I assume you've already made matching boot morphs in your modeling program.

Uh, oh. Nope.

Hmm.
Making morphs can be quite time consuming - and tedious.
There are several tools that can help you create morphs. The quality of the resulting morphs varies.
There's The Tailor at DAZ (not free), which I do not recommend for non-subtle morphs - and bulking up Apollo is NOT a subtle morph! An advantage of The Tailor is that it will work on any figure - even a horse, if you would want to add the horse morphs to a saddle, for example
In general, the morph quality that The Tailor generates is unacceptable.
I have considered writing a sort of The Tailor myself, with better algorithms, but that would take an enormous amount of time.
.
Netherworks has magnet-based clothing deformer kits.  One kit per figure, and while the kits themselves are reasonably priced, the total amount of money involved gets bigger as you buy clothkits for more figures.
The quality of the morphs is generally a lot better than those of The Tailor, and you have the option to tweak every little bit, using extra magnets, before letting the software create the morph.
I use the Netherworks kits for my morphs.
I don't know if Netherworks has made a magnet kit for Apollo, though.

Then there's Wardrobe Wizard. .I don't have any experience with Wardrobe Wizard myself, but from what I've read here in the forums it is a very good product, and customer support is excellent.

Morphing by hand, using magnets - they're akin to 3DS Max FFD modifiers, except that the volume is always an ellipsoid, and that it uses an S-curve (editable) for falloff. A lot of work, especially if you're not used to magnets and their peculiarities yet.

And of course you can model the morphs yourself in 3DS Max. This method will give you the most control by far.
It's useful to have a morphed Apollo as a mannequin to model (morph) around. Means quite a lot of morphing and exporting Apollo (at least, exporting his legs, you don't need the rest).

*And of course you can model the morphs yourself in 3DS Max. This method will give you the most control by far.
It's useful to have a morphed Apollo as a mannequin to model (morph) around. Means quite a lot of morphing and exporting Apollo (at least, exporting his legs, you don't need the rest).

This is the method I thought I'd have to use. Isn't a morph kind of like an animation. You create point A and the end result point B. These would be your key frames. A would be equivalent to a 0 on a Poser dial and B would be equivalent to a 1.000. You could create keyframes for point C (2.00), D (3.00) and so one. All the in betweens are handled by the software.

That's correct. A morph in Poser is exactly the same as a morph in Max. Including the linear interpolation between setting 0 (0% in Max) and 1 (100% in Max). Including their behaviour outside the 0 to 1 range - still simply linear.

A "morphing mamequin" can be very helpful - you might even make use of the Cloth modifier to have Max generate the matching morphs itself.
Here's how to make a morphing mannequin:

1. Load Apollo, turn off inverse kinematics, and zero the figure. Make sure the body and hip rotations are also zero. Zero all morphs.
2. Go to frame 2, and set the first of Apollo's body morphs to value 1.
3. Go to frame 3, and set the first of Apollo's body morphs back to zero, and set the second morph to 1.
   Rinse and repeat until you have a Poser animation with all of Apollo's morphs set to 1 one at a time.

Now export as Wavefront .OBJ Export the entire animation. Check the options "As Morph Target" and "Weld Identical Vertices". Select only the body parts you need (for example, you;ll never need the eyes for a cloth modeling mannequin. Neither will you need body parts that don't have geometry at all, like Bicep or FootArch).

Poser will export a series of numbered .OBJ files.

I've used this technique for creating a morphable Victoria 3 in Max - I loaded the first, zeroed figure as the base, and all subsequent .OBJs were loaded, designated as a morph target for the zeroed figure, and then hidden from view. Gave me a good base scene to model around AND morph around.

A Cloth modifier could help you create the morphed boot shapes. Constrain every boot vertex to the Apollo morphing mesh, and you should get boot morphs that are better in quality than what The Tailor produces.
Could save you lots of time. And, you only have to create that morphing mannequin scene once. If you're planning on making more clothes for Apollo, that scene will come in quite handy!

Another tip: just like bones, morphs have internal names and external names. As with bones, it is best to use the INTERNAL names for the morph names. The utility I wrote only looks at the internal names.

Aw, what the heck am I talking about. You're probably at least ten times as skilled in Max as I am...

A wealth of information here. Thank you. You've confirmed my work flow.

Aw, what the heck am I talking about. You're probably at least ten times as skilled in Max as I am...

Actually, I'm probably not. I'm just a hobbyist. I've been tooling round with Max for 3 or 4 years now. I've never been in a production environment so I'm not even sure the techniques I use are at all any good.

Hi svdl, Always thank you for recommendation.
ERC Page of CR2Builder02m.exe
[LeftPage]-[Window]-[ERC] / [RightPage]-[Window]-[ERC]  of the MainMenu.

New Version of CR2Builder is 2.14.2.1  and some video tutorials.
http://cid-0d55c94a389bb0e3.skydrive.live.com/browse.aspx/3MP/tool/CR2Builder?uc=1
A file name is displayed by a caption .

CR2Builder02m.exe include all functions of CR2Builder02k.exe.

The relationshop of the forms(windows) is displayed.
[Window]-[Manager] on the Main Menu.
Push "Update" Button.
When you click any tree node, linked page or form is active (focused).

02m is compiled by Delphi2005.
Ver 2.14 is compiled by Delphi2009.
Delphi2005 make AnsiString application.
Delphi2009 make unicode application.

Yeah, UV mapping is a royal pain.
I've learned a couple of tricks along the way about UV mapping. First of al: map early, and fix up often! If you postpone mapping until the object is ready in all its fine detail, UV mapping is extremely difficult.

In the case of these boots, I'd separate the different parts along logical seams. For example, the sole of the boot doesn't seamlessly connect to the leather on top - an UV seam there would be natural.

At this time, I'm building a set of fantasy/fetish stuff for V4, and I use the same approach: each cloth/leather/metal panel is mapped separately. The bodice part of the outfit consist of a front panel, left and right side panel and a back panel, and each of those is mapped separately, as are the straps, buckles, studs and whatever.

Oh, and a little tip for when you start morphihg: the HABware .OBJ exporter severely messes up vertex orders. I haven't tested gw:Obj yet, but preliminary other tests seem to indicate that it's a better importer/exporter. At least, it doesn't automatically crash Max 64 bit...

First of al: map early, and fix up often! If you postpone mapping until the object is ready in all its fine detail, UV mapping is extremely difficult.

I had never thought of that workflow. Thanks for the tip. I've always thought you pretty much had to wait until the model was completely finished before you could start mapping.

At any rate, unwrapping this was a royal pain. My original document refused to allow me to select any faces for unwrapping. Some sort of bug. I had to save the model as on obj are reimport into a new Max document.

In the case of these boots, I'd separate the different parts along logical seams. For example, the sole of the boot doesn't seamlessly connect to the leather on top - an UV seam there would be natural.

I've tried to do this. This is my first time unwrapping such a complex object. The sole of the boot you see by itself is really only the very bottom. The sides of the sole will have the same material applied to it. I've tested it out and the material works fine.

@svdl
Alright I've made the morph in Max. I'm now trying to follow your instructions on how to make a morph. You wrote:

Then load the boots, make sure they're selected, and run this Python script:

Ok, which boots are you referring to. The original unmorphed boots or the altered morphed boots?

make sure the vertex ordering is the same as in the unmorphed boots.

How do I ensure this?

Well, in Max, you just can't. The base rule for morphing is to never delete or insert a vertex, edge or polygon - but you already know that.

Ensuring the correct vertex order: again, UVMapper is the best option. The following usually works best:

• in Poser, load the boots, and export its body parts as .OBJ, one by one. Leave all export options unchecked.
• in Max, export the morphed boot parts as .OBJ, one by one. Scale using the exporter or using a scaling tool (Objaction Scaler or ObjectScaler both do the job).
• in UVMapper (the free UVMapper Classic will do it), load the morphed body part, e.g. the right foot, choose Tools -> Vertices -> Reorder, and use the Poser exported right foot .OBJ as the source for the vertex ordering.
• Save the morphed boot part in UVMapper.
• Rinse and repeat for all boot body parts that have geometry.

I'm sorry, I don't know of any scriptable environment to do this. Would have been easier to run a script over an entire directory of morphs/body parts, but alas, it'll be tedious manual work.

Back in Poser, you can load the morph targets from the .OBJ files. Here's how it goes:

• load the boots figure;

• pick a body part;

• choose Object ->Load Morph Target;

• load the corresponding morphed body part;

• important: the name you can enter here should be the INTERNAL name of the morph! Usually something like FBMMuscular or PBMCalfBulge. Changing the external (visible) name later is easy, changing the internal name is a lot of work.

• once all body parts for this particular morph have been loaded, set all the morph values for this morph to 1.0.

• Then choose Figure ->Create full body morph, and again, name it for the INTERNAL name of the matching Apollo morph.

• Set the body part morphs back to zero (my ZeroMorphs script may be useful here. You can download it at www.svdlinden.nl/webposerstuff/downloads/zeromorphs.zip.

• Rinse and repeat for all morphs you've made.

Again, an automated workflow would be great. I've got some ideas on how to do that in Python, but right now I just don't have the time to work it out.

Loading a set of morph targets that span bodyparts on a figure, and creating dials on the Body actor, is one of the things that Dimension3D's Poser File Editor is very good for.  It saves a huge amount of labor!

Incidentally, all this sweating about vertex order can be unnecessary depending on how you actually handle the CR2 during rigging - the big problem is that Poser writes a new OBJ file when you create a CR2 and cuts up the geometry into separate non-contiguous spans of polygons for each body part, but I have never understood WHY this is done.  I throw away the Poser-generated OBJ and manually edit the CR2 to point back to the OBJ written out by the modeler (scaled to Poser size of course) which has no breaks at body part borders, and so vertex order is not affected.  For the rigged clothing that I've done, it has worked out very well.

Hi there,

Just seeing this now. I haven't read evenything here, but I wanted to try and give some useful info.

Apollo's foot wear musn't have all the toe information. FOr this reason, you are free to use any of my shoe cr2's for your shoes. In those the toe boones are removed but they will conform as you would expect. There is also some basic info on show conformers on Apollo's readme page as well as the included readme.

If using one of my cr2's(including the clothing seed in the resource folder), just edit the obj path to point to your OBJ.

These look really nice. I hope the info helps and I am sorry I didn't respond earlier.

Thanks and cheers,
Anton :)

Thanks for the info. Its nice to get input from the source. I've kind of shelved the project due to my inability to create morphs. Its a very complicated procedure that I'm having a hard time wrapping my head around.

Max seems to change the vertex order on export which is going to force me to use a 3rd party app to export properly.

Otherwise the footwear is done as long as you don't use any of Apollo's morphs which kind of makes it useless.

Most of Apollo's morphs purposely taper off at the foot so people don't have to do lots of morphs.

If you use my cr2's the scaling dials will work automatically. As far as Apollo's morphs, you should be fine with some simple tapering, widening morphs just on the shins of the boots, which you can make with magnets. Really you only need about six morphs.

Max seems to change the vertex order on export which is going to force me to use a 3rd party app to export properly.

Yep,  high end apps read vertex positions to the tenth decimal place whereas Poser only reads to the eighth.

Question,  in Max are your morphs relative or absolute?

Awesome model BTW!

Question,  in Max are your morphs relative or absolute?

For fear of sounding ignorant I'm not sure I know the difference. I imported Apollo with leg morphs set to whole numbers and basically scaled the boots to fit each morph.

So, I don't know if that is relative or absolute.

So, I don't know if that is relative or absolute

If you have the option,  set the morphs to relative.  Rule of thumb in modeling,  relative for organic and absolute for inorganic.

Now,  relative and absolute are a side issue.  The main problem is Max's conversion to obj format.  Try importing your obj (the original boots) into uvmapper,  group it in uvmapper,  save out,  then import into Poser.

Yeah, you're the nth person whose told me to use uvmapper. What is it with 3ds Max a $3500 program can't do what a free program can.

I've had uvmapper on my machine since 2005 but I've yet to launch it.

Yeah, you're the nth person whose told me to use uvmapper. What is it with 3ds Max a $3500 program can't do what a free program can.

LOL!   The conversion problem is as old as P3.  Don't fret about Max,  it's the king.  The obj format just can't handle Max's awesome power.