How to synch the eyes of a figure and add two extra bones to still control each eye individually at the same time

The goal of this tutorial is to achieve that both eyes can be rotated either with the mouse or with the up-down/side-side dials.

The former is rather straightforward and can be achieved with just 16 lines of additional code in the Figure's .cr2 file.

The latter requires more work, and you should have basic knowledge about the joint Editor.

But if even I could do it, then you can too!

LET'S GO!

Preparation:

It's quite easy to mess up in this process, >>> so create a new version of your original .cr2 file before progressing:

• Open a blank scene (no "Andy" or any other zombie in it!)
• Load your figure of choice into this blank scene, and save it back to the library by another name.
• The figure must not have any any other figures parented or conformed,like hair, clothing. If it has, delete all these extra figures!
• Save it back to the library by another name.

Now you have a "working copy" .cr2!

Tools needed:

• A plain text editor like "EditPad Lite" or "Notepad++" (*1
• Dimension3D's "Poser File Editor" (optional)

(*1: Note that very large files can cause Notepad++ choke or even crash, and the basic Windows Notepad takes a long time to load and save a file. I suggest using "EditPad Lite". All these programs are free.

PART 1 - SYNCHRONIZING THE EYES:

Open the .cr2 file you have created earlier (the "working copy") in your text editor of choice. You'll see a lot of code, and it looks bloody confusing. But believe me, it isn't that bad, and most of it can be ignored.

• FIRST! Make sure that the appendices of all listed actors are ":1", e.g. "BODY:1", "hip:1" etc. If it's a different number, try reopening the file in Poser, then save again. Now it should be :1

• NEXT: Use the search function to find the lines where to insert the new code.

• First search for "linkParms" (without the "") If this gives no result, search for "defaultPick" or "displayOn"

• What we need here are the lines "linkParms": (if there are other linkParms already present) The new code should best be inserted right above the first "linkparms" line for ease of finding it again OR "display on": (if there are no other linkParms present) The new code must be inserted right below the "display on" line, just above the first "weld" line

• HERE'S THE CODE:

This first part synchronizes the x-rotation dial (up/down) to it's twin in the left eye:

linkParms    rEye:1
xrot
lEye:1
xrot

But it needs to work the other way round too, so we need a linkback: (*2

linkParms    lEye:1
xrot
rEye:1
xrot

Now we repeat the same for the y-rotation (side-side):

linkParms    rEye:1
yrot
lEye:1
yrot

Again, the other way round too, here's the linkback: (*2

linkParms    lEye:1
yrot
rEye:1
yrot

So the complete code you need to copy/paste is this:

linkParms    rEye:1
xrot
lEye:1
xrot
linkParms    lEye:1
xrot
rEye:1
xrot
linkParms    rEye:1
yrot
lEye:1
yrot
linkParms    lEye:1
yrot
rEye:1
yrot

Now copy this code and paste it right below the "display On" line! Don't bother about correct indentation, but for a nice look try to anyway

Save your figure back to the library, then give it a test run. Both eyes should now move synchronized. (if not, it's back to the drawing board because somewhere you made a mistake. it's easy to become lost in 2.2 million lines of code...)

IF this was all you needed, you can stop reading now. You have made yourself a new base figure with easy-to-control, synchronized eyes.

I hope this was helpful. If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to ask.

K

footnote (*2: DO never try to achieve this by using ERC or dependent parameters instead of the "linkParms" code! Trying so will create an infinite program loop. But at least it's a sure way to terminate Poser and make it crash to the desktop...

XD

Try writing the index numbers with two digits: "01", "02" ... "14", instead of "1", "2" ... "14"

Hello Eldritch,

thank you! I downloaded it and gave it a spin. It loads SASHA OK, but there's no way to insert the code we need to achieve what we want.

So we probably have to resort to doing it manually. I'm currently writing the tutorial for this.

In the meantime, I'd suggest you google for "EditPad Lite". It's free and opensource. It's my weapon of choice when editing large - I mean, really huge(!) - text files.

You'll need it for the upcoming editing of the .cr2 files.

K

EClark1894 posted at 8:39PM Sun, 12 April 2020 - #4385899

Good progress! Keep them coming.

I think this image looks the most like an actual supermarket shelf: Different products, different packaging formats, and different sizes.

B.t.w., don't worry for product names and textures right now: You can always modify those - what really matters is to create stocks of products that don't look like a factory store!

You should focus on making your shelved products look as individual as possible, and not like a row of 20.000 boxes the same size, as it was in the beginning.

You have a smartphone I suppose?

Visit your local supermarket tomorrow and take photos of the shelves.

There's nothing better than having actual photos as prototypes! I use this method all the time, and it's extremely helpful, because the photos show you how the RealWorld (tm) actually looks, and not like you think it looks like.

(a problem frequently encountered in 3D models - They think it should look like what they're modeling, but actually: it isn't!)

-K-

<EDIT Also remember that people won' buy a whole collage of the same product (except for toilet paper at these times ;D ), but rather buy a single package! If you could add this as an extra (e.g. via geometry swapping), it would add just that bit of realism that the 100-items-bundles look still lacks.

K

EldritchCellar posted at 8:21PM Sun, 12 April 2020 - #4386084

I use Stalling's cr2 editor. I've used text editors in the past. I'm not sure that D3D's Poser file editor works in windows 10 otherwise I'd purchase it.

No problem mate! Can you provide me with a link to that editor? (because I've never heard of that one before)

I just want to make sure that we both use the same to make the necessary changes. Because I've had afterthoughts:

• While it is quite easy(16 lines of code) to add the eye synch to a .cr2

• it might need a more sophisticated editor to add the additional helper bones to a .cr2 (without the need to use the Setup Room with all it's quirks and side-effects)

The problem isn't the code per se (which is quite straightforward). It's more of finding the right lines in all those 2.2 M lines of code - where to insert the code.

K

Aww - sorry to hear about your migraine! My aunt often suffered from migraine in the past, and she was completely out of action for several days during the attacks.

I'll explain everything you need to know.

Just a question: What program do you use for editing .cr2 files?

I still use D3D's "Poser File Editor" because it's simply the best. However, any text editor will do; it'll just be more clunky to scroll across all those lines of code (actually, 2.2 million(sic!) lines for a vanilla SASHA with the standard morphs injected...)

K

If it's only about controlling both eyes simultaneously, I wouldn't use the "point at" option because it's "all-or-nothing": Once it's set there's no way to control the eyes other than by moving the control prop. Any attempt at posing the eyes (or a single one) with the dials is futile.

I've gone to great lengths to make eyes control a simple to handle matter in SASHA-16. You can either:

• grab any eye in the viewport with the mouse and make it rotate up/down/left/right or:
• rotate any eye with the dials.

In both cases the other eye will follow because the rotations are cross-linked. This is the easiest way to achieve this; however it requires 16 lines of manual .cr2 editing.

The plus of this solution is that you can easily control both eyes with the flick of the mouse or a dial, while expressions which include eyes rotations will still work.

The negative is that it's again an "all-or-nothing" solution because it's hard-coded into the .cr2 file and can't be changed within Poser during runtime. It works fine as long as both eyes need to look into the same direction.

But as soon as you need the eyes "cross-eyed" or whatever, you need another ghost bone for each eye to control each eyeball's geometry individually.

If you have SASHA-16, you can see how it works normally. If you look at the dials in each eye's "EYE AXIS OVERRIDE" group: Now you can tweak the eye axis individually while still keeping both eyes in general synch.

Of course this means a bit of work the first time. But once you have created your first base figure with those features, you would save it as a preset to your library anyway, for future use, wouldn't you?!

If you are interested in how this works in detail, just ask!

K

@ Anthony Appleyard: That's a really interesting concept for fabrics. Definitely worth more playing with it (maybe even 4x4px for more detail?) Thank you for this post!

@ ghostship2: Maybe the compression "ate" your details. But I know how this will work in closeups because I also use this a lot when retexturing clothes. The caveat is in setting the right size of the weave, which isn't easy because Poser has no RW scale and we have to resort to guess & try. We can either end up with fine silk, or a coarse potato sack :D

K

Or in "Poser2525"?

Addendum because I can't edit my last post any longer:

"All you need to do is to add another line to any Poser file:"

"collapseHierarchy 1",

.

** Add "figure/prop/grouping" to that!.**

OK, I'll try then, with a long overdue issue:

https://www.renderosity.com/mod/forumpro/?thread_id=2945506

Let's see if, after more than ten years and countless threads that I remember where this was nuissanse being discussed, finally someone takes notice:

Just make that bloody Hierarchy Window remember it's last state of items collapsed/uncolapsed!

That's all for now. Let's see if it finally gets noticed.

K

You might want to download the Open-Source and Free utility "7-Zip".

Google for it's official site! After you've installed it you can link any compressed Poser file(s) to it, plus a lot of other archive formats.

Now whenever you encounter a .ZIP, .RAR, .CRZ, .PZZ, .OBZ, etc. file, just righ-click it and select "Open with...", then "Select another app" and make that "7-Zip". After 7-Zip is running, just click "Extract" and define a target file name.

That's all.

B.t.w., having 7-Zip also allows you to create all sorts of archives (except .RAR, which is a proprietary format and needs WinRAR installed)

I would suggest to Google and learn more about popular archive formats in general. However, all the Poser "compressed" files are nothing more than a simple ZIP compressed file.

So instead of unpacking with the "big stick" of the Poser tool which will inevitably decompress all compressed files in a specified folder, you now can use 7-Zip to unpack exactly that one file you want to.

If you need more help, feel free to ask!

K

@FVerbaas: I do not think so because it also happens after Poser has been running for hours.

@ghostship: Improbable because all my drives are set to spin constantly 24/7/365.

@ an0malaus: That's it, exactly! I just wasn't patient enough to wait hours for Poser to close. Yet it often puzzled me why it finally terminated once I moved my mouse over the program GUI (like: I want to run Task Manager...)

Fingers crossed it gets staked and reburied with a brick in its mouth for P12.

Oh: if that happens, I'll gladly donate the bricks. Any number - one for each legacy Poser quirk...

XD

K

Confirmed on my end. But probably that's not the fault of Bondware.

Being still on SM's 11.07.33999, this more often than not happens. Just wait some 20 seconds and Poser should close. Looks like a "legacy" bug.

K

Thank you @Eclark1894!

That is what I was looking for!

K