Someone did one and talked about it here, can anyone remember that thread? Marque

Doesn't credo have some nice tutorials?

Not for the fingers on the models. I did the tutorials and they are great, very clear, but the fingers were distorted because the credo model doesn't have fingers to map, just hands. Marque

Attached Link: http://www.angrymob.net/animation.htm

hmm. Have you tried importing a figure with fingers to lifeform? Custom figures can be loaded & matched to the current figures bodyparts in the BVH files. It only needs to be done once, then you seave the figure. Not too many bvh files have finger info. If you have max, perhaps you can export a biped file of your own design as a 3ds (with motion info) file into Lifeforms..... Are you very good at Lifeforms? I'm in the process of deciding on using Lifeforms, or trying to do everything in Character Studio. I don't think Poser BVH exports have any finger info either.

Just learning and I think it's pretty powerful. I don't use Max, I use C4D and Lightwave so I don't have the option of using Character Studio. Marque

try to set the axis of the fingers in the right direction, this should help. mapping the Credo default fingers joint to groups of Michael finger1-finger2-finger3 spreads the motion.

Its simple : animate mike/vicky/raptor or dork etc export from poser as BHV Motion

open the bvh file in lifefroms and it become an animateble sketelon that can be reimported in poser as a BVH file that will animate your poser character

I don't understand. What I want to do is use lifeforms to do the animations, not poser. How do I import a poser person, say mike, to lifeforms to use as a lifeform model to then map and animate mike with. The ones in lifeforms don't have fingers, so I'm wanting to create a custom lifeforms figure that I can use when I want to create a bvh of that poser character. See what I mean. I have created a bvh of mike, brought him in and used the lifeforms model to animate him and create a bvh, but the fingers were screwed up because the lifeform model does not have fingers. Thanks, Marque

apologies sir, I believe i now fully inderstand your question. You need a segmented low poly version of mike with the same number of vertices as the hi ploy single skin zygote mesh the default lifeform figures are low poly segmented models and are easily posed and animated in lifeforms. You have a couple of options: you can model one from scratch or you can export mikes mesh( with separate object groups for each body part ) into a program like lightwave or Cinema 7 and reduce the polygogon count to 10,000 or less. you must then set the joint axis's and pivot points to certain values that are explained in detail in chapter 11 beginning on page 223 of the Manual. you can then import this custom mesh ( with fingers) into life froms and animated it like the default life forms figures. However you can also use mikes very own skeleton when i say "Animate " him first in poser i really mean very a slight movement involving one keyframe this will create a BVH skeleton that can be imported into LF. once in lifefroms you select the skel at frame one in the time line and use the "reset to default shape" command which returns him to the "arms out" stance. now delete any other frames after frame one and you will have a skeleton already joint mapped for mike that you can add new key frames and animate within lifeforms from there you can import animation data from other BVH files combine, thin create blend zones. rotoscope to live footage etc and when done export the new custom BVH you created back into mike in poser and hit the play button.

That's madam....lol I was reading about it in the manual last night and what you say clears it up a bit. I'm going to hit it again today and see what happens. I'm so used to just jumping in a being able to figure it out that it gets frustrating to have to read and then do....lol Thanks so much for your help, I will be printing this out and putting it in the book for reference. 8^) I'll let you know how it goes, hopefully with a finished product dancing around the room like a little monkey. 8^) Marque

Are you using the 3.5 manual or the 3.9 manual? I'm a little pissed, just got off the phone with Credo and they tell me I should have gotten a manual with my update to 3.9 The only thing I got was my 3.9 CD in the mail, no manual. Waiting for them to email me to let me know if I will be getting a hard copy or at least a pdf. Marque

I am using the 3.9055 or something manual its very good as far as software manuals go Apologies for the gender mistake BTW. heard anything aboiut the new release?? lifeforms xt

I'm pretty disappointed overall. Seems the people that originally sold me my 3.5 put in the records that they gave me a free update to 3.9, when I actually paid for it. They also stated that I bought it with Reel Motions in a package deal, which I didn't. They have me as a registered owner, but now it appears I have to go back through my receipts and find the original charges to my credit cards....sigh. Do you have the pdf of the manual? She says it will cost me $29 for the hard copy and that she has to "find" a copy of the pdf for 3.9 Frustrating, I paid a lot of money for this program. Won't be buying or recommending them to anyone. They just emailed me a while ago and said.... A couple of suggestions from our tech support team: 1. check axis orientation in Lifeforms - when imported the axis might change in certain segments - ie the fingers , pelvis and neck. This is because when lifeforms brings in a model, it guesses the axis angle based upon the geometry width and length and those particular ones seems to get changed. check orientation should be pointing to finger tips. 2.Do nott do finger animation in Life forms. Do broader animations and import into Poser then animate fingers there - delete animation from fingers if you have to in Poser and animate there. So I guess I will give it a shot. Thanks for your help. If you do have a pdf version of the manual I would appreciate a copy, the help files I'm looking at in the program are different from the manual. Marque