

Poser offers powerful tools that help you create dynamic

cloth that responds realistically when animated. You can
even apply a Force Field for realistic wind effects!

Using the Cloth Room

The Cloth room appears as follows.
The Cloth Room.

The number of palettes and options that you

see in each room depends upon your screen
resolution. At higher resolutions, the default work
spaces display more palettes, while at lower
resolutions you see fewer palettes.

In addition to standard UI elements, the Cloth room

contains the following UI elements:

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• Cloth Simulations (1): The Cloth Simulation area allows For example, you can use dynamic cloth to create the
you to create, delete, and set up cloth simulators. following types of items in your Poser scene:

• Cloth (2): The Cloth area allows you to convert objects • A tablecloth that drapes over a table
to and from dynamic cloth objects and to set up
collision detection for your cloth. • A slip cover over furniture

• Cloth Groups (3): The Cloth Groups area is where you •

set up dynamic, choreographed, constrained, and Dynamic cloth objects require increased computing
decorated cloth groups. resources beyond those of conforming clothing. Items such
as socks, bikinis, or tights don’t need to be dynamic since
• Dynamics Controls (4): The Dynamics Controls group
sets up dynamic parameters.
with little to no room for independent motion. You should
generally use conforming clothing for these situations
The cloth room help contains additional
because it requires fewer computing resources.
information about importing props for use as
cloth.

Adding Dynamic Clothing

Conforming vs. Dynamic Cloth Dynamic clothing offers the most powerful means of

As mentioned in “The Figures Category” on page 148, wrinkles. Additionally, it is very easy to create clothing
props for use as dynamic clothing. Dynamic cloth retains
cloth consists of props with dynamic and other behaviors its dynamics when saved to the Library palette, but you
applied to simulate cloth. Poser supports both types of will need to create a new simulation whenever you add
cloth. saved cloth objects. To add dynamic cloth to your current

Dynamic cloth adds incredible realism to your scenes by

causing cloth objects to move as they would in real life.
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1. Select the item from the Library palette and add it to

your scene, then switch to the Cloth room.
Using Dynamic Clothing with
Morphs
2. Create a new simulation group, and select Body as
your desired collision object.
Step 1: Create/Set Up a Cloth Simulator
3. Recalculate the simulation.

setting up a cloth simulator. You may have as many

Using Dynamic Clothing without a simulators as you wish in your scene, however each
simulator requires system resources (RAM/CPU cycles) and
Figure increases rendering time.
Dynamic cloth retains its dynamics when saved to
the Library palette, but you will need to create a new
simulation whenever you add saved cloth objects. To add

1. Select the item from the Library palette and add it to

your scene, then switch to the Cloth room.

2. Create a new simulation group, and select your

desired collision object(s), if any.

3. Recalculate the simulation.

Cloth Simulations options.

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Creating the Simulation simulators are numbered in the order they are
created, e.g. Sim_1, Sim_2, etc.
To create a simulator, click the New Simulation button
in the Cloth Simulation area of the screen to open the • Simulation Range: You can either set the simulator to
Simulator Settings dialog. run throughout your entire animation or pick a set of
frames during which the simulator is active by entering
your desired frame numbers in the Start Frame and
End Frame
of frames that a simulator is active requires greater
amounts of system resources. During the frames prior
to the start of a simulation, the cloth object will remain
in its starting state. After the simulation ends, the
cloth object will remain in its ending state for the rest
of your animation. Additionally, the Steps per frame
parameter dial controls the number of calculation
steps per frame in order to smooth the cloth simulation.
Increasing this value improves the simulation results but
requires additional computing resources.

• Additional Cloth Collision Options: These checkboxes

Creating the Simulation. allow you to toggle the following additional collision
detection options on and off. By default, collisions
are calculated using cloth vertices against object
The Simulator Settings dialog box has the following
polygons.
options:
Object Vertex against cloth polygon: Checking
• Simulation Name: Enter your desired name for the the Object Vertex against cloth polygon checkbox
new simulator in the Simulation Name performs additional collision calculations using

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object vertices and cloth polygons, which helps meaning that the settled cloth drape is at frame 1
eliminate tears or holes that may occur when an before the simulation begins.
object collides with the cloth. Enabling this option
slows the simulation.
click OK to accept your choices and create the simulator
Object Polygon against cloth polygon: or Cancel to exit without creating the simulator.
Checking the Object Polygon against cloth The Cloth Simulation area has two other buttons:
polygon checkbox performs additional collision
calculations using object polygons and cloth • Delete Simulation: Simulation results are cached in
polygons, which helps eliminate tears or holes that
may occur when an object collides with the cloth. automatically loads to save time and resources.
Enabling this option slows the simulation. Clicking the Delete Simulation button deletes the
cache contents.
Cloth self-collision: Checking the Cloth self
collision checkbox allows a cloth to detect its
• Simulation Settings: Clicking the Simulation Settings
own polygons during simulation, preventing (for
button reopens the Simulation Settings window,
allowing you to alter your cloth simulator settings.
itself. Enabling this option slows the simulation.
Think of a cloth simulator as an envelope
• Cloth Draping: The Cloth Draping options are:
supplying basic behavioral properties. You
Drape Frame: The Drape Frame value allows you to can have multiple cloth objects in each simulation
set the number of frames per object to settle the and/or multiple simulations in each Poser scene.
cloth. Each cloth object, however, can only belong to
one simulation at a time. Increasing the number of
Calculate Drape: Clicking the Calculate Drape
simulations in a scene can add complexity and
button calculates the cloth object’s draping
interest, but also requires increased computing
behavior and caches the simulation. When
resources.
calculating the simulation, cached drape settlings
are added before beginning cloth simulations,
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The arrow at the top right of the Cloth Simulation area which displays a list of objects eligible to be turned into
displays the currently selected simulator. Clicking this arrow dynamic cloth. Use the Object to clothify pull-down menu
opens a pull-down menu allowing you to select any of the to select your desired object, and click the Clothify button
to make the cloth object, or Cancel to abort.

Step 2: Cloth Controls

Now that you’ve created a simulator, your next step is to
add cloth objects. Do this using the Cloth controls (area 2
of your screen).

Choosing an object to clothify.

To turn a dynamic cloth object back into a normal prop,

select it and click the Unclothify button. The prop will return

groups and dynamic parameters, meaning you won’t

have to start from scratch if you re-clothify the object later.

Cloth Objects settings. You can also create static props and morph targets from
cloth objects as described in “Creating Props and Morph
Targets” on page 620.
Clothifying Objects

To turn an object into a dynamic cloth object, select it

and click the Clothify button to open the Clothify window,
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Specifying Collision Objects The Cloth Collision Objects window has the following
options:

basic parameters and created dynamic cloth, the next • Add/Remove Collision Objects: Clicking the Add/
Remove button opens the Select Objects window,
objects that will use collision detection (collision objects) which displays a hierarchical list of all the objects in
with the cloth. Each collision object will behave in
all scene objects are selected (selected objects
contacting the cloth. Non collision objects will not use are checked). Add and remove collision objects by
collision detection with the cloth object. To set up collision checking/clearing the checkboxes next to each
objects, click the Collide Against button to open the Cloth object listing in the window, then click the OK button
Collision Objects window. to accept your choices or Cancel to abort. Added
objects appear in the Current Collision Object pull-
down menu in the Cloth Collision Objects window. You
can set collision options for each collision object by
selecting it using the pull-down menu and specifying
the desired settings.

Choosing collision objects.

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each simulation. Please see “Collision Offset & Depth”

on page 612 for more information.

• Collision Depth: The Collision Depth parameter

collision object in order for a collision to take place.

Increasing this value increases the distance at which
the cloth and collision object will collide. This is useful
when creating clothing, because the cloth will be

makes the cloth appear more static but avoids having

body parts penetrate the cloth (such as a leg poking
through a skirt). Experimentation will quickly yield the
proper value for each simulation. Please see “Collision
Offset & Depth” on page 612 for more information.

Select the object to clothify in the Select Objects dialog. • Static Friction: The Static Friction parameter sets

is similar to the Dynamic Friction parameter except

• Collision Offset: The Collision Offset parameter
that this is the force required to get a stationary cloth
determines the distance between a cloth object
in contact with a solid to start moving. For example,
and a collision object at which the collision detection
nylon over smooth plastic will have a very low amount
calculations begin. Increasing this value can help
of static friction while denim over wood will have
avoid accidental collisions, especially during
a high amount. You can use the Collision Friction
animations, because Poser requires a little time to
checkbox (see below) to use the collision object’s
calculate actual collisions. Increasing this value
value or the simulation’s value.
too high can consume extra computing resources.
Experimentation will quickly yield the proper value for

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• Dynamic Friction: The Dynamic Friction parameter clothing into dynamic cloth objects and drape

when the object is in motion. Moving a piece of cloth default pose. This is useful when applying dynamic
across a surface causes friction. Silk moving over a
steel surface has low resistance, while cotton moving
Ignore Head Collisions: Checking the Ignore head
over skin or coarse sandpaper over rough wood has
collisions checkbox causes the collision detection
high resistance. You can use the Collision Friction
checkbox (see below) to use the collision object’s
head. This is useful for cloth that will not normally
value or the simulation’s value.
touch the head, such as shirts, pants, etc.
• Figure Collision Options: The Figure Collision Options Ignore Hand Collisions: Checking the Ignore hand
allow you to specify how the current cloth object will collisions checkbox causes the collision detection

hands.

Ignore Feet Collisions: Checking the Ignore feet

collisions checkbox causes the collision detection
default pose at the start of simulation. In order for
the simulation to work correctly, we need to simulate feet.
the cloth draping process: given certain frames, the
Adding collision objects increases the
computing resources required to calculate
the start pose, and the draping simulation ensures the
cloth behavior and dynamics. Thus, you should
specify the minimum number of collision objects
Start Draping From Zero Pose: Checking the possible.
Start draping from zero pose checkbox is used
when creating cloth to be used as clothing on a

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A real piece of cloth has two sides (inside &

click OK to accept your choices or Cancel to exit without outside) and thickness. A cloth mesh is composed
setting up collision objects. of polygons, which mathematically have zero
thickness. The Collision Depth and Collision Offset
The arrow at the top right of the Cloth area displays the
dials emulate thickness by “extruding” the cloth
currently selected cloth object. Clicking this arrow opens
inwards by the amount of Collision depth units and
a pull-down menu allowing you to select any of the cloth
outward by the amount of Collision offset units.
Thus, the cloth now has a “thickness” of collision
Collision Offset & Depth
intersecting this volume will be treated as a collision.
The Collision depth and Collision offset dials are limited to
minimum 0.1cm and maximum 10cm.

Before adjusting these settings, be sure to

Step 3: Cloth Groups
enable the Object vertex against cloth
Objects being converted to cloth must have single-sided,
polygon and Object polygon against cloth polygon
connected (welded) polygons without caps. Once
options in the Simulator Settings dialog.
you’ve created a cloth simulator and cloth object, the
next step is to create cloth groups (groups of vertices)
within each object, thus subdividing the cloth object into
regions (in the same manner as, for example, dividing a
body part into different material groups). The exception
is decorative objects such as buttons, belt buckles, etc.,
which should be separate (non-welded) objects. Cloth
groups use vertices instead of polygons, meaning that the
Group Editor palette operates in vertex mode in the Cloth
room (as opposed to polygons). You can convert polygon
groups to vertex groups in the Cloth room by clicking the

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Add Group button to open a pop-up list of existing groups. • Dynamic: By default, cloth objects are created with
[P] are polygon groups. one dynamic group (_default_) comprising the entire
Selecting polygon groups includes all vertices of the object. Dynamic cloth groups are simulated using
affected polygons. the Dynamics Controls (see following step), which
determine how the cloth moves, folds or drapes as it
responds to gravity, wind force and how an underlying

props include a ball underneath a carpet, or a

dynamic groups for each clothing object, and each

dynamic group can have different dynamics settings.
You cannot directly animate dynamic groups with
regular keyframing.

• Choreographed: Each cloth object can have one

choreographed group. An empty choreographed
group is automatically created when you clothify an
object. Choreographed vertices can follow keyframed
movement or be excluded from the cloth simulation.

• Constrained: Each cloth object can have one

constrained group. An empty constrained group is
automatically created when you clothify an object.
Constrained vertices “stick” to corresponding polygon

Cloth Group objects.

cloth areas that have to follow the movement of the
underlying body part. They can be used to prevent
There are four types of groups available for cloth objects: straps on a dress from slipping down the shoulders,
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or to create a skirt’s belt that follows the waist’s treat these areas as boundaries, resulting in
movements. If you do not place these vertices in a increased movement of these areas compared to
constrained group, gravity can cause the cloth to fall neighboring regions of the cloth.
until the skirt hits the body or the ground. Constraining
Welding accessories to the cloth mesh often
the belt vertices keeps the belt at the waist and
creates a complex mesh where one edge is
reduces simulation time. If the belt contains complex
shared by more than two polygons.
geometry, the simulation will slow down.
The two types of decoration groups are:
• Decorations: Each cloth object can have two
Soft: Objects in the soft decorated group move
decorations groups (one “soft” and one “rigid”.
These groups are automatically created with empty
contents when you clothify an object. The decoration
groups animate, moving as underlying cloth moves Rigid: Objects in the rigid decorated group move
while staying over the underlying body. Good
candidates for decoration vertices include tiny or thin Good examples of rigid decoration objects are
polygons such as pockets, belt loops, buttons, a knot buttons or the knot in a tie.
in a tie, etc. These are usually items sitting on another
If you want the current cloth object to consist of a single
cloth group and have only passive movement, either
dynamic group, you’re done. Continue on to Step 4
following underlying body movement or other parts of
(below) to set your dynamics. If, however, you want to
the cloth. Because of their small size and/or irregularity,
create multiple groups, you can do so using the following
these can cause issues if not placed into this group.
buttons:
The decorations group favors accessories that are
geometrically separated from the cloth mesh object. • New Dynamic Group: Clicking the New Dynamic Group
There are two reasons for this: button opens the New Dynamic Vertex Group Name
If the decorations group shares vertices with box. Enter your desired name for the new dynamic
the cloth mesh, the decorations vertices will group and click OK to proceed or Cancel to abort. By
not be simulated. This causes the simulator to default, your entire cloth object consists of a dynamic

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group called _default_. Any vertices that are not part you to add or remove vertices from the currently
of other dynamic, constrained, choreographed, or selected group. Please refer to “The Group Editor” on
decorated groups when you’re done creating/editing page 742 for information on using the Group Editor
groups will remain in the _default_ group. palette.

• Edit Choreographed Group: Clicking the Edit

Choreographed Group button opens the Group Editor
palette, which allows you to add or remove vertices
from the currently selected choreographed group
(_choreographed_). Please refer to “The Group Editor”
on page 742 for information on using the Group
Editor palette.

• Edit Constrained Group: Clicking the Edit Constrained

Assigning a name to a Dynamic Group.
Group button opens the Group Editor palette, which
allows you to add or remove vertices from the
Since each cloth object can only have one currently selected constrained group (_constrained_).
choreographed, constrained, and/or one Please refer to “The Group Editor” on page 742 for
each soft & hard decorated groups, you can only information on using the Group Editor palette.
assign names to dynamic groups.
• Edit Soft Decorative Group: Clicking the Edit Soft
Decorative Group button opens the Group Editor
• Delete Dynamic Group: Clicking the Delete Dynamic palette, which allows you to add or remove vertices
Group button deletes the currently selected dynamic from the currently selected soft decoration group (_
group. softDecorated_). Please refer to “The Group Editor” on
page 742 for information on using the Group Editor
• Edit Dynamic Group: Clicking the Edit Dynamic Group palette.
button opens the Group Editor palette, which allows

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• Edit Rigid Decorative Group: Clicking the Edit Rigid Step 4: Cloth Dynamics Controls
Decorative Group button opens the Group Editor
palette, which allows you to add or remove vertices Once you’ve created and edited cloth groups, the
from the currently selected rigid decoration group (_
rigidDecorated_). Please refer to “The Group Editor” on dynamic groups in the currently selected cloth object.
page 742 for information on using the Group Editor Dynamic properties control how the dynamic groups will
palette. move and behave when the dynamics are calculated.
The Cloth Dynamics Controls have the following buttons:
Keep the following in mind when working with cloth
groups:

• Adding vertices to the current group removes them

from other groups.

• Removing vertices from the default group adds them

to the choreographed group.

• Removing vertices from any group adds them to the

default group.
The arrow at the top right of the Cloth area displays the
currently selected cloth group within the currently selected
cloth object. Clicking this arrow opens a pull-down menu
allowing you to select any of the cloth groups in the

cloth object, use the pull-down menu available in the

Cloth area (Step 2).

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• Calculate Simulation: Clicking the Calculate Simulation

button takes into account all of the simulation, object,
group, and dynamics settings included in the current
simulation and calculates the behavior of all of the

frames. Please see above for information on specifying

cloth simulation frame ranges.

are dialed in at frame 1, there may be

occasions when the morphs are doubled after the
cloth simulation is calculated. One way around this
issue is to set the morph back to zero on frame 1,
and on the end frame. Then set the morph back to
1 before you recalculate it.

• Play Simulation: Clicking the Play simulation button

plays the currently selected simulation, allowing you to
see how the cloth behaves over time. If you don’t like
the current behavior, you can alter any of the Cloth
room settings and try again.

• Clear Simulation: Clicking the Clear Simulation button

empties all stored data in the current simulation (such
The Group Editor is used in Vertex mode with Cloth Groups. as altering collision settings, adding/removing objects,
editing groups, changing dynamics control settings,
etc.), allowing you to specify new dynamics, thus

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modifying how the cloth object behaves. If you clear

the simulation and play the animation, what you are
seeing is simply keyframe animation with no simulation
being calculated.
The Cloth room includes the following dynamics controls:

Dynamics Controls.

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• Fold Resistance: The Fold Resistance parameter

causes the cloth to lose its motion more quickly.
(folding). Increasing this value lessens the cloth’s Excessively high values can make the cloth look like
ability to bend. Soft fabrics like silk fold very easily, it is moving in syrup, and extremely low values can
so a low value (1.0) is appropriate. By contrast, hard cause the cloth to behave irregularly. A value of 0.01 is
leather tends not to fold, so a higher value would be suitable for more uses.
appropriate.
• Cloth Density: The Cloth Density
• Shear Resistance: The Shear Resistance parameter the mass-per-unit area density of the cloth in grams
controls the cloth’s resistance to in-plane shearing, or per square centimeter. If you take a 1cm x 1cm piece
side-to-side bending. A low shearing resistance allows of cloth and weigh it, the weight in grams is what this
the cloth triangles (caused, for example, when the parameter should be set to. For example, silk is very
corner of a rectangular piece of cloth is draped over light while leather is very heavy by comparison.
a surface) to collapse in on themselves, so a value
of 50.0 or thereabouts is appropriate. Wool has a low • Cloth Self Friction: The Cloth Self Friction parameter
shear resistance while leather has a very high amount.
cloth and another, or how easily the cloth moves over
• Stretch Resistance: The Stretch Resistance parameter itself. Higher values prevent the cloth from sliding over
itself. For example, rayon has a very low amount of
(stretching). Most cloth is highly resistant to stretching, self-friction while denim has a fairly high amount.
with some exceptions like spandex, which is more
elastic. The default of 50.0 gives a fairly high resistance • Static Friction: The Static Friction parameter sets
to stretching suitable for cotton-type materials. A lower the amount of friction between the cloth and
value might be suitable for stretchy materials such as solid objects. This is similar to the Dynamic Friction
Lycra. parameter except that this is the force required to
get a stationary cloth in contact with a solid to start
• Stretch Damping: The Stretch Damping parameter moving. For example, nylon over smooth plastic will
controls the internal energy loss caused by the motion

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have a very low amount of static friction while denim The label at the top right of the Cloth Dynamics Controls
over wood will have a high amount. area displays the currently selected cloth object. To
change the object, use the pull-down menu in the Cloth
• Dynamic Friction: The Dynamic Friction parameter sets area (Step 2).

objects when the cloth is in motion. Moving a piece of

cloth across a surface causes friction. Silk moving over Cloth Parameters & Properties
a steel surface has low resistance, while cotton moving
over skin or coarse sandpaper over rough wood has To access a cloth object’s parameters and properties, you
high resistance.

• Air Damping: The Air Damping • Dynamic cloth objects have the same properties as
cloth’s air resistance that occurs whenever the cloth props. Please refer to “Prop Properties” on page 238
is moving through the air. Tightly woven cloth has a for information about prop properties.
higher resistance than loosely woven fabric. Set this
• Dynamic cloth has the same parameters as strand-
parameter with care as excessive values could cause
based hair objects. Please refer to “Hair Parameters”
the cloth to behave unpredictably.
on page 598 for information about hair object
• Collision Friction: Checking the Collision Friction parameters.
checkbox ignores the cloth object’s Static Friction
and Dynamic Friction parameters, instead using those
same parameters belonging to the collision objects Creating Props and Morph
themselves. Clearing this checkbox applies the cloth Targets
dynamic settings.
You can convert cloth objects into static props or morph
• Reset: Clicking the Reset button resets all cloth targets for use in scenes where a cloth-like look is desired
dynamics controls. without the need for a dynamic cloth object. For example,
you could create a tablecloth using dynamic cloth and

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a table prop then convert the dynamic cloth object simulation. In this case, reapplying the transformations
into a static prop for use in future scenes. If you did this,
you would only need to include table legs where visible appearance to the static prop.
To create a morph target, follow steps 1 & 2 above, then
giving you full realism while reducing your scene’s polygon
spawn a morph target as you would for any other prop/
count.
body part as described in “Spawning Morph Targets” on
As another example, you could drape a sheet over a page 721. You can then apply the morph target to a
prop.
draped sheet to a static prop and use the Setup room to
turn it into a poseable ghost. Morph targets created in this manner work in
exactly the same manner as other morph
To create a prop from your dynamic clothing object:
targets, meaning that all dynamic motion is lost.
1. Clothify an object as described above.

2. Use the Animation controls to move to your desired any other scene object. Exported cloth objects become
frame (the cloth shape changes with each frame as static mesh objects in your chosen export format. To do
the simulation plays). this, follow steps 1 & 2 above, then export the object as
described in “Exporting Files” on page 850.
3. Use the Grouping tool to spawn a new prop. Please
refer to “The Group Editor” on page 742 for
information on using the Grouping tool and the Group
Editor palette.
Adding Dynamic Cloth to the
Library Palette
Creating a prop in this method preserves the shape of the
original cloth object at the time you created the prop but Adding dynamic cloth to the Library palette is a special
removes all transformation (position, rotation, and scale). case that merits its own topic. To add dynamic cloth:
For example, if you stretch a square into a rectangle, the 1.
new prop will appear as a square deformed by the cloth sure to disable Inverse Kinematics (see “Inverse
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Kinematics (IK)” on page 187). Next, open the Joint

Editor palette (see “Chapter 33: Working with Joints, (such as a tablecloth), simply save it as a
Weights, and Skinning” on page 781) and click the prop.
Zero Figure button.

2. If not loaded yet, load or import your desired cloth

intersections. If importing a static prop, convert it into

dynamic cloth using the Cloth room as described in
this chapter.

3. Select the cloth, then open its Properties palette and

click the Set Parent button (or select Object > Change
Parent)

4. The Choose Parent window appears. Select Hip,

being sure not to check the Inherit bends of parent
checkbox.

5. Open the Library palette to the Props category and

select your desired subcategory as described above.
Save the cloth object.

6. You will be prompted to save the object as a smart

prop. Click Yes.

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Chapter 28: The Fitting Problems and Solutions

Room The Fitting Room may not convert every piece of clothing
perfectly, and there are some known limitations in the

The Fitting Room is designed to address the needs of those handle. The following are some issues that are currently
known:

clothing that you like, and you use the Fitting Room to • Clothing that is modeled in sections, with unwelded
seams, can become split apart at the seams when
Along the way, the Fitting Room allows you to convert tightened. The Soft Features method cannot resolve
this, as it s a result of smoothing. The smoothing
conforming clothing), including adding groups, skeleton, algorithm moves vertices as they relate to their
and character morphs. neighbors, and if a seam is not welded it moves the
sides away from each other. To reduce the separation,
use the Paint tools to subtract the smoothing down to
,
zero on both sides of the seam.
Tighten, Smooth, Soft Features, and Rigid Features) to
control what areas of the clothing should move more • Clothing that has layered parts, such as a skirt and
or less than others: The calculations for each of these an overskirt, or two or more layers of overlapping
methods are done automatically in Poser, but you can use geometry, can intersect and cause collisions.
paintbrush tools to determine the strength at which each
• Setting all vertices to the Rigid Features method
(examples: body armor, jewelry, jeweled Egyptian
collars, etc.) can result in unexpected translations of
the geometry.

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• the body handles to appropriately-named groups

using the Group Editor or another method.
and it can balloon the geometry more than desirable
in the areas that use Soft or Rigid Features. • For skirts that use the traditional grouping (such as
when the hip runs down the center of the skirt to
• For clothing that incorporates more than one of separate the left and right thigh groups), the hip group
the above issues you can, if desired, use Poser’s may not extend completely to the bottom of the skirt
GoZ plugin, Wardrobe Wizard, or a third-party 3D and will cause the center front and back of the skirt to
appear “unwelded.” You will need to regroup the skirt
clothing item as closely as you can. Then import the to include at least two rows of polygons (one row at
morph as a full body morph in the Pose Room. Dial the each side of the front and back center lines) to add a
morph in before you enter the Fitting Room. When you separation between the thighs.
set up the Fitting Room simulation, uncheck the Zero

set all Tighten method vertices to zero and paint in only Preparing Your Scene
the areas that you need to tighten further. Then export
Before you enter the Fitting Room, you need to load the
the setup.
scene. The following image shows Miki 4, and a shirt from
• Many skirts have the lower portion grouped entirely as the Ryan 2 clothing library.
a hip, and use body handles for posing. To group the
lower portion as a hip, pay attention to the body parts
that you select in the Transfer Figure dialog when you

appear beneath the hip. When you have the Auto

Group option checked, this will group the hip and the
body handles into a single group. The thighs, buttocks,
shins, etc. will not be included. You’ll need to reassign
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need to rotate body parts to match up the default

quite different from one character to another. Arms and

legs can be bent differently, one character might lean
more forward or backward at the waist, and so on. If the
differences are substantial, it’s a good idea to use rotations
on the clothing to more closely match the default pose of

For example, some characters are modeled with arms

perfectly straight when they are in their default pose, while
others have their arms and legs bent slightly differently. The
steps that you take at this point differ slightly, depending
on these differences.

Load the character and clothing into your scene.

of the arms. To begin, scale and move the clothing item to

all of the pokethrough when you do this. The idea is to just

Adjust Scale, Position, and get the clothing item in roughly the right position so that
you can adjust the arm bends.
Rotation
• If the arms are straight on the character, and are also

both objects are converted to Poser unimeshes. What this in the Fitting Room.
means is that any translation, rotation, or scaling will work
on the entire object, rather than on individual body parts. • If the arms are straight in one case, but bent at the
elbow in another (such as shown in the following
Because of this, you’ll need to consider how the default
poses of characters differ, and whether or not you will
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clothing before you enter the Fitting Room.

Default arm positions for Miki 4 (top) and Victoria 4 (bottom). Rotation adjustments of Victoria 4 shirt before (top) and after
(bottom).
In cases where the default pose is different, it helps to
adjust the rotations on the clothing before entering the After you make your adjustments, you may still have
Fitting Room. For example, if the arms are bent differently pokethrough on the clothing in other areas. However, the
controls in the Fitting Room will take care of this when you
and rotation dials on the right arm to get the sleeve to
match as closely as possible, and then use the Figure >
Symmetry commands to apply the settings to the other
side.

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If you do make scaling and rotation

adjustments in the Pose Room, you will need
to uncheck the Zero Figure option when you create

section.

Creating a Fitting Simulation

the Fitting tab to enter the Fitting Room. At this point,

Miki 4.
1. With the character and clothing loaded into your
scene, click the Fitting tab to switch to the Fitting
If you don’t need to change any rotations on Room.
individual body parts, you can enter the
2. Click the New button at the top of the Fitting Sessions
Fitting Room without doing so. You will be allowed
palette.
to adjust the overall scale and position of the
clothing in the Fitting Room.

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Uncheck the Zero Figure option for the

Object if you have made any rotation
adjustments to the clothing to match the default
pose of the character, as discussed in “Adjust Scale,
Position, and Rotation” on page 625.

It is standard practice for content

position, and rotation) and then memorize those

3. In the Session dialog, complete the following: settings before saving the item to the library.
However, sometimes this step is omitted, which can
Name
library. Checking the Zero Figure option can
Object: Expand the Object list to select the
address conformers that have not been zeroed
before adding them to the library.

Check the Keep Deformations option for the

Object if you applied morph targets or other Goal: Expand the Goal list to select the character
deformers to the clothing in the Pose Room. For
example, if you added magnets or applied a
Check the Keep Deformations option for the
morph that raises or lowers the hem of a skirt, you
Goal if you applied morph targets or other
can check the Preserve Deformations option to
deformers to the character in the Pose Room. For
bring the skirt into the Fitting Room with that length.

full body morph (such as Pregnant, or Body Builder)

you can check this option to load the character
into the Fitting Room with that body shape instead
of the default body shape.

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Uncheck the Zero Figure option f you have

Fitting Simulation Methods

different simulation methods associated with it: ,

Tighten, Smooth, Soft Features, and Hard Features.

There are many controls and options that you see in

common to all these method types:

Common method controls and options.

• Method menu:
methods that move the clothing in different ways to
Select the Object (clothing item) and Goal (character).
singularly, or in combination with each other, to
4. Click OK. The clothing and character will appear in the
Fitting Room as Poser unimeshes.
• Enable Method: Enables or disables the currently

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not want to use the currently selected method in the

• Weight: Controls the strength at which the currently

selected method will be applied to the clothing.

• Display Weights: Enables or disables the display of

colored vertices that show you how much or how
little the currently selected method is applied to each
vertex in the object.

The Display Weights option shows and hides the display of

colored vertices that show how strong the current method is
applied.

Tighten

automatically be directed to the Tighten method by

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default. If you immediately press the Fit button in the • Exclude Goal Group: Check this option to select a
upper section of the Fitting Room, you’ll be able to get an group that you want to exclude from the Tighten
idea of which areas need to be worked on further. method. This will create a new group in the clothing
called _clothing name_exclude, where _clothing
name_ is the name of the clothing item that is assigned

open the Group Editor. This allows you to choose or

create groups on the goal (the character you are

Tighten options.

• Pokethrough Margin: The pokethrough margin controls

amount of space between the two to ensure that

Decreasing the setting will bring the clothing closer

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indicates that the Tighten method is applied at full

strength. You can use the Paintbrush to reduce the
effect in areas that you do not want to tighten as
much.

opens with the Tighten method controls displayed. A good

to click the Fit button before you do anything else to the

Excluding goal groups.

• Paintbrush: Click the Paintbrush icon to enable the

vertex painting tools. Initially, all of the vertices in
the clothing object appear with green color, which

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method:

Delete: Click this button to delete the currently

Set Weight: Controls the weight at which the

clicking the Fit button.
clothing. A setting of 1 applies the method at its full
strength.
New button in the
Paintbrush: Click the Paintbrush icon to enable the
Adjustment section. A new adjustment will be created and
vertex painting tools.
automatically named for you.
Object Surface Normal: Moves the clothing vertices

outward based on the direction of the normals in

the clothing item.
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Goal Surface Normal: Moves the clothing vertices

outward based on the direction of the normals of

Direction indicator: Moves the clothing vertices

indicator around the globe to specify the direction

controls the amount that the clothing will be

indicator gives you a visual indication of this setting

as you adjust the Weight setting. Adjust the Weight
setting until the Direction indicator displays the
amount at which you want the clothing to move in
that direction.

The Weight setting will resize the direction indicator to display

Reverse directions
will pull clothing vertices away from the character

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Directions to pull clothing vertices toward the Smooth

character instead.

clothing to reduce the amount of hard transitions. When

you choose the Smooth method, you’ll notice that all
vertices are smoothed at maximum value (all appear
green). Therefore, if you need to make any changes to
Smoothing, it will be to reduce the effect of smoothing
where you paint.

Smooth options.

• Paintbrush: Click the Paintbrush icon to enable the

vertex painting tools.

Soft Features

but which you want to maintain the overall shape as

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features are pockets, collars, seam lines, hem lines, folds, • Auto-Generate Weight Map: Use the Auto-Generate
wrinkles, and so on. Weight Map controls as follows to adjust the Soft
Features map
When you switch to the Soft Features method, you’ll see
vertices that are variously colored. Poser takes a “best Threshold: Poser initially generates a Soft Features
guess” at the areas where the Soft Features method will be map based on the default threshold setting of 20.
applied by analyzing charges in the polygonal density and Increase the threshold to add more vertices to the
changes in the surface normals. Soft Features vertex map.

Generate: After you adjust the threshold setting,

click the Generate button to update the Soft
Features vertex map based on the new threshold
value.

Soft Features options.

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Auto-generating a Soft Features vertex map. Additional Soft Features strength added to the shirt collar.

• Paintbrush: Click the Paintbrush icon to enable the

vertex painting tools. When painting a Soft Features Rigid Features
vertex map, focus on areas where you want the shape
Use the Rigid Features method on areas where you

the character. Examples of Rigid Features would include

added to the collar, and the result after the Fit is run.
buttons, buckles, clasps, and other similar items. There is
only one option for Rigid Features:

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• Paintbrush: Click the Paintbrush icon to enable the

vertex painting tools.

Rigid Features options.

while you have your Display set to Smooth Switching to Smooth Shaded Lined display mode to see
Shaded Lined. It also helps if you reset the Fitting polygons and vertices more clearly.
Simulation so that you can paint the rigid features
while the clothing item is in its default shape and
size. This allows you to more easily determine which
vertices you need to paint. Painting Vertex Weights
When you click the Paintbrush icon in the Fitting Room, it
opens the Vertex Weights palette shown in the following

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The settings and options in the top section of the Vertex

Weights palette are as follows:

Vertex weight painting modes.

• Subtract: Use the Subtract brush to remove or reduce

the weight of the vertices that you paint.

• Add: Use the Add brush to increase the weight of the

vertices that you paint.

• Smooth: Use the Smooth brush to blend transitions

between adjacent areas that have wide variations in
the amount of weight applied to them.

• Weight

Vertex Weights palette.

• The middle section of the Vertex Weights palette

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small brush designed to paint single vertices to other • Radius: Controls the size of the brush. Move the slider
brushes that have varying degrees of softness around
their edges. In addition, the following additional in the Radius text box.
settings appear here:
You can increase or decrease the radius of
the brush by .0005 each time you press the
Up or Down arrow key. Press the Shift key while using
the Up or Down arrow key to increase/decrease by
.005.

• Magnitude: Controls the strength at which the effect

is applied while you paint. Move the slider left to
decrease the strength, or right to increase it. You can

You can increase or decrease the

Brush options.
magnitude of the brush by .0005 each time
you press the Left or Right arrow key. Press the Shift
Use the harder edge brushes to paint vertex key while using the Left or Right arrow key to
weight on circular objects like round buttons, increase/decrease by .005.
scale brush size to match the diameter of the
button, then set a relatively high magnitude, center
• Group: Check the Group option to isolate the effects
the brush over the button and click to quickly paint
that button geometry.
group from the drop-down menu.

• Invert Colors: Check this option to reverse the color

display of the vertices, so that vertices with low values

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will be displayed green, and vertices with high values

will be displayed with darker colors.
Completing the Fitting Simulation
The bottom section of the Vertex Weights palette contains
controls that allow you to mirror, copy, paste, and set

piece of clothing are at the top of the Fitting Simulation

palette.

Mirror, Set, and Copy/Paste weights.

• Mirror: Allows you to copy weight painting from one

side of a model to another. This helps save time, by
allowing you to paint one side of a model and then
Rigid Features options.
mirroring the same values to the other side of the
model.
• Fit: Click the Fit
• Set All: Allows you to set all vertices to 0, to 1, or to the
value that you have entered in the Weight section in
the top of the Vertex Weights palette. You’ll also need to do it before you spawn a prop or

• Copy/Paste: Provides commands that allow you to

copy and paste weight values between objects.

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• Reset
the clothing. This returns the clothing back to its default
shape and position.

• Iterations

• Spawn Prop: Click this button to create a prop based

on the current shape of the clothing. You will be
prompted to enter a name for the new prop. The new
prop will appear in the Pose Room, but will not be

• Create Figure: Click this button to create a new

are as follows:

The New Figure dialog prompts you to enter a

The Transfer Figure dialog appears. Use the

Hierarchy List to check or uncheck the body parts
Check the Keep Morphs option to add character morphs to
the clothing.

If you want to transfer morphs from the character

to the clothing, check the Transfer Morphs option.

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Check the Auto Group option if you want to

regroup the clothing to match the groups in the

uncheck the option to preserve the existing

groups.

Check the Zero Rotations option to set all rotations

for each body part to zero. The results will be the

Then click the Select button to choose the morphs

that you want to transfer to the clothing.

When you return to the Pose Room, conform

actor selected on the clothing, switch to the

Properties palette. Check the Include Morphs option Check the Keep Morphs option to add character morphs to
in the When Conforming section of the Properties the clothing.

when you adjust the character’s morphs.

Check the Auto Group option to group the

Uncheck this option if you want to use other

methods to add groups to the clothing.

When you switch to the Pose Room you’ll see your

new clothing item. Select it, and then choose the

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Figure > Conform To command to conform it to

your character.

The original version of the clothing will still

appear in the scene. You can safely delete
the original version without affecting the copy that is
in the Fitting Room.

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Chapter 29: Wardrobe

Wizard
Wardrobe Wizard is a utility that enables Poser clothing

and support for many past and current Poser/Smith Micro

supported by Wardrobe Wizard, see http://

www.philc.net/store_WW_Extra_Figs.php.

Before you use Wardrobe Wizard to convert clothing,

Wardrobe Wizard options in the Python Palette.
you may want to consider spending a few minutes
reading these instructions. Doing so may explain many
questions that you might encounter if you dive in before The commands in this palette are as follows:
understanding what each feature does.
• Convert: Brings up the Plug in Graphical User Interface
(GUI), which is explained in “Converting Clothing” on
Using the Wardrobe Wizard page 646.

• Analyze Full Body Morphs: Before you can add

Choose Scripts > PhilC > Wardrobe Wizard Menu then
compatible Full Body Morphs to the clothing you must
open the Python window to view the Wardrobe Wizard
button menu shown below.
only needs to be done once, (unless you subsequently

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• Load: Load a character into the scene using a

to be selected in the scene. This process is described in
“Analyzing Full Body Morphs” on page 652. than using the Poser library.

• Smooth: Allows smoothing operations to be • Help

undertaken on the clothing.
• Version
• support and system information.

• Back: Reloads the default Python script buttons.

WW Smooth, WW Smooth More, and WW
full body morphs are automatically
included in each clothing conversion. If the Add Converting Clothing
Material Dials

Poser scene in order to convert clothing. Simply click the

material. See “Choosing Additional Converting
Convert button from the main Wardrobe Wizard palette to
Options” on page 650 for more details. The
open the Wardrobe Wizard dialog shown in the following
Smooth and menu buttons allow you to

the conversion process.

• Utilities: Access more utilities, as discussed in

“Wardrobe Wizard Utilities” on page 655.

• Zero Figure

within the scene when performing a conversion.

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Choosing the Original Clothing

Using the Original Clothing section of the GUI select
the clothing that you wish to convert. This may be
either a single item or an number of items. They can be

compressed or uncompressed format.

Choosing the original clothing.

only one item of clothing. If you have a multi

item back to the library. You can then batch

convert the set. If you have made multiple
selections please note that any conversion option
selected will be applied to the whole batch.
Therefore do not convert pant suits within a batch
Converting clothing with the Wardrobe Wizard. containing skirts since each requires different
settings.

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Please note that gloves are not supported by Selecting the Figures to Convert From
Wardrobe Wizard.
and To
Use the Convert From
Selecting the Target Library
Use the Save Result to This Library selector to choose the
Use the Convert To
Target Folder into which you wish the converted clothing
to be saved. For example if you wish the clothing to be
saved to the Poser library you would select your Poser
library installation folder
If you want to save your converted clothing to a remote visible in the Convert to and Convert from lists.
Poser library you would select the folder above that These are the “out of the box” versions of those
library’s Runtime folder.

• Runtime: Geometries: third-party vendor. Sometimes when customizing a

WardrobeWizard: Figure Name folder. In this way you
can easily reorganize your library if required.
can occur if the Poser Face room is used. The

without worrying about editing the path to

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Click the Extra Figure Support button at the

bottom of the Wardrobe Wizard window to
obtain the most recent information on where to
obtain add-ons that provide Wardrobe Wizard

Choosing the clothing type.

Choosing the Clothing Type • Pants, Pant Suites, Shirts, Etc:- Choose this category
for Pants, Jackets, or any clothing above the hips. Most
Select the type of clothing that best describes the clothing
being converted.

• Loose Skirts, Skirt Suites, Long Robes, Etc:- Choose

this category for any skirt that tends to fall away from
the hips. This also includes robes. This is probably going
to be your preferred skirt option, including short skirts.

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• Tight Skirts: Use this option for any skirt that tends to Choosing Additional Converting
closely follow the line of the legs. You may want to use
Options
The Options section of the Wardrobe Wizard window
contains several other options that you can check or
• Short Hair: Choose this option for hair that does not
uncheck for clothing conversion. These options are as
extend past the neck.
follows:
For long hair use Pants, Pant Suites, Shirts,
Etc.

• : Use this option for any

pose.

• Shoes that DO NOT Fit at Zero Pose: Choose this option

for any shoe, boot, thigh boot that does not

unconformed zero pose. Please note that the more

conversion will be. See “Footwear” on page 666 for

more details.
Choosing additional conversion options.

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• High Resolution: Choose from High (checked) or

Normal (unchecked) resolution. Normal resolution will
via this checkbox option are the large number of very
powerful clothing adjustment morphs. Please see the
• Flared details in the “Full Body Morph” section above.
sleeves.
• Regroup: Generally leave this option selected. Only
• Close Fit: Only deselect this option if you are turn it off if there is some reason to not have Wardrobe
converting particularly baggy clothing. Wizard regroup the model. Possibly some custom
process that you wish to undertake.
• Force Reanalysis
converted Wardrobe Wizard undertakes an analyses • Regroup All: Forces a more aggressive regrouping
algorithm, particularly in the torso. Use if the standard
greatly speeds up the time of any future conversion. regroup option does not give satisfactory results.
However if for example you converted as a “Loose
Skirt” and wish to see if perhaps selecting “Tight Skirt” • Fix Pokethrough
may be better you would need to select the “Force will be repositioned so that it remains above the skins
Reanalyses” check box to ensure that Wardrobe surface. Use with care. This tool is also included in the
Wizard redid the analyses with the new settings. Wardrobe Wizard Python Script buttons which may be

• Keep Existing Morphs: Wardrobe Wizard has the have been saved to the library at that point. However
ability to retain any Full Body Morphs contained in the
existing clothing. By selecting this check box you will WW_Looseness morph in the clothing’s BODY will give
subsequently be presented with a pop up list of all the better results and be more controllable. FixPokeThru
available existing morphs and be able to select the
ones that you wish to keep. designed to work with clothing intersecting clothing.

• Add Full Body Morphs: Wardrobe Wizard has the ability

to add Full Body Morphs to the clothing to match the
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• As Prop: Delivers the converted clothing as a Poser things as which morphs to keep etc. The progress will be
displayed in the Poser Python output window.
use this if you wish to use the converted clothing as
dynamic clothing in the Poser Cloth room.
Finding Your Converted Clothing
• Add Material Dials: Provides the option to allow
Wardrobe Wizard to create a set of full body morphs Upon completion open Poser and navigate to the

material. Very powerful, very useful, very easy to use.

By way of a bonus if you select this option you get that they were converted to. The name of the clothing will
be the same as the name of the original item, as will the
instructions you will probable not realize that it is there. thumbnail if one was available for the original.

• Copy Weightmaps: Provides the option to copy weight

Analyzing Full Body Morphs
clothing. Wardrobe Wizard will convert and save the
Wardrobe Wizard has the ability to automatically create
into the scene to facilitate the weight map copying full body morphs in the clothing to match those contained

remote library the user will be prompted to browse for

morphs you can use Wardrobe Wizard to build compatible
morphs into the clothing. Before this can happen you will
of their choice.
you have the Plug in GUI open as shown above click the
Once you have made your selections click the Convert “Cancel” button then proceed as below.
button. Depending on your selections you may get
supplementary pop up windows asking you to select such 1.
click the Analyze Full Body Morphs button.

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Analyzing Full Body Morphs. Select the full body morphs that you want to analyze.

2. A dialog opens, and prompts you to select the morphs Scroll through the list and check the options that
that you want to include in your clothing. you want to add into your clothing.

your clothing, click the Select All button.

Click Select None to deselect all of the selections

you have made.

Click Invert Selection to switch the selected

morphs to unselected, and vice versa.

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Click Cancel to exit the dialog without analyzing

your selections. that you wish to have Full Body Morphs

3. Click OK to apply your selections. Wardrobe Wizard

displays another dialog with a summary of the morphs
that you selected.
additional tools below for dealing with characters
4. Click OK again to perform the conversion. Wardrobe with non-standard body morphs etc.
Wizard displays the progress as the morphs are being
analyzed. When the process is complete, the dialog
displays Done! at the end.
Clothing
In addition to the Full Body Morphs that you have

Wizard also includes a large number of very powerful yet

simple to use clothing adjustment Full Body Morphs. You

clothing, and listed under the heading WW Adjustment

Morphs.
A number of other WW Adjustment morphs may be
included when you make your selection from the pop
up morph list during the conversion process. It is strongly
suggested that you try them out. They provide a great
deal of versatility in the converted clothing. To access
these powerful morphs simply select the “Add Body
Wardrobe Wizard displays a dialog when the analysis is
Morphs” (plug-in:- “Add FBM’s”) and “Add Material Dials”
complete.
checkboxes.
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The following morphs are built into the clothing Wardrobe Wizard Utilities
automatically by Wardrobe Wizard:
Clicking the Utilities button in the main Wardrobe Wizard
• Smooth: This will provide a dial in the clothing’s BODY script palette brings access to a number of utilities
to enable small wrinkles to be ironed out. subdivided by function. These utilities are not key to
converting clothing but are included as additional features
• Smooth More: Similar to WW Smooth but applies to the
that may prove useful.
edges of the clothing.
The various utilities that are available appear in the menu
• shown below. These utilities are described in the sections
that follow.
poking through turn the WW Looseness dial a little. It
is suggested that you initially try this rather than the
“Pokethru” option.

• Shift: Translate the BODY or body parts. Use “Save

Changes to Geometry” to make the adjustment
permanent.

• Cleavage: This adjust the area of the clothing in

between and below the breasts. It was noticed that

would be some clothing “left over” that tended to sag.

(Much the same as in real life). The WW Cleavage dial
allows you to easily take in the slack.

• Under Breast Smooth: Sometimes required to provide Other Wardrobe Wizard Utilities.

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Figure Utilities We recommend that you turn IK off before

using the Zero Figure option.

• IK Off
Inverse Kinematics off.

• IK On
Inverse Kinematics on. IK is applied to hands and feet
with this option.

• Transparency Off: Turns transparency off. Only works in

older versions of Poser.

• Transparency On: Turns transparency on. Only works in

older versions of Poser.

• Weld Figure: Click this button to create a welded copy

Wardrobe Wizard Figure Utilities.
Actor menu and is named new.

Figure Utilities Menu 1 • More...: Click to display Figure Utilities Menu 2.

• Back: Goes back to the previous menu.

• Load Figure: Opens a dialog that allows you to
navigate to a character library folder on your hard

• Zero Figure
to set all joint rotations to zero, and scales to 100%.

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Figure Utilities Menu 2 The script is found in your Poser installation folder as
Runtime \Python \poserScripts \PhilC \Wardrobe Wizard
P10 \Scale.py.

• Remove Scaling: Removes scaling settings from the

• Remove Magnets
that you click.

• Copy Joint Parameters

the scene, allows you to copy joint parameters from

• Back: Goes back to the previous menu.

Morphs Utilities
Figure Utilities (part 2).
Morph Utilities Menu 1
• Copy Scaling: Copies scaling parameters into the Clicking the Utilities > Morph buttons brings up these
clipboard. buttons.

• Apply Scaling: Applies copied settings to the currently

• Save Scaling: After you copy scaling settings to

the clipboard, saves the scripts to your hard drive.

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existing ‘Analyze full body morphs’ button, which

creates a morph analysis for every clothing dial. It

and Apollo etc each of which contain some fancy

standard Full Body Morph dials that Wardrobe Wizard

can not recognize.

• Dials to Single Morph: This will convert all current

character settings to a single Full Body Morph dial on
the character. This is a powerful feature that will take

it into a single Full Body Morph dial on the BODY of the

V3 morphs, and requires 15 morphs to be injected and

set. This button will let you turn them all into a single
Wardrobe Wizard Morph utilities. ‘new’ morph, that doesn’t require the dials to be set,
or even injected, any more.
• Create MOR from Figure: This will analyze the current
• Dials to Multiple Morphs: This will convert all dials on
the current character to multiple normal morphs on
the character. This is similar to ‘Dials to Single Morph’
above, but creates multiple morphs, one per dial. The
into a 1-click conversion.
new morphs don’t require the old dials to be set, or
even injected, any more.
• Create MORs from Dials: This will analyze all the dials
of the current character and create multiple morph
• Actor Morphs to Figure: This will transfer selected
actor morphs to the body. This is useful to bring up hair

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morphs or chest morphs etc to the BODY level, where

Wardrobe Wizard can analyze them.
good conversion. See the “anything else” shoe
• Figs to Morphs: Provides a method of creating a full example below.

steps are: • Zero All Morphs: Sets all morph dial values to zero.

• More...: Displays Morph Utilities Menu 2, described next.

button.
• Back: Goes back to the previous menu.
Save Changes to
Geometry below) Morph Utilities Menu 2

a morph target and build a full body morph into

• Save Changes to Geometry

geometry to whatever is currently displayed in the

possible that the joint parameters will not work well. Its
purpose is to:

“Figs to morphs” above.

Morph Utilties (part 2).
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• Set All Morphs: Sets all the morphs present in the Texture Utilities

using magnets in preparation for using the Poser menu

Figure > Create full body morph. Anything else and it
just has novelty value.

• Zero All Scaling: Just what the button says.

• Back: Goes back to the previous menu.

Wardrobe Wizard Texture Utilities.

• Set All to White: Click this button to change all Diffuse

Color settings to white. Links to texture maps remain
connected to the root node.

• Edit Texture: Click this option to display a menu of

you then select a texture map, the texture opens in

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the default program that your system uses for editing Prop Utilities
bitmaps (such as Photoshop or another image editor).

• Apply Texture to All Mats: Click this button to display a

menu of texture maps that are applied to the current

it is applied to all

This option is not undoable, and is not

recommended for content that uses multiple

head, body, teeth, and eyelash texture maps).

• Copy Texture to Prop: Allows you to copy material

settings from one prop to another. They must both
have the same material names.

• Transparency Off: Sets transparency to 0%. Wardrobe Wizard Prop Utilities.

• Transparency On: Sets transparency to 100%.

• Figure to Single Prop
• Transparency Half: Sets transparency to 50%. into a single prop.

• Remove All Textures: Removes textures from the item • Figure to Multiple Props
that you click. you click into multiple props, and saves them to the
Runtime \Python \poserScripts \PhilC \Wardrobe
• Back: Goes back to the previous menu. Wizard P10 \temp folder.

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• Import Multiple Props: Allows you to import multiple • Intensity: Provides several different options for
props (for example, the individual props saved with the increasing or decreasing the Red, Green, Blue, or all
Figure to Multiple Props script mentioned above. channels of a light.

• Back: Goes back to the previous menu. • Swap: Flips the orientation of the lights so that right
lights are moved to the left side, and left lights are
moved to the right side of the scene.
Lights Utilities
• Shadows Off: Turns shadows off on all lights.

• Shadows On: Turns shadows on for all lights.

• Delete All: Deletes all lights in the scene.

• Back: Goes back to the previous menu.

Shape Utilities
Clicking on the Utilities > Shape buttons brings up the
Shape buttons. They allow you to change the shape of
the geometry. Once you have the shape you like save the

but may be used on other body parts also.

Wardrobe Wizard Light Utilities.
These utilities do not create a morph you
actually change the geometry that gets

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Now for those who really want to “get into it”, here is an The ‘value’ of the adjustment is the relative weight to give
explanation of how these buttons work and how they can it.
be customized. The list of formulas is in the data folder
Example:
under ‘formulas.txt.’ Each line is a single formula consisting pear xz .1 0 1 2 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3
of the name, the direction to apply the adjustment in, the
This says:
adjustment amount, and a set of numbers that control
how the formula is applied. • Move in the xz direction only, which doesn’t affect the
That set of numbers is most similar to a ‘convolution kernel.’ length. .1 is the amount to move.

Examples: • There are 15 numbers following, that means divide the

skirt up into 15 sections.
• 0 0 Don’t apply any adjustment.
• The highest number is a 3 - that means all entries with
• 1 1 All verts top to bottom get the adjustment equally.
3 get 100% of the adjustment, entries of 2 gets 2/3 of
• 1 0 Top half of the actor gets 100% of the adjustment, the adjustment, entries of 1 gets 1/3 of the adjustment,
bottom half gets no adjustment. entries of 0 get none of the adjustment.

• 1 0 0 Top THIRD of the actor gets 100% of the •

adjustment, bottom half gets no adjustment. no adjustment.

• 0 0 1 Top two thirds gets no adjustment, bottom third • The second number is a one - that means the next
gets all the adjustment. section gets 1/3 of the adjustment.

The ‘number’ of numbers on the line control how many • The second number is a two - that means the next
sections to divide the actor into. Two numbers divides the section down gets 2/3 of the adjustment.
actor into 2 parts top to bottom, 3 numbers divides it into 3
parts, 10 numbers divides it into 10 parts, etc. • The following numbers are all 3’s - that means the
remainder of the actor gets 100% of the adjustment.

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There are three Shape Utility menus, with various shapes

named as follows. We suggest experimenting with these
shapes to learn how you can combine them to achieve
the shapes you need:

• Menu 1: Includes Undo, Flare, FlareFront, Taper,

Choose More to proceed to the second menu, and

Back to return to the previous menu.

•
Pear, Hilo, Puff1, and Puff2. Choose More to proceed

• Menu 3: Includes Undo, Puff3, Puff4, and Back (which

returns to Menu 2).
Wardrobe Wizard Shift utilities.
Shift Utilities
• Shift Right: Shifts selected geometry to the right.
These buttons move the geometry in Poser’s memory as
opposed to translating the model in 3D space. Redundant • Shift Left: Shifts selected geometry to the left.
in Wardrobe Wizard but retained here “just in case”.
• Shift Up: Shifts selected geometry upward.

• Shift Down: Shifts selected geometry downward.

• Shift Forward: Shifts selected geometry forward.

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• Shift Backward: Shifts selected geometry backward. • Delete All Magnets: Deletes all magnets in the scene.

• Back: Goes back to the previous menu. • Hide Actor Magnets: Hides all magnets on the currently
selected actor.

Magnets Utilities • Show Actor Magnets: Shows all magnets on the

currently selected actor.

• Delete Actor Magnets: Deletes all magnets on the

currently selected actor.

• Add Magnet: Adds a magnet to the scene.

• Back: Goes back to the previous menu.

Wardrobe Wizard Magnet utilities.

• Hide All Magnets: Hides all magnets in the scene.

• Show All Magnets: Shows all magnets in the scene.

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More Utilities
designed to work with clothing intersecting clothing

• Check For Updates: Opens your browser to a web

page that provides information on obtaining the most
recent updates for Wardrobe Wizard.

• Make Art: Provides a tongue in cheek solution to the

often asked question of how Poser may be used to
create art.

• Back: Goes back to the previous menu.

Footwear

Shoes

Additional Wardrobe Wizard utilities. Original footwear correctly aligns to and covers the

are at the zero pose. This is achieved without the need to

• Fix Pokethrough: If a section of clothing is intersecting

surface of the skin. Use with care since some clothing

models intentionally have polygons that intersect the style of the heel.
the skin. You may be better served by adjusting the

included in each clothing conversion. FixPokethru

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Converting footwear with heels.

Hi Heels Other Types of Shoes

undertaken. And/or the feet must be set invisible.

Note that some high heeled shoes are correctly modeled
The majority of Poser high heel styled shoes fall into this
category. their high heel shape when the foot is bent. For these use

The above two methods are going to cover the majority of

shoes but for those that fall through the cracks try this.
1.

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2. Use the Wardrobe Wizard Poser Python buttons Utilities

> Morphs > Save Changes to Geometry.
Common Questions (and
Answers)
3.
new name so as to not over write the originals. Q: Where can I get additional support for Wardrobe Wizard?
A: We suggest the following:
4. Convert using the newly created Footwear using the
“Shoe” type but if that does not work try the Hi Heel • For online information, video tutorials, etc. see http://
type. www.philc.net/WardrobeWizard.php.

• To ask questions in the Wardrobe Wizard forum go to

http://www.philc.net/forum/ (requires creating a free
user account).
Q: Wardrobe Wizard starts to analyze the clothing but then

formats:-
Relative Path
Converting other types of shoes.

Absolute Path
C:\Documents and Settings:Administrator:My Documents:My

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Either will work but if the path is relative check to ensure

to be.
Q: The conversion went well, but there is one small section
that needs some extra adjustment. Using the Wardrobe

area.
A:
is a very useful tool that will allow you to smooth, push or
pull small areas as required. Suggest setting the Magnitude

about the Morphing tool, see “Creating Morphs with the

Morphing Tool” on page 700.

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Part 7: Content
Creation Tools

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Chapter 30: Modifying shaping. Here are some tips, tricks, and important things to

Figures & Props

•
morphs, allowing you to reshape one or more body
This chapter explains how to create completely custom

morphs in “Creating Morphs with the Morphing

bodies come in all shapes and sizes. You can modify
Tool” on page 700 and “Creating Morphs in Other
proportions using various tools to achieve interesting
Applications” on page 719.
effects.
• You can use the Grouping tool (see “The Group Editor”
on page 742 to create cloth, hair, or other groups.
You can also deform polygon groups as mentioned
in “Using Deformers with Grouped Objects” on page
699. The Grouping tool is located in the Editing tools
display.

• The Scale and Taper tools (see “Scale” on page 198

and “Taper” on page 199, respectively) can change
a body or element’s shape. The Scale and Taper tools
are located in the Editing tools display.

•
alter shapes.

• You can replace body parts with props (see

“Replacing a Body Part with a Prop” on page 242).

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• You can save your work to the Library palette. does require extra computing resources, which can
affect performance depending on your computer’s
•
For example, enlarging the abdomen can create a
beer belly. Widening the head broadens the face.
Using Deformers
pose where you can clearly see the results of each of
your actions.

• interesting forms. You can stretch a nose, make a belly

your scene for an uncluttered view. bounce with a walk, make hair and clothing blow in
the wind, and create almost any body shape you can
• imagine. You can animate deformer settings and positions,
can lock it as described in “Lock Object” on page allowing you to create (for example) gusting winds (force
224.
guard against accidental changes by locking the Force Field, and Magnet deformers can also create
“Lock Figure” on page custom morph targets.
228.
Deformers can be linked to joint rotations or
• Symmetry can be a huge time saver, allowing you other parameters using the Dependent
Parameters Editor. Refer to “Using Dependent
other side. Please refer to “Symmetry” on page 229 Parameters” on page 726 for more information..
for information about using Symmetry. Also, try using
cutting and pasting to apply poses across multiple

Magnets
• If your computer can support it, we recommend
Magnets distort objects by stretching them. You can
enabling Full Tracking mode (see “Tracking Mode” on
use the Rotate, Twist, Translate, and Scale tools on
page 99) so you can view your work in real time. This
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magnets. Please see “The Editing Tools” on page 194 for

information on using the Editing tools. Here’s an example
of a sphere deformed by a magnet:

Parts of a magnet.

The three parts are:

When the magnet is translated and scaled, the head is
reshaped accordingly. • Magnet Object
behavior of the actual magnet.

• Magnet Base
Creating Magnet Deformers of the area to be deformed. Moving the Magnet Base
moves the Magnet Object as well.
To create a magnet, select the object you wish to deform
then select Object > Create Magnet. This creates three
Magnet objects, which together comprise the deformer.
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• Magnet Zone Magnet Deformer Properties

deformed. You can move and shape the Magnet
Zone to suit your needs. Magnet Objects, Magnet Bases, and Magnet Zones have
properties that you can edit using the Properties palette.
Magnets work by deforming the area within the Magnet
Magnet Object Properties
Magnet Object in an amount dependent on the distance
between the Magnet Object and the Magnet Base. Magnet Objects have the following properties:

Using Editing Tools with Magnet Objects

To use Editing tools on a Magnet Object, select the

magnet in the Current Actor pull-down menu, then select
your desired Editing tool.

• Rotate: The Rotate tool rotates the Magnet Object

around its three axes.
Magnet properties.
• Twist: The Twist tool rotates the Magnet Object along
its own axis.
• Name: The Name property allows you to rename the
• Translate/Pull: The Translate/Pull tool moves the
Magnet Object by entering your desired name in this
Magnet Object horizontally or vertically.

• Translate In/Out: The Translate In/Out tool moves the

• Visible: The Visible checkbox toggles visibility on
Magnet Object in or out from the center of the Poser
and off. Checking the box makes the object visible,
workspace.
and vice versa. Invisible objects are not included in
any render calculations, and do not appear in the
• Scale: The Scale tool increases or decreases the size of
the Magnet Object.
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rendered scene. See “Figure Properties” on page

205 for information on animating the Visible property.

• Add element to deform: Checking the Add element

to deform button opens a hierarchy list, allowing you
to select added elements to be deformed by the
Magnet. This only works if the selected element(s) are
within the Magnet Zone.

Magnet Object Parameters

Magnet Objects have the following parameter dials in the

Parameters palette:

Magnet parameters.

• Scale: The Scale parameter dial increases or decreases

the size of the Magnet Object in all axes.

• XYZScale: The xScale, yScale, and zScale parameter

dials increase or decrease the size of the Magnet
Object in the selected axis.

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• XYZRotate: The xRotate, yRotate, and zRotate • Visible: The Visible checkbox toggles visibility on
parameter dials rotate the Magnet Object around the and off. Checking the box makes the object visible,
selected axis. and vice versa. Invisible objects are not included in
any render calculations, and do not appear in the
• XYZTran: The xTran, yTran, and zTran parameter dials rendered scene. See “Figure Properties” on page
move the Magnet Object along the selected axis. 205 for information on animating the Visible property.

Magnet Base Properties • Display Origin: The Display Origin checkbox displays
the Magnet Base’s axes. This is useful because
Magnet Bases have the following properties:
translations, rotations, etc. occur based on the Magnet
Base’s axes, not the Poser workspace’s. See the
“Chapter 31: Figure and Prop Editors” on page 742
for a discussion about local vs. global coordinates.

• Casts Shadows: Checking the Casts Shadows

checkbox forces the selected body part to cast a
shadow, which will be visible in your scene. Clearing
this box means the selected body part casts no
shadow.

• Set Parent: Clicking the Set Parent button allows you to

make the Magnet Base a child of another element in
Magnet Base properties.
your scene. Please refer to “Poser File Types” on page
919 for a description of hierarchical relationships and
• Name: The Name property allows you to rename the to “Changing a Parent” on page 245 for information
Magnet Base by entering your desired name in this on setting parents.

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• Load Morph Target: Clicking the Load Morph Target

button displays the Load Morph Target dialog, allowing
you to load a custom morph target for the selected
Morphing
Tool as described in “Creating Morphs with the
Morphing Tool” on page 700).

Magnet Zone Properties

Magnet Zones have the following properties:

Setting the Magnet Zone’s display style to

Wireframe can help make it more visible in
your Document window.
Magnet Zone properties.

• Name: The Name property allows you to rename the

Magnet Zone by entering your desired name in this

• Visible: The Visibility checkbox toggles visibility on and

off. Checking the box makes the object visible, and
vice versa.

• Group: Checking the Group checkbox enables

grouping, allowing you to deform a grouped portion
of the selected element(s). You can create groups to
deform, and groups can consist of portions of one or

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more body parts, props, etc. Please see “The Group Magnet Zone Falloff Graph
Editor” on page 742 for information on using the
Grouping tool. A group is selected when a checkbox Selecting Edit Falloff Graph in the Magnet Zone Properties
appears next to the group listing. palette opens the Magnet Zone Falloff window.
The left side of this graph depicts the center of the Magnet
• Set Parent: Clicking the Set Parent button allows you to
Zone, and the right side is its edge. By default, a smooth
make the Magnet Zone a child of another element in
your scene. Please refer to “Poser Figures Hierarchy” on
gradually tapers off towards the edges of its zone. By
page 757 for a description of hierarchical relationships
adjusting this curve, you can alter the falloff properties.
and to “Changing a Parent” on page 245 for
information on setting parents.

• Edit Falloff Graph: Clicking the Edit Falloff Graph

button allows you to edit the Magnet Zone’s Falloff
graph, which determines where the deforming area
ends or falls off. Please see “Magnet Zone Falloff
Graph” on page 678 for information on using this
graph.

• Use Weight Map: Check this option to use a weight

map to control the amount that the vertices are
affected. Click the Paintbrush icon to open the Vertex
Weights palette so that you can edit the magnet zone
weight map. Vertices in the weight map are initially
set to 100% strength. The controls in the Vertex Weights
palette are described in “Painting Vertex Weights” on
The effects of a magnet zone can be shaped with a graph.
page 638.

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To move control points click and drag them up and

down. Raising a control point increases the magnet zone’s
Using Magnets with Weight Maps
Poser Pro 2014 provides features that allow you to paint
spot along the curve. You cannot remove added control weight maps on magnets. This feature allows users of Poser
points.

the graph editor.

Magnets are hidden by default in the Rex

and Roxie CR2’s.

Weight mapped magnets can be used to improve

bending when a joint, such as a shoulder, is raised or
lowered. The falloff zone for the magnet can affect as
few or as many vertices in the geometry as you choose,
and you can control the strength at which the vertices
are affected. This approach gives you more precise and
A reshaped graph for the magnet zone.
in “Magnet Zone Falloff Graph” on page 678.

Locking Magnets
magnet works. In this example, a magnet has been added
You can lock magnets to prevent accidental changes. to Rex’s right shoulder to control the shape of the shoulder
Please refer to “Lock Object” on page 224. when it is rotated upward.

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Magnet added to right shoulder.

Weight map for the magnet.
After adding the magnet, the magnet zone is set up to
use weight maps. The Poser Pro 2014 weight painting tools If the joint is rotated while painting the weight map, it helps
the designer determine how the changes affect the body
affect, and the strength at which they will be affected.
shoulder rotated to the same angle as the previous Hidden
display mode, shows an example of the vertices that are Line view.
painted on the upper and lower sections of the shoulder.

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Effect of magnet when shoulder is rotated upward.

Create a magnet for the right collar.

Adding Weight Maps to Magnets Choose the magnet base and move it into position.
Select the right collar, and choose Object > Create Magnet.

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Scale and move the magnet base into position beneath the
breast.
Scale the magnet zone up and move it into position.

Select the magnet, and switch to the Properties Palette.

Click the Add Element to Deform button, and then add
the Chest as an element to deform.

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If you later need to exclude groups that you

have added to a magnet, elect the magnet
zone and switch to the Properties tab. The Group
option allows you to check groups that will be
affected by the magnet zone. Any unchecked
group will not be affected. Choose a group once to
place a checkmark, and a second time to remove
an existing checkmark. For more information about
magnet zone properties, see “Magnet Zone
Properties” on page 677.

Next, select the magnet zone and check the Use Weight
Map option in the Properties palette. Then click the
Paintbrush icon to open the weight painting palette.
Initially, all of the vertices on the right collar and the chest
will display in green, indicating that the weight map values
are all at full strength.

Select the magnet and add the Chest as an additional

element to deform.

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Enable the weight painting options for the magnet zone.

Use the Subtract brush to paint out the areas that you

the affected area with great precision. It is helpful to view Paint and smooth the weight map to affect the areas that you
want the magnet to affect.
the vertices. Also be sure to move the magnet across the
range of motion that you want the magnet to affect. In
other words, if you want the magnet to raise the breast,

some areas will need to be smoothed to create a nice

blend between the affected and unaffected vertices.

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The breast adjusted with the weight-mapped magnet. Create a magnet for the left collar, scaling and positioning
them the same as the right collar (except X translation settings
Now select the left collar, and create a new magnet. are positive).
Position and scale the magnet base and magnet zone
using the same values as the right breast (except for the X Select the new magnet and add the Chest as an element
translations, which should be negative values on the right to deform, just as you did for the right collar magnet.
breast and positive values on the left breast).
one you created). In the Properties palette, click the
Paintbrush icon to open the Vertex Weights palette. Click

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the Copy/Paste button at the bottom of the palette, and

choose Copy to copy the weight map into your clipboard.

Select the second magnet zone from the Properties tab menu.

Click to activate the paintbrush for Magnet Zone 2, and

then click the Copy/Paste button again. This time, choose
Paste Mirrored > X Axis to mirror the weight map from the
right breast over to the left breast.
Copy the weight map from the right collar into your clipboard.

Use the Select Actor menu in the Properties Palette to

select Magnet Zone 2 (the zone for the left collar).

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Animating Magnet Zones

Select the right forearm and create a magnet using the
Object > Create Magnet command.

Paste the weight map in the clipboard, mirrored on the X axis.

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Scale and position the magnet base and magnet zone.

Create a magnet on the right forearm.
Select the magnet, and raise it along the Y axis to create a
Select the magnet base, and then scale and position the bump in the forearm.
magnet over the right forearm. Then scale and position
the magnet zone to surround an area along the top of the
forearm.

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Scale and position the magnet base and magnet zone.

For the magnet, add (one at a time) the Right Hand, Right
With the magnet selected, switch to the Properties palette.
Shoulder, Right Collar, and Chest as elements to deform.
Click the Add Element to Deform button for each body
part that you want the magnet to affect. Repeat this step
to assign the Right Hand, Right Shoulder, Right Collar, and
zone, and move it into position over the right hand. Then
Chest.
go to frame 30 (or the last frame in your animation), and
move the magnet zone over the shoulder.

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Wind Force Fields

Selecting Object > Create Wind Force creates a wind force

affect strand-based hair and dynamic cloth.

animation.

As the animated joint zone passes over the affected body

parts, you’ll see the bump affecting the actors that you
A Wind Force Field.
assigned as affected actors. The bump will affect the
hand, then the forearm, the shoulder, the right collar, and
Editing tools just as
the chest over the course of the animation.
you would any other prop.

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Force Field Properties • Internal Name: The Internal Name

Properties palette: internal name within Poser.

• Name: The Name

• Visible: Checking the Visible checkbox makes the

not included in any render calculations, and do not

appear in the rendered scene. See “Figure Properties”
on page 205 for information on animating the Visible
property.

• Visible in Raytracing: Checking the Visible in

Raytracing

• Casts Shadows: Checking the Casts Shadows

shadow, which will be visible in your scene. Clearing

shadow.

• Display Origin: Checking the Display Origin checkbox

“The
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Prop Origin” on page 238 for more information about • Load Morph Target: Clicking the Load Morph Target
button displays the Load Morph Target dialog, allowing
you to load a custom morph target for the selected
• Light Emitter: When checked, allows the object to be Morphing
included in indirect lighting calculations so that light Tool. Please refer to “Creating Morphs with the
will bounce off the object. When unchecked, indirect Morphing Tool” on page 700 for more information
lighting calculations are skipped for the object. This about loading morph targets.
allows you to create objects such as illuminated light
domes, which can have high ambient values that • Set Parent: Clicking the Set Parent button allows you to
will cast light, but that can also be turned off and not
rendered. scene. Please refer to “Poser Figures Hierarchy” on page
757 for a description of hierarchical relationships and
• Visible in Camera: When checked, the object is visible to “Changing a Parent” on page 245 for information
in the camera and render. When unchecked, the
object does not render. Used in conjunction with Light
Emitter, described previously, to create light-casting • Displacement Bounds: The Displacement Bounds
objects.
boundary. Please refer to “Chapter 19: Using The
• Collision detection: Checking the Collision Detection FireFly Render Engine” on page 428 for more
checkbox enables collision detection for the currently information about displacement bounds.
“Collisions” on
page 81 for more information about collision • Shading Rate: The Shading Rate allows you to specify
detection. the desired shading rate for the currently selected
“Chapter 19: Using The
• Apply Collision Setting to Children: Clicking the FireFly Render Engine” on page 428 for more
Apply Collision Setting to Children button applies information about shading rates.

setting to that part’s children parts (if any).

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Force Field Parameters • Scale

in all axes.

the Parameters palette: • XYZScale: The xScale, yScale, and zScale parameter

in the selected axis. This is only available for the force

• XYZRotate: The xRotate, yRotate, and zRotate

selected axis.

• XYZTran: The xTran, yTran, and zTran parameter dials

• Amplitude: The Amplitude parameter controls the

increases the wind speed, and vice versa.

• Spread Angle: The Spread Angle

• Range: The Range

range of effect in the currently selected units (feet,
millimeters, etc.).

• Turbulence: The Turbulence parameter controls the

and can be used to simulate gusts.

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Wave Deformers objects, which together comprise the deformer. The two
parts are:
Wave deformers distort objects by creating wave paths.
You can use the Rotate, Twist, Translate, and Scale tools
on wave deformers. Please see “The Editing Tools” on
page 194 for information on using the Editing tools. Here’s
an example of a sphere deformed by a wave.

Parts of a Wave deformer.

• Wave Object
the actual wave.
A wave deformer applied to a forearm.
• Wave Zone
deformed. You can move and shape the Wave Zone
Creating Wave Deformers to suit your needs.

To create a wave, select the object you wish to deform

then select Object > Create Wave. This creates two Wave

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Using Editing Tools with Wave Deformers

To use Editing tools on a Wave Object, select the wave

in the Current Actor pull-down menu, then select your
desired Editing tool.

• Rotate: The Rotate tool rotates the Wave Object/Zone

around its three axes.

• Twist: The Twist tool rotates the Wave Object/Zone

along its own axis.

• Translate/Pull: The Translate/Pull tool moves the Wave

Object/Zone horizontally or vertically. This does not Wave Deformer properties.
affect the Radial wave.
• Name: The Name
• Translate In/Out: The Translate In/Out tool moves the
Wave Object/Zone in or out from the center of the
Poser workspace. • Visible: The Visible checkbox toggles visibility on
and off. Checking the box makes the object visible,
• Scale: The Scale tool increases or decreases the size of
and vice versa. Invisible objects are not included in
the Wave Object.
any render calculations, and do not appear in the
Wave Object Properties rendered scene. See “Figure Properties” on page
205 for information on animating the Visible property.
Wave Objects and Zones have properties that you can
edit using the Properties palette. • Radial Wave: Checking the Radial Wave radio button
causes the wave to spread from its origin like ripples in
Wave Objects have the following properties: a pond.

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• Directional Wave: Checking the Directional Wave radio

button causes the wave to spread in a linear fashion.
The following two properties control the direction.

• Deformer Aligned: Checking the Deformer Aligned

radio button cause waves to propagate along the
direction of the Wave Object.

• Object Normals: Checking the Object Normals radio

button cause waves to propagate along the affected
object’s normals.

• Add element to deform: Clicking the Add element to Wave Zone properties.
deform button opens a hierarchy list, allowing you to
select added elements to be deformed by the wave.
This only works if the selected element(s) are within the • Name: The Name
Wave Zone.

Wave Zone Properties • Visible: The Visible checkbox toggles visibility on

and off. Checking the box makes the object visible,
Wave Zones have the following properties: and vice versa. Invisible objects are not included in
any render calculations, and do not appear in the
rendered scene. See “Figure Properties” on page
205 for information on animating the Visible property.

• Group: Clicking the Group button allows you to deform

a grouped portion of the selected element(s). You can
create groups to deform, and groups can consist of
portions of one or more body parts, props, etc. Please
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see “The Group Editor” on page 742 for information • Wave Zone Falloff Graph: Clicking the Edit Falloff
on using the Grouping tool. A group is selected when a Graph button in the Wave Zone Properties opens
checkbox appears next to the group listing. the Wave Zone Falloff window, which appears and
functions in the same manner as the Magnet Falloff
• Set Parent: Checking the Set Parent button allows you Graph depicted in “Magnet Zone Falloff Graph” on
to set a parent object for the Wave Zone. Please refer page 678.
to “Changing a Parent” on page 245 for information
about parenting objects.

• Edit Falloff Graph: Clicking the Edit Falloff Graph

button allows you to edit the Wave Zone’s Falloff
Graph, which determines where the deforming area
ends or falls off. Please see the following topic for
information on using this graph.

Setting the Wave Zone’s Display Style to

Wireframe can help make it more visible in
your Document Window.

• Use Weight Map: Check this option to use a weight Wave Zone falloff graph.
map to control the amount that the vertices are
affected. Click the Paintbrush icon to open the Vertex Wave Deformer Parameters
Weights palette so that you can edit the wave zone
weight map. Vertices in the weight map are initially Wave deformers can use the following parameter dials in
set to 100% strength. The controls in the Vertex Weights the Parameters palette:
palette are described in “Painting Vertex Weights” on
page 638.

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First, there are certain parameter dials that are only

available for waves:

• Phase: The Phase

animating waves.

• Amplitude: The Amplitude

wave’s height.

• Wavelength: The Wavelength

the distance between wave crests (frequency).

• Stretch: The Stretch parameter dial controls the

sharpness of each wave.

• Amp Noise: The Amp Noise

randomness or noise of the wave’s amplitude.

• Freq Noise: The Freq Noise

randomness or noise of the wave pattern’s frequency.

• Sinusoidal: The Sinusoidal

size of the sine wave pattern.

• Square: The Square

of the wave pattern. Increasing this value creates
Wave Deformer parameters. square-shaped waves.

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• Triangular: The Triangular • XYZTran: The xTran, yTran, and zTran parameter dials
the shape of the wave pattern. Increasing this value move the Wave Object along the selected axis.
creates triangle-shaped waves.

• Turbulence: The Turbulence Using Deformers with Grouped

the roughness of a wave pattern. Increasing this value
creates jagged, turbulent waves, and vice versa.
Objects
You can create custom groups using the Group Editor
• Offset: The Offset
palette as described in “The Group Editor” on page
pattern is above, on, or below the wave’s origin.
742 and apply deformers to these groups. Groups can
Increasing this value brings the wave pattern above
contain parts of one or more body parts/props. You can
the origin. This is helpful if, for example, you want to
select these groups by name using the Properties palette
for selected magnets or waves. To apply a deformer to a
The following common parameters also apply to Wave group:
objects:
Select the body part/prop containing the group.
• Scale: Increases or decreases the size of the Wave 1. Create the deformer as described above.
Object in all axes.
2. Select the deformer’s Zone and access that zone’s
• XYZScale: The xScale, yScale, and zScale parameter properties as described above. Check the Group
dials increase or decrease the size of the Wave Zone checkbox, then select one or more groups from the
in the selected axis. This is only available for the Wave pop-up that appears. A group is selected when a
Zone. checkbox appears next to it.

• XYZRotate: The xRotate, yRotate, and zRotate This procedure deforms on the grouped sections of body
parameter dials rotate the Wave Object around the parts/props.
selected axis.

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Creating Morphs with the You can create your own morph targets using Poser
and/or another application. This manual primarily covers
Morphing Tool creating morph targets in Poser, but we will discuss using
third-party applications in general terms. Within Poser,
Morph targets are custom parameters added to body you use a combination of deformers and existing morph
parts or props that allow you to reshape the affected channels (such as the Surprised parameter) to create
part(s). Poser includes some built-in morph targets with the morph targets. Each morph target gets its own Parameter
dial whenever the affected element(s) are selected and
allow you to easily resize and reshape items and are fully the morph target is loaded. For example, if you create
animatable. a morph called Bulging Bicep for the upper arm, you’ll
see the Bulging Bicep parameter dial in the Parameters
palette when you’ve loaded the morph target and
selected the upper arm.
Clicking on the Morphing Tool in the Editing Tools display
opens the Morph Editor palette. The Morphing Tool has
two operational modes: Combine and Create, which
are covered in the sections that follow. Click on the
Faces reshaped with the Morphing Tool. appropriate tab in the Morph Editor to switch between
these two modes.
While morph targets appear as parameter dials in the You can create your own morph targets using Poser
Parameters palette, they are actually custom geometry and/or another application. This manual primarily covers
containing the deformation, which you then apply using creating morph targets in Poser, but we will discuss using
parameter dials. Does this seem confusing? It’s actually third-party applications in general terms. Within Poser,
pretty simple once you get the hang of it. Let’s explore this you use a combination of deformers and existing morph
functionality a little further. channels (such as the Surprised parameter) to create
morph targets. Each morph target gets its own Parameter
dial whenever the affected element(s) are selected and
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the morph target is loaded. For example, if you create

a morph called Bulging Bicep for the upper arm, you’ll
The Combine Tab
see the Bulging Bicep parameter dial in the Parameters The Combine tab on the Morph Editor allows you to
palette when you’ve loaded the morph target and
selected the upper arm. body part such as the head, then dragging the mouse to
Clicking on the Morphing Tool in the Editing Tools display change the shape of that body part. The changes that
opens the Morph Editor palette. The Morphing Tool has you see are all based on the morphs that are already
two operational modes: Combine and Create, which present in the body part. You can do this with any scene
are covered in the sections that follow. Click on the object that has morph targets.
appropriate tab in the Morph Editor to switch between
these two modes.

The Morphing Tool in the Editing Tools palette.

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To use the Combine tab:

1. Select the body part you wish to sculpt, then select
the Morphing Tool. The Morph Editor palette appears.
The Combine tab displays all of the morph targets
available for the selected body part:

2. The list of morph targets is hierarchical and displays

branches containing the available morph targets.
Clicking the – icon next to an expanded branch
collapses that branch, and clicking the + icon next to
a collapsed branch expands that branch. You can
also use the scroll bars to navigate the list. The Morph
Editor will allow you to manipulate all selected morph
targets. A green dot next to a morph target includes

not be affected by the tool. Even if a morph target

is enabled, it may or may not be affected by your
use of the tool. For example, selecting a vertex in the
forehead may affect the eyebrows but will not affect
the mouth. Select your desired morph target(s), then
click and drag any vertex on the selected body part.

The Morphing Tool Combine tab.

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button (see below). You may notice some trembling if

you adjust morphs that affect pinned vertices.

The Morph Editor palette has the following functions:

A face before and after using the Morphing Tool.

3. Once you have a portion of the body part the way

you want it, you can click the Pin button then click
one or more vertices to pin them, preventing further
manipulation as you work on other areas of the object.
Pinned vertices appear as red dots on the current
object and may move as you keep adjusting other
portions of the body part (depending on how many
morph targets affect the pinned vertex), however they
will retain their current settings. Also, pins are retained
if you stop using the Morphing Tool and resume using
it later. To stop pinning vertices, click the Morphing

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• Morphing: Clicking the Morphing button re-enables the

Morphing Tool. Click this button after pinning vertices
to resume adjusting morphs.

• Pin: Clicking the Pin button disables the Morphing

Tool and allows you to pin one or more vertices as
discussed above.

• Clear Morphs: Clicking the Clear Morphs button resets

all morphs. Use this option with care as it will undo all
of your changes, even if you exit and resume using the
Morphing Tool.

• Clear Pins: Clicking the Clear Pins button removes all

pins previously applied to the current object.

• Exaggeration min/max: Exaggeration refers to the

degree to which a morph target’s value will affect
the vertices. The Exaggeration Min and Exaggeration
Max values limit the extent of a morph target’s possible
effect when the Morphing Tool is operating. No morph

“Editing Parameter Dials” on page 214 for more

information about parameter dial limits). Increasing
these limits therefore increases the exaggeration
effects of all morph targets. For a technical description
of Exaggeration Min/Max, see the following note.
Elements found in the Morphing Tool Combine tab.

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a displacement vector (v) on each object

The Create Tab.
The Create tab of the Morph Editor allows you to select
multiplier (w). Thus, a morph target’s net effect is p + and modify the mesh vertices to create new morph
wv, where p is the original vertex position. If w=1, we targets on a single body part or across joint seams to
add v+p. W can be any value. The larger w is, the adjacent body parts. As with the Combine tab, you can
more exaggeration this morph target’s effect has. apply the Create tab functionality to any scene object that
The Exaggeration Min and Exaggeration Max values has a mesh.
w across all morph
Deformations made to the mesh while using the Create tab
target weights when the Morphing Tool operates.
can apply to the currently selected actor or to the entire

• Lock All: Clicking the Lock All button locks all morph that are affected by the morph brush.
targets, which disables morph-based shape changes.
In addition to creating morph targets for individual
actors, Poser also allows you to create Full-Body
Morphs (FBMs). For more information about Full-Body
morphs. In that case, you could use this option then
Morphs, see “Creating Full-Body Morphs” on page 722.
unlock only those morphs you want to adjust.

• Unlock All: Clicking the Unlock All button unlocks all

morph targets, allowing you to modify them.

To move in the Z axis, press and hold

[COMMAND]/[CTRL] while dragging.

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To use the Create tab:

1. Switch to the Create tab in the Morphing Tool if
necessary.

2. To create a custom morph, click the Custom_Morph

text at the top of the Morphing Tool palette to display
the menu.

3. To create a new morph, select New. You will be

prompted to assign a name for the new morph.

Choose New from the Custom Morph menu to create a new

original morph.

Morphing Tool Create Tab.

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If you do not assign a name or choose an 4. After you name your new morph or select an existing
existing morph before you begin painting, morph, the name of the morph will appear at the top
any changes that you make will be assigned the of the Create tab. Set the value of the morph to 1 to
generic morph name of Custom Morph. You will begin editing.
need to use the Save a Copy As button at the
bottom of the Morphing Tool to save the morph
under a new name.

To work on an existing morph, expand the Body

Parts submenu to choose one of the body parts
that uses that morph (such as Waist), the morph
category (such as Morph or JCM), and then
select the morph that you want to edit (such as Set the value of the morph to 1 while you are editing.
Pregnant).
5. Click the icon for the action you wish to use to modify
the vertices: Push, Pull, Flatten, Smooth or Restore.
You can also choose one of the modes from the
Action menu that appears just above the icons.

To modify an existing morph, expand the Body Parts menu to

select the morph you want to modify.

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Flatten: Takes all of the affected points and

points. It then pushes all of the points to match

that plane.
The following image shows an irregularly shaped object
in three stages: The top image shows the object before it

with the Morph tool. The brush shape used no falloff (the
last brush option) and was set to a large size. The third
image shows the object after changing the Morph brush
to Smooth, and then passed through the rough areas in
the center.

Push: Selecting Push will enable you to push the

vertices in the impact region inward from the
original surface of the mesh, to create a concavity
such as a dimple or a dent.

Pull: Selecting Pull will enable you to pull the

vertices in the impact region outward from the
original surface of the mesh. This task is very useful
for cleaning up any inappropriate intersections

dynamic clothing; you can select a region of

the cloth, and simply pull it out past the point of

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Smooth: With the Smooth option you can

gradually reduce the amount of variation in the
surface mesh, to create a smoother surface. This is
particularly useful for surfaces with high frequency
variations. Keep in mind that this option generally

Restore: The Restore option gradually reverts

your recent changes back towards the original
unmorphed geometry state. This feature can be

as it allows you to back up recent changes by

gradual degrees.

Restore is not the same as Undo. If you make

a change, and then select Edit > Undo, your
entire change will be erased, and the mesh will
revert to the state it was in before you made the
change. By using Restore, you can revert the effects
of your change gradually, thus allowing you to edit

Tighten Fit, Loosen Fit, and Sag: See “Using the

Fitting Tools” on page 718.
6. Select the mode in which you wish to work: Relative to
Surface, Screen, or Screen (In/Out).
and then smoothed (bottom)..

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Surface: When in Surface remaining brush styles all affect a region of the mesh.
you make to the mesh will be made along the These regional brush styles have varying degrees of
direction of the surface normal. This is the default
mode, as you are likely to want to sculpt in relation impacted region to differing degrees, as determined
to the surface normal direction for most purposes. by the falloff. For example, the second brush style
from the left has a large falloff region, which means
Screen: Screen mode allows you to deform the
that while vertices at the center of the region will be
mesh in any direction you wish. This option is useful
for situations when you may wish to sculpt the
will decrease gradually over most of the other vertices
mesh in a transverse or vertical direction. Please
within the impact region. The falloff area decreases
with the next two brush styles, and the right-most brush
Screen mode is determined by the current view of
style has zero falloff, so that all vertices within the
region are impacted equally.
you wish to deform the mesh towards the camera,

the side.

Screen (In/Out): Deforms the mesh relative to the

screen, moving the vertices toward or away from
you.
7.
brush style icons. Poser’s morph target creation feature
uses a brush paradigm, which allows for varying

to the mesh. The left most brush style impacts only

the closest single vertex to your mouse pointer, thus
allowing for a great deal of precise control. The

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Enabling the Display Brush option in the lower

portion of the Create tab will display a visual
preview of the impact region. This preview is color
coded to show the falloff effect: red indicates the
area most strongly affected, yellow indicates less
effect, and areas shown in green are the least
affected within the impact region.

8. Adjust the Radius dial to increase or decrease the

size of the impact region. If you have enabled the
Display Brush option, the visual preview will adjust
automatically to indicate the current impact region
radius.

You can also use the Left or Right arrow keys

to adjust the radius of the brush.

9. You may want to adjust the Magnitude dial to specify

how much effect the Morphing Tool will have within
Adjusting the size of the Morph Brush. the impact region. A high Magnitude setting will allow
you to make large-scale dramatic changes, for faster
Magnitude setting will allow you to
make more precise, focused changes.

You can also use the Up or Down arrow keys

to adjust the magnitude of the brush.

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Radius and Magnitude settings control the size and strength of

the Morph Brush.

We recommend that you start with a

relatively low Magnitude setting to allow you
to become accustomed to the Morphing Tool, and
You can limit changes to one body part in the Morphing Tool.
then gradually increase the Magnitude as needed.

10. By default, the Morphing Tool allows you to morph The Group option allows you to specify which
across multiple body parts. If you want to make Morphing Tool will affect.
changes to a single body part, check the Group When you enable the Group option, the Group
pop-up menu will display a list of all polygon
group from the popup menu. groups that exist for the currently selected actor.
You can select a group from this list to limit the
effect of the Morphing Tool to polygons contained
in that group. You can also create a group for
Group Editor (see
“Chapter 30: Modifying Figures & Props” on page
671 for more information about the Group Editor).

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11. Enable or disable the following options to suit your 12. Morphing Tool to
requirements: Create tab, click and drag
directly on the current actor to deform the mesh.
Average normals: Maintains more detail of the
underlying surface when Relative to Surface 13.
is selected. It averages the normals of all the the Save Copy As button to propagate your work to a
effected vertices, instead of moving each new morph target.
affected vertex along its own normal.
14. The Create tab also contains the following Display
Accumulate: When Accumulate is enabled options:
(checked), your change will continue to
accumulate so long as you continue a single
click-and-drag movement. This option allows
you to make a greater degree of change with a
single motion, but with less precision. When the
Accumulate option is disabled (unchecked), each

Display options in the Create tab.

operation. Use this setting for greater control over

Display Mesh: The Display Mesh option will

Stroke: When the Stroke option is enabled superimpose a visualization of the mesh over
(checked), the Morphing Tool will implement your whatever display style you have currently
selected. (See “Chapter 6: The Display Controls
movement. This allows you to “paint” deformations and Menu” on page 112 for more information
onto the surface of the mesh as you move your on the various display styles.) This option can be
mouse across it. When Stroke is disabled, your very helpful in that it allows you to see how your
mouse movements will adjust the degree of the deformations affect the surrounding polygons.

applies to the original impact region only.

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Display Brush: The Display Brush option displays a Work With Current Morphs: When enabled, the
visual preview of the region you will be impacting Work With Current Morphs option allows you to
with your deformation. This preview uses different visualize the current adjusted state of all other
colors to indicate the degree to which each area morph targets while you deform the mesh. This
of the impact region will be affected by your option is useful for creating a morph target that
acts on top of another morph target.
area most strongly affected, yellow indicates that
an area is less strongly affected, and green areas This setting is useful for understanding how
are the least affected within the impact region. your new morph target will interact with other
The Display Brush option is enabled by default. existing morph targets.
If you have elected to work on a single group
When disabled, the Work With Current Morphs
only when it is over the group that is selected for option allows you to temporarily hide the effects
editing. of all other morph targets while working within the
Create tab. Using this option allows you to work
on the mesh geometry in its neutral state, without
losing the settings of your other morph targets. If
you leave the Create tab, those morph targets will

You can use the following functions to save or reset your

morph targets:

The Morph Brush appears as multicolored vertices that

represent strongest and weakest areas.

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When you morph a body part that spans

across the center, the -x to +x and +x to -x
options should copy the morph from one side to its
opposite side. If you created a morph on a body
part that does not span across the center of the

or Left to Right options to copy the morph to the

Additional Morphing Tool functions.
opposite body part.

• Mirror: The Mirror button at the bottom of the Create

If the mesh topology of the actor across
tab brings up a pop-up menu offering six options of
which you are attempting to mirror is not
different axes and directions for creating symmetrical
symmetrical, the mirror feature may not be able to
changes on the currently selected object, for example
successfully translate your morph target changes.
“-x to x” or “z to -z”. Note that these axes refer to the
local coordinate system of the currently selected
object only, and are not related to the world space • Zero Morph: The Zero Morph button will reset the
coordinates of your Poser scene. Selecting one of surface mesh to its undeformed state. Zero Morph
these options will mirror morph target changes from will also clear any morphing tool changes (stored in
one half of the currently selected object to another the Custom Morph channel) that will generate at

direction you selected from the menu. button has been pushed, the channel will still exist but
the morph data is removed.

This Custom Morph channel is used as a

receptacle for morphing edits with the
morphing tool. Save a Copy As is the best way to
preserve that Custom Morph data for Full Body or
individual body part morphs.
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The Zero Morph button only applies to the part, and also adds a parameter dial to the Body that
effects of your new morph target; all other drives all of the individual body part channels.
morph target states will remain unchanged. Be sure
The Custom Morph target is cumulative, in
the Zero Morph button if you do not wish to lose
your changes. made on top of the previous state of the morph
target. Therefore, if you do not save your changes
to a separate morph target using the Save a Copy
• Save a Copy As: Whenever you enter the Create tab, As button, they will become incorporated into any

placed into a “Custom Morph” morph target unless recovering that previous state.
you follow steps 2 and 3 to create a new morph
name or select an existing morph. The Save a Copy
As button will allow you to save the current state
of the Custom Morph target to a new, separate Copying Morphs Between Figures
morph target. You can use Save a Copy As to save
The Figure > Copy Morphs From and Object > Copy Morphs
From commands allow you to copy morphs between
for future use.
with items that are sparser in density (such as clothing)
• Full Body Morphs created using the Save a Copy As
and the Custom Morph functions are traditional Delta face to face morph transfer).
Add morphs with values that change linearly with the To copy all morphs from a character to the clothing:
a master parameter value. You can edit them using
the dependent parameters editor, as mentioned in 1. Load the character and the clothing into your scene.
“Using Dependent Parameters” on page 726. The
2. Click to select the clothing that will receive the
Save a Copy As morph saves a channel to each body
morphs.

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3. Choose Figure > Copy Morphs From. The Copy Morphs

dialog appears.

4. Choose the character from which you want to copy

the morphs and then click OK to continue.

5. Use the Select Objects dialog to check the morphs

that you want to copy to the clothing.

6. Click OK to copy the morphs.

Similarly, the Object > Copy Morphs From command allows

you to copy morphs between objects in several different
ways:
Load the source and target objects into your scene (such
as a character and the clothing).
7. Click to select the object that will receive the morphs Choosing the morph source.
(such as a body part on the clothing).
To copy morphs from a body part on the
8. Choose Object > Copy Morphs From. The Copy Morphs
character, expand the list that appears to the right
dialog appears. It displays options to choose morphs
of the character name, and choose the body part
from the character, from the clothing, or from a prop:
from which you want to copy the morphs.

To copy morphs from another part on the clothing,

expand the list that appears to the right of the
current clothing item. Choose the body part from
which you want to copy the morphs and then
click OK to continue.
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To copy morphs from a prop (such as a magnet

sphere or capsule), expand the list that appears to
the right of the Props list, and select the item that
you want to copy the morphs from. Then click OK
to continue.

Using the Fitting Tools

tools do not take existing grouping into account and work 3. Create a new morph and assign a name to it.
on the entire object geometry.
4.
Adjust Brush Radius and Magnitude to increase or
basic steps:
decrease the areas and amount of effect.
1. Load the character and the clothing that you want

Tighten Fit
1. Translate and scale the clothing as needed to position
Tighten Fit makes the clothing tighter in the areas that
you paint, moving it closer toward the shape of the Goal
2. Choose the Tighten Fit or Loosen Fit tool. Either of

• Goal
the clothing to.

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• Attraction Points: The maximum number of closest Gravity

points on the target geometry that are taken into the direction towards which the clothing will sag
account when tightening.
Falloff: Slider determines how quickly vertices
• Pokethrough Resistance: The distance that determines whose normals are very nearly orthogonal to the
how much the clothing resists pushing into the target gravity vector are affected by the sag.

Creating Morphs in Other

Loosen Fit Applications
• Loosen Fit: Makes the clothing looser in the areas
that you paint, moving it away from the shape of the Creating Custom Morph Targets
You can create morph targets using your favorite 3D
Goal
modeling application so long as that application can
Attraction Points: The maximum number of closest
points on the target geometry that are taken into
1. Export the body part for which you wish to create
account when loosening.
the morph target as explained in “Exporting Files” on
page 850.
Sag
2. Import the body part into your favorite 3D modeling
application.
• Sag: Use in cases where you need to add a draping
effect, such as the underside of an arm. It will affect 3. Edit the geometry, being careful to only move vertices.
polygons on the lower side of the painted area, but Do not add or remove vertices, or your morph target
not on the upper side. Options are as follows: will not work.

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4. Export the edited geometry from the 3D modeling

application in the Wavefront OBJ (*.OBJ) format.

5. Load the morph target.

Adding Custom Morph Targets

Selecting Object > Load Morph Target allows you to load a
morph target for your currently selected element. Loading a Morph Target.
You can add morph targets that you created using a
3.
props. You can also add third-party morphs obtained from morph or use the Locate button to open a standard
online sources such as Poser’s Content room, which links Browse
you to several leading Poser content marketplaces. Please
refer to “Chapter 8: The Content Room” on page 183 for same number of vertices as the original body part/
more information on Poser’s Content room. prop, and must only contain the body part/prop being
To add a custom morph target: morphed.

1. Select the body part/prop to which you want to apply 4. OK to exit

the morph and open its properties in the Properties back to the Parameters palette. A new parameter dial
palette. appears with the name of the newly added morph.

2. Click Load Morph Target to open the Load Morph In order for morph targets to work properly, they must
Target dialog. have the same vertex order as the geometry mesh to

preserving the vertex order when editing or writing out

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behave unexpectedly, you may wish to check the Attempt the Properties palette. Selecting Object > Spawn Morph
Vertex Order Correction checkbox when loading them. Target creates a morph target from deformed objects
This checkbox is located on the Load Morph Target dialog, (body parts, props) in your scene. You will be asked
which can be accessed by selecting Object > Load Morph to name your new morph target, and a dial with your
Target, or clicking the Load Morph Target button on the Parameters
Properties palette.
vertex order are not possible with automatic correction.
Shape an element using any combination of deformers
you like to get the results you want. Shaping multiple
Combining Morphs in Poser elements on a body part includes all changes in the shape
in the morph target.
Poser provides a number of different ways that you can 1. Select the body part/prop’s properties in the
combine body morphs to create unique characters. For Properties palette, then select Spawn Morph Target. A
example, you can use the Object > Spawn Morph Target dialog appears asking you to name your new target.
command to create a parameter dial for body parts and
Figure 2. Enter your desired name and click OK. A parameter
> Create Full Body Morph command allows you to create dial appears in the Parameters palette with the name
a single master dial in the Body to drive morphs in several of your new morph target. At this point, you can
different body parts. Additionally, you can use Dependent delete all deformers used to create the morph.
Parameters to create master parameter dials that, in turn,
create more realistic interactions between body parts and
rotations.

Spawning Morph Targets

In addition to the Create tab on the Morph Editor palette,
you can also create morph targets in Poser directly from

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Only morph channels combine into a full-

body morph. Deformers are not
automatically turned into morph targets for full-

translations.

When you create a full body morph, the

master parameter dial in the BODY will be set
Assigning a name to a custom morph. to a value of 1, and the dependent parameter dials
in each individual body actor will be set to 0, which
is more in line with how full body morphs are
Numbers greater than 0 apply the morph to the selected
typically set up manually.
element(s), and vice versa. A value of 1 means the morph
target is fully applied, a value of -1 means the morph
is completely inverted, and numbers greater than +/-1 To create a full-body morph target:
create exaggerated effects. Using the Bulging Bicep 1. Create morph targets for as many body parts as you
example, a value of 1 applies the bulge fully, a value of -1 wish. Refer to this section for assistance if needed.
applies a full concavity (the reverse of the original morph),
and so on. 2. Morph each body part using the new Parameter dials
as discussed in “Parameters Palette” on page 209.
Set them to the values you want to appear in the full-
Creating Full-Body Morphs body morph. For example, setting the Bulging Bicep
value to 0.5 means that the full body morph, when
You can save multiple body parts and then save the entire

applied the original morph with a value of 0.5.

Body Morph (FBM). The new morph target encompasses all
of the parameters for that pose, meaning that everything
morphs at the same time.

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3. Figure > Create Full In order for the Load Full Body Morph
Body Morph. Enter a name for your new morph in the
Set Name dialog that appears.

only see a parameter dial in the Body actor, and

dial with your new morph target will appear. This morph you will not see any change occur when you adjust
functions just like any other morph: Numbers greater than the dial.
0 apply the morph to the selected element(s), and vice
versa. A value of 1 means the morph target is fully applied, You can create your full body morph in a third-party
a value of -1 means the morph is completely inverted, and application in one of two ways:
numbers grater than +/-1 create exaggerated effects.
Using the Bulging Bicep example, a value of 1 applies •
the bulge fully, a value of -1 applies a full concavity (the found in the Geometries folder) into your modeling
reverse of the original morph), and so forth. application. This is generally the preferred method,

Loading Full Body Morphs create your morph.

You can use a third-party application to create a full body
•
Figure > Load
Full Body Morph command to apply the complete morph

hip and Body actors are not translated or rotated

then split the morphs across each individual body part and
in any way. When you choose the File > Export >
create a parameter dial in the Body actor to control all of
Wavefront OBJ
the individual body part morphs.
not omit any body parts). When the Export Options
dialog appears, verify that As Morph Target (No World
Transformations) and Include Existing Groups in

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Polygon Groups options are checked as shown in the 2. Choose Figure > Load Full Body Morph. The Load
Morph Target dialog appears.

When creating your morph in your third-party application, Loading a Morph Target.
make sure that you do not add or remove vertices or
otherwise change the geometry in any way. You can 3.

export your geometry from your modeling application, exported from your modeling application.
you must also make sure that the grouping information is
maintained. 4.
is the name that will be assigned to the parameter
dials in the Body and individual body actors in the
steps:
Parameters window.
1.
and select it to make it active. 5. Choose OK to complete the process. You should see
morph dials in the body and under each individual
body part.
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6. Test the morph by adjusting the dial in the Body choose Delete (if the BODY actor is selected) or Delete
section of the Parameters palette. Morph (if a body part actor is selected).

• If the morph does not work, it may mean that the

OBJ you imported did not contain groups. Check
to see if a dial appears in any of the individual body

groups. Consult the documentation for your modeling

program to determine how to export the groups with

•
repeat the process. This time, check the Attempt Vertex
Order Correction option in the Load Morph Target Click the arrow to the right of the morph you want to delete,
dialog. This might resolve the problem. then choose Delete (or Delete Morph) from the menu.

The Select Objects dialog will open. A check mark will

Deleting Full and Partial Body Morphs appear beside each body part from which the morph
will be deleted. By default, all body parts in which the
You can delete full or partial body morphs in the
selected morph appears are checked. Uncheck any
Parameters palette.
parts where you want the morph to remain. Poser will ask
Find the parameter dial for the morph you want to delete.
You can delete a morph by selecting a parameter from removed.
the BODY actor, or from any other body part actor.
Click the arrow that appears at the right side of the
parameter dial to display the morph context menu, and

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element in the scene to create complex interactions that

are all driven by a master parameter.
We’ll examine how Ryan and Alyson use dependent
parameters to control how several magnet deformers
shape the forearm and bicep when you bend the forearm
on Alyson.
Ryan and Alyson include several magnet deformers
that help joints bend more realistically. The dependent
parameters feature is used to link these deformers to

There are some magnet deformers that cause Alyson’s

forearm and bicep to bulge when you bend her forearm.

By default, all body actors that contain the morph are

the forearm’s bend rotation and the deformers (magnets
selected by default. Uncheck any actors where you want the
or morphs) in the forearm and bicep. The dependent
morph to remain.
parameters feature permits the user to create these

addition, it permits the user to create a curved link that

Using Dependent Parameters can have varying driven values at any value of the master
parameter. Conversely, the old hand-editing method only
You can change any existing parameter dial or create created linear links between the master and dependant
new master parameter dials that can be used to control parameters.
any number of dependent (or slave) parameters.
This powerful feature lets you link morphs, deformers,
transformations, bulge parameters, or just about any

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You can see all of the magnet deformers

used in Alyson if you choose Display >
Deformers > Show All. You can choose Display >
Deformers > Hide All to turn them back off after
you’ve examined them.

In this example, we start by loading Alyson into an empty

scene and selecting the Top camera view. When you
select Alyson’s left forearm, you’ll notice the following
features in the Parameters palette (shown in the following

• A Master Parameter icon appears beside any

parameter that serves as a Master Parameter. Click on
this button to open the Dependent Parameters editor.
This serves the same function as choosing the Edit
Dependencies command from the Parameters Option
Menu (as described next).

• When two values appear beside a parameter dial,

one above the other, they indicate the following: Dependent Parameter values and icons.

The lower number is the natural value, which is the

Select Alyson’s Left Forearm, and click the Option Menu
value as set by the parameter dial itself.
arrow at the right of the Bend parameter to display
The upper number is the driven value, which is the Edit
sum of the natural value setting plus any values set Dependencies from the menu that appears. This opens the
by its master parameter. Dependent Parameters window.

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• Start Teaching: Click this button to “record” the

changes that you want to link to the currently selected
dial and value.

• Value slider and number: Drag the slider left or right to

increase or decrease the value. You can also click the

• Dependent Parameters: Provides a list of the other

you adjust the Master Parameter dial. For example,

when you dial the Bend morph to -90 you want a
change to occur in the Left Shoulder body part.

• Remove Selected: To remove dependent parameters,

click to highlight one or more of the entries in the
Dependent Parameters list, then click the Remove
Selected button.

To open the Dependent Parameters window, choose Edit • Type: There are two types of Master Parameter dials:
Dependencies for the parameter you want to edit.
Keyed: This master parameter type is the only type
of dial that you can create in the Dependent
The Dependent Parameters window displays the following
Parameter palette. You can create linear links or
settings and options:
curved links that have varying driven values at any
value of the master parameter.
• Master Parameter: Lists the name of the Master
Parameter dial that will control the dependent Delta Add: If you see this type listed, it means that
parameters. the relationship between the master parameter

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dial and its dependent parameters were created When you look at the Bend parameter in Alyson’s
externally (most often by content developers that left forearm, you’ll notice that there are a number of
deformers linked to the parameter dial.

created when you use the Morphing Tool across

body parts. Delta Add parameters are editable in
the Dependent Parameters editor. When you add
additional keys to a Delta master parameter, it
remains a Delta master parameter.

Keyed dependent parameters.

These deformers cause Alyson’s forearm and bicep to

bulge when you bend the forearm. If the deformers are
displayed (Display > Deformers > Show All) you can
observe how they respond when you adjust the Bend
Delta Add dependent parameters. parameter on the left forearm. You can adjust the dial in

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the Parameters palette, or in the Dependent Parameters • Click on the graph display between two value keys
window. and drag up or down to add a third value key.

• Drag the Master Parameter’s value in the graph by

clicking on the vertical line and moving it forward or
backward.

• Click on any value key and drag it up or down to

increase/decrease it’s value.

• Click and drag in an open space of the graph to

select multiple keys. You can move this selection to
include other keys. Key navigation is controlled via the
pop-up to the right of the graph.

Creating Master Parameters

You can create a new Master Parameter dial from the
Parameters option menu in the Parameters Palette. Master
and Dependent Parameters aren’t restricted for use in
The Dependent Parameter Editor Graph
parameter on the main light in your scene, and use it to
The Graph in the Dependent Parameters window allows
raise or lower the brightness in all of the lights in your scene
you to adjust how the parameter responds between keys.
at the same time.
At a minimum you need two keys. But you can modify keys
in the graph display as follows: Using Poser’s default three-light setup as an example, you
would create a master parameter for Light 2 (the front off-
white light) as the Master Parameter, as follows:

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1. Select the actor that will serve as the master 5. In the Dependent Parameters palette, set the
parameter. In this case, we want to add a new Master Parameter dial to 1.000. This is the value we will use as
Parameter to Poser’s default Light 2. the “Bright” setting for the Master 1 Parameter dial.

2. Click the Parameters Palette Options menu, and 6. Now you adjust the brightness on all three lights in your
choose Create New Master Parameter. scene. It doesn’t matter which order you complete
them in, but since we have Light 2 selected already

200% (or double the normal brightness).

7. Repeat Step 6 for Lights 1 and Lights 3, selecting them

from the Actor Selector in the Parameters Palette.
As you make these settings, you’ll notice entries are
automatically added to the Dependent Parameters
palette.

Creating a new Master Parameter dial.

3. The Dependent Parameters Editor opens and displays

a default name of Master(x), where (x) is a number. If it

be named Master 1.

4. You need to add two keys for each dependent

parameter that you want to add. Since Light 2 is

First, click the Start Teaching button.

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10. In the Properties palette, set the intensity of your

current light to 0% (off). Then do the same for the other
two lights.

8. Click the Next Key button in the Dependent

Parameters palette to create a key for the other end
of the Master 1 parameter dial. Set the intensities for the lights to 0%.

9. In the Dependent Parameters palette, set the Master 1

Stop Teaching
parameter to -1.00 (negative value). This is the setting
button in the Parameters Palette. You can also close the
that we will use to turn the lights off.
Dependent Parameters palette, if desired.

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Click the Stop Teaching button when you complete the

actions you want to perform.
Test the new parameter dial to make sure it works as you
To test the new master parameter dial, select Light 2 in the expect.
Parameters Palette, and adjust the Master 1 parameter
dial. All three lights should be off when the dial is set to -1,
on at their normal strength at 0, and at double brightness
Editing Master Parameters
at 1.
The Dependent Parameters feature can be used to create
or enhance Full Body Morphs. In this section, we’ll describe

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how you can use the dependent parameters feature to selected parameter appears in the Parameters palette.
enhance the Pregnant full body morph. For example, when you select the rButtock: Pregnant
entry in the Dependent Parameters list, the settings for the
Create a new Poser scene and add Alyson to your scene.
rButtock body part appear in the Parameters palette.
Select her Body, and expand the FBM morph section.
Scroll down, if necessary, until you see the Pregnant morph. As mentioned earlier in “Using Dependent Parameters”
Click the Master Parameter icon to open the Dependent on page 726, there are two numerical values listed to the
Parameter editor. right of each morph dial:

• The natural value (lower) designates the value that

is currently set for the morph dial in the Parameters
palette. In the example shown, the dial in the
Parameters palette is set at 0%.

• The driven value (upper) designates the value as

controlled by the master parameter. In this case, we
are looking at a Master Parameter dial (Pregnant), so
its Driven value in the Parameters palette is the same
as that set in the Dependent Parameters window.

A master parameter icon.

You’ll notice that a number of dependent parameters

already appear in the Dependent Parameters editor.
If you highlight one of the Dependent Parameters, the

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the Figure > Create Full Body Morph command to create

While the older method of creating Full Body Morphs is still

available, the Dependent Parameters feature provides
you with even more power. For example, you can link
additional partial body morphs or full body morphs to the
Pregnant dial so that there are even more changes to the
shape of Alyson’s pregnant body. To demonstrate, we are
going to make the Pregnant morph even more natural
looking, by adding additional changes to the breasts and
hips. The Dependent Parameters feature makes this a very
simple process.
Since Alyson is already in your scene, select Body as the
current body part. Scroll down until you see the Pregnant
full body morph, and dial in or enter a setting of 1 in the
Morphs affected by dependent parameters have two values:
Dependent Parameters window.
natural and driven.

The Dependent Parameters list displays a list of the morphs

that are adjusted by the Pregnant morph. The above

Body actor controls the Pregnant morph in the hip, waist,

abdomen, chest, left buttock, and right buttock. If you are
already familiar with previous versions of Poser, you might
recognize this type of morph relationship as a “Full Body
Morph.” In earlier versions of Poser, you would have used

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down in the Parameters palette and expand the morphs

under the Breasts category. Then you can use the dials or
enter values numerically. The following list shows the values
that we set. Yours don’t have to be exactly the same, feel
free to experiment with other settings if you desire:

• Breast Diameter: 1.072

• Breast Droop: 1

• Breasts Large: 1.216

• Breasts Natural: 1

• Areola Size: .548

• Nipples: .248
The Pregnant morph is set on several body parts. Click Start
Teaching to further enhance the shape.

In the Dependent Parameters window, click the Start

Teaching button. This instructs Poser to create a link
between the Master Parameter and the values that
you select until you tell Poser to stop teaching the joint
parameters.
Now, we’ll adjust some of the breast settings to make them
look more like those of a pregnant woman. With Alyson’s
Body actor selected in the Parameters window, scroll

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Breast morphs are adjusted for a fuller appearance.

Other Full Body Morphs add additional shape to the Pregnant
Notice now that the shape of the breasts looks more morph.
natural and realistic. Now we’ll add a couple of other Full
Body Morphs to the mix. We’ll add a touch of the Pear Now return to the Dependent Parameters window, and
Figure and Rubenesque to adjust the overall body shape click Stop Teaching. The settings that you dialed in while
just a bit. Scroll back up to the Full Body morphs section in teaching the joint should all appear in the Dependent
the Parameters Palette, and adjust the following values: Parameters list. When you adjust the dial in the Dependent
Parameters window, you should see the differences in the
• PearFigure: .199 Pregnant morph respond accordingly. Before you close
the Dependent Parameters window, set the value to zero.
• Rubenesque: .199
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settings that are inherited by the links that you created with
the master parameter.

Set the value of the Master Parameter dial to zero before you
close the window.

Now, go back to the Pregnant full body morph in the When you adjust the Pregnant morph dial, the dependent
Parameters window. Adjust the value up and down to parameters adjust with it.
see how the new morph responds to the changes in the
dial settings. Your new Pregnant morph should respond
exactly as it did in the Dependent Parameters window. the left, and the new improved version on the right. As you
Notice how you also see the values of the PearFigure and can see, the enhancements have made the morph look
Rubenesque dials change when you adjust the Pregnant more natural.

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when the natural value dial for the Pear Figure morph is
increased to .8. The driven value, which was previously set
to .163 by the Pregnant morph, increases by your .8 setting

accordingly.

Before we move on to the next topic, there is one more

thing to examine. The previous shot of the Parameters
palette shows what happens to the PearFigure and
Rubenesque morphs when you dial in the enhanced
Pregnant morph. You’ll see that when the Pregnant master
parameter dial is set to .820, it drives the PearFigure and You can still adjust the Natural value of a dependent
Rubenesque morphs to .163. But what happens if we want parameter without affecting the Driven value.
the woman to be more pear-shaped?
The solution is simple enough. You can adjust the natural To summarize, Dependent Parameters can be used to
value (the lower value) of the Pear Figure morph just as you create master parameter dials that drive other parameters
can with any morph dial that is not affected by a master
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settings, rotations, and more. As you experiment with this

Use External
Binary Morph Targets option in the General Preferences
palette (see “Setting Application Preferences” on
Managing Morphed Figures page 35

Saving Morph Targets

Additionally, you can easily redistribute the morph targets
Library palette.

meaning you can use them the next time you load that
Library palette, please refer It is the responsibility of the user to comply
to “Adding Items to the Library” on page 172. with the Smith Micro Software, Inc. End User
License Agreement, as well as any third party
format (.PMD), which contains only the morph targets for License Agreements, before distributing Poser
content. PMD morph data can be redistributed as
long as they include morph delta information, and
not geometry information.
This storage method also requires less disk space, as all
Distribution of PMD morph data found in
for morph target data. If you change the morph targets third-party content is subject to usage
restrictions as outlined by the third-party content
developers.

a previous version, Poser will create a new external .PMD

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described above, and then replace them in your scene.

Deleting Morph Targets

You can use the Hierarchy Editor palette to delete morphs,
as explained in “Working with Hierarchy Branches” on
page 760.

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Chapter 31: Figure and • Creating material groups in the Material room. Please
refer to “Chapter 14: The Material Room” on page

Prop Editors 314 for information about the Material room.

• Creating hair groups in the Hair room. Please refer

to “Chapter 26: The Hair Room” on page 584 for
information about the Hair room.
The Group Editor
• Creating cloth groups in the Cloth room. Please refer
Selecting the Grouping tool from the Editing tools display to “Chapter 27: The Cloth Room” on page 603 for
opens the Group Editor palette. The Group Editor lets you information about the Cloth room.
select and group individual polygons.
• Creating body parts in the Setup room. Please refer
The Group Editor is very powerful and can to “Chapter 32: The Setup Room” on page 765 for
more information about the Setup room.

understand how the grouping tool works before • Creating props. You can also create new props and
editing critical content. It’s wise to practice on a deform and morph selected portions of an element.
For example, you could use the Group Editor to select
polygons around a character’s eyes, nose, and
forehead, and use those selected polygons to create
It helps to use Smooth Lined preview mode
a mask prop. See “Creating/Editing Groups” on page
when using the Group Editor as polygons and
750 for information on how to select polygons in the
vertices are clearly displayed.
Group Editor.

The Group Editor is useful for various tasks within Poser such
as:

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Using the Group Editor

To create/edit a group, select the Grouping tool, which
opens the Group Editor palette.

The top section of the Group Editor.

• Previous button (1): Cycles backward through the

The Group Editor in the Editing Tools palette. currently existing groups.

• Current Group pull-down menu (2): Use the Current

Poser workspace turn gray. The Group Editor palette has Group pull-down menu to jump directly to your desired
the following sections and functions. group.

• Next button (3): Cycles backward through the currently

Creating and Deleting Groups existing groups.

The top section of the group editor includes controls to • New Group button (4): Clicking the New Group button
navigate through, create, and delete groups from your creates a new group with the currently selected
current object. polygons.

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• Delete Group button (5): Clicking the Delete Group • Deselect mode button (8): Click the Deselect button to
button deletes the currently selected group. enable polygon deselection, and then click within the
current object to remove polygons from the current
group.
Adding, Removing, and Modifying
Polygons
The Selection section of the Group Editor contains three
menus that allow you to add or remove polygons to the
currently selected group.

• Selection Mode (6): Click the icon to display a menu

that allows you to choose one of the following
selection modes:

Marquee: Allows you to add to or remove from the

currently selected group by drawing a rectangle
around the polygons that you want to include or The Selection section of the Group Editor.
exclude.

Draw: Allows you to add or remove from the • Add menu (9): Expand the Add menu to add polygons
currently selected group by drawing over the to the currently selected group, using one of four
polygons that you want to include or exclude different modes:

All: Adds all polygons in the currently selected

• Select mode button (7): Click the Select button to
group.
enable polygon selection, and then click within the
current object to add polygons to the current group. Group: Allows you to add polygons by group
name.

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Material: Allows you to add polygons by material become selected, and selected polygons
name. become unselected.

Mirror: Allows you to mirror selected polygons Grow: Expands the selection by one polygon
along the X, Y, or Z axis to the opposite side of the around all its edges. You can also use the plus sign
model. on your keyboard [ + ] to grow the selection.

• Remove menu (10): Expand the Remove menu to Shrink: Reduces the selection by one polygon
remove polygons from the currently selected group, around all its edges. You can also use the minus
using one of four different modes: sign on your keyboard [ - ] to shrink the selection.

All: Removes all polygons in the currently selected Grow (Edge Loop): After selecting two or more
group. polygons in a loop, click the Grow button or use
the right parenthesis shortcut [ ) ] to expand the
Group: Allows you to remove polygons by group selection by one along both ends of the same
name. loop.
Material: Allows you to remove polygons by Shrink (Edge Loop): Click the Shrink button or
material name. use the left parenthesis shortcut [ ( ] to shrink the
Mirror: Allows you to mirror deselected polygons selection by one along both ends of the same
along the X, Y, or Z axis to the opposite side of the loop.
model. Mirror: Mirrors the selection on one side of the
model to the other side, along the X, Y, or Z axis.
• Modify menu (11): Expand the Modify menu to add or
remove from the selection using one of the following
methods:

Invert: Inverts the polygons that are assigned to

the selected group, so that unselected polygons

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Showing and Hiding Faces and Objects not belong to a group. If you leave the Setup room
with one or more polygons that are not attached to
a bone, they will be maintained on a prop attached

when you return to the Setup room.

The above commands are necessary for

bone structure. The following commands are useful

and can be performed in the Setup room; however,

Display options in the Group Editor. may, however, be necessary for rendering and

• Hide Other Objects box (12): Checking the Hide Other

Objects checkbox hides all objects in your scene other
than the currently selected object, which can help if
you have a complex scene and only want to see the
object being worked on.

• Show Multigrouped Faces box (13): Checking the

Show multigrouped faces checkbox displays all
polygons that are assigned to more than one group.
This can occur if you grouped your geometry in the 3D
modeling application and accidentally assigned some
polygons to more than one group.

• Show Nongrouped Faces box (14): Checking the Show

nongrouped faces box displays all polygons that do
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Geometry Functions • Assign Material button (16): Clicking the Assign

Material button creates a new material class for the
selected polygon(s). A dialog box will appear asking
you to name the new material class. A material class
is a parameter that determines the polygons to which
a material is applied. For example, if you are creating

of both gloves as a material class. Later, you could use

the Material command to assign a material, texture,
bump maps, etc. to the gloves. You can think of

materials are applied.

• Assign Smoothing ID button (17): Clicking the

Assign Smoothing ID button allows you to delineate
smoothing groups for the application of smooth
Geometry Functions in the Group Editor. shading across adjoining polygon edges. A dialog
will appear asking you to assign a new or existing
Smoothing ID to the current group. Enter a new ID
• Create Prop button (14): Clicking the Create Prop
button creates a new prop from the selected group smoothing groups, see “Smoothing Geometry” on
or polygons. Enter a name for your new prop in the page 448.
dialog that appears.
• Create Perspective UVs button (18): Clicking the Create
• Spawn Props button (15): Clicking the Spawn Prop Perspective UVs button maps texture coordinates for
button creates props for all groups that have been a group. An example of using this command might be
created. Two examples of this might be to create a to map an imported background image of a face to

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face’s texture coordinates would map to the image.

• Reverse Group Normals button (19): Clicking the

Reverse Group Normals button reverses the normals
of the selected group. This allows you to turn
environment-type objects or other imports inside out
for interactive rendering as desired.
The top section of the Group Editor.
• Auto Group button (20): See “The Auto Group
Command” on page 749 below.
• In vertex mode, you can add/remove your currently
• Weld Group button (21): See “The Weld Group selected vertex/vertices to the current vertex group.
Command” on page 750 below. Likewise, in vertex mode, you can only create/edit/
delete vertex groups. Poser uses vertex groups for
dynamic cloth objects in the Cloth room and for styling
Polygon & Vertex Modes hair in the Hair room. For cloth, using vertices allows
The Grouping tool operates in polygon or vertex mode, you to select the edges of a cloth object (such one
depending upon which room you are in when you use the side of a sheet hanging from a clothesline and blowing
Group Editor: in the wind). This effect cannot be achieved using
polygon grouping.
• In polygon mode, you can add/remove your currently Poser automatically selects the correct mode depending
selected polygon(s) to the current polygon group. on which room you are currently in. For example, in the
While in this mode, you can only create/edit/delete Pose room, the Grouping tool only operates in polygon
polygon groups. Polygon groups are accessible from mode; in the Cloth room, it operates in vertex mode.
the Group Editor palette using certain commands,
such as Add Group. Polygon groups will appear in the
popup menu (#4 in the following image).
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The Auto Group Command The Auto Group feature is designed for one-time use when

When you are creating groups for a newly imported wish; however, it completely regroups every polygon in the
geometry (Setup room), you can save time and effort
by clicking the Auto Group button near the bottom of pre-existing group assignments that match bone names. If
the Group Editor palette. This option is particularly useful you must use the Auto Group feature again after creating
Setup
room. If you choose to use the Auto Group feature, be
The Auto Group feature causes Poser to take a “best
sure to do so after creating, positioning, and naming the
guess” when grouping polygons and bones. You may
bone structure! This is because the Auto Group feature
places polygons into groups based on their location in
groups by manually selecting polygons and moving them
3D space relative to the available bones. This can cause
to different groups. Do this by selecting the target group
very unpredictable and disorganized results if the bone
and then selecting the polygon(s) you wish to move to the
structure has not been properly created, positioned, and
target group.
named.
The Grouping tool automatically removes
If you use the Auto Group feature before you
polygons from other named groups
have created, positioned, and named the
bone structure, it can result in unpredictable groups
selected target group in order to avoid having
that will then require extensive time-consuming
polygons assigned to more than one group at a
repair. The correct bone structure used by the
time. Group Editor palette commands do not share
“Poser Figures
this functionality.
Hierarchy” on page 757
similar hierarchies, but may have less control in
mouth, hand, and feet parts.

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The Weld Group Command 1. Select the Grouping tool.

The Weld Group feature can be useful if, for example, 2. Select the neck group.
you need to make alterations to your groups after you
3. Click the Weld Group button.
leave the Setup room or if you import a prop with groups
that you want to change. In the Setup room, once your
The Weld Group function alters and
pieces corresponding to the groups you created. If combines the vertices on either side of the
you reassign polygons to different groups, the original break so as to create a smooth bridge across the
gap. A good way to think of this is to imagine
broken or disconnected at the point where the old group
boundaries lie. surfaces, but does minutely alter the surface
topography where the crack used to be. The Weld
The best way to illustrate this is by using an example. Say Group function works this way as well, modifying the
geometry slightly in order to eliminate the break. This
head and neck. After leaving the Setup room, Poser should be unnoticeable in most cases.
breaks the single geometry into pieces whose edges
correspond to the group boundaries you created. This

you decide to move the neck higher into the head by

Creating/Editing Groups
reassigning some of the polygons in the head group to the
To create a group, select the Grouping tool. You can
neck group. You can do this easily using the Grouping tool.
then click individual polygons or click and drag to select
Poser creates a new break in the geometry at the new multiple polygons. If you accidentally select one or more
group boundary; however, the old break at the old group wrong polygons, you can deselect them by using the
Deselect tool (see above) or pressing [CTRL] while clicking
appear broken or discontinuous as you pose and render it. or dragging. If you are in the Setup room, polygons that
To solve this problem, you would: have been removed from a group will automatically be
added to a group called NO_BONE so that you can see
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which polygons are unassigned and correct the problems new group in order to ensure that no polygons belong to
before leaving the Setup room. more than one group at a time.
To select polygons that are currently out of view, you can
The Group Editor palette commands do not
use the Wireframe display style, the camera trackball to
share this functionality.

to bring the desired polygons into view.

Setup room), it
is important to remember that joint bending only occurs
scripts use a colon to separate the folders in between an object and its parent. The bends do not
the path (ie: Runtime:Libraries:character:myfolder:m progress to other children or above the parent in the
hierarchy. Keep this in mind as you create your groups,
names will cause potential problems when parsing
PoserPython scripts, as anything after the colon is
The Group Editor palette appears whenever
ignored. Use of a colon in an actor name (such as
the Grouping tool is selected.
tail:1 or tail:9) is discouraged. Instead, name the
item something like tail01 or tail09.

While working with the Grouping tool,

About Groups
pressing [OPT]/[ALT] allows you to quickly
This section describes how Poser differentiates between
access the camera trackball.
body part groups, material groups, and other group

While you are selecting polygons, it is possible that you will Poser, however it will provide you with the background
select some polygons that have previously been assigned information you need in order to understand groups in
to a different group, either by accident or by design. If general.
this happens, the Grouping tool will remove the subject
polygons from their previous group and assign them to the
(available in the Figures
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your scene by dragging from the Library to the document

window, or by clicking the Change Figure or Create New
Figure button at the bottom of the Library palette, as
described in “Loading and Managing Items using the
Library Icons” on page 144
in Outline display mode and hover your mouse over the
various body parts, you’ll see an outline of the group
underneath the mouse. We have color-coded the groups

different, having different body parts,

materials, hair, and cloth groups. Further, the groups
themselves may be arranged in different orders.
However, the concepts explained here are the

selected and articulated (or posed). Props normally consist

of a single part that cannot be articulated, although The example displays several body parts: head, left
poseable props do exist. The following graphic depicts an eyeball, right eyeball, neck, chest, left collar, right collar.,
example of Poser body parts: left shoulder, right shoulder, and abdomen Each of these
body parts can be articulated (posed).
Each body part (or group) consists of one or more
polygons.

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As hinted above, there are several different types of

polygon groups: body part groups, material groups,
hair groups, and cloth groups for example. A polygon
can belong to more than one type of group (such as a
body part group and a material group, or a cloth group
and a material group). A polygon can only be in one
group of each type at a time. Thus, the following group
combinations are possible:

• One body part may have one material assigned to it.

For example, the neck will probably have the “skin”
material.

• Two or more body parts may use the same material.

• One body part may use more than one material. For
example, each eyeball may have separate materials
for the eyeball, iris, and pupil.

• In addition to the above, a polygon may be part of a Since body parts and materials are the most obvious forms
hair group and/or a cloth group. of grouping, let’s use them to illustrate grouping as a whole
since the same concepts apply to hair and cloth groups as
well. The graphic displays the material assignments for the
above-displayed body parts.
You can see that the head, neck, and portions of the
chest use the skin material. The chest and collars use the
shirt material. The eyes use eyeball, pupil, and iris materials.
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The head uses several materials including skin, lips, and •

eyebrows. unique numbered ID, and that ID is in turn used by a
polygon to specify which material should be applied
to that polygon. For example, the skin material
may have ID 1, the shirt ID 2, etc. Each polygon in a

assigned to that polygon. Changing a material itself

will affect the appearance of all polygons that have
the corresponding material ID. For example, if one
made the skin green, then all polygons with the “skin”
material ID would turn green regardless of the body
part.
The following table depicts a partial list of the relationships
between body parts and materials in the Alyson Casual

Body Part Assigned Material(s)

Head Head, Nostrils, Lips, EyeSockets,

Material assignments for various body parts.
Lacrimals, InnerMouth, TearLine,
EyelashesBottom, EyelashesTop, Teeth,
The important things to remember are: Gums, Tongue

• Poser groups polygons by body part, material, hair, Eyeballs (left and EyeballLeft, IrisLeft, PupilLeft,
right) CorneaLeft, EyeballRight, IrisRight,
and cloth, and these groups are independent of each PupilRight, CorneaRight
other.
Neck Body

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Collars (left and Body, Shirt

right)

Chest Body, Shirt

Again, the only relationship between the body parts,

creator. Poser does not mandate any such relationship.

Now that we have differentiated between body part
and material groups and mentioned hair and cloth, let’s
describe hair and cloth groups in more detail:

Hair Groups

Hair groups are groups of polygons that can also belong

to any body part, prop, and material group. Polygons Hair groups are special grouping assignments that can grow
that are part of hair groups can have real 3D hair grown strand-based hair.
on them. Please refer to “Chapter 26: The Hair Room” on
page 584 for more information about the Hair room. Cloth Groups

Poser’s Cloth room allows you to create realistic cloth that

you can use for almost any purpose in your scene. Cloth
groups are actually vertex groups, meaning that they are
groups of vertices instead of polygons, however this makes
little difference in the overall discussion. Vertices belonging
to a cloth group cannot belong to a body part group.

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which consists of props with named groups. See how the

The Hierarchy Editor
The Hierarchy Editor shows every parent/child relationship
Please refer to “Chapter 27: The Cloth Room” on page 603 and every scene element and their various parameters,
for more information about the Cloth room. from lights and cameras to morphs and deformers. You
can also view the IK chain settings and external names of
each item. The Hierarchy Editor also displays buttons that

A scene’s hierarchy describes the parent-child

relationships of all objects in your scenes.

Please refer to “Poser Figures Hierarchy” on

page 757 for more information about
hierarchies in general.

Body parts or props that are physically

located at a seam are generally contained
in either a parent or child object. The scene’s

and IK relationships.
Cloth groups are used in dynamic clothing, which moves
realistically when animated. A Poser document’s hierarchy contains:

• The complete list of all objects in the scene’s universe,

cameras.
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• Hierarchical connections (parent/child relationships) in bold italics) which control the top and bottom teeth,
between scene objects. several levels for the tongue, and an extra joint for each

• Parameters, including rotation, translation, morph

targets, and Point At (see “Point At” on page 225). arrangement of the bones will be similar to that shown
below:
• IK chains. hip
waist
abdomen
Poser Figures Hierarchy chest
neck
lEye
rEye
attached to a skeleton that moves the polygons in the TopTeeth
BttmTeeth
geometry. In order to attach the polygons (or “skin”) to the Tongue1
bones, the polygons in the geometry must be named the Tongue2
Tongue3
same as the bones in the underlying skeleton. Tongue4
Tongue5
To utilize as many of Poser’s posing and morphing Tongue6
lCollar
lBreast
conventions that should be followed. Most human Poser lShldr
lForeArm
lHand
actor as its root. Internal body part groups must always lThumb1
begin with a lower-case letter, with right and left body lThumb2
parts always beginning with a lower-case r (for right) lThumb3
or l (for left) to work with Poser’s Symmetry commands lIndex0
lIndex1
properly.
lIndex2
The internal group names that are used by the Alyson and
lIndex3
lMid0
structure. Alyson and Ryan have additional groups (shown
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lMid1
rRing2
lMid2
rRing3
lMid3 rPinky0
lRing0 rPinky1
lRing1
rPinky2
lRing2
rPinky3
lRing3 lButtock
lPinky0 lThigh
lPinky1 lShin
lFoot
lPinky2 lToe
lBigToe1
lPinky3 lBigToe2
rCollar lIndexToe1
rBreast lIndexToe2
rShldr lMidToe1
rForeArm lMidToe2
rHand lRingToe1
rThumb1 lRingToe2
rThumb2 lPinkyToe1
lPinkyToe2
rThumb3 rButtock
rIndex0 rThigh
rIndex1 rShin
rFoot
rIndex2 rToe
rBigToe1
rIndex3 rBigToe2
rMid0 rIndexToe1
rMid1 rIndexToe2
rMidToe1
rMid2 rMidToe2
rRingToe1
rMid3 rRingToe2
rRing0 rPinkyToe1
rRing1 rPinkyToe2

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Using the Hierarchy Editor The Hierarchy Editor palette allows you to:

To display the Hierarchy Editor palette, select Window > • Select scene elements. Selecting an element in
Hierarchy Editor. the Hierarchy Editor palette selects that item in the
Document window, Current Actor pull-down, and
Graph palette.

• Access object properties. Double-clicking an object

listing in the Hierarchy Editor palette opens the
Properties palette for the selected item.

• Quickly hide or view scene elements.

• Rename or delete elements and parameters such as

morph targets or Point At parameters. Use caution, as
this is a very powerful and very permanent change.

• Set up or change parent-child relationships for props.

• Set up Inverse Kinematics (IK) chains.

• Change rotation orders for props or body parts.

•
and earlier) of dragging objects into the scene and
arranging them in a hierarchical order, after which the
Create New Figure button was pressed. This method
The Hierarchy Editor. has since been replaced with the Poser Setup Room,

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discussed in “Chapter 32: The Setup Room” on page • Show Props: Checking the Show Props checkbox
765. displays all props in the current Poser document.

• Expand or contract the hierarchy list to view parents • Show Deformers: Checking the Show Deformers
and children or parents only. checkbox displays all magnets, waves, morph targets,

(scene).
Filtering the Display
• Show Lights: Checking the Show Lights checkbox
Hierarchy Editor palette
displays all lights in the current Poser document.
by selecting your desired display options at the top of the
palette. Checking a box enables the selected option, and • Show Groupings: Checking the Show Groupings
clearing it disables that option. The options are as follows: checkbox displays all of the constraint grouping
and object grouping objects in the current Poser
• Show Figures: Checking the Show Figures checkbox
document, along with objects that are children of
them.
• Show Cameras: Checking the Show Cameras
checkbox displays all cameras in the current Poser Working with Hierarchy Branches
document.
You can perform the following basic actions using the
• Show Parameters: Checking the Show Parameters hierarchy listing:
checkbox displays all object parameters in the current
Poser document. • To expand a hierarchy branch, click the right-pointing
arrow next to the branch you wish to expand.
• Show All Parameters: Checking the Show All
Parameters checkbox displays all parameters in the • To collapse a hierarchy branch, click the downward-
current Poser document. pointing arrow next to the branch you wish to collapse.

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• To select an object, click its listing. Reordering Scene Elements

• To make an object visible or invisible, click the eye You can reorder scene elements including props and
next to the desired icon. The eye appears bright white deformers. Reordering deformers can be useful, especially
when an object is visible and gray when invisible. when you have a long hierarchy listing. You can also
reorder morph targets and parameters such as rotation
• To view the Properties palette for an object, double-
orders (this is the same as using the Joint Editor palette).
click the selected object’s listing.
You can also reorder light, camera, and prop Point At
• parameters.
select the item to delete then press [DEL]. You cannot
Be careful when changing rotation orders as
delete body parts, cameras, or the ground plane.
this might cause unexpected behavior.
• To rename an object, click on its listing once to select
it, and then a second time to open a text box. (Do not
simply double-click on the listing, as this will open the Establishing Hierarchal Relationships
Properties palette for that object.) Enter the object’s
new name in the text box. This does the same thing as the Set Parent menu
command (see “Changing a Parent” on page 245). To
establish a hierarchical relationship using the Hierarchy
Editor:
1. Load your desired prop(s) into the scene.

2. Open the Hierarchy Editor

3. Drag the child object on top of the root (parent)

object. A green box highlights the target when the
child object is on top of it.
Elements of the Hierarchy Editor.
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4. Drop the object onto the highlighted object.

a woman on horseback):
1.

2.

3. Drop the child.

the Hierarchy Editor palette as follows:

1.

2. Select Figure > Set Figure Parent (see “Set Figure

Parent” on page 244) to open the Set Parent dialog.

3. Select the parent body/body part in the dialog and

click OK.
Dragging and Dropping to parent an object.

To reorder a child at the same hierarchical level: Applying the Standard Hierarchy
1. Click the child object and drag to its new location.
A white line appears just below the target location,
indicating where the object will be placed once the Hierarchy Editor to automatically apply the Poser
dropped.
relationships. Poser can apply the Standard Hierarchy to
2. Drop the object. “Chapter 31: Figure and Prop

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Editors” on page 742 for more information about groups 1. Scroll to the bottom of the hierarchy list using the scroll
and hierarchies and how to edit them. bar and click the IK Chains entry to enable the Create
IK Chain button.

1. Choose Window > Hierarchy Editor. 2. Enter a name for the chain you are creating in the
dialog box that pops up and click OK. A blank IK chain
2. Select the Universe. appears in the list.

3. Click the Apply Standard Hierarchy button. 3. Plan each element in the IK chain from root to goal.
For example, the IK chain for the right arm has the right
hand as the goal.

4. From the hierarchy list, click and drag body part listings
onto the new blank IK chain. They will be added to the
IK chain in the order you drag them from root to goal.
Proceed to add parts to the chain in the order of root
to goal.
The Apply Standard Hierarchy button.

The Apply Standard Hierarchy button is not

available unless the universe is selected.

Creating IK Chains
To create an IK chain:

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Using IK
Figure > Use Inverse
Kinematics and select the chain you wish to enable. You
will see the chains you created as well as the standard
Poser chains (if you added chains to a standard Poser

chain. To disable IK, select Figure > Use Inverse Kinematics

and select the chain you wish to disable. You can also
open the Hierarchy Editor and check and uncheck the
boxes next to each IK chain in the list to enable and
disable IK.

Creating an IK chain.

Be careful when creating IK chains as you

unexpected ways when the new IK chain is added.

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Chapter 32: The Setup

Room
The Setup room is one of Poser’s most powerful features.

create your own for use with Poser.

The Setup
creating and setting up joints, hierarchy groups and
IK chains. It allows you to create these elements in a
graphical environment, rather than having to manually

When the Setup room opens, it displays many of the

The Setup Room.

Depending on the size of your workspace, you may
see the Camera controls, Joint Editor, Editing tools,
Parameters/Properties palette, or Hierarchy Editor in this The Setup room is an extremely powerful tool
room. Of particular importance is the Bone Tool, which
including those originally included with Poser.

The number of palettes and options that you

prevent inadvertently damaging one of your
see in each room depends upon your screen
resolution. At higher resolutions, the default work
spaces display more palettes, while at lower
resolutions you see fewer palettes.

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Avoid losing your work! Be sure to save your

in case you run into problems. •

using the text-based method should refer to

Creating Figures for Poser the “Appendix D: Creating and Converting
Hierarchy Files” on page 942, which covers the
Figures do not have to be anthropomorphic (human-

how it functions within Poser. In reality, there are two things

• Using the hierarchy palette (discussed in “The
Hierarchy Editor” on page 756) to combine props
• skeleton (called a bone
structure), which determines the hierarchy and
location of joints. • Importing a geometry and using the Setup room as
discussed in this chapter.
•
rough equivalent of skin and muscles) are grouped or
attached to the bones. About the Setup Room
Prior to the release of the Pro Pack add-in for Poser 4,
a greater number of detailed steps, each of which is
named body parts, and then used a text-based method Setup

1. Use props that are included with Poser, or create

Setup

modeling application.
completely graphical environment.

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2. Import your geometry as a prop using the File > Import

command. Once the geometry is complete, enter the creation process may cause you to lose
Setup room. some recent changes. A warning will appear if
exiting the Setup room will cause data loss.
3.

is the underlying framework that determines where

bends occur. You can import a skeleton from a similar The Setup Room Interface
The Setup room interface is designed to be similar to the
4. Pose room interface and functionality, with a few minor
changes:
accurately as possible.
•
5. “Put meat on the bones” by grouping the various the Setup
any) appears in the Document window, allowing you
groups. to position and adjust each bone.

6. Setup • While in the Setup

Library
system and applies it to the current object. Geometry
is altered when switching between the Pose and
7. Assign IK chains using the Hierarchy Editor, set Setup rooms. While in the Pose room, each body part
favored IK angles and joint limits, and memorize this is treated as a separate geometry object. While in
information. the Setup room, all of the body parts are combined
into a single object for easier grouping and welding
8. operations. Clicking the Create New Figure button in
Library palette. the Library

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are creating or modifying. You can also double-click In order to be rigged, you need to create
your geometry properly and assign each
body to a unique Material Group; otherwise the
geometry won’t be treated as a separate body
detail.

are listed in “Poser Figures Hierarchy” on page

Setting Up an Original Figure 757.

Step 1: Importing/Arranging Geometries Step 2: Loading and/or Creating Bone

Structures
This section describes what bone structures are, what they
props to your scene using the Library palette and/or by do, and how to create/modify a bone structure for your
importing geometry objects (static mesh objects or props).
If using more than one prop, be sure to arrange your
About Bone Structures
conversion process.

Please refer to “Importing Files” on page

844 for information on importing geometries posed. The Setup room expresses this information as a
into Poser.

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• • This image shows Andy’s left hand and underlying

bone structure on the left, and Ryan’s left hand and
“Poser Figures Hierarchy” on page 757 for information bone structure on the right. Note that Andy has only
about hierarchies within Poser. Ryan has a
far more realistic bone structure complete with palm
• Locating joints: Just as with your own skeleton, your

where bone ends meet.

• : By now, you are keenly

aware that each joint in your body has a limited range
of motion under normal circumstances. For example,
your elbow only bends in one direction and cannot

move in any direction within a narrow cone, and so

joints. These limits can prevent you from creating

Bone structures of a simple hand and a more complex human
through another part, etc. hand.

• Figure resolution
Bones appear as light gray pyramids with the
bases pointing towards their parents and the
(resolution) it will have. For example, the Andy
tips pointing towards the children. Selected bones
allows you to bend the shoulder, elbow, and wrist, but
appear red.
Ryan

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About Creating a Bone System The following sections discuss selecting a bone system for
your geometry and using the Bone tool.
There are two basic scenarios for creating or editing a
bone system: Selecting the Proper Structure

•
loaded when you enter the Setup room, the current
resembles your current object as closely as possible. For
be loaded, and the separate body parts will be example, the simple geometry shown below does not
combined into a single object for easier manipulation require a high-resolution bone structure, since it does not
while in the Setup room.

• : You enter the Setup room with

a geometry (prop) selected. You can then load a amount of work you have to do.

Library palette and clicking the

Change Figure button. Or, you can use the Bone tool
to create a fully customized bone system. You can also
combine these methods by loading a bone structure
and using the Bone
Bone tool appears in the Setup room workspace with
the other Editing tools.

The Bone Tool.

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Inserting & Deleting Bones

The Bone tool lets you create bones, either within a bone
structure or from scratch. To create a bone, click at the
point where you want the bone to begin (base) and drag

bone’s position and parameters later, so you do not need

to worry too much about being perfect.

Selecting an appropriate bone structure.

In the above graphic, the positions of the

bones match the corresponding portions of
the geometry. If the skeleton does not match the

“Positioning the Bones” on page 772.

New bones are created as children of the most recently

selected or created bone. You can select a previously

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created bone (or any bone in the skeleton) and add new
child bones by single-clicking the bone you wish to use as
a parent and then clicking and dragging to create a new
bone as described above.. The graphic shows a new bone
inserted between the hip (parent) and thigh (child).
Bones can be selected as follows:

• In the Hierarchy or by clicking on the bone with the

Bone tool selected

• Via the Actor selector in either the Properties palette or

the Setup room Preview tab
When bones are not positioned correctly, body parts can
To delete a bone, simply select it and press [DEL]. appear distorted.

Positioning the Bones

You can position bones using any of three methods:
Now that your bone structure is built to match your
• Select one of the available Editing tools (Rotate, Twist,
geometry, the next step is to align the bones with the
Translate/Pull, Translate In/Out, or Scale) and position
geometry. Unless you have already built a bone structure
the bones using the mouse.
slightly, the chances are that the default bone positions
• Use the Joint Editor palette to precisely position joints.
will not line up with the geometry, as shown in the graphic
• Use the Symmetry control (see “Symmetry” on page
having a bone structure that is not positioned according 229) to position the bones on the opposite side of the

You will probably use a combination of all three methods

as you work to position the bones on your geometry. The
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following sections discuss each of the three methods in

detail.

Positioning Bones With the Mouse

You can position bones with the mouse in one of two

ways:

• Selecting the desired Editing tool followed by clicking

in the middle of a bone uses the selected tool to
modify the position of both the selected bone, all of its
children, and all joint settings for both the current bone
and all children (including falloff zones). Please refer to
“Creating and Using Falloff Zones” on page 795 for
an explanation of falloff zones. This Selecting, clicking
and dragging into position is the preferred method.
Adjusting bone placement.
• Clicking near the beginning or end of a selected bone
allows you to translate just the selected endpoint
regardless of the selected Editing tool. The mouse When editing bone endpoints, joint settings such as falloff
pointer changes to a bull’s eye when you select a zones are not adjusted. This method is good for making
bone and place the pointer near the beginning or minor adjustments once the bones have been placed
end of the selected bone, as shown.
the skeleton to the geometry, you can adjust the falloff
zones further. Please refer to “Creating and Using Falloff
Zones” on page 795 for an explanation of the various
types of falloff zones.

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When positioning bones using the mouse, The Symmetry functions involving arms, legs,
you should use one of the orthographic and the torso only work when the bones in
cameras (Left, Right, Top, Bottom, Front, Back) to those regions have been named and grouped so
ensure that you are only positioning them in one as to belong to the selected areas of the geometry.
plane at a time. Alternatively, you can use the If you have loaded an existing bone structure for
Document window’s multiple pane view to position use with your current geometry, the bones will
the bones in 3D space. already be named for you.

When you select a symmetry function, a dialog box

Positioning Bones With the Joint Editor Palette
appears asking if you wish to copy the joint zone setup
as well. Click Yes to apply the symmetry to the bone
• In addition to (or instead of) using the mouse to
structure.
position bones, you can use the Joint Editor palette
by selecting the bone you wish to edit. Please refer
to “Chapter 33: Working with Joints, Weights, and Step 3: Naming the Bones
Skinning” on page 781 for complete information on
using the Joint Editor palette. The Properties palette allows you to modify the following
settings:
Positioning Bones Using Symmetry
• Internal Name: You can modify a bone’s internal name
Assuming your imported geometry is symmetrical, you while in the Setup room by entering your desired name
can drastically reduce the amount of time it takes for you in the Internal Name
to position bones by positioning only those bones on half
of the geometry and then using the Symmetry tool to is best to begin with an existing bone structure when
automatically position the rest of the bones. Please refer
to “Symmetry” on page 229 for information on using the with a set of bones that already have standard
Symmetry tool.
using custom internal and group names; however,

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Step 4: Attaching Bones to Geometry

to track the internal names and the portions of the
skeleton and geometry they correspond to.
Parts
This is the part of the Setup
This is a critical point. The only way to link a
where you associate (group) bones with portions of the
bone to a group of polygons is to have them
geometry, giving your geometry the ability to bend and
share the same exact internal name. The only place
move. It is important that you take great care during this
to modify internal names within Poser is in the Setup
room, and then, only in the Properties palette.
and, just as importantly, bend correctly.
Your geometry consists of many polygons that together
form its overall shape. At this point, Poser knows the
Poser’s features, you should respect the
skeleton, including its joints, parents, and children. It
bone/body part internal naming conventions
knows that moving one bone will affect its children and
precisely. Group names for the Alyson and Ryan
may affect the parent, and it knows how each joint
“Poser Figures Hierarchy” on
should behave. However, Poser does not yet know
page 757.
which polygons need to move for any given movement
of the skeleton. To enable your geometry to bend, you
• Name: The Name must combine logical subsets of the polygons that make
external name, which you use for your own reference. up your geometry and group each subset with the
You can use any name you wish. This can be helpful if, appropriate bone.
for example, you are working in different languages. Where you need to be careful is in being sure that the
correct polygons are assigned to the correct bones, that
Any other displayed options do not affect
is, the right arm should move when you move the right
bones and should be ignored.
shoulder bone, and so forth. It is possible to assign any
polygon to any bone. You could have polygons in the
leg region grouped with a bone in the neck, for example.

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You could even have random polygons scattered around Requirements

the geometry grouped with any bone in the skeleton.
While you may wish to do this for experimental or artistic As discussed in “Importing 3D Objects” on page 846,
purposes, this manual will assume that you are trying to your imported geometry cannot have overlapping or
duplicated polygons and, if you have created groups
when you built the geometry, the polygons in the
Now that the skeleton is complete, it is appropriate to think
geometry cannot belong to more than one group at a
of each bone as a body part. For each such body part,
time.
an identically named group of polygons on the geometry
must exist. Each of the joints will cause the grouped The Setup
polygons to bend where parent and child groups touch. geometry consisting of ungrouped polygons. This is the
Poser knows which polygons to bend by matching the recommended method.
internal name of the bone being moved with the internal
name of a group of polygons. Grouping

There are a number of different ways that you can assign

Setup room, the necessary body groups will
already exist and may already be properly set up.
in their modeling application or with other utilities. You
can, however, use Poser’s Group Editor to create and
assign groups to the polygons in your model. The Group
To create groups, select the Grouping tool, which opens
Editor allows you to select polygons manually and then
the Group Editor palette. The Grouping tool can select
polygons to create a group. Then you can use the Assign
groups assigned, you can also use the Auto Group feature
Material button to assign a name for the body part for the
to automatically generate groups based on the bone
selected polygons.
structure of the skeleton. For further information, refer to
“The Group Editor” on page 742 for information about
using the Grouping tool and the Group Editor palette.

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Step 5: Assigning Rotation Orders Step 6: Fine-Tuning Joints

With your bones positioned and your groups created,

exactly as you want it to. Do this using the Bone tool

and/or Joint Editor palette as discussed in “Chapter 33:
Working with Joints, Weights, and Skinning” on page 781.
Setup room to see how changes to the rotation order Use spherical or capsule-shaped falloff zones, or weight
painting, to add more realism to the appearance of the
joints as they rotate, bend, and twist.
Remember that joint bending only occurs between an
use the Hierarchy Editor to assign standard rotation orders object and its parent. The bends do not progress to other
children or above the parent in the hierarchy. Be sure
to keep this in mind as you tweak the joints. Also, if you
rotation orders manually in “Setting Joint Orders” on page have body parts which are symmetrical left to right, and
806. are named using the convention of starting with “r” for
right-side body parts and “l” for left-side body parts, you
can automatically copy joint zones by using one of the
1. Choose Window > Hierarchy Editor to display the symmetry commands as discussed in “Symmetry” on
Hierarchy Editor. page 229. This can save time and effort when tweaking

2. Select the Universe.

exactly like the other part.
3. Click the Apply Std Rotation Order button to apply the
standard rotation settings. Step 7: Testing Your Figure
This is the moment you have been working towards. At this
point, return to the Pose
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through its paces. You can use multiple view panes and Step 10: Setting & Memorizing Favored
the Camera
to ensure that it is performing as expected. If you need
IK Angles
to make any adjustments, you can always return to the Poser’s inverse kinematics works based on the current
Setup rotations of a body part. Proper IK angles must be preset
Your once-static geometry prop is now a moveable Poser
joint rotation values help the IK logic know which way to
bend some of the joints and will affect how the IK works
Step 8: Assigning IK Chains
angles is therefore important.
Before memorizing the default positions for all of the body
you need to create at least one inverse kinematics chain parts, you should bend the parts used in IK chains so that
using the Hierarchy Editor, as discussed in “The Hierarchy they favor their natural bending directions. For example, a
Editor” on page 756. standing person’s thighs bend slightly forward and out from
vertical, and her or his shins bend slightly back and in.
You created the parent/child hierarchies in
These positions can be tested by lowering the hip joint in
bone structure. The Hierarchy Editor will perform all the Y (up/down) direction while IK is turned on for the legs.
While doing this, the knees should bend smoothly, and not
buckle or swing widely to either side.
Then, to test the arms, enable IK on the arms and move
Step 9: Inverse Kinematics the chest side to side (X trans). The arms and shoulders
should bend naturally. If they do not, add small amounts of
rotation into the joint to correct the unnatural bending.
to add IK chains as discussed in “Creating IK Chains” on
With IK off, return the hip to zero and the chest to zero.
page 763.
Preserve the rotations on the limbs. Make sure that they

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are symmetric from one side to the other. Then memorize Poser allows you to set limits for each joint to mimic these
natural limits and help prevent you from creating unnatural
poses. Additionally, you can create limits on the amount
To set favored IK angles:
that a body part can be scaled and tapered, and you
1. Disable the affected IK chain(s). may have other options available depending on the body
part in question.
2. Position each body part in the chain by slightly
bending it in the direction it would bend under IK by a It’s good practice to set limits per parameter
few degrees.
use or ignore your limits using the Figure pull-down
3. Save the angles by memorizing the body parts or the
menu by toggling the Use Limits command on or
Edit > Memorize > Element or
off.
Edit > Memorize > Figure, respectively.

4. Enable the affected IK chain(s). To set limits for a body part, simply select the desired body
part, then double-click any of the parameter dials in the
Please refer to “Inverse Kinematics (IK)” on page 187 Parameters palette to open an Edit Parameter dialog
for more information about Poser’s Inverse Kinematics box, where you can set limits for the selected parameter.
features. Please refer to “Editing Parameter Dials” on page 214 for
information on setting parameter limits.

Step 11: Setting Joint Limits

Step 12: Finalizing Your New Figure
In the “real world”, each of your body’s joints has limits on
its motion. For example, you cannot extend your arm at
the elbow beyond the point where your arm is straight.
Further, it is not possible for one of your body parts to creation process is complete. If you wish, you can add
“collide” or intrude on another part. You cannot simply put materials and textures, make additional adjustments,
your hand through your chest.

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and do anything you need to do in order to consider the an item, select it in the Library palette and click the Delete
project complete. from Library icon (-) at the bottom of the palette.

You can also add morphs or use deformers

that smooth areas like knee and elbow Troubleshooting
bends and link these morphs or deformers to the
arm/leg bends as dependent parameters. For more
information, see “Using Dependent Parameters” on may be existing parameters that no longer function
page 726. properly with the new geometry. For instance, morph

if you change the geometry. You can delete these

channels in the Hierarchy Editor by checking the Show
Step 13: Memorizing and Saving Your Parameters box, selecting the parameters to delete, and
New Figure pressing [DEL].

the creation process. Now that it is complete, be sure to

Edit > Memorize > Figure.
Library palette. You

your own.

Deleting Interim Figures

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Chapter 33: Working In addition to the traditional falloff zones, weight-mapped

with Joints, Weights, respond to movement. By providing both traditional and

weight-mapped methods, Poser offers a three-fold solution

and Skinning that allows you to use traditional falloff zones, weight
maps, or a combination of both. You get the best of both
worlds!

What are Joints?

at a point where they bend, twist, rotate, or bulge: for

example, a human knee or an elbow is a joint. In Poser,
joint
settings. These joint settings are applied through various
options in the Joint Editor.
Poser’s traditional joint system utilizes the following:

• Spherical falloff zones that use inner and outer spheres

a joint is rotated, and the amount of movement the

vertices move.

• Capsule-shaped falloff zones that work similarly to A joint shown in the Joint Editor.

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Using the Joint Editor the Setup room, the Joint Editor allows you to adjust the
currently selected bone.

transformers and transformation zones that control the

Parts of the Joint Editor
their zones skew, rotate, stretch, or scale polygons that The Joint Editor displays the various components of the
fall within a transformation zone to produce the desired selected joint. For example, if you have the right shin
motion. selected, the Joint Editor will display the settings related to
You can use the Joint Editor to manipulate joints and the knee (the point at which the right shin begins).
blend transformers directly, thereby modifying how a joint The Joint Editor displays the following options and controls,
or bone works. The Joint Editor is used to accomplish the depending on the joint that you have selected:
following:

•
needs.

• Create new types of effects in how the polygons in the

current part respond to transformations.

• Customize joints and transformers when creating your

in “Chapter 32: The Setup Room” on page 765).

To open the palette, select Window > Joint Editor. This
palette can be used in the Pose Room and in the Setup
Room. When used in the Pose room, the Joint Editor allows
you to adjust the currently selected joint. When used in

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information about affected actors, see “Adding

Affected Actors” on page 808.

• Attribute selector: Use the Attribute selection menu to

For example, when you have the right shin selected,

you can use the menu to choose one of the following
attributes: Center, Twist, Side-Side, or Bend. In addition,
there will be a couple of additional settings that relate
to the body part that is immediately below the current
part (its child). In the case of the right shin, the child
attributes would relate to the right foot. In most cases,
the attributes for the “child” part are left alone when
editing the current joint.

• Parameter dial and value: When you choose an

attribute that has a Parameters dial associated with it,
a dial will appear in the Joint Editor. You can use this
dial to adjust the parameter through its minimum and
maximum values to test how the current joint settings
affect the mesh.
The Joint Editor.
• Display Options. Allows you to show or hide various
display options for the selected transform:
• Affected Actors menu: Use this menu to select
Deformer: When checked, will display the
additional body parts that you want to be affected
deformers (if any) that are associated with the
by the parameter that you are editing. For more
selected joint.

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• Verts: Shows or hides the display of colored dots that • Falloff Zones: There are three types of falloff zones:
give you a visual indication of how the vertices and Spherical Zone, Capsule Zone, and Weight Map. Each
polygons will be affected when you adjust the joint of these will be described in “Creating and Using
settings. Falloff Zones” on page 795.

Shaded: Enables shaded display mode for sphere • Joint Angles setting: This section displays or edits the
inclusion and exclusion angles, which determines
or capsules are shaded green, and outer mat which vertices and polygons are included or excluded
spheres or capsules are shaded red. in the current transform. Further information can be
found in “Setting Joint Angles” on page 804.

• Bulge Settings: Allows you to add additional settings

joint is moved. See “Editing Bulge Settings” on page

805.

• Joint Orders: Allows you to set the order of the X, Y,

and Z axes, and the types of rotation that they relate
to. See “Setting Joint Orders” on page 806.

• Scale Zones: Click this button to create weight maps

that smooth out the transitions between joints when
the joints are scaled along a single axis. For more
information, see “Smoothing Scale Zones” on page
820.
A chest joint with verts and shaded display.
• Zero Rotations button: As you are working with all of

rotations (bend, twist, side to side, and so on) set to

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values other than zero. Click this button to return all How Joints are Displayed
of the joint rotations back to their zero values, which
When the Joint Editor is opened, there are several
indicators that appear when a body part is selected.
These indicators help you control how the joint works

indicators are described below.

Deformer Indicators

Depending on the type of attribute selected you will see a

shows the types of indicators that appear when Center,

Twist, Side-Side, Bend, and neighboring joint indicators are
selected. You can use the handles on these indicators to
visually adjust the joint attributes, or you can use numerical
Joint Editor to change them. Each of these
attributes will be discussed in “Joint Attribute Types” on
page 788.

The Joint Editor: Weight Painting Controls.

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as the current body part, and the Bend parameter is the

parameter that is being edited. The joint is placed at the
right knee. Notice the multi-colored dots which show how
the joint affects the selected body part:

• Bright green dots appear where the joint or zone has

the greatest effect. In other words, when you bend the
right shin, the entire area that is covered with green
dots will be affected by the bend.

• Red dots appear where little or no effect occurs. In

other words, when you bend the right shin, the right
thigh (which is above the shin) will not be affected.

• Yellow dots appear where there is a blend between

Joint Attribute Indicators. the moving part (the shin) and the stationary part
(the thigh). In other words, when the right shin is bent,
the polygons that are highlighted with yellow dots will
Joint Strength Indicators stretch or squash or skew to make the transition as
smooth as possible.
The Joint Editor allows you to control joints and blend

from one joint to another react when they bend, twist, or

rotate. As you work in the Joint Editor, you will notice that
the selected body part is covered with different colored
dots. The color of these dots represent where a joint
parameter or falloff zone has the most amount of effect.

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2. Choose Window > Joint Editor to open the Joint

Editor.

3. Use the Selection menu to choose the attribute

that you want to edit. Each joint will have several
parameters and will include some of the following:
Center, Twist, Bend, Side to Side, Front to Back, or Up
and Down. These attributes are further described in
“Joint Attribute Types” on page 788.

4. Use the Falloff Zones section to add additional

deformers that can affect the selected attribute. If no
deformers exist, click the Add button to add one or
more. You can add one of three types of transformers:
Spherical, Capsule, or Weight Map. These will be
described further in “Creating and Using Falloff Zones”
on page 795.

5. The section beneath the Falloff Zones section

shows numerical values for the currently selected
joint attribute. You can either change these values
The strength of a joint is represented with green, yellow, and
manually, or by making adjustments to the deformers
red dots.
in the document window. For example, if you are
displaying the Twist attribute, you can enter values
Editing Joint Parameters for Twist Start and Twist End in the Joint Editor, or you
can click and drag the ends of the Twist indicator in
To edit a joint’s parameters: the document window to make adjustments visually.
1. Select the desired joint in the Pose Room.

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6. If the joint attribute allows, optionally enter Bulge The

Settings that make the selected body part bulge more copy joints from), such as a low-resolution human
realistically when the parameter is adjusted. These are character.
discussed in “Editing Bulge Settings” on page 805.
The
7. Set the Joint Order as described in “Setting Joint joints to, such as a high-resolution version of the
Orders” on page 806. same human character.
2.
8.
use the Zero Figure button to return the character to 3. Choose Figure > Copy Joint Zones From. The Copy
Joint Zones dialog appears.
library.
4.

Copying Joints from Another

Figure
If you are creating a character that has similar size and
Joint Attribute Types

the following attributes. The attributes available for each

joint depend on the currently selected joint. You can think
have made changes in the rigging of one version of the
of the Joint Editor palette as working with body parts
model (a low resolution version, for example) and want to
or bones, since the end result is the same. For the sake
apply the same changes to another version of the model
of discussion, it is appropriate to think of the Joint Editor
(a high resolution version).
palette as acting on body parts when in the Pose room
1. and bones within the Setup room.

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This section explains how to adjust each available joint

parameter. Note that not all parameters will be applicable
to every joint. Only those parameters applicable to the
selected joint will appear in the joint editor.

Center
The Center attribute sets the center of rotation for the
selected bone. It is available for all bones, body parts, and
props.
Hold your arm out with the palm up, bend it at the
elbow, and notice that the center of the rotation is about
Center attribute and settings.
halfway between your inner and outer elbow. Notice
how your skin contracts above the center of rotation
and expands beneath it. Imagine if the center of rotation The following options are available when adjusting the
was in a different location and how that would affect Center joint parameter:
the appearance of your arm as you bend it. Move some
• Center Point
other joints and imagine the changes that might occur if
XYZ position of the joint (center of the body part). 0,0,0
you shifted those centers. The Center attribute controls this
is located in the center of the bone structure on the
aspect of joint motion.

• End Point: The End Point attribute is discussed in “End

Points”, which follows.

• Orientation
rotation of the joint and its axis. Click and drag the

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dials to set a value. Pressing and holding [OPT]/[ALT]

while clicking a dial resets its value to 0.

• Align: Clicking the Align button aligns the joint with its
underlying body part or group, and will automatically

option can be useful once you have created groups

and attached the bones to the geometry. Prior to that
point in the process, however, there is nothing to align
the joint to.

• Joint Order: See “Setting Joint Orders” on page 806.

• Zero Figure: See “Parts of the Joint Editor” on page

782. End Point attributes.

End Points
Twist
If a joint has a single child joint, the endpoint will always be
the origin of the child. If there are multiple children (as in The Twist attribute changes the location of the twist
a hand) the endpoint can be set manually. This feature is deformer for the selected bone.
used for some of the interaction tools, such as the Rotate
tool for orientation from the origin. If there is no child joint There is no Twist attribute for the hip bone or
(as with the head, typically) the endpoint is also editable. its equivalent, since the hip is the parent for

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When IK is enabled, child bones rotate when the parent

is twisted. Twisting the hip normally moves the entire body

meaning that the hip does not have this parameter.

Hold your arm out with the palm down, and twist it so your
palm is facing up. Notice how most of your arm does not
change, except for a region in your upper arm where the
skin and muscles twist as you move. Imagine if the twisting
began and/or ended in a different location. The Twist
attribute controls this aspect of joint motion.
By default, the Twist axis runs lengthwise down the center
of each body part. For example, the arm twist axis is X,
Twist attribute and indicators.
while legs twist along the Y axis. When this parameter is

The red handle represents the starting point of the twist The Twist parameter has the following settings and options:
transformation area, and the green handle represents the
• Display Options: See “Parts of the Joint Editor” on
end. Dragging these handles increases or decreases the
page 782.
Twist area.
• Falloff Zones: See “Creating and Using Falloff Zones”
on page 795.

• Twist Start and Twist End

ending points of a bone’s twist area. Enter your desired
values in the appropriate boxes, or drag the red
handle of the indicator to adjust the Start value, and
the green handle of the indicator to adjust the End
value.
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You can make twist areas larger than the • The Bend attribute controls the angles of the Bend
selected bone, which can make a twisting
motion appear more natural. In many cases, the
bone’s parent should be included in the twist zone.
and how the skin and muscles bulge as you move. The
Bend attribute lets you control how this occurs in your
You can use the Editing tools to adjust the
Twist parameter. This parameter exists in three
• The Side-Side, Front-Back, and Up-Down attributes
see the joint from any angle. You may, however, control the angles of their respective transformers and

use the orthographic cameras (Top, Bottom, Left, are suited for omnidirectional joints such as your wrists,
Right, Front, Back) to constrain movement to two shoulders, hips, ankles, etc. The various parameters are
axes, possibly avoiding much confusion. shown in the following table.

• Joint Order: See “Setting Joint Orders” on page 806.

• Zero Figure: See “Parts of the Joint Editor” on page

782.

Side-Side, Bend, Front-Back, and Up-

Down
The joint settings for Side-Side, Bend, Front-Back, and Up-
Down are very similar. The main difference between them
is the axis on which they rotate:

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Attribute Body Part(s)

editing these joint attributes in the Joint Editor palette.
The settings in the Joint Editor allow you to change their
Bend All but Hip, Collars, and Shoulders
angles and transformers. Poser can also create bulges that
Side-Side Head, Neck, Chest, Abdomen, Waist, L & R
emulate muscle movement.
Buttocks, L & R Thigh, L & R Shin, L & R Foot, L & R
Toe, Toe1 parts, Toe2 parts, L & R Forearm, L & R
• Display Options: See “Parts of the Joint Editor” on
thumb)
page 782.
Front-Back L & R Collar, L & R Shoulder

Up-Down L & R Collar, L & R Shoulder • Falloff Zones: See “Creating and Using Falloff Zones”
on page 795.

• Joint Angles
or excluded from the Bend parameter. You can
either use the Inclusion and Exclusion handles to
adjust these values visually, or enter values in the Joint

stationery. The area between the green handles

area in between a green handle and a red handle

will “deform.” For more information, see “Setting Joint
Angles” on page 804.

Bend attribute settings.

The following settings appear in the Joint Editor for Bend,

Side-Side, Front-Back, and Up-Down parameters. Each
of these three parameters is functionally identical when
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You can use the Editing tools to adjust the The High End/Start and Low Start/End
Bend, Side-Side, Front-Back, and Up-Down blending area. For example, when scaling the head, you
parameters. These parameters exist in three may also want to scale the top of the neck to achieve a

see the joint from any angle. You may, however, (high or low) is relevant. The unused parameter pair gets
automatically set to some unrealistic number (such as
use the orthographic cameras (Top, Bottom, Left, 99,000 or 100,000), thus indicating that it is not relevant to
Right, Front, Back) to constrain movement to two the area you’re working on. Do not edit these out-of-limit
axes, possibly avoiding much confusion. settings.
Each blending zone’s end is represented in red, with its
• Bulge Settings: See “Editing Bulge Settings” on page beginning in green. Effects can be either uniform or can
805. use spherical falloff zones, discussed below.

• Joint Order: See “Setting Joint Orders” on page 806.

• Zero Figure: See “Parts of the Joint Editor” on page

782.

Scaling
Each body part has parameters allowing you to scale the
parent and child body parts. These settings are similar to
the Twist parameters and follow the Twist axis of the child
or parent body part. For example, Ryan’s Right Collar body
part has scaling controls for the chest (parent) along the Y
axis and the Right Shoulder (child) along the X axis.

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is appropriate to use falloff zones on a joint. When a joint

property can utilize Falloff Zones, the Joint Editor displays
a Falloff Zones area that appears as shown in the following

Scaling attributes.

Falloff Zone settings.

Creating and Using Falloff Zones
There are three types of falloff zones: Spherical, Capsule,
Falloff Zones are Poser’s fundamental method of creating and Weight Map (the latter being editable only in Poser
Pro 2012 and later), described in the sections that follow.
or body parts. You can use falloff zones on any type of Multiple Falloff Zones can be combined, regardless of
rotation (such as Bend, Side-Side, Front-Back, or Up-Down). type. You can blend multiple falloff zones together in a
A Falloff Zone section appears in the Joint Editor where it single joint. The type of blending can be set as Multiply,

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Add, or Replace in the Joint Editor. You can learn more

about blending in “Blending Multiple Falloff Zones” on
page 800.

Spherical Falloff Zones

When you use a spherical falloff zone, two spheres, a
green inner sphere and a red outer sphere, represent the
falloff zones.

the limit of the transformer’s effect. The area between the

spheres is the blending area, and the transformer’s effect
gradually decreases from 100% at the boundary of the
inner sphere to 0% at the boundary of the outer sphere.

outerMat spheres have been colored in for demonstration

purposes. When vertices are displayed you can see how Spherical falloff zones.
the positioning of the spheres affect the strength of the
deformations in various areas. You can edit spherical falloff zones just as you would any
bone or body part using the Editing tools.

• Click the green sphere to edit the affected area. The

Parameters/Properties palette displays its properties as
the innerMatSphere, where you can make adjustments
to its size, position and rotation.

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• Click the red sphere to edit the unaffected area. The zRotate values to change the rotation along the y, x,
Parameters/Properties palette displays its properties as or z axis (respectively).
the outerMatSphere, and you can make adjustments
to its size, position and rotation. • Scale: Use the Scale setting to uniformly adjust the
scale along the x, y, and z axes. To change an axis as
needed to create an ellipse, adjust the xScale, yScale,
or zScale setting appropriately.

• Translation: To move the sphere, adjust the xTran,

yTran, or zTran setting appropriately.

You can also use the Direct Manipulation

Tool to adjust the rotation, scale, or
translation of the falloff zone. For more information
about this tool, see “Direct Manipulation” on page
202.

Capsule Falloff Zones

Spherical Falloff Zone parameters in the Parameters Palette.

The following properties can be edited for the inner and green and red capsules work similarly to the spherical
outer MatSpheres of a spherical falloff zone: falloff zones mentioned in the previous section. The green

• Rotation: To change the rotation of the inner or

outerMatSphere, change the yRotate, xRotate, or transformation’s effect. The area in between the capsules

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• Click the red capsule to edit the unaffected area. The

Parameters/Properties palette displays its properties as
the outerMatCapsule.

Capsule Falloff Zone with Verts turned on.

If you choose to create a capsule zone, there are six

unique parameters in the Parameters Palette to change
the shape and size of capsules and how they affect the
current joint. You will also see the Translate, Rotate, and
Scale parameters which work similar to those described for
the Spherical falloff zones.

• Click the green capsule to edit the affected area. The

Parameters/Properties palette displays its properties as innerMatCapsule and outerMatCapsule parameters.
the innerMatCapsule.
With the inner or outer MatCapsule selected, you will see
the following parameters in the Parameters palette:
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• Right Length: Sets the length of the right half of the

cylinder portion of the capsule.

• Right Radius: Sets the radius of the right end of the

cylinder portion of the capsule.

• Right Cap: Sets the length of the cap at the right end
of the capsule. Increases or decreases the distance
from the Right Length.

• Left Length: Sets the length of the left half of the

A diagram of a capsule falloff zone.
cylinder portion of the capsule.

• Left Radius: Sets the radius of the left end of the

cylinder portion of the capsule. Working with Falloff Zones
• Left Cap: Sets the length of the cap at the left end of The sections that follow describe other ways that you can
the capsule. Increases or decreases the distance from work with falloff zones.
the Left Length.
You learned how to create a weight map in the section
The following diagram shows the parts of the capsule: “Weight Maps” on page 811. If you want to create a
spherical or capsule falloff zone, the steps are similar.
Follow these steps:
1. Select the joint that you want to work on.

2. Open the Joint Editor, and select the appropriate

rotation (Side-Side, Front-Back, Up-Down, or other).

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3. In the Falloff Zones section, click the + (plus) sign to Blending Multiple Falloff Zones
create a new falloff zone. Choose one of the following
options: In addition to offering three types of falloff zones, you can
also use more than one falloff zone for a joint. The Joint
Add Sphere Zone: Choose this option to create a Editor provides a drop-down menu that lists the falloff
spherical falloff zone. zones that have been created for each joint. You can
add one or more spherical, capsule, or weight map falloff
Add Capsule Zone: Choose this option to create a
zones to any joint.
capsule-shaped falloff zone.
For an example of using multiple falloff zones, open the
Library and select the Figure category. From the People
folder, add Alyson or Ryan (version 1) into your scene. In
the Joint Editor, select the Side-Side property of the right
or left Buttock. Click the Down arrow to display the list of
zones for the currently selected joint. When you expand
the list of falloff zones, you’ll see several as shown below.

Adding a Falloff zone.

4. Use the Editing Tools or the parameter dials to adjust

the scale, rotation, and translation of the inner and
outer MatSpheres (see “Spherical Falloff Zones” on
page 796) or MatCapsules (see “Capsule Falloff
Zones” on page 797).

5. Repeat steps 1-4 to add additional falloff zones if

desired.

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To change the blending method for a falloff zone, follow

these steps:
1. Select the joint that you want to modify.

2. Expand the Falloff Zones selection menu, and select

the sphere or capsule falloff zone that you want to
change.

3. Select Multiply, Add, or Replace from the blend mode

selection menu.

Blending falloff zones.

The CR2 will display a list of zones that affect

Choosing a blending type.
each joint. Figures that use multiple falloff
zones or capsule zones will not be compatible with
Deleting a Falloff Zone
backwards compatible with earlier versions of Poser,
use only a single Spherical Zone on the joints that To delete a falloff zone, follow these steps:
use falloff zones. 1. Select the joint that you want to modify.

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2. Expand the Falloff Zones selection menu, and select 1. Select the joint that you want to examine, and rotate
the falloff zone that you want to delete. the joint as necessary to determine the effects of the
falloff zones.
3. Click the Delete button in the Falloff Zones area of the
Joint Editor and choose Delete Current Zone from the 2. Expand the Falloff Zones selection menu, and select
menu that appears. the desired falloff zone.

3. Check the Active checkbox to enable the falloff zone,

or uncheck to disable it.

Deleting a falloff zone.

Enabling or Disabling a Falloff Zone

When a joint rotation uses multiple falloff zones, you can

determine how that particular falloff zone affects the joint

rotation. This can help you make adjustments to the areas
that are affected by the selected falloff zone.
To enable or disable a falloff zone:

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1. Select the falloff zone that you want to change.

2. Select Display > Element Style.

3. Select your desired display mode. For example,

Wireframe mode allows you to see the spheres’
areas of effect while still being able to see the
underlying bones/geometry. Wireframe modes are
recommended, as solid shaded modes will make it

default display mode (top), and with the innerMat capsule

changed to Wireframe display style (bottom).

Falloff zone enabled (top) and disabled (bottom).

Changing Falloff Zone Display Mode

The default display mode for spherical and capsule falloff

zones is Outline mode. However, you can display falloff
zones in any available mode. To change how a falloff
zone is displayed:

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Setting Joint Angles

If you move any part of your body (for example bending
your elbow), you will note that the skin on your upper and
lower arms remains still except for the region near your
elbow. Around your elbow, skin stretches or contracts
depending on its location and the direction of motion.
Slightly removed from the actual motion area, your skin
and muscles move to adjust to the motion and preserve
a smooth transition. The area between the inclusion and
exclusion angles is called the blend zone, where Poser
stretches, bends, and shrinks polygons to achieve a

hip contracts or stretches as needed to accommodate

the move.
Poser accomplishes similar movement transitions with
inclusion and exclusion angles. The Bend, Side-Side, Front-
Back, and Up-Down
inclusion and exclusion angles for the selected joint. The
Inclusion and Exclusion angles control which polygons
move as a result of a joint bending and how the body
parts on either side of the joint blend to accommodate
the move.

An innerMat Capsule shown in default (top) and Wireframe •

display style (bottom). affected by moving the selected joint. Using the

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previous example of bending your arm at the elbow, The above graphic shows the exclusion angle above the
your entire arm below your elbow moves. The inclusion knee, the inclusion angle below, and the blend area in
angle appears as two green lines that form an angle. the vicinity of the joint itself. To edit inclusion and exclusion
In the Joint Editor, the Dynamic B and Dynamic C angles:
angles determine the inclusion angle.
1. Move the cursor to an end point of the inclusion or
exclusion angles until the cursor changes to a target
•
symbol.
not affected by moving the current joint. Notice that
your upper arm does not move if you simply bend your
2. Drag the angle. It is recommended that you use Full
elbow. The exclusion angle appears as two red lines
Tracking mode to view the effects of your changes as
that form an angle. In the Joint Editor, the Static A and
you drag. You can also enter your desired values in the
Static D values determine the exclusion angle.
text boxes.

You can use the Editing tools to adjust this

parameter. This parameter exists in three

see the joint from any angle. You may, however,

use the orthographic cameras (Top, Bottom, Left,

Right, Front, Back) to constrain movement to two
axes, possibly avoiding much confusion.

Joint inclusion and exclusion angle settings.. Editing Bulge Settings

Checking the Apply Bulge checkbox causes the polygons

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bulging when real bodies move. If the box is checked, the

polygons in the blend zone will be stretched or pinched
Setting Joint Orders
to create bulges or wrinkles. Left and Right refers to the The Joint Editor palette includes the Joint Order pull-down
skeleton’s right and left. The positive dials control how
much bulging out will occur when the joint moves, and order is expressed as three letters corresponding to the X,
the negative dials control the amount of wrinkling and Y, and Z axes.
pinching.
Using the Front camera position, the X axis
You can use Poser’s weight painting features runs from left to right, the Y axis runs from
to make bulges more realistic. See “Painting bottom to top, and the Z axis runs from the back to
Bulge Maps” on page 819. the front. This is called a right-handed coordinate
system.

It is important to determine the best rotation order for

to move exactly how you want it to. When you create

new bones with the bone tool, Poser takes its best guess at
determining the best rotation order for the bone.
You can select rotation orders by bringing up the Joint
Editor palette and selecting the desired order from the
Joint Order pull-down menu.

Applying bulges.

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• A shin is vertical and twists about the Y-axis. This Y axis is

• When the shin bends, it is most likely to bend around

the X-axis. This axis is placed last in the rotation order.

• The remaining axis is the Z axis, which is placed in the

middle. Thus, the best rotation joint order for the shin is
Setting joint rotation order. YZX.

If you change joint order, you will probably good way to visualize the correct rotation
need to readjust the joint zones on the
currently selected bone. the front of the Poser workspace. For each possible
motion of a given joint imagine a line running
Each joint consists of three separate joint primitives, one through the center of the joint. For example, the shin
twist and two joints. You determine the joint rotation order twists along a line running straight up and down and
as follows: rotates along a line running from left to right. The
vertical line corresponds to the Y axis, and the left-
• to-right line corresponds to the X axis. It is now easy
order. to determine the proper joint order of YZX based on
this visualization and the requirements outlined
• Because of ordered rotation problems, it is then best to
above.
place the rotation axis through which the joint is most
likely to move last in the order.
You can also use curve bends instead of the normal twist/
• The remaining rotation axis is placed in the middle. joint/ joint bends. When you set up a joint using curves, the

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joint will have one twist and one curve primitive. The curve If a joint’s falloff cones or spherical/capsule
primitive will automatically bend the body part as if that
part were part of a curved chain of objects. This feature is is not a part of the current actor or its parent, you
very handy for body parts such as tails or antennae. should set that part as an affected actor before you
use Merge Zones to Weight Map to convert the falloff
regions to a new weight map. This will apply
Adding Affected Actors appropriate weighting to all of the affected vertices

By default, a falloff zone only affects the body part that it involved.
is directly associated with. You can add additional body
parts or objects in your scene with the Affected Actors
button that appears at the upper right corner of the Joint When you modify an existing weight map,
Editor. For example, affected actors can be very useful and you add one or more actors for the
when applied to a character that has wings that would current joint to affect via Affected Actors, any new
affect the shoulder, but also the chest and the abdomen. vertices added to the weight map must be
weighted manually.
Affected actors allow bends to occur beyond the range
of the current body part. For example, if you have the
To add additional parts, click the Affected Actors button
character’s right shoulder selected, you could click the
to open the Select Objects dialog. Check any additional
Affected Actors button and add the right forearm to the
body parts or objects that you want to be affected by the
parts that are affected by the currently selected zones or
falloff zone.
weight map.

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After you add a body part as an affected actor, you’ll

want to modify the falloff zones so that they also include
the vertices in the affected actor. To illustrate why, observe

for the right shoulder:

Original falloff zones for the shoulder.

Adding Affected Actors.

as an affected actor to the right shoulder. When the
shoulder is bent, you see that the vertices in the right

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forearm are not affected. This is because they are not yet shown below. Make sure that the zones are adjusted in all
included in the falloff zone for the shoulder. The hand and camera views.

not set up as affected actors to the shoulder:

Adjust the falloff zones of the selected actor (the right

shoulder) to add the vertices of the affected actor (the right
The right forearm is added as an affected actor to the forearm).
shoulder, but falloff zones have not yet been adjusted.

The falloff zones for the right shoulder are then adjusted
to encompass all of the vertices in the right forearm, as

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Copying and Saving Joint Settings When you choose to merge existing falloff
zones into a Weight Map, existing falloff
zones will remain, but will be ineffective unless or
other, use symmetry as described in “Symmetry” on page until the blending mode of the weight map is
229 changed from Replace to Add or Multiply.
to rig only one side and then duplicate the zone settings to
the opposite side. If you are going to be rigging a character from scratch,

To save your Joint Editor palette settings, you must either

way … by using spherical and capsule falloff zones as
described in the previous sections in this chapter. After you
palette. Please refer to “Saving a Scene” on page 71
get that done, you can collapse the falloff zones down
for information on saving Poser scenes, and to “Chapter
into weight maps.
7: The Poser Library” on page 130 for information on
working with the Library palette.

• Set up your spherical and capsule falloff zones in the

Weight Maps joint, and test them to make sure they move the joint
as expected. See “Creating and Using Falloff Zones”
Weight maps allow you to paint varying strengths on on page 795.
vertices to control how they respond to a joint rotation.
You can either create an entirely new weight map, or • Add affected actors in areas where the rotation of a
combine existing deformers into a new weight map that joint could extend to more than one body part, and
completely replaces the spherical or capsule falloff zones. adjust the falloff zones to include the affected actors.
See “Adding Affected Actors” on page 808.

• Collapse the falloff zones into a weight map. See

“Adding a Weight Map” on page 812.

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•
painting. See “Painting Weights” on page 815.

A shoulder joint showing its falloff zones.

Adding a Weight Map

zones, you can collapse them down into a Weight Map for
the selected joint. When you click the Add button, you will There are two options for creating weight maps.
see two options for Weight Maps:

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• Add Weight Map: Choose this option to add a new

weight map in addition to any existing falloff zones
that may already appear for the selected body part. It
will work similarly to any other falloff zone.

• Merge Zones to Weight Map: Choose this option to

merge existing falloff zones, including joint angles, into
a new weight map. This is probably the most useful
way to begin with your weight map. You will see a
new weight map in the Zones list, but the original falloff
zones will still appear in the list as well. The blend type
for the weight map will be set to Replace.

You don’t have to have spherical or capsule

falloff zones to create a weight map. You
can just create one by selecting a body part, and
then choosing Merge Zones to Weight Map. This will
create a new weight map based on the existing
inclusion and exclusion angles set for the body part. Merging existing zones into a weight map.
Then you can begin painting the weight map as
needed.

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Falloff zones are processed in the order in In the Joint Editor, click the Add button, and choose
which they appear in the Falloff Zones list. Merge Zones to Weight Map. The weight map will be set to
Therefore, if you have a Spherical falloff zone at the Replace, which will make the spherical and capsule falloff
top, a Capsule Zone second, and a Weight Map zones ineffective.
third, the Capsule zone will override the effect of the
Spherical zone. Then the Weight Map, if set to
Replace, will combine the effect of both the
Spherical and Capsule weight maps, making the

weight map will also replace the Joint Angle

settings, making them ineffective as well. The joint
angles will still be visible as a visual guide only.

to work with existing falloff zones by setting Merging existing zones into a weight map.
the blend mode to Add or Replace. However, there
is no advantage to doing so. Falloff zones that have
been collapsed down into weight maps work Deleting Weight Maps
equally as well as the falloff zones that were initially
used to create them. If you don’t like the way that the joint is bending after
you create a weight map, you can go back and delete
the weight maps if you have to. For example, you might
If the previous falloff zones utilized bulge learn that in some views the center point of the joint is not
settings, they will still be active and you will set correctly, or the inclusion and exclusion angles aren’t
still be able to adjust them in the Joint Editor. working as well as they should and you need to make an
adjustment.

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When you delete a weight map that was created from

existing falloff zones, the original zones will work as they
were originally designed to work. You can go back and
adjust the falloff zones as needed, and then create a new
weight map that incorporates the new changes.

Activating and Deactivating Weight

Maps
The weight map is always active, unless you manually
deactivate it. If you want to see how the weight map
differs from the falloff zones from which it was created,
just uncheck the Active option in the joint editor. The
example shown below shows how a weight map smooths
the vertices around the ankle when the foot is bent You can Activate or Deactivate a weight map to observe
downward. how it affects a rotated joint.

Painting Weights
After you collapse your weight maps down, you can start
to paint. Click the Paint palette icon in the Joint Editor to
display the painting controls. As you paint, the changes

normals in the model, and not relative to the screen.

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After you create a Weight Map, the Weight Painting tool is

enabled in the Joint Editor.
When weight painting, consider the following general

• Make sure that the Active option is checked before

you start painting. With this option off, the brushes will
have no effect.

• Start with a smoothing brush, and start with a

magnitude setting of 1 for larger areas, and lower the
setting for smaller areas. Smooth the vertices in the
joint, but be careful not to oversmooth.

• Watch your brush size. Use lower settings for tight

• After you smooth out the vertices, choose the Add

or Subtract mode. Add will increase the weighted
effect on the vertices, while Subtract will decrease
the weighted effect. Darker colors (darker purple) are
the least weighted vertices, and solid green are most
weighted. Colors in between have varied weights.
Paintbrush tools.
To paint weights:
1. Click the paintbrush icon to enable the painting tools. 2. Select a brush type from the available choices.
The Joint Editor shows the brush controls.

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3. 5. Adjust the Magnitude setting in the Joint Editor to

suitable for working with targeted vertices. increase or decrease the strength of the brush.
Decrease the setting to produce less of a change
The other brushes provide varying levels of while you paint, and increase the setting to produce
hardness around the edges. The default brush has more of a change.
a softer edge which provides the most effect in
the center and then gradually falls off to little or When you have the paintbrush set to Add or
no effect on the outer edges. The last brush has Subtract mode, pay attention to the
no falloff at all, and applies strength evenly across Magnitude setting of the brush. Setting this too high
(such as 1) will affect the vertices more than you
section. want them to. It is recommended that you start with
The fourth brush will give you the best results, a low magnitude (around .007). Then slowly go
as it has a very slight feathering to the edge. back and forth over the areas you want to change.
If you use brushes that are more feathered you
may throw off the weight balance. 6. Use the Parameter dial in the Joint Editor palette
to pose the body part in something other than the
4. A wireframe preview of the brush appears in the
default position (at or near one of the limits is a good
Document window. You can toggle this preview on
place to start).
or off by checking or unchecking the Display Brush
option in the Joint Editor.

The inner ring of the preview shows the area that

will have the most effect.

The outer ring of the preview shows the overall

width of the brush. You can use the Radius setting
in the Joint Editor to increase or decrease the
brush width.

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the “green” (fully effected) color. This adds more

effect to the areas painted.

Remove will decrease the effect of the polygons

you paint, moving the painted vertices more
toward the red (little to no effect) color. This
removes the effect from the areas painted

Smooth will blend the sharp contrasts between

polygons that are affected least against those
affected the most.

Weight: The Weight brush allows you to paint

value. Click the Eyedropper to select a vertex. The

and will be used as a target. When you paint with

the Add brush, it will increase the weight values
that are below the target setting until the target
Pose your body part while you paint across vertices to add,
threshold is met. When you paint with the Subtract
remove, or smooth the amount of effect on the vertices.
brush, it will decrease weight values that are
above the setting until the target threshold is met.
7. Choose a method for painting. As you paint, observe
how the changes affect the body part in that pose. The Smooth mode is extremely helpful. You
The shape of the mesh will respond to the brush as you can work at higher magnitudes, and it is
make changes:
smoothing brush to smooth out the mesh.
Add will increase the effect of the polygons you
paint, moving the painted vertices more toward

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Vertices move as you paint them.

10.

8. As you are painting, use the Parameter dial to test 11. Click the Paintbrush icon to turn weight painting off.
various positions of the joint to make sure that the You will return to the normal Joint Editor palette.
weight painting produces desirable results. Continue to

as the joint is exercised through its limits. Painting Bulge Maps

9. If you want to limit your weight painting to one group, You’ll notice that there are also paint palette icons near
check the Group option below the Radius and the right and left bulges. For certain body parts, you’ll have
Magnitude sliders. Then select the group that you want to paint both to get the correct feel for how bulges affect
to paint from the drop-down menu. the joints.

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weight map. Switch back and forth between them until

the joint looks natural when it is rotated.

• When working on bulge weights, the brush affects the

weight map a little bit differently. A setting of .01 on a
bulge map has a similar effect to a setting of .001 on a
weight map. Use a setting of .01 on a bulge map for a

• Bulge settings must be set to a value other than 0 in

order to use a bulge map. For any bulges that you
want to use (Right Neg, Right Pos, Left Pos, or Left
Neg), set to a value less than or greater than 0. The
Right Neg and Right Pos share the same map, and the
Left Neg and Left Pos share the same map.

• Be sure to rotate the dial to its positive and negative

Bulge map weight painting controls. positions, and check the bulge weights in both. For
example, if you use a bulge on the right collar when
As you work with a joint, you may need to switch between the Up/Down dial is at a positive setting, make sure
the weight map on the joint, and the weight map on its that the joint still looks realistic when the dial is at a
bulges. negative value.

If your weight painting gets to a point where the joint

weight map starts to look unnatural, try adding or Smoothing Scale Zones
removing from the bulge weight map. Then, if the bulge
weight map starts to look unnatural, return to the joint Scale zones should be part of your character or
conforming clothing development. The Scale Zones
button, located in the lower portion of the Joint Editor
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Window, helps content creators improve the appearance

of joint transitions when a body part is scaled along one
or more axes. For proper operation when scaling weight

the scale zones on each scaling axis (X, Y, and Z as they

apply) for each adjacent body part.

You want to change him into a dwarf character. which

means that you’ll want to substantially change the
proportions of his thighs and shins.

scaled “so far” before they begin to crumble where they

join adjacent body parts. For an example, compare this

which is scaled to 65%. You’ll notice that the thigh is Joint seams can bunch together when a body part is scaled
bunching in the locations where it joins the hip and the along a single axis.
shin.
The Scale Zones button in the joint editor allows you to set
scaling zones that improves performance when characters thigh has been scaled along the Y axis. When you open
and conforming clothing are scaled. You can then the Joint Editor, you’ll see the normal center and rotation
add weight maps to the blending areas to smooth the parameters (Twist, Side-Side, and Bend). But you’ll also
transitions when a body part is scaled. notice scaling zones for the adjacent body parts ... one
named rShin_ScaleY and another named hip_scaleY. The

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adjacent body part plus an underscore. These are the joint want to assign, making sure that the adjacent actors (the
parameters that relate to the Scale Zones feature. hip and shin) are included.

Joint seams can bunch together when a body part is scaled

along a single axis.

The Scale Zones button at the bottom of the joint editor

allows you to add or remove scaling zones to the currently
selected body part. At a minimum, adjacent body parts
should be selected. But if it is possible that the scaling can Click the Scale Zones button to select body parts to blend
“spill over” into other body parts, you can add them as when the current part is scaled.
scaling zones as well.
To assign the scaling zones, click the Scale Zones button. To smooth a scaling zone, scale the body part (the right
The Select Objects dialog prompts you to choose body thigh in this example) to the desired scale. Try to anticipate
parts that will scale blend with the currently selected actor the maximum range that you would like the scaling to
(the right thigh, in this case). Check any parts that you work. For example, it’s unlikely that you will want to scale a
thigh to any less than 65% as shown in our example.
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After you scale the part, open the menu in the Joint Editor previously been weight mapped). If a weight map does
not exist, you’ll need to create one for the scale zone.
Simply use the menu in the Falloff Zones area of the Editor
selected. This is the scaling zone, as it was named for that to choose Add Weight Map. Then make sure that the mode
particular joint. of the new weight map is set to Replace.

Scale zone maps have to be created for

each body part that is connected to the
currently selected actor. For example, if you have

create scale zone maps for the hip and the shin. Of
you have a chest selected, you’ll need to create
scale zone maps for the right and left collar, and for
waist or abdomen (depending on the group name
that is adjacent to the chest).

Click the Scale Zones button to select body parts to blend

when the current part is scaled.

When you select the scale zone, you may see No Zones
in the Falloff Zones area (which will be the case when you

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When you copy weight maps from a

character to conforming clothing, the scale
zones should already be set up for you, but you will
need to check the scale zones of each body part in
the clothing to make sure they work as expected.
Before you edit the scale zone weight maps on
conforming clothing, select the BODY actor of the
conforming clothing, and make sure that Include
Scales when Conforming is checked in the
Properties palette. Sometimes the easiest way to
start a scale zone weight map is to collapse existing
zones (spherical and capsule zones, if they exist) into
a weight map and then start to smooth them with
the weight painting tools.

Add a weight map to the scale zone if needed.

Make sure the weight map is set to Replace.

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With the appropriate scale zone weight map selected, As you smooth out the current body part, you might notice
you can begin to use the Weight Painting tools to smooth that there are areas near the adjacent body part that you
out the scale zone. The process is similar to that mentioned can’t get as smooth as you like. This is probably because
in “Painting Weights” on page 815. it falls in an area that is affected by both body parts. For
example, as you work toward the top of the thigh, you
might see that you can’t smooth it out all the way. In that
case, you’ll want to check the smoothing zones in the hip,
and make sure that you have the correct smoothing zone
selected (rThigh_ScaleY). Add a Replace weight map to
it if necessary, and then use the weight painting tools to
smooth out that area.

You will need to cross over to the adjacent

body part and work on its corresponding
scale zone. Select that part and verify that it has a
corresponding weight map before you paint it.
When you paint close to the seam lines, be careful
not to overblend because it might create a ridge at
the seam. Go back and forth between the two
areas until you get an acceptable blend.

Use the weight painting tools to improve the appearance of

the smooth zone (here, in progress)

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begin with the name of the currently selected body

part, followed by an underscore and a scale zone
name (example: rThigh_ScaleY, or rThigh_smooY)

• If there are existing sphere or capsule zones associated

with the scale zone, collapse them into a weight map
set to Replace. If no zone exists, create a new weight
map set to Replace.

• Go back and forth between the currently selected

body parts and the adjacent body parts when you
smooth out the scale zone weight maps. Take care not
to oversmooth, as it can create a crease at the joint.

Weight Painting Tips

Adjacent body parts may also affect a scale zone. Here, the • There may be times when you need to pull one vertice
scale zone for the hip also affects the right thigh and should be at a time. For this, set the radius of the brush very small.
smoothed.
• There are times that the area between an inclusion
and an exclusion angle is very narrow when a joint is
To summarize:

• Scale zones should be checked for each body part in into that area with the weight painting tool to smooth
it out. The trick is to widen the distance between the
inclusion and exclusion angle so that the body part
• To determine the scale zones that you need to adjust, “plateaus.” Then you can use the Weight Painting tool
click to select a body part, and then look for joints that to shape the body part appropriately.

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• The Frame Selected and Orbit Selected controls will

also be helpful when weight painting. Click to select
the joint you are working on, and then click the Frame
Selected control to frame the camera around the
selected body part. Then turn Orbit Selected so that
the camera will orbit around that part.

Fixing Mismatched Scales

If you are working with a character that makes heavy use
of scaling zones, you may sometimes encounter situations
where there appears to be something wrong with the
scaling in one or more body parts. For example, scaling the
chest and could cause the shoulders to scale so that they
cause a faulty joint between the shoulders and collars.
This can be due to a scaling mismatch, and it can be
Adjust inclusion angles when weight painting a joint in its
corrected with the Fix Mixmatched Scale Zones button at
maximum limits.
the bottom of the Joint Editor.

• Another thing that will help as you use the weight

painting tools is to select your camera, and then go order that you select the body parts and
into the Parameters palette. Set the Hither setting to 0. smoothing zones is important. The following example
This will allow you to zoom in as close as you have to shows how you can correct the scaling zones of the
without making the object “disappear” in the camera right and left shoulders in relation to the chest.
view.

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• The Fix Mismatched Scale Zones button at the bottom

example: of the Joint Editor palette will be enabled if there is a
problem with the scaling zones. Click the button to
• Open the Joint Editor. correct the problem in the selected smoothing zone.

• Click to select the character’s chest.

• From the parameter list at the top left of the Joint

(such as the right collar zone as shown in the following

If enabled, click the Fix Mismatched Scale button.

•
part (the left collar i

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• Go to the menu at the upper left corner of the Joint the character, and use that information to generate similar
Editor again, and select the smoothing zone for the weight maps for the clothing geometry.
Chest.
The steps to do this are fairly simple:
• Click the Fix Mismatched Scale Zones button at the 1. Choose File > Import > Wavefront OBJ. Select the
bottom of the Joint Editor palette to correct the clothing object that you want to rig. This object can be
smoothing zone between the left collar and the chest. pre-grouped in your modeling application, or it can be
ungrouped.

Transferring Zones and Weight 2. The Import Options dialog appears. In most cases,

Maps to Clothing clothing is modeled around a character that is in its

default position, and exported at or converted to the
In earlier versions of Poser, content developers used proper scale for Poser. If this is the case, you should
uncheck all of the import options as shown below.
point for their clothing. If an existing character has only Then press OK to continue.
spherical or falloff zones this method can still be used.
However, when weight maps are used to determine
how a joint bends (either solely, or in addition to falloff
zones), the weight map information is baked into the

and index arrays that usually will not have a geometry

counterpart in the clothing.
The Setup Room allows you to apply the rigging of a
character to a grouped or ungrouped clothing OBJ. In the
process, it will also transfer any spherical or capsule falloff
zones. It will also analyze the vertices and index arrays in

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An imported clothing OBJ.

Uncheck all options in the Import Options dialog if your model
is scaled and positioned properly.
4. With the object selected as the current item, click the
Setup room tab to enter the Setup room.
3.
want to import. After you select the object, click 5. Open the Poser library, and click the Figures category.
Locate the library folder that contains the original

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While examining the groups in the Setup

case of the example shown here, the Figures > Poser Room, you may notice one or more groups
Pro 2014 Content > People > Alyson folder is selected, that have all polygons assigned to them. For
since the suit is made for Alyson. example, when you apply the Alyson skeleton to a
clothing object, two groups (one named Figure,
6. and the other named 1) have all polygons assigned
to them. Select each of these groups in the Group
dialog asks you if you want to automatically group Editor, and then click the Delete Group button to
the setup geometry based on the groups of the new delete them.
skeleton.

Choose No if your clothing geometry has already

been grouped.

Choose Yes if your clothing geometry does not

already have groups, or if you want to regroup
the object. Poser will create the groups for you
automatically.
7. The skeleton is applied to the OBJ in the Setup room.
You can then open the Group Editor to examine the
groups in the OBJ and edit as necessary.

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Review each group that has been created and edit polygons
Delete groups that have all polygons assigned to them.
assigned to them if necessary.

8. After you inspect all of the groups and have edited

them to your satisfaction, you can return to the Pose

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After applying the skeleton and joints to your • Choose Figure > Skinning Method > Poser Traditional if

joints in your clothing to make sure that falloff zones traditional model of breaking the mesh into individual
are adjusted for proper bending of the clothing. If body parts.
you see polygons that do not bend properly, or
• Choose Figure > Skinning Method > Poser Unimesh
is posed, it is likely that you will need to adjust joint if you want your model to be used with subdivision
parameters such as falloff zones or inclusion/ surfaces (see “Working with Subdivision Surfaces”
exclusion angles. The more the shape of the on page 835). Poser Unimeshes can still be posed
clothing deviates from the default body shape (for manually or with preset poses that are saved to the

clothing), the more necessary it will be to adjust still recognized in Poser.

spherical or capsule falloff zones.

9.
before saving the clothing to your library, choose
Figure > Zero Figure to zero all joint rotations. Also use
the Edit > Memorize > Figure command to memorize
the conforming clothing. You may also want to assign
a new name for the object in the Properties palette.

Skinning Methods
The Figure > Skinning Method commands determine how
Poser treats a character mesh in regards to grouping:

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• Choose Figure > Skinning Method > Simple Bones

Single Skin - Interoperable ... if you want to work on

which the Poser grouping is removed. Figure setup is

very simple in this mode. You can specify joint origins
and one vertex weight map. After you convert the
model to Simple Bones Single Skin, test each joint and
use the Simple Bone Weights painting mode to correct
any problem areas.

that is broken into body parts, and has

COLLADA, you should switch to Simple Bones Single

you can touch up the weights at that point.

10. The Poser 2 Male (roughly 2500 polygons) converted to

Poser Unimesh and subdivided to level 2.

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Working with Subdivision Surfaces

a mesh during preview or rendering. It is typically used

to smooth the appearance of a low-resolution mesh to
make it appear as though it has been created with a
higher number of polygons. In this section you’ll learn how
subdivision works, what to consider before you create
or use models that will be subdivided, and how to use
subdivision surfaces in Poser.

How Subdivision Works

Subdivision can be applied to polygons that are made of
3 or more sides. Most content developers keep all or most
of the polygons in their model to four sided polygons for
optimum results in subdivision.

Alyson converted to Simple Bones Single Skin. To explain how subdivision works, let’s start with a picture
of three polygons: one with 3 sides, one with 4 sides, and
one with 5 sides. With no subdivision, you see the polygons
• Choose Figure > Skinning Method > Regenerate Simple exactly how they have been created.
Bone Weights if you want to start over with a new
simple bones single skin mesh.

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3, 4, and 5-sided polygons with no subdivision. 3, 4, and 5-sided polygons with subdivision setting of 1.

When you set the subdivision level to 1, subdivision smooths If you increase the level of subdivision one more time (to
the model and gives the appearance as though it is made a setting of 2), another vertex is placed in the center of
of more polygons. What basically happens is that a vertex each polygon that was created at level 1. Because a level
is placed in the center of each polygon, and then that 1 subdivision created all four-sided polygons, what this will
vertex connects at the center of each of the edges in the result in is that your model will appear to have four times
original polygon: Notice the following in the image that the number of polygons as the preceding level.
appears below:
• Your original 3-sided polygon now looks like it has 12
• The 3-sided polygon now looks like three four-sided polygons.
polygons.
• Your original 4-sided polygon now looks like it has 16
• The 4-sided polygon now looks like four four-sided polygons.
polygons.
• Your original 5-sided polygon now looks like it has 20
• polygons.
polygons.

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You’ll also notice that at a subdivision level of two, the number of polygons. Your 3, 4, and 5-sided polygons now
outer edges of the polygon appear much smoother and look like 48, 60, and 80 polygons (respectively), but the
rounder. This is most noticeable in the four-sided polygon. appearance hasn’t changed much along the outer edge.
Where it originally appeared as a rectangular shape, it is
now more like a circle.

3, 4, and 5-sided polygons with subdivision setting of 3.

3, 4, and 5-sided polygons with subdivision setting of 2. What this means, is at some point it won’t make a lot

the subdivision beyond an optimum point. To do so will

Finding the Optimum Setting only increase the load on your system resources as you
increase the number of subdivision levels beyond what
As you continue to increase the subdivision levels, you will you actually need.
get to the point where you won’t really notice much of a
Now that you’ve seen how subdivision affects a single
change in the appearance of the polygons. Depending
on the edge loops in the model, this most often happens
between a subdivision level of 2 or 3. To illustrate this,
Character > People > Poser Originals > Poser 2
Lo Library category.
You won’t notice a lot of difference in the shape of the
outer edge of the polygon. The only thing that you notice The Poser 2 Male is made of polygons that have 3 or
now is that it appears as though there are four times the more sides: With no subdivision, it appears as shown in the
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don’t appear quite as smooth as you would like. You’ll also

which appears to have some hard edges. notice that the chest muscles retain their shape because

muscular detail. The facial features are less angular, giving

a softer appearance to the eyes, nose, mouth, and ears.
With one level of subdivision, you’ll get the equivalent of a
model that has about 10,000 polygons.

Poser 2 Male with no subdivision.

When you set the subdivision level to 1, you’ll notice that

the hard edges are softened somewhat. The hard edges
at the crown of the head are much improved, but still
Poser 2 Male with subdivision setting of 1.
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Increasing the subdivision level to 2 (about 40,000

polygons) doesn’t seem to change the appearance of
the chest and arms very much; however, you’ll notice
that the crown of the head appears very smooth now.
However, the facial features might be softened a bit too
much at this level. The primary reason for this is because

detail in those areas, because the model wasn’t built with

subdivision in mind.

Poser 2 Male with subdivision setting of 2.

As you can see from the preceding examples, content

creators should pay attention to areas that will require

enough edge loops to make a subdivision setting of 1

render, as long as it’s modeled with subdivision in mind. To

maintain detail, edge loops have to be placed near areas
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where you want creases, sharp transitions, and folds to Adjust the Preview Preview setting
appear, otherwise the subdivision will smooth those details is increased higher than the Render setting, the
away. Render setting will automatically increase to match
the Preview setting.

Subdividing Figures in Poser 5. After you reach the desired Render subdivision level,
you can reduce the Preview setting as needed to
improve performance while composing your scene.
1.

2. Figure If you turn body parts off, subdivision will be

> Skinning Method > Poser Unimesh. This will combine recomputed accordingly.
the model into one mesh.
If you have a body part that is not
3. Select the BODY
subdividing properly, you can set a different
subdivision level for that part. Select the body part
4. Switch to the Properties tab, where you will see two
that you want to change, and set a different
settings in the Subdivision Levels section:
subdivision level in the Properties palette. Note that
Preview: Indicates the subdivision level that will be you may see creases at the seams when your
used in the Preview render (the document window model uses different subdivision levels. Additionally,
or the Raytrace Preview). you will not be able to smooth across body parts
that have different subdivision levels.
Render: Indicates the subdivision level that will be

Increasing the subdivision levels on cloth

When you initially turn subdivision surfaces on, simulated objects can reduce shading
both the Preview and Render values are artifacts.
initially set to zero (no subdivision).

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Modeling Considerations
When using subdivision surfaces, your model must be
clean. There is a lot of content in the Poser world that was
not modeled with subdivision surfaces in mind, and you
won’t always get the results you expect. For example, you
might see polygons that appear to stretch away as shown

subdivision setting of 1. This is often due to vertices that are

at or close to the same position in 3D space.

Poser 1 Male with subdivision setting of 1.

In the case of the Poser 1 male, there isn’t a workaround

for this issue. However, in some cases you can select
the body part that is causing the issue. Then go into the
Properties palette, and check the Subdivide separately
option. Set the subdivision setting to zero for
that body part. Note, however, that the seam will be more

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visible where one body part is subdivided to different level Thus, each edge along the middle of the T shares three
than an adjacent body part. connecting polygons.

this T-shape looks like before subdivision surfaces are

activated.

Body parts can also be subdivided individually.

The following conditions will cause subdivision to work

improperly, and Poser will notify you when it will be unable
to subdivide the model at all.

• Edges that are shared by more than two polygons.

• Vertices that show up twice in one polygon.

• Duplicate polygons that share the same space.

To illustrate what happens when more than two polygons

is made up of three sections of polygons. Sections 1 and

2 appear along the top of the “T” shape, and are welded
along the center length. The third section is perpendicular
to sections 1 and 2, and also joins them at the center.

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to these polygons after subdivision surfaces are applied.

Poser gives a warning when geometry contains
problematic areas. As you can see, the top two sections
remain joined together; but the third section, which was
connected to the top of the T before subdivision, now
appears to be separated from them. You will need to
modify the model in areas where three or more polygons
share a common edge.

Three sections of polygons sharing the same edge.

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Chapter 34: Using your Poser animations. For example, you could have a
scene with two Poser characters sitting on a train with an

Poser with Other imported movie showing the scenery rolling past as if the
train was in motion.

Applications If your imported movie’s size or aspect ratio (width/

height) is different than your current Document window
settings, you will be informed that the background width
Poser allows you to import and export various types of and height are different, and will be asked if you want to
content such as background images, movies, and 3D change the window to match the background.
objects. This allows you to use third-party applications to
create textures, background scenes, and clothing that you Selecting Yes resizes your Document
can use to enhance your scenes. imported movie. It is recommended that you only use this
option while the Document window is docked.

Importing Files • Selecting No “stretches” the Document window to

accommodate the movie. You may see areas of
Selecting File > Import allows you to bring both Poser and the Document window not covered by the imported
movie.

• Changing the aspect ratio of imported movies can

as described in “Chapter 32: The Setup Room” on page
introduce unwanted artifacts and distortions into your
765.
scene when rendered. Smith Micro Software therefore
recommend resizing your Document window or
Importing Movies importing correctly sized animations.

To import movies, select File > Import > AVI Footage

(Windows) or File > Import > QuickTime (Macintosh). You
can use imported movies to add background action to

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them together. Please see “Chapter 12: Lighting” on page

276 for information about lights in Poser.

Importing Background Pictures

You can also import static images as backgrounds. For
example, if you are creating a scene with Poser characters
in a room with a window, you could use a background
image to simulate the view from the window. Selecting
File > Import > Background Picture opens a standard Open
dialog, allowing you to select your image’s format and
location. As with movie imports, you are asked if you wish
to resize your Document window to match the imported
image, and the results are the same as described
above. Changing the aspect ratio of imported images
Aspect ratio of imported movies can be retained or adjusted can introduce unwanted artifacts into your scene when
rendered and can result in blank areas on the sides of the
Document window (see above). We therefore recommend
resizing your Document window or importing correctly sized
images. Poser supports importing background images in
animation. If your animation is longer than the movie, the
a wide variety of formats. The following is only a partial list
movie will remain in the background paused at its last
of those formats supported: SGI, BMP, DDS, EXR, GIF, HDR,
frame. If your animation is shorter than the movie, you
JPG, PCD, PNG, PSD, TGA, TIFF and WBMP.
will see Frames 1-X of the imported movie, where x is the
number of frames in your Poser animation. When importing images, we recommend that you import
them while the document window is in its docked state.
When importing movies, you should try to light your scene
You should try to light your scene in a manner consistent
in a manner consistent with the background so as to blend
with the background so as to blend them together. Please
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see “Chapter 12: Lighting” on page 276 for information Importing 3D Objects
about lights in Poser.
Poser allows you to import geometries in the following
formats:
Importing Poser Documents or Props
• 3D Studio Max (File > Import > 3D Studio)
Selecting File > Import > Poser Document/Prop loads either
an entire Poser scene or a Poser prop into your scene. • DXF (File > Import > DXF)
This can be useful for inserting props that are not part of
your Library palette’s Props category. Imported scenes/ • Wavefront OBJ (File > Import > Wavefront OBJ)
props become part of your current scene complete
with animations, morphs, poses, etc. This option opens a • (File > Import > LightWave...)
standard dialog box allowing you to browse for the desired
• COLLADA
Files of type pull-down menu to select one of
Most 3D modeling applications support exporting to at
least one of the above formats. Some formats, such as
• : This option Wavefront OBJ, allow you to save geometries as either
imports Poser 3.0 and later scenes, both uncompressed polygons or NURBS surfaces. Poser will only accept
and compressed. geometries saved as polygons.

• : This option imports Poser will import smoothing groups in Wavefront OBJ

See “Miscellaneous Preferences” on page imported.) Please refer to “Smoothing Geometry” on

43 for more information about compressed page 448 for more information about smoothing groups.
Note that while Poser does not support the 3ds Max style of

the vertex normals when determining creases. As a result,

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expected, despite the fact that the 3ds Max smoothing

groups are not read.

Tips & Tricks

When using your favorite 3D modeling application for

props, it is a good idea to follow these guidelines in order

better end result:

• Make sure that you do not have duplicate or

overlapping polygons. Duplicate polygons occur
when you have two identical parts of the geometry
occupying the same location, for example if you
accidentally paste an item twice. The following
Two spheres that overlap each other.
graphic depicts an instance of duplicated polygons
within a 3D modeling application.
• Eliminate overlapping polygons, which can occur if
pieces of the geometry are embedded within each
other. The following graphic shows an example of
overlapping polygons on the left (the smaller pipe
embedded within the larger one), and the correct
way to create the geometry on the right (without
overlapping polygons).

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parts.
Use the following procedure to import geometries into
Poser:
1. Begin the process by creating a polygonal mesh
object in your favorite 3D modeling application. Once

File > Import > format, where format is the format you
wish to import (such as OBJ). A Standard Open dialog

and path.

2. Once you have selected the desired geometry, the

Prop Import Options dialog appears. It contains the
following options:
Remove overlapping polygons.
Centered: Checking the Centered checkbox
positions the imported geometry in the center of
• the Poser workspace.

: When enabled, the Place on Floor

option places the bottom of the prop at “ground
since Poser includes powerful grouping tools and since
some geometry formats (such as Wavefront OBJ) allow : The Percent of
you to assign polygons to more than one group at a option scales the geometry
time. Importing geometries with polygons assigned to
more than one group will cause Poser to duplicate For example, setting the scale to 50% imports

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the geometry at 50% of the height of a standard Flip V Texture Coordinates: The Flip V Texture
Coordinates option reverses the geometry’s V
maintain the correct proportions relative to the texture coordinates.
selected height. When importing DXF geometries,
Poser considers one DXF unit as being equal to the
options, click the OK button.
3.
Offset: Entering numeric values in one or more
of the Offset
selected position within the Poser workspace.
or groups, speed of your computer, etc. A progress
Weld identical vertices: When enabled, the Weld indicator tracks the import process. When the process
identical vertices option unites identical vertices is complete, the imported geometry appears in your
within the geometry. Poser Document window.
Make polygon normals consistent: If the geometry
Make
polygon normals consistent checkbox makes
the polygon normals consistent with the vertex
normals.

Flip normals: The Flip Normals option reverses all

of the geometry’s normals.

Flip U Texture Coordinates: The Flip U Texture

Coordinates option reverses the geometry’s U
texture coordinates.

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Exporting Files
In addition to supporting a wide range of import formats,
Poser supports many formats for export, allowing you
to use your Poser output with your favorite 2D and 3D
applications.

Exporting Images
To export an image, select File > Export > Image. A
standard Save As dialog appears, allowing you to specify

(such as quality for JPG exports).

An object after it is imported into your scene. If you want Poser to write an alpha channel
to preserve transparency in your exported
image, you should export to either the PNG, TIFF, or
Imported geometries are treated as static props. You
PSD formats. An alpha channel causes the
can add props to the Library palette as described in
foreground to be transparent wherever it is empty,
“Maintaining Your Library Palette” on page 171 and/
in order to allow the background to show through.
This feature is essential for compositing in image
either the graphical Setup room (see “Chapter 27: The
editing applications.
Cloth Room” on page 603 for instructions on using the
Setup room) or the legacy text-based method (refer to
“Appendix D: Creating and Converting Hierarchy Files” Exporting an image saves a snapshot of your current
on page 942). scene as seen in the active tab of your Document window.
Therefore, if you are in the Preview tab of the Document
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window, your exported image will be a snapshot of the Exporting 3D Objects

scene exactly as it appears in the Preview tab. If you are in
the Render tab, your exported image will be the rendered Poser allows you to export 3D objects in RIB, 3DS, DXF, OBJ,
image that is currently selected in the Main Render menu VRML, LWO, OBJ, and COLLADA formats by selecting File
at the bottom left of the Document window. > Export > format, where format is one of the supported
export formats. To export to a 3D format:

Exporting BVH Motion Files 1. Select File > Export > format.

2. In the dialog that appears, check the appropriate

radio button to export either a still (at the current
1.
frame of your animation) or an animation. If you select
2. Select File > Export > BVH Motion. to export an animation, enter the frame starting and
ending numbers in the appropriate text boxes and
3. Select Scale Automatically click OK.
incorrect, re-export it and disable automatic scaling.
3. Select the actor(s) you want to export in the following
4. A standard Save dialog appears, allowing you to dialog and click OK.

4. A standard Save As dialog appears, allowing you to

Exporting Painter Scripts

If you are trying to create a full-body morph
Clicking the Export Painter Script button in the Sketch target, do not select File > Export >
Designer exports the current Sketch Designer settings to Wavefront OBJ. Instead, select Figure > Create Full
Corel Painter (see “Chapter 20: The Sketch Designer” Body Morph.
on page 486). This has been tested to work with Painter
6 and previous versions, and is not supported for later
versions though it may work with them.
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Exporting Flash (SWF) Files optimized for HDRI output, from the Main Menu, select
Render > Render Settings > Movie Settings, select Image
Flash is a popular 2D format most commonly used for Files from the Format pull-down menu.

Make Movie dialog,

save as Radiance (.HDR) or OpenEXR (.EXR).

presentations are normally viewed directly within Web

browsers using the Adobe Flash plug-in. lead to perceived loss of anti-aliasing and banding in very
subtle gradients. Optimizing for HDRI output omits dithering
Please refer to “Chapter 24: Rendering Animations” on
that would otherwise be applied to eliminate banding.
page 559 for more information about the Make Movie
dialog, and to for information about setting Flash export Optimizing images for HDRI output provides maximum
options.
adjusting exposure without having to re-render the image.

High Dynamic Range Image (HDRI)

Export

are optimized for HDRI output. Files can be exported

accurately represent the wide range of exposure found

in real scenes, including the details, shadows, and high-
contrast lighting. Same HDR image at varying exposures in Adobe Photoshop
To optimize images for HDRI export, from the Main Menu CS.
select Render > Render Settings and enable the HDRI
Optimized Output
the Main Menu select File > Export. To make a movie
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COLLADA Import/Export • Import Lights: With this option enabled, Poser Pro will

Poser Pro offers data exchange with the industry-standard scene. For more information about lights, see “Chapter
12: Lighting” on page 276.
Poser content to applications such as Softimage XSI or
NVIDIA FX Composer without having to rely on hosting • Import Cameras: With this option enabled, Poser Pro will
plug-ins.
scene. For more information about cameras, see
Importing COLLADA Files “Chapter 11: Cameras” on page 256.

Exporting COLLADA Files

with standard surface materials, cameras and lights.
COLLADA import in Poser Pro does not currently support
Cg shaders, morph targets, bones or animation. more comprehensive representation of your Poser scene.
For example, as a game designer, you might want to
Main Menu select File import your scene exported from Poser Pro as COLLADA
> Import > COLLADA\RWY. Enable the appropriate import
options and click OK.

COLLADA Import Options dialog.

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1. From the Main Menu select File > Export >

COLLADA|RWY (.DAE). The Export Range dialog
appears.

2. If you want to export only the current frame, choose

Single Frame. To export multiple frames in an
animation, choose Multi frame export, and then enter
the range of frames to be exported.

Export Range dialog.

3. Click OK to continue. The Select Objects dialog

appears, with the items in your scene selected for you. Choose the objects to export from your scene.
Check or uncheck items as desired to export.
4. Click OK to continue. The Export Options dialog
appears. Enable the appropriate Export Options and
click OK. These options include:

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Export Standard Units vs. Custom Units: Select Bake all Morphs:
one of the standard Poser units. If none of the morphs can be large and resource consuming.
standard units meet your needs, then you can Bake Morphs allows the export of morph targets
so you get the essence of the morphs without the

Scale: This allows the adjustment of the scale of a

to animate those morph targets any more, which
scene upon export. Adjust the scale if you want to
adjust the size of the scene.
the same end result if you are only interested in the
Triangles only: particular shape variation that was present in your
scene upon export.
Include normals: Allows you to specify whether
Bake Diffuse Map: Blend diffuse texture with diffuse
polygon normals are exported explicitly.
color. If you enable this option Poser Pro will write
Discarding the normals will require the target
a new texture map that is shader baked into a
application to recompute them. Toggling this
texture map.
option may help resolve shading issues.
Bake Transparency Map: Enable this option when
Include rigging (preserves posability and
your target application expects transparency
animation): Figures are exported as poseable and
information in the alpha channel of the diffuse
animatable objects.
texture rather than as a separate transparency
Export every frame as keyframe: When checked, map. You will be allowed to designate a channel
will export an animation keyframe for every name, and choose whether or not you want to
frame in the selected range. When unchecked, invert the transparency map (turn black to white
exports already existing keyframes only. This can and vice versa).
help increase accuracy in a complex setup
Bake Transparency to Channel: Choose this option
(e.g. conforming clothing) or if the importing
if you want Poser Pro to create a texture map that
has transparency information baked into it.
keyframes.

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Invert Transparency Map: Choose this option Sparse Array KHR Extension: Check this option
to output a “negative” transparency map. For to enable the writing of morph targets in a more
example, in Poser black areas indicate transparent compact representation. This results in smaller
areas and white areas indicate opaque areas in
the transparency map. An inverted transparency software that supports this extension.
map would be the opposite (black is opaque and
Load Preset: Click the Load Preset button to
white is transparent).

Maximum Texture Size: Textures in Poser content

are often very large. Some applications

allows you to automatically reduce texture size

upon export, thereby maximizing compatibility.
Your original textures remain untouched.

Power of 2: You can increase compatibility further

by enabling the Power of 2 option. This option will
automatically resize your textures to the nearest
width and height that is a power of two. For
example, a texture that is 1100x600 pixels large
would be exported at a size of 1024x512. Once
again the original texture remains unaffected.

When exporting to 3d software that supports

COLLADA, you can export using Poser’s default
skinning method, or a single mesh with weight maps.
For more information on these options, see “Skinning
Methods” on page 833.

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Using Poser with ZBrush and GoZ

Poser Pro 2012 SR3 or later and an updated
ZBrush 4 or later are required for GoZ
compatibility.

Users of ZBrush 4 can use GoZ to export a complete

GoZ. Then use ZBrush’s powerful tools to create your

morphs and reimport them back into Poser. The GoZ
plugin makes morph creation - including reverse
deformation joint controlled morphs -- easy, and
painless.

Setting Your Poser Path in ZBrush

Export Options dialog.

•
Users\Public\Pixologic\GoZApps\Poser.

•
ers:Shared:Pixologic:GoZApps:Poser

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If one or more paths to Poser are reported in the dialog,

make sure that you have the path set to Poser. To do this, click to select the path that you want to use as the default.
choose the Preferences > GoZ command, and hover over This will set the preference.
the Path to Poser button. If your path is set, it will appear on
the screen as shown below.

After searching for your path, it will appear in a dialog if one or

more versions of Poser are found on your system.

Make sure that your path to Poser is set in ZBrush GoZ

• If you instead get a message that states that no
Preferences.
version of Poser was found (which may be possible
if you installed Poser to a non-standard path), then
If you hover over the Path to Poser button in ZBrush and
you will have to locate it manually. Click the Browse
get a message that reads Poser application was not found,
button to navigate to the folder that contains the
then you will need to set it up manually. To do this, click on
the Path to Poser button. This will initiate a search for your
Poser application. • Clicking the Not Installed button will remove the
If Poser is installed to the default installation path, ZBrush preference that was previously set, and cause the GoZ
link to Poser to not work properly. If ZBrush does report
display the path (or paths, if you have multiple versions of your path to Poser properly, make sure that you click
Poser installed). the line that displays the correct path to exit the dialog
properly.
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Using GoZ to Create Morphs and CTRL+SHIFT+Click (Windows) or COMMAND+SHIFT+Click

(Mac). When you click on an area of the mesh in ZBrush,
Texture Maps this key sequence will cycle between “Select only this
The GoZ plugin for Poser allows you to create full body polygon group”, “Select everything but this polygon
morphs, partial body morphs, and joint-controlled morphs group” and “Show all polygon groups.”
with ease. In addition, you can also add additional detail When you choose to export a character or actor to ZBrush,
to a model with normal or displacement maps. The you are presented with the following options:
following sections describe how to initiate the steps to send
your models to and from ZBrush with the GoZ plugin. • Export Posed: This option is not checked by default.

When using the Figure > Export Figure to GoZ

or Object > Export Object to GoZ commands, will be export to ZBrush in its posed position, which
it is important to remember that they apply to a is desirable for creating joint-controlled morphs. For
single round-trip session between the scene you additional information, see “Creating Joint-Controlled
exported the object from, and the ZBrush document Morphs with GoZ” on page 865.

object to ZBrush from one Poser project, and then • Material: When you choose this option, the polygon
send it back to another Poser project. order of the object that is exported to ZBrush will
be grouped by Material. This will allow you to show
or hide polygons in ZBrush based on their material
Exporting Objects to ZBrush assignments. For example, if you export a head, you
will be able to hide the face texture while you work on
When you use the GoZ plugin as a bridge between Poser
morphs or textures for the parts inside the head (teeth,
and ZBrush, you are presented with a couple of choices
tongue, etc).
in how you want the polygon grouping to work. These
options are to assist in making it easier to show and hide
• Body Part: When you choose this option, the polygon
polygons in ZBrush while you are editing your object. ZBrush
order of the object that is exported to ZBrush will be
allows you to show or hide polygon groups by pressing
grouped by body part. This will allow you to show
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or hide polygons in ZBrush based on body part. For

example, you can hide all parts except the head
if you are working on face morphs, allowing you to
frame only the head in the ZBrush window.

Creating Full Body Morphs with GoZ

The Figure > Export Figure Mesh to GoZ command allows

then return it back to Poser using the GoZ plugin for ZBrush, GoZ options dialog.
a full body morph dial will automatically be created for
you when the morph is sent back to Poser. In addition, 3. In the Polygon Grouping section, you have two
corresponding dials will only appear on the body parts choices for how you can group polygons when you
that were directly affected by the morph (in other words, export them to ZBrush. The method that you choose
there will be no need to delete redundant morph dials determines how you will be able to show and hide
from unaffected body parts). parts within ZBrush (either by material, or by body
part) and are primarily for ease of editing in that
To create a full body morph using GoZ:
application. For more information, see “Exporting
1. Objects to ZBrush” on page 859.

4. Click Yes to continue. Your model will open in ZBrush

2. Choose Figure > Export Figure Mesh to GoZ. A dialog as a subtool. Drag the tool onto the scene and create
displays some options for the export. your morph as you normally do.

5. After your morph is complete, click the GoZ button

in the Tool palette (in the upper right section of your

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7. Initially, the dial will be set to zero. To test the morph,

choose the BODY actor, and dial your morph to test
it. You’ll also notice that a corresponding dial will
only appear in the individual body actors that were
affected by the morph.

Press the GoZ button to send the morphed mesh back to

Poser.

6. When you return to Poser, a dialog asks if you want to

Test the dial in the BODY actor to make sure it works.
Enter a name for the new morph and press OK to
continue.
Creating Normal and Displacement Maps with
GoZ

If you want to use ZBrush to create Normal or

Displacement maps, the process is similar to that discussed
in the previous sections. Normal and displacement map
creation involves subdividing the mesh in ZBrush before
painting, and then comparing that higher resolution mesh
to the original resolution when your maps are generated.
Please reference your ZBrush documentation for more
Enter a name for the new full body morph in Poser. detail in how to create normal and displacement maps.
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As long as you are working on a content item that has

everything on a single texture, the import and export export it into GoZ using the Figure > Export Figure Mesh to
between Poser and GoZ should work the same as GoZ command, and Body Part polygon grouping. Drag
discussed under the morph creation sections. You select
the item you want to export, use GoZ to transfer the OBJ
Then go back to Poser and export a clothing item (like
to ZBrush, make your changes in ZBrush, and then click the
pants), using the same steps (Export Figure Mesh to GoZ,
GoZ button to bring it back into Poser.
with Body Part polygon grouping.) Initially it will appear in
However, it is important to note that most Poser characters the document window by itself.
use multiple texture maps with overlapping UV sets. A
Go back to Poser and use the Figure > Export Figure Mesh
workaround for multi-map characters is to choose Material
to GoZ to export a third item if desired, using the same
polygon grouping when you export from Poser.
steps as you did with the previous clothing item.
Once in ZBrush, you can hide the groups that do not
belong to a particular UV set. Hold down the CTRL and
character, and two pieces of clothing. Each appears as
SHIFT key while you left-click a material group. Then you
a separate tool. The last item that you loaded appears in
can generate a map from the remaining groups. ZBrush
the scene.
will pretend that the hidden groups don’t even exist when
it creates your map. Expand the Subtool palette in ZBrush, and press the
Append
After you have the desired material groups displayed, you
selection area. It will load into the same document as a
will need to export the maps from within ZBrush, rather than
subtool. Repeat this process for the second (or additional)
exporting them back into Poser with the GoZ command.
clothing items.
Morphing Multiple Items

There are times when you need to have a piece of

clothing over a character to make sure that the morphs

GoZ plugin to export one item at a time.

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Click the Append button in the Subtool palette to append an

object into your current window.

When you need to morph the clothing item, select the

piece of clothing from the Subtool palette.

Select the clothing item that you want to morph from the
Subtool palette.

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To return the morphed items back to Poser, select the item 3. Choose Object > Export Object to GoZ. A dialog
you want to return from the Subtool palette, and press the displays some options for the export.
GoZ button. The item will update in Poser and you will be
prompted to enter a name for the new morph.
Return back to ZBrush and select the next item from the
Subtool palette. Again, press the GoZ button to import that
item back into Poser and assign the morph name.

Creating Individual Actor Morphs with GoZ

Sometimes you only need to morph an individual body

part. For example, if you want to create a morph that
GoZ options dialog.
changes the shape of a character’s nose, you only need
to export the head. The steps to do this are similar to those
4. In the Polygon Grouping section, you have two
discussed previously in “Creating Full Body Morphs with
choices for how you can group polygons when you
GoZ” on page 860, except that you initiate the GoZ
export them to ZBrush. The method that you choose
command from the Object menu instead of the Figure
determines how you will be able to show and hide
menu.
parts within ZBrush (either by material, or by body
To create a morph for a single body part, follow these part) and are primarily for ease of editing in that
steps: application. For more information, see “Exporting
1. Objects to ZBrush” on page 859.

5. Click Yes to continue. Your body part will open in

2. Click to select the body part that you want to export ZBrush as a tool. Drag the tool onto the scene and
(for example, the Head). create your morph as you normally do.

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6. After your morph is complete, click the GoZ button Creating Joint-Controlled Morphs with GoZ
in the Tool palette (in the upper right section of your

create for Poser, because all morphs had to be loaded

7. When you return to Poser, a dialog asks if you want to
party Python scripts allowed you to load a “reverse
new morph and press OK to continue. deformation” morph that would track the difference
between a posed object, and a “corrected” version of
that posed object.
Basically, “reverse deformation” allows you to export a

distortion in the body or piece of clothing, and when you

reload that morph back into Poser it only keeps track
of the differences between the posed version and the
corrected version. This allows you to create morphs that
improve the appearance of a joint when it is rotated, and
Enter a name for the new body part morph in Poser.
mapping for improved joint bending.
8. Initially, the dial will be set to zero. To test the morph, To create a Joint Controlled Morph (JCM) use the
choose the actor that you morphed, and dial the following steps:
morph to test it.
1.

When you use the Object > Export Object

Mesh to GoZ command to create morphs, a 2.
corresponding Full Body Morph dial will not be
created in the BODY actor.

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appears when an arm is raised, then pose the arm in 5. In the Polygon Grouping section, you have two
the raised position. choices for how you can group polygons when you
export them to ZBrush. The method that you choose
3. Do one of the following: determines how you will be able to show and hide
parts within ZBrush (either by material, or by body
If your joint controlled morph will span more than
part) and are primarily for ease of editing in that
one body part, choose Figure > Export Figure
application. For more information, see “Exporting
Mesh to GoZ
Objects to ZBrush” on page 859.
If your joint controlled morph will affect only one
body part, choose Object > Export Object Mesh to 6. Click Yes to continue. Your body part will open in
GoZ. ZBrush as a subtool. Drag the tool onto the scene and
create your morph as you normally do.
A dialog displays some options for the export.
7. Use the tools in ZBrush to create a morph that improves
the appearance of the rotation; or, to add muscle

After your morph is complete, click the GoZ button

in the Tool palette (in the upper right section of your

8. When you return to Poser, a dialog asks if you want to

Figure
> Export Figure Mesh to GoZ it will ask if you want to
GoZ options dialog.
create a full body morph. If you used the Object >
Export Object Mesh to GoZ it will ask if you want to
4. Check the Export Posed option, so that Poser exports create a morph for the body part you exported. Enter
your object in its posed state. a name for the new morph and press OK to continue.

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make sure you dial your morph in the BODY actor, and
not in each individual body part.

Importing Hair from GoZ

1. Load a character into your Poser scene, and select

1. Choose Figure > Export Figure Mesh to GoZ as

Enter a name for the new joint controlled morph in Poser. discussed in “Exporting Objects to ZBrush” on page
859.
9. Initially, the dial will be set to zero. To test the morph,
choose the BODY actor, and dial your morph to test 2.
it. You’ll also notice that a corresponding dial will to Edit mode. Use the Move, Scale, and Rotate tools
only appear in the individual body actors that were to zoom in to the head. Optionally, select a white
affected by the morph. material for the head.

10. Use the Dependent Parameters editor to link the 3. The Standard brush will be selected by default. Press
rotation of the arm to the dial setting on the morph. the CTRL/CMD key while you paint a mask on the
For example, if you created a morph that creates a head to specify where the hair will be grown.
bulge in the shoulder when the forearm is bent, use
the Dependent Parameters Editor to activate the
morph when the forearm is bent to the angle that you
created the morph at, and when the forearm is in its
default position (bent to zero degrees), set your new
morph to zero. When you create your dependencies,

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In ZBrush, mask the polygons where you want the hair to grow.

Turn on Fibermesh preview.

4. Select the Fibermesh panel from the right side of the
interface, and turn Preview on.
5.
instructed in your ZBrush user manual. After the settings
are to your liking, click Preview again as necessary,
and then click Accept to create a new subtool from

You may be asked if you want to use Fast

Preview mode for faster interaction.

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Select the Fibermesh subtool to style the hair.

7. After the hair is styled to your liking, make sure that you
have the Fibermesh subtool selected, as shown in the

Fibermesh hair back into Poser.

6. Switch to the Subtools palette, and select the
Fibermesh as the current subtool. Use the ZBrush styling
tools to style the hair as instructed in your ZBrush user
manual.

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8. Poser will ask if you want to import the Fiber geometry

as a hair prop. Choose OK to continue.

9. The Select Objects dialog appears, so that you can

select the actor to attach the hair to. Choose the

hair appears in your scene.

Styled hair as shown in ZBrush.

hair.

After the hair appears in your scene, you can select the
hair and open the Material Room to change the hair
colors. Note that you will not be able to restyle the hair in
the Hair Room.

Click the GoZ button to send the hair back to Poser.

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Importing/Exporting a GoZ File

If ZBrush is not available on your current machine, you can
use the File > Import > ZBrush and File > Export > ZBrush

machine that does have it available. This command will

you use this command to export a ZBrush binary object,

name to the object you save. The object will be saved

with a .GoZ extension.

PoserFusion Hosting Plug-ins

Poser Pro includes 3ds Max, CINEMA 4D and Maya plug-

from a wide variety of clothing and preset poses, allowing

you to get high-quality results in a short amount of time.
Fibermesh hair rendered in Poser.

Hosting vs. Importing

within 3ds Max, CINEMA 4D, LightWave 3D and Maya.

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Importing or exporting translates data from one format to Installing PoserFusion for 3ds Max
another. PoserFusion plug-ins serve as a liaison between
The installer automatically installs the 3ds Max plug-in,
which will be available to you as soon as you launch 3ds
application. This allows you to take advantage of Poser Max.

with the host applications’ powerful modeling, rendering, Loading A Poser File

applications retain all of their data including materials,

articulation, textures, walks, etc. Figures and props are 1. Select the Create panel.
treated as primitives and are manipulated within the host
2. Click the Geometries button.
application as you would any other object. You may,
3. Select Poser Objects in the pull-down menu.
depending on the edits you wish to perform.
4. Click the button in the Object Type rollout.
PoserFusion for 3ds Max 5. The Scene Creation rollout will automatically be
open at this point. Click the Load File (…) button to
open a dialog allowing you to navigate to the folder

appear to the left of the Load File button if you have

materials, and keyframe data. 3ds Max treats hosted Poser
Load File (…)
button to open a dialog allowing you to navigate to
that you can perform on any other geometry primitive
The name of the object instance appears in the Name
and Color rollout after you have created the objects
In addition, the Create and Modify panels allow you

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in the scene via clicking and dragging or keyboard

entry.

Keyboard Entry, Scene

Options, and Info rollouts will appear.

Creating Instances

and/or prop(s) within your 3ds Max scene. An easy way

are two ways to do this: A Poser scene imported into 3ds Max.
1. Click, drag, then release the left mouse button. Large
Working with Poser Files in 3ds Max
before releasing the mouse button.
within 3ds Max:
2. Use the Keyboard Entry rollout to specify a position and
scale, and then click the Create button. •

primitives appear in the 3ds Max view panes.

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• Name + Color: Standard 3ds Max rollout

Max will create a Poser Scene object, which is the
• Scene Creation: Please refer to “Loading A Poser File”
on page 872.

3ds Max creates a Poser Universe dummy object • Keyboard Entry: Please refer to “Creating Instances”
on page 873.
parent object for all Poser Scene objects.
The Create panel also contains the following additional
The Create and Modify panels will display different rollouts:
rollouts depending on the type of Poser object
selected: The Scene Options Rollout

: Scene File, Scene Options, Info Scene Options gives you the following options:

Poser Scene: Scene File, Scene Options, Info

Poser Universe: Info

• You can modify any type of Poser object as if it were

be edited just like any other type of 3ds Max geometry

primitive.

The Create Panel

The Create panel contains the following rollouts:

• Object Type: Standard 3ds Max rollout

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Scale. When clicking and dragging to create a Poser

of the scene that you are creating as you drag.

• Display Tracking: Check the desired radio button to

specify Box Tracking (all objects in the current Poser

all times), Fast Tracking (all objects in the current Poser

Full Tracking (all

all times).

• Frame Offset/Frame Remapping: Please refer to the

section, Animating Poser Objects in for information on
controlling Poser animations within 3ds Max.

The Info Rollout

The Info rollout appears as follows:

3ds Max Scene Options.

• Scene Scaling: Enter a value in the Scale

the up and down arrows to specify the desired scale
for all of the objects in the current scene. The scale
value is expressed as the percentage of the original

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The Modify Panel

The Modify Panel contains the following rollouts:

• standard 3ds Max rollout

• standard 3ds Max rollout

• Scene File: Please refer to “The Scene File Rollout” on

page 876.

• Scene Options: Please refer to “The Scene Options

Rollout” on page 874.

• Info: Please refer to “The Info Rollout” on page 875.

The Scene File Rollout

PoserFusion for 3ds Max screen.
The Scene File rollout appears in the Modify panel in
addition to the Scene Options and Info rollouts:
In addition to displaying the PoserFusion plug-in version
number, the Info rollout contains three buttons. Clicking
the Smith Micro Graphics button opens your Web browser
and takes you to the Smith Micro Graphics Web page.
Clicking the User Guide… button opens the electronic
(PDF) version of this document. Clicking the About…
button opens a window displaying more information about
Smith Micro Graphics and the PoserFusion plug-in.

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• File Information: Clicking the File Info… button displays

path, Poser Pro application path, and other useful

information.

Animating Poser Objects in 3ds Max

You can control how any animation of your Poser objects

relates to your current 3ds Max animation by using the
Scene Options rollout in either the Create or Modify panel.

Frame Ranges
The Scene File rollout.
An out of range condition exists when the 3ds Max
animation has frames occurring before the Poser
The Scene File animation’s start frame and/or ends after the Poser

associated with:
End Frame=Start Frame+(Num Frames – 1)
• Reload File: Clicking the Reload File… button refreshes For example, if Start Frame=10 and Num Frames=15, then
End Frame=24.
the Poser Scene instance. This function reloads the
If frame out of range radio buttons allow you to specify
how to handle out-of-range situations.

may have made on top of your objects in 3ds Max. If

removed, you will need to recreate the scene via the

Scene Creation rollout on the Create Panel.
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Offsetting Frames

You can insert your Poser animation at any desired point in

the 3ds Max animation using the Frame Offset controls in
the Scene Options rollout.

Animating Poser objects in 3ds Max.

Enable the appropriate radio button to make your

selection:

• Loop: Checking the Loop radio button causes the

Poser animation to repeat as many times as necessary

include a partial animation cycle. For example, if the

Poser animation is 30 frames long and the 3ds Max
Offset options in 3ds Max.
animation is 45, the Poser animation will loop 1.5 times
to take up all 45 frames.
You have three offset options:
• Freeze: Enabling the Freeze radio button causes the
• Start on Frame: Enter the 3ds Max animation frame
Poser animation to not play before its starting frame
where you wish your Poser animation to begin by
and/or after its ending frame.
either entering a valid frame number in the Start on
• Hide: Enabling the Hide radio button causes the Poser Frame
animation to be invisible before its starting frame and/
• Poser Source Frames: You are not limited to simply
or after its ending frame.
running your entire Poser animation within 3ds Max.

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• Start Frame: Enter the number of the frame in the Poser Remapping Frames

Start Frame You are not limited to simply specifying frame offsets. By
enabling Frame Remapping, you have full control over
• Number of Frames: Enter the number of frames in the the sense of time that the Poser scene experiences for
shortening, extending, accelerating and decelerating the
the Number of Frames Poser animation. This provides extended control over an
arrows. existing keyframed animation in Poser Pro, without having
For example, you have a 100-frame 3ds Max animation to go back and adjust it in Poser Pro.
and wish to open a 30-frame Poser animation. You could
specify the Poser animation will begin at frame 45 of the
3ds Max frame. You could also specify that you wish to
start the Poser animation from the 10th frame of the Poser

scenario would cause the following to occur:

3ds Max animation Poser animation

Frames 0-44 Frame remapping in 3ds Max.

Range options.

Frame 45 Frame 10 Check the Enable box to enable Frame Remapping.

Frame 46 Frame 11 Enabling this option disables the Frame Offset and If
frame out-of-range options. Once remapping is enabled,
Frame 59 Frame 24
you can select any frame of the 3ds Max animation and
Frames 61-100 map any frame of the Poser animation to that frame. This
Range options.
feature is extremely powerful since it allows you to literally
reshape your Poser animation. You can speed it up or slow

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it down, run it backward, or even skip randomly through 1. Go to the Plug-ins pull-down menu and select Poser
the animation. Object.
To remap frames, move to the desired 3ds Max frame
using the time slider or other 3ds Max tool, turn on the
Animate function, and enter a valid Poser animation frame
number in the Remap to Frame
down arrows.
Once you have remapped frames, you can use 3ds Max’s
Track View window to obtain full control over how the map
will behave. Click the Open Track View icon to open the
Track View window. Then expand the Object node under
the Poser Scene object. Select Remap to Frame and use
the standard 3ds Max keyframing techniques to remap the
Poser scene’s sense of time.

Poser Materials in 3ds Max

You can control your Poser objects’ materials as you

PoserFusion for Cinema 4D.
would any other material in 3ds Max by clicking the Open
Materials Editor icon ( ) to open the Materials Editor.
2. Scene Creation: After creating a Poser object, the
Next, select the Pick Material from Object tool and click
properties of the object will show up in the Attribute
Manager. Click the […] button located under the
into the 3ds Max Materials Editor.
Object properties to load the Poser scene.

PoserFusion for Cinema 4D 3. Material Creation:

Create materials button to create materials which
approximate the materials from Poser.
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4.

5. In addition, you can re-load different versions of the

and poses.

Poser Object Properties

PoserFusion includes a number of options that affect the

creation of textures and lights. Below is a detailed listing of
the options and their uses.

Poser Object Properties.

Poser File Attributes

Poser Objects
options.
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• File Browse: of the movement within your scene without the

import using the Browse […] button. Click the Browse overhead of a complete geometry calculation.

dialog and click Open. • Full: An object that is set to Full Tracking displays its
full geometry and materials even during playback
• Reload File: Clicking the Reload File button reloads the or frame scrubbing. This mode provides the most
accurate display, but can also be slower.

work in CINEMA 4D and Poser Pro simultaneously. You Disable Animation

can quickly and easily import any changes you make
When Disable Anim

previous version, and click the Reload File button. You

ignored and will not play back. During a render, the Poser
do not have to quit Poser Pro or CINEMA 4D.

Display Tracking

Each Poser object may be set to a display tracking mode.

These modes control how the geometry is displayed during
playback of animation, and scrubbing in the frame bar. Disabling Animation.

If Frame out of Range

Display Tracking options.

Your animation inside CINEMA 4D may be longer than the
• Box: An object that is set to Box Tracking always animation from Poser Pro. The Frame Out of Range options
appears as one or more boxes in CINEMA 4D’s view
pane. This is a very quick way to get a general idea
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when the frame in CINEMA 4D is outside of the animation

Poser items will become invisible.

Frame Offset Attributes

Using these options, you can insert your Poser animation

at any desired point in the CINEMA 4D animation. For
Options if a frame is out of range.
example, if you have a walk cycle that starts at frame 1 in
Poser, you can use these options to make the character
• Loop: The Poser animation will loop as many times start walking at frame 100 inside CINEMA 4D.

frames. This can include a partial loop. For example,

if the Poser Pro animation is 30 frames long and the
CINEMA 4D animation is 45 frames long, the Poser Pro
animation will loop 1.5 times to take up all 45 frames.

• Freeze: The Poser animation will freeze before its

start frame and after its end frame. When viewing a
Frame offset attributes.
frame after the end of the Poser animation, the Poser
animation will be frozen in the same position as the last
frame. When viewing a frame before the beginning of • Start on Frame: This parameter allows you to enter
the Poser animation, the Poser animation will be frozen the CINEMA 4D animation frame where you wish your
Poser animation to begin. If you enter a frame number
like 125, then your Poser animation will start to play at
• Hide: When hide is selected, the Poser items will only frame 125. Until frame 125, the Frame Out of Range
be visible when your CINEMA 4D frame is inside the options will be used to determine if there is movement
Poser animation range. If your CINEMA 4D frame goes before the start frame.

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• Poser Start Frame: parameter. This feature is extremely powerful since it

allows you to literally reshape your Poser animation.
You can speed up your Poser animation or slow it
appear in the CINEMA 4D scene. down, run it backward, or even skip randomly through
the animation.
• Num Poser frames: This is the numbers of frames after
your Start Frame that you would like to use. If you • Remap to Frame: To remap frames, simply animate
choose to only use 15 frames, then you will only see 15 the Remap to Frame parameter. Your Poser scene
frames from your Poser animation inside of CINEMA 4D.

Frame Remapping Attributes backwards, you would animate this parameter from a
higher number frame, to a lower number frame.
You are not limited to simply specifying frame offsets. By
enabling Frame Remapping, you have full control over Hair Attributes
playback of your Poser animation within CINEMA 4D.
PoserFusion has the ability to preview and render strand-
based Poser hair in CINEMA 4D.

Frame remapping attributes.

Hair attributes.
• Enable: Check the Enable box to enable frame
remapping. Enabling this option disables frame
offsets and out-of-range options. Once remapping • For speed purposes, only the guide hairs are visible by
is enabled, you can modify the playback of the default. In order to view and render a full hair
Poser animation by animating the Remap to Frame simulation, turn on the Populate hair option.
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• Hair root scale: This is the scale of the hair geometry Import Options
at the root of the hair (close to the scalp). This can be
raised if the hair looks too sparse close to the scalp. PoserFusion includes a number of options for hosting your
Try to make this value as small as possible for quickest
rendering results. the Main Menu, select File Menu > Import Options. Select
the Import Options that are appropriate and click Apply.
• Hair tip scale: This is the scale of the hair geometry at
Below is a description of the options available.
the end of the hair. This can be raised if the hair looks
too sparse at the tips. Try to make this value as small as Animation Controls
possible for quickest rendering results.
You can play back and view Poser animations from
inside Maya when you use PoserFusion. One animation
PoserFusion for Maya
File > Import. In the File This animation curve animates the frame attribute on the
Dialog, select mpzFile node.

animation and poses. Instructions on updating versions of

Shelf Buttons .

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Animation

Enabling the animation checkbox automatically sets up

an animation that matches the range you specify for the

frame attribute on the mpzFile node.

Animation checkbox.

Poser Range

that will playback in Maya. You can use the actual frame

Import options. Poser range (for animation).

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Maya Range Repeat Before/After

Start and End frame in Maya during which

Maya Range, based on the type of repeat option which is

Range. There are a few options for choosing the Animation animation curves in the graph editor.
Range in Maya.
• None:
• From Poser: Uses the animation range from the Poser Maya Range.

• Cycle: Animation will repeat outside the Maya Range

• Start: Specify the start frame in Maya, and the length
of the range will automatically be imported from again each time.
Poser.
• Oscillate: Animation will repeat outside the Maya
• Start/End: Set a start and end frame in Maya. The

curves.
Repeat options.

Texture Options

Maya Range. • Use Full Texture History: PoserFusion can maintain a

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using this option, any changes in color or texture maps textures, therefore disable the option if you experience
assigned to the Poser shaders will update the next time trouble.

by default for better compatibility with external

renderers such as Mental Ray.

• Process .bum Files:

Texture options.
historically was used in Poser for bump maps. When
you enable Process
Scale Conversions
by default. Disable this option for compatibility with
Mental Ray, and other external renderers. The Poser world has a scale that goes from 0 to 1. In order
to make it easier for Maya users, we have implemented an
• Use Transparency Min/Max: Poser has a special automatic scale conversion with 4 settings.
function that allows a drop off in transparency based
on surface angle to camera. This option emulates • Real Life: This is the setting to use if you are working in
this behavior with Maya shader nodes. This option life-size scale within Maya. All geometry gets scaled up
is enabled by default for highest compatibility with by 243.84
Poser shaders. Disable this option off if you are having
trouble painting on shader transparency textures. • Centimeters As Feet: A number of Maya users start with
the default units (centimeters) and use them as feet
• Multiply Texture when Appropriate: Poser shaders
multiply the texture color by the shader color. When All geometry gets scaled up by 8.0.
this option is enabled, shaders created in Maya
will have a multiply node inserted to emulate this • Direct: No scale conversion occurs; the geometry is the
behavior. This option is enabled by default for the same scale as in Poser.
highest compatibility with Poser shaders. This option
• Manual: This mode lets the user set the Scale X, Scale Y,
can interfere with some Maya features like painting on
and Scale Z to any numeric value.
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File Update Buttons

Scale conversions. File Update buttons.

The PoserFusion Shelf

The Shelf included with PoserFusion adds a number

of commands which work with Poser. These include

Bounding Box, and Full Geometry. remain the same. The only difference is that you’ll now be
referencing the new poses/animation from the updated

what they do.

File Reload Browser (selected)

The Poser Fusion shelf.
Use the File Reload Browser to select a different version

contain different poses/animations. To use this function,

click on the shelf button.

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File Reload (all)

This command is the same as the File Reload (selected),

what is selected. To use this function, click on the Shelf

File Reload Browser. Button.

File Reload (selected)

Use the File Reload

File Reload (All).

different poses/animations. One example of using this

Playback Buttons

updated changes in Maya. To use this function, select any

the shelf button.

Playback buttons.

Bounding Box (selected)

File Reload (Selected).
This button makes the currently selected Poser character
display as bounding boxes.

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Bounding Box. Full Geometry.

Bounding Box Playback (selected) Bounding Box (all)

This button makes the currently selected Poser character Use this button to make the currently selected Poser
display as bounding box during playback for quick character display as bounding boxes.
interaction.

Bounding Box.
Bounding Box (Playback).

Bounding Box Playback (all)

Full Geometry (selected)
Make all Poser characters display as a bounding boxes
Use this button to make the full geometry display for all during playback.
Poser characters.

Bounding Box Playback.

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Full Geometry (all)

Use this button to make the full geometry display for all
Poser characters.

Full Geometry.
Exporting a camera pose.

Camera Export Buttons

This button will export a camera pose from Maya to Poser.

PoserFusion for LightWave
This feature makes it easy to line up a pose between Poser Double-click the InstallPoserFusionForLightWave.exe or
InstallPoserFusionForLightWavex64.exe icon to run the
you want to use as a scale reference, and then select respective 32-bit or 64-bit plug-in installer.
the camera node you wish to export. The Export Camera
window will then appear. Enter a name for the new This section expands upon the LightWave installation
camera pose. This name must end in .CM2. The exported instructions contained within the Poser Pro Introduction
camera pose will show up with the camera sets in Poser. Guide by including instructions for LightWave. The following
instructions should be followed after running the installation
application on your Poser Pro CD.

Adding PoserFusion to LightWave

Launch LightWave and click the Utilities tab. Then choose

Plug-ins > Add Plug-ins as shown below.

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Exit and re-launch LightWave. PoserFusion for LightWave is

now ready for use.

Using PoserFusion for LightWave

Adding Poser Fusion to LightWave.

props as LightWave object primitives. This means that you
In the dialog box that appears, navigate to the PzrForLW
folder within your LightWave plug-in folder, select the perform on any other LightWave object primitive such as
PzrForLW.p and click OK scale, translate, or rotate. For example, if you host a Poser
window should appear.
place animation, you can key a simple path that the

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Loading a Poser File – First Time

modify the Poser animation, you need to modify the Poser

into LightWave. 1. In LightWave Layout, choose File > Load > Load Scene.

The Bounding Box Threshold and Dynamic 1. In the Load Scene dialog box, select All Files in the
Update settings can affect what you see Files of Type pull-down menu. Then locate and open
during playback. If you see a bounding box with no

animation, please check and adjust your Display

Option settings as follows:
LightWave you will be prompted to enter
your name and PoserFusion for LightWave serial
• number. Click OK to continue with the import after
Statistics and note the number of polygons comprising you provide the information. You will be prompted
the selected item. to enter the path to the Poser application before
you proceed with the import. The Poser Pro EXE
• Be sure to press [ENTER] before closing the Display
Options dialog box to save your changes. installation directory.

box when scrubbing the frame handle or doing a 2. PoserFusion prompts you to choose some options for
keyframe playback. your geometry:

Loading Poser Figures Convert to triangular mesh: Choose this option if

you want to convert all polygons to triangles.

depending on whether you are opening the given Poser Leave mesh as general polygons: This is the default
selection, which is recommended for most cases.

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3. Loading a Poser File – Subsequent Times

in the LightWave window.

PoserFusion for LightWave, PoserFusion automatically

contained the original Poser scene.

The Poser scene imported into LightWave.

You can now use LightWave’s tools to view any animations Subsequent imports are numbered in sequential order.
contained within the hosted Poser scene, and you can
“Working with Poser
Figures and Props in LightWave” on page 896. time, you do not need to select All Files and load the Poser

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Working with Poser Figures and Props in

LightWave

This section covers important topics to keep in mind when

Hierarchies

<PoserScene > null object, which will be named according

with the name <PoserFilename > .LWO. This folder contains the null objects created will be named <PoserScene > (1)
through <PoserScene > (n), with n being the number of

The PoserScene null object is the parent of all of the child

objects <Figure > 1 through <Figure > n and/or <Prop > 1
through <Prop > n, where <Figure > and <Prop > are the
previously created by PoserFusion for LightWave

because PoserFusion cannot overwrite the *.LWS

This is normal behavior.

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LightWave functionality or by reloading the appropriate

RAM and hard drive space. Creating a new instance of a

PoserScene null object will create a new PoserScene null
object with the name <PoserScene > (n+1), where n+1 is
the number of the new instance. Creating a new instance

<Figure/Prop > (n+1).

Object properties.

The PoserScene null object is the default

selected item. To make changes to a

You can only access the Poser panel within

prop selected.
Creating a new object.

Creating Multiple Instances

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Cloning a null object with no child objects

selected creates a new instance of the null
object but does not recursively clone child objects.
To clone a parent object and its child objects, you
must select the child objects before cloning the null
object. Please refer to your LightWave
documentation for more information on hierarchies
and cloning.

Accessing Poser Functionality Within LightWave

access the Poser interface within LightWave. To access

Poser functionality in LightWave:
1.
Object properties.
2. Click the Item Properties button on the bottom of the
Layout window or press [p] (lowercase) to open the 3. Select the Deform tab.
Object Properties window.
4. Double-click PzrForLW - PoserDisplacement in the
displacement plug-in list to open the Poser Scene
window.

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The Scene File Panel

associated with.

Scene File options.

The Poser Scene window.
The following functions are available:
The Poser Scene Panel • Reload File: Clicking the Reload File… button
The Poser Scene panel is where you access Poser
selected PoserScene object. This function reloads the
functionality within LightWave. This window contains three
tabs, which are discussed in the following sections. To close
the Poser Scene window, click the Continue button at the
can access your changes without losing any other
bottom of each tab.

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objects in LightWave.

• File Information: Clicking the File Info… button displays

full path, Poser application path, and other useful

information.

The Scene Options Panel

The Scene Options panel is where you control your hosted

Poser scene.

Scene options.

The Scene Options rollout gives you the following options:

• Scale
slider to specify the desired scale for all of the objects

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in the current scene. The scale value is expressed as

was created in Poser.

• Frame out of range/Frame Offset: Please refer to

“Animating Poser Objects in LightWave” on page
902 for information on controlling Poser animations
within LightWave.

The Info Panel

The Info panel displays the PoserFusion version number and

allows you to access information about Smith Micro and
Poser Pro.

The Info panel.

The Info rollout contains three buttons:

• Clicking the www.smithmicro.com button opens your

Web browser and takes you to the Smith Micro home
page.

• Clicking the User Guide… button opens the electronic

(PDF) Poser Pro User Guide.

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• Clicking the About… button opens a window • Loop: Selecting the Loop box causes the Poser
displaying more information about PoserFusion. animation to repeat as many times as necessary to

Animating Poser Objects in LightWave include a partial animation cycle. For example, if the
Poser animation is 30 frames long and the LightWave
You can control how any animation of your Poser objects
animation is 45, the Poser animation will loop 1.5 times
relates to your current LightWave animation by using the
to take up all 45 frames.
Scene Options rollout in either the Create or Modify panel.
• Freeze: Selecting the Freeze box causes the Poser
Frame Ranges
animation to not play before its starting frame and/or
An out of range condition exists when the LightWave after its ending frame.
animation has frames occurring before the Poser
• Hide: Selecting the Hide box causes the Poser
animation’s start frame and/or ends after the Poser
animation to be invisible before its starting frame and/
or after its ending frame.
End Frame=Start Frame+(Num Frames – 1)

For example, if Start Frame=10 and Num Frames=15, then Offsetting Frames
End Frame=24.
You can insert your Poser animation at any desired point in
The If frame out of range boxes allow you to specify how to
the LightWave animation using the Frame Offset function
handle out-of-range situations.
in the Scene Options tab.

Frame ranges.

Select the appropriate box to make your selection:

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Number of Frames: Enter the number of frames in

slider.
For example, say you have a 100-frame LightWave
animation and wish to open a 30-frame Poser animation.
You could specify the Poser animation will begin at frame
45 of the LightWave animation. You could also specify that
you wish to start the Poser animation from the 10th frame

follow. This scenario would cause the following to occur:

LightWave animation Poser animation
Offsetting frames.
Frames 0-44
Range options.
You have three offset options:
Frame 45 Frame 10

• Start on Frame: Enter the LightWave animation frame Frame 46 Frame 11

where you wish your Poser animation to begin by Frame 59 Frame 24
either entering a valid frame number in the Start on
Frames 61-100
Range options.

• Poser Source Frames: You are not limited to simply Poser Materials in LightWave
running your entire Poser animation within LightWave.
This section discusses using Poser materials within
Start Frame: Enter the number of the frame in
LightWave.

slider.

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Accessing Poser Materials Texture Maps

In LightWave, click the Surface Editor button on the left LightWave supports the use of UV mapping.
side of the LightWave window, or press F5. You can do this
You can view and modify any texture map by opening
with any tab selected.
LightWave’s Texture Editor window as described in your
LightWave documentation. Poser’s Texture, Bump,
Material Hierarchies

LightWave supports hierarchical materials, meaning that LightWave.

each object in a scene will have its own list of materials.
NOTE: LightWave allows you to create UV data
and/or modify it by adding and/or repositioning
UVs. This feature gives you complete control over

While Poser uses UV mapping, users were previously

limited to using the UV data supplied by the
geometry’s creator. Using Poser Pro and LightWave
(or any other application that supports UV creation

or prop’s UV data to have textures behave exactly

how you want them to.

By default, the Poser texture map loads into the Color

channel in LightWave’s Surface Editor. The Poser UV data
is available for any map you apply in LightWave on any
channel that supports maps by setting the Projection Type
Material Hierarchies. to UV in LightWave’s Texture Editor, and the selected UV

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Map to Poser UVs. This is true for all Poser texture maps 6. Select a Surface name (such as Head, shown in the

The Poser UV map is loaded once and is used in every

7. Open the Color (or other channel) Texture Editor. Set
LightWave Texture Mapping channel where you specify
Projection to UV, UV Map to Poser UVs and specify the
it as described in the previous paragraph. If you want the
Use Textures. The
texture image map to be applied to a surface parameter,
you can open the Texture Editor and apply the Poser UV

The following example describes the steps required.

1. Launch Poser Pro. Select and save the default Simon

2. Launch LightWave.

3. File
> Load > Load Scene and choosing All Files from the
Files of Type
created in Step 1.

4. If prompted, locate the scene textures by selecting

All Files. Locate the textures in your default Runtime
folder.

5. After the scene opens in LightWave, open the Surface

Editor.

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Part 8:
PoserPython

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Chapter 35: About (such as Poser) and programming languages. Because

PoserPython it is free software, Python is freely usable and can be

distributed free of charge. Python’s inclusion of a number
of high-level data types as well as dynamic typing
This section explains a few Python basics and lists each of makes it easy for users to get their job done without the
the customized PoserPython methods, including explaining implementation hassle common to lower-level languages.
functionality and providing syntax and use examples. It PoserPython is a customized implementation of the Python
provides a certain level of background and behind-the- interpreter that includes many commands not found in
scenes explanations that will put the PoserPython types the standard Python releases. This customization integrates
and methods involved into context. Python with Poser and provides you with an extensive list of
Note that this chapter assumes that you have at least a easy-to-use commands that can greatly reduce the time
basic level of understanding about the Python scripting you spend performing repetitive tasks in Poser.
language. While it does explain a few basic Python One of PoserPython’s best features is that you do not need
concepts in order to add clarity and context, this chapter
is not intended to teach you Python. There are numerous includes a number of useful sample scripts that can be
excellent sources of information for learning Python, many executed by clicking a button. You never have to see a
of which are available for free. Please refer to “Other line of code, and none of your friends will ever label you
Important Resources” on page 10 for a listing of some as a programmer! That said, another of PoserPython’s
recommended Python resources. best features is that you can “get under the hood” to
Python (named after Monty Python’s Flying Circus) is a write scripts that will do just about anything. PoserPython
high-level, interpreted, object-oriented scripting language gives you virtually full control over your Poser documents

released as free software in 1991 after extensive testing. It their building blocks and parameters. As you can see,
is an extremely powerful and easy-to-learn language that
runs on virtually all platforms and that can be extensively

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PoserPython also includes the Numerical Python extension,

which loads automatically when Poser starts up. Many
A Word of Warning
geometry methods use this extension for fast manipulation Unlimited control is a double-edged sword. On one hand,
of vertex, set, and polygon information. Please refer to users have direct access to their creations and underlying
http://www.python.org/topics/scicomp/numpy.html for data. On the other hand, it is impossible to anticipate
more information. every conceivable PoserPython script. Because of the
inherent power that scripting provides, it is possible to
accidentally or intentionally destroy data, possibly beyond
Why Python? Poser itself. We at Smith Micro Software have made every
attempt to provide “safe” methods for manipulating
Adding support for a scripting language to Poser gives
Poser internals, and in most cases a Python mistake simply
means that the interpreter throws an exception and halts
and customize their Poser experience and liberate
the script execution. Nevertheless, Python is an entire
creativity and productivity. The combination of simplicity,
programming language designed with far more than Poser
power, extensibility, and free distribution rights is making
in mind. It is a powerful tool and, like all tools, should be
Python an increasingly popular programming language
used with care. If you are not familiar with Python basics,
and has made it the obvious choice for integration with
we strongly recommend that you obtain training and
Poser. The PoserPython additions provide advanced
begin your Python experience slowly and carefully so as to
enjoy a smooth and trouble free learning curve.
few lines of Python code can quickly automate processes
that might take hours if done manually. And, with Poser’s
internal structures exposed in the Python environment, you
can write importers or exporters that interact with obscure
PoserPython Types & Methods
or proprietary data formats. Because Python runs entirely Listing
within Poser, the only external application you’ll need for
creating Python scripts is your favorite text editor. PoserPython consists of hundreds of custom methods,
and Smith Micro Software is continually updating the list
of available methods. Please refer to the PoserPython

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Methods Manual, which contains an organized listing of

each PoserPython method available in Poser. It is included
in PDF format on your Poser CD and is also accessible from
within Poser by selecting Help > PoserPython Manual.

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Chapter 36: Basic for the code to compile. Additions, edits, and deletions
become fast and simple.

PoserPython Concepts PoserPython consists of a standard Python interpreter

that has been extended to recognize and execute
commands that are not included with the standard Python
This section describes some of PoserPython’s basic language. PoserPython scripts written using the customized
concepts in order to provide context. commands will only work with the Poser ProPack or
How Python Integrates with Poser subsequent versions (5 and on). You can, however, pass
data back and forth between Poser and other Python
There are two basic types of programming languages:
scripts, programming languages, and applications.
• Compiled: A special program called a compiler reads The standard Poser application contains volumes of
the code written by the programmer, translates it into
a form directly readable by a computer, and creates prop, etc.) found within a given scene. You control these
an executable program that can run on its own on parameters via the mouse and interface elements such as
any supported computer platform. Languages such as menus, buttons, dials, etc. However, you cannot directly
manipulate the data itself. This helps make Poser easy to
use, but does create limitations. For example, you have
• Interpreted: Interpreted programming languages no way to automate repetitive tasks or record a complex
require a special program called an interpreter to run series of actions for further use. PoserPython circumvents
the code written by the programmer. The interpreter these limitations.
reads the commands found in the code and executes
them from beginning to end without translating the PoserPython exposes much of the raw Poser data.
original code. The drawback to interpreted languages Using Python scripts, you can extract data from Poser,
is that they must use the interpreter, and the code can manipulate it, and pass it back into Poser. Essentially, you
never run as a standalone program. The advantage, can program Poser to do what you want, and you are no
however, is that a programmer can change the code
and see the results very quickly without having to wait functionality.

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Basic Python Structure set of data, the method is what the object does, and any
arguments describe how the method is performed.
Python is an object-oriented language. An object is a car may contain either data or a reference or link to data.
virtual entity combining structured data and the methods Please refer to one of the many Python resources (such
in which the data can be manipulated. A method is a as those listed in “Other Important Resources” on page
procedure for manipulating data, and an argument 10) for an in-depth discussion of mutable vs. immutable
types. The data can be virtually anything including letters,
effective analogy is that of basic grammar: An object
can be equated with a noun, a method with a verb, and
an argument with an adjective or adverb. For example, and faster to write Python scripts.
consider the following:
car = Factory.Produce(vehicleXL)

In this case, the variable car is the result of the object Sample Python Script
factory being acted upon by the method produce as
This section provides a brief example of how a Python
model). To put it in lay terms, the car’s existence and script might look. For this example, let’s say that you have
everything about the car depends on the factory being
forearm already selected. The forearm is called an actor.
Consider how the value of the variable car can differ An actor is any element of a Poser scene (body part, prop,
based on the following examples: etc.) and this manual uses the two terms interchangeably.
car = Mechanic.Repair(car, transmission) Let’s say you want to set the x scale to 88 percent.
car = Junkyard.Salvage(vehicleXL) scene = Poser.Scene()
car = CarThief.Steal() actor = Scene.CurrentActor()
parm = actor.ParameterByCode(Poser.ParmCodeXSCALE)
parm.SetValue(88)
by the Mechanic’s Repair method, and returned as a
Let’s look at the above script in detail.
working car. The last example contains no argument. In this
case, the car thief may not take external input to decide The script begins by obtaining a variable called scene,
which is a reference to the current Poser scene. That scene
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contains numerous actors. Recall that the left forearm is folder test.txt

already selected, so all the script needs to do is request To work around this issue, you should use a double
backslash (\\) to signify folders. The above example would
Next, the variable parm consists of a reference to the left then become:
C:\\folder\\test.txt
XSCALE. A parameter code (ParmCode) designates an
easy to remember word to signify the desired parameter. path.
Lastly, the value of the parameter to which parm refers
Alternatively, you can use Macintosh format, which uses
is reset to 88, which will cause the left forearm to shrink to
colons to signify folders as follows:
88% of its normal size along the X-axis.
:folder:test.txt

Writing Python Scripts Running Your Script

Write your Python scripts using your favorite text editor. You can run your script directly or via the Poser Scripts
Alternatively, you can use one of the graphical Python menu or palette, all of which are described in the following
interfaces such as Tkinter for Windows to write your scripts. chapter.

Folder Syntax For Further Information

Python, among other languages, designates certain The preceding information was a very brief glimpse into
special characters as symbols beginning with a Windows- Python and the PoserPython extensions. If you do not
style backslash. Two common examples are \t ([TAB]) currently know Python, you may want to read and learn
and \n (new line). Thus, in Windows, the notation
C:\folder\test.txt
developing Python expertise would be well worth it.
is interpreted by Python as
To view the Poser Python Methods Manual, choose Help >
C:[TAB]folder[TAB]text.txt or C:
PoserPython Manual from the menu commands.
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Chapter 37: Running

PoserPython Scripts
Poser includes a simple graphical user interface that allows
you to execute Python scripts by pressing a button. You
can customize the Python Scripts palette and, in addition,
you can run Python scripts directly.

The Scripts Menu

The Scripts menu provides a hierarchical list of PoserPython

Poser, this menu will list all of the PoserPython scripts that
were included with your Poser installation. You have Python Scripts palette.
the option of placing additional Python scripts into the
:Runtime:Python:PoserScripts: ScriptsMenu directory
Clicking some of the buttons will display a
within your Poser installation; all scripts placed into this
submenu of buttons within the Python Scripts
folder will be accessible within Poser from the Scripts menu.
palette. This is just one example of how Python
scripts can be used to customize Poser. You can

The Python Scripts Palette write scripts that will open button menus and
submenus. If you are curious, you can open one of
Launch the Python Scripts palette within Poser by the existing submenu scripts to see how this is done.
selecting Window > Python Scripts.

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Using the Script Buttons Unassigning/Reassigning Buttons Within

To run a script, simply press the desired button and the
the Console
script will execute automatically. To reassign a button to a different Python script, you must

Assigning Buttons Within the Console script to it. Do this by pressing and holding [OPT]/[ALT]
while clicking the button you wish to unassign. If you wish
Unassigned buttons do not have a label. An ellipsis (...) to assign the newly freed up button to a different script, do
appears in unassigned buttons to mark their availability. so as outlined above.
To assign a script to a button, simply press the mouse on

Running Python Scripts Directly

located the desired script, select it and press Open.
The Poser Python Scripts palette keeps your frequently
used scripts close by for easy use. However, you can run
Editing Scripts Within the Console any script you wish by selecting File > Run Python Script
to open the standard operating system navigation dialog.
You can edit scripts assigned to a Poser Python Scripts Locate the script you wish to run by browsing your folders
palette button by pressing and holding [CTRL] while and directories, then press Open to run the script.
clicking the button assigned to the script you wish to edit.
Alternately, you can access your script directly from the
This opens the script within your operating system’s default
Poser Scripts menu.

as appropriate for the editor you are using. You may

also select your own editor via the General Preferences
dialog, which can be obtained by choosing Edit >
General Preferences as described in “Setting Application
Preferences” on page 35.

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Appendices

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Appendix A: Technical forums where artists come together. Please see “Third-
Party Forums” on page 10 for links to a few online

Support forums.
Still don’t see your question answered? Please contact
Technical Support by clicking the link to http://support.
We’ve worked hard to ensure that Poser’s powerful smithmicro.com and completing our online support form.
features are both easy to use and available to users
running a wide variety of computers. However, there form as completely as possible and include as much
may be times when you need technical support. Smith information as possible. This will help us resolve your issue
Micro Software is pleased to offer free technical support faster. Once the form is complete, a Technical Support
to registered users of our products. To receive technical representative will contact you directly as soon as possible.
support, please visit our Web site at http://my.smithmicro. Support requests are answered via e-mail in the order they
com/support and browse through our extensive product are received. Online support is free to all registered Poser
FAQs. users. Poser users are strongly encouraged to register at
Please use the following checklist before contacting http://store.smithmicro.com/productregistration.aspx
Technical Support: after installing the application.
Telephone support is also free to registered users. Before
• Poser Reference Manual: This Reference Manual
using telephone support, please check the resources
answers most Poser questions. Before contacting
listed above. Phone support is intended to solve critical
Technical Support, please read the pertinent section(s)
technical issues. We are unable to answer project-based
of this manual thoroughly.
questions. Our Technical Support phone number is listed on
• FAQ: Please visit the product FAQs at the above-listed our website at http://smithmicro.com/contact. Telephone
URL.
call during other hours, or if a representative is not able to
• Third-party forums: If your question is more artistic than answer your call immediately, you will be asked to leave
technical, check out some of the great online Poser a message, and we will return your call as soon as possible

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(generally within two business days). When calling, please Smith Micro Software reserves the right to
be in front of your computer with Poser running. alter our technical support policies at any
time without advance notice.
In order to receive support, we require the following
information:

• Your name

• E-mail address

• Telephone number (including international dialing

information, if applicable)

• Your current operating system

•
video card, etc.)

• Poser serial number

• Detailed description of the problem

This information will help us isolate and resolve your issue.
We require this information in order to provide support
services and are unable to respond to incomplete requests
in a timely fashion.
For international support, please contact your local
distributor. Smith Micro Software maintains a list of our
international distributors at http://my.smithmicro.com/
store/intlpartners.html.
Appendix A: Technical Support
918 PoserPro 2014
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Appendix B: Poser File more subsets of the overall Poser command/parameter

structure.

Structure Please refer to the Poser end user license

agreement (eula) in part 1 of this manual for

formats and structures.

system.

About Poser Files A Word of Warning

Some advanced Poser users obtain added control over
your Poser creations and help provide spectacular results.
or in addition to, using the Poser application. This manual

including syntax, layout, and commands/ parameters

Smith Micro Software provides this information as an aid to

advanced Poser users for reference purposes only. Direct

and is not supported. Please do not contact Smith Micro

Poser’s Runtime folder. The Poser installer automatically

You are on your own.

manual (with the exception of OBJ and non-native Poser This appendix provides some guidance with regard to
formats) follows the same general format and uses one or valid values and error handling, however it is impossible to

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and how those edits may affect the Poser application or

data.
loss if something goes wrong. You may also wish to save

Editing Files to a previous state without losing all of your work.

such as Notepad (Windows) or TextEdit (Macintosh). In Poser File Types

addition, some users have created helpful applications to
aid you in editing Poser data. Please refer to the online 3D
community at large for help locating and reviewing these
third-party applications. • Prop
prop including source geometry, materials, texture

written in a code that Poser can read. As with any

magnet as the prop. Props are often supplied as PP2
in the correct format, using valid values, and located in

complex, and it is not advisable to modify them unless you

have a good idea how to go about it. • Camera
including location, direction, focal length, etc. They
have the extension CM2.

• Light
control props, lights, and cameras, while the most complex
including type, position, color, and other attributes.
(CR2 and PZ3) describe Poser characters and scenes,
respectively.
• Hair

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the extension PZ3. They are similar in structure to CR2

• Face • Material Collections: A Material Collection is a fully

articulate and/or deform a face to the desired
expression and have the extension FC2.

• Hands MC6/MCZ.
required to articulate hands into the desired positions
• External Binary Morph Targets: Poser saves morph

• Pose

which can include face and hand information. Pose

File Hierarchy
• Character
required for a Poser character including reference For purely conceptual purposes, it is useful to think of
geometry, Joint Editor palette morph targets,

extension CR2.

• Scene types are virtually identical in structure. For example, hand

a Poser scene and select File > Save within the Poser and face information is part of a pose, which along with
hair forms part of a character, which combined with other
information is part of a scene.
background, rendering, animation set, lights, cameras,

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File Families Library

wherever you like, since Poser allows you to specify their

information they contain. For conceptual purposes only,
the Poser: Runtime folder:
following families:
•
• Face, Hands, Pose
• :
• Hair, Prop libraries\character\ (category)\(character name)

• Camera, Light • :

• Character
• PZ3 (Poser scene): any (user-selected location)
• Pose
• CM2 (Camera): libraries\camera\Camera Sets

Poser Default File Locations • CR2 (Character): libraries\character\(category)\

(character name)
In the list below, note that the following list provides
• FC2 (Face): libraries\faces\(category)

their correct locations. File placement is most critical • HR2 (Hair): libraries\hair\(category)

• HD2 (Hand): libraries\hand\(category)

expression in parentheses means that the subdirectory or
• LT2 (Light): libraries\light\Light Sets

• PZ2 (Pose): libraries\pose\(category)

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• PP2 (Prop): libraries\props\(category)

in the user’s home directory. This preference information
• MT5 (Shader): libraries\material\(category) includes Memory dots, Library preferences, Poser UI

• TIF, BMP, BUM, JPG (textures, bump maps, etc.):

textures\ (category)\(subcategory). You may store Windows: %AppData%\Poser Pro\10\
additional images in any folder you wish.
Windows XP example: C:\Documents and Settings\<PoserUser>\
Application Data\Poser Pro\10\
• PZS (Web links): Web links\(category)
Windows Vista & 7 example: C:\Users\<PoserUser>\AppData\
• MC6/MCZ (Material Collections): libraries\material\ Roaming\Poser Pro\10\
(category) Mac OS X: ~/Library/Application Support/Poser Pro/10/

• PMD (Morph Targets) Mac OS X example: /Users/<PoserUser>/Library/Application

Support/Poser Pro/10/

morph targets. If you have Use External Binary Morph

Targets enabled in the Misc tab of the General Poser Downloaded File Locations
Library), next to a By default, Poser places downloaded content (obtained
PP2 (when a prop is added), or next to a PZ3 (when a using the Content room) in the Download library. Please
refer to “Chapter 7: The Poser Library” on page 130 for
more information about Poser libraries.
or props has been changed since they were added to
the scene). Other Poser File Types
Users who download characters or other
versions of Poser used PHI to perform functions that are
now carried out in the hierarchy editor/Setup room (Pro

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(models). Characters based on pre-existing meshes

used by an application called Objaction Mover and are

beyond the scope of this document. make it poseable, making clothing downloads similar
to characters; thus, the download is similar to that of a
character.
Commonly Used Poser Objects
Morph targets and characters are commonly used and Basic File Syntax
traded/sold by and among users and third-party vendors.
This section provides a brief explanation of each.
type uses the same general syntax.

Morph Targets
Tabs

morph target when an applicable body part is selected. section 1

child 1
For example, a head morph target dial will appear when grandchild
grandchild n
child n
“Creating section n
Morphs in Other Applications” on page 719.

Brackets & File Sections

Characters & Clothing

with Poser or can include entirely new OBJ meshes

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parameter 1
parameter n
sections (Channels) contains position, size, texture, morph {
section B
command 1
values and adds entries as needed. parameter 1
parameter n
As described above, brackets denote the beginning and command 2
parameter 1
parameter n
while a right bracket ends a section: }
{begins }
} ends

For example, Comments

{
section A
} {
number 4.01
Nested Brackets
}

to denote each section and subsection, as follows:

{
Poser & OBJ Files
section A
{ The Geometries folder contains several dozen subfolders
section B
}
}
object, e.g. a set of polygons arranged so as to form the
desired shape. These polygons are placed into different
Parameters
Parameters and other items within a section do not need (such as body parts, also known as actors). In order to
brackets. For example:
{ such as hip, abdomen, etc. Poser groups do not require
section A
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the Setup room could have groups named, for example,

Bone_1. applied CR2 changes are then saved to the Poser scene

to allow Poser to produce all of the mesh object’s

embedded information that would normally reside within

creating a new character complete with its associated
props, hair, etc.

describe parameters controllable within Poser, such as size,

Dependent Parameters
With Poser you can set up meta-level parameters, called
dependent parameters, which allow you to modify other
parameters and morph targets with a single parameter
a different name and/or location. dial. An example of this type of dependent parameter
would be a full range of belly types, with the following
as size, position, pose, textures, proportions, etc. and also values along the dependent parameter dial:

The Dependent Parameters editor can help

you do this and more. Refer to “Using
mesh information with the CR2 details, Poser can create
Dependent Parameters” on page 726 for
additional information about this feature.

modifying the CR2 itself. Poses, faces, and hands are

already described within the CR2, however applying • -1.0 underweight belly

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• -0.5 sixpack belly static 0

k 0 0
}
• 0.0 regular belly mesh interpStyleLocked 0
numbDeltas 261
useBinaryMorph 1
• 0.5 slightly protruding belly
blendType 0
valueOpKey
• 1.0 large protruding belly Figure 1
bone_1:1
Custom_Morph
• 2.0 hanging beer belly beginValueKeys
valueKey 0.5 0
This range of belly types would incorporate various morph valueKey 0.75 1
targets and parameter values at each of the key points valueKey 1 0
endValueKeys
along the dependent parameter dial. Thus, dependent }
parameters are far more powerful in the scope of

with regards to the “bump3” dependent parameter. The

target or parameter dial.
The following sample code illustrates how to set up that this parameter can be driven by the Custom_Morph
a dependent parameter. This code is an example dial on the bone_1

dependent parameter will appear as a morph target dependent parameter will be affected:
parameter dial named “bump3”.
targetGeom bump3 • If Custom_Morph equals 0.5, the value of bump3 will
{ increase by 0.
name bump3
initValue 0
hidden 0 • Once Custom_Morph reaches 0.75, the value of
forceLimits 1
bump3 will increase by 1.
min -100000
max 100000
trackingScale 0.02 • By the time Custom_Morph equals 1, the value of
keys
{
bump3 will increase by 0 again.

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• Values in between these points are determined by bone_1:1

spline interpolation. parameter. The “valueKey” value pairs add rotation in
degrees of xRotate to certain values of the Custom_Morph
In the next example, we are looking at the rotateX
parameter.
parameter of an actor (in this case bone_2:1, which is not
apparent from the code sample below). The resulting
dependent parameter dial is called “xRotate”.
rotateX xRotate
{
name xrot
initValue 0
hidden 0
forceLimits 0
min -100000
max 100000
trackingScale 1
keys
{
static 0
k 0 0
}
interpStyleLocked 0
valueOpKey
Figure 1
bone_1:1
Custom_Morph
beginValueKeys
valueKey 0.25 0
valueKey 0.75 45
valueKey 1 0
valueKey 1.25 -45
valueKey 1.5 0
endValueKeys
}

As in the previous example, the “valueOpKey” section

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Appendix C: 3D Basics Depth

This part describes basic 3D concepts. The following

discussion centers on Poser, however most of these
concepts apply to all 3D applications. Novice 3D artists
should read the entire chapter to gain valuable “behind
the scenes” insight that will help in learning and using
Poser. Veteran 3D users can use this chapter as a handy
reference or refresher.

A two-dimensional object.
About 3D Space
Pick any one of the three dimensions and call it A. Now
pick either of the remaining two dimensions and call it B. In
the graphic, the arrows represent the two dimensions and
• Zero dimension: A point is an example of a zero-
the rectangle represents a two-dimensional object. You
will immediately notice that all two-dimensional objects
no length, height, or width.

• First dimension: A one-dimensional object is a single dimensional objects are called planes.
line. It has length but no height or depth.
• Third dimension: Three-dimensional objects use all
• Second dimension: A two-dimensional object has any three of the dimensions (length, height, and depth).
two of the following three dimensions: As you can see from the graphic, the cube is a three-
dimensional object. It has length, height, and depth. That’s
Length
pretty simple, right? Here’s the hard part: You create 3D
Height data using two-dimensional tools. Your computer screen

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is a two-dimensional object and your mouse can move The short answer is that all 3D applications, Poser
in two dimensions; it can report left-right and front-back included, create a “virtual” 3D space. Look at the above
motion but cannot report how far above or below the graphic again. We can view and manipulate the cube
desk it is. Furthermore, your output will always be two- in three dimensions by separating them into separate
dimensional. Look at the above graphic: It does not have workspaces called views. One view will displays the A
depth. It does, however, represent three dimensions using and B dimensions, the second will displays the A and
a simple optical illusion called perspective C dimensions, and the third will displays the B and C
as the tendency of objects to appear progressively smaller dimensions. You can also have a fourth view that displays
the farther away they are until they disappear on the all three dimensions. This graphic shows how the four views
horizon at a location called the vanishing point. You can might look in a 3D application such as Poser.
see this by standing at the corner of a long building and
noticing how the roof line appears to get closer to the
ground the farther away you look. Given these limitations,
you ask, how can one create 3D information?

A three-dimensional object. Four views of the same object.

Let’s look at the same graphic again, only this time let’s
substitute a simple boat for the cube to better illustrate
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axis to describe one of the three dimensions without

becomes possible to precisely control your 3D model. For caring about which axis describes which dimension. The A
example, you can determine the length of the boat using dimension could describe any of the three dimensions with
the AB or AC view, the width using the AB or BC view, B describing either one of the remaining two dimensions
and the height using the AC or BC view. Which view you and so forth. We did this to illustrate the most basic theory
use depends on what you are trying to accomplish. For behind 3D applications such as Poser. Let’s expand on
example, to create the stern, you would probably use the that.
BC view, and would probably use the AB view to create
It should be obvious that the AB, AC, and BC views lack
the overall shape.
perspective. Two-dimensional views without perspective
are called orthographic views. Each three-dimensional
object has six orthographic views: Top, Bottom, Left, Right,
Front, and Rear. Pick up any object you like and look at it
from all angles; you will see that this always holds true. So,
while the boat example above shows the Top (AB), Left
(AC), and Rear (BC) views, it could just as easily show any
three of the six possible views. This is important because,
like the boat, not all three-dimensional objects are
symmetrical.
Now that you understand this fundamental concept,
let’s learn how it’s used in the real world. To recap, the
three dimensions are width, length, and height or depth,
Four views of a more complicated object. each dimension is represented by an axis, and we can
view each pair of axes in two ways to generate a total
of six possible views. So far so good, except for one small
In these examples, the A, B, and C dimensions are
problem: If everyone used an arbitrary system of axes to
collectively called axes. Taken individually, each
dimension is called an axis. So far, we have used each
pass data back and forth. In the above example, we are
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using the AB as the Left view. Someone else could just as are beneath 0 with positive numbers above 0. This stands
to reason, since negative numbers are literally less than
see the chaos that could ensue. To prevent this, both 2D 0. When dealing with coordinate systems, we assume
and 3D objects conform to a standard system of axes
called the Cartesian coordinate system. The term Cartesian dimension’s center or origin.
is used in honor of the French mathematician and
The Cartesian coordinate system goes one step further
philosopher Rene Descartes (1596–1650), who was one of
examples, we deliberately used the arbitrary letters A,
B, and C to illustrate the concept of axes and avoided
Cartesian Coordinates using the actual letters because we wanted to familiarize
you with the general idea of axes and dimensions before
Before getting too far into Cartesian coordinates, let’s focusing on how they are actually used. In the Cartesian
pause for a quick math review: If you arranged all of the coordinate system, the axes correspond to dimensions as
follows:
a line, the number 0 would be in the center of that line.
Negative numbers would be on the left side of 0 with –1 • X: Width
being the closest to 0, and positive numbers would be on
• Y: Height
the right side of 0 with +1 being the closest to 0.
• Z: Depth
Let’s combine the origin with the Cartesian axes as follows.
As you can see, the Cartesian coordinate system uses
three axes to represent each of the three dimensions: X,
Y and Z. The positive X axis points to the right, the positive
Y axis points up, and the positive Z axis points towards the
front of the scene. The center of the 3D space is a single
Negative numbers being on the left (or front) works for point, which is the midpoint (origin) of the three axes.
horizontal lines or axes. For vertical lines, negative numbers
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The format of listing the X, Y, and Z

positive directions along all three dimensions. You can see coordinates within braces and separated by
the origin in any of the Poser views. commas is the standard shorthand used with the
Cartesian coordinate system.

Remember the box we used in the previous 3D example?

What if we move the box over somewhat? The graphics

on the right show how that might affect the coordinates.

object’s shape, size, and location in 3D space.

Directions extend along three dimensions, represented as X,

Y, and Z.

space and objects within that space, we can use

coordinates are always listed in XYZ order. Coordinates

Point coordinates.
along each of the three axes. For example, the coordinate

origin, 1 unit above the Y origin, and 1 unit behind the Z

origin.

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Planes (Main, Auxiliary, Face, Hand, Posing). Please refer to the

“Chapter 5: The Document Window” on page 77, for
As we discussed earlier, 3D applications must depict and a description of the Poser Document window. The graphic
manipulate 3D data using a series of 2D views and tools. shows a quick rendition of three orthogonal views:
You already know that 2D objects are planar because

such as XZ. Combining these two facts with what we just

learned about the Cartesian coordinate system and a

like Poser use three views aligned with coordinate planes

to help you locate points in 3D space.

Three orthagonal views.

Global vs. Local Coordinates

There is one last wrinkle to the Cartesian coordinate
system. To explain this wrinkle, let’s use the example of a
Planes in 3D space. motorcycle rider leaning into a turn. What just happened?
For the sake of argument, let’s assume that the headlight
You can change the Poser Document window to show is 30 inches above the ground when the motorcycle is
several cameras, including the orthogonal views (Left, upright. If the rider leans the motorcycle 45 degrees to the
Right, Front, Back, Top, Bottom) and perspective views
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left, then headlight will now be 21.2 inches to the left of to the motorcycle, meaning (for example) that her or his
center and 21.2 inches off the ground. head is still 30 inches behind and 32 inches above the
headlight. Thus, while the motorcycle’s world coordinates
have changed, its object (or local) coordinates have
new location by multiplying the original remained the same.
location by the sin and cosine of the angle. In this
case, sin(45) = cos(45) =.707, and.707*30=
approximately 21.2.

Thus, the headlight’s coordinates will have changed from

about the motorcycle itself. The headlight is still in the

exact same position relative to the rest of the machine.
To demonstrate this, let’s create a second 3D space using
the motorcycle’s center of gravity (balance point) as
the origin. Let’s further say that the headlight is 12 inches
above and 30 inches in front of the center of gravity. This

World coordinates vs. local coordinates.

because the headlight does not move relative to the
center of gravity. But what do we mean by relative?
If this seems a bit complex, bear with us as we use a far
Has the motorcycle leaned 45 degrees to the left, or has simpler example. Each object in Poser has its own object
the world leaned 45 degrees to the right? To an observer
standing on the ground, the motorcycle has leaned center and orientation are the same as the world’s.
over 45 degrees. To the rider, s/he is still on top of the As described above, this changes when the object
motorcycle and it is the world that has leaned over 45 moves. The world’s center and orientation are still the
degrees. Further, the rider maintains her or his relationship same, but the object’s center and orientation may have

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changed. Look at the square in the graphic. Say the Translation

An object’s translation describes its position in 3D space

we move the object +7 along the X axis and +3 along Let’s take another look at the box we used in an earlier
example.
As you can see, the box’s center is the same as the origin
local coordinates, that is, relative to the object’s center.

You can move each one of the points, delete the existing
object’s local coordinate system (object space) or relative
box and draw a new one in its new location, or simply
to the global coordinate system (world space or global
translate the box. For example, setting a Translate value of
coordinates) shared by all objects.

(-2)+2=0. Again, the Translate value refers to the location of

Transformation the center of the object relative to world space.

So far, you have learned about 3D objects, the Cartesian

coordinate system, and the difference between object Rotation
space and world space. Let’s move on and learn how we
An object’s rotation value refers to its orientation in 3D
transformation in
space measured in degrees. As you probably know, any
addition to its size, shape, and position.
actual object will revolve around its center of gravity
An object’s transformation describes an object’s position (balance point). Objects in Poser have no mass and
(translation), orientation (rotation), and size (scale) in 3D no center of gravity, so you can set the object’s center
wherever you like and the object will rotate around that
is set to align with the global coordinates. Its position is set point.

certain to change as you work with the object.

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Scale
An object’s scale value refers to its size in relation to itself
and is measured in percent. In this case, a value of 1
corresponds to 100%. Take the example of a circle. As with
all other Poser objects, it is initially created with a scale

all three dimensions.

Now that your perfect circle is in place, you realize you
need to double its height on the Y axis. Simply enter a

Three axes of rotation. that is twice as long on the Y axis as it is wide. To stretch it

Let’s think back to the motorcycle example. If you model

a motorcycle and decide you wish to lean it 45 degrees,
nothing is stopping you from performing trigonometric
calculations to determine the new location of each part.
Remember that each part of the motorcycle will move
in at least two dimensions as the whole machine rotates.
In this case, since the motorcycle is rotating about the Z

trigonometric calculations will still need to be performed,

however Poser will get stuck with the job instead of you. Scaling axes.

To compute every point on a model, multiply the original

coordinates by the X, Y, and Z components. With this in
mind, it becomes easy to see how different values can
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change the size of your object. For example, entering a

Splines
allows you to set each scaling factor independently in Splines control
order to obtain squashing and stretching effects. This is points. The following graphic shows three basic types
called differential scaling. of splines. The simplest type of spline consists of a set of
Now that you’ve learned about 3D objects, Cartesian control points connected by straight lines, called a linear
coordinates, object space vs. world space, and object spline (shown on the near right). The other two splines
transformations, let’s go ahead and learn more about 3D are curved. You can curve a spline by adjusting its basis,
objects themselves. or method used to compute the spline. Splines can be
divided into interpolating and approximating.

Vertices
A point is a zero-dimensional (0D) object in 3D space. It

length, width, or height. It is nothing more than a location

in Cartesian space. However, we can connect points to
create edges or polylines. An edge is part of a polygon
between two vertices, and a polyline connects two
vertices together that are not part of a polygon. At its root,
3D modeling consists of nothing more than connecting a Splines can be linear or curved and are controlled with control
series of vertices together to create 3D objects. points.

An interpolating spline will always touch the points that

point cloud. Each point in a cloud is usually called a vertex

are interpolating. This gives them a more drastic skin-like

bend than approximating splines. Approximating splines,

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such as the right-most example in the above graphic,

have a softer curve because they don’t necessarily

requires three or more control points in order to show any

curvature. Poser uses interpolating splines for such things as
the Walk Designer and the Animation palette.

Polygons
Polygons are multiple-sided surfaces that use vertices to

3D applications use triangles (3-sided polygons) and/or

rectangles (4-sided polygons). Groups of polygons form a Polygons.
polygonal mesh
a mesh object. Let’s reexamine the box example we used
above: In this example, the point cloud consists of eight
vertices. These eight vertices are connected by 12 edges, The Poser Workspace
triangles, the eight vertices would be connected by 18 The Poser workspace is the virtual 3D world in which you
build your scenes. This world contains an origin and the
three axes.

currently selected camera. By looking through this

“Chapter 5: The Document Window” on page 77 for

more information about the Document window.

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Normals Camera
A surface normal is a line (vector) that points perpendicular The Camera is a default object. This means that it always
to (away from) the surface it originates from. Since exists and cannot be deleted. However, the camera is an
models have more than one surface, knowing which object like any other and can be moved and animated.
way the normals are facing can help you understand Additionally, you can apply many different settings to the
how a particular function will affect a model. This is camera including its position, angle, perspective, and focal
important when rendering a model or for calculating other length. These are standard photography terms. Object
operations such as a collision (determining if two objects animation rules apply to the camera.
are residing in the same 3D space). If a model’s normals
are inverted, certain routines may behave erratically or
your model may render incorrectly. Poser allows you to Lights
control the direction of the normals and automatically
A light source is a special kind of primitive. When Poser
performs these calculations for you.
launches, it places three default lights in your scene. You
can add, edit and remove lights in your scene and can
also control and animate many settings such as color,
intensity, position, shaders (gels), etc.

Hierarchy
Poser objects are often grouped in a hierarchy in order to
facilitate manipulation. The original object is known as a
parent, and each object linked to it is known as a child.
The graphic shows an example of a simple hierarchy. In
this example, the trunk is the parent. The branch is a child
Surface normals.
of the trunk, the twig is a child of the branch, and the leaf

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is a child of the twig. Selecting and moving the trunk will Animation
also move the branch, twig, and leaf. Moving the branch
does not affect the trunk but moves the twig and leaf, Poser lets you animate virtually everything in your scene
and moving the twig moves the leaf without affecting the including objects, lights, materials (which can have
branch or trunk. Selecting the leaf only moves the leaf. a shader tree containing one or more nodes), and
the camera. Each scene item has different settings
(parameters) that can also be animated. For example,
you can animate an object’s scale, rotation, translation,
and shape, or a light’s color, position, and intensity (Poser
calculates shadows). You can animate any component of
an object’s material. Plus, you can animate the camera’s
position and rotation. Creating animations involves making
changes to these parameters over time and assigning
these changes to keyframes.

An example of hierarchy.
Keyframing
Animations are made up of individual images known as
Let’s try another example: Bend your arm at the shoulder. frames. An animation is created when a series of frames
Notice that your shoulder rotation moves your upper that vary slightly from one frame to the next are displayed
one after another over time.
upper arm is a child of your shoulder and so forth. Now try
Keyframing is the core of computer animation and
involves the following general process: First, a starting
not move.
frame is created on a timeline and all parameters for
each object in a scene are assigned to that frame. Next,
an ending frame is created later on the timeline and all
changes to any parameters are assigned to this frame.
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Poser then compares the parameters assigned to the

starting and ending frames and calculates all of the
intermediate frames that occur between the starting and
ending frames. This calculation is called interpolation.
For example, if you tell Poser that an object is large and
red at Frame #1 then small and blue at Frame #10, then
Frames 1 and 10 become the keyframes. Poser then
calculates the intermediate values for all of the frames
in between the keyframes. Thus, as the animation moves
from Frame 1 to Frame 10, the large red ball will gradually
shrink and turn blue with each passing frame until it
reaches the values you set for it at Frame 10. Keyframing
and interpolation allow you to create complex animations
with a minimum amount of work.

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Appendix D: Creating full hierarchy for a horse -- including curve channels for the

and Converting tails.

objFile:Runtime:Geometries:horseHi:horseHiP3.obj
Hierarchy Files 1 hip zxy
2 abdomen zyx
3 chest zyx
4 lShldr yzx
5 lUpArm yzx
6 lForeArm yzx
arranged. It outlines the parent-child relationships between 7 lWrist yzx
groups. Once created it can be imported into Poser 8 lHand
yxz
New 4 rShldr yzx
Figures library. 5 rUpArm yzx
6 rForeArm yzx
7 rWrist yzx
8 rHand
yxz
• 4 lowNeck zyx
5 upNeck zyx
• The hierarchical connections (parent-child 6 head yzx
2 lThigh yzx
relationships) of the body parts. 3 lLeg yzx
4 lShin yzx
• The desired rotation order of each body part. 5 lAnkle yzx
6 lFoot yxz
2 rThigh yzx
• 3 rLeg yzx
4 rShin yzx
5 rAnkle yzx
6 rFoot yxz
2 tail1 zyx curve
save documents in a text-only format. 3 tail2 zyx curve
4 tail3 zyx curve
5 tail4 zyx curve
ikChain LeftLeg lThigh lLeg lShin lAnkle

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ikChain RightLeg rThigh rLeg rShin rAnkle

ikChain LeftHand lShldr lUpArm lForeArm lWrist lHand Hierarchy File Body
ikChain RightHand rShldr rUpArm rForeArm rWrist rHand
There are more samples in the Tutorials > Figure Creation folder
that is included with your Poser installation.
one shown below:

Hierarchy File Explained

The following section explains the various parts of the

Hierarchy File Header

parent-child relationship, of the body part. In this case,

the abdomen body part is a child of the body part of the
part on the next level up. Hierarchy levels are numbered in
depending order, so the next level up from this part is 1.
In the example below, the lShin object is located on the
is read into Poser where a geometry resource is created
3rd level of the hierarchy. The closest level 2 line above
would be the lThigh, so the lShin is a child of the lThigh.

Reading from the geometry resource is dramatically faster.

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The indenting of the lines is not processed but is helpful Poser uses the following XY and Z axis orientations:
visually to denote the hierarchy levels.

part. In the example the part is called abdomen. This

The X, Y, and Z planes that make up 3D space.

Assigning a rotation order is a three step process:

The 3-character string at the end of the line represents •

the rotation (or gimbal) order of the body part. A rotation placed lengthwise through the object. If the object,

since that is the axis along which the leg would twist.

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• Of the two remaining rotations, place the one most

likely to become 90 degrees last. This helps reduce transformations. This is a method of bending designed for
rotation lock problems that occur when the middle
rotation approaches 90 degrees.
2 tail1 zyx curve
• Place the remaining rotation channel second. 3 tail2 zyx curve
4 tail3 zyx curve
5 tail4 zyx curve
• Some objects are built non-aligned to the major axes. Inverse Kinematic Chains
In this case, you are able to “align” the coordinate
system of the body part later, while adjusting the joint that compose the individual inverse kinematic chains.

order that seems closest to what would be desired. format:

When you align the part later, the twist axis you choose
becomes aligned down the length of the body part. endGoal

Linking Body Parts Stored in Separate

OBJ Files

line. This path is relative to the Poser folder.

The name of an ikChain cannot contain spaces.
Here is an example of three links using this method:

Using Curved Transformations

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Converting Hierarchy Files ending is RSR. On a Macintosh, the resource

Selecting File > Convert Hier File opens a standard Open
dialog box prompting to you locate and open a Poser resource on a Mac, use a resource editor to remove

by copying and pasting from the old one.

“About Poser Files” on page 918 for more information

it again, the conversion won’t re-create the geometry

using the text-based method (see “Global vs. Local

trying to make geometry changes, you need to either
Coordinates” on page 933). Since the introduction of
the graphical Setup room, this older method, while still
supported, is far longer and more tedious as it forces
you to do everything manually while in a text-based
1. Choose File menu > Convert Hier File. The Open dialog
text editor, you can import it into Poser by converting it
appears.

resource is then used by Poser, in conjunction with OBJ 3D 1.

and click Open.

2.
created.

3. The hierarchy conversion may take several minutes if

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4.

5.

format).

Verifying Hierarchy Files

Once you begin adjusting the joints you are not able to

joint changes in place. Make sure that all Parent-Child

relationships are correct before editing joint parameters.
You can make geometry corrections later, but you cannot
change the hierarchy without creating different joints from
scratch again.

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Appendix E: Media DirectShow

QuickTime
wmv

mov
Uncompressed

Various
WMA9 <none>

<none>

Support 32-bit

AVI avi Various <none>

(Video for
Windows)
Media File Video Audio Resolution
Library Extension Codec Codec Limitation

Media
Foundation
m4v H.264 AAC 480 x 320 Writing Your Own Presets
Media m4v H.264 AAC 960 x 640 Some third-party video editing and playing software installs
Foundation
codecs that are not furnished with Windows. Poser does
Media m4v H.264 AAC 1136 x 640 not prompt you to choose a third-party codec when you
Foundation
choose AVI as an output format.
Media m4v H.264 AAC 1024 x 768
Foundation In Windows systems, the default presets for AVI export are
located in the Runtime\plugins\P2_MPDirectShow\avi.xml
Media m4v H.264 AAC 1280 x
Foundation 1024

Media mp4 H.264 AAC 480 x 360

Foundation avinew.xml),
Media mp4 H.264 AAC 1280 x
Foundation 1024 avi.xml
DirectShow avi dv pcm 720 x 480

DirectShow avi Uncompressed pcm <none> are as follows:

DirectShow avi MJPEG pcm <none>

• name: The name of the preset as you want it to appear
DirectShow wmv WMV9 WMA9 <none> on the Format menu in the Movie Settings dialog (as
DirectShow wmv WMV9 WMA9 <none>

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• extensions
preset. the following:
<?xml version=”1.0” encoding=”utf-8”?>
<Presets>
• showUI: Displays the UI available for the codec. <MediaPreset name=”AVI (LAGS)” extensions=”avi” showUI=”true”>
<video codec=”Lagarith Lossless Codec” framerate=”30”/>
<audio codec=”pcm” samplerate=”44100” channels=”2”/>
• video element: Describes the parameters that will </MediaPreset>
<MediaPreset name=”AVI (MS Video1)” extensions=”avi”>
apply to the output video. It has the following optional <video codec=”MSVC” framerate=”30”/>
attributes. <audio codec=”pcm” samplerate=”44100” channels=”2”/>
</MediaPreset>
<MediaPreset name=”AVI (XVID)” extensions=”avi”>
codec: The name of the video codec that will be <video codec=”XVID” framerate=”30”/>
<audio codec=”pcm” samplerate=”44100” channels=”2”/>
used to compress the video </MediaPreset>
</Presets>
framerate: The number of frames per second, of
the video you will create.

• audio element: Describes the parameters that will

apply to the output audio. It has the following optional
attributes:

codec: The name of the audio codec that will be

used to compress the audio

samplerate: The sample rate for the audio (higher

sample rates are higher quality)

channels
(1 for mono, 2 for stereo)
To create your own media presets, you will need to use Additional presets added in the Movie Settings dialog.

Appendix E: Media Support

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Index
Posing 223 Resample Key Frames 491,
Posing heads 224 515
Animatable origin 209, 241, 536 Retime Animation 491, 514
Animation 940 Shortcuts 70
Frame Rate 501 Skip Frames 492
Overview 493 Animation Palette 62, 495, 500
Symbols
Retiming 491 Layers tab 516
3D Motion Blur 444 Saving 540 Options menu 503
3D Mouse 38 Skipping frames 492 Animation Sets 520
3D Objects Tools 495 Applying to Figures 522
Exporting 851 Animation Controls 62, 65, 495, Creating 520
Importing 846 496 Setting attributes 522
3D Space 928 Animation Layers 501 Antialias Document 418
Adding poses with 159 Area Render 96, 416
A Base layer 517 Atmosphere 331
Controls 518 Attenuation 289
Acquire from Auto 433 Creating 517 Auto Balance 227
329 Deleting 517 Auto Grouping 749
Add Refraction 330 Poses with 604 Automatic conforming 151
Add Subsurface Scattering 330 Previewing 517
559
Affected actors 783, 808 Animation Menu Commands
All Elements 511 Clear Sound 492 B
Loop Interpolation 491
Ambient 320
Make Movie 491, 559 Backfacing polygons 443
Ambient Occlusion 332
Mute Sound 492 Background
and Lights 288
Play Movie File 492 Pasting onto 123
Animals Quaternion Interpolation 492 Background color 103, 442
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Background Footage Creating 770 Calculation Order 211

Clearing 124 Selecting 770 Camera 939
Showing 124 Breadcrumbs 138 Camera Controls 54, 64, 261
Background Pictures 442 Bullet Physics Camera Parameters 267
Clearing 123 Calculating Simulations 542 Depth of Field 268
Importing 845 Creating a Simulation 541 Focal 268
Showing 123 Deleting Constraints 557 Focus Distance 268
Background shader 442 Deleting Simulations 558 F-Stop 270
Base Layer 517 In Hair Room 595 Hither 271
Bend 207, 216 Live Simulation 541 Perspective 268
Body maps 309 Object Constraints 550 Pitch 273
Body Parts Object Types 542 Roll 273
Bending 122 Choreographed 544 Shutter Close 271
Posing 191 Rigid Dynamic 545 Shutter Open 271
Properties 206 Soft Dynamic 545 XYZ Dolly 272
Selecting 191 Painting Constraints 555 XYZ Orbit 273
Saving objects to Library 558 XYZ Scale 272
Bones
Setting Object Properties 546 Yaw 273
Assigning names to polygons
Simulation Settings 549 Yon 271
775
Attaching to geometry 775 Bump 322 Camera Plane 263
Deleting 771 Bump maps 310 Camera Properties 266
Inserting 771 Bump Maps 301 Animating 267
Naming 774 BVH 535 Name 266
Positioning 772 Exporting 851 Visible 266
Symmetry 774 Cameras 167
Bone structure C Auxiliary 257
About 768 Camera dots 275
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Changing 98, 261 Center of Mass 227 Collision offset 610, 612
Creating 265 Chain Break Tool 200 Collision options 606
Dolly 259 Constrained cloth groups 613
Face 258 With replaced geometry 244 Constrained group 615
Flyaround 262 Clothing 234 Creating morphs with 620
Focal Length control 264 Conforming 235 Creating props with 620
Left Hand 259 Conforming vs Dynamic 604 Delete dynamic group 615
Locking 274 Dynamic 235 Delete simulation 607
Main 257 Cloth Room Displaying tools 66
Mini Camera Controls 97 Air damping 620 Draping from zero pose 611
Orthographic 260 Calculate simulation 617 Dynamic cloth groups 613,
Pointing 274 Choreographed cloth groups 615
Posing 257 613, 615 Dynamic friction 611, 620
Positioning 262 Clear simulation 617 Figure collision options 611
Right Hand 259 Cloth controls 608 Fold resistance 619
Roll control 264 Cloth decorations 614 Ignoring feet collisions 611
Rotation trackball 263 Cloth density 619 Ignoring hand collisions 611
Saving camera sets 275 Cloth draping 607 Ignoring head collisions 611
Scale control 264 Cloth dynamics controls 616 New dynamic group 614
Transforms 272 Cloth groups 612 Play simulation 617
Camera views Clothifying objects 608 Reset 620
and posing 186 Cloth parameters 620 Rigid decorative cloth groups
Cartesian Coordinates 931 Cloth self-friction 619 616
Cartoon 116 Cloth simulators 605 Shear resistance 619
Cartoon Tones 127 Collision depth 610, 612 Simulation name 606
Collision friction 620 Simulation range 606
Cartoon With Line 116
Collision objects 609 Simulation settings 607
Cast shadows 208
Soft Decorative cloth groups
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615 Loading 144 Using with grouped objects

Static friction 610, 619 Managing 144 699
Stretch damping 619 Online 8 Delete Figure 230
Stretch resistance 619 Searching from Library 179 Deleting objects 212
CM2 921 Content Collections 181 Dependent Parameter Editor
COLLADA 853 Content Paradise 183 Graph 730
Export 853 Content Room 183 Dependent parameters 925
Import 853 Context menus Dependent Parameters 726, 924
Collision detection 208 Actor 85 Dials 214
Collisions 81 Background 94 Driven value 734
Color 299 Cameras 93 Natural value 734
Color-blind accessibility 38 Figure 87 Teaching 736
Colors 102 Lights 91 Depth Cueing 100, 119
Color Tool 201 Prop 90 Depth Map Shadows 287
Comic Book Preview 128 Copy 74 Depth of Field 268, 444
Compound nodes CR2 921 Dial Groups 212
Collapsing 410 Crease angles 209, 240, 449, 467 Diffuse Color 318
Creating 405 Create Atmosphere 331 Direct Manipulation Tool 202
Compressed Files 72 Current Actor Menu 83, 210 Displacement Bounds 205, 208
Conforming Clothing 235 Custom Scatter 378 Displacement Map 303
Adding from Library 153 Cut 73 Displacement maps 443
605 Display Controls 57, 112
Constraint Channels 251 D Display Menu Commands
Content Background Color 122
Deformers
Downloading 184 Bend Body Parts 122, 207, 598
Showing and hiding 120
Installing 184 Camera Layout 118
Using 672
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Camera View 117, 256, 261 Display origin 209 Edit Menu Commands
Clear Background Footage Display Units 38 Copy 74
124 Documentation 6 Copy Picture 75
Clear Background Picture 123 Document Style 112, 119 Cut 73
Deformers 120 Document Title 78 General Preferences 35, 72,
Depth Cued 119 449, 468
Document Window 56, 77
Document Style 117, 119 Memorize 76, 213, 779, 780
Options Menu 78
Element Style 117, 119 Paste 74, 514
Preview tab 77
Figure Circle 122 Redo 73
Size 81
Figure Style 117, 119 Restore 75, 76
Document Window Size 66
Fly Around 118 Shortcuts 66
Foreground Color 122 Double-click Behavior 39 Undo 73, 198, 575, 709
Frame Selected 118 Downloading content 184 Elements List 511
Ground Shadows 121 Download Manager 21, 176 Element Style 113, 119
Guides 124 Drop to Floor 229 Embedded library 41
Orbit Selected Mode 118 Duplicate 75 Enable hardware AO 425
Paste onto Background 123 Dynamic Clothing 235 Enable hardware shading 424
Production Frame 105, 118, Adding from library 604
Enable Hardware Shadows 424
561 Saving to Library Palette 620
Shortcuts 67 Endpoints
605
Show Background Footage Matching 206
Dynamics
124 End User License Agreement 12
Recalculating 213, 491
Show Background Picture 123 Exit 73
Show Camera Names 118, E Exporting 850
256 3D Objects 851
Tracking 120 Editing Tools 55, 64, 194 BVH Motion Files 851
Use Background Shader Node Using 192 Flash Files 852
124 Images 79, 850
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Painter Scripts 851 Faces 159 Lock Figure 228

SWF Files 852 Posing 217 Lock Hand Parts 228
Extended details 137 Falloff zones 795 Set Figure Parent 244, 246, 762
External library 41 Blending 800 Shortcuts 67
Eyedropper Tool 315 Capsule 797 Show All Figures 231
Eyes Changing display mode 803 Symmetry 229
Posing 220 Deleting 801 Use Inverse Kinematics 188,
Enabling and disabling 802 764
F Spherical 796 Use Limits 190, 191, 228
Weight maps 811 Figure Parameters 215
Facebook Working with 799 Figure Parent 244
Uploading to 109 FastScatter 330 Figures 148
Face Parameters 218 FC2 921 Assigning IK chains 778
Face Room 568 Figure Circle 122 Creating 766
Adjusting points and lines 575 Figure Height 226 Hiding 231
Applying Heads 582 Figure Hierarchy 757 Posing 191
Applying shape 576 Figure Menu Commands Properties 205
Caricatures 581 Auto Balance 228 Replacing 150
Customizing textures 576 Conform To 154 Showing all 231
Displaying tools 65 Create Full Body Morph 723, Testing original 777
Face Shaping tool 577 851 Visibility 205
Photo Lineup 572 Create Walk Path 527 Figure Style 113, 119
Saving faces 583 Delete Figure 230 File Compression 72
Selecting images 571 Drop to Floor 229 Using 43
Textures and 582 Figure Height 226 File Menu Commands
Using images with 570 Genitalia 227 Close 71
Using morphs with 581 Hide Figure 231 Convert Hier File 946
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Exit 73 632 Analyzing 645

Export 79, 850, 851 Preparing scene 624 Creating 722
Import 529, 530, 535, 767, 844, Rigid Features Method 637 Deleting 725
845, 846, 848 Simulation Methods 629
New 71 Smooth Method 635 G
Open 71 Soft Features Method 635
Page Setup 72 Tighten Method 630 Gamma correction 459, 477
Print 72 Fitting Tools 718 Per texture 460, 478
Recent Files 71 Loosen Fit 719 Gamma node 360
Revert 72 Sag 719 Genitalia 227
Run Python Script 72, 914 Tighten Fit 718 Geometry
Save 71 Flash 559 Importing 768
Save As 11, 72 Rendering options 564 Global coordinates 933
Shortcuts 66 Flash Files Global Illumination 438
File Search 40 Exporting 852 GoZ 857
Deep 40 Flat Lined 115 Gradient bump maps 348
Shallow 40 Flat Shaded 115 Graphs 63, 495, 505
FireFly 421 Focus Distance 127, 268 Editing 507
Saving render presets 448, 466 Parameter dials 215
Force Limits 215
Fitting Room 623 Using with Animation Palette
Foreground Color 102, 122
625 508
Frame Indicator 496, 502
Completing the Simulation Ground Plane 124
641 Frame Rate 501
Frame Selected 265 Color of 103
Creating Fitting Simulation 627
Front-Back 216 Ground Shadows
Goal 628
Showing and hiding 121
Object 628 F-Stop 270
Painting Vertex Weights 638 Group Editor 742
Full Body Morphs
Auto Grouping 749
957 Poser Pro 2014
Reference Manual

Creating groups 750 Hair Room Root stiffness falloff 595

Polygon mode 748 Add hairs to selection 591 Root width 590
Using 743 Air damping 594 Scale hairs 592
Vertex mode 748 Bend resistance 595, 596 Setting dynamics 593
Welding groups 750 Calculate dynamics 595 Show populated 589
776 Clear selection 593 Spring damping 594
Grouping objects 246 Clumpiness 590 Spring strength 594
Grouping Tool 201 Collisions 594, 596 Style hairs 590
Groups Constrain length 593 Styling hair 588
About 751 Curl hairs 592 Tip width 589
GroupsCloth 755 585 Translate hairs 592
GroupsHair 755 Displaying tools 65 Translate In/Out 592
Falloff 593 Twist 592
Guides 124
Gravity 594 Verts per hair 590
Growing hair 586 Hand Models
H
Hair density 589 Using 222
Hair 161 Hair length 587 Hand Parameters
Adding strand-based to library Kink delay 590 Grasp 221
601 Kink scale 590 IndexBend 221
Adding to scene 162 Kink strength 590 PinkyBend 222
Colors 599 Lengthen 593 RingBend 221
Materials 599 Length variance 587 Spread 221
Prop hair 233 Position force 595 Thumb 221
Strand-based 233 Pull back 588 ThumbBend 221
Hair Edit Tool 590 Pull down 588 Hands 163
Remove hairs from selection Locking 228
Hair Parameters 598
592 Posing 221
Hair Properties 597 Root stiffness 595, 596
958 Poser Pro 2014
Reference Manual

Presets 222 Reordering scene elements Understanding 189

HD2 921 761 Using 764
HDRI Export 852 Rotation orders 762 IK Angles
HDR Images 428 Standard hierarchy 762 Setting and memorizing 778
HDRI Output 459, 477 Using 759 IK Chains
Working with branches 760 Assigning 778
Head Lengths 125
Hierarchy Files 942 Creating 763
Head maps 307
Body 943 Images
Help
Converting 946 Exporting 79, 850
Getting 9
Header 943 Importing 844
Online Support 9
IK Chains in 945 3D Objects 846
Other Resources 10
Linking parts 945 Background Pictures 845
Reference Manuals 9, 11
Verifying 947 ImportingProps 846, 848
Smith Micro Sales 10
Hier Files Movies 844
Technical Support 10
Converting 72 Poser Documents 846
Third-Party Forums 10
Highlights 319 Tips & Tricks 847
Help Menu Commands
About Poser 9 Highlight Size 320 Importing Geometry 768
Content Paradise 9 Hip-Shoulder Relationship 125 Include morphs when
Other Web Links 10 Hither 271 conforming 205
PoserPython Manual 7, 9, 909 Horizon Line 126 Include scales when conforming
Poser Reference Manual 6, 9 HR2 921 206
SmithMicro Web Links 10 Index of Refraction 354
Hidden Line 114 I Indirect Light 435
Hierarchy 939 Indirect Light quality 435
IBL 278, 332, 428
Hierarchy Editor 63, 756 277
Filtering display 760 IK 187, 495
Indicators 283
Object relationships 761 Enabling/Disabling 188
959 Poser Pro 2014
Reference Manual

Installing content 184 Parts of 782 Adding 513

Installing Poser 12, 26 Using 782 and timing 536
Upgrading from earlier version Joint end points 790 Copying 514
31 Joint front-back 792 Editing on timeline 512
Internal name 207 Joint Orders Moving 514
Interpolation Setting 806 Recording 497
Loop 491 Joint parameters Removing 513
Quaternion 491 Editing 787 Resampling 491, 515
Interpolation Controls 509 Retiming 514
Joints
Selecting 513
Interpolation types 506 Adding affected actors 808
Keyframes tab 504
Irradiance caching 435
788 Keyframing 940
Item List panel 137
Fine-tuning 777 Ks Microfacet Node 364
J Setting limits 779
Teaching 728 L
Joint angles Joint scaling 794
Setting 804 Launch Behavior 35
Joint Settings
Joint attributes 783 Library
Copying and saving 811
Types of 788 Searching 177
Joint side-side 792
Joint bend 792 Library Palette 59, 130
Joint twists 790
Accessing content libraries
Joint bulges Joint up-down 792 139
Editing 805
Adding actors 175
Joint Centers 789 K Adding dynamic cloth 621
Joint display options 783 Adding items 172
Joint Editor 63 Keyboard shortcuts 66
Adding items manually 176
Deformer indicators 785 Keyframe Controls 499, 504
Adding libraries 140, 143
Joint strength indicators 786 Keyframes
960 Poser Pro 2014
Reference Manual

Adding Material collections Removing libraries 143 Shadow 293

169 Reopening folders 136 XYZ Rotation 294
Adding materials 168 Saving scenes to 170 XYZ Translation 295
Adding scenes from 170 Search tab 60 Light Properties
Adding strand-based hair 601 Showing folder counts 136 Advanced Materials 289
Always on top 136 Showing item details 138 Ambient Occlusion 288
Categories 147 Showing path tool tip 136 Animating 286
Categories Tab 59 Switching libraries 140 Atmosphere Strength 288
Category icons 131 Thumbnail size 138 Attenuation 289
Conforming clothing 153 Thumbnail size in List 139 Color 289
Content Collections 181 Tree indentation 138 Depth Map Shadows 287
Creating subfolders 171 Tree options 138 Include in OpenGL Preview
Deleting items 176 Using arrow keys with 148 286
Details options 139 Using Download Manager 176 LightType 287
Displaying 133 Library selection 131 On/Off 287
Display options 136 Library Tab 59 Raytrace Shadows 287
Dragging and dropping 177 Light Controls 53, 64, 282 Set Parent 289
Dynamic clothing 604 Light emitter 208, 240 Shadow Blur Radius 287
Extended Details image 139 Shadow Min Bias 287
Light Emitter 205
Favorites tab 60 Shadows 287
Light Parameters 292
Folder thumbnails 138 Visible 286
Angle End 293
General options 136 Lights 166, 939
Angle Start 293
Horizontal gap in List 139 Adjusting 280
Color 294
Label Height in List 139 Aiming 281
Distance End 293
Library tabs 131 Animating 295
Distance Start 293
List options 139 Color 280
Intensity 295
Maintaining 171 Creating 278
Scale 294
Refreshing 148
961 Poser Pro 2014
Reference Manual

Deleting 281 Magnets 672 Delinking nodes 341

Image Based Lights 278 Adding weight maps 681 Displaying tools 65
Indicators 283 and Weight Maps 679 Entering node values 342
277 Animating zones 687 Expanding nodes 341
Intensity 280 Base Properties 676 Linking nodes 340
Light position control 282 Creating 673 Moving nodes 342
Memorizing 295 Locking 679 Node connections 337
Point lights 277 Object Parameters 675 Nodes
Properties 285 Object Properties 674 2D Texture Nodes 396
Restoring 295 Properties 674 3D Texture Nodes 386
Saving and loading 295 Using Editing tools with 674 Ambient Occlusion 381
Selecting 278 Zone Falloff Graph 678 Anisotropic 360
Spotlights 278 Zone Properties 677 Blender 353
Light Style 331 Maps 299 Blinn 363
Limiting Motion 190 Map Strength 318 Brick 400
Lit Wireframe 115 Master Parameters 728 Cellular 390
Load Morph Target 208 Creating 211, 730 Clay 365
Editing 733 Color Math 357
Local coordinates 933
Indicator 213 Color Ramp 358
Lock Figure 228
Material Collections Component 355
Lock Object 224 Compound Nodes 405
Log Window 49 Adding to library 169
Diffuse 365
Looping 511 Material Room 314
Diffuse Nodes 365
About 334
Loosen Fit 719 dNdu 386
Animating nodes 343
LT2 921 dNdv 386
Collapsing nodes 341
dPdu 386
Creating nodes 338
M Deleting nodes 343
dPdv 386
dU 385
962 Poser Pro 2014
Reference Manual

dV 385 Root Background Node 349 Ambient Value 347

Edge Blend 355 Root Light Node 350 Angle 382
Environment Map Nodes Root Material 345 Angle End 350
383 Root Nodes 345 Angle Expo 351
FastScatter 379 Simple Color 358 Angle Start 350
fBm 387 Skin 367 Attenuation 355
Fractal Sum 386 Special Nodes 367 Auto Fit 398
Frame Number 385 Specualr 364 Background 379, 380, 383,
Fresnel 383 Specular Nodes 360 399, 405
Gather 382 Sphere Map 383 Balance 395
Glossy 362 Subsurface Skin 368 Base Color 393, 394, 403
Granite 394 Tile 401 Bias 387, 388, 389, 392, 403
Hair 371 Toon 366 Blending 354
HSV 359 Turbulence 389 Blue 358
Image Map 396 358 Bottom 387, 388, 389, 392
Math Functions 356 U Texture Coordinate 385 Brick Color 400
Math Nodes 353 Variable Nodes 384 Brick Height 400
Gamma 360 Velvet 371 Brick Width 400
Movie 403 V Texture Coordinate 385 Bump 347, 350
N 384 Wave 2D 396 Cell Mode 391
Noise 389 Wave 3D 396 Cloud Color 392
Phong 361 Weave 402 Color 349, 350, 355, 359, 365,
PoserSurface 345 Wood 395 384, 390, 391, 402
ProbeLight 366 Options menu 335 Color Mode 358
Raytrace Nodes 379 Properties Complexity 392
379 Alternate Diffuse 347 Component 355
Refract 380 Alternate Specular 347 Dark Color 367
Root Atmosphere Node 351 Ambient Color 346 Dark Wood 395
963 Poser Pro 2014
Reference Manual

DepthCue Color 352 Image Resolution 351 401, 402

DepthCue EndDist 352 Image Source 397 Normals Forward 349, 361,
DepthCue On 352 Index of Refraction 380, 383 362, 363, 364, 365, 367,
DepthCue StartDist 352 Ink Color 367 371
Diffuse 351 Inner Color 354, 355 Octaves 387, 388, 389
Diffuse Color 346, 349, 365 Input 354, 359 Opaque in Shadow 372
Diffuse Value 346, 365 Intensity 350, 390, 391 Outer Color 354, 355
Displacement 347 Jitter 391 Point 355
Eccentricity 363 Ka 368, 371 Quality 379, 380, 383
Edginess 371 Kd 365, 368, 371 Random Color 391
ETA 368 Ks 363, 365, 368, 371 Ray Bias 380, 381, 382
Exposure 366 Light Color 367 Red 358
Filtering 399 Lighting Nodes 360 347
Fractal Increment 388 Light Wood 395 348
Frame Number 405 Line Width 367 347
Frequency Gap 388 Loop Movie 405 347
Gain 387, 388, 389, 392, 403 Math Argument 356, 357 363
Global Coordinates 391, Max 390 Refraction Color 347
392, 393, 394, 395, 396, Max Dist 381, 382 Refraction Value 347
405 Min 390 Root Color 372
Gradient Bump 348 Mirror U 399, 405 Root Softness 372
Gradient Mode 348 Mirror V 399, 405 Rotation 384
Green 358 Mortar Color 400, 401 Roughness 363, 364, 365, 371
Height 403 Mortar Thickness 402 Samples 381, 382
Highlight Size 346, 349, 372 Mortar Width 400 Saturation 359, 366
Hue 359 Noise 400, 402 Scale 392, 394, 395
IBL Contrast 351 Noise Type 388, 389, 391, ScaleX 391
Image Mapped 399, 404 392, 393, 394, 395, 396, Scale Y 391
964 Poser Pro 2014
Reference Manual

Scale Z 391 Tile Height 401 X 384, 385

Shades 395 Tile Shape 401 XDir X 361
ShadowCatchOnly 348 Tile Width 401 XDir Y 361
Sharpness 363 Tip Color 372 XDir Z 361
Sheen Color 368 ToonID 348 X Index 390
Signed 388 Translucence Color 347 X Scale 387, 388, 389
Size 362 Translucence Value 347 Y 384, 385
Skin Color 367 Transparency 347 Y Index 390
Sky Color 392 Transparency Edge 347 Y Scale 387, 388, 389
Softness 380, 383, 393, 400, Transparency Falloff 347 Z 384, 385
402 Turbulence 391, 394, 395, Z Index 390
Specular 351 400, 402 Z Scale 387, 388, 389
Specular Color 346, 349, U Highlight Size 361 Renaming nodes 339
361, 362, 363, 364, 372 U Offset 398, 400, 402, 404 Selecting nodes 338
Specular Roll Off 363 U Scale 398, 403 Materials 167, 419
Specular Value 346, 361, Value 357, 359 Basics 297
362, 364 Veins 394 Rooms 391, 392
Spot Color 393, 395 Velvet Color 371 Roots 393
Spot Size 393 Velvet Sheen 371 MAT poses 157
Spread 367 V Highlight Size 361 Maximum bucket size 436
Strength 381 Video Source 403 MC6 922
Surface Color 366 V Offset 398, 400, 402, 404
Memorizing Items 76
Texture Coordinates 398, Volume Color 352
Memory Dots 60, 61, 65
404 Volume Density 352
UI 49
Texture Strength 399, 405 Volume Noise 352
Thickness 368 Volume On 352 Menu Bar 53
Threshold 393 Volume StepSize 352 Minimum displacement bounds
Tile 401 V Scale 398, 403, 404 437
965 Poser Pro 2014
Reference Manual

Minimum shading rate 436 Motion Capture OBJ 921

Morphing Tool 202 535 Object Menu Commands
Combine tab 701 Movies Add Constraint 251
Create tab 705 2D Motion Blur 561 Change Parent 244, 246, 622
Creating morphs with 700 Antialiasing 560 Create Camera 265
Morphs Flash 559 Create Grouping 247
Adding custom 720 Frame rate 562 Create Light 279
Combining 721 559 Create Magnet 673
Importing 844 Create Wave 694
props 716 Playing 492 Create Wind Force 690
Creating custom 719 Rendering 491, 559 Delete Object 237, 255
Creating in other applications Rendering AVI 559 Load Morph Target 720, 721
719 Rendering fewer frames 562 Lock Actor 224, 274
Deleting morph targets 741 Setting time range 561 Point At 225, 226, 274, 282
Loading full body morphs 723 MT5 922 Properties 285
Multi/Sub-object Materials 298 Replace Body Part with Prop
740 Multi-threaded bending 36 243
Saving morph targets 740 Multi-threaded rendering 430 Set Parent 282
Spawning 721 Shortcuts 67
Splitting 213 N Spawn Morph Target 721
Morph Targets 923 Spawn Prop from Convex Hull
Creating in Poser 700 Name 207 254
External Binary Morphs 45 Normal maps 325, 348 Object popup menu 37
Spawning 721 Normals 939 Objects
Motion Adding new 145
Limiting 190 O Changing 144
Motion Blur Document 418 Deleting 255
966 Poser Pro 2014
Reference Manual

Duplicating 75 Enabling/disabling docking 48 Parameter Groups

Grouping 246 Floating 48 Creating 211
One-dimensional 928 Moving 46 Deleting 211
Three-dimensional 928 Project Guide 33 Parameters
Two-dimensional 928 Repositioning 46 Body 216
Zero dimensional 928 Resizing 46 Dependent 924
OBJ Files 924 Showing and Hiding 62 Figure 215
Occlusion culling 428 Parameter Dials 212 Memorizing 211
OpenGL Bend 216 Posing 216
Hardware Acceleration 82 Dependent Parameters 214 Restoring 211
Optimize simple materials 424 Displaying graph 213 Scale 215
Options Menu Editing 213, 214 Universal 215
Document Window 78 Face 218 Parameters Palette 57, 58, 65,
Front-Back 216 204, 209
Orbit Selected 265
Graph 215 Dial Groups 212
Origins
Min and Max limits 214 Options Menu 211
Following when conforming
Name 215 Using 193
206
Resetting 213 Parent
Outline 113 Scale 215 Changing 245
Sensitivity 215 Paste 74
P Side to Side 216
Paste Onto Background 123
Taper 215
Page Setup 72 Persistent size 42
Turn 216
Painter Scripts Twist 216 Perspective 929
Exporting 489, 851 Value 214 Phonemes 219
Palettes XYZ Rotate 217 Photoshop Files
Closing 48 XYZ Scale 215 Rendering in layers 460, 479
Docking 46, 48 XYZ Tran 217 Pictures
967 Poser Pro 2014
Reference Manual

Copying 75 Hierarchy of 920 Poser Workspace 938

Pixel samples 435 Locations 921 Poses 155
Planes 933 Morph targets 923 Figure poses 155
Play Controls 498, 503 Other types 922 INJ and REM 159
Play Range 503 Syntax of 923 MAT poses 157
Types of 919 MOR poses 159
PMD 922
Warning about editing 918 Other types 158
Point At 225
PoserFusion 871 Saving 224
Point Lights 277
3DSMax 872 with Animation Layers 159,
Indicators 284
Cinema4D 880 604
Polygon Hair node 379 LightWave 892 Posing
Polygons 938 Maya 885 And camera views 186
Pose dots 224 Pose Room 52 Body Parts 191
Pose Library 186 PoserPython 907 Posing Figures 186
Poser Documents Accessing manual 908 General principles 186
Importing 846 Basic structure 911 445
Poser Download Manager 176 Folder syntax 912 445
Poser Figures Methods Manual (opening) PP2 922
Hierarchy of 757 912 Preferences
Poser Files Running scripts 912 Document 35
About 918 Running scripts directly 914 General 35
Characters 923 Sample script 911 Interface 36
Clothing 923 Scripts Menu 913 Launch behavior 37
Common objects 923 Scripts Palette 913 Library 39
Downloads 922 Warnings about 908 Miscellaneous 43
Editing 919 Why used 908 Mouse input 37
Families 921 Writing scripts 912 Preferred State 36
968 Poser Pro 2014
Reference Manual

Render 41 Smooth polygons 208 Displacement Bounds 240

Preview Drawing 127 Visible 207 Display Origin 241
Preview Renderer 422 Visible in raytracing 207 Internal name 239
Preview Shadow Map Size 287 Properties Palette 57, 58, 204 Load Morph Target 240
Preview Styles 64 Props 164, 236 Name 239
3D Objects 236 Set Parent 240
Preview Tab
Adding to scene 165 Shading Rate 240
Context Menu 85
Creating 237 Smooth Polygons 240
Multiple views 98
Deforming 237 Visible 239
Single view 98
Deleting 237 Visible in Raytracing 239
Preview texture resolution 426
Importing 846 Python
Printing 72
Moving 237 Reinitializing 72
Procedural Shaders 304 Running Scripts 72
Origin 238
Production Frame 118 Parameters 241 Setting Editor 45
Project Guide 33 Properties 238 Python Scripts 63
Properties Replacing body parts with 242 Running 72
Bend 207 Resizing 237 PZ2 921
Body Part 206 Props Library 236 PZ3 921
Cast shadows 208 Props Parameters PZS 922
Collision detection 208 Scale 241
Collision settings 208 XYZ Rotate 241 Q
Crease angle 209, 240 XYZ Scale 241
Displacement bounds 208 XYZ Tran 241 Queue Manager 455, 474
Figure 205 Installing 30
Props Properties
Internal name 207 Sending jobs to 453, 471
Casts Shadows 239
Load Morph Target 208 Quick-Scale 105
Collision Detection 240
Name 207
Collision Settings 240 QuickTime
Shading rate 208
969 Poser Pro 2014
Reference Manual

Rendering Options 562 Rendering 78, 96, 107 Sketch Style Render 417, 489
Area Render 96, 106 Render Over 442
R Auto settings 432 Render Queue 453, 471
Background rendering 79 Multi-frame job 454, 472
Raytrace bounces 434 Comparing renders 107 Single frame job 453, 472
Raytrace Preview 426 Dimensions 80, 104 Renders
Raytracing 434 442 Displaying recent 63, 438
Visibility 205 in background 416 Render Settings 419
Recent Renders In separate process 430 Display Engine 423
Palette 108 Manual settings 433 Movies 426
Uploading to Facebook 109 New window 107 Preview Tab 422
Redo 73 Panning 107 Procedural Shader Preview
321, 329 Preview dimensions 80 424
303 Quality settings 431 Sketch Tab 422
Selecting render engine 106 Style Options 426
310
Separate Process 42 Tips and Tricks 427
Refraction 330 Settings 80
Registering Poser 32 Transparency Display 425
Render Menu Commands Render Tab 103
Reloading Textures 79, 419 Area Render 416
Remove Detached Nodes 333 Restoring Items 75
Materials 419
Render 416 Reuse Shadow Maps 420
MotionBlur Document 418
Render cache 43 Reload Textures 419 Reverting Changes 72
Render Dimensions 419 Render 416 Room Help 63
Rendered Image Cache 42 Render Dimensions 419, 420 Room Tabs 55
Render Engine Render in Queue 417 Rotate Tool 196
64-bit 458, 476 Render Settings 419, 421 Rotation 935
Render Engines 421 Reuse Shadow Maps 420 Rotation orders 762, 777
Shortcuts 69
970 Poser Pro 2014
Reference Manual

Rotation trackball 263 assigning 914 Simple shader view 316

RSR 921 Assigning in console 914 Simple view 316
Run in background thread 42 Scripts Shading rate 208
Editing in console 914 Shadow Blur Radius 287
S Scripts menu 913 Shadow catcher 330
Scripts Palette 913 Shadow light cameras 260
Sag 719 Select Figure Menu 83 Shadow Maps
Scale 215, 936 Selecting Clearing 80
Scale Tool 198 with Current Actor menu 193 Reusing 80, 420
Scaling zones 820 Setting Up Shadow Min Bias 287
Scatter node 372 Document Window 49 Shadows 100, 101
Scene Workspace 35 Casting 433
Adding items 145 Set Up Ambient Occlusion 332 Color of 103
Scene AO Options 288 Set Up Light Style 331 Shadows Only 442
Scenes Setup Room 765 Side to Side 216
Adding hair 162 779 Silhouette 113
Adding props 165 Geometry requirements 776 Simulation Proxies 254
Closing 71 Loading bone structure 768 Sketch Designer 63, 421, 486
Compressed 72
Brushes 487
Creating new 71 780 Checkboxes 487
Opening 71 Set Up Shadow Catcher 330 Exporting Painter Scripts 489
Opening recent 71 Set Up Toon Render 331 Parameters 488
Removing items 146
Shaders 328 Presets 487
Saving 71
Shader Window 315, 316 Rendering 489
Saving to Library 169
Advanced shader view 326 Sketch elements 486
Scene style options 425
Navigating 316 Sketch Style Render 417
Script buttons 914
971 Poser Pro 2014
Reference Manual

Skinning methods 833 Finding optimum setting 837 Templates 299

Skip frames 511 How it works 835 Creating 304
Smoothing geometry 448, 467 Modeling considerations 841 Texture caching 42
Smoothing groups 450, 469 Subsurface scattering 330, 434 Texture display 424
Smoothing Preferences 36 Subsurface Skin node 368 429
Smooth Lined 117 SWF Files Texture Map 304
Smooth Polygons 208, 443, 452, Exporting 852 Texture maps
470 Symmetry 229 300
Smooth Shaded 116 Syntax Texture Maps
Software Updates Brackets 923 Creating and using 305
Checking for 45 923 Textures
Tabs in 923 Creating for characters 304
Sound 529
Clearing 492 System Requirements 7 Reloading 79
Editing 529 Windows 8 Texture Shaded 117
Importing 529 This Element 511
Muting 492 T Threads
Syncing with motion 530 Number of 41
Tablet Mode 37
Spawn Prop from Convex Hull Ticker 138
Talk Designer 63, 496, 530
254 533 Tighten Fit 718
Splines 937 532 Tiled texture loading 429
Spotlights 278 Emotional tweaks 534 Time Control 502
Indicators 284 Head motions 534 Timeline
StuffIt Connect Taper 215 Editing Keyframes on 512
Uploading to 112 Taper Tool 199 Timeline Indicator 496
Subdivision Levels 206, 209, 241 Technical Support Tone mapping 447
Subdivision Surfaces 835 Types of 916 Tools
972 Poser Pro 2014
Reference Manual

Chain Break 200 Twist Tool 197 Walk Designer 63, 496, 522
Color 201 Applying walks 524
Direct Manipulation 202 U Blend and Tweak Styles 524
Grouping 201 Creating walks 523
Morphing 202 Undo 73 Figure Types 523
Rotate 196 Undo/Redo Loading walks 524
Scale 198 Setting number of 36 Saving walks 524
Taper 199 Universal Parameters 215 Views 523
Translate In/Out 198 Universal Poses 40, 157 Walk Paths
Translate/Pull 197 Updating Poser 32 Adding control points 528
Twist 197 Uploading to Facebook 79 Creating 526
201 Use custom gamma 360 Removing control points 528
Tool Tip Delay 136 Shaping curves 527
Toon outline 444 V Wardrobe Wizard 645
Toon Render 331 Analyzing full body morphs
Tracking 120 Vanishing Lines 127 645, 652
Tracking Mode 99 Vanishing point 929 Choosing original clothing 647
Transformation 935 Vertices 937 Clothing Types 649
201 Convert 645
Translate In/Out Tool 198
Convert From 648
Translate/Pull Tool 197 Visible 207
Converting options 650
Translation 187, 935 Visible in camera 205, 207, 239
Convert To 648
Transparency 324 Visible in raytracing 207 Figure Utilities 656
Transparency Maps 302, 310 Finding converted clothing
Tree list 137 W 652
Turn 216 Footwear 666
Wacro Drawer 316
Twist 216 Lights Utilities 662
Wacros 328
973 Poser Pro 2014
Reference Manual

Magnets Utilities 665 Weight Maps Quick Start Guide 63

More utilities 666 On Magnets 679 Room Help 63, 345, 568, 575
Morphs utilities 657 Welding groups 750 Room Tools 65
Prop utilities 661 Wind Force Fields 690 Shortcuts 70
Questions and answers 668 Parameters 693 Sketch Designer 63, 486
654 Properties 691 Talk Designer 63, 496, 532
Shape utilities 662 Window Menu Commands Walk Designer 63, 496, 523
Shift utilities 664 Animation Controls 65 Windows
Target library 648 Animation Palette 62, 495, Showing and Hiding 62
Texture utilities 660 500, 520 Wireframe 114
Utilities 655 Bullet Physics Controls 541 Workspace
Wave Deformers 694 Camera Controls 64 Customizing 45
Creating 694 Document Window Size 66 Setting up 45
Falloff Graph 697 Editing Tools 64 Setting Up 35
Object Properties 695 Graph 63
Parameters 697 Hierarchy Editor 63, 759 X
Using Editing Tools with 695 Joint Editor 63
Zone Properties 696 Libraries 63, 133 XYZ Rotate 217
Weight maps Light Controls 64 XYZ Scale 215
Activating 815 Log 49, 65 XYZ Tran 217
Adding 812 Memory Dots 65
Deactivating 815 Parameter Dials 204 Y
Deleting 814 Parameters Palette 65
Painting 815 Preview Styles 64 Yon 271
Painting bulge maps 819 Project Guide 34, 63
Painting tips 826 Python Scripts 63, 913 Z
Transferring to clothing 829 Quick Start 33
ZBrush 857
974 Poser Pro 2014
Reference Manual

Creating actor morphs 864

Creating full body morphs 860
Creating joint-controlled
morphs 865
Exporting objects to 859

871
Importing hair from 867
Morphing multiple items 862
Setting Poser path 857