Picking up where the first string left off: Okay, still working on the above tutorial. I examined the .obj (ksl's Batsuit) that I'm merging with the figure (P4NudeWoman), and all the materials were exported from Poser correctly. The problem turned out to be a naming issue. Compose applied new names to the groups in the .obj when it was imported, in order to avoid duplication. The only way I could find around this was to merge each group individually, which worked okay, with one exception. I opened the finished figure in P4, to find that the Batsuit hip, although merged in Compose, was not appearing in Poser. Went back into Compose, opened the newly created figure geometry, imported the Batsuit again, re-merged the hip, and deleted all the other groups from the Batsuit. This time, upon opening in P4, I found that the figure now consisted of nothing but the hip, and the Batsuit hip was still left out, even now.... Question: why won't Poser let me merge the hip? Is it because it is the Parent? Jeff, or any other qualified candidate, please help!

I'm not sure I'm a qualified. But I do know that if you have the name Hip instead of hip in the obj file. You get that problem. ScottA

Capital "H"? Aha! Will that integrate the merged element? The normal figure hip was okay....

Well. I don't know about the merging. I haven't done much of this. I just know from creating custom characters that caps are nono in the .obj and the phi files. Otherwise you get missing parts similar to what you got. -ScottA

Oh. Yeah, I used a lowercase "h". Drat.

When I made mine in compose- I loaded the catsuit first, and in the LEFT side of Compose, I highlighted all of the parts I did NOT want (use Ctrl to highlight more than one) and deleted them. I then saved that model and cleared it. (to save, click on the Objects folder on the LEFT side, highlighting it, then go to the Save on hte bottom button menu). I repeated for the nude and skirt. After all were done like this, and after clearing the last model (the skirt), I reloaded the new catsuit model, the new nude model and the new skirt, auto merging the last two with the catsuit upon the loading (you'll see the "Merge with Current" right above the Write button). I then saved the new combined model. A note before any of this though- I knew I was going to have a duplicate on the thighs, so I opened the miniskirt ob file in a text editor, and renamed the hips BEFORE I did anything with compose. Ok.... That was the JeffH part of what I did. Now I used Mason's tutorial a bit. Knowing I had two extra thighs (1 left and 1 right, as well as the combined chest), I added their info into the CR2 file. The chest, since it was combined with the catsuit chest with the same group name (only the material was different), used the same command lines in the CR2 as the original chest. The thighs had two different command blocks for the originals and new ones for the new thighs. So my advice is this- When combining, and knowing you'll have the same body parts like, say... the hip, rename the hip in the obj file first before using Compose, then after doing the Compose stuff, use Masons tutorial on adding the info into the CR2 files. Basically what it comes down do is this- You're actually doing Mason's tutorial, but are using Compose as te "modeler" to combine rather than a program like Max or Rhino or whatever. Hope that helps.

Ha ha! I made the breakthrough of combining tutorials last night. They are completely compatible if you substitute Compose-work for the 3DS part in Mason's! I have 13 parts that are directly mimicking body parts, drat the catsuit. I got part-way into the "channels" section of Mason's tut., when I quit for the night. Today I re-opened the new, partially completed CR2 TO FIND THAT NONE OF MY ADDITIONS HAD BEEN SAVED!!!! Gah! Why do I have these stupid problems? Now I have to duplicate 2-3 hours of work in addition to as many hours of work I still had to do when I quit. Man, I hate text. StupidBoy is a visually-oriented Right-Brainer.

Okay, back again. I've completed the Mason tutorial, with a couple of problems yet to fix. Most baffling is the fact that the suitHip is still not appearing when I open the file. Mason suggests that this might be due to an "h" line in the obj, which is making the geometry hidden. Secondly, I have the same IK chain problem as has been observed with Wonder Girl. I can live with that, I suppose.... Finally, the clothing, although merged properly in the OBJ file, is all out of whack. Based on the tutorial, it might have something to do with the Children section of the CR2. I have some inkling of what I might be looking for here, but does anyone have any ideas?

I guess I need to go check out Mason's tutorial. I can't see a reason why anyone would have to edit anything but the 2 OBJ references in the CR2. The clothing that comes with Poser has all the correct body part names and is in the perfect position to be integrated. No renaming needed. -JH.

As far as I can tell, the extensive editing allows the parts to be integrated without changing any of the geometries involved. This preserves the ability to use all the morphs created for the original geometries. I have fixed everything except the original problem I had with the first attempt: no suitHip is appearing. I found no "h" reference, neither in the OBJ file, nor the CR2. I have examined Mason's Wonder Woman CR2, and his suithip has a custom geometry reference, with a full listing of all the OBJ vertices listed in the CR2 itself. I have no idea how to accomplish this myself. My OBJ file is all "f" lines, no "v" lines. Anyone at all who has any ideas, please let me know, even e-mail me with an idea. I'm rolling around on the floor like Vyvian, screaming, "My project's broken! My project's broken!" Increasingly frustrated, Cage BTW, thanks for everyone's time and help.

What morphs are we trying to retain? As far as I know there are no morphs for the catsuit chest, hips etc..

Morphs for the rest of the body are of greater concern than norphs for the catsuit. I prefer to have a figure that is as versatile as possible. I may have misunderstood the whole thing, however. I turned to this Frankenstein JeffH-Mason technique because I am trying to solve the no suithip problem. I'm experimenting, trying to find anything that works. Catsuit morphs. The chest on Batgirl's suit, my immediate use for the project, was re-shaped by ksl. There all also the crotchless morph's from Morph World for those so inclined.

BTW, Jeff, your Catsuit Woman is great! The reason I've continued with this on my own is primarily that I can't figure out how to put the Batgirl boots on your figure. Plus, I am enjoying the learning process, even if it is baffling and frustrating in a couple of places. Do you have any ideas about the IK thing?

Nope on the IK thing. I'll let you know after I study Mason's tutorial.

You know... when I first attempted this with just Mason's tutorial, I had the prob of the feet connected to the thighs as well. Funniest thing happened- I dunno why I did it, but I opened the CR2 again, and eliminated the hair! and all referrences to it. Then the thing came out ok! Also, be sure that when you do the addchild, the new parts are "added" to the alike original, ie suitHip is add childed to the Hip, not the Figure. In the weld, it should be welded to the same part the normal hip is welded to. Another thing to check is to make sure all of your figure numbers match, ie :1 or :2 for the main figure. The added parts need their # changed to :1 or the :2 (whichever it will be). An example- The suit Hip has hip:3 and the main has hip:1. So the new suitHip:3 needs to become suitHip:1. Do a search for all :3 referrences, and make sure they are changed to :1 (or :2, whichever the main figure is).

I am chagrined. The problem was a mis-spelling in the CR2 Header. Two "aiches" (hH) on "hip." The figure is finished. Now I guess I should try it on something I could actually post, instead of modifying someone else's work. The tutorial frightened me for a while due to it's sheer lenghth, a necessary evil. The CR2 actually seems pretty straightforward, although I know nothing about the language involved. Thanks, everyone, for your help, and for putting up with my week of whining! Can anyone point me to a tutorial that will help me "cut up" a model, so I can try a similar integration with the Evolution-1?

Most people don't know this, but you can actually "cut-up" a model within UVmapper. It has to do with assigning selected areas of UVs to a new grouping. Check it out, you may be surprised.

...say what? How? BTW, can you explain how to do the surface (materials) merging of the neck on your catsuit? I'm going to write up a new tutorial based on the Compose technique and Mason's tutorial (this will be on how I made my figure using both techniques) and I'd like to include a surface (materials) merging portion to it.

You cut a model into groups in UVmapper by selecting areas of the UVs and assigning them to groups. You can also assign sections to materials. The neck on the catsuit already has "skin" as it's material, but the neck is set to "invisible" inside Poser. I think I had to replace some part of it though. For some odd reason I remember a part labeled "head". I'll check it out and get back to you.

Thanks.

I just spent an hour or so cutting and pasting info from the integrated file I finished earlier (see above), and created an Evolution-1 w/ genitals catsuit figure. It works pretty well. I didn't have to cut up the catsuit figure geometry, because of the way the integrated parts are set up in the CR2. Still have to hide the figure underneath, but there's no more pop-through than with the regular P4 integration. Same problem exists with the IK chains. I tried playing around with the IK in the CR2, but that only created a different shade of the same problem. What a great technique!