Daz and Poser
Tsuzura
Posts: 119
It seems that most people make art that that turns out better (or at least art I like more) With Poser Pro 2014 and I was wondering how different is it compared to Daz?
I was thinking about getting Poser 10 to try poser out without having to blow all my money on Poser 2014.
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Since you are asking a question I guess it is okay to show you this comparison page http://poser.smithmicro.com/comparison.html
Like you said, its just your taste. I have seen good renders and bad renders from both. Comparing them though is impossible really. Both are more then able to be used to do wonderful art but it comes down to who uses them and how. Most of the artwork we see from both programs is usally by hobbiests and not professionals. The main comparison is not the end result but how you get there with either program since each user is different and will prefer a different ways of doing their art.
It is SO individual preference. I started with Poser 4 in 2000 through Poser 7. I never could animate in Poser. Then someone challenged me to try DS in 08 (I think). DS3 had just come out so I got it and promised to give it a month. I fell so in love with DS that I never went back to Poser after that. Now, I still keep my Poser current because I use it like a plugin to DS. I have even tried to work with Carrara but had so much trouble getting my characters in that I said forget it! I'll stay with DS!
Disclaimer: I do not work for Daz.
Poser pro 2014 costs $499.99 whereas Daz Studio 4 Pro is free. Poser 10 and 2014 have dynamic cloth and hair. I find that moving the camera view and objects to be easier in Daz Studio than Poser. Wish I could tell you more but I am about to go to bed. Good luck.
I use both. I like both. The only really significant thing Poser 10 has that Daz doesn't is universal dynamic cloth -- meaning, just about anything can be draped, blown around, etc. However, Poser dynamic hair sucks, lol. Really, it does. The Poser material room, once you're used to it, is incredibly powerful. It's similar to Shader Mixer, but more straightforward. Poser's UI isn't as intuitive as Daz's -- though, once you get used to it, it becomes reflexive. (Of course, I've used Poser since P6, so of course it's reflexive for me.) Daz's library flexibility is very, very nice (compared to the Poser library structure.) Though, if you've used DS since way back, you know how to navigate Poser runtimes because Gen4 stuff generally lands there. Daz has native support for Genesis/G2 (this is it's best feature, IMO.) DSON is clunky and sluggish, but is a viable mechanism for getting stuff into Poser. You still have material issues, though, so if you use DSON frequently, you'll get to know the material room pretty quickly, lol. Poser 10 is currently $50 at that OTHER marketplace. I agree that trying Poser 10 is a much smarter bet than jumping into Pro14. I honestly feel there's a steeper learning curve for Poser than DS, so if you buy it, prepare to have a little patience. Lots and lots of good tutorials online. And, in general, Poser official documentation is much better than DAZ's. Just my 2 cents.
EDIT: One more thing -- Autofit rocks the pants off anything Poser has come up with. Even the Pro 2014 fitting room (which is very cool) pales in comparison.
...the one major difference is Poser Pro (as well as Daz Studio Pro) is available as both a 32 bit and 64 bit programme. Poser 10 is only available in 32 bit so you will be restricted to a maximum of 3GB RAM. This could come into play when rendering large scenes with lots of figures as well as transparency maps, reflectivity, and IBL lighting all which put a serious load on the rendering process.
Oh and I have to concur about Autofit (particularly with SickleYield's utilities). I have rarely gone back to using a third party conversion tool unless I have to fit something from one legacy figure to another.
Poser 2014 is currently on sale for $229 over at that "other" 3D figure site.
Disclaimer: I don't work for DAZ, Smith Micro, or any of their affiliates.
OK, from my POV, they're very different animals.
Poser has a UI that looks like it belongs on a free program or a $19 kid's program. That's a decade-old leftover from when actually received a UI from a kid's program. Really, something called "Power Goo". An afternoon using Poser is like dental work. DAZ studio looks and feels more professional.
People are going to flame me for pointing out that the emperor wears no clothes here:
Poser 2014 is much more affordable than DAZ Studio. It costs hundreds to try to bring DS up to Poser levels by adding a bunch of plugins, like KeyMate, GraphMate, LookAtMyHair, Garibaldi, "Animated Textures Script", Cross Dresser, etc.
Points for DAZ
* Geometry shells.
* UV switching.
* Genesis and G2 bend better than most Poser figures.
Points for Poser.
* Keyframe animation that's easier, has more usable controls, and animates way more parameters than DAZ, even if you buy plugins like KeyMate and GraphMate for DAZ.
* Decent animated texture support.
* Any clothing can be dynamic, right out of the box. The expensive and flaky DS plugin only animates clothing created by one person.
* Better clothing adaptation than DAZ autofit,
It's only more if that's animation and dynamic clothing is what you use. Most don't .
Interesting article here from the original creator of Poser http://poser.smithmicro.com/letter_from_larry_weinberg.html The Poser UI has always been similar to how it is now, and I for one am quite happy with it.
Plus Power Goo was not a kids prgram, but part of a very useful set of API plugins http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kai's_Power_Tools
they make a down/load manager naos. meh
...I have worked in both Daz and Poser/PoserPro. Between the two, I still find the Daz UI to be simpler to navigate even given all the new options available. For one the UI is far more customisable. I like working with a large viewport and have arranged the various tabs/panes to maximise the available workspace. Camera controls are far more straightforward and simple, particularly with the addition of the Camera Cube. The same holds true for the basic lighting system (including the AoA Advanced lights) and the addition of being able to view through a light as if it were a camera is a huge benefit. Scaling characters in Poser is also more tricky compared to Daz. In Poser, I've had figures literally "come apart at the seams" so to say when I tried to scale just the lower arms or thighs for example. In Daz, not only the entire figure can be scaled up or down with the use of a single slider, but when scaling individual parts (bones) of a figure, the entire mesh remains intact.
While the Smart Content features in Daz may be a help to some I no longer use them as first, the display tends to demand too much screen space, and second, the ongoing stability issues some (including myself) have with the database that drives it. However I can still fall back on the standard runtime tree display which I have used since version 1.5. The newer versions of Poser/Poser Pro on the other hand require Adobe Flash/Air to display the library contents which I find even more of a bother as the plugin is not only often unstable. but can also present a security risk.
Poser in and of itself does have a number of excellent features, like the aforementioned Cloth and Materials Rooms. Overall, rendering is also quicker in most cases (unless one uses IBL but then that puts a strain on any render engine). Poser Pro (since ver 2010) also has the Queue Manager which allows for batch rendering in background mode (something Daz could also benefit from). One of downsides though is that only the more expensive Pro version offers 64 bit support which given the ongoing development of 3D CG today, is almost a necessity.
Finally, there is the Genesis concept. which works far more elegantly in Daz than though DSON for Poser as each programme ustilises a different weight mapping format. True, there is now a weight mapped figure that works natively in Poser, which is a very positive development for the Poser community, however, it is also one which could further split the two camps (and with Poser's ability to freely "clothify" any clothing mesh, gives the Poser community a slight advantage over Daz users). Meanwhile, on the Daz side, there has been a recent trend of releasing "Daz specific" content with no Poser CF component files (there is even a poll relating to this).
Maybe this is an inevitable sign that the two platforms will continue to diverge from one another to the point cross compatibility between them will no longer be seen as important.
....again my 2 Zł worth
I personally prefer Poser for various reasons, but Studio has it's own upsides.
Studio is easier to use and I love how quick it is to find what you need, the Genesis figures are pretty cool in their own right, but that is where Studio's good points end for me.
The way the program uses lights and shaders does not work for me. Poser has the advantage of a better rendering engine in my opinion, and although I may be called a "basher" for saying so that is the situation on my end. But part of this has to do with my better understanding of how Poser handles lights and materials, I simply may not be doing the right thing to get the same effects in Studio.
For being a free program, Studio is worth trying out, who knows you might get better results then you thought.
...for myself I had the opposite issue with Poser lighting compared to Daz.
Aside from simple portraits (for which I have a couple "go-to" pre-made Poser light sets), never could get the lighting to look the way I wanted like I could in Daz, especially for outdoor scenes. Part of this was based on experience in theatrical lighting and part out of resourcefulness/necessity as large light arrays (like LDP in the "pre-UE" days) would have a habit of crashing a render process on my old 32 bit system. I designed several 4 and 5 light setups that worked well for full daylight , evening, and even night scenes using just the standard Daz lights.
I have actually found some free Studio light sets that convey part of what I am looking for, so all is not lost. :) And I have been checking out quite a few different tutorials to give me a hint of where I am going wrong, right now I am further along with it than I thought I would be.
It just takes some effort to learn a new program is all.
I have Poser Pro 2014, but I don't use it. The UI is (to me) antiquated and very uncomfortable to work with, and it's much less responsive than DS is (at least on my machine). On the other hand, the FireFly renderer can produce some very nice effects that I have to struggle to approximate in DS. Hopefully in the next version or two, Smith Micro will bring Poser's user interface into the 21st century.
Which is actually the better program depends on what you're looking to do and how comfortable you are with each one. For now and for the foreseeable future, I'm sticking with DS4.6P.