Attached Link: Knee Brace

I'm posting this both in this forum and the LightWave forum as the solution may lay in LW or Poser.

I recently constructed a kneebrace in LW for use with M3.  While it conforms very nicely to M3 in Poser, I noticed that at the hinge point it tended to distort upon bending.  I spoke with a friend of mine who suggested increasing the size of the InnerMatSphere.  While it did seem to help somewhat, the distortion for the most part is still evident.  Then again, my experience with the Joint Editor and InnerMatSphere manipulation is very limited, so maybe I'm simply not understanding his suggestion fully.  If anyone can offer a suggestion as to how to fix this distortion problem, or direct me towards a tutorial that addresses this type of problem, it would be greatly appreciated.

If you click on the attached link above titled "Knee Brace" you'll see an image displaying on the right side what the kneebrace looks like before it is bent and on the left side showing how the kneebrace distorts when it is bent.

Thanks in advance.

turn off bending?  (x-y-z rotation is not the same as bending)

Your problem here is that the "hard" parts of the model really should not be deformed (bent), and the areas that are "soft" (e.g. the straps) must be deformed to look natural.  I don't think an item like this is very easy to rig in a realistic way.  You want the hard polygons to rotate with the joint's rotation, but not actually be deformed - typically you'd do this by unchecking the Bend property in the Parameter Dials window, but this will stop the strap part from bending.  I suspect you're going to have to break the item into two separate figures, for the hard parts and the soft parts.

Create the actual hinge as a prop and parent it to the brace. When parenting do not select the bend option. In this way the straps will flex with the leg as required but the hinge will retain its shape and simply rotate about the joint center.

heh its like throwing pebbles into a pond and watching to see which fish jumps out fastest :)

yeah, man.  ya gotta be quicker than greased lightning around here :lol:

First off, thank you everyone for both your inputs and for responding so quickly. 

PhilC, if I utilize your suggestion, would the process be somewhat like this: model the kneebrace and hinge as two separate objects in LW, go through the usual conforming, grouping process for the brace, then bring my two separate objects into Poser and finish building (attaching/parenting) it there?  (hinge prop parented to brace figure?)

PS, PhilC,  your OBJ2CR2 Converter is in my 3D tool arsenal.  :)

Yep you go it :)

Okay, forgive me if this seems like a dumb question, as I'm more familiar with LW than I am Poser, but this brace I'm modeling is designed to be a "conforming figure" for M3, not a prop (which I'm guessing would also mean there is no "bend" option available for it since it is a figure?).  With that in mind, will it still be possible to create this hybrid of sorts (attaching "hinge prop" to "brace figure" in Poser) without causing complications?  I'm thinking that it  would  interfere with its conforming to M3 properties or any morphs I plan on creating for it? (the morphs would be created in LW using a copy of the brace)  I generally conform and add morphs to my creations "before" they are brought into Poser (I use Tool Collection by Dimension 3D for that).

I would look at the bend zone of the figures leg. If your straps are clear of it you can just turn bend off for the brace figure and it should work correctly. You will need to be very careful about the braces center point and its alignment with the figures joint .
 

In case you're not sure how to turn off bending for the brace figure:

edit the CR2, find the metal parts, and change each

bend 1

to

bend 0

Quote - In case you're not sure how to turn off bending for the brace figure:

edit the CR2, find the metal parts, and change each

bend 1

to

bend 0

Thanks for that bit of info, I'll make note of it.  :)