User Stories

Big Al (Albert Gruswitz), Photorealistic Illustrator, Medical Illustrator

I first bought Poser 3 in 1998. One of the guys in an ad agency in NYC where I was working freelance had a copy, so I decided to get it. Back then nobody in ad agencies liked Poser figures for layouts.

My first 3D software was Bryce, but I switched to Vue when Vue 5 Infinite came out because the results were far superior to Bryce. I do still images for print, and I use Poser as one of my tools. I primarily use it for posing a figure.

Each software program has it's strengths and weaknesses. I may build a model in Hexagon, modify it in ZBrush, Pose a figure in Poser, and then import them into Vue 8 Infinite. I like Vue for lighting whether it is for an outdoor scene or a "studio" shot. My final image is produced in Photoshop CS5. If I need to create visual effects, transparency, motion blur, etc., I end up with a layered Photoshop file, which is something my clients expect so that it can be edited if necessary—like change a background color or something.

Keep in mind, every project has a deadline so it needs to go quickly. Also the more time you spend trying to perfect something in a 3D environment the less profitable it is. So I choose what to do in 3D and what to cleanup in Photoshop.

I try to be as photo-realistic as possible. I often smooth out polygon edges using Photoshop because I don't want anyone to immediately say, "That's a 3D illustration." I'd rather they look at it and say, "How'd he do that?"

My first experience using Poser was to pose a figure and select a camera angle so I could use the render as a reference for a 2D illustration. It would quickly give me proper proportions and action to make my 2D illustration more realistic. It wasn't until Poser 6 that the figures started being realistic enough to use for illustrations where the client was satisfied. Even then it was primarily for layouts. Say I had a close-up image of a hand holding something: I'd tell the art director that, if their client bought the concept for production, we should photograph a hand in that position and then combine it with the rest of the image for the final image. Frankly, the claw-like hands and odd-looking fingernails up close were a distraction.

Also, I've always hated the way clothing fit—especially shoulders! Today they've improved a lot, but it is often the clothing that is the first tell-tale sign that the figure is created in Poser.

Despite the negative things I said about early versions of Poser, it was always cool what you could easily do with it. I also figured that in time the figures would become more believable. Today, the figures are almost there—almost photographic. Some you have to look at it twice to see if it's real or not. Skin textures are great and the figures available through Content Paradise, Daz, Renderosity and others are proportionately elegant—even up close. I also like the dramatic amount of realistic morphing of figures that are possible with Victoria 4 and Michael 4.

These are the six Poser projects that I'm most proud of (in the order produced):

1. The statue of Lincoln in the Lincoln Memorial: seated, rising, walking, and preparing to leave. This started by morphing a generic Michael 3 figure. There is a slide show on my website that explains the while production.
 
2. "Life of the Party" was done as a sample to show clients how far Poser figures had been improved and what a range of figures could be made from just 2 Poser figures (Victoria 4 and Michael 4) with morphing and different skin textures. The home and various characters were imported into Vue Infinite where the background terrain, plants and water material for the pool were added. The biggest problem with this project is that the polygon count was too high for my graphics card, even though I have a Quad-Core Mac Pro. So groupings of 2 or 3 characters were rendered in the scene separately and then combined in Photoshop for the completed scene with 13 Poser characters.
 
3. Fungi Man was created morphing a Michael 4 figure into a man in his 50's or 60's who is slightly overweight with a receding hairline. The models of the 3 kinds of fungi were modeled in Hexagon. Everything was brought into Vue and back lit with warm yellow light. The man and non-overlapping groupings of fungi were rendered separately and then placed on separate layers so that if the client wanted to make any positioning changes it could be done easily. Background gradient and glow were created in Photoshop.
 
4. Guitar Player was a comp illustration for a concept for medical advertising of a knee replacement device. Here, Michael 4 is morphed into a middle aged man. He is backlit in Vue Infinite with a red and blue spotlight simulating him playing guitar on stage in a moody, smoke-filled room. I like how the lighting subdues everything except the frets, tuning keys and the knee replacement. You can see more illustrations like this in the Medical Illustration Source Book.
 
5. 33 3D dinosaur illustrations for the Discovery Channel's "My First Dinosaur Encyclopedia." This was a big production with a tight deadline (3.5 months). Most of the Poser dinosaurs were created by Raul Luna (Dinoraul). Five of them I commissioned him to make specifically for this project. I posed the dinosaurs in Poser and imported them into Vue where I created the landscape scenes for each image. After they were rendered, there was minor cleanup in Photoshop.
 
6. Declaration of War uses a morphed Michael 4 character (Falcon) as well as various other Poser wardrobe and props including the campfire logs and stones. The flames and sparks were prepared in Photoshop and then placed on alpha planes in Vue. The moon is also on an alpha plane.

All were jobs for clients. I had a lot of freedom of composition for the Lincoln Memorial and the dinosaurs because there were no layouts—just descriptions of what would be in the scenes. Life of the Party was somewhat a tip of the hat to Reid Miles photography which was very popular in the 80's. Somewhat like a Norman Rockwell illustration, there was always a lot of action going on in a scene which was frozen in time at the moment something was happening and everyone was reacting. Not yet landing in the pool, everyone in the scene and viewers of the image knows the fat guy is momentarily going to create a huge splash that will soak everyone around the pool. Declaration of War was an experiment in lighting.

I really like the ease of morphing characters age and weight and also controlling facial expressions beyond the presets. I also like being able to import Poser files into Vue rather than having to export OBJ files from Poser first. The Discovery Channel dinosaur project is a perfect example. I have 2 computers at my workstation. I would pose a dinosaur in Poser on one computer and import it into Vue for placement in a scene. If I then needed to tweak the position, I'd do it in Poser and save the file which would automatically update in Vue. While one scene was rendering in Vue, I was posing another figure in Poser. It was a real assembly line production to get all 33 images produced within the time limit.

My Poser Wish List:

  • I like very much the results of the Dynamic Clothing Controls that Daz has for Daz Studio. Unfortunately, it is only available for PCs and I work on a Mac. I'd like to try the dynamic cloth in Poser Pro 2010 where hopefully I can create more realistic draping of fabric in any wardrobe.
  • I'd like collision controls that would prevent a figure from intersecting with itself or with a surface. It could be something you could turn on like "Use Limits."
  • Collision detection and response controls like in Carrara 8 Pro would also be great.
  • It would be wonderful to be able to open objects with fur in Poser like you can in Daz Studio.

I currently have 3 books that I've started writing, one on my dad's life, one for my kids that I can't reveal, and a fiction book that I'm also illustrating in 3D using Poser and Vue Infinite. Hopefully I can finish all of them someday. I don't consider myself a Poser expert. I'm mostly self-taught in all the 3D programs I use. Every assignment I get is a new challenge with new requirements, so I learn something new about the various programs with each assignment.

In Poser, I only recently started getting into building bone structures in figures as I haven't really needed to do so previously. I'm also starting to create morphs in Z-Brush and bringing them back into Poser. I guess that's why I remain enthusiastic after all these years--I'm always learning something new. My strengths as an illustrator are a result of many years as an art director and associate creative director in Detroit and New York. I'm strong on composition, color, lighting (because of supervising so many photo shoots with different photographers), and production organization.

As part of making my Poser figures look realistic, I try to create a personality in them. I don't care if it's a Poser figure or a photo of a real person, without showing personality they look like mannequins. Also important are believable action, facial expression, eye contact, and lighting for starters, then having clothes fit and flow properly as if affected by gravity. Basically it's caring about every detail.

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