I'm thinking about having a horse modelled (sp?) and would like input on what is required to convert a 3d model into a Poser figure? Complete with "posability" and being animatable? It seems like it's an enormous amount of work. What I'm trying to determine is: would the modeller be able to do this or does it require someone with intimate knowledge of Poser? I suspect the latter s Thanks for your help

Yes. It's a lot of work to convert models to Poser figures. But it the kind of work that isn't artist oriented. Rather just lots of tedious steps. Anyone can do it. Getting the thing modeled.... That's the hardest part. ScottA

Well, my game plan was to buy the model, get it "Pozer-ized" and then put it up in freestuff...the Poser community has been very good to us all. The estimate I have from the person seemingly most qualified is around $3800.00 and much more than I can afford :( but anyway...go here: http://www3.sympatico.ca/textureartist/ to see some (I think) great modelling (particulaly the dog, I just fell in love with the little guy!) Oh well, maybe something will come up!

I AM shook up! It was around $2800.00 give or take a few.

Well, I'd start by chopping up yer model in Max, and then load it in Poser, go in2 setup and load in the bone structure of the horse example that comes with Poser, and fit it ... that's how I'd start. Horsies r nice, yep.

Well, I'm working on a horse, slowly but surely, so if you hold on Supermodel Horse will (eventually) be available. I'm not too impressed with the stock Poser horse, but many have gotten good results with it, especially with other texture maps. A couple of the big problems with a horse are the tail and the mane, a big part of the horse's beauty is there, and there has to be a better solution than what is used on the Poser horse. My plan was (is) to modify the horse mesh into a better shape, just like Supermodel Vicky is Vickie with a better shape, but get the mane and tail to really work right. Don't hold your breath though, the time frame for this would be probably around the end of the year, I only got far enough on it to see what the problems were, and to do some reaserch on horse types, the default is going to be a anglo-arab ;-) But SMV would look really good on SMH, doing a Lady Godiva, clad only in the Mermaid's hair...

Hi Jim: My original plan was to model a new one, but it may be centuries before I'm good enough to get what I want. There's a good book ("The horse in structure and motion", which I have) gives skeletons and range of motion, etc. The modeller wanted to know if I wanted the mane/tail created as detailed geometry or a network of flat surfaces? Assuming most would want to use it in Poser and whatever other 3d app they use, which would be preferable? I don't have a clue on that one...never heard it come up before. Anyone have any ideas on this one? Would be nice, complete with morps to any type of horse you wanted. Oh well...we'll see s

Well, the mane and tail would have to use one of the various systems we use for hair to look right in Poser. The stock horse has a solid tail that people have made transparency maps for, but there is just the one layer of mesh, something more is rtequired. The stock mane is just a bump on the top of the neck, that will never do either. Computers areen't powerful enough (yet) to do hair at the strand level, so some kind of a system is needed, most use a transparency map to simulate the individual hairs, at least at the ends, and possably texture maps for the main (mane?) part.

There is a way to create a mane and tail that's not terribly difficult from the modelling standpoint. I've only done a small amount of experimentation with it myself, but I believe it's worth the time to develop. Remove the mane and tail, and create a patch surface to fill the missing polys. For the tail of the standard Poser horse, this gives you 66 polys to work with,...the mane would be several hundred. The polys are then shifted inward,...maybe 2% or so. This gives you 66 polys that don't share common edges, so they can be extruded individually along a path. This way, you can create a mane/tail of just about any shape or complexity (depending on the subdivision of the extrusion it can be hundreds or thousands of polys). When that's done, you can divide the resulting geometry into sections to allow for various manipulations in Poser. The one model I tried this on was a female with very long hair, which was rendered in Bryce. A thinly stranded transparency map was applied using the "reflection map" setting, and I was fairly pleased with the results,...although rendering multiple layers of transparency kicked render time through the roof. Anyway, as I said, it was just a single experiment, but I think it has considerable potential.

Ah, but there could be more to it then that! I was thinking about when a tail gets seperated, some of the hair goes one way, some goes another, so the tail has to be seperate sections running lengthwise, with a system to pose them, of course, and a design that would look good from all angles. I was working on getting the mane to pose too, so you could flip it to the other side, or have it blowing straight back, like it would if the horse was running at high speed.

I figure a proper system of deformers would allow for considerable posing of the elements individually and as a group. If I weren't so busy with other things at the moment, I'd give it a try myself.

StormSinger: Hi a horses' tail hairs grow from the tail bone. Could you model the tail bone and do the patch surface from the modeled tail bone? I might play with this when I get through working my overtime. Nifty idea!

dollpartz: Horsies are nice :) want one lmao Lightwave here but I can figure it out.

Hello movida,... Extending the polys from the tailbone,...I'm not sure it would look as natural, but who knows, it might work out better. My current project uses a horse body, so I may try both ways while I'm working on the tail. And dollpartz,...actually I have a couple of horses right outside :) I've been using Lightwave since version 4,...now with 6.5 I get to figure it out all over again,... ~sigh.

Funny cuz lately I've been creating hair styles, and pony tails, and a pony tail ain't much different than a horse tail! And I've been experimenting basically with what yer talking about, both extruding out from the base, and removing polys from the base, and snapping on a separate piece ...

I was planning on using Poser's curve joints for the tail, just like the stock horse does, but I'll tell you, that is also a can of not-very-understood worms. At one stage I had my new San Francisco hair with the front curls as tails too (that is to say, using the curve function), but it is really hard to figure out what is actually going on, it seem to be (very) geometry sensitive.