Poser Workflow

Updated: 9/29/2010

At some point, someone asked me to talk about workflow when using Poser to create and render digital art. I answered–don’t know if they ever saw it, as that thread on the DAZ3d Commons got buried pretty fast. But I can post it here for posterity. Let’s assume you own Poser 7 (I have Poser Pro2010 running) on a PC or Mac and something to render…and understand this basic terminology.

1. Fire up Poser with a basic scene and lights just for posing
2. Go to main camera
3. Bring in your character/figure.Change figure’s skin texture if you need to
4. If you have an item you need to make into a smart prop—like a gun or sword or cup or something—bring it in before the figure leaves its zero pose and pose it in the hand. Then parent the prop to the hand. you can save the parented prop to your props library as a smart prop now, and it will automatically go into that hand the next time you load it.
5. Pose figure – switch to Posing camera and back to main to check
6. Add props that are held or jewelry worn (already smart-propped)
7. Adjust pose
8. Bring in sets
9. Position the sets around the figure
10. Change materials as necessary
11. Adjust figure pose as necessary, like making the figure sit in a chair
12. Bring in clothing figures
13. Conform clothing and fiddle with the morphs
14. Change clothing textures if necessary
15. Adjust figure part visibility if required
16. Adjust camera angle and fStop with main camera (55 to 85 mm)
17. Delete all posing lights
18. Add lights just for this scene or set
19. Adjust lights (and test render after every adjustment)
20. Adjust poses and materials as necessary (and test render after every adjustment)
21. Add Ambient Occlusion to materials (and test render after every adjustment)
22. Set up final render at large size and higher quality
23. Set final color render running
24. Render alpha mat for figure if required for post-work (See this later post for more explanation)
25. Render z-depth for scene if required for post-work (See this later post for more explanation)
26. Save renders
27. Do postwork (another whole subject!)
28. Present image to forum!