Who do you think you are?

I'm not sure I know the answer to that question any more. On the Net, they call me English Bob (I named myself after the outlaw in Clint Eastwood's Unforgiven for reasons which seemed good at the time). You can find me and my avatar - that's him, over there - at seemingly every on-line forum which has any Poser content.

In case you were wondering - and you probably weren't - I am English, but my name isn't Bob, and I look nothing like my avatar. He's much more handsome than I am, especially now that his ray-traced nostrils no longer glow.

Gosh, how can I find out more about you?

Haha. I know you're only saying that because I typed those words myself. The now sadly demised 3D Commune did interview me back in 2008, though, so if you really are interested you can read the interview here.

Where does the name come from?

Morphography comes from the Greek words morphe (form), and graphe (drawing, delineation). In my own words, it means describing shapes; at a fundamental level, that's exactly what 3D graphics is.

What's the site about?

Virtual photography and sculpture using Poser by Smith Micro (formerly e frontier, formerly Curious Labs, formerly Metacreations, formerly World plus Dog Incorporated...). Most of the downloads will work in any version of Poser from 4 upwards, and also in DAZ|Studio. As time goes by, there will be more stuff which involves dynamic cloth, procedural materials or Python script support. These will require Poser 5 or later, and won't work fully in DAZ|Studio.

Many of the tutorials were written when I had Poser 3, but are still generally applicable to the later versions. I have Poser 4, 6 and 7 installed at the moment, so these are the only versions I can reliably comment on.

What's Poser?

Maybe you were looking for señoritas, backless dresses, undies, low-cut blouses, or any of the other search terms which regularly bring bewildered surfers to my doorstep. (Even before that sentence was published on the site, by the way.) In that case, here's the explanation.

Poser is a 3D computer graphics application that was originally devised as a replacement for the traditional artist's wooden mannequin or lay figure. Vaguely humanoid shapes could be posed in realistic (or unrealistic) ways, then used as a guide for drawing or painting.

Poser is now at version 9, or 2012 if you go for the Pro version, and is available for Windows or Macintosh. It can make photorealistic images or even a short animated film if you treat it right, thanks to dynamic hair and cloth simulation and a potentially photo-realistic ray-tracing render engine. Power like this was available only to the big studios not very long ago, and was computationally impossible not long before that.

Over the years, Poser has attracted an extensive community of enthusiastic artists, many of whom are dedicated to wringing the last drop of performance from it. This site is an active part of that community.

How much will all this stuff cost me?

Nothing, and there's a money-back guarantee too. If you download anything from this site and are unhappy with it in any way, just return it and download something else of the same value. Alternatively, you can claim a voucher good for any future freebie, or even get a full refund. :‑)

But seriously.

This site is on a paid web host; I pay for the space and bandwidth it consumes so that you can take advantage of all this cool stuff. I like to see other people's imaginations being stimulated. If you've made something nifty with (or for) a Morphography freebie, make my day and show me. I can provide hosting space for add-ons if you want to distribute them.