"this is why i stick to cloth room :)"

LOL - way to go!

Although it can be a tad tiresome at times, at least you know that the with the cloth room you can (eventually) get anything to fit anybody - without the need for external apps. Unless of course, it's conforming stuff that needs a modeling app to weld all the bits together or otherwise violate the original mesh.

Magnets, clothing-converters et al. - who needs 'em?
(Well, OK, anyone on a severe deadline, or who doesn't have any modeling skills, or lacks patience, or.... Yeah. There's a great need for them.)

Cheers,
Diolma

@Xpleet

"Would there be a problem if I made an object out of the terrain and polydeform it then in any desirable direction?"

If you have a decent modeling app (I use Hexagon), then, yes, you can do it.
(Is "polydeform" an app or just a description of a process?)

Export the terrain as a .obj file, import into the app then make whatever changes you want there.
Export from modeling app and import into Vue. If it's then too poly-heavy, decimate it in Vue (experiment until you get the proper balance between reduced polys and form retention..)

Or, if your modeling app supports it, decimate it there (the result might be better).

It'll work. No problems. I've done it on several occasions.

Cheers,
Diolma

Edited to add: Of course, you'll lose the option to edit the imported (now not a terrain) .obj in the terrain editor..

I am probably about to make a complete fool of myself (not unusual), but...

@AtelierArial : You DID apply the lip mask to both the lips and the head, didn't you?

'cos if you didn't then the masking will stop abruptly at the edge of the lips, as defined by the lip material group/zone. Which seems to be what is happening..

Cheers,
Diolma

Hmm. I can probably give you part of the process..

• Load P4 male and select the body.
• Menu->Window->Joint Editor and "Zero Figure".
• Re-size to 150%.
• Menu->File->Export->Wavefront.obj. Export just the figure with ALL options on (I think - not too sure about that bit). Best to save under a new file-name, eg "P4MaleGiant"

That will give your new .obj file.

Next, copy the .cr2 file to a new version (eg P4MaleGiant.cr2) and edit it (any reasonable text editor will do, as long as it can save in ASCII). Change all references of "P4Male.obj" (or whatever it's actually called) to the new P4MaleGiant.obj. There should be a minimum of two references in the file..

Save the new .cr2. back into the library folder (from the text editor)

When you open the library in Poser, there will be the "shrugging man" instead of a proper icon - just get a good view of the character and save back to the library from within Poser - the proper icon will be generated.

What I'm NOT sure about is whether the joint-rigging will scale up proportionately. If it doesn't then someone more experienced will have to chip in..

Of course, there's probably a much more simple way to go about it - I've never tried to do it.

Cheers,
Diolma

"Warning: There have been some issues where setting frame to 30 in Vue ends up with frame 0, so it's best to bring in frame 29 if it's dynamic cloth you're doing!! That works!"

That's because Poser works with frame numbers starting from 1, whereas Vue starts from 0.
So if you want to import a specific frame from a Poser file, always subtract 1 from the Poser frame number...

Cheers,
Diolma

Dork + Posette = Hetero.

Q.E.D.

Cheers,
Diolma

One easy way to see the effect is to use a sphere, give it a strong, bright highlight then turn transparency to almost full. Render 1st with additive off, then with it on. (Or use 2 spheres side by side and only put additive on one of them).

I didn't know either until recently, when it came up in answer to a query I asked here about getting just the specular on an object (so as to create a halo/magical glow type of effect).

Cheers,
Diolma

"i always liked the expression "you're the bees knees" - i was told this is a good thing.... but ive yet to see how being a bee's knee can be good.... they're awfully close to the stinger."

Not at all sure about this, but I've always assumed it's a pun - "the bees knees" = "the business"...

Cheers,
Diolma

"1) The range required by the output is always -1 to 1 and may be clipped internally."
Yup, I guessed that. What I don't know is if the Wavelet output is clipped. But I've worked out a way to find out, by plugging the output into a colour map (equally divided between different colours), then seeing which colours get expressed.

"2) As bumps only generate the appearance of the surface being moved, you may just not see the the effect your expecting if it's too strong."
As the camera angle is fairly low I can see the effect 'cos of the reflections, since I have a darkish landscape and a bright blue sky.

Using a terrain is not an option. The wavelets have to be too precisely placed (with the centre of each in the middle of each object causing a ripple) for me to be able to do that with a terrain.
Using the plane and the colour-map method explained above, I was able to carefully move each wavelet into place by fine-tuning their origins using the top view.

Oh, and I almost always have function preview turned on :-)

Thanks for your advice, tho' - very helpful as always.

Cheers,
Diolma

Don't forget that for distant figures (and often for nearer ones) you can use procedural textures instead of texture maps (how often can you see the vein structure of someone who is 100 yards away?) This works for bot Poser and Vue, of course.

Also, Vue has (at least, Vue 5 I does - don't know about other versions) the ability to decimate meshes (that is, reduce the number of vertices/polygons, by an adjustable factor). For more distant figures this can also help in reducing memory overheads..

I now only render in Poser to check things out. I don't texture in Poser (unless I need specific texture maps), I do it all in Vue. Poser has become my (very necessary) figure posing application - which is where it all started from... :biggrin:

Cheers,
Diolma

Hi, nruddock, thanks for quick reply:-)

Ooops - I forgot to say that I'm feeding the result of the wavelet node into Bump on a plane (not infinite). The plane has (slightly blurred) transparency (of about 90%) and refraction index of (approx) 1.3. (Although I'm never sure if that works properly on planes - maybe I should replace the plane by a cube/box?)

The Bump Production has a "depth" of 0.2, which seems to work about right for the "normal" ripples.

I will certainly try Math->Multiply.

What I don't know (among a lot of other things) is what the range of the output of the Wavelet node is to start with, so I'm stabbing in the dark and that's time-consuming:-)

At the moment I have the (all) Wavelet nodes set to the same settings, with scale = 1 and wavelength = 1.5 for x/y/z. These settings were arrived at by trial and error (error = trial - 1) :-)
(Although two of these wavelet nodes are identical in all respects, but that may change if the multiply option works..)

Hope that helps your understanding of what I'm trying to do, it'd be rather difficult to put together screen-shots..

Cheers,
Diolma

Hi, FCLittle.

Try this when posting at 'rosity:-

Just before hitting the "post" button, select everything you've written and copy it to clipboard (ctrl-A then ctrl-C in Windoze). Post. Wait a while (10 secs or so).

If your post appears then everything has worked OK and you've successfully posted.
If it doesn't then there's been a glitch, so back out to the previous page and refresh it. If your post is now there, then (obviously) it worked. If it's not then the your post didn't get through, so you can re-post by pasting your saved reply and trying again...

This sort of thing usually happens after the post has been received and added to the database, but then there's a hiccup in responding back to you (due to some delay in the pipeline). By checking as above, you can (usually) avoid multiple posts...

Hope that helps,

Cheers,
Diolma

:-))

Cheers,
Diolma

Slightly OT, but one simile that has amused me since I found out its "true" origin is:

"It's cold enough to freeze the b*lls off a brass monkey"

The immediate picture that arises is, ermmm.. somewhat risque, but the origin (if true) is somewhat more mundane.

It's from the days of cannons, when the (iron) cannon-balls where stacked on a frame (often made of brass), called a "monkey" (why, I don't know).
When the weather got really cold, the (brass) monkey would shrink more than the (iron) cannon balls (due to the different response of the two metals to temperature) and so the balls would fall off.

At least, that's what I was told...

Cheers,
Diolma

(PS - either picture, or possibly a combination of the two might provoke an idea for a render)

"Is there anyway to tell the dimension proportions in pixels"..

Not only does it depend on screen resolution, it also depends on the distance from the camera. Move the camera further back and it will take up less pixels.

Cheers,
Diolma