|
Jimco Software Reviews - Poser 6 (continued)
The Interface
The Poser interface (shown in figure 1) is not your typical application interface. It consists of 3D objects, panels, and dials, etc. This interface is the doorway to what often feels like another world. I think anyone who has worked with 3D applications knows the feeling when you find an application that produces such beautiful renders that it seems to come alive on the screen. Poser does that, and it's quite a thrill.
Figure 1 - The Poser 6 Interface
At the top of the interface are tabs representing the different "rooms" in Poser. Each room is suited to a particular task. In figure 1, the Pose room is displayed. The Pose room is where you'll want to work on posing your figures and props. There are several cameras to choose from so that you can get just the right view. More on that later.
 In the upper-left are the light controls (see figure 2), a small sphere with smaller circles representing each light in the scene. The small icons in the lower-right of the light control allow you to control the color of the light, create a new light, access the Light Properties, or delete a light. The small slider on the lower-left controls the brightness of the light. To adjust a light, you drag the small circles around the light sphere. As you do, the lighting for the scene is simulated on the light control sphere.
It is also possible to use the parameter dials to precisely adjust your lights or use the tranform tool or other tools to modify them in 3D space. This makes it possible to precisely position lights exactly where you need them as well as giving you precise control over shadow maps.
Directly below the Light Controls you'll find the memory dots, a series of 9 dots that can be used to remember user-interface setup, poses, and camera angles. There are actually three sets of memory dots, each accessible via a pull-down menu located directly above the dots. To store a setting in a dot, simply click the dot. Clicking that same dot later will restore the setting stored in that dot. This is a left-over from the original Metacreations interface I spoke of earlier, and I absolutely love this feature.
Under the UI dots, you'll find the Camera Controls. These controls allow you to move the camera around, select different cameras, change the focal length of the selected camera, etc. You can also select special hand cameras which is extremely useful when trying to position a figure's fingers precisely.
Below the Camera Controls is a series of marble-sized spheres that are used to set the display style of the preview window. I have it set to Texture Shaded in figure 1 which is why you see all of the textures applied to the figure. On a complex scene, rendering with textures would bring the box to its knees. Being able to quickly switch to another real-time render mode is a big plus.
 It's quite possible to create any conceivable facial expression in Poser. The capabilities in this area are nothing short of astonishing.
Along the top of the Preview window are a series of tools that you can use to work with your scene. These are rudimentary tools, but the way that the work isn't necessarily rudimentary at all. For example, the transform tool allows you to grab any part of a figure and move it easily, but thanks to a nifty feature called inverse kinematics, Poser will move body parts in conjunction in order to achieve a natural and realistic pose. Most of the time, Poser does a great job of keeping things in line, but it's possible to twist and distort your figure into all kinds of unnatural poses as shown in figure 3. Fortunately, restoring things back to their original state is easy.
Figure 3 - An Unnatural Hand Position - Recovering from this is easy.
To the right of the preview window, you'll find a panel with parameter dials on it. Parameter dials allow you to easily modify a vast array (really vast) of attributes. You can control not only the position of every joint in the human body, but you also have precise control over the face. It's quite possible to create any conceivable facial expression in Poser. The capabilities in this area are nothing short of astonishing.
|