As far as I can tell, when the Main and Aux cameras are scaled to 100%, they are 1.1 Poser Native Units (PNU), (or approximately 2883.4 mm) in front of (in the positive z direction) the position indicated on their DollyZ dial. My value of 1.1 PNU may not be exact, but should be accurate to within 0.05 PNU. The center of their orbit is this point 1.1 PNU in front of the position indicated on the DollyZ dial.

As far as I know Dolly cameras are at exactly the position shown on the dials.

Quote - it moved the whole head up along a y axis as well and stretched the neck

I'm guessing that you exported the head as an obj from within Poser. If you did not use the "As Morph Target" option when exporting the head, then the absolute position of the head will have been recorded in the obj file. That is the most likely cause of your problem.

When you saved the animated pose, I suspect that you used the 'Morph Channels' switch. Thus, if the face morph in question was in a zero state when the pose was saved, of course the pose will reset the face morph to zero when applied.

I suggest that you apply the animated pose to the figure, then resave the pose without selecting the 'Morph Channels' option. This will produce a pose that will not affect any of the morphs.

Alternatively you can edit any specific unwanted morphs out of a pz2 using a Poser file editor, eg the free 'CR2 Editor'. If the pose was saved as a p2z (compressed pose), you may need to convert it to a pz2 before you can edit it, depending on which editor you use.

Quote - I think we should have actor BODY:1 in the pz2 instead of actor BODY

No, 'actor BODY' is correct in a pz2 file, though 'actor BODY:1', is also correct in this location within the file. Where it becomes important to leave the colon (:) and figure number out, is in the slaving code. In a pz2 file, If you use the code...

            valueOpDeltaAdd
                Figure 1
                BODY:1
                SomeMorph
            deltaAddDelta 1.000000

... you are telling the channel to slave to the figure that uses ':1' as the figure number. If you apply such a pose to the second figure loaded, the channel will be slaved to the first figure loaded, which is not what you want most of the time. On the other hand when coding directly into a cr2, eg with a text editor, you should include the figure number (unless the channel is meant to super-conform).

Using the figure number in the slaving code of pz2 files was a mistake that DAZ made (have they fixed that yet?), which caused huge problems.

chris1972, assuming that you have not used figure numbers in the slaving code, then the only other thing that I can think of is if the pmd file is not in the expected location. Your file says...

    injectPMDFileMorphs cww_Rosetta.pmd

... This will cause Poser to look in the same folder as the pz2 was executed in to find the pmd. I'm not sure what happens if the pmd is not found in the expected location, whether Poser continues searching or just gives up, it may depend on how the Search is configured in General Preferences.

Perhaps you could get the user to send you a cr2, saved after the pose was applied. This should let you confirm that the morph deltas have indeed been loaded, and that the figure number in the slaving code is the same as in the rest of the cr2.

Which figure is the character for? Does your character use custom morphs, or does it rely on third party morphs such as the DAZ ++ morph pack? The more info you can give, the better chance we have of nailing the problem.

If we had the files here in front of us, we could probly give you an answer in a few minutes, but as we don't, you have to paint a picture for us, with as much detail as possible.

Pose dots are stored as pz2 files (or perhaps pzz, depending on your setup), with the names 'poseDot_#.pz2'. Where '#' stands for a number from 1 to 9.

You could make make backups of the pose dots, then restore tham at some later time, being careful to backup the current set before restoring.

To find where the the pose dots are stored on your PC, use the Windows Search function to find the string 'poseDot_*'. You can cut down the search time by starting the search in your 'Documents and Settings' folder.

Create new folders to store the different sets of pose dots, eg 'Dots_1', 'Dots_2', etc. If you understand how to make batch files, you could speed up the process of copying and restoring sets by creating batch files to automate the tasks.

Here is a link to Ockham's py scripts at http://ockhamsbungalow.com/Python/

Just use a colon (:), then the file name without a path, eg:

figureResFile :NameOf.obj

This has always worked for me. Note that there are two 'figureResFile' lines in a cr2, they both need editing.

P.S.

This also works for calling a pmd file. I suspect it would work for image maps as well, but have not tested that.

Quote - Is this what I am supposed to see when I open the CR2 file for the newly added figure?

{

version
    {
    number 9
    }
morphBinaryFile :Runtime:libraries:Character:Ragtopjohnny's Clothes:Ragtopjohnny's Prison Guard

'morphBinaryFile' is used in a cr2 (a pp2 uses 'morphPmdFile') to load morphs when

'Use external binary morph targets'

was selected in your General Preferences (before saving the file). Note that it does not load the base geometry, that is done by the two 'figureResFile' lines.

The path in your example does not seem to contain a file name, which means it would not actually load anything, and would probably generate an error message. Apart from that the format seems correct. The version number will generate an warning message if the file is opened in a version of Poser lower than that number, and for that reason the version number should be the lowest version that will support the essential features of your figure.

Quote - And is that all that is needed for the call backs?

The 'morphBinaryFile' (with a complete path with file name) is all that you need to load the morphs, assuming the associated PMD file is in the correct location. Personally I would keep the morphs internal to the cr2, and not use a PMD file, as I feel this is simpler, and provides less scope for things to go wrong.

Quote - The problem is when I go back through the sequence the hands turn outward away from the body part they are parented to.

Sounds like you have spline interpolation turned on. What you describe sounds like spline interpolation to me. That's exactly what spline interpolation does. Spline interpolation is Posers default mode, so if you don't want it, you have to remember to turn it off.

How many figures you can have in a scene at once, depends more on the specification of your PC, than on your Poser version. Unless your PC is very old, you should be able to load and render at the least four figures, and probably many more on a good machine. To load an additional figure, select it in the Figure library, then click on the double tick (US "check") icon at the bottom of the Figures palette. Be sure to use the Double tick, not the single tick.

Quote - OK, but do you have to start with all of the basic models in the scene and create them together?

I'm not sure what you mean by "create them together". You don't create figures you load them. You can apply a character to a figure by applying morphs to it, or create a character by creating morphs, and applying them to a figure. As to "together", no, you can load them separately.

Quote - Do you export them and import them as obj's?

No, not normally.

Quote - Once they're obj's they can't be tweaked with, can they?

Yes, that's correct. That's one reason why you should not convert them to obj files.

Quote - I guess I'm not seeing how these pose sets are used when the characters are in close proximity.

In Poser, only one figure at a time is the active (selected) figure. When you apply a pose, it will apply to the active figure only. You can see which is the active figure by looking in the drop-down Figures list. The active figure will have a tick next to it (see attached image). To apply a pose to a different figure, change which figure is active (selected).

With pose files for couples, you will have a separate pose file for each figure. There will usually be instructions on how to use the poses in the documentation that came with them. You may need to use 'Set Figure Parent' (in the Figure menu) to parent one figure to the other, so that you can position them both as a unit. You could then translate or rotate  the Body actor of the parent figure, and the child figure would follow.

Select the actor (body part) or prop that you want to work on. Open Grouping Tool (it's one of the icons in the Editing Tools palette).

Click the New Group button. Give the New Group the name "transparent". Select the facets that you want to be transparent by holding down the left mouse button, and dragging the mouse to draw a selection box around the facets you want to select. Selected facets will turn red. If you select any facets by mistake, hold down the Ctrl key and draw a box around them to remove them from the selection. You may need to change the camera view to catch all the facets you want. Note that if you select a camera to move it, you will need to reselect the body part before you can continue.

Once you have all the facets you want transparent selected, click the 'Assign Material' button, and name the material "transparent". Close the Grouping Tool.

Open the Material Room. Select the material named "transparent" (it should be at the bottom of the list). Set the Defuse_Value and Specular_Value to zero. Set the Transparency_Value to 1.0. Set the Transparency_Falloff to zero. The desired parts should now be transparent.

Save the figure to the Figure library with a new name (so as not to overwrite the original).

Quote - Now what is it that causes morphs to revert to zero?

If the 'Morph Channels' option was selected when saving the pose, and if the morphs were at zero when the pose was saved, then that would be the explanation. The pose is just restoring the morphs to the (zero) values saved in the pose. If 'Morph Channels' wasn't selected when the pose was saved, then I don't know the answer, and I would probably need to see the figure cr2 and/or the pz2 to work out what was happening.

Quote - So apparently poser does in fact, save body translations by default, whether the option is checked or not, even if those translations are at 0, 0, 0.

I'm using PP2014.

So what am I doing wrong?

By default Poser does not save BODY transforms in any version from P4 through P9/PP2012. I can't imagine that this has changed in PP2014.

Your images show transform channels but they don't show which actor the channels are in. I'm guessing that they show the hip translation. If that is correct, then I offer this explanation. In the first image the hip zTran is zero. In the second image the hip zTran is -19.13. In the third image the pose has been applied, and the hip ztran has returned to a value of zero, the same value it had when the pose was saved. This is what I would expect, the pose saved the hip translation, so when the pose was applied the hip translation was restored to the value saved in the pose. Assuming that I'm correct, and it is the hip translation that we are looking at in the images, there is nothing in the images to sugest that the translation of the BODY actor has changed! The mistake is that in the second image, you zTranslated the hip, instead of zTranslating the BODY.

It is easy to prove wether the BODY is trenslating in responce to the pose. Try this. Repeat your experiment, but this time note down the translations for the BODY and hip in image one, then save the pose.  Now move the figure again as you did in image two, then apply the pose. Now look in the BODY actor. If the BODY has translated, then the values on the translation dials will be different from those you noted in image one. Are they different? If so the pose has translated the BODY. If the translation valuse in the BODY are the same as in image one (I'm sure they will be) then the BODY has not moved.

Now look in the hip. Before the pose was applied in image two, the hip zTran was -19.13 (or whatever), now it should be the same value as it had in image one (eg zero). If so than it is the hip actor that has moved not the BODY actor.

In a properly constructed pose file the hip translation should normally be zero or a fairly small value. Applying the pose will restore the hip translation to what is was when the pose was saved. This is normal and to be expected. If the figure moves to a radically different location when the poses is applied, either the pose contains a large hip translation (which it should not), or you gave the figure a large hip translation before the pose was applied (which you should not have done, you should have translated the BODY instead of the hip), and the pose is just putting the hip back where it should be in relation to the BODY. It's correcting your mistake of translating the hip.

Now if what we are seeing in your images is the dials for the BODY actor, not the hip, then I will stand to be corrected.

Two further points. I don't have Dawn, I'm assuming that 'hip' is the proximate child of the BODY in that figure. That is the case in most figures, but not all. If some other actor is the proximate child of the BODY, then you should read that other part in places where I refer to "hip". Also, I note from your images that zTran is slaved to some other channel, I'm not sure if that is affecting anything in this case, but I suspect not. [cross posted] :(

P.S.

Quote - So what am I looking for to edit out?

Here is an example of what three transform channels (one rotate and two translate) look like in a pz2 (as viewed in EditPad Lite). I have given each channel a different colour, so that you can see where a channel starts and ends. I have only included three channels for reasons of space, but you would normally have six transform channels, all of which you should normally delete. The actor you should delete them from is BODY.

        rotateZ zrot
            {
            keys
                {
                k  0  0
                }
            }
        translateX xtran
            {
            keys
                {
                k  0  -0.261
                }
            trackingScaleMult 1
            }
        translateY ytran
            {
            keys
                {
                k  0  -0.065
                }
            trackingScaleMult 1.000000
            }

As I said in my last post, if you saved morphs in the pose, the BODY actor may also contain 'valueParm' (FBM) channels which you may want to keep. If it does not contain 'valueParm' channels, you can delete the entire BODY actor. the BODY actor starts with the line:

actor BODY:1

(the number may be different in your file)

and ends with a closing brace '}' above the next 'actor' line.