** I'm pleased to announce the release of my new freebie MirrorMags32 (MM32), at http://sharecg.com**

The above pic is the P6 Jessi after some MM32 therapy!

I think this is the best freebie I have ever made. Many tens of hours went into its development, and 13 beta testers helped me to refine it into something I am really proud of. They too, own a big share of the credit for what MM32 has become.

The purpose of MM32 is to provide a quick and easy way to set-up left/right mirror symmetry in magnets, and control the magnet pairs in real time. When I made MM32 it was primarily meant as a way to assist in making symmetrical morphs on figures. Deform the figure, spawn Morph Targets, then delete the magnets. But it can be put to other uses.

MM32 does not create any magnets, you need to do that part yourself.

Let me try to explain what it does. Say you want to use magnets to make the biceps bulge. Normally you would use a magnet on the Right Shoulder to make the bulge. Once you get the Right Shoulder how you want it, you have to create another magnet on the Left Shoulder and try and make it the same as the one on the right. There are ways you can get this exactly right, but it is a lot of work. And if you decide to change the magnet on the right at any stage, you have to change the magnet on the left again to match.

With MM32 you create one magnet on the Right Shoulder and another on the Left Shoulder. Then you apply the MM32 pose. Now you pose the magnet on the Right Shoulder, and the magnet on the Left Shoulder follows automatically in mirror symmetry. Once you create the magnet on the Left Shoulder you don't need to touch it again, it's translated, scaled, and rotated automatically in real time, to match the magnet on the right. This goes for the Mag, Base, and Zone.

MM32 can be used to deform a character and conformed clothing at the same time. It comes with a number of supplementary pose files to change the way the magnets display, including, colour coded, wire frame, semi-transparent, alternate smaller geometry, and invisible. A python script by Ockham is also included, that can delete all magnets from a figure.

You can save magnet sets that use MM32 to a PP2 (prop) file for later use, but you need to apply MM32 again after loading them onto a figure. MM32 can also work on props that are parented to a figure.

You can find a download link in my Free Stuff.

Here is a short animation of MM32 at work. By default the magnets on the left hand side of the figure are hidden to reduce clutter, and make it easier to see the figure. In the MM32 default display style the magnets on the right would be 80% transparent, for the same reasons just mentioned, but here the fully opaque option has been used to give you a better view. The colour coding option has been applied in this example, and is just one of many display options available.

MM32 is very simple to use. Create a magnet on the right hand side of the figure, then create a magnet on the corresponding left hand body part, or for a central part create two magnets on that part. Once the magnets have been created, apply the MM32 pose. You can now forget about the magnets on the left side, MM32 takes care of them for you. The left side magnets won't even be visible! If it was not for the fact that the left hand side of the figure was deforming exactly the same as the right hand side, you would not even know that the left hand magnets were there.

If you like you can add more magnets to your figure, then apply MM32 again to mirror these new magnets. You can have up to 32 mirrored magnets on the figure (16 pairs).

Once you have spawned morphs from your deformations (assuming that is why you are using MM32), you can make the left hand magnets visible, and save the magnet set as a pp2 file for future use. Or you can use the "DeleteMagnets.py" which Ockham very kindly allowed me to include in the distribution, to delete all magnets from the figure at one go.

Great work Les, and thank you - I am still at the playing stage but these are going to be fun ;)  Thanks again

Really cool! Thanks!

The other time-waster that bugs me with magnets is constantly having to switch between magnet, zone and base while tweaking the dials (especially when you have a lot of magnets and renaming all their components is just too tedious!). It seems to me that it should be possible to create a "super-magnet" object that has parameter dials for all its components in the one panel (and that MM32 could mirror for symmetry?) - any pointers on how that could be done?

ianr

@ ianr,

That' an interesting idea ianr. The very first incarnation of MirrorMags, back in 2003 only had two magnets, and those were controls from a control prop, where all the parameters for the Mag, Base, and Zone were in one long Parameters pallet. That was very confusing, and even I its creator found the interface very un-user-friendly. That was back in the my P4 days. Now that we have groupes of dials, and roll up pallets it would probably be a lot better. The old MirrorMags is still available in the Free Stuff, if you want to give it a try, but this suggestion is more for interest sake that anything else. The old MirrorMags isn't a patch on MM32.

However you have given me an idea. If I can come up with something, would you like to test it?

I'd be happy to - and honored.

At least our screens are bigger now than in the p4 days!

Here are a few head morphs I made using **MM32**. Top left is a standard V4.2 face, with elf ears. Top right, elf face morph. Bottom left, young elf. Bottom right, extreme alien.

P.S. The effects in the alien face were mostly achieved by twisting the magnets round with zRotate. The eye area has been twisted so that the lacrimals are on the side of the eyes closest to the ears.

I cheated a bit with my elf ears in the last post, the side view of the ear did not look too great, so I did not show a profile view. Now I have done a bit more work on it with MM32. I also added some elf ear lobes, whilst I was at it. I think the I think the profile looks OK now. What do you think?

I fired up MM32 again, and did a bit more work on the face. I goda stop playing with my *elf*! :rolleyes:

Great job LesBently.

Thanks DarkEdge.

Here is another view of the elf. She keeps changing. I'm still not completely happy with her, I think the bridge of the nose is a bit too sharp, and the tip too pointed in this incarnation.

If I get her how I want her, I may make an INJ and post her as a freebie.

P.S. MM32 now has over 500 downloads at sharecg.com

So far MM32 has been running at an average of over 100 downloads per day over at sharecg.com**.**Here are some of the comments people have made over at sharecg:

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This is looking like a very smart utility with an excellent documentation. It will need a time to get familiar with it, but it looks like casting my own thoughts, when I tried to duplicate a set of magnets. Very well done! Thanks a lot!- - - - - -

Oh awesome, I've been wishing for something exactly like this! Thank you!- - - - - -

Les, you need to sell this. At $4-$6(US) you would have a hit immediately. Do you even have a donation site? Get that up and running, you deserve serious thanking for this! 

The picture below shows some elf ears I made with MM32 for other characters. Plus a morph to make V4 more curvaceous.

Looks great! I'll go download and have a play.

Now I need a similar tool for mirroring joint parameters.

*"Create a magnet on the right hand side of the figure, then create a magnet on the corresponding left hand body part, Once the magnets have been created, apply the MM32 pose."

*LES  this sounds awesome, i have a question.... after creating the magnet on the right, and after i set up this magnet 1field postitoning and sizing ETC., will i have to create the second magnet  AND  match all of these field and base postions myself before applying MM32 and doing the morphing?  or will MM32 copy all of that mag1 set up for me....in other words I was hoping to only have to "create" the second magnet and then imediately apply  MM32 as the very next step, with MM32 doing all of the "set up "  work  for the second magnet's field and base, magnet size  and starting position., etc..
This is because I can spend an hour or more  geting this set up and positioning of the field and base exactly how I want it !

Thanks

1st create the 1st magnet, then the 2nd, apply MM32 and afterwards set the 1st  magnets values, the 2nd one will follow this at once.

Thanks I will be able to try this tonight!

It's like Juels said.

I'll expand a little bit, the question was:

Quote - I was hoping to only have to "create" the second magnet and then imediately apply  MM32 as the very next step, with MM32 doing all of the "set up "  work  for the second magnet's field and base, magnet size  and starting position., etc..

Yes, that's exactly how it works. After you have created the second magnet, just apply the MM32 pose and everything else is taken care of automatically. This even works if the second magnet has been moved from its initial position, or scaled, as long as it was created on the correct body part, MM32 will take care of everything.

The way I work, I often create several pairs of magnets, then apply MM32, then start adjusting the magnets. But that's just my style of working. You can create one pair apply MM32, adjust the magnet how you want it, then create another pair and apply MM32 again, and so on.

MM32 works by slaving even numbered magnets to odd numbered magnets.  It does not care if you adjust the odd numbered magnets first, and then apply MM32 to slave (automatically adjust) the even numbered magnets. Or if you just create the magnets, apply MM32, then start adjusting, it works either way.

Personally I prefer to apply MM32 before I start adjusting. That way I can see the both sides of the figure deform at once. What you see is what you get. Another advantage of applying MM32 first, is that the even numbered magnets will be hidden, and the odd numbered magnets made semi-transparent, thus giving you a better view of your figure. On the other hand, if you deform one side of the figure before applying MM32, you can compare the two sides, and have  a better idea how far you have changed it from the original.

If anyone tries MM32, and likes it. Please leave a comment on the MM32 page at sharecg:

http://sharecg.com/v/26853/poser/MirrorMags32