Poser History
Poser began as a spare time hobby in 1989 (while I was doing 3D animation and special effects at Rhythm & Hues Studios in Hollywood). My goal was to experiment with interaction techniques and develop a digital mannikin which could be used as posing reference for some comic strip work I was trying to complete. As Poser developed I realized it could be useful to many other artists. I then set out to make the world's easiest to use 3D product.
In 1994 Fractal Design decided it would be worth trying Poser as a companion product to their flagship software, Painter. I never expected Poser to survive beyond a first release, but the art world understood the need for it immediately! Poser has taken me, my programming partners, several companies and parent companies, and hundreds of thousands of users, on a wild ride since those beginnings -- becoming a full blown, professionally-powerful human modeling system, 3D rendering environment, and -- at its heart -- the perfect digital mannikin.
Poser continues to be published by SmithMicro (was e frontier / Curious Labs) and commands an avid following of several hundred thousand regular users. Forums like Renderosity, Runtime DNA, 3d commune, Sixus1, poserpros, (and I dare say, renderotica), and others sprang up and developed enormous support. See e-frontier.com for all the community links. Numerous companies have developed serious businesses selling add-on content for the Poser world -- from ContentParadise, to Zygote, to DAZ, to Cubed to GetJolly to many others.
Through the years, and the (now) 7+ versions of Poser, I've collected a few images that marked some milestones or just struck my eye at the time. Some of these images look dated today -- but seemed miraculous at the time! The 3D industry has changed and matured quickly. The quality that artists demand today is remarkable. But even the goofiest Poser images exemplify the drive and creative spark that so many people have and need to express. I like to think that Poser has had a dramatic effect on the creative landscape of computer assisted artwork -- and hopefully enabled thousands of people to explore their artistic potential beyond what they thought they were capable of.
-- Larry Weinberg
Here's a recent interview with me on Renderosity: interview...
All images are copyright of the artists.
Poser 1.0 and 2.0
Some of the first startling images that our users created with the help of Poser versions 1 and 2.
