I'm sure this has been asked a billion times but what is the best way to get rid of strange twists in body parts. For example if you have a pose where your character twists to the left or right her stomach gets "wrinkly". I can fix it in postwork but is that my best and only option. Some stomach wrinkles are realistic looking but others make my characters look slightly deformed. If you would like to see a screen shot of what I am referring to just let me know and I'll be more than happy to post one. Thanks in advance for the replies. Kelly

if you have Use Limits on, twisting shouldn't be too much of a problem. E.D.

i just did some twisting tests with v3, with use limits checked, those twist wrinkles don't happen. without use limits they do. remember to twist both the abdomen and the chest, to get a more realistic pose of somebody twisting as far as naturally possible, to the left or right. E.D.

I agree ... many of the poses that are created for pose sets don't take "Use Limits" into account. The purpose of the "Use Limits" feature is to make sure body parts won't pose any farther than they would "in real life."

yep. i tested it in real life too, on my roomie with his shirt up. when twisting to the left or right, your stomach/abdomen doesn't really move all that much, its mostly in your chest. this of course would vary from person to person, depending on how flexible you are, as to how far you can twist, but still the movement is mostly in the chest/upper torso. plus, he's an anatomy major. 8-) E.D.

8-)

There are a lot of hand poses, too, that spread the fingers WAY apart. Though it is humanly possible to pose your fingers like that, it is physically uncomfortable. I tend to pose hands in more relaxed positions, because nine times out of ten that is the way they really are. 8-)

For example, in the case of the head, just don't turn the head 35 degrees to the left; instead, divide the total amount of the twist between the head and neck parts (sometimes the neck has more than two parts).

Here is another example: pay attention to how the forearm really works. In real life, you can twist it (so that your palm faces upward or downward, for example), and you can bend it up or down toward your upper arm. But you CAN'T move it side to side ... that action is REALLY a combination of moving your upper arm and bending/twisting the forearm. Instead, many poses instead bend the forearm.

So, the way to fix ugly "twists" in body parts is to redo the pose so that the body poses more naturally. It takes some work, but pre-made poses should serve as a starting point in most cases.

Message edited on: 11/07/2004 09:24

I agree with ArtyMotion - in principle. And the suggestions above are all good ones (in particular, spreading the pose out among various body parts and using limits when it helps). I'd only add that it often depends on which character you are using and how the joint parameters are set up on that character. So I would put more emphasis on making it 'look' correct, than on physically 'being' a correct movement for a particular joint... if it looks better (or more correct) to have some side-to-side bend in the elbow than it does twisting the shoulder to achieve the same relative angle of the forearm, go for it. On a similar note, you can't really physically 'twist' the hand (that's a forearm-related motion), but you'll find tons of Poser poses that have hand-twist values set. I usually don't fret over it unless the twisting the forearm works better in any particular case... sometimes (for example) the elbow may bend/bulge funny due to the 'bend' it's in, so it 'looks' better to twist the hand instead.

OK, so I'm going ot contest ExistentialDisorders comment to a degree. Depends on how much "doesn't move much" equals. While I can agree it's not enormous, it's all moving. Hips will twist a little as well as stomach. The only reason I mention this nitpick is I've recently seen a lot of pics in the galleries that have enormous twists in the chest with none in the abs or hip. Looks painful.

I didn't have use limits checked and I was using a pose from the pose library. The pose itself is pretty realistic, I mean I can do the pose myself. I will probably just airbrush it in PS so its not a huge deal. At least I've learned how to avoid this in future poses by checking the use limits. Thanks for all the wonderful feedback! I really do appreciate it. Kelly

You can always restore a body part to its default (or Memorized) state by selecting it and using the keyboard shortcut "Ctrl+E". You can then repose it the way you want.

Message edited on: 11/08/2004 15:08