Using Poser4 Pro I've made a few figures in the setup room. What I can't find information on is how to get Taper Y into the channels processes of the cr2 and get the associated parameter dial. It's not a morph target since there's no deltas. Is there a quick and easy way to do this that I'm overlooking? What are the best books on understanding cr2's?

You can just pinch a taperY channel from any cr2 and paste it into the actors in your own cr2. An easy way to add a channel to all the actors in a file is to do a global search and replace of;

        channels
                {
with;
 
channels
                {
[new channel]



Here is what a taperY channel looks like:

                taperY taper
                        {
                        name taperY
                        initValue 0
                        hidden 0
                        forceLimits 0
                        min -100000
                        max 100000
                        trackingScale 0.04
                        keys
                                {
                                static  0
                                k  0  0
                                }
                        interpStyleLocked 0
                        }

P.S. you can put taper channels in pp2's as well as cr2's, this is a quick way to make some new primatives.

Oh, I should have said do this in a text editor, or a cr2 editor such as 'CR2Builder' or 'Cr2Editor'.

I hear that Bloodsong has written a book about Poser, I don't know how deeply it goes into cr2 editing, you could drop her a line by IM and ask. (Bloodsong, perhaps you could post a list of contents, or some info on your book in this thread?) Some stuff on the structure of cr2 file format in the tutorials section of this site: http://home.carolina.rr.com/kattman/ Other Poser sites you may find usefull. ERC/EMC related: http://64.38.105.73/erc_download.html http://www.rbtwhiz.com/rbtwhiz_ERC.html http://www.nerd3d.com/Tutorial/SuperMorph.htm readScript: http://www.rbtwhiz.com/rbtwhiz_rScript.html General: http://www.3dlinks.com/tutorials_poser.cfm http://www.cocs.com/poser/ http://www.3dmenagerie.com/goodies/tut/index.htm http://www.shar3d.com/tutorials_index.htm

heyas; the taper doesn't have any fancy internal code, it is just a plain dial. poser knows how to use it based on its type/name. to answer your specific question, yes, the cr2 is completely dissected in my book. also covered are advanced cr2 editing techniques like erc and geom swapping, putting stuff in, taking stuff out, etc. the rest of the stuff? let's see, there's your basic morphing concepts, how the magnets and grouping tool are supposed to work; joint parameters in all their gory details; the techie file stuff; and then general modelling tips and tricks. some info on how to use p5's cloth and hair to good effect in your designs.

Well, I have started a new job, just a tempory thing at the moment, but may become perminant, if it does I may get your book because I could sure use some info on joint paramiters.

Speaking about joints. You'd laugh if you saw how I tear into the Joint Editor to make my poses look natural. Even though I like the result, the figure is good for nothing else afterward. I guess there's a way to reset the original Joint Parameters, Falloff Zones and Bulges, but I haven't found it yet. Any suggestions? Yup, I do a lot of backups. Steve

Bloodsong, your book sounds like just what I want. Whatever's in it I'll catch on to. I just need a title so I can look for it. Well, gotta get some work done. Be back this evening. Appreciate your help, Steve

"I guess there's a way to reset the original Joint Parameters" You can make a pz2 to restore the original Joint Parameters. One way to do this is to make template pz2 file listing all the actors, and including a 'channels' section for each, then use Morph Manager 4 to copy all the Joint Parameter channels from the cr2 into the template. First you need to load a pz2 (any pz2) into the same Morph Manager window you will use load the cr2 into, this forces MM4 to display all channels, if you don't load a pz2 first it will only display morph channels. Here is a snippet from a pz2 template to show you the format, don't forget to add a closing brace to the end of the file.

{
version
    {
    number 
    }

actor BODY
    {
    channels
        {

        }
    }
actor hip
    {
    channels
        {

        }
    }
actor lToe
    {
     channels
        {

        }
    }
}

P.S. I have a pz2 to restore Posettes JP's, if anyone wants it IM me, I only have a JP pose for Posette, on other figures.

I made the template easily enough in MM4 but I can't figure out how to get the DAZ M2 default JP's into it. Tried to use a text editor, but That cr2's a bit beyond me at this point. Steve Oh, I ordered Bloodsong's book. I'll catch up to some of you pretty soon. But looking over the threads and tuts its seems a lot of Poser will remain a mystery or is just plain arbitrary.

Remember to load a pz2 into the window first then load the cr2 into the SAME window. Probably a good idea to delete all the morph targets at this stage, but remember not to save the cr2 back to disk, or work on a copy. Copy the JP channels to the template, which should be loaded in the other MM4 window. I don't have a list of JP channels but I think they will usually be anything except taper, the rotate translate and scale channels, targetGeom, valueParm, grasp, thumbGrasp, spread, and geomChan. You should also be able to produce the same file using a cr2 editor, for example CR2Builder. When making a JP pz2 I include the whole channel, not just the k values like a normal pose file.

Bless MM4,I was able to restore the joints I chose without changing the rest of the figure or ANY of the Morph Targets. Thankyou, thankyou, thankyou! Steve

Bloodsong, dodger says to say "almost completely disected" you forgot curve dials.