CURIOUS LABS POser Pro Pack v4.2 serial key or number

4.0 out of 5 starsFor Patient Computer Savvy people. (Read Warning)

Reviewed in the United States on December 8, 2005

Platform: PC Disc

___WARNING TO MAC OSX TIGER USERS___:
Do these steps after installation. It will enable you to _SAVE_. (especially if you have the DIVX codec)
1. Open and Register your product (on the website too). Shut it down.
2. Go to [...]
3. Choose "Poser 6 English Service Release 2 for Mac OS X".
4. Enter your serial number and open the dmg, follow the instructions on the release from there. While you are there, you can download the rest of the stuff.

For those who can't access that link for whatever reason:
[...]->downloads (second blue tab at top)-->Updates and Documentation-->(Choose the info... Poser 6, Macintosh, English)

Also to update your DIVX codec go to:
[...] (the download link is on the righthand side, yellow link red box.)

Do both of those things and you should be set to save you Poser programs. If you don't have Divx and aren't planning to do download it... well, do these steps anyway, it might just be a good idea.
__END WARNING___

The review now...
Poser is really great program, and though it takes a while to learn, it's pretty good. I know that a lot of the computer unsaavy will have trouble. The UI in the Mac doesn't take advantage of what Mac OSX offers. It does more than humans, it does animals and objects too. (For those willing to Download for a price, beds, scenery, buildings, etc).

There was a person that complained it doesn't work on Mac OSX, I had no trouble with it beyond what I mentioned above.

The reason I'm giving it 4 stars is because the figures in Poser6 suck. Go to DAZ and download those. I particularly like the Millenium Horse, Victoria, Michael, and Aiko (for those anime fans). Also because of the bug, and not taking advantage of the Mac OSX UI. I would have liked the stage parts to be in separate windows, like the Photoshop User Interface. So I could individually dock the windows, and kill them. The book isn't a tutorial manual at all, just a basics manual. (But Adobe Photoshop is like that too, so I'm not griping). To augment that go online, DAZ has some really great turotials, also doing a google search. (Also buying that book that previous reviewer mentioned below me probably will help, but I haven't bought it yet) The renders can be retouched in Photoshop... look for those tutorials if you happen to have Photoshop. [...]. Though there are others.

I was lucky, I downloaded Aiko, Michael and Victoria for free off of the Daz website. (James is pathetic, as mentioned) (currently as of this writing they still are free.)

Download them now if you are intending or thinking about buying the program. (If they are no longer free, download the first two after you buy the program, it is worth it.)

As for how long it takes to learn, to make your own figures it will take lots, and lots of learning, patience and work, but it took just as long for me to learn Photoshop, Mojoworld, and other high end graphics programs. (I'm still learning Photoshop, though it's been about 5 years on and off). Don't expect a miracle with powerful and complex programs such as this. Depending on your learning curve, you may get upset and throw it out the window, or you may try over and over again until you get it right. If you want to use this for reference work (because you suck at imagining poses--like me), this program might be more work than you are willing to go for. (Just use magazines and those wooden mannequins--much cheaper).

I bought this program for Mojoworld, mainly. And because I got some requests for anime characters in 3D. I secondarily bought it for posing figures into various positions for reference, but it takes a lot more work than I thought.

Overall, Poser 6 is a great program for those of us who are bad at drawing humans, want to interface it with programs like Bryce, Mojoworld, and for doing Photoshop humans. It will take about just as long to learn as Photoshop, Mojoworld, and other high end graphical programs, but I think it's worth it. (Especially when you buy the educational pack). It's a lot easier to use than building a human figure in say... Maya. So don't expect overnight success, and have lots of patience and computer knowledge before buying this program.

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It seems that Curious Labs is still having third-party developers create content for Poser 5. With the bugginess of the other third-party items (the Face Room, Dynamic Cloth, etc.), I hope that these plug-ins are fully tested.

August 7, 2003: Curious Labs announces the release of Poser 5 for Mac OSX. From their Sale Page.

Curious Labs, Inc. announces today it has released Poser 5 for Mac OSX, the eagerly anticipated version of their award-winning 3D-character tool for artists and animators. With this release Mac OSX users can now enjoy the benefits of Poser's poweful figure design tools that have previously been available on Windows. In recognition of the ongoing support of it's Mac users Curious Labs is also pleased to announce 2 special priced offerings: Poser 5 for Mac OSX ESD Crossgrade from Poser 5 Windows for Only $129! A savings of $190! (This time-limited crossgrade is available to those who've been using Poser 5 for Windows and now want to return to Mac OSX.) Poser 5 for Mac OSX ESD Full Version for Only $199 - A savings of $120! Just some of Poser 5 for Mac OSX key new benefits include: All new highly accurate 3D human figures with fully articulated hands and feet, featuring photorealistic texture maps and facial morphs Render breathtaking images or movies with FireFly™, Poser 5's powerful new renderer. FireFly is a hybrid micro-polygon and Ray Trace render engine which gives you control over the rendering process. Use Ray Traced refraction and reflection, powerful node-based shaders, render-time polygon smoothing, 3D motion blur and much more to output realistic final renders. Grow strand-based hair on figures and props in your Poser 5 scene using the new Hair Room! Growth controls allow you to control aspects such as length and thickness. Styling controls allow you to shape your hair � make it thick or thin, straight or curly. Apply dynamics such as gravity to your hair to create realistic effects during animation. Clothify your prop to transform it into realistic dynamic cloth complete with physics. Assign collision objects to make the cloth flow and drape around any object in your scene. Add the new Wind Force prop to create realistic wind effects for your animations. Want to create a virtual you? Import facial-photos to easily model new characters and create texture maps. Poser 5�s new Face Room allows you to create lifelike results by mapping any face onto a 3D head. Poser 5�s new Material Room lets you create amazing materials using powerful node-based shaders. Build a shader tree using one or more shader nodes. Combine procedurals, image maps, animations, fractal, and math nodes to create virtually any material texture you can imagine.

Note: "ESD" means "electronic download", which means that users will have to download over 800M worth of files and will not get a CD nor a printed manual nor a box. On the other hand, they won't have to wait for the product to be shipped to them.

Note 2: Although this article doesn't mention it, Poser 5 for OSX is supposed to have all the fixes and patches that are included in Service Pack 3 for the Windows version.

August 11, 2003: I decide to take another look at P5.

A few days earlier, I received an e-mail from a guy who defended Poser 5's features and who asked that I give Poser 5 another try. After all, Service Pack 3 had come out and was rumored to fix a number of outstanding issues. So, I installed the 2 new SR3 updaters and started working...

As a test, I rendered a scene in Poser 5 using the Poser 4 render engine... it rendered a little faster than Poser 4. I then decided to try the FireFly renderer. The render was slow and the quality wasn't that great. I then took a look at Stefan Werner's site, and found a number of settings to speed up the rendering. And, yes, it was *much* faster! The scene rendered in about half the time AND using Poser 5's "advanced" features such as specular and anisotropic reflections.

But, the bad news- Poser 5 *still* has the same "focus" issues as P4... and some are even worse. For example, if you are done with a scene and want to open another one, you go to: File > Open. Poser then gives the standard "Do you save to save?" dialog box. When I hit "D" for "Don't save", the main document window split into 4 camera views! I hit "D" again and Poser then realized that I was actually using the dialog box, not the main window.

And for all of you "keyboard people" out there (like myself)- sorry, but *MANY* keyboard shortcuts still do not work while on the floating "Paramaters Palette", including Ctrl+S for Save, Ctrl-M for Main Camera, Ctrl-T for Top Camera, and Ctrl+R for Render. (Ctrl-Z for Undo does work, however.) This is completely unacceptable, especially given the fact that Service Pack 3 has been released. And, not to mention the fact that I personally listed ALL of the shortcuts keys that do not work AND sent the list to Curious Lab's tech support (and posted this to Renderosity's Poser 5 Beta Test Forum).... in September of 2002.
Supposedly, this feature works in the Mac version, which, also, supposedly, has better control over the "focus". But this doesn't really help the Windows users who are used to using the Ctrl shortcut keys.

So, do I recommend using Poser 5, now that it's been out for almost a year and had 3 major Service Releases? The honest answer- I don't know. Yes, the FireFly renderer will give you better results, but if your work habits include using the shortcut keys to switch between cameras, then Poser 5 may be more trouble than it's worth. My recommendation is to build your scene in Poser 4, save it, and then open it in Poser 5. From there, you can add the advanced texturing features and tweak the FireFly render settings to your liking. On the other hand, if you're a "mouse person", then your work habit hasn't changed at all, so you will probably won't be as frustrated as the "keyboard people".

Then, the "bottom line" answer is to install Poser 5 in another folder and just give it a try for yourself. If you don't like it, you'll have Poser 4 in another folder. If you do like it, then don't use Poser 4 (just remember to "link" your Poser4\Runtime folder into Poser 5 and not delete it!).

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Some other, larger issues have yet to be fully answered: