OK, UPS came moments ago with the first copy of Practical Poser 7, meaning that it will be moving out of the distributors soon and into your favorite book shops.  So, now that Poser 7 is also coming soon I can blab about the book a bit.  ;-)

First, the cover ... when the publisher saw ToxicAngel's art she drooled, and I am proud to say my #1 favorite Poser artist graces the cover (and the color section features art by ToxicAngel, Ravnheart, Arien, Skyewolf, and yours truly). But .. I bet you're more interested in the enhancements and the goodies on the CD. So here goes:

**Enhancements to the Book:

**Besides updating for Poser 7 feature enhancements, you'll get:

• NEW Joint Parameter chapter ...learn how to create a skeleton, and how to configure joint parameters. Also includes a section on how to create hybrid conforming/dynamic clothing
• NEW Animation Overview chapter and tutorials by Phil Cooke (THANKS, PHIL!)
• NEW Chapter on the Walk Designer and Talk Designer
• COMPLETELY REVISED material chapter ... Arien (a master clothing texturer, par excellence) allowed me to reveal her material room secrets and how she connects nodes for gorgeous results
• COMPLETELY REVISED texturing chapter ... You'll also learn how Arien prepares all of her maps (texture, bump, diffuse, specular, transparency, reflection, etc) in Photoshop ... these aren't  your standard flood fill textures, and you'll get a LOT out of this chapter. THANKS, ARIEN!
• Learn how to create face morphs and adjust pokethroughs in clothing with the new morphing tools
• Mapping a shirt in Body Paint 2.5 (3 wasn't available at the time)

**What's On the CD?
**
Content

Includes quality content from some of the leading content providers in the Poser community, including the following wonderful goodies for you to add to your Poser scenes:

*       Aset Arts, a group of seasoned and talented artists that have created Poser content for eFrontier, DAZ, Renderosity, and other popular Poser sites, share several articles of clothing and textures. Arien (whose texturing skills are featured in several chapters of this book) includes textures for both the Djinni outfit and the Crafted Swordsman. Deecey shares her Booties for Jessi, Terai Yuki 2, Miki 1 and Kate, with their base textures. Luthbel contributes The Crafted Swordsman, a wonderful fantasy outfit for Aiko 3. I'd like to thank the other members of my talented team for their generosity!

*       DAZ3D (http://www.daz3d.com) shares PC and Macintosh-compatible versions of several Poser figures, including the Toon Bot Chomper, Aiko 3.0 Base (including textures, Mimic phoneme morphs, hair style, poses, and so on); Civil Servant for Aiko 3; and the Toonimal Vulture, Bat, and Lemur. Special thanks to Steve Kondris and Dan Farr for their generosity and contributions to this project.

*       E-Frontier (http://www.e-frontier.com), makers of Poser 7 and Shade 8 have been a tremendous source of encouragement and content for this project. We thank them for their wonderful selection of poseable figures: the Dino Pack Version 1 and Koji Version 1. Many thanks to Steve Yatson and Tori Porter for these great gifts, and to Uli Klumpp for his prompt attention to questions and comments during the progress of this book.

*       Fredrik, a favorite of many who frequent the Poser communities, shares a wonderful outfit for Aiko 3: His Djinni belly dancing outfit is sure to please users of the DAZ Aiko 3 figure. Thank you, Fredrick, for allowing us to include your file on our CD!

*       Linda White includes original photographs for the tutorials in the lighting chapter. Thanks again, Linda, for allowing us to use your wonderful photos!

*       PhilC (Phil Cooke) shares a copy of his unique and practical female figure, KISS. You can find out more about this figure at Phil's web site, http://www.philc.net. Thank you, Phil, not only for sharing your figure with us, but for your expert technical help and suggestions throughout the development of this book, and especially with the animation chapter. This folder also includes a web page with a great animation tutorial video prepared by Phil (see animation1.htm).

Demos

*       UV Mapper (http://www.uvmapper.com) Perhaps the most widely used UV mapping program in the Poser community, Steve Cox has shared with us the free “classic” version of UV Mapper in both Windows and Mac format. But to fully appreciate the UV Mapping tutorials presented in this book, a demo version of UV Mapper Professional is also provided in both formats. Thank you, Steve, for sharing these files with us!

HTML

*       This folder includes HTML pages of additional basic material that was included in Practical Poser 6, but which was removed to make room for new and additional material in this current edition of the book. Open index.htm to begin your exploration of this content.
Images

*       All of the images from within the book. These files are set up by chapter and Appendix B.

Tutorials

*       All of the files necessary to complete the tutorials in the book including necessary Poser content, textures, and images. These files are all in common formats that can be read by most 3D applications, and they are set up in the applicable chapter folders.