14 DAY TRIAL // Smith Micro Software has released Poser 10 and Poser Pro 2014, the latest versions of the company’s powerful animation tool, for Mac OS X.
One of the best 3D animation and character creation programs, Poser has been enhanced with Pixar subdivision surfaces with user-definable subdivision levels per prop, figure, and even individual body parts.
According to the developers, “Subdivision improves bending fidelity, smooths polygonal surfaces and improves performance by enabling lighter poly-count content.”
To support subdivision on figures with compliant geometry, a new Unimesh skinning method is also included in Poser 10 / Poser Pro 2014.
The updated software further includes rendering speed improvements, bullet physics, a comic book preview mode, 9 new human and cartoon figures, magnet and deformer weight map support / painting tools, and interactive raytrace preview.
“Preview every scene change you make with the new Interactive Raytrace Preview with a fast raytraced display,” says the developer.
“It's a great way to see changes to camera angle, lights, shadows with all the benefits of the optimized Firefly Raytrace engine including transparency and reflections.”
Thanks to the included OpenGL speed optimization, the new Poser boasts visible, on-screen performance, “so you can create and preview scenes changes and lights faster than ever.”
Other changes include: grouping tool improvements, morph brush tweaks, material compound nodes, and gamma correction.
According to Smith Micro, “Gamma Correction is now in both Poser 10 and Pro 2014 so gamma controlled content can be developed and delivered to every Poser user, supporting uniform materials across versions.”
System requirements on the Mac include OS X 10.6, 10.7, or 10.8; 1.5 GHz Intel Core processor (Core 2 Duo or faster recommended); 1 GB system RAM (4 GB or more recommended); OpenGL enabled graphics card (chipset recommended); 24-bit color display, 1440 x 900 minimum resolution; 3 GB free hard disk space (6 GB recommended); and Adobe Flash Player 11.