I don’t expect anyone to have an answer for this one. Explanations require science, and that in turn requires a stable universe where the laws have a consistency amenable to reason. Time and time again, I’m running into Poser witchcraft and I can hear the gods of chaos laughing.

Sure, I know that the really, really good Poser rigs are a result of years (yes years) of effort. Let’s consider that for a moment. Years… In my arrogance, ignorance, and yes, optimism, I thought I could create a good rig in a fraction of the time by falling back on joint controlled, partial body morphs to make up the shortcomings in Poser’s falloff zones system. I have the Daz Studio Setup tools, Morph Loader Pro, the property editor and Zbrush. I have time and the discipline of commitment, but there are some prices I’m not willing to pay, and that includes a rig that take years…

The Daz Studio Setup tools are quite good. They provide a better visual representation of the “dynamic” and “static” effect of the spheres. You can export a posed figure as an obj;  sculpt corrections in Zbrush and create joint controlled morphs with relative ease. However, when you export as a cr2, the perfection is lost. Distortions appear. Also, when you “stack” morphs, anomalies can occur.

To be specific, I was attempting to create a joint controlled morph in the collar, shoulder, chest and neck region, controlled by the z rotation to correct the distortion and create realistic deformations when an arm is lifted above the head. This required two morphs, one for each side of the body. Since the morphs included the chest, the chest would have two morphs applied to it when both arms are raised. In just about any other program, a morph is a vertex map that can be culled to exclude portions of a body part. In Poser, if an area is affected by a morph, the morph must include the entire body part. I think it was something in the stacking of the morphs that created another problem. I’m not equipped to prove that theory, though.

When the right arm is raised, a black spot appears by the neck and chest demarcation on the left side of the figure. Depending on the preview mode, this will either look like an indentation or two blackened polygons. This will not happen on the right side of the figure when the left arm is raised, despite the symmetrical object , symmetrical rig and symmetrical morphs. (Witchcraft!) In addition, the oddest thing occurs. While the right arm is down, the spot where the problem happens consists of the boundary of the neck and chest parts. When the arm is raised, the problem occurs between the chest and neck in two polygons that belong to nothing. In addition, the demarcation of the chest and neck changes to accommodate the fact that these polygons have been discarded.

I think I’ll do what I should have done years ago and stop wasting my time with this sort of frustration. I’ll try my hand at short films in Lightwave using low poly versions of my models with weightmaps and displacement for the surface details. Poser is for those who can’t afford any better or who can’t or don’t create their own stuff. I don’t fall into either category.

morphs can be created which only effect a small portion of the bodypart, (I have created jcms which just effect a Dozen verts with MLP),  my guess is that Zbrush is displacing the mesh slightly on you,  or the tools are somehow effecting more of the mesh than you intend, causing the vertex movement you are experiencing on the opposite side. have you tried masking parts of the mesh off in zbrush to see if that helps keep them from being effected?

 Good luck with Lightwave.  Hope it works out for ya.

I created a symmetrical morped object in Zbrush. The morph was identical on the left and the right sides I brought the morphed object and the default, T pose object into Modo and created a background morph. Then I was able to select the vertices on one side and dial in the morph on the selected area, creating the right collar up and left collar up in this way.

The other day I went back and reviewed the morph object. comparing its polygons to the problem area on the posed figure. There were differences. Something had obviously disturbed my morph, but it didn't come from the morph, if you get my meaning.

Just now, I went back to get screen shots of the morph and the posed figure to provide an example of the strange effect. There's just one problem. The joint controlled morphs are working perfectly.

Witchcraft!

I suppose the dark forces of Poser are trying to suck me back into the vortex. I just might go too. Pray for me.

Hi Paloth

Since you're considering leaving the Poserverse,  would you be interested in joining the "On hiatus Poser Users' Club."  Our activities include but not limited to;    archery,  bowling,  car repair,  chess,  hiking,  litter clean up,  and reading.

Cheers

Pat

Quote - I think I’ll do what I should have done years ago and stop wasting my time with this sort of frustration. I’ll try my hand at short films in Lightwave using low poly versions of my models with weightmaps and displacement for the surface details. Poser is for those who can’t afford any better or who can’t or don’t create their own stuff. I don’t fall into either category.

This is a wise realization and shows that you have perspective.  You'll be fine :)

Paloth, there was a thread a few days ago and someone suggested that poser desymmetrizes things.