My son is into Minecraft, and wants to do some Minecraft-related renders. I told him I would help him rig a version of his character in Poser. I think I'm about to have to learn a bunch of new skills, just to make that happen. I have a book about rigging, and the figure seems pretty simple. But I have a bunch of questions I can't even formulate. I've never uv mapped anything and I don't know how it works, and I think it would be nice if the figure could still take Minecraft skins. What else do I need to know that I don't even know that I need to know?

I want to add that I'm not attached to doing it all myself. If someone has already made this, I'd rather just use that.

I don't recall what Minecraft's figures are formatted in.... usually there are some free 3d party apps like Milkshape3d, XNALara for exporting models from games (proprietary models are never to be sold, only used for creating art and even then some companies are skiddish about it.). Valve has a 3d video program for creating movies.

http://www.sourcefilmmaker.com/

Tutorial https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xG02JftoiLU

The program is free, but if you download Valve models it's a big download. You do need a Valve account (and an install of Steam) to use it.

Minecraft skins are pretty easy to make and fully supported by Minecraft. Here's a tutorial on skins at Instructables

http://www.instructables.com/id/Your-Easy-Guide-to-Minecraft-Skins/?ALLSTEPS

On a side note, WoW Blender is fantastic. Just discovered this older video on exporting/importing a world to Blender. Mind you it's an older video but should still work.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Bs3wCfmV_U

It might be easier to sculpt a figure using either Blender or Wings3d (both free). Both can do some UV mapping. On rigging, you could rig it in poser (using the poser bone system). You'd have to read a tutorial or several... Hope this helps a bit.

Hmmm. If you are considering using the block-characters you can certainly just go into the group editor to separate polygons for different colors and avoid the uv-mapper entirely. Just an idea, not a proven technique.

Thanks. I found one that is rigged for Blender, is there a way to use that and keep the rigging , or would I have to rig it myself in Poser? I'm away from my computer so I can't download it right now.

if your going to get in to all of this stuff probably best to do it in blender anyways

I'm intimidated by Blender, it seems very complicated. I intend to learn it someday, but how long would I have to study it before I could jump right into a project? We've basically decided to model the thing from scratch anyway though, so that it belongs to him.

Well, that sounds like a good idea.

By all means much better than having to learn Blender first - if I had to do that then the figure would probably be ready in the year 25-25, and people would ask "Minecraft - WHAT?"

So use the tools you already know to get the best result you can achieve NOW - and fast! Before Minecraft becomes just another forgotten computer game... and your son has become a mid-aged IT specialist.

Just a thought. Best regards.

Peter

AsteroidLady posted at 5:50PM Sat, 09 January 2016 - #4248101

I'm intimidated by Blender, it seems very complicated. I intend to learn it someday, but how long would I have to study it before I could jump right into a project? We've basically decided to model the thing from scratch anyway though, so that it belongs to him.

You just jump in to the middle of the pacific ocean with out knowing how to swim. Good Luck.

hears a life jacket you half to make your own ship thou.

you can't create from scratch with poser.

there's 2 ways to make game characters.

1.box model ,uvmap and make maps

2.sculpt ,retopologize ,uvmap and make maps. strongly advice Wacom tablets for sculpting.

Blender can box model,sculpt ,retopologize ,uvmap. Blender can sculpt normal n bumps ,displacement. I've never colored textured in Blender so can't say about the colored textures.

I use https://www.allegorithmic.com/products/substance-live.

time frame If your very dedicated and determined. 6 months to learn blender. 3 months to learn substance-live. to make a half way descent game mesh. years to make Vickys = I like you tube tutorials. Good Luck.

Lurking.

Why does he want to render Minecraft characters as images? The game already renders them as moving objects. He could create by making videos.

I agree with Fibbits. He could make machinima right in the game. And record it with a program like FRAPS

with a coulpe of friends and a minecraft server he could make scenes for movies then edit them together with video editing software.

But if you want to use blender here is a good place to get prerigged mincraft assets both internal and cycles:

rymdnisse.net

Sorry to spam I also wanter to point out that there is a good tutorial in the comments section on the blender rig page at rymdnisse.net that shows how to setup and use the rig.

Oh also the rig is free.

He has a Youtube channel. He does record from the game. He makes still images for his thumbnails etc., which he edits in Paint Shop Pro. I don't know; because he wants to. I haven't worked much more on it since I last posted, because I'm still undecided whether to learn to use Blender or figure out how to get them into Poser. Either way it's a project, and I'll have to learn a bunch of new stuff, but either way it's something I wanted to learn anyway. Thanks to everyone.

I passed the idea on to him that he could use Fraps to make Minecraft-based movies and get his friends that he plays with to be actors in it and do voice-overs, but he didn't go for it. :( I would do it , if I were 12 and I played Minecraft. One of his objections was , "There 's all that stuff on the screen."

There is a set of Minecraft models available for Steam's Source Film Maker...

https://sfmlab.com/item/35</https:>

If you don't want to mess with SFM, I think that they can be converted; his page says that they can be converted and brought into Blender; you should then be able to export as a Collada file to bring into Poser; noting that I've never actually tied this...

EDiT: Oops, forgot the link...

https://www.reddit.com/r/Unity3D/comments/2qy84t/sfm_models_in_unity_importing_vtx_models_with/

Thanks. Question: how do I keep them from loading sideways into Poser?

Btw flibbits, your idea is brilliant. I was disappointed my son didn't go for it. It's an interactive world, and they can do whatever they want. I hope somebody does it.

Turbosquid has some minecraft models. They aren't ready for Poser but I bought one set and after a bit of work got the blocks and tree re-textured and poser ready. I haven't tried rigging the character though. But if you're looking for obj files to work with you might take a look at what's available there.

I saw them, they look good. I tried importing a Collada into Poser from Blender, and as I said, it loads sideways, because the axes are different in Blender. Seems like someone must have figured out the solution to that, but I googled it and couldn't find it. If we could just get one in there he could start making pictures with it and there would be less of a rush on modeling one ourselves.

If you choose .obj as your export format from Blender you can set your "Forward" and "Up" axis in the export options.

But there's no way to fix it with a collada?

Have you tried just simply rotating your scene in Blender so that "Y" is up before exporting with collada?

Blender also has a forum here .might come in useful for Blender

Buy me Poser File Editor by Dimension3d here in the store and I'll build, uv, and rig one of the fellows for you. 26 bucks. Just sayin', not a bad price for a custom built rigged character. All rights yours of course. If you have doubts as to my ability to create such a figure, download one of my figures and take a look.

You could build these characters right inside poser with the cube primitives and the grouping tool. Weld, rig, paint, all within Poser.

(haven't you guys ever read any of Dr Geep's tutorials? ;)

Spoilsport.

(I disagree with the paint part). Not sure any welding would be required either.

lol. Just set up different material zones and color them in the material room. That's your paint.

Kinda figured. Lol.

Setting up materials and groups in Poser is such a PITA. I do like the grouping tool though, after the fact. I thought I heard it got some improvements in Poser 11, maybe I'm mistaken. If not... it should.

It was improved in Poser 10 actually. It's mostly the only thing I use for grouping. Sometimes I'll group in zbrush, but that actually winds up being more work than its worth if it's something with a lot of groups, cause I just have to go in and duplicate, rename and delete all the groups in poser, so I might as well save myself time and do it all in Poser to begin with. The mirror function is a huge time saver.

I usually assign groups as materials and do some .obj text editing in conjunction with the grouping tool. That cthog head figure with the easypose tentacles was a treat. 120 groups, lets just say... I dislike grouping tentacled things. Finishing up some conformer ball joint hands for my missus figure... after that, maybe another monster.

I've never text edited an obj. wouldn't even know where to begin. numbers make me go cross-eyed.

OT, but are your 2 figures going to be commercial endeavors? That's a scary commitment of time in any case. Look at how Anton and ODF dropped out. I mentioned this as the curse of the Indy Figure Creator to Erogenesis. He didn't seem concerned... it's a hell of an effort to end up burnt and burned out. The whole realistic figure jammy doesn't seem worth the time... just my perspective/creative outlook. I'd rather spend a couple of months on something, do the best I can with that and move on to the next standalone. I still don't get why Sixus1 threw his hat into the realistic figure arena... out of the blue. Some reward in that case. What a mess of meanness. Strict realism isn't my strong suit anyway, work whatcha got.

Yes. I make content for a living. That's what I went to school for - bachelors of science in computer animation with a focus on organic modeling. I'm not working for a studio because I live in BFE. I don't know what those others thoughts or intentions were. ODF - wasn't that the guy who made Antonia? I thought that was just a pet project in his spare time that he released to the wilds.

Yeah... that's ODF. BFA here. Ceramic sculpture and typical painting, drawing. I used to work as a production artist, and some gallery stuff. I moved to the suburbs and started doing construction. It's slow now, more time to play. I don't really have much ambition for the art world or even this stuff... especially considering the level of talent that's out there and the whole keeping up with the jones' tech carrot on the stick. I'm old and tired, lol... My little Poser chatchkes are enough for me. Look! It moved! He he. I don't have illusions, just too much caffeine. Nice talkin, G'night.

I really wouldn't advise using Poser to create characters or to make anything actually.

ODF was here for years n years ,he made Antonia for free open source and then left. If you want your character to succeed .probably best to stick around.

Sixus1 caught a lot of heat over the rigs. I don't know if the rigs are being redone or what's going on.

AmbientShade & Erogenesis W.I.P.s in the works. I wish you both lots of success.

Dawn's progress was just to slow for the masses .the morph pack was released way to late.

If your going to follow DAZ's philosophy way of doing things. I'd advise a talented 3D crew that's really fast.

I like a good challenge.

But let's not derail the thread. I'll be posting my own thread about my figures and some plans for them in the near future and we can talk about it there.

"I really wouldn't advise using Poser to create characters or to make anything actually."

So I see.

EldritchCellar posted at 6:33PM Thu, 21 January 2016 - #4250467

Buy me Poser File Editor by Dimension3d here in the store and I'll build, uv, and rig one of the fellows for you. 26 bucks. Just sayin', not a bad price for a custom built rigged character. All rights yours of course. If you have doubts as to my ability to create such a figure, download one of my figures and take a look.

Tempted. I'm assuming you would make it bend in more places than they do in Minecraft. He wants it to take the 1.8 skins (I could ask him for one to send you.)

Ok. When you say he wants it to take 1.8 skins do you mean you want it mapped to take preexisting textures? Never done that before. Not sure bout that one... could give it a shot though. I've only ever made unique uvs for my stuff. Puzzled.

If you've never done figure creation before and are new to uv mapping and modeling too and your son also wants it mapped to use game assets... Lol, not asking much is he. Sheesh, I wish you the best on that. But, like I said, I could take a stab at it. I'm sure a figure like that has just alot of planar/box mapping. Not difficult if you are a little familiar with uv mapping. Original uvs would be a snap, lining up the islands to accommodate those images might not be much of a thing. I'm operating under the assumption that you are looking for a from scratch built rendition of a minecraft mesh rather than a Poserized game mesh. (?)

You also might consider the fact that with a best case scenerio outcome, my pay rate for this project would probably amount to 2 bucks an hour (I'm slow) if I'm lucky. Lol.

As a little philosophical musing; is it any wonder that the quality of 3d products for Poser are of a generally substandard or knocked out quality with little innovation or creative risk taking considering the labor/reward ratio. Look how much a safety pin will cost you at turbosquid. There are exceptions... but that is really the exception. It's a vicious circle I think.

If you want to do this and you think you can do what he wants, you have a deal. I think he just wants to pose the guy for artistic cover pictures for his videos. He makes his own skins and wants to be able to use them on it. He's not home right now, but I googled the skins, and found this template: His laptop was stolen recently so he's having to start over on a lot of things. I don't really know what he was doing before because it's not my thing.

Gotta bail on that.

Not that the mapping is difficult at all, it's a bunch of unwrapped boxes. I just don't feel commited enough to have to operate under the unknown qualities of him using game assets on an original figure. There's too many restrictions to operate under with too many unforseen problems. Sorry. I was assuming that this was going to be a casual figure creation exercise... this just sounds like a gigantic PITA. Lol. Apologies Asteroid Lady... I was mistaken. You've got quite alot in your plate if you're new to this considering the guidelines. The figure modeling/rigging part is a breeze. Fussing with the UVs and the textures and the back and forth logistics and the "I'm assuming its going to bend more" is a little more than my own project time and potential 1/4 of what a burger flipping teenager makes as compensation allows for...nevermind.

I think in the past week I've had a dozen" shoulda kept my mouth shut" events. Lol. Thought I was being helpful. Shrugs.

Ok. Sorry to be so difficult. It was nice of you to offer.

I'll lend whatever advice I can though. I personally think this is a fools errand for you to be truthful, all things considered. Either use a poserized game mesh mapped for those maps out of the box or have him utilize machinima. If neither of those are viable. Square 1. New figure, and new maps/customized for the mesh that look like the maps he has.

I'm glad you understand. I feel a little foolish actually. Lol. What's new.

I coulda sworn Vanishingpoint made some minecraft Poser figures. I can't find any links though