As a note: If you ever want to see what a object made in max is going to look like once it's in Poser without having to put it in Poser: Subobject->polygon level. Select all polygons Click 'Clear All' in the smoothing groups section Click '1' so they are all assigned to smoothign group 1. Viola, you have an accurate Poser preview.

You used Booleans to cut out the openings, right? The problem with doing that in Max is it makes mesh that Poser doesn't like, Poser's roundind does weird things with the mix of tiny and big polygons you get Nonsense. Poser doesn't 'dislike' them, it just tries to smooth around every edge because it doesn't recognise smoth groups. I Dislike them (and I am guessing you do, too), because they create ugly meshes and have occassional other problems like unexplained mesh holes or simply not working. But they are usable. However, this issue doesn't come from using booleans. It comes from the fact that according to Poser there is only one smooth group and everything is in that one smooth group. It's also the reason that if you make a pointy cone shape where all the end vertices are joined into one, the end of the point goes black -- because Poser is trying to smooth around that top > 180 degree edge into all of the polys that connect to it. Create a cube in Max, export it and import it into Poser and you will see the same exact thing, just less ugly because the shape is more regular. Without UV Mapper Pro or anything, you can fix this just perfectly fine inside of Max. Step 1) Open your Max file (not the .3ds export, the original). Step 2) If you haven't already, convert it to an editable mesh or poly. Step 3) Under the 'polygon' sub-object, you'll see a button to select polys by smooth group. Click it. Step 4) Click ONE smooth group number, so you have a single smooth group selected. Step 5) Detach. Step 6) Repeat steps 3, 4, and 5 until only one smooth group remains in the object. Step 7) GO back up to the object level (the object, not the object's polygon sub-object) and click 'Attach List' Step 8) Select all the objects you just created by detaching and attach them. Step 9) Export your .3DS object and import into Poser as you normally would.

Coolness!

Nicely done, though I have to admit I was a bit let down: When I read the thread subject, I was hoping for that beat up old burgundy leather chair that Morpheus sits in in the meeting room in the Matrix.

I have to state -- that was the fastest critter I've ever thrown together, complete with volumetric glowing eyes (but otherwise untextured). Ten minutes, body was patch modelled, then converted to poly, cloned and thickened using the technique on my server that you can't get to because my ISP is retarded. Legs are modified and partly chamfered cones. 'Top' eyes are spheres. 'Glow' eyes underneath use the same trick as my lightsabre blades. I'll toss a texture on it and make it posable and throw it into Free Stuff once the samurai is all done (assuming my ISP ever recovers from their case of worms).

If 'wbg' looks like 'w9bg' you can't see the Hiragana; to do so youmust set your encoding to Japanese Auto-select (under the view->encoding menu in IE).

Arabic? I think you probably mean Roman. Like these here letters you're reading. I haven't done a lot of market research in this area, admittedly, but I think the Poser user base that speaks Arabic or Farsi is significantly less B^) (You're probably thinking 'Arabic' because of the numbers we usually use, which are Arabic (1,2,3,4,5) rather than Roman (I, II, III, IV, V) because we do our math in base 10 and find zeros useful.) Anybody want to give me Hiragana versions to put on the thumbnail images with the other names? Babelfish translated 'Kabuto' as 'Kabuto', rather than 'wbg', so apparently when you say something in Romanji it doesn't comprehend it.

I still think the shoulder thigies look odd If you think osode look weird, wait till you see the kabuto (helmet). B^)

i don't believe that references to all the actors between the hip and those actually used in the conforming piece(s) are necessary In this case, 'necessary' is a matter of degree. I've done both, and I always get better conforming when I use the same root and work all the way out from it than when I root it as its first part or it's imaginary parent part. So while a conformer will work, I've had much better luck avoiding mesh breakage, etc, with things done the root-to-one-past-extremity method.