How to question: merge two figures together, save as one, with one common shared bone structure.

I want to blend a V3 conforming skeleton figure into a V3 figure, and then set up a morph target that would let me translate the skeleton out of the body (on the Z axis relative to the V3 figure) when I want to show it on the outside, but have it always follow any adjustments I make while moving V3's body parts as if the skeleton was internally conformed to the external body.

I would like to save this as a single figure so I can use it in multiple projects.

I'm new to Poser, though I have done several tutorials.

See an example here.

Thanks.

I'd convert the parts of the skeleton to props and parent them to their respective V3 parts.  Then you'd only have one set of bones to worry about.  Err...  I mean one less set ;)

I know this probably sounds dumb, but how do I convert a figure to a prop?

Go into the group editor and select the piece you want to make a prop and it should turn red.  There is a button to make a new prop and you will be asked to name it.  Do this for each piece you want to make into a prop.  You may want to conform the skeleton to the V3 and make sure everything lines up properly before making the props, but it shouldn't be a problem if you don't.  Also, you can export parts of an object and reimport them. 

Forgive my ignorance, I've already read the section in the Poser User Guide, as well as the Poser Tutorial Guide to try and figure out how the Group tool will help me here; unfortunately there are not any examples that demonstrate how using this tool would help me get what I want.

I decided to put up a 5 min movie to describe the goals I am aiming to accomplish, and to make an appeal for additional help (from anyone kind enough to listen), as I do not yet understand how using the group tool as you so kindly advised me to do will help.

 Here's the movie (15.9mb)

All the examples I could find on the group tool do not explain how one could:

1. Translate the geometry (I want to set up a morph target to do this eventually) for the skeleton, from a starting position inside the V3 figure (as shown in the mov), to a finishing location that is outside her body, and then later to be able to also slide it back in her (using the same morph target).
2. And yet still have the spine behave as if it were always inside the V3 figure whenever I manipulate (that is, "pose") her.

I need to do it this way because I'm making this for a mattress company that wants to demonstrate how changes to a mattresses firmness can affect the spine -  eventually I will have my figure laying down on her side, with her back to the camera.

Thanks once again.

I think I see what you're getting at. You may be getting too complicated. But try this first. Set up a Vicky with some transparency, about 50%, load the Skeleton, and conform the skeleton to Vicky. Pose Vicky, and try it with a lot of Vicky poses; there are plenty of free ones. See if the skeleton looks right. What you're trying to make is a Full Body Morph for the Skeleton, and that's where it goes outside my experience. But, for a simple object, you could import the geometry as a .obj file, translate it with the appropriate parameter dial, and save the geometry as a new .obj file. There's a couple of save options so you save it at the new position. You then make the morph by loading that .obj file as a morph target. Checking the Poser 6 manual, page 201, you need to make a morph for each body part, and there'll be a lot of them. But once you have all those morphs, the full-figure morph can be created nearly automatically. But it's going to be a pretty huge CR2 file. There's maybe another way. Make your displaced .obj file. Import it, go to the SetUp room, and load the original Skeleton figure. That will give you the mesh attached to the original boning. Now, horrible complication moment: This is going to look OK for bends perpendicular to the translation, but I have a feeling that you're going to have strange things happen with other motions. Just hold your arm out horizontally, and bend your elbow. Imagine there's a fake forearm hovering a foot behind you, attached to your real forearm: how's it going to move? I have a feeling that this morph could waste a lot of time, because it's not going to do what you think it will. I'm not an animmator, but it looks as though you need to apply the same internal motions to two figures, while varying their relative position. Which is something I still get confused about. The "Body" settings and the "Hip" settings both seem to move the whole figure, but they do different things to a figure already located in a scene. Anyway, think of a row of marching soldiers. You want them posed the same, but in different locations. It's much the same problem. I think I'll go get some coffee.

it's like the old problem where one would add a vickie to a scene and the second vickie would have all the same morph settings as the first vickie, unless one started with a "null" figure. they fixed that in poser 5. the techs in the tech forum might know how to edit the cr2 file to mirror the pose from vickie to the skellington without the tedium of having to copy keyframe poses from one figure to another using pz2 files.

"Anyway, think of a row of marching soldiers. You want them posed the same, but in different locations. It's much the same problem."

Hmm. Didn't Okham (or somebody) write a pyhon script for marching soldiers? Maybe that script (if it exists) could be modified...

Just a thought...

Cheers,
Diolma

I don't know that it's possible to "grab" a part of Vicky and have the "externalized" skeleton follow her movements. Once you conform the skeleton to Vicky, you can't translate it. I don't think the grouping tool is a solution either. While you would create a static prop, you would still have the problem of getting all the parts to move mimicing Vicky's movements.

What might be possible is to create an animated pose using Vicky to perform all the movements you want, then save it. You could then load Vicky and the skeleton, but don't conform the skeleton to Vicky, just position it inside the body. Apply the animated pose to both figures. Create a keyframe on the frame you want to begin to translate the skeleton outside of Vicky's body. Add enough new frames to allow for the translation movment. Move to the frame where you want the translation to end, translate the skeleton and create another keyframe. When you render the animation, the skeleton should mimic Vicky's movements.

There may be ways to do it using python scripts, but I'm not familiar with any. That's not to say it can't be done, just that I don't know of any existing scripts to do it nor am I familiar enough with python to write one.