Poser Tutorials

Poser is a popular program used to generate 3D animations of people and animals. This page has a collection of all known tutorials relating to Poser software. Click here to see how many there are. Other programs are useful when using Poser. One of them is Bryce 3D which is made by the same company that makes Poser, MetaCreations. Many of the tutorials located on this page describe how to use some of these other programs to enhance your Poser creations.

If you have problems with any of these links, or know of another Poser tutorial that should be included, please click here to send me an email message.

The links are organized by category. Within the category there is little ordering. Some related tutorials may be clustered. Use the following table to jump to a category.

Backgrounds Figures Props
Basic Operations Format Conversion Special Objects
Clothes Morphing Special Techniques
Face and Hair Movies and Animation Texture Maps

         
         

FAQ

Poser FAQ
          This FAQ assumes you are familiar with Windows or Mac GUI terminology. If not, the GUI Concepts page will get you started.
          Author: Jeffrey Howarth
         
         

Backgrounds

Galactic Backgrounds - Bryce 3D
          Author: Peter Sharpe
Moon & Stars - Bryce 3D
          Author: Peter Sharpe
         
         

Basic Operations

A PDF file from MetaCreations containing the basic Canoma tutorial
          Author: MetaCreations
3D Text in Bryce - Bryce 3D
          Author: Peter Sharpe
How to make a Poser figure in 15 easy steps.
          Author: Unknown
Portrait
          A very descriptive tutorial that guides you through creating your character in Poser, making a UV map, importing into Bryce, using photos, creating and adding textures and fine details in Photoshop. For beginners to advanced users.
          Author: Ralph Manis
Poser 3 for Beginners
          An extensive tutorial to help you learn the basic tools in Poser.
          Author: Kristin Bellehumeur
Poser Pro Pack Overview
          Viewlet demonstration showing the features of the Poser Pro Pack.
          Author: Curious Labs
The Poser file disposition guide
          This guide helps you place files you have downloaded so that everything pops up in the Poser library.
          Author: English Bob
How to avoid spending money
          The legal way to create 3D graphics on a shoestring budget.
          Author: English Bob
Undoubtedly useful utilities
          Tools to get for the serious 3D artist.
          Author: English Bob
How to keep using Poser 3
          Keep using Poser 3 even though Poser 4 is in widespread use.
          Author: English Bob
         
         

Clothes

Forming poseable clothing and figure colouring without the use of texture maps. Poser 3
          Author: Phil Cooke
Clothing For Eve
          Convert P4 Fem clothes to eve with a few simple steps!
          Author: Eric VanDycke
How to Make the Hooters(tm) Outfit
          This advanced tutorial shows you how to create the Hooters outfit using Poser 4, UV Mapper, and Adobe Photoshop.
          Author: John Hoagland
Making superconforming clothes
          Author: Serge Marck
Roy's Max Clothing Tutorials
          Basic description of 6 methods for giving your models cloths.
          Author: Roy Riggs
Roy's Mini Skirt Tutorial
          Editting geometry in Max - Difficulty Level: Easy
          Author: Roy Riggs
Roy's long skirt Tutorial
          Editting geometry in Max - Difficulty Level: Medium
          Author: Roy Riggs
Roy's Tank Top Tutorial
          Editting geometry in Max - Difficulty Level: Hard
          Author: Roy Riggs
Using Transparency Maps
          Use Transparency Maps to cut objects instead of editing the 3-D object itself.
          Author: John Hoagland
Assigning materials to body parts
          Here is a little trick of to apply tights (aka pantyhose) to Posette's and Victoria's legs
          Author: English Bob
         
         

Face and Hair

"Angie" Modeling in Poser, rendering in Bryce and Photoshop textures
          A very descriptive tutorial that guides you through creating your character in Poser, making a UV map, importing into Bryce, using photos, creating and adding textures and fine details in Photoshop. For beginners to advanced users.
          Author: Ralph Manis
Digital Hair Mania with Photoshop
          Author: Adobe Systems Senior Creative Director Russell Brown
Map a photo to a poser model
          Author: Neutron
Hair Tutorial
          Here is a quick tutorial on how to make your hair look more like the real thing.
          Author: Zone 5 Graphics
Hair Tutorial
          A tutorial on my own personal techniques for drawing hair post-render.
          Author: dac
Hair Tutorials
          Tips for working with hair in Poser. Topics include applying hair, post editing, importing, stretching, adapting hairstyles, and sources for finding hair models online.
          Author: Angus McIntyre
Xtinction's Tutorial
          Using PhotoShop to enhance the look of your character.
          Author: Xtinction?
         
         

Figures

The Queen tutorial
          How Martin created a beautiful magazine cover using Poser and Bryce.
          Author: Martin Murphy
Karate Woman
          This tutorial shows how my Karate Woman figure was made using Rhino to transplant Nude Woman's feet onto Business Woman.
          Author: Dave_L.
Making Extra Arms / Limbs in Poser
          This is a short and sweet tutorial on how to make limb only charcters for P3-P4. Another Compose utility tutorial and a quick look at editing a .cr2 in a text editor.
          Author: Eric VanDycke
Making Poseable Figures with the Hierarchy Editor
          Use the Hierarchy Editor in Poser to make imported models into figures. For Poser 4.
          Author: Richard Hatch
         
         

Format Conversion

Mac Compose Tutorial!
          Website details how to set up and use John Wind's Compose utility on a Macintosh computer.
          Author: Michael Barnes
How to import Poser 4 figures into Bryce 4
          Author: Spike
          Special Note: This is a PDF file.
PC to Mac Conversion
          Author: EJewett
          Special Note: This is a PDF file.
From Poser2Bryce
          Author: FastTraxx
Poser3 to Bryce3D
          How to import Poser figures into Bryce.
          Author: Lisa Casler
Importing Poser 2 Textures into Bryce 3D
          Author: Peter Sharpe
Importing Poser 3 Textures into Bryce 3D
          Author: Peter Sharpe
External .obj Calls in Poser Prop Files
          A neat prop file hack to make poser read and store the .obj file externally instead of storing the file in the prop file itself.
          Author: Eric VanDycke
OBJ File Format
          Learn how to edit OBJ files with a text editor.
          Author: Roy Riggs
Poser 4 to 3D Studio Max R3
          Author: Steve Shanks
Poser 4 To Cinema 4D XL V6
          Author: Steve Shanks
Pro Pack Flash Animation
          Viewlet showing how to Export your animations to flash files directly from Poser and Pro Pack.
          Author: Curious Labs
Using Poser Figures in Bryce
          This tutorial explains how to move figures and props from Curious Labs' Poser into Corel Bryce, keeping all the mapping intact, with a minimum of effort.
          Author: Robin Wood
Text file hacking for fun and profit
          Most of the files used by Poser are in text format. This makes them more enormous than they would be in some other format, but on the positive side they can be hacked if you know what you are doing.
          Author: English Bob
Pointing to a different .OBJ file
          This is what to do if you want to put your .OBJ file somewhere else, or if you have created a new version by editing it.
          Author: English Bob
Editing the materials list
          This is what to do if you want to alter your materials list. When Poser loads a new file, any materials which are not defined are given random settings.
          Author: English Bob
Stipping a pose file
          This is what to do to make a pose file that affects only a limited part(s) of the body and leaves the rest alone.
          Author: English Bob
         
         

Morphing

Amorphium Tutorials
          A collection of 4 tutorials.
          Author: Mark
Applying a Morph In Poser 3 or 4
          A step by step on how to use morphs. Complete with illustrations.
          Author: Eric VanDycke
Breathing Figures
          Learn how to create the morphs for a figure that realistically breathes. For Poser 4.
          Author: dan [dd]
Deleting Parameter Dials
          There are a couple of situations where it may be advantageous to remove a morph target parameter dial from an object.
          Author: Curious Labs
Enhanced Morph Control Explained
          This tutorial is geared toward Poser 4 users that have some knowledge of how cr2 files are constructed.
          Author: Robert E. Whisenant (a.k.a. rbtwhiz)
Extracting Morphs with Compose
          A short and sweet step by step on how to extract a poser morph target from a .cr2 or .pz3 file for use with other characters.
          Author: Eric VanDycke
Morph Squishing 102
          Reduce the size, help protect copyrights! Be a squisher!
          Author: Eric VanDycke
Morphing With Magnets Part 1
          Making morph targets with Poser 4's Magnets feature. This part shows a single magnet, single body part morph from start tofinish.
          Author: Eric VanDycke
Morphing With Magnets Part 2
          Making morph targets with Poser 4's Magnets feature. This part show you how to make morphs that span more than one body part, as well as how to use the Mag Zone's falloff graph.
          Author: Eric VanDycke
Morphing With Magnets Part 3
          Making morph targets with Poser 4's Magnets feature. This time we use the grouping tool to make the morphs more acurate.
          Author: Eric VanDycke
Morphing With Magnets Part 4
          Using 2 Magnets for Symetrical Morphs across an axis.
          Author: Eric VanDycke
Morph Targets Tutorial
          This tutorial is aimed at jumping the hurdles that are particular to using 3D Studio MAX.
          Author: Roy Riggs
Poser Morphs for Free
          Author: Steve Shanks
Squeeze Deform morphs in Poser
          Homebrew method of creating believable squeezing and crushing deforms of flesh, metal, etc. using nothing more than Poser.
          Author: Duane Moody
Using Morph Targets
          Using this technique you can create more distinct characters.
          Author: John Hoagland
         
         

Movies and Animation

Animating the 'Floating Kick' Scene
          Recreate the jump kick scene from The Matrix in Poser 4.
          Author: John Hoagland
That Matrix Thing You Do
          You have seen the stop frame, move the camera, restart trick that the Wachowski Brothers made popular in The Matrix. It is easy to replicate that effect in Poser 4.
          Author: Martin Gisborne
Controlling a Figure's Eyes
          Control a figure's eyes so that they can follow a camera in the scene as it moves through space (Poser 3 characters or later).
          Author: Curious Labs
Introducing Actions Mid-Walk
          This tutorial will show you how to introduce an event (in this case a wave) into the middle of a walk that has already been defined.
          Author: Curious Labs
Lip Synchronization Tutorial
          Use Mimic by LIPSinc to lip synch your characters in Poser.
          Author: Unknown
Making a Centaur Gallop
          Combining a horse gallop with the walk designer to create a centaur animation.
          Author: Bloodsong
Smooth Looping Animation
          On looped animations it is common for a slight hiccup to be in the movie on playback.
          Author: Curious Labs
         
         

Props

Importing 3DS props
          This is a fairly full description of how to import models in .3DS format into Poser and use them as props.
          Author: English Bob
         
         

Special Objects

Animating Ocean Waves
          Start to finish on how to animate an ocean scene.
          Author: Steven Sanvito
Animating Water Ripples
          This tutorial will show how to animate circular ripples of water.
          Author: Steven Sanvito
Creating space Scenes
          Covers all aspects of creating space scenes. Goes through the creation of rock planets, earth-like planets, ringed planets and stars.
          Author: Alexander Rives
Creating underwater Scenes
          Shows how to create underwater scenes and include lighting effects such as reflection and refraction.
          Author: Alexander Rives
Mastering the landscape: Distant Landscapes
          This tutorial discusses the creation of the image shown on the title page. It explains step by step how all the elements were created and why the particular settings were chosen.
          Author: Alexander Rives
Building craters
          Bryce trick that kind of approximates Photoshop channel selection and produces really realistic volcanos and meteor craters.
          Author: Andy Yue
Egyptian columns
          These Egyptian columns are inspired by a photograph of a room of the temple of Karnak.
          Author: Lann
Foreground Planets
          Lists the steps involved to create a planet in the foreground.
          Author: Steven Sanvito
Fractal Terrains
          This tutorial is on how you can turn a fractal into a terrain in Bryce from Metatools, although this concept can be applied to most other graphics programs.
          Author: Steve Lareau
Modeling Chains
          Modeling Chains in Bryce 3D Using Motion Paths and Null Objects
          Author: Steven Sanvito
Making Chains - Bryce 3D
          Author: Peter Sharpe
Bat & Fairy wings - Bryce 3D
          Author: Peter Sharpe
A Simple Waterfall - Bryce 3D
          Author: Peter Sharpe
Pouring Water - Bryce 3D
          Author: Peter Sharpe
Shells & Ram's Horn - Bryce 3D
          Author: Peter Sharpe
Picture Cube - Bryce 3D
          Author: Peter Sharpe
A tutorial on how to create boxes with UVMapper
          How to create a box with UVMapper.
          Author: Steve Cox
Basic Poser UV-mapper tutorial
          This is a brief introduction for newbies on how to use the UVMapper to create a template for texture or transparency maps for poser.
          Author: unknown (Symbiant?)
Rainbows by Numbers
          Author: Peter Sharpe
Gemstones from Pyramids
          Author: Peter Sharpe
Disco Light Ball
          Author: Peter Sharpe
Making Craters
          Author: Peter Sharpe
Simple Comets
          Author: Peter Sharpe
Crescent Moons & Planets
          Author: Peter Sharpe
Dishes & Plates
          Author: Peter Sharpe
Planet Earth
          Author: Peter Sharpe
Making Realistic Models of your Friends in Poser
          A step-by-step method for using photos to model your friends heads in Poser. This is NOT a tutorial on Photoshopping scans into body texture maps, but a 'sculpting' guideline for people familiar with morphs and/or magnets
          Author: Duane Moody
Poser 4 2 Max
          Using Poser 4 to produce characters for use in architectural Max renderings.
          Author: Baumgarten Enterprises
Poser Custom Model Maker's Guide
          Create your favorite super heroes in Poser 4 with this in-depth guide from Dave Hill.
          Author: Dave Hill
         
         

Special Techniques

Direct Path Editing
          Shows the basic forms of path modification.
          Author: Bernd Jaeger
Exact Sun and Moon Locations
          Shows how to place the sun or the moon at a certain location of the picture.
          Author: Busse
Fake Reflection of Light
          Shows how to have light reflected properly in your scene.
          Author: Busse
Family affairs
          Use families to select a group of objects which should be animated together.
          Author: Busse
Object Specific Anti-aliasing
          How to keep a texture from getting blurred during antialiasing.
          Author: Busse
Organic Modeling
          Three step processing for organic modeling
          Author: Jac Grenfell
Rendering Wireframe Animations
          How to render a whole animation as wireframe or even flat shaded.
          Author: Busse
Simulating Blurred Propellers
          Steps to follow to create the blurred propeller effect.
          Author: Steven Sanvito
Terrain Editor
          Shows some of the Easter Eggs that can be found in the terrain editor.
          Author: Busse
Torus Editor
          A few steps to try in the torus editor.
          Author: Busse
Unity Concept
          How to set and use the unity concept.
          Author: Busse
Using Negative Lights
          How to use black holes (negative lights).
          Author: Busse
Anaglyphs
          Shows how to produce stereoscopic images with anaglyphs.
          Author: Lann
Boolean tutorial
          Two part tutorial in one: Creating a Building with Primitives and Working with Booleans.
          Author: Gary Rea
Advanced Linking I
          In this example the little cage is the parent of the cones and it only transfers it's size, which you can set in the Attributes dialog.
          Author: Busse
Advanced Linking II
          Like in the example before, the origin handle is moved to the cone's base.
          Author: Busse
Amplification I
          Describes what happens when a transformation is applied to a linked hierarchy.
          Author: Busse
Amplification II
          Describes what happens when other coordinate translations are applied to a linked hierarchy.
          Author: Busse
That cool look where you can see portions of the wireframe overlapping the model
          Here's how to do it.
          Author: Tim Laubach
Advanced Techniques
          Only works with Netscape 4.5 or later. Does not work with Internet Explorer 4.0. A must read for anyone who wants to learn all there is to know about Poser.
          Author: MetaCreations
          Special Note: This is a PDF file.
Head replacement using Poser and Imagine
          Author: Mary Aliandra
Dressing up the DXF
          Author: Peter Sharpe
Breaking Glass
          Author: Peter Sharpe
Streaming Light Rays
          Author: Peter Sharpe
Streaming Light Rays 2
          Author: Peter Sharpe
Falling Snow - Bryce 3D
          Author: Peter Sharpe
Bright Eyes - Moist Lips
          Author: Peter Sharpe
Boolean Operations
          Author: Peter Sharpe
Recognizable Features
          Purpose of this tutorial is to illustrate a simple approach to quickly and easily produce a low-fidelity 3D figure of a recognizeable person.
          Author: Martin Hongsermeier
Poser texture map into Bryce bump into Photoshop fur!
          Author: Lyne
The great bump map disaster
          When the PC version of Poser converts a graphic file (.BMP, .TIF, .JPG) into a bump map (.BUM), it does it wrong.
          Author: English Bob
Glowing Eyes in Poser
          This tutorial explains how to make eyes (and other things) glow when you are using Poser to render your pictures.
          Author: Robin Wood
Group Tool Tutorial
          A step-by-step tutorial on the Poser group tool, using a simple sphere as an example.
          Author: dac
Group Tool What Does it do?
          Detailed explanation on how to effectively utilize the Poser Group tool.
          Author: Doug Sturk
Installing Eve / Azura
          A quick step by step on installing Eve or Azura using Mover.
          Author: Eric VanDycke
How to Make Reflections
          Learn how to create mirror image reflections in Poser 4.
          Author: John Hoagland
Illegitimate Children in Poser
          Poser parts can only touch one parent.... until now. Some techniques and theories, including adding weld commands to the CR2.
          Author: Bloodsong
Joint Parameters for Eyes
          Setting JPs for eyes so they rotate nicely and do not smush your head, and so you do not have to turn off the bending for the head.
          Author: Bloodsong
Inflating a balloon
          Author: dan [dd]
Lighting in Poser
          Author: Syyd Raven
Making Waves
          Learn how to use the Wave Deformer in Poser 4.
          Author: dan [dd]
Magnet Basics
          Some basic info and a short tutorial on Magnet Orientation.
          Author: Eric VanDycke
Radiosity Simulation in Poser
          Learn how to simulate radiosity in Poser.
          Author: dan [dd]
Remapping Poser figure with UVMapper.
          Title says it all!
          Author: Jeff Richardson
Scaling Ray Dream 5 props to Poser scale
          Clever method for keeping your Ray Dream-built props at the same scale Poser uses.
          Author: Duane Moody
Superimposing Images onto Backgrounds in Poser
          This tutorial explains how to set up figures created with Poser so that they look real when using the Render Over Background feature.
          Author: Robin Wood
Using the Objaction Mover
          Author: Jessica Riggs
Using UVMapper with Poser 3
          Author: Stephen L. Cox
Welding RD5 props to avoid sharp corners in Poser
          Step by step method for ensuring soft corners on props built in Ray Dream.
          Author: Duane Moody
         
         

Texture Maps

Texture Presets
          Shows how to set up texture presets.
          Author: Busse
How to use Steve Cox's UVMapper program
          Author: Steve Cox
Making hair and eyelash texture maps
          Author: Tony Lane
Texturing Poser Figures in Bryce
          Author: Jeff Richardson
A tutorial on using Windows UVMapper to create complex texture maps
          More tutorials on how to use Steve Cox's UVMapper program
          Author: Steve Cox
A tutorial on using UVMapper to remap Poser 3 models permanently
          How to remap your Poser models with UVMapper
          Author: Steve Cox
Beginners guide to applying tex maps in Poser
          This is a brief beginners tutorial for applying exsisting textures in Poser 4 using Zygotes Victoria model. It assumes no previous knowledge of texture mapping, and covers only the most basic steps in applying maps to your model.
          Author: unknown (Symbiant?)
Textures on Poser Figures
          Shows bringing Poser figures into Bryce for texturing.
          Author: Baumgarten Enterprises
Texture Maps
          Learn about creating texture maps for use with Poser figures.
          Author: Angus McIntyre
theTMSKGuide
          19 sections includes everything you need to know about texture mapping in Poser 4.
          Author: dan [dd]

There are a total of 162 tutorials on this page. 70 of them relate exclusively to Poser and 58 of them relate exclusively to Bryce 3d. The remainder relate to a variety of other programs.

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Last modified Wed Feb 6 20:38:15 2002.