Poser Pro 2012 and Poser 9 have just gone on sale for INSANE PRICES!!! $149.99 for Pro ($499.99 normally) and just $64.99 for 9 (Usually $299.99). That’s pretty good, right? I can’t really say a great deal about Poser from experience, as I’ve spent only a little time experimenting in the program, but I have found it tends to produce better render results than DAZ’s version of 3delight. Poser’s render engine (FireFly) is faster and natively supports indirect lighting, ambient occlusion and IBL. While all of these things are achievable with DAZ Studio via UberEnvironment 2 the implementation is very slow and can be glitchy (since last update of DAZ Studio I can’t use UE2’s IBL features at all).

Although my experience with Poser Pro is admittedly limited I can say with some certainty after converting several lots of materials from Poser to DAZ Studio (with both programs running simultaneously), that the program’s node based material system, while perhaps a little scary at first, is much more flexible and powerful than DAZ’s system. I also found Poser’s interface and figure posing tools, though somewhat oldskool, were surprisingly intuitive and quick to work with.

At the current price Poser Pro or 9 are certainly worth picking up for anyone interested in peeking into the exciting world of CG, or for those DAZ user that want to see how the other half live. Those that are considering producing consumer content for the DAZ market should also think about picking up Poser, as both communities are fond of Victoria and Michael four, and with the recent release of DSON, Poser users are beginning to take up Genesis. As someone who is planning to break into the content creation market at some point this was a huge selling point.

Here is a little concept piece I put together with Poser Pro and PS after a couple of hours spent playing around with Poser.