What I want to do is to reduce a 120-frame dynamic hair simulation down to a single frame - the last one.

Is it possible at all??

I can do it for dynamic cloth by saving the last frame (of the cloth sim) as a .obj file, key-framing the whole of the last frame, moving the last key-frame back to frame 1, deleting the cloth and reloading the saved obj. No problem.  (OK, I have to re-apply the textures if they involve transparancy etc, but that's easy, especially if I remember to save the material. setup in the library as a temp file..)

But I can't find a way to do the equivalent for dynamic hair.
I can save it as a .obj.
I can re-load it (and delete the original hair).

What I can't work out is how to convert it back into hair:-((
And what's more, I can't even render the imported hair (guide strands) in FireFly - they just don't show up. They do show up in preview mode and in the P4 renderer, but FireFly just renders them as invisible. What's up with that? - it's just a .obj file at that stage...

I know I could reduce the cloth-sim bit back to a single frame then load the hair and use the styling tools to create the same hair-flow I want, but I'm useless with the styling tools. The dynamic approach gets the job done in about 5 mins max; with me having to do it manually it'd probably take two or three days..

All and any help gratefully appreciated.

Cheers,
Diolma

(PS - I can provide a few screen shots if they're needed to clarify anything - it's only for a personal pic, not for anything commercial..)

 

You can use an external geometry reference for the hair prop in the same way as for other props.
Try editing the PZ3 (or save as a PZ2, do the same and then reload) to refer to the OBJ of the last frame that you export.
Whatever you do don't use any of the styling controls as these will mess up the vertex positions.

There are other ways to do this, but they're a lot more awkward.

Coo! That was a quick response, nruddock.

But I'd be very grateful if you could explain more fully.
I don't really want to use external geometry, as the scene will (possibly) be rendered later in V5I...

Or.. I think I am confusing myself here....V5I can cope with external objs, but not with external morphs (as I understand it).

OK (after some thought) .. I think I've got it..

1. Export the hair prop from the last frame (should that include the skull-cap? - possibly not.. - BTW this is the Genesis hair I'm talking about..).
2. Compact the scene down to a single frame.
3. Save as a new PZ3.
4. Close Poser (always a good feeling - all that memory released).
5. Use a decent text editor to find all refernces to "hair_1" (or whatever it's actually called).
   (I'm happy with everything so far...)
6. Change the references to point to the .obj... which is where I need more guidance. I'm not totally ignorant of the ways around a PZ3 file, but so far I have mainly only done minor surgery (like correcting texture references). I suspect that changing it to point to a .obj file rather than having the hair geometry embedded (is that what happens?) will be a little more complicated...If I can get past that stage I'll be a happy bunny:-))

Oh, and BTW - I wasn't intending to use the styling tools on the "final" frame, rather using it as an alternative in the 1st (and only) frame of the "collapsed" scene - ie, just to duplicate the result that I'd got through the dynamic sim. Not a road to be contemplated with an easy mind, for me...

Cheers, and many thanks for a new approach (yes, I do understand most of it)
Diolma

Attached Link: http://hometown.aol.com/visualranger/eg-tut.html

Poser save the guide hairs internally in OBJ format, you need to replace those line with a call to an external OBJ. IIRC the skull cap should be seperate prop from the hair, so just leave it alone. It's relatively easy to find the right geometry to replace, as it will have "l " lines instead of the normal "f " lines.

I'd suggest you try thing out on a hair prop saved as a PZ2 to make sure it work before working on a PZ3.

Thx for the link nruddock, it'll be enough to get me going:-)

If I run into any difficulties I'll repost in this thread, with details of the problem.
If I sovle any problems, I'll also post the solution..
And if it all goes tickety-boo, I might just post that result too:-)

Cheers,
Diolma

Wellllllll - it didn't work.

The method worked excellently (I now know how to save props as external .objs...).

But, alas, unlike dynamic clothing, it appears that Poser saves the original (unaltered) mesh of the dynamic hair when exporting (no matter which frame I export from), so there's no saving - I still have to have the full animation plus the hair.dyn. And I've found out that strand-based hair doesn't work in V5I, either.

I think I'll give this up, except for the occasional pure-poser project.

Pity, but that's life..

Cheers,
Diolma