ader posted at 12:11AM Fri, 12 July 2019 - #4355865

In this pic note how the PoserPlace WM fixes the shoulder but elbow is not wonderful. Alfaseed WM is better (I think PoserPlace shoulder is better than AlfaseeD but in my opinion better to have both looking decent than one looking great and the other not good). All figures are using the fitness morph set to 1.

I think Sasha_2019 is the best V4 of all - especially now she supports so many morph packages.

I did a similar set of tests a few years ago, using the weight-mapped V4's by PoserPlace, Alfaseed, and Nerd3D, as well as a V4 with the various "Perfect" fixes loaded. Given that my characters are always clothed, I was most interested in bends in the arms and legs (and less so in the areas typically covered by clothing).

The "Perfect" fixes produced what I thought were the best-looking bends, but at the cost of inflating file sizes for both figures and clothing, so I decided they weren't for me. Of the WM options, I thought Nerd3D's produced the best bends in the most troublesome areas, and I also liked how lightweight it was and how easy to apply to clothing (using Nerd3D's pose file rather than the standard "magnetize" pose file). So for a year or so, I set up all my V4 characters using a Nerd3D WM "base."

And then I came across Sasha-16 -- and I have to say, her weight mapping is the LEAST of all the cool things about her, and the weight mapping is excellent! While the other solutions were focused mainly on improving how V4 bends, Karina's solution covers so much more, to the point that S-16 feels like a brand new figure, with all the features I want in a figure PLUS the ability to use all the V4 content I've amassed w/o needing to convert anything.

Here are some of the features I love:

• all the "Easy Posing" controls on the Body actor, which make posing a joy
• the nifty new posing controls for the hands
• all the extra morphs for shaping body and head, as well as the extra expressions
• all the little tweaks to enhance posing, like the ability to make her butt squish down when seated or to make her toes wiggle
• the "Looks" dial for the eyes, which produces solid red lines to show what the eyes are focused on
• the "True Age and Height" dial, for adjusting height and proportions
• the various "controls" that effect other things, like "strength" dials that apply to all pose and expression dials, the "collar control" feature, and the feet bending presets (to help w/ shoe fit)
• the way all the dials (esp. on Body and Head) are organized neatly and logically, keeping Shaping dials separate from Body Language/Expression dials

Because S-16's rig is new, conforming clothing will seem a little offset when you first load it, but the fix is as easy as applying a "magnetize" pose: For shirts, shoes, and anything else that doesn't include the hip area, using Poser's "Copy Joint Zones From" works like magic. For pants and shorts, using the "Copy S-16 Joint Centres" pose that comes with the package does the trick.

I truly cannot thank Karina enough for making such a wonderfully usable version of V4 available to Poser users who want to continue using V4, for whatever reason! And I can't wait until the M4 version is ready!!

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TOOLS: MacBook Pro; Poser Pro 11; Cheetah3D; Photoshop CC

FIGURES: S-16 (improved V4 by Karina), M4, K4, Mavka, Toons, and Nursoda's people

GOALS: Stylized and non-photorealistic renders in various fantasy styles