How do you get a bikini onto a figure, without the darned figure disappearing, leaving the bikini hanging in mid-air? I've tried Victoria, and even the P5 female - Judy, with P5 clothing. Help? FranOnTheEdge

You are buying characters before learning the absolute basics of the program? There is a FAQ in the Poser backroom (top of this page behind the banner). There is a fold-out card which comes with Poser that tells you what the tools do and what the shortcut keys are. There is a manual which you can read that will answer a lot of questions about how the tools work. Meanwhile, in the library palette, at the bottom, you will see a check mark, 2 checkmarks, a plus, and a minus sign. The single checkmark replaces the figure and the double checkmark adds the figure to what you have in the scene. Use the double checkmark. You will also have to determine whether the clothing is a figure and needs to be conformed or whether it is a prop and needs to be dealt with in the clothroom to fit it to your model. Carolly

The answer to this can be found in the manual. It's not the best manual in the world (slight understatement), but these basic actions are covered pretty well.

Actually, there's a typo int he p5 manual. At least, the early ones -- that says to click the wrong thing so that you end up doing exactly that. Double checkmark. That's what you want to add the clothing into the scene, and then you go to Figure --> Conform to and then select the figure you want it to go on.

Carolly, "You will also have to determine whether the clothing is a figure and needs to be conformed or whether it is a prop and needs to be dealt with in the clothroom to fit it to your model." Is there something that tells us how to do this in the manual? I can't stand the cloth room - way, way, WAY too complex and not explained in the manual. So it had better be conforming. Thanks for replying. Fran

ynsaen, Aha! Thanks, thanks very much. I was beginning to think Poser would just end up in the bin, manual and all! Fran

clothes which are "Figures" show up in the Character library and then their names will show in the left hand drop-down menu under the working window. Clothes which are "Props" will show up in the Props Library.

Carolly, "clothes which are "Figures" show up in the Character library and then their names will show in the left hand drop-down menu under the working window. Clothes which are "Props" will show up in the Props Library." Oh I see. I think the ones I mean are props - certainly the robe from "Swordbearer" is a prop - I've tried and tried to get that to stay on a figure. I've run through a 30 frame simulation and every time the figure jumps out of the robe before the end of the simulation. There must be some stage I'm missing, which is entirely probably since the video tutorial I've tried to follow takes hours to load even partially and has never yet loaded totally so I know I'm missing SOMETHING. Gawd, I wish I could have broadband now. And yes, I did look in the manual for instructions on the cloth room - hoping that would fill in on what I'd missed in the video tutorial - and I STILL can't understand the manual. I can't even get hair to stay on a figure! Fran, OnTheEdge of despair

Oh and Carolly? I'm not BUYING any clothes at all. And I don't think I want to - not if I can't do anything with any clothes in Poser. Fran

Fran, Don't despair! There are some very good tutorials for clothes which need to go into the cloth room (if it is in the Props library, then it probably needs to be clothified). Which type do you want to tackle first? Conforming or dynamic? We'll lead you through the steps separately so you don't get confused. Carolly

Carolly, Id very much appreciate it if I could just get one thing working properly in Poser. Id like to try first for the swordbearers robe, which is one of 5 items found in the props section. At least Don doesnt disappear when I apply the robe to the Don figure. As I think I said, I can get as far as getting the robe on the figure and I know enough to have already turned off all inverse kinematics and to get the figure into the Zero Pose via the joint editor, and to get the robe on the figure. I'd be so happy if I could just get one thing to go right, then maybe I can get another to go right too - although I ain't sanguine about the disappearing women and that dratted bikini! Fran

Swordbearer is a dynamic cloth prop, it fits Michael 3. To use it, you will need to use the Cloth Room. Here's the procedure: - Load Michael 3 - Turn off inverse kinematics and zero his pose. - Go to frame 20 - Give Michael a good pose (just load one from the Pose library) - Load the Swordbearer prop. - Switch to the Cloth Room - Create a new simulation, and check Cloth Self-collision. Leave the rest at default values - Click the Clothify button - In the Clothify dialog, select the Swordbearer prop from the "Object to clothify" dropdown list - In the Clothify dialog, click the "Collide Against" button and check the Michael 3 figure (probably called Figure 1) in the hierarchy window that pops up. - Close that hierarchy window and click the Clothify button on the Clothify dialog box - Hit the "Calculate simulation" button in the Cloth room and make yourself a cup of coffee - the calculations will take a few minutes. - Switch back to the Pose room, and go to frame 30 (last frame). Michael should be in his pose, and the Swordbearer outfit should fit him well. There's a lot that you can tweak and twiddle in the Cloth Room, but this should be a start. Hope this helps, Steven.

Oh, Michael 3 huh? okay can do. I'll go follow you instructions now, see what happens. Thanks. Fran

Yes... getting the right clothing with the right figure is a necessary first step! Some clothes can be made to fit other figures, but with a lot of tape and shoe-horning and effort. We ought to set up a list of URLs for good Clothroom tutorials. PhilC and SergeMarke for sure... and I think that Stewer and Nerd cover this too. Doesn't Dr Geep have a thread on it as well? Carolly

Carolly, "We ought to set up a list of URLs for good Clothroom tutorials." Yes, agree with this. "PhilC and SergeMarke for sure..." I disagree with this - PhilC may make good tutorials but it's impossible to view the darned things!!! The video's don't load completely via my non-broadband modem - and what does load takes YEARS! (slight exageration there, but only just) SergeMarke... is the originator of the wonderful Swordbearer clothing but his instructions for using them were not complete enough for me to follow - I must be really thick I guess. Turns out the instructions Steven gave for this - only had one more step in them that I hadn't got to - and that was returning to the Pose room - all that angst just because of that! Of course, dratted Poser had collapsed the computer at that point in the original attempt so I wasn't to know was I? (trying to wriggle out of it now!) Mind you, I also used frame 30 for the pose - so I'm not sure why frame 20 is better? Thanks for everybody for your efforts - I now have a blind, hairless Michael but at least he's not so cold anymore. ggg Fran

Attached Link: http://www.nerd3d.com/modules.php?name=Content&pa=showpage&pid=4

Carolly, "Hey! That is a big step! {hug}" Thanks, I'm so chuffed! "Not everything on Phil's site requires watching video... at least IIRC there was some regular text-type info." Really? I didn't know that, I only found out about the existance of PhilC via a link someone sent/showed me - so all I saw was the frustrating video that wouldn't load properly - plus a link at the bottom to BUY sumat - being in the desperately poor bracket at the mo, I declined to buy, and it didn't go anywhere else. As to Nerd... I did download a riverbank thing from there a while ago, dunno how to use it though - but I have got the bits into Poser - I noticed while desperately hunting for something or other in Poser yesterday... Um.... I suppose we couldn't try getting that bikini to go onto some female figure - could we? (hopeful expression) Fran

Should I figure out how to pose the figure in the position I finally want her in first, or do I get the clothing to fit first? I'd need to know what figure to begin with, as it's no good spending months posing a figure only to find out that no suitable clothing will fit her - is it? And she'll need hair - a bald bloke you can (more or less) get away with, but not a bald female. I knew it was a mistake coming up with ideas for scenes that use figures. (sigh) Fran

For hair, check out Kozaburo. High quality hair, and free. He has hair models that fit just about every figure (only the P4 Man is left out a bit).

There is a lot of good free stuff out there, all it costs you is the time to download it. The usual terms for the two sorts of clothing are "conforming" and "dynamic". Conforming clothing is pretty specific to a figure, and is itself a figure. Like a figure, it has a "bone" structure defining how it bends, and the structure of the clothes matches the figure. Dynamic clothing (and dynamic hair) came in with Poser 5, and uses a simulation of cloth to match it to the figure's position. There's much less need to match the figure. Dynamic hair uses the same core principles of simulation how hair moves and drapes. Poser 4 and Poser 5 have useful amounts of conforming clothing for the Poser figures. There's a lot of free stuff available for the Daz figures, Mike and Vicky, but there have been three versions. The first two versions can use the same clothes. The third generation needs new stuff to fit. Don't panic if feet don't appear to fit boots. It's a common thing to have to turn the feet invisible, and it sometimes needs to be done for other body parts. The others have covered the basics of fitting a conforming item to a figure. Most hair is a form of smart-prop, pre-attached to a body part in the right place. A lot of the good stuff uses transparency maps, so it doesn't show very well until you render a scene. Gerald Day has produced a lot of good 3D props, scenes, and simple hair. Go to http://fast3d.actionbabecentral.com/ and start downloading. His rooms are good, especially his photo studio. little_dragon's Furrette 2 is available here on Renderosity, very different from Mike or Vicky, but you have figures and clothes, and potential for a lot of fun. Check the Free Archive at Doz 3D. There's a lot of good stuff there, as well as things which seem a little pointless. And even if you don't download anything, even if you stick with out-of-the-box Poser items, there's a lot you can do with different textures, transparency maps, and clever tricks of all sorts. Ask geep about some of the tricks.

Fran, I prefer to dress and accessorize the person first, then pose him/her/it. If there are smart props, such as a sword which fits a hand, it is usually easier to fit and tweak this in the default pose. Remember to turn IK off! There will be some "poke through" in some garments after posing. Thighs and breasts are typical trouble spots. If that area of the body is completely covered (such as legs are covered by jeans), you can make the underlying bodypart invisible. This means no "poke through" and a bit faster rendering. If part of the body shows (such as chest above a tank top), you can play with the scaling dials or morphs to nudge things back into place. Carolly

Okay, but which figures do I use, so that I can end up with a beach babe, i.e. a woman in a bikini? I don't mind too much which figure, so long as I can get one of them to wear a bikini. By the way, what is the point of Inverse Kinematics if we spend all our time turning the dratted things off? Fran

If you have Poser 5, Judy comes with a bikini, I believe.

(1) Place Judy on the stage (Figures > Poser 5 > Judy Nude HiRes)
(2) Open the Figures > Clothing-Conforming > Clothing-P5 Female Library.
(3) Select one of these three figures: P5WomanBikini2, P5WomanBikini3, or P5WomanUnderwear (which also looks like a bikini). DON'T DOUBLE CLICK it, instead click to select it, then click the Double Check Mark at the bottom of the library (this adds a new figure to what is already there).
(4) With the bikini selected, choose Figure > Conform To. When the Choose Figure dialog comes up, pick Figure 1 (or whatever your Judy figure is numbered).
(5) Select the Judy figure again. Turn off IK and apply a pose of your liking.

Message edited on: 02/07/2005 19:31

Okay, I'll go try this now. Fran