Poser Debut.

2 questions.

1)  Sometimes when I zoom into a scene the cam rotation works just fine; it "satelites" around the desired object.  Other times it rotates around an "inconvenient center".   Is there a way to change that, designate a new "hub" / center for it to pivot around?

1. Occasionally a figure becomes separated from its handle / circle.  I have to locate and reach for its figure circle.  Is there a way to keep them together, or realign them when they've separated?

Thanks in advance.  You all are so helpful ( and fun ) and I'm grateful.

 -Craig

sometimes if you have clicked on a prop rather than a figure the camera will react to the rotation settings on the prop, try clicking on any figure body part first, that should work

:O)

 "clicked on a prop"  Thx mysticeagle but that doesn't work.  Oh, well.

JAFO, Poser Debut doesn't have orbit selected mode.  :-(

Thanks for trying as always.

The best I could come up with is to parent the camera to an object (or perhaps figure).  Then the camera will orbit it.

I'm still trying to figure out how to keep the figure circle aligned with the figure.  Thx for the workaround on that one JAFO.

-Craig

Quote - I'm still trying to figure out how to keep the figure circle aligned with the figure.  Thx for the workaround on that one JAFO.

If you need to move the figure, translate the body, not the hip....

1). The Main and Aux cameras will always orbit the the zero point of the Poser UNIVERSE, unless they are parented to something, in which case their orbital focus (center) will move with the thing they are parented to.

2). The Figure Circle shows the Position of the BODY actor. The hip actor of a figure is parented to its BODY actor. By default a figure's hip in usually in the same location as its BODY when it it first loaded. If you translate the hip it moved away from the from the BODY Band its axis of rotation. Think of the BODY actor as an invisible prop, to which the hip is parented.

To move the hip back into the center of the BODY's figure circle, zero all the translations of the hip. To keep the hip in the canter of the figure circle, don't translate the hip in the x or z direction, move the figure in x or z by translating the BODY. The BODY's yTran should normally be kept at zero, and the figures altitude (only) set in the hip.

Quote - my suggestion is to uncheck figure circle under display...drag your figure around by the hip , with IK disabled, under figure/IK...

I very strongly advise that you NEVER  drag a figure around by the hip. The only exception is if you are using IK to keep the feet or hands anchored in position.

Set the figures location in the scene by translating its BODY actor. Use the dials, don't drag it with the mouse (unless you are using the Top Camera). Set the figure's altitude via yTran in its hip.

The reason for doing things this way is so that poses you apply will work, and poses that you save will work. If you don't do it this way, applying a pose will change the location of the figure within the scene, and that is almost never a good thing. When you apply a pose, you want the figure to adopt that pose, but stay in the same place. For the same reasons, NEVER save BODY transforms in a pose.

Wow, thx, Lesbentley.   That's some great advice for a newbie like myself( I intend to give it a try).  Is there a place where I can read more like this?

-Craig

PS. you might want to cut back on the smokes.  Have you looked in the mirror lately?!

I very strongly advise that you NEVER  drag a figure around by the hip. The only exception is if you are using IK to keep the feet or hands anchored in position.

 if a pose is saved with body translations it is scene specific , or saved incorrectly... if you are creating an animation , you should ALWAYS animate your figure from the hip NEVER use body translations , if you use body translations then save your animation without the world translations(which in most cases is correct) you have a figure changing poses in the center of the scene, if a pose was saved correctly it matters not where the hip is when the pose is applied... even if it isnt in the correct position(which 99%of the time it wont be), how hard is it to correct?.... CraigarJ has asked questions previously pertaining to animation.if you are building an animation from scratch,, my recomendation remains the same...drag your figure around using the hip.

try using the posing camera , it should always point at the current selected figure... dont use it however for animation renders as it will follow the figure, unless thats what you want.

:O)

Granted animations are something of a special case. When saving static poses, you usually don't want any data about the location of the figure to be stored in the pose. When saving an animated pose you often do want data about location to be stored in the pose. When I want to save an animated pose with position data, I set the location of the figure within the scene by translation the BODY, same as I do for a static pose. When I save the pose I use the check box 'Body transformation'. OK, I did say never do that, but I was thinking of static scenes not animations, and did not want to include all the if's and but's in my post.

There are at least three advantages of doing it this way. First, you are using a consistent method, whether working on a static or animated scene. Second, this method allows you to insert properly made static poses into any frame of your animation without causing the figure to jump to a radically different part of the scene. Third, if you apply a Walk Cycle to your figure in the Walk designer, the data for the location of the figure (for each step of the WC) is placed in the BODY actor (The people who made the WD knew that x and z translation should be stored in the BODY). If in a scene with a walk cycle, you were to start setting the location of the figure by moving the hip, you would be using two different methods of setting the location within one scene, this can soon get very confusing.

In the days before P8, the Poser interface did not allow you to save BODY transforms in a pose. So when animators wanted to include location data in a pose, they had no option but to use translations of the hip, however unsatisfactory that might have been. That became the standard method, because there was no other method available. The advent of P8 brought the possibility to save Body transforms with the pose. That, in my opinion, is the best way to save position data in a pose, if you have P8 or later.

So I stand by my statement "NEVER  drag a figure around by the hip". Even if you are going to set the location of the figure via the hip, it's usually best to do it via the dials, not by dragging it with the mouse. When dragging to a new location in x and z, it's almost impossible not to accidentally change the altitude of the figure (unless you are using the Top Camera). So even if you move the figure via the hip, it is usually a bad idea to drag it by the hip (unless IK is on).

i agree dragging a figure in the viewport using the mouse isnt a good idea, i should have stipulated using dials to maneuver the figure , i think we have different techniques , both of which work for us, theres more than one way to skin a cat...

:O)

Well, thanks to both of you I have an improved workflow.

-craig

I stopped using Figure circle years ago. You can just untick it. It is located at top of your screne File, Edit, Figure, Object.. _Display>Figure Circle and uncheck it. Then set a new preference. Get everything you want the way you like it (rendersettings, stage lights, colors, tools dispayed or hidden, etc)..

Then, EDIT> Preferences> set preferred state. Close Poser. Restart it and you should be ready to work where you left it and prefed it. You can do this over and over until you get what you like.

If I recall, the figure circle can block your mouse from selecting certain bodyparts. It is an option. It annoyed me personally. Yes and use the Figures XYZ dials to position in space and with IK on, use Hip to set XYZ rotations. Uncheck IK to correct a foot (reset to 0 rotations (twist, bend, sideto side) or apply a foot pose, recheck IK repose...

Turn IK off before saving a pose.

Quote - i think we have different techniques , both of which work for us, theres more than one way to skin a cat...

That's true enough. And perhaps I was a bit too strident in pushing my own point of view. I appologise for that.

Quote - > Quote - i think we have different techniques , both of which work for us, theres more than one way to skin a cat...

That's true enough. And perhaps I was a bit too strident in pushing my own point of view. I appologise for that.

 no apology necessary , no harm no foul... we are all just trying to help.... you are good people and i value your judgement...your advice is sound and worthy of consideration, and more fitting in this instance...

 i try to approach things with an eye toward making things work across multiple platforms, i mix and match a lot, what works in poser may not work in Max or other programs and vice-verse. i try to find middle ground to get the most out of the tools available to me ,and sometimes i forget the OP may be only concerned about getting good results in poser.

:O)

I have question regarding this issue:  Lets say you imported a mocap animation into poser and the hip is recorded in a certain place.  Is there a way to simply move the entire animation's position to a different location?  The animations I'm dealing with are long and it wouldn't be possible to do this frame by frame.  Thanks for the help !

Quote - I have question regarding this issue:  Lets say you imported a mocap animation into poser and the hip is recorded in a certain place.  Is there a way to simply move the entire animation's position to a different location?  The animations I'm dealing with are long and it wouldn't be possible to do this frame by frame.  Thanks for the help !

in  this instance you want to use the body selection to place the figure where you need it ... there are two angles to consider here ... first do you want the figure to start in a certain place  or end in a certain place....if the end point is important  go to last frame in animation and move 'body' into position and copy x/y/z coordinates to first frame...if you need to have the figure start in a certain place just move 'body to the start point , this is the only place keying is necessary in this instance...

if you need to edit the .bvh file theres a free utility 'bvhacker' available that allows editing ,bvh files to set start/end point as well as several other options such as eliminating 'T" pose and making coordinate changes, also drops figure to the floor ,renames joints, and a host of other features ...http://bvhacker.com/

:O)

Thanks for the reply :)  I've looked into bvhacker and it does work, however, I was hoping to streamline the process without having to go from one program to another.  If I move the 'body' into position are the hip positions loaded also?  If not, maybe there's a script that does it somewhere?

no... moving the 'body' does not add translations to the hip...everything in the figure remains the same as before, you are just moving the entire animation in world space... .bvh animations arent fully compatable with poser because in poser the 'root' of the figure is the 'body' actor whereas with .bvh files the root is the 'hip' actor ...

 there are all kinds of bugaboos to using .bvh files in poser(even  those exported from poser) because of the root issue, once the hip leaves the 'body' circle, hip joint rotations dont behave as they did before and making adjustments can be difficult to say the least, this is because the hip rotational centers are left behind in the body circle ,so the further you get from the center the more erratic these rotations become.... im not saying its impossible to mix motion files files in poser, just that its no simple task ,it takes lots of patience and practice...

:O)