Now I wanted to touch one this subject because some people have a bad view of Poser in the art community.  They think that you MUST do everything yourself.  But what does that get them.  At most it is a nice looking short but never anything epic or long lasting.

Some of you have asked me about that fact.  You are trying to tell your story but then some in the CG community tell you not to use Poser.  But truth is Poser can help you get up to speed much faster and tell stories.

If you push the tool that Poser is you can create wonderful artwork to tell your story.

Poser1

One of my favorite comics ever was created by Brian Haberlin.  He uses Poser to help him make one of the largest graphic novels in the world with cool augmented reality.  If you have checked out his novels please do for an inspirational aspect into what can be done with Poser as a tool but also as good awesome fun.  I loved Anomaly.  Oh and by the way, this guy has TV and movie deals.  So you tell me it is not a legit tool to create great imagery and tell stories.  In the end don’t let anyone discouarage you.  There are some elitist out there but they are purist.  They care about what program was used and at the end of the day it is just foolish.

End result is all that matters.

anomaly

poseraomaly

Poseranomaly

 

I have talked to several people about making their own animated series and telling their own stories.

There are many people with large ideas on what they want to create but sometimes they are limited in what they can do in way of TALENT.   Some folks no matter how hard they try will never really ever be able to draw, 3d model, etc.  But that doesn’t mean you cannot tell stories.

I remember in 1998 when I first saw Poser.  I believe it was Poser 2.0.  It had some ugly looking models and such but at that moment I could see the potential.   It made my imagination fly.  At the time I couldn’t model.  It was out of my skill set.  Poser at the time was very limited but then came Poser 4.0.  From that point on I was totally hooked.  I think I’ve bought every Poser version that came out since except 11 at this point.  I really want 11.

But starting from 4.0 it allowed me to start making all kinds of animations, very quickly.

I wish I had all my animations but here are some animations I did with Poser 4.

I know not the best but those were my first attempts.

Here is a link to some more work.  No just remember there was no streaming back then so I had to build it more on being able to get it small enough to be online.

http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/146408

Now I know those are quite crude but it was years ago.

The reason I write this article is I know there are tons of storytellers out there who want to tell a story.  I’m sure you would love to have artists help you create all these cool worlds.  But the truth is they won’t.   It is a lot of work and you could go on for decades looking to create a team of skilled folks who you will work together with to make a cool project and usually only then it is a short or some fan film.

No you want to tell stories and so do I.  The truth is Poser made me understand and see that I could do it on my own if no one else would help me.

Combined with ZBrush and other methods Poser is a very powerful tool that could help you bring your stuff to life especially if you apply a little imagination and ingenuity.

Now there are other folks in on the game as well including MakeHuman, Daz3d and Iclone.

 

My last post was to share some tools you could affordably create MOCAP animations.  In this post I wanted to share ideas on how to put it together.

Here is an example of my work.

I made this for fun.  It took me less than 3 hours.  I combined my mocap system with Poser using Michael 3.0 and an Ironman model I found online.  Now I know it is not much but it was very easy.  Now using this easy method you can put it together and make some really awesome animations very quickly of course imagination not included.

Check out some more Poser + MOCAP animations.

 

If you are trying to create your very own anime you could definately get more done using MOCAP.

I have been in love with MOCAP for years.  While I do love Keyframe animation, I love MOCAP because it can help me tell a story so much quicker.

Remember this sight is designed to help even those with very limited skills be able to create their own anime.  MOCAP can be a key.

 

MOCAP used to be only for the big studios with money but now things have changed.  There are all types of systems now ranging from free, to in program, to even a cheap but effective wearable mocap.

Here are 5 cheap MOCAP tools you could get your hands on.

One good way to learn how to create your own animation is to study others.    I am still trying to figure out how this director creates his animation but I kind of have a good idea.  It looks like he is using some cell shading and actual animation on the faces.

I think it is something like this

 

And this

Could you use something like POSER by Smith Micro?  Animate the characters and trace over the characters especially if you do not know how to draw as well.  You can trace?  Better yet…Poser 11 has a great new line tool that Brian Haberlin often uses.  You could do this for a manga or an anime as well.

What do you think?

I have bee keeping up with this really awesome Youtube channel called Art Sandwich.  They have been making some really cool spoofs of different movies.  I wanted to share their making of video because it breaks down the process pretty good and possibly could give you an idea on how to make your anime.   You could possibly use your own footage and actors and draw over them like these guys do.

Always think outside the box.

 

 

Here is some of their awesome work.