I am a big fan of Poser. It is truly an amazing piece of software. I started with Poser 5, which I have reviewed in this forum and have grown with Poser and 3D modeling with software such as Carrara 3, Carrara 8, Amapi 5, TrueSpace 4, TrueSpace 7, Celestia, Sculptris, Poser 5, and now Poser 9.
If you wish a general overview of Poser, you can consult my review of Poser 5, and it will give a general overview of the product. Most of the features of Poser 9 are the same as in Poser 5, so people who are worried that Poser will be much different than what they are used to will find very little difference between Poser 9 and earlier versions of Poser as far as functionality and the interface.
The differences between Poser 5 and Poser 9 are the new figures with new special features such as weight mapping and rigging, and the rendering capabilities. The Firefly renderer in Poser 9 is much improved with ambient light capabilities, to give a more realistic image, and subsurface scattering capabilities. There is also the ability to make glowing objects in Poser 9 too.
The newer figures in Poser 9 are the most realistic figures. (These include Poser 8 figures, Alyson and Ryan and their variants, and Jessi, James, and child figures, Ben and Kate.) I was used to working with Poser 5 figures which though were kind of realistic, still rather looked like mannequins, but these figures with their high resolution textures mixed with the rendering capabilities of Poser 9, new morph target creation tools, weight mapping, and the like, it is possible to create characters and images that look absolutely lifelike. I was able with a little experimentation with lighting, textures, bump, subsurface scattering, and so on, able to create figures that looked very nearly like real people; it is absolutely amazing!
Poser 9 supports all the earlier versions of Poser including lighting sets, scenes, figures and characters created in earlier versions, textures, etc. So if you like a character that you created in an earlier version of Poser, you can import the character into P9 and work with it very easily. You can also import complete scenes into P9 and these scenes will benefit from the use of the new rendering capabilities.
The difference between the Firefly renderer in Poser 5 and that in Poser 9 are striking. Using Poser 5 renderer you can get somewhat realistic renders, but the figures still look like glorified mannequins, but in Poser 9 the subsurface scattering and ambient lighting really does make a difference in the renders. I experimented with both renderers and rendered Poser 5 figures in both and clearly saw the difference.
I tried working with Poser 5 figures in Poser 9 and I was able to get very realistic renders of Poser 5 figures using the Poser 9 renderer and even Poser 5 figures look very good and even they can approach looking like real persons. I made a series of renders of a character I created in Poser 5, based on Poser 5 meshes and textures, and by tweaking the material settings, and using bump maps, ambient lighting, and subsurface scattering settings, I was utterly stunned at how realistic my Poser 5 character looked. She looked very nearly like a real person -- even in close up renders. Even Poser 4 and older third party figures look very good using these same techniques.
Poser includes nearly all figures from earlier versions, including Poser 8, Poser 7, Poser 6, and Poser 5. Even some Poser 4 and 3 figures are included. And if that is not enough, you can add into the Poser 9 libraries, the libraries from earlier Poser versions, including original figures and created characters that are not included with the default Poser 9 set. There is a good set of props, and animals, many new, that are also included with Poser 9.
One particularly new feature in Poser 9 is the new morph target creation tool. ( I don't know what version this was first introduced in Poser, but it is indeed a powerful morph creation tool.) Now you can actually generate morph targets directly within Poser without having to go to another 3D modeling application such as Carrara, or using magnets or other deformers in Poser, which is how you created morph targets in earlier versions of Poser. Using sculpting tools, you can actually create the morph targets, modeling them on the figure itself directly, and then save them to the figure's parameter settings. And you don't have to worry about body part boundaries, you can sculpt morph targets over multiple body parts and save them all as parameter settings, or, I think, even as full body morphs. Of course, you can still use magnets and other deformers to morph or deform figures in Poser, and you can still export body parts to Carrara or another modeler that supports .obj format and morph target exporting, modify them and export the modifications as morph targets to Poser. The sculpting tools in Poser do have some limitations, so in some cases, it may be necessary to use this method to create some types of morph targets. (Update: 12/08/2013) I have been lately working with Project Human third party figures, included in Poser 9, and even Poser 4 figures and experimenting with textures, bump mapping, and morph target creation tool. The morph tool works very well for Poser 4 figures to smooth out joints in deep bending poses in the arms and knees.
There are a number of improvements in P9 too, including support for larger image files, more support for different file types, I haven't noticed too many bugs in P9.(**See my Update comment below on bugs.) Poser 9 also has a talk designer which now allows you so lip synch characters' speech without having to pose the mouth and lips manually. This is a great time saver and makes it easier to animate speech. Animating the characters' mouths manually to imported sound was a chore. I did it one time for a speaking character and it takes a great deal of work and time to animate the mouth and lips to sound manually. The hair works better too and looks more realistic than in P5. There are some slight adjustments and improvements in the interface, too, such as multiple undo levels in case you make a mistake. (Poser 5 had only one undo level.)
Another capability of Poser, especially later editions of Poser including Poser 9, is that you can integrate very well with Carrara. Even with Carrara 3 and Poser 5, there was some integrating capability. You could use Carrara to generate morph targets for Poser. Now there is much greater integration. Not satisfied with a Poser 9 render of your Poser scene? Not to worry. You can now import your Poser 9 scene into Carrara 8 and render the scene using Carrara's powerful render engine and include caustics, volumetrics, and lens flares, which the Poser 9 render engine does not support. You can even export individual Poser figures directly to Carrara to pose and then you can make models to add with your Poser figure in Carrara. With greater integratability of Poser with Carrara it opens whole new possibilities.
Of course, in this review forum, one commenter stated that Poser is very much "poseur". Well, Poser can sometimes leave you scratching your head as in a "poser." You have to read the manual and experiment to learn things in Poser. And perhaps it may be a bit of pretense on the advertiser's part that you can easily create characters in Poser, press a few buttons, and magically you will create instant lifelike human like characters -- hence "poseur." Not exactly. Poser still must be learned even version 9. It is not very intuitive, and you won't create characters instantly. I am still learning about Poser even though I have both Poser 5 and Poser 9. But if you are willing to take the time and work with it and experiment, you may be surprised at what you can do with it. I like to play around with the software and experiment. I play around with textures, lighting, the figures themselves and everything to see exactly what I can do with it. That is the only way you learn Poser. You can't be afraid to make mistakes. And of course, back up your work, and keep backups of your original Poser figures handy in case you accidentally modify one of the default figures irreparably. Make multiple copies of your projects saving a new version of the project each time you do something that you like, and then if the program crashes or if you get to a point where you can't fix a problem, you can go back to an earlier version without having to start all over again.
My hard copy of Poser 5 user's manual is worn out. And I frequently consult the digital manual for Poser 9. Yes, you do have to read and consult the manuals if you want to learn Poser! But this is true for any 3D modeler. I frequently consult all the manuals for all my modelers. But once you learn the software, it can be fun and you can then let the creativity flow!
Have fun!
Update: 12/08/2013 **********************
I still enjoy Poser, and I am about to upgrade to Poser 10 and will review in this forum.
As for bugs in the Poser 9. I notice that the FBM Hi Res version of James is a bit quirky. I have been having problems texturing it. It seems to mix up textures and eye textures appear on the body of the figure. And the genitalia don't work on the FBM Hi Res version of James.
A more perplexing bug is the disappearing library. This did not occur when I first got it, but happened only recently. When you open P9, the library (if you have it checked to appear) does not appear, instead leaving the blank white area, and a busy sign if you mouse over the area, where the library is supposed to be, or an empty grey area. And then if you try to go to the Content Room, Poser crashes. I did some research, and it seems that it is a fairly common problem. It occurs in Poser 8, Poser 9, Poser Pro 2012, and I think Poser 10 and Pro 2014. According to what I have read, there appears to be some degree of incompatibility with Poser and Internet Explorer (in particular Explorer 11). The reason for this is because Poser library uses some of the Internet Explorer functions. Some resolved the problem by rolling back to an earlier edition of Internet Explorer, such as Explorer 10. Some say, including Smith Micro, to also update your Flash player. I resolved it by updating Poser. I downloaded the SR3.2 upgrade and installed it, and the problem went away. Perhaps the update includes a patch for the IE 11 incompatibility problem.
****** Update and additional information.
Minimum hardware requirements:
I have upgraded to Poser Pro 2014 (reviewed in this forum) on my main machine, took the older versions off and since have installed Poser 9 and Poser 10 (both reviewed here) on two older machines and I began to notice issues with the programs related to performance on older and smaller machines.
If you choose to get any version of Poser, Poser 9, Poser Pro 2012, Poser 10, or Poser Pro 2014, you should be aware that all these versions of Poser work best on powerful machines. Poser is a memory hog and its features use a lot of processing cycles. I was able to get Poser to work on older machines such as an HP Pavilion with 2 GB RAM, with ATI Raedon video card with 256 MB VRAM, and a 2.6 GHz duo core processor, and a refurbished Dell computer with 4 GB RAM, and Nvidia card with 512 MB VRAM, and about 3.0 quad core processor. Both computers running Win XP Pro. But readers should be aware that with the addition of strand based hair and other features and when building complex scenes in any version of Poser, can become a problem with any but powerful machines. Both real time performance and rendering can suffer when you have large scenes in Poser and you are using a small or older machine.
It is possible to run these versions of Poser on older and smaller machines, but you will have to economize in order to be able to use it and get as much out of it as you can. See my review on Poser Pro 2014 for tips as to how you can economize your machine and its memory and processing resources to be able to use any of these later editions of Poser. Also the Poser manual has tips for how to adjust settings for rendering images, if you are having trouble rendering images. If you have anything less than 2 GB of RAM, forget it.
When I first gave reviews of Poser 9 and 10, I was using a computer with no less than 16 GB of RAM, a Nvidia video card with 2 GB VRAM, and a 3.6 GHz quad core with two threads per core for a total of eight virtual cores with Win 7 Home Premium and I had no problem running or using Poser 9, 10 or Pro 2014, either during the creation of scenes or rendering. (And I have since upgraded memory on my machine to 32 GB RAM and my OS to Win 8.1. and am now running Poser Pro 2014.) But problems arose when I installed my older versions of Poser onto the older machines. I began to have issues with rendering.
Smith Micro gives minimum system requirements that are far less than what you really need to run Poser and also be able to use its advanced features to full advantage. The specs they give are only to get the program onto the machine and just run it with the bare minimum.
What would I recommend as minimum requirements to use Poser 9 or Poser 10? No less than 8 GB RAM, a decent video card with at least 1 GB VRAM, and although you can get away with a 2.6 duo core processor, faster processors give better real time performance when posing figures in complex scenes. I would recommend at least a quad core processor of no less than 2.5 GHz speed. Of course, the more cores and more GHz speed the better. Poser 9 and 10 are 32 bit, so you can use them on all 32 bit operating systems. I would recommend no less than Win 7 Home, Win 8. Win Vista should work. Win XP Pro works, but you really need to be able to use up to 16 GB RAM efficiently; I don't like XP's handling of RAM. Poser Pro editions are 64 bit, but they also support 32 bit platforms. With any of the Poser Pro editions, you probably need no less than 16 GB RAM.
crispin
Steven A. Switzer