Forum: Poser - OFFICIAL


Subject: "The Rig" -- CLSteve wants ideas

operaguy opened this issue on Apr 26, 2005 ยท 98 posts


Eternl_Knight posted Thu, 28 April 2005 at 10:06 PM

OK, speaking as a guy who is currently trying to create such a Python-assisted rig - I can categorically tell you that (a) Poser 6 does not give you access to everything in a figure and (b) there are some inherent problems with Python-assisted rigging in Poser. To fill you in on my current gripes, have a flick through the list below... 1. There is still no way to access all the rigging parameters via PoserPython. That is I cannot read or write rigs without reading/writing CR2 files (with all the parsing and file-based functionality that goes with it). 2. While one can set a script to be run when the figure is loaded into the scene - said script file MusT be in the default runtime. This means one cannot have a Python-assisted rig in any other Runtime bar the one under the Poser 6 directory. 3. Testing Python-assisted rigs is arduous at best, a bloody nightmare on average. One cannot edit the script "on the fly" but must make tweaks to the script in a separate application, unload & reload the figure in question, and then see how the changes worked out. Given the average figure loading time, this becomes tiresome very quickly! 4. The way one must structure the Python scripts to get this working is incredibly counter-intuitive to an artist (it's not the easiest to understand for me, and make my living by programming). As such, it is not very likely to be used... 5. Unless one is only controlling deformers, the script will need to be applied to the clothing as well. Even with deformers, there needs to be a custom pose/script for adding the clothing articles to the deformer's "influenced actors" list. This fact lessens the appeal significantly (i.e. without clothing support - why bother?). 6. Currently the method of accessing the dial values for an actor in the scripts is quite cumbersome and as such doesn't lend itself to an easy reading of how the script will work. What NEEDS to be done is for Curious Labs to add in expression support &/or the ability to embed python scripts into the figure CR2 (from a coding point of view - this is pretty much one and the same thing). Hell, should Curious Labs need direction on this issue - there are a tonne of examples out in the world of open source and I have done it for two custom applications requiring statistical formulae entered at runtime...