Hi folks!

First up, it's great to be back!! I honestly though the Poser Forums had disappeared a couple of years ago, so it's great to see I just misplaced them! :D

Okay, the main reason for this post is, does anyone remember a "Ghost" script several years ago? I bought it back in the RDNA days and it was the best thing for Halloween images. Roll forward to a hard drive crash 18 months ago and a box of corrupted DVDs, followed by winning a copy of Poser-12 recently, and suddenly I realise just how great that script was!

In a nut-shell, does either Poser 11 or Poser 12 have anything similar already built-in? Or does anyone know who I might reach out to, in order to buy a new copy of that Ghost script?

Thank you in advance! :D

 - Alastair

I don't have a script, but I have ghost materials amongst my freebies.  It has materials for both Firefly and Superfly.  Examples:

I do remember something like that.I think I have it. It's called Spirits something, I think. It had MATs for the unimesh figures and for several popular hair and clothing items. You could make figures transparent, in whole or in part.

The bad news is old scripts don't run in Poser 12. It uses a different version of Python. It was unavoidable; Python 2 reached its end of life, so they had to switch Poser to Python 3. 

So even if you found the script...it wouldn't work in Poser 12. 

There's a product in the store that does something like that.

https://www.renderosity.com/rr/mod/bcs/?ViewProduct=98608

But it uses Semidieu's Advanced Shaders script. Once a freebie at RDNA, no longer available now. And it wouldn't run in Poser 12 anyway.

ATM, stick with seachnasaigh shaders just because they work with both Firefly and Superfly.

I found the vendor of the "spirits" product. It might be from PoserPros. The vendor was Cyllan. Among other things, you could make the figure more transparent on the bottom.  It was specific for the unimesh figures, though.

It's not a script, and it does work in Poser 12. Though the shaders end up glossier than they did in older versions of Poser, especially if you render in Superfly. Cyllan has some products at PoserAddicts, but not this one. He had some stuff at Content Paradise for awhile, but doesn't seem to be active in Poserdom any more.

seachnasaigh posted at 2:49 PM Wed, 20 October 2021 - #4429162

I don't have a script, but I have ghost materials amongst my freebies.  It has materials for both Firefly and Superfly.  Examples:

Thank you, seachnasaigh! I'll have to look for those. They look *much* better than the ones I created a few years ago!

Sadly, mine were based off the actual Ghost script. So while I (technically) can still add the materials, they end up just as transparencies, like in your first image here - the other body parts can be seen through them. What I would realistically like to do is recreate the effect from your second image, where body parts *behind* transparent areas are still concealed.

I'm thinking the script for multiple renders will produce the shadows (Ambient Occlusion?) layer, which can be photoshopped to produce the same effect. But the less Photoshop work, the better! :D

Thank you to everyone for their input on this thread!

If I recall, to help with not seeing through things, you turn off the visible in raytracing, but it's been a long time since I've tested this.

I have a Superfly shader that does that type of effect based on Blender Cycles.  I never tested it on Firefly, just Superfly.  Which render engine do you intend to use for your images?

Surely the easiest way is to render the figure and the background separately, them comp 'em together in Photoshop.  Set up something for the figure to give a ghostly inner glow - Edge Blend does the job in Firefly - then render the figure.  Render the background alone, drop the figure in after and adjust transparency as desired.

Doing it that way, you have a transparent figure that is transparent only to the background, and not to various parts of itself.

A couple of minutes faffing.  You'll get better results with a bit of planning but this is an idea, based on my post above.

SamTherapy posted at 5:04 PM Thu, 21 October 2021 - #4429222

Surely the easiest way is to render the figure and the background separately, them comp 'em together in Photoshop.  Set up something for the figure to give a ghostly inner glow - Edge Blend does the job in Firefly - then render the figure.  Render the background alone, drop the figure in after and adjust transparency as desired.

Doing it that way, you have a transparent figure that is transparent only to the background, and not to various parts of itself.

That's cheating, for the "no postwork" crowd. ;-)

It is easy enough to do in Photoshop, but I have to admit, I'm curious about how Cyllan managed to do transparency gradients and such, just in Poser.

randym77 posted at 9:50 PM Thu, 21 October 2021 - #4429233

SamTherapy posted at 5:04 PM Thu, 21 October 2021 - #4429222

Surely the easiest way is to render the figure and the background separately, them comp 'em together in Photoshop.  Set up something for the figure to give a ghostly inner glow - Edge Blend does the job in Firefly - then render the figure.  Render the background alone, drop the figure in after and adjust transparency as desired.

Doing it that way, you have a transparent figure that is transparent only to the background, and not to various parts of itself.

That's cheating, for the "no postwork" crowd. ;-)

It is easy enough to do in Photoshop, but I have to admit, I'm curious about how Cyllan managed to do transparency gradients and such, just in Poser.

I prefer to avoid postwork but when something is trivially easy to achieve by other means, I'll cheat :D.

A ghost?

Cheating allowed (postwork)? Ok... here's mine ;)

randym77 posted at 9:50 PM Thu, 21 October 2021 - #4429233

SamTherapy posted at 5:04 PM Thu, 21 October 2021 - #4429222

Surely the easiest way is to render the figure and the background separately, them comp 'em together in Photoshop.  Set up something for the figure to give a ghostly inner glow - Edge Blend does the job in Firefly - then render the figure.  Render the background alone, drop the figure in after and adjust transparency as desired.

Doing it that way, you have a transparent figure that is transparent only to the background, and not to various parts of itself.

That's cheating, for the "no postwork" crowd. ;-)

It is easy enough to do in Photoshop, but I have to admit, I'm curious about how Cyllan managed to do transparency gradients and such, just in Poser.

He probably used texture coordinate nodes with some maths, it's how most shader gradients I've seen are done... probably seachnasaigh uses them alot. Bagginsbill certainly did.

More "cheating"

There are some "sheet ghost" products for sale in various stores. Not sure why you couldn't just use the high-res square in the cloth room, maybe with a texture map if you want eye holes.

randym77 posted at 5:40 AM Fri, 22 October 2021 - #4429243

There are some "sheet ghost" products for sale in various stores. Not sure why you couldn't just use the high-res square in the cloth room, maybe with a texture map if you want eye holes.

Probably because

A: I have drawing and painting abilities

and

B: I wasn't using Poser at the time

And perhaps C, why wouldn't I just use Zbrush, or Mudbox, or Carrara, or Modo, or Blender, or Photoshop.... other softwares I know how to use?

I'm not dependant on Poser to be an artist, I graduated from art college with honors and a degree in sculpture long before I even touched digital media. I just happen to like Poser.

...additionally I might counter with the question as to why you would need to buy "products" and seek out freebies, that is models created by other artists, to create your art works...  isn't that

Cheating?

Back on topic, depending on which version of Poser you're using, There's a ghost material for EZskin 3, but it doesn't work with the Poser 12 version.

SMH

randym77 posted at 5:40 AM Fri, 22 October 2021 - #4429243

There are some "sheet ghost" products for sale in various stores. Not sure why you couldn't just use the high-res square in the cloth room, maybe with a texture map if you want eye holes.

Here ya go

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1FVPLSgKqb8ykXoNuro6i1OEM34Jmzbrp/view?usp=drivesdk

Dynamic cloth plane sheet ghost prop. Uses Hi Res plane template if you want to make your own texture and transmap.

RedPhantom posted at 7:39 AM Fri, 22 October 2021 - #4429250

Back on topic, depending on which version of Poser you're using, There's a ghost material for EZskin 3, but it doesn't work with the Poser 12 version.

Unfortunately, it doesn't work in P11 either.  A couple of node connectors show up as dashed lines.  

This is perhaps what the OP is trying to achieve.

There is no transparency involved and it is rendered in Superfly P11.  If this is what is desired, I don't mind sharing the shader construct.  The thickness of the glowing outline can be controlled and everything is based on a stylized emission.  This is purely a Blender Cycles shader reconfigured for Poser.  Let me know and I'll post the Material Room shader.

randym77 posted at 3:10 PM Wed, 20 October 2021 - #4429163

The bad news is old scripts don't run in Poser 12. It uses a different version of Python. It was unavoidable; Python 2 reached its end of life, so they had to switch Poser to Python 3. 

So even if you found the script...it wouldn't work in Poser 12. 

That is for compiled scripts (.pyc).  If it is not compiled ( .py) it may run in Poser12 provided certain conditions are complied with. 

There are tools to decompile .pyc files into .py, which again may or mY not run in Poser12 as they are, or require some modifications.

hborre posted at 11:54 PM Fri, 22 October 2021 - #4429277

RedPhantom posted at 7:39 AM Fri, 22 October 2021 - #4429250

Back on topic, depending on which version of Poser you're using, There's a ghost material for EZskin 3, but it doesn't work with the Poser 12 version.

Unfortunately, it doesn't work in P11 either.  A couple of node connectors show up as dashed lines.  

By not working, I meant the shader script was still python 2. As far as dashed lines, I don't see those in 11. And I'm starting to think those aren't as much about "it doesn't work" as "That's not the proper use of that node", but when we're doing atypical shaders, we're likely to use nodes in unexpected ways. It's not so much about what Poser thinks should be done as what actually looks right.

Looks like OP's search for a usable ghost shader has been fulfilled by seach's shaders earlier in the thread. I doubt whatever hborre comes up with will be better or different. Unless any of you are going to paint full body gradient transmaps for several figures, requires 3d painting really (gasp), or actually provide a working script the on topic is moot other than jabbering. Seems to me. It's the difference between actually doing something and wind.

For those who may be experimenting with developing a ghost material, I think that transparency is not going be satisfactory.  Bagginsbill's ghost material from some years back uses refraction;  that is what I'm using.  It will only "see" the forward-facing polys.   This allows you to move the camera or re-pose the doll and still get the desired effect, whereas a transmap would only work for a fixed perspective.

I also added in lightcasting (look at the ground beneath the fire sprite, and the metal tabletop under the green wireframe sci-fi girl).  If you use @SamTherapy's method, you could render the background with a blue point light to compensate.

Render settings will need to allow for plenty of transmission bounces so that the refraction can reach back to the camera.  If the doll's mouth is closed, apply the invisible MT5 to the inner mouth parts;  that will reduce the number of transmission bounces needed.  I set transmission bounces high, like 64, since the render engine will only use as many bounces as needed to complete the raytracing path anyway.

Refraction is used to successfully exploit the "invisible in raytracing" state - where a refraction ray cannot intersect any part of the body, whether back-facing or not. The result is a tongue or teeth are only seen if the mouth is open, or the eyes or nose only seen if facing the camera (such as is not seen in seach's image above). The "invisible in raytracing" seems poorly named because even the camera ray is "ray traced" in SuperFly (but not FireFly) but whatever, that doesn't count.

seachnasaigh posted at 8:13 AM Tue, 26 October 2021 - #4429409

For those who may be experimenting with developing a ghost material, I think that transparency is not going be satisfactory.  Bagginsbill's ghost material from some years back uses refraction;  that is what I'm using.  It will only "see" the forward-facing polys.   This allows you to move the camera or re-pose the doll and still get the desired effect, whereas a transmap would only work for a fixed perspective.

I also added in lightcasting (look at the ground beneath the fire sprite, and the metal tabletop under the green wireframe sci-fi girl).  If you use @SamTherapy's method, you could render the background with a blue point light to compensate.

Render settings will need to allow for plenty of transmission bounces so that the refraction can reach back to the camera.  If the doll's mouth is closed, apply the invisible MT5 to the inner mouth parts;  that will reduce the number of transmission bounces needed.  I set transmission bounces high, like 64, since the render engine will only use as many bounces as needed to complete the raytracing path anyway.

I think transmaps painted to make extremities such as feet and lower legs fade into invisibilty (as is seen in some type of ghost images/art) is useful too... really not too difficult to paint. I might paint a couple demo maps to show here and share, unfortunately work is busy over the next couple days so it would have to wait until I have a day off. Could probably be done purely procedurally by someone with sufficient knowledge there, such as Bagginbill or Seachnasaigh I imagine. Just wanted to clarify what I was referring to in relation to transparency.

Thanks for that tip on refraction and "invisible in ray tracing" btw

Boo-regard from RDNA

Hi folks!

Thank yuou for keeping the chat going! :D

Okay, so I'm not going to install Poser 12 until I get my new rig set up, so still working with Poser 11.
This morning I was fairly determined to find the download for the Ghost Script, and dug out the old bundle of Poser installs (I always keep a physical copy, since the Great HD crash of '04).

Luck was with me, as it was on the very first disc I loaded!!

"Camera Obscura"  ;)

hborre posted at 12:02 AM Sat, 23 October 2021 - #4429278

This is perhaps what the OP is trying to achieve.

There is no transparency involved and it is rendered in Superfly P11.  If this is what is desired, I don't mind sharing the shader construct.  The thickness of the glowing outline can be controlled and everything is based on a stylized emission.  This is purely a Blender Cycles shader reconfigured for Poser.  Let me know and I'll post the Material Room shader.

Hi HBorre!

I would really appreciate that, thank you! :D

Sure, no problem.  Below is the initial setup in P12 with a compound node housing the main shader components.  The Blend channel controls the thickness of the halo.

This is what is within the compound node.  You can create the same setup or just connect everything without creating the compound node.  If you want to set this up in P11, eliminate the PrincipleBsdf node as highlighted, it doesn't exist in P11.  It will work just the same.