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Poser - OFFICIAL F.A.Q (Last Updated: 2024 Sep 19 11:01 pm)
Subject: VSS Skin Test - Opinions
For VSS - link is in my signature.
VSS Preview Release 4 skin shader is here:
http://www.renderosity.com/mod/forumpro/showthread.php?thread_id=2822732&page=2
Renderosity forum reply notifications are wonky. If I read a follow-up in a thread, but I don't myself reply, then notifications no longer happen AT ALL on that thread. So if I seem to be ignoring a question, that's why. (Updated September 23, 2019)
Quote - For VSS - link is in my signature.
VSS Preview Release 4 skin shader is here:
http://www.renderosity.com/mod/forumpro/showthread.php?thread_id=2822732&page=2
Thank you! :)
I do have a question. Do I always have to use the "Render" button in the VSS script, or can I still use the Render options located inside Poser?
"It is good to see ourselves as
others see us. Try as we may, we are never
able to know ourselves fully as we
are, especially the evil side of us.
This we can do only if we are not
angry with our critics but will take in good
heart whatever they might have to
say." - Ghandi
Welcome to the VSS experience Acadia. I'm sure you won't go back to anything else ;) I've never ever used the VSS render button so feel safe to use Poser's render utilities.
Quote - Welcome to the VSS experience Acadia. I'm sure you won't go back to anything else ;) I've never ever used the VSS render button so feel safe to use Poser's render utilities.
Ok, good. My computer is 4 years old and not as powerful as the newer ones and I often have to adjust my render settings to suit the scene. And even then I still have to sometimes hide things and render in bits and pieces and reassemble in PSP.
*huge bear huggies" to Bagginsbill! 
"It is good to see ourselves as
others see us. Try as we may, we are never
able to know ourselves fully as we
are, especially the evil side of us.
This we can do only if we are not
angry with our critics but will take in good
heart whatever they might have to
say." - Ghandi
I have another question about VSS.
Can someone give me some "for dummies" instruction on how to edit the script (I'm assuming the script is the vss.py one) in order to use the VSS shader on the millennium cat and a pair of angel wings? Both are figures.
I'm thinking that I need to put the material zones in to the following areas. But is there anything else I need to edit in the script?
StandardTemplateZones = [
t + 'Skin',
t + 'Lips',
t + 'Lacrimal',
t + 'Fingernail',
t + 'Toenail',
t + 'Nail',
t + 'Eyewhite',
t + 'Iris',
t + 'Pupil',
t + 'Cornea',
t + 'Eyetrans',
t + 'Lashes',
t + 'Brow',
t + 'Lash+Brow',
t + 'Nostril',
t + 'Tongue',
t + 'Gums',
t + 'Teeth',
t + 'InnerMouth',
]
m = mapsZonePrefix
StandardMapZones = [
m + 'Face',
m + 'Body',
m + 'Eye',
m + 'Mouth',
m + 'Teeth',
m + 'Lash',
m + 'Brow',
m + 'Lash+Brow',
m + 'Limb',
m + 'Fingernail',
m + 'Toenail',
m + 'Nail',
m + 'Clothing',
m + 'Shirt',
m + 'Pant',
m + 'Dress',
m + 'Shoe',
]
StandardZones = masterZoneNames + StandardTemplateZones + StandardMapZones
impliedMZNames = [
('lash', m + 'Lash'),
('lacrimal', m + 'Face'),
('lip', m + 'Face'),
('iris', m + 'Eye'),
('eye', m + 'Eye'),
('sclera', m + 'Eye'),
('body', m + 'Body'),
('torso', m + 'Body'),
('chest', m + 'Body'),
('face', m + 'Face'),
('head', m + 'Face'),
('teeth', m + 'Teeth'),
('arm', m + 'Limb'),
('hand', m + 'Limb'),
('foot', m + 'Limb'),
('fingernail', m+'Fingernail'),
('toenail', m+'Toenail'),
('nail', m+'Nail'),
]
"It is good to see ourselves as
others see us. Try as we may, we are never
able to know ourselves fully as we
are, especially the evil side of us.
This we can do only if we are not
angry with our critics but will take in good
heart whatever they might have to
say." - Ghandi
The script doesn't define the material zones, and you should not edit the script. The lists you showed are suggested names for use when adding zones and rules via the VSS dialogs found under the designer.
You add zones to the control prop for new material templates. For example, if you wanted a new template zone for a horned animal, you might want a zone called Template Horn.
Then if you wanted to hook that template to be copied to various actual zones on the figure, you would edit the rules in the Shader Rules material.
The objective is to have a rule detect a material by name or partial name on the target, and then connect that to a "Copy" node that says what template to copy from the control prop.
If you look in the control prop Shader Rules, you will see rules like "Rule skin" that are connected to other nodes - a Copy Template Skin node in this case. That means any material with the letters s, k, i, n in them will match that rule and the skin template will be used on that material.
Suppose your wings have materials "Left Wing" and "Right Wing". You'd do best to make a Template Wing material, and then a Rule *wing -> Copy Template Wing.
Renderosity forum reply notifications are wonky. If I read a follow-up in a thread, but I don't myself reply, then notifications no longer happen AT ALL on that thread. So if I seem to be ignoring a question, that's why. (Updated September 23, 2019)
Thanks!! I'll have a looksie and see how I manage :)
"It is good to see ourselves as
others see us. Try as we may, we are never
able to know ourselves fully as we
are, especially the evil side of us.
This we can do only if we are not
angry with our critics but will take in good
heart whatever they might have to
say." - Ghandi
Quote - The script doesn't define the material zones, and you should not edit the script. The lists you showed are suggested names for use when adding zones and rules via the VSS dialogs found under the designer.
You add zones to the control prop for new material templates. For example, if you wanted a new template zone for a horned animal, you might want a zone called Template Horn.
Then if you wanted to hook that template to be copied to various actual zones on the figure, you would edit the rules in the Shader Rules material.
The objective is to have a rule detect a material by name or partial name on the target, and then connect that to a "Copy" node that says what template to copy from the control prop.
If you look in the control prop Shader Rules, you will see rules like "Rule skin" that are connected to other nodes - a Copy Template Skin node in this case. That means any material with the letters s, k, i, n in them will match that rule and the skin template will be used on that material.
Suppose your wings have materials "Left Wing" and "Right Wing". You'd do best to make a Template Wing material, and then a Rule *wing -> Copy Template Wing.
Ok, I opened the VSS_PR3_AO.pp2 with Notepad and located some "rule" words inside and see things such as "skin" and "torso" and "chest" etc.
However, I don't know how to go about creating a new rule because I can't see where the "rule" text strand starts or ends. I've tried word wrap and no word wrap, but nothing lines up easily for me to be able to see a regular pattern of what to copy for a new rule.
"It is good to see ourselves as
others see us. Try as we may, we are never
able to know ourselves fully as we
are, especially the evil side of us.
This we can do only if we are not
angry with our critics but will take in good
heart whatever they might have to
say." - Ghandi
Actually, all that is done from within that Python script thingie that BB distributes with VSS. You sort-of need to run the script, and it'll come up in the Python Scripts dialogue and you'll see buttons to do all that cool stuff. 
Monterey/Mint21.x/Win10 - Blender3.x - PP11.3(cm) - Musescore3.6.2
Wir sind gewohnt, daß die Menschen verhöhnen was sie nicht verstehen
[it is clear that humans have contempt for that which they do not understand]
Acadia - I never make people go into Poser files. In VSS, click the designer button. Then you have buttons to create new templates, new rule nodes, new copy nodes, etc. You do it all in the material room, from those buttons. Read the dummies book.
Renderosity forum reply notifications are wonky. If I read a follow-up in a thread, but I don't myself reply, then notifications no longer happen AT ALL on that thread. So if I seem to be ignoring a question, that's why. (Updated September 23, 2019)
Quote - Acadia - I never make people go into Poser files. In VSS, click the designer button. Then you have buttons to create new templates, new rule nodes, new copy nodes, etc. You do it all in the material room, from those buttons. Read the dummies book.
Ahhh! When you said "Control Prop", I figured it was the actual prop in the props folder.
I'm sorry for being so dumb about this, but I really am trying!!!
"It is good to see ourselves as
others see us. Try as we may, we are never
able to know ourselves fully as we
are, especially the evil side of us.
This we can do only if we are not
angry with our critics but will take in good
heart whatever they might have to
say." - Ghandi
I found the posts you need to read:
http://www.renderosity.com/mod/forumpro/showthread.php?thread_id=2737823&page=27#message_3268316
Renderosity forum reply notifications are wonky. If I read a follow-up in a thread, but I don't myself reply, then notifications no longer happen AT ALL on that thread. So if I seem to be ignoring a question, that's why. (Updated September 23, 2019)
Quote - I found the posts you need to read:
http://www.renderosity.com/mod/forumpro/showthread.php?thread_id=2737823&page=27#message_3268316
Thank you! I am reading that thread. I haven't gotten to that page yet. I'll have a look at the instructions and work along with it.
"It is good to see ourselves as
others see us. Try as we may, we are never
able to know ourselves fully as we
are, especially the evil side of us.
This we can do only if we are not
angry with our critics but will take in good
heart whatever they might have to
say." - Ghandi
I don't have anything called "Shader Rules" in the Designer button of VSS. See my screen capture attached.
I clicked the "Add a Copy Node" button, but all that did was give me a node that I could rename. I called it "Copy Template Wings." But it wasn't connected to anything like in your screen capture. It was just a single detached node.
I also clicked "Add a Rule Node". I named it "Feathers" and connected the "Copy Template Wings" to the right plug of the "Feathers" rule node.
Then I clicked "Sync". I got an error about no rules matching.
I swear, once I get this figured out I'm going to do a video tutorial!!!! LOL
"It is good to see ourselves as
others see us. Try as we may, we are never
able to know ourselves fully as we
are, especially the evil side of us.
This we can do only if we are not
angry with our critics but will take in good
heart whatever they might have to
say." - Ghandi
Shader Rules is a material in the VSS control prop, not a button.
Select the VSS control prop in the material room and go to the Shader Rules material. You select the material in the material room using the material pulldown. Of the control prop.
Current actor must be the VSS control prop. Current material must be "Shader Rules".
That is where you add rules. Rules for the shaders go in the Shader Rules material. You make the rules using the Designer buttons to add a rule node or add a copy node.
Renderosity forum reply notifications are wonky. If I read a follow-up in a thread, but I don't myself reply, then notifications no longer happen AT ALL on that thread. So if I seem to be ignoring a question, that's why. (Updated September 23, 2019)
Quote - Shader Rules is a material in the VSS control prop, not a button.
Select the VSS control prop in the material room and go to the Shader Rules material. You select the material in the material room using the material pulldown. Of the control prop.
Current actor must be the VSS control prop. Current material must be "Shader Rules".
That is where you add rules. Rules for the shaders go in the Shader Rules material. You make the rules using the Designer buttons to add a rule node or add a copy node.
I see what you mean now!
I'm back at it! This is very challenging, hehe
"It is good to see ourselves as
others see us. Try as we may, we are never
able to know ourselves fully as we
are, especially the evil side of us.
This we can do only if we are not
angry with our critics but will take in good
heart whatever they might have to
say." - Ghandi
Actually, no it didn't. See my post below.
"It is good to see ourselves as
others see us. Try as we may, we are never
able to know ourselves fully as we
are, especially the evil side of us.
This we can do only if we are not
angry with our critics but will take in good
heart whatever they might have to
say." - Ghandi
But when I clicked on "Add a Copy Node" and named it "Copy Template Wing" then created my feather and wing rules, and connected them to the "Copy Template Wing", I get the following error message:
------- VSS -------
Synchronizing WQ_Wings from VSS_Skin_Shader_PR3_1
No rule matches zone BodyFeathers - skipping.
Synchronizing nodes from Template Skin to Preview
No rule matches zone Feathers - skipping.
No rule matches zone MainWing - skipping.
No rule matches zone FeathersWhite - skipping.
-- done --
"It is good to see ourselves as
others see us. Try as we may, we are never
able to know ourselves fully as we
are, especially the evil side of us.
This we can do only if we are not
angry with our critics but will take in good
heart whatever they might have to
say." - Ghandi
Ok, went back in and redid the copy node and called it "Copy Template Feather" instead of "Copy Template Wing" and reconnected it to the 2 rule nodes I made and got this:
------- VSS -------
Synchronizing WQ_Wings from VSS_Skin_Shader_PR3_1
-- done -
Dare I think that it worked?!
"It is good to see ourselves as
others see us. Try as we may, we are never
able to know ourselves fully as we
are, especially the evil side of us.
This we can do only if we are not
angry with our critics but will take in good
heart whatever they might have to
say." - Ghandi
"It is good to see ourselves as
others see us. Try as we may, we are never
able to know ourselves fully as we
are, especially the evil side of us.
This we can do only if we are not
angry with our critics but will take in good
heart whatever they might have to
say." - Ghandi
You wrote Copy in the name of the zone to be copied. So it says Copy Copy Template W... (Can't see the rest)
You're supposed to tell it what to copy and the name of the template material is all you tell it. You don't tell it the word "Copy" - that is already assumed by the fact that you are creating a copy node. The dialog asks what the name of the material is. You're supposed to give the name of the material you want to copy.
Also, after that, you must actually have such a material in the control prop.
So the goal is:
Create a new material zone - the name of it is: Template Wing
Create a new Copy node - the name of it is: Template Wing
Connect your rule nodes to Copy Template Wing, not Copy Copy Template Wing.
Finally, you will need to put a shader template into the material called Template Wing. VSS will not invent a feather shader for you. VSS doesn't know shaders at all. VSS is not a shader writing script. It's a shader COPYing script.
The shaders I wrote came in the control prop or you loaded them into the Control Prop.
A skin shader is not going to be a good choice for feathers.
Renderosity forum reply notifications are wonky. If I read a follow-up in a thread, but I don't myself reply, then notifications no longer happen AT ALL on that thread. So if I seem to be ignoring a question, that's why. (Updated September 23, 2019)
Quote - Man, I glad VSS wasn't as complicated to use as Arcadia seems to be making it.
I'm sorry I am not smart when it comes to this. But your comment is totally uncalled for! I'm frustrated enough trying to learn this without having people drop in and insult me :(
Part of the problem is that I'm dyslexic. And when I get frustrated and stressed out about what I'm trying to learn, it impedes my learning.
You insulting me like you have, isn't helping :(
"It is good to see ourselves as
others see us. Try as we may, we are never
able to know ourselves fully as we
are, especially the evil side of us.
This we can do only if we are not
angry with our critics but will take in good
heart whatever they might have to
say." - Ghandi
Acadia - I have a trick I use with engineers who don't "see" what is in front of them. You might try it.
They often show me their code that is clearly broken but they don't know why and ask me to help them find what they did wrong. I usually do nothing. I make them read me the code out loud, and also explain what is being done, out loud. They often find their mistake the moment they say the words.
Similarly, when they fail to follow written instructions, I ask them to read the instructions out loud and think about what they're hearing, not what they're reading. Even thought the two are the same, the attention shifts to a different part of the brain and understanding increases for some people.
I know this is true for me as well. This is why I have trouble reading math formulas that use Greek letters. I can't "say" the letters because I don't know what they are. And so I can't "hear" the formula and it makes no sense to me.
Renderosity forum reply notifications are wonky. If I read a follow-up in a thread, but I don't myself reply, then notifications no longer happen AT ALL on that thread. So if I seem to be ignoring a question, that's why. (Updated September 23, 2019)
Here is the link that made things click for me for adding new stuff. http://www.renderosity.com/mod/forumpro/showthread.php?thread_id=2737823&page=53#message_337041
So not to cause any more turmoil I'll stay quite for a while, best of luck.
Quote - Here is the link that made things click for me for adding new stuff. http://www.renderosity.com/mod/forumpro/showthread.php?thread_id=2737823&page=53#message_337041
So not to cause any more turmoil I'll stay quite for a while, best of luck.
Thank you for the link. I'll take a look.
I had a good sleep last night and I'm wide awake this morning, so maybe I'll have more success today.
But I refuse to be defeated by this!! :)
"It is good to see ourselves as
others see us. Try as we may, we are never
able to know ourselves fully as we
are, especially the evil side of us.
This we can do only if we are not
angry with our critics but will take in good
heart whatever they might have to
say." - Ghandi
I think I'm making some headway today! At least I hope I am :)
This is what I have so far. What I've done is:
-
Load the wings and the VSS Prop from the props folder
-
Go to material room
-
Open the VSS Designer
-
Select the VSS Prop in the drop down menu
-
Pick "Shader Rules" material zone from the drop down menu
-
Click on "Add Material Zone" and name it "Template Wing" (a new material zone was added to the drop down menu)
-
Made sure I was still in "Shader Rules" material zone
-
Click on "Add Copy Node" and named it "Template Wing". A node was created called "Copy Template Wing"
9.Click on "Add a New Rule" and named it feathers
-
Click on "Add a New Rule" and named it wing
-
Connected the 2 rule nodes to the "Copy Template Wing" node.
I am attaching screen captures in the next few posts.
Now for my questions. I know what I'm trying to ask, but I don't know if I'm articulating it right.
I know I need to add an image map etc to the "Template Wing" material zone. I know I can simply go to the Winter Queen wings and select all of the nodes for a particular material zone and then copy them over to "Template Wing". But I don't know which Winter Queen material zone to copy.
The Winter Queen Wings have 4 material zones "Feathers", "FeathersWhite", "Main Wing" and "Body Feathers." Each material zone has a different node set up.
Do I need to make new material zones in the "VSS Prop" for each of the material zones from the Winter Queen Wings? For example: "Template Feathers", "Template Body Feathers", "Template FeathersWhite" ?
"It is good to see ourselves as
others see us. Try as we may, we are never
able to know ourselves fully as we
are, especially the evil side of us.
This we can do only if we are not
angry with our critics but will take in good
heart whatever they might have to
say." - Ghandi
"It is good to see ourselves as
others see us. Try as we may, we are never
able to know ourselves fully as we
are, especially the evil side of us.
This we can do only if we are not
angry with our critics but will take in good
heart whatever they might have to
say." - Ghandi
"It is good to see ourselves as
others see us. Try as we may, we are never
able to know ourselves fully as we
are, especially the evil side of us.
This we can do only if we are not
angry with our critics but will take in good
heart whatever they might have to
say." - Ghandi
"It is good to see ourselves as
others see us. Try as we may, we are never
able to know ourselves fully as we
are, especially the evil side of us.
This we can do only if we are not
angry with our critics but will take in good
heart whatever they might have to
say." - Ghandi
I see that the node structure is the same despite the different maps. That does not matter. As long as the nodes structure remains the same, you can use one Template Wing to populate all those zones. Show us the screencap of the Template Wing MAT zone in VSS.
Edit: I just noticed the setup again. To answer your question, yes each different zone with different node configurations need to be created in VSS.
There isn't anything in there other than the poser surface node.
"It is good to see ourselves as
others see us. Try as we may, we are never
able to know ourselves fully as we
are, especially the evil side of us.
This we can do only if we are not
angry with our critics but will take in good
heart whatever they might have to
say." - Ghandi
Quote - I see that the node structure is the same despite the different maps. That does not matter. As long as the nodes structure remains the same, you can use one Template Wing to populate all those zones. Show us the screencap of the Template Wing MAT zone in VSS.
Edit: I just noticed the setup again. To answer your question, yes each different zone with different node configurations need to be created in VSS.
So I have to create 3 more material zones in VSS and then I can simply copy the WQ Wings material zone set ups to each new VSS material zone I created?
"It is good to see ourselves as
others see us. Try as we may, we are never
able to know ourselves fully as we
are, especially the evil side of us.
This we can do only if we are not
angry with our critics but will take in good
heart whatever they might have to
say." - Ghandi
I would copy and paste the material zones from each section into your VSS Templates after you've gotten each MAT zone created and labeled. Delete the images for each Image_map node, those will not be needed by VSS. For those Image nodes connected to a math_function node, temporarily disconnect from those nodes and connect directly to the PoserSurface plugs occupied by MF nodes. Do this one zone at a time to avoid confusion later. Run the Python Script Rename nodes from the VSS Script panel, then reconnect everything the way it was originally. You need to rename those VSS nodes correctly for VSS to work.
Quote - I would copy and paste the material zones from each section into your VSS Templates after you've gotten each MAT zone created and labeled. Delete the images for each Image_map node, those will not be needed by VSS. For those Image nodes connected to a math_function node, temporarily disconnect from those nodes and connect directly to the PoserSurface plugs occupied by MF nodes. Do this one zone at a time to avoid confusion later. Run the Python Script Rename nodes from the VSS Script panel, then reconnect everything the way it was originally. You need to rename those VSS nodes correctly for VSS to work.
I'm working on this. I've already created 4 material zones, 4 copy nodes named for each material zone, and 4 rule nodes (1 for each copy node). I've also pasted the node setup for each WQ material zone, into the corresponding VSS material zones that I created.
Now to methodically go through and delete and disconnect maps and connections.
"It is good to see ourselves as
others see us. Try as we may, we are never
able to know ourselves fully as we
are, especially the evil side of us.
This we can do only if we are not
angry with our critics but will take in good
heart whatever they might have to
say." - Ghandi
You're racing ahead but I'm not sure for what purpose.
Creating four templates, each of which only gets copied to one material, is pretty much pointless. You will have to make changes in 4 places, so that they get applied in 4 places - that has no value whatsoever.
The point of VSS is to capture commonalities - to create a single shader for many material zones, so that instead of making a particular change 9 times, you do it once. For example, if there are 9 skin zones, you use VSS so you have one skin material to work on, and it applies to the 9 skin zones.
Now back up a second. The wings have four materials, but is it your intention those are made of different things or not? If they are made of the same thing, then they all get the same shader, and so you only need one template for all.
Just because the nodes move around from one screen shot to the other doesn't mean they are different. Just because the images are different doesn't mean the shaders are different.
I see Spots node connected to the same channel. I see color maps and bump maps connected up to the same places. I cannot see the individual node parameters so I can't confirm that the shaders are identical, but at a glance they appear to be.
So why do you want or need 4 different substances? Aren't they all the same substance? Feather?
We use different template shaders when the substance they model is different. For example, eyeball is different from skin, so we have different substances implemented as different shaders. But hand skin is the same as leg skin, so we use only one shader for both, even though they need different color and bump maps. That is the objective of VSS. Given that the actual color/bump/specular/displacement maps are taken out of the equation - what is the same across multiple materials? Capture those as templates.
Renderosity forum reply notifications are wonky. If I read a follow-up in a thread, but I don't myself reply, then notifications no longer happen AT ALL on that thread. So if I seem to be ignoring a question, that's why. (Updated September 23, 2019)
Good idea!
Here is the first step. I created the 4 material zones. 4 copy nodes and a rule node for each copy node.
"It is good to see ourselves as
others see us. Try as we may, we are never
able to know ourselves fully as we
are, especially the evil side of us.
This we can do only if we are not
angry with our critics but will take in good
heart whatever they might have to
say." - Ghandi
"It is good to see ourselves as
others see us. Try as we may, we are never
able to know ourselves fully as we
are, especially the evil side of us.
This we can do only if we are not
angry with our critics but will take in good
heart whatever they might have to
say." - Ghandi
"It is good to see ourselves as
others see us. Try as we may, we are never
able to know ourselves fully as we
are, especially the evil side of us.
This we can do only if we are not
angry with our critics but will take in good
heart whatever they might have to
say." - Ghandi
Quote - You're racing ahead but I'm not sure for what purpose.
Creating four templates, each of which only gets copied to one material, is pretty much pointless. You will have to make changes in 4 places, so that they get applied in 4 places - that has no value whatsoever.
The point of VSS is to capture commonalities - to create a single shader for many material zones, so that instead of making a particular change 9 times, you do it once. For example, if there are 9 skin zones, you use VSS so you have one skin material to work on, and it applies to the 9 skin zones.
Now back up a second. The wings have four materials, but is it your intention those are made of different things or not? If they are made of the same thing, then they all get the same shader, and so you only need one template for all.
Just because the nodes move around from one screen shot to the other doesn't mean they are different. Just because the images are different doesn't mean the shaders are different.
I see Spots node connected to the same channel. I see color maps and bump maps connected up to the same places. I cannot see the individual node parameters so I can't confirm that the shaders are identical, but at a glance they appear to be.
So why do you want or need 4 different substances? Aren't they all the same substance? Feather?
We use different template shaders when the substance they model is different. For example, eyeball is different from skin, so we have different substances implemented as different shaders. But hand skin is the same as leg skin, so we use only one shader for both, even though they need different color and bump maps. That is the objective of VSS. Given that the actual color/bump/specular/displacement maps are taken out of the equation - what is the same across multiple materials? Capture those as templates.
BB, I'm so confused! You are throwing so much information at me at one time that I can't process it all and I'm feeling very overwhelmed. :(
I just need to know the bare basics of what I need to do. The hows and whys of what is being done needs to come later, after I understand how to actually create something that works. I can't integrate it all :(
Initially I had 1 material zone (template wing), 1 copy node (copy template wing) with 2 rules (feathers and wing). I understood the concept of the rules IE: feathers would look for and target all things with the word "feather" in it. wing would look for and target all things with the word "wing" in it.
But after that I get completely lost.
You said I need to go to the new VSS material zone for the wing I created, and put a material node setup in. I didn't know what material zone from the WQ Wings to copy over to that new VSS material zone.
All of the WQ Wing material zones are different. The image maps have different images. Some fuzzy like in my earlier screen shots, others actual feather shapes, and the wing has a whole wing image. The settings in the poser surface node are different for each of the WQ Wing material zones. So again, I didn't know what node setup I was to copy over the the single VSS material zone "Template Wing"
"It is good to see ourselves as
others see us. Try as we may, we are never
able to know ourselves fully as we
are, especially the evil side of us.
This we can do only if we are not
angry with our critics but will take in good
heart whatever they might have to
say." - Ghandi
Well you are successfully doing things. You are indeed set up to copy shaders into four zones from four templates.
I just don't understand why. Are you planning to manage hundreds of sets of wings simultaneously? I get that you're not ready to explain why you're doing this, but I can't explain what you should be doing if I don't know what you're trying to do.
You plan to copy the shaders from the wings into the VSS control prop, so that you can press synchronize and copy them back to the wings. Why? VSS is not going to magically make them look better. The shader decides how the object looks, not VSS. Asking VSS to copy the shader into the wings that you just manually copied out of the wings is going to leave you exactly where you started. If the point is the journey, well, OK. You're done already. You did all the steps to prepare to copy a shader from the control prop to the wings. All that remains is to get the four shaders into the control prop.
So I would go to each of the wing materials, and save it to the library temporarily. This does two things: let's you recover from mistakes, and let's you load them into VSS.
Next: Load each into the desired VSS template material.
To turn them into proper templates, go into each image map and set the image to None.
Then press the Auto Rename Images button to give the images names.
If they all rename to sensible things (which you should review) then you're ready. If one of them does not rename, you have problem. We would address that if we run into it, otherwise that will just be a lot of confusing information for no purpose.
Sensible things are: Color Map for the diffuse color, or anything that plugs into a Diffuse node, or a Clay node. Specular Map for the Specular_Color, or anything that plugs into the similar channel of a Specular, Blinn, Glossy, or Anisotropic node. Bump Map goes into Bump. Displacement Map goes into Displacement. Transparency Map goes into Transparency.
Once a template has good names for the images, when you synchronize, VSS will examine the target material, figure out which map is which, and plug those into the template shader getting copied onto the target.
If a template shader has a named image in it, and no obvious image exists in the target, VSS will replace the image with whatever is plugged into the Image_Map Background parameter. This is a trick that lets a template work with or without a given image map. For example, the VSS skin shader substitutes a Turbulence node for bump if the target has no Bump Map.
Renderosity forum reply notifications are wonky. If I read a follow-up in a thread, but I don't myself reply, then notifications no longer happen AT ALL on that thread. So if I seem to be ignoring a question, that's why. (Updated September 23, 2019)
Quote - Well you are successfully doing things. You are indeed set up to copy shaders into four zones from four templates.
I just don't understand why. Are you planning to manage hundreds of sets of wings simultaneously? I get that you're not ready to explain why you're doing this, but I can't explain what you should be doing if I don't know what you're trying to do.
The reason I changed it to 4 material zones is because all of the Winter Queen Wing material zones are different and hborre suggested that I needed a different material zone for each of the WQ Wing node setups that were different. Which is all 4 material zones because the image maps vary and so does the poser surface node values.
To be honest I don't know what I'm doing or why. I'm just trying to follow along with instructions given to me to achieve what I want....
A VSS shader that will work on the Poser 6 Winter Queen Wings. The same way that the default VSS shader works on V4.
"It is good to see ourselves as
others see us. Try as we may, we are never
able to know ourselves fully as we
are, especially the evil side of us.
This we can do only if we are not
angry with our critics but will take in good
heart whatever they might have to
say." - Ghandi
I've scrapped it all and am ready to start over. :)
"It is good to see ourselves as
others see us. Try as we may, we are never
able to know ourselves fully as we
are, especially the evil side of us.
This we can do only if we are not
angry with our critics but will take in good
heart whatever they might have to
say." - Ghandi
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Hi!... where I can find that shaders? :)