Heya, How does conforming really work in Poser. Is there a way to make a pose file or python script that will turn conforming on only for select portions of a clothing item and leave it off on others. A pose file would be best, but I am just curious if it could be done at all. I never really understood what Poser does when it conforms clothing to a figure. ????

I would also be very interested to know how this works.

I note that in most of the Poser clothing each actor has a line 'conformingTarget *', and there is also a line in the figure section that says 'conforming 1'. Not all the colthing containes the conformingTarget line, it is missing from the Halter Top.

I tried removing the line 'conformingTarget chest:2' from the chest of the Thin Strap Dress this did not seem to affect the chest but it did affect the hip! So I think the answer to your question about turning conforming on only for selected portions of the clothing item and leaving it off on others is probably no.

Les, I have played around with it too. But not really made much headway in understanding all the whys and wherefores. As you noted some things seem to need the conforming line in the cr2 and other do not. I thought if maybe I understood better how Poser handles this internally that I could make more sense of it all. The conforming line does not really seem to matter. I can load two V2 figures into a scene and conform one to the other. In fact, I have tried some rather strange series of conforming figures ontop of clothes ontop of figures, etc. Just to see what happens. Maybe someone can clue us in as to how Poser works conforming. Rob

This sounds like another case of Poser internal useage differing from what is in the cr2. This is something that totally throws those of us who have done a little programming. You would think that the cr2/pp2/pz3 et al was a set of instructions that Poser would follow. And it ain't that way at all. The cr2 is where Poser starts. Then, depending on what the software finds in the workspace (presense of other figures, selection of conforming, etc.) it edits and adapts that data. Often, when you save a cr2 you then discover all sorts of strange little edits Poser has made in it. My suspicion is that NOTHING is needed in the cr2 to make a figure conform. Poser merely looks for matching channels and does the thing itself. If you then save the cr2 of something that had been conformed in the workspace, Poser will add a few lines of code here and there, but it isn't as if they are needed.

That would sort of jive with my guess on it, sans "the how Poser handles it internally" comment above. I was holding out hope that there might be a hack. But I think even if there were, it would not translate to a pose file and that is really what I needed to make my idea work.

Yah...if there was ANY way to break the chain on conforming, it would become a heck of a lot more useable for those of us doing still pictures. Too often, something conforms "mostly" right and you need to use morphs and body handles and scaling to achieve something that could have been fixed with a simple 2 degrees Xrot. I've been having useful results with my "Village People" ERC set (see discussion below), but the chance of breaking Poser is too high with it. I need to go back to that lovely ten-page guide to ERC. If I could get it working properly it might even be injectable, and would provide an alternate to conforming.

Sounds interesting. I have experimented with different things, but in the end for certain kinds of poses it is easier to Not conform the clothing, and just use a pose file to match the clothing to the figure - or else pose it by hand to look like I want it. A lot of my GR items require the mesh to move in ways Poser doesn't care for, but I always find a way to do it. Not always the best of solutions, but Poser - while I love it - is not a perfect world. Thanks for you comments. I will take a look at your Villiage People to see what you are doing there. Rob

There's your problem right there - instead of nuts and bolts, you should be using software. :-) Sorry, just couldn't resist that. ISOP's Catherine dress for V2 has a pose file called 'MDDress_leg_ConOFF' which apparently turns off the leg conforming so that posing can be done with morphs. I'm not clever enough to see what he's done in there, but it may be worth having a look.

LOL! So that's why Poser has been making those rattling noises. :O) Very Interesting.... sounds like ISOP has found a way, so that is encouraging. I have been experimenting with pose files, using different script for the conforming command (pardon my improper use of terms, but I was never very good at jargon and getting the names of things right.) I also had this idea to try using cr2 that only had the shin and feet body groups, (since that was all I wanted to have conform. I thought maybe I could conform that to the base figure, and then my clothing to the cr2 I had confromed. But Poser thought otherwise, and I have gotten some weird results. I am still playing around with that approach, but ISOPs method sounds more promising now. Thanks for the heads up.

shadownett, Maybe not the situation you are trying to solve, but if you PERMANENTLY want a cloth part to not conform, it is as simple as calling it "actor foo", where "foo" has no matching name in the person conformed to. Could be as simple as adding a number or letter after the name: "actor rThigh1" or "actor rThighA" won't conform to "actor rThigh". - - - - - If ISOP has found a way to turn conforming off for a single part in a pose file, then I am impressed. I can't imagine how he did it! - - - - - "I thought maybe I could conform that to the base figure, and then my clothing to the cr2 I had conformed." Interesting. Never would have occurred to me to try conforming to a conformer. A pity if Poser didn't like it -- though not too surprising.

Heya, thanks for the tip. I stumbled on that also when it occured to me that the non standard body parts I was inserting into the clothing, in way of experimenting with this and that, were not conforming body parts, which lead me to think, hey, what if I rename a standard body part in my cr2 to a non standard name. LOL. Of course, all this is way cool, but it never solved my problem. Seems like conformed, parented, or otherwise just stuck in the scene, moving mesh around in Poser with morphs sometimes yields some rather weird results. Also, I never got around to looking at what ISOP did, so your post helped to remind me I wanted to go look at that. Thanks for the feedback. Funny thing is now that I have slept once or twice, I can not remember exactly why I was wanting to do this. LOL!

"I can not remember exactly why I was wanting to do this." grin - - - - - "certain kinds of poses it is easier to Not conform the clothing, and just use a pose file to match the clothing to the figure" Please describe an example. Are these poses needing interaction between two body parts not in a parent-child relationship? As a programmer, I am looking beyond Poser, to see what is needed in hypothetical character animation tools in the future...

Okay, went back and read thru the thread again to refresh my memory. Okay, this had to do with me experimenting and trying to overcome some probs I typically run into when making morphs for my GypsyRose clothing line. The problem commonly encountered is that when clothing is conformed to the figure and you began moving it around - such as say a pair of blue jeans (since that is the item I was working on at the time) and I decide to morph them so they crumple up as I draw them down to the floor. I make morphs, and they work fine so long as the base figure remains more or less at default. But move the hip off the x or z tran or apply a bend and apply the morph again to the pants, and Poser does weirdness to the mesh as the pants drop to the floor. Okay, not really weirdness since I understand why Poser does what it does, and that it is just trying to keep the hip of the pants aligned to the hip of the base figure, thighs to thighs, etc, as per the conforming, and by my moving it around with a morph Poser is having conflict of interests. If I pose the figure, and then pose the clothing to match up, I can often then work with the morphs easier. Of course, it is still not perfect, but at least now I do not have conforming conflicting with my moving the mesh of the pants about in Poser land. What I have been trying to figure out is a way to sort of keep the pants aligned to the base figure, even when posed, so that the pants as the drop would follow the contour of the hips and legs in route to the floor. The best solution I have hit on thus far, is all manual dial tweaking, and uses a variety of morphs to move different portions of the pants forward or backward on the z as I apply the morphs to drop them to the floor. If I was building this around a particular set pose, which I may end up doing, then I can make a morph that works specifically for this pose. But if I am trying to make the pants pose like real world pants on a figure that may be posed in a variety of real world like poses, it gets more complicated the more you start morphing and moving the mesh around - particularly if you would like to have it work as a conforming figure that can be posed. Anyhow, most of what I am trying to do is not really what Poser is meant to do, but I like pushing the envelope. When I have more time, I will experiment some more on this. For now, I have moved on to some other projects.

Wow. That is food for thought. You're right, this is beyond what Poser is intended to do. But that's exactly what I wanted to see: what you'd like to do, if you could. I will ponder what that means for the mathematics involved. Might require a form of "cloth dynamics" to really do what you want. Someday, I hope to offer a "real-time" variation on cloth dynamics. I'll keep this example in mind. Ah, I can see a "shortcut", that doesn't require "cloth dynamics", and would be based on the mathematics I use to analyze clothes for my forthcoming cloth-fitting... but no, we're supposed to avoid "commercials" in this forum, aren't we? ;-) Very interesting. Dubious I can trick Poser into it, but there is definitely hope for the future.

It would be really cool if you could think up a solution. I am not a programer, so most of the really technical Poser stuff is over my head. I keep thinking I will find time to learn python as I have seen some cool stuff done there. For me, I just push the envelope on Poser as far as I can go with it, finding ways to make things work (when I can) in those narrow confines.