This is getting too interesting to bury under a misleading heading, so I'll start a UVmapping / DP+TW thread. I'm sure I'm not the only one struggling with mapping.

This is turning into a UVmapping thread - and very welcome that is, too! Sorry to admit that LW is out of my price range - as is BP, DP, TW, etc. - but I know my way 'round UVmapper. If you have any suggestions on how to achieve distortion-free mapping in UVmapper, I'd love to hear'em (or read a tutorial (hint!)). Or do you use the interactive painting in BP to compensate for the inevitable stretching? How, for instance, would you approach a distortion-free polka dot mapping on a sweater or T-shirt?

Thanx for all your info, folks. Rtamesis - I've tried out BodyPaint, too. Great program, but I'm a little put off by the Jack the Ripper act it performs on the UV mapping when one applies "optimal mapping" - works fine when painting in BP, but the UV map would be useless as a template for anyone not using BP. And PoserPro - you're sort of right. One CAN generate an excellent UVmapping in BP, but, as I've just said, noone can make sense of it outside BP. I'll stick with Steve Cox's excellent program for a while yet and keep an eye on both ZB and BP ;-) Thanx again for taking the time to share your savvy.

Piece of cake ;-) Seriously, the basic modeling tuto one can d/l from the Pixologic site walks one through the steps you mention. But since the tryout Zbrush won't allow one to import OBJs, I have no way of knowing how the UVmapping of the imported object affects the painting within Zbrush. If the UVmapping decides the quality of the painting, one still has to use UVmapper (or rob a bank and buy Deep Paint) - if not, well, then something very interesting is happening inside Zbrush. Anyone who's got any experience with this?

If it doesn't have to be done within Poser, try this.

http://users.neca.com/dwilmes/cr2edit.html

You can d/l the user guide from Curious at http://www.curiouslabs.com/downloads/index.html. It's a quick read, and it will give you all the info you need to make an informed decision. They also have several Flash examples you can have a look at (I don't do Flash myself, so I haven't checked them out, but I've heard they're good).

As an example, to do a conforming clothes figure, you - bring in the clothes model/mesh - size and place it to fit your intended target figure - bring it to the setup room - add a copy of the target figure's ckeleton (you can also build your own....) - remove the irrelevant parts from the "borrowed" skeleton - group the model/mesh - leave the setup room - the figure's created at this point Save to library, and you're done. The whole skeleton business is actually a visual representation of the CR2 work you had to do before PPP came along. You can do it without PPP if you have the taste and patience CR2 editing - with PPP you can do it in an hour plus maybe a bit of polish. The enlosed pic shows a few conforming items (wip!) made with PPP - no polish (yet). The resulting figure oughta work fine in P4 - but it's always wise to test. Have fun

Dan Wilmes CR2Edit can be found at http://users.neca.com/dwilmes/cr2edit.html Have fun!

Have a look at Dan Wilmes' Cr2Edit - one of its tools checks out the CR2 and automatically installs everything in the folders where the CR2 wl "expect" to find them when you load the Poser prop and figure. Cr2Edit is not free, but it's not expensive, and no, I'm not a salesman for mr. Wilmes ;-) I just like and use the tools.

I'd call you a genius, but it would begin to sound repetitive ;-) Cheers, thip

Creation of perspex UVs came up in a post last year - there's a basic tutorial in it: http://www.renderosity.com/messages.ez?Form.ShowMessage=118024 If you use Poser to convert an Amapi-made model to OBJ format, pull it into UV mapper and give it a UV template, you should find it possible to do perspex UV when you're back in Poser. Cheers, thip

PPP works just the way you describe it, petercat. I suggested CR2Edit 'cause it costs a tenth of PPP and offers a lot of CR2 fine-tuning tools that PPP doesn't (CR2Edit's used by Zygote, amog others). I use both products and certainly wouldn't want to do without either of them.

Try Dan Wilmes' CR2Edit - you can copy a joint's settings in one click. It ain't free, but it's a steal at the price, as you can do 40+ other CR2 things, too.

Hi Well, I may be sabotaging extra sales here, but actually you can make a fine dress from the existing QS if you - Import TWO copies of your fem QS into your 3D app (both in same position) - Knife or boolean away everything below the hip on one QS, leaving a flat, horizontal bottom "face" (or whatever your 3D app calls the facets of a 3D model) - Sweep the face downwards to create the skirt part of the dress (your envelope), using the other QS as a guide, depending on how snugly you want the dress to fit - Use vertex/point manipulation to create folds Some 3D apps won't sweep faces - in that case you may have to select the vertexes around the rim of the cut face to get a curve you can sweep. You can also use manipulation on the edges of the cut face to make a folds profile BEFORE you sweep - a good profile will save you a lot of post-sweep manipulation, and the folds (IMO) will look more realistic. Have fun, thip