Hey,

Ok, I can't use Poser to save my life, I have like Poser 5 from at least the early 1960's :)

Anyway what I am trying to do I thought would be really easy but this is freaking me out lol. Basically all I want is for the two child models to be holding hands. Ok, sounds easy right, I thought I could have loaded them both and moved them around as I saw fit, but seems I can only work on one at a time.

Is that right?

And also how the hell does the hair work? When I add hair it ends up miles above their heads and when I click on it it only selects like part of it so when I try and move it only part of the hair moves, any tips on that one?

Cheers
Jon

The hair you have to conform to the figure. As for working on them one at a time, well you have to load both characters into the scen at once. It has been ages (since about the 60's :D ) since i have used Poser. I use Daz Studio, LOADS easier on the brain man (;

Cheers pal, yeah its kinda doing me in now, thought it would be easy now its just driving me around the twist lol.

May have another look at Daz Studio, haven't used that since version 1.

Cheers man
Jon

I use it stricktly for import/export, but with the obj exporter after the scene is built, it is top notch. And a heck of a lot nicer on the textures. Although some individual tweaking is also necessary.

Been ages since I have used my Poser 5, but there is an option somewhere to delete an object when adding another one or not, and dont forget upon your exporting ti Vue you also have that option for binary morphs or everything will go back to default when you import it. Daz Studio is up to v3, works great for simple import/export.

Just downloaded it, will give it a go and see if it improves my chances.

I haven't even got into textures I had enough trouble handling Poser by itself :) 

Jon

Poser Guru at your service.

Having said that, Poser 6 was the earliest version I ever used.  Still, the basics should be unchanged.

1. Can you "work" on 2 figures at once?  Hmmm... Not exactly.  Poser requires you to manipulate one object at once.  However, once you have them positioned next to each other (say their hands are linked the way you want), you can parent one figure to the other.  That way, when you move the parent figure, the other moves along.  Oh, and, remember that when you are posing, you can move the figure's BODY -- which moves the whole figure -- or individual body parts.  Using the tools (transform/pull, etc.) is best to get figures into close proximity and roughly posed.  I recommend dials for fine-tuning. 

2) Dynamic hair... sigh  Let me give you a word of advice... use prop hair instead.  Dynamic hair requires a pretty good understanding of the cloth room.  Basically, when you add hair, it just creates the strands, sticking up everywhere.  You need to set up a simulation in the cloth room where the hair collides with the figure and its clothing.  It's very difficult to control and style, even for advanced users.  There are, however, very good freebies for most of the Poser people and the DAZ base figures.  If you tell me which figures you are using, I can point you to some.

1. Don't give up.  I realize the Poser interface isn't always intuitive, but once you use it, you will see that it is done that way for a good reason (mostly).  A LOT of the stupidness has been pummeled out by Poser 8, lol.  

I am going to put together a "Poser for dummies" quick tutorial on my deviantart page.  I have offered my Poser experience to any Vue user who will answer MY dumb questions about Vue, because i seem to have a LOT of them!

Thank you very much for the advice, I am going to have another go at Poser, just gave up last time, but will try again :) 

Yes put together a tutorial lol, god knows I need help haha.

Jon

Here ya go!  www.karibousboutique.com/shares/poserfordummies.pdf. 

It's long, but VERY comprehensive.  Enjoy!  :)

Ideal, thank you very much :) 

Jon

On the whole "Hair" issue. There are THREE types of hair. There are HR2 Prop Hairs which come in either 1)Dynamic or 2)Geometry formats that have Transmaps and textures applied and there are 3)CR2 Hair figures which are usually made for a specific figure.

Both of the HR2 prop formats are saved for one specific figure but simply adjusting them with the X, Y & Z translation & scale dials will bring them into alignment and scale them with any figures head that you have applied them to. HR2 Props do NOT Conform. They load pre-parented to the figures head and just have to be adjusted with either a fit pose or the X, Y & Z Translation dials.

CR2 hair, being a figure made for a specific figure can only be conformed to the figure it was created for. If you wish to use it on a figure that it wasn't created for, you do not conform it. You parent it to the head of the figure you're working on and adjust it with the translation dials as you would an HR2 prop hair. You won't usually find Hair Fit poses for CR2 hair.

Quote - On the whole "Hair" issue. There are THREE types of hair. There are HR2 Prop Hairs which come in either 1)Dynamic or 2)Geometry formats that have Transmaps and textures applied and there are 3)CR2 Hair figures which are usually made for a specific figure.

Yes... I did neglect dynamic props entirely in the tutorial -- clothing, too.  But, given that this is a VERY basic tutorial, I didn't want to delve too deeply into anything dynamic.  The Cloth room could be a tutorial all on its own, just as lighting and the Material room could be.  And you're correct that conforming hair can be used as a parented prop if scaled/morphed for another figure.  But that, too seemed a little beyond the basic thread I was addressing.

Still... all this info would make good tutorial fodder for the future!

Quote - > Quote - On the whole "Hair" issue. There are THREE types of hair. There are HR2 Prop Hairs which come in either 1)Dynamic or 2)Geometry formats that have Transmaps and textures applied and there are 3)CR2 Hair figures which are usually made for a specific figure.

Yes... I did neglect dynamic props entirely in the tutorial -- clothing, too.  But, given that this is a VERY basic tutorial, I didn't want to delve too deeply into anything dynamic.  The Cloth room could be a tutorial all on its own, just as lighting and the Material room could be.  And you're correct that conforming hair can be used as a parented prop if scaled/morphed for another figure.  But that, too seemed a little beyond the basic thread I was addressing.

Still... all this info would make good tutorial fodder for the future!

I wasn't critiquing your tutorial at all. I didn't even read it. I was answering the OP's questions about hair.

As a Vue user I also use the Fake Poser.exe solution, nice trick (;

Ok, Today I did read some of your tutorial. My first minor correction is to this little tidbit:

• Props: This folder contains prop files (.ppz.) Props are “one-piece” only.

You can save more than "One-Piece" to a PP2/PPZ file by clicking on the Select Subset button on the Save Prop dialog that pops up when you hit the + to save a new prop. This brings up a dialogue that allows you to put a checkmark in a box next to as many props in the scene as you wish to have saved together in one prop. They'll still load as separate and movable props but they are loaded with 1 click.

The image in this post contains a Spaceship  "Prop" made of many separate pieces that all load together.

Quote - > Quote - Here ya go!  www.karibousboutique.com/shares/poserfordummies.pdf. 

It's long, but VERY comprehensive.  Enjoy!  :)

Ok, Today I did read some of your tutorial. My first minor correction is to this little tidbit:

• Props: This folder contains prop files (.ppz.) Props are “one-piece” only.

You can save more than "One-Piece" to a PP2/PPZ file by clicking on the Select Subset button on the Save Prop dialog that pops up when you hit the + to save a new prop. This brings up a dialogue that allows you to put a checkmark in a box next to as many props in the scene as you wish to have saved together in one prop. They'll still load as separate and movable props but they are loaded with 1 click.

The image in this post contains a Spaceship  "Prop" made of many separate pieces that all load together.

Good point.  Loading one "prop" file can indeed bring many props into a scene, all of them related and parented to each other.  I think what I was (somewhat clumsily, lol) trying to explain is that each part of the "prop set" loaded will be one item, connected only by a loose hierarchy, not rigged together as one body.  For example, I can load one of Stonemason's amazing scenes with one click.  And there is usually one "master/base" prop in the bunch that allows me to move them all around with one turn of a dial.  But, unlike Victoria (whose arm moves if I reposition her hand), if I move something further down the prop hierarchy list -- say, like a box on a sidewalk --, the rest of the scene doesn't move.  In fact, without the help of a python script, I cannot even delete ALL props in a set with one click.  Each prop exists independently of each other, whereas a figure has one connected mesh that is grouped and connected by a skeleton.

By definition, props can morph, or be parented, but they aren't rigged --no IK chains, etc.

Thank you for your attention to detail.  :)  A thorough explanation is always much better than a lazy one.

Well I only know those details because in creating the above imaged space ship, I never did figure out how to get it converted to a figure so it's a heirarchical series of parented props with a main parent. It allows all the bits and pieces that need to move to move. Everytime I've tried converting it to a figure the entire hull of the ship does weird things when the landing gear is moved.

Quote - Well I only know those details because in creating the above imaged space ship, I never did figure out how to get it converted to a figure so it's a heirarchical series of parented props with a main parent. It allows all the bits and pieces that need to move to move. Everytime I've tried converting it to a figure the entire hull of the ship does weird things when the landing gear is moved.

It comes down to the red and green "falloff zone" spheres/capsules.  If you export your props correctly as one obj file with each prop acting as a new mesh group, then when you import it into poser, you will have one object mesh with group names for each of its parts.  When you bring this grouped mesh into poser's setup room and add bones, each bone controls a different group on your mesh.  The trick, however, is to adjust the red and green "falloff zones" for each bone so that they affect ONLY the part of the mesh you want, without any other.  (Falloff zones govern the part of the mesh joint that bends as one group moves but another doesn't.)  I understand WHAT they do, but I do not claim to be an expert on HOW to implement them-- the darn things mystify me, too, lol!

There is an easier way to do this with a prop, though, using morph targets -- and you may already know this, but it bears repeating for anyone interested.  With this method, you would end up with one prop with morph dials to adjust parts of the mesh, instead of several props parented to each other.  If you export all your spaceship parts as one mesh with the landing gear down, and then retract the gear and save as an obj with landing gear up, you could use the "gear up" object to create a morph in your "gear down" prop (or vice-versa.)  Poser would then rotate the landing gear up & down as you turn the dial, making the landing gear retract.  You could repeat this with every moving part of your spaceship, just adding new morph dials into one master prop.  As long as every object used to make a morph has the same number of polys, this works really well.  I did this to create a wing prop not too long ago.

If you ever figure out rigging and falloff zones, let me know.  I have mastered every other part of creating conforming clothing, but I just CANNOT rig it without the mesh splitting or massive pokethrough occurring.  Not for lack of trying, I assure you!  :)

I've messed with falloff zones a little bit. Your Morph idea sound like a better solution for this particular problem though. I might try working on it this weekend using that method. That would certainly solve the DAZ Studio compatibility issues with the landing gear!