First of all, thanks to everyone who's helped me with my recent questions. I'm gonna take advantage of your good nature to ask another one!

You may -- or may not --recall that I wanted to map a logo onto a polo shirt for my corporate client. Well, I have figured out hwo to do that with help from denizens here and some bashing on UVMapper. Great little program, and the possibilities do seem endless.

So now I have my shirt with its texture logo, and I'm a happy camper. But now -- how to I get Poser to understand that the new shirt is a piece of clothing and not a simple non-conforming prop? Did I miss a step in the import sequence somewhere?

Is there a simple tutorial on such matters?

Thank you all in advance!

Message edited on: 06/11/2004 11:01

Are you wanting the shirt to be a conforming clothing figure, such as common to P4 or a dynamic clothing figure for use in P5? If a conforming clothing figure. Then the mesh has to be sectioned into the proper body groups and a cr2 made up that has the correct jp settings for the figure you want to use the shirt on. Often you can rob an existing cr2 for a similar item and change the figureResFile path so that it points to the location of your object geometry. In P5 you can import the mesh into the clothroom and convert it to dynamic clothing by running it through the similator. This is not conforming clothing, but the mesh will conform to fit your figure (or should). To me more specific, it would help to know what exactly you are wanting to do.

Thanks, shadownet. I'm working in P4. Basically I'm simply creating a conforming polo shirt for the Mike 2 character. I've got all my other ducks in a row except for the shirt. In poking through the libraries I can see that the normal Poser clothing is made of cr2's and rsrs, but I don't know how to generate them myself. I can't get the shirt I made to conform to the character's body, and of I definitely need that to happen. What are jp settings? That plus your reference to figureResFile paths are over my head, since I haven't done any monkeying with lower-level code. In any case, all I want to do is use the exisiting polo shirt -- or rather, my version with the logo mapped onto it -- for my animations.

Okay, I am a bit confused. Did you make the polo shirt, that is the mesh? Or did you take an existing mesh, say one a Polo shirt you already had in Poser for Mike 2 and just make a new texture for it? If you are using an existing polo shirt, that it should be set up already to work right (cr2 and all that). Load M2 into your scene, then find the polo shirt in the library and load it by double clicking on icon - or else on the double check marks at the bottom of the library. When the polo loads, select Figure:Conform To from the menu tool bar across the top of your Poser screen, and when prompted select the M2 figure, this will probably be listed as Figure 1. Poser will conform the polo to Mike. Next open the Render:Material from the menu bar (or CTR + U hotkey). When the material editor opens, you can load the texture you made in place of any that loads by default. Use the Texture Map Load button.

Originally I used the existing shirt, as you suggest. Changed the color, saved it to the clothing library with a new name -- very simple. I had thought that all I'd need to do was map a logo onto it by grouping some polygons on the shirt's chest and assigning them a "texture" comprised of the logo. No such luck! That led me to UVMapper. I exported an OBJ file out of Poser for UVMapper, and from UVMapper exported both an object file and a texture map -- since I didn't want to overwrite the original. So now, as I described above, I have a new shirt with the logo the way I want it -- but it's not a piece of clothing: it's a prop. I can assign various Mike body parts as the new shirt's parent, but for some reason the shirt arms won't move -- just the abdomen and chest. So I figure I am missing something obvious. I can render out a few images to show you what I mean, if you'd like me to.

Heya, okay try this: 1)You said you modified an existing object, when you saved it in uvmapper, it sounds like you only remapped the mesh so you probably did not change the interal body part groups that were set up for the original - if so 2) Make sure you object as a new name, so you do not overwrite the orginal. Place that object in the same geometry folder where the original is located. For example if the original was called polo.obj name yours polo1.obj or something like that. 3) Using a text editor, like note pad, go to the library folder and find the cr2 for the original polo shirt and open the cr2 up in the text editor. 4) Save the file back to the library with a new name so you do not accidently overwrite the original. For example, if the original is polo.cr2 rename this one as polo1.cr2 5) You will now edit the polo1.cr2 in two places Look for the following lines near the top, this will be in two places: figureResFile :Runtime:geometries:something:something.obj The first something will indicate the geometry folder where the object is located. The second something will be the name of the obj. IE polo.obj 6) Change the name of the obj (polo.obj) to what you named your modified object (polo1.obj) 7) Now drop down a few lines until you find that same line again and make the same changes. This tells poser where to find the obj file it needs to load. The jp settings, body group settings, etc, are all in this cr2 so everything should work okay for you, provided you did not delete any of the element groups when you remapped the mesh. 8) Save the new file and then try opening it up in Poser. There will not be an icon, only the shruggy guy but that is okay. If all goes well, the shirt will load and you can conform it to Mike okay

Oh, you will still need to load your new texture as I did not have you change the material call groups. Just open the material editor and swap whatever default texture that loads for the one you made.

Okay -- I edited the csr file no problem. Now, the new shirt (shrugging guy) doesn't show up in the clothes yet -- do I still have to import the OBJ? I'll give that a try while I post this...

Er, refresh you library folder. Also check the file you saved and make sure it has a cr2 extention and not a txt. If it is txt change it to cr2 You should not have to import the object. The cr2 if you edited as described will call it up and load it into Poser as part of the new clothing figure.

Oop -- mea culpa. I spelled the file name wrong -- now I see El Shruggo.

Okay, barring no problems with the body element groups, you should be good to go. Just swap in your texture and everything should work right. Let me know how you make out. :O)

But when I click the Shrugster no new shirt appears, even though the dropdown list of objects say there is something there. But I don't see anything, and I can't render the scene since the render engine seems to think it is empty. Well, I'm sure your instructions are correct, so I'll go over everything again. Yeah, I was careful about the extensions. I'm going to exit Poser and restart, just for shits and giggles. Then I'll re-do everything. Thank you!

What I seem to have is an invisible shirt! Argh. Well, I'm going to take a short break to clear my head and then dive in again, starting from scratch. I must've put something in the wrong folder somewhere, or perhaps I DID miss an extension. I appreciate your help.

Check your path again. Apparantly you made a typo when you edited the object, either that or else the body element groups are not there. It could be that. Hmm, tell yah what, open the object up again in uvmapper and use the select by group option and see what groups, if any are listed. What we are looking for a group names like chest, lCollar, rCollar, abdomen, hip, etc.

Thanks, yes, I did that. And the names are similar to those. UVMapper doesn't seem to be the problem; I had no trouble editing the texture file, and my OBJ file seemed okay. But as you say, the best thing would be to start all over with a clear head. Fortunately my client is patient! My contact there understands 3D and even knows Poser a little, so she knows how long this sort of thing can take. Also, she has worked with UVMapper herself, so she understands that it's something of a bear. So she can attest to HER boss, who hired me on, that I'm not sitting on my hands here. Must say, I am learning a lot with this project.

Okay, sounds like you are close then. Probably a typo in how you entered the object call path. If you find yourself stumped and need more help feel free to drop me an email at shadownet@cp-tel.net Rob

Remember that Poser is case sensitive. So your possible typo could be something as simple as Polo1.obj instead of polo1.obj. If what you've done is simply a remapping, and it sure sounds like it, Shadownet's way of fixing it is the correct one. But check for typos :o)

Yeah, all I did was a remapping. Didn't mess with any of the polys. I'll just retrace my steps and see what happens. By the way, shadownet, thanks for the email offer. With luck I won't have to take you up on it! ;-) Al