Hi there, was just looking through the threads on conforming figures, and most of them are pretty old. Is there any new tutorials out there i should know about? Someone mentioned importing the OBJ into a currently conforming CR2, is there any tool that does this? does cr2edit have a tool for example? or do i have to do text editing. the old tutorial on nerd's website looked INSANELY complex, partly a matter of trial and error with centers and joint settings, like forever and ever until its right. since there are conforming figures coming out of the walls and floor around here, i figured someone has to know the basics; and so far what ive seen has been somewhat confusing =/ thanks very much for any guidance!

It's really not all that hard. 1. Build your mesh around the mesh of the figure you intend to fit so that your mesh fits on the base mesh of the target figure. (find the target figure's mesh in the geometries folder). 2. Turn your mesh into a posable figure and make every joint centre exactly the same as the joint centre of the target figure. That's basically it. You can save yourself some time on step two by opening a copy of the cr2 of the target figure in a text editor and changing the two geometry reference lines so that they point to your new mesh. Delete all morphs from the copy of the target figure first. You'll also have to modify the materials info at the end of the file. I like Nerd's tutorial. That's where I learned and I found if you're actually doing it as you read the tute, it works really well.

Cool that is a very big help, definitely enough to get started on :) how do you know you have the joints at exactly the same place though? how would you check i wonder. do you copy in the joint editor the exact location of the center points of the joints for the figure? also, in rhino, which i use, the model always exports so that it is below the floor when i get to poser, which means id have to adjust it quite a bit to make it fit perfectly in place, as well as change the scale, you cant export from rhino the correct scale from poser right off, at least not that i know of.

I just have the target and the new conformer in the same window and I have the joint editor open and switch from one figure to the other. I read the joint centre coords from the target figure and then type them into the conformer. Sometimes it's easier to use the old free program, Cr2Editor, to just copy and paste the joint centres but you need to know your way around the inside of a cr2 so you can find the right bits. I can't answer the rhino question but from what I've heard it is possible. What I often do if I can't export my model at the right scale is just import the target geom into poser and lock it then import the conformer geom as a single mesh and move/scale it until it's where I want it. Then I export the conformer again to get the position and scale right. There are also tricky things you can do like make a big cube that contains everything you're working with and then include that in all of your exports and imports so you can scale it right. It's hard to explain but not hard to do. I do that a lot when I need scales to be exact. It's similar to the "magic triangle" method that Traveler describes in his Amporphium 1.0 tutorial.

hmm. scale is a matter of taste though right? i mean as long as you scale it till its really close you should be ok? cause for me, if i export an obj from poser, it never comes in remembering the size or scale it was when i exported it, which means i have no options for controlling the size of any obj i work with in poser, except by manually scaling it to fit right. so i guess ill just do the joint things as you said, and have to eyeball the scale. that should work right though shouldn't it? thanks a lot :)

Here's a step by step on the box method: Make a cube and export as an obj. Import into poser and set the import size scale to 150% standard figure size (or whatever you need to fit the figure inside the box). Import the target geometry. Export both the target geom and the box as a single item. Import your combined new geom into your modeller. Model the conformer around the target. Export the box and the conformer but not the target. Import the box and the conformer to poser, once again with the size set to 150% standard figure size. Get rid of the box. (spawn props, delete the box and create new groups for the other props.) Provided that your conformer fits completely inside the box, it will import at exactly the right size and position. Eyeball works fine most of the time, but sometimes you need the extra accuracy because .001 on a Poser scale or move dial may not be small enough for you to position the thing how you want it.

ah i see, ill be reading your last post several times :) here goes...

Basically, you use the box as a measuring device. The box starts out at 150% of standard figure size, it goes through all the same changes as the other bits of geometry then at the end you bring the conformer into poser in such a way that the box is back to it's original 150% of standard figure size. That forces the conformer to be the right size too.

ooooh, i think i see now, you use the box as a test, see how big it translates to, then build the mesh based on that

Errr.... Almost. The point is that poser will let you specify the size of something you import in terms of what poser considers to be the standard figure size. You can import any number of different sized objects and get all of them exactly the same size as each other as long as you know what that size is in terms of the standard figure size. That doesn't help directly for a conformer because you really don't know exactly what size it should be. But if you make a box that is big enough to put the conformer inside it and you know the box is 150% of the standard figure size then all you have to do is put the conformer in the box and then import both as a single object while telling poser to keep the box at 150%. The size of the conformer is linked to the size of the box. By controlling the size of the box, you wind up controlling the size of the conformer as well. I don't know if I can explain it any better than that. Is it starting to make sense?

yeah i think so... need to sleep now but tomorrow ill see if i cant get this down, thanks for all the help!

I use rhino too. When you go to import your figure back into Poser....do not check on any of the boxes. that will cure the "below the floor" problem. sorry i cant be of more help. my figures are still "exploding". :*(

hmm that might the problem i used to have; to fix it i do this: import figure to poser, then spawn props to get the objects, delete any objects you dont need, then do hierarchy editor to form the hierarchy, then create new figure, then open a blank document, import the figure from the library (that you just created) THEN do the joint parameters. if you do the joints before you add it to the library, your figure might explode when you bring it back in.

One of the best tutorials www.posertech.com

hmm, looked at the tutorial. lots of useful stuff there, most of which im already familiar with though. my thing is still getting items to conform correctly; i can place it on vicki perfect, but then once then joint centers are where they need to be there is usually some skin showing through somewhere. im going to try that box method

If you're already getting it perfectly placed on Vicky then the box won't help. Is the problem showing up even if Vicky is zeroed with the joint editor? If so then it sounds like the mesh isn't in quite the right place or if you used the shortcut method of putting the clothing mesh into a vicky cr2 then that could also be the problem. That cr2 has some oddities. If the problem only shows up during posing then you just need to play with the falloff zones until it goes away. It's mostly trial and error and it's also hard to get any conformer perfect.

aha, falloff zones may help. i had another idea though, ok, what if i put the mesh on her perfectly in my modeler, then export vicki WITH the clothing on her already, import into poser at 100% standard figure size, wont it be placed perfectly already? seems like that should work

From memory I'm pretty sure Vicky's feet go a little below the floor. Also I don't know if she actually is standard figure size. Also she may not be perfectly centred and once you've put the clothing mesh on her she's almost guaranteed not to be centred. The thing about the box is you can select cetred and place-on-floor and that will make sure it's in exactly the right place.

ah i see. and i thought i was so clever, so in your modeler basically you just need to make sure vicki's feet are exactly at the bottom of the box

Are you doing boots? If so it gets more complicated. If not, just delete Vicki's feet.

If you are doing shoes or boots, then move the Vicki geometry up until it fits inside the box. Write down exactly what you did to it so you can refer to it later on. Do everything else then bring your conformer and the box back into poser together and translated them down by the same amount you translated Vicky up. This whole process relies on having it set up right from the start, so if you've already modelled your conformer, you're going to have a tough time.

Finally did it :) with one adjustment, here is a recap: i made a box, imported it into poser * the settings i checked were 150% standard figure size, equalize normals (or whatever that setting is) AND offset. i offsetted it by 0.4 on the Y axis, because otherwise, if you import it placed on the floor, at ANY % of figure size vicki's feet stick out the bottom. this way i have her entire body in the box and can even make conforming sandals lol if i wanted. then i export Vicki's whole body + the box as an obj, which i import into my modeler. dont delete the box in the modeler but i hid it, so it wont get in the way. then you just model all the clothing you want, stick on her where it's supposed to go, and when finished export JUST the clothing, and the box back into poser. then in poser you spawn props, hide the box and poof, your clothing is exactly where it should be placed. then you delete the box, make the joint settings conforming, and you're done. thanks a lot for your help guys! Brian

So you figured out what it was all about then? Cool :-)

Have you got the rotation orders the same for the conformer as for Vic? What body parts does your conformer have? (sometimes you need a few extras) If you own the victoria catsuit or any other conforming figure that has the same sort of layout you want, just go into the cr2 and change the two geometry lines to point to your obj file. Delete any morphs that you find in the cr2. That should do it nicely.

i think that may be the easiest way... where can i find this victoria cat suit? i would KILL for it right about now. ALSO, my conformer has CHEST, and FOREARMS, but no shoulders/collar parts. is that a problem? i wouldn't think that would be a problem since i already own tons of conformers that cover only certain body parts. thanks!

The catsuit (actually I think they call it bodysuit) is sold at DAZ as part of Victoria clothing pack 1 but you don't really need it. Any conformer cr2 will do as long as it covers all the same body parts you have. The shoulders and collars are definitely required, yes. You need everything to be connected by the right body parts. You'll probably find it works better if you also have abdomen, neck and hands in the cr2. You don't need any of those in your obj, just in the cr2.

ok, so i think i got it: if my original conforming figure i made does NOT have all the connecting body parts... that is ok as long as the cr2 that i modify to point to my obj DOES have them. is that right?

That's right. There are two file path statements in the cr2. Make sure you find and modify both of them to point to your obj. Once you've modified the cr2 , load the garment into poser and then save it back to the character library. Poser will make some minor modifications to the cr2 and clean up a couple of things. Test it afterwards just in case.

hmm im still having an issue; apparently no matter what already-conforming cr2 i use, after i point it to my obj it still shows up in poser missing arms or legs (the middle parts work fine). i wonder, am i missing something about the OBJ itself? is there anything special you should check about the obj for your clothing figure? the way im coming up with the obj is, AFTER doing the box method to get my outfit in the right place, i spawn props, do the heirarchy, and put it in the library. THIS cr2 then of course has internal geometry, which i export; and thats how i come up with my obj should that obj work with the new cr2?

It's the group names. When you export, Poser is probably renaming the groups. Open the obj in poser and use the group editor to check what the groups are called. Open the catsuite obj from GeometriesZygote Clothing or wherever and see if the groups are called the same thing. I'll bet they aren't. You'll probly find yours are called "RightForearm" and the ones in the catsuit are called "rForearm" or something like that. You can fix it with the group editor.