Last year I reviewed Poser 7 and found that it was great for graphic and web design as well as for fine art and illustration work and that it could eliminate the need for live models. Or, in the case of the rock band Element 115, they used it to create their drummer. On November 15, 2007 Smith Micro acquired ownership and distribution rights of several products from eFrontier software including the Poser line.

This week Smith Micro announced the release of Poser Pro, the newest item in the Poser product line. Poser Pro was developed with a feature set and new functionality that is geared for professional content creators who work within studio and production environments.

According to Steve Yatson, the Senior Director of Graphics Solutions for Smith Micro Software, "When planning the feature set for Poser Pro, we noticed professionals using Poser 7 were looking for better ways to integrate Poser content into their production pipelines, As a result, Poser Pro is a significant step forward for professional 3D designers looking to add character content in a cost-effective way. With the new rendering features and image controls, we're confident that Poser Pro will be well received by production artists across various industries including advertising, architecture, entertainment and education, who use 3D imagery to bring their ideas to life."

Poser Pro is a tool for creating and animating human and animal figures. It is capable of customizing figures and scenes by mapping facial photos to create realistic 3D portraits. It can create both stills and animations, and output movies and images for use in web, print, and video projects. You can also export your creations for use in other applications and Poser Pro now makes this even easier.

So what is new with Poser Pro?

All versions

• Network rendering (three machines/nodes in Base version) – now allows you to transform multiple computers into nodes within your network rendering queue. Because the rendering of complex scenes into images can consume quite a bit of time, even on today's powerful computers, the use of multiple machines can really speed things up. You can set the time and the nodes that you want to render on and use the power of multiple machines.

• Queue Manager – is a powerful tool that lets you manage your rendering process. You can choose where and when to render. It can be in the background, overnight, or when the computer is idle. You can create nodes on both Windows and Mac machines and distribute jobs across the queue. You can process, suspend, resume, and delete jobs. Manage a job list, and control individual job options.