is there an easy way to combine several .obj into a single .obj without losing textures/ UV mapping? I'm trying to create a figure, rigged as V4 that is based entirely on plants. I've succeeded in creating a figure that is made entirely of ivy, but is made of individual pieces which does not lend itself to posing all that well. I've used this method to create static prop figures like this one (Which is combination of V4 and ivy), but am looking to create a real figure that I can pose. I know it can be done, as I've created one from a single .OBJ file, but the plant model lacked sufficient 'fill' (Arms were exceptionally thin, and missing one leg) but it could be posed and animated, and some of the V4 morphs actually worked. My attempt at creating a complete figure by combining two .OBJ resulted in loss of leaves and some artifacts when posing.

The plants are created in a ivy generator program that you can't control where the ivy really grows, so its easy for it to miss entire limbs. I use a V4 model to serve as scaffolding while it grows to help give it shape. To create a complete figure, I have to 'seed' the ivy in various place on the scaffolding and hope for the best, and many, many tries.

So in essence, I have a figure composed of several .OBJ that I need to combine into one that won't lose the textures UV mapping, etc. Which will then be imported into Poser, and rigged for V4.

No I don't have any modeling programs other than Poser, sculptris and Vue.

Here's an example of loss of leaves and artifact while posing.

forgot to attach image:

Cant help but this cud be entitled Mother Nautre!

I guess it depends how you build it.  I build stuff in Wings and map the parts individually before combining them to make the rigged figure.  

Granted, mine are all hard surface models but I can't see any reason why it wouldn't work for an organic model.

I build each moving part as a separate object, then combine them in Poser for rigging. Textures are applied afterwards but the mapping is done before rigging in UVMapper Pro.

Losing bits of the object sounds more like a naming problem than anything else I can think of.  I've had it happen when I put a space in the part names, or used a reserved name, such as "Body".  No doubt someone with more knowledge of Poser's idiosyncrasies will be able to offer more advice.  

 

 

The artifact in the foot looks like the spherical fall off zone needs to be widened, some of the polys are not being included.

You've already figured out the the import/ export process for the standalone Ivy Generator (or as a plug for various apps), it's just a matter of ironing out the bugs. The Ivy Generator requires an object composed of tri's as a support so from the get go I would say that V4 is a pretty unwieldy subject to convert to tri's for a support mannikin, essentially doubling the poly count (tried triangulating the blMilWom_v4b.obj in Carrara and it caused serious lag and a force quit, in wings triangulation increased the poly count from 68k to 149k). I would use a low poly blank .cr2 as a mannikin and donor. Using the default V4 .cr2 as donor has all kinds of magnets, morph channels, etc. that make it unsuitable as a donor rig (I'm assuming this is what you are doing).

You need to have a dedicated nuts & bolts modeler in your arsenal... like wings, hex, silo, etc. In wings if you select all objects composing your Ivy Figure and do an export selected of all as one .obj the object will appear in poser as a single object which can be dissected via materials or groups (I would leave all import settings unchecked). Upon import into Poser I can't see any reason why you would be losing the UV's on the .obj, if in fact the UV's are actually being lost. If so it has something to do with your export settings from the Ivy Generator.

Example: in a modeler I create a simple .obj and uv map it, assign a single material, and create a texture. I duplicate the uv'd object 10 times and export as a single object. I import this object into Poser, enter the material room and find my originally assigned material on the object, apply the texture and the texture is duplicated multiple times applied correctly to its composite parts. If I had assigned an individual material to all the parts in the modeler before exporting as a single object the Poser result would be a single object with multiple material regions.

As far as the disappearing planes that have the leaf materials, try flipping normals.

Hope these shots in the dark have been somewhat helpful.

ps. another method of object gluing would be to import all into poser and then re-export, selecting all parts from the hierarchy list (click the universe to uncheck all, tick the comprising parts), export as wavefront. Upon reimport your object will be consolidated.

You can triangulate one of the low resolution V4 LOD meshes. They come as 1-, 2-, 4- and 17-thousand poly meshes.

Also make sure to remove all of the JSM magnets from V4 before you use her as a rigging donor.

(You can also use Autogroup so you don't have to worry about the grouping of your Ivy figure. Make sure no parts intersect or stick out too far from V4's original shape.)

Finally, just as with clothing, the falloff zones will need adjusting to get the desired bends. Some JCM-morphs might be needed, too.

Deathmetaldesk:

Quote - ... another method of object gluing would be to import all into poser and then re-export, selecting all parts from the hierarchy list (click the universe to uncheck all, tick the comprising parts), export as wavefront. Upon reimport your object will be consolidated.

Now that is something I can try! 

Back to the V4 scaffolding. Yes, importing a V4 model directly from Poser left a lot to be desired in Ivy, with all the pokethrough and ivy growing everywhere, even with normals flipped. Didn't realize it was because of the trianglur mesh. To solve this, I exported the model from Poser, imported into Vue, exported from vue and then into Ivy generator, flipped normals and had the scaffolding that worked (ivy confined inside the shape of the Obj.) (Only problem was that I couldn't watch the Ivy grow,and had to stop it many times to export each step to find something I liked.)

I will try the export function of a complete set to see how that works.

I was playing around with Ivy Generator the other night and found that sometimes I had to flip normals and other times didn't... It really was a sort of hit and miss process, requiring a lot of tweaking. Another issue I discovered was that the diffuse image map imported properly into Poser with the model but without the trans maps, this being very problematic if flipping normals or U/V texture coordinates as the trans maps need to be flipped to match the diffuse. Very confusing, and most easily remedied with an image editor, or perhaps can be done nodally within the material room itself. Yet another thing to look into. I would say that giving the exported object some going over in a modeler and perhaps UVMapper before use in Poser would be a good course of action.

Anyway, Ivy generator certainly is a clever, useful little app if one has the patience to iron out the idiosyncrasies in relation to Poser. I'd love to experiment further and offer more input but all of my spare time is absorbed by a project at the moment. That being said, I must admit that if I were attempting to create the kind of figure that you have conceived I would probably go a different route, as I feel that Ivy Generator's results are best reserved for static object creation. Your perseverance and progress thus far is admirable, I can see it being a hair-pulling experience.

Good luck, and keep us posted on your progress. :)

If ya using V4 .just turn it in to cloths.
But I'm guessing you've never made cloths from ya homepage.
Google,Youtube has tutorails.

This is one very complex peace of clothing thou.

"If ya using V4 .just turn it in to cloths."

The OP is building the figure by generating the ivy within the V4 mesh interior rather than on the surface, similar to the generation 4 conforming internal organ and anatomy sets from Daz. By using the Donor rig, the OP has already done what you have suggested in a sense, I imagine.

Quote - "If ya using V4 .just turn it in to cloths."

The OP is building the figure by generating the ivy within the V4 mesh interior rather than on the surface, similar to the generation 4 conforming internal organ and anatomy sets from Daz. By using the Donor rig, the OP has already done what you have suggested in a sense, I imagine.

You got in to my bottle of Jack ,I can tell :laugh:

Don't think Donor rig would help here.
Sice it's external ,it's more cloths then guts.
I would just treat it like cloths.

DeathMetalDesk:

Quote - ps. another method of object gluing would be to import all into poser and then re-export, selecting all parts from the hierarchy list (click the universe to uncheck all, tick the comprising parts), export as wavefront. Upon reimport your object will be consolidated.

Thanks! That one worked. I've created three different models of her, Light, Medium and Densely packed with branches. This one is the Densely packed version, conformed to a standard V4 model with no morphs and posed. As I've determined that trying to incorporate the leaves was simply not going to work, I created a V4 texture with leaves as shown here.

Rendered in Poser (Which is something new for me, as I do all my renders in Vue and this really tested my patience. I hate trying to setup Poser lights, and don't get me started about render settings...)

Not sure how to handle fall offs and what not, and really needed to make it compitable with V4, so I found another way to deal with them. Is there an issue with V4 on the left foot/shin? All of the problems I've had have been in that area.

There are still a few details to hammer out, as some branches like to poke through the skin.

And my leaf textures suck, so I'll need to do some work on those. Anyone have any tips on making believable leaf textures and settings (bump, specular, etc)?

For those that don't know what we are talking about, this model is not a texture of vines painted onto a V4 skin, its a huge conglomeration of vines making up her shape. If you were to cut her in half, you would not see an empty shell, but a massive web of vines.

and on a black background: 

Quote - If ya using V4 .just turn it in to cloths.
But I'm guessing you've never made cloths from ya homepage.
Google,Youtube has tutorails.

This is one very complex peace of clothing thou.

No, not clothing, but a new figure based on V4.

Looks pretty good to me, frankly I'm surprised! Diligence and all that...

As far as leaves go, why not transmapped planes? Just make sure to have your diffuse textures against a sympathetic color in the image or the transmap will show a fringe of that color... a white fringe if white is the background color. I dont see why strategically placed smart prop leaves wouldn't work, plus it will add some dimensional variety and realism.

_edit. oh, and don't overdo it with the bump settings on the leaves... High bump settings on leaves looks horrible IMO.

Deathmetaldesk: 

I'm currently out gathering leaves to scan, and I was considering painting the bumpmaps, as grayscale versions converted from texture maps are absolutely horrible. As for smartprops, thats a bit out of my league as I am not a modeler and wouldn't know where to begin.

Also, this image shows the few remaining issues I have with the current model (and always the left foot/shin)

Success! I figured out what the problem was with the foot/shin area, and after my 'ah ha!' moment, I realized it was obvious. As a famous actor once said: "Doh!"

Now I have to rebuild all my models...