**Hi - i have a lightwave character - but every time i try to import it into poser it just says something like error importing lightwave.

What do i need to do to import the lightwave. It isnt just this model it says the same with every lightwave object i try to import! please help me - thx samuel**

Khai says
Have you tried PoseRay?
http://mysite.verizon.net/sfg0000/

Poseray should convert it to obj

http://mysite.verizon.net/sfg0000/

LOL  seems you were quicker with the fingers Rad :D

Poser 7 boasts the ability to open Lightwave 5 files. However, the LWOs included in the content from Lightwave 9 produce the following error when I attempt to import into Poser 7. “Error in plugin ‘FFLW’.arp”

That's because they are not lw5 format files.. ;)

I think that was just a legacy format import that still worked, so they left it in.

Even then, if would only import the obj file, NOT any rigging, and since lw outputs obj already it would be smarter to just export an obj in lightwave, and then import the obj into poser 7.

thx - but the obj dosnt come with textures just poly - i need to find a way of importing lightwave 9 - how -  is their a converter that changes it to a lightwave 5 file - you know what can i do ? -  - SAMUEL

obj exporter in LW does not export materials unless they are attached in surface editor . that is it doesnt export the uv info unless the surface is set up in surface editor .

LW9  should have an option to export LW5 file format

Attaching the image maps in poser is fairly quick task .

so if i get the lightwave 5 format will it load with textures applied ? - Samuel

Nope.  Importing anything won't get you the textures.  Assuming they are even in a readable format (JPG TIF PSD etc) you'll have to apply them manually.

right thx - i have the obj  with the body teeth and eyes all seperate. I also have the whole model as one. Would it be better to texture it seperate or as one? -samuel

 Currently doing something similar myself. The only way I have been doing it is:

Building my lwo, UV mapping, making textures

Export lwo from LW9.3 as obj

Import obj in Poser 7

Open material editor and load images for color, displacement and reflection.

Go to setup and rig character. 

Voila

continue to tweak

Effectively exporting .OBJ files from Lightwave requires the following free 3rd-party script:

MTL Import/Export from http://www.dodgy.ghostoutpost.com/

This will write an Alias material or ".mtl" file for the .obj file containing all the surfacing and texturing data. Poser should read the .mtl files when loading the .obj file. I would also use an app like UVMapper Pro in order to generate the UV maps for the .obj file.

We'll see what the UV Mapping tools in the forthcoming LW 9.5 are like.

Gather 'round, kids. Granpa's gonna tell y'all a story. (he he)

The .mtl was the only way of editing materials with Wavefront 1.0. Eventually there was an editor but I spent too many hours just trying numbers and rendering to see what if I got the material setting right. (shivers)

Yes, MTL Imp/Exp. Fantastic, forgot to mention it. Although I don't use the .mtl for exporting into Poser.

 If you're in LW why not generate the UV's there?

I've found LW's UV Mapping features are not as sophisticated or easy to use as UVMapper Pro. LW can handle basic UV maps such as simple planar/cylindrical/spherical projections, but anything more advanced really cannot be handled by the Atlas function which tends to distribute polygons somewhat randomly.

 Well, let me ask you this, as I don't have UVMapper Pro. How does it handle those objects better?

Currently, my method (learned via some tutorial) is to make a morph target and un-wrap the object by hand and then generate the UV's. There is also the method of making a cloth simulation and letting the object rest on a flat surface. Both methods require some unwelding in strategic places.

I'm always interested in hearing possibilities that might free me from one of the chores of modeling.

Hi  -
Rajdron said that Effectively exporting .OBJ files from Lightwave requires the following free 3rd-party script:

MTL Import/Export from http://www.dodgy.ghostoutpost.com/
This will write an Alias material or ".mtl" file for the .obj file containing all the surfacing and texturing data. Poser should read the .mtl files when loading the .obj file. I would also use an app like UVMapper Pro in order to generate the UV maps for the .obj file

***Do i need lightwave for this script. i dont have it you see ! does this script load into poser ?
Uv mapper is that for poser or lightwave.

(Please tho answer first questionabove ) Also can someone tell me what a uv map is ? is it the poly.

 UVMapper Pro is a stand alone app. UVMapper is free or was when i downloaded it. 
the MTL import/export is a free download that lives in your Lw plugins. 

If Poser reads the .mtl  when you import the .obj it might save you some time setting up in Poser, I don't use it in that direction, only when I'm going from Poser into LW. 

Wait. You don't have LW? Your opening line beginning this thread was "I have a Lightwave character" !!! Silly me jumping to conclusions. 

Well, I was going to say for a good definition of UV hit help button in LW. 

UV is another set of numbers applied to all the geometry so that they "tack down" the texture map image to the geometry so that it doesn't slide around if the geometry deforms. That is my "less than perfect" take on the definition of UV. A google would probably be better.

Rignt - if i pay my modeller to download this mtl plugin and export the model to me - will poser definetely  be able to import the textures etc . I need to know as this is going to cost me money which i cant waste!

Will poser 100 % be able to import textures with model  from lightwave using this plugin ?
Please if any one has had experience with this let me know !

The mtl import/export plugin is free. The only cost is the time your modeler may charge to bring in the model and export it. Or you can always ask someone on the forums for help in converting the LWO file and its textures to a file that can be imported into Poser.

First of all, what textures are you trying to import? Are they all image maps (jpegs, TGAs, PNGs, etc?) or are they procedural textures? Procedurals are really problematic to export. There is a way to do it, but it involves "baking" the textures, which eats up a lot of render time on a complex model.
Second, is the model UV mapped at all? As deci6el explained above, UV mapping tacks down the texture map to the geometry. In essence, it assigns a U and V coordinate to each vertex or point in the mesh (adding to the X, Y, and Z) coordinates. If you have to do UV mapping from scratch in LW, then you're going to have to pay for the modeler's time in any event. As I've alluded to above, the UV mapping in LW is not as easy to use as it could be, especially when compared to a program like UVMapper Pro. Poser is highly dependent upon UV mapping for textures and you will save yourself a lot of grief by ensuring that the UV Mapping is done properly before you even try to import the mesh into Poser.

If you want, PM me some details on this through my Renderosity account and I can try to give you a hand with this over the weekend.

deci6el: I've found UVMapperPro to be a lot easier to use than LW's built-in tools. The key is the ability to avoid distortions in the UVs--for example, when mapping a box, LW will tend to stretch the box sides so as to fill up the UV texture space. Normally, not a problem, but if you have to have a logo on the box side, correcting for LW's UV distortion is a pain. UVMP also allows you to preview the UV projection as you adjust the mapping on the fly for optimal view with minimal distortion. As you can tell, I'm pretty big on this distortion thing. 

UVMP is used by a lot of Poser users to create the texture mapping for their objects, so I decided to invest in it. It was about $60 if I remember. So far, I've been pretty pleased with it, but I haven't spent as much time with it as some of the power users.

 to rjandron and stndesign, and anyone else who might be listening in.

The free version of UVmapper wasn't much use to me beyond the basic which LW is quite cabable of doing. I asked about UVmapper Pro because as rjandron said, "you want to avoid the distortions.
As my method has been (via a tutorial) to make a morph and un-weld and then un-wrap the image by hand I am still faced with moments of human vs mesh moments when I have to guess-timate what would be the proper way to flatten the geometry. In my case I am looking at a car body and its intimate details. Cars don't generally need a lot of texture like human skin but in my case where I'm distressing the car, it is very ugly to see on skin or car that the texture is stretching. 

$60 bucks is well within the envelope of reasonable if it helps unwrap a complex object so that painting is not impossible. Clearly, many people do it every year creating assets for film and games so there must be a good method. I am currently still prying vertices apart in a desperate attempt to make a map that I let alone anyone down the assembly line might be able to work with when creating new textures. 

I'll look into it, thanks, rjandron.

don

deci6el, If you're in Lightwave9, I'ld wait for the Lightwave9.5 open beta that starts next month, it is supposed to bring new uvmap tools.

Deci6el, if you're expecting something like this: http://video.luxology.com/modo/301/video/ClickDragDone.mov
then I don't believe that UV Mapper Pro can do something like that...it is more labour intensive than what Luxology's Modo can do for UVs as shown in the above video. UVMP does have a forum here on Renderosity and it looks like UVMPs creator hangs out there a lot, so it may be worthwhile to direct more detailed questions to him.

Mind you, for me, the price of UVMP was a good investment for the type of work that I have to do (texturing vehicles and structures). That it is also used by others in the Poser field is another endorsement. But as always, research before you invest. I've been burned more than I care to admit with software and plugins for much more than the price of UVMP because I didn't do research.

 aAGgh! Wow, that's pretty cool. Short and to the point but looks magical in its simplicity. 
I got Modo 103 on sale with the idea of upgrading to 301. And I am stuck at that cross-over curse of not taking the time to stop working to learn a new app and see if its safe to spend the bucks for the upgrade. 

Thanks a lot for that info.

And thanks, Monoloz, anything that comes into LW for free will be easier for me to fold in as that's where I'm doing the work.

Read the thread on the "secret beta images". There is an example there of a horse unwrapped with the new tools. You'll love it.

Hi all
Thx for info - have been able to get model textured.
One more question The model frame is smooth from a distance but tends to be a little rought on the edges when you go close. You know like these game characters. How do i make the character more smooth on the edges

In case anyone is interested, Poser of any version will not import a LightWave .lwo object with a UV map, even if the UV map is applied properly in LW.
OBJ yes, LWO, no.
This in spite of the fact they claim that it imports LWO2 files, which came out with the release of LW 6.0 or 6.5, for the purpose of including UV data.
Conversely, Poser's LWO export won't export UV data with a model from Poser, even if you select the LWO2 option. Why they even bothered to include that option is beyond me. Pretty useless, actually, unless you want a Poser model you need to remap.
They never did get it right. Sometimes the geometry will load OK, sometimes not. Double-sided polygons and ngons won't appear in Poser correctly, and Poser can't smooth over non-welded vertices.
Should be interesting to see if Smith Micro fixes it or removes it entirely.

manoloz said:
"Read the thread on the "secret beta images". There is an example there of a horse unwrapped with the new tools. You'll love it."

 Shhhhh...LW9.5 pics..for your eyes only

Page 35 of a 52 page thread to be exact. That was about an hour's search to find, wading through a lot of pictures of fur and hateful and snide comments to buffer all the "how cool am I to be able to put down what others have put up".  There are some interesting pictures of lights too.

The horse example looks a lot like the modo example rjandron linked above. One picks the seams where you want to break the object and the object is laid out like a pelt. Pretty cool.

Yeah, MikeJ

I gave up on most any plug-in Poser says it has, except for importing and exporting obj's.
Seven years ago, I would crash on a regular basis trying to get their Poser to LW animation plug to work, never did and they have still never made it work. Although I do understand some use(d) it. 

Quote - manoloz said:

Yeah, MikeJ

I gave up on most any plug-in Poser says it has, except for importing and exporting obj's.
Seven years ago, I would crash on a regular basis trying to get their Poser to LW animation plug to work, never did and they have still never made it work. Although I do understand some use(d) it. 

Yeah, but their PZ3 to LWS plugin came out with PPP right after LW 7 was released; while advertised as a LightWave scene file  (lws) import, was based on LW 6, and even said so in the ReadMe file.
It did work, sort of, but in a very limited capacity, then it was abandoned. The purported LWO import wasn't a part of that at the time, as LWO is a geometry, and not a scene, but they allowed the name-dropping included in the PPP feature list to deceive people into believing Poser knew how to deal with LWO2...and in an effort of either good faith or complete ignorance or contempt, allowed it to remain a feature worthy of advertisement.

 My first version of LW, was 6.5 and then 7, as you said, came out a couple weeks later. I kept thinking that it would just take MetaCreations some time for them to work out the bugs with the new version of LW. What a disappointment. Now they are vamping up for the next PRO PACK, boasting hosting capabilities. I will be taking a wait and see attitude.

Will Smith do something with Poser that previous companies have not?

Attached Link: Poser to LW animation

That's not bad, jerr3d, but I think she'd have tied her hair back before working out. ;-)

I didn't say it didn't work at all, just that it was iffy. I tried some things which worked, but many attempts either loaded with errors, or didn't load at all, while other things caused crashes. Enough to make me give up on it, that is. I started with LW 7, so never had a chance to try it in LW 6.

Quote -
Now they are vamping up for the next PRO PACK, boasting hosting capabilities. I will be taking a wait and see attitude.

Will Smith do something with Poser that previous companies have not?

Well, LW support is on the backburner anyway, unless that's changed in the last few weeks. 3ds max and Cinema at first, but my guess is they're having trouble with either Newtek or the LW SDK.
And, LW is undergoing some major changes at the moment, as you know, so it would probably be a good idea for them to wait at least a year or so.
The better question is, will they update it regularly? NT puts out alot of point releases with each version, and I can see the PPP getting broken at any point along the way.
Better to simply import Poser figures as OBJ and rig them up in Layout. That way they'll always work, and won't likely get broken. And you can export morph targets into LW and use "background to morph" to have the exact same MT's in LW as you can in Poser.

If I want to export a Poser scene for LW, I just  run the scene inventory script into a folder, then save the whole mess out of Poser as OBJ and then convert it to LWO with Deep Exploration. Since Poser writes mtl files and the script copies the textures to a folder, it's pretty easy to do it this way. No animation data of course, but IMO, doing that in LW is infinitely easier anyway.

Smith Micro? Who knows what they'll do? I'm guessing they'll come out with some sort of cell phone Poser plugin, since they're in the cell phone business. ;-)

Quote - Shhhhh...LW9.5 pics..for your eyes only

Page 35 of a 52 page thread to be exact. That was about an hour's search to find, wading through a lot of pictures of fur and hateful and snide comments to buffer all the "how cool am I to be able to put down what others have put up".  There are some interesting pictures of lights too.

Thanks for the link, deci6el.  As for the rest -- the "hateful and snide comments" are pretty much SOP in many forums these days.  It's to be expected.  Especially on the "pro" sites.

It all involves a higher order of thinking: a type of reasoning which is well beyond the ken of mere rank amateurs.  Non-pros can't possibly hope to grasp what's going on when the 'professionals' call each other names and verbally knife each another.  As we all know, amateurs never do things like that -- because they aren't nearly sophisticated enough to grasp the necessary concepts involved in utilizing such advanced methodologies of interpersonal communications.

But dig through such threads, and it might (maybe) actually be possible to learn something new & interesting along the way.  Or so it's been for me.

Quote - The horse example looks a lot like the modo example rjandron linked above. One picks the seams where you want to break the object and the object is laid out like a pelt. Pretty cool.

Yep.  Cool -- in both programs. 

Quote - Smith Micro? Who knows what they'll do?

Good question.

 I would love to hear the explanation, technical though it may be, why it could work for some and not for others. I am technically savvy but admittedly I not a comp-sci. Similar to MikeJ, its refusal to cooperate exceeded my time/patience budget to work through the problem and I moved on.
That said, there seemed to be a dearth of explanations why it wasn't working, plenty of tutorials about how easy it was though.

Thanks Xeno,

I do realize my hateful and snide comment about "hateful and snide comments" was a bit of the dragon eating the tail. I must constantly urge myself to keep my posts shorter so we can all parse the info faster. And in that spirit... ciao for now.

Quote - Thanks Xeno,

I do realize my hateful and snide comment about "hateful and snide comments" was a bit of the dragon eating the tail. I must constantly urge myself to keep my posts shorter so we can all parse the info faster. And in that spirit... ciao for now.

Just to clarify -- I did not take your comments as being "hateful and snide" at all.  More like "helpful and concise".  You are to be thanked.  I was referring more to a commonly observed problem........but that's for a different thread.