Hello everyone!

I've recently decided I'd like to have a go at making textures and maybe selling them on the marketplace. But I've discovered I have no idea how to save the files and structure all the folders and stuff correctly so that they turn up in the right place in the Poser library. I've done a lot of fiddling around and figuring things out by trial and error but I've decided it's so complicated that unless I ask for some help I'll be in the trial-and-error mode forever!

I found this tutorial (http://www.poserpedia.com/index.php?title=Converting_mc6_mt5_files_to_pz2_Tutorial) and had a go at editing the code for the .mc6 files myself. I changed all the endings to .pz3 and the number at the start to 4.01. I also edited a few glitches in the file directories which had been turning up errors in Poser (easier to edit in the code than save the materials all over again!)

But there's one thing that confuses me. The file directories listed in the code refer to folders on MY computer. For example, "/Users/dorotheabaker/Desktop/lysithea dress textures/MeshTex.jpg"

Ok, fair enough. But what happens if someone else downloads the MAT poses and tries to use them? Poser won't be able to locate the files, right, because they won't have the folder 'dorotheabaker' on their computer. In fact, the files won't be in the same location at all because it'll move to their Poser runtime. Do the files automatically update themselves with the new file location? If not, what file directory do I need to write? (I can't believe I don't know all this stuff, considering how long I've been working with Poser, but there you go.)

Anyway, there are 14 different mat poses, all with a LOT of code, and it's going to take me forever to go through each one and correct the errors. So I want to make sure I'm on the right track first. Any advice you can give me about packaging MAT poses would be much appreciated. I'm using a Mac by the way.

P.S. I've been using some fabric resources to make my textures which I downloaded off Rendo free stuff back in 2009. I want to find out who made them and if they mind me using them for a commercial project, and so I can credit them. But I can't find the item on free stuff any more. The folder on my computer is just called 'PCsKit' and has no readme. Anyone know anything about this?

P.P.S. The textures I'm trying to make at the moment are for Lysithea Dress. Except for one bit (the lacy insert in the bodice) I haven't used the texture templates. The reason for this is that I can't figure out the scaling of patterns on different parts of the dress. I've found that if I don't use the templates it's easy to make the texture scaling the same on all parts of the dress using the u-value and y-value parameters in the material room, but I assume this isn't the normal practice. It just seems a simpler option at the moment, but I know if I want to make more detailed textures I'm going to need templates, so can anyone give me some advice on this?

file references in the files should be in the relative path format. That makes them correct no matter where the poser runtime is located.

Like this: textureMap ":DAZ:Animals:MilDog:LBoxer.jpg"

Note: this work because poser will look for textures in runtime/textures first

This works too:     textureMap ":runtime:textures:DAZ:Animals:MilDog:LBoxer.jpg"

Does this answer that part of your question ?

texture templates are the uv map, you can use uvmapper free version to get them , or for DAZ stuff they used to be a download from the product page.  There were also templates with markings to help align edges.   Snowsultan ?  my memory is going

some products include the templates in the product installer or zip. Look in your poser folder to see if any have installed in the wrong place (it seems to be done a lot)

if you want to make your own templates for poser from existing figures or objects download UVMapper classic (Free) for mac @ http://www.uvmapper.com/downloads.html.

Read this tutorial- http://www.renderosity.com/mod/tutorial/index.php?tutorial_id=472

Although this tutorial demonstrates generating templates for a figure, the process is the same for any object with pre-existing UV's. It's actually very easy to make templates at any size you want in either PDF of TIFF format using this technique. Additionally you can seperate the various maps by either group or material if you wish.

@markschum, yeah it's snowsultan who make those nice seamguides... her archive is here

http://www.snowsultan.com

all your textures need to be in runtime/textures and the mt5 or mc6 in the materials folder .

I make a clruntime folder and add whatever folders are needed for an item. Put all the bits in place and then zip the whole thing. When unzipped the paths are correct for a poser runtime. 

I dont think I would bother with mat poses unless you want to support poser 5 or maybe daz studio.  I think I had a script that batch converts mc6 to pz2.

Thanks everyone. markschum, will the files turn up in the 'poses' section if I do that, or only in the 'materials' section? I find it really annoying that I can't access the 'materials' section of my Poser library except when I'm in the material room. Is this normal or am I experiencing a bug?

Quote -  

if you want to make your own templates for poser from existing figures or objects download UVMapper classic (Free) for mac @ http://www.uvmapper.com/downloads.html.

Read this tutorial- http://www.renderosity.com/mod/tutorial/index.php?tutorial_id=472

Although this tutorial demonstrates generating templates for a figure, the process is the same for any object with pre-existing UV's. It's actually very easy to make templates at any size you want in either PDF of TIFF format using this technique. Additionally you can seperate the various maps by either group or material if you wish.

@markschum, yeah it's snowsultan who make those nice seamguides... her archive is here

http://www.snowsultan.com

I'm not sure you understood my problem? I HAVE the templates that came with the products, I just can't figure out how to apply my own textures to them and achieve the results I want.

This tutorial contains the method that I normally use to generate templates, it's a little different than the one linked above (same results, though).

http://my.smithmicro.com/tutorials/2347.html

I think I ought to clarify the problem I have with templates.

I got the templates for Lysithea Dress and put them into Photoshop. I made a simple mesh pattern using Photoshop and copied and pasted it over each template, and used the magic selection tool to delete the texture from everywhere except the template (if that makes sense.) saved the files and applied them to the appropriate parts of the figure in Poser. Rendered it. Result?

The mesh pattern was considerably magnified on the skirt compared to the corset, and even MORE magnified on the skirt trim. The overall effect was quite bizzarre. The same thing happened if I just used the pattern file without the template, but I worked out how to very easily adjust the scaling (using the U_value and Y_value parameters in the material room) of the pattern on the skirt so that the mesh pattern looked exactly the same size all over the dress.

I can't do the same thing with the scaling if I'm using the template, obviously, since the pattern is restricted to a small area of the texture file and it just doesn't work. So I suppose the only thing to do is to adjust the scaling of the pattern in Photoshop for each template file BEFORE putting it into Poser. But I have no idea how to figure out how much to adjust it to make the scaling exactly the same all over the dress, except by trial and error.

OH... well, you never know when you might need to make your own templates in any case.

looks like I just wasted my and your time... Problems with aligning the pattern of the textures with the seams?

"but I know if I want to make more detailed textures I'm going to need templates, so can anyone give me some advice on this?"

See why I'm confused? You stated that you needed templates and now you state that you have templates.

I think what your really asking about is procedural work rather than texture painting...

Quote - OH... well, you never know when you might need to make your own templates in any case.

looks like I just wasted my and your time... Problems with aligning the pattern of the textures with the seams?

"but I know if I want to make more detailed textures I'm going to need templates, so can anyone give me some advice on this?"

See why I'm confused? You stated that you needed templates and now you state that you have templates.

I think what your really asking about is procedural work rather than texture painting...

Sorry, that might have been a bit unclear! I don't know what you call textures that only cover the template area (ones that aren't just a solid square of texture.) Anyway, that's what I meant, as you've probably figured out by now! :S

sounds like the UV templates aren't completely flat or the polys have variations in size (in other words when the dress obj. was unwrapped and flattened during the UV process, the UVs weren't relaxed... so there's distortions.)

Does this happen with every template you use or just this particular dress?

... You have to do alot of trial and error with creating textures, even with very good templates. Theres always a little distortion or warping on any kind of unwrapped non-planar object. You just have to keep making adjustments in photoshop.

the other alternative is to utilize a polygonal painting app like Blacksmith 3D or Zbrush or Hexagon or Modo, etc.

Hopefully a clothing texturing guru will step forward to offer some more succinct advice!

Quote - sounds like the UV templates aren't completely flat (in other words when the dress obj. was unwrapped and flattened during the UV process, the UVs weren't relaxed... so there's distortions.)

Does this happen with every template you use or just this particular dress?

Actually I'm not sure, as I've only been trying with this dress. I'll have to try some others and see what happens, and then I'll get back to you!

Quote - ... You have to do alot of trial and error with creating textures, even with very good templates. Theres always a little distortion or warping on any kind of wrapped non-planar object. You just have to keep making adjustments in photoshop.

the other alternative is to utilize a polygonal painting app like Blacksmith 3D or Zbrush or Hexagon or Modo, etc.

Hopefully a clothing texturing guru will step forward to offer some more succinct advice!

I'm glad I'm not the only one having to do a lot of adjusting! the most annoying part is having to give the file a different name every time I make an adjustment (Poser doesn't register the change otherwise)

Did you adjust the texture size to match the template size? i.e. let's say the corset is a 2000x2000 template, and the dress is a 3000x3000 template. if you're using the same texture on both parts you need to scale up the texture larger on the 3000x3000 template than what you use on the smaller template.

probably a dumb question, but who knows?

also, try using 'Reload Textures' in the render pulldown of poser when you make changes to your texture files (although I usually just reload from the image map button).

as far as I've ever experienced, you can only access the material library from within the material room.

I didn't actually check to see whether the size of the templates was different, but since I didn't have to adjust the size of the pattern (which I made to fill the whole canvas) when I copied it to each template, I would guess they ARE all the same size.

But...it's a good thing you mentioned that because I've just remembered that I did actually use the transform tool to scale down the pattern to just cover the template. Not sure why I did that but it might explain the whole problem! I'll have to have another go now. Feeling a bit silly right now! :D

Anyway, for the textures I'm making at the moment there isn't any particular reason why I should use a template as they're not very detailed, so maybe I'll try it with another dress.

I would like to know who made the resources I'm using though! hmm

*also, try using 'Reload Textures' in the render pulldown of poser when you make changes to your texture files (although I usually just reload from the image map button).

*as far as I've ever experienced, you can only access the material library from within the material room.

*just in case you missed my edits in earlier comments.

Ok, thanks.

I have another question now, with regards to the .png thumbnails for mat files, if you want to change them how do you do it? can you just replace the thumbnail with a different file with the same name, and will that link it to the relevant mat file?

just make a new .png of the correct size with the same name to replace the one generated automatically by Poser.

yeah, all you need is a 91x91 res .png that has the same name as the mat file. same goes for all library files in poser.

Quote - yeah, all you need is a 91x91 res .png that has the same name as the mat file. same goes for all library files in poser.

Thankyou! I thought it probably worked like that.

Ok so I've successfully archived my .mc6 files and imported them into poser. I've also tried turning them into MAT poses as per the tutorial which I linked to in my first post in this thread (changing file ending to .pz2 and version number in the code to 4.01)

When I unzip the .pz2 files into poser, the files go into the right place in the library (pose category) but when I double click on them nothing happens. Any idea why this is? (the .mc6 files work fine)

why are you using version code 4.01? Ummm, isn't that just a reference to poser 4 in the file? I'm not really sure why your files aren't working as I've never gotten around to making a MAT pose file ( I always use mt5 or mc6). The MAT files are referencing texture files in the textures folder, if not you will get a prompt from poser asking you to locate the files. I would double check your textures folder to see if they have been placed properly anyway.

Here's some other peculiar facts, MAT pose files can only be applied to props if they are parented to a figure, UNLESS you are in the material room. In which case they can be applied without being parented.

Are you using poser 8 or above? If so, I'm pretty sure that you can apply materials from the library without going into the material room. (haven't tested this yet as I just got poser 8).

I think you Might have a problem with the file itself...

Are you applying these MATs to a figure object or a prop object? (clothing comes in both types, figures for conforming, props for dynamic.)

I'm on a mac so I usually have to manually place all of my poser files... Pretty tedious, but I know where everything is.

...Just looked over that tutorial you're using and I'm pretty sure that the version number is irrelevant to the the workings of the file, you could put whatever version you wanted in there as it simply refers to whatever version of poser you're using. sometimes when you open a file with a later version # in poser you will get a Nag screen saying something like "this file is from an unexpected version of poser, load file?". If you click yes, 99% of the time the file will load without a hitch. It's just one of those Poser idiosyncrasies.

i think there was a thread recently about the various ways to apply mats from the mat room, some are click and some are drag,

i dont know if it will help when you compile your files but i always make a new folder and call it poser runtime 28 or something, then i add that runtime to my poser runtimes in add library option, i put all my texture files in the textures folder first, then when you apply the mats you dont have any problems with file locations. snarlygribbly also has a png maker on his site which will generate pngs for your mats

The Material section of the Library certainly shows up for me, regardless of whether I'm in the Pose or Mat rooms... is this what was being discussed earlier on?

What version of Poser are you using Victoria-Purplehair? (sorry if that's already been covered and I've blurred over it)

Using Pose files to apply mats is pretty outdated, in my understanding... a workaround really, I believe, from an earlier time? Maybe there are good reasons for still doing it... other than the fact that old habits die hard, and all that???

So... you should really be going down the mc6 / mc5 files route I would have thought, if you're just starting out??

As an end-user I'd certainly much prefer to see that... at least.

Cheers

Oh dear, I'm using Poser 7 and like all my software I guess it's outdated already! (I have an old Mac)

I certainly don't mind leaving my textures as mc6 files, in fact that's great! Saves a lot of trouble. It is slightly annoying for me though since I'm using an older version of poser and  can't access mc6 files without going into the material room. Most of the textures I've purchased are MAT poses which is why I wanted to make mine like that too.

Quote - why are you using version code 4.01? Ummm, isn't that just a reference to poser 4 in the file? I'm not really sure why your files aren't working as I've never gotten around to making a MAT pose file ( I always use mt5 or mc6). The MAT files are referencing texture files in the textures folder, if not you will get a prompt from poser asking you to locate the files. I would double check your textures folder to see if they have been placed properly anyway.

Here's some other peculiar facts, MAT pose files can only be applied to props if they are parented to a figure, UNLESS you are in the material room. In which case they can be applied without being parented.

Are you using poser 8 or above? If so, I'm pretty sure that you can apply materials from the library without going into the material room. (haven't tested this yet as I just got poser 8).

I think you Might have a problem with the file itself...

 

Are you applying these MATs to a figure object or a prop object? (clothing comes in both types, figures for conforming, props for dynamic.)

I'm on a mac so I usually have to manually place all of my poser files... Pretty tedious, but I know where everything is.

I'm applying the MATs to a figure. I don't think the location of the texture files is the problem, as Poser doesn't ask me where the files are when I try to render it. It's just like the poses have no effect whatsoever. But I don't think I'll bother with MAT poses anyway, considering what other people are saying. Clearly there are some downsides to not having upgraded to the latest version of poser ;) (i'm using poser 7)

Quote - Oh dear, I'm using Poser 7 and like all my software I guess it's outdated already! (I have an old Mac)

I certainly don't mind leaving my textures as mc6 files, in fact that's great! Saves a lot of trouble. It is slightly annoying for me though since I'm using an older version of poser and  can't access mc6 files without going into the material room. Most of the textures I've purchased are MAT poses which is why I wanted to make mine like that too.

Ah, fair enough... well, as a Poser 2012 user, I'd certainly prefer the mc5 or mc6 files.

Of course, I'd prefer materials that use the shader improvements in the latest Poser too. So it could be a moot point... depending how well your textures stand up to being brought forward into Poser 9 / 2012.

If the main strength of your textures is that they have good quality diffuse color, bump, specular and displacement maps, then cool.

I can't speak for any previous Poser versions though, to be honest. I started with Poser 9. Maybe some do still require the Mat poses... or at least some users still prefer them??

Cheers

Quote - > Quote - Oh dear, I'm using Poser 7 and like all my software I guess it's outdated already! (I have an old Mac)

I certainly don't mind leaving my textures as mc6 files, in fact that's great! Saves a lot of trouble. It is slightly annoying for me though since I'm using an older version of poser and  can't access mc6 files without going into the material room. Most of the textures I've purchased are MAT poses which is why I wanted to make mine like that too.

Ah, fair enough... well, as a Poser 2012 user, I'd certainly prefer the mc5 or mc6 files.

Of course, I'd prefer materials that use the shader improvements in the latest Poser too. So it could be a moot point... depending how well your textures stand up to being brought forward into Poser 9 / 2012.

If the main strength of your textures is that they have good quality diffuse color, bump, specular and displacement maps, then cool.

I can't speak for any previous Poser versions though, to be honest. I started with Poser 9. Maybe some do still require the Mat poses... or at least some users still prefer them??

Cheers

Is there any way I can send you my textures to try out, so you could give me feedback on how they work in Poser 9? It'd be really great to know :)

I 'd be happy to help, however I don't actually, currently, have the Lysithea Dress you mentioned. Is that what you're working on currently?

I thought it looked of interest, when I took a quick look at what I thought was the dress, in the Marketplace here... but I see now they are just other texture sets for it... I think... and a character morph and texture for V4.

Is the dress still for sale... and if it is, could you link to it?

Cheers

Ah... wait... silly me, I think I've found it now?

http://www.renderosity.com/mod/bcs/lysithea-bride-v4-a4-g4/74412

that's the one :) part of the reason I wanted to make textures for it was because there aren't actually many textures already available for it on the marketplace (there's only one actually, I think...please correct me if I'm wrong.) It's my favorite dress so I thought it should have more colors than just black :P

Quote - that's the one :) part of the reason I wanted to make textures for it was because there aren't actually many textures already available for it on the marketplace (there's only one actually, I think...please correct me if I'm wrong.) It's my favorite dress so I thought it should have more colors than just black :P

Cool - well, yes, I could definitely use that dress in my idea for the Halloween Contest

So, if you do want to send me your textures to test in Poser 9 / 2012 I reckon I will maybe see about getting it...

Cheers

I sent you a PM with my email address by the way

the only differences I would see with your texture set in poser 9 would probably be some Gamma Correction issues... probably shouldn't have mentioned that can of worms.

a little note about being an older version of poser user on a mac... good luck finding any of the fancy utilities and plug-ins and time savers. Poserverse is extremely Windows OS biased. also you'll run into a subtly dismissive attitude from some of the Poserati.

...just some things I've noticed.

I use mac... OS X Lion... and short of not being able to us UV Mapper, under Lion, I don't have too many issues, to be honest.

EDIT: I keep meaning to test that, UV Mapper, running under Wine Bottler...

I have somewhat simple tastes when it comes to utilities and scripts though... it has to be said... EZSkin2... Wardrobe Wizard... er, that's about it...

...I've tinkered a bit with matmatic... so far...

...and I guess if I really wanted something that was Windows only, and externally compiled (not just platform agnostic python) that'll be the time I fire up XCode and write my own equivalent

With textures, I'm tending now to take the image maps and copy them into a suitable one of bagginsbill's shaders... especially now he's released some fabric materials, in the bed set.

That way I get the built in fresnel reflections and automatic gamma correction requirement detection, on top of what the original Texture had to offer.

This works better with some image textures than others of course...

...and I'm doing this just as an end user... obviously anyone looking to sell the end result of doing what I'm doing will need BB to be releasing some sort of merchant resource first...

...unless its based on a shader he's given away to the community, I guess.

But I use the shaders from his and Dreamland's sets.

Yeah, I'm still on a PPC, running tiger... you can probably see what I mean. short of dumping alot of my pricey apps (PS, ZBrush, etc.) that luckily I managed to accumulate via friendships in college I'm kind of stuck in a time warp limbo as I can't afford to purchase these incredibly expensive toys. If I weren't interested in poser and were strictly working in Carrara or something I guess these things wouldn't be such an issue. As much as I am interested in working with CG, there is a sense that it is a medium of the privilaged. I guess if it comes down to it, I could always become a maverick open source user... Or say F-it and go back to strictly traditional media.

I have noticed that some of the more old school poser Gurus are still using, like, poser 7 or earlier though. As has been said, it's not the tools but how you use them. Crap in a shiny box is still crap.

...as an ot rant out of nowhere, my god what a pain in the *ss it is trying to create morphs for Akatora's Deco figure!

it's all earthenware with ceramic glazes, underglazes, and lustres.

OK, I'm done Hijacking the thread now... sorry, feeling a bit manic today.

oh, yeah.. you can throw them in the dishwasher too! try that with your computer!

Awesome! Nice work... I particularly love the first trio of figures... siamese triplet thing

Thanks man, your renders are also very cool... you certainly utilize poser to it's fullest. Kind of miss the feeling of the old pertwee, baker doctor whos. Memories.

Cheers... I try to enjoy myself with it... and get back to something of what I was going for when I used to paint, which is something I just don't have the time / space for now

Yeah I miss Tom Baker most, of the regenerations past... not just because he was my childhood Doctor Who, I don't think...

...er yeah...anyways... apologies to Dorothea for the thread hijack! LOL...

You don't need the expensive stuff either I don't think... there's stuff like Blender and Wings... and Hexagon on the modelling side...

...and a lot of folk are still on around Poser 7 as far as I can make out. Pretty sure most of BB's marketplace shaders, in his and Tom's furniture sets, are designed to be backwards compatible at least that far actually...

...indeed just checked, and they're Poser 6 and above.

Quote - Yeah, I'm still on a PPC, running tiger... you can probably see what I mean. short of dumping alot of my pricey apps (PS, ZBrush, etc.) that luckily I managed to accumulate via friendships in college I'm kind of stuck in a time warp limbo as I can't afford to purchase these incredibly expensive toys.

I'm stuck in exactly the same time warp haha! I have a new iMac as well as my old laptop (thankfully not as old as yours lol), but don't use it much because I don't think I can run any of my old software on it (even if I could, I'd have to delete it from my laptop first because you can only have one registered copy or whatever, and I don't want to do that.)

Quote - With textures, I'm tending now to take the image maps and copy them into a suitable one of bagginsbill's shaders... especially now he's released some fabric materials, in the bed set.

That way I get the built in fresnel reflections and automatic gamma correction requirement detection, on top of what the original Texture had to offer.

This works better with some image textures than others of course...

...and I'm doing this just as an end user... obviously anyone looking to sell the end result of doing what I'm doing will need BB to be releasing some sort of merchant resource first...

...unless its based on a shader he's given away to the community, I guess.

But I use the shaders from his and Dreamland's sets.

Would you mind explaining shaders to me? sorry for sounding so ignorant lol blushes

I've never heard of any of those utilities you mentioned, can you tell me anthing about them? if they are Mac compatible they might be handy..

@Monkeycloud, seems like there are more than a few aging painters/sculptors (myself included) who are switching to digital media because of space and time considerations... it really is a hybrid of those 2 mediums.

@Victoria-Purplehair, I didn't pick up computer usage until I was in my mid-thirties and my introduction was on a Mac... (got my degree in the same time frame), additionally the school I attended had a digital media lab filled with Macs (San Francisco, makes sense). by the time I finally encountered a windows machine I was like "what IS this mess?", referring to the Windows OS gui. I have a Power Mac G5.

Ummm, EZSkin is a python Script created by Snarlygribbly that allows you to quickly set up a complex shader system for poser surfaces which includes SSS (sub surface scattering, etc.). If I remember correctly, it was inspired by Bagginsbill's VSS system. Unfortunately it only runs on poser 9 or 2012 as these are the first versions of poser to implement true subsurface scattering. SnarlyGribbly is something of a python magician who kindly offers his useful creations free to the poser community.

http://snarlygribbly.org/3d/forum/

If you hear the name Bagginsbill mentioned this is referring to the pretty much undisputed master of the poser material room... He's incredibly exacting, so if you happen to encounter him during your poser sojourns try to be VERY specific in your queries. He has also done an immense amount of work, gratis, for the poser community.

https://sites.google.com/site/bagginsbill/

Shaders are what you create to procedurally alter the surface qualities of objects within poser, this is done by connecting nodes with various functions to a root node (titled Posersurface) in the advanced tab of the material room. every time you load a material file from your material library you are setting up a shader system within the material room.

all right, tired of talking now. back to pushing around Deco's vertices.