how can i make a character in poser 4 get chunks blown off of him as if he were getting shot? -Peter

If you're doing this with animation, I'd go with customized morphs, creative use of texture maps, and bloody-chunk props. If it's a still-frame render, I'd recommend postwork.

what is he getting shot with? are we talking bullet holes, chunks flying all over the place, LIMBS flying all over the place?

bullet holes and little parts of the mummy flying off. -Peter

i dont do much animating in poser, so its hard to answer your question. The only thing that comes to mind is exporting the mesh into another program and making individual, capped props from his pieces that you want to fly off, and then exporting them and importing them individually when you need them. If you can change textures at differentkey frames, you might try the same transparency/bump/undertexturing effect you used for his head. Thankfully, imhotep didnt have any blood that i ever noticed, so you are saving yourself a MAJOR headache of postwork. For something as complicated as this, im not sure what poser can do, I would like to see the end result if someone gives you better advice than I do. You might need a more powerful 3d package to get it looking realistically. It would be nice to find out Im wrong though.

i was thinking maybe working frame by frame with Adobe photoshop i could use the clone tool and make the effect. How does that sound? -Peter

sounds hella lot easier than making pieces, thats for sure. Let me know if you manage to pull it off

Coming from a classical animation background, I will have to tell you that animating the bits flying off in a convincable manour simply using photoshop will be difficult. You may want to print out the individual frames you are using and place blank sheets of paper over them and draw in the animated bits first to see if the motion moves as you like...then scan these drawing into your computer and paste them into your photoshop file, and colour them there as you see fit.

This is really the sort of thing that is best suited for particle effects and a physics engine. Even games like Unreal Tournament 2003 can do this now. I hope that Curious Labs is taking all of this into account while they work on Poser 5.

I can see the parameter dials now: Chunks Chunklets Chunk Spread Chunk velocity Chunk Rotation Chunk Direction Displacement Fluid dynamics model Gravity I guess instead of velocity they could call it "hurl factor."

Chunklets? Sounds like a candy bar. "Now with almonds!"

Chunklets is a word I coined a few years ago referring to little chunks. It's not in common usage yet but I figure if I keep using it sooner or later it'll be as common as the term "kewl." In the meantime, I've learned to put up with the laughter. Of course, when they connect a whole bunch of little chunks of silicone into computer processors it is appropriate to tell people your computer is filled with "chunklet-chips." I can get worse it you want.

You would have to take the original model into a mesh editor and cut the chunks out. Color the inside of these like ribs, skin, whatever an reassemble. Import the mesh and name it something like "mummyhit1". Use objaction mover to copy the bones from the original mesh to the modified one. Lock all the pieces to the original chest part as a parent. Gaps will probably show between these as the figure moves so you will want to shoot him as soon as possible. Create your walk path and adjust the recoil as the figure gets hit and his reaction. Go through to the point of impact and unlock the chunks from the parent. There is no physics in poser so you will have to eyeball the rate of drop, arc, etc. and set by hand. You need to set the keyframes from time zero to the end. If you set the beginning and end then add frames in the middle you get weird effects like the parts can start moving backward. If you shift the part much it tends to just put a kink in the motion path. So plan your work and work your plan. One other piece of advice I can give you I heard from Chuck Jones at Fantasy Fair 10. I'm going to say this like a quote because it sounds better. "Whenever the Coyote falls off the cliff and the boulder falls on him I always have a few pebbles fall after the fact. It is essential to the timing that this pause happens. Events in real life don't happen all at once or to the soundtrack. I always throw in things that happen off the beat." Good Luck!

Thanks a lot for both the great quote and the info on the debris i wanted to know where can i get a mesh editor? I need it i know but i cant find one! Thanks for everything -Peter

Heya I think codeman did a set of morphing blood spatters that you might be able to use as chunks flying with a little tweaking. The might still be in freestuff... Regards Eshal