Like the shoulder there. Really good stuff. I gree about the ankle. That is a real bug-a-boo on many characters. The knee looks pretty good. No deformations I can see.

He bends better than I do!LOLOLOL:laugh:

Wow.
Brad looks amazing.
Outstanding and incredible work, Phantom3D!

If you haven't already (which I can't imagine) I'd just surround my workstation with photo references of people from all angles in various poses and scrutinise.
It might also be advantageous to get a better set of shaders (without textures) to do test renders with while you're tweaking. I worry that some of the heavy shadows may mask problems you haven't noticed yet.
Maybe try with bb's PR3 shaders with no maps attached.

1/12/10

Hi P3D! :) Things have surely progressed since I last saw a Brad thread. The mesh looks great, and the rig seems to be a quantum improvement over what is available with other figures. Congradulations and kudos.

How do the shoulders look with the arms over the head? This is a really challenging pose, and no other Poser-usable "human" figure does this well. The science of joint and muscle movement is kinesiology. If you are having trouble with ranges of motion, and natural looking joint movement, anatomy alone is not helpful enough. There are a lot of resources on the web about this. You can start with:

http://www.kinesiology.net

I have been anxious to see figures that make use of the improved rigging of Poser 8. It is kind of you to provide a rig that is backwards compatable with Poser 7 and before. It is like introducing Brad 1.0, and then providing Brad 0.5 to boot. It is also kind of dphoadley to offer to map Brad to M3's UV.

Seeing that the figure is free, maybe PhiC can be encouraged to provide Wardrobe Wizard 2 support for Brad (hint, hint). It would be more than worth the cost for a Brad module. I don't really know how to use them yet, but don't forget about Poser dynamic clothes. That might be the easiest way to provide clothing for Brad.

Computers will only get more powerful. The trend is toward 64bit operating systems, which need a lot of cores, memory, and hard disk space. Todays high-poly figures will seem small in just a few years. There is only one displacement, one bump, and one normal map channel for Poser. These can add a lot to a figure, and are under-used. But, they are no replacement for good morphs.

You are right that a full set of morphs cannot be provided if there are not enough polys. Remember that morphs can also be used to "dress" a figure. You could make  trousers, shirt, and shoe moprhs, for Brad. Then textures can be applied using Brad's UV mapping. Surprise, no poke through, and the cloths fit no matter how Brad is morphed or posed. Brad seems to have more than enough polys for that challenge.

I agree with the prevailing advice. Please yourself first. Of course, then put on your high-poly thick-skin armour mesh with a flame resistant texture. Isn't it amazing how demanding and critical a few people can be about the value and features of a free figure?

LMK

Damn i just realized who he reminds me of!

Brad looks like Den!   lol

 OMG! DEN!  I haven't thought of that Corbin character in years, but you are right! Brad is the spitting image of Neverwhere's Den!  Hey, Mike...were you a Heavy Metal fan when you were younger, or read much Richard Corbin?

Holy crap...I was wracking my brain...lol. That's it! ;)

Laurie

Carodan, I have tons of photo's from 3dsk, N various flesh sites. I study them . I have a friend of mine who allows me to video him in little motion clips too, it helps.  Well I dont have many shaders, but I have VSS if I can figure out how to use it. I just need to sit down with the manual and go through it.

lkendall, Hi been awhile :) I will make some shots of the arms up and post them. He does fine with the arms straight up, there are a few little kinks when you twist the shoulder with the arms up though. I know how to fix it I just need to change the Shldr group and tweek it a bit. This is basically what I have been doing for the last week now just fine tuning everything and setting up scaling. I wanted to be sure I will not need to change anything befor I send the obj to DPHoadley. I did find that I will need to add a few polys in the second knuckle of each finger they just are not smooth enough.

Joel, Nope heavy metal was after my time. Unless you mean the movie? I did see the movie.

Well, picture a rock climber clinging to the cliff, reaching for that next hold.  This is a little Pose I use to fine tune the Joints. It's good because it has each side of the body straining in oposite directions with extreme range of motion. one arm extended and one down close to the body, one leg up high and close and the other extended backwards. Brings the whole into use.

Except for the shoulder, which you mentioned, that looks darn good! :o).

And as for the Heavy Metal, we did mean the movie...lol. Den was the character who's voice was done by John Candy if memory serves. It's been awhile ;o).

Laurie

 Den was also in the Magazine Heavy metal for years, but the movie would do! :laugh: In any event, you are really bringing your "A" game with this.  Keep going!

Arms over the head

Wow. This look amazing. I'm gonna have to look at that rigging and see what you did.

A weird ballet pose like that would leave wrinkles on a REAL body! :laugh:

Yes, these are mostly worthless poses except for working out the kinks and wrinkles. This is the sixth one, two more and all my groups, JP's and geometry changes should be final. I just try to stretch it , twist it, and mangle it and see if there are things I can fix or not.

Pretty boring stuff I guess. exciting to me but I'm weird. 

I want to thrash it, smash it , crash it, wad it up into a ball and shoot hoops with it, throw it into primordial chaos, and impose law with rigging and geometry. Psychadelic dreams, whirling, twirling, rainbows, melting landscapes and boiling burning seas,  stretching through the sieve of a black hole, the speghetti effect,m dissappearing into where? What comes out the other side?

Bwaahaaahaaa

Bye.

 oh oh - he's been at it too long,
love esther

 I think he needs some sleep. I get that way when I've been up for two or three days.:laugh:

phantom3D:

Opps, sounds like rigging psychosis has set in! Run for it!

Thanks for the renders of the overhead poses. The versitility of this figure is amazing.

LMK

Really impressive...

The bends look realistic-looking to me.

Looks like a good male figure in the making.  I can't wait for his unveiling.

So I changed things up a bit , I think this is a good as I will get without any JCM's I am particularly proud of the elbos, thought they came out with very close to the shape they should be.  The knees are still a little balooned, but only at extreme bends.

This is all the Old P4-7 rigging BTW in case I didn't mention it. Cant wait to get started on the P8 upgrade rig.  :)

Well think I'm done with the elbo's and knees, except for one little pesky tickle in my mind, Do the shins look just a tad too long to you?

On to that opposable thumb, to which you'll notice I changed the hands to hopefully be able to get a true human thumb.

That's really impressive.

 awesome.  ONe of the things that always makes poser models look so unrealistic in scenes are their elbows.  that looks fantastic!!!
Well done.
Love esther

Fantastic work.

Brad is looking good.  I'm looking forward to his release!

Bookmarked

 Looking good,Mike!  The shins look alright to me. I alway worry about that stuff,too. Looks like the forearm is the right length,too. Doing the right bending proportions from a zeroed figure is very difficult, but you as good as can be done with Brad.  I really can't wait to see what you do next with him!

Really impressive Phantom, super great rig. Cant wait!

Let's face it - this looks far superior to pretty much anything out there - even with JCMs. Not even sure how much you'll need them, at this rate, but yeah, altering the flesh to be more realistic is a great goal.

Good work, mon.

Oh I was hoping you weren't finished with his elbows :)  How good are you Phantom 3D!   THE master rigger! 

  I'm doing some illustrated/animated tutorials of acro- balancing, adagio lifts which used to be my  and late husband's profession.  Brad partnered with Antonia will be indispensible to me.  I'm totally thrilled and grateful that I'll be able to get my hands on them soon.

I'm also hoping I'll be able lengthen/enlarge his  pert little nose and that the jcms will take care of the man-boobs he displays from certain angles and positions.

Love, love, love it!

Oh and those 15 and 30k versions please get them out there as well. Animators will love you while the close-up bits can use the high poly Brad.  Thank you already.  Hope you make gobs of money with add-ons you release.  I'm in line for those too.

Thanks everyone.  :biggrin:

I will eventually get the low rez figures done too, Masha. Man boobs! :scared:  Well, maybe a little.  :)

Well I think I have the Thumb1 movement down. Thumb1 is the real bugger out of the finger joints. It sort of swings like a pole fixed on one end and connected to a chain. The end sortof swings with a little looping movement. Poser bends bend in a straight line, so simulating that kind of movement is a bugger with a single axis. On top of that if you want to keep the smooth scale for the thumb you need to have the center aligned with the axis, so you cant ofset it to get that side ways movement.

So I moved the thumb geometry into a different position than the normal Poser hand. This allows me to place the center for thumb1 aligned with the geometry and scaling axis, and still get that kind of looping sideways bend. I think............. Well here's what I got, to me it looks about right for just the movement of the first digit of the thumb.

www.youtube.com/watch

I need now to redo the shape of my fingers and hand since I mangled them in moving them. I will leave them for now in case any of you see real problems with this thumb1 movement, in which case I will need to reposition the geometry and try again.

Cheers,
Mike.

One thing I've always wanted to try.. rigging a hand properly. The hand itself actually bends, and no one has ever attempted that.

Its a damned shame the poser marketplace can't support long term excellent developement like this because of the low prices people expect.

he looks fantastic... I thought it had been abandoned, but pleased to see otherwise.

-- Jeff

Gareee: Absolutely. I wonder how to group something like that though? Maybe wlded illegitimate children? Might work since the hand bones dont have to bend much. Poser might balk when you get to welding more than two groups illegitimately at the first knuckle junctions. I dont know.

Hi Jeff.  Good to see ya, have not seen much of you of late. No not abandoned, I just gave up on the last geometry and started over again.  But this mesh is very nice, none of the problems I had with the last ones. This is as far as I have ever come on this figure so far. Still lots to do I gues but about done with all rigging and geometry and it's all working smoothly.  I can let him out to play without morphs or textures, and work on those for the beta version.

Cheers,
Mike.

I was thinking maybe 3 bones... one for the thumb, one for the first two fingers, and one for the second two fingers, with them then parented to their group.

You;d have to build grasp and thumb grasp with erc since its non standard old styled poser rigging, but I think it'd work.

You would need twist or rotate either, just bend... and could build erc to bend the hand properly, and the fingers would follow.

 how can the hand itself bend.  the wrist does because it has lots of carpel bones, but the metacarpals are totally ridged.
Love esther

 how can the hand itself bend.  the wrist does because it has lots of carpel bones, but the metacarpals are totally ridged.
Love esther

 oh I see what you mean, it curls from side to side direction when the thumb is close to the little finger.  oKay I'll pay that one.
Love esther

 MAN! Brad has a LONG thumb! Mine only comes to the bottom of Index 1 in the real world! :laugh: Maybe I have a short thumb or something....:laugh:

The thumb jointing looks pretty good so far. Coming up with a new hand rigging might make a NEW standard for people to want to steal. Copying is the most sincere form of plagarism.:lol: I meant FLATTERY! XD

I dare ya, Mike! Stand the whole Poser world on it's head! If anyone I ever met could, I bet you could. Take convention and shove it some crappy figure's bung hole and set it on fire!

Go forth and kick ass,old son!

 Gareee: Yes that would work wouldnt it. I got some kids I been workin on, that would be super for them, For Brad too but I think i'm gonna finish it .  Next the two kids Cory and Darlene, I might try that if you dont mind?

Hi Joel :)   I was thinking that too, too long.  Well I need to redo the shape anyway so I can shorten the thumb. but you think the movement is close to correct? I think it is .  But Gareee's idea sounds really good , dang but I would like to get this one done too. I guess it wouldnt take too much more, I could pop the bones in and reparent the fingers..................

Hi Esther   :wub:

Esther: keeping your fingers together, bend them forward and look at the inside of your hand.

 but keep the hand in that position and look at the outside - it has not changed.  the soft tissues on the inside have merely bunched up
love es