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