Posing software

I’ve tried to search for this online, but I mostly get Poser - so here goes. A friend is looking for some software to “model” car wrecks for an insurance agency. We don’t need anything too major, so Poser is probably too powerful. Maybe an older edition? It only needs static images, and we want to use very little computer power. A 2-d modeler might even work, as long as it was 3/4 view. Something looking like The Sims would be great, but of course, you can’t just drop cars and people in one spot in The Sims.

Anyone have any ideas? I loked at Poser and even Source (from Half-Life 2) both would do the job but are far more sophisticated than needed.

Simulating real-world physics is pretty complicated. Do you want deformation?
I’ve run complicated rigid-body dynamic simulations in Maya, but getting a car to crunch usually requires a bit of processing power and specialized programming. Games that include it have pre-set deformations that occur at specified impact speeds, directions, etc.
BTW, “Poser” and “Powerful” shouldn’t be used in the same sentence unless “not” is also included.
You could try this.

No, what I’m saying is that I need something with no physics built in. No interaction, no movement. Just place stuff, screencapture, done.

And while you may not think Poser is powerful, the kind of software I want needs to run on an early Pentium 3 with no 3D graphics card. Poser is way more powerful than needed.

Well, that’s entirely different, sorry I misunderstood.
With a little work, even Paint could work, but something that uses layers would be better.
I’ve seen Java programs, like this one, that let you place unlimited images in a field, move them around, etc. (Click and drag the squares up top onto the map.)
You could use little pics of cars and trucks instead. You’d need to do a PrtScn and print it from another image program, though.

What about the game The Movies? It lets you compose and animate scenes – like in a movie – with cars, people, explosions, props, etc.

It does require a 3D card though and I don’t know if it’ll run on a P3… hmm.

Do you need to be able to manipulate people dolls or do you just want to place cars and generic people (probably standing) in the same scene?

I don’t think we need to manipulate them. Just place them. Sitting dolls would be nice in addition to standing ones.

I will check out The Movies. That would be hilarious - using game software to run Insurance stuff!