There have been some scuffles between artists regarding the usage of the software tool called "Poser". Most of the complaints come from 3D Modelers who take exception to 3D Manipulators who admit to using Poser to the point where I've seen someone commend an artist and ask what software they used, only to then hiss and scream when the artist mentioned the use of Poser. It's like what holy water is to vampires (or so we've been led to believe). Here are some comments I've seen before, addressed from a bird's eye perspective.


~ Haven't we seen this pattern before?

The photographer civil war over stock photos equating to "selling out the artistic photographer's soul" is over - with all photographers realizing that bread still costs the same and all coins taste the same and that you can work for the Man by day and create Art at night. The Digital versus Analog "media processing and publishing" revolutiion is over (unfortunately Our Fair Lady Copyright is being stabbed with right-clicks every day). On other horizons, we still have fights over Traditional painters and Digital painters, but a cease fire is in negotiation. And now the white-towers of the 3D palace are being inhabited by mere commoners?

Photoshop has had a similar past of hatred from film developers and traditional painters. Now Photoshop is a verb much like Google, and we have digital still- and motion cameras and only luddites give a care when you mention the use of Photoshop as one of your tools.

This xenophobia can be countered if you throw in a few traditional terms, such as f-stops or depth-of-field to help calm fears. Change is not comfortable. Poser, as any other tool, can be used with default settings for canned results, or in imaginative ways that are still being discovered.


~ "Why does Poser get more love than my tools?"

Poser would not have the popularity it has today without the easy-to-use interface, compliments of Kai Krause, and probably more importantly the support of an inexpensive third party content community. A few groups saw the stock photo boom of cheap and readily accessible photographs being far more popular than the slow process of acquiring stock photos from archive brokers that priced images literally on a case by case basis. Stock 3D models and textures and lights, had been around for some time, but now there is a market providing cheap add-ons for a program that doesn't require you to spend time doing any modeling yourself. Thus the perception of a "paper doll" or "push-one-button-to-render" tool as some have whispered.


~ "Poser requires little or no skill."

But look at what Poser DOES require: You have to Pose the scene and all the props and figures, modify textures, rig the lighting, animate dynamic cloth, and render the image.

All creative Poser users also have additional tools to enhance their work - Photoshop, 3D modeling programs for those objects that cannot be purchased, other 3D programs that do better lighting and rendering, etc. To call an artist that uses Poser, unskilled, is to not appreciate all of the things that they might do, compared someone that just does 3D modeling. You may be able to make an awesome car in 3D, but know little or nothing about texturing or lighting. Does that make you meaningless - of course not.


~ "All Poser art looks the same."

Yes there are simplistic artworks created using Poser and some Poser renders look like others because the artist is not fully customizing their work, but they're learning. I recall numerous crayon drawings in school from various artists that all looked the same for years. Putting your own artistic flair to a project requires creativity, regardless of the tool. If you only have a hammer, every project you do will end up looking the same until you start using different nails and change your approach to the tool. Eventually you may acquire more tools in order to do different projects. Ask around to see how many people out there were at first intimidated by big 3D applications, got their feet wet with Poser and now have gone on to learn different 3D programs.


~ "Poser users aren't learning 'Real' 3D"

We don't frown upon painters that buy tubes of Cobalt Blue, instead of mixing their own pigments. We don't frown at painters that buy a sable-haired brush instead of making their own. We don't frown upon photographers who don't build their own cameras or make all of their own film or props. In fact we don't frown upon 3D modelers who use commercial packages to do their own modeling instead of learning how to program and create software themselves.

No, Poser is not a 3D modeling program. Never was and probably never will be. But it does allow an artist to execute their vision in a short amount of time. Creating a single 3D prop could take hours in some programs. With Poser you can develop an entire scene full of figures and props and lighting in half that time. Granted, a quick Poser composition and render may not include the shadowing and lighting and texturing finesse of a beefier 3D program like Maya or 3D Studio Max, but Poser the tool gets better and more powerful with each revision.


~ "Poser is just a toy"

Unless there are elemental forces that require patience, work-flow efficiencies will ALWAYS be taken advantage of, by amateurs and professionals. Combine that with a large and inexpensive third party content community - and you have the recipe for a lot of Poser use from amateur hobbyists to professionals that want mock-ups or quick animatics.


~ "Poser users lack creativity."

Art is not about the tool, nor the artist - all egos aside. The means (legal and ethical), justify the ends. Does the final piece of artwork deliver a message or make the viewer think. Nobody looks down on the Simpson's or South Park or Family Guy as poorly animated cartoons - they are viewed for what they communicate. The more Poser use there is, the faster the day will come when someone shows you something that makes you cry or say 'wow', and it was made using Poser (by itself or combined with other tools). That day will come much sooner than you expect.


Epilogue, and Coming out of the Closet

For the record, I use Poser (listens for the end of the world... no planes crashing or sun exploding...). But I have also used many other software packages through the years - and continue to do so. Why do I keep using Poser when I've tasted finer softwares? Well, it has drastically improved from the early ball and joint doll software that it was initially intended to be. And frankly, the cheap and vast third party support makes it easy to fill out a scene regardless of the time period you are trying to depict.

I do make props in 3D for things that I cannot find. I do make my own custom textures and lighting setups. I have never been satisfied with a Poser render by itself and have always done postwork using Photoshop. But let my gallery speak for itself - I try to make each image tell a story or at least create enough character that you think there may be more information there worth investigating. If you don't like me or my art because I use Poser, that is your problem to think about. Can't we all just get along?

Arthur C. Clarke passed away (March 18, 2008) and humanity is lessened. For those of you who have never heard of this name, he helped author 2001: A Space Odyssey (based on an earlier story written by Clarke), and worked with early radar, and quite literally is credited with the idea for communication satellites - in addition to a catalog of ideas on the human condition, the universe, and the future of our species. HAL will be observing 20 minutes and 01 seconds of silence:

QUOTES: [link]
ClarkeFoundation: [link]
Wiki: [link]
Wired: [link]
BBC: [link]
NYTimes: [link]
CNN: [link]
Clarke's Laws: [link]

"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." ~ Arthur C. Clarke




Gary Gygax passed away (March 4, 2008). We've all got cellular degradation encoded into our DNA - not to say that there might be a way to recode hat... but that's another topic. Gygax was one of the founders of tabletop fantasy roleplaying games, along with Dave Arneson and a cadre of others who were at the right place at the right time and helped seed the industry. He was no Einstein, or Da Vinci, but a deity to roleplaying geeks nonetheless. Even though he is gone, we will enjoy his creations for decades to come. If you can relate, the following links will be humorous and memorable:

BoingBoing Interview: [link]
Wikipedia Biography: [link]
Gygax in Futurama excerpt: [link]
Wizards of the Coast tribute page: [link]
Penny Arcade panel: [link]
The Cimmerian: [link]
Whil Wheaton: [link]
Troll Lord Games: [link]
NYTimes Editorial: [link]
Colbert Report snippet: [link]
BBC article: [link]
MMORPG.com: [link]
RPG.net: [link] and [link]
Wired article: [link]
BoardGameGeek: [link]

"The secret we should never let the gamemasters know, is that they don't need any rules."

~ Gary Gygax