The document provides descriptions of various tools and controls in Poser's user interface. It covers the menu bar, light controls, camera controls, room tabs, editing tools, document window, display controls, properties and parameters palettes, and animation controls. Key points include that the menu bar provides access to Poser functionality, light controls adjust lighting properties, camera controls allow selecting and moving cameras, room tabs switch between rooms, and editing tools are used to pose 3D models. The document window is the viewport, display controls select preview modes, and properties and parameters palettes adjust object settings. Animation controls are also described.

1. Menu bar (1)
Light controls (2)
Camera controls (3)
Room tabs (4)
Editing tools (5)
Document window (6)
Display controls (7)
Properties & Parameters
palettes (8)
Library palette (9
Memory dots (10)
Animation controls (11)

2. ( 1) The Menu B ar
consi st s of a ser i es of pul l -down
m enus used f or accessi ng Poser
f unct i onal i t y.
Som m
e enus and/or subm enus dupl i cat e
ot her on-scr een i nt er f ace el em s.
ent
The M enu B appear s as f ol l ow and i s
ar s
avai l abl e f r omever y Poser r oom :

3. FILE that you’ll be using
very often.
New: Allows you to start
with a blank scene in
which you can add 3D
models
Open: to open Poser
scenes that you have
already saved
Save As: save the Poser
Scene that you have
created.
Export: saving your
rendered images as a .jpg
or .png file.recommended
image as a .png file in
order to make use of a
transparent background.

4. A common process involving New, Open, Save
As, and Export goes as follows:
Step 1: Click New and create a scene using the
3D models
Step 2: Click Save As to save the scene that you
just created. This will allow you to open the same
scene later on in the future.
Step 3: Render your scene (Rendering will be
covered).
Step 4: Export your image as a .png file.

5. Edit Menu
Under the edit menu there are two
functions that you’ll use as a beginner.
Undo: The undo feature allows you to
undo any of the changes that you
have made when working within
Poser.
The number of times that you can
undo a change can be increased or
decreased.
General Preferences : The General
Preferences is where you set up how
you want Poser to look on start up
and how you would like some of the
features in Poser to operate.
This is where you’ll find the general
settings for Poser.

6. The Figure Menu contains functions related to the 3D
figures used in your scene. Here’s a quick look at the 2
features you’ll need to know.
Conform To: You’ll need to use this to attach clothing to
any of the popular 3D character bases such as Aiko 3,
Victoria 3, Michael 3, Aiko 4, Victoria 4, Michael 4,
and Hiro 4.
The way that many of the clothing, hair, shoes, and
props are able to stay on these characters is to use the
Conform To feature.
Use Inverse Kinematics: This feature is used to help
with posing the 3D models in realistic poses
you’ll need to turn off the Inverse Kinematics by clicking
Use Inverse Kinematics.
When starting a new scene, you can delete your
figure by clicking on the figure and then press the
delete button on your keyboard
(Also under; Figure->Delete Figure). After deleting the
figure, you can set Poser to open with an empty scene
by going to the General Preferences (See Edit Menu)
and then select the “Launched to Preferred State”
option.

7. LI G T C N O
H O TR LS
LI G T C N O
H O TR LS
(2)The Light
controls
•al l ow you t o adj ust
l i ght i ng pr oper t i es.
•addi ng and r em ngovi
l i ght s,
•and speci f yi ng
l i ght col or s and
ot her l i ght
pr oper t i es

8. 3.CAMERA COTROLS
The C er a cont r ol s al l ow you t o sel ect and
am
move one or m e Poser cam as.
or er
Ther e ar e t w t ypes of cam a cont r ol s:
o er

9. •Vi ew :
C i cki ng one of t hese
l
cont r ol s act i vat es t he
Face, Lef t H and, or R ght
i
Hand cam a. er
•Posi t i on
used t o m ove or r ot at e t he
cur r ent l y sel ect ed cam a.
er

10. The Camera Plane position
controls move the camera
along the X, Y, and/or Z
axis,
Camera
control
Trace Ball

11. cur r ent l y sel ect ed
cam a w t hout changi ng
er i
i t s l ocat i on i n 3D
space.
To use t he C er a
am
cont r ol s si m y cl i ck
pl
and dr ag your desi r ed

12. Material FACE Hair Cloth Setup Content
4-R O TABS
OM
The R oomt abs al l ow you t o
sw t ch f r om r oom t o r oom
i
w t hi n Poser . To ent er a
i
,
r oom si m y cl i ck i t s t ab.
pl

13. Editing Tools
You can use the Editing tools in any
combination to create a virtually
infinite number of still or animated
poses
1 .Select your desired body part or
prop by clicking that actor.
2 .Select the desired Editing tool.
You can only have one
Editing tool selected at a time.
3 .Click and drag to perform the selected tool’s function.

14. TRANSLATE/PULL tool
moves the selected figure/part/prop vertically
around or laterally around the Camera’s X and Y axes
depending on how you drag.
The translation may occur on the figure’s X, Y, and or Z
axes depending on the position of the camera relative
to the figure.
You can translate body parts or figures, and can also
adjust an item’s translation using the parameter dials,

15. TRANSLATE IN/OUT
The Translate In/Out tool moves the selected figure/part/prop along the
Camera’s Z axis (in and out).
This translation may take place along the figure’s X, Y, and/or Z axes.
Dragging down pulls the item towards you, and vice versa.
Moving an item towards you makes that items seem larger, and vice
versa.
You can also adjust an item’s translation using the parameter dials

16. SCALE
 The Scale tool allows you to scale the selected figure/part/prop along
the camera’s X and Y axes.
 Dragging in towards the element reduces the scale, and dragging
away from the element increases the scale. To scale in two
dimensions XY, drag laterally.
 Dragging vertically scales in the third Z dimension.
 The axes affected depend on your currently selected camera position.
 You can also press and hold [SHIFT] while using this tool to scale
evenly in all three dimensions.

17. TAPER
allows you to taper the selected figure/part/prop along the
Camera’s X and Y axes. This only affects the end of the
selected actor that is most distant from the centre of the
body.
Dragging to the right increases the amount of taper, and
dragging to the left
decreases the taper, “flaring” the selected actor.
You can also adjust an item’s taper using the parameter
dials,

18. Using chain breaks on different body parts
can create interesting
effects. For example, to prevent the chest
CHAIN from moving, apply a
BREAK chain break to it. You can then translate the
hand freely without
moving the chest
The Colour tool allows you to select a
COLOR material group’s surface (diffuse) colour
The Grouping tool opens the Group
GROUPING Editor palette

19. The View Magnifier tool allows you to
zoom in and out to and from your
desired areas of
VIEW the Document window without altering
MAGNIFIER the position of your currently selected
camera.
This can be of great help when working
with scenes.
MORPHING The Morphing Tool opens the Morph Editor
palette.
TOOL
has two operational modes: Combine and
Create,
The Combine mode allows you to sculpt any
surface on your figure using
morph targets.
DIRECT allows you to directly adjust an
MANIPULATION element’s Translate,
Scale, and Rotation parameters

20. To adjust an element, first
select the Direct
Manipulation tool, then
select your desired
element: Clicking and
dragging one of the shaded
boxes above the selected
element increase or
decreases the element’s X,
Y, or Z scale. This is
the same as adjusting the
xScale, yScale, and
zScale parameters,
respectively.

21. DISPLAY CONTROLS
The Display controls allow you to select
your desired preview mode for your
entire scene,
a figure or prop, and/or specific elements of
your currently selected figure/prop:

22. PARAMETERS/
PROPERTIES PALETTE
To switch between the
Properties and Parameters
palettes,
simply click the desired tab at
the top of the palette.

23. Properties/Parameter
s palette
 lets you quickly switch
between a selected element’s
properties and parameter
Dials
Parameters tab opens the
same object’s Parameters
palette.
You can also access both
palettes by selecting
Window>Parameter Dials

24. .
FIGURE PROPERTIES
Figures have the following properties:
 Name: The Name field displays the
figure name. Enter a new
name in this field if you desire.
Visible: Checking the Visible checkbox
makes the figure visible and vice versa.
Visible in Retracing: if the figure is in front
of a mirror. Clearing this checkbox makes
the figure not appear in reflections.
Collision detection: enables collision
detection for the currently selected figure.
Displacement Bounds: The Displacement
Bounds property determines the
figure’s displacement boundary.

25. PARAMETERS PALETTE
The Parameters palette contains all of
an object’s parameters
(transformation settings,
Each object type has
specialized parameters, For example,
different figures have different morph
targets available

26. DOCUMENT
WINDOW

27. The
Document
window
The Document
window is your
viewport into the
Poser workspace
where you view
and pose your
figure and interact
directly with your
scene.

28. Each vi ew of t he D ocum ent
w ndow i s t aken t hr ough a
i
vi r t ual cam a, w ch m
er hi eans
you can vi ew each scene f r om :
M t i pl e angl es, ei t her one at
ul
a t i m or f r om up t o f our
e
angl es at once.

29. You can position cameras to
view your scene from any angle
or distance and can resize the
Document window to suit your
needs.

30. The Display
Menu contains
3 popular
camera angles
that are often
used when
rendering an
image.

31. Main Camera : The Main
Camera is the default setting
that works well for large
scenes
Face Camera: Use this camera
for rending portrait shots of your
character. It zooms in on the
face of the character that is
currently selected.
Posing Camera: This camera
helps to focus on the feel or
mood of the pose. If you are
having trouble with your images
not capturing the mood of the
pose then try using the posing
camera.

32. will only need to do 3
things.
1-Render the scene,
2-adjust the rendering
settings, and
3-adjust the size of
the rendering image

33. Render:
To create the image.
Render Settings:
change for creating draft and
final image renders.
Render Dimensions:
determines how large or how
small you want Poser to render
the image.

34. I n addi t i on, t he Docum w ndow
ent i
has num ous cont r ol s ar ound i t s
er
edges t hat you use t o change t he
appear ance of scene el em s. ent
You can al so sel ect obj ect s
w t hi n your scene by cl i cki ng
i
t hem di r ect l y w t hi n t he
i
D ocum w ndow or by usi ng t he
ent i
m enus on t he bot t om of t he w ndow
i

35. Display Control

36. The D spl ay cont r ol s al l ow you
i
t o sel ect your desi r ed pr evi ew
m f or your ent i r e scene,
ode
a f i gur e or pr op, and/or
speci f i c el em s of your
ent
cur r ent l y sel ect ed
f i gur e/pr op:

39. The Cloth
Room

40. Poser's Cloth room allows
you to create realistic cloth
that behaves like real fabric.
Want to add custom clothing
to figure?
Create a tablecloth?
By a flying carpet?

41. Poser makes it easy to create
stunning cloth effects.
And, you can even apply a Force
Field for realistic wind effects!
The Cloth room appears as follows:
the Cloth room contains the
following UI elements:

42. Cloth Simulations (1):
The Cloth Simulation
area allows you to create,
delete, and set
up cloth simulators.

45. Cloth (2):
to convert objects to and
from dynamic cloth
objects and to set up
collision detection for your
cloth.

46. Cloth Groups (3):
The Cloth Groups area is
where you set up
dynamic,choreographed,
constrained, and
decorated cloth groups.

47. Dynamics Controls (4):
The Dynamics
Controls group sets
up dynamic
parameters.

48. Load the Actors

49. Load the Actors
1. Start a blank scene in Poser
2. Load your figure don't pose it yet.
3. Load the Dynamic Cloth Object.
4. Make sure the object is parented to
the Hip of the figure.
5. Select the cloth object
6. Press [Ctrl] + I to open the object
properties .

50. Load the Dynamic Cloth Object.

51. Make sure the object is parented to the Hip
of the figure.

52. Select the cloth
object
Press [Ctrl] + I to
open the object
properties .

53. 1.Load your desired figure and
be sure to disable Inverse
Kinematics
2.open the Joint Editor palette
3.click the Zero Figure button.
4.If not loaded yet, load or
import your desired cloth
object

54. 1. ensure it fits the figure without
obvious intersections.
2. If importing a static prop,
convert it into dynamic cloth
3. Select the cloth, then open its
Properties palette and click the
Set Parent button (or select
Object>Set Parent)
4. The Choose Parent window
appears.

56. 7. Switch to the Cloth Room
8. Click "New Simulation"

57. 7. Switch
to the
Cloth
Room

58. Check the number of
frames is the same
as your animation
Set the collision
options
The vertex to polygon

59. 8.New
Simula
tion"

60. 8.Check the
number of
frames is
the same
as your
animation
OK

61. 12.The Cloth self collision is
useful for draping clothes
that will hit together.
13.It prevents the cloth from
passing through it's self.
14.Set the number of drape
frames.
15.See the documentation
that came with your item.)
16.Click OK

64. Collision
Settings

65. •Click "Collide Against"
•Click "Add/Remove"
•Put an "X" in the box in
front of your figure
•Check the "Start Drape
from Zero Pose" box. Click
"OK"

66. Click “
Collide
Against

67. The current collision
object should be
listed
as None,
so press the
Add/Remove
button...OK

68. •Put an "X" in
the box in
front of your
figure
•OK

70. Now you can
pose your figure
.

71. Set the animation
slider at least 10-20
frames in.

72. This will give the
cloth simulator some
frames to get the
cloth into the pose

73. If you are just doing a
still image you will use
the slider to pick the
best frame when the
calculation is done and
render that frame.

75. Leave everything at the default settings, and
click on "Calculate Simulation".
it may take a while. It depends on the power of
your computer.

76. Before you hit calculate make sure of these things
• The figure is completely zeroed at frame 1 or set to the cloth's starting
pose.
o Check the hip translation.
o Check the body translation
• The cloth prop was parented to the figure hip at frame 1
o You can check in the Hierarch Editor to see if the prop is parented.
• The Simulation Settings > Simulation Range frames are set to the
same length as your animation
The cloth room "thinks" at 30 frames per second. Keep in mind what
real cloth would do as it moves at the speed your pose moves.
This one point will help you get great results.

79. Sketch Designer renders scenes as
sketch-like drawings using black-and
white or colored brush strokes that
you can tailor to your liking.
Simulate pen, pencil, pastel,
charcoal, and even water colours and
paintings without ever having to set
foot inside an art school!

88. The Sketch Designer
Renderer

93. From Sketch To Posing-
Creating
a Simple Figure using
Shade and Poser

94. Workspace Bar
Control Bar
Browser
Figure Window
Tool Box
Aggregate window
Tool Parameter
window

98. Tool>Create>
Sketch muddling>
Basic setting

100. Create
2D

101. The first step in making a figure is to
create its basic mesh.
To begin, launch Shade and,
from the Tools menu, choose
Tool>Create>Sketch muddling>
Modelling

103. Select
all
lines

104. Setting the Plane on Which an Object Is Created
Changing the Viewport and Selecting a View
From the View
Type menu of the Figure
Window,
you can change the Viewport
and select the plane on which
the object is to be created.
Selecting a Face in Work Plane
Controller

105. Plan Perspective
View
Side
Elevation view
View

106. For use version of Shade 10,
and some careful work.
It begins with a mesh generated in
Shade's tool and covers the
workflow and major issues involved
in using Poser's Grouping Tool,, as
shown below.

107. Setup Room and Joint Editor to set up a
figure with joints and bone structure.

108. draw the
outline of a
cactus

109. Use the Undo
option as
needed; when
the saguaro
looks right,
we click OK to
bring it into
Shade-

110. select
the
polygon
mesh in
Shade's
Browser
, as
shown,
and

112. 1. We'll name the OBJ file and
choose where to save it,
2. then click Save, and the Export
Options dialog appears-

113. choose
File>Export>
OBJ,
Export
Options
dialog;

114. Poser Now
. Once the file has been
saved, we can quit out of
Shade and launch Poser

115. In Poser, we
delete any
figure(s) that
may already be
in our scene,
and choose
Import> OBJ
from the File
menu as
shown-

116. navigate to the
file we just saved
and click Open.
Using the default
settings brings in
a human-sized
cactus.
use the Paint
Bucket tool to
give it some
color-

117. proceed to tackle the complex part of the tutorial- setting our prop
up with a working joint structure.
Before we do that, though, we come up against
the first really 'technical' aspect of
figure creation-
grouping

118. create a virtual bone structure,
with joints between the bones and with each bone
controlling a group of the polygons that make up
the figure.
Each bone controls a group which is named
identically to that bone-
so the first step once we have our figure's mesh in
Poser is to
set up the right groups.

119. select the Grouping Tool.

120. there's already at least one polygon group set up on the
cactus- the entire cactus is red, indicating that all its
polygons belong to a group.
Clicking the Delete Group button
should remove that group and free up those
polygons-
we can do it more than once if there are
additional groups on the cactus.

121. Grouping Tool.
Once we have deleted
any existing groups,
the cactus should be a
dark charcoal grey,
indicating that none of
its polygons are
selected by any group.

122. .
switch over to
Wireframe
display mode, so
we can see
'through' the
cactus.
Click the
Wireframe icon
in the Document
Display Style
tool, down at the

123. We'll start by creating a group for the base
of the cactus-
call it 'Base'.
Select Polygons tool
a plus symbol should be yellow.)
Click the New Group button,

124. Now just click and drag
over the polygons you
want to add to the group-
you'll see them turn red
as they're selected.
if extra polygons get
selected by mistake, you
can switch to the
Deselect Polygons tool
(with the minus sign) to
remove them from the
group.

125. Once the Base group
is set up, we can
create a new group
for the base of each
arm of the cactus,
and another for the
tip of each arm as
shown

126. clicking the
Show
Non-grouped
Faces checkbox
reveals any polygons we
might have missed,
while clicking the Show
Multigrouped Faces
box
shows any polygons that
accidentally wound up
in more than one group.

127. Poser's joints
depend on having
only two groups- a
parent and a child-
touching in any
place;
if three groups come
together the mesh
will 'tear' when the
figure bends, like
this-

128. The final result should be a
cactus in which each polygon
belongs to just one group, and
in which the groups are set up
more or less like this-

129. So we avoid this by carefully
setting up our groups to make
sure each polygon's edge or
corner is shared by at most two
groups.
Remember to make sure that
every polygon belongs to
exactly one group!

130. the next-to-last step.
1. Click the Setup tab to take the cactus prop into the
Setup Room,
where it'll be turned into a fully pose able figure.
The main tool to use in the Setup Room is the
1. Bone Creation Tool-
2. this tool lets you set up bones.
3. The trick when creating bones is to ensure that each
bone is named exactly the same as the group to which
it applies-
4. this tells Poser that this bone controls that group.

131. Edit the name in the
Name field first
then in the Internal name
field; use the Grouping
tool if you need to, to
check and make sure the
names match.

132. Set up>prop

133. Create The Bones For The Figure

135. the bones in place and named to match the
grouping,
click the Pose tab to exit the Setup Room.

136. If a warning pops up that not all
polygons are grouped to a bone,
we'll need to
make sure the bones are
properly named, and
check that grouping one more
time to ensure that didn't miss
anything.

137. In the Pose Room, we
can see how our joints
work by using the
Rotate and Twist tools
on the body parts of
new figure.

138. if done right nothing
should tear but some
limbs may not bend
the way we expect.
If the figure gets too
contorted, use the
Restore>Fig
ure option in
the Edit
menu to
reset the
pose.

139. The way to fix bad joint
behavior is to use
Poser's Joint Editor.

140. each joint can
bend on the
X, Y or Z axis;
typically the
joint will
primarily bend
on two of these

141. 1. the Joint Order for each
joint should be set such that
the axis of least rotation,
2. the joint would twist, should
be listed first in the joint
order;
3. the joint bends most greatly,
should be listed last.

142. once joint order has
been set is to use
Spherical Falloff
Zones

143. As shown in the image below, all polygons
contained within the green inner Mat Sphere,
also known as the inclusion zone, will be fully
affected by the joint's bending- they'll make up
the 'limb'; polygons outside of the
outerMatSphere, also known as the exclusion
zone, won't be affected at all by the joint bends;
polygons between the zones will be warped
and bulged by the joint's bending.

144. To adjust the spherical falloff zones,
check the 'Use Spherical Falloff
Zones' box in the Joint Editor for the
given joint,
then select either the
innerMatSphere or the
outerMatSphere in the Parameters
Palette; use the dials to adjust its
size and position as shown. In our
example, the lower arm joint twists
along the X (side-to-side) axis, and
bends most on the Z (front-to-back)
axis.

146. edit the various Top joints first, then proceed to the Base
parts, saving the main Base part for last.
use the Parameters palette to apply a name to our figure
(choose the Body
, and enter the name in the Properties tab),
and to name the dials and set limits for the joints.
Double-click the dials for the x-rotate, y-rotate and z-rotate
parameters and
use the Edit Parameter Dial dialog to give them more
intuitive names like Twist, Bend, Front-Back, Side-Side, etc.
You can set maximum and minimum value limits here as
well,
Use Limits to keep the joints acting reasonably.

147. go back to the Pose Room and
use the editing tools to test out
our figure-
open the appropriate Library
folder in the Figures category
and add our figure to the
Library for use in other scenes,
by clicking the Add to Library
button, with the plus symbol
on it.