Documentation Center artzone:pub:tutorials:poser

Adding Fluid Motion with Time Line

2011-11-01T17:42:30+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.

Adding Fluid Motion with Time Line

Author: DanaC78

Tools Needed

Poser
Any Figure will do

Introduction

In character animation, you might have gotten the impression that everything should be keyed at the same time. That is OK, but there is a chance that it might look a little stiff. The reason being, try turning with your hip. Now what you may of notice by paying extra attention..Your Abs and Chest don't move at the exact time, so why should characters? If you are going ARGH by this point, never fear..The Power of Timeline comes to the rescue.:) This tutorial is meant for folks with moderate experience with animation. You know how run the time bar, load characters, and twist things up, so I won't teach basic animation. What I will teach you is how to living up your animation.

Step 1: Setup Your Animation

For the purpose of this exercise, I would like you to load a figure into Poser and leave the IK on. We are not going to do anything fancy, so the Zero Pose is fine for this tutorial.:)

For exercise, we have Michelle as our lovely guide. Don't mind her snarling attitude, she is pleased to be here. To create the animation, go to frame thirty.

What I would like you to do now is set the Hip Y-Rotation to 15, Abdomen Twist to 5, Chest Twist to 5, and Neck Twist to 5. Now click on play, and take a look at it before.

It is good, but still a little stiff. However, we will fix that.;)

Step 2: TimeLine is Your Friend

Right now, we are going to play with the timeline. What we are going to do is move some frames forward so that the body parts don't all move at the same time. Keep in mind, this technique requires personal taste, and each of you will do something different after this tutorial, but you will get the gist of it. However, don't touch the hips.:)

What I like you to do is to select Frame 1 of Abdomen, and drag it to frame 15. Do the same thing to Chest. With the Neck, drag Frame 1 to Frame 20. What you should see is displayed in the picture below.

Step 3: Look at it Now

What I want you to do is click on play, and see if you notice the difference. Again, this requires personal taste where you want the frames, but in the long run, this will help create more fluidity.

To explain a little about what happened:

Unlike other keyframes, Frame 1 will always have the beginning parameters of your animation. It cannot be deleted in anyway. When you drag it, it creates a copy and places where you want it to be. ;) Since frame 1 and 15 are identical, there are no changes animation wise until after it starts moving. ~~

Step 4: But what if I have something beyond Frame 1?

There are points when you have another motion in store, and frame 1 will only make things worse if you drag it out. I understand that. However, not all is lost. All we need is Copy and Paste.;)

For this part of the exercise, change the animation to 60 frames, and start from the hip on Frame 60.

Hip Y Rotation: -15

Abdomen Twist: -5

Chest Twist: -5

Neck Twist: -5

Now we are ready for the next step..Copy..and Paste;)

Step 5: Copy and Pasting

What I like you to do is select the keyframe for Frame 30, but I don't want you to drag it. Instead I want to click on Ctrl+C or click on Copy from the Edit Menu. (Ctrl+C is more efficient).

Now, I would like you click Frame 45 in Abdomen, and press Ctrl+V or Paste from the Edit menu.

You have now just copied the parameters for Frame 30 to Frame 45, so it won'^t go until it comes to that frame. Now do the same for Chest, and for Next, place it on Frame 50, so it looks like below.

Step 6: Test once again

Run test once again, and if everything runs perfectly and looks good - you're done!

Basic Animation in Poser 5

2011-11-01T17:42:30+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.

Basic Animation in Poser 5

Author: Gary_P

Tools Needed

Poser 5

Support Files

BasicAnimation.zip

Introduction

Basic Animating in Poser 5

I bet you've seen all those great animations on the net and thought 'if only I could do that'. You can.

Today I am going to get you started in animating in Poser.

Animating in Poser is not as hard as it looks. You just need to know a few tricks.

We will be using Poser 5's Don for this tutorial.

Step 1 - Setting up our character

So that we are all on the same page, we are going to be using the Poser 5 guy, Don. You may use DAZ Victoria, Michael, or any of the characters, but I am using Don.

Open Poser and on the right hand side, there is a bar we will call a fly out.

Click on it and it will open a panel allowing you to choose what character you will be working with.

Choose figures, Poser 5, and then scroll up and choose Don. He is labeled Don Casual.

It does not matter if you choose the Don with hair or not.

Double click on Don to bring him into the scene.

On the Keep Customized Geometry screen, uncheck everything and click the OK button.

Do the same for the KeepScales screen.

I have also selected smooth shaded for the document display style, so you can better see what parts I am selecting with my mouse. But you can select the style you like best.

Now we are ready to begin.

Step 2 - Setting up for animation

First a little background. In Poser 5 you can animate anything in your scene.

This includes any objects, lights, and cameras. You can also animate materials, but that's another tutorial.

Every item in your scene has different settings or parameters that can be changed to produce an animation. You may also animate any object's scale, rotation, translation, and shape. You may also animate any of your light's color, position, and intensity.

You can also animate your camera's position in your scene.

Creating an animation only means making changes to an object over time.

An Animation is created by assembling a lot of individual images known as frames. When a series of frames that vary slightly from one frame to the next are displayed one after another, very quickly, your eyes see them as movement.

At the bottom of your screen there should be another fly out button. Click on it and the animation window should appear.

Set up your screen so that you can see all of your controls plus the animation screen.

Step 3 - Animation controls

There are a few buttons to know before we get started with our animation.

On the left side are our preview controls.

They are (from left to right):

First Frame – this sets the timeline to the first frame.

End Frame – this sets the timeline to the last frame.

Stop – this stops the animation.

Play – this starts the animation.

Step back – this steps back one frame

Step Forward – this steps forward one frame

There is also a loop button. If you turn this on, your animation will continuously play until you press the stop button.

The middle section is where you set the current frame and the total number of frames.

Frames are points in time where you set the pose. Let's say we want our character to lift his arm. We set the current frame position to 1, pose him with his arm down by his side, and set what is called a key frame. Then we set the current frame to a higher number like 30 and pose him with his arm over his head, and set another key frame.

This is known as key framing.

When the scene is rendered, Poser will create 30 individual frames (or pictures) numbered from 1 to 30 with our character's arm in positions from his side to over his head. And Poser also takes care of any shadows too.

This process is also called tweening, because Poser is creating the frames in-between the key frames.

Rendering is a fancy word for a program's ability to create your scene, calculating all of the textures, shadows and lights, and producing a finished image.

Below these two boxes is a slider control we'll call the scrubber. The scrubber is used to quickly find specific points within your animation.

You simply click and drag the Scrubber to navigate your animation.

It is also important to know that animations typically run anywhere from 15 to 30 frames per second. This means that it takes 30 frames of pictures to create one second of animation. It's no wonder that animation companies have super computers to do all that processing. They typically render their animations overnight.

On the right side bottom of your screen you will see the key frame controls.

They are (from left to right):

Previous Key Frame – Move back one key frame.

Next Key Frame – Move ahead one key frame.

Edit Key Frames – Display the graph pallet.

Add Key Frames – Add a key frame at the current frame number.

Delete Key Frames – Remove the key frame at the current frame number.

Step 4 - Animation steps

Now that you've had your lesson in animation, and we have opened our animation window, and we have set up our character, then it is time to start animating our figure.

I think Don needs a bit of exercise, don't you? Let's make Don do some jumping jacks.

We'll start with the basic arm movements and go from there.

One of the nicer things about Poser is that it let's you build your animation one step at a time. Meaning you don't have to get it right the first time.

I do all of my animations this way.

Don's jumping jacks will consist of 3 different movements:

1. His arms need to move from his sides to over his head.

2. His legs need to move from under him to an open position side to side.

3. He needs to jump up into the air.

This sounds like a lot, but it's really easy if you take it one step at a time and use all of Poser's tools for help.

Step 5 - Turning off IK

Let's pose Don in his starting position, but before we do, we'll need to turn off Inverse Kinematics. With Inverse Kinematics, or IK enabled, you can translate the hands and feet and achieve appropriate arm and leg positions automatically.

But this is not what we want. We want to move Don's legs from his thigh.

If you left this on, then his legs would not move unless you selected his feet.

I'll cover IK in a later tutorial, but for now, we will turn it off.

Make sure Don is selected and click on the Figure Menu, then choose Use Inverse Kinematics, then uncheck both feet, and uncheck both hands if they are selected.

For the sake of this animation, let's say it will take Don one half second to go from the normal standing position to where his legs are open and his arms are up.

Then one half second to return to the starting position. He's a quick jumper.

And we will be doing our animation at 30 frames per second.

If you have not done so, please make sure your animation slider, or scrubber is in the left most position, and your frame count is 30. And please make sure you are on frame 1.

Step 6 - Posing Don for his animation

Click on Don's right shoulder and set the Bend dial to 70 degrees.

You can set the number by clicking the number and typing in the box that pops up.

We only need to do his right side because Poser's tools will help us with the other side.

Don's legs are a bit far apart so let's move them too.

Click on Don's right buttock, and set the Side-Side dial to 6. Be careful here not to set the Bend.

Now Don is all ready to start. Wait! What about his left side?

Pose can take care of that for us with a thing called Symmetry.

Symmetry is a fancy word for 'make one side just like the other'.

Make sure Don is selected and click on the Figure menu and choose Symmetry.

Then choose Right to Left. Answer No to the Do you wan to copy the joint zone's setup window.

This will copy Don's right side to his left side.

There are other options in the Symmetry menu too, but I'll let you explore them another time.

Don is all ready to start his exorcise for the day.

Save your scene as animation1

Always remember to save! I increment my saved files so I can go back to any point in time. Then when I am finished, and all looks right, I delete the old saves.

Step 7 - Half way there

Set your current frame to 15 by clicking the box labeled frames in the animation window and typing in 15.

Why 15 you might ask? This is because when you do an animation of jumping jacks or any animation that contains looping cycles (such as a walk) your character will need to return to their starting position without any jerky motions between the end of one loop and the start of the next.

Poser has a tool for this too. I'll show you later on in this tutorial.

Step 8 - Animating the Don's parts

Now we will move Don's right arm above his head.

Click on Don's right shoulder and set the Bend dial to -40 degrees.

We set this to a minus number because 0 is straight out.

Remember. We only need to do his right side because Poser's tools will help us with the other side.

Click on Don's right buttock, and set the Side-Side dial to -15. Be careful here not to set the Bend.

Again, make sure Don is selected and click on the Figure menu and choose Symmetry.

Then choose Right to Left. Answer No to the Do you wan to copy the joint zone's setup window.

This will copy your figure's right side to his left side.

Now we will let Poser figure out how to return our character to his starting position with a tool called Loop Interpolation.

Make sure Don is selected and click on the Animation menu and choose Loop Interpolation. This will fill in the blanks.

Press the play button in the lower left corner of the animation window and make sure Loop is turned on.

Don looks cool, but he looks funny. Like he is being held up on wires.

Press the Stop button.

Save your scene as animation2

Step 9 - Making Don jump

Remember when I said you can go back and fix stuff? This is the time.

Make sure Don is selected, the scrubber is at the left most position, and the frame counter is at 1.

Press the number 2 on the keyboard. This will select you character's body.

Set the YTran dial to 0.

Click the Add key frames button.

You may not have to do this, but sometimes Poser gets cranky and wants it.

Now we need to show Don in the air at the height of his jump.

Set the current frame to 7. Why? Because 7 is one half of 15. Sort of..

Set the Don's YTran dial to 0.5 to raise him up into the air.

Click the Add key frames button.

Set the current frame to 15.

Set the Don's YTran dial to 0 to bring him back to earth.

Click the Add key frames button.

We again need to show Don in the air at the height of his jump.

Set the current frame to 22. Why? Because 15 + 7 is one three quarters of 30. Sort of..

Did you see what the number the YTran dial was set to? -0.292236

What's up with this, you might ask.

Well that is Poser's way of tweening for the next frame. Poser 'thinks' you are going to continue on when in fact, we want Don to stop jumping.

Set the Don's YTran dial to 0.5 to raise him up into the air.

Click the Add key frames button.

Set the current frame to 30.

Did you see what the number the YTran dial was set to? -0.292236

Poser is doing it again!

Set the Don's YTran dial to 0 to bring him back to earth.

Click the Add key frames button.

Press the play button in the lower left corner of the animation window and make sure Loop is turned on.

How cool is that? No more wires look.

Press the Stop button.

Save your scene as animation3

Step 10 - Creating our movie

At this point you could keep going back and changing things like Don's hands or facial expressions, but let's create our movie.

Make sure the scrubber is at the left most position, and the frame counter is at 1.

Don being selected does not matter as the whole scene will be animated.

Click on the Animation menu and choose Movie Output Settings.

Choose either the Poser 4 or Firefly rendering engine. I will choose the Poser 4 rendering engine because I want to see my animation quickly.

Click the OK button, not the Render button.

Remember, we want a movie, not a still picture.

Click on the Animation menu and choose Make Movie.

Let's title our movie Basic Animation.

From the Sequence type we can choose our format.

AVI for movie files. Flash, to create a flash file.

Or we could have chosen Image files. This would create 30 individual TIF files.

A side note on TIF image files is that each TIF file retains the alpha channel. Meaning that if you bring them into a photo editing software like Photoshop, the gray background can be selected and removed, or replaced by a real background.

For this tutorial, choose avi.

For quality, choose Current Rendering Settings. You could choose Current Screen to get a really fast render.

Note in the time span that Poser has set the frame rate to 30 and the start and ending frames to 0 and 30.

Press the OK button and Poser asks you where you want to save your movie. Please choose a file location and press Save.

Next is the Compression window. This is where you select what the compression rate is.

This is beyond the scope of this tutorial, so choose Microsoft Video 1, and press OK.

Poser will now calculate and output your movie and show it using Windows Media Player. Hey go for it Don! Jump till you drop!

If you have any questions you may PM me here at DAZ.

Happy Animating!

GIF Animations on a Mac using Poser and ImageReady

2011-11-01T17:42:30+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.

GIF Animations on a Mac using Poser and ImageReady

Author: xalthorn

Tools Needed

Poser ImageReady

Introduction

Animated GIFs can be fairly simple to create on a Mac, especially if you own ImageReady that comes with Photoshop.

This tutorial demonstrates the process using a very simple animation.

Step 1 - Load the model

I'm going to mess around with the Emotiguy. So, load him into the scene and apply the !Default pose. I've added a global lighting set and turned shadows off in the render options to avoid those nasty smudges.

Step 2 - Show the animation palette

Although you can use the animation controls at the bottom of the screen, I find it a darn sight easier to use the Animation Palette. Click on the 'Window' menu and then click on 'Animation Palette'.

A great little window pops up with a grid which shows each element in the scene. Including the body parts of each figure.

You'll also see a number of frames running along the top of the grid, labelled at every 5 frames.

We want a longer animation than the default 30 frames, so where it says Frame 001 of 030, change the 030 to 060.

Step 3 - Add the next pose

In the Animation Palette, click on the grid where the 'Body' row crosses the '10' column. Now apply the 'Angry' pose and you should see the pose take effect in the main window.

Do the same thing for the following frames, applying the following poses to each of the corresponding frames.

Frame 0 : !Default

Frame 10 : Angry

Frame 20 : Baring Teeth

Frame 30 : Disappointed

Frame 40 : Shh

Frame 50 : Wink

Frame 60 : !Default

You should have an Animation Palette that looks like the following.

We make the last frame the same as the first to allow the animation to loop nicely.

Step 4 - Make the movie

We now want to render the frames for the animation now. Select 'Make Movie' from the 'Animation' menu.

Set the settings as below. You'll see that I've told it to render at Half resolution. When you're testing your animation, you will probably want to render at Half or Quarter the final resolution so that you can preview it. The last thing you want to do is spend hours rendering at full resolution only to notice that you made a mess of it somewhere.

When you click OK, you will get a Save window. Put all of the files into their own directory somewhere where you can find them easily. It's important that they are the only files in that directory.

Step 5 - Load it all into ImageReady

Load ImageReady (or load Photoshop and then select 'Edit in ImageReady' from the 'File' menu).

This is one of the most painless parts of creating the animation.

Select the 'File' menu, and then 'Import' and then 'Folder as Frames'. Select the folder that has your rendered images and leave it to it.

When all of the images have been loaded in, you will have an animation window as well as your main image.

In this window, you can set all sorts of options, including how many times it should loop, whether it should loop at all, the delay between frames and so on, but that's another tutorial.

Anyway, we're nearly done. Click on the 'File' menu, select the 'Preview In' option and then select the browser of your choice.

After a short wait, you should see your animated GIF in action. All you need to do now is save or drag the GIF to a location on your drive.

Step 6 - Conclusion

That's pretty much all you need to do. If you find that it doesn't run very well in Internet Explorer, you may want to consider deleting every second frame from the animation. It's a good rule of thumb for getting the speed right.

As to creating wonderful animations, I leave that up to you and other tutorials. At least you now know the steps involved in getting your animation to a GIF.

Rendering animation to sequential image files with Poser and VirtualDub

2011-11-01T17:42:30+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.

Rendering animation to sequential image files with Poser and VirtualDub

Author: Wizardkiss

Tools Needed

* Microsoft Windows

* Poser

* VirtualDub (free)

Introduction

In this tutorial I will describe how to render your Poser animations to a series of sequential image files and then assemble them into a finished video using a free open source program called VirtualDub.

Step 1 - Advantages of this method

There are several advantages to rendering your animations this way rather than directly to a video format file:

-If you should need to end the render before it finishes for some reason, or if Poser should crash before it completes (it could happen!) you can easily start back after the last complete frame where the render left off.

-You can view the results of the completed portion of your animation while the render is still in progress.

-Having individual files like this allows you to load them into your paint program to touch up or add special effects. You also gain access to all your paint program's filters to use on your video (assuming it has a batch function).

Step 2 - About VirtualDub

First of all let me introduce you to VirtualDub. It is a fairly well known video utility that you could think of as sort of a Swiss army knife collection of video tools. It is a completely free open source program for Microsoft Windows. Even if you have a big expensive editing suite like Adobe Premier I would still recommend having VirtualDub on your system because it is very handy for doing various small tasks.

Step 3 - Download VirtualDub

Go to the VirtualDub SourceForge page at http://virtualdub.sourceforge.net and download VirtualDub. There are several versions available but the one we want is the latest stable release build. Unless you know you are running the 64-bit version of Windows you should select the 32-bit version. The version number may be different than the one seen in the picture below by the time you read this, but don't worry about that. Just download the latest stable release.

Step 4 - Install VirtualDub

VirtualDub doesn't need to be installed with a setup program. To install it just create a folder somewhere on your hard drive and unzip the file you downloaded to that folder. You can then delete the zip file if you wish.

To start the program run the VirtualDub.exe file. To make it easier to use you can right click the .exe then select “Send To” > “Desktop (create shortcut)”. This will place a shortcut on your desktop to run the program from.

Step 5 - Set up the animation in Poser

Now that we have VirtualDub installed let's render our animation in Poser. Create your animation as you normally would and when you get to the Movie Settings part of the render dialog select “Image Files” from the Format pop-down menu as seen below in Poser 7.

Step 6 - Render the animation

Click the Make Movie button and select a folder to hold your sequential files. I would recommend making a separate folder on your hard drive to hold the image files for each animation you do to keep things neat. Enter a filename and select the file type of your choice. Don't use TIF or PSD because VirtualDub will not recognize those file types. If you're not sure what format to use try TGA. Click Save and the render will proceed.

Step 7 - View the results

When the render is done go to the folder you saved to and you should have something like this:

Wow! What a lot of files! Each file you see is one frame of your animation, numbered in sequential order. Don't worry though, next we're going to assemble them all into one nice, neat video file. If you want to you can examine them with whatever image viewing program you use to see how they turned out. Any manipulation to the images you wish to do with your paint program can also be done at this stage.

Step 8 - Assemble the files in VirtualDub

Start VirtualDub and select “File” > “Open video file” from the pull-down menus. Navigate to the folder where your sequential files are and select only the first one as seen below and click Open. VirtualDub will begin working and in a few seconds all your files will be loaded and assembled in sequence.

Step 9 - Preview and save in video file format

You'll notice that your animation appears twice, side by side. Don't worry about that, it's one of the features of VirtualDub, but it isn't relevant to what we're doing here. If you wish you can click the play arrow at the bottom and watch your animation play in VirtualDub. At this point, if you wish to save your animation as an uncompressed video, you can select “File” > “Save as AVI” and we're done.

Step 10 - Compress the finished video file to make it smaller

Saving to an uncompressed AVI will result in a very large video file so you might want to save it in a compressed format to save space. Fortunately VirtualDub will take care of this too (I told you it was handy!)

Select “Video” > “Compression” from the pull-down menus at the top and the dialog box seen below will open.

I can't tell you which compression method to select because it will vary depending on which codecs you have installed on your computer. If you have XviD (a free codec available at http://www.xvid.org) that's a good choice. Click the OK button. Nothing will happen yet but that's normal.

Step 11 - Save the compressed file

Now select “File” > “Save as AVI” and enter your filename. When you click the Save button you should see two status windows pop up. This is the compression in progress and it may take a while. When it finishes we're all done and you'll have a nice small video file. You can then delete the sequential files if you wish, or save them for future editing.

Editing Keyframed Animation

2011-11-01T17:42:30+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.

Editing Keyframed Animation

Author: odeathoflife

Tools Needed

Poser

Introduction

Hi again, I do a lot of character animation with poser, you know trying to make that movie that never seems to finish, and that is always in constant renewal as new figures and techniques come into the light, and have always run into the problem of needing to remove keyframes from the start of animation sequences.

Sure if you want to just clear the keyframes you can by selecting all the frames and hitting the “-” (minus) button, but it is a little more drawn out if you actually need to delete those frames.

Step 1 - Copying The Frames

Ok so the 1st step of course is to load up your animation ( for this tutorial I chose sexy walk available in the pose/walkdesigner folder of the standard poser installation.

Now I realize that I do not need that 1st step and only need her to do the second step, we will need to go into the keyframe editor to have access to the frames.

Once in the keyframe editor, we are going to select the frames 15-30 of all the body parts that we are wanting to copy, and since this is a walk animation we will want to select the whole body, so just click and drag around the frames in the editor that you want to copy, I am copying from the “body frame 15” to the “left toe frame 30”

Then press and hold Crtl on your keyboard then c to copy the selected frames.

Open notepad or similar text editor,

and press Ctrl and V to paste the info into notepad.

Step 2 - Adding frames back into poser

OK so you should have the above info (or similar) pasted into notepad.

Note

you'really do not have to paste into notpad for this to work, but I find it easier and safer if I save this info, I do run poser in windows after all :)

—

So now we will restart poser (“file-new” will work as well) and after loading up our character we will go directly into the keyframe editor.

Now the important part about pasting the info back into poser is that you MUST select the same amount of frames that you copied in the last step, as you can see in the image I have selected 15 frames starting at the “body Frame 1” and ending at the “left toe frame 15” giving me the 15 frames that I need for the copied ones to fit.

And now it is just a matter of getting the info from notepad (a quick way to select all the info in the notepad is to press Ctrl+A to select All, then copy (Crtl+C) and then move back into poser and pressing CRTL+V to paste the info back into the key frame editor.

And that is about that…

Step 3 - Extending The Animation

This is not a well known area of poser but is kinda handy as a closing tidbit.

In the Animation menu there is a “Retime Animation…” dialog, and is good as a finisher up to the deleting/copying keyframes, say you want the part you just finished editing to be in slow motion, just open this dialog and choose the source frames, like when your character pulls a gun or something, and extend it to cover more frames, using the destination frames.

I hope that you have found this tutorial helpful, and if you have any questions or comment please do not hesitate.

I can be reached at

allan74@shaw.ca

and you can pick up some poser free stuff at

www.members.shaw.ca/odeathoflife

Juggling Droid

2011-11-01T17:42:30+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.

Juggling Droid

Author: Beady

Tools Needed

Poser
Any humanoid character

Introduction

This tutorial will walk you through the steps necessary to animate a character and make it appear to juggle, its quite a long one and you will need to work a bit - sorry.

Step 1 - Starting Off

Load your character. As this character will need to be able to throw and catch balls, it makes sense for it to be a humanoid character. I'm using the Droid from DAZ, because its nice and simple. Exactly the same principles work for any character, so you use whichever you wish. Pose the character so it is reasonably upright, facing front and with its arms bet at the elbows in front of it.

Remember to rotate the forearms so that the hands face upwards. Don't worry about the balls, we'll add them later.

Step 2 - Juggling

Simple juggling requires that the hands and forearms move in an approximate circle in front of the body. Each hand does basically the same movement, but is half-way around the cycle to the other. So we start with a pose that has the right hand at its most extreme position in the bottom right corner, just about to start moving across and up, and the left hand having just released a ball at its highest position.

Remember that the right hand should be partially closed as it's holding a ball and the left should be open as it's just released one.

Step 3 - One hand at a time

Ignore the left hand for the moment and just work with the right one. The

first movement is to bring the hand in front of the body. This is done by changing the Right Shoulder Pivot value from its original -5 at frame 1 to 10 by frame 8. So you can either click on the 'Step Forward' button until you reach frame 8 and then change the dial, or you can open the Animation Palette (Shift+Ctrl+V) and work in there.

Step 4 - Animation Palette aside

Alongside each body part in the palette is a small arrow, clicking on the arrow will display all of the available adjustment dials. Notice the colours, the brighter green squares indicate key frames, these are the points within the animation where a particular value has been set. The paler green colour shows a series of frames where Poser will gradually change that value from its initial setting to the one that we set.

Step 5 - Moving along

While we are still in frame 8 we can set the Y Rotation value for the right forearm. This was 90 in frame 1, we now set this to be 95, which causes the forearm and hand to rise slightly. The next major change comes at frame 15. The Y Rotation value for the right forearm should be set at 115 which will cause the arm and hand to bend straight up quickly to throw the ball in the air.

Step 6 - Letting Go

At this point we need to release the ball by raising the right thumb. However this gives us a minor problem. If we simply set the grasp value to be 50, which will open the thumb, Poser will helpfully make changes in all of the frames from 1 to 15, gradually releasing the grip along the way. The ball would simply fall out of Droids hand if this happened.

What we need to do is go back a couple of frames to frame 13, make sure that the thumb is selected and click on the 'Add Key Frames' button.

This gives us the ability to control just when the movement of the thumb (and any other parts) begins. We need to control the closing of the thumb by using two key frames again, at frames 20 set the grasp to be 50 and then on frame 23 set it to be 20.

You'll need to use this technique quite a lot in this and most animations to control when an animation starts.

Step 7 - Swinging out

On frame 15 set a key frame for the right shoulder, so that the pivot angle is retained from its previous value (10, see step 3). Move forward slightly to frame 20 and set the pivot value back to -5. Poser will gradually move the right arm back out along the correct path for us.

Step 8 - Almost Done One Arm

We have now almost completed the basic movements for the right arm, go to frame 30 and set the right shoulder pivot value to be -5 and the right forearm Y Rotate value to be 90.

You can run the animation and just watch the right arm movements to make sure that they look more or less right.

Step 9 - Do It Again

Repeat the above steps for the left shoulder and left forearm and thumb. Make sure that the end and start positions are very close, if not identical so you don't get that 'catch up' jerk as the animation loops.

Step 10 - Waving About

Once you are happy about the basic arm movements you can tweak the other parts a little. I set the head to twist left and right and the abdomen and chest to move as well, so he doesn't look too mechanical in his actions. Remember the importance of making the settings of the last frame very close to those of the first.

Step 11 - Times Three

If you think about actually juggling, what we've done here will throw one ball and catch one ball. We really need to be able to deal with three. Fortunately the animation palette lets us copy and paste frames. Our animation is currently only 30 frames long. We really need it to be 90 frames, so change the number of frames shown in the frame counter at the top of the animation palette, from 30 to 90.

Now use the mouse to select the frames from the top left of the palette grid - frame 1 of the Body row, down to the bottom right, frame 30 of the Right Foot. Hold down the Ctrl key and press the 'C' key, click on frame 31, in the body row and again hold down the Ctrl key, but this time press 'V'. This will paste the movements into the next 30 frames. Do the same in frame 61 and all of a sudden you have a 90 frame animation.

Step 12 - Thuds

Now we need to add the balls (juggling balls are sometimes called 'thuds' - that's the sound they make when you drop them). To keep it simple just add one at a time, first make sure you're on frame 1, then add a ball from the Poser props. Scale the ball to 25% and use the YTran dial to bring it up into view. Colour it red and position it in the juggler's right hand. This gives you the starting position. You may need to play around with different cameras and all three of the Tran dials to get it just right.

Step 13- Up and Down, Left and Right

Effectively the ball will move in only two directions, Up/Down and Left/Right (you may need to tweak a little with the ZTran dial, but that's a very minor issue here). It is much easier to do the animation of the ball if you only need to worry about 1 direction at a time. Remember that Poser will interpolate between two key frames, so watch the animation and consider at what point the red ball reaches its greatest movement in the Left/Right Direction. Actually its at frame 50, by which time this ball should be in the juggler's left hand at a point exactly corresponding to its starting position in the juggler's right hand.

Select frame 50 and position the ball in the juggler's left hand.

Step 14- Moving the balls

While you will still need to tweak the Left/Right position a little you can concentrate now on making the ball follow the Up/Down path of the juggler's hand, use Poser's ability to interpolate between key frames as much as possible, but remember that the hands don't follow an exact path that will match the ball all the way. So you will need to tweak a little for different positions and parts of the path. When the ball leaves the hand it will actually follow a parabolic path, but you don't really need to be absolutely exact, just make sure that it climbs high enough to a point somewhere about level with where the eyes would be, if the Droid had eyes, before falling into the position where the other hand starts to close around it.

You may notice that my blue ball follows a slightly different path when thrown by the juggler's right hand, in actual juggling this happens more or less all the time, so you don't need to be absolutely exact, it makes it look more realistic.

Step 15- The second one

Adding the second ball is basically more of the same (make sure the second and third balls are different colours). It is easier to deal with the ball which is just leaving the juggler's left hand in frame 1 and then position it in the right hand in frame 30.

Step 16- The last ball

The most difficult ball is actually the third one, mainly because its extremes of Left/Right movement don't start at frame 1, actually they occur at frames 20 and 60 respectively, but the principles are pretty much the same.

Go to frame 20 and position the ball in the juggler's left hand, then go to frame 60 and position it in the right hand. Concentrate on that section of the animation first, getting the up and down motion correct as for the other balls.

Step 17- Almost Done

You can then go to frame 90 and position the green ball at a position almost opposite the point of the juggler's left shoulder.

Remember that in frame 1, which is the next one to be played, the position will be almost identical, slightly more to the right and slightly lower. You will finally need to do the positioning between frames 60 and 90 and also between 1 and 20 bit by bit to get them as close as possible to the movement that you need.

Step 18- The End

Play the animation and if necessary do your tweaking. Then make your movie.

Walk Designer - Designing Custom Walk Cycles

2011-11-01T17:42:30+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.

Walk Designer - Designing Custom Walk Cycles

Author: Cliff Bowman

Tools Needed

Poser 4 or higher

Introduction

This tutorial will lead you through the creation of a walk cycle for a character, which can later be used to animate that character in a variety of situations (especially following a user-defined path).

Although this tutorial uses the GIRL figure, the technique was originally developed using the African Elephant from DAZ, and is therefore not “locked in” to any special feature of any figure.

Step 1 - SOURCE FOOTAGE OF A WALK

This tutorial will cover how I create a custom walk cycle for the Walk Designer. This isn't the ONLY WAY to design a walk cycle, just one that I have found produces reasonable results.

I start with some video footage, prepared so that it shows a view of the kind of walk (elephant, woman, tiger - whatever) that I wish to reproduce. Ideally one would have at least 2 clips (from different angles - for example, from the side and from the front) each of which would have 30 unique frames and one extra frame, which is simply a repetition of the first frame.

In this instance the “source footage” of the kind of walk I need has itself been created within Poser 5 and rendered out. Producing source footage of other creatures requires a little more effort, and may be covered in another tutorial if desired. The source footage is stationary - that is, the subject remains stationary within the video clip - and can be computer generated, captured from film, or hand-drawn stick-figures.

Having loaded the figure I need to create the walk cycle for, and set the number of frames to 31 I set the Document Display Style to “Outline” and load the side source footage.

This produces a very nice and useful reference for our efforts (which we can clearly see) but we can still improve on this considerably!

Step 2 - ALIGNING THE FIGURE WITH THE FOOTAGE

To make working with our figure easier, set the foreground colour of the Poser scene to contrast as much as possible with the background/source footage. Here I have used black as this shows up well. Search through the animation to find a pose which most closely matches the figures initial pose - here I have found frame 8 appears to be closest to a standing position.

Now that we can see our figure clearly against the background, ensure the Left Camera is selected and use the controls indicated to position the camera such that the figure matches with the background image as well as possible. Bear in mind that the “Hip” is key to Poser figures, as the base part of the model. Since we're designing a walk the ground and feet are also key - so if there is a “compromise” to be made in fitting, do your best to match hip and feet first, with other body parts (like the arms and head) matching less well.

You may well find that setting the values to the scaling and positioning dials to easily-read quantities (x.yyy, or x.yy, or even x.y) will be useful. Once the position is good, save the camera (to library or camera dots - or even jot them down on a notepad if the numbers are simple!!) and delete the key frame. Return to frame 1 and set the camera up correctly (load from camera dots, camera library, or type in the values you jotted down).

Step 3 - RINSE AND REPEAT

Now switch to the Front Camera (or for some situations you might want to use the Top Camera), load in the background video that is shot from the front (or top!), and basically repeat Step 2. If you made very simple easy-to-repeat changes to the position dials then you can probably just type in the values for DollyY and Scale, as I have here, but if you didn't or if the footage doesn't match up QUITE correctly with the figure, adjust the CAMERA position until the hips and floor level line up correctly. Don't forget to ensure that there are no camera key frames left over by accident on either front or side cameras before we continue. You should arrive at Step 4 with the Front Camera selected and the timeline set to the first frame, as depicted here.

Step 4 - SHAKE THE HIP BONE

Everything starts at the hip in Poser - and even more so in the Walk Designer. If your model doesn't have a “hip” part then it's going to struggle in the Walk Designer. So we start with the hip - the right leg is forward so as well as referring to the source footage behind the model, think about what is happening to the hip at this point in the walk cycle. The hip may be raised or lowered from default position, is likely to have shifted over to one side (more for balance than to “be sexy”), perhaps the hip has twisted slightly, thrusting the right leg forward. Don't worry about getting this EXACTLY right first time, just do a reasonable job - we'll review it later.

Make a note of your settings (or save them or…) and move to frame 16. Set the same values here, but reverse anything except Y translation. So you get the “mirror” position.

You should switch to the Left Camera and import the side-view background video and check the hip position at frames 1 and 31 too. Although I don't feel the need to move the hip backwards or forwards at this point if you DO move the hip at all don't forget to check the same positions from the front view again. Work the two views back and forth until you're reasonably happy with the two positions. Make sure you're using the front view, on frame 16, before continuing with Step 5.

Step 5 - ENSURING A SMOOTHLY LOOPING CYCLE

Load up the Animation Palette by selecting it from the Window menu…

A Select the Hip, frame 1, and then Copy.

B Select the Hip frame 31.

C Paste.

D Down at the bottom of the Animation Palette, move the “final” arrow from frame 31 to frame 30.

This creates a copy of the settings for frame 1 at frame 31, which will result in a nice clean 30 frame animation which loops very smoothly back to frame 1.

Close the Animation Palette, and play the animation. Concentrate on the hip area, and make sure it flows as you'd expect before we move on. Make sure to regularly copy frame 1 data to frame 31 throughout the remainder of the tutorial to keep the animation smooth. If IK was turned on for feet or hands, you'll probably have a rather geeky dancing character now - a bonus animation! Turn IK Chains off before proceeding with the next step.

NB For the ultimate in smoothness one could work on the middle 30 frames of a 90 frame sequence instead of the first 30 frames of a 31 frame sequence. In both cases we would restrict the playback to 30 frames, and in both cases we would eventually save just those 30 frames. However, the extra detail of dealing with 90 frames would increase the complexity of this tutorial without adding sufficiently to the quality of the animation. You may choose to work at 30/90 instead of 30/31 and adjust any frame number references accordingly.

Step 6 - POLISHING THE HIP MOVEMENT

So far the movement is deliberately simple, and is all produced at the hip. Now we need to add more data points to the hip movement to create a rounded, more realistic movement for the hips. There are two basic methodologies to this. The first is to select a frequency - every three frames, or every five frames (for example) and adjust the hip parameters at that frequency (e.g. frames 1, 4, 7, 10, 13, 16 and so on). The second method is to wind backwards and forwards through the animation spotting “key” moments in the animation, and setting values only as required. This second method relies somewhat more on experience with Poser animating than the former “plodding” technique so I would recommend choosing your route based on your own evaluation of your abilities at animating in Poser. I would however recommend doing the front view first, then the side view, then checking both until no further changes are required for that point before moving on to the next frame you intend to adjust. Do not make the mistake of setting key frames too closely together - it is very easy that way to end up with some very uneven movement that can be a nightmare to find and fix. Save your work often, with unique filenames.

I've used the “methodical” (OK, plodding!) approach, and sparingly - putting values at every 5 frames, except for the yTran value which I have set at extreme points (high and low). At any point it can be useful to use the “Graph” editor to check how smooth your movement is. Open the Graph either by double-clicking a dial on the “Properties and Parameters palette” or by selecting it from the “Window” menu.

For me the Graph window always opens up displaying ALMOST (but not quite!) what I want to see. Grab the “handle” at the end of the “Scrollbar Thumbtack” (A) and drag it right to display the entire animation (B). Note that it CAN be difficult to make out frame numbers when you display too much in too small an area - but you can zoom back in again or select the desired frame number in various ways. Note too that you can select a specific parameter not just within from the dropdown list in the top right corner of the Graph window itself, but also by clicking on dials in the underlying “Properties and Parameters palette” (C). You can even change body part or even figure and the graph window will update with the current selection :)

The point of all this, of course, is that you can readily see exactly how smooth or jarring any specific parameters movement is. It's incredibly easy to select frame 9, enter a value, then select frame 25 and enter the same value, or to drag the value points up and down (even select a range and move it forward or backward in time). Get to know the graph - it's a very valuable tool for animating in Poser.

Note that I prefer to create “perfect” movement or models to start with, rather than asymmetric ones. It's much easier to add imperfections to a “perfect” (stylised/symmetrical) animation or model than it is to take an imperfect/asymmetrical model, pose, or animation and make a perfect/symmetrical version of that - or to make a completely different asymmetrical version! A “perfect” generic walk cycle should be devoid of “characterisation” that does not (or may not) apply every time you want to make that figure walk, and would act as a good base for more interesting variations once we've finished the generic walk. On this basis you'll probably find that you can only match your source footage about half the time. The rest of the time there will be visible differences because you're creating a symmetrical walk, and the camera angle, or the individual walking on film, or (so on and so forth) have resulted in a realistically asymmetrical walk. Bearing in mind that we can come back to the Hip later if it turns out not to be “ideal” (it probably will), let's close the Graph, briefly use the Animation Palette to make sure that frame 31 is an exact duplicate of frame 1, and move on :)

Step 7 - MOVING DOWN FROM THE HIPS

Now we need to start moving down the body, working on each joint for the whole animation as we go. In my case, because I'm using GIRL to create this walk cycle, my next body part is “rButtock”. For other characters it might be “Right Thigh” or similar. In any case we want to work on just one body part, and work it front and side as we did with the hip until we're satisfied with the movement of the hip and buttock from all angles. Ignore the left leg for now - and the arms too for that matter. They will come later :)

Continue to work your way down the right leg, each time taking pains to pose the current body part relative to the hip and everything in-between but largely ignoring the rest of the body, until you come to the foot. The foot we shall take special care over, and exactly what happens there will dictate any adjustments we need to come back and make to the hip movement (and POTENTIALLY buttock, thigh, shin).

Step 8 - THE FOOT

Before we truly begin Step 8, let's have a quick overview as it's potentially confusing.

First we'll discuss and setup some techniques for making the foot animation easier.

Secondly we'll animate the foot.

Thirdly we'll see how this impacts what we've done to date, and go back and tweak our earlier work to better fit the final foot animation.

LOOKING ALL AROUND

For the first time in this tutorial I'm going to insist we use another camera - the Posing camera. This camera has the beneficial distinction of not animating - so wherever you place it on a given frame, it will be in the same position in all other frames. This is quite beneficial when developing animation sequences! Set the Display Style to something a little more visible - Texture Shaded or Smooth Shaded, for example, and switch to the Posing Camera. Reposition the Posing Camera so that it's below the figure looking up, and make sure that Ground shadows are turned on. You should see that the Ground Shadows are clearly visible, but are broken whenever a part of the body (such as the left foot in the image) breaks the surface. This is Poser 4's hidden “collision detection” feature, in effect, and we can switch to and from this camera regularly to see whether our feet are reaching the ground or not. It is debatable whether we would want the feet to QUITE break through or not - a model with no shoes might benefit from JUST breaking the surface to simulate the flesh “squishing” as it impacts, while a model that might want to wear shoes, or which has hooves or is robotic, would likely want to remain completely above the ground at all times. the decision will be a matter for your artistic tastes and the requirements of the model you make a walk cycle for.

POSER 5 COLLISION DETECTION

Poser 5 has much better collision detection built into the program. If you have Poser 5 and a faster computer than mine (or a lower polygon-count model than GIRL) you may wish to add a square or a Ground Plane (A), turn on Collision Detection for all body parts (right foot, rToe, Square prop or Ground Plane) and either set Show Intersections (which does as it says, showing collisions in red) or Collisions On which in theory prevents 2 items with Collision Detection turned on from intersecting. It would seem inadvisable to turn this feature on with 2 objects already intersecting. Although I've used this feature in the past, Poser 5 SR4.1 performs this feature on my new notebook only grudgingly, and manipulating dials becomes a painful exercise - rather like trying to extract a rhino from a pool of treacle, in fact. So although Poser 5 can technically help here I will stick to using the visual check of body parts intersecting ground shadows. Much faster!

ANIMATING THE FOOT

Now, returning to our walk cycle, we animate the foot. Proceed exactly as we have for the hip, buttock, thigh, and shin. This time in addition to trying to line up with the angles of the body in the source footage we have the additional task of trying to ensure that the foot makes contact with the ground when it is meant to (and ONLY when it is meant to) without passing THROUGH the ground. This ideal state - of the foot landing, moving backwards, then lifting cleanly from the ground is unlikely to happen correctly on your first go. The legs may seem too long, too short, or too numerous (grin). Don't worry - this moment has been prepared for.

RAISING THE HIP (OR LOWERING IT)

Once you've satisfied that the foot is moving correctly against the background of the source footage - that the animation is correct but the floor is stubbornly in the wrong place - we return to the Hip, and referring frequently to the Posing Camera adjust the hip's yTran values so that the body is at the correct height at all times, neither flying nor smashing the foot through the ground. Check through the animation frame by frame as well as playing it, and work through from hip to foot as many times over as required for you to be happy with the movement before proceeding to the next step. When the foot is connecting “perfectly” move on to the toe or toes, moving them at just the right time to prevent them from poking through. The added realism of having the toes bend correctly when a character walks is well worth the effort. It might be so subtle that you don't even notice it - one of the key clues to success (Big obvious things people notice - usually because they look faked!).

Step 9 - ANIMATING THE SECOND LEG

It's taken us eight steps to get here, but we've finally made it to the second leg of our project. Ahem. So far it has been mostly a case of manual labour, even if we did manage a little copying due to the symmetry of the hip movement. But here we suddenly take a huge leap and copy the right leg movement to the left leg… So lets bring up the Animation Palette and get started.

If the left leg area (A) is not blank (apart from frame 1, which is always a key frame) please select the whole area and delete everything within it. Then increase the number of frames to 65 (B) to give us plenty of room - remember, only the first 30 frames will actually play anyway.

What we want to do now is copy everything that we've animated for area C to area A. There are a few problems though which mean it's not going to be quite that easy. For “Traditional” Poser models we can copy a body part at a time: select frames 1-31 in C, copy, select frames 1-31 of the left-hand associate of the body part and paste in A and paste. Repeat down the body parts.

However, models which use the “INJection” technology have added a lot of parameters to each body part which, if copied and pasted in this manner, results in mayhem. To work around this we have to open up each body part (click the little black triangle next to the body part name) and select the parameter we want (e.g. Twist or Side-side or Bend) and copy that, doing the reverse in section A. Repeat through all the parameters you've set (I've used just those 3) and then repeat THAT down the body parts from buttocks to toes.

Oh dear! GIRL appears to have had a SkyBike accident. Poser can be quite good at automatically translating between left and right, but sometimes… well, let's go in and fix it. It's failed to reverse the “Side-Side” and “Twist” parameter values for every body part. It's simple but tedious to go through the body parts adding a “-” on every key frame for Twist and Side-Side that doesn't have a “-”, and deleting the “-” on those that have one. This reverses all of the twists and side to side motions, so that now we have what looks like a GIRL about to perform a swan dive. Save at this point if you haven't already, if only to keep this nascent bonus pose.

Play the animation through, from the side as well, and ensure that the legs are moving “in synch”. Once it looks like you've evened up the movement (bearing in mind that the hip movement will make the animation slightly askew) select the entire left leg area, as shown in the figure, and drag it right so that frame 1 ends up at frame 16. Having done this, select what is now the column of lButtock to lToe at frame 31 and copy. Select the column lButtock to lToe at frame 1 and paste. Select the block of lButtock to lToe from frame 32 to frame 45 and drag it left so that it occupies the block from frame 2 to frame 15. Phew! If you want you can reduce the number of frames back down to 31 (I do this). Close the Animation Palette and play the animation - let's see what we've got! well, I've got a fairly nice walking animation, except that the upper half of the body isn't done and her feet slide through each other - she's got oversized feet! So I'll go back and edit the Side-Side motion of the buttocks, to bring her legs out a little further, then I'll recheck that her feet are hitting the ground and play the sequence from at least front, side, and a perspective camera before proceeding.

Step 10 - MOVING UP FROM THE HIPS

Essentially now we work our way up the body from the hips. Abdomen first, then Chest, Neck, Head. Then work out one limb - Right Collar, Right Shoulder, Right Forearm, Right Hand. Copy the arm movement to the left arm and make corrections, exactly as we did for the leg, playing and saving frequently.

We have reached a crucial stage - we're almost done, but the next few seconds can make the difference between a great design that sometimes works and a wonderful walk cycle that works as reliably as Walk Designer does. First, save your file with a unique filename (so as not to lose any earlier work) then “Add your pose” to the Pose Library - anywhere except in the “Walk Designer” folder. Save all frames (1 to 31).

Having done that, load the Pose (“Apply Library Preset”, in Poser terms) at frames 31 and 61, adding to the number of frames in the animation each time. Using the Animation Palette to change the playback frames as we did earlier, but this time play from frame 31 to frame 60. Make sure that “skip frames” is turned off and play the animation checking for smoothness (turning Skip Frames off will most likely vastly slow down the playback and ensure that you cans see any problems with the animation).

Assuming all is well with the animation, select “Resample Key Frames” from the Animation menu, and set the key frame frequency “1” (so every frame will be a key frame). Playback the animation, ensure it's running smoothly.

This “every frame a key frame” step is necessary to allow users to try different variations of a walk with different timings. As every frame is a key frame the “old” version will always be completely overwritten (at least, to the end of the sequence - if you change GIRL from a slow walk to a fast run then there will be some remainder of the old slow walk after the run has completed). Add this final version of the walk cycle to the “WalkDesigner” folder in the Pose library, saving out frames 31 to 60! The reason for doing all this is that, as you're no doubt aware, Poser cannot judge what pose a character was in before frame 1 or what pose the character will be in after the last frame in an animation. We've been using an extra “frame 31” to smooth out the animation all the way through this tutorial, but if we have more frames after the animation AND a duplicate copy of the sequence BEFORE the animation then Poser has more than enough data to produce the “best fit” cycle sequence in the middle. When we set keyframes to every 1 frame, this locked the nice, smoothly looping frames to the appropriate values - and so it's this middle segment (frames 31 to 60) which contain our “perfect” walk cycle.

CLOSE POSER before restarting (this is especially important with Poser 5), then restart it. How well the various “tweaks” and blends may work with your new walk and figure, if at all, will depend on how different both are from the default Poser human figures AND on how closely your walk resembles the default human walk in Poser. Obviously a cow isn't going to respond as well to the walk designers various features as, say, a toon young lady is, simply because it is drastically non-human! The IDEAL situation to creating fully-featured walks for a character would be to craft several walks - normal, run, sexy and so on, although it seems unlikely that any one person would find all of the “usual” walk types interesting/useful, so ignoring some variations and perhaps coming up with some new ones would be a sensible approach.

Switching Camera in Poser

2011-11-01T17:42:30+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.

Switching Camera in Poser

Author: DanaC78

Tools Needed

* Poser

Introduction

For those who played with Vue 5 Infinite in animating, they probably know what I am talking about. For the uninitiated, this is a method of change a point of view on the timeline so in one animation render, you get all the different angles you wish that before required you to understand Editing software. However, this method is not available in Poser, so it is a little discouraging. However, like a lot of things, there is a trick that can be employed to simulate the effect. The only difference between Vue 5i, and Poser is that in Poser, we will only be using 1 camera. I know you must think I am mad, but bear with me, this will save hard drive space that would otherwise be filled with multiple takes in different angles. It will also save you time in rendering cause you don't have to start stop start stop. Press that render button, and let it fly! :) One disclaimer: This is meant for those who are familiar with Poser Animation.

Step 1: Creating the Animation

This step depends on your skill of setting up animation with your character, and scene. Since Basic Animation escapes the scope of this tutorial, I shall refrain from expanding too much on it.

For the sake of exercise, create sixty frames in the timeline bar towards the bottom. You can use any amount of frames for this method, this is just an exercise.

The next part of this step is to create motion. At frame 1, pose your figure. At frame 30, pose the figure again, and repeat at 60. This should give you enough motion in the character to complete this step.:) Moving on.

Step 2: Working with the Time Line Editor

What we need right now is the time line editor. If you have the timebar open like it was in Step 1, you will see a little key-like icon that looks like the thing in red . Click on that and you will get:

If this is the first time you seen this editor, don't panic. You might even be able to use the techniques I will go over in other facets of animation.:) In here, you will see every keyframe ever made up to this point.

For this exercise, we will be using the dolly camera. Click on the word, and it will highlight it, then we are ready to have some fun.:)

Step 3: Setting up Switching Cameras in Time Line Editor

I know after looking at the Keyframe options (spline, linear, constant, break-spline), you are probably worried right now “Which one do I use?”

I will tell you what you shouldn't use, and that is Spline (the green one with waves). The reason for this despite the fact it will be in the EXACT same position, it will try to transition between the two keyframes with what Poser THINKS you are doing. For instance, say you set Camera at point in Key 1 and 30, and the angle and position exactly identical. Rotation, it will take your rotation of 180 (for sake of explanation), go to 1 at frame 15, and then go back to 180. Yea, that yucky. I often avoid using it.

So for camera switching, I would recommend using Linear and Constant. Constant will remain the same till there is a change, and Linear will animate from one point to the next. If there are no changes between Frame 1 to 30, then nothing will happen, but Linear gives you the option of animating the camera whereas constant will not. Depends what you want to do.

Moving on.

What I would like you to do now is to create the first keyframe. Frame 1 is already created, so go to frame 30, and create a keyframe by clicking on either the Linear Box or the Constant.. So Dolly Camera will go from Frame 1 to Frame 30 to animate the camera, although nothing happening (unless of course you want to and selected Linear;) In which case, use frame 30 to move, swerve, whatever to the camera that will show on screen. Back to topic:)).

The next part of this step, is the next keyframe, frame 31. I want you to select it, and add a keyframe there. You should see something that looks like this:

Now you can close the Timeline editor for now by clicking on the tiny grey box on the upper left hand corner while keeping frame while keeping frame 31 highlighted on the Dolly Camera for the next step.

Step 4: The Switcher-Roo

This is really a shorter step then Step 3, I promise.

What I would like you to do is to move the camera to a different position. I trust you know how to do this in your version of Poser.:)

Now what I would like you to do: Click on the Play on the Animation Box at the bottom. Watch what happens. By the time it gets to frame 31, notice the change? WOOHOO! The beauty of it is: You can do this multiple times. The only reason I had you do 60 frames is to give you enough frames to look at the effect. Now imagine the rendering.;) As long as the dolly camera (or any camera you choose after this point) is selected, the animation render will go through with it.

Step 5: Further Note

This is more side note then an actual step. The gist of this tutorial was covered in those four steps. For those with Premiere, Vegas, or any other Video Editing Programs, this is where this gets very useful. You might notice it gets a little sharp in transition between frames 30 to frame 31. I understand that. However, you could break apart these in your editing program, and create multiple events based on ONE file, instead of having file after file, after file.

This is really all there is to it. Happy huntin..:)

Depth of Field in Poser5

2011-11-01T17:42:30+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.

Depth of Field in Poser5

Author: semidieu

Tools Needed

Poser5

Support Files

dof.zip

Introduction

This tutorial will show you how to simulate a real camera, using the depth of field feature of Poser5.

Step 1 - How to set the ' Focal Distance '

Create your scene.

Load a ball and parent it to the main camera (assuming you're using the main camera to do your render). You can change the ball size if you want, it doesn't matter.

Place the ball at the point you want to focus on. I recommend using another camera to do this.

Load the python script in Poser5

and copy/paste the value in the ' Focal Distance ' in the render options window.

Step 2 - How to set the ' F-Stop ' value

Since the effect of any given F-Stop value varies with the focal length of the camera, there are no hard and fast values that work every time and you will have to test out various values. However, the greater the F-Stop value is, the smaller the effect will be.

Here is a comparison of renders taken with various F-Stop values with a camera focal of 38:

If you increase the focal of the camera, you will have also to decrease the F-Stop value. If you don't, the effect may be too strong.

Step 3 - How to render

Don't forget to check the “Depth of Field” option in the render options window.

To get a better quality render, you will have to increase the pixel sample, which unfortunately also means an increase in render time.

Step 4 - One example

For this picture, I also set the “Post Filter Size” to 3 and the “Post Filter Type” to Sinc. Only 21 hours to render…

No postwork, except resizing the picture (original size: 592×718)

Thanks to my friend Mark for correcting my horrible English again…

Creating Realistic Facial Expressions

2011-11-01T17:42:30+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 Realistic Facial Expressions

Author: Naniette

Tools Needed

* DAZ Studio

* Poser

* Victoria 3.0 or model of your choice

Support Files

*default.zip

Introduction

In this tutorial I will show you how to create more realistic looking expressions, a very common mistake people make is just posing the mouth, when we usually use our whole face to express how we feel. I will cover the main expressions: Sad, happy, surprised, angry and scared. It is mainly for DAZ Studio users but it can be adapted for Poser.

When creating a facial expression we have to think about what we want to achieve with the character we are posing, is it a realistic looking character? Or a cartoon character? What is this character like? This really affects how the expression should be, if we are going for a more realistic look, we wouldn't want to give our character an extremely exaggerated smile.. It just wouldn't look natural. In this tutorial I will focus on realistic expressions.

One thing that helps is, as funny as it may sound, looking in the mirror while you make different expressions, and see what parts of the face you move. And how your face looks when in a ~neutral expression'. A good practice exercise is to take someone's picture, and try to recreate their expression.

Anyway let's begin, start DAZ Studio (or Poser) and load Victoria, you can use a morphed Vicky if you want, I will be using her ~normal' face, we will be creating our own ~Default' expression, what I mean is, how our character looks when she is expressionless.

You may notice I have not included the exact values I used for every expression, this is because what I am trying to do is help you create your own expressions. I have included a pose preset of my default expression. (DAZ Studio).

Step 1: Default Expression

When creating your own default expression, consider the personality of the character you will be creating. Is this person usually happy? Or is he/she more serious? Save this expression for we will go back to it a few times! Here is mine, I made her eyebrows arch, made her smile a bit, and wince her eyes. Also close her eyelids a bit for a more relaxed look. I have also put the frown on negative values (don't overdo this or it will look ridiculous) to make her mouth curve upwards. As you can see it is a subtle expression, it's meant to be a rather neutral one.

Step 2: Saving Expressions

In Poser go to the expressions tab, if you want, create your own folder, if not just save it in the default one, choose add to library and write a descriptive name.

In DAZ Studio choose save as - pose preset, navigate to your content folder ( or create your own folder inside the content folder) and write a descriptive name, I named mine default.

Make sure you save it to your content folder (or your own folder inside it), DAZ Studio won't read your file if you put it anywhere else, this dialog box should appear

Choose morphs and click OK. Your new expression can be found under the Studio folder in your content tab.

Step 3: Expressions ' Sad and Happy

Let's start by making her look sad..

Here I have made her frown, used the brow worry and brow frown morphs, an important detail in people's faces, is that we usually don't put both eyebrows at exactly the same height, we may bend one more than the other, or bend our mouth more to one side, the only parts of the face that usually do go in the same direction are the eyes. I made her blink more and put the wince1 morphs on negative values, to widen the eyes a bit.

For the mouth I made her frown, a little more to the right side, and put the smile1 and smile2 to negative values. Also I made her pucker her lips a little.

A common problem with expressions is the eyes, they are really important when creating expressions, they say the eyes are the windows of the soul' so they should reflect how your character feels.

Let's do something with her eyes..

Much better! I have rotated the eyes to the side, and closed her pupil a little to make it look like she is looking at something. Also I moved her eyebrows down a little, to give her a sadder look, and I used the lipdown purse to make her lip move up a bit.

You can experiment with this, try moving the eyes in a different direction, moving the eyebrows up or down, to create unique expressions. The more you practice the better results you will get!

One important detail of the eyes is the pupil, if we see something that we like, the pupil dilates, if we see something that angers us or something we dislike, it tends to constrict (close). Also the effects of light on the pupil, will make it open or close. To read more of how a human pupil works go here or if you wish to know about the anatomy of the eye go to this page.

If you want to create realistic looking characters, reading a bit of information on the human anatomy will help a lot!

She's looking so sad, how about a happy face?

There are as many types of smiles as there are people, some smile with their mouth closed, while others open it showing their teeth, if you look at someone's face when he/she smiles, you will notice once again that the mouth doesn't bend the same on both sides, we raise our cheeks and the eyes seem to wince.

First I go back to the default face' now let's make her smile!

Here is the result.. I made her eyes close a bit with the blink morphs, and wince a little, one thing I should mention is that the wince1 and wince2 can be combined to create different looks, for the mouth I have used the smile, smileright, smileopen morphs, and open mouth, don't overdo the smileopen or you will get undesirable results! I have dilated her pupil a bit, not much (5.6), just enough to make it appear like she is looking at something she likes.

Let's make her smile with her mouth closed, for this we go back to our default face and start from there.

This is how mine turned out.. I used all the smile controls except for smile open, as you may have noticed, we should combine all the different controls to get better results, another morph I used is the LipLowPurse to raise her lower lip a bit, and the LipUpPurse to lower her upper lip, which is something I've seen some people do when they smile.

We can improve our expression by moving and/or rotating the eyes and of course we have to pose her! (Which should be usually done before, but since the tutorial is about expressions, I skipped the posing.)

Let's continue with the next step..

Step 4: Expressions ' Surprised and Angry and Scared

When people are surprised they tend to raise their eyebrows, widen their eyes, open their mouth and drop their jaw. Surprise is a difficult to capture expression, even in real people, for it is a rare occasion when we really are surprised. We can be surprised for different reasons, it can be due to fear, or happiness, etc. Ok, let's continue. As always I go back to my default face. And from there I got to this

I made her eyes widen by moving the blink and wince morphs to negative values, the brows are arched and raised, (BrowArch, BrowUp), For the mouth I used the open lips and open mouth morphs, combined with the MouthO morph and moved her lower lip down a bit (lowerlipdown), I found her upper lip was too high, so I moved it down by putting the upperlipraise to negative values.

Ok let's move on to anger, when we are angry we tend to lower and bring together our eyebrows, the mouth can be closed, pressing the lips, or open widely to scream or speak with anger.

Again we go back to our default face' here's my angry face

I have lowered her eyebrows using the BrowDown morphs, and the BrowUp in negative values. Also I set the BrowWorry to negative values and increased the value of the BrowFrown morphs. This lowers the eyebrows and brings them together. I increased the EyeWince1 value, a LOT (77.6), and a bit of the EyeWince2, this gives the effect of an angry look in her eyes.

I made the nose wrinkle to add some lines in her face, for the mouth I increased the frown value a bit and the snarl, I made her snarl more from the right side, I noticed her lips looked strange so I lowered the lips, by setting the LipUpRaise to negative values (-2.4) and increasing the value of the LipLoDown morph to 13.9, the mouth still looked too closed so I increased the OpenMouth to 10.9.

Fear and surprise are related, when we are scared raise our eyebrows and widen our mouth a lot like in the surprise expression. To me it's one of the hardest to capture, here is what I have done:

It's a mixture of fear and surprise.. I used a LOT of morphs to create this expression, for the eyebrows I increased the value of the following controls: BrowArch BrowUp BrowFrown and BrowWorry. I set the Blink and Wince1 to negative values to give her eyes a wide look. I made her frown, again a bit more from the right side, I made her mouth open, (OpenMouth 40.4) widen and I increased the values of the MouthA and MouthO morphs.

Step 5: Other Expressions

Of course there are many other expressions, but these are related with the basic expressions, if you learn how to capture the basic ones correctly, you are perfectly capable of recreating others.

Step 6: Pose lighting and expression

Pose lighting and expression should complement each other, we stand depending on how we feel, it is also a way of expressing, a pose can inspire sadness, power etc. As for the lighting it can make or break a scenes mood.

In my opinion you should always pose the character before modifying the expressions

Step 7: Don't overdo it

We want our expressions to be clear and precise, so that the viewer can identify what our character is feeling, yet we don't want to overdo the morphing of expressions or we will end up with unwanted results. If you are doing a cartoon character, you can exaggerate a lot more, as cartoons are usually based on exaggeration. Here is an example of an expression gone too far:

Her forehead is wrinkling way too much and it just doesn't look right. This is one of the things we want to avoid.

Step 8: Conclusion

Thank you for reading this tutorial, I hope it was useful for you. Remember that when creating realistic character, studying anatomy can really help us, and observation can be one of our greatest tools! I think you may find this site useful, it has TONS of information on human anatomy and expressions from a scientific point of view.

Cross-Talk Solutions for Past and Future Poser Figures.

2011-11-01T17:42:30+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.

Cross-Talk Solutions for Past and Future Poser Figures.

Author: Mysticalwarrior

Tools Needed

Poser4 or Poser Pro Pack
And a Text Editor

Note

The Cross-Talk bug was fixed in Poser 5, P5 and later versions on longer suffer from Cross-Talk.

Introduction

This Tutorial will give useful information on how to modify your Past Poser figures to prevent 'Cross-Talk' and Ideas on how to create Future CR2 Files that will Prevent 'Cross-Talk'.

Glossary of Terms used in this Tutorial

This is a short glossary that explains some of the words that are mentioned throughout this tutorial.

FBM (Full Body Morph) A Full Body Morph is a group of single morphs within a figure combined together as one dial in the Figure's Body. A FBM can be considered as one morph dial that controls several other morphs of the figure's body parts.

'TargetGeom' A line in the Cr2 that shows what the internal name of that particular Morph is. Before a morph is loaded into a body part, Poser asks what the name of the morph will be. Whatever name you choose will be the internal 'targetGeom' name aswell as the external name of the morph. The External name is the name that is seen on a morph's dial in poser. If a morph dial is renamed in poser, the internal morph name will still remain the same. This will be further explained below.

'Cross-Talking' A situation that occurs in poser 4 and poser Pro pack when two figures that have the same FBMs and 'targetGeom' names are present in a Poser scene together. Cross-Talking will cause two or more Figures with the Same FBMs to copy one another. It also could prevent two or more similar Figure from being used in the scene.

MOR Pose A MOR Pose (Morph Pose) is a pose file that has morph dial settings. A Morph Pose will change the Morph dials of a figure if the Figure has any of the Morphs that the MOR Pose is set to change.

Step 1 - Preventing 'Cross-Talk' in Past Figures.

In order to prevent Cross talking in past figures, you will need a text editor with the ability to 'Find' and 'Find and Replace' words. This may take time depending on how many morphs the figure contains. Have the text editor do a 'search' or 'find' to Locate a 'targetGeom' sentence. On the same line as the 'targetGeom' sentence there should be a morph name next to it. The morph name will most likely be named after the morph it relates to. By changing the names of all of the Morphs next to the 'targetGeom' Word, the Actual Morph name (Which is directly below the targetGeom line) and the FBM names, Poser will treat it as a new figure and it will be capable of working in poser without cross-talking with the figure that it is being changed from. However, if the newly created Figure is loaded in a poser scene twice, the two of them will experience cross-talk.

NOTE: DO NOT CHANGE THE 'targetGeom' word, only the morph name that is on the same line as it. Then change the name of the Morph Which should be next line below the targetGeom line.

This image shows an example of what the “targetgeom” line looks like. The name of it morph is beside it on the same line.

This image shows an example of what the

Morph name line looks like. This is the name of the morph dial that will be shown in Poser.

Step 2 - The Renaming Process

When you are individually renaming all of your 'targetGeom' Morphs and FBM names, give them all a common name. Example:

Before targetGeom Twister After targetGeom Twister_Master

Before targetGeom Open After targetGeom Open_Master

Before targetGeom Flap After targetGeom Flap_Master

In the Example above, all of the morphs have been renamed to end with the word '_Master' With all of the morphs ending with a common name, it will be easy to make additional Cr2 files that will not cross-talk with one another. After all Morphs have a common ending, a simple 'Find and Replace word', will completely change the common ending thus quickly creating another Cr2 that will be accept in Poser as a different Figure. do this repeatedly until you have as many as you would like to have in a poser scene together.

NOTE: Only one renamed Figure can be loaded in a poser scene. Afterwards another renamed Cr2 must be entered in order to prevent them from cross-talking one another.

Change the Figures name to some unique instead of Figure_1, Figure_2, Figure_3 etc.

NOTE: When renaming a CR2 file make sure you do not use a name that is already common in a CR2. Examples, xrot, yrot, zrot, trans, weld, or numbers sequences. Think of something that is unique or you could use _Master.

Step 3 - Preventing 'Cross-Talk' in Future Figures.

Cross-Talk can be easily prevented in new figures that do not have morphs added to them. All that needs to be done is adding a common ending to all of the morphs as you load them in your figure. Whether you load your morphs individually in Poser or using special utilities like 'The Tailor', giving the morphs a common name will save time in the Renaming Process of a CR2 file.

Step 4 - Creating MOR Poses for Renamed CR2 Files

When you create a renamed CR2 it will no longer accept the MOR Poses of the Figure in which it was derived from. To use the MOR of the figure that the renamed Cr2 was derived from, you will have to simply rename the MOR Pose exactly as the derived CR2. The MOR Pose does not carry as much information as a CR2 file which make it a little easier to rename. Also, a MOR Pose might not have settings for every Morph which also make it easier to rename.

Step 5 - Conclusion

This tutorial will help solve the cross-talking issues that are experienced in Poser 4 and Pro Pack. With time a patience, one could rename any of their past CR2 files. Remember to create morphs with common suffix names which will allow a CR2 to be quickly modified and prevent 'Cross-Talk' in the Future!!!

Custom Stripped CR2s with Morph Manager

2011-11-01T17:42:30+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.

Custom Stripped CR2s with Morph Manager

Author: Dama

Tools Needed

Poser 4 or higher
Morph Manager (Renderosity FreeStuff)
Original OBJ file for Millennium 2 character of your choice

Support Files

StrippedCR2s.zip

Introduction

CREATE YOUR OWN CUSTOM STRIPPED CR2s

Method 1: Easiest

Using Poser and Mason's “Morph Manager”

PLEASE NOTE THAT THESE CR2s ARE YOUR YOUR OWN PERSONAL USE ONCE MADE. THEY ARE NOT DISTRIBUTABLE

Why create a custom stripped CR2?

Many of us use Poser to do animations, comics, and other multi-figure compositions. Custom stripped CR2s load faster, eliminate crosstalk, and utilize WAY fewer system resources than full CR2s.

Just remember that any of these type of CR2s you create are for your own personal use ONLY.

Step 1 - Make your character in Poser

Launch Poser and open/create whatever character you'd like to make into a stripped CR2. Make any final adjustments and tweaks, and once you have the character set the way you want it, SAVE IT. Then select any body part affected by your character's morphs.

Now go to Object in the top menu and choose Spawn Morph Target from the drop down menu.

In the box that pops up, type your character name in the the text entry area and click OK. A new dial will appear at the top of the parameter dials for that body part.

Repeat the Spawn Morph Target action for each affected body part. You shouldn't usually need to mess with the hands, fingers, toes, and not usually the feet, either. Don't forget the head and neck!

When you have spawned morph targets for all affected body parts, save the figure to your Figures library in your own folder so you'll be able to find it in a few minutes.

No need to save the PZ3 with the extra morphs. You can just close out Poser.

Step 2 - Use Morph Manager to transfer Morphs

Now launch Morph Manager. (Morph Manager is available for free in the Renderosity FreeStuff. Just do a search for either Mason or Morph Manager and it should come up.)

Click Load File on the left side, and in the window that pops up, navigate to your Runtime/libraries/character/ directory and find the CR2 in whatever folder you saved it in.

Your character will load in the large space on the left side. On the other side, click Load File and navigate to the GildedGecko folder and choose the appropriate Stripped base CR2.

On the left side, in the hierarchy for your character, click the '+' box next to a body part, then the '+' box next to MORPH TARGETS.

Now find your custom morph–it should be at the top of the list, but it's not always. RIGHT click on it and choose Copy from the pop-up menu.

The morph will copy to the corresponding body part on the Stripped side. You can go to that side and check the hierarchy to make sure.

Repeat the MORPH TARGETS/Copy action for each affected body part. When you're done, click Save File on the Stripped CR2 side, and save your custom stripped character. I add the letters NM (No Morphs) after the character name in my own folder, but you can choose any naming convention that works for you.

You're done! You can go back into Poser, find and load your new custom stripped CR2, set all the character dials to '1' and apply the textures, hair, etc., then resave to the figure library to generate an RSR file.

You can also delete the original CR2 that you made in the first portion of this tutorial, as you don't need it anymore.

Custom Stripped CR2s with a good text editor

2011-11-01T17:42:31+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.

Custom Stripped CR2s with a good text editor

Author: Dama

Tools Needed

Poser 4 or higher
Good text editor like Crimson Editor
Original OBJ file for the Millennium 2 character of your choice
Mason' Morph Manager (maybe)

Support Files

StrippedCR2s.zip

Introduction

CREATE YOUR OWN CUSTOM STRIPPED CR2s

Method 2: Tedious but smaller file size

USING POSER and A GOOD TEXT EDITOR

PLEASE NOTE THAT THESE CR2S ARE FOR YOUR OWN PERSONAL USE ONCE MADE. THEY ARE NOT DISTRIBUTABLE.

Why create a custom stripped CR2?

Many of us use Poser to do animations, comics, and other multi-figure compositions. Custom stripped CR2s load faster, eliminate crosstalk, and utilize WAY fewer system resources than full CR2s.

Just remember that any of these type of CR2s you create are for your own personal use ONLY.

Step 1 - Make your character in Poser

This method for creating custom stripped CR2s is much more labor intensive, but it results in smaller CR2s–saves about a megabyte versus Method 1. For most uses, it might not be worth the tedium involved, but I'll show you how to do it. Since the morph targets themselves take up less space, if you use them to make morphed clothing, the morphed clothing will also have a smaller file size.

Launch Poser and open/create whatever character you'd like to make into a stripped CR2.

Make any final adjustments and tweaks, and once you have the character set the way you want it, SAVE IT.

That was the easiest part. Now it gets tedious. Be sure to pay attention to every step while you're doing it, because it's even more work to fix a mistake.

Step 2 - Exporting morph targets

Go to File in the top menu and choose Export, then Wavefront OBJ.

In the box that pops up, make sure Single Frame is selected and click OK.

In the hierarchy menu box that pops up, click the X in the box next to UNIVERSE to deselect all. Then start at the top and click ONLY the box next to Hip. Click OK.

A save window will pop up. Find or create a place to put this and the rest of the morphs that you'll make in a few minutes. I usually create a new folder called CharacterNameMorphs. After the character is made, you can go in and delete the folder.

Choose a name for the OBJ file. It's usally easiest to name the file the same name as the body part to make things simpler. Click Save.

In the next box, unclick whatever is selected, and select ONLY “As Morph Target (no world transformations)” Click OK.

Do the same thing for the remaining affected body parts, being careful to click ONLY the body part you want in the hierarchy menu and click ONLY As Morph Target in the final box.

You shouldn't usually need to mess with the hands, fingers, toes, and not usually the feet, either. Don't forget the head and neck!

When you've exported OBJ morph targets for all affected body parts, save again and close out Poser.

Step 3 - "Squishing" morph targets

Those OBJ files you just exported contain a LOT of un-needed data that will only take up space in the file size. 'Squishing' morph targets takes out all that superfluous data for the smallest file size possible.

Open your text editor. Then click Open and navigate to the folder where you saved the OBJ files. Open the first one. When it opens, you'll see a few lines of comment, and then a slew of lines beginning with “v” (minus the quotes).

Scroll down to where the lines start to begin with “vt” (again, minus the quotes). Highlight that box and press Shift/Page Down until you get to the bottom of the file. You'll go through some vn and f lines. Hit Delete. You only need the v lines. Click Save.

Repeat for each OBJ file. Again, pay attention that you don't inadvertently delete a v line. You need all of them.

Step 4 - Back to Poser

Now launch Poser again, and load up the corresponding Stripped character.

Select a body part, such as the head.

Go to Object in the top menu and choose Load Morph Target.

In the box that pops up, click locate.

Now navigate to the folder where you saved all your OBJ morph files and choose the corresponding OBJ file. Click Open.

In the Label text entry area (where it says shape1), type in the name of the character. Click OK.

A new dial will appear at the top of the parameter dials for that body part. Set it to 1.

**IF you get an error message saying that the target geometry has the wrong number of vertices, it probably means you either deleted a 'v' line by mistake, or inadvertenly clicked the box next to more than one body part when exporting the OBJ files. Write down the body part and go to the next one. You'll have to go back and re-export the OBJ files for the problem ones.**

Repeat the Object/Load Morph Target action for each affected body part and set each new dial to 1 to be sure it works. If it does something funny, just write down the body part and forge ahead. I'll tell you how to fix it in a minute.

Don't panic if you're working your way down the body and you get something that looks kind of scary. It's just the difference between the default body and your character body. Keep going, apply the morphs to the body parts on either side and set those dials to 1. The scariness should work itself out, unless, of course, it's MEANT to be scary If it still looks wonky, write it down.

When you've imported all the OBJ morph targets, SAVE the stripped character to your own folder in the Figures directory as a CR2. If you had no problems, CONGRATULATIONS! You're done. You can apply textures, hair, etc, and save again to your Figures directory.

IF YOU DID HAVE A PROBLEM, don't sweat it. Open the original character file from the beginning of this tutorial and export OBJ morph targets again for the problematic body parts, being extra careful. When that's done, close out Poser, open your text editor, and take out the VT, VN and F information, just as before, again being extra careful.

Now you have to delete the problematic morphs from the CR2 you created in the last step of the tutorial (if the morphs still looked scary and you didn't intend it). Poser won't overwrite the old ones, it will put in a second set. You can use Mason's Morph Manager to do take out the first morps. Open the file in Morph Manager, locate the problematic morphs, right click and choose Delete. Resave.

Now launch Poser again, find the CR2 in your Figures library and import the fixed morph OBJ files. Set the new parameter dials to 1.

Everything SHOULD now work. Resave to your Figure directory.

Editing Poser files on a Macintosh

2011-11-01T17:42:31+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.

Editing Poser files on a Macintosh

Author: xalthorn

Tools Needed

Poser
Maconverter

This is for Mac OS 9 or earlier. Since Mac OS X 10.5 there is no way to use OS 9.

Introduction

One of the most annoying things I find as a Mac user is the problems encountered when I try to edit some of the Poser files such as the .CR2 and .pz2 files.

This tutorial will demonstrate a nice and easy way to allow you to edit the files just as PC users do.

The tutorial assumes that you know where these files are and that you actually want to mess around with them.

Step 1 - Get the tool

I spent a while messing around trying to write my own tools, and then I discovered that the 'Poser Maconverter' from http://www.soft-rabbit.com does everything I need to do.

So, go to the website and grab yourself a copy of the software if you haven't already got it for importing PC Poser files into your Mac version of Poser.

Step 2 - Make a backup copy

Always, always, always make a backup copy of the file you are going to edit. Even if you just make a copy of the file on your desktop and then delete the copy if everything went well. The last thing you want is to be left without a working file.

Making a backup copy means that if it all goes wrong, you can put the original file back and start all over again.

I cannot stress this enough. Make a backup copy. If you don't and things go wrong, you've only got yourself to blame.

Step 3 - Convert the mac format file to PC format

Run Maconverter ready for your file. Now, using the 'Expert' menu, select the 'Export to PC…' option.

Drag your Poser file to the application and untick the options until you only have the ticks that I have in the picture below.

Once it all looks fine, click on 'Convert' and after a short while, you should see the following screen showing that the conversion went fine.

If you now look at finder, where your original file was, you should now see two files. The original file and another .rsr file which holds the resources for the file.

Step 4 - Edit the files

Now you can edit the file in a text editor. This tutorial is not going to cover how, that's for the other excellent tutorials that already exist.

When you've finished making the changes to your file, you can move on to step 5.

Step 5 - Convert the files back to Mac format

Run Maconverter ready for your file. Now, using the 'Expert' menu, select the 'PC to Mac Conversion' option.

Drag the two files to the application; the file you have edited and it's .rsr file.

The default options should be fine, so just click on 'Convert' and wait for it to finish.

If you now look at finder, where the two files were, you should now see one combined file with the correct Poser icon.

This file can now be put into the correct position in the Poser file structure (if you moved it in the first place), you can now run Poser and see if your changes worked.

Step 6 - So why do I need to do all of this

I thought it would be worthwhile taking some time to explain what's going on with all of this, and why we need to mess around with all this converting in the first place.

Most filesystems (the PC for example) are nice and straightforward. A file exists, and the whole file is the data for the file. Basically, what you see is what you get, nothing is hidden.

The PC requires that a file is given an extension (.pz2, .CR2, etc) to identify what type of file it is and therefore which program it should be loaded into. Also, the icon for that filetype is determined for those files as a whole, all files of extension .CR2 will have the same icon and so on.

Now we get to the Mac. A file can have an extension or not, your choice. For simplicity and to help you keep track of what is what, it makes sense to keep an extension on the file, but it's not required.

A file has two hidden values that are important to the running of the thing. A file type and a file creator. These identify what type of file it is and what program created it.

A Mac also has things called 'forks'. Not used for eating, but they contain important parts of a file. There are two forks, the data fork, and the optional resource fork.

It used to be the case that the data fork would contain the actual file data (just like a PC) and the resource fork would contain the other information such as the file type, the file creator, the icon, and whatever other resources the file needed. However, to improve things, files have started to place the resources in a special part of the data fork. This part of the file is not seen when the file is loaded into a text editor, and is actually a special part of the file.

You *can* see this part of the file, and you can even make a copy of it should you want to. The resource part is reached by adding /rsrc onto the end of the filename (Cat.CR2/rsrc for example).

Now this sounds all fine and dandy, but when you load a file into TextEdit for example, and then save the file. The resource part of the data fork is overwritten meaning that Poser can no longer 'see' the file. It's also not very straightforward to reset the file type and creator which would allow Poser to see the file. There are many free programs on the internet that will let you do this, and with a little effort you can get Poser to see the file again. However, the icon will have gone and the wonderful, colourful icon that was in the Poser listing becomes a shrugging man.

Not nice, but at least we can avoid the issue by converting the file to PC format before editing and then converting it back.

Pose Creating Basics

2011-11-01T17:42:31+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.

Pose Creating Basics

Author: westonmi

Tools Needed

Poser

Introduction

A quickie tut on the basics of creating poses in Poser.

So you've got your model posed and you want to save the pose for later use, but not sure how it's done? Then let's get started creating that pose file…

*NOTE* Generally figures are posed while nude, but for this tutorial I put some clothes on V3.

Step 1 - Creating your own Pose folder

First you'll need to create a category, or folder, for your poses. {see image below}

A) So let's open the Library menu and click on the Poses header.

B) Click on the Folder title to open up the folder list.

C) Now scroll all the way down to the bottom of your pose list till you're at the very bottom and click on the “Add New Category”.

D) Now you should have a little window pop-up like in the image below. Give the category a name and click OK

Step 2 - Starting the process

Navigate to your newly created category by clicking on the Folder title to open up the folder list and scroll to your new folder.

A) Down at the bottom is a plus sign for adding things to a category. Click on the plus sign to start creating your pose file. {see image below}

Step 3 - Default settings

A window will pop-up asking for the name for your pose file. Give your pose a nice descriptive name.

A) Click on the “Select Subset” button.

B) The Hierarchy Selection window will come up showing the items that will be included in the pose. The default settings are generally good if you have a character or prop that you want in a specific spot in a scene. {see image below}

Step 4 - Partial poses

For poses that you don't want the character or prop in a specific spot in a scene or you want just a specific body part (like a hand), you'll need to uncheck the Universe box (this will uncheck everything also).

A) Now you will need to check the boxes for the body parts you want included in your pose. {see image below}

Click OK on the subset window and the name window..

Step 5 - Morph Channels

Next a window will pop-up asking if you want to include the morph channels in your pose. For general poses you will want to select no (this will allow you to use the same pose on different models), but if you want to save the settings for a character or an expression then you would want to select yes. {see image below}

Step 6 - Frames

Another window will pop-up asking if you would like to save a single frame entry. For general posing purposes the single frame is fine. Click OK. {see image below}

Step 7 - Finishing Up

Now Poser will do it's thing and soon you'll see your pose appear in the new category you created. {see image below}

Now you'll need to check how your new pose file works, but first do a quick saving of your scene (File > Save As) just in case. Then select another pose and then apply your new pose…if all goes well your character will go into your pose with no problems.

So there you have the basics of creating poses. :D

Unkinking IK

2011-11-01T17:42:31+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.

Follow Me With Those Pretty Eyes

2011-11-01T17:42:31+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.

Follow Me With Those Pretty Eyes

Author: CandeeKis

Tools Needed

* Poser 5

* Poser 6

Introduction

For this tutorial I'll use Aiko, but this will work for all of your characters.

Step 1 - Pose Your Character

What you want to accomplish is to make your characters eyes follow the camera as you pose and move her. This way it doesn't look as if she's a mannequin in the department store window. A human being 'model' often moves about but still looks at the camera.

In this illustration Aiko has been posed but is staring ahead at ??? anyone knows! That's great if you are wanting to do this, but if you want those eyes to move to look at the camera when you move her about this is how.

Step 2 - With Your Figure Selected

With your FIGURE Selected, go to BODY PARTS and select the LEFT EYE

Step 3 - Next go to OBJECT/POINT AT

At the top of your Poser screen go to OBJECT/POINT AT

Step 4 - And Choose

Now Choose MAIN CAMERA. What this is doing is connecting that eye to the camera.

Step 5 - Repeat Steps 3 and 4

Repeat steps 3 and 4 but this time choose the RIGHT EYE

Step 6 - Now Look At Those Eyes!

Isn't that much more realistic? Those eyes moved naturally to follow the camera just as a real live person's eyes would.

Step 7 - Now Move and Experiment

Now let's experiment a little and see what happens with those pretty eyes when we move Aiko about.

Select the FIGURE and the BODY

Step 8 - Go to your Parameter Dials

Go to your parameter dials, and select Y Rotate, with that Figure/Body Selected and rotate her a bit.

Step 9 - "Y" Rotate That Figure

“Y” Rotate your figure a bit and now look at how the eyes are following the camera.

Step 10 - Move Her A Bit More and Bend Her Head

Move her, and bend her head a bit. See the difference in her eyes?

That's all there is to it. Now you can make your character look much more alive and natural.

I hope you have fun and success with this method.

Morphos Tips to create different characters

2011-11-01T17:42:31+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.

Morphos Tips to create different characters

Author: dorkati

Tools Needed

Poser
Morphos-The Character Maker (at DAZ)

Introduction

You can use Morphos to create your own character. But with default settings you can only make small changes.

For better result you need to make some changes in Morphos files.

Don't worry! Don't need any software to do this or programming knowledge. Only a text editor and Morphos.

Step 1 - Prepare your work

Open Poser and load your figure. Now I used Aiko3. From file menu run Python script:

Runtime/Python/DAZ/Morphos/PrintMorphNames.py

Copy the morph names

From this library open the needed Morphos.charName file, for example Victoria3 if you wish to change it.

I made changes on first Aiko file what I made sooner. I made in same way as I see in Victoria3 file, so this was simple too. But later I tried many options and variations so I know it better.

Step 2 - content of a Morphos file

This is the time when you need to know more about content of a Morphos file.

You see separated parts.

HEAD

BODY

Into HEAD section need to insert all head morphs.

Then you see this for example:

Character~head~-0.5~1.0

“Character” is a description, ~ sign separates the parts, “head” is means that the dial will change on actor head.

After that you see 2 values. These are the range of variations. The dial's value will be set between -0.5 and 1.

You can change these values if you want to see more dynamic changes on head (or other body part)

Step 3 - Create Morphos file

Now paste the printed morph names into this text document. Delete unneeded parts and keep only morph targets' names.

Then drag and drop (or cut and paste) to the right place.

The morph targets on head need to placed in HEAD section under Character~head~-0.5~1.0 line. (Check an original file for sample)

Place the body morph targets under BODY section, under this line:

Build~BODY~-0.5~1.0

Now you can begin to make changes.

If you started with an empty text document, don't forget to insert this into first line:

DIRECTORYNAME:DAZ Morphos

At first separate eye, nose, mouth, ear, head shape, expressions and phoenemes morph targets.

If you do this, you can turn off later in Morphos if you don't want to change the eyes or ears,

only head shapes. For example create characters, than you pleased with head shape but don't

like the eyes or lips. Now you can turn off head shape parameters and what you don't

want to change and keep only eye or lips line.

And now you can change only those.

If you want to create your own expressions, turn off all morph sliders and keep only expressions

slider.

These changes gave more variations and possibility to your morphos file. But these are only little changes. You character will be better, but it is not enough to create strongly different characters.

Step 4 - Make dynamism

Next step is replication.

Select Head (I named headparts) section with eye, nose, lip, ear morphs, copy and paste again and again. Do this 3-4 times. I usually use 6 head sections with different values.

You will see this in Poser.

In this case you can turn off some main head parts slider if you don't want large differences, only soft changes.

Step 5 - Replicate - another way

The other way is if copy only one part, for example full head (or only eyes…nose…), copy and paste into same head section 4-5 times.

In this case you will find this and you can turn off all of full head sliders with one click (with main slider)

Separate this way the BODY morphs too.

Separate as torso, full body, breast, upper and bottom parts.

Copy and paste them some times for better results.

Step 6 - Use it and see the results

If you change the value at sliders, you will get more varieties.

Check some sample results what I got. I turned off those parts' sliders what part was good enough for me. And followed the changes on other parts until I got these characters.

(I used same way to create my Character Creation Kits for Aiko and the Girl and Dot)

If you have any question, feel free to contact me

garfighd-fantasy3D@yahoo.com

Winging Your Angel

2011-11-01T17:42:31+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.

Winging Your Angel

Author: Cris Palomino

Tools Needed

Poser 3 or 4

Support Files

Step 1 - Getting Started

Poser Arcana was recently asked to do a tutorial on “Parenting” angel wings on a figure. Hokusai's wings were requested for the example. I will be using both Jeff Howarth's and Phil Hokusai's wings in this tutorial.

If the set-up below looks slightly different than yours, it is because I use Curious Labs' Poser Pro Pack. One of the features I love in this program is the ability to set up more than one camera view. It really aids in posing and lighting. This is Digital Art Zone's', Victoria model with various morphs to adjust her to the look I wanted for my angel. I get my morphs from many places (DAZ and Morphworld are probably the places I frequent most often).

From my figure directory, I have selected and set up my Victoria with a 3-way view using the Face, Main and Top cameras. I have completed my pose with lighting and am ready to render her to see if I like it.

I like the effect and am ready to continue. But wait, you say, a bald angel? Some of you are even saying, and no clothes? Well, I like to paint my hair and clothing, so that's for the next part of this tutorial which goes on to post-production options. Stay tuned. If you have them, and so desire, by all means use hair models and clothing props from Poser's libraries or ones you can purchase or download from the generous Poser community. Check Poser Arcana's resource section for listings.

Please note: I am not fond of redoing work, so at this point I save my figure as “angelewings.pz3”. This allows me to reload her with all her morphs, lighting…everything in place.

Step 2 - Adding the Wings

As you can see, I have a few sets of wings in my Figure Directory. Look, there's Robin Wood's amazing Dragonfly Wings and Thorne's Rag Wings. There's Phil Hokusai's Wings, which we use later in the tutorial, and the ones I want right now by Jeff Howarth.

I select Jeff's wings and using the double arrow, I add them to my figure. If you do not use the double arrow, you will end up replacing your figure and will have lost your pose if you have not saved it as a PZ3 that you can reload.

Notice that my wings have come in dead center to my stage. Now, my figure is already occupying that area.

Below your window, you will see two arrows. On the left side is the list of figures you have in your stage. You can change the names of your figures to keep them straight by going to the Object menu and selecting “Properties”. I have re-named my “Figure 1” (if you look at the first illustration) to “angel”. Unfortunately, my angelwings would not allow me to rename it for some reason. To make matters more confusing, the name wouldn't even show up. Well, you work with what you have and the lack of name became the way I actually identified when I had the wings selected. The arrow on the right, gives you a pull-down menu which shows you the various parts of your figures that can be selected and posed, as well as cameras, and props.

Using the two-camera set up, I select the main body of Jeff's wings which allows me to move both wings as a single unit. Now, it is important to take a look at your models when you first get them and become familiar with what your modeler has given you in the way of parts to move. In the case of Jeff's wings, he has given you a left and a right wing, but no mobility within the wings themselves. On the other hand, Hokusai's wings provide, in addition, three separate sections within the wings themselves which can be posed. Jeff's wings are a diamond shape and Hokusai's are of a longer variety. The look of the wings, the pose you desire, and perhaps the texture maps you have, will determine which wings you eventually use.

I began to move Jeff's wings to try to position them the way I wanted. You can see how nice it is to be able to view from the Main and Top cameras simultaneously.

Closer, but still need to get them right.

I decided, as I got close, that an additional view with the back camera, would assist me for the final placement. Voila!

Step 3 - Parenting the Wings

With the wings in position, I now want to “parent” my wings to my angel figure. By “parenting”, I let Poser know that I want the wings to move with the figure from now on. Now you can do this step earlier, but I find that “parenting, after I have everything in place works fine for me. Select the wings' Main body part and under the Figure menu, choose “Set Figure Parent”.

A dialog box will appear with the body parts of your figures. Select the chest on your angel figure and click on it once to select it (the lettering will go into white letters). You have now parented your wings to your angel.

Now you can move your angel and the wings will dutifully stay tied to your figure's apron…er…shoulder strings.

With the wings in place, I save my file to preserve all the settings, and do a test render. Were you wondering what all those dots were in the wings? Jeff's wings had “transparency” already set up and you can see it is wonderfully effective in the render.

Step 4 - Changing the Wings

I'm going to change out Jeff's Wings with Hokusai's Wings. Make sure you select the Wing's main body and use the single arrow to “change figure”.

One of the differences between Jeff and Hokusai's Wings is that Hokusai's has a Center block. You can make it invisible right away or, as in this tutorial, use it to aid you in placement. I used the 3-way view and moved my wings into place; the center block visibly moving through the angel's body.

Of course, unless you think it makes for some exotic adornment, we can make the block invisible by selecting Hierarchy from the Window menu. Find the center on the AngelWingS model and close the eye to make it invisible. It's as simple as that.

For the final render, I selected the outermost part of the angel's left wing (remember, Hokusai provided three movable sections on his wings) and moved and rotated the wing tips up a bit to brake the tangent that had been created where the fingertips were touching the wings. It just didn't make a good silhouette, but it is purely subjective.

The other thing to note is that Hokusai supplied his wings with just a neutral grey for the wing color. I decided to go into the Materials palette under the Render Menu. I changed the materials of both upper and lower(the feather fringe) parts to white. Just to see how it would look, I set the transparency on the lower part to a setting similar to what Jeff Howarth had on his wings. And here is my test render with Hokusai's wings.

Step 5 - Wrap Up

Parenting has many purposes. It is what allows a rider to sit on a horse and move with the horse by parenting the figure's hips to the horse's abdomen. Taking it a step further, it also does the same if you decide to make the rider and horse one, as in a centaur. In that instance, you parent the hip of the human figure to the horse's chest having made the human invisible from the hip down and the horse invisible from the neck up (probably make upper neck invisible and not the lower neck). Experiment. It's what makes it fun.

"Add a Background!" Tutorial

2011-11-01T17:42:31+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.

"Add a Background!" Tutorial

Author: Broken Angel

Tools Needed

Poser4
Propack

Introduction

With all those wonderfully background images available (bought or self-made) nowadays, in this tutorial we want to add a background image straight within Poser and render it, so it won't appear pixelated in the final image like it odes happen when you just import it as the background in your preview window.

Plus, this gives us a lot more control what part of the background image we want to use!

Fire up Poser and set your figure up, for now a base scene will do, you can change the whole thing later on at any time.

Light always depends on the scene you have in mind, but if you can set it up now, too.

Step 1 - First, we need the image in the scene!

What we need is that ONE SIDED SQUARE prop that is hidden in the PROPS library. I think it's naturally under PROP TYPES, but since I rename about everything in my libraries….just correct me if I'm wrong here.

Alas…

Once you've added the ONE SIDED SQUARE prop to your scene, it's time for some texturing and resizing.

Step 2 - Texturing and Resizing the prop

Call up the MATERIAL settings and change the colors for the Square to the ones I did.

Apply your background image as a texture and resize the prop to approx. the size the image has.

Example: For an image that is 1200 pixel wide and 800 pixel high, set the xScale to 1200%, the yScale to 800%, the overall size to around 75%, and ignore the rest. Move and rotate the prop as you need it for your render.

Set the prop's Object, Highlight and Reflective Color to black, and Ambient Color to white.

That will eliminate any shadows being cast onto the prop.

Now go to the prop's Properties (double-click it) and switch off cast shadows for the prop.

We don't want any shadows on a background image that's simulating a wide open space now, do we? :) It certainly does look funny…

Step 3 - Tidbits and wrapping up

Render your image to the desired size.

Here I placed both renders next to each other for comparison.

The pixelated effect on the first render (right) is good to see within the purple circle.

Why does a background image appear pixelated when you simply paste in to the back of the display window?

Well, it happens because Poser 4 (not Poser 5*) resamples the background image to your display window's current resolution. So, if your display window is set to 320×320, the background image is scaled down to that resolution. Even when you render to a new and bigger window, the resolution won't change too much to give us a better background image.

Hope that helped, if there are still any questions left, feel free to drop me a line!

Broken Angel / Ange

'05

An Introduction to Photographic Lighting In Poser 4

2011-11-01T17:42:31+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.

An Introduction to Photographic Lighting In Poser 4

Author: Syyd

Tools Needed

Poser 4 Pro Pack

Introduction

When you first load Poser it will automatically load the default lighting setup. Although this setup has many benefits like lighting the figure evenly to enable easier posing and setup of your figure, it really is only very basic and consists of 3 infinite lights and no spot lights. This is equivalent to three naked light bulbs of various colors and at various distances. It lacks mood and drama and if at all possible should not really be used in serious rendering. One of the problems that I have found with the default lighting setup is that it produces dark vein like marks on the skin of figures. Using spotlights seems to lessen this effect considerably.

Step 1 - Key Light

The first light that we will add is called the KEY Light and is used to give what photographers call 'modeling' to the subject. This light can be used to add incredible drama and mood to an image. This produces very 'hard' shadows, and although it can be used on it's own it can also be too harsh for many subjects. This light is usually placed high to the right or the left of the figure, directly pointing at the figure.

Step 2 - Fill Light

The second light that we will add is called the FILL light. This light is used to fill the shadows on a figure, thus lightening them. This light is usually placed just above and behind the camera, pointing down at the subject. It is very important not to cast double shadows, so turn off 'shadows' in the FILL light preferences.

Step 3 - KEY and FILL Lights

Change your camera views to see the KEY and FILL lights.

Step 4 - Adding the Side Light

The SIDE light is a supplementary light and is used mainly for adding a hint of color or as a hair light. Turn off the shadows on this one too. Care should be taken when placing this light as it is possible to place it too far to the front of the figure dominating the “KEY” and “FILL” lights.

Step 5 - Drama and Expression with One Light

In this part of the lighting tutorial I will try to give you some insight into how to create more drama and expression with only one light. When you think about it, taking photographs outside in a natural environment you are actually only using one light: The Sun.

We have all seen those photographs of people shot in dark rooms where the figure is illuminated by slats in a window. Imagine a dark room with a small hole in the wall letting a little light in. This lighting effect will simulate what happens when the figure moves gradually further away from the source of light. We will be using only one spotlight. To control the effect we will use the “Angle End” dial in the translation roll out for our single spotlight called 'KEY' light.

Step 6 - Single Source Lighting

You can make dramatic images using only light source as well. See how working with a single light source adds drama to an image. Lets start by adding a light to the left side of the image. To do this, we'll work with the KEY light angle end parameter.

Step 7 - Narrowing Your Light Source

With the “Angle End” dial set to 10.000, the effect of the light being cast on the face is small and reletivly sharp. There is a lot of contrast as the rest of the face is in total darkness. The figure looks like she is hiding, or spying from a darkened corner.

Step 8 - Expanding and Softening

With the “Angle End” dial set to 20.000, the effect of the light being cast on the face has expanded and softened somewhat revealing a little more of the face. This is similar to what would happen if the figure moved a little further away from the light source.

With the “Angle End” dial set to 50.000, the effect of the light is much more viable and similar to a 'Low Key' portrait style. Although there is still a massive amount of contrast, the face is half visible. The light coming from the left is gradually fading from light to dark. Note that the neck and shoulder area are still not visible.

Setting the “Angle End” dial to it's maximum setting of 160.000 gives the effect of the figure moving much further away from the light source. Although softer, the shoulder and neck are now visible.

Step 9 - Wrap Up

Try making a new spotlight and placing it at the exact opposite side of the face using the top and side views. Set the “Angle End” on both lights to 10.000 and give them a color. This can give some interesting results. You could try different colors. Maybe direct one of the lights onto the mouth and see what happens.

Experimentation is the key factor. Many of the best lighting setups are basic and simple. Complexity is fine after a little practice. Try to only add supplementary lights if it is really of benefit to your image.

Backgrounds with Perspective UVs

2011-11-01T17:42:31+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.

Backgrounds with Perspective UVs

Author: Valandar

Tools Needed

Poser 4 or higher

Introduction

Many artists use backgrounds either taken from a photograph, or rendered in another program such as Terragen. When we try to put our Poser figures into this background, we either have to hand draw the shadows, or find some other means to enhance the realism of our endeavors.

This little trick enables the Poser Artist to incorporate his figure into a background image, and advanced use of the technique can even work no matter how cluttered the image!

Step 1 - Setting the Stage

Okay, the first thing you're going to need is a background image. I rendered a quick terrain with a nice, flat foreground and a hilly background. To get it into the program as a background, click File - > Import - > Background Picture, as shown in the image above.

Next, we need to load our figure. For this demonstration I used the DAZ Troll, but anything will work.

I also loaded the “Square Hi_Res” from the Primitives folder under Props. This will replace the ground plane for this tutorial. Note to Poser 4 users: The “One sided square” under “Prop Types” will not work effectively with this tutorial - you need a flat plane with multiple polygons for it to work right.

I then oriented the camera until the flat plane was at roughly the same angle as the foreground in the picture.

Next, I started scaling and moving the “shadow catcher”, as I'll call the flat plane, until it pretty much covers anywhere a shadow may fall. In this case, I covered almost the entire foreground of the image, when I really didn't need to.

Step 2 - Catching the Shadows

Now we get into the fun part. Make CERTAIN you have the camera angle you want before the next step, and save it to either a Camera Dot, or the Cameras library!

For the rest of this tutorial, I am using “Main Camera” as my production camera.

Select the “shadow catcher”, and click on the icon for the Group Tool. This icon is the one highlighted in the image above (P4 users will not have the additional icons after the Group Tool icon). This opens a window as also shown in the picture above, with a drop down box and multiple buttons.

Step 1 ) Click on New group, and give it whatever name you want.

Step 2 ) Click on “Add All”. This includes all of the polygons of our “Shadow Catcher” into this new group.

Step 3 ) Click on “Create Perspective UV's”. This takes a “snapshot” of the mesh from the camera's point of view, and adds mapping coordinates based on this view.

Once you have finished all three, close the Group Tool window. WARNING! Do NOT move the production camera after this step!

Now that we have the shadow catcher remapped for our scene, it's time to texture it. If you're looking in the production camera, and have it set to show the textures, this step will make the shadow catcher seem to disappear!

Simply make sure all of the color swatches except the Diffuse color are black, and the Diffuse Color is white. Then assign the same image as used in the background as a Diffuse texture. The P5 Material Room settings are shown above.

Now, using the Posing or Aux cameras, or just about anything except the production camera, pose your figure, and adjust the lighting to taste.

And voila! Your figure is in the scene, with the shadows dropping on the “ground”!

If your background is cluttered with things that might catch shadow, but don't fit the simple flat plane, you have two primary options. ALL of the following instructions take place before using the grouping tool, but after orienting and scaling the shadow catcher ground plane:

Hills / slopes:

Use magnets on the shadowcatcher to lift polygons in the approximate area of these hills. They should roughly follow the flow of the hills, in order to get the best possible results.

Debris / objects:

Find primitives that are vaguely the same shape as the debris, orient them to their equivalent in the image, and tweak them with the scaling and taper dials until they match as close as you can. Each primitive so defined should also go through the steps to turn it into a “shadow catcher”. Leaving “Cast Shadows” turned on for these extra objects will help you make sure you are catching the correct lighting angles, but this can be turned off to keep the integrity of the original shadows. If no primitive fits the object, it is very possible that a combination of primitives might, or magnets may be used to adjust the shape of the primitives.

This may take quite a bit more work than the examples above, but trust me, it's worth it.

Balls of Light

2011-11-01T17:42:31+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.

Balls of Light

Author: xalthorn

Tools Needed

Poser

Introduction

Quite often, a scene needs an object as a light source, whether it is a simple object or something more complex, having to move lights around all of the time can become tiresome. This tutorial will show you how to create an object based light source that can be moved around the scene as easily as other objects.

In this tutorial, we'll create a yellow ball that shines. Once you get to grips with it, there's nothing stopping you changing the colours for all sorts of fancy effects.

Step 1 - Place the ball

To start the whole ball rolling (sorry, couldn't resist) we'll place a standard ball prop into the scene.

To make our lives easier in a moment, we'll also need to change the view to wireframe so that we can see through the ball.

Whilst we're messing with the display settings, let's change to the front camera and move the view so that the ball is in the centre of the display.

With the ball selected, select Properties from the Object menu, tick the 'Display Origin' option and click OK to come back to the display. Your screen should now look something like the one below.

You'll notice that the origin is actually at the bottom of the ball, not in the centre, so what we'll do now is (making sure the ball is still selected), change the OriginY value to 0.050

We should now see something like the following with the origin in the centre of the ball.

Before we move on, let's put the view back into Smooth Shaded mode and make sure that the ball is in the centre of the scene by making sure that it's xTran, yTran, and zTran value are all 0.000

Step 2 - Set the ball up

Now we need to go back into the ball object's properties and make the following changes.

1. Change it's name to yellowglowball so that we can find it in the scene easily.

2. Untick 'Casts Shadow'

3. Untick 'Display Origin'

We have turned the shadows off for the ball because it would look a bit silly if a light source started to cast a shadow.

Once those changes have been made, select 'Materials…' from the 'Render' menu.

Change the ambient colour of the yellowglowball to bright yellow. An easy way to do this is use the RGB Picker option and set the Red slider to 100, the Green slider to 100, and the Blue slider to 0.

Our display should now look something like the following.

Step 3 - Place the first light

To start off with, let's get rid of all the default lights in the scene, they'll only confuse things at the moment.

To select a light, click on it in the light controls area of the screen or select it from the drop down lists underneath the main display.

Once the light is selected, just click on the trashcan icon in the light controls area.

Once they have all gone, add a new light to the scene and then, with it selected, do the following.

1. Make it point at the yellowglowball. Do this by selecting 'Point At' from the object menu and selecting the yellowglowball from the list that appears (told you it would be worthwhile renaming the ball).

2. Change the lights parent to be the yellowglowball in the same way that you made the light point at the yellowglowball, except you select 'Change Parent' from the object menu.

3. Change the xTran of the light to -0.050

4. Change the yTran of the light to 0.050

5. Change the zTran of the light to 0.000

6. Set the Red value of the light to 1

7. Set the Green value of the light to 1

8. Set the Blue value of the light to 0

9. Set the Intensity of the light to 50%

10. Set the Angle End of the light to 160

11. Set the xRotate, yRotate, and zRotate values to 0 (just to be tidy).

Now you should hopefully have a display like the image below.

It might seem a lot of work for a relatively small effect, but it'll all be worth it in the end.

Step 4 - Add the other lights

Now we need to put five more lights in. They all need to be done in the same way as the first one. The only things that are different are the xTran, yTran, and zTran values. The list below shows what the settings should be for each light.

light 2 = xTran:0.050 yTran:0.050 zTran:0.000

light 3 = xTran:0.000 yTran:0.100 zTran:0.000

light 4 = xTran:0.000 yTran:0.000 zTran:0.000

light 5 = xTran:0.000 yTran:0.050 zTran:0.050

light 6 = xTran:0.000 yTran:0.050 zTran:-0.050

Once those are all set, you should have a display like the one below.

Step 5 - Ready to roll

That's it really. Your light source is ready to be moved around.

Just select the yellowglowball and move it around the scene. The lights will all follow it and faithfully light the ball for you.

If you find that the six lights get in your way, you can make them invisible by changing their properties (select 'Properties' from the Object menu).

Obviously, the colours of the lights can be changed. You could either change all six lights to the same colour or have some bizarre light that shines in different colours.

If you intend to have a lot of lights in your scene, you might benefit from renaming the lights to yellowglowball1, yellowglowball2 or something else equally useful.

This becomes much more important if you intend to have more than one glowing ball in the scene or if you are using one of the Complex Lighting Packs where there are a whole host of lights.

To finish off I've popped in a couple of sample renders using the light created in this tutorial.

Combine two backgrounds

2011-11-01T17:42:31+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.

Combine two backgrounds

Author: Ravenhair

Tools Needed

Poser

Introduction

Hi, in this tutorial you will combine two different backgrounds that will help you change the moods in every image that you create using Multiplane Cyclorama.

You will learn a new effect that will help you achieve dramatic results at the end, in just few easy steps.

Creating the images for the Multiplane Cyclorama template can be done with Adobe Photoshop or Paint Shop Pro. The sky has been created with Bryce 5, because its realistic looks.

So, let's get started.

Step 1 - Choosing the image you want to use

Let's start by choosing an image in which we created a transparency map.

I have created this one using Adobe Photoshop and a transparency map to go with it.

Note that for the transparency map, before making the image negative, you need to set it to grayscale instead of desaturate.

Step 2 - Loading Multiplane Cyclorama

Now, we go to Poser, and then load Multiplane Cyclorama, it doesn't matter which CR2 file you wish to load, you will change the textures for the ones that you have made for this.

Once loaded, we make sure that the transparency is set to 100% for all planes and of course, load the texture maps that you have created for this purpose (texture, bumps and transparency maps).

Step 3 - Inserting a background picture

Now is time to grab the background picture, I have previously made this quick sky using Bryce sky defaults, when I did this, I checked the document set up (in Bryce) and made it square, in other words, 640 by 640 pixels, to fit the default document window size in Poser.

Grab the background image by going to File/Import/Background Picture.

Step 4 - Rendering the image

After you have imported your background image you will have something on the screen that looks similar to this and that is because the transparencies have been set to 100%

But after you have it rendered, you will see something similar to this:

Yours probably will look different because you will use the images that you have created, remember that the main purpose for this is for you to create your own.

Quick Note: Even after you have imported the background picture, it will be useful if you turn the transparencies to 0% until your are comfortable with the camera and light settings, after that, turn the transparency back to 100%.

Step 5 - Final Words

This technique is very useful, especially if you want to create images that interact with the external environment without having to create a whole new texture map, it will save your time, and can be use for sequel scenes creation as well.

You can set your own lights and add props, characters and anything else you want, and the effects are dramatic.

Here are two more examples using different background skies.

I hope this tutorial was useful and if you encounter any problem, just email me at the_gypsy_witch@yahoo.com.

Enjoy!

Enhance your Renders in Poser 5

2011-11-01T17:42:31+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.

Enhance your Renders in Poser 5

Author: fugazi

Tools Needed

Poser 5

Introduction

Poser 5 has some really cool built in functions that can really enhance your renders. Lighting has got to be one of the real make or break features of a killer render.

This tutorial will show you how to use posers own shader nodes in the material room, to turn a hi res ball prop, into a brilliant lighting accessory.

Step 1 - Setting up

The first stage, as ever, is to set up your figure and pose it how you like. In this case I have V3 with sassy hair in a portrait shot. The lighting is set to default, except I have turned light 2 into a spotlight and pointed it at her head (Object menu, Point At then select head in the heirarchy tree).

So set up your scene, or load a favourite you have saved.

Step 2 - The Fun Bits

Now that you're all set up, open your props library and select the primitives folder. From there add a Hi Res Ball to your scene.

With the ball selected go to the materials room and click on the Grouping Tool

Now click on “Reverse Group Normals”

And close the group editor.

It's a little small to be of use, so scale up the ball until it encloses your scene. For a full figure I've scaled it up to 4000%. In the case of my protrait scene I have scaled it to 1000% and moved it along the y axis to 0.689.

Step 3 - Adding the Holes

Go the the materials room and make sure your sphere is selected.

Add a new node, 3D textures, marble and set both scale and turbulence to 3.

Connect this to the Transparency socket and set transparency to 1.

Now make a copy of the marble node and paste it back into the window, connect it to Diffuse. Now swap the base and the vein colours.

One last thing, set the Spectacular value to 0.

What we have made is basically a screen with holes in it all round the figure.

Step 4 - Finishing up

Now make sure your light is outside the sphere and pointing at your figure.

Once you are happy with that, render your scene (make sure cast shadows is turned on). You may take a couple of renders to get the effect you want. If the shadows are obscuring your subject too much, try rotating the sphere, or expanding/contracting it.

Change the colour of the light, raise the intensity, or for a more defined shadow increase the shadow map value (I use 1024) or turn raytracing on for shadows (don't forget to turn ray tracing on in the render settings).

For this image I set the intesity to maximum and changed the light colour to a soft yellow

Step 5 - Variety is the spice

You arn't restricted to a marble shader, you can use just about anything.

This image was done with a spot node.

You could use anything, including images to create the transparency. A black and white image of leaves for example, could have your model sitting under a tree.

I hope this tutorial has given you a few ideas.

Take care and have fun.

Fugazi1968 (aka John)

Faking Ambient Occlusion

2011-11-01T17:42:31+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.

Faking Ambient Occlusion

Author: [momodot@rogers.com|momodot]]

Tools Needed

* Poser

* An image editor similar to Photoshop.

Introduction

It is possible to use post-work to simulate the Poser 6 AO feature. AO is about the subtle shadows where things meet in a scene even when well illuminated: floor where the figure and props rest on it, the corners of a rooms where the walls meet, and even the eye sockets of the face or the eyes where the eyelids rest on them. Ambient light is the light that fills a scene due to the illumination bouncing off one surface onto another; think of the light that refracts off the floor and walls to fill a room with light. Ambient Occlusion is an attempt to simulate the fact that this ambient light does not find its way into every nook or cranny in a scene. The surfaces for light to bounce off are simply of less surface area in the corners of a room or where volumes are very close to each other.

Step 1: The Render and Mask

Make your Poser Render, P4 or Firefly, and export the image.
Now to make a mask for when you do your post-work in Photoshop or some other image open the Hierarchy Editor window and click off the visibility on the UNIVERSE, this should make everything in your scene invisible.
Select those elements you wish to isolate from the background, usually the figures and its/their clothing. Clicking the figure visibility should make all its many parts visible at once. Change the background color to something not found in your render, a vivid green is often used in commercial 'blue-screening'.
Render at the same dimensions as the render you intend to edit.

Step 2: Applying the Mask

After you have opened you render, open the 'mask render' image.
Select all on the mask render and copy (Ctrl+A/Ctrl+C), and then paste (Ctrl+V) on the render you are going to be working on… since the dimensions were the same for both renders the new pasted layer should be properly aligned.
On this new layer in your main render image use the magic wand selection tool to select the green background. Delete it. You now have a floating copy of the figure/foreground.
If there are shadows falling on the figure you will need to delete the mask layer and with the selection intact copy the figure and paste it so it appears in a new layer directly over the background.
Deselect all (Ctrl+D).

Step 3: Faking the AO

Since your figure if floating in a layer above your background you can now do things like use the burn tool on the wall behind the figure without having to mask the fingers or other details.

Go down to the original “background” layer and duplicate it under the floating figure layer to create a “working layer” copy of the background, set this working layer to “luminosity'. The reason you have created a working layer for the background is two-fold. It is easily reversible but more importantly, the dodge and burn tools tend to effect the saturation of colors causing unwanted distortion. If you use the dodge and burn tools on a “luminosity” layer they alter the brightness of the image but the other elements of the underlying color are not altered.
Use your burn tool with a soft brush tip on your background working layer. Darken corners where things meet, darken subtly beneath the feet or where ever else the figure meet the ground or another surface.
Experiment with using the blur tool set to “darken”. The blur “darken” can be used to tremendous effect if it is used carefully, set it at a low opacity and a smallish brush and brush along the edges.

Step 4: AO on the Figure

Now go to the floating figure layer and above it make a working layer set to “luminosity”.

Think of the nooks and crannies light would probably get into less than represented in the render; the cuffs of a shirt, The neckline and open sleeves of a blouse, where a shirt rests over pants, where the waistline of the pants go over the abdomen, beneath a watch band or jewelry, and more significantly, the neck and collar area beneath the head and even some areas of the face such as the eyes, eye sockets and teeth. I find that blur darken along the lower edge of the upper lip can be very effective.

Try not to give the crossed eye look that P6 AO sometimes gives. You can also bring up some areas of light a little with the dodge tool. Don't forget to blur “darken” the figure where it meets the ground such as at the soles of the feet.

You can use a low opacity eraser to lessen the effect of you doge and burn although using a layer mask is more adjustable. Layer masks control what is visible in a layer, it is a channel that is displayed as an icon next to its layer icon. Where it is white the layer shows and where it is black the layer is not visible… you can paint with grays to get intermediate opacities.

Step 5: Faking Depth of Field

Depth of field is a photographic effect, it is most notable when the foreground is in sharp focus and background is blurry. The depth of field is actually a span of space a certain distance from the camera. Things closer or father than that band f sharpness will be out of focus. This is due to the way that of light rays that are focused by the camera lens onto the film or digital receptors. Depth of field is also affected by the “aperture” as well, this is the hole behind the lens through which the light passes; if the scene is bright the opening can be set small and the span in focus (the depth of field) will be deep, in a dark scene the opening must be larger and the span in focus will be shallow.

Merge each of the working layers to the base layers to which they belong.
Choose the background layer, duplicate it and apply Filter/Blur/Gaussian Blur. Soften the layer as much as you want the burriest background features to be. If you overdo it a little you can reduce the effect by a little by adjusting the layer opacity.
With a large soft brush erase this blur level where the things are lined up beneath and alongside the figure, which are the same distance from the camera as the figure. Once again, using a layer mask is better than using the eraser if you can learn how to use them.
Go to the flayer where the figure floats and do some subtle work with the blur tool as needed.

Step 6: Results

Here you see the finished render after post-work. I wish you could see full sized samples of before and after side by side. The changes are subtle but the overall realism added to the scene is significant.

Step 7: Conclusion

Here are the original render, a Poser 6 AO render, and the original non-AO render after post-work. I have adjusted the levels and saturation. If you don't crop the image as you work it should be easy to soften any work you have done by super imposing the original render at some opacity.

SAVE EARLY AND SAVE OFTEN!

Frosting On The Nails

2011-11-01T17:42:31+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.

Frosting On The Nails

Author: CandeeKis

Tools Needed

Poser 5

Introduction

This is an easy way to create a pretty frosted appearance to nails and lips with the simple use of lights in the Material Room of Poser 5.

Step 1 - Here's What You Have

You have beautiful long nails, but no shine or pizazz to them. Its easy to go from dull to razzle dazzle shiny in just a couple of quick clicks, in Poser 5

Step 2 - Go To The Material Room

Click on the Material Room to open it up. Make certain you have your FIGURE selected and use the dropdown to choose the 'fingernails'

Step 3 - Adding Your New Node

A new little window opens up and what you need to do is add a new node. This is simple! Go down to the Alternate_Specular line and click on the icon. Then another small window opens up ~ Choose NEW NODE ~ LIGHTING ~ SPECULAR ~ ANISOTROPIC

Step 4 - See Your New Node?

Now you'll see that you have a new node, connected to the Alternate_Specular. I normally dont change any of the settings here, but play with it and even change the color of you want, for nifty effects.

Step 5 - The Result

Now you have beautiful frosted nails! This can also be done with lips as well, to give those dull lifeless lips some beautiful shine.

Illuminate only specific areas in a render

2011-11-01T17:42:31+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.

Illuminate only specific areas in a render

Author: adorana

Tools Needed

Poser 5 or 6
A graphic program

Introduction

This tutorial shows you how to set a light with a self-created image map for illuminating only certain parts of the render. You can paint the areas manually or select the whole figure in the scene like shown in this topic.

Step 1 - Create your scene

First you create your scene. For showing the effect, I use a simple scene with one figure and only one light from above. This light should only shine on the certain areas we like it to.

Step 2 - Shadow Cam

You change into the Shadow Cam of the light and activate the light properties with the menu at the bottom of the document window. Now you can see the Shadow Cam and change the light parameters. Each change can be seen in the camera.

Set the zRotate Value to 0 and adjust the xRotate and yRotate values until the object (Victoria) is in the middle of the window.

If your image hasn't a square form, temporary set the width and length to the same value. We will later use the rendered image as a map, and the square form fits better.

Render the Shadow Cam View with only 'Smooth Polygons' selected and save your pic as a TIF-file.

Step 3 - Alpha Channel or painting

Open your render in a graphic program like Photoshop. Go to the Channel Panel and with pressed Strg-key click on the Alpha Channel. Victoria's silhouette is now selected.

Fill the selection with white, invert the selection, and fill the new selected area with black and save the file with a new name.

Naturally it would also be possible to paint the desired areas manually instead of filling a selection.

Step 4 - Light settings in the material room

Back in Poser, select the light in the material room. Plug your new image into the Color and Intensity of the light and change the following parameters:

U_Scale = 0, 5

V_Scale = 0, 5

U_Offset = 0, 25

V_Offset = 0, 25

Image_Mapped = None

Background = Black

Step 5 - Volumetric effect

If you don't like the volumetric effect, you can omit this step.

I'd like to show the effect with a volumetric light, so I need a background. I load the DAZ3D Multiplane Cyclorama and set the material to a simple white.

Activate 'Volume_On' in the Atmosphere material in the material room and set the 'Atmosphere Strength' in the light properties to 1. (I also changed the Volume_StepSize to 0, 5.)

Now you can render…

Step 6 - The final Render

You see – only the areas that were visible in the ShadowCamView were hit by the light. The others lie in the dark. The light beams perfectly touch the arms of Victoria.

(Rendered without cast shadow to show you the image on the floor!)

I hope this tutorial was useful for you!

To use the new robot eye, import your character into Bryce. Ungroup it, delete one of the eyes, and then add your robot eye. Just scale and reposition it till it fits in the old eye's area then regroup everything. Lower the lighting a bit and you will have the great effect you've been looking for.

Perfect Portraits: Part One: Poser Setup

2011-11-01T17:42:31+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.

Perfect Portraits: Part One: Poser Setup

Author: serpentis

Tools Needed

Poser 4 or Poser Pro Pack and Photoshop (or photo editor) for post production

Support Files

Introduction

A few people have asked me to share how I create lights, especially portrait lights and images, so I've created these two tutorials, Perfect Portraits: Part One: Poser Setup and Perfect Portraits: Part Two: Postwork to help others create dazzling portrait images with your standard Poser 4/Poser Pro Pack program. Please do not ask about Poser 5 lighting as I do not have Poser 5 and have no clue how similar the lighting setup is.

What You Need:

Poser 4/Poser 4 Pro Pack

This tutorial (well that's just a DUH isn't it!?)

A portrait scene

Used in this tutorial:

Poser 4

Victoria 3 (available at DAZ3D)

Beatrice by serpentis (available at Poser Pros)

Fighter Girl Outfit by BATLAB (available at Renderosity)

Twin Chignon by Studio Maya (available at Studio Maya's website)

Files:

c4_PerfectPortraitLight.zip (30.8 KB download) (the lighting used in this tutorial)

c4_PerfectPortrait.zip (1.23 MB download) (the tutorial in html format for offline viewing)

I won't discuss how to set up a scene as I'm assuming you already have a scene set up that you're going to use to walk through this tutorial. The point of this isn't to walk you through creating the scene, but it is to get you more familiar with lighting within Poser 4.

Most preview images have been shrunk down to around 500px. Most have larger images that accompany them (@1024×768) Please click on the thumbnail to view the full size image. All images open in a new window. To return to the tutorial at any time, please close the window that opens.

If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to e-mail me or contact me at any of the sites I frequent (3D Commune, Renderosity, Poser Pros and DeviantArt), username: serpentis.

Step 1 - Lock and Load

Load the model of your choice, set morphs, skin texture, clothing, hair, props, etc. This is how MY Poser is set up, please don't think your Poser has to look identical to mine. However, I am assuming, from my setup, you will be able to find the similar tools in your own setup.

Step 2 - About Face

Select the face Camera. You can do this one of three ways. The easiest ways are to select the arrow next to the camera controls or click on the top head (between the outstretched hands) or you can select the head camera from the drop down menus at the top of the screen in the Display menu.

Step 3 - Camera Settings

In the Face Camera settings, you will want to get rid of the evil default focal length of 25. If you're not all that new to Poser, I'm sure you've seen the nasty “fisheye” effect that the lower focal numbers cause, but probably weren't sure how exactly to fix it. You'll want to leave the hither set to 0.016 for this tutorial, however; play around with it, you never know what kind of cool effect you might run into.

Now, by changing the focal number, you've, in essence, zoomed in on the figure. So, you will have to pull back on the DollyZ dial until the whole head is back in the frame.

Step 4 - Be Gone...Evil one...

Delete all lights. Poser's default lights are EVIL. Trust me, you're better off without them. ;) (If you don't know how to delete lights, click on the light in the Light Control panel and then click the trash can icon. A box will pop up asking if you'really want to delete the light, click yes.)

Your scene will show the background grey (unless you've already specified a different color or have a background of some type in there) and the foreground will turn black when all of the lights are deleted.

Step 5 - Let there be light

Step 6 -

Set the light's parent to the model's head. You can now move the light around and it will always point at the head. This is especially useful if there are more than one figures in a scene or you want to move the model around a background “set.”

This is what your scene will look like with the one, adjusted spotlight. Notice I haven't changed the color just yet.. A few things to play with when working with spot lights are the Angle Start, Angle End, Dist Start and Dist End dials. These can have dramatic influence on how the spotlight hits the model and where the light is directed. The larger the angle end, the wider the beam of light, the closer together the start and end's are, the more direct (smaller) the beam of light.

Step 7 - Let there be...more...light

Now you can only have one light, if you're happy with it. Or you can create a few more spot lights like I did. I created two more and pointed one at the model's right eye and the other at the model's left eye. I also changed the color of the lights to more the colors I was looking for. Remember, the color, angle, start and end values, and position will vary widely with the style or effect you're going for. These are just the settings I used for this tutorial.

Step 8 - Previewing The Light

Step 9 - Shadow Play

Deciding on the shadow and map size isn't always easy. A majority of the deciding factor will be your final image size. Typically speaking, the larger the final image, the larger the map size. However, I've never found a render that a map size between 2500 and 3500 didn't work for. Be careful, thought; larger map sizes increases render time, depending on what speed processor you're running and how much ram you have available on your system.

Here are the light settings and a preview render of the image used for this tutorial.

Step 10 - Lights...camera...Portrait!

Remember, when you render your final image to check Anti-alias and Cast Shadows.

Step 11 - Render Your Hearts Out

Render your little hearts out…and check out Part Two of Perfect Portraits: Postwork.

Portrait backgrounds directly in Poser

2011-11-01T17:42:31+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.

Portrait backgrounds directly in Poser

Author: dorkati

Tools Needed

Poser 4 or up
Any paint program

Introduction

I think most of people like portraits and make them in Poser. But it takes up a lot of time if you need to go to the paint program and make many postwork. If you prefer the work in Poser, do this for portrait backgrounds what I show you in this tutorial.

Sure, you need some work in any paint program, but only once. And later you need only the Poser if you want to make portraits!

Let's see how!

Step 1 - Make background prop

In Poser posing your character for portrait.

Go to the Prop library, find the Primitives and load the square prop. Change the size, because it is too small for background. I set the dials this way: size 1000%, yTran 30, zTran -250. You can change this parameters, but I prefer this settings. This settings are very good for face camera if you make portrait, not a landscape picture.

Don't worry if you see this while you set the pose (I hope you use Posing or other camera for posing but not face camera!)

With the face camera you will see this or something similar.

Step 2 - Set the background colors

In my opinion, a portrait background could be harmonious, nice, colorful, but not too conspicuous. If you use too many colors, the background will be too loud and distracts the eyes from portrait. So I think 3 color is enough. Sure you can use more colors if you like. So you need to load square props as much as colors want to use.

In case I loaded 3 squares. Adjust the dials like at first but one of them's zTrans could be -251. This square will be the base color and it must be behind others.

So apply several colors what you want to the squares. Make different colors, but notice that they harmonize with each other. I use similar colors, like dark red (RGB 165, 0, 75) as base color, light orange (RGB 274, 179, 0) and dark yellow (RGB 255, 255, 86).

Now you have 3 square, but only see the closer. Yes, you need some transparency map. Here is the time for paint program

Step 3 - Making transparency maps in any paint program

Sorry, but I haven't got Photoshop so I don't show you this in there. But here is a sample picture from my paint program.

Well, make transparency map. Create a dokument for example 800 x 800. We use square prop so this size will be fit. Turn to grayscale and set the background to black. Use layers, so you can change the layers transparency if you want. On the different layers paint some motifs with your airbrush. Use large size, 40-50 % transparency and medium-big feather. Make many different maps so you don't need to make others later. Export into your Poser- > Textures folder and go back to Poser.

If you haven't got any good paint program, or you like my maps, you can save the 2 next maps which I used for this tutorial.

If you come back some days or weeks later, I hope you will find my Portrait Background Kit in DAZ's store what I'm working on. There will be 20 or more transparency maps, some bump-maps and some useful things for Portrait-making (props and MAT poses)

Step 4 - Set the transparency

In Poser Material Room (Material Settings) set the squares transparencies. Use your maps in several ways. In this picture below you see some samples.

Only the first and second square have been transparency map. The square behind them will be the base with base color. It must be full visibility. Change the colors, variable the maps. And of course if you change the lightning set, the background will be different.

Save your background squares in Props Library (all 3 squares) and you can use it later.

Step 5 - The Portrait

And here is the final results with a portrait lightning set.

And what is the most important!

WITHOUT ANY POSTWORK!

If you have any question please feel to free contact me.

http://ghd-3D.uw.hu

Rendering an Alpha Channel Using Lights

2011-11-01T17:42:31+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.

Rendering an Alpha Channel Using Lights

Author: SnowFox

Tools Needed

Poser 5

Support Files

support.zip

Introduction

When postworking an image, things are made much easier when you have an alpha channel to make sure you don't paint areas that aren't supposed to be painted. Here's an easy way to generate an alpha channel using lights in Poser.

Step 1 - Step 1

The support file contains a light preset that you can use. First, setup and render your scene as usual (I'm using Little_Dragon's Furrette 2 and morphing beanbag chair in this example). After you've saved your render, set the background color to black, and load up the light set included in the support file, or just make your own. What you're doing is putting so much light in the scene, that everything will be REALLY bright. Hide any background objects like Cycloramas that don't need to be in the alpha channel. Also, set the difuse color of everything to white. In this image, I haven't yet set the diffuse colors. This is just to illustrate what the lights are doing.

You don't HAVE to set the colors to white, but it makes it easier to select the “blank” (black) areas of the channel if the objects are all white. Also, if there are any transparant textures in the image, either turn off their transparancy or hide them. They won't show up properly with this method.

Step 2 - Step 2

Go to render options, and select the Poser 4 renderer (if you're using P5). Make sure the image resolution is the same as the image you rendered before, otherwise this won't work.

Uncheck ALL the checkboxes. Now hit render. The result will be that everything in the scene will appear as flat white sillhouettes, and the background will be black. Now you have a perfect alpha channel!

You can also render alpha channels for individual objects to have more control in postwork. My most recent images were done with this method, check out my galleries for examples!

A Faster Method: —Comment by MPelham: November 24, 2008—

This is a good tutorial, however I would recommend deleting all lights from scene, setting background to white and rendering as usual. This requires less edits to render window, less time for setup and less overall destruction to your 3D materials. Inverting the channel is an easy process in most image editors.

Silhouettes: creating sunset/sundown scenes without postwork

2011-11-01T17:42:31+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.

Silhouettes: creating sunset/sundown scenes without postwork

Author: Vilian

Tools Needed

* Poser 4 or higher

Introduction

This came out thanks to gorgeous animal shows on TV. I truly wanted to re-create some of those settings in 3D, and suddenly found out that there is very easy method to achieve the goal - and not only fast and light on resources, but also not requiring any other tool than Poser. It can give pretty stunning results, so I'm sharing the route.

Step 1 - Preparations and precautions

The most important thing to remember about this whole routine is that it's all about outlines and ambient color.

Every time new figure or prop is loaded you have to be sure that its ambient color is set to pure black (P4/PP) or ambient value is set to 0 (P5 and up). Since textures won't be visible anyway, you can unplug every one of them except of transmaps - transparency maps create outlines of such items as hair or tree leaves.

It's up to you whether you want to delete lights just before final render, or right after creating new scene. If the latter, set document's display mode to either Wireframe (Ctrl+3) or Lit Wireframe (Ctrl+5) - screenshots are done in Wireframe mode, with all lights deleted using Delete All Lights Python script (option available from PP up).

Step 2 - Basic horizon line

For creating ground it's best to use any of morphing terrain props, but static one will do perfectly fine.

Terrain was rotated around Z axis and another prop was added, this time a mound, to create varied horizon shape.

If you find bare ground too crude, some grass props can enliven it. Arrange them without caring too much about floating about ground level - as long as they do not float above the horizon line everything is all right.

Step 3 - The characters

With base terrain ready, it's time to add the creatures. Again, it doesn't matter if the horse is way above the Poser ground, as long as its outline doesn't make poor thing look like floating above the terrain outline.

Step 4 - Scene fillers

When scene is looking too empty it may be necessary to add some fillers - plants, stones or whatever fits your type of scenery. When using transmapped plants like the ones coming with DAZ MilEnvironment remember to keep the transparencies intact, otherwise you'll get black squares instead of flowers or leaves.

Step 5 - The background

Now that the foreground shapes are ready, it's time to create a sundown background prop. It's quite easy to obtain breathtaking orange-red sun image - it may come from one of royalty-free photo pages, it may be painted or rendered, it doesn't matter as long as you have the right and idea how to use it.

Load a backdrop prop of your choice, something like square primitive will do. Rescale it to fit your image dimensions ratio - for example, if you have sunset image of 1200x800px, its ratio is 4:3, so the prop needs to be resized with same ratio to not deform the image. For default square primitive values of 4000% for xScale and 3000% for yScale seem to work best. Place the prop carefully behind the scene.

In P4 or Pro Pack go into Materials dialog and load sundown image as a texture. Set Ambient color to shade of pale gray or pure white - the brighter the color, the brighter the sky will be.

In P5 or higher enter the Material Room and plug sundown picture as Image_Map node for Ambient Color. Set the color to white, set the value to 1 or lower - the lower the value, the darker the sky will be.

Step 6 - Final steps and rendering

Final step before rendering is making sure that none of props or figures has non-zeroed (or non-black, in P4 and PP) settings for Ambient Color. If there are still any lights in your scene, it's time to delete them too, either by hand or using Python script.

These are proper settings for fast and quality render of a silhouette sundown scene. They apply to P4 Render Engine in Poser 5+ as well as in P4/PP. 'Use texture maps' option has to be checked for transmaps to be rendered, so if you need really fast render you have to manually remove textures plugged into Diffuse_Color/Texture Map.

Now hit Render and see what shows up.

Step 7 - The end

Of course one doesn't have to follow the tutorial word by word. Backdrop can be loaded at the beginning, lights can be deleted in the end, one doesn't have to remove textures at all if only rendering machine can handle them. And obviously the route described is not limited to horses only. Other animals, mythical creatures, faeries, planes, even robots - that all depends on one's creativity. I just hope this step-by-step tutorial helps someone in creating a very special and unique art.

Using advanced lighting in poser 6

2011-11-01T17:42:31+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 advanced lighting in poser 6

Author: thisstuffinside

Tools Needed

Poser 6

Introduction

I recently did a portrait render in poser and was asked by a couple of friends how i did the lighting, I have always wanted to do a tutorial so here it is. We will be using poser`s new lighting systems to produce some very lifelike renders, although we will be using some advanced features, i promise they are not hard to get you head round. Let's get started!

Step 1 - Set the scene

Place your figure on the stage, I am using the Stephanie petite base. Do not touch any lights at this point, just concentrate on your figure. Apply a skin texture and some hair. I am using darya and jada hair, all available here at daz. Apply a suitable pose to your figure. As we are going for a portrait shot switch to the face camera or just move your camera into a close up position.

Step 2 - Sub surface scattering

This is where it starts to get interesting. Sub surface scattering replicates the way light bounces off the inside of your skin, this method really brings out parts of the textures you have never seen before. Ok, make sure your figure is selected and open up the material room. By default the figure 1 torso skin should be selected, click the advanced tab. On the right side of the screen you will see lots of buttons, click the one that says- Add subsurface scattering. You will see some new nodes appear and a window telling you that your lights have been set to depth map shadows, click OK.

Step 3 - The tedious part

Now you should repeat step 2 for all parts of the skin texture that are framed in your portrait. i.e. neck, face, scalp etc. Just follow the same steps as before but with the different parts of the texture.

Step 4 - Lighting

I keep the standard 3 point light system that is set by default when you create a new scene. The first thing to do however is to delete one of the lights ( i usually delete the bottom right light) Ok, select one of the remaining lights and open its parameter dials ( Ctrl + Shift + N ) Click on properties, change this light to a diffuse ibl, uncheck the shadows box and turn on the ambient occlusion.

Now click on advanced material properties, you will be taken to the material room. We have to add an image map for the ibl, to do this:-

1) Click and drag from the little box next to the color of the light.

2) release the mouse button and a box will appear.

3) point to new node > 2D texture > image map

4) on your new node click the “none” next to image source and a browse window will appear.

5) navigate to the poser6 textures folder in the poser6 directory, then open the light probes folder, and finally select the interior light from side picture.

You should now have something that looks like this

Step 5 - More light

Ok now we are getting somewhere, now all we have to do is cast some light on the eyes, with your second light, change it to a point light and position it so it is casting light onto your figures eyes.

Now you may think this is a bit too bright, so what we're going to do is head back to the material room, so select your light and open the material room. On the lights properties, change the diffuse color from white to black.

What this will do is make the light only cast reflections, not any actual light!

Step 6 - Render

We are pretty much there! OK, one thing i have learned through testing this is sometimes ray tracing can conflict with the lighting we are using, so we will do a test render without using ray tracing. Open your render settings, click on firefly, then manual settings and enter something similar to what i have.

Now with a bit of luck you should get a render similar to this.

Notice the highlights around the edges of the skin, the hair looks much more layered, there is just a whole lot of depth now.

Step 7 - Finished

Now do a full render at which ever settings you like, i would advise against ray tracing, but have a go and compare the results. After a little post work this is what i came up with.

Using detailed textures works really well with this as well, here is another example

I hope that you have enjoyed this tutorial, and i hope it helps you produce some amazing art!

Ryan

Using only two lights in Poser

2011-11-01T17:42:31+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 only two lights in Poser

Author: momodot

Tools Needed

* Poser 6

Introduction

There is a style of lighting in Poser that involves dozens of lights, at least this is what I often find in the light sets I have downloaded. Because I don't have a terribly powerful machine I try to stick to three or four lights with only one or two of those set to produce shadows. I'll try to show here how to develop the lighting for a scene from the default light set without adding additional lights. Here is the preview window showing the default light set. The golden ochre color is pretty unpleasant and the overall look is under lit and murky.

Step 1: A Room with Fixed Walls

Here is my render with the default lighting, three of my walls as well as the floor and ceiling are fixed so I can't easily get rid of them if they are blocking my light and casting shadows.

The effect is nice and moody but the shadow and light make no rational sense in the scene. It does make me thing I should do something with a figure like this lit by light coming through a doorway.

Step 2: Tearing Down the Walls

Here is the same default lights scene after I have un-clicked 'Casts shadows' on the properties for the room set.

I have a strong light from the left toward the back that is throwing the figures shadow forward; it is a nice effect and it makes me think I should do a render like this too, but I would have to turn the cast shadows back on the room and turn shadows of on the properties of the other lights so the scene was lit well but only the shadows from behind were visible.

Overall the scene is murky and too ochre colored.

Step 3: Moving Lights Around

You should try playing with the lights by dial. The Graphical Interface for lights is attractive but it is deceptive, it is good only for placing lights roughly in the right hemisphere but it does not represent the distance from centre or the orientation of the light where it is.

Try to learn to use the lights by understanding the xRotate, yRotate, and zRotate dials. Shown here is the graphical representation of an infinite light.

For understanding spotlights you should zero a light so that it three dimensional outline representation appears at the centre of the scene…. then play with the rotation controls to better understand them. Next position your light in the scene using the orthogonal cameras; maybe you should start with the top view, go to a side view, and then finish in a front view.

You want to work from orthogonal views to constrain the axis that you move the light in since moving objects in a perspective view can lead to unpredictable drift. Even if the light is blocked by walls or other things in the scene, if it is selected you should get a selection outline when you pass the mouse close by it. Better yet, switch the preview of the entire scene to outline mode.

Step 4: Filling-In

Here is a render after I have done nothing but move default lights 1 and 3. Light 1 is now more to the front and casts down to illuminate the floor and I have turned off the shadows on this light.

Light 3 is still low, I have actually tipped it up to light the grey ceiling of the room and to act as a 'fill' light for light 2, the main light in the scene, the one in the middle. The shadow is turned off on light 3 so that the only shadow casting light is the main light.

Renaming lights is a pretty good habit if you are not too lazy. I would probably name lights 1, 2, and 3 to back, main, and fill respectively. The glare off the back windows is unfortunate, I should probably decrease the highlight size and make the diffuse color a dark green or black.

This is essentially the default lighting still. Not bad really.

Step 5: The Spot Light

I like spotlights. I try to use infinite lights only for sunlight and fill-lights without shadows. Here I have switched light 2 to the spotlight mode and shifted light 1 level so it does not illuminate the floor.

The result is a very nice moody look. With some fiddling it could represent a scene lit by a pocket torch or low wattage light.

You will really need to use the orthogonal views to place the spotlight because the position of the camera relative the scene is at least as important as its orientation. Confusing behavior of a spotlight can usually be quickly sorted out by checking its position from the side and front.

Step 6: Flood Light

Here I have dialed the spotlight wide open, angle start and angle end set at max. This is the budget point light. It gives a very full coverage as you can see and gives a nice soft shadow when the shadow is dialed down as it is here.

Step 7: The Point Light

I have changed light 2 into a point light… the light from a point light is represented as though it radiates in 360 degree in all directions from a single point. It will not cast shadows unless you are using the Firefly render set to raytrace.

Here is a front view, the red arrow is drawn in but the red circle representing the point light is as it appears in the preview.

I use front and side view cameras to place the light somewhere in the scene that might have an actually light source. Here a ceiling lamp. If at first you can't find the light to grab hold of it set the x, y, and z translation dials to zero to get the light centered. Then go to an orthogonal view and pull the light into position.

The great thing about point and spotlights is that since one can move them right into a scene so the scene walls can be left shadow casting in case you want light passing through a window or door way.

Step 8: Well Lit

Here is my scene rendered with the main light (light 2) set as a point light. See how the light radiates out from it in every direction as if it was a bare bulb. I like this light set-up.

Step 9: IBL

Image Based Lighting will “blow out” a scene when it first comes on. Here I have deleted light 3 and I am attempting to use light 1 as a fill using IBL.

The idea is this, pin lights radiate out in all directions from a point, IBL is sort of like placing your scene in s ball covered by an image or gradient map… it is as though light is flooding into you scene from everywhere, the result is brilliant light and suppressed shadows, almost a 'toon' look.

But this is far too bright for most renders.

Step 10: IBL Only

I actually have been seeing some merchants using this kind of blown out IBL for promo images… it is stylish and attractive but it can be deceptive. Here I have turned off light 2 and the illumination is only from the light 1 IBL.

Still too bright and still flat, it actually is starting to look good as maybe a stylized render.

Step 11: IBL by Half

Here I still have only the one IBL on and it is set to 50% intensity. This reminds me of pre-renaissance lighting… a universe suffused with divine light. No shadows but somehow expressive. Maybe good for editorial or commercial art. Everything has that strange medieval flattening to it and the shadows have a strange glowing translucence.

Step 12: Filling in with IBL

We want to use IBL to act as a non-directional fill, as 'ambient light, the light that bounces around in a room an fills in the shadows, light bouncing off the walls, floors, and other objects.

If you are obsessed with precision you can take a preview image of the scene, sphere-ize it in an image editor and in the Materials Room plug that into the light as a map.

In any case, I have set it here to 35% intensity, just enough to make the scene barely visible, this should soften the shadows of my main light which is still off.

Step 13: IBL and Point Light

I have turned my point light back on positioned as if to represent light from an overhead fixture. I have pretty good lighting in this scene from only two lights.

Step 14: Ambient Occlusion

Here is the same light set up but with Ambient Occlusion turned on for the point light.

The difference is mainly visible on the window panes, the corner of the room, the under the hands and beneath the collar of the blouse.

AO is basically a simulation of 'ambient shadow': Ambient light is light refracted off of various surface to create a certain level of indirect light in a scene, small spaces do not receive as much of this light. The area of wall in the corner is exposed to less refracted light than an area in the middle of a wall, etc.

In practice AO brings out the detail in mesh and makes things look more like they are actually resting on other things rather than composited over them. Note how the fingers rest on the knee here , how it is more shadowy between the fingers and beneath them.

Step 15: What works best?

Here I have dropped the point light down to simulate the flash on a camera. I like this effect, mixed with depth of focus, grain, de-saturation and other tricks it gives a nice photographic look that although maybe not attractive has what looks like a certain realism to me.

The three images at bottom are from left to right, the adjusted default lights, the spot light set wide, and the point light with IBL and AO respectively.

I actually prefer the second image and use that set-up in general, with so few lights and no ray tracing it renders very fast but the image on the right has a pleasant CGI look to it that kind of makes me think more of Norman Rockwell and Andrew Wyth than photography, certainly worth knowing how to do.

The main thing is take your lights in a simple scene and explore them methodically. Do test renders, see how different variable change a render. It is better maybe to build up from a simple set up of a few lights then to load a complicated light set and try to figure out what everything in it is doing. Try to understand shadow as well as light.

The most important thing is to not just think of lights as a way to illuminate a scene, they can evoke mood, give focus, and create the patterns of light and dark that are so essential to a successful composition.

REMEMBER! SAVE EARLY AND SAVE OFTEN

Using Poser 5 Lights as a Projector

2011-11-01T17:42:31+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 Poser 5 Lights as a Projector

Author: karen1573

Tools Needed

Poser 5
Any paint program

Introduction

This tutorial will show you how to use Poser 5 lights to simulate a projector, such as an OHP or cinema projector.

This tutorial assumes a basic knowledge of Poser 5 and a suitable graphics program. Photoshop is used for illustration.

Step 1 - Setting up the scene

So here is the scene set-up I have chosen - A plain projector screen, which is the Poser one-sided square (under Props > Primitives) and its 'legs' are made from two Poser cylinders (Props > Primitives). I've put another square at the back to simulate a wall, and turned on the ground plane, so that you can follow what I'm doing. This is just the default lighting at the moment, we'll be changing that in a minute. I've added Posette just for scale reference, but my, doesn't she look happy with that cane in her hand? *G*

Now we need to remove all the lighting from the scene (it's easier than changing the existing lights.) You can click and delete them manually, or you might want to download the very-useful Python script for light changing, available in the Renderosity free stuff by Ockham.

When you've deleted all the lights, click the little bulb symbol next to the light controls to create a new spot-light.

Now open the Properties panel for the light (Object > Properties) and change the rotate values so that the light is pointing dead ahead. Also change the trans values - I have put it in the centre of the room (because my screen is also centred) and bring the y_trans to about half-way up the screen, and about half a poser unit back from it.

Do a quick render to see how it comes out. I ended up moving my light down to about 0.475 units to get it centred on the screen vertically.

If you are going to move your screen around at all, it's a good idea to parent this light to the screen, so that it will follow.

Step 2 - Setting the light properties

Now we need to fiddle around with the values at the top of the light properties to get the effect we want.

The first value we need to set is Angle_end. This figure represents the absolute outer edge of the light cone. At the moment, as you see above, the light is very soft around the edges. This is because the default angle_start is set to zero. To get a sharper light source (which is appropriate for a projector), we'll want to change it to something closer to the angle_end value. Let's try setting the angle_end to 60 and the angle_start to 50 and see what happens.

As you can see, we have a sharper image now, but the light is also illuminating the wall behind the screen (something we couldn't see clearly before when the light cone was soft.) That's okay, we will deal with that problem shortly. But we want our cone a bit bigger, to take in more of the screen. Let's set both values to 80.

I also decided that the wall was too far away from the screen, so I have moved the wall prop forwards on the z-axis.

Step 3 - How come Posette's in the dark?

At this point you might be wondering why Posette is almost completely in shadow, but the wall behind her is illuminated? The reason is because she is actually in front of the light cone, except for her arm where it goes across the screen. Here is a shot in preview mode where I have changed the camera angle so you can see the light position better.

This isn't a problem because we will be mapping our light to appear within a box on the screen, eliminating the overspill. Once we've got that done, we can add in other lights to the scene so poor Posette won't be in the dark :)

OK, we're now going to go to our paint program and make the image that will be projected onto the screen.

Step 4 - Making the image to be projected

I've decided to immortalise my shopping list. I've made it at size 512×512. Poser always applies the image as a square, so it's best to use a square template. I'm guessing at the size, we will see what happens when I apply the texture in Poser. I'll probably have to change the size a little. (I've put a small border around the image so you can see it clearly on screen - this is just for the purposes of the tutorial.)

Now in Poser, with the spotlight selected, go into the material room. Drag a node from the color through new node > 2D textures > image map.

It's pretty obvious that my map is too large. However, decreasing the map size isn't going to help on it's own - what I need to do is add borders around the text, so that there's more white space around it. I'm also going to delete the first couple of lines on my “list”. Then I'm going to reduce the size back down to 512. However, if you're using an image, you'll want to probably start from scratch, or you'll lose resolution.

Step 5 - Transmapping the light

After reducing my map so that it fits onto the screen, all we need to do is make a mask to get the light into the shape that we want. The method for this is basically the same as a trans map. We're going to make a black and white image in Photoshop (or other graphics program) and apply it to the Intensity node in the material room.

I want my projection to be square so I'm going to start again with a new image 512×512 pixels. Now, because I want my projector to be quite close to my text, well within the screen, I can cheat here I put a new layer on my texture map (mine's called shoppinglist.gif) and draw a border around the area I want visible. (Just like making a trans map.)

Then I invert the selection and fill it with black.

Now I drag the layer from this image over to my new 512×512 image and make sure it's centred. Then I can save that image as a gif. I've called mine just “trans_1.gif”.

Now let's see how it looks in Poser. Again we drag a new node through to 2D textures > image map, this time from the Intensity node.

Step 6 - Tweaking the map and lights

Now we're close to what we want. But I'm still getting backsplash on the wall, which I don't want. I'm going to tighten up the borders some on the top and bottom, and also feather it slightly for effect.

I use the same method to do this as I described previously - draw a border around my words, but make it tighter this time, and feather the selection before filling. You may also need to go back to the light properties, and change the size of the spotlight.

Let's see how this looks.

Perfect! Now I can add a few more lights at low intensity, so poor Posette isn't standing in the dark anymore.

That's it for the main part, but there are a couple more tricks over the next two steps…

Step 7 - Playing with shapes

Now, suppose I want to change my shopping list to something more exciting, say a holiday snap? And perhaps I want to make it as if viewed through an interesting frame?

First I take my picture that I'm going to use and check its proportions. I need to crop it into a square shape, otherwise it will be distorted.

Then again, I make a new layer, and draw a solid shape in black over the area I want to be visible. Then drag that layer into a new document of the same size as my photo. I flatten the image, then invert it so that the shape is now white on black.

Back into Poser, and connect my photo to the light's Color node, and the black and white shape to the Intensity node. Voila!

That is my little boy, by the way

Just one more thing to show you…

Step 8 - Rays of light

OK, just one final thing. Suppose you want to take your shot from an angle, and see the beams of light from the projector on their way to the screen? You can do this with Poser 5's volumetric lighting feature, and we don't need anything else to do it.

Go into your light properties, and set the “Atmosphere Strength” parameter to 1.0. (Note: this parameter only shows up if you have installed service release 3. If you haven't applied SR3, go and get it. Poser 5 runs a lot more reliably with it.)

Now back into the Material Room. Select “Atmosphere” from the drop-down list…

And set the boxes up as above.

The important value here is the Volume_density: I started at 0.01, but my render didn't show the effect very strongly, so I put it up to 0.02 for the purposes of this tutorial. However, for a normal render, I'd probably leave it at 0.01.

Then go back to the Pose room. Adjust your camera angle as desired. Check your render options - you need to use the Firefly renderer, and you must have cast shadows checked. You also need some kind of background prop for the effect to show against. It won't render just over the background. I've put another one-sided square in as another wall. And here we go:

And that's it! I hope you enjoyed this tutorial :)

If you have any questions, drop me a line at karen1573@hotmail.com or message me as karen1573 at Renderosity or Rendervisions.

WYSIWG Lights in the Poser Studio

2011-11-01T17:42:32+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.

WYSIWG Lights in the Poser Studio

Author: 3Don

Tools Needed

Poser 3-5

Introduction

The figure pose seen in the stock Poser Lights library thumbnail is the straight-on, outstretched arms default stance. That pose does not show the qualities well of the selected light set. It looks too flat. Illustrations 1-3 show a lighted scene without textures, with textures, and the same scene rendered. Illustrations 4 and 5 show two other types of light sets without textures.

Step 1 - Visualizing Lights

See the sample image titled “Light Ball.” Notice how the figure is in action and turned 3/4 on the Y-axis. This allows a much better 3D perspective of how the light will fall on a figure and curve around it. Notice the big ball just behind the figure and the Light Controls tool icon at the top right. See how similar the light falls on the studio ball and the control ball. Also, the flat, angular props in the scene show how light falls on the planes of that type of object. Overall, a more detailed and accurate example of the light properties is observed.

Step 2 - Creating Light Sets

Set up your own Light Ball studio scene as a template for creating light sets and evaluating ones you acquire. Materials for all figures and props should be set to white with black highlight.

The three small globes which are colored pure red, yellow, and blue, are placed to see how light sets affect the spectrum aspect at the same time.For contrast, hair and clothing props can be set to shades of grays. The standard ball and box are in the Poser Prop Types library.

You can put two figures or other props in the lighted scene, turned in different ways to show even more. Having additional templates with light and dark backgrounds and grounds allows you to observe the different contrasts of the lights.

Step 3 - Modifying a Set of Lights

When you modify or create new light sets, use your Light Ball Scene as a template. As you move lights around with the Lights Control tool, you will notice how the globe icon and big ball in the studio reflect the same changes. There is some slightdifference in how the light falls on the globe icon as it does on the ball. However, the light on the ball is a more accurate preview of the light properties. Notice, too, the positions of the light source icons around the glob in the 3 different light sets shown.

Changes to colors and intensities of lights are also reflected in the same way. Use the Auto-Tracking mode to see results as you go.

Step 4 - Changing the Color of a Light

When you change the color of a light (by click-holding on the smaller light source sphere surrounding the globe), the eye-dropper tool appears along with a palette. You can choose your new color from that palette, or you can even pick up color from the desktop or Library. This allows you to quickly match colors of lights to skin tones and the local color of props. Pulling in local color from a scene to make a light can create some dramatic effects.

Step 5 - Saving Lights

Once you are satisfied with a new light, save it to your lights library. Now you can apply skin and other textures to see how they look with the new light.

You can observe the light in its pure form, as well as how it will look shining on a texture. You may want to make some adjustments to the lights at this point.

Save the altered light set with a similar name to the original.

Perfect Portraits: Part Two: Postwork

2011-11-01T17:42:32+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.

Perfect Portraits: Part Two: Postwork

Author: serpentis

Tools Needed

Photoshop (or similar graphics editor)

Introduction

What You Need:

Photoshop (or similar graphics editor)

This tutorial (well that's just a DUH isn't it!?)

A portrait scene

Used in this tutorial:

Poser 4

Victoria 3 (available at DAZ3D)

Beatrice by serpentis (available at Poser Pros)

Fighter Girl Outfit by BATLAB (available at Renderosity)

Twin Chignon by Studio Maya (available at Studio Maya's website)

Files:

None

I won't discuss how to set up a scene as I'm assuming you already have a scene set up and rendered that you're going to use to walk through this tutorial.

If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to e-mail me or contact me at any of the sites I frequent (3D Commune, Renderosity, Poser Pros and DeviantArt), username: serpentis.

Step 1 - Open Sesame

Open your rendered file in Photoshop (or the graphics application of your choice. Most of the instructions can easily be translated to Paint Shop Pro or Gimp, etc…) Select the area of your image you wish to use and crop your image.

This is what the original image will look like before any editing.

Step 2 - Bring in the clones

Duplicate Layer 0 (or the background layer if your image has a background layer. My image was saved in PNG format and that omits any blank background from the image and opens with no background layer.

Step 3 - Blurrrrrr

On the layer you just created (Layer 0 Copy or Background Copy) use the filter Gaussian Blur (Filter/Blur/Gaussian Blur.) You don't have to use the settings I used, the settings will depend a lot on your image size. The larger the image, the more blur you may need.

Step 4 - Softly go on

Set the new layer to Soft Light. This will darken your image up a bit, but it will also add some highlights and shadows.

Step 5 - All Greyed Out

Go back to your original layer (layer 0 or background layer) and desaturate the layer.

Step 6 - Fading quickly...

Fade the desaturate on the original layer. The fade amount will depend on your personal prefrence. These are just the settings I used for this image.

Step 7 - Curvy...

Create a new curves layer. In the Layers palette, there are icons at the bottom of the screen. The third one from the right will have the curves option. This creates a new, clear layer, that only adjusts the curves of the layer(s) below it. Using a curves layer, versus using curves on the image layer itself has it's benefits. 1) It doesn't change the original image, therefore if you make a mistake it's much easier to change it. 2) It allows you to “cut” areas of the curves layer out to use the original image underneath in parts.

These are just the settings I used for this image. All images are different, so you will have to experiment with the curves palette to find the settings that will work best with your image.

Step 8 - More clones...

Create another duplicate layer of your original (layer 1 or background.) This time use the filter Crosshatch. Again, the settings I used don't necessarily have to be used in your image. Feel free to play around and see what kind of look you prefer.

Step 9 - Blend...blend...blend

Set the crosshatched layer's blend mode to Screen and Set the layer opacity. This is the setting that looked good for this image. Your image may need a different opacity setting (or even a different blend mode.)

Step 10 - Even more duplicates

Create yet another duplicate layer of your original (layer 0 or background) layer. This time, you want to drag this one to the top of the pile and desaturate the layer.

Step 11 - Contrast

Now you'll want to change the brightness and contrast on the topmost layer (Image/Adjustments/Brightness and Contrast.) The level of brightness and contrast will depend on two things: Your tastes and the image you're using. Darker images may need more brightness to create highlights and brighter images may need more contrast to create shadows.

Step 12 - More Blending

Now that you have a beautifully contrasted top layer, set that layer's blend mode to either Overlay or Soft Light. I chose soft light for this image because it fit the purpose. While you're in the layer palette, you might as well play around with the layer opacity as well.

Step 13- Bring on the Noise

While you could be done with the previous step, some images look better with a bit of “grain” or noise added to them. Simply select the original layer (layer 0 or background) and add some noise. The amount of noise will differ from image to image. Smaller images will need less noise than larger ones and darker images may need more to show up. A lot of it is also personal preference.

Step 14- Finito

And finally, the moment you've all been waiting for. *insert applause here please* The finished product that I created from creating this tutorial. *grinz*

Volumetric Lights: Part One

2011-11-01T17:42:32+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.

Volumetric Lights: Part One

Author: semidieu

Tools Needed

Poser5

Introduction

Creating a scene using volumetric lights can be done in three steps using Poser5. This tutorial will cover these steps in detail.

Step 1 - Set the scene

The scene you are creating should not be rendered over the background. If you do so, the volumetric light won't show!

Step 2 - Set the light

Go to the Properties tab of the light. The light you want to use for this effect must have the Atmosphere Strength set to 1. Also select the Spot option for the light.

The Angle Start variable designates the angle at which the light intensity starts to diminish and Angle Stop variable defines the angle at which the light intensity drops to zero.

Notice that at the bottom of the cone, you can get some white light (the two bottom pictures).

The white patches occur when the cone gets too large or the light intensity is too strong, and are a normal effect of the rendering process. They are saturation points. In order to diminish this effect, you should reduce various other variables such as Angle Start, light intensity and atmosphere density.

Finally, take care where you place the light and in which direction. As there are so many possibilities, I cannot cover them all. To start with, you should probably just use a light source above the object, shining down vertically on it, as in the pictures on this page.

Step 3 - Set the light parameters

In this example, the light Intensity is set to 100%, the Volume Density set to 0.02 and Atmosphere Strength varies.

In this example, the Atmosphere Strength is set to 1.0 and the Volume Density is set to 0.02. The Intensity of the light varies.

Notice the difference between this example and the previous one: the highlights on the character are very different. In this example, because the light intensity is decreased, the highlights on the character are also decreased. In the previous example, the atmosphere strength is decreased. But the highlights are not changed!

Step 4 - Set the Atmosphere

In the Material Room, select Atmosphere.

Check the Volume On box.

Set the different Volume settings.

Step 5 - Set the Atmosphere - Volume Density

This defines how strong the fog will appear. Greater values give a stronger fog effect. The effects of this value also depend on the Atmosphere Strength settings and the Intensity of the light.

The example below shows the Volume Density settings with a white light, Intensity 100% and Atmosphere Strength set to 1.000.

Step 6 - Set the Atmosphere - Step Size

The cone of light calculated in slices: the Step Size value defines what the size of the step between each slice will be. Lower values give better results because the slices are close enough to each other to overlap, but increase render time. If you'reduce the Step Size by a factor of two, the rendering time should be about twice as long.

Take care: a value of zero means no volume!

Step 7 - Set the Atmosphere - Noise

The Noise setting defines how grainy the atmosphere is.

Step 8 - The infinite light

You can also use the infinite light with the Volume on, instead of the spotlight option. When using this option, you should use very low Volume Density values.

For this picture, I used a Volume Density of 0.005 and an infinite light coming from the back, pointing towards the camera.

Thanks again to my friend Mark for correcting my horrible English.

This tutorial continues in: Volumetric Lights: Part Two.

Volumetric light, Part 2

2011-11-01T17:42:32+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.

Volumetric light, Part 2

Author: semidieu

Tools Needed

Poser5

Introduction

This tutorial will cover the interactions of a volumetric light with a colored atmosphere. It will also cover multiple volumetric lights.

This is the followup to Volumetric light, Part 1.

Step 1 - The colors

Poser uses the RGB system color. You give the values for the RED component, the GREEN component and the BLUE component. These values range from 0 to 255.

Step 2 - White atmosphere with colored lights

In fact, “white” is the default value of the atmosphere. Everything works fine until you play with more two or more intersecting volumetric lights.

Notice the blue cone behind the red cone doesn't appear blue, but magenta. And behind the green cone, the blue cone appears cyan.

Step 3 - Colored atmosphere with white light

At first glance, these pictures look very similar. But if you look more closely, you will notice that the highlights on the figure and on the ground are from the light color, independently of the color of the atmosphere.

Step 4 - Colored atmosphere with colored light

The atmosphere diffuses the light it receives, but it can only diffuse light that is the same color as the particles that make up the atmosphere, the other colors being absorbed. This effect called is subtractive light.

With a white color atmosphere, the volumetric light will be the color of the light. There is no alteration (see Step 2): A “white” atmosphere means the Red, Green and Blue values are set to 255. These three colors combined make up the color white. Every light coming into this atmosphere will be completely diffused as no color will be subtracted.

In a colored atmosphere, let's say Red, the atmosphere can only diffuse the Red value of the lights (the other colors are absorbed):

a Red light will react as in the White atmosphere;
a Green or a Blue light won't be visible (only the volumetric part is invisible, not the highlights on physical objects)
a Cyan light (Red and Blue) will appear Red.

Here are some examples of what happens with different atmosphere colors. Notice the highlights produced by the spotlights: they show the original color of the volumetric light, which isn't always the same as that of the rendered volumetric light!

And here is another example:

Step 5 - Multiple volumetric lights

Unlike the effect of the atmosphere, combining multiple lights is an additive operation: a red light over a blue light will combine as a cyan light.

This picture was rendered in Poser5, using three spotlights pointing to the ground: one red, one green and one blue. The atmosphere color is white.

The setting for the Volume_Density doesn't need to be changed no matter what the number of lights.

Finally, here is what happens with two volumetric lights, one red and one green. The Volume_Density is deliberately set quite high in order to show the different volume colors.

Step 6 - Volumetric lights and special nodes (Advanced users)

Finally, you can produce incredible volumetric light effects using some nodes (or light gel). This is not a tutorial on shaders: I'll only provide the BASIC settings and a final render (some postwork, only luminosity, contrast, etc. – nothing as been painted). The “light beam” is a volumetric light with shader nodes. I also set the Dist_Start and Dist_End value in order to stop the light at a specific point in space.

The light base settings:

and the nodes settings:

Thanks, as always, to my friend Mark for correcting my horrible English.

Streaming Sunbeam Effects

2011-11-01T17:42:32+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.

Streaming Sunbeam Effects

Author: KaribousBoutique

Tools Needed

Poser 6/7

Introduction

This easy-to-follow tutorial will show you how to create realistic, streaming sunbeams using Poser 6’s volumetric lighting features.

The basic idea behind volumetric effects is that the “atmosphere” material in your scene can be given some substance – it becomes hazy or translucent instead of perfectly clear. There are two places in Poser where atmosphere volume must be adjusted: within the material room, and on each individual light.

Step 1 - Set the Scene

Start by setting your poser scene with your desired objects and props. I’ve found that volumetric effects are most dramatic when some of your figures are positioned near the camera while others are positioned farther away. (This “dramatic effect” happens because farther objects appear shrouded in mist while those in the foreground are clearer.)

*IMPORTANT: You must position some sort of backdrop behind your scene’s objects in order for volumetric effects to function! This object can be anything from a simple prop square to a commercially available backdrop figure. I have chosen to use the Woodland Realms Playset as my background for this tutorial. It includes a background prop.

Step 2 - Light Your Scene

Before adding the sunbeam, light your scene as you usually would.

*TIP: The sunbeam effect will be more dramatic if your ambient lighting is somewhat dim.

Step 3 - Set Atmosphere Strength on All Lights to 0

This step is important because you do not want the volumetric effects to show up on all of your lights, only the sunbeam light (which you will create in later steps.) To set “Atmosphere Strength” to 0, you can select each light individually and, in the Properties window, turn the “Atmosphere Strength” dial to 0 (as shown in the picture below).

However, since this can become very time-consuming, especially if you have very complex lighting in your scene, I have created a python script (click here to download the script) that will automatically perform this task for all lights in your scene.

*IMPORTANT: If you forget this step, you may end up with a render that is totally white, especially if you are using any infinite lights in your scene!

This sets up your basic scene. If you rendered at this point, it would look something like this:

Step 4 - Turn Volume Effects On

To give your sunbeam a hazy effect, you must turn Poser’s volumetric effects on. Start by entering the material room and selecting “Atmosphere” from the object pull-down menu. (The atmosphere is made of only one material, so there is no need to worry about the “Material” pull-down menu.)

Select the “Advanced” tab and locate the “Volume On” checkbox (shown in the picture below.) Put a check here to turn volumetric effects on. Next, locate the “Volume Density” number. This setting controls the maximum opacity of your atmosphere. If you entered “1” here, your atmosphere would be 100% opaque – like a concrete wall! I suggest using a density of around 0.01 for a misty/foggy effect but feel free to experiment. Remember, this number controls the maximum opacity of your atmosphere. You can also adjust the appearance atmosphere effects for individual lights.

The other volume settings shown here allow further refining of your atmosphere. “Volume Color” changes the color of your atmosphere. I’ve left mine white to simulate fog. “Volume Step Size” controls how far apart planes of atmosphere are positioned from one another when rendered. (Poser creates volume effects by essentially filling the empty space in a scene with planes of translucent material, like slices of bread in a sandwich.) If you make this number very small, it will take a long time to render. If you make it too big, it can cause shadows and artifacts to appear. (And if you set it to “0”, you will turn volume effects off entirely – so don’t do that by mistake!) I’ve used a volume step of 1.5 but,again,feel free to experiment with this. Finally, the “Volume Noise” setting controls how grainy your fog appears. I’ve left this setting at 0 for a smooth, satiny fog.

Step 5 - Create the Sunbeam

For the next step, switch back to the Pose Room. Start by creating a spotlight. (Do not create an infinite light or your render may appear completely white!) You can double-check this setting in the “Properties” tab for the light, as shown below.

Then, using the “Light Control” tool, set the color and intensity of your light. (The location of these settings is shown below.) Finally, position and aim the spotlight where you want your sunbeams to go. For my render, I chose a soft yellow spotlight aimed toward the ground at an angle.

*Tip: If you would like your sunbeam to point directly at a figure or object, make sure you have the light selected and then open Poser’s “Object” menu from the top of your screen. Select “Point At” and then choose the figure you want the sunbeam to focus on.

*Tip: To change the width and edge fuzziness of the sunbeam, change the “angle start” and “angle end” settings in the “Parameters” tab of your light. Increasing the “angle end” number widens the spotlight. Bringing the “angle start” and “angle end” values closer together will make the sunbeam more intense and defined at its edges, but it can also cause some unexpected shadow effects in later steps.

There are two other things to look for in the “Properties” tab. First, make sure the “Shadows” box is checked. Next, look at the “Atmosphere Strength” dial. Adjusting this dial affects what percentage of your fog effect is observed by the light. In other words, setting this dial to 1 means that 100% of your atmosphere’s volume (which you set in the previous step) is illuminated. If you set this number to 0, you have essentially shut off volume effects for this light. In my scene, I set this value to 0.6. If you rendered your scene right now, it would look like this:

Step 6 - Add Shadow Effects to Your Sunbeam

Your image is looking good, but it still lacks realism because real sunlight in a forest is filtered through overhead branches. To simulate this effect, you need to cover your spotlight with an image so that it casts shadows in a tree-branch pattern.

To accomplish this, you will need a black-and-white image to place over your light. I’ve included one here, but it’s simple enough to create one yourself in a graphic program such as Photoshop or Paint Shop Pro. Find a fairly high-contrast photograph of the object you want shadows for – I chose a picture of tree branches – and open it in your photo editor. Desaturate (or change the image to grayscale) to remove color from the photo and then adjust the contrast (or posterize) so that the image appears mostly black-and-white. Black areas of the photo will cast shadows, and white areas will allow light to pass through. (Feel free to copy and paste extra branches where you’d like them – it doesn’t have to be pretty!) The shadow map I created for this render looks like this:

When you have an appropriate image, select the spotlight you just created and head into the Material Room. Select the “Simple” tab and click on the box under the “Color” selector (shown with an arrow below.) The “Texture Manager” box will appear. Click on the “Browse” button and select the desired shadow map. After you click “OK,” your shadow map should appear in the Texture Manager. For a dramatic shadow effect, set the “Map Strength” dial to 100%. For more subtle effects, turn the dial to a lower number. For my render, I went with a map strength of 100%.

Note: If your shadow map doesn’t appear in your render, make sure you double-check the “Shadow” dial in the light’s “Parameters” tab. This dial should be set at “1.”

Step 7 - Render

Okay, you're almost done! All that’s left is to render the image. Since Poser 4’s render engine isn’t capable of generating volumetric effects, you’ll have to render in Firefly. Make sure you have “cast shadows” selected in your render settings before you start. When you’re finished, your image should look something like this:

That’s it! This same technique can also be used to render moonbeams, foggy streetlights, or just about anything else you can think of! Experiment with shadow map textures to create an infinite number of effects!

Beautiful Skin with the P5 Skin and Translucence Nodes

2011-11-01T17:42:32+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.

Beautiful Skin with the P5 Skin and Translucence Nodes

Author: karen1573

Tools Needed

Poser 5

Introduction

The Skin and Translucence nodes in the Poser 5 material room are the best ways to achieve a realistic-looking skin material on your Poser models. By experimenting with different colour and strength settings, you can also achieve some interesting and fantastic effects.

For this tutorial I am using Steph 3 Petite with the default Steph texture maps, apart from the eye texture, which I have taken from another pack. (I just don't like the default supplied eye maps.) I am using an eye texture without painted-on highlights, as I prefer to set my own for greater realism.

Step 1 - Setting up the material room

The first thing we need to do is get the basics all right. If you have loaded your model and applied your texture via a MAT file, then you will need to make some changes. If the texture that you're using comes with a bump map, then you'll probably need to disconnect the bump map from the gradient_bump channel and plug it into the main Bump channel instead. Reset the bump value - I find 0.01 works best for closeup shots like the one I'm going for here.

I'm also going to add an anisotropic shader to the lacrimals and corneas. This gives a much more effective “wet-look” to the eyes. In addition, I'm going to make set my eyesocket material to almost black, and about 0.9 transparency, and also add an anisotropic node to this. I just prefer the way this looks, especially when I'm doing close-ups on the eyes.

The anisotropic node should be added to the Alternate_Specular channel, and can be found under Lighting > Specular > anisotropic.

Step 2 - Gimme some skin

Now we're going to set up the skin node.

We connect the skin node to the Alternate_Diffuse channel. You'll find the skin shader under Lighting > Special > skin, as above.

Now, what we do is connect the SkinColor to the texture that we're using, and turn the main Diffuse_Color value to 0, as above.

The SkinColor can be set to any colour you think will work for you. This colour affects the underlying hue of the skin, just as the diffuse_color node does. I usually use a very light skin colour, as seen here, or pure white can also be effective. This will depend on the texture you're using, the light set, and the mood you want to create.

The SheenColor again can be set to any combination you think effective. This colour will affect how the light bounces off the surface of the skin. Just for now I am using a neutral white colour.

This is how my scene now looks rendered, before getting into the translucence node.

Step 3 - Translucence

The translucence node can give a similar effect to the SheenColor section of the Skin shader. However it does work in a slightly different way, and the two can be used together to great effect.

To set the translucence colour, we need to plug a simple_color node into the Translucence_Color channel. No, I don't know why you can't just set the colour directly in the channel, so please don't ask! You can find Simple_Color under Math, as above.

Once you've got your node in, you need to set the main translucence color to white, and put a value into Translucence_Value. 0.20 is a good starting point.

OK, if you've done all that, your material room should now look like this:

I've set my scene up with pure white lights - I've used SnowSultan's Snowglobes set, available in the freestuff at Renderosity. We'll get into coloured lights in a minute.

If I render my scene now, it looks like this.

You can see a big difference from the previous render without translucence. The skin has become lighter and looks, well, translucent!

Step 4 - Playing with Colours

Setting the simple_color node to a different colour can change the effect in different ways. These 4 examples show how you can achieve a different feel just by changing this colour.

A quick tip: when choosing a colour for this node (or any other node), click on the colour bar to open up the colour picker, then click on the red, green and blue stripes at the top-right of the box:

This then brings up the classic Windows colour dialogue box, and you can save your selected colour as a custom colour. Then on your other materials, just access the dialogue in the same way and select the custom colour. This avoids having to select and copy all nodes or doing select > apply to all, when all you want to change is one colour on one node.

Step 5 - Crazy Colours

For this render I set the translucence colour to a dark blue, without changing anything else (including lights).

I thought that gave an excellent moonlight look, so I ramped it up to look even more spooky by adding blue lights to the mix.

Then I got really silly: I made the translucence colour green, changed the skin node sheen colour to yellow and added some red lights. A very interesting effect for those dark fantasy scenes!

Step 6 - Fitting it all together

To achieve the final effect you see below, I decided to use a blurred background picture. This is part of Runtime DNA's Poor-Man's HDRI set, so it comes with a matching light set, which saved me setting one up

To match the lighting, I made the skin_color a very pale beige, left the sheen_color at pure white, and made the translucence color a very pale green.

I hope this tutorial inspires you to experiment for yourself with these two nodes and enjoy the results!

Bump Maps and File Formats

2011-11-01T17:42:32+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.

Bump Maps and File Formats

Author: elizabyte

Tools Needed

Photoshop 5+ (or any graphic program that uses channels)
Poser 4+

Support Files

Make_Bump.zip

Introduction

It's commonly believed that Poser 4 cannot use a JPG as a bump map, but that's not true. It can. The problem is that a grayscale bump map such as Poser Pro Pack or Poser 5 uses looks really awful in Poser 4. The issue isn't the file type (.bum, which is actually just a renamed BMP), but with the bump map style.

DO NOTE that in order to apply a JPG as a bump in Poser 4, it MUST be applied via MAT pose. If you try to apply manually, Poser will automatically try to convert (even if pre-converted). Apply with a MAT pose, though, and it works perfectly.

Step 1 - Converting with Photoshop Action

It's beyond the scope of this tutorial to suggest how to go about creating a grayscale bump map. The assumption is that you have one you want to convert for use in P4.

The easiest and best way to make a Poser 4 style bump map is by using the Photoshop Action included with this tutorial. To do that, unzip the contents to the directory where you keep your Photoshop Actions (usually under your Photoshop directory, in Presets:Photoshop Actions).

In Photoshop, load the action by clicking the Actions panel and choosing the arrow in the upper right hand corner, and then choosing, “Load Actions…” and select Make_Bump.atn (may appear as Make_Bump depending on your windows settings).

Open the grayscale bump map and in the Actions panel, click the small arrow beside the Make_Bump action, click the top option (bumpmap), then click the arrow on the bottom of the panel. The action will run and, voila, P4 style bump map!

There are other ways to do the conversion, however, so I'll outline those in the next step for those who don't have Photoshop…

Step 2 - Converting with Poser

You can, of course, also convert grayscale images in Poser 4 or Poser Pro Pack. The steps for doing this are outlined in the DAZ Support FAQ. Do bear in mind that the PC version of Poser 4 (and Pro Pack) has a bug that produces slightly incorrect bump maps. For most things, it's not an issue, but for some it can be quite noticible. (More information on that bug and what can be done about it is also online elsewhere.)

If you choose to convert using P4/PP, you'll need to go to your Poser textures directory and find the converted .bum and open it in Photoshop to complete this tutorial.

Finally, if you can't run the Photoshop Action and you don't want to use Poser to do the conversion, it can be done manually.

Step 3 - Converting manually

Manual conversion is possible with any image editing program that supports channel separation (i.e., that lets you manipulate the blue, red, and yellow channels separately).

The steps are:

1) Select blue channel

2) Fill with black (100% opacity)

3) Select green channel

4) Emboss (Angle: 90, Height: 1, Amount: 100)

5) Select red channel

6) Emboss (Angle; -30, Height: 1, Amount: 100)

7) Select RGB channel

That's it, and it corrects the error that the PC version of Poser makes when creating bump maps.

Now to save the bump and make sure it works in the character, prop, MAT pose, or wherever it's referenced…

Step 4 - Converting existing files to use the JPG

This is where most bump map tutorials will tell you to save the bump map as a BMP and then change the file extension to .bum to be used in Poser 4. And you can do that if you want to, of course, because that's how Poser 4 makes bump maps, but that's not what this tutorial is about.

Save your now-converted bump map as a JPG, with the JPG extension. I recommend saving with a name slightly different from any existing .jgp bump maps that may already be present in the texture directory. Make it something you'll remember and be able to identify easily.

If you are using this technique in the creation of a product (freebie or for sale), you can now just apply the converted Poser 4 style JPG bump as a normal bump map, in the bump channel. It will work exactly the same as a .bum (remember, Poser 4 can apply JPG files as bump maps!), but take up much less drive space since it's a JPG rather than an unweildy bitmap. Furthermore, users of the product won't have to convert anything at all. They can just choose the “P4” version of your MAT poses or character or whatever, and that's all they need to do.

If you're using this for your personal use rather than a product, you'll need to use a text editor to open the file (.pz2, .CR2, .pp2, etc.) that references the bump. Do a search for the name of the old .bum file, and replace all of the references with the name of the newly converted JPG version of the P4 style bump. (Just as a side note, I really like the free software package, Notetab Light for editing files. You can open very large files, no extraneous junk is added to them, and you can open multiple files and do universal search and replace, and you can't beat the price for the software!)

Step 5 - Final Tips

Do remember that you must apply the JPG bump with a MAT pose.

Also, if you ever need or want to open a .bum file in a graphic editor (Photoshop, Paint Shop Pro, etc.), you'll need to change the name of the extension from .bum to BMP, and to save, save it as a BMP and convert the extension to .bum

When I shared this information on a private board for other Poser users, one P4 user said that they had been using this technique for some time. They simply keep the PP/P5 version MAT files, convert the existing provided bump maps (which are, of course, grayscale), and they don't have to edit anything else at all. After using this technique for all of their Millenium people and animals, they ended up saving 2.5 gigabytes of drive space!

Creating your custom planets in Poser

2011-11-01T17:42:32+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 your custom planets in Poser

Author: Shakeno

Tools Needed

* Poser

Introduction

Are you tired of those pixel restricted space backgrounds? Don't worry, in this tutorial, you will learn how to create a planet in just some minutes, and you can create a planet with all the specifications you want. This tutorial is not only for background creation, you can look directly to your planet, and you can rotate it if you want to make an animation.

Step 1: Space knowledge

Ok, you want to create your own planet, but you have to know first some things about planets and have some ideas about them.

First, you have to know planets are not just simple spheres. They are flattened by their poles.

Also you must know there are some types of planets. The main ones are solid rocks (for example, the Moon and Mars are solid rocks), solid rocks with atmosphere (the Earth is one of them), gas spheres (Jupiter is only a gas ball). Some of them have liquids, like liquid methane' etc.

Second, solid planets are more near of its star than gas planets, and gas planets often are bigger than rock planets, because their particles have got more distance between them. Remember: OFTEN are bigger, but not always

Third, you must know if a solar system is only a star and a gas planet, the gas planet can modify its star gravity, so if you want to make an animation, not always is planet-to-star-around rotation, for situations like the one I mentioned before, think on a common center, and both planet and star rotate over it.

Fourth, planets which are a mix between rocks and atmosphere, not always the atmosphere rotates in the same direction, sometimes they turn in opposite direction.

Fifth, many planets haven't got any moon, while other planets have got a lot. Think about it for your planet.

Step 2: Main ideas about your planet

Now, you know the basics, let's ask you some question to give you ideas about your planet:

What kind of planet will be?

What's the planet temperature? (If you want a temperature of -120'C, you can't have liquid water)

What will be the planet theme? (For example, a grass paradise, a desert, a water world, a lava land, ice')

Which color are you going to paint your planet with?

Will have got live things? Is it at least able to live here? (Humans can't live in a world which is about 230'C)

Always make questions to yourself, so you will get the idea. Not all questions you can ask yourself are shown here, I just asked the minimum things, imagination is near infinite.

Step 3: Basic Sphere

Assuming you have selected your theme, you can start. I selected this time a green rock with white clouds floating over it and blue liquids.

Start by creating the rock layer. We are going to use this prop: Props > Primitives > Ball Hi-Res. Double click on it and it should appear.

IMPORTANT NOTE: You have to choose a location for all the balls we are going to create, so copy your X, Y and Z values, because you must use EXACTLY the same, or your planet will be strange.

Now, you've placed your giant rock, you must give it the flattened sphere style by poles.

Set the xRotate, yRotate and zRotate to 0', then set the xScale to 100%, zScale to 100% and yScale to 97%. It should look like this:

Amazing'

~But that's too shiny. We are not making marbles for children games, so go to the material section and set the specular value to 0.1 or 0.0.

Step 4: Bevel in your sphere

'Hey, I've got a plain white sphere! That's useless! I don't want a flat world' ← If you feel this, please be patient, and you will be able to create nice mountains in your planet.

It's time to add some displacement. You can select any texture, but I recommend to use the fractal_sum 3D texture (right click with the mouse, New Node > 3D Textures > fractal_sum). You can also use a real image to add the displacement.

Now play and experiment with its values, to get your desired effects. I used these values:

If you want more valleys and mountains, use smaller scales. If you want smoother differences between valleys and mountains, use lower octave and bias values and higher gain values, and if you want more valleys, use higher bottom values, but if you want more mountains, use lower bottom values.

Connect the fractal_sum (or any shader you created) we've created to 'displacement'

I recommend don't use very high values on displacement. That can be really unrealistic. I recommend values lower than 2.

Let's test what we have created. Click on 'Render settings', select FireFly and activate these boxes:

Texture Filtering

Raytracing

Smooth Polygons (Optional, but recommended)

Use displacement maps (IMPORTANT)

And I got this rocky thing:

Step 5: Add some fake bevel in your sphere to add detail

That rock keeps looking plain. We have to do something!

Go again to the MATERIAL section, and choose 'New Node > 3D Textures > Clouds'.

Those are the settings I used:

Required is that you select black and white values in colors. We are going to use this for bumping our sphere!

Next, connect 'Clouds' to 'Bump' and set the value you want.

DO NOT SET BUMP VALUE HIGHER THAN OR EQUAL TO DISPLACEMENT VALUE!

Let's see what we have got now, let's make a render:

Step 6: Paint the ball!

I'm sure you know we need something beautiful to paint your planet.

You can use another shader or a texture. I will use a shader.

I used again the 'Clouds' shader (New Node > 3D Textures > clouds), and I used these values:

Remember, play and experiment with values, this is just an example. I used these because I want a beauty green and dirty terrain. I recommend smoothing a lot the differences between Sky and Cloud with the Gain value.

But there's something that we need' and here left'

Step 7: Water (or liquids, oceans)

If you want to add water, just create another sphere, with the same scales, and set the general scale just a bit more than the default (this is something you must find by yourself, experiment with the 3 axes scale value).Don't worry, Z-Buffer will prevent the water to mess your terrain. You only need to set up the correct Scale. Remember that if you add water, it will need to have a bit more specularity than the terrain one. You have to remember too water isn't fully opaque, you will have to give it some transparency, unless it's not H2O. Opacity and specularity depends of the substances the water is composed of.

After making a clone of the rock sphere, I scaled it to 101%.

Now, paint your oceans. Go to 'materials' and use a texture or shader. I used again the 'Clouds' shader (New Node > 3D Textures > Clouds)

After adding it, you shouldn't give different colors or it will look really bad. You should give the same color with different hue, luminosity and saturation. Here are the values I have used:

And here, the values in the main shader options (Remember to set up your specular and transparency values!):

Now connect your blue 'Clouds' shader to Diffuse_Color and Specular_Color. You should have something like this:

If you want to extreme details in your planet adding a moon, remember this: The moon attracts the planet's water, so if you want that extreme detail, use a very smooth magnet here. That's not really needed because people won't be able to notice your changes.

Step 8: Clouds

Yeah! Finally! A sky! We can breathe!

Add another Props > Primitives > Ball Hi-Res to your scene. Next, scale it a lot' a lot' a lot' well' this depends of what amount of terrain you want your planet look like, or how many altitude you want in the last sky layer'

Let's begin. I used 110% of scale.

Now the materials again, and yes, let's use a shader.

First remember clouds have got volume, so we have to add some displacement and bump. Also, unless you want to have chewing gum instead of clouds, set the 'specular_value' to 0.2 or less. I used 0.2.

Add the fractal_sum shader (New Node > 3D Textures > fractal_sum). Set up that shader. I used these values:

I recommend small scale values, but experiment with the values you want, enough to get happy with them. Please note, you must use the same scaling value for x, y and z. You will see in the next shader why.

Now connect it to bump and displacement. Please! Do not put very high values on bump and displacement or it will look really weird!

I used for bump 0.25 and for displacement 0.5.

Now add another shader. I highly recommend 'clouds' (New Node > 3D Textures > clouds). The scale values must be the same as the 'fractal_Sum' shader we added before. Experiment with the other values until you get your desired effect. I used these values as another example:

Sorry about that name. I added this shader after the shader you will use in the next step, but that doesn't make any matter. Don't worry about that.

Connect that shader to 'Transparency' and 'Transparency_edge'.

The value for 'Transparency' must be 1.0, and 'Transparency_edge' 0.6 (or just a little more) if you want a color atmosphere (for example, the earth has it blue, but I don't recommend that for atmosphere because it will be deformed by the displacement. If you want an atmosphere, I recommend a lot more that you create another sphere with the atmosphere color, and use the same scale as the cloud layer), this will happen when you add the shader in the next step. The 'Sky_color' in the next shader would be the atmosphere color.

If you want just clouds only and no atmosphere, set it to 1.0.

Now add the same shader you added before. I said I recommend 'clouds'

For clouds color, I recommend a bright color, like, for example, white, for 'Cloud_color'. Now, the 'Sky_color' it's the atmosphere color I told you before. I used a natural sky blue. Scale here should be lower than the transparency cloud shader.

Here is the example of my values:

Now, connect it to the 'Diffuse_color' value of the main shader.

After a render, you should have got something like this:

You can try adding more cloud layers if you want, but I don't recommend this, you may mess your scene if you add more. I recommend doing that only when it's a gas-only type planet.

Step 9: Setting up the scene

Ok. I think you don't want a brown like background solid color. You maybe want a 'realistic' space background. You can create one in Poser. Also you must set up a correct lighting.

Go to the Materials section, and pick the background. Add the shaders 'noise' and 'clouds' (New Node > 3D Textures > Noise/New Node > 3D Textures > clouds)

Select your values around these:

Connect “Cloud_color” to “noise”

Now the lights. How many stars does the solar system have? 1' 2' (more would be VERY SCI-FI)

You must place “infinite” style lights, with the angle where the sun is supposed to be. My solar system will have got one light. I'll use 2 lights for this. After locating lights, I used a yellow-white color. My star has these colors:

R= 0.493416

G= 0.458671

B= 0.367593

Where R is red, G is green and B is blue.

I changed the intensity to 226% and at the properties window, I selected Raytrace shadows.

Also, this optional step may be useful to give the planet some weight:

Change the camera scale to 20%, change the focal length to 90 mm. and adjust its position to catch what you want of your planet.

Now, let's test the render:

Step 10: Post-work

Finally we finished this! At last! This optional step can help you to get some cool effects or just fun on your images. I'll show you some examples to give you ideas:

Sun power

Nice UT Aimbot (gamers will know what I'm talking about)

I want to thank:

DAZ 3D, for being a high-quality community with high-quality freebies… …and allowing me to upload my tutorial here in an easy step-by-step format.

E-Frontier, for creating Poser 6.

You, for reading this tutorial.

I hope my bad English didn't kill you… also I hope too I helped you with this tutorial.

If you want, you can contact me to show me your results or if you have got any problem while following this tutorial.

Good luck creating planets!

Create Perspective UVs and Lenses in Poser

2011-11-01T17:42:32+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.

Create Perspective UVs and Lenses in Poser

Author: Looniper

Tools Needed

Poser

Introduction

If you have ever used the Group Edit tool in Poser, you have seen the Create Perspective UVs button, but probably had no idea what it was for.

Even if you pressed it out of curiosity, it likely had no noticable effect unless certain criteria were already met.

This tutorial will step you through creating a Perspective UV projection on a box, and will go on to explain how to apply this tool to the creation of working lenses.

Note: None of the images in this tutorial have been postworked. They all represent exacty the effect you should get when following the steps indicated.

Step 1 - concept

Create Perspective UVs (hereafter simply CPUV) changes the mapping of a selection of polygons to simulate a projection of their texture map from the current camera view onto the environment.

Don't worry, doing it is much easier than understanding it.

In simpler terms, this means that with the right texture map, an area of an object can be made to appear as if it were a hole in the object, or an entire object can look as if it were made from glass. Neither of these requiring the use of any transparencies.

Step 2 - setup

You do not need to have a background image loaded to use CPUV, but for this tutorial it is important.

The image you use is up to you. I am using a simple render of Victoria 3 (pe036) with the hi-res universal textures (tx307) and Wild and Messy hair (ac420) over a sky created in Vue d'Esprit 4.

With the background image loaded, it is time to bring in a victim in which to punch some holes.

Change to the Front camera and load a box from the props library.

Scale box_1 to about 500% so that it covers a fair amount of the background.

You should have something like this.

Step 3 - grouping

With the box selected, click on the Grouping Edit tool icon.

A detailed explanation of the Grouping Edit tool is beyond the scope of this tutorial, but for those unfamiliar with its use, I will explain enough to use it for our purposes.

Click the Create Group button and enter the name Holes.

Now select a few areas on the box that will become the holes. Selected parts display as red with the rest as black. If you select an unwanted area, simply hold Ctrl and select the undesired portions to remove them.

For CPUV to work, we need a material name for our holes. Click the Assign Materials button and name our material. Use Holes again to keep things easy.

Now close the Group Edit tool and you will notice that our new Holes material has been given a random color. The color will vary but is unimportant because we will be changing it regardless.

Step 4 - Punching Holes

With the box selected, go to Render - Materials and change the Holes material's Object Color to white. For its texture map, load the same image you are using as the background picture.

If you have followed the steps up to this point, your box should now resemble this.

Now it is time to see what CPUV can do.

With the box selected, click on the Group Edit tool, click the CPUV button and close the tool again.

Now our box has holes in it!

Well not holes precisely.

If you change the camera viewing angle, you will quickly get a better understanding of what you have just done.

The mapping is generated as a path directly from the camera view to the background, so any change in viewing angle will break the illusion of the holes.

Of course, there are other purposes for this tool. Imagine making the rest of the box transparent, making multiple boxes similarly mapped, and positioning them as if in layers. The effects can be impressive.

Step 5 - Lens Methodology

You've seen the most basic application of CPUV, so let us explore one of its more advanced applications, the creation of functioning lenses in Poser by simulating refraction.

Refraction is a change in the direction of light when it passes through a curved survace.

In the case of a simple convex lens (such as a magnifying glass) it causes light to project outward, making objects appear larger.

By the same physics, light passing through a concave lens will project inward, making objects appear smaller.

For this tutorial, you do not need to understand refraction, but the more you understand it the more creative you can be with lenses. Producing both lens types on the same surface for example.

Let us begin by creating our lens.

Step 6 - Building the Lens

Since CPUV will map an object to show a direct line from our view to the background, we need a way to stretch that mapping in order to act as a lens. The easiest way to do this is using Poser's Magnets.

Since magnets are another topic beyond the scope of this tutorial, I will give exact values on placement and dials to create the lens.

Load the background image into a fresh scene and change to the Front view again, this time changing the display mode to Wireframe.

Load a ball from the props library and be sure its Ytran and Ztran dials are set to 0.000.

Scale it up to 500% as we did with the box above.

With the ball selected, on the menu chose Object - Create Magnet. The scene should now look like this.

Using the list under the workspace image, select Props and chose MagZone_1.

We want to deform only the end of the ball so we need to move the MagZone_1 and MagBase_1.

Xtram and Ytram 0.050 for each of them.

With those moved to the correct positions, chose Mag_1 from the list and increase its Scale to 150%.

Select the ball again and go to the Object menu and Spawn Morph Target, giving it the name Zoom.

Delete the Magnet prop since it is no longer needed.

Step 7 - Making the Lens Work

You may have noticed that the ball faces to the side rather than toward us.

We want it to face us now so adjust its YRotate dial to -90.

With the ball selected click on the Group Edit tool and create a new group called Lens.

Since we are using the entire ball, we don't need to select anything, simply click Add All and press the CPUV button and close the Group Edit too.

Now under Render - Materials, set the ball's Preview material's Object Color to white (it should be already) and its Texture Map to the same image as the background.

The Highlight and Reflective Colors should both be set to black.

At this point, our ball-lens appears simply as a glass plate in front of the background.

Use the Zoom morph dial we created to simulate refraction.

Congratulations! You have just created a functioning lens in Poser.

You can adjust the Zoom dial higher to zoom in, and lower to zoom out.

If you apply too much Zoom either way, the morph will cause the ball to expand or twist in on itself, so keep the values low for this lens.

For more Zoom-In, have the Zoom dial set to less than 0 when you use the CPUV button.

For more Zoom-Out, have the Zoom dial set to greater than 0 when you use the CPUV button.

Step 8 - Changing the Lens

Changing the lens to focus on a new location is simple.

Be sure the Zoom dial is set to 0 and drag the lens over the point you wish to magnify.

Once positioned, open the Group Edit tool and press the CPUV button to update the mapping.

You may wonder why we morphed the ball sideways and then turned it to face us.

This is for 2 reasons.

First, since we wanted a round lens, creating this morph on the side of the ball would have made the edges look blocky because of the flat edges facing the camera.

Second, in wireframe view the lines of the ball come together to form a point which we can use to position the lens with some precision.

Step 9 - Experiment

Don't feel limited to just the material given here.

With the correct application, CPUV can create Funhouse Mirrors, accurately refract a scene through a crystal ball, and any number of other effects.

I hope you find this tutorial useful.

~Looniper

Decals in Poser (5-7)

2011-11-01T17:42:32+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.

Decals in Poser (5-7)

Author: Kemp Sparky

Tools Needed

* Poser 5-7

* Image Editor

Introduction

de'cal [dee k'l] (plural de'cals) n. Picture for transfer: a picture or design on specially treated paper that allows it to be transferred to a surface such as glass, wood, or metal. Decaling in poser: To place a high resolution image on a model by scaling and positioning using UV coordinates. This tutorial will show you how to overlay 'decals' over existing textures using masks and material room nodes. I will show you my progress as I map an emblem onto a tabard.

Step 1 - Making the Decal and Mask

The decal, in my case, is an emblem. At first, I tried to put the emblem directly onto the texture. I found that the effect was dissatisfactory. The emblem, on a fairly high resolution texture came out blurry and with very little detail. Not only this, but I was mucking up my hard drive with copies of a texture that were unnecessary, and causing problems during rendering with high memory usage, due to the size of the textures needed for the detail I wanted. So, I resorted to this technique instead. The mask is just like a transparency map. 'Mask' all the areas of the image that you do not want to show up after rendering with black, all other areas will be white. You can also use shades of grey to create translucent, or blended areas. Fig. 1 shows my decal and mask.

Step 2 - Applying the Decal

Go into the material room, and apply your decal as the diffuse map. Not quite what you were hoping for, is it? Fig. 2 shows the result in my case.

Step 3 - Scaling the Decal

Now, how to scale the decal? In the advanced tab of the Material room, you see the node titled 'Image_Map_#' (where '#' is a number), and which displays a thumbnail of your decal when you hit the eye icon in the upper right corner. There are two fields that are called 'U_Scale' and 'V_Scale, ' both are set at 1.0 by default. These dials run from 0.0-1.0 0.0=0%, and 1=100%. One thing of note, is that the pixel size of your image has no bearing on its relative size in the material room, which allows you some freedom with your images' sizes (the mask need not be the same pixel size as your decal, only the same shape; if you want to make your decal image larger or smaller to add more detail or lower memory usage respectively, you need to make no changes in the material room as long as the image retains its shape). The U axis controls the horizontal and V the vertical (Fig. 3). I scaled mine to 0.08, or 8% of its original size. Fig. 4 shows us my progress so far.

Step 4 - Positioning the Decal

At this point, it's nice if you want a patterned cloth, but I just want one emblem. Notice that the node shows Image_Mapped: Tiled. That would explain the tiling effect, wouldn't it? Change 'Tiled' to 'None.' You should now see a single decal, huddled in the lower left corner of the white space of the texture preview. If I were to render this now, I would have nothing more than a white tabard, since the emblem is not over the place where the UV mapping of the tabard is. You will now need to utilize the fields that say 'U_Offset' and 'V_Offset.' Once again, the U axis runs from left to right, and V from bottom to top. But how do you know where the decal needs to be? The preview doesn't show you. Will you have to tweak the coordinates and render, tweak and render over and again? No. Just below 'Image_Mapped' it says 'Background, ' click the plug icon to the right of it, and select New Node > 2D Textures > image_map. Now, navigate to either a texture template for the object to which you are applying the decal, or the texture that you want to show under the decal later, if applicable. Fig. 5 shows what my material looks like at this point. Now, play with the offset dials until you think your decal appears to be in the right place. I set mine to 0.858, 0.845. As you can see from Fig. 6, it appears to be in the right place.

Step 5 - Applying the Mask

It's starting to look good, but it still has that green box around it. Well, that's what the mask is for. We start by opening up a blender node. Click on the plug next to 'Diffuse_Color, ' where our decal is currently plugged in, and select New Node > Math > blender. The blender node has three fields: Input_1, Input_2, and Blending. Change the value next to 'Blending' (0.5 by default) to 1.0. Plug your decal into 'Input_2, ' disconnect your background from the decal node, and plug the background texture into 'Input_1.' Copy and paste your decal node, plug the new decal into the 'Blending' field of the blender. Change the 'Image_Source' of this node to your mask, and change the background color of this node to pure black, or RGB 0, 0, 0. Fig. 7 shows the final product.

Step 6 - Final Notes

One thing to note, is that decals will not overlap UV seams.

Now that you have learned this technique, you can apply it in all manner of ways. To make certain areas of a body part look more detailed, to create transparencies in clothing, to add tattoos to characters, and more.

Easy Color Changeable Eyebrows for V4/V3

2011-11-01T17:42:32+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 Color Changeable Eyebrows for V4/V3

Author: cowham

Tools Needed

* Adobe Photoshop and basic understanding of layers / tool box / image menu

* Poser or D|S and knowledge of how to load/change texture maps

* Base Texture Maps

Introduction

Create eyebrow transparency map for your mil figures (V3/4, or any figure with an eyebrow material) to enable quick color changes in poser.

Step 1 - Getting Started

Open Photoshop, and load character head map from your textures folder (I'm using the standard hi res maps for V4).

Open the layers box if it is not already open. (Windows menu, Layers) You can turn the layer visibility on or off by clicking on the eyeball icon next to a layer. Open your tool box as well.

Step 2 - Prep

Make a new layer (click on the post-it note icon), and fill it with black. (Edit menu, Fill - choose black in the drop down box) Drag the face layer map (it should be called background) onto the post-it note icon to copy the layer. Turn off the visibility on the bottom (background) layer (eyeball icon). Click on the copied face layer, and drag it to the top of the list, if it isn't already on the top.

Step 3 - Masking

On the top face map (the one we copied), use the Lasso Selection tool to draw a selection around the eyebrows. It doesn't have to be perfect and it does not need to touch the edges of the eyebrows. Go to the Select Menu, Inverse. Push the delete key. Go back to the Select Menu, and Deselect (Ctrl-D).

Step 4 - Converting

Go to the Image Menu, Adjustments, Desaturate. This converts our layer to grayscale. Go back to the Image Menu and choose Brightness/Contrast. Play with moving the little sliders back and forth, you want to make the skin as white as possible, and the brows as black as possible without losing image quality.

Step 5 - Enhancing

Go back to the Image Menu and choose Invert (Ctrl-I). Make a lasso selection around one of the eyebrows, getting the skin “gunk” as well. In the Image Menu, Adjustments, choose Levels. Under the bar graph, move the black arrow over (to the right) to make the background blacker, the white arrow over (to the left) to make the eyebrows whiter, and the gray arrow in the middle to balance the skin under the eyebrow hair. Only worry about making the skin around the eyebrow blacker, not all of the skin “gunk”. Repeat for the other side.

You can do both eyebrows at once, but a lot of texture maps use different textures for each eyebrow, so it can be hard to get a crisp image.

Step 6 - Cleanup

Use the eraser tool with a feathered brush to clean up any skin “gunk” residue. (Feathered brushes fade out towards the edge) Gently go around the eyebrow hairs to clear any run-away hairs.

Save as a jpeg, and put it in your texture folder. Remember where you saved it, and what you called it. (I suggest putting it in the texture folder with the original base maps)

Step 7 - Face Cleanup

Turn off the visibility of the top two layers, and turn on visibility of the bottom layer, and click on it to make it active. Using the rubber stamp tool, and a good sized feathered brush, we are going to paint over the eyebrows on the map. Hold down the Alt Key and click on a spot near the target area to set a reference point, and paint away. You may have to use several reference points.

Save as a jpeg, and put in your texture folder. It is up to you whether or not to replace the original file. You can put the originals in a new folder just in case. Saving with the original name will allow you to load your altered maps using the mat files that came with the set.

You will need to do this for each face map you texture set has (such as each makeup option map). If you have a lot of head maps to convert, I recommend opening them all, and copy/pasting them into the main base map, and then painting over the eyebrows on a new layer at the top. This way you only have to paint over the eyebrows once and you can just turn off the makeup layers before saving.

Step 8 - Loading in Poser

Open Poser (or D|S), and load your character figure, and mats for the textures you used. Go to the material room (advanced view for 6 and 7), and choose the eyebrow material from the drop down list. Make a new 2D image map (right click on the empty space), and connect it to the transparency and edge nodes. Change both dials to 1. Make sure you click on the none in the image map box and load your eyebrow transparency map. Click on the color box next to the diffuse_color, and change the color to whatever you want your eyebrows to be. Change the face map texture to your saved one if you didn't replace the original file. Go back to the Pose View.

On Victoria 4, you will need to make the eyebrow material visible. Select it from the parts drop down list. Open the parameters dial box, and choose the properties tab. Click the visible box. If you get weird reflections from the eyebrow material when you render, go to the material room and on the eyebrow part change the specluar_value and highlight_size to 0.

You may want to save your loaded textures in the material room for quick loading, or you can make your own mat files too.

Render away, and have fun!

Glowing Eyes

2011-11-01T17:42:32+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.

Glowing Eyes

Author: Robin Wood

Tools Needed

Poser 4

Step 1 - Materials Dialog

First pose the figure and all of that, just as usual. The Glowing Eyes effect is achieved in the Materials Dialog, under the Render menu. Choose Render, then Materials… to open it.

There is an Object popup menu at the top of this dialog box, in the far left corner. Hold down the popup, and make sure that the figure (or prop) you want to modify is showing. In this case, it's Figure 1. (see the image below) Since it's the only figure in this scene, I didn't bother to name it.

Step 2 - Meterials

Now, to the right of that is another popup menu, which lists all the Materials that are available in that figure or prop. (see image above) What is there depends on how the model has been set up by the person who made it. (It can be changed with UV Mapper, but that is grist for another tutorial.) Anything that is listed there can be made to glow. In this case, I am using Zygote's Victoria model. She has lots of different materials, including pupils, irises, and eyewhites. I'm going to make each of them glow with a different luminosity, to really make the illustration as spooky as I can.

Let's start with the pupils. In order for them to really glow, we need to eliminate the Texture Map. Otherwise, there will be a black texture there, and a limit to how bright they can get. So go to the Texture Map dialog, and click on the popup menu to reveal your choices. Choose “No Texture.” Now set the colors in the Object Color, Highlight Color and Ambient Color boxes at the top of the dialog box. Click on the color in the box to bring up the color picker for your system. I first set the Object Color to 358', with a saturation value of 100% and a Lightness of 57%. That gives me a strong, bright red. Next, I clicked on the Ambient Color sample, and when the color picker appeared I held down the option/alt key. This gave me an eyedropper that I can use to pick up a one-pixel sample of any color showing on my screen. I sampled the Object Color, so that the two would match perfectly. Finally, I clicked on the Highlight Color sample. I wanted a slightly different color in the highlights, so I repeated the trick with the eyedropper to match the Object Color, and then used the sliders in my Color Picker to change the hue angle to 10'.

Step 3 - Repeat

In the image above, I wanted some of the texture of an iris to show; so I left the texture map that was already loaded (Vickie's Head Natural). Then I repeated the process used above to choose colors for the other channels. In this case, I chose the same values as before, so that the irises would glow with the same color as the pupil, but show the texture map. I left the highlight as black, because I didn't want much highlight on the irises.

Finally, I went back to the Materials popup menu, and chose Eyewhites.

Step 4 - Other Options

I left the Texture Map, Object Color, and Highlight Color where they were, and only changed the Ambient Color. I set it for the very same values as I used for the pupils and irises (358' and 100% saturation) but only used 9% lightness. This gave me a slight glow in the eyewhite, but not enough to overpower the irises. I also set the Ambient Color of the teeth a little higher than usual, so that they would appear to phosphoresce. I left the Object Color and Highlight Color as white, but set the Ambient Color to 0% saturation and 27% lightness. Then I arranged the lights in the scene to cast the eyes into shadow, and rendered the picuture!

Step 5 - Lighting

Note that the lighting makes all of the difference. When the eyes are not in shadow, the glow will not be nearly as apparent. Of the two images above, the only difference is the lighting. The second is rendered with flat 360' white lighting. The eyes, while they are glowing, aren't nearly as striking. What kind of effect you want is up to you, of course. But remember that anything that is glowing will appear brighter in the dark. (Just like in real life! )

Step 6 - Other Glows

Of course, not everything that glows needs to be this complicated. And any colors may be used. For instance, you can make Zygote's Alien Grey have green glowing eyes, using exactly the same techniques outlined above for the pupils, but using green, not red.

Step 7 - Wrap Up

Not everything has to be spooky. In another example, I made a rose glow using the technique I used for the irises above. Then I put a light on Victoria's face using a spotlight. Once again, a completely undoctored Poser print.

The model is Zygote's Victoria, wearing the dress from her first Clothing Pack. Both are available from Zygote. The texture map used on Victoria and the rosebud are both mine, available for downloading right here. The hair is Jim Burton's Strip Hair, available from Renderosity . It was made for Posette, and I'm using it on Vickie, so it doesn't quite fit. But I still like it, and it's easy to retouch. I just can't bring myself to use Posette now that I've found Vickie! )

That's it! Now you can have glowing stuff all over. Try using glow with transparency, to make ghosts. Or with reflections, or anything else that you can dream up. Remember, being able to create anything that you can dream is what this is all about! If you have a question, write to me and ask it!

INSANE CLOSE-UPS FOR POSER BEGINNERS

2011-11-01T17:42:32+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.

INSANE CLOSE-UPS FOR POSER BEGINNERS

Author: Ned

Tools Needed

Poser 4 or better
DAZ V3
DAZ V3 head morph pack
DAZ V3 body morph pack (optional)
ZS3D Sirya
Any image editing application

Introduction

Hi, everyone!

Ned here, from NedStudios. We'll quickly cover some simple ' tweaks and trick' and mess with Poser's Material Room a bit, in order to create some insanely good looking close-up renders.

Step 1 - GET YOUR GEAR!

In this tutorial we'll try to use only absolutely essential tools for great close-up shots in Poser(let's says we're beginners and we're running on a tight budget).

If you're into posing beautiful girls like I am and if you want some great results fast, then here's how to get them!

I suppose after purchasing Poser 5, the best investment I've ever made was purchasing 'DAZ Victoria 3', her

'Head Morph Pack' and 'Body Morph Pack' by DAZ. As far as the skin texture goes, I highly recommend 'Zeta Studios' Sirya for V3'. Apart from jaw-dropping textures and a beautiful character, you also get some amazing global lighting sets. You should get your hands on this one fast! I know I have and this is what I was able to do with it:

Some time ago I've created this female face using V3+ Face Morphs. Even under default Poser light setup she renders decently and it all looks quite nice (Figure 1). The overall impression greatly improved after loading Sirya texture and eyes. Rendered, she looks stunning under Sirya's 'B-Gen Light Set 1' (Figure 2). As you can see, I have changed the eye- color by applying a different texture but we may talk about that process some other time. You may also apply some of Sirya's eye- sets.

Step 2 - WELCOME TO MATERIAL ROOM!

This all looks quite nice but in order to achieve that 'natural appearance' we'll have to tweak some settings in Poser's Material Room. We'll be adjusting Diffuse Color, Specular Color and Ambient Color settings. Remember, our final render is going to be an 'insanely close' close-up shot. Apart from emotions and atmosphere (which our 'female actor' has to convey)the skin has to have the right sheen and moisture and that goes for the eyes, lips and teeth as well.

Depending on how close you want to get, you may or may not want to put some hair on her head. It was irrelevant but I did put some hair on, simply because I'm not into ladies who shave their heads.

The face (and optional hair) should look something like in this split image(Figure 3/4) after you've applied the lights and changed the colors of the above mentioned settings (as seen in fig 5 and 6). You have to left click the color rectangle with the color-picker and pick your shade from the drop-down box. They are black by default but as you can see, I have changed some into white and some into shades of blue. Naturally, this is a matter of personal preference so feel free to play for a while. After you're done, render and export your image to the directory of your choosing. It's good to mention that you can change settings for the whites and corneas (of the eyes) separately, just by clicking on them. Be careful when clicking on teeth or lips with the color-picker. We do want to change their Specular Color settings (fig 7 and 8) but you might accidentally, click on the facial skin surface, since the image in the material room is rather small. You may want to zoom in a bit.

Step 3 - POST WORK NIGHTMARE!

In our final step, let's say we don't have Adobe Photoshop. I find 'Microsoft Picture It! 7 ' to be quite user-friendly for beginners and quite inexpensive for all the good results you can achieve with it. I hear some computers even come with factory-installed versions of it so chances are that you already have it. In general, the more post work you're getting into, the bigger the odds that you'll eventually mess up the whole thing. Think about this before you even start posing your character and you'll avoid the post work nightmare.

Because we were mindful, the only thing left to do now is to sharpen certain areas of the face to accentuate skin pores with the cropping tool (remember to soften the edges of the cropped- out section). We can also work on the hair and eyes (fig 9). Or we might as well forget about the hair and get deep into the facial expression itself (Figure 10).

As a final touch, I always put just a little bit of film grain over the finished image. You don't have to do this but I do. Reminds me of my old 35mm camera shots.

The render settings I used for this experiment were plain and simple(Figure 11).

Of course, you may find your own 'magic combination' which works for you. I guess that's what this kind of work is all about; Find YOUR OWN MAGIC!

So, let's see it now!

Check out some of my work at http://www.yessy.com/ned over there you'll find two of my galleries; LANDSCAPES (classical painting) and GRAPHICS (computer based digital artwork)

Happy rendering!

NED 2004

Making Metallic Hair

2011-11-01T17:42:32+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 Metallic Hair

Author: Vadlor

Tools Needed

Poser 6
Any Hair Model

Introduction

In this tutorial I will show you a way to make metallic hair all within Poser 6. This technique should be adequate for any hair out there, so let's get going.

Step 1 - First things first.

Load the hair you want to turn silvery as usual. Load a texture of your choice, depending if you want a dark metallic hair or if you'd prefer a light metallic hair. In this example, I'll be using the Wedgecut 2 Low Res with a dark blonde texture, to make a silvery hair.

Step 2 - Preparations.

Enter the material room. Copy the texture and the transparency nodes from your hair, (do not copy the Posersurface node or you will lose all your work when you paste it back). Then, delete all nodes. Note that if the hair has more than one texture map or transparency map (like in this case) you will have to do this step in every material of the hair, so do not delete all at once. Now we will create a silvery material for our silvery hair.

Step 3 - Setting the Color for the silvery material.

Create a new node: Lighting/Diffuse/Clay. Keep its KD and Roughness values as they come by default and then set its color in a light beige (R250, B247, G239) and connect it to the Diffuse color, set its color to white and its value to 1.

Now create another clay node just like before and change its color to a light blue (R223, B252, G253). Now connect it to the specular color, set it black (note that usually we would set this color in white, to optimize the reflection effect, but since we are going to work with transparencies we must set it in black to avoid “ghosts” around the hair) and set the specular value in 1.

Step 4 - Adding some Bump.

Make a new Turbulence node (3D Texture/Turbulence) with the x, y and z scales setting in 0, 25; the octaves in 6, 0; the bottom in 0 and the bias and gain in 0, 5.

Connect that node to the gradient bump and set it to 0, 25; then connect it to the alternate diffuse and set its color to a dark grey (R56, B65, G68).

Step 5 - Adding reflection

Create a new Reflect node (Lighting/Ray trace/Reflect). You might keep the default settings. Connect it to the reflection color, which will be white and set the reflection value in 1.

Step 6 - Reconnecting the hair texture and transparency.

Link the transparency node to the transparency value, set the value to 1 and the translucency color to black, as it usually is in any hair that uses trans maps. Then create a new HSV node (Math/HSV). Link this new node to the color settings of both clay nodes, then connect the texture node to the color setting of this node and set the saturation value of the hsv node to zero.

If you want to add more specularity to the hair, you can change the Specular Color to white and connect the Transparency map to the Specular value. That should get rid of any ghost around your transmapped hair.

Step 7 - Final Notes

As said before, you can use this technique in any hair you like, because it uses the original textures. Also, not only for silvery, but for any other color you would like. Mapps has a very wide range of metallic materials in his freestuff, you can use them as reference.

This also works for making grey hair for those hairs that don't have a white hair texture. Just disconnect the reflection and set the beige Clay to white.

More realistic renders in Poser 4 and Pro Pack

2011-11-01T17:42:32+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.

More realistic renders in Poser 4 and Pro Pack

Author: Vadlor

Tools Needed

Poser 4 or Pro Pack

Introduction

This is something I discovered when analyzing how the Sub Surface Scattering works in Poser 6. This simple technique will achieve similar results in Poser 4 and Pro Pack. While this won't be as perfect or as accurate as the SSS that Poser 6 has, it will make your renders look much better.

Step 1 - Load your figure

Load your Figure. For this tutorial I'm using Victoria 3.

Step 2 - Texture it.

Load your figure a texture of your choice. I'm using Trixie. Render a headshot for future comparison.

Step 3 - Material Settings.

Open the Material Dialog Box. Now you have to change the reflective and ambient colors in the skin and nails materials. Applying this to the eyes and/or teeth will spoil what you're trying to achieve.

For this example, I set my materials like this:

Object Color: R255 G255 B255 (White)

Highlight Color: R0 G0 B0 (Black)

Ambient Color: R128 G64 B64

Reflective Color: R255 G221 B221

Highlight Size: 89%

For the lips, I went for a glossier look, so my settings are a little different.

Object Color: R255 G255 B255

Highlight Color: R255 G221 B221

Ambient Color: R128 G64 B64

Reflective Color: R255 G255 B255

Highlight Size: 0%

Note that for different ethnicities, the color you must set in the Highlight and the Ambient must be shade of the desired ethnicity (golden hues for Asian skins, browns for African-American, etc…).

Step 4 - Other Materials

For the redder areas of the face (Tongue, Lacrimals, gums and inner mouth), the color must be redder as well. These are the settings I used in them.

Highlight Color: R255 G128 B128

Ambient Color: R128 G0 B0

Step 5 - Render it and compare.

Render it now so we can compare the two of them. You can see that the second render looks more alive than the first, because its shadows are not grey. That is because of the change in the ambient color.

Here's a full body shot of the results for further comparison.

Hope you find it useful.

Happy renders!

Position your character's lips

2011-11-01T17:42:32+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.

Position your character's lips

Author: Ravenhair

Tools Needed

Paintshop Pro or Adobe Photoshop
UV Mapper

Introduction

Before you start texturing any of your characters, you need to know where to position parts such as eye sockets, nipples and lips, in this case, I will use lips as an example on how to position them on your texture template before doing anything else.

You see how easy is to do this, if you follow the steps by steps instructions, I do recommend that you pay attention to the very first steps.

Now, let's finish the talking because I know myself, I won't know when to end… and let's start the actual tutorial.

Step 1 - UV Mapper

We will begin by opening UV Mapper, and loading the object, in this case, will be V3.

Once you have it loaded, go to Edit, Select by Material and select all those that you are NOT going to work with at the moment, in other words, since we are working with Vicky lips, you will select all EXCEPT the lips, like the image indicates.

Now, you drag the selected area outside the UV Mapper's box, leaving just the unselected lips.

Step 2 - Save Template

Save your texture template and enter 2944 Width and 2000 Height, this is very important because those are the measures of the V3 head texture template I used to work while writing this tutorial. Maybe you have a different size for the V3 head template, and if so, those measures are the ones that you will enter when saving the texture template using UV Mapper. See the image below:

Step 3 - PSP

By now you probably have saved your lips texture and you are ready to open Paint Shop Pro.

Once opened PSP, open the V3 head texture you will be working on, I strongly recommend that you do a duplicate of the V3 head texture template, and now, open your lips template that you have previously saved using UV Mapper, you will notice that the color depth is set to minimum, increase the color depth for this bmp file by going to colors/increase color depth/16 million colors.

Select the whole image copy and past it on the V3 head texture map that you have opened before (I'm talking about the duplicate), past it as a new layer, just as the image below indicates.

Step 4 - Remove Whites

You have placed that new layer, and you need to get rid of the white part, just use the magic wand, click anywhere on the white area, and hit the delete key, after this, go to select/inverse, like the image below indicates.

Now, hit the delete key again.

Step 5 - Paint it in

Using the paint brush, choose the color of your choice, and paint the selected area.

I didn't want to see that grid, so I created a new layer between the background (V3 Head template copy) and the lips area I was working on, and using the paint bucket, I decided to paint it in beige.

Step 6 - Final words.

Now you are done, and ready to apply textures. I do have a tutorial of how to create realistic looking lipstic textures, but if you want to create a texture that simulates natural lips, no make up, there are some online that can help you out.

The image below is a render after applying this method, see how the color is applied on her lips.

Notes:

1-This tutorial talks about lips only, but as I said before, you can use the method when you want to apply textures to other body parts and you don't want them blend with the other textues.

2-Use this method also when working on applying second skins, just save the parts you want to work on.

3-When using UV Mapper, select all the parts that you are NOT going to work on and drag them outside the box, don't forget to click on Yes when it says “There are other selections, do you want to save them”.

4-When you will save a texture template in UV Mapper, don't forget to set the measures the same as the texture template you will use as a base… I think I already said that.

If you have any problem, just email me at the_gypsy_witch@yahoo.com

Specular Maps

2011-11-01T17:42:32+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.

Specular Maps

Author: taniab

Tools Needed

* Poser

* DAZ Studio

* Graphic Program

Introduction

Simply said specularity is how “shiny” an object appears. In Poser or DAZ Studio you can set different values to make objects more or less shiny: higher values make the highlights more spread out on the object surface (like in metal objects), while a lower value makes highlights more spot-like (think of plastic surfaces). It is possible to set also a color for specularity and an image map. This tutorial deals with the latter, showing how, through a map, it is possible to set different glossiness areas on the same object.

Step 1 - Specular Maps

A specular map is usually a grayscale/black&white image that works together with the numerical settings for specularity in this way:

- white on the map is for areas of the objects affected by numerical values

- black on the map is for areas where specular s settings don't apply.

Without a map an object has the same specular value all over it, while by using a map you can set some parts of it to be more or less “shiny” than others.

In this tutorial I am not going into detail about the different numerical settings, just note that in DAZ Studio a more diffuse shiny is obtained with low glossiness values and high specular values; in Poser you need to increase the highlights value for the same effect.

This is true generally speaking, I suggest to play with the settings to see how they work.

Step 2 - Setting a Specular Map

To specify a Specular Map in DAZ Studio go in the Surfaces tab- Advanced and click on the triangle (red circle in the image below): a dialog appears asking to locate a file.

In Poser you can set a specular map in the material room - Simple tab clicking on the image square as shown below:

or in the Advanced tab by attaching a image_map node to the specular color setting:

Step 3 - Difference in renders with and without a specular map

Below are two Poser 6 renders:

- the first one has no specular map applied. Note how the entire object is shiny.

- the second one has a map applied. You can see that only the central part of the vase is somewhat shiny, while the top and bottom are more dull. That's because we applied a map that is colored black for the top and bottom and white for the center (the map is below)

- Same example rendered in DAZ Studio.

And this is the specular map used:

Step 4 - One more example

The following image is another example that shows how you can completely change the look of an object by using maps:

The images above use bump, color(diffuse), displacement, transparency and specular maps.

Step 5 - Conclusion

The vase used in this tutorial is a freebie by Ravynsworld (Renderosity).

The template used for the maps was created by me with UV Mapper

To learn more about bump, displacement and transparency map I suggest the “Understanding Maps” tutorial

Tips on using the Sub Surface Scattering in Poser 6

2011-11-01T17:42:32+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.

Tips on using the Sub Surface Scattering in Poser 6

Author: Vadlor

Tools Needed

Poser 6

Introduction

First thing to have in mind when using the SSS that comes with Poser 6, is that it is a script designed basically for pink skin. Let's see some examples of what happens when we use the default SSS with other skin colors, and how to customize it for a better look in each case.

Step 1 - Technical Information

Let's see what the Poser 6 Manual says about the three nodes the SSS uses:

Blinn: Calculates highlights. It has four different settings: Specular Color (sets the color of the highlight); Eccentricity (creates imperfections in the surface, the manual says to use 0 for shinny surfaces and 1 for diffuse ones, the default value is 0.5); Specular Rolloff (controls the highlight's sharpness); and reflectivity (controls the amount of light reflected by the surface).

Fastscatter: It simulates the interaction of light with translucent materials. It's settings are Color (the tint of the subsurface area) and Attenuate (it specifies which light will have more influence in the SSS, the one originating from the camera or the one coming towards the camera).

Edge Blend: It blends two nodes based on surface and camera angles.

Step 2 - Goth-like White skin or really pale people.

For this example, I'll be using Kaeel, for a Gothic looking character. This first render is Kaeel as it comes, no SSS whatsoever. I'll be applying the changes on the head, scalp and lips materials, leaving the other materials alone for comparison.

Now, let's see how it looks with the default SSS.

Hey! Where did my gothic dude go!!!!???? The default SSS gives him a reddish look, because of what I said in the introduction. Let's change that.

Put all color form the SSS in tones of grey. Then, start using the color picker and select the colors from the texture preview at the bottom of the Posersurface node. Remember that this preview interacts with the light already set in the scene, so if you have very bright lights, change the Attenuate setting in the fastscatter node to Strong, to recover some of the colors that get “burned” by the lights. Pick the Specular color for the blinn node from the highlights already in the texture. The Fastscatter color pick it from the darker areas of the texture (not black, but shadowy areas), and the edge blend colors pick from the texture itself, the inner color being the base color of the texture (not highlighted or shadowed in any way), and the outer color being a darker tone than the Fastscatter. Let's see how it looks now:

Step 3 - Fixing the Highlight.

Well, our goth buy is back, and now it look much more realistic, thanks to the SSS with custom colors specially picked for this skin. Let's go now to the opposite extreme. Perhaps a little too bright in the highlighted area. We'll fix that by changing the values of the Blinn node, as in the image.

Step 4 - Let go to the other extreme now: Darker Skins

Here we'll see two examples: A dark skinned monster (an orc courtesy of the M3 Creatures Combo) and an african-american character. In both cases, well do the same we did with the Kaeel, but now taking green hues for the orc and brown hues for the african-american character, instead of grays. Let's see the before and after of them:

Before:

After Default SSS:

Again, in this first case, you can see how the SSS as it is applied by the WAcro changes completely the color of the skin, in a way we don't want to!.

Note: When you apply the SSS, it changes the Diffuse Color in the Posersurface node to white. if you are using a color, like in this case, to tint the texture, you'll have to apply the color again. Or apply it by means of the SSS.

First, set all the color attributes to a base color. Then, as we did before, pick the corresponding hues from the texture preview.

Step 5 - Second Case: African-American Character

Before:

After Default SSS:

As you can see, in the second case, the default coloring gives as a correct, somewhat lighter skin tone. Here it's up to you to see which tone is right for your character. I went for tone similar to the original texture:

Step 6 - Final Thoughts

Sub Surface Scattering is a very interesting and powerful tool. It helps us not only achieve a little more realism in our renders, cutting down post work process, but helps us squeeze a little more from our textures, giving us the possibilities of tinting them and using one texture for a great variety of characters, just with a few clicks.

Good luck!

Understanding Poser 5 - Displacement Maps

2011-11-01T17:42:32+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.

Understanding Poser 5 - Displacement Maps

Author: greenguy28

Tools Needed

Poser 5

Introduction

Ever wanted to add something more to your objects, to give them more interest or to create an alien texture? Well now with the displacement node in Poser 5's Material Room, you can! The displacement node does more than a simple bump map, which adds a texture but retains the shape of the object. The displacement node actually changes the shape of the object it affects. Let's go through the basics of this tool.

Step 1 - Getting Started

Load a sphere from the primitive props. If you render now, your scene will look like this:

Very plain, I know. Let's spice this up a little with a displacement map.

Step 2 - Making a Node

Click on the Material tab at the top of the screen. In the Material Room, you see a window showing your current scene and another window that shows several options in a column, each with a plug next to it.

Next to the word 'Displacement, ' you will see a plug. Click and drag, or right-click, on the plug and a menu will appear. Go to 'New node, ' where another window will appear. Continue to '2D Textures, ' and then click on 'image_map' in the final menu.

Step 3 - Selecting an Image Map

An image map node will appear, plugged into the displacement option. The node says that no image source is selected. Click on the word 'None' next to image source.

A window will appear prompting you to select an image file. Click on 'Browse' and choose a file.

Step 4 - The Results of Each Image

Depending on what source image you have, the displacement will vary. Like a bump map, the displacement map is grayscale (black-and-white) and the closer to black, the lower the depression, the closer to white, the higher the extrusion. Here are some examples of image maps and their resulting displacement on the sphere:

Even images that are not in grayscale format can be used. Here, I used a color image, and got great results from it.

Step 5 - Correcting UV Mapping Problems

Sometimes, though, the displacement map will apply in the wrong direction. What can be done? Well, I'm going to apply the striped displacement map I used on the sphere above to a torus (donut ring) to make bands of it raised and depressed. I apply the map as before and' OOPS! It applied in the wrong direction!

What can be done?

Well, why did this incorrect mapping occur? It appears that the map was run along the circumference of the torus rather than around its width.

Let's change the direction it's going in.

Step 6 - Correcting UV Mapping Problems (Continued)

In the Material Room, the image map node from the displacement option has an option that says 'UV.' This is an indication of the dimensions/ directions in which the map is applied. Click on this and choose 'VU, ' the opposite.

When you render, the stripes should be going around the width of the torus now:

Step 7 - Other Application

Now I want to use this for a practical application. I'm going to apply the stripe map to the P5 Catsuit to create a look of knitted fabric. I load the image map as before and apply it to the catsuit and' Something's wrong! The stripes are too big, and now the suit looks warped.

What went wrong? Well, the stripes were fine. But they were too large of a scale for the suit. I want thin stripes. So, going back to the Material Room, we see options on the displacement image map node for adjusting scale. Notice that the U Scale and V Scale are both set at 1. I want the scale to be much smaller, so I played around with the scale until it looked right. I ended up with a value of 0.025 for each. See how the preview from the main column is now made up of thinner stripes?

Step 8 - Final Image

The strength of the displacement was too strong, to the point where it began to distort the mesh. I had to adjust the dial next to 'Displacement' down to 0.1 to get a normal look.

This is the final render of the catsuit (pose from 'V3 Poses' in the Free Model Archive) with the fixed stripes.

I hope this tutorial helped!

Understanding Poser files: Material Settings

2011-11-01T17:42:32+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.

Understanding Poser files: Material Settings

Author: - esha -

Tools Needed

* A text editor

* Poser

Introduction

This tutorial talks about material settings. As an example I'll use my free Paper Plane prop again available at http://www.esha.xail.net/html/objects.html. As usual, we will be using a simple text editor to view and edit the file.

Step 1 - Finding the information

Open the file. The first part of it is all the geometry information and the morph dials and so on, we'll skip that as I've already explained that in the first tutorial.

Scroll down to the line that says 'customMaterial'. This is where the material information starts.

The number after 'customMaterial' in this case is 1, it could be another number, too; this has no influence on how the file works.

This file is a Poser 4 file. In Poser 4 the material settings much more simple, so we will have a look at them first to get the basics. Later on, we will look into Poser 5 settings.

Step 2 - Material Zones

As you know, Poser objects can have different material zones. For each zone the material settings are saved inside the Poser file.

My paper plane has 4 material zones, so we have 4 paragraphs of material settings in the pp2-file plus the Preview material.

Poser usually includes a Preview material, but its settings have no effect on how the prop is rendered. If you want to, you can delete the whole Preview paragraph, Poser does not need it if there are other materials in the file.

The single paragraphs are separated by braces. If you edit the file, be careful not to mess them up, otherwise Poser will not be able to open the file. In any case, I'd recommend you to make a backup copy of your files first.

Step 3 - Color Settings

The first 3 lines after the brace are the color settings for diffuse, specular and ambient color. The numbers correspond to certain colors in the color palette. 1111 is white, 0001 is black, and all the hues in between are represented by zero-point-something values.

The texture color value is important for the texture opacity. Changing the last digit to 0.5 means that the texture will be displayed with only 50% intensity, 0.3 means 30% and so on.

The reflection color setting is at the end of the paragraph.

There are several additional settings. The 'ksIgnoreTexture' line specifies if the texture will be influenced by the color settings. If set to 0 it will be influenced, if set to 1 it won't.

The 'reflectThruLights' and 'reflectThruKd' settings tell Poser how to display the highlights.

Step 4 - Texture Map Settings

If the material is based on an image file, Poser will list the path and the file name.

NOTE: If you save your prop in Poser, it will probably not include the full Poser path. If you want to create a freebie you should change the path to the Poser standard “:Runtime:Textures:path:filenameJPG”

In Poser 4 files you can specify image maps for texture, reflection, bump and transparency. In my paper plane I used only the texture file. That's why in the lines for reflection, bump and transparency you see the text NO_MAP.

If I had assigned a file there, the lines would look just like the lines for the texture map. If you are using a transparency map, both tMin and tMax should be set to 1 (=100%).

I found out that changing the texture is sometimes quicker in a text editor than in Poser itself. For example, let's say I made a new texture for a prop.

Now, instead of going into Poser, applying the texture manually to all the material zones and saving the prop back to the library, I prefer to open the file with a text editor, do a search-replace to replace the old filename with the filename of my new texture, and then I save it under a new name.

Of course the new files have to be in the same texture folder as the old ones, or you have to replace the texture path, too.

Step 5 - Poser 5/6/7 Material Settings

Let's have a look at the Poser 5 settings now. Because of the many additional options, Poser 5/6/7 files are much longer (and bigger in file size) than P4 files. I loaded the paper plane in Poser 6 and saved it back to the library. The size of the P4 file was 11 KB, the new one is 46 KB.

The first part of the material settings is the same as in the P4 file. So usually, if you load a Poser 5 file in Poser 4, you will get an error message but it will load with the basic settings. P4 just ignores the additional information.

Just after the line that sets the reflection strength, which was the last line in the P4 file, now starts a long list of settings, the shader tree. It contains the data for all the different material nodes. There are many short paragraphs, one for each node, all separated by braces. The first one is called 'root node', it contains all the basic settings and the links to other nodes.

Step 6 - Links To Nodes

In this example, the diffuse color is linked to a 2D image (my texture file). So, the node is set to 'Image_Map'. If we scroll down, after quite a long list with the various node settings, we find more braces which tell us that this is where a new node starts.

In this case it's the 'image_map' node. Here we find again the texture path and the file name and several texture settings. One very interesting feature is the texture scaling. The “U_Scale” and “V_Scale” values scale the texture. By setting values smaller than one you can tile the texture.

Of course you can do that directly in Poser without editing the file in a text editor, but it's nice to know where to find these settings in the file.

For each node link that was specified in the root node there is a special paragraph, separated by bracers.

So the structure is: Material zone 1 – root node – other nodes (which can be linked to additional nodes, then the list is even longer). After that follows Material zone 2 – root node – other nodes and so on and so on.

This is why Poser 5 files can get quite long.

Theoretically you could delete all unused sections, in my case this would be transparency, translucence, bump, displacement and so on, because my paper plane doesn't use any of these. This results in smaller files, and some people told me that by doing that they were able to speed up slow systems.

However, be careful not to delete anything that Poser uses, and don't mess up the bracers structure. In the end you'd probably need more time to edit the files than you would gain by smaller file size, so it's up to you.

Step 7 - Mat Poses: pz2 Files

Mat Poses contain only the material settings we've just been talking about.

In this screenshot you can see the mat pose file for V3RR.

It starts with the version number and then there is the line 'figure'. This is important to make the mat pose work. After that you can see all the settings for the various material zones.

If you apply them to your figure, all material zones which are present in the mat pose file will be switched to the settings specified in the mat pose.

It is also possible to have a mat pose with only one or two material zones. By this, you can change the material settings of certain parts, e.g. fingernails, without affecting the rest of the figure.

Step 8 - Materials For The Material Room: mt5 Files

Now that we know how the mat settings work in Poser5/6/7, we will also understand the material files which have the file extension .mt5. In your Poser library you will find them in the folder called 'Materials', in Poser you can access them in the Material Room.

Note: Poser 5 materials do not work like pz2 mat poses. They contain the settings of only one material. With a P5 material you cannot texture a figure with a single click, you'd need extra materials for head, body, eyes and so on.

The screenshot shows you one of the free satin materials available at RDNA. Basically, an .mt5 file consist of all the material data we've already seen in the prop file without the data for the prop itself.

The file starts with the version number (in this case there is no P4 version because material files were only invented with Poser 5). Then there is a line 'actor $CURRENT'. This is important to make the material work in Poser.

The name of the material zone in this case is not important. Poser will apply the mat to any element you assign it to, no matter what the material zone is called.

Step 9 - Poser 6 Material Collections: mc6 Files

One of the new features that came with Poser 6 is the possibility to create material collections. They work like the traditional mat poses because they collect all the different material settings of a figure. So, if your Pose folder is overflowing you could use this feature to separate the mat poses from the poses and morph injections.

It is easy to create a material collection. Load your figure and apply any texture settings you wish. Then, in the material room, click on the Plus sign (+) in the Library to add the material. Poser will ask you if you want to save a single mat or a collection. Choose collection.

By default, Poser includes all material zones in the collection. By clicking on 'select materials' you could choose what materials to include, e.g. only the eye color or the fingernails/toenails mats.

Now you've created a material collection that will work just like a mat pose. :)

If we look at the text file now, we can see that it contains all the texture data for our selected material zones. The line 'mtlCollection' is important to make the file work. The rest is just our usual texture data.

When saving a new mat, Poser usually switches the texture paths back to absolute paths. In my case it put there “C:\Programme\Curious Labs\Poser 5\Runtime\Textures\DAZ\Characters\MilWom\V3Maps\V3Lo_BodyM(NG)JPG”. Because I want to be able to move my Runtime without having Poser look for files, I decided to change the path to the recommended relative path: ':Runtime:Textures: DAZ:Characters:MilWom:V3Maps:V3Lo_BodyM(NG)JPG“.

Step 10 - Conclusion

Well, now you know quite a lot about texture data and how it works in Poser.

The next tutorial of this series will deal with Pose files, not only the mat poses I started to explain here, but also pose files and morph injections files.

I hope you found this tutorial useful.

Have fun, and happy rendering,

esha

Velvet effects in Poser

2011-11-01T17:42:32+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.

Velvet effects in Poser

Author: - esha -

Tools Needed

* Poser 5 or higher

* A paint program

Support Files

* Maps.zip

Introduction

In this tutorial I will use the Morphing Fantasy Dress from DAZ to demonstrate the creation of a velvet effect. You can download the maps I used and try it yourself. The same principle can be applied to all other clothes and objects, too. The maps included with this tutorial, however, will work only for the MFD (for V3, V4, Aiko3, Laura).

Step 1 - A basic velvet effect

Load the MFD, select it and switch to the material room. If you see the “Simple” tab, please switch to the advanced tab.

Set a darker color for diffuse and a lighter one for specular color.

To get some subtle shades into the color: Right click anywhere into the striped space and select New node - 3D Textures - Clouds.

Link this node to diffuse and specular color. Choose appropriate colors for sky_color and cloud_color (see screenshot below).

Note: This cloud node is not absolutely necessary to create a velvet effect, but it makes the fabric look more interesting.

Create another node: Lighting - Special - Velvet. Link this node to “Alternate_Diffuse”. Adjust the colors for velvet color and velvet sheen. Link the velvet color to the cloud node as shown in the screenshot.

The typical fuzzy look is created by adding some bump: Create a new node: 3D Textures - Noise. Link it to “Bump”. I normally use the value 4 for xyz_Index and a bump strength of about 0.07.

Now your material settings should look similar to this screenshot:

Step 2 - From simple to complex

The MFD has several material zones. There is an easy way to apply the material to all zones:

Right-click into the material window. Choose “Select all”. Right click again and select “Apply to all”. Poser will tell you that it will replace the material settings of all mat zones. Click OK.

Hint: Poser will overwrite the old material settings of the other mat zones, but it will not delete the old unused nodes. Hold down the shift key and click on “Remove detached nodes” in the Wacro menu. (Only in Poser 6 and 7, P5 users will have to delete the old nodes manually.)

Do a test render.

Note: You may need to increase the render quality to see the velvet effect properly.

The dress has a nice velvet texture now. You can go ahead and experiment. Try to change the colors of the nodes, or try to delete the cloud node and look what happens. This will give you a feeling for the way the nodes work.

An all-over velvet dress is quite simple. Dresses with mixed fabrics, for example a velvet bodice with satin applications, are more complicated:

Velvet is fuzzy, satin is shiny - this means you need different bump and specular settings applied together.

To do this, Poser offers some special nodes to create several “channels” which can use different material settings at the same time.

Step 3 - The "Diffuse" node explained

One of these special nodes is called “Diffuse”. You'll find it in New node - Lighting - Diffuse - Diffuse.

The “Diffuse value” can be linked to an image map that works a bit like a transparency map: The black and white data of this map specifies where a given effect will be applied and where it won't be applied. The “effect” to be applied can be a procedural Poser shader or another image map, whatever.

The following example will illustrate this:

In my paint program I created a simple black-and-white map which I am going to use to apply some bump only to the background area.

In Poser I created a diffuse node (New node - Lighting - Diffuse - Diffuse) and linked it to “Bump”.

In this node, for “Diffuse Color” I created a link to a bump effect (New node - 3D Textures - Noise).

For “Diffuse Value” I loaded the map I had prepared before.

The result: Poser shows the smooth shape of an exclamation mark on a rough surface.

Step 4 - The "Blender" node explained

Sometimes it is not enough to choose between “apply effect” and “don't apply effect”, sometimes you will need a certain effect in one area of the texture and a different effect in another area.

In those cases I like to use the “Blender” node.

This node, too, is controlled by a map. This means that all parts which are black in the map will get effect A and all white parts will get effect B. You can also set the blending strength, a value of 1 means full blending (no mixing of effects).

Here is another example to show how it works:

I've used the blender node to apply two different kinds of bump effect. The black parts of the map get a basic bump (linked to “Input_1”) and the white parts get a cloudy bump (linked to “Input_2”). If you swap the input links the effects will be applied the other way round.

Step 5 - Using these nodes on a dress

First you need a basic black-and-white map to define the velvet and satin parts of the dress. You can download the files attached to this tutorial, or you can paint a map yourself: Paint the velvet areas in white and the satin areas in black.

Then set up the nodes as follows (see also screenshot below):

For Diffuse_Color, Specular_Color and Specular_Value set a “Blender” node. Set the blending value to 1. Link “Blending” to the velvet map, Input_1 to the color map and Input_2 to a “Clouds” node. Assign appropriate colors to the “Clouds” node.

For Bump set up a “Diffuse” node and link Diffuse_Value with the velvet map and Diffuse_Color with a “Noise” node.

Note: In this case a “Diffuse” node works fine, because satin is so smooth it needs no bump. If you want to combine the velvet with another type of fabric which needs a bump of its own, you will need a “Blender” node to combine the two different bump effects.

For Alternate_Diffuse set another “Diffuse” node, link Diffuse_Value with the velvet map again and Diffuse_Color with a “Velvet” node. Adjust the colors of the “Velvet” node and link Velvet_Color with the “Clouds” node you created earlier.

Your material settings should now look similar to the screenshot above.

Do a render. The velvet effect is now combined with glossy satin.

Step 6 - Further possibilities

Of course you can use these nodes to create even more complex textures. Add transparency or reflection maps, or also displacement maps.

If you use grayscale images instead of a black-and-white map you will get even more interesting effects.

The possibilities are virtually endless. I hope this tutorial has helped you exploring some of them.

Happy rendering,

esha

Texturing 101 - Basics (P4 Version)

2011-11-01T17:42:33+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.

Texturing 101 - Basics (P4 Version)

Author: MercyToo

Tools Needed

Poser 4 or Pro Pack
A paint program like Photoshop or Paint Shop Pro
DAZ

Introduction

I recommend you start with something small and easy to texture like this bikini. It doesn't have as many parts and it's very easy to texture Now, I'm not the best texture artist in the world, but I do know the basics of texturing and that's what this is about. After you've created your texture, you can use my mat pose edit and RSR converter tutorials (located right here in the Tutorial Arcana under “other applications”) to make your poser thumbnails and your easy to apply mat pose file for your new bikini texture

I'm also going to be sticking with solid colors here and a simple design. Why? Because when you use texture tiles, you have to be careful that they line up just right so that you don't end up with seams. That would be Basics of Texturing 102

So, let's start with this very simple little project! This will help familiarize you with UV templates and the material editor in Poser 4/Pro Pack.

Step 1 - Inside your Paint Program

First, download and install the executable bikini textures. This template works on both the V3 or S3 versions of the bikini. The templates are available on the DAZ store page for the V3 bikini at the bottom of the page. I have provided you with a link at the beginning of this tutorial. Make sure you install them where you can find them easily.

Now, Open up the UV template for the bikini top. We'll start there. You'll see that it is very nicely marked so that you know what's what on the template. Thank you, DAZ.

Now, if your program allows you to, save it as a Photoshop (PSD) file. Poser can read PSD format, which is nice with texturing. This way, you can keep your layers and see if there are any mistakes you need to correct. Give it a name and save the PSD file somewhere that you can easily find it. I'm calling mine “mercybikinitop.PSD”.

Now, open Poser and load up either the V3 or S3 bikini. Take a look at it and decide which colors you want to use. As a side note, I have also changed my default lighting. I don't care for Poser's default lights, I like to use something softer and brighter.

I've decided I would like the straps to be red. So, in PSP, i'm going to set my foreground color to red and create a new layer on my PSD file. I'll name this layer “straps”. Now I'll use a paint brush big enough to cover all of the black areas of the straps. If I don't cover all of the black areas, they will show through on the bikini in Poser.

I'll continue until all of the straps and ties areas are covered in red.

Now they are all painted. Everything looks OK, except that I accidentally covered part of the bikini cloth in red. I'll lower my transparency on my Strap layer and erase until it no longer covers the cloth. Make sure you don't erase it over the straps.

Now, I'll put my transparency back to 100% so that you can't see the grid through the straps. I'll create a new layer named “Cloth” and start working on the cloth.

Step 2 - More in your Paint Program

I want my cloth to be blue, so I set my foreground color to blue and start coloring over the cloth area. Make sure you get every bit of that grid or you'll have white or black spots on your bikini

Now my bikini is painted. I think I want to put some white stars on the blue part of the cloth. So, I'll create a new layer called “Stars” and do just that. I'm going to be very careful not to put any stars too close to the edge of the grid so they aren't cut off and don't create visible seams. To make it easier, I'll lower the opacity on my Cloth layer so I can see the grid through it. Then, I'll go back to the Stars layer and start making those stars.

After I get the right side of the cloth all stared up, I decide I like my pattern. Because of the way this template is laid out, I can just duplicate my star layer and then mirror it (or flip it horizontally). It doesn't line up exactly the same way on the left side as it does on the right side, so I'm just going to pull the left side so it lines up where I want it. Then, I'll put my transparency on the Cloth layer back up to 100%.

Now my texture is done, so I want to check it in Poser.

Step 3 - Inside Poser 4 / Pro Pack

We all ready loaded up our bikini in Poser. Now, we just need to apply the texture to make sure it works. This tutorial covers the material editor of Poser 4 and Pro Pack. There is a separate tutorial for P5 users.

In Poser 4 or Pro Pack, make sure your bikini is open. Go up to the tool bar and under RENDER go to MATERIALS.

The Material window opens. Make sure you have it set to the bikini (which is Figure 1 in my case. But if you have another figure open, it may be something different).

Select The bikini under OBJECT. Change each MATERIAL with the drop down menu, we're going to make sure our OBJECT COLOR is set to white and our HIGHLIGHT COLOR is set to true black for all materials. Also make sure you check the box that says “Texture changes apply to entire figure”. For the bikini top, we only have one UV Template, so all the material parts are on one map. This will save us time in the Material editor so we can see how the top looks in Poser! (That's also why we only inserted the bikini top into the scene. There is a figure to do the whole bikini, but in my opinion, it's easier to check textures if you load just the bikini top).

After you've changed all your OBJECT COLORs to white and HIGHLIGHT COLORS to black for each material and checked the box to apply to entire figure, click the LOAD button under the TEXTURE MAP area. Browse to your PSD file and open it.

Click the OK button again in the material editor. Now, look in your work window. f it appears white, render it to make sure the texture appears.

Here's my texture:

Since I used solid colors and made sure the stars were not too close to the edge of the UV Template on the cloth section, I shouldn't have to worry about seams, but I always take a close look at all the parts to make sure I didn't miss a little part of color or that the grid is not peeking through anywhere.

If all is well, you've just completed your first clothing texture! Congratulations! Now, try doing the bikini bottom on your own and see if you can do it I think you can!

Remember to save your texture in your paint program once you've checked it as a JPG file. Then, you can do my tutorial that teaches you how to make mat pose files using Mat Pose Edit and apply your texture as many times as you like without going back into the Material Editor If you use my tutorial for creating poser thumbnails with the RSR converter, then you'll have a poser thumbnail instead of a little shrugging guy too!

As always, with any of my tutorials, if you have any questions, please do not hesitate to message me and ask. I'm always happy to help when I can

Texturing 101 - The Basics (Poser 5 Version)

2011-11-01T17:42:33+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.

Texturing 101 - The Basics (Poser 5 Version)

Author: MercyToo

Tools Needed

Poser 5
A Paint program like Photoshop or PSP
DAZ's V3 (or S3) Bikini and UV Template located here

Introduction

So, let's start with this very simple little project! This will help familiarize you with UV templates and the material room in Poser 5.

Step 1 - Getting Started

Now, Open up the UV template for the bikini top. We'll start there. You'll see that it is very nicely marked so that you know what's what on the template. Thank you, DAZ.

I'll continue until all of the straps and ties areas are covered in red.

Now, I'll put my transparency back to 100% so that you can't see the grid through the straps. I'll create a new layer named “Cloth” and start working on the cloth.

Step 2 - More inside your paint program

I want my cloth to be blue, so I set my foreground color to blue and start coloring over the cloth. Make sure you get every bit of that grid or you'll have white or black spots on your bikini

Now my texture is done, so I want to check it in Poser.

Step 3 - Poser 5's Material Room

We all ready loaded up our bikini in Poser. Now, we just need to apply the texture to make sure it works. This part of the tutorial covers the Poser 5 Material Room. Poser 4 or Pro Pack users, please use the tutorial for P4 and PP.

In Poser 5, make sure your bikini is open. Click the tab that says MATERIAL. Welcome to the Material Room

Select The bikini under the area that says OBJECT . We want to select any of the materials in the drop down box under MATERIAL. I'll select “Top Cloth” since it's the first one.

Change your DIFFUSE COLOR to pure white.

Change your SPECULAR COLOR to pure black the same way you changed the DIFUSE COLOR to pure white.

Step 4 -

Now, we want to create a new image node. Click the little node box next to DIFUSE COLOR. Move your mouse over to NEW NODE, then 2D TEXTURES and finally to image map.

Now your new node is connected, but there is no image. Let's change that

In the IMAGE MAP window, next to IMAGE SOURCE it will say “None”. Click on NONE and the TEXTURE MANAGER window will open. Click the BROWSE button and browse to the location of your PSD file on your computer.

Now you can see in the preview window that the bikini texture is on the bikini. There's just a few more things we need to do before we return to the POSE room. We need to connect that IMAGE MAP to the SPECULAR COLOR node as well.

Just drag the thumb tack icon in the upper right corner of the IMAGE MAP window to the node area of the SPECULAR COLOR. It should now look something like this:

Step 5 - Finishing Up :-)

Because the bikini top has all of the parts on one UV template instead of several, the last step is to apply the IMAGE MAP and colors we chose to ALL of the materials. P5 has an easy way to do this. I'll explain how.

On the title bar for the POSER SURFACE WINDOW, right click and choose SELECT ALL.

You should notice that your IMAGE MAP window is now highlighted like the POSER SURFACE window here. Right click over the POSER SURFACE title bar one more time and select APPLY TO ALL. Click “OK” when the window pops up. Now, your image map has been applied to all the material parts! Cool

Now you can see your texture is applied in the preview window to the left.

Go back into the POSE ROOM and render your binkini! Here's a render of mine:

If all is well, you've just completed your first clothing texture! Congratulations! Now, try doing the bikini bottom on your own and see if you can do it I think you can!

Remember to save your texture in your paint program once you've checked it as a JPG file. Then, you can do my tutorial that teaches you how to make mat pose files using Mat Pose Edit and apply your texture as many times as you like without going back into the Material Room If you use my tutorial for creating poser thumbnails with the RSR converter, then you'll have a poser thumbnail instead of a little shrugging guy too!

As always, with any of my tutorials, if you have any questions, please do not hesitate to message me and ask. I'm always happy to help when I can

Making a Procedural Earth Material in P5

2011-11-01T17:42:33+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 a Procedural Earth Material in P5

Author: Nalif

Tools Needed

Poser 5

Introduction

Ever want to make a space scene inside of Poser 5? This tutorial will teach you the basics on how to make Earth-like planets. By the time you finish this tutorial, you'll be well on your way to populating your space scenes!

Step 1 - Add a sphere

Add the “Ball Hi-Res” prop to your scene, found under the primitives catagory. Since this ball is a little small, we'll be scaling it up to 500% of the origional.

Step 2 - Adding the Material

Next we're going to add the materials to this sphere to get it to look like our Earth. Go ahead and click on the “Material” tab near the top of the screen in Poser. It should take you to a screen that looks like the image below.

Make sure you have BallUV3_1 selected. It's circled in red on the screenshot above. This is the material assigned to the sphere that will be our earth.

Step 3 - Setting up the Spots node

The first thing we're going to do is spawn a “spots” node. You can do this by right clicking and going to “New Node - > 3D Textures - > Spots” . Once you have the node, plug it into the “Diffuse Color” slot. At this point, your material should look like this:

If you've got that, then you're doing good. Now put the following values into the spots node - Spot Size = 3.5, Softness = 0, Threshold = .18

Change the “base color” on the spot node to pure white. That's it for this node - onto the next :)

Step 4 - The color ramps

Next, spawn two color ramps. You may find them under the math section. These color ramps will give us the two colors we need for our world - green and blue.

Color ramps may seem confusing at first, but they are actually quite simple. Here's a basic explanation: The color ramp allows you to define four colors. It then applies them to a grayscale input you supply. The input can be another node, a grayscale texture map - anything. Whatever is black on your input will be color 1, and white will be color 4. All other colors will be blended between 2 and 3. And there you have it - that's what color ramps do.

Go ahead and spawn your two color ramps if you haven't done so already, and set the colors like so in the below image.

Once you have your colors setup, plug the blue colorramp into the base color of your spot node. Then plug your green colorramp into the spot color. Your setup should look something like this.

Step 5 - Giving our Colors life

Our next step is to give our two color ramps input. Right now they have no input, so they're just using Color4 as their base color. We'll use the turbulence and the fBm nodes to change that. You'll find them both under New Node - > 3D Textures. Go ahead and spawn them both. By default, the turbulence node is scaled too large for our material. Change the X, Y, and Z scales to 2.0. This will give us a much better result. Your node setup up until this point should look as follows.

Step 6 - Finishing up

Our colors are set up now. The next step is to setup the displacement - we want our water bumpy and our land sticking above our water. The first step to achieving this is creating another spots node. Since it's going to have the same settings as the previous spots node, you can just copy and paste that one to save time. Plug this node into the displacement channel. Once that's done, plug the previously created turbulence node into the base color, and the fBm node into the spot color. This spots node tells the displacement channel to only use the turbulence to displace the water, and only the fBm to displace the land. Change the value for the displacement channel to .25.

The last thing we need to do for our material is make the water slightly glossy. To do this, we're going to use the glossy node. Make sure you set the “Specular Value” channel to 0. We're going to have to use the “Alternate Specular” for this, and if the “Specular Value” isn't set to zero, it won't render properly. Spawn a glossy node. You can find it under New Node - > Lighting - > Specular - > Glossy.

Plug your glossy node into the alternate specular channel. It's a little too glossy, so change the Ks value to .5. Notice how it makes everything, including the islands glossy? We can change this. To do so, copy and paste one of your previous spot nodes. Change the spot color to pure black, and then plug this node into the Ks slot of the glossy node. This will tell that node to only make the material glossy on the water. Here's what the final settings for your material should look like.

Step 7 - We're finished

All that's left now is to throw in a star background and render :)

I hope you learned something from my tutorial. Have fun with your space renders!

A Beginner Guide to Creating a Poser Scene

2011-11-01T17:42:33+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 Beginner Guide to Creating a Poser Scene

Author: Firebirdz

Tools Needed

Poser

Introduction

When you are new to Poser and you want to jump right in and create your first image, this step by step basic tutorial will guide you through some tips to help you along the way.

Many a time, as a beginner, you may ask questions like: How do I get my render to look decent or how do I set a scene and what do I look out for. I hope you can find some answers here. This Guide uses DAZ3D's Victoria 3, Clothes, Lights, Background and Hair but you can use any other substitutes you wish.

Step 1 - Introducing your character to the scene

When you Load Poser with its default settings, you will first see the Poser Man. As I want to use another character, I clicked on him and hit the delete key and hit OK.

I then went to my library folder and selected the character I wanted to use. Here, I introduced Victoria 3 to the scene.

Step 2 - Textures and Display Mode

I usually apply the texture at this stage but you may apply it later. I used the DAZ Hi-Res Universal Textures for Victoria 3. However, you cannot see the textures unless you change the Display mode to show textures.

Step 3 - Camera Focal Length

The default camera focal length for poser is unsatisfactory. For images where I use the Main Camera, I will increase the focal length to anything between 50 - 100 mm. A lower focal length used for a closer view can lead to an image looking distorted.

Step 4 - Character Morphs and Hair

I wanted to add interest to the character so instead of showing a default Victoria, I applied a makeup texture (I used DAZ Starlet Maps here).

There are many character morphs available out there. A Character morph was used here to change the body type and the face. You can create your own characters too by turning the dials after injecting the V3 head and body morphs.

I like to introduce the hair at this stage before applying the pose so that I can see what it looks like in the default position. It is also easier to adjust the hair if it is in this position. Here, I used the Razzle Dazzle hair but added a little interest to it by scaling it lengthwise.

Step 5 - Posing and Expressions

Posing is very important in an image. Here, I had previously custom-made a pose and applied it to the character by selecting the character and clicking on the pose.

To avoid that “Blank Stare” look and “Poker Face” look, do not forget to apply an expression to the face. You can use custom-made expressions or simply create your own by again turning the dials. Remember to inject your Expression morphs first if you are using Victoria 3.

Step 6 - Adding Clothing

Unless you are doing Nude images, you want to clothe your characters. Bring in the Clothing as an additional figure (click the double ticks in the library folder after selecting your image).

Conform the Clothes to your character by selecting the Clothing and go to the Menu bar and select Figure > Conform to then select your character.

Conforming the Clothes may not be enough if you have customized characters. If your clothing has morphs use them by scrolling the dials to match the settings on the character. In this example, I used the DAZ Morphing Fantasy Dress which has additional morphs to twist the skirt.

Step 7 - Clothing Textures

It is at this stage that I apply the Clothing texture. This is because most textures use Transparency maps or trans maps. If this is the case, you cannot see if there are pokethroughs until after you've rendered your image.

Anyways, It is wise to do a test render to make sure that everything looks OK.

Step 8 - Background, Lights, POV

When you are basically done with your character, you may want to choose a background for your image. This is the stage where you can add the background. If you want to position your Figure around the image, the easiest way is to select your character's Hip and use the dials to move him along the x, y or z trans. You must turn IK off for both legs before you do this.

Lights make all the difference between a so-so render and a good render. For outdoor scenes like this one, I used DAZ Global Lights.

90% of the time, you see images taken from a frontal view but a POV (Point of View) change can add interest to your image. Here I toggled the Main Camera till it was facing from a higher angle.

Step 9 - Rendering

When you are done with all your posing, characters, clothes, lights, camera settings and adding to the scene, make sure that you have the document window size you want. Then

choose Render Options and select Production Mode. You may increase the Rendered image size and resolution at this point. It is always good to render a larger image if you want to see more details. You now have your Rendered Image. I usually save the image in TIFF or PICT Format to preserve the clarity of the image and open the image in Photoshop. You can later save it as a JPEG or GIF file.

Step 10 - Postwork

Postwork usually takes the form of touchups or enhancing of the image. Here, I just ran the image through a series of standard filters and added my logo. There are many things you can add at this stage but I shall leave it as this. Don't forget to choose a name for your image! I decided to call my image “Flirting with the Monarchs”.

Anime Serpentis Style

2011-11-01T17:42:33+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.

Anime Serpentis Style

Author: serpentis

Tools Needed

Poser

Support Files

AnimeSerpentisStyle.zip

Introduction

By popular demand, *blank stare at Ange* ;) I am writing this tutorial. By no means am I an expert in Cell Shading in Poser 4 and there are other ways to create similar styles. This is just the way I've figured out that works for me. Please, don't take it as anything other than an explanation of the way I've created my Anime style images.

What You Need:

Poser 4/Poser 4 Pro Pack

This tutorial (well that's just a DUH isn't it!?)

Used in this tutorial:

Poser 4

MayaX's Anime Doll Kit (available at Renderosity)

Rubio Dress 6 (available at Rubio's site)

Race Queen sleeves by Teppan (available at Teppan's site)

I won't discuss how to set up a scene as I'm assuming you already have a scene set up that you're going to use to walk through this tutorial. The point of this isn't to walk you through creating the scene, just making it look like the popular Anime style within Poser 4. (Note: I do not have Poser 5, please don't e-mail me and ask how to set up cell style in P5.)

Most preview images have been shrunk down. Most have larger images that accompany them (@1024×768) I have included the complete tutorial with all original graphics (screenshots @ 1024×768) in the Support File. The Support File is not necessary unless you want offline support or the fullsize screenshot images. Please download the Support File zip if you want the full size images.

If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to e-mail me or contact me at any of the sites I frequent (3D Commune, Renderosity, Poser Pros and DeviantArt), username: serpentis.

Step 1 - Create your scene

Create/load your Poser scene. As you can see, it doesn't look very “Animeish”…yet.

Step 2 - Anime - Here we come...

To get the Anime look, first we need to change the way we're viewing the scene. Change the view style to “Cartoon w/Line.” This gives us a somewhat cartoonish base to work with. Don't worry, the scene will look “jaggie” - we'll fix that later.

Step 3 - Lighting

Step 4 - More Lighting

Create a new light (the star looking icon.) The light will load defaulted to a random color (one that's neither useful or tasteful, I assure you) and at a location somewhere on the upper left side of the light sphere. It will also load defaulted to a spot light. We want to change these settings! Open the Light Properties box (the light bulb) and change the type from Spot to Infinite. Also change the color of the light (the big color box) to a light grey color. (Note: You can use any color you want. I've used a light grey because I don't want any special effects or colors on this image. Feel free to play with colors as you wish.) After you've changed the light type and color, grab the light on the sphere and move it around to the front.

Step 5 - Even More Lighting

Create another new light. This time you want it to stay a spot light. Use the settings below. (Note: You may want to use a second fill light on the other side of the scene, but make the second spot a darker shade of grey so it doesn't cast so much light you don't get any shadowing.)

Step 6 - Antialias

Now, to check the scene, we want to “render” to see how the lighting looks. However, if you use “Render/Render” the scene will render in regular 3D mode. You'll need to use “Render/Antialias Document”

Step 7 - Whoops!

As you can see, the infinite light source is in the image. (This was done on purpose to show a point, people, not an oops on my part.)

Step 8 - Get rid of that light line!

Open the Light Properties box for the infinite light once again and uncheck “Visible.” This doesn't make the light itself invisible, just the source outline. As previously stated, this was done on purpose to show you that the lights, do in fact, antialias with the rest of the image when left visible. Normally, you would just make them invisible when you first create them.

Click on anything other than the light (like a part of the models body) and re-antialias the image. You'll notice the light source is gone and your image looks good. :)

Step 9 - Play with those light settings!

As you'll notice, the light set up we used for the full image is weak when doing a portrait. If you move the Main light around, you'll find you get stronger shadows and can define certain parts of the body like the collar bones. Best advice here: Play with settings! I know, not much help, but honestly, I stumbled on this by just playing with stuff I really hadn't thought of before.

Step 10 - Larger Renders

You may want a larger image than what the original document size can handle. To do this, you will have to use the Animation setup/render options.

In the Animation Setup, make sure your Frame Width and Height mirror the document size Width and Height. In my example, my document size was 612×612 square, so I rendered my scene at 2500 square. However, if your document size is 300×400, you would have to use a 3:4 ratio for the larger size render. In this screen, the only thing we really need to worry about is the frame size.

Step 11 - Make "Movie"

After you set the Frame Width and Height, you'll want to “Make Movie…” in the Animation drop down menu.

Here is where we set up the “render.”

Step 12 - Shiny PVC Clothing

People have asked about the shiny material settings. They're quite simple but here are the settings I've used to achieve a latex/PVC type look. Feel free to play with the settings as you wish to create your own looks. :)

Step 13- Different Lights

Just a few different light set-ups. Full screenshots so you can see the Light Control panel and where I have the lights set. I wish I would have saved the lights as I was playing, I would have posted them here. :(

Step 14- The End!

And finally, the moment you've all been waiting for. *insert applause here please* The finished product that I created from creating this tutorial. *grinz*

'2004 serpentis/creative.chaos No parts of these images or text may be copied/redistributed without prior consent. e-mail with questions or comments.

Assigning Material Names in Poser

2011-11-01T17:42:33+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.

Assigning Material Names in Poser

Author: Sray

Tools Needed

Modeling Program
Poser
Word Pad or Text editor

Introduction

This tutorial will show how to name the different parts of a model, then import it into Poser and assign material names to the different parts. Then how to added the object to the Library as a prop, and do some minor editing to the PP2 file.

Step 1 - Naming the Parts

Before the prop is exported out of the modeling program, names need to be assigned to the various parts that make up the model. Names need to be single words or words and characters without any spaces in them. If a name uses two word with a space between them, Poser will create two groups for the part. If two parts share the same word or character, they will both be assigned to the same group when imported into Poser.

Step 2 - Importing the Model

The best file format for Poser is OBJ, it is the file type Poser is designed to work with. So it is always best to save models that will be used in Poser as OBJ, or convert models down loaded into the OBJ format.

To import select File/Import then Wavefront OBJ from the sub menu. After using the open dialog the Props Import Options are displayed. This menu can be used to make the model more compatible with-in the Poser environment. Refer to pages 85 and 86 of the Poser 5 Manual for a better understanding of the Props Import Options Menu. For most models Center and figure size should be used to make the orientation and Scale size compatible with Poser.

Step 3 - Creating Material Names

Once the model is imported it will appears to be only one solid mesh, as if all the parts have been group together and can no longer be worked on individually. Also in the Material Room there is only a None and Preview material listed for the whole model. To create material listings for all the different parts, the Group Editor needs to be used. Open the Group Editor from the Edit Tool Palette. On the Group Editor there is a Current Group display and pull down menu ( the Arrow ). This is where all the different parts of the model ( now considered groups of polygons ) are found. The current group selected will be listed on the text display and the polygons that make up the group will be shaded red in the work window. To assign the current group to a Material, press the Assign Material Option on the Group editor.

This will bring up the New Material Dialog. Type in the name to represent the Material Listing, ( this is the name that will be listed in the Material Room ) All of the selected polygons in the group will be added to the material name. If the same material name is used on a different polygon group, then those polygons will be added to the material name. So many different polygon groups can share the same material name. An example of this is a figures BodySkin material, it has many different polygon group added to the material name.

Continue assigning polygon groups to a material name until all the polygons are assigned to a material name. Then exit the Group Editor, all the polygons assigned to the newly made material names will be shaded with different colors.

Step 4 - The Material Room

Now when the material room is entered all the new names are listed on the Material Drop Down List.

Step 5 - Add to the Prop Library

After the prop has been textured, ( optional ) it can be added to the prop library. Browse to the Prop Library, then scroll to the bottom and use the plus sign to add the prop. Give the prop a name in the Set Name Dialog and hit the Select Subset Option. Select the prop from the Hierarchy Selection Menu and hit OK option. The object is added as a prop to the current open prop folder.

Step 6 - Edit the PP2 File

There is one problem with the PP2 file, and that is there is a material that is no longer necessary, the one called ( material none ). In order to get rid of it the PP2 file will need to be edited.

Browse to the PP2 file that was just created, ( it will be in the Poser / Runtime / Libraries / Props / folder you used and open it in a text editor like Word Pad. Then use the Find option ( Edit/Find ) and do a search for ( material none ) The search will find it and have it highlighted, then use the scroll arrow and scroll down until the 4 closing brackets appear for the material none information ( this will be right before the next material name starts. Then hold the shift key and select the last closing bracket. Now all the Material None information should be highlighted. Then use the backspace key to delete all the material none information.

Save the PP2 and the reference to Material None should now be gone when the prop is opened in Poser.

Basic Dynamics in Poser

2011-11-01T17:42:33+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.

Basic Dynamics in Poser

Author: Phoenix1966

Tools Needed

* Poser 5-7

* Dynamic clothing prop

Step 1 - Getting Started

First, I load a V3 character, making sure she is the active figure in the scene and add a dynamic prop (in this case, it is a nightgown freebie found at Renderosity by carib98).

Then, I parent it to V3's chest (since I know this one is not a smart prop). This step is only necessary if you plan to move the figure after you run your dynamic simulation.

Also, to make the simulation a little speedier, I only load the figure, the dynamic prop and whatever items I need the dynamic prop to collide against at this point. I'll add the remaining figures and props afterwards.

Step 2 - The Cloth Room

Now I go ahead and open up the Cloth Room and click on New simulation button (found on the upper left corner), making sure that V3 is the figure and the nightgown is the object.

Step 3 - Simulation Settings

Once you hit the New Simulation button, a dialogue box opens. I select how many frames should be animated (in most cases, if it's a one-off image I'm working on, I leave the frames at the default of 30).

I also check off cloth self-collision so the nightgown will react with itself.

Step 4 - Simulation Settings, Part II

Once that's done, I go to step #2 and hit Clothify (found just below the New Simulation button), which opens up another dialogue box.

Here I make sure that the dynamic item is the one named as the object to clothify. If it is, I hit “clothify”.

Step 5 - Simulation Settings, Part III

Now the Cloth Collision Objects box should open. To the right of the word “none”, I hit the Add/Remove button. That opens up another box where I can select what objects the nightgown is going to collide against.

In this case, I check off the ground and all of V3's body parts. Depending on the item, this process can save you some time in your simulation, since you can choose exactly what parts the dynamic piece should collide against.

Step 6 - Simulation Settings, Part IV

Once I close out the Select Object box, I adjust the Collision Offset and Collision Depth. You don't have to and this is one of the areas to play around once you're comfortable with the Cloth Room.

I choose lower numbers than the defaults so the cloth will lay closer to V3's body. I tend to uncheck the Start draping From Zero box since I often adjust V3's body (since I use a specialized morph and often have to make adjustment to the dynamic cloth prior to simulating). And although I made my collision selections in the step before, I will still check off what parts I want to ignore from the 3 choices here.

Step 7 - Simulation

Almost there…

Before I run the simulation, I make sure the cloth settings are what I want. Many dynamic pieces come with these settings already adjusted for optimum results, but some don't. In this case, carib98 had some setting suggestions in the Read Me, so I applied those here.

This is another area to experiment for various results and PhilC has a nice Cloth Room fabric preset freebie available at his site that will adjust these settings to better simulate specific types of fabric.

After that's done, I move the Frame slider at the bottom, to frame #20 (personal preference…it should be a frame somewhere from 15-30 in most cases). At frame 20, I apply the final pose. Another thing to keep in mind: make sure the final pose will allow the cloth to drape on all or some part of the body and not collapse to the floor, unless that is the effect you are looking for.

Now I hit the Calculate Simulation and go have a snack while the process runs its course.

Step 8 - Finished Simulation

If all goes well, I render after the simulation runs its course.

This is just a basic, get-your-feet-wet introduction to the Cloth Room. Once you're comfortable with the basics, have some fun experimenting.

And soon enough, you'll be able to do similar things within DAZ Studio!

Creating Anime with Poser

2011-11-01T17:42:33+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 Anime with Poser

Author: SnowSultan

Tools Needed

Poser

Introduction

Hi, and thanks for reading this tutorial. First, I would like to thank Studio Maya for the original inspiration to help me explore and further develop this technique. Please visit his site at http://www.3Digitalcrafts.net/studiomaya/

The reason that 3D renders never look like traditional anime is largely because anime uses simple shading. Anime shadows generally do not become darker as they receive less light; an area is either shaded or it is not. Shadows are also usually hard-edged and rounded or triangular on anime figures, while realistic shadows do not have well-defined edges. Poser's Cartoon w/Line mode can create these style of shadows to some degree, and we will put them to use in this tutorial.

Step 1 - Step 1

We will be using an anime Poser figure created by justfit at Play With Poser. If you do not already have this figure, you can download it for free at http://homepage2.nifty.com/zokeimaster/ Please be kind and do not complain to the webmaster if you are unable to download the figure immediately. This technique will work with any figure, and you can achieve some interesting American-style comic images by using a more properly proportioned human figure anyway. In this example, we loaded the figure, put some clothes and hair on her, and posed her. DO NOT use transmapped hair, use an old “plastic-style” one (like the hair props that come with Poser). Don't worry about the lighting or texturing just yet either, just get the figure posed and ready for now. I'm also just using a white background in this example to keep things simple.

Step 2 - Step 2

Go into the Materials screen and CLEAR ALL TEXTURES AND HIGHLIGHTS from the actual human figure. Textures may remain on clothing, but different textures can sometimes yield unpredictable results. You may also leave eye textures on the figure if you want, but again, the results can sometimes be unusual. Exit the Materials menu and the figure's skin should be white. Switch to Cartoon w/Line mode and the figure's skin will appear grey. Now choose the Fill tool and choose a flesh tone near the center of the “flesh bar”, as shown in the image. Something right near the vertical line is a good choice. Fill in the skin tones in this flesh, including the lips. You may choose a dark brown or black for the eyebrows though, but be careful not to simply color Victoria's eyebrows this way or you will get the dreaded “Groucho Marx brows”. :) Try using a brow thinning morph first for best results. Color the clothing and hair the same way.

Step 3 - Step 3

OK, now for the most important part - lighting. Delete all but one light and change the remaining light to solid white. In Cartoon w/Line mode, Spotlights and Infinite lights give the same results, but you still need to make sure the one light that's left is an Infinite one because we will also be using the regular Textured Preview mode as well. Positioning the light is the most important step in this tutorial, and here are some basic tips to keep in mind.

Positioning the light slightly to the left or right usually gives the best results. The objective is to place the light so that you create smooth but not excessive shadows on one side of the figure. Do not try to cast complex shadows here, Poser's Cartoon mode tends to create blocky, geometric shadows when they fall on the middle of the figure. You can add shadows in postwork much more accurately than Poser will create for you when creating this sort of image.
The nose should cast a VERY SLIGHT shadow, at least when using the Play With Poser anime figure. If not, you'll have to add it yourself in postwork or her nose will be invisible.
YOU DO NOT WANT HIGHLIGHTS ON THE SKIN. If you are seeing white areas on the figure's body, either go into the Materials screen and make the highlights solid black, or hold Ctrl (on a PC) and click on the body part with the Fill tool to change the highlight color interactively. You shouldn't have to choose more than a very dark gray for Poser to create bright highlights. It is your choice whether to let Poser cast highlights on the clothes, but painting them in postwork is always more accurate and will give better results. In the example here, we only let Poser cast highlights on the skirt.

Take your time placing the shadows and adjusting the colors. The final image will be determined largely by how you have illuminated and colored the figure in Cartoon w/ Line mode, so don't hurry through this part. When you think you're ready, it's time to start the “rendering”.

Step 4 - Step 4

Choose any adjustment tool and click on a body part. This clears the Light direction guide (if it is visible), otherwise it will appear in your image when you anti-alias the scene. Choose Render - > Anti-alias Document, and Poser will smooth out and polish your preview. Save this image by choosing File - > Export - > Image and saving it as a TIFF.

Step 5 - Step 5

You're finished with Cartoon w/ Line mode now. Switch back to Textured Preview mode (the one we usually use when rendering) to view the figure. It should be pretty dark and ugly. :) Now you need to fix the colors, so choose the Fill tool again and fill in the figure's skin with the flesh at the far right end of the “flesh bar”. You can adjust the colors of the clothing or hair too, but it may affect the final image. Try to keep the colors at a medium level, nothing too dark or too light.

Step 6 - Step 6

Once you've got the colors the way you want, select the light and raise it's Intensity to 150%. DO NOT MOVE IT or change it's color. Nothing should appear to change in the preview, but the scene will be much brighter when you render. Speaking of which, it's time to do just that. Make sure that Cast Shadows is turned OFF in the Render Options screen and render. You will get a very bright (and pretty nasty) result, which is actually what we want. Save the image (and your scene if you wish) and close Poser.

Step 7 - Step 7

OK, it's time to put these two renders together. Open your paint program (I am using Photoshop 7 in this tutorial) and load the two images. Pick the rendered one (the second one you saved) and choose Select - > Select All. Then choose Edit - > Copy to copy the entire image to the Clipboard.

Pick the first image (the Cartoon w/ Line one) and choose Edit - > Paste to paste the rendered layer on top of it. Select the rendered image layer (the one you just pasted) and change it's Blending mode to Screen. The entire image should appear much lighter. Finally, lower the Opacity of the rendered image layer to somewhere between 15% and 40% and you should get a result similar to the one above.

Step 8 - Postwork Tips

The first thing that you will probably want to do with the layered image is apply some color correction to enhance the skin tone. Use the Magic Wand selection tool ON THE CARTOON W/ LINE LAYER and click on the skin. Raise the Tolerance so that you're sure to get every flesh-colored pixel. You might also want to select all the shaded skin areas too so that you don't end up with extremely different values of skin hues. Once the skin is selected, choose Hue/Sat/Lightness and make your adjustments. In the example above, I used +4/+34/+14. Raising the Saturation will make the most difference. Mask off the clothing and/or hair and use your color correcting tools to change their colors as well. It's usually a good idea to change colors before flattening the image because the rendered layer sometimes contains very subtle gradients that can cause problems when trying to mask the flattened image. Once you've got your colors the way you like them, flatten the layers. You need to do this before painting or erasing shadows by hand anyway.

You will likely have to add additional shadows to the image by hand, but you can at least get the shadow colors right by using the Eyedropper tool to pick up the shadow color that's already there. Use a fairly hard-edged brush at 100% opacity. It also helps to mask off the areas you want to paint shadows on so that you don't paint over the edges. Smoothing out or eliminating unwanted shadows is just as easy. Pick up the skin color using the Eyedropper tool and paint over shadows to round out jagged edges or to trim ones that are too thick.

Here's the image after I cleaned up some jagged shadows, got rid of the extra black lines on her necktie and left arm shadow, added a few extra shadows under her chest, reduced the shadows around her face, and decided to erase the highlights on her skirt; all by picking up colors with the Eyedropper and painting using a hard-edged brush.

Step 9 - Clean Up

In this last “clean-up” step, I painted over some of the black lines in the hair so it doesn't look so messy, fixed some areas where the black outline had disappeared, changed the skin tone again (it seemed too light now that I look back at it) and added the eyes. I also decided to change the colors of the skin, clothing, and hair at this point as well. Choose Hue/Saturation/Lightness, click the Colorize box, and adjust the Hue to change the color. The hair still needs more work, but that requires more work than I have time to try and explain here. Anime hair can be a bit tricky to shade and highlight, so use some anime images or video captures for reference when you can. You also might want to try eliminating all shadows and highlights from the hair and painting them all in yourself after some practice, as hand-painted shadows and highlights will always look best.

If you want the outline of the figure to be darker, you might try loading the TIFF Alpha channel that was saved with your original render and using the Edit - > Stroke command with a 1 pixel black border. The initial result will probably be too dark, but then immediately choose Edit - > Fade Stroke and adjust it's amount there. I've found that this usually only works on very large images however.

Keep in mind that you will not get a perfect anime drawing right out of Poser no matter how much time you spend on lighting and coloring. The objective here is to use Poser to do the hard parts for us - proportions, basic lighting and shading, and posing. Postwork will be required, however the whole process should take much less time than trying to draw the figure by hand or to attempt to make a convert a true 3D render to an anime style. Even traditional anime artists might find this technique helpful, as you can print the merged image and trace it by hand for a time-saving step.

I hope you have found this tutorial useful, and I look forward to seeing any images you create using it! Experiment with other figures, blending modes, and coloring to find your own personal style! Thanks for your time, take care.

SnowS

No part of this tutorial may be reprinted or included in a commercial or free package without written permission from the author. For questions, contact me at snowsultan@aol.com

Step 10 - Quick Step Listing

Here's a simple list of the steps required to achieve this anime effect, all one on page so that you may print it out or refer to it when needed.

Pose your figure, put clothes, hair (non-transmapped), and setup any background objects.
Clear all textures and highlights from the figure's body, switch to Cartoon w/ Line mode, change skin color to flesh.
Delete all but one light, light should be Infinite white at 100% Intensity. Adjust light to create simple shadows on one side of the figure.
Anti-alias scene (make sure light directional guide is not visible) and save scene as a TIF.
Switch back to Textured Preview mode, change skin color to far-most right flesh color.
Raise light Intensity to 150% and turn Cast Shadows off. Render and save the image.
Open both images in Photoshop and paste rendered image top of the cartoon one. Change the rendered layer's blending mode to Screen and adjust the opacity until it looks good.
Use postwork to fix jagged shadows, add or eliminate shadows by picking up colors with the Eyedropper tool and painting, change and correct colors using the Hue/Sat/Lightness controls, and painting the eyes.

Create a Waterfall in Poser 5

2011-11-01T17:42:33+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.

Create a Waterfall in Poser 5

Author: Kendra

Tools Needed

Poser 5

Introduction

If you have P5, you don\'t necessarily need to use Bryce to get a good landscape. Using the Hair feature you can create your own waterfalls in Poser and the potential looks are endless.

Step 1 - Set up your scene

Set up your scene first. I always add the waterfall last. Until you decide to go more advanced, make sure your waterfall starts out of the scene and you have a straight surface for it to fall down. It's also a good idea to test render your water material on your lake first.

I used a terrain I exported from Bryce but you can create one using poser primatives or search freestuff for something that will work. I also use Transponds Rocks, from RuntimeDNA's free section, often with my waterfalls. The rest of the landscape is 3DModelz WorldZ and the water is the cloth primitive with a water material applied. Water can be difficult to achieve but I find positioning a light under, facing up to the surface, helps to get that translucent water effect.

Step 2 - Add a surface for your waterfall "Hair" to fall from

To begin with, and for simple waterfalls, you'll want to grow your hair from a simple, flat surface. Import a box primitive.

Be sure to save your camera when you get the angle and view you want. You'll be moving around after this.

Step 3 - Position your surface

You'll probably need to move your camera view so be sure you've saved the camera view you intend to render at.

Position your surface at the top of your waterfall. You may need to re-size it. Make sure it will be out of site of your main view and depending on how large you want your waterfall to be, only allow a lip to protrude from your terrain.

Step 4 - New growth group

In the hair room, have your box selected and click “New Growth Group”.

Next click “Edit Growth Group”. With the “+” tool, drag a box over the top of the box. This will highlight in red, the area where the hair will grow.

Be careful not to include the sides and front of the box. You may need to select a small section at a time.

Step 5 - Grow your guide hairs

Next click “Grow Guide Hairs” and extend the length to where you want it.

Step 6 - "Style" your waterfall

Adjust the “Pull Back” and “Pull Down” dials (far left in the Hair room) till the hair bends over and down the surface of your landscape.

At this point, depending on your landscape, you can also style the hair to twist and turn through rocks. For simplicity, this waterfall will come straight down into the lake.

Step 7 - Apply your water material

In the material room, select the hair and apply your water material.

Step 8 - Render

Render using Firefly and make sure Raytracing is on. You may need to position additional lights around, at or behind your waterfall to get a translucent look.

Keep in mind, the more “hair” you have the longer the render time. Most likely you'll be post-working anyway to achieve mist and such so it's possible to work with a low hair count. I believe my hair count in this is around 1000 to 1200.

Step 9 - Postwork tips

The end result.

For postwork, I use Photoshop but any graphics program will work to achieve the same effects. I use the smudge tool and a speckled brush to “brush” down the surface of the waterfall and blend the water. Mist is created on a separate layer using a speckled brush and with the opacity set to low, dot a few white dots at the base of the water. Use the blur tool to blur and blend them together.

Using the burn tool on your rocks and terrains at the water level will create a “wet look”.

Step 10 - Other waterfall effects

Here's another waterfall I did where the hair is grown directly on the rocks and the “hair” is styled to wind down the surface. More difficult but you can achieve anything from a trickle to a cascade. Requires a bit more styling experience and you can still use the box surface to start from. Same postworking applied.

Using hair as water in P5 can really push the limits of Poser. You can style the “hair” to cascade over your character, terrains and rocks since the “hair” can be styled in almost any way. And with all the landscape props available now, your poser characters don't need to rely on Bryce or Vue. :) ~Enjoy!

Creating 2D Holographic Screens in Poser

2011-11-01T17:42:33+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 2D Holographic Screens in Poser

Author: greenguy28

Tools Needed

Poser
Paint Shop Pro or Photoshop

Introduction

Using Poser and a photo-editing program, we can add a flat panel-like holographic screen to 3D scenes. Also has great applications in an animated scene.

Step 1 - Set Up the Scene

In this simple scene, I am going to have Mike looking at a holographic panel displaying Vicky, text, and some other objects. First I will set up the scene with Mike, posed to look at the screen.

I am now going to add what will later become the holographic screen. The Hi-Res Square from the Poser Primitives Library is perfect for this. So, I add the Square and position it in front of Mike like a screen. I found it best to turn the Transparency of the Square to .5 while making adjustments so I could see both it and Mike through it. And since I know that I want my final screen to have an image with dimensions of 640 x 480 (a 4-to-3 ratio), I adjust the height of the square to 75%, giving me dimensions of 100 x 75 for the screen, which fits my 4-to-3 ratio. Here's what I've got so far.

Step 2 - Set Up the Holographic Screen's Image

I want Vicky to appear on the final screen. So, opening a new file, I here have Vicky standing facing the camera head-on. Also, as in the case of the 3D hologram from the previous tutorial, the light should well-illuminate Vicky, so I again am using a light from the same angle as the camera.

As in the tutorial for 3D holograms, render Vicky against a black background. Here's what I got:

Step 3 - Create the Image

Now I take Vicky's image into Paint Shop Pro (though Photoshop is an excellent choice as well) and play around with what the final screen will look like. Remember that a hologram is simply light. So take advantage of that fact and create visual interest with strong lights and shadows. I here added some text, and a few other images that I thought had visual interest:

I then duplicated the layer, applied a Gaussian Blur, and set the Blend Mode to 'Lighten' for the glowing effect (like I did in the previous tutorial). I then tinted it to give it that authentic holographic look, this time in lime green!

Step 4 - Apply the Image to the Screen

Going back into Poser, I have applied the image to the Diffuse Color port in the Material Room. Still at .5 Transparency, the texture is visible in the scene! I also have adjusted the lighting, creating a strong lime-green light pointing at Mike to give the appearance of the screen glowing, and a strong blue light from behind for a contrasting rim light.

Now that I can see generally how the image will look on the screen, I go back to the Material Room. I plug the same image node into both the Transparency and Ambient Color ports. This will cause all of the black parts of the image will become transparent and the bright spots to glow their respective intensities and color. This will create the illusion of the holographic light.

Step 5 - Troubleshooting

Now I render the image, and' something's wrong! The image is not glowing as it should! It is only lit in the spots where the spotlight is shining on it. What went wrong?

Going back to the Material Room, I find that the Ambient Color is still set to black, the default color. More than simply changing the Ambient Value and plugging in the image node, I must change the Ambient Color to white. Once I do this, the screen's image lights up in the preview and in the camera view, indicating that it now emits ambient light.

Step 6 - Final Image

Here is the final render, without any postwork! Yes, the image is visually stunning and has great color, contrast, and mood, all rendered within Poser.

For those of you who are adventurous, try experimenting with the Movie Node. It actually applies an animation to the panel. Wow, the possibilities! Enjoy rendering, and I hope this tutorial helped!

Creating a planet and moon in Poser

2011-11-01T17:42:33+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 planet and moon in Poser

Author: xalthorn

Tools Needed

Poser

Introduction

If you've ever wanted to create a planetary system or otherwise have objects orbiting other objects, then this tutorial is for you.

In this tutorial I demonstrate how to create a planet, add some cloud cover, and also add a moon or two that will orbit the planet.

Step 1 - Put the planet in the scene

To start off with, we'll need a planet. Add a basic ball prop to the scene and rename it to 'Planet' by selecting 'Properties' from the 'Object' menu and changing the name in the window that appears.

Now change the Scale value of the planet to 200% to make it generally bigger.

Because the origin of the planet is at its base, display the origin (Object menu, Properties, Display Origin) and change the OriginY value to 0.050 to put the origin in the centre of the planet.

Now change the yTran to -0.050 to put the planet in the very centre of the scene.

Whilst we're at it, we'll change the main camera settings so that we can see what we're doing. I've set the camera to the following values.

Focal 38mm

hither 0.000

DollyZ 0.000

DollyY 0.000

DollyX 0.000

zScale 100

yScale 100

xScale 100

zOrbit 0

xOrbit -30

yOrbit -30

You should have something looking like the following

It doesn't look much like a planet yet, but if you go to the following web address:

http://www.oera.net/How2/TextureMaps2.htm

Download the 'Earth Texture Natural Colors' and 'Earth Elevation/Bump' textures.

Now we have those textures we can make the planet look a little prettier. So, off we go into the 'Render' menu, selecting the 'Materials…' option.

Make sure that the 'Planet' is the selected Object so that we apply the changes to the right object.

Load the 'Earth Texture Natural Colors' texture that you saved into the Texture Map option and the 'Earth Elevation/Bump' into the Bump Map option. When you load the jpg file into the Bump Map option you may get a prompt to allow Poser to convert the bump map to a .bum file, click Ok and let it do the conversion for you.

Whilst we're setting the materials up, set the 'Highlight Size' slider to 0%, we're not creating a marble here.

If you render your scene or go to texture shaded view, you should have something looking like the following.

Step 2 - Add some cloud cover if needed

Depending on what sort of planet you are creating, you may or may not want to bother with cloud cover. To show how it's done, I'm going to add the cover.

Add another ball to the scene and rename it to 'Planet Cloud' and display the origin. Scale the 'Planet Cloud' to 210%, change the OriginY to 0.050 and the yTran to -0.050.

Go back to the planet texture website and download the 'Earth Clouds' texture.

Now into the Render - > Materials… menu option again, making sure that we have the 'Planet Cloud' object selected.

This time, we don't want to change the texture or bump map, we want to load the 'Earth Clouds' texture into the Transparency Map option.

To finish off the clouds, set the Highlight size to 0%, the Transparency Min to 100% and the Transparency Max to 100%.

Once we're done there, we want to go to the 'Object' menu and select the 'Change Parent' option. Select the 'Planet' object from the list and click OK. This will ensure that the clouds will follow the planet should we move it around.

Now we'll try another render. You should hopefully have something looking like the following.

Step 3 - Add a moon

Now for the moon. If you want multiple moons you can simply follow the instructions in this step until you have enough moons.

Add yet another ball prop into the scene, rename it to 'Moon' and display its origin. Scale the 'Moon' to 50%, change the OriginY to 0.050 and the yTran to -0.050.

Go back to the planet texture website and download one of the 'Moon' textures.

Now that we have a texture for the moon, go into the 'Render' menu, selecting the 'Materials…' option again.

Make sure that the 'Moon' is the selected Object so that we apply the changes to the right object.

Load the Moon texture that you saved into both the Texture Map option and the Bump Map option. We can get away with this because the texture is already a grayscale image. When you load the jpg file into the Bump Map option you may get a prompt to allow Poser to convert the bump map to a .bum file, click Ok and let it do the conversion for you.

Set the 'Highlight Size' slider to 0%, just like we did with the Planet.

Back to the scene, and we can't see the moon because it's essentially inside the planet. So change the Moon's xTran to 0.600 and it's OriginX to -0.600 and it should pop outside of the planet.

We do this because we want to make sure that the origin is at the centre of the planet.

To see what's happening with the moon and it's origin, turn the origin off for the Planet and the Planet Cloud objects and change the view to outline. You should see a green origin at the centre of the planet about the same size as the moon, like in the screen below.

A final tweak for the moon is to parent it to the Planet, so with the Moon selected, go to the 'Object' menu and select the 'Change Parent' option. Select the Planet object from the list and click on OK. This will make the moon follow the planet if you move it around, just like the clouds.

Now let's look at a render of the scene.

Step 4 - Try some rotations

The good thing about putting the origin of the moon in the centre of the planet is that if we want to make the moon orbit the planet we just have to change one of the Rotate values. Here are a couple of renders, the first with a yRotate of 45 and the second with a yRotate of 200.

Step 5 - A few final words

There we are, a complete little set up with a planet, it's cloud cover and a moon (or more if you got carried away).

The good thing about parenting things to the planet is that if you move, scale, rotate or otherwise mess around with the planet, the child objects will be affected in the same way.

If you wanted to make the cloud cover rotate around the planet, just change its rotate values.

If you want the moon to rotate or spin around as it orbits the planet, you'll need to place another object in the scene. What you would do is set up an object called 'moon placer' which is smaller than the moon and set it up in exactly the same way as you would the moon, basically setting its origin to the centre of the planet and also parenting it to the planet. You then create the moon object but place it's origin in the centre of itself as you do the planet (OriginY=0.050), but position the moon in exactly the same place as the 'moon placer'. You then parent the moon to the moon placer. The moon will now spin around its own origin and follow the moon placer as the moon placer orbits the planet.

If you'really want to get carried away, you could create the whole solar system revolving around a central sun instead of a planet.

Creating Isometric Game Graphics with Poser

2011-11-01T17:42:33+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 Isometric Game Graphics with Poser

Author: xalthorn

Tools Needed

Poser
Photoshop

Introduction

With all the models available, Poser is a great tool to create images for an Isometric game. This tutorial shows how to prepare a 'stage' for creating these graphics.

The following assumptions are made in this tutorial.

1. You know what an Isometric game is.

2. You know how large your tile graphics are. In this tutorial, I am aiming for a 50 pixel wide, 25 pixel high tile.

Step 1 - Load the biggest single tile thing

The first thing we need to do is to decide what the largest creature, object, or whatever is going to be able to fit inside a single tile on your map. Once you've decided on this, load the model into a new scene, leave it centred but also put it in the widest pose you intend to use.

I've decided that a Troll should be about the biggest thing I want in a single tile. Don't worry about textures as we're creating the stage. I've also set my document window to be a square, 500×500. Here's the brute in a new scene.

Step 2 - Load a box for a guideline tile

To get the sizes and proportions right, we now need to load a box into the scene. So, add the box from the standard prop types provided with poser.

We want it to be placed underneath the Troll, so change the yScale to 0%. It should now be positioned underneath the Troll as below.

You'll notice the obvious, that the box is a tad on the small side, but we'll fix that in a mo.

Step 3 - Get the Isometric angle right

This bit took quite a bit of fiddling and experimenting to get right, but if you set the Main camera up as below, you should get a decent Isometric view.

Focal : 100mm

hither : 0.000

DollyZ : 1.100

DollyY : 0.200

DollyX : 0.000

zScale : 100%

yScale : 100%

xScale : 100%

Scale : 250%

zOrbit : 0

xOrbit : -25

yOrbit : 45

Step 4 - Size the tile

Now we can see what we're doing, let's resize the xScale and zScale of the box until the Troll is standing in the tile. We can allow a little overlap if we want to really emphasise the size of the Troll. This is all a personal taste and dependant on your own requirements.

I've set the sizes as follows:

xScale : 500%

zScale : 500%

Now we'll see how it looks at the moment.

My version worked really well because I'd already played around with the settings. However, if you find that the bottom corner of the box doesn't touch the bottom of the window or if it goes off the bottom, play with the DollyZ value of the camera until it fits nicely.

Step 5 - Hide the troll

We want to make sure that our view is really giving us an Isometric view, so we'll hide the troll and do a render.

To hide the troll, make sure that the Body of the Troll is selected and then go to the Object menu and select the Properties option. Uncheck the visible setting and click on OK. The Troll should now have vanished.

Now we'll do a sample render and load the image into an art package. As I have photoshop, I'll be using that.

What we now need to do is crop the image until you have just the white diamond.

The easiest way to do this is to go to the channel selector as shown in the image below and select the alpha channel.

Once that is selected, go to the 'Select' menu and select the 'Color Range' option. Using the settings as shown in the image below, click on the white diamond to select that part of the image and click on OK.

With that selected, go back to the Layers tab and click on the Background layer to select it.

Go to the 'Image' menu and select the 'Crop' option. This will discard the rest of the image, leaving just the diamond.

Now check the size of the image by clicking on the 'Image' menu and selecting the 'Image Size…' option. The width should be twice the height. If it's close enough, then you're fine.

Now the clever bit.

Check the image width and compare it to the width of the render. In my case, the image is 250 pixels wide and the render 500 pixels, so it's conveniently half the size. Whatever your version is, divide the render width by the width of the diamond and you'll have a number. Obviously, mine is 2.

Now multiply your target tile width (50 for me) by this magic number and you will have the width that you need to get the rendered image at to get things just the right size.

What we're doing here is preparing the render so that the monster, person, object, or whatever is rendered at the right size for our Isometric game.

Step 6 - Now we can get on with the renders

Now go back to your scene and show the Troll again. You can do this by going to the 'Figure' menu and selecting the 'Show All Figures' option.

Position the Troll in the right pose and position on the diamond (don't move the diamond or the camera, just the Troll). Clothe it, texture it, light it, hide the box object and render it and you have one of the facings.

You can render at the full size (500×500 in my case) and then scale it down in an art package, or you can render at the intended size (tile width x magic number) and take it from there. I like having larger originals and then scaling down because it lets me change things later if I need to.

To get the other views, you may be tempted to rotate the troll, but it's a darn sight safer to rotate the view. The camera's yRotate values you want for the four facings are:

135

225

315

All we're doing is turning it round an extra 90 degrees each time.

I've done an extra render at 135 to show how it looks now.

Step 7 - Useful mask

Because Poser renders a TIF image with a mask, it's an easy task to cut out the background. Load the image into Photoshop, go to the channels list and select the Alpha channel as before. Use the colour selection to select the background this time and then go back to the Layer list. Duplicate your main background layer, and delete the original one.

Now just do edit clear and hey presto, the background has gone.

The reason we duplicate the background is so that we can actually clear parts of the layer.

Step 8 - Wrapping up

There we go, that should be enough to get you well on your way to creating your own Isometric graphics.

Customizing Your Poser Library Thumbnails

2011-11-01T17:42:33+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.

Customizing Your Poser Library Thumbnails

Author: Crescent

Tools Needed

Seno Software P3D0 Explorer
A photo editing program

Introduction

How do people add logos to their thumbnails? (Besides corporate sponsorship?) How do you get transmapped hair to show up in the thumbnails? Have textures and backgrounds show up? You cheat.

In addition to a photoediting program like Photoshop or Paint Shop Pro, you'll need yarp\'s wonderful P3D0 Explorer for this tutorial. You can find it at Seno Software - http://www.senosoft.com. you'll also need their .rsr ← > PNG converter plug-in. Both are free.

In this example, I am making a custom thumbnail for a pose. This will work just as well for character thumbnails, prop thumbnails, etc. This tutorial works for P4, PPP and P5. With a small amount of work, this will work for MACs. (Sorry, I don\'t have a MAC to figure out the tweaks.)

Step 1 - Creating the Image.

P4, PPP, and P5:

Create the pose you want to use. Mine was Sleeping1.

Save it to the library.

Cute Kitty, blah thumbnail! Let's get real.

Render the image as a square image - width and height are equal.

File: Export the image as a .tif file. By saving the original picture as a .tif file, you can use alpha channels to make it easier to create interesting, new backgrounds. To make life easier, save it in the same directory that you saved the pose. I called mine Sleeping1.tif.

Close Poser.

Step 2 - Editing Your Image.

PPP or P5: please go into Windows explorer and rename the sleeping1.PNG thumbnail sleeping1-old.PNG. (If you have Poser 4, just keep on going.)

Open up the .tif file in your photoediting program. If you saved it in the same folder that you saved your pose, it will be in [wherever Poser is located]:Runtime:Libraries:Pose:[pose folder you used].

Make whatever enhancements you want to the picture. I added a sandy background and a logo at the bottom of my thumbnail.

Flatten the image.

Rename the background to Layer 0. In Photoshop 5.5, I double clicked on the Background in the Layers Palette and it offered to rename it to Layer 0.

If you want a blank background, you can use your alpha channel to break out your image and leave it on Layer 1. Make sure Layer 0 is blank. This is how the thumbnail would look with a blank background:

Reduce the image size to 91 x 91 pixels. It's the magic number. (The width has to be 91 pixels. Some people have made longer thumbnails, but I've heard rumors of compatibility problems, so be careful.)

Save the image as a 16 bit PNG file. Use the same name as the pose and save it in the same directory: sleeping1.PNG in this case.

Step 3 - Making an .rsr file.

PPP or P5: delete the original sleeping1-old.PNG file and you're done.

P4 only:

Open up P3D0 Explorer.

Browse to the correct pose directory.

Click on Tools: Convert Rsr2Png. In the next screen, choose: PNG to .rsr.

(Note, there will be a new version of P3D0 available. The screen might look slightly different.)

P3D0 will create a .rsr file out of the PNG file.

Delete the PNG file and you're done.

Step 4 - Fixing blank PNG files.

Note for PPP and P5 users:

If you get a blank thumbnail, then there was an incorrect setting in your PNG file or your paint program is being obnoxious. Don't worry, it's easy to fix.

Close Poser.

Open up P3D0 Explorer.

Browse to the correct pose directory.

Click on Tools: Convert Rsr2Png. In the next screen, choose: PNG to .rsr.

P3D0 will create a .rsr file out of the PNG file.

Delete the PNG file.

Click on Tools: Convert Rsr2Png. In the next screen, choose: .rsr to PNG.

Delete the .rsr file and you're done.

Step 5 - Last Minute Tips.

Batch conversions:

If you have a large number of thumbnails you want to convert, you might as well do all the pose saves and renders at one time, then do all the thumbnail enhancements, then the thumbnail conversions. P3D0 will batch convert for you.

Offering thumbnails to other people:

You need to make .rsr files for P4 users or they will not have a working thumbnail. If you want, you can include just .rsr thumbnails as PPP and P5 will automatically create PNG files for you, but then the PPP/P5 user has to clean up the .rsr files later on.

Dissecting Props in Poser 6

2011-11-01T17:42:33+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.

Dissecting Props in Poser 6

Author: Phoenix1966

Tools Needed

* Poser 6

* A prop with multiple material zones

Step 1: Inside the Material Room

In this example, I wanted to save the tap only from the barrel prop out of Faveral's Medieval Tavern set. There was no way to “hide” the unnecessary parts via the hierarchy editor since this is a “solid” prop, so here's what I did.

After loading the barrel prop into my empty scene, I entered the Material Room. Once there, I selected the Grouping Tool (the yellow, highlighted button on the left), which opened up the Grouping Editor box (pictured on the right).

Step 2: Using the Grouping Editor

Using the Grouping Editor, I hit the New Group button and in the Name box that opened up, I decided to call the prop “Tap”. I know…very original :)

Step 3: Isolating the New Prop

To make sure nothing's been accidently selected, you can hit the Remove All button in the Grouping Editor.

Now to find your new prop. Hit the Add Material Button and a new window will now appear. From its drop-down menu, select the material that comprises the section of the prop that you want to isolate. In many cases, the part you want may be named appropriately.

In this case, there was no “tap” material, so I kept selecting materials from the drop-down menu until the tap area turned red (as pictured on the left). I then hit OK and moved on to the next step.

Step 4: Creating the New Prop

I selected the Create Prop button from the Grouping Editor and in the new window, I typed in “Tap” for my new prop name and hit OK.

After that step, I selected the original barrel and deleted it. Almost done now!

Step 5: Saving the New Prop

Back in the Pose Room, I now had my isolated tap prop. Opening up the Props folder and making sure the tap was selected, I hit the Add to Library button and named my new prop when prompted.

That's it, all done within Poser 6!

Draping Vs. Simulation in the Poser Cloth Room

2011-11-01T17:42:33+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.

Draping Vs. Simulation in the Poser Cloth Room

Author: Phoenix1966

Tools Needed

* Poser 5 or higher

Introduction

This is a basic tutorial showing you some of the options with draping and simulating in the Poser Cloth Room.

Step 1 - Dynamics

This tutorial is going to go into a little more detail about one aspect of dynamic simulations and assumes either you know your way a bit around the cloth room or have had a chance to look through my brief “Intro into Poser Dynamics” tutorial in the archives here.

Basically, I'm going to discuss “Draping” vs. “Simulations” in Poser.

Step 2 - Getting Started

In this example, I'm going to use Victoria 3 and some free, dynamic pearl necklaces by Stegy available at Renderosity.

I load V3 and then add the dynamic, pearl necklaces. In this case, the necklaces are already smart propped to V3. To make things interesting, I rescale three of the necklaces and also move them from their zeroed position to add some interesting results to the finished render.

Step 3 - To Drape or not to drape

Whether you “drape” your necklace or run a simulation, the initial set up is still the same, although you can pose your V3 at the first frame for the “drape” method as opposed to a later frame for a simulation.

With V3 and the necklace targeted, you set up a new simulation and “clothify” the necklace. To save time, in the collision window, only choose the body parts that the necklace will obviously collide against (chest, right collar, left collar, etc).

Step 4 - Collision Settings

I set a fairly low Collision Offset and Collision Depth here because I want the necklaces to lay very close to V3's skin.

I also check off, once again, all the body parts that I don't want involved in the simulation.

Step 5 - Draping

In this example, I will simply “drape” the necklaces.

So, as you can see, the start and end frame for this is just 1, since the draping function will be doing all the work. As I mentioned above, to drape the item(s), I already have V3 in her final pose in the first frame.

To give the necklace plenty of time to look good, I set the frames to 75. After setting this and the Collision Objects (also shown above), I simply hit the “Calculate Simulation” and walk away for a few minutes.

In this case, I run four simulations in this manner, one for each necklace.

Step 6 - The Draped Look

Step 7 - Simulations

For the other variation, I delete the previous simulations and this time set up what most people refer to as a “dynamic simulation”.

In this case, I set V3 in her final pose at around frame 30 or so. To give the necklaces the same amount of time to animate as the drape example, I set the end frame to 75.

Then I simply set the Collision Objects as above and then sit back and wait…and wait…and wait for the 4 simulations to run their course.

Step 8 - Simulated Pearls

And here you can see the simulations gave a different end result from the draped example. This took approximately 4-5 times longer than the draping method.

Step 9 - So what?

Using these two scenarios, I've tried to show that there's more than one way to skin a cat or, in this case, dress a V3.

Some of the confusion around draping in the Cloth Room is that many folks will refer to a dynamic cloth simulation as a way “to drape clothes on a figure”, forgetting that “drape” is actually a command within the cloth room.

While it can vary from dynamic object to dynamic object, keep in mind that if all you are composing is a single-frame, still image (like a pin-up), draping may be a faster method to achieve the results you want.

But if you have your dynamic object interacting and reacting to things beside your figure (such as a wind object), then a full simulation is the way to go.

Easy Instructions to Make A MAT Pose For Beginners

2011-11-01T17:42:33+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 Instructions to Make A MAT Pose For Beginners

Author: BrokenWings

Tools Needed

Poser
P5-MAT Writer
Text Editor

Introduction

This is for people like myself who don't quite understand some of the bigger tutorials to making a MAT POSE or a MOR Pose, which that one I haven't found anywhere. So here it goes….

Step 1 - Figure

Open a Poser Figure file. For this tutorial I am using Victoria 2. (You can use any figure you like that you would like to make your own character out of.)

Assign all your textures to each part of the body that requires assigning. You do this in the material area. After assigning all the textures go back to Pose area and change the face to whatever you want her/him to look like by changing the dial settings on the Figure 1 Properties. You can also change the body of the figure this way too.

Step 2 - Making A Folder

Now go to your Poses file and make a folder. To do this, you left click on the little black arrow and a window will pop up. Go to Add New Category. Another little

window will pop up and you add the name of the new folder. Example: !MAT Teagan .

Step 3 - Adding Figure To Folder

Double click on the folder you just made. Make sure your Figure 1 and body are selected. Go to the little + at the bottom of the screen and type in the name of your character, but type it like this: !!Teagan MOR, use your character name instead of Teagan.

Include Morph Channels In Pose Set-YES

Would You Like To Save A Single Frame Entry- OK.

Step 4 - MAT Pose

Now your character is saved in her/his very own folder. Your character has her/his very own settings now, so you don't have to redo their look anymore. It's right there in your poser files now.

Now say you have different textures you would like to use on your character and instead of everytime you want to use your person in a picture or even sell her/his textures, you don't want to go through all the hassle of adding each texture everytime. I am going to explain how to do this just once and have all your textures for this person right there with one click.

To make life so much easier at making MAT Poses, I found a script written by Netherworks Studios that is free. You can get it here: http://www.thenetherworks.com. It's called: P5-MATWriter. Download it and save in a folder you make in your Windows Explorer called P5-MAT Writer for easier access.

“What It Does: This script allows you to write P5-specific MATs for figures or props in Poser 5. The MATs that it writes are written as P5-Matfile.pz2 and will be located in your Runtime:Python:poserScripts directory. It will also write a PNG thumbnail for you. Make sure to move the MATs (P5-MATFile.pz2 and the PNG) from the poserScripts directory after running the script each time. If not, they will be overwritten.”

Okay to get started you must:

1. Load the Figure

2. Select it

3. Go to the Materials Room

4. Select each material once

5. Go back to the Pose Room

6. Run the P5 MAT Writer script (P5-MATWriter.py)

After running the script, go to your Windows Explorer (You can leave Poser open), Program FilesCurious LabsRuntime:Python:poserScripts directory and find the P5-MATFile.pz2 file. Rename the two files with the name P5-MATFile.pz2 and P5-MATFile.PNG to !!Teagan TEX 01.pz2 and !!Teagan TEX.PNG (remember to change Teagan to whatever you are naming your figure). Now copy and paste into your folder !MAT Teagan. You will find this in: Program FilesCurious LabsPoser 5RuntimeLibrariesPoses!MAT Teagan Go back to Poser and open the folder you made, now you will have a MOR file as well as a TEX file in the folder. Do this with all of your textures you want to use on this charater you have made. That is it, you have created your own MAT files.

Step 5 - If you plan on selling

If you plan on selling your textures and you do not want to use the CR2 files which are bigger and in some cases are not allowed to sell them, please go to the next section.

You do everything just like above, but the only difference is, you have to change each file in your folder that ends in pz2 except the MOR file. Close Poser and open a text writer. I use NoteTabLight, it is free and you can get it at http://www.notetab.com

Make a folder again in the Windows Explorer called: Runtime add another folder to the runtime folder called: Libraries add another folder to libraries called: Pose add 1 more folder to pose called: !!Teagan (or whatever you named your character). Now add another folder off from Runtime named:Textures add a folder to Textures named: Teagan (again whatever you named your character).

Go to your Program FilesCurious LabsPoser 5RuntimeLibrariesPose!MAT Teagan (your folder name here) and copy all the files in there to your C:/Runtime/Libraries/Pose/!!Teagan (yourfolder name) And be sure to have all your textures in the texture folder in this runtime.

Open your first pz2 file Go to { version { number 5 } and change this to: { version { number 4.01 } You just need to change the number so that it is compatible with version 4. Now Go to the first line in your pz2 that says: C:RuntimeTexturesTeagan .This we need to change. Highlight the C:RuntimeTexturesTeagan by just running your mouse over it while holding down your left mouse button.

Step 6 - Finishing Comments

Now go to: Replace Text It will look like this:

Replace All- C:RuntimeTexturesTeagan

To- :Runtime:Textures:Teagan: (with your folder name)

Then save as: (Whatever you had it named).

Do this to all of your pz2.

That is it. Now you are ready to sell your MAT Pose files. Congratulations.

If you have any questions please Email Me- beckie@access-designs.com

Exact eye settings made easy (part 2)

2011-11-01T17:42:33+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.

Exact eye settings made easy (part 2)

Author: Adavyss

Tools Needed

Poser 4 or higher
CR2Builder (free)
Michael 3

Support Files

targetGeom_template.zip

Continued from Exact eye settings made easy (part 1).

Introduction

This tutorial is quite long, so it has been split in 2 parts. Welcome to exact eyes setting made easy tutorial - part 2. Nothing is complicated really and you'll end up with a great improvement to your Figure usage. Part 2 of this tutorial will show you:

which parameters I use to edit the 4 remaining ERC
how to create 2 eyelids positioning morphs inside Poser
How to cluster together your 7 new controls into a new parameters group (P5/P6) in order to insure a quick and easy access.

Step 1 - ERC mass production - Parameters

Use the following parameters to edit the remaining 4 ERC.

Parameters

ERC no. 2

We want the Figure's eyes to look left and right, both eyes being controlled from the head.
(we want the eyes to turn around the y axis)
Name: Eye Left-Right
Master control location: actor head

Slave no. 1

Actor: actor leftEye
Control ratio: deltaAddDelta 10.000000
Controlled channel: rotateY yrot

Slave no. 2

Actor: actor rightEye
Control ratio: deltaAddDelta 10.000000
Controlled channel: rotateY yrot

ERC no. 3

We want to adjust the eyes vertical positioning
(we want the eyes to translate along the y axis)
Name: Eye Low-High
Master control location: actor head

Slave no. 1

Actor: actor leftEye
Control ratio: deltaAddDelta 0.001000
Controlled channel: translateY ytran

Slave no. 2

Actor: actor rightEye
Control ratio: deltaAddDelta 0.001000
Controlled channel: translateY ytran

ERC no. 4

We want to pull the eyes closer or push them apart
(we want the eyes to translate along the x axis)
Name: Eye Near-Split
Master control location: actor head

Slave no. 1

Actor: actor leftEye
Control ratio: deltaAddDelta 0.001000
Controlled channel: translateX xtran

Slave no. 2

Actor: actor rightEye
Control ratio: deltaAddDelta -0.001000
Controlled channel: translateX xtran
Warning !!! Control ratio sign is different in each slave. Eyes are moving in opposite directions, so their polarity must be different.

ERC no. 5

We want to adjust the eyes depth positioning
(we want the eyes to translate along the z axis)
Name: Eye Back-Front
Master control location: actor head

Slave no. 1

Actor: actor leftEye
Control ratio: deltaAddDelta 0.001000
Controlled channel: translateZ ztran

Slave no. 2

Actor: actor rightEye
Control ratio: deltaAddDelta 0.001000
Controlled channel: translateZ ztran
For memory

ERC no. 1

We want the Figure's eyes to look up and down, both eyes being controlled from the head.
(we want the eyes to turn around the x axis)
Name: Eye Down-Up
Master control location: actor head

Slave no. 1

Actor: actor leftEye
Control ratio: deltaAddDelta -10.000000
Controlled channel: rotateX xrot
Slave no. 2
Actor: actor rightEye
Control ratio: deltaAddDelta -10.000000
Controlled channel: rotateX xrot

Once again, these parameters are mine and, provided you know what you are doing, you can change them according to your taste/needs.

Step 2 - ERC mass production - Edit all the Master channels

ERC mass production process is a variation of the one explained in part 1.

Load the Figure you plan to work with in the left tree view.
In the right window, click the '*targetGeom*' tab
Put the template provided with this tutorial in place of the one on display (copy/paste on top)
Put the name of the ERC no. 2 in place of '%1' (copy/paste on top)
In the LeftTV window, click the '+' in front of 'actor head' (second instance) then 'channels' to develop.
Right click on the first master channel at the top of the list ('targetGeom Eye Down-Up' created during the first part of the tutorial). In the pop-up menu, click 'From RP Under'

In the right window, put the name of the ERC no. 3 in place of the name of the ERC no. 2 (copy/paste on top)
In the LeftTV window, right click on the master channel you've just created. In the pop-up menu, click 'From RP Under'

Begin again steps 7 and 8 with ERC no. 4 and ERC no. 5.

Save. CR2Builder is stable. (Theoretically, there is no need to save your job before the end, but it's good practice, anyways).

Step 3 - ERC mass production - Edit all Slave channels

In the right window, click the 'ERC' tab.
In the Filter Channel panel, tick 'TargetGeom'
Click the 'Update' button
In the simplified version of the CR2 tree view, develop 'actor head'
Click the 'Add' tab.

ERC no. 2

Slave no. 1

Select 'targetGeom Eye Left-Right' (if you followed part 1 of the tutorial, 'targetGeom Eye Down-Up' is already done),
Click the right '←' button.
Have a look at the parameters list. If needed, change the control ratio value (copy/paste on top)
In the LeftTV window develop 'actor leftEye' > 'channels' > rotateY yrot
Click the left '←' button

Slave no. 2

Have a look at the parameters list. If needed, change the control ratio value (copy/paste on top)
In the LeftTV window develop 'actor rightEye' > 'channels' > rotateY yrot
Click the left '←' button

ERC no. X

Begin again from step 6, using ERC no. X

Once you get used to the sequence, it's quite fast … boring, but quite fast.

Save after completion.

Don't close CR2Builder yet.

Launch Poser and load the new version of M3_ERC. Select the head. Open the 'Parameters Dials' window.

You should see something like shown on the above picture. Test your 5 ERC.

If they are working properly, then close CR2Builder.

Step 4 - Eyelids positioning morphs

Inject expression morphs into M3_ERC's head.

In the 'Parameters Dials' tab, look for 'Blink Right' and 'Blink Left'.
Set value to 1 for both of them
Go to 'Object' > 'Spawn Morph Target'
Name your new morph ('UpperEyeLid' for example)
Reset 'Blink Right' and 'Blink Left' to zero
Locate your new morph 'UpperEyeLid'. Make sure it's working properly.

Now you control the upper eyelids.

Reset 'UpperEyeLid'

Use the same process to create a morph controlling the lower eyelids.

In the 'Parameters Dials' tab, look for 'EyeWince1L' and 'EyeWince1R'.

Set value to 1 for both of them

Go to 'Object' > 'Spawn Morph Target'

Name your new morph ('LowerEyeLid' for example)

Reset 'EyeWince1L' and 'EyeWince1R' to zero

Locate your new morph 'LowerEyeLid'. Make sure it's working properly.

Now you control the lower eyelids.

Step 5 - Rearrange your dials

If you followed step by step the instructions, your 'Parameters Dials' tab should look more or less like that, with the 5 new remote controls and 2 morphs at the top of the list in the Morph group.

Not bad, but I'd rather have them all together in a separate group.

Create a new group

Click the small arrow right to the 'Properties' tab to open a pop-up menu. Click 'Create new group'.
Name the new group 'Eyes Setting'
The new group is created. There is a '-' sign in front of it, to show that the group is empty

Moving groups

This group being very important to me, I want it to be top of the list.

Select, drag 'Eyes Setting' group on top of 'Morph' group. If you look carefully (and if you have very good eyes), you'll see a tiny little narrow yellow line just on top of the Morph group. Drop 'Eyes Setting' group on this yellow line. It's sometimes easier to drop the 2 other groups underneath 'Eyes Setting'.

Moving Morphs/ERC from group to group

Click the '+' in front of 'Morph' to develop. Select the 5 new remote controls and 2 morphs (multiple Ctrl+click)
Drag and drop on 'Eyes Setting' group

Moving Morphs/ERC inside a group

Happy? Not yet. I want the eyelid morphs at the bottom of the list.

Select the 2 eyelid morphs (multiple Ctrl+click)
Drag and drop on the famous yellow line, underneath 'UpperEyeLid' dial.

You've got the idea. Reshuffle the dials until you like the combination.

Save your Figure. You are done.

Step 6 - Conclusion

These 7 controls will help you, on a daily basis, to:

fix poke though eyelids
fix eyes wrong positioning
fix eyes extremely wrong positioning
make silly eyes positioning for your toon characters
easily get rid of the default bulging eyes
avoid expressionless look
Try to breathe life into your Poser character's eyes (Talent is not included in the package, sorry!)

It's possible to add 'Exact eyes setting' controls to any Figure (provided the Figure has head and eyes)

Process and parameters will remain the same.

You made it 5 times, you are now a specialist! You could become more adventurous and edit your own ERC (control both eyes size from the head / control both eyes morphs (if any) from the head…..)

Have fun

Adavyss

Falling snow directly in Poser

2011-11-01T17:42:33+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.

Falling snow directly in Poser

Author: dorkati

Tools Needed

Poser 4 or higher
Any paint program

Support Files

snow_trans.zip

Introduction

I'm using Corel Photo-Paint so I show in this tutorial, step-by-step, how to snow paint in this program, but you can use any paint programs that you have.

In Photo-Paint there is a a weather effect. It's in Creative Effects tools, so it is very easy to make a snow-fall.

Since not all programs have this option, I will show you how you can make your own snow. The process should be similar in other paint programs.

You will want use snow images as transparency maps in Poser.

If you don't want to paint your own snow, you can download my snow transparency map and use it.

Size: 1200 x 900

Step 1 - Brush settings

Our snow should look like the above.

Create a new document. Make it 1200 x 900 for best results. Set background to black and foreground (brush color) to white.

Create a new layer and paint some dots with your airbrush. The shape should be a feathered circle and the size about 6-8 pixels.

Check this picture for details.

Here are some different spot-styles.

Step 2 - Dab attributes

Open the 'Brush Settings' docker from the menu bar. In Photo-Paint you find it here: Window– > Dockers– > Brush Settings.

In properties, set the following dab attributes:

Space : 500

(A higher value separates the dabs in the brush stroke - value 1 is a single line)

Spread : 900

(specify the distance between dabs along the width of the brush stroke. A higher value results in a thicker brush stroke)

Number of dabs : 1

Check the differences between value 1 and value 5 on this picture:

Step 3 - Painting

Paint lines with this brush settings and check the result (see the picture above)

Create a new layer and increase the brush-size a little. I set it to 10.

Increase the space or spread value too.

Paint some spots sparsely, create new layers and paint more, but not too many if you don't want to make a snowstorm. You can make more layers if you want to make more realistic snow, but be sure not to paint too many spots on layers.

Decrease the brush size to 3 and increase the spread and space to highest value.

Make 3 new layers and paint them with these settings. Outrun with mouse and the spots will not be so dense:

Step 4 - Set layers

For a better look, change the 3 last (the smallest dots) layers' transparency to different values between 55% and 90%

Go to the one of the layer with the highest number of spots and make a Gaussian blur. Use a value of about 1.5. If you make more layers, make blur on them too(but not on all!) with different values (1, 3 - 1, 8)

You've now made your first snow transparency map. It should look similar to this:

Make more images with similar settings.

Use many layers and set them with different transparency and use different blur settings for more realistic look.

Create some rare and some dense snow images.

If you have many snow transparency maps, save your images, close the paint program and go to Poser.

Step 5 - Snow panel in Poser

Make your scene. I used Multiplane Cyclorama with Winter Wonder. Set your characters and load from Props- > Primitives a single sided square.

First, adjust the xScale to 400% and yScale to 300%, to match the transparency map ratio.

Than you can increase the Size with Scale dial.

Step 6 - Apply transparency map

Go to the material room and set the properties. Follow the setting as shown:

Be sure to set Specular and ambient color to black for best results. Use white for Diffuse color and use one of your snow transparency maps for transparency. Set this value to 1 and the transparency edge to 1, too.

If you want, you can use this map as a bump map too.

Check the result:

Step 7 - Use more layers

Repeat this procedure 2 or 3 more times.

Load a single square, resize, apply transparency map.

Load several snow images as transparency maps for best results, but you can use only one if you want.

Use different zTrans for more realistic looks. There should be a panel in front of your scene, one in middle and one in back, and anywhere else if you want.

For the back panel, you need to load two squares and juxtaposition them. Use same zTrans value and same Scale value on each of them, because the rear panel should be bigger than the others, but you don't want a stretched transparency map.

Check the result by using only 1 map 3 times.

I hope this tutorial was helpful and enables you to create many nice winter-scenes.

If you have any question, feel free to contact me:

fairyfan@freestart.hu

Freeing memory requirements while using Transposer

2011-11-01T17:42:33+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.

Freeing memory requirements while using Transposer

Author: DanaC78

Tools Needed

* Poser

* Carrara

Step 1 - The Setup

This step will ask you to do a few basic things so we can proceed to actual teaching in step 2.

The first thing I would like you to do is animate a poser scene. For the purpose of demonstration, I have a file on hand that is used for an animation I am currently undergoing that demonstrates the usefulness of this. Onnce you done this and saved, I'd like you to import it into Carrara.

What I like you to look at once you have it loaded is in the Render Room on the Tab of Progress/Statistics. Notice how big the total texture size is. In my instance, it is 3.95 Gig! However, now we will show how to take care of that.

Also, don't save as a new file till the very end especially if you are going to store them internally. Once we do what we do, it will make things smaller and easier to load (and render with more memory available)

Step 2 - Examine Shader

We have all seen this if you've used Transposer and wanted to tweak the texture:

Imagine each of those being one instance of a texture map, which is more than likely what is happening in this case. This can use up an incredible amount of unnecessary resources.

The beauty of shaders is they can be reused. For instance, I could take this Layer List shader, and apply it to a similar figure with success. However, this Layer List is far too massive for people wanting to do animation, in this animator's opinion. However, there is also:

Notice those empty spots. These will override the global shader, but Transposer doesn't utilize them like Native Importer does. Let's change that.

Step 3 - Creating a Single Shader

What we are going to do here is taken one of the channels in the Layer List, and make it into an individual shaders. One thing to keep in mind, we are not going to do every single texture as you will only see a benefit with shaders that apply to more than 2 parts. A good example is combining Victoria 3's head parts.

Open the part of the Layer that you wish to create the shader so you can get the multi-channel. If you drag the Layer, you will not get the shader working properly at all. Once you select the multiple channel, drag and drop. You will get a dialog box asking you to name it and such. Woo-hoo, you created a shader.:)

Step 4 - Using the Shader

In that Shader Domain area, select the material group you made the shader from step 3. Now, click on the Add Shader Button (not sure of the official title, but that sounds good), and go to the folder that you put the shader you made in Step 3 to select and hit OK.

Now what we will do here is a little different. For me, I am going with V3 head first. So I am going to select scalp, and use the drop down. The reason for this is I want to use the same shader instead a whole new one. Repeat with each head part.

Repeat 3 and 4 till a majority of the body parts (avoid Eyelash, Eyebrow, or anything with special transparency settings, unless you are experienced with those).

Step 5 - Cleaning up the Layer List

We are not out of the water yet as you can see from the picture above. I know I told you adding to the shader domain will decrease it, but as you can see, it increases. This is because there is one more step to do: Remove the Layers from the List.

Select the Top Shader and it will give you the entire list of layers. What I like you to do is click on the trash can. This will delete it, and I want you to do so until anything you put in Shader Domains is not in this list.

See, that is an improvement. And we started at 3.95. Also keep in mind in this scene, I have another Vicky and one Michael, so imagine once I do to them what I did to this one?

Now you may save this file and the proper shaders will be put in, and will help with loading it.

Step 6 - Conclusion

You are probably wondering right now what the method of madness was by creating more shaders? Doesn't that increase things? Yes..and no.

Think of this as one huge project, and someone had given you all the duties of performing all aspects of it. You could do it all yourself, or you can assign specific tasks to a smaller group. Think of the Layer List as you doing all the work of the shaders. It is a tremendous usage of your resources, and you would get tired quickly. Think of Shader Domains as groups of people you use Carrara to hand out the tasks of the Body, Head, Hair, etc. By having one instance of Victoria Headmap shared with those groups instead of several instances for each group decreases the amount of ram needed for the scene.

Thank you, and good rendering.:)

Get Organized with Runtime

2011-11-01T17:42:33+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.

Get Organized with Runtime

Author: guiltyvictim

Tools Needed

Windows
Poser
DAZ studio (optional)

Introduction

If like me you're obsessed with organization, and you're fed up with Pose's content management system, this tutorial might be for you. In this tutorial I'll give you a glimpse of how I manage my content in both Poser and DAZ Studio, using Poser's “runtime” management system. The end result should be shorter loading times in Poser, and the ability to break down the content into appropriate groups so that you don't have to comb through items designed for different figures. This tutorial requires the installers / archives to all your digital content.

Step 1 - Understanding the basics

If you understand Poser's file type and content management system, please skip to Step 2

Poser is very “careful” (aka rigid) with its content, it will verify the file types in each section before letting you use them (CR2 for figures, pz2 for poses / morphs / textures, hr2 for hair etc.). This means if you move a pz2 file to the “\character\” folder, you will not be able to find it within Poser's content. This completely limits our ability to group a set of content in its own file structure.

In an ideal world this would be my file structure for a particular clothes set:-

\costume name\ - contains figure files

\costume name\texture - contains MAT files for the costume

\costume name\props - contains props for the costume

etc.

But in reality, Poser will only allow the following structure:

\character\costume name\

\pose\costume name\

\props\costume name\

etc.

Unfortunately (far as I can tell) there is no way to avoid this unless Poser developers decides to actually allow recognition of different file types for each section (which I don't see why not). Guess we just have to wait till DAZ Studio dominate the market with their innovations for optimal workflow.

Note:

DAZ Studio isn't bounded by such problem, so if you don't use Poser at all, feel free to group these files anyway you want. However the core files like geometries, texture images etc. should not be touched at all. Rule of thumb is to only touch files inside these folders:-

\camera\

\character\

\face\

\hair\

\hand\

\light\

\pose\

\props\

Step 2 - Runtimes

Thankfully Poser has a runtime management system, which gives us a little bit of hope to organize our content.

Runtimes are basically the root level container of your digital content. By default Poser uses its own runtime, and incorporates the “Downloads” runtime for you to place your downloaded content. You can create additional runtimes to your liking.

Each runtime contains all the default file structure for your content, including but not limited to the figures, poses, hair etc.

When you switch runtimes, your entire library will be updated to contain the current runtime's content. i.e. if you go into the Downloads runtime and access “Figures”, you'll find all figures inside your Downloads runtime, but all the default Poser figures would disappear.

And it is this system that we're going to work with to sort out the content organization nightmare.

Note:

Depending on how much digital content you have in your runtime(s), you might notice that Poser sometimes takes a fairly long time to load the “context” menu which was designed for “speedy” access to your content.

The loading time occurs when Poser needs to reload the runtime file structure into memory in order to build the context menu. We're talking about Poser going through your entire runtime folder, exploring each and every sub-folder, possibility checking for file types. If you have a huge runtime, this could take up 30 seconds or more!!

DAZ Studio doesn't suffer from this problem, even though its content tab is practically the same as Poser's context menu with the exception of being easier to navigate around. I cannot at all understand why Poser suffers so badly.

Step 3 - Getting Started

So here's the bad news, we're going to reinstall ALL your digital content (it's certainly easier than finding out the file relationships manually to move the core files around), so I hope you've got all the installers and zip files ready.

To start off, we're going to create a new folder. It can be created anywhere you want, preferably one a big storage hard disk and somewhere easy to access. I've chosen “e:\Poser Contents” on my storage drive, and it's in this folder that we're going to put all our runtimes.

Note:

You don't have to group all your runtimes into a single folder, but it's a certainly sensible approach for organization reasons, especially when we need to locate the folder during installations (as well as future file/folder manipulations.

Next create subfolders, giving them meaningful names depending on how you intend to break down your runtimes. Here's my approach:

Victoria - all Victoria specific content, including clothes, props, morphs etc.

Michael - all Michael specific content

Creatures - all non-human figures and related items

Various - any content that could belong to numerous figures

Environment - any environment content

etc.

The “Various” runtime is important. Poser content files looks for “core files” like geometries and textures within the SAME runtime. If you have a set of clothing that could fit multiple characters, you can't just move the CR2 or pz2 files to their relevant runtimes, as the clothes will no longer be able to access the core files. If you know the file relationships however, you can move/copy the approach files into the relevant runtimes.

Optional step:

Poser allows you to add runtimes in any order you want, and the order is sustained according to the order you added them. These are stored inside the \[Poser folder]\runtime\prefs\LibraryPrefs.xml file which you can edit if you want.

DAZ Studio however order all your runtimes alphabetically, which means you might want to add prefixes to your runtimes to better order them:

!1 Victoria

!2 Michael

!Various

1 Creatures

2 Environment

The ! precedes any alphanumeric characters, and numbers precedes alphabets, so the above structure will allow custom orders quite happily.

Step 4 - Installing the digital content

Next we're going to actually install the content into our runtime directories. Thankfully all the DAZ content installers understand the concept of runtimes, which means you can choose exactly where you want to install the content to, by the runtime folder. Choose the appropriate runtime folder and it'll put the files in the appropriate folders. Here I'm installing the Victoria base figure, and selecting the “e:\Poser Content\!1 Victoria” folder for installation.

After the installation, you'll find a runtime folder has been created inside your custom runtime folder:

\!1 Victoria\runtime

And inside the runtime folder you'll have the readme and libraries folders, which contain all the files that comes with the Victoria Base figure. The fundamentals are done, we just have to import the runtime into Poser and/or DAZ Studio in order to use them.

Step 5 - Adding the runtimes in Poser

Load up Poser, and in your content management window, click the “up one level” folder (the arrow that goes left and up) repeal till you can't go any further. This is your “runtime folder”. It's not an actual folder, but a virtual folder containing links to runtimes anywhere on your computer (or network drives).

At the bottom of the content management window, you'll find two small icons, a tick and a + sign.

The tick sign sets the current runtime to the selected runtime (same as double clicking the runtime), the + sign allows you to add a new runtime. The current runtime is signified by the red dot marker.

Click on the + sign and it'll bring up a new window asking you to “Browse for Folder”. Browser through your file structure to find where you've placed your custom runtimes. Select the custom runtime folder - note that in this example it'd be the “!1 Victoria” folder, not the parent folder, nor the “runtime” folder inside.

Click OK and you'll find a new “!1 Victoria folder” in your runtime window. That's it! You've imported a new runtime! Double click on it (or use the tick sign) and go into “Figures”. You should now find nothing but the newly installed content, namingly our Victoria base figure.

Step 6 - Adding the runtimes in DAZ Studio

Skip this step if you don't use DAZ Studio.

The version I'm currently using is 1.2.0.1, you can download the latest from the DAZ website.

Go to Edit > Preferences. (hotkey F2)

Select the “Directories” tab at the top.

Click on the top dropdown menu (by default it reads DAZ Studio Content Directories) and select “Poser Content Directories”.

Note:

It's important that you choose “Poser Content Directories” here as it reads the runtime using the Poser runtime file structure, understanding that “runtime\libraries\character” is the “Figures” section, and hides any core file folders from view.

Despite being in Poser Content Directories mode, DAZ studio will still be able to read “poses” files inside the “figures” section, so if you intend to make the move from Poser to DAZ Studio completely, you can happily group all your contents together in sensible fashion.

Click on the Add button, and browser for your content folder. Again, choose the “!1 Victoria” folder, and click Ok.

Click Apply to see the changes in your Content tab, click Accept to close the Preferences window and get back to DAZ Studio.

Now you will see a new root node inside your content tab, which when expanded, will have all the familiar Poser “sections” listed, all the content files readily available for you to add to the canvas.

Step 7 - Adding more Runtimes

It is important that you don't add empty folders as runtimes to Poser. By default, if Poser cannot find a “runtime” folder - “\Michael\runtime” - it'll create a “\libraries\” folder and treat the folder you've selected as the “runtime” folder. By default it's not much of a problem, until you try to install new content with an Installer. DAZ Content Installers always add content to the “\runtime\” folder, after you've selected the runtime's parent directory.

This will basically mess up the file structure, and it can be avoided easily on the first place:

After you've created a custom runtime folder, e.g. “\Michael\”, create a new folder named “\runtime\” inside. Now when you add “\Michael\” to Poser, it'll create the “\libraries\” folder inside the “\Michael\runtime\” folder - “\Michael\runtime\libraries\”. Which means you can safely install new content easily to the “\Michael\” folder.

So, start installing content to your runtimes accordingly and add them to Poser and/or DAZ Studio. If you're using archive files, just extract the content into a temporary folder, and copy/cut and paste the “runtime” folder to the appropriate location to match the runtime file structure.

Step 8 - Organizing your Content

This is another optional step, but I always do this to further organize my content.

Despite being able to separate the content into individual runtimes, you'll still find that most of the content is a mess - it's hard to tell what's in each folder until you've seen the thumbnails. While this is less a problem with DAZ Studio thanks to their very speedy and intuitive content tab, it'd still be nice to properly structure your content within each runtime.

First let's get one thing straight:

Some contents require installed “morphs”, like expression, head and body morphs etc. Typically these are Character specific morphs, other times it's morphs that take advantage of existing morphs. They make use of installed morphs, injecting them into the figure first and then adjusting the property dials.

Since morphs are not “core files” hidden from access, you will find a lot of “!V3 Morph INJ” and “!V3 Morph REM” folders littered in your Poses section. It is VITAL that you don't touch these folders, even though it's located at the root of Poses which eats up a lot of space.

Morph packages that make use of previously installed morphs, access them by the default file structure. If you change the morph folder names, or move them into a sub-folder, the new morphs will become unusable (I think they end up asking you for the morph files manually).

Of course the chosen folder names has made things somewhat a nightmare - with the ! prefix. This means all the morph folders by default will come before any other folders inside your Poses section, since ! is alphabetically placed higher than any letters or numbers.

I get around this by using “! ” prefix to other contents. This could lead to lots of renaming, so instead I just create several logical folders.

Go inside your “\runtime name\runtime\libraries\pose\” and create folders of the following names:

! Cloth

! Hair

! MAT

! Morph

! Pose

etc.

And move all the content inside the relevant folder, to anyway you see fit.

Note: You might not want a Morph folder since you need to understand whether the morph has any “child dependence”. Of course any custom morph you've created will happily go in here as well.

Step 9 - Conclusion

Now that you've separated your runtimes, you should find it much easier to locate all related items in both Poser and DAZ Studio. Things will still be relatively slow in Poser as it doesn't have a quick shortcut to access the Runtime section without “up a level” from any section root.

Also Poser will still have to spend time “loading” each runtime (to rebuild the context menus), but it won't be loading absolutely all your content in one go, since they've been broken down into separate runtimes.

Here're a few extra things for you to consider:

- To make it easier to see where your content ends and where the littered morph folders begins, create an empty folder called “!_____” which will become a separator (especially useful for DAZ Studio).

- Don't overdo the runtime breakdown, remember it's still slow to switch between runtimes in Poser, break it down to what helps your workflow the most. For instance you might put all Victoria clothes into a single runtime.

- While there're 8 sections to Poser contents: Camera, Expressions, Figures, Hair, Hand, Light, Pose and Props, DAZ Studio checks if there are actually any content within each section, and if nothing's found it'd hide the sections. This is a nice feature to minimize the wasted space on your interface.

- If disk space is not an issue for you, or if you have the time on your hands, it's worth installing packages aimed for multiple characters, into each of the runtimes. This will stop the necessity to switch runtime just to check if you've got clothes for a particular figure.

- After installing each content package, I always rename the readme file to something sensible (as well as the installer for that matter). Very rarely do you find a content package coming with an easy to locate filename for their readme file, so if you do want to check back on the readme files in the future, I'd suggest you'rename them now.

- Organize your installers and zip packages according to which runtime to go in, this will help the future install process.

- Don't forget you can take your entire runtime anywhere you want and import it into another person's Poser / DAZ Studio. This is useful even for reinstallation purposes.

- DAZ Studio is free for download, so you should seriously give it a go. DAZ Studio is designed with intuitive workflow in mind, so give it a chance to see how much easier (and faster) it is to work with DAZ Studio, from content management to camera control to object properties.

Hair colors without extra textures

2011-11-01T17:42:33+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.

Hair colors without extra textures

Author: dorkati

Introduction

This tutorial show you how to change hair colors without extra hair texture. It is a simple tutorial for beginners who haven't got any paint program or don't want to make different hair textures. This is very useful if you haven't got too many place on your hard disc, or you don't want to storage too many files.

Step 1 - Load hair

I use for this tutorial Kozaburo's Rei Hair. You can download here. http://digitalbabes2.com/

Sure, before you load the hair object, you need to load a character. Load the hair. You see the original hair color below. The lightning settings maybe changes the tones, but I use same settings at all renders.

Step 2 - Material Options

Go to material options. At the original settings, the object color is white. I want to see some turquise colored hair, so I turned the object color to a light green-blue color. In this case it was RGB 5 255 253. Be sure you choose the ReiHair object on left top side and hair material on the right top side.

The hair will be green. Notice, the hair will be darker, because the original hair color was a middle-dark color.

Step 3 - Add highlight

This color is nice, but matt. We need to add some highlights. Go back to material options and turn the highlight color to white. Change the highlight size. I adjusted to 66%, but you can add more highlights if you want to. You know, watch out the object settings. Choose Rei Hair object and Hair material.

It is better, isn't it? But not perfect. I want some spiritedness.

Step 4 - Add some extra

Go back to the material options. Be sure the Rei Hair object and hair material is the chosen figure.

Turn the ambient color to lighter than object color.

Click OK and render

It's cool! This is what I want! But here is the time to attempting.

Step 5 - Attempting

Go back to the material options. Choose Rei Hair object and hair material. Turn the object color to a light yellow color. Maybe RGB 255 255 153. Leave the other settings as we adjust in previous steps.

Go back and render

I hope you saw in this tutorial how you can play with color in material options.

How to make a glass object sparkle in Poser 7

2011-11-01T17:42:34+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 make a glass object sparkle in Poser 7

Author: Samanthie

Tools Needed

* Poser 7

Support Files

* Vase_Object.zip * Vase_Tut.zip

Introduction

This tutorial is specific to Poser 7 but will most likely work for 5 and 6 as well.

Step 1 - Setup and Import

Download the Vase_Tut support files and unzip them to your Poser directory or place them manually. Download the Vase_Object file and place it into a folder for import into Poser.

Launch Poser and Import the Wavefront object. Use these settings and the vase should be the correct size.

The vase should load exactly at zero position but if your vase appears to float above the ground plane or below it you can adjust it using these parameter dials.

You can zoom in to the vase by using the camera controls.

We are going to begin by using the Material room so go ahead and click on that tab.

Now click on the Simple tab.

Step 2 - Material Room

Click inside the square beneath Diffuse Color. Browse for and load the texture map.

Click OK when you have the map loaded.

This is what you should see.

Click on the color bar in the Diffuse panel and change the color to #r156, g163, b191

Step 3 - Material Room Continued

Next click on the square beneath the word Bump.

Browse for the Bump map and load it, click OK.

Reduce Amount to 0.016. Leave displacement unchecked.

Beneath the texture map in the Diffuse Color panel is a small box with an arrow. Click on that to apply texture to highlight. Note the texture map is automatically loaded in the highlight panel.

I want to change the highlight color to an orange hue. Click on the current highlight color and use color# r255, g133, b126.

Step 4 - Ambience, Transparency and Advanced

Click on the square beneath Ambient and reload the texture map. Change the ambient color to #r207, g207, b209.

We are not going to load a map in the Transparency panel but we can still effect how transparent our vase will be. Click on the advanced tab. We will return to the simple panel in a moment.

All of the changes we made in the Simple room have been reflected here in the Advanced room as well. I think it makes adjusting settings a lot easier. All we need to do here is adjust the transparency to what it needs to be for the vase.

Click on the numbers to the right of the items in the list and type in the new settings underlined in red.

Just a small tip for future reference. Notice the panels (or nodes) to the right of the Poser Surface panel. They can be moved around using the top bar of each one. If one of the nodes is behind another and you want to bring it to the front all you have to do is click on it.

We are finished here so let's click on the Simple tab to return that area.

Step 5 - Adjust and Test

This is what you should have so far. Lower the Ambient map strength to 40%.

Click on the Pose tab to return to the pose room.

Turn off ground shadows.

Now just do a quick render to see how the vase looks.

Step 6 - Render Settings

Here is mine with the default Poser lights.

Now let's do a real render.

Navigate to your Lights folder in the Poser Library and locate the folder Sam_Lights and click on it. Load the Vase light set. Note: Light set is a Poser default light set.

Click on Render Settings. We will use the Firefly renderer.

Slide the brown triangle over to Final and then click on Manual Settings.

Click on the tab that says Acquire from Auto. Uncheck cast shadows and use the same settings as in the image. Click on render now.

much nicer…

Step 7 - Final Render

One last little fun thing to try. Load a favorite background or color and render it again. Add some nice flowers to your vase and experiment with the light settings. Have fun!

Flowers used are by Lisa's Botanicals - Hibiscus and DAZ Environment props Plant02. Background is Cyclorama: Portrait Paper Backdrops

How to make glass sparkle tutorial by Debbie Overstreet

If you would like to learn how to model the vase shown in this tutorial just follow the link.

Complex Surface Modeling with a Twist

Injection Pose Builder 101

2011-11-01T17:42:34+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.

Injection Pose Builder 101

Author: MercyToo

Tools Needed

Injection Pose builder available in the store
Poser 4 Pro Pack or 5
M3
V3 or the freak

Introduction

This easy to follow tutorial will help you get started with using Injection Pose Builder, available right here in the DAZ store! As always, with any of my tutorials, if you get stuck or need help, please let me know and I'll do my best to help you out!

I'm using V3 here, and I will take you through saving both a facial expression and a face morph. Saving a body morph is very similar to saving a face morph and will be explaind briefly.

Poser 5 users please note: What I refer to as the Face Library here is the same as your expression library in Poser 5.

Let's get started

Step 1 - IPB: Getting started

Open up poser and load your IPB compatable model. I'm using Victoria 3 for this tutorial.

We're going to start with saving an expression morph. So, go to your pose library and inject any expressions you want to use to create your own.

The image above shows which expressions I used and what V3 looks like with the simple expression I created for her.

Step 2 - IPB: Face library in Poser

Now, go to your FACES library in Poser. Scroll all the way down using the arrow until you see “ADD NEW CATEGORY”. Click that and create a new category, give it a name you'll remember. I'm naming mine “Mercy's Faces”.

Browse to your new category (Mercy's Faces in my case). It's empty! Now, you'll press the little + button at the bottom to add your new face to the library.

After pressing the + button, give it a name and press OK. Then, select SINGLE FRAME and press OK again. Now you have a face in your library!

Step 3 - IPB: Saving Face

Open Injection Pose Builder (IPB) which should be in your start menu located in your DAZ Programs directory

Go up to OPTIONS and select PROCESSING (Or Press F4 on your keyboard)

A new window like the one above will open.

You'll probably want to create both an inject and remove pose, so click the box that says “CREATE BOTH POSES”.

Since we've only added an expression to V3's face, click “HEAD” under “MASTER ACTORS ONLY”. Checking HEAD will automatically check the box next to MASTER ACTORS ONLY.

Make sure the following options are checked:

IGNORE EXISTING READSCRIPTS

READSCRIPTS FOR NON-ZEROED ONLY

ROUND THOUSANDTHS PLACE (.001)

And since this is an expression morph,

EXPRESSION MORPhS ONLY

Also make sure these are checked:

IGNORE ZEROED CHANNELS

IGNORE SCALE CHANNELS

Leave everything else unchecked and press the “X” to close the General Processing Options window.

Now, go up to FILE and select OPEN. Browse to the folder you saved your face file in. For my example, my face is saved in:

Runtime:Libraries:Face:Mercy's Faces and it is named “Happy.fc2”.

Select the fc2 file and press OK.

Step 4 - IPB: Processing the expression file.

Here's what IPB looks like now and I've copied and pasted the information here for you:

{

version

{

number 4.01

}

// Generated with DAZ INJection Pose Builder v1.3

// This file is intended for use with Victoria 3

// See DAZ Productions, Inc. [www.daz3D.com] for details

// — Delta Information —

readScript “:Runtime:libraries:!DAZ:Victoria 3:Head:Deltas:InjDeltas.Blink Left.pz2”

readScript “:Runtime:libraries:!DAZ:Victoria 3:Head:Deltas:InjDeltas.Blink Right.pz2”

readScript “:Runtime:libraries:!DAZ:Victoria 3:Head:Deltas:InjDeltas.Smile2.pz2”

readScript “:Runtime:libraries:!DAZ:Victoria 3:Head:Deltas:InjDeltas.SmileOpen.pz2”

// — Visibility Information —

readScript “:Runtime:libraries:!DAZ:Victoria 3:Head:ChanVis:Unhide.Blink Left.pz2”

readScript “:Runtime:libraries:!DAZ:Victoria 3:Head:ChanVis:Unhide.Blink Right.pz2”

readScript “:Runtime:libraries:!DAZ:Victoria 3:Head:ChanVis:Unhide.Smile2.pz2”

readScript “:Runtime:libraries:!DAZ:Victoria 3:Head:ChanVis:Unhide.SmileOpen.pz2”

actor head

{

channels

{

targetGeom Blink Left

{

keys

{

k 0 0.192

}

targetGeom Blink Right

{

keys

{

k 0 0.192

}

targetGeom Smile2

{

keys

{

k 0 0.383

}

targetGeom SmileOpen

{

keys

{

k 0 0.579

}

You can see that by checking off the “IGNORE ZEROED CHANNELS” that channels that were not used will not be injected. If I had injected the expression “Smile 1” when we first got started and had NOT checked off “IGNORE ZEROED CHANNELS”, you should see something like this:

targetGeom Smile1

{

keys

{

k 0 0.000

It saves loading time for your INJECT pose if you do not include the zeroed channels.

Now go up to FILE and SAVE AS and IPB will ask you to save your INJ pose in the face folder of the fc2 file you just used. It will only ask you for the name of the INJECT pose! It will automatically name your REMOVE POSE.

I'm going to name mine Happy INJ.fc2, so, HappyREM.fc2 will automatically be created.

When you're done, you should have a message in your IPB Log similar to the one in the image above. It tells you that your INJ and REM files were created.

Minimize IPB and go back into Poser.

Step 5 - IPB: Checking your new files

If you left your Poser Libraries on “Faces”, make sure you exit out of the face library and then return to it. I call this “refreshing” your library.

Now, you will see two shrugging guys which represent your INJ and REM pose, similar to the image above.

Don't remove your original face (Happy in my example) just yet. First, use your new REM pose to make sure it works.

If it does, now try out your new INJ pose.

If it works, you are successful! I knew you could do it!

If you want to make custom thumbnails to get rid of the shrugging guy, you can either rename your PNG file for the origional face or use my RSR converter tutorial in the “Other applications” section of the Tutorial Arcana here.

Now, let's save a face morph!

Step 6 - IPB: Creating a Face Morph

Since the process for saving a character face is so similar (yet a little different), I will cover that here as well.

You can use the same V3 you have open now. Just make sure to remove any expressions from her face. Should be simple since we've just created a REM pose for our expression

After you've removed your new expression using your REM pose, click on her head to make sure there are no morphs loaded as in my image above

Go to your POSE library, select any features, eyes, nose, etc that you want to inject to make your character's face. I'm only working with faces here, so, only inject the face features you want.

Using the different Injection libraries I have (You get these when you buy DAZ's Head Morph Package for your character - V3 in this case), I'm going to inject the ones I want and turn the dials until I get a face I want.

Here's a screen shot showing the features I injected from the different libraries and what her face now looks like. I selected poses from the FEATURES category and from the EYES category as well as the HEAD category.

With features like this, you can save your face in either a pose library - handy if you've created a skin texture and want to include a character INJ and REM pose for her face - or, you can save them in your Face library. For simplicity, I'm going to walk you through saving in your FACES library. Though, I have included notes for saving to your POSE library.

Step 7 - IPB: Saving Face Again

(If you were saving this to a pose library, you would press the + sign to add it to your POSE library of choice. When the windows open, give it a name as you would in the face library and press “OK”. The next window asks you if you want to include morph channels in your pose set. YOU DO, so click YES. Then, save as a single frame and process in IPB using the steps below.)

Go back to the face library you created earlier for this tutorial. Click the + sign to add your new face to the library and open DAZ IPB if you closed it.

Give it a name, I'm calling mine “Asianish” and save it as a single frame entry.

Above is a screen shot of my face library with “Asianish” added.

Back in IPB, go to OPTIONS and PROCESSING to get the General Processing Options window again.

Make sure “CREATE BOTH POSES” is selected. Again, we're only working with the head, so check the box for HEAD under “MASTER ACTORS ONLY”.

This time, we want our settings to be a bit different. Since we didn't use any expressions, we want to uncheck EXPRESSION MORPHS ONLY. check the box next to “IGNORE EXPRESSION MORPHS”. Also check the boxes next to “IGNORE ZEROED CHANNELS” and “IGNORE SCALE CHANNELS” so that your GPO window looks like mine:

Then, press the little “x” in the right corner of the GPO window to close it.

Go up to FILE and OPEN.

Open your new face. Mine's named Asianish.fc2.

It will process your new face. The only thing left to do is to save it… so, go to FILE and SAVE AS. It will want to save it to the face library where your original is located. I'm going to save mine as Asianish INJ.fc2 and it will automatically create Asianish REM.fc2.

When it is done, IPB will tell you in the Log area that the files were written for both your INJ and REM files.

Refresh your face library in poser by leaving it and going back into it. You should now see something similar to my image below:

If you saved to a pose library instead of the face library, the steps are the same for processing in IPB.

If you wanted to save a body morph, you would use very similar steps. Create your morph by injecting the items you want to use that were included in your body morph package from DAZ. Open IPB and under “MASTER ACTORS ONLY”, select BODY instead of head.

I hope this makes sense to you. As with any of my tutorials, if you have any questions at all, do not hesitate to ask me for help by instant messaging me here. My user name is MercyToo.

Improving the look on rendered hairs.

2011-11-01T17:42:34+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.

Improving the look on rendered hairs.

Author: Vadlor

Tools Needed

* Poser 6

Introduction

This is a group of simple techniques I developed to give a little more life to the hair of my images. This also works on animals and/or other characters with a furry skin

Step 1 - Loading the Hair

Load a hair of your choice. For this tutorial, I'll be using manga Hair for Hiro from Poserpros.

Select and apply the corresponding MAT pose. Render it to see how it looks. This is purely for comparison with the next Steps.

Go to the Material Room.

Looks rather plain, doesn't it? Well, let's buff it up a little, shall we?

Step 2 - Working on it

Create a new Velvet node (you'll find it under New Node/Lighting/special/Velvet). This node has two colors settings, Velvet Color and Velvet Sheen. Set the Color to a dark hue of your hair texture, and the Sheen to a light hue. The color settings I use here are: Velvet Color R0 G10 B43 and Velvet Sheen R207 G252 B253. Connect the transparency map to the socket on these two settings.

Step 3 - And now, the last touch....

Finally, connect the Velvet Node to the Alternate Specular. Render and compare with the first render.

Now that's livelier, isn't it?

Step 4 - What else can we do with the hair?

Different stuff, depending on the nodes you use. For a quick experiment, let's use a Glossy node instead of velvet for a more defined specularity. The Glossy Node is found under New Node/Lighting/Specular/Glossy. Connect the transparency into the Specular_Color socket and the Glossy to the Alternate Specular.

Another livelier hair for you :)

Step 5 - Clean up your hair with DAZ Shampoo!

Here's another possibility for you, let's bring back our old Velvet Node, but this time, we'll connect it into the Alternate Diffuse socket.

This will give you an even shinier hair, a kind of shampoo-ad feeling to it.

Step 6 - Let's do wet

Let's do a Wet hair now. For this, we'll go back to the original MAT pose of the hair, and create an Anisotropic node, located under New Node/Lighting/Specular/Anisotropic.

Just like you did with the Glossy in Step 4, connect the transparency into the Specular_color socket and the Anisotropic into the Alternate Specular.

Render away and see that watery shine it has now!

Step 7 - In between....

Did you know that if you use the Specular Node located under New node/Lighting/Specular/Specular you can achieve something in between what we did in Steps 3 and 4?

Try it!

Step 8 - Want to go to the extreme?

Create a Toon Node (located under New Node/Lighting/diffuse/Toon). Connect the transparency to the three color settings of the toon node. For the color themselves, follow the names. put a light hue of the hair color into the lightcolor setting, a dark hue in the DarkColor and to give it that extreme edge, set an almost black hue into the InkColor setting. For this example, I used these settings: LightColor R215 G252 B253 - DarkColor R0 G10 B70 - InkColor R11 G11 B21.

Render and go the extreme!

Step 9 - And that

I strongly encourage you to experiment with this and find out what other nodes will do to your hair! That's how I've learned what I'm sharing with you ;).

Make smaller pz3s or CR2s

2011-11-01T17:42:34+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.

Make smaller pz3s or CR2s

Author: dorkati

Tools Needed

Poser of course

Introduction

I bought the wonderful V3. :) I was very happy when I saw INJ and REM poses, because V3 is so much smaller and I don't need to use all head-morphs if I don't need all. BUT I can't make INJ poses. So if I made my own V3 and saved the pz3 for later work, I saw that the file is 98 MB!! Oh, my god! So I was started the work…..

Step 1 - Load original V3

I think this method is working with other figures too, but V3 has a total blank CR2 (thanks DAZ), so it is better for this. The older characters have some morphs in his/her cr2s, so those will be a few larger than V3.

So…apply your texture, because your V3 looks much better with it. Apply the “all head morphs” INJ from poses library and make your own V3. (or in case other character…load all of your Morph Targets - maybe store this totally morphable character in a large CR2 file for other characters)

Step 2 - Clear dials

When your V3's head is ready for use, choose Object – > Spawn Morph Target. I named my MT as 'my head1'. If it works, you will see above older dials a new dial with name: my head1. Restore V3 with Edit – > Restore – > Figure.

All of the dials are on 0, 000. Set 'my head1' to 1, 000. Now you see your character.

After in poses library, click the All Head Morphs REM pose, so the older dials will be deleted.

You need to see something like this picture above. V3's head with only 1 dial. You don't need the Expression INJ poses either, because they only need when you finished all of your work.

Save your work in pz3. Oh, it is better…less than 4 Mb. 98 Mb or 4 Mb….I think the second sounds better :)

If you want to make this with other characters, use neilP's free morph cleaner (at Renderosity) or delete the dials step by step (in P5). Or simply export the head as Morph Target, load the original figure and load your Morph Target.

But NEVER use this MT or CR2 for redistribution!!! Only for your own work.

Step 3 - Store your character

You can store your character in your figures library. This CR2 file was 3, 5 Mb, so I think it is good too. ( I had some characters with 20 MB CR2!)

DON'T FORGET!!!! This files are only for personal using! Don't redistribute this CR2!

I hope this tutorial was useful.

If you have any questions feel free to contact me.

fairyfan@freestart.hu

Making a simple snow effect in Poser 5.

2011-11-01T17:42:34+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 a simple snow effect in Poser 5.

Author: vicentealvarez

Tools Needed

Poser 5

3D Studio Max (Recommended)

Support Files

snow.zip

Introduction

This tutorial will show a really simple and fast way of doing animated snow effect within Poser 5. This can also be used as an idea to do rain and other particles effect.

Step 1 - Creating the video file

First, we'll create a small video file with the particle effect to be included. I personally use 3D Studio MAX for doing this. If you don't have it, you can use any animation program, even poser itself (creating, for example, small spheres that fall over a black background). I've done a basic snow effect that you can download from here (DivX 5.1.1). Of course you can create your own.

Step 2 - Creating the screen

Create a small scene. I've put a Poser mannequin and posed it, only to show the effect. I also have put a background. As the lazy guy I am, I have selected one of the backdrops that came with windows, so please don't blame me .

Create a plane, inserting it from Props/Primitives/Square. Modify it to cover our whole scene using the parameter dials. For demonstation purposes I'll only cover half our scene.

Step 3 - Finishing the effect

Enter the Material Room and modify the plane's material. Plug in “Transparency” a New Node/2D Textures/Movie and in “Video_Source” select our video file. Then change the value to 1 and render.

This snow will be animated in your final render. If you want to move the camera around the scene, an easy solution would be to do the old “Christmas tree” trick by crossing two of these snow layers.

Movement for your earrings

2011-11-01T17:42:34+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.

Movement for your earrings

Author: karanta

Tools Needed

Poser
Earrings of your choice

Introduction

You can follow this tutorial only with earrings which comes with a right and a left prop.

Step 1 - It's really easy :) So let's change the earrings :)

Step 2 - continue...

Step 3 - continue

Step 4 - continue

Motion Blur in Poser5

2011-11-01T17:42:34+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.

Motion Blur in Poser5

Author: semidieu

Tools Needed

Poser 5

Introduction

The motion blur option in Poser simulates how a camera takes pictures in real life. In Poser5, the two parameters “Open shutter” and “Close shutter” indicate how this virtual camera will take the picture, and at what points in the interval between the two main frames:

“Open shutter” indicates from when the camera starts to take the picture (i.e. the shutter opens);

“Close shutter” indicates when the camera stops taking the picture (i.e. the shutter closes).

Step 1 - The basics

Normally, when you render a frame, Poser will search for information for a motion blur in the next frame. However, when you render using the last frame in a series, Poser will simply use the previous frame to get the motion blur information. For this tutorial, I have always rendered from the last frame. Poser classifies the frames as follows:

The “Main frame” is the frame you are rendering;

The “Secondary frame” is the frame in which Poser will take the motion blur information

The timeline between two frames goes from 0 to 1. The value 0 (zero) is applied to the “Main frame” and the value 1 (one) is applied to the “Secondary frame”.

In practice, the “Open shutter” parameter indicates exactly when, during the interval between the main and secondary frame, the motion blur begins and “Close shutter” when it ends.

On the examples below, “Open shutter” is set to 0 (zero) while the “Close shutter” parameter goes through values from 0.1 through to 0.9.

Step 2 - How to use it in Poser5

Here's a concrete example of how to use motion blur in Poser. I used the Millennium Horse and a cyclorama background. In this case, the horse isn't blurred, only the background.

Create your scene in Poser5, in the first frame (picture above)

Change the number of frames to 2.
Go to frame 2 and “Add a keyframe”.
Go back to frame 1 and move the objects to be blurred by some small increment. In this example picture, I moved the Cyclorama.
Remember: the Main frame is after the Secondary frame (even if it does seem obvious, you'll probably make the mistake at least once)

Go to frame 2 again and open “Render options” and select “3D motion blur on”.
Render' and wait.

Step 3 - Final render and limitations

The motion blur has some limitations:

Transparency maps don't render well, and produce a horrible white zone.

The original picture. In this picture, the plants (not the trees) use transparency maps

With motion blur enabled:

The motion blur for wheels or other rotating objects takes a LONG LONG time to render, and the render process frequently crashes…

Thanks to my friend Mark for correcting my horrible English…

Organizing Content: External Runtimes for Poser and DAZ/Studio

2011-11-01T17:42:34+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.

Organizing Content: External Runtimes for Poser and DAZ/Studio

Author: judee3D

Tools Needed

* Your Operating system

* 3D Bridge Starter Pack

* Two support files.

Support Files

* A3_BabydollTx_Right_j3D.zip * A3_BabydollTx_Wrong_j3D.zip

Introduction

Do you have so much content for Poser and DAZ/Studio that you have lost count of what is installed and where to find it? It doesn't have to be like that. This tutorial will teach you to organize your files. Starting with the careful organization of downloads, it will take you through the creation of external runtimes, and how best to install and further organize the files within those runtimes.

Step 1 - Organizing your Content

You may already have a number of downloads in a folder somewhere. Some may even be installed in your Poser or DAZ/Studio programs. For now we are going to ignore these. What we are doing in this tutorial is an exercise that will help you better understand how to organize your files. If you are already familiar with Poser file structures, just read through, but if you are new to this, the best way to learn is by doing, so for the sake of continuity you will need the files used for the tutorial – the Bridge Starter Pack available from DAZ Productions. The folder names I will be using are suggestions. Use them for this tutorial, as it will help you to understand, but once you know the how of organizing, you can, of course, rename your files and folders as you wish.

Keep in mind that most of the files you download from DAZ Productions and other stores, including freebies, will be formatted for Poser. DAZ/Studio can and does use most Poser formatted files, with a few exceptions. Because the majority of files are available in this format, this tutorial will focus on Poser formatted files, with a further explanation of DAZ/Studio formats at the end.

Start by creating a new Downloads folder for this exercise. Open your file Explorer. Go to My Documents and create a new folder, naming it !PzDz_Downloads. Notice the exclamation point in front of the name – this is to make it appear at the top of the list, for easy finding.

Open your new folder, and create five new sub-folders: Aiko3, Animals, Hair, Sci-Fi, and Toons. It should look like the example image here.

Now you are ready to download the Bridge Starter Pack.

If you don't have it already, go to this link:

http://www.daz3D.com/i.x/shop/itemdetails/-/?item=5504

Add the 3D Bridge Starter Pack to your cart and go through check out. (You must be a registered member at DAZ Productions – registration is free.) You will probably be asked to sign in again as a precaution. It may also at one point ask for a payment method if you have never purchased before. If so, just pick PayPal – it won't ask any other information, it just needs a method of payment recorded in order to proceed. Once you complete the 'purchase,' you will find the content in your Account, under Available Downloads.

Renaming files at the time you download is an important step toward keeping them organized. Organizing folders and subfolders can be a great help, but if a file is then named RD_1539, you won't know what it is. Look at the examples below, showing specific information for each file:

MilDragon01_DzO.exe : ProductName_DAZ/Original

A3_MechGirl_The3DWizard_DzO.exe: Character_OutfitName_Creator_Store/Original.

MitsuHair-A3_3DUniverse_DzO : HairName-fit(character)_Creator_Store

The files you will see in Available Downloads are noted here along with which folder to download them to:

Millennium Dragon - Animals

Mitzu Hair - Hair

Mech Girl A3 DS - Aiko3

Mech Girl A3 - Aiko 3

Aiko 3.0 Base - Aiko 3

Millennium Cat LE - Animals

Stinger - Sci-Fi

Emotiguy - Toons

African Elephant - Animals

Millennium Dog LE - Animals

Either use the described naming method, or something similar that fits your preferences, and then download the files, renaming them as you go. If you already have them, rename them and move them into the folders you created. Be sure to keep the file marked with a DS identified – add the DS wherever you wish, perhaps just after the name.

To further help in organizing, you will create sub-folders as needed. In your Aiko3 folder, you should now have 3 files – one with the Aiko3 Base, and two with the Aiko3 Mech Girl Outfit. In order to keep the Base separate from the clothes, create two new sub-folders in the Aiko3 folder, and name them Base and Clothes. Sort the files accordingly.

Take a look at another example with the Animals downloads folder:

Add three sub-folders under Animals: Domestic, Fantasy, and Wild. As you can see, these correspond with the 3 kinds of animals downloaded. Once you have your sub-folders, place the files in the correct folders. Notice the renaming of the files in the example.

Although Hair, Sci-Fi, and Toons each have only one file in them, you can still create subfolders. The Stinger is a space vehicle, so create a sub folder under Sci-Fi called Transport. Under Toons, create a sub-folder called Emoti. In Hair, create a sub-folder called LongHair. Your folder structure should now look like this:

You should now have an idea of how to begin creating categories and sub-categories for your downloads, keeping in mind that the main download Categories will be the names of your new External Runtimes.

Step 2 - Creating External Runtimes

For this exercise, go to your Hard Drive's root directory (C in the example) and create a folder called ALLRUNS.

Open your new folder, and create a sub-folder called “XtraRun”. Note that it is called Xtra instead of Extra. This is so that later it will appear at the bottom of the list and thus be easy to find. If you prefer it at the top, use a ! or a _ in front of it.

The XtraRun folder will be set up to contain a blank set of folders equivalent to the Poser runtime structure. Check the example picture below:

The first folder you add under XtraRun is “Runtime”

Next, open Runtime and create three new sub folders as seen in the blue circle:

Geometries

libraries

textures

Now open the folder called libraries and create another series of sub-folders as seen in the red circle:

Camera

Character

Face

Hair

Hand

Light

Materials

Pose

Props

Just a note here: Creating a sample runtime is not absolutely necessary. When you install content into your external runtimes, the correct folders will automatically be created. However, I feel that it is helpful to do it this way, because it teaches you a certain familiarity with the runtime structure. This can be very helpful when you run into misplaced files, etc.

Close your new sample runtime and return to ALLRUNS. Create 5 new folders within this folder, one for each category we placed in the !PzDz_Downloads folder:

Aiko3

Animals

Hair

Sci-Fi

Toons

It should look like the example image here. You will see that XtraRun is at the bottom and easily accessible.

Open this XtraRun folder. You will see the sample Runtime folder just within.

(1)Right-click and hold the Runtime folder, dragging it upward (2) to the Folder you wish to put it in. (3) then 'drop' it onto the folder. A box will pop up - be sure to choose Copy Here and not Move Here. Do this with each of your Categories and they will now be transformed into External Runtimes.

Step 3 - Adding External Runtimes to DAZ/Studio and Poser

DAZ/Studio:

Open DAZ/Studio and go to the menu bar across the top. Click on Edit/Preferences/ and in the new window that pops up, click on the Directories Tab.

In the long bar just under Directories, it will by default show DAZ/Studio Directories. But keep in mind that your new Runtimes are intended for Poser formatted content, so you must add them as Poser Directories. Click on the small triangle on the right (1) and choose Poser Content Directories (2). You will have to add your runtimes one at a time. First click on Add (3) and in the window that pops up, find the Runtime Folder you wish to add (4) and click OK. The Runtime will then show up in the main window (5) under Directories. Simply click Apply (6) and Accept (7) and you're done.

Do this for each of the Runtimes.

Once finished, you will see on your Content Tab a list of all of your runtimes.

The Runtime called Studio contains your DAZ/Studio formatted content. The folder called Content contains any Poser formatted content that you may have previously installed into DAZ Studio. (It will not be there if you have not installed any Poser content.)

One thing to take note of – DAZ/Studio will give you a warning if you have more than 10 Runtimes loaded at once. You don't have to heed the warning unless you want to. Too many runtimes may slow things down, but they will still work.

However, you may wish to have showing only those Runtimes you are currently using for a project. In this case, you can simply return to Edit/Preferences and the Directories Tab. Click on the Poser Directories, and click on the Runtimes (one at a time) that you want to remove, and instead of clicking on Add, click on Remove, then again on Apply and Accept. The chosen Runtime will disappear from your Content Tab. Any time you want it back just re-do the instructions on adding runtimes, and it will again show up in your Content Tab.

Poser:

Both Poser 6 and Poser 7 allow you to link to External Runtimes. The process is the same for both, so I will show you from Poser 6 in the example.

First, Open Poser and go to your Library Tab. If it is not already showing, you can go to the upper menu bar, click on Windows, and put a check by Libraries.

Whatever Category you happen to be in, just click on the topmost Folder, (1) and continue to click until you'reach the Main Runtime Folders. The topmost folder will be either Poser 6 or Poser 7, and there will be a second folder called Downloads.

Once you are at the top of the hierarchy, go down to the bottom of the Library Tab and you will see a small plus sign called Add Runtime. (2) Click this, and a new window will pop up (3) where you will search out and find the runtime you wish to add to Poser. Once you find it, click okay, and it will appear in the list under the Poser and Downloads folder icons.

Do this for each of your Runtimes and you will have all of your new categories to choose from when looking for your files.

Just as in DAZ Studio, you do not have to have all of your Runtimes loaded at once. You can choose to install only a few runtimes – whatever you need for a particular project.

If you need different runtimes for the next project, just select the Runtimes you don't need (1) one at a time, of course, and click on the little minus sign (2). The Runtime will disappear from your list of active Runtimes. Don't worry though, it will still be where you first created it, and any time you want to add it again – just repeat the instructions above.

You now know how to create the Main Categories you want, turn them into Runtimes, and add/remove the Runtimes in both DAZ/Studio and Poser. But of course, runtimes aren't really runtimes until they have content in them.

Step 4 - Installing Content

Return to your Downloads folder, and find the files to install. Start with the Aiko3 Base. Like the others, it is an .exe file, which means it has a self-installer. Follow the install instructions below, as we will not be installing to the default path.

Click on the Aiko3 Base exe file. It will ask if you want to include an uninstaller – choose yes or no as you wish, then continue past the license agreement. When it asks for a Target Application, choose DAZ Studio or Poser, whichever you use most – it really does not matter. What is important in the installation is the final file path.

Note that different installers follow different sequences, If you are asked to search, say no; or if it starts searching, stop it. There is no need for this when you know your destination folder.

You will reach a page similar to this one:

Choose 'Specified Directory' (1) then Browse (2) for your chosen runtime directory, in this case, C://ALLRUNS/Aiko3. Once you have selected and okayed it, be sure that the correct path is showing (4), then continue with the installation. Your Aiko3 Base files will now be installed in the Aiko3 Runtime Directory.

Do the same with the other files, remembering each time to choose the file path that corresponds to the folders you set up in ALLRUNS. The only exception is the MechGirlA3DS file. This file is for DAZ Studio only so we will not install it at this time.

Another kind of installation that you will be running into often, especially if you download freebies, is the Zip file. Most freebies, and purchases made in stores other than DAZ will have their content packaged as Zip files that must be extracted into your runtimes. This is a fairly simple process, but there are a few things to consider before extracting the files, one of which is whether the zip file has been set up correctly.

To show some examples, I have prepared two downloads for you which are included with this tutorial. They are texture sets for a free dress created by Lulu, available at Deviant Arts. (The link is in the readme). Though this is essentially one texture set, I have made two files for the sake of illustration. If for any reason you are unable to download them from here, you can pick them up at the following addresses:

http://tuitzone.com/AllTut/OC_Download/A3_BabydollTx_Right_j3D.zip

http://tuitzone.com/AllTut/OC_Download/A3_BabydollTx_Wrong_j3D.zip

Download these into your !PzDz_Downloads folder, in the Aiko3 Category's sub-folder Clothes. I created these two files as examples of what you might find in zip files. The first one is correctly formatted; the second one is not, but is easily fixable.

Before anything else, be sure you have a zip extracting program. Win Zip has a free demo, and there are many other free extractor programs available, so if you have not yet found one, do so now.

When you are ready, click on the 'Right' zip file for the BabydollTx. This will show you what a zip file should look like when correctly formatted.

The first thing to do before extracting your files, is to be sure the file path is correct. Remember the sample runtime you created in XtraRun. Correctly zipped content should always begin with Runtime as the first folder. Occasionally there will also be a readme folder or file at this placement, but the majority of your file paths should begin with Runtime. The same sequences as the Runtime sub-folders must also be respected. Notice in the example, after Runtime, there is a folder called libraries. You might also see Geometries or Textures folders at this level. Next, as should be expected, after libraries, come library categories, such as Pose in this example. These could be any of the library categories, Cameras, lights, props, etc.

You don't have to check every little thing, but pay attention. You may have to think about what you are seeing in the beginning, but soon enough you will know at a glance if the files are correctly bundled.

Since this file is okay, go ahead and unzip it into the ALLRUNS/Aiko3 folder:

Be sure that All files/folders is checked (1). This may also be called something like 'maintain file paths' or 'keep file paths intact'. Also, (2) check use folder names. You may or may not have the option to Overwrite existing files (3) – this is optional. If you do not check it, or if your Extractor Program doesn't have this option, then when you click on Extract, you should have a pop-up that warns you about overwriting files. Continue anyway, say yes to overwrite because nothing will be lost, it will only overwrite the folder names. This is only on Windows PC. If you are using a Mac, do NOT allow overwrite! Unzip to a separate folder and move the files by hand.

IMPORTANT: Though I am not familiar with the Macintosh system, I have been told that if you are using a Mac, you must NOT allow overwriting as it will replace everything in the folders with the new folders. I can only suggest that Mac users install into a temporary folder and then move the files by hand or by whatever other method they may have learned for handling zip files.

The next file, A3_BabydollTx_Wrong_j3D, is an example of what is probably the most commonly made mistake in packaging Poser files. So here is how to spot this kind of zipped content, and what to do about it. Open it now and take a look.

As you can see, the file path begins with a folder called “BabydollTextures”. If you extract this into your runtime, it will extract a folder of that name with its own runtime rather than incorporating the runtime into the one you wish. What can be done? Go ahead and extract it into your Aiko3 runtime, as it will be easy enough to fix.

Notice in the example below that you now have the BabydollTextures folder at the same level as the Runtime. (Green circle) If you click on it, you will see its Runtime as a sub folder, either directly below it or in the view pane to the right. (Blue circles)

Remember how you pulled your XtraRun Runtime folder up onto the main categories? Well this time instead of right click, you will left click and hold on the Runtime within the Babydoll folder, either under it or in the view pane at the right. Drag it, and drop it onto the Aiko3 folder. Not onto Aiko3/Runtime, but onto Aiko3, the folder that contains the runtime. You will be warned again about overwriting files. Again, if you are on a Windows PC, say yes. The files will then find their place in your Aiko3 runtime.

Don't forget the readme. Though it doesn't show under the BabydollTextures folder, it does show in the view pane to the right. (Always check the view pane!)

As you can see, the readme file is named simply readme.txt, with no other distinction. Rename it A3_BabydollTx_Readme.txt. Notice that there is a ReadMe's folder already in the Aiko3 Folder, so just pull this renamed readme into that folder.

Everything should now be installed into the correct Runtimes. However, you may notice already, and certainly will notice once you add more content, that there is still some disorganization in the files. Certainly you have made them easier to find by putting similar categories of files together. But there is more to do.

Step 5 - Organizing Content - Rules

When it comes to organizing your Runtime folders and the files within, there are a five basic rules to follow:

1. Find the Readme and/or Template files and get them out of the way.

2. Do NOT touch or change anything within the Geometries or Textures folders.

3. Do not move or rename 'special' folders that may appear directly under Libraries.

4. Do not move or re-name the Categories found under Libraries and do not move files from one Library Category to another.

5. DO arrange, rename, and reorganize any files and folders found within the Nine Basic Libraries Categories.

Let's look at these rules in a little more detail.

Rule #1: Find the Readme and/or Template files and get them out of the way.

Make a habit of cleaning up your readme files as soon as you install. If not, as you install more and more files from different places, you will eventually run into the 'readme syndrome' where you will end up with readme files scattered all through your folders as you can see in this example. So keep just one ReadMe folder in each runtime and use that for all of them.

You will also see in the example two other folder types that can be found after installing. Templates are only needed if you intend to use them as guides for re-texturing. They do not need to remain here, but if they do, put them all in one Folder. Weblinks is put there by DAZ Productions. Keep it for reference, or delete it, as you wish.

Suggestion: Since both Readme files and templates are not visible from within the Programs, you might want to create a Templates and a Readme folder in each of your Downloads Categories and move them all there.

Rule #2: Do NOT touch or change anything within the Geometries or Textures folders.

Two folders that must not be changed or rearranged are the Geometries and Textures folders. These folders contain important files that the program must be able to find.

Geometries contains object files that are called on from figures and some props. Textures are usually jpg files that are used to create different texture patterns and effects. The files that use these will not be able to find them if they are renamed or moved.

Rule #3: Do not move or rename 'special' folders that may appear directly under Libraries.

You may run across some extra folders listed under your Library that do not belong to the nine regular categories. These too should not be moved or renamed.

These extra folders will likely be found in those runtimes that contain morphable or poseable figures such as people, animals, morphing landscapes, etc. As you can see, there is no particular naming convention for these folders. But what these folders have in common is that they contain information needed by the other files, usually information about injectable morphs.

In most cases these folders will be found within the Library folder, as you can see circled in red in the example image. Occasionally you will find similar folders under Runtime at the same level as the Geometries and textures, or even just below the runtime folder name. These folders contain the information needed by other files within your Pose folder.

Do Not move or change these files. As with Geometries and Textures, the program has specific directions where to find them – so if you move them, or rename them, you won't be able to use the characters or morphs they belong to.

Rule #4: Do not move or re-name the Categories found under Libraries and do not move files from one Library Category to another.

As you can see in the example chart below, each Library Category has a particular file extension associated with it. If you put a file with one extension into a folder associated to another, it will not show up in Poser.

There are a few things to keep in mind when searching for your files. Hair, for example, can have a CR2 extension or a hr2 extension – or both. So you may find hair in the Hair Folder, but you may also find it in the Character / Figures folder. As you may have noticed, the Characters Folder in your File Manager is actually called Figures within the Programs.

Character, or CR2 files, can also be similar to the props, pp2 files. The main difference is that props do not usually have any moving parts. A house or room with 'articulate' portions, such as doors and windows that open, will likely be found in Characters folder, whereas a house or room with no moving parts will likely be in Props. The only way to really tell is by the file extension – so if you end up with a loose file somewhere, just go by the guide above.

Two other file format you will find in here:.rsr and/or PNG. A PNG is basically a thumbnail image of the file whose name it matches – these are the thumbnails you see when you open Poser or DAZ/Studio – the pictorial representation of the file. They should always have the same name as the associated file. Though the default format in newer products is PNG, some of the older products still have rsr files – don't worry, as soon as you open the file in Poser, it will transform the rsrs into pngs – after that you can delete the rsr's if you wish.

Rule #5: DO arrange, rename, and reorganize any files and folders found within the Nine Basic Libraries Categories.

When it comes to organizing the files and folders in your runtimes, the nine basic Library Categories allow you to arrange as you wish. This is where you can begin to put your own personal concept of order into it all. You can set up folders and sub folders in any way you wish within each of these categories. The only thing you must not do is to change the names of the categories, or switch files between categories. It's as simple as that. So let's take the files we have installed and see how they might be arranged.

Step 6 - Organizing Within the Library

For this next part, open two separate document windows from your file explorer – one with your !PzDz_Downloads folder, and the other with the ALLRUNS folder. If you look at these side by side you will see that they each have the five original categories, with the exception of ALLRUNS which has the XtraRun folder. Keep the downloads folder open and accessible, as it will help you when organizing your runtime folders.

Start with the Aiko3 Downloads and notice that under Aiko 3 you have two sub-categories: Base, and Clothes.

Now go to the AllRuns, and open your Aiko3 Runtime.

Click on these categories: character, face, hair, hand, pose, and props. Look in the folders in each category and check what is in them.

Starting with the Character category, you will find that the “DAZ Aiko 3” folder contains the Aiko 3 base CR2. The “Aiko Morphing Clothes” folder contains the Mech Girl outfit.

Take a quick glance at your !PzDz_Downloads Folder. Notice that you have two subfolders there, Base and Clothes. Now go into the Aiko 3 Runtime and create these two folders within the Character folder. (Blue Circle)

Open the DAZ Aiko 3 folder where you will find the CR2 and rsr files. Shift-left click to select both of them, and drag them over and drop them into the Base folder. You can then delete the DAZ Aiko 3 folder. Remember that this is just an example of what you can do. Ultimately you will choose your own names for files, and may even choose to leave some of them as they are.

In the 'Aiko Morphing Clothes' folder you will find the Mech Girl outfit for Aiko. The easiest way to keep from getting lost amongst the many clothes available, is to give each clothing item or clothing group its own folder. In this case, rename the designated folder to MechGirl, and then drag the whole folder and drop it into Clothes. It should then look like this example.

You will find a DAZ hair folder under the Hair category. This is the free nyoko hair that comes with Aiko 3 – you can either leave the folder name as is, or rename it to nyoko hair. Most of your hair will be going into its own runtime (in our tutorial example) but if you decide to keep hair in with individual characters, it will be important to classify them in some way.

The Hand Category also has a folder that contains one hand pose. Since this is a hand pose specific to the Mech Girl pistol found in Props, re-name the folder MechPistolGrip or something similar.

The Pose Category often holds a variety of files – in this case you can see it already has 5 folders. Create the following folders within the Pose Category: Characters, Clothing Mats, Hair Mats, Morphs, Poses, and Skin Mats.

Open the “!DAZ's Aiko 3” folder. You will see it contains mostly Poses. Since you are likely to have more than one pose package, re-name this folder to Basic Poses. The Basic will tell you these are the poses that came with the Base Pack. Pull this Basic Poses folder down and drop it into the Poses folder you created.

Pay attention to the next two folders. “!MAT Aiko 3” contains what is essentially a 'wetsuit' or second skin with options to change different material zones. Rename this folder Wetsuit or 2nd skin and pull it into the Skin Mats folder. “!MAT Aiko 3 Maps” contains a full body and head skin map, lo-res version for Aiko LE. Re-name this folder FullSkin-lo and pull it also into the Skin Mats folder.

Now change the MAT Aiko 3 Hair into MAT Nyoko Hair and put it in the Hair Mats folder. MAT Mech Girl is a clothing mat folder – no need to rename it, just pull it into the Clothing Mats folder you prepared. You will notice that you don't have anything in the Character or Morphs folders – these are prepared for future use.

Check the example of how the Pose folder should look by now.

If you installed the Zip files with the textures for the A3 Babydoll dress, these will also be found under Pose - so move them into the Clothing Mats folder - but be aware that they will not work unless you also download the original dress.

You should be getting an idea of how files can be organized. Of course, the sub-folders will be different for other Runtimes.

The next exercise is to go into the four other Runtimes – Animals, Hair, Sci-fi, and Toons, and re-arrange your files in each of these. Use the Downloads sub-categories as hints. For example, in Animals, under Characters, you may want to put sub files for Domestic, Fantasy, and Wild.

Try to keep the main Character sub-folders similar to those in the Downloads. It will help in the long run.

Step 7 - Never Too Late

Though it is a great idea to start your file organizing from the beginning, most people who read this will have already accumulated many downloads, and may already have overstuffed runtimes. The exercises in this tutorial are meant to give you a clear idea of how files can be organized into external runtimes. Unfortunately, this will probably mean re-installing from scratch. It may sound like a lot of work, but it is much more work to try to move files from one huge runtime into several smaller ones, than it is to simply start fresh.

You probably have downloads stored somewhere, either still on your hard drive, or on a backup disk. If you don't have backups of your installers, you will want to ask the stores where you purchased them to reset your downloads

If you have not yet downloaded many files, just find logical names for what you do download, creating categories and sub-categories as you go. Sub-categories can go as deep as you wish. Clothes, for example, might again be divided into sections such as Casual, Evening, Fantasy, Summer, Winter – whatever. The important thing is that it make sense to you.

If you do have a large amount of downloads, start by creating a new downloads folder as shown at the beginning of the tutorial. Look through your downloads and give some thought as to categories, sub-categories, etc. Make a list on paper of how you want the downloads organized, keeping in mind that these will become Runtime Categories. Your list should work for you, not against you. Think about what projects you have, find a system of organization that makes sense to you.

Once you have the downloads organized, create the external runtimes as suggested here, again, creating categories that you will remember easily. Above all, keep your current runtime in place until you have the new ones set up. . You might be tempted to try to move things by hand – easy enough on the Library level, just a matter of dragging and dropping – but when you get to the geometries and textures it will be almost impossible to find which files go with what figures and props, etc. It is much easier to install fresh.

Once you do have all of your Content installed into the External runtimes and organized as you wish, you can delete that huge Poser or DAZ/Studio runtime. It would then be best to uninstall the program, and re-install from a fresh start. Don't forget any Service Release updates, and to re-install your plug-ins. Again, it's much easier than trying to figure out what you can safely delete and what to keep. If you use Poser, simply keep the Poser figures in the Poser Program Runtime, but organize the files in the Library categories to make things easier to find.

Above all, don't stress it. Take your time, think about what kind of order makes the most sense to you – experiment a bit if you wish. Your bulky runtime will still be there until you have everything organized.

Whether you are just beginning, or a seasoned player, you won't regret any of the effort put into this. There is nothing greater when you are in the midst of a creative streak, than to be able to find your files effortlessly, and get on with the creating.

Step 8 - Installing and Organizing DAZ Studio Content

Most of the content you purchase or download for free will be formatted to work in Poser. DAZ/Studio can read most of these files, but not all of them. The exceptions are Poser dynamic hair and dynamic clothing, as well as some of the more complex procedural material poses that can be created in the Poser Material Room. In addition, although Poser Lights can now be imported into the latest version of DAZ/Studio, the lighting system is very different from that of DAZ/Studio and you may get some unwelcome results!

If you use DAZ/Studio, you will want to take advantage of the support given by those merchants who include extra files formatted specifically for DAZ/Studio. These files are optimized for things like degree of shininess, bump maps, and transparency settings. In many cases these files will replace the procedural textures of the Poser Material room with DAZ/Studio's own native Shader system. When offering DAZ/Studio formatted files, the merchant will usually separate these files from the Poser files by putting them in a separate zip or installer. These are often named with the letters DS added to the file name.

Installing goes much like with a Poser file, the only difference is that instead of pointing the file to an External Runtime, you point it to the Content Folder inside DAZ Studio. Default path is C://Program Files/DAZ/Studio/content. This is the correct file path for most installers. However, zip files may be different.

When you'receive a Zip file that contains DAZ/Studio formatted files, you will need to open it and look at the file path to be sure where to install it.

As you can see in this example, the file path begins with a Content folder. Therefore, you will install into the folder that contains the Content folder, which in this case would be (C://Program Files)/DAZ/Studio. If you see that the zip does not contain a content folder at the beginning, then you will need to install it into (')/DAZ/Studio/content.

As with the Poser files – there are some folders that must not be changed are removed.

Do not touch the data folder. The data folder contains everything. It is DAZ Studio's way of interpreting all of the other files and turning it onto a kind of database that can quickly be read by the program. It is listed directly under Content. Some DAZ/Studio formatted purchases or freebies may already have these data folders in them. This is one reason why it is preferable to install DAZ/Studio formatted files directly into DAZ/Studio.

While it is conceivable to create External Runtimes for DAZ/Studio formatted content, it is not suggested, as some of the installers may contain important data files that need to remain in the Studio content folder, and not an external one. Until such a time as you understand fully the nature of the files, and what can and cannot safely be put into an external runtime, you should keep your DAZ/Studio formatted files safely installed within the DAZ/Studio Content Folder.

Do not touch the Runtime folder. In addition, note that you may eventually find a Runtime folder in your Content folder even though these are DAZ/Studio formatted files. This is because some products that are set up in DAZ/Studio format may still use geometries (OBJ files) and texture resources –(JPG files) Since most merchants also make their files in Poser format, it is much easier for them to leave the textures and geometries in the same folders as were used for Poser. So, just as with the Poser runtimes, you must not change or move or rename anything within the Geometries or Textures. Nor should you move the Runtime folder itself.

Once your content folder begins to fill up, you will probably choose to arrange the files and folders according to your wishes. As a general rule I would say to ignore anything that is outside of the Content Folder, except perhaps readme files and templates, which you can put where you want. All other files and folders found within the Content Folder (except for the Data Folder, and Runtime folder) can be re-arranged and re-named in any way you wish. Just remember if you'rename any files, be sure to rename the corresponding PNG that goes with it.

Finished

I hope this tutorial has been helpful to you. I know you will find that if you take the time to organize your files and Runtimes, you will benefit greatly when you are at work within the programs.

If you have any questions or need to get in touch with me, feel free to contact me, judee3D, using the site PM system.

Quick Grass in Poser 5

2011-11-01T17:42:34+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.

Quick Grass in Poser 5

Author: Nalif

Tools Needed

Poser 5

Introduction

This is a quick tutorial on how to achieve decent, believable grass inside of Poser 5 by using the hair tools. Even if you've never used the hair room, I'll try and make this tutorial as painless as possible. Here's what your grass will look like when your done.

Step 1 - Getting started

First, create a new scene and start out empty. If you have the dork as your default character, go ahead and clear him out. For this tutorial I used the Square Hi-Res primitive prop, but you can grow grass on anything you want. Go ahead and add the Square Hi-Res prop now. It's located under Props > Primitives .

Step 2 - Setting up your base color

The Hi-Res square prop will be the base for your grass. As such, we'll have to color it like grass. You have one of two choices here: 1) Go into your favorite 2D image editor and paint a texture map or 2) Use procedural textures inside of P5 to make it look like a grassy hill. I chose the later choice. Here's a screen grab of the material I made for the grass.

Here's what your material should look like now:

Step 3 - Grow the Grass

Now that you have your hill material, it's time to get the grass to cover the hill. This is done in the hair room. Click on the “Hair” tab located in the top middle area of your screen. Once there, your screen will be covered with a bunch of confusing nobs and what not. In reality, this is a very simple room once you get the hang of it. The first step is to click on the “New Growth Group” button located under 1.Hair Growth Groups. Once you click this button it will ask your for a name. I used Grass. After you name your hair group, click on “Edit Growth Group.” This will allow you to designate where you want to grow your grass. Once the button is pushed, drag a box over where you want the grass in the preview window. It should highlight red. Any area that you highlight red will have grass on it. If you don't want grass there, leave it black.

If you have your area selected, you're past the hard part. Now it's time to actually grow the grass! Look under “2. Growth Controls.” These values are what your grass will be made from. You can use any values you want. Here are the values I myself used:

Once you have your values set, look over to “3. Styling Controls.” Your going to change the “Number of Hairs” value to whatever you feel suitable. In my case, I used 2000. Once you change this value, click on “Grow Guide Hairs.” Once this button is pushed, it will generate a prop in the shape of your grass. Your scene should now look something like this:

Step 4 - Texturing Your Grass

Now that you have your grass, you need a grass material. Your hair should already have a default hair node with a noise node attatched to it; delete the noise node and change the colors as such:

Step 5 - Finished!

Once rendered, your grass should look somewhat like this:

That's all there is to this tutorial. As a final step, you could add a wind force. I won't go into wind forces though, as they're an entire tutorial on their own. I hope you learned something and I also hope this tutorial has helped you out on a project of your own.

Quick Poser Thumbnail Collections with RName and Poser

2011-11-01T17:42:34+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.

Quick Poser Thumbnail Collections with RName and Poser

Author: dorkati

Tools Needed

* Poser any version

* Rname-it (optional)

Introduction

Morphos does not render any thumbnails, and Poser create only Preview thumbnails. Rendering thumbnails takes less time after this tutorial for your faces, expressions, hair styles or poses. RName makes renaming faster and easier. This method is ideal for merchants for their shops: forget those slow and boring rendering thumbnails…

Step 1 - Preparing...

If you create files, I suggest to name them as name_001, name_002 as Poser sometimes does not use the same order as the real alphabetical order.

If you have already named your files, just use Rname-it for changing file names.

Skip next step if you know this software or your files have been already named with a counter and follow from step 3.

Step 2 - Rename

Download from here the Rname-it software. This is free for personal use and very useful. Open and select the folder where you store your files needed to rename.

You should see similar image…

As you see, when I made these face files, I used long names and there are INJ in name (created with IPB). And there is a file with a dissimilar style.

So select all names you wish to rename. Now set the options.

Type the chosen name you wish and finish with the character _ as you see on image above.

Select the Replace checkbox - this option will rename the older name to new. Without checking-in this option, nothing will happens!

In the “ Counter for padding to Prefix or Extension ” section push the Apply to “ Prefix ” button and set the starting value to 0001 (this is needed because Poser will name thumbnails based on this method) and set increment value to 1.

In preview window check how your file names will be changed after applying the changes. If everything seems correct, just click on “ Rename it! ” button.

Step 3 - Basic settings

Open Poser, load your figure for you wish creating the thumbnails, set camera and lights. Set document window size (Window - > Document Window Size…) to a square. Width and height should be the same sizes. I now create thumbnails for Gumdrops faces so I loaded Sakari (I made unneeded parts as invisible), I selected face camera and set up some lights.

In Render - > Render Settings…window I set quality. Firefly render will be a bit slower, for rendering thumbnails it is enough Poser 4 style rendering. I suggest to use this style of rendering as the thumbnails will be a bit sharper…. and the rendering will be much quicker. I do not recommend to check on cast shadow option if you wish to render faster. Before continue, do not forget Save settings!

If you wish to use backgrounds, just make it in your favorite graphic program, export as square image. In Poser load this picture as background or load a simple square from Props library (Primitives folder), apply your image on it and set position where you wish. In this case you can catch some shadows on it, too.

Step 4 - Apply poses

If you have finished with the basic settings, open Key Frames editor with Edit Keyframes button (see picture)

On the left side there will be your figure name and body parts. If you create only expressions, it is enough to select head and eyes. If you need full body poses or hair styles, you have to select the whole figure. There is a small triangle next to your figure name. Click on it and collapse. Now you see only the figure name, not all the body parts.

Select all frames next to figure and click on “Add Key Frame” button (+). Now all small boxes should be green and every frames will be keyframes. If you need shots from several camera positions for your thumbnails, repeat this step for camera frames too. (set camera frames to camera keyframes). Note: this should not be apply for the face camera! Now close frame editor and go to Expression library (or Poses library - where you store your files)

Go to first frame and apply first face. After that go to the next frame and apply next face. Repeat this step for your all faces, each of them on to separate frames. Finally you will get a “movie” with all of your faces.

Step 5 - Render images

Click on Animation menu and select Make movie. Check settings on image.

Format: Image files

Renderer: recommended Poser 4 - you can change this to your favorite render style, but don't forget to set it before rendering.

Resolution: 91×91. Original Poser format, you can set a little larger image as from Poser 5 it can be up to 120 x 120.

Time Span: depend on how many frames you have. During creating this tutorial I had 6 frames, so I had to set it from 1 to 6.

If all settings are correct, click on “ make movie ” button. Select folder where your files can be found (files with fc2 or pz2 extensions) Set file name and select image file format. Poser displays only PNG file types, this is why you should select PNG file format. For me the name is GD-Char. Note: now I didn't use _ character at the end of the name. Poser will automatically names image files as GD-Char_0001, etc…

Click OK and Poser will starts rendering. Now you have some time for having a coffee ;)

When Poser finished with this task, just load expression library again and voila! Now your rendered thumbnails are ready.

Step 6 - Final step (optional)

Finally, if you don't like this _0001 in names, you can open Rname-it again and can rename the files with the method in the image below.

In this case now DO NOT SELECT the counter OR CHANGE in prefix, BUT click onto “Replace” button in Advance renaming section.

Type into “ string: ” text area that name part what you want to replace. If I see my files, (GD-Char_0001) I wish to remove _00 part, so I type only this into the text area. Into the “ with: ” text area I gave a - character. After renaming I saw the following file names:

GD-Char-01

GD-Char-02… etc.

I hope this tutorial helps you to save time.

If you have any question just feel free to ask me!

Permanently add scripts to the Script Palette in Poser

2011-11-01T17:42:34+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.

Permanently add scripts to the Script Palette in Poser

Author: Lupin

Tools Needed

Poser 4 Pro Pack of Poser 5

Introduction

Python scripting is a great addition to Poser adding a lot of functionality and versatility. The problem is that Poser will not remember the scripts you add to the Python Script Palette within Poser after you shut the program down. Everytime you want to use a script you will have to either add it to the palette each time you load poser, or skip the palette altogether and use “run python script” from the file menu. Following is a step by step tutorial on how to permanently add buttons and scripts to the Python Script Palette within Poser.

Step 1 - CREATING NEW FILES AND DIRECTORIES.

Make sure you do not have Poser open at this time, changes made here will not appear in Poser until it is reloaded.

Open Windows Explorer and navigate to the RuntimePythonposerScripts directory. With a typical installation you will find this in c:Program FilesCurious LabsPoser4 or Poser 5. You will now have a list of all the files and subdirectories in the poserScripts directory. Right click on the file list side (the right side), select “New” and choose “Folder”. Name this folder “CustomScripts”.

Open this new folder, right click and select “New” and choose “Text Document”. Name this new file “customButtons.py”. You may get a warning message telling you that renaming an extension may make the file unusable and if you are sure you want to change it, select “Yes”. Note that these files are case sensitive so make sure you get the capital letters, you can just copy and paste the names straight out of this tutorial to make it easier.

Right click on the file you just made, customButtons.py, and select “Open With”. If Wordpad is already present choose that. If it is not present, click on “Choose Program…” and select it from that list. Now cut and paste the following text into wordpad and then save the file, you can leave this file open though since we will be coming back to it.

import poser

poser.DefineScriptButton(1, “”, “…”)

poser.DefineScriptButton(2, “”, “…”)

poser.DefineScriptButton(3, “”, “…”)

poser.DefineScriptButton(4, “”, “…”)

poser.DefineScriptButton(5, “”, “…”)

poser.DefineScriptButton(6, “”, “…”)

poser.DefineScriptButton(7, “”, “…”)

poser.DefineScriptButton(8, “”, “…”)

poser.DefineScriptButton(9, “”, “…”)

poser.DefineScriptButton(10, “:Runtime:Python:PoserScripts:mainButtons.py”, “Main”)

Step 2 - LINKING THE NEW SET OF BUTTONS TO THE MAIN BUTTONS.

Now that you have your new directory and button file created the next thing you need to do is link it to the main set of buttons. Go back to the poserScripts directory and right click on the file named mainButtons.py. Select “Properties”, and uncheck the box labled “Read-only”, if Read-only is turned on you will be unable to save any changes you make to this file. Click OK.

Open mainButtons.py with wordpad, you will see the following text.

import poser

poser.DefineScriptButton(1, “:Runtime:Python:PoserScripts:CreateProps:propButtons.py”, “Prop Samples”)

poser.DefineScriptButton(2, “:Runtime:Python:PoserScripts:GeomMods:geomModButtons.py”, “Geom Mods”)

poser.DefineScriptButton(3, “:Runtime:Python:PoserScripts:Utility:utilityButtons.py”, “Utility Funcs”)

poser.DefineScriptButton(4, “:Runtime:Python:PoserScripts:SampleCallbacks:callbackButtons.py”, “Sample Callbacks”)

poser.DefineScriptButton(5, “:Runtime:Python:PoserScripts:RenderControl:renderButtons.py”, “Render / IO”)

poser.DefineScriptButton(6, “:Runtime:Python:PoserScripts:MaterialMods:materialModButtons.py”, “Material Mods”)

poser.DefineScriptButton(7, “”, “…”)

poser.DefineScriptButton(8, “”, “…”)

poser.DefineScriptButton(9, “”, “…”)

poser.DefineScriptButton(10, “:Runtime:Python:PoserScripts:clearButtons.py”, “Clear Buttons”)

As you can see, there are three blank buttons, 7, 8, and 9. Pick whichever of these you want, but in this example I will use button 9. Replace the entire text for button 9 with the following.

poser.DefineScriptButton(9, “:Runtime:Python:PoserScripts:CustomScripts:customButtons.py”, “Custom Scripts”)

Now save the file, go up to the file menu and select Save as, make sure the file name stays the same “mainButtons.py”, and click save.

Step 3 - ADDING SCRIPTS TO YOUR NEW BUTTON BANK.

You now have a new bank of buttons which will hold nine scripts, it is linked up to the main buttons, but there are not yet any scripts in it. This step will show you how to permanently add scripts to your buttons so they will always be easily accessable inside of Poser.

Go back to wordpad, the one with customButtons.py open in it. Here I'll explain the basic structure of this file. This is the line of text that makes up the first button in this bank of buttons.

poser.DefineScriptButton(1, “”, “…”)

This is what it means…

poser.DefineScriptButton(1, “ directory path to script ”, “ name of button/script ”)

Here I have a script called DeleteLights, I use this all the time so it will be my example. The script is located in RuntimePythonposerScriptsDeleteLights and the name of the script itself is LightsOutV1a.py. To add this to the new custom buttons bank I will need to add the path, the filename, and then give it a description. It will look like this…

poser.DefineScriptButton(1, “:Runtime:Python:PoserScripts:DeleteLights:LightsOutV1a.py”, “Delete Lights”)

Now save the file using the same steps that you followed to save mainButtons.py, using Save As and making sure the filename stays the same.

Each time you want to add a script to your custom buttons just follow those steps, you have room for nine scripts here but if you want to add more you will need to make another set of buttons. The mainButtons, py has room for three sets of custom buttons, and you can also add more button banks to the button bank that you just made so there really is no limit to how many buttons and scripts you can add.

Step 4 - THE PYTHON SCRIPT PALETTE IN POSER.

Up to this point we have created a new set of buttons, we have linked it to the main buttons, and we have added the Delete Lights script, now lets make sure it worked.

Start up Poser, once it has finished loading go to Window and select Python Scripts. A little window will pop up called Python Scripts and you will see buttons such as “Prop Samples”, “Geom Mods”, and down near the bottom is “Custom Buttons”. Click on this and it will open up your new bank of buttons and “Delete Lights” will be right there on the top. Note that sometimes when you first add a new script to the buttons it will not show up the first time you look, clicking on “Main” and then going back into “Custom Buttons” will fix this.

You now have a bank of buttons and a script that will be remembered by Poser each time you start the program, it will always be right there waiting for you to use it, and you will never again have to hunt it down manually each time you need it.

Portrait backgrounds directly in Poser

2011-11-01T17:42:34+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.

Portrait backgrounds directly in Poser

Author: dorkati

Tools Needed

Poser 4 or up
Any paint program

Introduction

Sure, you need some work in any paint program, but only once. And later you need only the Poser if you want to make portraits!

Let's see how!

Step 1 - Make a background prop

In Poser: posing your character for portrait.

Don't worry if you see this while you set the pose (I hope you use Posing or other camera for posing but not face camera!)

With the face camera you will see this or something similar.

Step 2 - Set the background colors

In case I loaded 3 squares. Adjust the dials like at first but one of them's zTrans could be -251. This square will be the base color and it must be behind others.

Now you have 3 squares, but only see the closest. Yes, you need some transparency mapping. Here is the time for paint program

Step 3 - Making transparency maps in any paint program

Sorry, but I haven't got Photoshop so I don't show you this in there. But here is a sample picture from my paint program.

If you haven't got any good paint programs, or you like my maps, you can save the 2 next maps which I used for this tutorial.

Step 4 - Set the transparency

In Poser Material Room (Material Settings) set the squares transparencies. Use your maps in several ways. In this picture below you see some samples.

Save your background squares in Props Library (all 3 squares) and you can use it later.

Step 5 - The Portrait

And here is the final results with a portrait lightning set.

And what is the most important!

WITHOUT ANY POSTWORK!

If you have any question please feel to free contact me.

http://ghd-3D.uw.hu

Poser to Flash

2011-11-01T17:42:34+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.

Poser to Flash

Author: dodixy

Tools Needed

Poser and Macromedia Flash

Introduction

The best way to creat top quality Flash animation.

by Raed Selman

www.artenet.nl

Step 1 - Poser To Flash

Open Poser

Select the Figures menu

Step 2 - Select the DAZ People menu

Select the DAZ People menu

Select Michael 3 Srl

Step 3 - Click here to Creat New Figure

Click here to Creat New Figure

Select the Body menu

Step 4 - Select the Pose menu

Select the Pose menu

Select the WalkDesigner menu

Step 5 - Select P4 Walk Designer

Select P4 WalkDesigner

click here to apply

Step 6 - Play your movie

Play your movie

Go to the last frame in your timeline

Step 7 - bring your model closer

at the last frame bring your model closer

notice the first frame

Step 8 - test your movie

move in the timeline to test your movie

Select the Animation menu

Step 9 - Select the Make Movie... Ctrl+J menu

Select the Make Movie… Ctrl+J menu

The Make Movie dialog opens

Step 10 - Select the AVI menu

Select the AVI menu

Select the Image Files menu

Step 11 - Select the check box Antialias

Select the check box Antialias

Click the OK button

Step 12 -

Step 13-

Step 14- Save

Step 15-

Step 16-

Step 17-

Step 18-

Step 19-

Step 20 -

Step 21 -

Step 22 - Finished

Raytracing in Poser5, Part Two

2011-11-01T17:42:34+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.

Raytracing in Poser5, Part Two

Author: semidieu

Tools Needed

Poser 5

Introduction

This tutorial will explain how the refraction node works in Poser5.

The reflect node is explained in "Raytracing in Poser5, Part One", as well as some information about ray trace shadows. It is highly recommended you'read the first tutorial, as some features are exactly the same for both nodes and won't be detailed here.

Step 1 - Some information on refracting

This picture is totally wrong! You only need to look through your window to see this: what you see through the window is not transformed! This is because how Poser handles refraction.

In reality, refraction effects are linked to specific volumes, and Poser has problems dealing with this. The refract node tells Poser at which index of refraction the space behind the object is. For example, with the cube above, the refract node sets the index of refraction inside the cube AND behind the cube! This, of course, makes no sense in real world physics.

To produce a realistic refraction effect with this cube in Poser, you must set different values for the faces of the cube. The faces closest to the camera must be set to the index of refraction you wish to give to the object whereas the hidden faces must be set to a value corresponding to that of the environment which surrounds the camera (1.0000 if it's in the air).

Step 2 - Setting the refract node

In order to use the refract node, you must go to the material room. Take care to plug the refract node to the Refraction_Color, and not the Refraction_Value.

Also, decrease the Diffuse_Value in order to get a better refraction.

Finally, for everything to work, remember to check the “Raytracing on” option in the render settings.

When using the refract node on a surface it's important not to add transparency effects to that same surface, otherwise the object is seen both in transparency and simultaneously refracted, causing strange effects. The refract node handles transparencies on its own.

Poser's FireFly renderer isn't designed to handle refractions from surfaces too close to the object they are refracting (such as, say, glasses placed on a figure's nose), and this produces horrible black spots on the render. Ronstuff discovered a simple solution to this problem: rescale all object to 1000% of their original size and modify the camera placement in consequence.

Step 3 - Refraction Color, Refraction Value, Background, Quality and Softness

The values in yellow react exactly the same way as for the reflect node. Instead of restating their function here, I recommend you check part one of this tutorial.

The value in blue, Index_of_Refraction, will be covered in step 5.

The settings in red, Quality and Softness, don't react the sane way as with the reflect node.

The Quality setting works more like a blur setting. But it's hard to see on objects that are simply textured. There must be a bump or displace map in order to make the effect really visible.

On the two next pictures, I put a square between the camera and the cat.

The right side of the square is set with a Quality and Softness of zero.
The left side of the square shows the effect (or the lack of effect) of the quality or softness settings.

The Softness setting seems to have no effect…

Step 4 - Visibility in raytrace

These settings also react the same way as for the reflect node. But I couldn't resist…

Step 5 - Index of Refraction

This is the really important element of the refract node. It defines how important the refraction will be. In theory, the index of refraction cannot be under 1.000 (this would mean that the light is going faster than the speed of light).

Some values:

Air 1.000

Water 1.333

Glass 1.500

Diamond 2.417

In this picture, the angle between the camera view axis and the square is 50'. When the white zone appears, it is because there is no object to refract (the background color of the refract node is used so if you set this color to red, you will have a red zone instead of this white zone). Notice that the background color of the main scene does not affect this white zone. To remove it, the refraction must find an object to refract.

Also, it is important to know that the angle at which you're looking at the object doing the refraction modifies how the appearance of the refraction effect.

Step 6 - A strange effect explained or the 'real' underwater scene

Under certain angles (and certain values of the index of refraction), you may see strange black shapes. This is due to a physical proprety of the refraction: The color of the black part is influenced by the Diffuse_Color and the Ambiant_Color of the water surface. A situation that demonstrates this strange effect occurs when you set up an underwater scene, with the camera looking upwards at a slight angle (see the picture below). To set up a similar diving scene with the camera under the water looking up at the surface, while avoiding the black shapes, there are two possibilities:

You can do it the hard way, respecting the way physics work: you can add a ball primitive over the camera. On this ball, you set an index of refraction of 1.333 with a blue refraction color and you set the index of refraction to 1.000 for the water's surface.

(A simple way to add this ball is to load the ball, parent it to the camera, set all three transX, transY et transZ to zero. You won't see the ball, because the camera is in it.).

The problem is that, on the water's surface, the displacement information is nearly completely out.

You should also take extra care as using this method may produce some strange effects, such as reflections suddenly appearing in the middle of the Water's surface (and this even without any reflection nodes). In my experience, using the “Wave Deformer” to create the waves also results in strange artifacts.

You can cheat and give the water's surface an index of refraction that is less than one. You should use 0.75 to fake the water and add some blue light(s) to make the scene a little bit more realistic.

The settings I gave here are just guidelines. You will have to adjust some other settings (Ambient color and value, Specular color, etc.) as producing an attractive scene depends on many many things. It's quite complex to achieve a really good effect and you will just have to try various values in order to find what suits your scene.

Step 7 - Reflection and refraction

In theory, every time there is refraction, there is also reflection. Basically, the sum of the Refraction_Value and the Reflection_Value should be one. A scene featuring water should include refraction and reflection, but no transparencies for the water!

The next render uses a displacement map for the water's surface, using the turbulence node.

And here is the render, with a little bit retouching - only for the colors (adding some blue)

Thanks again and again to Mark for correcting my English

Setting Up Your Own Customized Runtime Library

2011-11-01T17:42:34+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.

Setting Up Your Own Customized Runtime Library

Author: LadyGreyWolf

Tools Needed

* Windows

Introduction

This is a tutorial on how to set up a library for DAZ Studio, Poser, Carrara (if applicable) etc. to maximize your memory capabilities and to keep track of content

Step 1: Set up your Library Runtime

Depending on where you want to put your library (i.e. storage drive [internal and/or external], My Documents) name your library appropriately. Mine is named: Poser Library.

NOTE: (I also have this library on an external storage drive for my laptop (see notes in Step 5)

I then break down folders into specific categories:

NOTE: (The New Folder shown is the default folder to create new ones. It has most of the sub-folders needed when installing products)

A look at the New Folder for creating new ones:

This way, I can make a copy of this folder, then name it to whatever I need. (i.e. Freak.. etc. Only re-name the base folder.)

Step 2: Create the folders to download to

I now create a new folder on my internal storage drive for downloaded products.

(you can do this on whatever drive you need to.)

I then have folders to download content to, so I know exactly where it goes.

NOTE: (Content that is multi-character: I download to one figure, then copy and paste to the other figures)

Step 3: Your Burn Folder

At this time, I also created a folder to move content once loaded to a “burn” folder to burn off to DVD/CD for back-up:

You do not have to do this, however, you could just copy and paste your download folder to your hard drive and then burn. Just remember after burning, to check the DVD/CD to make sure it works, then go through each folder and delete the content burned!

Step 4: Printed Read-mes

I then use the read-me files to create a printed content book, put into binders and separated by content. This way I have a visual library of what I have, where to find it, and what is required to use it. I also put any pertinent notes at the back of each library for detailed instructions!

When I have installed the content, I access the read-me files, and copy and paste the information to my printed Microsoft Office Word files. (Please remember that this is ONLY for your personal use ONLY! To help you keep track of content, and what goes with what)

Step 5: summary

So, to summarize:

Build a library separated by content
Build your “downloads” folder and “burn to” folders
Start your printed catalog of items to keep track and manage textures

Hopefully this gives you a nice starting point to keeping your runtimes clean, separated, and easy to manage. Not to mention that you can load only the Library you need at the time to work with, instead of having 20+GB of items bogging down your software!

NOTES:

As stated in Step 1, I also install these to an external drive to use on my laptop. I have found through trial-and-error, that I install everything to the external drive first, clicking off the read-me file first, then go back and install to my main computer, letting the read-me's come up, and make my printed files. It took me almost 3 months (I have over 40GB of content between 10 different 3D software applications) to complete, but the time was well spent, and now I can find everything I need in each software, what is required, and can use Runtime-friendly across-the-board files in applications. Please feel free to PM me through DAZ if you have any questions!

Cheers!

Lady GreyWolf

Sketch Design Rendering

2011-11-01T17:42:34+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.

Sketch Design Rendering

Author: 3Don

Introduction

An amazing variety of styles of fine art and cyber media simulations can be achieved using the Sketch Design (SD) feature in Poser. Perhaps an overlooked and under appreciated feature of Poser, the Sketch Design tools can do more than most users realize.

Here is how to get started using and creating Sketch Design Render Presets and maximize the print and electronic illustration potential of this wonderful tool.

Sketch Design Presets (SDP) are PZS files, located in: Poser/Runtime/Prefs/Presets.

Note: The images here do not exhibit specific steps for this tutorial. They are examples of Sketch Render variations to the same image.

1-Sketch Design Window: detail of Sketch Design work interface
Studio Render: normal render of Millennium family image
Hard Pastel: preset style “Hard pastel” render
Hard Pastel: preset style “Hard pastel” render with different light
Hard Pastel: preset style “Hard pastel” render over Cartoon Line studio style
Hard Pastel rendered over photo
Paint Stroke rendered over same photo

Step 1 - Scene Composition

Compose your scene. For best results with the SD feature, use dramatic lighting, colors, and textures. The more in the Foreground your models are placed, the more style definition you will see. Smaller models and those farther in the background will have less style definition, as with any type of media. The SDR does not cast shadows as does a regular render. Shadows are the overhead light, under-the-figure type. Set your main, bright light, above the scene to coordinate definition shading with cast shadows. See Rendering for a different way to cast shadows.

Step 2 - Render Options

Set Render Options before opening the Sketch Design Window (SDW). Set to render in a new window, at 2 or 3 times the size of your Studio Window (SW), at a minimum of 216 or higher resolution. Check the selection boxes for anti-alias, textures, and any other settings you want for your image. Also select to render in a new window. Save, but do not render from this window. By setting these specifications you can achieve high resolution images at large image area sizes.

Step 3 - Preset Performance

Not all scenes will appear the same with the same Preset, due to different colors, lighting, and so forth. If you like the look of a Preset, but it does not enhance your image as you want it to, try the following easy, one-step methods for modifying the look of a Preset before modifying other settings and sliders. It's easy then to go one step back if you need to.

Change the colors and/or directions of the lighting in your studio scene.
Change the Background and Ground colors in your studio scene.
Change the document Display Style (DDS) overall, or selectively within a scene. The SDR will render over different DDSs (such as Texture Shaded, Cartoon, and Wireframe) all at the same time in the same scene! You can get some really interesting effects this way.
Change from color- to black and white- render, or vice versa. Try Render Over Black.Be careful with the Auto Density setting. It can often cause very long render times in your SD preview window. To cancel a preview of a building style, click in the display window.
SD will also render over the Paper Textures settings (under Display menu) and over Background Pictures. You can apply the SDR over a Background picture with no models or ground in the scene. This is like using Poser as you would Photoshop filters.
Try these things before adjusting sliders.

Step 4 - Dialing and Styling

Open the SDW and apply a Preset. Examine the Preview of the SDR.The selected Preset will not be changed or recorded as a new Preset unless you Create and Name a new Preset. If you experiment and get lost, reselect the Preset you started from to go back. All changes to that Preset will be lost.

When it is desirable to change the other settings to alter a Preset, first try the Density, Line Length, Stroke Width, Line Random, and Opacity sliders. Try other settings in the top 14 sliders next. These top 14 sliders only affect the specific area you have selected, Object, Background, or Edges.

Also the Brush Styles affect Object, Background, and Edges areas, one at a time. The bottom 6 sliders affect all three areas simultaneously. Be sure you have the area you want to modify selected. Check which light is No. 1 in your studio and adjust that light as the highest and the others lower for the Light(s) 1, 2, and 3 sliders.

There are over 70 possible settings in the SDW which define a Preset. Some settings and sliders work together, some independently. A one-click setting or a small slide can affect the entire Preset dramatically.

After each adjustment you will need to re-render the preview to see the results.

Step 5 - Rendering and Exporting

Once you have a Preset previewed with which you are satisfied, just close the SDW and go back to the Studio. From the Render menu, select Sketch Style Render. The Studio Window render takes less time than the SDW preview render.

Go to File, and Save the image. You are given a choice of file types to save as, which will open in your image editing program, such as Adobe Photoshop'.

You will need an image editing program to format your images This simplifies exporting images, setting resolutions, resizing, adding text, retouching, manipulating colors, and saving to the file format, such as EPS or JPG, that best suits your end needs for Print or the web. Even without image editing, such a program is needed for file conversions.

Step 6 - Shadows and Other Tricks

To achieve cast shadows with the Sketch Render feature, render your image as a normal render with cast shadows. Export the image and bring it back in as a background image in a new studio window. Hide the ground and turn off shadows. Select a Sketch Render style preset and render as a sketch render. The style will be applied to the background image and the cast shadows.

The disadvantage to this is that the SD style is applied from the Background settings, not the Foreground, as with the 3D models in place. Foreground, Background, and Edges settings can all be different, or set the same. If you have a SD style you like as a Foreground setting, copy those settings exactly to the Background settings before saving it as a new style and rendering a background picture with it.

Likewise you can import any digital photograph, even of a live model, as a background image and sketch render over it in the same way. The style will be applied to the photo, which then can be exported as a new image.

The advantage of the Poser Sketch Design feature for 3D imaging over other features like Photoshop filters, is this, Poser surface textures are set in a 3 dimensional space and applied along all XYZ coordinates simultaneously. Also the foreground objects, background and edges (the relation between foreground and background) can be set independently of one another, for infinitely more control and variation.

You can achieve Superior results in simulating traditional media with Poser alone. With Poser you have the option of using one program to achieve most of your desired artistic effects without the use of additional software. That saves Time, Money, and Space!

' Don Albert 2/2003

Go to: http://Cyber-Fyber.bbay.com/CF-Pages/CF-Galleries.html to see several galleries of sketch rendered images.

Go to: http://home.earthlink.net/~donaldwalbert/Pages/DAGAillustration.html to see published Poser illustrations.

Understanding Poser Files

2011-11-01T17:42:34+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.

Understanding Poser Files

Author: DoctorTed

Tools Needed

Poser 4

Support Files

None

Introduction

Poser makes use of separate files to store and represent each character, prop, light, or camera, and may employ separate files for particular details of the characters. When you import a new model, character or morph target you need to make sure the associated files are stored where Poser can find them. See the File Placement Table below for a list of file locations.

All of these files are stored in the Poser Runtime directory, and most must be in a particular location for Poser to function correctly. On a PC, the full path to the Runtime Directory is normally:

C:\Program Files\MetaCreations\Poser 4\Runtime

Depending upon where you bought the program and which patch you last installed, the path may instead be:

C:\Program Files\Curious Labs\Poser 4\Runtime

If you have installed the Mac version, you can locate the Runtime folder inside the Poser4 folder. The Poser4 folder will be wherever you chose to place it during installation, or at the root level of your Startup Drive if you chose a default installation.

Even though the location of the Poser4 folder may be different between Windows and Macintosh versions, the contents of the Runtime folder are structured identically on both. The only exception is that some of the Windows files will have an extra “.rsr” file with them, with the same name as the file it is related to. This is a result of the differences between the way these two operating systems store information. For example, an .rsr file in Windows will contain the image preview for an object, whereas the Macintosh version will instead have that preview encapsulated in the resource fork of the object itself.

In the majority of cases, if you download a new character or prop you will be downloading new files to add to Poser as pp2, hr2, CR2 and rsr. Files that provide textures and bump maps are usually jpg, tif, or bmp images.

The files that make up the new character, prop, hair style, etc, will be available on the web in either a .zip or .sit compression format. (An in depth look at these compression formats is beyond the scope of this tutorial) Once downloaded and decompressed you will have a collection of these various Poser file types. You can move the resulting files by hand, referencing the file location information that may be stored as a document in the compressed file. Just drag them with the mouse and drop them into the right folder. Some Zip files, such as Zygote models and characters, are provided in Winzip files that automatically place the files where they belong in the Poser Runtime folder upon decompression; see their download instructions page for clarification. Macintosh users will still need to manually place these files into their correct locations.

It is possible to examine the CR2 file in a text editor and find the names and correct locations of all required files. That method will be discussed later in this tutorial along with the details of the CR2 file. A safer and easier way to automatically place the files is with the aid of the CR2Edit utility by Daniel Wilmes. Unfortunately CR2Edit is currently available only for Windows.

In the table below, note that placement is most critical for files that go into Runtime\Geometries. There is more flexibility in the libraries section. An expression in parentheses means that the subdirectory or name depends upon the figure. You can find the correct entry for that part of the path by examining the corresponding entries in your own directory structure, or by following the instructions that may have come with your download. Within the libraries subfolder, you are free to create folder names or move files around; your locations will be reflected in the Library found within Poser. Placement of the graphic (texture and bump) files is not critical since you can specify the location from within Poser.

Poser Files and Their Placement

File Extension

Purpose

Correct Location under Poser 4 \ Runtime

obj

Figure Geometry

Geometries\(figure name)

rsr (small; KB); PC

Thumbnail graphic

libraries\character\(category)\(character name)

rsr (large; MB); both

Binary obj

Same location as associated geometry file

pz3

Poser Scene

Wherever you save Poser scenes

cm2

Camera

libraries\camera\Camera Sets

CR2

Character

libraries\character\(category)\(character name)

fc2

Face

libraries\faces\(category)

hr2

Hair

libraries\hair\(category)

hd2

Hand

libraries\hand\(category)

lt2

Light

libraries\light\Light Sets

pz2

Pose

libraries\pose\(category)

pp2

Prop

libraries\props\(category)

tif, bmp, bum, jpg

Textures; bump

textures \ textures\(category)\(subcategory)

pzs

Web links

Weblinks\(category)

Two other kinds of files that you may encounter are phi and pcf. Phi files were used in earlier versions of Poser to perform functions now carried out in the hierarchy editor, and were located with the obj file. Pcf files are coded for use by Objaction Mover.

Poser scenes are stored in pz3 files. They are similar in structure to CR2 files, although they contain lights, cameras, figures, and all other components of the Poser scene. See the sections on Library Files and CR2 files for more information on Poser file contents.

Step 1 - File Types Found in Poser Downloads

Numerous Poser resources are available on the Internet as listed on the Arcana resources pages. Many include free downloads; other items are for sale at the Digital Art Zone (DAZ3D) and other commercial web sites. It is useful to know what kinds of files to expect in these downloads.

The simplest cases are texture, bump, transparency, and reflection maps. These are provided as graphic files, often in jpg format. Location of the graphic file is a user option, but the location must be supplied when the texture is applied to a figure within Poser. Poser installs the initial set of textures and bump maps as indicated in the file placement table.

Perhaps the most commonly available download is the morph target. These are supplied as obj files that are imported into Poser for application to part of a figure. Morph targets are controlled by the CR2 file, which provides a dial when the body part is selected. The Poser manual defines and discusses morph targets on pages 152-157.

If you download a new model it will most likely be supplied as an obj file, along with a CR2 and some texture and bump maps. These large downloads are often for sale rather than distributed freely.

Props are often supplied as pp2 files with embedded obj information. They may also include texture and bump map files. Hair files also may have the geometry embedded in the hr2 file rather than a separate obj.

Characters are usually modifications of meshes (models) that already came with Poser, but can also include custom models you created in other programs for use in Poser. They are supplied as CR2, texture and bump files. Conforming clothing uses a CR2 file to make it poseable; thus the download is similar to that of a character.

Magnet files are actually prop (pp2) files with a pre-positioned magnet as the prop.

Step 2 - Structure and Mechanics of obj Files

So what is Posette, really? Does a sort of virtual Barbie Doll somehow unfold from the Poser CD? Does your computer put her together from electronic tinker toys?

There may be some sort of magic at work, but you do not need to understand the magic to use Poser; you can produce excellent art simply by learning the tools provided within the program. However, there are cases where external manipulation of the Poser files can create effects that are difficult or impossible within the program. An understanding of the files facilitates troubleshooting, and defines the possibilities and limitations of your creativity with Poser.

In the geometries folder of the Poser file structure are several dozen subfolders with names that correspond to Poser figures. Within the subfolders are files with the extension “OBJ”. Each obj file describes a model or “mesh”; a collection of polygons arranged in such a way as to form the desired shape. The polygons are grouped to define important subdivisions of the mesh. Poser needs the polygon groups to have particular names, which are seen within the program as body parts: hip, left foot, ring finger, etc.

Obj is a text file format introduced by the high-end 3D application called Wavefront. The obj file for a figure describes vertices, faces, groups, and materials in a code that Poser (and many other 3D programs) can interpret. From this information you would know the position in three-dimensional space of each vertex or other component. By describing the positions of all the vertices in the mesh, the obj defines the shape of even a complex object like Posette.

The obj file is divided into sections, and follows a format which has several allowed variations. The purpose of each statement is identified with an initial code, including v for vertex. A typical entry in an obj file might be:

v 0.045944 0.036847 0.027364

The three numbers are the x, y, and z coordinates in the object's local coordinate system, respectively. There may also be entries for texture vertices (vt), vertex normals (vn), and facets (f), among many others. Groups are indicated by “g” followed by the group name, with the list of facets following. There are also “usemtl” lines, which tell Poser how to color the untextured object. The obj format provides for complex mathematical expressions that can describe spline objects as well as meshes, although Poser makes no use of those features.

Poser characters and props are based on the obj file format, but the obj file alone does not give enough information for Poser to produce all the properties of the 3D objects that we have available to us in Poser. For this reason Poser uses CR2, pp2 and other files to supplement the information in the obj file and extend our capabilities for working with it. The information normally supplied in an obj can also be embedded within a pp2, CR2 or other files, using the standard obj coordinate format. Thus prop downloads often do not specifically include a stand alone obj file.

An obj file, or a CR2 with embedded obj data, conveys information about 'morph targets'. The Poser manual defines and discusses morph targets on pages 152-157.

You can learn more about the OBJ format and its origins, as well as many other 3D file formats at Paul Bourke's 3D Data Formats page.

Step 3 - Structure and Mechanics of Library Files

Within “Poser 4/Runtime/Libraries” you will find folders that correspond to the categories in Poser's library pull-out: Camera, Character, Face, etc. Each library element is described by a special type of file: .cm2 for cameras, .CR2 for characters, and on through the list.

All of these files are text files, which you can open in a text editor or word processing program. They contain formalized descriptions and instructions written in code that Poser can read. As with any computer instructions, everything has to be in exactly the right format and exactly the right place within the file. Because the files can be large and complex, it is not advisable to modify them unless you have a good idea how to go about it. Always make a backup copy before editing a file.

All of these files follow a similar structure, but have separate filename extensions and library locations (see the File Placement Table for details). The simplest of these files control props, lights, and cameras, and the most complex, the CR2 files, describe Poser characters. The file “box.pp2”, found in the Library folder under Prop Types, can serve as an example. You may wish to have a look at the file in a text editor, but be careful not to save any changes or the file will no longer work.

Each file refers to an underlying obj geometry file, also in text format. The file describes the parameters that can change within poser, including size, position, textures, etc. There can be more than one file referring to a single obj. This would happen, for example, if the modified prop, character, etc., is resaved in the library by pressing the “+” sign at the bottom of the library window.

The file “box.pp2” is set up like an outline, with minor sub sections organized within major sections. Indentation is used to distinguish the levels of the hierarchy. Indented text is a sub section of the text that encapsulates it.

The file opens and closes with {} marks, and each section is similarly distinguished, as in some computer programming languages. The major sections describe the file version, the location and name of the obj file used, and properties such as the settings applied in Poser. One of these sections, called “channels”, contains information about the position, size, textures, and other properties that were assigned and appear in Poser. If you change the standard “box.obj” from within Poser and save it as a new object to Poser's library, you will find many differences in this section between the two versions when looked at in a text editor. Poser will add new entries as needed under channels, as well as modify values in the existing entries.

It should rarely be necessary to modify these types of Library files outside of Poser, with the exception of CR2 files. Any attempt to modify these files should involve a copy, not the original, and should include great care to maintain the brackets and other critical elements of the file format.

Step 4 - The CR2 and Why You Would Want to Modify it

The CR2 file is a special case of the descriptive Library files. The CR2 is the largest and most complex of these, and the type that you are most likely to modify outside of Poser.

The geometry of the figures used in Poser is stored in obj files. The CR2 file offers Poser-specific details: size, position, pose, textures, proportions, etc. It also controls the dials that change the figure; the dials can be hidden and modified from within the CR2. Normally the CR2 governs a single figure.

Some of the other Library Files files work by modifying specific sections of the CR2. For example, poses, faces, hands, etc. are already described within the CR2, but the application of a pose, face, or hand file changes the corresponding action of the CR2. This change is written to the pz3 (Poser scene) file. If the modified character is saved to the Poser library, the pose, face, or hand file overwrites the original information in the CR2 file.

An obj file, or a CR2 with embedded obj information, conveys the information about 'morph targets'. A morph target modifies the geometry of a Poser figure, and is controlled by a dial provided by the CR2 file. The Poser 4 manual defines and discusses morph targets on pages 152-157.

The CR2 file is organized into about 15 sections, related to Poser version, the intended obj file, the figure body parts (called 'actors' in the CR2 file), their connections and interrelations, the materials applied to the parts, the preset materials, and the display mode. Settings within these sections control such things as scaling, the ways the parts bend, whether they are visible, and endless other details. Individual settings within the files are enclosed in brackets {}, which are often nested to develop complex instructions. One of the easiest mistakes to make in editing a CR2 file is to forget or delete a closing bracket.

It is risky to edit a CR2 file. The size and complexity makes it easy to make a mistake and difficult to locate the mistake. All hand editing should use a copy, not the original file. The safest and most convenient way to edit a CR2 file is with the great utility CR2Edit, written by Poser artist Dan Wilmes. CR2Edit is currently available only for Windows. Among the many chores made easy by this utility are listing the files referenced by the CR2, automatic installation of downloaded files, modification of ancillary file locations, copying of joint parameters, resetting of several parameters, and execution of various kinds of conversions. CR2Edit provides a manual CR2 editor that is safer and more convenient than a general purpose text editor.

You should also be aware of another utility called CR2Editor, by John Stallings. It is available in the files section of the egroups PoserTech forum, and it appears that version 1.51 is the most stable. Although CR2Editor and CR2Edit have very similar names, neither software author was aware of the other when the programs were being written. CR2Editor is particularly strong for viewing two CR2 files at once, and moving blocks of code between them. It also works well for comparing two versions of the same file. CR2Edit has a wider range of tools for other operations on CR2 files.

If you create a figure or piece of clothing in another 3D application, you must export the piece as an obj file for use by Poser. However, you will not be able to write a new CR2 file from scratch, since these files are often tens or even hundreds of thousands of lines long. In order to produce a CR2 file for your piece, you can modify an existing CR2. The lines you will change will be the ones that tell which obj it works with and where that file is located. You will also remove the lines that define the materials applied to the object. You will then need to supply new materials after you open your object in Poser. When you save the new figure as a library component within Poser, the program will write a corrected CR2 file. You can learn about this process in a tutorial by Steve Shanks.

There may be several CR2 files for a single obj file. The different CR2 files use the obj in different ways. You can download and import a new character as a CR2 file that makes use of an obj figure that you already have. Many such characters are available on the Internet.

A newly discovered property of CR2 files is enhanced morph control (EMC): the ability of an adjustment or morph target to control a morph target. This suite of features has presumably been embedded in Poser for some time. It may have originated as a means to apply a large number of morphs at once to the “Hero” figures. Three forms of EMC were discovered by Poser hot-doggers Rbtwhiz and Nerd.

The first form of EMC is known as joint-controlled morphs (JCM), in which the movement of a joint adjusts a morph target. This is especially valuable in animations, where for example the biceps might bulge as an arm bends. The second form of EMC is partial body morphs (PBM), which control more than a single morph on the figure. For example, you might want to synchronize morph targets on the hips and abdomen of a pregnant woman. The third type is conforming morphs (CM). Conforming morphs control the shape of an article of conforming clothing as the figure moves. CR2Edit makes it easy to apply EMC. Learn more about EMC from the CR2Edit manual, or from the web sites of Rbtwhiz and Nerd.

The pz3 file that stores the Poser scene is so similar to the CR2 that one may simply change the file extension from pz3 to CR2. The resulting CR2 may then be imported into an existing scene to bring not only a figure, but its associated props, hair, etc.

The best, and perhaps the only, detailed discussion of CR2 format was written by Kevin Rose. This is a great resource, with the discussion linked to examples in a separate frame.

Step 5 - Learning More/Wrapup

Resources that contributed to this article have been cited in the different sections. All of them contain details that were not discussed here. The CR2Edit manual contains a good deal of information about CR2 files.

The most readily available way to learn about Poser files is to open them up in a text editor and study their structure. Follow up by playing with some of the features of CR2Edit. At some point Curious Labs, which took over from MetaCreations as the supplier of Poser, may specifically document some of the material treated here.

Because there has been no documentation of these features by the software authors, it is difficult to be sure that all important details have been covered, and that all the information is correct. I would like to hear about errors that you may find, or new information that you may uncover.

Understanding Poser Files: pp2 files

2011-11-01T17:42:34+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.

Understanding Poser Files: pp2 files

Author: - esha -

Tools Needed

* Poser

* A text editor

Introduction

Poser files are easy to work with because they are just text files which can be edited with many applications. I prefer Edit Pad Lite (free for non-commercial use): http://www.editpadpro.com/editpadlite.html But of course you can use your favorite text editor, too. As an example for this tutorial I will use one of my freebies, a paper plane. Feel free to download it and have a look at the files yourself: http://www.esha.xail.net/html/objects.html IMPORTANT: If you start experimenting, always make a backup copy of the file first, just in case!

Step 1 - Open the File

Open the pp2 file in a texture editor.

As we said, it is just a text file.

Right at the beginning there is a brace sign {. You will find many of these throughout all your Poser files. You'll also notice that they often are in different places, preceded by tabulators. They are important because they separate the different types of information in the file. If one of the braces is missing or if you change its position the file probably will not work any longer.

The version number tells us in which versions of Poser the file will work. If the version number is 5 or 6, the file will generate an error message in Poser 4. A file for Poser 4, though, will work perfectly in newer versions, too.

Then we find the prop's name, in this case it's 'paper plane'. This is the name Poser will display for the prop. It has nothing to do with the name of the file. The prop's name appears 4 times throughout the pp2 file, if you want to change it, make sure to change them all.

Step 2 - The Geometry

There are different types of props.

If you import an object into Poser and save it as a prop, the geometry will be saved inside the pp2 file and it will look like this:

If the prop is a big object with many polygons, the prop file will be big, too. When you load several such props into your scene, this results in a very large scene file, because Poser includes everything in the pz3 file. This is why many content creators generate props with external geometry.

They remove the geometry data and insert a few lines which tell Poser where to look for the obj-file. Because the geometry data is not included in the file anymore, this kind of prop is called a prop with external geometry. These files are much smaller and look like this:

The storage offset value is always the same, it's just something Poser needs.

The path for the obj file will vary. Of course, the obj file has to be in the folder which is specified in the pp2 file, otherwise it will not work. If Poser ever gives you a message telling you that it can't find the obj file, check this geometry path and have a look where the obj file really is.

Step 3 - The channels

The next thing in the pp2 file are the channels. In Poser, the channels are displayed as dials which you can use to change certain settings.

The Offset Settings

The list of channels starts with the Offset settings (zOffsetA OriginX, zOffsetA OriginY, zOffsetA OriginZ). These wheels are hidden by default in Poser, although you can switch them on in the properties panel. The offset values set the center of the prop, this is especially important for rotation behavior. You can use these settings to make the prop rotate not around its own axis but around a given point in space.

The Scale Settings

There are 4 different scale channels: A general one and one for each x, y and z scaling.

A value of 1 means 100% or original size, 0.5 would be half the original size and 2 would mean double size. The prop will load in Poser with these pre-defined values, but you can always change them using the dials.

More Settings

Then there are channels for rotation and translation, always one for x, y and z each. They define rotation and position of the prop when it is loaded in Poser. Basically, they work in the same way as the scale settings, so I will not explain them further.

Step 4 - Morphing Props

Props can also contain morphs. In my case the paper plane has 2 morphs to bend the left and the right wing.

In the pp2 file, morphs are displayed as additional channels. By default they are set to zero, but of course you could also load a prop with a morph pre-applied.

The lines of numbers starting with a 'd' are the deltas. This is the data which tells Poser how to change the prop when the morph is applied. Theoretically, deltas can be saved in separate files and then injected to use them, but this works only for figures (e.g. V3's head and body morphs which are sold separately). With a pp2 file, don't touch the deltas, leave them as they are, or the morphs will not work anymore.

Step 5 - Display Modes

After the channel data you'll find some settings to determine the way the prop is displayed in Poser. The default setting for props is USEPARENT. This means that the prop will be displayed with whatever settings are used for the document display style. However, you can set your prop to a certain display style which will not be affected by the document display style. That means, you can have your prop displayed in outlines and the rest of your scene in texture shaded mode.

NOTE: This has no influence whatsoever on how the prop is rendered. It only sets the display mode for the preview window, where you set up your scene before rendering.

The various display modes are: SILHOUETTE; EDGESONLY; WIREFRAME; HIDLINE; SHADEDOUTLINE; FLATSHADED; FLATLINED; CARTOONNOLINE; SKETCHSHADED; SHADED; SMOOTHLINED and TEXTURESHADED.

After the display settings you'll find the material settings. We'll skip them here because this is a topic for a separate tutorial which will follow soon. ;)

Step 6 - The End of the File

At the end of the file all the braces that were opened before find their closing counterparts. Be careful not to delete any of the braces, the file will not work without them!

The 'add actor' command tells Poser to add the prop to your scene. Again the prop's name is used, it has to be the same name as we chose at the beginning.

Now you know a bit more about Poser prop files, I hope you found this information useful.

Happy rendering,

esha

Use all your earrings for all your Poser people

2011-11-01T17:42:34+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.

Use all your earrings for all your Poser people

Author: karanta

Tools Needed

Poser

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

Save both earrings under a new name - maybe “Girl earring right” and

“Girl earring left” into you props library.

Poser will ask you if you want to save them as smart props -

click on yes.

Now you'll have two separate earrings which you can easily adjust

to each person you like. For learning how to add movement dials to these earrings,

have a look at the following tutorial: Movement for your earrings

I hope you had fun with this little tutorial :)

Kerstin (karanta)

Using RSR converter to create Poser Thumbnails

2011-11-01T17:42:34+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 RSR converter to create Poser Thumbnails

Author: MercyToo

Tools Needed

Poser 4 or Pro Pack
Paint program capable of saving PICT (.pct) files
RSR Converter
Windows OS

Introduction

This tutorial will walk you through the steps of getting rid of the shrugging guy in your poser libraries.

With the free RSR Converter tool created by Philip Foss, it's easy to create a nice Poser thumbnail for your Mat files.

So, let's move on and make this shrugging guy a little less confused :o)

Step 1 - Rendering an image to convert.

Set up your scene in Poser. For this tutorial, I will create a thumbnail for a Mat File I made for DAZ's V3 Fantasy Collar. I've got my scene in place, all I need to do now is render.

It's best if you render a large image in a new window and have your antialias turned on. I usually render images for RSR's at 600 x 600 pixels and 72 dpi.

I've rendered my image, now I am going to make sure I save it somewhere that I can easily find it. I save my renders as photoshop files so that I can get an alpha channel. Alpha channels are handy if you want to remove the background color from the image and put something nicer behind it.

Now I am going to open my paint program (Photoshop 7 in my case) and open the render I just saved. At this point, you can do what ever you want to your image. Just keep in mind this image will be scaled down to 91 x 91 pixels for converting and any text may be hard to read. So, do what you want and then we'll move on to the next step :o)

Step 2 - Saving the file in your paint program

So now I've created the ugliest poser thumbnail in the world In my paint program, I need to resize my thumbnail to 91 x 91 pixels. You should do the same.

In your paint program, you will want to SAVE AS a PICT (.pct) file. If a window opens asking you if you want to save at 16 bits or 32 bits, choose 16 bits. This is important if you want to be able to see what you've created. If you save at 32 bits, it will appear transparent in poser. I just saved mine as “For-rsr.pct” and I will rename it later.

Now you can close your paint program.

Step 3 - Using RSR Converter

If you haven't extracted RSR converter from the zip file, do so now. It doesn't matter where you save it. I keep it in a Poser folder where I save all my images and keep a shortcut on my desktop. You save it where ever it is convenient for you. Once it's installed, open the program.

This is what RSR converter looks like when it opens:

Make sure conversion mode is set to “PICT to RSR”. In the area where it says, “Enter the path to your PICT file here”, click the button with three dots (…)

Browse to your file and open it.

In the area where it says “Enter the path to your RSR file here”, click the (…) button and browse to the location of the mat pose file you have created this thumbnail for. (Runtime - Libraries - Pose - FOLDER) Once you've browsed to that folder, it is very important that you name your .RSR File with the same name as the mat file (.pz2).

My mat file is named:

MPE TUT Collar.pz2

so I will name my RSR:

MPE TUT Collar.rsr

Click the “Save” button, then click “OK”.

Here's a screen shot for you:

*NOTE* If you don't see your .pz2 file located in the folder, click the arrow to pull down the menu next to “Save as type:” and select “All Files”. This will show you all the files in that folder. Then, you can click ONCE on the .pz2 file that you've created the thumbnail for. Before you press save, put a “.rsr” at the end of your file name. Then you'll have the file names matching exactally and you won't over write your .pz2 file.

Now our RSR file is saved. Let's go back into Poser and make sure it worked correctly.

Step 4 - Checking things in Poser

If you kept Poser open, simply 'refresh' your pose library by leaving the pose library and then going back into it. Since I left Poser open, I have to do this or I won't see my new thumbnail.

After refreshing, my thumbnial now appears in the library and the shrugging guy is gone!

That's all there is to it! RSR converter is another fantastic free tool and I hope you will find it as helpful as I have.

As always, if you need any help with one of my tutorials, you can contact me and I will do my best to help you out!

Good luck and keep on creating

Using the Poser Lens

2011-11-01T17:42:34+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 the Poser Lens

Author: jval

Tools Needed

Poser 3 or 4

Introduction

Many Poser users never change the Poser lens focal length from its 38mm default setting. By ignoring this basic option they choose to give up substantial creative control. This illustrated article will show you the effects of different lens focal lengths and when and how to use them. Only models included with Poser are used so that you may freely duplicate and experiment with them.

But first, some basic background. The Poser lens is modelled after a real camera lens and provides the same perspective control and effects. Poser appears to use focal lengths that are very similar to a 35mm camera. Lenses are identified by their focal lengths and commonly referred to as normal, wide or telephoto lenses. The lower the focal length number, the wider the lens. Wide-angle lenses give a wide field of view and make things appear farther away. Telephoto lenses provide a narrower field and make things look closer. A normal lens is one which approximates what the human eye would see from a given position. 50-55mm would be considered a normal lens.

By using appropriate focal lengths you will be able to control various perspective and distortion effects. Such control will allow you to more accurately simulate reality or bend it to your will. The choice is yours.

Step 1 - Wide, Normal and Telephoto Lenses

The average camera snapshooter uses different lenses only for convenience, not creativity. Wide-angle lenses are used just to get it all in the picture while telephoto lenses are used because you can't get physically close enough. Depending on your scene, such real world limitations may also appear in your Poser landscape. The following images represent a single scene rendered from the same viewpoint. The only difference is the choice of lens focal length-28mm wide angle, 55mm normal and 135mm telephoto. Amateur photographers commonly use these lenses.

But lenses can also effect the way that objects appear to our eyes in respect to their relative positions and distances. This is termed perspective and is covered next.

Step 2 - Perspective Effects

Creative people will use their lenses differently. Instead of making subjects smaller or bigger, they will try to keep them the same size in the image view. Let's look at the same scene but with slightly different lenses. Unlike the last set of pictures, this time when we change lenses we also move our camera position closer or farther in relation to the subjects.

The 55mm length shows the expected visual relationship between the people. The gentleman is just slightly behind the lady. But notice that in the 15mm wide-angle scene there appears to be much greater distance between the two. He almost appears to be rushing to keep up with her. Also note that their faces appear distorted. This is because the distances between the right and left sides of the faces seem to be greater than they are in reality. These distortions become more pronounced towards the edges of the image. Just the opposite occurs with the 300mm telephoto lens. Now the distance between man and woman appears reduced to the point that they seem almost side by side. Things look slightly flatter.

In the real world our eyes actually see this way. But the brain knows better and makes an automatic adjustment for us so we see what we know is real. Our brains do not make this adjustment when viewing flat representational images, hence the apparent distortion.

Step 3 - More of a Good Thing

Visual perspective is determined by three factors- the focal length of your lens, the camera position in relation to the subject and the distance between items in the field of view. Each figure is separated by a greater distance than in the previous scene. The camera position is the same in this series. The only change between images is the focal length of the lens.

Contrast the extreme depth of the 15mm image with the almost total depth absence in the 500mm view. Especially notice how the 500mm makes all figures appear approximately the same height even though each is identical and substantially behind the preceding one. Using wider or more telephoto focal lengths results in even greater perspective changes. The rate of distortion will also increase. The Poser program indicates that the focal length range is from 0.000 to 100, 000.000. It lies- the top end is 1, 000.

Step 4 - Portrait Considerations

If there is anything with which we are intimately familiar, it is the human face. As such our tolerance for facial distortion is relatively low in matters of portraiture. Frequently portraits are limited to the facial area, known as head shots. You will recall that various focal lengths introduce their own brands of distortion. A careless choice of lenses may produce a portrait that is less than satisfactory, although the viewer may not realise quite why it is so.

In this series of images we again use the common lenses 28mm and 55mm. But this time we choose a 105mm telephoto lens, a frequent standard for photographic portraits. In each case we have moved our camera position so that the head fills approximately the same image area.

Note the severe distortion in the wide-angle picture. The nose is somewhat bulbous and the cheeks too large. The eyes recede too quickly, giving a pop-eyed appearance, and the ear appears almost flattened against the side of the head. The 55mm image is somewhat better but still echoes these distortions. It is not until the 105mm image shot that the face appears normal. The face is more gently rounded, the eyebrows appear more natural and the hair is fuller.

If you are after a natural look, your best choice for a portrait lens lies between 75mm and 105mm. But do not be afraid to use other focal lengths, especially wide angle, if you are after a special or high fashion effect.

Step 5 - That Simple?

Simple, wasn't it? Once you know what the eye expects and how it interprets perspective, you can visually lie to your artistic benefit. Try making areas appear more spacious by using the increased depth effects of the wide-angle lens. Conversely, you may make that stand of trees or a crowded room look even more densely occupied by taking advantage of the depth flattening potential of a telephoto lens.

Here are a few examples:

shelter

extreme wide-angle creates false depth

portrait of Victoria

portrait telephoto retains natural facial appearance

flutterby dreams

moderate wide-angle enhances depth and gives a sense of spaciousness

When Poser 5 SR4 Fails To Show Thumbnails

2011-11-01T17:42:35+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.

When Poser 5 SR4 Fails To Show Thumbnails

Author: DTigerWoman

Tools Needed

Poser 5 SR4

Introduction

In the Poser 5 Service Release 4 there was a new feature included that omits thumbnails when browsing library categories that contain more than a certain threshold of items. 100 is set as the default.

If there are more than 100 items in a particular library folder Poser 5 with Service Release 4 installed will not even show the default thumbnail (See image).

Step 1 - Editing Library Preferences

Note: Make sure Poser is closed before you edit the file otherwise you'll have to do it over again.

Look in your Poser 5 folder and find the following file:

:Runtime:prefs:LibraryPrefs.xml

- Open LibraryPrefs.xml with notepad or some other reliable text editor.

Find the following line:

Change the 100 to a higher number. I put mine on 600 so I wouldn't encounter any more problems in future with large packages ;o)

Once you get the 100 changed to a better number that you prefer save it. Now when you open poser the thumbnails that were previously hiding from you will show up.

Wind force in Poser

2011-11-01T17:42:35+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.

Wind force in Poser

Author: elisabethc

Tools Needed

Poser 5 or 6

Introduction

This tutorial intends to show you how to apply wind force to dynamic hair and dynamic clothes by using the “Wind Force” object in poser. You should be familiar with poser and its hair- and cloth- room.

Step 1 - Setting up the scene

Open poser and load your desired figure and the dynamic cloth. For this tutorial I am using DAZ's “Victoria 3” and the “Vicky 3 Dyn Gown” by Karanta. Important: Wind Force can only be applied to dynamic hair and cloth!

Step 2 - Add and position the Force Field

With the cloth selected go to “Object > Create WindForce”. Position it by using the parameters palette in front of (or behind, or beside) the dress - just like you would like it to be affected. You can also scale and rotate it.

The properties of the Force Field are set with these dials: Amplitude, Spread Angle, Range and Turbulence.

My settings are these:

Step 3 - Calculation in the cloth room

In the animation control window select frame 15 and pose your figure. Now go to the cloth room and create a cloth simulation as usual:

“New Simulation” - button: create the new simulation by clicking this button.

“Clothify” - button: choose the dynamic clothing prop, click OK.

“Collide Against” - button : choose Victoria by clicking on the “Add/Remove…” button, OK.

“Calculate Simulation”-Button: start he the calculation by clicking this button.

Step 4 - Adding dynamic hair and another Force Field

Back in frame one load the dynamic hair and create an additional Force Field as described above. Position it in front of (or behind, or beside, …)the figures head with the hair. For this Force Field I use the same settings as for the first one.

Step 5 - Calculation in the hair room

Go to the hair room and select one of the hair groups:

Now look at the “4. Dynamics control” part of the window and click : calculate dynamics:

You can do this now with each of the hair groups.

Step 6 - Some Notes concerning the hair calculation

1. For better results you may change the wind force properties for each hair group or create a separate force field for each hair group.

2. In the “4. Dynamics control” part check the box named “do collisions” and (!) also check the box named “collision detection” in the properties palette of the figures body parts (neck, collar etc.) that might collide with the hair. You should do that in order to avoid the penetration of these body parts by the hair!

3. For rendering and easier work you will have to set the Force Fields invisible (properties, uncheck the boxes).

Step 7 - Final Image without and with wind force.

Image without Wind Force:

And with wind force:

I hope this tutorial was helpful for you like so many other tutorials have been helpful for me. Last but not least : have fun !

Working with Depth of Field in Poser6

2011-11-01T17:42:35+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.

Working with Depth of Field in Poser6

Author: Aphoennix

Tools Needed

Poser 6

Introduction

This tutorial shows you how to set up your scene to use Depth of Field in your renders. It also shows you how to adjust the settings according to your needs.

Step 1 - Creating the Scene

For the purpose of this tutorial and to keep things simple I've created a scene using three primitives, a cube, a ball and a cylinder. Once you understand how this works you will be able to use it any scene that you build.

I've loaded a second ball to the scene so that I could parent it to the camera that I am working in. In this case I am working with the main camera. After I have parented the ball I can move the ball where I want the point of focus to be.

Step 2 - Loading the Python Script

With the parented ball selected and the position I want, I then load the Python Script as shown above.

You can now run the script.

Select the value that was produced in the script window and Copy (ctrl-c) and paste (ctrl-v) the value in the focus_Distance parameter of the camera that you are using. Again, I am working with the main camera.

For now we are going to leave the fStop Value at the default setting, as we'll get to that shortly. Next I selected the parented ball once again, and unchecked the visible box in the properties tab of the parameter dials window.

Something to keep in mind is that every time you'reposition the parented ball, you will need to run the dof_p5.py Python Script again and paste the results into the focus_Distance parameter.

Step 3 - fStop Settings

You will find that you will need to experiment with fStop to find the right settings depending on your scene and your focus_distance.

There is no set value for the fStop, however it should be noted that the lower the fStop number is, the stronger the effect/blurring. The higher the fStop number the effect/blurring is weaker.

Step 4 - Render Settings

In order for the Depth of Field effect to work, you must use the Firefly renderer and have Raytracing selected.

To smooth out the rough edges and produce a better quality render you can raise the Pixel Sample rate. You should keep in mind that raising the Pixel Sample also increases your render time.

You can also use the Post Filter Size and Post Filter Type settings, but these are optional

Working with MAT and MOR Pose Files

2011-11-01T17:42:35+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.

Working with MAT and MOR Pose Files

Author: Cris Palomino

Tools Needed

Poser 4
A Text Editing Program
Victoria 1 or 2

Support Files

Step 1 - Map, Mat and Mor Files

In part one, Working with MAT Pose Files, we looked at how to use the MAT Pose files which accompany the new set of Victoria 2 maps from DAZ. This tutorial will take you to the next step and show you how to create and apply your own files by using existing files as template starters. The three types of files we will discuss here are MAP files, which apply maps, MAT files, which generally apply material colors, and what this tutorial will call MOR files, which apply morph targets.

NOTE: The nature of this material requires editing of Poser files in a text editor and should be attempted with care. The mis-handling of words or punctuation, or any inaccuracy in their placement WILL result in unreadable files and figures which will either not load or load incorrectly. This tutorial also assumes knowledge of creating PZ3, .pz2 and other Poser files (consult your Poser manual for more information).

MAT files have been around for a while it seems. Richard Hatch discovered them back around the days of Poser 3, but they never seemed to find an audience at the time. Now, they have come of age and, with the introduction of Victoria 2 which is an undistributable CR2 (this includes .pz3s), this little discovery has benefitted from the experimentation on the part of some to take it a few steps forward.

Using the MAP and MAT files made by DAZ for their Victoria 2 Maps set as a template, you can open one in a Text Editor such as Homesite or WordPad (which is not as limited as NotePad) on the PC and BBedit or Simple Text on the Mac, or MS Word, to see how they were made. Always save your file under a different title, IMMEDIATELY, to preserve your original. DO NOT WORK ON YOUR ORIGINAL FILE.

The simplest of the files is the MAT Pose file. This one simply assigns the material color. Take a look at the MAT file for the V2 Tone Dark.pz2. It is just giving a base color to the material and, when compared to a .CR2 file which contains much more information, it has been stripped down to only the components which effect the materials line denoted by Kd in the text.

{

version

{

number 3.0

}

figure

{

material SkinHead

{

KdColor 0.890181 0.694118 0.47451 1

}

material Eyebrows

{

KdColor 0.890181 0.694118 0.47451 1

}

material Lips

{

KdColor 0.890181 0.694118 0.47451 1

}

material Nostrils

{

KdColor 0.890181 0.694118 0.47451 1

}

material SkinBody

{

KdColor 0.890181 0.694118 0.47451 1

}

material Nipples

{

KdColor 0.890181 0.694118 0.47451 1

}

material Eyeballs

{

KdColor 1 1 1 1

}

material Pupils

{

KdColor 0.921569 0.839216 0.796078 1

}

material Eyewhites

{

KdColor 0.921569 0.839216 0.796078 1

}

material Irises

{

KdColor 0.921569 0.839216 0.796078 1

}

material Toenails

{

KdColor 0.890181 0.694118 0.47451 1

}

material Fingernails

{

KdColor 0.890181 0.694118 0.47451 1

}

SkinHead, Lips, Eyebrows, Nostrils, SkinBody, Nipples, Toenails, and Fingernails will usually have the same material color and, unless you are looking for some special effect, are the only ones I recommend you change. The texture maps will provide the color for everything else and combine with the material color to give a new tone color to the material areas that have been changed such as is shown in the example in the next section.

Step 2 - Example Changes

As shown in Part 1 of this tutorial, by applying the V2Map3Natural.pz2 Pose file, we set the V2 maps (in this case the medium maps) and transparencies. No base material color has been added; the figure's base material color is set to white.

This is the same file with the material parameters (the Kd line) changed from:

KdColor 0.921569 0.839216 0.796078 1

to:

KdColor 0.8 0.693309 0.480003 1

So how do you get those numbers you see in the example .pz2? Well, the way I found, after discussion with DAZ, was to save a figure out as a PZ3 after making color selections in the Surface Materials dialog window with the use of the Color Picker. Opening the PZ3 in the text editor, you will see your color translated to a floating point number.

I then copied out that color, using the whole line as shown, and pasted it onto the corresponding lines in a copy of the DAZ file, which I had already renamed for my Xochi character. Using the convention DAZ used in their V2 Map files, I named it:

MAT_V2_Xochi.pz2

Although it is not being discussed in this tutorial, a Python script (from Curious Labs'Poser Pro Pack) comes with the Pro Pack which could be used and modified to generate the material numbers.

Step 3 - Changing the MAP Files

In the same manner in which we modified the MAT file, the MAP files can be modified to point to whatever maps you desire. This is the text file of the V2Map3NaturalP4.pz2.

{

version

{

number 3.0

}

figure

{

material SkinHead

{

KdColor 1 1 1 1

KaColor 0 0 0 1

KsColor 0.137255 0.137255 0.137255 1

TextureColor 1 1 1 1

NsExponent 16.3786

tMin 0

tMax 0

tExpo 0

bumpStrength 1

ksIgnoreTexture 0

reflectThruLights 1

reflectThruKd 0

textureMap “:Runtime:textures:DAZ:Characters:MilWom:V2HeadM3JPG”

0 0

bumpMap “:Runtime:textures:DAZ:Characters:MilWom:V2HeadBump.bum”

0 0

reflectionMap NO_MAP

transparencyMap NO_MAP

ReflectionColor 1 1 1 1

reflectionStrength 1

}

material Eyebrows

{

KdColor 1 1 1 1

KaColor 0 0 0 1

KsColor 0.137255 0.137255 0.137255 1

TextureColor 1 1 1 1

NsExponent 16.3786

tMin 0

tMax 0

tExpo 0

bumpStrength 1

ksIgnoreTexture 0

reflectThruLights 1

reflectThruKd 0

textureMap “:Runtime:textures:DAZ:Characters:MilWom:V2HeadM3JPG”

0 0

bumpMap “:Runtime:textures:DAZ:Characters:MilWom:V2HeadBump.bum”

0 0

reflectionMap NO_MAP

transparencyMap NO_MAP

ReflectionColor 1 1 1 1

reflectionStrength 1

}

material Lips

{

KdColor 1 1 1 1

KaColor 0 0 0 1

KsColor 0.294118 0.294118 0.294118 1

TextureColor 1 1 1 1

NsExponent 30.7961

tMin 0

tMax 0

tExpo 0

bumpStrength 0.920635

ksIgnoreTexture 0

reflectThruLights 1

reflectThruKd 0

textureMap “:Runtime:textures:DAZ:Characters:MilWom:V2HeadM3JPG”

0 0

bumpMap “:Runtime:textures:DAZ:Characters:MilWom:V2HeadBump.bum”

0 0

reflectionMap NO_MAP

transparencyMap NO_MAP

ReflectionColor 1 1 1 1

reflectionStrength 1

}

material Lacrimal

{

KdColor 0.827451 0.827451 0.827451 1

KaColor 0 0 0 1

KsColor 0.384314 0.384314 0.384314 1

TextureColor 1 1 1 1

NsExponent 30

tMin 0

tMax 0

tExpo 0

bumpStrength 0.75

ksIgnoreTexture 0

reflectThruLights 1

reflectThruKd 0

textureMap “:Runtime:textures:DAZ:Characters:MilWom:V2HeadM3JPG”

0 0

bumpMap NO_MAP

reflectionMap NO_MAP

transparencyMap NO_MAP

ReflectionColor 1 1 1 1

reflectionStrength 1

}

material Eyelashes

{

KdColor 0.219959 0.111513 0.0286107 1

KaColor 0 0 0 1

KsColor 0 0 0 1

TextureColor 1 1 1 1

NsExponent 100

tMin 1

tMax 1

tExpo 0

bumpStrength 0.75

ksIgnoreTexture 0

reflectThruLights 1

reflectThruKd 0

textureMap “:Runtime:textures:DAZ:Characters:MilWom:V2HeadM3JPG”

0 0

bumpMap NO_MAP

reflectionMap NO_MAP

transparencyMap “:Runtime:textures:DAZ:Characters:MilWom:V2HeadTr2JPG”

0 0

ReflectionColor 1 1 1 1

reflectionStrength 1

}

material InnerMouth

{

KdColor 1 1 1 1

KaColor 0 0 0 1

KsColor 0 0 0 1

TextureColor 1 1 1 1

NsExponent 30

tMin 0

tMax 0

tExpo 0

bumpStrength 0.75

ksIgnoreTexture 0

reflectThruLights 1

reflectThruKd 0

textureMap “:Runtime:textures:DAZ:Characters:MilWom:V2BodyM2JPG”

0 0

bumpMap “:Runtime:textures:DAZ:Characters:MilWom:V2BodyBump.bum”

0 0

reflectionMap NO_MAP

transparencyMap NO_MAP

ReflectionColor 1 1 1 1

reflectionStrength 1

}

material Nostrils

{

KdColor 1 1 1 1

KaColor 0 0 0 1

KsColor 0 0 0 1

TextureColor 1 1 1 1

NsExponent 30

tMin 0

tMax 0

tExpo 0

bumpStrength 0.75

ksIgnoreTexture 0

reflectThruLights 1

reflectThruKd 0

textureMap “:Runtime:textures:DAZ:Characters:MilWom:V2HeadM3JPG”

0 0

bumpMap “:Runtime:textures:DAZ:Characters:MilWom:V2HeadBump.bum”

0 0

reflectionMap NO_MAP

transparencyMap NO_MAP

ReflectionColor 1 1 1 1

reflectionStrength 1

}

material Tongue

{

KdColor 1 1 1 1

KaColor 0 0 0 1

KsColor 0 0 0 1

TextureColor 1 1 1 1

NsExponent 30

tMin 0

tMax 0

tExpo 0

bumpStrength 0.920635

ksIgnoreTexture 0

reflectThruLights 1

reflectThruKd 0

textureMap “:Runtime:textures:DAZ:Characters:MilWom:V2BodyM2JPG”

0 0

bumpMap “:Runtime:textures:DAZ:Characters:MilWom:V2BodyBump.bum”

0 0

reflectionMap NO_MAP

transparencyMap NO_MAP

ReflectionColor 1 1 1 1

reflectionStrength 1

}

material UpperEyebrows

{

KdColor 0.286275 0.227451 0.172549 1

KaColor 0 0 0 1

KsColor 0 0 0 1

TextureColor 1 1 1 1

NsExponent 100

tMin 1

tMax 1

tExpo 0

bumpStrength 0.75

ksIgnoreTexture 0

reflectThruLights 1

reflectThruKd 0

textureMap NO_MAP

bumpMap NO_MAP

reflectionMap NO_MAP

transparencyMap “:Runtime:textures:DAZ:Characters:MilWom:V2HeadTr2JPG”

0 0

ReflectionColor 1 1 1 1

reflectionStrength 1

}

material Teeth

{

KdColor 0.968627 0.952941 0.882353 1

KaColor 0 0 0 1

KsColor 0.764706 0.764706 0.764706 1

TextureColor 1 1 1 1

NsExponent 30

tMin 0

tMax 0

tExpo 0

bumpStrength 0.698413

ksIgnoreTexture 0

reflectThruLights 1

reflectThruKd 0

textureMap “:Runtime:textures:DAZ:Characters:MilWom:V2HeadM3JPG”

0 0

bumpMap “:Runtime:textures:DAZ:Characters:MilWom:V2BodyBump.bum”

0 0

reflectionMap NO_MAP

transparencyMap NO_MAP

ReflectionColor 1 1 1 1

reflectionStrength 1

}

material SkinBody

{

KdColor 1 1 1 1

KaColor 0 0 0 1

KsColor 0.0980392 0.0980392 0.0980392 1

TextureColor 1 1 1 1

NsExponent 15.4175

tMin 0

tMax 0

tExpo 0

bumpStrength 0.857143

ksIgnoreTexture 0

reflectThruLights 1

reflectThruKd 0

textureMap “:Runtime:textures:DAZ:Characters:MilWom:V2BodyM2JPG”

0 0

bumpMap “:Runtime:textures:DAZ:Characters:MilWom:V2BodyBump.bum”

0 0

reflectionMap NO_MAP

transparencyMap NO_MAP

ReflectionColor 1 1 1 1

reflectionStrength 1

}

material Nipples

{

KdColor 1 1 1 1

KaColor 0 0 0 1

KsColor 0.00390631 0.00390631 0.00390631 1

TextureColor 1 1 1 1

NsExponent 30

tMin 0

tMax 0

tExpo 0

bumpStrength 0.75

ksIgnoreTexture 0

reflectThruLights 1

reflectThruKd 0

textureMap “:Runtime:textures:DAZ:Characters:MilWom:V2BodyM2JPG”

0 0

bumpMap “:Runtime:textures:DAZ:Characters:MilWom:V2BodyBump.bum”

0 0

reflectionMap NO_MAP

transparencyMap NO_MAP

ReflectionColor 1 1 1 1

reflectionStrength 1

}

material Eyeballs

{

KdColor 1 1 1 1

KaColor 0 0 0 1

KsColor 1 1 1 1

TextureColor 1 1 1 1

NsExponent 100

tMin 1

tMax 1

tExpo 0

bumpStrength 0.75

ksIgnoreTexture 0

reflectThruLights 1

reflectThruKd 0

textureMap “:Runtime:textures:DAZ:Characters:MilWom:V2HeadM3JPG”

0 0

bumpMap NO_MAP

reflectionMap NO_MAP

transparencyMap NO_MAP

ReflectionColor 1 1 1 1

reflectionStrength 1

}

material Pupils

{

KdColor 1 1 1 1

KaColor 0 0 0 1

KsColor 0 0 0 1

TextureColor 1 1 1 1

NsExponent 30

tMin 0

tMax 0

tExpo 0.6

bumpStrength 0.75

ksIgnoreTexture 0

reflectThruLights 1

reflectThruKd 0

textureMap “:Runtime:textures:DAZ:Characters:MilWom:V2HeadM3JPG”

0 0

bumpMap NO_MAP

reflectionMap NO_MAP

transparencyMap NO_MAP

ReflectionColor 1 1 1 1

reflectionStrength 1

}

material Eyewhites

{

KdColor 1 0.980011 0.980011 1

KaColor 0 0 0 1

KsColor 0 0 0 1

TextureColor 1 1 1 1

NsExponent 30

tMin 0

tMax 0

tExpo 0.6

bumpStrength 0.75

ksIgnoreTexture 0

reflectThruLights 1

reflectThruKd 0

textureMap “:Runtime:textures:DAZ:Characters:MilWom:V2HeadM3JPG”

0 0

bumpMap NO_MAP

reflectionMap NO_MAP

transparencyMap NO_MAP

ReflectionColor 1 1 1 1

reflectionStrength 1

}

material Irises

{

KdColor 1 1 1 1

KaColor 0 0 0 1

KsColor 0 0 0 1

TextureColor 1 1 1 1

NsExponent 85.5825

tMin 0

tMax 0

tExpo 0

bumpStrength 0.75

ksIgnoreTexture 0

reflectThruLights 1

reflectThruKd 0

textureMap “:Runtime:textures:DAZ:Characters:MilWom:V2HeadM3JPG”

0 0

bumpMap NO_MAP

reflectionMap NO_MAP

transparencyMap NO_MAP

ReflectionColor 1 1 1 1

reflectionStrength 1

}

material Toenails

{

KdColor 1 1 1 1

KaColor 0 0 0 1

KsColor 0.498024 0.498024 0.498024 1

TextureColor 1 1 1 1

NsExponent 30

tMin 0

tMax 0

tExpo 0

bumpStrength 0.75

ksIgnoreTexture 0

reflectThruLights 1

reflectThruKd 0

textureMap “:Runtime:textures:DAZ:Characters:MilWom:V2BodyM2JPG”

0 0

bumpMap NO_MAP

reflectionMap NO_MAP

transparencyMap NO_MAP

ReflectionColor 1 1 1 1

reflectionStrength 1

}

material Fingernails

{

KdColor 1 1 1 1

KaColor 0 0 0 1

KsColor 0.498024 0.498024 0.498024 1

TextureColor 1 1 1 1

NsExponent 30

tMin 0

tMax 0

tExpo 0

bumpStrength 0.75

ksIgnoreTexture 0

reflectThruLights 1

reflectThruKd 0

textureMap “:Runtime:textures:DAZ:Characters:MilWom:V2BodyM2JPG”

0 0

bumpMap NO_MAP

reflectionMap NO_MAP

transparencyMap NO_MAP

ReflectionColor 1 1 1 1

reflectionStrength 1

}

material Preview

{

KdColor 1 0.763119 0.709972 1

KaColor 0 0 0 1

KsColor 0 0 0 1

TextureColor 1 1 1 1

NsExponent 30

tMin 0

tMax 0

tExpo 0

bumpStrength 0.75

ksIgnoreTexture 0

reflectThruLights 1

reflectThruKd 0

textureMap NO_MAP

bumpMap NO_MAP

reflectionMap NO_MAP

transparencyMap NO_MAP

ReflectionColor 1 1 1 1

reflectionStrength 1

}

It is the textureMap “:Runtime:textures:DAZ:Characters:MilWom:V2HeadM3JPG” lines that you will modify to point Poser to what maps it will use. You can also set the transparency and bump maps. Additionally, notice that there are also Kd lines in this file, which means you could add material color information here and effectively add material color to the texture map's colors which can come in handy for individual characters you may create. One file to apply instead of two.

The same basic information applies to files which colorize eyes and lips and anything else. By using your own unique texture maps and then giving a number of color toning MAT files, you can create characters with individualizing elements of color for various parts of your figure. Just remember that using a material color adds to the color of the texture map. So, if you add a blue material to the irises and your texture map has brown eyes, you will see the blue material under the brown texture (see Part 1 of this tutorial). That is an odd mixture. However, two different blues in the material and in the texture could give you a wonderfully unexpected shade of blue eyes.

Step 4 - Creating Unique Characters

And now we come to what I think is the truly exciting part of the tutorial, and that is the creation of unique characters using the abundance of Morph Targets that come with Victoria 2.

The first step is to create your character. I wanted my character to bear a semblance to some of my ancestors in Mexico. With the rich array of morphs in Victoria 2, I took her from this:

…to my character, Xochi (pronounced so-chee):

I created a MOR file which includes MAT and MAP information to change her with the application of one Pose (.pz2) file.

One of the goals of this tutorial is to show you how you can continue to create characters with Victoria 2 and freely distribute them without infringing on the copyright restrictions of of the Victoria2 CR2 (character files). This will be accomplished with the creation of Poses; files with the suffix of .pz2, which can be placed in your Poser'4 Pose libraries. When you make a PZ2, no full body morphs are saved, only the body groups. In most instances, you will want both body and face together for your characters, so you do not need to create a subset. If you wish to separate them out, consult your Poser 4 manual on how to create a subset for your body (.pz2) and face (.fc2).

Now, having said that .pz2s do not save full body morphs, let me show you something:

This is Xochi's body. (on the right) It was made by applying Xochi's MOR Pose File, already mentioned.

What is interesting to note here is that she has a FULL BODY MORPH, the PearFigure at a dial setting of 1. This was accomplished by typing some new parameters into the .pz2 Pose text file.

There are only two full body morphs which do not have any body group or partial body morph (pbm) counterparts: PearFigure and Young.

Through trial and error, it was found that a block of parameters, which included V2's full body morphs, could be added to the .pz2 Pose text file. For those new to Poser file editing, it is advisable that you only apply settings to one major Full Body Morph (such as PearFigure, Young or Emaciated) as these affect various individual body groups with one dial. Use the individual body morphs to do the rest of your morphing. The more comfortable you get and the more you learn in your experimentation, the more you can dabble with mixing Full Body Morphs, but start easy and build up so you can actually see how the dials affect the model.

As a matter of fact, I would recommend doing everything with individual body morphs when you begin and familiarize yourself with how they work and what to do. After all, the Full Body Morphs you see in Victoria 2's morph list are comprised of individual morphs and then made into a Full Body Morph with a single dial that applies all of its morphing components. Consult your Poser Manual on creating full body morphs.

Victoria 2 contains a number of morphs known as ERCs (Enhanced Remote Control). Robert Whisenant (“rbtwhiz”) and Charles Taylor (“nerd”) have been the pioneers in this and detailed information about ERCs can be found on their respective sites. This tutorial attempts to make you aware of the ERCs as they pertain to character creation; not to go into great detail on them. You should consult the aforementioned sites as they provide very good information on this subject. In short summation (and borrowing from Robert Whisenant's explanation) ERCs are used for remotely controlling joint, morph, scale, taper and a number of other channels in Poser' 4.

Following is a list of what body groups contain which ERC morphs. Once you have used a control morph, you will find other morphs bearing the same name plus the prefix pbm in other body groups. These can be used to further modify (lessen or strengthen) the effect of a control morph.

ERC Control Morph

Found in Body Group

HvyRollGone

Abdomen

HvyCreaseGone

Abdomen

HvyThghInFulR

Right Thigh

HvyThghFulL

Left Thigh

NeckSpandex

Neck

ChestSpandex

Chest

HipSpandex

Hip

HdNeckHeavy

Neck

NeckOld

Neck

NeckThin

Neck

NeckTwistR

Neck

NeckTwistL

Neck

TrpsSmall

Chest

ShldrSmallR

Right Shoulder

ShldrSmallL

Left Shoulder

LatsSmall

Chest

BreastSize1

Chest (additional modifying morphs will not carry the pbm prefix)

BreastSize2

Chest (additional modifying morphs will not carry the pbm prefix)

BreastSize3

Chest (additional modifying morphs will not carry the pbm prefix)

BreastSize4

Chest (additional modifying morphs will not carry the pbm prefix)

BreastSize5

Chest (additional modifying morphs will not carry the pbm prefix)

BreastSize6

Chest (additional modifying morphs will not carry the pbm prefix)

BreastSize7

Chest (additional modifying morphs will not carry the pbm prefix)

BreastSize8

Chest (additional modifying morphs will not carry the pbm prefix)

BreastGone

Chest (additional modifying morphs will not carry the pbm prefix)

BreastMale

Chest (additional modifying morphs will not carry the pbm prefix)

BrstNatural

Chest (additional modifying morphs will not carry the pbm prefix)

BrstTopSlope

Chest (additional modifying morphs will not carry the pbm prefix)

BrstCleavage

Chest (additional modifying morphs will not carry the pbm prefix)

BreastLift

Chest (additional modifying morphs will not carry the pbm prefix)

BrstRotatein

Chest (additional modifying morphs will not carry the pbm prefix)

SmoothCrease

Chest (additional modifying morphs will not carry the pbm prefix)

GravityCrease

Chest (additional modifying morphs will not carry the pbm prefix)

TummyOut

Abdomen

WaistNarrow

Abdomen

LoveHandleR

Abdomen

LoveHandleL

Abdomen

Pregnant

Abdomen

AbsLine

Abdomen

AbsSoften

Abdomen

AbsPak

Abdomen

AbsRightUp

Abdomen

AbsLeftUp

Abdomen

HipSoften

Hip

HipNarrow

Hip

HipSmall

Hip

GluteBig

Hip

GluteSmall

Hip (additional modifying morphs will not carry the pbm prefix)

GluteCreaseR

Hip

GluteCreaseL

Hip

GluteFlexR

Hip

GluteFlexL

Hip

GluteRaiseR

Hip

GluteRaiseL

Hip

ThighWideR

Right Thigh

ThighWideL

Left Thigh

ThighFullR

Right Thigh

ThighFullL

Left Thigh

ThighInFull

Thigh

ThighInFullR

Right Thigh

ThighInFullL

Left Thigh

KneeSmall

Shin

CalfFull

Shin

FootForShoeR

Right Foot

FootForShoeL

Left Foot

FootPetiteR

Right Foot

FootPetiteL

Left Foot

ToePointedR

Right Foot

ToePointedL

Left Foot

BigToeinR

Right Foot

BigToeinL

Left Foot

SmallToesinR

Right Foot

SmallToesinL

Left Foot

CollarRUpFix

Right Collar

CollarLUpFix

Left Collar

ShldrRDeltFix

Right Shoulder

ShldrLDeltFix

Left Shoulder

ElbowRFix

ForeArm

ElbowLFix

ForeArm

ThighRInFix

Thigh

ThighLInFix

Thigh

KneeRBndFix

Shin

KneeLBndFix

Shin

KneeRBulgeFix

Shin

KneeLBulgeFix

Shin

HeelRinFix

Foot

HeelLinFix

Foot

Step 5 - Saving Your Character

Once you create your character, save it as a PZ3 because it contains all the dial settings you need to transfer, especially if you have used some of the full body morphs.

Note - If you are using Poser ProPack and have enabled “save compressed files” you will not be able to edit them in a text editor. You must leave this option deactivated when you save files that you want to edit, but you can reactivate it for saving other files.

To try to make things easier for you, this tutorial has two MOR templates for you to use. One has only body settings and the other contains both face and body settings. When you purchase DAZ's new Victoria 2 character's you will notice that you get a Face Pose File (.fc2) and a regular Pose File (.pz2) that only has body settings. DAZ decided to opt for flexibility by giving you files where you could interchange head and body types. You may want to do this or create a character that relies on a single head/body combination.

Download one or both of the template files:

Body Only Template (3kb) - .zip format

Face/Body Template (4kb) - .zip format

Open the template in your text editor along with the PZ3 that you are referencing and cut and paste, or manually enter, the appropriate information into the template. You do not need a template for the Face Pose File because Poser creates a distributable .fc2.

The Full Body Morph parameter block as it appears in the template is displayed lower down on this web page. This block allows you to affect the Full Body Morphs; it has been made specially for these templates. All of the Full Body Morphs are in here, but it is again recommended that novices restrict entering dial settings to one Full Body Morph for reasons already discussed. Poser saves a single keyframe when making a .pz2 Pose File and that is what “keys” and the “k 0 0” refers to. You will enter your dial setting in the final numeral place. PearFigure, for instance, with a dial setting of will look like this: k 0 1.0 and with a setting of .5 will be k 0 0.5.

You will enter the dial settings for any dials you have set throughout the template (which has all the Morph settings for Victoria 2 in all the body groups). Take your time and do it slowly. It can greatly help if you have a text editor which does word searches.

Full Body Morph Paramater Block

actor BODY:1

{

channels

{

valueParm Muscular

{

keys

{

k 0 0

}

valueParm Tone

{

keys

{

k 0 0

}

valueParm SuperHeroine

{

keys

{

k 0 0

}

valueParm Faerie

{

keys

{

k 0 0

}

valueParm Anime

{

keys

{

k 0 0

}

valueParm Young

{

keys

{

k 0 0

}

valueParm Barbarian

{

keys

{

k 0 0

}

valueParm PearFigure

{

keys

{

k 0 0

}

valueParm Emaciated

{

keys

{

k 0 0

}

valueParm Heavy

{

keys

{

k 0 0

}

valueParm ArmsPetite

{

keys

{

k 0 0

}

valueParm ArmsHeavy

{

keys

{

k 0 0

}

valueParm TorsoHeavy

{

keys

{

k 0 0

}

valueParm TorsoLegHvy

{

keys

{

k 0 0

}

valueParm HvyRollGone

{

keys

{

k 0 0

}

valueParm HvyCreaseGone

{

keys

{

k 0 0

}

valueParm HvyThghInFul

{

keys

{

k 0 0

}

valueParm HvyThghInFulR

{

keys

{

k 0 0

}

valueParm HvyThghInFulL

{

keys

{

k 0 0

}

valueParm HvySpandex

{

keys

{

k 0 0

}

valueParm Spandex

{

keys

{

k 0 0

}

valueParm NeckSpandex

{

keys

{

k 0 0

}

valueParm ChestSpandex

{

keys

{

k 0 0

}

valueParm HipSpandex

{

keys

{

k 0 0

}

valueParm StretchNeck

{

keys

{

k 0 0

}

valueParm StretchArms

{

keys

{

k 0 0

}

valueParm StretchLegs

{

keys

{

k 0 0

}

valueParm NailsLong

{

keys

{

k 0 0

}

valueParm HdNeckHeavy

{

keys

{

k 0 0

}

valueParm NeckOld

{

keys

{

k 0 0

}

valueParm NeckThin

{

keys

{

k 0 0

}

valueParm NeckTwistR

{

keys

{

k 0 0

}

valueParm NeckTwistL

{

keys

{

k 0 0

}

valueParm TrapsSmall

{

keys

{

k 0 0

}

valueParm ShldrSmall

{

keys

{

k 0 0

}

valueParm ShldrSmallR

{

keys

{

k 0 0

}

valueParm ShldrSmallL

{

keys

{

k 0 0

}

valueParm LatsSmall

{

keys

{

k 0 0

}

valueParm BreastSize1

{

keys

{

k 0 0

}

valueParm BreastSize2

{

keys

{

k 0 0

}

valueParm BreastSize3

{

keys

{

k 0 0

}

valueParm BreastSize4

{

keys

{

k 0 0

}

valueParm BreastSize5

{

keys

{

k 0 0

}

valueParm BreastSize6

{

keys

{

k 0 0

}

valueParm BreastSize7

{

keys

{

k 0 0

}

valueParm BreastSize8

{

keys

{

k 0 0

}

valueParm BreastGone

{

keys

{

k 0 0

}

valueParm BreastMale

{

keys

{

k 0 0

}

valueParm BrstNatural

{

keys

{

k 0 0

}

valueParm BrstTopSlope

{

keys

{

k 0 0

}

valueParm BrstCleavage

{

keys

{

k 0 0

}

valueParm BreastLift

{

keys

{

k 0 0

}

valueParm BrstRotateIn

{

keys

{

k 0 0

}

valueParm SmoothCrease

{

keys

{

k 0 0

}

valueParm GravityCrease

{

keys

{

k 0 0

}

valueParm TummyOut

{

keys

{

k 0 0

}

valueParm WaistNarrow

{

keys

{

k 0 0

}

valueParm LoveHandleR

{

keys

{

k 0 0

}

valueParm LoveHandleL

{

keys

{

k 0 0

}

valueParm Pregnant

{

keys

{

k 0 0

}

valueParm AbsLine

{

keys

{

k 0 0

}

valueParm AbsSoften

{

keys

{

k 0 0

}

valueParm AbsPak

{

keys

{

k 0 0

}

valueParm AbsRightUp

{

keys

{

k 0 0

}

valueParm AbsLeftUp

{

keys

{

k 0 0

}

valueParm HipSoften

{

keys

{

k 0 0

}

valueParm HipNarrow

{

keys

{

k 0 0

}

valueParm HipSmall

{

keys

{

k 0 0

}

valueParm GluteBig

{

keys

{

k 0 0

}

valueParm GluteSmall

{

keys

{

k 0 0

}

valueParm GluteCreaseR

{

keys

{

k 0 0

}

valueParm GluteCreaseL

{

keys

{

k 0 0

}

valueParm GluteFlexR

{

keys

{

k 0 0

}

valueParm GluteFlexL

{

keys

{

k 0 0

}

valueParm GluteRaiseR

{

keys

{

k 0 0

}

valueParm GluteRaiseL

{

keys

{

k 0 0

}

valueParm ThighWide

{

keys

{

k 0 0

}

valueParm ThighWideR

{

keys

{

k 0 0

}

valueParm ThighWideL

{

keys

{

k 0 0

}

valueParm ThighFull

{

keys

{

k 0 0

}

valueParm ThighFullR

{

keys

{

k 0 0

}

valueParm ThighFullL

{

keys

{

k 0 0

}

valueParm ThighInFull

{

keys

{

k 0 0

}

valueParm ThighInFullR

{

keys

{

k 0 0

}

valueParm ThighInFullL

{

keys

{

k 0 0

}

valueParm KneeSmall

{

keys

{

k 0 0

}

valueParm CalfBulge

{

keys

{

k 0 0

}

valueParm FootForShoeR

{

keys

{

k 0 0

}

valueParm FootForShoeL

{

keys

{

k 0 0

}

valueParm FootPetite

{

keys

{

k 0 0

}

valueParm FootPetiteR

{

keys

{

k 0 0

}

valueParm FootPetiteL

{

keys

{

k 0 0

}

valueParm ToePointed

{

keys

{

k 0 0

}

valueParm ToePointedR

{

keys

{

k 0 0

}

valueParm ToePointedL

{

keys

{

k 0 0

}

valueParm BigToeInR

{

keys

{

k 0 0

}

valueParm BigToeInL

{

keys

{

k 0 0

}

valueParm SmallToesInR

{

keys

{

k 0 0

}

valueParm SmallToesInL

{

keys

{

k 0 0

}

valueParm CollarRUpFix

{

keys

{

k 0 0

}

valueParm CollarLUpFix

{

keys

{

k 0 0

}

valueParm ShldrRDeltFix

{

keys

{

k 0 0

}

valueParm ShldrLDeltFix

{

keys

{

k 0 0

}

valueParm ElbowRFix

{

keys

{

k 0 0

}

valueParm ElbowLFix

{

keys

{

k 0 0

}

valueParm ThighRInFix

{

keys

{

k 0 0

}

valueParm ThighLInFix

{

keys

{

k 0 0

}

valueParm KneeRBndFix

{

keys

{

k 0 0

}

valueParm KneeLBndFix

{

keys

{

k 0 0

}

valueParm KneeRBulgeFix

{

keys

{

k 0 0

}

valueParm KneeLBulgeFix

{

keys

{

k 0 0

}

valueParm HeelRInFix

{

keys

{

k 0 0

}

valueParm HeelLInFix

{

keys

{

k 0 0

}

This template has been stripped down and rotate and translate parameters have been removed. This gives the file a remarkable feature in that you can apply it to a Victoria 2 figure which has been posed and it will morph her into your character and leave the pose untouched. I can think of a few instances where that would have been handy.

Add any MAT or MAP Pose Files and you have a fully distributable Victoria 2 character.

Step 6 - Wrap Up

Take your time with this information. There is a lot here and if you study the files, I'm sure you'll find other uses and ways to apply this to other models. I would love to hear about your adventures with Victoria 2 and the file types presented in the tutorial. As always, please feel free to contact me with your comments and questions.

Special thanks to DAZ, especially Chad Smith and Tony “Melmoth” Bradt. Also to the crew at In Depth Discussions who took the time to be guinea pigs and proofreaders. Thank you.

Your Poses Library

2011-11-01T17:42:35+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.

Your Poses Library

Author: RyanB

Tools Needed

Poser

Introduction

Just like the dewey decimal system (I know at least some of you can remember that) in a real library, there are a lot of abbreviations that get thrown around, and things are usually in some specific order. This tutorial helps make sense out of a few of the names used to identify elements in the Poser Library. Most important is the suggestion that you choose to apply the Maps first. Find out why.

Step 1 - Pz2 files and what they Posess

First Things First.

pz2 files aren't just for poses. You can hide a lot in those little guys, including Material and Morph target settings. Some examples of this can be found in the New Gorilla Morphs, Maps and Poses set which comes with both a normal Pose category and a MAT category, or the Victoria 2.0 Light Texture Maps. Let's look at some of the ways these are set up in your library. First the Gorilla.

Step 2 - What You see

This is what you're probably used to seeing in a Poses Library. You've got pictures of a figure that, when you click on them, change the way the figure is posed.

Note that, though you can apply these to a figure that doesn't match, you will probably get some strange settings, as what the pz2 file is doing is basically spinning the dials for you.

Keeping that in mind, also note that you should double check the figure you've got selected before you apply any poses. Many a picture of mine has been sent to the restore figure scrap heap because I applied it to Figure 2 instead of Figure 1, and I foolishly trusted the undo to fix things…

Step 3 - Mat Files

This is a shot from the MAT V2 Light Category. MAT stands for Surface MATerial. If you've purchased Textures from DAZ before you probably noticed the new entry in your Poses Library. Instead of doing things the old fashioned way by loading everything manually in the Render Materials window, these pz2 files will do all the leg work for you. There are a couple things to remember about MAT files.

First, Make sure you select the right figure. You're applying texture maps that need to line up to the correct material names and UV points on the figure now. Select the wrong figure in a scene, be it a character, a hair style or a prop, and poser will try to apply the texture map to it. Could be OK, could be very very bad…

Second, Make sure you select the right version. Notice the picture to the left. There are two texture maps with the same name, just a P4 and a PP added at the end. The P4 stands for Poser 4 and the PP for Pro Pak. Because these two versions handle bump maps differently (see DAZ's Top 10 Most Asked Technical Questions for more on Bump Maps and Poser) you need to pick the right one.

Third, Make sure you select the maps first. Don't select tone, eyes, or transparency. Start by applying the Maps first. Ok, for the sticklers, you don't have to select them very first. But it's a very good place to start. In the MAT V2 Light Category they're at the very bottom. If you start there and work your way up through tone, lips and eyes, you'll get everything in a pretty logical order. If you want to see the maps on the figure make sure you have Texture Shaded (Ctrl+9) selected as well.

Step 4 - Transparencies and the Rest

Next apply any Tone, Eye, Lip, Transparency etc.. settings. These can be done in any order, although I usually start with the tone. The picture on the left here is of two transparency settings for the MAT Aiko Versa-Hair poses. When you turn transparency on the hair will become dotted lines, making it hard to tell what changes you've made until you render, so I usually save them for last.

Step 5 - Two More Notes

The pz2 file isn't the only library file that can do all this. For example, the MAT files for the new Outlander set are all in the Faces Library.

You can always change things in the Render Materials Window, even after you apply the MAT Poses. So customize all you want.

Remember, These tips can get you from the image above:

To this (oops!)

To this

Z-Toon Anime/Cartoon Style for Poser

2011-11-01T17:42:35+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.

Z-Toon Anime/Cartoon Style for Poser

Author: SnowSultan

Tools Needed

Poser

Introduction

Hi, and welcome to my latest tutorial. Ever since writing my original anime-style tutorial (also here on DAZ), I have been trying to come up with an easier procedure that didn't require so much postwork. Hopefully, this new method will save you a lot of work and frustration and help you create fun, cartoony Poser renders in much less time! Thanks to some very creative ideas from Stewer, ockham, and others, I've been able to improve this tutorial further and make it even easier than before!

You can use the Z-toon technique on any type of figure in Poser, but I would recommend starting with either Lady Littlefox's Koshini or Ichiro (available for purchase here at DAZ), or the anime figures at Play With Poser (http://homepage2.nifty.com/zokeimaster/). Vicki and Mike work well too, but you will probably want to use a very simple texture (or even none at all) if you want a more classic cel-shaded look.

The example image above was created using the old Z-toon method and a little postwork in Photoshop. In this tutorial, I'm going to use Koshini and some free clothing by Motsuura to create a more simple example. Let's get started!

Step 1 - Building your Scene

If you read the original version of this Z-toon tutorial, you'll remember that we couldn't conform any clothing and had to apply pose Dots to each clothing item to match the figure. No more! Now you can conform figures just as if you were creating a regular Poser scene. Apply the clothing and hair to your figure and try to pose it at this point if you can. Use the Main camera to view your scene, but try not to move the camera or change it's angle too much. Poser's cameras do not work well when creating a Z-toon render, so we will use an alternate method of changing our viewing angle later in this tutorial.

Step 2 - Lighting

Once your figure is all dressed and posed, it's time for lighting. If you read my original anime tutorial, you'll remember that I recommend using one light in order to keep the shadows simple. We're going to do the same thing in this tutorial too. :) Delete all but one light in your scene and make the remaining one a white Infinite at 100% Intensity. Try to position it like in the example above so that it's near the middle of the Light Control globe and shines directly on the figure. You can try coloring the light or even adding two lights if you have a large scene, but I would recommend starting with one for now.

Step 3 - Adding the Ball

The next few steps will be new for this tutorial, and may seem confusing at first. In the end however, you will see that a little preparation now makes things much easier later. :)

Open your Props folder and you should find several basic objects that were included with Poser (a Box, a Ball, a Cane, a Cone, etc.). Locate the Ball as shown in the image above and load it into your scene. Feel free to move it out of the way of other objects too, but try to keep it in view for now. We will hide it when we render our image anyway.

Now comes the important part. Select each figure in the scene (each character, clothing item, etc.) and choose Set Figure Parent… When the Figure Parent window appears, choose the Ball that we just added. Repeat these steps to parent each figure or prop to the Ball. You should not have to parent smart props like jewelry or weapons to the Ball because they will follow their original parent (the figure they are smart-propped to).

Step 4 - Adding the Box

Once all of the figures are parented to the Ball, go back to your Props folder and load the Box into your scene. Go ahead and move it over if you wish, like I did in the example above. Now you should have a Ball and a Box in your scene, along with your figure.

Select the Ball now and choose Object - > Change Parent… When the window opens again asking you to choose the Ball's new parent, choose the Box.

At the moment, our figure and all her clothes are parented to the Ball, and the Ball is now parented to the Box. I hope you're not too confused! :) The hard part is over now though, so let's continue and you will see what we do with those two primitive props.

Step 5 - Z-Scaling

Now it's time to discover why I call this the Z-toon method! Select the Box and reduce it's zScale dial to somewhere between 5% and 20%. This shrinks the depth of the Box and everything that is parented to it - which now includes the figure and all her clothes. Without depth, the objects appear as flat, two-dimensional pictures instead of a 3D mesh, and this is what creates the cartoon look.

Step 6 - Flattened Figures

If you rotate the camera, you will see that the entire figure has become flat and two-dimensional, almost like a paper doll. The reason why this gives the character a cartoon look is because without depth (zScale), shadows are unable to form around the contours of the mesh and instead are simply cast by the paper-thin silhouette of the figure The lower you make the zScale, the less depth the figure will have and the fewer details and shadows will appear. Anything below 5% can cause the edges to lose focus and look like dotted lines, so I like to keep it around 10%-15%. You can always smooth out unwanted shaded areas or slight flaws in post-work anyway.

The most interesting thing about this technique though is that the figure is still poseable even while flattened! Morph targets can be adjusted, arms and legs can bend, and the figure can be rotated as well. However, it's very important to remember to only rotate the figure by her Hip and not by the Body or by rotating the camera around her. Select the character's Hip (not the clothing's Hip, be sure to check before rotating) and use the dials to turn her around or even tip her at an angle. You'll see that even though the figure itself is flat, it is still able to be posed and rotated within it's own space…kind of like the three criminals who were trapped in the Phantom Zone in the Superman movies. :)

Step 7 - Eliminating Highlights

Once the figure is flattened, you should look it over and eliminate any highlights or detailed textures that detract from the cel-shaded look. I always remove skin and eye highlights first, since these are rarely desired in cartoon images. Sometimes you may want to keep Poser's highlights on shiny clothing or objects, and other times you may prefer to paint them yourself in postwork to be more accurate. Very detailed textures often look strange on a Z-toon figure, and you may find that using no texture at all and simply coloring the figure in the Materials menu gives you a cleaner, more hand-colored result.

Step 8 - Camera angles using the Ball

In this step, we will use the Ball to simulate camera movement. In the example above, I added a ground prop so that we could easily see how the entire environment is rotating and not just the figure. Parent the ground object to the Ball, otherwise it will not move with the rest of the scene.

Now all you have to do is select the Ball and adjust it's x, y, and zRotate dials. Rotating or moving the ball will move all of the parented objects and figures, so by rotating the ball, you are effectively rotating your entire scene as well.

You do not have to add background or ground objects to do this; as long as the figure and any clothes are parented to the Ball (which they should be anyway), you can manipulate the Ball's position and rotation to create a different viewing angle. When making animations, just remember to rotate the Ball to animate the camera angle and it should work just fine.

Step 9 - Creating a Shadow Guide

Now that your Z-toon render is complete, you might also want to make a quick shadow guide to help you add shadows more accurately in postwork. It's very easy to do, and can be very helpful when you have to paint or touch up complex shadows for creating more classic anime images.

Switch to Cartoon with Line mode and your scene should look similar to the one above. At first, you might not see many shadows on your figure because it is still flattened (not 100% zScale), and because your light is probably shining directly on the figure. Changing either the light's direction or restoring the zScale to 100% should cast stronger shadows. Doing both might cast too many shadows though, so try one at a time first. :) When you're ready, anti-alias the window and export the image (don't Render it or you won't get the Cartoon with Line mode style).

Don't adjust the camera (or Ball), or change anything else in your scene at this stage though. The only point of this step is to produce a simple cartoon-style image that shows the direction and location of shadows. Color, detail, and even size do not matter here, it's just for reference. If you don't want to do postwork, or if you're making an animation and cannot add shadows by hand, you can skip this step.

Step 10 - Summary and Tips

That's about it! Here is a quick list of the steps in this tutorial for easy reference.

1. Create your scene normally, loading figures and hair and conforming any clothing. Try to pose the figure(s) at this stage, and don't adjust the camera angle too much.

2. Delete all but one light and shine it directly at the figure. I recommend using an Infinite 100% Intensity white light while you are learning.

3. Import the Ball that comes with Poser into the scene and parent each figure (clothing, characters, etc) to it using “Set Figure Parent …”.

4. Import the Box that comes with Poser into the scene and parent the Ball to it.

5. Select the Box and reduce it's zScale to 5%-20% (I like 10%-15% personally). This will flatten the figure and create the cartoon style look.

6. Eliminate highlights that detract from the flat cartoon effect. Usually you will at least want to remove them from the character's skin and eyes.

7. Rotate the Ball to change the view of the scene. DO NOT use the cameras or you will see that the figures are flat.

8. Switch to Cartoon with Line mode and make slight adjustments to the lights if necessary to create a shadow painting guide. This step is optional.

One more thing…remember that using a flat cartoony figure in front of non-flattened background props can look strange if you are really trying to achieve a cel-shaded look. You can always try flattening background items too…sometimes they work and sometimes they don't. ;)

Be sure to try your own ideas and techniques when using this method! Changing the light color, camera angles, and creative postwork are just a few things you can do to improve upon what I've described here.

Anyway, I hope you've found this tutorial helpful and I'll look forward to seeing any images you create using it! Take care!

SnowS

1001 Words

If you enjoyed this tutorial, please take a look at my other ones here and on Renderosity!

No part of this tutorial may be reprinted in any form without my permission (although I will almost always give permission). :) I will always allow translation of my tutorials into other languages however, as long as I am given credit for the original English version and am notified where I can view the translated version. Original version of this tutorial (Z-toon) available on www.renderosity.com. Thank you!

Exact eye settings made easy (part 1)

2011-11-01T17:42:35+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.

Exact eye settings made easy (part 1)

Author: Adavyss

Tools Needed

Poser 4 or higher
CR2Builder (free)
Michael 3

Support Files

targetGeom_template.zip

Introduction

The eyes are the windows to the soul. Well, it's not always the case in the Poser World. Why? The lack of eyes setting basic ergonomics makes it difficult to pinpoint the eyes positioning. Technical solutions do exist, but implementation has been neglected by Figure makers. In this tutorial we'll:

create 5 ERC (Enhanced Remote Control) using CR2Builder (free CR2 editor)
create 2 morphs inside Poser
Cluster them together into a new parameters group (P5/P6) in order to obtain an easy precise control of eyes and eyelid positioning from the head.

This tutorial is quite long, so it has been split in 2 parts. Nothing is complicated really and you'll end up with a great improvement to your Figure usage. Let's start the show!

Step 1 - Enhanced Remote Control basics

This tutorial is not about the ERC method.

As far as we are concerned here, ERC is the ability to control both eyes from the head.

So “actor head” is the Master, “actor leftEye” and “actor rightEye” are the Slaves.

For each instance of ERC, some code has to be added to the Figure CR2 file in order to identify master and slave channels.

Step 2 - A little bit of planning

“The wind direction does not have importance if first of all you do not know where you are going” - Seneque

I strongly recommend writing all ERC parameters down, before launching CR2Builder.

ERC n'1

We want the Figure's eyes to look up and down, both eyes being controlled from the head.

ERC name? (Choose a meaningful name for the ERC, not too long, otherwise it would not fit in the parameter dial)

Eye Down-Up

Master control location

actor head (in the head)

How many slaves / who are they? / which is the controlled channel?

There are 2 slaves

slave 1: actor leftEye

control ratio deltaAddDelta 1.000000

When you have no idea, leave the default value 1 and test you ERC once edited

controlled channel: rotateX xrot (we want the eye to turn around the x axis)

slave 1: actor rightEye

control ratio deltaAddDelta 1.000000

controlled channel: rotateX xrot

Step 3 - About creating ERC

We are using CR2Builder to add the relevant lines of code to the CR2 at the correct location.

(CR2Builder is available there: http://www.geocities.co.jp/kim99x2003/tool/CR2Builder/index.html).

Launch CR2Builder

Click “Open” (on the left) to
Load the Figure in the left tree view. We are using Michael 3, but the process is the same for any other Figure.
Click “Open” in the pop-up window
All information included in the CR2 file is now loaded in the Left Tree View window. The first level of display is the actors list.
You can check the operation status at the bottom of the main screen.

Step 4 - Edit your first Master channel

In the right window:

Click the '*targetGeom*' tab.
A Master channel template is on display. Put the template provided with this tutorial in place of the one on display (copy/paste on top).
Put the name of the ERC in place of '%1'
In the LeftTV window:
Click on '+' in front of 'actor head' (second instance) to develop.
Click on '+' in front of 'channels' to develop.
Right click on 'targetGeom HdAfrican'
In the pop-up menu, click 'From RP Under' (from right panel under)
the new 'targetGeom Eye Down-Up' Master channel has been created under the 'targetGeom HdAfrican' morph control
Select 'targetGeom HdAfrican', drag and drop underneath 'targetGeom Eye Down-Up'

Your first Master channel is edited.

Step 5 - Edit your Slave channels

Edit your 1st Slave channels

In the right window:

Click the 'ERC' tab.
In the Filter Channel panel, tick 'TargetGeom'
Click the 'Update' button.
After a while, a simplified version of the CR2 is displayed in the right screen.
Click on '+' in front of 'actor head' to develop. Select 'targetGeom Eye Down-Up', it should be on top of the list.
Click the 'Add' tab.
With 'targetGeom Eye Down-Up' selected, click the right '←' button.
Data is transferred into the small windows on the left
If required, change the control ratio value (copy/paste on top)

In the LeftTV window:

Click on '+' in front of 'actor leftEye' (second instance) to develop.
Click on '+' in front of 'channels' to develop.
Click on '+' in front of 'rotateX xrot' to develop.

In the right window:

Click the left '←' button.
Left Eye 'rotateX xrot' channel is from now on a slave of Eye Down-Up.

Edit your 2nd Slave channels and save

Begin the same procedure again

In the right window parameters remain the same

In the LeftTV window:

Develop 'actor rightEye' > 'channels' > 'rotateX xrot'

In the right window:

Click the left '←' button.
Right Eye 'rotateX xrot' channel is from now on a slave of Eye Down-Up.

Save

Click the 'SaveAs' button
Save under a new name
Click 'Save'

Don't close CR2Builder

Step 6 - How to size the control ratio

Launch Poser

Open 'M3_ERC'

Select the head.

Open the 'Parameters Dials' window

Your brand new ERC should be there, on top of the morph list.

Play with the dial.

We notice 2 problems:

* M3 looks downstairs when positive values are dialed. Given the ERC name 'Eye Down-Up', Eyes going up when the dial is turned to the right (positive values) and Eyes going down when the dial is turned to the left, would be more logical. We can change the polarity easily; we just need to change the control ratio sign.

Go back to Cr2Builder

In the LeftTV window:

Return to 'actor leftEye' > 'channels' > 'rotateX xrot'

Edit 'deltaAddDelta 1.000000' and replace 1.000000 with -1.000000

(To edit in the LeftTV you can choose between several methods: double click selection, short-cut [F2] or right click 'Edit Text' in the pop-up menu. First of all, CR2Builder is a powerful text editor)

Go to 'actor rightEye' > 'channels' > 'rotateX xrot' and do exactly the same: Edit 'deltaAddDelta 1.000000' and replace 1.000000 with -1.000000

Save

Don't close CR2Builder yet.

Go back to Poser, close the existing Figure, load the new version of M3_ERC and test.

* Second problem, in my opinion, the eyes do not react enough (ERC value > 10 to get significant result).

To fix that, we are going to modify the control ratio value.

Now the control ratio is 1. It means that when the remote control dial is set to 1, the slave is set to 1 (it does not show on display, but it's like that).

If the control ratio is 2, it means that when the remote control dial is set to 1, the slave is set to 2 (the Slave reacts 2 times more than the Master). Generally speaking, an increase of the control ratio increase the reaction of the slave, a decrease of the control ratio decreases the reaction of the slave.

In this example, we want to increase the eyes reaction, so we are going to change -1 for -10.

(Important: only absolute values matter. As far as control ratio is concerned, consider that sign and value are disconnected. The sign controls polarity, the value controls reaction. Even if it looks strange, -10 > -1)

Go back to Cr2Builder

In the LeftTV window:

Return to 'actor leftEye' > 'channels' > 'rotateX xrot'

2-Edit 'deltaAddDelta -1.000000' and replace -1.000000 with -10.000000

Go to 'actor rightEye' > 'channels' > 'rotateX xrot' and do exactly the same: Edit 'deltaAddDelta -1.000000' and replace -1.000000 with -10.000000

Save

Don't close CR2Builder yet.

Go back to Poser, close the existing Figure, load the new version of M3_ERC and test.

Of course, parameters provided (name, polarity, reaction…) are designed to suit my taste. Now you know what it's all about, you can (you should!) experiment and find which parameters suit your taste the best.

Step 7 - Conclusion

That's the end of the first part of this tutorial.

Close CR2Builder, close Poser, have a cup of coffee and think about what you've already achieved.

CR2Buider is a very powerful tool.

Tip: You probably noticed that the workflow inside CR2Buider is going from right to left. The Author is from Japan. In Japan people write from right to left; they think from right to left. Try to keep that in mind, it helps.

More to come. See you soon in Exact eye settings made easy (part 2).

Working with MAT Pose Files in Victorias 1 and 2

2011-11-01T17:42:35+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.

Working with MAT Pose Files in Victorias 1 and 2

Author: Cris Palomino

Tools Needed

Poser 4
Victoria 1 or 2

Step 1 - Getting Started

We will begin with Victoria 1 as the steps will be similar with both Victoria 1 and Victoria 2.

Load Victoria 1.

You will notice that certain colors have already been assigned to the model which give her the appearance of having flesh tones, eye and lip color and very heavy eye and eyebrow makeup.

You can manually change these in the SURFACE MATERIAL window (RENDER > MATERIAL), but there is a new way of changing material colors. With the MAT Poser files provided in the Victoria 2 Texture Maps by DAZ, you will also be able to correct the transparency state of the eyelashes and brows just by applying a Pose file.

When you purchase the new Victoria 2 set of Maps, a set of Pose Files (pz2s) entitled MAT V2 files are placed in the Pose Library when you install the maps.

This step will show you how to set the materials on Victoria, so you don't have to bother remembering what has to be set to this color or that transparency.

The MAT files were originally intended simply to allow you the ease of changing colors by choosing and applying a new MAT pose, but we found this “set materials” effect when experimenting and it turned into a good tip.

Select the POSE LIBRARY and the MAT V2 set of Pose Files (in this case we are using the Medium Maps, so these read MAT V2 MED).

Choose any of the V2MapNatural files as these will set the materials to white. The reason they do this is that then the only color influence on the model is the color from the map itself.

In addition, though, it serves to clear the model of its assigned colors and sets the correct transparancies.

Step 2 - Assign the Texture Maps

Now we can assign the texture maps.

RENDER > MATERIALS

In the SURFACE MATERIAL window, check TEXTURE CHANGES APPLY TO ENTIRE FIGURE. SkinHead should be the selected Material.

Load the Head texture, bump and transparency.

This tutorial used Curious Labs'Poser Pro Pack and loaded:

V2HeadM3JPG

V2HeadBumpJPG

V2HeadTr2JPG

PLEASE NOTE: The Poser Pro Pack prefers not to use the bump.BUM files which are much more memory intensive than other formats. You should use the bump.JPG files.

Conversely, Poser 4 will attempt to convert the bump.JPG files and result in what is becoming known as “the sooty/dirty look to Victoria”. Use the MAT files which end specifically in P4.

Without that ending (such as in the Eyes, Lips, etc.) they call in the bump.JPG files and you must manually change that to the bump.BUM if you are using Poser 4.

Hit OK to set these.

Open the SURFACE MATERIAL window once again to load the body textures.

Uncheck the TEXTURE CHANGES APPLY TO ENTIRE FIGURE box. You will be applying several individual textures.

This tutorial uses the V2BodyM2JPG and V2BodyBumpJPG.

Apply the body maps to:

Tongue, Teeth, SkinBody, Nipples, Toenails and Fingernails; these are the materials which appear on the Body Map.

Click OK.

This sets the textures and you can now further change coloration by selecting one of the MAT pose files provided.

(There will be more information on this later in the next section.)

Step 3 - MAT files for Skin, Eyes and Eyebrows

This is a test render of the V2 MED maps.

Victoria 2 comes with her own set of colored materials which include an Upper Eyebrow.

For those without the Victoria 2 Maps, you will need to manually fix the eyebrows.

Ever notice that you didn't have to set the brows on Victoria 1? That's because if you look on the Face Morphs, “Brows In” comes preset to 1.0 which pulls in the eyebrow geometry.

There is a similar dial for Victoria 2, “Brows Gone”, but it is not preset.

Ever notice that you didn't have to set the brows on Victoria 1? That's because if you look on the Face Morphs, “Brows In” comes preset to 1.0 which pulls in the eyebrow geometry.

There is a similar dial for Victoria 2, “Brows Gone”, but it is not preset.

Unfortunately, it leaves the area white. You now have the choice to make the rest of your model white in the SURFACE MATERIAL window (manually changing the materials) or you can match the skin material color.

If you have DAZ's Victoria 2 Maps, use the V2 Natural poses and apply the maps as previously shown.

Using the MAT Poses, you can now easily change EYE COLOR, LIP COLOR, and SKIN TONE COLOR, just by choosing a different MAT Pose and applying it.

Now and then, putting a light eye color over a dark eye color seems to confuse Poser. If this happens, simply select V2 Eyes Blue 2 which is the lightest of the eye colors. This seems to clear the palette and you can now apply your darker eye color.

There are also MAKE UP MAT files.

As well as SKIN TONE MAT files.

And you can layer MAT files.

In the next tutorial, we will go into how you can make your own MAT files.

Step 4 - Wrap Up

In conclusion, I found that for most Poser work, I was able to render my figures best by using the HI-RES maps sized in half.

The HI-RES maps will be best utilized for close-up work.

Save some memory if you are doing a head close-up by applying the HI-RES map to the head and a lower resolution map to the rest of the body.

With the illegalities of circulating the Victoria 2 CR2, the second part of this tutorial will present a solution with the use of other types of MAT files utilizing morph information which we have named MOR files.

This will allow the creation and distribution of new characters without infringing on the Victoria 2 CR2 as well as saving and distributing your favorite color combination of eyes, lips and even clothing and lighting.

Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions or comments.

Raytracing in Poser5, Part One

2011-11-01T17:42:35+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.

Raytracing in Poser5, Part One

Author: semidieu

Tools Needed

Poser5

Introduction

This tutorial will explain how the reflection node works in Poser5. The refract node is explained in "Raytracing in Poser5, Part Two".

Step 1 - Ray Trace Shadow

You have the choice between Depth Map Shadow or Ray Trace Shadow. The main question is why use one instead of the other.

Ray Trace Shadow creates very sharp, crisp shadows. Another advantage is that it renders a little bit faster.

The Shadow Min Bias sets the quality of the raytrace shadow. The smaller the value, the better the quality of the shadow.

Depth Map Shadow is much more configurable, as you can play with the Shadow Blur Radius and the Depth Map Size.

Step 2 - Setting the Reflect node

For the raytrace to work, you must use the FireFly render engine and check the raytracing on box in the render option window.

The reflection node has 5 values:

reflection color
reflection value
background color
softness
quality

To get better results, you should also decrease the Diffuse_value to a number near 0.

For each figure, you also have the possibility of checking or unchecking the visible in raytrace box. The figure will still be visible directly, but won't appear in the reflective surface.

Finally, in the render settings, the Raytrace bounce also affect on how raytracing works.

Step 3 - The reflection color

This value defines the color of the reflecting object. It acts as a filter.

Step 4 - The reflection value

This value defines the intensity of the reflection. Values above one usually don't give good results.

Step 5 - Background color

The background color applies to all parts of the reflecting surface that don't have anything to reflect. You can get interesting effects by setting the background color to white and plugging in a 2D image map as the background. The Background Color does not affect reflected objects!

That is, if you render a mirror in a closed room, the Background color will have absolutely no effect as it will be hidden by the reflected objects!

Without an image map :

With an image map :

Step 6 - Quality and Softness

These two values work together:

The Softness value defines how blurred the picture will seem.

The Quality value defines the quality of the reflection, i.e. how much time is spent calculating the effect. In cases where Softness is high, a higher Quality setting is important as it smooths the reflection, avoiding the “spiky” effects that appear otherwise.

With very low softness, the quality value doesn't need to be set with high value. But the more you increase the softness value, the more you will need to increase the quality to get good results.

Step 7 - Raytrace bounce

Raytrace bounces value sets the number of times Poser allows a ray to reflect after hitting the character. For a simple mirror, a first ray goes from the character to the mirror and a second goes from the mirror to the camera. Each of these rays counts as a bounce.

The next two pictures are impossible pictures in real life. Imagine you can put your eyes between two parallel mirrors. In theory, you should see infinite reflections of the character. However, in Poser the raytrace bounces value limits the number of reflections.

In these renders, the character is behind the camera. You see what appears in the mirror.

As always, thanks to Mark for correcting my horrible English.

Scanlines in P5

2011-11-01T17:42:35+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.

Scanlines in P5

Author: Nalif

Tools Needed

Poser 5

Introduction

When I first got into Poser, I would use outside programs to postwork scanlines in. This method has it's advantages, but it can be time consuming. This method will allow you to do scanlines right inside of P5! Lets get started.

Step 1 - Setting up the material

The first step is setting up your material. I usually just use a plain, simple material. In this example I'll be doing a monitor. I used a blue color for the base, and then set the transparency to 1. If you insist on following me exactly, here is a screen capture of my exact material before I start the scanlines.

Once you have your basic material, attatch a wood node to the transparency node. Set the light wood to a medium gray and the dark wood to pure white. Keep the scale at 1 and change the turbulence to 0. This is what your material should like like once your finished.

Step 2 - Render

And render away. Your material can be anything you want; the key part to the scanlines is the wood material itself. Feel free to use something other than blue.

And there you have it - simple yet effective scanlines inside of Poser 5. I'll bet you didn't think they would be that easy.

Working with Depth of Field in Poser6

2011-11-01T17:42:35+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.

Working with Depth of Field in Poser6

Author: Aphoennix

Tools Needed

Poser 6

Introduction

This tutorial shows you how to set up your scene to use Depth of Field in your renders. It also shows you how to adjust the settings according to your needs.

Step 1 - Creating the Scene

Step 2 - Loading the Python Script

With the parented ball selected and the position I want, I then load the Python Script as shown above.

You can now run the script.

Something to keep in mind is that every time you'reposition the parented ball, you will need to run the dof_p5.py Python Script again and paste the results into the focus_Distance parameter.

Step 3 - fStop Settings

You will find that you will need to experiment with fStop to find the right settings depending on your scene and your focus_distance.

There is no set value for the fStop, however it should be noted that the lower the fStop number is, the stronger the effect/blurring. The higher the fStop number the effect/blurring is weaker.

Step 4 - Render Settings

In order for the Depth of Field effect to work, you must use the Firefly renderer and have Raytracing selected.

To smooth out the rough edges and produce a better quality render you can raise the Pixel Sample rate. You should keep in mind that raising the Pixel Sample also increases your render time.

You can also use the Post Filter Size and Post Filter Type settings, but these are optional

Make some reflections of your figures

2011-11-01T17:42:35+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.

Make some reflections of your figures

Author: LunaL

Tools Needed

Poser 5

Step 1 - Ground plane

In just a few simple steps you can make awesome reflections in Poser 5 from grounds and walls.

Let us try the ground here.

First thing you do is to turn on the ground plane.

From your main menu do this:

Step 2 - Material room

Now go to your “material” room.

Select the object:Ground.

Material:preview.

Then add this new node:

Step 3 - Reflection setting

Make your reflection color and reflection background white.

Now render your new image using firefly renderer and you are done.

This is how my image came out.

Saving Time and Space

2011-11-01T17:42:35+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.

Saving Time and Space

Author: 3Don

Tools Needed

Poser 4

Introduction

Poser is a demanding program. It can take up a lot of HD space and the bigger the file gets; the longer things take to do. Allotting more RAM to Poser and closing other open programs are two obvious ways to save resources. Here are several other ways to save both time and space while working with Poser.

Step 1 - Workking with Textures

When working on a scene one often tries different textures for characters and props to see how they look. These textures, once loaded accumulate and remain active in that file until it is saved and closed. This does not make a bigger file size, but it can slow you down. Also when you go to apply a loaded texture, there is a long list to scroll through to find it. It's a faster process if you have fewer items to scroll through.

I have experienced a prop not rendering in a scene. Even though the shadow often appears, the prop will be gone, or like it is invisible. Dumping out the extra textures often remedies this. If not, reapply the same prop after restarting Poser and the prop should render properly (no pun intended).

So, when you have decided on the textures you want, save your document, quit, and restart. All of the unused textures will be gone.

Step 2 - Milenium Figures and Low Res Characters

If you use the DAZ Millennium figures, you know they are memory hogs! Their beauty and functionality come at a price. With those figures, or others, and clothes and props and whatever else, file sizes can grow quickly. When you use several figures, try the reduced size Millennium characters for general posing and placement, etc. Switch those figures for the higher resolution ones later for renders. Put lower res figures, such as the P4 standard ones in the background. Being smaller and not in center stage, where detail is less critical, these figures work well as fillers.

Most often, I add all of the characters I will use in a scene pose and place them before I start adding textures and props. The process of building a scene goes faster that way.

Step 3 - Use the Dots

Use the Dots! I frequently use the camera and pose dots (9 each). It is faster to use them than to go to pose and camera sets in the Library. When posing or composing, I often need to switch views to check progress. So, I have several favorite camera settings, which I can quickly access.

The pose dots are great for posing processes. When configuring a certain pose, I often save the pose to a dot so that if I am unsatisfied with the next step of progress, I can go back easily. This is faster than reverting to last saved. I keep one dot as a standard default to clear poses. The rest are changed frequently as I work. The dots are easy to set and reset. You just have to have a mental system to remember which is which, as there are no previews for dots.

Step 4 - Reset the Render Style

When selecting a Sketch Render style, you do not have to wait for the preview to render to have a particular preset ready to use. Just select the style, let it start to do the preview render for a few seconds, then click your mouse in the Sketch Design window to stop the preview render. Close the SD window and go back to the studio. The preset style has been set and will now render when you choose sketch design render under render options.

Step 5 - Low Resolution Characters and Reduce Polys in Millennium Characters

Besides using lower resolution characters there is another way to reduce file size. When I want to use the high polygon figures only, I have modified Millennium figures to use.

Under Windows, open the Hierarchy Editor and check the “show all parameters” box. You get a list of all body parts. What I do is delete the morphs I do not want or will use. For instance, I have one Millennium figure for which I have removed all alien, animal, fairy, and anime morphs. I have a figure which is now several MB smaller than standard. From that figure I have edited a few others for smaller sizes, taking out other morphs, such as vampire teeth, some stylized morphs for lips, etc.

In some I remove the spandex, emaciated, thin, etc. morphs. I save and name each specially modified model such that I will recall what it is.

You can do this even with the low-res Millennium and P4 standard figures for even smaller file sizes. I have Millennium figures that are half the original size. They sure process a lot faster as I work.

Step 6 - Strategic "Saving"

Once it's all done there are two ways to save your work. Say I name my Millennium Man file as “M2_Lifeguard.” Poser saves it as M2_Lifeguard.pz3 (Pro-Pack and Poser 5 might be different). You are saving all elements in your file as they are in this way. Besides saving the figure, you save the lights, cameras, and any other models within your scene. As such you might have a file size of 24 MB, for example.

But, if you just save the figure and its attached clothes, textures, and props to the Character Library it is saved as M2_lifeguard.CR2, a character file. This file does not record or retain the lights, cameras, or other elements from which the CR2 file was derived. It is thus, a smaller file size; say 22 or 18 MB, etc.

So, saving as a CR2, the file is generally smaller than a pz3. The advantage of a pz3 file is that you can save it to anywhere on your main or external HD and control your total space that way. The downside of a CR2 file in a way is that it is always saved to your Poser Runtime directory, increasing the density. How you save your file is a matter of choice and available resources. Being aware of this choice will enable you to save some time and space somehow.

Step 7 - Offloading Your Harddrive

Periodically, compress or burn to CDs your props, poses, textures, etc. in your Runtime Library and those in external libraries that you have not used in a while or don't use very often. Be sure to gather all associated files to archive, as well as to delete the associated ones in the complex Poser file structure. In other words, if you archive a character, you need to gather its textures, props, poses, etc. to save together. And you need to remove all of those files from not only your Library, but from Geometries also. This is especially necessary for characters and scenes you have set up from several sources.

If you archive to CD a pz3 file, you are not saving all of the associated files that go with it. To do that, open the file, review contents, and then gather and save all that you listed. I sure learned this one the hard way after saving some stuff and not thinking to save a couple of geometry and prop files after dumping the originals.

There you have it. Try these things and save yourself some time and space, as well as a lot of aggravation. You'll have more time to play!

Adding Full Body Morphs to Clothes with Wardrobe Wizard 2

2011-11-01T17:42:35+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.

Adding Full Body Morphs to Clothes with Wardrobe Wizard 2

Author: eallenmail

Tools Needed

Wardrobe Wizard 2
Poser 7
Victoria 3

Introduction

Before you can add full-body morphs (FBMs) to clothes with Wardrobe Wizard 2 (WW2), you first need to analyze the FBMs you want to add by analyzing a custom CR2. The CR2 is of the figure you with to convert to with the desired FBMs injected and dialed. This tutorial shows you how to set up WW2 for adding FBMs to converted clothes. We will be converting clothes to V3, so she will be the model referred to throughout the tutorial, but, of course, you can use your own model. We will also be using the FBMs that come in the V3 body morph pack as sold by DAZ. This tutorial does NOT cover creation, use and addition of custom morphs. This tutorial does NOT cover the entire WW2 conversion process either. For basic information, please visit the WW2 page or the forums at http://www.philc.net .

Step 1:

Open Poser 7.

Step 2:

Start a new project and put a new V3 in the scene.

Step 3:

Load the morphs that you wish to transfer to clothing.

Here we're loading just Skinny and Heavy, for simplicity's sake, but you can certainly load more morphs.

Step 4:

Move the morph dials for the morphs you wish to transfer.

It doesn't matter which way you push the morph dials or even what the resulting figure looks like.

Step 5:

Go to General Preferences > Miscellaneous. Uncheck the box that says “External Binary Morph Targets.”

Step 6:

Save the custom V3 CR2 to your library.

Name it something like “Victoria 3 SAE-WW2” just so you know what it is.

Step 7:

Start the WW2 plug-in.

To do this, go to Scripts > PhilC > Wardrobe Wizard Menu and select. You will get the following window:

Follow its instructions.

Step 8:

Make sure that the body of the custom V3 is selected.

Step 9:

In the Python scripts menu, click the WW2 Python button that says “Analyze Full Body Morphs.”

Step 10:

The popup menu will ask you which FBMs you want to analyze. In my experience, you can only successfully analyze FBMs that have been dialed. Select “Skinny” and “Heavy.” Hit “Okay.”

Step 11:

Note: If you have injected and dialed many FBMs, do not try to analyze them all at once because Poser 7 may crash.

Instead, analyze in batches. In my experience, Poser 7 handles around 20 morphs at a time comfortably.

Step 12:

Once the FBMs have been successfully analyzed, the information is saved in e Frontiers > Poser 7 > Runtime > Python Scripts > PhilC > Wardrobe Wizard > morph analyses > V3 [or whatever the name of the analyzed figure is].

[This path refers to the plug-in version only.] You don't need to analyze the FBMs again.

Step 13:

You can now add FBMs to clothes converted to V3.

When the “Which morphs shall I add?” window comes up, be sure to select only “Skinny” and “Heavy” [that is to say, only those morphs that you have analyzed according to the process above]. You can also select any morphs prefaced by a “ww” because those are morphs that WW2 automatically adds; analyses are not needed for them.

Step 14:

Do not select any FBMs - for example, “Voluptuous” and “Pinup” - that you have not analyzed according to the process above.

If you do select unanalyzed morphs, the dials will appear in the converted clothing morph options, but you won't be able to do anything with them.

Once you have used Poser 7 to help you analyze V3's PBMs, you can use the standalone WW2 to convert clothing more speedily. Simply copy the V3 morph analyses from the plugins folder to the standalone's folder. Go to e Frontiers > Poser 7 > Runtime > Python Scripts > PhilC > Wardrobe Wizard > morph analyses > V3. Copy the “V3” folder. Then go to Program Files > Wardrobe Wizard > morph analyses. Paste the “V3” folder here. Now you can convert clothes and add FBMs using the morph data generated with the help of Poser 7, but without opening Poser 7 in the first place.

Building a working door in poser

2011-11-01T17:42:35+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 a working door in poser

Author: xalthorn

Tools Needed

Poser

Introduction

If you've ever wanted a door for your scene and weren't sure how to go about it, then this tutorial is for you. It shows in a simple step by step process how to build a door and also demonstrates some of the pitfalls along the way.

Step 1 - Build the door

Let's get started by getting the scene ready. To give a good view of what we're going to be working with, change the main camera settings to match mine below.

main camera

Focal 38mm

hither 0.000

DollyZ 0.000

DollyY 0.200

DollyX 0.000

zScale 100%

yScale 100%

xScale 100%

Scale 100%

zOrbit 0

xOrbit -30

yOrbit 30

Now we'll create the door. In this tutorial version there are four box props, one cylinder, and two balls used. I've listed each part of the door that we need to create, the type of prop you should load in, and the settings for each one.

For example, the first part we need is the main door piece. It is a box and called door. Simply load the box prop into the scene, rename it by going to the 'Object' menu and selecting the 'Properties…' option. In there, type over the old name, replacing it with 'door'. Then Ok that window and change the dial settings to match those listed.

For the texture and colour change, go to the 'Render' menu and select the 'Materials' option. In the next window, make sure your renamed prop is the select object and change the texture map of Object colour appropriately.

Do this for each object below and you should have a door like mine.

door - box

Scale 100%

xScale 200%

yScale 400%

zScale 50%

yRotate 0

zRotate 0

xRotate 0

xTran 0.000

yTran 0.000

zTran 0.000

texture : ground default texture

object color : something dark red

left frame - box

Scale 100%

xScale 50%

yScale 400%

zScale 50%

yRotate 0

zRotate 0

xRotate 0

xTran -0.125

yTran 0.000

zTran 0.000

texture : ground default texture

right frame - box

Scale 100%

xScale 50%

yScale 400%

zScale 50%

yRotate 0

zRotate 0

xRotate 0

xTran 0.125

yTran 0.000

ztran 0.000

texture : ground default texture

top frame - box

Scale 100%

xScale 300%

yScale 50%

zScale 50%

yRotate 0

zRotate 0

xRotate 0

xTran 0.000

yTran 0.400

zTran 0.000

texture : ground default texture

handle post - cylinder

Scale 100%

xScale 10%

yScale 80%

zScale 10%

yRotate 0

zRotate 0

xRotate 90

xTran 0.080

yTran 0.200

zTran -0.040

front handle - ball

Scale 20%

xScale 100%

yScale 100%

zScale 100%

yRotate 0

zRotate 0

xRotate 0

xTran 0.080

yTran 0.190

zTran 0.040

back handle - ball

Scale 20%

xScale 100%

yScale 100%

zScale 100%

yRotate 0

zRotate 0

xRotate 0

xTran 0.080

yTran 0.190

zTran -0.40

let's have a look at what your scene should look like now.

Step 2 - Rotate the door

Now, without doing any more changes, we'll try to open the door by changing it's yRotate value.

Change the yRotate value to -45

Let's see what happened.

Oh dear, the door moved, but the handle didn't follow it. Put the yRotate value back to 0 and we'll fix the handle to the door.

Step 3 - Attach the handle

To fix one object to another object, select it and then select 'Change Parent' from the 'Object' menu. You will then get a list of all the objects in the scene, select the one you want to be the parent of your object and click OK.

First of all, we'll fix the door handles to the handle post that goes through the door.

Change the parent for the 'front handle' to the 'handle post' object.

Change the parent for the 'back handle' to the 'handle post' object.

Now we'll fix the handle post to the door.

Change the parent for the 'handle post' to the 'door' object.

Now we can try rotating the door again and we'll see what happens. Change the yRotate value of the door object to -45 again.

There, the handles have followed the door, but doors don't normally open like that. Put the yRotate value back to 0 degrees and we'll fix that problem.

Step 4 - Our friend the origin

I've changed to the front camera and put the scene in Outline view so that we can see what we're dealing with. I've also displayed the origin for the door by selecting the door and selecting the 'Properties' option of the 'Object' menu. In the window that pops up, I've ticked the 'Display Origin' box and clicked OK.

You can see that the origin is at the bottom of the door, in the centre. We'll start off by moving it to the left hand side of the door. Change the OriginX value to -0.050 and see what happens.

The Origin is now in the right place, at the left hand side of the door, but the door has moved in relation to the origin. Change the xTran of the door to -0.050 to match the origin change.

That's better, the origin is now to the left of the door, surely that will make it work now.

Step 5 - Rotating again

Let's go back to the main camera and smooth shaded view again, and try that xRotate of -45 again.

This looks good, as though it worked fine, but let's check the wireframe view.

If you look carefully (looking at the floor shadow is easiest) you can see that the door is slicing through the frame. This is because the origin is in the middle of the doors width, meaning that we've essentially placed a hinge in the centre of the door edge. This just wouldn't work in real life. So back to the drawing board, change the yRotate back to 0 degrees.

Step 6 - More origin trickery

To see what we're doing better, we've changed to the top camera this time, with outline view.

Select the door object and change the OriginZ value to 0.050

That's certainly put the origin at the front of the door, but the door has been shifted out of the frame again, so let's change the zTran of the door to -0.025.

Much better, or at least it looks like it.

Step 7 - Dare we try again?

Okay, back to smooth shaded main camera view and try the yRotate of -45 for the door again.

That seemed to work better, let's look at the wireframe view to make sure it really has worked.

Yep, that worked. The origin is behaving like a proper hinge and letting the door behave in a much nicer way.

Step 8 - Open the door further

Let's try yRotate of -135 to make sure we can open the door further.

That works fine, and you now have a working door. To fully open the door, you would set the yRotate to -180, more than that and you're going into the frame again.

Step 9 - Tidying up

To join all of the objects together we'll do some more parenting of objects.

Change the parent of the door to the 'left frame' object.

Change the parent of the top frame to the 'left frame' object.

Change the parent of the 'right frame' to the 'left frame' object.

On the last one, we could have made the parent of the 'right frame' the top frame, but I wanted to prove that you can parent an object to another object even if they aren't touching.

Now all you need to do is move the left frame and the whole door assembly will move with it. You can move or rotate the left frame wherever you want and the whole door will follow.

Obviously, you can create much more elegant doors than this, but this is an intentionally simple version. You could make panelled doors, glass doors, all kinds of doors. So long as you get the basic connections right, you can build from there.

Creating heads in the P6 Face Room with hi-resolution textures

2011-11-01T17:42:35+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 heads in the P6 Face Room with hi-resolution textures

Author: Exiee

Tools Needed

Poser 6

Introduction

The Face Room of Poser 6 is one of the most powerful yet easy to use tools to create custom looking faces and heads. While this is a great tool, the heads created with the Face Room have a default texture resolution of 512*512 pixels, which is way too low compared to most figures. (The head texture for the James figure is 2588*1720, for the HYPERREAL M3 figure is 4000*2719) In this tutorial, we'll run through the steps of creating a head with texture maps greater than the default size.

Step 1 - Load your figure

Load the figure of which you wish to use the Face Room with. Please note that the Face Room ONLY works with Don, Judy, Will, Penny, James and Jessi. In this tutorial, I used the the James HiRes figure.

Step 2 - Fire up the Face Room

After your figure is loaded, fire up the Face Room by clicking the Face tab. You'll notice that the texture of the head is the default Face Room texture, not your current figure's head texture. If you work with the default texture, the output texture will be 512*512 in size.

Step 3 - Replace the default texture with your figure's texture

Now, we want to replace the default Face Room texture with our figure's head texture, which has a higher resolution. To do this, click the “Import Original Figure Head Texture” button in the upper right hand corner of the screen. Now that the default texture is replaced with the figure's head texture, as you can see in the Texture Preview window. Imported textures retain their original sizes, which means if your texture is 1000*1000, all changes you make to it in the Face Room will retain the imported 1000*1000 size.

Step 4 - Apply your head to Figure

After you imported the head texture from your figure, you can work with the Face Room just like you would with the default texture. However, the Texture Variation panel may have exaggerated or unexpected results on the imported textures, but that can be fixed afterwards using the Material Room or a separate image editing program.

After you are done working with your head, click the “Apply to Figure” button on the top right-hand corner to apply the head to your figure. A pop-up window will appear, asking you to confirm the use of imported texture. Click “Yes” to confirm.

There you go. You are DONE! Now that your face texture has exactly the same resolution as it did before it went through the Face Room. In my example, it is 2588*1720, isn't it much better than the 512*512 default? :) If you want to further edit the texture, you can go back to the Face Room at any time to make changes. The face material can also be found in the Material Room under the name “faceroomSkin”.

For more information, feel free to email me at xctang2005(at)yahoo.ca or refer to your Poser 6 Reference Manual, Chaper 27: The Face Room on page 233.

Have fun!

Exiee

Dicing Up Your Props Like a Pro

2011-11-01T17:42:36+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.

Dicing Up Your Props Like a Pro

Author: Crescent

Tools Needed

UV Mapper
A text editing program

Support Files

!practice-die.zip

Introduction

Once you're bitten by the Poser bug, you're at risk for coming down with the dreaded Modeling fever as well. Well, I can\'t cure it, but I can do my best to make it less painful.

In this tutorial, you'll take a 6 sided die and make it Poser friendly.

Please download the !practice-die.zip file and let's get started!

Step 1 - Putting your mesh on a DIET with UV Mapper.

Open up the !practice-die.zip file and extract the !practice-die.obj file somewhere on your hard drive.

In this case, I was nice and already assigned all the materials to this object in my modeling program. On the other hand, that's all I did.

Open up UV Mapper and import the object. Because I'd already mapped the object, it displays the texture template.

Some programs need to know what way the normals need to face in order to display the object properly. (Normals means which side of the polygon to display.) Poser doesn't need this information, so you can tell UV Mapper to dump the information and make the file size smaller - always a happy.

Go to File: Save Model and use these settings:

Please save it inside your Poser directory, in the :Runtime:Geometries:!practice folder and call the new object die-old.obj. (We're going to make an improved version of the mesh later, thus the “-old” in the file name.)

Did you note the file size difference? From 419KB to 278KB. (If only I could run my bills through UV Mapper!)

Step 2 - Importing the prop into Poser.

Open up Poser and delete whatever figure loads so you have a blank scene.

Go to File: Import: Wavefront OBJ … and navagate to :Runtime:Geometries:!practice then load die-old.obj

Use the following settings:

Centered - loads the object into the middle of the Poser document. This makes it easy to find.

Percentage of standard figure size - no matter what the original size of the object was, make it x% the size of a Poser figure. Poser uses much smaller units than many other programs, so instead of complicated formulas, it's easier to import it at 100% then scale it down within Poser. Yes, this die is going to be enormous!

Make polygon normals consistant - make all the normals point the same way. This makes sure you don't see strange black squares or odd holes in your prop. (If a normal is pointing the wrong way, it will appear invisible compared to the polygons around it.)

Click on Select Figure: Drop to Floor. It's easier to scale if you can see the entire object.

Go to Render: Materials. (Or if you have Poser 5, go to the Material Room.)

Set the Box to white, and the Dots to black. The exact settings are up to you. (Heck, make the Box chartreusse and the Dots hot pink if you want to.)

Step 3 - Propping up the Die in the Library.

Set the lights and rotate the camera so you get a nice shot of the die. Save the prop in one of the Props folders as die-old. I created a new folder called !Practice and saved my prop in there.

Restore the camera and load a Poser figure into the scene, such as Michael 3.

You may not see your figure after it loads. Why? The die is 100% of the figure size. It's covering up your figure.

Make sure the die is selected and scale it down so it is in proportion to your figure. I scaled it down some, then moved the die around so it was in line with his hand and used that to judge what size to use. I decided on a scale of 1%.

Drop the die back to the floor so it is in front of the figure. (It makes it easier to find later.)

Go to File: Export: Wavefront OBJ …

Select Single Frame.

Uncheck the UNIVERSE box. This will deselect everything at once.

Check the die-old box only.

Remove all the check marks from the options box.

Save the object as die.obj in the :Runtime:Geometries:!practice folder.

Delete the die that's in your Poser document. (The die must die.)

File: Import: Wavefront OBJ …

In the Prop Import Options box, remove all the check marks from the options.

The die loads up in the proper location at the proper size. Yeah! We're mostly done!

Save the die in the prop library as Die-old1. Don't worry about how the thumbnail looks. We made a nice one earlier on.

Close that Poser document. It's time to hack up the prop file.

Step 4 - Diving into the .pp2 file.

When Poser saves props to the Props folder, it takes all the object information and embeds it in the .pp2 file. It's better to keep the mesh outside the .pp2 prop file.

Why?

If you want to include variations of the prop - such as different colors, smart propping the item to different figures, etc., then it's much more efficient to have the mesh separate, and have the .pp2 files include just the necessary modifications. If a prop is 1 MB, then if you want to have 10 different colored props, it would be a 10MB download. Or, you could have a 1 MB mesh and 10 .pp2 files of 10-20KB each.

Open up your text editing program and load your die-old1.pp2 file. It will be in :Runtime:libraries:Props:[whatever folder you saved it in] folder.

If your text editing program has line numbers, please turn them on. It will make the next part easier.

When you open up your die-old1.pp2 file, it will start with the following lines:

{

version

{

number 5

}

(The number depends on the version. For the most compatibility, change the number to 4.)

Just after the } - line 6, please insert the following:

prop Die

{

storageOffset 0 0 0

objFileGeom 0 0 :Runtime:Geometries:!practice:die.obj

}

This tells Poser that the object is called Die where it can be found.

The next section is the embedded mesh information. Delete the entire block. (A block is a statement like “prop die” and everything within the { } that comes directly underneath it.) You can tell the mesh is embedded in the file because of the line “geomCustom” and all the v, vt and f lines underneath it.

If you are using line numbers, it's lines 12 through 8442.

After the deletion, in what is now line 12, please make sure the line says “prop Die”. (In the picture above, I hadn't changed the line yet.)

Scroll to the bottom of the file. Make sure the file ends with:

doc

{

addActor Die

}

Note: you *must* use the same exact name for the prop throughout the file. “Die” is different from “die”. There are 3 places where the object name is referenced (in order, “prop Die”, “prop Die”, and “addActor Die”) and the name must be exactly the same all three times. Please make sure all three prop name references match or you'll have problems loading and using the prop!

Save the file as die.pp2.

Step 5 - Mopping Up and Patting Yourself on the Back.

Now it's time to tidy up.

Using Windows Explorer (or the Mac equivalent) go to: :Runtime:Geometries!practice and delete die-old.obj.

Then go to: :Runtime:libraries:props:[whatever folder you saved the die in] and delete die-old.pp2, die-old1.pp2, and either die-old1.rsr or die-old.png. (If you have Poser 4, you will have the .rsr file. If you have Pro Pack or Poser 5, you will have the PNG file.)

Rename die-old.rsr (or die-old.png) to die.rsr (or die.png.) Now you have the nice thumbnail you'd made earlier teamed up with the fully Poserized prop.

Open up Poser and load the die. Create a cool render with it.

You've now successfully imported a prop, scaled it, saved it to the library, and extracted the scaled mesh to an outside file.

How To Create (and save) Face Morphs For Beginners

2011-11-01T17:42:36+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 (and save) Face Morphs For Beginners

Author: CD_2007

Tools Needed

* “DAZ” Studio

* Poser Format Exporter

Introduction

This is my first tutorial that I have put together for the newest members of the Poser Community. In it, you will learn how to create a face morph and save it as a .pz2 file for future use.

Step 1 - Load The Figure

Load the desired figure that you wish to use for this tutorial. I have chosen my character “DAZ RAIDER Maddie” to use.

Step 2 - Create Desired Face

In the “Parameters” Tab, adjust the dials for “Head”, “Face”, “Eyes”, “Nose”, “Lips”, etc.

Step 3 - Select The Head

Now you will select the head of the figure which will allow you to use the “Poser Format Exporter”. (To use the Poser Format Exporter, you must have the figure's Head selected).

Step 4 - Open The Poser Format Exporter

In the “Content” tab, click on “Studio”. Scroll down to (and click on) “Scripts”. Choose “Utilities”. Double-Click on “Poser Format Exporter”.

Step 5 - Choose Filename And Location For Saved .pz2 File

You will need to set the “Path” (where you want the .PZ2 file saved to), otherwise it will be saved to C:\Program Files\DAZ\Studio. You will also need to name the file to be saved, otherwise it will be saved as .dazgenerated.pz2

I created a folder specifically for all of my .pz2 files in “My Documents”

Step 6 - Save The Face Morph

In the Poser Format Exporter, set the “Nodes” to “Selected”. Now all you have to do is click on “Accept”. Having done so, your Face Morph will be saved as a .PZ2

Step 7 - Add The Saved Face Morphs To "DAZ" Studio

Copy the folder that you saved the face morph in and paste it in:

C:\Program Files\DAZ\Studio\content\Runtime\libraries\Pose

Now all you have to do is load your figure, select the head, and click on your saved .pz2 file (located in C:\Program Files\DAZ\Studio\content\Runtime\libraries\Pose\your pz2 folder) to add the face morphs.

Make symmetrical custom morphs in Poser

2011-11-01T17:42:36+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.

Make symmetrical custom morphs in Poser

Author: roxcat

Tools Needed

Poser

Introduction

You did a great morph with a magnet on one side of your figure, but how do you get the same result on the other side? There's no option to do this automatically in Poser, but it's not so hard to do it manually. All you need is to create a second magnet and copy the settings from the other magnet. If you have several magnets then you'll have to copy each and one of them. I will make a simple morph with magnets and show you how to do it yourself. I used Poser 4 for this tutorial, but it should work the same in newer versions.

I will not explain the basics of magnets, it's best if you have some basic knowledges of how to use them. If you haven't used them before I suggest that you try and play a little with them to figure out how they work. Shortly the Mag zone (the sphere) decides what part of the figure that will be affected by the magnet, and the real magnet affects the strength of the morph. When you create a magnet it's very important that you have the correct bodypart selected on your figure. For example, if you want to put a magnet on the nose, the head should be selected before creating the magnet.

Step 1 - Creating a magnet

I will use Victoria 3 in this example, and I want to give her some nice horns in her forehead. Select the head, and then go to Object - > Create Magnet.

Now you have a big magnet at her head. To easily see where the mag zone is, you can change it's display type to wireframe by going to Display - > Element Style - > Wireframe (Or hit Ctrl+Shift+3). It should look like the image above.

Step 2 - Positioning the magnet

Position the mag zone to where you want it to take effect, in this case the left side of the forehead. Then adjust the mag base and magnet to the desired look. After some fiddling with the dials I got the result as shown above.

Step 3 - Creating the second magnet

In this step it's time to create a new magnet in the same way as in step 1. Now comes the fun part (or maybe not..) to insert all the values that you have written down for the other magnet. All scales should be the same, but some of the other values should be inverted. These are: xtran, yrot and zrot. If xtran on you original mag zone is 0, 035, the new magnet zone should have a value of -0, 035. If everything's been set correctly you should have two identical horns.

Step 4 - Saving the morph

If you want to save this as a morph, choose Object - > Spawn Morph Target while having the head selected, and name it something appropriate, for example Horns. This will show up as a dial, and if you put in the value 1 it will have the same effect as the magnets, but this you can adjust to your liking. You can now safely delete the magnets from the head. The figure can now be saved to the library, and when you load it again it will have the dial ready for your beautiful horns

Manual Object Ripping

2011-11-01T17:42:36+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.

Manual Object Ripping

Author: DTigerWoman

Tools Needed

Poser

Introduction

This tutorial will explain how to rip an object from a prop/figure file in poser manually using only notepad.

Step 1 - Prop Setup

For the purpose of this tutorial I have used the ball that comes with poser. Start by selecting the following options

in Poser.

File
Import
Wavefront Object

Select the “ball.obj” from the following Poser directory:

:Runtime:Geometries:props:ball.obj

When importing the ball prop nothing should be checked in the “Prop Import Options”. This of course will depend

on what you are importing for your own project. I'll assume you know about importing props but thought I would include this anyway.

Save the ball prop in the props library. I named mine “New-Ball” for this tutorial.

Step 2 - Find and Replace

Once you have your prop saved, locate it in your Props library and open the .pp2 file in notepad or a text editor of your choice.

The next thing you need to do is locate the geometry information in the .pp2 file. This is fairly easy because all all object geometry information looks basically the same.

For the poser ball, this is what the geometry part of the .pp2 file will look like:

Replace the object geometry for the ball with the following making sure the directory structure is correct and points

to the ball.obj in the poser directory.

Step 3 - Importance of a name

It is important to remember that the prop name remain consistent throughout the .pp2 file. If the prop name is different in some instances in the file you will not see anything in poser when you try and use the prop or you might get an error message.

There are several instances where the prop name must remain the same.

Instance #1

Name = “prop ball” at the very top just below the version number

Instance #2

Name = “prop ball” Shown at the top below the external object directory structure

Instance #3

Name = “prop ball” at the very bottom

Step 4 - Test The Prop

Once you have the object ripped from the .pp2 file save it and try using it in Poser. If your ball pops into the window like it normally would then you know you have successfully ripped an object from a prop file!

Step 5 - Conclusion

Ripping objects from a CR2 file is somewhat different because of the structure of a .CR2 but it is basically the same concept. Poser normally rips the object from a CR2 in most cases anyway and places the OBJ file into your figures library with the .CR2 ;0) In this case you'd just move your object file to the geometries folder and change the directory structure of the object path in the CR2.

I hope you find this tutorial extremely useful! Have fun with your poser creations!

Morph INJs From FC2 Files

2011-11-01T17:42:36+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 INJs From FC2 Files

Author: pbnj

Tools Needed

Poser 4+
A figure that uses INJ/REM technology such as any of the DAZ Mil figures
A Face file (fc2) with the settings you want to make the INJ pose for
A text editor

Introduction

This tutorial will show you how to easily make a morph INJ pose from a Poser Face (FC2) file, simply using a text editor. INJ poses load morphs like the ones you can purchase here at DAZ for figures like Victoria 3, Mike 3, Stepanie Petite, etc.

Step 1 - SETUP YOUR FACE

Load up V3/M3/SP/whoever and inject whatever morphs you would like to use to create your face.

Adjust the dials until you have the face you want.

Now save your new face in the Face directory, call it whatever you like.

Step 2 - CHECKING OUT THE FACE

Navigate to your new face file (FC2) and open it in a text editor.

Face files are like Pose files in the fact that they save dial values, in this case specifically for the head of a figure. What you'll see now are the installed head morphs names and their dial values that you just saved.

Example:

actor head:1

{

channels

{

targetGeom HdYoung

{

keys

{

k 0 -1

}

targetGeom EyesBig

{

keys

{

k 0 0.2

}

targetGeom NoseStylized

{

keys

{

k 0 0.4

}

Injected morphs will be listed first and then the default morphs your figure comes with.

Step 3 - USING A READSCRIPT

To legally share (either by sale or as a freebie) face configurations made with a merchants copyrighted morphs (such as DAZ) the end user must have those morphs installed in their Poser directory. INJ poses call to those installed morphs.

Scroll to the top of your face file and just between:

{

version

{

number 4.2

}

AND

actor head:2

paste this line:

readScript “:Runtime:libraries:!DAZ:StephPetite:Head:Deltas:InjDeltas.HdYoung.pz2”

This line reads the installed morph and injects it into the figure's head. In this case I have telling it to look for the morph pose in the default directory that Stephanie Petite's morphs install into. If if you have installed your morphs somewhere else you will have to change this path to that directory.

Step 4 - REPEAT AS NEEDED

Now you can copy and paste that line again, changing where it says HdYoung to whatever the next injected morph is called, in this case EyesBig.

Repeat this as many times as needed until all of the injected morphs are listed. You do not need to do this for the morphs that come with the base figure, such as BrowUpL, Mouth TH, Smile, BlinkL, etc.

When complete save in your pose folder of choice changing the extension from .fc2 to .pz2.

Now go back to Poser and open a new file. Load your figure, and test out your new INJ pose!

Step 5 - IT WORKS FOR REM POSES TOO!

You can use this same method to make a REM pose to remove injected morphs from a figure.

To remove a morph your readScript line should read something like this:

readScript “:Runtime:libraries:!DAZ:StephPetite:Head:Deltas:RemDeltas.HdYoung.pz2”

The only difference is the Inj. has been change to Rem. and now it calls to the remove pose instead of the inject pose.

Hope this helps, feel free to contact me with any questions: pbnj@digitalhippies.com

Peacock crown in Poser

2011-11-01T17:42:36+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.

Peacock crown in Poser

Author: dorkati

Tools Needed

Poser 4
A paint program like Paint Shop Pro or Photoshop or Corel

Support Files

Peacrown_UV map_support.zip

Introduction

You can make your own prop without any 3D program. You need only Poser 4 and any paint program. I use Corel Photo-Paint but any other program is good for this if it uses layers.

I recommend you start the props creating with something easy, like my PeaCrown. I made it to my SaraPea (wonderful character available here).

If you understand the method, you can make many props to yourself.

So, let's start the work!

Step 1 - Start with Poser

First of all you need to make the basic object. I don't remember are there in the original Poser any tube, because I have so many downladed object. But I use for this crown Jena's Morphing Ring. You can find at this place: www.joes3Dfantasyworlds.com

You need to make smaller, because this prop will be larger than a truck-wheal:) I used this scaling settings, because this this settings neede to my character. You can use your own scale-parameter. Scale : x13 y33 z11 Ring: -0, 333 This setting is important. If you turn the ring-width smaller than -0, 333, the inside will be outside. At this settings the tube will be thin like a paper. This is the best for this crown, because it will be from peacock-feather.

I've attached a helping UV map. You can find it in the support files.

Apply the UV map as a texture in the material options. You see above, where there are the different colors.

This is very important when you want to make a texture.

Step 2 - Open your Paint program

Open the Peacrown UV map in your paint program. You can use it as a guide. You saw the picture that the front outside is the blue area and the front inside is the orange area, but this is upside down.

First of all make the ring.

1.Make a layer and create a shape what you like. Be sure that the bottom side is on the black line under the green-blue are.

For colors I used this settings:

Fill - RGB 71 128 88

Outline RGB 85 127 91

Make some noise if you want to a rough material. Use at noise Gauss-style, Intensive color mode, 50 level and 70 density. These setting just optional.

2.You can make the shape in center, so it will be in correct size, but you need to adjust the shape's center to crown's center. This is in the blue area, between 4th and 5th cell from right side. Adjust the shape, make a duplicate, slide left and adjust to the original shape's side. (combine this two layers)

3. Make a new layer and place the feathers or what you like.

I put them only the front side.

4. Make a group from this 2 layers. You can combined them if you don't want to make changes on your feathers, but later maybe useful if the feathers are in separate layer.

So make a group, make a duplicate and mirror down. Slide down to the orange area like on the picture above. Be sure that the crown's bottom (now it is up) is on the black line above yellow-orange area. Very important, because the two side of the crown (outside and inside) must be on the same place.

Step 3 - Check your work in Poser

Here is the finished texture.

Export as a jpg, go back to the Poser, apply texture and check your work.

If the texture doesn't fit, go back to the paint program and make some correction.

When you finished with texture you need some more works in paint program.

This crown is awful. Do you want a crown with blue and green cells? :)

Ha-ha. Go back and delete the lowest layer (or background) where the UV map are.

(I said the layers are important!)

This crown is a flat tube. We need some dimension and a crown shape.

So go on work.

Step 4 - Make some depth

First make the bump map. Make a copy from the peacock-layer if you make different depth. Turn the texture to grayscale. Maybe you can find under adjust or adjustment menu. In color chanels or desaturate.

Make some contrast. If you want to apply another depth to feathers, make extra contrast on feathers-layer.

Notice, the lighter area will be overriding and the darker will be deeper.

Export your image.

In the material options convert your jpg into .bum and apply as bump map.

(Notice if you convert this picture to a bumpmap and you make some changes on JPG later, you need to export as different name, because with this name was loaded once. And you need to make this procedure again.

But if you quit from Poser and load again, you can use the same name, but delete the wrong .bum file.)

Step 5 - Making transparency

We need to make a transparency map, because our crown is still a tube.

Go to the paint program and turn the image to a black-white image. If your paint program doesn't know that, just go to the brightness menu and make the biggest brightness on the crown while it will be white. Be sure that the other places are black.

You don't need to make perfect white. If you want to make some semitransparent area, make it.

You need to know, that the black area will be totally transparent, the grey area will be semi-transparent and the white area will be opaque. You can play with colors if you can, but be sure that the area what don't belong to crown will be 100% black.

Step 6 - Check your crown in Poser

Go back to Poser and apply in the material options (surface materials) the transparency map. Turn the minimum and maximum transparency 100% and render

(I forgot the decorating. I made a line under the feathers. It looks like the feathers locked by line maybe. I used hard contrast to line in the bumpmap)

If you want to make some changes, maybe different shape, go back and play with transparency map. Here is a picture from my other crown. Same method, but different shape.

Step 7 - Summary

I hope you understood how you can make props using Poser and paint-program.

Most important things are correct basic object, (On that side where you can find this MorphRing there are many morphable shape) and the fitting bump map and transparency map.

If you have any question about this tutorial feel free to contact me:

fairyfan@freestart.hu

Prop Trix

2011-11-01T17:42:36+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.

Prop Trix

Author: 3Don

Introduction

There are quite a few things that one can do with props in Poser, beyond the obvious. Here are some ways to use props that will make it easier and faster.

Step 1 - Handful

Often in a scene or series of images it can be necessary for a character to hold more than one prop in the same hand. Once the prop is placed in a hand and saved as a smart-prop you can delete it and re-add it later when needed. That makes for more Library entries. And takes a little more time.

Or, try this. Instead of deleting the smart-prop, make it invisible. Save the pose and/or hand pose for the figure before making the prop invisible. Apply a new pose or hand pose to the figure. Then add a new prop and attach it to the new hand pose. Save that figure pose for that prop. Now your figure can go quickly from holding a spoon to squeezing a lemon in a few clix., switching poses and props. Just turn the props on and off for each pose.

Most props are not large in file size, so keeping them in the PZ2 scene file seems more economical to me. You can actually save several props in one hand that way. Doing a series of nurse poses, I had her holding a syringe, cell phone, ear-light, and a book, all in the same hand, seen one at a time. Her other hand was just as full.

Step 2 - Switcheroo

What do you do if you import a smart-prop that pops into the right hand and your figure is left-handed? Here's what worx for me.

First, make a note of the X-Y-Z rotation and position settings. Select the prop, go to item properties and make the Universe the Parent instead of the Hand. It is no longer a smart prop.

Save the hand pose from which you took the prop and apply it to the other hand. To make the transfer even easier, go to the Figure menu and then to Symmetry and make the right arm like the left arm.

Now select the un-Parented prop and attach it to the other hand (as it is), Apply all of the X-Y-Z coordinates and rotations to the prop, via the Parameter Dials. It should pop in pretty close to the left hand. You might need to tweak it a little, especially if the hips or waist are bent or twisted in your pose. This is not an exact method, but it will get the prop pretty close to switching hands. If you make the body symmetrical on both sides, you often only have to move the un-parented prop along the X-axis to place it.

Once placed and the prop is attached to the other hand, you can apply any pose. Note that when a new pose is applied you probably will need to re-apply the hand pose to conform. Be sure to save the left-hand thing-a-ma-jig as a smart-prop! Now you have one for each hand.

Step 3 - IK Irks

Turn Inverse Kinematics OFF when Parenting a Prop to a hand. If IK is ON for that hand, the hand will not appear as an option in the Set Parent list. If you must use IK for that hand with a prop, turn OFF IK first, pose the hand, Parent the Prop, then turn IK back ON for that hand. Don't move a hand with IK when it holds a prop. IK movement can reset the fingers to strange values. You can lose your hand pose. If you do, turn off IK and re-apply the hand pose.

Step 4 - Over and Over and Over Again

There are times when you want to use the same prop several times in one scene. For instance, I DLd Joe Kurz's sci-fi ladder section for use in a climbing scene. The prop consists of ladder rungs set in a concrete block. The section was not tall enough to complete a sequential climbing scene. I needed to make it taller.

Opening a new Poser doc, I imported the prop. (Sometimes a prop is saved not to the X-Y-Z zero coordinates.) Either zero the prop or place it where it will go in your scene. Re-save it to the Library as a new prop, with a new name.

Import that prop. It will pop precisely into place as the first one like it. Select the 2nd prop and raise it along the Y-axis until it sits atop the first one. Continue until you have as many sections in place as needed. (See the pop-up image in the Zero-Gravity poses at DAZ3D's Special Internet store.)

Another example is building a 6-pack of sodas from a single can. Place one can and save it to the Library as above. Import it and move it along the X-axis to where it loox right. Do that again to place the third can the same way. For the 4th can, import it and move it back along the Z-axis. The 5th and 6th cans will follow this procedure, but are moved along both the X- and Y- axes. Parent cans 2-6 to the first can so you can move them all together.

I have built quite a few things with repetitious Poser primitives or other simple props with this method, such as fences, shelves, panpipes, simple walls, and so on.

Step 5 - Educating Props

Poser will not save a prop's children with it to the Library, only the Parent. So, how do you save that 6-pack for later use? Other than saving the PZ3 file as 6-Pack and re-saving it with each new use, consider this.

Go to Export and select to export as a 3DS or OBJ file (or whatever you prefer). A window opens in Poser asking which items to export. De-select Universe and then only re-check the boxes for the items you want to save. In this case it would be cans 1-6. Select nothing else. Other prompts come up, but are self-explanatory. Name and save the export to a folder.

Import that 3DS prop. You may need to resize it somewhat or re-apply textures. Once you do, add it to your Library as a prop. It will now import as a Poser PP2 file. When you attach it to a figure, you can re-save it as a smart-prop.

Step 6 - Hands Full?

The methods for using multiple props will save you time and is a great way to re-create a scene you might not have saved.

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

-Don Albert 6/2003

Understanding Body Handels

2011-11-01T17:42:36+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.

Understanding Body Handels

Author: AntonKisiel

Tools Needed

Spy Wear
Conforming Clothing and Hair

Introduction

Body handles provide a way to affect large areas simply moving the “body handlels” associated with a body structure.

Step 1 - What are those cones for?

When you load a figure that has Bodyhandles, you will first notice cones that appear to be pointing to an area or body part. Because the cones are body parts they will have a name suggesting their purpose or what they affect.

In the image we see a bodyhandle present on the Spywear Suit for the Millennium Women. This handle is called rBreast. The cone (handle) is a physical representation of the joint parameters for a breast group off the right collar. By moving the bodyhandle the right collar is affected simulating the presence of an articulated breast.

Step 2 - Body Handles for Hair Too

On the SpywearBob, the bodyhandle called Bangs is not connected to the hair but allows the hair to act as if the bangs were a separate body part. Moving or scaling this bodyhandle moves and scales the bangs without any need for morph targets.

Body parts are faster and more flexible than morphs in their response time and movement. And without so many morphs the file is gentler on your computer's memory and resources.

Step 3 - Using Bodyhandles to Make Morphs

If you were to bend Michael's head and 'Spawn' a morph, nothing would happen. This is because deformations caused by body parts are not recognized by Poser when creating a morph target.

To make a morph from the shape or deformation created from the bodyhandles, first make sure your figure's other body parts are set to zero. Then simply export the body part affected as an OBJ file.

In the export dialog box only select 'as Morph target'. Then, after the OBJ has been saved into a folder chosen by you, simply double-click on the body part and load the file onto the body part as a morph target.

Saving Poses:

The Pose library is an ever-expanding place. Nowadays we have MAT files that apply textures, SWAP files that configure 'changing' geometry figures, etc.

If you want to save special configurations, it is best to create a special pose folder for that figure and its bodyhandles. Pose files only affect the dials mentioned in the file. You could also open the .pz2 file in a text editor and delete all but the dials you want to keep.

Using the Grouping Tool and Magnets for realism

2011-11-01T17:42:36+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 the Grouping Tool and Magnets for realism

Author: Phoenix1966

Tools Needed

* Poser 6

* Most Figures and Props

Step 1 - Setting Up

Setting up a simple scene, I have Victoria 4.1 sitting on a chair. It's OK, but the chair has no morphs, so V4.1 looks a bit unnatural (and uncomfortable!) sitting on top of the rigid chair. But, in a few steps, we can improve this a bit.

Step 2 - Getting Started

First off, to make things a little easier for myself, I made a few adjustments.

I hid V4.1, since she wasn't needed at the moment, and switched the display view to “Flat Lined” so it was easier for me to see the individual polygons, etc.

Step 3 - Using the Grouping Tool

Making sure the chair was targeted, I went to the editing tools and selected the grouping Tool.

That opened up the Group Editor window. I hit the “New Group” button and named my intended group. Of course, I chose the original name of “Sit”.

Step 4 - Using the Grouping Tool, Pt. 2

Now I selected the polygons of the chair I wanted like to deform.

As each one was selected, it turned red. If the wrong polygon was accidentally selected, all I had to do was hold down the Ctrl button and select it again to remove it from the group.

When I was finished with that, I closed the Grouping Editor window.

Step 5 - Creating a Magnet

With the chair still targeted, head over to the Poser tool bar and select “Object”. From the drop down menu, select “Create magnet”.

When the magnet appears, select the Magnet Zone from the props and open up the Properties Tab for it. Check off the “Group” box and from the small, drop down menu, select the newly created “Sit” group.

Now the magnet will affect only that area of the prop.

Step 6 - Fine Tuning the Magnet

Moving the magnet (not the Mag Zone or the base), you can see how the magnet affects the selected group.

If the deformations are too extreme or not extreme enough, target the Magnet Zone again. Once more, tab to Properties and select “Edit Falloff Graph”. This will open a new window, displaying the Falloff Graph. Tweak the settings until you get a result you're happy with.

Step 7 - Spawning the Morph Target

Target the chair and go back to the Poser toolbar. Select “Object” again and this time, from the dropdown menu, select “Spawn Morph Target”.

In the new window that opens, name the new morph for yourself.

Step 8 - The "New" prop

A new line should show up in the Parameters tab for the object with your new morph.

Once you confirm this, the magnet can be deleted and the prop can be re-saved back into your library, so you can reuse it at a future date, if you choose.

Step 9 - Done!

Now that the “hard” work is done, I unhide V4.1 and adjust the new morph on the chair for a more realistic effect.

This is just a simple use for the Grouping Tool and magnets within Poser. You can use it in a variety of ways, such as adding morphs to figures when they interact with each other or other items in a scene. For example, you could create several morphs along V4.1's arm where another figure might be holding it, to create natural looking indentations from the contact.

This technique should work in earlier versions of Poser as well, although the commands might be worded slightly differently.

Enjoy!

Using Poser to make an hybrid character for Bryce

2011-11-01T17:42:36+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 Poser to make an hybrid character for Bryce

Author: babio1946

Tools Needed

Poser
Bryce

Support Files

Sphinx.zip

Introduction

The use of Wavefront objects, that can be easily created in Poser, and of some simple trick, allows to mix parts of different characters and create new ones in a simplified way that, without really blending the parts in a new character, but only linking them in the hierarchy, achieves a visually satisfactory result, particularly in Bryce, but also in Poser itself.

The new characters can be directly imported in Bryce.

In this tutorial we will create a Sphinx starting from DAZ's characters Victoria 3 and Millennium Cat, and some clothes from Rulers of Egypt; but the procedure can also be used for (or adapted to) the creation of different characters with different parts.

I used Poser 5 SR3 and Bryce 5 from DAZ; but I think that previous versions can work in the same manner.

Step 1 - CREATING THE HUMAN HEAD

Start Poser and load Vickie 3 To Vickie 2 SR1 from Victoria 3 package, or directly Victoria 2. I used this character because I wanted to complete the Sphynx with the classic headdress, that I found in the Rulers of Egypt package from DAZ, that is suitable for Victoria 2. Do not apply textures to Vickie.

Then load the Egyptian Headdress_Vulture.

Probably because I used Vickie 3 To Vickie 2, I was not able to conform the headdress to Vickie (really it was not necessary), but it necessary to parent it to Vickie's head.

Step 2 - CREATING THE HEAD OBJECT

Select the Body of Vickie, then export as Wavefront Object from File menu. Select 'Single frame' and, from the hierarchy, first deselect UNIVERSE: you will see all subsequent parts deselected too. Then click on Neck, Head, Left Eye, Right Eye, VultureHeaddress. You will see a series of parts attached to VultureHeaddress; you can leave them selected.

Click OK and save the object with a name (I choosed Vulture Head) and, in the subsequent dialog, click on the options shown in the picture. You can try to select, or not, the 'Weld body parts seams', and to see the effects of each in Bryce.

Step 3 - CREATING THE FELINE BODY

Start with a new document (you can save the scene first, if you wish) and load the Millennium Cat; do not apply textures to it. It will be the 'Figure 1' of the scene. Then (eventually with the aid of some pose found on the market) put it in a pose suitable for the Sphinx statue.

Now select the Body part 'Head', open the Parameter Dials and click on 'Visible' property, so the head will be invisible. Do the same for the Right and Left Eye, the Right and Left Ear, the Right and Left Whisker.

Step 4 - ADDING THE HUMAN HEAD

Import the previously made head with 'Import Wavefront OBJ', selecting the Vulture Head. I suggest to reduce the Percent of standard figure size to 30. The head will appear under the PROPS of Figure 1 of the scene.

Using alternatively the Left (or Right) and the Front Cameras verify the relative positions of the head and of the body. You will have to bend the neck of Millennium Cat to a negative setting, to line up it to the Vickie's neck.

Then set the xRotate and zTranslate of Vickie's neck to have a better result; alternate the settings of the 2 necks (eventually rescaling the Vickie's one) until you have a good result.

Step 5 - EXPORTING THE COMPLETE OBJECT

Now select the head (the Vulture Head Prop) and, from the Object Menu, option 'Change Parent', choose the Figure 1's Neck.

Select the Body of Figure 1 (the cat), then export as Wavefront Object from File menu. Select 'Single frame' and, from the hierarchy, first deselect UNIVERSE: you will see all subsequent parts deselected too.

Click on Figure 1 (this is the cat), then deselect Head, rWhisker, lWhisker, leftEye, rightEye, rEar, lEar. Leave selected (obviously) VultureHead.

Click OK and save the object with a name (I choosed Sphinx) and, in the subsequent dialog, click on the options shown in the same picture of Step 2. You can try to select, or not, the 'Weld body parts seams', and to see the effects of each in Bryce.

Step 6 - IMPORTING IN BRYCE

You can close Poser now; start Bryce and in a new scene you can test the object. From file menu select Import Object and in the Open dialog choose Sphinx.obj.

In the actual situation, the headdress had a texture, so its name is embedded in the corresponding .mtl file, but without the information of the relative path on the computer. Here is the advantage given by the Turbo import plug-in for DAZ Studio for complex characters with many nodes and materials; but here we have only 1 texture to find, so we can use the 'old' method for importing Poser material directly into Bryce.

Bryce will ask you to locate the VultureHeaddressTextureJPG

but if you want to have a stone statue, the texture is useless. So Cancel the request to locate it

Finally we have the Sphinx! As you can see I selected one of the Display Modes available, apart from the Default Wireframe.

Step 7 - REFINING THE OBJECT

Click on the down arrow at the right of the image, then reposition it as wished. This image comes from a previous test, and the neck is too long. In the last picture of this tutorial you will see a sphinx with a slightly shorter neck.

You can see that the face has a color; it is the original color embedded in the Victoria character. The headdress and the body, instead, have the default Bryce color.

Now click on the small triangle at the right side of 'Edit' (between 'Create' and 'Sky and Fog') and choose a suitable material

Now all the object has a single color

Step 8 - RENDER IT!

And now the Sphinx is ready.

Step 9 - SAVING THE OBJECT AS A PRESET

If you plan to use the object frequently, it is more convenient to save it as a preset.

To do this, select the object in the scene, then click on the small triangle at the right side of 'Create' (the first item, before 'Edit' and 'Sky and Fog') then, in the bottom left, click on the small triangle close to 'Installed'; choose 'User' again

You can click on the preview and (without releasing the button) rotate it in all directions. Click on 'Add' and choose a name and, if you wish, a description for the preset

Click on the V shaped icon at the bottom right and your sphinx is available to you forever'

Step 10 - LET'S SEE 2 EXAMPLES

The above procedure can be used whenever you need an hybrid figure of the type seen. For instance, I also created a model of Bastet, the Egyptian cat goddes. The model can be used directly in Poser

or in Bryce. Here is an example were the sphinx have a stone appearance; Bastet keeps the original textures, but in the same manner explained above it is possible to give it the same stone look.

In this example, when asked from Bryce to locate the textures for the clothes, I browsed to the location in Runtime - > Textures were the Egyptian MAT (from HMG – Around the world) can be found.

That's all!

Text Props in Poser

2011-11-01T17:42:36+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.

Text Props in Poser

Author: Fox in the Stars

Tools Needed

Poser
Paint Shop Pro 8

Step 1 - Make a Text Transmap

In Paint Shop Pro 8 or your image editing software of choice, make a new image with a black background. Select white as your text color, and enter the desired text in the font of your choice. Make the text in this image at least as large as you want it to appear in your final render.

Step 2 - Add Effects (Optional)

If desired, you can blur or add other effects to the text. Use effects that keep the image in black and white and are localized around the text—you won't want it to go all the way to the edge of the transmap. One of my examples uses a motion blur.

Step 3 - Crop and Save

Once you've added any desired effects, use the crop tool and crop close to the text, being certain that the cropped image is completely black around the edges.

Go to File, Export, JPG Optimizer to save the image(s). Make the text in the image the filename also for easy reference.

Step 4 - Open a Plane Prop

Open Poser and load the scene you wish to add text props to. From the Props Library, select the “Prop Types” folder and load the “one sided square.”

Step 5 - Apply the Transmap and Set Materials

Position the square so that it faces the camera, then open the Materials Dialog.

Highlight and Reflection colors must be set to black.

Set Transparency Minimum to 0% and Transparency Maximum to 100%.

Under “Transparency Map, ” load the image you created in Steps One through Three.

Object Color, Ambient Color, and Texture Map are up to you. As in my example, some clothing textures can be used here to make the text co-ordinate with your character; I find it useful when searching for a texture to set the Open dialog to view Thumbnails.

Step 6 - Position the Text

If you render immediately after applying the Material settings in Step Five, the text will probably be distorted as in the image, since it is taller than the transmap you made. Turn down the Y-scale dial until the text looks right to you. Unfortunately, since Poser doesn't have real-time transparency preview, this will take trial and error with repeated test renders, but since your transmap was cropped close to the text, you'll have some guideline to work with.

Once you get a test render with the right proportions, use the Translate/Pull tool to position the text where you want it, and use the z-rotate dial to rotate it to the desired angle.

Step 7 - . . . and Render!

Once the text is positioned, apply your favorite light set and render!

Conforming To and Set Parent Rules

2011-11-01T17:42:36+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.

Conforming To and Set Parent Rules

Author: RyanB

Tools Needed

Poser

Introduction

New users may at times find that selecting an item in the library and applying it to a figure may lead to some confusing consequences. DAZ Productions Ryan Bouche instructs you on how to use these functions for the best results.

Step 1 - Conforming To and Set Parenting

Parenting and Conforming are often overlooked or just plain misunderstood by poser beginners. But to be fair, I've had calls and/or emails from even more experienced users who have yet to learn what each really does. I'll try to point out the facts and how to's, and once again at the end, provide some alternate uses for people who are or want to be pros. So here goes.

Step 2 - Cover Picture: The Sum of the Parts

Here's a list of all the items in this picture:

Michael 2

Bodysuit (Michael Clothing Pak2)

Boots, Belt, and Armbands (Outlander for Michael)

Michael's Wedgecut Hairstyle

Wonder Wedge Hair

Mac-10 Submachine Gun and Suppressor

Pulse Rifle (Questor's SF Guns)

Throwing balls (“Magik” Poseable and Conforming FX Figures w/ SS “Magik” MAT Pak )

A Box

A couple of squares for a Wall and a Floor

A Spotlight

Step 3 - Now, To the Controls

The “Set Figure Parent” and “Conform to” controls are here, under the Figure menu. Set Parent opens a heirarchy of all the figures and parts in the screen.

Conform To opens a drop down menu of just the main figures, both leave out the figure that you have selected.

Step 4 - What do we do with them?

Clothing:

Most clothing items need to be conformed to the base figure.

Props:

Most props, including clothing props, need to be parented.

Hair:

Hair is tough, sometimes it conforms, sometimes you have to parent it, sometimes it parents itself. The good news is that you can be sure of any hair in the Hair Library. The hr2 file automatically parents itself to the Head of the figure you have selected.

As for other hair props, most of the conforming hair is labeled in our store or in the product name, but if you'really have no idea, try both. You'll find out quickly enough.

Step 5 - Parenting Tips

The image above shows an object as it first diplays if not parented to the figure. Smart Props usually display in the proper place

A prop or other model that needs to be parented will pop into the document window in the same default place everytime. Smart Props, on the other hand, will load in on a preset part of the figure and be parented to that part, as long as you have the right figure selected. Some examples of normal props from the picture at the beginning of this article are: the Mac-10 Submachine Gun, the box, and the squares. Some examples of Smart Props from the picture at the beginning of this article are: the suppressor on the MAC-10, the Pulse Rifle, and the Wonder Wedge hair.

First things first, translate(move) the object into position with the translation dials. (Please, please, please save yourself the headache of trying to drag the prop to the right place in the 3D document window and instead just spin the trans and rotate dials for the body of the object.) Make sure you check it from different angles to get it in exactly the right spot. If you've got Pro Pak, a good help is to split the screen into three different camera views to do this.

Next, pick the right body part to parent the object to. Hair should be parented to the head, guns to the right or left hand and so on. Try to pick main body parts rather than smaller ones (don't parent the hair to the neck or guns to the fingers etc..). Most (non-smart) parented props, read in at a location closest to where you'll want it on the unposed figure. So, it's usually much easier to position the prop on a character in the default position than it is on a character that's already posed. The Figure Parent Window is set up as a long hierarchal outline from what's been loaded first to last. So, it's time to recall all those useless lessons in middle school English about writing outlines, and start scrolling down and right. When you find the body part you want to parent the object to, click on it once, and then hit OK.

Take a quick look at the picture again and you'll see the Pulse Rifle is in Mike's Left Hand. As a Smart Prop, it's set to load already attached to the Right Hand (It would have been much easier just to leave it there, but it makes a good object lesson). I switched it to the left using the translation dials and by selecting “Change Parent…” from the Object menu.

Step 6 - Conforming Tips

In the image above, the figure of Mike was conformed to the body suit. It should have been the other way around.

Models that need to be conformed will load in at roughly the same default position as the base figure they will be conformed to. Load the Base Figure you want things to conform to first and then the other objects. Conform the object immediately after you load it and you won't run into too many problems down the road.

A couple things to remember about conforming:

Keep track of what figure is what. You don't want to conform Michael to his bodysuit, or shoes to socks, etc… Everything gets conformed to the Base Figure (If you follow the order I mentioned above this shouldn't be a problem.)

When changing the pose make sure you have the Base Figure selected.

Unlike parented items, conforming clothing or hair can easily be added to a figure after it's already been posed, and the conforming item will take the pose automatically. This approach may help if you have problems accidentally selecting the wrong figure during posing.

Conforming clothes are not perfect. You may need to scale, taper, or turn invisible, body parts that poke through after you change the pose. A quick demonstration of this would be to load in the Poser 4 Business Woman and then try some of the Action poses on her.

Here is an example of a time when Conform was selected when the choice should have been Parent.

Step 7 - Creating the Cover Picture

So how exactly was the picture at the beginning done?

Here's a list of what's attached to what.

Michael 2 is the base figure or Figure 1.

The Bodysuit is conformed to Figure 1

Boots, Belt, and Armbands are conformed to Figure 1.

I selected Figure 1 and Wonder Wedge Hair loaded in automatically parented.

The Mac-10 Submachine Gun is parented to Mike's right hand.

The supressor automatically parented itself to the Mac-10.

The Pulse Rifle automatically parented itself to Mike's right hand, but I changed the parent to the left hand and re-adjusted.

Throwing balls are parented to each of the guns for firing effects.

The Spotlight is parented to Mike's Head.

The Box isn't parented to anything, it's just sitting there. Lazy box.

The Stairs and the Wall square are parented to the Floor square. I didn't have to do that, I just felt like keeping them together.

Parenting is a neat trick that can be applied to more than just props and hair.

Try parenting a light to the head or body so that anyway the model turns the light follows.

And, put simple props in the way of the light to create shadows. Parent them to the light to follow it around.

Parent cameras to body parts to keep the subject always in frame, or to create that MTV Fear effect when animating.

Also, need a quick Centaur or other half-animal? Parent the hip of the human figure to the neck/hip of the animal figure and turn the legs/head invisible.

Step 8 - Other Dails

Not all poser models are the same. There are those that need to be conformed, those that need to be parented, and those that automatically parent themselves (Smart Props).

What I have presented in this tutorial is a couple generalized approaches so you can form an educated guess in case you don't know what type of model you're working with.

Grouping - basics and tricks

2011-11-01T17:42:36+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.

Grouping - basics and tricks

Author: dorkati

Tools Needed

Poser 4 or higher

Introduction

One of the most important steps when you make a new prop or character is the grouping.

You need to group when you want to assign materials (check my materials tutorial) or if you want to make different poseable parts. This tutorial shows you the basic steps and a trick so you can to make this task easier. You need Poser Pro Pack or Poser 5 for character setup, but if you only want to make groups without bones, or you want to make different materials, Poser 4 is enough.

Step 1 - Starting

I made this skirt for my NgoniPT. It is a smart prop. If I want to convert to a figure, I need to make bones.

I want it to be more then a simple conforming skirt, I want it to have movable parts.

If you don't want your object to be a figure, skip the bone-creation part and make only groups with these (or other) names.

Create bones:

I want to swing the parts, so I made swing bones

fswing - front

lfswing - left front

rfswing - right front

rswing - right

lswing - left

brswing - back right

blswing - back left

bswing - back swing

Step 2 - Grouping basics

Open the grouping tool window and let's start the grouping.

If you use the autogroup function, this will make the same groups as bones. If you are a beginner this is the best way. You will not forget any of the bones. But this tool isn't very accurate. You see…what groups are made, but it would be better to do this manually.

First select the rswing and click the + buttonto select the polygons that you want to assign to this group.

Than repeat this with fswing (front), lswing (left) and bswing (back). It is very easy to select these parts.

Step 3 - First trick

You need to check which polygons are between groups. Don't worry. There is an easy way.

Select the rfswing (for right-front section) from list, then click on the Add Group button and add the fswing and rswing parts. Select the parts between two others and then

click on Remove Group button and remove the needless fswing and rswing parts.

Now you get the rfswing part.

Step 4 - Last group

Do the same steps with lfswing and brswing.

The last group is the blswing, the back-left part of the skirt.

By following these steps, you won't need to select all of the needed parts click-by-click.

Select the blswing group, than click the Add all button, so your entire skirt is selected. Now click on the Remove Group button and remove all other groups, except blswing.

Now you get the last group too.

Here is a faster method to do the same thing:

When you select the fisrt 4 parts (front, left, right and back), you can select(for example) the lfswing, then hit Add All, remove the existing groups, then unselect with the - button the needless polygons. Then do the same steps with the other groups.

It is easy to select needless polygons, they are wide apart. However, this method doesn't always work, because it will sometimes remove polygons from other existing groups. So the other (little longer) version is more reliable.

Step 5 - Forgotten trifles

It is very easy to forget some little parts.

See the NO BONE group. Originally this group contained the unselected polys. But it doesn't works correctly all the time.

Select the NO BONES group and Remove all polys from it. Check other groups too.

Than the other important step

Check the forgotten polys.

If all the polygons are selected and part of a group, go back to Pose Room.

Step 6 - Check your work

In the pose room you can check your work.

Before your skirt is working, you need to save it as a .CR2 and weld the parts. Check my other tutorial about welding procedure.

See, you can pose your skirt's parts separately.

Good work!

How to Create a New Style From Two Different Hair Items

2011-11-01T17:42:36+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 a New Style From Two Different Hair Items

Author: Matrix08

Tools Needed

* Poser * DAZ3D Razored Moffitt: A V3 Fashion Hairstyle (or similar hair item)

Introduction

Start with a new blank scene and select V3 from the Figures library

Step 1:

Select Razored Moffitt from the figures library and choose the Jet Black MAT

Step 2:

Make Vicky invisible

Step 3:

Select Group Editor

Step 4:

Select all of hair

Step 5:

Click “Create Prop” and when the “New Prop Name” box comes up choose a name

Step 6:

Select a new V3 figure from the library and name it TEMP

Step 7:

Select Sassy Hair 2.0 and choose the black MAT from the Pose library.

Step 8:

Parent the Sassy Hair to the ShagHair which is parented to the original V3. after doing this you can delete the TEMP V3.

Step 9:

Next select the “parent” hair prop which is the razored moffitt.

Step 10:

Choose the Props directory and create a new folder where you will store your new Hair Props.

Step 11:

Choose a name for such as “Shag” then click on the “Select Subset” button.

Step 12:

Make sure both Hair Props are checked. do not check anything else..Click OK and then OK in the hierarchy box and click Ok in the “New Set” box to save.

Step 13:

After saving your new hair item to the PROPS directory delete all hair props in your scene.

Step 14:

Select V3 and then select your new hair props from the library.

Step 15:

Both will appear in the window.

Make your own simple props from primitives

2011-11-01T17:42:36+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.

Make your own simple props from primitives

Author: Dama

Tools Needed

Poser
UV Mapper

Introduction

Have you ever found yourself in the middle of a project and could use that extra little prop to really make the picture? The life-preserver illustrated below was the result of one of those moments, but it shows that you can make your own props from primitives. Lots of everyday items can be put together (with a little patience) from simpler shapes. Which can be very useful if you find yourself in the middle of a project and need a simple prop that you can't find anywhere else.

Step 1 - Build your prop

Launch poser and go to the Props directory. The default folder that opens up is probably Prop Types, which is where you want to be. Scroll to the bottom of that list and double-click the torus.

After the torus loads, you can work on it where it is, but I've rotated mine up 90 degrees so I can see it better.

Adjust the Fatness dial to 0.250 and the Y-Scale dial to 50%.

Now we'll make the four wrap things that go around the floatation part. Go back to the props library under Prop Types and this time load up a cylinder. Manipulate its shape according to the following settings:

Scale: 65%

Y-Scale: 75%

Z-Scale: 50%

Z-Rotate: 45 degrees

Move it so that it is in the top right quadrant of the life preserver. It should stick out a bit more on the outside, so you can paint in ropes after rendering. Like this:

Now make another cylinder with the exact same settings as above. This one goes in the bottom left quadrant.

To make the other two wraps, make two more like the first two, except rotated on the Z axis by NEGATIVE 45 degrees (instead of positive 45 degrees). Place them in the top left and bottom right quadrants.

It should look like this (except all white):

Go to File, then to Export, then to Wavefront OBJ. If the life-preserver-in-progress is the only thing you have loaded into the scene, tou can accept the default settings for every option and save it to your Poser directory. You can also save the PZ3 file in case you need to adjust something later.

Step 2 - Make a UV Map

Open up UV Mapper. Click File, then Load Model. Locate your life preserver OBJ file you just made and click OK. It will tell you how many vertices and normals and facets and whatnot. Just click OK. You'll probably also get a little box that says 'The model you have loaded contains out of range UV coordinate data. Would you like to correct this?' CLICK YES.

The UV image that displays will look nothing at all like your life preserver, and it would be nearly impossible to texture it like that, so we need to make the UV Map more texture friendly. Click Edit, then New UV Map. You can try the different map styles, but I like Planar. Accept the defaults for each and click OK. When you have a map you think you can work with, go to File, then Save Model. Accept the defaults and click OK. You can overwrite the original OBJ file, or save it as a new OBJ file. I always overwrite mine so I don't use the wrong one.

Now be sure to save the UV map. Go to File, then Save Texture Map. Choos a size, don't check any of the boxes, and choose a place to save it.

Step 3 - Make a texture map

Open up your favorite image editor, find the UV map you just made, and go to town. Make your preserver any color, with any wording you wish.

Save your texture map, and then export a JPG file to your Runtime:Textures folder.

Step 4 - Put OBJ and texture map together

Now go back to Poser. Click File, then Import, then Wavefront OBJ. Find the OBJ file you saved out from UV Mapper and click Open. UNCHECK 'Percent of standard figure size' and then click OK. It will probaby load really big. You can load up a human figure for a few seconds to adjust the scale, or you can do that later.

Go to your materials settings and apply your texture map. When you have it the way you want it (scale, materials, placement, etc.), save it to your own folder in your props library.

That's it! You have just made your very own simple prop from scratch!

Here are some other things I've made from primitives:

Morph Injection Technology applied to any character

2011-11-01T17:42:36+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 Injection Technology applied to any character

Author: Adavyss

Tools Needed

Poser 4 or higher
Victoria 2 (or any Figure)
Morph Manager 4 (MM4)

Support Files

Introduction

The morph injection technology can be applied to any character, but your model must have Morph injection channels for this to work.

This tutorial will show you how to easily make a Figure.CR2 ready to receive morph injectors.

Victoria 2 is used as an example.

Step 1 - IMPORT THE CHARACTER FILE INTO MM4

Launch Morph Manager 4 (Morph Manager is available for free in the Renderosity FreeStuff).

Click “Load File” on the left side, and in the window that pops up, load a Blank pose.

For example:

{

version

{

number 4.2

}

Any pose file will do the trick anyway.

Still on the left side, click “Blank pose.pz2”, and in the window that pops up, choose now “Files of Type” > “Character Files [*.CR2]” > Victoria2.CR2.

You must load a pose file before a character file in order to see the BODY controllers.

Save immediately using a new name: “V2injection.CR2” for example.

You should end up with something like this.

Step 2 - REMOVE UNWANTED MORPHS INTO MM4

You probably don't want to keep all the morphs in your new CR2. The whole idea is to design a new character with the fully morphed character and use a “lighter” figure to pose and render. Generally, I only keep the head expression morphs and the BODY ERC stretch controls, but you can do whatever you like.

Save your file regularly.

BODY: if you plan to remove the morphs in the body parts, it's useless to keep the FBM controls. Click on the “+” in front of BODY, right click on the control you want to remove, and in the window that pops up click on “Delete” (“Del” then “Enter” on the keyboard). “StretchNeck”, “StretchArms” and “StretchLegs” are ERC controls, you can keep them. Be careful not to remove the basic controls (from “zOffset” to “zTransB” included).

head: if you want to keep the expression morphs only, delete (“Del” then “Enter” on the keyboard, it's quite fast) the top of the list until “ChinCleft” included and delete the bottom of the list from “NeckThin” to “NeckOld” included. It's quite convenient to keep the “BrowsHide” morph, also.

Right click on the body part you want to remove morphs from, and in the window that pops up click on “Delete Only Morph Targets”. Do the same with all concerned body parts. If you plan to remove all the morphs apart from head expression morphs, it is quicker to use “More Options” > “Delete all morph targets from file” and import again the expression morphs from the Victoria 2.CR2.

Step 3 - ADD THE INJECTION CHANNELS INTO MM4

Download the AddInjectionChannels.zip support file and unzip into your Victoria 2 character folder.

Click “Load File” on the right side, and in the window that pops up, choose “Files of Type” > “Pose Files [*.pz2]” > AddInjectionChannels.pz2

In each body part there are 30 morph injection channels ready to export into your CR2 (IC01 to IC30).

In BODY there are 30 morph injection controls ready to export into your CR2 (IC01 to IC30).

You can export all of them or a selection only (if you don't plan to make finger morphs do not import channels in the fingers).

To import into your CR2, right click on the body part and click “copy all”.

Save. Your V2injection.CR2 is ready

Step 4 - TEST YOUR NEW FIGURE

Download the Test injection.zip support file and unzip into your Poser pose directory.

Launch Poser. Load your “V2injection” character. Open “Poses” > Test injection. Click on the injectors.

You should end up with something like this.

Ugly is not it! I'm sure you will do better.

Morph Injectors can be hand made, but it's easier and quicker to build them with Pozers Little Helper v6.1 (available for free at http://home.online.no/~kjellil/Index-AllStuff.htm )

Have fun with injections!

The Origin of Objects

2011-11-01T17:42:36+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.

The Origin of Objects

Author: xalthorn

Tools Needed

Poser

Introduction

Rotating objects can be a very awkward affair, especially when they don't behave as you expect.

This tutorial aims to show you why things don't always behave as they should and what you can do to fix it.

Step 1 - The Origin

Each object has a reference point, a point of origin if you will. This location affects the object's location, rotation and is also the point that other objects will target when they are set to 'Point At' it.

Step 2 - The Basic Props

It would make sense to look at some of the basic props that come with poser whilst learning about the origin.

I've included an image of 8 of the basic props with their origins shown as a green crosshair. The centre of the crosshair, or the location where the two lines cross, is the origin for the object.

I've shown the ball, the box, the cone, the cylinder, the two squares (one sided and two sided for good measure), the torus and the cane.

As you can see, most of the objects have the origin at their base. The only exceptions are the torus which has the origin in the centre and the cane which has the origin at the top of the handle.

Step 3 - origin for location

Now we'll concentrate on a single prop whilst we play with the origin. I've loaded a single ball prop into the scene, turned the ground plane guide on (Display menu, Guides, Ground Plane), and turned the origin display on for the ball (select the ball, Object menu, Properties, tick the 'display origin' option).

Then, so that I can see what's going on, I changed the view to hidden line.

We can see by this image that the origin is on the floor, underneath the ball. When you move an object around the scene, the xTran, yTran, and zTran settings determine where the origin of the object will be.

Step 4 - Test Rotation

To show that the ball will rotate around it's origin, we'll rotate the ball around the Z axis, 90 degrees should do it. I've shown two images, the first for a 45 degree change, the second for the 90 degree change. Just so you can see how it moves.

As you can see, the ball rotated from the origin, essentially falling to the side. Now, I'll put it back to it's starting position and we'll try something else.

Step 5 - Move the origin

Right, to move the origin you first need to display it, but we've done that already. Once the origin is displayed, you'll see three extra dials, OriginX, OriginY, and OriginZ. These dials obviously move the origin around, but not in the same way that you would move an object around.

When you move an objects xTran, yTran, and zTran dials, you are moving it to an absolute position in the scene. When you move the Origin around, you are moving it around in relation to it's object, nothing more.

We'll move the OriginY value to 0.050 which happens to be the centre of the ball.

I've popped the next image in the wireframe display style rather than hidden line as otherwise we'd not see the origin.

Step 6 - Rotation again

Right, so now we have the origin in the right place, I'll try the rotations again, one at 45 degrees and one at 90 degrees. I've gone back to the hidden line view basically because it's a little less confusing.

Step 7 - Conclusion

There we go, the object is now rotating by itself, or around it's own centre. Much better.

I hope that this tutorial has explained what the origin of an object is and how to manipulate it so that objects behave as you expect.

Creating Realistic Poses

2011-11-01T17:42:36+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 Realistic Poses

Author: Gary_P

Tools Needed

Poser - any version or DAZ Studio

Introduction

In this tutorial, I am going to show you how to create more realistic poses.

The first thing you need to know is there is no symmetry in people. Take a look around. Go to a shopping area and study people. How they stand, sit, and walk. The left leg is always different then the right one.

When I first got Poser, I bought every pose I could get my hands on thinking that I needed all of them. I did this until I realized that it was pretty easy to create my own poses just by watching people around me.

Step 1 - How not to pose

This is how I used to post my figures. I created the scene, and then added Michael. Stood him somewhere, posed his left side, and then used Poser's Symmetry command to pose the other leg.

Then I wondered why he did not look right.

Look at the picture below and try to pick out what is wrong with Michael.

First off, he would never stand so straight.

People just do not stand straight like this. Look at people out in the world. Some have a limp that makes them walk crooked. Some have bad posture.

Now look at the second picture of Mike. Looks much better, does it not?

Step 2 - Changing for a better pose

The first thing I did was shift Mikes weight to his left leg. This is a natural stance for most people. The human body naturally seeks a comfortable position, whether standing or sitting.

I also rotated his leg, so it looks like he has all his weight on his left side.

I also misaligned his spine, for a more natural posture. Next, I tilted his head a bit and moved his eyes. It's easy to see what a little bit of tweaks here and there will do.

Step 3 - Let

Let's do it together. Start Poser and choose your favorite character. I'm going to use Michael 3.0 from DAZ. I also added the second skin clothes for him so he's not naked. These are also from DAZ. Next I set all of his joints to zero, except for his arms, which I set at around 75.

Here is how to easily create this pose.

Turn on Inverse Kinematics. With Inverse Kinematics, or IK enabled, you can translate the hands and feet and achieve appropriate arm and leg positions automatically.

I turned it on for his both feet. A byproduct of turning on IK is it allows you to move Mike's hips and body while keeping his feet on the ground.

Select Mike's hip and set the XTran to .250. This should shift his weight to his left side.

Now it is time to turn off IK, because we'll need to twist his right thigh a bit to give Mike a more natural posture, and IK will not let you do this.

Select his abdomen and set the Side-Side 1 degrees, so it bents toward the right leg.

Select his chest, and set the Side-Side to -1 degrees back towards the left leg by the same amount.

This gives the impression that he is resting his weight on his left hip.

While we are at it, let's set his abdomen's bend dial to 1 degrees, so it bents forward, and select his chest, and set the bend dial to -1 degrees, so it bends back to compensate for gravity.

Select Mike's right thigh and twist it -9 degrees.

That's much better, but we are not finished yet.

Select Mike's right thigh and bend it -4 degrees, then select his Right Shin and bend it back to 4 degrees. This gives the impression that he is resting all his weight on his left leg.

That's much better. Now he is looking like a real person. But what about his arms?

Step 4 - Posing the upper body

Michael is almost looking human and not just a mannequin.

Let's work on his upper body.

Select Mike's left collar and set the Front-Back dial to 6 to push his shoulder back.

Select his left shoulder and set the Twist dial to 61, and set the Bend dial to -73.

Select Mike's left forearm and set the Bend dial to -23 degrees.

Select Mike's left hand and set the Bend dial to -23 degrees.

Also give the Grasp a little bit of turn, and the thumb grasp.

Select his right shoulder and set the Front-Back dial to -9, and set the Bend dial to 85.

Select Mike's left hand and set the Bend dial to -23 degrees.

Also give the Grasp a bit of turn, and the thumb grasp too.

Step 5 - Fixing his head and finishing up

People usually do not keep their head straight either.

Select Mike's head and set the Twist to -5.

Select Mike's neck and set the Side-Side to 4.

If you want to, you can turn the pose a bit sideways and set Mikes eyes dial Side-Side to -5 each.

This way he does not look like he is staring off into space like he is on drugs.

Now Mike looks real.

If you have any questions you may PM me here at DAZ.

Happy posing!

Combination MAT Poses

2011-11-01T17:42:36+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.

Combination MAT Poses

Author: DTigerWoman

Tools Needed

Poser 4 or higher

Introduction

This tutorial will explain how to force a simple MAT pose to change both the camera and figures pose all at the same time with only applying one MAT Pose!

Step 1 - Getting Started

To start… Pose the figure of your choice (V3, SP3, M3, etc…) Save this pose in the pose library.

Next… Create a camera setting that you like and save this into the camera library.

Step 2 - Organization

Just to keep things organized I created a folder “Cam-Pose-Combo” in the runtime directory and moved my pose and camera files into this folder.

*Note: Your camera(.cm2) and pose(.pz2) files that you create for this no longer need to be in the “Pose” and “Camera” directory.

I placed my new Pose and Camera files in this directory: :runtime:Cam-Pose-Combo:

Step 3 - Create The Combination

Now we'll set up the MAT pose file that will change the camera and the figures pose all at the same time!

Create a directory in the pose folder :libraries:Pose:Cam-Pose-Combo:

Open Notepad

Simply copy and paste the following script into notepad and replace the path with your correct path for the Pose and Camera you created.

Save this file into your new :libraries:Pose:Cam-Pose-Combo: folder and name it “001.pz2” or whatever you wish to call it. Just make sure it ends in .pz2

Step 4 - Test Your Combo MAT

Once you have your new combo pose file created open poser, select the figure you worked with for this tutorial, and try your new combo pose! If yours didn't work properly check your paths to the pose and camera files.

Pretty simple huh?!? ENJOY!

General Posing

2011-11-01T17:42:36+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.

General Posing

Author: 3Don

Tools Needed

Poser

Introduction

3D human figure models have evolved considerably over the last several years. They are now much more articulate and realistic. They can now be posed more easily and naturally. However, there are some movement/posing parameters built into these models that are not natural and should not be used in Poser figure posing.

Whenever you import a new pose, check to see if IK is on or off for the figure. Sometimes the pose can look different if IK was on (or off) when the pose was originally saved. If it looks not quite right (and IK was off) turn on IK (or vice versa) and reapply the pose. If the figure moves oddly in the Studio Window, try changing IK settings.

Step 1 - Natural Body Movement

The human body moves from its center of gravity, the hips, which is lower in females and higher in males. It is from the hips that movement originates as a pivot point for the feet. This is why Inverse Kinematics (IK) is usually ON for a default figure.

So, the first consideration in posing a figure from a default position is to show the movement of the body by the position of the hips/legs/feet as they overcome gravity and inertia. This means, pose the hips and legs and feet first, whether by using IK or not.

Step 2 - Use the Posing Dots

Use the 9 Pose Dots as temporary saves of a pose as you work on it. (Quicker than saving to the library) That way if you get stuck, go back to the last pose dot saved and proceed from there. This is also faster than saving your file all the time to revert to. Also if you are working on versions of a pose, or a pose sequence, by saving them to pose dots, you can quickly switch back and forth to compare or see the movement.

Step 3 - Working up the Torso

Adjust the abdomen and chest to compliment the movement of the hips. Then move the neck to fit. Head movement is mostly a result of neck motion, so position the head first by moving the neck. To tweak fine adjustments, move the head.

Step 4 - Forearm Movement

Next, move the forearm. The forearm moves very little from side-to-side. there is a Parameter Dial for this motion. Use it very, very sparingly to achieve natural looking poses. Instead of moving the forearm side-to-side, twist the shoulder or collar more, or move them front to back. The twist of the forearm is also limited. Twist your own forearm and observe how far it will go in either direction. Bear that in mind when twisting the forearm.

Step 5 - Hands

The last thing to work with are the hands. What the hands do and where they are first depends on the position of the rest of the figure. Bipedal humans have the advantage of fore-limb movement which is independent from hind-limb movement. Thus, the collar-shoulder-forearm-wrist movement and position can be counter to the hips-legs. But the upper limbs still must attain a balance with the rest of the figure. Actually what are called hand movements in Poser are wrist movements.

Step 6 - Posing Fingers

To pose the fingers. Use IK to position hands only after you have used the above discussed in Posing Hands. For posing, IK for hands is best used for nudging a hand into place along the X-Y-Z axes. Do Not use the twist/bend/side-to-side dials when IK is ON. Once a hand is placed using IK, turn it OFF.

Step 7 - Distorting a Figure

You can intentionally distort the figure by moving limbs unnaturally for certain effects. But, for natural looking poses, here are some other movements to avoid.

Do not use side-to-side or twist (or only very little) for the shins. That movement which makes the shin appear to twist or move to the side, originates in the buttocks and thigh. If you twist both the thigh area and the foot, you may want to then twist the shin only a little to align.

When twisting and bending the hip-abdomen-chest area, remember that this part of the body moves like a whip. Motion at the pivot point travels the length of the object. What this means in posing is this. If the hip is twisted (with IK ON) 6 degrees, the abdomen and chest have also twisted a like amount. So, twist the abdomen only 4 degrees more, and the chest by 2 degrees, for a natural looking twist from the hips. The math is not precise here but practical for the effect. The further down the object, the less movement is added to the movement of the pivot.

Do this rather than twisting the hips 12 degrees, roughly the sum of the components. If the body is not twisted this way it will look like it has a fused spine.

Step 8 - Existing Poses

Many Poser posers start from an existing pose rather than the Default. It is easier to find something close to what you want and tweak it than start from scratch. I did when I was a beginner. Now I usually start from scratch to insure originality. Often, though, I use one of my own many poses as a starter.

Collect and categorize poses from free and commercial sources. If you use different model types (P3, P4, Millenniums, etc.) keep them grouped together. I keep a Library Archives on an external HD to move pose sets back and forth from the main Library.

Step 9 - Observation

Observation is the key to successful posing. Watch people move and at rest. When posing, try the pose with your own body in front of a mirror. Assume the Position! FEEL how the pose feels. It will help you translate into Poser. Too, you can have a friend pose for you. If you have a digital camera, the poses can be recorded for reference. You can even bring this photo into your Poser Studio window as a Background Picture (and delete it later).

Also, collect images of people in ordinary poses and in extraordinary ones. A good source for odd and different poses would be fashion photography of models. Many show exposed body parts (and how they work) and how clothing falls on the body. Often fashion photographers have their models pose in some really interesting configurations for the sake of variety and notice.

Posing Hands with Inverse Kinematics

2011-11-01T17:42:36+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 Hands with Inverse Kinematics

Author: 3Don

Tools Needed

Poser

Introduction

Hands are the most difficult things to pose in Poser. We are so familiar with how our hands look that mis-posed hands are really obvious. Here are some ways to make it easier.

Step 1 - Degree of Movement

Poser designates hand digit movements for each of 3 joints. For example, the index finger has Parameter Dials for Index 1, 2, and 3, corresponding to base joint, middle joint, and finger tip. For each finger and thumb there are Twist, Side-to-side, and Bend movements.

However, real hands DO NOT twist or move side to side at the middle and tip joints. Each finger only twists and moves side to side at the knuckle joint, or position 1.Other joints follow this movement.

All joints will bend towards the palm. As far as backward bending goes, the base will bend back up to 6 degrees, the middle bends back about 3 degrees, and the tip about 3 degrees, maximum.

So, there are 2 positions for 10 parts that can always be set to Zero. That“s 20 Parameter Dials not to set at all. Using Kinematics (IK) to nudge hands can sometimes cause errant movement in those joints. To perfect a hand pose after using IK, re-zero all middle and tip joints for twist and side-to-side.

Step 2 - Turning Inverse Kinematics Off

Turn Inverse Kinematics OFF for hands when saving a hand pose to the Hands Library. The entire figure/pose will distort if that new pose is applied to another hand, whether IK is on or off for the new hand.

Step 3 - Parenting a Prop

Step 4 - Progressive Inverse Kinematics

Use the posing movements starting with the collar, then shoulder, then forearm, and last the hand (without IK) to position and pose hands, as the body does naturally. Do not use IK to position large hand movements. Use IK to nudge hands into place along X, Y, and Z-axes after moving the arm into general position. Avoid using the twist, bend and side-to-side movements when IK is on.

Often a hand will grossly distort if IK is used to position it. If the wrist already has bend, twist, and side movements applied, IK will interpret and display those settings differently. If the hand distorts after IK movement, turn off IK, and set twist, bend, and side-to-side all back to zero with the Parameter Dials if necessary. The hand may be only a little off and need a little more nudging, and the distortion will be gone.

The 2 illustrations show the right hand with IK on and moved into position, and then with IK off. Notice how the hand is distorted, then more natural looking.

Step 5 - A Body in Motion

IK for hands can be used to pose the entire body very easily. With IK on for both hands, they will stay in place when the hips are moved. For instance, to make Michael do a chin-up on a bar, position the bar and pose the figure grasping it. Turn off IK for the feet, select the hip and move it up along the Y-axis. The hands will continue to grip the bar as the body moves up and the arms bend. Rotate the body forward at the hips to simulate the swing of a body rising like that. If you select the body and move it up, the body and hands will both rise.

If IK is only turned on for one hand, it will stay in place while the other hand moves with the body. See the samples of Mike doing a chin-up with both hands and just the right hand.

Putting Props in Hands

2011-11-01T17:42:36+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.

Putting Props in Hands

Author: 3Don

Tools Needed:

Poser (But this will work in DAZ Studio as well with some modification)
Any hand-held Prop

Introduction

The hardest prop type to place and attach to a figure is the hand-held object. While never easy, it can be simplified. Here's how.

Step 1 - The Default Pose

Begin by setting your figure to the default pose – straight up body with outstretched arms.

If you start with an unclothed figure there will not be a lot of other props and textures to slow down the process.

Tweak the arms pose some by setting all bends, twists, and side-to-side to zero. That way the hands are in sync with the studio window X-Y-Z orientation, as will be the props.

Save this as a Default Prop Pose to your Library for later use.

Step 2 - Add the Prop

For this example I used the DAZ Scimitar from the Costume Pack CD.

Check to see if the prop is, or has been, saved as a smart prop. If so, set the new parent to Universe for now, even if it has previously been a smart prop for a hand. Then set all X-Y-Z positions, and rotations to zero.

Step 3 - Scale the Prop

Scale the prop to an approximate size if it appears too large or small. Poser PP2 prop files are most often to scale. Some imported 3D prop files may come in as oversized. See Illustration 1. with figure and prop set to these defaults.

Step 4 - Working with Shadows

Be sure that the ground is visible in your scene and that the default (un-rendered) overhead shadows are seen. Overhead cast shadows make prop positioning much easier in a 3D space.

Begin to position the prop using the Parameter Dials. I prefer the dials to tools, as the dials are faster and ultimately, more accurate. Notice the shadow of the prop as it moves. It is much easier to see where the prop is by the shadow it casts than is seen when body/prop objects are foreshortened or overlapping. See the Illustrations showing this shadow tracking. Notice how the small shadow of the Scimitar directly in front of the figure moves from center towards the right hand.

Step 5 - The Prop in Place

At this point the prop is touching the hand, and is in the approximate position and rotations. There are two ways to go from here. You can move the prop until it is about right in relation to the default pose of the hand, and pose the hand around the prop.

Or, you can apply a preset hand pose from your Library and move the prop into position. You may end up tweaking the hand a little to better fit the prop. Whichever method you use, always save that new hand to your Library for reapplication. Illustration 4 shows the right hand camera view of the previous image. A hand pose I made was applied to the open hand and the Scimitar moved up and over a little.

Step 6 -

The last step is to attach the prop to the hand. Be sure IK is turned off for the hand in which you want to place the prop. If IK is on, the hand will not appear in the list of possible parents. Set the hand as Parent to the prop.

Notice that the Parameter Dials settings for positions and rotations change when a prop is attached to a hand or other body part. Originally the prop shared X-Y-Z coordinates with the studio window settings. Once the prop is a 'Child' it adopts the X-Y-Z orientation of the body part. Those orientations are different for hands and other body parts. Thus, child props will move and rotate differently than before being attached. Experiment to learn the differences.

Save the attached prop to your Library with a modified name. In this case, 'Scimitar-sp' (for smart prop). Likewise you can save for different figure types. I use -msp for Michael smart prop, -vsp for Victoria smart prop, -psp for Posette smart prop, and so on.

Step 7 -

Now you can pose your figure and the prop will stay put. Often when you apply a new, preset pose, the hand will change. When it does, simply reapply the hand pose (hd2 file) for that hand.

Step 8 -

Now after applying any body pose, you can add the hand pose and the smart prop (in either order) and it will snap to as it should be. The last image shows the original figure and prop with several items from the costume pack added and scaled to fit. Textures and colors were applied and the result is… Mikel, the Moorish Pirate.

A Different Way to Make Clothing Conformers

2011-11-01T17:42:36+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 Different Way to Make Clothing Conformers

Author: pbnj

Tools Needed

Morph Manger
A good text editor

Introduction

I was playing around in Morph Manager the other day and discovered a different way to make Poser clothing conformers and bone sets. You still have to edit the CR2 some but not half as much as you normally would, and there's less possibly confusing data left in there for you to delete.

Step 1 - GETTING STARTED

Open Morph Manager and load the CR2 of the figure you want to create a conformer or bone set for.

Step 2 - DELETE MORPHS

Strip all the character morphs from the CR2 by going down to each body part that has the + sign, clicking on it, then right click on MORPH TARGETS. Then click Delete All Morph Targets. Make sure to delete ALL morphs from the CR2, we have no use for them in a conformer (or a bone set for that matter).

Step 3 - MAKE SURE TO SAVE

Now you can save this file as (InsertFigureName)_BaseConform.CR2, or something similar to help you remember what it is. I've named it BaseConform because it will be just that, a base that I will edit from each time I want to make a new custom conformer.

Step 4 - DELETE unnecessary GROUPS

Decide what body parts you want to keep, this will change depending on the clothing item you have created. So in this example let's say we've created a long sleeve shirt. You will need the following groups: chest, abdomen, lCollar, rCollar, lShoulder, rShoulder, lForearm, and rForearm.

Now for the body parts we do NOT want to keep… Right click on the head group and click Properties. Here it will give a list of all sorts of info on that group and it's channels. Right click on each section of information and then click delete, until there is nothing else in the properties section of this group. making sure to delete the 'actor:' last.

Click OK to leave the properties window. When you come back to the basic Morph Manager screen that group should be gone. If not, go back and make sure you have deleted everything.

Repeat -Step 4- for every body part you do not need for your conformer. This can get really tedious when it comes to fingers (and toes if you are using a character with separate digits), but you'll see why it's worth it in just a second. I recommend saving another copy of the edited file once the fingers and toes are deleted so you don't have to delete them every time you want to tweak a new conformer.

Step 5 - DELETE EMPTY CHANNELS

With all our unnecessary body parts deleted, close Morph Manager and open your new CR2 in a text editor that can handle larger file; Textpad, etc. Use your text editors 'Find' feature and look for head, make sure to spell it exactly like your figure has it listed. You should see something like this:

actor head:1
{
}

Now that all the 'junk' as been cut out it's much easier to find and delete unnecessary body parts and their channels without fear of deleting something you actually want. So now highlight and delete the actor head section and the brackets following.

Repeat -Step 5- for every body part you do not need for your conformer. Again this can get tedious with fingers and toes. Making note of the exact spelling of the groups you are wanting to delete will make it easier to 'Find' them in your document. Save at this point to prevent having to start from the beginning again.

Step 6 - EDIT THE POINTER

We're going to clear out a bit more code so scroll back to the top of your document and you should see something like this:

{
version
{
number 4.01
}
figureResFile :Runtime:Geometries:MyFiles:MyClothingItem.obj
actor BODY:1
{
}
actor hip:1
{
storageOffset 0 0 0
geomHandlerGeom 13 hip
}
actor abdomen:1
{
storageOffset 0 0 0
geomHandlerGeom 13 abdomen
}

First make sure the number line reads 4.01 so Poser 4 users do not get the annoying “Object is newer then expected” warning. Then the figureResFile :Runtime pointer needs to be changed to the object file of the clothing article you created. Now delete all actor sections and their bracketed information for unnecessary body parts.

Step 7 - EDIT THE FIGURE SECTION

Scroll to down your document until you see the 'figure' chunk of code near the bottom (if you're seeing material information you've scrolled to far, back up a bit to find the right section).

It should look something like this:

figure
{
name NAME
root BODY:1
addChild hip:1
BODY:1
addChild abdomen:1
hip:1
addChild chest:1
abdomen:1
addChild neck:1
chest:1
addChild head:1
neck:1

Change the figures name to Shirt, or what ever work for your particular clothing item.

You can also trim out the parent and weld information, delete the addChild/weld line and the line following it, for all the un-required parts. Next delete the inkyChain information for any limbs you are not using.

Scroll down farther yet and delete all but the Preview material.

Step 8 - SAVE AND YOUR DONE

Save the new file and now you have a shiny new conformer and/or bone set.

Step 9 - Additional Information

Down the road it can be a great time saver to edit and save various types of conformers. In this case we have created a nice long sleeve shirt and if we create a t-shirt we can bring this conformer into Morph Manager delete the forearm information, remove the empty tags in the CR2 and now you have a nice base to reuse for any clothing type that uses the same figure groups. Same goes for pants, shorts, shoes, etc.

I hope you found this tutorial of some use, if you have any questions please contact me at pbnj@digitalhippies.com

Character Setup Using the Set Up Room

2011-11-01T17:42:37+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 Setup Using the Set Up Room

Author: odeathoflife

Tools Needed

Poser ProPack
Poser 5

Support Files

CharacterSetUpTutorial.zip

Introduction

I have several requests a month asking how to set up characters for use in Poser. So I took some time, and made up this tutorial. I hope that it helps clear things up for many of you getting into character creation.

There are support files included.

A Base OBJ, that will be used to create the character, as well as a completed character I made during the writing of this tutorial.

I will be using the poser set-up room, and the joint editor to fine toon the joints.

Step 1 - IMPORTING INTO POSER

OK so open poser and delete the figure ( if there is one ) and go to FILE > IMPORT > WAVEFRONT OBJ…

In the WAVEFRONT OBJ open dialog, navigate to the

:Runtime:Geometries:BurntToast:DazTutorialCharacter, and select the 'baseCharacter.obj' and select OPEN.

In the following PROP IMPORT OPTIONS dialog Click the “place on floor” check box, and leave all the defaults as they are, this will import the baseCharacter centered with his feet on the floor.

Now Making sure that the mesh is selected click the SETUP tab at the top of the document window and choose OK to turn it into a figure.

We are now in the poser set up room, and yoru new figure is ready for some boning :)

Step 2 - USING THE SETUP ROOM

So once in the set up room, you have a couple (well 2) ways of boning your character. By using the bone creation tool.

or by using an already premade bone system. I will be demonstrating the latter.

(NOTE: I have been in contact with Curious Labs about using their bone set ups for Custom creation with intent to sell and have the OK from them. I have NOT been in touch with DAZ3D or other custom creators about using their bone set ups for use with this method)

Ok so we are going to be using a preset bone set up from the Skeleton Male for this characters set up.

So navigate to the additional figures folder of the poser library and double click the Skeleton Male character, this will load his bones into the set up window.

Since the figure is so close to the bone set up from the Skeleton, all wel will have to do to tweak it is move the shoulders down a bit so they are inline with the arms on the figure.

If you just grab the shoulder bones the rest of hte arm will follow.

Then click on GROUPING TOOL

to open up the grouping dialog box.

Once the box is open click on the bottom button marked AUTOGROUP.

Now the bones are grouped to the polygons in the figure that we brought into the set up room, albeit badly. Next we are going to add polies to the groups to finish off our character set up.

Step 3 - MESSING WITH THE GROUPS

Now that we have Auto Grouped the mesh, if you look to the grouping dialog ou will see a drop down box, if you click on it you can scroll through the figure 'parts' and see what needs to be altered by way of the grouping.

IMPORTANT THINGS TO CONSIDER -

The poser heirarchy needs somethings in order to work correctly. For instance each child needs to be completly surrounded by at least one row of polygons from the parent, or else there will be splitting of the mesh.

(i.e. the hip is connect to both the left and right thigh, both thighs [children] must be completly surrounded by the hip [parent], and cannot be in contact with each other.)

in this image you can see the groups that I have made by 1st selecting the part through the drop down list, and selecting the appropriate polygons by using the selection tool.

Once the groups are assigned to the appropriate bone, then you can do a couple of checks using the grouping dialog.

If you click on the “SHOW MULTIGROUPED FACES” this (if there are any) will display in red polygons that are assigned to more then one group.

You may also want to (I always do) check the “SHOW NON-GROUPED FACES” to see if there are any stray polygons that have no home on the bones.

Once you are satifyed with your grouping you can close the dialog and click back to the pose room by using the tab at the top of the document window. If you get an error that says there are non grouped polygons, then choose not to exit and use the SHOW NON-GROUPED FACES“ to see where the problem lies.

Step 4 - USING THE JOINT EDITOR TOOL

So now we are in the Pose Room again, or familiar friend.

But we will need to tweak the joint set up. So go to WINDOW on the tool bar and select “Joint Editor”, this will open teh Joint Parameters dialog (we will not be using the dialog persay so you may move it off to the side out of the way…Do Not Close it yet though because we need what it offers…direct access)

Choose the FRONT View camera, and the outline document view,

then select the body parts one by one making sure that their joint centers are on the seam of the joint.

The head center (the green cross) needs to be at the top of the neck, the shoulders need to be at the line between the shoulder and the chest, etc…

Then move to the TOP VIEW continuing to move the joint centers to their appropriate spots on the mesh.

Once that is done close the joint parameters dialog and do a test pose, if there are any errors (weird bends and such, re-open the joint editor and do some fine tweaking.

Step 5 - FINISHING UP

Once you are happy with the joint setups, you can save your character to the figures library and you are done with poserfying your creation.

There are more things to be done of course like UV Mapping, adding morphs, creating clothing, but we will leave that for another tutorial :)

If you have any questions you may of course email me @

allan74@shaw.ca

Poser Free Stuff is available @

www.members.shaw.ca/odeathoflife

Controlling mouth movements with a bone

2011-11-01T17:42:37+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.

Controlling mouth movements with a bone

Author: SnowFox

Tools Needed

Poser Pro Pack or Poser 5

Step 1 - Step 1

First of all your model needs to be grouped correctly. You need 3 groups in the head: head, jaw, and jawhinge. I prefer to do all my grouping in Wings rather than with Poser's group editor. Loop Cut the jaw away from the head. Then, select another edge loop behind the jaw for the hinge. Loop Cut that too. Name the objects appropriately.

Step 2 - Step 2

After that, go into the Setup Room. Create a bone for the head like you normally do, and name it head. Then create a bone for the jaw-hinge, then one for the jaw. Give the bones the same names as your groups, and make sure your groups and hierarchy are correct. Then exit to the pose room.

Step 3 - Step 3

Now you need to set the joint parameters. You should only need to adjust the xRotate (bend) paramter, jaws don't need to twist ;) Set up the joint similar to what I've done here, so the upper jaw and head don't deform when the jaw is moved. It doesn't matter what settings the hinge has, because you're not going to move it at all. It's just a place holder in the hierarchy for the jaw to parent to. If you don't include the hinge, the jaw will not behave properly. The only exception to this rule is for objects that join at right angles, such as the Millenium Dragon's jaws. Also not that this method will not work well on figures with cheeks, such as humans. It works best on creatures with long jaws, like wolves and crocodiles…and dragons ;)

Step 4 - End

Now you have a working jaw that was very easy to make, and quick!

Fixing Spiky or Pointy Polygons in Converted Clothing with Poser 7

2011-11-01T17:42:37+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.

Fixing Spiky or Pointy Polygons in Converted Clothing with Poser 7

Author: eallenmail

Tools Needed

* Poser 7

* Clothing conversion software such as Wardrobe Wizard 2 or Cross Dresser

* M3

Introduction

Sometimes your clothing conversions don't succeed 100%. You get weird spikes in the clothes when you pose them. Such pointy polys happen because the fall-off zones – or areas affected by the bend of a joint – on the converted clothing are too small. Learn how to increase the size of problematic fall-off zones with Poser 7's Joint Editor.

Step 1:

Open Poser 7 and the converted clothing item. Our example here is the M3 Chinese Coat by DAZ3D.

Step 2:

Select and bend each joint in succession to determine which joint is the source of the pointy polys. Here the culprit is the left and right forearm.

Step 3:

Go to Window > Joint Editor to open the Joint Editor.

Step 4:

Select the left forearm. From the dropdown menu at the top of the Joint Editor box, select the joint type.

Here we're modifying a Bend joint.

Step 5:

The fall-off zones show up around the selected joint as red and green circles.

Select the green one, Inner Mat Sphere, by double-clicking on it. You can see how it does not fully encompass the entire sleeve, causing some polys to be left behind so that they spike when the clothing is posed.

Step 6:

Make the fall-off zone bigger and “catch” those wayward polys.

Under Parameters, increase the Z scale by 4 percentage points. [Usually you only need to adjust fall-off zones by <6 percentage points.] The green circle increases in size, encompassing all of the sleeve.

Step 7:

Select the left forearm again, and bend it.

If there are no pointy polys, you have successfully adjusted the sleeve's fall-off zones. If you still get pointy polys, repeat the process above. You may have to adjust the red circle, Outer Mat Sphere, as well.

Step 8:

Once you are done with the left arm, copy the adjusted fall-off zones to the right arm by going to Figure > Symmetry > Left to Right.

When the dialog box comes up, “Do you want to copy the joint zone's setup also?, ” say yes.

Step 9:

With fall-off zones for both sleeves adjusted, save the fixed-up coat to your library. You are done.

Rigging figures in Poser 4

2011-11-01T17:42:37+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.

Rigging figures in Poser 4

Author: Looniper

Tools Needed

Poser 4
A text editor

Support Files

Loon_Rigging.zip

Introduction

You've spent the time modeling the perfect figure, but now how to get it to work in Poser?

This tutorial will step you through rigging a 3D OBJ model to work in Poser, from Importing to fixing the CR2 to use external geometry and the basics of Joint editing.

This tutorial is made to use only the tools available in Poser 4 and a text editor, so figures created this way will function in Poser 4 and 5 (and presumably 6 and higher).

Step 1 - The Import

The included support file Loon-Rigging.zip contains the OBJ file for R-LoBot, a heavyweight figure of 295 polygons. It also contains text file PartSupport.txt containing additional information on part naming standards.

Unzip it wherever you like and you are ready to procede.

File-Import-Wavefront Object

Oh boy! Look at all those checkboxes!

Poser has a number of options for importing and each one is useful in its own way. For typical figure imports though, only the following will be used very often.

Centered.

-Positions the import so its Physical center is at 0, 0, 0.

Place on floor.

-This positions the figure so that the lowest point of it is in contact with the ground plane.

Percent of standard figure size.

-100% is the size of the Poser male figure.

Make polygon normals consistent.

-This tells Poser to read the normals(if present) stored in the OBJ and to make them consistent with the vertex normals. This is useful if you have very complex objects to import that were saved with the normals information, but doesn't hurt to leave checked in most cases.

R-LoBot.obj does not need any options checked, since he was modeled specifically for Poser use.

Step 2 - Body Parts

Where step 3 will cover the actual grouping of body parts, it is important that you understand the naming conventions Poser uses for them.

While technically, you can name any body part anything you like, there are 4 very good reasons to use the default naming scheme.

#1 - Your figure will accept Poser's Symetry commands. (straighten torso, swap left-right, etc)

#2 - Your figure will support Poses made for most figures of its body type. (in this case humanoids)

#3 - Your figure will be usable with the Walk Designer's basic functions.

#4 - It will save you an inordinate amount of time in the Hierarchy editor.

For humanoid and most other organic figures, the preliminary body part list is as follows.

head, neck, abdomen, hip

lThigh, lShin, lFoot, rThigh, rShin, rFoot

lCollar, lShldr, lForeArm, lHand, rCollar, rShldr, rForeArm, rHand

and leftEye, rightEye (if your figure has any).

*case matters*

While the naming represents real body parts, some are poorly represented.

Collars in this list represent only the ball socket itself in a real shoulder.

Shoulders in this list are actually the upper arm, from the socket to the elbow.

Shins in this list are the entire leg from the knee to the feet.

The other parts are relatively close to representing real anatomy.

If your figure is to have hands with functional fingers, and you wish to use the Hands poses, it will also need to follow the standard naming lHand, rHand, and the following for finger parts.

rThumb#, rIndex#, rMid#, rRing#, rPinky#

lThumb#, lIndex#, lMid#, lRing#, lPinky#

where # is a number from 1 to 3, 1 being the part that connects to the hand, and 3 being the end of the finger.

All of these names are in reference to a human(oid) of course, but will apply to most biological figures.

In some cases, however, you may need more or fewer parts. A legless creature, or something with a multisegmented body or tail for example.

Poser has accounted for this and supports additional part names as are listed in the included PartSupport.txt file.

Step 3 - Grouping

With the imported OBJ selected, click the grouping tool icon.

The easiest way to begin is to change to the Front camera view, and set the Preview mode to Wireframe.

In wireframe mode, any selections with the grouping tool will pass completely through the object, selecting polygons that both face the camera and those that face away.

In any other viewing mode, only the polygons facing the camera to some extent are selected. This is important to remember when grouping parts where the front and back are not symetrical, or where the front and back are to be separate parts.

To create a body part, click New Group on the grouping tool and name the body part.

Now select all of the polygons that are to be in that body part.

When selecting, there is no need to hold Shift to Add to the selection. Just keep selecting until all of the polygons for the given part are red.

If you make a mistake, you can hold Ctrl and select what you want to de-select, and it will turn black again.

While R-LoBot is very simple, and modeled specifically to be easy to group, there are a couple of instances where you will need to use the other buttons on the grouping tool.

When you select for rFoot, for example, it will also select the rShin polygons.

Because of this, it is a good idea to create the rShin group first. This way when you select the rFoot, and it includes those shin polygons, you can simply press Remove Group and select rShin from the list.

This will occur again between the chest and rCollar/lCollar, so create the chest group first.

If you want to assign material groups, this is the time to do it. If you wait until you have created the figure, you will need to group the materials one part at a time.

If you are in a rush to get past this point, R-LoBot's material groups are set so that they represent the body parts. The 'Hands' material for example, is both the lHand and rHand.

You could create a group, lHand, Include Material Hands, then hold Ctrl and deselect the rHand.

Do this only if you are already familiar with the grouping tool.

There are two checkboxes at the bottom of the grouping tool for testing your group assignments. After you have created all of the body parts, use each in turn to fix any errors.

First, check the Show non-grouped Faces box.

This will show any polygons that belong to no group (as red).

Next, with the previous box unchecked, check the Show Multigrouped Faces box.

This will show any polygons that have been assigned to more than one group. OBJ files can store multigrouped polygons, but Poser doesn't handle them well.

Step 4 - Creating Parts

Now that the body parts are assigned to groups, export the OBJ file.

Runtime:Geometries:Looniper:Tutorials:R-LoBot.obj

(you can delete the R-LoBot.mtl it creates)

This step is vitally important for when we edit the CR2. It will need an OBJ that has the parts grouped exactly as we have done in this model.

The R-LoBot.mtl can be deleted.

Now that the grouped OBJ is saved, and all of the parts are correctly assigned, click the Spawn Props button on the grouping tool.

This will create a separate object for each body part, with the names we gave it. This is neecesary for the Hierarchy Window to recognize the parts as such, rather than seeing the model as a single object.

Note: You do not need to spawn props if you are using a PHI creator of some kind. It also lets you skip steps 4 - 6, but requires a basic understanding of the concepts explained in these steps, so you should create at least a few figures manually before learning to use a PHI creator.

Step 5 - The Hierarchy

Now that you have a separate object for each body part, lShin, rCollar, etc., delete the original R-LoBot from the scene. (we don't want him trying to be a body part)

This is a good time to Save As and store the entire scene in case of mistakes.

Window-Hierarchy to open the hierarchy editor.

Each of our body parts must be attached to eachother and their relative rotation order set.

The connection is made by dropping each part into the part 1 step closer to the hip from itself.

As an example..

rHand drops into rForeArm, rForeArm drops into rShldr, rShldr into rCollar, rCollar into chest, chest into abdomen, and abdomen into the hip.

Because we used Default Naming for all of our body parts, we can cheat here by selecting Universe in the list and clicking the Apply Std Hierarchy button.

This will tie all of our parts together in the standard Human(oid) configuration.

It is a good idea to build the hierarchy by hand a few times to get a feel for it, since not all figures will use these exact parts, or will use them in different ways.

Step 6 - Rotation Order

For this part, check the Show Parameters box in the Hierarchy Menu.

The order in which a part's rotations are listed is important to Poser.

It determines the effect the various tools have on the parts and how the joints between objects are connected.

The first axis listed should be the one that you expect to change when the Twist tool is used. (example, twisting a neck around)

The second axis should be the one of the remaining two which is likely to have lowest rotation values applied to it. (example, tilting the neck side to side)

The third axis (obviously) should be the one likely to have the highest rotation values applied. (bending the neck front to back)

Again, since we used Default Naming on all of our body parts, and R-LoBot is of typical human(oid) proportions, we can simply select Universe and click the Apply Std Rot. Order button.

See? All that hassle with naming parts wasn't such a bad deal after all.

Now that everything is in place, select the Hip in the list, and click Create New Figure. Give it a name (R-LoBot) and it creates a CR2 containing all of the information needed to make R-LoBot work.

Unfortunately, the CR2 also contains all of his geometry, so next we cover how to fix that.

Step 7 - External Geometry

When we first imported R-LoBot.OBJ, Poser understood exactly what file we were working with. But the moment we pressed the Spawn Props button, that went out the window.

From that point onward, Poser was handling all of the parts' geometry internally.

Because of this, when we created the figure, all of that geometry was placed inside it.

This is where the OBJ we exported in Step 3 comes into play.

Open the CR2 of the created figure.

(Runtime:libraries:character:New Figures:R-LoBot.CR2)

Near the beginning is the line

actor BODY

Immediately before that line, insert

figureResFile Runtime:Geometries:Looniper:Tutorials:R-LoBot.obj

(point to wherever you exported the grouped OBJ to)

following this are a pair of brackets

{

}

then each body part with its geometry information.

To tell it to use the figureResFile's geometry instead, change the

geomCustom

lines to

geomHandlerGeom 13 partname

The partname is the name we gave it when grouping the parts inside Poser, and is case sensitive.

Now delete the geometry definitions including the { } that surrounds them.

The result should be something like this.

Continue replacing the geometry definitions with the pointers until all of the parts are handled by the figureResFile.

After the last of the body parts, you will see another line

actor BODY

Add the

figureResFile Runtime:Geometries:Looniper:Tutorials:R-LoBot.obj

before this line as with the one at the beginning of the CR2.

After saving the CR2, load the figure in Poser to be sure all of the parts loaded. If any parts are not showing, it means you misspelled something in the CR2 for that body part. Simply find and correct that spelling and try again, until all of the figure loads. (remember that Case Counts)

Step 8 - Correcting Joints

Joint editing is seen by most as the most intimidating aspect of figure creation. Since we used the defaults for everything up to this point, the joints are fairly close to where they should be, but some touchup will always be needed.

Load the R-LoBot figure and select one of his collars, then adjust any of its rotation dials. The effect on the chest is far too servere!

Reset the dials to 0 and open the Joint Editor in wireframe viewing mode.

The problems are going to be too much or too little of a body part being included in the joints.

Most joints are represented in Poser's editor in two ways, an I beam or a pair of Vs.

When an I beam is used, everything outside the green end is moved completely, everything beyond the red end is unchanged, and everything in between (along the I beam itself) is the blend area.

When Vs are used, the situation is much the same. Polygons contained by the green V are moved completely, those contained by the red V are unchanged, and those in between are the blend area.

Correcting joints will take some practice, but luckily Poser is friendly in this aspect, as it lets us use the joint dials to test our joints while we edit. Just be sure to set the rotations back to 0 before each change.

Let's start with the left Collar.

When zRotation is applied, the entire left third of the chest moves along with the arm.

Open the Joint editor with wireframe viewing mode (and reset the dials to 0)

The settings on the zRotate joint are probably

0.032, 0.566, -0.027 for the Center Point and

Static A: 135.000

Static B: 45.000

Static C: 315.000

Static D: 225.000

Static A and D are the red arms of the V, Static B and C are the green.

We can fix most of the problem by simply adjusting the red arms, but no matter how much we adjust them, the center is too far into the chest.

Move the center out to 0.052, 0.557.

Using the zRotate dial, you can see this has fixed the problem with the portion of the arm Above the collar, but the portions below still need a lot of work.

Now it is time to start adjusting those Statics.

Static A looks good where it is, but that Static D need moved. Bending the arm shouldn't cause the ribcage to collapse after all. With a little trial and error, the value 265.000 looks like a good one to keep.

Duplicate these changes on the Right Collar (symetry is our friend).

We added .030 to our center on the left collar, so we subtract .030 from our right collar.(-0.052) We added 40 to our Static D on the left collar so we subtract 40 from our static A on the left. (the lines are flipped at the center of the figure, A/D, B/C)

The xRotation uses the I beam. There are only 2 values on an I beam, the(red) Twist Start (0.032) and (green)Twist End (0.081).

Here we simply need to close the red end into the collar a bit. 0.050 and -0.050 are good.

I won't go over all of the joints in the body and what their exact values should be, because the best way to learn is by practice, and better to practice on something simple like R-LoBot than a 60, 000 polygon 12 legged monster with 3 heads. ;)

Step 9 - Finishing Up

The only thing left to do to R-LoBot now is to set the limits on his joints.

This is a much simpler task than much of what we have done, and is going to depend on personal estimation more than anything else. It does take some time, but is much more forgiving of errors than the rest of the process, and can be redone as often as you like for fine tuning.

Pick any joint on the body, and double click one of its dials. Here is where you set the minimum and maximum values for that rotation of that joint, and how sensitive the dial is.

After doing this, simply find that joint rotation in the CR2 and change the line

forceLimits 0

forceLimits 4.

There you have it, from start to finish.

Even without joint editing, the R-LoBot figure you've made can use the walk designer's basic features, and can accept poses-such as Aikiyu Warrior Poses for Aiko 3-that do not make radical adjustments to the feet, or require IK be activated.

But why stop there? Once the joints are corrected, you can add IK, and use the Path editor and have the full use of the walk designer, and a larger selection of poses.

I hope you find this tutorial useful,

~Looniper

Dynamic Clothing to Conforming Using Setup Room

2011-11-01T17:42:37+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.

Dynamic Clothing to Conforming Using Setup Room

Author: odeathoflife

Tools Needed

Victoria
Poser Pro Pack or Poser 5

Support Files

Runtime.zip

Introduction

In this tutorial I am going to take you through the steps on converting a Poser 5 dynamic clothing item (in this case an open jacket designed for Victoria 2, into a conforming object file for the character

Step 1 - Opening the Dynamic Clothing into the Set Up Room

Ok so the 1st step is to open the included support files so we are all on the same page, (if you unzipped following the folder set up I made, you should open the Tutorial Jacket in the DazDyn2Conform folder of your props library.

Then (since it is parented due to it being a dynamic clothing item) un parent it, by parenting it to the universe from the properties menu.

Step 2 - Using the bones to conform the clothing

In this step I have used the free CR2 that is available on the victoria 2 download page that daz has made available for use to make it have the same set up as the figure I am using.What you can do if you do nto have this file is use the finished clothing item that I have included in the character:DazDyn2ConformTut folder

From the set up room select the bones that you are not going to be needing in the clothing ( feet, fingers etc… ) leaving only hte ones that will effect the clothing.

Step 3 - Setting up the groups....

OK So now that we have the figure with the bones that we will be using go ahead and click the group tool button.

Then if there is a group selected (ie coat) you can delete it and then click on the auto group.

It is really important that there are the proper set up to the bones and groups when dealing with characters and clothing.

The hand bone is connected to the forearm and the forearm is connected to the shldr and the shldr is connected to the collar and the collar is connected to the chest.

Shldr cannot be connected to both the chest and the collar cause then it will split, etc..

Step 4 - Tweaks!!

Once the groups are set up in their respective poly's it is time to go back to the pose room,

But 1st open the groups and make sure that there is no NO BONE group and if there is then DELETE GROUP to get rid of it, then do a double check that there are no loose polygons, or multigrouped polygones.

Once back in the poser room go to figure > conform

and conform the open jacket to the figure 1 or your victoria figure.

If there are weird poly actions as shown in this image then you will have to open teh joint editor and in the JP dialog, select the corrisonding dials and enlarge the spherical fall offs until the spheres are completly encompassing the body part.

Once that is finished save the file to your daz victoria clothing folder and you now have a new conforming clothing item for Victoria.

I hope you have learned something with this tutorial and if there are any problems following a long or you need some clarification please do not hesitate to contact me

allan74@shaw.ca

Create conforming clothing from a 3D mesh

2011-11-01T17:42:37+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.

Create conforming clothing from a 3D mesh

Author: elisabethc

Tools Needed

Poser 6
Optional: Morph Manager 4

Step 1 - Create a clothing prop

Create a clothing prop in a 3D modeling application (I am using 'cinema 4D' MAXON).

Step 2 - Export the clothing prop

Export the clothing prop as an '*OBJ' file to any geometries folder in a poser Runtime folder.

Note: poser does not support spline- or nurbs – objects. Therefore the prop has to be a polygon object!

Step 3 - Import this '*.obj'

Import this '*OBJ' into poser with the default settings ( I only change the figure' s scaling to 50% in this case – you will have to try that out).

Step 4 - Grouping the prop

Load the figure that will wear the clothing into poser (in my case it is SP 3 from DAZ). Position and scale the clothing prop that it will fit the figure properly - if necessary.

Change the display mode to 'hidden line' and open the grouping tool. As you move the mouse over the figure and the dress you will see the figure's body parts appear. That makes the grouping rather easy.

Back in the grouping tool I notice that the prop already has one group which is named 'polygon object'. I delete it and create these new groups: hip, skirt, chest, abdomen, lCollar, rCollar, lShldr and rShldr. After that I select one group and add the relevant polygons. The groups of your clothing prop do not have to match those of the figure exactly. But it is very important that all polygons are grouped and that no polygon belongs to more than one group (exception: the skirt group polygons are the same as that of the hip). You can check that by activating the 'show multigrouped faces' or 'show non-grouped faces“ in the grouping tool window. It is also important that the spelling of the groups match exactly those of the figure ('lCollar' is correct, 'lcollar' or 'LCollar' is wrong)!

This is the hip (and the skirt) group of the dress:

Step 5 - Arranging the hierarchy

Now you may change the display mode to your favorite one and choose the translation tool from the editing tools. Select the clothing prop and open the Hierarchy Editor (Window > Hierarchy Editor).

Double click your clothing prop and it will appear white, click 'create new figure and name it.

Double click your clothing prop again and it will appear white, click 'Apply Std. Hierarchy'.

Double click your clothing prop a third time and it will appear white, click 'Apply Std. Rotation'.

After these steps the groups of your prop are in the right parent-child relationship ( and this is very important) and also the rotation and bend parameters are set.

Close the Hierarchy Editor Window. If you want to (I recommend it) save your '*OBJ' file by exporting.

Step 6 - Preparing the donor figure for the setup room

To make your clothing prop conforming it will need bones. These bones you can 'borrow' by a 'donor' figure. The donor can be the humanoid figure (like SP3, V3 , Jessi etc.) or you choose a similar clothing figure for this purpose (I recommend that). Here I load the 'Morphing Fantasy Dress' for SP3 (DAZ) into the scene. Some clothing figures have the IK turned on – you will have to turn it off and zero the figure. Then memorize the figure (Edit > Memorize > Figure) and save it to the figure library. Delete everything except the clothing prop out of the scene, select the prop and proceed to the setup room. Say 'yes' to the appearing window.

Step 7 - In the Setup Room

In the setup room load the donor dress you prepared before from the figure library.

Voila - that's it. Go back to the pose room. If there are no mistakes in the prop's grouping no warning message will appear and your prop has turned to a figure!

Step 8 - Test

Load you figure (here: SP3 from DAZ), pose it and conform the new dress (Figure > Conform to …).

After a little scaling, bending and twisting it fits humanoid figure.

Step 9 - Final Work

Now the dress contains a lot of parameter dials from the donor dress, but they do not work. You can delete them easily by using the freeware tool 'Morph Manager 4.0'.

Hope you have fun with this tutorial and that it is helpful!

Using Ghost Body Parts to Control a Dress

2011-11-01T17:42:37+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 Ghost Body Parts to Control a Dress

Author: odeathoflife

Tools Needed

Poser

Support Files

DazTutorial_Ghost_Bones.zip

Introduction

OK lets get right to it shall we?

Load up the included JazzDress1.obj file (if you installed the support files to hte intended paths you will find this in the

“RuntimeGeometriesurnttoast!DAZ_Ghost Tutorial” folder.

You will notice that the dress has several spheres surrounding it, these are going to get bones in the set up room next.

Step 1 - In the Set Up room

Ok So you can bone this clothing item your self or use the included finished product as a donor skeleton.

(the finished item can be found in “Runtimelibrariescharacter!DAZ_Ghost Tutorial”

You will notice that the bones start by touching the dress material and ending at the sphere.

I have named the bones

hip (which will include the whole of the dress but not the spheres)

lSide, (which will just include the left sphere)

rSide, (which will only include the right sphere)

front, back and bottom (which again will only include their respective sphere controllers)

Step 2 - Setting up the Joint Parameters (JP's)

Once the dress is boned to your liking we will 1st check to make sure that there are no multi-grouped polygons, so click the check in the group editor and if your spheres are also holding onto parts of the hip ( which is the whole dress ) you can remove them now.

Click the pose room tab and open teh Joint editor.

(window > joint editor)

Now we only want to have the sphere controllers manipulating portions of the dress and not the mesh as a whole so we will be using spherical falloffs.

Set up the JP's the green spherical fall off is the area that will be affected, falling off to the red spherical fall off, everything after the edge of the red spherical falloff will not be affected.

Step 3 - Making the spheres invisible

Now in order for the spheres not to show up in renders but being able to see them in authoring we need to set them to the proper material and view settings.

I set the colour of the spheres to green as that seems to be the standard for this type of controller, and the transperancy to 1.0 which will render invisible.

But how can we see them well in the workspace?

By setting the element style in the pose room

Click the element choice then choose the cartoon no line and we will be able to see the spheres.

And thats it, you should now have more control over the garment, and the more spheres you add during modeling the more control you can obtain using this procedure.

If you have any questions do not hesitate

allan74@shaw.ca

poser free stuff

www.members.shaw.ca/odeathoflife

Poser Tutorials

2011-11-01T17:42:37+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.

Poser Tutorials

DAZ 3D encourages you to upload your tutorials here to the ArtZone Wiki so that they have a permanent home and are hosted on our servers. If you do upload your tutorials, please add them to the appropriate software category and create sub-pages/categories as needed. If, for some reason, you do not want to host your tutorials here, please add links to external tutorials in the appropriate categories as well.