Forum: Poser - OFFICIAL


Subject: Questions for clothing designers for weight mapped figures

an0malaus opened this issue on Jul 01, 2019 ยท 42 posts


an0malaus posted Sat, 06 July 2019 at 2:57 AM

Thanks for the further details. In the end, I think for my own understanding of all of the components in the figure and scene files, building this particular weight mapping by hand (adding the ghost bones and joint channel references), then letting Poser do the joint parameter and weight map transfers gives me more scope for troubleshooting. On the way, I had to write a few python scripts to compare and contrast morphs applied to other conformed figures to identify morphs which had no deltas at all (either by oversight or because they were irrelevant to that body part) and eliminate them [Typically full body morphs named after a BODY value parameter which dials in a collection of other morphs. If all of the component morphs have already been transferred, then FBMs with the collective name that actually have deltas are redundant and duplicate the effect]. Another script examined and corrected value operations controlling the conformer's morphs, and ensuring they derive from the appropriate body part on the base figure. A third does the same ERC application for base deformer channels inherited by the clothing.

Having written and debugged all of those functions, I'm confident with the resulting transfers. There's still a lot that it would be nice to be able to automate, such as selecting a relevant subset of morphs to transfer without user intervention, but the Python API has not exposed such methods, yet.

One of the difficulties I see with weight mapping, apart from everything you describe above, is that unlike zones, they do not define a field, where the weight value at points away from the surface is defined. Projection, as you describe it, is one way to achieve that, but has no adjustable algorithm, that I'm aware of, to vary the projection strength.

The particular example I'm thinking of is my attempts to weight map the internal organ figures that are available for V4, specifically the mammary glands, which are detailed three dimensional structures, not just a convex hull. Adjusting or painting the weight maps on the internal facets of such a figure is a nightmare in Poser. The weight painting tool just doesn't quite deliver the ability to weight vertices within a volume smoothly. Only at the currently visible surfaces. Having a python script need to write a pose file and then apply it just to modify weight maps doesn't help either.



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