How do you change a color to a figure part in Poser 6? I want to change the color of a scapula to red to highlight the area-any help appreciated.

diffuse colour in materials room. the top thing in the list.

You need to use the group tool first, to select the polygons of the area you want to change colour. Then press the 'add material' button to create a separate material group for that selection. now you can go into the Material room and change the diffuse colour for that group.

Another way to do this would be to use a blender map. If your texturing and 2D skills are up to it, then create a black and white map in Photoshop/Paintshop Pro/GIMP/your preferred image editor, painting the scapula area in white and the rest in black. Now, in the body/torso/relevant material of your figure, use a blender node. Set colour 1 to white, and input in the original skin's texture map. Make the second colour red. Set the Blending parameter to 1, and plug in the black and white map you created. This will colour the scapula region red, and keep the original texture for the rest of your figure. It's a useful trick to use if the area yo want painted contains fine details, or does not correspond exactly to polygon shapes (which is most often the case).

Using control maps like this can be used for a multitude of effects, from controling the ambience, specularity, bump, displacement, and transparency of a material.

Hope this helps.

jonthecelt

Thanks for your help.  How do I select the area (scapula) with the group tool? 

Well, if you're going the group tool route, then rotate the body so that the scapula is visible in the camera. Activate the group tool, and begin to select the polygons which cover that area. As I said, though, it's quite likely that the polygon's will not fit the scapula area exactly, and you're goig to end up with some quite jaggy edge. For something as precise as what you're looking for, I think the control map would be the better method.

jonthecelt

I'm lost.  Don't know how to do maps in PSCS2.  Could you recommend a tutorial?  As far as using blnder maps, how to you get the map created in PS into Poser?  
Thanks

I'll see if I can put together a few tutorials and images for you...

jonthecelt

Thanks, your help is appreciated.  I spent most of last night looking through the manual but it's pretty vague.  Thanks again....

Okay- got the map to work after I created in Photoshop, but my problem is I cannot just color the scapula.  All of the shoulder on both side is covered in red.  How do I select just the shoulder?  The grouping tool does not allow me to do it.  I click in the scapula but do not get an option in the Group Editor/Add material button. 

First off, sorry I haven't got round to doing the images yet - bad day health-wise.

If you've created the control map in photoshop, you shouldn't need the group tool. Go into the material room, and select the material that covers the body area (skinbody, torso, or whatever it's called). From the diffuse colour node right at the top, disconnect the image map. Reconnect the diffuse colour to a blender node (found under new node -> maths -> blender). Connect the image map into the first input, and make sure the colour is set to white. Set the second colour to whatever shade you want the highlighted area to be (in this case, red). Set the Blending attribute to 1, and it is this third parameter which you connect to your control map.

To confirm what the control map should look like - it should be all black, aprt from the area you want to be highlighted on the figure; this area should be filled in white.Use either the original skin texture as a guide (but be sure to work in layers and save it as a different file name - you don't want to overwrite the original texture!), or find one of the many seamguides dotted around the freestuff here at Renderosity (Snowsultan seems to have worked tirelessly to bring annotated seam guides for every single major character going).

I promise, I will get round to sorting out some images based on this as soon as I can find the concentration and energy to do so - unless someone else can take up that particular baton and help?

jonthecelt

rad, to colour just a section of a body part, ya gotta select the body part, then, in group editor, create newgroup, name newgroup, select the polygons of interest, then assign material name. this is not an easy thing to learn, I grant you. they may have already said what I did in the above messages, but i didn't read 'em.

That only works if you're (a) wanting to colour an entire bodypart, rather than just a part of it, (b) choosing an area that lines up perfectly with the polygons used to create the mesh (otherwise you end up with a jaggedoutline, as I discussed earlier), or (c) don't need to colour something that covers more than one jointed section.

To take rad's scapula as a for instance... whilst I haven't examined the poser models closely (and have no idea which fiugre rad is using), I would hazard a guess that the polygons in that area do not match exactly to the shape of the shoulder blade. There is no 'shoulder blade' body aprt which can be selected in its entirety, and I wouldn't be surprised to discover that the scapula area is actually spread across two bodyparts - either chest and collar, or possibly collar and shoulder (this is alos quite possibly not the case, but it wouldnt' be a shock if it was). Therefore, simply picking a bodypart and assigning a new material group, or selecting polygons and doing the same, wouldn't work here. We have to resort to control maps and the blender node.

jonthecelt

Jonthecelt:

I’m using the Daz V3 figure with the V3 skeleton, and the muscle on V3 are transparent to show the underlying skeleton.  So, when I go to this figure in the Material window, there is only a diffuse color with no image map attached.  If I try your technique, it turns the arms and entire shoulder red.  I’m supposing that the fact that I’m using two figures is complicating this.  Thoughts?

The fact you have two figures shouldn't complicate this, provided we go steady. You say that there  is no texture map on the V3 model, only the diffuse colour. Am I right in assuming that this means you haven't applied any MAT poses or material setting to the figure at all? It's stil in the state it was in when youadded the figure to the scene?

It sounds like you're still missing out on a control map to dictate where the blending is. It would help me to talk you through this if you could provide me a couple of screen shots here. Can you show me the basic setup you have in the 'pose' room, and then the material setup you have so far for the skin in the material room? Once I have them, I can see where we're starting from, set my end up to the same config, and walk it through one step at a time. :)

jonthecelt

Hmm... those images look the same to me... and they're too small to really see anything. What method did you use to scren capture and uplaod them?

jonthecelt

My apologies.  I just brought it into Photoshop with print screen.  How the hec do I add more than one photo here that is not too large but visible?

post links to yer photos, which ya can upload at photobucket.com for free. unfortunately, what yer tryin to do is rather difficult, in regard to texturing new poser groups.

Attached Link: http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s233/dvpro72c/Untitled-2.jpg

so ya just wanna hilite a scapular bone in red or something? I dunno if I have the v3 skellington, but I daresay there's no "scapula" body part, if it's a poseable figure. first step is to find out if there's a "scapula" group (probly isn't one) by examining the obj file in text editor, or by clicking on likely body parts in group editor and seeing if the scapula changes colour.

Ok... is it the scapula bone, or the area of skin/muscle that covers the scapula which you're wanting to re-colour?

jonthecelt

The scapula bone.  I'm most interested in the use of the image maps.  Thanks

open group editor, click on scapula, see if "groups" droplist contains any keyword similar to scapula, shoulderbone, et al. if not, view texture template to see if scapula is separate, or use group editor to create newgroup "scapula".