I wasn't sure if the new Poser would be worth the money, but I decided to chance it. Now that I've had a chance to play with it a bit, I am very glad that I did.

I was mainly hoping that Poser 8 would load faster and that its OpenGL implementation would work better with my video card. I'm happy to say that both are true. It loads faster, runs smoother, performs better and is more stable than Poser 7, at least on my system. I know some people have reported frequent crashes, but so far my experience has been crash-free.

Part of the reason I stopped doing art as much as I used to was that Poser 7 just never worked very well on my computer. It became a real deterrent, since every time I opened Poser 7 it felt like a struggle. Well, from what I've seen so far the pain is gone and the fun is back.

And that's not to mention the new user interface! The UI changes were much needed, and really enhance the product. It still has the same controls I'm used to, so Poser users will have basically no learning curve with the new UI. But everything docks in a way that makes sense, there is a larger view window into the scene you're working on, and the content library UI has been completely reworked. That's right, no more clunky cumbersome library controls taking up too much space. That alone is worth the price of admission in my book.

The only negative I can report at all is that I had problems with the installer (see my last journal entry). But even that has a happy ending. Smith Micro tech support responded in less than an hour (!) and solved the problem. I never would have expected that from e-frontier.

So all in all I'm a happy camper. I am very, very glad I made the upgrade. Your mileage may vary of course, but based on my experience I highly recommend it to any user of Poser.

I just bought Poser 8 and was eager to check it out. Unfortunately, I can't give you my first impression because I haven't actually seen Poser 8 yet. All I get when I try to launch it is a dialog box that says:

C:\Program Files\Smith Micro\Poser 8\Poser.exe
This application has failed to start because the application configuration is incorrect. Reinstalling the application may fix this problem.

So far, I'm not impressed.

Update:

I entered an incident with Smith Micro support, I got a response in less than an hour and it solved the problem. I had to download and run an installer from Microsoft that updates some C++ library files. [link]

Haven't had time to check the product out yet, and it's a drag that their installer didn't do the trick, but at least Smith Micro gets two thumbs up for their technical assistance.

Isn't this the strategy drug dealers use? Well apparently e-on software decided it would work for them, too. Ever wanted to try Vue? If you do 3D art, and you haven't tried it, you really should. And now you can get the base version, Vue 7 Pioneer, for free. [link]

Before you ask... no, I'm not working for Vue and I don't get a percentage of the money you don't pay for this. No kickbacks here. But Vue does happen to be my favorite software in my 3D workflow, so I figure, why not spread the joy, y'know?

I'm sure this version only includes the very basic functionality, and they're hoping you'll buy upgrades and add-ons. Which, if you try it, you probably will. So be forewarned. Personally, I'm saving up for Vue 7 Complete -- sure, I'd love xStream, but who's got that kinda dough these days?

Anyway... go check it out. Download the thing, fire it up, see what you can make with it!

I am in need of some advice. I have a little money to spend on some 3D software, but I'm torn on the issue of what to get. The top two contenders right now are Carrara 7 [link] and 3d Coat [link] .

First, a little background. Currently, my workflow has me jumping between multiple applications: Silo for modeling and UV mapping; Paint Shop Pro for texture maps and post work; Poser for character posing and setup; and Vue for procedural textures, scene setup and final render. This can certainly be cumbersome at times, particularly the gap between Poser and Vue. It is possible to pose figures after they're in Vue, but it's extremely slow, memory-intensive and cumbersome; so once I import a figure into Vue, it essentially becomes a static prop.

This is one of the main appeals of Carrara 7: the ability to pose figures and even model geometry directly in the "assembly room," where the final scene is composed. This would give me much finer control over the details in the final render – I often seem to find things I don't like about how a figure came out of Poser, but reluctant to go back to Poser to make the change and then re-import it into Vue, especially if I've done work on the textures since the original import.

There are a number of new capabilities Carrara would also give me – particle effects, the physics engine and spline-based modeling come to mind – but the one that most appeals to me is the 3D paint feature. My current workflow involves the tedious method of painting a texture in 2D, then rendering the object to see how it looks, then making changes in PSP, re-rendering, over and over and over again until I'm satisfied with the way it looks. The ability to paint in 3D could save me a lot of pain and tedium, particularly when it comes to texturing across seams.

Which is where 3D Coat comes in. I've seen some posts on DAZ3D forums that imply that the 3D paint implementation in Carrara 7 isn't all it could be, and that 3D Coat does a better job of this. 3D Coat also has sculpting abilities, though I have no idea whether they're more powerful than the displacement painting available in Silo.

The other argument in favor of 3D Coat is that I'm a little hesitant to put all my eggs in one basket – meaning, I'm suspicious that Carrara will turn out to be a jack of all trades and master of none. On one hand, it would be nice to be able to do everything in one application. On the other, I could see it become a limiting factor. I have serious doubts, for instance, that Carrara's shaders, ligthing and render engine are as good as Vue's. And taking advantage of Carrara's flexible assembly room means doing the final render in Carrara.

I'm also influenced by Antony Ward's book, "Game Character Development" in which he advocates using several different applications depending on the task at hand, arguing that no one piece of software (even the expensive professional products like Maya) can do it all. 3D Coat would fill the gap in my current suite of available tools when it comes to following the workflow he describes in his book.

Anyway... I'm looking to you 3D artists out there for any advice you might have. Have you used either of these applications (or their predecessors)? What did you think of it? What would you do in my place? Any thoughts or perspectives at all would be more than welcome.