Hi, I'm working on some characters and one of them needs dentures. Not teeth that were modeled into his head, but actual seperate objects that would work as if they were modeled in. The idea is to have them work like the gags in Geri's Game and Monster's Inc., where certain characters pull out thier teeth or have them pop out unexpectedly. My question is, how would one go about getting the teeth to work correctly in the head after the model's already been given a rig? Would just treating it like a standard head prop work? Is there a better or alternate method? Will I just have to scrap the idea? I'm interested in opinions on this.

Message edited on: 07/31/2004 11:28

Yes anything is possible, in more or less any combination. It would also be possible for the lower teeth to move automatically with the head mouth open morph by using a JCM.

'Sixus1' is the one to ask about this - doesn't the free 'HER' model have a seperate gum/teeth structure? Sounds a nice idea of yours. It's such a waste of time when you need a figures teeth out and you have to resort to a modeling program to get them out.

Thanks you two. JCM? Just Common Morph? I'm so bloody illiterate when it comes to Poser. However, this sounds like good news, I'll try some stuff out and see how it goes then. I assume the teeth may need a bone structure of thier own to work correctly or would that cause more problems than anything else?

I'll see if I can pick Sixus' brain.

Message edited on: 07/31/2004 11:56

oh wait...Joint control morph. Is that it? So you're saying there's a way for them to share morphs?

Sounds more like a morph-controlled morph. Or a morph-controlled-joint, even! Yah. Read up on ERC -- try http://rbtwhiz.com/rbtwhiz_ERC.html You can also open up any recent figure with full-body morphs and see how the code is handled (is the same code, as Robert explains).

Interesting...my guy's an old cartoon tiger whose teeth have long fallen out but can't bare the humiliation of it all. So, standard human teeth wouldn't cut it. Still, if these teeth work with the characters DAZ offers, then perhaps it can shed some light on things though I'd have to ge both a daz character and the teeth to test it out and exmaine what goes on behind the scenes. Hope abounds now. I'll get started on building his chompers then. Thanks again ya'll.

A number of ways to do this. If I was doing it, I would probably use the grouping tool to spawn a prop of the teeth and gums. I would then make a morph so that when 0 the figure teeth and gums are hidden (by scaling the mesh down to the point it is invisible - or you can just make the materials transparent). I would make a similar morph for the false teeth prop, or maybe just use the scale dial since that would do the same thing. I might also make a morph so that the false teeth open and close like in genny's animation. You can now use the prop teeth in combination with the figure. If this is an animation, when you want the teeth to pop out, make the normal teeth and gums invisible, and bring the false teeth into play.

Actually, the Millenium teeth are loaded with morphs for fangs, missing teeth, etc. Probably a good bet for what you need.

Oh, it's not that...it's that they're too normal...as in, not toon. There's a certain style and look that I'm going for...I have no problem modeling them, my concern is making them work. I'm new to this home made Poser stuff. I tend to just make character models and move on to the next one.I just recently made the leap to deciding they should be able to move and be sold.

shadownet, I wish I'd considered that before I made a the rig. lol. That's actually a very feasible idea and may just work. sigh...life was so much easier when all I did was make models. Thanks gang.

As it's a merchant related question. Shoshanna.

thanks. sorry 'Shanna.

No problem. Good luck with the tiger :-)