https://www.posetteforever.com/viewtopic.php?f=21&t=4165&p=45993#p45993 ----------------------------------- Endosphere Saturday, 20 December 2025, 02:36 PM Re: Notable Posettes Of Yesteryear ----------------------------------- John Malis Fantasy Characters John Malis (aka Jon Malis) was a major and prolific contributor of specialty P4NM and P4NW characters in Poser 4 days. After the P4 era concluded, Malis went on to join the vending craze at the big websites and began selling models/textures/etc, but in P4 days all of his characters were freebies. Many were based upon popular fictional characters from comic books or films, though he also had an original line of medieval/high fantasy characters. As a gross generalization, I think the Malis P4 models were mostly memorable for their innovative collection and arrangement of props to present distinctive characterizations of the figures. Some of these accessories were made by Malis himself, others borrowed from popular free prop makers of those days. Many of the Malis figures also featured morph work on Posette and Dork, usually on their faces only, and that morph work was always skillfully done. Among his other accomplishments and contributions, we must credit Malis with creating one of the most Notable Posettes of the Poser 4 era, at least according to interest displayed in hobbyist galleries of those days. His iconic depiction of Druuna, a popular comic book character, was (as I recall) amongst the top four Posettes chosen by Poser 4 hobbyists for their own artwork posted to the big galleries of the time. As I recall, the other Posettes in the top four were Phil Hokusai's [url=https://www.posetteforever.com/viewtopic.php?p=45961#p45961]Lara Croft (initially called Cara Loft to avoid attracting attention of video game company lawyers), Evolution Eve by Torino and Hellborn, and various sisters of the LinLin line by Yamato. However astonishing to contemporary pay for every tiniest detail sensibilities, these were all free and entirely noncommercial figures, requiring only the standard Posette (more precisely, her underlying obj geometry file) that came with Poser 4. We should note, though, that even in the Poser 4 era, the earliest version Zygote's commercial model Victoria had already become popular with hobbyists, and Vickie was seen in on-line Poser galleries with increasing frequency as Poser 4 times moved forward. Druuna was originally the protagonist in a series of sci-fi comic books by Paolo Eleuteri Serpieri. The Italian comics were intended for adult audiences, regularly featuring sexually explicit scenes and horrific violence. Druuna's comics are typically assessed as historically notable for their innovative style of pen-and-ink visual realism, which at the time provided a sharp contrast to the cartoonish style of mainstream comics from Marvel/DC/etc. Though the series included numerous titles, Druuna's various printed adventures are often lumped together under the title of her debut comic, called [i]Morbus Gravis[/i]. [i]Morbus Gravis I[/i] was published in 1985, in loose association with the then-popular [i]Heavy Metal[/i] line of adult comics. Beyond summary as gritty and adult-themed science fiction, the storylines of the comics were abstruse and obtuse, difficult to classify. Basically, Druuna was trapped aboard a gargantuan derelict space vessel, somewhat reminiscent of the 1970s role-playing game [i]Metamorphosis Alpha[/i]. The spaceship featured many strange creatures and enough different habitats to fill a small planet. Druuna's explorations of these compartmentalized mini-worlds, and her interactions with their often gruesome inhabitants, formed most of the plotlines. Body horror, cloning, AI/robots, and other now-common (but then rare) sci-fi/horror themes were all explored in a manner equally lurid and surreal throughout the series. In the comic book series by Serpieri, Druuna's face subtly changed over time (in the early comics, often from one page to the next), so making a definitive depiction of her as a Poser figure would be a difficult task. The Druuna Posette by Malis (example A in the image below) does a good job of capturing a general likeness of the character, particularly in her wide-hipped and buxom physique. The figure's wardrobe as well generally resembles an outfit briefly worn by Druuna in the opening pages of [i]Morbus Gravis[/i]. Thus in aesthetic faithfulness as a depiction, I think we can say Malis did as good a job as anyone might with his Druuna Posette. [img]https://www.posetteforever.com/files/posted_images/5475/malis_posettes.jpg[/img] Whether the popularity of Druuna Posette with Poser hobbyists was driven by nostalgia of the actual [i]Morbus Gravis[/i] character, or by innate charms of the Posette by Malis, is inscrutable and irrelevant. Whatever the cause, Druuna by Malis was wildly popular amongst on-line Poser 4 users in the late 1990s, probably second in acclaim only to Hokusai's Lara Croft. For my own part, I had in those days no familiarity at all with the Druuna comic books; at that time I'd never read any of them (though I have since then). But when I first started using Poser 4 around 1999, I thought the Druuna Posette by Malis was one of the highest quality and best looking freebie Posettes available, so I made many renders of her myself as I learned to use the software. Considered strictly as a P4NW rather than homage to a particular fictional heroine, Druuna was probably the most generally appealing fantasy character in the Malis bevvy. She offered a visually distinctive character mostly on the basis of face and physique rather than as a mannequin upon which to hang nifty props and fan-service accessories. While her face appears to have been custom morph work by Malis, much of Druuna Posette's figure below the neck was accomplished with Yamato morphs from the LinLin line. Druuna bears an unmodified 'Paulina' texture by Anton Kisiel, but no bump map. In general, the Kisiel textures were popular in those days as an incremental advance in aesthetics and technique over the often crude and blotty Happyworldland textures which predominated in the initial stages of the Poser 4 era. Most of the Kisiel textures used a photographic reference of some then-popular female celebrity or actress for the face, and combined a photo reference overlaid by a blend of painting for smoother body texturing. For example Kisiel's 'Paulina' appeared to incorporate the face of actress Denise Richards, who was a popular starlet of many youth-oriented films throughout the 1990s. We should note today that this particular old amateur/hobbyist technique of using texture maps with identifiable faces, commonly and naively recommended in Poser 4 days, simply never worked as claimed. Unless the face morphs and geometry structure of the model to which the texture is applied also accurately depict the same person, the face on the texture map will not be prominently identifiable in any output render or final result, which essentially makes the whole technique a waste of time and effort. Whenever one is attempting to impart the face of an identifiable real person to Posette or Dork, one should do all the morph work first; if that is done properly, the texture map won't matter much, unless the subject has some peculiar skin condition or distinctive skin markings which must also be duplicated. All that aside, Paulina was a generally nice-looking and quality texture map, which for its day offered what was considered good quality output in Poser 4. If Druuna's custom hair looks awkward and uncanny to modern eyes, we must note in fairness that the unique hair model she wore was considered adequate for its own time and tech level, comparable to most other Posette hairstyles circulating in the 1990s. If one wanted to improve Druuna today while still loosely maintaining her nostalgic look and tech level, an excellent choice for her hair would be Morph Hair 1 by Confusius, which can be posed into an almost identical style, and as well uses texture and bump maps (unlike the original). I don't know if this hair by Confusius was available when Malis made Druuna, but it would improve her appearance considerably in close-up renders and headshots. As an alternative to the Confusius Hair, with the spin of a few morph dials the original Kyoko Hair Mark 1 (sometimes alternately called Mora Hair in olden days) by Kozaburo would probably also be a satisfactory and good-quality alternative for anyone looking to make a modern update of the Druuna figure. I think Kozaburo retired that hair model fairly early, but it also came with the Latexa (Evolution Eve) figure by HR3D. In addition to Druuna herself, the figure by Malis came with an excellent T-shirt garment packed with many morphs to provide any Posette with a custom fit. If morphs for Posette were countless in the P4 era, fitting morphs for Posette's clothing were relatively rare in those days, mostly consisting of Gerald Day's excellent BRC bustline morph series for the standard clothing line that came with Poser 4. Thus even if one hadn't much interest in Druuna, nonetheless her shirt alone was a fine reason to download her, for use by other Posettes. The shirt uses a transparency map (which can be turned off if desired) to accomplish its plunging neckline and lace-up belly. The panties and shoes of Druuna are static props rather than poseable clothing items, of limited usefulness even in their own time, though aesthetically speaking they are all of relative good quality. The panties could easily be duplicated with a simple transparency map applied to the standard P4 bikini bottom, which as a poseable clothing item would be a superior solution to the matter. For those interested in the Druuna figure, this historically important model is still available for download right here at Posette Forever in the Figures-Posette section. John Malis was perhaps best known in Poser 4 days for his many freebie characters based on the [i]Star Wars[/i] film franchise, such as Luke Skywalker and C-3PO. To my knowledge, the Mara Jade figure was the only female Star Wars figure made by Malis. I don't really know anything about the character Mara Jade, who apparently was some kind of Star Wars fan-fiction addition to that universe, wherein she was the wife of protagonist Luke Skywalker. As far as I can determine, the Malis depiction of this character is consistent with her established persona in Star Wars lore (though I admittedly spent very little time on my cursory research into the matter). As a Poser model, my opinion of the Mara Jade figure is that she's not particularly interesting or useful as a Posette, and I include her here only because she was created by John Malis. Mara's face has a strange (almost anime style) shape and appearance, and her extremely pale-hued eyes do not render well except in close-ups. The texture map appears to have been made by Malis, and is not of any notable quality, though it renders quite evenly due to its bland simplicity. Mara's hair is another of the old chunky and clunky models that preceded the invention of transmapped hair in the later Poser 4 era, and long dangling hair which is not poseable except by crude xyz rotations is not a very useful accessory for an action/adventure type of Posette. Perhaps that's why Mara Jade was never very popular in hobbyist galleries of the time, despite her [i]Star Wars[/i] associations-- her hair makes her difficult to pose in any stance but standing at attention for staid portraits. She also has a narrow anime-style mouth, which is difficult to pose in any expressive manner using standard Posette face controls. If the underlying figure of Mara Jade was not especially notable, her clothing and props were excellent items with high usefulness for transfer to other Posettes. Mara wears an eccentric derivative of the standard P4 catsuit. For some unknown reason Malis preferred to revise the UV coordinates of the suit to eliminate the sleeves, rather than apply a simple transparency map, which would have done the same job with far less work. One of the few legitimate reasons (apart from a desire to experiment) which might have inspired the approach is that in Poser 4, a transparency map often will not affect an object's highlight settings, and an object with a shiny material (such as a vinyl catsuit, perhaps) will often render with odd translucent artifacts. The reason for this is that the Poser 4 rendering engine was not a raytracer. Whatever the case, the suit looks good even today on any sci-fi oriented Posette, and could be further improved with ease by the addition of any quality leather-based texture map; the Malis figure uses a bump map only to achieve its pattern effects. Mara's sci-fi pistol belt is also top-notch work, if one desires an alternative to the more conventional alternative found in Hokusai's Lara Croft figure. Apart from the second holster on the Lara model, the main difference between the two gunbelts is the belt buckle. Mara's shoes are static props rather than poseable clothing, okay for her day but impairing her poseability as a figure, since the toes of the shoes cannot bend. She also includes a laser pistol, a light-saber, and tactical knee-pad props. Mara's gloves are simulated by direct object coloring of a custom material zone on her figure, and thus are not props at all apart from some wrist-bands. Apart from sci-fi Poser figures, Malis also made an extensive line of classical fantasy freebie characters, consisting of both males and females. Example C shows the 'She-Orc' character by Malis, who was rather unique in her own era for her face morphs. Of all the Malis figures I have, she and her male orc counterpart are the only contributions I still use regularly today, albeit in heavily modified and derivative form, through transfer incorporation of their head morphs into other characters. Though the original orc morph work by Malis was top-notch, one minor trouble with the morphs (whether the male or female version) concerns the pointy protruding teeth of the orcs. Malis made these in his own way, rather than using the standard pointy-tooth morphs circulating in those days (such as in the Ultramorph Woman or Morphette figures). Minimizing these prominent orc fangs is difficult if the effect is undesired, as the teeth are synchronized with the singular general head morph for the orcs. In other words, shortening the protruding teeth also decreases the entire effect of the orc face morphs, so if one's own ideas about orcs don't include those sort of teeth, some magnet work will be necessary to retract the fangs. Like most Malis figures, the She-Orc came with many props and accessories, as can be seen in the example image. All are of good quality. In addition to her texture-mapped leather tunic she has a rope-belt, a scimitar, a dagger, a whistle/horn, and several pieces of primitive jewelry. Her toe-less socks, which resemble wrapped bandages, are a poseable clothing item with their own texture map. The She-Orc has a custom texture map by Malis, but due its odd and artificial effects with painted bubbles (apparently intended to simulate acne or skin boils), I think anyone interested in using She-Orc today (if one could still find her anywhere) would want to make their own green-skinned texture for her. Another example of a Malis high-fantasy Posette was called 'Female Fighter,' and is labelled D in my example image. Like Mara Jade, the Posette herself is not very notable or useful. Though she has a custom face morph, it's not very distinctive, and the model is otherwise a standard P4NW. Presumably Female Fighter was one of the last Malis Posettes, as she uses a texture by Staale Loseth (of 'Vickybuster' texture fame). These were relatively advanced P4NW textures that came very late in the Poser 4 era, as the whole thing was winding down with advancements into Poser 5 and Zygote's Victoria as the primary hobbyist character. For its time, it was a nice texture, though it suffers the usual Staale problems with prominent swimsuit tanlines painted onto the texture map, which may appear odd-looking and anachronistic on a medieval fantasy woman. Again like Mara Jade, in my opinion the Female Fighter was mostly interesting for her numerous and highly detailed props, suitable for any type of Conan the Barbarian or Viking era character. The best of these are her sword, codpiece, and helmet, though her static (not poseable) cape is also nice. The boots are WarriorDL's Female Trek Boots with a custom texture map, and one must have obtained the boots separately in order for the Malis figure to make use of them. Her other accessories, such as her loincloth and jewelry items, are static props which a modern user would probably not find especially helpful when compared with modern alternatives. As with the other Malis Posettes we've considered here, Female Fighter's hair is a relic from days when primitive Poser 3 standards were considered satisfactory, and would probably be deleted almost immediately by anyone looking at the figure today. The hair appears to consist of the standard P4 Female Hair 1, to which a magnet was applied to make it sweep backwards, and to which an additional braid prop was attached. The Female Fighter figure was a collaboration by John Malis and Kalypso. Kalypso was another well-known maker of free characters and props in Poser 4 days, which included a famous Poser 4 Christmas tree, some 'Barbarella' film-based Posettes, and another collaboration with Malis on a high-fantasy Posette called 'Lutisse the Elf Archer.' With the exception of the orcs and [url=https://www.posetteforever.com/album_showpage.php?pic_id=8638]dwarves, which I probably got from Renderosity in P4 days, most of the John Malis medieval fantasy P4 characters, both male and female, were once available on the Fairy Woods side of the old Steve Shanks Poserworld website. Unfortunately Fairy Woods downloads are even less archived on the Internet Wayback Machine than Poserworld-- apparently many of the old files were corrupted and could not be properly archived. As I recall, I also got Druuna and Mara Jade from Renderosity once upon a time, before they purged all their old P4 freebies so their $$ flea market would have less competition. In any case, I highly recommend any and all of the old Malis figures, if one can still find them anywhere today. They were all good quality freebie figures by the standards of their own time, and loaded with custom resources one might easily use in making one's own unique P4 characters. With better hair and texture maps, all of the figures could also be easily updated for use by the contemporary hobbyist. :clap: