"Poser is not only a product; it's a community," notes Heidi Rosenberg, marketing director at Curious Labs. "Thousands of artists gather in various forums to share their images and receive critiques and inspiration from one another." Many Poser artists exhibit their images on personal or user group Web sites, and some contribute pieces to Curious Labs' online newsletter and Web gallery (www.curiouslabs.com). The company displayed a collection of the more innovative images submitted by artists at Curious Labs' exhibition booth during Siggraph 2001. A selection of work from that gallery is featured on these pages.
-Karen Moltenbrey
The Red Queen by Syyd Raven utilizes Poser's illumination feature to draw attention to the character's stern expression.
Virgo Demoiselle by Syyd Raven was created with skin textures that originated from a digital photo. After creating the texture map in Deep Paint 3D with Texture Weapons, the artist lit the character to highlight its skin and eyes.
DJ by Catharina Przezak-Harders contains facial morphs and realistic textures that are illuminated and shadowed for a dramatic look.
Valet Parking by Greg Carter was created and rendered in Poser, then touched up in postproduction to downplay the "3D rendered" appearance of the image.
Siren Spyder by Audre Vysniauskas contains a fractal variation that prompted the artist to transform the original image into this "creepier" version, created in Tierazon (a fractal generator), Poser, Bryce, and Photoshop.
Old Gypsy by Thomas Weiss features textures from Renderosity.com that were tweaked in Painter and then rendered in Poser. For the lighting, the artist incorporated five spotlights, with only one casting shadows.
Angel of Sorrows by Cris Palomino was created, illuminated, and rendered in Poser, then imported into Photoshop and Painter, where postproduction work was done on the hair, face, cloth, tears, and wing color. Lighting played a central role in evoking a mood of somberness and grief.
The Way by David Ho illustrates the Taoist philosophy regarding Chi, or the energy within. The image was produced using Poser, Photoshop, and Illustrator. The blocks were created using a screenshot of the Poser wireframe, while the figure was separately rendered at the same angle to produce the desired appearance.