I recently acquired Mike and Vicki. It appears that Pose Sets created especially for Mike or Vicki work best with them. It does seem that one could tweak some poses and make them work ok. Would it be acceptable to take the tweaked pose that works, and add it to a Pose Library for either Mike or Vicki, then release as a Freebie? Would that offend anyone? Would it be worthwhile? Of course, I could try to make my own poses with Mike & Vicki then give them away? Is it best to pose these characters without hair and/or clothes to be sure everything works for everyone else?!

Well, as someone who offers poses, both for free and for sale, I strongly suggest that you give credit to the original artists before posting any "tweaked" poses. In fact, you may want to actually the artist's permission- they may not want their poses "tweaked" and posted (for free) by someone else. And it is easier to pose a character without clothing (just be sure to "lock" the hair. And I would be very careful when making Vikcky or Mike poses- they come loaded with morph targets that may affect a character's shape when the pose is applied. --John

I would definitly ask Schlabber's permission before posting any tweaked poses (He may have already done them for Vicky in his CD!). At any rate, he's a pretty good guy and would probably work something out with you. If you're going to make Vicky poses to post, do it with the base character, not one that's had any of the morphs applied! When you save the pose to the pose library, Poser will ask you if you want to include any morphs -- Check the "NO" box. This will avoid having ANY morphs applied when the pose is used. Have fum! Jim

First, Mr. Hoagland should know of my desire to give proper credit for poses. (I showcase some of his poses on my site.) Second, this is very much the first phase of the idea: Asking questions, and seeing just what options there are. It seems that it might be easier to make poses from scratch than to tweak poses that someone made for the Poser 4 dork, or Posette. And when I think of such a thing, I get easily intimidated by the potential scope of the project. As for hair, I have an idea that it is not a good idea to have hair involved unless someone else uses the same exact model with the same hair. That's why we have so many poses that cause our figures to flip their wigs.

Before you get started, you should develop good techniques. You should develop poses using a figure that is stripped to bare essentials. No clothing and no hair certainly. But beyond this, use a figure with no morphs but joint fixes. Vic 2 has two major fixes: one knee (two actually) and one elbow, and several minor ones. Remove smile and the other face expression morphs. These have their own Library of poses. Mike 1 has no joint fixes so this figure should just be joint rotations. You can then save a pose with or without morphs, in fact, you want to save the joint fix settings. Without a morph channel listing to begin with, the pose cannot affect the morphs of other figures. You have four joint systems with Vic and Mike that you should pose with care. 1-Butt-thigh - I do 1:1 for all rotations - but butt stops @ bend -40 2-Collar-shoulder - 1:1 for rotations until 30-35 -except bend down -which is shoulder only - twist is also tricky. 3- abdomen-chest 1:1 all directions 4- neck-upneck-head 1-0.7-0.4 all directions. I have read that some consider butt and collar to be just transitional regions to be ignored. I do not agree with this. The JP settings provide this. As for tweaking, my suggestion: do it, but keep them to yourself. Only offer original stuff for general distribution. You just have to get over the sense of waste. We all do. Many providers get annoyed if you poach on their territory. What could be lost by angering an original contributor and having them withdraw is more than what is gained. All of us can adapt stuff. Those with original sight are rare and valuable.

It does indeed appear that to err on the side of silence-- e.g. not offering tweaked poses, unless the original artists are keen to have you do it-- is the wisest course. But would a tutorial on tweaking be out of place? Surely the community at large that still doesn't have Victoria and Michael (not naming names... erm... mea culpa) would benefit from the experience of one well accustomed to helping poses translate from one model to another? If it's feasible, that is.

I just started dabbling in poses myself and found that starting from scratch is the best. You can control the twists, turns, bends, etc. much better than trying to tweak someones elses work. Besides, its sooo much satisfying to know that the work done is your own :))

If you've got a set that you had your eye on doing, contact the original artist. Lots of them are incredibly nice, especially about giving permission or not. If they do give permission: abide by their restrictions, give credit, and away you go. If they don't: that's life. Make it for yourself and move on to the next thing. Anyway, it never hurts to ask. Schlabber is in the chat room lots and he's a really nice guy. Prolly WON'T want you posting tweaks as he's now selling his CD (and put LOTS of work into it), but who knows....

Believe me, I'm just trying to figure everything out. I got Mike and Vicki because it seemed like they were the "standard," and worked the best. Now it seems many of the poses won't work. I'm just trying to understand the alternatives. I'm not trying to do any one thing just yet...if at all.