Hello, I am sorry for being so dense, but could anyone help me figure out how to do Mason's combine figure tutorial using Compose? I have heard people mention using compose to combine figures, but I have had no luck figuring it out. Please assume when explaining this to me that I am rather simpleminded and need drool-proof instructions. Thanks in Advance, Matt Baucco

Attached Link: http://morphs.bbay.com

yes, compose itself works perfectly, it is just that I am not having any luck how to combine meshes the way mason does in his tutorial. I have spent three days searching the web for tutorials that show how to use compose to combine meshes, but have had no luck. thanks, Matt

I haven't read his tutorial, but here's what you do to combine a mesh in Compose: Load the base geometry for the figure, then bring the additional file you want to combine with it checking in the "Merge With Current File" box. Is that what you're having trouble with? -JH.

I did some of this back when. If I remember properly, if you merge two files and the group names are identical, one will replace the other. I think I have seen both effects: two essentially identical groups on top of each other and the new replacing the old. I just do not remember what produces each effect. Experiment. Learning all the options of the tool can not hurt. But combine is straight forward. Open the add on parts file and delete any extra groups and save it. Open the base file and delete anything that needs it, then open the add on file, check the merge box , then write. You will wind up with one big file. save it and then the fun begins with the CR2.

Hello, Thanks for the help so far, I may be getting a little closer. Here is what I did: 1. opened the p4 nude man obj file 2. opened the mens jeans obj file and clicked the "merge" checkbox in the open dialogue Now, do I have to use the "merge" button on each object? I.e. click on the two rThigh objects and merge them, then the lThigh objects and merge them, etc.? Or do I just click the "save items" button and save it as a new .obj file? Thanks, Matt

Compose is very idiocyncratic, as you have discovered. What you merge are files. Compose , I think, will only let you have one file in that left window. If you open a file and then read , it is in there, open a second, and read, it replaces the first one. Open a second, click merge, and read and it will put both files together. The only way to do this group by group is if they are each a separate file. Once you have a merged file, you have several options re: what you save. If you click on object - then you save the whole K&K . If you click on a group under object, or CTRL click on a complex of them, then this will be what you save. I am going to step back a bit and say this though - I do not think that there is an advantage to be had in making a single multilayered object and there is a major disadvantage. The skin IS going to poke thru the clothing in some poses, and in a merged figure, there ain't much you can do about it. With conforming clothing, there is. This technique is pre the latest patches, when you could not save multi figures in a CR2. IF however, you are replacing the hip, thighs, and shins with a clothing mesh, this does have its advantages - no poke thru, smaller mesh.

Just for the sake of adding my 2 cents to this, I have to say that out of all the ulilities available for Poser, Compose is about the least intuitive and the crankiest I've seen yet. Were it not for Jim Moore, I would have not figured out ANY of it, and THAT only applies to Amorphium/Poser/Compose. --Mike

No Matt, don't use the "Merge" button on each object. You'll lose all the groups if you do that. Save the OBJ to a new file name. Doesn't Mason's tutorial require you to rename the groups in the jeans first though? In that case you would import the Jeans.obj first, rename the groups, then bring the P4 male OBJ in on top of that with "Merge With Current File". I have a feeling you should check out the Jeans OBJ in Poser first because most of the clothing items have extra bodyparts that need to be removed. -JH.

Jeff, I forgot about the merge option in the file choices. You are right, he does not want that one. Mike, you are right. It is a bear. You have to pay attention. It takes two stages to open a file and two stages to save one, And the business of always having to type OBJ on the end - man, what a pain. There are no other choices, it at least could have filled that in automatically. But it does stuff easily, that are either extremely difficult or nigh on to impossible in anything else.

True. Somehow it makes the Poser/Amorphium thing work, but in all honesty, I'm not so sure I ever understood it's real purpose, that is, what it was intended for.

Thanks to everyone, once again, for your insights into a baffling (at least to me) process. I know that you can now save multi-figure CR2s (thanks Jaager), but I am just not getting good results from the conforming clothes, they always poke out and refuse to conform properly, even if I am careful to zero the figure before adding clothes. Also, I can not use the clothes with a morphed figure. For instance, if I apply the "superhero" full body morph to the P4 poser guy, none of the clothes will fit, and I can't scale them to make them fit. The clothes scale strangely once they are conformed, and you can not scale them before conforming, as they snap back to their original size when you "fit" them to a figure. Perhaps I am going about this the wrong way, and there is a better way to put clothes on these models without merging the meshes or using multi-figure CR2s. If so, please let me know. I am working on a web comic, and I really want it to look as good as my limited artistic skills allow. Thanks again everyone! Matt Baucco

Merge for the individual groups is the wrong verb. It is combine. As far as poking thru goes, it does not matter if you conform in Poser, or do a combined figure. The mesh geometry is fixed. The only way to alter it is by morphing. Either externaly applied, or thru the action of joint parameters. If your characters are to be kept clothed, and the clothing has no transparency, then the easiest way is to make the body group underneath invisible if it is fully covered. The most efficient way for file size would be to replace the body part with the clothing part, and combine the half and half parts. If you have a modeling program, you could make a single group from the half and half groups by deleting the covered skin portion and then renaming the result as a new group with the old name.

I think using a multi figure CR2 and morphs on the clothing is the best way to go for me, as I don't think I'll be animating these figures. Since I am using the standard "superhero" body morph on the P4 male, I can create a full body morph for the clothing item and then save it to the library and re-use it. If anyone is interested, I'll be happy to post the morphs when I am finished. Thanks Again, Matt