Attached Link: http://www.weirdjuice3d.com/products/drops.htm

Drops is Weird Juice Software Company's FREE seamlessly integrated metaball plug-in for Poser.

Note that a Windows system and Poser 5 or ProPack (SR3) is required. The product has been tested under P5 SR2.1 and SR3.

With single button click controls you can introduce these powerful and amazing objects into your Poser scene. Use them to model animals and figures, architecture, vegetation, and scenery.

The metaballs can be fully animated within Poser, allowing incredible fluid effects to enhance Poser scenes as well as animated banners, signs and logos.

Features:

Simple, single click interface

Quick and easy modelling of organic and fluid forms.

Create fluid animations using standard Poser controls and methods.

Complete and comprehensive User's Guide included.

Have fun, and happy blobbing!

Cheryl

Looks good..... especially if you have poser 5. mac

Very interesting. Thanks for the freebie, looking forward to seeing more about the full product when it's released.

maclean, It runs under Poser 4 ProPack too, but it does require SR3, also a Windows system on either version. Cheryl

Drops by Wierd Juce Software is among the top 3 most amazing FREE products EVER offered for Poser users! There is no way I can tell you the full potential... you just have to download it and try it for yourself. The best part of modeling INSIDE Poser is that you do not have to worry about such things as scale, import/export options, reversed normals and all the other things that plague model-makers. It is absolutely fantastic for making quick ground terrains, rocks, blobby things - even things like mushrooms and other simple organic forms could be made AND textured in just a few minutes. Everything in the image above was created in a single afternoon inside Poser 5 which did not crash or stall a single time in the whole session :-) You just GOTTA try this - you won't be disappointed.

wow, cool, im getting me a download as wee speak, cant wait to play with it!!!!!!! Thanx for sharing :>

Dang! I'd love to try it, but I have no plans to install P5 in the foreseeable future. Nor do I have prop pack. Oh well, thanks anyway, cheryl. mac

Great, Phil! - you've made a wonderful character. In the hands of a talented person, Drops can be extremely powerful - fortunately for less artistic people like me, it is so easy to use that we can still get a lot out of it.

I see that the shapes can be exported. Excellent. Any chance of developing a particle system for Poser 5, or will MetaFlow offer similar features? DAZ has MK Particles, but from what I've heard it isn't well-supported and I have no idea if it'll work in P5.

Thanks for this! I'm sure this will be really helpful.

Attached Link: http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~pcooke/firstTry.avi

WOW Phil - great little morphing animation! - If you can do that with Drops, I can hardly wait to see what you can do with the MUCH more powerful MetaForms program!

Awesome animation PhilC...Have to get it...Thanks Cheryl

Excellent, Phil. I downloaded it but so far my famed ineptitude with modeling extends to this too. It does impress me that Poser 5, so picky about somethings, doesn't hang up or crash. People are going to have a lot of fun with this.

Ok, so where's the spaghetti? Ohhh, I thought you said "meatballs" :) Seriously, though, this looks very useful. Many thanks.

Cool animation Phil.

Did you do that within Poser or did you use UV Mapper???

The eyes and pupils are just simple Poser ball props. :)

Well, that's just too easy. ;) You're just too clever. Thank you!

Since Daz STudio will support Python(last I heard) maybe they can do a plug-in for that too. Since it will read in Poser stuffnatively it may be doable. Regards, Anton

sigh Wish it would work with regular Poser 4. Liz Pope Dreamspinner

my guess is it is Python anyway since it is for ProPack and P5

"stuffnatively" Now THAT's what I call coining a great new word Anton! Long live non-proofreading, lol.... This app looks great - got to try tis out! Thanks guys :] Fish

Ho-lee!!!

I guess that there would be no way to export something, created in Metaballs, to an Obj format that could be distributed to all Poser users.

Attached Link: http://www.weirdjuice3d.com

I'm assuming this plug-in isn't compatible with Macs running ProPack or P5? Or is it entirely native in Poser? I'd certainly like to see a Mac compatible version in the future (Even just Poser 5/OS X works for me), if this one isn't. -Molly

Hi Molly Unfortunately we do not have the resourses to make the plug-in available to Mac Users. We are aware that this is something to be addressed and I assure you that in the future we will make all our products available for Mac Users. Watch this space! Cheryl

Hi, Just to address a few questions that have been asked on this forum and elsewhere:- Anton is correct about the connection between Drops and the Python interface, we are, with Poser, dependent on the Python functionality to launch the plug-in. Having said that, we should also point out that a considerable portion of the code (95% or more) is compiled binary, and for the most part is neither Windows nor Poser specific. We don't forsee any great problems in porting most of the plugin code to other platforms or applications. In the Poser implementation of Drops, Python is a necessity to launch the plugin, but we also voluntarily chose (early on) to use Python/Tk to implement the user interaface. Although this initially gave us a fairly simple cross-platform implementation, a large number of the problems that we've had to tackle or bypass seem to have been caused by this portion of the code. In future development we will certainly be looking at the benefits of re-implementing the interface using native Windows and Macintosh interfaces. The company fully recognises the significant portion of Mac users within the community. We did not have the resources, at the outset, to develop across platforms, but we intend to begin development and porting to the Mac platform for Poser in the near future. Replacing the Tk/Python interface with a native platform interface is also an essential step towards this as we are aware of some reports of fundemental compatiblity problems with Poser's Python/Tk interface on the Mac. Likewise, we hope to be ready to port to any future Poser/Studio implementaions on Linux. So far as DAZ Studio is concerned, we full intend to provide a port as soon as the program and interfaces become available. Hopefully we will be able to allow full compatibility with imported Drops/MetaForm enabled Poser scenes. DAZ have indicated that there will be a Python interpreter implmented, but the timing is somewhat questionable. However, DAZ|Studio Python will not be compatible with Poser Python, so there is no prospect of the plugin running directly with Studio. However, while Python is a necessity for us on Poser, we are hoping to be able to avoid it altogether in implementing the plugins for Studio. Instead we look for forward to the opportunity to utilise the main (and more direct) Studio API/SDK which DAZ have also indicated is to be a feature of their application. This should provide a far more suitable and compatible environment for our software. Ideally we will have some opportunity to provide early feedback to help DAZ refine their interfaces. We do, after all, have a very good idea of exactly what we need to make our plugins work. For us, Drops is an essential test bed platform for our interfacing techniques as it's much simpler in functionality than our other plugins. Therefore we intend to continue supporting and refining it and it should be the first port we do to any other platform; Macintosh and Studio users shouldn't have to wait too long to get their hands on it. Little Dragon, So far as MKParticles is concerned we don't possess a copy to be able to compare the features. As we understand, however, it's "apples and oranges". MKParticles seems to distibute (maybe duplicate) Poser props whereas our MetaFlow technology generates simulations of multiple "virtual" metaballs which are only visible when they form a fluid surface (i.e. in "Surfacing" mode). The intent for us was to create liquid flow, fire and smoke simulations and the like. We are doing some work with creating "particle" effects by using texture maps or P5 materials combined with some of the advanced surfacing and mapping features. We should be demonstrating some of this and providing a bit more explanation on the Product Showcase forum imminently. We have future ideas and plans for more advanced dynamic particle and modelling software, but our current goal with these plugins is to push the metaball/isosurface type technology as far it will go. Thank you all for your enthusiasm. Happy blobbing. Bill

Bill, I am not able to open the zip. When opening it it popped an error message that it is corrupted. I am on Win XP and should have no problem opening it. Gene

Hi -Waldo- The file is a standard zip, but it may have been corrupted when you downloaded it, especially if the error message referred to CRC errors. The size of the file should be 477,003 bytes. I would recommend downloading it again. Let me know if you have any further problems. Bill

I am still unable to open it. What program did you use to zip it?

Win XP maybe having a problem with newer zip files and give you an error. I turned off Win XP and got WinZip 8, problems went away. just thought I'd pass it on, you may be having this problem, maybe not.

umm how did you turn off Win XP ?

I downloaded WinZip 8 and associated zip with WinZip, then it stoped using the WINXP unzipper.

after i uninstall winzip 8 will it turn the win XP zipper back on?

dunno. I haven't gone back.

Waldo It was zipped with WinZip 8.1 and, on our machines, we don't have any problem reading the contents using Explorer under XP either. What was the error message it gave and also, did the file size match the expected value? Bill

Traceback (most recent call last):
File "", line 40, in ?
ImportError: No module named DropsP5

Installed Drops in both Poser Pro Pack and Poser 5 runtimes (not the download runtime in Poser 5, the real one). Both give me a similar error, only the unfound module name changes from DropsP5 to DropsP4PP when using ProPack. Do you know why this happens? Poser5 I know is SP3 5.0.2.281 since it was buggy as hell before that, Poser 4 ProPack is 4.2.1.179 and I have the SP3 pdf in the folder with a 2001 date so I am guessing it is patched to SP3.

All files are installed in the folders as described in the rtf file. I did this by extracting the zip file to the each version of Poser folder since the paths are in the zip file, then I double checked the file locations per the rtf file when the script did not work.

Bill, The error message was "The Compressed (zipped) Folder is invalid or corrupted"

Diana, The files 'DropsP5.pyd' and 'DropsP4PP.pyd' should both be installed in the same directory as the 'Drops.py' file although placing them in the 'RuntimePythonDLLs' folder may work as well. Note the different extension between the .py (Python) file and the .pyd (module) files. Strictly, the DropsP5.pyd version is only required for P5 and the DropsP4PP.pyd is required for Poser 4 ProPack, if you want to save a bit of disk space. Beyond this, the only files that need to be put in specific directories is the geometry file. Waldo, That does sound like a Windows unzipper error message and still likely a corrupted or prematurely terminated file download from the site (these things do happen from time to time). If you haven't already, try downloading the file again. Bill

Bill, the DropsP5.pyd and DropsP4PP.pyd are in the same folder with the Drops.py file so I don't understand why the script can't find them. All three files are in both the C:appsposer4RuntimePythonposerScriptsWeirdJuice folder and the C:appsposer5RuntimePythonposerScriptsWeirdJuice folder

I just tried running the script in PP this time and got this error:

Traceback (innermost last):
File "", line 24, in ?
ImportError: No module named DropsP4PP

I'm opening the drops script located in the Poser 4 Pro Pack Runtime, not the P5 folder. I deleted the unnecessary DropsP5.pyd file in the Poser 4 PP Runtime folder as you suggested and tried again after reinitializing Python. I got the same error about no module named DropsP4PP found.

Hi Diana, You could try copying the pyd files into into the RuntimePythonDLLs folder (this is where the standard installed pyd files live anyway). We've seen some problems in the past where an earlier mixup may cause continuing problems until the application is restarted. Let me know if you get anywhere with this. I'm signing out now (its past midnight here in the UK) but if you still have problems I may be able to put together a diagnostics script to find out what's going on. Bill

Bill, that worked for both Pro Pack and Poser 5 for me. Thanks for the help!

Bill are u gonna recreate zip for Win XP ?

Diana, Glad you got it working. I'll continue to look at the possible cause of this as it may create problems with reinstallation. Likewise, you should bear this in mind if there are any future upgrades. Waldo, The zip file format is universal, so there's no difference between any OS's or zip utilities. The zip file does decompress on XP without problems. All the indications are that you still have a file that was corrupted or prematurely terminated during download from the site, and the only real action is to download it again. Let me know if you still have problems. As I said earlier the first basic test is that the download file size should be about 400K. Bill

Bill, I will keep that in mind, thanks.

Waldo, the zip file is 477,003 bytes. I just downloaded it again today to get the exact byte count for you to compare with when you download and to test the current file for you. The zip file I can view in WinXP Home Explorer like a folder and I can also extract the files with Winzip 8.1 (4331) fine for me, testing in Winzip results below:

No errors detected in compressed data of C:Documents and SettingsOwnerMy DocumentsWeirdJuiceDrops.zip.
Testing ...
testing: WeirdJuiceDrops-Readme.rtf OK
testing: WeirdJuicewjDrops Users Guide.pdf OK
testing: RuntimeGeometriesWeirdJuiceSphere.obj OK
testing: RuntimePythonposerScriptsWeirdJuiceDropsP5.pyd OK
testing: RuntimePythonposerScriptsWeirdJuiceDrops.py OK
testing: RuntimePythonposerScriptsWeirdJuiceDropsP4PP.pyd OK

Found a solution Delete a corrupted file from temporary directory where the downloaded file is saved in as duplication. It is usually in c:windowstemp BTW thank you all for your help and attention :) Gene

It's out today. It really looks interesting.