how to set on an object seperate crease angle settings?

for example a house. the walls crease angle 0 and windows crease angle 80.

can this be done in poser?

edit

I posted this in the other thread where you asked about this:-

Quote - You can disable smoothing across the boundaries of groups (within an object) using different smoothing IDs, but you can't change the smoothing parameters (on/off and angle) individually for each smoothing group. These are set for the whole object (prop or actor).

To do what you want, I'm fairly sure you will have to split the object up into separate props or actors.

But if someone has an easier way, I would be interested to hear about it, to save me having to split up a huge model I'm playing with at the moment.

The only way I know is that they have to be seperate groups.

Quote - The only way I know is that they have to be seperate groups.

Yes, but the question is whether you can have smoothing on and off for separate groups in the same object, or have different smoothing angles for separate groups in the same object. Smoothing IDs does not help with this, so I can't see a way to do it.

Ahh sorry, I misinterpeted.
I control my smoothing through the crease angles, something I've been doing lately. It really helps with my models when there are hard edges and smooth lines throughout.
Best of luck!

"Yes, but the question is whether you can have smoothing on and off for separate groups in the same object, or have different smoothing angles for separate groups in the same object."

yup you can.
just select the group and set the smoothing / crease angle.

I do it all the time.

I should note, it only works on figures ;)

yes making a ''figure'' would be the key. you insert the groups inside and then oyu have them seperate.

but can we use the parent finction with ''figures''?

yup. you can parent almost anything to anything...

Quote - I should note, it only works on figures ;)

Not meaning to appear as the know all, cuz i aint.
But I use this all the time with props. Each prop/group can have their crease angle adjusted, then I combine all of the props together and *presto chango!

Perhaps I am again misunderstanding the discussion and will slither off.

when he said figure he didnt mean a human body.

for example conforming clothes in poser are ''figures''.

or do you mean something different? you said that you combine props together? how?

I understand what figures are and the various reasons why I would convert a prop into a figure, do it all the time.
Combining props is as simple as cr2 editor, drag and drop.

You meant "actor", didn't you? Not "group". Like I said almost at the top of this thread, these options are only available for the actors in a figure, or for separate props. You can't do this for individual mesh groups in a prop, at least not within the Poser UI.

So if I understand correctly, there are two options.

1. Turn the figure into a prop, making each group a separate actor; or
2. Spawn separate props from each mesh group, set the smoothing parameters for each prop, and combine them into a single pp2 prop file with a text editor. When you load the new prop into Poser, each part keeps its own smoothing parameters.

Is this correct?

darkedge how can we do this?

Hang on, I'll create a video tutorial for you and post it on my website.
See you in about 90 minutes.

Erratum: Option 1. should have said "Turn the prop into a figure" of course, not the other way round.

Looking forward to seeing this video, DarkEdge!

You guys overcomplicate everything. Smooth by material names in your UV mapping software and you can have as many different smoothing angles on an object as you want, regardless of  whether it's a prop, a figure, or anything else.

Quote - You guys overcomplicate everything. Smooth by material names in your UV mapping software and you can have as many different smoothing angles on an object as you want, regardless of  whether it's a prop, a figure, or anything else.

Excuse me, but that's just as much a complication. I don't have or know how to use any UV mapping software. I use Poser.
And I'm not a guy. :O)

Well ecxuse me, but it is not just as much of a complication. I was assuming the original question was about building objects for use in Poser. Maybe it wasn't. If it was, the quickest, most effective way, bar none, is to set smoothing angles based on material names.
Good grief, exporting and importing objects, creating figures and props - what a waste of time.
You asked for an easier way and I provided it.

Well, it might not be so much a complication as it might be many peps have different work flows. As is with most cases in the 3d world there are many ways to arrive at the same destination.

I think props get a bad rap, but really they are quite resourceful. Did you all know that you can use ERC coding on props too?? It's true!

Here is the tutorial that you asked for, just visit my tutorials page and click on the link.

www.DarkEdgeDesign.com

Quote - You guys overcomplicate everything. Smooth by material names in your UV mapping software and you can have as many different smoothing angles on an object as you want, regardless of  whether it's a prop, a figure, or anything else.

i have no idea what you are talking about.

i already have my groups on the model. i made a specific group where i want smooth and where i dont want it. and this was done in blender.

but when you imort this into poser its all together. so can you explain what you are talking?

Quote - Well, it might not be so much a complication as it might be many peps have different work flows. As is with most cases in the 3d world there are many ways to arrive at the same destination.

I think props get a bad rap, but really they are quite resourceful. Did you all know that you can use ERC coding on props too?? It's true!

Here is the tutorial that you asked for, just visit my tutorials page and click on the link.

www.DarkEdgeDesign.com

thanks for this tutorial. i learned a lot.

but i think this is not what i want. are all props in your scene seperate ? because can you imagine if i have a helmet with 10 parts ? can you imagine if i load this out now how man parts i would have in the list? now imagiene that i have one building,one helmet,....

i would be impossible to control this in the scene.

i am asking if it is possible to have one prop where we can change crease angle on specific parts of that one model.

but still thanks for the tutorial.

you could also just do the smooth groups in your modeler(assuming your obj exporter exports them)..that way your not restricted to groups or materials..instead its based on whatever faces you select to be smoothed in the modeler

Quote - you could also just do the smooth groups in your modeler(assuming your obj exporter exports them)..that way your not restricted to groups or materials..instead its based on whatever faces you select to be smoothed in the modeler

if this could be done then i wouldnt open this thread

high five ;)

serious. i have my material groups on the OBJ object. but i can not change the crease angle with those groups.

Quote - if this could be done then i wouldnt open this thread

does your modeler not export smoothing groups?

the question is if Poser knows those groups for what is smooth and what not?

i use blender.

I just set the smoothing up in 3dsmax & tell poser not to crease(smooth) anything,just read the groups in the obj..it doesnt matter what your body groups or materials are because smooth groups are seperate from that..sounds like you'd just need to set the smooth groups to match your material groups

so when you loaded up the object into poser it smoothed(crease angle) only the parts that you selected in 3ds max?

i dont know how to do this in blender

yea,it creases according to the smooth groups i setup in 3dsmax..no idea about blender..its a basic function though so i'm sure it does it...google blender smooth groups?

i find the crease dial too restrictive because it only does it by groups(body or prop)...some of my models have a half dozen different smooth groups ,none of which are tied to the material or group.so its better for me just to embed that info in the obj

man,all these groups are getting confusing :

i just googled it and found out that Max is the only one who has this option.

Quote - You asked for an easier way and I provided it.

Please look at the OP. The question was: "Can we do this in Poser?"
Not: "Can we do this when creating a model for use in Poser?"

We already have a prop in Poser that we are trying to do something with. In my case, I did not model it myself.

So...  the only modelling app that can export smoothing group information that Poser will understand is 3DSMax.

Hmmm... then we just need to find out what it puts into the exported obj file to identify and control the smoothing groups. Then get busy with a text editor!

Attached Link: http://wiki.blender.org/index.php/Doc:Manual/Modifiers/Mesh/Smooth

Quote - how to set on an object seperate crease angle settings?

for example a house. the walls crease angle 0 and windows crease angle 80.

can this be done in poser?

that's not actually correct.  ice-boy asked how to do it and then asked if it could be done in Poser.  that's not at all the same thing. and, actually, not modeling it yourself has nothing to do with editing it in another app unless you want to distribute your edits.

actually, i recently read a tutorial for doing this in a pretty affordable UV mapping app.  so Max isn't the only software that can do it, even if it is the only modeling app.  have you already researched smoothing options in Blender, or have you just searched on this particular issue? i'm doubting it's possible, but i'll take a look around more generally if you haven't already.

Quote - that's not actually correct

It is correct. As he later explained, the whole purpose of this thread was to find out how to do this in Poser, and this intention was perfectly clear to me from the outset. Let's try to keep this on track instead of splitting hairs about how the question was phrased. 

We have a prop in Poser and we want to be able to set different smoothing properties for different parts of it. How can we do that? Simple question. I think we are getting close to some answers now.

Quote -
It is correct. As he later explained, the whole purpose of this thread was to find out how to do this in Poser, and this intention was perfectly clear to me from the outset. Let's try to keep this on track instead of splitting hairs about how the question was phrased.

no, he didn't.  i just looked over the posts, and nowhere did he say, "how do i do this only using Poser," to any response.  and it's not splitting hairs.  he makes props in Blender.  he wants the variable smoothing to work in Poser.  but if someone can suggest something that works in creation, and then works on import into Poser, that fits the bill.

i just tried using "Set Smooth" in Blender on parts of an object and importing it.  it seems to have worked so far, but i need to try a trickier test.

Attached Link: Material based smoothing in Poser

Quote -
actually, i recently read a tutorial for doing this in a pretty affordable UV mapping app.  so Max isn't the only software that can do it, even if it is the only modeling app.  have you already researched smoothing options in Blender, or have you just searched on this particular issue? i'm doubting it's possible, but i'll take a look around more generally if you haven't already.

Yes, that's my tutorial. This technique has been around for a long time. The crux of the problem is that Poser is basically a renderer and has limited, or no, tools for this sort of thing.
I do it this way because it's quick and reliable.
I suppose you might say that it's a bit of a restriction to have the smoothing set by material zones, but it's a big step up from just having one smoothing angle for the entire object. I've never found it to be much of a problem, really.

Quote - i already have my groups on the model. i made a specific group where i want smooth and where i dont want it. and this was done in blender.
but when you imort this into poser its all together. so can you explain what you are talking?

I don't know anything about smoothing or grouping in Blender, so I can't help you out there.
Have a look at the tutorial. It might get the idea across to you. I tried to make it as straightforward as possible. Remember, it's based on smoothing by material zones, not setting up smoothing groups as such. You could say this technique turns a material zone into a smoothing group. At least it might be helpful to think of it that way.

and what i've found so far:

Firefly doesn't respect Blender smoothing groups, even though you can see them in Poser's preview.  it does respect hard creases from Blender.  so if you select an edge, Mark Sharp (under Ctrl-E or the Edge menu), and add an Edge Split modifier, you can get good edges.  i'm having a totally separate weird problem with smoothing right now, but i have some hope for figuring out something  with Blender.

RubiconDigital's method is more robust because it gives you variable smoothing across the item (smooth 30 here, smooth 50 there, etc.).  but the edge selecting method gives you at least some control. 

you can also now export polygroups in Blender OBJs, so you can create smoothing groups that way, too.

exporting "Edges" creates a weird break in the mesh.  i don't quite understand it, but it is interesting.

I believe in poser the only way your going to do it is to split the object into groups using the group editor to the different areas you want different settings, and then click "spawn props" to get seperate objects for each group. then you can manually apply a setting to each group without it effecting the others.

just remember that "spawn props" creates copies of the groups, the original "whole" object is left there. either hide it, or delete it ;)

ok, i'm losing hope in general for any kind of solution within Blender.  bleh. 

for doing this myself, I use MilkShape3D,  you dont set "smoothing" but manually configure each individual smoothing group. placing the edges yourself by using different groups.  Gives you the ultimate control, but it is more time consuming.

for the cashed up, check out polytrans, its the most powerful model manipulator out there! (its for processing, not modelling)

if it helps..here's an example of max smooth groups,one obj,one group,one material..2 smooth groups,it displays & renders the smooth groups.
 I might be wrong but I think uvmapper strips out the smooth groups from the obj & replaces it with empty lines,so keep that in mind if uvmapper is in your workflow
http://stefan-morrell.com/smoothgroup.obj

I've made a diamond with sharp facets in Blender. The way I did it (keeping the facets sharp) was making each face separate from the other (no shared edges). Then, I made the diamond a separate object to the ring it was set in and set smoothing off in Poser for the gemstone.

And got this:

Was that what you were after, ice-boy? Sharp edges?

BTW, smoothing is on for the ring... and by 'faces' for the diamond, I meant 'facets'. Oh, and BB's shader on there. That's what makes it... :biggrin:

Quote - Then, I made the diamond a separate object to the ring it was set in and set smoothing off in Poser for the gemstone.

RobynsVeil - that's the issue right there.  if you need to separate every single part and create separate objects with no smoothing, that's quickly a problem in a more complicated prop.  as he mentioned, that's really not an option with, say, a complex helmet. 

and so far, from testing, i'm not seeing another solution than yours that doesn't use either Max or that Ultimate Unwrap software.

Well, it's really a Poser shortcoming, I think, rather than some inherent deficit of Blenders?

On a dress I made, I wanted creases like at seams to appear crisp and not have weird shadows and stuff from Poser deforming things when it smooths... got around that problem by putting some really tight geometry (extra slice, or loop cut) right near the bevel of my crease. I did that on both sides of the crease. This allowed me to 1) keep my model as one piece (no non-shared edges) and 2) smooth in Poser and not have it mesh do weird deformations at the crease. I mean, it probably did do weird deformations, but they were on such a small scale that no one could (or would) zoom in that close to expose them.
Yes, it did add extra mesh, but not dramatically so.

a ring has is very low geo. imagine doing this with a complex model. the number of polygons would be insane.

i got now good results with some extra edges and crease angle of 40.

Hey RubiconDigital,

How in UlimateUnwrap do you get the 3d view to be without wireframe lines so you can see how the model really is??

Go to Window ->3D Shading and a 3d Shading menu will apeear where you can set the display options.