I have been playing around with ZBrush to come up with some morph targets and I suddenly realised when I import the head of Victoria 3 back in as a morph target there is a slight adjustment in the position of the head. I have tried several things, from zeroing the joints of the body to just leaving Vicky as is when I first load her into Poser before exporting just the head as an OBJ file. I haven't made any drastic changes in ZBrush itself to warrant this movement as I only morphed the nose slighty. Just wondered if anyone had a similar problem or would know whether I'm doing something wrong. I've attached an image, I slightly faded the upper layer to show the position of the two heads, one with the morph and one without. The morphed version actually shifts the head back a couple of pixels as indicated by the faded line that runs along the cheek area of the image. Hope you can help, Steve

This sort of thing happens with other programs that are used to make morphs.
A couple of standard solutions are as follows :-

Try using the .OBJ file from the RuntimeGeometries folder.
This is always best as I believe that when loaded via a figure file, there is a small position change.

The other thing that may be happening is a loss of precision in the coordinates during the round trip, the cure for which is to use ObjAction Scaler (from the FreeStuff) to scale up before import and scale down before importing back into Poser.

This and similar issues have been discussed extensively at ZBrushCentral. A couple of simple searches should turn up various threads, i.e., you should find solutions to your troubles there. I know I did.

It's not Zbrush but Poser. Never ever export a part from a figure cr2 if you can avoid it. Whenever possible export the heaad from the actual obj in a modelling package. Anton www.byanton.com

Yes, I use the original obj geometry and then spawn props and save each part out that I want to morph, then load back as morph targets. This has worked very well for me ... so far, but there are often other considerations to take into account as well. There's a thread or two at ZBrushCentral about this methodology somewhere that goes into much more detail.

Thanks to all for the useful advice, I really appreciate it, also I'll try and put this into practice a little on today. Cheers Steve

I've done a few ZB2 morphs, and never actaully seen this problem. A couple of things... 1) When you import the mesh back in to Poser, only check the "Make Normals Consistent" - leave all the others unchecked. 2) IMO, one of the most powerful tools in ZB2 is selecting a subset of poly's and then using the S.Pivot button. But if you do this, you /must/ C.Pivot before exporting the mesh, otherwise it will be offset when you reload it into Poser - which is what's happening to you. 3) As a few ppl in this thread have said, always use the original obj, not something that's been exported from Poser. 4) If you are using any form of subdividing (and then deleting subd's), to coukld also cause this problem.

There are other methodologies that work, but I've found this to be one of the best for me. This is essentially what noggin suggested over on the ZBrushCentral site, and after having tried a few other approaches, it is now how I do it, too: a) Import the figure's base geometry into ZBrush. b) Do your ZBrushing. c) Export the obj to file with a unique name. d) In Poser, import your ZBrush-modified obj. e) Select the grouping tool and spawn props. f) Delete the originally imported obj. g) Export each body part that has been morphed separately, checking only the bottom check box that states 'as morph target.' h) Delete all the spawned props if you haven't already. i) Load your target figure into Poser. j) Select, in turn, each body part to which you wish to add morph targets, i.e., the same ones you exported to objs before, and then load each obj file as the morph target for that part. I generally set the dial value for the morph to 1.0 as I go so I can more easily create a full body morph (FBM). k) Now with dial values for the loaded morphs all set to 1.0, select Figure / Create full body morph. l) To test, restore your figure and then set your Body FBM dial. m) If happy with the result, save your figure with its new morphs in the poser library with a new name. And note that with Z2 you shouldn't have the same flip problem Z1.5 had, at least in my experience, at least using this method. I hope I didn't leave anything out. I don't think so. Well, try it and see. If it doesn't work, I'll try to find my notes and see what I may have forgotten.

You can save a heap of time loading and saving geometries by using a simple python script. For example, if you want to make a fbm from the head and neck of an imported obj, simply import the prop, select it, and run a python script...

importedProp = poser.Scene().CurrentActor()

newHeadGroup = poser.Scene().CreateGeomFromGroup(importedProp, "head")
poser.Scene().CurrentFigure().Actor("head").SpawnTargetFromGeometry(newHeadGroup, "My New Head")
poser.Scene().CurrentFigure().Actor("head").Parameter("My New Head").SetValue(1)

print "Assigning neck morph"
newNeckGroup = poser.Scene().CreateGeomFromGroup(importedProp, "neck")
poser.Scene().CurrentFigure().Actor("neck").SpawnTargetFromGeometry(newNeckGroup, "My New Head")
poser.Scene().CurrentFigure().Actor("neck").Parameter("My New Head").SetValue(1)

poser.Scene().SelectActor(importedProp)
poser.Scene().DeleteCurrentProp()

Message edited on: 05/29/2005 03:20

The easiest way to make sure it works, when exporting from the program, is to zero the figure (I do this just to be sure), and then export the piece with the top and bottom export options checked. As morph target and something else. It normally doesn't shift. When importing it works as a morph target. This is only for heads but I do most of my morphs in ZBrush and it seems to work for me.

I see everyone has there own method of doing this starting with the obj found in geometries (rather than exporting anything out of poser)... I save the 'head' bodygroup from out of uv mapper,sculpt in zbrush then import that as a morph target to Poser

I've just tried the method suggested by Ghostofmacbeth and this works really well. I didn't get any unwanted movement apart from the applied morph that is. Thanks for this I really appreciated it. Now to get back to some more disfigurements!