Hi,

Making clothing for La'Femme and L'Homme but have no idea how to create surface groups from within Poser. I can create the polygroups from inside ZBrush but when the figure is processed and fitted to the figure those go away and are replaced with the main figures groupings.

Thanks for the help!

Richard

There are many work flows in and out of Poser. The Poser only way is to use the grouping tool

• Select the object you want to work with,
• Open the group tool
• Create a new group
• with the paint or rectangle selection tool choose the polygons you want
• [Assign Material] and type in the name of a new material or pick an existing one.

This will force the creation of a new OBJ which will be divided at the body parts (Bad)

So to achieve this without breaking the OBJ ...

• In a new scene Import the figure ( or object's ) geometry.
• Be careful to not move the object.
• DO NOT edit any of the existing groups. That will break your figure.
• Now use the group tool as above to create the new material groups.
• Export the OBJ, backup the original and replace it.
• Use these options ...

This method will not break the OBJ and while it's a couple more steps, it's the preferred method.

Thank you so so much!

So finally got around to trying this way. Seems a bit old school. Is there a bridge to any program that I can use to make this happen quicker? I have ZBrush and could essentially send this over there, create new polygroups and it would be cool to have it come back and have all that in place! Another idea I had was send the OBJ directly from Poser, import it into ZBrush, create the polygroups and then some how transfer those to the already rigged item in Poser. Must be a faster way to go about this.

One of the issues I had with trying it from within Poser is that I don't see a symmetry option! Having to repeat this action for a suit that's going to have ALLOT of surface groups will take me a week of free time to get all that done from within Poser. Even with extra time on my hands these days it's not how I want to spend it! LOL

Just group it in an external modeler. Or in zbrush, though it's been a few years since I've used zbrush. For grouping I use Wings3D. Very nuts and bolts modeler, you'd probably want to go with blender but all the other bells and whistles of blender tend to make things confusing. Although no doubt zbrush is very capable usually you'd want to do grouping and poly by poly selection type stuff in a polygonal modeler rather than a sculpting app, otherwise you wouldn't be asking for an easier way. Just my 2 cents, not to be misunderstood as being obtrusive. As far as I can tell with most of this stuff, even the most automated easy way is still pretty labor intensive, just the nature of this kind of content creation.

Part of the problem might be because you're working with rigged figures. In Poser, to use the grouping tool, you need to work with each body part separately. You can't create a group while the body is selected and if you have the hip selected, you can't add polygons from the arm To create material groups open the grouping tool. Add a new group.

Select polygons you want to change the material for.

Click on assign material. type a name in the box and click okay

Switch to the next body part you want to work with. Add a new group.

Add the polygons you want to change

Click on assign material and scroll to the material you already added, or add another new one

repeat with each body part until you have them all changed

EldritchCellar posted at 9:48PM Tue, 07 July 2020 - #4394106

Just group it in an external modeler. Or in zbrush, though it's been a few years since I've used zbrush. For grouping I use Wings3D. Very nuts and bolts modeler, you'd probably want to go with blender but all the other bells and whistles of blender tend to make things confusing. Although no doubt zbrush is very capable usually you'd want to do grouping and poly by poly selection type stuff in a polygonal modeler rather than a sculpting app, otherwise you wouldn't be asking for an easier way. Just my 2 cents, not to be misunderstood as being obtrusive. As far as I can tell with most of this stuff, even the most automated easy way is still pretty labor intensive, just the nature of this kind of content creation.

I use ZBrush primarily as my modeler. I have played with Wings and didn't suit me. ZBrush now has a built in modeler called ZModeler and it's very good and efficient. If you still have your license your entitled to a free upgrade (still not charging for upgrades WOOT) so you may want to check that out. I have Blender but it DOES have allot going for it and it's a bit too daunting for me but I do love the leaps and bounds it's made these past two upgrades in regards to the interface!

So I sent the suit to ZBrush, whipped up the polygroups, Re UV'd it and saved it out as an OBJ and then opened up my handy dandy Ultimate Unwrap 3D Pro app and set up all groups to named Surface groups and saved it back out. In DAZ Studio there is a way import the updated OBJ with updated UV's to replace the one your working with and not loose the rigging or weight mapping. If there was a work around in Poser to do that I'd love it. If not I guess I just start from scratch an bring that one in and fit to La'Femme and discard the other.

That is why GoZ exists in Poser. Send mesh from Poser to Zbrush. Work on said model and GoZ back to Poser. Direct method of moving between both programs. Been there for a couple of versions now. I used to use it between PP2014 and zBrush 4r4.

Well when I finished with all my work and sent it back to Poser via GoZ the only options I got where to make a morph even though all I did was add in polygroups and re UV'd it. So not sure how to send it to ZBrush with what options ticked to give me more options when going back!

AFAIK GoZ will only send info on the vertex positions - so no go for new groups or UV data. When I've created a figure in the past, after I had the obj file in the Geometries and the cr2 pointed to it, I replaced that obj with a modified version without problems on several occasions. Obviously backups are important ;)

Also, I think the Group Editor in Poser has a mirror option, but I don't have it open right now to check.

OK, thank you. I did look for the mirror options but couldn't find one. There is one in the morph brush editor but none that I could find in the Group Editor

caisson posted at 5:04PM Wed, 08 July 2020 - #4394168

Also, I think the Group Editor in Poser has a mirror option, but I don't have it open right now to check.

It does, for the add, remove, and modify drop downs...

Also, beside their obvious uses, Wings3d and UVMapper Classic ( both free) have very useful obj utility features...

parkdalegardener posted at 6:14PM Wed, 08 July 2020 - #4394136

That is why GoZ exists in Poser. Send mesh from Poser to Zbrush. Work on said model and GoZ back to Poser. Direct method of moving between both programs. Been there for a couple of versions now. I used to use it between PP2014 and zBrush 4r4.

There's also Colorcurvature's Poser Morph Loader scripts. It does what GoZ does in terms of welding and groups but for any external program (including Zbrush). Allows you to work on a from in scene mesh without unwelding problems and such. You can export your fully morphed figure from in scene, welded, morph more, and reimport without vertex order problems...

I use the grouping tool. I select a body part, create a new group, select the polygons I want in that body part, and assign it to a new material name. I then do the same with another body part and assign it that same material name. And repeat until all affected body parts have this new material name assigned.