... make REALISTIC head morphs, and skin shaders. What do you want to learn to do with Poser in 2009?

Poserlutions, eh?  Interesting topic.

I'm returning to some unfinished Python stuff.... Building roads
with matching terrains, and musical fingering.   I started both, then
ran into a long period of distraction and real-life troubles.

ockham, the first "cartoon" line extraction algorithm I ever saw was c. 1991. An attempt to compress video of sign-language speech for realtime transmission over copper wire at 300baud or whatever. Found the trough in shade tranistions gradients to locate contour and kicked ass on edge detection. So cool! Just came to mind thinking of a finger spelling script you made IRC.

Quote - Poserlutions, eh?  Interesting topic.

I'm returning to some unfinished Python stuff.... Building roads
with matching terrains, and musical fingering.   I started both, then
ran into a long period of distraction and real-life troubles.

What do you mean with musical fingering?

Do you mean like your MIDI piano?

I am currently collecting props for an animated music video but alas I couldn't use the MIDI piano because what I was looking for was a grand piano... then I don't know how to play a piano so I have to do some research. If there's just anything, pose, script.. any that auto poses the hands to the right keys. It will be a great help.

Might help you guys in your new year's resolutions in combating procastination:

a.) small chunking (dividing a specific goal in small achievable chunks)
b.) reward system (reward yourself in each goal done)
c.) have a game plan (meticulous planning to the letter)
d.) accountability tactics. (tell people about your goal and bet money on it)

I am currently using these techniques and I hope it will help. I had 3 new years resolutions and sick and tired of always slowing down in the middle of the road. Must fight the pressure cooker habit.

Yes, positioning the hands is what I'm working on.  I've been
hacking away at this problem sporadically for a long time,
but I'm finally getting there.........  will probably have some
usable results in a couple of weeks.  (Ahem, your technique #D.)

Materials room, texturing, and how to set up a web site.

• understand zbrush for morphs
• create two music videos (first one's in the early stages of production)

finish another Geeptut...;) (I've got enough resolutions already; I'm up to 1024x768...;)

I want to learn how to use Phantom3D's new rigging system!

I still need to learn to use Modo for something.  It just sits there.

I also seem to have backed myself into a corner in which I need to figure out how to model a kilt with sporran and any other appropriate appurtenances.  Hmm.

Quote -
Might help you guys in your new year's resolutions in combating procastination:

a.) small chunking (dividing a specific goal in small achievable chunks)
b.) reward system (reward yourself in each goal done)
c.) have a game plan (meticulous planning to the letter)
d.) accountability tactics. (tell people about your goal and bet money on it)

Great ideas.  Have you ever tried a random reward tactic - maybe flipping a coin?  It has helped me to keep momentum even if I didn't get a reward.

I've also learned to schedule large blocks of time for my hobbies, and respect those appointments just like any other.  Having a game plan and a schedule can really help you reach your goals.

Now, all I need is some frickin' talent!

Quote -
I'm returning to some unfinished Python stuff.... Building roads
with matching terrains, and musical fingering.   I started both, then
ran into a long period of distraction and real-life troubles.

Wow - just checked out your Python page, ockham!  It just proves that we all have different gifts.

Python makes absolutely no sense to me.  Sure, I might have one of my brain farts, and get it to do something interesting.  But, I can never see myself resolving to learn it.

Rock on!

I want to get Poser 5-6-7's material room sorted.

Seriously!

There is bloody NOTHING on shaders / nodes anywhere. Folks,what is with that? Seriously, what is WITH that???!? Am I the only one seeing this? One of Poser's most powerful components, and there's NIL documentation on how it works? Yeah, I know about Castle Poser. They gave up, Poser version five. Nothing on color_math functions or math_function Pow. Or basics like how do you plug what into what and WHY.

How Bizarre is that?

***Bizarre. Vous avez dit bizarre? Comme c'est bizarre.

We have this incredibly powerful tool at our disposal, but no one friggin' knows really how to use it except the eclectia who have done a million experiments and who know what's going on. What plugs into what. They know to turn off Diffuse_Color (set diffuse_value to 0) when they are going to plug stuff into the Alternate_Diffuse channel. The rest of us poor schmucks have access to setting up texture maps.

Look it up, folks. All the documentation is about bloody texture maps. How lame is that.

The stickied threads on material room stuff ASSUME a lot. I want a PRIMER! And if it doesn't exist - begging PLEASE that I'm wrong on this - I will bloody-well WRITE one!

Am I alone on this?

I want to delve more into ZBrush and Hexagon. :)

Quote - I want to get Poser 5-6-7's material room sorted.

Seriously!

There is bloody NOTHING on shaders / nodes anywhere. Folks,what is with that? Seriously, what is WITH that???!? Am I the only one seeing this? One of Poser's most powerful components, and there's NIL documentation on how it works? Yeah, I know about Castle Poser. They gave up, Poser version five. Nothing on color_math functions or math_function Pow. Or basics like how do you plug what into what and WHY.

How Bizarre is that?

***Bizarre. Vous avez dit bizarre? Comme c'est bizarre.

---

We have this incredibly powerful tool at our disposal, but no one friggin' knows really how to use it except the eclectia who have done a million experiments and who know what's going on. What plugs into what. They know to turn off Diffuse_Color (set diffuse_value to 0) when they are going to plug stuff into the Alternate_Diffuse channel. The rest of us poor schmucks have access to setting up texture maps.

Look it up, folks. All the documentation is about bloody texture maps. How lame is that.

The stickied threads on material room stuff ASSUME a lot. I want a PRIMER! And if it doesn't exist - begging PLEASE that I'm wrong on this - I will bloody-well WRITE one!

Am I alone on this?

We should create something like a foundation...

Reward a Poser Tutor Foundation

if we can gather resources, like a small fund, we reward people who make tuts that everybody can vote on depending on its usefulness.

Quote - Yes, positioning the hands is what I'm working on.  I've been
hacking away at this problem sporadically for a long time,
but I'm finally getting there.........  will probably have some
usable results in a couple of weeks.  (Ahem, your technique #D.)

ehrm... its good to see new recruits to the faith but where's the money? :D

You can send the dough on my super secret swiss bank account and I will withdraw it if I don't see results. XD lol

Apparently, TheOwl, according to those who do know, the only way to come to any understanding of these mysteries is through your own experimentation. Which they have done. They have spent thousands of hours doing experiments, coming to conclusions and forging ahead, because Now They Know.

I think this "Foundation" you are suggesting could give that sort of information - How Nodes Work - to the masses. Collectively, each person doing a different range of experiments on nodes and publishing that information in a sort of Wiki would have the effect of finally giving the common user - i.e., one who is not necessarily able to construct algebraic formulae to elucidate the mystery of the math_function Pow node - the ability to 1) understand what the node does and what nodes it will affect and how and how to plug it all in correctly! and 2) use the node in a sentence. I.e, "I need this doing, and this is the node to do it."

I'm not familiar with setting up a Wiki or anything. But seriously, does this sound like anything anyone would be interested in participating in? OR, is there such a project already afoot?
:unsure:

There is some documentation in the MANUAL and someone had node info on a website. Seems like bagginsbill (?) would be a good place to start. 

here are some linkies that might be of interest:

http://www.keindesign.de/stefan/poser/firefaq.html
http://www.castleposer.co.uk/my_tutorials.html
http://mystic-nights.com/poser/tutorials/offsite/Poser-Material-Room.html
http://www.aerysoul.com/board/showthread.php?t=967

Thanks Mark.

The Poser Manual discusses hooking up textureMaps. That's it in terms of how nodes are actually used. The rest of the manual is a dictionary of the nodes... says NOTHING about to plug them into each other or how they affect each other.

I've been to the sites you mentioned... the pages are old, with a lot of dead links or bogus links. It's all very higgledy-piggledy, disorganized, unstructured. Frustrating. Most of Mystic Nights points to Castle Poser anyway (or to dead sites on Smith Micro which is useless).

Bagginsbill is a genius in the nodes world, but quite frankly, much of what he says is so completely out of my reach I'm left more confused than before. I've been to the Nodes Cult forum of RuntimeDNA, starting with the earliest threads, hoping to get my head around the subject from some sort of starting point. Seems to me from reading the discussion that a lot of ground had already been covered... they others in the discussion are all quite knowledgeable about the basics of node construction.

I've heard it before: you have to try them yourself to see how they're used. That's what I'm hoping to either develop or find in process of development: an organized approach that those of the meanest intelligence (like me, for instance) can understand. This is where the gap is. We have the dictionary on nodes: what they do. We have tons of examples on what people have done with them.

At the risk of addressing the same issue - which was NOT dealt with to my satisfaction - that Acadia brought up in another thread: how did Bill know to plug in such-and-such a node to achieve such-and-such a result. I'm sorry, but using a gastronomical example doesn't wash: chefs go to chef's school. They learn from the "experimentation" of others. If it weren't so - if each chef had to do his or her own "experimentation" - fine dining would be rarer than hen's teeth.

Look at Poserdom. How many truly use the material room? Why isn't it used more? The group I frequent - and there are *many such groups - shudder and quail at the thought of entering that room. Why? Because they aren't maths wizards, couldn't put together the quadratic equation if their life depended on it, but then, I drive a car and don't understand the physics of the internal combustion engine, either.

This should work, folks!

In 2009, I want to learn how to...... spent more time in real life! 

 In 2009 I want to start creating textures and models to sell on renderosity.  or at least give away in the free section until I'm good enough to sell.... ;)

In 2009, I want to learn how to create great composition, lifelike portraits,  great action rendering and how to dress those figures without those dreaded poke-through,  UGH!!! :rolleyes:

I want to get my head round the cloth room and as others have mentioned, get a better grasp of the material room. If I'm feeling really ambitious I'll give vue another go too :)

Cloth Room, tho making progress. Understanding and getting good at converting a conforming dresses to a hybrids. Becoming a rank amateur using C4D. Getting Stitch Witch and learning to greatly sped up the process of making my own texture sets that fit with the project I am working on. If I keep going with my list I will never get started :)

In 2009, I want to hear how to...

Learn and understand Poser's shader nodes, to create some kind of realism in my renders (not looking to be another Van Gogh or DaVinci).  Learn the in-s and out-s of creating clothing (details, folds, creases).  Utilize better texturing, and my fondest wish is to make my own characters.

I love to dream... hoping to make it a 'reality'

I want to learn how to model hair (not the hair room), learn a new  3d application or two and finish some old projects that have been hanging on my hard drive screaming "finish me finish me"

I want to import V4 ( morphed, posed, textured  with props) into Blender to render with true HDRI lighting using the Indigo render engine. Sound simple right..well I havn't had a Pc capable of handeling that task but I will here in  about a week!