Here's what I want to do: Create a small chain or rope that I can bring into Poser (ok, no problem so far....I can do this in Rhino). In Poser I want to fix the bottom end to, say, the figure's chest and fix the top end to a prop, say, a monocle. Since the monocle is parented to the head, I want the chain/rope to follow the monocle around as the head moves, twisting and bending appropriately, but have the other end stuck to the chest. I can do this in Max with IK chains, but poser doesn't let me set up an IK chain for anything but a figures arms or legs. Any ideas or am I asking too much of Poser? Axe

Anthony Appleyard has gone round and round with this type of problem. I don't know what he came up with. You could search his name in this forum. He was working with his scuba gear to do this. You should be able to make an IK chain. You can do it for the head. It makes some interesting poses. I don't know if you can make an IK chain for a prop. You might need to make your rope as a character.

Poser will let you set up an IK chain for anything, if you check the small tutorial that comes with Poser (manual/cd??) it shows how to make a series of sphere's poseable. Anyway, what you need to do if you haven't made the chain a poseable character and it's just a smart prop is to have the chain parented to the body, the monocle parented to the end of the chain, and have the chain "point at" the monocle, also make sure that bending is "on" for the chain, and hope there's enough mesh there that the chain will realistically bend and not flatten or warp like so many other things do. Alternatively, you could import each link of the chain and created a parented prop - or character that way. This would probably be better though you will need to pay close attention to the rotation parameters, because then it's only the links bending not the whole chain.

That tut sounds ideal, but I've checked both CD's that came with poser and the manual (yes, I've RTFM many times!), but don't see it. Maybe I'm blind..... I played around a little more and think I can probably set up the IK chain now (I never got the little "create new IK chain" box to light up until just now). I tried the point at method with individual links and get some weird rotations happening. Maybe this could be refined further. I'll let you know how it goes..... Thanks again, Axe

Why don't you try to manipulate the chain by using the Joint Editor, put the green crosshairs at one end of the and the red crosshais at the other end of the chain, then use the proper dials to move it. Sharen

***That tut sounds ideal, but I've checked both CD's *** Hrrm. I'm sure I saw it there somewhere. I'll go check. I also have lurking here somewhere the Advanced Techniques Manual that Metacreations released it may well be on that one if you can't find it elsewhere. Sorry, I was sure (not checking of course) that it was in the book or on cd, but you are right now that I look for it, it's not there. Now I'm going to have to figure out where I did find the darned thing. :) The wierd rotations you got from the props as a point at can be altered in the joint editor. As Sams3D points out you will need to adjust the green and red crosses to get the rotations you want, in the joint editor you can also set the falloff zones and length of rotation which will go some way to making it behave. Basically though the green cross is the centre of rotation and the red cross is the end of the rotation arc. It's a relatively tedious job making something poseable but not impossible. :)

I've tried the joint editor, but it doesn't seem to quite fit the bill. I can set up the centres for each link and the parents, but it still moves as a unit if I drag one end. If I use "point at" at the other end it only partially solves the problem, the last link bends, but the rest of the chain stays straight. I'm still pretty sure IK will solve it, but now when I try to create a new chain, I can't drag any props into the chain. Seems to accept body parts, but not props. Is this normal and is there a way around it? Thanks yet again, Axe

heyas; im pretty sure you need to use body parts in an ik chain. if a row of spheres was put into an ik chain, my guess (i dont recall seeing that, though it sounds vaguely familiar) is that they set the spheres up in the heirarchy first as a quickie figure. to make the chain posable, you must make it a figure. slice the length into a buncha parts, make sure each length has a decent number of rows of polygons (4 or 5 or so). you can name them base, link1, link2, etc, and put the monocole on the end as, well, monocle. then just make an ik chain out of the whole deal, with the base as the base and the monocole as the goal. okay, so then you load the monocole figure and you stick the base on the chest/vest pocket. parent the monocle figure to the chest. turn on its ik chain. now you should be able to change the parent of the monocole. normally when ik is on, the parent is the ground. make the parent the figure's head. now, in theory, as you pose the figure, the monocle will stay stuck in his eye, and the base will stay stuck on the vest pocket. (note: if you have a man wearing a conformable vest, parent the monocole to his chest, not the vests. this only seems to work when the parent of the base and the parent of the ik goal is on the same figure.)

Thanks Bloodsong. This sounds like it'll do the trick. Only one thing... How do I create the rope as a figure, not a prop? Everytime I import an .obj it automatically becomes a prop. I must be missing something really obvious....... Axe

heyas; well, i do it the old way; stuff the obj into phi-builder and build a phi with it, and 'convert hier file' in poser. i think phi-builder is still here in the free stuff utilities. there's a new way to do it all in p4 with the hierarchy thing, but i'm not clear on how that works. i think its in the manual.

Yeah, what Bloodsong said. :) You can create a character out of an object prop in poser by using the grouping tool but that's a long route and not entirely satisfactory. PhiBuilder is much better in my opinion and a heck of a lot quicker though it takes a little practice to understand how it does things. Also you need to watch the rotation order in PhiBuilder, otherwise, it's one of the most useful utilities you can have for Poser. Pretty much all of my characters go through that util.

Thanks guys. I went and d/l'd PHI Factory 1.2 and I'll give it a shot. I also got a good tut from: http://skyscraper.fortunecity.com/tyrell/769/poser.html that looks like it might be of great help. When I get these working properly, all of you who helped better be prepared to receive your free pair! Axe

heyas; a free pair of monocles?? lol! ;) there IS a way you can concievably do this with a prop and magnets. if you parent the monocle thing to the chest, and put the mag zone around the end/eyepiece and then parent the magnet to the figure's head.... however, this might cause the eyepiece to distort.