Popular Poser Revamped
By Clayton E. Crooks II
In December of 1999, MetaCreations
announced that it would be selling off its product line in order to focus solely on its Metastream technology for the Internet. Poser, a 3D character modeling and animation package, has acquired a large user base over the years and may have the brightest future among the former MetaCreations applications. Interestingly,
the company that acquired it isn't large, and Poser definitely isn't going to be discarded. Instead, it's been reunited with members of its original development team at a company called Curious Labs. These creators have vowed to continue the development, marketing, and support of Poser.
The interface shown in
Figure 1 separates Poser from many other 3D applications. It's extremely attractive and can be mastered very quickly with rollover text, making the process much easier. Poser uses a large customizable workspace with pop-out libraries, memory dots (that save layouts and poses), and collapsible menus. The windows and toolbars have keyboard shortcuts and the quick-reference card included with Poser is a must.
Deformation and Animation
Poser was originally developed as a way for artists to visualize figures and props for 2D digital artwork, but with subsequent releases, it has been transformed into a complete 3D modeling and animation package.
