Ok I made a figure in RHino, textured it with UVmapperPro and PaintSHopPro..now comes the problem.. In Poser5, I tried putting the materials onto the figure (diffuse, etc), but it doesn't render. I cannot understand how the HELL you can group bones/polys in the Setup room :/ The figure is all in one piece to allow me to texture it neatly, except for the eyes/mandibles. I can create a bone structure for it, but then...how do I group it to the polys? The entire body is one piece. Image is creature renmdered in Bryce with textures, but how the &*!% to put textures/boning into Poser? :(

Quick tip: each bone has to belong to a mesh-group with the same name as the bone. After you setup your bones, wake up the "Group-Editor" (don't leave the Setup-Room) and try "Auto-Group".

Unfortunately, the Auto Group function isn't perfect, so you'll probably need to spend some time afterward moving polys from group to group to get everything set up the way you want it. Remember to use the Weld button after making any changes to a group. When you return to the Pose Room, it should now be a posable figure, which you can save to the Library. As far as texturing goes, the imported mesh should retain whatever materials and uv-mapping you gave it earlier. I don't know why it would lose this upon import.

Attached Link: Gingermread man tutorial

Another quick tip: Don't use the setup room. Group it in UVMapper and make a PHI file. Much easier, if you use PhiBuilder. Look at this tutorial about how to make a poseable figure (in this case a gingerbread man) It is VERY easy to follow, even I can make a poseable character by following it ;o)

Attached Link: http://www.bryceworks.com/tutorial/mushbone/mushbone.html

Well, I've done it both ways and I prefer the set-up room. I've got a little tutorial (link) on using the setup room to create a poseable mushroom. HTH; Dan

thanks a lot folks! :) Guess I'll need to split model up , ouch, oh well. Back to the drawing board ;)

Well in order for the character to be poser ready, it MUST be split up :o) It is fairly easy to do in UVMapper, if you follow the tutorial I linked to in post 4 :o)

you dont have to split it at all. when you enter the setup room do so only with the knowledge of WHERE your joints will be either by having split and re-attached within your 3dprog (line seperating one part from another should be thicker)... export all as one mesh. import all as one mesh. enter setup room. when you add your bones, keep within the boundries youve set. tweak and finess your bone structure inside your mesh until they all sit where they are suppose to. open the group-editor and click auto-group. it will screw it up. dont worry. from the NEW dropdown list of your bones, in the group editor, click each apropriate bone label and then take the rest of the day and night re-establishing the poly's to correspond to the bone they are suppose to be associated with. simple. exit the setup room and start in the joint editor. thats another post.

Well to split or not to split, that's actually a matter of words. When you auto group it, it IS split up. As soon as you do any kind of grouping you ARE splitting up the mest. That's why you use WELD statements.

when you auto-group it does not split the mesh into peices at all. the only way of doing that would be to spawn or create props from them in the group editor and why would you do that!? you dont have to do that IF your imported mesh (now a single mesh) WAS split in your 3dproggy THEN re-attached giving you overlaping edges (of the conjoined peices). WHICH in poser will show up as thick lines in mesh/poly mode OR break-lines (between each body part) in line mode. bone from there. im no 3d modeler but i have played with setup room and this is how ive done it. never used phi builder so i cant say either way is better than another, im just saying this way works, like the manual says it should. though it wasnt as descriptive as i am.