Why...Why?!

I've uploaded some new images based off a commission I recently completed.

Thanks for taking my poll about Poser vs Daz and for your comments. 

The reason for the poll and my questions about Poser result from an issue I encountered with Poser in January.  I woke up one morning, launched Poser on my Desktop to create some nice superheroine peril scenes and *POOF* the Poser Content Library was gone. The content library is where all the figures, lights, poses, clothes, props, etc. are found.  Without a library, you can't load any content.  The Poser Library is a Flash Plugin. Adobe killed, I mean KILLED and BURIED, Flash in December of 2020. Without Flash, there's no Poser Content Library.

I reached out to Poser Support and am still waiting for an answer.  However, Renderosity has a pretty active Poser Forum and I found a solution to the Content Library issue.  It's a poor solution, though.  So, I was thinking maybe it's time to upgrade Poser.  The lack of support gave me pause.  Not only is there little support for Poser, they don't have any supported figures.  The Poser Stock figures have never been greatly supported, this opened the door for 3rd parties to develop content for Poser, which is exactly what Daz has done since 2000.

Here is my first DeviantArt Post, 2006.  A Poser 4 stock figure called Posette dressed in clothing for Daz's Victoria 2 model.  I had to make a lot of adjustments to try and make this work. In fact, this got frustrating for me. The stock figures had few clothing articles, V2 was popular, but pricey.  The models cost around $40, more if you want extra morphs for body shaping and expressions.  I decided to try making stories using Posette and free models.

This is a page from the Original "Book Binder" story.  Talea finds herself captured, unconscious and bound.  The model is Posette, with one of the Posette stock hairstyle, a rather plastic hair.  I used Photoshop to try fixing poorly fit clothing and make the hair a little more realistic.  Eventually, I gave up because these images just weren't realistic enough to me and it took too long to create the scenes.  As of 2006, I thought Poser and 3D Imaging were really for graphic artists and other experts.  I couldn't emulate the folks that inspired me like Superheroinecentral.com, Mr.X, Uroboros, etc.

A year or so later, I came back to Poser and decided to invest in Victoria 3.

This is Talea redone as a Victoria 3 model.  With Victoria 3, her morphs, some hires textures, a new hair model from Daz, and a few free articles of clothing, Talea was reborn.  I discovered that spending some money on content can make a real difference in image quality.

I started investing in Victoria 3.  Around 2007ish, Daz released the first version of their own 3D rendering software, DazStudio 1.0.  It was free, but to get it, you had to register and prove to them that you emailed 4 friends and told them about the software.  The software was klunky compared to Poser, but it was free and was the beginning of a new era.

Victoria 4 was then released and became one of the most popular models in Poser history with around 3000 products designed just for V4.  Daz's Genesis 3 also has around 3000 products.  The 2018 Genesis 8 model has 6000 products. That's a lot in a short period, highlighting the model's popularity. It's not compatible with Poser.

By this time, I had already invested heavily in V3 and did not want to move on to V4 because it meant buying all new products.  At an average of $10 each, for clothes, scenes, props, textures, it can add up quickly

In 2010, I made the plunge, got the V4 model and a bunch of stuff to go with her. This is my first V4 model, Glitter.  

Daz started moving on from V4, developing their Genesis models, which were not directly compatible with Poser.  Because they were primary suppliers of Poser content and because they were developing their own system, production of new content just for Poser started to slow.  Genesis 2 and 3 are barely compatible with Poser. You have to use a plugin to get them to work and it brings my rig to crawl, making it pointless to use these models with Poser. Around 2015/2016, Poser released version 11.  Eleven versions released between 1995 and 2015. By 2015, though, there was no content being developed specifically for Poser.  The stock model, Pauline, was largely ignored. V4 was still supported for Poser, but vendors were more interested in developing content for the better rigged, higher resolution DazStudio models Genesis 2 and Genesis 3. In late 2018, Bondware, the current owners of Poser, released Poser 12 and included a new stock model, LeFemme.  I think the hope is that Lefemme and the male counterpart L'Homme will reinvigorate Poser. Historically, though, the Poser models have all failed.

Most new content is for the Genesis 8 models and only works in DazStudio.  For Poser to comeback, they really need content and support and both are currently lacking.  As programs, DazStudio and Poser are both very good.  I find Poser more flexible, with greater control over the scene than Daz.  Daz works seamlessly for Daz Content, though and has some great animation features and lighting.  Both programs have a bit of a learning curve.

I still use V3.  Lilianne is a V3 model.  My Blue Bulleteer is both V3 and V4.

The Blue Bulleteer as V3.

Blue Bulleteer as V4.  Which do you like better?

Because DazStudio is free, I will use it.  I'm more adept with Poser and hope Bondware can convince vendors to develop content.  It's always nice to get new textures, characters and clothes to play with.  If so, I'll upgrade Poser, if not, I'll run Poser Pro 2014 until it can no longer run in Windows.  I'm curious to see what happens with LeFemme.  If she breaks the mold and gets support that none of her predecessors received, it might be cool to have another model to play with.  They did a nice job with her facial expressions. Fortunately, the 1500 or so models I have for V3 and V4 will be compatible with DazStudio.