Poser and Photoshop

In making digital figurative works, there is one application that is found most useful- the Poser.  Poser is user friendly and has a certain degree of flexibility, thus, it works beautifully with Photoshop.

In creating a scene, we will utilize different kinds of posing tools, camera views, lighting set-ups and props to make a wide array of people and items needed for the scene.  In this specific set, we will use only one male figure then adjust his pose to make various poses.

With Poser, it is recommended to begin with the pose at hand, and then make modifications.  Poser provides you with a huge number of pre-set poses from which you can choose.  Whatever pose you have in mind, Poser most probably has it, or has one that is really close to it.  Explore the Library Palette and you will understand how easy and quick this task is, thus saving you a lot of time.

When you have built the scene you have in mind, you can use the Poser cameras to check how it looks from different angles.  You can turn and spin the cameras at the middle of the scene.  There is no need to worry that you might upset the content you built, since what you will be seeing is the same scene but from different vantage points.

The following are some of the advantageous features of Poser when used in combination with Photoshop.

1. You can use Photoshop to make the background.  After which, import this to Poser to give the figures the fitting lighting and angles for the scene.  When this is done, add the finished renderings back to the Photoshop background.  The resulting scene will look much more natural.
2. You can start modifying how the figures appear even while still in Poser.  In this case, some of the body parts were removed and replaced with props.  As you can see, the sea creature on the right has indistinct body parts, while the skin color was transformed to gray before rendering was conducted.
3. There is no limit to what you can create with Photoshop.  Whether you want to do simple illustrated works or very complex and intricate designs, Photoshop will make everything easier for you.  You can color various layers, and then with the aid of tools like Brush and Gradient, you can add highlights and shadows.
4. From the figures you created on Poser, you may or may not choose to integrate everything into your composition.  You may just even select certain parts, and then with the use of Photoshop, you can make creatures that exist only in your imagination.

Related entries:

1. Photoshop Select Menu
2. Vector Creation Tools
3. Painter X
4. Corel Painter- Re-visited
5. Illustrator-Live Trace