What was once called EMC is now taking on a new name because of its expanded capabilities... This new name is ERC (Enhanced Remote Control).

ERC is the culmination of a number of enhanced methods for remotely controlling joint and morph channels in Poser4. EMC was discovered by Charles Taylor (AKA"nerd") and myself in 2000, and my work since then is the basis for it's evolvement into ERC. These methods are an enhancement based on the cr2 code of Full Body Morphs (FBM) which were introduced in Poser 4. ERC includes, but is not limited to PBM, JCM, JCJ, MCJ, CM, MCT, TCM, JCT & TCJ and all of their conforming cousins (CFBM, CPBM, CJCM, CJCJ, CMCJ, etc...). Take that a level deeper and you have hybrids that could contain a number of these methods interacting together.

Partial Body Morphs (PBM)
Joint Controlled Morphs (JCM)
Joint Controlled Joints (JCJ)
Morph Controlled Joints (MCJ)
Conforming Morphs (CM)
Morph Controlled Translation (MCT)
Joint Controlled Translation (JCT)
Translation Controlled Morphs (TCM)
Translation Controlled Joints (TCJ)

This is your poser... this is your poser on ERC, any questions?

-Rob
rbtwhiz.com

Sign me up. I'm especially interested in the Morph Controlled Joints. Does this mean one morph could control both leg and hip joints for repeated action, such as sitting down?

Derek, yes. By using a combination of MCJ and JCJ, that can be easily accomplished. Add a control channel like those used in FBM/PBM and it's even better.

-Rob
rbtwhiz.com

Rob, is there an example of a hip trans controlling a morph? I have tried several conbinations and nothing works for me ztrans, zTrans, ztran, zTran, I even used the code- the morph does not respond. It worked from a joint.

oooooooooooooh!

So when does "ERC Editor" hit the store?

Dean,
in the morph, following interpStyleLocked:
valueOpDeltaAdd
Figure 1
hip:1
zTran
deltaAddDelta [ratio]
You'll have to toy with the ratio a bit.

Bryan, sorry... not a programmer, just a determined artist :). I've already got an explaination of "how" on my site. I'm hoping it makes it's way into Poser at some point.

-Rob
rbtwhiz.com

Rob, Thanks for trying that's what I was afraid of. This is essentially what I have. There is nothing specific to trans channels. Will pick another morph and see if I can get the trans channel to work for it. I am now using Millie for Figure 1 and hip for hip:1, but this change works for every other JCM and there are over 60 individual morphs now. Re: Figure 1 -I had forgetten the problem with the figure designation. My upgrade will fix it. I will have to see what this does to morphs transfered to another figure. But regardless, I doubt it is possible to cover for every variation. The "find - replace with" function in EditPad automates things a bit even if it is a hands on fix.

Dean, I just tried it again and it works like a charm... I made a bogus/obvious deformation to the hip (gen off) with magnets, spawned a new morph and saved the new figure to the library. Then I opened the cr2 in CR2 Editor 1.51, added the five lines as mentioned above (in the morph, pointed at yTran of hip:1 for figure 1), then saved. Back in Poser, with a new scene, loaded the figure with TCM applied. Rotated the yTran dial, and without hesitation, on a 1:1, the morph adjusted. IK was turned on too. Not sure why it didn't work for you. Is your morph in the gen hip or non-gen hip?

-Rob
rbtwhiz.com

Rob, thank you, at least I know the problem is at my end. It is a collar(s) morph not a hip morph. I made it PBM attached to a null hip morph. This solution is more practical anyway. xrot the hip 90 degrees, do a hands and knees pose, set IK for all 4 limbs and do a short ztrans +/- and you should get what the collar morph does. This way both movements are controlled from the same group and the morph is not a general one anyway. At least now I know how to do PBM.

As my development continues I see no end in sight... Because morphs, joints and translation channels can all be controlled by another channel... utilizing the same 5 lines of code, so too can a trans channel control other trans channels, and for that matter... an offset channel, a scale channel and even a taper channel. Expand ERC even further to include magnets and the realm becomes deeper.

"Attention passengers, we'd like to take this moment to ask that you keep your hands and feet inside the car at all times. Please remain seated until the ride has comes to a complete stop. This is for your own safety, Thank You."

-Rob
rbtwhiz.com

Let's get out the banjos and the lightnin'! SQUEEEEEEEEEEEEL!!!!

Rob, when you mentioned magnets you got my attention. I'll be honest with you in saying that Joint Controlled Morphs don't really interest me because I'm generally working with custom characters. One of my characters, for example, has taken your Skater Clothing cargo pants and jacket for the P4 male, recut it like Michael, and permanently integrated it with Michael and a pair of shoes. Obviously this character is way beyond being compatible with any of the morphs that came with the original figure or any morphs anyone is likely to make for them. I could make new morphs of course to turn this custom character into a JCM character, but I make a lot of these customized characters and doing a full set of morphs for each one is a lot of work.

And then you said magnets.

I'm wondering if its possible to create a set of Joint Controlled Magnets that could do some of the work that Joint Controlled Morphs are meant to do but could easily be transfered from character to character...basically a more controlled version of JP deformers.

Hmmmm...

Jeremy... It's no longer a matter of "is it?", it IS! I've lost tons of sleep in the past few weeks, more so in the last few days, trying to "push the envelope" of what Poser is capable of. JCMags was something I looked at with the idea that a muscle system can be applied across the board for like figure's. I mean, an actual muscle system that doesn't require ANY extra geometry. Not just that, but as a figure designer, the usefulness of having the ability to create a mag set, and in doing so setting yourself up to easily create morphs for clothing and the like with out near as much fuss...

-Rob
rbtwhiz.com

This is a good thing.

Next question: parameters in a cr2 have a 'hidden' variable. Is it possible to set these mags in such a way that the actual Magnet Prop, base and zone are hidden from the end user but in such a way where they can still be controlled with their desired effect from the remote joint (or Trans or Scale or whathave you)?

Jeremy, you can already hide them from within the UI, and so you can manually via the "hidden" variable. But... whilst hidden, you can still select the items via the drop-down menu at the bottom of the working box.

-Rob
rbtwhiz.com