you're quite right, that rollercoaster thingy is an illustrator tool, which brings one thing to mind -- i often use both programs to trace bitmaps. if the bitmap is relatively simple, i'll do it in illustrator, but i'll go to photoshop when more complicated images make doing it in illustrator very tedious. you're also correct about the magic wand, though you can use any selection tool (such as painting in quickmask mode) to set up your trace. then choose the make work path command in the path palette. hint: for smoother & less complex paths, increase the tolerance value. and the above caveat applies to these tips as well.

nope -- it's called the autotrace tool ...

Message edited on: 10/31/2004 13:33

there are many many ways. i would suggest getting a copy of the photoshop wow! book -- lots of good techniques in there. you also might want to take a look at nik type effects, which is a collection of photoshop actions.

there is an autotrace tool -- it looks kinda like a little rollercoaster. (caveat: i'm still using photoshop v5, so the preceding description may be totally obsolete!)

the pen tool is used for creating splice paths, which are an aid for selection and masking and stroking, but it is not a tool for directly drawing lines. the pen tool is poorly named & should really be called the path tool. you can use the brush tool or the line tool to draw lines. you can use the "pen" to create paths that may be selected and stroked with the currently selected brush. (caveat: i'm still using photoshop v5, so the preceding description may be totally obsolete!)

before i moved to computers, i was a pen & ink person. never really liked pencils. for a clean crisp line, use a pen with black ink. technical pens and calligraphic pens & brushes are good. you can also try sable brushes with watercolor ink. markers are also an option since they can be cheaply had, but the lines tend to bleed. paper is important too. the less absorbent the better. go for vellum. tracing paper is also good. anything that's good for ink & calligraphy will work. the problem with pencils is that the lines are grainy, irregular and not true black. and if you erase a lot you will leave lots of messy residue that you may not notice but the scanner definitely will. there's lots you can do post-scan to clean up the image. too much to go into here, but one of the first things you should do is boost the contrast so that the blacks are black, the whites are white, and the grays are minimized. (i presume you're scanning black & white drawings in greyscale mode.) one last word on learning to draw in general: patience & persistence. (ok so that's two, but whose counting?) be prepared to devote not weeks or months but years to developing your skill. it will not develop overnight, no matter what tutorials or books you read. so don't be discouraged if six months from now you're still not happy with your efforts. there aren't any shortcuts. i've been drawing since before i entered school, and looking back i'd have to say that i didn't really "know how to draw" until my early teens, so that's most of a decade right there, and i was drawing all that time! but as with any skill, there's an acceleration of progress as you learn more.

all figures, models & accessories are compatible with poser 4, pro pack & 5, for both mac & win. and everything is uv-mapped as well. haven't heard a complaint yet!

Message edited on: 10/25/2004 22:26

finally, for december are kit's santa suit & kat's elf dress, first introduced last christmas & still available. the santa suit is a conforming coat and hat; the elf dress is a blouse, dress & hat. these two outfits are also included in the deluxe pack for kit n kat.

also for thanksgiving are kit & kat's native american outfits, which includes a tunic, morphing loincloth, headdress & jewelry for kit, and a dress, headdress & jewelry for kat. bow and arrows not included but can be found in ziggy3d's store at renderosity.

also for november, kit & kat both sport new thanksgiving pilgrim suits. his is a conforming jacket, knee breeches & hat; hers a dress & bonnet. shown but not included are the colonial rifle and bow-back chair, both freely downloadable from renderosity.

for november, and in time for the coming elections, kit has a new yankee doodle dandy outfit, consisting of a conforming shirt & bowtie, jacket, pants, hat & spats. kat's liberty suit is a conforming dress, sandals & tiara. torch and tablet are original props and included with the outfit. cast your votes for these clear winners!

in a more heroic vein, kit's super suit has conforming shirt and shorts, with a morphing cape jointed to the chest. kat's wonder suit is a tank top, shorts, belt, tiara & bullet-stopping bracelets.

halloween suits include frankenwear for kit, which consists of conforming shirt, jacket, pants, stitches and neck bolts. kat's vampiress outfit is a conforming "katsuit", choker, tiara, claws & fangs.

classic suits for any and all x-files-, pulp fiction-, mib-, blues brothers-fueled adventures for you fans of contemporary film noir. kit's suit consists of conforming shirt, jacket & pants. his collar & tie is loose by default but morphs into a "neat" position. kat has a conforming blouse, jacket & pants. sunglasses props are included. desert eagle pistols are not included, but can be had from daz3d.com.

welcome to the exotic world of poser rigging! i guarantee you many hours of head scratching but persistence will be rewarded.

do the scaling first and move the obj to the floor, before anything else. much of the rigging will depend on where the figure is in poser space, so you want it properly scaled and placed (at 0,0,0) before all the hard work. export the properly resized and placed obj from poser and save this as the new base model.

second, you are correct -- you have missed a step. converting the phi gets you only so far in rigging your figure. it's really just a starting point. the real work is still ahead of you, that is, tweaking the blend zones for each axis of each joint, and creating spherical falloff zones where needed. specific steps to follow are difficult to provide; trial and error's the only technique available here. but you can check out the setups of similar figures like the poser horse for clues.

one more thing -- bodyparts that share the same name will be treated as one piece, so you may have mistakenly given some of your head polygons the name "neck" or vice versa. make sure the names of each part are unique. you might also follow the naming conventions poser uses for its horse, so your horse can use any poses designed for that figure.

good luck!

Message edited on: 06/20/2004 17:46