How did you discover Daz/Poser?
K_WILD
Posts: 57
Kain the village idiot is back lol
Figured I'd try and interact here a bit more (I seriously don't know how to use forums) and do a little question thingy for everyone here.
How did you guys get into Poser and/or Daz? What drew your attention to it, and your favorite things about em?
I'd really love to hear everyone's stories about how they got here and what drew them into it.
Post edited by K_WILD on
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Oh god I don't know how to fix the formatting LMAO.
I'll start this with mine: I had heard about Daz years prior but I never was really curious to poke it more and never really pursued it, but I saw ads of it a couple of times. Fast forward to 2025 last year, I was trying to find a new hobby and downloaded it on a whim, realizing I already had an account here. I started futzing around in it and wanted to recreate a character of mine, and realized I should grab some assets for it. Then I started getting more curious and researched it, listening to tutorials, yelling sporadically in the forums, and then finding a server with other Daz folks (hey CC and Matt if you see this, hiii.)
I started to really enjoy Daz because it was not only a good thing to futz with in my down time, but also I met a lot of really nice and cool people here that helped a lot and everyone has been super welcoming and kind. Plus I can draft character concepts before I sketch out final drafts in my art program.
My current project with Daz rn is going to be a celebration render lineup of all the generations of Victoria and the years they released + poly counts. I also have a Daz Dragon 3 retexturing project and a LIE eye texture pack I want to eventually revive.
I really appreciate everyone here making this place. Thank you for being so welcoming despite my buffonery
I got a copy of Poser ?v2 on a 3D Magazine cover disc and played with it, but the asset file system was so AWFUL and non-intuitive that I did not enjoy it. Then, another magazine disc got me into VUE and I went crazy with that. I imported Poser figures into Vue and it was just okay. Then, quite a while later there was something in DAZ I wanted to render and so got started with DAZ - it kicked my butt for the longest time and I was always super frustrated. Eventually things started clicking and now I can do most anything I can think of and am happy "just rendering stuff" instead of spending all of my time trying to figure out how to manage the software (I'm glaring at you, Blender!). I loved DAZ's asset management compared to Poser and from Genesis onward have not look back. I played around with special render engines in Poser and they were worth something, but added to the complexity of doing even something simple. Iray in DAZ Studio has been the most amazing thing ever and I have invested the value of a new car, or two, into DAZ assets over the years. Things like UltraScenery have added value to DAZ exponentially. Life is good.
I bought Poser 5 at a Frys Electronics 20+ years ago. I ran across Daz by accident somewhere around the Poser 5-6 era and had it installed, but didn't do anything with it until I discovered in 2021 that I could use Face Transfer to create characters from Artbreeder images.
I was giving a presentation at a sci-fi convention in another city (San Francisco) way back in 2004 and, while passing through the dealer's room, I saw a table selling computer software. They had a laptop set up demonstrating the then brand new Poser 5, and I was impressed that there was a program could generate that realistic an image using the reources of a what was then a fairly basic laptop. So, I bought a copy, took it up lt my hotel room and fired it up. In the box there were also ad-sheets for both DAZ and VUE (this was back before the big Genesis riff when everyone was one big happy family, when Victoria 3 was the hot new figure,) and it actually worked as advertised. Since Poser came with a big pile of content, it took a month or two before I finally made a purchase at DAZ in January of 2005, and I've been feeding the addiction ever since.
Another one who got the cover disc version of Poser, upgraded to the full version, used that with freebies (including those from Zygote and then Daz) for a while before starting to buy content, so I was already here (already a mod) when DS was released as its first beta.
I was trying to make tarot cards (never did make them) and found a couple of art sites where peoplewere using Bryce and Poser. So I got a copy of Poser 4 and a demo copy of Bryce 2. I joined Renderosity on 9/9/2001 according to my profile there. IDK when I joined DAZ. I was downloading freebies back before you needed an account to get them, and while DAZ was still part of Zygote. Whenever that was.
Which reminds me, a vendor at the old PoserPros site once told me that she wasn't going to switch to the then current Poser version, which I think was maybe 6 at the time. And that she was going to stay on Poser 4 with the ProPack even if they came out with Poser 20. Sometimes I wonder if she's still using it.
Oh shoot I've still been hoping to try VUE at some point, it's a cool looking software
Legends say she still uses Poser 4 from since the dawn of man xD hopefully she's still having a good time with it
I was into making websites and wanted an image of myself to insert, like holding text and pictures and all that stuff... My brother found a German magazine for me with Poser 2. Oh the excitement, my first (badly posed, LOL) skeleton!! Then the shock, P2 had Woodie and a skeleton and not much else, and definitely not a -me-. That magazine also had a trial of Poser 4. The rest is history! It started 26 years of bliss, LOL! And then there was spending all day checking for news at Rosity or the ALT groups. And Zygote!
Studio took me long to warm up to. I didn't feel that, at first, it had all the features Poser had, and in the later versions, I just could not get it to see my runtime. Neither could I position the dratted camera. Until the fateful day where BlueTreeStudios gave me a tip for Poser and I had this epiphany... what if this worked in Studio, too??? You see it coming, right?? Life has not been the same since...
VUE is gone, the company was bought and support for it was discontnued. The company has, however, made the last version of VUE available for free on their website. Along with some plant software (XFROG?) that works with it.
Last I knew they were still looking at making it open source.
There was a thread a couple of days ago quoting social media posts indicating that the work was going well, apparently from people who had standing. I am still a little wary as there hasn't been an overtly official announcement at all, that i know of.
As a geologist I want aan inexpesive way to visualize USGS DEMs. I found a free copy of Bryce on CNET, downloaded it and had to go to DAZ3D to register it. Since I was then rgistered at DAZ I started exploring DAZ Studio as a free alternative to Poser.
I was looking to get more efficient/productive with my art and was playing around with figures and backgrounds in Unity, when I discovered artists like Shibashake, Kibosh, and Junk. Then I saw Rei by Mousso in the store and I knew I had to paint that face. The whole 3d thing just clicked with me. I get to indulge all of my passions drawing, painting, sculpting, to a lesser degree photography. I have never been happier as an artist.
A fellow author was using Daz to create her covers and recommended it to me. I wasn't sure if I could create anything good, but my own cover designer was using Daz and photomanipulation, so I gave it a go. Some four years later, and most of my covers were made by me, in Daz and Affinity (with the exception of the urban fantasy series that was done by my designer, also using Daz), and for my newset book, I even created illustration-like style with the help of tonemapping, Fotosketcher, and some brush work in Affinity.
And it became a fun hobby too. I regurarly make non-book related renders just for fun of it.
I saw it in the Art Studio forum and posted earlier. I hope it's true, and at least the comment about them successfully clearing it to be Open-Souced, sounds certain!
Regards the OP's question, if I recall, I first came across Poser on a coverdisc of Computer Arts Magazine, but rather than upgrade using that route, I bought a physical MetaCreations bundle in a computer store that contained Poser 3, Bryce 3D, and Ray Dream 3D. Damn, those were the days, physical discs and a big fat manual for each product, to sit down with and read over a coffee!
Those were upgraded to individual physical copies of Poser 5 Pro, Bryce 5, and Ray Dream Studio 5.5 Pro, which again, all came with big fat manuals to read!
Back in the early 2000s, I was on a couple of forums dedicated to the Star Wars Roleplaying games and became online friends with several other members. One of them did some character portraits and got me interested in DS. That would have been DS2 & not long before Victoria 4 debuted. I think I must have had the worst learning curve in the history of 3D art. Fortunately, my friend was willing to spend a lot of time teaching me over the internet. I used Carrara for several years as well, but got away from it when I started using G3 more. While Daz said G3 & Carrara were compatible, in truth some G3 items didn't work in it.
I discovered Renderosity sometime in October of 2004. Wanted to know how people were making the art they were posting there, so I tracked down Poser, which I couldn't afford as I was still in high school at the time. Then I tracked Victoria 3 to Daz. Couldn't afford her either. Discovered a free download for Daz Studio Beta. Got all excited, downloaded it, installed it, ran it, loaded up whatever free figure it was that came with it... and was stumped because the default display setting at the time was solid bounding box, and I couldn't figure out how to switch it or figure out how to do renders. So I kinda gave up on it. Then a month later, Aiko 3 was released (much more up my alley than V3 was). And after discovering free Aiko 3 LE, I decided to give Daz Studio another try. By that point, the beta had been updated, and the default display was Texture Shaded instead of bounding box. And after several months of playing around with Daz Studio and finding free content for Aiko, I finally made my first Daz Studio render of Aiko in July of 2005 on a computer that could only just barely run D|S. I've been using Aiko 3 and Daz Studio ever since.
Somehow I got Poser 1 in 1995 as a free product. I wasn't interested in graphics at the time, so my reaction was "that's interesting" and I put it aside. In 2003 or 2004 I got into a software-oriented forum; there was a graphics sub-forum I started following. In September of 2005 (I think) someone posted two items - Poser 6 was out, with a significant discount if upgrading from Poser 4, and Amazon had Poser 4 for sale at a discount that made it viable to buy Poser 4 and upgrade to 6. Someone else pointed out that DAZ was offering Michael 3 and Victoria 3 base for free.
Two weeks later I was blundering around in Poser with V3 and M3. Never did get the hang of Poser even with the Doctor Geep tutorials. DAZ came out with Studio version 0.9 (I think) - I fired it up and the whole UI made much more sense, and I dropped Poser like a hot rock.
Got Poser 6 as a companion to export assets for Lightwave 8, back in 2005. Now I use DS4 as a companion to export assets for Blender 5. Different software same workflow, essentially. It is amazing how I can still work with models back from 2005 if I want to, back compatibility really is a strong point with DAZ, that unfortunately we're going to lose with DS6.
Got Poser about 23 years ago and started with V3. Used Bryce and Carrara even before Daz aquired them. Also did a bit in Vue back then.
I had a store in Rendo with another account 20 years ago for a short time, but my main job consumed me and i had to abandon it.
Started to change to Cinema 4D with Daz content, but left it as well, when they started with their yearly maintenance fee.
Changed to Blender and will use my huge Daz library there with Diffeomorphic and by enhancing/modifying the content. As this is still a hobby, this will take some time until I reach some goals.
I got Carrara 5 on a magazine cover disc
went to the Evocia site and was redirected to DAZ3D
it was 2009
I had a crappy Dell laptop that really couldn't run DAZ Studio
so I used Carrara, Which I upgraded to 7 in 2010 with the DAZ book, Figures, Characters and Avatars then also bought Poser7
didn't really use D|S until 4 as that didn't crash loading everything
I actually started out as an iClone3 user late 2008 as Reallusian Crazytalk came bundled on my laptop so went to their site once I got internet
Got Poser 3 when I was over in the US for Apple WWDC and a guy I worked for handed me a bunch of dollar bills to "buy some cool software with"., didn't really use it much
I also got Bryce 2 around the same time or maybe the year after was fun, did some weird background with it.
Then in the Dundjinni Forums I saw people doing 2D objects with Daz Studio, so I looked at Studio 2, didnt like it, got Poser 5 or 6 ( a friend bought two licences ), then Stufio 3 came a long and I found that much easier to work with.
I became aware of 3D computer art through the April 2000 PCPlus magazine (available March 2000), which had a feature on this, showing Voodoo's picture on Renderosity as the feature art (https://www.renderosity.com/gallery/items/1098/morning-swim) it also had a save disabled version of Poser 3 on the cover CD. I became a member of Rendo immediately and started saving up for Poser from my limited pocket money. By the time I could afford Poser, it had reached Poser 4 and was only 6 months away from Poser 5 - though I didn't know it. And after a slow and somewhat frustrating time I got my first (and only) P4 image on Rendo in Feb 2005. It used Bryce for the background and I had to layer the P4 image on the Bryce etc using software obtained from other PCPlus cover CD's.
P4 was buggy & slow, and Poser 5 was released. No upgrade path was available for those who'd just bought P4, so I grumpily started saving for P5. It didn't take long to become apparant that P5 was much buggier than P4, and it would be a waste of money. I then heard (through Dreamlight & Liquidrust who were yet to become PA's) of a company somewhere in the US that had released a bit of free software that could use Poser models and render quite well. Liquidrust released this V3 imageafter a month of playing with settings and I was totally convinced. I downloaded DS (a mammoth undertaking with a 44k connection) and tried it. It was DAZ Studio 0.7.something, changing status almost daily at the time. It was already more stable than P4, and after learning skin settings from Liquidrust's Rendo posts, my renders were better than P4. Much better. Just a few days after getting DS, I released my first DS image.
Regards,
Richard
I only discovered Daz last year, around March time. I'd been an Alpha tester for a VN for a while and became friendly with the dev. I've also done some bits of script work for him too, creating back stories for some of his characters. He was impressed with my writing and suggested I should give it a go. So I did, and now I'm hooked. The first episode of my VN is in testing at the moment and I should be starting to set up my Steam store this weekend. I'm hopeful that I can release within the next six weeks or so.
One thing I do know, it's doubtful that I'll break even on this project.
Was searching the web for something to help me make comics, since my drawing skills were "sketchy?" (see what I did there?)
This was early 2000's (06, I want to say), Daz was just releasing Victoria 3, so I downloaded the program and got a bunch of assets for free.
I was in Totsuka, Japan serving in the US Navy at the Telecommunications Station they had there, where a colleague introduced me to Poser 1.0 when he learned I was looking for some 3D applications for my personal computer. It was by Fractal Designs back then. From there, I branched out to their Ray Dream Studio, and also Bryce by Mojo I've been following their products through upgrades and evolution ever since.
I did feel that RDS was superior to the early versions of Carrara, and I was only forced to fully go with Carrara when my first computer finally died and I was unable to reinstall RDS onto my replacement machine. Throughout it all, I was acquiring tons of models from Zygote.
When Zygote became DAZ, I tried the DAZ Studio and had a hard time adjusting to the new UI vs how Poser did theirs. But eventually, I became used to it--only years later of being on DS so much, I'm finding the Poser UI feels rather clunky now!
Then I lost my access to Carrara when I tried to add an Adessa writing tablet to my system because the Adessa drivers were incompatible with Carrara. That disaster forced me to pick up Blender, and I quickly picked up on how powerful and great Blender is! Eventually, the Carrara/Adessa conflicts were finally fixed and I was able to start using Carrara again, but I haven't gone back to it because Blender is so much better. I've also got Hexagon & Pegasus, but I've rarely have needed to use them.
So far, my highest use apps are DS & Blender, and I LOVE how transferring between them has become so much easier in recent years!!
magazine freebies cds you'd get a copy of daz and bunch of content along with other programes, images and other stuff. Tried it off and on couldn't get hang of it same with poser bought P10? think. Mostly stuck to doing cut paste image editing in paintshop pro and didn't touch daz for a long time then vistited the site grabbed freebies and tried doing a mix media picture with paintshop and daz and went on from there starting guess around mid genesis 2 generation and I wanted more content think that is when I got paypal
Saw Poser 1 advertised in a 3D mag or other mag ... it was beyond my price range at the time..1996 or so. Kept reading the mags and tried different software... then one day I was at one of those huge mega outlet malls and went into a software shop, and there in the software clearance bin was a copy of Poser 1 for $29. I snagged it. I still have it. Stuck with P4 for a very long time, using V1,2,3,4. I also found Vista Pro, then Bryce, Ray Dream Studio (Carrara). and several others. I loved the interface of Metacreations products. Kai Krause was the designer. I mainly plodded along, as I still do today.