Why do elitists look down on the use of Poser?

As an introduction, Poser is a “3D Character and Scene Design” graphics software program created by Ghost Effects, then sold to and upgraded by MetaCreations, then sold to and upgraded by e-frontier, and then sold to and upgraded by Smith Micro (link opens in new window).

Poser’s low price (normally in the $250 range) and included content (models, clothing, poses, etc) allow almost anyone to quickly make digital images immediately after purchasing and installing the software. The learning curve for Poser is a lot less steep than that of more complex graphics programs.

However, many people seem to think that Poser is “unprofessional” because of its low price, its low learning curve, and the “amateur-ness” of many images made by beginners. These people tend to look down on the use of Poser simply because they don’t use it, don’t understand it, or more-often-than-not, because they just don’t like it. For this discussion, I’ll be calling these “professionals” by the more-correct term of “elitists”, which will mean “people who look down on something for their own personal reasons”.

Some Common Arguments from the Elitists

1) Not Professional?

These elitists claim (usually with specious logic) that “professionals” don’t use Poser simply because it’s “unprofessional”. Do they really mean that if I use an “unprofessional” software program, I can no longer call myself a “professional”? How’s that for circular logic?

Many elitists also claim that Poser images show a distinct “amateur-ness”, which obviously means that the software itself is amateurish. While I will agree that a lot of Poser-created images are amateur in nature, you have to look at the “big picture”: since Poser is inexpensive, fairly easy to use, and doesn’t require a super-computer, it’s only natural that a wide variety of people would use the software. Like anything in life, some people will have the talent to make good images, while some people won’t.

As an aside, I think Poser images can be compared to photography. As we speak, more and more people have cameras available to them, usually on their cell-phones. With so many people taking pictures with their cell-phones, can these photos be considered “art”? Probably not, but maybe some are.

Is it fair to say that every cell-phone camera is bad simply because some photos aren’t very good?

One of the worst arguments I’ve seen is when one of these elitists says something like “I know plenty of professionals and none of them use Poser”, as if to say, “Since I personally don’t know any ‘professionals’ who use Poser, then no professionals in the entire world use Poser.”

This would be like me saying, “My parents don’t use Poser and none of my friends’ parents use Poser.” Therefore, by this logic, my statement must obviously mean, “No parents in the entire world use Poser.”

This is just absurd.

What the elitists never see is how many real, professional studios use Poser. Here’s one example: In the book, The Art of Star Wars: Episode II, I saw a screen shot of a pre-visualization storyboard which used the human figures found in Poser. This storyboard helped the artists at Industrial Light and Magic (ILM) figure out how to block their shot, where to position the camera, and how background figures would be positioned in the scene.

Hmm… I guess this means ILM isn’t “professional” if they’re using Poser.

At Epcot’s Spaceship Earth attraction (at Walt Disney World in Orlando, FL), there is an animation of the ride vehicles rotating in space. There’s a family sitting in the seats… and guess what the figures are? Yep, the Adult Male, Adult Female, Male Child, and Female Child that come with Poser 4.

And we all know how unprofessional the artists and engineers at Walt Disney World are, especially for using a program like Poser. (Yes, that was meant as sarcasm.)

If you read newspapers like USA Today, you’ll commonly see the Poser figures used in the illustrations. In fact, once you’ve seen the Poser figures a few times, you can easily spot them in almost any setting.

2) No Professionals in the Forums?

Another argument put forth by the elitists is that no “professionals” post messages in the Poser community forums; therefore, the logic goes, if there are no professionals posting in the forums, there must not be any professionals at all.

This argument is pretty absurd as well, but let me just say this: real professionals are the ones who work 8, 9, or 10 hours a day (or more) to finish their deadlines. If you’re spending this much time on a project, you don’t have time to spend in any forums, let alone the Poser community forums.

Besides, would these elitists believe that a new user called “AndrewS” was really the director of Pixar movies? Or would they laugh him off as some “poser” (pun intended)?

3) Jealousy?

The most logical reason for the Poser-bashing is probably the simplest: professional jealousy. Some elitists may have spent years to build up their talent to the point where they can make a human figure from scratch. But, along comes John Poser-User who can place a pre-made human into a scene, pose it all kinds of different ways, and make an image in a few minutes.

Where’s the years of study? Where’s the “mastery” of building models?

This is also similar to the idea of using computers: when the Macintosh computer first came out, it was looked upon as childish, especially by the “pros” who had mastered DOS commands. To them, Mac users were almost dummies for not spending years learning arcane, text-based commands.

The idea continued into the Internet years: America Online (AOL) users were commonly looked down upon because they simply installed AOL, ran the software, and connected to AOL. There was no fiddling around with programs like “WinSock” or needing to configure a “TCP/ IP” Control Panel.

Where were the years of study of network protocols? Where’s the mastery of using computers?

4) Bashing Others is Cool

Or is the answer even simpler? Maybe people want to be “one of the gang” and enjoy bashing something because “everyone else is doing it” or because it “looks cool”.

Since John Super-User is bashing Poser, then it must be the correct thing to do. And since I want to be like John Super-User, I should bash Poser as well. Maybe I’ll even impress the cool kids with my pithy put-downs. (Yes, that was meant as sarcasm.)

Maybe people don’t actually think this when they post their message in a forum, but I would be willing to bet that it’s somewhere in the back of their mind.

Without getting into a deep philosophical discussion about mob mentality and group-think, I believe sharing put-downs creates an “us versus them” thinking: you’re either a “basher” or you’re “one of those people”.

A “mob think” dynamic starts to form, where people start to blindly act like everyone else without consciously realizing what they’re doing. In the case of online forums, people may bash Poser simply because that’s what the other people are doing. And since these other people have some high-quality images in their gallery, then they must be “experts” and they must know what they’re talking about. Maybe I can impress these “experts” by joining in with their bashing.

On the other hand, some people may start these kinds of message threads simply as a way to start a controversy and get attention, kind of like jumping into an online forum about Star Trek and posting a message that Star Wars is better. Does this message serve any constructive purpose? Usually not- for the most part, these kinds of message threads are simply created because the poster is either being a jerk or he wants attention.

Unfortunately, people will take the bait and they’ll post their own messages, both attacking his post and then attacking each other for their posts. Again, does this serve any constructive purpose?

What Does the User Want to do?

The answer to all this comes down to one answer: what does the user want to do?

Some people enjoy building things from scratch and learning every tool available to them. Some people enjoy reading the 3-inch manual cover-to-cover to master everything the software can do. But some people “just want to get it done”, whether it’s finishing a piece of artwork or writing a document or connecting to the Internet.

Imagine how hard it would be for me to write this blog (and for you to connect to the Internet and read it) if the “newbies” and “hobbyists” had lost out and we were all still using text-based software! I’d still be looking over the keyboard to find the Alt-Ctrl-Shift-F10 command. And, yes, even up until the late-1990′s, WordPerfect still used complicated keystrokes for bolding text, printing, and saving files instead of using the mouse.

Getting back to the world of digital artwork, I think this comparison is best:

Using Poser is like playing with action figures. As a kid, I played with Star Wars action figures (you may have played with G.I. Joe figures). Was my imagination stunted because I didn’t build my own figures or because I bought pre-made spaceships? In fact, George Lucas made tons of money by making action figures from every character, even the ones in the far background (such as “Prune Face” from Return of the Jedi).

On the other hand, building your own digital models in programs like Maya or Lightwave or 3D Studio Max could be compared to building models with LEGO bricks. Yes, I had LEGOs when I was a kid, though I always had trouble building spaceships for my Star Wars figures.

Are either of these “wrong”? Is playing with action figures somehow “worse” than building your own toys? Did anyone’s mom tell them to put their action figures down and “go build something”?

A Case Study

Here’s a quick case study that should amuse the elitists… or maybe not:

The boss walks into the graphics department and says that he needs a rough animation of a man walking around the client’s new car. The client will supply the car model, but the boss wants the animation to show how the proposed animation will look. And, if the client likes it, he’ll sign the contract for a full version, using live actors.

But, time is of the essence: if the boss doesn’t submit the animation quickly, the client may find someone else.

So, the project is given to two artists: John (who uses Poser) and Mary (who uses 3D Studio Max). Both John and Mary start working when they come in the next day, at 8:00 am.

John starts Poser, adds Simon (the Poser 7 male figure) to the scene, adds a business suit, loads a pre-made “walk” animation, and renders the animation. John finishes around noon, but spends the rest the day answering e-mail so the boss thinks he’s working long and hard on the project.

He goes into the boss’ office the next day with the finished animation. The quality is good and it gives the boss (and the client) a good idea of how the finished animation will look.

Mary uses Maya. She’s very skilled with the program, but it still takes her four days to make a human figure with clothes. She asks for an extension since it will take her a few more days to rig her figure and model the clothing. (“Rigging” allows a digital model to move as if it had a real skeleton inside it.)

She asks for another extension since she still has to make textures for the models.

Ten days after the boss asks for the animation, Mary turns hers in. The quality is excellent and the animation looks practically real. The client even comments that it’s hard to tell that Mary’s animation is computer-generated.

However, after looking at the animation, client changes his mind: he would like the guy to be wearing shorts and t-shirt instead of a business suit.

John goes back to Poser, removes the business suit and add the shorts and t-shirt. He goes back to his boss the next day and presents his new animation. John pads his time again so it looks like he worked hard.

Mary says it’ll take her another ten days to finish this part of the project. She has to remove the business suit from her model… and since her figure doesn’t have real arms and legs, she’ll have to create them (and shorts and t-shirt) from scratch. She’ll then have to create new textures for the guy, the shorts, and the t-shirt.

The boss shows John’s animation to the client and the client changes his mind again: he would like the guy to start with a shocked expression, and then change to a happy expression.

John goes back to Poser, adjusts the expression of the guy, and makes a new animation. He knows he’s got Mary beat, so he hands in the animation that afternoon.

Mary says it’s impossible for her to change the expression since she didn’t know this was a requirement and she didn’t build her model with the ability to change facial expressions.

John’s time to finish the animation: about 3 to 4 days.

Mary’s time to finish the animation: 20 to 40 days.

This is only a quick example, but in the “real world” where graphic designers have deadlines, I think using Poser is lot more common than the elitists would believe.

The Right Tool

The main point is that all of these programs are tools used to get the job done. Does it really matter if you use 3D Studio Max or Maya or Lightwave or Poser as long as you can get your project done in time to meet the deadline?

Poser was never meant to compete with programs like Lightwave, 3D Studio Max or SoftImage. This should be obvious by looking at the pricing: Poser is much less expensive than Lightwave (around $1,800), 3D Studio Max ($2,000 or more) or SoftImage ($10,000 or more).

Yet elitists only focus on Poser’s lack of features when compared to the more expensive software programs.

It’s kind of like saying everyone should drive a Rolls Royce because it’s “the best”. Sure, some people may consider it to be the most well-made car, but can it tow a boat, like an SUV? Can it handle eight kids and the equipment needed for soccer practice, like a minivan? Or maybe someone just doesn’t have the money to pay for the quality of a Rolls Royce.

Again, the point is that people should choose the tool (or software) that best suits their needs rather than reading a message in the forums by a guy who says SoftImage is the best program ever made. Again, it might be the “best” program for him, but is it really the best program for your project?

And, of course, these elitists think that everyone has the time and the interest to learn complicated software. Maybe you just want to make an image for your son and you have no interest in learning how to create polygons or UV map an object or create textures. Then why should you spend $10,000 and days (or weeks) learning software that you really have no interest in learning?

What Do You Think?

What do you think? Please feel free to post your comments and opinions.

Are you someone who looks down on the use of Poser and thinks it shouldn’t be used by “professionals”? Why do you think that?

Are you a professional that uses Poser (or are you a Poser hobbyist) that thinks these “pros” are being elitist snobs? Why do you think that?