Hello,

I've done some searching around the forums, and haven't found anything really addressing my question.

So, decided I'd go ahead and ask it myself.

I'm digging into Poser, and content creation using Blender (with Photoshop, etc). In particular, I'd like to create props & environments, at least to start.

So, what I've been trying to find is a kind of guide or reference I can use that outlines things like scale, optimization, poly counts, etc. Any kind of information that I can reference to ensure compatibility with Poser... and probably DAZStudio. But primarily Poser.

Can anyone point me to anything? A guide, videos, etc?

Any assistance is greatly appreciated!

Thanks!

Hello TwoCatsYelling

First welcome to the forum as to your question about a Poser Blender work flow one thing you will come to realize early on is that it is not a one size fits all. First which version of Blender will you be using? I have found the 2.8 and above version of Blender have made working with Poser a bit easier as far as file format compatibility Obj FBX and Alembic can be used by both programs rather well. Also which version of Poser will you be using? I deal with scale by usually exporting a character from Poser in either FBX or Alembic import that character into Blender and Build a scene or prop using my imported character as a scale reference. Also model to millimeters & meters makes things allot easier in the long run. Poser works with tris and quads ngons will not import into Poser and if by chance it does the geometry will usually break. If you model like you were modeling for a game engine keep poly count reasonable. So will try to answer the best that I can and sure others will chime in as well with their own tricks and tips. There is this tutorial set it is on clearance currently in the Market Place called The Hall and Light Props I know it is for Silo modeler but the principles of going from modeling then into Poser is very informative it is a little dated but most of the importing and such is similar to Blender Also Tony Vilters has a YouTube channel that has some work flow techniques when working between Poser and Blender most of his information still works even in the newer version of Poser and Blender I hope this information helps get you started there is allot of info and many of us here will try as best we can to answer more specific questions

Hi there, Lobo, and thanks!

To answer your questions...

• I'm using Blender 2.9x right now. I'm not "married" to it by any stretch. I'm still getting used to it after the major update from the 2.7x series. So it's "whatever works" in that case.
• I'm using Poser 12. I'd purchased 11, and went ahead and got the update.
• I did export a character from Poser to use as a scale reference, but the axis are rotated. If I change the Z value of the scale, it scales along the Y axis. Really odd. Never seen that happen with models from other software. The axis usually remain intact. So I kinda set that aside for the time being and figured maybe I could just find some info about what scale/measurements Poser works in. If I know the standard figure in Poser is 1.8 meters tall, for example, I can work from that.
• I actually own Silo, so I'd be able to follow that course you linked. Silo's weird to work with, though. Can't decide if I like it or not. I'm sure I can take the information in the training and apply it to Blender, which I'm more comfortable with.

In any case, thank you for the info/suggestions!

I'll see what else I can find regarding scale and such.

Thanks!

Hello TwoCatsYelling

When you exported from Poser did you export in OBJ or one of the other formats I suggested? I have found the FBX and Alembic seem to not have the axis issue as often as the OBJ export the biggest issue I find with the obj export is the character comes in to small into Blender. I own Silo as well the interface is just not intuitive to me but the modeling principles are pretty much the same. Also when exporting character from Poser to import into Blender turn off IK by default Poser has these on and I think that is one of the quirks that throws off the Axis see screen shot below. This site is no longer updated but someone saved an archive copy of it and this scale info is perhaps over kill but it goes into detail about Poser scale Scale of Models in Poser The easiest solution I have come across is to change the default native scale in Poser to metric that has helped me. One of the nice things about the current version of Poser is that Superfly render is based on Cycles and since Renderosity has taken Poser over they have made some major improvement with Superfly that has made shading very similar to Blender's cycle render it is not a 1 to 1 match but getting better.

I hadn't checked out those formats, yet. I replied to you before checking it out. I can do that now, quick and see...

... time passes ...

Okay, the FBX imports a bit wonky. Alembic works perfectly though. The materials aren't applied correctly, but I don't need those. I just need the figure to work as a scale reference.

So.. I guess that solves that!

Thanks!

With the Alembic if I remember right you have to tell Blender where the textures for the character are and another little tid bit depending on which character your using when exporting from Poser uncheck parts you do not need for the scale model like eye lashes jaw and such all that does is bring extra geometry you don't need so it does not slow Blender down that is one thing I like about Collections in Blender I put my scale character in it's own collection so I can turn visibility on and off as needed

Thanks for all the info, Lobo! Very helpful.

I think your link to that training vid might actually get me to dive into Silo and give it a real serious go. I keep falling back to Blender 'cause I'm more familiar with it, but at the same time it feels like "too much" for what I want to do. I bought Silo specifically because it was more purpose-built, and doesn't try to be "everything at once". I find myself spending more time than I'd like hunting things down in Blender.

So.. I think I'm gonna give that course a go.. learn a new software, and learn to work with Poser. Two birds, one stone and all that.

Thanks again!

What ever is best for you in the long run but do not give up on Blender I am working on similar projects you mentioned earlier props and scenes creating characters is way out of my league plus I do not have the creative knack for organic stuff if that makes sense. Silo is not a bad modeler and there has been some updates to it and Silo 2.5.6 is now 64bit and is a free update if you have not downloaded it yet.

I think I'm just gonna stick it out with Blender.

I love the focused nature of Silo, and it's very clean, but it's kind of wonky to work with. I chalk that up to not being as familiar with it in part. But I don't like the "feel" of some of its tools.

So, yeah.. I think Blender is going to be the better way to go for me. Tons more resources for it, too.

I think the UV tools in Silo drove me crazy they just weren't intuitive I mean no one likes doing UVs but in Blender UV mapping made sense and the tools just seemed more natural again nothing against Silo for the price it is not a bad modeler especially for beginners but once I really devoted the time to Blender going back is just a waste of time it is like hexagon which is the first modeler I cut my teeth on was great but once development stopped there were to many bugs trying to use it on Windows 7 and up

I've given Hexagon a go several times, too. Similar reason to Silo. More focused on modeling, cleaner interface, etc. But I had problems with stability. Too many random CTDs during very basic, typical use.

I thought maybe Daz was going to be really going heavy to start developing it again when they updated it to 64 bit, etc. But that seems to have stalled off again. They haven't touched Carrara in who-knows-how-long, either.

I don't understand why companies buy these programs just to sit on them and let them rot.

Anyway, I'm wondering if I can just customize my own setup of Blender to focus on Modeling, UV and Materials. With the tabbed workspaces, it shouldn't be difficult.

Lobo3433 posted at 10:24AM Fri, 26 February 2021 - #4413849

I think the UV tools in Silo drove me crazy they just weren't intuitive I mean no one likes doing UVs but in Blender UV mapping made sense and the tools just seemed more natural again nothing against Silo for the price it is not a bad modeler especially for beginners but once I really devoted the time to Blender going back is just a waste of time it is like hexagon which is the first modeler I cut my teeth on was great but once development stopped there were to many bugs trying to use it on Windows 7 and up

You can customize Blender to anything you like I stick the basic default set up except in 2.79 I got rid of the timeline since I have never worked in or plan on doing animations the only thing I change is the UI theme from Dark to a lighter gray shade old age and eye sight I can hardly see things in the dark default theme also I change vert size so I can see them better as well There is two tutorial creators I follow pretty regularly Blender Bros and Blender Zen both have YouTube channels and some of their UI customizing tips are really useful for Modeling Blender Bros do mainly hard surface modeling and Blender Zen does allot of Architectural modeling Blender Zen is very detail orientated which I like and he doesn't speed thru things.

Oh, I'm not familiar with Blender Bros and Blender Zen. I'm going to have to check them out. Are the UI suggestions for the newer 2.8 and 2.9 versions? I ask because I've been hesitant to play with either of the new versions, because I'm so used to how I have 2.79 set up.

Blender Zen still has 2.79 tips for the UI Blender Bros are primarily working with 2.8 and above

@TwoCatsYelling

Maybe it's worth trying this (figure) exporter Python Script (go straight to the last page).

It's made to export figures to do morphs, but can also be used to avoid the scaling and rotation problem.

I will make an update to the script to export/import Props within the next few days.[Place display text here](Place link URL here)

Lobo3433 posted at 8:11PM Tue, 09 March 2021 - #4413992

Blender Zen still has 2.79 tips for the UI Blender Bros are primarily working with 2.8 and above

Oh thanks Lobo. I'll have to take a look at Blender Bros goodies again.