Documentation Center artzone:pub:tutorials:models

A Bird's Breakfast: First Build Your Worm!

2011-11-01T17:42:22+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

A Bird's Breakfast: First Build Your Worm!

Author: philebus

Tools Needed

Shade 7
UV Mapper Classic

Introduction

Hi there, my name is Robin Redbreast, you may remember me from such Christmas cards as 'Merry Christmas' and 'To Dad'. I'm here to talk to you about birds and what humans feed them. Many people have a strange idea about what we like to eat, no really, how would you like to live on a diet of stale bread crumbs. And let's not mention peanuts. No, what a bird really likes to have for breakfast is a fat, juicy worm.

So, read on and learn how to make me a worm. In this first tutorial, we'll create the worm object in Shade 7, you could use another modeling program but this is one a lot of you may have now with Poser 6 and if not, it is very cheap. In the second, longer tutorial we will import the object into Poser and rig it in the Set Up room before giving it Easy Pose with software by Ajax. You won't need to have completed this tutorial to do the second, as I shall include the object in the support files.

Before you start this, you're going to need Steve Cox's UV Mapper Classic, which is a free download here:

www.uvmapper.com

Step 1 - A quick build

There are many different methods to create our worm. We could use and open line and create a revolved shape from that but we wouldn't get enough evenly distributed divisions for smooth bending. We could also try using Magic Sketch, but the division can be a little untidy and we want to keep things simple. So, start Shade and, if you prefer, expand the front view to fill the screen.

Now, start a new part and use Create to make a sphere. Fill about two thirds of the screen with it - we can easily scale down. Next, click Modify and Modify Control Points. You need to click on one of the side points and drag it in to make a cigar shape. Of course, so far you've only flattened the sphere, so now change views to the side and drag in the other two side points to finish your worm shape.

You must now convert this shape into polygons so that Poser can use it. This is done in two stages. The first time you click Convert, you will get a curved surface.

Step 2 - Getting the polygons

Click on Convert again and you will get a new dialogue box. The default divisions are totally insufficient for use, change the values to 20 and 50 as show here.

Now you have the familiar mesh

Now save your mesh:

Step 3 -

If you have Shade Standard, then you can create the UV map before you save the object, if you have light edition, don't worry, we can use UV Mapper Classic.

Start up UV Mapper and load your model, following the steps below.

Select File > load model and locate your object. To create the map, select the cylindrical options shown:

And now, save your model again. The map information is stored within the OBJ file. Leave all the check boxes as the are here.

Finally, select File > Save Texture Map, this saved file will be your template to create a texture.

Step 4 - Creating the texture

Now you have your texture template. Open it up in your paint program, start a new layer and set the opacity to about 85% so you can see the template below. Choose a orange brown colour, just add some noise and a little blur. Now select a dark brown and draw lines across for the worm's segments and blur them. After saving, create a grayscale version for use as a bump map - you could also try using it for displacement.

And that's the first stage over. We're ready now for Stage Two: A Bird's Breakfast: Rigging for EasyPose

A Bird's Breakfast: Rigging for Easypose

2011-11-01T17:42:22+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

A Bird's Breakfast: Rigging for Easypose

Author: philebus

Tools Needed

Poser Pro Pack or higher
Easypose for P-Wizard or EasyPose Underground

Support Files

Worm_object.zip

Introduction

This is Stage two of the process we began in A Bird's Breakfast: First Build Your Worm. Now we take the worm and rig and EasyPose him for Poser.

To complete this tutorial you're going to need either Poser Pro Pack, Poser 5 or Poser 6. You are also going to need the means to add Easy Pose to your figure. There are two programs available to do this, both are by Ajax and available from Renderosity. EasyPose for P-Wizard is a plug in for the P-Wizard utility (also sold at Renderosity), if you already have Wizard then this is the cheaper of the two. EasyPose Underground is a stand alone program that is more expensive but if you don't have P-Wizard, then you would be better buying this one as it allows much more control over EP creation. I'm using the plug -in version (till my cash flow allows me to get Underground) but the procedure is the same for both programs.

Step 1 -

Begin by importing your worm. If you don't have one from the previous tutorial, then there is a support file for you to use.

Now, click the set up room, rotate your worm onto its side if you prefer, and select the bone tool. For reasons I'll mention later, we are going to bone the worm in two halves. So, starting at the middle, click and drag out your first bone. Click at the point of that bone, and draw out another and so on down to the tip. As you approach the tip, you might want to progressively reduce the size of the bones. They don't need to be measured, nor, for this, very accurately placed. Once you've drawn the first chain of bones, go back to the middle and start again along the other side. If you need to move any of the bones, you can just use the usual tools such as the translate.

Step 2 - Numbering the parts

The next step is important for setting up EP. Open the Hierarchy editor and find your list of bones, you are going to rename them in a way that EP will be able to use. It is important that the parts of an EP chain are suffixed with successive numbers between 01-99. Starting with the first bone, click the bone's name in the editor, bone_1, and you'll get a new dialogue.

It is the internal name that has to be changed but I change both to save any chance of confusion later, make it read 'bone_01'. Now change the rest this way till you come to the other side. For the second chain I've started 'bone_T01', with 'T' indicating 'tail'.

Step 3 - Grouping

Now that the bones are named, you have to group the polygons of your model to the bones that will represent them. Happily, for simple models like this, that can be done automatically. Open up the Group Editor and click Auto Group. This is a best guess by the computer of what should go with what but is more than sufficient for our needs.

Step 4 - Adding IK chains

The next step sounds more daunting than it is - for EP to work, we have to create Inverse Kinematics chains for both sets of bones. To do this, we need the hierarchy editor again. There is a button to Create IK Chain but it is not active yet. Scroll down through the hierarchy and at the bottom you will see an entry 'IK chains', click on this and the button will become active. Click on the create button and you will now be prompted to give a name for your new chain, I started with 'Front'. This is now listed in the hierarchy. To build your chain, click on the first part, in this case 'bone_01' and drag down to 'Front' and release the button, it now appears in the hierarchy chain. Repeat this for each part in sequence until you complete the first chain. Click on 'Create' again and this time name the chain 'Tail' and repeat the process for parts 'bone_T01' to the end of the chain.

And that's all there is to it. All that remains is to return to the Pose room and save your new figure, the grouped object and CR2 will both be saved to the same folder, so if you want to keep the object in a geometries folder, then you will have to edit the reference in the CR2.

Step 5 - The Dials

Now take a moment to look at the figure in the pose room. Looking at the dials, you won't see any for Bend or Twist, etc. The dials for these functions are marked 'x rotate', 'y rotate', and 'z rotate'. If you click on the dial name, the parameter box appears which allows you to change the name. For this project, we don't have to as we are not going to be using them, the EP software will set up all the dials we will need.

Step 6 -

We are now done with Poser for the moment, so close down and start up either EasyPose Underground or P-Wizard, selecting the EP plug-in.

This is the screen in P-Wizard, much simpler than in Underground but these buttons and boxes are all there, so what we do here should work in both programs.

The first thing we do is click Open and load our worm's CR2. The next thing we need to do is uncheck the box 'simple sequence' because our parts have already been correctly named, the other boxes can be left as they are. The Node is the root part of the chain, so we'll use bone_01 for this. Then start the chain with bone_02 and finish it with bone_12 (which be different for you if you used more or less bones). The Anti-Cross Talk Prefix is good idea, I've made mine Worm1. What this does is prevent cross talk between figures that use the same names for their body parts - if you want to have more than one EP worm in your picture, then you are going to have to make more than one CR2, each one with a different pre-fix. Now click GO.

The screen changes to confirm that the EP chain has been built.

Now you need to repeat the process for the tail part of your worm.

Now click Save As and you have an EP worm - a proper bird's breakfast

Step 7 - Back in Poser

Opening your figure in Poser, you can see all the EP dials. On a node, the dials will affect all the parts in its chain.

If you click on one of the other parts in the chain, the dials look like this-

-allowing you to affect the chain before or after that part. Now try and pose your worm.

Step 8 - Last words

An early but deserved Christmas gift for the star of all those cards.

Now the reason I created two chains back to back was because of the way I wanted to use it - in a bird's beak, or claw, a fisherman's hook, or with others on toast. I can just put the middle where I want it and twist the ends about. This would have been much harder if the chain(s) followed one direction from one end to the other - which would be better suited to a rope, a tail, or an octopus tentacle. So, before setting up your EP chains, bear in mind how you want to use them first!

If you are going to do any modeling for Poser, then the EasyPose utilities are a great investment, adding a lot of options and functionality to your models with minimum work!

Box Modeling a Dragon's Wing

2011-11-01T17:42:22+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

Box Modeling a Dragon's Wing

Author: SnowFox

Tools Needed

Wings3D or other modeling program

Introduction

This tut will show you one way to model a wing for a dragon or bat.

Step 1 - Create a cube

1. First, create a cube and choose Scale Axis > Y to make it flatter, then Scale Axis > X to make it skinny. This is the start of the wing's “arm”.

Step 2 - Extrude

2. Select the face at the end and Extrude > Normal. Move it along the X axis to make the point where the “thumb” is.

Step 3 - Extrude again

3. This step is very important! Extrude > Normal once for each finger you want. I made a traditional four fingered wing, so I extruded four times. Make the last extrusion longer, it's the last finger (equivelent to your index finger).

Step 4 - More extruding

4. Now select the three faces along the underside of the arm and Extrude > Normal. DO NOT Extrude > Region! That won't get the effect we want.

Step 5 - Move

5. Next, Move > Z the faces at the ends of the fingers to position them where you want them.

Step 6 - Even more extruding

6. Now Extrude the faces to make the fingers, and reposition them where you want them. You may need to move the edge loops along the arm and index finger to adjust the thickness, like I did here. To select an edge loop in Wings, select an edge and press L on the keyboard. I have an edge loop selected in the diagram, in case you don't know what an edge loop is ;)

Step 7 - Extrude again

7. Select the faces inside the fingers like this…

And Extrude Region > Normal. Bring the faces close but don't let the corners touch. You'll have a mess if they do. Do this for all the fingers.

Step 8 - Disolve

8. Disolve most of the edges and vertices, they'll just get in the way otherwise. Move the edges so you have a rough membrane. Move > Normal is your friend here.

Step 9 - Bevel

9. Now select all the finger edges and Bevel.

Step 10 - Move

10. Select the top faces and Move > Y to make the membrane thinner. Then do the same for the bottom faces.

Step 11 - Cleanup

11. Now if you have some edges and vertices you don't want, go fix them. This step isn't needed, but it makes modeling claws easier.

Step 12 - Flatten

12. Select the faces at the ends of the fingers and Flatten > Normal. You'll probably have to Rotate > Y as well, since they'll be a bit crooked. Next, Inset these same faces.

Step 13- Move

13. Move > Normal to make the ends of the fingers. Then move/rotate them into the right positions.

Step 14- Inset

14. Inset again to start the claws. Extrude > Normal to make the claws. Then Scale > Uniform to make the points.

Step 15- Connect

15. Select these edges and press C to connect them. After you connect them, cut the new edges and scale them outwards. We want a more circular area for the thumb.

Step 16- More extruding

16. You know the drill by now - Extrude, Inset, Extrude, Scale.

Step 17- The End

That's it! You can add more detail by moving edges, and adding edge loops to the claws. Smoothing isn't needed, but you can do it if you want.

Here's the example of the wing up top that I did with this method.

Building Weapons in Rhino3D~Advanced Techniques

2011-11-01T17:42:22+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

Building Weapons in Rhino3D~Advanced Techniques

Author: Kirisute

Tools Needed

Rhino3D

Support Files

rhinotute2.zip

Introduction

A guide through some of the advanced techniques i use for building weapons in Rhino3D!

From using LOFT to create intricate blades to using SURFACES as cutting tools to help you model. This tutorial will guide you through each step of the process and ends will a complete guid to building a sword using the techniques learnt!

NOTE

this is a PDF tutorial! Please download support file 1 to read the tutorial

Step 1 - Advanced Rhino3D weapons modeling

NOTE

this is a PDF tutorial!

Please download support file 1 to read the tutorial

Character Creation for Non-modelers

2011-11-01T17:42:22+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

Character Creation for Non-modelers

Author: 3Don

Introduction

Most of us non-modelers acquire our characters in whole from commercial and free sources. Go to DAZ for Sci-Fi heroes, Egyptians, and Knights, go to Bbay for 19th and 20th Century soldiers, or go to PoserWorld or Phil C's site for a myriad of historical and modern characters.

But what about that special character you need and can't find… or afford? It's not so hard to create your own characters from existing ones. Recombining props, clothes, and textures is the answer. Following are some methods and examples of how I made characters I needed, but could not find.

Step 2 - U.S. Cavalry Man

I wanted an old west cavalryman as one of the models for my Gunslinger poses. When I needed one, it was not available. Here's how I made one.

a. I dressed the Millennium Man in his regular pants, shirt, suspenders, and cowboy boots.

b. A blue fill was added to the texture template from his clothes pack and a yellow stripe added to the pant legs. The texture was applied to white pants. Using the eye-dropper tool, I colored the shirt the same blue. The suspenders were matched to the yellow pants stripe.

c. The cavalry hat was found at Crowfoot's Greylight site. Questor's old Colt revolver and cross-draw holster rig were added. The bandana and spurs were found at Renderosity. Putting it all together I ended up with Trooper Miller.

Step 3 - Pirate

This character was easy to make because I already had the DAZ Pirate Pack in my collection.

The peg leg, hook, and eye patch were added to the Millennium Man. A hand and lower leg were made invisible.

Michael's regular pants were added with the lower legs made invisible, giving them a ragged look. His regular vest was added along with the cummerbund (from the suit coat pack). Both the pirate headscarf and stocking cap in the DAZ Costume pack can be made to conform to Michael. As well, the wrist-guards and scimitar from the same source, can be used with some tweaking. The cannon, treasure chest, starfish, and rowboat can all be found at DAZ, too. The old pistol is from Crowfoot.

To texture the clothes I did not use regular texture maps. Wanting a different look, I applied flat textures such as ivory, bark, leather, etc. to pants and other articles.

A Moorish pirate from North Africa was derived by making the skin darker, giving the face African attributes, and adding the Costume Pack turban, wrist guards, and armband (ring-enlarged). An Egyptian pirate was made with a bearded texture map, the Costume Pack fez, mariner pants, morphing dagger, and spear.

Step 4 - Royal Marine

PoserWorld made a really nice conforming uniform with textures for a 19th C. British naval officer. I wanted to round out the crew with a Royal Naval Marine.

The regular uniform was conformed to the Mill Man. The dark blue jacket texture was changed to bright red in Photoshop.

Royal Marines wore a hat that was more like a short top hat with a feather in it. I had a top hat, which was squashed down a little and tweaked to fit. A feather (from un-remembered source) was added.

Finally, a Brown Bess musket with bayonet was added and Lt. Michaelson was created, fixing a bayonet in front of the brass naval cannon.

Step 5 -

There have been hundreds of characters and clothing sets created for the Poser4 woman. Less has been done for the Millennium Woman, so she is the focus here.

With all the mayhem possible with pirates and gunslingers… better get a medic. (And I needed a passable EMS medic for my Rescuer poses.)

The scrubs-green clothes was dialed in from the RGB color palette, and then picked up with the eyedropper tool to color other clothing parts. The ball-cap is from the Poser 4 library. I added a simple red cross to the texture template and applied. By adding a few medical props, the result is Medic Vicky.

She can be a doctor, nurse, schoolteacher, judge, astronaut, or whatever… with only a few props, textures, the right hair, and a little tweaking.

Closed mouth modeling with Wings3D

2011-11-01T17:42:22+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

Closed mouth modeling with Wings3D

Author: SnowFox

Tools Needed

Wings3D

Introduction

Maybe I just don't get modeling, but I have a hard time getting mouths to look right. Sometimes I make the figure with its mouth open, but it doesn't line up correctly when morphed, or I have some other problem. This method of modeling the figure with its mouth closed is a fairly simple technique that I discovered while fiddling around in Wings3D ;) This is the first in a series of tuts about mouth control.

Step 1 - Step 1

While you're modeling the head, keep in mind where you want the mouth to open. You'll need to perform a loop cut along this edge. You can make this cut at almost any point in the modeling process, but I like to do it fairly early on, so subsequent smoothings will give the lips a more natural roundness.

Step 2 - Step 2

When you're ready to cut, select the edges where you want the mouth to be. Then make a loop down around the underside of the jaw, so you make a complete edge loop. Select Loop Cut. This sepearates the jaw away from the head.

Step 3 - Step 3

Hide the jaw. Select the two vertices that will make the corners of the mouth, and Connect them. Then you can connect the rest of the vertices to form the roof of the mouth if you like. Next hide the head and show the jaw. Connect the vertices at the corners of the mouth on the jaw as well.

Step 4 - End

Now you can hide the head and work on the lower jaw without the head getting in your way, and vice versa! Remember that if you add vertices to the edge at the back of the jaw, you have to add the same number to the other part of the jaw. Otherwise, it won't rejoin properly. When you're done modeling inside the mouth, it's time to rejoin them into one head. Select the face at the back of the jaw (you made it when you connected those vertices) and select the corresponding face in the head (again, created from connecting the vertices) and use the Bridge command. This will join the two back into one object, but the lips and inside of the mouth are still separate! Now your mouth morphs will always line up, without the over/underbite that can happen when the mouth is modeled open. This image shows the same model later in the process.

Complex Face Morph with EM3D

2011-11-01T17:42:22+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

Complex Face Morph with EM3D

Author: Khrys

Tools Needed

Michael 3
Extreme Morph 3D

Introduction

So you're working with a figure, and you have a specific look in mind, but the default morphs don't quite cut it? If you have Extreme Morph 3D, you can create a unique character inside of twenty five minutes. From cute to cruel!

Step 1 - Setting up our workspace

This tutorial assumes you've read over my last tutorial for body shaping, and you have the basics of creating morphs in Extreme Morph 3D down. You will, of course, need the Extreme Morph 3D software from Innuendo Software

For this tutorial, I've exported JUST M3's head and eyes. We export the eyes because we need them for reference. Remember to export with groups in Poser and that it needs to be a morph.

1. After loading the base model you wish to work with, go to 'View Ports' and click on 'Two View Ports (Tall)'. This allows you to see multiple views of the object you're morphing, in my case, M3's head, for quicker and more accurate morphing. Now, see how tiny those heads are? You can't work with those! We're gonna go to 'View Ports' again, and click 'Reset Viewports' on /both/ windows. To get to the second window, we go to it and just click, anywhere.

3. We now need to adjust the window so that we can see M3's nose. We go to the arrows, and click on the box. Holding down control when moving the mouse allows you to move only in the forward/back direction. We want to move it back so we can see all of M3's face from the side. I usually try to match up the windows. You should end up with something like image 1.

4. Now we set up our brush. Take your time, as this part is important. We want a nice sized brush, approximately the size of M3's pupil or iris, could we see it.

Step 2 - Getting Started

Okay, now we're getting started with the fun and can roll up our sleeves. I've cut out several of the little images to save on loading time, so each image represents several steps.

1. Using your brush, in the window on the left, select his nostril area. Did you'remember to set it to mirror horizontal? We don't want to paint on backfaces just yet. Soften your selection by hitting the 'S' key on your keyboard several times. I usually hit it about twice.

2. Go to 'Tools > Pinch/Pull' and select the tool. Deselect horizontal by clicking in the box. Click on the central part of your selection, then, toward the middle of the nostrils, and drag it thinner until it reaches a level you're comfortable with. Mine was a high level because I really wanted him to look cruel.

3. Once you're happy with this section, go to 'Edit > Clear All', then select as I have in Image 2, along the bridge of his nose. For this one, we're changing the brush. Click off of 'Mirror Horizontal' and instead click on 'Paint on Backfaces' then click on the side view of M3 and brush down along his nose. Don't forget to soften.

4. Go to 'Tools > Move In Plane' and, still looking at the profile, drag the nose toward his face. Once you're happy, clear all again and look for any problems. Mine had a minor issue down on the tip of his nose, which I selected and then, using the Smooth tool, smoothed using a setting of 10, where you can type in the text.

5. I want him to look slightly older and cruel, like he's had a hard life, so lines along his cheek area emphasize that. Using my brush on the frontal image, with Paint on Backfaces unchecked and Mirror Horizontal rechecked, I brush down along the faint crease that's already there. We're going to make it more noticable.

6. Switch to the side view again, and use your Move In Plane tool, then drag it back, toward the back of his skull to a level you feel comfortable with. Then smooth it over with the 10 setting in the Smooth tool.

Step 3 - Touching up the nose

I wasn't quite pleased with the nose. It looked good, but it didn't look cruel enough. So I'm changing it up a bit to make him more unique.

1. The septum of the nose is a bit too wide for this guy, so, using the Mirrored Horizontal brush, we're going to select that area. If you mess up, don't panic, and don't undo. Hold down 'Ctrl' on your keyboard and wipe around the area clear, leaving only what you want behind. Erasers are wonderful.

2. Utilizing Push/Pinch again, we're going to uncheck the verticle and check the horizontal, so that we can thin out his nose. Click in the center of the septum and tug it until it's thin enough to suit your tastes. Then clear all.

3. Okay, now we're going to select the bridge of his nose, just a little spot on each side, to give it a bit of a broken look. So using the horizontally mirroring brush, we select, then go to Push/Pinch again and click in the center of the nose. And it's important to click in the center of where you want to move, otherwise, it will move TOWARD where you click…

4. Get it to a level you're comfortable with, then clear all and select the entire bridge of the nose. This is how to really make a character unique… Go to 'Move In Plane and then tug the entire bridge of the nose to your left, and you should end up with something like Image 3.

Step 4 - Chin and Ears

We're still seeing changes in the nose, but by now, yours should look something like this.

1. Now we're doing the chin, so, using the profile shot, we're going to select just along his chin, with our brush using Paint on Backfaces and no mirror horizontal. Select his chin as I did, then go to Move In Plane and pull it out just a little. This change should be subtle, not garish. Clear all.

2. Next, make your brush a bit smaller, because we're giving him a cleft chin. This will add to his harshness. Soften, then drag his little cleft back just a LITTLE. Don't clear all, but go instead to Push/Pinch in the tools selection and, clicking in the center of the cleft, pull the two sides together. It'll make the cleft more natural.

3. Clear all. Now we're playing with his ears. Select the tips and soften. Use Push/Pinch and make his ears come out from his face slightly, to add to the diversity of his features. Don't soften, because you'll lose ear detail.

Step 5 - Nose, again, and cheeks

Okay, I know I said I was done with the nose, but I still wasn't happy with it! As you can see, the ears look a lot different, now. Something as simple as the ears can really change the way a face is percieved.

1. Select the area where we created the knot, using the horizontal brush, from the front. Soften, then switch to the side view and tug the area out a bit using Move In Plane. This makes his nose more harsh and gives him a more rugged character, enhancing the broken look to it.

2. Now we're moving on to the cheekbones. Cheekbones are another way you can make a character look unique. Select as I did, then soften three times. Switch to Move In Plane and move to the side angle, pulling the cheekbones out slightly. They're likely to look a bit harsh. If they do along the edge, just…

3. Use the Smooth tool with it set at 10 and smooth the whole selection once. You lose almost none of the roughness to the features, and you lose those rough edges!

Step 6 - Lips and eyelashes

Okay, now we move into the fun part. Lips and eyelashes. First the lips.

1. Select along the lower lip, that little spot that sticks out on M3's lip. Soften your selection, then smooth it, once. Clear all.

2. Now we're going to thin his lips. Don't panic, it's easy! Select all along his mouth, without actually selecting the crease of his mouth, because we don't want to mess with his lips opening and closing. Soften the selection with 's' on your keyboard, then go to Push/Pinch 3D, deselect horizontal and select vertical.

3.Click in the middle of the crease between his lips and tug until the lips reach a thinness you're happy with. Clear all.

4. For the next part, we're zooming in on M3's eyes just a bit using the arrow button and the control key again. Just zoom in a bit, 'til you can see the eyes well, and then repeat on the other side. Make sure you've cleared all selections.

5. Go to the brush button and go down to 'select by materials' and click on the button that reads 'By Text Name'. You want the eyelashes. Go to Edit > Hide Selection. Clear all. Now the eyelashes are gone and your selection is clear for the next step.

Step 7 - Eyes and Jawline

Okay, we're still working on the eyes… Eyes are the most important part of a character, and often can give away what figure you're using if you don't alter them enough.

1. Making sure all else is completely cleared, (clear all just in case) we're now going to select along the eyecrease and soften the selection. Then go to Push/Pinch and click in the central section you want moved down. I clicked toward the middle ground and then tugged the eyelid downward to enhance his squinty eyes without actually changing the eye shape, just the crease line… When finished and happy with how it looks, clear all again.

2. You probably noticed the camera changed again. Go up to view ports and reset both of them, then turn the one to face the left once more and get them back to their previous state.

3. Using the Default Brush, paint in the profile side using Paint on Backfaces along his jawline. Remember to soften your selection with 's'. Go to 'Tools' and select Move in Plane, and bring his jawline up a bit to make it more angular. Go to tools, Smooth and smooth down the jawline just a bit.

4. Now we're enhancing his cheeks again. Using the default brush once more, brush along the cheek line where I did and soften the selection. Using the Pinch/Push tool again, with the horizontal checked and vertical unchecked, we're going to make his cheekbones more obvious by pulling that section in some, making the cheeks more stark. Clear all.

Step 8 - Brows and Smoothing

Okay, we're almost there, guys.

1. Unhide the eyelashes by going to 'Edit > Unhide all'. We have a few minor flaws in the morphing. Or, at least, I do. Using the default brush, go along the sides of the eyes and the sides of the mouth/cheek connection area. Soften the selection and then, using the Smooth tool, smooth the section down until you're happy. Don't be afraid to go a little overboard, you can always undo with a quick Ctrl z. But there is no redo, so be sure.

2. Clear all. Using the default brush, go along the upper eyebrow area and select it. Soften (s). We're going to make his eyebrows thicker, which is easy. For this part, you can use either Move in Plane OR Push/Pinch and merely tug the eyebrows up some.

3. Clear all once you're happy with the eyebrows and select in the profile shot his forehead. Soften the selection, then, using Move in Plane, tug it out slightly, to again add to the harshness.

Step 9 - Final touches

Okay, we're in the home stretch, gang, this is the final step!

1. His eyebrows aren't quite what I want, still, so I'm going to select as in the image above, then go to Move in Plane. Holding down the ALT key, tug the mouse downward until the eyebrows reach a 'frown' you're happy with.

2. Insert some little things that you want to make him more unique. I gave him a little bit more asymetry by adding a soft wrinkle to the right side of his forehead and the left corner of his mouth was tugged up slightly.

3. Now we save. You can see the settings I use in the image above. The last two need to be unchecked if you want to distribute the morph as an OBJ file, because they prevent anyone from using it if they don't have said model.

4… Bask in your hard work! You made a completely unique character for M3. That's something to be highly proud of. If yours doesn't look like mine… Good! This whole tutorial was about diversity. If it does look like mine, just as good, because you followed the steps!

Now you can use these steps in whatever order you want to create your own unique character faces you and your friends can enjoy.

Converting INJ poses for V3/M3 Reduced Resolution

2011-11-01T17:42:22+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

Converting INJ poses for V3/M3 Reduced Resolution

Author: TesseractSpace

Tools Needed

Injection Pose Builder
V3 Reduced Resolution
M3 Reduced Resolution

Introduction

As many who have V3/M3 Reduced Resolution figures has discovered, attempting to use Injection based character poses for V3/M3 causes a variety of errors and leaves the character unmorphed.

The reason for this is that the Injection morphs overwrite the figure's own morphs with information meant for the normal mesh version.

This tutorial will show you how to alter an existing Injection pose into one that simply turns the dials on the figure. This is not going to be an exact duplicate of the original character morph as there are some morphs that are not included in the Reduced Resolution figures, but it will get you closer.

Step 1 - Loading your pose

Start up Injection Pose Builder. (I'm using 1.5, I'm not sure how different it is from previous versions so updating to the most recent version may be worthwhile.)

To load your pose or face, simply click on the Source File button in Injection Pose Builder. Locate the file you wish to convert. In this case I'm changing the Bronson morph from the Tuff Guys set for M3.

Step 2 - Choosing Link Library

Now choose the Link Library that applies to the Pose you are working with. Since this pose is meant for M3, I choose the Michael3 library. If you're working with a V3 pose, you would choose one of the appropriate libraries for V3.

Step 3 - Getting rid of the readScripts

Now the essential part of the conversion process. Make sure you place a check in the box for Exclude readScripts Entirely. This will make sure that you create a normal morph pose rather than an injection pose.

Step 4 - Processing and Saving

Now click the Process Options button. This will convert your pose.

Once it finishes, go to the File menu and choose Save As to save your newly altered pose. Be careful as it defaults to the name of the original pose, so don't forget to rename your pose.

In this case I've called mine Bronson noINJ.pz2, but use whatever naming convention works best for you.

Step 5 - Using the pose

Start up Poser, load the V3 or M3 reduced resolution figure. Find your new pose. (it'll likely have the default poser shrugging guy for a thumbnail, unless you made one for it already.)

You may notice when you use the pose that it gives a message about the pose not being intended for this figure, and the look may not be exactly the same. However this is much better than having the figure not morph at all and its channels being overwritten with data it can't use.

Happy Posing.

Easy Morph Injection Poses by Hand

2011-11-01T17:42:22+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

Easy Morph Injection Poses by Hand

Author: pbnj

Tools Needed

Poser
A good text editor
A CR2 containing a morph you want to make a INJ pose for

Introduction

This tutorial will show you how to easily create your own morph injection poses by hand by moving a morph from a .CR2 and into a .PZ2 file.

If you have one of the Mil characters; Vicki, Mike, Stephanie, etc. then there are free programs such as MAT Pose Edit that can help make morph injection poses that will inject your morph into one of the empty Morph Injection Channels (MICs) these models contain. But for other models that do not have MICs (Sara, Maya, HER, Judy, etc.) you have to either create a MIC or overwrite an existing morph. For distribution purposes the latter of the two options is safer and easier, that is what we will be discussing here.

Step 1 - Create your custom head

In this example we will be setting up an injection pose for a custom head morph. First you must create your custom face in Poser, go ahead and do that now if you have not already.

Step 2 - Save your custom head a morph

Once you have set all your dials and/or magnets as you would like, from the task menu at top click Object/Spawn Morph, when the prompt appears name your morph something easy to remember, we will be looking for this name shortly. In this example I'll use, NewHead.

Step 3 - Save a figure with your custom morph

Now with your custom morph spawned and a dial for said morph, we're going to save the figure. Open your side menu; navigate to the figures directory of your choice and save the figure.

Step 4 - Starting the pose file

Open a new blank document in your text editor and the paste this into it:

{

version

{

number 4.01

}

actor head:1

{

channels

{

Step 5 - Copying your morph

Open your saved CR2 in your text editor and then use the 'Find' feature to search for the name you gave your head morph.

You should see something like this:

targetGeom NewHead

{

name NewHead

initValue 0

hidden 0

forceLimits 4

min -100000

max 100000

trackingScale 0.02

keys

{

static 0

k 0 1

}

interpStyleLocked 0

indexes 26903

numbDeltas 26903

deltas

{

d 0 1.84346e-005 9.477139e-006 -4.227459e-005

d 1 1.838803e-005 9.536743e-006 -4.230067e-005

d 2 1.842063e-005 9.536743e-006 -4.237331e-005

…

d 26902 3.824744e-005 0.0009562373 -0.0001816712

}

Highlight and copy the text starting with targetGeom NewHead line down through all the deltas for that morph and the closing } brackets, then paste this text at the end of the new document you created in -Step 4-.

Step 6 - Overwriting an existing morph

This is where we need to decide what morph we want to overwrite. Below is a list of the morphs I would recommend overwriting for certain models. These by no mean are the only dials can you overwrite, I have chosen these ones because they are generally morphs not used often or there are alternative morphs within the character that perform similar functions.

Sara 1: Younger (rarely used, don't use her Closed morph - the EMC used will cause it to not work)

Sara 2: Tongue-Lick (rarely used, don't use her Closed morph - the EMC used will cause it to not work)

HER: Blink (there are Blink-L and Blink-R morphs that can still close the eyes)

Maya: Mag 1 (this doesn't seem to have any effect on her)

Now type the name of the morph you want to overwrite after targetGeom in place of NewHead. Make sure the Name (in this example NewHead) is the name you want to appear on the dial when it is injected.

Step 7 - Edit your morph pose

When you're all done you should have something that looks like the code below. Please notice the notes listed below as well, they will give details to the things that should stay the same and the things that can change based on the morph and the model you are using:

{

version

{

number 4.01 ←-This should always stay the same.

}

actor head:1 ←-This can change based on the body group you are creating the morph for.

{

channels

{

targetGeom Tongue-Lick ←-The morph you are replacing.

{

name NewHead ←-This is the name of the new morph dial.

initValue 0

hidden 0

forceLimits 4

min -100000

max 100000

trackingScale 0.02

keys

{

static 0

k 0 1 ←-Set this to 1 so the dial is 1.000 when pose is applied.

}

interpStyleLocked 0

indexes 26903

numbDeltas 26903

deltas

{

d 0 1.84346e-005 9.477139e-006 -4.227459e-005

d 1 1.838803e-005 9.536743e-006 -4.230067e-005

d 2 1.842063e-005 9.536743e-006 -4.237331e-005

…

d 26902 3.824744e-005 0.0009562373 -0.0001816712

}

} ←-Add a closing bracket here.

←-Leave a blank line at the end of the document.

Step 8 - Save your morph pose

Save your new file as NewHead.pz2 in the Pose directory your choice and you're done!

Step 9 - Additional Notes

Setting the last Key to 1 will automatically apply the morph as well as inject it. If you want to make a pose that will turn the dial off simply change the 1 to a 0. You can also delete all the delta information from the file since it will not be used when the dial is turned off, this is save on file size.

It should look something like this:

{

version

{

number 4.01

}

actor head:1

{

channels

{

targetGeom Tongue-Lick

{

name NewHead

initValue 0

hidden 0

forceLimits 4

min -100000

max 100000

trackingScale 0.02

keys

{

static 0

k 0 0

}

interpStyleLocked 0

indexes 26903

numbDeltas 26903

deltas

{

}

I hope this tutorial has been of help, please contact me with any questions: pbnj@digitalhippies.com

EM3D SimpleBodyMorph

2011-11-01T17:42:22+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

EM3D SimpleBodyMorph

Author: Khrys

Step 8:

Tools Needed

Extreme Morph 3D
Michael 3

Introduction

So you're working with Michael 3, but his body doesn't seem to have quite enough 'umf' for what you need, but the morph packs don't provide it either? If you've got Extreme Morph 3D, this problem is easier to fix than you'd think!

Step 1 - Setting up our workspace.

Okay, obviously we need to load the model. This tutorial assumes you've got at least a basic understanding on how to load Poser characters and that you have the software from http://innuendosoftware.com/

2. Now, see how tiny those figures are? You can't work with those! We're gonna go to 'View Ports' again, and click 'Reset Viewports' on /both/ windows. To get to the second window, we go to it and just click, anywhere except for on Mike.

3. Now we're ready to set a different angle on the windows. I like working with my left window being front or top and my right window being whatever else I need. To set it up, click on whichever window you wish to change and go to 'View Ports'. Click on 'Set Current Viewport-Left'.

4. Now we can set our brush up! Click on the giant brush picture and go to 'Default Brush'. It may or may not have already been loaded. Now we're ready to move on to the fun part: Morph making!

Step 2 - Basework

Now we can roll up our sleeves and get messy!

1, We're going to select a broad base area of what we want to morph. I've decided on a pectoral morph, because Mike doesn't have a lot of variation in shape there. We make a very broad selection, in the front port, using the brush with Mirror Horizontal checked on. We don't want to paint on backfaces, yet.

2, Now we go up to 'Edit' and down to 'Soften Selection'. Just remember, you can use 's' to soften at any time. I usually hit 's' about four times, to fully soften and blend better with the area around it.

3, And now it's time for our tool selection! Go up to 'Tools' or click on the hammer, whichever suits your fancy, and click on 'Move in Plane'.

Step 3 - Overdoing it!

1, Now for this step, we get to have fun. As you can see in the picture, this part is when the magic starts. I want to bring his chest /out/ so I'm going to do just that by clicking on the second view port, where Mike is facing to the right and we're viewing his left, and I'm going to use my mouse and just drag in the direction I want to go. (If I want to go perfectly straight across, I press and hold shift before I click the mouse button. If I want to go just up and down, I use the alt button in the same manner. Ctrl brings the object toward you, or pushes it away.)

Right now, we're using Shift. Don't worry if it looks weird, we're just starting. Think of it as sculpting clay. We can do anything we want with enough time and raw materials! (look out, MillCube!)

2, For the next step, we need to clear all the selection, because we're going to make a new one. So go up to 'Edit' and click 'Clear All' and voila! No more neon green.

3, Now we're going to select the brush again. Click on the paintbrush and go to default paint brush.

Step 4 - Getting there

1, Okay, I know I promised we'd get on to more interesting stuff, and here we are. Now. We know no real man has pectorals shaped so strangely, without any differentiation between them and the rest of the chest, when they're that bulky. So we're going to fix that. Go up to the window for your brush and unclick 'Mirror Horizontally'. We're going to need a slightly smaller brush for this step…

2, We're going to be playing with backface painting now, so click on that option, then on your side view window. Take your brush and just highlight the whole area where there should be a crease, then soften your selection with S.

3, Go to tools, click 'Smooth'.

4, Now, there are two ways you can use the smooth tool. You can just drag your mouse about, or you can enter values. I prefer the second. So. Click on the number '1' and then add a '0', making it '10'!.

5, Firstly, make sure you're happy with the softness of your selection. The harder the selection is, the worse the smoothing will take. Once you're satisfied, click the button. Didn't do much, did it? That's Ok, we're moving on to the next step. :)

Step 5 - Pushing and pinching

I know we were told it's not nice to push and pinch, but in Extreme Morph, some of the best results come from this.

1, Go to tools and click on Push, Pinch/2D Scale.

2, We're going to uncheck vertical, because we don't need it, yet. We're doing horizontal, right now!

3, Notice the red line? It corrisponds with a convient line placed right in the background, that neatly splits the screen up in half, to make it more symmetrical when morphing. Click on that line, above Michael's head or wherever else you can see it, and then pull the mouse 'down'. You'll notice that crease he should have forming.

Again, it's OK to go a little bit overboard. We can always fix it later.

Step 6 - Adding more detail

Remember that crease I mentioned? We're going to OverKill it.

1, Switch to Vertical and turn off Horizontal. Now for Vertical, you have to be a bit more careful, and click toward the center of what you want to pinch vertically, though you can get some neat effects, otherwise.

For this particular morph, I clicked about midway up the chest and pulled down, just a little.

2, Time to smooth again. Go to Tools > Smooth, soften twice and then click on the manual smooth button.

3, Time to clear all again. Go to Edit and Clear all.

Step 7 - Smoothing out the over-kill

For this step, we're mimicking step 4, some.

1, Using a slightly smaller brush, brush in the 'tip' of the chest, including the nipple area. We're using Paint on Backfaces, so we're selecting in the side view bar. You should have something vaguely similar to mine once you're done. Now soften.

2, What we're doing now is simple. We're getting a smaller brush and going to the front view. So we need Mirror Horizontal on. Now something neat. When you hold down Ctrl before painting, you'remove from the selection. Now we're going to remove the nipple selection and part of the area around it.

Don't forget to soften at least twice, after you're done deselecting.

Step 8 - Smoothing over past errors

We're almost done!

1, Okay, we've softened like fiends. Time to be smooth. For Mike, anyway. Go to tools and select 'Smooth'. Click away!

2, Edit > Clear Selection and then Brush > Default Brush because we need to select a new area. Make sure that Paint on Backfaces isn't selected and Horrizontal Mirroring is.

2, Paint along the outer edge of Mike's chest muscles, then go into Pinch/Push again. We're almost finished, guys!

3, Using the line I showed you before, bring out his pectorals just a little. Now you don't want to go overboard, because it'll ruin all your other hard work.

I'm still not happy with Mike's chest, so…

4, Go to your side view window and use the default brush with paint on backfaces on and Mirror Horrizontal off. Don't forget to clear selection, first, though.

5, Select just the /tip/ of his chest and soften a few times…

Step 9 - Final steps

We're almost done, I promise!

1, Okay, Tools > Move in Plane and drag the tip of the chest back toward Mike's body, to make it more realistic. See what I mean about it being like clay?

2, Now, clear all and look at the fruit of your labors! If you find nothing else that leaps out at you, it's time to move on to the final tasks. And as always, remember. This is a morph that is shown at 1.0. It doesn't need to be subtle, because that's what the dials in Poser are for. ;)

3, Final steps! I know it looks complicated, but trust me, it's easy! All we're doing is saving the OBJ files. Now it's just a matter of what you want to have. I /always/ check the first four and uncheck the last two. It saves space, and makes the files, so long as they don't have other morphs used in them, legal to send out, because they contain no geometries.

Click OK. Find or make a folder you want to save your morphs in and click 'OK'. Load into Poser, because if you saved your OBJ right before loading it, it named all the files for you like so: PecsTut_hip1.obj for hip and so on.

Little morphs like this are how I make a basis for bigger morphs like my Ganymede product, combining them in an attractive manner. The more little morphs you make, the more variation you can create, something the folks at DAZ3D understand well! :D

Last but not least, remember to enjoy what you're doing. Frustration shouldn't have to be a part of this process.

Filling a container

2011-11-01T17:42:22+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

Filling a container

Author: SnowFox

Tools Needed

Wings3D or other polygon modeler

Support Files

support.zip

Introduction

So you've got a container, but nothing to put in it? This tut will show you how to fill objects with “container shaped” liquid.

Step 1 - Start

The bowl is harder, so let's start with the cup. Select the faces at the bottom of the cup.

Step 2 - Extract

Extract these faces, but don't move them. Just left click to confirm.

Step 3 - The end part 1

Extrude Region > Y. That's it, the cup's full! Because you Extracted first, the liquid is a separate object, which can be asigned its own texture map.

Step 4 - Bowl

Now it gets a little tougher. Now we're going to fill the bowl. Select the bowl and Duplicate it, but don't move it. Leave it selected, and from the Select menu, choose Hide Unselected to hide the real bowl.

Step 5 - Edge loops

Select the edge loops around the inside and outside of the bowl. I like to use the second loop from the top, because otherwise the bowl's too full ;)

Step 6 - Loop Cut

Choose Loop Cut, and you should end up with this. Wings has automatically created a new face for the surface of the liquid! Delete the extra peice (the red selected part)

Step 7 - Scale

Scale > Uniform down slightly, so the liquid will fit in the bowl.

Step 8 - The end (for real)

That's it! Show > All and everything should fit right! Don't smooth the liquids. I'd suggest setting the edges of the liquid hard, that makes them render better.

Fitting clothes with magnets

2011-11-01T17:42:22+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

Fitting clothes with magnets

Author:

xalthorn

Tools Needed

Poser

Introduction

Quite often, you will have clothing fit a character perfectly, that is until you apply a morph to the figure.

This tutorial will show you how to use magnets to make the clothing fit again.

Step 1 -Get dressed

To get started, I've dressed the 'She Freak for V3' in her 'Swordswoman' costume. Throughout this tutorial, I've used a shaded view to maintain decency.

So, first of all, let's look at the scene with her dressed in the default outfit, with both the shaded and full renders.

Step 2 -Apply the morph

Now, let's inject the 'Buxom' full body morph and apply the morph. Let's see what happened to the scene.

Step 3 -Time to add a magnet

The problem with this is obviously 'poke through' where a part of the body is poking through the clothes. We'll solve this problem with a single magnet. To put a magnet in, you need to select a body part that you want to apply the magnet to. In this case, we're going to select the chest as it is the piece of the body between the breasts.

So, select the chest and select 'create magnet' from the 'object' menu. You should end up with the following.

Step 4 -Expand the selection

The 'mag 1' prop will be selected by default, and now we'll expand the selection to include the breasts, which are actually the left and right collars.

So, to make the magnet affect an additional body part we start by selecting 'properties' from the 'object' menu with the 'mag 1' prop selected. We then click on the 'add element to deform' button.

Using the list that appears, select the left collar of the corset, be careful not to accidentally select the left collar of the she freak. Once you've done that, click on OK and then repeat the process for the right collar.

Step 5 -Move the magnet base

Now we'll get the magnet ready for our use. We'll start by moving the base of the magnet into the right place. Select the 'mag base 1' prop and move the base forward by changing the zTran dial, this will help to stop the magnet from affecting the back of the corset.

Out of interest, for my example, I set the yTran to 0.516, the zTran to 0.031

Step 6 -Move the magnet zone

The next thing to do is to alter the magnet zone, or area of effect of the magnet. So, select the 'mag zone 1' prop.

We want to make it wider so that it affects more of the corset. Do this by using the xScale dial, in my example, I've set it to 150%. Now we'll bring the zone forward by moving the zTran dial. This will also help to stop the magnet from affecting the back of the corset. In my example I set the zTran to 0.054

Step 7 -Stretch forwards

Now we'll make things start to happen. Select the 'mag 1' prop again. Now whatever we do to the magnet will happen to the parts of the corset that are to be affected (chest, left collar, and right collar) and that fall within the mag zone.

We'll start off by making the corset deeper or larger in the z dimension. In my example, I changed the zScale to 190%. You can now see that the corset is starting to cover the breasts, but we still have a long way to go.

Step 8 -Stretch sideways

Now we'll make the magnet wider which will also help to make the top fit. In my example, I changed the xScale to 127%. It's now covering more of the breasts, but it's still not right.

Step 9 -Stretch vertically

A little more tweaking is in order. We'll make it taller to try to fit. In my example, I changed the yScale to 120% and then move it down to compensate by changing the yTrans to -0.03. Much much better.

Step 10 -All done

Now we've done all of that, we can do a render of the whole figure, a little like the one below.

So, I hope that I've shown you a way to get clothing to fit the various morphs you might apply to a figure. At least it means that next time you apply a morph, and you get the dreaded 'poke through', you have a method of fixing it rather than having to find another set of clothes.

How to create morphs for conforming clothes with cloth simulator

2011-11-01T17:42:22+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

How to create morphs for conforming clothes with cloth simulator

Author: Fulvio

Tools Needed

* Poser 6

Introduction

Have you ever found a conforming dress that does not conform to your character? Well, here is the solution for one of the most morphed characters: Girl Next Door 2 alias Bernadette by Blackhearted.

Step 1: Load Vicky, GND2 and a cylinder as reference

Load Vicky SAE, turn off the leg's IK ( Figure – > Use Inverse Kinematics – > uncheck all ), 'zero' the figure ( Window – > Joint Editor – > make sure that Vicky is selected – > click on 'Zero Figure' button ). Do not close Joint Editor panel: we will use it later. Do not 'Drop to floor' Vicky! Leave her with the feet underground! Load 'NippleGone' morph, located under '!V3 Chest-Breast INJ'. Set the 'NippleGone' to 1.

Now go to frame 15, load Bernadette ( Poses – > Blackhearted GND2 ). Don't move anything! To make thing easier, you can press the '+' button on the lower right corner, to add a keyframe. Press 'Zero figure' again, because loading Bernadette move the joints. Set the 'NippleGone' morph to 1.

Switch back to frame 1, go to Props, Primitives and load a cylinder. Using the dial 'yTran' move the cylinder to reach the Vicky's abdomen. To avoid the risk of move Vicky, it is better use the dial instead of the arrow to translate the cylinder. Use the scale dial to increase a little the cylinder size: it should be as large as Vicky waist. We can use Ztran also to translate the cylinder to a better fit.

I set the scale dial at 103 %

Step 2: Scale Vicky

Now go to frame 15, where we loaded Bernadette. As we can see, the beautifully sculpted body is thinner than the Vicky's one, so we have to decrease the size of the cylinder. I ended up with 89 %, that means a 14 % smaller than the original size.

Now switch back to frame 1, set the cylinder size at 89 %, then select Vicky body and scale down to 86 % ( 100% - 14% = 86% ); check the interference with the cylinder: it should be more or less the same as before.

Now we can delete the cylinder: we don't need it anymore.

As usual, don't move anything!

Step 3: Load and scale Jartnia Suit

Now select File – > Import – > Wavefront OBJ, locate the folder Jartnia, under Runtime – > Geometries and load 'suit.obj'.

I set the Scale parameter to 88 % to allow a small gap between the suit and the body, moved the suit a little to obtain a good fit then I switched to cloth room and run a couple of simulations. I found that the suit was stretched too much so I changed the parameters for Vicky (Figure 1) and Suit as showed in the images.

Most depends on your taste. Try yourself, after reading this tutorial, which arrangement works better for your liking. We start from a smaller Vicky because the cloth simulator works better 'inflating' the clothes instead of 'shrinking' them ( this may overlap polygons).

Step 4: Cloth Room

Now select the Jartnia suit and switch to cloth room.

Click on New Simulation, leave all the parameter at their default ( we may change the name of the simulation )

Then click on 'Clothify': if we have 'suit' already selected, it will appear on the panel, otherwise we have to select it under 'Props' entry.

Press 'Clothify' button, then click on 'Collide against' and select the body parts as shown in the picture.

Press 'OK' then set the “Cloth Collision Object” parameters as shown in the picture.

As usual, feel free to change Collision Offset and Depth and watch what happens!

Step 5: Edit Constrained and Soft Decorated Group

Click on 'Edit Constrained Group' and select the vertex as showed in the following picture.

This is just an example: it is mostly a 'trial and error' process: you can select or deselect the constrained point, along all the simulation time and run new simulations until you are satisfied with the result. GND2 is heavily morphed so this process could be quite long: with a 'normal' body morph the process is much easier. Just a little trick: if you see the unconstrained points 'pop' out at the second frame of the simulation, this means that the collision depth is set too high: try decrease its value until you notice some 'poke through' in the dress, then increase again a little, to avoid the poke through. This will keep the dress very close to the body. You can, of course, increase a little the size of the suit and leave the Collision depth at the previous value. Pay attention when you select the point to constrain, especially if you drag a window to select them: always check the back of the figure to be sure that none has been selected in the back. To zoom very closer you may want to set the 'hither parameter' of the camera you are using to zero.

Then click on 'Edit Soft Decorated Group', press on 'Add Material', select 'Suit_Edges:

The borders of the suit will turn red; click 'Add Material' again and select 'Suit_Adds':

The straps on the back will turn red.

Suit edges and the straps on the back are separated meshes and they will fall down if we don't 'link' them to the suit mesh. We can close the 'Group Editor' panel and go to Dynamics Controls.

Step 6: Dynamics Controls and simulation

Set the parameter as shown below.

Also in this case, it is a trial and error process, but you will quickly understand how the different parameters affect the simulation behavior.

You can run the simulation and in a few minutes ( depends on your computer power ) you will get the following result.

Remember to save your file early and often!

Step 7: Export and import the morphed suit

Now switch to Pose Room , go to frame 15, where the suit is fully shaped . Go to File, Export, Wavefront OBJ, Export Range: Single frame, uncheck 'Universe' and check only the 'suit'; assign a name ( GND2_Suit_MT.obj for example ), then check only ' Include existing groups in polygon groups' as shown below.

Save your file, then import the previously saved GND2_Suit_MT.obj, uncheck all the option. Now we have another prop in the same location of the suit. We can delete the original suit ( or just hide it, unchecking the 'Visible' flag in the Properties tab ).

Step 8: Create the morph target for the suit

Select the prop GND2_Suit_MT, click on 'Grouping Tool' ( the button with a dashed square with a dot inside ): the hip of the suit should turn red , otherwise select it from the list.

Click on 'Create Prop', name it 'Hip_MT' where MT means Morph Target, for example. A new prop will be created with the same size and location of the suit hip group. Select again GND2_Suit_MT, select 'chest' group and repeat the same process until you have created a prop for every part of the suit. At the end, you should have the following props: Hip_MT, Chest_MT, rCollar_MT, abdomen_MT, rButtock_MT, lCollar_MT, lButtock_MT.

Now go to File, Export, Wavefront OBJ, Single frame, uncheck 'Universe', select only 'Hip_MT', export it 'as Morph Target', name it 'Hip_MT' for example.

Repeat this procedure for all the morph target props. You should end with the following files:

Hip_MT.obj , Chest_MT.obj , rCollar_MT.obj , abdomen_MT.obj , rButtock_MT.obj , lCollar_MT.obj , lButtock_MT.obj.

We can delete ( or hide ) all the props.

Step 9: Apply morph target to Jartnia suit

Go to Figures, and load Jartnia Suit: we are still at frame 15, so the suit will be a little bigger, for the poor Bernadette! Select the suit ( if you didn't delete the props, make sure you select the figure not the prop! ), select Body Parts – > Hip. In the Properties tab, click on 'Load Morph Target', locate the previously saved 'Hip_MT.obj' and load it with 'Hip_MT' name. Then switch to the 'Parameters' tab: we should have the new dial 'Hip_MT': set it to 1.

Repeat the same process for all the part of the Jartnia suit.

Now we can save our Jartnia Suit figure: select it, locate a proper folder in the Figures category, press the '+' button, give it a name, i.e. GND2_Jartnia;

Then conform the suit to Bernadette: we will have to set Hip_MT again to 1.

Step 10: Check the final result

Pose Bernadette: if you notice some 'poke through', you may increase the scale factor of the suit Body to 101 % or a little more, or just scale up the offending parts; you may also use the various morph provided with the suit and don't forget our newly created morph!

You can use the same procedure for the remaining parts of the Jartnia Suit Pack: arms, boots etc. and , of course, for all the 'not too much' conforming dress!

Hope this tutorial was useful.

If you have any question, feel free to contact me at zerbone@supereva.it

Making FBM in conforming clothes with ZBrush 3.1

2011-11-01T17:42:22+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

Making FBM in conforming clothes with ZBrush 3.1

Author: Kattey

Tools Needed

* ZBrush 3.1

* DAZ Studio

* Morph Loader

* Morph To CR2 script by DeltaX15

Introduction

There are a programs which allow the transferring of morphs from the figure to the item but sometimes the results look not good enough and you want some other simple way to do such transferring. ZBrush 3.1 offers a very comfortable way to shape any mesh. The difficulty with conforming clothes lies in fact that the creator of FBM should have a dummy to shape the clothes correctly and it is a bit hard to reach in the ZBrush. In this tutorial I will try to show the way of comfortable way to shape the clothes around the dummy, load it as full body morph and save it into CR2 file.

Step 1 - Preparations

For this example I will try to make a FMB for Aiko's Crystal Mage outfit - wonderful outfit but, sadly, useful only for standard figure.

At first step we will need to prepare our items for using in ZBrush.

Load Aiko (not Aiko LE) and zero the figure by using small black triangle at the right-top corner of Parameters tab - > Zero Figure.

Select the figure and turn the desired FMB to 1 (100%). In this case I used FullFigure morph.

Export the figure with parameters shown at picture below:

You can use any scale (in this case I used Poser one) but you must use this scale all times for import, export and latter morph loading. So, if you use Hexagon scale you must use it in all occasions.

You also must use Weld option at this step.

Save the figure with name like AikoFullFigureDummy.obj

Delete the Aiko figure and Import AikoFullFigureDummy.obj to the scene with parameters shown at the picture. As you can see the import scale is matching the previously used export scale.

You should have a welded empty model of FullFigured Aiko at the scene and nothing more.

Load the cloth piece which will be morphed. In this case I used Left Armor shoulder piece from Crystal Mage outfit. You don't need to match the piece to the dummy, - it should be only at the correct place and that's all.

Export the figures again, but at this time do not weld figures. Use name like AikoFullFigureDummy-Z.obj

This will be a file used in ZBrush.

You will need to repeat this step for every FMB which you wish to make.

Step 2 - ZBrush 3.1 morphing

Now launch ZBrush 3.1 and import your AikoFullFigureDummy-Z.obj into it as a tool (Tool - > Import). Immediately after import press Edit in the top left corner to enter the edit mode.

Resize the Aiko in a way that you will be able to see the whole figure, press Ctrl+Shift and click anywhere at the figure - not at the shoulder piece. You should see the whole figure without shoulder piece. Press Ctrl to switch to the quick masking and draw rectangular over the whole figure, thus masking it all.

Press Ctrl+Shift again and click anywhere at the blank field. The shoulder piece should reappear and be brighter that the figure itself. At this point we masked the figure to use it as a dummy but the mesh is free to morph.

You might briefly switch to the Frame mode (pressing Frame button at the middle-right part of the screen) to see the groups. If your importing is correct the groups in cloth items will be in different colors and the whole Aiko mesh will be the same (dulled due to masking) color.

Now you can sculpt the mesh around dummy using brushes. I'm usually use Move (Tweak) and Nudge brushes to move the mesh in the right direction without distorting it too much.

Step 3 - ZBrush 3.1 Export

After you finished sculpting the mesh around the dummy it is time to clear the dummy and export the mesh as a morphed obj.

Go to the Masking tab (right side of the screen) and click Inverse. Now the shoulder piece should be dulled in color and the Aiko's mesh appears to be brighter.

In the same tab click HidePt - this will hide unselected mesh and the shoulder piece will become bright in color once more.

Now, go to the Geometry tab (just above the Masking tab) and click DelHidden. At the screen nothing will change but the dummy will be deleted and only shoulder piece will remain.

Export the shoulder piece with name like AikoFullFigureDummy-Zp1.obj (I used a bit different one, but you just need to find clearly your imported morphed mesh)

All times I'm using the default import and export parameters in ZBrush. Just for the reference I'm showing them here:

Step 4 - Morph Loading and Saving of CR2

Now you can close ZBrush and open the Studio again.

Load Aiko (not Aiko LE) and load the original shoulder piece. Zero Aiko and conform the shoulder piece to the figure by using “Fit to” option from Parameters tab.

Select the whole shoulder piece and open Morph Loader from Edit menu.

Navigate to your AikoFullFigureDummy-Zp1.obj file and load it. Remember, you should use the same scale which you used in export of meshes in the Step 1.

If you want your morph to be superconforming, i.e. follow the morphs of original figure automatically name the morph exactly as the morph in the original Aiko figure. In this case I named it PBMFullFigure.

Also you need to use option All Groups/Bone Matching in Skeleton to load all morphed parts of shoulder piece at the same time.

If you did everything right you can set FullFigure morph in the Aiko figure to 1 and the shoulder piece will morph itself automatically.

To save the morph in the CR2 of shoulder piece for further use you will need to use a free script called Morph to Cr2 written by DeltaX15 and available at the DAZ Studio Freepozitory

http://forum.daz3D.com/viewtopic.php?t=44893

Select your shoulder piece loaded with morphs, navigate to the Studio/Scripts folder and click on Morph2Cr2 icon.

You will see the screen with list of available morphs at the left side. Using the “Transfer - > ” button move those morphs which you want in your shoulder piece from the left to the right side. For example, here I don't want to move second morph as this is only a test morph.

In the DonorCr2 line navigate to the original CR2 of shoulder piece, press Export and The script will automatically create new CR2 which will hold all needed morphs.

This is all about this technique.

If you want to make more FBM you will need to repeat all steps for all morphs and all item pieces. If you want to make FBM often it might be wise to save welded Aiko's dummies as this will save you some time.

Making Mihai hair work in Firefly

2011-11-01T17:42:22+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

Making Mihai hair work in Firefly

Author: TesseractSpace

Tools Needed

Mihai Hair

Introduction

The Mihai hair by Neftis is a wonderful hair for M3, and a real bargain if you're in the Platinum Club. However trying to render it in Firefly causes a lock up. The reason I've heard for this issue is some kind of grouping problem that Firefly can't handle. With the steps in this tutorial we rework the OBJ file of the hair in a way that allows it to work in firefly.

I highly suggest backing up the original Nef_MihaiHair.OBJ before continuing.

Step 1 - Load the Hair

Start up Poser 5. If you're using Poser 4 or Pro-pack, you don't need this tutorial.

First go to the file menu and choose import - > wavefront OBJ from the menu.

Then navigate to the file we're looking for, which should be in your Poser 5/Runtime/Geometries/Neftis/Hair folder.

After choosing the file Uncheck all the boxes in the import dialog. The object will load in your poser scene. Do not move it! If moved it will save with different coordinates and no longer be set properly on m3's head.

Step 2 - Select object and open group editor

Select the object you loaded. Select the grouping tool.

Click on new group, give your group a name.

Click on the Add Material, choose one of the material groups.

Repeat this step making new groups for all 5 materials. Caphead, 1, 2, 3, and 4.

Step 3 - Spawn props

Once you've made your five groups and assigned a material section to each. (only one per group.) then click Spawn Props.

select the Nef_MihaiHair item from your props in the scene and delete it. You five props from the groups you made should be left behind.

Step 4 - Export the new object

Go to the File Menu and choose Export - > Wavefront OBJ

Make sure the created group items are all that is checked in the hierarchy.

Then save over the original Nef_MihaiHair.OBJ (you did back it up didn't you?)

Now open a new Poser scene and put the Mihai hair on a figure. Render in Firefly and enjoy! (yes the high poly nature of the hair means it'll take a while to render, but it doesn't lock up the render engine anymore.)

Step 5 - Final result

And here's the result, rendered in firefly.

MFD Time Saver

2011-11-01T17:42:22+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

MFD Time Saver

Author: CandeeKis

Tools Needed

Poser 5 or Poser 4

Introduction

These great morphing clothing with the expansion packs for Stephanie Petite and Vicky 3 are fantastic and beautiful. The one drawback is that there are many pieces to the outfit and it takes time to redo all the pieces each time you want to use the dress.

Here is a method that will save you a lot of time and you only need to do this once! This is written for Poser 5 but it would work exactly the same way in Poser 4.

Step 1 - Make Your Folder

Begin by going via Windows Explorer, to you Poser FIGURES folder and create yourself a brand new clean fresh folder to save your work in. Name it whatever you want to name it. Now when you open your Poser Figures library your folder should be there.

Step 2 - Dress Your Model

I have found that the best way to do this and it saves me the maximum amount of time and effort in the long run is to open my figure into Poser. For example in this tutorial I am using Stephanie Petite so I load her up and add any INJ to her that I want. (alternately you can INJ your figure and save it as well so you dont have to go thru the INJ process each time, but it will make it a larger file, and I find that I dont always need ALL of those INJ) I am also using the Stephanie Petite Morphing Fantasy Dress with the Expansion Pack, to apply the “Heaven Sent” dress to Steph Petite. Of course you can do this with your Vicky 3 character and MFD and expansion pack too.

Since each time I want to use this figure and dress I will want to use different skin, makeup, hair etc. I don't add that to the figure at this point.

Now go through the tedious process of adding each piece of the MFD and go ahead and CONFORM it to the Figure with it in the default position.

Open your FIGURES folder and navigate to the folder you made.

Step 3 - Set Your Document Style

Now go to DISPLAY / DOCUMENT STYLE

Step 4 - Choose

Choose TEXTURE SHADED

Step 5 - Render Options

Go to RENDER / OPTIONS and make sure you have your settings like shown below. Of course in Poser 4 you wont have to be concerned with which render style you are going to use.

Step 6 - Render

RENDER your image ~ You will likely have areas of skin showing through but dont concern yourself with that. Those kinds of adjustments and hiding of body parts will apply when you are actually posing your model and is not important for this project.

Step 7 - Add To Library

Now go to your menu in Poser and click on ADD TO LIBRARY by clicking on the plus (+) sign.

Step 8 - Give It A Name

A little window will pop up asking you to give the Set a Name ~ Give it one. Be creative. You can call it whatever you want!

Step 9 - Save As A Group

You'll next be asked if you want to save this as a Group or Individual Figure. Since you have multiple parts to this figure and dress you naturally want to choose WHOLE GROUP

Step 10 - Voila!

Voila!! After Poser chokes and shudders a moment your thumbnail will show up in your library!

Step 11 - Using Your File

Next time you decide you want to make a model using Stephanie Petite (or whatever model you used - and whatever outfit you used) all you need to do is open your Folder…..apply your new figure and there it is!! Now you can apply your skin, makeup, hair etc. Since these files are pretty LARGE in size, and take up a lot of hard drive space, you may want to do a 'render' of your dressed figure, and save it as a pz3 file and re-use it that way - which is a much smaller file than your figure.

This will save you an unbelievable amount of time when you get ready to create. No more loading the figure, injecting it, and loading each clothing item first. You can achieve all of that in a single click!

Happy Rendering!

Mirroring a Model, Olympus Mons Example

2011-11-01T17:42:22+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

Mirroring a Model, Olympus Mons Example

Author: BluesDragon

Tools Needed

DAZ Studio
Olympus Mons from DAZ Studios

Introduction

Thank you for taking the time to view this tutorial.

This tutorial will show you a quick and easy way to create a mirrored model without modifying the model or using a modeler.

This method does not modify the mesh of the model.

I'll use this method to close the back opening on Olympus Mons and expand the complex.

It should work with any other building that has a flat back, or any model you just want a mirror copy of.

This procedure works only with DAZ Studio.

Poser is not supported because you cannot assign a negative number to a model's scale dials.

Step 1 - Load the Model

Load the Olympus Mons !Preload Set from your Props library and zoom out so you can see the whole building complex.

1. Delete the environment prop so you can see the building better if necessary, (Optional)

2. Zoom out so you can see the entire building.

3. Make sure the base object of the set is selected on the scene tab - when you scale it DAZ Studio will scale the parts parented to it as well, maintaining their relative positions.

Step 2 - Flip the model

Above picture is with the environment, below picture is with the environment deleted. I find it easier to delete it in this step rather than later.

Set the Scale dial to -100% (Minus 100).

This simulates symmetry and “Flips” the entire model.

Step 3 - Rotate and put the model back on the "Ground"

With the entire model still selected:

1. Set zrot dial to 180 degrees.

2. Change ytran dial to put the model back on the ground if necessary.

It usually (but now always) puts the mirrored model below ground level, so you will probably have to zoom out and move it “UP” (positive ytran).

You now have a mirror image of the model.

Step 4 - Load the Second Model and position it

Load the Olympus Mons !Preload Prop Set again.

Turn off the display of the environment (orange sky) if you need to see the model better.

Move the two buildings together by using xtran and ztran dials.

You now have a “Double” building with no open back wall.

Step 5 - Repeat the Process (Optional)

Repeat the process, deleting the environment prop each time so you don't have multiple copies of the environment.

Change the xrot and zrot dials to position the “sections” you are creating and you have a “quad” Olympus Mons!

Be sure to turn the environment prop visibility back on if you want to use it.

If the building is too big to fit under the environment prop, simply increase the Scale dial of the environment prop until it is sized properly.

Step 6 - Texture Issues

The only issue is that the texture maps are reversed on the “Flipped” model.

In most cases this shouldn't be a problem but numbers and letters are backwards on the flipped model.

This can be taken care of easily enough in your favorite paint program by opening the texture file, cutting out the selection, pasting it back in and flipping the selection.

Save your new texture map and apply to your model.

Help in your paint program should be able to assist you if you don't know how to do this.

There are many good graphics tutorials here and on the Internet also.

Thank you.

Modeling an Eyeball in Wings3D

2011-11-01T17:42:22+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

Modeling an Eyeball in Wings3D

Author: SnowFox

Tools Needed

Wings3D or other modeling application

Support Files

support_eye.zip

Introduction

When I look at a 3D character, I'm always drawn to the eyes first. The eyes are very important, but modeling them can be a bit confusing if you're new to modeling. First of all, let me diagram the basic construction of a model eye. Some people make the pupil as a separate object, but I like to paint it as part of the iris so I can create any pupil shape that I want without altering the geometry. With this method, the eye consists of three parts: the eye white, the iris (colored part), and the cornea (clear part). Alright, now let's make the eye:

Step 1 - Start

Start with a sphere, and turn it on its side. (Rotate > Z, press tab, type 90). Smooth it once or twice, we need quite a few polygons to get a good eye. The reason you rotate it is because the sphere has different shaped polys on the top and bottom, and they're much easier to make eye shapes with than the quadrangles on the sides.

Step 2 - Pointy things

See those pointy vertices? They make a strange pointy surface on objects that really gets on my nerves. Thankfully they're easy to fix. Select every other one (the inside ones) and Scale > Uniform until they match up with the other ones. Now the eye will be a little smoother.

Step 3 - Make the iris

Eyes are best textured with a UV map, and I find it easiest to UV map by materials asigned to the object itself, so select the faces where you want the iris (color) to be. Create a new material and name it something you'll remember. Make it any color, it doesn't show up on the UV map so make it whatever you want.

Step 4 - Make the cornea

Select the edge loop around the iris, and loop cut. This is to make the cornea. Duplicate the new object, but DO NOT move it. Just left click. Go to face mode and asign a material to the cornea. Then Select > Hide Selected to hide the cornea, we're done with it for now. Select the iris and the eyeball, and Weld. We don't want them to be separate objects, and Weld will put them back together. (Combine doesn't do the same thing, don't forget!)

Step 5 - Fun with magnets

Now we're going to use a magnet. Don't worry if you've never used a magnet before, this one's easy. Select the vertex at the very center of the iris. Hold Alt and click Move > X. When asked to select an outer boundry point, select one on the edge of the colored area (it doesn't matter which one)

Step 6 - Finish the iris

Right click when you've selected the boundry, and move the iris in a little bit. On real eyeballs, the iris is slightly concave, and making them this way in 3D makes them more real, and catch the light better.

Step 7 - The End

That's it for the modeling part! Now it's ready to be textured! This tutorial doesn't cover that, but I may write a tut for that in the future.

Modeling clothes in Hexagon 2 Lesson Two

2011-11-01T17:42:22+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

Modeling clothes in Hexagon 2 Lesson Two

Author: Locke21

Tools Needed

Hexagon 2

Introduction

Ok, this is the second half of this tutorial. In this one we'll create armholes for the figure and I'll give you a quick example of how to use Hex's mapping tools to create a custom map for your final figure!

Step 1 - One

Ok, right now your model should look something like this. I've made it purple to make things easier to see. In order for this to look like a nice sleeveless T-shirt, we have to punch arm holes. To do this, we are going to use one of the tools in the Line menu, Insert Points.

Step 2 - Two

Alright, there is a lot of visualization in this step. Where exactly do you want your armholes to go? Just sit there and look at your model for a moment. Here is where mine are going. I'm going to insert points along the horizontal lines along these two paths, all the way around, not just the front!

Step 3 - Three

Now, to use the Insert Points tool, simply click it and then insert points on any line, in any position that you want to. It's very simple! Now just use the tool to draw your armholes.

Step 4 - Four

Now use the Face selection, and select every poly inside your lines, just like in the picture. Then delete them and use the edge finishing technique I should you in the last tut to finish them off. Because these edges are on both the Y and Z axis, it will take a bit of pushing and pulling of individual lines to get everything positioned just right. When you're all done, just smooth the shirt a couple of times and your done!!! Ok, I know it's not an award-winning model, but we're learning tool and techniques here. Skill is something you'll have to develop on your own. Ok, now for one of the best parts!

Step 5 - Five

In order to apply a texture to your shirt, you need to map it, that is to say, apply UV coordinates to it. Hex 2 has a sweet improvement over the old Gizmos. It's called Unfold. With this you can create bearskin-style UV maps! Ok, export your model as a separate obj. Never save over your old one, you may want to fix something later! Then open it up and take a look at it. In order to make this as easy as possible we'll cut this up into Two pieces, but in such a way as to have both the front in one big piece so you can put logos and stuff on. Ok, in order for Hex's unfold tool to unfold something, you have to tell it where. In other words, you have to show it where the seams are. In this case, we want the seams to run up under the arms and on both sides of the neck. So using the Line selection tool, select those lines that you want to become the seams.

Step 6 - Six

Now we have to tell Hex to use these seams and unfold our shirt. Go into the UV and Paint tab and choose the little head icon. This is the unfold tool. Hex will split the view screen into two different panes. The left one is your model, the right one the UV map it has. Over in right hand tool column, you'll see the little head again. Click this to unfold the model along the lines that you've specified. And viola', you have your model unfolded!

Step 7 - Seven

Alright! You've got your model unfolded…but it looks a bit messy. We can fix that! Just click Validate to accept the map, then you will be able to manipulate both pieces of the map until you have them arranged to your liking in the right-hand pane. You can manipulate individual points, whole loops or one facet at a time till you've got what you want, stretching the map to suit your needs. I've just made mine a bit neater. Now just save the model.

Step 8 - Eight

Ok, that's it! You can now import the model into a program like UV Mapper and your custom map will appear. You can then save your texture map and get to work! I know this shirt looks pretty weak; ideally at least a good week should be spent on making a piece of clothing. But for the purposes of this tut, it worked just fine. You should know I've only shown you a tiny bit of what Hex is capable of. For example, in Unfold, there are ways of making your model's map one big piece. Called “bearskins” they make use of not only of seams but things called Pins. Think of them as helping you “pin” your model's creases and corners in place while you unfold it along the seams. Think of the templates of V3 are laid out flat.

Now, get out there and start modeling!

Modeling in Wing3D II

2011-11-01T17:42:22+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

Modeling in Wing3D II

Author: Locke21

Tools Needed

Wings3D

Introduction

Welcome back. This is the second in my modeling with Wings3D tutorial set for beginners. We've already created a crude candle stick in Modeling in Wings 3D for Beginners I, and now we are going to add some embelishments

Step 1 - Step One

If you've followed along, then you have the object pictured here. While this is a perfectly usable candlestick, it is kinda plain. As promised, I'm going to show you how to dress it up with some jewels. Along the way we'll learn about naming materials and groups, which is very important when we get to UV Mapping.

Step 2 - Step Two

Ok, first off we need the object that I told you save the last time. Just go to File/Import/Wavefront OBJ and import the candlestick obj file. Ok, now that we have it back, its time to get to work embellishing it. Lets not go overboard, but just add some nice jewels to the base. First of all, lets go ahead and give our candlestick a name, not the one you saved it under, but a group name that your favorite UV mapping utility can make use of. Go to the “Body” selection pyramid and then select the candlestick. Now go to Select/New Group. Now give the candlestick a group name. Don't worry WHY we're giving it a name, that'll become clear in the next tutorial. Lets just say that we want the candlestick to be very distinctive. Lets give it the name “CStickBase”, but without the “”.

Step 3 - Step Three

Ok, now that our CandleStick has a name, its time to create some nice jewels for it. I'm not going to get really fancy, just some nice cachobons for the base. First we need the candlestick out of the way, “Body” select it, Right-Click, Move, Y and move it up or down out of the main work area. Now, we are going to make the caochabons. To do this hit space to make sure that nothing is selected, Right-Click and bring up the Shape menu. Then choose Sphere.

This will be the base for our jewels, after a bit of tweaking. Oh boy, the fun part! The first thing we need to do is get rid of ALMOST all of the sphere. We don't want the whole thing, that would take up too much room. The best way I've found to get a clean cut is to select all the bottom faces, then hit “+” until everything I want deleted is red. Then hit “Delete” and just like that, everything we don't want is gone.

Step 4 - Step Four

Now that we have the base for our jewel, we need to tweak it a bit, after all, it doesn't look very good the way it is right now. First “Body” select it, and then go to “Face” select, and deselect the flat bottom face, then hit “S” to smooth it out just a bit. If you don't deselect the flat face, the rim of our jewel would have distorted, resulting in a weird look. Then we need to create that signature oval look that most cachabons have.

It helps if you maneuver the camera directly above the jewel for this next part. “Body” select the jewel and then Right-Click/ Scale Radius/ Radius X, and then move the mouse just a bit. And just like that, we have a jewel!

Step 5 - Step Five

Now that we have one jewel, we can have as many as we want. Yep, time to learn a new command. First hit “R” to reset the view to default so we can see everything, then Right-Click and choose Scale Uniform and resize the jewel to a smaller size that will fit on our candlestick. You will have to move the candlestick down to do this, but don't forget to move it back up out of the way.

Then, with the jewel still selected and Wings3D still in “Body” select mode, Right-Click and you'll see a command on the menu called “Duplicate”. Click that, select X, and then move the mouse. Bingo! A new jewel without having to go through the trouble of making a new one!

Step 6 - Step Six

Now that we know how to do it, create two more jewels. Then we need to create a new group. First select ONE jewel, and then follow the steps above to create a JEWEL group. Then deselect the jewel and select the other three and go Select/Add to Group/Body: Jewel. Now each of the jewels belong to a group of their own. Like the candlestick they are distinct entities. Also, if your like me, you sometimes have a bit of trouble picking out the different parts since they're all grey. No problem, just select all the jewels, go to “Face” select, Right-Click and go Materials/_hole_ and then your jewels will be painted a different color, easy to see and distingush from your candlestick.

Now there are only a few more things left to do. First pull your candlestick back down and use the “Move” and “Rotate” commands to place your jewels however you want them. I'm just placing mine around the base, but you can put them anywhere you want. Remember, you'll have to sink the jewels into the stick slightly or it won't look right.

Step 7 - Step Seven

Ok! We're almost there! Now, before we can use the candlestick in Poser or Studio, it has to be UV Mapped. While you can do this in UV Mapper, you can also do it in Wings3D, and have a bit more control! Now, “Body” select the Candlestick, Right-Click and choose “UV Mapping.” Up pops a little window with your Candlestick. This window has its own separate “Mouse” menus. We're just going to do a quick UV Map, so first full-select your candlestick by left clicking and pulling the box around it, then right-click and choose “Segement by”“Projection” and then Right-Click again, and choose “Continue”“Projection. If you just got lost, don't worry. Just follow the yellow arrows in my picture.

What you end up with is a UV Map of your CandleStick like the one below. But what about the jewels? Don't worry, just do the same for each jewel.

Step 8 - Step Eight

Ok, last part! Now that we have everything mapped, we need to make the jewels a part of the Candlestick. To do this, select them AND the candlestick and choose “Combine”. Now everything is combined into one object!

Now, export the object like in the first tutorial, and in the next one, Modeling in Wings 3D for Beginners III, I'll show you why grouping was so important for our texture work, and we'll start to explore how we can use “Extrude” and other Face commands to creates some cool stuff.

Modeling in Wings3D for Beginners III

2011-11-01T17:42:22+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

Modeling in Wings3D for Beginners III

Author: Locke21

Tools Needed

Wings3D
UV Mapping program

Introduction

Ok, if you've been following along so far, then you have a candlestick that we have created from scratch. Its OK, having some nice jewels, but before we get into the importance of groups and UV Mapping, lets do one more thing to it.

Step 1 - Step One

Like most people, when I first came to the DAZ site, I went to the freebies section. There one of the first things I downloaded was the Dragon Claw Candles package. What I really like about the Dragon Claw candlestick is the wax shield that protects the 3D character from splashing wax. Let's give our candlestick something similar. Not claws precisely, but something a bit more medieval. Ok, the first thing we'll need is a disk. To get this we need to bring up a cylinder with the same number of segments (20) as our candlestick.

Then use the “Scale Axis”/“Y” commands to make it into a thin disk.

Step 2 - Step Two

Ok, that's the right thickness, but WAY too big around. So, go into the “Scale” command and use the “Scale Radial”/“Y” command. This will cause the disk to shrink in diameter, but not height or width. Now, the size we want is the same size as the candle cup, so go ahead and “Move”/“Y” the disk up to the very bottom of the cup and “Scale” it to fit.

For arguments sake, we don't want it EXACTLY the same size, just a hair larger so we can still see it and manipulate it.

Step 3 - Step Three

Now, I want you to deselect the disk, and then go around and select JUST the outer faces. Its time for you to learn how to make your obj's “grow” new parts. Once you have all the faces selected, I want you to use the “Extrude Region” command and grow the disk out until you feel comfortable with its size. Take a look at my picture for a basis on what we're going for. Well, that would protect a character's hand but…BORING!

Lets give it a better “feel”. While the outer faces are still selected, use the “Move”/“Y” command. You will move the outer face up along the Y axis, along with the sections attached to them, but not the original disk! Just try to get it even with the cup lip like in my picture.

Step 4 - Step Four

Now for some fun stuff. I promised in the last tutorial to show you some more about the “Extrude” command, well here we go. I want you to go around the lip of the shield and select every other face. You should end up with something like this.

Now that you have all the faces selected, I want you to use the “Extrude”/“Normal” command and grow the faces out. Try to get them about 1/3 their length, check the picture for what I mean.

Step 5 - Step Five

Now, I want you to deselect everything, and then select just the tops of the newly extruded blocks.

Then just go “Extrude”/“Normal” until you get a result similar to mine.

Step 6 - Step Six

Now for some more fun. While you still have the top of each newly extruded block selected, I want you to use the “Scale”/“Uniform” command and scale the top of the blocks to something close to the picture.

Then tap the “+” key once, hit “S”, then “+” until the entire shield is selected, then “S” again. Check out what you get. A nice looking, almost medieval addition to your candlestick! Almost done now!

Step 7 - Step Seven

Ok, like I taught you last time, I want you to give the shield a group name, and then “Body” select it and use Wings3D to UV Map it. But there are some more tricks I'd like to teach you. One is to create an entirly new Material name, just for the Sheild. And have you every noticed that when you import some stuff into Poser or Studio, it has a name like cube-1? Well I'm going to show you how to fix that.

First, to give the shield it's own material name, first “Body” select it, then switch to “Face” mode. Right-click and under the “Materials” heading, you'll see the “New” option. Give it a name, and then you get to play around with giving it a color. I'd make good use of this if I were you. It will enable you to see exactly what goes where at any time. If you want, you can do the same for the Candlestick.

Now to give everything a real name, instead of the cube and sphere code we sometimes see. I know we've been talking about groups and materials, but in order for anything to have a real name we have to give it one. And its real simple, just “Body” select something, switch to “Face” select, and then right-click and choose rename. Now each piece will have a real, discriptive name instead of cube, cylinder, or sphere.

Step 8 - Step Eight

Now would be a great time to save. Just select both the shield and stick and under “File” choose “Export selected” and then “Waveform obj”. Although the shield and stick are two different models, because they've been exported as one object, they'll move and act as one. Ok, that's it! Now I'll show you why it was so important for us to use groups instead of just growing different parts off of one base object.

Like many people, I use an UV Mapping program to make my own templates. I use one called LithUnwrap, but each program should have similar features. Open up the model in your favorite mapping program and lets get started!

Step 9 - Step Nine

Ok, when you first open your model, its going to look like a confusing mess of lines like this.

How are we ever going to be able to texture THAT?! Well, this is where the groups come in. By use the Group select mode in your mapping program, ONLY that group will show up! That way, you have individual templates for each section of your obj! Just watch, from that mess of lines, I choose the shield group and get this.

Now I can texture the shield easily. And by changing the group I want, I can create a template for every piece of the candlestick! Well that's all for now. In the next installment, Modeling in Wings 3D IV, I'm going to show you how to use the “Inset” and “Bridge” commands. These are really useful for cutting holes through objects and making stuff like gold rings. I'm also going to show you how to import and scale your creations so that they match up with your 3D characters.

Modeling in Wings3D V

2011-11-01T17:42:22+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

Modeling in Wings3D V

Author: Locke21

Tools Needed

Wings3D

Introduction

Ok guys, after a lot of play and practice, I'm sure that by now you've become a great deal more confident with Wings3D. That's why I think this will be the last tutorial for this subject. After I show you the commands I have in store, it will really become a matter of honing your skills and exploring Wings3D, not me teaching you more stuff. I just want to warn you, I'm just going to use some commands without a whole lot of explanation, so if you're confused, you can PM me or email me at Locke2121@yahoo.com. Ok, today we are going to learn some of the most important commands you'll ever need. They will be the use of Magnets, Bridge, Inset, Weld, Put On and Combine. We will also learn some new tricks for old commands like Move. We are going to create a simple jet engine and turbo prop. The turbo prop is duplicated from a tutorial over at Renderosity, but the author starts with the premise that you already know the commands. I'm going to explain them to you. Ok, here we go.

Step 1 - Step One

Every engine needs a case to go it. It is a smooth ovoid, with one end bigger than the other. To get something like this, we could use a cylinder, but that would involve a lot of extruding and scaling. Instead we will use a cube, and in the process learn both two new commands and a new use for the “Move” command. Ok, first of all, bring up a cube.

In order to get an engine, it has to be hollow. This can be done by building a bunch of blocks around a hollow core and welding them all together, but WHY!? It's much simpler to use both the “Inset” and “Bridge” commands! First, select two faces that are on opposite sides of the block.

Step 2 -

Now that you've got the sides selected, right click and choose “Inset”. What this will do is move the edges of the face in and out, relative to the original edges….just move the mouse and watch.

Because we selected two faces, the same thing has happened on both of them. So what we have are new faces, exactly the same size, on opposite sides of the cube. Now we can easily hollow out the cube by using our next new command. Right-click and choose “Bridge”, this command takes two opposing faces and connects, or bridges their edges.

And since it works with the edges, the faces themselves vanish, leaving us with a hole.

Step 3 - Step Three

Ok, we've got our hollow block, now to turn it into a nice ovoid for our jet engine. Go into “Edge” mode by clicking the pyramid at the top. Now instead of selecting faces, we select edges. I want you to select the inner edges of one side of the block and use the “Move”/“X” command. This is going to move the edges out. But since they are connected to a larger object, it will stretch! Just try it and see.

Now do it for the other side. Remember; only choose the inner edges of the hollow, not all of them. Keep going until you have what I do.

Step 4 - Step Four

See how one side is longer than the other? I want you to re-select just those edges and use the “Scale Uniform” command and shrink them to about half the size they are now.

Then “Body” select the whole thing and hit “S” about three times to smooth everything over. Well, there is the jet body!

Now for the blades and some of the most important commands and techniques you'll ever need!

Step 5 -

First, get the body out of the way, and then bring up a cylinder. You can have as many faces as you want, just remember it has to be an even number, and half of those faces will be the number of blades we'll have. Just to speed things up I'm going to do 20 faces.

Ok, first select the bottom and top, and then “Extrude”/“Normal” them slightly. Then I want you to select one of the inner long faces and “Extrude”/“Normal” it. Not too far, just about a quarter of its length.

Step 6 - Step Six

Ok, have you ever gotten tired of doing the same thing over and over again? Like extruding a piece so far, then doing it again and again? Well there is an easier way, just hit “Shift+D”. I want you to do this about eight times until you get what I have.

Now comes the fun! Time for use to learn about Magnets! Just like in a lot of 3D programs, Magnets are used to deform and warp objects. Here we are going to create the curved surface of the blades. I want you to hit “Space” to make sure everything is de-selected, and then select just the end face of our blade.

Step 7 - Step Seven

Ok, to activate the magnets, I want you to right-click and choose “Rotate”, BUT, with the RIGHT MOUSE BUTTON instead of the left. Now nothing seems to happen, but you have entered “Magnet Mode”. Now select the face again, AH! Check it out!

That little arrow is telling us that the face is now under the power of a magnet! Of course we still have to tell it the limits of the effect or it will only work on that face. So, to tell it we want to affect the entire blade, “Alt+Right-Click” and the “Vertices” mode will pop up. Now select one of the vertices at the end of the blade and it will turn blue, then Right-click again and twist the blade 90' in either direction. Cool huh?

Step 8 - Step Eight

Ok, that's one blade…oh man, we don't have to do this nine more times do we? Nope, we already have a blade, so let's just use it! Now there is a way to use a blade over and over again, but I prefer the “Duplicate” method like we used with the Candlestick jewels. I find it less messy. But first, we have to get the blade off the hub! To do that, we have to go back into “Edge” mode. Do that and select all the edges where the blade meets the hub,

then I want you to Right-click and choose “Loop cut”. What this does is follow around the edges you've selected and cut away what's on one side from what's on the other. The result is that we now have both a hub and a blade.

Step 9 - Step Nine

Now, using the techniques I taught you, I want you to “Duplicate” the blade nine times. This will give us the required number of blades to create our turbo prop.

Now to answer a question that a lot of you may have had. “How the heck do I put two flat faces together??” Well it's really simple, if you've spent a lot of time trying to figure it out. You “Put” one face “On” the other! Ok, it's really simple to use the “Put On” command, but most people wouldn't naturally figure it out because you have to use both mouse buttons with the command in just the right order. First select the end of one of our blades with the left mouse button. Then right-click, choose “Put On”, select the face you want it on, the right-click again. It will jump right to where you want it!

Now just do that for every blade, skipping every other face on the hub. BUT, and this is important, after every “Put On” you perform, remember to deselect everything or it won't work!

Step 10 - Step Ten

Ok, now you have an important decision to make. You have to make the blades a part of the hub, but how are you going to do it? There are two ways, each one doing it differently. One way is the “Combine” command. Think of this as screwing two pieces of metal together. They are still separate objects, just attached to one another. If you smooth them out, they will smooth separate from one another. This is useful for making things like aircrafts canopies, so one piece can be made to pivot away from the other. But since our turbo prop should be streamlined, we will use the “Weld” command, which will do exactly what it sounds like. Take two pieces and weld them together into one piece. This command will be used most often when building models with a lot of features that don't have to move independently of one another. But there is a rule for welding; both pieces have to have the same number of faces to weld together. Either one you use, they work the same way, select everything in “Body” mode and then right-click and choose one.

As I said, we will be using the “Weld” command. Everything will convert to “Vertices” mode and show you in red where everything has been welded together. Well, that's it…wait we forgot the nose cone! Oh boy, a new magnet deform!

Step 11 - Step Eleven

I want you to bring up a sphere. It really doesn't matter what size, we'll scale it later, BUT it has to have the same number of sections that the cylinder had for the welding process. Now, move it up away from the turbo prop and go into vertices mode. We are going to use magnets to give it that classic cone shape. What? Why not use a cone? Because its not precisely a cone, its more like a bullet.

Ok, now choose the top vertices and RIGHT-CLICK “Move”. This will start up the “Magnet Mode” again, only this time we're working in vertices, not faces. Choose the top vert again and there will be the blue arrow.

Then “Alt+right-click” and then choose a vert just below the equator and it'll turn blue. You've just told the magnet to only affect the area between the two verts! Right-click again and pull the sphere out to the size you want.

Step 12 - Step Twelve

Ok, last step. We can just pull the sphere down and attach it to the prop, but that's a bit messy. So select everything below the equator and delete it, then use the “Put On” and “Weld” commands to attach it to the hub and make it a part of the prop. All that's left now is a bit of manipulation, smoothing and scaling to set it inside the engine cowling, some UV Mapping, and I would use the “Combine” command and use different groups and materials so you could be able to affect each part in Poser or Studio. I hope you've enjoyed this Wings3D series. From now on, you have the knowledge necessary to explore the rest of Wings3D's commands and its true potential. Have fun modeling, and if you'd like you can have these tutorials for your own sites, just give me a bit of credit. This reminds me, if you want to study pauljs75's tut on making a turbo prop, you can find it in the Tutorial section of Renderosity. We both do things a bit different, especially when it comes to spawning new blades.

Good Modeling!!

Modeling in Wings3D IV

2011-11-01T17:42:22+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

Modeling in Wings3D IV

Author: Locke21

Tools Needed

Wings3D
Poser

Introduction

Ok, up until now my main purpose was to let you learn a few commands while you became used to manipulating basic objects in Wings3D. Before we move on, I'm going to finish up our candle stick adventure by showing you how to import and scale it for use in Poser. I'm using Poser Artist, but this should be the same for every version.

Step 1 - Step One

The first thing you should do is open Poser. Then, under the “File” menu, you will see “Import”/“Wavefront OBJ”.

Click that, and navigate to where you have saved your candlestick. Then you'll see the import screen. Most of the time you won't need to worry about all that mess, just click “Centered”/“Place on floor” and leave “Percent of size” at 100%. Then click OK and you'll see our candlestick. Kinda big huh? Well thats not a problem.

Step 2 - Step Two

Now, if we are going to have a 3D character use this candlestick, it has to be sized to the proper dimensions. We can't do that unless we have a character to scale it against. So, open up your figures menu and choose someone. I'm going to use Aiko.

Don't worry, we're going to fix this.

The first thing you need to do is to move the candlestick out of the way, just select it and use the Y-Trans command in the parameters menu. Then choose one of your character's hands and transform it into whats in the picture, see how I've moved the fingers close together?

Step 3 - Step Three

Ok, now reset your camera and move the candlestick down until its fairly centered on the hand.

It doesn't have to be perfect, just your best guess. Now, I want you to make sure the candlestick is selected, and in the right-hand pane, use the “Scale” command to resize the candlestick to the best match you can get. While your doing that, make full use of the X, Y, Z-Trans dials to keep the candlestick centered on the character's hand. I ended up with a scale of 20%, but it really depends on the character. Just check out my picture for a hint.

Step 4 - Step Four

Alright, while we are here, we might as well go all the way and make this a smart prop. That is to say, a prop that “knows” where it is supposed to go in a scene. This one will be “parented” to Aiko's right hand. Here is how we do it. First manuver the candlestick around until it can be firmly grasped by the character's hand.

Then, if you've made one, I want you to apply whatever texture you've created to the candlestick. I'm sorry to say that I haven't done it yet, so I'm going to use the materials manager to change its color. When your done with all that, I want you to go up to the menu bar and choose “Object”/“Change Parent”. A box with a chart of the character's different parts will come up. Select the hand that the character is using.

DO NOT click “Inherent bends of parent”, that can cause strange things to happen, just click Ok. What you've just done is tell the prop where it is supposed to go each time it opens, and what texture it's supposed to wear. But before it'll do it, there is one more thing that has to be done.

Step 5 - Step Five

In order for the prop to work right, we have to add it to the Poser Prop menu. We've told it what texture to wear and what parent it should go to. But if we don't save it as a prop in Poser, all that information will vanish. So, with the candlestick selected, open the Prop menu and go to the folder you want. I'm just going to use the standard Prop Types folder. See that little “+” sign at the bottom?

Well, click it to add the prop to your Props menu. A little message will come up asking what name you would like, and then one comes up ask you if you want to keep the prop's parent. Click yes. Now you can see that Poser has added the Candlestick to your props menu!

Step 6 - Step Six

Well thats it! Now instead of importing and resizing your model everytime you need it, you have it stored in your Props menu, texture, parent and all. Just click it and it'll pop up in place. Well, thats enough for now, I never realized how many steps there were to doing this! But next time I'm going to show you some really cool commands, and in the process, we are going to take everything up a notch and create the object below…a jet engine! While this will be a somewhat simplified jet engine, the commands you will learn are priceless!

Morph Targets for Poser with Cinema 4d

2011-11-01T17:42:23+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

Morph Targets for Poser with Cinema 4d

Author: shanna

Tools Needed

Poser
Cinema 4d.

Introduction

If you are new to making morph targets, here is a very simple walkthrough for making a simple mt for a set of horns for the DAZ toonimal lamb.

As this is not the ideal way to create a set of horns for the lamb (his mesh doesn't really have enough points), there will be a second part of this tutorial to create a smart propped pair of horns, which will build on the techniques used in this first part.

You need to be able to create morphs for the bumps on his head the horns will sit on.

This method will work with any Poser figure.

With practice you will be able to create any morph you want providing the models mesh is dense enough.

I am using C4d r8.5 for this tutorial, but it will work with any version of C4d.

Step 1 - In Poser

Load the lamb into Poser. Don't move it. The lamb loads in a zeroed position.

If you are using a different model, make sure it is completely zeroed before exporting but do not pose it in any way.

Select the 3D studio export option.

Do NOT export as an obj. This will cause the vertices to become rearranged when imported to Cinema and the resulting morph will not work when you take it back to Poser - you will just get a crumpled mess.

Remember to uncheck the universe and only export the figure. I tend to export the entire figure but you only need to export the body part you intend to create a morph for. In the case of the lamb, if you do not export the entire figure I recommend you export his ears as well as his head, that way you won't try to make a morph target that is using points that are under his ears. They would look very strange when applied.

When asked if you want to export with groups select yes.

Save in a location you will find easily with a name you will recognise and you are done with Poser for now.

I have a folder in C4d called exported Poser stuff which is where I keep this kind of thing and I will create a folder called toonimal lamb, then name the exported figure 'toonimal lamb unscaled.3Ds“

Step 2 - Getting ready to make your morph

Open C4d and import or merge the exported 3Ds lamb.

Do not move the lamb even though he is so small you can't see him, we will fix that first.

It is very important that you do not move the figure. If you do, when you apply the mt in Poser, it will apply it to the moved position and you will find the body part shooting off to wherever you have moved the model to.

Only move the points to make your morph.

It is a good idea to save your c4d project as soon as you've loaded the lamb.

That way, if you make a mess of moving points around, you can revert to your unchanged lamb and start again.

He will also come in handy later to make sure you have not accidentally moved your morphed model. I'll save him as 'unscaled lamb.c4d'.

You will find your poser figure is so tiny it is almost impossible to work on as well as hard to see, so you need to make it bigger.

First, group all your imported body parts together.

In the object manager window, go to edit > select all the body parts, then go to objects > group objects.

Your group is now called null object. You can rename this if you wish.

Make sure the model tool is selected and scale the group up by 1000.

If you select Frame Active object from the viewport edit tab, you will find your lamb is clearly centered in the viewport. If you want to centre this on one body part, select the body part and choose Frame Active object.

Remember, always move the camera, not the object.

Now your tiny poser figure is suddenly easy to work with.

If you plan to make quite a few morphs for the same figure, now is a good time to save your figure. I will save with the name 'toonimalLamb scaled 1000.c4d', so I don't get confused later. Simply by looking at the file name I will know how much it needs scaling down to export for Poser.

Step 3 - Make your Morph Target.

Make your morph by moving points from their original positions to their new locations so that you have your desired shape. I've chosen to make a very basic horn morph for this tutorial and I'm working with points.

First I have opened up the group containing all of the lambs body parts and selected the head.

Then I have simply selected a small group of points and moved them upwards and backwards for simplicities sake in this little tutorial. This mt took about one minute to make.

Do not move the figure or the body parts. Only move the necessary points to create your new morph target. Do not add or remove any points or the morph target won't work.

To make your selection of points, use the live selection tool (from the drop down tool box at the top of the screen) and select some.

To add points to this selection hold down the shift key and move the live selection tool over the points you wish to add.

To remove points from the selection, hold down the ctrl key and move the selection tool over the points you wish to remove.

Selected points will be red.

If you wish, you can set a selection tag by scrolling to the set selection option in the drop down selection box at the top of the screen.

This means you can easily reselect just this group of points at any time - very useful for making more complicated morphs.

To move, scale them or rotate your selected points, just click on the appropriate icon at the top of the screen.

It is a good idea to make sure you have the 'select only visible elements' box ticked so that you do not accidentally select some points on the back of the lambs head.

Step 4 - Getting Ready to go back into Poser.

When you are happy with what you have done, making sure you have the model tool selected once more scale the group back down by .001 and it will be the correct size for Poser. It is a good idea to save your project before scaling it down in this case I am saving it with the name lamb with horn morph scale 1000. Don't overwrite your original file or you will have to go through the whole process again to make another morph for that figure.

That way, if you decide you want to tweak the morph later, you can go back to this point and not have to start again.

If you have set a selection tag for the moved points you will easily be able to adjust those specific points by selecting them via the tag.

If you are unsure you have scaled it down correctly, import the original unscaled lamb and it should load exactly where your newly morphed lamb is. If it loads anywhere else, you have moved the figure and your mt won't work properly in Poser.

Now delete any body parts you don't need if you have imported the whole figure. In this case I delete all of the body parts except the head as that is the part I have just made a morph for. The easiest way to do this is to pull the morphed body part out of the group then just delete the group.

Step 5 - Exporting your new morph Target.

Export your morphed body part as an obj and save in a place you will easily find with a name that makes sense to you. I'm calling this morph Little horns and I'm saving it in a folder called mts for toonimal sheep.

Strictly speaking, it really doesn't matter what you call it, as you can name it anything you want in Poser, but it is a good idea to always name things clearly so that if you need them again you will know what they are.

Make sure the only thing you export is the body part you are applying the morph to.

We're now finished with C4d.

Step 6 - Applying your morph target in Poser

Open Poser, load the toonimal lamb in his zeroed position and select the head.

Under properties, click on the add morph target and browse to your morphed head obj that you have just exported from C4d.

Choose a name for your new morph target – I'm calling this mt little horns - or it will end up called shape 1.

Once you have applied your morph target, you will find you have a new dial in the lambs head called (in this case) little horns.

Twist the dial and your morph target will be applied. If your morph target or the entire head moves off somewhere unexpected when you do this, you have moved the figure in C4d or had moved the figure before exporting it.

You will have to start all over again.

It is a good idea to also check at this stage how your morph target looks when you apply other mts already in the figure, so mess around and see how it looks.

If you are happy with your morph target, save the lamb back to your figures library with a different name so that you don't overwrite the original and you're done.

You can overwrite the original file if you wish to, I prefer not to.

Don't forget to turn the morph dials back to zero before saving or your figure will load with the mts applied every time.

If you are not happy with your morph target, don't save the figure to the library and it will be gone along with its new dial next time you load the figure.

Just go back to your saved lamb in C4d and start again remembering to apply your new morph target to a new lamb when you take it back into Poser so you don't end up saving with the unwanted mts.

I would suggest you delete morph targets that are no good in order to save confusion later on.

Step 7 - Finishing up

Now, when you load your new lamb from your figures library, he will have your new morph target ready for you to use whenever you want.

To create and add more mts, just go through the above steps again.

If you have saved your Cinema 4d files, you can start from the end of step 2 using your 'toonimalLamb scaled 1000.c4d' ready to just get straight to work on your new morph target.

Once the morph target is applied to your figure and saved into your library, you no longer need the morph target obj file, but it is best to save it somewhere as if you need to reinstall, or lose your poser files for some reason the original lamb will not have them.

I save mts in the same folder as the original figures installation files in a folder named 'mts for (whoever they are for)' so I always know what they are and who they are for.

Hopefully, this tutorial will give you the information you need to start creating your own morph targets - don't forget that the more you practice, the better you will get.

In the second part, we will mix morph targets and smart props to create a much better looking set of horns.

Morphing Vase

2011-11-01T17:42:23+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

Morphing Vase

Author: karanta

Tools Needed

Cinema
Riptide Plug-in
Poser

Introduction

For following this tutorial you need the free Riptide plug-in from: SkinProps The Tutorial was made with Cinema 9.5 and Poser 6, but it should be possible to follow the tutorial also with earlier Poser and Cinema versions.

Step 1 - Start

Step 2 - Continue

Step 3 - Continue

Step 4 - Continue

Step 5 - Continue

Step 6 - Continue

Step 7 - Continue

Step 8 - Continue

Step 9 - Continue

Step 10 - Continue

Step 11 - Continue

Step 12 - Continue

Step 13 - Continue

Step 14 - Finish

Morphs for DAZ Studio from ZBrush 2

2011-11-01T17:42:23+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

Morphs for DAZ Studio from ZBrush 2

Author: purple_mug

Tools Needed

* DAZ Studio

* ZBrush 2

* Morphing Python from DAZ Free Model Archive

Introduction

This tutorial will lead you through simple ZBrush procedures to transform the DAZ python into an eel-like denizen of the deep but the same principles and methods apply to all DAZ Studio models, so if you want to make Victoria an alien or turn Michael into a frog here's all you need to know.

Step 1 - Exporting an editable object from DAZ Studio

Open a new scene in DAZ Studio and load the Morphing Python (DAZ Animals folder). From the File menu select Export and then Save As Type Wavefront Object (OBJ) in the subsequent dialog before naming the file (python.obj) and clicking Save. The following two tab dialog should be set as shown here.

It is particularly important to set the scale at 100% or some very weird effects can be expected when you load the morph later!

For the purposes of this tutorial, the whole of the python has been exported. For larger and more complex models it's best to export only those body parts on which you intend to work. This can be achieved by setting the visibility of each part in the Scene tab. Only those parts of the model which are visible will be exported. Please note that each body part should be set individually as sub-parts are not automatically set by their parent. Setting a hand to visible does not necessarily mean that the fingers will be visible for example.

Close DAZ Studio and open a new document in ZBrush.

Step 2 - Importing the editable object to ZBrush

Click on the Tool button in the column at the left of the ZBrush window to bring up the Tool Palette and select the six pointed star icon to load the 3D Polymesh Tool (this step may also be carried out in the Tool menu).

Now click the Tool button a second time and select the Import button to load the python.obj file.

Position the cursor over the centre of the document canvas then click and drag down in one movement to draw and zoom the python onto the canvas to a size that you can comfortably work on (remember to give turning space!) Do not click on the canvas again as that will draw a second instance of the python (there is an Undo option in the Edit menu but the next step may no longer be possible in which case a new Document is the only answer, so take care at this stage - wild abandon can come later!)

Immediately click the Edit icon which should have appeared as if by magic between the Quick and Draw icons immediately above the left side of the drawing area. Breathe deeply and relax!

As long as the Edit icon glows orange the structure of the underlying mesh of the python object is protected from the kind of damage which would invalidate it as a morph, no matter what drawing tools are applied to it. So now the fun can begin!

Step 3 - Pushing, pulling, gouging, and scraping!

It is one of ZBrush's quirks that the object from an import is initially drawn upside down and facing the wrong way so the current view will be less than enlightening. The viewpoint can be rotated around the object, the python in this case, by clicking and dragging on any blank part of the canvas. For ease of editing at this stage, bring the view to more or less head on (and the right way up) with the tail somewhat above the head. Now open the Transform Menu from which all the necessary tools may be accessed to create a new look for the python.

Full instructions on using the ZBrush tools are obviously best culled from the program's own documentation and experience gained by experimentation (with liberal use of the Undo feature in the Edit menu). In general the advantage of using ZBrush lies in the fact that changes are literally painted onto the model, without the need for pre-selection of surfaces, and updated in real time.

The strength of the effect and the size of the area which is affected by any tool may be set using the Z Intensity and Draw Size sliders above the drawing area, and an additional visual reference to current Draw Size is given by the cursor (two red circles while over the canvas).

Tools may be applied symmetrically to two areas of an object by selecting the axis of symmetry ( > X<, > Y<, > Z< options near the bottom of the Transform menu).

The main tools of interest are Scale (changes the size of an area equally in all three dimensions), Move (moves a selected point in any direction drawing the surrounding mesh with it), and Draw which allows the application of the Layer, Pinch, Nudge, and Smooth brushes. Holding down the Alt key when applying most tools reverses the effect so that the Pinch tool becomes a Spread tool, for example. When you've chosen your tool, simply click and drag over the area where you want to apply it.

Step 4 - From python to eel

To create the new eel form, select X symmetry, then run the Pinch tool several times from head to tail along the python's spine, and repeat along the midline of the belly.

Slim the snake down to a ribbon by running the Layer tool (+Alt) along the side of the snake several times (followed by the Smooth tool to cover any obvious bumps and lumps).

Create the dorsal fin and other spikes and fins by pulling out a point with the Move tool. Mould the head to your own taste, using the Scale tool to increase the size of the eyes, for example.

But whatever you do, stay in Edit mode at all times, Don't touch that button!

Step 5 - Exporting the finished object for use in DAZ Studio

When you have finished your artwork, open the Tool menu and click the Export item to open the option selection panel. Ensure that settings are as shown here:

Again, Scale is of vital importance, so double check that it is set at 1 before pushing the Export button. Save to a new filename (eel.obj) to avoid overwriting the original export.

Close ZBrush.

Step 6 - Showing it all off

There are several available methods of importing eel.obj into DAZ Studio as a morph, most of which are covered in detail in other tutorials here in the Arcana. To get an instant fix the DAZ utility Morph Loader is probably the most convenient and simple to use. But whatever the method, now is the time to load up the new morph, apply it to the Morphing Python model, sit back and admire …

Morphs in trueSpace 5.2 for Poser

2011-11-01T17:42:23+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

Morphs in trueSpace 5.2 for Poser

Author: odeathoflife

Tools Needed

TrueSpace5.2
Poser
The luuv Plugin

Introduction

In this tutorial I will try to explain in simple terms how to bring your poser OBJ files into trueSpace 5.2 (tS) and make morphs. I will be using the standard installation of tS with the exception of the luuv obj import | export plug-in available for FREE at http://www.pinacoderm.com/tsx/luuv/ there are versions there for 3.2, 4.3, 5.x and 6.x. I am assuming that you knwo how to load a plug-in into trueSpace so I will skip that part.

graphics1

Step 1 - IMPORT OBJ

Click the OBJ import button in your Tools panel, and navigate to the :runtime:geometries:DAZpeople: folder and load in your character. I will be using the lowrez v3 character for this tutorial but all figures will work with this method.

You will now have the character in the viewport of trueSpace but it will be very small so we will use some elementary math to make her 10x's larger. right-click the object tool (the white arrow) and it will open the “object info” dialog box. In the size areas, click at the end of the x, y, and z and type in *10 this will enlarge your figure and make it easier to modify. You can multiply it by any ratio but you have to remember the exact #'s cause we will need to shrink the character back down before we export it.

Now your figure should be large enough to work comfortably with.

Step 2 - USING THE TS HEIRARCHY

So first, if not already, please make the viewport a 'solid outline' display.

You can use the heirarchy in tS 2 ways by using the down arrow in the top menu, and your arrow keys on the keyboard, or just the keyboards arrowkeys.

So click the down arrow, to get into the heirarchy and then the left or right arrows until the head is selected. You will know it is selected once it turns green.

We are now ready to start moving points for the morph.

Step 3 - MAKING THE MORPHS

I will be giving Victoria some elven ears, I know, easy.

Right click on the selected head to get into editing mode. Then start moving the verts.

Once you have the ears ( or what ever morph you are making ) to your liking it is time to save the morph so we can bring it into poser.

Step 4 - RESIZING FOR POSER

So to get out of the heirarchy mode you can press the up arrow on the keyboard until the whole figure is selected again. Now we have to resize it to get it to the 'poser' size.

In the Object Info dialog box, devide each size direction by ten by typing /10 after each number in the size are and pressing enter. This will shrink to the origional size it was on import. We are going to go back into the heirarchy to export just the head mesh.

So once the head is selected using the above method to navigate the heirarchy, you need to copy it by clicking the copy button in the tool bar.

Step 5 - EXPORTING

Using the luuv plug-in again we want to ALT+Click on the button and this will open the export dialog box, choose a name you will remember and click save. Now onto poser.

Step 6 - LOADING THE MORPH TARGET

Once your character is loaded ( in my case it is the RR V3 ) choose the head, and click the properties tab and load morph target. Navigate to where you saved the new morph and click open, give it a funky original name and choose OK.

Now in the Morphs area of the dials there will be a new morph to use.

Posing using Morphs and JCMs

2011-11-01T17:42:23+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

Posing using Morphs and JCMs

Author: Firebirdz

Tools Needed

Poser
Michael 3 and Body Morphs

Introduction

So you have applied your perfect pose to Michael 3. Yet, it doesn\'t look quite right. Here are a few tips on how to get more realism to your poses using Morphs and JCMs.

JCMs or Joint Control Morphing Dials can be easily overlooked when posing. However, with careful attention to these morphs and other morphs supplied in either Michael 3 or Victoria 3, you can optimise your pose to produce better results!

Step 1 - Strike a Pose

So you have applied your perfect pose to Michael 3. Yet, it doesn't look quite right. Here are a few tips on how to get more realism out of your pose using Morphs and JCMs.

The image with the Green border shows Michael 3 with JCMs set at 0.

Step 2 - Identifying the areas for Improvement

The Image with Michael and the Blue Border shows the pose with JCMs and extra morphs being used.

Here is an image to compare the subtle but significant differences. The areas highlighted with circles are the areas we are going to work on

Step 3 - Turning Parameter Dials

Make sure that your Parameter dials are showing. In this tutorial, I shall be focusing only on the upper body and Michael 3. However, you can use the same concepts to Victoria 3 and to a certain extent to Michael 2 and Victoria 2.

For the upper body, we will have to work on the Chest, the Collars (Left and Right), Shoulders (Left and Right), Forearms (Left and Right), Hands (Left and Right) and Neck.

You do not need to Inject any morphs to view the JCM parameter dials.

JCMs are particular useful when joints are bent - e.g. bent arms, legs, Shoulders etc…

Step 4 - Which Direction

When turning the Dials, you will note that there are similar dials in adjacent body parts. i.e. there are Collar Raise dials on the Chest, Collars and Neck while there are Forearm Bend dials on both the Shoulders and Forearms.

IMPORTANT: Dial the SAME values for these body parts.

TIP: usually stay within the values of -1 to 1. Forearm bends can go beyond 1 though.

In the example I used, the values were:

Chest:

JCMrCollarRaise 0.5

JCMlCollarRaise 0.8

Right Collar

JCMrShldrRaise 0

JCMrCollarRaise 0.5

Left Collar

JCMrShldrRaise 0

JCMrCollarRaise 0.8

Left Shoulder

JCMlForearmBend 1.2

Right Shoulder

JCMrForearmBend 1

Right Forearm

JCMrForearmBend 1

Left Forearm

JCMlForearmBend 1

Neck

JCMrCollarRaise 0.5

JCMrCollarRaise 0.8

Step 5 - Additional Morphs

We are not finished yet.

Hidden in the !M3 Muscularity folder (Michael 3 Body Morphs) are several other morphs which would be great to use.

Inject the following morphs into Michael 3:

Bicep Flex

FlexCarpRad

There may be more you may want to use but these are two which I do use.

Then turn the dials in the body parts that will be affected by the morphs and NOT the Body itself.

Reason: if you Flex the Biceps in the Body and only the Right arm needs to be flexed, the Left one will be flexed when it needn't be.

Here are my own values:

Right Collar

Bicep Flex 0.4

Left Collar

Bicep Flex 0.3

Left Shoulder

Bicep Flex 0.3

Right Shoulder

Bicep Flex 0.4

Right Forearm

FlexCarpRad 0.3

Left Forearm

FlexCarpRad 0.3

Right Hand

pFlexCarpRad 0.3

Left Hand

pFlexCarpRad 0.3

For the final relish, I added further morphs like Latissimus and Trapezius but it depends on your personal preference.

Have fun with your poses! It is worth the effort to use JCMs.

Thinner brow - Morph targets with grouping

2011-11-01T17:42:23+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

Thinner brow - Morph targets with grouping

Author: dorkati

Tools Needed

Poser 4 or higher

Introduction

I'm using Poser 5, but I think in Poser 4 you can do the same.

Here I used the new EmotiGuy, because I want to make thinner eyebrows and girl lips until I have EmotiGirl :)

Step 1 - Create magnets

First, load your character. I used the new EmotiGuy, because I want to make thinner eyebrows.

Select head, create magnets.

We need 2 magnets. First, Set the right magnet, then create another magnet for the opposite brow-part. Select mag base 1, use Ctrl+C to copy Mag Base's properties, than select Mag Base 2, and use Ctrl+V to paste properties. Don't forget to change positive xTran (if you move Mag sidelong) to negative (or yRotate and zRotate if you used them)

Check that the brows are good, but now some head parts are morphed. We only want to morph eyebrows. So we need some changes.

Turn visibility off on Mag Zones ( it would be an annoyance to us). Select head, and set Mag 1 and Mag dials to Zero.

Step 2 - Grouping

Now click on group tools. Make a new Head group named brow.

Select brow in Group Editor. Usually you need to use '+' button to select needed parts, but in this case your work is easier, because the brow has its own material.

So…Click on 'Add material' button, select Eyebrows from drop-down menu.

And see…all brow parts are selected. Now close Group Editor and go back to figure.

Step 3 - Parenting Mag Zone

Turn Mag Bases' dials to 1, so you will to see the result.

Ooops, it is still wrong. Sure, you need one more change.

Select Mag Zone 1, than go to Properties on Parameter Dial Tab. Check on the Group box. Select brow group from drop-down menu.

Make this with another Mag Zone too.

Now you see the result.

Spawn the morph target and make another morph if you want.

Step 4 - Make another morph targets - lip

I made a Girl variation to EmotiGuy with this method.

1. Make a new 'lip' group.

2. There aren't any lip materials, so select all lip-parts with '+' button.

(Use 'Baring Teeth' dial to see all lip parts)

3. Make a new group and name it lip up.

4. Use 'Add group' button and add 'lip' group, then unselect lower lip parts with '-' button.

5. Make a new group and name it lip low

6. Use 'Add group' button and add 'lip' group, then remove lip up parts with 'Remove Group' button. (Select 'lip up' group from drop-down menu)

7. Close Group Editor and create the magnet. Select Mag Zone and check the Group box, then select lip up or lip low from drop-down menu. And now you can make lip morph targets.

Step 5 - See the result

Here is the result (until I'll buy EmotiGirl :) )

I hope it was useful.

If you have any question, feel free to contact me

dorkati

Unkinking IK

2011-11-01T17:42:23+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

Unkinking IK

Author: 3Don

Introduction

Sometimes Inverse Kinematics can surprise you with odd results when working in Poser. Here are some common kinks and what to do to fix them.

Step 1 - Flip Out

Have you ever applied a hand pose to a figure and then see the body suddenly flip out? The body looks like the result of a judo flip. Inverse Kinematics (IK) is the cause.

Most likely the hand pose was saved to a Library with IK turned ON for that hand. Applying such a pose, with your own IK on or off, will distort the figure.

It depends on the combination of IK settings which were ON for the original body who's hand was posed, as to how to remedy this. Which IK settings were ON cannot be determined for an imported pose.

First, try to Undo the application of the hand pose. If that works, dump the pose from the Library and find or make another. Never save hand poses with IK turned ON.

Sometimes, undo won't undo….

Next, try this. Be sure IK is OFF for every limb of your figure. Reset all Twist, Bend, and Side-to-Side Parameter Dial (PDs) settings to zero for the hand which caused the distortion. It should appear normal, without mesh warping. Then set all Body Rotation PDs to zero.

At this point the figure and hand should appear almost as it was. The body or hips may need some rotation adjustment to be set right.

If this latter method works, re-save the hand pose over the distorting one.

In the image “Hand Flip” you see a right hand pose (saved with IK on) applied, flipping the body.

Step 2 - Bad hands to glad hands

Have you ever turned IK on to fine-tune hand placement and then, when IK is turned off for that hand, it appears distorted? What has happened is the placement of the hand, though it is in a natural position, has distorted the collar-shoulder-forearm relations to that hand. It is actually those body parts which distort. That hand, at the end of that chain, only shows the distortion. You may notice that all of the Twist, Bend, and Side-to-Side PDs have much higher numerical values, and different than before IK was turned OFF.

Turn OFF IK, and reset all Twist, Bend, and Side-to-Side Parameter Dial (PDs) to zero. The hand will look normal again, but not quite in place as it was. Most of the time you only have to tweak the Bend PD to reposition that hand. You may have just a little tweaking to do with the other dials to get it all right.

The “Hand Twists” image shows a hand that was posed then moved with IK on. When moved, the distortion starts to happen, seen on the left. When IK is turned off, the hand appears as in the middle image. When hand PDs are re-zeroed and the hand is then bent a little, it appears as the image on the right.

Step 3 - Good hands and sore shoulders

Sometimes using IK to place a hand does not result in extreme distortion. However, the collar-shoulder-forearm looks un-natural. Leave IK ON for that hand. First, select the collar and try adjusting its placement to see if it will look more natural and smooth out the hand mesh. The hand will remain in place as the collar moves. It may take a little experimenting to do this. You may get closer to a natural look, but maybe not quite.

Then try the same thing with that hand's shoulder. It should get you closer. The collar will move most with IK on for a hand. The shoulder will move less, and the forearm practically, not at all.

Step 4 - On Bended Knees

Have you ever tried to lower the hips of a figure with IK turned ON to lower the body and bend the knees and have the result look like it is extremely knock-kneed? Straighten things out this way.

Before lowering the hip with IK on, save the pose in the Pose Dots area for quick re-application of the original pose if needed.

IK works about the same for the legs as it does the hands. Adjusting the buttocks-thigh-shin chain is similar. Moviing the buttocks results in some movement, the thigh results in the most, and the shin almost not at all.

First, try moving a thigh left or right to see if the leg starts to look more natural. Or, try the twist or bend dials. If one does not seem to work, Undo and try another. What works depends on the placement settings of the hip, which can vary greatly in poses.

If the first method does not seem to bring the results expected, select one of the feet and with the Trans PD move the foot in whatever direction looks logical (in your pose) to see how it affects the knocked-knees.

Sometimes using some of both methods is necessary.

Step 5 - Bent Outa Shape?

This is one that I thnk has happened to all of us. You move a figure by the Hips (rather than the body) and the hand(s) or feet stay in place, distorting the figure. IK was ON for whichever body part did not move. Undo, if you'released the mouse button. Or, re-apply the original pose, to get your figure back to where it was. Turn IK OFF. Move the figure.

You can move a figure with IK turned ON if you select the Body and move that, rather than the hips.

In the image “IK Hip Movement” you see where IK was on for the left hand and right foot when the hips were moved. The arm goes through the head and the foot keeps its X and Z positions, but raises along the Y axis.

Step 6 - Coddling IK

Inverse Kinematics is a wonderful tool to use. It can be pretty finicky sometimes. I constantly turn it on and off for different limbs as I pose figures. Generally I use IK only to fine tune hand and leg movement. I DO NOT use IK to bend, twist, and side-to-side the hands or feet.

To understand why, try this.

Load a figure and a pose. Use a pose where the hands are somewhat bent, twisted, and/or moved side-to-side. Be sure IK is OFF to start with. Select a hand and take note of the Parameter Dial settings.For instance, say the hand is bent +10 degrees, twisted +5 degrees, and moved to the side -12 degrees. Now turn ON IK. Note again the PD settings for that hand. All have changed value. Usually the number values are much higher. It could now read =160, +20, and -45. I do not know why that is, but it happens.

So, try bending that hand with IK on in a logical direction. Often what seems right, is not. The hand will go the wrong way, or appear to twist instead of bend. Poser must assign some other value ratio to the hand placement with IK on.

Another odd thing about IK is that when a hand or hoof is moved with IK, parts of the hand or hoof can become somewhat distorted. What happens is that IK can alter settings for the fingers or parts of an animals legs.For instance, moving a hand can bend or twist some finger joints away from where they were set. The hand may not look too far off, but enough to look strange. After you have used IK to position a hand jor animal hoof, check the finger settings to be sure no 2nd or 3rd joints are moved side-to-side or twisted. If they are reset them to zero. These parts of the fingers do not move this way, (unless broken!) even though Poser has settings for them to do so.

To save time and aggravation, only use IK to move the hands. If you need to tweak it a little with a bend or twist, turn OFF IK and bend or twist. Turn it back ON to move again.

Once the hand pose is right, turn OFF IK and save the hand pose to the Library.

IK is tricky, but manageable. Knowing when and how to use it will enhance your posing skills and allow you to work faster.

See my Tutorial on this site about placing props in hands and using shadows to guide you.

Using Partial Dynamics for Clothing

2011-11-01T17:42:23+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

Using Partial Dynamics for Clothing

Author: ChipChop

Tools Needed

* Poser 5

* Poser6

* Or Poser 7

* Poser Figures

* Poser Clothing

Introduction

Have you ever tried to pose a conforming dress, and just about gave up? The included skirt morphs just didn't quite work for the pose you wanted? Well, here is a method to turn that misbehaving skirt into dynamic clothing, and fit the pose you are looking for.

Step 1 - Load your character and clothing

Load your character and clothing into Poser. I've loaded Victoria 4, injected DAZ's Saylor character, and loaded the Saylor dress. This dress works very well with partial dynamics.

Step 2 - Zero the Figure

Make sure your character is selected. In this example, Victoria 4 is selected. Go to Window- > Joint Editor and bring up Poser's Joint Editor. Click on Zero Figure.

Now Victoria 4 fits inside the Saylor dress.

Step 3 - Create the final pose

Move to Frame 15.

Pose your character in the final desired pose at Frame 15.

Click on the “+” to create a key frame at frame 15.

Step 4 - Setup the Cloth Room

Select the clothing item, and then select the piece to make dynamic. In this case, I'll select the “Hip” of the Saylor dress.

Select “New Simulation” and enter the simulation settings you would like to run. I'll simulate through frame 30, even though the final pose is on frame 15. This gives the cloth time to settle, and I can pick any frame to render after the cloth is simulated.

Select “Clothify”. “Hip” appears, since that is what I already have selected. Just select “Clothify”, and the “Hip” part of the dress is made dynamic.

Select “Collide Against”, and select the parts of your character that would interact with the dynamic clothing piece. In this case, I've selected Victoria 4's Hip, Abdomen, and Thighs.

Step 5 - Calculate Simulation

Select Calculate Simulation, sit back, and wait. Since you're only using a part of the clothing, and have selected the smallest number of parts to collide against, the simulation will calculate faster than a Dynamics only piece of clothing.

Step 6 - Render!

Select the frame that looks best, and render your image! You can still move any parts of your figure that are not involved with the cloth calculations, and the conformed clothing will follow. In this case, Victoria's upper body can be re-posed without having to re-enter the cloth room!

V3 on the Cheap

2011-11-01T17:42:23+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

V3 on the Cheap

Author: tedcox

Tools Needed

DAZ Studio 1.2
Victoria 3.0
DAZ Studio Base Content

Introduction

I'm a videographer. I've invested thousands of dollars on expensive software packages for projects I work on. Sometimes I use them a lot and the investment pays off. Sometimes the purchase was clearly a mistake. So anytime I can avoid making the purchase and play with the product a bit, and even better maybe use it in a project without dropping the dollars, I'm a happy man.

When I read about DAZ Studio I was excited. I thought, finally, I can try to learn a bit about character animation without spending a bunch of money! The release of DAZ's Victoria 3 for free just made studio even more appealing. There was only one problem, I didn't want to render a naked, bald, plastic woman.
I've now spend a fairly extensive amount of time searching google, and the renderosity freestuff section, and I wanted to pass on some things I've discovered.
First, the ground rules. I won't use anything in this guide that isn't free to download and available for commercial use. You can do better – particularly in the textures department – if you drop the latter stipulation, but in some cases commercial use is a must, so I'm avoiding the non-com stuff.
We want to be fair to our model. I think we can all agree that Victoria is not at her best naked and bald, but the truth is, she's unhappy and we don't want that.

Step 1 - Organization

Before we start making Vicky look stylish I want to briefly talk about organization. When you're out downloading things for free, you have a tendency to just grab everything that strikes your fancy and install it quickly so that you can see what you got. This will very quickly lead to a mess of folders and files that is nearly impossible to sort through. DAZ is now offering a search plug-in for Studio to resolve just this problem. But it costs money, and we're cheapskates. :)

You can take many approaches here, I'm just going to explain the one I use. One of the really great things about DAZ Studio is that it will read content from Poser. But DAZ has taken it a step further. It will also make fake poser folders to read. If you've installed Victoria 3.0 into your folder without Poser, you've already done this. You have a dummy Poser.exe file in your content folder, and a Runtime folder that contains all of Victoria's files.

What I have begun doing, is creating custom poser content folders for various freeware items to keep them organized. For example, I created a Victoria 3.0 folder and moved the Runtime folder containing my Vicky files into it. Then I copied the poser.exe file in as well. Now in Studio I have a special file for Vicky. Then I created a Victoria 3.0 Commercial Use Items folder. All of my free content that is Vicky specific and available for commercial use goes in another runtime folder here. So all my Victoria content is now separate from M3 or A3 content that I may have downloaded. No more trying to apply presets that are incompatible by mistake.

You don't have to do it my way, but I highly recommend you come up with something before you begin downloading and installing content.

Step 2 - Hair

We'll begin by giving Vicky some hair. There are some really fabulous hair files available on Renderosity and other sites, but the best all seem to come from Koz's web site: Kozaburo I chose to use his basic V3 long hair, but there are many wonderful choices here. Pick one, or grab them all. Just be careful, not all of his hair is for Vicky 3.

As you can see Vicky is still pretty unhappy. I don't think she likes that plastic look, and I'm sure those eyebrows are a real downer!

Step 3 - Texture

This is probably the most difficult piece. Decent textures are very difficult to find. The Odyssey Rebirth texture on Renderosity is very good if you don't mind a non-commercial use texture. I should also mention that Ecstacy's free Sekusu texture is excellent, if you don't mind that she's covered with tattoos and looks possessed. Otherwise, I have yet to find anything great. However, there are still some good options.

The free content pack for DAZ Studio comes with a “Reduced Resolution” Vicky figure and she has texture. So, while her texture isn't the best, highest res texture out there, it does work. But there's no mat file to apply it.

You can also download a character from renderosity and struggle through the missing morph targets and such to get the texture. For example, Syltermermaid's Gwynor texture on Renderosity is excellent and fairly easy to apply.

We'll start with the Reduced Rez Vicky:

First off, finding the textures can be difficult. They're located in the Runtime directory with your Victoria figure under textures\DAZ\Characters\MilWom\V3Maps.

You may want to read on to the shaders section before you actually do this, otherwise it may be necessary to do it twice. As you attempt to apply the texture, you may be confused initially. First of all, there are not near as many texture files as there are anatomical components for Vicky. Secondly, for those files that do exist, there are two of each, an M and a B. The M is your actual Mat texture, the B is your bump map. All of the various parts of Vicky's body are in the V3Lo_BodyM(NG)JPG. All of the parts of her head are in the V3Lo_HeadM(NG)JPG with the exception of the eyes and teeth for which there are individual files.

I'm not going to explain how to use the surface editor as there are several simple tutorials already here that explain. Suffice to say your textures can be applied under the basic tab for each surface, and your bump maps and your Translucency file can be applied under the advanced tab.

If you opt to download the Gwynor Character (or almost any other character) you can get a much better texture but you may struggle to get it applied. For the Gwynor example, you'll find she comes with two MAT poses, one for an elf, and one for a human. When you apply these you will receive an error message about the missing files: BodyBUM01JPG and HeadBUM01JPG. I am guessing these come in some more expensive V3 package. I simply supplied the V3Lo_BodyB(NG)JPG and V3Lo_HeadB(NG)JPG from the reduced resolution figure above. It's fairly simple to copy these files and rename them and eliminate future error messages.

Step 4 - Clothes

I know what you're thinking… All that gorgeous skin tone and she still doesn't look happy. Well, it's cold in the studio, and she's still naked. It's no fun to be cold and naked.

This is another trouble spot. If you are interested in dressing your Victoria up in all manner of strange leather strappy things, or like an underwear model you won't have any trouble. On the other hand, if you want her to look like a regular woman we need to find her some approximation of street clothes.

I grabbed Awful Soul's Everyday Vest: Awful Soul

and Morphography's Jean Skirt: Morphography

Awful Soul leans a little more toward the strappy/underwear model set, but Morphography has a number of excellent and modest fashion statements available.

We have a little problem though. Notice around the belt line the way the vest and the skirt fight to be on top. Both the vest and the skirt have a number of morph targets, but I was unable to resolve this. Perhaps with the DForm plug-in it could be fixed, but that costs money. So I downloaded a belt from Renderosity. I grabbed Fishnose's studded leather belt for Victoria 2. It doesn't fit really well and is missing a chrome texture, but I was able to resize it and get something reasonable. Be creative. If everything isn't perfect from every angle people won't know unless you render the bad angles. :)

Step 5 - Shaders

Vicky's happy, and she's starting to look pretty good. But she still looks dead. Something about her eyes and her skin tone just isn't right. This is where shaders come in. DAZ has provided an excellent skin shader for her that you can select in the surface editor. However, you can download a simple script that will set all the shaders correctly, including the eyes, from here:

http://www.superbadgirl.com/downloads/v3skin.htm

I simply created a folder in the content directory called “Shaders” and extracted all the files into it. When you apply the shader it will tromp your texture and you will have to reapply them. Particularly if you applied the RR Vicky texture you're heaving a big sigh right now. However the results are worth it!

Step 6 - Final Words

I added Virtual Show's red couch and one of Richabri's satin drapes, and viola! Vicky may not be ready to go out, but she looks pretty comfy on the couch watching TV.

(I also replaced Gwynor's eye texture with the Michael 3 eyes located here: http://butterflyfish.fools3D.com/downloads.html Somehow those pale blue eyes reflecting the pale blue of the TV screen just looked disturbing)

There are any number of uses to which you can put a detailed digital character. In the end, spending a little money can vastly improve the landscape of what you can do, but I hope this guide will help you get off a few renders that aren't plastic, naked and bald.

Finally, this wouldn't be much of a guide if I didn't point you in the direction of some additional free content sources. IMHO the best can be found right here on DAZ. Check out the Freepository under the forums for many excellent freebies from authors who are looking for feedback from you as you use the product. There are several exhaustive lists of free content on that forum thread. Also, check out the free stuff section at www.renderosity.com (if you haven't already as you downloaded the items for this tutorial). It is filled with excellent content. Just be sure to read the notes as you go.

Victor for V4.1

2011-11-01T17:42:23+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

Victor for V4.1

Author: Kemp Sparky

Tools Needed

* V4.1

* Paint Program

* V4.1 Morphs++

Introduction

I originally began to wish V4, like V3, had come with male morphs when I started playing with her creature creator morphs and add-on pack. I fell in love with her claws, horns, and conforming legs. Only problem was, I wanted male satyrs and demons. What to do? Well, it did take awhile, but I finally achieved it: masculinity for V4.

Step 1 - The Body

I started with body builder. Best way to start making her look masculine to give her muscles. I dialed it almost all the way to 1.0. Well, what about this makes her the least manly… could it be the breasts? Or is it the hourglass figure? I chose to tackle the figure first, and save the most problematic bit for last. Increase “waist width” and decrease “hip size” to taste, also, in Arm-Hand, Dial “ShouldersThickness” to -1.0 and add a bit of “Lats.” Now… the chest. I tried all manner of “Breasts Flatten, ” “Breasts Small, ” before I got pecs I liked. Back in full body morphs, I started on the problem by dialing “Voluptuous” into negative integers to help with both the breasts and womanly behind. I used quite a few of the breast options, but the most important, I shall list here: BreastSize: -0.5, BreastsDroop: -0.5, BreastsDiameter: 0.5, BreastsCleavage: 0.5, BreastsPerk: -0.5, Nipples: 1.0, NipplesHeight: -1.0, BreastsDownL/R: 0.62, BreastInL/R: 0.5. Now look at her, she's starting to look pretty manly! But the proportions are a little off. To fix this, Increase “HeadSize” to about 0.05, “HandsSize” to about 0.3, “LegsLength” to 0.3, “FeetSize” to 0.2, and you may want to scale the chest up a little too. That should take care of the body, at least for a basic canvas for your own creations.

Step 2 - The Face

A good place to start is “FaceSquare” it gives her a more defined jawline, and a comic-book hero-like start. Give her a more severe browline, by increasing “BrowDefine.” Now, up next, one of the most feminine features of a woman's face are usually her eyes, it is no different with V4. I used a number of dials to achieve the almond eyes my final character has, I shall list the most important here: “EyeSize”: -0.3, “EyesSlant”: -0.6, “EyesFoldSmooth”: -0.5, “EyeFoldsHeight”: -0.05, “EyesAlmondInner”: 1.0, “EyeLidsHeavyTop”: 1.0, “LashesLength”: -0.1. On to the nose. I may have exaggerated the nose a little to compensate for the figure beginning as a female, but I think the overall effect was quite effective. I widened her nose to 1.3, and upped the “size” by 0.2, I increased “Slope” to its max of 2.0, and added 0.6 “Bump” and a bit of roundness to it. Lastly, just play with the settings for the nostrils and bridge. My final character used almost all the lip morphs, so I'll just summarize. Make the mouth narrower, by dialing “MouthScale” and “MouthWidth” slightly into the negative, and try to thin and shape the lips to taste. The Jaw is the most important part of the face for our purposes. “Jaw Define”: 0.5, “Jaw Height”: 1.0, “ChinSize”: 0.4, and to top it off, I put a “swell cleft in his chin.” That should do it for the morphs.

Step 3 - The Head Texture

Well, he looks great, except.. That purple bikini has to be a drag… Just change the texture, right? Well what about the blush? It's on ALL my V4 textures! Now Victor's screwed. He has to wear girly makeup. Well, it's not that hard to convert M3 Textures to V4, and you don't have to have any fancy texture converting programs. Just a paint program. You have to have an M3 texture and a similarly colored V4 texture for this. The old unimesh textures follow the same basic shapes as the new Mil4 textures, so you just have to copy and paste them. For this example, I'm using the Default V4 Hires textures and the Default M3 Hires textures. Now open all these textures in your paint program of choice. We'll do the head first. Grab a nice chunk of M3's face, make sure you get all the beard stubble and his forehead texture (Fig. 3). Paste it into the V4 head texture. First thing you'll probably notice is that it doesn't exactly match very well (Fig. 4). You'll want to stretch it to match the eyes, mouth, and nostrils as best you can, I recommend pasting the V4 eyes, nostrils, and mouth into a layer over the M3 texture to guide you. (Fig. 5) Once you've got M3 in place, you'll notice that A). The M3 eyes and nose definitely will not work, and B). the color's off. First, we'll fix the color, add a little bit of red and a bit of yellow to the color until it matches close enough, it doesn't have to be perfect. You may also want to lighten it up. Now, to fix the eyes and nose, you will need to copy and paste V4's eyes, nose, and lips (yes, you will want the lips, trust me) on top (after getting rid of your original “guide layer”) and blend them into the M3 texture, and while you're at it, blend M3 into the surrounding V4 tex. Your texture should now look something like Figure 6. If you applied your texture now, you would soon figure out that the eyebrows just don't look right. So, take each of the eyebrows and paste them into separate layers. You'll want to raise them a little and rotate them inward, so that the outer ends are angled upward, try to match the V4 eyebrows as closely as possible (Fig. 7). That should do it for the head texture.

Step 4 - The Body Texture

This is the shortest step in the whole tutorial. Simply copy the trunk of M3's torso from his texture, paste it into the V4 texture, and scale it until it fits properly, adjust the color and brightness of the V4 texture to match, and blend the M3 torso into the V4 torso. You may want to copy V4's nipples and fade them into the M3 texture to be sure that they match the geometry when applied to the figure. Finito!

Step 5 - The Limb Textures

The limbs are a bit harder to do than the face or torso, at least they were in my experience. You could even skip this if you weren't bothered about hairy legs and arms. First, whether you intend to add hair or not, adjust this document to the same specifications as you adjusted the torso texture so that they will match. Now on to the “fun” part. Copy one of M3's leg areas, and paste it into the V4 limb texture. Match it up with one of the V4 legs, pay close attention to the knee area. Once you've gotten it lined up, blend it into the V4 texture, copy it, paste it, flip it around and stick it on the other leg. Do the same with the arms, just the forearms, mind you, pay close attention to the wrists and elbows (Fig. 9). To avoid seam problems, you'll have to copy the underlying V4 legs around the upper thighs, and paste it on top, blending the edges until it looks good, be sure to retain the V4 upper thighs, or the leg texture won't match the torso texture. (Fig. 10) Now, you should be done. Test your textures and make any final adjustments you might want.

Step 6 - Last Words

Now you can tweak this character here and there to make unlimited variations of Victors for Male Satyrs, Demons, Aliens, Cat-Men, and all the other options V4 has to offer. For those of you who are wondering, I used the brown eyes from the Niko V4 character and Flexy Hair by Bice and Outoftouch (newsletter freebie) from Renderosity for the final render.

Wings3D modeling for beginners

2011-11-01T17:42:23+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

Wings3D modeling for beginners

Author: Locke21

Tools Needed

Wings3D

Introduction

So you want to create your own 3D objects? Well, its not impossible, but I won't say that it isn't hard. Its like getting to Carnegie Hall, practice, practice, practice. But that's not to say you can't do it, with a bit of help. This is going to be the first in a series of tutorials on Wings3D, a free 3D model program that you can find at Wings3D.com. Even though I don't know half of what it can do, I can help the beginning modeler start creating his or her own masterpieces.

Step 1 - Step One

After downloading and installing Wings, I'm sure the first thing you do is open it and wonder where the heck the controls are? All you can see are some pyramids and a few confusing menu commands. AH! Tools! That must be….no, not there. Where are the controls???

Step 2 - Step Two

Would you believe the old saying was right? They were under your nose all the time, or actually under your fingertips. Just Right-Click and you get what I call the mouse menu! On it, you'll find all the commands for adding the 3D shapes you need for your artwork. I won't go into detail about all the shapes, they're pretty much self-explanatory, but I will talk about a couple of the commands.

First of all, I use a two-button mouse with a scroll wheel/middle button. Whenever I press down on the scroll wheel, I gain control of the camera and can move around the environment. When I scroll with the wheel, I zoom in and out. If you don't have the same setup, you can still have the same amount of control, but have to use a bit of keyboard action going on.

First, go into EDIT/PREFRENCES and tell the program that you have a two-button mouse, and then press and hold Ctrl+R and RIGHT-CLICK. You know have control of the camera. If you look down at the bottom of the screen, you'll see other keyboard hotkeys that you can use.

Ok, now that you know how to look at around, its time to make stuff! I have always believed that the best way to learn is to do. So lets make something!

Step 3 - Step Three

The first step is deciding what to make. Since this is the first tutorial, lets keep it simple, um….a candlestick will work!

Ok, the first thing we have to do is figure out which shape closely matches our finished product. DUH, Cylinder. Ok, first we right-click and choose cylin…wait, what's that little symbol? Well believe it or not, there are also submenus that you can only get to from the mouse menu. For an example, if you click the submenu symbol for cylinder, you get a cylinder menu that allows you to set how many segments, or in this case, faces that your cylinder has.

Lets set it at twenty and click OK. There is our cylinder….but its stuck in the floor!

Step 4 - Step Four

Ok, we don't want our model to end up in the floor, so its time to figure out what the pyramids at the top are for. These are the various selection tools for your models. The three pointed one is for vertices, or points, the red-lined one is for edges, the outlined-red one is for faces, and the solid red one selects the entire model. Lets pick that one and get our cylinder out of the floor.

Once the “Body” pyramid is selected, just click anywhere on your model to select it. It will turn red so you'll know for sure. Now that you have a model selected, you can access yet another mouse menu! This one is for model manipulation, not creation. Check it out.

Now I know all those commands look a bit confusing, but right now all we want is “Move.” When you mouse-over that command, you get a very straight-forward command menu. When you pick one of the options, the model will move in that dimension as you move your mouse.

Since we want to move our model up, pick Y and move your mouse until its cleared the floor, then Left-Click. There, that wasn't so hard was it?!

Step 5 - Step Five

Ok, here we go. If I don't explain something well enough, PLEASE send me a PM and I will go into more detail. I'd hate for anyone to feel lost.

Alright, first things first, our cylinder is too fat for a candlestick, so lets shrink it. Right-Click and mouse-over the SCALE command. This is the command that lets you change the overall size of ANY object. Since we want a skinny cylinder, choose Radial Y, that means the cylinder will shrink along its Y axis.

See, that wasn't hard, maybe you can do this after all! Ok, now for some real fun. Our candle-stick needs a base, but if we try to shrink or grow the cylinder, the whole thing will change shape. What we need is either a new cylinder attached to the main cylinder, or more perhaps an easier way would be to change our present cylinder. Like a living thing, our cylinder can grow new parts.

Watch close now. First manipulate the camera until your looking at the bottom of the cylinder. Use SPACE to deselect the cylinder, and then choose the “FACE” selection pyramid at the top. You can now select individual faces of the cylinder. Click just the bottom of the cylinder and it'll turn red. Then change the view till your looking at the side of the cylinder. We are now going to “grow” a base plate for the candlestick.

Step 6 -

Remember the menu that allows you to manipulate your model? Well its time to learn a new command from it. RIGHT-CLICK and choose EXTRUDE/Y. What this will do is allow us to “grow” a new section of the cylinder along the Y Axis. After selecting the command, move the mouse until it looks right to you. Just look at the picture to get the idea.

“But its still small.” you say? Yep, we need yet another command. You may have noticed that there were several extrude commands. The one we need is the EXTRUDE REGION command. This will extrude every selected face, AND keep them connected as a solid whole. What this means is that…well just do what I say.

You should still have the bottom of the cylinder selected after our EXTRUDE, I want you to hit the “+” key ONCE. What will happen is that the little section we just grew should turn red. Click the bottom of the cylinder again and it should turn back to gray, but leave the rest. We now select the EXTRUDE REGION/NORMAL option and move the mouse. The bottom section that we grew should become larger without effecting any part of the cylinder.

Step 7 - Step Seven

Now for the candle-cup. Hit SPACE to deselect everything, and then hit R. This will reset the camera. While still in “FACE” mode, select the top of the cylinder and hit Shift + A. You'll zoom in to the top of the cylinder. I want you to do everything we did in the last step, just don't make the extruded part as large. Stop when you get this.

Now, hit SPACE to deselect everything, and then select the central circle, then hit “+” one time to select the entire upper face, and finally select the central circle again. You should end up with the results in the picture.

Step 8 - Step Eight

Ok, we're almost there. I want you to select the EXTRUDE REGION/Y command again and grow the selected area up until you get something similar to the first picture below. You have finally finished the rough modeling of your candlestick. Looks kinda childish doesn't it? Well that's because there is still one more step that is needed.

Step 9 -

In order for your candle stick to look finished, it must be SMOOTHED. What that means is that when you go into “Body” selection mode and select your candlestick, you can tap the “S” key a couple of times. This will take every face and cut it up into two faces, and those two into four and so on. BUT, the faces CANNOT take up any more space that the original face, so the object must deform, and SMOOTH out, giving everything a better look and feel.

Well, that's all for now. I want you to go into “FILE” and choose “EXPORT AS” and choose Wavefront Obj. Save your candlestick somewhere and in the next tutorial, Modeling in Wings 3D II, I'll show you not only how to UV Map your obj in Wings3D so it can be textured, but how to add a few jewels to it, not just painted ones!

Writing JCM (Joint Controlled Morphs)

2011-11-01T17:42:23+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

Writing JCM (Joint Controlled Morphs)

Author: Looniper

Support Files

Loon_JCM.zip

Introduction

This tutorial will provide you with all you need to begin adding your own JCMs and other EMC controls to figures and props with only a text editor.

Step 1 - Setting up

The provided zip file (available above) contains the deflating balloon and lever figure used in this tutorial.

Unzip it into your Poser folder (the one containing the Runtime folder) and you are ready to start.

The first thing you will need to do is find the Balloon.CR2.

This is installed to your content folder in Runtimes:Libraries:character:Tutorials

Go ahead and load the Balloon figure into Poser and have a look at it.

Most instances of JCM deal with muscularity morphs controlled by arm or leg joints, but for this tutorial, I thought something a little different was in order.

The balloon part has only 1 dial, Deflate. This is the morph we will be controlling.

The lever part has only 1 dial as well, zRotate, which pulls it left/right. This will be our controlling action.

At this point, we haven't created the JCM, so using the lever does nothing, but you can manually dial the morph on the balloon.

Most of the dials are hidden and joints/trans/scales are locked to prevent accidental changes. To scale or rotate the figure, use the BODY of it.

Step 2 - JCM (EMC/ERC) Methodology

JCMs are one application of a method often called EMC(Extended Motion Control) or somtimes ERC(Extended Remote Control).

The short desciption being “control of an action by an external action.”

Each instance of EMC relates 2 actions together(a Control and a Subject) with a degree of Influence.

Control and Subject actions can be morphs, joint rotations, a part's trans(location), or even scales. Pretty much any dial can control any other dial.

Each Instance binds 2 actions, but a Subject can have multiple Controls and a Control can have multiple Subjects.)

The Control action is defined with 3 pieces of information.

The Controlling Action. (what happens that causes the JCM)

The Controlling Part. (what Part does this action)

The Controlling Figure. (what Figure has this Part)

We don't have to define anything about the Subject, since it is in the Subject's portion of the CR2/PP2 that we place the JCM, so Poser will already know who the Subject is.

Step 3 - Writing the JCM

Creating a JCM consists of adding 5 lines to a CR2 or PP2.

valueOpDeltaAdd

Controlling Figure

Controlling Part

Controlling Action

deltaAddDelta InfluenceValue

The first line, valueOpDeltaAdd, simply lets Poser know that this action is going to accept influence by an external action.

The Controlling Figure is the name of the figure as it appears when loaded into Poser.

This can be problematic, since Poser will enumerate figure names if others already exist in the scene with the same name (figure 1, figure 2, etc) and the name must be exact, including case and the enumeration.

-The tutorial figure will have the name Balloon when loaded.

The Controlling Part is the exact name of the body part of the above named figure that performs the influencing action.

If there is a :# in the name in the CR2/PP2, you must include it here.

-lever:1 is the part we use here.

The Controlling Action is the name of the joint rotation(or other action) that influences the morph.

This is found under the body part's action information in the CR2/PP2.

-zrot is our action in this tutorial.

(Notice the name is the one used in the CR2, and Not the name listed on the dial inside Poser.)

Note: Poser will often use GetStringRes(#, #) values to represent the more common body part names and joint action names. This is part of its muli-language capabilities, and normally unimportant, but if Poser has used a GetStringRes as the name, you must use it as well.

(For more information on GetStringRes, check out 3DMenagerie and look under Goodies-Tutorials.

deltaAddDelta InfluenceValue tells Poser how much of this action gets dialed in relation to the Controlling Action's dial.

Determining this value will require either a head for math, or some trial and error. Too high and the morph is fully dialed with just a minor twitch of a joint.

-The value we will use here is 0.025 which causes the morph to reach about 3/4 of its maximum when the lever is fully pulled.

These 5 lines go into a particular location within the morphs data in the CR2/PP2.

In this case, the balloon body part of our Balloon figure.

Search the CR2 for Deflate to find the morph entry.

Now scroll down a few lines until you come to the line

interpStyleLocked 0

Directly after this line is where we add our JCM.

So now it looks something like this.

interspStyleLocked 0

valueOpDeltaAdd

Balloon

lever:1

zrot

deltaAddDelta 0.025

indexes 132

….

Save the CR2 with these changes and go into Poser.

Step 4 - Action and Responce

Load the Balloon figure and move the lever.

“AH! The balloon didn't delfate!”

Actually, it did, but Poser is often too lazy to show you that it did. ;)

Even with “Full Tracking” on, poser won't always update changes to a part until it becomes the focus, or any of the numerous conditions that cause it to refresh the entire preview occur.

It is aware that the balloon has morphed though.

If you move the lever, and then move your mouse over the balloon without clicking anything, you will notice that the Outline of the balloon has been morphed.

A good way to see things work is this.

Start with the lever in the 0 position(full right).

Go to Window- > Animation Palette to get the animation controlls.

Click on frame 15 in the animation palette and move the lever all the way to the left(40).

Click on frame 30 and move the lever back to 0 position again.

Now with full tracking turned on, play the animation. You will see the lever rocking back and forth and the balloon inflating and deflating as a responce to the lever.

Step 5 - Practice

As a minor challenge, try this.

Load a ball from the Props library, and save it back as BounceBall.

See if you can edit BounceBall.PP2 to bounce up and down in responce to the Balloon figure's lever.

As a separate object/figure, it most likely won't be updated in the display until you select it, so try using the Animation Palette again.

For a more difficult practice, load and re-save(with a new name) a Cylinder prop.

Create a JCM for it in responce to the turning of a figure's hand (as if turning a knob).

Now save a light and add JCM to it in responce to the rotation of the cylinder.

(Animate the figure turning this light dimming dial.)

I hope you find this tutorial useful,

-Looniper

Creating a Body Suit for V3 or M3

2011-11-01T17:42:23+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

Creating a Body Suit for V3 or M3

Author: deepblue

Tools Needed

Poser 4
Vertex modeler
Text Editor

Introduction

To make the basic body suit complete with the injection morphs you need only a text editor capable of find and replace. To make the recommended new morph target you will need a vertex-editing program (like Carrara 3) that allows you to add thickness and select individual body parts. To clean up your files you will need a text editor, a Morph-Manager utility (http://www.soft-rabbit.com/) and DAZ's DialCleaner. This tutorial will probably take 2-4 hours per figure, depending on your level of expertise, but you will have a very versatile body suit in the end.

Step 1 - Creating the CR2

Do not be afraid of your text editor, it may soon become your life-long friend. I will be using the Victoria 3 CR2 file for this tutorial, but the same steps apply to the Michael CR2 as well as any other characters you may wish to adapt this to.

Open the Victoria 3 sr1.CR2 file in your text editor. Save it as a new file in: Runtime: libraries: character: V3 Morphing Clothes: as V3 Body Suit.CR2

Delete the storage and geomHandler lines of text from every body part that you do not want geometry for actor BODY: (this would include the head, eyes, hands, fingers, feet and toes).

-All you will be left with are empty brackets on separate lines under their body part names:

Save. This has made it so that when Poser loads the new V3 Body Suit that it will use the Victoria 3 base OBJ, but will not load the body parts you do not need for a body suit. Be sure you have not deleted any brackets or changed their tabulation- this would result in an 'invalid file format' error when you try to load the figure into Poser.

Test your figure in Poser. Make sure it loads without the body parts. In the Joint editor zero the figure. Move each foot into the zero position, memorize (Edit: memorize: figure) the figure and save it back into the library.

Step 2 - Enabling the Injection Morphs/ Preventing Cross Talk

In this next step we will begin to make it possible to use the injection morphs on the figure without causing cross-talk problems. Go to the Poser4 folder on your hard drive and find within Libraries the Pose folder. Create a new folder (with any name) that will describe the contents as V3 Body Suit Injection Morphs. Now go to the !V3 All Morphs INJ folder and copy the applicable .pz2 and PNG's to the Body Suit pose folder you just created. Double check to be sure that you have duplicated the files and not just moved them. Applicable files to copy include the Body Morphs. Non-applicable files (you need not copy) include the Head Morphs. If there are certain injection files from other folders that you like to use (like spandex) feel free to copy those into this folder as well.

Now find within Libraries the !DAZ folder: Victoria 3: Body: and create a new folder called Body Suit INJ. Copy all of the files within the Deltas folder to the new folder you just created. Make sure you are duplicating files. Some of these files will not be needed, but to prevent accidental deletions and 'file not found' errors- wait until the cleaning process to worry about them.

Now go back to your text editor. This next part is rather time consuming, but is absolutely possible, and easy, when you have a text editor that is capable of finding and replacing words. Within your text editor open all of the files contained in your new injection pose folder [located in libraries:pose: (your file)]. There will be many of them, so it is all right to open only 10 at a time if you wish. With your 'find and replace' command- find the words:

DAZ:Victoria 3:Body:Deltas

-or-

DAZ/Victoria 3/BodyDeltas

And replace them with:

DAZ:Victoria 3:Body:Body Suit INJ

-or-

DAZ/Victoria 3/BodyBody Suit INJ

Use the appropriate file protocol for your platform. The colons I use to divide the folders reflect Mac protocol. The PC uses slashes to describe embedded files. Although, I am not sure weather they are forward or back.

Save and Close. Repeat for every file. You should not have to re-enter the find and replace information. There should be a quick option within your program's menu that allows you to 'replace all' and just uses the last entry as its reference.

You have just linked your copied Injection poses to the copied morph deltas within the Body Suit INJ folder you made earlier. This will allow us to change the actual code without destroying the original. We will now make it possible to use the morphs when the body suit is conformed to V3 without cross-talk problems.

In your text editor open the files contained within- !DAZ:Victoria 3:Body:Body Suit INJ. You may open 10 at a time if you wish, but don't loose track of where you are on the list! With your 'find and replace' command- find the word:

name

And replace it with:

name q

By re-naming the individual body part morphs (adding the 'q') we disable cross-talking between them. When your body suit is conformed to Victoria you will now be able to morph Vicki and have the body suit automatically change with her, but also be able to go to the body part morphs (not Body) and change those (now independent of cross–talk) without affecting the corresponding morphs on the other figure.

The only problems you may find will come when you inject morphs into the figure after it is conformed to Vicki. The body suit may assume the default pose of Vicki, and you will have to zero the figure again. It is easiest to inject all of your needed morphs before you conform the figure to prevent that inconvenience from surfacing. There may also be a problem of opposite cross-talking if your body suit is loaded prior to V3. You may want to always be sure that the body suit is loaded after Vicki is already in the scene.

Repeat the 'replace all' command for every delta file. That's a lot, but it's worth it! Save and Close after each.

Test your figure. It should work with all the morphs you have enabled. The dials for the individual body part morphs should be named with a 'q' in front of them. Note: you do not have to use a 'q'.

Step 3 - Creating the morph

This is what we've been waiting for: the morph targets that will make all of this effort worthwhile. Use Carrara 3 or your favorite modeler. I will tailor these instructions specifically for Carrara, and hope that you have explored your modeler enough to make an interpretation.

First we need to have a model to alter. You can use the one you just created, since it references the base V3 OBJ file. Load the body suit figure in Poser. Export the figure with only the visible body parts checked in the Hierarchy list. Include the names your modeler will need, Do not weld, Export as a Morph Target with No World Transformations.

Open your modeler. Import your file. Disable auto-scaling and auto-positioning. In Carrara the best fields to change to are: Disable auto-scaling, Vertex primitives, create a single poly-mesh, and create only one object.

Select your figure and view it in your vertex modeler. In Carrara, select the figure and click the wrench icon.

Select the entire figure. Add thickness- the number is up to you, for ultimate control only use the bare minimum that will make it show up above Vicki's skin. In Carrara, highlight the figure, go to: Construct: add thickness, enter: .001 and wait patiently.

How you separate the new mesh from the old will depend on your individual modeler. In Carrara the new mesh is already selected. Go to: Edit: Copy, now delete everything and go to: Edit: Paste. Now you should have the new mesh only. It should have all the body part names in all the right places. In Carrara the normals are reversed, but that shouldn't be a problem.

Unfortunately now you have to do a little work and export each body part individually. A quick way to do that in Carrara is: within your modeler select a body part using the selection menu. Go to: Invert Selection. Now Delete. You will only have one body part left. Export (you do not have to go back to the Assemble window if your figure is selected). Name the file something like hipmorph.obj. Make sure it is a Wavefront and Save. Now (still in the modeler) Undo until you get the whole figure back again and select a new body part. Repeat the process until you have exported morphs for each individual body part, remember to invert and delete or you will have the wrong number of vertices for your morph.

Now you are ready to apply the morphs in Poser. Load your body suit into the scene. Select a body part, then go to: Object: Load morph target. Locate the OBJ file you just made in your modeler that matches your selected part. Name the morph something like 'expand'. Hit OK. Now turn the newly created morph dial up to 1 or more until you perceive that it works. Leave the dial set to 1. Import all the other morphs. Leave their dials set to 1. Now create a full body morph, by going to: Figure: Create Full Body Morph, name it. Zero all the previous dials, and test your new FBM dial. If you have created any bad morphs these can be deleted or re-named in the Hierarchy editor when you check the Show all Parameters box.

If you had problems with importing your morphs- check to be sure that you did not weld the vertices when you first exported them from Poser. Also, within your modeling program, be sure you do not have double vertices along the edges of your body parts, or that you have not accidentally deleted the edges. These can be common mistakes.

When your figure works to your satisfaction, save it back into the library.

Step 4 - Cleaning up

Your figure probably works fine and is completely usable, but there are a few things you can do to make it a little less memory and time consuming. The first is to make a default set of material settings, the second is to delete all of the morph parameters for unused body parts, the third is to hide all of the PBMDC dials that have appeared, and a forth option is to delete the now unused material names from within the .CR2 . You could also are delete unused delta files and references, but I will leave that one to the real perfectionists.

Load your figure into Poser. Go to Poses:!MAT V3: apply All White. Now go to the material editor and change the settings for SkinNeck, SkinHand, SkinFeet, and PubicHair. Change the object and highlight color on each to black, move the highlight slider to zero and the Transparency Min and Max sliders to 100%.

Open your Morph-Manager utility; open the CR2 file for your Body Suit. Select the Head morphs, hit delete. Do the same for all of the other unused body parts like the fingers, toes, feet, and hands. Save it, test it, and if all is well, re-name your CR2 and PNG files back to V3 Body Suit.

Now open the Dial Cleaner utility. Open your CR2. Clean Dials. Save. Close the utility. I recommend always closing and re-opening the utility per CR2.

OPTIONAL: The following will create a new OBJ file for your figure. It will no longer reference the V3 base OBJ, however the only differences will be the missing body parts and the new material settings. All of the morphs will still work.

In Poser, Load your body suit. Re-assign the Nipples material to the SkinTorso material using the grouping tool. Here's how: Select one of the Collars and open the grouping tool. Click New Group, type nip, click Include Material, find 'Nipples', click Assign Material, type 'SkinTorso', click Delete Group. Do the same for the other Collar. Save the body suit back into the library.

A new OBJ file has been created within your V3 Morphing Clothes folder. It makes more sense to have it in Geometries. Go ahead and put it in:

Geometries:DAZClothing:MilWom:V3:V3 Body Suit.obj

Now we will go back to some fun CR2 editing. Open your text editor. Open the Body Suit.CR2 file. Because you have re-located the OBJ you will need to change the referencing. There are 2 lines you will need to change. They both begin with 'figureResFile' and are located before and after the list of body parts. You will need to change the folder references to point at the new OBJ location. Just simply change everything after Runtime: or Runtime to (depending on your platform):

Geometries:DAZClothing:MilWom:V3:V3 Body Suit.obj

-or-

Geometries/DAZClothing/MilWom/V3/V3 Body Suit.obj

Remember to change both references.

Now, scroll down to the very bottom where the material settings are located. Delete the names and settings for all of the unused materials: Tongue, Riris, RPupil, REyewhite, RCornea, LIris, LPupil, LEyewhite, LCornea, Gums, Teeth, Eyebrows, Eyelashes, Lacrimal, Nostrils, InnerMouth, EyeSocket, Lips, SkinScalp, Fingernails, Toenails, and Nipples. Be sure the brackets and tabulation are correct. Save.

Note: A quick way to make all your materials the same is to just copy and paste the settings from one to the other in the text editor.

Step 5 - Conclusion

There are many other things you can do to make your suit more customizable, like re-sizing and positioning the UV map using UV Mapper; re-defining the material settings to make custom transparency settings for sleeve length, neckline, and so forth; adding wrinkle morph targets using the magnet and wave tools; and making great transparency maps using the pen tool in Photoshop. But I'll leave those up to you.

Remember:

This would be a good set of steps to follow:

1. Load Vicki

2. Inject her morphs

3. Load the suit

4. Inject its morphs

5. Conform the suit to Vicki

Good Luck!

Comment from the DAZ staff:

The results of this tutorial are for personal use only and may not be distributed without the express permission of DAZ.

Models & Morphs

2011-11-01T17:42:23+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

Models & Morphs

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