Hi all i have made a mech, is it possible to import a model that is made out of individual components then make a skeleton and animate it? thus far i can only import it as a prop?! quite frustrated as the model has taken me a while to make! If there is a tutorial that anyone knows of that would be great - it must be possible!

dang, very nice work. I don't use 3ds, but I'm sure the process is pretty much the same. You need to first export the entire model, in its default possition, into an .obj format. Then bring it into poser and go into the setup room, in order to "bone" it, so that it has joints that can be manipulated in poser. (this is for poser 5, i'm not sure if poser 4 has a setup room but I'm sure it has something similar). Look for Dr Geeps tutorial(s) on the setup room. E.D.

how do i bring up the setup room? Sounds like a plan! just have to group the relevent opjects together because the differnt parts eg top leg are made of several drawings

are you using poser 4 or poser 5? in poser 5 the setup room is a tab at the top of the screen, called SETUP. I'm not sure this is mandatory, but i'm sure it would make things easier, if you make the entire model one object, so that you don't have to deal with multiple pieces while working on the joints/poseability in poser. E.D.

poser 5 here will do cheers!

update - cant find it! can you do me a screenie all i have at the bottom is the keyframe/frame bar?!

its at the top.

Ah ha! thanks i'll take it from here! cant wait to get the bad boy walking!

be sure to find dr. geep's setup room tutorial. it won't take long to go through it, but without it, you'll only confuse yourself. E.D.

[ Setup Room Tutorial is here](http://www.renderosity.com/messages.ez?ForumID=12356&Form.ShowMessage=1977525) cheers, dr geep ;=]

everyone's on board to help you Max3DD3 in no small part because that is an awsome model. Go for it. Geeze everyone, this IBL thing is pretty damn stunning, don't you think. That model looks like it grew there. ::::: Opera :::::

Some of the parts wont need to bend because it is a robot so that should make it easier to convert. The picture is very good, the shadows do look real.

It is modeled so that it has seperate joint parts ie there will be no need for bending! that image is HDRI in vue5 where i am hoping to render the animation.

I thought that the hip joints and the shoulders might need to bend.

well contratulations to Vue than, looks good. You'll prob. have to do the animation itself in Poser. Max, what is your render budget per fram of animation and how long did the one we are looking at take? Do you have Infinite or VuePro4 and it's Render Cows? ::::: Opera :::::

Attached Link: http://www.rendiathon.netfirms.com

thats a 7minute render on dual 3ghz xeons. using vue5 with mover would like to upgrade to infinite. that model is using basic textures - meerly a preview! I have 5 node cows but they keep crashing each @ 1.8ghz check website to see!

Hey Max.. a few quick setup room tips: First, I'l assume you've already grouped your character's body parts in max. The bones you create need to have the EXACT same names as your group names.. don't even bother with autogroup in poser.. you won't need it. make sure your camera view is front/back/left right, or you'll end up with bones at an angle, unless you need them at an angle. Start with the hip and then always select the ne bone's parent before making a new one. just click and drag the new bone out from start to end.. you can adjust them later. That should get you going.

I'm having trouble with speed of edit due to every time i mouse of the object it renders a red wireframe of it which is piss annoying and slows things down - is there a way round this?

The reason it does that is to show you were that grouping of the model is. There is a hack to remove that, but if you are just learning poser, I'd say leave it on, becaue it's a PITA to try to restore. (at least in my experience.) and if memory serves, you won;t even see that in the setup room.

Oh, and if you one are using proceedural textures, P4 is quite limited in that aspect, compared to Max, and Lightwave. Poser 5 and 6 OTOH, are much stronger in that aspect.

Hi Max, You might try this ... [menu] "Display" ---> "Figure Circle" <----- UNcheck it. cheers, dr geep ;=]

Having some troubles everyone! What ive been doing is going through the model part by part and assigning materials baised on what group for example right legs right toe becomes a RRF foot material. anyway been through all the objects by hitting the next button at the top and then assigning groups such as torso hip etc. problems is when you tick the show non grouped faces a load of objects are highlighted ok - no problem i'll just go and sort out thoes objects and assign them BUT! they dont exist in the list of objects - they are seperate objects i've checked on 3dExploration! and you can't click select on the view ports! its driving me mad as its taken me ages to assign everything!!!! ARGH! oo and is it a problem to make it walk if i dont have any shoulders - as i don't really need them?

Hi Max3DD3,

You might try this ...

Grouping Tool:

1. Make a "New Group" named "mystery parts" (or whatever)

2. "Add All" - the entire objest will light up red

3. Slooooowly ... go through and "Remove Group" for all the known groups

Now, all you have left in the "mystery parts" group are the polygons that were not grouped in Poser.

Next, analyze the polygons in the "mystery parts" and determine where they belong.

If you need to ... make a new object ("Create Prop") from the "mystery parts" group and then you can work on it separately.

Consider using the "Hide other objects" option so the "mystery parts" object is not masked by the rest of your "figure".

As long as you DO NOT MOVE the "mystery parts" object - or any other objects (i.e., Create Prop) that you might make from it, it will be in the exact location that it was originally.

If you want (or need) to export an .OBJ(ect) ... it will remain in the correct location if (when you import it back into Poser) you UNcheck ALL the Import options.

Work slowly and you can unravel it - one piece at a time.

Note - Questions on the use of the Grouping Tool are always welcome. Please feel free to email me at:
geep@cableone.net

cheers,
dr geep
;=]