Video Training Review – Poser 7 Essential Training With Larry Mitchell From Lynda.com.

Poser 7 is the latest release from e frontier. It is a 3D rendering and animation program that is optimized for models that depict the human figure in 3D form. Set up as a studio, it allows the user to load actors, props, lighting and cameras for still and animated renderings.

Your trainer for this library is Larry Mitchell, a digital media artist and producer for the last 20 years. He has created graphics and software for TV shows, arenas, video games and commercials. This library is divided into 15 lessons and runs almost six hours.

Lesson 1, "The Poser 7 Interface" begins by showing you around the interface, explaining document styles, cameras and light settings. It briefly explains the Viewport and Poser Rooms. Lesson 2, "The Editing Tools," breaks down the editing tools explaining the Chain Break; the ability isolate portions of your models movements, Color and View Magnifier, Group, Morph, and Direct manipulation.

Lesson 3, "The Library" discusses the library and how it can help you reuse portions of your Poser assets. Lesson 4, "Posing" describes working with body parts, working on animated poses, as well as how to create and add new poses to the library.

Lesson 5, "Working with Props" will show you how to use the built-in props from the library, how to import props from other 3D applications, how to add props to the library, as well as creating materials for props. Lesson 6, "Animating Characters" gets into the heart of Poser by making your characters animated. By selecting existing motion and creating movement you can easily make your creations move. You will also learn to edit Keyframes and import motion capture to animate characters.

Lesson 7, "Working in the Material Room" Begins your exploration of Poser's various rooms. This one will have you building 3D shaders, image textures, and editing character materials. Lesson 8, "Working in the Face room" examines how to do face shaping, sculpting, use the Photo Lineup, and applying your new head to your model. Lesson 9, "Working in the Hair Room" continues by growing and styling hair, as well as learning how to add hair to the library.

Lesson 10, "Working in the Cloth Room" shows you how to make cloth that can be used for making clothes and other material within Poser. Lesson 11, "Working in the Setup Room" explains how to make a prop into a figure. In this lesson you will convert a jet pack into a figure. Lesson 12, "Working in the Content Room" finishes the rooms by explaining the Content Room interface. The content room is essentially a room that houses a web browser and has links to the Poser content that is available on the web. This way, if you find you need something; whether it is characters, textures, motions, or other items, they are just a few mouse-clicks away .

Lesson 13, "Facial Expressions and Animation" describes how to use facial expressions from the library, how to do them manually, how to add created expressions to the library and how to animate and create lip-synced animation with Poser's Talk Designer.

Lesson 14, "Exporting from Poser" explains how to render and export images and movies from Poser. Lesson 15, "Placing Characters in the Real World with Vue 6 Infinite" finishes up the library by explaining how to use e-on software's Vue 6 Infinite product to render to a natural 3D environment. This is the same product that Industrial Light and Magic used in Pirates of the Caribbean to create the lush tropical environments.

Overall I really liked the presentation within this video. If there was an area to improve on, it would be the clothing creation. I found that creating clothing and getting it to work correctly within Poser 7 was somewhat difficult especially with movement. I would have liked more explanation and development there. What I did like was Mitchell's working through a complex product making it much easier to get a handle on its use.

You can get Poser 7 Essential Training two ways: as a DVD training package Poser 7 Essential Training or as part of the online training experience at Lynda.com. The DVD Training Package is $99 USD and contains everything you need.

The online training Poser 7 Essential Training comes in three flavors. Monthly at $25 USD/month gets you all of the videos that are available online (approximately 21,811 videos on 318 topics at this time). Annually at $250 USD per year or Premium at $375 USD per year which get all the videos as well as all of the exercise files. Take note that the exercise files are not included with the monthly or annual subscriptions. They are included on the DVD and Premium subscriptions.

You can use Poser 7 Essential Training as a training program for the individual student, as well as for the college or vocational teacher looking to supplement their educational materials. It is of benefit to anyone who needs help understanding Poser 7. You can also try out most of the first lesson for free at Lynda.com.

Poser 7 Essential Training Lesson Listing:

• Introduction
• The Poser 7 Interface
• The Editing Tools
• The Library
• Posing
• Working with Props
• Animating Characters
• Working in the Material Room
• Working in the Face Room
• Working in the Hair Room
• Working in the Cloth Room
• Working in the Setup Room
• Working in the Content Room
• Facial Expressions and Animation
• Exporting from Poser
• Placing Characters in the Real World with Vue 6 Infinite
• Conclusion