Ok this is a loaded question or questions. I am looking to make textures using Mt5 or mc6 approved merchant resource fabrics for My texturing. I am old fashioned and use ps9 or photoshop cs3. Use the uv mapper for my maps then create the textures using my paint programs and using jpegs or png files for the texures. Saving these the using spider shader to creat the pz2 files.
I now have mt5 and mc6 in poser 8 that i want to create the textures from. 

1. How do I do this and 2. please send me to ANY TUTORIAL available? I have searched but with no luck. I am getting bits and pieces of the puzzel, but it would be nice to have the whole set of instructions of the process from beginning to end. Having hard time making bits and pieces work together.
   THANKS EVERYONE in advance. I know this seems to be a hushed subject but i really need help here.
   Callie, Can email me mail@ariasparkle.com

Clarify a bit.  You have mt5 and mc6 files created, but you are wanting to make MAT pose (pz2) files?  Or something else?

 I am creating full texures for clothing using mt 5 or mc6 files. These will be for sale!

Clarify a bit more.  Are the mt5 & mc6 files the end product -and you just need to know how to package them- or do you want to use them to produce some other file type?  If  so, specify what file type?

Texture packs commonly contain either MAT pose files (pz2), or the mt5/mc6 files.

Yes and the textures themselves have little to do with those material files. The textures are just images. The material files don't usually have much in them unless you're doing unusual materials.

 I am creating whatever needs to be made. Remember i am new so poser is a new program to me. Yes i am learning my way around, it not so scary anymore.  Trying understand what i need to make for customers when they purchase my add on textures for thier exsisting clothing objs. I could just use mc6 or mt5,  but i don't think the orignal mt5 ,mc6 are redistirbutable so do i need then to create only pz2s? If so how? do i need texture maps? do i need to make them and how using the mt5 or mc6 files. I am used to creating texture maps then creating pz2.s using shader spider. so in the file the customer gets texture files from uvmaps and the pz2 files. Now i want to use the mt5 and mc6 to create these files. Just don't know how. I hope this clarifies thing abetter. 

hey, I like mt5, but I'm one of the very few still using P5...;) I don't even know how to make Mt5s or MC6, so you're ahead of me on that....

Quote -  i don't think the orignal mt5 ,mc6 are redistirbutable so do i need then to create only pz2s 

This is still unclear.

If by 'the original mt5, mc6' you mean the ones that came with a purchased item, of course you can't resell or redistribute because it's not your work.

Or are you wondering if mt5, mc6 and pz3 files have different rules about their use? They don't.

If you're creating everything yourself (textures, node settings etc.) then you can provide any of the above file types to bring them into Poser.

Quote - > Quote -  i don't think the orignal mt5 ,mc6 are redistirbutable so do i need then to create only pz2s 

This is still unclear.

If by 'the original mt5, mc6' you mean the ones that came with a purchased item, of course you can't resell or redistribute because it's not your work.

Or are you wondering if mt5, mc6 and pz3 files have different rules about their use? They don't.

If you're creating everything yourself (textures, node settings etc.) then you can provide any of the above file types to bring them into Poser.

Yea i figureed thanks for the clarity,. But these files are for merchant resources so i can create new clothing textures for the excisting outfits. Just need to know how to make these new outfits using the merchant resourse mt5 and mc6 files. 
Callie

I think you're over-complicating things, or have some internal model that doesn't reflect how things actually work. That's why we're not understanding your questions.

For example, you said:

Quote - I could just use mc6 or mt5,  but i don't think the orignal mt5 ,mc6 are redistirbutable so do i need then to create only pz2s?

I don't know what you mean by original files, since you're going to be making new textures from your own assets, i.e. images that you create, loading them into the material room, and then simply save the resulting material, using Poser. Saving the material does not include the texture maps you made. It simply saves instructions on the names of those files and how to incorporate them into a material. For example, a bump map should be connected to the bump channel, not some color channel, because it represents bumpiness, not color. So if you were to make a bump map for some prop, you'd open the prop in the material room, select the material upon which you want to apply the bump, load the bump into an Image_Map node, and connect that bump to the Bump channel on the Poser_Surfacde node.

Another word we use is "shader" - the collection of nodes used to define the characteristics of a material. Every material has a shader, even if it is a simple one-node shader. Materials that include image assets, such as color maps, bump maps, specular maps, displacement maps, etc. have these assets mentioned somewhere in the shader and hooked up to the shader. When you save a material, you're not saving those assets - they are already there. You're saving the shader.

An MT5 file is a single shader with no name. It can be loaded onto anything by the user.

An MC6 file is a collection of shaders, each with a material group name. When the user loads such a file, each shader goes into the correspondingly named material on the prop or figure that the user is loading it onto.

You do not create MT5 and MC6 files from other MT5 and MC6 files directly. You create them from shaders that you've built in Poser, or using other tools such as my matmatic script or Shader Spider.

Storing shaders in PZ2 files is also possible, but they are nearly identical to MC6 files. MC6 files are material collections introduced in Poser 6 - thus the name MC6.

Some people still prefer PZ2 files. These are called MAT-POSE because they are materials masquerading as a pose. They work, but you cannot make them from Poser alone. They were created not by the makers of Poser, but by users who found out that you could sneak a material collection into a pose file and Poser would load it even though it had the wrong kind of information in it. The creators of Poser have never officially acknowledged this trick, in the sense that there is no simple button in the Poser UI to let you save your materails in a mat-pose file.

However, as you've found, other tools can do it. Shader Spider and matmatic both can make mat-pose files.

Now the question regarding redistributable shaders is a valid one. But from the things you're saying, it seems to me you're not at a point where you're actually dealing with non-trivial shaders. Trivial shaders (those that simply identify image assets and hook them to the Poser Surface inputs) are not copyrighted. There isn't anything to them that represents "intellectual property". On the other hand, the kinds of shaders I make, usually involving dozens of nodes, are very nearly programs in their own right, and are intellectual property with a meaningful copyright.

Now you didn't actually ever talk about shaders, just material files. There is a case that if you're starting with somebody else's shader and just replacing the image assets with your own, you really should not redistribute the shaders if they're non-trivial. But you don't seem to be talking about that, or even aware of it.

I'm going to assume that a merchant resource texture kit isn't really about shaders, but rather about color patterns and bump patterns that you can use to assemble more realistic looking cloth. In which case, the issue of redistribution is moot. The merchant resource is probably not set up with non-trivial shaders, and not set up for the particular names of particular material groups or zones or a particular prop or figure. All of that is what you will be dealing with in making ready-to-use add-on texture sets for other people.

So - there's no tutorial needed on how to make material files. Just go to the material room, switch your library to the materials category, pick a folder, and click the + button at the bottom indicating you want to save materials. You will be given a dialog that will let you save a single material or a material collection, and give it a name.

If you want to convert the MC6 file to a PZ2 file, you can do so afterwards, but I would not bother. There are dozens of threads where this is discussed. There are pros and cons to both, but the main reason for wanting PZ2 is to be compatible with DS and Poser 5, and because the vast majority of Poser users fear going into the material room, even if all they plan to do is load a material. Of course, with Poser 8, you do not have to go into the material room, but not everybody has that.

http://www.renderosity.com/mod/forumpro/showthread.php?thread_id=2794815

The reason to NOT do PZ2 is they don't always work properly, and they don't work if there's no figure in the scene. Also, I'm not sure that Poser 8's material drag-and-drop works with materials pretending to be poses.

You're going to have a much harder time dealing with seams and texture scale and stretching than saving the materials as files.

I see that you posted a question related to this here:

http://www.renderosity.com/mod/forumpro/showthread.php?message_id=3611852

I see from that thread that you don't seem to undertand how shaders and images interact in Poser. I hope this at least starts to clear things up.

Quote - hey, I like mt5, but I'm one of the very few still using P5...;) I don't even know how to make Mt5s or MC6, so you're ahead of me on that....

Actually still learning. I would love to create new for everyone. I will get it eventually!!! 

@ariasparkle

Quote -  I am creating full texures for clothing using mt 5 or mc6 files. These will be for sale!
(...)
I am creating whatever needs to be made. Remember i am new so poser is a new program to me. 

 So you expect the forum users to help you learning to understand the software, to earn a few bucks?

Have you read some of the tutorials? http://www.renderosity.com/mod/forumpro/showthread.php?thread_id=2722867  I think the material room tutorials could answer your question.

It will literally be a "few" bucks, by the way. If all you do is take a few denim textures or whatever, and load them on a figure, but you don't actually draw anything, (in other words, you don't do any real work involving skill, time, and experience) it won't be worth much.

There are thousands of "new to Poser" users planning to make money by selling to other "new to Poser" users. It's a funny little Ponzi scheme if you ask me.

There are basically two ways to apply textures to objects in Poser. The oldest, most traditional way is to create an image file on top of a UVmap that precisely puts all the texture details exactly where wanted. This texture can be created in Photoshop or any other image editing program. It's usually saved in a JPEG format and attached in the Poser material room or can be saved as a Pose file and applied directly from the Poser library.

The newer method is to apply a shader/procedural texture that is mathematically defined in the material room. It's created entirely within Poser and doesn't involve Photoshop (though can accept images in its nodes to provide other texture effects). This texture gets saved into the material library and doesn't get saved as a JPG. It stays wholly in Poser. The exact format of the saved file (mc6, mt5) is only dependent on the version of Poser it was saved in and isn't something you need to be concerned with other than compatibility with Poser 5 (which cannot use mc6).

For the most part, shaders are used for background and common elements in an image, such as wood, rocks, gems, metals, leather, latex, etc. Detailed ornate textures for clothing are best left to standard Photoshopped image files. The advantage of shaders is that they take up less memory and are easier for Poser to render. Shaders are also easy to apply. Just select the object that the texture should be applied to and click the desired shader from the library.

Hopefully this helps. I've tried to keep it simple and there are certainly exceptions to just about everything I've said, but this is essentially how I use the two.

Quote - @ariasparkle

Quote -  I am creating full texures for clothing using mt 5 or mc6 files. These will be for sale!
(...)
I am creating whatever needs to be made. Remember i am new so poser is a new program to me. 

 So you expect the forum users to help you learning to understand the software, to earn a few bucks?

Have you read some of the tutorials? http://www.renderosity.com/mod/forumpro/showthread.php?thread_id=2722867  I think the material room tutorials could answer your question.

FYI I DID and have searched and could not find ANY tuts. Thats what i am asking for, I am perfectly cappable to learn using tuts. Most of my 2d and 3d learning is through tuts. But if i can't find what i need, I ASK!!! I also hope that out there there are those who are willing and able to be KIND enough to help when some one has a question. Don"t need to be rude but your asuming that i haven"t looked did you read my whole information!!! That is why i finally asked after spending a year trying to get this figured out!!! Yes 1 year and i am fed up. Sorry i asked.!
Thanks for the links i will look into them. I do know the software but still learning. I would hope that those with the REAL expertise would be willing to help anyone learn the ropes. That's what a community does. WE HELP EACH OTHER!!!!
Thanks to every one who was kind enough to help me. I am not giving up. I will figure this out. But it looks like what i am trying to do is not possible. AND FYI!! A few bucks? Funny but some of us are out of work and need the money!! So a FEW bucks can mean alot! Let's be kind to one another!!
Callie

Quote - There are basically two ways to apply textures to objects in Poser. The oldest, most traditional way is to create an image file on top of a UVmap that precisely puts all the texture details exactly where wanted. This texture can be created in Photoshop or any other image editing program. It's usually saved in a JPEG format and attached in the Poser material room or can be saved as a Pose file and applied directly from the Poser library.

The newer method is to apply a shader/procedural texture that is mathematically defined in the material room. It's created entirely within Poser and doesn't involve Photoshop (though can accept images in its nodes to provide other texture effects). This texture gets saved into the material library and doesn't get saved as a JPG. It stays wholly in Poser. The exact format of the saved file (mc6, mt5) is only dependent on the version of Poser it was saved in and isn't something you need to be concerned with other than compatibility with Poser 5 (which cannot use mc6).

For the most part, shaders are used for background and common elements in an image, such as wood, rocks, gems, metals, leather, latex, etc. Detailed ornate textures for clothing are best left to standard Photoshopped image files. The advantage of shaders is that they take up less memory and are easier for Poser to render. Shaders are also easy to apply. Just select the object that the texture should be applied to and click the desired shader from the library.

Hopefully this helps. I've tried to keep it simple and there are certainly exceptions to just about everything I've said, but this is essentially how I use the two.

Both makes sense. Thanks, i will try this. I have tried to make a pz2 after using the shaders and it doesn't work in daz all the time. But worked great in poser. I may have leave daz people out for now or just and break down and make my own fabrics and textures  and do it the old way.
You are a big help!!!

Quote - It will literally be a "few" bucks, by the way. If all you do is take a few denim textures or whatever, and load them on a figure, but you don't actually draw anything, (in other words, you don't do any real work involving skill, time, and experience) it won't be worth much.

There are thousands of "new to Poser" users planning to make money by selling to other "new to Poser" users. It's a funny little Ponzi scheme if you ask me.

You are correct. I do and will be doing alot of post work after, but need to get the beginning parts made first. Then i will do the post work in Photoshop! There is alot of work to doing GOOD  Quality textures. To slap a quick figure together is great, but no skill is BORING!!!! and NO creativity means no sales. I am wanting to take things to a whole new level. I am reading your prevois email and you make alot of sense. THANKS A BUNCH for all the corrections too!!! You are to sweet.
Callie

Hello, I have been doing a lot of thinking and i feel that this needs to be said. IF YOU DO NOT KNOW THE ANSWERS OR JUST DONT CARE, PLEASE DO NOT REPLY!! I am really and truly trying to learn here. Maybe i am making this out to be harder than it is. I create posers for sale all the time. I do use materials and shaders using the material room all the time to create new textures for these charachters but they are fully rendered to a full png with charachter and clothing.  Here is an example. below! NOTE!! The clothing TEXTURE is not mine nor do i claim it to be! Just an example of what i do. What i want to do is take ONLY THE CLOTHING TEXTURES and create new ones for sale by themselves. For other poser artists. This is all I am trying to do! 1 process. I need all the parts to the process. Confusing I think not. I see this being done all the time, but NO ONE is willing to teach or help a newbie, understand you don't want competition but perhaps competition is good. It spurs creativity. And perhaps SOMEONE might just have the item that someone else is looking for.  Could the Moderators please read and move this to a better area so i can get my answers! I am truly fed up! 1 Year and still no answers, Thanks Callie

The newer method is to apply a shader/procedural texture that is mathematically defined in the material room. It's created entirely within Poser and doesn't involve Photoshop (though can accept images in its nodes to provide other texture effects). This texture gets saved into the material library and doesn't get saved as a JPG. It stays wholly in Poser. The exact format of the saved file (mc6, mt5) is only dependent on the version of Poser it was saved in and isn't something you need to be concerned with other than compatibility with Poser 5 (which cannot use mc6).

Thanks this was the missing link i think i needed. I will only be making poser items not daz supported. Oh well. I would like to include them. and make the pz2. Doensn't seem possible. However. THANKS A BUNCH> I DIDN"T read this entirely when I replyed. Sorry!!!
C

But you did get the answer.

Select the dress, and click the save material button. In the dialog, indicate you want a material collection. Then save it.

Or is your question how to load images into a shader? If that's your question, assuming you made a color map in a file called foo.jpg, load an Image_Map node connected to Diffuse_Color. Set the file to foo.jpg.

Or is your question how to make a material look like cloth, without regard to the color? That's complicated. It depends on the type of cloth. To fully address that, you have to get down to the specifics of the type of cloth you have in mind. Is it fuzzy like wool or smooth like satin? Totally different shaders in those cases. Is it dull like denim or shiny like leather or silk? Totally different shaders in those cases.

None of your questions have been about shaders, so none of the answers are about shaders.

Your question was how to save a material file. The answer is you click the save button.

Yes i did. Sorry to make iths confusing, been a rough morning. I need coffee... THANKS I GOT IT NOW!!!!! Ok now off to work really hard on new items. OHHHH i'm gonna have some fun now. I think we all need it. SORRY!!! Ok apple pies for every one!! YUM!!! T
Callie

Attached Link: http://www.daz3d.com/i/3d-models/-/shaderspider?item=3551&_m=d

I you want to save your "Mt5 or mc6" files as a mat pose you can get very good results using ShaderSpider form Daz.

cheerio
lululee
 

Quote - I you want to save your "Mt5 or mc6" files as a mat pose you can get very good results using ShaderSpider form Daz.
cheerio
lululee
 

Thanks SWEETIE!!!
Callie

I'm totally lost.

You're thanking lululee for pointing out you can do what you said you were doing in the original post!?! You started by saying that is what you're doing.

Quote - Saving these the using spider shader to creat the pz2 files.

edit~  I still haven't figured out what just happened, Callie, but I'm glad you have the solution!  ^^

Attached Link: XS - eXtended Shader Manager for Poser 8

You'r correct BB. I did miss that , DUH! I think seachnasaigh is correct, we are not quite sure what you want to save.

Is this a P8 issue?
Are you trying to save older files (Mt5 or mc6 ) as p8 files?
If you are, this might be your answer, although I have not used it.

cherrio
lululee

I actually figured it out. I can sve either one once i creat the new item. I will ned to decide which one is better for my customer base. Thanks everyone.
I really appreciate all the help.
Callie