say, Im crankin right along. stopped using my 'make art" button and actually modelling, trying mags, etc... (lol) On that, Im having a gander at ERC and morphs. All new to me. Im up for the learning challenge even tho (as I said once before) my learning style usually involves crayons and puppets, and I must say. Has anyone attempted to "fix" or make better the joint problems (straw) in the elbows? Why not? where are some good tuts on creating Morphs, and ERC for them so I can try to get a grasp on it. any thoughts? will an ERC morph not work? someone point me in the right direction and I'll sure give it a heck of a try..... :)

Nerd3D has a great tutorial on ERC on his site, www.nerd3d.com And there's also a book, Secrets of Poser figure creation, by B.L. Render (bloodsong). A wealth of information.

great! Ill go check Chuck's site right now. thanks!

i found a morph that supposedly attacks the 'inward bowing upper arm and wierd shoulders" but have not tried it. If I understand it, the Mil. "pinched drinking straw" problem is caused because the logic to produce upwards or sideways displacement (bulging) of flesh/mesh when two body parts press against each other (as in what happens when the arm folds at the elbow)is not part of the algorithms of Poser and the Daz character behavior. So, the default position of the unfolded arm is an 'inside of elbow' that is already deformated out as it would/will be when the arm folds up. When I was trying to live with Vickie, I searched many forums for a solution, did not find. Let me see if I can locate that other freebie fix... ::::: Opera :::::

Its a freebie over at RDNA, here is the file number: 9434_INJ-REM AdjShldrV3.zip Sorry I don't have time to participate deeper in the solution, but would love to HAVE the solution! Good luck raz and kudos for being a toolmaker and user. ::::: Opera :::::

p.s. I asked the makers of that Millenium Deformer product if it would solve the two issues, they said no. ::::: Opera :::::

I like the description of "drinking straw arms" - very appropriate. I have always referred to the problem as "ragdoll arms" and "macaroni shoulders". It looks bloody ridiculous on an otherwise great figure. A while ago, I downloaded the morph from RDNA that is meant to correct these problems. From memory, I didn't find it to be overly effective - unless I was using it wrong. I can't test it right now as I am at work. SP3, David, Luke and Laura don't have this problem to the same degree as V3/M3. The only other work-around for this that I know of is in post-work. I think one of Kirisute's free tutorial PDFs at RDNA addressed this issue via post-work.

Something else to add to the mix.... ....there is another similar issue with Mil3 characters that I have noticed as well. Sometimes the inside of the upper arm seems to "sink" into the side of the torso, which looks mighty strange. This effect is particularly pronounced when you apply muscular (or similar) morphs and the chest is widened.

single-frame postwork on this is no help for the animator. you can't batch process either. I think Daz is backed into a corner on this. They can't change the unimesh, a thousand conforming models would go haywire. ::::: Opera :::::

This is exactly why I had to take a break from Poser a little while back. I modeled a custom figure, things went well until I started on the joints. I recut the mesh 8 or 9 times, remodeled the shoulders and crotch a few, played with the joint editor and setup room until I sobbed uncontrollably. So I shelved the project. At one point I considered JCM's to be the only solution, but I had so many versions of the mesh I couldn't remember which would be the best to work with. In any case, you can only do so much with the joint setup, the rest you have to do with morphs. And that is a tedious job in itself. Mark

Yes, modelling the human form is certainly ambitious. That is my understatment of the day. ::::: Opera :::::