I found this image on the web and was amazed by the way the author managed to make the bed look like it was actually holding the figures weight... I emailed him about how he did it, but I was wondering if some of you knew about this. I'm thinking this was not rendered in Poser (even though the description stated they were V3 figures), unless he took the time to make morphs in the bed to get that effect... or maybe it was something done in Poser 5? I'm thinking about collissions, but since I don't know much about it, I might be wrong. any info will be appreciated.

What you said is probably right. It was either made like that to start with or morphs or poser 5.

In poser 5 there is a collision detection option (you can see an example of this at curious labs with a ball rolling down some stairs). I have not messed around with this option at all but I believe it is possible to get this effect.

My guess is that this image is made with morphs of a kind and not collision detection. Collision detection wouldn't have made depressions, it would only have stopped the character from going thru the sheet. Then again, Ockham wrote his Eureka script that can do something like this. So perhaps THAT is what was used? It looks very cool.

There is also a Python script here in the freebie section called 'Deformer' that creates an effect like that. =)

Aside from morphs and scripts, you can also use a group of magnets to deform the mattress. Tweak the number of magnets and their position in relation to the body part that will depress the mattress. Then play around with their magzones and their graphs to get the degree of depression and depression fall-off you want. This magnet technique comes in handy for animation too. Parent the magnets to the appropriate body parts and add the mattress to each magnet's group. Tweak the position of the magnets such that as the body parts they're parented to come in very close proximity with the mattress, the magnets will deform the mattress giving the illusion they're actually depressing the mattress. nukem

hmmm, I didn't fully get that last mini-tutorial, but I'll try it... but, whenever I've worked with magnets, I get this kind of "pull" effect, like someone is pinching the area where the magnets is... the depression in the sheets look circular... can I parent a magnet to a ball prop, make the ball invisible and then press the ball over the sheet so it will depress it? sounds reasonable, but I have no heck idea what I'm talking about...

You can create the bed (or whatever) as a cloth prop and then lower the person on to the bed and animate the cloth. If the settings are right on the cloth then it will depress where the body touches. Then render the frame you wish to use. I kinda did this in a picture in my gallery where the cloth comes down over the person, but in this case you will ned the person coming down on the cloth. Tricky.. I might give this a go tonight ^_^

Hi, kayarnad. Sorry, I might have confused the issue a bit by citing the animation usage.

Magnets do pull at meshs, but a depression can be looked at as a pull, but in the same direction of travel as the force doing the pushing, if you catch my drift. Uh, okay maybe that doesn't help. :-P But maybe this will:

I made a mistake in my earlier message. I said that you should parent the magnet to the prop but you should actually parent the magnet zone to the prop.

nukem

wait, so the process is this?: 1. create a ball prop 2. go to "create magnet"... that will parent itself to the ball, right? 3. move ytrans downwards until it touches the matress surface.. or wait, should I just move the ytrans of the zone only? (??) 4. parent the magnet zone to the ball prop... again, or was that already done (sheesh, I'm going backwards) 5. move the ytrans of the ball prop and presto. I'll try this, but I'm sure there's something I'm not fully understanding... thanks!

Waiting for response from nukem and/or kayarnad. Wondered about this topic for awhile. :-)

....

ok, the author of the pic replied, and he told me he did it in Cinema 4D!! well, I'm already using Poser and Vue D' esprit, I donm't really know if I want to add a third program for my renders... like, posing in Poser (duh), making the depressions in Cinema 4D, and rendering in Vue... hmmm.. I'll try the Deformer and the magnets in a real bed and see how that goes... so far, the results obtained with the Deformer are enough for me.

Dr. Geep had a good tut on using magnets, you might want to search here for it.

I have a tendency to make things more complex than they need to be. :-P

Okay, the steps are:

1. Take your Freak and your mattress. Pose your Freak appropriately so that he's pressing down on the mattress.
2. Create a magnet for the mattress and position it underneath Freak's hand, in the spot where you want to deform the mattress.
3. Place the magnet base on the surface of the mattress and place the magnet itself slightly below the surface of the mattress.
4. Scale the magnet and it's zone until it makes the right sized depression for Freak's fist.
5. Tweak the position of the different elements of the magnet to get the effect you want.

That should be it. I apologize for muddying the waters there with the more complex process. I had an animation method in mind that didn't require external scripts.

The above is just an example animation of the process I attempted to describe. That is, with a magnet created for the mattress and its magzone parented to the Freak's hand. But it seems that the deformer script does the job, probably with greater flexibility. I guess you can always fine tune things with magnets later on if need be.

nukem

seems to work, thanks I'll try it! but can you please post the link to that mattress freebie? thanks again

I do the same as nukem's example above. By parenting the mag zone to the body part you usually don't have to move anything. If you do much animating this is the best way I have found. I did an animation that uses a bunch of magnets 14 if I remember right on a bed prop. The result even surprised me. Ed

I'll have to get back to you on the mattress freebie. It's an older freebie, been on my system a while now. Its original distribution archive is backed up on some CD somewhere. nukem

is anyone still checking this thread?? anyway, justw anted to conclude that you all better follow Nukem's tutorial, because the deformer thing is actually a drag... making it work is a hassle, so you're much better off doing what nukem did. that's all.

Im still checking the thread :)

Will we be getting a tutorial out of this, or should I just print this out?

Oh, I thought I explained how to do it in messages #10 and #18. But if you want a formal tutorial, I can write one up. BTW, karyanad, haven't been able to locate that mattress freebie. nukem