Back in the day, if it wasn't anything I do too often (like UVmapping) I'd just run small PC programs in VMware Fusion or Parallels running winXP as virtual session. If UV optimization is a big deal, Headus UV Layout might be a handy solution (though not for the occasional user.) I haven't tested either VMware Fusion or Parallels out on Sierra, but they should be up-to-date. Handy for running other creator tools like EasyPose. -K

Sounds like there might be some odd behavior with the first gun prop. Glad you got it sorted with a different prop. You might have a corrupt .obj/.obz in the first one....

-K

You might try taking a small primitive sphere (the size of a marble in scale), parent the prop gun to the sphere and parent the sphere to the hand. Center the sphere for the correct axis of rotation. You then use the sphere as a handle for adjusting the gun. set the sphere to non-rendering so it doesn't show up when you render.

-K

The manual has a pretty good one tutorial to get you started. There are a few others out there as well, such as this free one: https://www.renderosity.com/mod/freestuff/?item_id=71136

Dark Edge Design has all kinds of good tutorials (for a fee.) I can strongly recommend them. The two you will want to get is:

"Figure Creation from ZBrush to Poser" which covers all the basics of building figures in poser. You will also want to get his "Advanced Vehicle Rigging Techniques" which covers lots of mechanical rigging techniques.

For good measure, he has an open vehicle called "SandRail" which you night might want to get as it is a worked example of what you're trying to do. Studying how others solved rigging problems is a good way to learn.

DarkEdges stuff is on another store that ends in DNA for now. Since it's closing, you might want to grab his stuff now before it disappears. DarkEdge also haunts these forums, so he might also pop up with advice on vehicle building.

The best way to learn rigging is to start simple and try it hands-on. For example, take two cubes from the primitives folder. Slave one cube so it turns when the other is moved up and down.

Cheers!

-K

The best way to do what you want will be use dependent parameters by assigning the different mechanical parts to seperate bones and then linking them using Poser's dependent parameters feature. For example you can link turning of the steering wheel to the left-right movement of the steering rack.

-K

Nice mechanical sculpts. Very economical. ;)

-K

EldritchCellar posted at 10:20AM Sun, 31 January 2016 - #4252294

Remember that pipeline is moving a product through the steps for finishing. Great tools like Zbrush, Modo, etc. are helpful at many steps of the pipeline. One of the charms of doing it yourself is you have the opportunity to tweak what you've done in previous steps of the pipeline rather than in a formal shop where the mesh gets rejected and sent back to you for "corrections". ;)

So if my dragon's body tool UV settings were at 8k res, will it import the maps to Poser that size?

Unless you re-scale the output maps, then yes. Bear in mind that map size use's memory at the square of the size (that is, double the size of a map on a side and you use four times as much memory) so there is a tradeoff. You want to make sure that you're making good use of the map space at 8K.

My thinking to just assign materials based on my current ZB textures should just work straightforwardly then?

You may have to flip them in Photoshop. I can never remember whether ZB's default UV space matches Posers...

If you wish to use the arrangement of textures you generated in Zbrush, you should then arrange your materials to match.

Alternatively, you can come up with a new arrangement of materials, load your update .obj into Zbrush and project (in Zbrush, this is part of the subtool menu) the materials and detail from your original model to the new .obj (you'll probably want to sub-divided it a few times.) To make sure Zbrush sees the new materials (and not the body parts), you'll need to set your zbrush preferences to "Import Mat as Groups" (this is under preferences -> import; by default it is set to "import polygroups", which is Zbrush's short hand for body parts in your model.)

Once your details and polycolors are projected to the new .obj. use Multi-map exporter to create a fresh set of maps matching the new arrangement of material zones.

I usually do a lot of projecting onto the final model after rigging to recover my detail and colors (and to do some touching up.)

-K

P.S. Here's a tut on reprojecting detail: https://vimeo.com/3213597

In general, when defining materials you want as few seams as possible between contiguous surfaces like the body. Sometimes designers will separate the head or face from the body to gain more detail in that area. Size of UV islands (in the same material) should be somewhat balanced by the amount of actual surface the object is using unless it's a really important element like face or eyes where close ups will want for more visual detail.

You should not have overlapping UV islands in the same material.

-K

Podcreature posted at 7:55AM Sun, 03 January 2016 - #4247037

I have put the cart before the horse and started modeling without really educating myself about these things.

Do be so hard on yourself. ;) You're just going through the same workflow process everyone did at one time. (Model -> UV -> Texture -> Rig) Until you've done it a dozen times, you'll keep finding little "suprises" -- each is an opportunity to refine your technique. Part of the fun for me was that many of tools we use today were still evolving at the same time, so each time I went through the process of constructing a model, new (and usually better techniques) came along to improve the process. For example, I'm just learning about Quixel Suite (Thanks DarkEdge!) for elements of the texturing step. Also, being more oriented as sculptor, I tend to rig before UV'ing and texturing. Since my .obj tends to be fixed down after rigging, UV tools become invaluable.

-K

Fortunately, the UV assignment of vertex tends to travel with it despite being compiled into a new ordering. Vertex ordering tends to be most important when it comes to morphs (also called blend shapes) since the description of how vertexes should move is compiled based on the assumption that both the original form and the new form have the same order and number of vertexes. From the UV Mapper screen grab you posted, it looked like the UV's came through intact, just overlapping.

There are three common approaches at this point, assuming you are happy with the unwrapping you have. The first approach to assign different materials to each group of non-overlapping UVs: For example skin_head, skin_body, skin_tail, skin_wings, etc. This way, you have different materials in Poser and can assign different color, bump, normal, maps, to each of these materials.

The second approach is to use a UV tool. I mostly use Modo for this, but there are other tools out there (notably UV Layout Pro from Headus). These have automated tools to "pack" the UV "islands" (each group of contiguous, flat UV mesh) so they don't overlap. It also will spin the islands to pack them optimally and scale individual islands (to give more or less resolution). You can them pack all your islands onto a single map so you only need a single material. I do not recommend this approach because the of the complexity of model and the loss in control of resolution and texture.

The third approach is to optimize your UVs in separate material groups as in the first approach, but then use a UV tool to stitch together some of the islands that may have been unnecessarily separated in the modeling process as well as fix up any overlapping issues. This is also a good time to do some UV optimization and flattening techniques. This is the most time-consuming approach, but gives the best results on complex organic models because you are in complete control of the placement, scale, arrangement of UV islands, as well as reducing the number of UV seams.

Cheers!

-K

I don't publish any of my Poser work. I was a DAZ PA at one time and it was a terrible experience--one I don't intend on repeating. I've been a Poser user since V2 and ZBrush since V1.5. I didn't start making my own figures until shortly after B L Render's book was published. These days I teach sculpting (both digital and traditional) in the gaming industry and for a few private students.

-K

I've used both methods (PHI and Setup Room) with equal success. The big advantage of the PHI method is when you have a tool like PhilC's hierarchy builder (or one of the others) it reads and matches all the bones from your .obj, avoiding typos. You can then also set up rotations and IK chains in a tree view and inspect it before creating bones. Since I touch every single joint several times in the joint editor to setup bends and blends, it doesn't matter to me the bones are all linked up head to tail on the first go--I just fix up my bone pointing as I go. (The align button in the Joint pallet is a go-to as I'm fixing things up.)

Manual bone setup works well (the setup room has been quite stable for me these days) and it's visual. It also allows you easily borrow rigs from other models which is a handy time saver for conforming items.

With beginners, I usually tell them to do it by hand in setup room because they can see what their doing more intuitively. However, when repeatedly fudging with geometry and such, I like to avoid all the bone name typing that a PHI building tool saves me.

On a Mac, I used to run Parallels or VMware fusion just so I run a number of Poser tools like Easypose, D3D's collection, etc. (I converted to PC's about six years ago.)

Cheers!

-K

To set materials in UV Layout Pro, you use the selection tools to isolate the polygons and then use Tools -> Assign To -> Material command. Just keep in mind that "groups" and "materials" are different (and overlapping) selections of polygons. "Groups" are what connect polygons to bones; "Materials" are what connect textures to polygons. It's easy to get confused the first time you rig a model.

Glad that the PHI technique works for you. I didn't originally recommend it because it's a somewhat non-visual technique, but as DarkEdge points out, it is a big time save when you have lots of bones and saves all the worry about matching names to bones if you use a tool to make your PHI file.

Pod,

You on the right path. In the parlance of .obj files, groups and materials generally make sense only as facets (faces) in Poser. (.obj is not a very modern format.) When you make a selection in UV Mapper, it will only show that selection and hide the rest. Just use "Select All" (ctrl-A) to make the whole model re-appear.

Since you are using multiple UV maps on the same model (which is common with poser figures) you will definitely want to also create selections of the pieces that belong to each UV map and assign a unique material to each. This will allow you to apply the separate UV maps later in Poser's material room.

-K