Hi all

I've recently bought Poser along with Michael and Vicki, so consider me a newbie! My background is in Lightwave, and I hope to mix the two packages somehow. Which brings me to my question...

In the Poser manual, there's a bit about customising figure meshes, but as I'm sure you know, the manuals detail on most subjects is limited to a couple of paragraphs.

What I want to do is chop of Vickies toes (brutal, I know!) and replace them with a rounded foot, so instead of building and conforming the right type of boot, I can do it the old fashioned(!) way as part of the texture/bump map.

Now, I get the impression it's possible to export the foot into lightwave, remodel it, then import the new model back into Poser. First of all, is this actually possible? Or am I barking up the wrong tree?

You'll have to excuse any ignorance on my part - like I said, Newbie!

Does anyone know of any decent tutorials on the right way to do this kind of thing? I'm basically not 100% sure of how Poser handles these things rather than the lightwave end.

For example, would I need to export Vickies entire mesh to lightwave, or just the limb in question? If i do export anything, will the 'skeleton' stay intact throughout the whole process, or will she end up as a lifeless mesh when back in Poser?

Until I get used to it, it's little things like this that I don't understand.

I hope some of that made sense! If anyone has even the tinyest bit of info that might help me, or can point me in the direction of a tutorial of somekind, I'd appreciate it!

The easiest way is to create the round toes and import them into Poser as a prop. Line up the new toes exactly where you need them. You can then replace the toes with the prop. (I'm not at a computer with Poser on it right now, but I know the manual has the Replace with Prop instructions in it. I think the command is in the Object submenu.)

Cheers mate, that makes alot of sense! I'll go and look into that now. Thanks again!

Well, trying to get rid of her toes is a major operation. And if you morph her toes away or completely replace her toes with smooth caps, all your toe morphs will become unusable which is a pity. However, there are ways of getting around the problem. Instead you can put basic 'toecaps' over her toes, in effect just hiding them. Either own modelling or chopped off from a boot or shoe and parented to her toes. Otherwise you can buy the Latexavic character by Plazio. She had modeled latex-covered toes, like a stocking. This means that she had the 'no standard morphs apply' problem, but she's very nice all round, so check her out in the Rederosity store. Or maybe in the future you might find something at Jaager's site along these lines - he has something in the works, not quite finished with it. Check his site at http://www.jaager.com/ClubVickiLobby01.htm to see if they're available yet. There may well be something like this already available somewhere else, I'm not sure. Best of luck! :]FishNose

And here is yet another option:-

• Export just the foot into Lightwave ensuring that the model is in its zero position. (IK chains off. Window/Joint Parameters/Zero Figure. Hip AND BODY x, y ,zTrans = 0.000)
• Extrude from where the toes would be to form the rounded toe cap.
• Save just this new toe cap in OBJ format.

Now for the fun, look at how the Low Polygon Poser 2 figures change their hands. Its not by adjusting each finger but rather by selecting the hand and turning the "handType" dial. You effectively swop in other geometry. Copy this principle for your toes.

The advantages are that all your existing body morphs will still work and you will not have a visible seam at the toe/foot junction. I grant you this is not for beginners but it may help to know the options available which you may want to look at later. I understand JeffH knows the whereabouts of a tutorial on this (entitled Head Switching???)

Hope this helps.

Thanks guys, that lot should definately keep me busy! The more ways I know how to do something the better, so I'll be having a go at all of them. I'll go and have a butchers round Jaagers site, then see if I can dig up that tutorial through a few search engines (If anyone knows the URL, I wouldn't say no!) Thanks again you lot, appreciate the help :)