Creating a Poser-like software...

[gogidolim]

...with all the high-end features.

I like the basic concept of Poser. But I hate the rest of it. I try not to hate most of Poser community. (They are just hobbyists. Nothing more.)

I haven't used 3D software for years, but Poser strikes me as a very low-end software. The interface is shitty. And everything else is...oh, well.

Still, the very concept is salvageable. And I started to wonder, "Why isn't anyone making a much better program with the same concept?"

It takes years to learn the principle of modeling, and many people are lazy to jump into studying modeling. (I am about to, I am saving up to buy either Modo or Silo.) And I really don't think many people can cough up more than 300 bucks to buy a program. Poser is...about 250 bucks a copy. I think most of Poser users can't even afford stuff like Modo. And they would be too lazy or not smart enough to learn Silo, which is less than 200 bucks.

I've been thinking about an extremely high-powered version of Poser, with muscle simulation, better face and body generation, whole lot better interface, plug-in capability, hair, fur, and cloth simulation, CUDA-based physics calculation and even integration with Gelato.

Well, I don't think Smithmicro is less than willing to make that kind of software. It seems like the current holder of Poser is a low-end software developer. I find it rather disturbing because with those kind of people I can't expect features like procedural skin textures and physics-based muscle-and-bone simulation.

I wonder if there has been any attempt to make Poser killer.

[J Wilson]

I agree actually. I think there could be tremendous potential in a high end figure modeling package developed with artists in mind. High end as close to photo real as possible figures. Better controls for posing (along with a sizeable amount of preset poses to chose from). The ability to toggle on a muscle view skin and a skeletal view for those learning anatomy. Great lighting, etc.

There seem to be a lot of people who don't have easy access to models to draw from. A high end package would be a very valuable tool I think.

[DeadlyFreeze]

I take it you haven't heard of Blender...

http://www.blender.org/

The reason why there is such a large poser community is because its painfully simple and everything is prefab. People aren't looking to learn anything they just want to make crappy 'poser porn'.

[J Wilson]

I think we're still talking about prefab models and textures. We just want something kind of like Poser, but much much better. Not aimed at hobbyists and "poser porn" community, instead aimed at serious artists and art students. Sort of a reference figure (ideally about a dozen different body types of reference figures) to study and use when you can't get an actual model to use.

I can imagine a well done package becoming one of those tools that every art student gets instead of those crappy wooden mannikens.

[Meloncov]

Your aiming for a smaller audience than poser does, while having a far more complex (and thus expensive to develop) program. That's going to result in an absurdly high per-unit price.