John Hoagland is not just the President of Vanishing Point, one of the leading 3D content providers for Poser. John is also a long time Poser user and an accomplished digital artist. John’s work was recently accepted by the Jacksonville Beach Art Festival in Jacksonville, Florida, and he attended the show for the first time as an exhibiting artist. We asked John to tell us about the show, and to describe the experience of selling his digital art at a traditional art show.

Initially, as an aspiring artist and a hobbyist, I had learned how to create many types of art but I felt throughout my years that my skill level wouldn’t allow me to express myself fully when it came to the human figure. Upon reflecting on a needed career change, I began learning to use a computer without any instruction or help. It took me some time to learn, but I immediately fell in love with the power and flexibility of computers. At that moment, I realized that creating art on the computer was an extension of what I was doing as a hobbyist.

Daniel Murray has persisted as one of the best out there with Poser. A couple years ago, we featured him in another customer story but Poser has come a long way since then, so we thought we'd check in with him.

I was a fashion freelance photographer until 2000. I turned myself then, to other occupations, but I always needed to create images. I turned to 3D. I discovered Poser 4 in 2001 and I immediately was enthusiastic about this software. Though not as complete as the current version, it made it possible to very easily carry out creating images of characters in 3D.

I first started using Poser in mid 2000. Less than a year later, I started learning how to make my own models, first with Ray Dream Studio, then with Lightwave. After that, I started giving away models by offering them in the free stuff section of Poser community websites. Not long after that, I started selling models. And in 2004, I created my own business, called Vanishing Point, to specifically create products (both for free and for sale) to the Poser community.

Fabrice Delage, a dedicated french user, takes photorealism in Poser to a whole new level and continues to awe with his images. A frequent contributor to the e frontier galleries, he is the artist of the featured image on Content Paradise for December 2005. e frontier has also used his images as examples of stellar work for the art gallery within the Poser 6 program and for a recent article on 3D art in the San Jose Mercury newspaper.

Congratulations to the Top 10 artists in the 2005 Poser "Best of the Best" Contest!

Thank you to the following artists for contributing their work to the "Best of the Best" contest and for their continued dedication and passion for Poser.

Poser is an amazing program. I am an author of eight books on design and multimedia for Rockport Publishers. I have started my own on-demand publishing company and my first book is going to be a showcase of my Poser art and descriptions of how the work is created. I want to show other artists how Poser can enhance or (in my case) completely change the face of their work.

Catharina is highly recognized within the Poser 3D community, much of her work reflects a distinct originality and is unique in its ability to evoke emotion, her work is now considered to be revolutionary in character believability. (You may recognize her work from the cover of the popular Poser 6 Revealed book!)

On October 26, 2004 Poser users of Japan gathered in the Tokyo neighborhood of Shinjuku to meet Larry Weinberg, creator of our Poser software. The event was organized by e frontier, Inc. our parent company whose headquarters are located in Tokyo. It was the first official Poser meeting ever to be held in Japan.

Until now the Poser software program still is rather unknown in The Netherlands. But this will change soon, I hope. I like to inform you about a very interesting Poser Art Project, which will take place coming months in the public space of the town centre of Vlissingen (Flushing), a small, but international orientated sea-harbor town in the south west of The Netherlands, situated along the North Sea at the mouth of the river De Schelde.

Poser has proven invaluable for me when doing figure and character studies for jobs. Yep, paying jobs. Being able to create a series of images showing a consistent character throughout is a great thing to have up your sleeve."

When I'm not fighting the forces of evil or battling off-world clones, my alter ego is Daniel Scott Gabriel Murray, living in beautiful central Maine USA. Father of 2 and a third by acquisition, I am 40 years old and married to the beautiful Tracy Ann.

The idea for Same Difference, the movie I am currently working on, was born out of both the strengths and limitations in terms of time, computing power and Poser, the only program I considered using.

Magda is a respected artist in the Poser community and her work can be seen on Renderosity, as well as three of her own web sites. Her work brings Poser characters to life, with her beautifully emotional style, her narrative ideas taking place in unique environments that are complimented by her intense use of light. Her figures are sexy and expressive, making her images personal and intriguing.

"My spiritual seeking has led me to digital art...and to Poser.

I embarked upon my spiritual path in 1953 at the age of four years, when I began my astral journeys into a desert mountain where I was instructed by human-like beings and shown "machines" that looked almost identical to 21st century computers..."

e frontier would like to recognize the work of Poser artist, Syyd Raven. Syyd plays a significant role in the Poser community by selling her extremely detailed textures and Poser models on the Renderosity web site, as well as her personal site. She talks with other users and gives them advice on how they can make better, more realistic looking figures and therefore serves as important role model to many people.

"I found Poser two years ago through my interest in digital art. After seeing some of what could be done at forums like the Poser Forum Online, I knew the program would be a great help in creating the figures I was looking for."