Did I mention these characters kick-ass?  (Crap! There goes the PG)

Hello Teyon, I LOVE both, REX and ROXIE.

For starters, they have tons of morphs included.

And when I take them into Blender, they are so morphable, and have just the right amount of polygons to work with.
Expect chapter 2 this week. :-)

He looks reallygood. Keep posting your progress.

He comes alive. Ton of personality.

He has a super hero-ish look to him ;). Lookin good.

Laurie

As long as he is Caucasian only, and having far fewer morphs than Ryan, I am not too terribly interested.

SM seems to be going backwards with figure support, from my perspective.

See That Guy   <-- the one in my Avatar? That's Rex too.  He can be anything you want him to be.  Have you tried the face room at all?

When do you post him to the store?

Quote - > Quote - As long as he is Caucasian only, and having far fewer morphs than Ryan, I am not too terribly interested.

SM seems to be going backwards with figure support, from my perspective.

 

See That Guy   <-- the one in my Avatar? That's Rex too.  He can be anything you want him to be.  Have you tried the face room at all?

**
**When I load Rex in the face room, I get the following:

Your selected figure is not a known Face room figure.  Applying heads from the Face room may work, but the head may not be exactly aligned with your figure's geometry.

And then I am looking at P6 James.

Is the bolded section something I can ignore?

That shouldn't happen. Rex and Roxie are both face room compatible.  You should be able to just go to the Face Room and have at 'em. Did you do a full install?

Quote - When do you post him to the store?

Couldn't even if I thought it was good enough (non-compete when it comes to humans). I just wanted to show folks there's some life yet in the new figures and walk them through one process for tweaking them. 

Quote - That shouldn't happen. Rex and Roxie are both face room compatible.  You should be able to just go to the Face Room and have at 'em. Did you do a full install?

Yes, I did do a full install & I am at SR-2.

OH! I know! Make sure you have the head selected or the body. If you have the eyelashes selected you're going to get that error message and sometimes they load in with the lashes as the active actor.

He looks good!

Now when are you going to do a male partner for Miki4  (compatible with PP2012!)? :biggrin:

Quote - OH! I know! Make sure you have the head selected or the body. If you have the eyelashes selected you're going to get that error message and sometimes they load in with the lashes as the active actor.

Ok, now it works.

Now, is there any chance that you could talk SM into making a "Body Room" to go with the Face room?  I need more body shapes than what is actually available.

And as long as I am asking for stuff, how about a solution for the

Exception in deleteObjects: Invalid Scene object

That pops up EVERY SINGLE TIME I CLOSE A SCENE - TO INCLUDE SCENES WITH NOTHING IN THEM.

Quote - As long as he is Caucasian only, and having far fewer morphs than Ryan, I am not too terribly interested.

Have you tried finding a darker skin tone for Rex? 

He actually has more african features than your standard white guy. I'd say he's mixed at best, but definitely not full caucasian. A different skin tone would make those features more aparent I think.

Nice work btw Teyon. Too bad you can't share.

~Shane

killer mesh and textures can't find any flaws with your texture ,
just not so sure about the earlobes or the hard line around the lips.

Thanks gang!

Yeah, the line work there could have been softer.  The ears are just a flat color actually (and I don't think I did much sculpting on them). I only used a front projection for the photo texture work, so most of what you're seeing isn't photo, it's painted color. Truth told, I prefer hand painting a texture over using photos. I think photos should be used primarily for reference not for the actual map but I'm pretty alone in that when it comes to the Poser-verse.  I like the old school method of painting on sculptures and if I had my way, that'd be how we'd handle textures. In a situation like that, most of the work would be done in the actual sculpt/bump/displacement, with color being used to enhance that work. Instead, we tend to see folks relying on photos to do the bulk of the work, often even using the diffuse map as a bump map.  Then again, I'm just a modeler, so I could be talkin' out me butt.

I like the idea of a body room.  I don't know why you'd get the exception error but I can write a bug about it. Maybe it's something easily fixed?

I tried to design their faces so that they could easily become other ethnicities without a whole lot of effort - though asian is always tricky. My studies into bone structure of late has shown me that in order to do ethnicities correctly we'll need to also shift teeth, eyes and tongue in the process. I don't know if that was done in the past - I tried that with Miki 4 back when I was first exploring this (that was my first time trying to morph ehtnicities) but with the other figures I think it was strictly just feature changes without any thought to the underlying bones. That's not gonna be going down on my watch, lol.  So if I'm ever tasked with doing ethnic morphs, you can trust there'll be some attempt to get the structure right too. For now though, the Face Room does a decent job of things, though it doesn't shift the teeth (I don't think ) along with the face shape.  Anyways, Darrell and I are constantly learning how to make better characters, so you guys will reap the benefits of that as much as possible.

Thanks for following the thread gang. I'll try something more exotic and post that here too. Really see what can be done with them, ya know? For now, I have a Pern Dragon freebie thingie to finish off. Blasted wings are giving me a hell of a time.....

Quote - Truth told, I prefer hand painting a texture over using photos. I think photos should be used primarily for reference not for the actual map but I'm pretty alone in that when it comes to the Poser-verse.  I like the old school method of painting on sculptures and if I had my way, that'd be how we'd handle textures. In a situation like that, most of the work would be done in the actual sculpt/bump/displacement, with color being used to enhance that work. Instead, we tend to see folks relying on photos to do the bulk of the work, often even using the diffuse map as a bump map.  Then again, I'm just a modeler, so I could be talkin' out me butt.

Absolutely agree with this! Painted textures are much better.

Quote - Thanks gang!

Yeah, the line work there could have been softer.  The ears are just a flat color actually (and I don't think I did much sculpting on them). I only used a front projection for the photo texture work, so most of what you're seeing isn't photo, it's painted color. Truth told, I prefer hand painting a texture over using photos. I think photos should be used primarily for reference not for the actual map but I'm pretty alone in that when it comes to the Poser-verse.  I like the old school method of painting on sculptures and if I had my way, that'd be how we'd handle textures. In a situation like that, most of the work would be done in the actual sculpt/bump/displacement, with color being used to enhance that work. Instead, we tend to see folks relying on photos to do the bulk of the work, often even using the diffuse map as a bump map.  Then again, I'm just a modeler, so I could be talkin' out me butt.

I agree on the texturing. That's how I do mine. I just use photos as a base to build off of. It's too much photoshop work to try matching all the skin tones, even when all your photos come from the same reference. 

You should check out Scott Spencer if you haven't yet. Aside from being an excellent modeler, he has some great painting lessons in his first book, where he shows how to build realistic skin tones in zbrush using all primary colors and just spraypainting the model. When he's done it looks as real as any photos can get. 

I use his techniques along with photos, and I think it comes out a lot better than just photos alone. 

~Shane

I agree 100% Scoot Spencer and Scott Patton and Martin Krol are some of my texturing influences, along with the stuff I picked up from Danny Williams over at ZBrush Workshops last year. 

Those are some of the best in the industry.

I SOO want to do some ZB workshops. But I'm poor so I have to rely on youtube. Isn't that Ryan Kingslein's school?

~Shane

That is and it's well worth it. I'm still trying to get the job to pay for Bryan Wynia's course over at CGTalk or CGSociety I guess is what they're calling themselves these days. I totally paid for Danny's class myself and despite having years of ZBrush experience I learned a LOT. Not only that but the way Ryan does things is that alumni have access to that class for as long as it's taught. So Danny's on his third semester teaching the same class but each semester he approaches it differently and brings whatever new stuff he's learned (we're all always learning) and because I payed for that first semester, I get access to the other semesters free of charge.  Can't beat that with a bat. :)

Martin I just know from the old CGTalk days - he actually turned me on to ZBrush and is a super cool dude, as is Kolby Jukes - both great guys. I think I may even still have some of his old modeling videos he (Kolby) sent me somewhere. Man those were the days. Don't get to talk to them much anymore... :-(

Well that makes the pricing a bit more chewable. Didn't know you could get all the updated info. He should advertise that as an incentive.

But as it is I can barely afford groceries, so I have to learn on my own with bits I can scrape together. I just get books as often as I can. $50 is way more affordable for me than $900 or $1200. But some day, hopefully. I do have Ryan's game character book, but it's more of a primer to his anatomy class that he launched ZBWS with. It doesn't teach a whole lot without the class.

~Shane

Looking wonderful!

*"*I'd say he's mixed at best, but definitely not full caucasian." That was my exact impression. The world is increasingly mixed. It's already evident at the genetic level, becoming more evident at the morphological level. Not that there isn't a great need for distinct types but the 'Heinz 57' is a real representation of a lot of people.

Teyon! Talk to me! :biggrin:

Have you/SM ever contemplated a male equivalent for Miki4? And if not, why not! Miki4 is coming very close to being my new "A3", but she needs an "H3". (And a better Northern European morph).

Actually, at one point I had Miki 4 morphable into a male figure. As for a dedicated male to accompany her, nope, never really came up. That said, we've plenty of dudes. What were you thinking, a male that was specifically asian as a base?

I always thought that Koji was meant to be Miki's  male counterpart, but then he just up and disappeared.

Maybe. He was before my time in content. I was Tech Support back then I think, so I wasn't really privy to what the intent was with the figures. 

Quote - Actually, at one point I had Miki 4 morphable into a male figure. As for a dedicated male to accompany her, nope, never really came up. That said, we've plenty of dudes. What were you thinking, a male that was specifically asian as a base?

Hmmm.... possibly. Not sure. I'm just really liking Miki4 and would love to have a male equivalent - like A3 and H3. They'd make a great pair.

Yeah, but I never really got into Hiro, although I think H3 was miles better than H4. Just no clothes to match his style. I don't really like the bishonen (?) style for anime males, but at least it would have been something.

Koji was (is) IMO a very nice asian guy...

but then again I've always loved the G2 guys. Kelvin is still my #1 choice for an africanish guy - but I really like the Rex in your avatar. He looks good! As does this new morph/texture :)

Quote - Yeah, but I never really got into Hiro, although I think H3 was miles better than H4. Just no clothes to match his style. I don't really like the bishonen (?) style for anime males, but at least it would have been something.

There used to be quite a bit of H3 stuff at Daz. Some nice armour and other stuff I use quite often. Don't know if it's still around though.

I think there used to be a Karate Gi for him at DAZ. I remember I did some Karate poses for him a long time ago. I was really into doing poses even back then. Did some for A3, Hiro 3 and even the G2 girls. I put them up as freebies on Shar3d.com. I know the site is still there, surprisingly.

Well, it may be too late to make one for Miki 4 but since Miki is pretty much a constant here, I can pitch the idea to cooper for her next incarnation. Gotta be in it to win it, right?

Trekkiegirl, thanks! That was me just freestyling in Zbrush. I have actual refs (several - and none of me) that I can use for men and even some of women of African decent. So if I ever do an actual ethnic morph for these two, it'll be based on actual people.

That's looking like it'll be a cool morph down the road, Santel! You'll have to keep us updated on it. Annotate the templates? You want to know what bits are what on them, is that right?

Yes thanks and could you take a close look at his mouth. Something strange is hovering between his lips. I decided to try an expression morph and randomly chose the surprise morph which is set at .380 here. In the earlier render passes, indirect light and subsurface scattering, nothing was visible but at the finish of the render there was this strange object between the lips colored black and which looks detached from the lips.

I'm also slowly making some hair for him having just begun adding some strands for depth.

thanks for the compliment!

You're welcome. That looks like a displacment map separation. Either the inner mouth, lips and face use different maps or maps with different values. This will usually cause unwanted distortion and in lower res models it can cause an object to appear "split or broken".   Double check your materials.

Looks great Teyon,Santel and nobodyinparticular

have to say I love Roxie ,Rex and Miki4 

Rex and Roxie work fine in the face room - that is a feature of Poser that can certainly use an upgrade, especially as far as texture support goes.  The conforming lashes and the face room don't work together well though. However, I just delete the conforming lashes and grow some in the hair room. It took a little practice with the settings, but I think I have it figured out now.

Quote - Well, it may be too late to make one for Miki 4 but since Miki is pretty much a constant here, I can pitch the idea to cooper for her next incarnation. Gotta be in it to win it, right?

Definitely! And thanks. Most other figures get a partner, poor Miki4 is all on her own.

Hello Teyon, sorry I missed your question.

if you load Rex and Roxie "released versions", the lashes are selected as default and you get faceroom incompatibility.

As you said, select the heads, and all is pretty good.

As for the Miki 4 friend?

Yes Miki4 is quite popular and she could do with a boyfriend.
Actually, Miki4 is quite a good mesh. A bit dence for my taste, but, :-) hey we have Rex-Roxie now. 
But for a Miki4 boyfriend to bend well, the rigging would have to be adapted.

Hint: and all magnets removed or corrected.
If my memory is still OK after 54 years and at close to 2AM, she has unfortunate magnet symmetrical errors/ Magnets and magnet zones left-right are not the same.

ps.. don't know what the dark spots are at the edges of the eyes ?

Very nice textures!