Attached Link: http://akin.free.fr/poser.htm

Enjoy it ! And do not play rough with your posette you naughty ! This small creature had been created through the use of Cr2Edit which permits me to play safely with ERC matters, and to experiment those discoveries ! Note this is only a low version, I got a high res one, but I still wonder if it woud be a nice idea to put it online ! I would also like to thanks Rob and Charles for their mighty tut on ERC ! Have FUN ! (No doubt ;) Your Fiendly Friend, A'kin

Oh, I can imagine the things we won't see in the galleries with this........... LOL

erc? is it like easy pose?

A'kin. Nice work. By all means! Post the hi-res one too!

Bravo mon Akin ;))

Attached Link: http://akin.free.fr/poser.htm

There is perhaps an error somewhere ! 8( If you get en error regarding a monstrous obj, then reload the stuff ! It should be good now ! I've just changed it ! Too quick A'kin ! ;) I do not know all the details on Ajax'x easypose, ERC comes through the explanation of Nerd3D and RSOTB ! But it seems the results are very closed ! This tentacle has been MCJ enhanced and it's quite cool ! This creature has been done in a few hours ! The use of CR2Edit has been a cool and safe way to trick the CR2 File ! 8) Any report or texture will be welcome ! =) A'kin

I just got an empty zip file.....

Attached Link: http://www.geocities.com/ajaxsoyyo/index.html

Yeah, Nerd's tute is where I started, though back then neither Nerd3D nor RSOTB had as much info as they have now. Could have saved me a little time if they had ;-) I'm looking forward to checking this thing out, but I can't get it to unzip, A'kin. WinZip keeps giving me an error message. Did you zip it up on a Mac or something? Here's the message I get: Dll: C:PROGRA~1WINZIP6.3wz32.dll - 26/09/97 06:30 Extracting to "C:WINDOWSTEMP" Use Path: no Overlay Files: yes caution: filename not matched: Poser 4/Runtime/Geometries/akin/lowres.obj Anyway, if you want to check out EasyPose, you can find the EasyPose Tube in the free stuff here and I have some info at my site. I'll be hosting a tutorial/Q&A session over at RuntimeDNA starting on Friday.

Attached Link: http://akin.free.fr/poser.htm

I did a quick update ! Perhaps you have tried to download what was unstable ! I've just tried here, and I've no problem in unzipping it ! You are welcome to retry ! I did not use Winzip to compress the files ! Perhaps you just should try to get them out of the zipped files and put where it should go by hand ??? Is it does not work, mail to me, I will send directly to you the files ! Nerd and Rob gives real good info now ! It's incredible, with a bit of imagination ! Ajax ? If you wish me to translate your tut, well it's an idea that perfectly fits to me ! =) Cheers A'kin PS : by the way, the only thing I did not use CR2Edit for (too sure of myself), is the cause of the only error present in the CR2 file ! No Dan ! Don't hurt me ! HAHAHAHAHAHA ! ;)

Got it safe and sound, thanks.... That's intriguing, methinks there'll be a new animation coming from this....

Hey A'kin, it look sgreat, but I couldn't find it. Perhaps this is because my French is rubbish... sorry about that. Could you help me out? Thanks!

Never mind-- found it in the free stuff. I am such a hamster brain. Hamster brain! Hamster brain! Thanks!

Thank you. Yes, please post the hi-rez version.

Attached Link: http://www.renderosity.com/freestuff.ez?Form.Contrib=Ajax&Topsectionid=0

OK, I finally managed to install it. Nice work A'kin. It works very well. Since bloodsong asked, I'll address the question of whether it's EasyPose. Nope. It's not. Not quite, though it's a similar idea and very close. The reason I don't class it as EasyPose is that there are no cascading dials. EasyPose uses a system where each dial feeds into the next so you can grab any body part and use it to control all of the ones before or after it. This allows you to start posing wherever you want on the chain, while isolating parts of the chain that you don't want to pose. Check the link and download the EasyPose Tube to see what I mean. Since I know bloodsong has been compiling a history of Poser tech, I'll go into a bit of history (the rest of you will probably find this really boring). The concept of using ERC to control multiple body parts has been around for quite a while, although most of us didn't really notice it. Both full body morphs and the grip dials found in the Poser 4 hands use that idea. In the past, I may have said something about me being the first to use ERC to control multiple body parts but if I did, that was because I was a newbie when I came up with EasyPose and I simply didn't know that full body morphs or grip dials existed. In fact, I only found out about them late last year. The code syntax behind them is actually a little different but the software is clearly handling it the same way. I came along in March 2001 and read Nerd's ERC tute and a few days later I got started on EasyPose. It wasn't until August 2001 that the EasyPose Tentacle hit the stores and EasyPose went public. A lot of the delay was due to me taking time to sort out the details of having a store and find beta testers and get things beta tested etc. Outside of grip dials and full body morphs, I'm pretty sure the EasyPose Tentacle was the first example of using ERC to control multiple body parts, but the real innovation of it was to cascade the dials up and down the chain. When I first read Rob Whisenant's tute on ERC it had no info on how to make a single slave dial be controlled by more than one master and nothing about cascading dials. I went back to have another look recently and I notice that he now has both of those. I haven't talked to Rob about it so I couldn't say whether he discovered those on his own or whether he added them to the tute after seeing what I was doing. Either one seems just as likely. You'll have to ask him if you want to know, bloodsong. In November 2001 dcort came out with Melusine, the first of his figures to feature QuickPose TM (ie the word "QuickPose" is trademarked so you can't use that word on your own stuff without dcort's permission). I don't own any of those so I don't know too much about them but it's my understanding that they work in a similar way to A'kin's tentacle, only a little simpler. There's one body part at the top that controls everything below it, but no way to refine the pose beyond that point except posing each segment individualy. So, as far as I know A'kin is only the third person to release a figure that uses ERC to pose multiple body parts this way (excluding figures with grip dials and full body morphs of course). And he came up with it by himself and came at it a slightly different way, using null morph dials as the masters instead of valueParms, which is something I've never seen before. That's pretty good going, A'kin. Now A'kin, the question is, what are you going to call it? It's not quite EasyPose and you can't call it "QuickPose" because of the trademark so you'll have to come up with a name of your own ;-) Of course it wouldn't take much extra work to get the cascading dials set up and turn what you have into EasyPose if you want to. Starting on Friday and lasting for a month, I'll be moderating an EasyPose forum at RuntimeDNA for anybody that's interested in learning how to make EasyPose figures. Hello? Is anyone still awake?

Attached Link: http://akin.free.fr/poser.htm

RRRRRRRRRrooooooooooooooonnnnnnn ........... pppppppppppcccccccccccccccccchhhhhhhhhhhhhhhtttt... Haw ! Haw ! Oups ! Sorry ! 8) Thanks for your enlightment Ajax ! Well ? Pose ? Pose ? Pose ? huh ! What about prettypose ? HAHAHAHAHAHAHA ! Well, Indeed I never thought I would have it so far ! You perfectly explains it Ajax, Null morph to play on articulation, and as you said I could even do it in cascade, according to Nerd and RSOTB cascade ! I think I will try soon ! =) For the name ? Any advice will be welcome ! :) For now I'm going to improve my high res model ! Thanks again for the congratulations Ajax ! Of course I will follow with great interest your forum ! By the way, I supposed you did not use CR2Edit to do your work ? Did you ever try it ? See ya soon ! Happy A'kin

Hello all, Rob Whisenant here. Just thought I'd weigh in on this thread, since it looks like I might be able to clarify some of the questions out there concerning ERC, Easy Pose, etc.

A'kin wrote: "I would also like to thanks Rob and Charles for their mighty tut on ERC !"

You are very welcome. The sense of pride and accomplishment you must feel (otherwise I doubt we'd see such an excited post) is the exact reason I created the ERC documentation in the first place... to share my excitement over the find and hope to bring the same to others.

Ajax wrote: "Since I know bloodsong has been compiling a history of Poser tech, I'll go into a bit of history (the rest of you will probably find this really boring)."

I didn't find it boring! ;) I do think that it's good to try to explain just what ERC is, and I also wanted to take this opportunity to clarify some history concerning the initial development and use of ERC. (And just a preface: I hope that none of this comes across as arrogant or pompous, I really don't mean it that way.)

Ajax wrote: "The concept of using ERC to control multiple body parts has been around for quite a while, although most of us didn't really notice it."

Exactly. ERC has been possible ever since Poser 4, when the new Full Body Morph code was introduced. Then, in late June of 2000 Charles and I (though somewhat independently) came to the conclusions that we first presented as EMC. Following our initial announcement, Charles seemed primarily to continue pursuit of the effects on inducing crosstalk between figures (Conforming Morphs), and I persisted into the gamut of channel relationships that had not yet been explored. In March 2001 I presented my continued efforts to the masses, as ERC. My documentation on the subject has contained the same message since the beginning, save one aspect... delving into the use of a null as opposed to fixed names. (Originally I advocated the use of fixed names to solve crosstalk, but later found the null approach to be better suited for most cases.) Being a stickler for giving credit to whom it's due, in my documentation I even make a point to credit Charles with the initial concept ("EMC Fixer").

Ajax wrote: "Both full body morphs and the grip dials found in the Poser 4 hands use that idea."

Actually, the three hand dials (Grasp, Thumb Grasp, Spread) are not controlled with ERC. These dials were also included in Poser 3 (before the ERC enabling Full Body Morph code was written), and are hard-coded functions.

Ajax wrote: "It wasn't until August 2001 that the EasyPose Tentacle hit the stores and EasyPose went public." "Outside of grip dials and full body morphs, I'm pretty sure the EasyPose Tentacle was the first example of using ERC to control multiple body parts, but the real innovation of it was to cascade the dials up and down the chain."

This is probably a good issue to clear up, too. Although Poser products that involve ERC aren't usually advertised as such, especially when these functions are not the defining quality of the product, ERC has been included in many products released before August 2001, when your EasyPose Tentacle was released. The first product I'm aware of to use ERC was my Tuna (released April 27, 2001), which includes a "Swim" dummy dial in the Chest that controls the joints of eight other body groups. (I had debated putting this functionality in earlier products as well, but eventually decided against it.) This method appears to be identical to what dcort later labeled QuickPose, and what you're now doing, A'kin.

Other types of ERC have also been used in products made available early in 2001. Jim Burton's 10 Speed (released August 15, 2001) also includes Joint Controlled Joints, if I'm not mistaken. And a high-profile case is Victoria 2 (released May 7, 2001) which uses a few different types of ERC. For example, Victoria 2 includes Morph Controlled Scaling/Translation (head morphs such as "AlienEyes" control the eyes), and Partial Body Morphs (ie: BODY dials control Chest dials, which in turn control lCollar and rCollar dials, so that breast morphs can be controlled from either of these locations). Also DAZ had debated whether to make Victoria 2's joint Fix morphs Joint Controlled, but eventually decided against this, due to rotational joint vs linear morph issues.

I commend you, Ajax, on understanding and making good use of ERC's capabilities, especially as it appears that you were unaware that others had been using ERC in their products, beyond just providing tutorials. Cascaded ERC seems particularly suited to the excellent way that you've used it in your Easy Pose products. And just so everyone reading makes the connection, "Cascaded ERC" and "Easy Pose" refer to the same thing, by the way. Similarly, Dan's "QuickPose" technology is also another form of ERC. And Akin's use of ERC, in whichever of the many forms it may take, can be called whatever he(she?) desires... but it too will ultimately be some form of ERC. With different functions and naming it's easy to see how this can get confusing really fast, huh? ;) As a result, I personally am an advocate of referring to the different forms of ERC with names that specifically describe what they do, whenever possible. Judging from the number of emails I've gotten or threads I've read over the past two years regarding EMC/ERC, it's already hard enough for some to understand (though as you probably know, it becomes extremely easy to understand once you've worked with it).

Ajax wrote: "When I first read Rob Whisenant's tute on ERC it had no info on how to make a single slave dial be controlled by more than one master and nothing about cascading dials."

This must have been back when it was still the EMC tutorial. At the time I updated it to include ERC information, I mentioned how there are all kinds of ERC methods possible. As for which came first, the chicken or the egg, originally the documentation on my site [rbtwhiz.com] didn't explicitly point out how to set up cascading control, though in my initial ERC writing I made comments about being able to cascade and the pitfalls of not being careful about order (creating loops, whereby the effect becomes exponential). It was also at this time that I provided a general table listing a large number of what could be affected... mind you, however, not all of the possibilities are listed. I wasn't trying to write a book (but last I checked the doc was already 7 pgs [pdf]). Unfortunately, this document was intended to make the most sense when consumed in it's entirety, and I suspect many readers don't make it all the way to the end. :)

Anyway, this post has turned out much longer than I had anticipated. (And you thought your post had sent everyone to sleep, Ajax!) Hope this extra info is helpful.

-Rob
rbtwhiz.com

Attached Link: http://akin.free.fr/poser.htm

Wow ! I fell so small suddenly ! Thanks Robert ! Would I dare remind to you I'm waiting for an authorisation to translate your tut in french ?? No ? ... Yes ?... However It feels good to be there ! There is another buddy I must thanks to ! Because he has succeded in given me the faith and the tool to follow my way, It's Daniel Whilmes ! His Cr2Edit software is really nice at ERC work ! Promised ! Have a nice night you all, A'kin

Thanks, Rob! That clears up a few things for me :-) And a big thanks for the ERC work you and Charles did and for the tutes you both put up, which are great. ERC seems to be almost a staple of figure construction these days and it's all down to you two and your tutes. For me at least, Poser wouldn't be half as much fun without ERC.

This is a most instructive thread, and I assure all of the loquacious folks, not boring in the slightest. Not that I understand ERC myself! But I like to see these histories. And wonderful work all of you!

I agree with you about Poser being so much more fun with ERC, Ajax. (Not to mention so much more useful, helping Poser to go well beyond the functionality intended by its creators.)

I just thought I'd mention that we at DAZ are also very grateful to Rob not only for his ERC work and tutorials, but also for his many emails and calls in the past which kept us abreast of his discoveries. (Even after his public tutorials on ERC, Victoria 2 and subsequent DAZ products would probably not have included ERC without his significant input as a beta tester.)

Anyway, it's fun to see all of the ways this technology is being implemented, and the different directions that you all are taking ERC. Good thread for interesting techno-babble, too. Carry on!

Chad Smith
DAZ Productions

Attached Link: http://akin.free.fr/poser.htm

ERC is just like tatoos ! Once you start you cannot stop ! ;) Thanks for that intervention Daz ! Now that Rob is with you we might expect more advance on this way for your own product ! =) A'kin

Congrats on the new job, Rob. I really envy those of you that get to do this stuff for a living. It sounds great to me. You know, it occurs to me that A'kin's null morph method could solve a problem that valueParms have. The valueParm dial settings never save to the pose library. It's possible to save morphs as part of a pose. I suspect that using null morphs as the master dials would allow ERC poses to be saved. I really hope CL will fix that problem in Poser 5, but in the mean time the null morph approach could be quite useful. For quite some time I've been meaning to write a wish list for CL with all the ERC bugs I'd like them to fix but life gets in the way and all that. Does anyone know if anybody else has written to them with a list of ERC bugs?

Attached Link: http://akin.free.fr/poser.htm

I got IT ! I got the Name ! COOLPose What about that ? And for your question about the pose library, of course it perfectly works ! Just to include the morph channels in the pose ! Cool, no ? So.... COOLPose or not COOLPose ? =) A'kin