Poser 8 adds new figures, tools

Smith Micro Software on Tuesday announced the release of Poser 8, a major new release of its 3D character creation and animation software for Mac OS X and Windows. It costs $250, with upgrades priced at $130.

Poser helps artists create and animate 3D figures — humans, animals and entire scenes. The software includes fully textured human and animal figures, along with accessories like hair, clothing, pose sets, props and 3D scene elements.

New to Poser 8 are eight new 3D human characters in different ethnicities and body types; more than 1GB of new content plus 1.5GB of previously-released content; an enhanced user interface; a new Dependent Parameter tool that lets you create, modify and edit parameters within the scene; cross-body part morph tool, for creating muscle bulges, scales, bumps and other effects; a content management system; indirect lighting support; an improved rigging system; improvements to OpenGL preview; physically correct light falloff; tone mapping and exposure; normal mapping support; a “Wardrobe Wizard” and wxPython support, enabling developers to create plug-ins that incorporate more functionality.

System requirements call for Mac OS X 10.4 or later, G4/700MHz processor (Intel included), 512MB RAM, OpenGL-capable graphics, 2GB hard disk space, Adobe Flash Player 9 and DVD-ROM drive.